you want to plug into Melissa is on there's only two people here you and me yeah I'm gonna come in this way this sure I can make you host right I have okay call the meeting to order
today is Tuesday January 14 2025 this is a meeting of the sh Bo and it is a hydrate meeting um the select board um is meeting in the town hall with our
interim Town Administrator Gabe buker also and so the first item on the agenda um is to review the agenda um which I will do um we'll have public comment and then
under General business uh dis guessing the um uh I've had some discussions with Senator CER to office regarding um uh some legislation that she's going to be refiling to create a Quin
Community host PR fund uh then we had also gotten a request to um support school funding um issues and after that um Ken h is going
to be presenting on a proposed bylaw to make shsb a sanctuary Community then we will be discussing town meeting de town meeting annual town meeting um an update on the administrative assistant job posting and then we have minutes from
November 6 November 12th November 19th [Music] and not okay you want to use mine Little
Feed and then Dave if you have any um Town Administrator updates just a little at the end yeah okay all right so public comment uh we don't have a picture up on screen is there anybody
so there's nobody I'm also there's nobody it's off I can sign on no don't [Music] [Music] Soo we're getting a lot
of they are Mato is there an echo there now Mato can you hear us yeah I can hear you okay all right um so Mato do you have any public comment this
evening no I don't okay thank you um all right so the first item of business is um we have this listed as discussion of Senate's request for support um for the MW to create a Quin Community House
trust fund and just a little bit of background I had gotten um a call from um a resident of pum concerning the report that was done so M MW did a study
of the um Quin and did a report that was issued at the end of November of 2024 um Massachusetts Water Resources Authority thank you um and they did a study to look at extending Water Service
to the quaven reservoir Watershed communities and there are 12 communities and this study was in response to our legislators saying gee you know the those Watershed all those those 12
communities provide um prote to the Quin Reservoir but don't um get any benefits from the reservoir so none of us get water from the reservoir and um they had this was I believe the third
study that they did they also looked at whether or not they would extend Water Service to kind of the North Shore of Massachusetts and then a group of Southshore communities so they they did this one for the again for the 12 um um
Watershed communities and there was a very mixed reaction to the report because it um really it it was not particularly realistic in terms of what the
opportunities were um was massively expensive and um in in the case of shutesbury when I when I read through um some of the report in the case of shs it only talked about um water for the
center of town and that was still like $212 million I it just seems totally unrealistic well it would be great if we could get water out of the the Clin just the mere fact of having to Pump It Up um
to the top of the hill and then um treat it and then it it just doesn't make any sense so what um Senator cumerford had done in the last legislative session was
she had um submitted a bill and I believe um representative Saunders um was doing it on the house side to um find a way to compensate The Watershed communities the cabin Watershed
communities um for being the hosts of of the Quin including you know the fact that kind of all that land that's underneath the Quin um is owned by the by the adjoining communities so um what
what she is going to she's going to resubmit um the bill this year it kind of died in in committee last year um she's going to resubmit it this year and um just some of the highlights of it um it would establish a what's called a
community host development trust fund um to be credited with $35 million annually from the MW fund would support local Municipal needs and nonprofits serving the health welfare safety and Transit needs of these communities um Additionally the bill
requires the MW to make payments in Li of taxes so so that this would be an addition to the payments in L which we already get um that's actually for under the reservoir and then the bill creates two additional seats on the MWR a board
of representatives from Hampshire Franklin and bler counties right now the only Western Mas person is um I believe it's the Town Administrator in t of mson I looked at their board today just to just to see um
so you know I think it's probably the most realistic option for um you know for Sho fa to be able to um to to get some of that the those trust funds and um what kind of what the
organizers are doing and you know my contact from um pum was saying you know we need to we as a community need to um express our support now the bill hasn't been filed yet I believe filings have to be done by January
17th what's today 15th I um so it will have you know it will have a a number um and I think um what probably makes the
most sense I I didn't have time to um to draft anything and I just had the conversation with Elena Cohen from um uh Senator comerford's office today but um that we wait until our next meeting and
then I can prepare a draft letter um because we might want and going I need to double check on this you know we might want to also send something to the MW basically saying like this study didn't do much
for us but this um this trust fund could potentially be a really great um resource and that we would support it so um that's where I was going to leave it for today and just make sure that everybody that you you two were on board
with with doing that and then we meet again in two two weeks yeah we're not meeting next week so I will go ahead and get something um drafted and then uh we can we can go from there and maybe by then I'll have the um the bill numbers
too um uh the next item on the agenda is we had gotten a request from Senator C comerford's office about um support for school funding and I know I got it I the
finance committee Susie did you I if it came through the committee okay um I don't know who else saw it they were basically asking for um for municipalities to write letters of
support for the increased Chapter 70 funding um I went ahead and did it myself because they I know that they were looking for individuals I don't know they were asking you know if you could take pictures and it was you know it was more like can we make this a
Grassroots effort but um so what I would encourage everybody to do you know we we I think sending as individuals it was it was very clear here's who you write to here's what we're looking for and um I
went ahead and and did it um so I would just encourage everybody else to and then if you it's it's to make sure that that money is in the um Governor's budget and um uh you want to do anything
as a select board well why don't you do it individually and then for the next at our next meeting I don't know when the governor's budget comes out end of January so end of January so we would have time what's say it's so 14 21 28
yeah if we um unless you want to authorize um Gabe to just send a send a letter saying that you could do it that way that'll be fine with me I mean I would
time timing wise that might be better okay all right it's sooner all right um do you recall Gabe I did get an email from her you did in support so it's probably the same thing you follow yeah if you just follow sort of their guidelines about what you know what
they're um looking for it's um um yeah I need more money in the Susie can ATT test Susie did you have a yeah and I sent a letter to war hey at the beginning of the month and in the meantime the federal rural education Aid
was left out of the American relief budget that got passed in December the 18th and so that represents a $116,000 plus cut to our elementary
school funding it's it's been a process to figure out what year that affects um it looks like it's maybe we're okay in 2025 but it's this whole so when we talked to Aaron Saunders on
Monday he said you know whatever goes on with this new ad Federal Administration the state cannot backfill the whole thing so where there's holes there's holes so one of my requests in the he
one was to um support the rural Aid Boost from 16 million to 60 million and we already know in this shell game we've lost some of that because we've lost some of our um federal aid for Rural education so um
it's not only the Chapter 70 which Fila said it's time to review that which is good um it is also the rural Aid at the state level is a sort of an established platform so if we can get that to be
boosted um that will um and our state rural education Aid was 80 a little less than 80,000 because that a little less than 80,000 so that's a place that if they boost it from 16 to
um 60 million we will definitely benefit so I that should be in in the request um that's that's already possible the whole Chapter 70 thing is a long haul it will happen year that I think she did include
real a well I wrote it down I in the um so um got it yeah okay okay great um okay so um the next item on the agenda is the discussion of a proposed
bylaw to make shs fa a sanctuary community and I am going to turn this over to Penny Kim who has joined us this evening thank you I'm here to sort of seek your guidance and engage your
interest um recently both the town of Amerson the city of Northampton reaffirmed their status as sanctuary community and a safe City respectively um Joe Comerford is refiling a bill that's called safer
communities I don't know the text of it but uh she also referred me back to the am bylaw so I'd like to ask you as a select for if you would like to consider adopting General bylaw to
designate uh shutesbury or to ask the town if they would like to designate our town as a safe Community why for two reasons one is because I'm General principle and the second uh
there are a lot of specific reasons that we would want to consider but I just offer you one here we live in an area where there are many people uh related to the university Etc or others uh schools who have LS vises
perhaps like a student visa this is a small example but um a lot student visa uh someone who has a a legitimate reques in for asylum in this country but has been totally stamed by the huge backlog
at the federal level uh to process these requests so there are people without status um that shouldn't be U so what am I talking about so the commitment in the neighboring towns is
that no Town officer or employee act as an immigration officer to the extent possible by law uh and this is in non-criminal related to non-criminal requests and ones not supported by a
court order and this is all relative to a particular individual's immigration status that comes to the attention of the Town officers and employees a lot of language is a lot of language in what I've begun to read um
how would we go about it we have examples of of the bylaws um and I think we can use ammer and that's what Senator Joe suggested as a basis to formulate our own I think we would not need anything as
elaborate I think we would be looking for something that's pretty General uh and non- Technical because again our interests aren't as complicated or our needs aren't as complicated as for example our p there's a lot of activity
going on um so I'm just here to ask if you all would like to support moving forward on this and if you say yes then how does a general bylaw get brought to town
meeting many of them come out of committees or whatever uh but the general ones for example like a noise byog I don't know how that that comes from so my understanding and correct me if I'm
wrong town clerk um that with a with a general bylaw the select Bo could vote to put a bylaw on the town meeting warrant um and then the other way is through citizen petition which we've had
um to you know pass out bylaw such as one that we did back the special town meeting having to do with um noncitizen being able to vote that that was a home R petition
separate that has to go through the legislature right um yeah General bylaws bylaws can be proposed by uh can be added to the warrant by the select board or by a citizen petition say as any
other article except for zoning articles which have to go through process yeah so what I would say um is that if if there was a bylaw drafted that it could be
brought before um this the select board and then um we're going to be talking in a few minutes about when town meeting is going to be um but that we have it you know a month in advance of town meeting so let's let's assume by the end of you
know March um that we have the language so that we can we review it we would have to vote on it um make changes have Town Council review it uh but you know if you can if you can simplify the one that ammer has because I assume it's
complex um but maybe you know maybe it's what we need um but you know have somebody take a look at it and see and then it could be brought before this Bo right yes yeah you good
with that yeah that' be very good well I have a couple of questions I think U the citizens petition sounds like a a good rout because get people involved however the petition would be asking I'm not sure it
would just ask you to pass an attached bylaw uh I think it only that only takes 10 people to sign up on a petition so I think it would be more appropriate as a bylaw to come from the select board on
more so uh I'm happy to work on putting together language uh I would suggest that I have mention maybe an ad hoc committee I don't think we need committees but I think we need a few people who are interested and would know uh especially
the chief police chief uh I would like to you know if there is a small group of people to work on it then I would like to ask if it's possible to consult with
um Donna before it comes to you so that or maybe maybe because of that question you just asked Penny maybe we should have it a little bit earlier if we want it because Donna will be really busy with other to meting all the support so
maybe even a rough draft Yeah Yeah I think that's a good idea it's better if it comes from us then working directly with Donna so if you give us a um you give us a a draft early um then and especially if it's been passed in another community and
approved by the attorney general you know that right right and I also and I and I think your other question was Consulting with Kristen or whoever else you might want to to have re over and I we need to have a small group to work on a draft and she would be the most
important person I think to represent Town employees and officers so she Shar shared with us this I don't know if you've ever seen this but this legal advisory it's legal guidance for Massachusetts Chiefs of police regarding
um uh legal limitations on the handling of federal civil immigration detainers as established in the 2017 Mass Supreme Judicial Court decision lond versus commonweal I can share this with you know take that um and I think that
outlines what police Chiefs can or cannot do um I I certainly um yeah we don't need another committee not right now we're committeed out um uh what I would say you know if you want to have a not a committee
appointed by the select board but you want to have an ad hoc group and then consult with Kristen I think that would be helpful it might be worth having a conversation with her um and then yeah I think if if we were to get it um early
so yeah let's let's ship back and let's say the beginning of March um that if we want to bring in Donna she doesn't get and and yeah the sooner we have something for her would you suggest other people in town who might be
interested and important as we're representing the interests of officers and employees and um if if you want if you don't want to be AO the committee then we shouldn't
suggest yeah yeah I yeah you might want to talk to Kristen um she might have some ideas I talked to Mato um just because he did the you know some of the work that he did around um uh no
real yeah there really isn't anybody yeah else that I there's not a finance piece to this because we can't we don't need service so that would be that would be a committee any it doesn't the open meeting law does not prescribe a a
specific method for how committees need to be con so like if the select board is deciding we're going to designate these people to do a thing then it's we're not doing they have done that um okay you can
[Music] whisper I'm just I wanted to just sure oh yeah yeah no and um I can give you a couple of names of people in um in pelum who have been doing something similar so
um that might be good folks for you to talk to thank you yeah okay so you before the beginning of March yes before the beginning of March so you have like six weeks right yeah no we in February yeah six weeks now we're we're
always several weeks ahead was thinking ahead um okay great so we'll look forward to um seeing something from you and and I would say um the other thing I would um make sure is that when you come
back to us with a draft if there's like supporting documentation Q&A questions and answers like what other you know and I would I don't think it's stuff you have to create honestly I think it's probably um um you could probably find it from other
communities there's a lot there's too much to so it's just kind of weeding through that to say um because it would be useful for us but then it's also going to be useful for town meeting you know for people
abely so um yeah Q would be great to have an informal hearing or discussion for people to think about it in advance or whatever yeah well typically we um I don't know if we I'm trying to remember
what we did last year you know I think we had something before town meeting with the finance committee just and and then something on the article so it was just giving people from the community an opportunity to like hear about stuff before town meeting but I would say you know we
don't typically get a real large turnout so the more um the more concise information there is um such as in a um question and answer piece I think that would be really good for for folks to
have okay good we look forward to seeing that um so I will get you a couple of names um uh so the next um item on the agenda is setting town meeting date so
as per our town bylaw town meeting date um was set for April 26 2025 and um we've had some discussion about moving that and actually had some um discussion with the finance committee
and I I take responsibility I sort of broached it in part because I felt like this year you know we're having a lot of catching up to do um and that um that at
the last Regional School joint fourtown meeting it was clear that we're always waiting on ammer and um unfortunately you know amorist is is later in their decision making and
this is going to be a really tough year for the um for the regional school budget it's I think it was like the million dollars Gap didn't we have more more something of that I mean it was it's and
it's not just like a madeup number it's real um and so there was a lot of um a lot of discussion and and amorist is uh they were kind of D of Amis was uh kind of digging in his heel some where I feel
like the other Susie correct me and Eric and Melissa you guys were there too um so uh the the sooner we we know and we got into this situation last year where we were passing the budget in the
absence of knowing what Amis was going to do so anyway we talked about it um Gabe raised it with the um with the finance committee and um they were okay but not to move it later into may but rather May
10th was was the date that um was agreed upon subsequent to that um Grace um expressed some concern about um moving the meeting and I'll let you speak to it Grace but I'm just going to summarize
quickly um uh because in the town street listing um there was an insert you know um from and that comes from the town clerk's office that stated that town meeting was going to be April 26th um
the select board does set town meeting date so we so our bylaws have to have meeting date yes but board has the authority to V to change the date of it but our byla dat so we can change the
town meeting um and uh so we we have a mailing out there um and so there are there would be costs some costs associated with making the change um and Grace can speak to that you know I guess
the question for us is whether or not um the advantages outweigh the disadvantages of changing so Grace I'm going to hand it off to you to just right so if we change the date because I already sent this letter with that
includes to every household in town which includes the date of town meeting and the date that nomination papers need to be F cuz what what we're focusing on right now is not so much voter Outreach so much as it is candidate Outreach and that is equally important when we're
talking about our local elections um so what I would do if we're changing the date because I already sent this date out to everybody and I know a lot of people throw the letters away but a lot of people also read them and then
rely on them to keep the fact straight um I would want to send a second mailing out uh not to every household because sorting that out would be complicated and add the process would probably end
up taking two weeks to do a mailing um what I would do is I just send a individual letter to every registered voter because the easiest thing for me to do is print out mailing labels of every registered voter which I can
easily do in a few minutes um with our computer program and then stick those on labels that would I could either buy new envelopes to do that which I don't have a practical way to do
right now or I could use the envelopes I have on hand which would wipe out my supply for the rest of the year uh can I make another suggestion yeah what about a town announce Town announc less than 600 people are s right now red has more no no none of none of
those methods are going to compensate for mailing every single household a letter what about just ordering plain envelopes and sticking stamps on that would be more expensive why because then we're buying the envelopes and the stamps separately
but you're paying more for those you pay for the printing yeah envelopes the philonic I'm not talking about pre-stamped envelopes I'm just talking about envelopes that have come with Prepaid postage so have the stamp with the postage but so I can either use the envelopes I have on hand which I have
enough envelopes on hand for that or but it'll wipe out my supply for the rest of the year to do two town it's 1500 envelopes 1528 as of today there's no additional printing for them to print the
exposed like so a few it's it's I don't have the numbers on hand but from experience when I've done the number added up the numbers before it's way cheaper for us to order the envelopes from USBS prepaid than it is
for me to get envelopes and then also buy a bunch of stamps and then there's also the problem of me having to drive to different post offices to buy a roller stamps I know you can order the rules of stamps from yes we can do that and I
know you can get the envelopes from the Franklin County Jail amers would have yeah they do envelopes we get so they could do them with our address on them from the francin county what jail
jail that would be something I would be comfortable with why um they're cheap it's just a solution yeah uh yeah I I I mean
they yeah that is that would be an option to consider if we're doing it the point is I would want to do this mailing that would add a significant cost it would either way postage is going to be
adding another $1,000 to the budget for this at least if we're talking about 1,500 could couldn't we do it in the way that we do the town newsletter where we send it both M that's cheaper
than sending an envelope we could uh but that would be we've never done that with the town clerk the town clerk's office has never done that before so it would be a new thing it would be something to consider this this is this isn't doesn't have to go to like I'm thinking of my husband
and I we don't need to receive two of them we only need oh no no no you do you know I can't because we don't just have households this is a thing I there are two ways to do this kind of mailing I could I the mailing is the one thing I can figure that out how to do that and
that would be my job it would just be a significant money and labor expense anyway would do that um no I couldn't mail you can't mail right right so voters yeah and and you know if I
know somebody's in a family yeah I can stick all those things in one envelope but we also have houses that are all college students living together and there are privacy concerns well this is also but this isn't the this is just
a notice it's not a I'm just trying to understand what I would what I would do if we're going to change the information and we're we're doing something different from the usual process so what I was what I'm planning my my plan if we change the day to time meeting is I'm
going to send a mailer to every registered voter in town with a vote by mail application with the new date already entered in and their vote by their their voter information already entered in and a let new letter combining
mailings because otherwise you right I would be combining it would be a new mailing to correct the information and to because I'd already sent out this mailing to every household so if I don't provide the same information at the same level that I
already provided then it would be a problem so you already mailed out the mail mail who was for the street list ien open yeah um I know nobody opened the envelope but I still have to do the thing I filled it out and threw the rest
of it away I know this is my with mailing out all those newsletters and all that expensive but also also a lot of people don't put them in their cycling thing and a lot of people use them and refer to them throughout the year so we have a
percentage we have $1,700 in postage we've only spent $238 we have $3,000 in printing and advertising done it could be done we could do it okay there any other
impediments one question I have is if we're changing it from April we're changing it by two weeks I honestly I don't know what we do that if we here's my question if we do that do we have any more do we really have a guarantee that we're going to ow any more information
no probably not what Tom I wanted to ask I thought I'd witnessed years where a town meeting got changed twice and I just wanted to ask what happens if it actually doesn't Ur me well what you do you can recess you can start the town
meeting and you recess to a later date sure there was one year where the town meeting date got scheduled uh rescheduled twice so historically shury has already always had a set date for town meeting things got weird in
Co until 2023 we were still under the general state of emergency and so the town meeting was getting rescheduled every year in 2024 we went back to our bylaw which was updated in
2019 to set our annual town meeting date as the last Saturday in April so 2024 was actually the first time we used our bylaw which was passed in 2019 and now we are talking
about not following the bylaw again okay I would suggest again because I spre this up last year since we keep changing the date till later and everyone feels like a is too early we should P revise the bylaw
to set our town meeting date as probably I I suggest I think I suggested last year the the third Saturday in May either that or because we always run into conflicts in the beginning with May with pride right and we lose a lot of people to that which was why we changed
the bylaw in the first place right right and it got earlier and earlier um I think we should definitely look at revising the bylaw um could the bylaw say at a time as designated by the
select board but before June I would not be supportive of that if we don't have a set date for so one of the problems consistently for the last few years has been uh the date for town meeting has been set at the last possible minute and
that has constantly changed the not the deadlines for candidates and voters okay I need to be able to coordinate with the state and and with our election vendors which we don't have many it's pretty much just um but I need to be able to
you know print our ballots and proof them early enough to get them to uh esns for a Automark ballots and to Omni ballot for our overseas and Military voter ballots okay and um that gets a
lot more complicated if we don't have a set dat okay could could it could it say something something like it like this not necessarily this language could it say something where town meeting date would be select what you said by the select board and by a certain date if
not then it defaults to May 10th or whatever the date is yeah I mean we we could do that the state law already says that the date has to be before June 30th right right well I was just right but I'm just saying if we have a where where
we can prevent it from moving too much yeah that's what I'm saying but but then again you don't you know the deadline every single deadline changes based on exactly what date every deadline that's calculated is based on Counting back the
days from election day so any if you move Election Day by one day that changes all the deadlines but what I was saying is is to have the select board set the the meeting date and then if not it's add it's it defaults to a specific date so say if we don't set it by
January first or whatever we decide or whatever it is then it automatically defaults to it would have to because the town clerk really office really needs to know the election date by December oh the December I was just thinking but that's that when when we
over the last few years you know that hasn't been how this works right so let's let's separate out the bylaw revisions and we should have a discussion about that um uh maybe at our next meeting about what changes and just
anticipate that that would be something that we would do at um town meeting um so I'm going to put Susie on the spot as the only representative here from the finance committee about what the finance committee discussed and um about moving
the town meeting does that help the finance committee in any way or well our discussion was in the context and we were being asked if we should if we could what day we could move it to okay it wasn't if we have to move it yeah it
is always hard to come up with a budget before I mean fren the the state didn't come through till August or September so we always are juggling Jello it always produces a lot of anxiety this year is
really hard because of the change in administration and the flow of information is different and so people were jumping at the chance of delaying this but I'm not sure that by delaying it we're really going to get a more
solid budget so um there's already begun some entering into the budget sheet so we're seeing what kind of Demands are here um the revenue is always a guess um we won't know much about the revenue and
I don't believe what amoris decides it's an interesting Dynamic that in fact the three towns not including am will make decisions before they come through and they don't like being forced but
pay we have to make a budget um and so I'm not sure that there's a um a really clear advantage to the fincom other than pushing it off having a little more time and put you know but in fact we have to
sort of where the rubber meets the road time has to happen that's going to be it's going to produce anxiety it does that's that's what we get to hold is that anxiety you all been on those committees you know that feels like so right but I don't think two
weeks is going to change that anxiety that much I would ask CU my my first thought anytime we're talking about scheduling for election or town meeting oh specifically annual town meeting is uh moderator availability and school
availability mhm and I think Paul said it wasn't great but he was available he was available has anyone checked in with the school about May 10th it's before the end of the semester I think but I don't know what's going on
with the school schedule that would be a good question because yeah CU that would be right because if the school's not available we don't have any option you check with them about April 26th uh no
but I did tell them at the beginning when when I met the principal we had a conversation with right but that was when she first got hired and that was because I thought we were sticking with the bylaw and I did make the plans
usually should be on Satur it's just something we have to check yeah um so what is what is your Gabe do you have any uh want to weigh in on this at all given what you've observed from the
finance committee discussions and town budgets and this two weeks going to two weeks won't really I think you can have the meeting and not have a budget and just reconvene in the fall you may have to do that with the state we don't know
the cherity sheet numbers they could be they're unknown um I talked to mayia they're not even ready to give us numbers you're talking about February so for me the pressure exactly what Susie said it's the pressure and two weeks
isn't worth it originally we were kind of going for the end of May but that didn't work out for the fincom schedules and I respect that um two weeks probably won't make a difference yeah but it will you will not have a happy budget let's
just say that because it'll have to use a 12 month thing until it gets passed and is there any reason it couldn't be in August no there's none you can have a town meeting and put what you have in place no saying that you're going to come back and doesn't make people happy
costs more because you have to have another meeting we have to have another meeting but and I it one way or the other suggested this before splitting our like do the budget meeting with our finance meeting which is what a lot of towns do splitting those two
meetings um in the town that when I've talked to town clerks who have gone that route they get a lot of positive feedback about splitting meetings them shorter do they usually split it to do the budget in in um
budget in Fall usually okay but that's a that's kind of a bigger city thing and we're a small town we're subject to the June 30th routinely does it um if you talk to Gil wife padly routinely does it splits it and finishes it in the hall
and they're a small town we think they're a Big Town so do you just do a 112th budget from the current year is that how you operate I don't think so I would have to ask Gail how they do it um because she did it for them for years yeah all right so
um well give that being able to I think we that for the election in leave it to the leave it at the 26 and then the budg into another option open to do the budget not SE then you'll have numers we can always have special Town
meetings yeah we need there's so much fun um they cost money yeah they do cost money and they're not fair to your residents because they don't get a lot of people out at them I don't know about your record here I mean a lot of people think you're
we do have we do have so Sho fa we have pretty good turnout comparatively speaking for all our town meetings um you should explore Saturday for that Finance yeah otherwise some people aren't going to come
because and we need to talk to the finance committee about that about splitting it how you guys there might be I would have to research it I don't know if there is an mgl I vaguely remember there might be an
mgl about the procedure for splitting your meetings MH um but I would have to dig into that so there might be some extra procedural steps for that but I can look into it and get back to you send you guys some information and you can also recess too right and so that's
another way of doing now it's a little weird because Paul's announced he will be resigning so there would I can think of a few different
ways that might be able to work if you resist the meeting and then a new moderator is taking office taking office within the interim um but that would be another thing that I would research this weekend probably ending up asking Donna about
that okay all right so um I think we already voted to set the date is April 26th right do you want to do it again sure we have sure
look worst case scenario you already did like you didn't already do it and we don't do it right now that's the worst case just because I don't want to step on shsb toes I don't know your policy can they open the warrant tonight oh absolutely we don't have uh yeah we
don't have any our bylaw is our town meeting bylaw is super minimal uh the warrant they you can guys can accept stuff for the warrant so what you would do is you would set the meeting at April 26th and you o the motion would say and we open the warrant oh okay tonight so
cuz um bylaws have to come in it gives people the opportunity to give us what they want on the warrant okay great sooner doing April you got a new ta the one thing is uh any bylaws to be
submitted to the select for any bylaws must be submitted 45 days before annual 10wn meeting which is if we're doing it on the 26 uh March
26 45 days 45 days before isn't that only 30 days definitely 30 days before March 2 you're right I was see I've got two sets of numbers so it's on this map it's about March March 12th there we go the select
board submits the bylaw they can do it up until yeah you posst the bylaw which is Tech days before but please it earlier than that okay all right so do I hear a motion to open the warrant for
the shutesbury annual town meeting which will be held on Saturday April 26 2025 starting at 900 a.m. at the shb elementary school so second okay any further
discussion all those in favor s by by saying I st make PE of bar thank you Grace for coming in I learned a lot through this process well now you guys get to benefit from my equally complicated plan to vot by me all with
this date so look forward to that okay thank you but it doesn't involve any [Music] envelopes mailing no no that's what I'm saying I'm not doing a mailing I'm doing cuz I already got the dates out yeah and
I can um great but I am going to uh make cool little vote by mail pull this thing off and apply for vote by mail with a Q code things to leave it Kush leate and home General St and and we'll have some discussion
with the finance committee that's why I'm also going to be email I'm going to go to the general website and I'm going to be talking to the other chn CLS and letting them know I'm doing this thank you suie thanks Susie thanks [Music]
um all right so um next item on the agenda is just an update on the administrative assistant job posting is it up I don't know no I no I I didn't do the we need to we didn't the
so we're going to pass on this and get it up okay you guys said you guys had told me I had told Gabe that she and I were were tasked with doing it and then we and then the week went by unfortunately all right so that's our fault we'll get to that okay um yes
could we H so just a quick idea is posting that job ad specifically on the UMass College job board ad which is a free place to post job ads and might be a place to find really good yeah appropriate people for that
specific which is my two sents we also wanted to post it locally in hopes of getting local people possibly she's very yeah yeah I mean it could be sent out as a town announc like to do
um okay great so we have three so apologies there you I'll think about forgiving you for that originally I don't know which agenda you're working off of but the o October 24th minutes you already approved yes so you only have two if you
had a chance I know I sent them late I thought we had three I thought we had the the 6th the 12th and the 19th am I mistaken did we do one of those already uh I'm going to put the 19th on the next agenda oh I just got that one I know I read through them already yeah I mean I
had to you can vote it if you want did you I don't think I did that would be easy on me okay it was in a um it was in an email yes uh sent them all right if you don't have if you haven't looked at them we can wait and do that at the next
meeting so I have November 6th and November 12th all right um do I hear a motion to approve the slip wordo minutes from November 6th so moved second okay any uh
edits I just go through them I didn't find anything no I think I okay great um all those in favor signify by saying I thank you s i stalker barl I um do I hear a motion to approve the
November 12th minutes the select board so moved second um any edits no okay um all those in favor signify by saying I I ster I barl
I and that is is it except for just you have any updates for us um just a couple um we suddenly have been inundated with resumés so I keep adding rums to the packet so th uh Thursday when we meet I
think we're going to have 10 of them up so that's good that's a good number that's great um so that's a quick update on that um the PF we have our next group of letters that we have to send out and um the good news on that is um we got
everything into the bond Council we've got our green light letter that was what I spent last week doing it worked and now we've copied all the invoices all the invoices have to go to the Clean Water trust they have to approve them and review them so we've got those all
photocopied so we're on a roll so it looks like um Greg Levine or Divine told me that you know he was going to push through as fast as he can because this has been on hold for over a year and so he was really excited um that we had it
together yes thank you so he it was it was such a good feeling to hear him say and then when Ryan emailed me and said it passed the the bond Council we were like yeses so I'm really excited that's a a good thing so this just for those of
you who don't know you know we had gotten approved for $150,000 long from the Clean Water trust but they have been waiting on us for a long time to submit a bunch of documentation so we haven't gotten our money and so Gabe um pulled that
together and we were at risk of not getting the money but um did you say that there was the possibility that we could get some more there is a possibility um we have to look at how that's why they want to see all our
bills oh okay because we have an ongoing commitment to these homes 70 some people's homes um there's an ongoing cost of that that's the next step I have to figure out is what the ongoing cost is so he did say that there is they are
willing to lend us more if um if we find that we need it to sustain the program yeah we have a lot what kind of pilot program here we have a lot of homes in a rural area we're kind of setting the standard
other towns are finding paaps new Salem is other places but we're kind of the people that are breaking the ground on the whole thing I remember somewhere along the line was a I can't remember who said it but we were ahead of the curve and identifying right and so he
said there there is a possibility of more funding right which was very good a wonderful thing to hear especially with our school budgets and the other things that we're dealing with so that is your next ta will have to pay attention to that yeah um and keep a pulse on on what
it's costing but uh Geneva has just done a fabulous job in coming in and getting those letters out that's great and everybody working together on it so that's fabulous um that's pretty much all I have can you just remind me on
that funding like what what what are we what we're getting the money but then do we pay we pay back yeah it's a 0% % Lo it's a 0% loan and we more or less told them 10 years so $15,000 I thought it was $150,000 and maybe two loans I don't know there was
only one loan that we voted on was 150 okay so he was he was happy with that and it's he told me it was zero and there's a possibility of forgiveness there is a possibility of forgiveness so um we are not um doing what's called
taxing the homes of the people with the problem we're taking full responsibility of the issue and so that's another positive on us being able to possibly get more money because it's a town burden that's shared by all um so I
really I really feel positive about it and U and I've worked with Greg in other towns he's always been really good so it was really good to to hear and be positive about sh well thank you for getting this Tak
care I really feel good about it so I'm I'm moving on to working on the budget now and trying to get the numbers for the fincom I had put that on hold trying to get this buttoned up um so other than that and any progress on Zoom oh yes wow
how I could forget that well obviously they have zoom is being launched tomorrow oh wow at the department head meeting I have it's all ready to go I had my first training with the Board of Health today and she's all set up and running on her
own buildings committee is next so people will need to come and train with me because they're going to have to book their own open their own and I have a whole chart that I'm giving the department heads tomorrow and whoever comes to the department head meeting um
Grace is going to have to help me get all the people I don't know about so what we did just to give you a quick recap is instead of assigning Zoom accounts to the town admin and to fincom
we have five people we set licenses for the rest of them are called meeting post two meeting post three meeting post four so I have a chart where if you meet on Wednesdays you're you're assigned meeting post two or meeting post three
that's do and meeting post four so that splitting the Wednesday people up instead of having 10 people trying to buy for the same night by doing that I had a lot of space so when you see the chart you'll see that Mondays are open in a lot of
these Li right because there aren't any Monday meetings but a committee might say well that would be better for us than trying to get on Wednesday nights with everybody and competing with compe and Tuesdays um so and the other thing about
setting it up as a meeting post number is they all share the same uh passcode and you know how many committees are using that post so instead of Grace and I going oh did you get history commit historical commission
covered no I haven't I need to cover over here oh no I need to run home and turn on building right that stops all of that nonsense and they'll all have their own sign in but the thing is when they sign in and I'll go through this with the department head meeting tomorrow is
the first time they do it they have to get a code and I want I want to get a code with them so that it really helped today to do it with Kathy Hilton and work through it and then she went home to test drive it from her own computer and that's what I don't want people to
wait till day before they're me it right so anybody out there that didn't get I didn't get a lot I got a lot of responses to my zo survey what nights you're on but a lot of small committees didn't respond and so those are the ones
that aren't assigned a zoom thing so Zoom is live it's working Matteo has had no issues with land Us's Clerk and he's got four committees yeah so he's running he's been running now for two weeks with no issues kath's our first one tomorrow
cat whatever you call however you name her she's our first one tomorrow night at Wednesday that's running on her own um and then the rest are just tomorrow they're going to get it all and so I'm excited great a joint effort there well I kind
of laid the the idea you Tak than that's great creative with with the posting um just a couple of other quick things and the update variety um before we were starting I was thinking about the we typically send out a
newsletter before Town me meeting and um it's always been paper and and Janice gray has been the editor and everybody's had to submit to her she's not going to be able to um do it anymore and so we
need to decide whether or not going to try to do an electronic newsletter and that might be one way to do it so so that's a suggest I think that I had made u a while ago is um and and with listening to How much postage is costing
us and and um and I do appreciate that there are some people who do hold on to those pieces of paper but there's also a a larger number I think that do recycle them so we are essentially generating something to to give to the recycling
man which I'm sure is happy to take recycl um but I think that might be a good place to try it and um it can be formatted slightly different right so it's not in a booklet um I'm happy to help in that effort and get it you know
just have to figure out who who would do it and I don't know if there's a town volunteer or if we try to so New Salem to bring up another town has what they call the New Salem News and it's
electronic and it comes out once a month and everybody who wants it signs up for it and it is a volunteer they put it out you send them what you want them to put on it just like you would to and and and they send it out
electronically they don't pay for it distribution and who does it I'm not sure but I'm thinking if we ask them how they do it it might help us not create recreate the wheel right and it could be something simple and then we just tell everybody because we've been posting the
warrant um and not sending that out and just you know we bring copies to town meeting but you know we post it on the on the website it could be something easy if it's not that hard to do that your new admin Administrative Assistant
can do gather all the get the reports it could be really I mean it could be doesn't mean be hard no the annual report was is a separate thing that and that we're talking about that tomorrow okay that's my next but the newsletter can easily be done into a PDF yes right
right and then and just made really I mean I would often find the other thing just I never read new Salems but my husband does so I think it depends the same thing with it coming in the mail you know some of us read it some people would print it out and then say Oh want
read it and I can't sleep and I think you can have a newer format so you're not breaking articles up know so you can have a have a page size Page Letter I don't think it's complicated well let's yeah approach it
that way that would be great I'll look into that for you guys the only the I'm going to add this one slight caveat is that U maybe we work for the counseling agent because they would know if there's people that don't have internet or something who may want it could print mail
G they s their to giz um just because that they think that that's a population doesn't have internet through okay demographic could okay but any all right it would reduce it anyway
yes one question I have relat to S of communication is we passed that letter last week I think last about the DCR letter from the select board yeah and we said we're going to carbon copy of Joe Comer do we do that I didn't do
it mailed it oh that's fine mailing then send the CC's okay yeah we can just see copy it and send the cc's to the other people right I mean but I just want to to do like one things you said we were going to tell the Conservation
Commission and I can't I can't remember said what okay well let's look at who the ccs are too yeah okay um I think we're done do I hear a motion
to adjourn so move second alth those a paper signify the same make peace on your bar thank you thanks for coming good time
yes good time attack by all all new yeah why that people don't like it that's the only people don't like it