that's a comforting right 50% there don't want that hello everybody can someone on screen just give me a high five that you can hear me okay thank you sorry for our little
bit of uh technical um issues uh the internet was not working as smoothly here as as we had hoped so thank you for your patience while we dealt with that um so
why don't we even though we're a few minutes late uh call the meeting to order um and let's review the agenda so um has it changed significantly from what's online no it
it's pretty much the same okay so I'll just use that one um so first off we have have to review the agenda we have a a discussion on a two Lake oila voting safety request
um and schedule a meeting date uh hire uh Town Administrator T sorry excuse me Administrative Assistant um check in on public forum for Lake wowa listening session um on
March 13th review town hall and common uh Town common use policy discussion on snow shoveling and snow closure policy here for Town fall uh review of the current draft budget
for FY 20 26 which is not in final form um review the town hall building needs and then um head into executive session uh for the police chief contract so with
that um I'm going to uh Eric I know we're running late and open it up to public comment sure yeah that's fine so let's open it up to public comment please use the raise hand if you're on the camera um right here raise your hand
if you okay um all right can I have uh I MD can you identify yourself MD so we know who you are first before we call on you uh I think this is Miriam deont okay all right go ahead Mariam yes thank
you um I wish to acknowledge that a group of residents submitted a letter of complaint to the select board last night regarding the conduct of the chief of police which included several concerning activities on Nextdoor shoots vary as well as political content on other
social media platforms that we believe they violate Municipal policies and standards for law enforcement Personnel we hope you Mariam I muted your microphone I appreciate you bringing that to us but this forum will not be an
extension of comments on next door until the select board has time to review the letter that has been submitted if you'd like to continue please move on to something that's not related to nextd Door comments thank you we hope if I could
just finish my comment uh we hope you'll investigate our concerns and if appropriate allow residents to come forward with pertinent information in an executive session thank you thank you um anyone else have any
public comment they wish to [Applause] share okay so we'll move on to the rest of the meeting um so we have some further discussion on Lake wola boting uh safety request and how are we going
to address this and schedule a meeting date well this one it wasn't the two to l a Drive was that was the um dredging I'm sorry that dredging request ding so that was
brought to us um the last fall I'm sorry Melissa it's Mary L trying to speak my hand raised I can't find it on my new computer
and I was trying to raise my hand okay you can make your comment now but we do have to move on okay I'll be very quick thank you my name is Mary lukanka I live on window Road in shutesbury and um in if you if I can use
words to piggyback what Miriam was speaking about her basic concerns of residents in shutesbury I I totally um am with her and I have faith in my
select people that when you enter this um session you'll be able to compassionately and wholesome you know come up with a wholesome decision thank you
okay so the this is the dragging of the um sediment that has kind of backfilled right at that address in that location and I remember it came to us uh early early fall September oober I don't remember the exact date so please excuse
me on that um and we had um talked about it briefly but we hadn't made next steps for schedule in meetings so do you I know you on the elac do you have any thoughts I think the big thing was to see was to also get the conservation
committee to see if they want to look at it um what they thought we should do okay seems like that's our next step that's what I would say okay and um now this computer decides um so yes so we
should have a scheduling meeting do we want to do select board and concom or just this concom let them do their process and then meute with them go either way right we could just invite them to some of them to one of our meeting if they want to come next next
one meeting okay um and our next next meeting is March 11 March 11 maybe give them give them a heads up on what's going on yeah yeah they may want yeah so 311
andom okay uh Gabe I know you're busy do you want me to reach out to conom and ask her you can't I mean I don't mind doing okay all right I don't want to add too much do we have her the request and writing
from them I know they came to the meeting and talked about it there was an email I'll for that okay that's all I'm looking for yeah I will for that to you yeah there anything else we wanted to about related to that I don't think so
we'll get the deeper discussion when we have that scheduled um our second topic is to um speak with and and potentially hire a town administrative assistant and um we currently have Brennan Mayu
sitting here with us I just to let the public and and everyone here know um this is for the position that was traditionally an admin uh sorry the admin secretary position and the select board with the Personnel Board increase
that to admin assistant position uh 32 hours with a set schedule here in town hall um and then we went out to advertise the position and we got um two great candidates and uh Gabe and I the
select board um passed Gabe and I with doing the interview and interviews and speaking with our candidates as they came in and so um I she and I are bringing Brandon Mayu to to this they
were two very good candidates both had great qualifications so it was definitely a hard decision um and Gabe do you want to fill in a little bit um before we start speaking with Brenan or shallel we no go go right ahead yeah
right um so Brennan has quite a quite a few skills uh and he comes to us from having a bachelor's degree education uh background with police dispatching multiple levels of of work
experience um and so he's here with us tonight um Eric I don't know if you have questions to ask but I'm GNA first ask Brendon to introduce himself oh is that the camera right just look the yeah here or there either way okay perfect well
I'm R May um I'm a resident of Orange Mass so not a far commer Sho faing um select men uh select person Melissa she kind of mentioned my uh School
background I have a criminal justice degree that I achieved at Mount WUSA Community College um and then after that I had a change of heart with kind of the the way I wanted my future to go um
and I ended up going back to school to get a bachelor's degree in anthropology to kind of understand uh who we are as human beings because that's something I truly believe is important is we're all human beings so the best thing we can do
is kind of learn about ourselves and who we are um in terms of myself I would say I'm very enthusiastic uh I love to always coming to work with a smile on my face and uh interact with members of the
public um I personally in terms of skills I like I'd like to think I thrive in in environments where time management is important and meeting
deadlines um I'd say I'm very well-rounded in multitasking and communicating uh effectively and efficiently with public members and in terms of what I what I
see with this role in the town Sho SP is really just offering my skills um to assist wherever assistance is needed I love to work I'm motivated dedicated and I'm willing to put in time
and effort to give the town what they deserve and I I look forward to uh meeting members of Chet SP um that's a little bit about me anybody has questions I'd love love to
answer what about basic skills like typing or Excel or those kinds of things yeah so um being in school uh the past six years well past 18 I went from high school straight to college and right right I just graduated this past
December so um yeah technology has been a big part of my life um my my bachelor's degree online so I'd say I'm well versed on Microsoft Office including Microsoft Word and
Excel um zoom's important in the operation of these Town meetings um Google Calendars uh PowerPoint so I'd say I'm uh very well-rounded in technology um I know I I had asked you um this in
in the interview but I think it's important for Eric and the community here is what your learning style but is yeah learning I I love to I'd say I have two different learning styles I love to be Hands-On I love to
um get involved and learn that way um but I also love to observe and let um role models almost Role Models show me how it's done and I'd say I'm quick to observe and um kind of
learn from watching people but I'd say I'm open to learn any way um possible yeah I have no I I have no problem if you you went through the whole process some of the things we talked about to in the interview was
time management and and multitasking and H and and how you prioritize your your tasks when multiple ones come at you and I think that um Brennon has has uh definitely the the ability to do all of
those things and um and and still serve for public to so just to add to a little bit about what we learned when we interviewed Brennon he um did his homework he looked at select board meeting minutes to see if he was capable of doing them which is
a big plus for us yeah right that's great because that is something we need to do and um looked at the Town looked at the population and just got familiarized with it a little bit he does bring a wide background being on student council if I remember
it right and um so a lot of responsibility in his positions in the past for um for the experience that he had so we felt really comfortable we like the fact that he loves diversity um we are a diverse community
and we thought that was a plus so um that's just my input yeah and then to to add to that too um you have the um the background of dealing with confidential information which is important in this world too so so you
strong with that too so so with that uh Gabe and I are recommending Brennan um as our ministry of assistant in very good I move I moved we higher I will second
uh any other questions or such okay all in favor St ey make you so I thank you welcome thank you very much thank you very much thank you for wanting to your local to
[Laughter] day it's be um our next uh topic is checking with the public forum for Lake Lola um we had set the date of March 13th for our
public forum and I did um email Paul he's available and I emailed the school and I have a form toell out so um I believe they're available as well um I she just emailed it they were on vacation last week for a page of
president's week vacation or school vacation um and so I will get that filled down out I did speak with Matt the chair of the that committee and he himself is away and he was wondering if we might consider later in March so I
told him I'd bring it to the select board as a as a potential option um he does travel for work and I told them I'd bring it and we'd have a discussion if we wanted to move it later in the month or if we kind of wanted to stick with the 13th
um he seems fairly crucial to be there I would think so I would I would be tempted to say later in the month but I how much later in the month it would be the 24th it wouldn't um hold on I want to make sure I get that date rate give me one second um look at the calendar March go
March March is um yeah it was the 27th I think he said he was available that's a Thursday it is a Thursday it looks free and clear right now so how do you feel about moving it to that's okay with me that's okay with you okay all
right so I will let him know so let's I will let Paul know and I will let um Ian at the school know that we'll change it to the that same time same process and then that'll give us time to figure out if we want an agenda um I think Rita had
mentioned an agenda or sometime um you know a play bill for that evening right okay okay that's all good all right move it to that awesome well was that was good and um otherwise I think I think
we're on I think we're on schedule with that so okay all right we'll move on to review town hall and town common use policy and I have to find that me one so we brought this back because it was on a
list of did we finish it or did we not finish it um it does say we adopted it in November I not go back and love to see if we oh may have okay I did go back and look see if we officially did it so I don't think it's bad to review it
again and make sure that it's where we want it to be okay um I went through the forms it's pretty simple um the only question I had is we called it a lease agreement um and I wasn't sure if that
was what we wanted to keep the word lease in there are they leasing the um so in the in the thing it says they're going to sign a lease agreement with rules of use I would just drop the word
a use agreement yeah that's okay I think that's a good idea because at least yeah it's not formal like that okay so I'm going to call drop the lease and call it use yeah and there's only two places in there on the first
page where the lease is there um so that was um my only concern when I reviewed it again so there's a a rules of use attached that people will be handed out this is um something that people will
sign up for with through Brennan and then he will put it on the town calendar and so we're going to create a Google Calendar so that people can go on the web and see what what's occupied for space use in the down and I believe the
select had to approve that or was it just through the T and the and the admin assistant I can't remember the use policy I think we kind of wanted you folks to read it over and approve it so that everybody was on board with it I don't think technically that it has to
be Oh you mean if somebody wants to use the building yeah I can't remember what the process was for no I think using it would be cumbersome if we had to wait two weeks for somebody to say yes we get people asking us to use the rooms all the time knitting groups people like
that um if it's a library program we don't naturally we don't charge um but if it's a bridal shower whatever people want to do um baby shower then we would charge a a a $25 fee for using it um so
that's about it that was the only question I thought so if you're okay with this I'd like to just implement it okay yeah I'd say Do It um why don't we just be official and give a vote so do I hear a motion to um edit and amend uh
the town New Town common policy very um and start to implement it immediately so move all those in favor St make peace Neil
ey Perfect all right and now we're on to the discussion of snow shoveling and snow closure policy so um I've spent some time reviewing and evidently I agreed back in November to write a draft
of a snow closure policy which I am remiss and doing I think I said I would help to yeah but so I just wanted to address that the snow shoveling is a bigger issue and it's also a budget issue um and we need to talk to the
highway boss about it so so we did it came out um formally at the department head meeting um and it's being driven by the fact that the library is going to have sidewalks and increases the need for snow
shoveling and it is a problem when we walk when you have a snowstorm and you walk up to the front of shsb town hall and it's slushy and you have to go through that it's an ADA issue it's a liability issue isue so I do believe the
town needs to formalize snow shoveling it has been done by volunteers kudos to Sergeant um Peter who's been shoveling away and MaryAnn telis who's been shoveling the library and Lesley brace bridge and all the people who make that
path um walkable and considering the ice that we've had I think they've done an amazing job but I don't I think it's time for the town to stop relying on volunteers the first few snowstorms we had we did have to walk through the slush and then because we discussed it
we've had some people pick up and start shoveling but when you add that library to it and the fact that the library is open daily it's my understanding it's going to be open daily you really need to address your liability issue and have those sidewalks clear so the discussion
of the S board should be are you going to hire someone create a job description and fund a snow shovel and removal person or are you going to put it under
Highway and I will tell you my opinion on it even though you didn't ask me two cents it's always welc two cents but we have tried it in other towns to not have it formalized and it doesn't work you
can't hire somebody for a few hours during a snowstorm so in in the places I've been we put it under highway now Highway can hire a temporary person um under their scope but the
direction is what you need that's why you want it under Highway you need a supervisor and you need that person not just to come and go when they feel like it you need the supervisor one of the solutions you could use is when you go out and you hire your private snowf Cloud
contractors you can see if one of them would do the shoveling including their little Pathways that they do um Dave can put it out for that but I want to start the discussion about the whole thing and we are in budget season and to get
someone to shovel you need to pay at least $25 an hour believe it or not there are no teenagers out there that are willing to come up here and shovel that's what we've discovered in my years of doing this um it's a different world
out there um so sometimes you can have a part-time person who helps mow in the summer and will shovel in the winter and you hire a lawn maintenance person or just a yard or landscape maintenance
person the other issues you're going to have and and MaryAnn says it's not going to be a big issue but I'm convinced that it will be is if you plant do plantings or shrubberies around your Library people need to maintain them they need
to be trimmed and so I think it's a bigger picture than just the snow shoveling it's the lawn M it be multi it can be multiple and I know the gardening group has done a wonderful job in plantings and stuff like that but you do
need to consider maintenance so I don't know if you want to consider or talk about yourselves right now consider inviting Dave in and we do need to find a solution to it but we also need to think about how we're going to on I think we I think we should invite
da yeah you know and um to a meeting and and definitely talk about that and I know in the he had some feelings about it in the in the meeting we were at with the staff so um yeah why don't we invite them in and um maybe you can find a
creative solution and um you know one thing I was thinking that came up in the other conversation that we had had was those um heat pads that you put down snows and there they keep just enough so it doesn't or not just enough but they keep clear so it could be something we
Implement that as well as something else there can't be the soul thing you know because it does still need to be maintained but you could help it could help and you could but who would you put in charge of laying them down would you give us a DPW to do yeah or or maybe in
this building the custodian could put it down if they know stor backing okay you know and get it set before the storm right not not during the okay so that you know just kind of a that's off the top of my head but that doesn't have to be the solution um it also seems to me
that equipment might be involved that instead of say the live mean this front walk out front there you don't need a snowbow all that kind but but I'm not sure how big the library walk's going to be well you're going to have it to the parking so you're not you probably want to snow I'm just thinking like something
small you know yeah I would think some I don't think it has to be a super duper snowbo but so that my guess is is a piece of equipment involved here that we'd have to somehow deal with and that's again probably an argument for putting it terms of the highway to have them do it they could storing the
equipment store it maintain it whatever has to be done right and then if we think about making it a a condition something that's you know more seasonal so just not just the snow but also the care for certain things you want to have a little bit of equipment for that too so there would be that so one of the
things you can consider if you put it under a highway and you buy it as a snow piece of snow equipment it can go under snow and ice is an expenditure okay um so if you decide to put it under Highway that's a positive for putting it under
Highway because it is snow and ice related if you're only going to use it snow um so that's a great idea so as far as the snow closing policy I will draft something up one of my thoughts is I
don't know a lot of towns if the school closes the town closes I don't know if that's something you want to consider or a lot of times the school closes as a cautionary and then no storm happens and then people wonder why the town's closed
so you you always fight that battle oh yeah that that's happened quite in the last winter they they cancel school the night before and there has been times where there is not that much the next day we um so we probably would want you know
maybe some sort of a maybe a little bit of both and that if it's significant storm yeah so typically as a Town Administrator I've always talked to the highway I always talk to the highway when snow's coming I get I get the National Grid alerts so and we watch
where it's coming we're trying out in shsb a new program that gives us local road conditions and and how how warm or cold the pavement are in this specific area so we know what we're pretreating
um so I would suggest that the TA make the decision because they're the ones and then you have some sort of a phone chain or an email change right one of the things I want the admin to do is post it on the on the website so people
before they leave their houses you have to post it fairly early but you know if you post it that the town hall closed and we we teach people to look at the website before they get in their car and try to drive I'm really concerned about the elderly because a lot of times they
they are confident that they can do it and they are the ones that get hurt and fall down and hurt themselves and make the trip and then find the doors locked and I don't want to do that to them so we can write something up and bring it
back yeah I think that's really it's really important to have it on the website I think you know that information the town announc thing which is yeah Gail has been great um in helping me post things on the website closures holidays need to be posted that
sort of thing um so that people are aware so we're trying to do that so that was all I had on that okay I think that's a good plan forward so we should just invite Dave to a yeah we should uh maybe the 11th we could invite Dave
there give him a little heads up so you can think about what you would think would be a good idea I haven't done my check with him but I know he cont check in every now and then so yeah no that's a great idea
um and and out of out of just to that conversation I'll bring just those heat Tad things just you know to see you know what they're like and information as option here um okay so now we part on to
the review the current draft budget so tonight I really wanted um to go over what you folks are responsible for in the budget have you look at the budget and um do your input on the
different line items that were responsible for I'm going to my copy and I don't know if perusing it either one of you have seen anything that that you want to talk about if you want to start that way I
basically filled everything in that I could possibly fill in we are still waiting for the insurance quotes from Maya said that yeah and today he wrote me back and said they're they're meeting soon um cuz we're all waiting with faded
breath on what the costs are going to be yeah cuz I heard it was going up and then I notic the front page the thing I have says that was the budget number was decreased at Ryan's request so I can quite understand that what line are you on
it's um is the dver oh line number 208 in the driver thing yeah yeah oh yeah so Ryan doesn't do our town Insurance are you talking health insurance health insurance yeah okay so health insurance
we actually increased it to $600,000 um because we the the Hampshire group trust is experiencing a 19% increase in the premium that's right thought yeah so it that that was substantial and kind of a shock for
everyone and what is driving our health insurance budget which is really important for the public to know is Pharmaceuticals so Pharmaceuticals are the driver it's not illnesses it is the fact that a lot of people are on the
drug weight loss drugs and and they're huge um they never expected the cost of those to be $500,000 a month um but they are $500 plus ,000 a month just for
those and some of them one pen is $1,000 a month per person so you can see why the drive of that happens so fast um and there is a good side to people losing weight help FES heart diabetes all the
other things right but it's hard right now when it's such a big driver for all the towns to see that budget um go up 19% that is not a controllable item um the only way you can do it is to renegotiate
your contract with your town and we have a 75 25% sh cost share um that is not a popular thing to do and if you want to control your health insurance costs you have to negotiate that with
your unions first and because we're in a collaborative it's not just our Lo Union it is all the unions teacher unions School unions the teach uh police Teamsters everybody in all the towns that are part of this program so we have
tried to do it um it's not easy so just just to tell you about it our town ratio we can do on our own we don't have to do it as a collaborative but to change the program and what the cost like co-pays and all those things are that has to be
negotiated with everyone um we do not have a lot of copays they did start some Er co-pays but we don't have a $1,000 deductible like some insurance programs have or 2,000 for a family or any of
that so and our employees didn't really want it to get that annual payment it seems that they would rather pay a higher premium and get it over with than come up with co-pays to put against X-rays and MRIs and all those things um
so it is it is rough if they go to more than blue crossbow Shield is the only company we use if they start doing what the GIC does and offering multiple companies then you start seeing a loss in some of the costs in some of the
other areas and gains in some so it is a really complicated system if anybody wants to hear the deliberation when Hampshire Group Insurance discusses this there are public meetings they're posted on the website and you can you can go
and listen in it is a complicated thing and we're being hit with a 19% increase so that hits our budget $100,000 adds to it is significant yeah yeah so good question it is a good
question and one that everybody's dealing with not even just municipalities Maya had a huge increase um a lot of towns are on um the Massachusetts Insurance um company and their increase is based on each
Town's um Health rates and uh so they're I've seen them 14 15 16% we are in the ballpark the one thing I have to say about Hampshire group is we have not had increases for four or five years we say it's been pretty stable for up till now
that's 19% and last year they did increase it last year but it wasn't this heavy I think it was 8% it was kind of the ramp up of what we're seeing nowed those things started right they warned us what was happening um so okay any
other one [Music] out at it I know it's going to be bumpy and a tough year so yeah the budget from the Regional School is obviously a question but it's still if you can't answer the question because who knows
um so the longevity bonuses are the one thing that I still need to put in here I need to figure out where the chart is uh I can give you that if it's the one from the personal book y you want that okay um that way I can figure out who
who's entitled to it or not so we've had um the other area that affects us as a town hall in the select board is the custodial budget we um Maran has come to us and
said the library is going to need custodial care and we figured the hours to be 5 hours a week and multiplied that by um how many days she's open and how many
weeks in a year and increased the custodial the town hall custodial budget I think $4,000 I'm trying to find a light item so that's another increase that we are seeing here Town buildings so custodial
um oh and this one I haven't put it in yet so I'm going to add for $4,000 to that $8,000 budget just so that you're aware and again we're not sure how we're going with that you may have to look at
hiring a custodian our current custodian may not be able to handle doing both buildings um and that's um under consideration right now he's he's looking at the demands and going to give
us some feedback on it and then that will they'll be personel board interaction with right we'll have go the person board and create a job description if that's the case where we have to hire somebody else um so as far
as Town Hall goes um I have level funded pretty much everything we've increased a little bit in the heating CU I when I looked at last year's expenses in for I'm on line
131 in my book if you go under Town buildings um we overspent so when I went through the budget and I looked at the what we overspent last year I increased those budgets okay oil this year
evidently you folks don't do your heating oil your Diesel and your gasoline through the furog bidding system and that before yeah you didn't last year and I don't know why there was
one year we didn't because we took a chance this was several years ago we took a chance because um the rates were higher than what we were skiing in the world at the time and so we took a chance and we won that year
um but I think we did it for the following consecutive ones but maybe we didn't do after you didn't do it in 24 um and aren't we in F 25 yes yes so we ran out of oil in the
highway today and we discovered that we weren't on the furog bid because we called furog to talk to them about our distributor and discovered our distributor was the independent okay it is De who is the who I thought was the
warning bid for but I think we just kept them after we didn't join the bid process so this year I am going with the bid process unless you have an objection with that that's makes sense yeah it's G to come out in a couple weeks and we have to fill out what our usage is so
that number might change when you're looking at um heating but in the meantime I put the heating at 14,000 and increased it 10% Unfortunately they came today to the I saw them up they're loading up yeah
because we yeah thank thank Dave for that he he kept he keeps track and so he called him for us okay good okay um the other thing I increased was repairs actually I level funded it last year your actual you had budgeted 10,000
for repairs you only spent $4,800 I budgeted the same again this year but if the fincom comes and asks us to reduce budgets which they may very well do because it's been it's a difficult year this year I don't know
what we do do with repairs in here one of my concerns is and I'll talk about it is the is the elevator okay so right now I level funded that what line are you on there I am on um my line is
136 and it's Town building can you see [Music] it yes come on you can see it is if you go under mine says chart am I in the wrong one no I've noticed that the these Excel things don't always line
up with the oh you're reading the Excel line right okay hang on I I have the Excel One open G one second you said 136 yeah so that ises Eric it is 82 82 wonder I could number nearby she's
using she's using the the RO numbers oh yeah I see how CL so if you look at the whole town hall budget we're only up $2,100 which is 4.5 7% That's still double you're only supposed to increase
your budget 2 and a half per. the economy is driv is driving all of this and if we have to back off in Lev a fund if you look down that side column and look at the expenses you'll see um and I
know that Gail gave me some gaale I always butcher your name fly Shaker gave me some costs on the it okay and so those have to be I have 5920 in there um for the web and all of
that so postage has gone up the zoom support went up a very little bit um annual Town report I think we could lower that we had boxes of the
annual to report in that storage P 990 yeah how many did you have I have two boxes and each box must have 50 of them in there really so I think if we reduce how many we print and print not you know
print plenty but we don't need to keep printing the access you don't need to save more than a couple of them a year yeah um and people just pitch them a lot of people pitch them a lot of people keep them um but I know a lot of people people deep six them and I hate to to pay for that and landfill that and all
of that is that something we can add like we were thinking about this for the newsletter electronic is it something we could put up online to read um I think the state requires a hard copy no no I understand they do I'm just saying is it something that we can for those who
prefer that to be in uh could do electronic and then have some and if we had to order some more we could order yes that way yeah I think that's probably a better they're they're posted every year on the web they are
posted document okay that's good to know so then that then we can do a smaller amount and then when we run out or get close we could always get some more because I think they're just it's just really copied it's not like a like a they don't have to change a machine over or anything right
so so our total government increase is 55% so you can see not too bad yeah two and a half yeah it's definitely not great so um and it's really difficult to know where to shave I mean the post office is going to give us a discount on the
stamps so we are looking on we are looking at um getting a postal machine where we would get a bit of a discount but that post off proba probably be gone by next year any he won to worry about it anymore yeah it's going to cause problems um so I don't know if you folks
have anything else I in reviewing this that that you're curious about I was wondering about the town administrative salary line least in the one I have oh wait that one's higher okay I guess I'm I don't know
this page um is it looks no it looks like it's right here so so never mind okay um yep the other one is wrong okay [Music]
okay and the fincom is looking at a 2.95 Cola um that is the average that they do over so many years they've got a a good system that they use so we're getting closer um I know April is looming um we did get our debt
in here we are getting closer to figuring this out and uh you can see what the bottom line is right now this is our deficit means we have to find $369,000 that's your first job
yeah take that task um it actually isn't a scary number for me because I usually start a million in whole so I think it's all relative they they will figure it out well it's still it's still draft right a draft there still a lot of
unknowns yet that will solidify over the next and assumptions and opinions on the bottom you can see the conversation that the the fincom has when they're exploring the different things and the questions that they might
have so I know I'm bringing this to you sooner than I've ever than it's been brought before but I think it's important that we all all be part of the process and I can take your questions if you have them to the fincom I am now going to the fincom meetings okay
because we've split them away from the select board meetings and it's that crunch time where I don't have Becky's historical knowledge on everything yeah right um so that is that is different for them but other than that paax Med
the paax mitigation we have to figure out yeah that's one I going just make took word on my mouth yeah so I have figured out that we are talking about doing an article and using free cash to fund
P because it we don't have a good handle on it and we don't want it to impact our budget so I have to figure out how many households they get tested twice a year some of them do some of them get tested once a year when I met with the fincom
last Tuesday night I thought they got tested quarterly and I learned that they don't it's but initially when you first start with them it's about $2,000 to get them up and running with a poet system and the plumber and all of that um so you
need to guess how many you might have in that case then you need to keep the ongoing testing going and all the mailings that you have to do last letters that we mailed out were over $80 just in postage alone and I'm not complaining about any
of that it's just something we need to do to keep people informed I'm guessing right now that I'll probably ask for about $50,000 in the article cover p and the good thing about an article so that people can hear this is that if we
don't use it it stays there for future P usage and it kind of gives us a head a headwind if in figuring out what is is going to be like because you don't want to come back we have spent almost
$300,000 in past mitigation right at the moment and um and that should slow down because you have identified where it is yeah we have the hot spot right you have that going on so it should slow down but we are on a we have to get on a
maintenance program where we're going to have to pay for that every year and eventually it should be in your budget but I'm suggesting right now until you have a better handle on it we still increasing in size it in increasing in size it moves yeah it's a slower rate
than it was when we first started rolling every right and then and then it slowed down a little bit and then and it picked up a little bit so you right it doesn't stay so since I've been here I started in November we've had two um in addition to what we had and I
don't think that's a rapid rate of finding them um and we'll see how it goes especially with the snow M yeah because groundwater is what you that right that's that's what causes it to move or not move how much of the test now like so say 2,000 to set somebody up
with the initial thing but then the tests are they're like 287 every time yeah yeah okay um and so some houses are bigger and they are a more complicated test so it's 500 and some odd dollars so what I'm I have gathered um Brennan and
I have to look at all the Beef House bills in the next month or so and figure out how many are at this rate and how many are at that rate and kind of put a budget together to figure out because the letters this is kind of going back to the postage discussion because this
is probably aside from some of the other things we do for postage but this seems to be it'll be going on so this probably kind guides us for that postage machine to be able to save even a few senses yeah well they have to be sent they can't fit in a regular envelope there
sent in a brown mailer so that's over a dollar a piece so we have we have some upstairs waiting to be mailed out so so your general sense would be to put the mitigation budget the free caps this year and then hopefully by next
year figure out yeah what's going on Y and then put it into the budget because as we can figure out as we can figure it out that makes that makes sense to me I hate to add another 50 60,000 to the current it so I think we have we have
the free cash it is free cash you want to use for onetime expenses that's say yeah once you know you're get you started that can be a onetime expense to get you started right that's what I'm thinking get you started we don't have to do it that way um that's why we have this conversation right because if you
guys really feel it should be inside the budget because it's a permanent expense um well I do have that thing out that's out there that there is that potential for um reimbursement of something related is that is that
something that should have us keep it separate yes um well yes and no right so the loans the loans the borrowing that we're doing for what we've already paid um there is talk of forgiveness um I don't know how there's no guarantee of forgiveness there's talk
of forgiveness and what's happening is paaps is exploding in the state right so I don't know how much money the water people have to distribute um we're kind of a first in program because we have a lot I don't know about other communities on the East Eastern
part of the state there there's yeah so I went to that Water Resources meeting today in Hardwick and I mentioned oh and by the way let's talk about P all a sudden like hands go up all around so all I'm trying to say is it's it's yes r a state problem it's it ain't
going away no so it's a federal problem oh it's yeah it is it is there's a benefit if you have a municipal water source you can put in the industrial size point of your so all the a lot of water commun are talking about that I mentioned that I said we're talking
about all this stuff yeah a lot of the count side towns I mean you you when you hear it put in a town well in a little town like us or New Salem or wend you're like I need a water treatment plant which brings all
this cost to the situation or a town well or how but you have to have a water guide who's got the licenses and it just it tumbles yeah dominoes into something a little terrifying for me um but they're talking about it because
these homes need treated water and it's easier in a massive way um Westfield is is putting in one of these now for they actually they had them in their municipal water source and they're putting in um I how many yeah I it's a big multiple year project and and that's what they're that's how they're solving
because it was in their mes of water so that's how they're they're solving it everybody seems to have a different situation um right at the moment landfill versus fire versus all of that and then some unnown yeah lots of that and I S through school they don't know
where it came from they came up today in discussion in would Joe comford there that t for school did so yeah so that's that's the nature of the water moving underground right but it's coming in the
swampy area down there so I interesting it is um yeah so is there anything in here that I should pay attention to um there the revenue I did put the
revenue in and our here's the revenue our new growth is low um we're hoping you had good New Growth last year we're hoping that maybe David some of the things that they're working on will come online and that
will help our new growth but other than that um you can kind of go down the column and see our income is not keeping up with our spending um so we only have a 2% increase in our
income and you saw in the expense line very few 2% expenditures so um so that's kind of the State of the Union right at the moment we know about the state now in terms of
revenues only have estimated numbers so and that's the problem with our I will recommend to you folks that you write an article that revises your town meeting not to be in April but to put it in June because you're not getting your State numbers that are and even then you don't
get your State numbers sometimes till last year was yeah crazy late um but it's very hard because it's Crystal Ball situation and then you have to come back and try to cut and figure out where you're going to get the extra money right um
so so so you're making that recommendation to to move to put an article in to move the uh town meeting into June sometime actually to take away that you folks is selectman can change
the meeting date according to the law but the problem is your elections are on the same date as your meeting date in April and that was the problem when I tried to move it I didn't realize that you do this election at the same time so
I don't know if you want to I don't know if you can move your election I think you can move your election to June well we and during Co we had them in June and they were together like you know we did them here outside back keeping them together saves you money well saves you money but everybody's coming for one
they can come for the other and yeah so I would recommend you move you rewrite that so it's not a April 26th or whatever it is um it it's really tough on everyone to try to get the numbers um so we should try to put that on a future
agenda I would think right pick yeah we can do that I'll write that down I think that's a smart idea you know the conversation we had around it this year was you know and and it is kind of early we used to have it the first Saturday was it the first Saturday in May that in May in May it
was still early and it fell on a on a a day that people um felt we should move it from so um you know we never went past that we just kind of went forward rather than after you know Mak came well you got Labor Day in there too and that
caused Memorial Day that causes problems it does um so but I I may not get it on the March 11th because we have a lot that I mean that we can certainly accept for this year so we can do it even after the next one after
that okay so unless you have something else in the budget that's kind of where we are okay yeah this looks I appreciate having the little book early and being able to digested I do appreciate that good so thank you thank
you let's see and now we have review Town building needs ah and there're particularly an elevator panel no yep so I've talked since I've been here the elevator has been an
issue I'm going back to the agenda so we can see it just so that you know what I'm doing um so this is what we're doing tonight and right now we're viewing town hall building needs so I wrote them out
my mind here okay I can so the I'll start with the elevator the elevator doors constantly open up and then the elevator doesn't work so come to find out we have had a problem
with the elevator that has been ongoing for several years so the problem is the panel in the elevator needs to be replaced it's not working properly so it doesn't send the
proper alarm out originally when I first got here and was looking at what was wrong with the elevator I was told that it had to do with the Wi-Fi because the Wi-Fi goes in and out that is not the case there they recommended that we change the out and evidently when they
recommended it at that time the decision was made not to spend the money I don't know if you guys were aware of it or not $5,000 just change the panel out we now have to go back and get a new quote in what it would cost us to fix that um
elevator so that's issue number one the other issue in this building is there you don't have a fire alarm system so where I said you're kidding no no
that was my no so look around and see well you said that I'm like I don't see any of the yes yes you have nothing okay so so your fire chief is recommending that we look at um at least installing
some alarms and not sprinklers necessarily but um some sort of a fire alarm system could that work with the security alarm system that could work with the security alarm system so um we
if you're game we need to what I'm suggesting is that we make a list of things this building needs and we send it to the building's commit because they have the funding and if they don't can't fund it then we need to ask for the capital next next year
once we identify all of our problems the the elevator is an ADA issue we need that is a priority in checking that out and figuring that out um that front elevator should cover you but it doesn't because you got a table in front of it
and you're blocking it so you've got an ADA issue um that we need to we need to get that elevator temporarily we should have that one access so that well right now it's working oh yeah it's not not
working but it goes out often enough um that you have to call the fire chief he has to come and he has to do his magic trick and make it work again so it's a Band-Aid right now and I'm just alerting you to the fact that that panel that
elevator needs to be looked at that panel needs to be uh changed out and we need to get the cost estimate from the fire alarm company and let the buildings committee decide how they're going to fix it if they're going to fix it or what they're going to do because my
understanding is their commission is to look at all Town buildings and figure out what they need they don't need some of the other issues are the doors um we need to either get them to open and close right or not leak as bad
as they do have um experience with this kind of me so stop scking so that's I guess what I'm saying is these are the things for this building that do you folks or has anybody in the audience seen something
that we need to do um well there's always the wish list of beautify right that's so so the sound you can sound proof these walls um and you don't have a lot of soundproofing that you need to
do um because I don't know how the audience hears us or the echoing or whatever um so that's something we can add to the list to have them explore so we can add some of the beautifying things
and I'm not sure if we should cons now you put many splits in some of the rooms there were about four air conditioners that weren't working that we disposed of this year that were in the storage closet I don't know when spring comes who needs air conditioners
and so that may be a minor expense air conditioners are not that expensive it's running none that cost it maybe it may be something to I think um I think it was you gave but I'm not gonna I'm not going to say it you said something about
the green communities could use to put in so we have had moisture issues specifically on this Garden level of the building and um so and we have a a humidifier which obviously we're dry enough because it's not running right
right right so but we usually have an air conditioner in the window here um maybe we should and in the SC room maybe we should consider thinking about that because it would help the humidity issue you could use me you can set as a
dehumidifier set right you can do multiple things and they're quieter than our bling machine and that and then of course the air conditioner so we might want to think about upgrading those because they do they are more efficient
than an air conditioner so that's kind of it on my if I may um we often have trouble with the bath no I'm not sure if anything can be done with this but we often have trouble with the downstairs bathroom and
the um clogging of the toilets usually the uh strong arm that comes in and if Chris isn't here and um unplugs them but I don't know if there's anything that can be done but maybe we could look at it there was some issues upstairs with
the back up there uh water hea hot water taking exceedingly long with that sort of stuff so just in general probably both should be looking so um okay and I did noticed the bathroom sink is draining all of a
sudden and it wasn't draining before so I don't know if glared it yeah if it is the soap too for years there was a a coconut oil soap or or olive oil soap that was used in as soon as cold water hits that it just s right so so and I
believe that was changed over work okay um so smoke detectors I went over that we need smoke detectors something some sort of fire alarm smoke smoke detector system probably one carbon monoxide
detectors way down here with the level I know in Li they put them in every every room in the town hall so idea good idea okay um knock knock knock knock boxes
Kristen you have to help me yes boxes what I guess the fire department has this box of thousands of keys in it so if they respond to a fire um they have to figure out what key to use to get in
a building KNX boxes are everywhere now so it's a box outside the building that the fire department has one key for all the buildings in town they are putting one in in the library uh outside of it
we ought to consider doing it to all Town buildings um so that may be a request that we want to give to the fincom when we if we find out how much or give to the buildings committee to put nox boxes on all the buildings now I
know that Stephen with the buildings committee has talked to me about KN boxes um I experienced them uh this week and I saw them on the first time one had tape and one had red tape for you know obviously police and we could probably
do it all the same but you know and the other thing you can do is inside that box you can put a list of contacts so so if you if they have to go in it and they have to notify somebody your emergency management team can create the list and
put it in the KN KNX box so if you have a firefighter that is a volunteer that hasn't done this before he hits that nox box he unlock and he's got the list of who to contact right in there so that is a thought
um and right now we only need three I know that um we need one for this building we need one for that building over there Highway doesn't need one because they are a key entry system and why did I say three fire fire
station thank you um so so that's the other thing I had on um the town hall needs that we need to put in the list so and do we want to be more formal about cleaning up this room
or not or we I would love to I mean I we could do that that might be something we can do yeah I did tell Maran those things have to go um because you when you look in our if you see our meeting you can see those mats yep and I said
buy a cabinet put it in the cabinet or build a library thr or build a library I think this can be achievable it's I don't know if people notice but it's already different with the police department having moved the the TV this way you don't see that ugly
wall and it it does still echo in here though it's just because there's nothing in here so and we also the tables are that these are great tables they're light they're easy to move like you know one person can set them up um but they also act and Reverb the
noise like they don't absorb so we need something to absorb it might be curtains on the Windows like something you know so functional and so so that's kind of what I've identified that I think we need to put a
list together um give it to the buildings um committee if you guys in the next week or so think of things to add to this or somebody sees something you see something because you're you're seeing another town hall you may see something that's good for us
to um I guess Vis the new saem town hall it's small it's it's you know nice and small but it was um there was no Echo there because it has you know carpet and you know furniture and you know that sort of thing so that that is
helpful are always good too yeah leopard has they just redid their hardwood floors and I think it's kind of the same as here there is a little bit of an necho we don't experience it when we have a lot of people in the room just
because it it has that absorbing right you there might be a re we may want to ask for a budget for select Board Furniture down here for the meeting room um and there are two furniture places
that company that buy companies that go def fun their furniture I furnished the whole upstairs building department planning department um Board of Health and orange buying the the Miller Herman um desk system for nothing I
think it was $4,000 to do a whole floor with quality um stuff from the company in Springfield that's the one I've never do yeah you go in there and you look and they have everything you could possibly imagine we
don't don't need to break the bank by buying brand [Music] new, but you can buy a nice table or um something to help make this look more professional and I know some people
don't want us to beautyy anything but I think the noise and the professionalism that you bring to having this room cleaned up um would really be nice like comfortable chairs that sort of thing so anyway my fidgeting start small and ask
for there's um and Melissa and I talked about it there are these kind of curved um if you look at appals selectboard meetings they have a curve table where they all sit and they can face the audience together instead of spread out
um yeah and you also can kind of each other right so it's not just sitting you know all of us in a row we have a little bit of so you can add that to your wish list and see how how it comes out that the budget with $400,000 I know I
know you know you still have to talk about it no I know I know they can say no and that's okay I'm not I I'm just saying you need to think about these things um these black things up here could be changed out to White insulated things so this
room doesn't look so nasty um there's nothing wrong with this building oh the other thing is that fence is falling down out there I don't know no that yeah I've noticed that since I came here that black fence that separates the generator is tipping and falling down
now you paid some good money for that fence so you need to maintain it and get it back up so that's another thing we need to put on our LS and the only reason we're talking about it now is it's budget season I know yeah and this is something we
should like you know I can I can Envision and and I um I don't know how many know this know gave is because I mentioned it and um the senior room in there was all done with volunteer labor and and and and camaraderie and fun the
only thing that was not was the tile for cuz that's the Flor was not even it was had had a little bit of a motion to it so they came in and and but the rest of it paint you know even the ceiling of the grout was done by volunteers so maybe it could be a part of that it
could be a part of that and Council on Aging has a lot of grant opportunities that I'm hoping your new new ta can look hunt out grants for them that would furnish um put curtains up would warm that room up that room is freezing for
elderly people to be in um so there's so much that can be done um if you can get somebody to look at the grant even if you have to match the grant a little bit um so that's it on the town piece cool
all right um so now I guess this Blends nicely the TA of yes and I have a lot okay um so for the next meeting for the next meeting we have two appointment asks a Michael pills um for I want to say is it eak e
it's the energy committee okay energy committee um and then there's another gentleman um for the planning no maybe Michael no Michael phills zoning board of appeals and Michael Tashara had a another gentleman and I don't have his
name so I'm going to put them on the agenda to point next week we have asked uh Joe Comerford and her her people Elena and everybody has asked for us to call in immediate
support if you guys want on the passenger rail trail in okay so if you're okay with that I'll I'll contact the number that she's given we have to do it the next day or so and right now she's saying call so um call
and get your your opinion on that we do want it yeah so we'll support her in that I have an interesting thing do we have cannabis policy in this town uh we I know a lot of discussions some of them so we have a
policy do we allow cannabis retail if we don't have any retail so you have Canabis agreements right now in no there was someone who wanted to do auring but that we we didn't fit that because of water source and stuff so we
have a company and it came today called Pineapple Express outside of wear that we'll put on the next agenda I'm just telling you about it now they want to deliver they want to provide a delivery service to shoots fa to deliver cannabis
so they are ex they're asking you to support their Desire with the Cannabis Control Commission and that's something that I'll bring to you next time around but I wanted you to be aware of it the Cannabis control
thing and then um the name for traveling so and the police chief has has this wonderful idea of using of of getting that field behind the fire station and she's here to talk about it
a little more um if we can but um to use that that to revamp that um Field behind the uh fire station for what is it baseball softball but
many other many other thoughts so she would like to have us um appoint an ad hoc committee to research it and she'll bring forward some people she has talked to the recreation
committee and they're in full support of her idea and so she'll come back and present an idea and along with some names Recreation is also going to possibly recommend some people bring that back to you and then talk about
doing it it's really kind of exciting to see some of this happening I know um they used to play back there they used to play there used to be horse stuff back there used to be ice skating ring back there there was a whole bunch of stuff the
rec so um thank you for that idea do you want me to talk or not you can please do does this look okay um so super quick I will take up a lot of your time um this started because I went to visit one of
our seniors uh who calls himself an Oldtimer um and uh was talking to me about what used to happen in the past and one of the things that he brought up that he missed was the softball field behind the fire station and he explained how they used to play softball there and
recreate there for other things they had soccer they had um in talking to more of the Town residents that remember these things I I I have little pictures coming my way um so I started getting the idea that what a fun uh police a community
policing project this could be for the town I'd like to create a softball field but can be used for other things can be used for soccer t- ball things like that I'd like to create a uh have us create a track around the field uh for people to
have a safe place to walk to get movement this could be something in the winter that is used for cross country skiing track um you know uh we want to my my vision is to have a place another place because we'll have the library we
have the Lake we have the sa we this could be another place for people to come and recreate and potentially um grow um you know teams and and really morale of of the town so I talked to the
recreation uh committee again uh just to um State what gab already said they're they're in full support of this um something really exciting I'd like to have you know a working group for it and um and start really diving into the what's going to work easy what do we
have to work on is it possible all of those things and bring back something that used to be I asked around why where did it why did it go away and um I don't think anyone was able to give me any hist it just sort of
just we got the we got the internet now we just watch the games on TV right so um so I I wanted to try and um for for the people that I've spoken to um that the quote old Tim as they call themselves there's a few of them that that's how they address themselves to me
and they and they say this would be so fun to bring this back I maybe wouldn't be able to play but I'd love to come watch games and things like that we could create co-ed teams we could create whatever it could be something huge I also foresee it as a multi-use um place
where we could have live music and um just for just something that uh as a community policing project I want to gift the town um in in that way and I believe it can be done soon just that's the don't
discount B right so like whatever everything pickle ball everything I don't have reference point yes I know there's so many someone in the crowd that's like pickle ball I play softball me too too you curling in the winter something
everything I don't think you can do I don't know the possibility are Ed that was the point okay all right that's awesome that's cool that's it um for me unless you have questions for me I don't have
questions for you but we are moving on to our next thing and I see actually see that most of our visitors on Zoom have left so we're going to go into our executive session now um so that we will for strategy number two uh in preparation for negotiation with
nonunion Personnel or to conduct Collective barging sessions or contract negotiations with nonunion person police police chief contract negotiations or to
approve do I hear a motion to go into ex okay sorry um I'll second that all in favor St ey so at this point um I will stop the the um
reporting thank you