Good evening. Welcome to the town of South South Select Board meeting for September 29th, 2025. This is a joint meeting with the board of assessm and we are in the land use hearing room in person and via remote hybrid format. This meeting is being recorded and if
anyone else is recording, please advise Russ Anderson. We'll start with attendance to the left. Nicole Parker, Diane Gail, Doug Moin, Russ Anderson, Naen Zigoni, and the pledge of allegiance. To the flag of the United States of
America to the republic for which it stands one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. And then public comments. Is there anyone in the room with a public comment? Anyone online for public comment
tonight? Joanne. Joanne. Joanne. Yes. Sorry, Joanne Lelanc Reservoir Road. Um, at the last select board meeting, I brought up the fact that it looked like Comcast was
um installing fiber, and that's directly from the workers to me. Um, since then I noticed we noticed on last Thursday the 25th there was a bucket truck parked across our the street from our driveway and it was there for about 5 hours. The
decal on the side of the truck is Buckley Construction Fiber Masters. They're based out of uh Pennsylvania and on their website what it says is that they help communities build and maintain their networks working on largecale
projects across the country. Now my question is is if this is true, why would we want to spend all that money on building out that small area of town with whip city fiber? Um because if it was to go to a town meeting to vote
again, it certainly wouldn't pass in my opinion because people would say we don't need to pay extra to have this whip city fiber uh buildout because there's already fiber available in town at no additional cost to the taxpayers.
So I just wanted to share that information with you. Thank you. Anyone else for public comment? Okay, then let's begin the joint meeting with
board of assessors. Join us and follow the order. So the joint meeting of the board of assessors in select board is in session at 6:03 p.m.
John Kaine, chairman board. Dina, vice chair. Okay, I start with Greg Dy. Sure. Greg, want to join us? Great. Tell us what interests you in this position and what you bring to the
table. Yeah. What what interested me in this is since joining the economic development commission a couple years ago, I've really tried to dig into the metrics that affected economic development of which town revenues and town expenses
were two parts. And to go get into town revenues, I really wanted to dig into the property tax database, which finally last January, I was able to get a download of the entire database, and I imported into Excel and PowerBI,
built query tools, spent several dozen hours analyzing it, and it's been useful for analysis purposes, but in the process found a lot of anomalies. which may have good answers, but when I
submitted questions to the town assessor, got no answer. Submitted through the official email. And so I'm really interested in in getting into just the balance of this term. I'm not really wanting to go long term, but if I
could get the balance of this term, I could get in and, you know, have a satisfactory answer to the questions and I understand the principles of governance. My goal is not to challenge individual assessments, but to to look at the process and how it is applied
consistently and can use examples of well, why are these disparities here? But the goal is not to to challenge the assessment so much as the underlying process. And you know, I have no problem
with my own property assessments. So that's has nothing to do with it. It's it's it's merely about, you know, getting the answers. How would you apply those answers? I would hopefully if the challenges were
were done as an in a government governance is that we would get you know compliance with within our town to give answers. If if the answer is here's a good answer here's why these disparities
exist or hopefully if there's no good answer well here's how it's going to be fixed. question. What is your what is the main objective that you see of the board of assessors themselves? Not necessarily the office
of assessment but the board itself. The board is there to make sure that uh assessments are applied fairly across all properties. I mean really that's the primary goal is that the town has a certain fiscal burden and that has to be
shared according to the laws of the state and to make sure that the laws of the state are followed and they're applied as fairly as possible. Would would you stay on you're on economic as well? Yes. Would you plan on staying on that as well?
Oh yeah. As I said, this would be just a an eight-month. I've got enough long-term obligations that I, you know, I'm I'm just looking to to spend enough time to really understand it and and to be a help to my understanding of
economic development. Would you run for the position at the end of the term? I would not at this point not plan to. I I have no intention to to run. Any other questions?
Anything else you want to add? No, I have a question. I couldn't find my my uh my hand to raise, but but is it okay if I uh ask a question? Sure. It's not Rachel Austin. That's my
daughter's name. It's Randall Austin and I'm the director of assessment. And so I was going to say, you know, if you uh had the opportunity to maybe get some of those questions answered now that there's a different director of assessing, um would that satisfy your your uh
curiosity and and and uh maybe make you feel as though you didn't need to get on the board? Well, I would I would certainly hope that if I wasn't appointed that I would be able to get all of those answers
fully, but I don't think it changes my mind to want to to have a term up a short term on the board. And I would do my best to answer whatever questions that you have, just so you know. Okay.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you. And Mr. Brown, good evening. State your name again. And oh, did you state your name and address? Oh, Greg Dy, 10 Salem Road. Thank you. William Brown, 85 North Long.
Okay, thank you. And same question to you. What brings you here? What's your interest? What do you think we can bring to that table? Yeah, I've been paying attention to kind of town government the past couple years. Um, and you know, kind of looking for opportunity to serve. Um, you know, I've got a strong background in business, um, product
management, sales, marketing, um, you know, that, um, you know, involve a lot of finances and and long-term planning, um, as well as working with with with other teams of people. So, I'm kind of, you know, seeing that uh um you know,
kind of the the past few assessor board meetings um online. There's definitely, you know, some uh some assistance that that could be given um to the processes out there and um feel it'd be a good area for for me to learn more about town government and um opportunity to serve
the town of South. Okay. Thank you. So, same question. Do you plan on running for the position following this term? As of right now, yeah, if I do, you know, become appointed. Um, you know, my my mindset is long term. Not afraid of rolling up my sleeves, putting in the
work. Um, you know, I understand there's a there's a class to be taken, you know, assessment 101, law and legal, and I'm kind of looking at the the outline, the syllabus. Um, you know, kind of my my geeky side fires up. It is interesting. Um, kind of understanding the inner workings of of the law and finances,
assessment in that process. So, um you know, as of now, um definitely, you know, um of course time commitments can can change, but right now, yeah, I would say I'm looking forward to uh if if appointed to run for reelection this coming May,
questions. Um what type of time commitment have you seen? I mean how often they meet and things like that. Have you reviewed it? Uh my understanding is once a month kind of third Mondays a month is is kind of the the recent history. um you know as
being a a clerk you know you'd have kind of responsibility for my understanding is is um you documentation of the meetings and recording them and um you know I think that that's an area that I could help out with as well for those meetings. So my understanding is um traditionally it's been been once a
month um meeting and that's within your agreement so to speak that doesn't seem to be too much the once a month. Correct. No I mean um you know I like being busy um you know wife and a couple kids and you know between horses and and sports um you know got to uh um just
find time. That's kind of how how I am. Just find time get stuff done. Okay. Have you served on a border commission in the town before? I have not. No sir. Anything else? No. Any questions? No.
I'll ask the same question I guess again is what's the what do you think your the main focus or the goal of the board is in comparison to the office itself? Definitely um you know transparency and you know providing fair um assessment
values for the community. um whether individuals, business um definitely the being, you know, transparent for the work that's being done and maintaining and continuing fair assessments for the community is my kind of overall view. Okay.
Okay. Anything else you want to add? No, just thank you for your time. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. So discussion recommendations
I like Bill because he wants to follow and get reelected. So somebody who wants to be on the board longer term is probably better enough as it sits right now.
I I agree. I think the biggest thing that we have is this turnover and people who are not prepared to stick out through, you know, issues and see things, you know, in the long term. And if you're only on for the remainder of this this um
this term, sorry. Uh you're just not going to have time to get in and even get it figured out by the time you can have any influence on what's happening. You're not you just you'll be ready to move on, you know. So I think someone who's there for the first eight months of the term and then wants to run for re-election and I don't think it's going
to be a contested election, you know, for this. So it's someone that we're going to put in this position and most likely, you know, see through the next term. So I think if someone who's ready to take on that responsibility and also like u he mentioned taking that assessor's course that takes some time and there's no point in doing that
unless you're going to you know kind of see it through and actually be involved. So my recommendation as well as deans I guess would be would be Bill Um, I would agree with what you're saying in regards to long term. You know, Greg, I respect Greg's hard work that he's put
in um with his studying in the in the spreadsheets and I know I had met with him at one point. Um I and I respect that part. Is a little concerning that if you're not going to pick it up and keep running with the ball. Um, and then with our new assessor on board, I think
I think Greg's can get his answers that he wants and we kind of get the best of both worlds. We have we have an immediate um input to some of the the assessor challenges we've had and then we have a long-term solution with with Bill as well.
I would agree. I mean, I'm glad to see, you know, Greg's done yman work. I have ton of respect for what he's doing over there in EDC and and trying to help out and turn things over and I hope he does get the answers for for what he's looking for. Obviously, we've got a new assessor, so that's going to be a new
page in a new book there. So, I think that's a good thing. And um you know, I appreciate Mr. Brown throwing his hat in the ring to come out and serve on a board commission, especially one that frankly doesn't get a lot of a lot of attention, right? It's kind of a quiet board, but it's it's a very very
important role within the town. does quite a bit. Yeah, it does. So, I mean, but as far as, you know, the office does Yes. a lot of the Oh, yeah. main work. 100%. But it's it's an important important role. And I think um you know, someone who wants to come in and go and
get the certification and you know, hold themselves out for election next year and um I think that's probably the way to go. I have to agree with everybody here. Greg I think would have a very short
learning curve. However, I know he how deeply he's delved into it. Um but I think that you could probably work with Randy Austin anyway with what you have in your database and twist it all different ways to assist anyway. But I I
think the recommendation is for Mr. Brown as well. So do you want to make that motion? uh that we vote as a exor. No, it's I believe it's a motion second and a okay roll call vote of the combined board.
So I would make a motion to appoint Mr. Bill Brown as the clerk to the board of assessors for the remainder of this term. I would second the motion to roll call vote. Roll call vote. John Kaine, yes. Dean Horic, yes. Dang, I. Doug Moin, yes. Russ Anderson, yes.
Okay, there we go. Great. Thank you both. Congratulations. Congratulations. Yeah. Good. Just you just want to close your meeting and close the meeting. Oh, and we'll close the meeting. The
board of assessors at or do I have to go vote? 616. 616 Dean. Just say yes. I mean, yeah. So, he's going to before Wednesday. Okay. Yeah. Correct. All right. Thank you very much.
Thank you. All right. And then we're just gonna have a brief discussion on the Friday lake events with algaene. Um and I think we're all we are all aware
algae. Never met him. Uh Friday there was a cyano bacteria alleged a cyanobacteria bloom that was observed on Middle Pond. Um the board of health rightly so has the authority to evaluate that situation
and put out a warning um advising no swimming, fishing, pets, drinking water from the lakes, etc. In the meantime, I know Doug, thank you. you jumped in and uh were out with Dr. Mueller. Uh they
took samples and as of this afternoon, an update was issued. As of late Friday, the harmful algloom on Middle Pond had dissipated. The lake management committee identified the strain before it cleared. The Mass Department of Public Health will be testing that for
toxins and if the levels stay low for two weeks. The advisory may be lifted October 8th. So that advisory to don't drink the water, don't put your pets in, don't swim, don't use it for washing remains in effect.
The advisory warns residents to keep people and pets safe. The signs are posted. The lakes remain open, but use caution. Again, avoid swimming, boating, consuming fish, letting animals near water. And uh they asked to please
report any further balloons to t hibert hibert t at southwick ma southwick ma.gov. Um and then I see tonight there was another photo on Facebook of another little area. So hopefully somebody has
shared that with Tom. One of the comments said to please share it with the person we just talked. So hopefully that has been communicated and um we haven't had one of those in quite a while and uh you know I think we'll have
a little bit of a communication process in place for the next series of events like this where all of us are in the same loop and not having side conversations and not being able to answer questions. So, we'll we'll work on tightening that up as well, but the
warning remains in effect until the uh state clears us, I guess. And we'll see what happens with the second one if it's the same animal. Any other comment on that from you guys? I know you were Oh, yeah. I went down
after work and you know took a look and there wasn't much to see by the time I got there at 5:30ish on Friday and I was fortunate to run into Dr. Mueller down there and um you know he took the samples and you know kudos to those guys from lake
management and Dr. Mueller and all those folks and even um you know CRC too again happy to have you know that help out and do so much for the town and the lake. Um, I think we need to have a better kind of a I for lack of a better word just kind of a
protocol so that everybody's on the same page. like I don't need to know as a you know maybe if I found out you know as part of the process but you know make sure the harbor master is in sync with the board of health and the CEO to notify the respective folks plus lake
management um anyone else because it seemed like it was a little bit disjointed right as far as they posted something then Dr. Mueller did his thing on Friday had some some data but I don't know if that's actionable data no knock on Dr. Mueller, I just don't know what that
that that process is. And then there was others questioning, why are the ramps open? Why are there is is it only for people that are, you know, only people in town can cannot go on the lakes? People can bring in their their boats from out of town because the ramps are open. That didn't seem to be the right answer either. Um, I think it
was a little facicious, but I think that's not the right answer. It was more there was just a bunch of disjointed actions by a lot of different folks. maybe we should have a better protocol and I think we used to years ago and I think with people moving or leaving boards and commissions and what have you, maybe some of that communication
has broken down or people are out of town and also Friday afternoons probably not the most opportune time for that. I'll have a word with uh Al G and see if he can better time his appearances on the lake. Um I was telling Dr. Mueller
and and the Harborm. I actually had seen one of these things live a few years ago, not in Congam. But you lose you can lose your lake for the year. Yeah. When you have a cyanobacteria outbreak, it you're pretty much done. As soon as it happens, you're finished for the
season. Um and but it was a dramatically different view than what we saw on Friday. So, thank goodness. It also probably is testament to um the investment that was made that $800,000 in the alum treatment that's held some
of this at bay um and continues to and you know Dr. Mueller had some interesting theories as to why this particular thing may have happened. Um but it'll be good to have those stakeholders you know available for a conference call or a meeting or what have you on relatively short notice so that we can all put our collective heads
together and then take an action and then communicate that action right so that an internal code red to correct all of so it's just not a little you know people called me I'm like hey I couldn't answer the question I got the same code red as all of you I don't know right and I'm no expert on
cyanobacteria or when you should open or close the lake and and who has the authority to do that that's totally up to those that know that answer I don't so I just think we should just do a better job you know always take from any event like this you know take a lesson from it and learn and move forward and I
think from this was you know with some of the changes and everything that have gone on on boards and commissions and so on, we kind of lost a couple links in the chain. We need to put those back. All the actions and notification were correct. Just the the inner loop needed
to be brought back into the inner loop so we could answer those questions as they're being asked. So, but I think they did a great job. Okay. Um and then on to new business. Discuss and approve or possibly approve
the MS4 annual report. Municipal separate storm sewer system annual report. Those are the four S's. Well done. Welcome. Good evening everybody.
John Gddard, public works. Since uh I started working uh for the town in 2019, Randy Brown and I have been paying here every September uh for this annual report on our municipal
separate storm sewer system and how we track its uh performance and maintenance. Uh this is also an opportunity kind of to spread some awareness of what the program is about, what my what half of my role over public works uh entails. Um the town operates
under uh a permit administered through Mass E. Uh but it's from the EPA. Uh and uh originally that permit was about uh well developing awareness uh to storm water pollution and how it
affects our rivers, lakes, streams and of course for the town of South of the Long Island Sound as well being part of the uh greater Connecticut River watershed. Um those initial efforts uh revolved around identifying what we have um where
the permit jurisdiction lies uh here in town as well. Uh and how do we maintain it? How do we better maintain it? Um how do we adhere to industry standards? Um and also what's coming out of our our drain pipes that uh that take care of
the storm water from our streets, our public lands, and of course receive water from uh places of gradient from that point. Um once we moved out of that uh developing awareness and inventory phase, we've shifted towards um better performance. We had some demonstrative
projects undertaken over at DPW. Couple years ago, the most one was a set of infiltrators we brought in over at uh I'm sorry, is that Woodside Circle uh the subdivision um in the open space area that uh conservation manages. uh that's uh as we
have in other places in town was the location of a storm water outfall that had fairly tremendous erosion. We had an opportunity with that open space to divert uh a good portion of storm events towards underground infiltration. U the majority of storm events that we have
aren't as severe um and great in intensity as of course the ones that we all remember well. But the more water we can take away from problematic outfalls uh the better. At the same time, we're also diverting those uh potential pollutants um away
from uh sensitive areas um and allowing natural systems um such as we have in our soils to to break them down slowly. Uh so what do we have uh this year? Um
the report generally stays this has stayed the same for the past two or three years looking at those projecting those demonstrative projects. Um thinking about where we can go next um up high in our list. We've got an opportunity over at Berkshire
Avenue. Uh there's an old outfall that takes um drainage through private land uh and then down to Congam Lakes. We think we can effectively isolate and terminate that connection and put that into infiltrators. Uh and right here at town hall uh over on the south side of
the building, the parking lot when it comes time for us to uh conduct improvements, that's going to be a good opportunity to put in uh what you may have heard of as rain gardens before. an opportunity to provide natural filtration and infiltration and removal
of pollutants um within a planted um well I suppose a a planting bed that can manage inundation periodically before we allow the overflow waters to enter our conventional uh structure and pipe systems. Um, so I mentioned there's some
consistency over the past couple of years. Um, but we do look for some numeric uh performance uh levels as well. I uh don't think I'm sharing any particular uh surprises, but uh this year um we didn't have as much time as
we usually budget for um for in this case me and usually a co-orker to go out in the field pop structures and look at the performance of our infiltration uh they call them best management practices or BMPPS. Um so in our report we say all right we we have a target to complete uh
those inspections um within a certain period of time to make sure we look at them. Thankfully in Southwick uh very rarely do we have overflows from our storm water BMPs. Wally Park's a good example of a site that was designed for
the 100redyear storm and those basins uh don't ever discharge anything but still don't say it. I have seldom this way. You know what's funny? I I have to map our outfalls and there are certain outfalls that I go out there through the
most tremendous storms. Uh I've been standing uh knee knee deep in Kangaman Lakes uh with tremendous electrical activity going on around me just getting those samples and there are some pipes that just don't flow uh either because of a very small watershed or very permeable soils. Um
but nonetheless, so if that was one uh deficiency I tracked, we attributed to some staffing uh issues and how my role uh changed in a very critical last month of the uh the calendar year. Uh at the same time, I'll
observe that um you know, in my perfect world, we we would have more staffing in order to keep our storm water uh equipment out on the roads more frequently, being able to get to the catch basins um and giving me more data. Um we have enough data at this point in
time that we're starting to identify hotspots. uh a a catch basin and my perfect world has 4 feet of sump depth and we service it at 2 feet in order to keep it from churning up uh sediment and debris. Of
course, many of our older catch basins don't have that depth, but we still shoot for 50%. And those hotspots that we're starting to identify are those locations where if we only go around on an annual basis, um then they're already starting to exceed that 50 50% point by
the time we come back along with that. And usually these are ones that are located at the at the bottom of a hill where perhaps they're catching the greatest amount of bypass water and sediment um that of grade catch bases aren't quite grap. Um
that's the that's the nuts and bolts of our annual report element. The other document associated with this is our townwide storm water management plan. And uh to put it briefly, that document is just
updated to log both the training that I do uh out there uh the any updates to our mapped system, so the quantity of outfalls uh and so on and so forth. So that document is uh reflecting uh the latest and greatest information that we
have on our stormwater system. No illicit discharges were identified uh in the past year. Um that would be anything ranging from a a failed septic system to someone mistakenly or
otherwise uh discharging uh some level of sanitary flows, gray water or black water, you know, into the storm water system. Um I the testing results essentially have to hit hot on a number of parameters to indicate likely likely
sewer flows. Um and to date um we haven't tripped uh that threshold. Any questions? So you are still in um evaluating reporting
recordkeeping and you talked about at some point we are ready for improvements. We are so we continue yes we continue to uh obtain information both through inspections and through our servicing
which feed into a central cloud database and that's where we track our performance yeartoyear as well as uh like I said that threshold for when are we getting to our catch basins on time or not. um in the past couple of years they asked
for us to target well where can we implement a demonstrative project um for pollutant removal and we've uh moved towards implementing two I believe already um and
we're required to maintain a list of five and as we are able to go in and implement our project we we slide in uh the next uh likely project. Uh I think we all can appreciate this is I use the word demonstrative for a reason. It's uh
it's not meant to address all of the town's um storm water issues. Um but I guess we take a little step back and look at this permit. We are talking about regionwide impacts. The idea is to show that uh both the feasibility and
value of uh individual storm water improvement projects uh demonstrative being in that little local area that made a big impact. That's right. One by one. And and please don't let me discount. I uh I should mention the fact
that the the town does participate uh in a stormwater coalition uh with a number of Hampton Hampshire County UMass as part of it and that's some Berkshire County um applicants I believe are looking to join us as well. PVPC does a
great job uh with a robust social media uh physical media and television campaign um to raise awareness um about what should go in the drains and what shouldn't Okay, with that I do request the select
board's endorsement um of the uh reports um so that they can be submitted. Do we share those communications about keeping the drain drainage systems clean or how how is that yes
public information disseminated? So uh well uh we do a couple of things uh for starters our efforts are documented and the report report is published uh both at uh uh the EPA level
um and locally um and our storm water management plan. make sure that uh on the DPW uh web page uh it's there. We also have a storm water uh web page where we link to uh a number of these if you will social media campaigns. I don't know if anybody ever remembers uh Spike
the dog. Um but the the slogan was, you know, think picking up uh Spike is a lovely uh English bulldog. Think picking up this poop is gross. You know, try pardon the timing of this uh repetition of the message, but try swimming again. It was the idea, right?
The idea is p practice better uh management of pet waste um so that it doesn't end up in our storm source. So the question was where do we see this uh PPPC uh uh works with an arm called think
blue uh Massachusetts um if it's also think blue CT river um and that's uh we'll call this the media release hub uh for those types of messages. Uh there's also an adorable one we've had in the past with a se
little baby seagull picks up a cigarette butt, right? Certainly one that's, you know, washed ashore. Um and but the idea is to just try to grab people's attention. Uh for starters, also give them something that uh it might just sit for a moment and resonate and say, "Hey,
what's what's wrong with this picture?" Or, you know, how does this message uh resonate poorly? I suppose. Um so anyways, the the think blue uh websites are repeated um throughout Massachusetts um for each of these different and varying
storm water coalitions that bring number of communities together. Uh so that goes out uh at times on on bus panels. At times it's a targeted Facebook ad campaign. We do look at these messages uh uh at a varying basis depending on
the season. Um pet waste is was at the time of dog licensing. We typically look at it. Now that we're entering um you know the autumn usually there's a leaf on. Yep. Um uh there's a sewer awareness or
excuse me septic system awareness month um that we try to get out message to boards of health um and installers and so on and so forth um about better maintenance of of private septic systems.
I'm thinking channel 15 good place to share some of those little tidbits as well. looking forformational things for channel 15 as well. We can snag some of those videos and I'd be happy to uh to coordinate with Ken um and share the uh some links to
the information that we have or even you know our town Facebook page share among them. So yeah, we have it on Facebook that conversation. Okay. Yes. Yes, we do. Okay. I I I can learn things. Uh so
if I'd be happy to uh uh to help promote that information and and share it sources. All right. So you are looking for an endorsement of the project continuing and the report the storm water management plan and the
year seven uh there we are uh report for the Massachusetts small MS4 general permit as as admission through the town of Southic. I said on my first year here I actually did go through that entire yeah
uh there's a lot of reference material in in the storm water management plan. I'm glad you're familiar with it. Yeah. So moved. Second. Roll call vote. Dian Gail. I Doug Moin. Yes. Russ Anderson. Yes.
Well, thank you all so much. If I don't mind asking for your signatures before then the evening. That'd be lovely. She's not letting us out without it. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mr. GD. Okay. the conservation commission
letter regarding a dead tree on conservation land. Um, you want to start that? Oh, there's I meant to send that to you Friday. Uh, with the quote and the pictures. I thought we got it on Friday.
Oh, did I? It was in my outbox, so maybe I was sending it twice, but I'm sorry. Okay. I'm glad familiar today, too. There were some others. This was This I think this was separate. Yeah, I didn't see it in Brace. You just saw the pictures. So I sent that I sent it today with the
pictures and the price. Um, so it's a dead tree and it's a threat to a neighbor's neighboring property and uh so it needs to come down and conservation commission asked the select
board it and so here we are. I don't it's not a conflict of interest with the conservation commission. I checked with town council. So they can absolutely manage their land on their own. They can apply to themselves. It doesn't there's
no conflict of interest because there's no monetary value there. Um so they're well within their jurisdiction to do the entire process themselves. Um and I did email them today and told them that. And
then also, you know, if you want us to do it, if you want me to find a different department to do the application, I'm happy to do that. But it really should still come out of the conservation commission fund. Yeah, I agree. So, see the chair of the conservation commission is here. I don't know if that's what we say for,
but and I would recommend more than one quote because to me that seemed like a really high price. It's totally up to them if they're doing the job and have the funds, but that seems really high
based on paperwork. I just have done. I just think from however you want to handle it. I think you know DPW and those guys do tons of tree work in town already. Not that they have nothing else to do right now, but and all or andor
buildings and grounds could kind of spearhead it and you know do all the requisite paperwork if their bidding needs to be done for tree removal services or we just buy it from whomever because I don't know if it's under a threshold. I don't know if that's that's really up to the where it needs to get
done but I think that that's where we need to go from there. Norm, did you have something you wanted to add to that? Yes. Norm Chver, chairman of the Conservation Commission. Uh, we totally believe that the tree needs to come down. So, safety reason to Lisa Bailey's
house, 19 North Pond. Um, the issue is we have 10 accounts. Nine have some money in them. Okay? Okay. And the only one that that says you can use it for this type
of thing is the land land use account. Okay. And we don't have enough money to cover in the land use account for this tree removal. We have one other account that we would need to investigate and it's a conservation trust left over from the Granville Gorge purchase. It's got
$7,953 in it, but we haven't we honestly didn't expect push back. So, we didn't didn't do the research to see if we could use the money in that account, but the land use has got $3,444. And I think there's three outstanding
uh expense accounts that are going to come in. The cameras haven't come in yet. The kiosk roof, I don't know if that's come in and the north pond signs, I don't believe are in yet. So, it's going to pretty much wipe out that account.
Uh so, that's that's our issue. But we the quote we got I don't believe is from the the contract the town has. So maybe having the town contract quote it would be would be lower than the 5,000 that we got from
We don't we don't have a contract. We don't I thought we did. No, we don't have a a contract to remove No, I know we don't. We don't have a contract. There's nothing with DPW. Yeah, they have a DPW has a has a boom truck and has the No, they have a tree guy. on retainer
that they they contracted price from. I think it's Northern Tree this year. We have one uh I'm sorry. No, we all looked at you. So, we all looked at you anyway. We have a we we have an emergency treaty
services bid. Um otherwise, we're typically working with contractors on a small bundle service basis. I wasn't aware of the financial issues.
I thought there was plenty of money. Um I guess we didn't Sabrina and I didn't communicate enough. Um it was really just here we think you should do it. And I said, "Well, I think it's your, you know, we think that it's your land and that you could take care of it, but I'm
sure we can find um mutually together um somewhere to get the money." Sabrina and I can have a conversation and we can work with Laura. I will definitely get more quotes and we can get another quote. Now again, it won't be
just for complete transparency. We pay more than the average person would pay because we are a municipality. So, um that's not the same. Uh but yeah, we can definitely get another quote and um and then we can figure out
exactly. I I just, you know, I don't know where the application should come from. I don't I don't I don't know why Sabrina, you know, doesn't she I asked her to start the paperwork anyway. I mean, somebody's got to do it and we should do it relatively quickly. So,
what do we need? What does conservation need? I mean, obviously, it's it's on conservation land. Is it in a wetland? This tree, it's it's in the north pond conservation area. There you go. So what so that so what do we need to do in order to remove it? We have approval from the state to take
it down. Okay. The the intent is to only take the top portion down and let the tree fall own our property on our property in a safe environment. But you need a you need a crane to do it and that's why it's so expensive. Mhm.
But does is there a conservation order conditions or anything else an emergency tree order from the conservation commission needed other than what we already have from the state to remove the tree? None that I'm aware of. So we don't have to put an application
in front of the conservation commission. We don't have to put some sort of application in front of the conservation commission to remove it. Yeah. That's what I was under the impression by Sabrina. Well, maybe because it's the conservation we need to do that, but the
state has already given us approval. So, well, I think I should have a face tof face conversation with Sabrina where we could get all of the confusion. Okay. Quickly because she would like the tree down. Yeah. Before the next big storm. Is is conserv Are they opposed to just
dropping the tree? No, they want to just drop it. I mean, so you're dropping half of the tree. That's what we're going to do is just just the top portion. Why not take the whole thing down? Just leave and leave it there. Take the half that's in our way. Well, the half the half that comes down will stay on the property.
No, I know, but why not just take the whole tree down and leave it on the property? Why Why are you leaving half a tree? Well, because it would save would save a little bit of money. I bet you it won't. Now, if they're already craning it and they're making one cut, I bet you it's
taking a whole tree is just as expensive as taking half a tree. And do you have any objection to that? Yeah, I don't think it's a major reason. I personally do not. I mean, you're going to leave the stump anyway. You're not going to pull the stump out. It's going to rot. So, I guess that's another part is is
get the quote. And I can ask I have to talk to Ryan's tree service about another tree too and see exactly, you know, and ask them what that entailed if sometimes cutting high is it's more dangerous and takes because now they have to rig themselves to cut higher. Yeah. As opposed to rig the tree and cut low.
So I don't know that would be old brand. So but we don't need to do any application. You guys have the state approval and other without conflict to do all the paperwork we need. Okay. Sure. I will definitely talk to ASAP.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Figure out some funding. Sure. We can figure out the funding. No, no problem. They have to off Oh yeah. look at it with a chainsaw and it falls over. Right. Said when done it was bloated.
Yep. Right. But it's one of those things where there the law is clear on those, you know, trees are where they fall. That's who it belongs to. Unless you've been notified that you've got a dangerous tree on your hands. Well, we're on notice that we have a dangerous tree on our hands.
Well, let's get it get it down before it hearing. No, I don't think so. That's why. Good lord. Gush you. Thank god. Well, that's good because you can answer that one because you put the tree down every time.
All right. Boom. Moving on. Discuss vote on poll hearing fees. This is you. So, we've had a couple poll hearings and we don't get the fee. We don't get reimburse or the fee that we charge them which is just for the uh public hearing
notice, right? So, we put it in the paper, we pay for it, and then we charge National Grid Ever for Verizon and Verizon. So, I propose that we have a fee that they pay $150 filing fee when
they have this hearing. So, I had to do this in my last town, too. Same problem. Margaret does the work. We're sitting here doing this for that. No. So if we could and then we won't have we won't have a hearing unless we get unless we have the fee.
So that should come with the application and that's what I that's all this is the kind of thing I was talking about looking at our revenue stream stuff we do for nothing. Thank you. It should be commensurate with our cost. That's why it's a fee, right?
So whatever the cost is we should recover it. Not just the advertising cost, but if you know, just like any other That's why I it's it's like $70 usually for the ad. And then Christy does work, Margaret does work. We're sitting here doing the work, talking about it. Uh
Christy has filing to do for it. So I did the same. I did 150 in my last town. I think that covers it adequately without obviously checking more than we can should make a motion to set the fee at 150.
Sec. Doug Mglin, yes. Russ Anderson, yes. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you. Okay. Discussion of points local emergency planning committee members for the remaining term 92925 to 63026
and these are different board and commission um appointees representatives I should say Russ Anderson Nicholas Bernier Jennifer Willard Lisa Anderson Brett Banish Thomas Hibbert Richard Stfanowitz Nicole
Parker Joshua Ta Sabrina Per and John Cade discussion M sure. Are we reaffirming certain other appointments that were already made? We did not do this particular
um leapcene when we did all the other appointments. We did we we just did Ian last week because he replaced I thought I thought this was one of the first ones we did because it was these this is an
appointed of by that shooter by position. I have no objection. Just making sure for the record that we're not did when we did all the um employees etc. But this one isn't even all town
employees. So, I think we're just covering our bases on this. So, I'll make a motion to either affirm or or confirm uh these appointments from 92925 through 6:30 2026 to the LAPC.
You want to add line E. Do it all at once. Do it all at once. Uh do a separate vote for the for the clerk when she goes through the minutes to keep track of her book. Please. My only comment to this would be it would
be nice to see the um representation on on these names. For example, I know that the hospitals are involved, private contractor, etc., etc. Russell Anderson is the select board, Nicholas Bernier is the school, Jennifer Willard is the school, Lisa Anderson is the cemetery
or council on aging. One or the other is public. I'm pretty sure the cemetery doesn't need a ton of representation. Be the capsule on aging for the communications. Thomas Hibbert is board of health. Richard Stfanowitz fire department. Nicole Parker CEO. Josh Ta
is with the hospital. Sabrina Fuller is conservation. John Kaine is water. So question is with Nick Bernier and Jen Willard. Why is there two from the school and one's not an alternate? They usually both come but
so does my list here with me. That's my point. I think I think we still vote. I just maybe we reaffirm next time whose blood or just so it's on record somewhere because that's that's always been the problem is someone drops out in the middle of it and you go what
were they what were they representing and then nobody remembers I looked earlier it doesn't help you're expired already okay but it's not the secretary does need representation all right not that expired
just because um you know just just brings up what John sent. We don't have We can do it next week with all of that defined if you'd like. Oh, you don't have DPW on here. Randy used to be on We don't have anybody right now. So, well, wait. John could still be
He's not paying attention. John could still be on alternate next week's fine. What do you want? Do you want to hold off and clarify those or she can put it in the minutes? If you've just said it, she can put it in the minutes and you can put Nick Bernier
down to um alternate. Who's the chair of LAPC right now? Rich was last week closed. When did when did they last meet? Last was it May?
April. May I think? No, it's not that important. But you guys are coming up on a meeting soon then. It's quarterly. Yeah, it doesn't really doesn't it hasn't changed all that much here, right? Not much at all. I think you're okay with it. And then
maybe if we have to come back next week to or even after they meet and you discuss that as a board and say, "Okay, maybe there only needs to be one from the school and there should be someone from DPW on there as an associate because that's going to be a vacancy, right?"
Yes. Or your designate. Where Richie? He's not here. Point him. Who? Richie, do somebody who's not here. Absolutely. It would be the first time that's ever happened. I think John nominated him. Actually, I
thought I heard. All right. What are we doing? As I read it. Well, I think if it wasn't appointed, you need to appoint so they can at least hold a meeting. Correct. We can clean it up. So, let's do that. So, my motion stands. I second. Roll call vote. Dian Gale. I
Doug Moin. Yes. Russ Anderson. Yes. And for LA local emergency planning committee alternates we have listed for 9:25 to 6:3026 Cecil Lewis who is a hospital liaison
Jessica Bishop fire Michael Tagert PD Nene Sigoni CEO representative alternates so move second will vote Dan Gal I Doug Moin yes Russ Anderson yes do we point machine.
We make him a member. I think we should ask him. Um, next item. Acknowledge and approve a $5,000 anonymous donation to the conservation commission for plantings at the North Pond Conservation Area. We're going to hold off on this. The donor
actually contacted me and may revise um modify that donation with some specifics. He may redirect portions of it. So, we'll hold off on that. They didn't take zeros on. Yeah, we'll we'll we'll hold off on that until that's clarified.
Acknowledge and approve $1,000 donation from Susan and Christopher Mascriani to be used for the libraryies yard project and a $25 cash donation to be deposited into the library skipped account. So moved. Second. Thank you for that generous gift.
Second. Roll call vote. Dian Gy. Doug Mvin. Yes. Russ Anderson. The next item is discuss the dead tree on North Pond, which is what we already did. Uh, and then acknowledge Piner Valley
Planning Commission. We notice of a war. Good. You okay? To Jack Gun Clavis and Suns, Inc. for the North P North Lake Avenue improvement project. And that was
is that total funding to complete? On behalf of the town, you are hereby notified that your bid has been accepted for items in the amount not to exceed $298,332 for the North Lake Avenue improvement project as described.
So I'm going to say that is yes. Subject to the following conditions. an executed performance and payment bond in the amount of 100% of the full contract amount. I I'm just I mean coming in late. I'm just wondering what what's getting done to it. Is it drainage? And John, if you
want to give a quick Sure thing. This is uh just for what we're calling phase one of the project. It's a limited water man replacement. Uh so water services and water mane
essentially from Bungalow that's where uh whether there was a couple fruit or to North Lake uh down the hill and just around the corner to Summer Drive. That's uh that's the extent of just water at this point. Yep. Just work with some limited funding
on keep things moving because this was a multi-phase multi-year project. Yes. And our monies that we from a planning commission we assigned to this is for the next phase is that this was a CDBG grant part program.
Right. Right. But we had money left over. We said we're going to apply to it. Correct. Yep. That the next phase or to this one from uh Bungalow was going to be applied to one phase of this project. This is a three-parter too like
right. But I didn't know if it was starting the next phase. That's a question. like the planning of the next uh the I don't know what the amount of the initial grant was for this phase but if it was more than 298 that would be
applied to it. Okay. Or it could sit or be applied. I can get you the full break. Just curious. No, no, no. It was in there. I just I don't want to miss because it was we got like six or seven more streets to go after this one and
for for a long time there's a lot of CDBG projects eligible projects that we just keep going street by street till we get there. Okay. Um, other new business, um, in addition to the algae bloom we
had, uh, this weekend, the notorious spotter and lantern lantern fly has now been identified in Southwick and um, conservation commission had published a few left and then turn right. I don't know why I'm left.
Where are we going, R? Phone's going somewhere, right? Go. So, the conservation commission jumped on that quickly and did post a few things. I think there's something on on the town website on it. There were some um YouTube videos that they um shared on
Facebook. Um and it's kind of it was I guess it was inevitable, but it can be quite devastating to our trees, especially our maple trees and our and our grape vines. and it could impact our maple syrup and our wine supply. It's kind of
devastating. So, that has been issued as well. Um, I just want to mention next week 106 there will be a Medal of Honor ceremony. We may have to adjust our schedule a
little bit and we'll know Wednesday. Wednesday um whether we have a light schedule and can just move things slightly or not. If it's a heavy schedule, um we may entertain a different day so that we can accommodate that ceremony if that works
for people, but we'll know Wednesday. Um other new business, you're not for me. Has something and I don't remember so I don't have invited.
Oh, I did kind of new business, old business. I did hear John is here um from Tony from beta. Um they are set up the G GIS mapping and can start field data collection next week with our approval. So for this is for the beta.
Is that any issues with that from your end or I can say we're good to go if that's everyone's on board with it? Yeah, because you already gave them the approval. Yeah, we want to go. No, I know. But he's just saying if you're good to start, we'll we'll start. So, yep. works for me.
Me too. Um, and you you said you couldn't remember and do you have anything? No. If I do, I can't remember. Maybe if you turn left then turn right.
All right. Old business review goals and objectives. Anything anyone wants to update on goals and objectives? Which which ones are we talking about? Select board goals and objectives. That's we'll talk about master plan ones in a minute.
Nothing on those. Nothing do no fiber updates. No. Okay. Anything else old? Anything else old you want to rehash? I got one thing. Other old. Yeah. Other old. Yeah. Um just a reminder this Friday night
under the lights October 3rd 6 o'clock at Wall-E Park. It's the annual police verse fire softball charity event. So come out, take in the game, give till it hurts. Uh it's for a good cause this
year as well. Um and um hopefully no one comes out injured. That's the important thing in this game. That's it for me. I did want to talk about the Mic, but you Russ, did you have anything other
old business? So, jumping back to the master plan implementation committee planned completions that I gave you last week. Did you do your homework? No. And review that? I reviewed it. Yeah. If I had to fill anything out, I didn't. You did not. You had I did my homework.
You had to try to understand it and either agree or disagree that it made sense that these items were plotted in year one since they were pretty much done. Question. I had on um
like you have one year one essentially exists is um established climate change preparedness under LEPC. That's not LEAPC's charge. Uh what number are you looking at? Point me where you're looking.
Bottom of page one of two right there. Oh, what is their charge? hazardous materials, incidents, preparedness, um, all related to the the Sarah laws and hazardous material.
Just hazmat. Yeah, there's nothing related to climate change. So the second part of that was enhance the charge to LEAPC. Is that something that
maybe you bring up at that next meeting and ask is that would that be an extension a logical extension? Would it be feasible to incorporate or is that a second type of emergency? Personally, it has I I feel it has no
bearing in there at all. Under SEMA, it might um it might have some areas, but there's a you know, established sheltering space, extreme weather events, including communication process that already exists under SEMA. I I just don't understand why we're getting in the
weeds on telling all different agencies what to do. I guess that's a problem I have with this whole thing in general. It's way too detailed, way in the weeds. If it's first of all, if it's if it's SEMA, not LEPC, which is South Emergency
Management Agency for those who don't like the acronyms. Um if it's better situated that that is under that is what SEMA handles already under their purview though that's then then the recommendation of the
master plan is this is all about communication which we have code red that all that's been implemented already. I mean all those there's a lot of action. So we're discussing this and if you're going to
so it is your job if you disagree with this to convince the other members of the select board who were given that recommendation you need to convince us that this is already complete and under an agency that those who developed the master plan
were not aware of. That's fine. Do you want me to write a report on all these and my position on them? Then is that if well ha having that SEMA experience if you look at that section of the master plan that chapter that whole
discussion in the master plan if this is essentially covered then we report it in year one that it is already covered by SEMA and there's no action required. Same with LEAPC and vulnerable
populations upreach programs. Again, there was this and and just understand I am neither endorsing nor poo pooing any of these. These are what were recommended to the select board by the master
by a volunteer committee and and I don't mean any disrespect by this but by a volunteer committee who are the voices of what they heard from the community non-elected who are the voices of the community who elected us but it's there it's self-imposed ideas
and some of them are great and it's for us to validate or invalidate correct valid it's already validated on paper here That's that's my complaint with it all. It's there's a lot of departments that are feeling backed against the wall with
this and being told to do things that either they're already doing and nobody knew about it or feel it's not in their purview or who's to say that somebody some volunteer committee can tell them what to do when they answer to other people. So I while I respect the
process, I think it's pretty deep in the weeds on some of this stuff and mis mispositioned. I I hear you. I can't say I disagree with that position, that understanding of it.
But I have to look at it the other way. The culmination of the we all report to the taxpayers. The culmination of these recommendations came from those taxpayers input. But they're recommendations. Correct. And if we're already doing them
and they don't know it, we've done a poor job of stating what we do. and that supports having uh an open house or a um leadership academy so that those people who are making those recommendations understand we already do those things
and this is what it looks like. Right? Again, there's a lot of work here. I understand that there's been a lot of devotion to it. But you know there just there's opinions in here that have been implemented into into plans and I
recommendations but for instance I mean I'm not in favor against it is battery storage is not desired says who there's a whole building process there's a whole there's a whole process if somebody wants to come in and put a battery plan in here whether we like it
or not but through the planning board through the permanent through all the emergency agencies there's a process for that correct Correct. So to say it's not desired already as well. Community has has made it pretty clear it's not desired. The community didn't get to vote on it.
And and this is just one thing that I'm saying is that if a if a real battery plan was coming in here, the community probably would be voting on it because it would take some sort of law changes and and uh zoning and this is this is requesting to get ahead of that. But again, you're taking you're
taking democracy out of it because you have a volunteer group said don't do that. That's wrong. No, this is to see if the planning board would want to do that. This says battery storage is not desired. Unfortunately, we ended up being the
climate change committee because there isn't one. So, so that's our decision. We want to make a recommendation to the planning board to look at the zoning again. When it comes up, it'll be dealt with. How how many things are you going to get ahead of?
But you have to be reactive. You're going to say you don't want all these things or or certain things and we don't know the information on it right now. We may not want them in certain areas, but we don't know the impact. if it's small, if it's large, you you know,
there there's all mathematical zoning and impact areas, whether it's, you know, x amount of wattage or x amount of wattage. So, you got to know what's involved before you can say I want something or I don't want something. And
that's just one item. Correct. That's just my position on all of it. It seems we had our goals and now we have master plan goals and other departments have other goals and it's I I don't
think it's doable or practical for many of the different elements of the of the different departments to take on these things. They're they're strapped as it is and they're they're all through our own biases, pros or cons, whatever. We all
have them. And if we put 20 people in a room or 100 people in a room, we're going to have 20 or 100 different ideas. And that to get the paper, the whole I thought the whole idea of the master plan was to have a guidance moving forward under general
conditions of certain things. Not every little thing that is involved here. We are not implementing every little thing that's involved here. And again, they're recommendations. We can modify those recommendations based on reality.
Oh, I don't want to I think the messages are mixed. I I don't I don't think that we should dismiss them all and do nothing. No, I I don't either. No, because that isn't what the taxpayers want. But it's typically major infrastructure items, you know, whether it's, you know, water supplies and road
conditions and uh, you know, other other major goals or major global ideas. And and I hear you both. I think that what when I envision a master plan is kind of a almost a guiding light, if you will. So this is a
general idea of where we want to be in 2040. And I think it's kind of evolved a little bit into um some very specific metrics and some very specific tasks assigned to boards and commissions that may or may not be within their their purview or even
within, you know, as an elected board that they may or may not be in favor of, but they're elected. To your point, they have the expertise being on that board to say that's not feasible. But you didn't give that opportunity. You gave all of everybody. You had you
had to rank from one to 40. Correct. Didn't say throw any out. It said rank one to 40. Correct. So 40 is still on the list. You're never going to get to 40. But it's still on the list. That's why it's 40. And I was I we talked about this because this is like a challenge. Like I had, you know,
29 16 I didn't want to pray because they were all I get I get what they're trying to do. And I think there's some things to take out of it. like even on that list where there's things where we could improve
and maybe it's it's kind of a a a crawling approach rather than get up to running. For example, on that whether whether it's with LAPC or whether it's with SEMA, that's an excellent point by the way about with SEMA. We've had a couple occasions in the last couple of
years where we had an kind of a text chain like, hey, it's 106° outside. Should we open a cooling center here at Town Hall? Place is air conditioned. We got a generator, frankly. And I've been here for a while. We've opened it two or three times. And usually I'm the first
one to come in and sign Charlie's log book. And I was the only person to sign or Carl usually stopped into to grab a water on his way out. That was it. So maybe we do need to have that. Maybe we don't. But if we do, we should have a plan, right? So it shouldn't just be at 2:00 in the afternoon go, "Geez, it's
freaking hot out. What are we going to do?" Because then you need to have because then someone told me well you really should have an ambulance you really should have this you should have chairs you should have right there is structure for those things under semen that they taking the
responsibility and running it and saying all right we have to do XYZ if we're going to do ABC and those there's a lot of those things in here that there's already groups doing some of this stuff. Yeah. um you know like housing and and we can make changes to these like I said so if this isn't that's why
there's a question LEAPC question mark if it's not that group and there is another group that is doing predominantly that and this is just an enhancement to what they already do our recommendation would be to assign it to SEMA to enhance that program they're already doing or
processes they already have and communicate them and have a communication process just like we just had this weekend there was a lake issue and the process was a little sketchy. It was correct but it was a little sketchy.
Was that sema? No, no, no. I I just a lot of those processes are already written and and maybe they haven't made it to the select board level, but they're sent plans if we have to run, you know, we have to run the whole town hall. There's a plan for
that. There's there's there's all kinds of plans that are put under emergency management that are sitting on a shelf in place. Are you aware of those? Yes. I and I also, you know, agree to the fact that we have
to rely on our professional staff and and people that we have. So maybe people don't know exactly what's going to happen if Col Mountain Reservoir let go, but we do. And there's a lot of things we're not going to tell the public about certain emergency things and and and our
processes in place. But um so, you know, I I don't think that every single thing that the municipality does needs to just be out somewhere all the time. And if anybody wants to know if it's not a confidential issue, then they can certainly ask. Um but
I I I definitely agree. I haven't had a a master plan in any of the towns um you know be as specific and I got mine this weekend. Thanks Norm. I I did get them. Um and I I don't disagree with enhancing
the community's uh knowledge, outreach, all of that. A lot of it is appreciation for what does happen that they're unaware of. And um you know and these are subjective I believe. I mean I know one of mine was to get a grant writer and fund a grant
writer and that and that's like one of my top priorities is zero priority for me. I I don't see us I just we just created a a new planner position and we just created an HR department. I we don't have all these funding sources to be able to create all of these positions
and I I like to rely on the people that write grants. Now, I think we do an excellent job um writing the grants and getting all the grants, millions of dollars a year. So, um you know, although they want me to do that, I would be like, "No, no, they don't want that." That was a
recommendation. You would support the programs we already have in place and the staffing the positions we already have in place that write those specific grants to their specific applications. It's not a global grant writer. you would support it with what
you have and say this is not feasible to fund to find the funding at this time you know and this is a 40 that's what you would do it's a recommendation and you address it doesn't say you do it you evaluate it you say yeah that part's good assess it
and respond to it norm is the chair of the npic is that but I have these tasks that I have to complete within by 2026 Huh? They're they're completed by 2026. Where does it say that?
In in the action tab. It had a date on it. Norm, can if you explain a little bit more. It's got Are you talking about this form? I think so. Let me open it up. I I I
only looked at it quickly because it came in on Sunday. Um, it's this form, but we have I forwarded it to you guys just now just so you can see. But we have action completion dates. That's what really was sent out, right?
Correct. These are your tasks and these are your completion dates. Yeah. So, we have certain tasks that we do now and then in 2027, you'll reevaluate again and we'll add more or something. Right. You are determining what tasks you will be able
to of the tasks that you have assessed that you will take on in full or in part. You will map out we can get we can do that and we can get it done in year two. Okay.
We or or year five. Okay. You're projecting out this is something we can do. we agree we can do this is when we think we can get it done. There's going to be some that we will assess we just don't deem doable or
feasible. And and just to add on to that, I mean to the point about using the grant writer as a good example, that's a policy decision. This board sets that policy via the budget. Correct. And then she would administer said
policy to go get a grant writer. If we say, "Okay, here's the money in the budget." She's, no offense, powerless to say, "Don't go get a grant writer." She doesn't have the money, right? That's a town meeting legislatively votes on a budget. And that's up to the select board and finance committee to put
together a budget that includes funding for a grant writer. So if the master plan is calling for one, we can discuss as a board to see if we have adequate resources within the town that does that function adequately today and answer that and say we think it's done already
or B, okay, we need to we don't have the wherewithal to do it now. We're going to do it in next year or we're not going to do it. That's that's the that's the elected board's responsibility as a policy board. And to your point where you say battery storage is whatever, you can also go, you know,
that's your planning board is going to be the one who's going to establish the zoning criterion around that whether you want it or don't have it. And to change the zoning to allow, you know, they have some other goals around, you know, better densities and and so on
and so forth and mixed use and etc. That's an elected five member board that's charged with that. they should take the input from the master plan in their rationale. They're going through a a zoning analysis right now and all of that should be part and parcel of of
their their thing. So, and just to jump backwards a little bit when you were talking about, you know, the master plan and its development the the committee that worked on that master plan was very representative of the
boards and commissions and departments of this town. It wasn't done just by lay people um you know the tree guy and and the and the farmer and the brick layer. this was done the the composition of that committee was pretty strong. They
weren't necessarily well-versed in all of the other departments processes and and um resources, but it was pretty representative of the town,
the functioning town, the town capital. That's fine. But it is not a marching order. It is not a demand to do these recommendations. It's a fine line. It is a very fine line because I see that master plan. You know, when I was on planning board, I I
was on the impact, right? And believe me, I was very vocal in opposition to some of the things that were came up. I was but one vote on the impact. Um there were certain things that were I didn't think that they you know but again one vote and I was the select board designated EMPAC at the
time having also served on the planning board prior to here um and you know I had read and owned multiple copies of the previous two master plans and they were always back of mind to you know what your think thought process could be
or should be about what you're doing in relation to zoning whether you're hearing an application or whether you're it if it's if it's Congress to to the master plan or you're contemplating a zoning change or a zoning bylaw change. Hey, how does that dovetail with the master plan? That's how I kind of look
at them the master plan in that regard. and and and really I think in 20 and and we've talked about it on this board even as recently as you know two or three meetings ago and even during the impact portion of the master plan advisory
people were talking about those things in their meetings as hey that's going to be in the master plan or that's a master plan target and therefore we should be paying mind to it. I think maybe we've gone down a little too far into the weeds on some of these topics. And then
to me, the end result is in 2040 is go back and take a look at that master plan, yes, we have things to do, but when you go back into the master plan and take a look at what some of the goals and objectives are, and then you scorecard that out and say, "What
happened?" You go back to the the last master plan, even the one that wasn't accepted and the one before that, the rail trails in there. flexible residential subdivisions is in there. There's like three or four or five other things that were in there that actually came completely or close to fruition as
envisioned in the master plan. And I dare to say that that was because they were in the master plan. There was, you know, the and the previous plan to this one. There was a there was a vision, if you will, to move the town center that was redo it behind Yeah. Yeah. across from the schools where the
solar panels are now and some other places there, but it wasn't really workable in reality. And there's some things in this master plan that probably aren't going to be workable in reality. It's just the fact it is a ma it is a plan and kind of a a guiding vision for 2020, but not
this is what we're doing. Everybody hop on the bus because that's not how it works. you have elected boards and appointed uh commissions that are are appointed by elected to to to do certain things and they may or may not agree with what's some of the absolute actions of the mastermind. That's to your point
like we we talked about this like I had eight eight or 10 or 12 number 49s on that list, right? Because hey, we'll never get to them. So, okay, I kind of be a realist about it. But some of them I would really frankly oppose to. I would actually I would actively work I would actively work
against some of the goals in the master plan and be upfront about it. Um you know one of the things was and we talked about it on this board and settled it in goals and objectives. One of the things in the master plan is we should have solar uh uh sorry uh
electrical vehicle chargers here at town hall. We all as a board as an elected board said a we shouldn't do that. B, it's better served by having them at commercial places where there's a room. B, that are people are willing to pay for the electricity, so people will shop
at their business or what have you. Um, and we and we took it off our goals and objectives. Done. Settle. And if it's an action on the master plan, that should be our answer. And that should be complete. Whether it's in agreement or not with the master plan, that's, you know, subject to review by the the MPIC,
but at least we addressed it and and dealt with it. And you know there's and there's you know to be honest there's other things in the master I'm wholeheartly in agreement with and you know we'll fully support to try to get done and I was going to say we were doing so good at five seven.
Yeah I know. Sorry. Oh no it's No, it's a worthy conversation and we're we're a guinea pig because we're the first ones attempting this and um and I'm pretty sure conservation's going to have the same kind of discussions. Yes.
On on their topics. Um one of the first things we did was make sure we have a plan to modify everyone every any any of them. We have a plan to transfer and we have a plan to cancel it. So we built that in. So you have flexibility. I don't think that comes
out of this because when we get it says you know we need to complete master plan completions for the select board. So this is saying year one we got to we got to compete complete all these. It doesn't say review them or take an opinion on them says complete
them. So some of it could be the delivery of it and not knowing that you have those other outlets so to speak. Oh those were in process before Russ. Yeah. That was all before you were Jason got that presentation. You didn't get it. I will mail you that presentation.
There is a process. There is a process to modify. What are the depart Did the departments know that as Yes, they had them. They all received them. They did. Now whether they read them. Yeah. You know, so on our goals and objectives, when you
got the when you got the total ranking sheet, this one, the the the long way, that one, there were some at the end that were transferred to us. That's how they got transferred. Other other parties said that doesn't belong with us. We also
shifted some to others that didn't belong with us. You just weren't part of that chapter. But that is how that happened. And there was no deadline for that. Those can still happen as parties are working through these
and really sinking in and reading them and contemplating can we do that? How could we do that? That's impossible. We'll never be able to do that. And 50% of the master plan can be determined not feasible. 75% of it in the end could be determined
not doable because I mean with the with the master plan why would the master plan be telling to replace the police facility roof that should be just something that comes under facilities normal maintenance and
you know that was one of those ones where they I think it went a little deep you could have like 12 because it was talking because the point of it was the sustainable materials, the green,
but that's already somewhere else that we will look at green buildings for anything we do. There's a lot that is overlapping. Absolutely. And we had a lot of discussion on this on the impact too trying to book together was was a try to come up with 12 guiding lights,
right? And you're right. If you had 12 bullet points, it wouldn't have this, right? Hey, we're going to try to be, you know, much more energy efficient in all projects that we undertake, right? You know, we're going to,
you know, we're going to have uh, you know, encourage this type of business or, you know, this type of development and then let the boards and commissions do this water under pass there because the impact And I think the impact in a way
from from some of the members they did yman work it was and it was a ton of work and thought and meetings after meeting after meeting that went on but it was a lot of I think sometimes they they wanted to get the agenda and
then drive through the agenda to make sure that those items got accomplished. And so sometimes it kind of I don't want to say it's not degraded but it kind of turned into a lot more detail in than you would normally have in a potentially in a master plan. When Ken Kia and PBPC and
chairman Phelps did yman work trying to hurt cats because there was a lot of different angles on there. There were some strong opinions who wanted very granular because they had specific outcomes that they were and strong personalities. my point. No,
no, I get it. But here you here when you take it back and you know at the end of the day I think the true measure having the emp is and and part of we had a lot of discussion on the emp
me and uh chairman Darity at the time had many discussions around what the empic should look like and Marcus Phelps and I almost walked out of a meeting talking about the Empic, how the EMPIC would be consisted of and how it would go about its business. But I think at
the end of the day in 20 240 th this is going to be important. But in 2040 when you take that master plan and look at those you know the big bullets and go how do we do that's really going to be it. And maybe it's going to be a successor impact in 2038 just take it to
2050. Okay. Um and figure out how you advance on what you've done or change where you were going. Um, and then you just you take it in that context. Like I said, take out some of the old master plans and they're on the web right on the town website. Take a
look at what's come out of it. It's actually been pretty pretty decent. So the question right now then is what I presented to you as what we wanted to say we could complete. I want us to have a consent. I listed, let me just recap
that. I listed what when we did our goals and objectives, what was in the master plan that sort of melded with our goals. That's what these are. And and the state of completion we can say it
was looking for a grant writer, blah blah blah, the marketing, etc. I'm going to say that's complete. We hired the planner who is going to assist in grant writing and we would support that with a little dialogue, a paragraph that says
how we met that the way we met it. Not verbatim to what the recommendation was, but how we met that suggestion, let's say. Does that make sense?
Um, no. Because I would, my language would say we currently have grant writers. John runs does grant writing for the DPW. The chief does for the police department. The fire chief does for the fire. We
have grant writers on board. There's no need for this. Correct. That's our that's our statement. That is it's not that we're not implementing this. It's that we already have it. Two different things. It because the recommendation is two different things. is identify a staff position to lead coordination of economic development
etc etc etc. We did that part for the that's complete as far as the grant writing. Um it doesn't that isn't even in that. So and and then we don't want I don't
have to beat this but no we have to move forward on economic development. Why are we why is there anything for economic development under the select board? We have an economic development authority and the hiring authority but we have a department that's so the department's
looking at this and going we don't have an economic development department we have a we have a volunteer commission but they're looking they're looking at this as we're here we have all these great ideas we're doing we're trying to put forward
and now someone else is telling us what to do or someone else has got ideas ating that with the town's zoning, taking off. They already do that. I mean, we we saw, you know, trying to do
the reducing the speed limit. We saw the process that that went through, good, bad, or indifferent. It went through a process. They're going to have other ideas. They might have um, you know, tax ideas for meals tax or they might have other things. Those are going to come out of other committees, other groups that are
empowered to do what they're supposed to be doing and interested in doing what they're doing instead of somebody else telling them, "We think you should do this." That's not how it works. That's not exactly this example. And I think that's how I don't think that
that plan or position is telling anybody else what to do. I think the master plan is from the way that from what he's describing is it is doing that in a in a way but I think you answered the question in front of us directly was there was a thing
about this and we could say we looked at this and there are you know okay we hired the economic development director done mission accomplish that's what I was saying but then if the grant writing is in that same one we said look we re we evaluated that and we found that there is grant writing ability within already existing within
in the town. The grant writer is actually under the DAO's goals, not the grant writer probably shouldn't be in there. So, take that out of the discussion. But as far as the planner, but again, but follow through with we
could come back. We just because we I talked about it earlier is we followed through and go Mr. Goddard does yman work doing that. Fire chief does a great job for that. Sabrina does a great job doing that grant writing. We don't see it. And by the way, if the
policy good, we're good. Right. We Okay. That's it. Exactly. That's We are We are assessing the recommendations and responding to them. They either already exist or or mostly exist. They're functioning well
as they exist. There might be something in here we can go, yeah, okay, we could add that to that existing. We have to assess. We are asked to assess those and determine them. I said we will say some of them are not going to happen
at least while we're on this board. Let's take an easy one. Under us for transportation was the PVTA bus stop completed. It was already it happened to have been something that came up and was in process. We can we could put we're
going to have that complete by 6:30 26. Yay, we did it. It's done. These are the ones that aligned with things we were already discussing as goals. We can look at those that are completed. So, okay. So, I can look at Can we at least agree that the ones that I have marked completed are complete?
So, why are they even on here? Because that's what we're doing. We're evaluating the master plan recommendations and acting on those that are actionable. These are We're going to report those were actionable and we did them. they're done.
They're done. And answer the recommendation in the master plan. But again, there's things that were already being done that were put on the plan and they're done. Yeah. So why were they even on the plan to
start with? because there were things in process for four four years and three years and these things were just done in the last six months coincidentally. So that proves that there are recommendations in the master plan worth doing
well right it just recommends that other committees are doing their jobs and doing the other things too. We're not disputing that they are also on top of things they happened independently. Okay. So, I'm going to ask you to take a look
at the completed items again and can we agree next week that we will at least report the completed items on the master plan planned completions sheet and report it to the implementation committee as done.
And then we can look at the ones that say ongoing or partially completed. We can modify those. Again, these are this list right here is the ones that align with our goals and objectives. There's many more recommendations that
aren't on what you're looking at right now. These are the ones that align with what we agreed August 14th were our goals and objectives based on the master plan, but not our goals and objectives. No, I took our
goals and objectives and then I went to the master plan and said these line up with those. All right. Well, that said and the channel 15 thing was one of our major goals and objectives we all agreed to. It's not on him because it's not a recommendation for the select board. It's not on
the master plan. As I said, there's another it's a different list. It's not on our list, but it could be it is on there under not necessarily panel 15, but there is one of these that says create a form on how the town can do support this or there's something on communications
to the community. Absolutely. That's channel. It doesn't say channel 15 that we made a goals and objectives for the select board. It is different than the goals and objectives. Absolutely different. That's not why I
I see what you're saying. But I also think in the back of my mind when I'm doing my goals and objectives for the select board, I have some of what's in that master plan as overly relevant without having to call out section 4.1.6.8
subsection 4 of the master plan in your 22. I'm like, okay, you know, the MUN fiber is one of those things that's in there as part it was part of the master plan. It was talked about before the master plan. It was a intrinsic part of it and I continue to Russ. This is just the
stuff that's already in process. That's all of this actually. This is all already in process in some way. So by our goals and objectives that we all hashed out. Okay. Doesn't say it's all going to be done
today. Those are goals and objectives that are going to go on for five or six years for us. Where's our roads? We've all agreed that roads are top priority. Those are those the whatever the road recommendations are are going to be under
the DPW under the facilities chapters assigned to the DPW as lead organization. We're not the lead organization for everything. They got their own wordy items. Could be under the police department. could be whoever was assigned to and if they went through it and said this is
the select board because they're the road commissioners they would have transferred it to us. I would think a master plan in one of its simplest terms under the this board would be infrastructure which includes water, sewer, lights.
Those are all under the facility. I'm saying it should be under the lead. We're not the lead implementing organization for those. Well, yet we want to put car chargers in. I mean, we we have fringe things all over the place. It's because nobody else would have made the and and you were there. You know the
process for that when they were trying to decide who the lead or you guys were both on the on the EMPAC as well. when they were to unfortunately I was there at every meeting so I know when they were trying to decide who's who's going to be in charge of that that was an argument not an argument that was
a discussion as well no there wasn't anybody so other people were imposing other things for other people to do% no if it fell if it didn't fall on anybody else the select board got it and it was up to us so again that's the wrong way to go up to us
ours should be big global challenges no because we're letting the departments that that is their domain, that is their expertise. They are the lead on those things. We're not the experts on the global. Why are we doing facilities? We're not experts on facilities.
Not all facilities. No, we pick and choose. And that's my that's my complaint. Not all facilities. The facilities. Well, we're going to we're going to pick the roof on the police station, see what it's made out of. That's because the green energy grant was under us.
That one's done a almost. Yeah. Almost. Keep going. That's I think you're trying You're trying to to or you're feeling like this one is driving us and not our own goals and
objectives. This isn't driving us. Well, it says completed plan completion. And one year, year one, year two, year three, year four. Give yourself a pat on the back because we already did one, two, three, four,
at least four fully completed recommendations from the master plan without even trying. Pat yourself on the back. It don't feel challenged or pushed against the wall. We they're completed. I'm not. There were things that the master plan
body, which includes a lot of community input, thought was a good thing to address. We've already we this little group of three, five, six, five of us have already completed four of them. I'm not upset about that.
Yay. We were on top of it. And we've got I don't know 1 2 3 4 a dozen more. We're halfway there. Okay. So it says we agree. We we were we were thinking that that way before they even told us they wanted us to think that
way. That doesn't make sense to you still. I don't agree with it. That's Well, I don't know how we're going to move forward. I'll go. I think we can. I mean that but that's also you know what at the end of the day that's part of the electoral process too
is the board has changed by a third in a year so Mr. Anderson's entit 100% entitled to his opinion and thoughts on this matter. Yeah. Oh absolutely. and and if he if he were to say and just like I said to you
and you know we've talked about this a couple times was like I don't want to do these these these are not in my in I'm not in favor of this you know one of the you know there was and that's what you're hearing from other departments 100% and but they so they also and it keeps coming but they should keep pushing back
back back to either their appointing authority can you come back here if we're their appointing authority if they're elected they're elected and they can also go back to the mic and push back and go this is way too granular for what we're trying to do and okay and
then let's have the MPIC go back and revisit how they do it and perhaps and and one of the things we do need we can always look at too is the actual way that we compose the meek right we were me and Mr. Dowy
composed the MIPIC as a compromised solution and we were supposed to revisit it after a year. I don't think we're there yet. Right. So to to see where if that format of that is working or it's not working or or what should we be doing differently even the composition of the MPIC itself. Maybe it's too
small. Maybe there should be more representation. I was a big proponent of keep it small because if you have nine people on it you're never going to get five for a meeting, right? So we kept it really small and they they've had very good attendance at it. The Empic is planning on coming back to
the planning board and select board this early December. So and that's all food for that and maybe we do need to take this up one step and go these are the guiding principles of this. This is how we're going to measure how we're doing against the master plan instead of down here.
And and by the way, and one of the things that came out of this too was uh some boards had two things to do. So it was really easy to prioritize one two and then their one two might be 98 and 99 on someone else's list, right? As far
as how they're thinking about something or it could be one one two on on another a greater list. Another approach we might take to accept, let's say that accept some of these recommendations is to look at our
bottoms and justify why they're all at the bottom and we would never vote yes and knock them off. That's not exactly what the task is at this stage of that, but it's also pie in the sky to think we're even going
to consider um 10 through 21, right? And we could evaluate those, assess those, and write a paragraph why that's never going to happen.
That's part of the master plan. implementation as well. What isn't going to happen? Take it off the table so we can better focus on the things that are doable. And that may help us feel better about
the remaining things. And then maybe we take it from this granular level and we determine that um it's a communications thing and all of these things are all related to communications. So, let's focus on
communications, not these individual things. I have one other suggestion because it it may be relevant. Maybe we should talk to the city to the north and or any of the other communities that recently did a master plan in their community. What are they doing
and actually implemented? Do they have an MPC? If so, what does it look like? And what are their goals and objectives? And how are they going about the handling of their master plan? We're really good at that sometimes is taking a look at what some of our surrounding communities are doing. Is that a recommendation you're making
for me to take back to the master plan? I mean, it's a Westfield was going through their master plan at exactly the same time. We kicked their butts on survey data and got more surveys per capita than they did. We did some things really, really, really well. We had some
better workshops than they did. But I'd like to see what their master plan ended up looking like and what and how they're administering the master plan. That being asked to the MK who are meeting on Wednesday. Perfect.
Okay. So let's table the rest of this discussion then um without any determination on the completed or otherwise and we'll talk about it each week going forward. Glad I'm sitting the middle
but I I want you I want you to to appreciate the difference between the two of us and and one isn't driving the other. They're helping. How you doing? You're exciting for me. Fine. Anyway,
no, I did that wrong once before and I'll be doing it again. You'll fall for that freshman trick. I have other old business. Just want to mention all the signs have been installed on the North Pond Conservation Area. Um, and thank you to Norm and Rich Bozac
and a couple of the other DPW crew. They all got those installed. And Southwick PD has access to camera notifications and live feeds from those cameras. And lastly, 306 Feeding Hills Road. Um,
you had mentioned you were getting a contact. You were you made you emailed somebody or something. I did. I talked to somebody and I also had a conversation this afternoon with Representative Viga. Okay. And he is going to call me actually tonight. Okay. after this meeting and we're going to talk about it further
to see if it's even put me in contact with the right folks because MASDOT was not a good was not a fruitful conversation as far as getting in the right direction but certainly Representative Baldigo will know and can arrange a meeting about that because I I
still think that that's a probably a way better approach that's a 70s something acre parcel across the street at what's the number 306 I think it's 305 306 is the number across the street oh 305 is a 70 something acre parcel. Well, like I said, we only need
we need half one, right? So, to to do what we're talking about doing on a lease basis or whatever and then come back and see if it's feasible, then come back in front of this board and see if it's something we even want to do. But I I'm just not
my opinion is I don't want to buy 306. I don't see a need for to to take that whole parcel, take another parcel off the tax roles um when you could possibly do have an economical solution at 305 if it's manageable.
Agreed. That's my opinion. John just needs that sign so he can leave. He's been waiting a long time. Oh, I thought you were to come tomorrow. Well, I thought I was too, but he's been waiting. Oopsie. Nothing to change. He doesn't want to be appointed and nothing else. So look kind of want to
get out of here. I thought he was interested in all the other conversations that we relative to while he was here. But thank you for being here for all those other conversations. It remains my pleasure. South Wis. Yes. Asen
very soon. Define. I will be honest with the select board and say Mr. Bosat gave me an update. Um, and that was this morning. I had
pressing uh issues on my mind and I did not appropriately catalog that date. Be great to report to everyone right now, but I can't do it. I'll be happy to share an email in the morning. What is that? They got to pay it. They did all the drainage work.
Oh, Sam Hill. Yeah. I think they go together. All right. We have to acknowledge and approve payroll warrants number 360 and behind dated September 23rd, 2025 in the amount of 301,174.15.
Need a motion to go into executive session pursuant to MGL chapter 3A section 21 number three to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining or litigating position of the public body. And the chair so
declares and we will not be reconvening in open session. Motion. So move. I he said I said I Okay. That was his second. Roll call about Dan Gai. Okay. Thank you everybody.