##VIDEO ID:KVUfoZU-TXw## something's coming on let's again to work today okay right so let's see can anybody hear us yeah we can hear you yeah being recorded St standing I thought we were [Music] do through and password get into get into the system and uh we'll see what happens um okay we have a I should introduce everybody how we start these things off um at the Town Hall we have myself Mark Rivers we have Walter Howard John John Catherine Leonard chief of police and uh Fire Chief Fire okay sorry about that and Phil Gilmore BCR online we have Eric socer uh Dave um Tom's online guest and uh art is online uh so we have uh a network [Music] Forum so I think we're good to go um we're going to open the up like 5 n uh uh I'll review the agenda which is pretty basic we just going to go minutes of course talk public comments um with Le coher talk about some wildlife management issues that we to discuss at our last meeting wild fire not Wildlife um uh we'll give an update a quick update on the lake oil storm water erosion task force and I'll give an update on the dam activities and then any other thing that we you know that comes up that make sense to [Music] anybody all right so is anybody else having trouble hearing I just wanted to let you know Mark we having some trouble hearing okay I can hear him just fine it's just a little mumbled that could be me that's what my wife says um you I wonder if I be picked up by the computer or by the owl the owl see be working um well you know what just speak up and speak clearly okay and it should work all right I'll speak up and slower that's actually better yeah thank you so also the real question is if is can when you guys are speaking can people hear so just that okay did didn't hear Catherine a few minutes ago Katherine was perfectly clear okay so we know what the problem is right good to know all right so let's have our Our Moment open open for public comments do we have any public comments no one town hall and no one on line seems to have anything is raising their hands uh so live I think we're good to go with public comments um let's take a minute to review the minutes from our last meeting which was November 16 last year um there two copies out there any changes that be made good to me so I'll put a motion in to accept the only thing I would say is I I wasn't at the meeting I can't in the actual minutes but at the very end it says meeting was adjourned at 9:05 I'm thinking if that's true that's a really efficient meeting yeah it was great I'm I'm sorry I missed it by the way Eric you actually can vote even if you haven't been at the meeting I know but I I'm voting on historical events that I wasn't at I know I can do it probably legally but that would seem right to me I believe that was 10:05 Mark so upon that correction I will put a motion in to accept the minutes thank you Eric no problem have a second I'll second go around and vote let see C yes John Howard yes Walter yes yes uh Eric I am abstaining okay and AR yes and Dave yes [Music] excellent want you give kind of a summary of the discussions that we had last time and and and the letter that you sent that we sent um so I'm interested to get the comment from the letter obviously I sent the leather and raised this concern um because of the very dry spell that we had in the fall and the wildfires that were occurring in various areas of the state um and I know this is something that has been on the back burer for a long time uh Walter tibits brought this up a long time ago when we were talking about the issues with storm runoff and excessive rainfall and what about the lack of rainfall so I was curious if there was some sort of plan in place in town and my feedback and my understanding was that there wasn't um that seemed to be confirmed to me uh in the meeting on Wednesday night with Emer management uh where the word fire was not mentioned once so I wrote this letter um I'm mainly looking for comment and feedback uh I'm assuming people probably want to poke holes in it which is fine um I believe there should be some sort of plan in place um I believe foremost that we should be communicating to the members of the lake W situation what I believe the current situation that they're in that there is no plan and as a group of homeowners living around the lake it' probably be a good idea to discuss mitigation um issues that they can do um around their homes Etc uh we wait for any larger i d you just got you just got cut off your we lost your last sentence can you hear me now yeah yeah I just you know my last thought was that uh at minimum that we send a message to the lake Byer Association about what they can do uh to talk talk to homeowners about mitigation issues around their homes etc etc etc but I'm more Curious to hear what the fire chief has to say and and then we kind of take it from here yeah um well one of the problems with large plans is uh every uh every fire and every scene is different so we can have you know standard operating guidelines that uh we try to uh do every time but given uh given it's a call Department uh sometimes there's only two people in town it's hard to have follow a plan that requires 10 people to do it so we do have to um add lid per se uh we have to make it work with what we got uh I have uh basically the plan is for us you we respond to the scene and we're going to do our best to put the fire out if it's too big we're going to call in mutual aid for the neighboring towns I have our run cards here which I've changed we have a structural one and a forestry one so if the arriving crew on scene does a size up and says we can't fix this with uh our number of people we're going to go to a first alarm then a second alarm a third alarm a fourth alarm Etc um uh after the second alarm I will be getting uh you know several other uh Chiefs from the area and after the Fifth Alarm we would probably be looking into like a Statewide uh forestry task force or structural Task Force if it's the actual houses around the lake um yeah I have these run cards here I don't know how I don't know if I can really post them but I can leave them with the advisory committee here okay um as for the lake being more at risk than anywhere else in town it's kind of hard to say you know yes the houses are tight together um but at least you guys got water uh if it's a large scene typically we're going to have a uh a fill site so the fill site's going to be at the bridge so I think uh one fill site that's going to be doing the drafting we'll be filling up all the truck that's going to be required so I kind of think the multiple fill sites around the lake is kind of a mood Point um the uh you do have three different starting from the dam you guys can go three different directions if One Direction is closed because of fire at least there's another two Avenues of of Escape for the uh for for the evacuation uh the top of graph most of the time Fire Burns uphill really fast so depends on which where the fire is coming from whe whether it starts in the middle of the forest and gets really large Fire Burns uphill better than it burns downhill so being the lake is a little lower slope that might be favorable um now obviously if it starts at a barbecue grill at somebody's house and blows into the ne neighbor's house and then can go up the hill that way that's a possibility um so one of the uh I think more important one important thing you know there's defin there's a fair amount of YouTube videos that are pretty good that basically say the same thing about uh the dos and don'ts around uh around your house if you leave lots of trash stack fordwood and leaves up against your house it's going to uh Sparks are going to be more readly start it and catch your house on fire versus a house with a clean lawn low grass and no no trash or debr around your house uh that includes like leaves blowing up underneath your deck you know all it takes is one little spark to get under under your deck catch the leaves on fire then your deck's burning and then your house is burning so that's kind of one of the reasons why you see like out Western California how you could see a neighborhood burned down and several houses still be okay and typically is like those those yards were definitely cleaner than their neighbor yards so we do have pamphlets here about what you can do around your house uh to uh reduce reduce that um other thing Phil I talked to Phil and he has a uh Phil Gilmore from DCR and he knows more about the firewise program going to uh talking about uh you know cleaning the forest and cleaning the for you know trees around your house and you're a lot more experienced at it than me so uh you want to talk a little bit about it sure good morning everyone and I want to thank you all for being a little bit uh more alert to this problem that uh than most people are uh we've got this program it's a nationwide program that's been around for cl for 30 years and it's called firewi USA and it's mainly a community-based program that we come in and help guide you at making your community safer from Wildfire and a lot of stuff that Chief Tona just talked about is definitely part of this program like cleaning out the yards making sure that you've got um good defensible space around these structures um from what I remember I haven't been through this uh area in a while I sent my patrolman from media out last week to take a look at it and he was definitely concerned about the close proximity of your cottages and your houses um limited access and erress um just all kinds of different concerns water supply everything else um and like you stated in your Mr rivers in your letter because it's so far away from the fire department response time is a big concern uh especially if we have multiple dwellings on fire and we need to get Mutual Aid in or another task for or whatever it takes time to do that um this is what happened in Palisades in California this past fall we've been studying that very closely um we had a close call in Northfield this year with two structures that were threatened from a simple Rush fire it was uh leaves that were burning up slope and like uh the chief said going uphill if it's pushed by winds span by winds going uphill it can spread very very rapidly Northfield fire department did an outstanding job saving those two houses um it took a while for Mutual Aid to get in there but we bought time enough so that those structures were saved and we had a little bit of scorching on an out building and that was it so um this is not a strictly a California phenomenon this is something that can happen around here in Massachusetts uh the amount of ignitions I guess the fire starts for brush fires is usually human caused here in Massachusetts without a lightning strike fire and natural fire so we as the Proprietors of the property needs to be aware of this so once again I thank you for paying attention to this problem so we as the Bureau of forest fire control uh with DCR is more than happy to help you your community if you so are so inclined in trying to introduce this program to your residents around the lake and actually to the the entire town so um I've got some pamphlets here one of them is is about the plan itself about the program and one that we would pass out to all the individual homeowners about how they can prepare their home and protect their home from Wildland fire so I will leave these with you I've got a wall chart you can put up here if you sparked enough interest with the homeowners and you want to have a meeting with them or you want to get out to them we can do that um this chart you can go on the wall and kind of go through everything that's in the pamp so that's here as well so I I definitely um from my report from my patrolman and I'm going to try to make it my effort to get out there next week and around this area hav been up there in a while way back when you started I think we went up there so um it's just certain things out there kind of lend credibility to your concern about this the slope the forest the lack of access and erress um definitely water supply and response time all kind of work against you in that area so it is of really important concern was this identified on your fog Emergency Management um remember I don't know 10 15 years ago we went through that I believe so but I don't know I let me look on that plan and see the uh what was it the M multi-hazard yeah yeah there's a small I got it uh there's a small section on it it's just a couple paragraphs on everything was just a little bit you know nothing was in didn't really get into depth any of was just identifying concerns multi-hazard right mitigation so can I ask a follow-up question to the chief yeah uh first off I want to thank you both for coming in here and acknowledging the leather I think I really appreciate that I think that the committee does um I did not hear anything about fire in the Emergency Management plan that you are apparently redoing is it going to be included or not well the the EM the we were talking about the lake wet Dam EAP that I was uh updating the phone numbers on and I have to resubmit it so there's a lot of talk about those snowstorms and power lines and how you guys would respond and that the Emergency Management I mean obviously uh uh it was brought up that the it's completely outdated and that yet you were indeed going to be updating it so I guess my question is is is Wildfire going to be part of the town's Emergency Management program in the new updated version that that the um that the Town Administrator requested that we have well there was like I said originally we're talking about the the dam EAP so there's no that wasn't a uh a fire related issue the other two plans would be the SE plan and the uh multihazard mitigation plan and those are who wrote the multihazard mitigation plan it's more of a perog it well was perog in conjunction with the town and many different departments that was done over a year or so of gathering information identifying ha specific hazards and stuff like and then uh um putting that all together yeah like I said there are some there are some pages about fire related on the multi-hazard mitigation plan that you can look up on the town website under Emergency Management uh and as for in the plan uh Nathan Maro is going over that so he wants to update that maybe you tell what the SE plan is comprehensive emergency management yeah that uh the copy we have is pretty pretty old and it's going to get updated so we'll have to go over go through that with uh the Nate the local coordinator from Nemo and go from there so um yeah so there are parts of Fire related in it and um yeah um I don't know what else to say okay um I I would hope this committee would would consider uh Our Guest offer bringing this program into the town um I think it would be very beneficial to have the review the Flyers um given the fact that we don't know what's going to be the Emergency Management plan I I think it really is behooving the residents to really uh be educated on this issue and um so we can all take some steps so I would like to know what the rest of the committee's thoughts are on what was presented yeah I was thinking the same thing I was learning from the select board point of view whether or not um we could schedule you know an evening whatever you want to call it meeting or for lecture or you know Symposium or whatever that would have Lenny and who anybody there who just could answer questions about what should be done and so forth does that make sense to try to set something like that up or do we want to just have this program that's being presented to us be allowed to happen in town I mean he said he's willing to come out and do it for the lake the yeah that's what I'm thinking like the town everybody in I mean I live in a I I live in personally live in a wooded area that believe me if these Woods ever caught fire I'd be Paradise California I'm on the road I'm out of here no I think it should be a townwide discution absolutely I mean I obviously focused on like Biola because we're the LW right get I think we should there should be some sort of consensus here that let's get this let's bring this gentleman back and and do what he says Phil question for you how long is this program is it a one night is it a couple couple nights um the program itself is definitely a longer term type program it is community based it is up to the homeowners that are interested in this that in to all those things that's in the pamphlet out there about cleaning around their their structures making sure that they're fire safe they've got defensible space around their houses we all know that fire departments especially Co volunteer small departments like what you have here are pressed already with work that they have to do and we're here to help I mean the presentation that you put on presentation what I would do is have our program coordinator he down in down in the Southeast he will come out and do a uh presentation for whoever is interested now correct me if I'm wrong this is starting from your Lake Association correct and now you're thinking it may kind of expand into the whole town which is fun I mean definitely awareness is really good so if you want to call a town meeting and have a have anybody that's interested to come in we could definitely go through the program in probably about an hour and explain what we do um when I say community based what we do is we will bring in uh a group of firefighters that are trained in doing what we call home assessments where we actually go into the community like your Lake Association and walk around the community look at all the structures and the properties and all the surrounding environment and rate the structure indiv each individual structure on things that they should do to protect their home and what they need to do is a group Community like erress and access or whatever so it can expand into if uh the town want to assist and possibly get the the fire department involved in it um also um the town Highway Department if they have a chipper if they have small dump trucks where we can get rid of a lot of the brush that they clear around their home and not have it piled up around their house like you said piled up brush around the structure is not a good thing to have when it's a fire season so clearing of brushes definitely one of the things we want to do and you know landscape proper landscaping around their home getting getting vegetation away from the house so there is work involved and like I said this is a community based thing where people actually have to give a little to get a little and I think you have a Titanic Community up here and it may work out pretty well so yes if you want to have a general meeting and where you know kind of present the the program to everybody that might be involved by all means we will do it when I asked for these pamphlets from Alex below he's our program manager on this um he was more than happy and right right off the bat set if you want me to come out I will definitely come out whatever you want to do I think that we would want something for the whole town that could be done here and it could be done on as a hybrid meeting so that there would be a recording of it so that anybody could access it afterwards but I also think that an inperson meeting with the lake wild Association when you know during the summer when a lot of people are here would be really good okay for around there sure y it's a program we're really trying to make available um because it kind of fell on death ears for many years I started this with this thing probably 20 years ago and it never really took off uh marthy vineard did a big one n Pucket did a big one a few years back and it really helped the community so it it ends up being yesterday's news so quick exactly and I think with the conditions that we have here now believe it or not we're still in moderate drought stage here if we enter the spring season in a moderate or severe drought we could be in Brush Fire season right off the bat that's my concern pardon me that is my concern right so we're on top of that we're at least aware of it and um with all the attention that's happening in California right now the nation is definitely paying attention to this so I'm glad you guys were in front of it and uh by all means we will do anything and everything we can will assist on this and I really think probably we will be getting more interest from from across Franklin County and that's my responsibility is all the all the towns in Franklin County we started one of these programs in monu because of the monu PLS and we were close fruition on it um once it's really kind of kicked into gear we should have some pretty good uh results from that one as well and I did one it kind of a unique one last spring at the Eagle Brook School because that campus is built on a hillside in the woods and they were concerned and we went through an emergency management plan with their powers to be out there and we will'll be finishing that one up hopefully this spring we're kind of um put on the Wayside because of the Fall Fire season that we went into and we couldn't finish the last day that we wanted to do up there so as the as the time goes by and more attention goes here you'll be seeing this probably a little bit more in the news this kind of a program and like I said I'm more than happy to help anything that we can do when it comes to this do we need some sort of motion from the committee to move this process forward Mark uh y yes but before we do that um Captain had a comments I was wondering if there's a cost to the town that we need to plan for that's the cost that you inur in what you're doing here nothing the state doesn't charge anything for this okay no thank um other comments or questions Dave uh I think we should touch BCE about doing something uh separate at the lake when everybody gets back here I'm thinking though that if we Institute this program they're going to do that for us art right but I mean one in town and then one in the lake I thought that was part of okay that's fine yeah I mean unless you unless you think one in town would be you know what more than marrier Mark art the more the marrier what sty want to do two programs yeah I live in town I mean I live in town so I'm close by I'm not too sure how the word the motion uh I'm I'm gonna ask Katherine if she be willing to um so so Dave we want a motion to um uh what promote this ask the select board to to uh schedule it or what yeah I think we should that we should pitch it to the select board to kick the ball going in town I know Eric I'm sorry that's just one more thing we putting I know we love having stuff kick to us I do you think that's the best process Eric or yeah no I do I do yeah so I guess that's the motion Katherine okay let's try this I move that the committee vote to advise the select board to um take steps to enroll or involve or whatever the right verb is here uh the town in the firewise USA program and request um public presentations from from from Phil Gilmore DCR forest fire control from Phil Gilmore DCR forest fire control I would second that motion guess we should vot go around vote um Walter yes John yes C yes Dave yes ER yes uh art yes and Mark votes yes too thank you guys very much thank you so much I one more question before we go off topic um what's the sequence of events here when we talked about doing home assessments uh we talked about the presentations is there an order to things is I would have a meeting with your associate well the association be late with the town we should have an awareness meeting just a presentation of the program itself that's the first we we could do that in less than an hour so if you wanted to do it at selectman's meeting or whatever you want to do to get people involved um come up and do that and just do an overall presentation a of what the plan involves and what the program entails for the community like I said you really need to drive that this is a community-based program that the residents need to participate and do some of the actual work nobody's got a community clean the yard for them exactly right like I said our town departments are stra we've got more than enough to do so this is where it kind of kicks in and this is why I really liked part of the Lake Association because this is a select group of people that has this program or this problem so it's good that we can start there the rest of the time may you may not get as much volunteerism if you will but you never know you know like I said with the attention is being focused on it right now A lot of people are concerned about it all I would also suggest that we don't need to wait for people to come back into town we could just do a a a zoom meeting like we did our our our Lake wolo soci meetings during the co era I think we I think you should get the ball going on that talk to George let them know what's going on and before you know this we should have this people talking about this before people get back to their cabins yeah I'll send a note off to George uh this weekend and copy you in and maybe among the three of us we can see how quickly we can get this going super duper um it's okay if I scan these documents these pamplets and email to absolutely Association and members who aren't here okay good not no copyright issues here mail mail those to the select board too uh Mark please should I time you a a couple copies in this select board box or just that'll be fine or you know if you if you email just selectboard shutesbury dorg I mean we all get it so that would work as does administrator okay do that you guys need email um any other issue or any other discussion or comments on this just so I understand again first Parts the presentation second and then after the presentation we can you guys can do some assessments yes now now the home assessments are they for by the homeowners requesting it or can you just you go down and knock on somebody going as part of this we've done okay you know because it's a select like I said a select group you probably can kind of reach out to everybody that's part of the association and just give them theer this people from DCR are going to be walking around walking around your neighborhood doing assessments if you'd like to meet and talk with them about it concerns we would hand out pamplets and different things like that so yeah the home assessment is the big thing then it kicks into their involvement in doing all the things that we bring to White they get a check sheet on what we find at their at their residence and their property and then it's probably have a final report it will go back to your Association um governing body and there's I believe there's it's kind of like a graduation program where if you start show progress through this and really kind of make this community more fire safe um then it's gets nationally nationally recognized and put on the map we don't want to be [Music] yeah a problem good thank very much this really inform help I know there's a lot of concern around the L because house goes up could be two biggest or densest population the biggest one is the lake would be not Mones in the density and the other one is is back in the reservoir area which you it's a lot of places that they built their houses all around trees and they're covered in trees and pine trees and all that stuff down there but I don't know if you get the same reaction Lake I think CO's pretty kille is pretty susceptable to I mean you but but of us but we burn in a second yeah but I mean the high density where right what one person does is going to affect 20 other people sure corre not so much as we get spread out there's a lot of space in between it's it's just those are the areas that if something goes in one one house or one yard it's going to easily spread into a bunch of other ones really quickly right one thing you bring up a very good Point Walter that kind of speared my interest in this when um the chief approached me on it was because DCR has that property around the lake and the lake beach and I know how crazy that place gets on the weekends and how full it gets if we had a wildfire in the middle of that season which is definitely a possibility during drough season evacuating that area on top of your community could become a huge issue and this is this is things that I've been concerned about like on Cape you got two bridges on Cap Cod a population that swells tfold every year and if you get a wildfire in there how do you get people out of the way and this is what happened in Palisade so it's definitely one of those areas that you don't think about right off the bat and then all of a sudden you say well we got people out of here so that's that's my part as far as DCR saying oh this is important to us one more question for me um have you got any push back from local conservation commissions on clearing brush it's a big issue around the lake is that you're not supposed to touch anything 50 ft of the lake yes there would be um there could be I wouldn't say would but there could be some push back from the Conservation Commission because you're in a what you call aarian Zone where you've got to be really careful about what you take and what you remove so definitely bring them into the loop on this that if you've got properties that are really close how much vegetation can we or can't we take so definitely work together with them on that okay any other comments Tom's got his hand up oh I'm sorry go ahead time sure yeah I realized we're not on that big screen behind you so you can't all of us can't see all of us the way we can see all of you um my question had to do with fireworks and whether they're also topic that would be brought into this discussion I know ever since I've lived here there have been huge fireworks displays every July 3rd around the lake and um could the gentleman who presented just let us know whether that's part of the uh program raising awareness about that seeing if firework shows are um sanctioned or um Rogue please um you're absolutely right it is a concern um how you actually regulate that that would be up to um your law enforcement Community how they could actually do that and you're right it's usually Rogue if you want to use that term but it's residential type firework um displays that you folks have I'm sure it's not a professional display that is regulated by the state but it is definitely a concern that we should bring to the residents um because that was one of the possibility possible origins of the Palisade fire this year because of New Year's Eve um firew so it's definitely a concern and you want to address that good point very good point thank you very much okay great thank you thank you very much I look forward to working with you thank you thanks for coming out okay no problem yeah all right have a good meeting Y and let me know if you come up with a timeline or anything like that yeah okay thanks okay um six on the agenda is uh just an update about the storm War verion task force um Jennifer wasn't able to give us an update U I know they've had me uh there was a good me with verog go over the water shed based plan um and um uh uh and discusting in terms of the the effects on erosion and what what we can do and how we can get that plan going to reduce the erosion going into the way um so I know they're working on it um if anybody have any additional information I don't that yeah I know you know I want the time on this prop do you have anything I could you repeat that please I was I just heard my name um you regularly attend the Rion of the water storm watertion uh committee meeting or task force meeting um do you have uh any you know any information to give us on what's currently going on um at our last meeting um we didn't really make any committee decisions about what we're going to talk about um but I remember that we essentially uh summarized for each other how we thought the presentation from FK hog uh was showing us ways to go forward the next steps we might take uh so uh you know some of the things on the table are a hydraulic and hydrologic study for many of the Upland areas around the lake down to the lake um another uh thing to consider at some point in time would be What's called the flal geomorphic study for the Fisk Brook system and uh I guess I would say in our last meeting we mostly concentrated now on identifying the grants that we could uh begin preparing for to do engineering studies whether it be an H&H or an FGM study and uh it appears as though uh uh I had the impression but again I'm only speaking for myself but I think it was pretty generally said that uh the uh H&H FGM MVP study or uh the engineering studies excuse me would probably be funded by grants called uh either the MVP Grant or um the section 319 or the 604b grants uh you would have to look at our meeting to get more information about the and they would enable or they they allow for I guess I should say uh things like the town applying for something where also some of the land involved is not town-owned uh so because that's one of our biggest uh hurdles I guess you might say is how to uh form Partnerships for applications for funding for engineering studies and then for the projects that the engineering studies end up identifying for us uh uh between the public land ownership and the private land ownership involved the town the lwa roads and then the individual homeowner properties um so I think we are getting more specific now because a lot of those topics you've probably heard before but now we um I would say we're actually naming grants and understanding how we can get furog to help us um there's also some technical assistance money that comes from I believe leave the state but at least through furog we would apply as a town and it's very possible that this January the town might even apply for some technical assistance money from furog which would enable them to help us uh apply and look at the grants better um I hope that was helpful information and not just a rehash of old information for you oh very one thing that has come up and and Tom mentioned it I mean and I'm no one's making including myself making any advocacy here but one thing that has come up is the notion that um there's a pro in terms of our getting grants the fact that the Lake wola Association roads are private roads is a problem but that is to say there are many grants that just won't we can't use grant money for that so at least at least the subject has been broached and I will emphasize that word broached um of of the Town eventually owning those roads figuring out a way the maybe those should become town roads and that that might make it more easy easier for us to get grants that's I mean that's a long topic of discussion I'm just throwing it out there um that that's one thing we have talked about wasn't that a big topic of discussion way back I well 15 20 years ago and the the obstacle was that the roads don't meet standards in a WID so that the town could not acquire that's what I thought was sort of yeah people didn't want to give up their land to make it wide enough either right I don't and that time it was only 20 ft and I think it's 40 now no kidding for a regular I'm not sure I mean I live on a Town Road dirt road that I mean it's not up to any standards I can tell you that so I I don't know I don't know the answer to that cther that's a good point in the past there were huge fights about like the the roads down around suner Mountain Road and down those roads I believe those we we've never made those town roads but there were huge Town meetings about that so I I I would caution that this is this is a slippery slope this getting this discussion and ownership isn't the only mechanism to allow for some perhaps better eligibility or feasibility of uh obtaining grants um it there are easement possibilities where the ownership actually wouldn't be in the town's hands um and I can't remember the other word right now but it um there are options because there might be issues like that like is this truly a legal say sizewise but um things that would enable the town to to apply as its own entity would make anything more doable with most of these grants so the more that can be done that the sole applicant is the town and that the Partnerships and agreement understandings are kind of sublevel and not at the face level of the application um with the private owners would just be uh more efficient perhaps yeah I mean you have a situation where the Lake wola Association is is in charge of maintaining the roads in my understanding I'm I obviously don't live at the lake but my understanding is that a large percentage of the population doesn't even belong to the lake way hole Association so I mean if that's the case you sort of get this very weird situation there that's all I can tell you you know I've always said Eric that it doesn't matter whether you pay your dues or not if you live around here you're part of the community so right oh yeah I'm not suggesting you're not yeah so it yes and no on that right right but in terms of road maintenance it costs money and so you've got a situation where somebody's paying it and somebody isn't you know that's a that's just an odd situation I'm not saying it's right or wrong I'm just saying it's it's not the way the town Works let's just put it that way plenty of private homeowners that do the work on their own and don't ask for any money you know you got half half the population this Lake owns a tractor so I mean like I said it's it's you're great it's a funny situation but you know it's it's not black and white put it that way right any other comments thank you to for the update and it's just nice that things are still are still moving forward very much so nextend is just an update on the the D and activities I can give you a kind an overview of that U item one is on the positive side um it's all on the positive side I should imply something's not positive but the orders of condition that allow us to do the annual draw down has been extended through January of 2027 and so we can continue doing a dra on for the next two years um so that's very that's all that's very positive um the the dam engineering company called GZA and they out of Springfield um they're still working on getting a chapter 91 exemption request completed uh it's at the state level and I talked with them earlier this week and they they're expecting a response from the state uh very short within a week or two so shortly before our next meeting uh and that basically allows us to uh you know to operate the dam legally and allows us to do what we've been doing for the past 30 years um and there so if if we don't get the exemption it just means we spend more money to go file through all the permits and go the permitting process uh to to get the chapter 91 license in place um this is you know kind of a requirement for structure on the water and U you know it's hopefully we'll get the exception uh the exemption and therefore we can just moving ahead and that's permanent yeah per because we've been managing the lake level and the dam and before in 1984 and we have records of it um we we done sense basically which just saes St it's not a lot of money this is in 2025 this year uh we have to do another uh Dan inspection and G will be doing that Dan inspection uh funds have already been approved for it and uh uh and they've also the town's also approved U uh some money so that GCA can apply for a grant uh to do the design work for the the dam upgrades or Dam repairs and maintenance so so that's going on and uh um I'm app I'm applying to we are applying to the CPA for funding um so there's really two phases of this of this project here one is to do the design and specifications for the scope of work so uh and that's about a $55,000 project um it's hoped that they will that we'll get a grant from uh the d seaw wall Grant which is uh which is U uh which is which the department of Dan safety gives out uh we'll get 75% from them and 25% from the CPA so I I filled off the application for the CPA grants uh G did a nice job of helping me clean it up and the k sound a little better um and U I will submit that to the CPA uh everyone's okay with the idea I know I'll submit that to to the CPA CPC group later this week um and GGA would find the seaw wall grants and hopefully all these grants will come through you relatively quickly and U and we can get started on the um on the design and statement of work one once that's complete we then uh take that that that scope of work and send to construction companies who will then do the actual work and they'll they'll bid on it and U they'll do the work um that's the the the thought is that would take care take place next year in uh 2026 the the estimate for that is about $150,000 to do all the repairs that are needed um some of that would come little Wier another another DC wall grant for some of that money we'll apply for some CPA funds to do that so we're hopeful and optimistic that you know things will be moving forward and the they be in solid stap uh and atend 26 have you informed Capital planning uh I have not done that yet I tried to fill out I was working on yesterday the uh the was it the capital request form I have some questions on it um because I just don't know what the what to put in I'm not sure how much money I'm supposed to put in for right is it for the full amount the $55,000 or just the CPA fund uh and and if we don't get the seaw wall Grant you know what happens and you know so I'm a little in the dark here on what to do right maybe you should talk to Ellen about it and basically just let them know that you've got you a big expense coming down the line and we don't know how much the town will end up being liable for that's a good idea Ellen McKay is the chair of the the committee okay I can email her stuff start discussion that way yeah okay um I will put something together you probably this weekend and get it off to them and see what's get their their take I I sent gave an email with press to say how much put asked for and I haven't heard that yet but Ellen's also in the town hall a lot I mean I don't know where her hours are posted so she's in the town hall as the tax collector she's there so you could just zoom you just go talk to her too the oldfashioned way hey I have to go to another meeting so I'm gonna sign off here good to see everybody I'm in the same boat Mark I've got a 10 o'clock I've gotta go to so I apologize before you are we gonna need are we gonna need a vote on this CPC thing and are we gonna need their votes yeah let's do a quick vote there ever I I that that we um pursue uh CPC grant for the Dam dam repair plan I second that motion vote we'll start off with Eric stalker I Dave I art he Walter yes Howard yes John yes Catherine yes and Mark yes all right thank you very much you guys can go I think we're just about done here um I can I can hold on if if we're about done so we could do a motion to adjourn so that will give us quorum I got one thing on this uh these people that are GCA those that are well anybody that's coming out please let me know nobody ever calls me and tell and I saw in their report that they couldn't get in the gate house well nobody told me they were there so I couldn't come down and unlock it I will send them email I'll cop you on that email I got a question on the dam inspection how often does that get done every two years okay so the last one was done was 2023 with this one here well don't do it probably in the fall in the and you get a you got a report of very nice I can send you the last one if You' like okay if you don't mind thank you so phase one inspection report okay there should be shopping around the St upstairs in the you know the inall I don't know where it is now but when I left there was upstairs in the closet the case where all kinds of Emergency Management stuff and plans they were they were in there yeah yeah still and this report find describes all you know problems so that need to be Tred yes with pictures with pictures yeah need those sounds good I you some some of the plans may just be electronically too because the print them up you know cost a lot of money to do one the plans lot yeah more just send elect [Music] okay okay uh any other comments any other agenda items okay it's uh it's just 10:00 10:01 you have a motion to the Mee Mo to Second Mar Eric hi Dave hi and yes have a great we guys see you see you next month thank you thanks so much leave a pile of or do you want me just leave one you can photo copy or um want to copy some those just the fire wise is probably more important we don't have BR and uh here's our present run cards oh what is that our run cards it's a run card so basically when we show up to a fire and it's something we can't handle we call for a first alarm second alarm third alarm fourth alarm Fifth Alarm okay so that's who's gonna be coming um is that something we should we should you know I can SC for the minutes or this can change from year to year because every now and then some you know we do things you know things get changed but I'm just saying that's kind what we do you know it's hard to write plans out when uh what happens we only have two people I think the reality is something on fire at the lake and so you know that's true all fire kind of thing I think the place is gone yeah unless you're going out your house yeah so thanks a lot and uh I get I got the brush fyers okay yeah put them back into the [Music] BSE the most [Music] important yeah okay all right yeah maybe I should try to make more make some of these meetings yes D an hour yeah