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Video-1: youtube.com/watch?v=GBrP88XE3KY

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This government meeting is brought to you by Eastworks and our local cable subscribers. Okay. So, the time is 6 p.m. on July 28th. Uh, four of the four select board members are present. We will call this meeting of the select board to order. We

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will suspense with the traditional pledge of allegiance. Since we're via Zoom, remind all select board members that any votes taken via Zoom have to be by roll call and start the meeting. Um,

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is there anybody for citizens speak? hearing nobody. >> Can you hear me? >> Yes. >> This is Cohen. I wanted to partake in the uh citizen speak. >> Go right ahead. >> Okay. Um I have just a brief uh written

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comment uh uh statement. I am here again before you during open time as my request to be put on the agenda has never been granted. In speaking at town meetings and here I have been contacted by others expressing their frustration

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and need to have questions answered truthfully. Town residents are unhappy with how our town officials are managing our tax dollars. Last month, I attended the FI finance meeting as I consider you and

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them as elected members in charge and protecting our investment and our families. I am not going away. I am sure the select work select board heard of my appearance. You are not

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transparent. You speak the word. Your actions do not align. The main per purpose of your meeting is to report and be accountable to us. The cumulative information that you share at the

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meetings will help taxpayers be able to be informed and act responsibly. The 2027 budget process was all done to convince the taxpayers we were in financial trouble and succeed in the

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override passing. When asked by a finance member at that meeting, the finance meeting what vital information I felt was withheld from the public. I I I stated I could not share. I did state it

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required an elevated review by an outside source. I do not have I do have a document which I had prepared to put into the hands of the chair tonight, but once I found out the meeting was

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soon, I was not able to accomplish that and request that the content of that um document be discussed in executive session. Thank you. Thank you, Nora.

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Anybody else wish to partake in uh citizen speak? Hearing none. Uh the next item on the agenda is a presentation of the Southampton Rail Rail Trail uh by Kurt I'm sorry, Kurt Gart Gartner.

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>> Yes, that's right. Thank you. Assistant Secretary of Environmental Policy, Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs. Kurt, if you want to introduce anybody and then take control. >> Yes. Allison, if you could go to the next slide for me, that would be great.

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So, uh I guess first of all, uh thank you everyone uh the select board and others attending for the opportunity to uh to join you this evening. Uh we uh would like to talk to you of course about the Southampton Rail Trail project and uh cover this agenda. First of all,

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we're we are going to introduce the balance of the team here um from Stantech Brown and Row and Energy and Environmental Affairs. Uh we want to talk to you a bit about the uh project, the purpose and goals that we're hoping to work with the town of Southampton to

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accomplish. Talk a bit about the planning history and adjacent Columbia Green Whale project. I'm guessing you're many of you familiar with that. uh talk about shared use path design examples, bit of context for what we might be doing uh working with you folks in Southampton, uh talk about intended

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project responsibilities, and then just talk, take questions and discussion relative to what we might be doing here together. Um so Alison, next slide, please. So, uh again, Kirk Gartner, assistant secretary. Um what also is worth mentioning in this context though

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is that I am Secretary Ter's designate to the Massachusetts trails team. It's an inter agency group working to advance trail projects across the Commonwealth. Uh involves the uh Massachusetts Department of Transportation, the Department of Conservation and

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Recreation, and the Executive Office that I work in. And uh we are working to advance key network trails. And one of the real reasons we're particularly interested in talking with you this evening is the the trail in Southampton and its connections into Westfield and

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to the south as well as to the north into Northampton are part of that key network of trails that we are working uh to advance. And with that I'm going to ask the uh balance of the team to go through and introduce themselves and let's begin with Imagene. >> Hi everybody. I'm Imagene Hatch from

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Brown Richardson and Row. We are landscape architects and planners and we've worked with Kurt and the Gateway City Parks program for woo close on 15 years now mostly. Been a while. Yeah. >> Yeah. For a while. So we've been very fortunate to be able to advance a number

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of projects with Kurt's office through the Gateway City Parks program, a number of trail projects throughout the Commonwealth parks um plazas. Um and we're very pleased to be working with you all and our um project team from Stantech. Um, Ely, do you want to jump off?

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>> Sure. Good evening everyone. Alise Denafhrio with Stantech. I am a principal engineer in our transportation group with a keen focus in trails. So, I've been working on trails all over um the state in New England uh

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with this team especially for several years. Uh so looking forward to to working on this one as well. Allison. >> Hi everyone. I'm Allison Lafur. I'm an associate and senior planner at Stantech. Um, we just echo the same. We've been working in Westfield for a

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while. We've been doing trails really all over the state and and really beyond. Um, and are excited to do that. I'll let my co-orker Sue introduce herself, but Joe and Ron are are design team engineers and they're not on this call tonight, but they are folks that um

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you'll be interacting with over the next several years. Sue Sorry about that. Hi, I'm Sue Kim and I'm a senior planner at Stantech and I'm just one of the the deep team we have of experience in doing planning and designing and we're very excited to be

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here tonight. >> So t uh folks from Southampton as you probably have picked up the uh executive office has a contract with this group of uh design and uh engineering professionals. We've worked with them on a number of trail projects and what we want to talk with you tonight is about

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uh using their services to help advance the next segment of the uh Southampton Rail Trail project. And as you're also going to hear, this is part of a larger project that we are working to advance um in basically we're trying to close the 9 and a half mile gap between uh the

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women's temperance park in Westfield and the southern terminus of the existing Southampton Rail Trail. piece that that you're already working toward. And uh with that, I think the idea here would be to allow the design team, the professionals here to work through a bit of a presentation to give you context

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for what we have in mind. Uh I'll cover the last couple of slides and then we were looking to have a bit of a discussion with you folks uh about the project and how we might work together on it. So um team, please. >> Thank you. Thank you, Curt. So we're excited to be here tonight. As Curt

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said, you know, this is one of the very last gaps in what will be um a tri-state um or two-state trail network with hope eventually of extending into New Hampshire. Um it would extend and

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complete your um Southampton Greenway. Um and the goal is both, you know, recreation. Right now, people are coming up from Connecticut through um Southwick and into Westfield. Folks are using the Northampton show. I mean, we we know

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that these are very busy, active trails. Our hope is that this segment will also be serving a bit of a transportation purpose, right? There there are key destinations like um Sheldon's Ice Cream, other spots in Westfield, right,

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that we think people may actually be using this a bit to commute and and do their daily travel. So, it's a dualpurpose trail. um a bit of history that you all know, but it's always good to to remind ourselves. Um so you have and we are super appreciative that you

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have acquired your right of way um for the Southampton Greenway Rail Trail um from the Pioneer Valley Railroad. You've been working with Thai and Bond um on a multi-year process in in three segments that you see highlighted on on the slide here. separately and at the same time,

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City of Westfield um with EA has been working with us on designing the Columbia Greenway Trail extension up from Women's Temperance Park. Um you have a study of the College Highway Southampton Commons, right? A lot of work has happened in this area.

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We're excited to jump in and and help on on what you're what you're already doing. Um what we've been doing at the same time as you've been doing your work north of the municipal line is we've been working on about a five and a half mile gap from Women's Temperance Park which you see at the bottom of this

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slide um this map up to um typically you know mostly we've been looking at North Road um up until North Road the Pioneer Valley Railroad which I don't know I guess I can't move my mouse I'm sorry I was going to point to where it is the

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jog where we are you away from the trail, the the rail and coming back towards the rail. That's North Road. Um up until that point in Westfield, the track is active. The railroad is fairly active with multiple trains a day. So,

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you know, we kind of had been in our minds ending our work at North Road because that's the point at which we can move into what becomes an inactive um railroad railroad rightway. Our segment, the segment we have been working on, um, is a combination of

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off-road shared use path, rail, trail, roadway adjacent, and for a short period of time, we will be looking at doing rail with trail. Um, as you probably know, this area of Westfield is highly industrialized, lots of truck traffic, very busy. So, we're we're working to piece together this path um to connect

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with your with the southern terminus of Southampton Greenway in at the at the city border. Our goal working extending up as Curt said to to the current terminus of your work with Tai and Bond would extend that greenway um for the most part and

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ideally we are just getting started as you know but for the most part and ideally we believe staying as much in the abandoned railroad rightway which you have purchased um from College Highway Route 10 near Sheldon's Ice Cream south to the extension of the the

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Columbia Greenway we have been working on for the last three or four So, we've been doing 5 1/2 miles. We're now adding an approximately 1.8 mile to our stretch to really to close that gap um between Southampton and Westfield.

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Some examples of trails that we have designed that also exist. Um you know, on the right you see the existing Columbia Greenway Rail Trail. Um we did not design that. Um but that's what we're connecting to. Northern Strand is a project we have all been working on

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forever. It feels like I forget when the first bits of that were designed and constructed, but it's a project we're really proud of that connects a number of cities um and towns along, you know, north of Boston. Um Groveland Community Trail, Columbia

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Greenway Rail Trail in Westfield, also the same one. We were just another section. Um this is what it looks like in Westfield prior to the terminus. Um the idea here is to show a feel for the different kinds of trails that we design

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and paths that we design because we will design it to match, you know, as much as we can, you know, to to complete the corridor, complete the character of the full corridor as well as to match the areas we're in. might be a little bit more

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higher, you know, higher um fencing in other pieces um buffering in different areas whether the residential, industrial, etc. Some places it may be open like you see on on the right hand side here without really any buffering. Um

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other examples and we understand right route 10 is a very busy road. Um, Brickyard, that intersection where we have Route 10 and Brickyard and and a few other roads coming together, we understand in Southampton is is a concern understandably for traffic. We

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want to assure you that we are we are not strangers to trail vehicle conflict and you know intersections, right? To prevent that conflict, we have designed I don't even know how many intersections with both

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rapid flashing beacons as well as overhead hawk signaling. As we get into this and look at traffic volumes and get further into design, we will be able to talk about the specific treatments for that intersection. Um what we propose and think will be needed giving traffic volumes um and and turning movements in

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that area. Um some other ways you know other crossings we have you know just again overhead hawk um rapid um again you know we will once we get there and get into the data we will be able to speak to what we anticipate. We would love to hear from you tonight the beginnings of

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what you're imagining. We know you've been working on trails for a long time and you may already have some thoughts yourselves. Um we have a variety you know depending on the area. Um, we have a variety of fencing and screening that we employ. You know, as you saw earlier, some of

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the Columbia Greenway is just just open, right? You have your shoulder and and there's nothing really separating different uses or, you know, a lot of it's off in the woods. Um, we understand that we'll be coming through a much more heavily, you know, residential area. You know, sometimes the the two the fence

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the wooden fencing is what we need. Sometimes it's a vegetative border. Sometimes it's a lot more substantial. Um you can see on the the right side the Clipper City rail trail which we did design right we have uh 7 foot um stockade fencing on both sides and in

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some portions there. So we want to assure both the town right and board of selectman elected officials as well as residents and neighbors that you know these are all things we take into concern you know into consideration from the beginning and we will be working on to make everybody as comfortable as we

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can moving into design of of what this trail actually looks like as we move you know either south from Southampton or existing from Sheldon's Ice Cream or north um coming up from Westfield we have designed some you know, kind of typical sections or illustrative

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drawings of what we're looking at, you know, as much as possible. We intend for this to be a rural trail that fits right in, right? We're not, you know, we will obviously do screening where we need to in fencing, but in general, you know, this is a

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bucolic woodside trail and that's what we're looking for. We'll be meeting existing grades as much as possible. We're not looking to do, you know, significant filling or elevating, you know, where we need to. We obviously will. Um, but in general, we're looking for just um a trail that will blend

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right in um into the community character and fabric. Um another rendering, another view of the rendering, you know, in a wooded area here, keeping keeping the trail flush without, you know, without a lot of, you know, people are in the area to

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experience nature, to be out recreating. um and enjoying the peaceful environments that we have we're lucky to have here in Western Mass. And so we'll hand it back to Kurt. >> Great. Thanks, Alison. >> Um and uh Whoops. Can you

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>> Nope. Sorry. I tried to mute myself. >> Thank you. So, uh I I do want to be um be direct about what we have in mind here, what our intentions are uh so that folks fully understand here. uh we really viewed this as an opportunity to say we're we're really trying to close

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the uh the full gap and not just complete the work in Westfield. And we looked this at this as an an opportunity to work with uh Southampton to complete the design and permitting not just of the section in Westfield but the section in Southampton as well. And so our

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intention is to pay for the design and permitting of the rail trail in Southampton as well as in Westfield by the team you see here as well as there's a an a a team of sub consultants that are under contract with Brown Richardson and rough for other aspects of this like survey and wetlands flagging and all the

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things that go into uh completing a project of this scale. Uh but I should say while we intend to pay for this um it is our your it is a project on your behalf. So, it is something where the town uh would ultimately approve the design decisions. We would work through

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all of these in a public process with the right folks uh in Southampton uh to be sure that this is something that meets with the uh expectations of the community and recognized that this ultimately is a project that would be owned by the town of Southampton once it's complete. So, we are really uh

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working to design permit this project on your behalf. And so just in the moment, what we are intending to include in the scope of work for what really is the preliminary design phase um is uh two virtual meetings with the town uh to

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talk through aspects of the trail. Uh things like the crossings, things like um uh a butter concerns, all the things that would go into the project and the design uh would would be uh we're intending at this point two virtual meetings. Um and all we we would be incorporating into this phase all the

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necessary field work to do that preliminary design. A survey, wetlands delineation, wildlife or priority habitat if it's necessary. Uh sort of preliminary structural reviews uh that would be associated. Um this phase along

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we estimate to be about $115,000 benefit um to Southampton and would take about a year to complete between all the field work and those sorts of things. Um, and so that just to be clear though, this is preliminary work, but it would be our intention to follow it up with the more

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detailed design work, the actual drawings necessary to put the project out to bid. All of that is what we are proposing uh to basically handle the cost of and work with you uh to complete. Um, and the I'll go to the last bullet schedule here first because

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just to be clear about this, um, I am not or we the team is not sure how long this is going to take. We could be at this for quite a while, but we do believe that by working at it in this way, um, combining it with the project in Westfield,

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we will be able to move this along more quickly than Southampton would likely be able to on its own and in part because the intention here and we have Masdat is aware of this has been part of conversations about this. The intent is for energy and environmental affairs to handle the cost of the design,

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permitting, construction documents and the like. And then for this project, both the Southampton and Westfield pieces to be constructed by the Department of Transportation uh via the transportation improvement program. So, uh that broadly speaking is is the idea

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here. How long will this take? We're just really not sure. This is going to be years. I think it's safe to say we're going to be at this for years before we get this done. But one of the benefits of working through this is this is being done through a program called Gateway City Parks. And one of the benefits here, Westfield being a gateway city,

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uh, one of the benefits is we we essentially have the, uh, ability to essentially stick with it until we can see a project through to completion. And that would be our intention here to partner with uh, the town of Southampton to see this one through. So that broadly speaking is what we are intending for

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uh, project here. And then if you could go to the last slide, Allison. Um really what we're looking to do from here. Um is there we go. Uh is is just open this thing up for discussion with with the uh

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with the town. Um and we've put a couple of starter questions on here just to get the conversation going. So for example, what should we be aware of? Particular design or permitting challenges. We're already aware of a few like the route 10 crossing but also what is and there'll

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be more conversation about this in the future but the idea would be let's let's get started talking about what be of concern to the select board and others attending tonight. So um let me stop talking and um Scott and others uh

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welcome questions and conversation. >> Thanks curtain team. Um, why don't we open first open it up to any select board members that have initial questions or thoughts. >> John, I was just going to suggest I think um we may have a quorum on the

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greenway committee here. If so, they may need to call themselves to order. >> Uh Mark, do you have a quorum >> or Aaron? Uh, you know, I looked before and I I don't think we do. I hope I'm not incorrect, but I don't have all

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attendees uh uh up just right now. I'll do a quick check. >> Okay. >> Well, we'll uh we'll run through the select board and then we um >> it's kind of unusual to allow non-select board members speak, but given this particular case, we'll then open it up to Greenway committee members and then

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anybody that's participating. >> So, John, just just a question for me. I'll start. Um uh Kurt, thanks for the presentation and team. Um you mentioned, um the route 10 crossing and I think that is definitely a a big challenge which I know the greenway committee has has also been talking about with DOT. Um

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it's not, you know, as as straightforward as it might seem. Uh route 10 is certainly a rather bit of a speedway coming down that hill toward Sheldon's coming from the Westfield end at times. And um the direct crossing is really right into the historic old canal

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area. Um and so it would have to jog over to Brickyard Road, which maybe complicates things. So just I'm sure you haven't gotten that far in terms of your discussions yet, but just some preliminary ideas of how you could do a crossing that would make some sense based on other projects that you've done

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perhaps. >> Sure. We have done um incredibly complicated crossings um really in a in a lot of different projects. I don't think we have a map and this is not I don't use zoom as much as there we go. I

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don't think we have a super zoomedin map on that area. Um but understanding that as we're coming into this end of segment three, I don't know if folks can see my mouse right. We understand that this is a is a complicated intersection and and there are multiple jogging right

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different places where streets are coming in right it is not a traditional four-way even if it's off angle um but we have handled that through a variety of signage as well as the beacons like we showed here right and we will

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sometimes leading up to um leading up on on the roadway include signage and signaling you indicating for folks to slow down as they are coming down. Um, we don't have we didn't show here an example, but also

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for folks on the trail. Um, and I'm sure at least I'm going to use the wrong engineering term. I apologize. I'm a planner, but um, we'll jog the trail coming into an intersection so that folks have on on bike and peds have, you

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know, notice that something is happening, right? as opposed to just them coming straight in, coming into that intersection, that crossing, we'll jog it. We include signage along the path for quite a while reminding people that this crossing is coming up and to watch for veacons and to watch for

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vehicles. Um, so we have a variety of treatments. We've used the um textured textured crossings to also provide, you know, kind of a physical reminder to folks in addition to visual. Um, you know, we we know it will be complicated, but we are confident that it actually

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might not be one of the most complicated we've done. And we've done a number of these successfully, and we understand it. It makes people nervous. We we absolutely understand that. Um, >> I think we're looking at balancing, if you don't mind me, Allison, we're looking at balancing both the approach

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and the safety of the the users on the trail and also the approach and the safety of folks in their vehicles. So you have to sort of take a look at both the volume of folks on the trail that are expected and then also look at the very careful um calculation of traffic

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volume, sight distance, roadway rate curvature, elevation changes like you're talking about speeds and all of those things will be studied very very carefully during uh the fieldwork and the the traffic study portion of our functional design reports and etc for

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DOT. Um, and also to help us inform what signal crossing type we think is the best treatment for that area. We could look at anything from roadway narrowing, which is one of the uh photos that we looked at um in order to make the crossing distance a little bit shorter

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to various types of signaling, stopping traffic. All of those things are on the table until we get the data that we need in order to inform what is the safest crossing at that location. and it'll take into account the very specific geometry of what's happening on that roadway and what will be happening when

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folks are trying to cross it. Does that help? So, I don't really have a specific answer of what that should look like now, but we will get to that and we will, you know, go over all of those different things with you as we do so. >> Great. No, that's a good good beginning. Thank you. >> Okay. Super. And if I may, I should have

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told the rest of the team I can't see all of us. So, if I just jump in anytime because I'm sharing my screen and I can't see folks. >> Uh Doug or Charlie, if anything, >> I'm just going to watch this move

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forward. Um there's really nothing to say at this point. They're fully capable of doing what they're doing and aside from Route 10 intersection, the rest of it is pretty straightforward. And my one thought is this is a great opportunity it sounds like for you know

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for for both communities for your organizations. Um you know I think you know there'll be a lot of interest here in town and I wonder if there would be any willingness to make one of those um you know public meetings in person. I know that we, you

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know, have a lot more partic participation sometimes with a broader scope across the community um in person in some of these planning meetings than just virtually. Um I think it's harder to sometimes rally people to get onto a Zoom meeting and and get active

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community participation. >> Yes, we can do that. >> Certainly. >> Yeah, for sure. I'd recommend we do that a little bit further along in the process when we have some graphics that we can show and really speak to more more concretely. Not too far along, but far enough along.

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>> Yeah. Um Okay. So, that leaves me So, I I had two things and Doug just kind of touched on it. Um again, I my note is I assume there's going to be a public hearing to get the input. You already answered that to allow that to happen and I would echo Doug if it can be in

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person that's even better. Um, my other thought is, and I'm not necessarily looking as for an answer. I'm just throwing this out there. >> Right now, the the trail, as we've been working on it, ends at Sheldons, and then the continuation, which you guys are focusing on, kind of takes on a

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unique characteristic when it gets on the back there. And speaking for the constituents, not necessarily myself, I know that their concerns are um some folks have built their houses behind the railroad track. Yes. And that track, >> particularly as it ab butts Brickyard

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Road. Yeah. >> Yeah. And goes through their the middle of their yard. It's not at the front. It's, you know, halfway sometimes closer to the house. >> Um I'm not I'm not looking for an answer tonight, but but I would encourage having some sort of solution or possible

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solutions to that because that seems to be the reoccurring statements that come up when we've discussed this publicly before in town how that's going to go. >> Yeah, that makes total sense. And we were anticipating as soon as we started to look at the location of the rightway and the abutters, we were anticipating

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that that area is um an area we're going to have to be very sensitively working through with you all. >> Okay. All right. Um at this time, if there's no objection, I'll open it up to any comments from the greenway committee. >> If I may, this is Mark Casses. Um member

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of the greenway committee again thanking you for the supporting the development this the north side and hopefully we're on the tip list for building in fiscal year 29. Thank you. Um there are a few areas of the southern portion which may have additional um barriers or

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difficulties. So my reading of the deed from the railroad is there may be two exclusion from the deed that and someone will need to read through those because there was permission from the railroad to the um land owners but it's not clear

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exactly what it means with the wording of the the deed that Southampton received. I can give you specific information on those properties. >> Yeah, if you'd be willing to share those documents, we'd be happy to read through and and >> yeah, but that that may be some challenge there. one of the areas the town owns the back side of that so

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potentially could bring it off the bed and develop on the town line. Um and as mentioned there registered historical site just at Route 10 where we might connect >> and uh that one family especially that's concerned about >> uh needing to um potentially have this

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very close to >> where they are and I'd be glad to talk to people down the line about other specifics. Could do you have the address of that one family this but we have a few where we think that's going to be the issue but if you could share with us

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>> the one and you don't have to do it you can just send it when you send the materials just to make sure we're looking in the same places and everyone's on our list >> and overall I think this would be tremendous because we've had to write five different mass trails grants to keep the funding going for the north section >> understood yeah it go quicker and easier

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for the town and better for the state. Yeah, that that was our thinking as well. >> Anyone else? Eric, >> I actually had exactly the same thoughts that had come up already. Uh we just wanted to be sure that we shared information that we already had and we already have a focus on some of these

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unique residences. I think going south from southbound Brickyard, we'll have more residential um more of a residential focus and then everything north of that we've had uh you know bridges and things like that that were a little bit different. So, as long as the the committee and the town and the select board can stay in touch and that

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we can uh collaborate and share our information, have meetings along the way, I think we'll feel included and um and be able to share information so that those residences, those, you know, unique scenarios further down the way won't be caught off guard when the time comes. >> Yeah, we were we were as intending a

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couple of of public meetings, but certainly would talk to uh folks in town at at any time about this uh to work stuff through. >> Great. I think our initial thinking on that end, Erin, if you don't mind me saying, is um we will be heading out to start doing our fieldwork in the next couple

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months. So, we'll we'd like to reach out to you or whoever is the appropriate person to start making sure that um nobody sees somebody in their front yard with a vest on and doesn't understand what's happening. So, um we'll talk to you all in advance of that to make sure

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that notification is done appropriately and sensitively. Great. I appreciate it. >> Can I bring up one other point? The We're hoping that the um mass DOT 25% design uh public hearing occurs this fall and want to make sure that

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discussion stays on focusing on the north side and it may get mixed up with this discussion of the southern side and figure how to manage that. >> Yeah, good point. we will need to be clear on what what what process is associated with which phase of the work

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and and we we can help to do that >> just for a very quick ballpark figure. I don't know if this is possible but I I think it was that uh design could potentially be completed within a year. I think it said July 27. Um I I don't know if that's what the presentation was. No. Is that

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>> initial? Yeah. So the initial conceptual design phase we expect to be completed within the year. Um that includes our fieldwork, our survey, wetland SL and this is for the whole stretch, right? So from women's temperance park to Sheldon's ice cream. Um the field work

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um so that's looking at survey and wetland wetland slagging so we know exactly what's where. Um and and elevations and and things like that. And then we will do our preliminary design but we will not be like and I you know we have checkpoints as as we talk about

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same as we do with roadway design right we have conceptual you know pre-esign conceptual design 25% 50% 75 and then 100% like construction documents right so this is just the you know conceptual design um nowhere near ready for

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construction documents >> to try and set >> go ahead >> expectations a little Um the section to your south in Westfield is super complicated. So we need to we're we're looking at a purpose-built tunnel under the turnpike.

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We're looking at new bridges over tracks in downtown Westfield. The the design and engineering team has got some major challenges to overcome in Westfield in order to get this done. Uh, and so that that also will dictate to some degree the timing of the work in Southampton

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because we're looking to construct this all as a piece. Um, and so we we we're intend to work through that as quickly and deliberately as we can, but these are these are some difficult pieces we got to overcome in Westfield.

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This Route 10 crossing, I think, is the most challenging piece in Southampton, but some of the other stuff in Westfield is is going to be hard. Okay. So, so Westville and Southampton are one package project in this case. >> That's right. We're we're looking to advance the that whole piece and get it

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get it designed and permitted as a piece and then constructed as a piece through the tip. >> Perfect. Thank you. >> Okay. Is is there anybody else that I haven't already called on that would like to say something? Can I

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>> uh go ahead Tammy. Tammy Lunis, 298 College Highway. Um, the corner of where you guys are talking about. Um, first of all, I am the president of the historical society, and I'm very

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glad to see that you are aware of our historical um, buildings and the canal and everything right there at that corner. Um, that we want to maintain and

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um, keep that part of Southampton as it's a very historical area. Um, the second thing was I was going to comment also on that July 27th completion date, but so I'm glad that you um clarified

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that that's a phase, the fieldwork, elevations, that type of thing because >> um >> I was on this when this first started, so it's 20some years going on to get it completed.

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Are you is is your group willing to make sure that we the Southampton part gets our stuff done also in order to have this completed or

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we just seem to get drawn out all the time and this completion of the gap may never happen. That that's my concern. Uh yes, that's the commitment we're making here is we're working to get the Southampton and

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Westfield pieces done together at the same time. Um and the one of the benefits of this group is we um we're not an annual gr cycle grant cycle by cycle program. We stick with projects until we get them done. It took us uh

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years to complete some of these projects. the the you saw pictures of the Northern Strand that took us about three years, actually one of the quicker ones to get done, but others of these have taken us five, eight years to complete. And I think here we're talking about one that's probably something like that.

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>> Um, and we our intention is to stick with Southampton and Westfield until we get this thing done. >> Wonderful. Thank you very much for answering my questions. Okay. So, with that, I think the um what I heard for the call to action from the

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select board is is at least the minimum requirement to have two additional virtual meetings on this subject and to um move forward in the spirit of cooperation. So, I speaking on behalf of my other select board members in this particular case, we welcome the

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assistance from the state and uh we'll uh work with you to to see this project through to its completion. So, >> uh, we appreciate that. Thank you for your time this evening and, uh, we'll be working with you for a while. So, nice to meet everyone and, uh, look forward

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to our next, uh, meeting to talk this stuff through. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Thanks very much. >> Okay. And >> that we will move to our next item on

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the agenda. Uh, Scott, town administrator's report. Thank you. Let me just get resettled here. Um so this is the uh second edition of the town administrator's report on a new format. Hopefully everyone um has been

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able to kind of take a look through everything. A lot of stuff has been happening. Um on the specific to the TA side, uh just a few things to note. Um the FY27 state budget has been finalized and alongside with that means our cherry sheet and state aids have been um

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released as well. Um nothing too dramatic. Uh we did get a little bit more aid than we thought in some areas and unfortunately some areas we got a little bit less and some of our assessments uh have risen as well. Um along with that Senator Vis continues.

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>> Sorry Scott just on that was there a net difference? Uh, I don't have that number offhand. I have a calculator, but not offhand. Um, so Senator Vless, he continues to push for a $200,000 earmark for North School, which will be uh which would be

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very helpful. Um, again, I'm always a little bit reluctant with uh state grants and earmarks until we actually uh get the money. So, if it goes through, it'll be probably around the uh the first of the year or early in 2027, which will be again very helpful

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to Norris School. Um the finance committee again is moving forward with their capital uh improvement plan. Uh they've approved about $130,000 in um basic infrastructure improvements over at Norris School. Uh mainly focused on water remediation and uh the sidewalks.

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So that is uh moving forward as planned, which is great to see. Uh speaking of mass trails, we did did qualify for the next phase next grant for phase one uh of the greenway and um that's right

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about it for right now for uh for the TA specifically. The I have one question if nobody else does on the overall TA report. Uh just Scott if you could just touch on under and it's Bradley section the

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accounting um he he's working on the June 26 reporting but there was a email earlier today or or yesterday regarding the school department and where they think they're going to come in and be able to square up time wise if you can

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cl if you could share that. Uh, yep. One second. >> Verbally is fine, too, but >> just make it part of the record. >> Uh, I just have to bring it up to know what Don had said.

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Um, so, uh, the school department is going to be working on the close out on, uh, August 10th, um, as well and they hope to have their end of year report to the state to Desi. um is technically supposed to be by the

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30th, but looks like they're going to look for an extension until October 31st. So, a lot of the lot of the stuff is um obviously with 70% of our funding going to both Hampshire Regional and Norris School um when we do end of year reports, that's obviously the biggest uh

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chunk of cash that we have to reconcile. So, >> yeah. Yeah. So, I I just point that out that I mean it it's fine, you know, I mean it's not fine, but they're telling us I mean they have till September 30th. They're already telling us it won't be till October. Best case scenario. I'm

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sure they'll try to uh um improve on upon that, but that will hold up verification and cherry sheet money. I mean, not cherry, I'm sorry, pre-cash certification. So, we're looking into October for that.

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Um, okay. If there's nothing else on that, we'll do um any select board reports and I'll just go based on how I see you on my screen. Charlie, you're up. >> Uh, there hasn't been any meetings.

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>> Chris, >> uh, no particular meetings. I did attend a couple of webinars, uh, on the federal funds infrastructure programs, and there's a couple of grants looking like they're coming up. they're not online yet. Um, one is called Mass Build, which is a brand new grant to help

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municipalities with infrastructure. Uh, and then there is also it's going to be a loan program, however, a low lowc cost loan. It's not a grant program, as it turns out, and it's intended to be a revolving loan so that it can access many communities that are in dire need of refurbishing, if you will, or

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replacing some of their aged infrastructure. So, it's intentionally structured as a lowcost loan so it can be revolving and hit many communities, but it won't be online for another month or two at least. But we'll take a look at it when it comes up. >> Okay, Doug.

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>> So, I was able to attend um since our last meeting both a board of assessors meeting um and the finance committee. Finance committee continues to work on the capital plan. Um, as Scott mentioned in his town administrator report, there

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were two items approved by the finance committee um, for Norris School. Um, they seem to be focused on, you know, really safety aspects. So, trip hazards. So, the sidewalk was one area of focus. There was a $30,000

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um, item that was approved by the finance committee that had quotes and um, they were able to to greenlight that and there was a good amount of deliberation there. And there was also um flooring within the school I believe. Um if I look here um so it's about

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$100,000 of flooring um uh replacement where it's buckling and there's you know some safety issues within the school itself. So the finance committee has taken a focus of you know addressing you know kind of some of these needs for Norris um with the current funding from

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the capital um plan. So, um, they're making a lot of great work, I think, um, on that front. Um, nothing really notable, um, on the assessors board of assessors. There is, um, some things, Scott, that I'll I wanted to bounce off

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you, but, I don't have, um, you know, the full information to share right now. >> Okay. Um, and next we have the appointments and resignations. I'll take those if you'd like. Um, we

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have a resignation of Jess Jessica McConnell from the library board of trustees resignation effective July 8th, 2026 and also a reappointment of Christina Madson as as a um at large member for the master plan implementation

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committee. This will be a one-year term to expire June 30th, 2027. >> Okay, we'll take those up as a a collective motion by Chris. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Seconded by Charlie. Any discussion?

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Hearing none. Roll call vote. Charlie. >> Kcki. I. Hamilton. >> Follow. >> Yep. That's lumber. I passes unanimously. New business. First item. Personal

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policy review. Scott. Scott, you're on mute. >> Thank you. Um, so I mentioned last meeting, uh, I'd like to really try to, uh, put an effort into getting our personnel policy and procedure, uh, booklet updated. Um, it's it's in good shape now, but obviously it needs to be

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reviewed and a lot of different changes. Um so this is kind of a trial effort. I uh was able to uh pick two policies just um for first kind of a review. Um the first one was our

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uh FMLA policy. Um and then the second one is our let me just scroll down to it our bereavement leave policy. Um, one of the things when when we deal with the uh the policies, especially those that

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mirror either federal or state law, I guess one of my my pet peeves is always been kind of when the policy itself just mirrors what the language of the statute is or or the um what the federal policy is. Um, so one of my proposals is to

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kind of streamline things because if our policy, you know, specifically states, you know, you know, 8 weeks of leave or whatever the qualifications are and it changes in the future, that means that we would have to go back and change our policy. U now, like for example, the Family Medical Leave Act, you know, we

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obviously do qualify for it um as an employer. Uh so one of the things I did was kind of streamline a little bit and focus more on the areas that uh the town has um more uh leeway over or I guess

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more discretion over. Um so one of them was using the rolling 12-month period. So municipalities and employers can determine whether or not the 12-month period for an FMLA starts on like uh a set time during the year or if it will start uh when the employee applies for

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it and is approved. Um, additionally, health coverage is something that um comes under FMLA that the um it's at the employer's discretion and how the benefits are being used, whether or not they have to use acred uh paytime off

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such as sick or uh vacation time. >> Um, oh, one second here. Yeah, we've all been there. >> Yeah, >> been there. Still there. >> Well,

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wow. I got grandkids. >> Let me let me just um >> All right. So, let me let me jump in for Scott here. So, I uh his proposed changes on the FMLA uh provide clear, more comprehensive, legal compliant procedures for FMLA administrative benefiting both the town

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and its employees. In summary, um so I think process-wise, we should probably take these collectively since there's two tonight under a first read. allow uh

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a twoe cycle for input and then batch a few together because we'll have to have a public hearing for uh impacted employees to be able to um express their views or share their concerns prior to us implementing them. >> Yeah. >> Does that sound like a game plan?

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>> Sounds like a good plan. >> John, can I ask you a quick question? >> Sure. Looking at the the proposedly um proposed on the FMLA, the language that's in there looks like it's pretty much exactly from the current policy. It's just that we've

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eliminated certain parts of the current policy. The way I'm reading it, there's a whole section in there about uh service members or family members of of u people in service, etc. All that is taken out of what I'm reading here. And that's because if I understood Scott,

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that that's already so stated in the state law that we don't need to repeat it again. >> Right. Correct. So like how you qualify and you know what the thresholds are for for coming on to it. That's u that's already determined. So it's really just kind of rehashing what you know the law

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actually states. And again, my concern is if it ever changes or if there's a court decision otherwise, then we'd have to go back and and change the actual um bylaw or the personnel policy. >> So, so in that example, Chris, if you qualify under what the federal law says,

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it automatically happens where our current policy says if you qualify under ABCD and then the federal law changes, that's when we have to come back and adjust. >> So, it's almost like refer back to the original document. That one can get updated over time without us having to update ours. But where we could make a

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decision whether it's a rolling 12 or calendar 12, >> we're clarifying that language that in this case we're going with a rolling 12. >> Mhm. >> As an example. >> And is it is it still the up to 12 weeks leave? Is that still part of the policy or is that changeable too?

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>> It it's right now, but say the government says, "Hey, it's 14 weeks next month." ours would automatically adjust to that 14 weeks because the ma the the master source has been updated. >> Okay. And I guess last question, I wasn't aware at all of this small

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necessities leave act. Can somebody mention that to me? What is that about? >> So that's a um it's kind of like a mini version of the uh FMLA. It's more for things like if you have to go to a child's like doctor's appointment or like a school conference. um I believe I

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haven't looked at in a while, but I believe it's up to 5 days in Massachusetts. Um and most most employees do qualify for that. So that's actually a Massachusetts uh statute. >> And that's the key there. It's a specific state statute that's allowed under the federal.

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>> Okay, >> Scott, this relies on I think to a certain extent. The previous version of the policy laid out a lot of the characteristics and the elements of like the FMLA is the intention to kind of

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include as like an appendix kind of the current guidelines of the program just to you know kind of take the onus off the employee of going through. And so I understand, you know, making it dynamic by not actually spelling out the statute and the current pol, you know, the the

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the actual, you know, state and federal programs, but I think it does take away the ability for the employee to just read this section of the policy and know all of the the full characteristics. So what's the thought there? Mhm. Generally with those, uh, I usually put

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together a separate packet that outlines the, uh, the specific policies that people fall under, like, you know, the the Pregnancy Act, the FMLA, the SNLA, um, the medical insurance. So, usually a lot of those things are provided by the federal government, and you just print them out, put them into a a booklet, and you and you would actually put them at

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the end of the policy booklet so that they receive those when they sign off on the uh, the town's policies. >> Okay, perfect. Okay. Um, so Scott, just so you know, when you stepped away for a moment, we we collectively discussed and we're

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going to hopefully by the end of this, we'll accept these as first reads on both of them and then we'll take them up in two weeks to allow input. Um, assuming that we are good with them in two weeks, we'll approve them pending

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the public hearing and then they'll be effective after that and maybe there'll be a few more and we can schedule the public hearing afterwards. So, >> yeah, I think if we maybe did it quarterly or something like that and just had maybe 10 or 12 or 15 policies all at once um to do the hearings.

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>> Glad you started with the easy ones. >> Well, I mean, these are these are very generic. You know, these are pretty much the easier ones. When we get into like vacation time and sick time and and other benefits, that's going to be a little bit and you know, compensation and things like that, that's going to be a little bit more timeconuming. >> Do you do you want to hit the highlights on bereavement?

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>> Uh, so bereavement is a little bit different um than what we've previously had. It's uh it's updated to uh specifically include uh let me bring it uh over here. Um, so in the past I've come to a lot of places

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where an employee may have a um maybe a a grandparent or um a person that's not necessarily a biological or an immediate family member that kind of served in a role as as a parent. So this would give a little bit of uh leeway uh to include

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those into you know the bereavement leave. questions or comments. >> The number of days is still the same essentially though, right? So, >> and a lot of times also with, you know, getting away from the traditional funeral, sometimes people might have a

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memorial service, sometimes they may not have, you know, anything or they might have a celebration of life. Um, again, as long as it's okay by the supervisor, I think making sure that people are able to attend those. Yeah, that was actually a little bit of a question I had is like oftenimes people think of taking the

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bereavement right at the time of of the person's death, but a lot of people wait and you know do three or four months later that they'll do some sort of memorial service. So it could be taken at the discretion of the employee with the supervisor's permission. Is that right? >> Yep. Time wise obviously we just need to

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coordinate with the supervisor but it gives a little bit of flexibility. >> Uhhuh. Okay. Okay. Interesting. Yep. Okay. And I think too, just to follow up on John, so after the second read, normally, I think in the past, we've usually done like a a 10day posting on

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the bulletin board somewhere on Lucy's office or on on the website as well. So, I'm assuming after the second read, we'd post it like that for 10 days or so. >> Yeah, there's there and I've drawn a blank on it, but within the current PPP manual, there's a specific outline,

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>> okay, >> of that. Um I'm not sure if it's 10 or 15, so I don't want to quote it, but >> yeah, >> we're going to follow whatever's in the existing >> manual proposing. >> Sounds good. >> Um my I don't I don't have any um

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objections to any of this. The only thing that I would I would suggest if it's not already done is I think uh a 15minute um continuing education session with our supervisors that you know how how to use

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discretion and it needs to be uniformed right if if you do it for one you you need to apply it to the next employee and those lines just to make sure we don't end up in issues later on >> I believe in giving discretion I just Everybody needs to understand what that word means and how to apply it and

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document it. Uh so if there's no additional discussion, um I'll accept a motion to uh accept these as first reads. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Moved by Doug, seconded by Charlie. Roll

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call. >> Charlie I. >> Chris >> Paul's eye. >> Dougl. and Lumber High. Next on the agenda is the legal update

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slash elections. So, I've been in contact with uh town council about um the two items that have uh been have come up. Uh one being the vacancy on the select board and the second one being the um the election or I guess the uh the proposed question for

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the uh appointment of the treasurer collector. Um, talking to Michelle, um, the idea was to hopefully or possibly present them on the November ballot um for the state election. Obviously, it's

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going to be a pretty popular um election because of the guminatorial uh race. Um, now Michelle, she did say it is technically possible, although it would be uh very unlikely um and would also take considerable

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capital on the town's part because both of those questions would have to be approved by the state legislature uh to be placed on the ballot. And also for the treasure collector question, um the state legislature would have to change Massachusetts general law because that question is supposed to be uh on the uh

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annual town election ballot. Um w with that in mind, you know, I I don't think it would be possible to place them on the ballot given the uh the timing and the you know, the potential holdups by the general court. Uh although I know I know that um the chair did have some maybe some potentially other ideas for

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the vacancy. Uh the other thing I just want to confirm was that the vacancy cannot be uh appointed by the select board like other boards and committees, but it would have to go to a special election. >> Yeah. So so my thing on that is is I

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I'm I'm not going to argue with with the with the attorneys. I mean, if they put in writing that the I see them as two separate issues. I and I don't disagree with anything you just said as it relates to the treasurer's position, but for the select board, um I couldn't find

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anything that required approval of the state legislator by special act to get that on the on the ballot based under the law under the chapter that it falls under. Now, if if they say it does and and they're going to put their name to it, then you know, I'll accept that for

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what it is. I'm just concerned I'm concerned with the vacancy and I'm I'm concerned that um the the future of of of the select board in general that we should have a body of

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five um at any point in time because you know we're not a young group of select board members. I'll just leave it at that. Um, so and and then my my B and again I'm not the attorney so my research said August 3rd

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was the deadline to to do the ballot question to get that approved and then it's a municipal ballot on top of the state ballot and there's two different ballots that you get at town box. Um, I'll, you know, I'll defer to you, the the town clerk and all them on what they can do. And if it can't be done, okay.

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But if there's a way to make this all happen for November, at least for the select board, I I I would prefer to put that item forward and not put them both together parallel, although I see the cost benefit of doing both at the same time. That's just my back.

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>> Just to clarify, so what what I was referring to is actually being on the state ballot. The the select board could certainly call a special election for the same date and time >> as a state election. Yeah. >> Right. Exactly. So it' be essentially two elections held concurrently.

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>> And I guess that's what that's what I'm thinking for the select board piece. I understand the extra layer >> needed on the treasurer side. So we can't have our perfect world. >> Um >> so I and that being said, I I think

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and again I'm somewhat speaking out of turn because I'm not the I'm not the office holder. Um, I think August 3rd is the deadline based on an email I got from that I saw from the town clerk, which would mean I realize we can't really act on this

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tonight, but we could schedule a meeting for Friday, Saturday, or Monday and meet that August 3rd deadline, but I don't know what everybody else is thinking or if I'm just off on my own and the rest of you guys are comfortable waiting till May. Well, I met with the town clerk

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today and she's very reluctant in running this other election. We had a long talk about it. I guess I would look at what do we have to gain here. By the time we elect somebody, we're going to be in November. 6 months go by. We're in May. So, we're

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actually looking at filling a gap for 6 months. Is it worth the time, effort, and extra money to do that for the sake of six months? Now, I purposely ran because it was an

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empty seat, but I'm also looking at it that I don't think it's worth the effort to pursue this for the sake of six months. Mhm. >> I would think the extra cost though is not I don't see where the extra cost is per se because we would have

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>> our our various people on board anyway for the state election. Um so I guess I'm not quite sure what the extra cost is except for mailing out ballots and things like that if we did that. >> Can I just say something Chris? >> Oh hi Lucy. >> Sorry for the Lucy. For the record Lucy

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your name in office. >> Oh Lucille Dalton in town clerk. Sorry. Um, so I sent you all an email today from Kelly Emmens, who is the elections specialist in Boston. She works with Michelle

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Tassinary, who is the legal for elections, and she laid out all of the uh procedures. So, um, it can be done in November, two ballots. We did it in 2018

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on the state primary, but we could do it in November. It is costly. It is a lot of work. We'd have to have two separate tables for that. Um, two different ballots. Nothing has to go through legislation for the select

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board. Um, I can't remember her email. I'm at home. So, um, it's just a lot of work. A lot of work. So, um, but the email says everything and I was hoping that you guys would have read it before

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I >> I think I saw it. >> Yeah, I'm I'm looking at it right now, Lucy. It came in at 255. >> Yeah. >> So, I apologize it came in so late, but um Yeah.

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>> Would it be helpful if we read out for the for the record some of the the challenges that were raised? So it seems like >> so if it's not if it's on its separate election not on the state election ballot >> um has to be a separate mailing

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>> has to be returned by voters separately. So there's an issue of counting if um both the state ballot and our special election ballot comes back >> uh together >> um you're going to have to offer the same early voting um opportunities. Yes.

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>> Um, and did that hit most of the key ones, Lucy? >> Pretty much. I mean, it's we have to hire people that to see if they can work. >> Um, we have to order the ballots and the

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ballots have to be, you know, specifically for what that seat is. So, I mean, if it's one seat, I mean, it's going to cost a lot of money to have a ballot for one seat. So, and they have to be separate from the state election.

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So, um, ballots I'm mailing out, um, hopefully tomorrow and Thursday for the September primary, and they're at a dollar now to mail them. And we have 650, I believe, that came in so far that

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we have to mail out. And if they come back as returned, we have to, you know, figure that out, too. So, um, we have to put in more hours, which is fine, but we only have so much in our

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budgets for each myself and for my assistant. And then if we hire people to work, we're going to have to hire more people for the state >> and uh for the local. >> So, okay, let me just jump in here. So, >> yeah,

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>> for for the record, because since we started reading some of this, we need to make this part of the public record. >> Yeah. So, uh, the public record will include the email from Kelly Eman's, EM, Secretary of State, dated Tuesday, July 28th, 2026 at 2:34 p.m.

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>> which Doug um, gave us a summary piece of. So, that whole email will be part of the record. I guess secondly, my question is uh Lucy as the uh the head of elections and that is it is it your recommendation that we not move forward

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with adding this to the November ballot? >> Well, it wouldn't be on the November ball. It would be a separate ballot. So, it would be >> which would which would be held on November 3rd at simultaneous with the state election. Would you prefer we not do that? >> Well, I mean

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I would prefer that you don't. it can be done, but there are I think a few people that are up in 2027 from the select board. So, we have to think about, you know, you're going to have hopefully you'll have people run for

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2027. So, >> no, I no, I understand that, but I'm just specifically as it relates to tonight. >> Yeah. >> Running a parallel election on November 3rd as the head of our elections, >> it's your recommendation that the select board not >> try to hold that simultaneously. I no I

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don't want to. >> Okay, that's fine. >> All right. >> It's a lot of work. >> Okay. >> And just just for clarity, the question on the uh the treasurer one is that really it has to hold off until May next year, the annual election. Otherwise, we

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have to do special legislation there. >> I believe it has to be a regular election, not a special election. >> Yeah. Right. Yeah. >> Okay. And that you'd have to get the wording to Yeah. to Boston or whatever legislation. >> We did put an U language in our our

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warrant when it was approved by town meeting that would allow us to approach the legislature for that, but it would still require uh legislative approval. >> Okay. >> What is Scott? This question for Scott or for Lucy. What's typically that legislative approval? Like what's the

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lead time? What's like the time frame for that to have that in place for the May election? >> Um, I mean it can definitely go in the May election regardless. It's if we want to do a special election or something off that side. >> Okay. >> Okay.

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>> So, so at this point the the appointed treasur just continues on as is until until May. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Well, they yeah, they continue on until either a successful candidate is

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elected, which would be on the May ballot or we have a ballot question that changes it. >> Oh, well, there was a a a candidate who did win the treasurer. So, I mean, >> but they did but they didn't they didn't

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accept >> but they didn't accept it. >> They didn't accept the position. So, Megan's appointment is only until the next election. >> Exactly. So come May, she we have to go through this whole fiasco again. >> Mhm. >> If we don't print the ballot out, >> right? >> Okay. >> Yeah.

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>> Anything else on legal updates for this portion? >> Uh nope, that's it. >> No. Every time I get um something from legal about elections, I try to forward it to you if there's a change or and I have been in contact with them about

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this stuff with the select board. So, um, and a, you know, ballots are not cheap. We're up to, I mean, they're expensive to print out. We have to have the machines maintained. We have to pay for memory cards to be programmed. We

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have to pay for the ballots. We have to, you know, hire police officers for the day. So, elections don't are not cheap. So, >> Gotcha. >> All right. Next on the item agenda is approve. Well, I don't want to I'm

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assuming everyone's good with the conversation. Okay. Next is approve COA van driver. >> We have our COA director present. I don't know if you want to call on her or not. >> I just wanted uh so this was uh Kate just actually um interviewed and would

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like to hire this person late Thursday. So that's why it was in addition to the agenda. >> Does somebody want to make the motion that under discussion we can have Kate come in and speak to it? >> I'll make a motion that we um approve the the uh request to hire Brian Foy of

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Southampton as the U van driver for the COA. This would be up to 18 hours a week, I believe. Uh, non nonbenefited part-time and at a salary of 1998.

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>> Is there a second? >> I'll second. >> Under discussion. Kate, do you want to >> weigh in? >> Hi. Hi, everybody. Um, so I met with Brian last Thursday. Um, really excited that he applied for the position. I'm sure as many of you are aware we are

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overseeing the um access program in the Fred of van drivers both for the senior center and then for the access program with PVTA. So we will need to continue to hire drivers in order to maintain two potential uh shuttles. So right now we have one um van driver on staff on

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Tuesdays and Thursdays, Tim Huber. So Brian is going to be coming in on Monday, Wednesday, Friday mornings to fill in gaps that we currently have for medical appointments and demand response transportation. Um he has six years of experience, has a CDL license and other certifications um for his what he

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currently does as an outside other position. Um and so really excited to have him on board since he's familiar with the types of vehicles that we traditionally have. Um, we do have a new Freda van and then we also have the other van um, up at Freda right now uh, for our backup. So, I think that's about

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it. Really excited to have him on board um, assuming he gets approved tonight. And, uh, the I think I've concluded in the packet just in terms of information related to the driver training. It's pretty extensive for for FRIA um, given it's a federally funded organization.

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Um, they have to go through mass dot phys physical, random drug testing and drug testing upon hire, accessible lift use training, disability awareness, um, and full-blown CPR training as well. So, in order for us to get him up and running, it's probably going to take about three weeks for him to start driving the van. Um, most of the

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trainings have to go through Mass DOT and they're not available all the time or on demand for what we need. So, just hoping he can get on board sooner rather than later so we can get get our gaps filled with our schedule. Um Tim's been phenomenal in filling in what we have and taking on an extra day a week. So be

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really good to have Brian on board and hopefully we can find a few other drivers for the secondary van >> for town. >> Good. >> Any discussion? >> No, I think that's that's great. I know you've been searching hard to find somebody. Um I think it's going to be a

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challenge to get other drives. We need at least two, right, for the PVTA transit as well. >> Yes. Yep. So, um, in theory, we'd probably need another one for Monday, Wednesday, Friday for demand response medical transportation appointments for, um, the senior center. What we're trying

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to figure out, um, right now is timing related to onboarding. We're going to be moving into the eco lane scheduling system with FRA, um, which will allow us to be able to run both vans if we have extra drivers, um, and then have their scheduling system tell them where they're going obviously that day, but

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we'd be able to, um, schedule in within their system access appointments. So, say you need an access ride to a PVTA stop in town, they'd be able to schedule those in between the demand response as well, so we can try and better utilize the driver's time. >> Okay.

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>> So, yeah. >> And and the funding for this is under the FRTA grant, correct? >> It is. It's fully re reimburseable under Freda, which is fantastic. And they also maintain our vehicles and they provide us the vehicles as well. So, it's been a phenomenal partnership. We're excited to

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expand it. Um and so yeah um thankfully no cost to the town and hopefully we can get everybody on boarded soon including our staff with scheduling cuz I think it'll be only a benefit to the our folks in town. >> Just just as an aside since you mentioned Freda and this is all part of that. Do we have our new contract for

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FRA? >> We do have the new contract. I'm working through it right now. There's some in um reporting that we have to do in terms of staff queries and other certifications related to the driver training. So, I'm working on that currently to get the signatures, but Scott has signed it. Um, and it will be sent back. Um, I'm not

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sure. Last year, we had a budget of $30,000. This year, they've upped it to 75,000 for additional drivers. Also, some staff support. So, I'll be coming back um shortly to request a couple extra hours um shortly, a couple weeks uh for one of our staff members so we can get this onboarded. We're going to

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need to transfer all of our currently scheduled appointments into their new system. So there's going to be a lot of data entry, but they did more than double the budget that we currently had. So we're excited. >> That's great. >> Yeah. >> Okay. That might be an enticement for

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new drivers then, too. >> Mhm. >> Good. >> All right. On the motion, Charlie, >> I >> Doug. >> Hell, I >> lumber I passes. >> Thank you all.

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>> No problem. Uh next is approve the job description part-time admin assistant building department and board of health. >> So I believe this is the second time we're seeing this. Yeah. Let me just uh get to the u the

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screen here. Oops. Okay. So, this is the um the second reading for the part-time administrative assistant for the health and building department. Uh this was the new position that was proposed and approved over the budget over last fiscal year. Um essentially it's going to be a shared

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position uh focusing on administrative support. A lot of clerical um a lot of clerical duties. Um the person is expected to be in the office. Um is this can be provided a point of contact for the public especially when both our our health agent and our building commissioner are out doing um

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inspections. Um and and one of the reasons is it's going to be shared is different different departments throughout the year will have different workloads. So, you know, it might be a 50/50 split some weeks. It might be something that's primarily in the health

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department or when it gets to be, you know, construction season. It might be a little bit more in the building department. Uh but both of our health agent and building commissioner have looked at the job description and uh are okay with that arrangement. >> Any discussion?

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If not, I go ahead. >> No, this is just 16 hours a week. Is that right? Is that what I'm understanding? >> That's correct. So, my only feedback is, and I I realize it's the nature of the beast, but this is a very complex

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high I'd say mid-level job description for an entry level minimum wage, 16-hour a week person. I say minimum wage, maybe it's $16. I I don't know what the wage scale is, but it but we're either going to if we hire somebody based on this,

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they're either going to be overwhelmed and and high turnover or I'm not sure there's a lot of things in here that I wouldn't associate with an entry- level position, but I I get I get the old school thought

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of the job description so should encompass everything in the in the free world so that it's written and documented. I just I think there's a lot there for an entry- level job, but I'm I'm not going to stop the process. I'm just throwing that out there as my own

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input on it. >> Yeah. And it might be something that we revisit after a little while once we actually get the position in there and we see how it works out. Um I think it'll probably be on par with some of our other part-time administrative positions that we have currently.

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Yeah, if I recall when we did the compensation plan classification, I most of our admin assistants were on a similar pay scale if I'm not mistaken, right? I mean, there might have been something different for one or two that had more confidential information like your assistant for

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example, Scott, or somebody else perhaps, but they should fall into a range that we had established. So, we're not putting that into the job description at all for anybody to figure out what that is at this point in time. Right. So once once it's approved, I'll I'll go through the um the

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classification process and see where it would come out, but I think it would probably be on par with our other positions. >> Is the committee in a position where we're ready to approve this to allow to move forward with posting and potential hiring?

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>> Yeah, I'm okay. >> Is that a motion, Chris? >> Sure. I'll make a motion that we uh what are we doing? We're we're approving this uh job description for the shared position between the board of health and the building department. >> I'll second.

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>> Second. All right. Motion made by Chris, seconded by Doug. Any discussion? Roll call vote. Charlie >> Ki I. >> Chris >> BS I. >> Dougl I. >> Lumber I.

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Okay. Um, any other necessary business? Cannot wait for the next regular scheduled board meeting which is going to be August 11th of 2026. Going once, going twice. Perfect. All right. So, next we have

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either separately or collectively whoever wants to make the motion. Minutes of May 26 and June 1st. >> All right. Well, go ahead, Charlie. >> All right. I move that we approve the minutes of May 26th, 2026 and June 1st,

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2026 as written and recorded. >> Is there a second? >> A second. >> There's a motion made by Charlie, seconded by Chris. Any discussion, amendments, uh, adjustments, tweaks?

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Hearing none on the motion. Roll call. Charlie. >> Kcki. I. >> Chris. >> Balls. Eye. >> Doug. >> Haml. I. >> Right. Motion. Motion passes. They're both approved. Uh Doug. I believe you're

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you're up. >> Can I ask a question? Yeah. Well, maybe you're going there. It's like who gets to sign these now? We Ellen used to be our clerk. So, is is that now Doug doing both warrant clerk and clerk? >> So moved. Motion made by Chris, seconded by

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Charlie to make Doug the temporary clerk until a fifth member is elected. >> Hear discussion. >> Does that bomb me up a pay grade? >> All those in favor by roll call. Charlie I >> Dougl I

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>> lumber absolutely I motion passed >> Doug didn't even see the truck go by. I got the tire marks and Charlie's initials on them. >> All right, Doug, it's all yours.

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>> All right. Um, >> oh, if you want, >> is there a certain flavor, John, you would like to go through these? >> In this particular case, because we're on a Zoom, it's being recorded and it's on the screen, you can just reference the screen if you want.

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>> Okay. Um, >> you don't have to read you don't have to read them all off. >> All right. >> I make a motion to approve the FY26 and FY27 warrants um from I think these covered

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from June and July. Um, total on the screen I believe is $4,35,581.56. And this is a a selection of town bills, um, educational assessments, bi-weekly payroll, and bi-weekly

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deductions and benefits. >> Okay. Um, and we and they just actually we just need we don't need a vote on it. We just need to make them part of the record. So, >> beautiful. >> All right. So, so noted for the record. Uh, next we have calendar and

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announcements. Select board meetings. August 11th and 25th are the next one. And I believe at this point in time, both of those are scheduled to be in person. >> On August 11th, I am out of town camping in New Jersey. So, if we made it a

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hybrid meeting, I'd be able to zoom in, but I will not be able to attend the August 11th in person. >> Okay. Um, if any committee member knows by that Thursday before the 11th, if they're not able to attend, we'll post it as a Zoom.

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Um, just keep the chair informed or the town administrator. Uh, next, the chair makes the following motions uh for executive session under MGL chapter 38 section 21 sub A number two. uh to conduct strategy sessions in

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preparation for negotiations and or contract negotiations with non-union personnel as well as MGL chapter 30A section 21A number three to discuss strategy with respect to litigation if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining or

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litigation position of the public body and the chair so declares as I do and that I also uh do not anticipate any votes occurring during the executive session And we will not be returning to public session at the conclusion of the

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executive sessions. Is there a second to the motion? >> Kcki second. >> Seconded by Charlie. Roll call for executive session. Charlie >> Kcki I. >> Chris >> Balls I. >> Doug >> Hamill I.

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>> And Lumbra I. We will now it is 7:27 p.m. on July 28th. The select board is now adjourned to exe from public session going into executive session.