weightly select board meeting to order at 605 uh first item of business meeting minutes from our meeting of February 27th any comments no comments motion to approve I move we approve the meeting minutes from sorry this says Mar oh no this from feary hang on a second me yeah yes let's let's approve the meeting minutes from the previous meeting any further discussion uh roll call Joyce I Julie I me vendor and payroll warrant any questions no question no question public comment do we have any comment from anyone on a subject not on the agenda no public hearing none schedle appointments Jenny Morrison who I see on zoom on the Center School RFP and I see Donna Wy here also I wanting to talk about the same thing uh so Jenny are you giving the presentation for the well I I can give it to you as a presentation though I don't really have a lot to contribute beyond what I sent and I don't I leave it to you folks to figure out how to make that available to everybody um what I did leave out from that is that seven of the 10 visioning committee people responded and all said yes this is from me as well um so this is not just my opinion it's the majority it of the visioning committee that we we recognize that the RFP committee did the job that was asked for them but that process is limiting um and many people on the RFP committee also went on record saying they didn't like either proposal and so the visioning committee is prepared to undertake several tasks to try and create an alternative disposition for the Center School than just going ahead with the recommended RFP and the the question is will you give us time to do that um and I laid out in that um document which I emailed to all of you several very concrete steps that we can commit to um to move the process forward understanding that part of the issue on many people's minds is just that this is taking a long time and um that we need to move forward and not just be repeating the same steps okay uh yeah we have your submission here Donna do you have you want to well Joyce and I of course served on the committee um Joyce and I were both at a meeting where we voted our recommendations Joyce one of us should present our recommendation we haven't done that yet how how do you want to proceed yeah I thought this was later in the agenda myself but uh because there's a place where we're supposed to discuss and vote on that so I'm a little confused because it looks like it's on the agenda twice somewhere right isn't it under uh old business no or new business no it's been moved to an appointment I guess so right it's just under the schedule appointment okay well i' say go ahead you're you're in person there so that's probably more effective so uh Donna W just play Road start commission atog committee um the committee met um three times uh twice we discussed the two responses uh for about an hour each time um the second time we had the benefit of the an responses to the many questions that the committee had U submitted through Brian um and uh we certainly agreed that none of the neither of the applications is perfect um but last Thursday um three out of the five of us were present and we voted first uh Joyce chaired the meeting and first we voted on whether we wish to reject both proposals and the answer was unanimously no and then we voted to uh award um a contract or sign a contract with um Bob o be that was I mean that's what we did it was quite a short meeting because we'd already had to lengthy discussions um I'd just like to give a little bit of History which at least as the select board members know after the um after the request for a lease agreement failed last year the historical commission met our job is of course primarily historic preservation of a very important in town and we uh we not convinced that the town was prepared to invest the kind of money that would be required to keep that building safe and authentic um I could go on about a eight-year process Town Hall but many of you live that with us um so we actually the historical commission brought to the select board the uh a request that we issue a request for sale and we agreed together to do that that was one year ago that was last March and then as you know we spent about four months hammering out the very lengthy preservation restriction document that would have the tee that we need to make sure that whoever buys it um takes care of the building the exterior of the building um so that my point is really that this has been a long process um I I uh saw Jenny's notes I now speak for myself because obviously the historical rision hasn't met between 11:00 this morning and now when um there are some interesting ideas I wish we had begun working on them in 2020 when the visioning committee concluded its work I mean it's another four years I am very mindful of the impact of every day on the building think of the two rainstorms we've had in the last week just in the last has to be 3 in both times and I mean one of the things that makes this building quite different from town hall is that the roof and the exterior structure in town hall were essentially sound um and we don't have that benefit this time so I think that's I mean I would go on about but I really think that's so did the the atal committee made a recommendation to that we should accept the O there it yeah the alternative in this case being essentially going back to the drawing board on usage and trying to yeah well that that's an important point because I was thinking I mean l will probably postraumatic stress about this account but we worked together on this quite a number of people for seven years and and for Town Hall and version after version fail and then the historical commission inserted itself into the municipal building committee and 10 of us met for two hours I can't actually remember if it was weekly or bi-weekly for a year and a half hammering out a plan that as you say encompassed both encompassed the funding plan the usage plan and right and acceptance by all the all the necessary committees um it was it was great it was over and well done well yeah that's the issue we wanted to write by the town with the building and do we think that you sending get back for reenvisioning the scope you the scope of the project or what we want out of it weighing the time it's going to take and the wear and hair on the building versus getting it done and versus we getting it done not necessarily in the way we would want it done I I would uh venture to say that it's not necessarily going back to the drawing board and revisioning that it is starting from having a vision and now working on um Capital campaign and working on how to bring that Vision to fruition and figure out which parts of the vision are going to bring in enough income to keep that building um paying for itself essentially so we're not really going back to the drawing board or using the sketches that we have to hit the ground running that said I agree that it's very late in the process I would also say about private ring um we raised $185,000 in private gifts towards the town hall that was five of us that took five and a half years okay I could probably tell you every gift y um I hadn't thought about this for a while and obviously there could be new donors but nearly $50,000 of that could not be renewed 30 of it was from a foundation a matching grant that is no longer available to the person whose gifts were matched okay about 15,000 is from people who are dead yeah you know it isn't that there won't be new donors but most of the money for the town hall project and it's a good analogy because it's about the same amount of money came from CPA money so from the town from that wonderful windfall when we thought this was never going to be solved when the town sold the cell tower and the finance committee signed on that was 300 of it about as I recall um but this was this was a very lengthy process yeah yeah and I think also if anything will be more difficult to raise money for this building which at least raising money for Town Hall was going to be to for a public use we don't Envision a public use for this building we don't well not in the same way as Town Hall they we're looking to either lease it or turn into either apartments or offices or something that are not Public Access us that the town hall is I don't I don't think that's totally accurate because I think the mixed use for the building is really the ideal that there is some privately rented space but Al some public space yeah uh what and and I you know I totally understand what the concerns are about the process but like Julie said I don't think there's ever been any attempt to do a capital campaign on this and in you know just this last five days of talking to people about it we already gotten an offer of a bigger donation that what o Bear's willing to offer for the building and to me it just seems I I hear people that it's been a long process but the system has forced the town into certain channels that have meant that we haven't pursued some other channels and I think there's a real interest in doing that before we just get rid of it I would also vure to say that I was really dissatisfied having read both of the proposals I was extremely dissatisfied with both the offers for the building and the property given what it's valued at and then given what they wanted to do with it um one a single family home which is a huge single family home and two was somewhat more nebulous we're going to make something kind of nice for the town and if that doesn't work we're going to turn it into highend Apartments both of those looked like they did not benefit the town for the degree that I would want them to and that they would benefit the developer and the owner and it seems to me that we're putting the town in a position of saying we're a small town please come in and take advantage of us and before we take that step and consider it the only step I would I would recommend that we give a the visioning committee a little more time to pull something together and present it to us that really has some teeth in it and if it doesn't then we can then we can go for the RFP response respes or put it out to bid again but but you're assuming that anyone will take us seriously if we were to put it out to bid again I honestly I I just can I just say what I think and and this is going to makes of course some people feel really bad but if what was proposed in this email were put into an RFP in this process I would not have rated that RFP very highly because there's no track record of fundraising there's no long-term plan there's no budget as to how this $700 a month is somehow going to pay for this building's operation um there's no clear public use for the building nobody's suggesting anything that is public use in that building that there's rental of a professional space we need housing we do and if this became two condos or this became a house and it's not that big a house as houses go I don't think that's the end of the world but I I do feel like we've been doing this for a long time and if there were some sort of ground swell of people who want to pour it's going to be millions and millions of dollars to make that building usable again where the hell are they where have they been for the last X number of years that we've been struggling with trying to figure out what to do with this building and I just I just don't see what's being proposed as being very realistic and I'm sorry I know that's going to hurt people's feelings I when we started this whole process did not want to sell the building but we don't have a lot of options we don't have Deep Pockets um town hall probably is going to look cheap by the time a project to do something this building is is there and and people are say what is it going to be for and it's not clear to me from this this description what is that building going to be for so I've got to say I don't really feel like giving some well-intentioned volunteers more time to get us to the the same place where we are right now and maybe even a worse place because you can say that there were there may have been shortcomings in this proposal but babo bear has a track record he has rehabbed plenty of historic buildings monu's got more housing now because he rehab building there turned them into apartments and now people can rent them you know it's it's not just you know I'm not even sure how to how to express it but between the where the heck have you been all the this time and what is exactly that you're proposing I don't really feel solidly like I want to put this building into the hands of this group at this point without some kind of clearer idea of what the heck you want to do with it I'd be happy to respond to that let Jenny respond um first of the only thing I take offense at is comparing the document we drafted to an RFP because it was never intended to be part of the problem is that the RFP Pro process the only people who can respond to that are philanthropists or developers who are in the business of doing this kind of rehab um so it wasn't intended to be that and you're absolutely right it doesn't spell out an end picture at this point the request is to have time to generate that um the first I would argue you have had time you have had seven years to do that and no one has come up with anything in those seven years the first round of rfps so when the visioning committee ended it wasn't very long before Co hit so that's a couple years that interfered with people working on it and then there was a round of ideas um I I hear all of your concerns they're all valid and the question of what there is for funding honestly I don't think it's been answered from a broader perspective than private individuals willing to do it that's why we're talking about a capital campaign and and working on that to have a better idea of what kind of funding could be available um and it but from what I heard and Donna just repeated it the immediate issue is that the building is deteriorating because it needs roof work and you know that's the first thing that needs to be tackled I I think that it makes sense to look at CPA funds to do that with the hope of the town keeping the building and having benefited from that um yes the town needs housing I'm not at all convinced that the town needs another high-end single family house which is what Oar proposed um and while the last meeting of the RFP committee included three people there are other people who would have voted to reject both proposals um so I just I think I hear your concern but I think the comparison is not valid and if what you're asking for is a guarantee of funding I can't make that happen but I can generate other steps as have been outlined that the visioning committee is willing to stand behind but there's no point in doing that unless the select board is going to give us the time to try and do that how what is our commitment to either of the responders to the RFP in terms of an answer when when are they expecting an answer and what kind of time are you looking for Jenny I believe that we're supposed to um hold their their deposits until the 15th and then get back to them with response I think there is an option to request an extension if they're willing to to agree to one to allow more time an option to request it you're right it was a 90day period and the proposals came in in December 13 okay um may I come I I think another um contextual uh consideration um has to do with thinking about the town's appetite for funding capital projects we know that we will have to contribute something that will seem a lot to weightly for the South County Senior Center we know that we have the highway Department's needs coming along um I'm I'm not I don't know what the dollar AMS are for those because I'm not any but I just I think it's important whenever we're thinking about Capital Outlet to think what what do we have on our plates in the near term and those are both in pretty near term yeah good points yeah can I just make some comments on the um recommendations that Jenny supplied um a couple of these are kind of not possible given the town's requirements under procurement laws and things like that um even just going out for the roof bid depending on the cost of that you know it it can be very costly um we wouldn't be able to like acquisition of building supplies at a reduced rate because we can't do that as a municipality so there's a lot of considerations there that um the town's hands are tied on a lot of those things because of procurement law so so is there an option to trans you know is there a friends of the Center School option that can do that kind of thing as long as the town owns the building we have to follow those procurement laws Jenny you could buy the building for 6,000 higher than anybody else has put in it would be a higher bid than anyone else has put in and you know honestly to do with it honestly I would think about it if I had more time I mean I never it never occurred to me to put in a bid like that because I don't think things should function like that but I I'm you know I'm really not happy with the thought of the town giving this building away for $1,000 honestly I feel like you know putting out a a RFP that says we're going to give away a building to the group that tells us their best plan for it is a better option and I don't really feel like that's the same as what the RFP process has been so far that's an [Music] interesting good Joyce I yeah I what I've learned over the last couple of years in in relation this Center School is that it will take a lot of money for not a lot of square feet I know people have said this would be some kind of high-end house there are not that many square feet in that building it would not be a large footprint sort of house if it becomes a house for or a home for somebody um honestly I have to say at the start I was in favor of demolishing the building and making it a park honestly but I understand that the entire weightly and State Historical commissions Would Rain Hellfire down on me if that were to try and happen so that can't happen I thought that would be a great public use of that land and the to me the thing that it comes down to is we don't have the money no individual has come forward with philanthropically or otherwise the money yeah to take care of that building so in our capitalist Society we are turning to the free market and yes someone is going to benefit from that but they're going to have to do a freaking lot of work and they're going to have to put their own millions of dollars into it in order to just keep that building and make it still function so it's really a choice between having a building that's functional with capital resources that are not coming from the town because we don't have that kind of money I mean we can we can barely afford our senior center and we're going to need a new highway garage and I don't know or is there's just so many things competing with it that have real solid public purpose and the center school when no one's proposing some kind of solid public purpose that we absolutely need to have and I I would I I feel in many ways the same way you do I don't really want the town to lose that piece of land but the other choice is to just let that building Decay more than it already has and then it will be then I'll get my wish the whole thing will fall down we'll have to demolish it and it'll become a public park so you know I mean it's it it just that's a reason to vote for it choice yeah right uh Jenny I don't think you ever answered Julie's question how much time you would need to put something with some teeth with yeah teeth more solid numbers together it really would be about coming in with a very solid business and financial plan I don't have a good answer to that question I would need help from people who I mean I've done this I've bought houses and rehabed them but I didn't have to come up with the whole plan in advance um I I was quite shocked by some of the quotes like $50,000 to take out the cement steps in one of the proposals one of the rfps I don't remember which which one um and I have not been in the building for years so I don't have an answer for how much time it needs you all probably have more experience with what's a reasonable answer to that question than I do so I guess the question for us today comes down to do we vote on you accepting an RFP or do we try to get an extension and give Jenny at least some more time to come up with something I don't know but I can't see giving more than you know another two weeks or so you we can't just let this yeah hang out there forever yeah can I ask a question that people on the ad hoc committee would probably know the answers to um was either of the proposers planning to use CPA funding from the town the um the uh folks s and gelini yes one of the I gather you have not reviewed the responses I have not seen their responses to the additional questions no s and were counting very heavily on CPA money and um did not respond to a specific question we posed which is was of the million five or six that you say this project will cost you how much were you hoping would come from the CPA it's just a lot of words um not enough numbers um o does not is not hoping to use CPA money he is um planning to used uh federal and state tax credits and he's had that approved already for the BL school and used it U extensively at the three buildings that he rehabed in Turner Falls which are very nice and were done according to this to the federal historic preservation standards um it would be faster for him to get approved for those tax credits for this project than it has been for this Center for excuse me for the um blue school because it's in a National Historic District and because we will he will have to sign the preservation restriction document and there is not one on the school district project by the way just to the to the bid I'm afraid we may have been um may have our two respondents may have been prejudiced because the school district which owned the blue School sold it to OB for $1,000 and build is much larger than the center school and I have been fall through both buildings in much better shape I'm not making that up this is just for my curiosity um did O said that he was going to do affordable housing in the blue school no yes I think a quarter of it is uh I don't think so affordable housing or low-income housing what I don't so was that for the blue that's the blue School in in in that in that building not the second building that he had proposed um 25% of the whole thing so when he has 10 apartments in the main bu building three of them will be uh affordable housing and then whatever he builds outside that also has to be 25% rounding up if it doesn't if if it's four right then but rounding up if the number is odd there is no longer a second building there's Okay C and I was asking because I had read an article in the paper but it was a good six to eight months ago about the whole thing being highend housing and I don't know if that's true and applications there was like $70,000 the income so that we're talking affordable not low income yeah that's right that's right thank you just catching myself up the other thing to to point out about the O's application which was um casual in some ways the the response to the additional questions is more precise um he is very clear that although his initial proposal was for a single house he reserves the right to make some changes and consider other uses is standard I uses within the uses that are permitted by the special Cent theorical commission appr for the bill whatever that was are the questions and the responses public can can I read those at some point certainly public to you you're the yeah I didn't I didn't realize that or I would have asked to see them I I thought they were just for the ad hook and then learn something every day uh okay so we've got determine what what actions we were non-actions we're going to take or not take today okay uh based on the recommendations of the adment can we at least reject the one proposal the NoNo proposal say you based on recommendations we will not be going in that direction regardless of what else we did Justin sear and Daniel gel yeah um that was not a recommended proposal and you just to let them know that that it would not be accepted if we were going to accept a proposal into a CE there yeah and are we allowed to sort of make a half decision like that you may just want to make a decision like if you want to extend this RF just extend it in general and then once you decide what you're going to do like if you say two weeks then make that and um you'll have to contact both parties and let them know ask them if they're willing to extend um but or will have to guess the town will have the town will have to um and ask each of the parties that they're willing to extend but I don't know that I narrow I mean you could but I think it might make more sense to just I gu grape vine you don't want somebody to hear that one has been rejected leaving the other one wondering yeah so so I would just okay that makes sense so but we will have to get contact with both very soon to make that extension it was the 15th of December days from December 13 that March 15th I thought that it was from if it was the 13th we might have a problem but um okay uh so I think Jenny I think probably at least I would be in favor of giving you two weeks and you know to see if you can put some more flush on the bones of this idea but that we really can't go much beyond that yeah I mean there's yeah I would agree with that I know that's I know that's really really our next meeting it it's tight and I'm not even at home um until almost two weeks from now um you know not that I'm not able to reach people um can you give me more concrete what you are looking for I would want a solid business plan like who's going to who's going to use the building in a way that's going to make it um financially feasible once it's renovated and I would want um some at least the beginnings of solid financials about who's going to pay for the renovations yeah and and maybe attach some dollar signs you know how much uh you'd be looking for in you know out of CPA or you know State funds you know ballpark not anything to be held to but at least you know if you say you're looking for $2 million of CPA funds that's we know that's we can't do that you know not a reasonable request okay I mean I can try and I can use the RFP proposals to work off of but you know even if I were home I'm not sure what contract S I could get in there to give me quotes in that amount of time I don't know that we're asking for quotes from contractors you may get an idea from the from the RFP documents what um what other people think it will take yeah go ahead sorry Joy we're we're our job is to kind of do not kind of is just to to make decision that are best for the town and things that would not be in our interest is a project that we think will fail right right and at least one of the rfps was doomed to failure based on their business plan okay that that would that would and so it doesn't help us to have a plan that doesn't look like it can succeed and uh not and no no plan isar guaranteed to succeed but the plan has to like financially succeed and it's it's got to you know obey all the laws all right right which which I don't know all the laws for municipal building so I would definitely need help from Lynn or Sylvie for for that piece yeah maybe there's other people on the visioning committee who do but Lynn already raised some concerns that I didn't know well one step might be to get a private somebody private to buy the building for $6,000 and then but no hold on hold on you you put it don't put it that way Julie that's not at all what the process was about it's not about how much is somebody going to pay for the building it was not let's sell this to the higher bidder we wanted to do that put it on the real estate market yes and let anybody I'm told you couldn't and the rest of my statement was going to be now tell us how you're going to come up with the $2 million that you need to renovate it well and I think and I don't think we can we lay a public bidding process anyway that's no that's the most important that's the most because we would have to approve the sale and we would approve sale with with no plan yeah I I just want to be sure that we are very clear on what is and is not possible CPA project it must be work that is carried out to the standards the National Historic preservation standards it cannot be done on the cheat and given that I I don't actually understand what is now being what Jenny's committee is now proposing for the interior of the building but the presumption all along has been that the interior will be more or less gutted well that means nothing that's done inside the building is likely to be eligible for CPA money and we don't actually have very so so we want to be really cautious about what we imagine is possible thank you yeah right well I I I'm that's what I thought which actually is was confusing given hearing we're recommending Oar who said both is going to change the facade for Market appeal and use slate looking asphalt shingles if he can't afford slate shingles so that's not consistent with what you just said Federal standards for the use of substitute materials it's a 24 page document we don't we don't have to read it right now I I I do not agree that that's exactly with proposal said okay okay and yeah I mean again I wasn't able to raise those questions in those discussions but okay um just wanted to um confirm that the proposals were received on um so we want to reach out to them by tomorrow and just discuss the ension uh yeah Jenny what we'd be looking for is just some idea or even a ballpark figure what the total cost of the project you'd be you know would want to see and you know you say things like Organization for Capital campaign to raise funds to raise that much and putting the dollar figure to that and and this is wouldn't be a binding right just that there' be some idea of you you need more framework a framework of the project and how much in rough ballp Park terms you would think should be raised from the various funding sources you envision uh you know we're not looking for proposal such as we would to back from an RFP but at least something to give an idea of what you're talking about financially okay oh all of that said we have these rfps in hand yeah and those are our choices it would be really good if you answered in detail the same kinds of things that people who wrote the RFP would have to do I don't know if that gets a into trouble with with uh with the law in sort of you know letting someone send in an something that's effectively an RFP well well beyond the deadline um but I know Fred is trying to make maybe you know make things sound very gentle but I honestly I I would honestly if you if there's not something that I really think is going to work and that you can really really get funding for it's not going to be in the best interest of the town okay U that's really the bottom line this is got to be in the best interest of the town and it can't be something that's gonna start out is that where you where we agree is that what's in the best interests of the town is something that actually is going to happen and be fulfilled we definitely agree on that yeah okay good good so Joyce Julie how do you do you think we should give Jenny two weeks to come back with something which may or may not be I would be okay with waiting is not gonna make a difference on anybody's schedule so yeah i' be I'd be okay with two weeks Jenny I realized we're setting you a hard task but I also hear very much what Joyce is saying that this has been long in the process and what you're running into is that everybody's tired and just wants to get it done and I really appreciate what Donna said about the other Capal needs of the town it's like we're a town with a lot of needs and not enough funding to address everything that we care about okay and essentially Jenny what what we're looking for is something that is sufficiently detailed and both as to purpose and finances okay that would cause us to reject you to go back to the RFP process which which we would have to do that we we can't just say no to what we've gotten and award it someplace else we would have to go just by law we would have to go back and solicit proposals I think I am I've gotten confused yeah I thought that what Jenny was proposing was for the town to retain the ownership of the build that's now I will sound like I'm arguing for some I support but I don't I think that is the only way it's possible I'm not an attorney to do without an R but I think that is the only way we can consider an alternate to the two as you say the two applicants who met our legally designed process yeah yeah I think the question we face in two weeks is do we accept one or the other of the rfps or do we reject both that's the question that we have to decide in two weeks yeah so do we need a movement or uh we will need a motion because we're going to need to ask for extensions from the two RFP submitt since we're supposed to get back to them by tomorrow I move that we request of the two RFP submitters that they um indulge Us in an additional two weeks to make determinations um I will second that any further discussion no vote Julie by Joyce I'm gonna abstain I'm going to set this one out I'll obain and I'll vote for so Jenny if you can you know come back in two weeks with something or if you don't think sometime during that period that you will be able to have it just let us know y y but okay we are aiming to vote in two weeks on the proposals that came in from the RFB okay and I want to say out loud that your care and concern is noted and I think it mirrors the care and concern that everybody else in the town has regarding that building I would agree okay think that's it for that item Donna do you have anything else to add no uh covid-19 tests contined to be available Town Offices library in the police station uh next to review and discuss the request for the board of assessors to release surplus funds contained in the overlay Reserve account we have not heard anything um have not heard their meeting on next Wednesday to discuss that topic okay so we presumably will have something from them for our next meeting yeah okay new business to review discussing vote on a deadline to submit articles for the June 4th 2024 town meeting there's a um proposed calendar in your packet backing up from the date of annual town meeting and our posting requirements and the necessary time for the board and okay I quickly read deadline for receipt of all warrant articles would be Monday May 6 select board reviews and votes on warrant articles May 14th finance committee recommendations Due on May 21st aiming to have select board sign the annual town meeting warrant Somewhere In the period of May 23rd to May 28th in anticipation of theun 4th annual town meeting any dispute or see issues with that timeable now if anybody out there in the public wants to submit an article but they might not have all the detail to that article as long as they can get it to us before that May 6 just so that we can put a placeholder in there yeah that would be great okay uh yeah need a vote on this I move that we approve the annual town meeting proposed calendar as submitted there you go I will second uh any further discussion comments Joyce I Julie I I next item toie discuss and vote on with to increase the pay rate for the administrative assistance position I'm not sure I did I before he left sent us a letter a letter because I I myop and how do they imagine that I didn't have so Brian had submitted how can they imagine a more successful capital that um the administrative assistant position currently held by J be increase due to the remarkable job she's basically doing um I let me go get the letter sorry sorry guys and when we get back it's actually going to break down to two different discussions one of compensation for Jessica During the period of an in administrator and then the question of do is that a pay raise that gets put permanently you know into the budget and funded for fiscal year 25 and Beyond so there really are two different or two elements of the same discussion um because I assume at the moment in the budget it's would be at the old rate so we'd have to amend the budget request for my 25 yeah yeah so I'll wait for Lyn to get back with that letter but there are the two different element of this well that's I'm gonna go fill up my water bottle here okay sorry sorry guys that was my fa okay so as my Fred uh Brian writes yeah as my last Town Administrator action for weight L I would request that the Personnel committee and select will consider a pay increase for Jessica Murphy Jessica's Cent pay rate is 2276 per hour as the administrative assistant which seems low considering the recent inflation and the responsibilities that Jessica now undertakes Jessica goes above and beyond what has been asked of her and she handles so much of the day-to-day operations independently she has taken initiative to learn about other aspects of the town's operation to quick learning the town clerk role as the assisant Town Clerk and is doing the administrative work for the community preservation committee Jessica is court is friendly and helpful to all residents and directs them appropriately to get the questions answered the transition from the interim Tas to the permanent ta will be successful because of Jessica she knows her stuff and is a huge asset to this office she has willingly stepped up during this time of transition I'm happy to have worked with her I haven't had the time to look at comparable pay rates but a pay increase somewhere in the range of $2 or $3 seems appropriate in my estimation in my opinion it's important to keep excellent people and the pay rate somewhere in the range of 25 to 26 doesn't seem out of line and if I understand correctly the Personnel committee took this up last night yes correct and what did the Personnel committee have to say Joyce I'll defer to you if you want to report to the members okay um well um I guess I want to make sure I get three things out there one um is that um the current process we normally use for uh making recommendations about uh pay raises for position titles is problematic and that's why we're trying to get a wage classification study done so that we can do this differently in years to come we're hoping this is the last year that we use the the system we have the system we have uh using comparison towns uh says that our administrative assistants are paid something like 11% higher than the median or the average for our comparison towns so generally speaking the Personnel committee wouldn't necessarily recommend um a raise for that position given the way we've done things in the past um Personnel committee though thought that especially appreciated in Brian's letter that Jessica is kind of going above and beyond a normal administrative assistant and that um we should definitely do something for this interim period uh where Jessica is taking on more responsibilities than you would normally expect um then um we're hoping that the wage classification the classification study might help us do something like um you know if we you know Administrative Assistant covers a lot of ground and maybe there is a way to uh classify this job such that um it can really fairly compensate people like Jessica who take the initiative and are just Superstars at being at this job um so I think the end of the meeting was that we definitely want to do something for for the interim um we don't know how well a recommendation of a higher salary for that position would go over with the finance committee given what our normal comparisons are but we did talk about uh the possibility of instead raising the number of hours um in because that's that is one thing the finance committee responds well to and uh I don't know that we had one like big recommendation that we voted on we did not vote to raise that position but we did all agree that we should do something certainly through June 30th um and if we can think of something else to do after that like I don't know Administrative Assistant you first class I I I mean I don't know what to what to do because because if the problem with raising the salary for the position is that when Jessica I don't know moves on to become town clerk after Amy becomes a Treasurer and didn't the other Amy becomes like Emperor dictator of the world wherever she's heading um you know I mean yeah I mean everybody just moves up right um then you have someone completely inexperienced maybe doing the job at you know and and because we have to kind of when it's when you're trying to decide the the salary for a position or the hourly rate for a position um you kind of have to separate that from the person and if we can find a way to um to compensate the person for all the extra thing that she's doing that seem like a better way to go and um and that's kind of as far as our discussion got is that that seem about right Trisha did I miss anything important there you think I think they did come up with a final recommendation Joyce but correct me if I'm wrong so it was a very thoughtful discussion um and you know I think everyone has a clear sense that even though Jess um is a great employee as we have great employees here in F office um we have to always be mindful that it is the position and not the person um which always makes it difficult but that um during this interim period and indeed when the New Town Administrator starts depending on their education and experience um coming to the town Jess will be probably doing some extra double duty for a while so um but they didn't want to go beyond June 30th because we don't know who's going to be sitting here um hopefully by July 1 so um after considering whether it should be a stien or recognition what Joyce said about the fact that with the sour survey that we do have that's not really fully complete from surrounding comforable tals but gives us a good idea they didn't want to create any predent but I think that they were comfortable recommending um five hours extra a week uh for just through June 30th at her C way um which she was mendable to and I think they recognized that the select board was meeting tonight so that we could pass that on to the finance committee if you were inclined to vote that this evening is that your recol so J that to Joyce if you're okay with that okay so we can yeah I think Trisha has said it better yeah okay so so we can deal with that and then maybe at our next get on the agenda for the next meeting what we want to do you know whether we want to continue with the extended hours or raise the pay Personnel committee will meet again before that then actually they've scheduled April 1st for a meeting just in the context of the overall um budget stuff for compensation for employees and hoping they can get additional uh data from other communities uh and then the budget won't be finalized so we will have time to discuss that and then if we look to increase the to compensation with position we can put that into the budget for the plans goac PL committee with that okay so uh in case I think we're looking at a motion to raise the number of hours for the assistant administrator by 5 hours per week from retroactive to uh March 5th I guess which is been prob left uh and I need on learning I'm learning how to use the camera on your computer I'm better but raising hours from March 5th through June 30th of this year that so I'll make that motion second any further discussion no Julie hi Joyce hi I done next item to review discuss and vote on the weight Historical Society milk bottle reest permanent e to keep the milk bottle at current location Neil you want to speak to that yes can you hear me yes we can and we have your letter yes thank you um I wrote the letter on the presumption that you would have been deciding at this meeting which of the uh responses to the request for proposals uh would be U selected by the select board and therefore you would move be moving towards negotiating with whoever you approved uh the U the terms and conditions in detail about U how the the work would proceed I know that the U special ad hoc committee had some discussion about both the part of the RFP that said that the town would slice the milk bottle and adjacent land out of the property and that would not be sold but but would be retained by the town and so u i presumed it would be timely to act on um VAR things including the um what we hope would be a town granted easement for the U milk bottle and a protection of U minimum amount of property around the milk bottle U and that that would also in the course of negotiating with whoever got the the purchase approval um how any uh construction fence would be created to protect the milk bottle if they're going to park construction trailers or constru struction equipment in the front of the building while they work on the building uh how do you prevent uh either damage to the trees that's commonly done they put up barriers to protect trees which would be on town property uh and how would it be the contractor's responsibility I would presume to protect the town property from being damaged during the the work but all that presumes that you have decided to sell the school and since you have delayed that I don't know how other than perhaps talking about some of the ideas in my letter I don't know that you know exactly yet what to do if you ultimately accept the proposal to retain the all the property and the building as Town property then there's no need to slice it into two pieces but U the historical society would like some greater Assurance of the um suitability of the location for the milk bottle and protection of the milk bottle from signs and lights and various other things that would reduce the historical significance of that so so I don't know whether you want to defer this until the meeting where you make a decision about uh the property itself um and or or we can talk about it in principle but I don't know that you can resolve it until you know whether or not you've actually decided to sell I also think that we can't we shouldn't really Grant an easement without an actual plan of a how the property is going to be the property line is going to be redrawn to Encompass the milk bottle and be where exactly that easement would run would it run from the driveway would it run from the street where on the street that we need you know an actual survey of land with actually drawn out of what where the easement lines would run agre and in the RFP which the town issued for responses it said it would do that y so think I think that we need to move that along but while we can agree with the concept and uh ideas put forward in your letter until we've got some know a real survey in front of us to say that we approve this seasment in this location we couldn't Which F will not come certainly not before we have the because that's got to changeing the property lines going to have to go to planning board do that to go it matters whether I mean if you're talking an easement it would but we're talking two things one we need to move the property line such that the milk bottle comes into town property rather than on the assuming the sale of the cenal prop that gets into the the town RightWay side of that property rather than the Center School building side um an easement the people would still own the property but if the to the town right to access it if you want it to actually remain Town property then it would have to go through the I personally I would rather see it on Town property rather than simply an easement on someone else's property the the RFP said that the town would redraw the boundaries so the milk bottle stayed on Town property right it just matters whether it's going to be Town property or not so they haven't made that decision so it's like I think I think what he was trying to say is that we we kind of did that if we were to sell that plot we would carve out that portion to remain on Town property and I think we should we should carve it out anyway even if we end up Jenny comes back with a plan that calls for you know a town usage that we like I still think we should redraw that line Historical Society property well no to make to get it into the the right of way essentially for Chestnut PL Christian L whatever okay uh draw the line so that the property line bumps is now closer to the building but that it would be on town property rather than if we sold the property I would rather see an on toown property than simply an easen on someone else's land um so I think a question my question was going to be for Lynn and yeah sorry mean interrupt I just I have a question about um an easement because because and the the question I have is you know in my mind if we were like right now we own the property and we don't need to give the Historical societ Society an easement to go there they can just go there right because it's owned by the town and well any of us can go there really um if the town still owns say say say the the land gets sold but we've carved out a portion for the still Town own land do we need an easement if the town owns the land I'm thinking that this is more of a legal question let me say right term but what we were looking for and which we were looking for four years ago was that the town would provide assurance that this was a place where the milk bottle could stay and so we use the term EAS we use the term easement in that sense that the town would say the milk bottle could stay there U right and so uh all we need is walking access we can park on the shoulder of the road and walk up we don't need driveway access we just we just the T the milk bottle is not owned by the [Music] town putting it on Town property and granting the easan to the Historical Society protects the historical society as opposed to the current way where it's on Town land but there's no specific protection for theable society I can't yeah so I feel like we keep coming back to this topic and we keep agreeing that we're going to let the Historical Society do all these things and I don't understand why we keep coming back to it and because select boards change and town policies change and this would protect the Historical Society in the future right oh I understand but we made that decision every single time I just feel like we keep coming back to it and it's not the time to sign the documents yet right but so is is this an exercise of us assuring the historical society that yes we absolutely intend to do this or is this an exercise of like is it actually something new that's being proposed no this is an exercise in we need to to do this we need to do to move along and find a surveyor and pay the surveyor to draw a give us a survey of that area and draw a proposed easement line for us to look the same way as the planning board or zoning board appeals looks at blueprints for whereare of hous going to and that's going on the next town meeting warrant right to get the money for the survey so like we can't do any look and see whether money available until we get that money appropriated right well if it's available within some operating because I I my understanding from Yeah Yeah from my from from other meetings it seemed like we needed an appropriation and that's what we were waiting on to do with inappropriation we need to get a survey done at either special or or an annual figure out where that money is going to come from whether it comes from some funding that is currently approved or whether we have to go it matters dollar amount I think is to you know how much a survey of that nature will cost so I I think we need to go out and get the couple of bids from surveyors to for what it's going to take to do to do I I can't imagine that it's G to be yeah I I would just had a survey done on my property it's 2500 so I think that's fine I think instru let's get moving on this yeah s moving on like why why didn't this kid three months ago I have a question about the fourth paragraph um Neil the minutes of multiple meetings in 1995 clearly indicate the board of selectman's intent to provide a permanent home although no legal protection was provided at this time at that time this is an opportune time to turn that intent into permanent protection so if we get a survey done is that permanent protection for the milk if we get a survey done and Grant an easement to the to the Historical Society for both the location of the milk bottle and some a path or whatever all right even across the grass you're looking for recorded record right right recorded registry of deeds and then that gives theorical Society permanent right to have that lot you know that 10 by 10 or whatever it is plan and the access to yep okay okay so if we can get just move this along Neil with whatever speed we can do we will move this along thank you thank you we appre appreciate that thank you okay and I don't think that any of that requires a vote just B out where the getting the bids and find out where the money pay for the surve I'll just remind you that the our request is that however that line is drawn it provides at least a six foot perimeter around sorry 6ot distance away from the milk bottle as being on to property U and so not drawing whatever this boundary line is that you might have the surveyor do not drawing that so close to the milk bottle that wouldn't be protected on all sides yep that would be in the instructions to the surveyor thank you okay next item to review discuss and possibly vote to appoint the animal inspector for the town of w but well this is a little bit of a quandry because um our current animal inspector we normally do appointments in June the current animal inspector who's also our Animal control officer has indicated that he does not want to be reappointed um after talking with Jim on we'll combine item d i I was gonna say those two seem to be the same the the county sheriff's office has a program a regional animal control program um the second document is a um uh agreement of um their services and in talking to Jim sabini it's my understanding and I didn't get a chance to um follow up on this that they may also be able to provide animal Inspection Services uh which would resolve both of our issues the timing is is difficult because MD wants the appointments by April 1st and it's most likely that the animal control program won't start until July first so I haven't talked to um Rick Adam to see if he would be willing to continue on as animal inspector until which time July 1 rolls around it we could be part of this other program um which might be the best solution just keep him on there's not an awful lot of work to do Under the animal inspection program right now the barn books already been done um so he might be willing and because he said he didn't want to be reappointed in June he might be willing to carry out the duties until June of animal inspector um I will get in touch with him and talk to him about that if that's something you'd like to consider the um in looking at the agreement for the animal control services it appears was the 5,000 in here or in the email I see 5200 so right now we budget about 4800 I think for the Animal control officer um so this would be 5,200 a little bit more but for the service that they're providing and the accessibility that they're providing it sounds like it would be a a good deal because they're they're available during the day where right now our Animal control officer is available after 4 o'cl um and they also have the resources to handle these complaints they have um if they run into a situation at a particular you know the the dog is causing problems and they arrive on the scene and then the family causes problems they actually have the powers to take over the situation if it you know if there needs to be an arrest or whatever so they have those capabilities where our present Animal control officer would have to call in the police to come to the scene and so it seems like a really good program I haven't talked to the other towns that are already already in involved in this and we I can follow up on that um this week and just see how they're you know how it's working for them and then also contact Rick and see if he'd be willing to keep up with his responsibilities until um July 1st if we could start this program for the next fiscal year and they also have an advisory committee so the select board would appoint one person in an alternate that needs once a year to go over the operations and share concerns and experiences so that's another add of benefit so we would want to make our intent known relatively soon so that we can say we'd like to start on July 1 but it has to go the sheriff's office has to approve your application and then the um the committee the advisory committee also has to approve it so there are some steps to getting there um but it it seems to meet our needs at least yeah the the cost is right in line with what' that budgeted anyway is there addition the 5200 is for the Animal control officer is there additional I believe there is so that's another thing I had to find out I didn't I just talked to Jim on U Thursday and I didn't have a chance to call on Friday to find out if they would be willing first of all to provide services in much those uh animal inspection services are so I can we could follow up on that we pay list until yeah can we put put St for two weeks that'll still get us in before April 1st you can review the contract and you know make sure that it's suits your needs and everything so yeah okay so we will Ty move this over to our next meeting yeah for discussion with both of these what D on today's agenda okay next item to review discuss and vote on a letter of support for DFG purchase of property off long Plane Road uh this one there was not a lot of detail um in this letter about who owns the property um and I kind of wanted the I emailed the contact person and I'm not sure he hadn't gotten back to us that I had seen about um who owns this land um and so it was it's a little hard to make a decision on this I was hoping to have the that information for this meeting but um okay so why don't we if we don't have all the all the DAT I was just I was just hoping that we'd have that information for you to discuss just P us over for the next meeting yeah yeah okay any objection with that nope okay so that is held over for the next meeting uh okay that's it for new business select for lay on updates uh all I've got is had a meeting Zoom meeting today we ke and people from Western Samson with a very preliminary idea for a highway dep Department garage it was much larger and more expensive than we had anticipated and essentially we've told them to go back and pair it down considerably uh it would have been a lovely building but a we didn't have the room for it and B we don't have the money for it so I bre uh that's all that I have for now attended a water um department meeting last week and there's nothing new to report they chugging along Joyce any meetings in Sweden that we should know about no Mee are on Zoom of course about the Personnel committee meeting yeah you I assume you're not talking about the um metallurgical society meeting from last week that I went noon related things okay uh Town Administrator updates from either Lynn or welcome to Trisha and JY first in a while lately long um 27 years since I wait talking about the milk bottle always that um just a couple of notes uh JP has applied for a a ciens firefighters grant for 200,000 for um breathing apparatus for the fire department right now their breathing apparatus is obsolete let's say um still functional but obsolete uh and so that's what they're asking for I think he's also included that on a capital plan it this doesn't get approved um historically afg grants are very very competitive but many times um a thing like breathing apparatus is and and because of the age of our president stuff it kind of moves up the prior prity list so hopefully I I think we'll be very much hoping that he get a gr yeah so and we got a letter about chapter 90 being approved in the amount of $142,700 can yeah no I know that the the governor's been looking to put extra money to 9 I just want to know if it most they've been asking like adding like 3% um to the previous amount so I think it it's just Aion more but not not a lot so anything else Insurance um Insurance yes yes that's something I sent to you guys at a later time I got this in the mail um and it looks like they're wanting us to uh sign this for a period starting April 1st 2024 uh for a full year to April 1st 2025 what is this for the center SCH Center school so I just figured we might as well talk about it um since we were talking about the center school so you do have an option you have to obviously renew it because you still on as aable first but if you should should um sell or transfer the property you cancel the property you'll get a refund with the 25% premium um during year so you can 12 months but should be still not own the property come March 31st of 2022 I see the I have the do we have the number I'm sorry what we have the the dollar amount the dollar amount I'm unsure I have the original document um so I just made a copy of that origin document if it's not in there I'm unsure why it wouldn't be don't see it uh it's not I don't see the the dollar amount but I am actually needing with Emma tomorrow okay um to do a risk assessment the the yearly risk assessment um what so I can get that to here looks like we also have an option of purchasing or not purchasing terrorism coverage yesly I think that particular building you probably I that would solve all of our problems I don't think it's a prime target let's that way I don't think so either and the milk bottle itself wouldn't be covered under that uh okay well then you'll come back I think it so you you'll come back to the the next meeting that'll still be before the April 1st deadline anybody have anything else no um I have a meeting tomorrow to discuss a potential for shared C station with some TS we know who's going to show up good good I move theour Jo seconding yes Julie I Joyce I I we adjourned