##VIDEO ID:tYwcbYGTvW0## this government meeting is brought to you by eastw works and our local cable subscribers okay going to call to order the meeting of the South select board for January 21st 2025 at 6:00 we could stand and say the Pledge of Allegiance please all right I pledge allegiance to flag the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible liy Justice for All I say sorry my emphasis oh no you got all the words sometimes I wonder if I will remember all right everybody okay um thanks everybody we are uh live on channel 191 for those who are watching and we have uh a quorum tonight I believe John is on his way Steven is out of town or not otherwise not available tonight I think he's not coming he let me know um but I'm expecting John anytime soon so do we have anybody here for citizen speak for anything that's not on the agenda tonight okay see none anybody have any commentary from this end of the board we have a couple minutes before we're supposed to start this public hearing at 6:05 any comments from anybody questions General comments outside of our reports you can if you'd like just I'm just trying to feel a minute of time before we actually have fully called something to order a minute of time I can tell you a report from the board of assessors that uh we are um doing a few things simultaneously in addition to our usual review of applications for 61 or exemptions Etc and that is we are looking closely at um exemption levels uh and sort of clarifying whether there can be an adjustment on those we don't have it the specific data on that yet that's specifically senior exemptions we also um are very um much on our agenda is to look at our chapter 61 withdrawal process to make sure we're there's perhaps a way to improve that somehow and so that's an activity we're doing right now um and um so that's the board of assessors no that's fine you can we'll do the select board reports too I just I didn't know if you had any announcements from your your uh you're going to be talking you're going to be talking about chapter 61 I mean pardon me 250th I'm sorry the 250th we'll talk about a little bit yeah do you want me to say anything about that now you may say something about it right now if you'd like well under the direction of Chris Falls who's been a wonderful coordinator of the events uh there's been a few things that I've been involved in one is we've now led three hikes to the summit of Pomeroy Mountain uh since the beginning of January and it's been great and you know what this is the best time of year to go up there because it's not only cold enough to make everything Frozen so there's no mud but secondly the views are outstanding because there's no leaves on the trees and when you start climbing a mountain you feel really warm when you get to the top so cold weather is not an issue for us and we've had so much fun and I think we're we're talking about 40 or so people so far that have joined these hikes maybe a few more there'll still be more there's none currently scheduled but if you uh let's see here if you email me C Palmer at townof South hampton.gov interest map which is uh something that was originally created in the ' 60s updated again in the '90s and we're working on updating that again adding new points of interest some of them are no longer present because they might be on private property uh and um maybe making something a little more um shelf enduring in that the one that's currently there is kind of large and not necessarily to be posted on a wall so we're looking for something that's really going to have a good shelf life um and and useful and that's good is that enough yes no that's fine thank you for that since we said 605 I want to just you know abide by that okay very good so uh we have on the agenda here at 6:05 public hearing uh ever source and barzan New England um this is a continuation of a poll hearing on 33 manhan road so can I have a motion to open the public hearing please motion to open the public hearing second second okay all those in favor I I I all right so uh the purpose of this was to take a look at the uh request that had come in a few months ago now uh requesting permission to do some work on 30 well on manhan road uh to uh access uh residents at 33 manhan Road uh primarily to look at installing underground conduits and cables that had been a change of um um what a change of action I guess in terms of how it was originally um proposed and then at our last me meeting in December I believe it was um there was further discussion about um trying to broaden that um uh process I guess I would say and I'm going to have to have Scott fill me in on this but we were going to talk to I think ever Source Highway some of the residents uh and have a joint meeting to figure out what we could do as a more holistic approach I think to try and solve solve the problem in a way and and make it you know palatable for everybody concerned and and also just not putting a bandaid on something I think that's why we kind of left it which got us to tonight which somehow has crept up very fast frankly so it's Scott update please um so I've contacted Amy with eversource um and fortunately we weren't able to get something together with all the uh stakeholders uh since the last meeting so we're hoping to put something together next week or two uh to bring all the parties the neighbors eversource Highway Department as well um I also know talk Randall uh earlier today um that ever Source may be looking to adjust some of their plans for the area um and he's in contact with them um as of today so we're waiting for that to go through I believe he was looking he was talking to more of the district manager type person not the person who's been coming from urce correct so he was at a different level I think trying to look at a broader plan that might work out okay all right so we're sure that something's discussion's happening but we haven't been able to nail down a meeting that makes sense for everybody okay sorry guys um with that I think what I would propose is that we need to then continue this hearing to another date uh I would probably recommend a month yeah that might be the our next uh such meeting would be uh we could also um have it in the beginning of a budget hearings to on some of the off weeks if necessary when you were talking to people around town or employees in town they give any estimate of how long it's going to take to get to the the point where we can have the discussion you know I don't want to like reschedule it and then they like don't have the data we're not ready you know so um mostly internal we just haven't had a chance to put everything together okay so our next regular February meetings if I'm not mistaken would be February 4th and February 18th mhm if we could go into the 18th of February I would recommend that all right could someone make a motion then on that I'd like to make a motion to extend this hearing uh till February 18th 2025 second okay any further comment on that I don't think we have much unfortunately to to offer you tonight until we really have this meeting I think it's a good sign that things are starting to to happen but um okay so we have a motion in a second you have a all those in favor I I I okay so the motion is made we will continue this public hearing until February 18th and definitely let people know that we will have that meeting and have some uh information to report back to you all okay sorry thank you for making the trip out tonight yes question have a question for if we wanted to we thought that they would be here tonight but if we wanted to ask some questions when would be the correct time to do that at the next meeting I think it would be we will involve some of the residents will we not in in the meeting with with Randall and and the highway superintendent and the ever source so when we have that meeting scheduled we'll we'll reach out and I think we've got some contacts at least and the word will spread I'm sure but we'll we'll make sure that that's possible you know it wouldn't be a public hearing it would be more of a discussion sort of planning meeting putting our heads together and figuring out what makes some sense I think from the way I understood how we left it okay so as it stands right now nothing has been approved we're going to have a discussion first right yeah absolutely Y and if you want to jot down um your email to Scott maybe that would be good just a couple of you that are here and then we'll make sure that you're notified when we have that okay very good thanks and sorry for having you come out tonight thank so thank you for your time no problem thank you for your time thanks a lot okay um address mhm all right next up on the agenda here um Town Administrator report so Scott we'll turn it over to you actually um so we're almost done with the Norse control the nor School control system uh we're just waiting for I think two or three vows excuse me I didn't end the public hearing did I oh no you didn't excuse me I have a motion to close the public hearing I move to close the public hearing second all right all those in favor I I I all right so closed at 612 sorry all right yes go ahead Scott so we're almost done wrapping up that project um they should be installing next week or two once they receive the valve so North school that should be also be the last project for our green communities Grant okay um does that allow us to start applying for new projects with them do we yes I I believe so so that chunk of money that we got is used essentially right so it would be a new project with a new request and right so part of the a portion uh small percentage is actually based on our Energy savings right and then the larger portion comes from the state which goes directly to the third party uh that did the installation so we never actually see the money um so we assigned pretty much everything to them right okay got it okay good all right I'm glad that that's finally it's been a while so I'm glad that that's really basically just about done so go ahead question about yeah s which buildings in town did we address with that just because it's been so long yes we got four separate projects actually oh thank you we did the lighting at the library Lighting in town hall Lighting in the police department and the control system at noris Great okay um Governor Hy signed the special legislation for the additional alcohol license for uh Pure Foods Market and Judy submitted the paperwork earlier today so hopefully the abcc will approve it and and we don't have to redo that meeting that we had back in July or August so hopefully um where case scenario is we we'll just have to read vertise it and then bring it before the select board for an official vote so but hopefully they'll already hopefully they'll recognize the vote that the select board's already taken yeah we don't have a sense of how quickly they move or how often they meet or anything I'm I don't think I don't think it should take that long yeah as long as the application is in order which I believe it is um the legislation everything's been done so yeah passed the legisl and Governor signed it so it should be something with a little bit of weight behind it maybe for abcc to consider hopefully okay hopefully so hope hopefully it'll um be approved and we don't have to redo the meeting so yeah okay very good um okay sorry go ahead we had our our first meeting with uh the zero College Highway stakeholders last week um we have on this Thursday we're going to have our our first um public input meetings uh there's going to be quite a bit coming up in the next month and two month or two so there's going to be different groups that we're targeting so if you uh see it something that may be targeted for someone something else and you're not part of it don't worry there's going to be u a ton of open meetings for everybody to to kind of uh have their say we're just trying to kind of uh look in specific groups right now just to build the foundation um so Thursdays is going to be the public safety building committee and the uh senior senior building committee and then we have a 4:00 session um with internally for some of our boards and committees that we've did an invitation to um after that we have a um hopefully all the Butters and some of the businesses receed the red postcard um I'm going to be handing some out as well tomorrow uh but we're doing a virtual meeting for Butters and business owners um on January 27th um and then we have a couple that we're going to be that we scheduled in early February um more for the general public as well we're going to try to we're trying to do a mix of inperson and virtual just because it's a lot easier for people that may have uh that may work a little later or may have kids baby you know Child Care issues or um they were not able to make it down because of snow something like that um so we're trying to do a mix of in person and virtual so the first one the 27th will be focusing more on the abuts and neighboring businesses is that it correct and do you know what time that is sorry uh it's going to be 6:30 6:30 and that'll be a zoom yes okay yep great um so we're moving along with that um one of one of the things in your packet is uh our neighbor Doug Finn from South uh Westampton asked to um for letter of support uh so I'll explain that when that comes up um the budget meetings have been completed with all Municipal departments uh hopefully I can finish up the boards and committees this week and then uh forward all the requests in the new format to uh the select board and then the finance committee uh early next week uh and then I'm also going to start with um working on revenues with Bradley since we're now up to date through December um so we actually have a good six months of uh actual revenues good that's great to hear very good thanks so we're going to be working on that um I have not hit the total button yet so I don't know I'm not sure exactly where where we stand so far so I'm crossing my fingers uh so and I have been in contact with Hampshire Regional Schools as well they've um they had the central office budget presentation a couple weeks ago and then two weeks I think it was last week or the week before they did the um specific for uh the school the Hampshire Regional School uh I've been working with doni sent over some preliminary figures so and they'll be working on the Norris budget too or they should be I mean I know John ended up taking the lead on that last year because of right their staff issues so I'm hoping we don't have to you know dump it on his lap again this year they are um to their credit they have a lot of work to do they're uh extremely overwhelmed just by this year number of stuff that needs to be kind of years back they have to go look back and and figure out budgets from 2 three four 5 years ago um but they're getting it done and they're they're really trying hard um so I don't think we'll have a repeat of um next year we've also reached out just to um see if we can find finish up FY 25 as well so we can get the free cash certified um so that's one of the last things that we're waiting for and then I think in here too you I'm sorry to interrupt you you were having budget hearings Judy's working on scheduling some budget oh yes hearings themselves y so um sorry about the error I know John had mentioned that he was gone for February 11th and he wanted to be here for some of the meetings um unfortun we scheduled the police fire in Highway for that night so we're going to try to rearrange everything so that some of the different smaller departments for the first night and then we're going to um have the big departments a little bit later on so um we have 3 days scheduled um we should be able to get mostly everything in on those three days there might be a few ones that will bleed over into the regular pych board meeting um and I'm going to try to use that one for like the Town Administrator um uh budget um the treasure collector the debt the employee benefits the more generalized ones so that sounds um we'll try to do that and then we'll have second uh second hearings as needed in early March okay um great and then I do want to recognize the uh fire chief who received a grant let me just bring it up here yep of uh$ 15,46 120 from uh Department of fire Services uh for their firefighter safety equipment grant program and uh We've submitted the community compact grant for it as well so we're going to wait and here on that and then there's another round next month on Municipal fiber that I'm going to start working on the application for uh for that Grant as well and I know obviously the grant committee is working hard on the bridges and other things so it's uh it's Grant season right now no definitely yeah there definitely is yep so good yeah and I did forward um the updated uh from Dodson flinker for the zero College Highway just came through on the share drive so if whenever you get a chance um it's a little bit complicated to uh read but there we go but it is a much more uh focused timeline okay um and the idea is to get everything ready for at least a One-Stop grant for the majority of of the funding so they they pretty much knocked about two and a half three months off of it oh wow yeah so okay that's why we're kind of going very rapidly for the public hearings yeah okay can we be sure we get this up on that new web page yeah so just to remind people we have on the special projects page in our website uh we've got two or three special projects here you've heard me talk about the 250th anniversary but that's where the railway study sewer study sits and then the land use planning part acquisition and planning um information will be up there too so this will be great yeah good I'm glad to see that okay and then we had the hazard mitigation update meeting today uh well it was supposed to be our last meeting but looks like we're going to have an additional one next month so we're we're slowly slowly working on that um a few Outreach to different departments we're going to have to finalize but it looks like it's come along pretty well I think we have to have one more final public hearing as well I I'll check with Mei oh maybe okay yeah so that would be the update of the hazard mitigation plan which once it's updated it allows us to apply for certain grants too that might be of use to us um so that's good it has to be updated I think she said every five or six years five years yeah so we're we're at that point right now so very good okay any questions for Scott or anything all right so uh let's go on to select board reports and Cindy you started with assessors so we heard that one thank you very much for filling in that Gap I'm just going to add one more thing on the Assessor's report which I didn't get to which is that um as previously um announced we uh were hoping to have a a title examiner look more closely at some of the Deeds Etc related to the acquisition of properties by Hoy Waterworks unfortunately that individual has had to pull away because of personal reasons so so that's on hold I just want to make sure people know that uh the next report is Board of Health uh they are U very much looking at properties that have um been under um evaluation for some perhaps because they are uh of of a health um concern or Hazard for our town that's really been quite an activity they're also uh because it's budget season um the entire Board of Health is very much interested in completing the correct amount of information providing it and understanding what's necessary for presenting their budgetary requests and I have told them that we're in a bit of a transitional stage I know that that's happened at the select board level and also that some of the information that um had been distributed is was still in a draft form and that we are still reviewing the process for how that's going um the next one is open space committee uh the open space committee uh met rather recently and um there's a couple things there's um kro Land Trust has continued to be very involved um on the moving forward to proceed to finalize the M Mountain Waters project some of the original properties probably will not be involved in the original as originally planned and yet there's still money's available through the landscape partnership Grant so there may be some Readjustment of the property still consistent with the goal uh wouldn't require probably any more votes by the town because it's they're there's similar properties that could also be a part of the mountain Waters project um and Mark casses and I have been working with um Kestrel on some of those inquiries by Property Owners about how that's going forward and um it's too soon to be specific on what those properties are just a just a question on that I'm assuming and correct me if I'm wrong I'm assuming that if we had a property within that set of properties that we had voted upon at town meeting last year sometime mhm where town monies from CPC in particular were going to be used right if one of those properties or something falls through on that we would have to go back at this special or annual town meeting and resend that vote for that that particular cost I think that's how that would happen okay actually uh one of the properties that's probably not going to be involved is um actually didn't even get to that point of being announced another and I'll just say another one that was on there um I don't believe CPC money was going to be used towards it so it's a good point to make sure we're keep I think anything we voted if something changes on that I think we have to actually formally resend that vote Y and then put in a request for a new a new match whatever I will double check on that because I don't think it's applicable but that's fine just keep it in mind yep that's all yep Dan that's good uh I wanted to report on the housing authority and I think I start that by uh saying how impressed I am with Sierra Simmons and her ability to continually make make forward progress on the projects that we have uh specifically uh 354 College Highway which is the the property where we want to end up building a Habitat for Humanity house and um the next step for that is getting the environmental site assessment done and after that we should be able to contact the the the parties that we're interested in working with on that got an RFP on that yep that's right and just for people watching this is uh down around a little bit past the golf club yes country CL uh on uh on College Highway M yep very good I had to mention there mhm anything with concom concom hasn't met so we have to figure out what we're doing with them they they do have a meeting scheduled I thought I saw them for early February uh cuz there were a couple of things that had to it was next Monday dealt with I thought I saw that U check that but I I think I mean I think as you know John pointed out at the last meeting at least for a meeting coming forward if if one has to be had because of the business at hand y then I think it if there is no selected Vice chair to take over then I think it does fall to the next longest serving person on the commission yeah at least for that meeting in order to get business done um while you're while you're looking for for other people to join the commission so yeah I'll I'll reach out to them right now before I forget but just just a reminder anybody out there if anybody out there is interested in in being part of the Conservation Commission uh we've got various other vacancies on Town committees and boards but Conservation Commission is a statutory commission where we really really need to have that um in place and functioning uh it's one that really has to abide very clearly by Mass General law and um has lots of rules and regulations that um are needed to protect our wetlands in town in particular uh and so we would welcome anybody reaching out um reach out to anybody on this this table right here Scott and then also on the uh the town website as you all know there is a place called uh I think it's under fors or something but there is the application for volunteers on our town website so U feel free to reach out and see if you can offer your services so okay uh nothing else then I will just mention briefly um the bylaws committee has met recently we'll pick up a couple of those uh later well in couple minutes on the agenda we've been working on a couple of um bylaw one an amendment and a new um a new proposed bylaw and we'll discuss those shortly um and then we have um basically Grant committee has been meeting uh having a couple of work sessions to try and work on the mass Trails Grant which is due yet again uh We've apped for this probably three or four times now and we are hopefully in the last stage of needing to request design permitting and Engineering funds uh to finish off the full or at least close to the 75% design of the greenway bike path uh so that request as we met the other day will be I believe a request of around 324,000 two Mass Trails uh with a match um including ink kind and hopefully CPC approval and town voter approval of around 80 81,000 uh to match that uh so that is one that is being worked on is very close to being finalized I've reached out to both Senator vas and uh rep pe's office for letters of support and uh I'm sure we will get those in time the deadline to apply is February 3rd uh the second one we're working on is to try and pick up um what was the mass Trails grant that had been awarded uh via concom basically uh to do this well it would have been the second phase of The manhan Meadows Sanctuary down here on East Street um those of you who are familiar with that area there had been a first phase which had re rerouted uh the trail to a little bit of a safer um um what shall I say safer place on the slope before you descend down into the into The Meadows a bit uh it will actually have an entry point off the future Greenway so right off the rail trail now um and so a lot of work was done on on phase one um but phase two was actually to buy and install a pedestrian bridge which is is um needed to basically cross the manhan at a certain place to join the two halves of The manhan Meadows Sanctuary um that's around a 40t expanse of the river um so even though we had approval on that and we're about ready to uh purchase the bridge um time had run out because we had to apply for a special waterways license from the state uh to allow us to work down around the manhatt river and that took a year to get just the license so everything halted and by then timing on the Grant had basically come to a standstill and unfortunately because of where Mass Trails gets their money they were not willing to do another time extension for us and so we are picking that back up again and trying to see how we can reapply and actually acquire that bridge and then also probably look for separate funding for the installation because the installation turns out from the engineering specifications that we've been able to get from uh a couple of people that have consulted on this uh needs to be a little bit more robust than what had originally been planned uh the bridge itself is pretty pretty simple fiberglass able to be installed carried down installed by volunteers as has been done in several other conservation areas but because we have a river and because we have uh concerns about climate resiliency and future flooding Etc uh the actual installation on the on the river banks has to be a lot more solid than what had originally been envisioned so that's where we're working on that Grant application um and that's basically it for Grants there's a two or three others that are coming out um they're related to water protection uh so I've forwarded a couple of those in uh grant information processes to um to our water superintendent um and U we'll see if there's something there that we may need to um apply for that might be relevant to something else that he's working on in his department so that's basically it at the moment I think for my committees right now so with that um new business how about uh pvpc selection of the joint Transportation Al alternate to the tip subcommittee so this is something where guess pvpc is helping to manage this the tip process is the transportation Improvement program and this is the fiveyear schedule basically of when important projects such as the greenway Trail such as the East Street bridge and or now the East Street uh improvements um have to get scheduled on the dot um priority list uh the way I understand this and we have on our on our um um roster I guess that Randall is our uh representative to the um to the Planning Commission for the tip Improvement program but um we need to have an alternate member and so I believe what we need to do is to propose an alternate member to the tip Transportation Improvement program subcommittee so with that I'm going to take the lead and approve not approve ask uh propose um that we uh nominate our John administrator to be our alternate rep uh to to accompany Randall on this committee excellent okay need a motion um I'll that was sort of my motion I'll take that as my own motion that I'm I'm moving that we Scott to be the alternate on the tip subcommittee somebody would second yeah Cindy second okay any comments questions anybody else want to volunteer feel free all right I just will ask yep no I I thought of another individual who has a lot of background in transportation and Engineering however he's not here to speak for himself so I guess I won't raise the name um that was what I was going to say yeah no this would be yeah of of what we would normally um do with pvpc as you know as a municipality participating in this program we need to nominate someone to be that second person in case Randall doesn't um attend I believe I think from yeah from from what I see that's what we need to do so we have a motion in a second all those in favor I I I all right Scott you're it so we will um work out uh our response to that was an email it's due into some someone before the 31st so we can work with Judy and make sure that that happens to this um person in the letter that we got from pvpc okay all righty uh let me pull up uh I think the next thing is going to be the just some uh CH bylaw drafts and usually just for people's um edification here whenever the bylaw um review advisory committee takes on either amendments or new bylaws before they go to to anyone uh basically they come through select board and have a have a review and comments on them and I hope people have had a chance to take a a quick look at them but I've asked Scott to put them up um actually Scott maybe if you could put up the um and that email was the actual um bylaw itself that's an attachment to it yeah uh so the uh no not the application yeah the other one there we go right so we could maybe make it a little bit big there we go so this is a proposed new bylaw um for the use of public buildings um we have really not actually I guess technically I should check that I believe technically this might be an amendment i' take that back I think on the books we have one sentence that says public buildings are non-smoking I believe that is the only thing that we have as a bylaw for this so we thought that this probably needed a little bit of expansion given the number of requests that we get for outside groups to come and use town hall for a meeting um some of the friends groups uh the Community Chorus for example uh uses the senior center uh various others you know requests from time to time uh to use um one of our one of our rooms for a meeting and we really had nothing in procedure um in place procedurally um so this is a proposed draft of this um and it basically is focusing right now pretty much on Town Hall as we know it um and it's basically looking at Community use of public buildings for non-work related purposes so both Norris and Edwards Library have their own policies already and this is quite honestly modeled somewhat after that so it's not uh somebody wanting a a space it's not for individuals it would be for a group um so um we can I don't know if people have had a chance to take a look at it but there were proposing um an application so written application which was that first attachment which we'll go back to um two weeks in advance uh to the Town Administrator um that's what this one is focusing on and we could just make that a little bit bigger Scott um thanks and so this is basically just the people who or the the group that needs to use it what the event is all about um what kind of time is needed how many people might come just cuz we do have on some of the offices or some of the spaces here we have a uh a per person limit right by the fire department capacity um you know if it were the senior center do they need to use the kitchen for just some snacks or whatever do they need any audiovisual equipment you know what kind of program are they putting on um and then um basically describe what it is and pretty much saying that you know it's up to the group that wants to use the room to arrange it to their needs um but they need to return the room like anybody would assume I think uh returning the room uh as you found it um if there were Refreshments served of some sort then the kitchen and table areas need to be cleaned up and trash disposed of if we find that there is Major clean up to be done after the event um a fee for we're proposing anyway a fee for custodial Services may be charged to the group uh by the Town Administrator at a rate of one and a half times the hourly wage for those employed to correct the problem um so rather than you know having a fee or anything like that to use the room this is basically not a chargeable um occasion shall we say but should there be some extraordinary cleanup needed for some reason uh we have the recommendation that we're making that that be an option of the Town Administrator um to do that so that's the actual application and if you want to swap back to the other one a minute um uh I think that's pretty much so yeah just uh just in terms of procedure this is mostly that um just how how to contact the Town Administrator to get access to the key lockbox um closing down by 9:00 p.m. um talking about what's what's available uh some of the same things I've just said actually any kids that might be attending an event depending on what the event is they need to be supervised by adults um materials won't be sold without permission of the Town Administrator designated staff raffle event should be coordinated with the town clerk's office there's usually a permit of some sort required there believe um so basically it's it's pretty self-explanatory I think um for people that are watching tonight it is on the town website so take a look under um government boards and commissions look under bylaws committee and you will find uh a link to this draft so if you have any thoughts and comments on it but uh we can leave it out there for maybe I hadn't thought about it but maybe two weeks in case there is any public comment to come in just write in to myself or the Town Administrator uh with any comments or questions you might have um and then if we're basically okay with it um we'll bring it up at that one of the February meetings so that we can sign off on it and then it would go down to KP law for for their review so that we could get on a special town meeting warrant Cindy U questions I didn't know if I saw this does it say where to send the application is it to the Town Administrator office or does it say has be approved by the Town Administrator uh where to send the request it might be in the and and would an email be sufficient meaning with the attachment completed email with the attachment yes the main thing is to fill out this form so yeah it doesn't have to come in hard copy can be an email I'll make it into a PDF fillable okay right yeah maybe provide a clarity as to how that can be done and to which email address yep it might be in the text of the other one but I'm not sure well I was trying to read that the other thing is um do friends organizations um fall under the category of non-governmental and in that I know a couple friends organizations meet in town hall is that non-governmental organization a friend you know an actual 501c3 organization yes it was still qualify they will qualify in what regard to use the um the facilities they they're not the which category do they qualify for are they part of they're under what we called in the definitions ex auxiliary group they are an exil group person associated with an existing Town department or committee okay to support and enhance their mission EG friends groups and oh oh very good thank you so we tried to okay tried to do that may still not totally be clear but that's fine that's a kind of information you know we we want something to be clear I mean I think this is just it lays out some procedures that we just haven't had which yeah and a two we I'm sorry one more question excuse me and um and a two we notice is required okay yeah uh my question is more of do we how how are do you manage these the rooms do you have some kind of like log book to know if a room is busy or not like um usually the town clerk will keep a calendar okay um I'd like to get on to a digital for digital format just make it a little bit easier but um yeah we Outlook it's a good tool for that yeah just saying but it's mostly it's vacant most of the time yeah yeah yeah just wondering how they you determine a conflict yeah yeah I mean yeah yeah that would have to be yeah noted and I guess that's why with the twoe time frame hopefully that would give enough time to say oops there's something else happening that same night that came in first or to first come first serve quite honestly I think that's is process and they have to leave at the end of the period of time that have been author rise you know how sometimes meetings kind of go on have more things to say and I I've experienced circumstan where another group is lined up in the hallway ready to come in yeah yeah so um just a but I think it's great to have this available Town Hall should be available okay good so that's one uh and like I said I'll check that may actually be an amendment because we have one little sentence on our bylaws right now I forgot I thought this was brand new but I could be wrong uh the second one we have is just an update on the swimming pools uh swimming pool safety uh and that is one that is if you hit that town link there first maybe or each one and that email Scott just in that yeah in back in that email just try that and see if that gets me where I want to go could be could be not yeah okay so we do have on our uh Town bylaws on the general bylaws uh chapter 234 swimming pools um again it doesn't say a whole lot it's got three or four sentences and that's about it uh we've worked with the Building Commissioner on this and um there have been definite uh updates in the CMR or code of regulations Etc and that's what is reflected in the new draft so just to say that if you want to refer to the old bylaw or the current bylaw that's on the books that's it 234 what we're proposing is an amendment to that and the main changes I've tried to update um by well it's got a bit more definition but the highlighted parts are the main thing so the body of water I think used to be like only 12 in deep now it's 24 in deep which I don't quite know to me somebody can also drown in 12 in I'm not quite sure why that got made bigger but um 24 in uh or more above ground uh is a part of the definition of a swimming pool um and then in restrictions uh there's new restrictions in terms of being 15 ft from the rear or the side Lot line um and then not less than 40 ft from the front lot line I think the front lot line might have been there but not specified in terms of its um the amount of feet uh the one on the side and rear lot lines is a new um footage Dimension um and then uh they need to be enclosed 4ft barrier that hasn't changed um but there is uh some changes in that the chain link fencing um mesh size sh not exceed 2 and a/4 in and again these are all codes of mass mass General law building code uh and then if there was some other protective measure uh around your pool um some people might have a cover on their pool I think um this is saying that you still would need a fence no matter what a cover is not sufficient um so that kind of is part of three and four uh and I think that's basically it um let's see um uh there was something about latching go back just a second up uh it's number five no number five yeah the self latching gate swinging outward uh I think that's very similar to what was there before maybe just a little bit clearer um and then uh if there was an above ground pool um if it's not in use so during the winter time whatever it needs to be removed if it's not secured by fencing um you would need a permit from the building department and there are a couple of exemptions I believe just scrolling down a little bit oh yeah just the small plastic kids pools are exempt as our hot tubs um and then this would be uh the building inspector uh is the enforcement officer to do this and the penalties and fines would be levied per an existing chapter of our bylaws okay so those are the ones that we're proposing um come to us when we have a special Town me so please take a a few days and take a look at them if you're interested and if you have any comments uh come back to us um but again just go to the um town website government boards and commissions uh committees whatever and uh or just type in bylaws in the search engine and it will take you there okay that's all I've got on that thank you very much hoping that we can get a couple of these moving along here um next arpa quarterly report uh let's see I think we have um the arpa quarterly reports we've done a fairly good job on these uh we've got a couple maybe that are missing but Judy's keeping track of all the quarterly reports that are due in I'm guilty and uh I know Scott's got a couple well a couple years are brand new awarded so you you actually escape a month or two I think until the next quarter but there's a couple perhaps that we don't have but just to say that we are still keeping track of um the ongoing projects many of the projects have actually um been designated as completed and one of the things that I'm going to be working on this weekend is just updating again our our website on the select board page for the um the notice of the tracking sheets that we've got talking about what's been completed Etc there thank you so um I hope people will take time to just read these it looks like the ones that are ongoing here still and I can just note these um planning board with their uh goinging consultant Conservation Commission with their conservation agent both are still ongoing uh Canal Lane septic system is ongoing uh Southampton 250th anniversary is ongoing the community garden is ongoing that open space has been managing and hold on um then a few of the newer ones um uh oh and the other one uh the renle and uh Ty have been working on the um covert replacement Grant um uh that is all getting close to finished I would expect by next quarter that one actually might be finished um we still need to start on the storm water Enterprise fund study so the stormw water Enterprise fund study uh I don't believe we've had any Beginnings on that yet that's something we do need to get underway um the others that are still uh active are the newest ones so the sewer feasibility study for the greenway the townwide permitting and uh software licensing that's the new one uh the Ada door openers for our bathrooms in town hall um let's see uh we had some additional funds to complete the um wage compensation study uh we had some initial funding to help us out with the it capital program and replacement of some of our computers here at Town Hall computers and printers perhaps at town hall and then the last one is the AED purchase and installation for the COA so those are basically the listing of projects that are still out there um that are uh have received rer money and are still uh working on their projects so we will be keeping track of those as we go along and uh like I say I will get some of the tracking Parts updated on our website I've been a little bit LAX on that one I'm sorry um but I will get to it okay any questions on that anybody okay um don't think I have anything and we'll take a look to and get the arpa financial report up Bradley's been keeping track of the finances as everybody's been submitting their their request for reimbursement um I believe he's been unraveling some of the issues that we had with the school and some of their earlier projects um so I'm hoping we're getting to a better point on that but again we'll get the the latest arpa financial report up so that people know where we we are on that and I think Scott we're we're still trying to understand what we might need to do with this one that had a reimbursement that came back to us from the grant program where that can that go back into well I know we've we can't re obligate it now because that time is over right right um so I did reach out to the Auditors and they're researching it um essentially it's a little bit of a gray area um depending at what the actual work of the appropriation was okay so um Tanya has been looking looking at that so okay don't have quite an answer yet but CU we weren't sure with like with the uh we had to put up the full amount for one of these grants that that randle's department has been working with and then once the work is done it gets reimbursed but we had to show the the grant program that we had the ability to fund the entire thing up front and so we did that out of arpa and um now that we're getting the reimbursements back we weren't sure if they could go into the general fund or where they should go so that's basically our our question because they didn't come back in time to re obligate for new ARA projects that that time frame just to remind anybody the time frame to reward arpa money was the end of December 24 we still have two years to spend all the arpa money so those projects that I've outlined to you here are the ones that still have monies out there to spend and they have until December of 201 six to report on those uh spend and report so um we're we're pretty okay it's just um a little Clarity on the from the program side as to where some of this money should go U would be helpful to us okay uh next up I just lost my agenda here secondly somebody tell me what the agenda it is revenue an expense report a revenue and expense reports okay yeah so I think we have um what do we have we have reports in from Bradley that were I believe um the FY 24 expense report that goes through well it's just still being updated I guess from time to time I'm not sure if the revenues uh captur the December by know it goes up to no through November yeah so this is this is the 24 one though the FY 24 yeah so FY 24 uh expense report so I think I didn't see a revenue report I saw just the expense report um and so those are ones just as we go into the budget hearings I just um make a note from my colleagues that you know those of be want to have handy as we look at expenditures for the various departments although the budget sheets this year may show us that you know our actual spending mhm versus our projected spending so at least when we want to question somebody we can say well you know you had this much last year you only spent this much so why are you asking for X again right so this um 24 expense report can be useful in that regard um but we do also so this is what you were talking about I think Scott we also have the um Revenue expense reports for fiscal 25 and you were saying now the revenue goes up this one looks like it's through November but he's done through December yep uh just last week he finished okay great so we have u a better handle on this and this will help us going forward in in budget season as well um and this um I think just to just a note um for the most part at a glance through these with a you know a midyear look in mind we should be on any of these if you just look at the last column we should be at least 50% spent one would hope in that neighborhood some are 100% because they're upfront costs that we pay all at once um there's some that um you know I I will note and I know this is on your mind Scott on this one already uh our legal expenses for this fiscal year uh we're already at 76% spent yeah and we've got 6 months to go so I think we just have to be very judicious in terms of how we need to use our lawyers um I mean I know we have been having to do a lot with land acquisition and various issues from the Board of Health as they're looking at some of these properties that they're trying to clean up Etc but just to say that that will go down pretty quickly on that one so just just to note that a lot of these you know if as you go through them and you see things that are you know already more than 50% it's maybe again a red flag just to to keep in mind when we do our budget hearings with these different departments and just you know have an idea on that but is there any concerns that you have Scott other than than the legal line is there anything else that's getting to be problematic from what you know no uh there was an error with our technology that we were double double build for final site oh um but we're we should be getting the credit soon so oh wow for the actual installation of it um the yearly maintenance yearly maintenance okay I was going say my gosh H okay okay so um and great to hear that Bradley's up to date to to December that'll be fantastic okay good um okay if no questions there uh the next on the agenda item list is uh tentative special town meeting date and timeline for article submission so Scott you want to take that one so we we're looking at doing a special town meeting at least a month in advance of our annual town meeting which is May 7th um it we're getting very close one of the reasons is we are waiting for hkt Architects to finalize the um the feasibility study uh for the redesign public safety building complex um we did actually get an email a few hours ago from uh from Janet uh just about you know they are making progress but we haven't seen the actual designs yet they they have an estimate for the potential square footage okay um but again no es yet um so really it's the special town meeting is contingent on getting something uh from hkt so we can actually move forward um to present the town meeting for both the OPM cost the owner project manager and the architectural fees for both the public safety and the Council on Aging um so we will need I mean by law it's we have to post everything within 14 days and it's probably going to take at least one to two weeks for me to prepare everything and get everything organized and that's cutting it close right well and I think we don't you know with our May so I think so it' be a Tuesday meeting usually right so I think it's probably May 6th I believe maybe or for the annual town the annual town meeting that would be May and it's on a Tuesday so that would be the sixth correct or am I wrong on that right here oh I'm sorry the first Tuesday in May yeah yeah that is that would be May 6 would be our annual town meeting and that's pretty much a date certain um um so to back it up I mean we're really talking probably something like March 4th or something like that realistically if we can March 4th would be a Tuesday um I believe you can you can schedule special Town meetings on any day though oh we can I'm I'm pretty sure yeah because the the bylaw only refers to the annual town meeting okay well interesting we've I mean traditionally we've done it well recent tradition we've done them Tuesday evenings uh I know during Co we had different ones we had them during the day we've had them on Saturdays in the past and there was some talk about doing that I didn't know though because that it's in our bylaw well the annual town meeting is in our bylaw I don't know about special town meeting um whether we would have to have a vote first at special town meeting to change the date of a meeting we probably do but um anyway just to say if if tentatively I mean we can still since we don't have a full board here tonight I'd like to get other people's opinions but um maybe just amongst ourselves that are here tonight A tenative thought um doesn't sound like we can be much earlier February is going to go by very fast especially with budget hearings um March 4th or March 11th both Tuesdays okay um off hand in in Li of a select board meeting on the 4th because we would generally meet on the 4th well usually what we do right before we have it up at the school we have a short meeting up you know at the school but if if that ended up being one of our budget hearing nights which I think is the last possible budget hearing you were talking about Scott too um let me just double check that that may that may interfere so maybe maybe March 11th is a little bit safer off hand um and hopefully that might work um so the budget calendar uh this the second budget presentation is that can be fluid that's yeah okay so maybe no that's okay then so I mean go back March 4th then I I thought I had read the the 11th so want to just let's throw it out there earlier so let's say March 4th as an idea and then if we have to shove it to the 11th we can do that perhaps but I don't think we ought to go any longer than that because then we get so back toback with a regular town meeting that it gets a little bit much right so let's try March 4th with did the people from hkt do you think that's going to work for them TimeWise and for the public safety building to review all the information I would defer to our audience member at least you that one um I I had discussion with Janet not to put you on the spot problem I've had discussion with Janet from hkt and um explaining the need for this at a certain time uh I haven't gotten a response yet relative to that um so I have to respond to the email that um Scott referred to earlier and when I do I'll I'll ask again I'll be responding tomorrow we just got that email later this afternoon so I'll ask her again uh to to give her a time you know yeah yeah that sounds good I mean well I think you know they need to understand that we're we're jammed at a certain time and I they need to work with us yes they we've we've been trying to follow them but at the same time I think you know we've got a a give and take situation here there is there is and one of the hardships that uh they ex that Janet expressed was that a cost estimator had been deployed he's in military so he had been deployed so that's kind of a a hold up for them so um I wasn't expecting that uh programming that they sent today to be as soon as it was so that gives me high hopes that I'll get okay okay that's great okay all right so let's let's aim for the March 4th and with that um we definitely have to publish so two weeks ahead so we need to I mean we need calls for articles anytime no I've uh I did mention at the uh last department head meeting okay um we have an internal list going there's quite a few things from the treasurer few motions for that um maybe a little bit request for legal funds um as well as hopefully by that time the um the free cash will be certified I'm hoping yes as well so okay uh we do have a running list getting together that would include some of the boards and committees as well uh haven't reached out to them yet okay might be like CPC usually has something um the assessors might have something we're thinking about possibly yeah so there might be just just add them but they would be in on the department meeting anyway on the assessors right so so that we would want to I mean usually we put out a call saying you know all articles all draft articles for consideration should be submitted to you by X date so whatever that date yeah you want to make um um I mean two weeks out from today is the 4th of February sound reasonable um I think so it might be an opportunity just because I know it'll be a it'll be an active town meeting especially given the the topics yeah um you know might we might want to think about using the consent agenda for the first time I'll recommend to Robert yeah okay consent agenda I don't understand that uh a consent agenda is B is um when you lump together uncontroversial items so like a budget transfer or like an unpaid bill um so so you lump them all together and then one vote would cover them all okay and it makes a meeting bit um that's fine but should there be others from that that are not yet on your scratch list I mean anybody that's got one to suggest they need to get something to you in terms of what the topic is at least I mean I sometimes some of the Committees just for the future well you've already been through one so some committees will try and draft something themselves for you to polish up and have KP law look at others just tell you the topic so it depends on how you want them but let's just say that you know maybe we should just put out a note that you know those that might have articles for a special town meeting um to try and get something to you in a couple weeks you think yeah okay all right we'll work toward that and if we have to make some changes we can we can do that um next up Green community Grant I think you talked about that briefly already in your report so I don't know if there's anything else to say on that um the railway sewer study any next steps on that uh not yet I'm we still have to get the cost analysis from TY bond for the um the next phase in that if we want to go forward with it so yeah and the plan there the so that that would be the next phase would be to do what again remind me I'm sorry um they would actually get out in the neighborhood talk to different residents see if it's what gauge what the interest level is uh then they would also do the um technical designs and then allow you know so we can actually go out to bid for that uh so it's kind of like the public facing to see if there's actually a um sort of community engagement right Community engagement part of it so okay and that would be something that Ty and bond would probably do themselves okay all right so to be determined on that one uh hmp update talked about it briefly but um we'll have another meeting on that so that's just basically looking at the last Hazard mitigation plan and some of the high medium and low priorities for uh protecting our community from potential hazards um some that might be carried from carried through that had not been completed before maybe some new ones as well so hopefully there'll be just maybe another meeting on that and then a report to be issued by pvpc on that all right uh it says clarification in salary plan I think that's probably classification yes okay yeah Scott okay [Music] uh so where we are today um starting at the beginning with the compensation and salary plan um over the summer we were able to complete a market compensation analysis uh by looking at and then getting the information from 15 comparable communities uh we were able to formulate the salary tables and then create a grading structure for um all the different positions the exempt and the non-exempt we with the help of Art and Deb we were able to actually regrade all the positions to the the best of our ability um the select board two meetings ago accepted the salary tables as well as the uh grades of positions and that kind of brings us to tonight which is actually placing the employees within the new salary table um afterwards during the budget sessions we're going to have to um determine what FY 26 Cola may look like um over the six next 6 to9 months uh we're also going to be updating all the job descriptions regrade the positions as well and then Implement any of the additional changes for next fiscal year so this is really uh unfortunately it's a square peg and round hole type of approach um imperfect but it gives a step forward so it's still going to take a little bit of time to get everything together so we're still working off a old job descriptions we have to get a good job description format together um and then regrading the position should be relatively easy so so some of the job so I hate to bring up the Colin Center again but some of the job descriptions that should have been would have been done under that process never were kind of up to Snuff in terms of what they should have been or included or right so the Colin Center had people Redline old job descriptions uh I wouldn't take that approach I I usually use a form that helps pull out the information from the border committee or the supervisor on what the position should be doing and then usually I would take that right to job description and then share that with the supervisor to make any changes so there's a uniform job description for all for all positions so there's a certain style yeah that probably is a different approach to to what we had here I would imagine our job descriptions are not very uniform I wouldn't be surprised okay they are from the the 2017 MH uh study um okay yeah but over the last seven eight years they've all been kind of there's a lot of different versions and drafts that may or may not have been adopted since then so uh and then the 2017 format uh isn't a very good format okay so I would recommend using a different one anyways all right can I ask a question at this point um this came out of the Board of Health meeting uh and I suspect some of the other boards and committees might feel the same way especially um uh boards that have employees reporting to them they worked very hard to try to upgrade job descriptions based on what they were told previously like a year ago and I'm just going to acknowledge they work very hard on that and they will need to we need to remember that and also give support to the rewriting of them I know You' already thought of that but yeah y okay all right um so that brings us to uh the next phase which is um positioning the um employees into the the new chart um we had the original $20,000 uh that we appropriated last fiscal year for this purpose as well as the additional $115,000 in arpa money uh so about $35,000 total um again the the idea was to make it at least halfway through the year um when I did the cost analysis it looks like uh we can stay within that 3 $5,000 uh if we started these changes on January 13th um so a couple different it's it'll be retroactive but it's the first full pay period in uh the calendar year um retroactive sorry retroactive to where to uh January 13th okay yeah so we're a little bit week week or two past it already but um the idea is there there are some positions that you'll see in the chart that won't have an impact uh contractual uh um Enterprise fund positions as well as some other positions that are um paid for through revolving accounts like the the van drivers in the counsil on Aging so those will actually have an impact on the the bottom line for this for this um looking at the chart itself oops oh actually one thing I wanted to point out is there was one change um in the exempt classification chart that was the health director um during budget hearings I talked to Jerry as well as Caitlyn Rooks a chairperson um they asked if I could just revisit how the scoring system worked and I was uh happy to do that um one [Music] moment sorry there we go so with the health director um originally graded I had a grade as a j um looking back on it oh uh art myself and Deb we agreed at least two out of three in all of them except for the final one complexity of operations I actually had that as a five which looking at it back was a little bit too low um and I probably agree with art and Deb that needs to be at least the 13 which is the thir degree um and that 10 points actually would move it into the um the J um the next phase next uh grade up so I did want to point that out good um the other one was the here we go uh veteran services officer which I thought up to this point was actually hourly but it's a stien position um so converting the vsso to a um hourly employee um and Grading it it came in as a uh step three and what are the kinds of things there I'm I'm a little bit surprised to have it as high as a water tech so can you clarify a little bit I mean is that levels of responsibility confidentiality what uh well it's also based a little bit on Market too as well um most vsos are probably in the uh3 to $35 range uh per hour um we're a little bit lower than that but that would bring us right up into the 90th percentile of of where we wanted it to be um it does have uh specialized training as well so you do need to get certified by the state and federal government um and financially you do have to be very good with numbers if you make a mistake on a veteran's application if you put their assets too much or their income too much or too little it can impact that as well uh you also have a big responsibility in dealing with medical issues um in some difficult situations it's it's really a social services uh position okay no good yeah and then back on the other one on the on the health director you said the main difference was in the scoring on the complexity of the work is that it what I heard yes the last I I had it probably a little bit too low at a five and the next um the next one up would be a 15 further point and that would move it from um the J to the I hold that for SEC okay how's complexity versus complexity of operations different the complexity as a number seven and mm um what up [Music] here experience accountability this one is um complexity of the job and then the bottom one is complexity of subordinates I see so I had as um it was the second degree and it should be um the third degree at the very least it should be a third degree so the subordinate in this case would just be the contract employee though right um hypothetically if you had a health agent as well yeah so again looking at the position itself mhm rather than current occupants yeah got it okay that's clearer thank you I don't think I've ever seen that document yeah it's good you know okay but have you mentioned this to Jerry because you said you spoke with her that's the current person in the position I thought she saw so I did update her budget I thought she saw but I did tell her this afternoon about it so I didn't tell Caitlyn or anything so and the psy board still technically has to adopt it to change so okay so do we need action on this tonight then or um well it would be great if we could um one of the things that that the treasur brought up was approvable by the pqb um I'm not 100% let me just bring up the thing so um I think pqb I thought was more an advisory role they're not necessarily the ones setting salaries to my knowledge right is that the question right so there is a uh there is a clause in the pqb manual I'm not sure if um well under or sorry well under or ordinary circumstances the Personnel rules and regulations should be closely adhere to they are nonetheless guidelines intended to ensure the town's personel practice are fair eal and transparent accordingly they may be modified or amended by the select board upon recommendation by the pqb or upon select board's own initiative there you go it seems to me that we're covered it's our initiative to take this on my opinion so um looking back at the um it is a little bit more pinkish than red I didn't do a red highlights so from John's email earlier um it is based on the current one so contractual employees were not included um Enterprise employees are not included elected officials weren't included as well or vacant positions um and then you have the uh van drivers as well which are funded from uh a revolving account based on donations um most of the exempt employees um were at or near Market they either a step four or a five with some getting closer to a seven and I can show you the chart right there oops so for this would be effective uh for January um and based on this most employees would be right around this range so they'd be a little bit behind Market um but still over the next one or two years implementing them based on their years of service qualifications uh if they moved up to a step they'd be close to where they needed to be in the market the market is number seven there right to the left of the yellow Y and then we still have to write uh some new policies regarding the Merit base part which we have to get to eventually so you're saying most are falling in that five range right now MH in this uh this General quarter or half of it right here so that gets us to what I think we were trying to say what up to 90 was it 90% of Market is that we were aiming for this time and that would be number that would be uh step seven would be 90% of Market M uh one and the other um so I did meet during the budget hearings I did meet with each uh Department uh to discuss this making sure that internal equity and external Equity was um was taken into account um there were a few changes based on you know how many years of service they they were here and you know when they came for with the town um no one had their salary decreased so I just want to point that out so it does look a little bit um a little bit uneven at times but that's because a lot of these might be redlined so they'll maintain the salary until their proper step would catch up the uh non-exempt um again most because there are a few more steps uh most uh you know fell right around the middle the um the seven to uh 10th step and I can bring that up so right around here the 10th step is considered Market as well so unlike the exempt uh where you have you can exceed the market um we use the 10th step as what the market should be so they after a number of years they move up each step um and then they would eventually reach what the market market is and then further raises would be only Cola or would be something else do we ever so we you should receive a step uh every year yeah if you're a part-timer then that compound so you know if you work maybe 20 hours a week it would take you two years to get that first step um because it's all pro-rated based on how many hours um so you should get a step for every year um and then this chart itself would increase based on a cola and the the market would change over time so therefore that would affect step 10 going forward right so so every year this whole chart would be adjusted right y right so everything's based off of uh step 10 on here okay and step seven on this on uh the exempt uh so if it's one or two or 3% col up uh essentially those two columns would be adjusted and then the formula would would go backwards so and if I understood you from previous meetings uh there would be also a process for um employee performance evaluations and yes that's you haven't mentioned that tonight that's in the future yeah but it's important to understand that's part of ultimate process right so ultimately steps should not just be time in the position but Merit based so you wouldn't get a step unless you earn the step correct um as well as do the yearly thing as well so you have to have the time and earning the step for the uh exempt it would be um this area right here above Market M uh which would be Merit based so that would be part part of a performance review okay and my thought is when we move to that that's at what at that point we need to have some part some HR department in place right we need some people who are are are informing that process and keeping track of our employees and going and helping Scott do these year yearly reviews be because it could become a fulltime job for summer right so I I'm wondering if this next year is the right time to start talking about a HR and manager um or contractor or something yeah and I think just to clarify though I think you know most of these would report to their department head for the evaluation there's only certain number of people that report directly to Scott mhm so some of the department head or board in some cases there's a board involved Board of assessors board he but I'm saying that Scott's direct reports are like what five or six maybe I think yeah something like that out of the whole crew but in what I heard a little bit from what Dan said and which I think it's true is um some well I I'll just put my own words on this sometimes people we're all volunteers you know those of us on boards and we perhaps didn't have any background on Personnel kinds of issues and even if we did we know having support is really really helpful to and also to be certain that there's you know equality across the board it's not just I like you or or something we going to calibrate the scores across yeah exactly y yeah Y and training Etc dealing with any issues yeah I'm pretty familiar with that structure just from from Wy which was all volunteer base so um I can dust off my old Powerpoints and uh old manuals but it could be I mean something probably not for this budget year but next budget year well I think it's important to bring this up because there's people in the public that are listening and we're we're taking all this really really seriously we're looking at fairness Clarity Market driven and um supporting people to do the jobs they're doing right yeah and unfortunately we had tried through pvpc and a DTA Grant a couple years ago to have a shared HR person amongst very various towns and that didn't end up being yeah anything palatable for the other towns cuz we wanted more time than anybody obviously because we were the bigger town but uh that didn't turn into anything unfortunately but you know there might be opportunities like that for some short-term you know support but again when you have Grant support for something that would be a a you know a Personnel position then that's you know that doesn't really solve the problem right it's it's a temporary Band-Aid in terms of you know being able to fund it now but not long term so as our grows is one of those things Our Town grows into that position as well good point very good maybe the action is in that timeline you put together for getting us through sort of like the next year obviously I'm fully sure you're going to put together one that gets us into how we're going to uh get into that uh range where we're um doing some some uh performance reviews and in the performance reviews in that in that uh timeline talking about where we would like to um switch from the structure we have now with the pqb whatever it is called to a human resources type structure MH yeah good yeah yeah that's good okay so you would like a motion from us tonight to could you help us figure out what we need to say a motion to adopt the proposed steps uh for exempt and non-exempt non-union non-contractual uh non-enterprise fund employees and to make it effective January 13th so moved thank you hopefully are uh um second okay how about any further discussion questions um do you expect there to be any other alterations on what we are are moving to accept do you call this draft in any form uh this no but over the next couple months I I expect to be some changes as we do into the job descriptions more more so right this is just based on current right now so it's based on current so the job description could perhaps tweet whether they're at grade you know F or G kind of thing right exactly and that would be something that we would take into effect what though like at a at a midyear point or something in in the new fiscal year uh new fiscal year yeah yeah okay yeah okay I would think just given our resources I mean you know we put aside like you said about 35,000 to make this adjustment happen which I think is good I think it's great so it's a good good start for sure okay so I think we have a motion in a second and we'll rely on everybody's hearing of that great motion by Scott and our our uh transcriber um faithful wording of of that uh could I have a vote please all those in favor I I I all right motion is passed thank you all right uh next one up again Scott on this uh support letter of support for an energy manager Grant from the town of Westampton looking for our support yes um so a couple months ago um just bring the letter up here I think I think went too far the um just be there you go yeah uh so Doug Finn uh the Town Administrator in West Hampton um took the initiative to reach out to the other Hampshire Regional towns to uh gauge the interest of uh using a municipal um a green energy Grant to hire a municipal energy manager uh for our schools um my first question was can we expand it to municipal buildings um and although that was well received uh they thought it might uh hinder the Grant application process so um this is actually very common to a lot of school districts that they have a municipal energy manager for them and historically they've seen uh quite a bit of savings um everything from switching LEDs to properly timing you know buildings for energy usage um so this would be a shared Grant position um funded by a grant um that would go through the different K through 12s um regionally and uh work to reduce the energy costs um hopefully it catches on and we'd be able to extend this to municipal buildings eventually um but Doug is asking uh for support of the uh select Boards of the towns uh I did talk to Dr perone and he is he is supportive of it as well um and then Doug had um had drafted a recommend the letter of support which I would change a little bit here there but essentially it's and this would cover obviously all the not the high school but all the all the member towns with their primary schools so this would be in addition to what we've already done at Norris with our green energy grant our green communities Grant yeah it it uh 20 years ago the city of chicke did this um and they saved hundreds of thousands of dollars it was a paid paid position so it the the return on investment is definitely there especially if you can give it to a grant yeah do you have a sense of what um what kind of qualifications this person would have I mean what what constitutes an energy manager um just curious if you have that discussion I'm just curious uh 20 years ago I I wouldn't know but now I would probably you know defer to Doug but um you know Green energy is now an actual position it's a it's a job now so uh I'm not sure the exact qualifications but they're definitely out there is this a possibility of Southampton outside of our connection to Hampshire Regional High School uh utilizing the expertise of such an individual for our own purposes can we save thousands of dollars I I think we could um and i' I'd like that was my first question to Doug was uh hey can we do include the municipal buildings as well so but I think start with the schools I think you you don't want to complicate the application I agree with you and schools are the biggest driver of energy cost question you might have said this earlier maybe I missed it is there a cost to Southampton at all for this like Grant matching or anything no it should be covered under the um eversource National grid okay um where's the and Doug is actually the one filling out the Grant application or yes he's taking the initiative um Mass save as well yes so it's a theyum grant through Mass Save not mistaken they have a grant Rider up at the high school do they not uh I think this has to be through the municipality oh okay I'm not quite sure yeah but probably so yeah but but if he needed some technical help I mean I think they actually have a oh they were going to I don't know if they got that filled but they were going to have a professional grant writer so I don't know okay um can ask another question what is Doug Finn's role is he the Town Administrator in West and it would be actually a um Westampton employee that would service the entire School District but only in the schools are they going to use them for any other municipal buildings or does it matter no okay hopefully it's successful enough where we um may want to once the grant expires we may want to fund it for a couple more years to expand it to municipal buildings is this a year-long grant or uh I think it's multi-year I'm pretty sure it it would go on at least two years okay um well all right I move that we accept this proposal to Joint to have Southampton jointly fund the um Grant request for the municipal energy manager for the Hampshire district schools that Mak sense yeah a yeah a letter of support to go along with a Grant application basically and sign a letter of support to go along with a Grant application and let's designate Town Administrator to sign that and designate the Town Administrator to sign the letter thank you we got all that together we got that all right we got a motion and a second any further discussion all right all those in favor I I all right motion passes thank you Scott great yeah that sounds uh like an interesting initiative and it's interesting that you're saying that some 30 years ago other communities did like like really we're we're catching up but I didn't think we were that far behind something yeah K Ken Parsons was the first one in chicke to do it and Community was about 15 20 years ago in communities as we stole the idea so this been going on for a while well all right good okay uh next up just very briefly uh 250th anniversary info um things are moving along we have another meeting of planning meeting on Monday night uh here at Town Hall at 6 o'clock um activities are in process there's two activities being planned for February we're waiting on some final details and uh descriptors so that we can put out the word on that but uh off hand save uh February 15 and February 25 on your calendars and I'm hoping within a few days couple of days I can get some information out to you um there may be one um one event will be here at the senior center uh that will be uh a speaker from the National Park Service uh talking about the underground Railway in Western Massachusetts so that will be a an evening uh session and then we are looking at trying to do basically a Valentine's music bingo at Pano's back room on the 15th so that's in process we're working out some of the the quirks on that so hopefully we will be able to do that um so as soon as we get some information out we will do that on the website and through through our Facebook page as you know we have a separate 2000 yeah 2 250th anniversary group Facebook page as well as the page on our website uh we have a couple of events um planned also for March uh we're looking at a trivia night at the Southampton Country Club on March 21st and then a pancake breakfast at the Congregational Church I believe on March 27th so we'll nail down those dates on Monday and get the word out so just keep in mind we'll be having some things every month I try to do one or two key things every month and uh stay tuned so please uh let us know if you got other ideas feel free to come to the meeting on Monday if you'd like to upstairs at 6:00 uh the beard contest is underway uh we had a few registrants thank you Dan for registering here for the longest we see it star toow what is it the fastest growing fastest growing yes so uh we definitely have a a participant here from select board so thank you for that Community Support uh and then the two or three other categories that are out there three other categories you didn't need to register ahead of time but those are those are still on the website so please take a look at those and we'll figure out a date when any kind of um sort of final final notice and final uh judging event whatever may happen so thank you very much all right other than that um any other business that can't wait this is a typo um for the next regular February 4th not march on mine anyway mine said March so febru February 4th select board meeting uh any other business I can't wait okay uh if not just two sets of minutes to approve December 23 2024 and January 7th 2025 I have just one comment on the 23rd and I think it's just a maybe it's just the way it was phrased um it's on the 2 page and it's regarding the battery storage on Westfield public hearing up top it's on something that I reported on it says that wait wait where is sorry second page on the December 23rd minutes that yeah um it says here that the planning board and select board received no notice about the hearing so they submitted a letter looking for additional information that wasn't really the intent of the letter the letter was stating our concerns and our our position it wasn't um something we voted on but it was a a letter of strong concern uh I guess I would say that was submitted so that wording I would just recommend we just change that that the letter submitted a letter um expressing our um I don't know our what do you say Dan our con position stting our position and our concerns and maybe that should be two sentences then about the hearing period um the chair of the select board and the chair of the planning board submitted a letter expressing our concerns sub along that line I think would be just a little bit clearer if we could just tidy that up and just to say I I right before this meeting I got another email from somebody on some of the some some Committee in Westfield they've had another meeting on this not a public hearing but they're looking at some of their zoning bylaws apparently in Westfield to see what I think they can do to figure out ways to either make this workable or not workable um so I haven't had a chance to read that yet but okay uh so with that small modification does anybody else have any comments or changes on the other set of minutes or this minute can I speak only to this one so I move to accept the minutes as amended uh for December 23rd okay have a second second all right all those in favor I all right and then January 7th if there's anything I don't have any changes so I move to accept the minutes as presented okay for January 7th 2025 all right second all right right all those in favor I I okay those are accepted all right very good okay and then next up um we have some pcfs and then we'll be on to the last part of business we have a couple of pcfs um can you read the PCF I'll read the warrants yeah Scott you've got the um the pcfs I think I don't have them oh um um can we just read this or it's got to more well okay yeah whatever all right Judy forgot to hit earlier yeah you could go ahead and read it chat if you want um we have looks like six of them all together five um first one is we have a Jeffree spat Sprat as a part-time police officer uh $23.7 an hour 19 hours per week is this a new position or what is that is a uh new hire new hire say anything or if you have questions I don't know if anybody does no all right I why don't you go through them all we can I think we can take the first four together and then take the last two together how's that uh new hire John Conway for the fire department 1842 an hour uh parttime has needed non-ben benefited this is a firefighter EMT F okay uh we have a employee change uh for Tyler Pascal who um resigned effective 3923 the chief's doing a little old clean up paperwork here all right I take that back let's let's do the first two so we have um the approvals for new new people for Jeffrey Sprat and John Conway I move to accept the approval of the hiring of Jeffree Sprat and John Conway second all right all those in favor I I I all right thank you okay let's take the two resignations together I hadn't caught this yeah so resignation Tyler Pascal 39 23 and the other one uh Sophie Marini uh 1023 23 also a resignation from the fire department I move to accept the resignations of Tyler Pascal of effective 3923 and Sophie Marini resignation of 1023 23 okay second all right all those in favor I I okay so thank you to Chief P for cleaning up some paperwork obviously cleaning up his roster and um I didn't ask but I'm assuming both the other two Jeffrey and John had they've already gone through pqb right and have been yes all these were approved Thursday all signed okay very good and the next two um the first one is uh from the Council on Aging to increase uh Andrea baris's volunteer coordinator uh hours from 10 to 14 on a temporary basis as well as uh from the COA Pamela conet program coordinator increase from 14 to 18 hours per week on a temporary basis and these are due to um Kate's uh position still being vacant I did talk to her just to push her a little bit on on filling her old position of out of Outreach coordinator coordinator um and we do have some pretty good candidates that we're hoping to fill that in as soon as possible um but this would just be a temporary increase in hours while that position remains vacant okay so that's a normally a 12we time frame or can be less it's a maximum of 12 weeks is that it yes yeah so it could be less if we hire somebody in between time is that not to exceed 12 12 weeks yeah okay I move to accept the um temporary increase of hours for Andrea barus working in the Council of Aging um from 10 to 14 hours per week temporary basis and for the temporary increase of hours of Pamela conet who is currently the program coordinator at the Council on Aging from 14 to 18 hours per week second okay all those in favor I I all right so approved and next we have one prf for a part-time police officer I believe and maybe yeah I you wanted to come tell us a little bit about that yeah is that in the package there it's on my list here um not sure it's on my list but anyway yes go ahead so the the last PCF that you had just seen that um closed out our most recent um uh posting We had a posting for two people those two people have been hired great and Jeffrey Pratt was the last person on that posting okay I have uh received some interest in a position part-time position so therefore I'd like to post another posting to get permission to see if I can uh hire one more officer part-time officer have another parttime off okay basically same terms and conditions it's for the most part with the exception of uh a pay increase due to the uh contractual changes in the uh colos for the for the next fiscal year okay but everything else is the same all right so this would allow you to post um the prf or the job description job description for a parttime police officer it's it's because that other the previous posting is now fulfilled with jeffre Brad but that position had U gar more interest than just one person so I'm looking to see if I can add more one more to my roster okay might be interesting to write these just to say you know more than one person may be hired or something when you I don't know if you can put that language in the uh I I well I think the personal positive procedures board wants you know how many people yeah I don't know if they want me to just be able to have an open enrollment just keep on hiring it's probably true good point all right could we have a motion then to approve uh the posting of a new a new posting for a part-time police officer I move that we um approve the posting for a part-time police officer second okay any comment anything Scott anything on that no okay all those in favor I I I all right so be it thank you all right thank you welcome um Dan since stepen isn't here tonight and I think you signed several of these warrants this time yeah um would you like to do the honors of reading this wonderful warrant list I'd like to read the warrant lists into the record so okay the warrants include uh P 25-24 for $382,500 for $343 40 warrant approval pending next one is PD 25-24 for $ 64,852 195 warrant approval pending next one is for PD 25-24 a for $121 41 warrant approval pending next one is for PD 25- 24b for $244 1,522 82 warrant approval pending next one is for w25 d25 for $29 and 100 two sorry slow down a little bit 29,000 209,000 $145 29 warrant approval pending next one is for PD 25-26 for $339,450 58 warrant approval pending next is for PD 25-26 for 55,000 85131 W approval pending next one is for w 25-27 for $249,300 28 for 349,000 300 yeah $349,450 4 warrant approval pending exponents for p 25-28 a for $3,136 89 warrant approval pending next one is for PD 25-28 for $779 96 warrant approval pending and finally uh PD 25-28 a for $572.60 me or something if we've got a we first draft Yeah we haven't really discussed it in too much detail yet so so at some point we need to I me we brought it up one other meeting I I guess we didn't do a we had a draft of it though did we not yeah yeah so we probably need to you know get that up on the the new business next time around um we still need to talk about the Broadband committee charge um which we haven't worked on uh I've talked about the Manhattan Meadows Bridge update and the green energy updates um Capital asset planning so our Capital committee uh we need to pull something together so that we can have that information for our budget timing and I don't know if you have a strategy on that yet but we have we need to double check I think there's maybe one one person that's still on the committee maybe two I'm not sure um but we probably need another person or two um East Street uh The Greenway tip project so again this maybe will take into effect a little bit of what we did tonight by naming you the alternate to the tip subcommittee with Randall um for the pvpc future meetings on the tip process okay anything on there that I'm missing that was an update um we don't have it on here but just briefly on on audit status just where are we with anything we know uh that I'll have to double check okay yeah I think we're we should be close pretty much finished with 23's stuff right and then yeah yeah okay hope so uh all right uh calendar an an ments uh our next regular select board meetings will be February 4th and 18th and it would appear that we've got budget presentations with the finance committee so those will be joint meetings and those will be upstairs I believe right we're going to televise them but they'll be upstairs in a smaller room where we can talk and I'm going to move that upstairs and a little bit of a different um format so it's not the round table and so we're going to do a little square that would be good okay so right now and we'll we'll get the word out Judy will send us the notes but right right now we're looking at February 11 1825 and maybe March 4th M for the various Department do those begin at 6 p.m. generally those meetings I I believe so yeah I think so that's been the time to with the finance usually yeah yeah I think that works out okay so that's kind of the plan we got a few few busy meetings uh busy month of February Obviously good all right so that's the end of our regular session we will be going into executive session so I moved let me read the reasons let me read the reasons why so we'll be moving into executive session um for uh the purpose of discussion on mgl chapter 30A section 21 A1 to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation with non-union Personnel if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining or litigating position of the public body and the chair so declares as is Highway Union and mgl chapter 30A section 21 A2 to conduct strategy sessions in preparations for negotiations with non-union Personnel or to conduct collective bargaining sessions or contract negotiations with non-union Personnel Highway superintendent and town accountant I'll take a motion to adjourn and move into executive session and we will not be returning to open session I move that we um adjourn a regular session um and not return after executive session and move executive session MH yep okay can have a second second all right we need a roll call all those favor I Palmer I Lali I B's I okay thank you we are adjourned at about 850 thereabouts sorry 750 EX e