and now down here to stop it you want to pause it and uh we'll start the meeting at 5:35 we have Frank mcin Jeff Quackenbush Steven dalus and Anna Cook [Music]
online and I sent you all the minutes uh and Anna I'm learning to send you send it both to both your accounts okay thanks I don't I'm sorry I don't know why that I I think I think happens is if you if your phone
is oh I'm like signed in right you signed in account that's the only reason why so it's E I don't mind doing it this way okay thank you as everyone read it was a short minutes Stephen Jeff and I had wonderful time at Town Hall it took us a while to
get on but we did a nice meeting before Jeff flew down under uh any changes to the minutes no okay you have a motion I move to accept the minutes from what was the
date to five five February the 5th okay I second all those in favor by roll call vote wacken bush I alas I cook I again I
okay in reverse [Music] order okay um I also sent a letter that I'm going to share now get here get out of that one and thank you I I said did
uh the letter for the select board the capital planning and finance committee that we're going to be sending uh okay and Stephen had a comment and I like Stephen's
comment um of just giving them a brief description of the section and the numbers that are prioritized and that will force them to go over to the spreadsheet and read it rather than you'll see I changed the
highway department uh here to what it actually they thank you thank you Stephen for that um my husband Tom looked at it and he was just as confused uh the way I
wrote it up so this will be a lot easier and I'll take all the uh this nomenclature out and just let them you know tell them these are our priorities please go to the spreadsheet section um yeah I I like that I think
another reason why um I suggested that is because then they know okay there's some electrical items there's some exterior and when you just had the uh descriptive info I mean initially I was
confused as to what what was going on and then I said oh okay I see where that's coming from um yeah yeah something like that and I'll clean that up um I I think everything's okay on top yes and did you
um take out uh Russ Wilson's name I did and minute you said that I remember he said he in the beginning he did not want to be mentioned and so yes I took that out thank you took his out um I mean some people obviously know but this way
it's not uh common potentially common knowledge you know yeah so so I thought I'd use this letter as the body of the email using the building
committees doy.org buildings committee at.org uh and then just attached a PDF of the spreadsheet and send it off today or tomorrow tomorrow um for them all to see and I
think appreciate all the the work you've all done on it so it's been and is is the is our thought that we were going to get feedback from them on which items to do first even though we recommend
this you know uh where we going I I thought I thought we were when as we talked as a group my understanding is that we were going to hop on the electrical first and start writing a um a bid proposal on what we want to change
and start with that specifically because we're going to group those with all together and then you know work from there um sharing this is going to get a lot of feedback um I think I don't know what your your opinion is but you're
goingon to get a lot of feedback you think people are going to be surprised I think the select board's going to be extremely happy because they were happy at the first you know we did it over a year ago we shared it about a year ago I think yeah and they were very
happy but I think I think they're going to be happy that they have this that the next thing is is you know is you know for Capital planning and everything else they're going to want to no cost and they've got to understand that we've worked on this for almost two years right and we fixed
things as we've G going along I mean um but it also shows that there's no major Capital spending other than like the electrical um I was on another committee uh the town administrative search committee and that was a question
that was asked at one of the interviews is there any Capital uh buildings or issues you know coming forward that would be an issue and uh everyone stared at me on the committee because I was the only one for the
buildings I said we've practically done all the big ones it's the you know the next step is um you know the school was the biggest Capital planning we you we've done in two years is you know and I don't see any major work do do you all see any
major work being done I'd say the only major would be the roof at the highway department right yeah but that's something that our current budget um amount you know what
we have um after we do electrical we probably could um still entertain doing that so that means it's not Capital correct Capital planning project correct as we don't have to go above that major
money is over what we out of our account you know one thing that was mentioned at that meeting is and after talking to people is the LI the old library and uh I was in talking to Maryann about it and she said there's a
bunch of people that want that so you know that's could be down the road um um you know back to Jeff's question I wonder if in the letter it's worth
stating that you know currently the you know the buildings committee uh in intends to to address the electrical issues first um you know we see that
is say a safety priority and and then you know the other committees can look at it they can make comments or ask questions and then
maybe there's a meeting where we attend or some of us attend you know whoever has questions and we can discuss those things with them um so so in that this paragraph
here uh you know basically say um instead of saying no to save money we plan to bash together the electrical projects uh to save money we plan to B project this will be our first project that we will be addressing well may I
mean it can certainly leave save money in there but I don't know that maybe maybe it's just a matter of saying uh we see the electrical items as the first priority to address
and we are going to as you say batch them all together yeah they don't need to sa save money okay that makes sense and a bat them all together for one future bid or so and if they don't understand that
that's going to save money I think I think they'll get it I hope okay so Frank do you have um I think I let you know there's a uh March 18th meeting of the finance committee
where uh we are on the schedule okay I didn't yeah I remember that so I'll put that on my list and that meeting is between six and seven and I don't know where I assume
that we'll see where we fall on their agenda when they post that the purpose of the meeting is uh to ask you know because we because we sort of double dipped and we have we
got $70,000 we will just ask for another 10 okay and then uh they'll probably ask I know Bob grow will ask you know we'll work on the electri I don't
know if we'll be able to get the electrical you know figure out what the electrical is but we did get a ballpark on the um the roof didn't we get a square footage on the roof for the uh Jeff got a company over a year ago that gave him
kind of a ballpark of 20 some was it 22,000 Jeff that's in it was it was in the 20s I can't remember I thought it was high 20s and it was a ballpark number yeah okay so we'll use the word 30 just
to buffer ourselves so they'll know that we are using our monies up and that's why we're just going to be requesting for the next um town meeting just an additional 10 yeah okay anything else on the
letter um if you don't mind I mean you've corrected that um I'll look over it again yeah just yeah I'll do that look pretty good Frank yeah um the only finished products since we've came
on board was the elementary school the envelope as Jeff likes to call it and the new roof and the new middle roof of the Dan Keepers is any you know other than major projects that you all spent some time on the roof at the
fire department and that exterior well two things at the fire department one was um we replaced the deteriorated ridge cap on um on the roof and that included that included the
ridge vent because it was one of those flexible fibery type products and then we also replaced uh the rotted deteriorated siding on the east and west and
especially at the base of the uh front or north [Music] side okay I'll add that too just to get what about the work at the old um Elementary School down at the corner of
the road um we well two things there um there was a uh roof puncture where a limb fell off and punctured the roof and um we repaired the uh internal structure and then replaced shingles and
then the corner boards the heavily we replaced the heavily rotted corner boards at the that would be the northwest corner yep okay I'll just add a couple things
to not fluff it up just to show them what we have been doing and this is where some of the monies have been going oh we repl the uh we replaced the door sill uh and made the doors functional at Oldtown Hall front entry
doors hey guys can you guys go talk somewhere else please okay good I'll just add that up just as they because I they'll be able to see read about that in the spreadsheet and then they'll at least see some stuff going forward I think that's a good idea
I'll add that okay I think that's all we had for today the other thing um scheduling this committee we've been doing it every two weeks do you want to keep that up um now that the spreadsheet is done or do you
want to go monthly what is a census I can do either way Stephen um I can go either way um I guess my thought is do we want to um um develop devote time to developing the
um scope of work for the all this electrical yeah I think that we'll go maybe we'll just stay um every other week for now and I think the scope I'm this is is something I'm not good at uh electrical I can do plumbing and other stuff but well I'm
willing to um to make you know an initial stab at it and I was gonna ask Anna Anna do you have any um say General specs from electricians that you could share with me that I could um look at to include you know or
use as part my when I write specs I'm writing specific scopes of work like put a switch here Outlet there are you talking about like the general requirements that you'll just see in like commercial boilerplate yeah um I don't have any in-house but I I have some from um other
jobs I've done that I could dig up sure that would be great sure yeah um and I would I would vote monthly once we're kind of at like a maintenance point of view so like I wouldn't want to delay getting the electrical out I think we want to keep that rolling but I would happily go to monthly part of it was
when I was approached about joining the committee I was told it was monthly and that was part of the reason I accepted so and nothing personal I like everybody on the group and it's awesome stuff we're doing but just you know personal time balances here well you can blame
your past chairman for that sure that's right that's right yeah but yeah I don't want to hold up getting something out that's got you know times sometimes sensitivity to it but yeah if we're kind of in a maintenance you know once we're kind of at that point I don't see why we wouldn't why we'd need to go week or
every other week okay I kind of agree with that too um Hey Stephen we could also use the specs for the new library the electrical specs oh as a um helpful guide
okay is that something you you have have access to or we just ask uh Dominic to share those should I just do that supposed to be in bid docs I'll have to check and see if they actually loaded it into bid docs or
not yeah if they did let me I mean I still have access to bid docks I think okay it's supposed to be in there but I don't trust those guys that actually follow through um the one thing I was thinking of Frank
um any more um info on the KNX box I've uh reached out twice and I've got a maybe physical Bally I am down the fire chief has to apply to get into it and that's where we are right now with the nox box okay
and if you were going to guess how far off is a new library getting its KNX installation of a ox boox late summer yeah okay because that early fall rather
right so that's the library new library because that's you know if it's going to be sooner than that he's got to get on that so he's got to fill out the forms in order to be part of so we can go forward and ask for bids for all the
other uh buildings and I'll follow up with Lenny again okay so I'll work on this introduction letter to our spreadsheet I'll send everyone a new copy and I'll while I cleaned it
up so um talking just a little bit about the electrical stuff so I was thinking we could uh certainly want to identify the equipment in terms of panel boxes and I was thinking Seamans or Square D
um anybody have any thoughts about that um something better something worse no s I forget I think they have like a uh residential line or homeowner line are
you familiar with that Anna not in any more specifics okay because I I just sort of around this is weeks ago and it seems like and I'm thinking I don't know that we want the I mean the homeowner line might be
perfectly fine but um it suggests that the other is better well I mean all those things usually aren't um the big difference boxes you know a box is a box and you know the commercial
might have a heavier gauge to it it might be you know maybe 20 or 30% more and I don't think we're talking big money so I just stick everything to commercial because it's commercial uh building and in case down the road for whatever
reason um they have to add they don't have to switch everything out like if they want to put more mini splits in because it's too cold or air conditioning and all that you know we can have a more commercial as my thought
yeah well the boxes that we'll be adding will actually actually be all sub panels so you know the there'll be no service upgrade at this point that's just the major part is the boxes and the rewiring
um and then we had talked I think also about uh LED fixtures how you know quite a few of the buildings could use more LED fixtures and we're g to separate that out and see if we
can see if there's a grant or a way to write a grant for those am I remembering that correctly yeah that was um I think that's the new town under the new town administrators position we can look into grants
also or ask about grants um I can talk to Gabe also and see if she knows any out there because she's got her ear to that I could also call uh she got a grant for
fixtures some of which are maybe in the highway department I'm not sure but um they got it in the school and that's why only half the school is done because the grant was x amount and then a highway department got one also through another program but they installed it themselves
because it was just a matter of taking their long 8ot fluoresence out and replacing with LEDs um so um the school would probably be a major one so we'd have to look at that one
um and Town Hall yeah Town Hall Highway Department I think might be may also be uh fire department there might be you know a combination so we can look into that
okay is there anything else any new business a curiosity question do we have a new Town Administrator um to uh tomorrow night is they're interviewing two people oh and probably be deed tomorrow and then
there'll be a interim buffer period for I don't know how many weeks normally it's a two-e period you give notice and then come to a new job so I think we'll have a new Town Administrator in three weeks plus or minus oh and it was a lot I was on that
committee it was a lot of fun of wide spectrum of people it was very interesting oh interesting are you excited about the potential new person excited about uh both potential uh one more than the other I
can't the other but very excited about where who we're presenting to the um the select board so you know we're going to have a good we're gonna have a good a good person and
um the other thing the select board did was take the Town Administrator secretary and make an assistant admin and really I think they hired that person uh that's new now a young man and
uh really defined that job so um that person's involved in stuff that Becky used to do all herself you know from yeah all the little stuff that a Town Administrator shouldn't be doing U and that Becky did but you know that'll that
freed up a lot of time and also they increase the pay for that job in hours oh good so I think it's going to be a good balance um one of the stressed things we were all looking for is grant writing because uh grant writing is
going to be the funds of the future for most towns in this area um rather than increasing our property taxes all the time um so we're going to have to and the grant rating is going to be more competitive going
forward so another fun thing that was mentioned at the meeting when we were talking about Capital products projects um someone mentioned a uh police fire Regional you know what do you call that safety
complex as a major Capital planning say I hadn't heard that one before but I was a little surprised to hear that to combine the police and fire and someone else said well why would we do that if we're regionalizing the fire department so think that's what they're doing right
now they're trying to regionalize the fire department for Grant and fundings and all these other stuff so you know three or four towns get together and have one fire department so one fire department for
shoot Barry and who else I want to say New Salem wend there's either Wendell or pelum pelum I I learned a little about pelum pelum is um PM's hurting on a lot of things
because of uh you know monies that you know they're shrinking older and all this other stuff and they have um you know their school is what's killing them because they have such a small base do you follow
me and uh so that's where they're having a problem they um School population is shrinking so much um that you know someone at one of the meetings mentioned you know possibly
regionalizing their elementary school so in other words they would send the ones in south of town to amher and the ones north of town to us U but that's the biggest problem the biggest expenses in the future that was brought up um at this meeting that's why the grant
writing is is schools because we have been living off of the federal government since covid and using a lot of those monies for school and that's drying up very fast and little towns like
pelum their Elementary School population has dropped so much their expenses per student are very high so um they're trying to you know that's that's where regionalization has been coming into effect with you know how to save monies
and and combine things so what's the um population of pelum you know roughly I do not it was mentioned at the meeting i' had to look it up um and shry it's less a lot less than shy
yeah um and a lot of the peripherals of Amherst are becoming rental that's another problem because rental it usually means students and not families so we have to look at that um one last
thing I was just thinking of is um how serious are we about um having some kind of road trip out to Williamstown to uh look at the sign board or do we I think it's the the only
way we're going to get information yeah yeah so I'm willing I'm mostly available um there's a few doctor's appointments here and there um you know we'll let Jeff get his feedback or whatever it is um but I'm I'm Avail if you want to go to the next two weeks we can go do
that um would you like to see it Anna I would um but I am taking a week off and two weeks from now so I'm going to miss the next meeting oh if it was after maybe but next week's I'm I'm pretty I'm like
totally yeah I'm free the next two weeks so if you you you would like to do it next week no I'm like totally crazy next week trying to get things done so that I can take a week off and then I'll come back to the fire so um I would I guess I would say if you guys find a time that
works just go without me but if it happens to be after and I can come I'd be happy to join so at the end of the month in the beginning of April You' be able to join yeah I don't see that's a problem is it yeah no it's going to be there for
sure it would be nice to see see the operation get the measurements in our ourselves and uh and we can work our own drawings up for the foundation that okay I mean that'll
be pretty much a a day right most of the day it's an hour and a half out there yeah hours there an hour that's four that's five it's in Williamsburg right
not or Berg well we we need to find that out I thought it was Williams toown where are you saying uh Jeff well Williamstown is way up northeast corner of the state yeah
Williamsburg is just on the other side of Northampton oh well that would be easy so which place is it I'll reach you I um smolski went and looked at it so um you want to reach out and ask him
where it is and get back and like send us an email yeah I can send him an email and ask him where where it is and um okay there isn't anything else to have a motion to end the meeting I make a motion to end the meeting whatever time
it is oh second 606 607 it's bedtime [Laughter] roll call vote D ey oops I was out of turn okay we're going middle of the of
the alphabet this time you're fine bu shy cook ey okay thank you all thank you FR thank you great hi everybody hey Jeff should I give you a call to give you a a brief
update on uh what's happened at the meetings at the sure and is there any reason I should not approve the pay request that that I'm going to do tomorrow not that I know of no okay Mee it doesn't matter but did
anyone hear from Phil no I think I did I tell you that um it's been at least a week maybe a week and a half I uh interfaced with Gabe to tell her that you know Phil had
um oh I had sent an email which I think I copi may have copied you Frank I'm not sure but I had sent an email to Gabe saying that Phil had called a couple times but Grace's email is full I mean
her voicemail is full and then um uh he also tried calling I'm sorry he also emailed or hadn't had a return so I told Gabe all this in the email and then I went and saw her and she hadn't looked at the email yet although it was a week
old so she said she would get on it because I emailed him last week um and he hasn't gotten back to me at all so he was always prompt about getting back to me so I'll wait another week um I think I've noticed that one of
their cars is gone they might be off skiing somewhere good time well after tomorrow it might not be because of the rain but okay okay then we'll see everyone on the 19th and have a good vacation Anna thank you
right see everybody care right