Good evening everyone. Welcome to the select board meeting for July 14th, 2025. It is 6. Let me let people in. It's not people. All set. Right. Welcome again everybody. This is the fleckboard meeting for July
14th, 2025. It is 6 pm. We are here in the land use hearing room. We are in person and remote via hybrid format. This meeting is being recorded and if anyone else is recording, please notify us. Did we turn that down? That will be better. Thank you.
All right. And let's call attendants. Starting with you Nicole Parker CEO Diane Gale Doug Mland Russ Anderson Nine signal and we will start with the pledge of allegiance and
Mr. McMahon would you like to lead today? No, I'll lead. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all. All right, then. Is there anyone here today in the room with public comments? None. Anyone online with anything for public comment today? None. Okay.
Then um since Mr. McMahon is in front of us here, I suppose we can take things a little out of order and do our joint meeting with the library board of trustees
and we'll come to you next Dr. Welcome. You want to open your meeting? Uh yeah. This is a meeting of the South Public Library Board of Trustees. It's uh 6 PM July 14th and we're meeting in
town hall instead of at the library. I'm Michael McMahon, Andrea Bugby, Tammy Zakalon, [Music] and we have with us Kathleen Fishbach. Welcome. Thank you.
So, uh we have an interim appointment to make um this an appointed position that was vacated um during its term. So, this would be to fill a term effective seven
1425 to 6:3028 um if appointed of course and thank you for coming. Thank you. And uh I guess um first of all how did you find out about this opening? Um I had heard about it from another
trustee and then I talked to Jen and she said gave me some more information. and she said, "Yes, go apply." So, I did. Okay. Uh, you want to just give a little background on yourself and what
interests you in this? Um, first of all, it's I want to be more involved in the community. I've been in town since 91. So, it's time to get more involved. And I have always been around libraries. Not
the deep part of it, just the user part. and they need protecting, they need funding, and they're tremendously interesting. So, they're a big asset for communities.
Okay. Any questions from any members? Question. Kathy, we meet once a month. Do you feel like you could make that commitment
pretty much every month? Yes. Um, sometimes we ask for minutes. Sometimes we ask for votes. Sometimes, um, it's serious issues and sometimes it's just supporting library staff with, uh, you know, cake or donuts, that kind
of thing. And that range of things is is okay with you? Yes. Have you served on any other boards or commissions in the past? No, I I've been well I've been on a
board for a guild and actually that was two terms. I like to work the elections when I can. Since I'm retired, I can so that's nice. Good.
During your working career, did you gain any skills that you think make you a good candidate? Well, I worked at Mass Mutual for almost 38 years. You meet deadlines. You do what you need to
do. You increase your education all the time. It's the corporate world is both very interesting and very time consuming. But that was good time. And now I've got this time.
What do you enjoy most about the library here in town? In town? The people. My gosh. Plus, I don't know who buys the books or orders the books. They make really great selections. It's It just covers so much. And with uh
your access to CW Mars, you've got even more. And I remember before CW Mars, so it's nice. Okay. Anything else from anybody? Yeah, we don't get a lot of candidates running
or to be appointed in this kind of facility. So, do you want to uh Sure. Let's make a motion if Yeah, let's make a motion to accept Kathleen Bishbach. Is that the way you pronounce it?
K. Michael McMahon. Yes. Um, Andrea Lee. Yes. And yes. I think you need a second on the term. It's to the next election. to June 30th.
Yeah, it be it's an elected position. So, it would be at the conclusion of town meeting in 2026. Oh, no. It would fill the remaining is the remaining term of that position.
Okay. I'm not 100% positive on that. for the remaining term. I don't I first time we've done a library trustee in Ohio like this. Usually on most positions it's to the next election. Yeah. But then we'd have the situation since
we have two elected each year for a three-year term. This person was elected in May. Correct. Circumstances changed and the person moved out of town. But the election would then be for a shorter term. It would be the election
to fill the remainder of the term. So let's say that term they have two year left. It would be a two-year term and then there would be a three years library board do like with the planning board and I don't know that this would be any different. There is one that was different. I forget if it was a school committee or something else where it was
not it was the remainder of the term that was the appointment. But I'm not sure with this one. So we can always amend it to the rem we'll do it to the rema we will do it to the next election and then we can clarify that next week which
would mean at the end of whatever term it is if you wanted to continue you would run for that seat. Okay. Where's the town clerk when you need it for the minutes? When is the next town election?
May. Second. It's always the second Tuesday in May. I don't know the exact date, but it's it is the second Tuesday and third Tuesday is town meeting and and I will have Christie verify that and reach out to you too and let you know as well and we'll just correct it if we need to at our next meeting.
Yeah, sure. So, do you want to redo that motion? And uh just for clarification, from today until the the remainder of the the term, whatever date that's determined debate. Tammy second.
Michael McMahon. Yes. Andrea Bugby. Yes. Baselon. Yes. Diane Gail. Yes. Doug Mglin. Yes. Ross Anderson. Yes. Okay, there you go. Um, sorry for that confusion, but we will get that end date
straightened out for you. Thank you. Congratulations and thank you for serving the town. Yep. Thank you for doing that. And thank you guys for your continued service. Thanks. Thank you all as well. And let's just do a quick vote to end
our trustees meeting. So moved. Michael. Yes. Andrea [Music] is your name should put that on there. You can leave one. We got someone behind
here. Thank you. Thank you. Good to see you. Thank you guys for your service. Thank you. All right. Then we have Mr. Dr. Tom Irwin, if you want to come up and refresh us on a paint stewardship program.
Sure. Thank you. I have a little information I think people would enjoy seeing. Thank you. Thank you. First one is the first few pages of the
uh EPR commission's uh opinion on paint stewardship and the second is the updated MMA letter. Uh the relevant section I think you're most interested in is highlighted. These documents are both in support of the ongoing effort for paint
stewardship. Before I get into updates, I'd just like to touch on uh what paint steel chip is. It is a program where people can get rid of their unwanted latex and oil based paints and with this legislation also
their paint spray cans whenever they wish when the participating store is open at no disposal cost and without regard for when or where the paint was purchased. And for the uh retail stores it is
totally voluntary program where they can come and go from it uh when they wish and there is no cost to the uh retail store other than a pallet space in their storage room for the pallet of paint that they collect. Who takes it from them?
Uh a nonprofit called Paint Care that the paint manufacturers uh constructed. Yep. No. Um the 75 cents that we pay per gallon or $150 per five gallons is the money that goes and subsidizes
um paint care and that's the total funding that they get. Nothing else. And the paint manufacturers to take it off their table set up paint care as a nonprofit to take care of this and nothing else. So, if everyone has had a chance to give
that uh those couple documents a quick look, I will uh share with you the update. Uh this legislative session brings renewed reason for optimism that with continued diligence, a paint stewardship law will pass in Massachusetts. Thanks
to strong and sustained advocacy during the last session, particularly around paint stewardship and packing extended producer responsibility, the acts of 2024 included a key provision establishing an extended producer extender reproduc excuse me extended
responsibility uh commission. um that um and this commission was tasked with evaluating potential EPR legislation across several waist streams, including paint, mattresses, electronic waste, batteries, and packaging, marking a significant step forward in
broadening the state's commitment to waste reduction and producer accountability. Most recently, the EPR Commission completed its review of paint stewardship, um the first couple pages of which you have in front of you, and used a formal recommendation that the
legislature enact paint stewardship law by July 1st of 2026. This recommendation combined with widespread and growing support for municipality sends a powerful message to both the joint committee on environment and natural resources and the ways means committee
that paint stewardship deserves serious consideration. At present 108 municipalities and counting have gone on record in support of this legislation. On May 6th of this year, the joint ENR committee convened to hear testimony on EPR related bills. Pain stewardship was
uh strongly represented with support voiced by the Massachusetts Municipal Association, which you have a copy of, several legislators, and numerous individual advocates, including myself. I provided committee with a bind of resolutions and letters of endorsement
from supporting municipalities. I believe the breadth of support made a strong impression on committee members. There are also clear signs that the public is not only aware of but eager for a statewide stewardship program to begin. In response to public interest
and a shared belief in the importance of paint recycling, the 21 home decor uh group retail stores in eastern Massachusetts, primarily within 495, have recently started voluntarily accepting unwanted latex paint.
Consumers pay them a $4 per gallon fee which covers the cost of hauling and recycling by recolored paints out of Hanover, Massachusetts. Despite the fee, customers are responding positively to the added convenience. This voluntary initiative signals that
paint retailers understand both the need for and the value of a stewardship program and are willing to play an active role in making it work. Kudos to the home decor group for stepping up. Finally, and quite significantly, on June 26, the Massachusetts House and Senate adopted a new set of joint rules
intended to improve transparency, productivity, and legislative accountability. One important change requires joint committees to report out bills by the first Wednesday in December of the first year of the session, a full two months earlier than in prior
sessions. This procedural reform is expected to reduce legislative backlogs and increase the number of bills that reach the floor for vote. Altogether, this is tremendous progress, not just for paint stewardship, but for our legislative process overall. I believe
we are at a pitiful moment and today presents an excellent opportunity to take the next step toward a cleaner, more sustainable future. With continued advocacy and collaboration, I strongly believe that we can make this important legislation a reality soon.
Thank you for your attention. May I help with any questions? Well, I described and explained what is it you look across as a letter of endorsement in opportunity or bless you. Um, municipalities either pass a
resolution. Um, and Margaret has copy of the most recent updated resolution or they prepare a u a letter of uh support. Um, either way is fine. And the extended producer responsibility
is for a number of other materials, but you're focusing on paint. Why is that? What is what is that connection for you? Well, um, at when I began this whole process back in 2022, um, there really was no, uh, strong EPR
movement at that particular point in time. And when I went and investigated uh, what the options might be for the town of Dalton, because I was on the waste management recycling committee in order for us to help reduce the solid waste, I discovered paint stewardship
and wanted to take a bite that I could chew. So, I went after um trying to support paint, get that passed. It's my intention to uh provide assistance for additional uh legislation um when I complete the paint task.
Okay. Also of note, unlike the other bills, paint stewardship was actually prepared. The bill was prepared by a six years of joint meetings between the retailers,
the manufacturers, uh, consumers and state agencies and they hashed it out and they argued and they held and screened until they come up with something that all parties felt they could live with. And um I think that's an excellent way to approach problems.
And so it only increases my aror for this law because it not only will serve to help us with paint, but it'll also be a model for additional APR legislation. So So just to be clear, like our local hardware store sells paint. Yep.
Um it's that's an option of their own whether they want to accept it or not. Correct. So, it's not being forced upon them, per se. Not at all. In fact, what happens is that the large stores, the Lowe's, the Home Depots, Walmarts, for whatever
reason, they aren't against the program, but they they opt not to be participants in the re and uh the takeback. So, the smaller stores got get excited about it because what that's going to mean is they'll be getting some of that paint from those Yeah. foot traffic. And they found that
it increases uh revenues for them and they're very delighted by it. Any other questions for me? Thank you. Okay. I guess we will review the letter and circulate it. See if we are all in agreement on it.
You're talking about Margaret's. Yeah, she has the draft. So you want we can share that and okay come to a decision on that after seeing the draft I guess. Okay that sounds fine. All right. So then at a future um meeting you will take a vote on it.
Just Yeah. And then just sign it and send it off. Okay. Um I would be if there are questions I'll be happy to be here. If there are no questions then I will but I will leave that uh to you folks. Okay. Okay. All right. Thank you. So just to be clear, your
letter only deals with the paint, not the other items that are the law, right? But the laws all of that go through. Well, that's going to be the decision by the legislature as to whether to con omnibus bill where they take the separate bills
for each of the EPR and put them in one. Um it is possible. Uh my bet is is on the um on the five that may probably only two or three of the five that they're going to consider this session um are going to actually make it through their review process.
Lithium battery, you want the big one. Yes, I expect that one to make it through. Mattresses, there's some contention, so I'm not sure. Packaging is so complicated that I imagine it's going to take another session or two to hammer through all the issues. Okay.
And uh so and and the uh e-waste uh electronic waste, I think that's fairly straightforward. So I think that has a chance of making Good. Did you say there was a date you were looking for responses to be issued or or
um resolutions to be issued? Was there a well um sensitivity on that? No, nothing in the I mean sensibly it's you're looking at four or six weeks probably to work way through this thing completely and uh there is no issue with that. the um this
will come to a head um next um April, May time frame is my expectation. And so I want to have things I have another um I have another uh 66
67 um resolutions I have to get. So I'd like to have them all squared away by that time. Okay. I'm having that per week. All right. And my reasoning behind that is I want to be able to say to the legislature over 50% of the municipalities and over
50% of the state's population is in favor of this, making it that much harder for them to say no thank you. Great. All right. All right. Thanks so much. Have a good night. You're welcome. Would you like a copy of my comments from
Sure. Nice. Thank you. Y and thank you for coming back in today. Absolutely. Yes. Okay, there and there. Uh then we are going to acknowledge
three new call force members that have been hired and vote to appoint the three. Um Chief, is there anything you wanted to throw in on this? Uh, no, just that we've been very, very fortunate to have
a continual stream of applicants for the call force, which has been great. Kudos to Deputy Bishop for all the recruitment and uh, you know, we've been doing a good job recruitment and the retention's holding on as well, too. So, that's a good bet. These fill three obvious positions, one firefighter, one
firefighter EMT, and a PDM. Um, so we're excited to have all three. Okay. And they've gone through the entire interview process and uh, yes, they have. Okay, so we have call force EMT Skyler Bon,
call Force firefighter EMT Alex Fulco, and Call Force firefighter paramedic Neil Coburn. Got one of each there. And these would be just uh regular
part-time call force appointments. Make a motion to appoint all those read. I'll second that. Noting the change in process without discussion by this board. Once again, roll call vote. Diane G. I.
Doug Moin. Yes. Russ Anderson. I. Uh, next we have discussion of an erosion project for seven South Wyard Road. Do we want to pick that up when we
talk about the roads or separately? Somebody just stood up the roads. Oh, all righty. Lauren Shever Hunter Avenue, chairman of the conservation commission.
Um, we received a letter as you did from Gary Ellen and based upon reading that letter, we decided to do a site visit and last week we did the site visit and um, we were quite amazed at what we saw.
Uh, there is an enormous amount of erosion there. Uh, there are some crevices that probably go down 8 to 10 feet. Um and we think it's dire right now is all bank
that could come down large trees. I know that John Goddard's working on a solution. Uh I thought he was going to be on on the call but I don't see him there. He is there. Okay. So he that's the handsome gentleman on the left. Okay. So anybody want to speak after I
do? Uh and Mark Stinson who is the chief conservationist for the state D is coming next week to our meeting and he's going to site do a site visit because he was on distribution for for the same letter. So we wanted to make sure you
were informed know it's dire situation and it's being worked on. Mr. Goddard. Hi everybody. Norma gave a pretty good summary. Uh this is a spot that I've I visit every uh oh six months or so just
as part of my storm water work uh over the years and for sure uh 2025 uh has been dramatic uh for the change essentially uh runoff in that area
has breached a certain barrier whether it be roots or otherwise and as Norm said now you know an 8 to 10 foot drop from the former um storm water discharge down to almost the stream level. Uh it's just going through our very familiar
South um that you see over at the motocross track at a fairly tremendous rate. Um you are right that it is uh included on we call it the priority project list um that Randy distributed prior to his uh departure.
Yep. Number that's number 37. And I do I do appreciate um conservation's uh attention to this matter as it's a pretty it's a difficult uh site. No doubt about it. Um but there's a
uh it is both dynamic um and I suppose demands attention. Is the $95,000 the remedy for this particular situation? Uh, madam chairperson, I wish I could
answer that with a great degree of specificity. Um, for lack of a better term, I want to refer to that as a placeholder. Um, a lot of the work can be managed with uh I want to call conventional stabilization
practices. Uh, as Norm mentioned, there however is a very steep um embankment that uh is going to require some careful examination. So I I I can't say that that number is tied to a construction estimate.
Okay. a few years ago. Um, and I had been down on this property about probably about six months ago with Gary and we had walked down there and I'd been down there when you right around when you guys went down there and it's gotten marketkedly worse in a very short period of time. Um, a few years ago
that the town put some step down drainage from South Longard and Woodside. It's actually carrying the water more from Woodside Circle and it the town put some step down basins and outfalls that they drain to each other down that thing and they ran
out of money about halfway. So now it comes out about halfway down the hill and now the problem is halfway down to the end and it's not that far from the abutment of a fairly new bridge. I want to say it's less than 20 years old when
they replaced the bridge over at Powder Mill and and South Longyard when that bridge failed a few uh at that time. Um I don't know that it's a risk to the bridge, but it certainly can't be good for it if that got, you know, trees and stuff into the water, but it's really creating a a very steep crevice and
ravine there. And probably the best approach is to, you know, defer to these guys who who who are are handling it, but to continue the step downs of those drainage to get that water closer to where it needs to be rather than letting it out in the middle. Um because it's
just going to continue to erode unless we do something over there. And so I was glad to see that um the former DPW director had included that in the road the road summary and work uh drainage summary work that we were talking about for this year. I actually thought you were talking
about the other side of the road. I didn't realize it was this. No, it's it and it's awkward if you look on the map the South Longard Road because it been relayed out a few times. So the property at 7 the where the road
is and if you look at on a map versus what's on the ground where South Longyard Road is and everything else doesn't all jive perfectly but you can if you go and look it's the area right before Woodside Circle near where the maze driveway is and the the drainage
comes under and around and then straight down there. So you know certainly worth a look but be careful walking down that hill. So roughly $95,000 you think would be the stabilization work and then there would be additional work to complete a
drainage plan. Is that what we're I I think the 95 was conceived uh in an effort to continue a daylighted option. Um as Mr. from Mogland describes uh there are many
cases where uh stepping it down within structures and then having a you know level lazy river if you will as your final discharge is the preferred solution. Uh the stabilization part um and and Norm will I'm sure picture this in his head is part of a just one side
of that discharge area where it's just a tremendously steep embankment. So trying to make sure that's stabilized to the degree that it doesn't foul the new work or cause further uh impact to um anyone's land. So all I'm trying to say is that that $95,000 figure is subject to some
adjustment. Sure. Of course. Yep. And that's all water from the roads roadways or uh generally speaking. Yep. The vast majority is is runoff that comes from Woodside Circle.
Who designed that uh step down that you said? It was our DPW. I think it was our own guys put anything down. So, what are we looking to do here? Authorize some I thought it was discussion on this tonight and then probably add some
impetus to prioritizing that that funding as part of our road analysis for under old business. That would be my take on it. You're going to need some engineering or something to tell you what you need. Correct.
Right. There's the 95,000. Yeah. Right. That's the phone call. And and a few stakes and some silk pants. Right. It may just be a matter of getting I don't know. I don't know. This is a gets into construction whether there needs to
be some restoration and rip wrap put in just to slow that water down and slow the erosion that's happening. I don't know. And that might get us to where you can do the engineering for further step down or some other method of conveyance of
that water to where it needs to be. Okay. So, we're going to talk about roads a little later down the road here today. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Thanks, John. All right. So, those are some pretty deep holes. It starts at the tar kind of like the
pictures. Yeah. At the They have some structures that are in there that are working perfectly, but when they it daylights right on the middle of the hill and so well they it was tough to you can get to it, but it's just tough. It's not easy,
right? It's expensive. Yeah. Okay. and then discuss the we have a new regular renewal of an intermunic intermunicipal agreement with the city
of Westfield for weights and measures person that was on page 11 in your docket. Yeah, it was brought to my attention that the contract expired in October. So, we have this short extension and
Westfield said they'd like to revisit the entire contract when the time comes. So, excuse me. This gives us some time to really, you know, see what we collect and what our fees are and what, you know, the weights and measures versus what we pay, etc. Um, and then it'll
just be status quo, which is $7,500 a year until that until the new contract is. So, this will go through October 3rd, 2026. Yeah. Okay. It expired October when? October 3rd, 2024.
Okay. Seems like those dates are different. But what's the date? It was originally 2019 and it was two years. Yes. So it was 2019, but then it um extend the intermunicipal agreement for
a turner of two years and then a second option of no this is the exercise of the second of the three options to extend through October 3rd, 2024. So there was two years and then three years and now we have nothing.
Okay. So she might just be going from what does the new one say? That is the old one. This is the old one. I'm just looking at the new one that they sent over beginning October 2019.
Okay. October 3rd, 2026. Cuz it's right now October 3rd, 2024 is when it's okay. When it was that was two and two. No, it was two and three. Sorry. Two and three. Yeah. Okay.
So, you want to make a motion to extend this for through October 3rd, 2026? Weren't we talking about rate? Did you say something about changing at that point? Then we'll take a look or before.
I thought we have enough time now to go and look at all of our rates and what we charge. Okay. Not for the renewal. Correct. Not necessarily for the renewal. So, we have all the information that we need and making sure we're collecting at least 7500 and all the different weights and the different places that they go
and inspect. But, in my other towns, it's kind of what it was. It was just a wash. like they got the they got the amount that was charged for all of these inspections. Let me just get a little better hand gendle on it internally which I'm sure they did in 2019 as well
if you just revisit it. But that's something that I had asked to have done anyway is just make sure our fees are structured to cover their costs. So it would fall under that umbrella as well. So you're looking for a motion to extend
the existing municipal agreement. Yes. Make a motion to extend the existing agreement as read. Second. Roll call vote. Dian Gale. I Doug Mvin. Yes. Russ Anderson.
Then we need to vote to deposit $1,111 from the ShortLife Children's Services, Inc. for Tony boxes and $25 from Marylu Chunglow in memory of Alberta Hayden. Both into the libraryies gift account.
So move second. Roll call vote. Diane Gail. I Doug Moin. Yes. Russ Sanderson. Okay. Then there is a proposed uh additional
wording for the elderly rate application for water and sewer. Um, this property is my permanent place of residence and it is being suggested to
add water is used 180 days or more per per year. Um, I don't know if there was anybody on to discuss this, but I did see this meeting um where someone was denied because they
are over 65. they are the owner of the home, but they only come here a few weekends a year. Um, so there's really not a lot of water usage anyway, but they're not really living in the home
either. But they could live in the room the home for 180 days and use a lot of water. And it's and they would pay they would pay for only the water they use, not the minimum charge. So it wouldn't be based on a rate of
usage, not days the calendar. I mean it seems like it'd be based on however much you use. It is. It is. They're going to So if you're below the minimum and I forget what the gallons are. If you're below the minimum gallons, it's 15,000 gallons.
You pay if you're below that, you pay pay one rate. Yeah. If you're 42, you're going to pay the minimum charge of 11750 or whatever it is. If you're over 60, if you're 65 or older, you're going to pay if you only used 11,000 gallons, you're going
to pay the rate for 11,000 gallons, not the minimum 15,000. And 180 days was added to it. That's what they're proposing. I have some thoughts on it. Um the intent of this with the question this
property is my permanent place of residence. The intent is that is it is for I believe full-time residents or most of the year residents and I have to question if they have dual residents are they really in need of
that little financial benefit? um of that reduced rate. Is that the intent? I don't think so. We don't do that sort of metric with anything
else like a dump sticker or anything else. We give a reduced rate for 65 or 60, whatever it is. They have to produce identification that they actually live in that household. There's no monetary threshold. We don't
have that for I have a question. Do we even have standing? This is your elected water commissioners that operate the water system. I don't think that we have standing. I think that's their purview to set that
as they see fit. And we can we could certainly send them a strongly worded letter if we choose to do so. But um I don't think we have standing to argue with it. And and and by the way, I Anecdotally, different boards, commissions,
departments have varying definitions of what is qualifies for a senior whatever transfer station is 60. This is something else. There's other things that by federal law, state law or our own rules have different qualifications for what is,
you know, a senior discount or a senior rate. So I in this particular case, if this was on the sewer side, then this is we are the sewer commission, but in this case, they're the water. This the first time I'm seeing it, and it looks like it was just a notification to the board. Yeah, I believe so from a letter from it's going to go on the sewer as well.
It just says that um they don't get the minimum waved on the sewer, right? But it it complicates us for us on the sewer side because we also have an elderly rate for sewer and it's gone lock step lock step with water. We
could choose not to do that probably makes the math and the understanding of how to when you get your sewer bill if it's a lot different or you somehow you don't qualify for it on the water side, but you do qualify it qualify for it on the sewer side. But
that's truly up to them as to what they decided to do. I I watched the meeting as well and they they it was an interesting case that they they decided to, you know, narrow their definition
of of who would qualify and, you know, for residency, you know, for different things. There's different qualifications. IRS has their set of rules, you know, voter registrations, you know, 6 months in a day or whatever. Um, and I think that's what they're trying to go for here, but that's really
up to them. And as from the what is the qualification on the sewer side for elderly rate? I think it's I'd have to ask someone who might he just qualified. When I did it, you don't qualify. There is not one for sure.
When I did mine, there's not one for sure. That's what I was told. What do we tell everybody about buddy? I'm looking at the code right now. Unless it says you will continue to be build a
minimum sewer rate. This um from DPW says that the uh a vote was taken and the commissioners approved amending the application to include this clarification. So you kind of think you're right. It's
just kind of notifying them, right? Well, we can give them our thoughts on it, right? Doesn't really matter. It's a strongly worded letter I mentioned earlier. Yeah. Anybody else have any other thoughts on it?
In their It's in their realm then. Not much we can say or do anyways. Okay. Okay. Appointments. Um we have uh in the realm of our usual appointments there is
a correction to the board of appeals for Daniel Tobias. His term was carried over to the agenda incorrectly. Uh he was appointed last time from 7125 to 63026. He should be the full
three-year term 7125 to 63028. want to I'll make that motion. Vote on that again. Second. Roll call. Vote. Dang. I Doug Morgan. Yes. Anderson. Okay. Other new business.
I don't have anything to throw in. I have no business today. might not be the old business. No, no. Um, I just wanted to mention that and Fernandanda submitted his letter of
recognition resignation also and uh, Stephen has a proposal to step in and fill the void. Res, uh, talked with both of them for a minute. It was just a open door
conversation. Um, and Stephen did provide a proposal and a four-year plan that he would like you all to look at. Um, not to be necessarily discussed at this meeting, but I'll give it to you in each of the addresses.
Okay. Any other good news? I'm trying. All right. All business. Uh any updates from Doug on municipal fiber? Yes, I received an email uh just this afternoon from uh the folks of Whip City
to request to schedule a meeting for next week, I believe. I don't remember. Sometime next week. I will send you a copy of when that is. Great. Okay. This is for you to meet, not the board to meet. Correct.
All right. Then we can go to the road session. Is that me? Okay. Um, Doug, you laid out some thoughts on yours. Um
Russ, did you have any No, I mean compilations or I my hangup is the cost and the processes. Um to me, like we discussed, we I think we need to investigate a little bit more of milling and
overlaying. The prices aren't lining up with the prices I'm getting from other communities. Could be could be numerous reasons for that, but I get a mill and overlay of 170 to 200,000 a mile. Some of this some of these, depending on
which road it is, we're up to a million a mile. So, I did talk with John. I don't know if he's still on or not. Um John was going to try to go through Ry's now. He's the handsome guy on the right. He was on the left side. Um but he was going to go through and try to if we can
do it per foot or per mile u of the different processes based on the bids to give us a little clearer picture because I think I think you had a note in yours that you were questioning some of it is. Yeah. I mean I and one of the things I you know I did this process last year and the and the year before as a matter of fact but
I took Ry's list with the cost and then I kind of did my own list next to it. One thing that struck me last year and then again this year was the you kind of alluded is the divergent cost of when you just put a an amount and the road.
Well, I added a column on there cost per foot because he put the feet and it's all over the they literally are all over the place. What's the width? Is it a linear foot or is it a It just I'm assum It just says per foot, right? I'm just assuming, you know, and I'm sure that probably factors into it, like,
you know, Foster Road is wider than Fernwood, right? But the um you'd have to look at the cost per foot for each of those. Um and then there's, you know, there's a different processes whether you're milling, whether you're chip sealing, putting asphol over it, or there's there's a lot of variances,
but is that for us to decide or Yeah, really. to determine which roads are in the worst shape and need the most attention for public safety and longevity purposes.
The cost per mile is we have to rely on our experts. The cost per mile, we don't know how deep they have to dig up, what's underneath it. They do. Is that I think priority should be is that part of our decision how much it
is per mile is to me we should be spending money where the traffic is that you get your biggest impact whether that's simple fixing or you know involve fixing but the most impact the most safety is going to it all relates to traffic. you
know, why spend a million dollars on a road with 200 people a day versus putting it into 7,000 people a day? And when you and when you look at the the road standards, they all base their types of roads on a couple things on how many cars per day and how many trucks
per day. So, those kind of give you the basis. Do you need to go deep a deep base recovery or a simple recovery to get you 10 20 years out of out of a road? I don't I'm not prepared to answer it. I don't know anything on that, but I think we need to get some sort of
perspective because we're going to be in limbo here for a while, I would assume, with a director. I mean, it's months probably before someone is on board. I'd like to see us do an AI um evaluation of the town so that information is ready. I know Randy said that he didn't think any
of this paving was happening until next year anyways. So, if we spent this year getting that stuff ready, um, you know, we could be in a better position to spend our money more wisely. I think part of the money that was shown
on this thing is I think he's got a an estimation based on the work involved. So, it's not strictly, oh, it's this many feet of pavement. Some roads are a mill and pave and some are full depth reclamation to, you know, utilities too. and and there may be
utility work or like uh use um Ed Hulcom as an example, right? It was a lot of money because well there was no road base. So they're going to put a roadbased by the way then they're going to do a ton of tree work. Oh and a ton of drainage work. So it's on a cost per mile probably is going to be a million
bucks for that mile like that. I understand, you know, but um I I also think we should do the um whether it's, you know, any any one of the the number of companies are out there that can do do the kind of survey. I also think we should dig more into the
beta program that we've already bought and paid for and understand. I'm not so sure that that's much different than what these other guys are talking except they're putting AI at the end of it now, which is like all the rage for everybody to say. Everything has AI now. Um, I
think the beta program is not dissimilar and we probably should just look and make sure we're we're work getting our value out of that investment that's already been made. Well, they give us the consulting part of it too. Yeah. And they already have all our data from visual inspection, not from
in their database. That's part of the startup for all the other ones is gathering all that data and that's time we've already invested in the beta. True. No, I don't disagree with that. But I don't I also think that for this year especially I think
we should we should probably you know and and Russ I agree that we should spend you know a good chunk of the money where a lot of the traffic is but we also have to pay attention to those side roads especially those you I know we stopped on Fernwood or Birchwood over
there just to get a look at one that's never been touched right and you know the 40 or 50 or 60 people that travel that road every day twice a day at least right? Um deserve the consideration. You know, they're doing up most of the living and dying in this town. And I think that that, you know, we need to
pay attention to some of those side roads. You know, Gargon was, you know, a kind of a perfect example, right? That road was a disaster area. There was trees growing out of the sidewalk. So, we we did that over I think it's a probably a four-year deal now. It was supposed to be a three-year deal. It was
like tree removal, sidewalks, paving, uh sidewalk removal. So, it turned into tree work, then sidewalk removal, then sidewalks, and then this year we're going to get in there and pave it. And I think there's, you know, it's still $400,000 remaining um for that road to dig it up, put a
base, and put the road back. Um, and I to me it seems seems an unfathomable amount at that that amount of money for the amount of traffic that road takes, right? And if you go look at the converse was you go look at Fernwood, Birchwood,
those have been there for arguably 60 years, never been touched. I am certain there's not a ton of road base under that road. Um, so if we milled and paved it, are we good for 25 or 30? I don't know if you can mill it, pick it up and put down, you know, and
put something back, I think we're, you know, we're better off than not doing anything over there again and kicking that can. So my I took kind of a balance out of that and and in my calculations took a couple big projects and you know a couple of smaller projects or smaller
roads if you will to try to balance what we're doing over there. Um and to try to you know with the limit I said it took 5 minutes to spend the money that we have and then you easy
I see I just you know comparing some other communities and stuff that we might be able to get a little bit few more miles out of our sure our money but I think we need someone to help us tell us Tesla and that beta program could be it
because it does it does the same phone AI as the other ones have looked at. And then it offers the consulting part of it as well. Twice as much, but it you're getting twice as much value. And that might give us a good direction on where to where to head.
So then we can ask the questions. What is this? Does this work here? You know, based on counts. I did reach out to uh the uh planning commission gentleman for uh supposedly has our road counts or some of our road counts so we can see help
back fill some of that information but I don't know how much he has. Well, they're doing one at Hudson Drive this week. No, I don't know. He's got I guess he's got the history. So, there's a couple of them on the road now down on the county.
But no, I just my only thing is if if we can make it go a little further, maybe change like Depot Street's starting to fall apart already. Maybe that's just a milling overlay now. So, and it gets us 10 or 20 years out. I I don't know. I think with that depot's been a mess. I
think I think it needs to get done. I also think I'd like to see that condo complex get in there and get that road in with all the heavy equipment that's going to be coming in and out of there. They're going to chew it up rather quickly. I know when way back we talked about um when the bridge went
into Westfield and they rerooed to Sunnyside existing conditions. Were was there any avenue for financing that to recoup some of the roads from all the truck traffic that came over Sunnyside? We asked multiple times. We actually
went to a couple of meetings about that and we actually had poured and I say we uh we poured about $30,000 worth of pavement on the side of on the eastbound side of Sunnyside because the road had caned off so bad that trucks
were losing dump trucks were starting to shift um to try to stabilize that road early on in that detour. uh that's held up fairly well, but that road is going to be one that's going to be a major candidate one day because I my understanding is there's no road base under that either.
That was a oil and gravel over and then pavement over that at some point in the past. Um and that's a significant thoroughare even when when they and by the way it does look like they are going to finish that bridge this century. Um, hard to
believe, but uh when that Why do they have money left over? We can give it. It's on schedule. They can't pot on it's on schedule. Good lord. It's on the news. Well, Rome wasn't built in a day. But um you know, I we took a lot of abuse on
that road and you know, you and I had gone to uh Mass DOT when they first closed the bridge when they were talking about the ambulance and stuff like that. And we actually raised that issue at that meeting as well. And they had told us to Okay. In language not suitable for this
meeting, what to do about our road. Um, and we didn't get much. We asked to have that cons considered uh I think they called it existing conditions or something like that. Um, as part of the work from that bridge to for them to put Sunnyside back how it was before they
started detouring all the trucks onto it, but they said no. Anyway, back to our topic. Do we want to have Nicole work with John DPW crew on seeing what the beta can do as a
if we turn the AI on? What can it do for us immediately and help us steer this? And do we want to address doing something near seven South Longard outside of that? I think we have to. Yeah, 100%. So I had I did have that in
my number anyway to you know after seeing that and I'm glad that Randy had included that in the in this this thing because there's not of you there. Oh yes, but I can't seem to rename myself.
All right. Can you uh um are you comfortable with the beta product and are you familiar with it at all yet or just getting up to speed with it? N just say just get up to speed. I know of its existence. Okay, sorry. I haven't
It makes sense to stay with it if it's already in the computers. The information's done. We'll we'll have a leverage what we've got. Yeah. Yeah. So, that'll be the plan. Yeah. Okay. And then do we need to uh do some
kind of authorization to prioritize this or just acknowledge we South Longard 7 South Longard needs prioritization? I well it's up to you guys. I think I'd like to see
you know if we're going to take you know I if we're going to rep prioritize this list then we have to come back and then we're pretty much going to lose the season. Um there is an outside chance especially if you did some of these local a couple of these smaller local gargon we have to get done I think it's
been on the agenda we've done three quarters of the work this is the last stage of it agreed and then um but I thought Randy said he didn't think after closing these bids he didn't wasn't sure it would even happen this year the paving these might all be
spring projects do you remember John in that uh I don't remember the texture of that statement remember him saying some of this could be happening next year when we were talking when specifically when we were talking
about Granville Road. He didn't he said don't hold your hand on that. Oh yeah, for sure. But even some of the other ones I thought he alluded that it may not happen by by false. I mean John could ask him next time he's talking to him if that was case. I don't
mind chasing this in some of the uh we call it comparison cost questions that have come up. Okay. So I guess hopefully we'll have something the next time we immedately can fine-tune it a little more then. Sure.
But and just last thought on this was in my calculus on this was I took I did add back in Randy did not factor in chapter 90. I added in chapter 90 at the same amount we got last year just for planning. I
still overspent it a little bit hoping that we get a couple more bucks which probably unlikely. That's what we figured we were going to add into um but and then there's some there was some carryover from last year but he wasn't comfortable with the number yet. Um, but um, you know, like I said, I
kind of blended a big project and a small a couple small projects in order to to allocate the money. Last year, I think we pretty much put it all on Hillside Road and bet the ranch on that. This year, I'd like to see us finish Gargon. I'd like to see us get over in that Bernwood, Birchwood area and do
I kind of I kind of looked at bundling those the Birchwood neighborhoods, Thood Birchwood, Pineywood, Fernwood, and then maybe cutting those into two years at 750 each and just getting all those done.
I was going to do one and then the other. It's a six of one. It's just the this is not a those weren't multi-stage projects because there's not a lot of tree work, not a lot of drainage work. So you don't do the tree work one year, the drainage, but you can do two of them. Yeah. Yeah, I get it. So I think I I carried one of them. I thought it was
And I picked the winner. So and there's some work to do on Foster and Matthews and those could be bundled and split into phases as well. If you're going to hit one hit the little one, you might as well work it in there. I think we have to have a long talk about Matthews before we pave it
because uh they have a lot of problems and and I'd love to have the residents of Matthews come in and get their thoughts on that one only because that's a a weird shortcut road and people zoom down Matthews and if we pave it the traffic calming measures that we
have installed right now are helping you mean the potholes the traffic calming measures Yes. Oh, that happens no matter where we play. Well, yeah, but it Yeah, like last, you know, I think um Tannery Road was a good example and um Mort Biny that that road
wasn't in 20 minutes before they were hitting triple digits on that road. But Matthew Hills, people are enjoying the view though and and going fast. But Matthews is a particular interesting one because it's a way to bypass the light at Foster and Being Hills and
people coming down and turning right on Matthews tend to move rather quickly. So anyhow, and I you know Matthews was on there, but yeah. Okay. Um Okay, we're going to come back to that. Thank you, John.
Thanks everybody. Okay. Then on page 17 in your package was the um Municipal Modernization Act line item transfers, salaries and overtime, some advertisements,
electricity, fuel, and a little bit of repairs and maintenance. Any comments on that? None for me. Okay. Also,
then on page, well, actually page 18, you had a draft of North Pond signage to review. This is the rest of it. This was all the other small signage. And what you have
there is a little bit different layout of the bottom with the town seal on it, but the contents all the same. Um, this we Yeah. Uh, well, there's small signage
uh kind of local signage inside problem zones, let's say, on the on the first page. And we said the select board and conservation and I mean uh select board and police and fish and wildlife had to
approve the wording on the signage. It is with fish and wildlife now reviewing it. This was of course done with PD. So I'm certain we have his approval. He's reviewed this many times, contributed
as of last week. Did you want to browse? Did you see this? Did you want to browse? Yeah. See, I got it. Were you looking for a motion or is this just a uh we need to approve the
contents of the signage particularly the rules the no can do but you said it's off to be reviewed by I'm fairly certain PD has approved this
since our last meeting during our last meeting and Fish and Wildlife has it in their possession now which she also helped develop. And this is for just north pond or both gorge and northbound. This is the north pond conservation area
alone. They will likely update other locations based on what is approved here. They who they conservation commission. Oh, and uh there is a quote on all of
this. Um, good majority of the signs are 12 by 18, 18x 24. This is two 18 by 24 side by side. Um, and the last quote we got, updated quote was $537 for
all of it. That's the bulletproof one. Yeah, metal. Yeah, metal. So, thick metal. Yeah. going by this then the the scouts couldn't provide a camping
overnight there as well. Not without um I I was wondering if there should be a line under the rules without permit or something along those lines. It gave you technically technically no.
I believe they used to technically no be down since the town's own it. I don't know. Yeah, I don't think since the towns owned it, they asked for permission and didn't get it as a tradeoff for doing some work in there and didn't get it.
Could Sema go in and do operations? Perhaps it's a town function. I was just asked are horses allowed because there's evidence of horses in there. Yes, horses are allowed
are not disallowed is what the verdict was. So, we're looking for select board approval. conservation's already approved it. Well, they technically didn't need to. It was police. It was It was our ruling.
It was the select board's ruling that the select board after the task force we made a requirement that the select board PD and fish and fish and wildlife wanted to
approve it. Conservation does not need to approve it. They just need to get the sentence technically although they've contributed greatly on it. I don't know just there's so much prohibitive activities it almost defeats
the purpose of having public space natural land. That's the definition of passive. If it's not passive, it's active and prohibited. And that's where everyone is
confused. Let's say they don't know what a passive recreation is. Passive are these over here on the left. These are allowed. This is what PD says. If it doesn't say
that, it's going to be just a game. And And what's the penalty for this on the right prohibitive? Is it a fine? Is it a ticket? Is it a subject to eviction, trespass, civil and/or criminal enforcement, and fines as allowed under Mass General law? It
can be any of the above. And do we have the fine set for this? I mean, is there a It's a crim ticket. You got to trespass the person because we didn't have the Yeah. Right. Because the the bylaw at town meeting failed to pass. So, we have to go back
to what the the law is. What's the reservation? I just how it was sold on its original face of having this natural property to be able to do things. I don't necessarily think the
passive was outlined quite as literal as it is here versus Obviously, because a lot of stuff happened. This is why we need to You're right. It wasn't laid out in the document. It
doesn't say what passive is. These are these are things. How do you And I'm just being devil's advocate. How do you how do you vote in a town meeting to say, "I want to buy this land for x amount of millions of dollars for this." And everyone raised their hands and voted for it and then you just told them
I can't you can't do this. That's not where we are today. Number one, I know it's because of some incidents. No, it's not. It's because the conservation restriction says this is what you can do. It says these things
are not allowed. They are not conducive to the natural habitat. Chairs and louners are not conducive to the natural habitat. I just think that should have been clear five years ago. More than that, right? And I think that's part of I absolutely agree with
it is not what the people thought they were buying. We have buyer remorse but we have to address it. Understandable. I mean but unfortunately yeah for sure. Absolutely.
We keep saying these are the passive allowed activities and people want to ignore them because it's not written anywhere and it might ask my question if that's a gorge so is it a if it's a conservation thing is the gorge under the same
guidelines no it has its own conservation res if it has a conservation restriction it has its own terms And I don't believe that has a conservation restriction. Yeah, I know cuz I see some of this stuff happening up there.
Well, I we kind of figured that was going to be a trend. It it it's happened all over the Commonwealth and in Western Mass, you know, when they they were having issues along the West River and they put
up milk parking signs along 20 and they it moves and it's going to continue to happen. We and we suspect that it might be, you know, potentially the gorge this year. We'll see. But it the con it is she's
she's not incorrect or the um the conservation restriction at North Pond says what you can and can't do. And there's a literal definition of passive recreation under the law what what you can and can't do. It's not really an arbitrary thing that we can decide,
right? We're not massaging it. And of course, the place is open and nothing is posted this year. It's getting hotter and hotter. Um, and we need to address
this and get it get something approved and get them printed and that sense. I will say the parking reconfiguration appears to be working. There's I've driven by dozens of times and there's two cars in the lot at most and the
activity on above the water line is dramatically reduced which I guess that's good. Yeah. Um so you're looking for a motion on this to accept this? Is that to accept?
Yeah. Second. Roll call vote. Dian Gale. I Doug Moven. Yes. Sanders. Okay. And we'll press Fish and Wildlife for theirs and see if we can get uh final pricing.
Like I said, it was $53712, something like that. And we'll get proofs on it. Get them up. Hey. rule. Uh, of course that doesn't include signpost. So, we'll have to find some
signpost in DPW also. I'm sure they might have a few. Yep. All right. Then, lake management ramp attendant lake permitting. Uh here I saw this. Yeah,
he's on it. So Nicole provided us some information. Um we had other info from lake management and conservation
coordinator on the tasks etc. Um there's been discussion that um any increase in the compensation obviously they want 30 hours this will become a full-time position conversation has been
it would be covered by the ramp fees and the LPP fees except well first and foremost there is not enough in there and uh secondly because the benefits to be paid out of that too. The only way that you can pay salaries
out of these revolving funds is to also pay benefits. So there's not enough um and so the demon the need has been demonstrated that we need somebody for the lakes which is LPP lake management ramp
maybe uh everything to do with the lake really everything that is required that that we do at the lake. Um but we ju we we just simply don't have the funding for it. What? Sorry.
In in addition, it is our understanding that the revolving accounts do not specify as our bylaws say they must what they're going to be used for. They do not specify for wages and benefits.
Um, seasonal wages are included in the ramp revolving fund, but not full-time wages and benefits and definitely not in the LPP revolving fund. So, we would probably have to
amend that vi that authorization as well. So what my question is I I know a couple things, but what else comes out of LPP revolving today? What do we pay for out of there?
Do you do you have the um specific language of our revolving funds? Is that what you were looking at for the LPP? It just says expenses. Yeah, that's what it's got to be. Expenses regarding D regulations for lake structures and safety patrols. So
yeah, um I mean it's it's for the mailings, it's for the notifications to to the residents on their dock permits. Um Dick, I don't know. Is there any um
also the stickers are are purchased with LPP funds? LPP stickers and occasionally is there lake patrol money from there as well? I am not sure that would be a question
that Sabrina could answer with what the how the dollars are spent. You know, I don't I had a copy of what she I know it's available. I'm not sure if they actually spent on that because I know that
can come out of there. Correct. Yeah. Which I don't know if that stretches the very definition of what you're saying. What's the total on on that we allow um annually in the LP? All of them. So they didn't they don't have enough money in them to cover a full-time person with
stuff. We'd have to just alter it in the next town meeting if you want to approve this job description to have a specific, you know, uh lake person that is dedicated to everything lake. But like patrol is supposed to come out of that.
But I guess that may very well stretch the definition of wages and benefits because you're paying at an hourly rate for that detail. I don't know if that well and I think that the rules when you create these special revenue funds are meant to be vague and a little bit
ambiguous so you can use them for certain things but just specifically you know if the money was in there I think that we could justify it but we simply don't we don't we don't allow it. How short is it? I don't know. I think it's um I think
the salary and benefits would be 75 and I don't think I a full-time person at an in a um a clerk position in the union. I calculated at 2450* 3% this
year times 37 and a half hours it came to about 50,000. Then with benefits even if they don't get them they have to be offered to them. Um, and that's the figure. Is is the work somewhat seasonal? Is there a way of
like half a year going now till November and now till December until you get another special meeting or something to regroup and look at feeds and all the other stuff to accomplish what he needs to accomplish as a part-time person. Yep. Unfort Unfortunately, I think I can
answer that is that the um the ramp work is seasonal. Yes, absolutely. that runs typically um the end of March, 1 of Aprilish to through uh October, but the LPP
um overlap. Unfortunately, it's been left to without uh somebody to uh make sure that we got all the notifications out in a timely manner, which means they should be out in uh January
so people can process them, do whatever they have to do and and get them back and if there's issues, they get resolved and and the stickers can be mailed out. So people when ice out occurs, that's when they can put their docks in.
And that can be that's typically in the March time frame. So everything all that work on LPP has to be accomplished well before March. Well, that's my point is if you funded it from now till January, does it give you the paperwork once the voting stops,
gives you a couple months to get stuff done, permitting as a part-time type of thing or partial funded till we figure out what we're doing. What's the alternative? The alternative is nothing. Do nothing because there's
no money to right now. So you wait or partially do it, you know, partial year. We talked about perhaps hiring a temp right now. It's not an easy thing to pick up though. The LP
is really complex. Why? There's a learning curve on on processing all that because it's uh it's not just taking stuff in. You got to go through it, find out if there's any
problems with it. You don't just rubber stamp it and send it back to, you know, with a sticker. But every one of them is not a problem. Many of them are the same as last year. That's what I was Yeah, that's kind of a renewal, right?
And it was Yeah. And unfortunately, it was not handled that way in the past. There any way of using our e permitting our what? E permitting for the building and everything else. Well, it isn't going to solve this for this year, but I had
extensive conversation with Dick and personally, I think it's just um they need somebody to get in there and file. Part of the part of the work they're doing is sorting out all the
prior year's data into an addressbased system. I understand that, but couldn't we just add hours for rest of the year using the money we have as opposed to creating a full-time position for now? Let them come back through the budget process for that position.
It's going to change her hours to a full-time just by default. And then the position, if you're over, what was it 1,200 a year? 24,400 a year. It could be temporary. Could be temporary for six months. Well, then why aren't we talking about that if we can just make it temporary?
I asked that a long time ago. I didn't think of it so I don't know if I patch 22. Do you see any issues with the a temporary person for the remainder of this year or at least through maybe
November to clean up everything from the ramps etc. It's a total hours for the year, right? That makes it hard. You can you can do x up to so many hours a year within six months or something.
In a municipality, it's like consistency, too. So, if you if you consistently work over 20 hours for so it can still be a part-time position, but then you're eligible for benefits. You know, I thought there was a catch
for um six month window. Hold on. There's some variation in municipalities the way they the way they define it. Um, and I might be thinking of a union contract to backill some. This would be a great deal
project because it's it's like a it's a known commodity for a finite amount of time. I know for something that's Huh. Well, if they're stuck in school, I mean, when school gets in. That's what I mean. But we have the backlog now and
there's a backlog on dock permits now, apparently. I don't know that that's, you know, important immediately to file. I mean, if they've been sitting there for years, they can sit there a little longer. That's not so important. But the
tasks are there. Um, you know, again, we've asked, right? We ask lake, we ask conservation and lake permitting and they've given all the tasks that are necessary and I fully support it. I I fully support everything that goes with the lake. Um I think that the need is
there. Um but again, I mean hands are kind of tied. I told I I do not want to authorize something and waste time having them go through 10 years of files and putting them all in alpha in in address order. And Dick said they're also entering it
into their Excel spreadsheet. And you cannot need more than this year and last year's data. And we better not be putting in 10 years of data and working our way through every address on the lake that way. No. If that that would be something
maybe a 10 a DLE or a senior or somebody. It's not even necessary at this point. But I'm only thinking of every day, right? I want to get what needs to be done now. Yeah. up to date. Is there maybe this is a crazy question,
but is it is there a reason why that information wouldn't be tied to an assessor's card or a property card or something else down the road? So, it's all in one place for the town as opposed to a separate system that
they're put that's a good question. Is is Sabrina there in the audience by any chance? No, I don't see her on there. Too bad is norm's data. If the assessor doesn't have it on the on the data on their thing,
it's another whole issue, but it's a good cross reference for the future. Sure, that's a good something that e- permitting does have. They have those modules that cross cross reference. I put it down so I can check. I don't know what that module cost you to add it but yeah it would but it probably be
infinitely timesaving and worth it. Exactly. So if so can we do a temporary increase in hours or not? That's the question. Yes we can. How long do we want to consider an
increase temporary increase in hours and to how many hours a week? Tick, when this person uh you're talking about, they're busy with the the boat ramps now is and how what kind of hours is that?
Typically 18, you know, the problem is it varies with hate to say it with the weather and and people not showing. Um because if if there's a no-show or somebody calls in sick, then uh Ellen
covers uh so you know if you can't find somebody in a hurry to to take that that uh shift because on weekends we operate two shifts, on weekdays one shift. We're just trying to get to an answer to give you a a product
and then I just I don't know why. But so isn't Ellen Ellen's the supervisor, right? So she does she work the ramps every day as a supervisor or does the crew come in and they're able to pretty much operate
without Right. She fills in as a ramp attendant if if there's nobody available. But does she report every day to get them started? No, she goes she um either morning or
afternoon she has to go there and make sure that they there's change usually in the afternoon so that you make sure that there's money for the next day and to to u count what's there. Make sure that the
numbers it recon gets reconciled properly because every every ticket is serialized and everyone is accounted for. How many hours is she today? 18. 18.
I think her last one was uh well, she would normally have to put in probably on on lake stuff on on that the 18 hours a week, which leaves nothing left for LPP.
It also re you know limits the other thing that limits that is our availability for the secretarial work to cover our meetings and do the minutes and and like that. So do we want to propose an additional
10 hours a week from next week to 9:30 10:31? Well, if he's using it, if he's saying he's got that work to get out for January 1st, I would assume a lot of it
would be getting done when the weather changes for the priorities change, I'm guessing. Well, we're going to give her 10 more hours a week to work on that from now until then. The other thing I'm just was just thinking, could you stipen that job, Dr.
O? It's a possibility. Anything's a possibility, but this is all temporary, right? Because you want to get this into a because again, you know, the dock or the the ramp closes, so there will be zero no hours there and that can all be
funneled into indoor work. And the the uh secretarial work tails off uh over the winter because we meet once a month from October through March. Then you know till October or something
back. I just don't see it as as a full year full time. I mean the more conversations we have on it I just don't see it that way. It's done. We do. So, why don't we go 10 10 hours from from now until 9:30 and we'll
revisit it 9:15ish. And we have that money under the revolving to take care of that for now, right? As as part-time. Yeah, seems like a reasonable compromise. Would it make sense to go through October just because Dick said that's
when when did the legs close, Dick? When does it slow down? End of Octo end of October. We take the docks out. See what she does in that. Last week in October, first week in
November because it'll slow down. 9:30. There are tournaments right through October, by the way. Okay. All right. So, I guess I'm looking for a motion to
increase the Ellen Kurds hours in total 10 hours a week from now until 9:30 2025. And we will revisit the status on or
about 9:15 whenever we meet in there. So move second 9:30 or 10:30 9:30 we'll revisit it mid September. Okay. So was there a second roll call vote Dian Gale I
say. Okay. Uh next is master plan priorities. Russ, I think you're I don't know. Doug, are you on standing on any of those? Nope. Okay. It's just you. I'm just I'm just trying to get the 47
items in line. Those quite challenging. The others are done. The chair would like those pretty soon. That chair would like those pretty soon. You have all mine, right? You don't have all my I think 47.
I think he's indicated you needed uh climate change. Climate change either. There was a small one 47 wasn't. No, there's a separate that's the 96. It's only I don't know four or five items I think.
Requirement change is only one lead item. So you've effectively that but then you've got your support items and I think there's 14 of those. Okay, go back and look. Now I could
offer knowing how busy everybody is wanting to delegate that but we can do it for you. Kind of defeats the purpose of it. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. Yeah. The job does. And besides I I might sway that. I'd
have to abstain because you're doing the select board. All right. So if you can uh try to move those along, please. I I probably halfway on the 47. So okay, knock them out this way. Don't have two number twelves. Norm gets very upset.
I got a lot of two numbers. That's a problem. You can't spread it out when she I tried to store it and it was no fun. Okay. Then, um, other old business, I guess, the select board goals and objectives, other priorities. Um, it was supposed to be on
the agenda, but I didn't see until today that it was omitted. Um, we can talk about that now or I know Russ, you had a few things you were still going to update. Well, no. to it or no, I mean as far as my concerns or kind of what I why I ran here was um one was
the upgrade the financial processes including payroll, accounts payable and the budgeting process um or agreement start in that process but being from the manager side we touch everything way too much um
other issues other towns do it different ways um all the way through to how we come up with budgeting getting an accurate accurate number of where we are today. Um some of those things are challenging here. Um the roads we talked about again
as I mentioned I want I think we should be based on more traffic and different different methods and means to see look at really explore those. The other thing I think especially with the with the economic development going on and everything else is retooling our channel
15 and community programming. We need to bring more current local programming. We're $50,000 a year and we're not getting much of anything out of it. So, and it's a dual it's a dual standard from and I don't know if there's an original Westfield arrangement or not, but you know Westfield's graduations,
Westfield sports, Westfield everything is there and we don't get the same thing on our nor do we have the equipment here to do it and we paid for it. So, I think we need to retool that. I don't know what the answer is for it right now, but u definitely have to look at it.
Is that their local origination channel or their peg channel? Those are two different things. So, I think we're carrying some content on our channel 15 from the other town, right? Is that what you're alluding to or some of it? Yeah. Yeah. I think one of the things that we
used that was on our goals and objectives for a couple of years and we didn't get a lot of traction with it and I'm not sure why um is to recruit um whether it's from the schools or
other organizations to drive the programming. We did buy some equipment and we we were going to go out and buy additional equipment that would be make it more attractive for some of these at the time for maybe a a club from the school or from somewhere
else that would want to film a soccer game or film this and and then carry it on channel 15. I guess fortunately or unfortunately at the time we looked at going and getting like uh high-res high depth camera. Well, now your iPhone
takes better pictures than that high def camera we would have bought years ago. We have that. We have drones. We have all kinds. But we should not Well, we should we should be able maybe we should put that back on. I I applaud this because I think to put that back on
there to try to drive to bring more content into channel 15. You know, we've been back and forth with um our provider about upgrading the status of that channel to uh higher resolution or whatever you want to call it, and they they turn a deaf ear to it. We're
heading into uh cable advisory time again with a contract renewal, and that probably could be a topic of discussion at contract renewal. Um but uh yeah, it's something that we it's never been really a strong suit for our town and we were not successful at the
time in recruiting additional folks that wanted to bring content. Perhaps there's better ways of going about and getting that today. Yeah. You and there's so many outlets for video content today that people aren't struggling for an outlet for their content the way they used to. I mean,
you've got Tik Toks and in Instagram and YouTube that anyone in the world can be a producer, director, actor, and distributor. We're going to run parallel for a while and then we have all our YouTube channel stuff, but we don't even replay that on this. I was going to say,
right, right. So, we're we're missing that. But then should Fiverr come, whoever does it down the road, 5 years, 10 years, some of the cable's going to go away and the Fiverr is going to we're going to have to stand up of our own community television. so to speak. So you're going to look at
that, you know, even correct. But even now, like this is we're going off of goals and objectives, but I think even this would be a great discussion because the need for the PEG channels is greatly diminished from where it was 10 years ago because now there's so many outlets
to distribute content whe you know whether it's political, non-political, voluntary, whatever it is between the YouTubes and the others that you can disseminate whatever you'd like to. I I agree. I mean there's nothing stopping us from having them
automatically programmatically cure for insomnia you know replay every selectman's meeting and water commissioners meeting that conservation commission meetings on channel 15 you know this is being broadcast right now on channel 15 um and they could replay this meeting
you know all night you know yeah right I've never been able to watch more than 10 minutes of it I I agree but also with all those outlets it is never more crucial to get our message of the fabric of this town. Oh, I agree. I agree.
We We're kind of a dinosaur in that world and we we need to break out and be the lead of it now. Yeah. But, you know, I think it it comes with who's going to be Well, take the producer that's going to run with it and run, right? And you know what we're what we're paying for now is we're not we're
not paying for that now. I think it's just a stop gap measured because art left or is it art? Art poison. Oh, poisonous. So, but he used to have a lot of stuff on. Yeah. He and he, you know, and he was a nice, you know, and if there's a, you know, if anyone watching this or watching the replay on channel 15 has
any interest in producing content for come see us right away, boy, have we got a job for you? But no, I think it's that's an admirable. That's all I have. All right. You want to add those to the sheet and then we'll come back and discuss each of these. We'll kind of knock off.
Can you resend me the link? I'm not finding I added for sure. I added a bunch in there as well and you can take a look at those. We'll come back and discuss them in whole, I guess. I didn't see a link to the sheet. So, I I um I had emailed mine in a week or so ago.
Yeah, I put it into the master and I deleted on another tab and then I sent you guys an invite for the email with the beta. I'll resend. Okay, that' be great. And then um the I added one more and it it may very well be in here because I I haven't reviewed
it, but um I it probably should have been the first thing on my list, but we've talked about it so much I forgot to add it to the goals and objectives, but we've got to figure out a better a better way forward on the health insurance. Yes, that's in here.
So I I figured it would be that that's got to be in there. It's a key, you know, with the with recruitment and retention and whether, you know, we have to be creative thinkers about it. We can't just arbitrarily decide what, you know, to increase the participation rate,
but there's got to be a better way to skin this cat than what we're doing now. It's in here multiple times from a number of us, as is channel 15, established volunteer network, still in All right. So, we'll discuss that more. We'll plan to discuss that more next meeting.
Other than the budget, that might be the longest standing item on the goals and objectives. Channel 15. Yeah. All right. Um uh and that's it for me for old business was what was missing. Uh anything else from you guys, Doug? No, that was it for
any old Nicole. Was there anything on the um facade that the bid or where where's that? I am actually in contact with Jablonsky. Is that an architect? Is it Jablonsky? It's not. No, I have a nickname for a kid at work. I call him that. I've never heard
anybody actually have that name for real. Yeah. Sorry. That's why I left. Doing the um the bunks. Oh, okay. We don't have to go to bid for architectural. But you're talking about this building facade the front of the Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
So, last week he reached out in my email that has not been read yet when I was on vacation. So, it's left unread and I'll get to it this week. Oh. and I think they're on board to do it. Okay. Did you
All right. So, we're going to acknowledge payables warrant 2533b dated June 30th, 2025 in the amount of $478,18.72 and acknowledge and approve open session meeting minutes from June 16, 2025. Were
these ones were changed? Yes. If you look at them in highlight, she put the changes in there. So move second vote. Dan Gallagh. Okay.
No executive session. Motion to adjourn. So move second. Roll call. Dang. Okay. Thank you. Okay.