This government meeting is brought to you by Eastworks and our local cable subscribers. Okay. I'm going to call to order the meeting of the Southampton Select Board for September 23rd, 2025 at about 7:05
p.m. And uh if we can start by standing and saying the pledge of allegiance, please. I pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation
under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thanks. All right. You want to flag down or are you okay? Well, I did flag them down. All right, Scott, you want to text them? Not my job. Okay. Yeah, they they know we're
meeting. So, okay. Uh let's keep on going with the agenda. Uh if we can do that, they will catch up with us, I guess. All right. So on the next up uh anybody here for citizens speak which is basically 5 minutes open time for the
public anybody any has anything to say come on up and introduce yourself and your address basically where you where you are in town. My name is James John Seir. Okay 77 people I wrote and I'm putting a
request for meeting slight order about the problems I'm dealing with with this property. Okay, I have a lawyer and he's been putting in emails and we haven't been getting answers. So, I will have to get some answers on what information I was sent
on general law complaints of neighbors and going against the zoning law. They're denying me my septic system. So, okay. How would I get a meeting through email?
Um, We'd have to be having you actually be on the agenda for an agenda item. Is that how that would work? I mean, we've had meeting you've had meeting with this. I mean, this is in litigation. He's represented by council as well as the town at this point. So, I wouldn't recommend any communications with him.
Oh. Right now. Okay. Any any communication should go through council. Through council. Okay. Well, so that would be the the request on that then through through your lawyers to our lawyers. Is that it, Scott? Yeah. I guess because you're already in
litigation lawyers and they delayed and it's getting delayed even more. So I am a property owner. I'm a taxpayer. I know my rights. I need to get the information of what you put me under. List of neighbors. So any bylaws, my
general law they put me under isn't even a threat in this area. Okay. I guess I'm not totally aware of the whole situation obviously. I mean, you've been dealing with other people in town, but I think if you've got a lawyer there, that that's what the list of issues would be. I would assume that
would go to our legal counsel. More of a zoning lawyer, not a board of health. Mhm. Well, I passed the complant on the subject system. So, I should not be dying. Okay. All right. So, the select board and in the board of
health meeting is what I got. Charlie Kimi sent me the information and that's why be wrong. Mhm. Okay. I guess I'm feeling a little bit blindsided, guys. I don't know the the history here, Scott. So, I mean,
what would we I I would just I This is not It's to engage in public speak. So, it's up for the person that's speaking to say whatever. I wouldn't recommend engaging or saying anything at this point. Okay. All right. All right. So, I mean, I think you can, you know, you said that
you'd like a meeting and so go ahead if you've got more to say to us then. go ahead and say if you've got more to to say. We we don't debate anything during this open time. We just hear what you have to say and then figure out what has to happen. So, well, I just want to finish being 100% compliant on these properties,
industrial property. I've known since I was 5 years old. I know history pre-existing grandfather clauses and I've got a lot of delays going on 10 years ago property. So, I want to be able to put my subject system in there and I'm get old and when
I retire, I want to sell this property 100% compliant. Mhm. Now, I knew when I bought this property, it already had pre-existing septic system. And that when you have that system and then you have another perk test and it passed, you compliant on it,
then you're okay to put the septic system in. But only reason I'm getting denied is because of problems. Mhm. I won't go further into saying that, but um so I Mr. Town administrator is saying
you can't plan a meeting through me. I think through your council is what you're saying, right? If if I might. So I I'm I don't know all the details surrounding this, but I'm assuming if if the if if you're representing that it's in current
litigation, then that tells me that we've engaged KP law, right? We have we have a law firm. Yes. Is it KP Law or somebody different? Somebody different. Okay. So I think we the select board can provide the name of the law firm and the
attorney appointed to represent us who's speaking on our behalf to Mr. Seir. Right. is here. They they've been in contact already, but just formally whether we do it tonight or not. But I mean, as a result, it get we're not going to be able to answer questions or go back and forth without hearing from this attorney
that's representing the town. So, if if you want to have a meeting, it's got to be facilitated through that attorney and then that attorney needs to tell us that yes, you should have the meeting or no, you shouldn't have the meeting. So, you're saying you're bringing KD back? Well, no. He said it's a different he he he said he
he said it was a different firm different I say KP law because that's generally town council I I'm saying he he has an attorney any communication should be especially regard to law legal aspects interpretation of law bylaw zoning I think needs to go from any person to
their council from their council to our council and then to us. I agree with that. But I think as far as this body, the only formal action this body can be is that we formally put in writing the name of our law firm, the attorney, and the phone number. And then it's up to Mhm.
whether you represent yourself or you or you have a representative. That that's the extent we can do until the lawyer on our side says yes, talk, no, don't talk. So is that information already passed to that that's already been passed to
to Mr. Seer and or his lawyer? Yep. Okay. I think John's asking for a point of courtesy given that we can't do anything else. Mhm. So, according to Scott though, this has already been passed. So, you're just asking that we put it in writing.
Just form formalize it. I mean, I mean, he's here. He took time out of his evening to come down here. He is a resident. So, we just formally document. Okay. Here's what we did. I mean, you get lawyers involved, things take their
own, you know, we can either, you know, send a send a letter out, send an email, whatever with that information about who to contact so that your lawyer knows who to contact. Okay? Because I mean, talk to my lawyer. He says they're not answering back. You're a lawyer. You're putting in emails. Why is this town not answering
you back? Mhm. So, I will go and I will talk to a slower taxpayer and paying lawyer. Mhm. Okay. Well, let us I think we have a a motion basically to move forward with with um putting something in writing just to give you the name of the
the attorney that would be representing the town and that contact information. So, well, now I heard I got a email that anyways. I've already dealt with that going on six years ago. KP Law it. So, not but it's but it's not KP law. Well, who put on that's what I'm saying. We just we'll
formally put it in writing so it's documented. the name I that's usually well it might have been and generally KP I'm sorry Chris generally I realize I'm speaking over the chair generally KP law is our legal counsel however I'm based on the town
administrator's answer I suspect that there's somebody that has a specialty other than KP law and I don't know the name of that law firm so we want to give you that name it's uh Favor and Lindley 30 Boltwood lock in Amoris Massachusetts
So now that you have that, my lawyer will be getting an email of this information. I can reforward it because you're a lawyer. You have You need to contact your lawyer. You need to contact your lawyer. Okay.
Mhm. Okay. I'm back on from vacation. Okay. Thank you very much. Semi-retired guy, but he knows his own house, but he's very nice guy. All right. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Thank you.
You'll you'll be getting something in email or whatever, however we get get it in writing to you. Yeah. To to your lawyer, I guess, right, too. Yep. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. Okay, moving on. Um I think we really don't have East
Hampton Media here. Are they checking in with us at all? Um I just texted them again. It's uh kind of unusual to not have them in here. Later on,
did he unplug something today? Could be. [Music] I just texted him again. Uh we are live on the air. They said they're live. So Okay. All right. Well, let's keep going then. Okay. So, next up, I guess um town
administrator report. Scott. So, if anyone wants some blueberry pancakes, please stop by between 9 and 10 tomorrow at the Council on Aging. Uh we have the fire chief secret recipe. Yeah. Uh but do you have strong coffee? It's definitely not a premix from Costco or
anything like that, but I think there will be coffee. Yeah. Right. Um, thank you both. So, is fire chief and police chief joining you? Yeah, they're going to do all the hard work. Okay. All right. I'm just going to taste taste test. So, sounds good. Um, so from 9 to 10 at the senior center
tomorrow. Okay. Uh, the DLS is going to be coming out again tomorrow for their second visit uh with the town's financial team as well as Hampshire Regionals. Um, so we're talking about ways that can do efficiency. Uh we already talked about the the payroll which I think that we're still aiming for January but there's a
lot of other stuff that we need to start talking about as well and um they're they're invited for pancakes as well. Um so Scott just clarity that the purpose of them is is to really help us look at streamlining things and automating things processes and procedures um
responsibilities uh deadlines count set up a calendar. Okay. Um so and and they're going to make uh several re a lot of recommendations on what we need to do internally. Um but this is just you know again this is going to be multiple many many many meetings with them. So this is just
number two out of probably dozens. Okay. Um so we are in a u when it rains it pours we're doing a lot of procurement right now. Uh the first sub bids for the highway heating system uh were open last Friday. the RFP for the one or two units of affordable housing uh by the
Southampton Housing Authority. Uh that was posted as well. Uh the pre-bid meeting for the masonry work at Oldtown Hall also took place a week and a half ago. Um so it looks like we're going to have some biders on on everything. We just hope that obviously they come within um the amount that we have
available. Um and we're going to be opening up the heating system, general contractor bids. We just did the heating last week uh this Friday. Mhm. So um I attended the virtualformational session for the GIC. Um
a lot of it was was things that I I was already aware of following the GIC but then I was able to ask a few questions which clarified a lot of things that they do on on how they set their rates and how they do plan design changes and when they do them. So uh talk a little about that in executive session. Um, we
did have uh I did have a good meeting with the uh members of the school committee and superintendent Peron last week as well to talk about the insurance issues and update them on some of the financial issues. And um I know Chris, you'll talk a little bit more about it, but um the media
embargo has been embargo lifted on the um MVP grant and um I'll let you go for that one. I'll do what I put in the hard work. So yeah. Yeah, we we do have we are the recipient of a of a grant for for MVP. I'll I'll get into it when I do my
spiel, but yeah. Anybody have any questions for Scott? Um just maybe one other thing or maybe you'll come up with it later on, but you had mentioned I think that um the excuse me, the um we're going to have the auditors coming in soon uh for our next Oh, yes. I was going to do it in the
update yet, the FI23 audit. Okay. For the 23 audit to present those findings and have questions from us on that. So, okay. Good. If nothing else, anybody have any meetings that they have attended? Anything to share for the 10 minutes? I'm sorry. Go ahead.
Um, I know that you emailed him on a item that's not on his report, but we've discussed previously Scott doing his uh evaluations of all the direct reports to him. And I understand two out of eight are in
progress or substantially finished. And uh that's great. We need to understand what the plan is for the next six. Right. Yeah. Scott, I know you you've got a couple of the evaluations that you've been working on there. Are there others that are in progress or? Yeah, I have uh the two other next two so I have to meet with the two employees
and then just to finalize the goals and then um I have two more in the hopper. Good. Okay. She feels that this administrative detail it important as it is for our people always comes at crisis time when you can
at least breathe right exactly to think creatively but it is important it's meant to support the employees yeah no I agree with you thank you for mentioning that yep okay uh Ellen any meeting is anything to report at all I know if you've had a chance to attend
anything I think there'll be a couple coming up if they haven't been scheduled I know you may have something. I haven't since August. Um, community preservation. I haven't uh this month somehow. We'll take a look and Okay. I think they'll have a meeting. Community preservation. I'm thinking yeah, they should be meeting somewhere
in the next couple weeks. I'm pretty sure. So, just take a look on the schedule on that. But yeah. Okay. Yeah. Stephen, we'll see if I can do it alphabetically. Um, don't forget our mics, guys. We we always kind of step back. We got to make First a confession. No, just we we always uh forget how poor
the acoustics are in this room. To that point, I'm going to ask that we get a satellite microphone and speaker to go on the table in the upstairs conference room. Uh something better than relying on the screen. Okay. Um
alphabetical order assessor is my confession. Um, thank you for uh publishing the list of liaison on the town website. It reminded me that I've not looked at the calendar for assessors. I have looked for um
greenways and um it's later in the month. The um key thing is tomorrow night the housing authority uh will meet and uh we had a good session of planning for college highway today coming up later as
a mention at least. So, um they're very much on board. Um I Well, you'll you'll cover that. Um there's one I'm missing, but that's all that's happened. Okay. All right. Very good.
Oh, open space committee. Open space. Yeah. Um I am pleased to read that uh the update on our open space and recreation plan earn us three more years of eligibility was acknowledged and agreed to. So that's
the final step and thank you everyone who facilitated that. Um when Mark Casses comes back from his travels we will have a little wine cheese party for him. I know he put a lot of work into it. several grants.
Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Okay. John, um my update, uh obviously we had the North School Committee meeting. The uh topic of the health insurance increase is, you know, front and center to that. And then, um the
maybe it's appropriate to bring it up now, but if the if the chair can tell me to be quiet, we can bring it up later. But we just had a a joint session with the the other four community select boards and and there um um Southampton um made a motion that the other
communities followed. We're waiting to hear on Goan because they didn't have a presence. But uh we agreed to um have the five chairs of the select boards and the appropriate chairs of the finance committees author a letter um that's in
draft form to send out and that the uh each committee their chair or their design get together to uh strategize kind of like a subcommittee to take no action but to have free forming conversations about other things that we
can do potentially around regionalizing consolidation um budget savings as a group and a collaborative um and that uh you know we're moving forward with that. Um I uh
obviously we'll defer to the to the chair to be that point person. I I have no objection filling in. Um the letter would be sent to just to clarify to finish your your thought on the letter would be sent to Oh, and the letter would go to all the state delegation, all representatives,
senators at the state level that represent the five communities, which I believe are three representatives and two senators currently as the as our body makes up. um urging them to adequately fund the
rural communities uh whether it be rural aid, school transportation, chapter 70 funds. Um kind of in the spirit of the auditor's letter findings from I believe 3 years ago. Yeah. Auditor bump. Yeah, exactly.
That uh we we just cannot continue to go the way we're going. We need assistance from Boston. We continue to send our tax dollars to the Boston Treasury. Um we're just asking for our fair share to come back to our community. And even though we did get a little bit
of a bump this year on some of the things, um unrestricted government aid and so forth, I think, right? Um it still isn't enough to cover so much of what we need to do. So um anyway, but yeah, the hope the hopes is as a body, as a group
one individual, I think because you know, we we tried a couple of individual letters. I know we did and I I think other towns may have done that too, but I think we can we can keep on trying. I mean, nothing moves fast. So, I mean, right, can't hold out lots and lots of hope, but you don't gain anything unless you
try it. So, I think we're willing to give it a give it a show. So, all right. Um, if nothing else, I've just got a couple things. So, uh, the master plan implementation committee, uh, met last week just as usual, just trying to review the status of the goals and
strategies that were put forth in the master plan update that was developed back in about 2021. So, we're trying to meet probably quarterly. We we've been a little bit remiss. It's been hard to get people together and a couple members are missing. Uh but we did have a quorum to
get together and kind of go over the uh actions that are being taken at various levels that respond to the seven or eight chapters of the uh master plan. Uh and we'll have another meeting before the end of the of the calendar year uh to really do more updates on that. Um question. Yeah.
Planning and conservation. Do you have participation from those? Uh we have a delegate from planning. Uh no, it's the intention. The question is is it function? uh was not able to come to the last meeting and conservation does not have a delegate. I had written
out to um actually Mark at open space asking whether they might want to send somebody or not. Um and so we we need to get there somebody a lot of action items and a fair amount of accomplishments that are missing if they're not engaged.
Correct. Yeah. know there is especially um and that's why I didn't know you know between the two it would be nice to have somebody from uh from those committees attend that's supposed to be a delegate from those groups there's one or look at why they're disengaged from the process yeah well and there's one from
historical I know there's one from the housing authority um and one from park commission that were able to be there the other night and so uh we'll we'll keep plugging away at it um Scott mentioned that we got uh a grant so let me just give you a couple history. Uh
this is finally some first news about a grant that we've been working on this year. So back in 2021, the town actually undertook a planning process for what is called the municipal vulnerability preparedness program, MVP, and we did that with a group called Fussen O'Neal.
And they're a civil and environmental engineering firm out of u well they have a local office in Hartford, uh sorry, in Springfield, but they are pretty much New England based uh I think. Um so that having gone through the planning process that allowed us to actually apply for an
action grant and so I believe through Randall's office they had tried to apply for a culvert study about a two years ago maybe and unfortunately that didn't get funded by MVP but it got funded through a different mechanism.
So, uh, we worked again, uh, to see if we could come up with something and looking at the priorities and so forth that were in the NVP, um, planning process. So, we have uh just gotten word pretty much over the last couple weeks that we have received, in order, this
has been kind of embargoed until the governor's office announces these things, but uh we have uh received an action grant award from the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs in the amount of $82,770. And the name of our project, we had to
name our project was called Project Stay Cool, empowering Southampton against extreme heat. So, this is kind of an interesting one, but um so with the changes in in climate and and so forth going on in and and people are aware of things here, um the grant doesn't
require any match from the town. So, that's a good part. Um and basically we're going to do a variety of things but one of them uh aims to conduct a feasibility study for an emergency cooling and air quality center at William Norris. Um and then because of
the increasingly unpredictable weather patterns and the risk of extreme temperatures we've we looked at a variety of climate maps and all the data that's been gathered at the state level. Um you know we felt that this was in aligning with the priority from the um planning process that had been done. We
needed to have an accessible facility where vulnerable vulnerable members of the community could seek refuge if they needed to if there was a prolonged power outage, a severe storm, extreme heat event, etc. So, part of the study we'll do um is going to assess and O'Neal will
be helping us with this and guiding us through this. Um they're going to assess the school's infrastructure requirements. Uh looking at technologies and funding sources, um other operational logistics, but trying to look at the HVAC uh system in particular
to see what could be done. They're going to take a look too and see whether any kind of uh solar is possible on the roof of the school. So they're going to look at the structural integrity of the school. They're going to look at a variety of things like that. And then we're going to have a a broader community engagement program that will focus both on the youth at the school.
Hopefully we can bring in the the athletes that are part of SYAa uh and certainly our seniors through the COA as our vulnerable population, most vulnerable populations in town uh to go through a variety of things. There'll be a survey and a few other activities that we'll do and the grant has got to be
completed by the end of June. Um, so, um, O'Neal will be helping us through this and there'll be a kickoff meeting probably sometime in the next couple weeks. I'd say mid-occtober probably at this point in time. So, just want to say that, you know, finally we we feel like we've got something under our belt that,
you know, the work that we've been trying to do and we'll hope that we've got other other news to share, but this is the first grant program that's at least been announced. So, we're we're lucky to have this. So, I hoping that everybody is happy that we have this and we can move forward with it. Um, so yeah.
So here we are the end of September. We've got 9 months until the end of June, right? You're saying all the work has to be completed and build by the end of June. Correct.
Thank you very much. Yeah. So there'll be some key people uh you know we'll see who who needs to be involved from from our level uh other town departments but certainly people from the school um and COA SYA hopefully we can drag some of those folks in. Huh.
It's great. Yeah. And it's non-trivial. It's not just hooking up air conditioning. Well and they're going to be looking too I think at you know if you've been I know John knows the sort of the backside of Norris all the playing fields there. It's it's it's a hot box on a summer day
or you know there's no shade. There's a lot of tarmac. There's you know it just radiates heat, right? And so I think they're going to be trying to look at other ways to help maybe mitigate some of that too. Um so we'll we'll see how it goes. But um we we know these u consultants that had helped us earlier
on. So it's it's great that they're willing to be engaged with us again and guide the town through this process. So again, good news. Congratulations at least. Yeah. Is there any other grant information? We've been hanging on pins and needles. No, nothing for mass trails yet. Uh that
would have been on the greenway and nothing on the Manhattan sanctuary bridge, both with Mass Trails. Um the assistance to firefighters grant for the tanker and the SCBA uh units, nothing has come through on that. Those started being announced last year in
July and we were done by the end of September. They haven't announced one. And this is a nationwide competitive grant. So, that's a federal one. So, I don't know. We may be That's the big one. We may be pushing our luck on a FEMA grant, but this one at least is a state
state grant. So, um we're, you know, relatively safe with this one as far as we know. And, um, you know, very pleased to to have that. So, okay. All right. Um, if no questions on that, um, into new business. Uh, Madam Chair, sorry.
Madam Chair, if if I might, recognizing the fact that our fire chief's been on duty since 8:00 a.m. this morning, could we go out of order and take up PCF for Benjamin Fischer, new hire, part-time as needed, non-benefited, paramedic, firefighter status, 2758 with an
effective date of 9:23. Okay. With the chair's leave, I offer a second. All right. All right. Chief would like a motion. Actually, let chief say anything if you'd like to. No. H, sure. Sure. Uh Rich Bulli, fire chief. Uh so Ben Fiser
uh he's currently a lieutenant on the Graanby fire. He started out actually on Southampton Fire back in 2017. Mhm. Uh left in 2019. Uh spent four years over in East Long Meadow Fire. In the last two he's been in Graanby. He still
has family in town, so that's why he wants to Mhm. come back and help out. Nice. Okay. All right. Good. and he'll be kind of as needed if he's full time elsewhere. So, he'll fill in some some open shifts. Yeah. All right, sounds good. Great. All right, we have a motion and a
second. All those in favor? I I Okay, I hear unanimous. Uh, thank you very much. So, that we'll sign off on the PCF later on. Thanks, John, for calling that to my attention. Thanks for calling. Thank you calling that to my attention though.
That was on the agenda here. All right. Um, so let me just pull out here one more thing. Um, Stephen uh alluded to it. No, that's fine. Uh if we remember at our maybe not the last meeting but our
our an earlier meeting somewhere within the last couple of meetings um Mark Casses from the open space committee uh came before us and asked that we sign off on a uh a letter to go uh for um basically
putting forth the update that the master the sorry that the open space committee had done to uh do an action plan for the town of Southampton with their open space and recreation plan. Um, and that was really trying to extend the goals and objectives of it over a 10-year period. And by doing that, rather than
having to do the entire plan all over again, that allowed us to, uh, hopefully have an extension and so forth. And so we submitted that and literally within a weekish uh I got a letter dated September 10th again from the executive
office of energy and environmental affairs saying uh thanks for submitting the updated action plan for the town's um open space and recreation plan uh extending the goals and objectives over 10 years. I'm pleased to write that the plan has received an additional 3 years of approval and the town is eligible to
apply for DCS grants through January 2031 and this is from the uh grant program supervisor Melissa Cryan at that office. So that's great news. So congratulations too to all the open space committee people and various others that probably
were involved with Mark in putting this together. Um it does you know help to have a little bit of a streamlined process and keep us moving forward. And so many of these things, I know people think that we do a lot of plans or a lot of feasibility studies or whatever, but
sometimes you you're it's what you need. You've got to have some foundation documents to be able to go to the state or to go to FEMA in this case, in other cases rather, to even apply for a grant. So, you've got to have, you know, something in hand. You can't go empty-handed. So, this at least gets us further down the line with that. So,
great news. And Mark has been on leave, so I tried to email him this. Hopefully, he's seen it, but he'll see it when he gets back. So, perfect. All right. Uh, next up, uh, any land use planning update? Uh, Scott, anything? Have you guys something or I I had to leave the meeting a little
bit early today, so I'd rely on Stephen to see what the final um results. No fight broke out. But I mean I think there was um I think uh Dodson and Flinker did a really great job with PVPC and I think there's there was two very
very good options um that we looked at. Um I think people are going to be very happy with these would have had representatives of various committees that are involved. Okay. This is internal not full public. Yeah. But includes housing and a commercial
interest who uh couldn't make it today. But yeah, really good discussion, really good site planning. Even though we don't have identified funding or even final plans for either of the public buildings, um this is essential work uh
to ensure that any one of the pieces is not hung up or not conflicting with the other uses that are envisioned. and to generate as much synergy particularly where that will
result in cost savings whether it's sharing parking sharing septic facilities or otherwise um so we really got into that additionally and PVPC uh brought forward a nice piece which
was looking at the progression from pre-development to development and the public funding sources most appropriate to each stage and activity. Great. And it's it it it's organized. There's
nothing dramatically new, but uh it's organized well and from it we can make a calendar of activities. Sounds good. Okay. So, is the next step then another public meeting or what what happens next on this? Where does it go?
Uh I I mean I think I I exited right before we decided. Um okay. I I think Dodson and Flink are have to finalize the plans and depending on on what that is. We we've had a pretty extensive public um process already. So, we'll have to discuss what the next step is.
At this point, we're kind of getting to the end of it, so there there can't be that many changes, right? Um but we need to be able to present it to Yeah, the report will be made public. The question is whether a workshop like we've had in the past which is largely
seeking input is appropriate at this point. Um and it's a concept. It's a vision. It is not a decision. So um do we need to get everybody out on a Saturday morning to look at it another time? Uh it's a
question. uh if we can make it digestible and available that it's well or maybe I mean maybe there could be a an information session or something via Zoom or or something like that that would at least kind of you know rather than a maybe then rather than an in-person meeting like that that
would allow people to ask questions or you know clarifying certain things. Um yeah I mean I think that would be advisable if we can do that depending on when they get it all put together but great. No that's good. I'm glad that's come together. All right. Anything else on that? No.
Okay. Uh 250th anniversary. Not a whole lot uh going on. We had a a talk at the um senior center recently about the West Park Cemetery. There'll be another talk uh by one of the cultural council grantees on the burial grounds in
Southampton throughout its history. And that'll be at the library on the 25th of this month, which is a couple days. You missed it. It's at 5:30. And if you missed it, you can do what I did and see it on YouTube. The one from the uh the Judith Conland did or Yes. Yeah.
Uh that that was really a wonderful um informative presentation, but it was delightfully delivered. Mhm. Yeah. I know you were there, but we had Eastampton Media come in. No, we had East Hampton Media come in and and uh tape that. So it's it's finally up on
on the uh on the their site as should be linked on our website as well. So that's great. And Barry Sorl's piece that he did with the historic society about the founding families also available there. Yeah. So that's there too. So great. Um so there'll be a couple of
more things happening. We'll we'll keep announcing those as we go along. We're still in a evolving process. Still planning, but we've got a lot of ideas for December. Uh we got to get through October and November with some ideas, too. But uh we'll we'll keep you informed. We were going to do this uh I think people knew that we were trying to
pull off a a theatrical event uh a town play um written by a couple of former well now deceased residents um that have been longtime residents in town. Um and unfortunately we had auditions. We had about six people that are more than
willing to show up and another four that um were having issues just in terms of timing and and rehearsal times and so forth. So, we decided that it was better to try and push it off and see if we could maybe do it later on, even if it's nothing to do with the 250th. So, we may
have a theater event because there was some interest in it, but it was too quick to try and get everything done and and have a November production time. So, we'll come back to that at some point perhaps. All right. Um, any other business that can't wait? Um,
I have something but I think it's under old business but missing. Okay, I'll come back to that. I have one thing and I I just got an email a couple of days ago from Kim Shot, the um um chair of the Norris School Committee uh
just advising us that the school committee will be negotiating contracts with the Norris bargaining units this year. And so she's writing to invite a select board member or someone to attend the school committee executive sessions that pertain to these negotiations. So I think it's something I don't know
John if in the past there's been somebody from select board. Yeah. Um well prior to 5 years ago before I held both seats. Okay. So for the past 5 years I've I've done it. Okay. But prior to that John Martin Oh was the represent from the town side.
Got it. Okay. All right. So, that's one thing I don't know that we need. She didn't give me a deadline in terms of when they needed to decide, but I would say that I mean knowing both sides of the argument,
my preference would be in lie of a select board member to appoint the town administrator to attend those executive sessions in our absence. Um, I know from if I put my school committee hat on,
our uh, attorney Dup Prey's office um, says that, you know, they can't give us an opinion whether or not the select board can do that because they work for the school committee. Okay. So, I I would like through the chair if we could just email KP Law and ask
and reach out if is that within our jurisdiction. Can can we appoint because I specifically the issues that are going to be coming up and that and knowing that negotiations are at 3:00. Um I I think the town administrator
would serve this body well. Mhm. Versus one of the four of us sitting there. Yeah. No, I and I will freely say that I have had some exposure to union negotiations, but nowhere near enough to carry carry my weight in that. So, and and I would just also add me filling
the role then prints three school committee members correct out of five which creates the quorum. Yeah. So, okay. So, Scott, we may we may uh try to reach out and then just see if we can do that and then we'd bring that back at our next meeting. I mean, Kimberly Kimberly didn't say no.
She didn't say yes either. So if KP law says yes to the select board much like we appoint we authorize the chair to act in our capacity can we as as the body authorize the town administrator to be our eyes and ears at the table and report back. Yeah. Okay. Would he have a voting right
or I believe Kim's intention is for the the government body representative to be present in executive sessions with the school committee only. Not at the table. And not at the table. Okay. Got it. Okay. Which then also gives us our conduit
back and forth because the other thing that I'm self-conscious about and I know Kimberly is too that this is not the only union, right, we are negotiating with. So, we want to try and have some consistency
giving difficult times we're facing here. Certainly. Yeah. And Scott is certainly our lead person talking to our our police and our uh and our highway unions as well. So, it would make a whole lot of sense. and and Scott's own background um also leads to that conclusion. So if nobody has any
objection to that idea that we reach out I'll reach out to um KP Law and just get an opinion that it's okay to have and if they say no, I suggest Stephen do it. Just get that out there right now. I was going to second your motion.
You're on your own. All right. Yeah. Do we need do we need that as a motion to authorize engage in council? Um, well, we need the chair can do it. We're just going to reach out. I think I don't think it's really getting them on board to do anything. It's just an op
yay or nay opinion kind of thing. Great. So, all right. We'll take that up and then we'll bring that back at our next meeting in terms of what that response is. Okay. Um, okay. Anybody else have any other business that can't wait? Uh, we're we're meeting again, just to clarify here, we're meeting um three
weeks out on the 14th, not on the 7th. Is that right, Scott? And that's partly because that's when CBiz, our auditors, can come and meet with us. Um, so we'll have a meeting on the well, I'm jumping ahead, but we'll have a meeting on the 14th and on the
28th. Um, normally we would have met on the 7th, but we're going to try and entertain the auditor's schedule and have uh Tanya or somebody else come in and talk to us about the audit findings for 2023, which will be good. Okay. Yeah. All right, Stephen, we got a bunch of
warrants. We'll turn it over to you. How did this happen? All right. Since we last reported, uh, the following warrants have been prepared, authorized, and money's at the door. Uh, they are W26-1A,
the amount is $5,995 even. That's a general warrant. W26-5A, the amount is $72.80. P26-6, the amount is $38.88.
PD 26-6, the amount is $52,199.17. W26-7, the amount is $323,950.91. W26-7A, the amount is $43.92. P26-8,
the amount is $312,411.32. W26-9 the amount is $131,688.90. P26-10 the amount is 346,900797. Let me do that again. The amount is 346,797
98. And finally, W26-11. The amount is $185,478.35. Okay, that's all the news I've got. All right. Thank you much. Um hopefully we will have um certainly
sometime in October, we'll have our um I know we had a recent uh revenue expense report from from Bradley I think about a week or so ago, maybe 10 days ago now. So, we'll have another one where we would probably look more closely at just the overall revenue and uh expense
situation. Um, and as we start spending money here, keep spending money just to check where we are on that, too. Um, okay. We have a license permit. We have a one-day wine and malt permit if somebody would like to. Motion to approve a one-day wine and malt for
Pamela Gasper Conan Park, Saturday, September 27th, 2025 from noon until 7:00 p.m. The purposes is a family picnic. All right, I have a second, please. Second that. All in second. Okay. All those in favor? I I All right. Motion is approved.
Without exception, move to take up as a package the minutes of June 30th, 2025, August 19th, 2025, and September 12th, 2025. Okay. Second. All right. Um I have one I can't find it right now. I believe it's only
on the um the last one. It might have been the June one. There's one that had a couple of uh typos in it which I can just work with Judy on. One was Chief Visi's name was spelled wrong and a couple of other things that were just minor minor uh typos. Thank you. So it's nice to have that correct.
Well, I'd like to get correct in the minutes. I mean, you know, for the record. I mean, since they do get put out there. Um so, yeah. Um, I can't put my fingers on. So, as usual, uh, the motion incorporates the notion that editorial corrections can be made by the chair and Okay.
the clerk. Well, typos spelling corrections basically. Yeah. Well, we just leave it at that. We won't I don't think there was anything else. Nothing substantive. No, no, no. I don't think it was anything substantive at all. It was just a couple things and I thought I had highlighted them, but they didn't seem to take um but anyway, I believe they were both in
the June 25 um minutes. So with that um if we have a motion to do that with any corrections? Agreed. All right. Okay. So all those in favor? I I All right. So be it. Uh old business. Uh so Scott, we've already talked about
the 23 audit. Uh that's basically in final form from them and so we will have them in on the 14th. Um how are they doing? How are we doing rather with the FY24 audit? How is the treasur's office doing? Are we
getting a little bit closer with items that are being submitted or um I think we're still treading water on 24. Yeah. Okay. Is there anything that we can do? Yeah. To assist or is it just it's just going
to take some time? Uh I'm going to talk to Megan tomorrow and see if we can if there's anything that we can do now that we're wrapping up 23. Okay. So, yeah, that would be helpful. I mean, if there's, you know, if Yeah. If there's anything really, I mean, whatever we can do to help facilitate that, that would
be great. Okay. Uh, any other news on anything from the old business? Um, the door openers were delivered today. Oh my goodness. Very good. Turns out there was a spending limit on our debit card. Oh, okay. This is like the project. This is Groundhog Day. the these ADA
I tell you I'd be gl I'm going to be very glad to get them off the old business agenda. I'm tired of looking at them. Good. No, but now of course the issue is you know programming them and Dave has got to get them programmed right so that they actually do open and close the door correctly. So I feel like we need to do a field trip
when they're up and running cameras. Exactly. We've been talking about it. I know. That's great. All right. Um All right. I don't think there's anything else there. So yeah. Go ahead. Street tip etc. if that can expand to include um PV
PEC and DOT. Um the issue came up several weeks ago that uh each town in the Pioneer Valley Planning Council is entitled to two right already paid for traffic counts traffic. And so the
question was um would we take the appropriate action to cause one to be conducted at college highway frontage where we had a recent fatality. Yeah. Essentially in that area. Um and the sense of this board is yes, but we need
to clear it with our um police chief and our highway superintendent. And in real time today um I got their voiced ascent. Uhhuh. and town administrator heard it and PBPC heard it. But I think, Madam
Chair, we might need a letter. Okay. You want to draft something for me? Oh, sure. All right. Now, well, since you know the particulars of how the um how they would how they would approve these. I mean, under what guise they approve. I'll figure it out, but I think they
need to hear from an executive. Sure. No, that's fine. Yeah. I'll be glad to sign it. Sure. Super. That's fine. All right. Sounds good. Okay. Um, so that basically concludes the public session of our select board meeting. We will be going into executive session.
Uh, and this will be per MGL chapter 30A section 21A3 to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining or litigating position of the public body. And the chair so declares and this is regarding
health insurance. So moved. All right. So uh take a motion to adjurnn. Second. Second. All right. And all those in favor? Lumber I. I. Johnson. I. All right. All right. So we will be moving into executive session and not coming back.
Give us a minute.