good evening it is 6:01 p.m. on Tuesday July 30th and I am calling the weightly select board meeting to order I'm typically the chair of this meeting but since I'm away on vacation and we are unclear how consistent our uh Wi-Fi is going to be I'm going to request that Joyce Palmer Fortune chair this meeting tonight any objections no objections okay no objections then we'll car um has everyone had a chance to take a look at the meeting minutes have any comments I have comments how about you Julie you any comments no comments okay I move we approve the minutes from the July 16th meeting second okay all those in favor Julie I Fred I me I great um the U vendor and payroll or were included are there any comments on no comments no comment okay then we can move on to public comment um this is you want to sign those later okay I can sign those um um the public comment time for Town residents uh who are welcome to provide comments on items not listed in the agenda and I think Amy you're here for something on the agenda uh Nat do you have any comments fine job oh that's the kind of comments we like to hear from the public I don't see anybody else on Zoom so I'm going to move on to new business then um the uh very first item 4 a I think that might be what Amy is here for to discuss and vote on a request to reduce voting hours for the September primary so Amy would you I read your letter but maybe you'd like to summarize that so the uh state allows us towns with under a population of 4,999 to have a reduction in early voting hours to 25% of their open business hours so I and I met with the bard of registrars they agreed to the 25% the list that I have together is uh more than 25% but it's not my entire office working hours so that's why I'm requesting a reduction the uh State requires this left for to improve I see um I had one question but maybe I'll ask see if Julie or Fred have questions first I've got no questions can you tell us specifically what would be the hours if they were not reduced and then what would be the reduced hours so if the hours were not reduced it would be Monday 8 to 6 Tuesday through Thursday 8 to 2 and then I would be here Friday and Saturday okay so this is a as you said a reduction in the early voting hours correct okay and then with the reduction it would be it would be Saturday 12 to 5 Monday 10 to 12 Tuesday 10 to 12 Wednesday 10 to 12 Thursday 10 to 12 and then the following Friday 12 to 5: I don't see Saturday yes I don't see Saturday you don't see Saturday on the letter you say it says our I'm reading this Friday we're working off of this letter oh wait this Friday the 24th let me look the 24th is a Saturday this Saturday I apologize okay so they just type the letter correct oh okay so the Friday and Saturday seems like it's mandatory in some way he we so you are required to have at least four hours on the weekend open for during the early voting period oh okay so that first one actually because that was my only con concern was um I was thinking everything was weekdays but no there's a Saturday no there's a Friday and a Saturday that I will be coming in and uh and so that that satisfies what I was yeah but I still think the letters got a problem Saturday's the 24th Saturday should be the 24th yes then this ISS Monday or Thursday the 25th to 29th and that okay I apologize 2th would be a Sunday should be 26 y 26 27 28th 29th and 30th so is and then the 30th is it's the Friday Friday okay so just the two typos the first Friday that's written their hours would be that should be Saturday um and then the numerical date for Monday through Thursday is 26 through 29 not 25 through 29 and then the 30th uh then the 30th is is correct though yeah um if I reduce it just 25% I would only be open for seven hours yeah I feel like that doesn't give residents right so this is somewhere between 25 and 100% yes um something roughly 50% roughly 40 something 40 something perc okay um and when people come in you for early voting do you think these line up with like when people do come in or have people like never come in for early v um I don't know how the primary is going to go I know that during the local election we had quite a few people come in the day before was my busiest day the day before the actual election which was like a bonus open early voting day I'm not doing a bonus early voting day because it's Labor Day oh yeah so I'm hoping that people will utilize the Friday and Saturday a lot yeah I'll get like maybe one or two a day during the week yeah okay all right okay I my questions are satisfied I'm fine I will move that we approve the early voting hours as submitted by the town clerk or as amended as amended second okay all right then let's go to a vote Julie I Brett yes Joyce yes may I add something that's kind of related I lost one of my border regist members so anybody knows anybody okay oh okay is there any requirements uh they do have to be a registered voter uhhuh I already have a Democrat and Republican and independent on the board so I so party won't matter oh okay because everybody's registered voter of any party or no party affiliation y okay all right very good so people thank you get out there it's so much fun doing elections Pop I got say it's it's a fun time okay um I buried the agenda here unar it okay uh next item recommendation for an energy storage system study committee um and maybe uh Pete can say more about that so um yes thank you I put together a recommendation for the select board to consider creating an energy storage system system study committee the reason for this is due to um the desire and the pressure to create and develop solar a lot of Solar Development PB Fields but with that battery storage um and currently under the Attorney General's interpretation of um the exemption allowances for solar there is a belief that battery storage also falls under that same exemption but there is there are some um um Community concerns with regards to safety um environmental impacts of battery not so much on the solar but on the battery itself um and so this is this study committee is contemplated in order to look at What mechanisms can be done at a local level to help with uh the sighting requirements and establishing standards for sighting of battery storage and this is for large scale storage not uh single batteries work may be doing on a residential property because that should be as of right and just move along this is for large scale um and so the idea here is to include memberships from the select board planning board Conservation Commission Board of Health agricultural commission energy committee and a member of the public not currently serving on one of those uh boards so you get a mix of different um expertise on on that study committee it has an explicit um designation where it's just looking at this but it's not restricted in you know we only want to see a general bylaw or a zoning by law looking at what are some of those tools that could be used or is it simply establishing a local licensing mechanism that would then give the local whether the the select board or some other entity the ability to make determinations on proper sighting because so clearly other communities have been attempting zoning amendments and they've been overturned they have not been AB the HS said it's in Conflict Master law therefore likely any zoning Amendment will not will muster currently under the interpretation so this is to look at what are those methods okay so are we looking for a report or specific recommendation specific recommendation yeah um that sounds like it would be a good idea to have that um would we um I remember last time people were talking about battery storage um and they we're talking about safety in terms of fire and I don't see um anything here specifically on like the fire chief but I would say I don't know that we want to put this on the fire chief's plate but I would think whatever this committee does that we keep our Public Safety people in the loop I I don't want to burden them with something else on their job yes um but uh but they should be kind of consulted on which that is a good point because one of the things similar to licensing anytime you do like underground storage needes that is fired a Perman licensing and permanating process so it is similar uh for that same exact reason for safety of potential affability um so yeah yeah and and the one thing that is a little different about it is that you you know put out an electrical fire with water so uh so they definitely and I'm sure our fire chief is knows about that sort of thing or knows exactly where to go to get the information you need about that so um that's uh well if we decide to make this committee probably got to come up with some design here uh one from among us if if the board does want to do this I'm happy to reach out to each one of these boards and ask them to discuss the the purpose and see if they have a destiny that they want to put forward um that can then be brought to the board as a final appointment and then we can also advertise for that residen seat whatever but so tonight we just think about making it we don't have to decide who's on it at this point um yes okay you have anything you want to add Julie no it sounds like a great idea yeah no sounds like a good idea okay move approval of setting up uh a energy storage systems study committee I'll second that um all right we g go to a vote uh Julie yes Brad yes Joyce yes okay uh next last item under new business is the discussion of fireworks awareness messaging and procedure and I have to say I did not get a chance to read the whole thing um beforehand um so this is an intermunicipal agreement oh no that's the shared conservation right oh there's nothing in the back to read all right sorry Al I can speak to this this was based on um a public comment at our last select board meeting where a citizen came in and you know had had commentary about uh public display of fireworks that wasn't number one necessarily legal and number two um was disturbing her livestock and likely livestock of other folks in this agricultural community and somebody perhaps the citizen had suggested having um like a robo call prior to July 4th or other fireworks friendly um celebrations just reminding folks that you know there are laws about fireworks and to be aware that we live in an agricultural community and people have livestock that are frightened by fireworks it just seemed like it would be a really um Town friendly thing to do to send out a robo call like that just letting folks know okay do we have any indication of what any other municipalities may be doing on this front if anything any other what sorry any other towns no no we don't so we'd have to look into that and find out if anyone else is doing that and then uh as the yeah you kind of want to craft a message it doesn't say hey we know y'all are doing these illegal things here's like the real rules for not getting caught which is to I don't know we don't want we don't want to make it seem like like wink wink n n you don't have to B the long waight because we know you're going to do fireworks anyway um but uh I mean I think it I would not be the one to crap that message because well and then the message could be a reminder of the restriction and then the reasons why you go rather than say we know you're GNA do it but we ask you don't because of this that like substantially why that rule exists right but the main reason that we're trying to go at is that the impact on yeah also the message have one firec we're g to come down on you like of i' I'd be happy to work on uh crafting that message and you know at least initially looking into what other towns are doing if they're doing anything and then figuring out and bringing something back to the board for yeah I suspect whatever message we give again that should also be maybe our Public Safety people are have some ideas great IDE yep y okay cool cool all right so it sounds like Julie's got a little thing on her plate then yes and uh I think that's it for new business um moving to Old business um oh we have the agreement for the shared conservation agent uh and that's the thing actually that I didn't get a chance to look through with a fine to Cone um but uh frad and Julie do you have any um comments or questions about this no I do not no I don't I feel like the main thing that would have been changed is the percentage because I think we had Goan pulled out right so the percentage is among five tens instead of six that's correct yeah that is the main of theion and then like taking gan's name off the front um I didn't check to make sure it was taken out I suppose that's just for the record say the other towns are Ashfield Buckland poy and lburg and the other four towns have um approved this updated agreement so we're the last not the not add pressure just so you're aware there is oh I'm feeling that pressure that's why I wanted you chering pressure yeah pressure well that and I turned off the AC you turned off the AC thank you yeah then the the money for this has been allocated by Town meet well this is actually funded for through a grant oh the first done it through a grant right yeah yeah so which then will help us determine actual cost because a lot of the what's great about the fgure grant funding is it will also provide for all of the setup costs to get the conservation agent set up with the computer and whatnot things that we then don't have to worry about outlaying in the next operating it's really about sustaining that employee right eventually you may have to replace that computer but we don't eventually yeah okay all right well I would consider a motion I move that we uh agree that we approve the revised agreement that we have received second okay all those in favor Julie yes Brad yes Jo yes all right great we're zooming right along woohoo next it is the Quan Quant sign um review discuss and vote of the wayf finding sign requests um and I don't know which there's no material there's no material just which I am happy to repeat repe report please thank you I must need more Cofe um so uh just as a reminder Quant Farms had submitted a request of mass doot in order to have an agricultural Correctional science installed on Route uh us5 Route 10 um at the intersection of SW road and Christian Le and with that mot's new standards are they can certainly do agricultural directional signs however when you are exiting from that primary State Road they then want a local Road signage called a Trailblazer the question had been and and the the installation of the Trailblazer sign is on the m ipity yeah um the question was how large of a Trailblazers assign did we have to do when we weren't getting that information we finally have those details so the recommendation is for the board to approve the installation of Trailblazer signs um with the stipulation very similar to mass do stipulation for the agricultural directional signs and that is that the applicant bonon Farms will be responsible for uh reaching out to the fabricator which is the same fabricator for M doot with the specifications that are outlined here that the Quan Quant the applicant will pay for the fabrication of the sign and the delivery of those signs and the post to the highway department the highway department will then install the signs at the appropriate location so um the only requirement really is for the board to approve the signs because you as the board have authority on signage within the RightWay um and then our Highway Department to do the actual labor to install but otherwise it's on the the private entity to pay for the signs that are benefiting them so the the sign sign or the requirements are two 12 foot square um galvanized poles to put the signs on 12 foot square 12 foot by 2 inch square just a sorry I missed that two inch Part 12 foot by 2 inch square uh galvinized poles um and then two signs either 12 by 18 or 18 18 by 24 depending on the size that they need to fit the Quant Quant Farms lettering on the size feet so something that those are inches 12 by 18 sorry I don't know we're going highway that size that 12 by 18 yeah and the 18 by 24 would be what that size yeah okay I think they need so um would be of 008 um aluminum the background shall be blue um with their logo lettering and directional area Arrow as well as Border in white this is following um you at the what is it national highway Transportation safety board regulations for signage so because it's a directional sign it needs to be blue um and um Following also Mass doot standards for reflect mhm and like the size of letters and stuff is awesome we we only approve we and we can't like approve a smaller font right no correct because it's dependent on the standards of uniform traffic code that's it un traffic code um and that is all based on visibility and fact that it's a local road which is why the sign can be smaller as opposed to a highway where the sign has to be larger because of the speed the speed um okay so th those are the standards and if the board does agree then I can certainly provide that letter of approval to the applicant let them know these requirements do we have locations yes um I don't have them explicitely on the map but they are one would be installed on Swamp Road and one would be on Christian Lane um as you are heading from Route 10 route five on those roads to to the prop Asos so it's on Christian Lane as oppos like so you you have to have turned on the Christian Lane for example yeah once you've turned on the and then and it's gonna like indicate qu Quant farm and this the right turn up ahead or something yes okay Swamp Road on Swamp Road or at the end of Swamp Road indicating it would be prior to the the turn y that makes sense okay and that and how will they know to turn on that road from five and 10 is there another sign that's on five and 10 well the signs on 5 and 10 are the ones that match going to install that will say DET here or deter here in 500 feet or whatever it is okay and those are not up yet no so that's the thing is M doot requires that we install the Trailblazers first before they will install the understood all right any other questions no hey we have a motion Mo we approve the signs or Quant as discussed second okay great then let's vote Julie yes FR yes yes all right very good um then uh we got two more items item C under new business discuss uh and potentially vote on a few new funding requests of unobligated arpa buttons so that is I think what most of the rest of the stack is uh I was I had a conversation today with the fire chief in support of funding but I don't know that he's ready he submitted one um estimate I don't know that he's quite ready yet to make that it's only recommendation yeah so I kind of wanted you to be aware of the request but also understanding that there is one item that he gave a very rough estimate but doesn't have a actual formal estimate do we have any other uh this is the meeting room at the fire station right yeah um which and so this is not going to be pulled 24 hours a day it's when there have meetings right is that a reasonable assumption yeah this is yeah meeting room and Radio Room not it's not a full time yeah so how long is it how often is or like what fraction of the time is that room occupied I wonder I don't know if anybody here happens to know I don't know um in the number of times I've gone past the fire station and there's been more than one car there not much I would have to say right I know they have meetings once a month um yeah because that can be it can be a real drag on an energy bill if it's left there on all time especially if it's if it's an old building but I mean in many split is easy enough and fast enough to turn off and on but in general going past there there usually isn't anyone there right right so I guess yeah I would want to but I I I would hold off on yeah any of do we are there any other suggestions or proposals that we have for using this funding it's just those three so the town cler's request for the electronic voting machines the mini split at the fire department and then the window replacements at the fire can I say something about my request oh sure I just found out this morning that potentially I think get reur of one of them oh if they use it for early voting because early legan cost get reimbursed by the state and another clerk got her tabulator one of the tabulators reimbursed okay so reimbursement but it could mean that if you were to allocate it we paid for it and then we got the reimbursement it goes back into unobligated hopefully before December or otherwise it goes into she got hers in the spring and she got her reimbursement back I've gotten my reimbursements back for um the March and June elections already so so how many months did it take to get three persons it's just we've got a backend limit on this yeah and we can't get a reimbursement on this after December 31st right I mean you could it's just if you just w't be able to use it for an our we'll go back to the G okay rather we wouldn't lose the reimburse right right yeah well I I feel like I don't quite have enough information tonight about what other kinds of things we're looking at a total of um remaining ARA funds of roughly how much w 27,000 27,000 and um there's a lot on this list it's almost 30,000 yeah yeah um a bunch of these are closed and a bunch of these are ongoing there are still yeah the ongoing ones may or may not have true yeah and is there any um like any indication on these I'd be happy to reach out to the different product managers on those to find out their status yeah right um yeah I know this has to be done quickly because we do have a that and time limit right on the other hand like like to have as close to a final number as we can right and right and so um yeah we do have a little bit more time and um so I guess I know I won't be popular for saying it but I don't know if our community is ready to give up a paper ballot um that's a I feel like this should go on a town meeting appropriation I tried well that give an indication of where the town is yeah yeah um wait were you denied including it on the warrant or when on the war so didn't even get to go to the body um I I think probably I mean maybe we should put it on a time meeting warrant U I think the cost is not that extravagant but it's and especially if you can get at some point some of it reimbursed but I just I know how people feel about the bot and I know it's uh it's more work for you and I think that's the thing I that's why I think I'm not going to be very popular for saying it but um it's what I think at the at the moment that U I don't know that it will cost more to do paper ballot than the um tabulators because what you save in time you have to pay for programming you have have elction you have to get it programmed again um uh and it would be great if it were a system where we can program it ourselves um but then what do you do when the programmer screws up because I know computer programs we all know from this past week computer programs never mess up very much um so I think that's one reason why people do feel the way they do about their paper ballots um so I guess I'm not ready to put ARA funds on on these I'm still I I like to think I'm still open to discussion and talking with people about it but uh I think thing is there any way I know that we do put out Community surveys I know we've done it in the past I know that the library done it is there is that something that potentially we could discuss and maybe just do we could put a survey but I would like to inform people of exactly what it is and what we're looking for and why as opposed to just put a survey out and being like hey because I don't think people realize the work that goes into it well maybe a is a good start of for a decision scoop a survey attached yeah I don't know just maybe I more than have I know we did it for the zip code and that's kind of what I know we did it through Survey Monkey I believe and we got a lot of data through that I just I know something to talk about if you a lot will depend on how you word that survey surveys if if you word it you know want weightly to have electronic voting might be yes if you say do you want weightly to get rid of be B box the answer will probably be no right I think that goes for everything it's definitely the way you approach yeah but but if you if you trick people that will pay for it later trick a survey very decision I don't want people I don't I don't want to like R over anybody like I don't think your arguments are bad at all I think your arguments are actually very good I just feel like people are ready for it um but the way we get people on board is by trying to convince them and you know give them um if you know if you if you wrote something up and put it in the scoop in September then um they can also put in there hey we want your feedback um and either uh well people get the pdf version will be able to click on it the paper version you'd have to make a tiny l or something if you wanted to collect um information that way or you can welcome people to send in their thoughts by whatever means is convenient to them um absolutely great start to I I would completely support that because I I really am sympathetic to the uh you using your time wisely right well not just me but my election workers yeah everybody else yeah using people and the Integrity of the election itself like I'm I'm so I don't know what word I'm looking for but like it has to be like to the te yeah you have to be really really careful yeah yeah so yeah so then I mean all that should go should go into your you know the pros and the cons right okay yeah absolutely but given that we also will need to find potentially an alternative to spending the arum oh yeah but well well if you if you get the word out then there's a if there's say a special town meeting we can appropriate that out of regular funds I I we just need to make the case and let people come and vote on it you know that's yeah that's fine I'm I'm more than happy to do that I mean we we can't appropriate should let me restate that we could appropriate them so long as it gets approved at meeting a special or or a general but in that case we would still need yeah to to find a project appropriate for the the ARA money we would not be spending on this yeah yeah and so far it looks like we got one from the fire chief and uh other than am there aren't others but you're saying there may be one on the way from another one from the fire chief well the fire chief has two we only have one formal quote Yeah we don't have the other quote okay so we're unlikely to be able to make decisions yeah yeah I right so but I would like for the next time if he can give us some idea of what um what fraction of time is that going to be used I don't know if they have is that also going to be used for their heat in the winter um I don't know if they've got a different heating system is this really just being used for an air conditioner or is it a backup just talk to him today oh it's primarily going to be used for air conditioning and one of the Alternatives actually is to put a wall unit air conditioner in so it's not confused to heat the building oh okay that the building has Heating already it's just inadequate either no or inadequate air conditioning for meetings for meetings in the summer to that point should the heating system break that spit could be the backup heating system at least a parti for that space right just for that particular not the whole big right vehicle storage area yeah okay sorry but if we can I would still will put out a note to department heads and say you know are there any projects you would want to propose in in the you know $15,000 $20,000 range okay that we might consider for this we got to spend that money if there's four or $5,000 project right whatever yeah I'll say 15 to $20,000 work projects yeah yeah okay all right does anyone have anything else to add to the part of discussion no okay all right last item under old business the Don hu dog we need an update um and I don't have that information that would be yeah so um the appeal hearing was held today um the town was represented with Town Council we had our police chief the shelter officer um some residents myself and uh Fred Baron uh the hearing was held testimony was given the um at the end the magistrate did conclude with saying that they will he's going to take the information under advisement which is indication that he is now going into review we don't have an indication as to when a decision will be rendered uh uh Our Town Council is our representative and will receive the decision as soon as it is it is rendered so we will be notified right away um through KP but um it could be tomorrow but it could be three months we unfortunately don't have any clear indication as to how unclear indication yeah um we will however likely need to to hold an executive session um in order to discuss that case and um next steps but because it is pending litigation it will require going into um or litigation currently and in that would consideration that we need to go into executive session so uh just so you're aware we will likely have to include that for okay and we're not sure when that is but um I'll it might even be before when we have the uh decision oh it would almost certainly happen before the decision just as preparation okay all right okay very good do you have any questions Julie no I spoke to Peter earlier today there yeah you were there okay did a great job testified yep okay without going into any detail the much of the today's hearings dealt with procedure on our meeting dealing with our meeting of this year of June 29th June 24 I mean okay June June 10th to 24 it is not revisiting the decision of June 29th of last year okay okay all right uh now like time for Lea updates uh why don't we start with Julie do you have anything on your various liaising I do not have anything at present okay Fred uh all I have is we will have a new senior operator at the highway department yay um that that'll be up for appointment at your next meeting okay um because we had a retirement um yeah yeah yes dougy and you're appointing a new senior operator and I talked to Keith and he and I will have to get together to formulate a plan to get back to the consultant on the highway department building um that sort of been put on the back burner temporarily with the administrator not being uh until Pete came on board and we will drag Pete into that discussion uh but that that's why I put on okay J you don't mind if I can follow on FR point so um there is a recommendation that's going to be coming before the board at the August 13th meeting in order toote one of the operator laborers to the senior um operator position it means that we will have a vacancy we are under staff right now in the highway department Keith would really like to be able to post that operator laborer position now so we can start to receive I'm happy to do it but I know the normal procedure is for the board to out say and give Authority I know it wasn't an item but I I don't know how you handled it explicitly or if we're in an area because we're doing the internal that we can go ahead and post for it just kind of asking the question otherwise I'm happy to keep it on the August 13th for a formal discussion after your per um do you know what Eric's current status is is as far as availability he to believe not yet no that's why we have the the current but staff right so essentially we'd be down two people yes yes I does not help us to delay two weeks you obviously will not be asked to appoint an operator laborer until we've done the promotion but at least getting names of applicants that that seems to me like that that seem reason to post yeah we're not changing anything outside of the job description or pay or anything would stay exactly the same so if that's okay I would post for tomorrow do we need to vote it would yeah okay that make a motion I that we authorize the Town Administrator to post an opening for a operator in the highway department second okay all those in favor yes yes me yes okay very good okay um I've got uh I guess only two things that are updates um today we went through the three three locations that are potentially locations for a South County Senior Center a more permanent one um with two members of the U The Firm e EMD Ed EDM okay uh from EDM they were very wonderful they asked very good questions we uh toured three places we started at the sou Congregational Church at South Deerfield saw that for about a half an hour walked around ask lots of questions um came to for Sandy Lane to look at sort of the empty shell of the warehouse there uh as a potential place to renovate um and then we went to the Oxford building in Sunderland that we've visited in the past but we went down with these folks um then after that we had like about two hours to a little more than two hours um in a meeting with zoom and uh sorry with zoom on Zoom with uh a third member of the firm uh who asked a lot that discussion was really good about what kind of uses we have currently what kind of services do we want what do you think we need to do to do better what other kinds of things are we looking to grow into um so that was a really really nice discussion so I'm so glad that this feasibility study is actually getting uh underway what I feel like what we'll have at the end of it is um a lot more information and uh I feel like we've given them sort of the I don't know the Golden Triangle of buildings we've got like an old building that's got old building problems to rehab we've got a new building brand new but a shell basically what can you do with a shell of a building that's you know tall you make lofs out of it in New York City I don't know but that sort of place uh and then we've got a new construction office building that you know Office Buildings are not worth that much anymore I guess but as new construction it'd be pretty easy uh be relatively easy to renovate that um the problems in each place are different um the buildings in weightly and Deerfield are both both owned by the towns so in some ways that's more straightforward the building in Sunland is not owned by any municipality so they each present different problems in terms of how we would actually move forward but the information they would give us is basically what would it cost to make the center work the way we want it to and which places are going to have which dropbacks they also kind of have enough information from doing this work um they could also tell us at the end if you wanted to start from scratch okay you would need this many acres and it cost you this much to build them so that we we hope that we'll have um kind of the information needed to make the next step which would be a decision on you do we try to get ownership of this building this not a municipal one do we go with our municipes or do we start looking for uh a town that has a little bit of land or some some land that maybe we could acquire for a senior center at a location that we like so we're information gathering I'm very excited about that having happened um and then uh the electric vehicle charging I can I assume from this that the building in Sunderland is still on the market it is still on the market because I heard at one point that it was under contract or that there was another buyer well then that may have been exan I don't I don't know all the details but you know people are always being told oh yeah I've got another person interested in this like you know kind of the pressure they want putting the pressure on it to try and sell like I said this building that we are in right now was on the market for something like six years before they sold it to us for a fraction of what they were asking for it the first time they asked us if we would buy it wow so um you know they it's it may just be they need some time and we would need some time to really get our poop in a group to to be able to buy a building like that um so at any rate that's that's where that's how long does the consulting or engineer whoever figure to take to get back with the report uh the final report oh I think it's um a matter of a month or so I didn't ask I didn't press for a date but you may learn more about it in the newspaper because Chris laraby was at our meeting okay and he's not at this meeting but he was at meeting earlyer so um well I'll I'll read tomorrow I might have to answer that question that I remember to ask um now they were definitely going to be doing they've got for example they've got to send a a structural engineer to the church in deer field because the one of the worries there is us can those floors structurally support what we want to do in there and that's just not clear that there were other issues with that building as well right there were other issues or yeah I think the my understanding is the Asus has been taken care of but I haven't really seen um the evidence or reports of that when I walked in the mildew smell was not as overwhelming as it had been they don't have the water barrier or the moisture barrier that they were going to be put in that's not been put in yet and they've not removed the carpets from and this is the sanctuary area they've not removed the carpet so it's possible that that situation would be improved but that's I I can only report what I what I what I saw and smelt when I got there so that's moving smell not as bad it's still not good yeah that it's not it was not overwhelming in thee the previous times it was kind of overwhelming um and so there's an at least Improvement there that's the positive way of saying it um yeah uh then the other um thing that's been moving a little bit is the electric vehicle um Grant the one where we're uh looking through the report now that the Consultants came up with and asking more questions um we basically uh uh I don't say tore it in half we unstapled it in half and half of the committee was taking a close look at the uh the vehicle part and the other half looking at the charging part we're going to meet again next Tuesday next Tuesday to uh try and pull together some answers to the questions I pulled put a bunch of questions into Pete and uh they're really all for for Kee so um so anyways we're making some progress on that one of the things um say for example that report we got it was definitely all the Savings in CO2 and in um fuel cost were done assuming that every vehicle gets 12,000 miles a year and honestly I don't know if that's true I don't really know how many miles we get I bet it's not true for a lot of our trucks certainly not true for the police cruiser I think that gets a lot more than average and others get less and since the cost of ownership is where you have the biggest Savings in electric vehs you know gas is gas is electricity generally speaking you're paying up front and having the savings later and if it works out to be savings that's fine but if you don't run it for that many miles then the you don't necessarily get the savings so uh in some some cases it may make more sense to do uh hybrid um because there's less of an upfront cost and you get some of the savings um and so that's what we have done so far with police cars but our next police car purchase won't be for three years so we'd have to reexamine this again in three years it might be there's the best electric vehicle police car ever is going to be available and there's going to be billions of them and they'll be able to deliver within a week um so there's so we're uh we're definitely you're just kind of picking apart the report I remember correct I think I signed up for it there's an MMA seminar or webinar on electric vehicles coming up um yeah I think I saw that yeah in the next couple of weeks yeah I think be us to be on to be on that one yeah yeah I agree um all right that's all I have for update this point and I'll turn it over to Pete for any more P ministrator updates uh just a few uh the first is the board will remember there was discussion La early in the spring about joining the Franklin County Regional anal control program uh we Le submitted a letter of interest in order to join that program at our last communication with the county sheriff's office which was back in May it was that board just needed the the their board needed to have a meeting in order to review the request to make determination if the town should be allowed into the program basically just confirming do they have employees to service the community unfortunately that meeting didn't happen and we weren't informed of that um and I found out a couple weeks ago that it kind of fell by the wayside but they did confirm that they are getting a board meeting scheduled they will take this up they will take it under consideration because they have hired two new officers that have been trained so they now have the St Staffing availability to cover additional communities so hopefully in the very near future we should have a response that we are this dog hearing situation has certainly made us aware of the need for an animal control office it's been emphasized that we are under mutual Aid right now as opposed to being in a program um which at least it's great that we have that Mutual Aid and we have that support but we do want to enter into the formal program U but that will be brought back to the board because you will have to sign off on an agreement okay um also last week the Franklin County Transportation Planning organization held its quarterly meeting one of the main topics that came up was that the Franklin County Bikeway sign installation uh project is underway this is to install signage on all of the county Bikeway uh routes there are a number of different loops and routes throughout the county um and so basically it's just a a notice and making sure that residents know that soon if they haven't seen the signs they will be signed they have money now to fabricate and install on all weightly does have two um portions we have a uh weightly Conway Loop that runs through a majority of the community and then there is also the River Road connector which is a North South Route uh so there are two Road routes that are part of this bike way which if they don't have signs they will have signs by the end of this year is the sign just to identify the route yes y so would it be possible for us to get a sign like at the library to indicate that there's a bike that's be the town could certainly do that this is just the county installing on the actual route itself but if you want to do way finding to direct people to it we could certainly do that yeah yeah if there's any money left on that grant for the um the bike repair stations right if there's any like there might be 50 c left or something there's any money left in there maybe we could U use that for signs okay we haven't given it back already that's a good idea yeah the sign's not the repair station is not right on CH plane road so maybe aign yeah directing yeah bike riders to okay um the next update is just a quick up dat on the FY 24 Town summary budget report um as you know there were a number of different budget transfers as there typically are at the end of the fiscal year both inter department and Reserve fund um everything looks great after those there is just one item that's outstanding it's an invoice for the rser uh platform rser map platform uh that invoice is an outstanding invoice a small dollar amount of 450 so we will just put that on special temp meeting for uh the final annual to meeting as a prior year F so otherwise everything else looks great um for our books for f54 um The furog Cooperative inspection program is nearing their completion switching to a new pering platform what this means is that all of our building permits in electrical which is all handled through furog they are moving to a brand new platform which will make it easier for their spectors to do on-site inspections and enter the enter information on site as opposed to on paper and then going back and trying to transcribe notes um it will also make it easier for applicants to find out status of their permits now that everything is going to be within a uh updated platform they are currently in their testing phase when they hope to have um that system up and live this fall and then the fog quarterly meeting was was held last the council quarterly meeting was held last week uh two weeks ago I look at it um and uh we went over a number of different items but the primary discussion was a presentation on Regional Housing plan for Franklin County um there was a lot of great information that was presented showing density and where we have population Trends the most notable Trend which is true Nationwide but still for out here in Franklin County as well is that while population may be decreasing the housing needs are still increasing because the family unit size is decreasing so you what were typically you know average family size to the four or so now we're more on the two so although your population may be decreasing because the population the family sizes are smaller you still need housing units which is why there is still an increase in the need for housing units and we do still have a significant deficiency in housing units and primarily affordable housing units based on Medi income um and so with that housing produ plan there will be recommendations that will come out um and best practices that will help direct that um we did discuss the fact that you know a lot of communities are focused on agricultural um how do we preserve that while also providing additional housing availability also the fact that many of our communities are on septic so yeah it does limit the ab the developable land area as well as the size and number of units that you can do uh just a PSA for the residents route 510 is going to be repaved um do I believe has already started putting out some markers but it will start the repavement project will run just south of the weightly truck stop all the way to the Hatfield Northampton line you can currently see a scam around the diner where previous repayment had done that seam is going to be the start of the repayment and that brought out through the community that would be very welcome especially in the stretch between the diner and Christian Lane oh which is always it's yeah it's it's it gets it gets very heavy truck traffic from y candle trucks going back and forth ex a um and the Conservation Commission will be holding it hearings in August on those requests because it does have to go um and the the statement is that massive dot intends to have that repayment done by uh the winter so because you really don't be repaving during winter time but that is the intention might be like a September October yes late season Poss but yes um and then you already talked about theil stud that's all okay all right are there any items not anticipated no all right I would entertain next meet just next meeting August 13th correct yes I've got it next meeting and there's a poll hearing at the next meeting yes we do have you'll be lucky enough to come back on August 27th there's another yes we are back we are bad I really was trying to get them on the same meeting but unfortunately Verizon stack was not available and I didn't want to hold off right okay they are very related projects so just be prepared okay move to a Jour I will second oh we that fine fine Julie yes yes CH yes all right well good night everybody hey have fun bye Julie