recording in progress Good evening everyone and welcome to the Yarma Select Board scheduled today for April 1st 2025 This is a hybrid meeting uh which means that it can be accessed by Zoom and the
information regarding Zoom is on our town website If you'd all like to join me in standing for the pledge of allegiance please to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it
stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all Okay first on the agenda we have announcements Do we have any announcements today uh Madam Chair I'd just like to remind
everybody that town cleanup day is on Saturday April 12th You can see all the details on the town site Um but just because this is our last meeting before then um it's a lot of fun Uh all
supplies you know um uh big bags gloves all of that are issued Uh everyone goes out in groups does some clean up brings everything back and then um has a sandwich at town hall Do we bring our sandwiches
bring your sandwich Bring your sandwich No I mean in the past we have uh fed the participants a sandwich at town hall I particularly remember because um I can't eat gluten so I would look and admire
I don't think that's happening this year though is it i don't know No no I think you'd have to bring your sandwich Bring your sandwich this year Okay Mr Kelly Bob Kelly Yarmouth Historic Commissioner I'd like to um
just make an announcement uh that uh on public comment Um the Yarmouth Historical Commission is seeking a public comment on proposed designs for the Revolutionary War monument dedicated to those Yarmouth residents who
participated in our war for independence Um the Yarmouthport playground also known as Thatcher Park has been chosen for the appropriate site for the monument design options have been developed um by the uh uh contract uh by
the firm contractor to create the monument and uh the Armouth Historical Commission is uh seeking input from the community to help make its decision uh between the designs proposed Um the meeting will take place at 400 PM on
Thursday April 12th at fire station number two uh meeting room um on 6A in Yarmouthport I believe that's April 10th Okay Bob April 10th What did I say april 12th Oh April
10th Um there's parking in the rear of the building Um I'd just like to say we saw renderings today uh for the U monument and they're pretty spectacular So uh uh we're looking to
have some uh some good input from the from the public We also just uh we we expect that um the dedication for this monument will be uh June 20th
2026 which is 250 years to the day that Yarmouth declared independence Um and also we will have uh uh a ceremony we'll have a ceremony
there and we'll also have a ceremony we think in September for the planting of uh 53 revolutionary soldiers interred in ancient cemetery Um we're going to have uh 7 by seven by
eight stone granite markers placed in front of the uh tombstones of those men So uh and there's other things going on I think uh on the 19th of this month we have also uh the historical society has
a celebration of the march to Marshfield which happened uh on April 19th 1775 Uh and that'll be at the Kelly Chapel Endgrounds around there uh on the 19th So thank you Thank you very much
We're looking forward to it The mic is open for public comment Is there anyone that would like to make any public comment today anyone in the room my name is Christine Marzigiano I'm here to congratulate Mike
Bryant on his retirement and to also congratulate the uh new officers that are being promoted tonight Thank you Thank you No one else in the room I see Vita has her hand up Vita can you hear us
i Yes I can Can you hear me now yes I can All righty So it's Vita Morris and I see that there's a workshop later on in the agenda uh which does not allow for public uh participation as I understand it So I have to make my statement right
now uh on that subject matter the housing uh s uh uh whatever they're they're doing Are they still on on the subject of trying to uh uh put together a uh something in uh the vicinity of the
senior center and uh for the eenth time they the the place is not the right place and especially I think now that uh uh we had a a a water hu situation there with the I guess
contaminated water whatever and the well I think was right across the street from the senior center Besides at the big meeting uh when uh the representative from the state was asked about the water table he did not make a categorical
statement that it's perfectly all right to go ahead and build So I think that it would be uh would behoove the uh our housing people to uh uh uh kind of stop and and think about what they are trying
to do uh there uh if we don't ever uh use up the entire amount that's allotted to to the residents of of the town of Yarmouth when we build these uh housing developments and uh in the meantime
there's a big uh uh need for the seniors senior housing there's a huge waiting list there and I don't know what these housing people are doing but they need to stop and think and I'll be very curious to see if they tell us the grounds on which if they want to proceed
on this forest roads uh situation uh of what they will tell us on what grounds they're doing that thank you thank you Vita do we have anyone else with their hands up today no I do not so moving on um we
come to a rather special portion of the agenda for today the recognition of retirements Jeff Colby I'd ask you to come on up to the podium please Our first um retiree that we're
recognizing is David Morren um who worked for the DPI DPW on Highway for 27 years Jeff would you like to fill us in i understand that David unfortunately could not be here tonight Yes thank you very much Jeff Colby public works
director Uh Dave Morren was unable to attend tonight he's in some warmer climates A pretty common theme with people that deal with snow and ice on a intimate basis like he did Uh but we really appreciate being able to recognize him because he is uh listening
or when he gets back he will review this So it's it's good to to honor him in this way And I'd like to say on behalf of the entire team we want to extend our deepest gratitude to Dave Morren and his nearly 30 years of service Uh we thank Dave for that dedication and hard work
in being an essential part of the Yarmouth public works team Uh we wish him all the best in his well-deserved retirement and look forward to hearing about those new adventures that he's uh starting Uh Dave began his career with the town of Yarmouth in 1995 He was a
mechanic and heavy equipment operator and his expertise helped extend the life of the uh public works vehicles and other town equipment and through his leadership in the uh field of fleet maintenance it's widely known that he's an expert in that area Uh from the very
beginning of him working for the town it was clear that he possessed a unique blend of skill dedication and a very strong work ethic Over the years Dave be Dave has become an integral part of our team and played a crucial role in Yarmouth Public Works keeping the highway division running smoothly And
then in 2020 Dave accepted the role of highway supervisor He demonstrated his exceptional ability to tackle challenges head-on and always willing to work with and assist residents and staff alike His expertise and attention to detail have been invaluable and his contributions
have made a lasting impact on the department So as we celebrate Dave's retirement we reflect on the countless hours of hard work the challenges he overcame and the many achievements along the way And we're grateful for the legacy that he leaves behind and the
lasting impact on the department and the Armouth community So congratulations Dave Thank you I'd like to read a citation that we have from the town of Yarmouth Select Board Uh this official citation be it known that the town of Yarmouth hereby
recognizes David B Morren on his retirement as highway supervisor effective March 21st 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 29
years of tireless service in the DPW highway division This citation has been approved by the Yarmmer Select Board on this first day of April in the year of our Lord 2025 We'll set this aside when he comes back up from the warmer climates Thank
you very much And Chief Lennon would you like to come on up we have our second retiree to honor today Michael Bryant Good evening Or should we say Mikey Bryant
you stole my thunder Oh sorry My write up It's uh it's not it's not easy to put you know 34 years of uh of work into a document but I'm going to try Uh so Mike Bryan is retiring retiring tomorrow is
his last day after 34 years of devoted service to both the community and the law enforcement profession known finally as LTB or Mikey B Uh he is known for his passion as a leader and as a mentor Now Mike's career started on the island of
Nantucket working for the Massachusetts State Police as an undercover drug operative Now how a guy from Lawrence thought he could pull off buying drugs on Nantucket in ' 91 is beyond me because he did not blend in but he tried Um Mike
came to the Armouth Police Department uh in ' 91 worked as a summer officer He was hired full-time in 1994 During his tenure he served as as a patrol officer a sergeant and as a lieutenant Throughout his career Lieutenant Brian has played an active role in various functions of the department He started
out as a member of the SWAT team rose to a team leader position and he was deployed with the SWAT team to Boston when they were searching for the marathon bomber He was a member of the bike patrol uniform and safety committee's member of the honor guard He was a supervisor and very active member of our firearms unit He held the
certification as a pistol instructor a rifle armorer and a less lethal armorer He was an instructor for our very popular citizens police academy He was a fleet manager So Mike was in charge of all 46 uh vehicles at the police department which he has gladly turned
over to the deputy chief He was our special events coordinator Mike handled coordinating almost every special event for this community for the past 15 or so years that included our parades our festivals major projects like the wastewater uh and many other uh major
events Lieutenant Bryant has also demonstrated his leadership in labor relations He served as a vice president and the president and the treasurer of two different unions and and uh successfully negotiated several collective bargaining agreements over the years So the unions can thank Mike
for where they are today from his dedication his leadership Uh Lieutenant Brian also oversaw dispatch operations uh and he handled investigative duties He's managed our detectives He managed court records evidence and the productive anti-rime unit Over the course of his career Lieutenant Bryant
received more than 30 letters of commendation numerous awards for outstanding police work and his achievements reflect his dedication and leadership We are deeply grateful for his years of commitment to the town and please join me in congratulating Mike Bryant on a wonderful career
[Applause] I left out a line I apologize I am confident that Mike will continue to approach his next stage in life as the same passion as he's brought to work every day
[Applause] Mike on behalf of the town of Yarmmer Select Board we have an official citation for you Be it known that the town of Yarmouth hereby recognizes Michael A Bryant on his retirement as
police lieutenant effective April 2nd 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 34 years of tireless service in the Yarmouth Police Department This citation
has been approved by the Yarmmer Select Board on this first day of April in the year of our Lord 2025 Congratulations Congratulations [Laughter] You've never been known to be shy Mikey
do you have anything you want to say you should The podium's all yours We all love him I get home every night I know You're so lucky Really wasn't going to say anything Um
Dave I'm right behind you I'm leaving on Tuesday so keep the weather warm for us Uh for for me it just uh my world is sitting in front of me parlor and saying me So having them here is uh super super special It's bittersweet because it was
right for Paula and I for me to retire but I still love my job and I'm going to miss it every day So thank you for letting me work here Thank you for bringing being with us How are we going to find our way around town for the detours now if you're not
there to tell us [Laughter] okay chief Unfortunately we did say goodbye to Mikey but we're also swearing in some new uh a new lieutenant and a new
sergeant So if you'd like to do the honors Lieutenant Wells can you step up please you obviously didn't get the script [Laughter] No pressure Michael Oh sticker
All right [Applause] I'll start from the end Uh Lieutenant Wells is going to be pinned by her husband Michael Wells Uh Lieutenant Diana Wells began her career with the Armouth Police
Department November of 2010 Prior to serving with the police department Lieutenant Wells worked for the town of Nantucket for several years as a part-time officer Lieutenant Wells has a bachelor's degree in criminal justice from the University of Maryland and a master's degree in criminal justice from Suffach University Lieutenant Wells
served as a patrol officer from 2010 to 2019 and then she was promoted to the rank of sergeant As a patrol officer she served on several specialized units and wrote several grants One grant brought in over $38,000 to the town Additionally she was involved with the implementation of the mental health outreach unit
Lieutenant Wells is currently the supervisor in charge of the mental health out mental health outreach unit today Lieutenant Wells was promoted to the rank of sergeant in 2019 Since her promotion she has served as a patrol sergeant working various tours on the day evening and midnight shift In
addition to her duties as sergeant she has been involved in many other aspects of the department Lieutenant Wells has been involved in shop with the cop secret Santa for seniors national night out mental health outreach crisis intervention team training and grant writing Lieutenant Wells has attended
numerous specialized training classes in the area of supervision leadership supervising critical incidents grant writing and she's a sexual assault investigator Please join me in congratulating Lieutenant Diana Wells on a promotion I will add uh before I turn it over to
the town clerk that Diana is the highest ranking female officer on the Yarmmouth Police Department in the history of the Yarmouth Police Department Here Here Good job Good evening Lieutenant If you could uh raise your right hand and repeat after
me I Please state your name I Diana Wells do solemnly swear and affirm do solemnly swear and affirm that I will faithfully and impartially that I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform discharge and perform all the duties incumbent upon me all the duties
incumbent upon me as a lieutenant for the town of Yarmouth Police Department as a lieutenant for the town of Yarmouth Police Department According to the charter bylaws rules and regulations according to the charter bylaws rules and regulations of the town of Yarmouth of the town of the army the Constitution
and laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts the Constitution and laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the Constitution and laws of the United States of America The Constitution and laws of the United States of America So help me God So help me God Congratulations
[Applause] I know Like just yesterday you were here They're your boys are probably a little bit bigger now
This is for Well it's official Congratulations Lieutenant [Applause] Wells Sergeant Burnham
[Laughter] Thank Uh Sergeant Connor Burnham began his career with the Yarmouth Police Department in November of 2014 Prior to coming to Yarmouth he worked for the town of Chadam for one year Sergeant Burnham has a bachelor's
degree in criminal justice from the University of Massachusetts and has attended numerous specialized training uh classes in the area of tactics narcotics investigation supervision and leadership Sergeant Bernham was assigned to the patrol division from 2014 to 2021
As a patrol officer he served on several specialized units including the regional SWAT team the traffic unit and our proactive anti-rime unit excuse me In 2022 Sergeant Burnham was assigned full-time to the pro proactive anti-rime unit As a member he assisted the
detective division in various cases and conducted many successful street level narcotics interdiction inter uh investigations Sergeant Burnham was assigned to the as a task force officer to the local DEA unit in 2022 and there he participated in numerous investigations with local state and
federal partners Sergeant Burnham brings a wealth of knowledge and a passion to work with him daily He's a leader a motivator and a person who truly cares for the wellbeing of his employees Please join me in congratulating Sergeant Burnham on his promotion
Sergeant Burnham is going to be pinned by his wife Karen [Applause] Good evening Sergeant If you could raise your right hand and repeat after me I I
Please state your name Do solemnly swear and affirm do solemnly swear and affirm that I will faithfully and impartially that I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform discharge and perform all the duties incumbent upon me all the duties incumbent upon me As a
sergeant for the town of Yarmouth Police Department as a sergeant for the town of Yarmouth Police Department according to the charter bylaws according to the charter bylaws rules and regulations rules and regulations of the town of Yarmouth of the town of Yarmouth the constitution and laws of the
commonwealth of Massachusetts constitution and laws of the commonwealth of Massachusetts and the constitution and laws of the United States of America and the constitution and laws of the United States of America so help me God so help me God congratulations
[Applause] Congratulations here It's official Let's congratulate Sergeant Burnham This is a fun part of the
job Thank you very much And as you said earlier it is bittersweet to see Mike leave but I am uh very confident in the capabilities of Sergeant Burnham and Lieutenant Wells and I'm excited to see what the future holds for the police department So thank you very much Thank
you We'll just give a minute because I think now many of you are probably going to be leaving Go celebrate [Music] Is that
Mike's coffee is tomorrow isn't it never got an invite tomorrow 11 to 12 It was came in an email I didn't see it Babies are so cute and young
Okay moving on onto the agenda we have review and discuss fees I'm going to turn this over to you Bob Um thank you very much uh Madame Chair Just a few words of um introduction
Um during the budget process this year the finance committee had noted in reviewing many of the the town departments not only the expenditure side but also the revenue side that um many departments had not updated fees in
in quite some time And um you know there was a feeling that some of our fees were lagging uh behind um other areas of the Cape Um and and also by having fees that aren't updated it kind of puts a lot of pressure on the other revenue sources
that the the town has had And I know that um the finance committee members had brought that up with the select board as we reviewed the town's budget Um so the select board issued um an advisory out to all of the departments
and and ask them to please take a look at your fees compare them to um other communities you know in our area and come up with a process for you know where appropriate update these fees and to make sure that they reflect you know
the cost of doing business the costs in our area And um so we've got the I I think almost every department head with us this evening um the board had adopted a strategy that is a three-part strategy that first involved um today April 1
having a discussion with the board of what the fees are any proposed fee increases and then with that feedback um together with departments we would schedule a two-part public hearing that would be the first public hearing on
April 15 to review some proposed updated fees and I believe May 6 we have the second public hearing which would enable uh the board to take action if there were any fe fees to be updated um for this upcoming summer season So um you
know having asked the individual departments to review their fees we thought to facilitate the discussion we could begin to hear um maybe from each of the departments individually on um what they came up with for potential
updates what issues they're looking at and to get some feedback for the board for our public hearing uh that is going to be on the 15th And um I thought that we could maybe start with some of the bigger departments U maybe the public works could give us um a little rundown
I know they had submitted some material that um was forwarded um independently from your agenda packet but um board members should have some material from the DPW and the other departments And
maybe I would start with you Jeff and we can get you and and not not Miss Roby as well up to the front here The mantle of leadership I know it's Thank you very much for and
everyone for attending this evening Yes Thank you again Uh Jeff Colby public works director I'm joined by Ruby White House the assistant DPW director and Lori Rosal our water and wastewater uh superintendent We have
identified a couple of items for uh review as far as recommendations for those fee increases Uh the first one that we identified was the non-resident disposal sticker Currently that's
$192 And the recommended increase uh to uh be more in line with some more neighboring communities would be $250 That is a um the disposal sticker is something that doesn't uh necessarily cover all
the costs associated with that particular um component with disposing of trash The uh CND uh really helps to offset the sticker cost So we thought that adjusting the uh non-resident
disposal sticker would be a good way to uh help offset some additional costs And it's not um we're not necessarily recommending to adjust the resident sticker but the non-resident sticker is certainly something that um there is some uh amount that that could be
adjusted uh to be in line again with more of the uh our neighboring communities uh with regards to some of their sticker prices Um just to be uh a little bit more um uh transparent in that is the uh town of Barnstable uh
charges um their residents uh a sticker price that is even higher than that Um that town of Barnstable uh sticker price is Ruby Do you have that number it's 300
Yeah it's it's north of the 250 It's certainly closer to to $300 So our recommendation residential 335 335 So our recommendation would be to uh increase that Um again um not wanting to highlight the the fact that Barnstable
residents could come and um get a sticker for even um less in Yarmouth but what we're seeing is there's a increasing number of um others outside of town that are taking advantage of that um non-resident
sticker charge So that's our recommendation is to increase that We can look at that each year and maybe bringing that closer to um something that's in line with our neighboring communities would be a little more appropriate as far as helping to cover
the cost associated with doing um providing that particular function So that the town of Barnstable looks at um their particular cost center and wants to cover the cost with their uh sticker fees and we want to look cover the cost
with regards to all of our fees associated with uh the operation And so there was just a a thought that adjusting this particular fee would be appropriate So our our recommenation for this next year would be 250 for the
non-resident sticker fee So could we stop there in case there are any questions um Tracy how many non-resident stickers do we have what What is the estimated revenue for this change rob do you happen to have that i don't have the estimated revenue but I bet we
could do the math real quickly We had we sold last year um just a little over 300 non-resident stickers We also sold another 11 at the second sticker rate which is half the price of the first at
$96 And we also had 560 replacement stickers So those were sold at $5 a piece So that that could mean someone's car was sold or their windshield was broken So those are the replacements
300 at the 192 58 time 58 17,400 Right So some something just short of $20,000 will be the additional revenue Um we'll be prepared with some more
detail with regards to uh exactly what the cost and revenue impacts will be when we do the official um hearing for these fees It's my understanding these are just uh an introduction and discussion about these particular fees Um tonight we did look at the other uh
let me just make sure that nobody else has any questions I have some questions Yeah Mark um were you continuing to explain Jeff with your time or were you moving on to something else i was going to talk about some other disposal costs No I I think what I'm interested in understanding is when we come up with
fees for the uh for the disposal area how much of the overall cost do we expect the fees to cover and what what specific costs are the fees connected to that's what I'm trying to understand because obviously the fees don't cover
100% of the cost or do or do they or what what's the overall amount of the cost of disposal area options so the fees associated with disposal area do cover all of the budget costs There's other costs associated with
um uh benefit costs that maybe not or maybe not be fully baked into the the cost But with regards to the uh budget that you see for the disposal area that's related to uh the operating budget uh the fees do cover all of that
Uh in recent years we have adjusted and increased the uh construction and demolition disposal fee to um ensure that that happens and that process has allowed the sticker um that residents
enjoy for disposing trash to keep that cost as low as possible So that's been the approach in recent years It's probably been a good eight or 10 years now since we've adjusted the resident sticker fee But we've been able to keep that low by adjusting other fees And so
this would be another fee that we could adjust It would continue to keep the residential sticker fee at the level that it's at Okay So the overall cost that's covered is close to 100% It may not pick up the some of the overhead and some of the other fringe benefit costs for salaries but it pretty much is very
close to covering that That's helpful to know Yes Um in in looking ahead I mean I keep hearing reports that we can anticipate solid waste costs continuing to go up and up particularly food waste is a is a huge issue and I know some communities including even Yarmouth at
one time we were thinking of creative ways to to deal with food waste Um what's what's the sort of the latest assessment in terms of the cost of you know handling solid waste disposal what's the kind of the on
average the rate of increase in cost every year um I know in some some cases communities are getting I don't want to say panic but there's a really growing concern that uh solid waste costs uh you know are likely to go up um because of t
because we're dealing with tipping fees In many cases the areas that we're sending our solid waste are becoming more distant and potentially subject to sort of transportation interruptions and so forth So I'm just curious in your take on where we see costs going over
the next 3 to 5 years Yeah I'll provide some general comments of that and maybe Roby wants to provide a little more detail but uh as you're alluding to we're seeing costs generally increasing for all items including trash and recycling disposal But one of the things
that we've seen and I think I mentioned this during the budget presentation is that the volumes of uh trash as well as construction and demolition material have uh leveled off and in some cases decreased slightly In the case of trash I think the decrease was related to some
increased recycling that this community um you know uh had over the last year that certainly helped uh keep a uh a more level uh amount of uh funding needed for trash disposal So that's why
at this point we're not needing to significantly increase uh fees generally in the disposal area to cover costs just in small areas In fact what I was going to mention uh about kind of other costs is we did look closely at construction
demolition cost to see if we needed to adjust that But based upon where other uh communities are charging and we're right in that area uh as well as that leveling off or in some cases a slight decrease in the volumes have helped to uh stabilize the overall cost associated
with that particular item But it's it's not because costs aren't going up It's really because volumes have adjusted slightly Roby do you have anything else you want to add to that the only thing I would add also is is Yarmouth is currently has a contractual agreement
with Seamass um not only for our commercial transfer station which is the end of the rail but also um our agreement to handle our trash at that facility So we are really in a great location where our household rubbish goes right across the railroad to our
commercial transfer station and takes the rail directly to Seamass So Yarmouth unlike some of the other communities on Cape Cod who don't have that type of scenario are maybe maybe struggling I would say CN D we're definitely hearing
about exactly the scenarios that you're talking about that trash that that solid waste is being railed to other states and it is getting exceptionally expensive This year we are lucky enough to have um how shall I say this a little bit
more competition so to speak in our construction and demolition contract There are a couple of companies vying for the business of Yarmouth So we may have a great opportunity to um get a great price So we've already we've already received one price and it is
very favorable That's great to hear Now the contract with SEMAS this is my last question How long how long does that run when does that run out i think it was just renewed for the lease Uh so how does it got another 15 years Bob yeah I
I I it may have been 10 Okay Um but it was a we just did a a long-term increase that um extended the pref preferential treatment that we get as being the host of that regional transfer um station
facility So um we've actually got very stable solid waste cost for the um household municipal solid waste um for many years to come That's great Um and excuse me one one last last question Um
while while I have you um we had complaints as you know not too long ago regarding litter from from waste leaving a train Has that has that problem been fixed we contacted not only the rail but Coanta They promised that they would take care of it ASAP I am asking them
for a schedule of when that will be taken care of There is some philosophy that some of that may be remnants from some snow capping from the top of the rails They are very aware of it I did receive photographs fortunately and I was able to provide them with that and
they promise they will get back to us We're also going to hold them to task to make sure that the train traked the staff at the commercial transfer station to take an inventory and research that as well I appreciate that Thank you Joyce Well uh my first
observation is that I'm staggered by the absent-mindedness of people who lose stickers That seems like a very high percentage of our stickers Um and then I have a question uh for Roby And this is my question Uh we all come along and we
go to do our solid waste in the appropriate place and we see corrugated cardboard boxes I mean it it's like Amazon fills half of of of every container Um can you take one minute while we're on television and just give
your best argument to citizens on why they should put the recycling in the recycling bin yeah it's not Joyce Department of Environ of Environmental Protection That's not related to fees though Oh which is what we're It it is because we pay less for those I I think
she'll say that as part of her Go ahead Roby Sorry The Department of Environmental Protection requires and there are laws called waistbands and cardboard is one of those waistband items that is
restricted from the household waste And to the point about the fees cardboard currently has a positive value that when turned into the appropriate vendor does provide income back to the town of Yarmouth Yes
Okay Okay Liz Um I I'm going to ask an ignorant question I thought we had a recycling cost that was in our budget review We do There's a line item for recycling disposal cost Yes Right So when we say
that the the stick the residential dis disposal sticker covers the costs Does it cover that as well all of the fees generally within the disposal area cover all of the u the costs associated with the operating budget As I mentioned
before we don't have it broken down as to which revenue covers which expenses It's not to that level of detail Okay And I would like to give a shout out because Yarmouth is open seven days a
week and that is uh such a a bo a boon to getting going and it's actually open on those times when you're like desperate to get your trash to a dump Most of the towns are not and uh people are actually jealous of us for that So
thank you And and lastly when we talk about Covent and the trains and keeping the trash in I trust they're not going to they're going to let the bear come back via the train That I understand when we had the bear on the Cape that was how the bear came to the Cape was
through the trash Nobody seems to know Okay Um I would I would be surprised but maybe Thank you Thank you for all the good work you do And Roby you too Okay Okay moving on to the uh weekly beach parking
fee Uh yes So the next uh set of fees that uh we've been encouraged to take a look at were uh the beach parking fees This came up uh I think a couple of uh times now with the finance committee and think they mentioned that to your board
as well Uh they specifically asked us to take a look at the daily uh beach parking fee This is going to be something that the the visitors uh to Yarmouth would typically be funding And currently the charge is $20
and the recommendation is to raise that up $5 to $25 When you adjust the daily uh fee you need to take a look at the weekly fee to see what that maybe appropriate amount would be And the weekly fee currently is
at 75 So adjusting that uh as well The recommendation is to go from 75 to 100 on the weekly fee Uh still a u a deal to uh a savings for the user uh to do the weekly if you're going to be here for a full week but that's the recommendation
related to the uh daily and weekly beach parking fee is to go uh in those amounts and that will bring in some additional revenue as well What do the uh neighboring towns charge for their daily beach fee
uh the daily in Barnstable is currently 25 and Dennis is 35 So I think it's important to look at the two neighboring communities We do have other information as well Haritch is at 30 Um Cadam is at 20 and Sandwich is at 20
So there are some communities that are still down at the $20 level but for our neighboring communities they're at 35 and 25 currently for the daily Okay Uh any questions from any
Okay Daily And then the residential beach sticker Uh the residential beach sticker is currently 35 Uh this is something that would be more appropriate to implement if the board agreed in a future year
since people have already started to uh to get their stickers for this particular uh year But uh the recommendation would be to go to $40 for the residential beach sticker in future years
Okay Any questions for Jeff on that i I just have one Um I know there was in the past talk about um a discount on stickers for veterans and I believe the way that shook out after things with the state and then back here um turned out
to be only for disabled veterans Is that correct no not exactly there is a uh disabled veteran um charge and uh handicap uh you have to demonstrate whether you're a disabled veteran or you
have a handicap plate and um that's a dollar and that's been in place for quite a long time well well before my time here Uh but a few years ago we went to a 20% the board um went to a 20% uh discount on the sticker fee for veterans
So that that's currently in place right now Okay And then a follow-up question if I may Um does that depend on um the veterans having veteran plates because of course the state does charge them uh
extra for those plates It it does not They can provide a DD214 or you know proof that they have um served and that's sufficient They don't need a veteran plate for that That's excellent Thank you What I would like to say about the the beach fees and one of the reasons that we were encouraged to take
a look at this is because of the cost associated with the beaches has increased uh significantly particular as it relates to lifeguard pay and trying to attract additional lifeguards So this is a cost that will help to fund that particular effort of increasing the uh
the pay for lifeguards and other costs associated with beaches I I think that's an important point because uh as much as we want to stay in line with uh other towns I'm going to speak I'm going to pretend that Mr Stone is here right now because he's a
stickler for the law and the law states that fees are supposed to be related to costs So um I think to make sure that we stay in line with that we need to somehow make sure we can in all cases
quantify that relationship Um I'm glad you said that about the residential beach sticker for future years Um you know we got into this before many years ago Um and I'm not I'm not speaking just to this specifically but I'm more in favor of doing an annual
review and smaller um increases than um doing like 192 to 250 and the non-resident beach sticker That's a huge percentage So I I would hope as a town we would go back to trying to review
these fees on an annual basis and go up more of an affordable rate than you know waiting and then increasing it That uh sometimes adds adds a burden You know I know we did that with our water rates and you're getting there I see here um
you're looking at 8% over the next two years and um I'm sure that that's related to actual cost So that's um you know important that we stay up on it But not looking at these fees on an annual basis and then coming and hitting you
know big increases is um I don't think a great way to do things I agree I think that in the case of the fees it might be uh behoove us on the board to look at for instance the month of January to review fees so that then
if we are doing a resident beach sticker or a dump sticker we're not going to be caught in the middle and just have that set time when we do it annually looking at all the fees because some of these if I read them correctly it looks like we
haven't reviewed not your department but other departments that haven't been reviewed in literally years Um Liz you didn't have an opportunity to ask any questions Did you no I don't have questions on this Okay
Okay The water rate increase Yeah So the last uh fee that we're recommending to be addressed is the water rates and this is related to uh significant capital improvements that have been done within the water system
last few years Uh just finishing up some of the pump station rehab projects but also uh installing water manes as part of the sewer project have u significant costs associated with them Uh these were approved at town meeting but now that
the uh projects are underway uh adjusting the the fees to cover that uh debt schedule and other costs associated with the uh water system uh is necessary It has been water rates have been
adjusted over the last uh four years each year and Lori's done quite a bit of work with regards to our uh water system It's a system that uh takes all the financial information in and kind of
adjusts the rates uh to cover the different expenses and she's been working very closely with our finance director in that regard Um I don't know if you want to say anything more about that but uh the bottom line is that the current information we have and obviously we need to come back for the formal hearings with you which will have
much more detail about the different uh breakdowns with regards to usage and and what those various rates look like but it looks like 8% over the each of the next two years is needed to cover the projects that we have underway So you're
talking 16% in total not 8% two four and four Uh that's correct It would be 8% each year over the next two years right and that's just to cover the actual costs Yeah The our budget had our
operating budget is remaining pretty steady with just the wage increases It's really all those capital projects all the deferred um maintenance to the system that we are now catching up on plus POS um where we're already built one plant
and we're building another one So this is covering a lot of it a lot of our pay repayment of loans is a big part of our budget now unfortunately So when you come back can we get financial information in terms of what we're looking at for this i mean because
there's articles that we already have Are those funded with the rates we have now or is this for additional work this in the 8% includes those um asks for town meeting Wow Okay I can Yeah I can show you more in more
detail at the rate hearing I didn't know that I thought we already had that mixed in Okay Any can I just could get that clarification on that question so Tracy asked is that in the what we're approving at town meeting the
expectation is is that the 8% will be approved Great Notice Jennifer keeps raising Okay Jennifer Hi Jennifer Mullen finance director One thing I do want to point out is that
it's covering I've been working with Lori It's covering a lot of the the debt Now the debt will be authorized We have PAS and we also have the water main replacement with the SOAR project That's the main driver of a lot of these increases And so even though we have the
authorized debt we don't start paying that back probably two to three years out We're borrowing the PAS through the trust which really dictates when we start paying back So it's not something that um we're going to be you know in the FY26 budget we might not be paying
back this authorization at the April town meeting for another two years I just wanted to um mention that And then with the 16 million tonight where we have a bond anticipation note we have 8 million because we're we have contract signs signed for all the um water main
replacement with the sore of the 15.6 million that um we're borrowing and we're not borrowing that through the trust That is um we're going out to market with that Okay And that's fine But from my perspective when we're going through a budget cycle and we're
recommending or not recommending an article based on information we're given I think that that is an important piece of information for us to know that we need to increase that rate to a certain thing to pay for it You know we're told it's paid for Yeah in the um in the
water um budget Well it is like so for the FY26 budget the income that we'll get if even if we don't increase rates will cover the operating budget It's just these loans coming in in a couple years will start
to um decrease our um reserves to below uh we'd like to hold a million dollars in the water fund Hopefully that's Jennifer agrees with that Um so it will drop us down So we have to plan ahead is what we're doing at this
point Um yeah it really is a puzzle piece that you put together They do have a surplus Um they um their rates are coming in If you get the monthly reports they're coming in very very strong Um it will be able to cover the borrowing that we're doing now We're in the process of doing the debt schedule looking out
another 30 to 40 years And so um we'll have a lot more information when we go in for the rate increase Um and then and we'll have the um debt schedules going out that you know those years and what you know they think um a lot of it too is
like the PAS just to un to understand the trust dictates to us when we have to pay that back right so PAS we have to deal with we just um the principal payment was in the budget for FY26 that's covered this new borrowing authorization in April um we probably
won't be pay again paying that back for another couple years Okay any other questions thank you very much Thank you Thank you Want to jump in with community
development [Music] so our fees are far less than uh the DPW uh big ones So uh I'm here with Britney Denzo Um Britney can talk about the conservation fees Um
the other fees that are implemented through our programming are permitting fees and they're fees for the Old Kings Highway fees for the planning board and fees for the zoning board of appeals And so the material that you have um in your
packets from us for those those three entities we've done surveys on um neighboring communities I think we haven't probably raised our fees in a very very long time Um I think we haven't provided you with any
recommendations We're happy to do that for the fee hearing I think we easily have some room to uh bump up the fees Um I was thinking um you know at least 10% Um and probably a little bit more than
that I think that Barnstable in general is on the high end Um and uh Dennis is just a little bit lower Old Kings Highway Um they have in their uh regulations
that their local committee is supposed to kind of review the fees And I think that they could make a uh we could have them uh review a recommendation and then they could make the recommendation to the board What we've always intended to do is kind of present you with one um
one set of fees uh you know it doesn't make sense for us to raise one one board and not another Um going to Tracy's point just earlier I don't know that it makes sense for us We we should keep an eye on them annually but ours are very
much less um the fees that we generate do not cover the costs Um our costs are largely staff time and some administrative material We obviously rely quite a bit on our volunteer boards to kind of perform and we're lucky to
have volunteers to do this because um that would be another cost With regards to the zoning board of appeals um there's also room some towns um different staff are responsible We've been very very fortunate that we have attorneys on our zoning board of appeals
that um tend to write the decisions Staff has been helping more and more in that capacity But again that's always uh dependent on who's sitting on the board I don't know if you guys have any questions on those three boards and
their fees So go ahead Tracy So what you're saying basically is that you'd be coming back to the fee hearing uh recommending a 10% increase across the board I'd say at least 10% we can look at I mean it would be interesting to look at the cost of
delivering the service Um we're I know we're nowhere near that cost because I I was tallying up the uh the fee revenue just for these three boards and it's you know probably $30,000 a year um total for the zoning board planning board and
Old Kings Highway in total Um we could go to 20 I don't know what the appetite is for the for this board Well just looking at them generally speaking I think as a town I think a lot of our board should be consistent So like if
you're looking at the planning board a butter notifications and legal ads it's $5 And then over here in 2022 the proposed fee for conservation was a legal advertisement for $15 But what is the cost of that
i can't imagine it's only $15 It's not anymore right it's not So I mean I think that that's the analysis that we need to do to whether it's 10% 15% things like that that are tangible actual cost to the town should be an
accurate uh number Um you know again I each each department for us is treated a little bit different because you know like water they have their receipts and they have a budget with disposal you guys are
a little bit different because the general fund generally pays the majority of your um salaries and stuff but but I think that not just looking at the other towns really looking at what what staff's analysis time is to to handle
some of these things are extremely important and we should have some consistency through the towns for I mean through the different departments Yeah I mean if a legal fee is $5 here and $15 there that doesn't make much sense to me No And
right and we've had more and more trouble with kind of our legal advertisements and different rates and right with our options at this point Mark um my appetite is fine Um okay I I
really think getting back to Tracy's point it's finding ways to make sure that we're allocating identifying a fee structure that covers the cost and defining what that cost is I think that's important Now one thing that could you can clarify for me is these
fees that we charge are they put in a special bucket of money and then we use that to pay for staff or where does that money go does it go to the general fund by and large the three that I'm talking about go to the general fund Mhm Um I think Britney's with the conservation go
to bylaw fees for conservation also currently go to the general fund They do So it's not like those monies are set aside to pay for staff and support Not currently Okay No because from my point of view anything that we can do to help um deal with the burden in any of the
departments but particularly for conservation I think is is warranted And even it's it's I think that the state fees um a portion of those go to the wetland fund Yeah So we have two buckets of fees for conservation We have our bylaw fees and then we get a portion of
the notice of intent fees that are associated with filing a notice of intent and the the wetland the wetland notice of intent fees do go into a bucket that help pay for conservation salaries but not the bylaw fees Well I'm all in favor of doing what we can to cover the cost of conservation Okay
because the the department just you you have your hands full over there I've seen it you know every time I've come in So I know you're very busy I want to make sure that we're our fees are capturing as much of the revenue that we need to provide to the department We do have some new fees I know Britney has
some new fees proposed Just in speaking with Kathy um there's a few things that the planning board does um which are very time inensive um things like the road naming Uh when we have a village center project just that site plan
review and we currently do not charge for a full design review process and design review takes quite a bit of again of staff time So we'd like to implement new fees for those items So when you come back we're going to be seeing
instead of a rehash of this memo which sort of tells us what the structure is in 2022 Were these passed no Oh so in these are from 2022 when I first started we did reassess the fees that had last
been um put in place in 2011 Um but community development decided to put these on hold and go for a holistic approach with the whole department instead of just conservation So that's why we've waited until now Um so these are from 2022 and we we have recently
updated them We are still putting together that data to make sure they're accurate accurate Now I know there have been a lot of updates since then in other towns with even further increases Um but in reality you're working off of the 2011 fee schedule Is that Yeah the
2011 fee is our current fee And there are a number of types of filings that we don't charge a fee for at all currently that do take up a significant amount We've got some catching up to do Yeah Okay So we Yeah So we're going to see a lot more information on on our next
meeting on the 15th Thank you You're welcome Joyce Um I have no questions I'd just like to thank you for uh all you do Permitting is I know the least favorite part of your jobs probably as opposed to other parts But thank you
Liz So to be clear you're coming back with and for conservation with a more accurate 2024 fee request Yeah we will come back So this is just this is information Yeah that we this is currently approved by the conservation
commission because that's another board that does we do name our own fees um as recommended and approved by the select board So this they had a this is our last approved but not implemented We are still using the 2011 fee and you're going to come back with we'll come back
won't even be a part of the discussion Yeah I imagine it would be similar but there are some items that have gone up even more And I just want to point out one of the most important ones is um after the fact working without a permit Right now we just charge the same as a regular permit And having that be two
times the original would really help us limit the number of violations we would be dealing with Yes Mr Mills is shaking his head That's definitely something that requires some attention Definitely Yeah No because there there are a lot of folks that really are just totally there's a whole conversation right there
in terms of how do we get people to pay attention Yeah we're trying to work on our outreach as well to new homeowners realtors I know it's tough because it's a very big challenge I hear reports all the time of the number of people that are coming in and they have no idea that there's a conservation commission and
they need to comply with the wetlands protection act And that's that's not the town's act That's a state law that we're involved in enforcing and uh the it would be nice to see the state doing more to help educate people as well But um I I so I anticipate that when we
revisit this we're going to see some changes I'm going to be very open-minded and very interested in finding a way to make sure that we get an adequate stream of revenue um to cover the costs of the department but but particularly to also
help for those areas where uh the revenues directly support the staff work Like I said it's one of many departments that you know has its hands full and I want to make sure that we do what we can to help address that Thank you And I'll
just finish up Mhm So on um the three that you pointed out um I road naming Yeah that's an interesting issue that takes so much time and it needs to be um supported the other two design review applications in the
village village center overlay district reviews and I know that there's some concern at the Cape Kai Commission some efforts to keep permitting fees down for the kind of developments that we favor
and um and these are reviews that we are hoping will be coming fast and furious and um so I guess knowing that you have to develop a fee for these and I just hope we'll be sensitive to while we have
to be renumerated for the work but we also want to we don't want to cost it out of existence No Under understood And I I just I don't think I I appreciate the the feedback and wanting to address
the real costs of Yeah um of the work that goes into issuing the permit but I think also um I don't think it's realistic to expect to cover the full cost of our staff department staff right through this initiative understanding
that we want to be sensitive and we want people to comply and we want people to come forward and and go through the permitting process right because it's could be very expensive and then you have nothing to show for it in the end when you're denied So okay that was my
approved hopefully Okay Thank you Thank you Thank you very much Look forward to seeing you at the hearing Don't go Karen Don't go Karen Mark you want to talk a little about the building i feel like everybody's been given a
homework assignment and they're all coming in to get their papers graded by the by the teachers That's what it seems like Good evening Madam Chair members of the board Mark Grills director of inspectional services and the building commissioner And I have to my right Barry Lewis the assistant health
director Say hi Barry Hello Barry Lewis Assist the director of health Nice to meet you Nice to meet you Say hi Barry Hi Barry Hi Barry Hi Barry You're blushing Come on I'm good All right Um we actually I've looked at these for years Last time we increased
fees was 2015 I think Tracy you might have been on the board back then Um and at that time we were covering between health with health and building combined we were covering about 70% of our costs There's a lot of things that we do in building and health that don't have a
fee We can't charge a fee for an enforcement action We can't charge a fee for plan reviews I mean I meet literally thousands of people a year just to go over their plans that they have or or or development We have site plan review which involves every division in town
that has regulatory authority We don't charge a fee for that but as was mentioned we're trying not to raise a fee to stifle development where we can get the fees through the building through the building permit fees So um I
have I forwarded some fees to you Uh one of them was the um the health department fees I think that we're we're going to give those a look and then we're going to present them to the board of health I believe that they're the ones that will authorize the fee increase and which we'll present to you guys for approval
Um the building department fees are um the building ones alone are three pages long and they're very complex and it's hard for people to figure them out and they get surprised when we say well this is the actual fee because you miss this segment of it So what I'd like to do is
simplify the fee structure but be able to capture more money in the fee structure I've studied five or six towns um in a comparison and I and I do have a a slideshow that I didn't bring that shows that we're the well you guys don't want to you don't need the dog and pony
show today but um you saving that for the 15th what's that saving that for the next meeting yes absolutely I knew you'd you'd look forward to it You we'll bring popcorn Yes please I'll bring some for you um the the um it's a simplified fee
structure that's actually going to fit on one page and it's based on value of work So it it's a dollar value per thousand of of work and we can pick the number that works best for the town but um in my slideshow it shows a comparison of all the towns Yarmouth is the lowest when it comes to building permit fees or
second to lowest in one category I think and that's only second to lowest to sandwich surprisingly enough for commercial work So um Barnstable's extremely high Falmouth is is right below them and Dennis is actually higher than Yarmouth when it comes to these
permit fees So um I have looked at them I haven't had a lot of time I'm I'm a little busy um minus a health director at the moment and I got a lot of other things going on So um but I will we'll we'll put some stuff together And I brought Barry here so he could hear the director from the board Um and he can
start looking at these to help me out and and get some fees put together for you guys Sounds good Any questions for Mark no I I'm I'm look I'm I'm glad that you're moving in that direction That sounds Anything that we can do to make
things simple and easy to understand I think is uh highly desirable And uh I think what you're going to have to do is show for us how the changes you know what what it means in terms of overall revenue as well You know and again getting back to the the question Tracy
keeps asking where does it fit in in terms of the defined cost what's the cost of the service that we're covering are we trying to cover you know 100% 10% 20% what's the number and how do we justify that so in 2015 the board actually picked 70% as a number they wanted to maintain and we were going to
look at these every five years and you know we didn't do it I think COVID kicked in or something like that So we're a little bit busy We couldn't we couldn't get here Um and again I don't there are things that we do that don't have a fee associated with them like checking up on complaints So I mean the board would
have to if the board wants to maintain 70% I'll be happy to be happy to try to fit the uh the new fee structure into that 70% I think that gives you a working criteria I mean if that's what we were doing before why don't we just base it
on that for this one too do you feel comfortable with that number the 70% I'm comfortable with any number you tell me to find Okay Does anyone have any questions i did Um Mark do do you have any sense
just a general impression of how much um of the fees that the building department uh charges are for new construction or new residents as opposed to people who are already here
no I have no idea I was curious when I see new things being built I kind of h there's a lot of it Yeah No but can I ask a question related to that that's a that's a very important question I think one of the things that we used to track on a regular basis is the number of building permits and how that's trending
and how that's tracking and uh at one time that used to get published regularly in the reports of the Cape Cod Planning and Economic Development Commission for those folks old enough to remember when those when that group was around Um permit-wise what how is it trending i mean is are the number of
permits going up going down it's slowed down Actually this past winter it was a cold winter Interest rates are up Material costs are up Those are the three contributors to to permits being Right now I'm sitting on $125,000 in permit fees I'm just waiting for engineering from that one That would put
me back in last year's category as far as revenue Thank you Barry Is there anything you'd like to say just about tracking everything our new uh open gov system it's much easier to track permitting and whether it's building health um rental fees beach
fees restaurant fees all that stuff It's it's a much easier system to track now with with our new open gov system So it's it's nice to be able to have reports easily accessible at our fingertips So so Madam Chair when you say that open gov where do we go on our
website to uh on the internet where do we go to find that out to get that information the through it's through the town through us through you can go through the town website It's open gov It's the portal to for permitting and stuff like that Okay Online services uh
right on the main web page or you can go to the building department web page and it's the very it's the link at the top of the page Just Google Yarmouth open gov It comes right up Here's all the health building planning PPW Thank you It's also a good opportunity to acknowledge I mean this has been a
massive project um for the whole department Everyone has you know just given up so much to make this open gov work and and I really salute the department and and all the staff um and Mark's efforts to keep that moving It it's been positive just because of all
the hard work that went into it We're still working the bugs out We'll get there though You're ahead of most Thank you very much That's it Look forward to it Can't wait for the slideshow Look forward to seeing you again folks Thank you Try to keep it
short Thanks now we can um try our community services people I I see Dave's here from DNR and Steve from recreation Do you guys want to come on i don't see Jane's not here is she yep Is that her oh she's hiding
No that's Sharon That's Sharon No Well Jane doesn't have any recommendations for increase I think Jane's online She has her earlier Oh Diane Kan Oh Diane's with us Safety and numbers Travel together Yeah
we got the buddy system going on tonight I like it Support each other right uh I'm Dave Condan uh acting director of natural resources and you don't have anything from us tonight Um and that's for a couple reasons Well one we were told if we had uh proposed changes to
send something in which we don't and that's for a couple reasons Um first we we do uh pretty frequent comparisons with other towns for the fees that we do charge moing fees slip fees uh shellfish permit fees uh dog
license fees um all that stuff And we are actually quite consistent with all the towns around us Um so for that reason I'm not recommending a change right now Um and the second reason is that our fees are currently written into
our regulations which is kind of interesting Um so we're in the process Our our my main goal over this season is to evaluate where our regulations are lacking and recommend changes over this coming winter Um and the biggest thing
will be to pull the fees out of the regulations have the regulations reference a separate fee schedule That way we don't change the regs every time we change the fees Um but unfortunately right now they're all tied together So that is the the second reason you don't have anything from natural resources
tonight Um but that being said if you guys want to see the fees we I do have copies of it if you want it or we can I can come back to the next hearing if you want to look at it and uh see a presentation as to where our fees fit into our overall budget I mean again we're like like
Karen said for for uh community development kind of the same thing I don't think we'll ever get to a point where our fees can cover salaries and all that stuff I I just in our operating budget I just don't see it happening But um I can try and figure out what that number would look like if it did
or 70% Well it's more about covering the cost of the service directly not necessarily not necessarily cover covering the entire department's budget but um some of these things are more time consuming I
appreciate the fact that you've re reviewed them I think that they should as we've pointed out already be reviewed on an annual basis and um hopefully uh Dorcas's suggestion of every January because I know um you know a lot of the stuff that you're already you've already
done your uh feet per foot slips and everything for the year So we just need to um make sure we stay ahead of that So I appreciate that Today was the day Everything was due today It was a big day Exactly Any other questions
steve were you gonna talk to us so I'm Steve Sorry Well I didn't No I'm jumping the gun No I don't have any questions But Dave Okay Go ahead Steve Good evening I'm Steve Reynolds the director of recreation Um and like DNR I didn't send in a memo because we don't plan to
change our fees um anytime soon Um I can go over a couple of our fees um for our field rentals our pavilion rentals and event rentals at um the Russo Lodge if you guys um like to hear some of those Um so our field rentals uh we have two
different rates for local nonprofit groups schools churches and community groups Uh we have a daily fee of $60 a weekly fee of 140 and a seasonal fee of 275 for those local nonprofit schools
groups Um and then our corporate uh for-profit and non-local teams and organizations um have a slightly higher rate um daily rate of 140 a weekly rate of 330 and a seasonal rate of 550 Uh
looking at some of the other towns like Dennis and Barnstable there's a slightly different um structure on how they they do field rentals They do a per hour basis Uh but kind of calculating the amount of games and time that they're on
the field it's pretty comparable to the two other towns for fields Um for our pavilion rentals we do a flat fee of $110 That's uh the pavilions at Grace Beach and Flax Pond as well as weddings
on the beach Um so we rent out um permitting for people to be on the beach to do their weddings and that's a flat fee of $110 for four hours maximum Um and then that's also the cost of the insurance is um incurred by the the
renter as well So that's an added cost to the renter Um so that $110 um is again pretty comparable to the lot of other towns um or I should say the two towns closest to us Um I know Dennis
does uh $20 an hour or an $80 uh flat rate for four for four hours Um so if you want to rent it for a little longer um it ends up being pretty comparable with Yarmouth Um and then our lodge um
the Laruso Lodge um our rate structure is um kind of dependent on resident non-resident midweek versus weekend and uh the amount of people at um the function So for residents up to 30 is
for midweek is 75 and 150 for the weekend up to 75 people is 175 to 250 and then up to 100 people is 300 to 500 um for residents and then the non-resident rate for up to 30 is 125 to
200 um on midweek versus weekend up to 75 is 300 to 400 and then up to 100 is 600 to 800 um so those are our main main fees um I think that you guys are looking for
I don't if you guys wanted us to or me to get into programming fees or some of the bigger programs Um I don't know if that's something you guys You mean like if you were to register for Yeah So like pond just a program I mean I can talk
about flax pond and sailing like some of our bigger summer programs Can I stop you though with th those fees um in the case of the field rentals what happens for instance if somebody has damaged the field is there an additional cost that
goes to them for that um so all the uh field renters have to have that insurance So I think the insurance uh piece hopefully would cover that but we don't have currently a system for um for damages to the fields Um I think that
the insurance hopefully would cover that Um but that's something we could certainly look into Historically have you had many incidents um in my time with the town we haven't had any issues with u damages to the fields or equipment Um if it's raining heavy rains
and puddles we end up canceling the field rental Um so there isn't that damage to the field And how about in the case of the facilities what about like a cleaning charge or or is there something that states they have to put it back to look the way yeah So in the contract
that they sign um they have to just sweep it and basically have it as is um when they arrived and then our staff will come in and do more of a deep clean um the tra bring out the trash to the to the barrels and and stuff of that nature
So when you look at that with what you're uh have as those rental charges does that pretty well cover what it costs for your staff to come out and do what they need to do yeah I would say it would definitely it covers the overall cost of our staff being there and then
the cleaning afterwards Okay And they're required also to have insurance Yes So all of our rentals including pavilion rentals beach weddings and LaRusa Lodge all have to have the insurance Okay And in the case of your programs
how often do you review the programs um so we kind of sit down and basically look at what we're going to have to um buy for equipment if we're going to have staff at the program seasonal staff um or if it's going to be one of um the the
assistant director running it Um so we kind of basically year after year it's going to be the same cost Um like with uniforms for basketball uniforms for T-ball it's generally the same costs every year Um we do a quick analysis of all right how much it's going to cost
and then um go based on that from from last year um if it's going to be that same same price What about Flax Pond i mean that's a So Flax Pond um so for a week it's $190 for a resident and $ 250
for a non-resident um that's been comparable the last several years um with salary and we we pay the salaries and equipment and supplies um field trips um all of that comes out of our revolving fund So we
sit down and we we uh do the budget for that each season Um but at the same time we want to keep the costs lower to be affordable for families for that child care aspect uh in the season So if we do end up having to dip into the revolving
fund a little bit um and go over on the flax budget then um we make up for that with our with our other programs just to keep that which is unique low for the the whole system that that we work in The only revolving fund I think that we
have for the programs is in recreation and we made that conversion So um they're really required on an annual basis to examine the program costs and to set the fees to meet those Um albeit with in you know certain cases there's
subsidies for you know disadvantaged Do you have I know in years past at one point we were getting some rather significant money in for scholarship programs to assist Um but I
believe as the years have gone on we've seen that number decrease Is that true so we do have um people still do donating for the scholarship We'll have people call and um say I want to donate this amount of money to have a kid go to flags for a week
Um I've only so I've been with the department for two years now I can't really speak on the history of uh how much we've gotten in scholarships in the past but we still do receive um receive money for scholarships for for kids who
need it So and I can look more into that and get back to you guys um if you want exact figures That's okay Any other questions oh um thank you Steve I'd just like to uh request maybe a copy of one of your
rental um uh contracts for the next time you appear I I I just would love to take a look at it And also if we had it in the packet then we could refer people to it and they'd come to you with a little more knowledge of the process and probably ask you fewer questions Yeah
Yeah It's a lot of information I just threw at you in numbers So I can definitely get you that contract so you can look at that chart and have a better understanding of the cost That's all Thank you Cool I could just say quickly that it's a it's a flax is a great um
location for weddings and stuff We um my son and I he well we weren't getting married My son and his um fiance looked at it for a wedding and it was a real nice spot to have a wedding That's all And we have marriage fees
coming up later So we could put together a nice package for from the town Tracy um what what percentage usage would you say your fields are because I know fields are at
a premium and um the usage of the flax pond facility as um just an overall percentage I think of um I guess occupancy Um so we're actually in the midst of a field study right now Um we
have a consulting group Weston and Samson um who we've brought in to kind of analyze that percentage of field use um how much the fields are being used um the hours on the fields um and if we're utilizing all the fields to the best of
our ability in town um they're going to make recommendations um on that usage to us to be able to kind of formulate some numbers on the national standards of field use Um so I'll have a better idea I think of the percentage as that
um study moves along When do you think that that will be available so August is I think the target date for that So maybe for our January meeting you'll be prepared to have some uh recommendations at that time Yeah definitely
One last question on on flax Um your applications are coming in now are they for um this year's flax bond yeah so registration for that opens in January and um for residents and non-residents uh two weeks later And um it fills very
quickly Um I know there's only in a couple of age groups um less than 10 spots in each um each group Um most of the age groups are filled but um like I said registration for that fills or are you talking about for staff no I'm
talking about participants Yeah Okay Yeah So that fills within the first four weeks um and in some cases even the first week a lot of the the um spots are filled So it's definitely a high demand um
camp people of Yarmmouth And then um once the non-residents registration opens uh then all the spots are ended up taking So it's a wonderful program and I think a lot of folks in town count on it every
summer Um and that's a huge credit to our staff at Flax Um Maria our camp director runs a great program over there She's wonderful She Yeah she's amazing Um and her husband Dan as well they uh they make it a lot easier on me being
able to run their program over there to the best uh that they do and then get the staff on board and uh all a team over there So I want to give a huge credit to them as well you know and a lot of the staff are people that were actual participants in the program
themselves Oh yeah Younger They come back they have a great time there and they they think it as as they age through oh I want to come back and work here I thought that every day I dropped my son off They were dancing and having fun I was like I don't want to go to work I want to stay here
It's definitely a lot of fun The facility itself is just a beautiful Oh yeah location There's so much to do in that area and that's they utilize every inch of that property basically Um with our project adventure archery the pond
um basketball court there's there's kind of limitless on what they can do at that that area playing pickle ball yet not yet Uh we're we're trying So and once they do I think it's it's over So
Oh yeah Have one more question Nor So speaking of pickle ball is there a fee for the the um tournaments the the folks that are coming in there and pretty much using it yeah So we have a pickle ball membership group that's Monday to
Saturday from 9 to 12 um $30 for residents and 45 for non-residents and they I think I said they play from 9 to 12 on those days Um and we have a we have a board of the pickle ball membership group that checks them in
each day make sure there's on a list and if there's space we do have a drop in for that as well Right And then the rest of the time is just open play pickle ball Thank you Thank you very much Thank you Appreciate time I know we have Diane
Kaine our senior services director Um I don't she wants to address some of the rental fees at the senior center Maybe we could promote her to a panelist Madame Chair while we're getting ready for her to be promoted I just have a
general question Um a number of people have already presented and I'm just wondering if we can excuse them and allow people to go home I see a number of folks that have already presented Um I would like to see if it's okay if we can just let those that have already presented leave You you may leave You
are dismissed If you have if you've done what you needed to do go right ahead So thank you Thank you for hanging in there Note great staff There goes You have deserved some time off Thank you For those of you remaining we'll try to get to you as quickly as
possible so you too can go home [Music] Diane can you hear us i can hear you Okay If you'd like to go over your rental fees Yeah I apologize for not
being down there in person Um I'm starting to come down with something So um please stay away Apologize Yeah I I figured you'd you'd feel that way Um so we have two rental fees One is for um our building for rental fee Um I'm sorry
and the other one is uh community gardens Um with our rental fee as I think you have the um the charges in front of you The first one the first charge is for charitable organizations or town committees and commissions The second one is for registered nonprofits
and the third is for everybody else like social groups individuals for um for-profit groups And the fee is uh varies from no charge for the first group uh $15 to $25 depending on what they're renting and then um on the
second group and then on the third group it um varies between $25 and $40 if they were renting a full ballroom Um these prices can go up Um just for example in Haritch they're
charging $400 for three hours for our maximum at $40 At 3 hours it'd be $120 So we have some room to to go up So um that that one being um on the rental fee
on the community gardens Um right now we're charging $15 I'm sorry $20 for the Yarmmen Senior Center Community Gardens and $25 for Bray Farm Um these also I think can go up um based on the uh the
price the um in the the community gardens itself Um so I don't know exactly how much I would say on the rental fee We could stand to go up 50% based on the Haritch example Um but
that's up to you Do you require that um they have insurance to do the rental okay Yes Yes we do And how about on cleaning is there an additional cleaning charge or how how must they leave the room when they exit
they must they they should leave the room exactly as they found it So that means all the tables and chairs and everything else get put to the side as they found it Um the the room gets swept um the kitchen gets all wiped down Um
so you know they are responsible for that If in in the case that they do not um if they leave this place a mess then we um withhold their um rental deposit Okay There I'm sorry their security
deposit and Okay And uh how do you distinguish between a charitable organization and a registered nonprofit okay So that um the charitable organization um is basically somebody that you deem necessary to um you know
rent for free So right now we have the the garden club for example um they can rent um during the week They they can use our uh facilities and they're not getting charged for it
Are they the only organization right now that you have yeah Yes it is Okay Okay Any questions for Diane i have questions Go ahead Diane Can you tell me what FB
stands for on your on the top line of where it says rental fees um that would be the full ballroom Full ballroom Or the other one is half of the ballroom or a class Okay So do you have a different fee structure for when staff is there i
mean I'm thinking to myself if you have a nonprofit that you utilizes your um room in the evening or um on a weekend when staff I imagine would have to be there for it that there's no possible way $15 an hour is covering the cost of
that Yeah we don't we don't provide staff when they when they have a rental they come and pick up the key and we don't provide staff on site they have access to the building with nobody in there The building is um
locked from uh it's alarmed on the aop of the um the office side Okay All right So this is So you don't don't typically staff it or or clean it um we get um it cleaned um through
our cleaning services We're supposed to be on seven days a week Um say that again Diane I'm sorry Our cleaning service covers us for seven days a week Okay So they come in every day Okay Whether you have anybody in
there or not correct And that's part of our the town's contract Correct And what would you say your um occupancy is for rentals yes For the for the facility in general
i don't think that's what she's asking for Um for the um All right So you're not talking about the rental maximum capacity You're talking about how many nights we have it rented out right correct Correct Okay Um since we went on
to the We used to be rented out seven days a week um prior to CO Um and then after CO um we started um the rules came in uh across to us that it wasn't supposed to be anybody that
wasn't covered um with insurance Um they couldn't rent without insurance having insurance So the occupancy is down now Yeah It basically um it took away the the small
parties and stuff like that like the um anniversary parties and the um baby showers things like that Okay And have you done an anal you you did an analysis of Haritch um have you
done an analysis of of the coverage of your staff for any of the any of these times you you basically don't provide it They just use the building That's what correct saying Okay Correct Mo most of our people um we've had for rentals um
for a number of years um so that we they have like an understanding that you know if they mess up they're they don't have a rental place to go to So Okay Thank you And then um Yarmouth I mean Yarmouth
Barnstable I got um was $75 an hour for their ballroom And then um Dennis Senior Center was 165 per event So I don't know exactly what their rental time frame was
Okay Any other questions for Diane uh yes Uh Diane uh this is Joyce Um welcome I have a question for you Um when you were just saying the um the past with the 7-day rentals and uh now the the smaller groups because they don't have
the insurance not being able to rent Is there any possibility that there's a local business that would um a local insurance business that would do something like one day insurance um for a party like a a baby shower which seems
like it's not likely to tear up the center It seems like that would be a helpful thing That's what they get It's a it's a one-day event rider that um that folks get And would that be possible Bob for um something that isn't
an organization it's just a one time social gathering Individual anyone can get it It's maybe between 60 $75 for Oh so maybe cost That's Yeah Okay Yeah A lot of people can't afford that cost when they're you know on top of the
rental fees Okay And then I just have one other question Um the few times I've been um in the senior center in the new year um it seems to me that there's something going on in every corner of it So I assume any weekday space rental is
is not even possible Am I correct you're correct We don't we don't ordinarily rent out during the week um as unless it's at 4 4:30 and beyond Um the garden club um just got a special deal Um I guess they were grandfathered in or
that's how it's always been told to me So okay Thank you Well thank you for doing all you do in that crowded space Thank you Liz I just wonder um for for our purposes to re make the inquiry
amongst ourselves should the deposit be something that the recreation department maybe should look into u when they're renting the fields or even flax It's it's a way
of having something in case something happens without um costing the the the person who's putting up the money It's not going to be uh charged unless they do something that they need to use the money for It might be something we should ask
recreation to include We can certainly look at that Um also keeping in mind that they're not coming back till August with their use of the fields But I I agree with consistency I mean if you rent one building why are we have one policy at one place and a different policy at the other place it
doesn't make much sense right true We can look into that Any other questions diane I hope you feel better Thank Thank you It came on awfully fast Hope it goes away really fast close away
just as fast So thank you very much Diane All right You're welcome Okay I think we're getting down We have our chiefs with us Do you guys want to come together um last words I'll be quick Good evening Good evening
So our fee schedule at the police department's uh it's pretty light So the first one we have is the doortodoor solicitor which is in the bylaw that we charge $50 for each person that's going to be a solicitor Uh the next one is we charge a $100 fee for fingerprints $70
goes to the town and 30 goes to the Commonwealth and that's for the firearms fingerprint identification verification trust fund Uh the next one is license to carries It's a $100 for a license to carry or an FID That fund goes directly to the Commonwealth If you're a police
officer for the town of Yarmouth you don't get charged the fee And if you're an police officer for another community but you live in Yarmouth you only pay $25 We have a $10 ice cream pedaller fee and I looked and it appears that Barnesville charges $30 for that Uh and
then we have a taxi license fee of $10 but that's probably going away because town taxis announced that they're closing Lyft and Uber and the other uh ride share companies have uh pretty much put them out of business unfortunately because they were a great asset to the town Uh and that was a $10 fee but again
that's probably going away And then we just have the general fee that we can charge for public records which is $25 after the first $25 an hour after the first four hours of research So those are the fees that we have at the department And I talked to Nick Giamarco He's our uh records officer He said that
the fees have not gone up in a while but uh the limited research that I did do it looks like we're in line with the with the other communities Okay Any questions for the chief i just have a question with the LTC You said it's a $100 and it's paid directly to the state So that the the department themselves for the
work and that they don't get any fee at all Is that customary yes that's that's how it is Y the standard the fee goes directly to the Commonwealth and there's no department that charges above and beyond for their for their time No the fee is set by the by the MGL that covers that Interesting
Any other questions for the chief i just want to know what we're going to do with the um the town taxi was always great for um you know you had some fund during New Year's and stuff that they would help get people home if there's another way
we could look at making sure I felt like that was a pretty successful program The safe ride pro uh safe ride home program was was very it was very wellrun and town taxi they never charged us So we would call them up and and John would say whatever
you need and we would set it up So now that that's gone it's going to be a bit of a problem But So that was Town Taxi donated that service Town taxi So we had a we had donations uh came in in the very beginning under Deputy Chief
Exaros and Chief Frederickson They had set it up and we had some donation money and then we would set it up and they would never bill us They were just they were very generous I would call them up and say this is what we want to do and made sure that the the rides were from a Yarmouth establishment within a certain parameter but they would handle that for
us Fantastic You don't have any recommendations for any fees at this time that you feel that need to be addressed other than potentially the public records Uh the public records and maybe you can correct me if I'm wrong That's that's by statute correct
yeah by by statute we are excuse me we're not allowed to charge for the first two hours based on that town size After that it is capped out at $25 an hour unless there is some special reason that we would have to
appeal that to the state to get um any other additional fees And that's on a case- by case basis And even our individual um charges for copies are are dictated by the state statute So I think there's currently five cents a page So
all that time for That's okay There's no room there We've had some significant foyer requests come in where we've uh we will give them an estimate and we had one come in not too long ago The estimate was over $5,000 and they chose then they you know they asked for the world and then they started pairing it
down and and then we still ended up charging them but there's only so much we can do Okay Thank you very much Chief Thank you Good evening Thanks Chief Oh he's taking his Are you taking your jacket off and get comfortable i don't want to get too
I don't want to get too comfortable like I want to keep this on How you doing tonight good How are you very good Very good So most of our fees are uh in line again with other communities as far as our our permit fees burn permit fees and our
inspectional services So uh I didn't recommend any changes to those Uh the only thing that I uh brought was uh a conversation about maybe talking about ambulance billing fees Uh it's been uh at least three or four years since we we did any changes to those and we are uh I
asked for updated information from our billing company but I didn't get it in time tonight Uh but I had information from back in uh July of last year and out of uh seven comparables that she gave us were six uh at the bottom as far as what we charge for fees Um the fees
are broken down into uh ALS and BLS based on uh you know the services that we provide Um for the BLS calls we are uh we are uh seventh uh I'm sorry sixth in there Uh and then ALS uh there's ALS
and ALS 2 which is a category that goes up based on if you do more than like a couple medications Again all dependent on what you're doing Um and those fees uh again we are close to last uh at the bottom of the scale in comparison to the our neighboring change in Medicare
reimbursement Medicaid at all no No increase No not at all Or or if it has it's been very little Um so you know uh on a yearly basis our uh our ambulance receipts are uh over two just over $2 million uh which is about 30% of what we
actually bill Um so we're getting back uh on average about $500 in ambulance call Um and obviously they they cost a lot more than that What about the private insurance has their rate their reimbursement rates increased at all um again I think that's based on whatever
what you charge if you know these fees are based on private insurance and then you know Medicare or Medicaid those are we're we're getting a much smaller not like a um they're not like Medicaid that says for this they pay X amount they will pay the severity I think for the most part and I could be wrong I don't
know if you can you have any more information on that but I I can get more uh detailed information Again like even when we do a large increase in our fees um it doesn't really translate into a large return on our what we receive because of our our demographic is is
typically more of the on the Medicare side right is our ambulance waiver uh select person right now who's doing the ambulance waivers has there been any there's been uh there's been a couple I know that I've
I've signed on on a couple I'm not sure uh who was who from the board was on it Okay I'm just curious how that Yeah I'd personally be interested in in looking for that I think that we should be doing that on a more regular basis than trying
to really go up I know a lot of it doesn't net much but right um as we know we're looking for an override to fund the department and certainly um your department is not uh fees that you charge are not covering the cost of no
and everything we use is getting more and more expensive obviously we used uh most of that money for our capital expenditures but the you know the cost of the uh the ambulances are all going up all of our equipment is going up uh the medications are going up everything we use uh is is getting more and more
expensive every year does Medicare charge you a flat rate or for instance let's say that you've had to give some special medications on the way Is there an additional um fee that you can um charge to Medicare and get reimbursed
for uh I believe it's just a flat fee They do an ALS or a BLS uh you know one or the other And they don't allow for any extra Okay And I'm sure that is the majority of your calls roughly percentage wise I
think it's close to 80% of our calls 80% of Medicare Yeah 70 or 80 Yeah That's why that's why uh an increase in our fees really doesn't translate in much in in revenue Okay Can I ask what ALS and versus BLS
sure Uh BLS is basic life support Uh and ALS is advanced life support So yeah if we do heart you know heart monitoring or IVs or medications that moves it into the ALS category Thank you That would have been my only question for Enrique I was puzzled by the acronym
Sure Okay Any other questions thank you very much Chief Thank you We'll let you go home now too Thank you Then I take our our final one Um thanks for for waiting Mary had a um a couple
from the clerk's office Hi Mary again Um our fees will be inconsequential when it comes to revenue coming in Uh there are a couple of fees that we don't capture that other communities do Um anytime there is a a
occurrence of a death within the town there is a separate certificate which is a burial certificate um transportation certificate that we have to do as a part of processing that vital record We don't charge for that here in Yarmouth Um I'd
say about half the towns do half don't So my recommendation on that was just that we add that fee Another fee that we don't capture is really amendments When we have to make an amendment to a vital record whether it's a birth a death or a marriage um it's time consuming It is
generally caused by uh the applicants not providing the correct information and then coming back at a later date Uh so to process that does take time It's not a fee that that we have charged to date and again it's another fee that I would say half the towns um do charge
and and half don't East Ham for example charges 40 for an amendment Um in Haritch when I was there we were charging 25 um if it was if it was a uh a real amendment that was caused by the
applicant Um as far as the other increases most of these have um are self-explanatory A business certificate is issued once every four years Seems reasonable to go from $30 to $40 that rates been certainly been in
existence much prior to my being here Um and as far as the street listing books are concerned we print those every year uh annually at the end of the census um cycle We do provide those if people
would like to purchase them It's again a cost that we need to pay for They're just more and more expensive every year in order to to um get them printed we need to get them printed anyway for our for our own permanent records We always purchase a few extras 20 years ago
people used to flock in and buy them by the hundreds Um now we print probably 25 to 30 and we uh go from there So um but as far as any of these increases you know a burial permit we're probably talking a quarter of our deaths are
within the town of Yarmouth So you're you're talking a hundred or so Can you just explain Sorry a street listing book What exactly is that so that's a that's a capture of all the residents uh within the town um on an
annual basis It's it's the end result of the census year So at the end of the census year we will um create a street listing book We used to call them ward books in in my former communities And it's essentially not just the voting list but
it has a list of um anyone that's over the age of 18 And um the public record book of it will suppress certain um confidential individuals like certain police officers and their street addresses Children under the age of of 18 won't be included But it's very
important for us in future years um particularly if a veteran is coming back trying to prove their residency to get um a federal benefit We can go to our our main street listing book show that they were there and that that their residency existed six months prior to
their deployment and then they can use that as evidence to uh seek their federal benefits So you say you have some extras that are printed just in case people need them We do But what would be the cost of those extras it it
they cost us about $25 a a book to print They do Okay So we print so that we have them um we've reduced the number that that we print I wouldn't print 200 anymore Um some cities and towns print them and hand them out to all the
departments We don't We have them available if somebody wishes to purchase them Okay So a few people that purchase them every year So they basically cover your annual cost Exactly Okay Okay Does anyone have any questions for Mary i I'd just like to say Mary trees
thank you for not printing them for every household and distributing them Certainly I make a a pitch I'm sorry I'd make a pitch to leave the business certificate at $30 because I think the small business owner um needs to be
encouraged to go ahead and come on in and get a business certificate So ultimately it's up to you folks on on making that decision It's a it's one fee It's one fee every four years Yeah I just know from my own experience it's like I appreciate that Yes I I just have
a question about dog licenses I don't see it on here So our dog licenses are actually buried fees are actually buried in the bylaws So we didn't come forward with that at this point Um but that being said our dog licenses are pretty well in line across
uh the Cape We charge $10 for um for neutered and spayed dogs 20 for intact dogs and then we have uh a multi-et fee The state has just come out and changed the rules uh with respect to
some of the kennel licenses So we hope to have a revised dog bylaw at the fall special town meeting Um there wasn't time to put that together for the annual in in April But the hope is
to change the bylaw so that it now matches the new Ali's law that was passed and was effective um in December and so that we can also capture all the new types of kennels They've they've changed uh they've also changed which dogs needs to be licensed It's now five
or more dogs in a um in a single household the and the dog if the dog is over the age of three months where it used to be six months So we're trying to encompass that for the fall Okay But as far as the fees itself we're we're pretty on board and we have very few
commercial kennels in Yarmouth So thank you very much Thank you Thanks Mary Okay Bob is that it so that's it for the fee discussion And what we'll do is we'll work with the departments to come
up with a list of fees for the um public hearing And um I just I have to double check what the um requirement is for advertising I thought it was just one week Um Mary tells me it may be a a twoe advertising period Well Amber's here Did
she have I was here anticipation Okay I didn't know if there were fees related to licensing that we were going to discuss No I did get some valuable information Okay Then um moving on to uh the bond
anticipation note We have a memo I believe from uh Jennifer Is it too soon to make the motion go for it Move to approve the sale of $16 million
$16 million at 4% general obligation bond anticipation note of the town dated April 17 2025 and payable April 17 2026 plus to Jeffre LLC at par and acred
interest plus a premium of $171,040 and further incorporate the attached vote of the board of selectmen Hold on I got to get to the other vote I'll second that Any uh discussion
why was the plus inserted in the reading payable April 27 2026 plus um we redid the memo It was to there's an updated memo that was to be distributed to the board if you is the
is the the context of it doesn't other than the date didn't change correct right and that date I took the plus okay um all right well it doesn't change okay so it was just and
um I further certify that the votes were taken at a public Right These all have to be read into the record and and voted on Correct Yeah I mean it's part of your packet If you want to read the whole thing into the record that's fine It's up to you I think we should
Go for it I further certify that the votes were taken at a meeting open to the public and that no vote was taken by secret ballot that a notice stating the place date time agenda for the meeting which agenda included the adoption of the above votes was filed with the town
clerk and a copy thereof posted in a manner conspicuously visible to the public at all hours in or on a municipal building Is that
still the law it's It's the public It's the public meeting notice It's the agenda I believe Correct But I didn't think allowed right yeah I didn't think that this was still the wording that needed to be in the motion but a municipal building at the
town clerk is located or if if applicable in accordance with the alternative method of notice prescribed or approved by the attorney general as set forth in 940 CMR 29.03 03 section 2B at least
48 hours not including Saturdays Sundays or legal holidays prior to the time of the meeting and remain so posted at the time of the meeting that no deliberations or decision in connection with the sale of the notes were taken in executive session all in accordance with
Mass General Law Chapter 30A section 18 through 25 as amended Do I have a second on that you got one from me I further certify that the votes were taken at an open meeting when it's appropriate Is that the vote the same right
Yep Just read Yeah Mhm It's the same exact thing It's the same exact thing So I think you just need one Are those the only motions you need yes We'll incorporate um the attached what was in your packet into the minutes
Okay Uh any discussion all those in favor i I Any opposed that passes unanimous Thank you Now you can go Okay moving on to our next item We have
discussion of a housing workshop Gonna turn this over to Mark and Bob Okay Um let me kick this off and then I'll I'll segue to to Bob Um we've talked about this at a couple of our prior meetings about having a uh a
workshop meeting and um this is something that we used to do with a much greater degree of frequency where we would um largely focus on a topic and then as a board literally gather around a table and have a dialogue and a
discussion uh usually the understanding was is that there wouldn't be any votes It would be a workshop inviting an informal conversation among board members to educate ourselves on a particular topic And so I think um there was really strong interest in doing
something on housing um and when I recommended that we do it um I had in mind some sort of very specific suggestions that would be worth discussing Um you know a number of communities are using their community preservation act dollars to um advance
some very creative initiatives for affordable housing Um for example in Province Town they have a down payment assistance program that they use their funds for Um other towns are using funds to either do deed
restrictions or find other ways to literally create programs that eligible residents can tap into to make it easier to stay in housing or to access a new housing new housing uh or to be able to
stimulate rental a supply of rental housing So these are initiatives that are underway in a number of communities and they're having some degree of success So when we first talked about this we talked about maybe having a focused conversation on a couple of communities with the guests coming in
And then when we talked about also inviting other housing committees to come in but during the discussion it was thought that it would also be appropriate with all these other committees that we should essentially invite them to talk about key topics
that they're working on And so when we started looking at the overall program if you add up the committees and the work that they're doing the things that are going on and we get updates from them um and then you go into a presentation and a discussion on some of
these projects and initiatives in some of the other communities it just we'd be here probably until midnight So in my discussions with Bob it was thought that what we do is is sort of maybe break this up and focus on maybe first talking to each other about things that we're
doing that everyone should be aware of and have a conversation amongst ourselves first and get that going So I I'll turn it over to Bob because he had sort of worked on a flow of the agenda and how it would go who would be here and some of the things that we would
talk about So um after discussing it with Bob and keeping it focused largely on that um I I agreed it made a great deal of sense and we might want to revisit some of this other stuff you know at some at some future date when we've got some time uh to deal with it But I think focusing on our committees
and having a discussion about what's going on within Yarmouth amongst our committees you know is is incredibly important So agreed Yeah should be prioritized over the other stuff right now You know and building on that I I would say too that it's been impressive
to see in recent months we've made a lot of progress in gathering all of the housing stakeholders in our community together to make some progress on working on some of these issues that sometimes are handled very desperately And that process has really culminated in a series of recommendations on under
the MA um Madaks utilization committee and they have um you know from the detailed brainstorming down to the prioritization and that's a process that you know was kind of fascinating but it was almost outside of the select board realm So um one of the things that we
felt is to uh you know continue to gather all of our housing stakeholders together with the select board and then you know really close the loop that that would be a very valuable discussion And so we began um you know that that brainstorming and I I really thank Mark for his leadership in kind of helping us
to put all of this together And I also want to acknowledge Mary Wagan our affordable housing specialist who really has invested herself in in helping We've been working on the details of this to to really bring it to life And um what
um we hope to do is the draft agenda is um in your packet that um it's really a full evening if we start off with we'd like to have an update on the short-term rental study and it is the University of um Massachusetts It's it's not the
Collins Center it's it's the Donna um folks institute right that um so that you know we're updating that and um Carrie Spritzer who is our project manager from UMass is going to um be able to to zoom in some of these folks I
think it's great they come in from across state but they'll be here in the hybrid format to talk about the short-term rental study what some of the goals are obviously it's just kicking off so they're not going to have any of the results of the study but one of the key next steps also is the um
interviewing of the individual members of the select board um on that topic and so she'll be able to um discuss a little bit more about some of the goals of the study uh some of the methodology that's going to be involved and the interview process for the select board and I I
think that whole issue of the um short-term rentals that's something that you know we've spent a lot of time at the um affordable housing trust talking about that is this really limiting year- round rental opportunities for um local
residents in need Um we know some of the other communities have done these studies and there's been some mixed mixed results and so to have the data from Yarmouth involved in there I think it'll really be a driver of what you know public policy focus that you folks
have with respect to the short-term rentals And so um there's been a lot of work that has been done and is coming up on that one So we thought that'd be a great topic to kick it off And um and I I think that the community uh you know would really be interested in that topic
as well Um and from there we hope to Can I just add something to that Bob oh sure Yeah I think one of the things that I think would be helpful to get out of this rent the study is as as Bob had said we need to really in this in the initiative for this came from the
affordable housing trust and I represent the board on the trust and I think we really wanted to get at this whole question of to what degree is this type of market activity having an adverse impact on the year- round housing supply I think there's a growing recognition
that it is Mhm There are groups that are springing up um calling on select boards and local officials to do a better job at regulating and managing the activity Um as some of you might be aware in Nucket it's become incredibly
controversial There have been a number of controversial town meeting uh articles and discussions about it Um and I think from my perspectives there's also a need to recognize that this
activity does or a portion of this activity a significant portion provides revenue that we use for wastewater You know the Airbnb tax funds and underwrites the Capen Islands Water Protection Fund And I am your
representative on that fund board And I've been raising the question of what do we what do we have to do on Cape Cod uh to improve the capital position of the fund because the we have so many wastewater projects the demand for
funding is growing significantly as we've discussed before and it has been suggested in a number of circles that there may be potential to utilize some of this short-term rental housing as a potential revenue source to
boost the current Airbnb tax for example Um and so if we are going to even consider that or give some thought to that as a potential option having this kind of study is going to be crucial for us to understand um you know basically
how best to manage uh this market is a potential is how much of a potential additional revenue stream might we be able to extract from it Um that's so those are the two major concerns from my point of view is making sure that out of this um you know we're able to better
have a better handle on its impact in terms of affordable housing Some recommendations in terms of how to manage uh affordable um the short-term rentals and then understanding if one of the management tools is to use revenues and taxation further taxation um you
know what's what's the what's the the sweet spot for that um if you tax too much are you having a real dilletterious effect on the market um are you you know is that is it too ownorous problematic does it create some other unintended consequences so all great topics to
discuss at the meeting Yeah But I approve this agenda I just I think that we should consider a different location I don't think you're going to get that many people in in here comfortably to sit around a table I mean how many committees are we talking
Well we're talking about what the Yarmouth Affordable Housing Trust There probably be about three or four more people there Uh the Community Housing Committee and then some of the housing folks that have been involved in the MUK the utilization committee about the housing authority and the housing authority of course Yes we want to
invite them So a lot of people That's a lot of people in this little room So maybe we want to consider the senior center or what about the Simkins library that library is great too right where we do our room
though It's very open seats and chairs It's open but but there's all tables like it's so the question is is can we put sufficient number of tables around here um I think we can actually when you look at the MUK meetings there's a
fairly large crowd at the MUK meetings right also for the local um comprehensive plan they had table arrangements set up in here seem they can accommodate what about my recommendation is we try to I've seen these muck meetings have had a huge
number of people we had all these groups in and we actually were able to get all the groups around a a square table better than the DPW Yeah DBW is not that that big The only if if you wanted a bigger site you'd probably try the senior center
Yeah I think we can fit all in here Uh but if you know I think it's worth giving Bob and the staff some time to take a look at it make make sure we can do it If it doesn't work here that's certainly a perfect option But I think quite frankly the the goal is to have us have a conversation about the big things
that we're each of us are working on And in order to do that I think um I think it's great that this agenda kicks off with that study because I think that's the media's thing that we need to talk about And you know um they contracts been signed They're starting to get
underway and um I think this kind of feedback and this kind of discussion can be incredibly helpful to them When you say a contract's been signed who are you talking about this is the University of Mass short-term rental study Yeah Yeah the Donahghue Institute They're the uh
firm that's been brought on board to do this And I had a few items we might maybe consider having a quick feedback on For instance the Yarmouth comprehensive plan is starting to get some actual meat on it in terms of
housing Should that be uh the piece that would speak to that be brought in as as here's what the communities wants and then is there any kind of I probably not much activity on the ADU front but if there is any having that available too
would be interesting I think for us and then last you mentioned the the community preservation if if that fund can be used in any creative way as you were saying Mark that should be included too I think then we're going
to start getting into being here till midnight Yeah I think I don't think we need to have reports I was thinking but there'd be conver I I think particularly when you get into creative sources of using the community preservation that in itself is going to be a lengthy
discussion Yeah I I think this agenda I think makes a great deal of sense I I wouldn't modify it much at all I think the committees need to be in the room together The principal committees that are dealing with housing need to have a conversation with one another about their top priorities That's what I mean
that this came from this board the last meeting So and I and I and I I embrace that idea I basically you know suggesting that we ditch the original idea and embrace that and focus on that Now if this group thinks that there's some things that need to be communicated
you know to the planning board or the LS LCP group that's that's great But I think amongst ourselves there are things that we're doing that we need to be talking to one another about So I think this is a start This is a start by no means an end I think that there's a lot of details and this might focus us on
getting this information is going to focus us on where we need whether it is the ADUs or the other things where we need to uh put our put our energy in but I think this is a good start and again we've done workshop in in prior boards
we did workshops on a fairly regular basis and there's no reason why we can't keep revisiting housing you know every you May maybe we decide as a board again you know uh we may want to decide as a board that we pick up the pace of the
workshops and make sure that housing we come back to it you know once every six months you know or even sooner Or even sooner Exactly Because it's such a critical item It is Yeah But I think this is is good It's comprehensive It gives us a chance to start seeing what's
going on in town and it can be from this I think jumping board to other other uh workshops Exactly Or other items that we may bring onto the agenda itself for the select board And I think each of the committees benefits in terms of the work that they're doing by hearing from some
of the others Right Yeah So I think all in all and then you know the housing authority I think having them there I think is a makes a makes a great deal of sense I mean the forest road proposal is coming up Um you know I'm obviously interested in hearing more about what
they're doing where they're going Um I think I've been pretty open about my criticisms and concerns uh about that forest road development The absence of any real commitment to do sewer or significant wastewater improvements there I think is a is a huge problem
with respect to that project And um I think um for me um having them on I think is incredibly important to um Oh yeah to make sure that we at least give them a chance to sort of update us on what they're what they're doing So
a question for um Mark Um Mark do you see us doing this fairly soon so for example the MADAS utilization committee would be able to kind of have that insight about what was going on with with housing efforts We have this
scheduled for April 22nd Oh we're all scheduled Okay We're scheduled April Yeah This this housing workshop is for April 22nd right and the m the muk That's right We were going to put it on the on the Tuesday after the long Yeah Right So the first item would be focused
on the short-term rental study that was initiated by the affordable housing trust to get a briefed on that The second item on the agenda is an update from the affordable housing trust membership on some of their initiatives The trust has been very focused on um
grayfield in blighted sites and we've had some interesting conversations about how aggressive we might want to uh be in that regard Again I'm I I I I hate to dominate this conversation but um I've been very aggressive and suggesting that if we're going to be doing new housing
we blighted property should be at you know the redevelopment and dealing with blighted property should be at the top of the list How do we get at making that a priority rather than developing open space in other locations where we're
potentially impacting water resources so I think that's important And then obviously the Madakis utilization committee some great stuff is going on with that group on affordable housing And again that's a site that I think in
the past we've suggested that the Yarmouth Housing Authority could consider since that project has a commitment to wastewater infrastructure there that would be an appropriate place uh to partner with the town uh for some from some housing development and uh at
least consider that and incorporate some of their thoughts with respect to that site Maybe that's a better alternative for the forest road site I think we as a board have talked about that as well So I think that's a pretty full agenda right there I think it's a very full
agenda and I think that I'm looking forward to April 22nd So we'll see what's going on Mhm Great Thank you Mark Thank you Bob Looking forward to it Okay The next item that we have on
the agenda is uh the minutes uh for the March 26 2024 meeting This is going to be a a a ne how do how do we say it necessity So by necessity because
so I entertain a motion to accept the minutes Madame chair I'll move to approve uh our board meeting minutes of March 26th 2024 Second Okay Any discussion i would note that there were
some changes made from there was some uh there was a a typo Okay So it's been corrected Well that we that has to if it's different if we're changing what we're approving the public record we have to Yeah I I called it in and so I
tooard I I emailed Mary Alice and said there are inconsistencies in the in the minutes there So okay Well that has to be shared with us because we're now you're telling us we're approving something other than that Madam Chair I'm going to withdraw my motion to approve the minutes Maybe we can get the
minutes revised and sent to us at our next meeting Once they're corrected then then we can Yeah Yeah Right And the second goes into the trash can right you bet There we go Okay Upcoming uh agenda review We have a pretty full plate Yeah April
15's going to be a very busy night and we're also going to do our town meeting preview that evening I think in particular Kleinfelder is going to be very interesting to hear an update Okay Any additions or
corrections okay Individual items Do you think you're going to have the fee hearing the first fee hearing that you're going to be able to do that on the 15th Yeah Do you think you're going to be ready Bob i won't be here just
or do you want to just postpone that fee hearing until the 6th it's up to you We We might have to because I was talking to Mary earlier and she seemed to indicate that we needed two weeks advertising and my schedule had one week advertising So we
So let's move that to May May 6th for the first hearing and then we do May 6 and May 13 And we wouldn't lose we would only lose one week Okay Okay Any other items individual items Right Individual items
Um Madam Chair um I think I had read an article in the Cape Cod Times about a resident of Yarmouth a lobsterman who was having some challenges and um it sort of raised to
mind some concerns that that I've had and I I I want to put on the table just for some maybe future consideration Um but I I and I don't want to get involved in the individual case but I do think to
some degree sometimes it is helpful for us to maybe suggest that maybe the planning board um given their responsibility in zoning and so forth Um you know we've had instances in which there's been a fair amount of attention
drawn to the struggles that individual businessmen and business people have had with respect to um operating in town Um I don't know the specific details of this case other than what I've read in the newspaper but you know I'm very sympathetic with the struggles of a
fisherman or a businessman trying to make a go of it and having the difficulty I guess of um operating uh a business in the town of Yarmouth And um maybe obviously there's a hearing coming up and there's some
there's going to be some further deliberations and discussions but um I think maybe at some point in the near future we might want to identify at least some of the and and and have a discussion on the board if they're
particularly thorny zoning issues that might warrant some further study involving the planning board and maybe town staff Um because you know some of us do get complaints from constituents We do hear from people Um I've heard
from folks regarding um boat storage You know there's been a lot of complaints that I've received regarding um uh individuals who have trouble storing a boat in their yard And we have a bylaw that requires all boats to be you know
out of a front yard right um and maybe there's some value in having you know some further study and review of this Um because in some cases if you can't if you have a boat and you can't put it in
your sideyard or your backyard you what what's your option the building commissioner has brought that very issue to this board for discussion before and this board was very adamant about not changing that because what then what's next a camper right i mean so we have had that But I can just tell you from
our our my time years back on the planning board the planning board and the zoning board of appeals used to get together um on a regular basis or I shouldn't say regular but about annually to discuss the things that you're talking about items that should be
brought for their consideration for possible amendments I think I think that that is the appropriate avenue I do not think that this board should be um with relation to somebody who's you know people are people I'm not
suggesting let me let me be clear on this I'm not suggesting we render a verdict but I do think it's valuable to have some deliberate I I'm not sure the boards are having those discussions or having those meetings I think that the the struggles and the challenges that
are impeding businesses or thorny so to speak as you've mentioned um should be discussions between the zoning board of appeals and the planning board To do an analysis and see if it's things
that you know that may need to be adjusted in the bylaw But do you see a value in us having a discussion on some of the things that we think they should at least discuss amongst themselves i think I do I personally I think we're getting into we've made it very clear that when it comes to um the select
board we're not involved in zoning It's the purview of the planning board and the zoning board of appeals I mean certainly you can make a suggestion to them to look at these topics So let me I want to make sure I'm getting clear guidance here because you're what I'm
hearing is is maybe if I have an issue and a concern I should direct that individually to the board to those boards right rather than us as a board having a conversation amongst ourselves and suggesting a few topics that they give consideration to
Personally I feel that when when we're getting into zoning that we really should turn it deflect it back to the planning board That's I'm not suggesting that we not do that I'm suggesting how my what I want to be able to do is I have some real concerns about these areas Um and I want to see them have a
dialogue I want to see them study this and review this I I think the boat issue is a problem It's it's created um this perception that the town is engaged in selective enforcement and I think that's totally unfair But understanding I understand the perspective of the people
raising the complaints I think it's it's not unfair for them to draw that conclusion since the evidence seems could could easily suggest that Um so I I feel strongly that these things should be looked at So I'm suggest what I know
is do I process-wise should this be a conversation that we have amongst ourselves and suggest as a group that they these topics they consider or is that something that I should just take up on my own with the board or with Bob because I was told I must go through Bob
with things we should all be affect the town Well I think that there's a another issue here um and that is kind of more basic to local residents that um I see happening over and over again and you
know slightly unfair the way it it all happens is you know we get together as a community and adopt these zoning bylaws and they're voted by the residents So it's this guide that has been created by the residents and there you know have
been a series especially just in the past year alone of issues that have impacted very small numbers of people one person at a time they feel a hardship from the town's
zoning bylaw and a complaint comes in the zoning enforcement um officer rightly he's sworn to enforce the zoning as it exists takes zoning action then all of a sudden you know the building
official is vilified for you know taking this unscrupulous and corrupt action against this local person Um the uh you know entire town is you know we're we're doing things terrible and then it winds
up someone will file for a variance in front of the zoning board of appeals Now we all know very well that if it's a specific requirement of the zoning bylaw there's statutory criteria that the zoning board of appeals must apply in
acting on a variance So people go on social media they invite all their friends look what the town is doing to me we need to all come to the zoning board of appeals and get them to approve me like it's just some political thing but vote of the room or something but
you come into the zoning board of appeals and they turn you down because you don't meet the criteria So I I I think that the issue is not whether the board of selectman discusses it I think what the issue is is if you are a local person and you come up against all of a sudden you get a letter from the zoning
enforcement officer and you think it's unfair Um first of all you know people need to know it's not the zoning enforcement officer that makes this stuff up He's looking at the zoning bylaw So so if you have a problem with what it says in the zoning bylaw that the question is this
is there a mechanism what should you do i mean rather than just run out and do a petition to town meeting or or get a variance from the ZBA it would be great if there was a process where we could let people know um you know if you have
a problem with the zoning bylaw what you should do is um put it in writing send it to you know somebody and then and then we could put that in front of the zoning board and the planning board and they could look at it and and we don't
have to do it But the idea that people feel they have no place to go except social media to vilify their town officials who are corrupt and out to get them you know that's just not the type of system that we need And if someone has a thing on the zoning and the thing
on the boat you know it may very well be that we just don't want boats in people's driveway right period It may be that um if it's a a boat smaller than a certain size it might be okay I don't
even know And it's not my purview to determine that But where where I would get involved is if we're sitting here now now the poor guy he's he's facing the zoning enforcement officer He doesn't know what to do What do we tell him to do and and it'd be great to have
a process that he could at least go well we looked at this and um you know the the planning board and the zoning board you know they were of the opinion that the bylaw should stand And then at least the guy would know well uh in England I have the authority then I can do a petition on the zoning So so people are
at least know what the process is and the process is not to go on Facebook and say the zoning enforcement officer and the rest of the town officials are crooked because that's just not fair It's not fair to the zoning It's not fair to the residents of the town and it
and it doesn't help the person So so I I think what I glean from from what you're saying is is that to give local people like the the the lobster guy I I've read a lot of his material and you know I I feel poorly because I think he's going the wrong route but I I I you know we're
not really in a position to to sit him down and say look um if you want to change the zoning this is how you do it This is who will listen to you This is who you talk to We know it's not us right It's not I can't go well okay I'm gonna change your zoning you know that's
just sort of out outside of the but but somebody should be there to be able to at least listen to the guy and then and then say well yeah this this is a thumbs up this is a thumbs down and and this is what your um recourse is I hear you Bob but shouldn't we be talking to the
planning board about doing that then you know like that maybe the planning board has a subcommittee that they put together I mean that that to me is something that comes under their purview I think one of the things is makes it very very difficult and it's very
unfortunate is that when you look at this type of things in the zoning bylaw like I mentioned with the boat you can't look at it in isolation because it's it's not what what's okay for one type
of boat is in the front yard is not the idea of five boats that are unmaintained and they're using the parts and the it looks terrible and then you've got the camper and then where does it end you know it's the same thing with a business in a residential zone How do
you say you know that and you know I think we should support our fishermen This is you know it's a very difficult thing but I mean what happens if somebody wants to sell wind turbines out of their backyard i mean I know that that's ridiculous but I'm just saying you can't you can't spot zone and you
can't it's it's very difficult to think about and that's why the planning board is the place to go because they can do an analysis of what that means and what potentials could come from the change And I think that that's an analysis that has to happen And I guess I'm trying to
figure out if it isn't the select board who is tied to the people in theory I mean I certainly have Mark and I have office hours so we're getting I'm glad you raised that because this is the feedback that I get People and I know I'm having office hours on Friday
and I know I'm going to be hearing about Mr Tongley's situation and why a fisherman can't fish or conduct the business back and we say we we need we need to prompt through our town administrator a department to look at
something because we believe that it needs looking at But the planning board represents the people too But I don't think they're they're getting the message as much as we are because they're busy just doing their job We're out there meeting with people frankly
You know we're we're campaigning I I am and you will be And so that's we're much closer to issues that we think that people think we might we should look at our job to say couldn't we look at this well well then why don't you just go to
the planning board and make the recommendation that that's what they should do and I think Bob is right that I should not go to individual committees and make suggestions or recommendations or or criticisms And I think he's right
I think Bob's saying it should go through him and I that makes sense to me Planning board is not a town staff So So that's a little different But I I think that you know to bring this issue up and maybe the planning board has some ideas on on the best way to handle it They've
I mean they've done stellar work examining the zoning All you need to look at is the short-term rental work the ADU work the um overlay districts you know maybe they can help us if they might not know that we're getting killed
here on these small little zoning issues and and you know they might not want to be inundated but but maybe they can come up with a process just like um Tracy was outlining for being able to um if someone has a problem with the zoning
rather than just yell at the building commissioner Um they're going to yell quite frankly Madam Chair we're on we're the ones on the ballot All right If things go wrong things don't work they come to us because we're the ones that are supposed to be directly accountable
to the people And I'm telling I I'm just telling this board that we have some issues in town with zoning that we just we need to pay attention to and we need to make sure that they get addressed And all I am asking is do we do that as a
group or do we how best i have no problem going to the planning board and getting time in front of them But I'm not sure that that is the appropriate way to go I just think from a policy matter I I I work a little bit differently Maybe it's because of I fall under old times here But we as a group
used to have policies that we did not go individually Nobody has any individual authority Right i agree that we are the elected people and people come to us I think Bob is our conduit Okay So when
you have constituents that are complaining it's for Bob to figure out in my opinion how it gets solved And so when I have a concern or at least the process not whatever the process is he you know you direct your concerns or what
the constituents are saying and you know he'll report back that he's asked the planning board to look at it or whatever he deems a way to resolute that issue That's the way it's always been I've never went to a department I do not go to committees I don't think it's
appropriate I don't think any of us should be doing that individually I entrust in Bob to figure out a plan of action on how to solve these issues And that's what I think you know he's hearing and I think he'll he'll do that I've reached out to the to the planning
board you know to get their ideas on it And you know I think it's good to to to bring it up and at least let people know you know out there look we're concerned We understand that this zoning bylaw that has been voted by all the town's
folks it you know it's not a perfect piece of work and sometimes it it pinches people when they find out they're in violation of it Um but if if folks have a grievance about the zoning there's there's places to talk about it
Um it is reviewed at the planning board level and and it's it's not something that people should just be um you know castingers on the you know offspring of the building commissioner because they did something wrong You know it's
there's there's better ways to handle he's doing his job as you mentioned He's doing what what people don't understand is the fact that the zoning bylaw as you said is voted on by the people So you know town meeting is extremely important in
participating in the promulgation of these things and the approval of them so that at the end of the day but what I have to say is and I I read all the stuff I don't interact I think the one thing that that this board needs to also remember is down the road if it ends up
in litigation it comes back to us So I think we have to be conscientious about that piece as well you know So um well then well I raised the I raised the issue Madam Chair because um I'm a believer that when you get mail you
answer your mail you answer your inquiries People have asked me about these cases and I'm very comfortable with us as a board encouraging the town administrator to take actions in terms of interacting with staff and the planning board to see if there's some process or some way in which these can
be reviewed and studied Well I think I'm fine with that Bob you've gotten that message from us Yeah The problem is you know once it's already down this road it's it's a very difficult thing to turn around from right so like the the great part would be like look I'm having a
problem maybe we could talk to the planning board earlier once their zoning enforcement and the ZBA makes a decision I think that's a very slippery slope for this board whether we agree with it or not you know do we think it should be changed for the future potentially but in terms of that particular situation I
think that that um there's autonomy for a reason right oh I was just gonna say I would trust Bob um for the roadmap purposes of in um informing the individual who might be
affected Um doing u an info sheet that was no longer than one page just kind of like um uh about zoning bylaw where you go if you're concerned about this what your options are I think that would be very empowering and it might cut down on
some of the crazy conspiracy melodrama Um but I think the other thing is um we have to assert that we're a full community I'm really uncomfortable with new residents moving in and um you know they've moved in next to somebody say
who's raising chickens and they decide they don't want roosters at 5:00 a.m but they moved there and the roosters predated them I mean I think we have to be careful to defend all aspects of community and and residents in Yarmouth
and not let people who were um who were in pre-existing situations be trampled on by people who maybe would just like a pretty suburb Well don't we all feel that we've told Bob what you know that this is a concern
and that um you're going to have your conversation with the planning board and yes I'll report back and we'll try to get a a road map exact that's a good way to put it of what to do if you run a foul of the town's zoning and you know
Molotov cocktails are not required right well they're they're they're optional I guess but vilification Yeah vilification is not required either but um so no but there does need to be a process that's in place that's
appropriate to review and revise when appropriate um certain zoning bylaws and there's a and there's a way to do that Um I think what we need to be cognizant of is is at one time there was a process At one time these boards did meet and discuss I don't think that process is ex
exists today but and it's certainly it's certain it's certainly worth looking at using that or other methods to make sure that these kinds of concerns are properly vetted studied looked at and um and dealt with So thank you Bob There
you go Bob Thank you Thank you Any other items um yeah And I just want to let the people who sent in letters that we read know that we are looking at the Yarmouth Housing Authority issue and the Forest
Road property It is not a done deal And that's I just want to recognize that we got letters and you all got them as well as me And I'd also like an update on the plastics committee because I know that's also very important to a lot of people out there Is there anybody can give us
an update on that that would be hasn't met yet but um I believe that the plan is to meet um like in the second half of April for the first meeting We could ask them to give us an update and put it on the agenda I mean I think
we have to be a little careful of what we keep bringing up here without having it on the agenda you know Um so just sometimes it's hard to keep get all the information that even I as a select person need So that's why one we
don't have a newsletter We don't have a you know we we don't have a way I don't feel like unless I call everybody who's on a certain committee and say what's going on with your committee I can't find out You know what I'm what I am trying to say Well if the committee
hasn't met though um and and obviously if if it had met it would do a public posting I think you can assume I don't but I don't look at all of the public postings to find out who's meeting when So I'm that's a question about process again Well what you could be doing is
asking us to put on the agenda for a future meeting an update from them but I think we need to give them an opportunity to meet first before we put them on the agenda Okay So that's what I can tell my my people though is that they haven't met yet
Right Okay Any other items okay Moving on We have the consent agenda Madam Chair I move to approve the consent agenda
Second Discussion All those in favor i I opposed passes unanimous T Bob Okay just a few items to to let you know in addition to we've got um full speed ahead for all of the town meeting items
um election items The books are printed already Town report is coming along really really well We're hurdling into the town meeting season I want to let folks know um I had a great meeting um I
attended on March 27 on the economic development visioning process with um the assistant town administrator our economic development uh person and um
Kathy Williams Karen Green and um you know we've got some big grant funds that need to get out of the door Um a lot of spending has to be done by uh the end of the fiscal year and they're making I think some great progress and I can't wait till we're going to be um involving
the select board of stakeholders in that overall visioning process and also um you know with outreach to the CEDC chamber all of these stakeholders are are coming together on this So um there's a lot of progress being made in
that area Um here's another um area that you might be interested in Uh maybe not but you know I think we're struggling a little bit on the noncriminal disposition citations and and these are
not not we're not back on zoning but all of the other various bylaws um that are enforced there's a a bylaw that um has a system of you do a citation and I I think that there's a a lot of
misunderstanding among some of you know the enforcement people that are named in the bylaw that do these citations is what do you do once you issue the citation and no one um you know pays the fine or answers you so um we had a great meeting on that with all of the
departments and that's just an issue of focus that we're working on training people on and in fact we're putting together a sort of an internal training seminar and um Chief Lenin and the police department are assisting They're very well adept at the process of
following through with the uh district court on the various fines and things and so um that's an area that u we're working with internally and um so we're making Can I just interrupt does that include Oakings Highway no Highway to
building Yeah they have a separate statute that governs what they do These are the ones that um it doesn't come under zoning uh is under the zoning act Old King's Highway is under the old Kings Highway Act but a lot of the like
conservation for example is there under Mass General law chapter 40 section 21D which is just this broad category So the same thing goes for um animal control dog related fines It it is a a whole
system of what would previously be these low-grade criminal acts that have all been transferred into this administrative realm that the town issues administrative citations and and there's a process that you have to go through the uh Barnstable District Court
and um so it can get a little complicated but um does this relate to the my my my report again Does this relate to the constituent inquiry that I follow I I forwarded to you on this it's mushroomed right up We
we got right we got right to the bitter nib on it and No I'm glad I'm glad you're looking at it because it's a it's a very serious issue I'm glad you're investigating it I'm thrilled that you're you're doing this work and I look forward to your updates and it and it goes you know beyond to all other people
that are associated with that Um it's just something that you know the town adopted a bunch of years ago and and no one really followed up on it So um it's a good project and uh I know we've got Kleinfelder coming in I've been meeting with them um and and also our DPW really
honing in on some of these POS issues and I think to have the working group that has been established in conjunction with the county fire training academy has actually been able to help us make more progress on um for instance getting
the airport to put those wells westerly of where they consider their toe to be And um it has since our our last meeting all of that information that's come out there has really sharpened um you know the town's perspective on that and having a consultant So we're we're
getting much better informed and I I think we're developing a lot of better leadership on this whole uh business with the POS working with the training academy the um airport and and everyone So when we talk with the select board again I I think you know that discussion
is coming along and um another thing you should know about is um you know I'm still we're working very hard um you know with this wastewater construction and um boy what a bear I mean it is just a um wet the most inconvenient thing for
a community to go through But we're spending a lot of uh time and effort um continuing on it with the communications And um one piece that I'm going to be doing is um having a a seminar type of a
session with our um project team in the chamber Um I think it's going to be later this week And what what we're going to talk about is some sign relief for businesses Uh and and I I you know I know we need there's a lot of code
issues that we need to get to the bottom of but the the bottom line is we'd like to work with the business community to do some more specialized signage more than we have just more Uh and you know people need to know these businesses are open Some of them are selling washing
machines You got to get there and get your washing machine I mean all of this stuff And um so so we're going to try to get uh I I think a more robust program of giving some relief to these businesses on on how we can try to um
you know let people know they're in business get business to them have signage um and and and that's just you know been one of our areas of focus And we're working with the business community on that And so we hope to have some recommendations Um how we skirt all
of these um laws we we don't know but I think it's a matter of temporary signage which can be permitted because it's all temporary Go ahead Mark Um I think it's great that you're doing that Um one thing to consider is maybe helping do
some more marketing advertising letting people know Yarmouth's open for business some some way Um you know I know there's some businesses that I can only suspect that they've probably their revenue has probably really taken a big hit I don't
know if we can do revenue replacement but if we can find ways for people to access lowinterest loans or some financing um I think that certainly would be helpful That that's something that I would have an economic development person looking into and examining And at
the same time I would be looking at finding ways to have some very targeted marketing assistance to figure out ways for people to um capture some more business activity cuz some folks I I think of are hurting really bad and and
and it just bothers me tremendously that we're not able to do more So I'm glad you're looking at it I'm glad you're looking at options I think it's terrific Uh it'll be terrific if we can do more than than what we're doing right now And just finally um very nice letter I
want to thank um Mark helped us um it the letter to the governor requesting 500 million in the environmental bond bill that's upcoming to refund the SRF program was an issue that we discussed with the under secretary of
environmental affairs when she was it was a week and a half ago Um she was in Barnstable Uh we were up at the county complex and officials from around the Cape uh were there to discuss with her what initiatives we saw for that
environmental bond bill and it became clear and this you know follows up with that situation because of the problems with the funding you know D was looking at um eliminating the carryover guarantee for some of these projects and
um we were able to skirt that But you know if that ever happened on a $200 million project they're only going to fund 50 million That that leaves us um naked I mean it's just not a good situation And so um you know we jumped
on that This is our second letter in in two weeks to the governor She's going to love us Um but I think it's a great letter I'm glad that we're we're doing that and we'll continue to follow it through and and we hope to see um you know the SRF be funded so that they can
give those carryover guarantees especially in time uh you know for us to get phase two in there And um but I I did want to thank um you know Marcus his efforts on kind of pushing to make sure that we stayed on top of that Um appreciate it Thanks
It's all I have I guess for tonight Okay then I'd entertain a motion Motion to return Second All in favor i I thank you all very much at 9:08