i'm gonna call the meeting to order will you join me in the pledge of allegiance i aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible for liberty and justice for
all good evening welcome to the Monday April 14 2025 meeting of the Westport Select Board under Mass General Law Chapter 38 Section 20F this meeting is being recorded um just some welcome comments so first we want to really
thank the um students at Diamond Vocational School under the leadership of their teacher Manny Bautello for this beautiful desk that they did so this is the Diamond students built this desk um and did is there shop class like is there a group that did it i think it's
just the general shop class cabinet class and they also sent it to the finishing class as well yeah so thank you very much to the students at Diamonds we're going to give them applause uh we also want to wish congratulations to the newly elected officials that were
elected on Tuesday April 8th so we welcome Jake Mcwigan to the board thank you chair appreciate it and Manny was reelected to the planning board i was reelected and we have some new people and some new faces we have a new moderator we have two new school committee members um so congratulations to everyone who for the election
congratulations to Chris for your team for doing a great job um at running the elections and just want to remind everybody that we're not done voting on May 6 is town meeting so May 6 at 7 p.m at the new high school um we'll be voting again so we'll see is there any
other announcements or recognitions oh I want to thank the um clean our Westport crew um so I don't know how many people was but I think about 80 people went and um picked up trash it was a miserable day for it too but um can thank you to all of the workers um who organized the
clean our Westport the people who went out and picking up the trash and um the highway department for supporting them um that was a really nice I wish we didn't have to pick up trash on the side of the road but it's very nice to see that done so thank you to those people right any other
announcements okay so the first item that we have on the agenda as we do every time we have new members um come on is reorganization of the board where we choose the chair vice chair and clerk so what is the pleasure of the board okay i will move that we appoint Shauna
as chair uh Richard Brewer as vice chair and Jake Mcwigan as clerk i was told the clerk's position was mandatory for a rookie yeah well I I wasn't going to make that i believe I said it was tradition not mandatory
that's Well I was a rookie for my second time around last year so I had I I got it that time so you got it back yeah I have done it twice so we have a motion do we have a second i'd like to make a motion well we have we were first seeing if we have a second on this i'll second it is there any
discussion you can discuss well I'm not going to vote for that i'd like to I most definitely not okay i would like to vote for Jake as the chair since we got some new blood in here and I would like to I would like to put like to see Dick
as the vice chair and I'd like to see you as the clerk because I'm a little bit busy and I wouldn't be able to do the clerk on my last year is there any discussion on that any further discussion so the motion on the table is for me as chair Dick as vice chair and Jake as the clerk no that wasn't what it
was that was the motion you have to act on the motion you were discussing we have to first act on the first motion okay did you have anything else to add no I don't um all in favor i I nay opposed nay i didn't hear your vote i
Okay so we have um four eyes and one nay thank you very much thanks for volunteering to be the clerk um we don't have any public hearings on the agenda today um so the first item that we have is 3A we have a
request from New England Race Events LLC to hold the Horsene Neck Half Marathon and 3.5 mile run on Sunday May 18 2025 from 9:00 a.m to 1:00 p.m along with a request for a one-day wine and malt liquor license for the event jake uh Jim
do you want to tell us about that yeah this is a yearly event um it's been successful over the years so we have a recommendation from a favorable recommendation from the police department with police details um I'd recommend approval is there any discussion move approval
second so we have a motion and a second to approve the event is there any discussion all in favor i i that's unanimous um for appointments and resignations we have a request to appoint David O'Brien to the economic development task force
david's here do you want to say anything you don't have to it's not required no I'm looking forward to serving if I'm Okay all right so what's the pleasure of the board i move that we appoint um David as the um to the economic
development claims task force second Madam Chair is there any discussion all in favor i I That's unanimous we have a request from Bonnie Strebble library director to accept the resignation of Mela Melissa Ferrer
move we accept the resignation with regret second is there any discussion all in favor i I that's unanimous we have a request from Chris Stinson to appoint Josh Braum as principal clerk for the clerk registars's office effective April
28 2025 chris you're here did you want to say anything no not really if we have questions he's been in the position a s well basically the same position before and I am very confident and excited to have him start if appointed
and we do have an item I think later on the agenda to post that position right all right so what's the pleasure of the board i move we approve uh appoint Josh Broom uh to the um uh principal clerk at
the clerk registars's office effective April 28th second madam chair is there any discussion all in favor I I that's unanimous we have a request from the southeastern regional planning and economic development district serpent to appoint a member of the select board as
commission member um so we had um Manny you are serving that um for the remainder of Steve's um term in the position do you want to continue yes I would like that right anybody else interested in that no okay
i' I've got the other board the Okay related to that so transportation economic development that is so I will entertain a motion to appoint Manny as the select board uh member for the e uh serpent so moved second any
discussion all in favor i I That's unanimous um we have a request from Beverly Bish the Council on Aging Director to appoint Janine Pacho as part-time supportive day program aid 2 and Kevin Farnworth as part-time van driver i know uh Janine is
here did you want to say anything you don't have to um is Kevin here um all right so I don't think that could make it she could not make it she recommended both um recommend approval so moved second
all in favor i I That's unanimous welcome aboard thank you um we have a request from Dan Dean Lenling and Asa B mills to be appointed to the shellfish advisory board um there
is one seat available and the shellfish um advisory commission um has uh recommended Dean Lenling are either of you gentlemen here neither one of them are here neither one of them are here okay um so uh
all right was the pleasure of the board so I will move to approve uh to appoint um Dean um Lenling to the Shellfresh Advisory Board on recommendation of the Shellfish Advisory Board second sorry there any discussion
all in favor i I That's unanimous um we're now on action item five we have a request from Sue Brighten the treasurer to approve offering dental insurance to retirees i don't see Sue here was she planning to come i believe so she was downstairs we're moving
pretty quick all right so we'll skip that we'll skip A for a minute um so B is approved the uh town hall heat pump upgrade contract with B2Q $761,700 and the town hall
weatherization contract with B2Q for $27,000 so I did ask um Jim to put together some information about um what this project is and how we went about the timeline and procurement and all of that if you can help us out Jim sure we have Kathy Stanley here from our energy
consultant our energy expert she's gotten a number of grants for us over the last couple of years um but in general we started this project back in September of 2022 um at that time the winter before we've had trouble with the heating system we had leaks in the uh the piping
the steam system throughout the building uh we were looking at ways to either replace the existing boiler system and radiator system or see if we had some alternatives after speaking with Kathy she she uh went to green communities um she went to the utility companies and
came to realize that there's funding available for electric electrification of these systems but there is no funding available for replacing existing gas systems um so we applied for a green communities grant that was written by
Kathy um and we were awarded that grant in January of 2023 for $467,000 this was one of the largest grants in the state i think there was one that was in the same range the rest were under 200,000 so we were excited to get that green communities themselves
were excited because this was really the first project for electrification in like a municipal building here in addition to that in that same month uh we met with util utility companies and um they had committed to about $129,000 in incentives
um utility incentives for the project um as we went through the initial process of the grant and it's the initial process of what had to be done to the building we realized that uh the electrical system needs to be upgraded so we we put in an application to CPC
and town meeting in May of 2023 approved $150,000 of funding to be used for the electrical upgrades and these electrical upgrades would be beneficial whether um the HVAC system was installed or not i mean we needed we had a fire in our
office a couple of years ago uh the system is outdated so this this is beneficial to the town and the system itself um and then in December of this year the um balance of OPA funds 158,200 was appropriated for this project as well there was some questions on the
procurement and if you have specific questions I'm going to defer to Kathy because she's more familiar with this process than I am uh but we went through a design build process under chapter 25A section 11i I which is different from what we normally do but it's it's set up for energy management service contracts
specifically uh we put a request for qualifications out in April of 2023 we had seven proposals from some significant companies that were very interested in working here with the town um those proposals were evaluated by the committee uh in reference comparable
evaluation that was addressed in the RFQ can you just that was the green energy was which committee was that i think it was a I don't know it was official committee or it was the qualif uh the selection committee for the RFQ under chapter 25A section 11i so we went
through that we narrowed it down to three companies uh those three companies were interviewed um their references were checked um their price proposals previous projects were were uh reviewed and a recommendation was made to the select board in December of 2023 by the
committee and the select board approved the contract in 2023 so this project has been going on for a long time there's been a lot of work that's been done behind the scenes to get this moving forward um as far as funding goes we have two contracts proposed with
B2Q under that procurement process that that I just outlined uh we have the overall project which would be the HVAC system itself about 761,000 and then as part of that there's a weatherization that's required which would be about $27,000 and then we have roughly 115
remaining in contingency um and the funding for that as I mentioned earlier CPC 150,000 we had that green communities grant for 467,000 utility rebates and incentives roughly around 129 that could change slightly some of that's going towards the weatherization some of that go towards
the overall um HVAC system project and then we have the OPA funding of 158,200 which is uh designated for this project um we did check with green communities to see if this funding or this grant could be reo reallocated to another project and that is not a possibility
it's if we don't use it here we lose it um again Kathy's here she can answer any specific questions relating to this i'd recommend that we approve the two contracts whether whether we keep this building or not it's going to be an improvement to the building i think it's something that uh will add value to the
building whether we stay here or whether the building sold or whatever the condition of the building is in the future so um you know looking back I kind of wish there was funding available to redo our existing systems and just put in a cooling system but there is not so the cost to the town would have been
significantly more out of pocket for the town if we did something different right thank you does anyone on the board have any questions yeah but to redo the systems we could have used that opera money that we had right we we do have 158,000 no I'm saying like before
we decided for for this did we do any kind of studies on on how much this electrical system is going to cost us to operate that I would defer to studies on how much the electrical system the infrastructure improvement Yeah is going to cost yeah it's part of that
$761,000 number so and we don't have that actually broken out specifically it's part of the budget that's broken into design construction and project management materials labor expenses insurance to
total uh turnkey subtotal incentive etc so I don't have a specific budget line item for that but it is part of the 761 what about the ongoing cost though associated with maintenance i'm sorry what about ongoing like the next year
after after the project's done the ongoing maintenance costs or the ongoing utility cost so we will have a maintenance contract with our heat pumps that we will maintain like you would for any HVAC system regardless of whether it
was a boiler or a heat pump system you have to maintain it but there are no other ongoing uh project costs everything that we need to do to fully implement the HBAC system upgrade here including electric
infrastructure weatherization engineering all of the equipment is baked into that number mandy did you have another yeah yeah um so you have you haven't done like our electric bills have gone through the
roof you haven't done an updated cost of what this system is going to cost us to run i I put a heat pump in my house we do we do have an estimate of what our electric costs are going to be for this project it is important for you to
understand that the town has an excess of net metering credits a substantial excess of net metering credits that we cannot use anywhere except for our own electric bills so one of the plans the one of the
reasons we're taking this approach is it allows us to use those excess credits to pay down our electric bill they are almost twice what we actually use for electricity those contracts were executed probably eight
years before Jim and I were here and we have been struggling with a plan of what to do with them because basically the credits just pile up on the bills if we don't use them so that is very much so part of the plan for and I get it yeah you are going to have an increase in
your electric costs um I thought originally was somewhere around 5,000 to 8,000 a year is that I have I'm looking on page two of your is that where to show the cost because it shows cost savings on page two you have you have that it's going to be it's going to increase the I think I was
reading this wrong but it's going to increase the electrical bill but decrease the natural gas that's correct so the the gas bill goes away so it's basically net it's about a wash yeah in terms of net costs but the big benefit is if it's in electricity on our utility
bill we have credits for it did Did we when we built a new high school did we take those credits into consideration not all of them we use some of them we use as many as we can but there's no way we'd use them all at the high school not only that but the high school's electric uses way lower
than uh what it was when we first commissioned you know the first few months are always a little tough but once you get through I think our EUI over there is like 40 like energy unit index it's it's very low energy usage so if we don't use these credits
here we're not going to use we're it's a real problem well they could be used on other buildings that we have projects on now only to the extent that we actually have an electric bill to consume them okay jake did you have Yeah um obviously
I'm new to this position and this has been an ongoing project for a while um I think my ongoing concern and what I've discussed in public forums is the impact to co and cost to taxpayers and what exactly is that cost
to taxpayers i know you say we have credits but I do have a a concern about converting this all over and these numbers which you know in my mind I'm just looking at you know is there more of a breakdown is there more of a breakdown as to you
know where is a contract going what who's the contractor um you know weatherization of 27,000 i mean what what exactly does that encompass here in the town hall um you know those are the concerns that I have i think as many
people saw last week you know they're probably spending money well it could be grants or or you know taxpayer money on facilities that there may I just don't see a master plan in place and this has nothing to do with you with respect to
that but you know are we peacemealing all these buildings with no thought process for the future as to what we're going to do with all of them and how we're going to move forward i mean $800,000 is is a big number uh and that's that's really where I have my concern uh and you know I don't know if
you can address that but I think looking at the cost to taxpayers is the number one thing and and not to take away from anyone's comfort here in the town hall but I mean it's a pretty large number so the green communities grant let's talk about that it's $467,000 that has been given to us it is
a grant there is no cost to taxpayers for that it was given to us by green communities for the electrification of this building it is only available for projects that will eliminate fossil fuels it is not available for any project that involves fossil fuels so
that's why we got that money because we were willing to undertake a project here that um involved eliminating fossil fuels the situation is when we evaluate all of the buildings that the town owns
including all of the schools and all the municipal buildings the one building that had a significant HVAC issue was this one um the schools I've been very involved with those schools since I came here and
their HVAC systems are hot water so and they're are not in bad condition they're they have cond well they don't one of them has condensing boilers the other two have regular hot water boilers but they are not at the end of their useful life they are more efficient they use
less energy our EUIS schools are under 60 they're energy efficient buildings they were meticulously maintained by our very competent schools um director of facilities before he retired he was amazing those schools are really doing
very well so as far as the MAC and the Westport Elementary School I mean we do mini splits when we can we put in cooling when we can because it's better for their education plan for us to have spaces that are cooled especially with respect to special ed and other kinds of
things that they need to be concerned with but for the most part those schools to electrify them to take the next step which would be to eliminate fossil fuel systems there we're talking about two to five million each so I know
Jake had several questions in there but um I'm just going to interrupt let's just talk about the money for a minute so the um so the green communities grant is only available for this project if we did not move forward with this it would we'd lose that the um utility rebates and incentives are based on us doing
heat pump technology so if we don't do that technology those go away right and then the ARPA funding um Jim we previously committed the ARPA funding and I don't think there's there's an opportunity to redirect that is there there isn't we had to get under contract
by the end of December in order to lock in that money if we change the contract there's a potential to lose that funding and so really the only money here that we could if you didn't go forward with the project um the only money really that you wouldn't be spending or that wouldn't be that would be available for
other purposes would be the CPC money so there must be some method um to return that back so the CPC $150,000 it was um decided by town meeting in 23 I think you said um so that money would would have been paid by property in your on
your property tax bill your CPC so um so that's where the money is coming from it is not coming from increased taxation there's no bond or anything associated with this you also asked about the weatherization contract so can you just talk a little about the weatherization so the scope of work for the weatherization contract is I mean I can
read it to you if you're interested we're doing an air barrier retrofit um for the area of the south entrance elevator lobby there's um a retrofit to the existing attic hatch to improve air sealing there's weather stripping and air ceiling around four exterior doors
on the first floor um there's 12 in of blown cellulose insulation to supplement existing insulation in the attic uh increasing the estimated R value to approximately R18 from R uh to from R18 to R6C so there's a very specific co
scope of work for the uh weatherization you cannot you should not implement an electrification project a heat pump project without sufficient weatherization your building needs to be tight enough to be able to heat that
space and cool that space with heat pump technology so this is essential not only that it's a requirement of green communities for us to have a fully weatherized building either previously or with along with our project so and it's best practices it's just given that
every building that underos any kind of heat pump retrofit would have a full electric weatherization project done as well in addition this project is a $27,000 cost with a $13,500 utility incentive half of it will be incentives
jake did that hit all your points or did we miss some it it does i mean I don't think winterization of a building at 27,000 i actually think those numbers probably could have been reversed to winterize this building i mean just looking at these windows and everything else in here I think it would be a heck of a lot more than $27,000 to you know
essentially win weatherize uh this building i uh just a quick question so you you work for B2Q no okay i am a shared energy manager so I I work for the towns of Westport Dartmouth Halifax Stoton and Walpole
okay uh that is my role i work for you i am your energy manager that's what I do i advocate for you i look for money i look for grant money i uh continue my continuing education i look for opportunities we did a Renew America
Schools grant that was a lot of fun federal grant opportunity last year for our schools to see if we could get the money to do um new boilers and and work at both elementary schools we didn't get it but um that's what I do i my efforts
are solely put in in play to uh to advance the the uh energy agenda of this town in other ways as well as just project management as well so would you manage this project sorry through the chair through would you
manage this project and the contractors and everything involved with this contract yes um we did select B2Q through our competitive procurement process and I think it was a good selection we had two other firms that we interviewed which were great one of them
was Seammens one of my favorite people i checked their references they're amazing and every one of them said they're great and they're very expensive so I mean we really worked hard to get a contractor in here a really solid vendor who could
do this project but who would be very uh sensitive to the fact that we don't have a ton of money you know so they need to really sharpen their pencil do either of you have anything before I give it to Manny again no I was on the committee and I've been through this and uh this is largely paid for by other money and
this building isn't going to disappear that soon so I think it's a wise decision and we ought to move ahead with it go ahead um so the green I I didn't read the the grant so the green communities grant that's just for heat pumps in it
so what every year we are allowed to apply for our green communities grant and we do um prior to this particular one we had several that we did um every year you get an opportunity to apply for it's up to
$225,000 a year now uh for for energy efficiency work or you have the opportunity to apply for a grant that allows you to do an electrification project and that extends that grant to almost
$500,000 so uh in order to apply for it you have to have a project that is pretty well baked so I had a scoping study done for this building an audit that was paid for by the utility the utility supervised that um contractor I
think it was B2Q actually who did the scoping study um and the utility paid for it uh we took that study and that was the basis of our grant application so then we have to put our application in and we have to cross our fingers we were awarded that
$467,000 based on B2Q's scoping study and the utility work that was done as well um it's it's a long process we put those applications in twice a year either in February or in October and it may take five months to hear back from
them and then we have a specific amount of time that we have to implement the project and do our final reporting in order to be eligible for the next round okay um it will so I I understand the need for the electrical system which is
pro probably pretty extensive and I I just can't see the the need to go move forward with the heat pump without replacing windows i mean is that in the contract no window replacements there first of all there's no funding for window replacements anywhere weatherization no
there is none um windows are always a capital play to replace windows in any building go to town meeting get them to pay for that's that's the only way I've ever been able to get a window project done like with our with our opera funds stuff like the
CPC money we could replace the windows with the CPC money okay it' be a different application well I just I'm just thinking running the heat pump with these windows i don't know how efficient that's going to be was there anything else from the board before I open to the public one more
question so the building per se obviously we have old old radiators here is it what is the process for retrofitting this building with is it going to be um you know vent systems and I think these radiators are going to be
demoed as part of the project that I know the boiler will be demoed um we are removing the boiler system from the building it's important for you to understand the boiler system is reaching the end of its life but so is the distribution system so the steam distribution system is done if we wanted
to try and replace that that's behind architectural services i I don't see that as as practical on any level so we will be demoing the boiler system and then there is a plan and I think does it does he address the scope of work in
here specifically i haven't read this in a while so furnish and install condensate piping and pumps is yeah so the second second floor will have a ceiling with with vents first floor will have individual units in the different offices so it's in the ceiling cassettes
is the plan the second floor for the second floor yes through the chair um so the process for the town workers that are here is this building going to be closed is it going to be able to be used while it's being done the work yep there was there's a
plan um will be working with Joe Bliss from and his team from B2Q uh we have chose he has been working with a contractor mechanical contractor ATC who is a contractor that has done a lot of work for the town and been very involved
in our schools and that is one of the reasons I wanted ATC to be involved because I know Mike had a great deal of respect for them so that matters to me um so ATC will be working with us for a schedule they'll ask they may have to folks may need to vacate their office
for a day i don't think it'll be more than a day i think we talked about that uh but there will be a schedule where people may have to shuffle around while this work is um is done okay i did want to um just point out the SK the schedule that you have in here on page seven um
so that um you'd order uh the materials within three weeks of starting the work and then there anticipates a lead of 12 weeks so this is not going to happen quickly um no nothing really happens quickly so the the lead time of the materials is estimated to be about 12
weeks and then once once the materials are delivered then it's 16 weeks is that what it says here we definitely plan to have this done before the winter okay that's So when would you be applying for the building permit um that as soon as
we as soon as we get the contract in place can get a contract in place which hopefully will be as soon as if this board approves this project we will have the contract in place by tomorrow the next step is to submit the contract along with our master master terms and
conditions that we have already put in place and send it to the department of energy resources which completes our procurement process we have to follow the rules around our procurement process so that goes to DOER once that happens we can then proceed to a kickoff meeting the kickoff meeting would be would
involve involve B2Q ATC our mechanical contractor anybody who were going to be um involved i I don't think we we're not doing a controls project so we don't need need a controls contractor but certainly we would involve our weatherization contractor and at that
time uh there would be a plan made for a schedule of activities including permitting things of that nature um the demolition um and this is an historical building have you looked at that yes we had an actual asbestous um study done in
this building um what about the historical value of the system that's in the building now and our overall plan on what we're going to use the building for later i don't believe there's historical relevance to the boiler boiler but the outside we've discussed
it with B2Q and their design i mean we want to make sure we minimize the amount of piping and stuff that's visible on the outside we want to do as much interior as we can we want to maintain the character of the building and more of just a comment obviously this is my first meeting i try to do a
crash course uh reviewing minutes back to March 2023 and up through September 2024 um just prefacing this if I had a contractor to come to my house I'd obviously want you know they throw a half million dollar price tag on me i'd
want everything itemized exactly what's going to where where it's going to uh if I'm going to have to pay for it so um with all due respect I'm new here but I I just can't and I don't have the I really won't be able to probably vote for this because I just I don't I'm not
comfortable enough with the impact to Westport to the taxpayers to basically I think a master plan that we should be addressing with all the buildings uh not just the town hall so that's where I'm coming from just in full disclosure so you So you know um I know you say
there's credits there but I've heard some horror stories recently with people putting in heat pumps and their electrical uh costs going through the roof um so no pun intended um but that that's kind of where I'm at with this um you know I'm I'm new to the game but I you know
trying to do a crash course i'm just not comfortable with that expenditure even though it is grants um it's still taxpayer money one way or the other so that's my opinion so thank you thank you i'm going to take to the public go ahead okay uh Jim Whiten I'm on River Road uh
I have several small questions so the the heat or the air conditioning would be provided to all the different rooms with mini split type things it's an it's a heat pump system it's not technically a mini split there will be cassettes in the ceiling of this floor and then there
will be um units that are um installed in each office on the first floor and is it ground source or air source heat ground source heat pumps are um out of the question here ground source heat pumps because they're outrageously
expensive expensive okay all right i think this is a great idea to do i think it gets rid of the old system you're probably at the end of the life of the old system and I don't see any better choice than to use the green communities
grant uh is that in lie of on a residential basis you use mass save so Massave is the um incentive organization that works with our utilities to distribute money that's collected uh
from taxpayer rateayers in order to in provide incentives for um energy efficiency work and for decarbonization work the incentives that are coming as part of this project for the weatherization and for the uh heat pumps
are all coming from Massave it's the the same kind of group but in this case it's a large project and I have the benefit of working with Eversource directly they have been great partners here they have been involved from day one as well as Liberty Utilities in helping us um they
paid for scoping studies they paid for audits uh they are amazing partners so we are very lucky to have them and my last small question is with regard to when the it's really cold outside uh is
this going to be able to provide the heat or is because some of the systems like I put in if it gets below 14 you really need an auxiliary source of heat we believe the heat pump system will adequately handle the the heat needs of
this building there is some I think there's some resistance heating strips that we're putting in as well for periphery just um mostly because as a resiliency measure so if we were to lose power and we were to need to keep the building from freezing with just a
generator it would be way easier to do that with some electric resistance heating strips we don't expect to need them they're there if we need them but um it's really more of a resiliency play so the scripts are in the individual rooms or in the system they're going to
be installed in the rooms on the perimeter of the building thank you thank you Mar so I just like to uh address uh Jake's comment here because um I don't think this is the place to vote against
a project like this um at the federal level and at the state level yes there's been a tremendous amount of money authorized for grants to municipalities and um bottom line is if we don't take it somebody else will get it more money
will go to Cape Cod not here and they'll have their town halls moi modernized not us so the money is there and your battle is well fought i share your general sentiment on uh using taxpayers money um
left and right but on the other hand these this is a battle for the federal government and the state government i don't think I think we should get our fair share thank you thank you anybody else have comment anybody else go ahead madam Chair I'll move approval of the
pump project funding as presented i'll second it so we have a motion and a second go ahead yes um Dave Reposa um we're doing the high school so the construction here as far as I'm
concerned is not safe for people to be working in why can't we delay all of this go right to the high school move everybody in there then commence the door construction here at this place very simple is there a time limit on the grant is there a time extra yes our
grant will expire in August i will have to apply for a uh an extension and I've been insured by DOE that we will get one i do want to make one more comment that we haven't really talked about as part of this procurement we decided Jim and I decided to make sure that we included
all of the municipal and school buildings in Westport in this procurement project so that we would have a very good understanding of what each and every building needed and because we could do that as part of the chapter 25A section 11i every single
building in town has had a scoping audit this is the scoping audit that was performed for the former high school the old high school for example every building has one of these scoping audits done those reports have been done they've been uh sent over to Jim so we
have a full building plan in terms of we know what each building needs to have done to improve energy efficiency improve the life of their HVAC system how much it is likely to cost what the estimates of the incentives are what the
likely energy savings will be and what the likely um increased expenditures if anything would be all of that work was done b2q did it as part of this procurement so you you wouldn't need to keep this
project from moving forward in order to do that that's part of what we already plan to do and ha and have done thank you so I'm I just on my personal comments so I'm in favor of the project I support going forward with the contract i think one of the reasons that
um some of our planning seems so haphazard is because we don't have planned infrastructure money to say we're spending 5 million on this this year and then next year we're spending another five so what happens is we're forced to go after refine the critical
needs and then try to find the grants that fit right and so if we just had an open you know $10 million where do we want to spend it that's a very different way of planning than saying how can I grab this grant how can I take advantage of this money that kind of thing so I
think that I I agree with you that's kind of frustrating you want to have a you want to have like the five we we we do our best to have a five-year plan right but we don't have the money to accomplish the planning that needs to be done so we have to just make do with grants and and where we can get it so um
I I'm supported this because I think this building I think is adds value to this building regardless of how much longer we use it or if we sell it if we lease it I think it still adds value to the project and chair um with all due respect I think the community meeting
that was that was had last week at the high school the old high school um showed that I think the community is willing to come together the council of aging the kids the recreational department everyone it very rarely are you going to find an issue where you're
going to get buyin from almost everyone in the community and I do believe that if a plan was put forth that had a 10 million or a $12 million price tag even though it's going to impact taxpayers I bet you you could get buy in to use that so to say that you know what I just
don't see the path forward so I do believe you could get buy in from all those groups if we did have a plan in place even if it did mean uh increased property taxes and others uh to the people so thank you thank you was there any other just go ahead uh I was at that meeting and I think at
the very end of that meeting one of the comments that was made was a challenge because my experience both on this board and the residents of this town is that we have the school is a rarity that we got we've only gotten it for uh bond
bonding um for police fire and the new high school junior senior high school anything else that that that that proposes to raise taxes and is does it involve construction of a new facility
has never been passed in this town all right so we have a motion and second to approve the contract is there any further discussion the two contracts oh sorry the two contracts with the BTQ so we have one for the heat pump upgrade and one for the
weatherization is there um all in favor i I opposed opposed so we have three in favor um two opposed so that passes so please um keep us updated when we have more definitive project schedule sure and I think you might be um are you is
she involved in this the next Can you just stay for the next one and then we're going to back up to you Sue after that so the next item we had is um to request the to authorize the town administrator to sign the contract with Constellation New Energy Inc you want to explain that one Jim yeah if you don't
mind I'm going to defer to Kathy to explain it because she is much more experienced than My pleasure so we are we're talking about the town's supply electric supply contract in Massachusetts electricity is deregulated
as well as natural gas which means we have the ability to procure our energy from a supplier that is not the same as the utility this this is going to get a little complicated because it doesn't have anything to do with our net
metering agreement for now we will set that aside we need to we need to be concerned about where we're going to buy our actual electricity supply um because it's a requirement either if we don't provide it from a supplier then
we're going to be by default a customer of the um utility the utility does not mark up electricity they don't sell electricity to make profit i know this is getting a little complicated but that's just the way it is they don't care where you buy your electricity it makes no difference to them whatsoever
so we have executed a contract with Constellation New Energy for our electric supply our current rate is 13.15 for our electricity um and we have an opportunity to extend our contract through
2028 at a rate of 12.63 63 cents which is a savings and I just have to find my notes um that would we use about 2.9 million annual kilowatt hours at our current
cost that's about $390,000 a year if we execute this contract we'll spend $374,000 a year for a savings of 15,435 and who's the Wii is it the resident is it is not the resident this is not the aggregation this is the town of Westport what we need to do to buy electricity
for our schools our municipal buildings okay so this is approving this would reduce the electrical cost from the current about $20,000 that's correct we would then after we pay our electric bill be able to take our net metering or
credits and apply them to the bill and thereby not have to pay that but we still want to reduce the cost as much as possible okay any questions does does the distribution charge stay the same no matter this is strictly supply it
doesn't have anything to do with the regulated cost of electric that will be the same that's correct okay any question it's the pleasure of the board madam I move authorization of the signing of this contract with Constellation New Energy Incorporated
i'll second that motion is there any discussion all in favor i I that's unanimous i just wanted to make a note too the aggregation is also going to be going out to bid shortly and at some point in the next couple of months you're going to have a motion before you
to um authorize Jim to um approve whatever their new contract number will be you will not have the ability to do that beforehand he will either be allowed to execute on the day that they go to bid or you won't
participate in the aggregation that is the way it works so I just want to put that out there if there's any need to so the next meeting we should ask the board for authorization whatever it is you guys need whatever we need to do to make you aware of how this works and you know make you comfortable with this we we
need to do and that's the one where I as a resident go sign that's correct and it's very important too because it's it's one of the the few opportunities you have to really do something great for your constituents that's that's just going to help them um and we've seen
tons of these scams going around where older residents get called over and over if they're participating in your aggregation they know it's a town program your lawyers have vetted it it protects them it's hugely important for us to participate through the chair just one quick question on that that's an opt
out right everyone's in it unless I That's correct and you can't do it any other way under state law so it's either opt out or you don't do it at all all right thank you all right do we have anything else for where Kathy would be helpful no I think that's it okay um All right thank you very much thank you
thank you Kathy all right so we're backing up to three uh excuse me 5A we have a request from Sue Brighten the treasurer to approve offering dental insurance to retirees welcome Sue
how's everyone we have a fancy new desk do you like the desk i love it it's very nice so the town of Westport has historically not offered any benefits other than the required health insurance
to our retirees [Applause] um we've often had a lot of them inquire about dental insurance and Southeastern Mass Health Group has proposed that we offer um they have come up with a
retirey dental plan and it will cost the town nothing just as our present dental plan for the active employees the town doesn't contribute to it if the employees opt into it it is entirely
their at their cost so the full cost is borne by the employee or in this case the retirey so it won't cost the town anything and it's an option for the retirees when they retire the only
actual cost to the town is that it will be a little more work for my office jim do you have a recommendation i recommend approval does anybody have any question what is the guarantee on the ability that it's won't it won't come
back on the town to cover any of those costs we with rising health insurance costs every right the this is part of the program that we're in with Southeastern Mass Health Group um we don't have to offer a plan if they offer it to us we don't necessarily have to
offer it so if they decide um this plan would be good through 2027 that they're offering right now if they chose something different that the town was going to be required to participate in we could reject it at that time thank What's the pleasure of the board motion
to approve second any discussion all in favor i I that's unanimous thank you we're missing our little cadence here without our friend Steve steve would like move everything and if we go now we're going to make Paula she's gonna to like be on her toes with I'll be first
to move what I like to move um now we're on D for those of you following along uh 5D we have a request from the shellfish advisory board to amend the aquaculture rules and regulations section 9.4.4.1 paragraph A to increase the
minimum age for licenses to 16 years old um so this is a regulation is there someone here from the shellfish advisory is going to talk to it welcome can you introduce yourself good evening um I'm Rick Smith i'm the chair of the
shellfish advisory board um this is pretty simple we're just trying to But before I begin congratulations to the electeds um as you go forward and whatever you go forward in but um anyway um what we're
trying to do with what we found is there's a discrepancy in the shelfish rules right now and regulations um in order as it currently sits right now you have to be 14 years old to get an aquaculture license but to get an aquaculture
license you have to be a commercial you have to have a commercial license to get a commercial license you have to be 16 so what we're trying to do is line everything up so that you'll have your commercial license at 16 and when you want to get your aquaculture license or
come before you for for the agriculture license it'll all fall in lines where everything will be 16 just to streamline it okay any questions i move we accept the shellfish advisory um board second any discussion all in favor i that's
unanimous thank you anything else from um we have we're on 5e we have a request from Bonnie Stribble the library director to post the principal clerk position and the library aid one position both in-house and publicly simultaneously so you'll recall we just
they just lost a principal clerk with an earlier appointment um and then they have a library aid is is she here hi did you want to come hi you want to tell us what this is about um so Josh is unfortunately leaving us for another position which
we're very happy for him but sad to see him go so we would like to refill that one and we also had one of our library clerks leave due to um health reasons she decided to resign so we have um two openings right now that we would like to fill okay jim do you have a recommendation i'd recommend posting in-house and externally as well okay
simultaneously so moved second is there any discussion all in favor i i that's unanimous anything else is there anything going on at the library you want to tell us about um for Earth Day we're doing a kids clothing swap this month so anybody can bring their nicely gently worn kids
clothing in and then the last two weeks of the month starting the 22nd um we're going to you can come in and take whatever you want and hopefully we have a lot of donations so far there's really good stuff so great all right thank you very much thank you
um 5F um we have the um request to approve the town engineer job description and to post the position you want to tell us what this is Jim yes so a copy of the description is in your packet uh the job description this has gone back and forth a number of
times um we had some comments from a couple of the other boards at the last meeting which some of those have been incorporated a couple of the minor ones have not uh this is the final version uh it's been sent to the personnel board as well and um the chair felt that the ch
changes were relatively minor and did not need to go um back before them so uh it's being presented to the committee for approval of the job description and determination of whether or not it should be posted at this time or at a later date is this budgeted in the next
year's budget it's budgeted in this year's budget and next year's budget um the only caveat I would say is that it's right now it's in the highway department budget and the highway department per bylaw requires a uh town resident for the position okay anything any comments or questions
madam Chair uh we've been talking about this for a while i think this is a good um product and it covers all the major uh functions of that engineer town engineer job description and so I would move that we approve the job description
and we post the position my my only question chair is well first of all do we have a second second go ahead is this is it going to remain a town resident requirement on that or do we know how that will so on the town warrant there is a uh proposal
to remove that requirement remove the requirement so it'll be more of a preference as opposed to requirement welcome is there any discussion all in favor i I No so there's four in favor and one opposed
um so now we are on review amend and recommend approve posting of the town meeting warrant um what I'd like we have a couple of ones that we thought um we wanted to have people come in and talk about after we have them talk about it we'll see if there's any others that we want to come in for next week um so we
do have one more meeting before the um we have to post well we have to post the warrant but we don't have to post our recommendation that's right we're not required to make a recommendation all right so um the first one let's talk about article 13 article 13 is the
community preservation um committee recommendations uh I'm Betty Slade the chair of the community preservation committee and John Bell is the vice chair um each year we come before you with our article
we've already spent 45 minutes with the finance committee so we're ready for you too um this year we have several projects um the first one is under open space and recreation uh the town by Centennial
Park playground improvements uh the bicential park you know is a playground is up near the M Cumber school and it's in pretty poor condition and the recreation commission has come up with a project they are going to be um talking
to the community about what this project will actually end up being they have several uh proposals within the project uh which seemed appropriate to us uh at in the CPC we voted unanimously um so we
are going to recommend 250,000 uh for this project that's the first project in recreation the second is a project to uh have another playing field within the
WYA playing fields um on American Legion Highway um we the the U project will have a $100,000 grant and they've asked us for
$150,000 grant this is for a senior league um they do instruction etc it could be used for other purposes but this is the main purpose that they wish to use and this is outdoor recreation the third is uh moving along
with the Westport biking and walking path uh the south coast northern scenic greenway feasibility study several towns have asked for CPA funding uh for this purpose and they've come to us to ask
for $12,000 as um the amount of money which Westport will put into this particular part of this uh project in community housing we have the Westport Affordable Housing Trust uh the
chair is uh Craig Dutra uh the um they have asked us for three uh parts of um a $300,000 grant uh 200,000 would be to set aside funding in case with the hope
that they can find property um in the future where they can have a larger uh community u housing like they have at no village um they think they have 800,000 will have 800,000 they need this
money because these projects come up i mean census the ail the availability of land comes up and when it does they need to have the funding right there they can't wait generally for another year um
40,000 is for the housing officer um and the this particular group as you'll see outside um they're they're always putting up all kinds of um uh notices about
availability of u funding to do things uh in the town um and also to have a housing officer because as you know affordable housing is very complicated legally so we need people um the third
is the 60,000 uh for rehab rehab they call it and that's basically helping people to keep their houses up to date those that have restrictions on them so the houses don't fall apart and there are all kinds of uh income level
restrictions on that do you want to talk about the range well there are two projects for the historic preservation one of them is the Westport Graange which is on Main Road they want to digitalize digitize all
their records and photos going back to I pretty sure it's the 1800s and make it available to the public so they want they're looking for $8,225 for that one part of that is if
you go into the Graange do you see on Have you noticed on the walls uh the very old plaques and things like this going up to the 1890s and they also want to um redo those so that they are
protected uh they're not you know they they aren't an archive archival folders or anything so they want to protect those books those uh sorry those plaques want me do the next sure so the
um the last project is a uh application by the Westport Point United Methodist Church um there's a building attached to the church uh called Halen Hall uh that building has
been used extensively through the years um for activities for people all over Westport in 1973 it actually housed three schools three school classes because there were problems with the
Westport community schools um there is there have been enormous uh numbers of um activities there that can continue on but the building is in the historic district and the building really needs
to be upgraded to be appropriate to the historic district so the the second part is they need to do something about the uh accessibility handicapped accessibility
so they have asked for funding to um for the outside of the building to replace the shingles to remove the staircase which is quite inappropriate uh historically and for partial funding
of the handicapped accessibility into the building they have already $50,000 which uh is available for uh adding to that for the afford for the uh accessibility uh and they will be doing
interior work in the future but they will do that with their own grants um and with funding they there actually has been a uh potential funding for the interior uh of the uh building uh I want
to note that this is a religious institution that owns it's the New England Conference of Methodist Churches that owns the building um it's in the historic district uh the historic
district mean it means that the building uh any changes on the outside of the building that's visible to a public way has to be approved by the historical commission it's very much like a historical preservation restriction because this is a religious institution
that owns it uh there have been problems in the past uh in 2018 uh the Supreme Court of uh Massachusetts uh made a pronouncement or it it as you know some of the when
something is put into law it also can be interpreted in different ways so since that time it's been interpreted by over 200 different projects in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts dealing
with religious institutions that have been successfully completed uh we have gone to town council and asked for town council to give us the um the kinds of things that we need to do in order to be sure that this will not be challenged in
the courts um and we are doing this one of them is that the historical commission had to establish that this building is his is significant historically for culture and history of the town that's one the other is that
they must do their construction according to the secretary of the interior guidelines which they will do we must have a grant agreement the CPA through the town for this for the CPC must have a grant agreement um with the
uh church in order to um make sure that in the future this is maintained um various other things that we're doing and working with town council so this is the first project since 2018 that
Westport is doing with a religious institution but because this building is a separate building it's always been used as a community hall it serves the public um and it's a historic building uh the CPC voted unanimously to
recommend this project so the other um things we're asking for administrative funds of 40,000 we rarely use them we use 10,000 at the most but um sometimes things come up and these money as you
know goes back into the CPA funding so it's no loss to that and budgeted reserves um it's a funny concept um we each year we get a certain amount of money from the town uh certain from tax
2% of the tax bill for each individual uh taxpayer um plus we get money from the state for example uh over the period since 2002 uh CPC uh or Westport has received about
$10 million from taxes and $4 million from the state uh we also get money uh on interest uh things of that nature so in order to use any funding to the end of the year we have to put in
budgeted put it into budgeted reserves so that if during the next um the fis before the fis fiscal year ends we need money for something else we will have avail available just going back to
Howland Hall it this is the first religious project that we've approved there have been others that come before us and either they've withdrew their application or we've tried to work with them one of them was St john's for the Old Town Hall we've been trying to work
with them about doing something with the old town hall which is right across the street from St john's but they're uh in limbo right now so what happened on that was um the it's the
um what a religious education center and um they didn't come with a thorough application so we're trying to work with them because we believe that that building should be preserved it's town hall so we um we know that we're
taking we just know that it's been done in all almost all other towns in the Commonwealth successfully and these are in Westport's a small town our buildings are important so that's one of the important ones yeah good point
right thank you so just um to be clear so the what the action that we would take tonight is whether to keep it on the warrant or whether we're going to take it off the warrant I think is the only real action or if we wanted to amend it on the warrant right yes excuse me recommendation is though this is the
Madam Chair the um CPA funding going to town meeting is determined by the CPC okay what you do is recommend whether or not you recommend it or not is not taking it on and off the the warrant thank you all right does anybody have
any questions so it's on the warrant and we have one more meeting to make recommendations if we choose to do so okay through the chair um Betty quick question for you and this is going back to my let's be you know reasonable with
our long-term plan the $250,000 for the bicesentennial park which is obviously right next to Macumber is being used as a staging facility right now it it's it's a mess right now yes correct are there guarantees that once we pay this $250,000 to fix this playground
that in the future if there is some other project up there that it will not be used to be staged in its current fashion the way it's being well that would be up to us not them i don't understand the question there's a water line project going on up around the Makoma school and right now
the company doing the work is using the basketball courts for a staging ground for all their equipment my my fear is just spending $250,000 to refurbish it and then all of a sudden it's being used for Absolutely not as
far as I'm concerned this is a playground for kids if I'm not mistaken we already invested in that project last year and this is No no we we put this year was this we did the um annex this
year and um some of the funding was uh was was going to be used was going to be used up there too yeah but we haven't done it without your approval and also or not your appro Well it's a town property uh the recreation commission's
approval um and it will not be used cannot be used we will have a we will make an agreement with the town on that perhaps you want I think in we're not I think in the future you can't tell what select boards will do though
unfortunately you can't commit future boards to future actions um so is there anything else on the on the article 13 that anybody want to talk about i thank you go ahead quick comment on the basketball courts there the contractor will be required to improve
those they will be in a better condition when they're done brian yes that was part of the Are they going to talk with the recreation committee before they do anything up there they should the recreation committee I've spoken with uh the director she's well aware okay all right yeah that'll be coordinated
all right thank you very much thank you um so the next um the next article that we want to talk about is the short-term rental committee recommendation so this is articles 26 and 27 jim
can you just remind us what the um short-term rental committee was tasked with and what you've done and how you Sure um after town meeting last year when it when the that current that previous uh
zoning article was voted down uh we constituted uh a committee that comprised two people from the planning board uh two people from the zoning board uh and
um Steve Fors as well and uh I hope I'm not leaving anybody out uh we were tasked to try to figure out what we should do uh to learn what other communities have done with short-term
rentals and what fits for Westport and after several several meetings uh and a lot of back and forth and discussion also with town council uh we came up with this one which is very very simple
just make it simple uh the problem with short-term rentals is they are because of our zoning bylaw they're not legal in the town of Westport currently and not only are they not
legal we probably have 3 to 400 short-term rentals in the town if not more and so we wanted to make them legal but make it simple for the town to administer and make it simple
uh for people who are going to do this to apply for a for a permit not a special permit a permit that would be administered through the select board u and I think that this hits all the
points that we're trying to do it makes it by right in the residential agricultural area and in the business area uh but it the other article which is a town article
states that this use is a business which is what the state determines has determined through the supreme whatever it is uh the Supreme Court of Massachusetts Supreme Judicial
Court has opined that short-term rentals are a business so um because they are a business they can be regulated by the select board like you do with
uh car lots and things of that nature uh so I I think it's allowed by right in the zoning part of it it states that they are [Music]
uh is permitted according to the table of use uh the guest rooms must be provided within a legal dwelling unit the owner shall adhere to applicable bylaws and rules regulations of the town of Westport and the Commonwealth and
short-term rentals in the residential district are for residential use only not for commercial use uh in violation um you can have your uh your permit if the other bylaw passes uh yanked by the
select board and the way that we had uh thought that this could be administered is in the same way that you do the trailer permits for East Beach and that you could do them on mass once a year or twice a year whatever you do for them
and so that it wouldn't be it would be some work on your office but it shouldn't be an overwhelming thing and it's because it's not a special permit it doesn't have to be noticed in the
paper for every single permit it's just the permit and I think um when you were talking about this before the um one of the concerns we had is when we do um say entertainment license or car licenses we have the police report and we have um
the fire or the building inspector report and um I think that what you've proposed here is that the permit uh the person requesting the permit attests to the fact that it meets those codes correct and we would be able to verify that but it doesn't require that we go
verify that correct it it require your permit should ask you know make sure that they are registered with the state so that they are paying their taxes on this short-term rental uh and that they're complying with all our all ours
and yours regulations uh with regard to what is permitted it also gives you the opportunity uh if there's a problem location and there's been a couple in the town where there
the use is abused by having too many people there on weekends and big parties and beer bashes and stuff if that happens the neighbors have an opportunity to come to the select board
and to complain and ask you to do something and you could call them in and if they don't change you can yank their permit and if they continue to do it without a permit then you can start finding them every time they do it
and it gives so it gives the the rest of the community a way to complain and have it heard to a body that can do something about it i think you did a very good job of keeping I mean this is not the first time we've heard about this but and um I think you've done a very good job of
simplifying it and I know there was a lot of confusion at the last town meeting so thanks to the committee do anybody have any questions or comments on this no jim Jim had a question you go ahead i just wanted to and I stated this before um I you know the devil's in the details
with these things and administering this permit is not going to be as simple as I think we'd like to see it um so it is going to be significant amount of work for the office um and then compliance is also going to be an issue um if there is a complaint with one of the properties
the select board can look at health and safety issues but noise issues potty issues um it would be difficult at least my understanding it would be difficult to withdraw or resend a permit from one of these establishments once they're permitted by zoning so just trying to
set expectations i I I don't have a better solution so um but it is going to be a significant amount of work for the office and um we'll make do so my understanding and help me if I'm wrong so article 26 is the zoning and that just allows it that's right so article
27 is the one where we put these permitting bylaws around so it is possible that we would pass article 26 and allow short-term rentals and then not pass article 27 and which case there'd be no permit process you might want to switch them i think we switched
them this way because we put zoning first yeah we put zoning first because it's a 2/3 23 yeah it's 2/3 yeah if that doesn't pass you just pass over 27 right right exactly right uh but if if the zoning article I can't imagine that the
zoning article passes with twothirds and then the town article doesn't pass with a simple majority so but stranger things happen so Dick do you have Yeah if you recall last year I was wondering why people
would be voting to reject the measure last year and did they appreciate it that if you do that you you're engaging in an illegal activity you'll continue to engage in illegal activity but I
guess people who voted on this or I don't think they were irrational i think they looked at it and figured well it's never been enforced before so there were no consequences um it seems to me at some point we've got to tell people that we
we need to enforce these these laws and with that knowledge I'm not doing it or recommending it as a threat but they need to have that knowledge because then there's at least the potential for consequences for violating our laws mhm uh so I think we we need
to make that point clear that if if this is rejected like it was last year we're back in the same position but at some point I would recommend as a select board member that we ought to start dealing with the enforcement issue otherwise it's just sort of a joke to
have that i I I agree i But I I don't agree with why it failed i think there was so much confusion about the thing go back and forth with should it be 7 days should it be two days people didn't like seven days but
the people who liked more days didn't like two days so it just and then it ended so it was it was done so here we're not talking about how many days the the only thing is that you know if you have a house that you're
renting out months to month or you rent out for a month at a time it isn't a short-term rental yeah my response to that if I may Madam Chair is yes that the offending parts of it have been removed right and I think the the committee has done a wonderful
job here and I I think people who would vote against it would be hardressed because there's nothing here that's threatening at all it's it's it's facilitating a short-term rental situation uh and it's making it legal so I you'd like to think that if people have enough knowledge about it they will
eventually vote for it and I hope they do that next month thank you anything else from the committee all right thank you Jim i just wanted to say this this looks great this is such a transformation
in fact uh the first history the first library book that I ever took out was right from where you're sitting when this wasn't when this in between there was a aisle right down
the middle it's probably closer where Dick is sitting but that was the first library book now we're talking history i did not know that thank you Jim thank you um so the next one we wanted to talk about is the capital improvement requests articles so
this is um article five um Jim do you want to tell us yeah so we when this was originally before the board we had recommended $200,000 for the cemetery expansion um there'd be additional funds coming from perpetual
care the latest estimate was over $900,000 so we recommend or I'm recommending an additional 100,000 be added to that line item for a total of 300,000 coming out of free cash for the cemetery expansion um we are trying to
reduce cost the highway department has been out there doing some of the work um and the the more that we can do in house the more savings there will be um but we are at at a point where I believe we have about 270 plots left um for sale we
sell about 75 a year um so within a few years we're going to be out of out of space it also takes a couple of years for these um new sections to be prepped to settle and be ready for for use so this is really something that needs to
be moved on um so so we want to change from our draft which had 200 to 300 and 300 is what the FinCom is recommending that's correct yeah all right anything yep so So Jim you said highway's been out there working yes do we have all required permits what permits would that
be no did you ask any we Yeah as far as I know we have all the permits town project they've done some land clearing um so you don't need you don't need any permits for land clearing on a town project we do have the conservation permit we have an order of conditions so you get the EP number we do okay
all right and so since we're um app we have to finalize the warrant tonight right so let's just um what I'd like to do is just quickly go through the articles there's a couple ones that have been marked up on the copies that we have um so we just make sure we time um
then please call that out so that we can have someone come back for our next meeting and then uh we'll consider whether we want to make a recommendation on the articles at our next meeting so the first one are you going to leave art you said we don't need so article one is uh from a prior fiscal year yes so that
bill is no longer needed so we will make a mo we'll amend it and just have a motion to uh pass over okay so and then article two is various transfers from the 2024 um budget um article three so you want to
talk that one has a note on it yeah that I just wanted to bring that to the attention of the board that was a request by an elected position the town clerk for the salary of $85,000 which is actually at the low end of a lot of the comparable salaries with the normal 3% increase would have been
about $80,000 right so article three is fixing the um the compensated elected officer so that 85 was just different than we typically see article four is um the overall um budget um which maybe we
can get we can go over that um at our next meeting in more detail article five we just talked about was the um capital improvement um article six is um kind of a bureaucracy thing to uh authorize the
treasurer to um uh issue note temporary short-term notes article seven is um uh the financials related to marine services article eight is the financials related to the waterline enterprise you have a note on this one you want to talk
about that yeah we're not changing the amount so the overall budget amount would be 442,500 but 287,500 would be from user charges uh to customers and the waterline enterprise retained earnings we would look to use
155,000 and that would be used to um cover over the uh past due from the city of Fall River okay article nine is financials related to the town beach enterprise article 10 is uh financials for the cable
television fund article 11 is um funding the various just one revolving fund so this is article 11 is just the ambulance fund yes so that's just an amendment to that one increasing it from 190 up to 195 okay so that one was an increase over
last year article 12 is the funding of um all the other revolving funds article 13 we talked about was the community preservation article 14 um is uh a vote to increase the local room occupancy tax
so this is one that maybe the public might want more information about um so the article 14 would increase the um local occupancy excise tax from 4% to 6% i'm going to put that down we should talk about that in the next meeting um
article 15 um is for a transfer from the municipal waterways fund uh for skiff for the marine services department article 16 is a transfer of funds for software upgrades to what are
we doing with that let's see board of Assesses they're um Oh they're revaling some software that's a previous article that we're repurposing okay okay so repurposing article for the reval software article 17 is um the the uh
this is the septic funding right so that is so this is um to allow loans to residents who who are financing water projects article 18 is a hazardous waste
collection day um article 19 is a transfer from transfer station receipts reserve to purchase a rolloff container at the transfer station article 20 um is
uh is this the tax title collection revolving fund we're making is a change here this is kind of word smithing when it was originally approved it was approved just for the tax collector or the treasurer and this includes both the collector and the treasurer okay um article 21 is a spending limit for the
tax title revolving fund um 22 is a deed in lie of foreclosure for piece of property um article 23
um it's repurpos it's re rescending a previous vote right oh we had an authorization to borrow for the um a open space for a open space and we no longer need that authorization so that'll just tidy that up article 24
um article 24 we should probably talk about at our next meeting so article 24 would um change the town bylaws so that um no elected officer will be eligible to serve on the finance committee um article 26 and 27 we just talked
about with the short-term rental and we swapped those two around from the previous versions and yeah okay they removed the order was moved 28 um is a zoning article related to accessory apartments you want to have anyone come
talk about that or we feel like we understand that enough okay um 20 29 29 is a change um to the personnel bylaws to add in a production
assistance 30 is the uh accepting the layout of granite post road 31 is accepting the public layout of my way and 32 is funding the stabilization fund um and the the the
finance committee has recommended $300,000 in the motion right yes so um and then article 33 is for the capital stabilization fund the finance committee is recommending $300,000 to capital stabilization and then article 34 is for
the special education reserve fund for $175,000 so we'll have a couple warrant articles that we'll talk about next time we can talk about whether we want to make recommendations next time but I will entertain a motion to close what are we doing to approve the warrant for
posting approve the warrant for posting so moved second is there any discussion all in favor i that's unanimous okay anything else on the warrant may 6 Tuesday May 6 7 p.m at the
old high school um H you used to have to wait around forever and now we made you wait around a long time today no the new high school the the new high school yes um we have a request from the Westport Land Conservation Trust to appropriate the
conservation restriction from the Westport Land Conservation Trust to the trustees of reservation for vacant land near Tiverton lineers map 60 lots 8 to 10 and portion of map 78 lots 9 and 10 uh thank you Select Board members uh
Ross Brand executive director of the Westport Land Trust i do want to note the the vote is to approve the conservation restriction not to appropriate oh so that's what I'm seeking from you all this evening uh last year we purchased uh two parcels of land uh backland between Sodom Road and
the T uh the Massachusetts Rhode Island state line um they will eventually be open to the public uh for uh hiking uh as well as hunting uh we currently have some hunters on it as well uh the land
is was a part of the town's uh open space and recreation priorities uh an objective from the last uh the last plan that was done in 2017 2018 and so it's a really uh really cool track of land uh kind of situated in a very unique spot
that I think people will enjoy longer term the public as a part of our acquisition efforts uh we purchased it with private funds and then a state grant uh the state grant requires us to convey a conservation restriction to another uh organization uh in the past
sometimes we've worked with the town on that in this case we're working with the trustees on this uh a lot of times when we work the town with the town it has to do with farmland in this case uh we're working with the trustees who has a lot of experience holding a restriction on this type of property so um you know
what we're what I'm seeking tonight is your approval of the restriction the conservation restriction by MGL uh requires the select board approval you have a copy of the plan you have a copy you have a copy of the plan the conservation restriction plan when they
I have a map if you'd like to see that sure is that right on Stafford Pond not Peace or uh No it's actually um so it's uh just as you turn on to Sodom Road uh it's sort of backland to the west of
Sodom Road off of Adamsville in the restriction there's uh copies of the the survey that's in there who was the the previous owner uh so the previous owner uh was the Sylvia family uh we'd like to thank them for really working with us uh and one the one other
piece was the Messier family as well is there any questions just through the chair i'm just looking at this we have one where is your access point to to get to this land for uh eventually it'll come from Westport Woods off of Adamsville Road it'll be come off of
West Woods okay perfect thank you all right so you're asking for I will entertain a motion to approve the trans what are we approving approving a transfer of the conservation restriction from the west you're just approving the conservation restriction i'm sorry we're approving the conservation restriction motion to approve conservation
restriction second any discussion all in favor i that's unanimous thank you very much thank you um I we have a request from Gris Gonzal the highway surveyor to accept two new central village signs from David Olivea
Wolf Bridge Investments jim yeah this if you notice there's two um central village signs one just across from um what's the one name of that street just just south of uh Village Garage uh there's an Brookwood Drive brookwood Drive yes there's another one down at
the southernly end both of those signs are deteriorated we've been looking to replace them uh we have a donation um from David Olivera from Wolf Wolf Bridge Investments for the two signs so he has donated the two signs the highway
department will put them up and replace the ones that are deteriorated so uh I'd recommend that we accept the donation and it'll be a nice addition to Central Village i move we accept the donation second from David any discussion
all in favor i I that's unanimous um we have a request from Kevin Kurt um to allow seasonal East Beach trailers to occupy sites starting on April 26 is there anyone here from East Beach okay so this is um Jake just
for your information so this is pretty normal they the um the trailer permits start on May 1 but we typically um move the dates a little bit um to accommodate a weekend for a weekend move in is that what we're looking for yes it's uh our not our annual request but
occasional request to have uh trailers come in like 4 days before the season starts that's the pleasure of the board motion to approve second any discussion all in favor i I that's unanimous enjoy
very much um okay we have a request from Chris Leonard the director of marine services to approve the contract for Bruce Ingam of the FV Ocean Rancher for the 2025 Quog Relay kohhog Cohog
sorry uh oh just when I got scallop okay do you um did you want to talk about this or do Jim do you want to talk i can just give you a quick update chris is not available tonight otherwise he would have attended this this did go out for proposals um we did have one bidder that was
um Bruce Ingram uh they've been doing it for a number of years i know everybody's been very happy with what they've done i would recommend approval of the contract some move second is there any discussion all in favor i that's
the four in favor one opposed one second yep okay so the only thing that I'm requesting review is that the trailers have to be permitted before they can go on the lots early okay i don't have all the permits in so did he leave already
okay all right can you get um word to Yeah I think they should know that already but yes yeah okay sorry we Thank you i was supposed to remind you that um L we have a request from the Economic Development Task Force to hold the 2025
summer farmers markets consecutive Saturday mornings from May 31 to October 11 2025 from 9:00 a.m to 1:00 p.m in the south parking lot of the annex and the winter markets for five Saturday mornings November 15 and 22nd December
63 20 also from 9 to1 in the annex gym along with a request to hang the banner for the markets that's basically it there we go um but I have with me Ben Wach who's one of the co-managers of the
market along with his wife Hannah and maybe you'd like to say a couple of things about the vendors and um music at the markets etc sure uh yeah the request is essentially to hit repeat uh we starting slightly earlier and um we uh
had a good successful season last year uh there's going to be some turnover in vendors but we've already got some exciting new vendors signing up uh as well as uh continued support from um the uh arts council the Westport Cultural
Council the Helen Ellis we put in for $3,200 this year and I have indications that we'll we'll get it but have nothing official yet this is how you have musicians at the They made decisions last week I think but I've gotten nothing official which allows for music
at the markets which is super popular so we're just asking to keep going okay i'd also like to mention that we actually pay the recreation commission uh money to use the uh bathrooms in the summer and the whole gymnasium area in the
winter and uh we we give them $1,000 in the summer and $875 in the winter and just so you know those are vendor fees uh that are going from the economic development task force and the farmers market to to help the recreation commission
well I'm sure that's a maintenance cleaning that's required that Well we paying custodial fees we don't leave um All right anybody have any questions about the farmers market sounds like the same thing we've been seeing yes for years anybody have any comments or
questions about that nope all right what's the pleasure of the board madam chair I would move the uh approval second is there any discussion all in favor i I that's unanimous good luck thank you starts on May 31 yes thank you
okay can't wait we have a request from the Conservation Commission to appoint it's the flowing following we have some creative spelling in this one a request from the conservation commission to appoint the
following to the open space recreation committee um Richard Brewer for select board representative john Bullard for planning board representative chris Capone for the conservation commission representative sean Leech beach committee representative dana Stewart
recreation committee representative and Ross Moran Westport Land Conservation Trust representative um do you have any anything about this you have to say jake do you know anything about this commission what they do madam Chair yep yeah i guess it's just a quirk but I was approved for this
position the last meeting and was dutifully reminded by Paula to get down and take the oath which I did so I I think I'm maybe the only one I suppose uh that we already did this okay so do you want to move the approval with the exception of yourself because you've
already approved i I think that's the right way to go okay so I I make that motion do second so we have um a second says basically appointing everybody that I just listed except for Dick who's already been appointed all in favor i I That's
unanimous phew all right so now we are on discussion um for the stroke buddies event i'm just getting a drink of water can you take over while I get water she wants to fight careful i need to get
some wheels they do trick chairs here lisa I can help okay thank you we have to wait to show well we know who you are you've been here before but for the benefit of the public and the record could we ask you to just identify yourselves and you proceed my name is
Lisa Fidelberg Coer and I represent Stroke Buddies and Friends i also sit on the board for um the Westport Council on Aging as well as the um Commission for Disabilities here in Westport i'm a proud Westporter for over 25
years and I'm Eileen Monre and I'm the chair of um Westport Council on Aging and I'm here to support this endeavor and Lisa so I asked them to proceed with their presentation madam
Chair y thank you so basically um what you have before you is uh a save the date in addition to an invitation um to uh come to our second event we had our first event back in December which was
cons frauds and scams that was very successful and we had it at the um whites of Westport with uh DA Quinn and we basically um had aformational um program for uh cons
frauds and scams uh that basically target not only the elderly but people with disabilities and that was around Christmas time and we felt that that was uh effic topic of discussion because normally that's the time when everyone seems to
be taken advantage of and it went over very well uh Stroke Buddies and Friends was actually um a brainchild of mine that I really wanted to uh give back to my community i
uh suffered a stroke and I have had five or six strokes since then and um I also have uh eskeemic bleeds as well so sometimes when people see me I have an invisible disability because I have a brain injury and there are times where I
use a cane and there's times where I don't so obviously when you have an assist then people can kind of notice and know that there's something going on um and if you don't have an assist they think you look fantastic and don't realize the challenges that we face having brain injuries moving forward um
Stroke Buddies and Friends uh is a support group um for people uh that do have a disability uh it was called Stroke Buddies at first and then I decided to rename it and call it Stroke Buddies and Friends because um not all
of my members have brain injuries but they all have catastrophic um type of challenges that have altered their life in some way so we really are peer-to-peer and all of our members suffer from challenges that we learn to
embrace together and overcome and uh the mission statement for our group is to embrace our new normal whatever that might be as a result of uh having my challenges I was introduced to the Westport Council on Aging i've lived in
Westport for over 20 years had no idea that two miles away from me um my health care team uh South Coast Hospitals group and my um physical therapist uh actually stopped at the Council on Aging to get
me any type of support that I would need for my physical therapy and she actually introduced me to them by bringing the necessary um supports that that I would be utilizing in my home and as a result of that I said to my husband at the time
well during this time stating that if I had the opportunity and I survived this ordeal that I would like to give back especially to the Westport Council on Aging and as a result of that that's where Stroke Buddies and Friends um meets we meet every third Wednesday of
the month and um as a result of that that was really when we did our first um inservice which was cons frauds and scams as a result of that I wanted to salute um South Coast Hospitals group and um in doing so I wanted to also
salute the first responders that sometimes go unnoticed especially in cities and towns i have to honestly say that this town with the Westport Fire Department and Police Department um have given me a insurmountable amount of support i didn't know who my chiefs were
or are members of the team um Tony um is actually a retired Tony's with me um retired um uh police detective I believe and um he has given me the support and the knowledge uh to to not only uh
recognize but to kind of learn how how you go about certain things in a town you know I was born and brought up in Fall River we have a mayor and the the um it's it's a little different when you're dealing with a town as opposed to a city um but uh having Eileen and Tony
and David um have been great support not only guiding me but also supporting this organization um that we've developed through the Westport Council on Aging um and in doing so people don't realize that the first responders are in fact
that they are the first responders and it doesn't matter what type of medical emergency um that they're there unconditionally they laid down their life for you and they they literally saved my life i had a 99% blockage on my corateed artery
they do not operate when you have a 100% so I had a 1% chance of making it and here I am so um it's a blessing and and there are other people that I feel through um my support group that I not only give them a voice but we're being
reintroduced back into the community with the gifts that each individual has and just because we have our challenges now we do have to embrace our new normal i haven't done that yet and so I really just keep moving forward in hopes that I
could leave a positive impact and help fellow um fellow neighbors that live in the town and and people that I meet throughout my journey um to assist them in any way that I can and um Westport as
a result of that we have been um we were allowed to be on the national platform for the uh American Heart Association and we are now listed on the American Stroke Association the little old town of Westport has stroke buddies and friends and we are the first support
group peer-to-peer um in our state and they're now looking to see if we are the first one nationwide and it's actually run by all members that do have a challenge so that's accomplishment in itself um South
Coast Hospitals Group is our senior partner in this endeavor and in doing so I reached out to all of the South Coast chiefs and police departments we have well over 20 that are going to be participating in this event all the medical content is coming from South
Coast Hospitals Group including my healthcare team which I've given permission so that there's no HIPPA law violation or anything like that um but it's just a way for me to share my story um the members of my group actually come and they do sign a waiver if they do
choose to speak about their personal experience um they can do so and and we protect them as well you know as far as not making it public to anyone it's in you know a closed door kind of situation but South Coast um had tried to start a
support group for many years and they basically wanted to know what I was doing because when I first started the group it was only myself and another uh girl who we just sat in the room and just had a cup of coffee and kind of chatted and today we have over 150
members and it just started six months ago so obviously that there is a need and highlighting the town of Westport is actually my goal and all of the departments that have supported me during this whole time um since December
has been remarkable we have individual businesses that have supported us um and actually was introduced to the Council on Aging because many people don't even know that the Council on Aging even exists and then in doing so highlighting the different departments within
Westport they're happy to know that you know the police and fire departments uh have their doors open um and that you can go in and you can take a tour and you can actually meet uh the personnel within the town and you don't have to meet them on your worst day you can
actually meet them in in an environment where it's welcoming and um and they and they're always there and they're always available for you so um with that being said we also have an advisory board because we are not there to diagnose anyone we don't actually give out
medical information or uh you know on a on a medical standpoint um we have uh over 13 people with various degrees we have doctors and nurses and the support with their physical therapy department the brain center and all of that so I do
have an advisory board because I was asked at one point what kind of medical credentials did I have to start a support group but this is really for coping skills and it's really for social um because you do feel lost and alone and so these types of well this my group
is just so essential for the recovery moving forward um and I just feel that you know that's an important component sometimes that's overlooked and knowing that you're not alone in this journey which does take a very long time no matter what kind of stroke that you have
you can be diagnosed with the same stroke and be on two different sides of the spectrum um we're now going into we have some non-verbal um participants uh and we're learning sign language so that we can actually communicate and knowing that they know that we're that we're in
the same boat as they are gives them comfort so we are making strides with regards to that so I basically wanted to come before you this evening just to let you know what's happening in Westport um they are going to be doing a media campaign um about my story with South
Coast which will include commercials and however they do their thing on their end and the the campaign is going to be named after a stroke transformed a Westport woman's life now she helps others and I just really felt that it was important for my select board to be
a part of that um and to really know what's happening not only at the Council on Aging um but within the community and um it's been my honor to come and explain to you what I'm doing here in the in the in the town so can you tell us about what's going on on May 3rd may
3rd from 9:00 to 5:00 yes so May 3rd between 9:00 and 5:00 we actually have it broken down with many 15 to 20 minute um presentations from our medical community which will encompass uh heart health and stroke prevention um in
addition to um dietary needs or um we actually have uh people that are coming from the brain center vascular um you know and all the different departments uh based on heart health and stroke prevention we have cardiologists that are coming they'll break down into
smaller classrooms which will be from 25 people or less if we have an overabundance in a particular classroom we also have the um um the auditorium that's available as well uh we also encompassing um a touch a truck program
um and Tony can actually speak on more specifics i've given him that great task to organize all of that with all of our fire and police departments um the touch a truck is a big hit uh we also have commitments from the state police um and we are we did ask for um I hate to say
it but a helicopter to come in because I know it's such a big thing with the kids but we do we're working on on that as well as medflight coming in uh one in the morning and one in the afternoon so they have till the 15th of the month when all of that will be actually um uh
confirmed so all of our um invites are already out we have area dignitaries coming in too our senators uh you know on the state level um and we're just waiting for confirmation uh so that we can actually put the program together so that they'll be able to meet people that
are involved with the legislature when it comes to to strokes and then um what's the best way for people to find out more or learn more about the program so on our flyer we actually have an email which is um um stroke buddies and
friendsgmail.com that is correct and that comes directly to me um and then we do have um different uh uh volunteers uh including the south uh the council on aging uh you can also call there as well and they'll basically put you in touch
with me or I have Eileen who's helping and and people on our volunteer board as well all right so stroke buddies and friendsgmail.com or you can call the council on aging hi Tony Custodio just one point I want to make out uh general parking will not be at the new high
school because of the tuck the touch of truck is going to take the whole front of the school and I'm going to have limited parking in the back so we'll be shuttle busing folks in parking lot has not been determined yet but soon we'll figure out where that shuttle will be i just don't want 100 people showing up at the school thinking that's where they're
going to park um it will be offsite we'll figure out where specifically and everybody will get shuttle bust in thank you thank you any questions or I think it's great what you're doing not one question
it's like a big learning opportunity i'm actually going to be out of town but I it sounds like a very good learning opportunity and the short little uh lectures that you're going to have and I just wish you a lot of success with that yes thank you very much thank you i I do have a question though um because of of
the the parking we're trying to get in touch with someone that actually where they have the fair um the fairgrounds does anyone might have a phone i did use a phone number that was passed along to me but um I haven't gotten a response
we're just looking to use their parking lot area oh wonderful terrific thank you thank you very much okay thank you thank you good see you tomorrow thank you thank you Richard next on the agenda is the town administrator report just a couple of things uh remote
meetings governor Moa Healey signed into law an amendment that allows uh the remote meetings to continue to June 30th 2027 that was supposed to expire the end of March so that is a good thing um regional school admissions the board of elementary and secondary education is
currently considering proposed regulations that would implement a lotterybased admission system for regional vocational technical schools if adopted these regulations would significantly change the admission process for institutions such as Bristol County Aggie Agricultural High School and Diamond Regional Vocational High
School i know the superintendent uh Derek Cost of Bristol Agricultural had some concerns uh he's looking for support for a um a new bill House HD4510 um you know I'm not sure if it's
beneficial or not um and I think it's still up in the air i think it'll benefit some and unfortunately not others but uh it does give some other students that may may not have had an opportunity to go to diamond that opportunity online permitting that has been implemented in
the building department so far feedback from both the public and the department has been very positive um the board of health is scheduled to transition to online permitting next followed by planning and conservation um just a couple of other things the website uh the staff has been training on the new website over the last couple of weeks i
think there's another two sessions of training on the new website i I will caution people that once the new website goes up there will be some complaints it's just different anytime you change anything it's going to when you can't find things the way you've been searching for them in the past um it
takes a little bit of time but over overall I think it's a better website uh it's much easier to use for the staff it's much easier to upload content so in the long run I think it's going to be a positive for the town and when when are you trying to get that done we're trying to get it up hopefully in the next month or so uh we have till the end of June uh
depending on how the training goes and we're still working out some bugs and kinks and trying to dress it up a little bit more but uh Carol Freigh has been doing an unbelievable job the amount of time that she's put into this transition is is incredible there's a lot of work that goes into the migration a lot of
work behind the scenes that you just don't anticipate on these types of projects um just a couple other things the cemetery we're currently updating the cemetery software it was a volunteer um group that kind of put that previous software package up and it was no longer
being supported by the the website or by um some of the volunteers so we're in the process of updating that software some of the preliminary mapping is done and the mapping is uh it's not ideal we're using existing maps from the cemetery which are not ideal but we're
trying to improve those and eventually I think it'll be a very good system but uh Mike Bruot over at the cemetery has been putting a lot of time into getting the applications done the permits done so that they can be online as well as well as trying to organize where these plots and um different sections are it's not
just the Beach Grove we're looking at Linding Grove and Maple Grove as well uh the accounting department is also upgrading their software they're supposed to go online July 1st that's kind of been in the process for almost a year and a half now form we had some issues with the overall accounting um
formatting of the accounts um but I think they've got that worked out um the assessor's office is also looking to upgrade their their uh assessor software originally they were going to a different um vendor but um they're going to stick with their new vendor with their existing vendor which will help
out in the transition they hope to have that up by July as well cover design grant uh Westport was awarded the $69,000 uh grant to support preliminary engineering design work for the replacement of three aging undersized culverts at Angeline Brook at Cornell
Road Snow Creek and Lionsbrook on Drift Road um you know the the thought is that they they want to increase um the size of these culverts and improve them so that they don't hinder native native fish migration and increase the road risk of roadway damage during extreme
weather events this is just a preliminary engineering design um step one there'll be a number of steps after this if it does move forward this just gives you a general idea of what type of design would be required for these culverts based on the size um you know
we we've seen what's happening with Drift Road and Kirby Brook right now how a small Culver project is expanded into a large larger project these are smaller culverts but um there's still stream crossing standards and other standards that have to be met as this goes forward so you're going to hire an engineer
you're looking to hire an engineer for that so this would be through the grant buzzards Bay Coalition and the planning staff have been working on this yeah they would i don't know if they have a engineer on board yet um or not it's it's not a big grant but um yeah
I had one more question on like the previous one about the website and stuff how's the um online permitting coming along is that incorporated into that website or So So the cemetery would be a separate module um I'm sure we could provide a link with our our website we
will provide a link from our website to the cemetery um but right now I don't you know it's a good question um we had actually gone for the cemetery software before the permitting eye software was finalized um I don't know if they have um
a separate license or a separate um um what do you call it software package for cemetery but the building permit is online the animal permits online building and I believe the fire will be soon and border health will be coming and planning conservation
it's there's a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes to get these things up to migrate the data over to get your permits in line with the software um to get your forms and fee structure in line with software to make this work come so um I give a lot of credit to the building department for the effort and
time that they put in so far as well as the planning staff and these other departments it's a lot of work but eventually it will benefit us all and hopefully give them some more free time to move things along that's all I have right um report on the bill warrant
oh you want um minutes oh sorry minutes minutes of March 24 um I've reviewed the minutes and I u move approval of the March 24th minutes second um okay so Jake was not there and you
were also not there all right so we're going to have three we're going to have two abstensions so all in favor I I So that's unanimous with two abstensions due to absent or Jake wasn't around um all right the bill warrants bill warrant
was uh done on 42 April 2nd $2.4 million i made some comments that there's Route 6 water project warrants in there and everything was in order i keep making the same report everything's in order but that's good news and I hope I hope I always can say that so are you are you
willing to continue and and our design for signing the bill warrants yes I am all right we used to have to go to town all of us had to go to town hall oh to sign it but we we we delegated it i would say that if Mr duter who is I have
to sub substitute for the next one yes okay in case he wanted to okay the main job I would be willing to yield but I'm okay with continuing no I'm I'm perfectly happy letting you take all right so the next item we have is um
liaison committee reports or suggestions for future agenda items so Craig we'll start with you okay so um well the um um the board's rep to the long-term building committee which we've discussed we had a very lively meeting
uh last week um regarding the uses of the the high school as well as presentation by the consultants RGB um consultants um to look at what the what what are the options some of the
cost more like cost estimates uh it was very well attended it was a lively meeting at times and it's um it's the first step of a two-step process in terms of public hearings we'll have another uh uh round
of uh findings presented by the group as well as another public meeting uh later I think probably in the month of June is what we're looking at right okay um that's then the other two committees that I'm serving as your representative on are meeting this week
so I'll have something to report next time the affordable housing trust is meeting on Wednesday and the um the uh uh opiate addiction uh settlement funds committee is meeting tomorrow night
right thank you Dick i believe I reported on the audit committee meeting last time but we will have another audit committee meeting on May 5th we will have town auditor Anthony Rosselli present either in person or on the squawk box there and then after that of
course we always ask if the select board is wishes to hear from Mr rosselli and we'll be making that same offer i serve as the leazison of the council on aging i've been to the meetings there's one coming tomorrow and we've had the people here tonight talking about stroke
buddies and also the the buses um we're working on the budget everything there is going well i think all of you know that buses uh the sort of buses you can ride them for free and that was because of a grant uh that was given to us i
forget the source of the grant um so it's a great thing we we wonder what's going to happen when the grant is no longer available and people have to start paying again but it looks like this can be continued for quite some time to come at least for the rest of the year but that's kind of a neat thing
uh believe me so any event that's all I have to report right thank you um so we talked about the stroke buddies event i met with Lisa and I met with the fire and police chief with Lisa to talk about the stroke buddies event that she had um I'll let we have the next offshore wind
committee is April 24 i'll let Jake talk about the topic for that um there was a fiber internet um provider that had the fiber internet the internet advisory committee has been on a hiatus we haven't met in quite a long time because there wasn't really anything to talk
about um but um Keith Novo was approached by someone who is expressing interest in a project in Westport so I was going to have um I was going to call a meeting of the fiber internet provider just to talk to this person um before we bring them to the select board um so
that way you have they would have at least had their initial pass what Westport's interested in through that committee um but I haven't scheduled that yet i think and I did turn the long-term uh the school building um meeting that was very well attended so
Manny I won't have anything till next meeting all right Jake anything uh just uh to follow up on your point um the offshore wind advisory committee is not I know we originally had it for this Thursday April 17th um because of scheduling conflicts we're going to do
it on April 24th so that agenda will be out later on this week uh we'll have two guests that will be presenting uh and then also we'll have a uh a letter from the planning board that we'll be discussing um at at the meeting on the
24th so again it's April 24th not this week the 17th that's it thank you um comments from the public you've been waiting very patiently yes I have okay my name is Debbie Deetsz i live at One Narrow Avenue last Tuesday I went to
vote they asked me for my address i said "One narrow avenue." And lo and behold they said "Are you Laura Hadley?" I said "No I'm not." And she does not live at One Narrow Avenue she does not live in the town of Westport she doesn't even
live in the state of Massachusetts so they lodged once again a formal complaint on my behalf about L hadley and lo and behold a couple hours later Laura shows up down at my property
trying to lock me off my property again i had to call my attorney i had to call the police um so at this point in time somebody from this town hall called her up and told her I lodged a formal
complaint that she needs to be removed from the voter role and this is what happened in retaliation so it and it happened from this town hall i don't know who did it but the bottom line is is I'm assuming and a number of people
have gone to the town clerk and told the town clerk that this woman does not live at one narrow she does not live in Westport she does not live in the state of Massachusetts for whatever reason this woman is not being removed from the voter role and I'm not the only one
that's complained numerous other people have filed complaints also or gone to the town clerk it is not being addressed so it's time for this to escalate i'm assuming that the town clerk answers to you guys i'm assuming that you guys want
to retain election integrity in this town so I'm just making you aware this is what's going on and it needs to be addressed thank you so the town clerk does not report to us the town clerk is an independently elected official um so we don't have any control over the town
clerk but um Jim can I can we can I ask you to follow up with I don't know who the pro do we need to follow up with KP Law or I will follow up with the town clerk and if need be I can check with KP Law i believe there is a process to to go through i don't know what that process is but I will I will find out
and get get that information back to the board i can get it to you as well if you want to leave your name and number I can the town clerk is not addressing the issue so there's a process and I don't know what the process is i'm the only person
who lives at one narrow avenue so can we can you leave your contact information with Paula and um we will find out what the right what the process is um so that we we don't want to give you incorrect information um and I'm assuming the town clerk answers to
somebody in this town the town clerk is an independently elected position the town clerk it answers to the voters okay so we don't have control over the town clerk now I don't know where the registars um begin and end they are also we
appoint the registars right i believe we do yeah so so I think what we need is a little bit more information about from Jim not from you um on the role of the registars of voters in that case because we do appoint them whether you guys have to get in touch with the DOJ or the
attorney general or whatever this needs to escalate and I believe that you know maybe you guys as select boards maybe you could you know take it take it further do do we have a registra well we did we have a we have a board oh
sorry we have a board of registars but we had a person before right we do and we just appointed one the board just appointed one tonight that starts the 28th okay the assistant register i think the procedure is probably to put a put a a formal in writing into the What's that probably the procedure is more more than
likely uh she probably has a form the clerk probably has a form for you to fill out if you ask her for that question she can probably provide you with a form to fill out well we'll find out so it sounds like you're not getting this got nowhere with the town clerk and I'm not the only person there have been
numerous people that have approached the town clerk they She knows the person doesn't live here the person lives at 63 Cliff Street in Tivetan Rhode Island how this person even got on the ballot to run for a state rep is just beyond me is
beyond me that's that's fraud that's election fraud and I would think that you guys want to retain election integrity in this town so we'll we'll find out so we'll consult with town council we'll consult with the clerk we'll look at the role of the registars of voters i don't
because I mean there's four of them right or there's three plus clerk yeah so we'll figure out the right entity to do that something but I'm not filling out any forms with the town clerk i'm done dealing with the town clerk i hear you so if you can just make sure that Paula has your contact information and then we'll reach out to you thank you
thank you anything else from the public all right um we um do we don't have any under 48 hour items we do not so we're about to go into executive session we're going to we will not conduct business after the
executive session except to adjourn under the um pursuant to the I will entertain a motion pursuant to the provisions of Mass General Law Chapter 3A section 21A where the chair declares an open meeting will have a detrimental
effect to A approve minutes of February 24 2025 b to conduct strategy sessions in preparation for negotiations with non-UN personnel or to conduct bargaining sessions or contract negotiations with non-union personnel specifically the highway surveyor and C
to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining or litigating position of the public body and the chair so declares town of Westport workers compensation MIA claim number
3342320 20251 i move we go into exe I Craig Ducha move we go into executive session for the purposes stated by the chair i Richard Brewer second that motion all in favor i
Craig Dutra i Richard Brewer i Sha Tease i Manny S i Jake Mcwigan all right we are in executive session