Join me in the pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all. Good evening. Welcome to the Monday um June 2nd meeting of the Westport Select Board under Mass General Law Chapter 38 section 20F. This meeting is being recorded. Um, I just have uh
uh some acknowledgements. We want to uh recognize the people who um put together the Memorial Day ceremonies. They ordered up a lovely day. It was a beautiful day with just enough wind to make the flags look nice. Um but I especially want to thank Carol Freighus, our veteran service officer. Um the
veterans organizations that put the um event together, the the VFW, the BVA, and the American Legion and the Honor Guard. Want to thank the cemetery department. It looked great. The cemetery looked great. Um the mowing is done. It looked really nice. And then I also want to thank the scouts um who
were there and the Westport Middle High School band who played and then everybody who participated in putting um flags at all the markers. I think there was like something like 1500 um flags went up at cemeteries across town. So thanks to everyone who put that
together. Um is there any other acknowledgements or recognitions that we before we move on? the um public hearing. The um petitioner is not here and they're uh would like to they're requesting that we continue the public hearing. So, I'll entertain a motion to continue the public hearing
for the Verizon Gas. Um do I need to read I don't need to read the whole thing for the I'll entertain a motion to continue until June 16 at 6:05 p.m. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? All right. Hi.
Good job, Jake. Jump right. I was trying to get you early so you don't have to read everything. Appreciate it. Um 2A. We have a request from the Westport Food Pantry for a one-day all alcohol liquor license for their summer social to be held at Weatherlo Farms, 845 Sodom Road
on Saturday, July 19 from 6:00 to 8. Um we do have the paperwork and a favorable police report on file. Is there anyone here to talk about What's the pleasure of the board? Motion
to approve. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I I. That's unanimous. We have a request from the Coastal Wine Trail of Southeastern New England for a 1-day wine and malt beverage permit for their annual farmers market festival at 200
Pine Hill Road on June 14 um from 11:00 a.m. to 7:30. Um we do have the um paperwork and a favorable police report on file. Motion to approve. Second. Any
discussion? All in favor? I I That's unanimous. Um we're going to pass over to C. The applicant has asked to be moved to another meeting. Um 2D, we have a request from the Holy Ghost Club, 171 Sodom Road for
one day all alcoholic liquor license for 179 Sodom Road for the following events. Saturday, June 14, a concert from 3 to 8. Saturday, June 21, Pride Day from 12 to 6. Saturday, June 28, a fundraiser
from 10 to 4. These are the normal ones we get from Holy Ghost. And we do have [Music] favorable second. All in favor? I I That's unanimous. Appointments and resignations. So we
have a request to appoint Ray Reposa to the open space committee as the agricultural commission representative and Lisa Fadelberg Costa as the commission on disability representative. Um is there anyone here do we have a member on the open on the open space
committee? Well I'm the member but we haven't met yet. Oh okay. All right. Move approval as recommended. Second. Is there any discussion? All in favor? I I that's unanimous. Um was the board of health going to be
here? I don't know. I have not. Okay. Um we have a request from Matt Armendo, the board of health director, to approve the employment agreement for Linda Pierce, the town nurse. So this is the yearly contract renewal um with just a 3% increase in the hourly rate. Do you
have a recommendation? Recommend approval. So moved. Second. Is there any discussion? All in favor? I I. That's unanimous. We have a request from Matt Armeno, the board of health director to appoint appoint Colin Hasslam as a
transfer station foreman effective June 5, 2025. Um Jim, do you have a recommendation? Recommend approval. I have a motion. Second. No. So moved. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I I That's
unanimous. I'll go first if you want, Sha. It helps. It It does help Paula with the minutes if it's the same. But I will take if you don't want to. You don't. I don't have an issue with what I'm making. If you don't have you do your conscience. Um request from Matt Arando, board of
health director to appoint Gina Danti as assistant animal control officer effective July 1. Jim, do you have a recommendation? Yeah, recommend approval. Matt would spoke very highly of uh Mr. Sante. So move second. Any discussion? You try
to work it out in advance, you know. I'm just sad we have an assistant animal control officer. This we haven't had one in a long time. Um all in favor? I I that's unanimous. Um we have a request from John Rosendis, the community television director, to appoint Julia George as production
assistant effective immediately. Jim, do you have a recommendation? Yes, she's been doing uh some of the work over there and uh John spoke very highly of. I'd recommend approval. Motion to approve. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I I That's unanimous.
We have a request from the county commissioners of Bristol County to appoint an advisory board representative. Um Richard Brewer is our current advisory board representative. Are you willing to continue serving? I'm willing to continue, but I'm not opposed to somebody else who wants to improve
their resume. Anybody else want to? It would be appropriate to move Dick. Motion to approve. To move You have to move Dick Brewer. Oh, motion to approve Dick Brewer. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I I That's
unanimous. Now we have Beverly Bish. You want to come up? Um, we have a request from Beverly Bish, the Council on Aging Director to appoint Janet Scandlin as supportive day program level two aid. Welcome, Beverly. And I assume you were Miss Scan. I am. Welcome.
Beverly, you want to tell us about this? Yeah. Uh, Janet started with us as a volunteer and we had a position available. So, she applied for the position. Um, and I'll let Janice talk a little bit more about herself because I don't have as much information over the paperwork in front of me. Well,
um I'm retired and I worked for South Coast um health systems for 48 years. Um, I just love being with people and I love working with the elderly people. Although I'm I'm getting there myself,
but um they're just so sweet and um I just like being there and taking care of them and it's just made my day, you know. So, excellent. I really like being there. All right, great. And um Beverly, this
is um budgeted position. It's uh yes, it's budget. It's grant funded. It's all grant funded. Okay. Grant funded and fee and fee based. Jim, do you have a recommendation? I recommend approval. While the pleasure of motion to approve. Second.
All in favor? I I That's unanimous. Welcome aboard. Thank you. Um Bev, do you have other stuff going on over there? I just had this I we passed this out to everybody. We we were doing our strategic plan and in our strategic plan we added uh for our mission and our um
uh uh vision that the senior center would be the center of the go-to place and we did it sort of visually so that people can see and on the outskirts you have the the basically the four uh departments the outreach department the activities the supportive day and the transportation and then around it you
have a lot of the questions that come to us and why people get to us um I'm turning 65 help what do I do you know um I need to a ride to my doctors. How do I get that? Um can can I get a ride shopping? Um is there rest bit for my loved one? Um where can my mom or dad go
during the day? So all of those kind where's the exercise classes? All of those things come in and it's just a visual to show that this is sort of what we're going to do and how we want to market the senior center over the next year or so. Um with our goals and objectives to get out there and to reach
a lot more of the people. There's right now 55 and older. there's just about 8,000 people in town that are 55 and older and that's 50% a little bit more than 50% of your population. So, we know that we're going to get a lot more um we're going to get busier. We're going to have a lot more uh services that are
needed or expectations or questions. Um so, we want to be geared up to what we can do and and with expansion or whatever else that we need to do. Um, so and I'm lucky enough I mean we are lucky enough to have we're one of the only COAs in um the state that has 23 staff.
We have 23 staff. The town pays for two and a half. We all the rest are grant funded. And a lot of the COAs have maybe four staff, five staff. Some have 10 or 12. And even some of the cities don't have as many. They're like, "How did you get 23 staff? Lot of great." Well, you
know, we a lot of grant funding, a lot of writing. Um, you know, um, and and people do, like Janet, people do love coming to work with us because it's a friendly place and and, um, you know, people walk in and they feel welcomed and they like being there and they make
friends and it's it's not just um, you know, it's social um, it it helps with, you know, mental health issues. It helps with um, uh, you know, loneliness and isolation and depression and all of those kind of things. So people really do and it helps with some of the the
needs when you need taxes done, when you need help with your Medicare. So those are the kind of things that we really want to make sure that we focus on and do. Um so um but I just wanted people to see this. We'll be sending this out um to to folks so that they have it um and
and be trying to do outreach um to people that don't know about us. We still get people that come in the center and say, "I didn't know you did that." You know, um we had a joint meeting today. Dick Ruer was there again today with us. We had our board meeting. We had our joint meeting with the friends and one of the ladies that's on the
friends board said she came in and and she had no idea that we did what we did. She had brought her mother in um and actually Tony Custodio who is a retired police officer and he's now on my board. He said when he first came into the senior center, he thought it was going
to be like the typical, you know, nursing home where it smells like urine and people are in the hallways just, you know, sitting there and he's like, "It's so not that at all." But that's what people think about because it's called the Council on Aging and that's what people think, you know, that that's what we are and nothing's going to be further
than the truth from that. So, well, thank you for all you're doing over there. Did anybody have anything for Beverly? I just had a quick question, Sean. Is that all right? Uh so Beverly on on this and all the services you provide what is the best that you're figuring out outreach because like my mother she's in her 70s and you know
doesn't wasn't aware of what what happens there. I mean you know obviously a lot of these people probably aren't on social media. I mean is is it actually spending money on direct mail? What's the answer? We've done surveys where we've done direct mail surveys to people to see what they needed especially
during COVID to find out what they wanted for technology. So we've done some of that. One of the things that I wanted to do and then COVID hit, I wanted to go doortodoor with my outreach staff. I have to work with the police department so that people can wear tags to say it's okay and have like two of my outreach staff each go door to door
because we have addresses for people and do like you know years ago and I know I'm dating myself years ago a welcome wagon. You remember people did that where if somebody moved into the neighborhood and they brought you something? Well, for us it would be a basket with some some information just just to introduce us, not to go in the
house, not to do anything, but just to introduce ourselves and to say and I think that would really hit home for a lot of people who are still in the older bracket that don't know about us and don't really get on social media. Um, we we I have a newer position that the
personnel board did approve. Um it's going to be a communications and community um relations coordinator. It's going to take the place of my assistant director who's been out for six months that position. I have to bring it before the board to approve it. The uh
personnel board already did. And that's what her she's going to be doing is is doing that. And I thought the doortodoor thing too might also, you know, um meet the people's needs and get reach people that don't know about us, you know. Um because we still get people that walk in and say, "Wow, I didn't know you did
that. I didn't know you had this class. I didn't know I didn't know you did exercise. You know, I didn't know you did taxes. You know, I didn't know you had a podiatrist that came here." So, so um so it's that kind of outreach that we do. We've done cold calling before, too. Um we did a lot of cold calling. I had
36 pages of 75 year olds and older during COVID. We had 36 pages of people that we called to make sure that they had their COVID vaccine if they needed help. and we probably reached just about a thousand people and we had a a COVID vaccine clinic with the fire department
and the police department and the EMTs at our center along with driving people to other places and every single person I I physically made phone calls to people to say do you need any help and every single one of them said thank you for not forgetting about us and reaching out and some of them had already had
appointments because of their family made appointments but some of them didn't know what to do you know I had a gentleman whose wife was at bed bound and he couldn't leave the house cuz he didn't have anybody else to help and the nurse that came to her would give h the
vaccine but he couldn't get the vaccine and he's like what if I get sick so we called the the EMTs and we talked to Brian Legender and asked if we could do homebound people um and the EMTs went out to the house and they did homebound so it's about reaching out doing it that way you know it's great you have someone
focused on that it's going to be good anything else for everyone thank you thank Thank you. Thank you. Thanks again. 3H, we have a request from Chris Gonzalez to appoint Kelson Kolinga as a seasonal employee. Jim, do you have a
recommendation? Yeah, I'd recommend approval. Chris has been trying to get somebody on board seasonally to help with some of the grass cutting and some of the other tasks here at the highway department. So, I'd recommend approval. Motion to approve. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I. That's unanimous.
We have some more of our regular appointments. I'm going to um just read them and if you want to put a hold on them, just say hold. But otherwise, we'll just do them in bulk. Um so for the 2026 appointments, we have um Richard Brewer for um the audit
committee two years. Hold. You're holding. Evan Gendro for the audit committee for two years. Hold. William Underwood for the beach committee for three years. Roger Manard, Board of Appeals, five years. Marie
Fontaine, Council on Aging, three years. Jason Camara and Samuel Ferrer, plumbing and gas inspectors, one year. Keith Das, Recreation Commissioner, three year. Paul Burke, David Gonzalez, William Plondon, and Dean Winship, wire
inspectors, one year. So that's everything except the two audit committee. Do I have a motion? Motion to approve. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I I That's unanimous. Uh Dick, uh the purpose of the hold, Madam Chair,
was to simply provide additional information to the select board. Uh this has to do with the uh audit committee and there is a bylaw uh regarding the terms of the audit committee members. They're intended to be three
years once the committee got going, but they were staggered initially and for some reason u Paula pointed this out to me that there was a uh the prior terms were not correctly lined up. So if the
these two uh actions are approved, then we would have one person coming up in 2026, two people, myself and Mr. General in 27. We already have Mr. Kaquin and Mr. Thrasher coming up in 28 then we
would have the proper sequence. It's technically not in line with the bylaws to do this but it's certainly well within the intent which was to have staged terms. So I wanted to explain that in case anybody uh cited that and said it's not correct. It is correct if one looks at the intent in the original
u town meeting uh article that produced that. So that's the background. Okay. So you're um but you're recommending for the audit committee two-year. That's correct. Yes. Okay. Second. I don't know. Does someone move that? Dick move that. So moved.
Any any further discussion? All in favor? I I that's unanimous. We have a request from Keith Novo to appoint Carlos Ariel as part-time information technology technician. Um Jim, do you want to tell us about this? Yeah, this
has been this position has been in the budget for just over a year now and it's been unfilled. I know um Keith went through a number of applicants um reviewing their applications. We actually interviewed two candidates I sat in on the interviews. Uh Carlos Ariel seemed qualified for the position.
Um you had a good personality. I think you worked well. It's going to be kind of an enduser type position. So we'll be working in town hall in the annex. Um I'd recommend approval. This be a part-time position under 20 hours. Sean, I just have a question. So, you're
saying this is this more forward facing with the public or just for a support staff? More support staff. Okay. Hoping to work with with the department setting up files. Um, okay. Telling us how to manage things a little bit better. Thank you. Motion to approve. Second. Is there
any discussion? All in favor? I. I. That's unanimous. I'm recusing myself from 3K. So Dick is going to take over the discussion for that one. So 3K is a request from Bonnie Strebble, library director, to appoint Ryan Farley as library aid one and
Rebecca Farius as principal clerk. I'll first ask for a recommendation from the town administrator. Then I'll ask Miss Frabel if she wishes to speak. Yeah, I only reviewed the applicants uh the information that they submitted. They seem more than qualified. I recommend approval based on Bonnie's
recommendation. Mr. Do you would like to come forth if so inclined? Hello. So, we had um for both positions, we ended up with almost 200 applicants. So, we got some very wellqualified people and these were our top two choices. So, we're thrilled that they
agreed to come work with us. Um Ryan lives in Westport and is already a library patron, so she knows the building well already. and she has many years experience in customer service and a background in education which will help us with our after school kids for tutoring and things like that. Um, and
Rebecca has basically been working in almost the same position at another library previously, so she should be able to slot right into our library. Um, she has a background in history and education also. So, who's who? Oh, I'm sorry. That's
Rebecca and that's Ryan over there. Uh what is discussion of on the part of the board? Motion to approve. Second. Uh motion made second. Any further discussion? All in favor say I. I. I. I abain. One abstain. So the motion
passes. Four in favor. One abstension. Thank you. Congratulations. Good luck. Thank you. Uh 4 A. We have a request from Mad Armeno, board of health director, to approve the job description for the position of shared services community health specialist and to post the
position. Jim, you want to tell us about this one? So, this position would be funded through the grant that they've receiving yearly. Um, I think the last grant was over $300,000, and they've hired one or two people, I think, one full-time and one part-time. Previously, this this position would uh fill a gap
that's needed not only in Westport, but the um shared communities that they're working with. I'd recommend approval. If the job description has been approved by the personnel board that was at their last meeting, it's a fairly lengthy and detailed job description, but I I'd recommend approval.
I move it. Second. Is there any discussion? Um, all in favor? I I opposed. That's unanimous. We have a request from the shellfish advisory board to change the shellfishing start time to half an hour
before sunrise and half an hour after sunset. Do I thought we approved this before, but we may have missed something? It says um is sunset included an email. Rick Smith's back there. Rick, you're here. Please enlighten us here. It
doesn't matter. Wherever you're comfortable, I can clarify this. Thank you. Um, good evening [Music] everybody. The shellfish advisory board voted back in January. I think I wasn't at the meeting. Um, but they voted to
change the time so that we comply or be the same as state regulations, but in our disc which is a half hour before sunrise and a half hour after sunset to open. Right now it's sunrise to sunset. So after discussion, we had a little bit
of concern of the fishes coming in in the dock um after sunrise at sunset. So what we decided to do was vote that we would allow or hopefully approve one half hour before sunrise and leave the
closure time at sunset. That way we know the fishes are in and safe and we're not going out in the dark looking for them. So we would open the effective date is yet to be determined but we would open the shell fishing wood which could start one half hour before sunrise and then
would close at sunset at sunset. So every day so half hour that would apply to everybody commercial recreational every everybody who has a shellfish license. Okay. And that's a change to the current that's why you need us to vote because that's a change to the current regulation. I'm sorry. What you
need us to vote because that's a change because right now it's sunrise to sunset. Now with sunrise to sunset that that's a change that we voted but somehow it never got in front of you. So here we are and and we're not open right now. When do we Is the season open? Oh yeah, we're open now. Oh, we are. Okay.
Okay. So we have a request to change the shell fishing start time to half hour before sunrise and we're leaving the uh the sunset. Another reason that we're in favor of opening it half hour before sunrise is that it gets the commercial
people out there earlier, especially in the summertime when there's a lot of boat traffic in the river. Um, so it gets them out an hour earlier and back in with their catch a half hour earlier. So that um it's a safety issue. There's a lot of traffic on the river all summer
long. So that's another point that um would like to see. All right. Thank you. Just a quick question, Sean. So, Rick, you're saying the state or the Commonwealth has it as a half hour prior and a half hour after sunset? Currently, correct? So, there are other communities
that are already dealing with the kind of a darkness issue on the half hour. Why wouldn't we just be consistent with the with the Commonwealth? Each community sets their own. Okay. But the state law is that similar to hunting regulations. Hunting regulations a half hour before and half hour after. Now, I
can't speak for what other communities do after sunset, okay? I don't know what they have for staff. I don't know what they do for enforcement. I I really don't know that. But this way, we figured it would be safe for our fishes and then on the flip side, it would get them home, especially
in the winter. It would get them home, you know, before dark. Okay. All right. Any other questions? Motion to approve. Second. We have any discussion? I have one more. Okay. Go ahead. One more piece. Um, wait, take that back. Wait, do you want us to vote
first or do you want us to you want to tell us something before we vote? Uh, let let me tell you then. Okay, go ahead. Okay. Um, the question is we have not decided on a start date for that. Now, the two issues are we can start immediately. We could start next week,
we could start July 1 or we could wait for it to be published in the rules uh in the book which means we have to republish the book. So I would suggest as chair that we start at it probably um either the 10th which is next Tuesday or
we wait until 71 which is a Tuesday which is a day of the which is a relay day when the relays are open. If we opened on 71, if we changed the time to 71, that would put us that would comport with our whole safety issue of getting the fishes out and off the river
hopefully half hour earlier when the traffic when the boat traffic gets really heavy. Otherwise, we would have to wait until January 1, which really doesn't accomplish much between now and then. Okay. So, you're recommending you're recommending that we change this to be effective July 1. Correct. Right. I'll change my motion. So obviously I
make a motion to approve the shell fishing start time to a half hour before sunset uh sunrise and then uh to sunset uh on July 1. Second. Is there any further discussion? All in favor? I I that's
unanimous. Anything else? Rick, that's it. I'm going away. Thank you. Um 4 C. We have a request from John Morris, Post number 145, to revise and approve the lease agreement for property located at 489 Stamford Road. This
American Legion um building on Stamford Road. Um Jim, you want to tell us about this? Yes. So, this is the uh standard lease agreement that we've had with the with the post for a number of years. Um it's actually expired a couple of years ago. Um they've requested that it be
renewed. The conditions are the same. They're looking to remove one paragraph that essentially gave the town the right to uh use the first floor as a polling place. We're no longer using that as a polling place. So, I don't see an issue removing that paragraph. Um I'd recommend approval. So, my question on
that one is um uh the the church, the dascese is allowing us to use the Our Lady of Grace for voting, right? But um if they were to decide not to allow us to use it for bulling, then we would need to go back the American Legion, right? So how long
is this this term for? I believe it's three years. We have we don't have a Do we have a contract with the dascese? We don't. We don't. Yeah. No. And um speaking of the town clerk, she's she's hoping to move a number of the precincts into the new school. Oh, right. She's not looking to
move back there. Yeah. No. Okay. It's not it's not ideal. Okay, that was the only question I had. Anybody have any other Wouldn't you want the flexibility? I mean, I don't know why is it impacting the agreement at all if you had the flexibility if for some reason something happened.
I'm okay with it leaving it in. I don't either way it was the I'm sorry. It was the post that had requested the lease taken. Removing that one paragraph in the lease. I'm not familiar with George is more Oh, George, you want to um Sorry, I didn't know you had relevant
information. So, uh George Stelg 765 Hicksbridge and I'm the chaplain for the American Legion. We met about the lease, we looked at it, and we just thought since it hadn't been used as a polling place in years that it made sense to
take that out. That was the reason why we made that recommendation. Okay. I do think the town clerk is trying to consolidate precincts, too. So, okay. Right. Any discussion? That's the pleasure of the board.
Do you want to remove it? Do we not want to remove it? Madam chair, I move the uh recommendation to revise and approve this accordingly. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I I That's unanimous.
Thank you. Thank you. Um, now we have U. Bill Chase. You want to come up? We have a request to approve the director of marine services job description and appoint William P. Chase Jr. the position. This is William Chase Jr. Welcome, Madam
Chair. Um, so you'll recall that um on the night of town meeting uh we learned of uh the resignation of Christopher Leonard, the current director of marine services effective July 2nd, I think. Um and so we agreed to post the position of
director of marine services. Um we received I think four well-qualified applicants for the position. Um three of them were Westport residents. So we gave them preference in um the screening process and ultimately we interviewed
two candidates, Mr. Chase and one other candidate. Um the interview panel it was a panel it was surprise to all of us I think that there was a panel interview but um the people who interviewed the the applicants were Chief Dunn myself
Jim Hartnett um Carl Trip from the Harbor Advisory Committee and then Chris Brewster from the Shellfish Advisory Committee. Um we spent about 45 minutes to an hour with each candidate. It was pretty long. Um and we covered topics um like um
managing people in a department, managing budgets. Um we talked about emergency response. We talked about um uh waterway and shellfish enforcement. And we talked about um the shellfishing um program in general. Um both
candidates were very wellqualified. Um the discussion was around the wish we could have a harbor master and a shellfish warden again and hire both of them because they were very complimentary to each other. But ultimately it was the unanimous decision of the um of the of the group um to
recommend Bill Chase for the position. So you have Bill's uh resume. He's a longtime mariner. He's from tugboats to transportation barges to fishing vessels in the Bearing Sea. Um he has also been a member he's been working for as an
assistant harbor master for two seasons. Right. This will be my third. This will be the third season. So, one of the things that the group thought was really um advantageous about Bill uh was that he has some familiarity. He has a lot of familiarity with the Westport River and
with the department and all the people that are working there along with staffing and processes. Um and given that the changeover is happening in July, um which is not great for a changeover of that position. Um we thought that continuity was going to be really important. Plus, we just thought
he was a fabulous guy. So, I am recommending that we um appoint um Bill Chase to the position of director of marine services. Um do you want to say anything, Bill? Well, uh first of all, thank you for your time. Thank you for the recommendation. Um this is a big
job. As we talked about, this is really two jobs in one. And I have to really mention Chris from the get-go because he's held this down for 10 years. and I've seen him operate on a day-to-day
basis and uh he's done a terrific job. I think we all owe him a debt of gratitude, especially the shellfishermen because not just the hoba master issues and everything that they bring, but the shell fishermanmen bring their own set of issues, shall we say, and he handled
all that very well. And I think on top of that, as far as budget issues go, uh he has left the department in very good shape going forward. So starting on July 1 with a new budget and the ideas that I have going
forward, I think they will mesh pretty well. My first call when I when all this started coming to be uh was to uh Chief Dunn. So last Wednesday I met with Chief Dunn uh Chief Baldwin and their two
deputies, Deputy Chief Rebello and Deputy Chief Brisk and we had a discussion about how we could integrate the Harbor Masters Department into police, fire, EMS. A lot of that centered around communications, training, so on and so
forth. It's a great discussion. So, at the end of all that, uh, we have agreed that some of the police details on the weekends could be put aboard one of the boats so that we could kind of show the badge, if you will, out on the river.
And then uh Chief Baldwin introduced me to Lieutenant Nunes who was the training officer over there and he said whenever you guys need to train, whatever you want me to do, whatever I can do for you to get you up to speed in regard to
medical training, just say the word. So it was just a great discussion all around and I think we can integrate ourselves into that department in a more effective way. Great. Thank you. Anybody have anything for Bill? Um, I echo Bill's sentiments with Chris
Leonard. I think he did a yman's job dealing with the the task that he was uh faced with and I've met Bill before and he's, you know, I think he's going to be the great right person for the job and and do a great job and uh maybe bring some efficiencies and some kind of collaboration with the other departments
in town. So, it'd be great to have you, Bill. Thank you. Anything else? So, I'll move um I'll move Bill Chase um as director and to approve the job description. Second. Any further discussion? All in favor? I
I that's unanimous. Welcome aboard. Thank you all. I brought my posi. Yeah. You know, it's a good interview when it go There's a point in the interview that they go, "Let me take you to the Bearing Sea. Uh we have a request from the
infrastructure oversight committee um to set the water rate at 8:30 uh CCF as of July 1, 2025. Come forward. Welcome gentlemen. You want to introduce yourself?
Uh good evening. I uh had a little work done on my sun damage when I was a probably goes back I don't know maybe when I was a kid but it's a continuing uh exercise for me. Um I am the uh I'm
Bob Daylor and I'm the vice chair of the infrastructure oversight committee and um as you just said Madam Chairman uh we're here to recommend um a rate increase and to bring rate increase I
think even at at this rate won't bring the in the investment fund totally solvent but it'll reduce uh the deficit we now have. And the
recommendation also is consistent with everything that we told the public at the uh the large public hearing when we extended the water system this year. So with that
um Mari has done the analysis um but I think simply u we we can summarize our recommendation and answer any questions that you might have. So I would like to propose a uh just a
simple um presentation here which has two parts. Um, essentially, um, we are buying water from Fall River for $721 per ccf and we're charging our customers
$7.28 and um, this is a very, very small margin and the margin should have never gotten that small. Uh, but that minimal margin is not covering the $50,000 of operating expenses. Yes, it covers the commodity charge for the water to fall
river, but it does not cover the operating expenses. We have about 10 vendors that charge us 35,000 a year, and then we've got unbuild water revenues, kind of lost water, and uh
that's 15,000. So, we have a deficit there of about 50,000 in operating expenses that we must cover. But there's an easy solution, very easy solution because in 2003, your predecessors on the board of selectmen
um came up with a policy and that policy is to charge our rateayers 15% over the Fall River charge. And 15% over 721 is is
$829, which we have rounded up to $8.30 30 in our in our uh request. So that's what we are requesting a new rate of $8.30. That's the major part. The smaller part that I built into the model
is to raise the fixed charge from 100 a year, which is 25 a quarter to 120 a year, which is $30 a quarter. That raises about $4,000. But the major rate increase here has to do with the um cost of the commodity the water that we
charge our customers. So that is the the simple solution and it gets more complicated from there as um our town administrator has has pointed out to you on many occasions. Um so first I just want to um talk about a procedural question. So,
the the agenda posting um said request um to set the water rate at 8:30 um CCF. Yep. It did not include the um $5. No, it did not. So, is it appropriate for us to consider that
without that having been mentioned? On the one hand, we are talking about water rates. I feel like people It's a rate change. I think it's part of the rate change. I don't think it's significant enough to Okay. warrant a new posting. Okay. Um and then okay that's what I had and yeah go
ahead. Um so Murray so as you said it's it's a 15% increase over what for river charges. Yes. So in our talks with for river as this system expands and they lower the rate to us. We would adjust the rate for our
customers and just keep that 15% above that. There are negotiations going on with Fall River that are multifaceted as you know and uh this gentleman here has been the one undertaking those negotiations but you're right there's a break point under discussion and um there's also
instead of being 70% over there maybe it's 50% before the break point and then the break point would bring it down to 5%. But I think I just want to make sure the custom but that's all negotiation. Jim do you want to make comments there? We still don't have it finalized and
forward, but I think we're very close. Um, you sat in on the the mediation. I think we're we're going to reach that same point and and some things have to play out over the next year or two. We have a number of customers that are tying in. have to see how much water use they use over the next couple of years because that's going to play into it
because there is a break even point that we're we haven't finalized with Fall River but we're hoping over a certain CCF I think it's 26,000 that rate will reduce to from 50% down to 5% over the rate so um that along with the rate
increase will pretty much break us even at this point yeah but I I I said the way we were talking that 15% was already voted on at town meeting Well, it's 70% now. We're hoping to go to 50%, which is what Fall River charges other municipalities. We seem to be um getting
it. No, what I'm just looking at is we try to expand this system um and explain to these people like this is what we're supposed to charge 15% over. So, if four of us starts charging us less, which I believe, you know, the five years I've
been involved in it, that's what's supposed to happen. that these people we're not going to tell them now that that's going to happen and then it doesn't happen. I just want to make that clear to the people that are trying to tie in. So this is a simple approach
that we we have currently underway an expansion as of the uh of the water enterprise and uh we're going from 168 customers to at least 200 and hopefully more as time goes on. But we do have
indications of 30 30 people plus who will um plug into the system along with of course Macr school and um of several of the uh of the businesses along Route Six. So we're hopeful that you know we
can grow the system a little bit and um you know have you know better there's grow there's better finances in growth and so hopefully we can achieve that. So I think that um I kind I think the kind of the moral of this story is we should have been revisiting the water rates
more frequently in the first place, right? So yes, it was so we should have been revisit if if we had a policy of 15% over, we should have been evaluating, you know, how much we're getting charged. And then to Manny's point, the more volume of water we purchase, the lower per unit cost we have from Fall River. So that'll help
people. So, I think really it's just going to be incumbent on us to stay on top of um rate changes so that we, you know, go back and lower the rate when when we need to. I also liked um you had in here that um from 2015 to 2018 it was
actually $8.80. Uh sorry, say that again. From 2015 to 2018, it was actually $8.80. So, it has been higher in the past. So even though this is a pretty significant up it's I mean it's a dollar more um per
unit but it has been higher in the past. So really the residents have been kind of benefiting from a reduced rate um for the last few years. And madam chairman do not forget inflation because if you take 880 o over the last 10 years that gets
to $11 a ccf. Yeah, I know when we talked about this a few weeks, a few meetings ago, I was kind of opposed to to the making the rate increase that high. Um, but now that I now that you presented it so nicely in this information, I I I think I'm supportive
of this increase and and uh the sense of the uh the oversight committee simply was if we when we have the enterprise funds, we should try to make them at least break
even and that looking at the rate increase, you know, looking at the rates period should be something that is done periodically and so it was the sense of the meeting and and the 830 really came
from the current rates and I think if if if under the negotiations we the rates come come down um that that is the wholesale rate to us comes down then then we should look at that 15% policy
and and and and reduce that proportionally for the customers. So it was just a sense of can can we can we act now to bring the the deficit down and bring the the enterprise fund into
balance for the for the town. Thank you. Yes. Is just a quick is that 15% an actual ceiling or can it be higher than the 15% over the rate? It is the policy that uh the select board passed
in um effective March 1st 2003. Okay. Um new water rate is 15% per cubic feet over what Fall River charges Westport. And that was the policy effective March 1st 2003 which as Shauna mentioned
really has not been followed. Now you can change the policy but if if if you want a you know quick simple solution all you have to do is follow the policy by the the old board of select. So just a quick question. So at
this point recommending that we go up to 8:30 um and then see how that plays out for the year and then as the rates if they do change we don't need the funds we can either reduce or adjust them at that time. Yeah. You know, this is the second time I've come before this body to
discuss rates. And the last time we were dealing with an 880 rate, as you pointed out, and um it was it was a lot easier to lower rates. We lowered them to from 880 20% down to 7.04. And um in several years ago, it
was raised from 704 to 728. But rates can come down. They don't always have to go up. And if we grow into this new expansion nicely and we get the break points and the lower surplus and the
growth that Jim was talking about, uh there could be a rate decrease, but right now we need the 830 question. Uh Sean, just a quick comment that before motion's made. Um, I've been pretty much even through recently my campaign, you know, adamant
adamantly opposed to the water situation. Um, I don't think Westport should be getting into becoming a utility company. Um, Eversource, Liberty, and now Westport utility company will continue to increase those rates. So, um, I just am concerned of that. Uh, 60% of town voted against
water and sewer and I know that's done and that's in the past. But again, I'm going to stand in opposition to this um based on what I've said in the past and how I feel that we should not be engaging in this. So that's my simple simple answer for when I vote in
opposition. So thank you. Thank you. Well, I I'll make a motion that we reinstate in practice the 2003 policy adopted by this board. And are you also recommending that we set the rate at 8? Yes. 8:30. Yes. which
would in effect set the rate at 83. Okay. Yeah. Second, just one more thing on that. Um, so one of the other things that I've been I've been hearing in for River too is um their residents complaining about the cost of the water and how they've been funding it. And so
I do know that they're working to try to lower the rates on that end. So I think, you know, water's necessary and everybody's trying to work in that direction. So that's why I will be in favor of this. I am I would be more in favor of maybe four of everyone to take over the water system. I think that
would be a little bit easier and but we'll see what happens in the future. All right. So, we have a motion, a second to follow the 15% uh water rule set by our predecessors and set the rate at 8:30. Is there any
further discussion? All in favor? I I opposed. Opposed. So, that's uh four in favor, one opposed. Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Um F. We have a request from Chief Dan Baldwin to approve the fire engine
contract with Bulldog Fire Apparatus, a local company. You want to tell us about this one? Yeah, this is this is um good news. The chief's been working hard on this. Um, he originally thought it would take about three years to order the fire engine and to get it equipped and
constructed, but um, I guess my understanding is this Bulldog uh, company had purchased some equipment early on knowing that there would be some issues and they they still have a couple of uh, fire engines ready to be sold. So, it's something that we may be able to get on board within a year or
so. Um, he purchases to a joint purchasing agreement. So, we follow the procurement regulations. Um he's got a better price than what he initially um anticipated. Uh we I think we had appropriate 950,000 for it and we're just under 900. This will go up a little
bit as they add a little bit of some of the um computers and some of the specialty equipment to the equipment to the fire engine, but overall it's I thought it was going to come in higher. So for me, I'm excited about it. So I would recommend approval. Oh, and it's a local business. It's a good thing.
Second. You have to make the motion. I'll make the motion. Okay. You move. Second. Second it. Okay. Go ahead. Chair. Can I ask through you that Jim explain the funding? Remember this? This is the item that we discussed at the capital improvement planning committee or or is it not? It is. It was not fully
funded immediately. It was a town meeting. We approved. I think it was like a third of it or something. Was a plan thinking that it wouldn't be for three years that we could add to that. I guess it's the capital fund. So we'd be able to get the what was then 950,000 if
I recall. So could you just go over that that Yeah. So we used two funding sources and I one was 400 and one was 450 and one was free cash and the other one came from the assessor's overlay account. So at the end of each year depending on how the taxes fall in order
to get our 2 and 12% increase in tax revenue um some of that fund goes into the assessor's overlay and they had excess money in there. So, we're able to utilize that money to get us up to the 950 this year as opposed to waiting the three years. Okay. That that's what I
was thinking about and that that explains it. Madam Chair, I have a question. So, like when we when we fund these purchases, um I mean and it was thinking to go over like it was going to go three years before we needed it. So, we were going to put away for it. I mean, couldn't we just we got such a good bond rating. Couldn't they just
borrow and fund it that way over the three years? Well, town meeting already approved the whole No, I'm just I'm just looking for the future. I'm just asking a question. Okay. They could we would need authorization to bond, but yeah, it's it's something I think the committee looked at or discussed anyway. Whether you bond some of these items or
you go out and purchase them and I think Sue Braton, one of the things that she looked at was actually establishing through the uh stabilization capital stabilization fund funding that almost as kind of like a borrowing source so we could borrow from that to purchase large capital items. Okay. Thank you.
Anything else? All in favor? I I That's unanimous. We have a request from Chris Gonzalez, the highra surveyor to approve DOT chapter 90 project request for town paving improvements. Um approximately 24,500 ft of I didn't see this one in
our packet. This contract may not. It's in the U. Did I miss it? You probably didn't. May not. Paula left me in charge. So I may have missed. Okay. So um so so what we didn't
have it to review. So I do you guys want to talk about it anyway or do you want to uh wait till next meeting? Anyway next it doesn't it doesn't impact till July 1 anyway, right? Yeah. Well chapter 90 and highway surveyor is in charge of chapter 90 stuff. So it really
doesn't have too much to do with us. I mean I'm fine with approving it. got to approve the project. The project request just gets select board signs a project request submitted by the highway surveyor. So they come before us for each project then. Yes. So this project request will actually go to mass DOT. If
mass DOT pro uh approves it then they will go out to bid for the project. Okay. All right. So it's kind of a preliminary approval. I recommend moving forward if you would hope that some of this would be underway this year. We'd look to get a con. So any delay that we would have would delay the implementation of the of the project
during the key season for construction work. Yeah, we can we can move forward. I just was pointing out that we didn't have it. So do we have a motion? Motion to approve. Second. Any other discussion? All in favor? I I that's unanimous. And now we get to our
discussion items. So, you are all in receipt of a letter of resignation from Jim Hartnett. He is retiring effective September 30th. I'm going to pause. Did you want to say anything,
Jim? I'm I'm still here for a few months, but you know, I just want to thank everybody for giving me the opportunity to work here for the town. Um, yeah, very fortunate. You know, I've worked in a number of communities. I've worked for a number of communities. I've done work in other communities. Westport has some great staff. We have some great
people working here. Um, not always appreciated throughout the public, but they really are. It's we're very fortunate. And then beyond that, just the volunteers and the elected officials and appointed officials and the boards that work here. People put in a tremendous amount of time and without
the volunteers, without the appointees, things are not going to get done here in Westport because we just don't get the resources and the funding that we need to operate on our own. So, it's been great. I still got a few more months. So, I look forward to that and I'll do whatever we can to make a smooth transition going forward. So, we'll I'll
just express my dismay at your departure, but I'm sure we'll have plenty of time to say goodbye. Um, but that brings up two topics that are related. So, I'm just going to introduce the both of them and we can talk about them. So, um the first one was actually B on the discussion item. So, um Jim has
put together an RFQ um for a search firm to go out and um recruit and what are what are the search? It's it's listed in the contract that thing the the activities as a search firm does. We we did use a search
firm when we um hired Jim. We used one Tim King Tim King before you. Um it's kind of a way to make sure that you're getting the word out there um in in the right forums for the right people. um and then help you all the coordination for the hiring tasks and things like
that. So, one of the things we need to talk about is whether we want to move forward with an executive search RFQ um and we had a chance to review that. The second one that I want to bring up just so we're discussing them at the same time is um whether we want to take
this opportunity to reorganize the select board uh staff in the department. So, right now we have three full-time positions under the select board. We have the town administrator. We have the secretary to the select boards that's currently Denise Bashard who has
announced her retirement effective I forget the end of August. End of August. And then we have uh Paula holding down the fort as the administrative assistant and principal clerk I think is where you are right. So Paula has not announced her
resignation. Not yet. Maybe she's going to go for town administrator. But um in the past we've talked about um whether we we've talked about the burdens that the town administrator had. The town administrator has something like 18 people. Uh I forget how many people you
have many direct reports and a great number of um responsibilities. So Jim dug up the 2005 um Barrows report which actually recommended changing the position to an
assistant town administrator. um with HR and procurement responsibilities. And so we should talk about whether we want to consider doing that. Do we want to hire just the replacement with the job description that Denise had or do we want to um kind of elevate that position so that they
can take on um some more responsibilities and kind of cover for the town administrator. So that's the background. So what do we want to talk about? anybody or Jim, do you wanna do you want to start by I'll
just say like like I said, the bowels report kind of outlines an assistant town administrator. I did look at a number of the communities in the area. Um they name that position. There's different names for it. There's assistant to the town administrator. There's um town administrative assistant
administrator, assistant to the administrator. Um and a couple of other names in there, but essentially all the positions what I found have more of a HR role than currently exists. Um I caution other departments and I've said this because as soon as I mentioned that to
some of the other departments, they get very excited that a lot of their HR responsibilities will be shifted away. But we're not hiring new people. We're not creating new positions. The position is still um it's a full-time position as is. So any additional responsibilities
are going to be limited. But I think if we could give whatever role that is or whatever we call that position a little bit more HR responsibility, it's going to make a big difference. And then your recommendation that you printed here for us was that um we work with the
personnel board to create a new job description. Yes. I I mean it may be 20 years old, but it's probably not a bad idea to circulate the Barrows report. Um it was still fresh in people's minds when I first ran um I don't know 16
years ago. And uh again, you know, it may be dated in some respects and some of the examples may not ring true if they're talking about area communities, but um it gives us they did look they did do a a hands-on project with the town.
So I mean my thought is um so the the um select board does not have representation on the personnel board. So, my thought was to have um a select board representative work with the personnel committee to kind of draft something up because it would be reporting to us um so that we could help
kind of frame that. I agree we should distribute that. You dug up the report to find the little bit you can send us the rest of it. So, I guess is that something we want to talk about with the personnel board or is it something we don't need to do? I I mean I think this offers as an opportunity to come almost
restructure it. I think I think you're right from the standpoint of trying to make it a little bit more efficient, clearly defined uh kind of job description and job title. So, um I I think it's a good good thing to do. My question is is if you do change that
title, do we have budget money and how would that work if it was a a highly or more elevated position? Do we have money in the budget for that to address that or how would that work? So, we do currently this year um town meeting appropriate an additional $50,000 into
that budget. Um my guess is that my position in order to attract somebody may require additional funds as well. And I think we if if you're going to add HR to this, we're going to have to bump that up maybe 15,000 somewhere in that range. Maybe a little bit more give or
take. Um, so we have an additional 50,000, but yeah, both of those things are going to we have to break it up in between two positions, probably. Yeah. I mean, I I think it offers us a good opportunity to look at it to I I don't
think it's something we want to rush, per se. I think we want to look at the report, figure it out, and then determine really the what that job description will entail so that we're not, you know, and then at the same time, you know, some of the stuff that
Paula does and her responsibilities maybe can be shifted and or take on more responsibilities. So, I'm all for moving forward with, you know, obviously a new job description looking at that. I just something I don't I think we want to put some time and effort into it before we
kind of move forward with that. That's just my opinion. Um again, we might um we did that salary uh study about year and a half ago. Maybe worth refreshing that for circulating the barrels report. We might as well look at the salary
study because that'll get to the some of the compensation issues. um where we looked at like communities in in the region in the state and um and how they're compensating for and um that that's good news. We have it. The bad
news is we were always in the lower uh percentiles of those studies for almost nearly every position in uh management position in time. So yeah. Um, so, so I think it's worth I think we should um
work with the personnel board. Does anybody here want to volunteer to work with the personnel board on this? Well, I guess be two of us. No. That's fine. I I was recommend volunteering, but if you want to do it, do you do the two of you want to want to work together? Yeah, sure. Okay. Is
everybody okay with that? Mhm. So, um we're going to task um Jake and Craig um with working with the personnel board to kind of relook at the um the the barrels report, the salary history, talk to Jim,
see what his take is. Um and uh yeah, we might not be it might not be ready for like the next meeting, but yeah, I think I think that's good. So, well, maybe we can discuss the findings of the next meeting and then move forward for the next the following one. Yeah. So what do you say that barrels reports 5 years
old? 2005 to 20 years old. 20 years old. Yeah. I got you know issues all around us with town administrators. So we need to look into that a little bit. I mean we don't have to soak the job too long. If it's September we got a little bit of time. Well that's the um Denise the Denise job that we're talking about
right now. Okay. Um so that one we got to move. Well we could have it done mid July and then post it then or I mean with two more meetings probably. Got to make sure and protect Paula from fallout. Well, Jim will still be here. Gross
abandonment. All right. So, I don't think we need to vote on that. We're gonna we're tasking you guys that. And then, um, what do you guys think about the executive search consultant? Um, Jim, do you want to talk about how you put together the RFQ? Yeah. So, we just kind of borrowed an RFQ from another community, but it's they're all the
same, right? I've looked at three or four of them. Uh, we wrote something up. Previously, you could just go out and get three quotes because it was under 10,000, but prices have gone up over 10,000. we have to go off for quotations. So, what I would do is I would send if if the board chooses, I will send uh the request for quotes out
to I think there's probably three or four companies that I'm aware of and we would we would post it um in combines as well so anybody could look and I'd like to have a short turnaround maybe three or four weeks before they uh so maybe the first week in July uh the select
board could sign with one of the companies if the board wants to go forward with that. Is there anybody who thinks we should not do that? Wait, no, no. Uh, do we have in Massachusetts or in the Commonwealth, is there a trade association or a a group for actual town
administrators and are we members of that? Yeah, I don't know if there's a formal group. There may be there's a list serve that we all participate in um which is, you know, I see those advertisements coming over all the time. Then you got the municipal Mass Municipal Association where any of these
types of jobs we post in there and anybody that's interested usually looks at that. Okay. Um what I did find with at least through the process that I went through um a few years ago was that the consultant kind of works with the community to get through the whole process, right? They will recommend to
the select board of uh salary range. They will recommend uh they they do the background checks on all of the people. They work with the search committee, the preliminary search committee to kind of schedule the meetings. They give them some general questions to ask, things to look for. And then when it comes before the select board, they participate in
the process as well. kind of not leading the candidates but um hosting or moving the process along in in that process from the get-go. Is it just the exe executive search committee involved in that or are members of the select
board involved in that or we we get the recommendation at the end? You know, so you can do it any way you want. What I've seen, I think what last time when I was involved, I don't believe there were any select board members on the preliminary search committee. Okay. Um they recommended three candidates to the
select board and then they came before the select board for the final interviews. Okay. Um what what that allows them to do is the preliminary um interviews can be held in executive sessions. The final ones have to be open sessions. So Okay. Um you tend to get um
more participation from people that may not want to broadcast if they're leaving another community or looking elsewhere in the executive session. Yeah. Until they come to the final meeting. So Okay. Super awkward in an open meeting interview, too. when it's all good on that side, too. When you're employed at another
municipality, did um Evan Jendro sitting in the audience, did you guys use a search firm for the superintendent? We did not. We actually So, we you didn't this time. Okay. No, we we created a committee, but we also have an HR director do the initial vetting and bring it to the
search committee. Yeah. All right. So, for those you didn't hear, the school committee didn't, but they have an HR director who kind of did that. I think on the front end I think that's helpful in in the hiring that I've done in the past. It's helpful to It's tricky. It's tricky because you can't use Jim. Yep.
Yep. So, um I think we should go ahead with the RFQ. I mean, we can always say no later. Y comes back. That makes sense. Is everybody okay with that? All right. So, I don't We don't need to vote, do we? No, we don't. Okay. Um town administrator report. Yeah. Just a quick
bud budget update. Um, town accountants's been working um to initiate the closeout process for FY25. Line item transfers, end of year transfers will be coming before the select board and the uh finance committee over the next couple of weeks. Um, she continues, uh, Nicole continues
to monitor the collection of local receipts. As of the close of the third quarter, local receipts are tracking in line with budget projections at about uh, 79% of annual cost. Um, one of the big numbers that comes in is the excise motor vehicle excise tax. So, that can
really jump things around in the last quarter, but we don't anticipate any surprises. Um, Massachusetts State Senate has approved uh its budget proposal um and their receipts and assessments are again in line with what
we had estimated for FY26. So right now everything and again things can change but right now everything looks consistent with uh what we were looking for what we budgeted for and what was approved at town meeting. Um the retirement we had talked about and then software we continue to work on a number
of software projects. um the website cow freighus she's been doing a tremendous job and I mentioned this before but um again if I realized how much work was needed to switch sites we may have maintained our existing site and just upgraded but I think it's going to be a
nice site when it's done and um we're hoping by the end of June to get that online seminary department um there was a private website that was being used um it was CPC had done a nice job of getting this up and running they' used volunteers to do a lot of the the background work. Um, but it's time to
move that from a private site to public site so that we have access and control and and just uh control over the data going forward. Uh, Mike Brulado over at the cemetery department's been working on this. Uh, SEM sites has migrated all the data from the private site onto ours
and it came over clean. It really surprisingly good format and uh, looks like we're going to be able to use all of it. Um, a couple of things would be put into notes, but they were in notes to begin with. So, um, yes, that was a good thing. As a person who does this for a living, I could tell you that it's
shocking, you know. Yes, I was I was surprised. Data conversion is the worst. Um, there's still some I don't say bugs to work out, but they're going through it and it looks good. Um, we haven't seen the official what the website will look at, so there'll be kind of two versions. One for the u the staff um to
be able to look up things and to organize things. We can do work orders. we can do a number of other things that we can't do with the existing site and we'll kind of introduce those little by little as time goes on. Um and then the permitting software Mike Baris over at the planning office has been overseeing
this. Uh it's been up and running in the building and fire departments. I haven't checked with the fire department but I know the building is is going well. Um people have been happy with it not only in the department but uh others that use it um from the outside contractors and so forth.
um planning is scheduled to go live on June 10th. Conservation shortly thereafter. Zoning Board of Appeals will also have a um an application with that and the Board of Health will be looking sometime in August. They'll be one of the last ones to go on. Um they're also
looking at the town clerk and we haven't mentioned this to Paulie yet, but there is a licensing application too that we we haven't rolled out that we'll look towards the end to see if that actually makes things better um going forward. So there's been a lot of lot of changes.
You know, the software Zobio, the town accountant and town treasurer are looking to go online in July with uh upgraded software for Zobrio, which the town accounting software. The assessors department just updated their software. So there's been some big changes. The
these doesn't sound like a lot, but it's a lot of work for the staff when you do any of these software updates. So very appreciative of the work that they put in. That's all I have. All right. Thank you, Jim. Uh, we have the minutes from May 12th. I review the minutes and make a motion to
approve. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I. That's unanimous. We have a report on the bill warrant. There actually are two this time because we skipped a meeting. Uh, the first one is 516 May 16th. Uh, totally uh good and
$2.2 million which is a fairly or ordinary number. Then there was one for 530 that was only 2.3 million. Again, right within the normal range. There was a little quirk here and I'm not sure why I do this if I do it for information or if I'm trying to prove to you that I'm
doing my job, but there was a voided check for $480,000. And it was just one of these things that I've never seen before around here. And uh I mean I've had voided checks. My wife has too, but not for that amount. And anyway, I was just curious as to what happened. It was a
check for diamond. Um, and it was damaged at the post office and got mangled and so they brought it back. It was all documented and reissued, but I thought that was interesting. So anyway, that's it. These don't have to be approved. Everything's in order. We used to have Craig will remember this. We
used to have many, many, many voided checks when they didn't put them in the printer, right? It was pretty common. Um, all right. So now we have um liaison committee reports and future agenda discussion items. So Craig, you want to
start? Yeah, I did u we did have a meeting since our last meeting of the affordable housing trust. That's the good news. The bad news is I had a conflict so I was not there but I did uh I had a copy of the minutes and we also had uh Jim Sabra the immediate past
chair of the committee able ran the committee and and he debriefed me uh before the minutes were issued for the last week. Um we um we had a um presentation from the
zoning board of appeals chair Roger Minard. Um and um actually I'm looking at the wrong month on that one, but um we also reissued our RFP for the um uh search
for land uh for affordable housing development. Uh we as you know we had had some interest but um we ran into some difficulties with respect to um right uh right of way access to the to
the property and for the size of development that we would want to put on the property. Uh the right of way was too narrow and um not adequate for uh large public safety equipment such as
fire trucks. to come in and navigate. So that was um so because of that and we only had one qualified applicant that on on the surface we we have issued a new RFP for right thank you um Dick a couple of
things going on first of all we had a meeting on 522 mainly talking about the budget but as I mentioned before what's interesting is bus service is free by way of a grant from the state and it was a temporary measure and we've all
been wondering how long does this last because if it ends that's that's people get used to this and that could create a reaction. In any event u the sort of management believes they'll be able to continue this program of maybe the next couple of years. So that that was good news.
Um and um everything else in that regard is is going well. Uh Beverly mentioned that they had a meeting this morning. I was there as the layers on to the council on aging. That one was notable because it included
the friends uh of the council that there the fundraising arm for all intents and purposes. They were there. It was a joint meeting. We had a regular meeting then we had a joint meeting and we had lunch and uh it was a good exchange. Um and they do great work to help fund the
the needs of the council on Asian. Uh, one, uh, committee that hasn't met yet, but will tomorrow night at 5:30 is the open space and recreation committee. We approved Lisa Fidleberg costa tonight
and um that will be uh off and running. We haven't had a meeting yet, so I can't really give you a report, but I wanted you to know it's going to start to happen. The landing commission met on 520. I was unfortunately not able to make the meeting, but I was briefed by
Chairman Jeff Bull afterwards. They're still working uh on a number of issues and uh including the the area west of Hicks Bridge. There's a landing there. Hasn't been used for years. It recently was cleared
out with some work and tree work. Um but anyway, was just an update on a number of things taking place. It was Masonic temple discussions were mentioned there. Um he talked about that. So uh nothing to act on here but just to let you know
we're keeping that uh keeping that going. I do have an item madam chair for future meetings which this item relates to and that's relating to the long-term building committee. Um Jim and I did talk about this today. So full disclosure here, but we're supposed to
have a report available to us uh in in June from the consultants which is very important to this project. And I guess there is a uh I've seen on the website a meeting for this Thursday uh at in the annex. I believe it's at 4 or 4:30, but
any 4 p.m. hybrid. I'm looking I admitted that in my report too as your layer of that committee. Okay. But anyway, uh I would hope that we they something would come out of that and we would have at least a discussion on the high school
old high school building project or possible building project whatever at the next meeting. It may might be premature. They may not have the full report for a little longer but I I think we have to keep on top of this is what what I guess my point is. So, I mentioned it for that purpose only, but
I'm sure it'll run its course and we're getting close to getting the report anyway. Craig, did you want to add? Yeah. Yeah. That's one of the reasons um that we're meeting tomorrow night, I mean Thursday night, is to get an update from the consultant um with respect to
where they're heading in terms of uh near-term recommendations. All right. Thank you. We're also getting knocking up against our time frame for for trying to get a deliverable from them, too. So I think that's probably the other reason. Evan, you're vice chair of that committee, aren't you? I
think I was think you're a member. All right. So we'll know more after Thursday, sounds like. Yes, we will. We will have something to to report on at the next meeting. Okay. Thank you. Um I have a couple. So we had a meeting of the school building steering committee.
Um we're trying to wrap up the project. So it's not wrapped yet. It still needs to wrap up. Um, I do want to call out that CHA, who's the owner's project manager, I think we're on number 10, project managers, um, they've had quite
a bit of turnover. Um, the good news is, I think, that when the new people come on, they get kind of eager to learn about it and they work on stuff. So, um, there's still some work going on to evaluate the drainage from the roof um, and the gutter system. So, I think we're
going to get an update there. They were trying to have a school building committee meeting this week, I think, but I don't see it posted. So, not ready. Hopefully in the next week or two. All right. So, hopefully there'll be a regular um school building committee soon because like I said, we're trying to wrap up the project.
We're still under budget. We still have money. Um if we have to repair the roof, we still have some money to do that. So, um I also attend a meeting of the climate resilience committee. So, Jake was there, too. Um they we had a there was been a study going on about whether
the Gooseberry Causeway is causing erosion on East Beach. Um and I'm sure there's going to be a formal report to many people about this. Um but I was really I think it surprised a lot of people. The findings of that report were that no, it was not causing any significant impact or erosion on East
Beach. That the island itself that is already there is the primary and the tides. Um, so it it didn't appear as though the causeway is making a significant impact, but they went through a very detailed program about how they did that and the modeling and
um, like I said, I think they'll they'll come present the report sooner or later. And then also I just want to note for the public because this was in our correspondence folder. We have we're in receipt of a letter from Liberty Utilities that they intend to make a
rate increase, a 37% increase, which would equate to about $57 per month on your gas bill. So they are referring people to visit Liberty
Utilities uh website for more information. So, just want to make sure nobody lost that in their correspondence folder. And that's all I have. It's to the to the chair. I think it's a function of some of the policies being pushed out of Boston that impacts a lot
of the utility companies. So, I would I would be I wouldn't want to miss that putting that opportunity out there. I think the impact that we now see along our shoreline is uh one of the major issues that is subsidized through many of the charges on your Eversource and
Liberty bills. Thank you. With that I I mean the committee was on the rates. I wasn't involved in it so I don't really have anything to report. Okay. Jake, uh, the only thing that I was, uh, bringing up, I'm not the select board appointee on the offshore win, but, uh,
if we can reach out to Westport River Wershed to get, um, I think I think Mike Sullivan wanted to be appointed before our next meeting. Did we Did we I don't think we officially did that here, did we? Did we not do that yet? No. Okay. So, I just want to get that on the next agenda before the meeting we have in
July. I thought we did. It was my mistake. It's probably because Paula left it to Jim because we I think we have the letter I know we traded emails. I don't know if it's officially done here though. Okay. So, if it's not, we'll anything else? No, I just have something on the
comments and statement section. Okay. Um, so just reminding people that um we have many boards and commissions on the vacancy list. Yeah, you can make your comment and do we have comments from the public before we give it to Jake? Okay. Uh, I just want to follow up. Uh
Jim, myself and Jason Paulo working with the Masonic Lodge on the landing. I think we're waiting for some correspondence back from uh our insurance company. I think one of the major issues was the concern of liability uh on their part and we're looking to try to find a way to do, you
know, fully indemnify them to use it for a short-term basis. So, um I sat down with the lodge and the members and it was a very good meeting. I think they're they're receptive to it. Uh, I think there's some concessions on each side that we hopefully can make and and make it work. So, we're I know we're getting
late in the season, but I think we may have the opportunity to get it uh hopefully buttoned up in another hopefully by next meeting. But um you know, you're dealing with a lot of a lot of uh you know, different personalities and I think but I think we had a very very good discussion and they're very
very receptive. I think they're they're ready to make it work. So, great. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um uh so Jim, you did give me the deed the deed from over there. Um as looking at the deed, uh were you guys able to find the agreement
for that deed? I didn't find I didn't notice any agreement. All I found was the deed and the um town meeting warrant article that approved. There should be there should be an agreement somewhere for it. And I because I just noticed there was some things that was xed out on the deed that
I couldn't I couldn't read. Um so I don't know. Maybe we maybe we look at the Where did you get the copy of that deed? I got that. We ordered it through the assessor's office. But we can check I can check the address and see if there's anything else. I'd go I'd go to the registry and pull it out of the registry first. If you find
something that would be great. I'm not saying me. I'm saying I would like to see that happen. Oh, I thought you were going to go to the registry. Oh, I'm I'm kind of I'm kind of a little busy and I don't get paid enough to be running around to do that for the town. We'll take a look.
Um, so I did want to just point out that um, our next meeting is in two weeks on the that's May calendar I keep looking at um, on June 16, but then after that we have another 3-w week span um, because of the 4th of July holiday. So
um, whatever that is July. So the ne So we're going to have a meeting on July 16, but then the next meeting after that will be July 7. So we're going to go three weeks in June and then July. No, it'll be July. We're going to meet on We're meeting on June 16. Yes, June 16,
two weeks from today and then July 7th. There you go. Thank you. It may be a possibility that you might need we may need a quick meeting between then to finalize for finalize. Yeah, there's a couple things. Okay, we'll try to make it work for the 16th, but Okay. All
right. Anything else? The only the only other thing I have is short-term rentals. So the town bylaw, the zoning bylaw, wants to approve the town meeting, that's the effective date. But the zone, but the town bylaws that will also approve the town meeting, those do not become effective until
they're approved by the AG's office, which usually takes about 90 days. So probably looking July, August before we get that. So, I'm hoping in July to have some information to the select board whether or not the select board is going to adopt regulations to go along with that, what the application is going to
look like, um how we move forward with it. So, I'm hoping for July to get something to the board. Okay. Thank you. All right. Anything else? Motion to approve. I have motion to adjurnn. Second. Any discussion? All in
favor? I. That's the