##VIDEO ID:3Dp55TtUKm0## will you uh join me in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge Al to the flag United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liy and justice for all good evening welcome to the Monday November 18 2024 meeting of the Westport Select board under Mass General Law chapter 30A section 20f this meeting is being recorded um I would like to just start with welcome comments um from the chair I want to acknowledge the um election workers the team that we had at the polls we maintained five precincts um and I don't know how many poll workers but it's a lot um at each Precinct and we want to congratulate Kristen Stenson and um all at the town clerk's office the registrars of Voters the the poll workers for making it um successful many of you know two people at this table were on the ballot um there is a recount going on for the state representative position so there's no final version verdict yet so uh we don't know yet the outcome of the state representative race um that's going on um any other comments on the election all right um so our first we get we have a fun one first so we have a request from deputy chief Robert rebello to award officer Michael Cho with the community service award Deputy ch if you want to tell us what this is about sure so um I have a prepared statement but um Michael chck up he goes to all of our you want to have him come forward sure please sorry to interrupt you oh that's okay so he helps out with all the community events and this is just a way to recognize all the work that he's done um since he joined um so like I said I have a statement it is with great pleasure I bring forward to the West boort select board the nomination of off officer Michael chicka for the community service award field training officer Fernando Gonzales submitted his nomination to the Westport police commodation award committee for review fto gonzal spoke very highly of the dedication and personal sacrifice officer chicka makes on a regular basis for the town of Westport after review a unanimous vote of the committee was forwarded to myself a final approval this award is given to a member who acts to substantially improve police community relations through contributions of time and effort when not involved in Official Police capacity officer chick has donated his own time on a regular basis at no cost of the Town while participating in numerous events most of these events happen in Westport but some of them have extended to neighboring communities the drive officer chiah has to help the community is unparalleled no other officer has participated in more community events than offic of chiah has he is a role model to his peers and he embodies the definition of public servant I'm honored to present to you officer Michael chicka as the newest recipient recipient of the community service award Mr chcka did you want to say anything you don't have to uh sure uh I want to thank you guys first of all for taking the time out of the meeting today to present the award to me uh to deputy chief uh rebello and chief Dunn for approving the nomination uh the awards committee and officer gonzoles for uh nominating me as well um to my wife back there for letting me do all this time with with the community extra uh without her support I wouldn't be able to give up what free time I have to the community um and as long as the community and members of the community keep having these great events uh I plan to be there and I know the Westport police plans to be there so to the recreation department and all the other people that run these great events in town uh just keep them coming and we'll be there great well I know I joined the whole board and thanking you for the service that you've done we're it's a pleasure to be here to uh to honor you with this award tonight right so I I do have a pen for you I think we want to do a photo to go on both sides I think it's been a while since we posed for a photo where do you want us anywhere okay one two three thank you let you go also while we here those of you may not be able to see the crowd that we have in the room but we have quite a crowd here of police officers westport's finest I hope somebody is out on the street keeping order um I'm going to take some um a couple of uh action items out or appointments out of order um the first one is on your um agenda 3C so 3C is a request from police chief Christopher Dunn to promote Sergeant Christopher melow to the rank of Lieutenant effective December 15 2024 welcome Chief good evening everybody's had a nice weekend yeah he has he he just I was asked by the chief to do it in this order so yes just to give a little historical perspective um trally we've had staff two lieutenants in our department we're currently staffed at nun which means myself and Deputy rebello uh doing the responsibility of the lieutenants uh Deputy chiefin Chiefs we've had a competitive testing process with three excellent candidates which included a written examination and oral board performance evaluation um as well as others Sergeant Lelo was top performer within that um competitive testing process Sergeant Mel has been with our department since 1998 as a reserve police officer full-time police officer 1999 was a school resource officer before being promoted as a sergeant in 2012 he's a lifelong resident of Westport he's here with his wife and his two children so I'm respectfully requesting the board to vote and approve upon um Ser mow to be proned to Lieutenant effective December 15 2024 so second have a motion in a second um to promote Chief Christopher Melo to the rank of Lieutenant is there any discussion Sergeant Christopher M sorry Sergeant the chief job's already full I'm good sorry too many Christophers I misread it um do you have anything any comments you'd like to make uh mine I have nothing as long as offic chickers I'm just thankful for the board thankful for the chief and the deputy chief for giving me this opportunity and I'll just continue to try to represent the town well thank you any further discussion all in favor I I that's unanimous congrats congratulations thank [Applause] you and then uh the next item on the agenda is a request from Chief Dunn to promote field officer Fernando Gonzales to the rank of Sergeant effective December 15 2024 so the reason why we took it in this order is because now we have an open Sergeant vacancy um we've had several um vacant police officer positions that we able to fill which allows us to fill the sergeant role um fto gonzal a field training officer is important position within our department they set the standards for how our officers should be trained um so fto Gonzalez is excels in that position uh he's been a member of our department since 2016 not only he's in the fto but he's also uh officer chick's counterpart in the community outreach unit he is a resident of Westport uh he's married he's here with his wife his daughter and their mother his uh mother-in-law so I respectfully requested the board to promote fto gonzal in the rank of Sergeant effective December 15 2024 some move second the motion second is there any discussion you have any comments not as big as uh everybody just thank you to the to the chief dep Chief to the board for accepting it and my family that's all thank you all right any further discussion all in favor I that's unanimous [Applause] congratulations so Chief did you have anything else on the agenda so there's two things i' just like three things I'd like to bring up um we're working together with the fire dep Department with the uh Thanksgiving uh food can drive so if people can drop off canned goods to either the fire stations or the police station will be donating to the food pantry okay we're also working with a fire department for a clothing and toy drive for the women's shelter in full River so if they can drop off clothing and um toys it's actually on our Facebook page with the items they're seeking and our community outreach team will be active in in the month of December for various holiday events so that's what we have going on he thank you thank you all right congratulations to everybody we're going to give you a moment to leave you're welcome to stay this is your community but we will give you a moment to leave but please don't congregate in the hallway talking like go downstairs thank you thank was most of our I know sad you got to get to work yep [Music] hey they actually listen a lot mostly people go out there and start talking they they okay um so now we're back to 3A so 3A is a request from Matt arendo the Board of Health director to accept the resignation or sorry the retirement of Timothy Burns effective December 31st I don't think we have any there's nobody here nope we just wanted to get on the agenda so at the next meeting we can post a position okay what's the pleasure of the board move we accepted retirement second any discussion all in favor I that's unanimous um now we have d a request from Michael burus um the town planner to appoint uh Dia wheeler as assistant Town planner effective January 2nd want to come forward we also have Jim whiton from our planning board here hello you want to tell us what this is about so we posted this position about a month and a half ago we received eight applications for the position um I've followed up with Do's references and they were all gave um very high recommendations for her candidacy um we're looking forward to getting her started pretty soon here as it says in my letter her start date would be January 2nd we have a number of different projects that I think she'll be pretty interested in helping us administer so her background is in environmental planning um she has a master's degree environmental planning as well as a bachelor's degree and we have a beach management planning um project ongoing for East Beach and Atlantic Avenue and Beach Avenue so that'll be something that I think she can help out with um we also have a pilot project for municipal vulnerability preparedness Grant there's an event for that on Saturday for the community to help us select what that project should be so just quick plug um but yeah so so I think she'll be very helpful with implementing those those those um those different Grant programs and then helping me out on the side with the development review um so we're excited to have her she's going to be moving down from from Medford so not too far okay thank you and the um planning board is also recommending um this would be contingent on the planning board recommending it tomorrow just because when I got her um she has tentatively accepted the position but just the way the meetings lined up it the planning board will do that tomorrow it's on our agenda tomorrow night so okay thank you anybody have anything I'll move our subject to planning board approval second is there any discussion okay all favor I I that's unanimous thank you thank you okay I just wanted to talk about the MVP meeting on on 23rd which is Saturday MH uh that's a free thing for families to come to is at the library from 11: to 2 and there should be some things for kids to do uh as well as uh we hope to get the adults to help us decide which direction to take with this so we're busy town so Saturday the 23rd um at the library from 11:00 to 2: there'll be some activities for kids um and uh decision about the municipal vulnerability plan you heard from the chief earlier we want a toy drive and a women's fun drive yeah there'll be free food there um it's an openhouse style so people can drop by and just spend 10 five minutes just vote on um the project that they think would be the best way for the town okay all right thank you anything else well there's just one thing that I'd like to put out since we're going to be on TV is dead trees and I spoke with you about that last week um a month ago a dead tree total my car on River Road and it was it it's not like an act of God because everybody knows it's dead and it's going to fall um it wasn't windy it wasn't stormy and and I just would like to alert homeowners who have these dead trees that have partially been cut down by the utility company or by the town if it's if they're on their property they may be liable because it's it's negligence not an act of God and it almost killed us so before somebody else gets it and gets killed I think we ought to make some kind of uh effort to itemize where they are and to try to see if the uh Highway Department can cut some of them or hire somebody to cut some of them or alert the the abutters that it's their tree their problem when they better do something about it so it's not on the agenda so we can't discuss it tonight but um Jim could you uh see if there's any what what our options are for what we might be able to do there sure all right thank you so we'll talk about that at a future meeting thank you do we have a tree Warden or who position I don't know we're not prepared to talk about it tonight so he'll find that out a question again on next yeah I don't know do we I don't know it's a good question I don't know yeah think it's been active so we'll we'll put it on the next the next agenda thank you right thank you thanks thanks um 3E we have um a request from Chris Leonard the Harbor Master to appoint Carl trip to the harbor Advisory Board I'll move a long time resident second I was like surprised he wasn't already on the board actually is there any discussion all in favor I that's unanimous the next item we have is a joint meeting with the board of assessors if you guys want to come forward um so uh and you guys um can call them I guess you probably have to call are you already in a meeting or do you need to call your meeting to order you're already in you already started a meeting okay so um this is Joint meeting with the board of assessors to appoint Ste Steve mados to the board of assessors you might already thought he was on the board of assessors but he had to resign I had to step down to in order to collect my pension so oh once I collected my pension then I could be reappointed so he is now eligible and now he is asking to be reappointed um to the board processors through the chair nothing special we got to do we just got to vote just a majority vote of both boards um and it would be to fill the appointment to the end of till April when we'd have an election just a straight up voice V right yes I'll move it second all right so we're moving the appointment of Steve mados I was up for election anyway yeah I just wonder when they steep down I sent the letter in what yeah yeah we accepted the resignation acceptation I sent it in maybe in September I don't have the date we did yeah I remember all right so um so the select board has a motion a second to appoint Steve Maderos to the unexpired term of assessor is there any further discussion all in favor I that's unanimous how about your your two people think think we'll all right so that's unanimous vote by the two remaining assessors welcome back Steve there you go right and thank you I know um so the uh fire chief Baldwin is here so I'm going to move up his item also so Chief Baldwin do you want to come forward we're going to we're going to do 4D next we got to get our paid employees back off to work how's everybody doing tonight doing well so um we have a request to approve the purchase agreement with a fire mtic supply company for 268,000 thou 200 $8,250 you want to tell us what that's about sure that was um thanks to the taxpayers who voted at the last town meeting to approve our Capital requests for uh a brush truck um to my knowledge this will be the first actual brush truck that the fire department has ever designed built and purchased we've made do with some other trucks various types of fire apparatus that's out there this the first one that's classified as a brush truck it's going to be an F550 chassis uh 4x4 um vehicle plenty of ground clearance which we don't have now a skid unit is going to carry 400 gallons of water we tried to maximize that um we took was a few months to come up with the design we really wanted to design something that we felt would benefit the town realistically uh you probably get 20 to 30 years out of this vehicle um so that's we wanted to make sure we really coming up with the the best design possible visited some fire stations work with three separate vendors and at the end of the day we went with firematic um they have an excellent track record for customer service attention to detail and um we're very happy with the decision in in the spec that we came up with it was myself my deputy chief um Lieutenant Mike tear and Captain green and uh I just asked for your uh approval of the contract so we can get the build process going it's looking like it could take a year uh maybe maybe less um they did note that things are really starting to speed up as far as production goes it was out to a year and a half um they've already noticed a 4mon bump in the production time so we're heading in the right track um we won't have it for this type of weather that we're dealing with now but we certainly will for the future so um that is all so Jim can you give us your recommendation on this had recommend approval this was uh approved at last town meeting from free cash to to purchase this um something they needed they they've been before the capital Improvement planning committee and discussed it and gave the reasons why and I'd recommend approval okay second is there any discussion all in favor I I that's unanimous um Chief I just wonder if there's anything you want to talk about um I know we're having fire we alerts if you yeah yeah tomorrow's going to be another red flag War warning day um mainly that happens when it's Gusty winds they're predicting 30 35 mph wind so they flag it as a red warning um but red warning or not right now as everybody knows we're just dealing with some excessively dry conditions and the the primary concern is the leaves that are falling from the trees gathering around sheds buildings structures underneath your porch um a simple cigarette butt can can destroy somebody's home so we're really we're really uh been Vigilant on that that um you know investigating any complaints we've had we've had quite a few especially on the weekend people are trying to clean up the yards and we understand that but now is not the time it's not the right time anyway even if it was raining Burning Season is by premiered only from January 15th through May 1st so we're out of the Burning Season um you can never burn leaves even during Burning Season that's against St law so um we've been most of the residents have been very Cooperative with that we've had a few instances of burning trash and things like that but most of the time people simply didn't know that they couldn't do what they're doing and they they've been Cooper of an understanding um busy day today I think they're up to 10 calls since 0800 um several Medicals and a few few illegal Burns but um we're on tap to probably do 33 3,400 runs again so we we're we're keep going we you know very busy and all right anything else for the public I'm sorry man go ahead yeah cuz I was just you know on this brush truck I mean one of the solar facilities in dmouth cutting the grass they caught they caught fire under the under the solar array so it's something that the public needs to cut grass they can ignite these things when it's so dry tivan had a vehicle right on Halloween night that parked on top of some leaves and justed the heat from the exhaust ignited the leaves ignited a cire up against the building so it it it it's not really what a lot of people would assume but it really doesn't take much so um again the just the you know walk across your yard right now the leaves are just they're just shattering under your feet they're just bone dry so Thursday will be a little bit of relief with the rain but it's not going to it's not going to be the fix all we need we need days of rain so um so nobody burn anything don't burn anything right now no right not not right now so um but again we thank the the town and the and yourselves for the brush truck and we're excited about it all right thank you thank you thank you Chief thank you have a good night Paul okay and just to reorient everybody where we are we're now on 4 a so 4A is a request to approve the use of $35,000 local American Rescue plan act arpa funds for the 17 7 roundabout design did you want to talk about that Jim sure this is the roundabout design at 177 tickle Road in robbit street it's been under design for she I think almost three years now which is fairly typical with these type projects going through the Mass DOT process with a 25 50 75 100% design there public hearings um meetings goes through all the different agencies um just takes a long time but as it goes through those agencies the agencies uh pick up different design criteria that they would like to see included so they've included a shared use path on the north side of the roundabout which will extend from the intersection I want to say about 4 500 feet each way um they've included some sidewalks that the crossing to get from Robert Street to tickle Road um these have added some additional work required some additional Wetlands uh delineation as far and Wetland replication um and with that the design costs have uh gone up a little bit I'm waiting for the final numbers but uh they they've uh recommended or they suggested that it would be at about $35,000 additional design funds once this is designed it'll be constructed um using state and federal funds it will not be local funding to construct it once these get designed and approved on the the uh Local transportation Improvement plan um the state will take over the um construction of the project right now it's scheduled to be go out to bid in 2026 but these typically get pushed back six months or a year as we get closer so I wouldn't be surprised if it was 2027 before construction starts but um we just need some more money to finish up the design I put probably spent about 200,000 roughly on the design already and these are typical for these type projects and um we'd have to use the local arpa money because we don't have time to be under contract for the Bristol County arpa right yes in in the Bristol County we we've obligated or we've designated that funding right now okay all right any questions on this no I'll move it so we have a motion in a second to um approve $35,000 for the 177 roundabout design I have to just say personally that I was like skeptical about the whole roundabout thing I thought like roundabouts are crazy but I regularly commute um from one on 118 Andross 44 and they've just put in a roundabout there and it's beautiful like it's still under a bunch of construction but it work it's great I have not you don't have to wait anymore it's it does a fabulous job so I'm like a fan of roundabout all right any further discussion Jim so the the original design we we had gotten money from the state for that too didn't we yeah we had received a $150,000 E mark from Senator Rodricks to start it and then he uh increased that ear Mark in one of the following years right so these changes going up is all that stuff going to be in the roadway layout or we got to take do some we will need to do some takings um there may be definitely some easan takings um and uh there'll be some temporary easement takings as well during construction um as far as land takings I don't think there's any um land takings that I will double check but last I looked there weren't any but they've made some recent changes and I'd like to confirm that before just because you know like you said these funds are very competitive and I just I noticed in the in the paper the other day that Swansea Mass highways recommending Somerset rather that LE r raav have a roundabout so we might have more competition if we just get our ducks in a row y maybe we're further along and that'll help we'll fight it all right any further discussion all in favor all I that's unanimous so now we have uh B request from Richard kareah owner of East Coast RV 131 Old Bedford Road to add Shan kareah as contact manager to the repair license we did receive um positive um input from the police department on that you have a recommendation recommend approval Soo second is there any further discussion all in favor I that's unanimous um C we have a request from Chris Gonzales the highway surveyor to accept the chapter 90 work by pet hot mix asphalt Inc 25 conquered Street um pet Rhode Island do you want to tell us what that is yeah so this is the road work that was recently done last couple of months um Main Road most Main Road um drift road to Hicks Bridge Cemetery to Adamsville in intersection Main Road Adamsville to uh 646 Main Road Main Road Benjamin trip road to the old high school uh drift road down near hotel Hill and then Hotel Hill um drift road to Main Road and um it also included the Town Road here between town hall and the old police station that work's been done and this will just start the onee uh guarantee period if we accept that Highway Department is recommending acceptance I'll move it second is there any discussion Madam chair yep uh does the second handout go with this this award scope document with the list on it some of which you just cited yes it says 24 so this is not a prospective list no this is that's correct this is work that was done yeah this year so once the work's completed Town accepts it and then the one year uh warant stops where's the dead end on Main Road that we're talking about here that is right over here on the side one from the main road to the the gas pumps not down on my neck other no okay understood any further discussion we we had a motion right yeah yeah all in favor I that's unanimous um e we have a request for permission to decorate the front of the town hall for the holidays Mr wette you put this on the agenda yeah I just need um we've done this before and and um last year it was looking pretty drb out front so just looking to add some lights and maybe some um plantings and whatnot Point Setters or whatever um nothing religious or whatnot because then then it opens up to everybody that they can put what they want religious wise so just to sprout up the front a little bit um maybe the annx to but at least in front of uh Town Hall this used you can see side Brown is already done um you know it used to be a little uh walking area people could do shopping and by local so I'd like to try to get that back to Snuff okay so you just you're you're not looking for funding or anything you're just no no no we need permission because it's to proper so permission to put in basically secular declarations when I sent out the email a couple of town workers uh volunteered and we might get the Boy Scouts again okay right any discussion on that I'll move good so he's moving approval for that we have a second second any discussion all in favor I I that's unanimous um the next item we have is the request to approve amendments to the offshore wind advisory Charter so the offshore wind advisory committee met um last week and um we organized the board Jake mcgan is the chair um Rick Smith is the vice chair and um Christopher Thrasher is the clerk um we went through the charter that we that this group had approved um for uh the committee and made some um amendments so I put I had Paula put in your packet one that showed the markup and then one that was accepted I don't think there's anything really substantially different on it I think was just um clarifying A few things we did add um the official deliberations we added um the Commonwealth because it had the town and wind companies and it's um they added the Commonwealth but the rest of it I don't think was substan verification was not in our packet it's in the packet in the file no it was in the offshore wi committee packet no this is in the in 4f and the p and the file was posted on November 15 yeah but the actual amendments were in yeah no there were two there's two in the folder I mean we can we can we can pause if you'd like but 4f is a folder yeah then I'll just move the table until the next meeting I did not see it thank you that's fine so for but but for your reference it's in 4f is folder and then there's two versions of in there I did see the two versions all right so we have a motion to table this um topic until the next meeting we have a second second second all right all in favor I so we will table that um we have uh g a request from Beverly Bish the Council on Aging director to post the maintenance specialist position um do you want to tell us about this yeah so um we just filled his position about a month ago in the the applicant resigned um like to post it again and get it back back out there and see if we can fill it again okay i' amend approval so move second is there any discussion all in favor I I that's unanimous we have a request um from the beach committee to approve the contract with Southeast fence Co Inc for cherry and web Beach fence replacement you want tell us about this one so this would be the fence between the path that goes from the parking lot down to the beach the east side of the path I guess budding the private property the fence is in pretty poor condition the neighbors have expressed concerns over it over the last year or two um it did go out for bid the low bidder was um Southeast fence and I'd recommend approval so they can get started on I'll move it second is there any discussion all in favor I I that's unanimous we have a request from the Westport Grange uh 931 Main Road to install a crosswalk um we receive materials this is between the Grange and um just directly across the street they frequently use that for overflow parking um for the Grange events the police department and the highway department are both recommending that we have a traffic study on the area before we approve anything is that correct Jim yes um it's it's a midblock Crossing which isn't preferable but sometimes that's all you can do in some of these situations and it's also it's on the east side of Adamsville road so people coming down Adamsville Road to turning onto Main Street heading south sometimes come at a fairly decent speed and um they just want to make sure that it's safe before they put it in so what's your recommendation I can look I can get prices on a traffic study what would be needed and come back to the board if that's see we Ser too we have ours we have SEL yeah I don't think planning used those okay so um look into unless somebody wants to move approving is I think I think that's the right way to go to get more information on what a traffic study would cost yes mam chair I'd like to point out that this request was almost Sim simultaneous with the uh St John the Baptist Church because they have a religious education center almost opposite the Grange yeah so I just want to make sure that uh that the traffic study includes their needs I I think that they're probably the same as the Grange anyway but it might be an argument to move it a little bit further south I think mhm um but that has to all work for everybody but it's not just the Grange who is requesting this I wanted to make that point thank you okay so I don't think we need to take any action unless somebody wants to take action okay um thank you Jim and then um we have review and approved meeting dates for 2025 so I don't know D do you want to explain what the difference is between these two calendars want explain what the difference is I didn't really notice a difference between one and two a here is in August is are different dates I think that was the only difference well so I call this may yeah go ahead I call it the Hiatus where we have August we have two weeks off well three weeks off instead of two so as I studied this which took some time I think you were putting us to the test it has to do with when that occurs and option one has one spot with it it's June actually and it would be we would not be meeting the 23rd of June nor the 30th and obviously not July uh 7th that's so that's the three weeks and come back on July 14th and then the other one seems in correct me if I'm wrong those would be in their original uh sequence and then the break is really it looks to be like uh from the 18th of August until September 8th so that's three weeks so it's a question of where the three weeks will fall it looks to me like the rest of the calendar both before and after those dates is pretty much the same thank you for ssing that out for so um does it matter from a uh end of the fiscal year perspective if we if we wait until the four I don't think it matters there's nothing substantial that would matter I don't think is there because what it's the end of June you'd go from June 16 to July 14 or you'd meet in July 7 and then skip over Labor Day either one of these calendars is avoiding the Monday holidays nice job avoiding Monday holidays so what's the pleasure of the board Madam chair if I may the Hiatus soall from June 16th to July 14th is particularly long because there are three dates which are skipped the 23rd the 30th and the 7th of July MH uh to me that's probably too long but then again if the fiscal year has ended there may not be any need uh to meet where is the other one the the other option it's really only a 3-week pause so I I'm not really liking the four-week pause but but you know we always have the option of meeting uh a special meeting if need be right I mean you can Madam chair yeah um the June is right after the town meeting and and there is some shortly after the time me there's usually some business that we put on our agenda BAS B upon actions taken at town meeting well both calendars have us meeting June 2nd and June 16 May 12th um June 2nd June 16 on both calendars okay so like he said the difference is um weeks the difference is in is a 4-week break between the 16th of June and the 7th of July no so the 16th the 16th of June and the 14th of July that's it's a pretty long break that's what you're saying so Jim were you did you yeah I think you get one four-week break between June and July on number one and you get two three- week breaks on number two one June July and then one the end of August to September oh right okay that's right there's two there's two three week breaks you get one four or two threes I would suggest that the go July 7th because we always have somebody that didn't get appointed or whatnot we usually have something that carries over so that would be option two so you're going to move option two well whatever you guys decide but the um you also probably have a short meeting because you got have the you have to have the agenda in so much further in advance so it would probably be a fairly quick meeting but yeah but there we're always waiting for somebody that so dick did you want to move the second option two yes I will move option two as the preferred option okay second all right so we have a motion to second to the calendar option two is there any any further discussion all in favor I I that's unanimous um we do not have anything under discussion do we have the Town Administrator report we do um just a couple of items uh the route six macumber School water loop extension I just want to reiterate that this is being funded through grants nobody is required to tie in and there are no uh specific Town funds that are being used to to construct it um we did send out notice last week we were hoping to start this week at least mobilizing but uh due to some scheduling conflicts and some permitting issues it's probably going to be the beginning in December before they get out there and start we're looking for an area where they can store material they're meeting with mass high with um the highway department on tomorrow to see if that would be acceptable I think they've looked at some other options as well um we're still working with mass do on the highway permit the access permit so any work you do in Route Six you need a permit from Mass Highway and um they've now requested Directional Boring or drilling under the bread and trees Brook which is um I think they were going to do it anyway but it wasn't part of the contract it was going to be their preference but but now we have to get it designed and go through the Mass highweek project so process which takes a could take a couple of weeks um we've also filed a request of mass do to allow us to work over the winter waiting to back hear back from them on that uh they would start work on gford road and Osborne Street in the meantime um that does not need Mass do approval they're meeting Wednesday night with the infrastructure oversight committee and tomorrow yeah it's after your your longterm building committee meeting no it's wnes Wednesday wnes so it is Wednesday okay I'm sorry Wednesday yeah um so they'll be looking at some different options and reviewing some of the work that's uh in plans school year 26 budget all departments have uh submitted their budgets I've had I just want to stop does anybody have any questions on the water loop we should post that meeting a long-term building committee we had three members of the board on was the how many people are on the long-term building committee many two we have two too late tost it's too late to post but um I don't think you have a quorum here of the long-term building committee or do you no I'm talking about at the at for the meeting itself okay we have a quum of the select board you posted longterm didn't I raised this at a couple of meetings ago I'm just confused so can you explain that again why we need to post you have three members of this committee sitting on the long-term building committee because two of us represent other committees I'm representing the select board Manny I think you're recommending representing the planning board I think so yeah and who's the third St you are you infrastructure no I'm on infrastructure he's not on lock my my confusion so it's Wednesday okay so but the and then the infrastructure oversight committee right after um the two of you were on it but that's not that's not a I'm not on that one okay all right did I answer question I thought you were correct when you said that I there were three on there okay no okay but you're right if we had a quorum with another committee you'd have to do that but right okay um okay anything else on the my Loop here before yeah yeah Jim you might want to on that Directional Boring and with the state you might want to look into it they can probably do it just as a means and methods versus having a design for the Directional Boring especially since they were planing on doing that anyway so they just have to submit their means and methods to the shop okay I'll follow up with the engineer thank you anything else okay now the budget budget so so all the Departments have submitted their budgets for FY 26 they have reviewed all the budgets with the Departments over the last couple of weeks kind of making some adjustments that'll be done over the next week or two and I'll meet back with the Departments beginning of December we're probably looking at at estimate somewhere around a million maybe up to a million point2 of Revenue that would be split between the town and the schools for considered new revenue for their budgets um which which again I'll be difficult with we used free cash last year to balance the budget so we're going to have to compensate for that but I think it's going to be a little more difficult than the last couple of years but it's we're in a similar position we will have a budget to the select board in December um and just keep in mind that we're still waiting for State numbers which come in in January with the governor's budget and we'd have the Chapter 70 number school choice and the chat of school those are the three big ones that we're waiting for um so in January we'll have a better ideas as to where things stand the old high school Municipal Building feasibility study uh we've gotten two um Consultants that have applied to do that feasibility study the long-term building committee will be interviewing both those uh architectural firms on Wednesday and hopefully coming up with a recommendation for the board to to consider hiring one of them the energy aggregation program um I didn't realize this but I I met with good energy Representatives last week they said that there's been over $10 million in savings here in Westport since this program has been started um if you look at um they supplied a couple of graphs couple of charts and you can see the line the yellow line is what we've been paying if you're part of that program over the years and um consistently with the exception of maybe um nine months over the last eight or nine years uh through that program residents have been paying less sometimes significantly less than what they'd be paying if they were not part of that program they will be going out they're looking to formalize another contract they figure the um conditions are favorable to do a three-year contract that they'll be looking to sign up in the spring and that'll take effect next December or January of January of 26 so it's a good program if residents haven't signed up yet it's it's something they should at least consider um and what it is is we're involved with I think 20 other communities and we purchase our electricity as one large group and therefore we get a reduced rate that's all I have thank you um we have minutes um I ask that we do them separately so the minutes of October 28 2024 reviewed and move approval second I'm going to abstain from this because I was absent is there any discussion all in favor I that's for um in favor one abstain um then the November 4 2024 uh reviewed move approval second is there any discussion all in favor I that's unanimous um report on the bill warrant uh pretty much a routine matter $2.3 million uh we checked out the only thing we noticed I think Paula may have corrected this I put the wrong date on it can you imagine that oh my gosh but it was it was 11:13 not 1013 okay well anyway if I need to correct that officially I'll do it but um no everything went well and everything was on time and correct thank you thank you um so the next item is liaison committee reports as suggestion for future agenda items just had that that comment before with the plan board get that on the next agenda so pretty much few more about the trees yeah okay do you uh no we had our first meeting in person at sered um it was more or less cuz some of the members retired but since Co it's the first time we all got together so that was that was interesting and we networked and and whatnot so I think that was the only excitement we had I had well in between sides of election all right thank you so we had the um offshore wind committee last week I mentioned earlier there's a school building committee meeting on Thursday so I'll attend that lot of meetings this week uh there was a counil on Aging meeting I was out of town but I checked in and they didn't have anything uh that significant to report to us and they're still working on their strategic plan um there will be a meeting this Thursday for the first time in a while of the cipc Capital Improvements planning committee so we've got a whole list of items and we will we will make sure we review those in the context of the long-term uh Capital Improvement list and there are millions of dollars there and this is going to require some real thought because we don't have the money to do all these things but we'll figure something out so that's Thursday and that's all I have thank you uh affordable housing trust we haven't met since our last meeting we meeting on Wednesday and then we've scheduled the organizational meeting of the opiate settlement committee for for uh I think it's December 10th December 10th and after that time we'll have hopefully we'll have an organizational being we'll have uh fine tune our our charge and our offices okay great thank you can I just make a suggestion Jim if we're going to keep it up like that maybe if we get the open committees at the end we can keep up so maybe people yeah can do that thank you okay do we have any comments or statements from the public Evan you're up seeing none there's a chance we have plenty of boards and committees that could use your help so even if it doesn't look like there's one open on the Tom website please talk to somebody I know there's lots of people who um would welcome you um and your expertise and advice I don't know if anything unanticipated do you know is there anything else we need to talk all right all right I think um so remember the as the police you said are um we have donations going on at the police and fire stations for um food pantry and I think it was the women's shelter yeah and then the municipal vulnerability meeting um on Saturday at the library and please don't do any fires and please don't burn anything don't burn anything outside it's very dangerous motion ad second any discussion all in favor I yes unanimous