This government meeting is brought to you by Eastworks and our local cable subscribers. All right. Uh let us call to order the meeting of the Southampton Select Board for uh August 19th, 2025 at 6:00 p.m. And if
we could uh manage to al together stand and say the Pledge of Allegiance. I'm sure we won't all be in unison, but we'll give it a try. I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to theublic and to the republic for which it stands.
One nation under God under God, indivisible, indivisible and justice for and justice for all. Great. Thank you. Okay, so we have three of us here tonight. Uh John is away on
business. So, um Stephen, Ellen, and myself are here and we will see if we can get through this agenda. Uh do we have anybody here for Citizen Speak in the audience? I can't totally see. Um, so somebody let me know if anybody needs to speak. If not, I have a just a
message to share from Tammy. Um, those of you that were in town on Saturday, uh, hopefully you came to celebrate Southampton. It was quite the event. It's a little warm, I have to admit, later in the afternoon, but nonetheless, um Tammy couldn't be here
tonight, but she and and her crowd there from the the Southampton Historical Society really wanted to sincerely thank everybody who participated to make Celebrate Southampton be exactly what it was, which was pretty darn incredible. Um, apparently as they do their headc
count, they were able to give out 675 popsicles and about 950 people in attendance from 27 different places. Great. So that's that's a huge number. I'd say that's double what we had last year practically. And so just a huge thank
you from all of that team for all of their hard work, all the businesses that contributed, all those that volunteered to help. Um it was a great great event for Celebrate Southampton and the weather weather cooperated as well. So thanks everybody. Hope you had a great time and uh see you again next year if
we have the energy to do it again hopefully. So all right anybody else there for uh citizen speak. All right then let's go into the agenda. I believe we have a couple of appointments tonight. Um Stephen, would you like to take one on the building
department and I'll have Ellen do the other one on concom. Sure. I move that U. Glenn Rita be appointed plumbing and gas inspector. A new appointment a one-year term to expire
June 30, 2026. Okay. Could I have a second? Second that. All right. All those in favor, we'll do a roll call vote because I'm hybrid in Johnson. All those in favor and I.
BS I. Okay. Passes. Thank you. And then Ellen on the next one. And I make a motion to appoint uh Paul Brousoe, a new appointment for a three-year term to the Conservation Commission to expire June 30th of 2028. Second.
Okay. All right. Does is uh Paul, he also goes by Brad. Does he happen to be in the audience tonight or not? Paul. Yes. Would you like to introduce yourself? Good. Yeah. Come on up and introduce yourself for a couple minutes. Thank you. We don't we won't put you quite on the uh Thank you
on the hot plate. Well, you know, you're you're welcome. Um, I go by the name of Brad and I've served the town before uh previously on the Hampshire Regional School Committee for about 13 years and then on the uh the town energy committee. Uh, but
that's a long time ago and I'm retired and I have time and I believe it's everyone's obligation to, you know, as a citizen to volunteer and help out and this is an opportunity to do that and I'm glad to be able to step forward to do that for the town. Wonderful.
Thank you. That's great. Really very very appreciate that Brad. Anybody have any questions of Brad or anything? anything in your background or professional that motivates you in the direction of concom? Well, I'll tell you the just a little
story about my history in Southampton. Um, I live on Glendale Road and I live across from the Clear Water uh area and as long as I lived in Southampton, which is 37 years, I've walked those trails. I've walked in the
woods back there and uh I was surprised that the town uh decided to make that part of its conservation lands five six years ago and I I really welcomed it because it meant that I could continue to walk there and so could my neighbors.
Uh so uh that sort of spurred me uh it gave me an interest in in preservation and conservation. So that's that's part of the motivation behind this. Thank you. Sure. Very good. All right. I believe we have a motion and a second on the floor.
Could I have a vote, please? All those in favor? Johnson. I All right. Congratulations, Brad. Um, you are our new concom member and uh we'll get a letter from the town administrator's assistant and then uh we'll have you swear in with the town
clerk u sometime in the coming days and then before your next con meeting, you'll just need to swear in. Great. Thank you, Chris. Good. Thank you very much for stepping up. Great to have you join us. Okay. Um I think that's it for those
appointments uh reports. Uh Scott, town administrator report. Great. Um so we had a great meeting with uh first initial meeting with Jamie Farnum and Casey Bick of the uh Division of Local Services Financial Management Resource Bureau on Thursday. Uh we spent probably about threequarters of a day um
with the financial team. Just scratched the surface. Uh there's there's a lot of stuff that we're going to have to be working on over the next 6 to9 months. Uh they're going to be providing a lot of virtual a lot of in-person support uh throughout this time. They're going to
kind of forego a lot of the formalities and get right to bullet points and calendars and um not you know the traditional report that they spend a lot of time making look fancy rather than the nuts and bolts of it. So that's kind of the situation that we're in. Um, I
think that we are starting to with Megan on board, I think we're starting to really have a good vision. Uh, we've identified a lot of places that we can uh work better internally already. Um, but also a lot of places that we're going to have to talk about externally. You relationship with Norris, relationship with Hampshire Regional,
how we can better improve things because it's all it's all one ultimately one big uh organization that is all interdependent. So, um, we're looking forward to it. It was uh myself, Megan, the assistant treasurer, Angie, uh Tom the assistant accountant, uh Bradley as
well as the accountant. So, um good team and we're just like I said, scratching the surface. Um I did put some points. Sorry, Scott. Sorry. How long will they be with us, Scott? Sorry. Uh probably be about six to nine months. Okay.
Yeah, it's going to take a while. Um, most of the work will probably be done in the first three months and then it'll be uh consistent updates and follow-ups to make sure that we're on track. Okay. Great. Thank you, sir. Excuse me. I'm sorry. Is there a scope
of work hammered out? Um, or is it evolving? It's it's kind of diving in to see what's wrong. So, it's we're focusing on the treasure department, treasure collectors first, but that's going to eventually expand to other uh financial
departments. Let me turn my question more practical. Uh we're looking ahead to a joint meeting of the select board and the finance committee. Yeah. Will we have any new information or insights or um more specifics about what
this team will be working on? Uh hopefully by the 9th we will. Okay. at least a few bullet points to uh and we're settled on the 9th the joint main um it looks like that's going to work for the most people just because we have um we have a meeting on the 2nd no um
the week before and we get into special town meeting so we're getting kind of a little bit um okay compressed for time in September so I know John may not be able to make it but I know the finance team could so okay um for Jim
so speaking of the uh the ninth Um, I put some uh proposed um topics to talk about. Uh, the FY27 budget calendar uh to start planning that out over the next uh 3 to 4 months. Um, schedule our quarterly finance meetings. I know we'll
probably want to pick a specific couple of dates over the next year or two just so we can start reserving them or pick maybe the third Thursday of every month or something like that. Um the FY27 budget guidelines we should start developing uh both for municipal and the school department um you know what the
maximum is that they can do increases what you know salary increases capital increases things like that 1 2 3 4 500% whatever it is so um the other big thing is the health insurance update which will we're going to have a little bit more information slowly but surely um
that might be an executive session depending where we are um but I think that's going to be a a big topic and getting the finance committee involved is going to be important because we're going to have to do some band-aid work at special town meeting for for the health insurance. Um talk about the DLS
visit as well. Uh special town meeting. We have a few items that I'll talk about later on uh that might involve the uh fincom um free cash update, our audit uh status for 23 and 24 uh and um Megan
hopefully would be able to provide a borrowing update for Zero College and as well as some of our other investments, our other debt service and things like that. So I mean if there's anything else I should add or subtract or you know just let me know. Cool.
It's great to have her board. Um the hazard mitigation plan will be is posted online and be for next meeting. Um Pioneer Valley Planning Commission is uh taking the uh lead on the outreach and the advertisement of it. Um there is
a grant that I'm not going to go into specifics because the state has asked not to go into specifics until they announce it, but um you can see it's a it's a good grant and uh there'll be an announcement shortly on that. Uh then I do want to welcome our new neighbors. uh Kathy and the Traveling Yoga Company um
who are across the street. Um they had our the ribbon cutting last night. They presented uh they donated town some uh comically large scissors which which I hope we can use uh in the next couple years with some of our upcoming projects, building projects. You know, given there's a lot of hard
work and a little bit of luck, we'll be able to use these for a lot of ribbon cutting. So, there that's great bling there. And then uh next meeting um just as a reminder, we'll probably have to do a lot of special town meeting. Um just to
formally call the special town meeting, open up the warrant. And I'm going to talk to council to see if we can call the special election pending approval of town meeting early so we don't have to meet after the special town meeting. If we can preapprove the vote. Um so if
that would just save an extra meeting so and make it a little bit easier. Um Mhm. And that's it. Okay. Thanks, Scott. Um, anybody have any questions of Scott on those those
updates? I just have one, Scott, uh, that you didn't mention. Where are we with the ADA update study? Um, they have completed their site visits and it'll probably be a couple months for them to put together the
final report. Um they've uh I can double check. Uh and their final report would give us recommendations of areas that need to be repaired or fixed or something and and where we might look for grant money uh if that was at all possible.
Yeah. Yep. Um, so they're going to ask to schedule a presentation before the board of select uh select board once the plane is completed and sent a final draft. Um, trying to see what the timeline was be. Okay. Yeah, I think it'll it'll be a couple
months. I can't find it. Okay. So, good. Well, I'm glad to hear that they're underway at least. That's good. They did say nothing unusual that they haven't seen in other towns. So, yeah, I'm sure. Okay. All right. Uh, any
select board reports? Stephen, have you had any meetings in the last week or two? Uh, not that I recall, but uh, the next couple of days are busy. So, uh, Wednesday night, open space committee. Thursday night, housing authority. Um,
the housing authority is by Zoom. And you can learn more about either of the meetings on my town government. Great. Okay. Great. And uh Ellen, I know don't know if you had a chance yet to get to a meeting. We we did u the
assignments on liaison at the last meeting which I believe I understood everybody agreed with basically. So um y with no changes on that. Um feel free to just keep informed of the meetings that are happening or maybe you've already attended one. I think there are a couple next week. I'm I think it's the 26th. I think
conservation and and I think the board of health meets next week as well. So, okay. Touch base with Yeah. And community preservation might meet too. I'm not sure. I think I think that is as well. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Good. All right. Great. All right. Well, nothing uh nothing on my
side. We haven't had any meetings where I haven't been able to attend any meetings if there were any, but uh I think we've had a quiet couple weeks here on my side. So, let's just jump into new business. Um, so Scott, you started talking a little bit about the special town meeting. Um, so just let's
start with that and see what we're talking about in terms of what we need to do. Mhm. Uh, so I did ask um all the boards and committees to try to get any um to at least reserve a spot on the warrant uh by next week. Um, so far we have uh
this obviously the big one is the senior center debt exclusion. Um, that's going to be the obviously going to get the most attention in the spotlight. Um there are a lot of housekeeping things that we have to do. Um transfer of funds for the health insurance. Um once we get into a little bit more details about
that, how we're going to cover uh we are in a deficit of uh you know the $350,000 this year to cover the health expenses. So if we don't do it at special town meeting or at least partially, we're going to have to figure it out at the um the annual town meeting. Um the uh
health department select board with the addition of the new health agent. Uh so Claudia is doing a great job but um when we approved her position there needed to be a transfer of funds to cover the rest of her salary. Um so we have a few uh areas that we put into that. Um we are
working uh I talked to emailed John about some PQB changes. Um as well as the capital improvement committee changes and fin changes that we had mentioned last year uh prior to the annual town meeting. Uh the CPC is working on a land acquisition. Um,
conservation commission has a bylaw update that changes it from shall to may make certain changes. Um, actually where's Bradleaf? Okay. Uh, and then the select board. We we're just going to have our regular previous year's uh bills unpaid for the previous
fiscal year. Um, there might be a few others, but it looks like we'll probably be around like 10 or 11 warrants once everything's done. And we've already got the date reserved with the school or do we still need to check that? Uh, not yet. No.
Okay. Is the Synic Roads bylaw ready? Excuse me. I'd be very keen to see the bylaw on the special 10 meeting warrant if it's timely for
the scenic roads bywab. Yes. No, it's still in a draft form. us to go forward. We've got the naming bylaw, scenic grounds, right? No, they're separate issues, but um we need to plan, right? We we've had a couple meetings on
that and Randall and Ron have both been involved in those. Uh but no, we're still in a draft form. So, it won't be ready for the special. If we'd had special a little bit later maybe, but we'll have it definitely for the Midtown meeting. Okay. Thank you. But I can send you a draft to where we
are if you want, Stephen. Well, a question of getting a proposal for new into the pipeline. Okay. For new scenic roads, is that what you're saying? Right. Right. Okay. Uh, Robert, yes. Go ahead.
Robert Floyd, town moderator, College Highway. I just want to review our dates ahead so that we're on the same page. Next Tuesday is the deadline for the articles to be submitted. If you keep your Tuesday meeting schedule, you'll be meeting the Tuesday after that, the 2nd
of September. That's the day meeting you need to look at the articles and sign the warrant. You can if we run out of time on the 2nd, you have the 9th to meet and sign the warrant. The warrant needs to be posted. I'm looking at the
15th of September to be comfortable. So, it's two weeks ahead of the special town meeting on the 30th. I will have the post on I will have a town moderator special town meeting information session. I'm
looking at the 18th on Thursday, but I haven't checked with Lucy yet to see if the room is available, but I'll figure that out tomorrow. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay.
All right. Um, next up, building department, some change of fees for the building department. Um, so I had asked u with the change over in the um uh plumbing and gas inspector, I asked
Ron to take a look at uh where our current fees are for the building department. So he was able to do an analysis uh with some neighboring towns, Northampton, Eastampton, Hatfield, Hadley, Graanby, and a couple other towns. Uh and he proposed,
um these changes, um which would put us in the neighborhood of everyone else. Um it hasn't been updated in about 8 to 9 years. Uh so we we're a little bit past due. And I did request all the departments to look at their fees last budget cycle, but we did get a little bit distracted. Um so we weren't able to
cover it. So um you know it it I what I think is you know it doesn't radically increase it a lot. Uh I think it's more you know it's keeping with the market. Um but obviously with the the cost of everything rises we need to also cover
our costs as well. All right. So these are being proposed to us to vote on tonight to ratify these recommendations. Mhm. Okay. And I believe I I checked with Ron, we actually did approve separately
the um revision of fees for the electrical inspections last year in 2024. So the electrical has been done, but apparently the building fees themselves and the plumbing fees have not been done in 8 to 10 years.
So, my understanding is in addition to these tonight, he would also be working on revising the plumbing inspection fees, especially since we will have a new plumbing inspector coming on. Mhm. Is that right? Yes. He'll he'll take a look at that and
and probably also the reimbursement as well for our um our inspectors. Most of our inspectors are on on call. So, um, electrical, plumbing, um, you know, we don't have enough, uh, volume to support a permanent, part-time or full-time.
These receipts, whether current or proposed, go into a revolving fund or do they go straight into general revenues? Uh, these go right into the general fund. Okay. Uh well uh there's a request on the
floor. So if we're ready, I would make a motion to approve the proposed fee schedule as presented. Second that. Okay. Okay. I hear a second. Uh if no further discussion, uh it seems like it's way over time to get these updated
um over the last 10 years. So we might have we might have lost a penny or two that we could have used. So, let's get these uh up to what our neighbors are doing and um hopefully we can keep the department running well with good inspectors and getting all the work done on time. So, with that, let's take a
vote. All those in favor? No, a a particle of discussion. Um, it's with real regret that we have to raise fees and expenses on our neighbors and ourselves, but um I'm all for
getting us up to par and not missing um appropriate opportunities to generate a small amount of revenue badly needed for the town. So, uh, I am in support of
the motion and I'm not trying to put off the Yeah. And and honestly, I don't know how often one normally towns would raise their fees. I assume it's maybe every 5 years or something. It's not very frequently, but I think we've we've probably overstayed our our time frame.
Market driven. Yeah, it's been it's been a long time by any measure. Right. Okay. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor, please. John Sai Bru and I Fzai. Okay, the motion passes and we will adopt these new building fees and
get them posted on the website. Thank you very much. Um, next one up, surplus equipment from the highway department. Apparently, there's a generator that uh needs to be disposed of. Uh, I'm not sure if it's running or not.
Uh, but Randall wants to get rid of it. I think it's missing a fuel cap. Um, but we've we've actually made a lot of progress just townwide and cleaning out a lot of stuff. Judy just sold another truck for about $4,000. Um, great. It was like an 86 or something like that. I guess the square bodies are
pretty um pretty well uh Mhm. in demand. So, um but also if you ever get uh if you get a moment, take a trip downstairs into the hallway. Dave and the highway department, everyone's they've done a great job cleaning it up. It's actually a professional looking
space now. All the garbage is gone except for a few minor things. And then Dave also um refurbished the uh the studio which is going to be able to be functioning as a office. So we can actually get the conservation agent his own uh place now and for actual storage.
Um and then we can kind of make the third floor room um look a little bit better. So wonderful. Great. Okay. So, let's have a motion then to uh declare this highway
department equipment as surplus property. I move that we declare the onen diesel generator surplus. I'll second that. All right. And again, all those in favor Johnson I ruin I
follows eye. Okay. We will pass it on to Judy to do her thing and do her magic and get it advertised and disposed of. Very good. Uh, next up, land use planning updates. See, I don't know, Stephen, I don't know if you were able to stop by the uh
Dodson Flinker offices or not. I don't have anything on that. Um, so two weeks ago following our sort of interest group meeting to provide feedback on sort of the final two competing visions.
Um, I did sit down with him for about an hour and uh, was very productive. I agree with a lot of what you had all processed and that's why I didn't necessarily have a vote to give you in
real time. Um, sorry I was uh, remotely available and not with you in the room, but um, I think the ideas are evolving well. We're in summer hiatus. Uh, we do have a question on the table, Scott, about the format for the final report.
And, uh, I think we suffer also from a vacation schedule, but uh, the three of us who are on the contract team should figure out what we consider an appropriate final report. Um
but it is now time for them to really distill it into one proposal that they develop deeply both in terms of the visualization of the development and um some fair specifics about what goes
where down to the details of some of the amenities. you know a picnic shed here and walking paths extend to here and provide these kinds of opportunities. So
uh we really do need to think about what form of product paper or electronic simulation or more of a presentation um would serve as better combination. So um that's the update I
have. Um, I would say the housing authority forges ahead and having made progress on property that they own, getting that out to, uh, bid with an RFP, um, they're revved up and ready to get
things in place for a housing program and to assist with the necessary prerequisites to get there. Yeah, I know. I'm working on that. So, great. Yeah, this is this is the property just for clarity down on College Highway across from the um golf
course. Mhm. Yeah. So 358 I think is the number. Great. So the RFP has gone out on that. Uh I think it's ready to go out or very close to it. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Very good. Glad to hear that.
Okay. Good. Actually, one thing speaking of RFPs, I'm sorry. I could have reported this under my grant hat here. Um there is an RFP out on the street, right, Scott, for the uh old town hall renovation, the exterior renovation. Uh
we had gotten a grant from the National Historical Association and PVPC combined. Um National Park Service, I believe, is involved in it. And so we have a grant for $96,000 to repoint the mortar on the exterior of the old town
hall police station area. Uh, and that grant um has been awarded and then Bradley has worked to get the RFP out on the street. So, in early September, we'll have the bid opening and figure out who can actually do that job. And again, this is just to keep the the outside building in shape so that it
doesn't keep on crumbling away on us. Okay. Uh, next up, ARPA financial report. Um Bradley's put together uh the financials in terms of how everybody has been reporting their their expenses. Most of
the projects, I will say, combining this with the the quarterly tracker that Judy keeps updated, um everybody pretty much has been turning in their quarterly progress reports and status reports. And we have, I think, only four or five active open projects right now. Um with,
you know, not too much money left to to be spent. Um the financial report I still do want to spend a little bit more time and go through compared to what I've been noting and what um Bradley's noted because I'm I'm still trying to track down a couple of these where um the asset management grant that Randall
was was working on uh for his culvert study. Uh if you recall, we had to appropriate the entire amount of like about $140,000, but then $84,000 of it was due to be reimbursed to us from a
grant. And I've been able to find the first trunch of that money. Uh about 50 58,000 has come in, but I'm still trying to double check. I'm wondering if the 25,000 ever came in from the state. So, this is reimbursement that is due to us from the state. And sometimes they don't
label them very well. So, at some point when I'm down next week, I'll I'll just try and catch maybe Megan first and then Bradley just to see if we've got it recorded somewhere um just to be sure that we did get our reimbursement on that. But, um we're we're kind of winding down. I'll get some updated
information ready and get it up on the website hopefully next week. Um but ARPA's been moving along fairly well, I think. So, anybody have any questions on anything about ARPA at all? Okay. Uh where are we? Uh two 250th
anniversary. Um well, the next big thing is Saturday night. If you haven't heard about it, you may not have been listening too well, but uh next Saturday night is the big uh birthday party. That is the actual day of the birthday of the town of Southampton. So, Celebrate Southampton was its own thing, which is
our annual event and as I said before, a huge celebration. and and this time we actually have a a double sort of back-to-back celebration. So, this is the actual birthday of the town and we'll be getting together between 5 and 8:00 p.m. at Conent Park uh with the Buddy Mccern's band and we've got um
Vera Cruzana food truck as well as ice cream emergency and um 250 cupcakes and all sorts of things going on. So, uh, won't be quite as active in many ways in terms of, you know, other activities, um, like Celebrate Southampton was, but it should be a very fun evening. So,
come and enjoy the music. Uh, everybody's welcome. Uh, all you got to do is come on in and grab some food maybe from Veraric Croana, but the music's free. The ice cream is free till it runs out, and the cupcakes are free until they run out. So, uh, anyway, we've had a lot of volunteers that have put this together and in advance, thank
you to all of them for for doing that from making a cupcake stand to making cupcakes to all sorts of things. So, we really hope to have a fun evening. And Buddy Mcerns, if you haven't heard him, is a local band, one of our local residents who's um known around the valley, does a lot of rhythm and blues
and jazz. Um, so it should be a great evening. So, hopefully the weather will cooperate and we will see you there. But this will be one of our big events, I'd say, for the 250th. Okay. Here. Here. Is there any other business that can't wait until our next regular select
boarding board meeting on September 2nd? Uh I just want to acknowledge uh the letter that John had sent. Um so John John Lumber is uh looking um to disclose his position with doubt insurance and how it might relate to potential uh conflicts with the town's health
insurance. Um I think that we we need to you know dive into it a little bit more just make sure with the ethics commission doubt is such a huge entity I don't see any problem of John um excluding himself from that process and obviously uh keeping everything on the up and up. Uh I don't think that's going
to be a problem. I just um it does probably require a little bit more dotting the eyes and crossing the tees just to make sure everything um but I think they've um they've been volunteering their time so far and um you know they're obviously a great resource and uh John knows stuff about health insurance. So um and I've worked
with Steve Corbin as well in previous uh positions. So they are they are a great company, but we're not even anywhere near that financial brokerage, anything like that so far. So we we've got quite a little bit more time before we do that. Right. So my understanding is that
you're still at a information gathering stage and John is contributing proono his experience and perspective not providing services through doubt insurance right
and it's quite some time before we have clarity about what our options are for insurance and that time if there was a conflict then would recuse himself from both discussion and voting.
Absolutely. So he he's got his eye on it and he's very intent on being transparent but uh given that this is his day job u I mean this is the domain in which he works
daily um being scrupulous uh is appropriate. So, no, I think both that and combined with his being a numbers guy, I think we're very fortunate to have his his expertise and and him volunteering to to help out and help analyze many times. Yeah.
Yeah. You know, it's we've got a lot of lot of challenges before us with the insurance cost. So, hopefully we can find a way forward. Um, all right. Good. We've covered that. The related item is uh John has several times raised the
question whether it's such a fiasco with our current um insurance provider, the trust that it would be appropriate to send a letter of no confidence in the trustees or a
letter of more particular concern that they're not uh serving their fiduciary responsibility to the rateayers um some confusion about trying to preserve the entity versus serve the
rateayers and uh I don't know whether John has provided a draft or further discuss that with you Scott but it sounded appropriate to me given 20% on top of 20%. Um actually on that so I did we did get
an invitation earlier um from uh Doug in Westampton Psychport to do a summit on such a topic. I was going to formally forward it to you later on but um sounds more effective than a letter. Yep. So um West Hampton is willing to uh
host the summit and all executive boards from each town. I think that might be a better way to uh pull all of our influence. Great. Yeah. So good. Yeah. Yes, I think on the original Yeah, I think Scott on the on the call
that you had that day that there was a vote, there were several several communities that were involved in that, right? So, I mean, I think many of them were not very happy with the whole notion, but it didn't seem like there was much choice, right? Unfortunately, changes like health
insurance take, you know, 6 to 12 months on a fast-paced schedule. So, right. Um to do something in 30 days would be nearly impossible, right? Yep. Okay. All right. So, we'll wait to hear more about that if uh you know, if we can
find a good time scheduling it with West Hampton, that sounds like a good idea. So, very good. We did put in our our um our letters. We did write to um uh to the governor's office and copied Senator Vis and Rep. Peas. Um, so we have gone
on record um just expressing our displeasure, but um that's maybe not as much as we might do. So, all right. Um, we will be getting uh I guess on the town accountant contract, Scott, we will be looking at that in executive session and most likely coming
back after we have voted on that. I assume we'll come back to public session. Scott, is that right? Yeah. If uh if you wanted to approve the um contract for the town. Yeah. Okay. All right. So then let's uh skip over that and we'll go right to the PCFs. We have I think just one. Is that
correct? Yeah. Uh the fire chief uh asked to take off um the Corey Lang one. Okay. Okay. So if someone would make a motion around the highway department one you like to read I make a motion to
highway department. Oh, okay. Um, make a motion to uh appoint Steven Webster, the highway department, the new hire as a uh temporary labor. Looks like a 12week appointment. Um, non benefited at 2120
an hour. Um, make a motion make a motion we make that appointment. Second. All right. Any clarity on that, Scott? Is this this is one that Randall has been hoping to recruit or? Uh this is just a temporary labor. So
it's for at most 12 months. Um just kind of help out with some of the old um older items that are kind of lingering out there. Um 12 weeks. 12 weeks. Yeah. We don't have a lot of unfortunately we haven't had a lot of success. Uh we have tried recruiting for temporary seasonal labors in the past
without success and this one just happened to come a little bit later in the season. So all right. Okay. So again, uh, all those in favor, roll call vote, please. Johnson I ruin I. BS I. All right, that's approved. Very
good. Next up, and we have one license. Yep. Uh, I move that we approve one day wine and malt license for Andrew Lejoy Jr. U to be used at Conant Park, Saturday,
September 6th, 2025 from 100 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. for a birthday party. I'll second that. Okay. All right. It looks like all the paperwork has been supplied through the park department. Um so with that, uh all
those in favor? John, you ruin I. Ball's eye. Okay, it's approved. Thank you. And Stephen, your favorite time. Our warrants. Yes. Here we go. We've got a few of them.
uh warrant P25-54 in the amount of $52,4317. P26-22 is in the amount of $281,35853. PD26-2 is in the amount of $55,9110.
PD26-4, the amount is $56,44464. PD26-4A, the amount is $276,392.87. PD26-4A1 is in the amount of $8,25660. And that's what I've got.
All right. Thank you very much. Okay. Under old business, um, any updates on the FY23 andor 24 audit, Scott? Yeah. Um, so I did reach out to Tanya again. She got back to me, uh, earlier this afternoon and,
uh, she says it would be ready. Uh, where did it go? Um, she apologizes. Um she's hoping that she can have this wrapped up by the end of next week. This is the 23. The 23. Yep. And on the 24, we're still
holding study. Uh most of the stuff that we've been completed, we're just waiting for the uh treasury department to kind of dig out from where they are right now. So, but with Angie uh back on board, I think they'll be able to do it pretty quickly. Mhm. Okay. Well, maybe if they can set
themselves, you know, four or five things to do every week. I don't know if that helps, but something that they can really focus on and try to get whatever information they need over to to Markham, that would be great. Um, so if she's going to have the 23 done, then we're going to need to schedule her at
some point to come in to select board and present those findings. Um, yes, we'll have to find time. September might be a crowded month. Stephen, were you going to say something? Um, no. you anticipated what I wanted to
do is get on our mutual calendars that review. If they're one week away from completion, I'd like to be two or not more than four weeks away from a meeting where we review a
management letter. I mean, it's hard to spare the time except that we're very much in a learning curve here as to what sorts of things we need to do better in the financial management and oversight. Right. Tenatively, let me let me just
say that maybe we could aim for September 16th. Um, that would be a possibility. Otherwise, I think it would have to wait until after the town meeting till early October. But, um, terribly. Let's let's see how things float. Yeah. Okay.
All right. Anything else, Scott? In terms of uh other things on the old business, the ADA door openers, storm water enterprise fund, uh waiting for those to come in. Um we did set up a Home Depot account, so it should make things a little bit easier for Dave to get some stuff. Took half a
day, but I won't even go there. Uh but um yeah, so we should be all set with that hopefully in the next couple weeks. So Okay. All right. Good. Uh so we do b uh basically have uh select board meetings for September.
It's a long month. So we have September 2nd, September 16th and September 30th as our meeting dates. And other than that uh we will be going into executive session tonight. Uh we have two I sorry
uh maybe just for the record we also have that joint meeting with the finance committee on the 9th. Ah yes correct. Previous correct. Thank you. September 9th. Yeah, September 9th. Right. Thank you. It is a busy
It will be. Yeah, that's fine. Okay, very good. So, we will be going into executive session and um most likely returning from that executive session into public session. Um and we'll give East Hampton Media a heads up once we do that. Um so we are going into executive
session uh based on uh 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 health insurance. Uh and then MGL chapter 30A section 21A2 to conduct strategy sessions in preparation for negotiations with non-union personnel or to conduct collective bargaining sessions or contract negotiations with non-union
personnel and this is regarding the town accountant. So with that could I have a motion to adjourn our regular meeting go into executive session and again we will be most likely coming back u after our short executive session I hope. Uh so a
motion to move forward. U make a motion to adjourn the regular meeting and go into executive session at this time. Okay. Second. All right. Okay. All those in favor? Johnson. I
ruin I. Okay. Fowl's eye. Okay. We are adjourned temporarily at least at 6:45 p.m. And we will come back in um as soon as we're ready. Okay. All right. So, the select board is
returning from its executive session. Uh, and we just have one um one announcement to make in the public forum and that is that we have just approved a contract with our ch current accountant Bradley Oxen. Uh and this is
a contract from the end of uh September September 27th 2024 until June 30th 2027. So um we have been working with Bradley for a couple of years now and we would like to continue on until the end of 27 with
this particular contract. So that was our decision. The board has all voted unanimously in that effect and that is all we have for tonight. So with that uh you just a um a formal vote in open session. Oh, no. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. My mistake.
Yes. Okay. So, let's have a vote on that. Chris, yeah, sorry. Uh, September 27th, 2024 to June 30th, 2027. Um, even though we did discuss this in in exec. Yes, let's vote it in open
session. Sorry, my my mistake. I move that we approve a contract for that time period with town accountant Bradley Oakson. Second that. Okay. All right. All those in favor, please signify by saying I with a roll call vote.
Johnson I. De Bruan. I fs I. Okay. The contract is approved. Thank you very much. Thank you, Brett. And we will sign off on that. Very good. And I think that concludes our meeting tonight. I'm not aware of any other business that we have. So, I
will take a motion to adjourn the select board meeting. Move we adjourn. I'll second that. All right. And all those in favor John and I. Bows I and we are adjourned at about
7:20 p.m. Thank you everyone. Thank you.