will you join me with the Pledge of Allegiance i al to the flag the United States of America and to theu for it stands one nation under God indivisible liy and justice for
all good evening welcome to the Monday March 10 meeting of the Westport Select board under Mass General Law chapter 38 section 20f this meeting is being recorded um I don't really have much in the way of announcements our next meeting is going
to be two weeks from today on March 24th I like to remind uh voters that um there is an election coming on April 8th um that uh check the town clerk's office for the April 8 information and then Mr bre reminded me that um March 24 two
weeks from today um the commuter rail is starting from uh Fall River New Bedford so go check I thought they had free but we're not sure so we don't know so free it's free for a little while right for the rest month yeah okay so um so Commuter Rail to Boston starting in a
couple weeks um is there anything else that we should talk about before we start there's no executive session tonight okay um the first item that we have on the agenda is a public hearing um so I can ask you guys to come forward this is um a public hearing on the
application of Gulf resources Inc 635 634 American Legion Highway by the Westport Select board on Monday March 10 at 6:05 at at the Westport town hall on the application for an all alcohol liquor license to be drunk off premises
um Richard carig manager can get you to introduce yourselves yes Madam chairman members of the board my name is attorney Mack 11 with L offic is at 138 Rock Street fora Massachusetts I'm here representing the
applicant and the manager who's with me Richard introduce yourself Richard car Westport gas uh seven pingstone Lane Westport welcome thank you um some of you have seen me a few times with Richard past year uh Massachusetts
general laws chapter 138 gives this board the authority to issue liquor licenses the few factors that you look at when you are looking at an applicant is in fact the petitioner himself uh if you look at the background of the
package we presented to you you'll see that he has had several uh licenses in the past at different locations in the state Massachusetts uh two of the uh places he has sold off that but he still has three other licenses in the State uh
with that if this is issued my client will be paying a substantial $55,000 fting fee for the license other than the two $200 fee that he normally would have now if you look at my client's background and I'm sure sure you've had
the Cory examination and you've looked at his background for his others he has no blemishes as a manager running uh facilities that sell alcohol uh primarily convenience stores or gas stations that have the same similar
thing that we're looking at in this location it becomes something that my client thought was a good place it's in a good location the reputation of my client running that facility is very good he uh bought that years ago uh with
family and they had some environmental cleanup that they had to take care of by the prior owner that had not they did that they rebuilt a lot of the facility and refurbished it and made it Modern Eyes so it's a very nice location or
nice looking facility on Route 6 now the next thing you look at is fact that this board has already looked like it's 1776 oh sry so it's sorry my fault uh this board has already
looked at this facility in the application we had when we asked for a waiver of the home rule and asked for this board to present to the town meeting uh last year a warrant to allow my client to operate in specifically
just for this location and only for him that was unanimously approved at the town meeting and subsequently in May uh 20th of last year came back to this board and after that they did um approve the solicitation to the state
legislators to apply for a liquor license just for the establishment and remember it's it it's not transferable it's only for this property and that's the only property can be so someone had a another facility somewhere else and wanted it he couldn't transfer that so
it is restricted to that but that was uh voted went to the state state went through the Senate then went back to the house went back to the Senate went back to the house and finally they approved this last uh December so we now are coming to you and ask for this petition
to be approved since it was already approved as a special legislation under uh chapter 258 of um of the uh acts of 2024 um let's look at the location one of the things you look at when you're issuing a license is location
appropriate it's not near a church or within 500 ft of a church it's not within 500 ft of a school it's on a divided highway even better that there's actually separation there to keep it's not a divided highway it's not divided there at that point undivided oh okay
get gas there all the time all right well it's it's not but but you look at that it's still a location that's not going to have any more noise or traffic than it is people coming into there picking up gas and I represented other people in other facilities like this
they basically aren't getting a lot of traffic from outside it's really the people participating at the gas station pilling up the gas they go and buy some Sundries and they may pick up some alcohol and that's what my client's trying to pick up that he has this
there's a greater population in this area especially during the summertime and this makes a nice convenient way for the public to have this um the board makes a decision even if someone is objecting to it but I think if you look at the fact that this came
through here it was advertised it came through the town meeting the sentiment of the community is this is acceptable and as long as you find my client acceptable to having such a facility in a location I think the board should act appropriately I just want to um point
out that all the paperwork is in order we did receive a police report that was favorable to the application is anybody on the board have any questions or comments um this is for all alcohol yes it is and you're aware that there's another all alcohol uh establishment
down there Sodom Road on 177 yes and a wine and liquor at Harry's uh right next to you thought about that and the effect that would have no I mean like everyone says competition is always good I mean people I have in my town every other
building is a lawyer and I'm I'm not concerned about what the lawyers do or don't do they're going to come to the facility either one because the price is good or that they're going to carry something different than the other stores and that's what my client has been successful with his other
facilities he's determined with what is being out there what products he should or shouldn't carry because other people will buy at another location and that's fine competition's good he does he's not looking to uh prevent other people from
having their business he just think there's enough business and there's enough population in this area in this location that people will come to his place more so like I said because they're picking up gas at the same time they may pick up a few sundrees and
they'll go in and either pay bring some beer or pick up a bottle of Scotch such as I would in other products but it but competition's good I mean that keeps price so it's not crazy for all out so one guy is not going to be so crazy
about raising his price over another competition's good for everyone and especially for the community so anything else from the board this is a public hearing so if we have anyone from the public who wants to make a comment you can go to the microphone over
here and just um introduce yourself please uh my name is Kyle Vier I'm actually Council to Harry's Country Store which is 50 yards right next door to this new proposed location M um I think one of the principal things that was left out from counselors um speech
there was that part of the process here by the board is there needs to be an evaluation whether or not there's a public need in the town of Westport for another new alcohol license my client has a beer and wine license 50 yards next door there's three liquor stores within three and a half miles of this
location um you know I also think it's a little unfair to say this is really the first opportunity people have had to make public comment where they've received notice other than a publication in a local newspaper we received the abutters notice this is our first time at the town meeting many of the other
local owners don't live in town they had no opportunity to participate in town meeting because it was restricted only to the residents at Westport so really this is the first Forum where you know other owners have had a chance to really raise their concerns and one of the primary concerns here is and I've seen
this a lot with special legislation is that getting the license a year or two on the road flipping the license for a profit approximately $2 to $300,000 is the going rate for a license many of these store owners who have be and wine licenses are sitting on a waiting list they don't know a state representative
they don't know a state senator so instead of being able to go and back Channel a license a license which as the town manager um stated in the 23 hearing on this was already denied in 2018 at the town meeting the reason for that is that town meeting I believe there was
some contentious issues with the school system so there was a lot more participants at that meeting and that that was addressed at that time so I don't know what changed in the 5 years in between when that was denied and when this was raised that we now have a public need for this license you know if
there's some reasonable restrictions which the board certainly has the ability to do you know such as you know I know they represented there' be no changes there' be no additions to the building there'd be nothing of that manner and that if there's going to be some transference it'll obviously need to go before the board cuz the primary
fear is here we're going to have a license a year I'm going to be back before you arguing that you know we raised this previously that the purpose of this license was to flip it for a profit not saying that's what the applicant is doing but I do see that and that is common if you look at Franklin this past summer the same exact thing
happened so I'd request if the board is going to permit this license move forward that there be some sort of restrictions on that in particular that there be as he represented there' be no changes to the actual structure of the building no additions nothing like that and that there is an ongoing gas station
uh running there CU that is also a primary issue if there's no different additional traffic if you have a full liquor store that may very well change the traffic patterns there as well um so that's what I would request and my client would request that the board consider reasonable restrictions on this license just given the special nature of
it thank you madam chair could I have one question to the applicant how long have you lived in town I've lived in town for probably seven years done business in town owned property in town for 40 almost 40 years
now and how long have you operated Westport gas since 2011 a long I mean it's and you did a major renovation and you're pretty well maxed out at that location right pretty much yep 2010 bought I understanding cuz I use that location all the time no I I
mean we worked out of the little Kos 2010 they bought it but and uh no fixed fixed an environmental issue storm water compliance 100% want job over there I don't so my understanding is it's what he just said is different than what you just said so I just want to clarify for
the public so my understanding is these petition The Home Room petitions have to be for that location for that person it's not transferable right yeah so for the location for the location for the location okay so the location not they
never move okay right so so I could sell it and somebody you tell you could sell the entire but you would still have to approve be wasting their time if they were intending he's like I said of the five he's had before two of them they sold
because they were in western Mass it was just too far away for him to keep up travel the other three still has and he lives in this town his whole family lives in this town yeah um is there anything else from the public um anything else from the
board I just I think that the establishment near um Sodom Road I may have said Sanford road before is probably more under threat because that's an all liquor establishment as this will be I'm a
patron of Harry's and good people and have been there for years and they have an established group of customers that are quite loyal um but they don't offer other than wine and beer so it would seem to me that there should be a
minimal harm to that establishment but I could see where the other establishment might be more concerned but then I don't think they're here tonight point of clarification my understanding is Harris does have an allal license no we're on a waiting list for an all
alol okay so so I you know I just to address um something um the previous speaker said um the way that I know that there's a public need for it is the public overwhelmingly voted to support it and um you know I appreciate that the the notific ations are different for
Town meetings than they are for um public hearings but um it's not the first public hearing that we've had on this issue and town meeting they're the residents or the people that are voting and said that if I may in 2018 I understood one of the problems with my
clients didn't explain to the public then is that it wouldn't FL was Gulf oil you know an out ofate Corporation coming in because they use the name golf resources but well and I think that was that you hadn't done the renovation at that point
either think had you but yeah I think I think the big was it done the big argument at the time 17 oh 17 yeah the big argument at the time at town meeting was this out of state company is putting a local business out out of right and you've been a local you live here and you've been doing I live in one of your
homes so that company has been for a long time that was part of what people afterwards we found out we asked people why' you vot well we W golf oil taking our little businesses away so you know so that's why we understood there was
some other influence in that that people thought it wasn't Carri family that was running it was someone else coming in yeah anyway anything else from I mean like so some of the other I I I frequent
the other establishments too Harry's I did we have some other other establishments here that are just beer and wine and I I would suggest that maybe next town meeting they go in that Avenue and try to do the same thing if they already have beer and wine and you want to add
alcohol just follow that procedure I mean I think if it was successful this time it should open a door for every for the those other available to anyone it's already an existing beer and wine license and and and I'm all for free enterprise and I'll be leaving
participating on main street down the street here for to get some wine I I was inclined to vote against it um for the reasons that I voted against the nextdoor neighbor um marijuana
dispensary um several months ago um but I was doing that under the impression that there was a all alcohol license at Harry's and U not just the beer and wine so for that reason I'm now inclined to
support that application uh based upon the distinction that I um Now understand mam Che could I explain something on that too but you know it was the same situation with the with the marijuana I mean it was voted that's the
only location that it could be at and it's I mean I don't I don't think we should restrict different businesses again we have free enterprise I I think we're discussing another matter I I know but you brought it up on this this matter too well he I think he might be agreeing with you I know
so do I have a motion yeah I I'll make a motion to Grant the you're you're moving approval of the application as presented anybody else to Second it I'll second it is there any discussion all in favor I I opposed this unanimous congratulations
good luck thank you for your time thank you very I appreciate whatever the board's done for my client the next item on the agenda is to set the Municipal Water rate um proposed 15% I just want to ask if you're going to go out don't talk in the hallway go downstairs to the parking lot it's a
beautiful day out there you can go and the light zone um it's light so the uh item is to set the Municipal Water rate is proposed at 15% over the rate charged by Fall River so um Jim you want to tell us what this is about yeah so this is the uh rates that
we charge customers here in Westport uh we haven't had a rate increase um since 2022 um um right now we're running a slight deficit so I'd like to I'm recommending that we increase the rates this goes back years um it was
2018 or 17 actually before that when they had suggested in the minutes that the rate always be 15% of the Fall River rate 15% higher because there is a little bit of loss water that uh we need to account for and there's also matter admin cost we have bills going out at
the end of the month um right now W Westport residents what they paying is $728 per CCF which is um 100 cubic feet of water about 748 G 741 gallons um
proposing to increase the rate to 829 which is 15% above the Four River rate also want to note that the Four River water board has approved the new agreement with Westport that would um reduce the rates that for river is charging right now
they're charging at 70% over the Fall River rate this would reduce the 55% over the Fall River rate up to a certain amount and then anything over that amount would only be 5% over the Fall River rate um I still think we're going to need a slight increase again in July
but it should be relatively small if these rates uh does get approved by the city of Fall River it's approved by the topper water board and it's going before the city council this week so as long as the city council is in favor I think uh we should be good but at this Point um
like I said we're running a deficit so I'd recommend that we increase the rate to 829 $829 was still less than the rate was in 2018 so so I just want to make sure I understand the numbers here so that currently um people are paying
$728 that's correct but we're being charged $721 so we only have 7 cents mark up on the water so that's why we're running a deficit so but a dollar okay 99 cents 99 Cents seems like kind of a big jump all at once so is there can you
talk about why why you're recommending that so this is right now we're running a deficit this kind of breaks even or gets Us close to even again once this full River agreement comes through we can reevaluated over the next couple of months and adjust things come July um
but you think it has to be adjusted higher it' probably be up higher yes yeah shouldn't go up much higher but it should go up higher thank you I just don't want to surprise people when it comes July yeah go ahead so the new negot the new negotiated rate what what you what are
we estimating that's going to be I well a couple things right I think fall River's rate I think they're looking at about an 8% increase over their current rate um new negotiated rate we would pay 55% above the Fall River rate instead of
70% so we'd be paying 15% less and we're paying now about the four of a rate but but our our rate here isn't I mean I thought the negotiation with for River was because we have the increase we're going to have the increased in usage that our rate was going to be reduced so
it is so anything over 20 the way it was proposed was anything over 26,000 CCF and we're pretty much just over that now we would only be charged 5% over the Fall River rate for anything over the 26,000 so all these new
customers um it actually helps the system out because any increase in the flow get in charge a lesser rate and what's the for rer rate right now it is $721 a CCF and what are we paying now we're
paying Fall River $728 no I'm sorry we're paying Fall River $721 cents so the Fall River rate would be 70% less than I just I just thought we were paying a lot a lot I thought we had a higher percentage over four river that was one of the things we
were we 70% over four River so four R paying it's 7% less than 7 70% less yeah okay so so you're Pro you're suggesting that we set the water rate at $829 $8 29 and then we're going to
reevaluate it over the next couple of months if the agreement gets approved do we know what the a the average um water bill is like how much so so they say for single family it's 80 CCF a year um but what we found is the average single
family is closer to 60 so you probably looking in between $500 and $800 a year for the year not yeah so this would increase the yearly rate by about $100 I I want I want I'm not going to vote in favor of this until we know what the rate's going to be I I think it's a
little premature and and I think this would take back from people that were trying to get Connect into the water right now so I mean I I I'm not going to vote in favor of this uh how bad is the deficit Jim I I don't have that up right now I have uh
there was a spreadsheet in the file was it printed out it wasn't printed out now okay my file just closed so um this is is this what you're talking about yes I mean I'm concerned too with prices going up with we uh utility is crazy right now
so but if we got a deficit we have to stay alive yeah so this didn't have the whole um this just has so Westport is paying a so so this Westport paid
193 194,000 uh our customers paid 214,000 so about what is that seven about 21,000 so the town of Westport received about $20,000 more from the water customers
than we sent to Fall River but that's also because we're paying for other things in that right so we're we're paying for are we paying for the we're paying for we're paying for water operator we're paying to uh like we just replaced two hydrants which was
$4,000 um we're also paying for water that is not accounted for that comes through Fall River which is about anywhere from 6 to 10% of the water so that is not being paid for by Westport residents but we are paying for it in Fall River so we need to accommodate for
that as well um Jim so and for connections what do we pay for R when somebody new wants to connect so right now if it's an existing property um they're not charging us for connections if it's a new house we pay
based on the um the septic the septic load um so for three bedroom I want to say it's you know I I don't want to guess but I think it's $900 if I remember correctly and what a and and it's the same for commercial too commercial would
go by the septic load so like the recent commercial ones they went by septic load for the connection there was no connection fee on any of the commercial I mean that's probably why we're running out a deficit is we need to we need to charge permits and we need to charge a connection fees
and then we wouldn't be running out of deficit I mean our whole idea on the water is to bring the water to the residents that need clean drinking water so I I think it's kind of I mean we got to look at other ways to be not running out a def it when we're trying to get the water main down the commercial strip and not be taxing the people that need
clean drinking water I agree anything else on the board all right and Jim did you have something you've covered some of the things but what I wanted to to ask is uh
is the green bar the one that you're proposing $9 the orange $829 so what is a household and Fall River pay you know I don't have that number here well the fall the Fall River rate
is $424 so the Fall River rate is $424 westport's paying 7208 has a stor on top of it that we don't have in here though so are we going to be charging the storm water fee
no I'm just saying they have extra so right I mean I just don't so I mean I thought this new renegotiation was going to bring us more more in line with what foreign residents are paying which would give us we we'd have more wiggle room so that would be more reason wait until until we get the
agreement even we even with the new agreement we still need to be up at least 829 I think we should wait for the new agreement before we start setting rates Jim did you have more uh yeah I I just think it's kind of crazy for Fall River to be charging us so much and I
just don't understand how that is I'm sure that a lot of their facilities were paid for by the federal government and we paid taxes to the federal government I don't understand why they're going to charge us 50% more for the first bit of water or more it
was 70% more right now we're paying 70% more than for River but in this new agreement that's supposed to change it would drop down to 55% more then after a certain amount it would only be 5% more so we benefit the more people are tying into
the system yeah AG ENT pay the same rate as they do except for the first part which is very honorous but so to me it it is another issue that points towards we need to have a regional Water
Authority that can service everybody instead of having the the city council at Fall River set our rates I'm I'm a little bit confused now too um so this is for our existing customers so the so they're not going to
be included in the renegotiation of the increase is that what you're trying to say no they will right so all all the customers will be included all the customers will pay the same rate as we move forward um which would should be around $5 no is what we're saying I'm sorry which would be five and change if
we're close to the Four River I think I think if I understood what you're saying is there's a certain amount of water we're paying a Prem 55% over and then the next anything over that is only 5% over so then you pull
that money divide it up when you no I don't that's not the way I interpreted it I interpreted it once we bring that threshold it was all going to drop down so that's more reason to let's wait till we see what the negotiation is so the agreement as I understand is
like you said the first 26,000 CCF we would pay 55% more than the Four River rate can you get a clarification on that because that's not what I what I think the issue is so more then after that we would pay 5% more for any any additional
water use okay so um can you talk about the impact that this deficit is having and the whether I'm trying to understand how urgent it is that we set the water rate now um versus waiting so the the only reason to set it now is bills go
out the end of March so it would allow us to Bill do we Bill quarterly quarterly for this one qu right now we're eating into our um The Reserve reserves yeah excuse me the other question I have is uh why would the water company be
responsible for the cost of hydrants it would seem to me that's a town issue not a water issue is for fire suppression not not for drinking so anything related to the water line is is going through the
Enterprise fund and funded through the Enterprise fund is there any other comments from the public we are going after the insurance company for one of those but we just haven't okay well I mean we could also you know apply for grant money for fire hydrants and stuff like that too I mean
we we've got we've applied for one Grant since I've been on a planer board for five years now I mean have we applied for anything to continue that I think we applied for a number of Grants okay well well we got one then have we applied for one after that we
have not now so two years ago so the um so the question on the table right now is should we change so the current rate that's set is $728 cents so the question before us right now is do we want to make a change to
that rate at this time what's the pleasure of the board I will not vote in favor that you do not want to make a change I'm inclined not to vote for it Mike can see myself voting for this at some point in time with more clarification but I'm not ready to do it tonight yeah so why don't we get more
information since it doesn't seem like it's going full yeah I think um I think Jim one of the things I would like is a better understanding of the impact to the overall um budget for the waterline right so like I appreciate that we're at a deficit right but let's get the let's
get an overview of all of the things that all of our outflow of money like what are we doing with the money that we're collecting right and then um look at when that seems like it's going to be problem I mean I understand it's already a problem but it's um look at what point
that is so I think for your March billing is going to have to go out at 728 okay and then we'll address it um probably when we get the when when are we going to have the Contra so Fall River is voting this week on the agreement so the what of water board is
the approving Authority they've approved the agreement but I believe they've done it um um they they're passing it to city council because city council had some concerns with it last time okay um so if city council is in agreement with it this time then we should be we should be good before the next meeting of the select board okay so we can talk about
we can talk about the questions of the understanding of the rate and how that's going to be calculated and that kind of thing we can talk about that at the next meeting sure I have I have one more question on the operation of it um so those hydrants so the contractor that that installed those hydrants I believe we waited 7 eight months from to come
and put the hydrants in so there's also um I believe there's a meter that needs to be replaced that the operator of the systems waiting on that contractor to replace that meter I don't know I don't know what their rates are what their charges are but I I know we have several
plumbers that live in town we have three of them that are Plumbing inspectors that could change that meter out and and I'm sure it'll be cheaper than the than the out of town contractor coming in so I think in moving forward we could probably get that meter changed out this week so if you could look at me has already been changed okay okay all right
thank you all right so it seems like how long did we wait for the Mee to be changed you know I heard about it uh on a Monday it was changed that week yeah but I think we had been we had been waiting some time possible I can check okay all right so we're taking no action
on um that item I want to skip I know we have some people waiting for topics um just going down the well none of these are going to take very long I don't think all right so um 4 a we have a request from Mendo the public health director to appoint Luis
carvalo as transfer station Foreman effective March 13 2025 can you tell us about this one Jim yeah this is a new hire I believe the resume is in the packet um the previous hire had uh was not able to work on weekends uh so he is
no longer with with the town and um he has his qualifications he does have a CDL license so according to the health director he's looking forward to getting him on board I'd recommend approval all thank you anything from the board I'll move it with the town administrator's
recommendation second any discussion all in favor I that's unanimous we have a request request from Chris gonsales the highway surveyor to appoint April Olivera to assist the highway department as needed as a seasonal per DM position effective March 14 2025 this is for a
part-time seasonal hourly employ yes no labor issues there no Union issues um not that I'm aware of oh well we know she's capable so I'll move on second any discussion all in favor I that's unanimous we have a request from Michael
burus the town planner um so this is to uh appoint people to the beach management planning committee um so the request is to appoint Kevin Kurt Sean leech Ross Moran George Cowell and a member of the select board to the beach management planning committee you went to the mic so you have something to say
yes uh I just wanted to uh say that it it doesn't say it here but if nobody from the select board wants to be appointed I would I would be appointed from the planning board okay thank you anybody want to be on the beach beach
management planning committee nobody wants it I guess I I I I I couldn't be on that committee yeah you couldn't um yeah I think I think I think we're I think we're GNA have Jim is we can't
appoint you yeah we can we need to we need to change to make up of the committee first okay so we can't appoint you tonight um all right so do we have a motion we going to move this now just the other appointees just the other so I'll entertain a motion to
appoint Kevin Kurt Sean leech Ross Moran George Cowell to the beach management so mve second any discussion all in favor I that's unanimous don't let the fact that we didn't volunteer to sign up for that committee mean we don't think it's an important committee
um we have a request from Beverly Bish to appoint Robert Souza as a part-time van driver hi everybody I'm back and I'll be back in two weeks again um Robert
um Robert Souza is um applying for part-time van driver position uh he worked many many years for Serta and has retired from there he also worked for Fisher bus company um so he's works with children and adults and seniors and Wheelchairs and very well
qualified and we're really happy to have him on board right great anything for B sounds qualified to move uh we appoint Robert suer is a parttime v second any discussion all in favor I that's your
congratulations welcome painless Staples that was easy thank you y I'll be back at two weeks with another V drive now I'd like to invite uh Christopher Dunn the police
chief you have several items here we do good evening good evening so the first one is request to accept the resignation of Officer Brandon Anton guess anything you want to say about that no just to move forward please yes he just he decided he did
great work for us he just decided to go back to for so move second any discussion all in favor I I that's unanimous we have a request to appoint Joshua Sherman as Community Service Officer contingent upon successful completion of a background check
effective March 23rd 2025 so I think this is the first time in front of the board regarding a CSO Community Service Officer to just give a little background um they're they're civilian they're non sworn they have no police Powers no arrest Powers no enforcement um we've
utilized in the past for uh road construction details when either full-time officers or Reserve officers um are not available and this just offers us a way to stay within the department to stay within the town and not go outsourced to like Dartmouth or
Bristol County Sheriffs for for details um like I said Mr Sherman's a lifelong resident Westport he's employed as supervisor to United States Postal Service he's not here this evening he's away on vacation in Florida but I hope to have him here at another date if the board um moves forward with
this thank you anything just F could uh sorry I didn't get to call you on this on the side on the CSO position can they write tickets at the beach too they cannot they cannot even write parking tickets unfortunate I I agree all right it's it's been explored I'll mov second
any discussion all in favor I that's unanimous and then we have a request to appoint Christian Theodore as Reserve police officer contingent upon successful completion of background and psychological review effective March 23rd yes um Lieutenant theodor's sitting
behind me um he just recently tied from massachusett State Police like I mentioned he had extensive experience both in narcotic and Internal Affairs um he's married lives in town he would definitely better be a big asset to our department um we've conveyed our goals and expectations with him just like
board member wette just said about parking tickets down the beach about what we need for him besides just working details and he is 100% on board great thank you want him come up or you going to have him stay there do you want do you want would you like to have them come would you like to say something you
come up and say hello everybody can see you at home yeah come up or you can go there they like to know who can pull them over Steve how are you good evening all right very good did you have questions for you just wanted to say hello no just I'm sure you realize you're not only
reflection on the department you're reflection on us for appointing you so if you do anything bad we all get yielded at oh yeah no I'm very well aware uh do a good job yes okay I'll move you thank you is there any discussion all in favor hi best unanimous welcome aboard thank you very
much I appreciate it anything else Chief while you're here uh we're gearing up for the summer I know it's March but the some will be here quickly upon us so we're getting ready for the summer um with the resignation of Officer Anton we've already started a full-time officer process which I'm hoping to be in front of the board um late April
early May um it's it's a uh competitive process with the regional acmy so we're constantly fighting against like of Fall River New Bedford Brockton brain tree um there's only 50 seats in each Academy class so we try to move very quickly upon this so I would
be here probably late May uh early May late April is um can we find out on the radio of horic beach if it's going to be working this year if you guys don't know already sure either you or I and maybe we could just we used to have a generic message slow down or whatever can we
find out if they can get that again or if they're just giving up on it I don't know if there's a problem with the equipment or just nobody's maintaining it you know radio to turn on to a frequency when yeah remember they had to sign up and everything and then it went down and I don't know what happened after that but it it' be nice to at least have a message on there you know
please slow down or before they have the Beach open I can reach out to Jeff McGee okay who um oversees Horseneck Beach okay I can I I can reach out to him and see where we're at with that it be great just see if it's gone or not sure thank you and if not we can look to see if maybe the state has something for a sign
that we could put on 88 just to advise people um through the chair too uh just so you know they're supposed to be working on those Chevrons at 88 North remember I told you after 88 North they get knocked down so many times we don't have many uh they're supposed to be putting up new I think they were just waiting for the ground to th so hopefully we'll get those done soon okay
good all right great all right thanks thank you very much have a nice night thank you night we have a request from the Conservation Commission to appoint a select board representative to the open space committee anybody want to be on the open space committee m here that's one I am
interested okay I'm a lame duck so there you go all right anybody want to arm wrestle dick for that one I'll make a motion that dick appoint this the open space any discussion all in favor I I that's jous um we have a request
to approve the job description and post the position of assistant regist voters principal clerk you want to tell us about this one Jim yes so we're proposing the um position be modified from assistant position to a principal clerk position which is one one level
down I guess um we also modifi the job description to um have the new person and there also provide assistance to the town clks office that office gets very busy sometimes and then there's times when it's very slow and uh in the past
we have shared responsibility with the town clerk this just kind of form formalizes that process so i' I'd recommend approval of the job description and posting of the position and the Union's already agreed we have met with Union their agreement yes so move second any discussion all in
favor I that's unanimous we have a request from Martin Costa for clean our Westport c c cow to approve the annual spring cleanup day Saturday April 12 from 9: to noon with a rain date of Sunday April 13 um through the chair
Paul he also wanted to know and put up the banner I guess we forgot to put it in the note so if we can get it probably for the next meeting just for that um I think everybody's familiar with with C by now Martin's done a heck of a job bringing it up when I had it from like six people so um I'll move it second is
there any discussion I think do they have I know they have Facebook pres there go check them out on Facebook to it's a clean our Westport is really actually kind of fun picking it's a shame you have to pick up trash on the side of the road but is fill a dumpster every time we fill a lot all right um all in favor I that's
unanimous um we have a request to accept the deed from FL trip and Suns Inc for Lots identified as Westport assessors parcel 5433 and 5433 a so this was addressed at last year's town meeting right yes two two small Apostles on the north side of
the cemetery um and on the north side of the transfer station uh they landlock aples um we've gone through the process they've done the title The Deeds are ready um they've signed off on the Deeds the one on the north side of the transfer station I think does have some value to the town
I recommend approval so moved it's already been through tile meeting second is there any discussion all in favor I I that's unanimous we have a request to review and close the warrant and forward to the finance committee this is a warrant for
town meeting um recommend uh we did have a recommendation to amend the wording of article 24 so is this the only change that is the only change with the exception of some um transfers oh right so the transfer amounts okay so
um for article 24 is the one um where uh you are the change is the eligibility of the finance committee so in order to no elected officer shall be eligible to serve on the finance committee there was some back and forth with uh legal about
the appointed part because it says no elected or appointed uh Town official um but we actually do have appointed people that are serving on committees A Lot Like Us for example um but um so that that was the recommend from legal right
the what's in red on our little paper that we got that's it yep okay all right so um is there anybody anybody have any questions or concerns about the warrant or closing the warrant well M CH I go ahead if you would allow
I was going to talk to this issue here regarding the this particular item article 24 I was curious as to who are the subjects of this who this who would this affect I guess it's another way of saying how many elected officers not elected officials what
officers do we have that would be the subject of this change I don't know the Full Count would it be the select board uh planning board Board of Health um trustees Library trustees school committee assessors anybody elected Commish
commissioner Landing commission well are all people who are elected officers yeah yes and the offices was the terminology that the Town Council recommended as opposed to official he said that's what's referenced in the state statute yeah uh
further to this in terms of discussion this is something I found to be a little bit confusing to begin with and was concerned as to why this was even an issue it seems to be what I often say is a problem looking for a solution or a
solution looking for a problem um and it seemed to be isolated to one to one person in one position I'm just not sure this is a uh a good thing to do now of course town
meeting will vote on this U but I I would be concerned about this I just want to express that for for the record but you don't have objection to putting it on the warrant no yeah no I I got a question so the finance committee what is the finance committee charged with
um to recommend to the select board no is that what no um the select the finance committee recommends the budget to town meeting okay so then I all right so I'm I'm I'm okay with I haven't put on town meeting right um was there any other of
the articles that we had I just had one comment um and I think we're probably passed it now but on the um short-term rentals the new bylaw would put the responsibility for issuing the permits with the selectable which means it would run through our office and you know last year the Board
of Health they were going to have the board of health issue the pyramids but it was going to be too much work so that was not done just going to put a lot of responsibility on staff here that um you know we'll work through it but it's not going to be easy yeah I mean I think that we need I think there's probably
several articles that we need to have um specific conversation about whether we were recommending them or not and I think that's that's for sure one of them the short-term rental I think the finance this this one probably maybe Merit some public conversation and I can't think of the top of my head of the
other we usually have CPC come in and talk about their projects um so I think that we should plan between now and May 6 it's May 6 I think right um between now and May 6 we should have some meetings where we're bring in some of these people in I mean Jim couldn't that
be like put into um the online permitting now and to go through that and go through the building department cuz now all the all the different departments are going to repor to that so shouldn't that be where that goes we we can look at it it's the enforcement and the chasing down of
people if they don't file right you know how do you get their contact information how you know we we do it with East Beach and it's time consuming with East Beach and I think it would be a similar process it can be done and we'll do it if if we're I mean if we had to enforce right now the way it works doesn't just
you know the state kind of pays as what it is they do but they have to register with the town um and if they don't register what happens if there's a complaint if they get a complaint then we can make sure they're registered with the town I don't think we have to run around chasing them well the current the
current the current article for that um is saying is also saying that the applicants will self-certify so like where we have the fire department go inspect to make sure that businesses before we give them a permit um this one is saying that they are they are
certifying on their own that yes I meet the fire codes yes I meet the health codes yes decid to do with all these things so um I actually kind of I'm actually in favor of it but because mostly because it gives you the ability to revoke the license if there's a problem um but you know to Jim's point
you know if we get 100 registered and only 50 the next year what do you do like it's it is somewhat problematic but I think we should definitely talk about that but I think I think you're right about the online permitting is look at how do we feed that in
there were there other articles Jim that you want to talk about that's all I had and we haven't had any petition articles we have two Street acceptances two Street okay all right so I will entertain a motion to close the warrant and forward to the finance committee
with the amendment as for article 24 as described so second is there any discussion all in favor I I that's unanimous we have a request to move forward on the Mass DOT design for drift Road Culvert replacement at Kirby Brook
um so Jim you're going to tell us all about this and um I did want to point out that there was correspondence in our files about this one um from that's in the correspondence folder Jim you want to go tell us what this is about yes so we've been working
on this for a couple of years um Park Corporation actually did a bridge inspection back in 2021 and found efficiencies in the bridge itself so based on that we we looked and we U applied for a grant with M doot under the small bridge program um and they
awarded a grant to do the design for a new new structure over this uh Kirby Brook um Power Engineering was hired through Mass do so they're working for Mass do they're not contracted by the town um Mass
do um has been overseeing the design they have met with us a couple met with us once we also supplemented the budget with P so that we could have additional meetings with some of the neighbors um we've requested uh an extension on the grant itself just to get us through 2026
which Mass doot agreed to um we've met with neighbors on a number of occasions um they obviously have concerns with the the bridge structure and athetics uh the length of the god rails the colors of the railings um the um texture of the
concrete this is a picture of um a bridge that was recently done by mass doot at Lloyd State Park Mass DOT is very structured in their processes um in their design criteria they do not waver a lot from their design criteria if they
waver at all um they did indicate that we would have some say as far as the textures on the abutments would be the concrete um abutments on either end of the the brown railing there we could have uh some say in the color of the railings um possibly whether or not the god rails
have wood wood poles in the back of the um God rails um but it's going to be a structure that um looks like a mass Highway type structure we do not have funding for the structure once the design is complete um
and that's pretty typical Mass Highway funds a lot of projects for design we're doing it right now on 177 with a roundabout we're doing it on gford Road in 177 with the blinking light where we get it designed and then we we apply for funding either through the transp ation
Improvement program or mass Highway may have some other type of programs either through the small Bridge uh grant program to fund some of these I will say that mass Highway typically tries to do their best to find funds to construct it if they go through the whole design
process especially if they're spending money on the design process so I anticipate that sooner or later there would be a funds available to construct it this is not something I can see the town uh constructing on its own you're looking at probably million and a half
to2 and5 million dollars to do this we just don't have locally funds locally to to build this type of structure um even if we designed it on our own and we were going for State money later Mass do is going to want us to meet their standards
um if if we're using any of their money so you know and I know there's some neighbors here today we've met with them a number of times I think we're at the point now where I'm asking the board do we either move forward with the design as is realizing that um it's going to be a u a serious Bridge
structure which we may have some minor um participation as far as some of the Aesthetics but it's it's going to be a a typical a typical Bridge structure um either we go forward with mass Highway design or we don't but at some point if we don't go forward with the design the
town's going to have to absorb the cost for design and possibly construction um I think they have you know I don't off hand what the contract was for design but it was I believe it was 00,000 range so I guess what I'm looking for from the board is some direction as to whether or
not we tell Mass do to go forward with the design and again we will push as hard as we can to get what we're looking for in the design but there are limitations as to what Mass Highway will do so my understanding is that the that we're at the 25% level of design now
right is that right yeah we could be a little bit further than that but yeah around that's what they've said 25% and so then what would we have to do to move forward we would just have to let M know that um the town wants to move forward with the design they've kind of put it on hold until the town can make a
decision as to whether to move forward or to forget about the design so we've so we can so the act so you're looking for this board to tell to give you Direction about what to tell the state so should we keep going with
the design are we paying for the design they're paying for the design for the design which which is I don't want to say part of the issue but the engineering companies contracted with mass do so we don't have a lot of authority over the engineering company we have to kind of go through Mass do
and ask for specific um changes or to the design and mass do will work through their engineer to do that if they agree to it so I know that the neighbors have a they have a pretty good list here of things that they' like to see addressed does the does the next portion of the
design is will it at least look at those like if they're still designing and are they not still looking at some of those issues or all those are in the 25% design yeah no they will look at some of those issues um some of the aesthetic type issues and and P mentions those in their letter um again they can do some
textured things on the abutments that may make it look a little bit more like rustic Stones they can change the color of the railings they uh you know the length of the god rails we've argued numerous times with them over the length of the god rails and the engineers said
they will not reduce it any further and mass do says it needs to meet standards so there's certain things that I don't think they're going to change regardless of how hard we fight anyone else go ahead mam um so so we got a grant for this design yes and then you said that we had
to supplement Town Money the town um select board appropriated $7,000 to have power engineering meet with the Navies to see if they could address some of their concerns okay so the $7,000 that we did was kind of to address these issues and
reading the letter from Power Engineering is like this bridge they gave us a grant to design it and it will be it will be a bridge and when it goes to be built we'll be looking to get money from the state to build it so the design will be sitting there we've
already put the money in the design the design was paid for so I think we should move forward with the design however and in the in the need of bridges in town and we have the one right at the head I think we also need to look at having the head designed since we have a mass highway report on the condition of the
head Bridge so we need to uh while this bridge will be sitting there designed and the design will never go bad we might need to look at the urgency since I do know that the god rails that were put in will put into Mass Highway standards and that's what's kind of prompted this whole new design of a bridge so I think since it's paid for
and it'll be designed in Mass Highway standards that's be money very well spent since we didn't have to pay for it it's unfort that we had to pay another 7,000 to argue with mass highway but um I would recommend moving forward with the design did you I yeah at this point I'm
abstaining in case I got a br in the state side I was going to ask Jim through the chair so if we decide not to go forward what are the consequences what what perils do we face we lose the opportunity to have the state pay for
this yeah I don't know if there'll be another opportunity to have them to apply for Grant to have them to design but this this program that we're in now you know how I guess the question is would they look favorably upon the town if we've already turned away funding um for a project are they going to want to
fund it next year or the year after um and then if they don't do it we don't really have the funds to design and if we do design it we're going to have to design it to similar standards if we want the state to participate in the payment of the project so I that there is some risk in
not moving for forward here in terms of the ultimate outcome of this project at some point it's going to have to be addressed I guess I'm still I'm struggling to try to understand that too so if we if we say no don't proceed so we have there's a 25% design that is on
the Shelf um we don't do anything keep the road exactly how it is right now and then I hear what you're saying like if 3 four years from now we're like oh the bridge is really deteriorated now we need funding now the likelihood of getting a grant is reduced because
they're going to say we tried to tell you while but um I also I think we've asked this question before in the regards there that um do we have any kind of liability here we have a known bridge that has an issue is there
liability to the town here if there's some sort of accident or something over there yeah so so my understanding is this is kind of on the watch list now with mass do so they will inspect this on a regular basis and at some right now it's not um hasn't reached the point
where they put any weight limitations on it or anything but if it does deteriorate more that's something they could do which would mean you know trucks or school buses couldn't pass over this they'd have to go around until it's it's addressed so you know and it maybe 20 years down the line before that happens and it may be two years down the line you but the good thing is you'll
have a design sitting therea to build so so the the god rails that were installed meet Mass Highway standards right now right I actually the the new guard rails are actually I think a little bit longer than what's what's there so um but they
are the god rails themselves are mass Highway standing yeah I think they came out and inspected it after they were installed by our contractor and said they met them so that that is that a bridge or is it is it a a covit it's a good question you know it's Bridge it's
it's so things but Mass highway looks at it doesn't have a bottom in it no it does it's a cold a there's covers and then bridges over okay so there's covert so that's more reason why they do design because right now according to the rivers and streams act we needed to have bottomless covits
so we need to move forward with this design and have it sitting in place until the funding can come available to build it so I don't think we have any choice to we shouldn't be throwing the the the grant money away for the design and we should move forward and and in the meantime we have
we have no liability because we have we've already and spent the money and installed the money on the god rails that that will keep the resident safe yeah do we have a rendering if they're at
25% do we have any kind of idea what this would look like in place we we have plan views we don't have uh pictures of plan view well plan views are better than nothing and uh to answer the question
what happens if you go to full plan and then decide you don't want it uh we did that before with the sidewalks in Central Village and they're like an elephant they have a long memory and it still hasn't disappeared from their
institutional memory that they did that with Westport we they gave us the money and then we said no thank you so I think you have to be careful with getting further along if you're not going to do it well it seems like the only way to
address the neighbors concerns to change the design is to go forward with the design like I don't know how else you're going to change the design you're you're not they're not working on at all right now so if we tell them hey we please keep working on it then they at least we
it's possible that they'll consider the they've they've given us indication that they would do some of the smallest things stuff anything beyond that it does not appear that yeah if you want to talk you need to um go to the mic thank thank you very much Patrick
McBride uh drift Road in Westport it's been five years since we've been talking um about this uh so I appreciate your patience couple things I just want to clarify um this really is about the proposal that was accepted by par in
Mass do I don't know if everyone had the chance to read that or it was probably four years ago that you saw it um our issue is that in the list that you have shows about 15 and eight items that have not been addressed by par in The
Proposal that was signed they just left them out and so what we're asking is that par finish those components of the proposal because that's how you get a true picture of what this project will cost it will probably cost $2.5 million
by the time we get done with this probably up to about 3.5 million next subject or next topic is um we heard massdot and Par tell us on numerous occasions this can't be done this can't be done this can't be done
and we showed them where it was done in Massachusetts and they came back to us and said okay we can make these changes they reduced the guard rail by 28 ft they first extended it by 28 32 ft and then we said now that's too long it could be shorter and they came back and
said yeah if we move this and we move that we can reduce it by 28 ft okay we know they can reduce it more they're just saying no we don't want to do anymore okay um again getting back to the proposal the $7,000 that the town of Westport spent did not have to be spent
we said that at the last select board meeting if you read The Proposal there's about six other items in there that cover that $7,000 so we could have went back to par and said no we're not going to pay for you it's right here that you will do this type of work it's signed off and it's agreed to by the town and
by the mass doot so that's where the issue is we're not opposed to the bridge we're not opposed to you know what they're telling us and in the exceptions they're making we just want to make sure that they make them and that they finish the work that they agreed to do with mass do that's all we're really asking
so that's that's our Point um we're fine with it moving forward I would recommend or request the board say yeah we'll move forward but let's address these 15 or 18 items in in this letter by sign it town of Westport and say go forward and do these things they mentioned to us par
said we'll look at moving the road six to eight feet 10 feet uh to the West if that will take straighten the road and take out the length of the guard rails they did not do that so there's a lot of things they said they were going to do based upon our meetings that they never did so that's why we restated those in
that letter to uh you on March 6th so thank you the if we say um that we want to move forward um that we eventually going to get another contract with par it's going to come before us where we would make where we see what's in there
or no at this point no the contract pause contract of this mths is with mass do so um Mass do is waiting on us to say do we want to go forward with the design or do we want to hold off so there'll be there should be no supplemental
contracts or change orders nothing 's no opportunity for us to negotiate that contract because that's between Dot and Par do and Par and it needs to be it need it will be designed to mass Highway design and it the Aesthetics I I I can agree with what he said if it can be
moved to shorten the guard rails and I'm sure they'll look at that but the other reason to move forward is because of Co you know we're we're getting grants to replace CS all the way down drift road right now we have you know we have we have a COV that blew out on on gifed road that was replaced with another pipe I mean we have a thing called the rivers
and streams act they had to be bottomless covers and that's going back to the late '90s so the design won't go bad and and we get a little bit of time at 25% I mean par will be working with them on shops back and forth and we can go forward and
let's get the design sitting there so when the state feels they have the money available it'll get built um David L Lima I live at 4018 D drift Road I'm going to take a little different tack on this as a lawyer and me I think I've seen more policy issues and problems
than I see I see technical issues but I think if you just look at this and look at the way we're functioning here um the original process started with guardrails that weren't needed okay and I would say the first thing I would suggest to this board would be in the future we asked
five years ago or four years ago that you set a subcommittee up that there is decision making regarding the road workor and guard rails on every single Le incidents because you are seriously affecting the Aesthetics of this town
and going forward with no money and Capital Improvements for infrastructure most of the transportation money that you have is from chapter 90 and you get that from the state and basically the same amount every year based on mileage and it's pretty high we might be in
fifth or sixth percentile or 15 percenti in the entire State 351 towns we get almost $700,000 a year in chap 9 mons which was utilized by the way to put these guard rails in originally when Jake and I were working on the walls
next to the old bridge that was there then the guard rails appeared and we were incensed as neighbors as taxpayers we were incensed that no one talked to us no one said a word to us they just put them in and when we asked
why well it was empty because it's done it's over basically to Jim's credit we tried to figure out a way to amarate this problem and and Jim foretold the story which was I'll apply for a small Bridge Grant and by the way just the
term small Bridge Grant when you think of the word small Bridge you would think and I'm seriously thought about going to the Secretary of Transportation about this program because this program involves small Bridges I would say a majority in rural areas we know towns do
not have the kind of money they're not putting money in Capital Improvements for road work it's clear just by driving around Westport you see every guard rail looks like the mass Derm Pike already and the more coverts the more coverts we have Bridges or something go on top of
them and right now what we learned what I didn't know and I'm not blaming Jim but when Jim said to me oh by the way um be careful what you wish for I remember those words when Jim said Gee you have no idea we think we're going to get rid of the guardrail Problem by putting a
bridge there that's sort of The Wishful fantasy that we had and the reality was with all due respect man the problem I'm having is that we had a contract with them they knew I don't know if Jim knew they weren't going to talk to the community they had no interest in
talking to us they designed the 25% design independent of us who cares what you think yet when you read do literature it always says Community input now maybe the community input in that language meant talking to Jim it
did not mean talking to us they never talked to us dick Brewer was in the meeting when they did talk to us and they talked to us like we were dogs like we were who are you what do you want why do you want this we have good reason to be angry we were treated shabbily by
do they never talked to us not once Manny not once did they talk to us we had to get them to get an extra $7,000 out of town to have a meeting with the community about what they were designing and why did they not want to meet with us it was simple they already had a
formula and the formula you just read it all I went through with Patrick he's got me a million pieces of paper reading statutes reading the federal law reading the state law what's it say it all says the same thing when we put up guard rails this is how we're going to do it when we do this this is how we're going
to do it no negotiating no talking it's just fluff to say you're talking to the the community forcing us every day to go there to beg please there's a 200 year old bridge next to it they're curves
stone walls do you really want this for your grandchildren do you want it to look like this and what we have is no money and we're going begging to the state and they're going to tell you take it the way it is tough luck so with all due respect yes you're going to get a
free bridge going to look like crap over there on drift Road okay here we have a town Farms rural beautiful right the farm we have wonderful now you're going to go over to drift Road and what you're going to see in two years is a building a functioning
building a bridge that looks like the masterm Pike and if if we didn't thank God I'd say that we're now learning from this experience why we're sitting here talking about this because we know you're you're going to say yes stamp approval you're going to have a bridge
over there for free and I say future going forward try to find some money start putting money in capital Improvement for infrastructure besides chapter 90 monies because you're going to have to do this over and over and
over again on drift Road on Main Road and it will not look that way for your grandchildren if you keep up this protocol in this process yes it's free but you have no well it's not free mean it's tax when all do respect the $7,000 that's what
you're ketching about the $7,000 when we shouldn't even had to do that and I think going forward if this town ever wants more money from the state you should know and you should tell all of us by the way it's not negotiable so it's not negotiable you're
going to get what we give you and whether you like it or not and because many because I and Patrick and Jake and others sat there for four years never talking to us never talking to us taxpayers in this town never talking to
us and saying this is what you're going to get this is it so Manny I'm going to give you a chance to respond but before I do before you do um you're probably going to be interested in the next item on our agenda which is the town engineer position because one of the thing and this was really Manny advocating for the
town engineer I'm for that I I am all for having somebody the part of the job description of the Town engineer is to oversee projects like this and help coordinate the community input make sure we're reviewing the plans and things like that so I do remember you saying that we needed a committee to look at this and I I just want to before Manny
talks I just want to say he's the one advocating for another I I I applaud that I I think that is a we need to have something looking at we we have infrastructure problems we know that and we know that by the way what they're
doing now um with um um I'm having a senior moment here um brire no the bay um buard Bay Coalition has taken the lead this time as opposed to Dot and and we're working on on
coverts for them and they have a very different approach to design and funding Patrick has done unbelievable job searching researching this thing we went everywhere to find projects that had some sense of Aesthetics and taste
Patrick found many of them and all all of them basically didn't involve the beginning of do because they are not negotiable or they so Manny I'm I'm sorry that would probably be a good a good instance where where Buzzard
Bas starting starting the design with Mass DOT but the some of the cases are it needs to be anything in town needs to be designed to that specification to mass do specifications the aesthetic part yes if Buzzard bace move forward the covits and you can probably get that
in before and they work with M team might be a little bit easier and I kind of disagree on on this bridge the need for this bridge now all I'm saying is we're in we need to we need to let the design move forward I believe we need to move forward with the design at at the
head first and and construction at the head first before that one there's going to be a thing because there's another thing that's it's called the rivers and streams act and I think it was the late '90s and we've this town across the
board has kind of avoided it yeah um in 19 I think it was 198 1998 or 9999 in Westport Meadows if you drive through there I built a bridge because of the river streams act so that was for a private developer I was the contractor
and we had to install it Mass Highway standards it does I believe it I haven't been down there in a long time it might have a wooden God rail on I'm not sure um I think it does as a matter of fact well that was in the 90s see I think Mandy we were sort of thrown off by trip by trip by the by the bridge it's hard
to say Bridge because a trip and trip Lake trip um the the coverts that were on on trip what's the name chip Rook chip Rook they they use they use what we wanted to use which was stone walls and you wouldn't know there was a I'm going
to use the word Bridge it was over the cover that was there you could drive down south of hicks Bridge you wouldn't know but we were told after 2017 or 18 we said why don't you do that here what just looks great you fix the why why why could you you probably could do that so
so they have a they have a design for like it'll be a battered wall that was out of concrete with rebar and then you could put a veneer on it so that that's how you could do something like that trip Rook is a u stamp concrete face wall it looks beautiful has anyone seen trip Brook you wouldn't even know it's
you wouldn't know it's a you wouldn't know anything you just also you also got in Mass Highway you got like a changing of God too you know there's like new kids coming in and stuff like that and and I think that's why you know if we have the town engineer when they start off with this stuff and I I agree with
you 100% on on what drif road looks like and what it should look like and what it should continue to look like can I just add one last thing my wife wants me to advocate for this and I'm I won't be able to go home if I don't um uh can we paint can we at least whether we or you
or someone paint the damn guard rails a a color that goes with the more of the environment whether it's brown or green or just not it doesn't look like the Mass Turnpike that I mean we're willing to paint pay for the pain and paint it
ourselves if you seen the ones that look Rusty yeah that that's yeah that's called weathering steel and that was one of the things they did I don't I don't see a problem where you could you know the town you know you could request I guess the select board to paint in any color that's Jim have you looked into
that already yeah I believe they can painted certain colors um what those colors are I'm not sure but I know the brownish um yeah it's yeah and you go to the Market Basket Market Basket guard rails have that I mean if Market BK can have guards at's doing that too all they
got a weathering steel but that could be that's the chapter 90 they can order it that way you know with the weathering steel all right so thank you I I thank you so the question before us right now is do we move forward with the design um or not right and and that's what you're
looking for this Bo to do um it doesn't mean we can't stop advocating for right I I mean we don't want to lose the money or the opportunity to go after you know if we got a design sitting there they'll they know the need of which is going to be
more important than the other so okay thank you chair um Jake mcgan 397 drift Road I've been with uh Patrick and David working on this for the four or five year time period um I think they're basically full-fledge Engineers so you make it it they get a resume from them
on this uh new position but I think the concern that has been amongst all neighbors up and down drift Road when the guardz went went in originally is that you basically have turned this into a super highway and by working with mass do you're not
going to have much say in the matter and hopefully with represent uh representative olette up there maybe that will help to kind of protect the rural nature of our community if he has the opportunity to to work on that because I I think we're going to have a situation where you're getting pushed
back and complaints with what's going on with gford Road and water and and various other things but I think you're also going to have a very difficult situation when they start bringing in a bridge that's going to be of Mass Turnpike standards on drift Road uh so you're going to hear a lot from from
Neighbors and I think that's going to be a big concern because there will be very little input from the town if you're going to accept those grants and accept that funding the the only bright note for I think drift Road residents with a new Administration I'm not entirely sure the federal funding would be flowing to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as
much as it was prior to so maybe that does slow down this process um but to Manny's point I think there are other Bridges and locations in town that are more priority or higher priority such as the head which receives a tremendous uh amount of traffic and truck traffic
going through there as opposed to what's on drift Road and we we do have a report on that could could you get that report up and yep I mean in worst case scenario as I had said and mentioned maybe four or five years ago if there is a concern on that bridge you could spend about 250 bucks on two signs telling them that
there a weight limit and just to use 88 right I mean that's essentially what I'm going to have to do once the bridg is to go a mile down the the road I'll have to go 88 and all the way around maybe you decrease the truck traffic and it does help uh you know with the lifespan of that bridge while we're waiting for the
funding and various other things so those are my only concerns I think that at the end of the day day your input from Westport and local residents will not be heard um when we are partnering with Mass DOT on this bridge thank you I got another question too on this the thing that came up with fence viewers
and so forth I mean is this something that could be put into into into that prview because so like you guys had that God rail show up at the same the same contract we got the one on gford road in front of the 1849 house you know would would have been nice to have a have a
stone wall in front of that house versus having a god but it was on Town property you know it's like maybe you know as we're pursuing that I think didn't something come up um Jim on the fence viewers and who's supposed to be on the fence viewers we have a sight distance uh
complaint that goes to the Safety Committee just just one more couple comments on what been we've been discussing I think uh Jake and and everybody I think you understand where we're coming from um I I I think we just
want to ask that um well first we made a a great case for a engineer so that'll get past the next uh thing that should I mean so I and I see that person uh as someone who's GNA be overseeing a lot of these projects I mean we got we got the
Kirby brookbridge uh Buzz Bay Coalition is going to spend $4.4 million in Westport putting and replacing three coverts I've had great conversations with them they have four meetings with the public just to let you guys know four okay so that's there's going to be
more meetings that we will probably be at um but they're approaching it totally different they also informed me if they don't involve Mass do and they find funding elsewhere Westport can do what they want but within limits but not totally you don't have to do Mass do standards so as long as the money is
coming from somewhere else so there's a lot of things that are going in our favor um and then I guess I just ask that you when you continue on and you get back to par Jim that you say we'll move forward but we want these things addressed that were outlined uh in our
letter to you guys on the 6th of March happy to sit down and refine that but those things need to be done I mean that's a cold water stream they never looked at the fish and what they're going to do for pooling and all that for the brook trout it's not even looked at if you read the buzzers Bay Coalition you got three pages about fish and the
cold water pooling and all that they're doing there you I mean that wasn't even discussed there's no landscape design for replenishing the uh Environmental Landscape once power pulls out um there's no historical study that has been we've been recognize at a historical site by the state and by the
town There's No study about that site and that Stone Bridge there's no protection of that Stone Bridge 20 feet Downstream there's nothing in the plans in The Proposal that addresses that so you know power will come in Mass de will come in they'll put their bridge in and then they leave us hanging we're sitting
there we see a 250y Old Bridge you know falling down our front yard so we just want to make sure they do what is said in the proposal and other things are in instituted in that proposal for us so I mean and I I applaud Buzzard Bay on the on the bottomless culverts because we're
like 35 years past I don't know if this Culvert is going to be bottomless I think it might be all contained no it's rivers and streams act they have to be bottomless Co like this right now you know we the one that blew out on on gfed road is actually above the water and and fish can't get up it yeah so you know
when that was done in 20 12 you see right there that's a pool you can fish out of that that won't be there when they put the new bridge in yeah but what so the bottomless coover allows the fish to get Upstream when the when the Heron start running and and so forth the Cold Brook Trout they they allow it to get
Upstream this this Co you know in different levels they can't you know that we got the Heron run that's you know I can't even believe that that's been that long and we got we got some issues coming up over there so I just for the purposes of moving the meeting along is there any any other information
that would be helpful for us you for any of the board members when you're making a decision whether to move forward with design I make a motion I make a motion to move forward with the design that we've already that's already been paid for and it's not going to cost the town any money so we have a motion to move forward with design is there a
second I will second that is there any discussion mam chair is that does the motion include getting satisfaction on the 15 points that neighbors have raised i' I've been part of that and I believe it's totally reasonable Department of Transportation has said they will
respect that um they really haven't and we did get the short shrift at that meeting that was referred to earlier so can we be sure assured that in that motion that's included so how would how would what's the mechanism to do that though if we because we need to tell we
need to tell the um dot that we want to move forward right and we can say that we would like you to consider these things right but I think if we're not Contracting with par and I don't know that we have a mechanism to force them to do anything well we may not but I think we
have to go on record and we have to push his off the mechanism would be to hiire the town engineer and he can monitor this he can make sure that he can he can view daily the comments back and forth with par and mass do I mean that's we're I'm just saying we're not a contracted
party so there so the request that they're they're asking us to require certain things in you're not a contracted party but how shop works is the the town can views what's going on so this it goes back and forth on the on the website so the resident does your
motion residents doesn't don't have access to that but the town engineer would have access to that so does your motion then include forwarding like what forwarding the list to dot like I'm again I'm trying to understand the mechanism if we get that information
they've already you've already sent that right I mean P's aware of it I mean I did read all the comments from p on the last thing that was saying it has to be by mass theot standards but yes but I I think in convincing them on on different way things and veneers and stuff like that I mean it would be better that well
so I this is a tech this is like a Mr Brewer brought up he wants to make sure that is included in the motion but I'm trying to understand exactly what you want to be included in like what's the mechanism to send that over go ahead C that in our Communications with the state we make
sure throughout the process that they're aware of the concerns and and and the suggestions that have been made by the neighbors and other parties on this and that um we then um that would be the
motion as a board next time we we we're going to vote on this engineer position that we uh also as a board agree that that's going to be one of their top priority projects in terms of overseeing in addition to what's in the job description that this is this is on
their plate on day one well it it has to be I mean the same thing with the curb cuts and all that stuff that's on shops nobody's watching any of that so it has to be and I believe that's going to be added to the new online permitting so we're going to have to adhere to that stuff so just because poor Paula has to
write this motion down so sorry sorry Pa so the motion the motion was to move forward with the design and how are we incorporating the the and with the cons the I mean how how would you like that to be incorporated
well we' have an amended motion that would include that verbiage so it's clear to the state that that's what we want that's what we need that's what we must have that's what we should start with I know a lot can happen between now and then but that's it has to be clear
coming from us that that's what we want and and what's the verbiage though that you're saying that we want we want them to well they have the information it's really the list of I believe 15 items all of which we all agreed were reasonable and nobody ever said they
weren't uh from the do at any meeting so that we want to reaffirm that I guess is the word okay so we're going so the motion will include moving forward we want to reaffirm our um we want to reaffirm that we want them
to address these items in the um in the project going forward or project design in the project design going for final project design you got that okay everybody understand that yeah you just need to clarify if it's a suggestion or must because must can ruin the project
if they're not going to I don't think we can must well that's what you that's what you need to figure out because if Mass do just says oh no we can't do it or whatever uh and they're going to go forward with the project that's what you need to figure out I'll try to fight for it on my side but you need to figure out let's see if we can amend it a little
bit to to to add that so we'll move forward with the design and that we will monitor on the town's end those concerns of the neighbors that's the only way we're going to be able to deal with the well so they know that that that that's what we're going to be doing right
there's no you didn't tell us you didn't right suggest this I can agree with that okay so that's what we were told and informed by mass do and Par that they would listen to you as the town management and try to incorporate whatever you say uh in whatever we
suggest to them and they have a listed that already yeah but we'll send it again yeah we need to send it again will need to send again but so our concern is that they really act on that and I think we haven't been able to be as forceful as we needed to be with mass do and
power for the last four years I mean we we kind of were dancing with them and now it's we we want you to come and make these statements clear to them so dick what you're saying is we need to reaffirm that this is what we want they will take it and try to make it make it work I think there this was a I think a
crucial point about why we got this why we got a little um upset with the process because we went through the whole literature all the regulations mostly Patrick but at some point we found there at the end were exceptions
because it was small Bridge just the notion small Bridge you would think small communities why everything is not going to be cookie cutter which which which we presume so here in the end of all of the literature at do there was a place for for
exceptions okay circumstances a 200-year Old Bridge could be anything okay not one not once was any exception explored now to our way of thinking if there's an
exception out there Kirby Brook is it 200y Old Bridge Country Road I mean no accidents I mean there's a lot of things that were would would be shining a light on an exception we couldn't even get them to pursue an exception not not in
near lexicon I can't hear you not going to do it now they didn't say that they just didn't do anything so that's I think so to the to your point of how you're going to in who's the contract with you're right the contract is the state has a contract with par to our
benefit you are designing for $500,000 I will you pick a you pick an engineer and they will work for you but they really didn't work for us just so you know they representative I think we're probably ready to vote I think I think we're going over and over we we've made some
motion we made a motion we' modified the motion I think it's addressing the concerns and that um and I agree so that we can all right so all in favor I any opposed and we have one exstension so
that's four in favor and one exension okay um f review and approve the job description for the town engineer so um Jim or Paulo somebody left these on our desk here we have um I was a little confused so I just wanted
to talk about the one that says a on it was the um job description that was approved last year by the Personnel Board for this position and um the one that says b on it is where um Jim Incorporated the changes um that we
talked about specific specifically removing the um supervision of because uh and then there's some other changes but mostly the supervision part that was removed um I know that I did hear from the town planner and the um chair of the
Board of Health they were concerned that they hadn't had input on it uh on the job description but um I also think we're not saying they're taking over any job that the town planner is doing or that the Board of Health is doing they're still everybody's still responsible for what they're responsible for this is just another resource
available to the town I I also think by clar I think we talked about it the last meeting this whole issue between line versus staff and that this this is functioning in a staff capacity will'll deal with I think at least a lot of the the the um concerns I he I read earlier
today and and when I came in tonight didn't have a lot of time to digest all of those options but um I do think that that that goes a long way and then um then you don't you don't get into potential grievances I mean you if
you if you're going into all that the line type of thing you are running the the risk of of not only dealing with the the um the internal management of it but also dealing with um I think Personnel issues because we're you're you're
injecting a level of oversight that is not in people's job descriptions um it still says a highway department on it is it's currently in the budget under the highway department right are you that's correct but the and and that's where it was before
okay the concern about being in the highway department is we have a town bylaw that says that Highway Department employees have to be in town so I guess we'll just see if that becomes a problem or not all right so what's the desire of the board mam chair I think the revision in front of
us which others cannot see probably does it because I B right yeah yeah I called Jim when I when I read it and I said it still has what I call Craigs point a lot of line responsibilities in there and supervision and employee performance
appraisals and so on and so forth reprimands and so getting that out of there expunging that would make this more like a staff job which we had discussed which seemed to be the sentiment of of the select board in addition to my own I think this does it we can take another look at it but if it
does that then I'm I'd be happy with that I do support having a town engineer Jim wait sorry is there anybody else on the board have a comment for all right Jim first I want to say that I think we really do need a a town
engineer but I think we were taken back by having a lot of the job description be directed towards what we do at the planning board and for the 11 uh the numbered extension
functions uh are concerning the planning board's function and I was surprised that we weren't um nobody reached out to find out what we thought of of these things
beforehand um so you have the letter from or the memo from uh Michael burus I don't know if everybody else has I got if not I can read the pertinent Parts I did not see it so um currently the planning board uses a
Consulting engineer to provide most of these services to the board and it is paid for by the applicant not by the town the board has its own authority to promulgate regulations and procedures
for project review and so the items that were highlighted should only be at the planning board's request not as a default job description the board has a lot of discretion with consultant engineer
selection outlined in the board's site plan rules and regulations and Zoning bylaw and as an independently elected body how they choose to review projects should be their purview the board has not had the
opportunity to formally consider what's being proposed which could significantly change our current workflow I'm really confused why we weren't consulted because we have a process in place and it is working well our office is very transparent and
proactive to find new opportunities that benefit the town um open to modifying the workflow but this raises a lot of questions because no one approached us to see what's working and what could be improved and so I would suggest adding
to the job description uh that they be in uh part of their job description be uh analyzing the storm water issues that we have in town and proposing uh fixes for some of these because as we've been doing in the
planning board uh from day one when we come to a an issue with storm water it's generally some kind of half-baked storm water thing that's attached to the road and goes off on the
private property and usually it is without an easement across that person's property uh including pipes and things of that nature so I think all that stuff would be the purview of this town
engineer as well as what you say here uh and also he could help uh engineer projects for instance like buzzer Bay is doing with the culverts and and Michael burus is helping to get those grants uh
he could propose new things like the bridge at the head of Westport without trying to go through uh everything else so I would suggest that you it's imperative to get a town
engineer I think you have to tweak the job description I I would I would also recommend that we we do um submit this to the planning board to uh try to review it and see what they can do I mean we have Bob dalor in there that's
you know we are an elected position and he donates his time and um because I I certainly certainly do not see the need for them to attend regular planning board meetings um Conservation Commission is an appointed board I can see I can see if he need if he's needed
there but the planning board and then we're getting into the private end of it this is the town engineer was more as it's a town engineer it's not for private projects and how they can coordinate with the pro public Craig yes and we should also extend the
same courtesy and uh to the Board of Health I think and the Conservation Commission because there're they're listed in here too so well conservation commission's appointed I don't I don't see mean the other are elected boards and they do have very specific yeah can I just yeah
go ahead so this has been going on for over a year now so this went to the Personnel Board the town engineer position over a year ago and they had approved it so back before the select board probably two or three times at least where we've discussed it so it's it's been out there
I think you know everybody you know I was surprised that planning and was not aware of it when he when he wrote that email but anyway as far as the functions go it just it just describes what the functions are it doesn't give them any authority over the planning board it doesn't give them any
authority over the Board of Health if the planning board doesn't want him going to the meeting he doesn't go to the meeting I don't think there's any need for him to go to the meeting it's something that on a regular daily basis the staff can communicate with him there's no need for him to have overtime to go go to a planing board meeting oration meeting or he meeting I will say
that I worked in Swansea and we did for the planning board and we had engineering Consultants who would review the plans we riew the design similar to Westport they also had a town engineer Mr Webster at the time and he would attend some of the planning board meetings when he had concerns about the design didn't mean the planning he
overrode the Consultants uh comments you know the planning board would take his comments into consideration as well and render a decision um but it was helpful on occasions because sometimes the engineer knows what's what's happening in the streets around the subdivision or the site plan where a consultant may not know so I wouldn't rule it out
completely that's just my own opinion if if you do that's fine but but so if we were going to do that and we were going to get away away with with not using consultants and we had the planning board instead of a consultant pay our town engineer to do it I could see that
case but we're we're we're not going in that direction or I don't even want to say that we're trying to but I think that would be more on the planning board's privy to so uh look into that so I think we have three options in front of us right we can accept the job
description as presented by Jim we can accept it with some amendments if we want to make some specific changes right now or we can not accept it now and send it to other um to particularly the Board of Health and planning board and seek their input I I think those are our
three choices I would I I would move it forward on a need for the engineer and accept it and just remove the planning board meetings I mean would be that simple to me are we talking about this draft removing some of those line type uh
management functions is that so so like I said we can we can like the moderator says right if you're going to make a few changes we could make a few changes right now and just cross them out and work together right if we think that there's more than just a a couple of simple changes then I
think we should not address it right now we should go rewrite it or consult with people so I think it just depends whether we want to accept it do I want to make some small tweaks to it here or do we want to um come back to it another
time I think we could do some some combination of this and still advertise the position so that before we offer the position we will have dealt with our processes
and and concerns that we fine tune in the job description but um that would be in the contract maybe well let's put it this way you you could you can advertise a job you can solicit candidates that are reasonably
um qualified for the job hopefully and you can use some of that time while you're going through the the vetting processes of these candidates and the interview processes to sort of not some of the Kinks in the job description and that's that's how that's
how I'm doing this okay so but we don't so we don't the agenda item was to review and approve the job description so I don't think we can can we approve the posting I don't yeah we can approve the posting does that you think that
falls under the agenda topic of reviewing and approve if we don't approve I like I see what I like I actually like what you're saying we have a little time to we're not going to make significant changes to this that would affect really the candidates accepting of employment or maybe it would affect they accepting it but then not whether they're seeking the job right so during
the interviewing process I think we have enough here right right and then um we can in the meantime we can refer out to these other boards and um before we get to the final Employment contract we'd have to have the job so that's what you're saying so I guess my question is
can we approve the posting for this position I don't know that we're properly posted for for approving that I don't know what do you think I don't know at this point I don't know if two weeks is going to make a big difference I'd also ask the board to consider if
town meeting approves The Residency waiver that'll open it up to a greater field of candidates which may be beneficial to the town as well I I I kind of disagree on that one I I think we need somebody from toing this with all these all these issues that we
have in town with storm water um we just raised that up with the consultant might not be aware of what's going on the streets I think we should look to see what kind of candidates we we get to apply I me I agree Jake I think Jake mcgan again I
think my only concern is to Echo the sentiments of Jim as uh Mr haret stated it's been out there but as a member of the Conservation Commission this the first I've really heard of this engineering position so I don't know what it would be mean from an oversight position with conservation we do a lot
of Outsourcing with Consultants and consultant Engineers to do work so again I think maybe the proper boards should be uh consulted with respect to how that's going to impact their jobs how it's going to impact the conservation agent uh with respect to uh his duties
and his responsibilities and and what we use the wetlands protection fund and our fund for to hire engineers and to Manny's Point um I believe if we are going down this road that it should be somebody that has a intimate Knowledge
from Westport that understands the situation here in Westport as opposed to doing outside and not understanding the storm water not understanding the rule nature of uh Westport so I think that should be a uh priority to make sure that it is somebody within the community
that understands what we're trying to do and what we're trying to accomplish thank you just um the town the warrant article talks about residency preferences rather than requirements so that you might get someone say from Dartmouth or tiveron or Little Compton
um who you know but maybe not so um so if we take that approach I don't think we're properly posted to um to actually post the job um availability but I would prefer to do that at the next meeting so we can properly post that we are going to post the job are we going to add the
storm order that Jim whiten mentioned well I think we also need to refer it's in there all right destion includes just about everything I don't Jim the other other thing I didn't notice could be in this somewhere is who's going to evaluate this for us is Town Town Administrator under administrat
administrative Direction Town Administrator in the select board where is it the idea is not to take any anything away from you know the planner or conservation agent or anything so just so they can say hey pick up the phone and say what do you think about this okay so so we're going to circulate this
draft job description to everybody we can think of that might need to know about it and then um we will post at the next meeting for posting the position and then we can continue review the job description is that like I said I would just put the P evaluation in there
somewh because it's okay anybody has feedback send it to Jim um we're going to move on um so we have g5g request from Sue Brion the treasurer collector and Nicole piol um the town accountant to approve the
contract with zobrio financial software I love I spend my day job working with Erp systems so I was kind of excited when I saw oh boy Erp this is good evening zo and Nicole what brings you here
today well we um we ate a few snags with Spring Brook uh we I've been working working with the Abraham group for a updated chart of accounts and they've been working with another town uh and
they misrepresented what they could do for us um so we're not going to put any more time into trying to work with Springbrook we're going to go with zobrio it's a proven we already have it
in town we have it for cash receipts loves it love love it um and uh when they came down and did our presentation everything looks like it's on they're on board and they can do exactly what we wanted Spring Brook to
do um the cost is pretty similar and we still have the money left from the article uh for the original uh software from a couple years ago so Jim were you involved at all or we yeah I met with them last week um they
seem local they seem Statewide um Happ with them too yeah I would recommend approval mam chair I believe that uh Keith Novo is also supportive of this definitely so that's what we've
been hearing for oh God at least six seven years that we're running out of room on the server soft right the the as good as it is it sits on our server So eventually we're going to ride on room and and uh because soft fre has been
sold so many times that they really don't support it as well as they used to um and we really need to go Cloud yeah so yeah ke Keith is definitely in favor any discussion on that you ready for does there anybody have any questions I'll
move it second is there any discussion all in favor I that's unanimous I do have I wasn't really related to the vote but um the uh the do you guys have I'm assuming you do have the capacity to help them take this on
like we're going toes a lot of your time okay we'll make it happen all right yeah I mean basically I still have the the Abraham group is is actually redoing our chart of accounts because there has been some issues in the past with um not
exactly following umis it's so much easier to redo your chart of accounts in a new system thany um but they basically said um they about a month for us to get the chart of accounts to them once they have it it's literally we're already in
there so they just have to make a few changes to what we have U with our cash receipt system and um training we' be able to go live July 1 okay so all right anything else going on you want to talk about uh audit's in audit's done uh you
guys all have the final audit going to tell you that later that's all right well I just want to let you know it is in it is done um I haven't put it on the website because of course we're switch you know I got the I got the email from Carol that said that anything you put on the website now I'm
not gonna so I haven't put it up um but yeah the audit's done the single audit is in so it's the federal audit that's all been approved and everything um I'm going to school next week so all right well thank you ladies good
luck with the software thank you um we have a request from Chris Gonzalez the highway surveyor to approve the department of transportation reimbursements for the 2024 Paving improvements project you want to tell us about that yes so this is uh standard reimbursements we get chapter 90 on a
yearly basis the work is done we pay the we pay the uh contractor and then we request reimbursement from the state so this reimbursement is for $284,500 all in favor I I that's unanimous we have a request from Kristen Stinson to approve the warrant for the annual Town election to be held on April
8 2025 and that's that's all the same locations as we've had um and just a reminder to PE folks that the um polls on the town election are open 10 to 8 so
how early 10 they start all right I'll move it second have any discussion all in favor I I that's unanimous this is didn't have anything under discussion topics how about the Town Administrator report administrator report I received a
letter from Governor Healey um on the chapter 90 reimbursement or authorization this year so she has a bill currently going through the process which would up our chapter 90 um allowance um by about 50% usually get about 200 million and goes up to 300
million if it goes through if it goes through goes through so we're hoping it goes through because it does two different things the first 200 million is based on the standard formula which is 58% mileage 20% population and 21% employment the second or if the
additional 100 million goes to that is based solely on road mileage which would benefit the town of Westport so hopefully that goes through um local legislators they have a uh Recycling and energy drive at the old high school on Saturday March 29th between the hours of
9 and 12 um this will be at the old high school again on March 29th between 9 and 12 uh South Coast rail was already mentioned passenger service will begin on March 24th our weekend rides and parking will be free on the new Fall River New Bedford line through the end
of April to celebrate the new service uh there is a website and a link attached on the town administrator's report um the water billing we we've talked about I think in detail um there is a just to bring to your attention there is a leak in the private water
line IT services some of the homes down in Westport Harbor near the Herring run on was it River Road River Road um that is scheduled to be repaired on Monday uh they were going to try and do it this week they couldn't get an excavator there so I had a question on that so did
the where this was determined is that a study that we paid for What study Le yeah the report where we're losing 100,000 gallons a day so so there was a report done that we did not pay for that report paid for that report
there's a another private water um hob or something yeah I'm not sure which one one it is but the name of it but it Services the houses over near um so have they determined where the leak is well there's uh it appears that there's a leak right next to the hering
run there there's that looked like a service to me that doesn't look like 100,000 gallons no no no I don't think so either um and I read the report a little differently and I'm not an expert on that that by any means but could you forward me that report yeah
yeah so so that that that that contractor so that that's where it goes over the over the pipe yeah it's just before the pipe so that was during was before you Tim King authorized that to go over the pipe yeah and they did a repair last year of the year before I
believe as well yeah so I mean why would we do a repair over that pipe when that when that Cula gets replaced it's going to be under it anyway well we didn't do the repair the um it's a private line so yeah but it's in it's in the Municipal Road and it's a public water it's it's a private public water supply in the road
it's not it's a private water supply it's not a not considered a public water supply it's a private it's still a public water supply it is not this one isn't this one isn't the other one is and that's one of the arguments they think it should be considered a small public water supply but right now it is
not classifi can we get can we get the D to look at this what's going on over here I they've been involved we got the we got the heren Run and and whatever needs to be fixed needs to be fixed correctly within the next three weeks so I would suggest that we send our
contractor up there because because the water supply that we're losing 100,000 gallons a day I haven't seen a report but that's what I was told that we're losing 100,000 gallons a day of water let me get you the report that's from our aquaa so whether it's a public water supply and then we've they've been
drilling Wells up there and so forth so it's kind of a major concern to the town resource that this this private water supply company is not operating correctly and and I I think there's been an issue on there's more houses on this
line and it really it should be this so yeah you know I don't know all the details all I know is that mass D oversees that whole public non-public water supply that's yeah tell the urgency of getting somebody had to fix this correctly
because now what are you sending the contractor over that that put that over the top of the Co I'm not sending the contractor so the the operator of the system itself is hiring their own contractor to do the work um they've run it by the conservation agent and they'll
also have M just let me finish please they'll also have M they'll also have Highway Department over see the work it yeah it's an odd situation you know it's it's not an ideal water pipe in our layout but it's been there for I don't know what 100 years well I I I
think I think it needs to be to specifications just like we just had this m do right now it's we could get we could get that pipe lower under the coov correctly I mean this pipe probably froze this winter and
that's why we have the leak so to go over there and fix a leak over the cover and then next year it freezes again I think we kind of have an issue to go in there let's let's do the repair correctly over the top and and whether the the company they have to pay somebody to fix it so why don't we send
our contractor that's certified to work on this type of work that's already here in town that said he had he had an available crew to go out there and detect the leak correctly and repair it so I think that's what we should vote for is to send them over there and then if we have to give the the private water supply that's got substandard work in
our road a bill for this work that's what we do I don't think we have the authority to require a private entity to use a contract of our choice outside of a procurement there it sounds like there's already a plan for repair that they need to do on an
emergency basis to me I think the leak is before the co it could be over the co so the highway department and the conservation agent are going to be supervising the work down there we're going to send you the report so Highway High what's highways qualifications super we're
digging I'm assuming they're digging up our roadway and so highway is going to make sure they they dug up the roadway and created this problem so I'm I'm I'm looking at let's fix it right right now in the three weeks that we have to do it and send send the contractor that's got the water bill the water in town to put
a a specified to specifications to town specifications in our roadway correctly because they've already done it incorrectly there nothing for us I mean it's so what's that there's nothing for us to act on tonight regarding to that right you got three weeks before the Heron run so you get 100,000 gallons a
day running out of the pipe according to that report so so it's going to be repaired we're going to do the part that we have to do probably not going to be F correctly done the way that you want it to be done but done the way it needs so the town needs to do things the town
doesn't have authority to require someone to use one of our contract let's get D DP involved in this this rep let's get the DP might have authority plus we're talking about taking an action here that is not posted nobody
any we jumped down we jumped down another rabbit hole and pulled back our discussion using that very same pointy you guys can do whatever you want okay go ahead do whatever you want so we're right is there want just for me that report is there anything else on the rep
couple of quick things budget update um we did get the diamond numbers in which came in 234,000 less than the preliminary budget um health insurance expenses um we did get that number in it's going to be 88.2% increase it was actually a little bit higher but less
thought we bought it down they put a million dollarars of the investments in to it to bring it down from over 10% down to 88.2% um which is even the 10.2 looking at some of these other communities they're up 15 17 25% there was one that
was 40% increase so overall um the health insurance program group that we're in has been uh performing fairly well we've just had two new additions to that group as well which should expand um or help us next time we we go into
negotiations um local receipts looking to increase that estimate by 200,000 based on DLS it just provided some um they have a dashboard that shows Statewide how the local receipts have been coming in um excise tax and it looks like we can increase that a bit
and still stay within uh budget um so overall um I will present this to the board next meeting just if you want to get your vote on it but um we may be able to limit the free cash to 400,000 and still uh get the schools up
to about 600 I'm sorry 23, 650,000 which is not exactly where they want to be but it's getting closer all right so you so um we are not voting on this tonight but but you did send this to the finance committee so that we have it okay um and
then just a couple of quick things uh there's a video on the school website I sent to the chair I how could I have forgotten an announcements that the boys basketball team get made the final four no I that should have been I was going to just ruin my
thundery dick we're really getting ruined yeah we are it's getting bad wait so the video the video you're talking about is not the basketball team the video I'm talking about was the U Secretary of State the interim Secretary of State came of Education came down to Westport they did like a 2minute video it's very impressive uh it's a good look
for the school I'd advise you to go on the school Community website and take a look at it it's it's impressive so I think it's good plugs too that's all I havek that's more than enough okay the uh minutes I've read them uh
move approval second any discussion all in favor I that's unanimous report on the bill warrant it's in the file there were no comments which is code for there were no problems and but I signed it so it was routine thank you all right so
liaison committee reports and suggestions for future items Craig nothing I don't think we had any meetings last um dick well I was going to talk about the audit committee but that's okay because those are the people who are doing the work on
this but I did want to point out that in the audit committee report um or in the Auditors report rather which the audit committee reviewed last week there were no material weaknesses so we spent our last meeting going through the other management recommendations none of which
are um I wouldn't say they're not sign ific but they're not problematic and we will continue to do that and of course we will ask the board of select the select board to uh entertain Mr Tony orelli the town auditor at a later date and that's all I have all right thank
you boys basketball tomorrow 5:00 pm you had to get in high school all right um the climate resilience committee met um last week uh I don't know if there's a video of it or not it wasn't when I checked but um I just got it you just got it okay so the the climate
resilience committee um the first part of the meeting we had um uh Chief Baldwin um talked about what the fire department is seeing that are changes um uh to town basically that's impacting the fire that the fire department is
seeing based on um some environmental changes are going on for example um last year we had a lot of uh rain in the springtime and then so there was a lot of vegetation and then we had a very dry summer and then it was like a a powder keg out there um we talked about of
course the day that we were meeting was one of those very windy days um you talked about the importance of um maintaining um good fire safety but I would suggest might not be interested in the entire climate resilience committee meeting but that first part where um Chief Baldwin was talking I thought was
pretty interesting about some of the stuff that and mulch be careful with mul I didn't even know this don't put mulch near the foundation of your house there you go I thought everybody put Mulch on the foundation of their house but don't don't do it there's a um
there there was some zoning um building code changes because of um dmouth Woods project that I constructed 20 years ago that caused that that fire we had on on Easter when Harry's actually lived on the bottom floor and we lost the whole
building and someone threw a cigarette out the window into the mulch into the mulch I went up the side got the building had sprinkler systems get over the roof luckily everybody was home having Easter dinner on the fire and no one was injured um one of the things I
found very interesting about the climate resilience committee is I've never been one that paid all that much attention to it's kind of like that climate is something that other people are thinking about but a lot of the impacts on Westbard are very interesting like um like mosquito born illnesses um and tick
born illnesses and things like that there's really really quite a few impacts to the town so that's um the climate resilience committee is working on a a master report um we got some help I think from UMass Dartmouth um to help us put the report together so hopefully
um by the summer we'll be done with that that was the only meeting I had okay now just a reminder it's a couple of meetings coming up you might when you have the new board or whatever you might want to have just another Beach uh meeting to follow up because it'll be April by then just a reminder on that on the um fire thing you might want to
touch Bas with forestry again we haven't touched that in like 10 or 20 years about a forestry plan for the town um you may want to look into that Jim as a side thing it's not a rush the other thing I wanted to ask you if we could do was maybe we could recognize Paul at the next meeting before I take off cu the whole time I was I served with Paul and
I know people give him a citation didn't we already give Paul did we I did on my end we did on the state yeah on the state level but I don't think the town's given one are they Paul so for the whole board to sign off thank you maybe for the next meeting yeah before I go sign
any I think that's it for now you okay right infastructure um so I guess they gets running down Route Six now we got a lot of complaints on gifed road but um I think they would doing a great job the weather was against them um many days
the asphalt plant was only open one days so one day a week and various ones so they had trouble patching but but uh they'll be able to catch up with that um but on getting back to that to the rabbit hole on infrastructure and with Jim
Whiting here speaking um I think in the future discussion we need to look to create an water district out there to try to combine these three companies out there another question is we did we did um approve was it like $40,000 for
something out there out of Opera money was that's not this report that's coming through now what was that $40,000 for that was to uh look at yeah to hire a consultant to look at alternative sites for a new well right so I mean 100,000 gallons a day is kind a lot of you might
not need a new well um but that so that this report that's coming through wasn't from that money no I don't believe no all right all right anything else be a big line if it's 100,000 um so the next meeting is two weeks from today March 24
I can see sorry we're talking about gallons go ahead oh if it's a 6inch pipe it's not oh it is six okay anything else accept a motion to adour Second all in favor I go