I'm going to call the meeting to order will you join me in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge Al to the flag of the United States of America to the for it stands one nation God indivisible andice for
all good evening welcome to the Monday February 24 2025 meeting of the Westport Select board under Mass General Law chapter 38 section 20f this meeting is being recorded um I don't have any special announcements today um we do have an
executive session um scheduled at the end of this meeting we will come to open session only to adjourn we will not conduct business after the executive session um just a reminder that our next meeting is on Monday March 10 as two weeks from today there any
announcements okay um so the first item on the agenda is a public hearing we have a request from Robert Rondo for a six-month seasonal trailer permit for recreational purposes to locate a trailer on 913 Street the property is shown on assessor map 76a lot 69 J um so
this is the transfer it's not transfer of the license this was a trailer on this lot previously and this is a new owner so Paula is the uh paperwork in order yes so the petitioners are here if anybody has any questions for them you want to we just verif nothing has
changed same layout same same layout there's no other questions I'll move it second so we have a motion in a second to approve the six-month permit um this is a public hearing is there anyone from the public that has anything they want to say anyone from the
board right all in favor I that's unanimous congratulations you're all set um so you all said except for whatever Paula tells you you need to all right thank you um the second item we have on the agenda is for um a request from Michael Ashley for a six-month seasonal
trailer permit for recreational purposes to locate a trailer on 126 Southshore Street the property is shown on assessor map 76a Lots 125 and 126 this is another one that was recently sold there was a trailer on the lot and this is a new owner this is I guess I'm going to ask
Mr W's question is this the same layout same type layout yep and is the paperwork in order okay the petition are here if anybody has any questions for them just noted that the other one had a composting toilet this one's selfcontained with the with the contract
I'll move it second is there any discussion is there any comments from the public all in favor I that shanus enjoy enjoy the trailer um under 2A we have a request to approve a common victualer application
of till dusk Cafe and Bakery at 549 American Legion Highway K Miranda owner manager this was previously the countryside Market on 177 um are the petitioners here is the um paperwork in order yes
yeah they still me may need some border of Health approval but as far as the select boards finally they all said okay and just so the public knows that's where the market was before was the name of it it was Country Side Country Side that's right okay I'll move it second do
have a motion a second to approve the common victual subject to the Board of Health regul do we do it subject to part of health or the Board of Health does they're going to have their own control and their own control okay all right um is there any discussion anything from the public all in favor I I that's
unanimous conratulations when are you opening um I you don't know yet you have to get the board have to talk to the Board of Health First well good luck thank you um we have a request from police chief Christopher Dunn although we have deputy Chief here to join us um
to appoint Tristan Costa as a full-time police officer contingent upon successful completion of background check and psychological examination um effective Sunday March 9 2025 welcome gentleman you want to introduce yourself sure Tristan Costa Robert Bell Westport
police um so on behalf of the chief who couldn't be here he's on vacation I just wanted to uh read his memo members of the board to address the need for full-time police officers I respectfully request that the board consider appointing Tristan Costa contingent upon the successful completion of a background check and psychological
examination Mr Costa brings valuable experience having served as a Fall River Police Officer for the past 5 years with experience in uniform division in the gang unit he is a resident of Freetown is married with a six-month-old boy if approved I propose an effective start
date of Sunday March 9th 2025 please note that I'm not requesting any additional funding to fill this position thank you thank you anybody have any questions well that's good he's got experience you you realize you uh make
have to make us look good correct Del sorry you reflect upon us I'll move them one second is there any discussion is there anything you want to say um excited for the opportunity and I'm happy to be here thank you thank you all right all in favor I that's unanimous
Deputy you want to is there anything you wanted to share with us about going on at the police department uh right now there's really nothing going on uh several new promotions with lieutenants and sergeants and stuff like that and it's nice to just have this body of people that we can rely on now and have additional members of the department to
answer calls for service in other parts of town if we have um others tied up so it's just it's nice to have the members that we need to get the job done it's it's refreshing I thank you all for that thank you thank you thank you for the work you do sure all right thank you gentlemen just if you want to relate to to the chief still working on the
Chevron signs uh 88 North goes to 195 just so you know they the ones that have been missing and cars keep smashing into them oh yes correct probably till when when the ground thaws it's a dream to get illuminated there but I don't know if it's in the budget but I want to at least get them replaced so that's in the works okay there was also questions
about Route Six Westbound at whites where it goes around the corner there too there was never any Chevrons there we've had multiple cars go off the road there up on to 195 actually so yeah we'll find out on that too I know they gave there anything you can do about that I had questioned it earlier and they said that they were going to wait until the project was worked on and done
but I I really think that's something that we when I was on the six task force we couldn't even get the yellow light back they were sick of changing it every moment but let's see what we can do okay appreci awesome thank you thank you thank you thank you have a good night good evening next item we have is a request
from Beverly Bish Council on Aging director to appoint Wayne herzler as part-time maintenance specialist at 19.75 hours week I everybody hello Dev Vish director of the Council
on Aging um Wayne way he Wayne comes with um a lot of um construction and maintenance background too um um but the biggest thing that I stressed when I interviewed him was you need to be able to
clean uh the gentleman who has re was recently just appointed maybe like four weeks ago um unfortunately he had a um Family Medical Emergency and he needs to relocate so he had to resign which is really unfortunate he had been a Tau in
um maintenance person for many years and had retired from there so I had Wayne come in a little bit earlier to work with him to really show him some of the you know the the maintenance part we don't worry about it all I I know he's got that down pat um but the the
cleaning part of it too just because of all the people that are in there you know because we'll have anywhere from 100 to like 350 people people go through that place in a day so because of all the people and everything so I'm thrilled that we have a new person on again I have big shoes to
fill Jim very nice guy recommend approval second so we have a motion a second to appoint Wayne herzler is there any discussion all in favor I that's unanimous B I understand you all were just had some Prestige you want to tell
us about that we did um the executive office of Elder Affairs which is now renamed themselves to the Executive Office of Aging and Independence I believe that's what it is um everybody's changing their name again and rebranding um they just did their annual report for
23 fiscal year 23 they take all of the coas their reports from the 351 towns and cities in Massachusetts and they report on statistics what's going on in the state how many people how many seniors were serving and everything and
they had a uh on page 7 17 they had a section for supportive day programs and Westport was highlighted there's only 38 supportive day programs in the state out of 351 towns and cities there's only 38 and out of that 38 we were highlighted
as like the best practice what what we do um so that's really you know to be recognized for the whole state as you know one of the the best is is really good um so kudos to Connie McCoy and her staff and her volunteers for the for the
work that they do uh the supportive day programs open Monday Wednesday and Friday from 8:30 to 2:30 and on Wednesdays we actually were up to 30 people a day that's how many people are coming into this program and we're just seeing more and more and we could open five days a week we just don't have the
capacity right now because we're doing the exercise classes and other things on Tuesday and Thursday um before covid it was 8 to 12 averaged a day and we're up to 30 people on Wednesdays maybe 20 people on Monday or or Friday or whatever it happens to be so so um you
know it's just been really it's been really really successful and we we're getting a lot of a lot of Kudos from a lot of the family too um the families and the caregivers really struggle to be able to do this day after day so um to
have a a very secure um place um and and enriching environment for their loved one to be able to go to on Monday Wednesday and Friday is really critical and and we have a few people uh Michelle raposo who's a teacher in the school system her her mom comes to the program
she she absolutely loves it when am I going back there when am I going back there you know um so we have it's really it's a phenomenal program and and Connie as a retired teacher just does a wonderful job with the curriculum and everything that we do congratulations it's nice to see some recognition
anything for B before we let her go right thank you still writing grants so w keeping thank you meeting everybody thank you very much thank you thank you um we have a request sorry no no we have a request from Brian Gallagher chair of the commission on
disability to appoint Steve maano sorry about that um to the commission he is here if anybody has anything for him um yes we had a we had a position on the commission right yes it's a vacant position okay sounds good I'll move
second so we have a motion in a second um to appoint Steve mastano I ask how to say his name how do you say your name Mato matano sorry Mato practice that a few times all in
favor I I that's unanimous welcome aboard thank you all um we have a request to appoint gay Gillespie see I don't have any trouble with that one um to the affordable housing trust fund uh I make motion that we appoint gay gpie to the affordable housing trust fund
second any discussion all in favor I that's unanimous we have a request to post seasonal lifeguard positions and increase the hourly rates by 3% Jim you want to tell us about that yeah this is just yearly appointments um I think most of the life guards are coming back from
last year but there may be one or two openings um we normally give them the same increase that the other employees get the only thing I would suggest is that instead of July 1st with the 3% increase we get the 3% increase when they start which is like the second week of June so just so we don't have to
change the payroll the second week so would recommend approval and this wouldn't just be for the life Gods but also for the U head lifeu would be a 3% increase so I'd ask that you uh approve the posting of the positions for the lifeguards and increase the pay
rate by 3% starting uh first week of the season so Mo second is there any discussion I just need to abstain since um my son's a lifeguard okay um all in favor I I
any opposed so we U four in favor one exstension um we have a request from fire chief Baldwin to support an earmark request for a cardiac monitor through Senator Michael rodri's office Jim yeah this is yearly uh Senator rodri usually
tries to identify an ear Mark for the town of Westport we've used it for Street improvements designs along rout 177 at GIF Road and at tickle Road this year the fire department has a specific request in for $65,000 and they're just looking for the support from the board of selectman uh so that
he can send this off to the senator and hopefully get it included in the budget thank you any questions move it second so we have a motion in a second um to support the Your Mark request is there any
discussion all in favor I that's unanimous um we have a request to approve the veteran service employment agreements we discussed um this in executive session at the last select board meeting so Jim you want to give us an update yes this would be a three-year agreement uh last um contract with her
or Personnel agreement was for one year we did last year um it's consistent with many of the other veteran positions throughout the area and state um her hourly rate I think is still um in the middle of of
other employment uh similar positions throughout the state she's also certified not only locally but with the state level and the federal level there's very few veterans Offices here in the state that are certified for the federal so I'd recommend approval of a three-year contract I'll move second I
just had a question so we've already accounted for this change in the proposed budget that we're going to is there any question all in favor I I that's unanimous we have a request from Carol frus the veteran service officer to
accept a $200 donation from Richard and Karen broer for discretionary use does she have a gift account for this Jim she does have an account so just to clarify it's going into the gift account I I believe so yes all right well discretionary is good enough if we leave it like it is yes okay I'll move it as
as post second any discussion all in favor I that's unanimous um so the next two are layouts um so really what we need to do here is um um refer to the planning board so we
have petition requests to lay out the way as Granite Post Road and refer the position to the planning board this is already on the article the town meeting Warren articles this is to refer it to the planning board do the chair no issues that you know of yet with planning on this
one tomorrow I'll go anyway all right I I'll uh move as recommended by the uh non administrator motion to accept the layout and Granite Post Road and refer to the planning board and the same with Maya are we do both them y so first
one you only doing one or are you doing both all right I'll do them both I thought you said one I move them both they both okay Granite Post Road and Maya way both okay um is there any discussion yeah I I know that my May way we we ended up finishing it on the house
yeah I thought but I don't I don't know what's happening with survey or anything like that but we can figure that out tomorrow there was enough Bond money and we got a good number from the contract so we got lucky on that one okay so um all in favor I I that's
unanimous so those are being referred to the planning board um we have a request from Chris Gonzales the highway surveyor to post the skilled laborer light truck driver and special equipment operator positions do you want to tell us about that one Jim yeah the highway department is looking to post um both of these
positions with the intent of only filling one of them uh he's looking for his preference would be for the um skilled labor the special equipment operator the higher position but it's difficult to get somebody that has all a certification so if nobody is available
he'd still like to uh at least fill the labor position which hopefully we can use to do some more of the grass cutting this year and some of the I'll move it with that understanding second is there any discussion all in favor I that's
unanimous if it's okay with the board I would like to take uh 5A out of order and because we have people here do you have everybody here that you're expecting um so my thought is to go ahead and talk about Bicentennial Park and then come back to the warrant and
the budget is that all right M all right um so this is we're on 5A this is for to discuss um Bicentennial Park good evening hello uh my name is Dana Stewart I'm the recreation director for the town of Westport thank you so much for having us
um this is Andrea dumbar she's the chair of the Recreation Commission and we've come to you tonight to talk about the Bicentennial Park Improvement project that we've been working on and we just wanted to make sure that um you know you all know of some of the plans we've been
discussing and then to have your blessing to move forward um so our vision is to improve the Bicentennial Park for all to enjoy um this is located right near mumber school on 19 2 gford Road um we estimate that it's 26 or more
years old um and it comprises one playground structure one skate park two basketball courts and there's some grass area on the side that has some picnic tables and benches um so some of the current issues if any of you have been out there lately
I encourage you to go out there um it is in need of a full Rehabilitation uh the park is not wheelchair accessible uh meaning that there are some barriers um on the ground that really um are preventative from people easily going to
the park in a wheelchair um there's no identified wheelchair parking there's um and no real paved paths out there um there's some old broken signs an old broken fence um the playground structure
itself is very old and rusting with some pieces missing the skate park has cracked concrete and graffiti throughout it and the basketball courts although usable um have some crack payment fading lines and rusted backboards and currently um there's Machinery there of
course with the project on gford road so these are some pictures um of the current state of the park um you can see there's rust there's just cracks there's disrepair um and we want to improve this we want to fix this so um the solution
is we have a three-phase idea um phase one is replacing the old playground structure with a new one we have 534,906 to Lowe's Grant and I'm going to be working on some others to kind of help supplement um gives us a little more
room um in terms of design if we want to add things that might be great features to have we can maybe do that if we have some grant money we're actively getting design quotes from three different playground companies um the Recreation Commission and our playground subcommittee have
been working on that um right now we're kind of fine-tuning some of those designs going back and forth with the companies on colors on different aspects of the playground so that's always kind of a fun process and then we estimate that we can install this in summerfall
of 2025 um I understand from Jim that the Machinery that is out there might hopefully um be gone by like May or June um yeah I would say maybe a little later than that but if it needs to be out soon or we can try and work something else so
that would be great um and we can kind of work around that Jim I got a question on don't don't we own don't we own some land on Osborne Street around that way like behind that old school or something I just wonder School Street or is it in back of the old school let dig it go
over there instead of play Let's talk about the playground I am talking about let's talk about their let's talk about their we'll talk about it you're talking about moving the equipment over there is that what you're talking about well I'm since it's in the playground and I'm just wondering why it was decided to put it in the playground that's all I mean I don't think that's a wrong question to
ask when we looking about we have in the playground being destroyed right now it was it was a clear area um they said they would come back in and do any repairs to the basketball court after um the other area was wooded um so it would have to be cleared and there was some Wetlands back there just so you know the
basketball courts are an ice skating ring too I think those BMS are ruined but we didn't really flood it that much anymore anyways because of the liability yeah so thank you nothing was freezing until this yeah yeah
really um so with Fe two um we have an application that we submitted for for CPC funds for $250,000 it was approved to go to town meeting and um will'll be up for approval at town meeting this May 6th um so if approved we'd like to accomplish
the following uh we'd like to demolish the old skate park and prep the land for either a new skate park or another Recreation Area um we have pulled um the community members at some of the events this past uh holiday season season um of
what they would like to see out there and we want to continue to do so up until the point where we would start looking at different designs obviously what we would put in um would affect the budget um so four examples um we could
do a brand new skate park with just nicer features and more modern we could do a um tennis courts I know we have some at the high school but we could add some others north of town um you didn't get uh bed with pickle ball requests so
we discussed pickle ball length it's louder the back though and that is one of the issues we have those houses on the side we have houses in front of the park and the macumber school on the side and our Recreation Commission did speak or and talk about the idea and we were
worried about a Butters I know it's like um 100 to 200 feet barrier between a Butters and a pickleball court and we're not sure that would work um however we have been talking um about about maybe partnering with the Westport Youth
Athletic Association to see if down the line we can install some pickle ball Courts at the fields there um that are near Ace Hardware there so that's a possibility I also know the um school did end up painting uh pickleball lines on two of their tennis courts this past
November so that's good and the elementary school actually has three pickle ball uh courts they created by painting lines on the black top in the back of the school that I'm sure could be used after school hours when school's not in session um so the other thing we'd like
to do is create paved walking paths around the whole perimeter of the Park area which is quite large and through the center and across in the in the park we feel like that'll give people um another way to exercise people who have
mobility issues or in wheelchairs could do so um kids could practice their with their little bikes um maybe even the roller blading but it gives a nice paved area for people to get out and exercise um we'd like to improve the front of the park with a new fence signs
wheelchair accessible parking and entrance just have it look nice in the front so people can you know be proud to come up to that Park and see it and come on through um we'd like to improve the basketball courts by repaving um new lines possible new backboards and Nets
um we'd like to install a covered Pavilion um this is an idea that we came up with because I get a lot of requests for people um wanting to use a gym for birthday parties and this would give people another space to hold a birthday party or event um thinking that through
the recreation department and a you know permit they could use that space um and reserve it for their event and then have the amenities in the park to use as well this wouldn't preclude others in the public from coming to the park it would just um create a reservation of sorts
for that Pavilion um and then uh we believe work can begin anytime after May 6 again in coordination with um the current construction out there and if we're able to begin that even simultaneously as
we're improving the actual playground so phase three is down the line um we'd like to submit another CPC application this would basically um be putting something in place of where the old skate park was um we would like to
survey the community as I had mentioned about what they might like out there and then we'll investigate the costs and different design options and then we can work on that any time after um possibly May 2026 when we might be able to get
funding now with that too we can always investigate other grants um and other funding options for donations and such um Tim Gillespie who's on our Recreation Commission uh did this uh mockup of kind of of our idea so um the parking would
still be in the front but we'd like to repave that make it nicer um he didn't put it in this design but right up front near the entrance we'd like to have wheelchair accessible parking that would be very well identified and then um and then as you can see with the Gray Line
areas those will all be paved paths and then um that's just an example of you know the um the playground it's not an actual design there on this sketch um but you could see the where we're thinking about putting a pavilion it
would have concrete on the bottom or base and then we'd have heavy picnic tables underneath so that it would be pretty much maintenance free um we'd have to talk about trash like if someone comes out there but um I think you know
that's always an issue with the park too um and then we'd like to just make the basketball courts look a lot nicer and then that blank space in the back obviously VI ly would be phase three um so when we demolish we just make sure to smooth out the surface and so it's not
of harm to anyone if they go out there um maybe put gravel down or something um it wouldn't be a green space it's just kind of to indicate the space where it is on the on the design there um so that is the presentation and
if you I welcome any questions or if you have anything to add as well um that just lists our Recreation Commission members who've been helping me can you go back to the playground layout please so just so you know
there's currently a gate right here yep um that's so police can get back there yes and we can do that make sure this one's wide enough yes the only problem I think the walkway is great the only problem is if you're going to put asphalt you're going to have Frost leaves and it's going to get ruin in the winter another big problem with walkways
too with playgrounds almost every one of them um if you're too low it tends to keep the water and of course ice issues so I just be careful on that if you can move the Pavilion up you want to always where people are going to gather we'd always like to see it better with the police can see it driving by the further back it is there's also a house here so
you want to try to pull it up if you can okay and like you already mentioned with trash they're going to it's people are going to be eating underneath it and yep so that's that's something we can definitely talk about um of how to maintain that yeah um but I like the
idea of maybe moving it um further I just don't want it too close to the street just in case um but yeah I like that idea too well you just got to keep in mind now they'll have a spot on rainy days to hang around there and it's it's gets used by a lot of aoel people if you will we get a lot of calls on it in the
summer but no I I'd love to have the walking thing you just got to find out with a good idea where it won't get ruined in the and yeah just make sure in your planning that you leave a spot all the way where ambulance and a cruiser can get down yep in case somebody gets her yes um just like with the annex playground we have like the main gate
that is a double door gate but then we on the side we have an even larger um section that cars and Machinery can get through sounds good yeah if you build if you build a walkways to spec with the amount of right right amount of gravel like what we have in a highway spec it won't be a problem in the window okay
yeah you got to keep in mind ambulance of police CS be driv yeah well just build it like put 12 in of gravel and you won't have a problem you don't want to do it over Loom you know like some of the things in the past Highway would try to build it and it would yeah if you got a good pack so you weren't asking for any action for
us tonight right you just no um the recommendation was that we present kind of what we've been discussing um we do have the funds to get started um this year so we want to make sure you're aware of everything we're working on um especially since this park I think um
just needs it real bad one other thing that wasn't on I know you it's just the preliminary but flly pole oh of course it'll it it will yes we will not be removing that will be still there yes Yes sounds good sound like you need
Steve on your committee was you did it 20 years ago I'm old as a member of the community not my as a parent of a 34 year old and a 30y old it was nice it was a great place to go it was really really nice it's just
that you know it's old yeah yeah it's time for a facelift of sorts then the trash issue and then there got to be a time where you couldn't go with the kids anymore because the skate park was overrun with like you said with you know just the bigger kids and the little
kids it just wasn't a s Haven to go with little kids anymore so you you backed off of that a little bit right and that's part of our job is to research those things we'd like for it to be multigenerational space that um you know
all ages can use um but we also want to be a safe space space yeah we got the elementary school right next door so major concern yes well you know who knows maybe the elementary school could actually use the space too I think that'd be good idea to maybe reach out to school I think they're trying to do
something their own thing too because the kids play it I don't know you can work it out I like just being so close to the elementary and yeah you got out of town is hanging out there that's right that's right yeah yeah we have we have uh free
cash from CIP see recommendation for the Mac playground so all right anything else pleas one more thing so Jim like around the macumber and stuff there's some tax title land back there does that a the school or anything not aware of the tax title there big piece that's
included with the school I'm not sure the stuff in back after that green patch it's like a hill that goes down pretty steep so after that it probably get expense with the back F see what she's got the back of that green it like goes down at a pitch we had a problem with kids hanging around down there that's why I man should always leave enough room for the cruiser cuz there was well
I think there's like there's quite a few pieces they used to be paper streets and stuff like that but they they look like they're mostly all wellons and they're in tax title I don't know if there's something that we can do about that maybe looking into it it would be good to have a buffer talk to the tax title
lady now it's the tax title we can look at it yeah the noise too so all right all right anything else anything from okay all right thank you thank you for working on that great you're welcome I do have um printed out handouts I'll
leave a PA in case anyone wants to take those thank you so are you here to talk about the warrant yes just in time okay um so uh so we're back on 4 now review and approve the annual town meeting warrant
um we we do have printed copies just the summary of what the of what the Articles were um and then in your materials just the full written stuff um I know uh Jim you highlighted one here that that you
we wanted to talk about so article 14 um so the current um article 14 is whether to increase the room occupancy tax from 4% to 6% and so we had a question about I believe this should be on the warrant but we had a question
about whether we want to have a discussion about whether it should be included on the warrant or not with my other hat is is a un you wouldn't have to petition the state for every uh every time you wanted to raise this it's one of the questions but there are people complaining because it's a tax raise too
so right now as you know you have to particip state for it one of the bills is to make it um state state law so you could automatically uh use it if you wanted to invoke it in town yeah but so I believe town meeting
with this one there's some other ones that I think in the queue right that they're looking to increase but the rooms tax from four to six% yeah we vote if we accept the statute it's it's just the help so you wouldn't have to do a home rule to state every time but that hasn't been voted on yet I'm just
letting the board be aware of the going on all right so I actually want to keep article 14 on the warrant but does anybody want to remove it do we want to talk about removing it no yeah uh no I but I just want to point out that some people may not realize the state's
portion of this is 5.7 so already the uh actually this is a tax on the people who rent not not the uh the owner um so the current total is 9.7 we get 4% back from
the state this brings it to 117 so it's starting to be real money I think and uh I but I say that not knowing what the situation is in other towns they have a higher number is four common or six common I mean I don't really know I worked for a hotel company for many many
years and I can tell you that 11% tax is pretty low on room taxes it's like it's taxation without representation basically because your people who live and pay taxes there aren't the ones renting the rooms typically um but um
yeah I think I mean it seems high but it's that's pretty no one ever complains about taxes on their hotel BS they worry about the basic flat room rate and I always anti
anticipate going to be an up chck yeah I don't think and because I think the other concern would be if you're going to hurt um the current business owner there but I I think it's very in line with what other local hotels are charging um so I don't know that yeah I would say bring it to the
people without foring it okay so we're going to keep that one on the warrant um we're going to talk about the budget in a little bit and the cipc um is on the back page on the back page of
the budget presentation they had um were there any others Jim that you wanted to call out in particular so article 20 which isn't on your index some reason I missed that one article 20 21 and 22 are the three that relate to the tax
collector um article 20 is the tax title revolving fund and that changes the name from collector to I think Treasurer collector Sue could probably explain I'm sure she could explain that better
myself the tax title revolving fund is actually there for forclosure of properties already in tax title the duties of the tax collector and the treasurer even though I'm the
same person the tax collector's Duties are to put them if people don't pay to put do a tax taking once it's in a tax taking the treasurer takes over and then the
treasurer can foreclose so the treasurer as much as anything needs the access to these funds the way the article is written or was previously written only the tax collector had access to these funds and the treasurer needs it to do
the foreclosures okay so in practicality this isn't changing anything but it's it's kind of aligning with practice yes yeah okay any questions on that and what about the um article 21 the tax title revolving
fund the previous balancing in it was 25,000 this here is and believe me this is the brief summary of the recent changes made made to the tax title Reform Act that they
just passed in the state and there's a lot more to it now on the process once they go into foreclosure and what we have to do and how we have to go about selling the properties and so forth so unfortunately what it means is we need
to get have the funds available to do this if we're going to be foreclosing on properties question and then did you was 22 also years Yes except the road accept a deed
for property off Briggs Road correct and this one here the um two people that currently own the property um Kurt's wife and this other friend of theirs Janice both have contacted me and
said they've had the property for years it's actually been in tax title for years and it was one of ones that I was considering submitting to a forclosure they said they just don't want it anymore it's a landlocked parcel and they have they just want to get rid
of it I asked the tax title attorney whether it would be beneficial to just go through the full closure process or to do this and he said this is the easier of the two paths to take okay thank you good so most of the
rest of these articles that you would have um some s all just standard right the only I think there's a fourth one which is the next one which is uh to resend some borrowing that was approved for a open space the B balance
on the article is 835 which is the AG open space asked me to put that on there because they feel it's not sufficient enough to purchase any property at this time okay all right thank you anybody have
anything for Su anything else nothing for Su just article eight uh the waterline Enterprise fund Mr saw and myself met with um Fall River in the mediator a couple of weeks ago we're still waiting for the final agreement from Fall River so that could impact the
amount that we have to fund in that article okay and then the article 17 you have a note that's the um septic revolving fund but that's not out of pocket we we don't it's just kind of the money comes in the money goes out yeah yeah okay and it's a lot of work
it's I I personally do not recommend those um it makes the town act as a bank and we're not a bank yeah okay any other ones you want to comment um so we're going to talk about the budget and the cipc money but
besides that is there anything else missing from the warrant anything we want to remove we owe um at our next meeting um we owe a version of um the all the financial articles to the finance committee um but we don't have to close
the warrant uh just yet so we can there's still time to to I think on the 24th is when we'll have to finalize the warrant and post 24th of March anything else on the warrant okay so let's talk about um the
budget so we have a nice little largely what you talked to us about last last week right the last meeting yeah there's really um minimal changes if any at all from last week's from two weeks ago when we discussed this I could highlight a couple of
things if that helps yes please um so we did do a little uh pamphlet here that I distributed to the board in hard copy um like to point out that there have been improvements to the overall budget the town budget over the last few years
um last 3 to 5 years we've seen some additional money being reserved and carried over into free cash which is getting as consistent with some of the other communities in our area and throughout the state we've been accustomed to low free
cash amounts on a yearly basis which just means we're being a little bit more conservative on our budgeting Revenue estimates um but keep in mind that the free cash that we have had certified this year was from 2024 so we already bumped those
estimates up in 25 and they bumped up again in 20 this upcoming budget 26 so some of this free cash that's there will be has already been absorbed in the 25 year budget for the fy2 free cash and a little bit more will be absorbed in the 26 budget as well uh stabilization
accounts uh those have been improving over the last few years uh DLS Department of local Services recommends that we have about five % out of our overall budget in stabilization funds um after this year's town meeting if the recommendations go as proposed
we'd be at about 4.8% and next year we should reach that 5% um goal so so we're getting closer last year we set this the uh town meeting select board and finance committee set up a special education fund which uh we we deposited I think 50
or 60,000 last year and we're recommending to put some more money into that account this year that allows the select board and the school committee if they both vote affirmatively to utilize some of those funds mid year so if we get a student that transfers in midy
year that we had not budgeted for you can access some of those funds to get you through the rest of the year on the assess overlay account uh 2021 we had actually a negative balance we've been able to bring that up um over the last three years so that this year we're
actually proposing to take 450,000 out of that account to be used uh to help purchase a fire engine which will be up over 900,000 um the OPB money we continue year and year after year we we try to put as much money as we can in that um
from the roselli clock Associates uh letter that came out we currently have about 4.1 million in that account which represents about 20% of our gross liability and this puts the town clearly above the average for most communities
here in the state um and then uh the the yearly audit from roselli Clark and Associates the reports that scope limitations no gaap departures no material weaknesses or significant deficiencies identified um and this is done we have
an audit team an audit committee we have Financial team that's been making some steady progress on a lot of our filings so there are some improvements in the budget that's the good news um Revenue this year as we've
talked about um first of all the few things that we're waiting on waiting for Budget adjustments to health insurance we have a meeting Thursday I should get the health insurance numbers right now they're looking at it's G up to 12% increase in our health insurance um we may be able to the schmig group the
Southeastern Mass health group that we work with May offset some of those cost with um some of the Investments that they have so they that may lower it maybe as much you know from 12 down to 8 or 9% but we'll know that on Thursday right now on our current budget we're
pretty much budgeted for the 12% so anything less we'll have a little bit of flexibility but not much usually we have a little bit more in there so we're getting close on that account uh property insurance um they're recommending a 10% increase on property insurance Regional Schools we still
don't have those numbers but um some preliminary discussions with diamond uh that may come in a little bit less than we had budgeted about $100,000 so that will go back into the uh overall System state aid um don't anticipate
many changes uh big numbers it's Chapter 70 child of school school choice I don't see those changing they don't typically change from the governor's budget to the final budget or if they do they only change a little bit um and same thing with the state assessments we actually made out pretty well on the state assessments the chter school and the
school choice kids leaving the district to attend chter school and school choice has gone down so we've had less Assessments in that category this year um so when we take in all the new Revenue the estimated new Revenue we're at about $2.2 million uh we have some
fixed costs or shared expenses that we share with the school and the general side of government The Debt Service pension assessment health and life insurance Regional School assessments and state assessments we we deduct those from the new Revenue about 500,000 which leaves
gives us net new Revenue about 1.7 million if we do the standard split we're at about 54% for the schools at $927,000 and 46% for the town at 789,6 um Town side the general part of the
budget I think we're pretty close we've been able to fund most of the requests the last meeting I mentioned a number of reductions or um areas that we we made some Cuts or the Departments U made some cuts themselves uh the the school is still a challenge trying to meet their
overall recommended budget uh right now they're at 24 million um we're at about 23 million without any free cash we have a couple options we could reduce our oped from 100 to to 175 to
100 should free up $75,000 we could use free cash to pay off the campground this would be the last year for the campground so it's it's operating funds it wouldn't be necessarily be a one-time um Revenue boost to the overall operating budget so
that along with the 400,000 of free cash would get us to about 23540 um still about $500,000 short from their request but we're seeing every year as we use more and more free cash to balance the budget it's getting more and
more difficult to offset that free cash the following year and at some point uh whether it's next year the year after or three years down the line we're not going to have that free cash available and we're not going to be able to plug that budget and there will be some serious Cuts not only to the schools but
to the towns side and um Jim that's not you don't have that reflected in here right correct okay so I in that I have the 20 just under 23 million reflected in the school budget there
um free cash is not reflected in those revenue or expense accounts and then the the OPB and um the campground are still in in their respective line items here that would be a swap we' be taking it out of one section and putting in the other okay so are you looking for so we
have to finalize the budget tonight so are you looking for whether we want to do go with your recommendation or not do you want to keep going on your overview first though um yeah just on yearly expended Revenue I don't think I have that here now um we've estimated in a 5-year plan that
we did last year the financial plan that our new Revenue we should be budgeting at about a 3.5% increase the school this year is about 3.9% with what we're recommending so we're up above that Revenue what we
think our local new Revenue can support on a yearly basis last year I think they were close to 6% the town was over 3.5% as well last year um last year we had almost $2 million in new Revenue that we split this year we're down to
1.7 um and those are two of the highest years that we've had since prior to 2014 so we're doing what we can to to make that work um that's all I have on the
school budget again I I think without some free cash or without some reallocating some funds I think it'll be very difficult for the school to even function they're looking at $700,000 uh Plus in just uh negotiated
raises um and that pretty much gets them to the you know that gives them about 200,000 they have some additional Transportation cost so their fixed costs are pretty close to what we're proposing without the free cash Campground and oped
money all right and then this budget here the 50 we have here on this page 56 371 total but that's because you don't have in that little chart you just showed of the overall budget that included your recommendations for the school department right
okay okay did you have more I do not okay right any questions any comments I think you've approved something very rational here so um I support your proposals I don't how it
feels I move we the proposal to on administrative proposal to the budget second is there any discussion just a question for Jim has finance committee waiting on this school budget you know they they met we had a meeting last week or the week before
there was a joint M that we I was at the meeting but it was the finance committee and the school committee um presented their budget to the finance committee this budget if approved tonight will go to the finance committee finance committee will prepare the budget for town meeting so but they haven't waited on
the numbers they haven't waited in the numbers now okay I mean we make our own decision as well but just curious I think you've done a very good job again I think we're still fortunate that we we're going to talk about some of the free cash spend but I I think we I think
you've done you pulled it out of your hat Again Jim so thank you for doing that is there any other discussions um just discloses I always do my wife works for the school department but I filed the disclosure years ago so I'm able to vote in the overall bud
okay all right is there any further discussion all in favor I I that's unanimous so we'll send that over to fcom thank you to the finance committee for allowing us to send it hope is late and then cipc recommendations this is on the
back page of what we're so this is we had talked about this before Mr Brewer had mentioned this about uh last meeting of the meeting before this is what the cipc recommended um I would like to bring up an addition
to this we had the cemetery estimate we're looking at opening up two different sections of the Cemetary and the estimate from the engineer came in around $919,000 uh we were looking at $400,000
for that 200 from free cash and 200 from Perpetual care I'm asking the board to consider um adding an additional 300,000 from free cash and we would be looking at additional money from Perpetual care uh to get us up to that 900 there is
possibility that the highway department may be able to do some of this work but um they're short staffed as well and this is a fairly big project well I think they've done it in the in the past and I think $900,000
would pay for a little bit of Staffing not to say that we don't have to do the whole expansion all at once they can do a plot at a time like they used to do years ago I mean Steve you around they used to do that right did we have any problems no I'm not sure on on uh on
this one though which way to go to be honest with you um because there were circumstances but um there were some neighbors willing to switch swap some property I don't know if that affects this gym or not I could talk to you on the side on that okay uh I don't I don't
recall whated happen with that well if we put the money there now and we do it a different way we could always yeah this is got to go Tom me in anyway right right yeah okay so You' have in the overview you gave us um you've included that 300,000 additional I did yes um on the
on the spreadsheet here the select board actually approved the rest at a previous meeting it's just this 300,000 whether or not you want to amend it or no I think I think amend Article 5 to include that and see what the voters say every have a problem with
that CH I have a different comment yeah regarding uh the cipc free cash that's the Mac playground not to be confused with the uh bentum playground this is the Mac School playground which was approved for recommendation by cipc at
325,000 just for clarification yeah and these ones in the green there stabilization is article 32 Special Ed stabilization is article 34 and capital is article 33 it's like you got LA on your labeling your articles Jim they keep changing yeah we can
reduce them we just can't increase them right all right so that's Article Five on the capital expenditures any other changes we need to make to that okay so I think are you do you have what you need I do anything else on the
budget before we move on that's it okay 5B um the Personnel Board response to the director of public infrastructure position so um I'm told that um Cindy Brown um from the Personnel Board had intended to come to
tonight's meeting but it was not available so she did not um you saw the letter in there they had some con they had some questions about um the scope of the position I think is what it was and the supervision that would be exercised so I think they just had some
questions about that so they weren't comfortable making a recommendation um undefined role of the supervision what departments would report um would Services be allocated to them uh that's pretty much
it so what would you guys like to do my recommendation be wait and talk to the Personnel Board though what do you think Madam chair my view on this is yes to that but are they going to come back with the
same recommendation if they're not satisfied with it will they be looking for change to it and then approval I think they probably are looking for some more specificity on the um on the role the the the supervisory role and
then um because it says which departments would report to the position Highway Cemetery transfer station so I think we weren't I think the job description actually was clear it said Highway said Highway and I believe it said Cemetery
yeah um and then yeah that's all this so you intend to have them back even you just couldn't make it tonight but you said they didn't make a recommendation but will they make a
recommendation well we I mean I don't if it we can move forward if we if we want um or we can make some changes one of the questions I got from somebody else unrelated was um we're calling it um director of public infrastructure but we don't have a
Department of Public infrastructure so I did talk to Jim a little bit about um what's the mechanism for creating a department we don't necessarily have to create a department but um the it's not we can't just cre Department we need to Le about how to do that so I can confirm
that over the next week or so I can check with Town Council and see if that needs a bylaw change or if we can just go forward without that um and then if it does need a bylaw change we we'd still have time to get it in for this town meeting yes so because right now um
right now it says it's in the highway department right the POS the funding is in the highway department that was it was appropriated to the salary account for the highway department candidly it makes more sense to have a department I mean have a separate Department with a
description of the department and then the reporting relationships within because right now it's sort of it's awkward from an organizational perspective well one of my one of my issues is as far as
infrastructure with the Board of Health and the storm water and all the issues that seeing townwide that's one of the reasons we need the engineer I mean the Board of Health conservation not filing notices of intent they doing work without it but then they're enforcing it
on the residents and all that my constituents are just constantly calling me so we need somebody that understands how you know we're going to be doing we're going to have water out there they're going to have to have a permit to tie into the water they're going to need to do that who's doing that the M the stuff that we just had with with uh
the gas company being fined for breaking a drain that was Town drain CU and then we didn't we didn't mark the drain when Dig Safe so we're not you know when you call Dig Safe the utilities mark their own utility so the water is westports the drain is
westports if you don't go mark it and they hit it I mean I think the gas company got find like 7600 bucks or something for that it's just these kind of things it's going to take the burden off of Town
Administrator so is that is that in the job description though like this is I think some of the questions you just said is a perfectly good example of why you want a town engineer but is that in the job description yeah yeah I not everything's in the job description obviously right but typically the town
engineer would be responsible for those those types of issues yeah I mean we're not inventing the wheel there's other towns that do this Swansea is the same exact way they got a town engineer they they get the same scenario but you were advocating for not calling a town engineer though you were
advocating for calling Department Public infrastructure because we have other infrastructure that belongs to the town that's not being maintained correctly so if you have somebody that understands that they can make sure that it's maintained correctly I mean just this last year we've I'm not even going to go into the
instances where we've had so we kind of need somebody that knows what's going on so was the pleasure of the board I'm against this position so I've been pretty clear about it but so I don't want to be the one making a decision
here and I'm against it because I don't think I I don't think we've fully thought out the Department structure and I don't think that we thought of the long-term budgetary impact um of hiring a new high pay position but I appreciate
the need for someone to do this work we did allocate the money for it yeah in the last town meeting I mean the years I mean weren we looking for you were looking for a u for the Broadband you know I I mean this
could fall into all of that that's infrastructure are you moving something or proposing something like I don't know I'm trying to understand what the I don't have a proposal where to go from here so do you gentlemen have a proposal of what you
want to do next what do we need on this what do you need not quite sure how how what the intent is to set it up I I understand in general what we're looking for but is is is this position going to oversee the highway department Cemetery or some other department um the
position you know most engineered positions regardless of where they are whether with DPW or whether with planning or some other office they function like you said they service kind of the other departments you know Board of Health has issues they call the engineer in he reviews the plans for the Board of Health um or he review them for
conservation or for planning they can keep everybody out of trouble it's just you know it's it's who's this position going to oversee and if it's a new department does that department have to be created by Town B I can check on that this week um when you look at the Swansea see how
they have it setup they have a similar situation okay they did when I was at ' 92 they were DPW um yeah but they have Webster was the engineering so they have a it's the same exact weha they call it a DPW but it's not and they have it they have a town engineer yeah it's it's
exactly the way we have it I think we have to decide whether it's going to be a staff role IE engineer a line roll which means they're going to have supervisory Authority and it's going to be within the context of the department and the person's going to be a supervisor so the staff rle as an
engineer is sort of an internal consultant can to flag some of the issues that that uh Manny brought up and can also be a resource to to the town departments that's different than being the head of a department where you have
line authority over the um the the highway Su SE the cemetery department and whoever else we put in there yeah I think those are the people were looking for um you know you got the board helps elected so I mean to say that we're
going to supervise over him but at that point maybe we take the storm water out of the Board of Health and put it into that where it belongs and the same thing with the planer board planer board's elected but that doesn't mean they can't call them and say hey what do you think about this that that can help they could do that either way though but what
you're saying is do do we want to hire somebody with supervisory responsibilities or or not because either way they could be a resource for all the Departments right but it it it does nail down what the criteria is for looking for and may
also influence ultimately what the what the salary is going to be I know we're Ball parking but I think we're all have to do salary comparisons when you have that department head role in similar size
Town versus an engineer role and can also save us money when we get the right candidate I mean we we spend a lot of money on Consultants that we could use like the ms4 stuff we could use them for that do you have a recommendation about
line versus staff and department head versus not I mean this is where this I think what the meet of the Personnel Board what they wanted to know oh mam sh I me that that was also the the nub of our discussion last time line versus
staff I support the engineering position the engineers position at for lack of a better term as a staff position an advisory position not to have other departments reporting to it that's a different question brings in different issues and I I don't think
we're there yet but what we really need is somebody with engineering expertise expertise to fulfill those functions and to coordinate with other departments and do the things that Manny's talking about but I think we I thought that's what it was reading when
when I came back I called Jim if you recall I said Jim this doesn't read exactly the way we talked the other night and I was thinking more of the line position not being part of that it's more of a staff advisory position but a significant position I agree I
agree with you on that 100% so that's that's where I'm at and I maybe that is where the Personnel Board is is not pleased but they didn't weigh in so we left to our own devices or or to go back talk to them some more was then do we want to have Jim rework the job
description because the job description right now does include supervisory authority over the highway surveyor so do we need like I think we we need to give Jim some direction about how we rework the job description I don't care if there's no supervisory it's just like like we said
I mean Highway has their their duties all the other departments have their duties just they can they can feel some of the calls that go to you Jim did you ever find the old um engineer job description from when we had one
briefly that was before computers so it's probably all people so all right I was just thinking that could be part of it we probably have it I can check I didn't check you can maybe that'll help a little but yeah I think we all agree that it could be a line person not really overseeing so we can get somebody on all right so and then I I also think
then we need to consider making it the town engineer position or not because if you make it director of public infrastructure it looks like there's a Department of Public infrastructure there okay but if you had a if you have a line level position Town engineer and
at some future date we decided to reorganize the Public Works departments then there's still you could Shuffle that around right I would like to move that motion we just call him the town engineer instead of all right so I don't think we're moving it yet because so we're directing back with the
description we're directing Jim to rename it the town engineer to remove the supervisory references um from the job description it's going to be constructed as a staff type of role consultant to town and make it clear that they're
providing consultative expertise to these other departments that's in there infrastructure related cud storm water we stumbled on consensus go I like that and that the other departments are not reporting to that position right there still report
to the select book right okay so if you can rework that Jim and then provide that draft to I think it's safe to provide that draft to Cindy um even before we reviewed it again um and then invite her to come to the next meeting
okay is that okay perfect okay um Town Administrator report so I think as everybody's seen their utility bills have been going up Fast Gas and Electric um Enad evus did send a fact sheet out just
kind of explaining why their rate have gone up um I know spoke to Mr louette earlier today he sent me some emails the state is looking to um see if they can do something to maybe lower the rates or to keep them from going up further um I
just wanted to put the fact sheet out we did get another fact sheet from um this was Liberty Utilities I think yeah they're all dat so we will put those up on the website if anybody is
interested not much we can do here at the Town level but I just kind of wanted to point out that people are aware of it and they are looking to do something about it at the state level if they can Jim can I piggy back on that before it goes around the table uh March 25th the palaski school in New Beford I us also
be there that is about paying your bill and helping you finance it but I'm telling people to go anyways and voice their issues with their bills so that's the closest it comes to us live on this tour that they're doing they're going on all over the state so March 25th petki School in New beff is the brille Road
exit uh 6:00 to 800 p.m. I think it is thank you uh chevan web fence it's under contract it's supposed to start in March um it's got to be done by April before the piping Clover season so um as long as it's not frozen it shouldn't be frozen it's all sand so they should be
able to get it done it's been a long time coming the old high school RGB Associates who is our consultant for the long-term building committee um did a tour with the high school a week and a half ago they also toured this building the annex Council on Aging um last week There's a
meeting Thursday night with the long-term building committee be the first meeting AGB will present um their preliminary findings on the existing buildings and try to get some direction as to where the committee wants to go going forward um their schedule is pretty aggressive they're looking to get
this report done by June so uh they seem to be moving pretty quick the mumber loop waterline project um work on the waterline project is moving forward as scheduled um this week they've started work on Route Six
they've started in the um the center uh median median thank you um with the waterline um we have had some complaints regarding the contition of the road and the patches we had a tough weekend last weekend with all the rain that we had and the freeze thaws that we've had
overall you know I've seen a lot of these projects throughout my years and and the overall condition is pretty good but it still needs to be better um they went out and they did the patching this week um if somebody does see a bad patch or they see a hole let us know and we will address it as soon as we can Jim
let me add on that like typically this stuff's done in the summertime this is the worst coldest winter in probably 20 years that they doing an excellent job um just another question on the mumal loop um I just saw something about the school did we we had an issue with the with the well at the M come of
school we didn't have school or something like that the elementary that was heat heat blew up tank I didn't hear that one all right the elementary school was closed today so that was the one that they they um they need to fill that tank or something there some kind of
issue back there with that tank I I know La I don't know all the I know last year as part of the budget the year before the school department was looking at um replacing that water tank um and there was a a significant cost to that what that significance is whether it's a few thousand 20 or 30,000 I don't know but
um realizing that the water would be connected to it and they've kind of taken that off the table so we did do uh they did the service connection into the foundation last week when school was out um so you know that should be done I assume in the next
couple of months they should actually be on the town water but the elementary school why' that happen what's going on I don't know about that one first I heard I don't know do you want me to say what happened Mr general or do you want to say it they had an internal um heat tank
below and when it blew it blew all over the wall all over the controls so it Zapped out all the controls all the circul not nothing to do with the outside tank it was just um start expansion tank gigantic expansion tank and it blew uh part off the top and actually a walker somebody walk around
the building saw the water coming out of the building so on a Sunday um I get to give prop to the people that went out Ryan fer electric um and uh Bosco they came out on a Sunday to try to get the things rocking and rolling but it was just too much stuff fried from the water
blowing all over the panels and of course Mrs wette did a like heck of a job she was there all day Sunday so kudos to Mrs zette there you go you going to roll up your sleeves and get in there Palmer I was there a little late cuz we had an all day event in a in in
free time and just on the M Loop we got some very good pricing on our waterline inst ation part of that reason was because they're working throughout the winter if this if they were going to start in June when they're competing with all their other projects it would have been much more expensive for us to do what we're doing um online permitting
the planning Department's been working to modernize the town's permitting process through the implementation of online permitting uh the first Department set to go live it actually went live today um so building permits you can get online that's amazing my guess and I I've seen this with other communities it takes a while to get the
bugs out but but um we've started the process and um you know be patient and we will once it's up and running once we get going it's going to be a good thing not just for for the town but for the uh residents and contractors using it so baby steps the building department
personnel had that for 20 years for God I know been trying there's there's a lot of work that goes into changing from uh paper permits to online permitting you know you really need to change everything so it's accessible online they put quite a bit of time into this
right they got to stop loading all that stuff in and all that being an issue looking the bugs up old paper records where do we archive all that stuff when we're done with it so they have it in a closet right you know it's uh going forward everything
will be scanned in um so it'll be more accessible um you know I know the Board of Health just with their Grant they' they're scanning in all their old stuff all their septic plans and um all their um testing stuff water testing so that'll all be it should be pretty much done now but um
that's coming the older stuff is more difficult just even finding some of the old stuff is difficult but um going forward everything should be scanned in nice better for everybody that's all I have okay um minutes of February 10 I
have reviewed them and moove approval second any discussion all in favor I that's unanimous report on the bill warrant you have that in front of you in hard copy this week I just noted a few things here um to let you know I'm doing
a good job here and secondly to kind of give you some flavor as to what some of these items are grants Stand Out interestingly shows up as an expense and you might be saying why is it here as an expense so I need I talked to uh Joanne
Landry in the accounting office he said the way it works is in the end this is money coming our way but you account for it and then you expend it and that's why it shows up here initially and then the money gets dispersed to whatever the grant was for
so it's sort of an odity it's just sort of a Convention of accounting of Municipal accounting um because everything has to be accounted for it's sort of like uh in a staging area it's waiting to go someplace next but in the meantime it appears as an expense until
we expend the money and then it zero out but that's what in case you were curious that's why it's but everything's just a quick thing on those grants um we've requested that any grants that we have now especially federal grants that we're seeking reimbursement quickly we used to do it
on a quarterly basis so every six months now we're doing it monthly and on this water line Grant as soon as I get the bills we're submitting them for reimbursement so uh good thinking we're just trying to we're all up to date on that right they're getting the money to them and everything and we they're all
paid um Yep they're up to date in the reimbursements we just got a bill I think for 700,000 that went in that comes in quick too that went up the next day um so hopefully we get that in the next week or so right thank you we don't want to happen like happened with the hospitals with French over there he had to walk
off the job and line up all his equipment the hospitals they would doing all right so the liaison committee reports and suggestion for future agenda remain I'm almost set at this time just um I don't know if you got a chance to
see it today but yeah they really boogied fast today they had the median open and they were right behind filling it with the skid steers today so they they're really uh being efficient if you will uh getting that work done and cutting the side streets I mean there is you know a little bit of uh inconvenience for the neighbors but it's
one of the fastest I've seen you got the well they knew it was going to be easy they got the concrete in the side sides but so but I mean they really moving at a good Pace he said he would have had it done before the end of the year if he was able to stop it permits yep so all right otherwise than that now um as you know I faded off most of the Comm
committees uh we haven't got our committees in Boston yet so I hope to find out on economic development and whatnot soon only have two meetings left with you all so oh wow meetings I don't get pneumonia in between don't get
pneumonia um for so for me some of you probably saw we had an offshore wind committee meeting on Thursday that was very well attended in the high school it was a good thing we had it in the High School auditorium I don't know how many people were there but it was a lot um we had some Pro wind groups there kind of
protesting and some anti-wind groups there protesting so it was kind of a big turnout um the um the meeting the purpose of the meeting was to have Vineyard Wind come answer questions about the project um but the really the message from Vineyard wind is they do
not want to come to Westport and they have no intention to come to Westport so a lot of people didn't believe them and um they are we are still listed as an alternate site that's why we formed the committee St um but um pretty pretty much their answer in any way you could
possibly say it was they don't intend to come to Westport well on the connection the the the connection looks like everybody's going to head to Connecticut where they got the connection into the grid but they are in Westport it's just not on you can see it from Westport so yeah that's our impact but that's not
that's um not their project that you can see out there that's Revolution and just so you know that video is uploaded now for some reason it took a day or two it's 2 and 1 half hour watch so you're meeting I was there Jake mcgan shared that meeting yeah I'm just saying it was two and a half if
anybody wants to watch it I didn't find it I mean it was interesting but it was like there's only so many ways you can say we don't end to come to Westport and there only so much to say don't really believe I was there for an hour and a half and I thought I all I needed out of the meeting yeah so is Revolution going
to bouth or they going to Connecticut I don't know everything all no nothing they're all run the vineyard wind one U project which obviously is the one that had the windmill the wind turbine um they are in the process of replacing all
of those blades that's Vineyard wind one Vineyard wind two is the one that had the potential landfall in Westport there are many other leases out there with multiple different providers so it is possible that somebody else will have
the idea to come to Westport but um Connecticut huh Alles be stopped we we'll see when they're stopped um the uh New London has got a lot going for it for one the New London people want them there and are asking for them to come
there and second there's a really good station for them to land at there to go yeah they're not going up a river and I mean we don't want to dredge the sa well they I mean they have the facility to land it there and process the power those Urban rivers that you don't want you want very Industrial Area it's an
industrial area they're not getting a lot of backlash so we'll see um and but that any kind of question that was asked about what about the economics of these projects now um given the uncertainty of federal grants they're all basically they don't know they don't know what's
going on um so that was the only meeting that I had lately um dick not a lot on my end but they're they're coming up soon anyway we did get word that the audit the town audit has been completed nice um we don't actually have it in
hand Sue mentioned that they have to sign for it or something we'll have it in a few days and then we'll set up a meeting of the audit committee and the report back into you that's all I have all right thank you right affordable housing trust met last week um good
discussion we uh went into executive to talk about some of the responses to our RFP um we decided um not non judgmentally but that we would still continue to um keep the RFP available
and would accept any more uh applications from property owners that uh may be looking to sell uh land to the town for affordable housing development and so that's with that sits
um the um opioid settlement advisory committee also met last week and um it was uh probably the second meeting of the committee um so the committee is getting organized uh good discussions we
are um using it as a combination of a of a of a decisionmaking body and and a um educational body and so there were some good presentations we had two presentations at at the meeting last week so all right thank
you um do we have any comments and statements from the public seeing none just reminder to everybody we have a lot of board and commission openings if you see a even if you don't see a vacancy there might be room so come talk to someone if you're interested in serving we don't have any
topics not reasonably anticipated under 48 hours we're going about to go into executive session we're going to come in to open only to adjourn so I will to entertain a motion pursuant to the provisions of Master General Law chapter 38 section 21A where the chair declares an open meeting will
have a detrimental effect to a um teams discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation with Teamsters Local 251 and to approve the minutes of February 10 2025 so move St wette second Richard Brewer all in favor
Manny sawai I st wette I shz I Richard bre hi Craig Dutra all right we are in executive s