okay Uh welcome to the April 2nd select board meeting And uh before we begin I'd just like to thank Nate Bisham and Joe Doulette for bringing the meeting to the masses tonight So if you could uh join me in the pledge of allegiance 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 Okay We'll begin our meeting with the reading of the autism awareness
proclamation David Sure 2025 autism awareness month proclamation Whereas autism spectrum disorder is a neurological and developmental disorder that affects how people interact with others communicate learn and behave And
whereas in the United States it is estimated that 2.7% of children have autism along with 2.2% of adults and experiences with the disorder vary widely from person to person hand Whereas individuals with autism can face
very difficult barriers to employment opportunities and often have their intelligence and abilities misunderstood or or overlooked And whereas it is crucial to champion awareness of the impacts of autism and the acceptance of individuals with autism as they navigate
life with increased challenges in many aspects of development and socialization And whereas the town is committed to fostering an environment where individuals with autism can live learn play and work in Swampskit while also
being fully understood and accepted Now therefore in honor of Autism Awareness Month the town of Swampskit hereby establishes April 2025 as Autism Awareness Month in the town of Swampskit Massachusetts and encourages all faith-based and nonprofit organizations
residents businesses civic and public institutions to acknowledge honor and celebrate our autistic citizens In witness whereof we have here onto set our hands and caused to be affixed the great seal of the town of Swampskit Massachusetts the second day of April
2025 Thank you David Okay so um moving on we'll move to public comment If anyone has a public comment please uh raise your hand I'll recognize you and then you can take the mic Please just give your name and your address and you have
three minutes So Nancy Schultz Nancy Schultz 23 Hampton Street Town Meeting Member Precinct 3 Chair Swampscott Historical Commission member board of governors Swampscott Historical Society and volunteer with Save the
Glover preservation effort Thank you to Mary Ellen Fletcher for suggesting that I speak during tonight's public comment I want to thank the Swampscott Select Board for your strong support of the Glover preservation effort We are
grateful for the funding we have received and for the board's commitment to historic preservation I've heard the board talk in the past about the importance of inspiring young people in our communities and tonight
I'd like to show that your support for saving the Glover has helped provide such inspiration Yesterday I picked up a packet at the post office that had been delivered from Marblehead Enclosed was the following letter about a very
special student at the Glover School which I have excerpted here to stay within my time limits Dear Save the Glover I'm the parent of a local Marblehead second grader who for his 8th birthday asked
that instead of reading a story to his class I help him with a very important presentation He wanted to let all his classmates know about his passion for saving the Glover He loves all things antique and
historical including steam trains antique cars and the incredible history in our very own backyard I when I told him what was happening with the Glover House he felt compelled to get the word out and has started with
his second grade classroom where with the help of his teacher he is now going from classroom to classroom at the Glover School to share his presentation Um
so also included was a picture of this very adorable second grader with his Save the Glover poster and more than 35 children's drawings of a restored Glover house
which I'm happy to share with you at another time So um he also included a donation of $30 of his own money to the cause Um so tonight I just wanted to say
your work matters Our work together matters and preservation matters Thank you so much for your time Thank you Nancy Schultz Um next
for you guys too Oh so nice of you Thank you Karen Marshall town meeting member precinct 2 member of the school committee M um the school committee um has put together a letter for the select board and finance committee and I was just going to read it to you guys
tonight Um basically just talking about next steps as we work through these um budget issues So I'll start the way I start in the letter which is thanking you for working to find ways to address the gap between the school budget requirements and the recommended town allocation We understand that
approximately $440,000 have been identified as reductions in the town budget that could be used to close this gap We really appreciate that The meetings discussions and the deep look into the budget have been productive in many ways such as
helping to build back a semblance of trust for the school committee a sense that the school's budgetary needs and pressure points are understood uh and a recognition that the school budget is as lean as possible from a decade of constant pressure cuts sufficiencies and
advantageous bargaining contracts We feel that the budget gap either whole or in part can be funded in ways that would not have negative impacts to any town departments One possible route is to increase the estimate for local
receipts for 2026 Local receipts for 2026 are $2.4 million less than the FY24 actual local receipts And that's a staggering estimated decrease And while some of the reasons are known it doesn't account fully for the size of that
number The town could increase the estimate by for example 400,000 and still remain in a careful conservative stance Even with this increase the likely worst case scenario to the town would be the certification of free cash might be less than in the past few years
but likely would still fall within the town guidance of 3 to 5% For many years free cash certification has exceeded the top end of the financial policy of 5% and we feel that that is a luxury that we just can't afford in the current budget The second idea consists of
reducing the budgeted amount in the health insurance line This item uh would then be treated similar to the school special education costs If you remember even prior to the creation of the special education reserve fund the finance committee
requested that the special education budget be reduced with the caveat that if additional funds were needed free cash would be used to bridge the gap And the reason stated back then was because of the volatility and the variability of special education costs And it seems
that healthc care is very similar in this respect and should be treated the same way A reduction of 200 to 300,000 in this line could be used to fund a significant portion of the school budget gap And then if the health care cost did
rise to the higher level than was budgeted then free cash could cover it It seems that leaving a 17% increase in that line item that may not occur does not seem fair or wise These ideas would be sufficient to meet the needs of the
school budget for FY26 Further we still need confirmation that the town plans to fulfill its promise to fund $200,000 in the utility account with free cash and ensure that there's sufficient money in the special education reserve fund to support the
$400,000 in tuition um as requested Keep in mind there have been some savings on the town side from the additional MSBA monies the national grid rebates the IRA monies increased local aid from Commonwealth of Massachusetts for
schools and a decrease in the uh SS Essex Northshore Tech assessment So with all of this together we really feel like we can solve this The school committee as well as the whole school department look forward to resolving this as soon as possible
And if we do we all look forward to a united town meeting this year Thank you Thank you Karen Amy uh Amy Okconor precinct 6 town meeting member also a school committee member Uh and I appreciate uh the new proclamation
about uh people with autism Obviously that's something that impacts the schools pretty dramatically Um tonight I want to read something uh and actually clear up a couple of myths that are floating around town Uh the first is that Superintendent Callishman will not be earning the same salary as
Superintendent Angelocus He will be earning a competitive salary based on salaries in comparable and neighboring communities The details will be public record when a contract is signed Second Superintendent Angelquez has no sweetheart deal or in fact any deal She
is retiring and will not be paid by this district next year and those who say otherwise are misinformed Three the district has been controlling cost growth with diligence and our two largest expenses are for our educators and for special education
Specialled funding is required by law and paying it educators is simply expensive everywhere in Massachusetts Not funding this budget fully specifically means cutting educators We encourage everyone to read the paper and watch the news Education
education budgets across the Commonwealth are growing by 8 n 10% whereas ours is closer to five We have been saying this for years that holding the 2.2% 2% growth uh in tax rate is impossible without gutting services And
it's time that Swamot recognizes the good position that we're in with our budget While growth is higher than what we'd like it to be it's nowhere near as high as what it could and should be And we need to stop the myth that the schools are cannibalizing the budget In 10 years our tax rate in Swampscott has
grown by 12% while Essex County has an average of 38% And while 12% feels better on our annual tax bill it isn't enough to support the services that Swampscott residents expect Thank you
Amy Is there anyone else sir anyone online okay with that we will move to new and old business Um item number one discussion and possible vote to appoint Richard Madam Chair could we could we
take um could we potentially take review and discussion of the fiscal year 26 proposed budget out of order and bring that to the top i would like to make a motion Sure If I second that Sure Oh So can we We don't need a vote to to do that So okay So let's just We're going
to just briefly bring 10 up to the top Did you Did I hear Did you say why Gino's not here i didn't say what's it I didn't say but he's on vacation David did you want to start the Amy did you want to start just a is there a
brief update on what's have you had um you were meeting with Pam and Cheryl and Gino and you do you have an update on where that is we haven't had another meeting since um the Friday the 21st
Um so the town administrator's recommendation he stands firm at the 144 that he discussed at last meeting The 440,000 number was from rough numbers that were assembled during the meeting but when we looked at that list afterwards there were a number of
duplicated items on there Um so the overall list was more like 300,000 but after further review the town administrator said that there were some that he couldn't support moving forward with So that was the 144 number that uh Gina presented last week As for
the finance committee as of Monday night they have reviewed their first run through of every single line of the expense budgets for general fund and enterprise They had a number of questions and are asking a couple department heads to attend but as of this time they haven't made any
recommendations for changes And in your meeting with the schools were they are they did they find any savings the only thing um Superintendent Angelus came forward with was she said they had about 20,000 in their legal expenses um which
was a contingency in case the interfaith bargaining didn't move forward Um and they feel confident that's working this year So she said they could reduce the 20,000 in that legal line But other than that she stood firm that every other line in their budget
was what it had to be So just to make sure I'm following So we had a gap of 600 66 660 Okay To be precise 660 Um and so now you're saying the combination we've closed 160 144 20 166 if you want to be careful
Um right Okay So we got 500 still to go Mhm At least Okay On the 144 did he send out do we have an email on because I never saw an email on we don't have a print out Was he solid on that 143 i just like to see what that number was
again Yeah he had 144 I don't know I don't see the emails he sent so I don't know if that went to the board or not So let me I just want to weigh in on this first of all Um so when we first had the 660 and I looked at the line item budget I went through line by line and I came
up with well over 600,000 in potential potential savings right not hard and fast not definitely doable just thinking outside the box This is maybe what areas we can look at So I sent that to Amy
Gino Cheryl Stella Pam I think even maybe Glenn um and they had the first meeting and I think they I want to say they came to they found like 15 20,000 I was happy to sit through and go line by line in public session I offered to do
that that meeting but I think we were going on a little long and I was cut off Um so they had their first meeting They found about 15 20,000 and then I asked for an update on where we stood and I felt like we were kind of at an impass
So I offered to come to the next meeting which was the 21st maybe Um so I sat in on that meeting and we went again line by line through everything I had proposed and when I asked for the total the running total of what we had
identified we were well over $400,000 So I think there were some questions there were some areas that needed you know Gino needed to decide talk about you know speak to his department heads So we left that meeting feeling pretty decent because you know
we were thinking outside of the box Everybody was really great really open really trying to work it out Um since then we've met with obviously finance committee and school committee had a joint meeting Um when we last spoke when I last spoke to Gino I think he had
identified it somehow the number went from the 440 we found to this 140 something and then he said there was another 150 I thought potential that he thought would bring him to about 300,000 in cuts So somewhere we lost that 140ish
from 300 to 440 So and and that's certainly you know in his purview I don't know specifically what that speaks to what we identify that no longer is is on the table To me everything's on the table right and I've said that before that I really think it's up to us to do
our due diligence on this side And I really I I don't think the spirit of that meeting was intended for the school department to look for further cuts That's not how I took it Um my suggestions weren't based on the school committee budget They were based on the town budget and where we could cut on
the town side I'm not speaking for the school committee side right so that's not how I went into that meeting I wasn't looking for school department cuts I understood what what has been said by the superintendent by the school committee and that is that you guys have already done your due diligence and done
as much as you could and I leave it to the experts in the fields to do that and so that was my approach on this side just to kind of explain that So I don't without Gino here I can't really I don't know I don't know where that where that dip and where that change went you know
um maybe you could you probably don't even know either Amy I don't I didn't see like a you know running total of is 140 or 150 so I don't know yeah so when we had that list of 140 that Cheryl was putting together during the meeting I went back to the actual budget because
as you know we were just you know spitballing round numbers um I went back to the actual budget to pick and tie each of those items out and produce that list for Gino which was the list he had with him at last meeting Um I want to
say there was like 10 overall like item topics that were inclusive of multiple lines Um and but am I right in that thinking that he thought there was another about I think the list totaled like 320 Okay Um yeah So it was the 144
that he was going forward with and then right an additional potential 150 that would bring him somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 So now we're going from 440 to 300ish Yep So that it's getting smaller but it's not going to be you know a perfect science But that was
Wait so you're saying you saw 440 You saw 440 at that meeting and last week Gino told us 140ish Yeah So the 140 the 140 included a couple duplicates So um duplicates that we had already taken out No just within the meeting because
we were bouncing topic to topic So there were a couple items on the list that were duplications of each other So when that actual list was costed out it was about 320 Um and then when Gino reviewed it that was where he said he only felt
comfortable recommending the 144 And does that include any uh personnel staffing reductions further staffing reductions yeah I I will say that this is it's it's been it's been tough to follow Um you know
because I know that we've you know we're we've had limited conversations uh publicly Obviously there's been there's been meetings uh with town staff Um it's it's just been it's been difficult for for me uh to follow But you know as as
leaders um you know and as the as the chief policy makers in town I think I think tonight we should you know we we should provide direction to town staff as to what we you know what we would
like to see Obviously I I wanna I want to see what we can cut but you know and and make sure that we have as as as little impact to the taxpayer as possible but I do think it's important um you know on the on the school side to
know that their budget is how it's going to be funded And I want to provide my support tonight to fully fund uh the Swampscott public school budget So I think that if if if we do that we can continue doing our work on our side to
ensure that we have a as as tight of a budget as possible But also you know hey we may you know we we may need to fund whatever that difference is whatever that delta is in some way shape or form And I'm prepared to make that to
make that commitment and and and make a motion so that way we are leading Um and I just to me from where I sit uh I just want to make sure that we're providing that guidance um to town staff and we're
letting you know the finance committee know what the recommendation is of of of the select board and I'm just one vote uh of this board But you know I I do think that that's important as we move forward um you know as we as we head
towards uh town meeting in May Well I would think it would be critically important that we send the message I mean I think it always has to be a clear message that our budgets have got to be as tight and as
reasonable as possible That and that that should be that should be you know the the clear bottom line of what we're always doing The fact that it took Daniel Leonard to go in there and to look line by line and come up with
additional money was pretty disappointing to me That to me that was really the job of town staff So the fact that she was able to find the additionals that could be skimmed out immediately you know that I really appreciate that But as far as for me um
I do think it's important to fund the schools where it can be funded But I think that looking at everything line by line is critical And I hear Danielle you saying you rely on the professionals so do I But what happens when the police
department professional comes in and states everything that he needs the fire department professional says everything he needs The DPW professional I mean at some point we've really got to look at every single thing line item by line item And I my understanding from the
last meeting we're at or the meeting before was this was going to be a work in progress because it's really tight We've got to do the right thing We've got to double check to see how much pressure the schools have been under over the last few years and um what
additional supports that they need in there So I think it's you know I think it's too early to to make a statement but that's just my opinion And and to your point I I really did leave it to the professionals So when I sat with the town the interim town administrator and
our head of finance um as well as Cheryl Stella who's been on both sides of the fence and Pam Angelakis that to me was was leaving it to the professionals Um and Gino Cresta was very adamant about areas that he felt you know and looking
at all of his departments where he could potentially including even DPW where he could be you know a little bit more flexible and think outside of the box So um I think we did that I really I think Amy did a really great job Um just being open-minded to the approach Um and
Cheryl is was was very helpful as well So I I kind I think those two ladies in a room really were my best hope to have this hammered out and they really kind of showed their stuff and were able to do that But again um you know we certainly do need to make sure we're as
lean as we could get And unfortunately prior to me taking that step I don't feel like we were really doing much of anything on this side to kind of figure out how we were going to bridge the divide So to David's point I think we it is time that we that the
rubber meets the road and the select board ponies up and says we need to do this for the schools and we need to however we have to do it we need to do it I think finance committee did a really great job the other night of weighing in with what their responsibility is and it's really not on
them to um find come up with this money or really you know dig into the budget that's really kind of on us So um to David's point I think that it's time that we did give direction because it is like we're operating in silos and I'm trying what I can and you know um I
don't know who else is trying on I mean luckily Amy is here to you know is here to help out Gino is doing what he can and you know um it would be helpful if we could be united in in the support for the schools Yeah I definitely share in that um
direction Um and I I think it would be helpful I don't know if I missed it Did we get the detail about the 144 about what the how that's going to happen it sounds like that was shared Um it's been a little bit of a blizzard of various
things flying around Um so uh but we do know that's going to be some staffing reduction on top of the other staffing reductions right um the additional beyond the 144 maybe another 150 more staffing reductions It it was was it it was the two staffing reductions that I
mentioned at the meeting I don't want to Okay Right Right But yes Okay Just maybe incentivizing of some sort Uhhuh Okay Um just be nice So then the ideas that were raised you know in public comment here that we all have in front of us uh just
to kind of get that out there um is there a logical explanation for why the local receipts went down i think we might have talked about this but yeah so I explained it at the presentation So especially compared to FY24 we had uh
over $2 million in uh investment income that year from having the money from the new school and having favorable interest rates So from that line to this projection alone is down almost $1.8 million Um so that's kind of like just straightforward in terms of just
interest rates It's there's no they're projecting spent the money for the new school I know I know that But in terms of the money that's left and the interest rates and all that it's not there's not a lot of variability in what could happen No And we're back we're still higher than what we were prechool
borrowing Um we used to budget about 200,000 estimate for Y Um and there's a couple years where we had you know zero or 20,000 That's 100% of the the issue here It's all about what is the in what is the um
investment income projected for this year 400 So we're we're still using 400,000 in in our budget That is a one-time fee which that to me that's dangerous Although that was a little bit of the
long-term average of what we 425 is our long-term cash flow balance at the current interest rates Okay So that's our balance So you're not saying that it's there's an additional 400 and something on top of that No 425 is Okay I'm good with that though It's more about the long-term average of what we
usually I'm fine with that I just thought it was I thought it was 400 above the mistake of going Y Amy do you have a copy of this as well i do Okay D maybe she she doesn't Diane has Have you had a chance could you take
a quick Yeah Can you give that to Amy Is there anything in there Amy that you could speak to in terms of potential savings that that the school committee I was just going to step through them you know it's like uh this thing about health insurance So I sent our sounds
like a fairly creative idea in a way Um we tend to always kind of end up with some extra money in health insurance because we we reasonably project but it usually does it always kind of end up being lower or you know how does that work well yeah No it doesn't always end
up lower Um we in all the years I've been here it's been lower Yep Yeah Um prior to me starting there there was a very hefty contingency buffer in this budget Um I had sent our full projection with
all the background tabs to Cheryl at the school to see if there was anything that she could identify in there This is based off of every person who is currently enrolled on our plans And then it also includes the contingencies for
any vacancies So you know assuming that our new town administrator may want to have health insurance um and that we would in fact need to offer it to them when they start or um things like that So we have that identified and
our contingency is exactly that and I put a note on there when I sent it to Charl too listing out like the contingency is made up of these positions So there isn't any buffer there So it would be a gamble if you
reduce that line because especially by 200 or 300,000 because that's essentially reducing it by 10 to 15 people when you go by reduced it 100,000 Yeah So for our contingency we use the
second highest second most popular family plan employer portion only So it's about $23,000 for the Mass General Brighgam family plan as a contingency Um and the thing with this though is we basically
know much more specifically by May Yep So open enrollment is closes already right now So if you're an employee please check your emails from Carrie to make sure that you're participating in open enrollment When does it close may 1st May 1st So before we get to town
meeting we know where anyone who has switched plans has gone to Um if anyone dropped off the plans so we'll have a much clearer picture before we get to town meeting Um and in my conversations with HR they have had a number of staff reach out looking to change their plans
because they're going up right so that happens every year you know and all of this discussion is predicated on us using 1.5 or 2 million of some other source whether it's free cash or tax or
whatever right 1.5 of excess right now 1.5 million of excess levy so the discussion um and the standpoint that Gino and I had discussed was at this stage we would rather project use of tax
levy so that That way when we get to tax rate setting time in the fall we have our full buckets of free cash and stabilization available to then use when we have an idea of what the tax impact's going to be versus partially depleting those buckets now and then not being
able to act as wholly because we could have more favorable local receipts and that gets recognized at tax rate set in time Right So that's preserving flexibility You're not making a commitment either way But
no Well and also at that time we really need to look and see the impact over the next four years Yeah And we if we overestimate our local receipts because to be candid you can say your your local
receipts are going to be whatever you want them to be But do for town meeting when we get to tax rates any kind with do they have strict guidelines of what we can put in gateway and what they'll accept and they will drop those estimates right down to where they need to be and you'll still have to tax the
additional So I feel like it would be very dishonest to go to town meeting saying "We have an extra million dollars of local receipts than we reasonably think we're actually going to have." And I would much rather at a fall town meeting be like "Hey we superseded these
estimates or we were spot on and now you're not caught off guard." So in order to close the gap we have 160 town schools maybe another 150 Yep Uh
from the town right maybe another 100 200 out of health insurance depend how we want to play that right um I guess you're pretty darn close And then it's not a magic number about 1.5 million in terms of tax levy Could be 1.6 U right
there's various ways depending on how these things move you could make it And then there's been stuff floating around about fees We're going to talk about fees tonight Yeah we're going to talk about fees Yeah Certainly seems like we have a path if you really want I I I think there's a I
think there's a path So I would like to make a motion that we that this board fully recommends uh fully funding um the school budget for fiscal year 26 I would second it I'll keep you to it
Sorry I'm quick today Doug Yeah I mean I don't take it lightly you know I mean um in terms of doing this but it does feel like you know there's a possibility of really doing this in a responsible way Um it's it's just to not
sugar coat it you know we don't really talk about that 1.5 like we're talking about people's taxes going up um you know to to make this happen And um you know just so you know that's not lost on anybody I do want to point out that Katie Failen has her hand up Katie
Failen has her hand up Hi Um I just wanted to comment on the motion if that's okay Um so I have yet to comment because um I was disposed but um I want to put my
support in fully funding the school budget given these the reduction in size of the gap and the amount of time we've been working to close that gap I do believe that we will be able to continue to make that gap smaller and smaller And to Doug's point as we get closer and
closer to what that gap how little that gap can be we are taking uh that 1.5 million that we're talking about of levy capacity That's a number that Gino and Amy came to an educated decision about
but it's not a definitive like it we don't have to live by that Like if it's 1.6 or if it's 1.45 four five like it's based on whatever we can pick whatever crumbs we can put together to make sure we get the school to that budget I think
there needs to be a a unified commitment from the board to be asking the players and directing the policy to move in that direction I think it's happening But I think if if we have a unified voice to
say we would like to put our best foot forward and make this happen as strongly as possible then it's more likely to happen than not So there's a motion on the floor Doug did you have anything else to say nope
So Danielle we have a motion on the floor So Danielle is an I I'm an I Doug Hi David Hi Katie I and I am going to abstain only because I have not seen
what I appear to be a full line item budget from the schools to see exactly what can possibly if anything come out and I do think there's a process but I am in full agreement that the schools do need additional support So until I see
everything knowing that I am very serious about what the tax implications are for this entire community I just like to see everything rung out and um and that's where I stand So that's a
that's a so this motion is approved So next going to discussion and possible vote to appoint Richard Baldachi as the building and commissioner Um Marzy are you here to talk on that
or how are we leaving that personnel I don't think she's online Is she dead maryanne did you want to cover that sure
Um I think Diane shared with you his cover letter and resume It would be his third time around in Swanson Um I did go back and look at how he did when he was here for like beating his budgets and he always did by close
to 250 300,000 Um but I don't understand because the budgets have bounced around One year we did a million more than what we were budgeted to So um and then we set the budget this year at a million and we're only at 300,000 So I do know
he will go after and and hold businesses and anyone doing permitting accountable and I believe he will make money for the town doing that Um he just spent his last three years working as the chief of inspections for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts at the I believe it was
the governor who got him the job or recommended him Um and he has worked for both Marblehead and Swampscott over the years in this role and also as a facilities manager at times too So he is very excited about the
possibility of working for us again Um lives in town uh is excited about potentially changing the hours around and and having the building department open at 7 a.m so that contractors can get in when they're up so early Um it just seems like he'd step in and we
wouldn't miss a beat and he would go back and I think people are taking advantage of us right now because we don't have a building commissioner and he'll go back He's already pointed things out that he sees happening in town So does anybody have any questions
yeah Um I don't know Mr Baldachi Um makes it even harder now that I understand he lives in town Um so um and I obviously is completely qualified for this position My my my concern is not
anything to do with him at all Um it's much more so that um we have this incredibly tight budget Um and uh frankly I'm not sure you know we just had a building commissioner that was able to also do some work for another
town Um and it feels as though this is a perfect uh opportunity for us to think about can we you know uh engage Mr Baldachi part-time can we partner with Marblehead and I apologize you're way
down the path and this you know we're just seeing this now like in this forum Um so this does feel like a place where we really should think hard about whether or not we need a full-time uh building commissioner So I I so this
was brought up at the last meeting Um and I did I actually did think that we did have our last building inspe commissioner spent over a year working part-time sharing with
Marblehead and I and that's why I said do we really need a full-time building commissioner and I will tell you I received several phone calls um from contractors in town letting me know that we need a full-time building
commissioner Um and we we're losing out by not having it is an absolute full-time position So that's that's the input that I've had Um according to Gino it's a full-time position It's not a part-time position Um I I wanted it to
be a part-time position because of we spent we spent 12 months 13 months part-time and um according to everyone else it's not part-time So I I never heard how we lost what we lost out during that time So I understand it
would be you know if you're a a contractor you probably want to make sure that you can kind of you know move things along I totally get that We want people to be able to do that in a reasonable amount of time Um but it does feel like you know this is this is not an insignificant amount of money with
what the gap that we're talking about with the schools or anything else right um so um for that reason I apologize I didn't you know share in the conversation last time Um but I I I would I wouldn't feel comfortable right now moving forward with a full-time um
position Marian can I ask you um did you happen to do a survey of what towns employ full-time building commissioners it is on my market um survey that gets shared with you guys and it has any of our pair communities
Are there any that are sharing part-time 75 even anything other than smaller towns that are like 8,000 7,000 share obviously um but I without it in front of me I don't want to misspeak I'd be interested to see what the peer communities are doing Um to your point
Doug I think it's one of those I I automatically thought of it as one that we could try to share or we could at least do a 0.5 We already did So so it was we did in our Yeah And our former building commissioner is in is in Marblehead and I'm sure Marblehead has a
lot of the same challenges that we have uh here Um I would I would I would think putting together an intermunicipal agreement would be would be something that would be a very a very difficult lift I do want to add that um Steve did share with me in his position in
Marblehead he has way more staff members than we have Um there are several inspectors whereas our building inspector we only have one part-time building inspector that only works Tuesday and Thursday Um and so they would be doing inspections in the field for Monday Wednesday and Friday Um and
Steve was excited about the amount of he wouldn't ever have to leave the office you know he wouldn't have to do any work because he'd have everyone else doing it right yeah sure I could see that Oh okay Yes Morzy Morzy you should be able Yes Good
evening Sorry about that Um I if I could just add a little bit to the discussion Uh in light of all the new proposed development that we have going on um I think it's really imperative to have a full-time commissioner to really assist with the process Uh our building commissioner is also the zoning
enforcement officer Uh so anytime we need to um have an opinion in regards to any zoning issues any um uh permitting residents coming in seeking zoning relief um applications going in front of the ZBA or the planning board Um and
that's something that's uh really uh an integral part of the building department It's something that we rely on all the time because it's it's the um zoning It's the commissioner's opinion which is the final opinion not a final obviously uh residents can appeal it um to the to
the ZVA but he is the person that really provides the opinion for the town And we would be in my opinion at least we would be so fortunate to have somebody uh who knows the the local zoning who knows the state building code Um and it really will be an asset to have Rich um back in
town and really uh to again to be able to work with him Thank you for that Marz So I this is one of those cases where I would say if this is something that the interim TA feels strongly about then it it would kind of be on him to make the case and then show me where else he
could reduce in his budget so that we're we're as lean as we want to be Right so it's one of those hard conversations You really want this well in a town of 15,000 people with x number of uh parcels to tax where where are you going to get that from right and if you want
to make that case let's see it because I mean that's that these are the hard decisions we're having to have Right Right And if I if I further understand correctly uh the salary isn't necessarily commensurate with what we have in the budget So the town this this
would actually put us back Yeah Um so uh just to be the interim town administrator has identified um an additional proportionate staff reduction that would okay make this a net zero The bottom line he said the bottom line number would be the same Correct Um BD I
just is that a bill i think that's Bill dement Oh do I get to say something bill you're muted Great Uh 50 years of being a lawyer 40 years practicing in swampskit as a
zoning and land use It took us uh five years after the full-time building inspector became full-time in 1984 It took us five years under the leadership of Jill Sullivan and the planning board
to get a halftime assistant building inspector We need a full-time building inspector desperately as when you ride home tonight drive by some of the buildings with uh all of their windows
covered with signs of whether they be pizza sign or some other thing All the flashing lights We've gone from uh good building department enforcement for years to no enforcement There's no
zoning enforcement in Swampskit and there has been for the last five years They just eliminated it from their obligations Very difficult when you see a zoning violation filing the complaint to get anything done But right now it's
a quality of life you desperately must have a full-time building inspector and it is a a big mistake not to if if if that's the direction you're going to go Thanks for the time Thank you May I say something katie no
One second Katie did you have anything to say she left No Um I don't have anything to say right now No Okay Thank you Amy Amy Um so I worked with Rich when he was here last time Um I will just say from my department standpoint he was an
incredible asset Um he as a benefit of him living in town He regularly drives around town more than just his working hours So it was almost like having a 247 building commissioner because he'd go out to dinner at night and he would happen to see something as he drove by
and add it to his little running notebook of what to check on Um he would also send us monthly updates via email of all the receipts broken down by what his department was collecting Um and it was the most thorough during budget season when we sat down to discuss his
revenue where he could explicitly outlay hey we have this development This is exactly what we're going to get for permitting fees This is exactly what you can project and as you can see historically the years that he was here the estimate was always met and or exceeded in the years that he was here
Marian is there have you discussed any willingness for it to be for him to consider the position as less than a 1.0 as like a 0.5 or a 75 um do you have a sense of whether or not he'd be willing to even consider something like that we did not discuss anything like
that Well so is the question is the I think what we're hearing is is the question is this a full-time position or not and I wanted to I'm really guilty of saying I did not believe this was a full-time
position until you know I was hammered with a number of phone calls um from contractors lawyers someone on the zoning board and town staff to tell me that you know we depend on revenue we
depend on um enforcement We really depend on this and to and especially with everything that's being built in town and being having to be built right this we'd be making a mistake on on losing Mr
Beldachi um when we have an opportunity to get somebody I think it'd be helpful to hear what Gino you know the tradeoffs you know package we're just hearing about that right so how about if we punt this to the next meeting would that be okay with
everybody okay yes please okay so we'll put this on to the next agenda okay all right um now we're going to move to discussion and possible vote even though I I'm not
encouraging any vote to change parking on Ilm Street Pitman Hillrest Circle Upland Road Maple Colombia Burpee Terrace Burpee Road Burl Street Derty Circle to resident parking only Um I
just want to give the the update as to why we're bringing this up Last Thursday we had a meeting with the uh residents of this community the people who live around the new development uh by Wind Properties What is it called again
westcot Westcot Westcot And it was pretty significant to see the senior center filled with um residents that are going to be significantly impacted by this development So we Katie and I were in attendance and we promised we would
uh put this on the agenda so that we could discuss um how to uh mitigate some of these pro parking parking issues One thing that was brought up to me as I was coming in here tonight that we have to have checked Marzy sent this to me and
it's a question on parking on Pitman Road In the in the write up on the zoning on the 40B under number 11 I it says a public parking
easement reserving six of the 11 parking spaces proposed along Pitman Road shall be made available for public use for non-project town residents I really need to I want to double check to see whether or not the zoning board had the
authority to grant public parking um on that spot So we're just going to double check that But that doesn't deter from our conversation here tonight I want to really have a conversation about how to uh take care of the residents in that area to make sure that they actually
have resident parking and then also how to address recreation parking So if we could just start the discussion that would be great Um we do have the police department here tonight to um Captain Cable and Officer Re to
address some of the issues from that meeting So how about if we turn that over to you guys very good Thank you very much Uh thank you for having us here Um so just a quick synopsis just to add on um what Mary Ellen had said We were uh we were contacted and have been
contacted for the past few months from many of the residents in that area Um we were trying to mitigate their concerns their issues any violations anything that anything that was presented to us that was under our scope of responsibility With that and the help of
of Marzy at town hall um she and I started brainstorming how can we start to remedy this especially before the keys get turned over and uh residents start to occupy the building Uh in doing such we decided to have a public meeting
Um I went door to door dropped leaflets in all of the residents in the neighborhood streets Um it was successful in in my opinion that they showed up Um at the meeting also was Chief Casada and Captain Cable as well as representatives from the wind group
and as Mary Ellen Mary Ellen said herself and Katie Um it was quite interesting the way how um the residents were able to to carry forth their uh their concerns their requests Um and after we have summarized all of the
notes that we had taken through the night um we drafted a proposal um which I believe you all have Um and with that the um some modifications are being are being asked uh for this area um as I at
it as I had requested um Elm Place to be specifically turned into a oneway from the entrance of the Westcot side on Essex Street And the oneway would proceed through Elm Place down around the corner bend to the left as you turn
back up onto Essex Street There would also be resident parking there as well Um Pitman Road um adverse to what you had just said was a minute ago about the 40B with the extra spots there also to be uh residently parking Um Hillrest Circle
and Upland um to be resident parking only Maple A to continue its resident parking only on Columbia Street We're looking at making a modification as you turn on to Columbia Street from Burrow Street on the
residential side The h the side that only has houses from Burrow all the way through Beach A would be resident only As it is right now it is timed resident only We're looking at eliminating the
timed parking and making that just complete resident moving that resident sign up to Beach A We will be moving and taking away two recreation spots that are in between Essex A and
Beach A couple of reasons why One is it would allow an extra resident parking spot in that area And two um some residents have made it their made it known that their concern for the line of sight exiting Essex A onto Columbia
Street is extremely difficult when viewing traffic coming from Burl Because of vehicles that do park on that corner looking at oncoming traffic can be extremely difficult Um it would be prudent to remove that
spot so that vehicles can exit Essex A in a much safer condition We all know what traffic is like on Columbia Street during drop off and pickup time of of daily work hours Um Kevin can I just ask a question when you come at resident
throughout that includes residents of the new Westcot would be eligible for these residents or somehow or not um short in short no And I'm going to get to an explanation for that But I appreciate the question Um if we were to move up to Railroad A Railroad A was
also uh restricted right now as well would be resident At the end of Railroad A as it turns left onto Pine Street there's another traffic concern with the flow of traffic If you're aware from
Pine Street turning right onto Railroad A there is a new stop sign that's been in place that's been put in place It's been very effective We've noticed on our end that um when it was in initially put in with some significant enforcement
from our side we were able to educate the public um and issue citations monitor traffic and over time the the residents and people who travel through that way um have become much more obedient to the traffic recommendation
Our concern now that has been brought up to us to which I also agree with is the vehicles turning from Railroad A left onto Pine Street There is parking allowed on the residential side which
would be the right hand side of traffic as you turn on Couple of different things come into play here is any large vehicles and we've recently seen um buses being utilized to shuttle back and forth to Lynn Um we have a much more
dense population where residents are now exiting Lombard Terrace exiting the residents on Pine Street in that area Any large vehicle that's parked in that specific spot causes a line of sight issue from
concerned vehicles a pulling out And in the event if it's a bus making a turn we could have a much greater problem as the bus is trying to cut the angle and use the geometry to flow through to Pine Street therefore making the oncoming
traffic from Pine Street onto Road A difficult to proceed I think that we should eliminate parking in general at that particular corner It would in So so Officer Reed so to that effect are you recommending that we eliminate one spot
two spots what's What's the What's the count it would be two spots Okay In that particular specific area it would be at the exit of the parking lot with the MBTA train station Yep As you are looking south down Pine Street Yep On
the right hand side there's about a 12 foot stretch of granite curbing that already has restricted parking It would be the next section of curbing where we would expect to put a no parking sign there That would allow large vehicles to
turn and enter Pine Street Um I actually also think it might slow the progression of traffic down heading onto Pine Street Um it it you have you have cars that cut that angle quickly They may accelerate to try to get through the oncoming
traffic the other way which then creates a momentum effect as the vehicles prog proceed down railroad Um as we uh go back to Burpee Road um we would look to be making Burpy Road residential parking only So that
would be obviously Burpee Road is from Essex Street up through Buena Vista And we would also be looking at making Burpee Terrace resident only Um there has been a lot of feedback from the residents in the Burpee Terrace area
regarding some of the construction workers that are parking and using that as um their direct point to start their day Um obviously we know that that'll be eliminated once the construction is done The construction workers are no longer
here I I'll have more to add to that in just a second Um as far as additional resident parking only would be uh to continue it on Burl Street and in Dar Circle Uh Dy Circle obviously is part of the housing authority Um there are very
limited spots in there to begin with We would like to maintain to keep it that way for the residents who um you know at the residents that are living there a majority of them are limited to the amount of of vehicle space that they have and vehicle usage I have a quick
question on that On Dy Circle um one of the residents they do not have a handicap space in front of Dardy Circle on Burl Street Is it the select board that has to put that on the agenda and approve that or uh if that's something I I I would
strongly encourage it as well Right So we'll take we'll take care of that on our next on our next meeting Thank you for that point Okay Because that was that was brought up and that's still left out And can you also just double check within DY Circle i don't know who has jurisdiction within the parking
there if they have enough um handicap parking in there I can get a tally of that and see what is what is there Um I can also connect with the housing authority um to see what might might be necessary I think it's just a matter of
of you know getting eyes on location to make a determination on that So I can follow up on that Okay Um furthermore regarding the the um addition of resident parking only um it was also brought to our attention of the
the fines that are imposed on this Um the board recently has uh increased the fines of resident recreational parking um near uh Philips Beach on Ocean A Preston Beach on Atlantic A um in areas
in like that I would make the recommendation that all recreation and all residential parking be moved to $75 to be equivalent with all of the other increased fines Um it would just make things I think
much more manageable and more simplistic Do we have that in our in our recommend is that a recommendation in our fines for later on separate line item They left it alone So you have fees and permits Okay They have the fine Okay So we'll put that we'll take that
recommendation tonight But just so that we have a second reading on it we'll put that on our next agenda too Okay For a vote Very good Do you feel like as much as you can tell that's actually had some impact in terms of where we did it on ocean and Yes it has had a a posit um it
depends on how you want to define positive impact Um community at large had a positive impact Uh will it help the school budget uh I I I believe it does help uh in the event that um it for lack of a better term has a
little bit more bite Yeah And has the the the impact to allow residents to have a better understanding We try to educate with our enforcement as much as possible Um when we can get face to face with a
resident or operator or the the owner of a vehicle um I can honestly say it is not our intent to specifically find immediately If we can come up with a solution where the person is able to move their vehicle immediately where they're able to go and relocate to a
proper spot um to create another opportunity to which a citation does not have to be issued we would much rather do that But in the event when we have no other opportunity or or no other choice we we have to find we have to follow
through Um $75 is three times more memorable than 25 Yeah Thank you Yes for sure And officer Rene um so are we seeing so since the you know since the fines went into place um at the increased amount are you seeing multiple infractions from
the same individuals or are you see or is it everybody you kind of learn your lesson Do you track that it's it's actually it's really hard to tell um because most of these have been passed um these tickets are passed on on a daily basis Obviously we see a much
greater increase of these citations specifically in this area just be u the Philips Beach area if I may just because of the the the time of the year Um in the very beginning of the of the beach season summer season it is significantly
higher um just because stickers are expired new ones haven't come in or people fail to present their receipt from their purchase of their recreation sticker Um and most oftentimes once that's done and and presented we don't see a recidivism rate that drops
significantly Um but in short we don't have a mechanism to calculate the how many times a vehicle has been ticketed or tagged Um I could work with Max Casper on that if you needed more data I don't
I don't I don't need that information I was just it was more of just for for conversation and and your observation That's all Yeah Hold on Katie do you have your hand up yep she does Yeah I I just wanted to mention too at the meeting we were at that um an unfortunate consequence of the actions
we took to raise the beach um ticket price was that we made a sense of inequity on the other side of town to say that we didn't value their parking capabilities as much as we
did at the beach um you know by the train station and and I think Marielleen you'll agree that a lot of those residents felt like it was inequitable to have a $75 beach fine and a $25 parking fine when they can't park outside their home and to be fair I that
really struck me and I thought wow that was an unfortunate consequence of something that we thought would be a deterrent for people on the beach side and we didn't fully think out the repercussions I think and I think it's the right thing to do to to create
equity across um the town to say you know the value of these spots just because you know they're not affecting um as many folks around the beach or at the train station or whomever it needs to be put out there that we value them
all the same Um so it's a $75 fine if you're parking in a residential parking space Is is that what it I I'm a little bit confused on what what the fines really are If I
park on Dale Road in a no parking area what's the fine on Dale Road it would be $25 And so why why is it we just don't have uh $75 across the board is there a reason we just don't blanket say $75 so
we don't set the parameter on that we do Correct So it was a decision made when they added the extra spots around Philips Beach the extra public parking out of understanding the neighborhood concerns right that was increased for that area not townwide And I can say
anecdotally $25 for most commuters That's what they would pay to park in Boston or to park at another train station So there's many people that consider that fine Um the cost of them parking and being able to use the Swanson Scott police station Swanson Scott train station Right Right So maybe
we should consider consider when we do go to vote that we just have a townwide blanket $75 harking in Boston has got up so that that uh let's raise it to I I just know on Humphrey Street on the 3rd of July people park everywhere they can
and you know one guy said I said to the guy I said oh I think the police are going to come by and ask you to move and he said not if they can find he said if they don't see me I'm fine he goes and it's only $25 So I thought there you go Okay So maybe that's something we should consider And then can you also what is
the difference between uh why do we have recreational parking at the train that's that just so recreation parking at the train is the same in the same sense as why we have recreation parking and residential parking at the beaches So if a person
who lives on Dale is trying to commute and use public transit to get to Boston they would purchase a recreation sticker at town hall so that they could then drive from Dale to park their vehicle at the train station and go to Boston Much
as like person who lives on Norfick A who wants to go to the beach would buy a recreation sticker so that they could go to Ocean A or Atlantic A and park there so they could go to the beach Okay gotcha And the residential side is for
the resident that's limited to within that specific area so that when they come home from work they could park in front of their house versus having recreation all over So it it we're we're just trying to make a balance So the argument is that we all and I think this
might have been the argument from David last year about the beaches We all pay for these roads So you know should we really even have resident parking i'm just trying to find out I'm just trying to make sure we're looking
at both sides here You know my number one concern really is what this neighborhood is what this neighborhood is going going through That is a huge building with a lot of cars and a lot of people and the impact is pretty profound So you know I just want to make sure
we're vetting everything out because we're we're going to hear from other people too So anything you can comment on that um go ahead I just say so the um resident parking statute's been around a long time I think it started with the the train station area and then was
expanded to the beaches and in time as it grew and it covered more areas um we've tried to manage it within the restrictions we have now the law doesn't really identify you know like it's got to be within a 100 feet of your house or on your street And most
places you'll find that they have like zoned parking you know like in Salem there'll be a zone around um you know the um right sticker right i mean it's Yeah So they have like So there'll be a zone that says like this sticker lets you park within this zone That's where your
house is We haven't got that in Swamp Spot right so we've been able to manage it in the past while it was relatively a small issue by as officer was talking by being proactive knocking on doors when we get complaints saying "Hey that's
even though this is Maple A that's your neighbor that lives in Colombia that's parked here." But with the addition of the Westcot that's going to become really untenable The Westcot residents are residents of that area they'll be entitled to resident stickers and all of
these restrictions will be relatively mood or meaningless if um we go down that path and it's going to be beyond the ability of the police department to sort of manage it with the neighbors and just say "Hey this is your neighbor around the corner." Um so that's theoretically why we went to the
recreation sticker and resident sticker combination but technically right now you're right and we we handle that by knocking on doors and talking to people Um the resident sticker is really good anywhere the way it's
written right now right um we don't we haven't necessarily cited resident stickers in those off areas Um we've tried to manage it by talking like this and such but that's something that's going to come to a head here with the West Cop Um it's true everybody does pay
for the the roads in town and that is basically the system that we have right now And have you all got the uh the sort of detailed breakdown that we've provided so the answer to your question earlier
about are the Westcot people eligible Right now they are Um our proposals say that these are all meaningless changes if we don't address that particular um issue And you know it's just something that's
been around forever it's been handled sort of you know neighborly in a way that's just not going to be tenable with the Westcot So this is definitely going to represent a drastic change and people are either going to really feel the limitations of the current resident
parking statute um or we've got to take a different approach So if the if if the issue is if I'm a resident on Berby or I'm a resident on on Pitman I'm a resident on Pitman not a resident
on Burpee If I'm a res and I would think that I should be able to get resident parking for Pitman That's where I can get my resident parking If I'm a resident of the Westcot I would have my resident parking at the Westcot or the
Westcot faces what essex So they're res going to be an Elm Street address place So I think it's going to be an Elm address Okay But the the people at the Westcot have they have designated parking right on on their property It
was a 40B I think it sits outside a little bit of they explain that they would uh they have 114 they have 114 units and 131 spaces Right So they expect to have and they they tell us that their lease is going to limit each unit to one vehicle Right So
they should be able to handle all their properties You you have to remember that this was this one of the big big things about having this spot right where it is is that so many people are going to be taking the train and and a municipal
type of of transportation So there yes might not even be as many cars as we think there there might be I mean that's what was sold to us a few years ago So you know again I'm just really my
concern is for the the neighbors that are dealing with this and we share that concern and that's why we've definitely recommended that the uh the board consider changing the eligibility if you are part of our recommendation is residents of large complexes that have
assigned off streetet parking um not be eligible for resident stickers in general to find a large complex you know in Swans I think anything over 6 to 10 would be considered large Um and they have assigned off streetet parking they should use it The the town was sold that
there would be a limit of one vehicle per unit They will all have their space There should be absolutely no need for a recreation a residential sticker Um but without that change in the law without giving us some sort of ability to enforce it because right now it's it's arbitrary Are we saying it's within 100
yards of your house are we saying it's right in front of your house is it only on your street that's fine While we're handling one car complaint at a time and knocking on doors and dealing with people it it won't work here When is the west card opening up summer I believe
May 30th It was it was expected the beginning of June that they were potentially being turning over Um there wasn't a definite answer that was given I get I think they're dealing with some of their stuff on their own so we don't have an an exact date Okay Okay We have
C captain Cable just a just a quick quick question Um just about the First off I I I want to make sure that we're that we're protecting uh the residents of of these of these areas It will be uh it will be
certainly tight uh from a parking perspective if this isn't um if this isn't addressed So thank you for for working with uh with Officer Re and the community to uh to really hear the concerns of those residents and make sure that we're coming up with a plan So
is this something that has to go to town meeting is this something that this board just votes on and and that it goes into effect like the ne the next day how how just process-wise h how does that happen and then question number two is we're talking about residents of large
residential complexes of 10 or more units with assigned off streetet parking um shall not be eligible to receive Swamp Scott resident uh parking stickers Does that have any impact to um to the residents that that live on Dhy Circle
uh no that would not affect DHY circle So okay so DHY circle is not not impacted whatsoever It should it shouldn't be Um it's public housing I think it's different than a commercial residential complex Um so that's certainly not our intent and I think maybe the language could be
clarified to include that but I just want to make I just want to make sure there's no there's no you know inadvertent We would interpret public housing as different Okay So do you need a policy or bylaw i think we we would need a bylaw We we'll double check if we need a policy or bylaw If it's a bylaw
it goes town meeting policy We could set the policy Yeah Mhm I I get the idea of definitely making sure by doing it this way but I'm I'm having a little trouble understanding if it's an if if Wescott
follows through with their requirement to limit it to one vehicle per Why would someone that lives there that has an assigned on-site parking spot want to use the on street parking well
the Westcot as you'll see in the rest of it has offered very limited information as to how they're going to actually enforce that one vehicle um requirement of the lease Um they haven't even their proposal right now is that they wouldn't even number their spaces or monitor their own internal spaces And without
our ability to regulate that you would assume that people could move in have two or three cars just apply for the resident sticker or for guests they could get a resident sticker for themselves park in the street leave the space open for guests They have emailed they are going to be uh discussing that They're going to take that up Yes they
did They did come to us that they were going to talk about it and we brought it up too But in the same email um that I saw that he sent to officer he was also inquiring about the ability of their residents to get resident parking stickers But they're not limiting you're not you're not limited to having one car
moving into the Westcot You just only get one car parking So you could move into the Westcot with three cars Well they they told us that the lease would say that the residents are limited to one vehicle per residence on the um
at the site but Exactly There's very little to see if that would they would be able to enforce that or control it and they would end up just pushing that burden off onto the neighbor Right Can we have Katie Failen has her hand up yeah Yeah I just wanted to expand a
little bit about David's comment about um the language Uh I know it's it's not been vetted by council and I understand the sort of the um resident sticker conditions for the folks at the WCOT I just want to make sure that there
aren't accidental unforeseen consequences to us doing this We're intending it to be targeted right to the Westcot residents but there are other complexes with 10 or more units that may actually have ramifications So I just
want to make sure we fully vet where those are and if we are are if we're accidentally involving them in this situation and if we are if that is actually an issue for them um before we
you know see if that's a solution Okay You got a lot of developments where people are right now might have a resident sticker as well right the other developments that that I believe fit that definition aren't in areas of restricted resident parking You'd have
all the ones along Paradise Road that don't have resident restrictions around them Um there's a couple on Humphrey Street Yeah none of them that as I was analyzing this I don't think that there's any that fall within residential parking areas currently and as new
development comes along this would sort of cover that u but certainly again I don't pretend that we've u thought of every contingency with this and they don't have restricted parking right near them but they still could be getting a resident sticker as well a recreation
sticker making a recreation anybody could get a recreation sticker that's okay but a recreation you you can't use a recreation sticker to park in resident park in a resident park Yeah Yeah Correct And currently all those other complexes if they parked on the
street it's un unrestricted to residents So they can park there now with or without a sticker I suppose the flip of this is can you just not give resident stickers to people in the west i think you absolutely could I didn't
just specifically delineate them They did commit to that you can actually do that right could there be a legal ramification for that you know I don't know if they I would think that we need to have that more fully vetted by council Right So we're this is just a work in pro progress
right now Um we have a pretty tight schedule here tonight but I just want to if there's any if there's one or two residents if you want to if you have something to say please you know just want to keep it limited but I just
want to make sure that we're extending this Circle And I want to say that it's already an issue Parking the contractors the workers whatever um are parking on Hillrest Circle So residents don't even
have their own parking spots It was a very huge huge issue when it was snowing and they didn't move their vehicles Plows went around them They moved their vehicles The rain came
it turned to ice And Hillrest Circle is a pitched like this that goes right onto Essex Kids are walking to school with their hoods on their earphones in and you're sliding right into Essex Street traffic coming both ways So
I can only say specifically for Hillrest Circle it's a disaster And they can say that at the Westcot it's they said that there will be one space They don't say you can only have one car So of course they're going to be looking for
everywhere else And the town was told that Westcod it's going to be a commuter um area It's not going to be commu They're going to use the commute commuter rail buses etc And that's all
well and good going to work but they're not going to stop and shop on the commuter rail So they're going to have more cars Okay Okay Thanks Okay So I think does anybody have any more
questions because what this is this is going to take us a little while One of the concerns that I have is just making sure that other people in the public really know what we're discussing here in case they want to come forward and have more push back on here um or just
give a different opinion So we'll just keep this on the agenda a little bit Okay Um so the next thing we're going to talk about Mary Ellen go ahead Before you move along can I just request that um if it's at all possible from the um police department's recommendations that
they sort of map it out on a um on a map So that that could I think that's far easier for citizens to understand the way we were describing it if it's what maybe the map we have today and the map we are projecting or the recommendations Okay And can we put that Kevin can we
put that on all the town social media sites and Diane can we put that on the website put the the the map The map Yep The map And um my only question is is do I you want a uh and what we would project
to be Yes I just recommended recommended changes Just to really make it clear we're having an open conversation about this Perfect I think you might want to state like if you have um comments or concerns either to email select board or email you and
then they can filter back to us that way Most certainly Okay So I'm going to say that we kind we did just cover line item number two and three Are you all in agreement on that okay Um so let's go to discussion on possible vote I'd rather
just discussion to increase parking fines to 75 Do we have any conversation on that i I kind of feel like it should just be townwide Yes Oh you want to talk about Yes townwide No question for me Does anybody
Okay I'm supportive of that Um is it okay if we just vote on it next time just just in case somebody wants to come forward Doug do you have an issue with that i I don't know Does Marzy have does from an economic development standpoint is there any is this actually advantageous in that regard is there is
there any other ramification i mean it seems so obvious on one level right um but it almost seems too obvious that like are we rushing is there something we're missing that's why I want to leave it You know we've brought it forward I just want to leave it in case somebody you know maybe Mr Picarillo parks in
different areas in town and he's worried about getting a higher parking fine I just he'll have an opportunity to come forward Specifically Mr Picker at the Corey Yeah Okay So um we've covered number four Um let's move to our second
Did you gentlemen want to stay for this let's uh move to our discussion and possible vote on the sexual harassment policy for recreation department This is our second reading So we can um take a vote on this tonight Maryanne yes Um so
I reached out to legal counsel because we I was asked to do so about this policy and um they came back with so there are three policies that we give new hires in general when we're hiring everybody One is the um conflict of interest policy Uh
the second is a harassment policy Not specific to sexual just harassment in general And then they wanted the risk insurance company wanted us to add the sexual abuse and misconduct policy for anybody working for recreation um and with children And so their answer
back was regardless of what was done previously all minor hires going forward should sign all relevant and applicable employment related policies but they should also be signed by a parent or a legal guardian
Um so I went back and wrote a letter um that I would include and I would start kind of packaging the three policies together and then just sort of call it out Especially with Wreck we mail all their paperwork anyways So um it just is
a highlight to the parent that they need to also sign off on the policies And then I I let Joe know too because he hires a lot of minors Yeah Okay Now who who is double-checking this because recreation has a number of people that come in They come in and they go out So
where are the checks and balances so it's just not a big burden Yes So we have a date that in the letters that go out to the job offers and even for the returning that all the paperwork is due back by a certain date And we don't let them leave the building without going
through the paperwork and making sure they didn't miss anything And then if they do miss paperwork which inevitably happens we record what is missing for who and that they need to get it back to us And then I just keep a running tally of the paperwork I have a checklist that
we check off new hire paperwork checklist Okay So when I'm filling out a folder in case I'm missing something it's easy to highlight it Okay So do we have a discussion on this because I would like to just make a
motion to accept I just I I just had a quick uh a quick question on page four Maryanne Yeah It just items 10 and 11 It it it almost looks like it it you there's a mention of your
facility Is that is that just the boiler plate language that hadn't been Are you in the actual handbook uh no it's the actual policy on page four The sexual abuse policy All right Okay Read I just reading right to the
last right to the last word man What yeah I think that goes along u if there's a complaint filed It's like it's I think it speaks to the ones page four number 101 10-11 Okay when there's an actual complaint
but it speaks to the ones before it A formal complaint is made Mhm It will be the goals of your what what are they referring to of your facility and I don't know why why is capitalized It really shouldn't be but um I mean grammar
issue They looked at I mean this went straight to legal counsel and they went through it because it I mean the way it's worded it shall be the goals of your facility So what I don't know what they're constituting as facility I mean I guess it would be parks and wreck or camp or whatever we're running whatever
the camp was But this speaks to whether if someone's filing a complaint right if there's a where there's a plainif and a defendant type of thing It just stood out to me as and I I just wanted to get clarification Yeah totally I can certainly ask for you Yeah Yeah
that that's I didn't have any other questions or comments about about the policy itself though I mean I'd love to just but but it does seem really odd Yeah it's mentioned again in section 8 too Yeah Um
All right So let's kick this back Yeah Let's just ask for clarification for and let's kick this back on clarification on 8 10 and 11 Okay Okay I think I know what it means but And Diane you'll pop this back You'll
put this on the next one And it has to be right wreck needs this policy right there's an urgency to this Yes Correct Yeah We have Wait is there a way you could Is there a way for us to make a motion subject to what though to
revision the York facility Yeah By town council But how do we know if the changes I think that the way it reads I think it should be like Town of Swampscott was dropped in in other situations of your facility
I think it probably started off as boilerplate and then it's subbed in the town of Swamp Scott PN's town right so I would think that those instances might read the final decision of the town documentation shall be retained in a
confidential personnel file And then in 10 it says it shall be the goals of the town capital T as a defined term to provide supportive care And then again in 11 it should read if the plaintiff should desire to appeal the decision of the capital T town and the crisis
management team or the board of directors legal counsel will be consulted Okay So I think with that then we could make a motion to accept it with the changes to reflect the town of Swarmscott So can I have a motion for that motion Second
Second All in favor i I I Okay motion carries Thank you Our general so we don't have to bring that back and you can get that with right away Okay Thank you um
discussion and possible vote to open up annual town meeting warrant 519 including review discussion votes on articles So we're at least just getting it open right now to get it open to the public Um where is the warrant [Music]
here okay So if we look at the warrant we're looking at uh what can you can you tell what are the what are the dates that we need to hit may 19th So I have the earliest that you would potentially close the warrant
as April 16th but you can in fact close it as late as April 23rd I just didn't know if you wanted to meet that week because it is school vacation week Um and what is when do they have to be mailed out to hit the twoe deadline and when does it mailed out for three week
deadline um one week deadline Annual town meetings one week specials 14 days We mail it out the end of the week prior to the seven days just to ensure that people are receiving it at least seven days prior Give me the date If it's if
it's two weeks prior then May 5th five what if it were two weeks prior it would have to be mailed on May 5th That was good Danielle try Deio I know that day
Okay 55 As soon as we get them back from the printer we do mail them out Okay Um All right So I guess do you folks want to go through this real quick or not you want to go
It's whatever the board wants here I mean it looks like you know we'll be going over the operating budget later when they have it The approval of the free cash uh transfer of the free cash utility reserve line that's for the schools
That's going to be normal The Okay so the cost the article number X I didn't number them because the board can determine the order Yep Right All right So we just need to find out what uh where we're at with the cola with the
retirees They know that it's going to be on here Yes And then the board will have to turn around and you know support or not support and then FinCom will come in and address that Marion are we going to have a um Aren't we looking for a aren't they having their a report that
was that was being compiled where we're going to have Yeah they're still actuarial study So I've been holding a placeholder for them in every single agenda and their actuary still isn't in yet So we we have still not received it from the actuary We're scheduling a meeting um in early April to be able to
have that and vote on it and then I believe the finance committee is having the retirement board come on April 21st um to present it to finance committee and then they will come to the select board after they've already spoken to the finance committee Okay So we've been
anticipating but they just have a hold up on their side Um so so just as so just as a matter of process so you know right now it's April 2nd Are we anticipating having meetings weekly leading up to annual town meeting do you have any thoughts there no I don't I
haven't really thought about it Um I don't know Do you recommend we we try to shoot for that well why don't we get through this and why don't we just do why don't we talk about that at the end that's fine Okay Um then we have the amendments for the revolving funds I
think that's going to be pretty easy There we have one for uh there's four different exemptions that the board of assessors is looking for right so that well that is the next one Um we need to really get we need to get educated on that Okay So actually let's just let's
highlight the things that we think We've got the retirement board the assessors chapter 90 is going to be easy peasy Uh the appropriations for capital projects I'm in correct me but I'm
anticipating that's going to be easy That will That's at least routine That's routine Yep Good We'll call them routine Um the CPA how are we going to how are we approaching that that's just the general
bylaw that we need to approve Yeah To form the CPC right do we anticipate that we we need to put a lot into getting ready for this are you talking about our time Or Yep Uh I think we should be some
discussion of probably the because we're actually deciding on membership and uh you know there could be some discussion I don't see being an hour or anything but so we need to get that we should have it on two agendas then So we'll we should put that on next the next next
meeting Do you have a recommendation as to but unfortunately my email is not loading so I can't get to it right now is for it You know what let's we'll come back to that because if your email loads let's talk we'll talk about it now Um
the Earth Removal Advisory Committee Did John leave why so they have a bylaw amendment Um and it looks like to change the makeup of their committee Oh yes That's not going to be hard That's just
the planning board So I don't think we're not going to need a lot of discussion on that So is this a recommendation from Iraq through us or is this a recommendation by the select board i received this from Iraq I highlighted the ones where I'm not sure who wants to sponsor the article You know we we can
say we could I think we could easily say we sponsor sponsor this based on what their needs are They're only asking to take out this is the one they're asking to take out the planning board Yep They're looking to remove the requirement for one member to be from the planning board and instead increase
the number of select board appointed appointment appointed members from two to three Okay Okay The use of land parks and fields This is to change a bylaw Um we have to see who's going to give us
I think Joe Marian and John Picarillo are addressing this Did you want the select board to sponsor this i don't have a problem with that Okay Um establish full town meeting This is
to make an actual date for fall town meeting Yeah So um the town clerk and I were talking and there's a number of communities who routinely have a fall town meeting and similar to our annual which is always the third Monday in May So people can plan on it and then we can
always just cancel it Yep Yep I think that's um for the prior artic for the prior article for the use of land parks and fields The comment section is the Okay What is that it's just the comment is the same from
the one above it So we just have to update the comment section So Amy you'll fix that Also for the IRA one um for the IRA one maybe we don't talk about it tonight but I I just would like
to know the planning board's feeling about being removed from Iraq The planning board brought it up Great And we we have a we have the chair of the planning Oh is he he had raised his hand So TD are you there is he TD okay
Hi there Yeah Mary Ellen had it correct This is a request that came from the planning board about a year and a half ago Um but I think we missed the warrant last year Um so it's something we wanted to include this year And Iraq is supportive of Marielen Yes Okay Great Thank you That's easy Thank you
Okay Um town meeting member minimum right in vote So the town clerk has mentioned that we've had a number of people in the um precincts that don't have a lot of participation in town meeting They are
getting written in and winning the election with only one or two writing votes and then when it comes time they didn't actually want to be running So this is a this is standard in most other communities that there is a minimum of at least 10 right in votes to be a town
meeting member and that way someone actually has to want to be a town meeting member Um because we're having a number of people who are winning the election with one or two writing votes and then come time they don't swear in they don't want to be part of it and then that precinct is scrambling to fill
Well I would think that that precinct isn't at a loss then if they didn't want to be there going to be there and they wouldn't have won someone else's position But the problem I have with this is what happens at the last minute Somebody just decides they they're in a precinct that's really not very
competitive and they decide okay I'm going to take the plunge and they get their family and their neighbors and they only get five We can lower that number to five 10 was just what was in most other communities but the board can recommend a lower I guess for my point I
just I really don't even just my my opinion is I don't really even want to see this here but that's just 10 was more so because you need 10 to get on the ballot So that was where the standard came from
Makes sense So um we'll just leave a question mark there to see if people even want to address this um prohibit discharge from sanitary sewers We've already had one public meeting on this This will
be have to bring this up again Um inspection of sewer letter Oh that's the one that had the public meeting there That's some time there So those are two things that have to get booked Preservation of historically significant
buildings I thought was this from Did we have this on the last one that we were going to right we pulled it Yeah we pulled it Are we We want it back because don't we already have a policy that we can some ambiguity last time and so the
historical commission will have to provide you know further clarity on why this is additive Um that one's not in my packet So I don't know if that's in your packet No just go straight to citizens petition in
my packet Well sent out Thursday It might have been updated I can even Is this That's Is this something we're going to Is this something we're going to want to have i don't know Okay I just put everything in the draft that
I was Yeah made aware of for the board to decide what should or should not be in there That makes sense Do you [Music] um is accessory dwelling ted are you still
there are these yours uh the accessory dwelling unit the flood plane and the site plan permit Yep Those are the those are the bylaws that the planning board is going to be seeking to do and the ones that I briefed the board about back in February Okay Very good And are you arranging for
public hearings on this so the planning board is meeting a week from this Monday to finalize language and then as required by state law we'll be having a public hearing for all of those that the board votes to recommend Um which we anticipate being all three of those So there will be a public
hearing at some point before the end of the month on all three of those Okay Ted is the planning board uh sponsoring these articles they are Thank you Well that is my presumption that they are Well the vote will happen on uh a week from Monday of course Thank you
Okay And then citizen petition is citizens petition No we also have to have clarity on the uh on a potential bylaw for for the for the parking change Correct If we have to have a if we have to have a bylaw I looked at the bylaws and I did not see any reference to
residential parking Article 5 section 16 does talk about parking in general in terms of like you can't block public access you can't block emergency vehicles things like that Um not a lawyer but there is no reference to residential parking um or parking
permits in our bylaws Okay Which would allow us the select board to make to make that change without having to take it to town Yes Okay Let's just double check Anyway I'm I'm going to send it to council just to make sure Thank you Okay So if we if we just go back through
here it looks like let's just talk about you know what are the big the big conversations Okay The cola I don't think the revolving funds are going to be a big conversation So
there's two cola pieces to that revolving fund One is what um the interim town administrator referenced last week which would change the amend the purpose of the ruck revolving to include uh right donations for the
community programs Okay And secondly the we have to change the so we have to change the language in the purpose You open it up Amend the purpose And then separately the library director has asked to increase the annual spending limit for the library revolving fund
from 3,500 to 5,000 This is for the printing and copying that patrons can do at the library And it's just due to the increase in cost subject to all other revolving funds They can only spend what they have anyway Is there any reason we just don't make it 10,000 like
he asked for five so that's what I put it in there for Okay There's nothing prohibiting from town meeting setting these at insanely high limits And Doug are we okay with the historic commission at 25 yep That's what they requested last time
Okay All right Uh the board of assessors that's going to take Can they education can they come to our next meeting to to walk us through yeah we just have to find out from Yeah right now I just general Paul he
says um chapter 70 is fine Appropriation physical but capital projects I think that's not going to take long Wait wait wait wait wait just about capital projects for for fiscal year 26 Uh-huh Um you know
so just as it as it pertains to the uh to the the relocation of the VFW and ensuring that we're going to do what we say we're you know we're going to do with the um you know with the renovations to to reach arts I I just want to make sure that
we're that we're going to fund this So I I just just so I'm putting my marker down Uh I just want to make sure that we're looking at funding this in in in 26 in our capital projects I will say that a finance committee member has posed that question to Max and we're
waiting to hear back from him on um cost assumptions and when that would be factored into the capital plan So once I get that answer from Max Casper I'll share it with the board as well Okay Thank you So let me ask something Is there is there a reason to have to focus on it for 26 when we don't even have
state funding so my understanding is that it takes a year to two to even get state funding So if it's going to take that long to even get state funding and then to even start to build a project don't we h
don't we have don't we have time i I I just want to ensure that the town and the select board Yeah that it doesn't that that 27 doesn't turn into 28 doesn't turn into 25 Okay That's I'm in agreement I'm in agreement That's what I'm trying to ensure Right Okay Um Okay
So we have that and then we have uh the CPA Why don't we So I have information on that Okay But I don't know if it's easier to send it around to people have them look at it in advance
as opposed to me like reading stuff out Can you walk us just through like what the procedure is just like Oh yeah I mean we've got um Marcy got from town council a bunch of different examples from different towns and uh the types of things that we need to specify um for
the community preservation committee are the number of people uh can be anywhere from five to nine Uh five are mandated very specific ones Concom open space housing authority historical commission and planning board Wait hold on Concom
Housing It's It's there on page right there Oh okay All right Thank you Where is it all right So we don't have board of park commission right so that's open space Yeah Yeah Okay Okay So those five are set Yep Okay And then um you know a
little discussion very informal amongst you know people that were involved in this in terms of you know what they heard what they think about potential additional um would be uh the affordable housing trust would have quote a seat um finance committee would have a seat and
then uh there'll be two select board appointees uh that not be select board members but there'd be appointees Um and some of the logic here beyond the five are that um you know housing does tend to be a relatively large piece of
this not necessarily that uh every single year but when you do housing it ends up being kind of a big chunk So you do have In the in the required you have concom open space which kind of lean in a kind of there's three different pieces right basically open space housing and
historic preservation So you have two seats kind of uh somewhat oriented towards open space Um adding the housing trust fund makes that kind of two seats for housing Uh historical commission still only has one Planning board
thinking about a lot of different things finance committee is thinking about a very different angle than everybody else Uh and and then the select board appointees are thinking is that this kind of continually kind of refreshes the committee in in accordance with how
the elections and the community is actually electing people So there kind of keeps things a little bit oriented to you know the most current kind of mood of the community Uh you know various towns do lots of different things Some of them have slept Some people actually
have an election uh for an seat Not too many but some do Um so this seemed to be kind of a compromise between actually having an election for the seat and but not have you know potentially you can uh depending how you do this you can end
up with people that sit on this for forever Um you know if they're part of these committees they're just on the CPC for a long time So the other piece of this is usually like what the what the length of the term is and how many max terms So kind
of a blend here is that um everybody would be in a two-year term uh and a five term max Um you can get fancy with trying to have staggered terms but I think there's with this number if we're going to have nine
seats I think there's going to be enough natural turnover of you know each of these committees would be recommending someone that's going to change over time Um you know if we really end up with you know people we think aren't doing a very good job and they're on there for five terms I'm sure the select board could
weigh in uh with the committees Um so those are the basic things you know do you want five up to nine what are the number you know exactly which additional people uh what's the length of the term how many max terms and do you want to stagger
just okay just to weigh just to weigh in um you know I I may even take what I'm I'm supportive of nine um but I'd also look at at potentially having someone from CIC uh sitting on this uh as
So I may I may take one of the the two select board appointees So that's just something to for us to to ponder I'm good with that Katie you could even say that it makes more sense for CIC than finance committee
right because this is more capital projectish that we're talking about Sure But if you want to take it from select that's fine too I'd rather take it from select Yeah I think I I would like Doug if you could send that around I would like to see it and think like noodle it a little
bit but I think having CIC at the table is important I just don't know that you know who who that bumps or what that looks like Mhm And does anybody have an appetite for an elected position no No No Okay I have to
bring it up No Recreation I mean does it make sense for recreation yeah I would think so There there is one from it's open that's called open but that's open space that's that's really not recreation open space and recreation committee it specifically says the board
of park commissioners which is our recreation open space committee all right I'm just wondering okay if it's so wait it's con you're saying there's concom is required right yeah and the the board of park commissioners
which for us would be someone from the open space and wreck committee open face and wreck So which is separate from recreation commission Right Right Yes Which is not wreck commission Right Which is not the rec commission But this is al but but also you got you got to remember the utilization of these funds
is yeah So I'm just thinking this through I just want to Yeah I mean I just I don't want to leave out I just want to make sure I'm maybe that's one of the select boards I don't know That's just an idea I don't know if Danielle I mean just Danielle's group I don't know Right But to to David's point that the
the way the funds are set up or I'm fine with it as Doug just laid that out Two-year terms make sense Five year max see five max terms seems logical Does it make any sense to have uh Doug does any community have the initial
terms be longer than two years and then it scale back as the funds accumulate i don't remember that being a scenario Okay I'm just curious Yeah I've only seen the initial stagger at the onset of
the commission right and then there set terms beyond that Okay Um so how about if Diane if you send this out to all of us
and we just bring it up at the next meeting the CIC Yeah just so everybody can just Yeah I'll forward it around now Okay All right Okay We've got to pull in the retirement board We've cola We've got um
land uses the parks and fields We need um we're going to need that an explanation on that Um sorry John left already I think he knows that So for the fall town meeting the town clerk was going to talk to the
moderator but did the board have a sense of when you would like to have that well what is your position as a as the finance for well we've we've actually I think we looked over the last eight years it's always been the first or second Whoa No it's been the first or
second week of December It's usually been the first um for most of my tenure it's been the first Monday in December right um a lot of communities do it in November Um and they typically do it like the
second or early third week of November So that way you're not punting into Thanksgiving holiday ambiguity as a whole Um but is that a burden on the That would definitely rush along the assessor So most communities don't use
money to mitigate their taxes so they don't have to wait for all their classification and assessed values to come through So whereas that we do we we have we'd probably So then why wouldn't we want it the first Monday of December then and
and we can right that's what we've done Yeah We wouldn't have hit this date last year No I don't believe or the last probably two years No I think for seven or eight years we've been the first Yeah week of December No but I'm No but I'm
saying like the the tax rate hasn't been we Yeah So we want to give them We want to give the board of assessors and Okay So our goal our goal is to set our our goal is to set a given time So yeah And I feel like the 1st of December has worked consistently and if you go beyond
that then you're running into not submitting your tax rate recap in time for DO to certify Okay All right So I think we don't really need to have a whole lot of discussion on this
one going forward All right Um the minimum right in vote That's you know we can just discuss that again at the next one the uh we need to look at the prohibited
discharge of sanitary sewers inspection on that that we can pump out there get some more meetings preservation of historically those two buildings sorry Mariel those two uh sanitary and lateral were those water and sewer already has
held you said you talk about it yeah those were sent to me by this water and sewer infrastructure advisory committee Right So they they're going to give us the exact language They've I have the exact language I'm just waiting on like the warrant language So I have the full
appendex Yeah Okay Okay Um so will So just just for clarification will we see that at our next at our next meeting if it's in a week or Yes we will absolutely see that next meeting or there's a chance we might even be able to put this out there
The other question is whether or not Yeah it'll be on our next meeting Okay Whether or not we have to delay this I don't want to This is something I brought up to to Shawn Well the not the sanitary sewers but the
inspection of laterals I brought this up to Shawn two years ago and he said that he would try to get this move forward So looks like it's moving forward Um Doug you're going to double check on the preservation of historically significant buildings Yeah I just got a
note from uh Nancy that's not exactly the same as what it was last time So okay I just Okay All right So then I think um Diane and I can work out the agenda and try to expedite whatever is we need and get all
the information out to everybody and try to clear the agenda to focus on this Is there anything you want ordered differently before I go through and add the article numbers to it let's talk about that We'll talk about that at the end so people can think about it Let's
just look at it timing Yeah I mean like how much time we think we're going to take for all this Okay All right So moving on with this agenda here Um first reading to open what oh yes Can we
have a motion to open up Open So move Thank god you're here Can we So all in favor second Okay Danielle got that Okay Sorry I didn't hear that I Okay Motion carries Um first reading and review possible
vote on new fees permit fees proposal Who's going over that fees Diane you on the fees amy you on the fees so I put together you should have a blue and green kind of striped
fee schedule of what we currently have and then I believe Diane added into your packet a single page of recommended fee permit increases So yep Thank you
So a couple um departments came forward after the last meeting with increases for their own departments Um obviously the board can increase beyond that I just figured this would be easier if people were
already recommending them So the block party permits are currently $25 each There was a proposal to increase them to 50 each Um we don't have a lot of them so it would only bring in about $400 more but
And that's based on what like that's based off of how many block party permits we've issued in the last year right but so why are we like why are we increasing that just to increase revenue or like why not it's
well because I don't I'm really not into nickel and dimming the residents I mean last year we spent 45 minutes talking about increasing a beach a beach sticker and I just by five for five bucks right 25 The last time these were revisited
was when I mean I just dogs for five town five bucks you know as a person Yeah as a person who has probably has been part of this $400 payment in the last uh consecutive three years We have a block party every year
on our street and it is often um a grouping of neighbors who come together to hold like a potluck and so the fee while it it is to me it is a very inexpensive fee for what typically happens in a block party I've also attended multiple block parties and it's
often you know like 10 or 12 or 15 families who come together on the street to host it So when you're talking about raising the fee to $50 you're talking about an additional $5 a family or less to participate if you're splitting it or if somebody you know takes on that cost
as part of the block party So I as a person who literally pays the fee I'm supportive of it But I understand Marielle and your point I don't think that anybody would be less likely to not or would be like you know deterred from having a block party last year because
it was $20 and this year because it's $50 But I but I would also go in the exact opposite direction I would want to encourage more block parties I would want to encourage people to get together with their neighbors Um so I I would I pay people to have a block party I would
I don't want to pay people to have a block party but I I would say that there shouldn't be any fee Um and it should be it should be zero Um I'll forego the $400 or whatever that what the $800 whatever we're going to collect Um well it's there is a there is a process The
DPW comes and they drop off saw horses and then they come back and pick them up And so like we are spending town funds to do that So we're not recouping I would assume based on the amount of effort that's put in We're not recouping that full amount So we are still subsidizing block parties Understood I
that's just my that's my personal belief and that's that's where I would that's where I would shake out So I I wouldn't just on just on this particular line I I I wouldn't support an increase I would actually support a a movement to to zero
Can I ask before we go like we it's being off for an hour Are these all somewhat benchmarked in any way at other communities they are Yeah Yes Yes the ones that are on the already Sorry I just wanted to um I would also say that you would not want to eliminate it
completely even if you went to a token dollar just because it is something where you have to notify the police department of the blocked road and the increase Yeah there's there's there's an expense to these especially it sounds like in Katie's neighborhood over there
I want to come to her block party It's going to be $5 invited We need to get notified on the black parties that needs to be put in here You know there's others on here that I could kind of pick at a little bit Listing books Well I'm like the cemetery fees like raise you know but I mean if
this are benchmarked to other communities then I'm all been benchmarked and approved and proposed by those department heads When was the last time these fees were looked at Amy ever i mean honestly in in this century I
have to say because so the cemetery um no one who is currently on staff was able to oh good lord tell me the last time these were increased literally pre me birth um my birthday thank god the street listing books have not been
increased as far back as the clerk could find So these are what we call the nosy books The nosy book Yeah So if you want a nosy book you're going to pay $25 at least Right And the the bigger part and that's why I footnoted it there It cost us $21 to print one So I did or whatever
they do to it right um but anyone can request it electronically So if any one of you or anyone watching right now sends an email to the clerk's office and says "I would like an electronic version of the not book," you will get it free of cost But there's a cost associated
with emailing it even right our staff is doing that Yes But you know they're taking their time out I'm just saying Yeah And if you would like a fee to because then we'll have everybody you know everybody their mother will say I won't at that point they might just put it up on the website Yeah Right
Vital records $10 I mean I don't think anybody is $10 Eddie Toad No And I mean I just I personally just ordered a lot of requests for those things My husband's from Winthre which is 15 and Yeah Okay All right Um are we we want to try to vote on this tonight or not uh
you do not need to vote on it tonight Why don't we just vote on it the next time maybe we could just vote on it really easy I just hate voting on something when it first comes out Yeah Only try just And then I also want to point out the back side of that page you should have a copy of the registry of
vital records and statistics fees Um so in addition to the vital record proposed increase you'll see I have a note that says and the additional fee services So right now you can only get your birth certificate by walking in in person
right the RVRS does allow increased fees for you to get it mailed to you or to expedite it Um and the clerk would like to adopt those as well Yeah Okay I paid genealological research
We we already have a fee for genealological research Um and it's only for like non-residents if it's more than dear God this many years back And so we don't really charge that They are only looking they're not looking for those
bottom two boxes the amendments or the genealological Okay So what he's asking for is if we will we will um bring our fees up to the for the by mail section and the online telephone through vital check Those two
sections Okay So could I ask what was the impetus for this with the fees like is there a reason or would did we ever or would we ever consider you know adding a trash barrel fee buying your own barrel i mean is that is every fee
on the table here or is it just Well some of these things Um I think the trash barrel fee we we need to talk to the the the um solid waste solid waste advisory committee I think I think there is there
is a conversation about that but there's also going to be a bigger conversation about that as we're coming into the new contract season okay for next year That's something we need to start to prepare for People are asking me that question all the time Can I buy a barrel can I buy a second barrel how much does it cost i don't know I I Yeah So that
conversation is underway Yeah And you know when they come here we'll have a conversation with them again I think if we can the biggest thing is to we really have to eliminate the amount of bags that are sitting sitting freely outside the blue bags that sit outside of a
container that they get ripped open by coyotes and other animals and it's it ends up becoming a bigger problem So the whole thing is a thing I don't know And Danielle to your point um I put a column on that blue and green sheet to indicate which ones are set by MGL or other
statute Yes Um so that way right because there are other fees we could be looking at too right moring fees all kinds of things and the harbor master did come last year to increase those The fees have already been put forth for this season Okay Um but he is planning on
coming in the fall with a new recommendation for the next season Okay that's good Um okay So we're gonna I think that just as part of good housekeeping we should be looking at fees whether it's Amy you
can make a recommendation every every year every other year and not just the fees that we have but the fees that surrounding towns and cities are applying that maybe we are not applying why we don't apply them Um I mean if we're going to look at every aspect of
the budget we have to be looking at this stuff also Yeah To point when um as I said before I plan on doing a full overview of the financial policies over the summer My intention is to add an
annual fee review by the board no later than September 15th of it each year because that will give myself and the town administrator sufficient time to then turn that around for the November 15th projections Okay very good Okay so
now we'll move to discussion and possible vote to create a new veterans council Um I know we got an email kind of late from the VCO Uh but I was just wondering if we could get information sent to us
That's okay You can wait one second Um if we can get information sent to us on what what are what is the mission statement on the two councils that we already we voted on i know we voted on something for Veterans Council to be
more acclimated to assist in events and support a more supportive type of committee versus a policy type of committee And then we had the other committee that we're setting up to specifically look to make sure we address the every single veteran and to
really work hard to get every veteran qualified or at least educated on how they could get into veterans housing So we just need to really discuss whether or not that's the way we're looking to go here And with that um let
me let Mr Sweeney Mike do you want to do you want to make any comments here mike Sweeny's our veterans our our veteran service officer Thank you No I I think you I think you hit it uh right on the nose as longer I think that's the issue about what we're
going to move forward with The uh there has been because we've gone back and forth talking about it for the last several years Um I just want to be clear when it was coming up before there was some talk that the board that had always been appointed by the community had some
sort of policy uh component to it So at the time I reached out to my predecessor Jim Schultz who said that that it didn't It was exactly as you just explained uh which was it was about patriotic and uh veteran centered events throughout the community So I think that would be a
great way to get started And I just want to um cognizant of the hour I just want to point out that I'm I'm here to uh help and any way to help the select board u get information uh any insight we could provide And I and on terms of
that one committee I would say we could uh always use the help I think um just to did some counting our office sponsors or co-sponsors almost 30 events every year including a a food market every month a coffee every month So I think we'd love to be able to get people
involved in anything you're talking about whether it's getting people eligible for housing Do you have um does your does the VSO office do you have somebody at the senior center every every week helping people with their applications or anything like that what
are what are the other things that are happening there we have a we have office hours So tomorrow we'll be at the senior center from 11:00 to 1 We have and we have office hours every week and um I live in the community We're in the community every day But we other than that 11 to 1
on Thursday we uh meet people in the community That is sort of an all hands-on deck So if people come in for help with claims chapter 115 any kind of help at all but um obviously people come in and we assist them with housing as well Great And do you have a listing of
the all the veterans in town that you can send mailers out to as we get um we get going with trying to identify who qualifies absolutely Thanks for the question Yeah the um under Massachusetts general law
every VSO is afforded the list of veterans from the the uh town clerk and our clerk has been wonderful at that So we have we we receive that list every year and we use that as a mailing list and we we can um we use it for as long as I we can't provide it to anyone but
we can use it in terms of outreach or to get people to come to a vanser to inform them on benefits So we do utilize that and we're happy to do that And will you be able to use that with the committee so that the committee can Oh absolutely Anything we can Yeah No I think that would be I didn't know I
don't know how confidential it was It's confidential We would send it out and the return mailing address would probably be our office or wouldn't go if it came back but we we we can't share it We can take the mailing from somebody and mail it out That's how we usually you know do that We people provide us with the uh flyer or the uh postcard and
we send it out We put the uh address on it All right So I would propose that we just start getting more information out there and we might have to just put this I don't want to say on the back burner but just you know we get the information out
and then we could just discuss it as we as we go along So so so just here like what what was the like for for eight we're talking about creating a new veterans council like what what was the intent of this well the question is should we create a new veterans council
is what we is what we appointed last year what is in the best interest of veterans so that's that's the question that was brought up So if the appoint if what we have now is the definition of a social type of a
support group is what's in the best interest of veterans then we're good with that But are there other communities that have other veterans councils councils that can be more supportive of veterans i think that that's the question is whether or not we should just address and look at the whole thing Did we actually populate
those comm no we never we have well we didn't populate because we didn't you know we didn't know if we were going through a pine street so we didn't populate that and I don't know so what we have with the other one veterans committee then is that does that exist this is there are two actually They so
they do actually exist with No we haven't we haven't voted for them in there So created the committees right we have not we've not actually put the people out populated them right and one's for events and the other was to support the housing Yeah Just for this particular project Yeah Yeah So one was
more a support group and then the other one was like really more of a task group that they would have a task at hand you know So that what happened at Michon like one of the problems when we got everybody into the Michan there was a
many many people felt that Benet and the town didn't get the word out enough Now I have to be honest I I don't share that only because everywhere I went there was constant you know constant events going on to get the word out about you know the Michan opening up for affordable
housing but there's still a large population that felt that they didn't have enough information out there So the whole idea of making sure we had a committee that this committee was on the ground knocking on doors and making sure they were checking with every single person and um you know Kim Martin
Epstein actually even said that we should consider having an estate type of a lawyer give a talk about how you can actually prepare your finances on how you could qualify to to get in there because many people that were applying for Michan couldn't because they were
still house rich where if they had had made some changes in you know in their assets they would have they would have qualified So can we can we make a commitment to to to to make a to I don't I don't recall
if we if we've ever listed the uh the veterans events committee or solicited any any applications Can we can we get that can we get that up so we can get that up and up and running and potentially seated can you um Well there's two things one is can you just
uh like get it back up onto the website and I would like to check what other committees what other communities have on different councils just to make sure we're maximizing all the support and all the support for Mike Sweeney and the veterans and make sure we're just doing
everything possible Okay Yep All right Okay So moving on to discussion and possible vote to uh reconstitute the traffic study
advisory committee This is something Katie's brought up a few times and the question is do we do we have a need for this i mean I we did have one in the past I know that it was it was dropped
and I think that we definitely need you know the fire department the police department this is really big on the police department but also do we have citizens involved so Katie you want to talk about your opinion on this yeah I mean I think it's worth a
conversation I'm not sure if I'm sold whether or not it needs to be reconvened or not but considering all of the conversations we've had recently the neighborhood meetings that um that I've been to that are talking about these kinds of issues Maybe there is a sort of
energy for it to be reconstituted in town and people will be willing to step up and do the work I think it dissolved because there was sort of a I don't I think we should if we are if we are
going to recede it we should figure out if we can in advance of receding it solve some of the issues that was happening prior which was like what their exact role was and if they were coming forward and making recommendations to us for us to move
forward with or if they were just to sort of be a place where grievances get aired and sort of realign their mission statement with what we hope them to be able to to do for the community Who was the li who were you the liaison yeah I
was It was uh yeah Linda Hayes was the uh was the chair and I believe it was disbanded maybe around the summer the summer time as we were talking about adding uh adding parking around Philips Beach Uh I think I think some of the conversations
got contentious and I think uh that was offputting to uh to a number of the the members who who then resigned I I to be honest I think we need to make sure that we're you know that we're listening to our constituents And I think those those
constituents are going to have um certain ideas around parking around traffic and I think taking their their input and opinions from their neighbors along with public safety is is really going to help make our community that
much better uh and and and safer and addressing these these things that you know maybe maybe the police and fire know are problems um but maybe it's just not top of mind So I think that resident input does does help uh to shape some of
those conversations and and and discussions and and effectuate uh positive change So um would you because I would be inclined to say to have a committee with you know police department a member of the police
department the fire department possibly DPW and two residents Yeah Katie do you have an opinion on that well David what was it before i don't I don't recall the exact the exact makeup Katie Okay But I but I do I
I I I believe there were two or three Um Yeah I think Yeah Yeah Like I'd like to have at least two residents on there I don't really know if we need to have more I agree with that I've had two residents call me about various parking issues this week one near the monument
and one on Readington Street So I think that in the the consensus that both of them mentioned was that we have concerns but where do we go with it like who do I contact it's not see click fix It's where do I go do I call the police station for this do I So I think I think
it's warranted I think you know to David's point we should be listening to what people I don't know every traffic issue and problem of the town right we don't know right we need to hear from people to tell us what they're experiencing So yep Right So if we had uh one police one fire
uh one DPW DPW and two residents two residents does anybody I mean we can we can vote on this at the next meeting just in case we want to think about a little bit more or we
can just start to advance this We can actually we actually we can ask uh Diane to just start listing it now and we can make our final decision next week That's great Can we condition the residents to be from different precincts yeah I would
say so Right If we're only we're only putting two on there So right I just want to make sure that we're representing multiple areas of town and not just Sure Okay All right So Diane we're going to move this to the next We'll vote on this at the next meeting but you're going to start advertising
now What is it a for It's a 14-day advertisement And I think you have some people that have applied for the traffic advisory because I don't think that's come off of the checklist All right All right So we have gotten
through our agenda Um now next we have uh we move to our consent agenda And I only have one question on the consent agenda and that is on what is the process in
which what is the process in which we choose a beer vendor at at the uh at this event The reason I'm asking this is because one I want to know how people get chosen And number two I often wonder
if we have a restaurant in town or multiple restaurants in town that would like to be the vendor how do they get the opportunity to be the vendor what's the process here and what is the fee that they pay for that license danielle is on Danielle
Danielle maybe she stepped away Yeah Daniel Leonard do you know i don't know No Um AB do you know i can I can help Uh here Uh yeah So you know a few years ago we were you know we were approached by um
by East Regiment um Brewing of Salem and they just said "Hey we want to get involved uh you know with with town events Uh is there is there anything that we can do how can we how can we help?" Uh we brought them in uh for the Strawberry Festival they sponsored uh
fully sponsored uh the event paying for um certainly paying for music paying for uh you know the the sound system Um and it was a good uh it was a good relationship Uh they had the first event probably three years ago and then they
said "All right well what else can we do how else can we get involved?" Uh I went to them and said "Hey we'd love to throw a uh a derby event We just we just got a we just got a new uh big screen uh and we'd love to uh to use it and and really
have a uh a kickoff to uh to the spring season bring people together Um so they said "Hey what about a crawfish boil um on town hall that brings people together we'll have a little beer garden We'll have some music." And that that was really how it how it really got
started uh for this particular event Um as to the specifics of of everything I'll defer to the recreation director Um but I I will I will say that I I did personally reach out to uh to Scott
Perry at uh at East Regiment Um but I I I I see him occasionally around town uh too and he's been he's been helpful and he's been wanting to do uh to do other uh additional events within the town
So my my concern is that we have we have businesses in town and that do the businesses in town that have liquor license that serve the town do they have the same opportunities to be sponsoring these events i'm looking at
what are the opportunities and how are we supporting our local our local uh vendors and number two what are we charging are we charging $500 for this for this you know for these type of licenses one day licenses it's it's 50
bucks for the one day $50 It's $50 for the one day liquor license And these these uh these vendors are paying and they're covering um fairly substantial expenses uh related to bans setup Uh you know this this could
be you know several thousand Oh Danielle is back Okay Danielle stress Hi everyone Can you hear me we Yep Yep Okay good Um so with this particular event it's really new Yeah So um they
actually were having a hard time getting someone to um source the crawfish and to cook the crawfish And they just today got and we didn't even know if we were going to have crawfish and it might just be um showing the Kentucky Derby Um and
I think you might remember from town meeting last year I was like so excited that we were going to have a a derby party Um so we're really trying to pull this together but just recently today they got um Patriot Seafoods to cook up the crawfish and handle the food Um and
that's pretty much um going to be a um on their side they don't even know how it's going to work whether or not they're going to make any money or who's even going to come to this And the same thing with East Regiment So East
Regiment said that they would give us a portion of what they sell of the beer um because this is a first time doing this and we don't want them to walk away losing money So we we decided on that Um were there
other questions um and we do work we work with um when we do the um harbor festival we're actually going to have a chowder con contest and um there'll be three town restaurants that will be doing that
contest which they did last year too Okay So is is crawfish is this uh a New Orleans thing or is this what is crawfish is it's a southern thing a southern thing it's a southern thing and we can bring a little bit of southern
hospitality north to swampskit and um I think you know are we importing these crawfish they are they are they are being imported from uh from I believe cinjun country uh Lafayette Louisiana uh that's where we've uh we've we've we've
had some swamp scot residents who have had uh crawfish boils uh in the past They've been they've been fantastic And I think uh I think this will be a great addition to our uh to our events uh lineup in in in town and really uh you
know bringing people uh together for music and and the Kentucky Derby And Mary Ellen you should you know hopefully you I'm already working on my hopefully you're working on your hat That's already I am working on it So uh Danielle so just so I I understand So
they are the the agreement with East Regiment is they're going to be giving you a percentage of their sales Correct Okay For this for this time So we'll see how this works out Yeah Um how many people come how popular the event is and then
you know we move on from there Um that's sort of what happened with the strawberry festival one year We kind of brought them in and then it was so popular and they had such a long line they you know offered to pay us $1,500 to be there They had good sales I bet
And what is the percentage of of their sales 10% they're going to give us Wow Okay So I think that the question or the issue here is just that first of all are we responsible for procurement law with
vendors in this case it's like do we have to great no it's fine and are we consistent with each event that we have that we have the revenue or whatever the the profit sharing of it consistent in the same way let's just make sure we're
doing you know I know that you we get a backend percentage here it looks like are we doing that for all events of this nature you know just to make sure that we're consistent across the board we're giving you know any vendor the opportunity to participate right or and
lo local ones included right we don't want anyone to feel excluded Um you know and just getting a real transparent understanding of how we're pulling in revenue from these things and what that's going to us And I think that this will eliminate any questions in the
future once we you know once we just get that out there then you know this shouldn't have to come up all the time right and we should have an you know this will be our working knowledge of of how these things work Well why not why wouldn't we open it up if a if a local vendor if a local business wants to
participate in this and wants to turn around and give a percentage of revenue why wouldn't we just do that now too because that would be no loss to us They might not want to you know might want to and maybe not but I'm just saying for the purpose of each event So
everything's different We have concert series we have um you know different we have harbor fest we have different events So you know just make it consistent for all of them and we can understand what the funding mechanism is the revenue you know and have it clear so that we don't have questions coming
back later that we can't explain Well I think that's something that has to come out of the recreation commission right but also too some some of these some of the some of the events I mean the events are different Some of them are you know some of them do have uh you know fees associated with them Some of them have
some some of them are paid some of them you know some of them are you know are free Uh some of them are going to be very well attended Some of them are going to be lightly attended So I I don't really see there being I I I think we can do a to your point I think we can do a better job of you know of trying to
put some some some structure some structure and function around it Right But I think you know especially as you're getting these events um off the ground one of the challenges that we that we had you know back in back in 2019 and certainly in in 2021 was um
there really couldn't be a one-sizefits-all policy given that there was considerable financial risk uh you know for for the you know for the for the pioneer coming in and saying "I I want to I want to do this but I don't want to lose unlimited sums of money I
want to make sure that you know we can we can balance that out But uh I would love for our local businesses to to to come and say "Hey look we want to do we want to do this event." Um you know we could have uh a whole series of events throughout the spring summer and fall
live on the lawn Totally Um so I I think that brings uh some some incredible opportunities uh to us uh as a town Um you know and really we're just limited by the imaginations of our of our small business right community and and our and our recreation department So I'm all for
it I just don't you know I don't want East regiment or whoever they are to say "Oh well I give you 10% of mine but this guy comes at another event He doesn't have to do it and or whatever You know what I mean?" So it's just right Can I speak to that um that's why when we did
the fireworks festival we have like three main um beer companies that we've been using um that we've partnered with that come to the the the summer concert series and also do other events Right So
what I've tried to do with them is to treat them all fairly and say "Okay so if you would like to participate in the fireworks festival you all pay the same amount and And that amount we try to equal what it's going to cost for the music Um and I picked music because
that's probably the biggest biggest expense that we have when we do that event Um and then the same thing I did the same thing at the block party It was basically the same three um um beer fear companies and said the same thing to
them Okay there's three of you here um one um newer notch wanted to participate too but they didn't want to pay anything So I was like well these people have committed to this so we have all have to do it fairly So you have to split it
four ways instead of three ways So I' I've tried to be pretty fair to everybody Yeah Um so maybe it's a matter Danielle of having like a rate sheet or something like this is what it is this is what it costs if you want to participate Like I think maybe Amy you
can be part of this where you know considering we're looking at all fees we're looking at all revenue how we can maximize maybe it's we look at it as okay let's see what we can charge to see how that can offset some issues that we're having obviously right now with budget situations you know and maybe
it's like a a sheet for these events This is what it would be But if you're coming to this event and it's a fireworks fundraiser maybe it's less and this is what we require just so people can understand what they're getting into right and and maybe to increase the competition So if you can get more
people maybe they're going to donate more You know what I'm saying just to kind of maximize your revenue Maybe that's the answer I don't know Right and and beyond um beer gardens what we've tried to do with the block party is to
invite everyone to come and if you are a swamp scout business you don't pay anything to come to the block party just as part of a and maybe that should change right right Exactly So maybe that's which is a really nice idea and
it's great to do but maybe we could get something extra out of there right maybe we could you know take a little something but you know I mean it's just an idea But again if it's if we put it out there and we make it you know public this is what it is then people can't come back and say later oh well you know
I wasn't asked or I couldn't get in or you know whatever right you know what I mean that's just But just just so you know I try to never say no Oh yeah No I know that No I mean sometimes we have like all sorts of things and just because I don't want to say no to
anybody Right Right No I appreciate it Married Right Right So on on this event so are are we in agreement that if a local vendor if one of the restaurants wants to participate in this event that that they can go in if they Oh yeah I
don't think I don't think they've ever Doide or Mission or Anony's or whoever wants to participate they can be down there I don't think they've ever been told they can't I don't believe that that's ever happened Right I I think that's correct Yeah Whenever anyone's
come to me to say can we participate in this and I think we could expand our reach maybe and try to have they received the phone call to say do you want to come want to come in down here and no but I don't think that's ever been asked right i don't think anyone has ever said to Danielle "Go call every business and see who wants to
participate." So I don't know that that would be a natural reaction for her I wouldn't be for me right but if we want to give direction and say like maybe let's just do a rate sheet or however or you know have Amy look at it and come up with the best way that we can maximize
potential revenue then you know I'm sure that would be helpful for Danielle too Okay Also keeping in mind what David said about all of these events are different from each other Yes The amount of people that come the you know and so
it's it it it has been honestly it's been a challenge for me to make sure I'm being fair at every single point Right It is a challenge and that's what that's what I want to avoid I don't want anyone to come and say well you know Danielle did you know this or the rec department
didn't No we're not You know we're gonna make it clear for you so you can't come back later and say you know uh you know I wasn't treated fairly or whatever And you know I know you're not doing that and I know you run a ton of programs and there are new ones every year which is
great you know and it's it's nice stuff So I just think if we could get a little bit more consistent you know and get it out there then there's really nothing that people can question you know I think one thing we can standardize right off the bat is when these one day liquor licenses come before the board we can
have that information of saying you know this is the profit sharing or these are the costs that they're covering right in doing this event So that way you have that information as you're voting the license right um have you looked at the fee on the one day liquor license is
like what is it 10 bucks $50 I'm just wondering it's on your fee schedule It's it was to increase I saw Huh to increase It wasn't on there as an increase but it is something controlled by the board So Yeah I'm I'm I'm just worried that you have smaller You don't want to price
yourself events Yeah You do have you do have some smaller some smaller events One of the other things on the on the consent agendas uh Yeah I mean so if if you were to take that that fee from 50 to 100 bucks or 50 to $75 that may you don't want to
discourage Yeah That may discourage No I don't But maybe with your events You just want to look at You can also look at if it's possible to tear it So if you have a vent you know under a certain size We have that with some of our permits and stuff too where it's you know if you could look at that size over
the size So all right So then um can I have a motion to Thank you Danielle So moved Second All in favor i I All right So can I that can I have a motion to That's everything here The consent Was that consent agenda did we just do it
it's like board time I don't even know what I'm motioning All right select board time Danielle Yeah select board time Okay Um I wanted to thank Chief Casada um Officer Re and Officer Wilson for uh
donating their time to the glow dance at the elementary school this past Friday night It was a banger of a time and uh they all came and they were on site and we appreciated that Um I met with a resident this week and he had a great suggestion and it is a good
old-fashioned suggestion box and why maybe we could create one online on our website where people just go and put their suggestions and we look at it at every select board meeting and read whatever people are asking us It's a little bit old school but it's a little bit like okay these are questions out
there these are what people are you know wanting to know and we have a you know we owe it to them to answer So that was a great idea that I hadn't thought of Um yeah So those are those are the things that have come up in my week I know it
sounds exciting but that's all I have Doug no David nothing that and I'm going to pass you So can I have a motion to adjourn so move Oh wait Katie I'm sorry Katie That's okay Mary Ellen I'll second You don't have anything Oh wait I have
one The motion to adjourn One Sorry I have one other thing Katie I hate to interrupt you Um the town of Swampscot community jam is happening April 7th It is a DEI initiative It's at the public library Maryanne has put a lot of time into this Katie and I have helped a
little bit but really most of it is on her Um it is very exciting We want the community to come out Again Diane this is on the website I think right so we want to hear from all residents about having an inclusive community and how we can get better at that So again April
7th at the library from 6:00 to 8 Thanks And the request is that you you sign up in advance right Danielle yes And there's a QR code and an email and um yes we would some people have already registered but we want as many as possible So and and no staff will be at
in attendance nor will any elected So therefore right it's open and free to say whatever you think and we really want your feedback Thank you Sorry Okay Second Second
My name is building Can I have five minutes please sure One one second You guys are still live Okay Are we are we adjourned or not we're journed Okay