recording in progress says that but then it does you know Bill's gonna say Bill Scott's gonna say a couple words on okay all righty good evening this is to formally advise that
as required by massachusett massach uses General Law chapter 30A sections 18 to 25 and pursuant to chapter 20 of the acts of 2021 an act relative to extending certain covid-19 measures adopted during the state of emergency
signed into law on June 16 2021 as extended by chapter 2 of the acts of 2023 the armor select board will hold a public meeting on Tuesday March 18th 2025 at 6 p.m. in the hearing room yarma
Town Hall call 1146 Route 28 South Yarmouth Mass excuse me 02664 the public is welcome to attend either in person or via the alternative Public Access provided on the town website if you'd like to All Join Me In
The Pledge of Allegiance please I pled aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivis with liy and justice for
all hello there okay let me open with asking are there any announcements for tonight no no announcements how about public comment anyone in the audience anyone online yes I
see Christopher Garen you'd like to unmute yourself for us please yes good evening can you hear me I can indeed go right ahead yes I'd like to thank Town planner Kathy Williams for the presentation she
gave several weeks ago about Yarmouth Village and the plan uh to uh enhance the charm there I I think it had a nice attendance the meeting online and in person and it appear that um you know it
was well received the um main concern it you know would be just pedestrian safety but the wider sidewalks and uh crosswalks you know should um address that one quick question uh that was raised somebody asked about uh parking
in the back of the stores that uh is there a possibility that they could all be United and iall nobody had an answer but I recall uh Town Administrator written hour in past meetings mentioned that discussion
um perhaps he could uh update that you know later uh in this meeting just to to give an idea if that's a possibility but but anyways that that looks good and the what's great about the charm Kathy Williams and the planning committee are also working on Route 28 and how
important it is to maintain the quality that you know uh summer feel to Yarmouth and uh and I think that uh it bodess well for the plans that are going forward on on for Route
28 uh regarding uh at the last meeting the um CEO for the Chamber of Commerce did uh presented you know interesting information but he mentioned that um that 20% uh uh Hospitality tax um is the
limit that people will like decide not to vacation if it goes up to 20% I just uh you know I think the board several members you know questioned that that just sounds a little steep um you know I
think the plan overall sounds you know worthwhile but a 20% tax might hurt yarmouth's summer um rentals and for those on the current board who weren't uh here last year I
believe it was in January of 2024 Senator sear spoke and he said that in provin toown friends of his who have been um you know visiting vacationing in Province toown for the last 20 years told him it's getting too expensive and
it's not very nice and it's less expensive to vacation in Europe and plus uh it's nicer so I just think um raising taxes to cover expenses is important but
20% just uh it sounds a little too steep but uh but otherwise I just uh want to thank again the planning committee and for the plans for yarm Village uh there's so many nice restaurants and shops there that uh those the plan looks uh really worthwhile so thank you very
much thank you do we have anyone else um who would like to speak today I don't see any other hands up so let's move to a really fun part of our agenda tonight the recognition of retirement and for this I'm going to turn it over to Bill
Scott so we're all here to congratulate bill on his career with the town of Yarmouth bill came to us from the Coast Guard where most of his military career was stationed in Point Judith Rhode Island we received the Sailor of the quarter accommodation two times and the Coast
Guard accommodation medal for his involvement in a dangerous Coast Guard rescue uh in 1997 he was higher brother town in 200 six he became the field supervisor where he was given the title sergeant in 2002 he was promoted to
director that's when I uh got to know bill because I arrived in 2001 he completed the Bridge Academy in 2022 and became a certified police officer throughout his career he managed Town conservation areas Herring runs
handled Wildlife calls uh built off spr off spree platforms manage over 600 moing slips perform hunting inspections shellfish propagation and attended waterways meetings and uh obtain numerous grants for safety boats and uh
shellfish I arrived one year prior to Bill's promotion as a director in my short time uh I learned of Bill's passion for the position and His Kind diplomacy bill is one of these people that listens and works with people as a team his team approach has created
strong Partnerships with engineering and public works this has led to several Grand Awards providing further means to achieve success his kind and diplomatic Nature has established a lar large following of friends and peers within the industry when Bill first became the
director he set out to organize meetings to review dredging and get everybody together from the region and that really kicked off you know some of the successes we've seen today he took upon capital projects and Wass of the water in a manner that will methodically provide
Solutions it's a project that started at 30 w wasted the water and it's grown but his approach was to look at them all at once and then to methodically do the implementation but throughout that he gives credit to others for these
successes but before I leave the podium I want to tell a story about when my first conversation with Bill before he was appointed you know I said you need exposure you need to get out there you're going to be going to the board of Selectmen so you know uh get let people know that you're the leader he was his
name was up for a point appointment so I joked that I worked for a mayor he used to go to construction sites and put on a hard hat and you know point at things you know so he can be in the paper so with a few weeks before the board meeting where Bill was going to be
appointed he revealed his sense of humor and if we go to the slide and there's bill you know and in Bill's response to that he goes I do what my boss tells me but uh there he is pointing at stuff on the dredge uh
but I want to congratulate bill for his success in his career and everybody knows he will be missed thank you thank you Bill oh why not explain the photo no
kidding I actually didn't mean the point Dave was on the boat and and I said um wants me to put a hard hat on and point I said I'm going to put the hard hat on but I'm not going to point at anything and then when I got up there you know being a person who talks with his hands
anyway evidently I pointed on my own and Dave started snapping the picture so Bill got a kick out of that anyway I'll uh I know I can be long- winded so I'll try not to be and and I'll try not to be emotional when
Carl Von hone was here a few years ago um upon retiring and and Carl will tell you you know that he wears his heart on his sleeve and you know I love that about him and and of course he got choked up and I said to myself I don't think I'm going to get choked up like that but of course when I decided to
retire and I told the staff I had a staff meeting I started thinking about all the memories um of course I started getting very choked up and so uh bear with me you know I've been here as I thought about it more than half my life
now so um it's it's been a while you know and I think back to when over 27 years ago when uh Carl interviewed me and I think back to the one question he said well you know where do you see yourself in 10 years I said I don't know I just want to be like in a
job that I'm happy you know something that I enjoy doing make enough to to get by and be comfortable and and um here it is 27 years later and and I I achieved
that um you know I've loved working for the natural resource division for the town of Yarmouth and for this community it's truly truly been an honor um since I've been in the director role
and I've said this and I'll say it time and time again I can't thank uh admin Bob and Bill enough the select board Chief Lenin uh without support from all of you um I don't think I could have
done done that job for any time at all and I um I truly truly mean that and I'm so proud of the staff we have at natural resources and I they had a little uh open house for me yesterday up at the
424 building and and I said to the staff afterwards I said you know this may sound funny but like I think a lot of people when like getting ready to retire in their mind and sometimes it might take some kind of like event or some circumstances
where they think things aren't going as well anymore so they were thinking about retiring anyway so they so they you know they they put their papers in but but with me it's the absolute opposite like things are going so well and I am so
happy um that that's why I'm leaving again like I could not have asked for better bosses again this admin this board and this staff that we've
assembled at DNR is so ready for to continue the work that we've been doing and I truly truly believe it's with all of you in place it's only going to continue to get better um and I'm really excited to see what the future uh holds
for for DNR and and for the town but I again can't thank you all enough thank you Bill Bill I have a citation here for you up Bill thank you thank
you luck to you thank you thank you thank you we were lucky to have us thank you Bill likewise thank you you're okay stick around because I have something for you town of yarma Select board official citation be it known that the town of
Yarmouth hereby recognizes William D benetti on his retirement as director of Natural Resources effective March 17 2025 and for dedicated service to the town of Yarmouth and be it further known that the town of Yarmouth extends its sincerest thanks and appreciation for
over 27 years of tireless service in the Natural Resources Division this citation has been approved by the Arma select board on this 18th day of March in the year of our Lord 2025 congratulations
billk [Applause] you sorry I missed your coffee but I think Mother Nature had other ideas on Monday it certainly it was certainly
pouring at this point I am going to turn the um the podium over to uh Tracy uh post as our um hearing officer thank you madam chair um I just I'd like to say a few words sure bill
before we get into it um 27 years is quite an accomplishment I was uh fortunate to be able to stop by yesterday and the fact that your entire staff is um mostly sitting here with you today uh speaks volumes of you and the
respect that they have for you uh in all your years I'm sure that you've seen so many things change um and the fact that you have built your bench so to speak to a point where you feel comfortable is also
another reflection of you and your leadership so um I I think you should be commended for that and leaving with that peace of mind is a really nice thing and it's not bad to be emotional I remember when I left the last time when I wasn't here I cried like a baby here in public
and um you know I felt bad about it but I I came back so my point is go too far yeah may maybe we'll see you again and I just want to personally say thank you for all that you've [Applause]
done would any of the other members like to amen yes to I love to think that the critters were safe under your rule the turtles thank you Bill all
right the yarma select board acting as the local licensing Authority has received an application from Harry Hospitality Inc parth Patel manager of record for a new section 12 all alcohol license for uncommon commoner Cape Cod located at 135 Route
28 West Jou Mass 02673 the premises is a 102 unit year round hotel which includes a restaurant an indoor and outdoor bar outdoor patio area indoor outdoor pools storage room
and office it's made up of four buildings and two floors each alcohol is requested to be served from the bar and consumed within the rest restaurant and on the patios alcohol will be stored in a locked storage room across the hall
from the restaurant total approximate square footage is 53,000 square fet hearing will be held on Tuesday March 18th 2025 in the hearing room of town hall 11:46 through 28 South Yarmouth the select board meeting begins at 6: p.m. written comments will be accepted until
4:30 p.m. Friday March 14th 2025 in the select Board office at Town Hall and can be submitted electronically at public comment ma. us yarmouth.ma us verbal comments accepted at the hearing Amber were there any um comments submitted
electronically through public comment no okay with that we will open the hearing uh if you don't mind introducing yourself please and uh giving a brief overview of um what you're requesting here tonight sure so good evening everyone my name is Jackson Christian
I'm an attorney at Demus law offices in Lynn and I'm here representing the applicant Hari Hospitality Inc which is doing business as The Uncommon or Cape Cod at 135 Route 28 in Yarmouth also here's parth par is one of the owners of the hotel and he's also the manager of record how you doing or the proposed
manager of record um so the applicant is applying for a sex and 12 annual all alcohol liquor license for the hotel uh which is currently available under quota uh so they've been running the Hotel this hotel since 2016 um the hotel itself has actually been open since 1968
in the same spot um so they parth originally ran it under the name Tidewater in but in October 2024 they changed it to the uncommon so so the hotel has 102 units including a restaurant so the restaurant is going to have an indoor bar and an outdoor bar
there's four buildings two floors each for a total of 53,000 sare ft and the hours for selling liquor were applying for 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. and which is weekdays and Saturdays and then on Sundays 10: a.m. to 11 p.m. so parth
will be the manager of record and he has experience with selling alcohol he's experienced with a hotel with alcohol actually here in Yarmouth uh the Freebird Lodge which is the owner and manager of record of uh which is just down the street from this hotel so he
won't have an issue being a manager of record at both locations um parth is also currently the manager of record at Old Colony Liquors which is in Norton but we're currently in the process of taking par off manager of record there so he's not going to be manager at all three places that's not going to be
happening he's going to be manager at these two hotels so we've paid the fee the $200 fee from the abcc and we're in the process of changing the manager at um Old Colony Liquors so parth has never had any violations at any of these locations he's tip certified um he knows
what he's doing so there's two things that we're seeking approval of the first is just approval of this new liquor license to Hari Hospitality Inc and the second is the approval of parth Patel as the manager of record at that location and at this time if there's any questions you all have we're happy to
address them okay um you mentioned I guess just for my own question we have dealt with hotels before that have an uh a a
license that encompasses the entire uh property and what you're what we've advertised here is for it to be served on in certain places so I I'm a little confused this this license should cover
the entire property is that correct yes the license should cover the entire property okay I'm just making sure because it says includes um service also um where in your
application does it have the specific hours I'm trying to you mention them in your opening but I don't see the hours that you're requesting here there's a page um at the beginning of the applications town of Yarmouth your letter no not the letter it's on
Municipal forms after that town of Yarmouth liquor license application additional material um it's after the TIPS certification form within the agenda also I think that the notice um you know it says it's it's 102 unit year
round hotel including a restaurant indoor outdoor bar patio area made up of four buildings and two floors e and so it's saying it's requested to be served um and then consumed but so you read that as limited well I just want to make sure that we're
clear what you're asking for is no we're asking for the full premises okay just I'm just making sure we clarify so that before the board starts we we know I I need to find the hours on here as well um there you and do you have your green
cards or did you file an affidavit do you have uh it's included in the packet the affidavit I'm sorry I say that again oh no there's no affidavit they they had the green cards they gave it to us on um yesterday you have the green cards that's what I was wondering yep thank
you no problem you s off mail okay there it is so it's just on letterhead just on the letterhead okay so you're looking for weekdays 9:00 a.m. to 11:
p.m. and Sundays 10 to 11: p.m. it was 9 to 11 wasn't it on 9:00 a.m. weekday weekdays and Sundays 10 10 to 11 okay uh Liz we'll start with you do you have any interject real quick I'm so sorry I
forgot to mention so um there's two additional pages to the application we were hoping to swap out when I Was preparing for this hearing um we noticed that there had been an oversight on page five the manager section 10 the manager application um section c it was missing
some of parts employment information and um in addition the resume that was attached at the front of the application was missing one piece um of his experience so I've corrected both of those pages here if I could give them to you just make sure Amber has has them unless it's something that's
relevant to to us right now for procedural purposes just make sure Amber gets a copy of it to put into the packet okay all right Liz um so this is my first um uh alcohol license hearing so I
I'll keep it very short it sounds um proper to me and I'm I if it's already something that exists at the Freebird and parth is now going to be taking care of it at the on commoner Cape Cod sounds like it's going to be um appropriate for
both both of those facilities and um glad that we are offering our our visitors that kind of services thank you thank you Joyce oh thanks Tracy uh welcome back Mr Patel um I have not visited this site but I remember when
you were in about Freebird I walked around the site just to see you know whether there were sort of barriers in a clear def definition of the site um is that true of the uncommon as well it has a special loc it has a restaurant location on property towards the back
when you go in so it has a specific location for restaurant and bar okay do you foresee any outdoor consumption of alcohol no no no on on property only not not outdoor we are not serving only at the bar only at the restaurant that's
what we are going to serve okay thank you very helpful but for the record I said stated before that this this is for all the premises so they can take it from the bar and walk outside and go anywhere on on the property the patio is is an outdoor indoor patio so so they
and is the patio defined yes so that people don't leave it or or possibly take a beverage to someone who's underage or they can take it anywhere on the property under this under this license
okay thank you hi um I I noticed that you're named as a manager and also there's a second manager listed K that's my hotel manager that's my second in command just in case I'm not available okay she's going to be
available and is she present tonight no she's not okay and um given that you have two different locations I mean you can't be so I have second in command on each of my properties I'm the owner but I have my
managers as well available at each property when I'm not available and also they're so close in proximity they maybe like what would you say two five minute drive not even um maybe not on July in the summer though well I'm a local so I know the backrounds about how to get
through it uh okay and um now the Freebird is a seasonal property and this one is going to be year round yeah okay um I think that's all I have thank you thank you
Mark um thank you um just a question for the staff and do we have any emails or any other calls or letters or anything that's come in in the administrative record either in favor or against this proposal nothing okay that's great thank
you um I don't have any questions I'm I'm fine thank you okay we'll go to the public do anybody in the public have any questions or comments on this application is there anybody online hands okay um I'm going to ask a
couple of questions um similar to what Dorcas asked um you do have a backup listed are they also tips trained yes okay in both locations yes okay so somebody on site will be my entire staff will be T tip strain not even though they're not going to work they're going
to be tip strained okay perfect um so you're giving up your third location it will just be these two you have a backup of both and you said that the free bird is seasonal but this will be year round is it year round now it is
year it is year round we are shut down for renovation for now but yes it will be year round The Uncommon commoner Hotel will also be year round okay uh Freebird will be seasonal just so you know okay y all right all right I'll take a motion to close the public
portion of the hearing so moved second any discussion on the motion all in favor I is there any uh recommendation or I mean I think everything is is in order here uh Mr Patel knows the town he knows
that we take the liquor license very serious and that it's a very big responsibility that you have um with this and that um if there's any uh violation you'll be back here so um with
that I I would now would you prefer one motion or two motions we need two motions one to um approve the application as requested or that's in our packet unless the board is wants to make any amendments to it um and then
the second one would be for the approval of uh Mr Patel sorry I I move that we approve the application as as presented is there a second second any discussion on the motion all those in favor I any
opposed and I'll take a motion on uh the approval of the manager I move that we approve parth Patel as the manager of record at the UNC commoner Cape Cod second any discussion on the motion all those in favor I any
opposed thank you very much luck thank you much congratulations good luck thank you over to you thank you Tracy thank you Amber our next item on the agenda is the cape Cog commission year in review thank
you looking forward to this hi Christine thank you thank you I need one for my coffee table thank you thank you Christie thank you approve the
very nice don't look good very readable your designer does a great job if you have the green cards all right thank you so much for the opportunity to be here this evening I'm Christy sanatorium the executive
director at the Cape Cod Commission and as you know uh from time to time I like to visit the 14 select boards across the cape as well as the Barnesville Town Council in an effort to uh share some of the work that we've been doing talk about some of our upcoming priorities really keep the lines of communication
open be able to answer any questions that you do have and keep that dialogue open I am joined this evening by Dennis pron who as you know is the Yarmouth representative to the Cap Cod Commission um and through the chair I'd love to be able to um uh let Dennis make some
remarks at the end of my presentation if uh if he'd like to do that and uh certainly answer any questions as well certainly thank you so what I have handed out uh is our 2024 year in review um you may have seen this on our website or in your email um but what it does is
provide um an overview of some of our initiatives that we worked on last year and a little bit of a preview of some of the work that we're doing this coming year um it is not necessarily a comprehensive overview of all of our priority projects but does provide um
some of those highlights um what I would like to do this evening is really just uh walk through and review with you some of our priority projects from last year and talk about our upcoming work um really with a focus on a couple of main priority projects and that's really focusing on many of the major challenges
that are facing the region so the first um project that was a focus area of the commissions last year was our regional housing strategy um that we had worked on for the better part of a year that really um gave us an opportunity to look comprehensively across the cape we
released that housing strategy in May of last year um this was supported by Fun funding that we received through the arpa grants through barville County um and in it it contains a number of recommendations these are local zoning recommendations as well as recommendations at the regional scale
for new funding mechanisms and programs zoning reform and streamline permitting and um the potential for new entities to support affordable and attainable housing um it also includes a number of resources to support implementation at the local level um and these include
things like multif family design guidelines and a series of model bylaws that can be implemented locally we also created a series of housing profiles one for each of the 15 communities as well as one Regional Housing profile um that contains a number of different data
points um and we actually just updated these housing profiles recently so that we can make sure we're incorporating the best available data and information um in the report itself the strategy has a number of uh implementation action items and we're already moving forward with a few of those items currently we're
working on a pre-approved plans project which really um is an an opportunity for us to look to streamline permitting work with the local communities so we'll soon have a series of model housing um plans for a different uh range of housing types and this includes smallscale
housing accessory dwelling units as well as um some multif family opportunities and so we're looking forward to working with communities this year on some pilot opportunities to use these pre-approved plans in discrete locations we're also um working with a consultant to conduct
some research to um potentially develop a framework for a community housing trust and a Housing Bank and through the process of the development of the housing strategy we heard from towns that it can sometimes be challenging to acquire property um for Housing Development and so this would directly
support that recommendation to um identify and potentially develop new entities that can more swiftly acquire properties to redevelop or um develop um for the purpose of affordable and attainable housing so we look forward to working with the communities on many of
these items and others um to really address the housing crisis that's facing the region so pivoting from housing to water quality um as you know that's been a focus area of the cape C commission for quite some time um much of our work this year has been on the development of our freshwater strategy so we have a
freshwater initiative with many different elements within it the freshwater housing strategy we just released and draft um we had a public comment period uh that closed just yesterday so we'll be incorporating those public comments into a final strategy that we hope to release within the ne within the coming months um the
freshwater strategy really uh gives us an opportunity to take a look at the 890 freshwater lakes and ponds across the region and we developed a number of resources to support that strategy including Pond buffer guidance which is
really intended to to help homeowners um as well as towns preserve some of the uh and protect some of the ponds through responsible Landscaping management um we also developed a water quality data portal so you may recall during um the process to develop our 208 plan we
developed uh a water quality data portal for marine and Coastal water quality this is an expansion of that water quality data portal for freshwater um so it now includes many of the data sets that are being collected locally as well as the data that's being collected through our regional Pond monitoring
program um some of the ponds that are being monitored currently in Yarmouth are Pond James Pond and West Sandy Pond um we also developed a strategies database to um support the freshwater initiative so this includes a number of different strategies that can be
implemented depending on um the circumstances within each of the locations themselves and so we look forward to um working with the local communities to implement some of these strategies I um just wanted to note that the regional mon monitoring program also
now has um more reliable and dedic ated funding going forward um the cap and Islands water protection fund um has uh made the decision recently and they voted to fund Pond monitoring as part of their um uh Pro providing funds for this
program going forward so we're certainly pleased to see that dedication of the the the funding there and so obviously much of our time has been spent on Coastal water quality Marine water quality and through the administrative and technical support that we provide to the cap and Islands
water protection fund management board um just last year alone the board awarded nearly $65 million in subsidies for water quality projects so it's um really uh excellent to see that progress on Wastewater projects moving forward in many of our communities um we know that
the draft intended use plan for 2025 has been released there's nearly 20 uh I'm sorry $372 million in projects eligible K projects that are listed on that um iup um we know there's some challenges to that in Ed use plan um so we're
certainly looking forward to continuing to work with the communities to make sure that progress can continue on many of these um important projects and certainly we know that this is important and critical to the town of Yarmouth um so we also have as you all know um a lot of work in the
transportation space um certainly I think we could spend a whole lot of time talking about the canal Bridges but that's probably a separate discussion um but what I wanted to talk about briefly was our visions action plan so we are working on the development of a vision zero action plan which is an initiative
that's designed to improve road safety and um address traffic fatalities it's a nationwide program and we're pleased to bring this regionally and locally to uh the cape um completing this action plan will actually make the 15 Cape Cod towns eligible for Safe Streets and roads for
all implementation grants so trying to leverage that Federal funding to implement some of these strategies locally um the Cape Cod metrop Po and planning organization as well as the maral County Board of regional Commissioners have adopted a vision zero goal of Zero fatalities and serious
injuries by 2050 um with an interim goal of 50% reduction in fatalities and serious injuries by the year 2035 um certainly local community communities are welcome to adopt a similar Vision zero goal uh at your at your discretion
we do have an oversight committee that's seeing this work and we will be having a number of public meetings coming up and so those um any additional information can be found on our website but certainly we'd welcome attendance of community members at those meetings um I know our staff has been working closely with your team
on our on the vision um I'm sorry the station AB Corridor study and so we think I think that that study has now been completed and um I think the finalized report is now available on our website so we uh really appreciated that collaboration look forward to continuing um the discussions around uh other
Transportation improvements in in the town of bouth and then finally um Route 6A visioning so we have begun a visioning study for Route 6A looking at the entire corridor from Bourne all the way to Orleans um really reviewing some safety concerns and identifying
opportunities for more multimodal improvements of course while making sure to retain the character of the the um village centers that are being supported by Route 6A um so certainly we look forward to continuing that work with the town of gouth as well so there's
probably a lot more Transportation things but I'm going to leave it there for now um and just pivot a little bit to some of our climate and Coastal resiliency work this has um been a focus area of the Cape Cod Commission for some time um and uh one of the highlights of our work last year was the development
of model bylaws and regulations to promote resiliency in the flood plane not only today but into the future um so we look forward to continuing to collaborate with towns on the potential implementation of some of these model bylaws um as you know we worked on the
low-lying roads project we were able to work with all 15 communities on that project um and now each Community has two or three conceptual plans for vulnerable roadway segments within the communities and so the next step is really um identifying potential
implementation funds and working with the communities to um Advance additional conceptual designs and Advance projects uh that can be implemented so we look forward to um working with our communities to implement some of these um resiliency in
iives and then finally the last two things I wanted to mention um are our comprehensive Economic Development strategy so we have updated that plan last year we have a new um SS this was approved um by the Barnsville County Economic Development Council as well as the commission and then finally through
the federal Economic Development Administration um this year we'll be focusing on advancing some of the priority actions that are contained within the economic development strategy um these include efforts to in incentivize year round housing simplifying appropriate housing
development in the right locations um continuing to advocate for the replacement of the canal Bridges um and a number of other Economic Development priorities within that plan and then finally um wanted to mention that we are um in the midst of a regional policy
Plan update so certainly I'm sure you're well aware of what our regional policy plan is but we did launch that update in the fall um some of the areas of focus for this update are really encouraging housing in the right places is promoting reuse and Redevelopment preserving our natural areas economic resilience
climate action and infrastructure um we held uh a series of focus groups in many of our um issue areas that were considering making uh adjustments to some of the goals and objectives within the regional policy plan itself um and we'll be holding a series of public
meetings to uh uh really get some additional feedback on on opportunities to make some amendments to that plan I am anticipating that we will have a draft uh out for public comment sometime hopefully early summer um but certainly that's a work in progress um and then
finally I just wanted to thank Dennis for his service on the commission we have had an incredibly busy regulatory program as of late and um I think Dennis has served on many subcommittees and uh has been at the full commission on many important votes and I just wanted to thank him for his attention and
dedication to the work of the commission and certainly um make sure that he has an opportunity to make a few remarks and then I'm happy to take questions all right well I want to thank the board for appointing me and then reappointing me to the board because I've enjoyed my work here on the cape
card commission it's a very active organization I think we've done a great deal of uh excellent work over the last several years and that I've served on the board and I just want to say that we have a tremendous staff that does some
really fun work on the board in all different areas of concern to the uh to barnable County so I thank you again I thank uh Christie for coming here tonight and I if you have any questions we'll be happy to
answer them thank you for your service Dennis we appreciate it we've been well represented with you there thank you and I'll start questions with Mark I'm going to hold off on my questions I be happy to wait till the
end okay JY thank you for coming Christie I appreciate it um and all the work that you do as well um this is a great brochure I didn't have time to review it in advance so I um a lot of my questions have to do with
the future not in review so um I guess that leaves me at a little bit of a disadvantage of my of of the things that I'm interested in and and how we're working together and moving forward um when we used to get the review we used to get like a financial review about the
money that Yarmouth has um put into the commission and how it's been spent is that something that we could I think it's probably on your website right yes we do have much of that information available on our website um so certainly if you're not finding what you're looking for happy to follow up okay I
just think it's good for the public to understand um because you know we invest money in the commission and all the work that you're talking about comes back you know to us hopefully um your RPP update is that every five
years yes do you do a analysis of the success of of those and how we've grown economically or not yeah that's a great question um so through the chair I'm happy to respond um we have updated that plan every five
or so years since 1992 when the first plan was put in place 199 1 and um we always have the opportunity to evaluate what's working and what's not working in um the last iteration of the regional policy plan we did a major overhaul in
the way that we um looked at regulation and looked at the projects that were coming through the commission and um in that Regional policy plan we put together a series of performance measures so that we can now as we're looking at Regional policy Plan update this time around really get a sense of
um how we did over the last 5 years I think it's fair to say A lot's changed in the last five or six years since that Regional policy plan we've you know had a a major shift in the way um we operate as a region certainly with a pandemic in the middle of all that um but this is an
opportunity for us to now take a look at um how those goals and objectives are working we also do a look at all the regulatory projects that we review to see where we um might want to make some amendments to those goals and objectives so it's a a chance for us to look back
um and then we can kind of really reflect and see what makes sense to move forward as a region and then reach out to the the stakeholders and the public to see what kind of feedback they they have um one of our first steps of course is working with the staff at in in the municipalities to make sure um their
feedback is is incorporated um and certainly making sure that all of the leadership that's um across the Cape is incorporated and included great now that you answered one of my questions because that was my next question is how how um you know know you talked about some
online permitting and things like that those are all things that we strive for here and you know I've always been um big on trying to the town trying to do an analysis of permits that have been applied for and and where the you
know blocks are to it to see so my question was basically how how many applications from Yarmouth have you seen and how many have been successful or what what the what the hold back is really because obviously economic development is a huge
thing for us and all the items that you talked about are extremely important um and there's there's so many layers of government that I I know that you have a great relationship with the people here but hopefully you know a lot of the projects you talked about like visioning
Route 6A uh you know we're in the middle of our own plan on Route 6A and hopefully you're keeping up with that and trying to make sure that we're all going together in the same direction so we don't have a plan that's adverse to what you're trying to achieve and vice
versa so um you know it's just it gets complicated when you have multiple levels um but my one question really is um the airport expansion that you didn't talk about and I'm curious where that stands if the commission has any review
or stake in that at this point at all um so that will be reviewed uh at some point in the future by our regulatory program so um we will be engaged and um if not as on the regulatory side at least as a stakeholder and be um working
with the airport staff so um I think that there's certainly further dialogue and discussion that needs to happen as that project proceeds okay good I mean again I could go on these are all very um important topics that are that take time I'm interested listening to um your
saids and the the zero vision zero I'm not familiar with that so I'd love to learn more about what that really means um I'll do some research on the website but hopefully you can come back and we can have a more in-depth discussion about the future and not the review just
happy to thanks thank you Tracy um Joyce oh thank you uh welcome Christie um I have a question and I guess it relates to what Tracy has said you know kind of as we look toward the future are there any um cut commission programs that are
in danger of being cut or diminished by um the uh current um Financial process in Washington it is a great question and one I have been asked I think every day um recently um and so the answer to that
is we haven't been impacted yet um we are keeping an eye on things daily um and certainly want to make sure that our budgets and our work programming is flexible and agile enough to um withstand any types of um challenges to our our workflow um that being said we
are keeping our eye and certainly want to make sure that all of our programs that are um having these the local impact can continue so as of right now um we are you know confident in that work plan moving forward but we're certainly making sure that we're aware of potential challenges to that okay
thank you I have one more question um which was about the resiliency piece um I know that the low l in roads analysis is essentially complete um is the commission going to if if other low-lying roads that get frequent
flooding are reported is there a way to include them um in in some future analysis um that's a great question and yes we do want to make sure that that data can continue to be documented and we are seeking um opportunities for
additional grant funding to not only put conceptual designs in place for additional roadway within the communities but make sure that some of those implementation funds can be identified and some of those Solutions can be implemented um I think where we're hoping to identify is really more
of those nature-based Solutions and some of those hybrid Solutions where we can find additional funding opportunities for those the state MVP program I think is going to be an opportunity for us to continue um bringing in resources to the local communities so we're continuing the work there but we want to make sure
that the database of low-lying vulnerable infrastructure is continuing to be updated good thank you Liz Hi chrisye and nice to meet you Dennis um I um was happy to work with
you back when I was with the cape and Vineyard Electric Cooperative on the last RPP and it was very I was involved because there was so much solar activity and batteries were we were on the cusp of including batteries wherever we could and of course that activity has died off
because the incen program died but it is in the process of being reinvigorated and the activity will return so we're looking forward to that it should hopefully this this coming
fall we should have a new smart program that's going to bring a lot of what we worked on back in 2017 make it um have have reason again I was curious how the water testing that you do and if I'm getting it wrong please correct me in
conjunction with the association to protect Cape Cod are do you work with the association on water testing or how does that work sure so um as part of the freshwater initiative we have a regional Pond monitoring program um that the association to preserve Cape Cod is
monitoring so this will be their third season for monitoring I believe they're going to be starting pretty soon if they haven't already um their Seasons keep getting a little bit longer and so certainly they'll be starting that soon then that's pwn monitoring for um a number of uh different param
oh okay so that's you're in conjunction with that they're working as part yep right exactly part of that program and um the the safe streets and roads for all which I guess is that zero uh initiative it looks like it just from the the images includes more
bicycle Lanes or making bicycle Lanes real on roads where they're currently people are riding the bikes is that part of what that will Encompass and will it tend to lower the speeds on our roads just
because um there's more activity bicycle activity so there are a number of different different elements to that Vision zero project but it's really to um provide more safe opportunities and uh eliminate fatalities on the roadways and that does include pedestrian um bike
pad accommodations so there are um certainly going to be different elements that get Incorporated along the way in the different communities and certainly what is appropriate in one town may not be appropriate in another location so um there will be a number of different components to that um project as it
proceeds so we could certainly come back and provide um more updates on that project as it continues yeah because I think what we're discovering as we are working with the do on the 28 Route 28 Improvement and Station Avenue and 6A is
that the inclusion of more um multiuse Lanes is we we're hoping is going to just result in lower speeds as well and make it more um more of a Village Center everywhere so and along those lines
we're trying to I know we're trying to expedite the the 6A improvements that um the dot has scheduled um we had our one of our last um presentations by the do just a couple of weeks a month maybe a
month ago and we are trying to expedite that so I I hope that whatever the cape Cai commission is doing towards a study a study of Route 6A won't in any way upset that do work which I think we're
going to actually see coming down the pike in a few years I'll make sure I'm sure staff is aware but I'll certainly make sure to highlight that and that's really that I uh look forward to working with you on the RPP thank you thank you
Liz thanks Madam chair first of all um I wanted to say thank you to christe thank you Dennis it's great to have you here tonight to talk a little bit about a Yarmouth Centric some of the Yarmouth issues and some of the Yarmouth work um and and that sort of gets to to some of the points that I want to make tonight
Madam chair I just want to thank Christie thank the staff thank you Dennis for a number of the things that you're working on that are of real benefit to the people here in Yarmouth the first area that I want to start off with is in terms of Transportation um as we all know the
commission has an outstanding Transportation staff they provide staff support for our Mo the Metropolitan planning organization which Liz has now become a a member of and that Mo really
plays a key role in allocating federal funds and state funds to Cape Cod for a variety of projects the staff have been crucial in helping us keep this route 28 uh Corridor Improvement project um sort of in the queue um as we all know we've
had some delays with that we've had some bumps in the road the price tag for that project is now close to 29 30 $30 million the price tag has gone up and that's a very very challenging project to fund because most of our tip projects
are not of that magnitude but the staff have been great the staff have kept that project sort of in the queue kept it alive and um these are things that don't get talked about that much but it's very obvious to me that without their help God knows where that project would be so
they've been terrific and helping us keep that project alive um obviously the help on station AV by the commission staff that Transportation Corridor study has been terrific it's been a big help for us in sort of looking at some of these issues we're going to have more work to do and I'm sure we'll be back in
touch with you and the staff to see what else we can do in terms of examining some of the more critical aspects of our problems on station AV um and on 6a uh I'm of the opinion that um
our keeping in touch with the staff will be incredibly important because we plan on those 6A improvements being funded with dip dollars that's the current that's the current game plan and um I I think working with staff uh will be
crucial in terms of keeping the getting the funds on the tip because it's not we don't have a project yet to put on the transportation Improvement program but in developing a program they will be instrument Al and us queuing up a project that can fit someplace on the
tip and hopefully get priority um I it's pretty safe to say that under the tip program if you look at all the communities that get funded Yarmouth has done very well and so thank you for that um the other thing I want to just
mention is uh on water quality and Wastewater the um you know I represent this board on the water protection fund um and that fund is staffed by the commission staff Christy and Aaron Perry and others on the commission staff
really help those of us that are on this uh this water protection fund board I mean we manage millions and millions of dollars of funding that eventually goes back to the towns for Wastewater projects and they do a very good job in helping us keep uh tabs on not only
where the money is going but where the needs are and helping us track what's going on in the individual towns and finding ways in which we can stretch dollars and uh in all the meetings that we've had on Beacon Hill or with the governor lieutenant governor uh to talk
about the need to further capitalize our Wastewater initiatives Christie has been at virtually every one of these meetings helping make the case on behalf of Cape Cod that we need we need more funding and more support and those Collective efforts have paid off um and there's
still more work that we have to do um but nonetheless um together working as a a team I think we've done a pretty good job and um and then final this whole notion of a freshwater initiative this this project is is incredibly ambitious
I mean we're looking at you know a fairly significant resource that's being impacted you know literally every day and uh what I found Amazing by the work of the commission is that there's just a tremendous amount of Grassroots interest
and support in protecting our pond so um as your representative on the water protection fund board I've been one of those who strongly advocated to make sure that we continue to use that fund not just to do Marine water quality
monitoring but also um get involved in providing support to the freshwater initiative because in many cases um you know we're dealing with many of the same issues many of the same water quality problems it's just that uh what we're finding are our streams and ponds and
leg being deteriorated by many of the same uh constituents and chemicals and pollutants that are impacting our estuaries so it's it only make sense for us to do this in a unified comprehensive way so um there and there's more work to
do here in town so um I just wanted to highlight some of these things that the commission has been heavily involved in and uh when you look at the brochure you'll see that um it's a significant and very robust effort and it's largely because they have assembled a terrific
team that works hard pretty much every day 24/7 uh on behalf of Cape Cod in in the town of Yarmouth so I'm very proud of the work that they're doing and I'm glad that Christy and Dennis are here tonight to to talk with us so thank you once
again thank you thank you for coming tonight um your brochure is is excellent um like Tracy most of my questions are on the future and and I'd like to really extend to you an an invitation to come
back uh and perhaps take some of those segments individually and and put them on the agenda and discuss Transportation economic Redevelopment Housing um uh but we want to really thank you very much
for your support as as Mark was saying the station Avenue Corridor is a very critically important one to us right now but also fresh water when you really everybody always thinks of Yarmouth and thinks about the beaches but if you really look at Yarmouth there are an
awful lot of ponds that we have in town so it's important to see what we can be doing for that too so Dennis thank you Christie thank you very much for joining us today and we look forward to having you come back sounds great thank you so much nice to see you all okay there actually was a a a little
miscue on the agenda uh and that was that uh the hyas p Community working group presentation was actually supposed to come next um to give them an opportunity to to make their presentation um would that be
interesting to you or do you want to wait until the time that you're on the agenda for at 7:30 you're all here then come on up we don't want you sitting around yeah thank you bless
you thank you thank you thank you you're welcome excellent cck all right that's gonna go to do you want a magic clicker magic clicker thank you very much uh good
evening um my name is Linda bolliger some of you may remember me as the president of uh former president of hyen Park civic association and I'm currently the community liaison for the hyanis pasos community working
group um we have um most of our uh select uh steering committee here today we're just missing Chris pucki who uh is the chair of the SE Club of Cape Cod who gives generously of his time to this
group and has been pivotal to its organization um let me start on my right uh Betsy young is the president of Greater hyana civic association and behind me is Rachel
youngling uh acting vice president of Hy's Park civic association and um probably the key person in our group is our technical advisor
Tom ceri who is our licensed site professional and from Soul Source Consulting um the hyanis pest Community working group was launched in the spring of 2023 for Grassroots discussion
coordination and collaboration focused on providing comprehensive understanding of pasas contamination and accelerating site cleanup at the former barnable County fire training academy and the Cape Cod Gateway Airport um I also just want to preface you know we all came
together because we have interests in the P issue my interest in the past issue came from the Silent Spring study that was conducted in hyana two or three years ago um I was a participant in that study and my um testing showed that I
had very accelerated levels of pasas in my blood um so it was an impetus to to you know find a group of like-minded people um to work on this and and U together we've been able to get two grants um from the Department of um
Environmental Protection Massachusetts um totaling uh $40,000 and to study the data from the airport and the barnabo County fire training academy and then we're going to pass it off to these
guys and while Tom's preparing his presentation I also want to acknowledge um tuning in with us um via the hybrid is Lisa Stone and Nate Stevens from kleinfelder which is the the town's
consultant that um we hired pursuant to the funding that we placed at last year's uh annual town meeting in order to work directly with local residents and groups to evaluate some of the impacts of the posos contamination
in the nonwater supply and Kleinfeld has also been very very active in doing planning for us on contamination of water supply Wells and now we're happy to be able to have extended their contract to assist the town um in working with the the non-water supply
issues so um we have Lisa and Nate that zooming in with us [Applause] today it's all yours yay um thank you am I on you are hear me okay good uh my my name is Tom ceri I'm a hydrogeologist
and I uh managed the Water Resource program at the Cape Cod Commission for 30 years I think we started the freshwater Pond issue lakes and ponds stewardship back in 2001 so it's got a long history uh behind it I also managed
the uh the Barnesville County Fire Training Academy cleanup from 19 86 to 2018 uh just before I retired so I dealt uh intimately with the p issues there uh
as well today uh we want to talk to you about the P issue and some of the work that we've done and we've created this uh kind of cartoon infographic we call it and uh it it sums up a lot of information this is like a Encyclopedia
of information of past uh um issues in in the hyenas area and I'm going to talk about two of these after I talk to you about the infographic okay so um the infographic shows uh you're
familiar with the geography here's the airport rotary here and uh uh 28 coming down and we have the Town Line coming down in through here this area H and so we have Yarmouth and the the Cranberry
Bogs the hospital over this way mil Creek over here so to begin with we have uh two major Point sources of contamination one is the marsville County Fire Training Academy up here where these uh little
fire hats are and then also and also the uh Gateway Airport uh plume areas which are the deployment area here in pink and the air rest station uh plume over in this area Tom
may I stop you for just a moment um it's great that we can see the pointer on our presentation but I'm noticing that the public isn't getting a chance to see it I I could get up and point to this if that would help no no I I thank you away from the
bike use the mouse they can see it on television also okay thank you okay I just know that the Public's very interested in this as we all are okay where are where is that point
where is the mouse I'm looking do I have to press something have to move the mouse moving it I am moving it I'm not see it there it is oh no that's something else oh that's something else anyway I do not have a pointer from this
I'm trying to it's not really connecting with the surface I don't think maybe you want to try my pad this is textur if it's texture let's try that righty on here oh you found it yep there
you go just teen have to make it bigger Animal control officer there is the there's the mouse the cursor right okay and so we have the fire training academy up here near Flint
Flint Rock pond in Independence Park and we have a plume of contamination that comes down through Mary dun Pond we also have the airport uh plume this is the deployment area where the firad is here
and the uh air rescue station uh in this vicinity with its uh plume so we've got a uh fire training academy plume in brown uh airport plumes in in
um pink and they kind of converg down here onto this area here which is an extension of mil Creek known as mil Creek Marsh you know behind the uh the old Treasure Island and all that area in this vicinity also identified by both
Consultants so there's two Consultants a consultant for the county and a consultant for the airport uh we have unidentified plumes of posos uh coming through the airport and another one up in this vicinity and one
up in here and so that is kind of unresolved at this point as to what the sources of those are uh we have some ideas uh but we need uh some action for people to look for that and to resolve it and document
it so what uh what has happened here with these booms in in pink are public water supply Wells for the hyanis area uh used to be the Barnstable water company now it's the division of uh water supply for the Town of Barnstable
after they bought it in the early 90s the Mary dunwells the mar Wells down here off of Willow Street and again for the folks want looking this is the town line for Yarmouth this is Willow Street here
and then we also have other Wells over in this vicinity so this fire training academy started in the 50s and probably started use of a the a f a f is aquous form film forming foam that has high very high
concentrations of this compound pasas and that is the uh the origin of these plumes and when we think about how many decades that they were in use it's these plumes have been around for a quite some time and so when Betsy talks
about having high concentrations of pest in her blood uh many people in the hyenes area do it's above the median uh national average of p and in henus Resident areas
blood so the reason why is cu these Wells were contaminated and serving the public uh area here and kind of an interesting thing has happened is hyenas is not all completely sewered so this these are
septic systems here and the P was delivered through this through the water supply and again nobody knew about this stuff in the 70s 80s 90s 2010 the first no notice we knew about Pas was in 2009 and we still didn't even really
know what it was so these septic systems uh you were uh infiltrating the high past concentrations and then the areas of hyenas that were sewered on the water supply there was uh they were the the
their water was being collected and then discharged at the wastewater treatment plant and wastewater treatment plants don't take out pasas so we've had this spread of uh of uh contaminants from the primary sources of the plumes to these
secondary sources of M neptic systems and Wastewater and when we look at these ponds these ponds have very high concentrations of pasas as well as these Wells over here have that have been hit with pasas also so in all the 11 Wells
of barnable have been treated uh since 2016 through 21 and probably at a cost of $50 million and hundreds of thousands of dollars of annual maintenance uh for that the good news is that uh this uh
compound is no longer being humans and the area is they're no longer being exposed to the compound so that's a that was that is a good situation uh what we're concerned about is the uh continued the uh leeching of
these contaminants uh P into the mil Creek Marsh and into mil Creek that comes down and discharges into Lewis Bay and then we also have some information you know uh when coming down in through the
hospital bogs so that is the uh the background for the uh the henus and Yarmouth P issue is that we have these pumes comingling and coming across the Town Line into uh this uh
surface water body system um this is the deployment area I'm going to talk to you in the next slide about the deployment area one of the high sources in in the airport and the uh attempt to stop the source of contamination uh in that
area [Music] so I'm kind of trying to get my clicker back one second oh I got it there it is this red dot here is the deployment area and um
later on I'm going to talk about samples that we took in surface water bodies mil Creek Marsh mil Creek uh Hospital bogs and there's a couple of others that the the next the slide will show you so first uh I want to talk about the deployment area and the monitoring that
they're required to do because of the uh P facet The Source One of the remedial uh actions was to put a cap over it and the idea was if you put a cap over over this contaminated soil the water won't infiltrate through it the concentrations
uh should come down so they did that it was installed in 2021 and the uh DP required monitoring for its performance so what we should see is high concentrations uh and we do
we see some high concentrations of this is a uh graph of the pasas 6 compound and another compound posos these are um compounds that are associated with a F this is these are
the concentrations on this side and this is uh a timeline from 2017 to 2024 so we have some really high concentrations here uh you know over 10 12,000 nanograms that's parts per
trillion uh in the uh groundwater beneath the uh uh surface beneath the uh deployment area so the cap goes in and oh well we see a decrease that that's a good thing so uh that's uh
reasonable but you know what we have to remember is the limit for uh PS 6 is 20 nanograms per liter and so that's the line so if it's above
20 gr uh nanograms per liter that's problematic I'm drinking water perspective so these are the concentrations that we're seeing and even though they come down uh they're still up around 200 here uh when we're when we're kind of saying oh the cap is
working it's reduced it well that's what we thought for for two sampling rounds and then after the sampling rounds the concentrations of past 6 have just continued to uh fluctuate in an upward Trend and now we're up at near 18800 nanograms per
liter and it is the highest ever concentration that was that was measured and this is posos uh over here which is just another one of those that that is also higher than what had been uh measured
before so the um the airport uh will look at their uh in their reporting uh looks at their signature compound and they they've uh uh they're in the mindset that their signature compound pound is is what their contamination is
all about it's called a a floro teler it's an It's associated with a f but it's a different type of a f and uh they have monitored uh that uh but the the
thing is is that this uh uh fluo teler it's not a regulated compound so I I chose I choose not to show it because we really want when we're looking at performance we want to know what the concentrations are relative to those uh
compounds that are regulated and so these are the ones that are regulated um so this is uh uh so in in my opinion um I would based upon looking at this and the performance data for the cap I
would say well the concentrations haven't really gone down and the concentrations are actually going up I don't think the cap is working it's my opinion that the cap is not working and uh I think uh DP uh it's our group's opinion that that this
information uh should be uh reviewed and DP should take some action uh with that the next thing that I want to talk to you about is the sampling uh that we did um uh with the uh hyenas Park civic association they applied for a grant and
with the situation about pasas in the area they uh the grant allowed them to take some some samples so we that's what we did and that's what this map shows and in pink are these areas uh for sites
that we sampled uh the D had gone out um previous to our our uh round and uh that that was that was a result of a of a meeting over in the Town of Barnstable
uh where Bob uh attended and raised the issues of about these commingle plumes coming into Yarmouth and so D got out after Bob spoke up and and sampled these sites uh the
uh um and then and I I'll tell you what the results are next uh and these are the samples that I took uh and some were uh collocated and others were expanding the area and one of these areas was the mil Creek Marsh if you remember the mil
Creek Marsh this is where these plumes are coming down the deployment area plume and uh the fire training plume on this uh slide is a table of the results and
I'm just going to draw your attention to the mil Creek Marsh uh column here and these are all the different compounds that come up in this concentration so when we talk about past and a F there's there's actually scientists say there's
10,000 of these compounds and our analytical capability now is somewhere around the order of 40 I think we had the 28 in in this in this round so what did we find well we did find the
uh the past 6 in mil Creek Marsh at about 37 uh six nanog per liter in blue so those uh other sites we also found uh p uh poos
uh the Fast 6 in the Grist Mill and we found it in uh a low concentration below the hospital bogs and then uh mil Creek Pond as well but the other interesting thing we found in in in the pink is remember I
told you about the airport signature compound the floro teler and what we found is a really high concentration of this floro teler in mil Creek Marsh that's like 1,50 nanog per liter that's really high and so where could that come from well
the the the deployment area has concentrations of that at uh about 11,000 nanograms per liter so it's it's the highest closest source to uh the mil Creek area that has that Flor teler and given
the uh couple thousand feet of distance it's it's quite reasonable you know with the groundwater flow time you know some we talk about groundwater flow time was a foot per day it's quite reasonable that that contamination uh had could have reached uh mil mil Creek
area um so what we find is in in the mil Creek Marsh we find both High past 6 we both find both high and and the floral teler and both those are found at high
concentrations at the airport Source in very close proximity just about here to the source and so they're both high together and so it seems to indicate that that comes from the same source which could be which is the the
deployment area in the airport as a as a prime candidate for that so those are the kind of the two issues that we wanted to bring to your attention um in this uh in our presentation there's a host of other
ones but these are ones that the high NSP fast Community working group is uh is concerned about and that part of the research that we've done thank you Tom uh we have uh two areas of next steps looking at the first
slide here these are activities that we as a work group are looking to pursue for ourselves uh We've created a brochure that we'll be Distributing uh which has a lot of this information in it including that infographic that you all saw earlier uh this is going to be
translated into Portuguese and Spanish as well to make it more accessible to the Greater Community uh we'll be conducting public Outreach such as this and engage with Community groups and officials to be spreading the word and looking for collaboration as we move forward uh we will be reviewing the the
uh fire training and Airport technical reports um that'll be prepared under the mass D Cleanup program uh we'll represent the community in the fire training and Airport technical sessions and public meetings we'll be coordinating and collaborating with
Silent Spring the US Geological Survey and other organizations we'll be pursuing grants for targeted P sampling and Outreach and we'll be continuing to advocate for expanded awareness of pasos blood testing uh what codes can be used with
physicians in order to have blood tested because this doesn't just pertain to hyanis Residents it does pertain to Yarmouth residents who've worked full-time in hyenas during this period of contamination uh we'll be looking for a comprehensive characterization of
pasas contamination accelerated pasos cleanup at the source and federal and state funding to support P cleanup uh and then looking to what can the town of Yarmouth do um we're looking for support in
placing or urging de uh to have the airport sample for posos Downstream of the marw wells uh their narrative to date has been that the mar Wells have been significantly filtering this out and that it is not posing a risk down gradient uh but what
Tom has shown through his data collection over the past year is that it is actually migrating into the Gris Mill Marsh and and uh it's also been shown by the Harvard study to be in mil Creek as well uh so we urge that D is the
governing organization that can place pressure on the airport uh in order to commit to comprehensive on-site P cleanup and mitigation and to look to d as well to investigate the unidentified plumes and and what their origin could
be excuse me uh this I made the point about encouraging longtime y workers and hyenas to get pasos blood tests uh because that was one of the areas that was precluded in the Silent Spring study they were only able to look at an isolated capacity at hyenas residents
who lived in hyenas during that specified period of time can I stop you for just a second course um does that include people that work at cak poot Hospital given that it's one of the biggest employers we have around that's what we're urging this to extend to uh at the time of the study they were not
included unless they lived in hyenas so you needed to be a resident uh and they they they had limited access to means of getting individuals to participate okay thank you uh and then finally um we look for your support to
participate in our working group activities as we move forward uh with this next year of grant funding and testing okay thank you very very much Mark thank you madam chair and uh thank you Betsy thank you Rachel thank you
Chris POI wherever you are and uh Linda it's always great to see you all here um the work that you've done is is terrific and we really appreciate you coming before our board to sort of update us on all the work that you're doing and while
I can't speak on behalf of the board I'm sure all of your recommendations are going to in terms of what we can do in Yarmouth I think we'll all be pretty much in agreement um I think hiring to i' you know in full disclosure I've known Tom it seems like forever ever
since he started working at the Cape Cod planning and economic development commission and then the Cape Cod Commission and he's been instrumental in helping me in the work that I've done on Cape Cod to deal with groundwater pollution problems and other portions of the cape so I have tremendous respect
for his work uh he's had a huge contribution in protecting Water Supplies Water Resources here on Cap Cod and Cap Cod owes Tom a tremendous debt and thanks for all the work that he has done because he's been instrumental in so many important initiatives here on
Cap Cod so I'm glad you've got him on your team and he's providing guidance and help to you um the the question that I have Tom is is it is and and I'll just get to one specific point first of all Madam chair I support all these recommendations and I'll just go on the
record and I'm happy to embrace them and support them I also think as a board what we should be doing soon is now that we've heard this is talking a little bit further with kleinfelder our Consultants to get them in there may be some other things that they might like us to do and
would want us to do so I'm I'm interested in hearing what they have what their recommendations are for the board um but one of the things I'm curious about Tom and and and you know you've you spent a lot of years looking at pollution plumes is it conceivable that
the plume that has sort of found its way further into Yarmouth may have been in the ground for an extended period of time and may not have been captured by the pump and treat system at the Mars is it's conceivable that by the time that
system was installed to deal with some of the the the the the groundwater pollution there um do you think it's just let me back up I'm just trying I'm just trying to get a better understanding as to how you think all of that pollution made its way uh
down into that area of West Yarmouth yeah Mark I I do think it's uh it's been around for a while you know if we looked at the fire training as a source uh you know from the 70s on um it takes maybe uh uh 25 years for for it to
to get to the m Creek uh the airport is a is a lot closer it's probably 7 years or so so when we first sampled uh I think it was Harvard I was doing a general study on the cape and it was 2018 found the high concentrations of
the pasas and this floral teler airport signature at the at the grismill H so that was 2018 the the marw wells weren't starting to treat until U 20 21 got it okay that's that's helpful
because what people need to understand is that there's no remedial action going on with respect to any of this pollution coming from the airport site there is some remedial action some cleanup work going on up at the County fire training site and now there's a plan underway to expand that that's going through some
review and some discussion that is uh I just want to elaborate on that that is also what the highness group is uh is uh is uh wants to have been noted and for for more action to occur at the
airport because the county is uh moving very aggressively with with a new group of Consultants uh and uh we're heartened to see that type of activity uh we're aware that they're putting in this permeable reactive barrier and that
they're moving ahead to put in a full scale one so th that type of uh of action to remediate not not just cap it and and hope it goes away because it doesn't um to do something more uh
aggressive is what's what's required yeah it's a and just for full disclosure as a county commissioner I've taken an active role in changing our game plan at the county and making sure that we're more focused on remedia remedial action that we're very open and transparent in
terms of all of our work that we want to have meetings with everybody at the table so that we can all share information and compare notes but I think it's important understand that the pump and treat system that is in place is at the mar Wells it treats and
protects the water supply but it's not a pump and treat system that is basically associated with any kind of remedial action any kind of pollution cleanup so whatever whatever is in the soil and in the ground all right is continues to
migrate it continues to move now um obviously given your expertise and background um what are the regulatory requirements for forcing let's say an airport or any other governmental body but if someone's got pollution and it's
coming from them are there legal requirements to remediate the pollution or is it literally because it seems to me that most of the federal and state policy insists on protecting the water supply and if you find contamination in
the water supply you've got to address it but um it's my understanding that the feds in the state don't necessarily Force the remediation of the uh of the past pollution is that your understanding as well um I I think it varies on from
sight to site some sites they they do that others they don't you know and and you know as we worked at the MMR with their cleanup they they provided uh you know a uh alternative water supply to make up for those that were contaminated
and D is pushing them to do uh a an a very very aggressive cleanup uh DP uh sometimes uh we working with some other uh entities that don't have a Deepa pocket let's say
is a DOD their first action will be to uh remove the uh the human health impact and and then move on the the other aspects of it so that's where we're we have a situation here uh at with both
sites but the requirements of of the uh massachusett contingency plan is if you have contamination you need need to follow it to the end so that you have an understanding of of where it is and you if and to help make those decisions
about what is the most uh you reasonable or aggressive uh uh remediation that that uh is required so here we have a situation where the airport didn't to sample mil Creek they said well it's uh you know
that that's that's on the other side of the wells we we don't need to do that we we make the differ so what you're saying is is it's well it's if we make the request and I think we should I think we should be calling on D to do the additional
investigations that are being recommended by this group again I'd like to hear from our own Consultants as well but I think that should be something we should definitely put on our list of things to do particularly after we talk to kleinfelder and our team but I think pursuing and pressing for those IND
additional investigations is certainly warranted based on what you're telling us here tonight wouldn't you say yes yes so that's what I think we should do so I would add that to of all the things that you gave us I think I would make that clearly a priority making that request to D other other things that we should
be asking or pushing the D to do for for for the protection of our natural resources and protection of Public Health well is that that then we talked about the cap over the deployment area that's as as an issue so that should be on our list of things as well a cap on
the deployment area they have done it but the the the performance monitoring shows that it's not really working and so what what's the next step what they they just can't walk away from they should not walk away from it we we're asking that they don't walk away from it
but that they look at this information and say yeah the Cap's not working we're we're going to have Pas coming from this site it's going to continue to go uh to the marw Wells and when the marw Wells aren't pumping and and are strong that's going to continue to go into mil
Creek and the system now one of be I'm going to take advantage of your expertise in groundwater one of the concerns that I've had is that the marw Well's pump at a fairly High rate there's 3 million gallons a day being withdrawn from those Wells and that to me represents a significant amount of
pull in terms of any pollution is that a fair assessment um yes it is uh so depends on how you know how they're pumping a lot of times they're pumping at average rates uh I've uh been working with Silent Spring on a 50-year groundwater model looking at the pumping
rates of that uh well over time and sometimes it shut down for extended periods for rehabbing and other cases they shut it down from 2016 to 2 2020 uh because of the P issue so nothing was
pumping there for that for that time period and uh so whatever you know recovery might have happened could have happened during that period it would be interesting if you're in uh if you want to look at the other surface water resources how they
responded to the non-pumping situation the model will show it um yeah I think one of the things that we've been trying I've I've been as as as some of the board members are aware I've been talking I've been concerned about this for quite a while and I've been after BEC because we have
town-owned conservation areas directly east of the uh of the mws I've been concerned about the excessive withdrawal for several reasons one is it draws in the pollution from God knows where into that area and brings it closer into
Yarmouth more of it into Yarmouth more of an issue and I am also concerned that the W the water withdrawals have been excessive and have drained a good portion of the mil Pond marshes uh that's Town own Conservation Area I when I was a kid you could take boat rides in
that Mar that White Cedar Swamp in the back there the old Treasure Island gift shop and some of you may recall the postcards where there's a big moat in front of the Treasure Island gift shop remember those yeah good luck if you can find a moat
anywhere nearby there or any water in that area so there there's clearly been there's a variety of issues but obviously the P should be the uh at the top of the list yeah I was looking for the stream that came from the creek that used to go into the Hospital bugs there
near the Treasure Island thing and it's not there the stream used to be there used to be water flow there but uh we had one of those midnight dams put up the dam the water control structure that was there was uh someone someone uh
decided to convert it to a dam without the appropriate approvals and permits but that's another story for another day listen I appreciate you coming in and answer my question so I I would again Madam chair just to recap I would uh go I would fully endorse this list that
that's been presented to us tonight and I would make it clear that you know we also look at these other two items in terms of PR putting really calling on D to really revisit this cap issue and insist on a much investigate the cap and make sure that it's one that's works but
also to do the downg gradient uh water monitoring as well and and there was the uh unidentified plumes in this area too that are just just hanging out there and nobody's knows where from has taken responsibility for it since under the
airport property and they're saying oh it's not us well how do they even know that without understood investigating it try that was one of my questions in your interactions with the airport have they acknowledged and
um I mean the data speaks for itself this data was their data is that correct that's correct so I mean so they've known about this de P has to have known about this for some time with zero action on either behalf I mean that's that's what we're looking at here the
fact that we have to ask them to do their job is absolutely ridiculous they are in place to protect us from this type of um pollution and that's what it is and you know they they walked away
from this some time back and and you know it was it was an issue that I know I've talked about several times when Suzanne was here she was mandating that this these Wells were tested all all the perimeter of the airport was tested and
then all of a sudden we didn't get any information um so so that was one of my questions is whether or not that information um has been their testing has is available to you well there any
report that they submit to D is is available so I'm not getting anything pre ahead of time uh you know if I've asked them for a spreadsheet and not just a report form I have gotten it um but it's basically it's it's down to
whatever they submit formally um goes to uh DP is is what's available and um so because it's not in our drinking water is that is that's the that's the only threshold that D is concerned about so if the LI the limit
the D standard is 20 and we're at 1,800 that's there's no remediation required that they would initiate on their own at that point that's that is our point is that DP needs to evaluate that and review that and if they've come to a decision as to why it doesn't need
to but I'm confused because you just told me you got this information off of their website yes all right yeah it is their their information and at our last joint meeting we had a joint meeting uh in Barnesville Town Council with the
airport and the county and we talked about this back then I think it was November and we had heard that you know the airport said in the meeting said that they were going to look at this mil Creek area and in the report that was
submitted uh that you know there was no mention of doing that and there was no intent to to uh to do it so so is there current monitoring happening now on the yarmis side the exterior of the airport
uh not on the Arma side they're they're not really looking at much uh you know theyve got some wells I think in the uh Willow Street area that they're using to evaluate where this contamination is
going and we have other slides that show really high con concentrations in that uh Willow Street area that when you think of it it it draws a line from the deployment area to the Wells and so any monitoring well that you have in between
that is uh is is hit but they stop from from the deployment area to the marwell and but they don't do anything further to the uh East uh into Yarmouth or the South into mil Creek and I don't know if this is a question for you but uh where
is our closest drinking well well from this point and how is that tracked I know we have done treatment in several of our drinking Wells um our water supply Wells are some distance
from this site considerable distance R you say so Tom yeah they are uh distance and they're up gradient too they're yeah they're much further away and not not being impacted by but that's my next question how how do we know I know you talked about the years that it takes but
we've tested in areas of West Yarmouth but how far have we went how far have we gone into Yarmouth just the just the West yarm area correct contamination well um do
you believe it stops where you stop testing is my basically my question is do you believe it goes further I think it uh I can't go backwards on this but um yeah yeah the the magic clicker yeah
will take you turn it off and on again if it's not working I see I guess for your sampling your sampling points here are basically Buck Island and um mil Creek I'm just
you but that's where you stopped that's where I stopped and I and I believe that the the county uh or the the airport County areas is is in is uh constrained to that area of mil Creek and then once
you get Beyond mil Creek um then it's uh you know then you're in into something else and we we did have one high hit uh or or questionable hit at the mil Creek Park and I think D had uh some detections there and uh and we did when
we sampled it nothing uh near as high as we found associated with the fire training academy and I mean and the airport and when you talked about the barrier uh the peral barrier with Mark were you saying that that was um put
into place at the at the training facility or at the airport at the training facility yeah okay so the airport hasn't put in a barrier like that no the County's funding and moving forward with a fairly ambitious remedial action remediation effort and the
permeable reactive wall is the is the is the approach that's going to be taken going forward yeah and our hope is is that what that will do is it'll be effective and basically interrupting the flow of pasas offsite so it'll try to
contain it there and help remediate yeah and to your question Tracy the only action the airport has taken is that cap that you then see the data where it's all the past numbers are spiking okay so in terms of Silent
Springs and and the blood testing um and it it's only at this point in time for people in hyas or who work in hyanis what how do they what do you what is the remediation for that I mean it's it's a forever
chemical um how what do you say once somebody's tested for a high level how do you get rid of that I mean I'm there yeah that's the million doll question yeah that's that's
what a lot of people in hyas are are wondering about going up I mean I'm concerned I'd be interested in obviously if they would um incorporate parts of um these highlevel places in Yarmouth to
it's on it's on it's on sorry Betsy I don't know if you want to talk about your story but I'm I'm interested honestly like if once it gets into your bloodstream then what um there are some therapies that you can do one is to give blood
which seems a little crazy because you're passing pasas on to other people that are accepting that blood but it is a known therapy that people use um there's also a cholesterol medication um that has been uh known to
reduce levels of pasas in the blood um it's not something that is normally paid for by um Insurance um but I did talk to my doctor about it she first of all my doctor knew nothing about pest didn't know what it was I gave her my test
results and as much information as I could find and she um uh prescribed the medication for me it's not paid for by Insurance um the blood testing um uh if you have the right codes um you know
Insurance codes you can get your blood tested you know paid for by insurance if not or if you don't have insurance the tests cost about $350 um so that is one of the items that we're recommending is that somebody pick up the expense for people that are
trying to you know get these kinds of therapies and get tested um so um those are some some ways but that's not really I mean well the key that's about all they know there's not a lot of studying going on on have
you had uh success with the medication in terms of your levels um I haven't started taking the medication yet because I don't have the insurance to pay for it but um there are people there's there's a Facebook group that has a lot of information it's um hyenas
pasas residence or you know hyenas P support I believe it is um and people have posted that on there that their numbers have come down after taking that cholesterol medication um it's a therapy that's been around for a long long long time so doctors aren't afraid to
prescribe it and the way that it works is that it it grabs onto the pasas and the blood um and pulls it out of the body um and people's numbers have come down fairly quickly over you know a period of six months or a year so that
is a hopeful um kind of a therapy but again if people don't know that they have pasas in their bodies and their doctors don't know that ask them um be you know because doctors are completely unaware of it there I I have a good
friend who doesn't drink had a terrible pancre pancreatitis attack um and she also has fatty liver disease and the only uh the only answer to this is because she has very high levels of
pasas in her body um there aren't any other she's you know she's a relatively young person so it's a scary proposition you know it's a scary um thing to think about and um so we would urge people to
get tested as much you know as if they can well thank you for sharing that um um I agree with Mark that you know these recommendations need to to happen but I think that you know it needs to go
further than that even um it's to me a dereliction of of um their responsibility as an organization and as D and the airport to have not done anything for all this time and basically
knowingly pollute the the groundwater I mean if any private business was doing that um it wouldn't be allowed and it shouldn't be allowed so I appreciate all your work and I support um your
recommendations and thank you Joyce oh I'd like to thank the members of the hyenas Park civic association for being you know super citizens and writing the grant that essentially doubled our knowledge of the problem um
clearly we didn't know a lot about PS in the very recent past but it's on us now that we know to do better um I am afraid to ask I guess this would be Rachel and Betsy but the current blood tests are
they testing for the newly emerging types of pfest that we know about or is there a chance that those are just not caught by the tests there are, I I think it it's an Ever evolving
process would you agree with that Betsy because it's you know the test evolves over time as they identify newer compounds yes and also so they're making new compounds all the time um and they're making some I guess the the fat
chains are shorter so they don't they don't qualify as pasts it's kind of the way they're kind of getting around some of these things so it's going to be an ongoing problem for a long long time and just one follow-up Public
Health question um have have you brought this issue to the VNA as something that they might advocate for I'm just thinking of them well second probably to cap cut healthare but um as as organizations that might have some
impact at the state level because it seems that this is clearly uh a Public Health Challenge and it seems like um with the kind of testing and vaccine Administration that the VNA does that they might be logical missionaries to
take this out to the top yeah that's a great recommendation from a community collaboration perspective thank you oh good thank you well thank you for all your work on this Liz so you said that there was um
there's been evidence of peos at the MMR Mass military reserved um that's been they've been have they been actively fighting it there yeah that they are doing uh extensive uh investigations on it and uh
also paying for um treatment of the public water supply Wells that have been hit by this uh contamination that's emanated um like maybe two miles from from the from the Bas site that it's uh
covered a huge area uh in to the South Southwest and then over to the east uh they've had uh um many uh incidents is and an example one which is kind of interesting there was a a petroleum
truck rollover that happened in the rotary there on MacArthur Boulevard when you go down towards Falmouth so it happened in 1995 and uh part of what this foam is is used for is to suppress fires yeah and
so firefighters will suppress the uh uh the the site with with this foam so that that was occurred in 1995 and the investigations that they're doing uh now are they're finding it uh miles away in
the uh uh Buzzard's Bay Harbor there I forget which harbor it is but it's also contaminated private Wells all down that area as well so that's what from 1995 and the and the site is still a source so there's a migration rate
that's been established I mean it would change with different um geologies but since Cape cot is mostly the same sand so how is it that and that's an enforced cleanup by the D that's uh yeah both
super fun and uh d d plays a very active role on it so they are uh uh they're still investigating because I have so much they're still investigating uh what to do about it uh in addition to
providing um alternative sources of water and treated water Tom can I stop you there for a moment Liz if we could really just concentrate on our own area I mean if we start looking at everything else it get I think that that for me would be why there's evidence of the
migration rate they've they've had it been more aware of it than we have locally and the migration rate seems to be of importance to the DP at this point to say this is what we are looking for is you to impede the migration so we
prevent the harm that's where I was headed with this okay it's not let's go clean up the MMR but it seems that the these existing cleanups should give the DP the rationale to to work uh
proactively to prevent the um what they've they've already witnessed happened in terms of the migration so um and how do we find the code for the blood test I'm sorry were you going to whenever you're ready I just wanted
to comment that if we were to summarize what this group is looking for we want number one containment and I think the county has done a fantastic job uh with its uh permeable reactive
barrier and that's sort of what we're looking for is our communities want containment number one and number two we want remediation after that that um anytime that we've spoken at the
airport with their public meetings regarding this issue every time we speak up and talk about remediation we get corrected and told we're only going to be talking about mitigation well they haven't even
gotten that far from the data that we've looked at and I think we can't minimize uh the importance of these these uh plumes these other plumes uh
across the airport which the sources haven't been identified uh you might call them orphaned plumes uh but in in essence the airport has said we're only going to deal with
our PS which is why they've concentrated on this particular one uh uh compound which Tom has has talked about is because it can be somewhat identifiable with them so that's why they've gone off
and gone into this direction because basically it's about accountability and they're trying to of course uh skirt that so thank you so my last uh question two questions how how do we find the
code for the blood test since our doctors may be um look it up there's no cell coverage in here yeah there isn't so the name of the you have to go up to the podium or a microphone thank you the
name if you have Facebook the name of the Facebook group is hyanis ppfa support and there's a lot of information on there about the codes and the cholesterol medication great um and
this is probably up Mark do we have a a hospital leaon that we work with or we have a relationship with that we could uh check in with them and make a stronger case to the D with them as an ally yes we we have a direct
relationship with the hospital administrator and president CEO he's been very accessible um this is something that we could yeah if there's something that we need to we we need to work with them on I think we let's put our request together and send it over there and ask them happy to help put
that together make more um make an effort to get their staff blood tested so that might be some evidence there too that's what you're looking for yeah yeah that that and to have uh the staff uh just get some informational training to
know that they are working with a an impacted community that is is like no other and that you know if there are some issues that they should be looking to do a past test or they should be requiring one they should ask about it how long have you lived here and that if
there's because there's a host of uh ailments uh that are associated with high concentrations of this so we know from the firefighter the firefighter uh gear that we're working to get the Beast out of that it causes cancer and it's a high rate of cancer with uh firefighters
that are exposed to pest so I mean I can't imagine it would be a different result if it was in your bloodstream okay those were my comments thank you and thank you Tom was what a great presentation I thank the group for giving me the opportunity you're very
good at explaining this something that's very complicated I I am sitting here dumbfounded like Tracy that you could pre create a chart such as this with the capping and showing in just three short
years what has happened in and that we're not getting any response from the state regarding that I mean it's all well and good for the county to step up and take responsibility for the fire academy and be doing something about it but that's only one when you look at
your map that's only one small piece of the pie and so I I'm sure you're hearing it from each and every one of us as we we speak that whatever we can do to assist you with this certainly is is
going to be of a priority with us um I'd like to have the D come right on down here and sit at that table and tell me you know here here's this chart we were given can you explain it to me please I and and to hear that they're
stopping at the perimeter of the airport and and yet right below it you're you're coming up with test samples that are that extremely high and and nobody is is is looking at it or or setting off an
alarm Bell about it except for you is um it is frightening it's like Silent Spring all over again it is it is madam chair if I can just jump in I I think this is one of the reasons why we've been so interested in their work and so supportive of it it's one of the reasons
why we went to town meeting to get some funding so that we can get some guidance in terms of what we have to do the only way these things I think what if if history has proven anything is that the the only way these things get attention is if citizens and local groups and
local select boards all right raise hell right and make us think about it so um you know and what we have to do is keep the pressure on so I think this is this is the the next round of pressure that we have to collectively exert on all the all the folks at the state level I I've
been in again I've been dealing with groundwater pollution problems from one end of the cape to the other and this has been essentially the story right we have a and Tom as well um literally the only way things get done is if people like us raise hell and that's what we're doing so we're in the raising hell mode
now we've got guidance from these folks and we need to hear from our own Consultants so that we can make sure that we're applying all the right pressure and saying all the right things and like you said let's invite the folks to come to a meeting come to town hall and explain to our residents you know
why what what they're going to do to help protect our community yeah and keep and we have to keep the pressure on this is not something that we can just sort of jump in once every 6 months or eight months this requires a sustained effort and that's why I'm so happy that town
meeting agreed with our request overwhelmingly to support funding for some of the work that we have to do because if we are going to make the case we have to have our own Consultants our own experts providing us the guidance and making sure that for example if
we're looking for new monitoring Wells we we should have some idea of where we want those walls for example right if we need to insist on some other downg gradient monitor monitoring we need to be able to articulate that message if we're looking to improve a cap on a site
and a source of significant contamination we need to be able to articulate what that is so I'm glad we've got a terrific team on board working with us to help make those arguments and so I think that this is something that we should probably put on the agenda for our next meeting and to
hear from Klein Felder I'm not sure we have time tonight to do that but I think we should set that up relatively soon so that we can aggressively engage on behalf of our residents in this group uh engage with d Chris yeah Christine gy um I there's a
couple of things I'd like to mention one is obviously as the representative to the airport commission basically every time you raise a question about this as an at an airport commission meeting they basically pain point fingers at the firefighting Academy you know that they'
really said oh you know it's their peff and and you know we've done our part and so there has been a real sort of reluctance in terms of of looking at any of that the other part of it that I think is very significant is they are looking to expand that airport onto land
which is not cleaned up this this is still polluted land that has a lot of problems that I think are unidentified they actually want to go into taking some easements to go in there they also have to go in through some environmentally uh fragile land that they need to do some kinds of work with
but the other issue is there's a lot of research coming out now we're talking about pollution about the particles of droppings that the pollution that come out of the jet fuel of small planes that are the they are the primary users of that airport there have been studies
done at hansin there have been studies done at Logan when I have asked the questions of them have they done have they looked at any of those studies they've claimed no I think that some of the pollution that may be existing in the air and in our land around us when we talk about conservation land our
water bodies of water these planes are landing and taking off from here where they are using their fuel and acceleration and descent and low over us that I think there are very significant pollution issues I know there's been conversation about oh move the airport
to Hans I don't think that's a possibility but I do think amongst the things that should be taking place besides the pushing with the D about the P they should be looking at other sources of pollution on that land and also the stop to any plans for an extension to make that a larger airport
than it is currently it was never intended to be that large it was a small military site and it then was has been allowed sort of Step by Step um to include to go forward but this has been some very significant public work that has been done by some of these
Consultants that the airport has not had any interest in doing and I think uh I'm really really glad that you're all in very much support now of going forward with taking a much closer and a much stronger stance about it all thank you Bob you've been pretty quiet yeah
well um I've really enjoyed this discussion and um I I do want to say on behalf of the town of Yarmouth we have been very active participants in this process um from the start and and I want to make it clear that we have urged both
d and the airport on multiple occasions through every one of their public hearing processes and the ability to comment on these studies we've urged for um more sampling outside of and and I
think it's fascinating to me that you know they pretty much drew the toe of their plume to end in Yarmouth yet there's no testing south of that plume and now that we have testing we were specifically told well we don't need to test because there's no pasos down there
and then and then when you tell them there's pasos down there they say well that's not our pasos you know it's a endless Circle and and I think that um this is information the select board has this is why this select board has shown the leadership to request town meeting
to put that funding in place and that's why that we've engaged Consultants because uh and you know in some of the preliminary discussions uh you know that we've had uh you know the Consultants are investigating things like like do these test results uh constitute an
emergency response trigger under the state's own regulations because they've repeatedly stated that they don't have the resources to attack nonwater Supply pasas and we disagree strenuously with this um we have a team we're going to
continue to work together with the the hyanis team and the hyanis park civic association has really shown great leadership um on this as well I know it's um still at a preliminary state that um I don't know if U
representative from Kleinfeld wants to to say hi uh and just introduce themselves to the board but they are looking at this situation they are examinating examinate they are examinating these test results and they're going to be preparing a memo to
the town with additional actions and I see a hand up and that's Nate Stevens and maybe we could recognize Nate see if we can unmute are you have you turned on your microphone I think we need to um bring
him up to a panel member if we could recognize Nate I have actually can you hear me okay we can indeed I'll lower my hand then that's unnecessary hi everyone um Nathan Stevens with kleinfelder thanks much Bob and Mark for the the encouragement and
support and Lisa and I are happy to be here tonight um as Bob just indicated um we have already started digging into what are pretty extensive files for both the firefighting training academy and the airport and reviewing Tom's excellent work um with these downg
gradient samples that we think you know at least on first review present a a pretty good argument that the folks at the airport have missed some of the pasas whether they want to claim it's theirs or somebody
else's is sort of immaterial because they're the ones working on the airport and they're the ones who are relying on the uh marw Wells as part of their containment strategy so we're hoping to have um as Bob indicated some some
pretty specific and pointed um criticisms of the work overall they've done a lot and um as everybody's indicated tonight I mean this is a large and widespread problem and not one that's going to be solved merely by a
single uh potentially responsible party in as much as it's going to be addressed by a lot of interested stakeholders working together thank you Nate um this clearly is a subject that that's um really
struck a nerve I think for all of the members of the board here so we certainly would like to put it back on the agenda to discuss as soon as possible when would you be willing to come back and talk to us about this in detail when's your next meeting our next meeting is April 1st would you be
available I am not available April 1st but the second one I would be um only because I'm out of out of town on work uh our second one is on April 15th yeah we would be happy to attend Bob and Lori accepting of course
not here okay how about May 6th are you here for you can do it that I just won't be here that okay well let's because I really don't want to put it off um so April 15th we if we need to move other things
around for that meeting fine but we're going to put you on there Nate sounds great look forward to it and rest assured in the meantime like Bob said we're moving forward with our work whether or not we're we're at a meeting well I'll tell you this this
chart with the airport cap um it is just stunning speaks volumes Tom does excellent work stunning and thank thank you all very much for your hard work um and for taking the initiative on this and we
certainly are coming right behind you thank you and there to support you and thank you very much thank you you're welcome thank you don't forget your pads that's yours whatever
works I thought it was from Rachel's Art see you Tom thank you all very much for coming out tonight okay the next item that we have on the agenda is the approval of proposed ballot questions we have two ballot
questions proposed for the annual Town election um and um I'll read the first one it's the override ballot question shall the town of Yarmouth be allowed to ESS an additional $845,000
restructuring the wage scale for the fire department I think should be I mean it says for firefighters a supervisor in restructuring the wage scale but it doesn't say specifically that it's for this is all for the fire department yes and I think it should be clear that the
wage scale is for the fire department the supervisor for the fire department it's an good point to make I mean it says it in the explanation but some people don't read the explanation when they vote
it's some people only read the explanation restructuring the wage scale in the fire department right and the firefighter um fire department supervisor or yeah a four four additional firefighters [Music]
a fire department super supervisor and or maybe we'd say say it uh real estate tax purposes of I don't know I just think we need to be it says four additional firefighters which is very
clear but I'm not sure the supervisor and the restructuring of the wage scale in that is but maybe I'm overly well I think it can be I I think we need to be particular so I I think putting in a fire department supervisor and restructuring the fire department wage
scale makes it pretty specific good point Tracy okay and what kind of motion do we have to make on that just to approve placement on the ballot for the annual Town election so move
second any discussion all in favor I I and that's passed and the second one is the can I just say one more thing about the the um explanation in the explanation where it says this has resulted in a two-year
initiative to increase Staffing I'm concerned that that will cause somebody to think that we'll be back in another year oh okay yeah mhm oh
yeah then it says that which included the four new positions in fy2 I mean you could get rid of the the sentence and um this entire explanation is not going to be printed anyways this is the um the
draft explanation that what we're required by our special legislations we send it off the Town Council has to do um a explanation of the article what a yes vote means what what a no vote means that's already that's different from in
in the warrant this is the ballot explanation right let me just make sure this is really from the warrant it's the it's the detail on it it's not printed on the ballot then I'm okay okay this won't be I just don't I don't want somebody to not vote against it thinking it's two
years and we don't have the on are you checking the warrant it is in there this has resulted in a two-year initiative to increase Staffing but then it says what's done in 2025 I think at least if it's explained in in at town meeting it's different than somebody
reading this as they're voting only with no other explanation okay okay um so we have that pass in the SEC I don't think we voted yet we didn't do I we just U made a motion I thought we
did all those in favor I you're right we did wasn't here beg your pardon oh we've got it twice all right fine okay going on to the second ballot question and that is the non-binding public advisory ballot question
regarding holtec's evaporation of untreated Wastewater whereas htech only owner of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth is discharging untreated radioactively and chemically contaminated industrial Wastewater into the atmosphere and whereas these
Airborne pollutants are being carried by prevailing winds over and into Cape Cod Bay and our communities and whereas just as liquid discharge into Cape Cod Bay is in violation of Massachusetts ocean sanctuaries act and other other state
laws this G fous discharge also violates the ocean sanctuaries act and other state laws hold Tech agreed to follow and whereas these Airborne pollutants threaten public and environmental health and
safety including the safety of H Tech's own workers and our marine-based economy therefore shall the people of the town of Yarmouth direct the town government to communicate with Governor Mora Healey attorney general Andrea Campbell
the state legislature and all other relevant authorities to employ all means available to ensure that the law is enforced and to ensure further that htech immediately cease the gaseous discharge of the radio actively and
chemically contaminated industrial Wastewater at Pilgrim yes or no I don't think we need a ballot question for that because this board has been on record several times writing letters to all of those agencies in my time in opposition we've also had a ballot question we had
a ballot question it wasn't it wasn't worded like this about the Airborne pollutants um it was a little bit different back then I think the last question was about shutting down um water discharge was part of it plant the plant
and it was passed by over I it was 90 something per of people so I mean I don't think there's anybody who is in disagreement M with with this so but but it doesn't hurt either sorry my my understanding though is there's a group
that's come forward that says they need this initiative Bob yes there was a petition that was filed um with the town and is included in your packet it had the requisite number of signatures for the select
boards consideration right we have to it's a petition article but my my point is we would write this letter anyway oh yeah I mean we have we have we had we have several times absolutely makes people feel like they have some power
though so I'll entertain a motion so moved second could you repeat the motion the motion is to put this ballot question we don't have a choice to put it on but to yes you no you do have a choice the number of signatures um
requires the select board to take this issue up of whether the ballot question goes on or not so it's not one of those ones that's automatically on it's only on if the select board approves it I support putting it on it's not going to have an additional cost to the town if we didn't have other things happening
that would be different but there's second place it okay all those in favor I I opposed it passed unanimously Mark now that you're back in the room we did discuss the one for um
the ballot question on the fire department proposition 2 and a half override for the record yes are you record I am supportive support of that okay so that is a pass unanimous as well okay moving on to the next item um this is just a preliminary on the
housing Workshop implementation it actually should be housing Workshop discussion just starting the um we basically I think would be uh tabling this until April 1st but it's just a heads up to all of us again that we
talked about how important it would be to have um a workshop uh surrounding the housing if issues specifically so a workshop again would be a separate meeting than one of our reg regularly scheduled board meetings but one that we
could um put into further discussion at our April 1 meeting on exactly what we see as the C you know laying it all out what exactly would happen for that Workshop we're discussing a housing Workshop
right so we could be prepared for that on April 1st no it's not April fools right Madam chair there's just so many things going on in the housing front both here in Yarmouth and some very exciting things going on in other
towns so I think at our meeting what I'd like to do is talk about some of the things that are going on and we can figure out which ones we want them basically highlight for our Workshop discussion right I mean for example there's the Regional Housing strategy um we were just hearing she was just here
we could have gone into the some depth on that um there probably a couple of things in there there's there's a lot of talk about Redevelopment how do we Empower and help communities actually redevelop property and we should probably have a discussion here about that because we do have a Redevelopment
capability here we just haven't talked about it much right Bob that's right so we may want to put that on our list of things to talk about in addition to a couple of very interesting things that are going on in some other communities so my hope
is is that we can have a discussion at our next meeting and see if we can narrow down specifically the things we want to really delve into and then come up with a date for that workshop and going forward okay thank you very much final recommendations on the warrant
articles um and execute annual town meeting warrant we've all had an opportunity to proofread it one more time it's amazing how many times you can proofread and go over the same mistake and not see it we caught yet another small typo and that's why you have a um
yet another one on on your desk it um there was one recommendation that was marked four to zero that was 5 to zero and so um but I I think it's about complete is this does that do that change in here in the one that's on your
desk yeah um yes that was the that was the big change and and another really tiny one also exent and we've already taken action on all the items right but I know that a
lot of them were pending making some changes in the wording on the explanations and so forth so I want everyone to feel comfortable that those changes have been made and that everything that this is it this is this
is the done deal M I understand though I I sorry I just kind of heard that we should be having a select board report as well as finance committee report in
this am I correct on that no the what we usually do we have the um the welcoming that just a welcome yeah okay and is that something that goes actually in into this or no okay so there isn't anything that I have to
write up that needs to be no absolutely not for the annual Town report you do but not for the warrant okay for the annual Town report annual Town report yeah that's different when is that do when does when does that have to be done by those are do now now okay okay there
you go I'll get together make sure that you weren't off the hook darn it okay I'll get together with you tomorrow we'll help you out there's no question and if any anyone has any recommendations for what they want to specifically see in that report please
feel free to give me a call do you have a theme this year no would you like a theme Tracy no I just there's been years in the past that they had themes or well we have our goals certainly our goals been reached
right we've dedicated it to people in the past that's true what picture are you using for the cover those are always let's use theirs exciting things I like to think we're flexible enough though to give space for something like that PS presentation which does relate
to water quality and environmental issues on our goals absolutely Okay so we've already passed the town meeting warrant we don't have to do no we need um a motion to approve and execute the annual town meeting
warrant so move second discussion all those in favor I I that's a vote unanimous okay board and committee actions thank you madam chair uh I nominate derra gakin uh the planning
board representative to the community housing committee um that would be a one-year appointment ending December 31st of this year so moves second all any discussion all favor I I okay um before you start
on the library board can I just stop for one sec and say that uh when it comes to the select board representative and if we could have a little discussion on that before we actually go forward with a motion that you say that I wondered how that happened without anybody here
talking about it that was going to be my next question I'm always in favor of people volunteering but it sounds like maybe Dorcas didn't yeah but don't I mean the when you have a when you have a board that has an appointment from a committee that committee typically puts
that person forward they yeah it doesn't just get picked without the committee having a discussion so like when you just appointed somebody from the planning board to the other committee I would hope that the planning board put that put that forward did they so can we
just give you the clear on that did they do that they did want that yep so Susan brda just so that we're clear on this Susan brda was nominated by the planning board we were talking about the last appointment yeah we're talking about the one before that Mark sorry okay I'm sorry Dorcas asked us to hold the no but
I think it applies to this apply to this as well but came from planning board right well that's what we're trying to get clear clear because this is inconsistent no so if I where where you have like um Susan BR planning board
representative that's been approved by the planning board mhm and then when we have um budget committee representative capital budget committee representative again approved by capital budget
committee okay okay so the only one that really we need to discuss and approve would be the select board representative so I'll open that to discussion well I mean it's a little late now I mean I don't understand the
process that that should come here before the appointments are brought forward okay that's well we somebody else could be somebody else could be nominated is anyone else you know I mean I I'm open to having other people well how did it get like this do we just
we she just talk to you I I don't understand well actually it goes back to um I had a discussion with um the uh Library department and uh out of that they they
mentioned that there would need need to be a select board representative and I voiced the comment that I would be more than happy to do that because this is something that's near and dear to my heart I move that Dorcas be the uh the
select board representative to the library building committee well is there anybody else who's interested that's that's the key that's the discuss I just asked that I just asked that is anyone else interested in in um taking on that
position no ma'am then I'll second Joyce's um motion motion okay but in the future I would prer that those things come here we have the discussion then an appointment gets put forward because otherwise you're
precluding other people who might be interested as all lesson learned and especially it's it's mean for example to appoint people if they're absent one night you know very bad okay uh so we have a motion uh actually let's just take care of that
one first and then you can go back through all the rest of them okay okay we have a motion to um to um accept me as the representative for the select board on the uh Library
building committee with a second yes do we have any discussion all those in favor then hi hi thank you all very much now Joyce okay where were we um at the top the library building committee um the
civilians um I'd like to uh let's see I'd like to present um planning board representative um to the library building committee Ellie tney who sorry
sorry my bad um Ellie I'd like to nominate Ellie tney as the planning board representative to the library building committee wait a minute wait a minute you have Susan BR down below I know so you have two planning board
there going to be two MERS isn't will Rubenstein on the planning board as well I he is so why would you have three planning board members on this committee I don't think he's the representative they wanted to send three problem I
don't think that's a no I don't think that's appropriate will will is the uh representative for as a library user there's two Library users you can't so he's not using the planning slot no I mean I'm just going over the Slate
there's two Library users there's the uh CIP committee person there's a board of Select person then there are two people with experience in construction or law things like that and then there are two ex officio staff members I'm I think
that we should bring in more people from the public that are not already dup duplicit on on multiple boards we have a planning board representative on here it would be nice we got three that are being proposed so I I think we need to go back to the drawing board on
this I'd only make the point also that when we were discussing that the library users were going to be one from South Yarmouth and one from um West Yarmouth and if I remember correctly will lives in yarmouthport and who's the West Yarmouth
one and derra gakin is South Yarmouth um Tom Pendleton is South Yarmouth so there isn't one there for West Yarmouth then no but I don't see did you say deardra gwiin is on the LI I don't see
her name on the list it's Library oh oh sorry on the library building that's the top line that's the community housing y never mind don't count her for what what we're just counting yeah if we could have one member from the planning board and and we could find two other um at
large members from the community I think that that and no disrespect to any of them I don't care who the planning board puts forward but they should pick one member and we should try to uh incorporate otherwise I'll nominate myself as a library user from South the
Arma that might be a good idea that's not a good idea because then we have two select board represent that's what I'm getting at that's the point I'm trying to highlight the fact that we need to look at this from a multiple perspective okay all right there could be a perception that there's there's some
stacking going on and we don't want to we the importance in in creating these committees is to make sure that that the sort of their presence is reflects the diversity that we're trying to achieve here so um I I'm not suggesting that
there's anything inappropriate it's just I think when it comes to the board to look at these are the things that we have to apply these are the factors that we have to apply to this whole discussion and I think what Tracy's bringing up and I agree with her is that we need to be make this a diverse
committee as diverse as we possibly can make it that's all the individuals that are here on this list are outstanding public servants don't anybody misunderstand what we're saying but we need to the the the spirit of the charge
should be to get the diversity that we're looking for well we i' I'd seek direction from the board then um do one of you want to make a motion to postpone the uh Library appointments other than you know the
select person appointment and the two Library staff members which I could bring up and then come back to them next meeting I think let's just take the whole thing up at their next meeting I would propose that we table it and take another look at this and come back with a more diverse group and just handle it
that way including yeah including let's deal with it all at once yours would stay same Jus you were a rock then we had these other people floating no no no that's okay because I I had made the specific point that when it came to the you know if we look at it again the two
Library users that I really wanted to have one from South Yarmouth and one from West Yarmouth to um because we've seen that we have some direct interest in both those areas right we as a board
have already made our recommendations so that's that vote's been taken yeah same with the planning board and I'm sure the same with the capital budget so let's let's just round out the group and vote the whole slate again at our next meeting that would be my recommendation so I'm going to move that that we do
that okay and I just want to make sure I get this straight because um well and I'm taking over so do want me to just take handle this um uh Liz is not supposed to handle this because of her past service within the last year on a
library committee so um this is going this this is tabled from now because it's so it's still under your purview okay if it's coming up that's not coming up so that part's fine I'd like to I'd like to just make sure I understand the point like if if somebody is on as a
library user but they're also on a Town committee does that knock them out because I can tell you from the recent applications it's not as if we have more people applying to do this you don't have any applications if somebody who doesn't sit on another
committee I mean I just think three planning board members is too many there was one person who put Carol Ying who put it down as her second choice and then decided she wanted outdoor stuff more and went and volunteered for outdoor
stuff rather than a town committee because she wanted outd stuff well she was a retired legal librarian body out there in the public who would interest in serving on the library committee please come forward and let the town Administration know because we would like to incorporate
somebody from West Yarmouth West Yarmouth and South Yarmouth well we have some South Yarmouth yeah well no Tom Pendleton is South yarm yeah just for clarification it's a library building project committee so everybody knows it's not committee
related to the operations of the library it's the building it's a building project yeah it's a shortterm get the get the building built and then you're completed it would be a nice nice toe dip into town government and and people here are sure where real
Rubenstein lives because I have no idea yes I know where he lives yeah I know this is not a threat if you're listening will sorry will no but I mean we we should always have a you know the planning board has so many appointments on other committees already the fact that you know they're
very they they're they have a a charge for multiple committees where which is which is by Charter required so I'm not sure why they would want three people on on this but it's just too many that would be like having three
select board members which is they're um yeah on a committee that reports to us yeah and this this came through the office so I don't know like you know did they rank them or anything like that I have no idea I understand B can you so one more
time it was two Library users two Library users and we decided uh one representative from each Library uh there is the board of selectman member the Capital Improvements member uh two people representing either
law construction or other things related to the project and then I believe there is two uh Library employees who are ex officio okay okay so if we could when
we're looking at the um right now you have those four individuals listed um but not whether they are the library user you know like or they were coming in as the building consultant what in other words what I'm trying to
say is when we see it again next time and could we have this is the one representing Library user this is the one representing you know for southa this is the one for West jarm this is for building build yeah the planning board members were representing planning
board Library users and the sort of uh technical Specialty Group and the technical Specialty Group is one that isn't outlined here that's what I'm saying so you're looking at basically Ellie tney could be was in that group okay well and so you could be putting
her name down but isn't she also a member of the planning board yeah she just joined yeah so maybe we could just try to see if there's anyone else out there that might be interested she does have 30 years of construction experience in uh a mechanical engineering degree
and um three qus of an architecture degree I hear you I'm hear you and it may be that prefer to go in planning so maybe a switcher there sorry some other people that have so as Tracy said to the public oh I'm saying to the public let's
see if anyone out there might be interested put your name in uh this is something that's going to be coming up at our next meeting which is April 1st we'll be voting on it because it's important for this committee to get to work um so this is your opportunity and
we'll see who we hear from and I just add one other thing the um description provided um this week because he was the only one that you hadn't okayed for something previously or or previous boardhead um Tom pedon could also uh
because of his um um procurement in purchasing count uh count as one of the two Specialists right right well and that's fine you could put them down that way um but all we're saying is it's an opportunity for people if they want to and we'll put it on and it stays with
you not Liz because this is tabled from this week this I'm just stealing your time sorry okay it's going to get to mil and it's going to be be Liz with two weeks if I may uh one thing we could do is maybe check with the chamber for
residents you know have businesses and because they usually they don't usually are aren't on boards because they're so busy but they might be able to you know look at this so we can put the word out to have them look at their list to see if there anybody interested well also if
we could ask Lori from the communication Department to put something out there for us you know get it out on the social media because there are a lot of folks quite honestly that are not watching this or hearing it but you know through the social media will have an
opportunity okay upcoming agenda review well we're still on appointments um I did want to point out in your packet um our new no representative select board member Argo um had uh indicated in a letter to the
board that she's interested in designating Jeff Colby as being the alternate um oh right and he was before he was before where he was before I wanted to give you an opportunity to endorse that this evening or else we yeah Madam chair I moved that we endorse
the uh selection of Jeff Colby as the alternate representative to the Cape Cod no for Dennis Yarmouth sorry second okay any discussion all in favor I I pass unanimous thanks Bob and and on the
upcoming agenda U there is also um on your desk an updated that changes the date of um ads on April 1 to review and discuss the fees that was supposed to be on the one in your
packet but it got left off okay um yep and I'm not here on the 15th just so everybody can um I'm sorry what did you say about April 1 on April 1st um
left off the one in your packet which is reflected in the one that's uh was on your desk when you arrived was uh an April 1 discussion in review of the fees which would be to just set some expectations for a subsequent hearing
which the first hearing would take place on April 15 the second hearing on May 6 okay okay so busy busy few weeks coming up and when you talk about the fee update that's uh will are we going to be um
going back to the tourism Improvement District No Okay this would be just for fees for Town services like building fees Beach fees will we be going back to the the tourism improvement district in some
fashion that's I think we Dorcas had mentioned that that we would take that up on May 6th right you should make sure that that's on there Bob it is it is it is bingo Y no I don't see it I don't see it we're talking about the tourism improvement
district Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce I think it's okay title that is okay now that is um we still haven't received their petition what we anticipated is that that would be a public hearing date right what um so
just so you know that we we have to get the petition in and then we this is a tentative to schedule that that hearing on the tourism District so will you talk to them and make sure that they get they know that we had given them that you need to have a petition in hand and then advertised for the right for the
purposes of the public heing exactly all right so take some time we'll we'll get in touch with them okay and we also were going to add on to our April 15th kleinfelder just to remind folks
yeah is it possible that we could even have reached out to the hospital at before the April 15th meeting I don't know if that's adds anything but maybe we know that they're interested and they want to
be here you can take the Dy the school agreement off of that yeah because we still don't have GNA put that off and um I can let the hospital know that we're going to do that in the 15th does
that make sense I don't know where's Bob's review it has to be before the election actually um I had asked you all did you all get my email I forgot to blind copy myself on it it's on May 6 see it yeah
y yeah oh there it is perfect how can may be that close that's really alarming well it is okay and we can um cross off on yours the housing workshop on April 22nd that
was just a thought did you say April 22nd yeah because that's getting awful close to when we're actually going to talk about it if we're talking about it on April 1st would that be enough time no no you said April 22nd right April 22nd for the actual Workshop that's Patriots Day
that's or that's the day we normally don't we okay with meeting after that holiday well that was the idea if we could good we've done that for another meeting in the past to be able to get in that extra meeting I I have a question does
anyone have an time approximation how long the housing Workshop is like would it fit in another meet I just don't I don't I don't know the advantage of it is the board can make a decision you may want to invite uh the other housing groups to be part of the
conversation part of the discussion and then have a set agenda and some of the groups may want to make a presentation the idea is to have a very focused housing Workshop housing and then Elevate the prior and see if there's some consensus about the priorities for example one of the things I think we
should talk about is at least the boards should get updated on the short-term rental study that we're doing right right that's important it helps us understand what's going on in that market that part of the Yarmouth but no one's I don't think we've really had much time to really is give people a
briefing as to the components are in that study um the uh the the Muk committee has been doing its recommendations on housing uh for the full group the board may want to hear something about what the thinking is
there on housing um the Yarmouth affordable housing trust we had a meeting today um and we've actually talked about is there a value in utilizing the role that the affordable housing trust has the ability to act as
a developer in town right so it's conceivable that there may be a priority blighted property in the community that may need to be redeveloped and so the question is is do we envision or would
this board be supportive of the Yarmouth affordable housing trust perhaps acquiring property and then participating and redeveloping it uh for housing or for a a Village Center
or for a mixed use development with housing yeah um but housing's got to be a key component of the overall project so that is a potential so in putting together a list of items for our next meeting these are all the things because
it can be as long or as short as the board and groups want well I think it's important to bring everybody to the table and we hear what everybody's working on I think you know if we're going to talk about data it's I mean it's important information for everybody things like that affect all the housing
I mean it would be nice to have a to have to have the different groups so here's a suggestion Madam chair maybe we just go ahead with that date lock into that date what was the date that we were talking April 22nd April 22nd that would be the Tuesday following Patriots
Day Y and that we put notice out with Bob's help to the various housing committees so this would be the community housing committee it would be the Yarmouth affordable housing trust
um and then you know there may be other groups gave May the commission even come back for that partment um it may be yeah maybe maybe someone can come on the housing side to them and there be there can be a way to have a very focused discussion on key components of the
housing strategy so then presumably community housing and maybe even the Yarmouth Housing Authority maybe maybe maybe we can always extend the invitation right let's do it and see if any ask so yeah and we
can sort of put these we can work with these groups to put together a fairly I think elevated like like Tracy said maybe each group can be given the opportunity to talk about to share with the other their priority and what they're working on and muck too right
yeah and a muck to you yeah and if I may mck M's utilization committee has all the brainstorming sessions online now we're we're going to move on to the municipal one but we have housing up there Economic Development Recreation and open
space are now posted on the website as videos and housing's got great priorities very to put up to channel 8 so I don't know are they there I didn't see them so there you go there's almost your
agenda Madam chair right mhm let's let those groups come let's come together and update one another on what we're doing this will be a first getting an issue and getting the various groups together town meeting we used to do those all the time we used to do we used to do Summits and workshops
that didn't you know table sounds great okay moving on to the consent agenda I move I'm sorry I I I skipped one individual items oh and my letter was read so I don't um I just wanted to mention with
sadness the passing of Tom kaher who was wonderful Force for transportation and as somebody who's taken many of those little bus routes at one time or another um it's amazing how well they work and I I was very impressed Always by what a
good guy he seemed to be and his ability to get resources to the cape and he was a great state representative as well and and people you know don't forget that um he was in the um Mass do as a project
specialist that really did a great job but with like hundreds of millions of dollars that that went through his office you will be greatly missed yeah Tom was a very good friend of mine and um um I started working with him when he became a state rep and
um he became chairman of the house committee on transportation for a while and was was really a force on Beacon Hill he um he he did an outstanding job in the legislature he was the go-to guy he was the go-to member of the House
delegation from the cape on almost everything all right the Cape Cod landbank for open space conservation he took the lead and helping get that through uh he was involved in the county Charter he and HRI Russian Buck Senator
russan buck that back then it was a rep the two of them worked together you talk about bipartisan leadership for Cape Cod hre rashin Bach and Tom kahir they're almost Inseparable and together they worked on a a whole range of things Cape
Cod Commission uh the county Charter like I said the land bank and a host of other things so Tom's impact on K Cod was quite significant and then obviously recently is the RTA the Regional Transit Authority uh director but he he um he's
had a huge impact on the cape and uh he leaves behind some big shoes so I'm I'm glad you brought this up Joyce because he's a he's clearly a major force on Cape Cod and we're all going to miss him he's also very um Forward Thinking with
his renewable energy applications to make the transportation sector more of a contributor rather than a 's one of the first rtas to get a commitment on electric buses and secured Federal funding now
you talk about Federal funding and how organization are going to be affected I mean he was very good at getting Federal money here he was very creative in fact he helped the Steamship Authority get a new boat whoa think about that a new
vessel for for transport here all right so that was his reach it went in so many different areas he incredibly talented but in particular with the RTA it's amazing under his leadership how far they've
come no question complete with a wind turbine well that was um yeah that was started under his predecessor but but I remember him at the goka yeah at the um in at the tent though when we were
celebrating it at any rate are there any other individual items for today moving on then to the consent agenda I move that we accept the consent agenda as printed second any discussion
on that all those in favor I I pass unanimous okay may I ask a process question quickly um public art committee and and I'll look it up but uh
as a as the new appointments here with that passing of that agenda is that now a committee that's MERS committee we're going to have to advertise and try to get that and then we'll be in touch with you with applicants and that that'll have to go
back in front of the board you'll you'll initiate yeah good okay Bob you're on okay you know I did have a couple of items I know it's kind of late it always actually we are good Shing pretty good but I I had a few
items I thought might be of um you know some pretty good interest to the board first of all last Friday was March 14 um we had a standard and pores Bond rating um meeting and um now I I just want to say
it it was not the full every once in a while they do a full complete Bond rating this was what they call an update because we have an issue coming up so it's not their entire full boat but you know I just wanted to say I I was very um impressed with our finance director
and the team with the town accountant we had the treasurer collector um our banking team and I participate in in those as well I thought it was an excellent meeting and um right now we're in that area it is so vexing we are a
double A+ which is one tick short of the highest ranking you can get of a AAA um and you know with everything that's going going on in the country um you know they're telling everyone that um they're very reticent to change Bond
ratings and things so I'm not expecting us this time to move up to a AAA but I just want to tell you that I was very impressed I I've done this uh a lot and I feel we're inching toward that tripa a and and I also I feel very strongly we have the numbers to get there right now
and we've done everything that they've asked they you know they keep complaining that um yes we have a fabulous uh Wastewater refunding schedule but until we start paying back those loans they're not going to trust that it's true and all of
these you know madeup reasons but um there's no reason this town's not a AAA and um so we're going to continue to fight for that but I I wanted to let you know um your team I I thought did a really a really great job last Friday I was very proud of them and I was proud
to be last time we had an update we were told that the rationale for the AAA were things that we that weren't even in our control some of them it's very true you know they they try to and and I I make this speech you know they they tried to
say that our per capita income is not high enough and and I I bristle at that because the p per capita income in our community creates you know that diverse yearound population that we're much different than a lot of these smaller
towns on the Outer Cape that have higher incomes but nobody here in the in the winter this is a real community and so yes there are a lot of things that are out of our control um and they try to make it like that a little bit on purpose but um they know and and the the
Raiders in that room whether we get this AAA now or or or not they knew and you know we left no uh you know questions as to whether our community um had the performance levels of other AAA communities and so um that's why I I was
proud of our efforts and um you know we represented the town very well with that and we're going to continue to and and um I expect that that we're going to reach that that triaa and um I also I wanted to bring up I sent out a a note
um that I was very happy to see uh the town receive a d Grant in the amount of 150,000 now this is the program we talked about this it was made available to help uh communities that are in the sensitive
watersheds like on Cape Cod these nitrogen sensitive areas nitrogen sensitive embayments they have a name have a designation we were worried our nitrogen was under attack and so um we we sought you know
to seek These funds they were made available for our community and um we had the specific uh purpose that we applied for to assist us in the groundwater recharge studies that we're doing because we need that to do the permitting so that's
$150,000 very happy to see that and um we're I I think already getting ready to submit bills against that because we've been spending a lot of money on the ground water recharge and and this is money that comes out of our 27 million
so it's going to be a great help to to make sure this engineering is not over and above what we appropriated um so that's that's good news there um I wanted to mention the St Patrick's parade um I I really think
that the turnout along that route that was the biggest turnout I've ever seen on on that parade um when people in front of you know certain businesses the crowd was so large it started surging right into the parade route it was very
impressive um I wanted to um really give my thanks to Desmond Kio and Tom Nic Canelo from the committee that worked so closely with us to to set up a great parade and the parade was long this year too and so that was helpful just we're
getting older it's the same it's the same well I meant the number of not not that we walked longer but the you know the the number of participants was was a lot longer than say last year when we had the tough weather people were coming out saying you know that hadn't
responded well we want to be in the parade so there were more uh bands and things I I want to also men mention um our communication team Lorie Sullivan and Paul tropy pulled together a fabulous um program that films this for
posterity and you know it's being picked up nationally um by some of the cable so there's people around the country that are are watching New England the town of Yarmouth and and they're promoting it like that and I'm sure we're going to get a lot of new visitors people we haven't even met yet that are going to
see that parade out there can they tell where they pinged pinged in from from basically can they tell where it's being who's picking it up that be interesting we're going to have a a list that um I've asked them for and and they know because it's I think the Cox Communication team which is a national
cable um they do some New England stuff but they're out as far as California and and so when they adopt it you know they get to pick it up on the you know the local origination then they can broadcast that Nationwide and and I I also wanted to really give my thanks to
the select board the just outpouring to first of all make this parade possible it's only been through the action of this select board that we've been able to um keep the parade um here locally um year after year and um with so many
members of the board participating and showing the Goodwill um makes me you know proud it kind of gives you chills when you when you're going down there and no one got hurt with the candy so we had just enough just just enough just enough he he thought he was going to
have leftovers but I do think we need to skip the hard candy next year softer candy we got a got a note oh those caramel chews were perfect they were Tootsie Rolls caramel chews I want to special shout out to Joyce because
she walked the parade and then she walked home oh my God hit your right in the back of feet four wow I hited to ride an illegal ride yeah yeah just for the benefit of um our newer members on the board um this parade we were almost
lost this parade a few years ago and um we had to really pull pull in you know all the stops and working hard collectively as a board and with some of the other committees to figure out how how we can keep this thing going and uh
so we made some changes and we had a very spirited conversation with uh some of the other committees and the other sort of town uh play in this thing and it's really come together and and I appreciate that Bob that recognition of the board's important role in helping
keep this going um because I think it's important um you know as a community there are only so many things that we do together as a community and this just happens to be one of those things that Yarmouth residents really en really enjoy as well as the visitors I think when next year we have to make sure
though that we're not going backwards when the Parade's still going forwards in the carts because people were saying oh those are the politicians that's why they go both ways uhoh you go it or it could have been maybe like a social reference who
knows what's in their okay yeah but at any rate in any event thanks for bringing that up I think it's important that uh we continue to stay vigilant I think we as a group want to know that if there are any glitches or any issues or things that could jeopardize it that we have the opportunity to get on it right
away yeah and the the last thing I wanted to mention oh Sor Comm to do like an after action like a thank you yeah and a thank you yes absolutely it's a after action I think it's a great idea you know sort of a look back yeah we can
work better next year together I there ask Mother Nature not to put the wind in our face dollar amount in and you know probably extra business from what would have been expected without the parade for that weekend I think we may even in terms of
the after the review oh it's more long long term no I think no I think it's helpful to also look back as as as Tracy said um I think uh inviting the chamber in to talk about the business side you know how much I know it's difficult to quantify but I think generally you know
I mean I I I could recall uh you know last year even in the rain I was just blown away at the number of people that were here in town for the parade even with the bad weather that's it would be interesting to hear from our restaurants and our hotels and make sure that so
yeah yeah now while we're looking do we want to look at the agenda is there a good time to slot that in there or maybe it's best to hear from them when they can come in but I think I have no problem if there's a last minute adjustment on the agenda to do a recap of the parade and have the chamber have
the organizers of the parade and maybe someone from the Restaurant Association come in you know to give us sort of their take like it's an acknowledgement of all they did well well we can we can we can certainly thank them for the work that they did but I mean I think it's a team effort I think what we want to do
is I I like Tracy's approach is look back what are the things that we might be able to work on and do better for next year what are the things what can we do collectively yeah I want a horse next year a horse there you go Bingo and the horse you rode in on
yeah and I I already told Tracy I promised four different tourists that we um have no wind for our parade next next year she has to addor goals yeah yeah select my last item is has did
anyone hear about our um online sticker sale snafu yes we we had an issue and I and I just want to make sure um board members know exactly um what what happened and and what steps were taken
and there was a a single day it happened to be March 7 right 20125 where the online sticker sale vendor there's ay called City Hall Systems Incorporated that processes
these transactions that come in and um there were 24 transactions so these are 24 individual sticker sales that folks um go online you put your credit card in you make the sticker sale and what
happened with these 24 customers is um the charge went through on them twice and that's a very embarrassing situation um and we it was researched immediately and we got to the bottom of it and first made sure that you know
that there was just a finite number and it wasn't ongoing it didn't happen to more people identified the customers contacted them um immediately every single one of them issued the the refunds engaged City Hall systems in um
you know apologizing to people that them know what what happened and so all of the the refunds were um issued and um we also made a special posting on the town's website if you saw it on the website I made it a point uh to put
something up there so that you know people know that the thing that that you know hurts me the most is that if you go to a business and you become a business that you know double charges people that's almost like something like you're doing on purpose to you know take
advantage of people and you know folks need to know Shady we would we would never U do that we would never St stand for that and if there's one thing that you can be sure you're not going to be cheated of um it's you know your beach sticker unless the sun doesn't come out
when when you want to go to the beach that's the worst will will do to you so um and if there's anyone that hasn't seen it on the website that might see this on on television um you know we were much chagrined but again I I want to um acknowledge our finance department
you know working with um Jennifer Mullen enry Ellis the The treasur Collector they were beside themselves when this happened and the action that they took and how fast they took it again you know very impressed and we made sure we got together with
the communications team and just sort of we want to let the community know that we're looking out for those types of problems problems happen now and again but um folks aren't going to be you know cheated by the town and we'll make sure that that doesn't happen so I just
wanted to City Hall systems for a long time they do not just our beach they do our collection of all the taxes right I go in I go on that City Hall systems and I pay right real estate tax very convenient and I'm the my point is you
know I this is the first time I've heard where's a problem that of an issue like this so it's certainly not a pattern that I know that I've ever heard of we've been using them a long time and I'm sure it was some honest mistake but the thing that I had read when I was
reading online that the turnaround time for the um refund was lengthy that's what they were complaining about so that was that was the one complaint I'm not sure if it's accurate or not but I think I read somewhere that they would get their money back next week well you know
what the the the issue there was there's two ways to pay when um when you pay you can either use your credit card which those refunds come back the next day it's real quick yeah the the there was a
slight delay of a few days if you do the E check it you're not allowed to Simply reverse it you have to go through the bank and it took another couple of days to do that but we tried to make it as fast as possible for everyone that's good what folks should
know is that it's a safe convenient system and uh people do love it so um please feel confident to use it okay using it tonight entertain them up Madam chair it's 9:18 I'd like to
move to adjourn second all in favor I I thank you all very much thank you