electronic equ was great and then that's not you know okay keep pushing me and if someone played around with it beforehand and changed it like this TV is continuely on e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e so I have an idea I just wanted to check with you guys to see how what you think how yes behind us us either or on the wings yeah the wings I didn't wear mine either mute your speak M and ipped open volume I did that first hey hello David leaving to what leaving town I I I have to check it out someone mention go to I think they're going to go to I know that's going to happen now but yeah yeah lovely much nicer okay see technology already but I'm going to work on this right here um have the owl speaker audio settings I can't see them over there sorry to interrupt just Mark Rivers uh you're still logged into the shutesbury meeting post account and you should log out of that account and uh log back and just click on the link from the agenda because uh yeah you're still logged into the I just see it says shsb host so I know Mark Rivers you're still logged into the uh shoots veryy meeting post account it looks like he's on it NOP he's still up here and Melissa your selectboard meeting and there's Mark [Music] Mark I'm going to try I'm just adjusting the microphone and see if that helps so we will see okay whenever you're ready Ahad okay all right I'm gonna go ahead and call the meeting of the shootr select for order today is Tuesday May 21st 2024 and this is um being held as a hybrid meeting um the select board um is here in the town hall and we have two guests with us this evening just want to introduce yourself Tom Seer thank you Susie moer okay all right um so the first uh thing I'll do is review the agenda and um and then we'll go into the meeting so uh we will have public comment as we always do um we are skipping over select board minutes it will be done with the next meeting for those of you who are not aware we uh lost our administrative secretary so um hard hard to to keep up with a bunch of this um administrative work when so much else is going on um 615 we have the shutesbury police department providing an update talking about an intern um after that um select board will review the storm water um task force charge and and uh then go on to discuss the all boards meeting and what the agenda will be that meeting is going to be held on June 11th then we're going to review appointments ahead of the FY 25 annual appointments um there's a recreation committee appointment uh then we've had a request um to pull together a meeting um regarding not weed and so we'll be discussing that then we have um a request from the library to review and I believe sign off on um uh National Grid incentives for the new library so that will be money that will be um paid I think after after the fact after the library is Bill and then um we have an agreement between the select board and the polias Union regarding um establishment of a Duty detail fund uh select Board review of a PS litigation retainer and then Town Administrator updates okay so um we have reviewed the agenda now I will open it up open up the floor for public comment I ask that you use the raised hand feature and um give your name and uh try to keep your comments to two to three minutes if possible okay so I see Carlos yes hi thank you for me um so Carlos Fontes 359 monu Road and uh I would like to make a comment about um Sharon weisen bombs and the smart solo Sho shoots berries um complained about the violation of the open uh meeting law at the last meeting there was a question asked of how much it is costing the town to defend itself from uh uh from this com complaint and I would like to note that that is absolutely the wrong question the right question is is how much are the violations of the open law meeting costing the town that is the right question if we are not just uh pre pretending uh we are all smart people we are all adults here uh and so also this is not the first time that such a complaint is leveled against the town more so and in speaking truth to power if we are going to be concerned about waste of money we also need to be concerned that the town was sued in federal court for violation of the civil rights of a citizen of the town and looks like the town may want to settle for tens of thousands of dollars and so this could have been avoided by a proper supervision of the select bard Bo over the conduct of the shsb police and so last thing I want to say I will be be brief um the members of the select board are members of the select board because they want to and I am thankful that you are you are volunteering your time to serve at the same time I want to let you know unequivocally that we expect you to abide by a higher level of inte of Integrity that we expect you to uh abide by the best practices of democratic go governance it will not do to uh fall short of that and so I really would like to ask you to do that you want it to be in government you wanted to be in power so you need to have a practice that is at level with that uh uh type of power that you now have thank you okay thank you um Amanda hi thank you interestingly I have a comment about the same subject but Carlos and I did not talk about this at all all right let me begin in during select board meeting on May 7th there was a discussion amongst the select board in NTA regarding a complaint made by a town resident under the open meeting law I found the tone of the discussion to be unprofessional and inappropriate it started when a select board member asked how much these complaints cost the town inferring that citizens filing complaints are troublemakers who waste the town's money although the question was prefaced with quote I'm not saying shouldn't close quote the ensuing discussion would not have occurred if not for that question uh the TA began calculating how much her time the lawyer's time and the town clerk's time cost she and the board estimated the cost to be open quote somewhere between five and 600 and up close quote now this is misleading and unfair because the TA is salar singling out the cost of specific tasks cannot be proved if the town wants to document her duties by the hour that's fine but it should apply to everything she does not just particular assignments I assume this is not something the town is contemplating now um also I I don't understand why the town clerk would lose days and days over an oml complaint but no explanation was offered If you're receiving advice from KP law you'll likely receive a really quick response since they seem very knowledgeable about the OWN ML and they conduct workshops all over the state however all the necessary information is freely accessible on the State website you can look it up yourselves or contact the division for assistance and advice that won't cost the town a dime as always the decision to engage attorneys is entirely up to you the select board also used this technique against the public involvement plan related to the gasoline contamination on lot 32 at a public meeting in April of last year the select board chair stated that the PIP would cost the town between 35 and $40,000 to administer a claim that did not hold up upon closer scrutiny again residents exercising their rights under state law were being unjustly characterized as Rabel rousers draining the town of its resources I I asked that town officials stop this Behavior as I find it divisive and it gives the impression that town officials disapprove of any citizen activity they interpret as being critical of their actions the TA correctly identified administrating administering open meeting law complaints as a service expected of local government and must be conducted according to state law I hope that in future these proceedings will be carried out more professionally um I'll be happy to send you these comments so they may be included in the public record thank you are there any other comments Tom hi thank you um I hope it's capturing me it is and uh thank you for Tom SE oh my name is Tom Seer thank you um reminding me to identify myself uh and I want to say thank you to all of you who offer this public comment service for us uh coincidentally I do do have comments related to the open meeting law uh discussion at the last select board meeting and I really hope I can offer a take on it that might be nuanced differently might not from what you heard before but I'm hoping that I achieve a Nuance of something constructive and well intended about what I'm about to say um and I would like to offer constructive input on two manners of thinking and on one manner of practice please to consider for the future and the Practical consideration for the future would be please to whenever possible avoid naming people when you're also discussing a topic where their name could be as having been mentioned misinterpreted as a call to bring attention to that person and whereas at the last meeting there was not just the discussion of how to approve a document in response to the complaintant there was also a discussion about it was not clear a debate about the complaints themselves in general that we received and because of that separate discussion it felt awkward to hear the name of the complainant for the complaint at hand wrapped into that discussion and so I just caution about when you name a complaintant I understand it is public information but there is also discretion about when you my two constructive contributions I hope about manners of thinking do deal with some of the topics that were already presented one is on the concept of service and one is on the concept of draining Town resources because the service aspect of administering a complaint was brought up at the discussion as well as a phrase something akin to draining Town resources to administer complaints I think the draining Town resources one as alluded to earlier doesn't look at what some people might more consider the beginning of the process that costs the town money and for many people they believe it starts at the violation and not at the complaint of the violation when that actual expenditure could be beginning because it's the violation that causes the complaint um so I just caution about fixating on the expenses involved unless it's very clear about what is the true origin of the expense and I think there's a good argument that it's the violation and not the complaint and the other manner of thinking I would suggest changing has to do with the concept of service and the way I understand the public service in the town um Services include examples like I'm doing right now giving me within the town parameters a chance to speak to the town people who have power in the town to do things and you're actually at Liberty not to respond it's a very informal service and we understand that and we are glad that we can voice a praise or complaint or anything at all in between and just know that you heard us and we appreciate that I think when it becomes something that goes beyond the town limits like a complaint of an open meeting law violation which goes to the state division of open governments or I forget exactly their name um the nature of it being a service becomes less clear and it seems at that point it's actually a requirement that the town bought into by agreeing to be an incorporated town in this Commonwealth that they would respect those higher level out side of town parameters and so I just question whether even talking about it as a service is helpful because I think these sorts of services within town are the most helpful and when something has to be brought to the attention of people outside of town it then unquestionably unfortunately has to be called a complaint there's not a better vocabulary word for it and I don't know if then what the response is and the um final resolution count as service so thank you I I would have more but I don't want to talk too long I just want to encourage you to welcome complaints and think about ways to preempt them more and I do want to make a point if you believe complaints are becoming frivolous or unwarranted I think you do have an opportunity to mention that and show that so thank you and I hope that I have been helpful yes yes um so just a reminder during um during public comment we don't res respond but we have heard the um uh the three complaints um okay anybody else excuse the raised hand feature all right um so as I said we're skipping over the um select board minutes and the next item on the agenda is um an update from the police department I see Chief Burgess here with us this evening so you have a few things Kristen to yes hi everyone how are you beautiful day we're having um so uh I have been enjoying the sun today myself I have a few updates for the slip board and for the town the first I'd like to start with is um that the hoolio community college has selected us uh the shury police department as one of their spots that they would like to send interns um infrequently um we did get an applicant for an intern position and um it happens to be officer Maguire's um wife Amanda um so this is an unpaid position this is part of her curriculum so what she is looking to do is to get a sample of um what you know it might be like working in a police department she is going back to school to get her degree um and she has an opportunity through Julio Community College to do to do this later in life uh later than than a lot of people do so we're quite proud of her um and we'd like to give her the opportunity to give her this sample of what police departments do um I'd also be um helping her with um potentially taking some time in the court system to look in the court system with our orange District Court and potentially with um Springfield Court as well as part of her internship program and we work closely with Holio Community College to make sure that she's meeting all her goals and expectations and um so I just would like I guess the select board to give me the sort of knot of approval I'm pretty excited about this because um we we did not seek this this was something that was sought and because um Amanda happened to enroll in College as well there um it just worked out well she will not be working um obviously for obvious reasons uh alongside or learning from her husband she'll be working strictly with myself uh officer Piller and potentially officer Massie at times um but she will mostly be um in the day shift where officer McGuire is in the evening shift and um and we're pretty excited about that we're really excited to be able to um extend out the educational uh parts of of things that we can do for people so that's the first one um can I just ask a question is there any paperwork that gets executed or how does the internship yes so I'm working with the college um as her sort of sponsor I think they call me her sponsor and I just uh keep in touch with them and sign off on what she's learned learned and make sure she stays on her learning objectives with her uh assigned uh Professor that makes sure that she stays um within her guidelines and do we have any liability if something happened during the course of her it would be it would be just like a ride along um she signs all the waivers that the any ride alongs and we do ride alongs um pretty frequently with residents who are interested in seeing what happens with us so it would just be the waiver of liability as we do with all ride alongs um she will be she is and will be continued to be instructed that um she does not get out of the vehicle um if she's with an officer or myself she does not get out of the vehicle um if we're doing motor vehicle stops or we're doing any investigations um and we just we our utmost priority is that she's safe um and that everyone else is safe as well so just like a rideal program thanks um Eric or Melissa do you have any questions how long might miss this how long is The Internship for um so the actual weeks I'm not I don't have in front of me right now but it's through the summer so it's the the summer semester and she'll be working roughly um three days or interning roughly three days a week um her schedule is very flexible with us um because we understand that she has you know um family and things to deal with at home um as most of you know they do have a daughter and she has a seizure disorder and she is autistic so we we're trying to make sure we're very flexible for the family overall I have nothing I mean my my question is about the liability you already asked question so okay there we go that think it's great okay um what else Kristen okay so the next thing I wanted to bring to your attention is something that I've been talking to um our wonderful Highway boss uh Steve and that is some crosswalks up at the um uh intersection at Town Hall we've discussed this so many times in length I know in the past this is has been sort of an area that people are concerned about and we have the police department has been working endlessly um stopping people Contin ously for speeding violations um sometimes there are people in town and um sometimes they are people that are just coming through town this is something that is never going to stop for whatever reason this straightaway that we have through the beautiful center of town is just an area that no matter how many citations or education or Warnings we put out we're still finding that people are speeding um I talked to Steve and I was um discussing a potential for two s two uh pedestrian crosswalks um one would be from the town hall entrance across this to across the street um to for people to get to the town Common Road and the post office and the other would be from the other side of town hall entrance across the street to uh the library area that is where we find most people need to cross and then what we could do is not just have the crosswalks but there are um solar signs that Steve was looking into that say pedestrian Crossing um and they can press a button the button then illuminates the the signage that somebody needs to cross through the crosswalk and then people can cross feeling just a little bit safer this also is helpful for us um because if someone fails to yield for said person we can stop them to remind them educate them in whatever man we need to um I'm not sure Steve was going to be looking into the signage and looking into potential grants and things like that but that is something that we would like to get moving on as I witness daily people that are crossing the road I will often times stop the cruiser in the middle of the road with my lights on just to make sure that people are making it across the road safely um so I'm really hopeful that this is something that we can kind of agree on and if uh Steve can find the resources to get the signs um and then we can get those put out I'm hopeful that this is something that um you would uh agree to um my well my only question is um we had talked we s had one meeting of a of sort of a ad hoc uh committee to study traffic and how to slow it down claic traffic my only other question be whether or not there's any sense that um those might those those devices might give people a false sense that's safe across the street now y it it definitely could um and and that would be you know we'd have to remind people just because you've illuminated the sign doesn't mean that you know people are always paying attention as we know um we ourselves you know everyone that is watching and not watching has had times where oops I wasn't paying attention to that so um we're just trying to lessen the danger and I think that that it might be a good compromise it's it's something that I just wanted to bring up to you that we are looking into and hopeful that um You' you'd follow along with us looking into it so we could maybe move on that before next year Christ I I have um one question would the signs be right at the crosswalks or would they be towards the hills where the drivers are coming from so they would be um where the crosswalks are because that is where you're going to press the button that you want to cross you're standing there and you want to cross um and so and so we could put some preliminary signs um although people don't pay attention to our speedboard signs as much as I would like them to either um but then again I could be sitting on the side of the road and somebody speeds right by me and I will stop them and say you didn't see me nope didn't see you so um you know I think it's a balance of too many signs versus not enough signs and I think it's just education and and I don't think that I I'll let you know this we just found out um through orange District Court that SHO police department has the most cmvi which are uh um motor vehicle violations cmvi or motor vehicle violations has the most in in the region for Orange County uh for orange orange District Court I'm sorry we have more than AOL we have more than orange we have more we are giving citations out and um we they are taking them to court so uh it's happening we're we're doing our due diligence we just need to I think maybe try some other Concepts um race did you have a comment we're kind of running behind schedule here but all right yeah I just wanted to uh voice my strong support for this idea as somebody who walks across that bit of road every single day pretty much um and had did when when I was a kid and I used to volunteer at the library after school um Judith would have to close the library to walk me across the street to go to the bathroom at Town Hall so I like that is an objectively dangerous Crossing anytime I'm giving people a Town Hall tour and we go from town hall to Old Town Hall I am like and this is our where we cross the road and be very careful we have to use our ears to listen both ways because it's a blind Hill on both sides and people are coming on off the highway and going way too fast um I really like this idea of a crosswalk with lights I especially like that idea for people coming off Route two going up coyville road at night the lights will reflect and show and people would be able to see that ahead of time and I know a lot of people walk their dogs and stuff around town hall and the town common and behind Town Hall I think this is a great idea and I think it would actually in a very small way but a meaningful way contribute to Public Safety thank you um my only comment is um I can't quite Envision two crosswalks that close to one another that maybe to just give some thought to whether or not it's better to put the resources into one crosswalk with adequate warning for people coming on on either side yeah because that line of site as you're coming up from 202 is terrible really until you get to the very top you don't know what you're hitting so that's right that one would make me really nervous I think something closer to the intersection with Wendel Road and people can walk over to the library across the common so I just give some thought yes absolutely tonight is um sort of planting the seed of thought and um and then I will get together with everyone and maybe we could come up with some different diagrams and things yeah great great well thanks Kristen is that may I one one last Quick One I promise um I'm very excited to let you all know that Franklin County has decided to start a Cadet program for police officers so this is for young people who are interested in the path of Criminal Justice and every Wednesday they are meeting at Greenfield Community College in the evening I have been asked to be an adviser um to the students and to assist as they have out of 23 enroles they have nine female Cadets um so we're very excited about that and um this won't take away from my responsibilities um with the police department it's sort of an ad need as needed basis uh but I will be assisting them with advising the young people um in the cadet program so I was very excited about that great thanks thanks very much and now I'm all done I promise thank you thank you that was great um okay so the next item on the agenda is um I'm sorry we have we have a knot of approval for Amanda oh yes yes yes okay yes okay do you want to vote yeah we should vote on yeah let's have AE the past yes I'll make a motion that we approve Amanda Maguire as uh intern to the police department for the summer months second um any further discussion all right all those in favor signify by saying I make peace on me I stalker I I thanks Kristen thank you so much have a great night everyone okay so the next item on the agenda is to talk about the storm water task force um so at our last meeting um Jennifer Wallace and Mark Rivers um talked about the need to put a task force together and came forth with a draft proposal which I then just did a little bit of editing on and I think we have a um a draft that I hope meets with the approval of the um the folks who Jennifer and and Mark who initiated this um do you want to put it up Becky you it share this go here okay so um maybe Jennifer do you want to just provide the background again for people who weren't here at the last meeting um just about what um the legola association uh is asking the select board to to do okay well first of all I should clarify that this is not um coming from the Lake wola Association um this is just me as a resident and um someone who observes things around the lake I've also been on concom before I've been on the board of the association so I'm familiar with how those organizations mostly work but I brought the proposal to elwak first which was the me imagining that the there are some bottlenecks in how uh storm water erosion runoff get thought about and addressed and the instances of storm water uh run off into the lake and all the silting and contaminants are increasing as the intensity of Storms and the frequency of storms are increasing and I thought you know perhaps we we can think about it other than as road maintenance issues and who's responsible for road maintenance private entities public entities and see it as something that transcends roads and it's really a question of how can we manage all this storm water which comes from public property private property the roads are definitely part of the collateral damage and but that is there's a way that there could be a partnership to um identify funding sources that would Bridge those gaps between are we are we able to afford it ourselves I'm speaking on behalf of the association now but even private residents sometimes we asked to afford things and can the town even legally do anything to private roads should they you know those those seem like obstacles to me so I propose the creation of a task force that would try to bring together um perspectives that were Beyond road maintenance and elwak was in favor of this and I think Mark sent it on to you all um we had a conversation about it last meeting with you seemed like it was supported and so then the sort of working with the language and turning in from a draft proposal to a charge that the select board would provide the leadership here which I think is fantastic and we would pull together as many different kinds of perspectives to look both at um Solutions and funding sources and and just briefly to say that there have been four studies that have been done since 2007 that have investigated this problem or tangents of this problem and we would definitely use those studies as jumping off points probably the furog study which is the most recent would be one that would be a jumping off point so it's not meant to duplicate these things it's not a research task force per se except to the extent that we'd be researching how to implement some of the things that need to get implemented that have been identified in these studies so that's the elevator version good that that's useful um so so um basically if we just want to run through the the document we there's there's the objectives is to identify specific actions I think that's that was what was driven home to me by your by your draft that yeah we have a lot of studies now how do we move to doing specific things and so you're outlining you know questions about what's the town's responsibility what can the town do what can the Lola Association do what resources are available so we have we have a lot of data we now need to say um what are what are some action steps that can be taken um so it's laid out with the background a work plan um schedule you want to just scroll down yeah thank you um and uh membership uh there's no budget but it just we we put in that we don't expect that there's any budget at this point there might be at some point in the future and then um reporting back to the select board and setting an 18mon um period and obviously if it can be done sooner that's great uh if it takes longer we'll acknowledge that when the time comes um so I the only question I have um is really in terms of the membership and what the you know I know that uh that you had proposed that um Town employees elected or appointed officials would serve as ad hoc members so I'm just curious about um if they're ad hoc I guess not nonvoting members um it doesn't you know what I I was um being sensitive to maybe a a assumption which may be accurate or not but but it came from a place of saying maybe maybe this wouldn't be very well received if it was thought that town employees were being you know taken off their regular duties to do work on this task force so I didn't at all intend that town uh any kind of town employee or or volunteer who has expertise would be excluded only that I didn't want to um present something that was oh you know like everyone stretch so thin already and now we're going to stretch them even more thin so it came from that place and perhaps this phrasing isn't um accurate but it's not meant to exclude anybody I see okay um um so assuming so maybe maybe we change that under membership change C can be struck Al together you know because if if be individuals who have this expertise all these expertises those certain those kinds of skills exist in the town and number c probably would be unnecessary okay good all right we should change first first paragraph which says I think it says like by all Association it says um to identify specific actions that can be taken by the town of shutesbury the Lake wola Association and private citizens is that is that accurate is that I think yeah okay all right all right and the objectives um other I mean I'm just reading this I don't know whether the state of Massachusetts in terms of their jurisdiction over the town beach I mean I don't know exactly not the town beach the State Beach what were you know the task force work will be to identify um places and also interventions and PRI and we'll bring them to the select board for prioritization and if if the State Beach is part of that then maybe they should be included in this list of um possible stakeholders or actors I'm not sure uh that's a good that's a good point I don't know whether or not they um uh like DCR ever has their employees have they ever served on any kind of there used to be a a joint State town and L Association task force yeah it was okay was that would meet at the lodge um about once a month a quarter but it hasn't been functioning in number so I guess we could approach them um sure you know maybe if uh if we all I mean we're obviously not going to be doing we're we're just adopting this this evening if if that's the way the the board wants to go um but that we have recommendations from lwac leel Association everybody wants to submit not named necessarily but representation um to think about you know who should be represented on this um task force so that would be that would be good to get from you folks and then I think at the same time you know we could um come up with some ideas too okay and if anybody else out there um has ideas does that make sense I just want to think about how to move this forward I guess my question about the state was in this objective thing whether it's limiting to say specific actions taken by the Town Lake wild Association and private citizens you know by having them there and not the state does that preclude them from being you know involved should that do desire or interest emerge I mean we could we could add them we could add the it doesn't it's not committing anybody to anything it's just saying they're users and you know res that acknowledge that they're a part of this correct is that is that DCR Becky that so would be okay and you want them aware of what what the require the things that need to get done are I'm just trying to understand the well I think what it would be would be let's for ex you know here's a scenario so the task force is at work they're reviewing the most recent um site data we're doing our own site updates it turns out that what we feel might be a high priority intervention might involve something involving property that DCR has jurisdiction over but in any case we would be bringing anything to the select board and then if we're deciding yes we want to focus on that kind of a project we would need to bring DCR in did that answer your question yeah let's let's add them and let's see what happens yeah it doesn't you know I just didn't include them that's all yeah no I think that's that's that's good yeah um and did you take C I did while I didn't take it out exactly I highlighted it to be removed we had moved on okay I will do it now okay um all right so um to just move this forward then uh I think we can take a vote this evening and um as I said I think it would be good to um if if you have suggestions about rep you know I guess I don't know do we want to start we're not going to make the appointments probably at the next meeting maybe we just look at at who should be included and then go from there yeah I mean we can make some suggestions I'm sure Mark might have some Lola Association people you all might have some we'll just submit ideas to you and and then you'll have them and we'll we can be in touch about how much more you'd like for us to be involved as you look at that list okay um do we need to go through any does it make sense to sort of uh open it up to the community saying that this task force is being established um but we're looking for I mean it's you know we're looking for some level of of skill and knowledge yeah corre open it up right I mean however you know perspectives is are important too and it was always in my mind that bringing in people who who love the lake and enjoy using it um to begin to become Partners too so so we only do have 11 members um but you know maybe there are individ uals who have research expertise or are good writers or something like that but they're they're all interested in um in the conservation of this resource I mean I had thought about talking to the library director about I don't know whether this would be allowed but who are the people who are renting um those kayaks checking them out from the library they could be important resources too but I haven't given it loads and loads of thought I I can see it's time to do that yeah um so let's try to uh pull together and maybe we can feed stuff to you Jennifer okay um some ideas of of who the repr you know who should be represented on the task force and then um kind of get that list together and and agree upon it and then we can move forward to because I think you want to I mean it's wonderful right to include people who love the lake but if we had 10 people who loved the lake and only one person who had any real you know ability to interpret all these studies that have been done it wouldn't be so greately might I hear you so we just could have I guess it sounds like we have a little back and forth about potential candidates okay yeah perfect Tom do you have a question or comment yes please I I spotted one typo and then there are a few phrasings I just wanted to make sure we're clear in the makeup of the people on it the membership yeah uh in B individuals who have the last item is stakeholders and it wouldn't be individuals who have stakeholders so it should be or St or other stakeholders something like that perfect good um and there's an extra space before yeah I that um then another one and just a question uh where it talks about the objective I believe on the first page um background uh it says while the lwa owns most of the road Network at Lake whitea storm water runoff also intercept with roads owned by the town and by private homeowners there is another category of road that is private but not owned by a private home own my road for example is owned by a private citizen who does not live in the town so that doesn't capture my road as written and I just want to make sure all roads are captured how would your road is owned by a oh I see not a like a private homeowner right private person I don't know home maybe homeowners is the word private homeowners and excludes my road and individuals or other private individuals private owners yeah private owners yeah maybe not homeowners yeah that's good perfect I can see who's the writing skill member of the task force um a question about the to under objectives and there is an extra space you see after lwa comma space Master Vision um the private citizens could that perhaps better be worded as members of the public also in light of the recent town meeting article passed to give residents of town certain rights and it would also capture people who might rent that kayak and not live in town but be really skilled or useful um I just wondered if private citizens had been vetted already as the appropriate language or whether members of the public might do the same Duty uh I were private citizens could be excluding more than it me to that and I just wondered if private residents or members of the public I don't know what to suggest there and my last one was for the makeup of a membership Community organizations whether that has any definition or whether that will come up as people apply but um mean this right here representative from Community organizations I don't know what one of those would be or which one are meant or whether what it adds by naming that without defining it um because some people might feel they're in one but is it a recognized one I I just don't know what it means so that phrase troubled me as well as the private citizens it could end up being more exclusive than intended right um I think I just had in mind Community organizations like uh Lake wild Association lwx conom well those are Town committees you know but yeah yeah I don't know what if they're all United as being Community organizations I just wondered if it was right I didn't meant um it might be fine as it is I didn't mean to make it a problem I just noticed that I didn't know what the definition was of that I think we'll know what one we see okay that's what I thought about that one the private citizens one I felt more compelled about is the private Citi it's under the very beginning after very beginning under objectives after division of conservation resources private CI Town um pardon me it doesn't say you have to be private citizen citizen of what like we we kind of like the word resident because it captures people more than citizenship captures them and so we could say private residents okay that's cool yeah that's private you have everything but private residence isn't really a freeing just residence you can just say residence yeah that's why I they got private Works actually a lot of the Lake OH non resents that's okay so should we just say residents because they're residents but they they're not okay all right thank you very much te is down below background next one down I think um there's a question like people who use the um to they see there it should be whom I believe oh I didn't see the middle page very much um back can you do a contr f and it's sort of oh it's a word do oh I mean to say don't worry we'll find it who use would be right yeah yeah doing my best I'm still you're a grammatical expert [Music] okay we are it's almost at 7 o'clock so I it's close enough we have to make little minor minor edits um oh Bob has his hand up oh Bob go ahead yeah thank you and uh I know the hour is short I just wanted to briefly say that uh I fully support this certainly um other towns in Massachusetts have received uh um similar grants like Chester related to run off from its roads ammer is getting money for PMS Pond as well as the campus pond so um anyway I I I think it's a great idea I just want to add that thank you good thanks um okay so we have an edited version now I just changed the name so we know okay um so do I hear a motion to approve the Lake Way ola storm water erosion task force um scope and second any further discussion no all right all those in favor signify by saying I pleas I stalker I farell I um thank you everybody thank you for your support good no this is great great to move it ahead um okay so we're running a little bit behind but uh we'll catch up um Becky I'm going to turn it over to you well I guess it comes back to us to Think Through the agenda for the all boards meeting which will be held on June 11 yes and we had um quite a bit of interest in the topic of whether we proceed with hybrid meetings or just regular meeting so that is going to be one of the main topics um I know Grace I believe so for this meeting is going to be an in-person meeting yes so for the uh topic for discussion is the continuation of hybrid meeting yes versus um you know in person for strictly zo yep okay I think we've um what Grace says let me know and she is here she has a lot of ideas about this issue she's the person on the front lines getting feedback from all the boards and committees great um so she hears it all Grace can I we don't need to hear it tonight Grace I'm here I'm here um so I actually I actually have a hole in my notes I in my notebook that I keep daily I've got a page that's like all boards meeting ideas and it's very very full um and I've been slowly working on turning that into an actual outline of a presentation and if you guys want to give me 45 minutes at the old BS meeting I will use every second but uh there are definitely some things that from a town clerk perspective we really need to get together in a room and talk about and the really important thing is ironically this was brought up many times Shing public comment today open reading Law so as you are all aware open meeting law has been in this very strange space since 2020 Grace I don't want to get into the open meeting law I just if we can just talk about tops keep it to the topics okay open meeting law we need to talk about open meeting law as a group we need to have at least one person from every single committee and board there we need to talk about the basics all in a big group and then we need to have a discussion about as a group in person like getting everyone in the same room so it's not just everybody telling me different things and having very good points and strongly disagreeing with each other and just telling that to me and not each other um we need to talk about remote in-person hybrid where we stand as a town this is really important because um word on Bureau bureaucrat street is that the legislature is going to finally pass a permanent law and not just another extension next march and right now they are leaning towards a hybrid mandate which we only have a system set up to be able to do one hybrid meeting at a time right now so if that law were passed tomorrow we as a town would not be able to function and we need to be expressing that and we need to be communicating that but we need to come together as group first and decide on what we're actually advocating for so that's the one thing um we need to talk about conflict of interest law training requirements there is a new training and uh the state left it up to municipalities whether we required everyone to take the new training all at once or if we did it oneon-one I've been doing it oneon-one but it's not working a lot of people are late on their conflict of interest blot training requirements we need to get everybody together in a group and I need to explain this to at least one person from every boarding committee so that they can bring that information and those instructions back to their boards and committees we need to talk about uh public records requests those have can you stop minute one second about that training for conflict of interest or any training maybe suggest and this just a quick suggestion is that each board spend a meeting time doing it all together that's a great suggestion so just keep that on your thing every board one meeting all together the problem is people don't uh actually always read my emails which is why I want to be able to say this to people and not just email it yeah emails don't work okay grace so I just want you to stick to what you want us to discuss Asos to get a lengthy discussion about the subject I think open meeting law conflict of interest law training public records requests the laws that would go into that uh swearing in requirements resignation requirements conflict of interest law disclosure requirements keeping up with paperwork understanding how to check mailboxes um how to use zoom we should talk about that as a group that's just the stuff that I've got from my town clerk perspective I think it's really important I got a lot out of the old boards meeting we had in 2019 the only one I got to go to um I know it was a standard in the past I think it is really valuable and really important that every boarding committee gets a chance to update the other boards and committees about what they've been doing and I also definitely have a bunch of updates about what the town clerk department has been doing that I would love to share with everybody so I I do think that um this is typically these meetings are no more than what an hour and a half two hours this is not going to be a train training session I think we need to do training sessions separate and so you know we'll work with you to determine um what is appropriate for the all boards meeting I know it's tempting you have everybody in the room or most people in the room and it's tempting to like use that grab that opportunity but there's a lot of other stuff that needs to be discussed and so I think we need to figure out the best way because all of these are important topics um but what's the best way to get so as Melissa suggested you know maybe it's um you know having having two or three boards meet together or you know whatever that there's that there's training done on a committee or board yeah board basis because it's the all boards meeting is not um you know it's not going to be just a training session much much as it's needed I think we got to figure out how um to do this because this is the only time that you know board the boards get together um so and they need to be talking to each other about stuff that's going on so we'll we'll figure that out grace before um before June 11 yeah no absolutely I was just answering the question of what I had planned for very ambitious um okay uh other things from the select board um one thing I have that we had talked about was um I did ask um Paul Lions if he would give an update on the clicker um information gathering that he's doing so he said he would this is the use of clickers at at town meeting and there's been a kind of ad hoc group put together by Paul and then a survey was done I think they got a pretty good response and I asked him to give us a um to give us a report on where they where they are with that um because uh it would involve um the need for funding so if we're going to do it for the next to meeting we have to be thinking about um how that whatever they come up with if purchasing or releasing or whatever how that would get paid for so that was one thing um also uh the other thing that I had is um in a little while we're going to be talking about um not weed and the interest in getting a number of the boards together to talk about how we address not weed I know this has been done in the past in town and there's renewed interest in this so um that we get some update because a number of different boards and committees are involved including Conservation Commission Board of Health select board the highway department and maybe there are others I forgotten so um so I would put that on and then we typically ask each of the Committees to just give a kind of report on what's what's hot what's current sort of what they're facing um so we would ask people to be prepared to do that right anything else that I hope not this is already four nights worth yeah know I know we're not we can't yeah we gotta we'll think it through and get it yes organ yeah we get we need to have a um a tight agenda yeah okay great well thank you um Grace for all your ideas and we will work on that um okay we next before we move on yeah did um did we want to have Refreshments they're really important questions do we want how have we done Refreshments in the past people have just volunteered we have or I think we actually went and purchased some stuff I one time I brought Donuts from I think they're no longer donut yeah there was a sheber those shety owner own the donut shop so that was oh oh okay what time is the meeting we did we did six believe we're doing six um yeah let's have something yeah and maybe um you want to be on the refreshment problem you and Becky just tell us if you want us to uh okay contribute Melissa is the best at the you can see the table and she can bring her silver me um oh we could have committees compete that's commit commit compete on food yeah yeah Bake Off B off yeah table though because we needly okay that's a great idea and we'll provide the beverages how's that and I'll handle the beverages okay great I can do Stu don't have no Becky enough I drive I drive by any places on the way here okay I think we got that covered um so let's move on to um Becky um had the review of the list of appointments so I'm not sure what what we need to do I mean I think today I just want you aware and thinking so we can be more streamlined when we get to it um a town meeting if there's any any concern I'm sorry not town meeting but when we get to our deadline think reappointments have to be made I just wanted to be sure that you guys had the list then that you could familiarize yourself with it and if there's anything on the list you see is a concern or pending if you could let me know okay um that would be awesome okay great so you just want us to um yeah okay just have a you know appointments are very important so you all that be prepared before we get to so and there are changes on the finance committee right we have there is one change expected um Jim Walton is finishing his ninth year I believe and it's so he will not Paul is already advertised he already put that up okay and they take care of that they'll let us Paul will let okay okay great so um we'll get you something that okay in the next week you want to sure yeah great okay um good all right so um we have an appointment um to the recreation Committee of Sam's did I say that right Sam is here no okay um so that U name has been put forward by the um Recreation committee and um I know Sam has been really involved over a bunch of things the Turkey Trot and number of other things in in town so um do I hear a motion to appoint Sam SPC to the recreation committee so move second okay um any further discussion I don't know how long how long is this those annual appointments no I so are we appointing her and we're gonna have to reappoint her yeah it's okay to be picture to get her on the list okay all right um um so no hearing no further discussion all those in favor signify by saying I Carl I okay now we are on to not weed and I don't see Mary Joe or him here [Music] um did they know we were doing this tonight you know ass and I didn't I never saw the Emil oh okay um all right so we were um sord was approached um about um the interest on the part of um some folks in town Mary Joe maay and Pam asasi and I know there are a number of other people who are involved in um wanting to address um the scourge of knotweed which is an invasive for those of you who are not familiar with not you just take a ride down Kum Hill Road and land that's owned now by the town of shuberry um it's our newest conservation land on the right hand side of the road just before you pass into pelum I mean it's one of the places I I now today I passed on whole a on West P Road anyway there's a lot of not weed not weed is um invasive can be very damaging and so we have been asked um if we would pull together um a meeting with the Board of Health and the Conservation Commission I think what um the the not we folks want is to think about how how to move forward and whether or not you know we need some sort of a task force or just some um kind of town have the sard has some leadership around this and acknowledging not weed Becky told me that um number of years ago I don't was like eight years ago was like 12 to seven years ago it like a fiveyear period we did about three different years of yeah so this has been you know work has been done before um we still have not read and there are um there's much to discuss about methodology for how you deal with um not read so I did a lot of reading after I was approached and um so I think we just need to um approach the other committees maybe come up with some dates about when we could do this sometime in June that and we have busy June right yes have two in June starting to pile up starting to pile up um maybe the third week in June as a Target the 17th no week after is that the third week the week after that okay that yeah the 24th so we're gonna every week in June what the heck finish strong right finish the yeah the fiscal year strong um so uh the week maybe if we could just come up with a couple of possibilities and we just have to make sure it doesn't conflict with either Conservation Commission or Board of Health I'm I'm not sure planning board I'm not sure who else highway highway definitely Highway yeah um and I don't is is is it too late to wait to decide this for the all board's meeting or maybe it is we don't want to wait till the 11th to decide about a meeting uh you know the way we're what's going to be going on here to really have people's attention doing it in July makes more sense really but okay but it could be yeah the time I know it's just everybody you know a lot of people go on vacation [Music] yeah let's let's see if it's possible to do it the week of June 24 I guess we could do a little I I'd be willing to just put something out and say and I'll look at the calendar to see like who meets well maybe we should pgy back on to a concom meeting if they'll have us you could do that instead of asking them to meet extra time yeah okay do you want me to talk to Beth or do you want to talk to Beth and and so it would be Steve and the Board of Health yeah I don't know what their um what their workload looks like right and this might be a bad time I'm sorry yeah what's the Board of Health part the Board of Health part is the fact that um not weed well yeah if you're using any kind of chemicals and also not weed can be very invasive into septic systems and people don't realize how much damage um it does and into your foundation particular and into your driveway um so yeah it's it's pretty nasty stuff so um pretty pretty it's pretty when it flowers yeah um just say okay so you'll do you want to yeah I'll start with Beth and see if that just okay if that is like responsible for her it's not they're too busy then then we'll do it in July okay okay that sounds fine yeah they're probably the ones with the with the most yeah okay um so we'll you'll report back the next SBO meeting okay great thank you um all right next we have the library request for suo of review of mass saves National Grid incentives for the new library and I see our library and MaryAnn is here this evening so Maryann do you want to tell us what you need from the select board hi um so when we first started the design process for the new library we met with Mass Save and National Grid about their incentive program for sustainable energy systems um so at that time we um uh we signed anou with them um and and you signed it so it was basically an application to participate in this program and now that our design is finished they have um had an energy expert review VI the energy systems and they have an incentive program so they have determined how much um the our project will receive an incentives based on the different energy systems that we have so the next step is for since the select board signed theou in the beginning it makes the most sense that the next step that the select board Bo signs um these documents and I don't have them in front of me so do you can you you have them in front of you and I I have it okay and so they're just um you know it's it's not really a contract um but it's it this is It's a custom grant program because our project didn't fit into um their sort of their regular programs um and so basically this is just signing that yes thank you very much we would like you to send us this money and and the money is about $220,000 it's about $21,000 and we get it at the end of the project so you know so at the end of the project somebody reviews it and makes sure that um everything was built as specified um and then we get the incentive money so sounds good to me and here's the document for you to sign okay so there's two different documents to sign I think it's only one signature okay right there's only room for one signature um should yeah before oh yeah yeah you all right do I hear a motion for the select board to execute the agreement with um naal grid second okay all those in favor signify by saying I make PE Sam I stalker I farell I okay now Al I'm always doing that signing before okay um all right I'll finish this I'll do the other signature after okay Becky stop by tomorrow and pick those up and send those um back to them okay thank you thanks maryan okay okay um the next item on the agenda is um an agreement between the select board and the police Union regarding placing a warrant article on the next does it have to be annual town meeting or if we had a special good we special um for establishment of Duty detail fund and oh it says that the next upcoming special our annual town meeting War yeah so do you want to just give us a little bit of background about what sure um the we're in the middle of negotiating the new contract for the police Union and um it's it's almost complete this is is one piece um what has been negotiated is the development the establishment of a private duty detail um bank account where money starting with an investment of 25,000 um it'll act as a revolving fund so when an officer does a detail in the following payroll sequence um the after the police chief put in invoices they will get paid I see currently they are waiting sometimes over three months to get paid and it's um kisten has done a police chief um Burgess has done an amazing job tightening up in every possible way uh to make the payments more uh timely but it still is a problem and you know so we're going to if if you're so willing to support this and the town is so willing to vote uh the money the 25,000 the fund will be established and we hope that'll be a sufficient amount um if if it isn't if the funds do uh run out um the contracts is they will um they'll have to wait again until money comes from the contractors that they work for and then to add to Becky said when the money comes in from that GD whoever yeah it goes back into this account so the $25 go yeah it's 20 20,000 25,000 is I that correction was made today that's oh maybe to me I think you put it in the you know what I just I printed both of them out I had also ask like you to add the Mass General law um citation okay which is also included there yeah oh here it is yeah okay so it's 25,000 correct I think at one point somebody had said 20 when I was taking notes yeah that got on the top my notes okay so what we're voting on is just that we support this concept and to put it on uh town be more yes special or that'll be yeah that's the meting okay so two question two questions sorry um so one question I have is does the town can the town make money on this that is to say Can Town charge National Grid orever it is 50 bucks an hour you can charge up processing proc processing fee 10% processing fee is charged and I think what they've added here is um uh interest on Church yeah that's that is it the other okay that's good um the other question is does it need to be that High I mean is is there actually $25,000 worth of money that's owed to the officers it doesn't they looking at last year and I know last year was exceptional but we had individual officers making 15,000 last summer okay and so you multiply that by three yeah no it seems it just seems like an unbelievable lot of money to have yeah to be out out there is not has not been reimbursed by the people who are using service different contractors so right yeah yeah and they they're sort of p and the tree um companies aren't as fast well National Grid is behind them yeah the bigger the slower yeah you P your electric bill a minutes late right exactly cool all right okay this is the correct form oh so we yeah this is right so do we have this is that's the language going that's the language okay oh okay this is the letter that we have just okay as I so there's two yeah there's two things happening um they provided the detailed language that you're not really so interested in today um when the contract comes forward you'll know that paragraph 170 has been updated to include the fund as well as the process for detail accounts okay so um do I hear a motion to execute a letter of agreement pertaining to article 17 paragraph 170 of the Union contract for pberry Le Mo second okay any um other questions all right all those in favor signify by saying I I stalker I barl I okay so now I'll sign well done that early um okay I'm gonna remind you to come back to this to come back to what because you sign did you sign just one no I signed two sign both yesk you thank you I thought you said you were I did I I SN it in it's just such a horrible feeling to find in the morning I know that a signature missing I didn't and then there's a select board member [Laughter] missing okay thank you very much thank you so the next item on the agenda is um uh select for review of the PF litigation retainer and and um I had a conversation with Becky this afternoon so um Becky did the research um for the town to uh join any class action suits and I believe I mean you you you checked with a number of different um people including Ian bond is it tyan Bond and recomended and who else um I went through KP law advertising some but what I found is the current lawsuits that are currently settling are all about Public Water Supplies um the first person I talked about to he was like you don't you have wells yeah and it was yeah dirt Roes so it took some you know um pushing to get more better understanding of where they were at and then going um the person I ended up circling back to was originally recommended by Jeffrey Arps um he has worked with um Jeffrey with Princeton Princeton is on board in the lawsuit and then they have a number of other towns but they are much more attuned to the private Wells and um and the monies that might be available in the arguments to do with private Wells and PB so this would be the the town engaging a um it's not even just one firm it's a it's like a Consortium of of law firms that are suing the um the chemical companies um my concern about the retainer was just there was some language in there that concerned me um about the town's Financial liability I mean in in theory you know with these retainers it's and when you're joining a fast action suit you're not spending any money up front right everybody's getting lawyers are getting paid if there's a there's a payout at the end so they take a lot of the frontend risk but there was a section in this retainer agreement which um was a concern about the town's potential liability if certain things did not happen um if their expenses are not cover expenses aren't covered their contingency needs aren't met um there appears potential liability so we' got to so find out what the real story is because that was not represented so I think we need to have Donna take I was say Donna looked at this yeah so she hasn't looked at it but we would have her take a look at it before we execute it and it's a long and pretty detailed agreement and none of us are lawyers so be good to have somebody who sees this stuff all the time to give us her opinion one question I have is is this the only class action suit against do we know against the chemical companies oh no I mean as Becky was saying there's there's a lot of them but they're like they're around Public Water Systems so they've been you know that they represent different groups in our case this is more of a like a retail operation because it's it's well it's it's a municipality um but it's it's individual homeowners that yeah so um yeah so I think um if Donna can review it and um you get the questions we get the questions answered um we could conceivably do this at the next our next s yes that would be good the one thing they did say the longer time you're in in the suit the more you potenti the more skin you have yep okay yeah we'd like to move it along yeah no I okay um the last item on the agenda or Town Administrator updates I'm going to um bring forward and I this email actually came to the the select board it was from the Council on Aging um but um I think it would be appropriate to invite um Lynn Feldman from in Greenfield to present her age friendly action plan to the town it's been requested by the Council on Aging and um so I think if you see no objection and I imagine you don't I think it's a great idea um I'll reach out to the council see if they can give me some dates and reach out to Laura and see what select board date um works with this okay great and as I'm only going to give one other update um the elevator has been functioning for 10 days now since we've had the last repair men here so I'm hoping that it continues and um I'm not quite a bit of work was done to it but they are uncertain if they really fixed it so we're fix okay so nothing on P or not today we've had you know water here water there um but um not any portable okay and we're still um we haven't heard anything from the Army Core any updates from the Army Corp of Engineers about the um the clean up at the at the back of Lotto 32 um Mary and being the a person she is does hasn't waited for their update she's been after them trying to get update um they have moved very slowly they have done little um but they are are doing something I think they were still saying they have they hadn't gone out to bid yet but I thought they were supposed to do that in the call so okay I'll try to follow up all right get a yeah th good just to hear kind of what that what the story is um and dville Dam I mean you'd put that on there was there anything um I just wanted you to know that the engineers that are working on the dam are coming close to implementing in June oh okay good okay um I think that's it um our next meeting is the 4th of June June 4th and then the 17th for I just want everyone to know that is not a Tuesday night that is a Monday yeah um and there was some discussion about whether or not there would be a meeting at the at the bid opening or was that oh I've been invited to watch that yeah oh we've been invited to watch do we have to post it that we might have to post as a meeting I understand that date is going to change oh it is so I'll try to find out the new dat okay that would be great if you could let us know all right um we should well to the question probably should yeah Post Yeah posted just in case anything comes up should yes all right just don't have them do it on the 17th okay I no it's gonna be okay maybe F all right um okay do I hear a motion to oh before we stop I just want to ask a question is the audio any better can one of you tell us if the audio is improved at all it's fine it is fine okay so you're hearing us because there had been complaints and we tried to I made an adjustment and it worked oh great so okay no it and it's been even through the whole meeting oh good okay good to know thank you Melissa um all right great um do I hear a motion to adjourn yes go move second all right all those in favor signify by saying I thank youil I stalker I barl I good night everybody thank you for coming and you you thank you for doing the work okay you