I'm going to call the meeting to order. Will you join me in the pledge of allegiance? I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, liberty and
justice for all. Good evening. Welcome to the Monday, October 6, 2025 meeting of the Westport Select Board under Mass General Law, chapter 38, section 20F. This meeting is being recorded. Um just by way of comments from the chair, our next
meeting is in two weeks on the 20th of October. Um I just want to say thank you to um the animal control office and um those who participated in the rabies clinic that we had recently. Um I didn't hear how many people get went out there, but
um it was a community event put on by that department. Um I want to make note the um town hall is closed on Monday for a federal holiday. Um, also anyone coming to town hall next week, um, make sure you check the website. We're having some work done on the um, HVAC system
and some of the departments are closing as they are moving through the um, building. So, check the website. Um, I believe the assessors and the collectors are going to be closed on Tuesday. Um, but just check the website before you come in next week. Um, is there any other announcements or we start? We are
going to have we do have an under 48 hour rule um topic that's going to come up for um a cable posting for a cable part-time position. So, we'll cover that at the at the end. Okay. Our first um item is a public
hearing to welcome the harbor master. Here we have our director of marine services. Sorry, you're not just the harbor master. Um this is a fee hearing for proposed fee increases. Um, so we have an annual private mooring from 25 to 50, commercial mooring from 60 to
100, waterway use at six foot with an additional $100 fee for non-residents, state boat ramp fee from 5 to 10, season pass from 45 to 70, town warfage fee for 30 from 30 to 40 per foot, an additional
late fee of $100 for unpaid waterway fees after May one. So, welcome Mr. Chase. Do you want to tell us what you got going on here? So, Madam Chair, we uh I guess after this season, we've got a pretty good grip on the department operationally.
Um it's our job right now to look forward uh to see what the needs of the department are financially. Um and I think when we look at where we stand uh right now, uh we could use a
little bit of help from the voting public. We're not asking for taxpayer monies here. We're simply looking as you mentioned for increases in the waterway users fees. One of the things that we found when we
looked at the other towns uh the other towns being Fair Haven, Dartmouth, Matapo, and Marian is that the fees that we charge here in Westport are a fraction of what they charge. And I think I don't know if it's up on that board not
but it's roughly what we charge is roughly onethird of what the other towns charge. So, it's kind of put us in a little bit of a uh a financial hole, if you will, when we look at our needs going forward. Um, now let me let me just give you a little bit of context
and everyone else for that matter as to what makes up the port of Westport. And these are from 2024 figures because we're still working on 2025. Uh, people are still getting their applications in in the first week of October.
Uh so in 2024's data there were 1396 boats in the port of Westport. Uh 727 of them were resident boats. 626 were non-residents. So it's about a 52 to 48
split between the two. of the total uh length of all these vessels if you put them all together is about 27,864 feet. Now, where that comes into play is that we charge $6 per foot for every
vessel that stays on the West Point River for more than 14 days. We're not asking for an increase in that. We are hoping that $6 fee stays the same. Um in addition to that there are 426
private moorings. There are 289 commercial moorings. That actually includes 33 that belongs to Leech uh that have been inactive for quite some time. The bottom line to all of this is that the average cost of permitting for
a boat owner in the port of Westport is $123.76. Pretty small amount in in in my book. So when we add all this up and we compare this to Dartmouth for Haven Matapo at Marian we see that we are well below the curve
on all of this. Um on top of that we have some pressing financial needs um that these fees will have to hopefully help us address. Um, and there are a number of issues that we want to talk about as far as
where this money would go. Because, you know, I think just politically, if if you work for the government, you say, "I want some more money," you're going to have to say you're going to have to explain why you need it and also what you intend to do with it. Um, first and foremost, um, and Rick will speak to the
whole ramp issue. um what happens at the state boat ramp, which is a fairly well it's a small percentage of what we take in about it's about $20,000 annually. Um but the cost of the system that is
currently in place um from a labor and paperwork point of view uh takes an awful lot away from the $5 fees that we collect. Uh so what we're proposing to do is is to take that paper system out and put in
place uh an automated kiosk. Uh the cost of that kiosk is about $10,000. There are cheaper ones, there are more expensive ones. So $10,000 is is a working figure. Um the pumpout boat that we have um which we use to empty
the holding tanks of the boats that are in the harbor is in need of dire replacement. and should have been retired yesterday. The cost of a properly outfitted pumpout boat is about $100,000. I got that figure from a gentleman named Cecil
French who works for the CBA department up in Gloucester. We would have to match that cost with 25%. We need additional funding for more seasonal help. Uh we've got about $12,000 right now budgeted for seasonal
help. These are the assistant harbor masters, if you will. Uh we need more help in the labor department. So in order to get more labor, more man hours or labor hours, if you will, uh we need more money put in that category. Uh the town dock is in dire need of new
deck planking. Uh we have been doing that kind of on a patchwork basis. Um, it's not so much the cost of the materials, the planks itself, but it's labor intense to replace those. Additionally, the cost of our insurance
in 2025 was $17,000. That was up from $10,000 the year before. What's it going to be in 2026? Your guess is as good as mine. I mean, so, so those are the the major topics, major focuses that we have as far as
where all these monies would go to. But I think essentially if you look at the philosophy that Rick and I have employed and that is to get more boats, more bodies out on the river to be a bigger presence uh and everything that goes
with that. This all costs money and I think we are just way behind behind the curve uh when it comes to comparable fees charged by neighboring port towns. So I mean that's the essence of why we
need all of this. Um and again this is not we are not looking for taxpayer money. We are simply asking the voting public to jin up a little bit more to help out the cause here. And thank you Jim. Can you explain the
um where these fees go? Is it does all of these go into the waterways uh enterprise or does some go to the general fund? Like where does it go? go into the waterways enterprise. Yes, we do have a small indirect charge that we charge that enterprise on a yearly basis.
But these would go into the enterprise. They go into the enterprise fund. So they use specifically for things related to the department capital stuff. Um boat engines. I think last year they purchased a boat a few years ago. Hasn't gone into salaries.
Okay. Um, one of the bigger um, jumps that you have in here is and I really appreciate how you did the your you you presented a lot of information. It's more than just this is just the summary, but um, one of the bigger jumps you had in here was a late fee. So, do you want to talk about that?
Uh, yeah. Um, if there is no consequence to human behavior, then you know the honor system kicks in and we all know that is fatally flawed. Rick and I, even today and probably tomorrow and next week and hopefully not next month, we're
still processing paper applications from people who have not paid their fees yet. Uh I sent out a letter on Monday, we sent out a letter on Monday uh to 352
um people who were on the database that we inherited uh to ask them to pay up. And what we have found is that some of them haven't had boats in the water for years. That spreadsheet just had not been updated and some people have come
in rather sheepishly with their check in hand and paid up. So we're slowly whittling all of that down. Um so my feeling is and you know the other towns all have late fees and you know Westport's got late fees. If you
laid on your excise tax, you're going to get dinged for 30 bucks. Uh if if there is no consequence, then the action of that individual is uh probably not what we'd like it to be. Basically, we want to force them to pay
their fees in 20 2026 by May 1. If they don't pay it by May one, then $100 late fee would apply. So, can you talk about the calendar for your department because it's a lot of the town calendars go from July 1 to June 30th. So what's the calendar for
when this your department is collecting fees? Is it does it start in January? Is it January? So I need to take a step back, Madam Chair. We are um instituting an online portal in 2026. We're planning to launch that after the
first of the year after the holidays. And that will allow all of these voters to go online, identify themselves, update their information, and pay their fees. And we would like all of those fees paid by May 1st so that we're not running around in the middle of the summer collecting checks. So this is
just I mean if it was up to me it would be more than that. But I was just trying to understand how late May 1st is like is it is it December like is it January that the what is the period of time that the what had happened in the past is that the mailing of all these fees happened
in April and they were due by June 1st. And as you can clearly see by what Rick and I have been through, no one's really paying attention to that. So, we need to get those um those fees put out there
prior to the start of the season, which is why May 1st, I think, is is the appropriate date. I give you an example of what they do in Dartmouth. If you haven't paid your fees by May 1st in Dartmouth, whatever you think you had, Moring, doc, whatever is all going to go
away. They're really tough over there. And I think right rightfully so. So the $100 fee is basically to get everyone to pay up so we can take care of our financial end and then do what we do best which is spend time out on on the water with everyone.
I still don't think you answer the question. So you're going to ask them so they I can So we want them paid by May 1. So when are we going to tell people that they can start paying for the year? Uh that would be right after January 1st. Okay. So it's it's it's basic when is this that's what the beach passes do right the beach
they start January 1st January 1st so it's basically the same as the beach pass you start in January you start collecting fees so you're just suggesting that um if you haven't January and May and April 30th paid your waterway fee now you're late that's
plenty of time okay um what are my questions anybody else if I could ask these gentlemen when were these fees last increased Uh, it depends which one you ask for, Dick. I I can tell you all of them. Just
give me a second. It's been years. That's probably the only answer I need to know. That's it. Looks like 2023 or in 2024, they went from the moorings went from 15 to 25 and the waterways went from five to six. So I can tell you
as far as the private moorings go, in 2013 they were $10 and obviously right now they're 25. So they've increased incrementally between 2013 and now. So 12 years. Uh the waterways fees uh in 2013 were $3.30.
They're currently six. uh the commercial mooring fee which is trips and uh spindle rock Eddie Kerry uh they have been $60 per moing as far as I could find looking back and the ramp
Oh and then the ramp fee of cost has been $5 forever. Um I couldn't even tell you how long that's been the case. But I think when it when people who use the ramp come up to you and say, "Boy, you guys ought to raise these fees. Maybe we should.
That tells you something. You should always listen to your customer. But it's not just that. It's other people talking about other categories like it's so cheap here is the is the the common theme that we get and when you realize that yes, it is cheap here.
Um and you look at where we need to go in the future, uh it's time to act. Thank you. Um, so I appreciate the uh presentation. I think um I'm happy to hear that it all
goes to marine services, you know, as opposed to the general fund where it get distributed. So, this will go to the purposes that you're um trying to fix on the and this is probably impossible, but do you know if any other communities on a state boat ramp can charge different
uh amounts based on a resident and non-resident? It's um Jake, I can answer that. Yeah. Um the state boat ramp was built under the um I forget what it's called. It was a state program. So, this you cannot charge in that situation. you
can't charge for residents non it was called a safe harbors or something along that line and what that does is that opens it up to anybody who wants to use it um and I have to tell you the way we're processing it and and the captain can
attest to this every single penny that comes into that ramp I put my hands on and I read the envelopes and you would not believe where the communities that people come from um many times times, twice, three times a week to use that ramp because it's
only $5. If you just by example, I have a list here. We go through it, but but just by example, if you go down to Sandwich today right now, it's $20 with a 4h hour minimum to use their ramp. Um, so if you're halfway along the Cape or you're up in Taon up that way, it's easy
to come to Westport for five bucks for all day long. Um so and and I will say this Jake just as an aside is that we have had incredible support from the police department um since we instituted the system that we're using now. Chief Dunn has had the
personnel come down and and people are starting to tow the mark down there. And I know that it helps the town beach and people aren't parking at the ramp for five bucks and then walking down to the town beach. They're not walking down to Baker's Beach as much and they're not walking down to the State Beach as much.
So, um I guess that's a long-winded answer for your short question. No, I I No, I appreciate the enforcement especially towards the end of the summer. There was much much stronger enforcement and hopefully a few people get a tickets and make a decision that it's not worth it at that point. Um on
the kiosk, and this is probably a little bit outside of the scope of the services, but the kiosk you're thinking about putting in, is that going to print out a ticket and go on a dashboard? I know the state beach has a similar uh setup, but with zero Wi-Fi, zero enforcement essentially, I would guess
75% of the people go to the state beach for free now because nobody does it. Um, how is that enforcement going to work on kind of a kiosk at that ramp? It's going to be an automated version of what what we're doing today. Right now, what we do is we we take the envelopes and they're all handsted with a red card
and it's on the occupant or the owner of that vehicle to fill out the red card and leave it on the dashboard. And then the Westport police will go in if you don't have a red card on your dashboard or you don't have the permit, the annual permit in your windshield, you get a tag. So, this kiosk, which is much like the ones that they use at the
tea and fall river, new bed fit or pretty much everywhere you go in the world, you'll use your debit card, your ATM card, whatever you have. And that no cash um and you will pay the fee, you'll get a little ticket. Ticket goes on the
window. It's dated, timestamped, and then Westport PD will come by and tag those who have not complied. It's only good for the end of the day. It's 24-hour period. And then that money is all downloaded electronically. We don't even touch it. Um so that saves a huge
huge um piece of of manh hours because every day a couple hours a day is spent especially in the summertime even more so taking that money out, handling the cash, depositing the cash, and then putting envelopes in. So that way it
also reduces fraud. Uh just one more. I'm fully supportive of the late fee. I think if you're in October and you enjoyed the entire summer on your boat, then you probably should have already paid. Um, you know, will there be a situation, I guess, from
an enforcement standpoint, if it's not paid by May 1st, you still have the $100 late fee, but if people are still using the waterways throughout the summer without doing that, is that would there be additional fees you could charge at a later date similar to Well, there certainly could be. Uh Jake,
um you know, the waterways regulations uh stipulate what we can and cannot do as far as enforcement goes. I mean, it gives us the authority to actually in the a worst case scenario to actually have the boat pulled out of the water. So, we do have the mechanisms in place
to enforce to that degree if we chose to. I would hope that that would never happen. Okay. Appreciate I've spoken to a lot of voters that I know and and pretty positive feedback from everybody. um with the work you guys are doing and and
the fees I mean you know laying out or comparing to other communities I think is very helpful uh to show where we are and and where we want to go and be basically competitive um with some of them. So appreciate all the work you guys are doing. Thank you. Thank you. Anything else from the board?
This is a public hearing. Is there anybody from the public has anything you can go over to the microphone? Uh good evening. Uh the problem with the late fee is that um if you don't get your boat in, let's say you uh you have a uh medical situation and you don't get
your boat into the water by the first of May uh and you're unsure whether you're going to do it and you physically get back on your feet and you can't get your boat in the water till the f till j till the middle of July. Why should you be have to pay that late fee? That's a problem. You're paying for services that
weren't rendered. That's a real problem. Everything else is fine. I understand everything else, the kiosk and all that. I did question myself who's going to enforce it. You know what I mean? But apparently that has been figured out. But the late fee because you didn't pay
your waterways usage when you're laid up in a hospital bed. That's a problem. I don't think any taxpayer is going to be very happy with that. So typically there's an a waiver process or um what's the word I'm looking for here? the when you have extenduating
circumstances, you can um be an appeal. Yeah, you'd appeal. Is appeal is the word I was looking for. Certainly, there is an appeal process where you can appeal in a situation like that. But what about um uh the difference between late versus um delinquent?
Well, so a late fee versus um someone coming in in the middle of the summer or something like that. Have you thought through the scenarios like what he just mentioned? Uh I have not. No. Um, that's a legitimate beef and I I I agree with that. Um, if someone like that walked
into the shack and sat down and recognized said, "Look, I've been in the hospital bed for a month and it's July 1st and I couldn't get my boat in the water, we're not going to ask for $100 from a man or a woman like that." So, I I think you would find us pretty
reasonable uh folks when it comes to something like that. So, you know, we're not here to be hard asses. what we're here to do is to try to encourage everyone to pay up on time so we're not spending our summer days processing
paperwork. Um, but that is legitimate beef and uh I I don't disagree with any of that. So, and I also think there's a chain of command where you where so let's say that you had a situation like that and these guys know you're going to have $100. You'd have then you'd be able to appeal to the select board um in a
situation like that. Uh I just think that's crazy. I mean, I think they need to get to square one. Find out what boers are using the river, not using the river. Please ask that that the the fees, if you are planning to get the boat in the water, be paid by a certain date. That's all great. The
state ramp, I think there needs to be some more enforcement on the amount of cars that are pay paying to park there without trailers. You see cars parked in the main lot and on the side without trailers because it's easy to pay $5 fee. No one checks
to see if the truck and tra if the car actually has a trailer on it. I have noticed cars without trailers in both lots. I think that needs to be enforced. It's a truck. It's a boat ramp, not a parking lot. All right. Thank you. He he makes a great point, but we also
that ramp has to be open to kayakers, canoes. Um, some vessels don't have trailers and we cannot throw people out of the ramp or tell them they can't use the ramp um because they're kayakers and we have a lot of kayakers in there. But
what what we do and what Westport Police does and they do it very well. Um they they look at the car, they'll look for trailer hitches, they'll look for racks for kayaks, they'll look for anything that's going to let them know that this person actually used the ramp as opposed
to the whatever vehicle it is just pulls on there, that's the one that gets tagged. Um even it's very easy to determine if a boat if a vehicle has been using the ramp for the appropriate reasons. Now, are there cracks that people are going to slip through? Of
course they are. We're all humans. So, um, but I will I will give kudos to the people that are responsible for that, that they act responsibly and ensure that to the best of their knowledge that people are using the ramp and just not parking there to run down the beach or or whatever. So, is it a perfect system?
No. Is it a much better system than we have? Yes. And our goal is to continue to improve it. Um, one of the issues that came up is, and we actually talked to fish fishers about this, somebody has a boat and they have five people are going on their boat. There's five cars
that are taking up spots. And we've asked those people, we know who they are cuz we're over there every day. We've asked those people, you're going to have to carpool. You just can't be parking. You can't fill this this trailer lot up with cars that have no uh indicator that they're using the boat ramp to launch
any type of vessel, though. I mean, people literally people could launch an inner tube over there. It's it's that simple. I think that kind of speaks though to why you need more money so that you can have more um assistance out there monitoring stuff like that, patrolling things like that.
If I could just respond to the gentleman quickly, yesterday Rick called me in the morning. He said, "The boat ramp is full. The overflow parking lot is like half full." So, I got there at 8:00. My first turn was through the ramp, through the overflow parking. There were clearly cars parked there that shouldn't have
been there. Um, so I called uh Westport Police Dispatch and they sent somebody down and everybody got ticketed. Uh, we have the enforcement that we currently have in place is miles ahead of what it was on July 1. And I think we need to
thank Rick for all that. That's a lot of the hard work that he's done to get some level of enforcement in there because prior to January one, there was none. No, no. going forward, Madam Chair, um you know, again, we're starting from ground zero here. Um to answer the
gentleman's question, at some point, you know, it may be a time that we have to partner again with the state of DCR to reconfigure that overflow lot. And but we just they don't have the time or the money right now, nor do we. But I think that the system we're putting in place
is going to kind of tamp that down a little bit and people will get the message. All right. Is there any other comments from the public? Go ahead. I just suggest that the board does approve the fees that we look at a formal process for the fee waiver for the late fee waver. So, we have
something on record and it's not considered arbitrary. Okay. I move we approve the proposal as submitted with the understanding that it will have a fee waiver uh policy attached to it. Second.
Is there any further discussion? All in favor? I I um that's four in favor, one absent. Um do you have anything going on this weekend? Easy. Still chasing down fees. Besides fees, I was thinking of a fundraiser that is scheduled for this
weekend. Propagation. Thank you. Thank you. So, am I the only one that remembers this? You're talking about next weekend. Not last weekend. Not last weekend. This This weekend is the weekend coming up. When are you talking about how busy we were?
Sunday, there's an event scheduled for Sunday to benefit. What is it benefiting? And we will all be there. Yeah. Uh so this is at the Buzzers Bay brewery. Uh I want to say 3 to 7. The Funky White Hawks are doing a fundraiser uh for two causes. Uh the shellfish propagation
fund is one and the other one escapes me, but it was a very worthy cause. Uh this is something that I think Jack Scaml was uh was uh leading the charge on. He's a member of the the funky white honks. Uh we did not have shell stock
unfortunately this summer. Um that's an event that usually generates 30 to $40,000 for the shellfish propagation fund which allows us to purchase more um contaminated cohogs to plant in the river. Um, so I I think Jack kind of
took it upon himself to say we need to do something uh and put this event together. So, um, uh, there are still tickets available. It's, I believe, $65 for a car load. Bring a big car, I guess. Um, do I need a trailer on that?
Like, they're keeping an eye on the weather, though. So, like the old days at the drive. Let's Let's make it simple for our audience. So, when, where, and what time? Sunday. So, so when is Sunday? Uh 3 to 7, I believe. Yeah.
Um and it's at Buzz's Bay Brewery. Okay. And it's a fundraiser for the Shellfish Propagation Fund. And I apologize for the other uh uh the other um folks. Yeah. I know you said that, but it just Good
sound bite. And the word is that tickets are pretty close to sold out. Yeah. So, where do where do you get them though? You can get them online. Get them online. Okay. Event. They were on Eventbrite. Event. Yeah. Yeah. Uh I can't I can't immediately put my fingers on that.
Thank you for that, Madam Chair. I wrote that down and totally And then um you were also in the paper recently um about shellfish. So, what was Tell us about that. Oh, that was that was Rick's deal. You can you can speak to that. But we um we took almost $10,000 of the shellfish
propagation fund money and we purchased 230,000 baby cohogs. Um and when I mean a baby cohog, they were less than the size of a dime, smaller than the size of a dime. Um me thinking we'd need a tractor trailer to get them here, we got them in
the back of a pickup truck. They were that small. But what we did was we planted them in areas. Um we talked to members of the shellfish um advisory board and among some of the fishes and we determined on the areas that we think there's going to be growth and areas we
want to open in the future so that the um recreational fishes have more access to the river um as opposed to just the commercial people who use boats to get to where they want to go. So we put them in areas where we think they're going to grow um areas that are pretty clean,
have a great sandy bottom. So, we're hoping in 18 months to a year or so, uh, two years or so, we'll have um, cohogs that'll be of harvestable size. We're going to lose some, of course, due to predation, but we'll, um, our hope is that we'll get a sizable crop and that
they will reproduce and go from there. I found it. So, this is the Bunky White Honkys at Buzzers Bay Brewing on Sunday, October 12. The band is playing from 2:00 to 5:00. Um the Westport the beneficiaries are um the Westport shellfish propagation fund and the
Mandia Academy of Excellence which were provides education and care for children in Kenya. So you got children and shellfish here. All right. Anything else on while we have these? Thank you very much. Thank you all. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, could I could I just say
one more thing? Um, I would be remiss if I didn't thank uh Rick, uh, Kevin Carter, Andrew Manchester, and Jim Perry for making the department look really good this summer. We jumped right in into the fire. And if it wasn't for the
action of those four gentlemen, uh, I don't think we would have been nearly as successful as we were. So, I just want to put that on record. Thank you. Thank you for all the work you've done. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening. Good night. Um, next on the agenda, we have
appointments and resignations. So, we have a request to appoint a select board representative to the cable advisory board. I'm willing to serve on this unless somebody else wants to. Somebody else want Okay, I will entertain a motion to appoint me to the cable advisory.
Motion we appoint Shauna Keys to the uh cable advisory. All in favor? I. those four in favor and one absent. Um, we have a request to appoint Mark Thompson to the historical commission. Do I have a motion? Motion to appoint.
Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I I score four in favor and one absent. Um, so we have an action item is a request to approve the contract change order for Digot Construction. This is the last major change order for Digot
Construction. and it was anticipated and included in the overall budget. So, I just want to um clarify a few things I saw on social media this weekend. Um the reason that there's a change order is because we extended the original
contract. So, the town of Westport um asked them to take on more than the original project cost. So, this was not an overrun of the original project. this was the town of Westport um extending the water line to additional properties
that weren't in the original bid. Um so that's the first thing. The second thing is that um Digga Construction is the general contractor for the group, but the um subcontractor that's being proposed for the finishing
of the pavement is um Keading and those Keading is the one that's been doing the work around town lately. you saw an old county road and some of the other roads if they've been around. So the change order wasn't the contractor going over, it was us extending the project. The funds that are paying for this is part
of the several grants. There was a federal grant, there was an ARPA grant and I think there was a dedicated state grant um that can only be used for this particular project. So if we that's the reason we extended it and and went into
additional um additional uh locations is because the money couldn't be spent elsewhere. It had to be spent on that and so we extended that project. So this change order would be to cover the finish paving because we know the residents are very interested in getting
that done. Um and then um basically fixing fixing the problem areas that are going on around there. So I think that is the summary. Jim, did I miss anything? No, that's it. I can go into more detail if the board wants, but I think you've covered everything
in general. All right. Is there anything questions, comments? I would approve. I I would look for uh a little more detail into the process. I'm sorry. He's going to go into more detail. So I'd like to see all that. So, we went out to bid probably about a
year and a half ago um for the waterline project out there along Route 6 and the Mac Humber loop. The original contract was for $3.1 million. We've had two change orders to date which total about $1.2 million and what's before the board tonight is an additional change order
for $533,000. This was a unit price contract. So, all the work done is being done per quantity, right? So we bid it out as um tons of asphalt. We bid it out as linear feet of piping and they price it
accordingly. So when we add scope work to that we added these brrigs and I'll go through a couple of things that we've added in a minute. Um it goes by the unit pricing. It's not a lump sum. So it's the contractor isn't responsible for doing additional work without getting compensated.
The change orders, I mean they were beneficial to the town, right? We had some very good favorable unit pricing for this contract. uh the additional scope resulted in cost-effective project expansion. We're able to do additional work. Um and the funds are being the project is being funded through grants
and opa funds. If we don't use these funds, we lose these funds. They're dedicated to this project. So um we had a $4 million grant from uh Mass D and the EPA to address PAS contamination in some of the public water supplies and uh
one of them was the school itself. Mackemb school had high levels of manganese. So we were able to tie the Mackham school into this project and included in the $4 million. We had an ear mark from Senator Rodri. We had $388,000 left in that that had to be
dedicated to uh infrastructure work related to sewer and water just on route six. And then we had two OPA grants, one for 648,000, one for 371. Again, total is about $5.4 million. And if we don't use it for this project, we will be
giving that back to Bristol County or the state or the federal government. So the additional scope that we did was we added Eastbriggs Road, which is about 1,600 ft. That was about $600,000. We added Route 6 extension. So we extended the line in Route 6 from Washington
Street to 875 State Road. Uh that's Olympia. It's a little plaza there. Olympia Pizza um UPS store is there. They have a public water supply. So, this would eliminate their public water supply and put them on the town uh public system, which um removes monthly
testing for them. I'm not sure if they had contamination in their wells, but um it allows them to do more things with their restaurant and so forth because they're not limited to the to the public well or the public water supply that they have now. All these uh we did we did uh Fifth and Sixth Street, those were additions.
Those are off Osborne Street about 600 feet, 5 400 feet, I think 425 ft. fifth and sixth street because as we were going Osborne Street, we had residents on those streets that had uh trouble with their water and uh they expressed concern. They asked if we could connect
them. We had some additional funding, so we included that. That was about $150,000. We also were able to use the OPA funds to connect the actual uh properties from the sidewalk area into the foundation, which was a great incentive for people
to tie in now. and we want people to tie in because it helps offset economy of scales with the overall enterprise fund of the water system and it helps offset some of those costs. Um we did supply service connections or curb stops to every property within the area. So
Osborne Street, Gford Road, Greenwood, Eastbriggs, Route Six, they all have curb stops in front of their house. If they ever want to tie in, they can tie in. They don't have to tie in, but it's there if they need it. All these change orders um were reviewed in detail by the
IOC committee, by Kleinfelder Engineering, by our project manager for NSMC Corp and our infrastructure oversight committee. We're fortunate we have a very sophisticated, very experienced committee. We have an engineer who's probably one of the top in the state, if not the country. We
have we had a contractor who's been doing this work for 30 to 40 years. We had an inspector that's been inspecting this type of work all his career. We had business leaders from uh Route Six area. So it's everything's been looked at in detail on this contract. Um you know
there's I'm sorry the the other addition we have is we have additional paving along Route Six. So when we went for the permit with Mass DOT we were required to supply them with detailed plans and it showed every service connection that we were doing to the properties. It showed the patching that we were going to do how we were going to do the patching and
it's actually three patches. ones, a temporary ones on what they call a middle one and then a permanent patch. We showed the limits of those patches and it was all approved by Mass DOT and we realized that when you get to the end of the project, Mass DOT comes out and says, "Well, we want you to pay more. We want you to expand the
patches." And that's where we are now. So, some of this change, not a lot, but enough to make a difference is part of that process. And the benefits, you know, all the properties have access to public water supply if they want it. If they don't, they can stay on their own wells.
It addresses the PAS contamination in maganesees in private and some of the public wells. It supports both the residential and business areas. Fire hydrants are installed in the MCOM neighborhood and installed up and down Route Six affording fire protection to
everybody in that area whether they're connected to the water or not. And the infrastructure itself is designed for future expansion. if they wanted to go further along Route Six. If we wanted to go and there's consideration to go uh east down Briggs Road towards the fire station across Route 88. Um the fire
station well does have PAS contamination in it. And as you get further down Briggs Road closer to Sanford Road, there's been a lot of PAS contamination. And to address PAS, it's expensive, right? So I think they were quoted for the apartment complex off of Route Six over $100,000 to put a filtration system
in. So this eliminates the need to do that. So, that's where we are. The the um change orders, I don't say they're expected, but we anticipated them. They're within budget and they'll be covered by the grants and the opera funds.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I got a few questions. Who who's the actual project manager on site for for all this project? So, we have two, right? We have project manager is Roger Fernandees with Ferns and we also have ECI who we hired to be
on site um all the time they're working as inspectors. Okay. So you said Roger Fernandes from Fern Cor. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Um when it goes out to bid and we have the low bidder, it seems like the strategy now is to have change orders to make up the difference. I believe that they
probably would not be the low bidder if they were given the opportunity and actually looked at the project as a whole. Um, I know you talked about mass doc DOT changes to design and various other things that happen maybe after the fact, but I don't believe that this
contractor put the time and effort in to figure out what the mass DOT standards are. I mean, I I have a a form right here from the utility trench permit uh permanent pavement repair from Mass DOT, which does not change. They're very strict uh
with respect to what needs to be done. And my fear is that they didn't take into account um a lot of the changes and a lot of the standards that Mass DOT has in place including thickness of pavement and and repaving. Just at that last meeting I asked if you know everything
was kind of moving forward with that and there was no concern PJ Keing was going to you know do the resurfacing and put the roads back to their original condition and now we're two weeks later and and trying to approve a uh a change order. Um, I mean, if you look at
contracts specifically, I don't think a business, any private business would run in this fashion where they'd have a project and then decide, oh, we're going to spend uh another 1.8 million on our, you know, on top of our contract. Um if
you look at Massachusetts specifically um they really shouldn't change orders should not exceed 25% um with procurement laws in the in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Right now DIG is at 55% of their contract with
respect to um change orders. So, I probably will reluctantly vote in favor of this, but this is another example of how the management and the project management of this has gone arry. Um, you know, we talk about
bread and cheese brook. Well, they said it had to be buried 5 in. Well, that was already part of mass DOT of where that needed to go and where that needed to be um put in. you know, we're talking about where we lose this grant money, but this grant money still could be used for further expansion and extension of the
water line. So, it's going to come at a cost to some project. It's not going to be it's not like, oh, we're just going to take that money or it would have gone back. It would probably be able to be used to give water to more people. Um, again, you know, we're talking about new customers. we're only getting about a
third or a 30% buy in uh into into using Westport water from the residents that are getting this water line put in front of them. So, I am just concerned from a business and a private business standpoint that um there are standards, there are mass DOT standards. I don't think this low bidder looked at it. I
think we're, you know, we're caught holding the bag. It is not again at the cost of any taxpayers, but it is money that probably could be used for further expansion of of of the water line. Um, and again, we're talking about a $4.9 million contract price, and their
original contract price was 3.1 million. So, it's ridiculous that he had 1.8 million in change orders. So, no questions. That's just what I'm leaving. Want to point out that over 1 million of those change orders were at the request of the town. The town extended the project for in excess of a million
dollars. because we had a low unit price and low linear foot price, we were able to do that. So, I appreciate that some of those ones, like you talked about the slip line and the maybe the additional paving, there might have been some opportunity there. I don't know. I don't know. You you could have a point there,
but the bulk of that change order was the town changing it, not the contractor not providing the service or misestimating it. They estimated what we asked them to and then we added on after we had favorable pricing.
But right now there's not phase fable pricing with the asphalt. They did not take into account the raw material cost and that's why the PJ the cost from PJ Keating is going to be higher um than what they expected. So I mean and that was paramount to putting the roads back
in the original usable condition and that seemed to be lacking from the contract. Thank you. Anything else? So with the asphalt the only increase in price is the um escalation which comes in with liqufied asphalt. So, there's a
set fee when you go out to bid and when the asphalt goes down, if that cost of the liquid asphalt goes up or down, you adjust the contract accordingly. I think it's about $6,000 difference on a probably $600,000 paving job.
Thank you. Anything else from the board? Anything from the public? Yes. My name's Virginia Graham and I live on Osborne Street. And I don't know who was supposed to be supervising, but whoever it was really looked the other way.
Everything is sunk. There's big pit holes. It's ridiculous. It's not even close to the way it used to be. Never mind. I mean, they patched, they patched, they patched, and the patches are sinking. The patches are sinking. If you go down Arlington Street where the
gas company put in a line, they put a patch and it's nice and smooth. Osborne Street and Gford Road are outrageous. None of you live there. I live there. A lot of the people who live there are
very very unhappy. And my other I do have a question. Who is the town that extend decided to extend or requested it be extended? Who is that? The internet I'm sorry, the infrastructure oversight committee
recommended to the select board. The select board agreed to extend the contract. Okay. So, it had nothing to do with the people who actually live in the town. Your representatives on the infrastructure oversight committee and the select board are the ones that made the decision. So, in other words, be careful who you vote for.
Thank you. always the case. Um can you just talk about Jim the um what kind of warranty we have? So um if the when this paving is done hopefully in a few weeks when they do the paving if you see additional uh if there's um
more sinking or it doesn't Can you just talk about the warranty? So the warranty with the paving is for three years upon completion of the final paving. So if there is some additional settlement they are responsible to come out and fix it. Are they going to grind what's there and
and put or are they going to just pave over the disaster that's there now? So, they're going to grind along the edges 10 ft from either side. So, it'll cover some of the patch but not all the patch. And then they're just going to end up doing some leveling courses in some areas where if the patch is poor,
they will do a leveling course and then the final. Um, but in most cases, they're going to grind, I think it's 10 feet on either side of the street. Um, so it should cover the majority of the patch. Okay. Thank you. Not all of it, but majority of madam chair. Yep.
Um, PJ Keing will be obviously doing that paving. They have done a great job on other town roads. fortunately for us that the low bidder is not going to be doing the asphalt job in my opinion. Um my only other concern is that you know when we come for these change orders you
know we have somewhat of a list of what the costs are but um the explanation in my opinion is somewhat vague. Um, again, from a more of a private business sense, I would like it to be like line item listing of costs, where it's going to and and how it's being spent as opposed
to, you know, um, 250,000 for bread and cheese crossing. Okay. Um, there there's a lot of room in there for stuff to happen that I don't necessarily think is on the up and up, but thank you. I can assure you nothing's happened.
I can also assure you that the infrastructure oversight committee climber and burns um corporation have also reviewed the contracts in detail as our project manager. I can get you that detail per item. I am the select board member on the OC
and this was news to me when it was posted on the agenda on Friday. All right. Thank you. Um do we have a motion? I have another question. Okay. Go ahead. Is the water running? I don't think so. Is Yes, we do have properties hooked up.
The school's running. Osborne Street's running at the uh part of Route Six. They still have one section um that isn't live. Are the hydrants online? The hydrants should be live. Okay. Just that was because I didn't get it.
Madam Chair, I recommend we make a motion to approve the contract change order to Digot Construction as described. Second. Any further discussion? All in favor? I opposed. I'm opposed. Actually, I've decided that I not happy with the process. Three in favor, one opposed, and one
absent. That passes. Uh we don't have any discussion items. So, we are on the town administrator report. Thank you. So, uh, I don't know if somebody else wants to give an update on the search committee. I can hold off on that. If you want
Craig and I are we've we've we've selected six people to interview. We're going to be interviewing them on the 14th and 15th of the afternoon. the hope. Um I'm always a little skeptical that we'll get it done at sometime between sometime
after 6:30 p.m. on on Wednesday the 15th because um it may take longer than that. But I think that we will have interviewed all the candidates and the and the feeling is that we have enough of a range of expertise and talents u
that are qualified uh that bring different strengths and complimentary strengths to the to the job. So I think we'll be satisfied with with with who we hire and I think that the difficulty will be probably more in eliminating
people than in than in who we select. That's a good problem to have. Yeah. Yes. And just to follow up on what Craig said, I think, you know, we've had a really good process. We had a good uh good meeting to screen through the resumes. Um ended up with around I think 29 30 résumés for the position. Um
brought that down to the six that will be interviewed. It's a good mix as Craig pointed out of of private sector um either past or current administrators and uh and even a mix of uh Westport residents as well. So I think it'll it
will be helpful um in our you know decision making process. Uh our hope is we bring three forward to the select board but you never know. Uh we could decide on three and you know in the past some have pulled out because they don't want it to be publicly known based on
their past employment. But our goal is hopefully to come forward with with three candidates for the select board to uh interview and go through the public process with those three. So, um, that's that's our goal and we'll hopefully get that squared away next week. 29 for a search is is is actually a
fairly robust number. Very good. And I was talking, you know, a lot of towns if had been involved in searches recently, close to here and at least one other community I was speaking with didn't get anywhere near a 29. So,
all right. Thank you. All right, Tim. Town Hall HVAC system. As you can see, it's currently working. They've been working here for a couple of weeks now. Got two units right there against the wall that should be going in Wednesday or Thursday up in the ceiling. Um, they should be finishing the ceiling
units on here next week. Uh, they are still working down on the first floor. We had some asbestous tiles that they need to bait. So, when they do the drilling to the floor for the uh downstairs units, they will have to section off those areas. Um, they're
going to do it on a Saturday. They will take the tiles out. I think each office is just one square tile, but they need to section off the whole area. They'll come back on Monday or Tuesday, depending if it's a holiday, test the air quality, and then give the okay for the uh staff to come back. So, I think
right now we're looking at Tuesday. Possibly the assessor in the collector's office will be closed and the following Monday the other side, our treasurer and town clerks closed. the upstairs we can keep open because we do not have any drilling through the floor. Um, but they're moving fairly quick and um it's
a lot of it's been a little inconvenient for the workers here noisy with drilling. So, I appreciate them just hanging in there and uh hopefully it'll be a good system. We'll get those air conditioners that are hanging out the window every summer. They'll be gone and we'll have air conditioning and heat. We also have some electrical credits that
we uh had purchased years ago that we will be able to use at some of the electrical costs with these heating units. We did get a couple of grants that came in over the last week or so. The planning department was awarded an $87,000 grant from rural development
fund to support Westport Village zoning review and update. They said this will play a key role in advancing important planning activities within the village. The planning department has remained proactive in identifying and applying for external funding opportunities, enabling continued progress on critical planning efforts while minimizing the
financial impact on the town's operating budget. We've been receiving a number of grants over the last few years. All the departments have really put in the effort to to seek out uh funding in different areas. Um, the Westport Fire Department has been awarded through the highly competitive Federal Assistance
Firefighters Grant, AFG, the amount of $56,000 that'll be put towards updating the EMS equipment that'll enhance the safety of our patients and firefighters, paramedics. Funding will provide the department with three new state-of-the-art stair chairs designed for carrying patients and equipment up
and down the stairs and in and out of any location. They can also be used to carry equipment. Uh they have LED lighting and motorized treads um that will help that process out. And we were just notified by Chief Dunn that he received a $23,390
grant from the JAG program, the Justice Administration grant program. Uh the grant funding allocated through this office um was awarded to law enforcement agencies statewide to address public safety concerns. Chief Dunn asked me to express his
appreciation to the to the board to the uh to the governor um to Senator Rodri and Rep. Steve Roulette for their support in getting this grant. He'd also ask to uh thank uh Deputy Chief Robert Rebello and IT Director Keith Novo for
their collaboration identifying a need within the department that cost savings to our town. So those are good things. Thank you. Anything for Jim? Okay, we have minutes. Yep. I was able to review those. I have a motion to approve September 8th.
So moved. Second. Second. All in favor? I I for um in favor and one absent. And then the I also review the September 22nd uh minutes. Uh motion to approve the September 22nd meeting. Second.
All in favor? I I that's four in favor. report on the bill warrant. Madam Chair, the bill warrant was u routine. Still a lot of money, $2 million, but that's generally what we run uh throughout the year and
everything was in order. And I didn't have any additional comments. That does not need to be approved. That's just a report as you know. Okay. Um liaison committee reports and suggestion for future agenda items. Jake, I do not have anything to report on tonight. Thank you.
This is for Jake. Um Dick, do you have anything? Yes, I do. Um I have one um committee that I want to talk about future meetings. Uh we had the first meeting of the capital improvements planning committee.
Um we discussed the police department's needs. We had the fire department as well, the animal control of board of health and the marine services. So we're off and running. As you know, we don't make decisions yet. We put these in the
hopper so to speak and we later on assess which ones deem most critical and that will continue now for the next couple of months. So that's the only report for a committee.
U I did want to bring up two items for possible future discussion. Um and these both of them emanate from the landing commission. So at the last meeting of the landing commission I go
there as not a member but as the leazison from the select board as you know a non- voting position and what uh they would like to do this this is by vote of the landing commission is
talk about the hicksbridge landing uh Mr. Jeff Bull, the chair, has been in here to discuss that from time to time and we need to do some major work and if you recall, he had plans and I think the conservation commission looked at this.
Um, but he he makes an important point that we need to know and that is it is not the landing commission that owns Hicksbridge landing. it is the town and the ultimate uh arbit arbitrators for that it would be us the select board and
he's suggesting that and he'd like to come in and talk about this that they've gone pretty much as far as they can go as a landing commission and he really wishes to in effect hand this over to us for further deliberation or planning and
we're talking here about a possible multi-year project to get that to where it should be um and of course the money we would be seeking grant money along the way and that's uh not certainly not guaranteed as we know but his point is
is more fundamental than that is that the the planning commission shouldn't be handling this anymore. They had been involved in this at the request of a prior select board uh years ago. Uh but it's pretty much run its course and they feel they can't do anything more and it
has to be with us. So, he's going to come and uh make that appeal. I would support that because it it's common sense. It is town landing, not landing commission landing, and we're the ones who have to make decisions on this for better or for worse. Thank you.
The second item is also from the landing commission, and this is a possible item for a future meeting. It's once again a familiar uh discussion about the Westport Point traffic, parking, and other issues relating to the
the the relatively small nature of the point and active businesses there that are successful and a lot of people visiting there during the summer for whatever reason, sometimes just passing through. So, as we know, there was a a committee
started by, I believe, the previous town administrator as the result of work done by Mr. Sean Leachch to delineate how the point is situated in terms of public property, town property. the landing commission
has authority over a slice of it or in the butter technically speaking, but they're recommending uh and again they can't really uh do a lot with this because they're just one party among others, but they're basically recommending that we look at that again
and continue the work that had already been started, which resulted in some some improvements of paving, of signage, and also of painting of parking uh spaces and and so on and so forth. But it's still a work in progress. Uh
it's probably going to be a work in progress for years to come. So they're recommending that and again would like to come before us talk about this and suggest that we pick up where we left off and determine if there can be further measures taken. There is a
letter that was written to us back in July, which interestingly I didn't receive a copy of it was to the select board uh and it said carbon copy to select board members even though it was addressed to a select board but it it
was actually carbon copied to from Jeff Bull, carbon copy to Jim and Paula and then again carbon copy to the select board which wasn't necessary because it was directed to us. For whatever reason, I didn't see this letter, otherwise I probably would have brought it forward. But anyway, it's it's only in July, and
there's a list of recommendations of six areas that should be looked at, such as this disagreements about property ownership, non-compliance, uh, by local businesses with zoning board of appeal decisions. I'm not sure what those are, but they should be discussed. Obstruction of safety and
fire lanes by illegally parked cars. A lot of the problem down there is cars that are parked illegally and not parked on in the designated spots. So it as a resident of that area, it it is getting worse. Uh it's sort of the flip flip side of a successful point. It's
desirable and historic uh but it's uh resulted in a lot of difficulty as we have discussed it many many times. So, he'd like to bring that back for consideration and to go at it again and to see if we can make other improvements that will help with that situation. So, he wanted uh on the behalf of the
landing commission for me to bring that forward to the select board uh tonight. Okay. Thank you. Uh Craig, uh we did have actually I attended two meetings as a as chair of the affordable housing trust since our last meeting.
Um, one was our regular meeting. Um, and the other one was a meeting we had um with a realtor uh represents a party that may have some property that would be useful for affordable housing. Um, so
we're um we're we're probably heading out in several different directions right now. uh to hold again as I've mentioned in the past the objective is to try to create an opportunity where we could develop with a single development
cluster of units that are affordable. uh would also include uh nonaffordable or market rate units, but it also increases the because um housing stock is such if you don't if you don't build it or you don't improve it
um it just worsens the problem of affordable housing affordability and it's not just that it's that at many different income levels. So that's what we're doing. All right. Thank you. Um, I did not have
any committee meetings. Um, we had asked for the long-term building committee to come tonight. Um, but chair said that there are some long-term building meetings planned between now and the next meeting, I think, and that it would be more appropriate to come on the 20th. I think they have something on the 16th.
Yeah. So, um, so I think we're planning to have the long-term building committee come in on the 20th. All right. Anything else? Have any comments or statements from the public? All right. I mentioned at the beginning um we do have a topic not reasonably
anticipated um 48 hours advance of the meeting. So we've had a loss of a part-time employee um for the cable department and they're looking for permission to post um for that part-time position. Is that that's correct? Does that adequately represent what you
That's exactly okay. Um and so we wanted to try to post it now rather than waiting two more weeks um to start posting it. What's the pleasure of the board? Madam Chair, do we have we have a job description prior to of what it's going to be to post and all that?
Okay, perfect. Motion to post position. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I. That's four in favor of one absent. Um I think that is it. Anything before we
close? I will entertain a motion. Motion to adjurnn. Second. All in favor? I. That's unanimous. Favor. Thank you.