Good evening everyone. Gonna open up the meeting with uh we have a new member Kevin O'Neal joining us. Uh Denise Luciano, Bob Kimell, Roger Masan, and myself. Let's stop for the pledge of allegiance 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. Thank you, All right. Sure. The first item on the agenda is reorganization of
the select board. Are there any nominations by chair? I nominate Alec Rich the third as chair. Is there a second? Second. Any other nominations? Is there a motion to close
the nominations for chair? So moved. Second. Okay. All those in favor of Alec Rich as chair. I congratulations. Thank you. Are there any nominations for our vice chair?
I'll nominate Roger Masan for vice chair. Second. Any other nominations? Is there a motion to close nominations? So second. All those in favor? I.
All those in favor of Roger Mand as vice chair. I all those opposed and uh the chair can take it from here. Clark, is there a uh nomination for
clerk? I'd like to nominate Bob Kimble for clerk. Is there a second? Are there any nominations? Is there a motion to close nominations? So moved. Second. All those
in favor of closing nominations I I Okay, unanimous. All those in favor of Bob Kim as chair. Yes. Clerk. I opposed. Okay. All right. Thank you, Mr. Town
Manager. So, first on the uh agenda, we're going to do announcements. And I believe Mr. Kimble has specific one can find my own podium here. Um so every year the town uh goes through the process of uh creating a town report
which we just released u about 3 days ago. And every year we take the opportunity to recognize a citizen of Norton uh who has excelled and and gone above and beyond. And um so this year the
recipient um we decided is Mr. Will Snider. Would you please go up? Look behind you. Surprise. Come on. You're small. We can carry
over. So, it's be my pleasure to read what's in the report. I want to thank your family for helping me get this together. So, let's see. You want me to tell them the old one? No,
I'm going to anyway. So, Ruth Ruthie was born on September 2nd, 1937 at Pucket Map Memorial Hospital to her parents Aurelius Art and Emma Lombard. Ruth was raised in Paka, Rhode Island, and
attended school in Paka where she graduated from Tolman High School. Ruth's life of service began an early age as an only child. Ruth often helped her friends with the chores as they would have more time to play. Ruth credits her mother as the biggest
influence of her desire to help people and church was also a very important part of her childhood. In the eighth grade, Ruth had to write a letter paper on a section of the tucket called Darlington. Never heard of it myself.
Being civic-minded, she was very proud of coming in second place. The exercise would lead to the future commitment to the town of Norton. In high school, Ricky played the clarinet where she was able to play at the McCoy Stadium, the place where she frequented later in life as a huge poss
fan, and she worked at the Kentucky Memorial Hospital. Ruthie found time while raising a family to work in the private sector. In later years, Ruthie worked at Kidstown in Adabboro, Country School in Norton, Rudy, Realy in Norton,
Home Instead, a floor shop, and a medical receptionist. Her proudest accomplishment was becoming a mother. She married Donald Campbell on October 18th, 1958. Together, they had four children. Ruth moved to New3 after
divorce and married John N. Schneidery Jr. John had five children. Ruthie had four. So it became a very large family. Ruthie currently has nine grandchildren
seven seven great grandchildren and one great great grandchild. Wow. After John's death, Ruthie met George has they've been inseparable for the past 17 years. My George has four daughters and seven grandchildren. I warned George
that quote, "If anything happens between you and Ruth, we have to make a choice. It was nice knowing you, Dad, and we will miss you." Ruthie is a cancer survivor. She has never stopped doing what she does best. Ruthie is always ready to help
others time in need. Even when Ruthie was busy with her expanded family, she still had time to volunteer. her years, four years, Ruthie has been the face of the Norton Council in Asia. When the council of aging closed due due to
budget cuts in 2008, Ruthie gathered other volunteers and reopened the center after being closed for 5 years. She kept the facility open to a full-time director to take over. Ruthie was also instrumental in designing new seniors community building and the council on
aging representative to the permanent building committee. Ruthie served in the cemetery commission for 18 years, many times as chairperson. Ruthie has been very involved with the friends in the North Senior Center for years, as well as the Norton Wines Club, most recently
working with Reese across America and helping the Norton town clerk. When residents went to vote in the local national elections, Ruth has always been there greeting everyone with her familiar big smile. She's a go-to person to help teams legal in moving at
elections. In the recent presidential election in November 2024, Ruthie was asked to assist the temporary town clerks for the process of the national presidential election. Ruthie rose to the occasion and thanks to in large part to her effort and invaluable experience,
together they bailed out the town with a seamless election. Ruth's devotion to the election process over the years has been instrumental in ensuring the integrity of the election. When Ruth is not helping others, she she does have many interests. As a young age, Ruthie had a
passion to learn to sew and she continues to utilize that skill. Ruth also enjoys crafts, camping, working in her garden, walking the beach, collecting shells and sea glass, and of course her beloved toops. Ruthie was recently recognized as the
San Chronicle true ser in an order that humbled a woman who was doomed to helping others. Ruthie to this day is a very is very visible in town pouring tear wherever she is needed. Ruth has been and continues to be a true friend to the town of Dorton. So
congratulations. I can't believe we're shocked. Good job everyone. Good job. There's some interesting pictures. Thank you all. autograph. All right. Well, that's very welld
deserved. Congratulations. Um, if the vote to designate a member and alternate member when the design is unavailable to fill this function of the select vote to move all the design. Um, it doesn't have to be the chair. Um, but um the way we've
been doing this is that uh the town's office has been um sending the warrant to whoever the designate is by hello sign. So they don't have to come in and sign. They can just sign remotely. And uh we'll need an alternate who will do
that if the design can't take us willing to do it. I I can definitely be the designate who would like to be the alternate. You need to vote on it. Mr.
I make a motion that we designate Alec Rich as the uh member to sign Lawrence. Second. All in favor? I I Okay. I make a motion that we designate
Roger Marcan to be the alternate member. Second. All in favor? Bye. Bye. We go. Okay. So, uh I'd like to take this moment too to
uh congratulate all the winners in the recent town election Saturday. Uh Kevin who's with us now. Congratulations. And and Bob, I'm sorry. And um also thank all the pole workers
uh Jill town clerk and the staff and all the Norton voters as well. So thank you very much everybody. Um and if uh Jill and Ruthie would like to come up and
possibly give us a recap on how the election went in our new town hall, that'd be great. Good evening. Uh Jill Sappa, town clerk and Ruth. Um the election was smooth and the new location was embraced by the
community. Welcome to new select board member, new sort of new select board members Kimble and O'Neal. Um we were well prepared for the election with no small thanks to Ray Cord and his team
and um all the election workers and Ruth Schneider and Donna Fong who helped with a lot of behind the scene preparation leading up to the election. Um there's often many people working behind the
scenes that just don't get enough acknowledgement and there um not enough could be said for how many people pitch in to create uh safe um accurate good sound election.
Um, I believe the wishes of the select board for the people of Norton to be able to utilize this beautiful building for the election were well served. And um, although I didn't realize I was following that presentation, I've wanted
to say um, there are people who are helpful and then there are people who go the extra mile. And only Ruth and I will know the distance she has gone to welcome me into the community. and assist in orienting me to be able to
serve the people of Norton and I am very grateful. Thank you. The election I feel went very very well using the new town hall and I believe we could meet have all our elections here in the future. Maybe a little
rearranging of a few things, but I think everybody we could come here and I want to thank everybody tonight for everything. You're welcome. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks. Thanks, Phil. And I just want to thank the highway um for all the work
they did in advance to set things up for the election. Oh, sure. And the um red cord here. I just wanted to hand out the official results and not just for you.
Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Well, terrific. Thank you very much, ladies. You're welcome. Thank you. And let's see. Next up, update on the Nelson Senior Community Center. Outstanding punch list items. So, um
just to give you an update on some of the punch list items. Um, Vertex um is working with the contractor on the issue with the uh roof. Um, and they've determined that early in the day the shingles are fine, but later in the
afternoon it looks like there's some buckling. So, they're working with the the contractor on that to find out uh what the cause is and what the solution will be to that. Um the only other issue um that is still
outstanding. There's a outside water faucet that um the plumber was uh going to work on that uh this week. Um hopefully they got out there. And also we're waiting for a Quaker window. Um
there's some uh windows uh that the tracks need to be uh worked on and um and they removed damage screen um for they had eight damage screens that are being repaired. um asphalt um the asphalt grows up in a
in a barrier and um they're working on that uh for a solution to that and that'll be a separate uh issue that they'll address and also the grass. Um waiting to see how they went back out um with a
weed pretor and um did some more seating and wait to see how that takes. Okay. Any questions? Mr. Chair. Yes, sir. Um, Mike,
uh, do is there somebody who is, uh, the contact person in town hall that, uh, if there are issues with the buildings that they can get be in touch with? Um, anyone can get in touch with me if there's a issue. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Yes, sir. Is the um, is this something that's on the agenda every every time we meet? If not, we should have this update every time we uh we have a meeting just to keep people informed how things are going. I agree. We could we could do
that. And um on the the old town hall um you can see that the brick work looks like it's uh was completed this week and um they're working on getting the windows installed and um then they'll be working on the interior. So hopefully uh
by the end of uh this month everything everything is done. Good. Thank you. So uh next up is to discuss future joint meeting with the economic development committee. Uh I believe this
is for uh just so they can deliver any progress update on initiatives that they're currently working on. Um if anyone wanted to elaborate. Yeah, I I'd like to throw in that, you know, I I over the years I felt that we could get more
uh participation from the group. Uh I think we we have some opportunities coming up that uh we need to have an active EDC and perhaps come have them come to the meeting so we can discuss some of the ideas that we have, maybe some of the uh ideas they have about
increasing our commercial uh industrial tax base. And that's pretty much the uh purpose of the committee. And uh we have a couple pieces of land in town I'd like to uh discuss with them to see if there's something we might be able to to do
something with. So we could have them come in. I believe they're still active, right? I mean, they still Yeah, we could have them come in just to give each other an update of what's happening. Sure. Thank you. Through your check. Yes, sir. Yes, ma'am. I'm sorry. It
probably be good practice, I think, all the committees that we have appointed to have them periodically come in just to kind of update us on what what's going on, what the status is. 100% agree. Yep. Yep. Okay. Which segus to uh you know,
future joint meeting with the water sewer commissioners as well. Um I think the biggest elephant in the room there is the PAS requirements that are coming down um very quick and uh how they're handling them, how they're looking
forward um you know to be able to meet those requirements, you know, what what avenues are they um you know going down looking towards to be able to do that because that requires significant capital investment if we keep it all in
house. So Mr. chair. Yes, sir. I mean, also, you know, the subject of water comes up all the time and unfortunately they get blamed for a little bit isn't it isn't really their fault. Um, so we I think it's great would be a great opportunity for both groups to get together and talk about maybe some of
the solutions or ideas we might be able to come up with to uh to improve the water quality in town. And um again, if we can get them in here and talk about it, I think we can collectively support each other and try to come up with some creative ways to make things
happen. Sure. Anyone else? Any other comments? Okay. So, next is transfer funds from the Cyrus Hex account to the town general fund.
Uh Ken, Mr. Kimble, can you elaborate on that? Uh yes. So at the uh last finance committee meeting uh money was transferred from the highway department into the um
library the library into the uh council on aging community building to help get a full-time person into that new position which you know considering we have a brand new building there's a lot more responsibilities over there a lot more time it takes to help the people. Uh the fire extension count was
established back in the 1880s uh for the purpose of helping to fund the town um in in mostly in in the cemeteries. Uh that was it was designed for the purpose of maintaining our cemeteries. The uh
cemetery department in Norton has a budget budget just over $300,000 a year. And um I think it's important that people understand that you know the secretary department does a very good job but cutting two people from the
position of and from the DPW has really made an impact on the on the department both sides of the department. So the suggestion was that we are able as trustees the select board the select the trustees of the account uh we are able
to move money from that account to help subsidize the uh the town budget through uh just by making an appropriation and a transfer to the general fund. So it's something we're going to consider later on tonight u after this meeting. But I
would encourage the board to uh support the uh the request. There's $101,000 in interest and that's the only part of it we can touch. The uh the last I knew the Hicks account was just over $1 million. And kind of give you an idea
how fast something like that can grow. Uh 1995 when I first became a stock man. Uh the budget would be uh the account was just under just over $3 million. So you can show what 20 almost 30 years
later you know it's grown to that disproportion. Uh but again the purpose of the account is to fund the cemetery. So it's with within the guidelines of the our request to ask for an additional amount of money to be put into that. And I don't know what that is. I can tell
you it's 101,000 in interest. Can't touch the principal. We protected that a few years ago. we can we can transfer the interest into the general fund. And it's my understanding talking to Jared Ferrer, the DPW director, that $80,000
will cover that position along with floating allowance and everything else that's needed. Um, I don't think we need to take any more than that. I mean, that's up to the entire up to the board itself, but that would still put us under the uh the required amount to run
the bond. So it's uh I believe it's fully within the the guidelines of the of the trust to allow that to happen. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Punch. Sorry. Um so you're talking about adding this
money for the upcoming fiscal cycle. Okay. So we haven't even reviewed the budget yet. What money are you talking about that's moved from the highway department to the senior center? That's from past cycle. That's this coming cycle. Yes. Okay. And
then the $80,000 was to be used for a headcount for what? The $80,000 would replace a person from the highway department. So a position in highway was cut. Last year there was a highway cut. This year they cut another person.
That's two. And that money that was cut from the highway was given to the COA community building to hire another full-time person. What this does, it backfills the $80,000 will backfill the position so we can bring one DPW worker
7 worker back and backfill that position. So instead of losing two people, it'll go back to the one that they lost last year. It's just replacing one person. If you think about the grand scheme of things, if you look out the window, it's a perfect example. You know, their
responsibilities have grown tremendously. Not only between the the new buildings we have, the amount of grass they have to cut because they cut the other they cut the grass too, not just the highways, I mean the uh cemeteries, they do they do all town buildings. And we've got a lot more
territory to now take care of. And in addition to that, we have the new bike path which soon will be turned over to the town that they'll be responsible for. So cutting one person out of that department is uh which will have a major impact on it. So what we're trying to do, we're trying to be creative here.
Town's already appropriated $200,000 from the Hicks account going into the uh the general fund. This would increase it to $280,000 that will go into the general fund and that $80,000 will be used to
pay for that instead of cutting that position that run it again for another year. And that's fully loaded with benefits and everything. And I'm hearing it from you, but it's Jared and or Mike that identified a need for it.
Yes, there's definitely a need for it and Bob already put it better than I probably could, but there's been an exponential growth with all the facilities that we have to take care of. Uh, losing a position would have been bad enough if we were sustaining trying to sustain what we had originally, but now with, like I said, the bike, like
Bob said, about four miles of bike path. Um, you know, I kind of gave some numbers last time, but in the ballpark at 20% increases in some cases with the the mowing on uh, you know, between the bike path and the additional parking lots, the plowing, everything. I mean, I
could go into it all, whatever questions you have, but it would definitely definitely be a need and if we could at least backfill that position, it'd be very helpful to continue to maintain, you know, the cemeteries alone. There's I don't know if people realize there's four main cemeteries, but there's actually 16 cemeteries that we take care of. Um, yeah, everything from tree
trimming, grass cutting, we'll save all the details, but yeah, thanks Jared. You're welcome. I appreciate it. Yeah, I mean, I'm gonna withhold my opinion on the actual movement the funds until we understand the full budget a little bit better because I feel we'll be picking between who who we're going to let go of
head cuz I think it's going to be inevitable. So, uh, if we're balancing priorities, we need to look at the full gamut of what what budgets are impacted and what accounts impacted first. Okay. Anybody else? Yeah, Mr. Chair, um,
Mr. Kimell, the the interest, the 101 that's uh, remaining in the interest is the 200,000 that's already been transferred part of that interest as well. Well, it came from the interest account. So, 200,000 has already been appropriate. If you look at your spreadsheet in the back, you'll see
that's from interest. It's already been in mind. Okay. So, the 101 is remaining interest. Gotcha. The other concern is the 80,000 helps this year, but this is going to be recurring expense ongoing. So, we need to think about future funding as well.
Okay. Is that it? Okay. Uh next I discuss updated warranty list the concerns for town hall and community building. Do you want to touch on that? More or less. Uh I guess uh what with the question must be on
warranty list. That's something uh when the projects are being closed out. We'll get a list from uh the OPM of uh all the warranties that are on all the different things um and what service is needed
each year for all the different systems. Okay, that's for both bedrooms still, right? How about the uh how about the athletic complex with the landscaping things? Did we get that from
them? Um I I don't remember. The building committee might have gotten something, but I Okay, Mr. Chair. Yes, sir. Uh, Mike, do you do we have a a list of warranty items of things that we know have to be repaired
already? That have to be repaired already? Yeah. Um, I'm talking about like the cement right on front of the building. I mean, is there is there like a punch list of things that they know that are going to have to be done?
Train um out here. Um, as far as the patio, I mean, I would call it a warrant thing. We haven't accepted it. So, it's not technically a warranty item yet. It's still a punch list item. Yeah. The the warranty
items both buildings were moved into around October and November. So, the warranty items will the warranties will run out for those items October, November this year. We are still holding back the building
committee for the punch list items and they're crossing paths back and forth. What's punch list? What's warranty? But it's getting done. I brought up this item at the building committee because I'm concerned that with the completion
of the demolition and remodeling of the old new town hall, whatever you want to call it, the fire department edition that come around June 1st, Vertex will be gone, although they'll still be
supervising and ML Connor will be gone. So there won't be anybody here to answer their daytoday questions. The town man the the people who are in charge of the buildings may go to the town manager and
have a question and he may go he may go to Vertex, but a lot of people are used to somebody going to the town hall or going to the senior center and fixing something within 2 or 3 days. or if we
have I can't think of what we had for warranty items. I don't know. Most of it came under fixing by the contractor like the screens uh technically a warranty item but the contractor showed up. SA
showed up last week took eight screens to be repaired and rejuggled three or four other screens so they fit. They also went around and look at other things that are going on. But my concern is that when
October and November comes, the town probably already has an electrician. The town already has HVAC contracts with people. I don't know if they're going to stick with the warranty people who do that or
if they should be aware that they're going to have to go to whoever the town has contracted in and above that even if the lawn isn't fixed and I can't think oh well the plaza we haven't you didn't
really go into the town hall yet but if the plaza's not done that will still come under the punch list items and not a warranty issue. So we SVER and and ML
Connor and Vertex will all be in and concerning and the building committee um will be all discussing this and trying to straighten it out. Those will not be warranty items at the time. They're like the water faucets. We're
not sure whether it's a warranty item or a a um contractor's item, but the contractor is fixing them. Now, whether the contractor is going to the supplier and
saying it's warrant, I have not I'm not a builder. I don't claim to be anything other than a town citizen on a committee, but you know, we're trying to work these things out as best we can, but I just don't want us left in a lurch
that um something doesn't work right in either one of the buildings come December 1st. And we're not sure uh uh who's ever left in charge of the building's not sure whether they go to the warranty contractor or to the
town contractor who they may have a contract with to take care of the HVAC items in the buildings or plumbing or heating or whatever. So, um I did not hear somebody mention something about concrete. I didn't hear. We're
still I believe next week they're going to do the final sidewalks and then at least two weeks from then they're going to do the final black topping in the uh public's parking lot here. And they're
going to acid watch wash the U brick on the addition. The windows are in. We have a concern about the acid wash and the windows and the frames and they've been warned about it three or four times. They're going to be held
accountable, but uh ML Connor's uh the contractor for the town hall is pretty sure they're going to be out of here by June 1st. So, the town will own everything and it'll be
under warranty, but we occupy the buildings while the warranty is going on. And I know that's a long road down, but that's the best I can answer just on those. Um, we have actually gone out to bid. Um, so we'll
be covered by the warranty as Jim said for the year. Um but we've gone out to bid for um elevator, you know, HVAC, the different systems with the understanding that they're covered by warranty till
October, November, and then where the low biders would be the contractor would go to. Okay, Mr. J. Hi, Jim. Thanks again for all the work that you've done to help us out with both of these buildings.
Um, do we have uh an updated list of all of the punch list items and warranty and or warranty items that need to be downloaded? I know what you're driving at. We have a list of concerns from the senior center that we've been working on
for 6 months. We've slowly eliminated most of them and that's probably the list I see you thumbming through um in the large print. We have never got a punch list from either contractor about
what's outstanding. Um, if you're requesting that, I can go to Steve Kirby, who is the OPM, and uh get that and have it for the next meeting. But we we have never got a pocket contractor's
punch list. We've only got a list of concerns from the senior center, Mr. Chair. Yes, sir. Um, I would just like to see what still has to be done. Do we do does who has the list of things
that haven't been completed yet or are still in process of being done? Well, that list that you got tonight on the senior center is the most recent. That seems like that's just a list of concerns that came from the people at the senior center. That doesn't seem like it's an acknowledgement from the uh
contractor. Um I I the chairman um as far as I know I don't know which list you got because to be honest with you we've gotten like 15 of these lists and and Mr. Kirby and
the architect answers all these and he produces a a secondary list with answers on them. Most of the answers say it's a warranty item. some of the answers like the screens. They showed up last Wednesday and I was there and we fixed
the screens. Uh we looked at the water faucets. Uh a couple other things here. We haven't got any complaints concerns. I have to be careful with my language. Um we haven't got any concerns from this
building on a list. they've come up at our construction meetings like we've had diesel fumes that we had a problem with that we we took care of and and stuff like that, but the contractor has been taking care of it. Um, as far as that
list goes, there is another list out and and Bob and Kevin are familiar with the list. I don't know if that's the list that um Steve Kirby gave back with all the answers at the bottom. They were supposed to be in red or blue or
something, but colors don't copy. And uh his answers are at the bottom. The the answers are on the bottom for those concerns. So you we don't have a list of any concerns of anything about the town hall, just the senior center,
I believe. So whenever we have a concern, it's usually we have construction meetings every Tuesday uh afternoon. Now um now they've been switched every other week. Usually the town manager comes in and they'll go
somebody's uh got a concern about a window not opening or somebody's got another concern like we had trouble. You had trouble with the AV stuff. I'm not talking about your last meeting. I'm talking about those operating, but we
had the contractor come in and do that. Um um yeah, Mike is very good about bringing up the smaller concerns and usually Ted who is the
on-site OPM for Okconor will come in and solve try to solve those concerns or he'll call the subcontractor and the subcontractor will come in. So, um, no, we don't we don't have a list of
concerns from the town hall at all. And if there are any, they're very few and far between. Mr. Chair, yes, sir. The, uh, wish you guys have the senior center work need to be done. Uh, that was a wish that was presented to us at our last meeting last
week. This is the most current. This was that was presented at Monday nights, right? It was I think they usually date the top of them. Um that one's not dated. That was presented at Monday night's um
building committee meeting. And at the same time, the architect was there from VHB and the uh Vertex C um man was there, Steve Kirby, and they went over
uh Mr. Hos represented the senior center and he brought up each item and one of the two people on our side of the bench brought up the solutions they had uh uh the solutions that they thought they had
and uh we we went over every item that's on there and um sometimes well in that we've dealt with this for 6 months they're not happy with the solutions we're presenting doing them. So,
Mr. Chair, yes, sir. Um, Mike, do we have a list of uh items at the town hall that still need to be completed? Um, the the OPM adds that. I can get that file. All right. Just cuz uh and there I don't know if it's warranty items or if it's punchless stuff like
all the concrete that's that's cracked up front. I don't know if that's going to be which bucket that falls in. But, you know, there are things that need to be done that, um, I I think that we just need to stay updated on those things and just make sure that all of these things
get taken care of hopefully before October, before we get into the year. And, uh, then we're trying to chase people down. Yeah. The concrete plaza is an ongoing issue. And my answer is it's it's with lawyers
right now because we've uh stopped using a contractor that did that concrete and we've got another concrete person that did the concrete work for the addition. Um, and MO Connor is trying to work with
the with Capital Concrete, I believe, is the people who did the plaza. And Capital has thrown the lawyer card in there. And MO Connor's lawyer is talking to Capital's lawyer, and we've sort of stepped back at this stage of the game
to let them work it out cuz we want to get it done. If it the architect's feeling and the clerk for the works feeling is it should be replaced capital and moana sort of feel
that they can uh buff things out let's say um and and get it to what the the samples are and we're in disagreement with that. The lawyers are in disagreement of that but we're working on it. the lawn. I think the lawn at the
senior center is going to be the same way. We had weeds and we had crab grass here at the town hall. The contractor that did the landscaping here remediated that and eliminated it and we now have
green grass at the senior center. The con the landscaping contractor chose to just airate this spring, airrate the lawn and reseed. He's saying he's put chemicals
down for weeds and and crab grass, but if you walk that site, it's not what I want around my house. And I think we're going to have a problem with that. Uh we also have a problem with the black top up there that we've got to remediate.
The the black on on your list. The black top is raised from we think frost heaves and there's got to be some remediation of that. But um you know we're working on everything on that list. Um some some
of it the the people from the senior center say it's a code violation and in actuality it's not a code violation. The architects looked at it, the subcontractors have looked at it and but the people at the senior center are not
happy with the answer. So they keep bringing it up and we keep giving them the same answer. I appreciate it for all the good work, Joe. Oh, it's fun. Anybody else? Any questions? Thank you
very much, sir. Appreciate it. Yes, sir. Can I ask a question? Of course. Zach Tillis, three Richmond Drive. The taxpayers have spent millions of dollars on these
buildings. Putting aside everything Mr. Larry said, and assuming these contractors make good on everything and in 6 months time they're gone, what is the plan to maintain them? Do we have a maintenance person who's doing I don't know, everything
from scuff repair to putting fertilizer on the grass to just general building maintenance. Um, I know, you know, at the schools they have janitors who do painting and touchup and whatever goes on. I would expect that most people want
to see this place look the same 3 years from now as it does now, but it does get used. Um, and if you're not doing maintenance and you I I don't know what I'm just asking what the plan is moving forward outside of the um general contract. Thank you.
So on an as needed basis, we'll call people in um when we get uh the warranty list items from the contractor. We'll also get all the paint colors and so we'll know what we need for paint and uh
hopefully Jerry will be uh taking good care of the grass on the outside. So, but on the inside whenever if we need some contractor to come in, we'll we'll have to bring him in. Thank you. Anybody
else? Okay. Next up, vote to approve the following invoice payroll and need a motion for breach as we didn't have anybody designated at the start of the meeting. Mr. Chair. Yes, sir. I make a motion that we approve the payroll
warrant for week ending April 26th. Second. All in favor? I I Okay, Mr. Chair. Yes, sir. I make a motion that we approve the invoice warrant dated May 1st.
Second. All in favor? I I Okay. And we're going to uh old business. Next item, we are going to bump up uh the discussion on repairing at King Philip Road ahead of the uh town
meeting articles. So, uh, with that being said, we had a, uh, uh, I think we have a plan moving forward with the capital committee to be able to get some sort of reprieve for the immediate, um, immediate term to get
some patching on the road. We're going to bump up uh, the highway budget for it. Uh, transfer some funds to be able to get that patched uh, for the time being. There is uh we're looking into options for a longer term plan. Um but
the highway department was constricted with the re repairs because of their budgetary numbers. So uh we have a plan for that and um we're waiting on council. Uh we're bound by some red tape
stuff, if you will, uh with um being at a private road. So, um there's certain certain procedures that we have to follow moving forward, but for the time being, um we have uh a rough plan to transfer
some funds to get the highway budget uh bumped up for maintaining uh minimum maintenance on the private roads. So, Mr. Chair. Yes, sir. Um once again I'd like to say I know there's a lot of people here from um
King Philip Road and um many of us are as frustrated as you as you uh what we can do and what we can't do. Um there seems to be a plan in place that the capital committee is trying to
work with uh to try to uh get some relief to get the road repaired. um in the long term we have to come up with a better solution. We can't repairing this road to a minimum standard doesn't do us
all any good. So um in the future we are going to be reaching out to um you folks to try to get together and come up with a plan and see how we can uh work together to make this a better
road for the town to for you folks to live on. Um, I know that doesn't help you a lot right now. Um, none of us are happy with the uh inability of this board to come up with a solution long term right now. Um, but I think it's the
um in the short term it's going to give you some relief and hopefully in the long term we can work together to come up with a plan. I don't I don't know what else we can do right now to repave that road. Yes, ma'am. Can I come up? Come on up.
Yeah, come on up. State name and address, please. I will. May I approach first or a second? I'm sorry. May I approach approach? I have you guys. Okay. So, because you were here last time.
Thank you. Oh, I saw it in person. Okay. Those were given to me by a neighbor. So that's for your record. Put that on record. Make sure information. Okay. Because there are some new people
here. Make sure I have your context. This is just an update. This is just a recap from the last meeting cuz welcome. Thank cuz we know we got some new people here down your road. By the way, you do. How do you like that road?
You need one, too. I know. I know. [Music] Shavoy, 115 King Phillip Road. Um, what I put together was a recap of the last meeting and because I wanted to make sure if there was any new selectmen
here, I wanted to make sure that it was heard and they received a copy of it. I felt that was important from the recap from the meeting we had. I apologize. I was in the ladies room so I did not hear what the opening
statements were at all. Um, so if we could just revisit that for a minute cuz I went to the ladies room. So sorry. Yeah. So it basically in a nutshell working on a plan to increase
uh the highway department's budget for maintaining uh you know the level of maintenance of private roads. And right now it's $1,500 a year. And obviously that's in patching in patching a lot. It's not
anywhere near what it should be. It's been that amount uh for as long as any of us can remember. Um obviously we agree that that needs to be bumped up immediately which we're doing um to be able to get the highway department out
there to But you understand the patching doesn't work though. Well, it's going to be better than what it is now. It's it's what we can do right now. out the patching doesn't work. What's happening with the patching, and I know you were here the last meeting, is it's just
coming back out of the holes. So, what's the point of the town spending $1,500 every time they patch it, you're throwing away money, right? Because it's coming back out of the holes. That's pointless. Why don't you put that money
aside, times it by how many times Jared needs to come down the road, you know? So, with that being said, we can't do that and leave it how it is. The problem being the fastest that this is going to work the way we're
if we can do it uh which we're still uh checking into legally if if we can do it it's going to be millions of dollars and have to pass that town meeting as well. What is going to cost a million dollars? Millions. What is going to cost millions
of dollars? That road having to be brought up to code with conservation drainage. those types of things. That's and it's a timely process. So, the patching is what
we're trying to do to get some sort of immediate relief. Is this something that Paul cuz Paul sent me an email regarding the road? Okay. So, my understanding that the again in your
email you were discussing various options, right? Um the cost of the options, how to pay our conservation focused on options associated with emergency repairs as this would be faster than the process. Is that what you meant, Paul? Was
basically the patching in that email? Um you I know you can't speak up cuz I have no idea. Yeah. Well, it's in the paperwork that I just gave you. So I have all the emails that was sent to me um by Paul. You'll have to forgive us.
We don't have any. No, I gave it to you. It's It's all on that paperwork. No, I'm just explaining. I I can read it all. I can No, I understand. I I can read it all to you. You don't have that. Um but I you know, I did propose it to you guys so you would have the information in
front of you. I mean, Selectman Bob Kimell reached out to me, which was wonderful. I reached out to Steven Howitt regarding the situation, hoping there could be some state funds. I know um in my notes that
the the the stabil stabilization money was mentioned um and state money was mentioned. I'm just wondering where it is to help us do the road. And I I get it, Alec. It's a process. I get it. But
you know that's what we have to lean on because it was mentioned at the last meeting. So those are still being looked into. What I can and can't do, right? There are some legalities because that is legally a private road. So there's
liabilities that we have have to be concerned with. Plus there's also a bunch of other private roads in town um that we do. We've been doing a level of maintenance on um almost as a courtesy on private roads, right? But where we
weren't we going to move forward to try to get the the rest of the road accepted the 3,300 ft that we have left that I don't know where that is right now. I don't know if that is going to be uh an option that would have to be if I'm not mistaken. If anybody can elaborate on
that way is that okay? I please do the uh what we're talking about here is chapter 90 funding, right? Chapter 90 funding. We cannot use chapter 90 funding which the state gives to us a portion of it, 3/4 of it. We can't use
that on a private plan. It's not allowed. So the only only option we have is to come up with engineering for layout and bounds of a new road which would include drainage with all all the other issues that would come along sidewalks everything that the state
would require us to do under the guidelines of chapter 90. In the case of King Philip Road where it's such an old road Mhm. and cottages were built there many many years ago. Mhm. If we try to follow the requirements of
chapter 90 to to lay it out and do it in the proper manner, it's going to end up being no one's going to have a front yard. The yards are going to go because we're going to have to go 40 to 50 ft. Going to have to go 40 to 50 ft. You're going to have to make it winkle. In addition to that, you got one area where
I think the worst area is where conservation's on the left hand side of it. It's kind of a a marshy area there. uh that will require some kind of drainage, some kind of program. They'll have to work through it also. So when the chairs said suggest it's going to
cost millions, if we go with the chapter 90 and try to try to approve and weigh out way out the road and make it legal so that we can use state funding. Mhm. Um it would in fact cost us millions of dollars to do it that way.
They're giving us estimates from a private contractor to do the road. It falls into a totally different category that we can't really address because we have to go with prevailing wages. We have a a state bid list that
we have to follow. So even though you're getting pretty good cost on repairs, we can't do it. You can do it, but we can't do it. So that's that's where the chair is trying to trying to clarify it. We don't know what we can and cannot do
with this private road. Um my own personal opinion is that the road was paid by us when we did the reconstruction with the water and the sewer lines when we did that project 20 years ago.
Um we created the paved areas um as part of that project. Are we responsible for it today? I don't know. I I think I think we have to look more into it and find out what we can and cannot do legally. My concern
is this that and I think I don't think it's going to happen. We we the chair suggested they're going to throw another $10,000 into that account so that they can go in there and do some patchwork on the road which will put a small bandaid on it. My concern is we need to continue
to explore the options and how we can handle this handle this road. I'm not sure what we're talking about when we're talking about other private roads that haven't been accepted by the town. I will tell you that when you build a condo development, condominium development, part of the guidelines of
that condo development are that yes, you are going to put in a road and yes, you are going to put in sidewalks and yes, it is private, but the town has no legal obligation to do anything with it. This is different. This is a road that's been there for god long before me and I don't
know that hasn't been it hasn't been laid out and hasn't been done properly other than the first 700 ft I believe uh that part of the road was done because that was the easy part beyond that is the hard part and it's going to cost a lot of money to fix it and I know you
reached out to representative Howard because he reached out to me correct and asked me uh to get back to you guys. Um, we have a lot a lot more work to do. At the same time, I think we have to assure you that we're not going to let this fall apart. It's too late in the
budget process right now for us to come up with a with some financing to to make this happen other than the $10,000 that the chair is suggesting, the capital improvement committee suggesting. Uh, it's going to cost us a half a lot more than that, but we have to figure out a way to do it. Well, on my understanding
at the last meeting that you had some questions of how or why the rest of the road was not accepted. Did you find the answers to that at all, Bob? All I can tell you, all I can tell you is the first 700 ft was laid out in
bounding because that was easy. It don't take anybody's pocket so much. If you think about it, it's pretty wide for them. Um, you got garages on the other side, the house on the other side. Yeah. So that's the easy part. If you stop looking beyond uh
Samite seminar site. Mhm. Then it gets tight and deciding to infringe on people's property. We're going to have to take 40 to 50 ft to make it work. Well, Nicholas had a plot plan that states the road is 40 ft though. The
interesting part and the legis the legislation was there. It was up to the board of selectmen that decided what was being accepted and what wasn't being accepted. It was up to the board. So, it doesn't make sense that
Nicholas would have a plot plan that shows the road being 40 ft. Whether it is or not. Mr. Chairman, if I clarify that. Yes, sir. What you're looking at is an assessor's map. I gave those to Nick. What those are, those are assessors maps. They're not accurate.
They give certain guidelines. They give you it's not it's not a plot plan. Yeah. It's an assessor's map and I don't think the assessor's here but but that was for the sue in the water, wasn't it, Nick? But what that what that shows you is what is supposed to be. It doesn't even the property lines. I'll give you an
example. I'm involved with the HR district commission, right? The system society. Mhm. There's a garage next to us. If you look at that same map, it goes right through the garage. Well, that's not it's not accurate. Those aren't those are designed for
assessment. They're not exactly designed for like like a layout of the property like a like a surveyor would do. It's not it's not quite that way. I don't know how that 40 ft got on there, but if you were go out and measure it. Well, you might be surprised how I don't think
you have to measure it. We know how we can get up and down that road. Yeah. I think you'd be surprised how far it would go into the property. If you use an example of this the marshy area right just beyond the square there um if you were to measure 40 feet from
that whoever owns the house I think that might be one of them uh owns the house along there you got to find out that's going to go away and we may have to take 50 ft in order to comply with capital well there should be there should be a way to do it I mean I know Alec was very
determined to put it through as an emergency to get it done I mean I think he said that at least a half a dozen times in the last meeting. Um, you know, I was told the other day by a resident that's been there for years, we even had a sinkhole and a car landed in it and
the town wouldn't pay for the repairs of the car. I mean, if this is what it's going to come down to, it's ridiculous. You know, you got res we we have beautiful homes there. I paid a lot of money for my
home, you know, in these times and then did more work on it to live on a crappy street. Just not fair. There's some there's got to be some way somehow even if you've just straightened the road and made it smoother for
everybody temporarily so we can have so nobody has to worry about driving up or walking or bicycling on that road. Do you want does the town want to have something worse happen? I mean it goes all back to what
are you waiting like the intersections that need lights. What are you waiting for? somebody to die cuz this is where this road is at. And then you go, is it going to have a bigger problem? I'm I'm just being realistic. I'm not trying to be a jerk,
but it's just being realistic. There's got to be some way somehow whether we can get some state money or something to do this road because you've wasted the town has wasted the taxpayers money that
pay big money to have those lake homes to patch it for how many years? How much money did you waste? Look at your budget on that. sad, you know, and you all guys have lived here probably a lot longer than I
have. If you even live in this town, I know the rich family's been here. My father knew your father, you know, and it's like and I go by the house all the time and I cry. So, with that being said, we understand
you you you understand the frustration. I know, but there's got to be some way somehow. So, I I hope um I hope you can try and understand the frustration on our level here. We're trying everything we can
possibly do in the red tape. It's terrible. It's it's absolutely awful. Every time you think you uncover a way to do it, there's something blocking it. And it shouldn't be that way, but this is where we are in 2025. Well, clarify
for me, Alec. What was Steve Hornsby talking about? A $80 million budget. Where does that money go to? Is this Do we have an $80 million 80 budget? Yeah, that's the town budget. Yeah, we we can't take a little bit of that.
It's not necessarily the amount of money. It's more the private road issue. So, in liability and yeah, put it in that way. We should be able to keep it that way. And then there's other issues, you know, as soon as you touch it because it's a highly sensitive area of
critical concern with conservation. Now that just adds I mean that just multi the the the multiplying factor of that is just outrageous. So there is you have beautiful homes on a beautiful street with a beautiful view on
beautiful what? We have beautiful homes on a crappy street. Well, you know that you're depreciating my home. You understand this? You understand this? All those homes that are on that street are depreciating because of the of the
road. I have one question. Did you have when you bought your house? Mhm. Did your real estate agent or attorney tell you that that was a private road? Yeah, it's documented, too. No, it's No, I'm sorry. It's a public road. every house on that street. I
brought this up with the last name that I researched and you can do it on Google, Red Fin, Zillow, wherever these real estate agents post it. Nick's a real estate agent broker, excuse
me, list the real frontage is public. Every single sales listing. Yeah, they're not responsible for anything. But again, you just asked me that question. They're not responsible. Where are they getting their information
from? The town. I used to be a real estate agent. I look at the property cards. I look at things. So somewhere, what got me with selectman Bob Kimble had a concern in
1995, how this was set up and how it was decided. Somebody missed something somewhere. Somebody didn't sign something's and how many years ago was that? I can answer 30 years ago. I can answer that question. So in 1995 when
they set up the first 700 ft, Kyle Jacobs was a highway superintendent and we hire professionals to tell us what to do. Not we don't we don't come up with all this stuff ourselves. Kyle came to us and said, "I can accept the first 700
ft because that's pretty much laid out the way it's supposed to be. Beyond that, it would require taking properties and taking some additional steps, uh, engineering and all that stuff to make it work. That's why we stopped at 700
ft." At that time, as I recall, and I'm getting kind of fuzzy up there, um there were some land owners in that area that we said, "We're going to be taking so many feet of this and so many feet of that, and they said, "You're not touching my land." So, we were running
in some opposition back then about how we were going to widen that street. It would have been a heck of a lot cheaper to do it then. It's going to cost us now. That's for sure. I think what this board is trying to do is we're we're trying to get some counsel on how to handle it. As far as the funding goes,
as you'll see in the in the in the we have a we have a budget we have budget here in front of us. We're in the we're in the 95th hour. I mean, we're there and town meeting is is May 19th and we can't figure out a way if we had to come up with some money how we could designate
it legally to help your guys out. We need some time. Oh, no. That's that's fine. Time is fine, but I need you guys to be positive about this. Like, we need to feel that something's going to happen. Like, and again, it's it's I
mean, I know it's early on. I get it. And I'm presenting you guys and girls as much things as I can to pull out. I gave you the general laws as well, okay, that I looked up on mass.gov. basically what towns do for the roads and the repairs and what they're
responsible for blah blah blah. So I mean the in those general laws it basically states you're responsible to upkeep that road basically even if it's a if it's a private way. So that's what we're trying to find out right in the general laws and I and I gave them to
you. I want an attorney and I'm never going to pretend to be somebody. I want an attorney, our attorney to look at that and give us some guidance cuz we don't know what we can and cannot do. All we can tell you is the biggest thing we we've been working on the last week
or two is where can we get some money and it's not there. Right. You mentioned the $80 million budget. Well, this shelf falls in that. That's why it needs to be Didn't we discuss it going to a town meeting and it being accepted? If the row gets accepted, we're good. Okay.
Here's here's the process. We're going to accept the row. Let's let's go through the process. Okay. We have to appropriate money at town meeting. Mhm. To do the engineering work. It has to do layouts. We have to do all the surveying everything. It's
going to cost $200,000 to do that. What they do, the engineers will come back and say, "Here's the plan. This is how it's going to work. Second, we have to go to all of you folks and say, "We're going to take your land. We have to have we have to have easements.
We're going to take your land. We have to negotiate a deal with each and every homeowner on that street in order to make it happen." Once we've gone through that process, we go out for funding to make the road legal. The state's going to require us
to make a legal road out of it, which is going to include sidewalks. So it's not just the 40 to 50. That's the way it is today. If you if you if you accept the street, there's not enough room. Well, that's what we're trying to figure out. But you guys put the road in
your Let me I'm sorry, but the point is we we're trying to figure out how to do it. And we're trying to figure out, I'm sure, without putting sidewalks. I mean, that's not the intent, but we can't do it legally right now. We can't take town funds today, go to town meeting in a few
weeks and say, "We're going to need a $250,000." No. We can't do that without figuring out how we legally we can do it. But you can throw away money. How are we throwing money away? By patching $1,500 every time Jared comes out to
patch those holes. And it's not there anymore. That's that 1,500. That's not throwing away money. But that's what I'm saying in a way. I'm like just keep what I'm saying is just
put ahead. Sorry. I was just saying that 1,500 that Jared has in his budget is for the entire town. what that money is meant for. If the fire department comes to him and says, "I can't get down such a street because there's a pothole
that's so big I can't get the truck down." They he has money to go fill that pothole. I mean, I was talking with other towns today say, "What do you do?" And they said, "Well, if our fire truck can get around potholes on private roads and they can get down to the end of the street, we don't do anything." But we
they do the same thing. and we have a small amount of money and if if uh for emergency purposes a fire truck can't get down the street, we'll go out and fill that hole. Okay. Dang. I don't know how they keep getting a fire engine down that road and then it's turning around and coming
back. I really don't know. But anyway, can we do something? I'm going to let you talk in two seconds. Can Can you like patch big sections? Would that be considered like the worst sections? Can you at least for now patch the crappy areas? Mr.
Chairman, for clarification, $1,500 is already in the budget. The capital improvement committee suggesting we throw another $10,000 on top of that. So now we have $11,500. What the DPW director can do with that, I don't know. But what the
capital improvement committee is trying to do is throw a few dollars in there to fix. It's a band-aid. We totally get it. Yeah. No, it's not money that that we it's money we could come up with in the in the near future. So perhaps the question should be asked of Jared to you, Mr. Chair. What can he do with that
$10,000? Can he go in there and can he kind of grind it up a bit and put some new asphalt down? What can he do? Well, we have patches there. There are sections with patches. Okay. Sure. And I think that's the discussion we had today, Bob, to to sit down with Jared to
see what he can do with that and to discuss with the town council conservation engineers. What can we do in the future? Um I unfortunately it doesn't happen overnight. You know, Barrowsville Court,
we had all the flooding issues. We finally came up with $50,000 that we could hire an engineer to that is now doing work to figure out why we have those flooding issues and then in the future hopefully we can come up with some money to address what the engineers
find out. So it takes a while. I mean we've been working on that for 3 or 4 years and nothing's done yet. I mean, North and South Worester Street traffic signalization. We spent $436,000 on engineering on that so
far. Not a shovel in the ground yet soon, but it everything takes money and time. Um, as far as if you're going to accept a road, legal fees, you're going to have to hire appraisers to appraise
the takings. then you're going to have to pay engineers to design something. Um we just can't go out and not have an engineer design something cuz then we're
liable. And um I know it came up from somebody one time that before the people on that street didn't want people driving down the street that didn't live there. I mean those are the other things we got to address. If we're going to pave, then the road's open and people
can go down the end of the road and access the lake from down there, too. So, it's so much so many things to talk about. It just we're 18 days from town meeting, so we don't have time to do it now, but we are committed to look at all
the options and figure something out. Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Down Sherry. like we understand. We know we're working on I'm not going away. I know. What them?
So, you have All right, I'm going to let Nick speak. Thank you guys. Thank you. And girls, you make a good case. Oh, Nick Adams. I'm at 65 King Phillip Road in Norton. Um, you make a really good case, Sherry. I appreciate your uh
enthusiasm. Um, and uh I appreciate your patience. Um I understand the number of variables involved here but I just have one primary question and that is regarding surveying because I'm not convinced that we have to take any land that I think that the land is already
there and I know it's it's just an assessor's map but they set aside a 40ft wide road at the time that the master plan came down. So, I did go to the water and sewer commission uh last week
to see that um detailed engineered water and sewer map that they had. Um it wasn't clear to me which whether exactly where the extra land is, but there is a
40ft wide road on the assessor's map and it is referenced as such throughout the whole length of the road. So, I don't believe you need to take any land. I believe what we have is a 40 foot wide right of way and only a 13t wide road. So, the
road only takes or utilizes half of the width that's available. So anyway, so that right away has that 40 foot layout they call it and that engineering that is for all the
utilities on the ground as well which and they are utilized. Yes, that's correct. So and so the detailed engineering drawing showed exactly where every pipe went for the water and the sewer within the 40ft right away or which but my point is that it's owned by
the town. There is no other owner on any of those 40 foot wide right ofways. There's no other person referenced who owns any of the square feet. And the next step that I wanted to do was not just the what's the total assessment,
what's the total taxes on the street report, but I'd also like to have any surveyor just look at the thing and basically say, look, does the town own this 40 foot wide road? We
don't need to pay the whole 40. I mean, if it was an emer Oh, did you point? No, Mr. Chairman, just one you're you're a realtor, so you understand this. Are any have any of your neighbors recently had their property submitted? Yes. Is there someone that we could take a look at
their maybe give to our town council you know what the actual dimension of the property? They have individual site plans which were done at the time to prove the frontage and the you know not that you didn't build on somebody else's land just a basic plat you know survey
map and those are only a h 100red bucks. So, but I I don't know. Do we do we have a surveyor on town or do we have do you have a surveyor who could take a quick look at it? Okay. Cuz I think we have a 44 wide. But again, we don't want to we
don't want to widen the road too wide because that brings up the issue with Concom and it has to be an emergency. We just want to do existing conditions, smooth road, and some of the owners have referenced that they don't
even want it that wide because they don't want people to go any faster than they're going. So, anyway, not asking for the moon, but we do want to keep in touch with you all. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, sir. Address. Well, my name is Thomas Lincoln. I'm 105 Kingville Road.
I know you here and all my neighbors. Um, I know a little history about the road. Um, I've lived on the road for 57 years. I remember when the the uh toward the tail end of the road, I'd say in the
'9s back was just dirt. And the way they used to take care of the road was they would have a sander come down and tar and then the sander would come back and they clean it up. Now, environmentally, you can't do that anymore.
I agree that the road, you know, needs to be fixed. I know when it was paved previously after the sewer line was put in, it was a racetrack. You know, we actually had to ask people to slow down. If there's I I want to thank you
for your consideration on this. I really appreciate it and I'm sure that everybody else does. When that road was put in, it was primarily meant for summer cottages only, not year round residences. And I've seen some of the
maps because my great-grandfather put the road in and my grandfather put the rest of the road in. Now, again, that road was never meant to be wider than it is. And I don't see how you could possibly, and I've seen some
of the old maps because my father has a lot of them, how you could possibly widen that road anymore than it is because there are too many people who are going to lose property along that road. There are some people if you were to take 20 ft on the
lakeside, they're going to walk out their front doors onto the street, which obviously is a safety concern. And not to mention, I don't think they're going to be too happy having the value of the property decrease that much. Is there any way, even if we went back
to the areas that are really bad, putting millings down to cover or flatten the road so that we don't have the uh the potholes in the certain areas. There's one right
past just past the uh swamp on the left. That's really bad. If we could have some road millings put in there, which would cost next to nothing, and then have a uh a machine come over and tamp it down, that would at least help
or alleviate some of the issues we have going on right now. That's one question. But also, is there any type of federal grants that we could look at anywhere that anybody might know of course or is
it something we can research? I believe is is politician. Um we can research but in this day and age federal grants are being uh pretty much wip wiped out. Um and we did uh the
what you talked about millings is something that we've talked about that uh we're looking into because the the cost of millings would be fairly uh so the first step Tommy would be getting his budget's maxed out right
now that 1500 bucks. So we need to get that money into it. So we've been banging our head against the wall figuring out how to do that and we think we have a plan moving forward to do that. So, uh, the DBW hybrid director will be able to do that pretty quickly,
uh, once that's done. And it always has been a private route. Yeah. Now, to defer some of the cost, have has the town council suggested any of the residents uh, pitch in for part of that? We
would be all ears for that. We'd love to come up with some sort of solution, you know, work hand in hand. Yep. All right. That's pretty much all I have. Thank you very much. Okay. Thank you. How do you do? I'm Kevin Trundley, 117 King Phillip Pro. Now, I've only been
here for 15 years on King Phillip Pro. Don't go back as far as you, but I will say this. Um, since I've been there, there's been some great things that have happened through you people to make that lake a lot better than what it was. I appreciate that and
I'm sure that all of us do. This is I I understand where we're at here. I appreciate the fact that Sher has gone to great lengths to try to bring some points to you that we as a as a
neighborhood we feel frustration and I feel yours. All I want to do is look at you guys tonight and get your okay that we're going to work together to get this worked out. Okay, Mr. Thank you, sir. I I think we've
already said that and we've pointed that out in the past that this is not something that we're trying to push aside. We This is something that our frustration is not quite to the level of yours, but it's very frustrating to us
that we can't find a way to do this right now. I understand. Thank you. Thank you, Mike. Could you give us a timeline if we do that? Uh on capital uh is that going to go to is that to go to town
meeting? Yeah. Yeah. That would go to town meeting and it'd be available July 1. Mr. Chairman. Yes, sir. Mr. Unice. I think the uh the milling we have that right. We have a massive stack of this stuff. Yes, he does.
I have a pickup truck. No problem. Any other questions, discussion, comments? Just one I'll be name and address, please. Yes. Hi, Karen Dalton. 113 K Road. Um, you had stated something about
the real estate, you know, was it sold to us as public or private? And it was sold to me as a public road. I do have a plot plan that says public road. So when you guys put that um town storage in years ago, who was
going to maintain it? That's, you know, you were just going to pave it, leave it, and then we were going to take care of it. I didn't buy my house on a private road that I knew of. And um right now, like my husband just had um neck surgery and heart surgery, it is
safer for him to walk down that street than it is for me to drive him down that street in the car. He's he's really a prisoner in the house cuz I can't get him up. Okay. Any other comments, questions? I
I'll just add obviously we we empathize with you. We're trying to find the best solution in the most legal way that we can. Um so we're conscious of the issue. Um and thank you for raising the issue to our attention.
Thank you guys. On the notes, do we have to go up again? Yeah. You got to make us listen. You got to come up here. I'll bring you all
again. Sher boy 115 King Phil bro. You should know my name by now. Anyhow, what can somebody explain what chapter 40 section 6 means under the general laws that I gave you? It's in order.
I'm not a attorney. So, I was say I would You need an attorney to understand it. I would refrain and have an advice. Come on, guys. Can only speculate just as well as you can. So, if we misspeak, we're
getting ourselves in hot water. We don't want that to happen. Okay. Well, Google it. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. on to review discuss and open annual and special town meeting articles. Just a
few minutes. Okay. Uh stop the easy stuff. So uh finance committee voted at their last meeting on articles five, six and seven. They took them all at once. Uh no action. Um this is on the special town meeting. Um
there's no need for any uh sore enterprise operating budget supplements. no uh capital improvement fund appropriation at this time and no capital improvement plan amendment at this time. So if the board wants to take
those up, I recommend no action. Mr. Chair. Yes, sir. I make a motion that we take no action on uh articles 5, six, and seven on the special town meeting.
Second. All in favor? Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Um there are um there's another article uh VidCon has not taken it up yet that's on operating budget supplements. I don't know if you want to I can just go over
that with you. Why don't you put that on the screen now? Is that your package? It is. Yeah. Yeah. So I I can't get it on the screen, but
um so what we're looking for under operating budget supplements um I'm going to be recommending the finance committee on Monday night. um $1,400 um be added to the finance
committee recording secretary line item out of free cash and uh $100,000 $1003,723 uh be added to snow snow removal expense uh for a total out of uh free cash of
$15,123. And then the next two um going to be recommending um 70,000 go into the reserve fund and that would be transferred under the current unemployment line item. Right now we
have a balance of $262,4180 in that account and we have not spent any money since March um on that. So we don't have anyone on there now. Um and the next item is Medicare expense
um 20,000 and that that too would come from the unemployment account. So that is three through three if you want. Yep. Sorry. Uh Mike, the last two. Yep. You
said that nothing's been used since March. It's only been a month. So it's not like a it's been a big runway. Yeah, I know. But um we we had 280,000. We've only spent 18,000 all year. So I don't
think uh we're going to and and the reason just to explain the reason I want to put 70,000 back in the reserve fund. We're down to 37,000 and we still have two months to go. We may not need it. it would just go to free cash anyways, but at least it would be available if uh
something happens that uh the finance committee needs to approve or reserve fund transfer. Mr. Sorry, one more question on the recording secretary and the snow removal. What's the reasoning for that added operating expense? We haven't had
a lot of snow the last several years. Um so that is just for this to cover what has been spent already this year. Um, as you know, snow removal is that one account that we can deficit spend in. Um, and we appropriate 80,000 every
year. And, um, I know there wasn't a lot of snow, but Jared can come up and talk to you about we had a lot of sand and we had a lot of storms with ice and Yeah, it might be counterintuitive, but usually when you have a winter like this, there's a lot more sanding events and we spend most of
that budget, you know, all on treated salt. Okay. Thanks, Jared. Uh Jared, did you spent $183 $183,000 on snow removal this year? Yes. Okay. And just to remind you, the only reason
we keep it at $80,000 is because uh it's the only account they allow you to deficit spend in. And if you say, um, Jared, spend 183,000 this year. Let's budget 183,000 for next year. You can
never budget less than 183,000 forever. Um you won't you won't be able to deficit spend in that account. Mr. Chair. Yes, sir. I make a motion that we recommend article three of the special town meeting.
Second fail. I Okay. Um um on the annual um so on the annual um finance committee has um taken action on uh
articles 567 and nine um which you have not voted on yet. Uh going backwards article nine that's uh capital improvements appropriation and um right now um we're
recommending no action on that article. Um we'll see what we have in the fall and uh as far as free cash and hope we can put money into capital there. But the finance committee voted 6 nothing for no action.
Mr. Chair, Mr. Chair, I make a motion that we take no action on article 9 of the time. Second. All in favor? I Okay. Um, article five. Let me get back to that. Uh the
finance committee voted 8 nothing to recommend and um this would be amending the wage and salary plan to add that position uh for the council on aging. Uh they did not vote
the council on aging budget yet but they did vote to uh establish this position in the wage and salary plan. Mr. Chair. Yes, sir. I make a motion that we recommend article five of this town meeting.
Second. All in favor? I I two articles the finance committee has voted on is the water enterprise budget and the sewer enterprise budgets. Articles six and seven.
And uh article six uh under personnel services 1,293,72 indirect expense $594,87. Uh other charges and expenditures 1,343,000 and debt service 1,848,684 uh for a total of $5,79,563.
Mr. Chair, sir, um Mr. Units, I think you meant under other charges and expenditures 1,343,000. Okay. Thank you. Mr. Chair. Yes, sir. I make a motion that we recommend article six of the
autonomy. Mr. Chair, I had one question. It's good. Yep. Go ahead. Uh Mike, what is in other charges and expenditures? That's actually the largest of all buckets. Um so in in this budget, uh other charges and expenditures, that's
for um all their um expenses for chemicals. um engineering work they may need um during the year, all their supplies, everything. Sorry. Sorry. Roger.
Did you was a second? Yeah, I'll second it. All in favor? Thank you. And article seven is for the store department budget personnel services $398,471 indirect expense
$168,522. Other charges and expenditures of $1,415,250 and debt service $395,640 for a total of 2,377,883 and other under other under other under other charges and services the bulk of that is the uh MFN assessment for treatment of the of the
sword. Mr. Chair. Sure. Um Mike, what are the indirect expenses? Indirect expenses are so for the things that uh where it's an enterprise account like health insurance, we know exactly what they pay
for the full amount of the health insurance costs for their employees. um any other insuranceances that um directly attributed to the water and sewer department and the various the two enterprise accounts they pay directly for. Then they pay a portion of salaries
of employees in the town that treasurer, collector, town accountant, myself. Um the portion of our salaries get attributed to water and sewer based on we take the uh annual budget and the water budget and the sewer budget and
what percent of the total budget they are. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes. Uh Mike, I see a decrease of $67,000 or so in personnel services. Is there one last person? Uh there was a
retirement and lower salaries. Okay. Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yes, sir. I make a motion that we recommend it on 7 to 10. Second. All in favor? And just to give you an idea, um the
costs uh the treatment plant costs for the uh MFN uh [Music] $985,800 and uh treatment plant cost to Taton for that section that goes that way 20,000. So the bulk of their uh other charges and expenditures is the
treatment cost. Mr. Chair. Yes, sir. Mike. Yeah. So, what are we doing with article 4? I see that the uh recommended to move that into the budget. I I better bring that up with the finance should be no action. So,
because it's still on the warrant, but not going to move it because we put that money in the budget. So, recommend no action if you want to vote on that. Sure, Mr. Chair. Yes, sir. I make a motion that we take no action on article
4. Second. All in favor? Hi. Thank you. And uh article 8 obviously is the operating budget that's still uh being worked on. Um you have in in your uh packet um I think the budget after the finance
committee meeting the other night. So you can see um some of the budgets that they have voted on. Um, so I I don't I don't have that to show you on on the screen, but um I will tell you that as far as I know the head
count on the general government side, the only increase is that one position uh for the council on aging. uh we eliminated a part-time position in the board of health and added a part-time position in the treasurer collector's
office and due to the lower salary um for the position that's being added to the treasur collector's office there's about a net of uh savings of 3500 with that um my my last budget you can see um if
you look at the revenue and expenditure sheet needs. I think you I sent you two of them. Um, so I was proposing to use 300 something in uh stabilization, but a couple weeks ago it was brought up at
the finance committee that um they didn't think that was a good idea. And once we went through all the needs we had with snow and ice and um so we knew what we had with free cash, I was able to fund the budget without using any
stabilization. Um, and also it came up at the Fincom the other night about direction from the select board. And really we had direction from the select board. 3% general government, 3% school, but that's kind of been blown out the window now um at the finance committee.
It was uh suggested and the other night and approved to take 500,000 out of stabilization and give 500,000 to the school department. Um and also um another 228,000 out of
ambulance and uh I mean my my concern is um I'm not going to be here but uh you know next year what happens it's if if we do those things now but that that's been the recommendation. It
also came up at the at the meeting the other night uh from a few people saying that chapter 70 has gone up. You know, if chapter 70 goes up, why doesn't that go directly to the schools? And I I did explain that chapter 70 is a general
fund revenue. And as I said to you in uh what I uh emailed to you um the chapter 70 although it it it did increase um increased by 2.4% or
$321,450. The tuition assessments um increased 20% or 265,000. So the net increase in education aid is $56,450. The teachers health insurance
alone probably went up about $539,000. So to say that chapter 70 goes up, so the school budget should go up. There's other expenses too that we have to cover. And uh so it is a general fund revenue. It goes into the general fund and then it's up to the fincom and the
town meeting to decide how it's spent, but it's not directed to the schools. It's a general fund revenue. Mr. Chair. Yes, sir. Um Mike, didn't we go through that last year when we had the fall town meeting when we had free cash? We were talking about how the
chapter 70 money had been increased and how they thought that that would go directly to the schools, but general funding for your chapter. Yes. Michael, what was the one position you said that you eliminated? You added a council of aging, add the part-time treasur, board
of health, board of health, um, assistant in the board of health. And is there elimination of the position for highway in in my budget recommendation? That that position is not there. The position is not inclusive. So, one one less than last
year. No. Um, it was eliminated last year and Highway was looking to add that position and another position, but that position was eliminated. It wasn't in the budget last the current the current year we're in
now. That position did exist. All right. I'm confused. So, how many people were in the budget last year for highway? So highway um right this current fiscal year next fiscal year they're looking to add two new people just a straight number like
how many people are in the highway department right now for this for this this fiscal year I didn't bring how many time offic and how many are in the proposed budget for 2026 12 okay in his proposal not your
recommend Right. Yep. How many we recommend? How many did we recommend? Me? I re I re recommended 10. I didn't recommend an increase in the highway. So
in the in the fiscal 2026 town recommended doesn't include the additional two. No. And as far as the 3% goes, I know it's been raised. I don't think we voted on it, agreed on it. My personal philosophy is that stating that
3% municipal side, whatever, 3% school doesn't take into account what the actual needs are. And so I'm more um inclined to look at what are the needs of the town to keep the services the same if we can or as close to the same
as we can versus just a blanket 3% and saying that's what the that's what we're gonna that's what we're going to do. So, I haven't heard the full um scope of the impacts to the school yet, but I'd like to hear that part before we make any decisions on the budget. And if
you have any questions, uh reach out. Okay, y please. Zach 3 Richmond Drive, also a member of the finance committee. So, I proposed a lot of this. So, uh, uh,
Mike, you can blame me. I got big shoulders. I can take it. Um, but the view is, at least my view, I speak for myself, is uh, we've gotten criticism for years is we come back in the fall with
supplements and the departments can't plan, particularly the school department where they have to let teachers know and so on and so forth. So, I proposed that we gave them $500,000 um from stabilization with the
understanding there would be no supplements in the fall. And the intention and I mentioned that the board um the intention is to return that money to stabilization at the fall town meeting. So now the school is funded for the year. There is no layoffs. The school
says they could make it work and there would be no layoffs with that. I also proposed taking $228,000 from the fire ambulance reserve that account I believe it was a million rough roughly there and building at
about $140,000 a month of new revenue coming in from um from uh um annual receipts. And then we also took $30,000 from unemployment scene. We're not laying
anybody off and we moved that into the police department to subsidize that budget. So we have not voted on the highway yet. We have not voted on the COA yet. But as of right now, as of today, as Monday I should say, the
finance committee is not recommending any layoffs. Uh the schools are funded, the fire department is funded, the police is funded, although they may need a slight supplement in the fall. Um but for my speaking for myself only
is preserve most of that free cash in the fall to use for capital improvements. Put money into capital, put money back into stabilization, depending on what it is, and then the balance roll into next spring um next
spring's budget. what that number is. I asked, nobody knows. Hopefully, it's in the $3 million range until August. Yeah, exactly. So, that's kind of where we are. Um, again, the finance committee is not done with this yet, but the three major budgets at this
point have been voted on. And thank you. Um just to the beauty of what Zach's suggesting is that in the fall other than some minor
um adjustments in budgets shouldn't have to do. So that you know that that funding will be available for us to put some stabilization back, fund our capital budget and then have some money carry it over to the uh to the uh spring and then everybody can
say well we couldn't plan because we didn't know what the funding was going to be. They got their budgets and you will remind us you will remind us. Yes, I will. Thanks Zach. Do you? Yep. I don't know if the intention was to vote tonight but I was going to say I haven't had a
chance to go through all Okay. No, no. All right. Thanks. Okay. Um, anything else, Mr. Chair? Yes, sir. [Music] Um, I see that the fin voted for no action on article 12.
Is this the property for Oh, I'm sorry. Yes. Um so um Habitat has requested that we hold up on this. This is the property. Um it's a great project that they're looking to do. Um and we took properties along this
roadway um tax title, but the it's a paper street and that parcel was never taken. So, Habitat's doing some work to see who the current owner is of that parcel so they can purchase that and then they'll come back later hopefully
in the fall. Um, but they're very grateful um for everything that we've done for them on this and uh they hope to come back but no action right now. I'm sorry, Mr. Chair. Yes, sir. I make a motion that we take no action on our
12th. Okay. All in favor? Hi. Hi. Opposed. So, open session for topics not reasonably anticipated 48 hours in minutes. Anything take a motion. Mr. Mr. Chair, I make a motion
to adjourn. Second. All in favor? Hi. Hi. Can I letter sent to the board regarding the scheduling of the items? Okay. Y I didn't see the letter. I didn't I I
emailed it to I was your email to I called the select board's office though and they responded. I sent it to the select board office and I sent to each of you. Did you not receive it? I I did. I received I sorry. Okay. I'm sorry. Uh
basic um I I I must admit I I I've been looking at the um the listings in the in the um on website and uh I'm concerned in particular with the the hearing on the MTA project. On the website it's
listed as 24 and then when the planning board delivered something it's now 17. I'm not sure where it stands now. My concern was there's three articles dealing with the bylaws. Three, two of which are zoning bylaws and one of which is town bylaws. The zone the re
reconsideration recification is item number three. Um, and you have the other item which is NBTA was 24 or 17. And I would I would like to ask the board if it's possible to move those up so
they're all heard together. I think the last thing I saw was three was on the reconsideration and five was some of the town bylaws. Um I don't know why they why they're separated that much. In fact, the MBTA bylaw does reference some
of the items that are under reconsideration as it relates to the size of family, definition of family, an introduction of the mixeduse development. And I think it would be more appropriate to list them all together. In addition to which um I represent a community that's very
interested in that project. It's an elderly community and having them nearly almost at the end of this project given reconsider reconsideration would take them really late into the evening and I would ask if the board would consider moving them up so that that it's
consistent with the other bylaw amendments and I heard all all at similarly time. Okay, Mr. Chair. Yes. Um my my first thought is yes of course but uh having been sitting in this chair
for a year I know that my first reaction is probably wrong. So um I just want to be maybe we can take this up at our next meeting and and uh vote on it then. I just like to see if there are any uh any other considerations that need to be
taken before we just uh do I I just has it has the warrant been gone to the printer yet for final printing. Well, no, but I don't I don't even know if that falls on us with the border it falls on us or town moderator. Well, we we'll look at it,
but usually um if the town water is going to take things out of order, I can tell you the one zoning cotification is the only only reason we usually take up zoning articles at the end because we try and get the town of the town business out of the way first. And the
only reason that codification is at the top is because the attorney that worked on that for us has another town meeting that night too. So we told him to wait for up the top. So we can he can do that
and then go to his other town meeting after ours. Um I don't necessarily have a problem with you know taking things out of order or changing them around. But I just want to make sure that there's no nothing else that we have to consider before we talk.
Okay. Yeah. I I just want to I was concerned I know once it goes to the printer there might be something else. I wanted to bring it to your attention cuz I saw this was on the agenda and I was thinking maybe it didn't go to the printer yet. I believe once it goes to the the the town meeting it's up to the moderator to make that decision. Prior
to do that I don't know if it's the town manager or this board that makes that decision and I just ask your their consideration. I guess we'll look into it. Now did you send an email? a town email. Yeah, I I I think
I'm not sure what I sent it to. I will and we'll put it on the you know, if it's something that we can act on, we'll put it on the agenda for the next Thank you. Mr. Chair, would it be advantageous to have town council available for this article 17
anyway if they're not going to be here at that point in the town meeting? town council will be here. Okay. It's just um the codification. Uh there's an attorney that uh we got grant funding to buyer who specializes in zoning bylaws
and he worked on our zoning bylaw, but we will have a town council. Would would that person be beneficial to have during the MBTA overlay? Um I I don't think necessarily they'd have to be there. No. Did they work on Did they work on it?
Yeah. Make a motion to adjourn. Oh, second. All in favor? I I Okay, thank you everybody.