##VIDEO ID:yNn9aJO9330## good evening it is 6 pm on Tuesday November 12th and I call the meeting of the weightly select board to order first item on the agenda is to review and approve the meetings from October 22nd 2024 any questions comments or Corrections none for me none for me either move to approve the minutes second all those in favor I I I to review and discuss vendor and payroll wordss any questions or concerns or discussions nothing nothing for me as well public comment residents May provide comments up to three minutes on items not on the agenda I don't see anybody on zoom and everybody in the room is accounted for for other items move ahead old business ARA CF frf review discuss and vote on Project updates and obligations R and you've been looking up this so the first item to take action on is the library window and repair restoration project has completed now there is10 $110 left in from that obligation so if the board would like to vote to close that project and um un obligate the remaining $110 the second item to note is um I had mentioned last time that the mini split project that we paid for through ARA PLS at the elementary school resulted in a rebate of $26,500 that has to go back into the original Source account which means that that 26 550 will come back into our ARA funds for further appropriation um we have not received it yet it should be coming in the next week or so but it does mean now that we have 26 addition 26,000 on top of the 600 so about $27,000 to now obligate towards the project um we have talked about a second phase of Mini Splits at the elementary school before there's also been the request for Mini Split at the fire department at about $10,000 um I could if the board is interested I could find out from Darius if what we could do because any mini split is going to result in rebate monies that then is going to come back into this account that we then cannot obligate because it'll be passed December 31st by the time we actually get the money so one question is is there a way for us to order put it in order for the Min splits get an approval on the rebate so that we obligate in excess of what you have knowing that the money that we're getting back will bring us to a level Bond so essentially could we buy three Mini Splits at 33,000 or whatever the dollar amount is even though you only have 27,000 knowing that we're going to get 6,000 back if I can get confirmation from Darius that we know that the offset will bring us to a the final number is the actual number that you have available so you're not overspending because we're going to re back fill it um that's one option otherwise we find a project that's not r that doesn't break any rules that's the other question yeah I had two thoughts on this one was didn't we have didn't ke request a mower which I don't think we bought last year oh which was right around $27,000 really okay I can ask Keith about that yeah and the other was is it legal accounting law is to essentially overfund like it's almost like what you're talking about there overfund something which has been ordered but not yet delivered like police vehicle or something do we have a police vehicle on order we we've already appro yeah you don't have to have received it by the end of this year right no no I I I know we've appropriate I'm talking about over appropriating you know to cover overruns or whatever but then the excess monies can go back to the other account not this account General funding c yeah I I would I it's dodging my guess is there is there might be a rule against that I'm guessing I mean it sounds sort of like the producers but right but I mean as part of a revenue loss there might be some way but I think if your order was placed prior to this allocation in general from from ARA you probably couldn't but if it was something that was ordered after the creation of the ARA funds it might be possible you're thinking we've got a don't we have a hyri police vehicle on order I believe we do um well I I'm guessing and I I'm going to leave this in Pete's hands because I think he's in the best position to figure out whether what we're proposing is legal or not and I don't want that I think I I I think we need to find but I think the way did the mower which we did is a good idea not as long as we can get it ordered in time with bidding and whatever or is there anything on the capital list from well we could go through comis um and get something off the but I I can suggest checking with Pete I remember that number was right in the high 20 okay no that's a good idea so should we un obligate the 110 right now and then come back to I would move that we I know there's words in here I move that the board close out the library window and chimney repair restoration project and un un obligate the remaining $110 all those in favor I I and we will get more information at our next meeting about what's possible with the money that we're into the meeting receiving in the rebate new business town clerk request for electronic voting and tabulators you want to go there Amy please just say yes so I can move on with my life I I actually haven't changed my opinion on this I I think it has to be voted on at a town meeting and I I don't think we should do it at a soide board meeting if we wait until town meeting I just want to remind the board that I'm not going to have the grant well it should have been on the special town meeting then or something right they just say well just a note though Mass General Law chapter 54 section 34 says that it's the select board that is the the authority to decide whether or not you but we are not the final people to decide on appropriation not appropriation no but you have to you actually have to take a v vote as the executive body of the community whether you are going to use electronic voting tabulators or not so that would be one step and then the next step would be fun or you could do it vice versa but I I I think we could do it Vice vers I I do feel like we need the community to bu this I heard I mean when I was counting every like you know I they I I've heard from both signs I've heard clearly from Amy and I know this one doesn't cost us very much and we don't have to use it at every election um but I've also heard people saying they they don't want to do it yeah I've heard a lot if we have to top these tabulators we are not obligated to use them is that so Amy say that again FR if we purchase electronic calculators we are not obligated to use them at every election correct they would not be used at every election and because they won't be used at every election we would still be considered a hand count um paper ballot Community because I would use it for smaller elections uh the original Ballot Box for the smaller elections so I think we could approve the purchase of them with the intention of finding out whether the committee want to use them at every election or some elections but we're if we're going to lose $115,000 or whatever it is I don't think we should have an election to decide on every election but well I hear what you're saying but I think we can have them and not use them but if we don't purchase them now we lose the opportunity to buy them later with the grant money so we can we can come up with a policy for what elections they are going to be used for after we have how do that I well I'm not going to win this vote I understand that but I think my viewpoint has been all along and it has not changed that I think the decision to use our current system for move on to tabulators is something I would like to see happen which we can still do I this is this is a question of not forgoing Grant munding um if we decide we want to go tabulators we get paid for now rather than have to pay for them ourselves later you have to pay more for them later when Amy when does the grant money go away December 31st I look I understand what you're saying that the decision could be just to buy some tabulators and then make a decision later about whether to use them um I guess I don't think I guess I disagree with Mass General I don't think this like should be the ones to make that decision and the S doesn't have to be the one then we can rubber stamp a decision later but both of these funding sources go away on December 31st and it's November 12th so we have a little bit of time well I oh Amy's rolling no I'm not rolling my eyes I'm just looking up should we should probably just vote on it tonight and I am completely fine with not being on The Winning Side but I just I don't like how it played out that like why didn't I didn't think of it when we were going through the motions before but why didn't I get on this special town meeting released because because it's select board that's got the you wanted the informational session and yeah yeah n nonetheless I still think the the order is wrong and I'm not going to win this vote I think I can tell I just want to reiterate what Julie just said the reason why it's not going to town meeting is because the like Pete said the select board is the one in charge of saying yay or nay but this is the first time I've heard that that never came up at our previous meetings so and I just think for now approving the money for it and purchasing them with money that is going to go away anyway is simply keeping our options open for how we want to conduct elections I understand your Viewpoint Amy if we purchase them using the grants that you have available are we obligated to use them at all like ever ever I'm I mean technically no but I feel like that would be a waste of funding I wouldn't want to use funding that somebody else could have used like I don't want to take funding from somebody else that could have used it you what a so if weing that is taking it away from another town that could have used it the AR money just goes back to the federal treasure yeah okay that's not going into any other town I don't know what the grant money pool is but to your point Julie are purchasing does not mean that you can you can't even use the tabulators until the board had to in that you are going to use electronic tabulators so your acquisition of the tabulators does not dictate that you must use them now you have to have that other that separate vote okay and I have to say that I I know you feel that you won't win this vote and I'm I'm squarely torn I counted votes on Election night and my vote uh counting partner and I ran into some problems and we counted one batch of 50 over the course of three hours because we counted it three times now if you want to know are we dedicated to making a correct count of the will of the citizens you have your answer there um so at the end of the night I was like oh my God I never want to do that again on the other hand I learned a lot from doing that and I would do it differently the next time so that we didn't run into that um so I'm I'm quite it's torn and I don't think I could cast a deciding vote in even Direction this evening partially also I will say from a mistrust of electronic machines these ters not connected to the internet but they're program they are program yes and I choosing to purchase spend Mone to purchase them now does not obligate this to use we can still have that discussion we are not having a vote on from Mass Law whatever tonight this is simply economic spending money which goes away in six weeks Amy I'm going to put another question to you I well first of all I I really appreciate everything you've gone through to bring the information to us to get grants to advocate for this um I think you've gone above and beyond my question is when you had a team of 20 people count votes on Election night and if you look us you know don't look at me and my counting partner who royally had trouble with it um did you feel that that was satisfactory for hand counting for hand counting we so we have never had that many counters come out before and it was absolutely incredible yeah yeah if we could do that every single time that would be amazing it cost me a total of almost $1,000 in payroll for that day so that that was pretty loaded um something to to do the programming so even for that it's the oh I'm sorry um if I could get that many people and the amount of money to count um for payroll I would still lean towards a tabulator because after the counters I'll leave I still have about two hours worth of work even after they leave I worked 21 hours on Tuesday and that is just the nature of a paper ballot community so selfishly yes I would like tabulators and not have to work 21 hours but also it was a huge scramble to it took three months of me actively finding people to count so I think that the Board needs to take that into consideration as well this the discussion tonight isn't about whether we actually use them it's about whether the okay to go ahead and purchase them right and I I have to say from my point VI I don't know how how I would vote on using this voting to purchase them to me does not obligate us to use them I'll here a motion I would that we out $2,000 in AR money for the purchase of electronic voting machine tabulators that's contingent on the proceed to rebate M from the elementary school project okay because we don't have that money right now in our so that's why there there was a contingency item in that contingent upon the receipt of rebate money yeah I'll second all those in favor I I thank you you got baby thank Amy thank you for all your hard work thank you next appointment of agricultural Commissioners I move that the board appoint Eric de and Mike to the agricultural commission second all those in favor I I I i' also thank Margaret and Chim yes yeah yeah thank you for their Ser thank you for your service um Personnel appointment of planning board CBA Administrative Assistant here who is here hi would you like to introduce yourself I'm Jill strong and I am from Chester I work for the town Chester as well as an admin currently for ew right yeah yeah for previously for select yeah I work for those in the board's office for a few years and uh was EMD for a little bit what's the recommendation letter it's it's right after before the um oh there we go I actually was thinking this on the way over here were you guys a part of the this a couple years storm 21 it was summertime like bad flood there was a bunch of money that like got issued way but later in the year I don't I remember it was like a thing Nemo like turned everybody down and then up later we got turned down didn't pop up later Deerfield cona got money yes all right I wasn't sure you well yeah that's a we same thing yeah oh okay all right um well thank you for coming thank you for presenting yourself in person and I'm glad that you've been given a letter of recommendation and I will accept the motion I move that the board appoint Jill strong as the planning board Z Administrative Assistant second all those in favor I I I very much welcome nice you thank you coming you can say we're having a rip meeting coming up at 7 o' you know do you like housekeeping because if you like housekeeping you're gonna love this town meeting all right select board leaz on oh no wa policy review and discuss and vote on the service recognition policy funny thing we apparently have one [Music] yeah so do we have to vote on it if it's already adopted the question is does the board want to make any amendments to the current policy um based on the previous discussion do you like this 25 years or more um that it is some of us would be really old yeah the not just any body going to get this service yeah right it's just the young folk who hang out this is for any volunteer employee the one thing that it says here is that the personel committee will nominate any of those eligible volunteers employees to the select board meaning we have to remember to call upon a meaning of the committee to then so procedurally do you want to do that um or do you just want to leave it in an administration's hands then the select board shall consider the nominations and it also makes it seem like a nomination like you can turn down a recognition or do you just want to be very clear-cut you will recognize 25 years are greater yeah um I wouldn't mind expanding the scope of who could nominate um personel committee should still be able to know but I don't think well my point is they may not know for example oh no yeah they they may not know you need nomination if you're saying that you have served 25 or more years that is the indicator not somebody nominating so like because we keep the Personnel records as well as volunteer records Administration would know those numbers we're not nominating we're simply notifying or this person just left and has retired from doing all volunteer work they serve for 27 total years okay so like basically delete that sence yeah you delete the Personnel committee will nominate any eligible volunteers or employees to the select board I'm I just question this the construct of a nomination what if we send this back to the Personnel committee let them reconsider it and the recation since they haven't considered just don't give it back to Amy they haven't considered it for eight years at this point right um what do you um well I think the thing that's got to be clear is um like how do you get considered for this right and if it really is um either a volunteer or employee role for 25 years I would assume if you were volunteering for 10 and employed for 15 that still would count as 25 um then it's sort of it's it's got to be on somebody to kind of keep track of that and um put people up for that award so be um who yes on whom on Whose shoulder well so the volunteer records are held by the Town Clerk and Personnel is held by the town Treasurer so it's here in the office yeah it is here in the office so um so are we putting another an additional task on those two people I think it's making them aware that when we have somebody retiring that they should just double check what the total years of service are we this isn't going to come up very often no especially if you use the 25 but then the question is do you want to STI you feel that a quarter century is the guiding and you're going to get you're going to get a letter that probably comes right off of a Cofe machine hi unless get the bell I like the idea that it's not a nomination that it's automatically triggered if somebody has been working in a volunteer or paid position for the town um for a certain number of years I would suggest lowering the number of years to either 15 or 20 because it's I think in this day and age it is going to be a rare person who's going to stay for 25 yeah and then oh and then it resets so if you're here for 30 you get two two no you have to retire two the same letter anyway and what if you're employed for 15 and simultaneously doing volunteer work for 15 consecutive yeah I I think we should be generous with these non Vellum pieces of Pap um H well I don't think to to make this long and drawn out we would send it back the person I I think we have a policy in in place yeah so which I I honestly can't say if we've been yeah following it because I don't know that anybody realized that we had it but we need to okay um we have a couple recent yeah okay so were to cross have that sentence and so do we have the authority to amend this without sending back to oh yeah it's your policy and then so take that sentence out and then the select board shall take out the entire next sentence or the next line shall award the distinguished service to to one more on these that meet the requirements and the intent to resp respond meet the requirements period so take out of some brackets and change 25 you're saying to 15 either 15 or 20 or 20 yeah I think the will be fine yeah okay so as amended on the spot and we don't to vote on this tonight we wait till our next meeting um but the second uh s uh paragraph would read the award may be presented by this leer to any volunteer employee who has continually and Faithfully served the town in a formal role for 15 years or more and will be ending his SL her formal involvement with the town EG retirement the select board shall award the distinguished service to wait the award to one or more nominees that meet the requirement to any nominees any nominees that mean the requirement so if we if we want to I mean that we don't always want to rush into things why don't we get this why don't we get written up on the agenda for next time uh I don't know which way do I send this now select board Theon updates uh had a Skins Board of oversite meeting nothing was no votes taken a couple members weren't there uh went over financials for the year so far and everything is on target um which means operating a predicted loss rather than a bigger the predicted loss the ambulance is never not going to operate a profit it's not going to operate break even so at the at the predicted expected at the expected level of loss okay so they're they're uh the chief is trying hard to get get as much business you as many runs as they can handle yeah uh water department we had a meeting last week they continue to try to figure out how to balance the budget um with money coming in and money going out and that's like water like water exactly flowing you're so wise we've got 15 minutes more in the meeting um Joyce um we will be having a meeting next week the South County Senior Center Board of oversight with um with the Consultants they think they have some more stuff to present to us they actually sent ahead of time some information about um they did a little more surveying to get information from uh from people who might use a senior center about things like well should it be a senior center or Community Center or and in what way would that be a shared facility that's kind of exploring that um and not everybody agrees but I'm going to wait till they present that yeah I know not every who would have thought that right um so there's there's that that's going to get talked about and I'm hoping they didn't send anything ahead but I'm hoping they have some information about the two sites that were um selected for them to give us more detail on detail are they looking at the current Deerfield Town Hall as well yes that is the that um yeah Oh I thought I reported on that last time yeah the U that the the site in Deerfield is what where their town offices are right now was that one there had been a different site in deer field now looking at that one inad correct correct it's not an addition to it instead the church was what we orig what they originally thought and then but when it when push came to shove or whatever the time limit came they were actually saying it' be better to do that Elementary School site that well way way long ago Elementary School site uh instead so one site in Deerfield and then this site in Wadley and I hope they will have some information on that but if so they're keeping it they're waiting to show us at the meeting which I think is next this next week sometime it got pushed it got pushed to next Wednesday morning I think yeah so that's um that's it for thank you found administrator updates uh I have a few the first is with regards to the climate resilience po inator project kickoff um this is the project where we're looking to design a pollinator Corridor in on Town own land in the community to help assist with climate resilience and support the local ecosystem and so we had a kickoff this past Thursday night at the Town Offices we had 10 residents attend the session started with an explanation of the project an overview went into the background of the need for res resiliency and then an outline of the various town-owned properties that are up for consideration and then all the attendees couple of which are here tonight uh broke into separate groups to kind of look at maps and mark up pros and cons to different areas um which now the uh landscape interactions which is our Consulting Group gr is now putting together that we'll report back in our next meeting public meeting will be in January to report that information and then to kick off a survey to help get additional Community wider uh wide um responses to the ideas there is a project web page on the town website within the community development department um that tracks this project it has the presentation file it has a bunch of photos um but the community can log on and follow that project process and we have a schedule on there as well um the Christian Lane Mill River Bridge update Keith checked in with District 2 about the status of that bridge in the state's Bridge repair and replacement program although it's moved up slightly since the last update it's currently 3,090 on the list right that is based on the current state of repair its deterioration rate and use and so at present based on all those different factors it is considered pretty low on the list granted I don't know what the total length of that list is but unless we have further deterioration or an increase in traffic need um it will slowly move up as additional purches get there repairs on the list it's bad and that will be one lane for while it's good and that it's not falling down still usable um yeah so that is unfortunately an update um with our post Community agreements uh the CCC contacted me last week or the week before actually now um about a potential non-compliance which was with that indentification Clause that we added in after I confirmed that we are using that Universal the CCC agreed as long as we're using it uh across the board they did not have a problem so they allowed it so our modified model has now been approved by the CCC so Tor Verde um has had theirs approved we still are waiting now to hear back um on the other the green jeans of the dmc's renewals but it is a good move or good news that our model has been a town hall as you know we have a lift over at the Town Hall all of our lifts like all elevators require a 2year annual inspection or the lifts at least require it um our town hall lift exper expired in the end of September we were notified by our uh third party provider at the end of October unfortunately the state decided to step in two days later and shut down our lift without letting us know um which we also we're holding the polls the very next Tuesday and so um as the sole polling location we were able to finally get the state inspector to come up in a rush the third party provider the the inspectional company also did it we got the lift reopened Thursday afternoon we a fine the inspection is now in there um the provider our inspectional service company acknowledged that we were missing from their list to remind us this past summer so we didn't have that notification which is why this fell through the state somehow decided to act very promptly on our expiration where normally these things go out of expiration for months to a year um ours was prom but it got corrected a slate yeah slight C so I might have to come back later for a reserve fund requests but we got it done okay um quick update uh from the school department they had a number of different projects capital projects going on through FY 24 and 25 fundings uh the one that is is still in progress in that list is the repair to their exterior door frames and jams these are doors that are seeing some significant wears primarily due to the fact that there are no gutters on those roofs and so the water is just shaving off and right onto the the concrete and it's splashing on the doors and it is eating away um they are still in progress on um doing that one project but the other capital projects have been completed so far the library has two outstanding arpa funded projects the computer replacement project as well as the electrical system upgrades with the computer projects they have just ordered two additional Chromebooks as well as two Hotpot will then go that will then go into circulation for patrons the electrical system there's a small amount of money that's remaining in that project which they are going uh to fund the installation of two alarm pole stations which will Beed uh shortly dpu um provided a notice that Berkshire gas as part of their uh requirement did submit their 2025 to 2027 three-year Energy Efficiency and decarbonization plan um that is going through a public hearing um it basically is a one of the requirements under green communities where the um utility supp plot not suppliers deliveries um uh have to have in Place certified efficiency plans that demonstrate coste effective Energy Efficiency programs that they would be using in order to achieve greenhouse gas reduction goals that were already set by the energy and efficiency Affairs secretary um and so their plan does demonstrate that um it's simply um it is up for public review um and it will be going to a deu hearing soon and then finally the last update is all of the Zing articles that went through annual town meeting back in June have now been reviewed and approved by the Attorney General's office so all of those have now been implemented into the final draft will be recognized tonight um so thankfully we have everything in place now just in time um there were there were notes but thankfully nothing was overturned or rejected so all of those articles first uh question one project few meetings back we' had a notification about a remediation this long Plane Road an old oh the old landfill remediation any idea what kind of timet table or at present our own at present we have a 90-day requirement to get back to um D with our scope of work our scope of work is going to follow I did do a site visit with the D Representatives it is installing fre monitorin Wells um for water and for gas um we've looked at the Topography of the site in the location where these WS are going to have to go there are a couple that are going to be on the down slope which is going to require some heavier Machinery to go onto it and the reach over which will mean that'll be a larger cost but at present the only requirement from D is that we at least have to demonstrate that yes we will go out and our scope of work will include this and they already told us what the work is the next step once I submit that I'm going to meet with the Board of Health just to make sure that they are in agreement um but once they do I'll submit that to D then we will need to get a cost estimate from a couple companies based on that scope will work and then we'll have to go to a special not a special but an annual toy and we'll have to I was going to say this does not sound like it's going to be an inexpensive it's not going to be especially because the day rental for the particular arm that we need it could be $2,000 a day um just for that granted it's for two Wells um but it is something that could be one or two days worth of work in order to dig that out um and most I was asking know will we have a cost estimate in time for anual town meeting yes they probably not in time for ARA funds no no sorry thinking you know though the cost um I did get a rough estimate just from the EP based on like the scope what they saw and it was under okay so but still still a cost um but yeah so that's the update yeah okay we better we're meeting our requirements we understand the scope it's not a huge but it does once we install these there will be ongoing testing and monitoring that so there will be a fee that will have to be paying for a third party Rider to do that testing for us um but at least then we'll know the if there are any off gasing issues or any penetrator build that into the board budget I thought of a question won't take very long we are we appointed the new community development person their exact title is still Community Development administrator administrator okay and they start December second the first one and remind me again their name ER rer Erica we've got our all set okay good she all roped in okay no I just wanted I just my my memory chaming for your husband all right um um to Second all those in favor I I