##VIDEO ID:COiB8HrID2w## will you join me in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge alance to the flag of the United States of America to the rep for it stands one nation under God indivisible liy and justice for all good evening and welcome to the Monday November 4 2024 meeting of the Westport Select board um I just have a couple of announcements today so today is Monday November 4 so that means tomorrow is election day so um tomorrow November 5th um the polls are going to be open from 7 a.m. to 800 p.m. um I want to encourage voters to go to the Secretary of State's website to review the five questions the questions are long and can be quite confusing um so make sure you read over the questions in advance but the polls are going to be open from 7 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. tomorrow um I also want to mention um on on Monday November 11 the town offices will be closed in observation of Veterans Day there will be a ceremony um at 10:00 a.m. on uh Monday the 11th of November at the beach Grove Cemetery if it rains that'll be at the annex so we hope to see you on Monday the 11th at 10:00 a.m. is there any other recognitions or acknowledgements okay oh I forgot to say under Mass General law chapter 308 section 20f this meeting is being recorded um we don't have any public hearings or licenses we did just have a meeting one week ago thank you Steve for covering while I was abent um so we have a pretty light agenda tonight so the first item we have is a request from police chief Christopher Dunn to reappoint to reappoint Ryan Williams as a fulltime officer I'll move in Pro Chief's recommendations second so we have a motion in second to re Point Ryan Williams is there any discussion all in favor I I that's unanimous we have a request from William Bill shien to be appointed as an atlarge member to the offshore wind advisory committee so there's a letter in your packet I think this is the final at large spot that this would be filling I'll second so we have a motion in a second to appoint Bill Sheen to the offshore wind advisory committee is there any further discussion all in favor I that's unanimous um we have a request to appoint the following election workers um Arlene D Bor Gail M vanney Moren Fitzgerald Pamela wild Stenberg Patricia C leino April paleni and Heather Reed so second is there any discussion all in favor I that's unanimous um we have a request from Ed Edward Han to be appointed to the bike walking path committee I'll move him been very interested so second so we have a motion and second is there any discussion all in favor I that's unanimous um we had a an item on the agenda to appoint the assistant Town planner the candidate has withdrawn um and so we're going to pass over um three e on the agenda so we do still have an open position for the assistant Town planner um action 4A a request to sign the employment agreement between the town of Westport and Nicole peol the town accountant Jim you want to walk us through this one yeah this is the standard um essentially 3% increase um Nicole's done a a great job over the last couple of years um we've seen that in the reports free cash getting certified very early this year the audit reports the overall Financial team in general has done a nice job and uh cleaning things up and I think it's has been improving every year uh she's passed one part of her certification um and she'll be taking the second part this spring so um yeah I recommend uh approval from the board she's been she's doing great I'll move her second is there any discussion did you want to say anything all right all in favor I I that's unanimous congratulations again well I'm looking behind you um okay so that's that was unanimous um so the next item we have is a discussion on the Fall River water line billing um Jim you want to remind us what this is yes so we've discussed this a few times Mr saw and myself met with um representatives from for a couple of months ago we had a tentative agreement in place that we discussed with the board probably about a month ago this agreement went um this this refers to previous year Billings from 2016 up to 2021 um it's it's been opposition that we've paid the the um the amount that we've used uh that the users have used but there's additional amounts that we've been built for that have been in dispute um so we've we reached a tent tentative agreement with the city of Fall River that went to the wupa water board the wupa water board did approve that tentative agreement but since that time it went before the city council uh the city council has requested that the uper water board reconsider that agreement and I think that's well that is where it is right now I don't have any um correspondents from the water board saying that they've withdra withdrawn or changed their vote but I do believe um that vote is going to be reconsidered uh they may request that it go to mediation as opposed to um us trying to work out a resolution they sent us a letter uh the letter is in your packet um I'd like to send a letter back to uh Mr furland that is in your packet as well just letting him know that we want to work with the city on this that um uh we have paid uh the bills for the water that we've used or that the residents have used and that's the additional water that's in dispute all right so um so our POS we have been discussing this in um in uh executive sessions about the negotiation and we were comfortable with the final agreement or the agreement that we that was presented to Fall River so I'm hoping that we can resolve that if that we had a way to pay for it we had we believed it was fair and Equitable so it looks like we're going to continue working on that um is there any questions or comments we have at the that clean water meeting you asked Mr Fillin if the uh councilors had addressed it and just the one that was really poking around Mr H called me and I don't know if you called anybody else but I hope the councilors will at least talk to them and get all the background out they did have a meeting uh Council had a meeting with their finance committee probably about three weeks ago okay and um it was discussed then and the council had actually requested that um The W TOA water board reconsider that that agreement okay anything else any okay all um and the Town Administrator report is on the agenda but I don't think you had a report is that right I no written report just a couple of quick updates if yeah um we're working on the deed transfers that were approved at last year's town meeting there's uh POS on Cherry and web Beach that we're looking to get ownership uh from ownership for through the beach committee we have a pns agreement with the with the uh owner right now and we're just waiting for the title search on that as well as the trip property that abuts the uh transfer station land to the north um we're also waiting on um title work to be completed on that and that should be done fairly soon um Diamond was in here two weeks ago doing final measurements for the tables um they said they're going to start on that immediately and they're also once that's done they've they've committed to the school I guess to do display cases for the new school to mirror the couple of cases that they have there now to bring over some of the awards and um that have been left at the old high school so hopefully we'll see that in the next month or two um finance committee do asked that I attend the next meeting uh just to go over the free cash and um update them we're real early in the budget right now so there's not a lot to update them on we're meeting with department heads this week on their budgets and uh there's a schedule I will resend to the board this week um typical budget schedule we really won't have definitive numbers or good numbers until January as far as the state goes um but uh the preliminary numbers local receipts and those we do have um estimates and I think we're pretty close so um we'll be working on that as well the route six permit we're still working with mass do um Mass do is very structured I'm finding um they have a certain way of doing things and they don't like to vary from that structure so uh even getting in touch trying to set up a meeting with Master do is they they want you to go through their program their shops program and file it like everybody else which we've been doing but we've been trying to Speed it along we did get some we did get a call back last Thursday and they said they are working on it and they are looking to expedite it U hopefully we'll hear this week um ask a question on that Jim yeah um so the the holdup was uh Kleinfeld didn't design to their specifications the work that was going into Mass Highway yeah so so Mass High cfi's done a number of projects throughout the state and they've done their typical design so they designed the water line down at 4 and A2 fet minimum depth U Mass do does have a requirement or it's in their policy guideline book that they like at 5 and half fet deep um they have approved a number of other projects at four and a half it's usually kind of typical for most water lines um so we'll wait and see if they'll agree to the four and a half or the 5 and a half it will make a difference because we've gone out to bid already in the contract is bit on the four and a half as you know you go down an extra foot you might hit the water table you might you know well we might also get conflicts and drainage and stuff like that um and I did notice that the gas company started doing their work in the same location contractor was supposed to start at um my only concern with that is it shouldn't affect um coming up like the utility access in where We're looping it from gfed Road in for the M loop I mean we we can make the decision to leave it at 4 and a half feet and that and they could they could they could start in that direction but um what's we got any feedback from the contractor on because I know he he wanted to already have started yeah so he's he's still doing um shop drawings submittals okay good um those are just about done we had a meeting on Friday about the submitt so um a lot of the equipment the hydrants the gaskets and stuff they submit to the engineer and the engineer reviews them to make sure they conform to the plan so that work is pretty much done we're getting he still believes he'll be able to start another week um okay because that that's kind of important especially the hydrants one of the public safety things that we've been looking for and probably is going to drop our insurance on the macumber and all our residents out that way to have a hydrant in front of their house we want to make sure it's consistent with what we have out there we want to make sure it's consistent with what Fall River has because a lot of the contractors that we have working in Westport work in Fall River so we want similar type equipment similar type um fixtures right anything else and the only other thing is cipc we did get all the requests from the Department so I'll be discussing with the chair we'll be setting up meetings in the next few weeks and there's um in the packet there's something about the Grange crosswalk is that left over from last week that is we had a request and it's being reviewed by the police in Highway all right so it was just okay well that if I met on that item I had raised that issue um I know you were out um regarding the St John the Baptist Church made a similar request because they have a religious education building and it's right in the very across the street in the grain so they had made that request to me to pass it on and then Paula pointed out that that letter from the gra came also so like question yeah okay okay um the next item we had on the agenda was the minutes of October 28th but I don't see them in the packet were there minutes from October 28th I saw them did you everybody else see them if no one else saw them I can't I'm have to I'm obing so it doesn't matter to me but I didn't see them in there let's hold them till the next one I might have gotten in my capacity you probably got them and didn't they're not in the packet so we're going to pass we're going to pass over the approval of the uh the 28th um was there a bill warrant between then and no yes by the way this is not showing green while speak L yeah we I signed the warrant last week 30th routine it was $2 million that's uh I know that's real money but normally it's even higher than that we've seen some Prett okay thank you um we have liaison committee reports or suggestions for future agenda items Craig anything for you nothing new since last week okay okay nothing new in terms of meetings but I was going to ask about the uh the the calendar for 2025 to suggest we put on a a future meeting okay we've had the material I guess there's two versions posted when when you ready okay um I was away and then ill so I did not attend anything recently we'll she just catch up stuff and um the bik committee was excited about Mr Han coming on and after uh the end of this week we'll probably work on an ioc meeting so we can get the neighborhood and chat have a little Forum there Mee pretty much the same thanks Jim for the update yeah okay um we missed you do we have any comments or statements from the public we have two public here it's really exciting three well you're three if you count the operate um all right and I don't think we have any topics unanticipated so as expected this was a quick meeting um our next meeting will be on Monday November 18 um but again make sure you go to the polls tomorrow if you haven't already voted and then uh November 11 at the Veterans Day ceremony motion second any any discussion all in favor I that's