feel e e welcome to the February 20th select board meeting uh before we start I just want to thank Ethan russler Nate Bim Nathan Kent and Emilio Rodriguez for
bringing us this live production tonight they always do a great job so thank you very much and if you could join me being recorded we are being recorded if you could join me and um for the pledge of the United States of America
and to the rep for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all okay so for those of you joining us tonight um we have a very long agenda we will be starting with resident comment
you you don't have to be a resident of swamp Scott to make a comment um it's just if you want to make a comment please come up to the microphone you have a total of three minutes Katie Fon is going to give you the heads up at about 20 seconds to go and um if you
could just give your name and your address and um we can move on so is there anyone here for Resident comment Mr Spritz could it go is that on I don't know I have no idea if it's on Emilio is that
good yeah way Spritz 91 faragate Road uh Precinct 3 I just wanted to make a brief couple public comment about um the UV uh disinfection uh project um as a as a careered engineer myself you know one of
the I kind of look at this as a prototype um which is is the town ready to pay for whatever the long-term solution is right and it comes down to uh it's not an inexpensive uh notion it could be between 25 and $30
million useful life is up to 20 years uh but the question then becomes really I I'd like to see the conversation about if it's going to take us X years let's say that's 10 years right to fix the pipes it's really a $25 million is that that's the conversation
right if we're willing to do that and there's a myriad of reasons why we would and why we wouldn't it's a choice we have to make and it's going to be a burden on the taxpayers and I would I would support either way but as long as we're having that conversation I think that's the smart way to realize it because if we are then I'm totally
behind this let's go ahead let's do the Prototype prove it out and go but if we were never maybe we were willing we're willing to spend that money already then also consider what does it take to accelerate fixing the pipes right this this solution is specifically for a part
of town that will only feed to Stacy's Brook um it doesn't fix the other areas at Fisherman's and so on so the last part I want to um just give my feedback to is the um I really if we're going to do this Pro this prototype right I
really want to see it with electric power using um let's see uh 23,000 gallons of diesel or nine gallons an hour um is not really fair to the residence I did a quick back of the napkin scratch calculation uh besides it being $864 a
day of diesel um if you were to have a semir TR sitting in that location spinning its Wheels going 1,500 mil a day that's the amount of diesel that you're burning it may not be an where people walk where residents are going to
be I I I even if it costs $1,000 you're going to spend at least that amount on fuel 20 seconds I'd like to see that as a consideration even if it delays the project Peterson I live on linshaw Drive in Lynn um I also am an engineer and I
do a lot of work with biotech and pharmaceutical companies and when they make high Purity water UV is one of the treatments that they utilized to maintain the quality of high Purity water if you don't maintain it it's like
filling a swimming pool and you watch the sun turn it green so you're you're fighting the growth so forth anyway um as he mentioned this is going to be a a financial Commitment if that's the way
you go with it I have um mentioned or written letters to the editor regarding some other technologies that could complement this um you you know it will take time to do it you might not get
100% Effectiveness if you get the big storm or you get the big spill uh once it's down the beach it's gone um what I have kind of warmed up to for an idea are oyster
reefs uh New York city has the billion oyster project and they some government grants some private grants and it's been going on for a decade you can go on YouTube and you can see that and other examples of people doing
this and it it's being affective and so you you grow the little seedlings they get to a certain size you let them form clusters and you put them in place and they survive and they flourish there are
certain places they're better than others there are people there that know all this stuff they've made the mistakes they've learned the lessons call them up connect with them go start the start the the effort um as as like
the the the the the billion oyster project is not for consumption in our lifetime that's there that's their policy this is not meant for that an oyster will filter 20 seconds 50 gallons a day 55 gallon drum a day each and you
know they they turn over the cont contents of the harbor every couple of days with just what they've created so you don't have to go all in you could spend thousands of dollars rather than hundreds or millions of dollars and and
see see how it how it might work so time's up thank you for thank you thank you Steve Dr fredman no we will be doing resident comment no no mhm Arthur Freedman Precinct 4 um there
was a a memo or email sent around about what Klein fail to address some of our questions I don't know if the select board has received it uh I have some questions about it I I think it's great that it answer some questions about what we had discussed but with all the
discussion covering the pilot in this proposed possible permanent UV triping installation how does the uh permanent installation of this UV treatment really coincide with the pair of the sewage lines and I think it was addressed if if the sewage repair takes 10 years we're
proposing a 20-year life on the UV you know I I you know the question is are we kind of want to spend so much to get it up and running the permanent one plan Part B so that going to be financially feasible and I guess it goes back to
asking our uh Gino Our Town Administrator what the anticipated timeline might be I know every but I do know every time you go look there's another pipe problem do you have any idea talking about let's say station Brook then you have the fish Fishman
then we have Preston Beach we have eisman's Beach we'll stick with Kings probably be 10 to 15 more years if we get the funded yeah and I think there was maybe some um I thought misconception initially last summer when we discussed the phases
and they were talking well we're going to spend this much year one this much year two this year three it wasn't mentioned well what about year 6 7 8 9 10 so maybe it was my not understanding that but I thought it would take maybe five years maybe not 10 or 15 which is
probably more realistic okay that was one idea and uh and uh the thing about the UV program on spacy Brook it doesn't really address Fisherman's Beach which has to be re
rified by the pipe fixing correct so all right and then we talked about anticipated repair time so and so I guess we have a lot of still unanswered questions here a lot of variables as far as the cost factor and with our uh
president Administration cutting down funds it's going to be harder and everything's going to be coming out of our pocket I think we have to consider what is going to be the best bang for our buck in trying to renify this problem I'm not saying UV function is wrong it does work but is that the way
we want to go and maybe if not the pilot but to spend all that money in the future thank you thank you Dr fredman mayor you say you don't have to be a president you do not but you do get three
minutes your name and add and then swamp good owns the pipes and the beach and the City of L really has no formal land and then swamp Scot owns the pipes and the beach and the City of land really has no formal role but we felt like there was a role for us to try to bring everybody together and that's what we did when we started in 2022 and and
kleinfelder evaluated a bunch of different Alternatives uh you know strongly recommending aggressive pursuit of uh Source elimination but also uh uh putting out UV as the leading complimentary alternative and I and I think that's a really important Point
here is that we are all laser focused on the source elimination and everyone we've talked to including The Regulators D thinks that a alternate solution to complement the source elimination is going to be necessary for the beach to
be open and acceptable amount of time when the pipes are fixed the UV was the most attractive from a cost in time perspective that was in end of 22 beginning of 23 they made that recommendation there was a change in the state Administration we had a pretty
lengthy back and forth with different state agencies about the UV as a concept written answers and responses that we shared back and forth that took almost a year and we settled on this sampling plan to go out and get data by pulling water out of Stacy's Brook and and Kings
Beach and sending it to the lab at Trojan which is the UV vendor and seeing if the technology worked on water actually from the ground and it did and that was uh in the fall and now we've been pursuing this pilot we have a lot of questions about what a permanent
solution would look like in terms of location and funding when we recognize that but for us to get to those questions I think we need to prove out the concept and the pilot that's what we've been working towards we've been really approaching this collaboratively it's it's funded um for for on our side from the the $5
million earmark that the the delegation obtained that was split 50/50 between Lynn and and swam Scot we thought we had an opportunity to get a $20 million Grant last year we we thought we had a real chance we put in for 12.5 million for Source elimination because that's
the priority and we proposed to split it 8 million for swampit hold on so your your name and your address and your girl scout and your girl scout rank my name is May man and I'm I live
on 68 Walker Road I am a Cadet and Girl Scouts and last year my troop did a bronze wward project to help the king's Beach we did a bag for the library and I'm not sure if it's there yet um to
teach people about how King's Beach is dirty I think we should put the UV in so kids can swim in the summer cuz when they don't have the chance to swim like at the other beaches in swamp
Scott and that's all thank you Miss Mancini or I should say Cadet manini um is there anyone sir thank you thanks uh my name is Mike Salona uh 139 wood law Street in Lynn um
vice president the friend of linen the hot Beach uh as well as chair of the um linen water Sewer Commission Executive Board I'm also joined here by the other members of the board uh so all five of us are here tonight to show our support for this effort to finally get somewhere
uh what often that we hear is you know not enough is being done uh why is this taking so long uh it's a complicated effort uh Lyn Water and Sewer has been working at it for for decades uh we have the hundreds of millions of dollars of debt to show for the work that's been done um but the the concerted effort uh
that the mayor and the individuals uh Lin Wan and sewer and in Swampscott uh have put together uh and is there anyone else for public another man SC hi I'm Chris Mancini I also live at 68 Walker Road and just full disclosure
I I presented both sides of the situation I said you say whatever you want um sure but yeah I think most people know um where I stand to be the cleanest beaches in the country and I moved to swam Scot specifically to try to finish the job because um Kings Beach was is the dirtiest in the Commonwealth
and um I I just I just want to you know again throw my support I really appreciate how the two um municipalities have been working together so well over the last couple of years it's a complicated issue there's so much nitty-gritty um but it comes down to
what the discussion is today should we do a pilot um of this UV this summer and who anyone who spent more than 5 minutes talking to me knows I'm obsessed with this other emerging technology about ozone nanobubbles it's it's really interesting but the fact that I'm
standing here saying we should do the UV pilot I don't take that lightly um so I think it's a question I'm not taking the price lightly either I think we have to look and evaluate this is going to be a cost but what we're going to have in
2025 if we get this done in time is an open Kings Beach for the first time in however long um 100 years let's say um and I do think that's worth it so you all are the ones that have to vote um and you're the ones taking care of a
multi-million dollar Town budget I understand there's so many complicated points there but uh U just hope you will seriously consider this and uh take this next step forward for Kings Beach thank you thank you Mr manini control so you can see who's
raised online do we have any hands up online Andre time to go home Mr M okay so I don't see any more hands raised in the audience we're going to
go hello oh I can't hear you anymore can you hear me you can hear me okay for some reason I can't hear you so there might be an issue with the um the sound for the folks who are online now um but I'm
going to Barrel ahead anyways um ktie can you just give me a thumbs up to make sure you can still hear me thank you okay so Andrea Moore Precinct 3 town meeting member and founder of save Kings Beach um I wanted to start by saying I'm really speech and I want to look have
everybody look around the room and see how many smart passionate people who deeply care about this issue are around you this is a really good thing and we should all be proud of the positive progress that we are making so as you begin debating this issue I want each of
you to know how appreciative I am that we are all having the Good Fortune to be at the table together discussing hopefully civy the path forward for this project that being said there are um oh excuse me um thank you to you five and
the dozens of others who have taken up this extremely difficult task and truly let us all continue to work together that being said there is a lot of source elimination work that has still not being that has still not been addressed by either Lyn or swamp Scot Sewer
Lateral ordinances ponds that flow into Stacy's Brook with unknown bacteria levels inconsistent testing regimens in both linen bomb Scot CCTV work that has unfortunately stalled in the city of Lynn so so as part of this conversation
as we consider UV I urge the select board and the City of Lynn to zoom out and look at the whole ecosystem affecting Stacy's Brook thank you thank you
Andrea um no we are going to move now under new and old we'll begin with our town clerk Mar um is there a reason we don't just take up this topic since all these
people are here waiting for it well because we also have staff here Doug and we're just gonna I prefer that we go over I want to go over the finances first and then we can go ahead Jared thank office along
with my office the midle we just had go January along with ourcal so far we've had a good showing
of meting MERS number of people our and then March 11 for April 29 number section it anyone interested in um next is just I want to give was
asking AEF overvie oford from my office um with a breaks dep who governed by the retention schedule the state of Mass um
um we work with um departments to correct the record comp state law uh the only thing I wanted tolight is for the backage
your is the town of last year about little north of 13400 public request for Department it's not science simple we can
get as possible everying majority come um the biggest department by far is the police department the nature of their work inment and then the town office building
as a whole um this year so far we have had 257 reest which is an up we've seen in public and in addition now by the
last conc with administrat order so that taxers $100 fees with have G inqu information
reques which is each time that happens we go to not Charing full Am AC the town itat cost to the town itself that Finance director
because of some of the public reest gone up um we are trying to make sure that we Town money as employ Happ to any questions the has
com do anybody have a question why are we talking about this I'm going to have a question do you have a question for you yeah why are we talking about this I have no idea really it's been brought if you've been listening to the public comments it's been brought up
over and over and over and that's why the clerk is here giving an update on what Foya is and what the election like I remember one person that was interested in why they weren't responding too timely and why they were charged so
much is that okay well I remember employe who can most people do the work $2 except for legal counsel have we asked people to pay more than $25 an hour why would we need legal council
involved person have records need to go toy I not lawyer I do notet to be IAL counil get mostly to redact information
that needs to remain privileged correct doesn't that happen a lot previous was maybe it's has this
year was and it became brought to my attention the amount was being spent what we October November first time so how many times have we done that
i' have to I have to about 10 maybe a little bit less 10 times we' charged people more than $25 an hour reest from Super for releasing his fo you and um I
just want to make it really clear and you can clear us up the board has nothing to do with foyer requests with releasing foyer requests holding up a foyer request or anything like that it's my office the only way the involved need
to go to the their own so his gratitude for the release is really for you not for us okay I have a question oh sor yeah so so Jared in in late January a resident was told there was a new policy was told there was a
new policy to charge for the time you know with review of the records requests determine if there was privileged items included who created the new policy so do we have a copy of is it a written policy or is it a verbal
policy okay and and we provided that information to that to that specific resident is that that information to that to that specific resident is that is that correct no he don't was that was that Resident charged for this for that for that
request okay are you aware that Town Council had had advised that such individual evaluations may be privileged as nonpublic Personnel I remember talking to them about it I don't remember what discussion was particular
okay so you did so did you or did you not seek a Town Council opinion prior to releasing you did that was prior to the new policy going into effect yes okay and and they and they said that was okay I would have to check my email so are you saying we we did release yeah
I am so we don't know if we charge that individual um and then did you know that there is a legal privilege that may be applied to a document it's a vote and only a vote of this board that can decide whether to apply that privilege
or not you talk about personel privilege yes did this board take a vote or a previous iteration I I do not know whether I we released it I don't know so I could couldn't speak to that I'd have to go
check okay but I'm pretty sure that that information was released as I was on the sport I would again uh I I I I just I I just got to say I mean I'm looking at these quick facts and and everything else that got dropped on us at 3:00 um
you know we're talking about in 2024 we had you know almost 1400 public records requests we're talking about police have the largest amount of public records requests does that go through your office Mr town clerk uh the police the police uh do it in consultation with my
office yes got it okay so and there's just also numbers from 2025 257 public records requests but down below you know we talk about 55 requests from your office so it just seems that the numbers and the information it just doesn't it
just doesn't jive just with what I'm seeing on this on this under the under quick facts on page three so the I I break out the ones the police specifically deal with because a lot of them are shorter and easier to handle
than the ones my office gets wak up the ones that my office like is completely like the police department does them in consultation with me but it like I broke out the ones that my office specifically just separate from that just to kind of highlight some facts got it okay cuz I
mean you're showing 1369 and there was a you know there was a spread sheet that was provided uh I believe to miss Arrington that showed 157 on a spreadsheet that's just a big that's a big discrepancy she she asked for the ones she asked for the ones that
I had from my office so I provided her with those okay all right can I just make sure I'm following what you're asking David so is the is the point kind of like in some ways the subtext on all this feels like there's so much work
that has to be done that we need to charge people for the work but it actually correct me if I'm wrong Jared it feels like the vast majority let me just finish the vast majority of the records requests actually are processed by the police
department so like out of 257 this year 55 actually were done by your office yes so basically but that is not how I view public record it's the amount of time to take to do each one a lot of the police department ones are hi I got into an accident can I get my instant report
very easy liutenant fre to handle those get those out quickly a lot of mine uh hours worth of work in order to to get all the information that is required for them so no again I just I just got to say I mean this this this
seems eily s familiar and similar to our last our last meeting where we had a you know where we had a presentation about executive sessions we had no advanced notice we had no chance to prepare for the conversation we we were shown very fuzzy statistics you know no one on the board except the
chair knew what was going to be shared you know it just it just felt you know the executive session presentation felt like propaganda um we received a note from a resident who said and I quote after our last meeting regarding the statistics you shs the 2025 uh Fletcher
figures are misleading because the number of months in the period is fewer than the previous this makes the select board appear either manipulative or incompetent and just tonight's presentation just feels extrem ex similar to to me um you know so I mean
some of the things that I learned since our agenda was posted it seems the number of public records requests from June 24 to mid January 25 was 98 28 were filed by swamp Scott residents and three times of the 28 the CH the clerk charged
a fee and in each of those three times he sought permission from the Secretary of State to charge the hour the highest hourly fee Allowed by laite if you want information about the select board you have to pay for it residents but if you want any information about anything else
including potentially privileged and private information about town employees no problem just ask for it but you'll you'll look into that and check into that for us um so you know before my colleagues accuse me of grandstanding and politicizing this I didn't put this
topic on the agenda uh the chair did I just think this be I think the public records behavior in the new policy is scary I think it's heads on backwards I think it's way too similar to the autocratic policies that we're seeing nationally um you know in no disrespect
to you Mr clerk I I don't I don't think you're making these decisions yourself I think you're acting with direction from someone um and either way we should be concerned um you know and and this is the reason I strongly support the citizens petition that was filed the
other week seeking to change the town of swampit bylaws to ensure that residents are not charged for public records this petition was filed by nine former select board members and two former finance committee members we shouldn't need former elected
and prominent leaders and appointed and elected to show this current board how to lead so when when would we when would we find out about that and who would tell us um when it comes for the warrant it goes on to the warrant so when we start discussing the warrant it just
automatically goes in anybody can person petition which is not enough to correct it to uh Town Administrator when I certified it in my office which is how it's worked since I've been here it just automatically goes on to the warrant sure understood
but it would be nice if you guys know about it to let us know that there's a citizen petition I was just stand I was just standing there when the individual walked by so that's the only reason and I don't I actually I didn't know if it was certified I just heard that I heard about it I don't know where where we're
at I'm according to the bard right now so I just want to be really clear no one on this board is telling you to charge people x amount of dollars and any of these policies were already voted on I think that the policy for charging people was voted on two years ago by
this board and it was request by Mr Fitzgerald so we can go back and look at the minutes um because I actually had a concern at the time was would we be charging residents how does this affect residents and the number one concern was
how many people were sending in requests that were not residents I guess um individuals just looking for more information that was my under that was the explanation at the time and if I if I might just say one thing you go right
ahead thank you um we do not charge this the limit of what we can charge for the legal as you intimated uh we only charged with her what she wanted we were going to charge her because going to be a luminous request she explained what she wanted misso and I
were able to work with her get her the information for free for what she wanted um we do we do try to work with the citizens of swamp got I do very much believe in open government in that the citizens have a right to get this information I try my best incredibly
ridiculously tight budget but I don't think the place to solve this is a couple hundred dollars putting an impediment in terms of people getting access to information even if it's privileged and needs to be redacted so if we need to revisit that policy Let's Do It um so uh I think that's just
absurd Jared could you tell me um I'm not sure if this is on but um are there other towns you know comparable towns that have a similar price structure or policy regarding what they do and and do not charge for have you done that research or I have I have anecdotally
talk to a few other towns I could do the market research if you wish me to or the research from other towns but uh on large request that is standard practice that was standard practice in the last town I worked in on very big requests it's to do that I will just mention that towns that are too much bigger than us
um can't charge for the first two hours under statute so you know we're kind of the higher end of it certainly should not be and is not appropriate in my view um but I do appreciate your answers and your response and I trust your level of professionalism when you enacting these
policies or working with the TA or interim ta to go over these policies um I do also think that with our legal bills and we're going to see in a couple minutes just exactly where they are in a couple minutes just exactly where they are and how much over they are um it
makes sense that when legal is involved or has to be involved because of redaction and whatever um that we do pass on a a fee for that you know we are asking for a lot to be done in certain cases and certain requests um from what you're saying that I think it is fair
that if people really want you know lots and lots of information that require a lot of your time a lot of lawyers time um to go through that stuff you know we we can't just inherently eat that charge right or eat that fee I mean I think that um and I do appreciate that you
work with people and you do try to do as much as you can so it doesn't cost them as much as necessary um but again that is something that you're allowed to do um per mgl and many other towns do the same um so I don't see that it's outside
of our bounds and um you know and of your information I appreciate it Matt might I please um I think uh echoing some of the things that Danielle has passed that that Danielle has said
but also understanding that if there is a policy in place just making sure that it's being followed uniformly right and I'm not claiming it is or isn't I'm just stating that because
um mass than what we do right so we've set an internal policy Which is less than the law allows so now instead of saying the law worse right we could be more um onerous to Citizens we chose not to be but then making sure that in
choosing not to be that we are doing so across the board yes we take that very seriously we apply it equally across the board to everyone since this has gone in um we again we do try to make sure citizens get the information
they need um I am more than willing to either take direction from the board if this is something you wish to change um or work with the TA to get a formal written policy down so that it is stated on our website or where wherever so that
citizens know when they're doing it whatever would be best I um am happy I am happy to do that I'm happy to make sure that that is the case so um yeah I think that's might be helpful if if we are choosing as a board
or not if we're going to discuss this policy going forward and then whatever policy decision is made making sure that it's available to the public so that they know in advance so that they don't show up and then feel like oh this is happening just against me but that it's actually a policy that we've of course
that giving them notice to very good point uh very good point thank you very much I will keep F I will work with the TA and make sure that everyone knows and that no one feels as though they're being targeted unfairly by this I would never want that to be the case thank you Jared
thank you okay next um we have the discussion on appointing a poet laurate Madam chair can can once again I would I would like to request that we take the UV pilot um discussion and possible vote Mr gishan we have swamp Scout residents
that have been sitting here to discuss this poll laurate and then we have our financial so I can appreciate the people I would like I would like to make a motion that we take this out of order and we we immediately discuss water sewer advisory committee's UV pilot program
second all in favor I I Against I i' would rather discuss the budget before we discuss the UV because I think there's implications there I just need five minutes for the poet promise
so the poet laurate uh thank you uh Mar alen feter chair and other members of the select board for the invitation to address you on the position of poet Laurette of swam Scott my name is Steven inone 26 Rock AV
and with me are two of the other past poet Laurette of swamp Scot Lee Eric Freedman and Nancy hwit unfortunately the fourth was unable to be here today her name is Shelley John Kowski Smith we'd like to start with a brief presentation of poems by Shelly they are
in the form of a Japanese poetry style known as Haiku the photographs are her originals and we have the first one [Music] first Haiku I love our town Pier the way
it stands there shaking its fists to the Sea next Nancy huitt 55 Thomas Road Jared why don't we just skip the next one cuz time's uh going uh what is a poet laurat great question
to be honest there's not a definitive answer looking through the history of the title a poet laurate elevates the pursuit of artistic communication by including this as an element of the town community expression it encourages modes of art the poet laurat is a writer who
among other poets has attained some achievement in their work the role focuses on encouraging the writing study and reading of poetry in its wide range of styles and types so swamp Scott has a history of
appointing poet lates uh from 2014 to 2020 the program was uh founded by Samy Lawler she's a retired Elementary School teacher from Stanley school and she was the creator and she served as the first administr administrator to the program
uh she realized that the town of swamp Scott possesses many fine writers and sought to honor some of those as well as writing uh poetry as part of the person's lifelong work such as workshops and things like
that it should um it should be noted that other communities are taking this opportunity to begin or resurrect poets laurate including Lyn and Salem a process to select a Massachusetts state poet Laurette has just recently been
announced by our governor in your written statement you will find a more comprehensive list of communities in Massachusetts and other states honoring their poets in your written P packet there is also an outline of the process by which the past as well as future
poets laurat were or would be chosen as past receivers of this honor we are committed to assisting whomever the select board come on whomever the select board determines will administer the program thank you
for this time to uh to allow us to make this presentation we are here also to answer any questions you might have does anybody have any questions on the process for excuse me does anybody have any questions for
the is I do have one question is this something that um the library Board of Trustees could work with and then make a recommendation or is this something that has to I think so uh the libraryies worked uh I'm the president pres of The tinbox Poets which some of you probably
know and we've and our group has worked with the library in the past uh for contests um as well as um open m nights and things like that okay so is that are you the leaz on so is that something
that you can glad to take to them so Katie faen is going to take up that charge so you'll be hearing from Katie okay and then we'll find out if there's anything we have to do you know I think if the trustees give us a recommendation on who you want then we could vote for
it and make it official how does that sound okay you thank you thank you for coming thank you okay thank you Patrick you want to do the bond
okay so we have a presentation of we're just going to do our bond real quick and then we're going into our financial presentation okay thank you for having me Patrick cloody town treasur of a bond anticipation note in a series of bonds we conducted a sale yesterday a little bit of background we
I was before you about a year ago today uh to conduct a note sale uh for a $12 million note and that's coming due March 6th so in anticipation of that I've met with the Director of Finance and administration and we structured out a
thank you thank you um we structure out uh what a new debt issue would be and this debt issue addresses refinancing the amounts that are coming due as well as financing continued spending on capital projects that have been a last issued
debt um and part of this process we met with two analysts from standard and pores I met with them jointly with the Director of Finance Administration and the Town Administrator our credit rating was reaffirmed our um tripm rating which
is the highest year of credit that a municipality can have so we continue to hold that in our hat um and yesterday we conducted the sale we received competitive bids on both the bonds and the
notes and um the note is almost 11 million and we received seven bids which is um more than we received last time we sold notes last year we received five so there's more competition um the net interest cost for
the winning bid was 2.83 5% on the note and that's going to be awarded to Fidelity Capital markets and on the bond we received 10 bids uh last time we sold bonds we received eight so again more competition uh total interest cost of
3.03% and uh that's about 3.1 million in bonds and attached to your memo that I sent to you on the 13th I gave you the uses of the proceeds from the sale which are all to meeting approved projects that are ongoing or completed and I'll
entertain any questions and then I have a Consolidated motion that I'd ask you to consider can you just repeat what was the what's the interest on the ban and is that Fidelity it's 2.83% net interest cost in its Fidelity
Capital markets is the the winning bidder does anybody have so is this the motion that I have in front of me should be I hope so um so I uh can I have a motion that the written votes presented in this meeting
and can connection with the town sale of its notes and bonds be adopted as written and incorporated into the minutes of this meeting in full so moved second second all in favor I I motion passes thank you Mr
ly now miss s now miss sorrow for Town finances do you know and I share this mic um when the Town Administrator and I were before the board at the last meeting um we were
discussing the town administ preliminary budget and discussing some of the um concerns that we were having and issues we were running into with regards to the reduction in local receipts as well as the um increases in health
insurance and some other costs so the board had asked that we put together a couple different budget scenarios to see how we move forward for the next meeting where the town min's budget will be recommended um so with that um this is
just an overview of the revenue estimates that are static in each of these scenarios the state aid is at the Governor's current proposal estimated local receipts are at just under 5.1 million and the indirect cost from our Enterprise funds are just over a million
that's static in every one of these scenarios um the town manager and I came up with five different budget scenarios that we ran through um in trying to make sure that we were balancing the tax burden on our residents as well as
providing the needed Services as well as level of service that this town has come to expect um so this is a breakdown of those five just as an overview of either stabilization and or excess Levy capacity for obvious reasons we put this
at a very high level um so scenario one would be that 2% plus 425 that results in only $945,000 of additional revenues um net of all the revenue source with this we would need to do a
reduction of 25 positions um equivalent to 16.2 FTE including the closure of one of the Town departments uh we would reduce non-mandatory expenses we would Institute a hiring freeze with the exception of the Town Administrator and Building Commissioner vacancies and we
would do a wage freeze for any non-contracted staff scenario 2 is utilizing 2 .5 instead of the 2% which gives us 1.2 million of estimated revenue and we are pretty much in the same scenario um to give a very high level
look at this the top seven lines are kind of shared expenses that are on the town Side Of The Ledger um so property casualty workers comp end of employment debt payroll health insurance pension and the state assessments I have the
other Town departments rolled up there and then the direct allocation to the swamp public schools these percentages are reflective to of the percent of the overall general fund budget just so following Amy just uh clarification you you have this page in
here after scenario 2 as scenario 4 uses 1.5 million U bringing our Revenue estimate to 2. 74 over the current year as well as the breakdown and then scenario 5 would be
using 2 million of our excess or stabilization uh for 3.2 million additional would still include a reduction 3.2 million additional would still include a reduction of four or 3.47 FTE on the town side
um and here's the breakdown so in pretty much Allen areas it's a compar of approximately 34% of those shared expenses 21% roughly of the rest of the Town departments and 44 for the
school this is in line with where we've been trending with the how that's allocated there was obviously a shift in here in FY 23 because of the debt for the new school um this is just a reflection of our
current Reserve positions so uh 2.5 in available free cash and 7.7 in our excess Levy capacity according to the Department of Revenue going back to that slide for the general stabilization can you tell us
remind us again what the our financial policy recommended guideline is 9 to 10% um so 442,000 of it is available above that 9% threshold 4 42,000 which still put us within our
financial guidance yep so if you used if the vote to town meeting was 442,000 you would still be at the low end if you're recommended okay and can you say the same thing for free cash yes free cash is about 200,000 and what's the guidance 3 to 5%
three to 5% one there not a combination of both it is not yes just so part of what we get the feel of the board of kind of which scenario you feel most comfortable with and then if it's scenarios 3 four
or five what the feel of the board is with regard to which bucket um and that can still evolve throughout the process before town meeting yeah I don't did you mention what the assumption is for the school budget uh
in each of these scenarios so it's varying in each scenario um basically as the revenue increased the school budget increased as well as the revenue increases but the revenue I thought you have is is holding the same in each scenario of
stabilization and excess Levy are also considered Revenue sources so basically as you go through scarios was the same in every scenario except five it should not be so you're saying that the percentage that you're
allocating in the school budget varies yes over each scenario yes oh not the dollar amount but the percentage of the budget you're saying because if you we we adjusted the amount so that it stays approximately 44% of the overall general fund budget okay because
if you oh I'm sorry at least three and four stays the same okay that may have ER on my part five it goes up and it goes up a little bit from 2 to three but between three and four it stays the same so okay just
to so um I'm going to be I want to be super transparent so you know we've had uh individual meetings with the uh inter term time um the none of these scenarios assume that level of increase is that
correct that is correct yeah just want to be super clear about that incre normally is y yeah M well no I'm saying what the the assumption is here is about 3.25% even though their request is 4.79 yes and historically what has been
their increase I would have to double check it is three something okay um so obviously with regard to these increases I figured the next question would be what is this due to
the taxes can I before you go there I'm a little bit uh based on our earlier conversations it seems like things even got worse in the last couple days or I misunderstood something earlier because I thought once we got to scenario 5 that there would be no reductions in
FTE so we were not able to do it with no reductions um and I don't want to I don't want to say that they are not painful M reductions um obviously
not as impactful as the first two scenarios sure and this kind of language reduction of non-mandatory expenses yes that's beyond the FTE reductions correct so maybe we're more Thrifty with legal fees or
something one would hope I did not reduce the legal fees in any of these scenarios what's the What's the magnitude of that generally speaking that type of reduction talking about $100,000 we talking about you're finding 500,000 or more non-mandatory expense
reduction um it's it is over half a million of non-mandatory expense reductions which are going to be real I mean I have to assume yes it's not people are going to feel it somewhere
yes yeah can you tell me the last time we've had a budget where we've had to reduce FTE last that was I'm gonna say two I'm not sure if you mentioned I might have missed it in the beginning
the two big factors about that are particular driving did you mention that name is I didn't so talked to you all so much this week um the two biggest drivers is really the reduction in local receipts through the investment income um because we spent the pro Bond
proceeds from the new school um we were fortunate that that gave us about $2 million of additional local receipts in the last two years um and we now have a beautiful new all Entry School we just don't have the money sitting in the bank
and then the other is the building permits anticipated to be happening in FY 26 or FY 27 um for the how about health insurance the other one is the health insurance so our health insurance
is right now we're through the GIC at this stage they're still recommending that we budget for a 10.5% rate increase which is about $1.02 million increase for what we have uh
right now for enrol e um bringing our health insurance budget to just under 7.99 million right now in the projected FY 26 budget we will have the actual rates by the end of March um which will be during
the finance committee's review and process of the budget and we will make the redu the reduction um that is hopefully coming when we get the actual rates um um and
we will be not reallocating that within the general fund we will just be reducing the general fund by any savings in that want to talk to taxes not really okay so this is just a brief
overview of the property tax residential rate history uh this is the per thousand rate in case you were wondering why your individual tax bill is not $12 that's per thousand um this is just in um and then I want to thank Patrick
ly for working with me and double checking my model on this so we used the FY 25 uh residential values and applied that information to the projected FY
26 this does not assume any additional stabilization or free cash that would potentially be used in the fall for before tax rate setting time and this is right now modeled at just 2.5% tax levy
425 New Growth no use of stabilization or access would have the projected increase to the median single family tax bill of $46.74 um and then I have a separate sheet if
you want to walk through additional um models of exess where it wasn't a static thing I didn't want to just put it on the slide I'm sorry did you say which scenario this is this would be scenario two
two so this is without any use of excess scenario 2 one that eliminates an entire department correct yes number was like 100 and then I will say that at fy2 tax rate setting time prior to the use of
free cash our median increase was going to be about $383 so this is not far off from where we were in fy2 so in FY 25 we were at what number number it would have been $383 had we not used had we not used any
free cash mhm okay you want to say anything show that makes much more sense thank you for clarifying that I I had the same Panic it's like what happened to 151 yeah that that's the differential yes that's right
so and now we're looking at 16 and that's before we even look to stabilize this budget with additional funds can we look at let's see what those F let's see what those numbers are
we look at those scenarios please we can so this is a I'm just gonna drop that down real quick so this is there we go this is slightly more than the spreadsheet I I know I at least
showed a couple of you in the meetings um so the top half is what you have on that slide so the 416 could you make that any larger Amy yeah would you mind sorry I have it on a tiny screen you guys have it a big one
she's trying not to scare us with large numbers okay so apparently I'm still logged on it on my computer at my desk so um if you want to any number you want
to so right now you're modeling an increase to the levy of half a million which if we're talking about scenario 2 would presuppose a half a million dollars of stabilization in theory right because you want it we're getting I'm sorry
three because we're getting to a million of offset yeah if you do have half yep so that would be an additional $75.60 on the tax bill um and this is the median or this is the median this is the median yeah I
wanted to keep it Apples to Apples with our normal um tax rate models and what's the what is their median what is that 799 769 700 it should be on your slide model too yeah yes it is oh there it
is um so that would that 7560 on top of this 416 74 would bring it to the 492 to the cents that's the per thousand right increase so right now our per it's 11
something is 1147 it would be 1201 with just a 2 and a half 425 this additional half million would bring it to 1211 increasing it by an
additional 64 cents per thousand I wanted to have it modeled both ways depending on how you want to look at it you so a million would just double it like it's the 150 120 I think is what the one how about it just start with the 750 yeah
yeah and I just want to emphasize something you said earlier which is we the three sort of ways we got here or the ways that you've highlighted have been most predominantly the way we got here yes um and we expect that we
will be here again next year we do so um we are finalizing updating the forecast model um so that when we come back for the March 5th presentation we can also show you know as a lot of the
new Revenue that we're anticipating in town isn't going to reflect in our receipts until FY 28 so you need to show multiple multiple years because yeah this is very very serious on how we're going to be dipping
into the unused Levy how we're going to be dipping into stabilization and then how we are going to rebuild our St stabilization people are going to have to pay more yes pay right and not just this year but next year
too um I think it's the the acknowledgement has to be that the we use them all this year just to delay the problem next year impact then next year will be greater right because you won't have as much funds to use um so does it
make more sense to use half of stabilization like use half the stabilization funds we have available hoping maybe some more Falls to from free cash maybe puts them in a position next year to use a little bit more than half of those
um but yeah we we've also had the idea floated of at maybe using full excess Levy and that way you still have the full amount of your stabilization there in the fall when you
actually see how the tax ratees looking modeled out with the actual current year information so there are different ways to bite at this um which is why we're here to try to have that conversation as best
we can so miss miss srow so I mean this is certainly a a a gloomy gray uh scenario but it I don't think All Is Lost I think we do have growth projects uh in the pipeline can you speak to to
when we will see those those growth th those those projects come to fruition hit the tax roles and maybe help us grow out of this situation I would say our our biggest ones are going to be obviously the
Hadley Hotel um which right now we're anticipating those receipts to start hitting in Fall of 27 which is the beginning part of FY 28 um as well as the building permits for the new venen Square development um we'll start having
those come in and then we'll start receiving the property taxes and um any revenues from the new commercial buildings that will be there um and I've been in lots of talks with our community development director Marcy gaska to
really try to nail down the timelines of these um and realistic projections for them be word realistic but thank you Mary I know you're watching in your opinion are we going to be able to grow ourselves out of this problem yes we are
yes this is not this is not unforeseen this is a in the forecast align and we wouldn't have this Gap um and obviously that is not the reality that we're in right now but we always knew that you know this was going to come you know we
all know Sean always had a big push for we we don't need to cut more expenses we need to grow our revenue and this is exactly that I think using using the interest the interest income in the budget have the property that could
that's behind us now but that's that's that's where we're at I think you know the one the one place where we have a possibility of savings would possibly be in you know getting a better deal on the employee health insurance you know that we started looking at maybe we can maybe
we can pool with Lynn get a better pool yeah let's see what their deals are um maybe we can make a deal about the UV pilot and do that tonight we we'll barter some UV pilot for some health insurance so what um
what is what what are our next what are our next steps now yeah so let me switch back to before we go there marily I just want to really Hammer home uh just how I mean I think it's probably evently clear how severe this is but you know we're here
this the school committee is not um but you know this is I think a couple if not several or many of us wanted to really answer the call for the schools this year uh and you know
this puts this all in a vice certainly I feel that way um and you know it's not that the increase that's embedded in here is bad uh but compared to what the schools uh felt they adamantly need um
this clearly is not assumed and we're already talking about a significant increase in people's taxes right um so uh you know we've got these things happening on the town side about the interest the health insurance and
building permits being down that affects everybody collectively um and you know we're talking about scenarios here where we're actually reducing so we as you all have I mean we know that you m in schools
with this type of approach um so this is you know yeah I I will say um this was not an easy um task one creating five budgets
isn't easy anyway but even just balancing it the conversations that gin and I have had to have were incredibly difficult um we wanted so much to be able to give all of our
departments what they asked for more of what they asked for um and trying to balance that with the fiduciary responsibility to our taxpayers um with trying to keep with you know previous promises we've made to
the town and also trying to honor you know trying to give as much as we can to the school we just couldn't you know we couldn't give the
school the full amount that they asked for while looking at the prospect of closing a town Department I think what's really important is we need to see we need to see multiple years in front of us one of the mistakes that
we've made is not seeing multiple years in front of us and just taking the information for what it was and uh this is a this is a serious problem that we have so do people want to give their opinions on what scenarios they like or do you
want to wait until the next meeting well so the next meeting is the town administ is recommended okay so we do need you need our input we do need the guidance tonight even consider it I don't even it on right the first two scenario speak to
that I don't I has the been given with the earlier today to the one-on-one meeting board members okay but on which so they I know the situation I just wanted to know if she had anything different in her conversations with them I I have a
question were we still going Danielle no go ahead okay um between scenarios 3 four and five you're just going down you know one position and yet it's costing uh 500 or going up one whatever 5, the expenses as well yeah what's that it's
adjustments in the expenses as well so the the amount of the non-mandatory expenses varies greatly in those scenarios so in scenario 3 like can you give us a range is it like scenario three it's a really more like a million doll
cut in mandatory and scenario 5 it's more like not much at all would seem to be did you say in five was a half million did you say five was a half a million in man reduction in mandatory expenses yes so five was a half million
so what so others have to be H do we're talking million nonmandatory I mean not not I'm not conceptually where coming from um we
get into it's you know it's cutting into all the nights to have so it's cutting into Community programs it's cutting into staff education um it's cutting into um you know even office supplies there there's already a pen in town hall
you don't need another pen like it's just going through that bringing them down you know the difficulty with us having to weigh in on this at such a high level I mean it makes it difficult when we don't know I mean we do because we've had
individual conversations but in in this scenario here like I'm looking at you know scenario 3 with six positions I don't know if the six positions are you know the chief of police or you know you know something else right so
you know things like that would would matter right the the actual level of the position what position we're talking about how that affects service level um um so that's what you know as well as the non-mandatory expenses you just
spoke to so you know maybe it's employee development it's continuing education who knows but to not see that stuff yeah makes it really difficult to have an opinion have to have the guidance to recommend a budget
and then budget about you know 15,000 residents heads up you know reality check to have these conversations heads up and really a real you know you know like to have these convers challenge that scenario is one absolutely a lot better path we just
talk a little bit philosophically about Levy versus stabilization and maybe where people are sitting there just to sort of understand cuz I'm not really certain that I understand
what the best financial strategy is cuz I know that this is going to be a problem fincial strategy is cuz I know that this is going to be a problem next year so I sort of am like well do we save in our savings stabilization count for a rainy day or do we utilize it all knowing we're going to have this problem
next year be but we're offsetting an basically tax cycle a an annual tax bill it will be lower for a whole year knowing that next year it's going to be impact more aggressively impacting yeah do you have a recommendation Amy on
which how we go about this or which scenario you would recommend or um I I'm still going off the spread here where we had a 0 five option and I was like wait um I I think what the Town
Administrator and I will do um based off what Gino just did um I think we're going to come forward with recommendation four and then in the presentation we will explain what that
have I think is however proposed like the idea of doing 100% Levy and that way you still have all of your lovers in the fall when you actually see what that tax rat going to look like to be able to
address it mhm um because I would really hate to use the stabilization now take the tool off the table and then in the fall not really have anything cushion to make those reductions what else might
we be paying for in the fall that we're not talking about right now anything no no no I'm asking I'm not I'm not saying like oo I have something just asking we're not paying for that no
um I am not aware of anything else great there is another strategy right which is that because this is a a known dip um I mean we can't be absolutely positive about the hotel or this or that or whatever coming in 2028 but you know the
the 9% or the two to 3 to 5% those are guidelines I mean you could dip below because you know that it's a short-term M possibility and so just to make sure that that look at a look at a long-term forecast how many years we have coming
in how even going into town meeting night um as you all know from looking at the warrant that Revenue estimate is at the beginning it's not part of the vote um obviously for transparency we would want to explain to town meeting that the
intention is for this money to be coming from risk on the bond rating and how much that project L cost us so with the um rating Hall we had with S&P as well as the previous ones um they look at our
reserves as a whole um they look at our financial policies which as I've stated will be getting updated um over the summer to make additional recommendations um to maybe refine those guidelines um but inclusive of the
reserves they include the excess Levy as part of our reserves because it is money that we can tap into as a town you know when it is needed so forever problem we don't or maybe it's even a in a slight
increase instead of a plateau but um but we've been very prudent about not about being financially wise and so hopefully we can weather the storm even
with some Cuts but in a responsible way that utilizes the things that we've sort of stored away for this exact issue yeah I would see the scenario a little bit differently I would say that your scenario was that you wanted to go to
Disneyland and instead of tapping into your savings account which is a stabilization fund you decided to tap into your friend's bank account which is the taxpayer's pocket in order to make trip because we have the money right now in the stabilization funds that you could say that's what this is for right
now and that's already put aside right and but if we decide not to use that and keep to policy at a time when we are in a crunch when when else were you when are you going to use that otherwise you know it's nice to have it it's generating interest you know it's great but like
this is the time now now to say maybe that's good planning stabilization we have UPS we have Downs this is one of the Downs as opposed to going over and saying yeah we we still have our bank account over here but I actually want to use your money over here to pay for the
short-term problem I have what's the dollar amount in the stabilization 6.7 million I I think Doug makes a really good point because um as I was trying to explain to Diane today about the difference between excess and stabilization stabilization is already
taxed money tax yeah swamp's has already been taxed that and right we are holding it in an account by nature to stabilize in you know as necessary yeah right whereas the excess is not yet taxed it
is still sitting in your pockets right um very true that's a good point right I refer the stabil I will however say the stabilization like free cash is a one-time influx right it does not do anything to help you next year right
instead it actually creates a further hole for you to dig out of the next year which is why I was saying I recommend at least like a 5050 yeah split split because otherwise you're just shifting the whole burden of this to next year's
residents a 50-50 split that does not take us below our guidelines so that way if we were to decide in a future year next year uh what have you um we could then determine if we need to play around
with those with those guidelines yeah um so I certainly would support using money that has already been taxed uh that would be my suggestion and then but not but not below our financial guidelines
for fiscal year 26 that gives us some flexibility in the in the future is just that I don't know if that's enough money no no no I'm just saying just uh 50 you said 50/50 I I would say I wouldn't go below that guy I think Doug sorry I
think David's saying use the approximate 400,000 to bring us down to the 9% of stabilization yes there's 200 in free cash 200 in yeah so that's 600 so so whatever it is 600 so I think we do have
other free cash requests if you you go back to the school with the 200,000 that they're requesting for the utility so we really only have potentially than four I think I think we need to see what it's going to look like multiple years
before we make a decision on on which yeah which scenario we really use yeah I I just feel like it isn't prudent to spend all of the stabilization fund even though it is already taxed because it puts us at a maybe a disadvantage in the potentially
in the fall to be able to have any that tool on the table to utilize to reduce the tax burden lowers our Revenue too so to me it makes sense to leave some of that there not I'm not saying all of it I'm not saying just go straight to Levy and but it makes sense
to use a combination that leaves some of that on the table so that we can so we have the potential to utilize it um rather than depleting it because I do feel like easing the tax burden across
two years is better especially given the financial climate we're in then to we don't know if this financial climate will be worse next year or or better and so to to to put it off and make it next year's problem we could be putting our
residents in an even worse situation because if the economy is worse and then we need to access even greater percentage of the levy I don't know yeah um and as you all know when we do the tax rate in the fall
um we're already you know four or five months into that fiscal year we do have a better outlook on how our local receipts are trending and we can update those estimates at that time to you know
potentially reduce that tax impact as well when does the insurance bill come in March um we are we met with our insurance company Tuesday um and they are going to have anticipating to have rates to us uh
by early April what's the anticipation increase in that 12% that's just on our property property casualty yep and uh Mega for workers comp is requesting 7% increase from the
state we do however have a 08 rating so uh we were advised that we might only see a 5% increase because we have such a low workers comp rating okay and then Health you're saying is they're telling they're telling you to look at 10.5
which isn't even the high it was 8.5 to 12.5 and a 10.5 aggregate um which is what we have modeled and we have those rates at the end of March so you have that modeled but it could go up as high as 12 what you're saying could go up as high as
12.5 okay and I'm sorry you said that coming in when is that number coming in end of March so it's right before open enrollment okay all right so it's it's tough to give you an idea on what we're looking at as far as
a scenario without seeing longer forecasts out there it is at least good to know that we're not looking at scenarios one and two so right um the Town Administrator and I will keep working at this and
put together his recommended budget for anticipation of the next meeting you guys will so you'll see we'll Charter have the line item budget and everything before March 1st they say we could also eliminate S5
anybody really in favor of number five to 2 million I I can't I can't because I don't know really what's underneath the hood we don't know what it looks like yeah we got to see it all right so we're at 345 right yeah please 345 and future
forecast okay thank you Amy okay so now we can jump to we move to the UV pilot now jump to UV pilot r [Music] so at our last meeting we had a number of
questions that we we asked for and I think the answer to those questions came in yesterday to to people I didn't I didn't get them my email address doesn't um ready a
packet yeah right great um so want to start discussion on how people feel about this how would you like to start this can I start by making a suggestion yeah
please um so in the past 24 hours we've probably gotten 10 12 emails going back and forth about people in support people who aren't in support people who are respond responding to people who are in support
and not in support um I can tell you that that I myself have not had the chance to digest everything that's happened in the in the last 24 hours um I would like to suggest that we
hold a joint meeting with the water sewer advisory commission um and we have this conversation collectively with their board um in the room so we can understand and the kleinfelder representative and Gino and you know
whatever other stakeholders they want to bring to the table or we want to bring to the table um we asked a ton of questions two weeks ago as Mar Ellen stated we only got answers in the last 24 hours um and I just have not been able to
review them to be honest between my my day job and everything else so that is my suggestion I mean on one level Katie I appreciate that on another level it it's very frustrating because so we just asked all these people to sit here for 2
hours and now we're not really going to decide or have a conversation about it and that just feels like thank you very much and and your other comment was that we had to wait because of the budget but that doesn't really feel like that's the
reason that we're waited well I just made a suggestion it doesn't mean that we're going to follow it I mean you can have convers to suggest it I mean it just feels like I mean you voted to not have the conversation earlier because you wanted to wait for the budget but doesn't really sound like it's the budget so I just because I'm making a
suggestion I don't know how the rest of the board feels about my suggestion I'm happy to H have tried the best I can to have the conversation I doesn't mean we can't listen we've already had public comment on it I
so we have to make decisions that are in the best interest of swamp Scott and we have to make solid decisions based on information so if there are select board members here and I am one of them who doesn't feel they have enough information or they haven't been able to go through everything and look at
different scenarios that's the that's that's the situation that we're in so it's an honest question it's um if people on the board want to um have a a bigger meeting with the water andur we can have a
bigger meeting with the water andur if we want to just discuss it all out here I mean the fact that information came within 24 hours that's a little bit of a problem that's a serious problem really so and um you know I think we just just go
around the table and see where where people stand I just I just think we've had numerous items on our agenda where we've received information that afternoon or that evening or at our meeting um I think for something that is so
incredibly important such as Kings Beach we've talked about this for years um I sat as the chair of this board and we talked about this each and every meeting the Town Administrator gave us an update each and every meeting we established the water sewer infrastructure advisory
committee uh that's been in place for a year to study this for us they have uh you know they they they certainly weren't unanimous but they were in support of moving forward here um our state delegation is in support of moving
forward here you know we we talked about the budget but we also talked about the we need to talk about the fact that we $5 million was was provided to the city of Lynn and the town of swampit to address this very
issue this 100e issue of Kings Beach and again we continue to to to say we need more time we want to have joint meetings like our the water sewer infrastructure advisory committee has has has voted they've they've they've spoken they've
made their recommendation to us we need to take that information and and move forward the $400,000 that is that it's going to cost to run this UV pilot you know these are funds that were given that were provided to us by the state these aren't this
this we're not taking town of swamp Scott funds and putting it here we're taking $400,000 of the two well can can I can I finish and then you can and then you can speak can you just give me one second if if folks could just be quiet that would
be really helpful appreciative okay I have to tell what's happening okay so I understand so so look I mean we we've we can we can talk about this today we can talk about this again but at at at another meeting it's just it's a continuation of kicking this problem
down it kick the can down the street and we've we're running into these cans like we have an opportunity right now to to take care of our to take care of our infrastructure and figure it out and to to take this step this next step this
incremental step so we're so this UV pilot is in place for our summer beach season if it's not in place for our summer beach season we are not going to have we're not going to have sufficient information to make a decision we're we're going to we're going to have partial information we're going to say
oh why didn't we do this uh for June 1 uh we're going to miss that opportunity you know we don't have all the information we don't know if if this is if this is going to work we don't have all the answers as to where this this is going to be cited but again we can't let perfect be
the perfect be the enemy of good here like the time the time is to take action and we we have a water sewer infrastructure advisory committee some of the hardest working individuals I just want to commend uh the chair of that uh of that committee uh Liz Smith
uh and and your board uh thank you for all of the hard work that you've put into this um I don't think there's anybody in in the town of swampit uh who's a volunteer who has who has any uh you've probably forgotten more than you know a lot of us will ever uh know about
this so again I I don't think this is a perfect plan I think it's a good plan I think we're going to learn a lot and I think we should I think we should Advance this I think I I'll be supporting it uh whether tonight tomorrow or you know uh in a in a few
weeks um that's my position thank you I think to say that the $400,000 coming out of uh the earmarked funds is not taking money out of swamp Scot taxpayers is
sort of a misnomer because we're using that funds for id id work or lining the pipes and so we are using that as pre preventing us from coming to the swamp Scott taxpayer and saying we need more money to line pipes um so there is a
repercussion against the citizens of this town if we take that money and instead of lining our pipes spend it towards this pilot I'm not saying that's not maybe a good idea I'm just saying I just don't have the information
to determine that that is the best idea for those funds just point of clarification can you does anyone have the um the actual dispersement for the 2.5 and the different categories there way to go
Sarah um can you because I'm not sure that's quite true Katie but I don't remember for sure because I know we had different allocations for different things in there and part of it was for the UV so I want so the vote that the select board made on November 20th 23
um was the last vote on the 2.5 ear Mark M it was 100,000 for a peer review study of idde and Source elimination work which I've been told is not going to go forward um okay well that's news to me okay you that can you project this is
there a way to see it Amy up on the board a little bigger larger please let's see so the 100,000 200,000 for remaining balance of kleinfelder complimentary
strategy um 400,000 for Phase 2 idde and design and 1.8 million for phase 2A construction was the vote that was taken and why are we not spending the 100,000 on a peer review do you
know thought we weren't no well actually we haven't but we we haven't yet no right will we will be right potentially yeah well it's our vote it's actually our vote so it's your vote it's our vote so it's uh that 100 is still there okay
so that withstanding we have how much left we have 1.9 is this what this is telling me we have not spent 1.9 as at the end of but we it's not 1.9 that's not allocated Danielle we allocated the 1.8 allocated the full 2.5 yeah right so
1.9 is not spent yet got it so if we were going to take 400,000 out of this mhm potentially other than the design idde design work and the Phase 2 construction which are the biggest buckets the only other places that we
can take money out of this that are not going to end up in srf loans or other funding that we will need to find to pay for pipes or projects is about $100,000 and that means the peer review is off the table not necessarily okay because a
capital article we had last year $3.5 million 1.7 was going to fisherman and 1.8 was going to phase 2A of Kings Beach so we had potentially we were going to use 1.8 of this and 1.7 the other we're going to have $3.5 million to do that
project bids came in pretty low we didn't bid the full project and then it came in at 1.8 so there is money available if okay Y how much money is available do we know we up close to 2 million okay but obviously that's going
to go to Future work as well right but the money is available so we also have what 187 that we spent out of the Enterprise fund that was never appropriated correct never appropriated it was just spent out of the Enterprise
fund to do this the kleinfelder the kleinfelder um yeah I I do study I do want to clarify so the 187 was appropriated because it was appropriate cost from the fuel Enterprise fund the intention of those costs was that they
would come out of what fuel Enterprise fund the sewer entprise fund it was it was spent out of the sewer Enterprise fund which is I don't I don't really i' really have to see the policies because that was spent at a sewer Enterprise which is supposed to be used for operations and that was not an
operational that was not operational Capital out of the Enterprise funds not without an appropriation you you you can't spend Capital money without even the capital committee approving it that Capital committee never even saw
that per our Charter that's a that's a serious problem just to kind of get us back to this conversation that seems to me to be a little bit of a separate separate thing so I just want to say that I appreciate everybody that's here and I really think
this is Monumental that for 75 or 100 years this problem has existed and this is probably the first time that Lynn and swamp Scot have been in the same room actually sitting down trying to figure out how to solve it so I'm encouraged by that
I think that's incredibly positive um to Katie's point it has been a real bear for me to sit and listen to the chair of this of the water sewer committee and the vice chair be it completely opposite ends of
the spectrum on whether or not this thing should be supported okay and I rely on people like that CU I will admittedly tell you this is not my wheelhouse right I'm not an engineer this is not something that I do that I have you know massive working knowledge
of I just don't so I am relying on that committee and the members of that committee to give me their feedback and as much information as possible okay with the vote that they had and they did vote to approve it I think it was 5'3 after I watched the two hours of that meeting it was so very contentious
to me and so very polarizing opposite what what the members of that committee felt that it really gave me a pause because for me you know you know I'm trying to evaluate all of this I'm trying to look at you know and I'm telling you pages and pages of emails
over the past 24 hours from people against for against for you know and you're trying to figure out who to believe who has the best you know who makes the most sense everybody makes sense because we all want to fix it that's that's no question right I mean I ran for this seat last year and I could have told you that was one of the
biggest things I was concerned with and I still am right but when you hear you know things that you know Mr Spritz brought up tonight okay you know with the generator and the pollution and diesel fuel little bits like that just Snippets of things that are you know
from people who are fairly well versed in this stuff it you there's just so much to consider right and I think that without giving all of that consideration and there's a lot of it like it would make me feel like I'm making a rash decision and that's what I
want to avoid doing right but I don't want to not make a decision and I want it to be timely because because I really do feel like to David's point we have kicked this can way far down the road than it needs to be we have and we need action and I and I don't disagree with
that um but I just want to make sure it's the right course of action and we go about it the right way um that's just like me my honest feeling and that's that's that's the best that I can say or the the you know the easiest way that I can explain it but if it were a
really easy eight nothing we're all in favor of this thing it is absolutely perfect let's do it that's one thing but that's not what we have there are a number of questions and I'm I'm you know from a scientist who's the vice chair of this committee right who's bringing up
things that I kind of are over my head to be what quite honest with you they're just not things that I'm well versed in he's making good points but he's not the only one right there are a lot of people in town Dr fredman Mr Spritz Mr patios like that made really really compelling
ARG ments and and gave me pause um one big piece of it is where is it going to go right where is it going to go who is it going to effect that lives in this town I have to think about that right I'm obligated not that I'm not obligated to think about land of course I am um
like I said but there are just a lot of things that that are making me pause that that's just my honest opinion so one one issue that I have is when we talk about it's taken a hundred years to deal with this this is a pilot program
that potentially could get the Beach open for next summer the summer for this summer The Summer of 2025 I personally believe that on dry weather this I I have no reason not to think that it was
not going to work I've always thought it's going to work but my next question is what's next and for me it's very important to see what is the plan down the road so let's just say it does work
what's the next step is it so the next step is is Lynn and swanscott going to be prepared to invest millions and millions and millions of dollars into a a long-term future plan and where would that actually go and how
are we going to how are we going to subsidize it we just sat down and talked about our financials which are are pretty tough right now but it's the having a long-term plan is my
issue I even think of short the even if we don't go to long term if we just think about the short term like I brought up last uh meeting some issues that I was cons some concerns I have about the neighbors Mr Spritz brought up some great points about the diesel that
was going to be used I think I heard in a water sewer advisory committee meeting that there is a potential to bring the voltage of uh electricity needed to run it on electric but that the timing wasn't going to work so that it would be open for the summer but if that
mitigates the issues to the neighbors and the amount of pollution that it's going to produce to run the pilot then it might be worth exploring how long that is going to take how long we can do before we get there to make that pilot to ease the pain of
that pilot on that neighborhood I don't stand because I haven't been given the information how like is it true that National Grid could bring the correct voltage to run those machines to that island that we're
hoping to use and if so what's the projection on time I understand the projection on time is not for summer but are we talking 6 months are we talking a year what is the projection then 18ths 12 to 18 months
so um clearly This is complicated we have all it's it's not like you know we didn't just start our education yesterday we've been you know on this path some of us for year and a half more for a few of you
um we just had a conversation and made Bud uh decisions about the budget that in a similar way we've been educated this week and prior and then we actually got the budget today we looked
at information and we still were able to give direction to Gino that was on how count at 70 or 80 million here we're talking about $400,000 it's not no big surprise we've known it's $400,000 for a while we've
known a lot of these issues we know it's going to block some people's view we know it's probably going to be noisy and stinky and it's not going to open the beach for the summer okay just to be clear we don't know how many more days is going to open it I think we all can
guess that it's going to be better with it than without it in terms of the beach but you know hopefully we don't have a very rainy summer and it's actually open a lot more than it would have been because of this but whether it's one week from now
or three weeks from now you're still going to have people that have different opinions about this it's not like magically the water and supervisory committee is going to come to unanimous vote in three weeks from now I think it's clear many of us maybe all of us deeply
respect Dr vley and his perspective on this I I don't think that a week or two from now he can speak for himself if he were here he's magically going to have a turnaround about this right um I think there's at least one member of the committee that voted no before that I
understand now is switched to his perspective I don't think so no that's changed also in the past 24 hours and not not I think a member of the committee was calling I if you're saying that then I think I got a phone call from a member of that committee
so whether it's 6 to2 or 5 to3 yeah whatever it is we have committees they looked at all the information they still voted to support it we don't always have to take the
recommendation of a committee but it's trying to think whether or not I remember situation where we actually didn't so we don't want to undermine the committee I'm
sure we've known it's $400,000 it's true that it will take away from the work we could have done but if we didn't get the 2.5 million to begin with we would had to pay for all that ourselves so the delegation worked to
get this money they didn't know at that point I don't think there was anything about UV we still are taking a very balanced approach we're still putting them the vast majority of the money into idde but this is a secondary bet I'm one of those people that's like I want to go
Whole Hog about fixing the pipes but also it's good to have a little portfolio strategy make sure you kind of have a balance just in case and even I know just fixing the pipes ain't going to get any extra days in the beach this year or next year or the following
year so I would ask beg beseech my colleagues to take this calculated
risk we can put stipulations we can Nuance this for anyone wants to Penny pinch it I might have talked about that last time um we want to say that we we got to find electricity we got to find solar we got
to find you know some other way to instead of the diesel put that criteria on it we got to bite the bullet that in the interest of so many people that we're this
close let's think about is there some compensation we can have for those three neighbors or so that are that are really going really going to be impacted by this let's work the issues instead of like Mak it an All or Nothing let's work
the issues how can we actually kind of Round the Corner on this I that's why I was suggesting having a joint meeting with I'm not antiuv pilot I'm not I just am anti this iteration of UV pilot I want to understand are there pieces that
we can tweak and Nuance to make the neighborhood impact less to understand the level of the levels of success and how they relate to Swampscott versus Lynn to tweak the pilot to make it in a
because I think right now and correct me if I'm wrong again I have not been able to digest the answers that came in but the data that will come out of the pilot it won't be segregated between swamp Scott's data and Lynn's data it will just be the dat but we know that the bacteria levels are
not the same right so to me it would maybe maybe the I mean I'm I'm I'm not never mind Chris Chris sorry I I'm just I don't get easily frustrated but I'm feeling frustrated
because I'm hearing concerns across the board and sorry Katie just to on you you said swamp Scott versus Lynn in your last sentence which that's makes me so sad that we're that people are I know that's not literally what there's a
swamp Scout outfall yeah and there's a Lin outfall we did and there's data that comes from one and there's data that comes from the other right and then maybe you didn't get to read my email from earlier this week but swamp Scott has a much higher level of contamination so in terms of what do we owe to each
other you know from where I said swamp Scott owes it to Lynn because we have five different beaches and 50 years ago we took the State Beach and now we polluting winds only so sorry I'm getting but but in terms of we've spent so much time over the last eight years
is when I started in save the harbor to stop the verses there was so much finger pointing and bring people back together which we did we had a searing committee and then I've been hearing in these last few select board meetings that the information is not getting to all of you
and I don't know why I mean the minutes are up on kingsby j.com the updates about the stuff I've sent you in the last 48 hours has been available for three years like this is ongoing outcoming I do my best you know I covid-19 miles of beaches in my job
but I moved here for this and I think some really good points to make I think those details need to be worked out but but it is really frustrating to hear the versus language that there's this I mean we're in this together it's it's yes we are the water doesn't care where the
where swamp Gott L stops and the but does the solute but doesn't that affect the solutions no it's one water I mean we all have to fix our pipes but if I guess these are complimentary solutions to pipelining right
so it's not pipelining good yeah swamp has the broken pipes Lyn has Lyn doesn't have broken pipes no it's the elicit connections so it's it's just a different issue I I so appreciate all the questions and we have been working
so hard for three years to to answer everybody's questions and do it together we sat down in the fall uh chairman uh chairwoman uh fleser and talked about how this was going to go the water tour advisory committee we got through the water tour advisory committee
presentation a couple weeks ago uh we uh I I know things are short turn around you got the answers yesterday and and I I wish it would have been sooner but we are under a time crunch if if we're going to get this pilot to run this summer we need the approval now because
we need to procure the rest of the parts and then the parts need to be installed and if it's not up and running by June then it's a waste of money I I I totally understand the impact this is going to have on the neighbors and I will work as best I can to make this as palatable as
possible I'll go there I'll talk to them I'll say thank you for putting up with this so we can have a clean beach this summer it's only three and a half months if this was a permanent infrastructure project then I think some of these questions would be a lot more important
but they're going to be gone in September I I I hear you on the money as well I think the the source of these funds is really really relevant context and and I think that you have the capacity in the earmark to get this done
and I I know folks have asked about the original Clin Felder study from uh 2022 that was not my decision it was cleared to me that this was going to be done and how it was going to be paid for but in the spirit of
collaboration to get this done I think that the city of Lynn would be able to add to its share of the UV pilot half of the share of that original kleinfelder study which means that the city of Lynn would pay
$500,000 for the pilot and the town of swamp school pay $300,000 I know I we just saw that you have the capacity for that $300,000 that $2.5 million e Mark I I'm not an engineer either but we hire experts and the town
of swuit has been working with kleinfelder for years it's it's who you have decided that you trust to make these recommendations and who your predecessors decided and they're great and and I and I've I've been honored to work with them they recommended this perfect time if you dance too then
maybe this they recommend they recommended this in 2022 and then they recommended it again in 2025 we asked them uh with the support of the town to do a study that we split with the town of swaps to to evaluate this and they recommended it it
they wrote a memo I know you all guys all got it those those are the experts and we're happy to hear from everyone and it's going to improve the final project when we hear from the experts and and the other people you know that that we rely on in the city are the people we hire and you know I know we have the support of the acting count
administrator uh and and uh tpw director within whose purview this this Falls uh I I I I I understand the questions but I I think we can get this done I think the question is for me it's
not about getting this done this is this is a small small object here compared to the big dollars we're looking at down the road and I think the DPW and the interim
Town Administrator would agree with me that this is not a Kings Beach decision or a solid a not solid a um sewer and water committee issue as much as it is a finance committee a financial issue for
me this is about finances so we have so we have what we're saying is listen it could cost x amount of dollars $25 to $50 million to build this fa facility we don't know where we're going to put the facility and then let's not forget we still have
to line our pipes and it's going to cost us money to manage this facility so we can't pretend like this is just one summer where we're have a shot at getting on the beach this is long term we're talking the next 20
years how are we going to are we going to turn around and make is this town willing to make a commitment to spend that large amount of money we I mean we right now we're talking about Capital Improvements to get our Middle School up and going so where do we where's the
balance in there yeah I mean I I totally understand that and that's a big sum of money I and no one that I've been working with is going to ask the town of SW could to pay for something that's totally not feasible we we we no one was expecting us to get that $5 million
earmark we were I think very close to getting a $20 million uh Community change Grant under the from the environmental protect agency we got every indication we had was that we were a very strong Contender uh and you know Washington changed and and that and that and that
happens but we need to collect the data and build the case for when the next opportunity comes around and and there is some kind of capital funding available that we'll be ready to jump on that and and and that's why I think we should do the pilot Marion just um I totally respect that you
know you you hate doing studies that you're not positive will be actually used um you know I certainly have I think hopefully that's a fair comment I've learned that and I respect that
um to what the the mayor just said this is you got to think about this as a feasibility study it's kind of like it's the same thing actually this is really interesting parallel we just in arpa put up $200,000
for the resiliency work right we have no idea how much the actual work's going to cost but we actually had to invest the $200,000 to figure out really what the scope would be right so we didn't we
don't have a perfect plan for that either and yet we still kind of put down the marker to say this is a big enough problem that we need more information to find out I I would suggest this is exactly the same parallel here this we're we're we
have information on this we are very clear excuse me we're very clear that this project is going going to cost us 30 50 million $200,000 we are really clear we have that information from kleinfelder we don't know where we're
going to put it so I'm being asked are you willing to spend money mhm I do believe I believe that this is going to going to have good results I really do believe it am I willing to turn around and spend that money when there's no forecast for how we're going to fund it
later on I I think with knowing what we have to do Capital wise knowing what we have to do with our middle school knowing what our tax situation looks like but just just remember that's where I'm having my issues totally totally understand and that's a separate vote right but at
least at that point we'll have more information by doing this and and unless unless we're going to wait for the pipes to be the only thing that fixes this there is going to be some other massive expenditure you either pick UV
you pick an outfall you pick something else unless you know Chris's Nano bubbles come up right um or the oers or whatever you know you and I have had this discussion you pick the pipes and you put 25 million into the pipes and you but then you're picking the beach isn't really going to be dependably open
for 10 years okay minimum I don't know I don't 15 Gina all right so so now but we go back to what you're saying then we say look let's do the pipes all right y absolutely doubt about let's do the pipes X and then let's do the UV that's
y I mean what are we looking at here part of part of it is external hold on a sec one second we're looking at 60 million here I mean that's a choice though that's a choice that we're not making that decision today you could say
we're investing $300,000 now and if we don't do that other stuff it's a waste to do the $300,000 you could say that right I would suggest that's not the right way to look at it because sometimes you have to make that take that first step are we giving
sorry we finished are we giving a false start if we are saying yes let's go forward and do this pilot if we if we aren't pre-commit because we know that there will be SI
let's hang a big fat sign on this this is a feasibility study period no promises okay this we there's so much more that has to pressure being put we will be the ones to decide whether or not this goes forwardly no but are you
not just kicking the can because no I'm advancing the can instead of like not doing anything seriously right because at least now like in November I'm going to have information about what actually went down that I don't have now and if I
don't do this now then I'm going to be sitting here in November and people are going to be sitting up here talking to me and saying what have you done and we're say well we had an option but we decided we didn't have the perfect information and so now we're still in the same position it's almost as if this is the cost of the data right exactly
and this is very much if I'm hearing what you're saying mayor there's no guarantee that even if the data is perfect and this is it works it we know it's going to work it's great it gives us great results it's still not a rubber stamp to say we're going to give you
we're going to go in with 25 million to build this permanent thing it's just not yeah absolutely and in fact I think we we need the data in order to make the case for the 25 million right to prove that it's only going to cost 25 million what's that to help prove that it will
only cost 25 Pro that it's worth it I mean I think it's going to work but again I'm not an engineer that's why we're doing the pilot and and the feedback we've gotten from the delegation state and federal is that they they want to see that we believe in a in whatever the complimentary solution
is and they they can help us go fight for the money but we're saying that we want to do this pilot so that we can back up the belief in the in in that alternative complimentary solution and I I I am also all in on on fixing the pipes uh and we're doing that as as best
we can I have asked The Regulators over and over then is there more that we could be doing like was feedback on this program and and they have been strongly supportive of the program that we have we we work with environmental partners with the equivalent of of client Felder
um and that that is that work is ongoing in Lynn it's a different issue than swamp skit and Lynn has like these illicit connections that were missed yeah and and and so we actually put a $100 million in the '90s 2000s to separate the source system so we have
relatively new pipes but you know that's a big project and and this is a dense area and so there were connections that were list or missed or you know one day someone put the pipe in the wrong place and and so what we what our ID program is is close circuit close circuit
television of all the pipes to try to like look for the elicit connections and we do that we we're doing the entire catchment area and then we find little issues and we die test it we smoke test it we field screen it with a we like we try to identify those issues but you only find an issue if it's there's a
flow in the moment you shut Shine the camera on it so that means after we do all 21 areas we do it again and we and that happens forever and then the feedback we've gotten from The Regulators including the especially the D is that even once the pipes are fixed
because of the urban runoff the the the Topography of there being a natural Brook running under an incredibly dense area of Massachusetts that there's still going to be too much contamination for the for the beach to be open as much as it is so it's not you still need a complimentary it's not it's not either
or it's it's an end and we're not going to get to the end unless we we advance the proposal and and this is the way to advance The Proposal so in what ways if we are contemplating The Proposal taking a vote on The Proposal in what ways can we
mitigate impact to the neighborhood in a significant way because for for me I think I again I've not reviewed this all but from what I saw the decibel levels of the generator are a problem mhm this the size of the screening that are
screens that are needed to reduce the decb of the generator cause a sight line problem to those neighbors what can we do other than run service can we do solar can we is there other other options can you do a mix of options so that generator is not running
24 hours a day I I I don't think you could do a mix of options I do think that there's things that we could have mitigated so that you know the the the site design has a generator as far as away as possible from from houses on the kind of the middle uh strip there between
Humphrey Street and Inland Shore Drive um this the sidelines there's nothing you can do about that like because that that the point of that I mean there's equipment there and then also we want to do the um uh mitigation of the of the sound and light and all that stuff so there's going to be um you know views
blocked at that at that level I yeah I have talked to Beyond walls who said that they would um be interested in in helping us out to try to make it more attractive and what's the what is the light I'm sorry I have not it's so it's UV light so there's light okay so a tarp
there's a tarp actually to block the light so it doesn't shine on the neighbors so so we'll mitigate the light we'll mitigate the sound you know as to whatever that de sorry M Mr may but the um if I understand correctly that 23 feet is a decibel level that's
listed in the specs but this is going to be a lot further away than 23 ft is do I have that correct or not I'm not trying to smoke screen anyway 100 feet or so Mr Mayor yeah 100 feet 100 feet so and it is that if if it's at the 100 feet does that get below if we have a noise
ordinance or it gets below that level is that correct or not the generator in L and but but you get it from those houses that are already getting locked because of so for the people in the houses closest to the
generators with the distance what will their noise experience be is it within the swamp Scott noise acceptable levels correct so I I would like to make a motion uh for the board uh to approve um
the water sewer advisory committee's uh recommendation for a UV pilot program I surprisingly I will say at that um you say surprisingly yeah I was being [Music] sarcastic so is there we have a motion
on the floor is there any more discussion do you have anything you want to say Gina is ready sorry I'm have my back too I guess I could say we already have a partnership with Lynn whether we like it or not we send all our waste water over the L so this is just a continuing of the
pth so right actually didn't mean that to be funny but it is a relationship we've worked on this a long time I really respect the fact that as an EJ Community which they are they were going to help us with that Grant and we
were going to benefit $8 million to pix our pipes and it wasn't a pipe no pun intended we thought we had a very good chance and I already respected that and that's why I want to continue continue to work with them and I really respect the fact that you just took $100,000 off
it I appreciate that also I also really appreciate that this was actually just all choreograph we're going to keep doing this until we get the price down so hi I'm bad cop right I any anybody out here doesn't believe we're going to pay for a $25
million Project without the help of the feds or the state right it's unconceivable that we would be paying a l or swamp got in the future without any help yeah I I mean you know just to that point I guess if we know that we aren't going to be
able to com to contemplate a project this great post this pilot without the help of this state and federal Partners um and we know the current political
climate we're in right I understand that everybody's making the point of we need the data to push it along so that when the next opportunity arises the opportunity doesn't exist as great as it did today as it did yesterday but we're hopeful for
tomorrow um I just want to make it very clear even though we've said it and I've said it I want to say it again that going forward with a pilot project does not mean that we fully understand that we fully have the details and that we
fully are committing to anything even if the results are positive I believe the results will be positive in some capacity whether it's just dry weather whether it's a very small window of opportunity that we have to open the day
to more days at the beach um we're not committing to the results of the pilot it's really difficult for me to support the pilot because I think it gives a false hope
that we are committing to that so I just want to make it very clear that if I vote to support the pilot I am not voting to support anything after the pilot yet because I just don't have the data to to back that and I don't I ained
ite I ained it last time to saying like and I I know Chris used this example at the water sewer advisory committee you wouldn't go test drive a Maserati if you could only afford a Camry and so like why would you into that car and ride it around if you couldn't truly afford it
and I'm not convinced we can afford this as a permanent solution but you're saying how will we ever know if we don't get behind the wheel I mean I wasn't prepared to get behind a $400,000 wheel $300,000 now
it's a $300,000 wheel but I mean I just wanted to sort of say that that information before we formally vote so I I think that's a good point and I
think that for me it's almost like I don't you know I think it's going to work right I think it's going to yield positive results but to even consider 25 million there's there's not a bone in my body that thinks there's anything that is going to convince me to um invest
that type of money with the current Financial climate of swamp Scot so that said what really does matter to me was when we put that little spreadsheet up there that money to your point was allocated you know that you receive the 5 million from the
delegation you know the two 2.5 for each side was really for this purpose right and it is really sitting there and it is there for use right so I I can't as much as I'm I have the budget Weighing on me and everything else with what's happening in Swampscott that really was
the spirit of those funds that's what I believe right so that that kind of makes the case for me a little bit more that that we do we we do owe it to the spirit of that to advance it and I am of the mindset that
we just cannot do nothing anymore right that is really frustrating 75e problem that at some point we have to bite the bullet it's not palatable for any stretch for any side but we just can't keep going on like this
so it's my two cents can I can I also say say that I I don't know how this fits into this conversation if it doesn't just stop me because I don't want to violate open meeting law but that $100,000 has to get spent on a peer review because some of the questions
that came up in this conversation I think could have been mitigated if we had a third party to understand some of this a little bit better and I think some of the explosion of conversation around it and the back and forth maybe
could have been helped been alleviated with a swamp Scott specific party advocating for things if believed in also so I just think that we we need
to focus that priority also yeah I agree with that well I think what we have to do is we have to take a vote and then I think we're going have to do is we're going to have to reallocate funds if the vote is in favor so you two have made the motion and second the motion so I'm going to go
on a limb here and say you're yes right that would be correct Katie do you want to yes I'll vote Yes okay Danielle yes and I am I am a no because they we do not have a thorough plan on where this
is going to go and how this will be funded in the future and I think that we have a lot of information on how well it would work but I think that spending this money for for a study is just not
well spent money so that's a 4 to1 vote in favor and the next thing we have to do now is um let's make let's take this money here this allocation and then how do you want to can you put that pull that back up how do you want to use that are you pulling it out of the
construction yeah I think they're going to vote on it now yeah um so the motion would be to reallocate 300,000 from The Phase 2 a construction of the 2.5 million arpa to the UV pilot so moved
wait what hold on a minute what is it second taking it from the 2A the phase 2A construction can you put that um chart back up so we could just see the funds Amy if you don't mind so is that out of the 1.2 million it's out of the 1.8 coming up now I only have 1.2 no
it's folks we already voted yes we did did so we would be reducing the 1.8 million of the phase hold on excuse me yeah you don't have the money till the vote's done you would be reducing the 1.8
million on phase 2A construction to 1.5 million to allocate 300,000 to the UV pilot and so that leaves the peer review in place the P review in place but phase two ID and design it's already been
designed it's to a right semantics you could take the 142 clean later but it's coming from one of those two areas two or 2A Y and leaves the peer review in place Katie and can you just explain again Gino the under the bidding and how
fire came under and we think there is a cost savings here anyways there is there is definitely yep there the engineers estimate for phase 2A was $2.3 million and it came in at 1.8 so that's half a million right there who knows so there a half a million that
we can add into lining these pipes exactly could yep definitely okay okay so that's the motion right that's the motion second second all in favor I I okay next moving on to our next agenda
item we have discussion I'm going to jump up here discussion regarding the Hawthorn reuse committee y'all are welcome to [Laughter] stay thanks for watching the finance thank you very much thank you
for coming thank you thank you all right so do we have our list there where is this list here it is all right so it looks like if you look at this list we've
got we've got absolutes on hold on a second let me just let these people go yeah hi we still have a meeting thank you that emptied fast okay so we have here um three votes
for John Bon looks like John Bon George bonis Joe maren uh let's here James Smith and Brian
Watson those are the biggest vote Getters right so far that's five just SP so we're looking for eight seats here right so that's right those the top five was there some how did we I couldn't remember when I was doing this did was it just like a
desire for an engineer an architect and this that and the other thing not a requirement it wasn't a requirement what were the categories is that was that it the categories were were Architects possibly landscape
architect um any type of a planner and then just general citizens okay that was it yeah okay so um Katie did you use all your votes I did not how many do you have left I have
a vote left because I try to come to the table with an open mind and uh and to be honest I thought we were going to have a conversation I didn't think it would just be like okay add up the number of votes we had and so I was open to
be swayed or convinced that somebody else's choice is a great choice um it's how I try to approach all my votes here so well well I would make the case for tarot Cassidy Driscoll personally
um that's just me a is this oh I have it right next to me sorry if we're making cases I don't know that we are but we already have five so we can say we have five we have the top five here right and then we've got a bunch of people with two votes so maybe we talk about the people with two votes
I don't know I think that would I think that would make sense we have a lot of on here yeah and if we're and if we're making if we're making cases um I would certainly make a case for uh for Tom Bell humer uh Mr M Mr beler I thought he had more
than that no or Thomas beler he has two he has two uh he's he is a he is a real estate developer uh he does own uh a number of properties uh in swampit as well as um around the NorthShore uh he
is somebody who can focus on Revenue generation right uh which I know is important uh to to some of the members of the board um he's a previous I believe he was the president of the swamp Scott rotary and I I think he's somebody who has I can stop you right
there cuz I'll move my vote for Andre or more to him and then I'll give him three excellent okay so don't me to interrupt you but just all good thank you so I because I think I meant to vote for him I'm not quite sure how he didn't so CU I remember that name but well if we're going to try to convince people to move
some votes noer I would love to try to convince somebody to move a vote to Leah who is uh a younger uh volunteer he is a a swamp Scott high school graduate of
20121 right and is looking to uh to get involved um I just think having a young perspective is is amazing to have somebody invested this early on in a
process like this is important and when I see things like that I want to help nurture those feelings because someday they could be sitting in these seats so um I really when I saw her commitment to
what she has done so far um and you know what she hopes to do for this town I really felt like um it's important to give her a chance I I agree and I'm happy to give uh I'm happy to I'm happy
to strike my my vote for Bon and move it to to Leah okay is that all you need do you you don't need another one right is that three that's no that's three so that's good okay so that brings us to seven five six seven one more i' like to
especially with the um apparent uh disparity in uh gender balance that we right now have dou thank you um I I'd like to make an extremely strong case for Gail Rosenberg I don't even know who she is but I don't know if you remember uh her resume or I'd ask you to take a
look at it uh she has a lot of experience with kind of large projects uh I think she works for the State uh so has governmental experience in making large projects happen I I have no idea be be actually dreaming that she might
even be able to have some connections and thinking about how projects might be funded um but uh that would be uh my suggestion not to compete with you Doug but I would have the same recommendation for Tara Driscoll so I don't know if any
for from a gender perspective that would be my choice I'm happy to move my vote from Brian Watson no offense Brian Watson um you already have four so you're in good in a good spot to Tower Driscoll if that would help her get
three that would be my intent that would but you already voted for terara Drisco oh then then I can't so are we doubling up and I would strongly advocate for someone else it could sorry
yeah I can I'll move my vote from Wendy to Tara and that will bring her to three all right so does that give us eight or use my last vote to vote for Tara I don't even have to move a vote bring us to that brings us to eight that brings us to eight um you know I do want to just so
we have eight but I I do want to point out um I did speak to a gentleman who has just moved here recently he's he owns property behind over on um blay Street his name was John pel and he has a very strong background in
Communications and you know I'm going to ask Diane to send people letters everybody to ask them if they would participate and join these join these committee Jo just participate in the room at least be there to get off but I did take a chance I did speak to
almost every person on this on this list um some people returned the calls some people didn't um there's only one or two I didn't call because I know them personally I've served on committees with them so I knew their strengths but they were all really great people and
the only people I mean I pretty much I pretty much had almost everybody on my list unless they said they were just strictly for one thing or strictly for another I I always kept it open for balance so I think this is a good good makeup and we'll have Mary get into
touch with everybody and start setting up a uh a good committee Diane do you have the list of eight do we just ask so we have to make the we have to we have to make a motion so I'll make a motion to approve so let's go for the names we have R Thomas
b b e l h u m e r John Bon George bones yeah junior junior Tara Cassidy Drisco Joe maren Leah pashova p a h k o v
a James Smith and Brian Watson to approve them for the Hawthorne reuse committee second all in favor I I okay do we have to give them term what
you have to give them terms no no okay it's a task force oh great um don't call call it all right so now we have what else is wait a minute wait a minute wait a minute and I understand if we don't want to go on with this right now but if we don't do it now we should have it on
our next agenda we need to or may we need to be refreshed or I need to be refreshed on did we frame up their task sufficiently I know we discussed that we definitely have to um we did have this debate about timing I
remember we had that debate with with with Mr Watson actually about the amount of time and stuff like that what they're charged with and what their you know goal is yeah absolutely so maybe maybe maybe Diane can circulate or whatever outline and what we voted on before get
really clear send it out to us in our next meeting we can so Mary sends us out if people could just give her back some input on what what it should be okay now let's go to open and close of
the warrant for special town meeting the dates that the school the school has the school said that they would have dates on the 18th and 19th we need to get this um done before the 20th
the 20th is our last day so the question is what 18th or 19th is that that matter to anybody here yes wasn't there a 10th option too um I never floated a 10th option I'm not going to be around on the 10th
yes we have the 10th we don't have the 18th Reserve I have a conflict on the 10th the evening of the 10th right is I will be out of town on the 18th so you be here on the 19th 19th I could be here okay so it looks like the 19th will be it and that's actually a
regular scheduled meeting for us um well this will be a short discussion I bet for the special town meeting so we could probably have our meeting right after okay um we could do that but the other the other question is so we have the article um from the petition that'll
be in there but I also want to discuss the where are we at where we're at with the CPA yep um so uh I have uh there's been a little discussion amongst the some of the people that uh kind of helped pull that together just to get a
a little bit of feedback from them um I think I mean I could I don't have a full compliment of thoughts from people uh on that yet um so which doesn't necessarily mean we can't discuss it now or next
time or whatever it is um but uh you know what I Shar with Diane is I didn't feel like this was like a super urgent thing uh we don't even have the full text from KP law um and and you know we need to seat this just a
refresher seat this committee and then you know they would have to start doing their their study and then we have to change the tax rate and then the funds don't kind of show up until like you know over a year from now so it's not like today or may you know special town
meeting or may town meeting makes any difference in terms of anything for a long time where my my concern is we're kicking this SC down the road right and the reason I'm bringing this up is because if we have if we're able to use
use this meeting if we're able to get the bylaw in then that means at the annual town meeting we're able to do the next step that's what Mary has explained to me the next step is changing the tax rate so that that doesn't happen
until December don't we have to name the don't we have to do a bylaw and then after the bylaw we have to name the committee well we we do the bylaw and yes then each each one of the Committees that is represented there open space concom Etc they would have to nominate
their design but but then there there are other that doesn't have any impact on like when the finance change when the tax rate change happens no but as far as setting up the committee as far as um don't we have to escalate it now or it
just drags it out even longer am I just getting different I'm getting different information is Mary here is she online is that her yeah can she answer mg is that you Mary Mary are you online there she is we just have to take take off
me e next meeting if if um I'm trying to find that communication right now if I can there's only one time you go to town meeting right the bylaw we just need to have it before the CPC does go before town meeting when they recommend their
they recommend but that's not when they recommend the that's a year from now that's down the road well after they're formed all right just make can you just make sure tomorrow that you and Mary are in line with that so to be clear there is no detriment if this is on March special
town meeting or may town meeting there's no detriment to us that's what I just want to I want to make sure we're clear on that all right next so do we have to open and close the warrant yes so can we have a motion to open motion motion to open the
second all in favor I motion to close the warrant motion to close the warrant all in favor I motion carries oh has somebody checked with the moderator they're available he's available email if we can I will email
him tonight and if he's not available there are there are laws set up that he can appoint somebody or to actually I think town meeting would appoint somebody okay just be let's just confirm just email
thanks Diane okay all right so no W now to the S agenda um oh no ta report what do you think let's how about if we uh can you email that ta report than happy to all right now um we know where to
find you can we have a motion can we have a motion for the consent agenda motion oh wait wait wait wait wait wait take out um on the consent agenda just remove move item number one item number one because we need to get the names
and need to fill that vacancy um okay okay we're going to move this for two weeks okay Dian y these minutes still have the vote
being three to zero oh that's my bad I did change it so I'm sorry you want to we just table the we're going to table let's table the minutes until the next meeting select Bo time all right select board time
Doug uh I'm all set thanks David I'm all set Katie um I would like to acknowledge and commend the board for this evening coming with a difference of opinion
remaining respectful responsive open-minded listening and coming to understanding it's not something we see all the time in outside life
even uh has been getting increasingly difficult um so I just want to acknowledge that and sort of iterate that we all can be
rational players and I respect that we all are rational players and can continue to move in that sphere Danielle um I just want to offer my condolences to um the Jon family and
Casey Jon Rogers and the passing of swamp Scott Legend dick Jon um he's a son of swamp Scott he was a swamp Scott athlete professional football player and coach and a big part of the fabric of the athletic arm of this community and
it was a a very significant unexpected loss um so my condolences to the Jon family that's all I have and I before you adjourn can I have a motion to affix your electronic signatures to the warrant yeah so moved
all in favor I thank you so much and I'm good do we have a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn second second all in favor I thank you all right