This is the law now, right? We don't have to read this. Do not read it. Have to read it. Recording in progress. Good evening everybody and welcome to the Yarmas Select Board meeting of June 24th, 2025.
Um, I am going to accept a motion to go into executive session and return to public after. Is there a motion? Second. Um, I I'm going to request that the motion be that the Arma Select Board will consider entering into an executive session pursuant to Mass General Law
Chapter 30A section 21A6 to discuss the possible purchase of properties to Route 6A map 112 parcel 27 and Kingsway Noddingham parcel map 142 lot 17
that uh we have determined to have a detrimental effect if the negotiation was in a public body. So move. Second. Second. I'll take a roll call vote. Mark, hi. Hi. Joyce. I. Liz. Hi. Okay. We'll be in executive session and we
will return into public session around 6 6 p.m. Thank you. $200,000. I was corrected. I didn't even know money for this. We're going to get started. Okay. Sorry
for our tardiness. We're going to get we're going to get into our um our public meeting at uh 6 pm. We're going to start with the pledge of allegiance. Please all rise. I pledge allegiance 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. Thank you. Thank you all for coming tonight. Uh,
we are going to start with announcements. Are there any announcements? Liz, no. Joyce, no. No. Dorcas. Mark. Bill. Okay. All right. Public comments. Is there
anybody? Yes. Chris. Uh, I would Chris Greley from West. I'd like to raise a point of uh confirmation please for the comments for items later in the agenda specifically about the library. Are those going to be made at the time of the presentation on the library or are
you taking the public comments now at the beginning of the meeting? That's a great question. I think it's up to the um board however the board would like to do it. Um would you like to take public comment on the library now or it's not technically a public hearing so we don't have to take it during the agenda item but it's up to you. I think we should
pick it up during the agenda item. Okay. Yeah, it's not to be done now. It's to be done sometime at 8:20 or whenever you get to it. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you, Chris. Is there anybody else who has any public comments? Anybody online? Joe, here comes Kurt.
Joe Glenn. Hi, Madam Chair. Can you hear me? Yes, sir. Uh congratulations by the way on your chairmanship and um I want to congratulate the um scholarship uh uh recipients uh as a member of the school
committee and the liaison to the select board. I uh congratulate them all and I also want to congratulate the uh scholarship committee and I know uh you madam chair have done a lot of work with that over the years um and uh everybody involved. It's a It's a great thing.
It's a great thing for the future of our children and uh I just want to congratulate all of them uh and all of you because you do a great job with that and it is so important. Um, I don't know if it's on the uh uh and you might want to treat this if it does come up. Uh,
I'll I'll stay tuned. But, um, I thought that there was a conversation or discussion that was going to be had on the state representative and a letter going uh up. It's on the agenda, Joe. Oh, it is on the agenda. Okay. So, then
I'd like to comment on it if I could. Yes, sir. Um um so this is a a not a matter of right and left. It's a matter of right and wrong. And I know that
people have uh political persuasions and uh and I know that uh you madam chair have been a victim um and that may lead you to not act on it because you don't feel that you are in the position to uh
comment on it. But this is more than that. This is about the community. This is about right and wrong. This is about a a former state rep for the edification of of the uh students in the audience that um taxation without representation
came from a state rep, James Otis, that represented Cape Cod and represented the first Barnstable District. And that is very important. We don't have representation right now and it goes to uh school funding. It goes with the the
budget at the state and uh and it goes to a lot of uh important matters that are before Yarmouth and and we really need to um uh discuss it. But one of the big things that I'm concerned about is
the letter that went out, the flyer that went out affected and caused irreparable harm to veterans here on the Cape and here in Yarmouth specifically. Okay. There was he he Representative Flanigan
purported and used fake persons that he admitted to in that flyer and that flyer said many many veterans and he claimed to be many many veterans that served and fought for our country and fought for our freedoms.
He didn't do that. He never did that. No other veterans claimed to support him in that way. And that is stolen valid. And that's not only illegal, it's a uh it's immoral. And for that reason, that letter should say not just that he
should resign, but he should be expelled. And any things that are before the court, um that is in the future, but my plea is because of stolen valor that is already been determined and already
admitted to. the other stuff is grave and it is against people uh of our community, contractors and builders. Um and that's that's really important. So, um I I would have uh did it when we we
took it up later, but um I think it's important for the students in the community to know this, too. So, thanks very much. Have a great evening and congratulation again. Thank you, Joe. Kurt, welcome. Thanks. Um, I got a few items based on the the
agenda. Yes, sir. Okay. The library building committee. Somebody made a point to me. This isn't mine, so I'm not going to take credit for it. But, you know, we don't have enough young people participating in this library process. So, this library is not being built for those of us who are here today. It's for those who are here tomorrow.
So, I think somebody needs to pay attention to how the next generation will use a library, not the way we think it should be used today. And I don't know if that's really been looked at a lot. The other conversation we've had about a hundred times is if you're going to have a central library, it needs to
be centrally located. Remember, we had John Simpkins discussion. We had the fish market property discussion way back when. We said it's too far over in South Yama to ignores the rest of the town. I really don't see how putting it across the street is much different. So, I would give serious thought to somewhere else.
I know there's a bunch of pluses and minuses to all the different locations that they spoke of, but um I think the fact that you have a town comm that you don't know what's going to be yet versus a library versus Madakis and how you're going to use it. I don't I don't know how you line those up to make the right
decisions at the right time. And I know the library is under a state mandate timewise which makes it difficult. Um but I would think about that. Um, Wood Road and Station have the four-way stop sign. Good idea. I don't know why
it's already installed, then it comes to you for its blessing. That one doesn't make sense to me. Yeah. Well, we were we were pushing for it for safety reasons. There's been a lot of action. It should have been done years ago, but and I read the history of the state. Didn't think it was necessary, which is crazy. Um,
the um I mean, I'm glad it's being done. I just see it just seems strange at the order of what's going on. I don't disagree. Uh the economic and uh CEDC update, you know, I'm not going to blame particular people, but there seems to be
a a mindset that's anti- tourism, anti- tourism revenue fund, the whole thing. It doesn't it needs somebody to get headed back in the right direction. You know that especially this year with the roads looking what they look like and everything being a mess. There are a lot
of people just not going to come back here anymore. It's already you've already started on a downward spiral as far as the tax revenue. No, you know, I know Tom Nick and Eller asked a question at town meeting. I haven't heard any yet. Why do we know why?
You know, um speaking of that, I hoped that the lines would be repainted before summer and that's coming up like yesterday. You know, I haven't seen the line fixed on Long Pawn Drive yet that I brought to your attention, which is dangerous because people are driving over that
line because they just can't fit in that lane, you know, stop stop lines, turning lanes, all that stuff. Um, the Run Pond Restoration Project, I hope it gets great support from the town because we blew it last time. I thought it was cheap money to fix that problem and we
wouldn't spend the money. It's never going to get cheaper and the conditions over there are getting worse because over the years construction is still taking place all around the edge of that pond and it's all polluting. So again, it's another things the sooner the better. The other thing I don't
understand is why we want to buy Anony's Comequid land. We have enough land. The good and bad part about this town is we control so much property. We don't need something else to take care of that we don't have the money or the time to take care of. I don't I'm not familiar with the other
piece of property you discussed. I I just don't think we need to keep spending money on this stuff. We Everybody finally recognizes that the parks and trails that we have now are being neglected. Why create something else that you're not going to take care of? Especially Anony's with a water view. Let somebody develop that and
build $2 million condos up there. We can get some good tax revenue out of it for probably a little trouble on our part as a town. So, I really seriously consider not moving forward with that. And I'll probably have more to say about the other piece when I learn more, but you know, maybe it's yay or nay, but we
don't need to buy everything. We have we have enough. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Kurt. Is there anybody else from the public that would like to address the board? Okay, seeing nobody, we are going to go to our uh 6:15 agenda item, which is the
scholarship committee presentation. Mr. Kerr, Dr. Dr. Kerr and Dr. Smith, you're both here. Thank you, Madam Chair. It's nice to be back again this year and nice to see you in that position. Congratulations. Um
Tracy serves as one of our members on our committee. So, we're especially fond to have her here tonight. Um, a quote often attributed to Abraham Lincoln is the best way to predict the future is to create it. We're here
tonight to celebrate the scholarship class of 2025 from the town of Yarmouth and to appreciate the reality that they are in fact the ones creating the future through their spirit and perseverance and ambitions.
And so on behalf of the town of Yarmouth and the select board, I welcome all of you to this opportunity to celebrate tonight with us all. This is indeed a very special event in the life of the town as we bring together recipients, their families, caregivers,
community leaders, and friends to present these welldeserved awards. This is the 30th year that the town of Yarmouth has sponsored this scholarship program for students residing in the town and who are pursuing postsecary
education. It's been my privilege to serve as a member of this committee uh for the last 15 years and 11 as its chair. And so on behalf of all prior recipients and especially the class of 2025,
uh we thank the select board and the town residents for all their diligence and work in maintaining and sustaining this important program for our students. The committee overseeing the process and selecting recipients is comprised of
five members. Tracy Post, select board, Dr. Dr. Mark Smith, our superintendent of schools, Sandy Rubenstein, Daniel Hayward is here, and myself, Thomas Kerr. Each year, it's
our privilege to review and select applicants for these awards and to truly appreciate the Lincoln quote coming to reality in these very special lives before you. In addition to this committee, we thank and
recognize the town staff helping to make the process move smoothly. Pam Barnes from the town administration office and Amarie Ellis, our town treasurer, help us greatly. It is the Frederick House scholarship
that is the primary resource for the funds for these scholarships. And this year, the scholarship program has been granted $35,000 coupled with $15,000 that comes from taxpayer contributions. And I want to
pay special attention to that. This year, we raised $15,000 from taxpayers who contributed to this. It's a tremendous gift to these recipients. When we began, it was $1,500. So, it has moved greatly through the
years and we're greatly appreciative of that. We have a total of $50,000 this year to distribute to our successful applicants. These dollars have increased each year as has the applicant pool. This year, 52
applicants were reviewed. Uh just pers from some perspective when I started as a member of the committee we reviewed 19 applicants and had $12,000 to apply. It's come a long way in its development and we're grateful for all those who have helped increase the
awareness and participation including our school and college counselors. This number of applicants speaks clearly to the pressing need for financial resources for these students and families. Each applicant wrote
powerfully about the burdens of higher education costs would put on their families. And although this is not a new issue, it is a dramatically harder issue in these years ahead. The resiliency and hope
each applicant brings to this process is a tributes to the is a tribute to the families and guardians who support them. To date, we have distributed $670,300 $67300
to 813 students. The selection process of and awarding of varying amounts of scholarship funds is based on specific criteria, need, personal statements, recommendations,
community and work engagement, academic status, and response to a question. Again, this year, the process reveals to us both the quality and substance of the students applying and helps us realize how significant these awards are, not
only to the applicant, but to the families and guardians as well. Each applicant appreciates the sacrifices that families and siblings are making on their behalf, and we are moved and in some cases to tears as we
read these stories of sacrifice and love. Each year we pose a question to the applicants to gauge their level of interest and concern about community and the world around them. This year's question was, "What community or world
issue do you believe you could help resolve?" The variety and depth of answers to this broad question are amazing and in some cases profound. Their app appreciation of the impact of their topic on the
lives of citizens in the community are mature and focused. Many saw food insecurity and the realities of homelessness from their own lives or those around them as the most frequently noted crisis. While
others noted mental health, health care, prejudice, housing, environmental issues, drug prevention, education, and personal finance. We can truly be proud of these students for their ability to look beyond their own world and see
Harry is where improvements would truly shape a better community and world. One student who I will not name specifically but thank profoundly is a student setting out on a course to develop autonomous vehicles.
This student developed a specific interest as a result of caring for an elderly neighbor experiencing loss. Home, car, family, friends. It's an issue for many here on the Cape and
around the world. To see the need and then focus an educational plan to address this issue to assist others brings us right back to Lincoln's quote. The best way to predict your future is to create it.
This applicant not only will build those autonomous vehicles to to assist others, but I might add could easily develop a second career as a writer as all of us on the committee were impacted by the writing and focus of the response. I
close my remarks with another quote from another beloved Cape resident now deceased Mary Oliver and I hope you will commit it to memory and remember it as you continue your lifelong journey. She said tell me what will you do with your
one wild and precious life? Blessings to you all and we'll proceed to the distribution. Dr. Smith will help me with that. I just want to interrupt. I'm sorry Tom. you um speak so eloquently, but um I'd be remissed if we
um didn't acknowledge you in your service. Um Tom told us at the last meeting that um he will be retiring and resigning from the board and um the town's people owe you a huge gr of debt
of gratitude for all of your hard work and everything that you've done and thankful. You did a tremendous job, a wonderful job and you do speak so well. But I just want also these students to know that um reading each and every one
of your letters um forces me really to do a better job sitting here. Um your as Dr. Kerr mentioned your profound um wisdom really is remarkable. Uh you caught a glimpse of some of the issues
that we deal with on a regular basis. And um I'm reminded by reading your writings that you are acutely aware of the issues that we deal with day in and day out. And um so for that it helps me strive to do a better job sitting here
knowing the struggles that you've really shared. And you're not alone. there's um people of all ages that deal with those same struggles. So um it's just a a wonderful thing. And the only other thing I'm going to say before you start is we like to get a group photo of all
the recipients. So after you receive your um your award, if you could just wait till the end and then um please don't leave. Come up for a photo before you leave. Thank you. Thank you. And thank you for those kind words. It has been my privilege to serve these years.
Believe me. And so we will begin. And uh as Tracy said, when you uh receive your award from uh Mark, would you just move to the front of the uh of the room and we'll prepare for his a photo at the end of this of the session. So
all right. Um and I would be remiss if I didn't uh thank thank Dr. Kerr as well. Uh, I've only been doing this for 2 years and I would have been lost throughout the entire process. Uh, if it wasn't for your help of even just figuring it out how to get through the process and it's not often that I'm
outdressed uh in a in in at an event. Uh, but you did catch me in summer casual mode. Um and and I just to the to the taxpayers of Yarmouth uh you know I've had the privilege of of being uh now through two graduation processes and
and as superintendent I get to sit you know through all the school committee meetings and I've said multiple times you know one of the functions of school committee is to accept donations to the district and there isn't a school committee meeting that doesn't go by where we're not accepting a donation
from the committee I mean from the community to the committee Uh and at the at the senior awards night, the between the scholarships, including the 50,000 that came from Yarmouth, uh between our two communities, the district uh gave out to
our students just short of $610,000 in scholarships, right? And that's generosity from the community, right? It's from the two communities. And it's just it as superintendent, I'd be remiss if I just didn't say thank you to the community, the to the two communities that support us. Um, and this again is
is is a huge part of that. So, just again, I'd be remiss if I didn't if I didn't mention that. Congratulations. All right. So, now it's time to hand out some money. All right. And so, now I have the misfortune of probably masquering a couple of your names, and I apologize. All right. So we'll start
with Nicholas Blind Ki Mana Jacob Bolan. Congratulations. Hunter Bullet. Nicholas. Oh, sorry. Nicholas, if you don't mind just standing up here. Come on up. Hunter Bullet. No. All right. H Bridget Bullet.
Sorry. I know you're alone right now, but it won't be for long. Just wait. Just wait. Right. Uh Nora Brunage. How bad did I screw it up? No, really good. Oh, all right. Excellent. practice.
didn't uh Luke Bullock, Madison Burges, Delaney Burl, Colin Karen, Elena Castano can't be here and Vivian Castano. Congratulations. Uh, let's see. Ruth, uh, Colo, Coell
Colo, Coelloo. Thank you. Making sure I got it right. Uh, Anna Corsy, Allison Edwards, Congratulations. I won't make you shake my hand and manage the crushes.
Max Edwards. Oh, take a break. Samantha Eldridge, Keegan Andress, uh, Sierra Enright, Colin Enright. Yeah. Owen Enright. That's my nephew. All
right. All right. Thank you very much. That's recent there. Uh, Alexander Fer Ferrer, Brooke Gardner, Emerson Gardner, his sibling. Yeah. All right. Perfect. Congratulations. Thank you so much. Noah
Golden, Jose Gonzalez, Steven Graph, uh Juliana Hertova, Ryan John Johnson, Rose Carroll, Fiona Louu, Melissa Loops, Nina Nina Mako
Kiara Mcnish, Timothy Timothy NS, Olivia Pendleton, AnnAise Ruhan, Rogan Ruen, Third time's a charm. Uh, Mia Rubenstein probably running the camp. Um, uh, Nam
Ryan. Nam Ryan. Stephanie Shuner. Uh, Shuner. Shuner. Shoner. Shoner. Sorry. You're welcome. Ian Self, thank you so much. Stewart, Amelia Stakola. Stalo Sakalo. Stalo.
Stalo. Stalo. Stalo, thank you. It's gonna squeeze Uh, Anakah Swanson, Amy Teague, Williana Thompson, Oscar Turk, Yaso Vargas, Hannah Willis.
Congratulations. Oh, whoops. I got two in there by mistake. Henry Woo, Michelle Woo, and Alicia Wyman. Congratulations to you. That concludes everybody
together. Photo time in the back. Brooke. Brooke. Brooke. Congratulations to you and your sister. You used to be on my We need two rows. Take a look.
Some real right. Congratulations everyone. A lot driver's license on my bus anymore, but they used to be.
Hard to tell them apart. Okay, thank you. Thank you. Good to see you. Thank you. Take care. Timothy, call me.
Thank you. Thank you for coming. Okay. Oh, thank you so much. Sorry to see you retire. You've been such an amazing part of it all. Thank you. We're going to miss you. You have made a lot of young people very
happy. Thank you. Tonight anyway. Nice to meet you. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. I know, Timothy. I think the um get a great letter. She the one that did the car. Yeah.
Wow. Where's he going to school? Going to have to move up. Where's he going to school? Where's he going to school? She said you can. Good for him. I know. I know. We're letting people
letting you coming out or you stay. Okay. This all this tall kid. Okay folks, moving on with the agenda. We are going to skip our 635 um agenda
item and get back to that at a later date. So, up next is the hearing for the change of corporate name. And um I don't see a motion to open the hearing. Well, I'll read the Okay. I'll read the um
as soon as I find it. It's not in the packet. I don't have it. I have it here. That helps you out. Yes. Actually, I don't. I know. Are the hearing Do you have the hearing
notices, Bob? Yes. Mr. Tardiff, welcome. No. We just need a minute to open the hearing, sir. These might just be um I don't know if they had to be advertised. I assume they had to be advertised. They don't. So there maybe was no formal. It's just our
board policy to bring you in front of us. Okay, good. That settles that. We don't have to look for it anymore. Notice on the All right. So the first we call it a hearing, but it's not technically a hearing. It's um it's just our policy to um
license. Yep. To hear the change of corporate name. Mr. Tardiff, if you want to explain the application that's in front of us. Sure. For the record, I'm Paul Tardiff, an attorney in Yarmickport, and I represent Ryan Family Amusements LLC. Um um that's the current
name. It used to be called Ryan Family Amusements, Inc. Very creative there. Um they hold the annual all alcohol license uh for over at 1067 Route 28 at Ryan Family Amusement, the bowling alley right down the street. Um and I'm working with Mike Rossi from Con
Kavanaaugh who filed the application. Um as the notice indicates, we're just seeking approval of the board to change the corporate name and the structure uh on the license. So um you know, same people, different titles, I guess, but uh different uh type of entity, but the
same people at this point. So, same managers, Mr. Same. Um, yes, same manager. Yes. All right. I don't mean I don't mean You mean liquor license manager? Yes. Yes. All right. Does anybody on the board have any questions for Mr. Tardiff? Nope. Sounds very straightforward. We have a motion to um
approve the change of corporate name. So moved. And the the paperwork's been filed with um the ABCC2 with the change the name change. It it will be. Yeah, we we're doing six different locations for that. Uh, three off cape, three on. So, we're going to be setting it all up
there for approval. Okay, great. So, we have a motion, a second. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Thank you for coming, Mr. Tardiff. Thank you very much. Time. All right. The next um hearing is a change of manager for Red Jacket Resorts
or RJ Resort Beach Resort Beverage LLC. Is there anybody here from um that? Are you Karen? I am. Okay. All right. Karen, if you want to um introduce yourself to the board and just tell a little bit
about your experience. You will be the new um liquor license manager. I am Karen Bramley Rrde. I worked at Red Jacket Resorts for nine years. Prior to that, I worked at Witchmir for 17 years and for Katana Hospitality. So, not to say
hospitality has been my I started at two. Um, of course you did. You look a day over a third has been my whole lifetime of experience and our general manager whom I'm al you sure should know Holly Handrahan has left and they gave me the task of taking over the liquor
license. Okay. And you're tips trained and trained certified. And have you um been to any of the classes that Yarmouth has held yet? I have not. Michael behind me has. I did meet with um one of the police officers though. Okay, good.
Perfect. Does anybody have any is this uh also not not a hearing l uh advertised hearing? Okay, does anybody have any questions for Miss Rub? No, not I. Nope. Nope. Well, thank you for coming and introducing yourself. Does
anybody have a motion? So moved. Second to approve the change manager. Yes. Okay. Any discussion on the motion? All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Passes unanimously. Good luck. Have a great season. Thank you. And keep everybody safe over there. I will. Okay. Thank you
very much. Great. Thank you. Okay. Next, we have also the change of manager for Olivers and Planks Tavern. This is uh just an introduction for Olivers. Come forward, please, sir, if you don't mind, Mr. Orman. and um
introduce yourself to the board and tell us a little bit about your experience uh serving alcohol. And it's Michael Gez and sorry about that. I've been at Oliver's or on and off for about 24 years. Kind of grew my
family's business originally. Now my friends own it and um been behind the bar for about a little over 15 years. So, okay. And you're you are also TIPS certified and right here. Um, you know the rules and regulations of the town
holding a liquor license and you have everything on file there. Everybody in your staff's been trained. Okay. Absolutely. Perfect. Does anybody have any questions from the board? Question. I know that the the papers have advertised that uh you have also now
bought uh scargo. No, it fell through. Uh so then my question is moot. I make a motion to approve the change in management. Okay. Second. Any discussion on the motion? All those in favor? Any opposed? Passes unanimously. Welcome to
man managing a liquor license and good luck. Have a happy uh prosperous and safe summer, please. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right. So, the next one is a public hearing and I have the public uh hearing notice in front of me.
The town of Yarma Select Board special entertainment license hearing. The Yarmouth Select Board acting as the local licensing authority has received an application from the TA Yarmouth town libraries for a special entertainment license for a summer reading event
kickoff. a mini Renaissance fair at the Joshua Sears playground, map 50, parcel 130, South Yarmouth, Mass on July 12th, 2025 from 10:00 a.m. to 400 p.m.
Entertainment includes stage shows, live music, theatrical exhibition, as well as a demonstration of fencing, a vendor market to include but not limited to face, food, face painting, and arts and crafts. Mindy Harrington listed as the
person in charge of the event. A hearing will be held Tuesday, June 24th, 2025 at Town Hall, 11:46 Route 28 Yarmouth. Select Board meeting begins at 6 p.m. Written comments will be accepted until 4:30 p.m. Friday, June 20th in the
Select Board's office or a town hall can be submitted electronically to public comment. Uh Bob, do we receive any public comment on this application? No, we have not. Okay. And verbal comments will be accepted at the hearing. So with that, if uh the people from the library,
is there anybody here? Mindy Harrington. James. Oh, Jane, can you come forward? Sure. not here yet. Okay. Well, we can I I I have it on on good um thought that you might know a little something about this.
So, we have the application here um that explains what what it is that you're trying to do. Uh there'll be some entertainment, enchanted forest, foam noodle area. Um it's just there's going to be some sta uh three stages,
some comedic skits. So Royal Court, Cape Cod, Can Music Vendors, food vendors. Um so as long as you know that um the food vendors and the other vendors um will need its own approval through health
board of He's been working on this for months in terms of getting all the different permits that are required. Okay, good. All right. I think the were in our packet. So, um, with that, we'll see if anybody in the public, unless you have something else to add. Does anybody from the
public have anything to say about this hearing, uh, for or against the application? Seeing nobody, I will take a motion from somebody on the board to close quick question. Let's close the public hearing. Oh, very good. Okay. Close the public portion of the hearing. Very
good. I so moved to close the public hearing. Second. Close the public portion. Yep. Okay. Any discussion? All those in favor? Any opposed? Anybody on the board have any questions? I think that it noted that there would be no sword play. Something
might have been changed. They throw axes down the down the street at Ryan's amusement. I know. Um, I demonstrate the fencing. I think that got, as I understand it, it's Yes, it's advertised. It's pool noodles. It's
noodles that are going to be the um weapons of choice. And there's also a generous donation that has to do with an inflatable hatchet, but that's about all I know. I'm sorry. Like, we've been so busy that Mindy has it all figured out, though. I totally believe it.
Well, I think it sounds great and I hope to be able to appear um at Misfit Alley seems like it's or Axe Alley. That's where I belong. The Misfits of Avalon. Misfits Market. That's where I'll Oh. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Joyce, do you
have any questions? No. It sounds like a fun event. 12. It's free. And you know what? if I have a moment. Um, please. Mindy was instrumental in acquiring a tourism grant for this event. It's the first of
its kind in the area. It's pretty exciting. She's done a ton of work and um there's a there are whole lots of artists and performers and things like that. I I highly recommend we check it out. Where can the folks um at home find
information on it? Is it on the town's library website or I'm sure the town on our library website indeed on the homepage. Perfect. Uh Dorcas, do you have any questions? No questions. Sounds like a great event. I know. Mark, do you have any questions?
I'm just really curious about how we're you how we're going to integrate reading into the fairy forest in the forest stage. The archery range. Archery and reading. I don't normally see those going together, but I used to know I'm
sure there's a very creative angle here. I used to know the Dewey number for fairy tales and because I've been a director for too long, it's 342.7, but um there's a lot of literature and literary background and all that sort of
stuff that has to do with folk tales and um living around King Arthur's time and all that. Yeah. I I just want to You to a Renaissance fair? I have not. No, but I I guess I guess I will be soon. I guess I will be soon. No, I I just
wanted to congratulate you, Jane, and your staff for trying to find creative ways I know to generate interest in reading. Um, you know, there's there's so much competing for the attention of our kids today. And, uh, this is an incredibly creative project. So, um,
congratulations to you and your staff and Mindy for their hard work in putting this together. So, I just wanted to get that out there. So, thank you. With that, I will accept a motion, please. I move that we approve the special entertainment license for the summer
reading event kickoff mini Renaissance Fair. Second. Any discussion on the motion? All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Thank you very much. It's our pleasure. Thank you. Um, next we have the quarterly update for the CEDC. Uh,
oh, Courtney, you're here. Okay, great. Perfect. You don't have to close. We already closed the hearing. The beauty of living so close is you can watch it on Zoom and shoot right on down. Perfect. Um, so hi everyone. Thank you for having us. I'm Courtney Butler, chair of the community and economic
development committee and with me tonight is my vice chair Danielle Nukem. Um, so first before we dive into this, I just want to say that um, Mary Vilbon, the director of the Chamber of Commerce, will be honored as a Commonwealth heroine this Thursday at the state house. And we just want to congratulate Mary and thank her for her passion,
vision, and commitment to our community. She's been an excellent partner. Um, and that's really a very high honor and recognition and we just want to commend her for that award. Um, so the memo, we have a few different things to talk about tonight. Um, first, community planning projects. We have participated
heavily in the madakis and local comprehensive planning efforts. Um a couple of members have also been attending planning board meetings that are talking about mixeduse development as we see that as a valuable um place for us to lend some of our input. Um for the Madakis, we were able to use the uh
tourism fund to provide facilitation from the Barrett planning group for our economic team which included our members as well as 14 members of the Chamber of Commerce which was really uh great and helped us get through that process. Um there was a great update by the MUK committee a couple weeks ago and we just really valued being a part of that um
that whole effort. Um the tourism revenue preservation funding process and timeline. So part of the TRPF is public improvements. A solicitation for funding requests for public improvements was sent to town departments and schools in early and the school in early June. Responses are due by July 1, and we're going to take those up at our July 8th
meeting. These funds are used to support public improvement projects including the beautifification and recreational resources and public improvements related to the mutual needs of visitors and residents. Next is um special events. It's a very important part of the work that we do.
As you just heard, we were ecstatic to have the library be a first-time applicant of the TRPF special event fund and we're so excited for the event that they're putting on. And um I'll just echo what Jane said that Mindy did such an incredible job preparing this event and presenting it to us and we were just so happy to to be able to help fund that
event. Um the fund is intended to leverage other funds and in this category's case volunteer efforts um you know for rather than paying for admin staff and other things. So, we have a great slate of um events this year that were funded and we're excited um to uh
open up the solicitation for 2026 funding later this summer um and into the fall. Um applica, I don't mean to interrupt you. What did you just say about admin staff? The special event funds are used for supporting the volunteer efforts and marketing rather than admin costs or paying for staff
salaries. Was that a change? Nope. That's We've never used the special event fund for paying for admin salaries. Okay. Um, so we'll be opening up the next round of event applications this fall. Um, and we last year we found it really successful to hold uh public meeting
with applicants who are interested to help them understand the process and we do plan to do that again. Um, if there's no questions on the public improvements and special events, I can move into marketing. Um, so as you know the marketing, uh, we've had a marketing
contract for marketing, visitor services, and special events for the past 10 years. uh mostly held by the Chamber of Commerce in this past decade. Um this did expire on June 30th of this year and we were able to extend it um per procurement laws through the end of August for marketing. Um but under the
current contract provisions, this is the longest that it can be extended. So looking ahead, you know, we have really taken a look at where the community is going, um where we would like to help shape the future of the tourism base that we have and our particularly our year-round economy. And so we have
decided that for for at least for just the one year of 2026 rather than a three-year contract, we'd like to issue um a contract focused solely on marketing um with the option for visitor services included, which would be something along the lines of brochures, orientations um and information for
visitors. Um the town has a well staffed and very robust communications department that has done an excellent job at marketing town sponsored events. Um and this was not something that existed, you know, 10 years ago. Um, so we'd like to see a marketing contract that helps complement these efforts that helps to um, attract visitors and engage
with year-round and second homeowners and maintain and welcome new businesses as well. Um, so we've worked with Lorie Sullivan on this and refining the scope of work. Um, and we're hoping to vote on the final scope at our July 8th meeting to execute a contract for September 1 that would run until August 31st of next
year. So, can I just ask a question about that? That that's the change though that I was reading about. Yeah. So is it it's not working the way that it is now? I don't I'm not I don't understand the impetence for that change. So it's for marketing, visitor
services and events. We have a special event fund that can that can be accessed for events under that portion. Um and then for the the marketing and visitor services piece, we would just like to see a little bit more focus on that
piece of it. Um as we work to develop and it's kind of in the next piece. This is it's kind of I guess jumping ahead, but um that would work to complement a bigger broader marketing effort by the town and and through this fund. Um it's it's been working fine, but I think that it's, you know, it's one of those
contracts that's been issued repeatedly in the same way um for 10 years and and that's been great and the chamber has been a great partner. Um and we'd love for them to still apply for the for the RFP. Um, but we just think that we need to kind of look at a fresher look at it and and make sure that we're really hitting the marketing components for not
only tourism, but also attracting businesses and giving Yarmouth a real like name on the map for a place to to come live and work and and be here and and enjoy as a community. Okay. I we can get back we'll get back
to that. I do have questions about that, but I'll let you finish your presentation. Thanks. Okay. Um so as I alluded to um the the next piece in the memo discusses municipal branding. Um we have really taken a look at like I said our marketing efforts and it's become
evident to our committee that marketing to the town residents uh the visitors and businesses requires a more holistic approach and a well- definfined brand for Yarmouth. Um when we're asking somebody to market the town, it's important to clearly define what Yarmouth means and what that image is that we want to project. Um so with a
new town seal in place and the local compreh comprehensive planning efforts underway, this is kind of the right time for this effort. Um the Mass Municipal Association a couple months ago held a really good webinar about municipal branding best practices and benefits. Um and it would really um work to
differentiate Yarmouth from some of our similar and surrounding communities to showcase our vibrancy and our strengths. Um it would be utilized on items such as the town website, social media. Um Lori had indicated to us that they're looking to sort of really give the town a clearer image as well. Um and so it
would, you know, be able to help us convey the spirit of Yarmmouth to audiences both inside and outside of the town um and showcase our community pride. And this was sort of developed out of um a meeting that we had where we had invited the chamber and other community members in to discuss how do we improve the next marketing contract.
And what we've really heard is what are you asking people to market? What what is Yarmmouth? What does that mean? what does that look like? Um, and what is it that you want to attract via the marketing efforts? So, um, we think that some some goal setting and some milestones and some achievable um, items
would really help us in this effort to kind of give us a better brand um, and help to promote our economy and attract businesses and and really showcase the vibrant and special community that we have here. Um, so that is on that piece. And then I'll just say finally that um,
we do have a vacancy on the committee. Steve O'Neal, who was a longtime member and chair, um has resigned. Um so we have a vacancy to be filled and we'd like to just open it up to everybody to know that um we're interested in members of the community who would be interested in serving in that role and joining us. Um and also as a reminder that we meet
on the second Tuesday of every month at 5:00 PM and everybody's welcome to attend in person or via Zoom. Um we are always there and looking for more community feedback. So thank you. Hey Liz, do you have any questions? Yeah, I um was very interested to read
about the marketing the turn a little bit to maybe doing some marketing work from the CEDC and um and I I I have a little bit of a different take but but I think we we
need to look at all of this. I think it's got a lot of potential. I'm more um thinking that we have two thrusts. we have uh something for tourists, then we have something for residents and businesses that not quite sure that they
are the same um appeal, but I like the the idea of examining it, looking at it and branding. Um I also note that we have just got a public arts committee that is um now we have all of the members. We're just waiting for them to
get approved and and they'll another resource for you. And yes, and I do know the IT department and Lorie Sullivan are working very hard in getting the website overhauled and with our new seal, I agree that that is a it's a great time
to to to do some branding. I'm just not as convinced that we have one yarmth that we should put out there. But that's my take at this point. I like the idea. we're thinking
well even individual human beings don't consistently have the same personality at all times. So I mean I think you we give you some some wiggle room on that. I was delighted to hear about the previous item which sounds like um a home run in terms of trying to have
something that would be wonderful for tourists and especially families visiting but also wonderful for local residents and also buzz generating which is huge. It sounds like a great idea. I I am actually very happy at the
approach that you're going to take. You know, I I keep being very concerned with our um wastewater pro program out there looming in the horizon and you know, how are we going to pay for this? What your approach is showing is is a nice positive aspect, I think, toward that.
So, um I like where you're going. Thank you, Mark. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um I I guess I have a different reaction. Um, we're making obviously some significant changes here. Uh, I'm not as confident
as perhaps others are in the ability of our communications department to sort of take on the kind of leadership role that we're looking here. I think this is an area here that uh the town needs to really take a a very very hard look at.
Um, so I'm I'm I'm very cautious about that. Um, I'm just curious. Um, I've heard from people in the community and I've asked folks to send if they've got reservations or concerns about this to send us emails or letters. Now, I haven't seen anything. Has anybody on
the board seen any traffic from the business community or anybody else? Um, meaning specific to uh communications uh concerns regarding the way the whole layout of this is. And I'm I'm I'm not going to try to paraphrase what people
have been asking me because this is the changes I'm learning about this obviously for the very first time. But anybody's heard about it. I'm sorry. I didn't think anybody had really heard about it until No, that's why I think to some degree I think it would be helpful for me at least for some more vetting on this and to get to and to invite others
to get some more impact input to us. Um, like I said, I have real reservations with respect to looking at our community, our communications department to play this kind of role, and I'm interested in knowing more about where we going we're going with the the
rebranding of the town. Um, I wasn't particularly unhappy with the way things have been branded so far, but I think I I need to learn more about this and understand it better. Madam Chair, if I may. So, we're not asking the communications department to take this
on. We're asking to use this to complement their efforts. They market town events and town sponsored things. We want to do all the other stuff with the marketing contract. So, you know, they do a great job promoting what's happening in town. Um, you know, what meetings are happening, what events are happening, but it's the rest of it, the
tourism for attracting businesses that we would like this this marketing contract to do. So, we're not asking the communications department to take any lift in this. Um, in fact, Lori was actually really happy to hear that we want to do a little bit more. um and was supportive of this. Um so that's not really the direction we
were going. Um I'm just reading from the memo. It says here that uh the committee's taking a different approach and you'd like to issue a one-year contract focused solely on the marketing. The town has a well staffed and robust communications department that has done an excellent job with
marketing the town sponsored events and programming. We would like to see a marketing contract that complements these efforts and looks to attract visitors and year and engage with year-round residents and second homeowners. So, sorry if that wasn't clear, but we're not asking the communications department at all to to take on any heavy lifting as far as the
branding effort goes. If that's all something that the board is not in support of, we obviously would not do it. But it's a something we've been discussing and that's why we were bringing it to you tonight. It's just a simply a proposal. Um, but we, you know, if it's if it's a resounding no, then we will go to our meeting on July 8th and we won't move forward with that and
we'll we'll look at what we need to do to keep going. Um, I do recognize that it's a change. We recognize that it's a change and that the chamber has held this contract for a long time and we support that. Um, but like I said, you know, we have a special event fund that has quite a kitty in it that they can be applying for events in that and we've
encouraged that. Um, and so we're hoping to to use this to really give a better marketing approach to the town. There was a comment made earlier tonight that we're very anti-ourism and anti- tourism revenue preservation fund. Um, not really the case. Um, we we value the tourists. We value the the the monies
that they bring into the town, the value they bring to the community. Um, and without them, we wouldn't have a a fund. We wouldn't have really this committee. So, we just want to recognize that and and and thank everybody for for for coming to Yarmouth and choosing Yarmouth as a destination that they want to
vacation in and own second homes in. We we truly value that. Can I add something real quick? Um I think that there's some confusion over what the differences are in this contract that we're talking about. So we have historically been
giving one-year contracts because that's what and then we can go up to 3 years of renewing it through procurement laws. Right? That's my understanding of it. So, I can tell you this is how that has always gone because I've only been on
this committee for a year and I did this. We approved a contract last year. So, I know that we've only been giving one-year contracts. That's not anything different. Um, it's the reason we kind of talk about it as 10 years of the
chamber doing it isn't that they had a 10-year contract. It's just that they are the ones that continually get the contract. Um, and so we tend to just talk about it in long terms, but we have not changed anything about how long
we're doing it for. We specifically said one year on this one because we wanted to have the pause to think about that we were really making sure that we were marketing what we wanted to that um the
contract had kind of been just repeated every time without anyone really looking into if what they were giving us exactly what we asked for was that still what we wanted. Right. And so that was really more than
anything that we've just and we've had those conversations um with Mary in the chamber multiple times now just trying to figure out if there's things we can be more clear on things that we want differently from the um contract. So, I
just want to be clear that the only difference that's in this contract as opposed to previously is that we've instead of it being for marketing, visitor services, and special events, um, we pulled the special events funding
out of it because we already do special event funding. Um, and it was just getting kind of weird with the buckets of money, right? that we have a marketing bucket and we have a um special events bucket and everything that we bring to you guys. Um and so it
was getting kind of weird with all the events like if they needed a change in the contract because an event needed some extra money, right? Was that marketing money because it came from the marketing fund or was it event money because it
was for an event and it was just getting a awkward like it was just getting kind of weird to do. um as they're getting more and more amazing events that they're doing. Um and so that had been something that we had been talking about for a while and that's the only real change is that we moved that their
events we would just look at as we look at the rest of them like seaside and all of the other events in the town. Okay. I'm still trying to understand exactly what's going on here. ask a few questions while you're trying to understand or are you still No, I think
what what I'm interested in doing is is is is taking some time to really understand this. I'd like to know where the business community is on this. The tourism promotion fund was established as a way to promote economic development in in partnership with the business community. And I'm I'm usually they're
here at these meetings and I'm just surprised that we don't have anybody here unless I'm missing maybe there's somebody online. But I I would certainly like to get a better sense that there's some support within the business community for what we're trying to do. That's that's my concern, Madam Chair. Okay. Yeah. No, I I have I guess I have
a little bit of a concern and it maybe it's because even before um this um I think we we as a town decided to bundle them because there was Well, well, first of all, let me just back up.
They give you the information. They apply for the RFP just like everybody else. Okay. So, so the chamber has given all of the information and in each case has been chosen as the most advantageous
partner for the town. I get concerned with um you know sometimes in town government we work in a little bit of a silo and I find that the way that we've packaged it has been very advantageous for us because they they are doing all
of it. Um I see this as um a lot of these events take a significant amount of work. They're not just it's not just the marketing, but there's a lot of coordination and advertising and
um you know a lot of other things that go into it. And frankly um I've I don't know if it's not broke, don't fix it. I don't I don't understand I don't understand that piece of it. Um what is it that is not working for you that
makes you want to take it out? Is it just the complexity of understanding the funding? Is that what I'm understanding? No, that's not just the the reason like we're trying to do a more holistic approach to make sure that we're getting what we need. And I would also say that they're they've been the most advantageous. They've also been the only applicant in the last decade to apply
for the fund, right? And so, you know, I think that the way that it's written sort of precludes other people from doing it. It's not to say that we don't want the chamber to do it, but I think a healthy procurement process includes hearing from multiple responses. Um and and the visitor services and events
piece, you know, kind of doesn't jive with what you know, essentially what I think we should do if what I'm hearing from you all is that it's not an RFP for a contract for marketing visitor services and events. It's some sort of a memorandum of understanding and payment to the chamber for doing the services that they do. I mean, because that if
we're going to put it out to RFP and solicit other responses, then we there's the chance that we might not get to, you know, that somebody else might come in who's more advantageous. But the chamber is important and we want to support them and we do. Um, but we're trying to do a more holistic marketing approach and they have, you know, they have great
special events that we have plenty of money for in our bucket. Um, and we just want to do a more comprehensive approach to marketing and we're just we're looking at yearround and tourism stuff and working with the businesses and we just we want to do a check-in. It's a 10-year check-in at this point that really hasn't been done. And I think
that's a healthy part of the process. So, it's not that anything's broke. It's not that there's any, you know, anything negative to it. It's really just it's about time for a healthy check-in and that's kind of all that we're trying to do. I don't disagree with that and I think our RFP should be written in a manner that we create what it is that we
all agree that we want. So, whoever applies. Um I just don't know about breaking the pieces out. So, for me, I'm like Mark, I want to hear from I want to hear from the chamber. I also want to hear from town staff in terms of what it
is that um you know what our commitment would be if we feel comfortable um you know I know that they've worked together very well um but I don't know what this means
to us um I also have a question about the funding so the funding is through the um tourism revenue preservation fund so when you talk about yearround and second homeowners. I'm concerned because that funding is for um
marketing events for you know whomever it is visitors or residents. I'm just trying to figure out I know you keep talking about also for economic development which embraces the entire community including yearround and second homeowners and for public improvements which improve everything for yearround
and second homeowners. We're the community and economic development committee and so it addresses all of those. Um so right but I'm I don't know where the focus is going. I feel like I feel like um you know the business community was very
very supportive of getting the tourism revenue preservation fund legislation passed because you know our job or the job at the time of the CEDC was completely different and I've had the argument that this funding you know has
should be on in a totally different committee alto together but that's another story because I think that you're on the right track in terms of what we want the community and economic development committee to do which is attract businesses year round all that
stuff but I get concerned about the TFR the tourism revenue preservation fund being used for homeowners and second homeowners because really to me the majority of that money should be going towards events and uh things that
benefit the business community which is whether it's bringing people here that was the commitment that the town made to them when they agreed to sign on to this program. I don't think it isn't. I think that we're we're committed to that. Um we we've never not been committed to
that, but we we're trying to recognize that, you know, we we need to have a year- round base as well. And so we support that through all of our special events. The goal is to have them take place in the shoulder season to bring them to the businesses to support that that time of year when it's a little harder for everybody. Um, you know, we
we value both as equally. We're year- round residents here. We live here 365 days a year, and we see the impacts of when it's not tourism season, and we want to make sure that it's it's a comfortable year-round community. One thing that we talk about constantly is that all of us have to go to other towns to do things during during different
events and different times and and go outside of the bounds of Yarmouth to have a good time sometimes because there's not a lot here to be offered. and we want to help keep things in Yarmouth and attract businesses and entertainment and things to Yarmouth that are going to make it so that it's a great place for everybody. Um, and and
so we we value the both. We value both. And it's it's like asking to pick a favorite kid. You know, we can't we can't do it. We and we we love the business community and value their support, but to be honest, we don't really hear from them either. You know, we we we reach out to them. Our only contact through them is through the chamber. we can certainly do a better
job of connecting with them and inviting them and and maybe that's something that we can look forward to doing as the summer moves on is really making a more concerted effort to hear from them and what what they would like to see be marketed for the town. Okay. Bob, do you have anything that you'd like to add in terms of
No, I think before the contract is is bid out, one of the things that we we really need to do is maybe bolster the initiative to to get the communication flowing with the chamber. I think they feel left out at this point. And um I
know they had a meeting I mean I had a meeting with CEDC about the parade last year and it was a tough meeting. I mean they they were like going after me hammer and tongue and and I think that some of the chamber people are coming forward and saying well we had the same kind of meeting about the marketing contract and so I think there's a lot of
viewpoints that are are valuable that are going back and forth but a lot of the the communication is going every over everyone's head and and I I honestly think you know we need to make a determination um are there services here that the um the chamber can provide
or are we talking about we don't feel that the chamber's qualified to provide. Um and and I don't think that there's clarity on on that point. Are we seeking to replace the chamber or are we seeking to change the way they do business? And you know um in fairness to the CEDC
after 10 years of having um the contract go a certain way. Um you know perhaps the chamber feels that you know they know how to do it. they're doing it their way and you just give me the money and I'm going to do this um you know my way and and you know they come in and
they're not really willing to um change be flexible. I'm not sure to what extent you know they're they're working on this branding effort but um I I tend to think that uh there is a piece with the communications and you know some of these people that are coming to the to
the podium and saying oh there's an anti-chamber. Well, they're Chamber of Commerce volunteers that are over at the chamber every day and they're they're sort of carrying the uh the message back from some of the people in the chamber who's have their feelings hurt and and I
I I think that um you know we need to just get a little of the communication flowing and you know clearly I'd like to to see um a scope of work that the chamber can make themselves you know prepared to achieve.
even if it's a change. I think the chamber needs to be open to to change. But um I I hope you know not to see this as an effort that we're going to um you know the chamber's not competent enough. So we want to hire a professional marketing agency that is is more
talented than we have locally and bring in some you know outside folks to to do it. I I I'm I'm not sure that's what the whole thing was set up to do. and and so perhaps we can sit with the chamber and and you know have some additional meetings. I I I don't think you know you
talk to the chamber and you know they're calling around well I'm not going to meet with the CEDC because you know they're mean to us and and all this stuff and and I I don't think that that's the it's not fair to us because we've had a full transparent process. But um but I'm I'm just saying is that this is what it's more of a
communication issue. But I personally I don't see the communication getting better by splitting it up into multi- pieces. I think, you know, we do have a communications issue now, right? Clearly, there's there's something going
on that somebody's not happy with the way something's going, but breaking it up even more, I can't imagine that that's going to solve our our issue. I think so. It would be my recommendation that we write an RFP that
um meets our needs and we put it out whether it's the chamber or somebody else that that um responds. That's that's open procurement, but we should be writing an RFP for all of the town's needs. Dorcas.
Well, I just ask why isn't the chamber here? Do they have to wait to be invited to come and talk to us? I mean, I I don't think we're the great ogres out there. I mean, if the chamber had a problem, why aren't they here talking about it? When I look at this, and I don't see anyone here, my my feeling is,
well, they must be okay with it. Oh, no. And that I mean, in all essence, if if they have a problem, they should be here talking about it. That's my feeling on it. Well, I don't think they were invited today. So, but I mean, even if they weren't invited, they're they're members of this community. you know,
nobody has to be invited to a select board meeting. Any I mean that we should have an open uh policy for anyone that they can come. The agenda item says 750. So, Liz, did you have a question? I do, but I know Joyce also has a question and I know our
guest has a question, too. So, go ahead. You want me to go next? Okay. I I think she that they're on to something and I will go back to what I said initially that I do think that we have two branding two marketing tasks in front of us and I don't think that they're the
same and I do think that what we do need to do is get our ducks in a row so that when we put out our offering it gets us what we want. Now whether that's two offerings or part A and part B I don't
know. Um, but I I definitely think that they're on to something. I think that the town is going into a different um place. It's it is with the sewer getting finished and we need to get the money in for the to finish the sewer. And I think
that's a branding marketing challenge that needs to be addressed that is different from marketing our hotels and our restaurants and our water parks. Thank you, Joyce. Oh. Um, I guess it doesn't sound to me like you're um
proposing replacing anyone. It seems like the two groups maybe have the communications issues that you mentioned, but I mean I certainly don't see a conflict between having special events that draw in lots of people um
and from off Cape and bring you know much needed revenue and increasing the daily quality of life and maybe widening the economic base for year round people. I mean, I guess it's a question of how many human hours you can put into it, but that that seems to me like a good
goal. You're all those are val valiant very important things. I agree with that. I just think I just don't know who's going to manage the events. Um certainly I don't believe town staff has
the bandwidth to do it. Um so I'm not sure what will happen there um without the chamber or you know one collective one and then them perhaps not speaking to each other or coordinating right now you know at least it's within one place
so there's a little bit less coordination but um maybe two parallel tracks where community and economic development veers more toward the year round and the chamber veers more toward the the big splashy events. I mean, I I I I think this is an unnecessary um
strain between the two groups. I mean, it seems like they're they're all cheerleaders for Yarmouth. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. And I think I disagree with that. Thank you. Yeah. I mean, I think just really quickly, Danielle, just to that point, they can still apply for the event fund. They can apply for that money and and
use that for the event fund. So, we're not asking the town to take on anything more. We still want to find the chamber to do this. Um, and we all are cheerleaders for Yarmouth and and you know, it's not about replacing anybody. It's about making sure that what we're what we are asking for is what we're getting. And Mary has participated in all of these. Part of this whole
conversation stemmed from a discussion that we had with Mary at a meeting. So, she's been on this every step of the way. She's not always provided feedback, but she's been involved and at the meetings and and we've had these discussions for 6 to nine months now. We started this this talk earlier this
year. So, um, you know, it shouldn't be a shock or surprise to anybody over there about what's happening. Um, we've we've continued to ask for feedback. She had emails a couple weeks ago about it. Um, so, you know, we we all are cheerleaders of Yarmouth, as you put it, Joyce, and I think that's correct, and we just want to make sure that we're
hitting the mark on all the marketing. You know, like I said, this was developed 10 years ago. This RFP has not changed at all in that 10 years. The world has changed in 10 years. Yarmouth has changed in 10 years. marketing efforts and the way that we use technology and and track where people are going and where they're coming from
has changed. We're trying to keep up with those times. So, um I just want to say that first I agree with you that I think that some people have feelings hurt um probably legitimately on both sides at
this point after the months of conversations. And I I think that's really too bad because I think both sides, the chamber and us have really gone out of our way to keep trying to say to each other that we
understand where the other group is coming from. And so I don't disagree that at some point there is a communication breakdown because I truthfully believe that it actually comes from something that you had said
um was that we should be writing something that the chamber can do. And I think that the chamber um has done an amazing job with the contract. They have always done
everything we've asked for them. Um and we tried to make that very clear to them that this is not about them. This is about us wanting to look at it. But no one likes to hear that their job is being re-evaluated, right? like how do
you not take that personally? Um, and I think that is very much what's happening. Um, which is I I don't know how to mitigate and I think I feel really bad about, but I do think that's where some of the hurt
feelings come from is that you said we should write an RFP that they can do. But what we want to do is write an RFP and then see what businesses apply. It's not about not picking the chamber. I I will happily
pick the chamber over and over and over again, but the way the RFP has become is that the only group that could do it is the chamber currently. Right there there is no marketing company in Yarmouth or outside. We are not trying to find some
big Boston group to come in and market us. That's not our goal. No one else is going to do visitor services, right? like that's just reality. And so I think that it's
we are trying to be very the way that we have talked about this contract um I think where we say whoever gets the contract instead of the assumption that the chamber will get it
I think has led to some hurt feelings and I don't think that that I understand where the feelings come from. I would feel the same way in that situation. But that is simply us following procurement laws. And I think
that that is some of what needs to be thought about. Mhm. Um, is there a reason why we don't write the RFP to just meet our needs
collectively as one and see what happens? We are welcome to we are happy to do that, but I think part of the reason we're addressing this is we don't really know what our needs fully are yet. And that's why that's why we're looking to reevaluate and see for just for one year what marketing needs are are really needed and what we can get to
make sure that those needs are being met. Um, but we're happy to continue with a very similar RFP and contract, which most of the things in the marketing scope, which I I'm sorry it's not here and in our packet, but it was in our our last meeting packet, are are pulled out of the contract we have now. They're just enhanced to include the the
AI capabilities that we know the chamber has. they have placer technology and they're using that and and to make sure that those those um marks are coming back to us and those numbers are getting received to make sure that we're hitting, you know, all the right targets and and to attracting the the tourists
from outside of New England, outside of the the town and everything and and also just to make sure that like we're getting our needs met. And so that's kind of what we were hoping to do with this was to take the contract that we have now, which the scope is pulled directly from that for the marketing piece and just enhance it a little bit and make sure that we're getting and and
the and the chamber is more than capable of putting I I believe that they could easily do this contract if they were awarded the contract. I see no reason why they would not be capable and doing an excellent job in in fulfilling the needs of the contract. You mean a more enhanced uh contract? Yeah. And but in
the end we you guys are the ones that are elected, not us. So if you want us to give the same contract that we have been doing that includes everything, we will happily do that. That that is that's why we're here. Yeah. I just personally think that keeping it
collective is important. Um but I'm not saying that we shouldn't have our needs met. So, so why can't we change the RFP to en encompass everything that we need and put it out? I think that may be the the homework that they're suggesting to
us. Yeah, that's that's all I'm saying. Um, I'll help. But but in terms of the branding, I guess again I've sat here too long. We've been through this. We've done it several times. What is what is the impetence now for doing it again? We
have spent so much money on these studies and we just we did it not that long ago. Um and I don't know I I'm just trying to figure out where where where that initiated from. So, as I said, the Massachusetts
Municipal Association hosted a recent webinar that we attended, and it was honestly, it was amazing to see what other towns are doing to change the way that they're looked at by visitors and residents and and give everybody a really unique I don't know what Cape Cod within reach means to be honest with you. I don't know what that means.
Yarmouth, Cape Cod within reach. I I don't know what that means. I see it. Do you know where our deficits are though? Like, have you have you been able to ascertain like a negative deficit? something that we're not attaining through. We haven't been able to measure anything and that's what we hope that this branding effort would do is show us
what is lacking, what people want to see and and do the homework on it. Um, clearly we don't have a a strong enough, you know, communications for our businesses and promoting those and and attracting the, you know, we I think we do a pretty good job attracting the tourism people. We have all the hotels on Cape Cod and we do a good job with
that. But we, you know, when I when people think of like what is Yarmmouth and what does that mean? I don't think there's a clear definition and that's perfectly fine. Everybody has a way that they define it themselves, but a cohesive branding effort really is a way to make you stand out amongst your town and your communities and and everybody
else on Cape Cod. Um, and so we're just kind of looking to really, you know, bolster Yarmouth as a place to be. Um, and and to showcase that we're different than Dennis, that we're different than Barnstable, that, you know, everybody thinks that, oh, Yarmouth is the best because you can get on the highway really quickly and you can get anywhere.
And it's it's true. It's true. But we also have so many other things and like I don't want to be just known as the town that's like easy on easy off like I don't think that's really I think we I would agree with you because he hated that from the beginning and he made it very clear he hated that he hated that within from the beginning.
I just at at this point in time I guess I'm I'm lacking a little bit of data as to um the impetence to go down that road at this point. I I feel like through the data with the chamber um that they get from people who visit or you know we
must have we do surveys all the time. Um there's got to be some push that says, you know, we're lacking in in attracting people from this area or this is the way people feel about that. Um and and maybe
it is a start. Maybe we do some type of survey to start before we go down a whole rebranding path. Um, but that's just how I feel. I guess it's just because I've I've seen it before and every time we think we got the next best thing and I realize that things change,
but just Yes. One last, I I think that we are um going to be a different Yarmouth. We're seeing so many changes in the the parks that we're putting in. Um even if what we talked about earlier today and uh what's going to happen with
Madakis um if we get a new library I think that it's going to change Yarmouth now that is coming but now's the time to start preparing because that's part of making all of that palatable and exciting. It's it's part of the
packaging and the branding is that Yarmouth is in many ways reinventing itself. The Department of Transportation's going to fix up 28. There's a lot that's going to change and I think now is the time to to start building that that um message. Okay. All
right. So, we need to give them some direction on what what this committee um I guess hopes if if that's the the answer as far as um you know, I know that they have some dates coming up that
they need to meet. So, I think that, you know, we're kind of all over the place with our feelings, but I I don't if anybody wants to Can we send them away with a a a you know, good wish to explore and come back to us? I I mean,
I'm not sure what our time is. They've got to do something in terms of a contract. So, what when does a contract have to be signed? Well, June 30th. Well, they have they're on a timeline. September one is when we'd like to issue it for whether or not they put out one RFP, two RFPs,
re repeat what they're doing now, what what is what is the desire? I'd love to work on this, but I don't know how we approach that. If we don't put our feet in the water and test it, we never will. That's right. I mean, you know, can't we give them one year to try it? Yeah. Is
it going to do that much of a harm? We don't know. That's the problem. I don't know. What does that mean to the What does it mean to the chamber? What does that mean? They're not procluded from applying for the RFP. If they didn't apply, it would be sad to see, but nothing precludes them from applying to
a public bid process. And we've told them that and we welcome it and we really hope that they do apply because we also don't know who else we're going to get, but we'd love to see them to see them apply. Mark, yes. What would you like? I'm not prepared. You know,
first of all, I like talking about change. I take I I'm I'm very sympathetic to the points that you're making today, and I I find myself in an awkward position where we know that the the chamber has been alienated. Um the chamber is an incredibly important
partner for us in terms of the work that we're doing. And I think some effort needs to be spent trying to heal and and bridge the divide. Um, I'm not prepared to sign off on on on this direction at all tonight until I until I know better
and I don't want to be setting ourselves off where we're sort of having issues with the with the Yarmouth Chamber of Commerce. um they were instrumental in creating this tourism promotion fund and we've got to find a way to work together and uh yes I'm disappointed that someone
from the chamber's not here tonight but the reality is is we know that there's we've heard this from multiple people that there's there's there's been a rift here and uh it's important that we find a way to heal it and fix it. Okay, Bob, can we charge you with um maybe having a
meeting between um Mary and and Courtney and seeing what we can do? Um is that something that you'd be willing to do? No, I I'd love to do that. And and I would also say a lot of what is in here is tremendously refreshing. It's um you
know, exploring new directions to make our future better. And and I I I think that you know, we all need to understand that we need change. We need new ideas, new energy to move things forward. And you know, we also need the chamber, too. I don't want them boycotting us now. Oh,
we're not going to do this event. We're not going to do that event. And so, I I I I would love to to try to um work with Courtney and her whole team and and and sit down with the chamber in in in just like a non-threatening way. And absolutely. and come to some consensus
and uh report back to us before we u make a decision here and see if maybe we do need to have a meeting with the business community, maybe we need to go in a different direction um or make a decision based on the information that you give us. But I think that that is um I think that that would be beneficial if
you're willing to do that. I I I I think that um you know to Joyce's point, we all care about this town. We all wanted to move forward. We're you know the businesses everybody the is important and so is the chamber. So, um, Madam Chair, I find a
bit of optimism in the fact that the very first thing Courtney Butler said when she sat down was that Mary Wilbin was receiving the Commonwealth Heroin Award. She was doing marketing for the head of the Chamber of Commerce. I mean, they all cheerlead for Yarmouth.
Absolutely. There's no doubt about it. Is everybody on the board okay with that direction? That sounds good. Absolutely. We have great trust in in Bob and in the committee. Good work, Danielle. Thank you for your commitment. I appreciate that. Yeah. Thank you.
Okay. Next, we have our uh gateway fiber presentation. Please paperwork on it. Nothing. No, they asked Bob to I mean, yeah. To come in and give a brief presentation.
How are you? Good evening. Please introduce yourself for the record. Sure. Uh, good evening, Madam Chair, members of the committee. Uh, Derek Leford, head of government affairs for Gateway Fiber. I'm Sarah Lang, the head of market
growth for Gateway Fiber. Hey, so we uh greatly appreciate the opportunity to visit with you guys. We've had some preliminary discussions with some of the city staff and just wanted an opportunity to come in and kind of introduce ourselves uh who we are kind of what we're all about uh and let to
speak kind of an opening salvo or an opening conversation with elected officials uh as it relates to our plans uh here in Yarmouth. Uh Gateway Fiber is a fiber to the home internet service provider. We were head we were founded and and are headquartered uh in Missouri
just a little bit west of St. Louis. That's where I'm That's where I'm from. Sarah's more local. Um, you can probably hear that. Yeah. Everybody tells me when I come here that I have an accent, so I don't notice it, but apparently the the north I'm sure they think we talk funny, too.
So, uh, Gateway is, you know, we we started in Missouri, we began expanding into other states. Uh, Minnesota was our second market, and then Massachusetts was our third. Started over in the west west side of Massachusetts. and then uh over the past couple of years have been
heavily investing in uh preparations to begin serving here uh in the Cape Cod area. We've got multiple plans for multiple different areas here on the Cape. Uh and Yarmouth would be uh basically our second city that we would build or second town that we would build
here in the Cape. Um excuse me, Derek, did you say Yarmouth would be the second town? That's correct. So, who's the first? Uh uh Palmouth. Palmouth would be Palmouth would be the first, right? Yeah, pretty much in conjunction with each other. But so the first two, sorry, Felmouth and and Yarmouth are are pretty
much in conjunction with each other. So Okay. And we have a number of other locations that we have invested in. A lot of that's going to be proprietary information. I'm sorry. That's okay. Sorry. I Yeah, I talk low. It's the heating systems right behind me. Sure. So it's the cooling system.
Uh but we do have a number of other uh locations that we have invested in. We we can't necessarily disclose a lot of that right now because it's still kind of proprietary. Uh but suffice it to say that we are are very very uh eager to begin serving the Cape Cod community and
and very much looking forward uh to getting started here in Yarmouth. We are uh quite a few months down the road here in Yarmouth um in terms of the pole collection uh and the design phase of this and uh basically are waiting on make ready to come back so that we can
get started on the make ready uh and then begin that make ready process and then begin construction. One of the reasons that a lot of companies have avoided kind of investing into fiber optic installation in Massachusetts is because of the extensive amount of time that it takes uh for the make ready
process. It's usually, you know, by the time you you begin the the the process and then get to construction, you know, you're 18 to 24 months, uh, which is is not always ideal for, uh, companies that that want to see a quicker return on investment. Gateway understands that
it's more of a long-term proposition for us and uh that's why we have chosen to to make the sort of investments that we've made uh and why we think Yarmouth is is one of the great spots here for us to to uh to invest in. As far as what we offer, uh we we do know that you guys
only have one provider right now and it's, you know, not a lot of residents are are overly excited about that that one option. Uh we are laser focused on making sure you know our mission is to to to help improve the communities that we serve through a better internet
experience and we do that in a number of different ways but the one thing I wanted to focus on was reliability and affordability. So affordability, just to give you an example of our our pricing, 65 a month for a 300meg service. That's a symmetrical upload download. Uh it's
300meg service. And our 600meg service is 75 a month. Our 1 gig service is 90 a month. Um so it that's that's not 65 a month plus fees plus taxes plus installations. It's literally $65 a
month. We don't do contracts. We believe our service speaks for itself both in terms of the reliability as well as uh the customer service that we provide as well. It's all coming in you know all of the calls that would come in would be coming in to you know people here in the
United States both locally and in St. Louis. So uh our you can you can read the reviews online. You can also check with any of the other communities that we've invested in uh on the west side of Massachusetts. We started in Northampton. I've also built Gardener uh
in the process of just about to begin build in Pittsfield. Uh and we would invite anyone to uh reach out to those communities to see kind of how we partner with them uh as as part of a community partnerships. That's something that's big for us. That's one of the
reasons that we're here tonight is to make sure that we're fully transparent with with the city, both the elected officials as well as well as the staff. uh and we really place a huge emphasis on making sure that we're communicating with you guys throughout the entire build process. So, uh this is just the
introductory part of it and as we continue to build, we'll come back and update you guys on progress and then if you guys have any issues, constituents are having any concerns or something like that, we want to make sure that we're here to address those uh forthrightly and hopefully deflect some of those well in advance of you guys
receiving those. How difficult is it for you to um be able to utilize the polls that are here? Um and how do you how do you market that? How
do you market your program to local citizens? Yeah. So, in terms of the the poll, you know, it's going to require some replacements uh and and it's going to require some make ready, which is really kind of the the longer process. That's why it can't happen immediately and that's why uh it's it's kind of
taken a little bit longer. Uh so, you know, we're working with the the the utility pole owners uh to make sure that we we get done the work that needs to be done in order to enable our our service to go on the polls. Uh so that process takes quite a while. Go ahead. Yeah, sure. So, and I think for those of you
that are familiar with um you putting infrastructure on on polls, I think one of the challenges or one of the challenges here in in Massachusetts is that the polls are are not just joint use, but they're joint owned by both Verizon and here on the Cape Eversource.
And so just that coordination and that um you know that back and forth um really is a much longer timeline than in in other states. So that's one of the challenges. We have a a team here that has decades of experience constructing
and operating fiber networks in Massachusetts. And so that's really helped as far as our um efficiency, as far as our speed when it comes to building, but it still does take time. And you know, we we really uh we we're really working to to manage that. And I
think as far as marketing, if you want to provide that. Yeah. Yeah. As far as marketing is concerned, we'll do a number of different things. We'll we'll do a lot of print advertisements, a lot of social media advertisements. Uh we do some outdoor stuff. Uh so there's a number of different venues that we
utilize for our marketing. Uh we also will do various different events throughout the city in advance of uh construction actually completing uh so that folks are aware of our service and uh have opportunities to ask questions for our teams that are that are going to
be out here helping uh to kind of deploy the service to to the residents. So go ahead. I have two more questions. Sure. Um is there any um you know through the other uh company there's you know we get
public access funding through through that. So I'm just wondering how that works. And then the second question is do you need a certain commitment prior to your investment in our community? No, we don't we don't need a commitment and actually we're not really asking for
anything from the city. Uh we're here as a service. I'm sorry. Yeah, for the town. My apologies. Um, so we're not we don't we don't need anything necessarily from the city. We we want to be transparent and collaborate uh to the extent possible. Um, but in terms of what you know, we
don't necessarily need anything from the city. As far as uh the the public access funding that you you mentioned, uh that has been brought up in in other communities as well and other towns in in Massachusetts. So, uh, we don't necessarily have anything specific to
that yet, but we do have a what we call a Gateway Gives Foundation. Uh, Gateway Gives is, uh, Gateway as a whole is very charitable in our local sponsorship and our foundation activities. We do realize that, you know, we want to be a a great community partner, uh, and invest
heavily in uh, the communities that are supporting our growth. Uh, so, you know, that's still under consideration in terms of, you know, how we can how we can leverage those things. uh to help out that that sort of thing that you're talking about. But whether it's that or you know local sports sponsorships or
things like that, uh we're we're committed to investing back in the community. No, Mark is chomping at the bit. Yeah, you got that right. What I'm hearing is comp what I'm hearing is competition for Comcast, right? Which is great, right? Which is great. So, we'll we'll we'll we'll make
a statue for you folks uh once at the ribbon cutting. So, um, my my first question is when can you start? And my second question is when can you finish? That's a that's a great question. So, we're we've actually started the process, you know, we're we're probably
18 to 24 months into this already. So, we Well, maybe not. Well, yeah, actually, when it comes to like the planning and and the design phase, but yeah, we, you know, we've been really at it um investing in since, you know, for a year now. So, yeah, we've been making investments for for a year. We've
invested already um over half a million dollars in Yarmouth already. Yes. Correct. That's Can you talk to us a little bit about what that That's for the the collection the the the collection for the polls. Yes. So poll collection and application submission.
Um, so to get so I know we talked about the make ready process and just um, you know, for for those of you who maybe haven't heard what that is, it's you know the process of making room for us to attach it to the polls and that starts with um, poll collection collecting the data on the polls and submitting applica the application to
the utilities both Verizon and Eversource and then managing that you know those applications through the through the process. So we're already um, really deep into that that process. Yeah. Yeah. I want to thank you for uh putting Yarmouth on your list and
thinking of our community. Um I think you'll find a very positive reception from residents particularly with the lower costs and I think you'll obviously find a lot of interest in our business community as well. Um I think this is a very exciting development. This is great
news. Um uh and uh I think it's something that we can all applaud and uh and and and say thank you for for for for doing what I'm interested in knowing. My final question, Madam Chair, is what can we do to help you get this done as soon as possible? Yeah. So I
think that you know the planning and and collaboration would be pretty important. You know, helping us you know obviously there's going to be police detail required things like that. Uh we don't need preferential treatment. We just we're just asking for uh you know assistance to make sure that that we're
able to can to to do our work in a in a timely and expeditious manner. The quicker we can get through this, the quicker we can serve everybody. Uh so really just kind of planning the planning and to the extent that there's going to be some permitting required maybe kind of expedite some of the
permits. But I I have a couple more and we spoke about this. So, you know, the um you know, as Dererick mentioned, you know, just uh you know, really assistance getting us in touch with the right people or if we um you know, run into obstacles when it comes to, you
know, um detail like police detail and um flaggers can always be a challenge. Um in the obviously there are the moratoriums um you know during the the summer months and you know we'd just like to collaborate um and coordinate really um you know with with the town
folks in folks in the town in order to um you know see if there is way you know for example you know staying off main roads during um you know during the the moratoriums but maybe we have the ability to go um into neighborhoods but just coordinating um with you all there.
And then also, you know, there is while the majority of the infrastructure is aerial, it's on the poles, there are also um underground areas and and that's where we would um you know, potentially would we'd love to work with you as far as um you know, getting that permitting or potentially even, you know,
coordinating um with existing um infrastructure projects that are happening. So, great. Yeah. Welcome. Yeah. Thank you. In addition to that, I also want to mention, you know, if there's an opportunity maybe, and you don't have it, you don't have to advertise for us, but you know, if there's an opportunity for us to maybe
include something in some town communications that you send out to residents like, hey, there's a another provider coming to town. Again, it doesn't need to be advertising for us, we don't expect that. Uh, but if there's an opportunity to help get the message out, then that that would be beneficial and helpful as well.
Well, you're answering the question for me of what's been going on around the polls the last month or two because I've seen a lot of attention to the polls. So, now I know why. This is I am assuming are your advanced people that are out. I'm not sure if we've begun the make ready process completely yet. We assumed
it was Osprey. Yeah, they're not that far. No, no, no, no. These were technical. There have been people out Yeah. surveying and surveying. Yeah. Surveying and and looking at polls. Absolutely. I think so. Yeah. And I'm right there with Mark. Whatever we can do
to see a little healthy competition is always a good thing, right? We think so. So, we've already Oh, sorry about that. But, can I also suggest to you really kind of drum it into yourself? You're on Cape Cod now. They're towns. Yes. I I I'm Yeah, I know. sensitive about the
It's the Missouri. It's the Missouri in me that's having a hard time when you go to Bern. So, um I um would make a pitch that we get if you do have any ability to focus on an area. Our Route 28 businesses have
been beat up and they're black and blue and bleeding and anything that we can do to make their lives better and maybe getting them a little less expensive. Internet could be something and maybe a grant would go a long way. So, um, we
have a real big need right now to take care of those business people. So, um, yeah, that is a segment of ours that we're going to focus on. Our our our bread and butter has always been, uh, fiber to the home. So, the residential segment, but, um, commercial is also a strategic focus for us as well. Uh, and
so that is in in our discussions with city staff, they they had indicated town staff, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, town staff, they they had indicated that um that the the business community was suffering and and really needed some help there. So, we're we're eager to
serve uh the residents, but we're also eager to serve the businesses. We also have another segment of our business. It's -ate funding uh where we provide um uh highspeed internet to to schools uh and and educational institutions. Uh so
that's another segment of our business on top of the the residential and the and the commercial. So you're in con discussions with our town administration. Yeah, we met with we met with Bob. We met with Paul uh right before Paul's trip to Italy. We we came
up and and and met with with him. Uh, and then we met with uh several people from the from the city staff, you know, online. Uh, I'm sorry. I'm I'm going to get it eventually. I promise you that. Several people from the town. So, just, you know, different a lot of different
DPW, the city engineer, all those those um those groups that are just really town engineer. Town engineer. Yeah. See, she she did it, too. And she's from here. My bad. Um Yeah, the town engineer. And so, you know, the folks that are just really um it was really helpful like just to have this, you
know, initial sort of kickoff meeting just to introduce ourselves so that you know, as we're looking for um you know, permitting and as we're working through um you know, everything down the down the road, we'll we'll have the right people to to get in touch with. Perfect.
Great. Did anybody else have anything else? Well, I'm um happy to uh that you came in for the presentation. I think the people at home will be happy to hear. They'll be looking for dates and um information, no doubt. So um you know, oftentimes we put information in
our packet from Comcast about their changes. So um perhaps we can do that. I don't know about advertising or sharing. That might be a little bit um difficult for uh for us to do, but uh we'll see what we can we'll see what we can do, but um certainly this will spark some
interest and people will be inquiring. Yeah. Yeah. Is do you have um a way for people to get in touch with you? Yeah, your town your town staff has um contact information for us so uh uh Bob's got it. Paul's got it as well. I'm sure others do. If you have a website or
something that people can go to because we can't have like 3,000 people calling Bob. Sure. Yeah, we will. It's uh it's uh it's just gatewayfiber.com. Uh, one of the things that I would encourage you guys to do if you have time is to get on the communities page and and there's kind of a a video on
there that talks about kind of the partnerships that we have with the communities. Um, and you know, it kind of describes who we are as a company. I think uh you'll find a significant difference between who we are as a company and some of our competitors. Uh, and that's not just stuff that we put on
our website. That's truly a part of our DNA. And uh I we think that you'll find that whenever you whenever you start working with us. Great. Well, thank you for coming. Thank you. Appreciate it, guys. Thank you for having us. Yeah. Lovely town.
Whatever the name. Okay. Our next item is um a discussion and vote about the um traffic pattern and a four-way stop at the intersection of Wood. Are we the library? Oh. Oh, I missed that. How'd I do that?
I was thinking it was later right up in front of you. Sorry. Stop. I'm sorry. We're going to go to the library building committee next. Sorry. I wasn't trying to keep you waiting, Jane. I just got so excited that we were moving along on schedule that
I was trying to move us along faster. How are you doing? Great. This is your magic clicker. Which one works on I hope the arrows. Yeah. Okay. Jane, you going to sit up here with me? I am not. Come up here. Maybe we'll sit.
I'll sit with Okay, Madame Chair, thank you very much. Committee members, thank you. Uh, it's nice to be here. It's a good thing you didn't start explaining to him about villages. I think you might have thrown We would We would have been a while. We would have been a while. I just gave him a note about that.
Can you um do you mind introducing yourself in the committee? Uh, sure. My name is Tom Pendleton. Um, I'm a South Yarmouth representative. Um, go ahead. Mindy Harrington, youth services supervisor, Yarmouth Town Libraries. Vicky Goss, I was Yarmouth, library
user. Sandy from the capital budget committee. I'm Jane Kane. I'm the library director. Sus planning board representative. I'm Joel. I work at the libraries. And Dorcas McGarin is the select board representative. And just for
clarification, Madam Chair, I'm the vice chair of the committee. Unfortunately, Tracy is ill tonight and can't be present. Judy is ill tonight and can't be with us. Oh, I'm sorry to Judy. Is she on? I don't
know if she's on or not. No, I didn't see her. Yeah. Oh, JC Tech is here. Yeah, she's here. Yeah, JC T. I'm not sure if she's filling up to it, but maybe they can. Okay. All right. All right. Fine. So, um, we're here tonight
to present to you our recommendation for a new library site in the town of Yarmouth. Um, we, um, I'd like to move to the second slide here. Um, the site selection and grant, these sites were included in the analysis based on past
inclusion in prior studies over the past decade. I mean, basically, back since 2004, there's been discussion about the library program here in town. Uh the site selection itself is very crucial to the grant process as the commonwealth requires a site to be selected prior to
the start of architectural work. Um we have to have the schematics and things done by December to get into the commonwealth so that we can move forward with the grant. Uh the library building committee must produce schematics. Uh the schematics are due in December to
the commonwealth for the grant program. Um the sites that we we looked at in no particular order were the South Library, the West Library, Madakis, Senior Center, Oldtown House, Simkins Field, and the Bayberry Golf Course vacant lot.
Uh the four sites were in we we had pushed forward four sites initially and those were the Simkins Field, West Library, Madakis, and Bay. And this is a layout in relation to what they're near primarily DY schools, the Emmy small
school, the Yarmouthport library, Route 6 and Route 28. The one site that we after discussion and hearing from the town's people, we recommend thoroughly the Simkins site. Uh it's about 2 and a half miles or 2.2
miles from the DY schools. It's close to Emmy Small. It's fairly It's not quite centrally located, but it it does provide easy access from just about from anybody in the town of Yarmouth. Uh the MLCP grant program actually began
last in April of 2024. As you know, town meeting authorized grant application library program completed uh in May of 2024. The grant was filed. We received $100,000 uh in February. Update to the select
board. The RFQ went out to the architects this past February and then we began site assessment and our committee was appointed in April. Um our first committee meeting was actually May 5th and we did an arch architect
selection in May on May 29th of 2025. uh the meeting at that meeting we did a short list after that meeting we did a short list um we did public about the sites and then we did a public meeting last um Tuesday about 120 people came uh
to the open meeting and there were about 37 online so we had good representation and good participation uh from the town folk uh and then tonight we're here before you guys um and hope we can get a possible vote on moving forward
So the code of mass regulations 605 CMR blah blah blah all that good stuff as approved the site selection criteria of the commonwealth. The site must be approved by the municipality and accepted by the board during the planning and design phase of the
project. It must be specified prior to commencement of MLCP funded design work with a stamped site plan prepared by an architect registered in Massachusetts. Uh the site must include adequate space for parking, grading, utilities, the
library building itself, including any any necessary space for future expansion. Um we really wanted to be forward thinking. We're looking not just 20, we're looking at 30 maybe 50 years down the road. um in terms of what this library might do for the town going
forward. So this is the ideal this is the ideal space alloc allocation for the library and these are just recommendations by the state. They're no no way fixed in concrete. Um the library size that we're
looking at and based on many different studies going back again to about 2004 is a library size of about 25,000 square ft. The state recommends for a building of that size, for a library of that size, that we have about 5.74 acres. Um,
which includes space for pavement, you know, for parking and open space and various and expansion primarily expansion. So, prior information and current site process again this this all goes back to
about 2004. There were multiple building condition studies and they were completed and prior and recent library committees and studies. Uh the project website that arrow is the the public can go and click that little link there and
go to our particular site and find all kinds of current information and past information um about the history of the library program. So the present sites, we developed a list of sites to determine what to analyze. Study factors that could disrupt the project including
environmental and and um endangered species. Uh develop criteria for review that was a little bit more subjective. Short list of sites and reduced to four sites that was completed on June 5th. Um and then we again we had the public meeting and comments on sites on June
17th. We also received a good number of um emails from various town folk um and provided uh feedback on the sites. Um we then followed up the next night with a review of the public meeting regarding the sites and and then tonight we're
presenting our recommendations to the select board. So the way we went about this is after we we got the initial eight sites, we did we decided to do a ruling out process to determine the most beneficial site for the project based on reasonable
criteria, Commonwealth standards, and environmental constraints. We didn't want to select a site right off the bat. We wanted to make a determination on the best sites possible going forward and eliminate some so we weren't dealing with too many at one
time. and then rate the remaining sites with public input in hand which we did last week again on June 17th. And you can see on the right these are the things that we took into consideration the character the context uh commonwealth guidance expansion and
safety etc etc. So, the recommended site after looking at all the sites and getting public comments, um, we thoroughly recommend the Simkin site across the street here at 28 Wood Road.
Both parcels are in consideration. Uh, there's ample land for library near other relevant town uses. Town Hall, the schools are right not too far down the street. It is on a bus route, reasonably near the schools. it is in a partial
slash zone and we'll get to that in in another slide going forward. Um it's also that this site is also being considered as a town common and we think that would collaborate nicely as a town common putting a library in that site and it has good frontage.
Uh again like I said it includes both parcels the field and the MacArthur school property. Simpkins Field. Um it's six it's about 25 acres with the two sites combined. Uh has good frontage. Again, it's in a
slash zone. It's about 2 miles to the Station Avenue schools. Um and it's fairly centrally located. It's not too far from South or West Library. Um and not too far from the senior center
frontage. You've all seen this. This is looking kind of from uh from Wood Road. Oops, sorry. Didn't need that. Uh again, this is another entrance to the property.
And this is the layout includes the two the two sites. Uh there's the old school. Both parcels are included in this project. Uh here's the boundary layout. um has a lot of open space as you can
tell uh incorporates the school. I guess there's consideration that there may be Emmy school Emmy small may be moving down into there. Um Simpkins Field again on the slash zone. So you can see from this map and a slash
zone is basically FEMA, Army Corps of Engineers and National uh uh Noah um decide what becomes a slash zone. So this zone is partially in a slash zone and you'll see in the that you can't
read that at the top, but the red indicates it would take possibly a a hurricane a hurricane 4 a goodsiz hurricane to inundate this area. If we have a a foresize hurricane, I think we're all in trouble. Not just that
site. A slash zone is Sea Lake and overland surge from hurricanes. Again, it's a computerized model by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, US Army Corps of Engineers, and the National Weather Service. Um, as you can see,
there is a little bump in the middle that is not included. Uh, the school is not included. So that red area that it it would be a category 4 hurricane that would inundate this um inundate this this site. There is a little green area.
We believe that's a a a lowlying wetlands part of the uh property. Um but we don't feel and I think working with the architect and the state I think we can alleviate any issues with the slash center.
This is history going back to uh I believe 1869 of all the hurricanes that have occurred until 1990. And we have not had a category 4 hurricane. We have had a three um but
never a four. Not in this area. Um and post 1991 we 1990 we've had one hurricane and that was Hurricane Bob in 1991. So we have no we have not had a category 4
hurricane historically. Um this is just another layout also involves adjacent town on site um which I believe are the ball fields. Tom. Yes ma'am. Can you just pull the microphone for the people at home? It's it's you're
fine when you're speaking this way but when you're looking at this way. Okay. Thank you. I appreciate that. So, this this site also involves some town owned land. And if I'm not mistaken, I think that's the ball fields. Am I right, Bill? Yes.
Uh, the sites that were not that were considered at the public meeting. Um, and those were the following. Madakis, there is a large area. However, competing interest with pending decisions, somewhat remote location.
There's no ancillary or other uses nearby. Uh the muck process here is really going to kind of has more or less eliminated the site. They're not going to really make their decisions until January. And the
library designs must be done by November to submit to the state. There is no bus line up there. And we do have to take into considerable consideration any wastewater issues because we are near wells up on the Madakis site.
Um again this is a layout of where the Madaki site is. Um it's fairly central. It's got it's got plenty enough size. The 150,000 square feet has two buildings on it. The muck planning um I won't use the same joke I used at the
town meeting, but it is mucking up this the process here a little bit. Sorry, I had to do that. Went there. Frontage. It has frontage and but there are wetlands issues with the Madaki site. Uh he and now it's not clicking. Oh,
there we go. Go back. There's the uh the cutout to get into the Madaki site. I think we've all seen this. There's the layout of the site with the two schools and the solar field. Um again it's it it's
it until the until the MUC committee gets done with it I don't think we can proceed with this site. Uh we didn't get a lot of public comments about Madaki site uh there wasn't a lot of interest with it. Um but again it does have sufficient size to incorporate a
library. Uh he crowd we don't need to see these. The West Library was considered has historical consideration. It's been around since 1965. Uh there is a donation from a town member um who provided funding for this building. Um
we have we took that into consideration. It's located on a bus route. It does services the uh the community, the village of West Yarmouth. Um limited size. Uh it's it's smaller than any ex except the south library size. It's a
small It's smaller than anything else and it's totally within a slash zone. Um, it's 1.36 acres and if you go back to that formula that the state provided, uh, 1.36 acres, we could not fit a
25,000t library in that site. Uh, there's no adequate parking. Has good frontage. It is a beautiful library. Um, it has an existing barn which is in the back of the in the back area of the library and again it's fully located in
a slash zone and it's a little bit more distant to the schools. It's about 4 miles. Again, it presents very well from Route 28. It's probably the nicest building along 28. Um, it's got historic structure. Uh, it's a very nice library.
Uh, that's the back barn. I guess was a former fire station I believe at one point. Thank you. Um this is the layout with the uh the grid. Um it's got a beautiful front piece of the property. It sits well on
28 adjacent to the church. Um it has served the the the village of West German very well for the past oh 60 years about. This is a slash zone site. I mean, you can tell by the map it's fully in the
red. Um, has a little bit of yellow at the top. Um, and here's a deeper a deeper showing of that with the the red. Um, again, but it would be a hurricane, a category 4 hurricane that would inundate this
facility, which we've seen historically has not happened around here. Um, it also involves the adjacent barn in the back which I believe now we believe is being used as storage
out of town. Um, near Bayberry Course on 635 West Yarmouth. This is sufficient land area. It's a goodiz piece of property. It's forested land. It would require a lot of clearing. It's somewhat remote. It's not on a bus route and it
does have endangered species. And to be honest with you, I don't remember what endangered species it was, but it I'm sorry. Bats. Bats. Thank you. Bats. It has bats. Some butterflies. And some butterflies. What's that? Okay.
Um it's 6.5 acres, which it it could incorporate uh the building has good frontage. It's vacant. Town owns it. It's a wooded lot, and you'll see in a further slide, it's totally wooded, and it does have endangered species.
I keep hitting that. Um, this is the frontage, um, Chelurn Street, I believe, and West Armouth Road, and it's totally wooded, so it would it would take a tremendous amount of clearing to clear this property to do
any construction on it before we got started. It's fairly close to the Bayberry Golf Course. All the golfers around the Cape, they hit pretty straight shots, so I doubt they're going to hit into the area. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.
Um, and then again, this is another layout. It's not in a slash zone, just has the endangered species. So, in summary, uh, the Simpkins area is the recommended site. It is in a partial
slash zone. However, it's near Town Hall. It fits the library expansion and outdoor events in in collaboration with the town common. It's on a bus route. It's reasonably close to the primary school location and it is town-owned.
The West is a is the smallest site of the four. Less room for expansion or outdoor events. It's entirely in a slash zone. It does have historical nature. Um there is a important piece about the
donation here that we heard a lot about. It does serve the village of West Dermath and it is town owned. Um we do request, you know, there's and we'll talk about this going forward. Um there's strong recommendation for the
town to look at maintaining this as possibly a library site going forward. Uh Madakis is 70 acres. Um, again, we need to make a decision by we need to have schematics by November, early
December. The MUK program is not going to be done until January. Uh, the school decision, Emmy small, the school decision, I I believe, understanding they're not going to make their decision until about January, which sets us back. It's in a remote location, not on a bus
route. We have to consider the wastewater system because of the wells and it is on wetlands. does have ample area and it is townowned. Um, and then Bayberry of course, which we just talked about, has endangered species,
requires extensive clearing, does have sufficient size, and it is town owned. Sites that we looked at initially that were ruled out were the following. the senior center. It's uh it's actually land adjacent to the senior center um to
the housing authority land has an environmental impact. There's a drainage issue. It's high water table. Uh limited access to the street or room for expansion. It is centrally located although not on a bus route. Um there's
no environmental hazards located here. Uh so this is where it is according next to Homer Park not far from Route 6 or DY schools or Madakis. It's got 7 acres. There is a building the senior center
building is about 12,000 square ft. It's adjacent to the housing authority and has good frontage but it does have drainage issues. Um sorry. Go back. Well, let me go back. Okay. Old Town House Road uh is actually housing
authority land. It's not owned by the town. Um the environmental impact here has drainage issues in the area and neighbor concerns. They've had concerns in the past. It's non-compliant with endangered species. It is centrally
located, but is adjacent to Wells. And then again, this is just the old townhouse site. It's about 18.69 69 acres, but again, it's housing authority land, which I think is going to be a problem.
Uh, this is the frontage. Um, and then this is the the property itself again, which is all housing authority land. And then the south library, um, it's on the edge of town. The smallest one is about.7 acres. Um,
it's in a slash zone as well, but it's right on the Dennis line. Um, personally, I think it's a beautiful library. It's a library my kids grew up with. Um, I love it, but unfortunately,
it's a little small. Uh, this is the overlay. Um, it would have severe parking issues. Um there was some talk about looking at land on the other side of Mil Street. Yeah, that's the land we bought for a library. Was that considered? It was
years ago. Yeah, it was considered. Um but even with that particular site, there's not enough land there to do much and you'd probably have to I don't know. You need a variance. You need a variance. Probably close off Mil Street.
I don't know. Um so findings so for us uh from our information in the public meeting Simkin site uh was favored by the majority of those in attendance. Um it has clear attri clear
attributes for a library location in a village context. It's approximate to other village uses, municipal uses with sufficient size and opportunity for outdoor library events, which Mindy is very big on the West Library site. We recognize the
constraints of the site as related to size. It's just a little bit small. We cannot ignore the many who spoke with a clear message and we have to reiterate um they were passionate when they came to the meeting. um they clearly love
their library and uh they they spoke very highly of it. The south library has more substantial site limitations, just way too small. And then the town common, you know, collaborative opportunity of the common
project, working with the library building project, I think is an advantage um going forward. other sites to be considered beyond uh these sites were just presented at the meeting and did not have demonstrated support and that that included Madakis
and um Bay did not get a lot of public support or did Madakis. Um and then the grant funding uh December is a deadline for schematics to meet the requirements of the grant program. This site decision is crucial to moving
forward. and then recommendations from us. Okay. We support the selection of the site we refer to as the Simkin site for further consideration. Includes both parcels. We strongly encourage the select board to consider the reuse of
the south and west library sites in a manner that is keeping with the commitment and passion that the users and village residents hold for each venue. In this regard, we do not believe that is the library building committee's role to generate reuse plans unless the
select board directs us otherwise. In the event the select board chooses to concur with our site recommendation for Simkins, we request a clear collaboration with a common project to advance the combined opportunities while avoiding competitive and redundant work.
And we request a select board assistance to provide a legal and survey review of the Simkin site to provide definitive, relevant, and recent background for the site. And that concludes our presentation. Okay. Excellent. And we love your
questions. Lots of great work, lots of information here. Very I forgot to mention the letter that that was sent by the chair to the committee. Yep. Okay. Should have mentioned that up front. Sorry.
We have um the letters in the packet. Um but your presentation covered Thank you. most of that. Um I guess I'm going to ask a few questions first. Um just about your site at the Simpkins
Field because you talk a lot about both lots. So in my mind, my thought of um having a library there. Well, it's it's twofold. Again, you know, you talked about the Madakis reuse and all the issues going on there. There's a lot
going on here as well. Correct. Um and a lot of things that would be affected by that. Correct. Um, so you know, I think about the seaside festival, I think about the little league fields, um, and of course the building that's there. So you're you're
envisioning when you talk about both lots would not be utilizing the building that's already there. You would just tear that down and start over or what what is your vision of that? I I'll let Bill answer this one.
Um if the building is used uh if you tear it down then there would be opportunity but not to speak to that. The architect indicated that you would have to study the if you're going to reuse the building you have to study its
structural integrity and get approval by the grant agency before you use uh move forward with the building. I believe there's a lease in the right now with an existing uh tenant and they've spent about $4 million on uh heating the
building. So that when we they talk about the use of both lots, it's to give the flexibility to be able to incorporate the library within all those other opportunities as it were, the common uh and the other ball fields and everything else. If you were to say it's
just going to be in the fields, then we lose the opportunity to maybe put the library on the other site. So, this is just about getting the site down so then the architect can start working with the committee and the public on where it could go on either of those two sites or
both. I mean, if it has to cross a property line. As we as a town though, um I guess it's the cart of the horse in terms of working with the seaside festival in terms of working with the little league field. I'm not I don't have any of that knowledge to know what
the plan is. So, how do we know if it could work with the lease and all of the people that are involved? I mean, we just uh town meeting just um authorized $100,000 to look at the town common on this plan. So, you know, there's a lot of things that are going
on there that this could impact and I for me, um, you know, I need to know how all those pieces fit. I'm not opposed to it. I just don't know how they fit. Number one. Number two, I don't think it's centrally located. Therefore, my
you know and people have and we've have been having this back and forth for many years. Um people um have a strong feeling about West Yarmouth Library and you know if we're going to put um a new central library in South Yarmouth and
reutilize the South Yarmouth Library, why can't we keep West Yarmouth as well? and whether or not there's some type of agreement with um the the you know like what happened with with um Yarmathport they had a group that came in and helped
fund it. Um perhaps there's an opportunity there to keep the village in the village library in West Yarmouth and then have um this one basically just replace the South Yarmouth library. If I may, if you go to the last slide. Um,
what are the uh research beyond these this slide? The chart. It's not letting me go the other way. Well, uh, if we can get to the last slide or in your presentation that you have in front of you. Yep. there's a
considerable amount of u sort of pattern on the cape of communities having multiple libraries. So it's not beyond the realm of possibility that west would be considered in that capacity. I think the committee is saying it's not their
role to you know well that would be my that would be my particular feeling would be to keep you know yarmathport kept theirs. they have a strong uh feeling um I you know operationally I know it's difficult in terms of hours and meeting the criteria and the funding
to have um multi-operational ones but to the extent that we are able to do it we're doing it now I don't know what um you know potentially you I'm sure you envisioned a shift of those people being all in one building and you know having that capability but I think we as a town
um I would be happy if because this is not central it is more like the South Yarmouth Library. It's a new South Yarmouth Library. That's how I would look at it. I would keep Yarmathport and West Yarmouth the way that it is. Um and and build one here. But I can't um
without knowing really the impacts to all the other pieces. Um I would have a difficult time. me come madam chair I think that and I hear you clearly and the west mouth library contingent was very clear on that and I think there's
no intention to disregard what they're feeling our concern is that uh the grant only allows us the possibility of one building so um and that was our focus I
mean and we looked at we clearly looked at the western a site and trying to put, you know, a cons a considerably larger building on that site feasibly doesn't work architecturally. I understand what and I understand that, but what I'm saying is let's just leave it the way it
is. Well, I think that's perfectly that's perfectly fine. Point of order. I we were going to invite the uh the residents to speak that are here tonight. I hope I hope we can find some time for them. Okay. I'm going to go to the board first and we'll go to the I'm going to defer on anything until I hear
from the public. Okay. Dorcas, do you have any questions? Uh, no I don't. Joyce, um, I I guess I'm fairly convinced by what you've said. I went um in the last week and visited each of the
four finalist sites and um, I could not figure how some of the sites would work. It does look to to me like you've picked the most practical site. Um I love the West Yarmouth Library and the story of
the family and the donations. I couldn't figure how we would ever have parking there if we had a new library there. And I thought it was almost going to have to be like the UMass Amherst Library that was going to go like way up, so far up that windows would fall out on students
from time to time. Um, but I I realize that the West Yarmouth Library is precious to a number of people who live in West Yarmouth. And so I would love to see some way to have it that's totally separate from the library building
committee's project because obviously you you have to go and do a big new modern library. Um I am aware that the um the library um that's on Old Bass River Road in Dennis is entirely
volunteerrun. I mean they don't even have you know librarians kind of rotated in with from clams. So that seems to me like a model for something that we might be able to do um with with fundraising,
with donations, you know, with grants for, you know, because of the historical reference of it. I mean, I I really appreciate that library. I at one point when prisoners didn't show up to run the u the tables for the library book sale,
I got down with my spouse into the cellar and was hauling things up. So I could picture that. Also, as a member of energy committee, at one point I was up very carefully because it's a fragile roof um like at the top of a ladder trying to see if it were solar ready.
So, I feel like I've really feel the dimensions of that library and also, you know, it's its kind of quirky unique character and I I would certainly support fundraising or anything that that we could do to help the residents
of West German keep that there. It's also on Route 28. Our only um uh Cape Cut Transit Authority bus is the H2O shuttle, you know, from the transit center in Hyannis and then over the Bass River Bridge. Well, I guess except when
that's closed. Um so so that would be a a good auxiliary site, although I realize we'd probably have to call it something different than that to fund raise and and manage to keep it. But I I do see that the new library
sort of has to be where your your committee has has suggested. I I think my answer to that would be that I don't see why you would need to change the the title of the West Yarmouth Library. I think it would always stay the West Yarmouth Library if
that's what the village wanted or the town decided that they wanted to do. Maintain the library. It would not change. This would just be the Yarmouth Library. I think I my opinion. So, it's really a question of of of
paying paying um staff to staff instead of two little libraries, South Yarmouth and West Yarmouth, a central one at Simpkins and a a continuing small one in West Yarmouth. It's really personnel then based on based on
finances, but you know, it's much like what we did in Yarmouthport. Yarmouthport's not nontown. We the town of Yarmouth doesn't pay for that. It's an association. So, I guess we just have to wait and see what the budget funds and see how they can help us. But there's historical precedents all through the Cape for private libraries
for public I mean non non-public libraries. So, it's it's not an unusual, you know, Liz, anything before we go to the public come back. I'm very enthusiastic about uh Simpkins spot. I do I I I really am very appreciative of
the fact that it's across the street from town hall, which I know it's not central. I wish we had a something that was available central, but we don't. So, but it's it's across the street from town hall and I I think it it will be beautiful to have a a building that
works with the town hall. And um I do wonder about are we cramping the uh the ability to to use this the area for the seaside festival? Mindy, I will speak on that because I have the large event that I'm sorry that
you all approved without me. Thank you very much. Earlier, um, having visited other libraries and events and preparing for the Renaissance Festival, I saw a great um, partnership with libraries and hosting these type of events. One of the
challenges I had was finding a bathroom to use for this event. By having a library there, we could help um alleviate some of the funding needs for Seaside Festival by being open at that time, providing bathrooms, cooling stations. It is hot there. And be make
it more of a partnership than a hindrance. Same with the ball fields. A lot of parents I talk to talk about wanting places to bring their children while other children are practicing. And so once again, I see that as a partnership, not a hindrance. I agree.
We just don't know whether or not there's going to be space for it all. That's the problem. Well, that's what I was referring to. I wasn't referring to um the the fun of it, but I was Are you going back, Bill, to take a look? I I
believe the MacArthur building is about the footprint of what you would build for a library. No, it's twice as big. Well, no, but that's Oh, he said that's two stories. Sorry, it's 21,000 square feet. Yeah. So, I mean,
there there's the capability to everything is there's a common study group and then the seaside festival can be there at the table talking about this. So, I think there's an opportunity to have a dialogue and there collaborate on it. I think there's enough room to
build a library on the site and still have a Yeah, but that site will also have to handle the parking and I'm afraid the parking is is three times the size of the library. So, um I think you're going to get okay
cramped, but I'd also leave it to the architect to figure out how to do it. Okay, that is up to the architect. But I I I if we have reserv extreme reservations, now is the time. I I love the site, but I do think it's going to
be it we it's going to be cramped be because of the town commons option and um and having the seaside festival there. So it's only a couple days a year. here. Oh, I'm I'm for the Simkin site, but I want us to be very aware of
the compromise because there will be compromises, but there are going to be compromises everywhere. But I do I also like the idea that I think Mark's idea for a town common is a beautiful idea. And I think it just go grows in in every
way better with a library there. And I I so want to see West Yarmouth and South Yarmouth preserved in so many so many of the towns have done just that. So that that graph that you had with um so many of the towns that have their private
association and then their town library. So I hope we can do it. I hope we can do it simply and then we're going to go to the public. Just one thing the uh sorry the town common land can be the open space for the library. They can co-
occur. It's not that they're mutually exclusive that you have to build a common and have library open space so they can co-occur so it's not really you know there's an overlap there. Yep. They Yeah. All right. We'll go um online first. Vita, can you hear me now? Yes, Vita. Thank
you. Okay. I just unmuted myself. Okay. I didn't realize that would be the first one. uh in the presentation the word expansion must have been used I don't know how many times uh what a kind of I don't I don't understand I think most
people are thinking that the libraries will have to shrink with all these this electronic stuff that's coming even uh as we speak online and what have you and so exactly why would they need expansion space I would like to know that
Well, I can answer that. Um, while the community um while more things have moved to the internet, um the library provides spaces for not only local users to use internet, but for our visitors.
Zoom meetings are in high demand. So having a space that people can come in Zoom whether they're living here or coming in for tourism and vacations second homeowners as we discussed earlier tonight internet service on Cape
Cod is hard and in Yarmouth it's even harder not everybody can afford to get the internet they need commonly have people outside in our parking lots trying to use it our computer banks are always full and in regards VA litter
litter and Um and in regards to the youth on using tablets and stuff, that is a big move for schools. Unfortunately, at this point in time, there's no way to support our students and youth in that endeavor. We do not have space for computer labs
at either library or a space for them to come in to do their work and research. I wanted to add a comment on that too because I think it's very important and the question is an excellent question. you know, we've got technology. Aren't
libraries shrinking? And you know, the answer to that is really a resounding no. And um we did very detailed programming studies as part of this entire process before we even got to the
site that um outlined all of the community programming that occurs in modern libraries. And even this evening, um, we had a speaker, um, and it sort of resonated with me. Why aren't we, you know, incorporating how future libraries
are used to build stronger communities? Because this is going to be a library for the future. And and I would say that that that study is on the town's website and it is highly detailed and it provides an inventory. Um and the community was involved, young people,
old people and professional library programmers to put together before we even started with the sites a program for what we need in our modern library. And all of your questions, Vita, I think are answered uh in tremendous detail
throughout that entire study. And you really need to familiarize yourself with some of the programming that is going to be happening in a community library. why we need it to be a little bigger than the two libraries that we have now and
what the future holds for library services and it's outlined in there pretty well and and and after that we can discuss you know I think more the details of that madam chair uh hold on just a minute uh what what's the source
of of this this expansion type thing here I mean I for as far as for instance uh the slash thing goes I just forget about it because that's computer modeling. And as the president said not long ago after the parade that was
supposed to have been delued imminently, if they can't even tell it two hours ahead of time uh you know that some some weather event was going to happen. Now they're trying to tell you 50 and 100 years ahead about slash that.
So anyway, forget about but I I'd like to know who who are the people who are predicting these these these expansion needs and what have you and or entities and uh as far as the usage of the
computers at the South Library uh the last I would say over the last three four or five years when I've gone in there's never anybody using the computers at all compared to what was happening about 20 years ago. when you had to get in line to get on the
computer. So, I'm I'm I'm I'm really very uh skeptical about this whole thing. And as far as the uh you you really have to uh make consideration for the yachts the West Yarmouth Library. Uh do some research as to what happened at
the Yarmouth port. Uh which I believe had a fairly sizable endowment at the time that they made the decision. But somebody needs to do some research and see exactly what happened there and see if it's possible to keep the West open.
That's that that's the most important thing. And see if you really need the $25,000 uh you know uh uh new building there. That's that I think it it needs to be brought down to some uh sensible size.
Okay, Vita, thank you very much for your comments. Um hopefully you um go online and read the information that's there and um ultimately this project will go before town meeting, right? So, uh, they'll have the opportunity to advocate
for their, um, position at at that time as well. Um, Joe, hey, Madam Chair, can you hear me? Yes, Joe. Yep. So, I I kind of echo uh and
have concerned with a lot of the questions that you had. I think one of the problems is the timeline that they're faced with. uh through no fault of their own. It it is what it is. But
it does um not fall in the line with the Madakis and the ME Small and their feasibility studies and the uh town common uh uh feasibility and and what we're going to work. That just
unfortunately is bad timing. Um I don't know how you know if we make a decision on this um how we you know can go forward without looking at all those other pieces. I was at the hearing or
wasn't at the hearing but I attended the hearing remotely. Um I didn't voice a uh an opinion on the site. Uh, I did have uh concerns and questions that were answered about recreational use for
children and some of the other issues of getting kids outside. And uh those were answered um um by the uh the coordinator, the youth coordinator um quite well um because and I believe this
to be true that um uh getting kids out of the house and out of the basement and uh away from their devices um it not necessarily uh precluded by a library. it actually gets them out and there's
other activities that could be done which might work at the um South Arman site but there also is the lease um capabilities uh I'm not capabilities uh Cape Cod collaborative uh which uh provides a
financial uh base uh for their usage that saves the district the DY district money um for their services and they're looking to expand and those considerations all have to be uh considered. The West Yarmouth Library, I
was a a great user when I was walking from from pretty much the Hyannis border to West Yarmouth Library. And uh that was a significant walk. But if you think about it, uh somebody doing that or even taking the bus um all of those people in
the West Yarmouth area from the Hyannis border all the way and beyond the West Yarmouth library um have to be considered and I think you are considering them. But I'm wondering if the subscription, I don't know what
to call it, the circulation, the en enrollment, if that has to uh figure into the state uh predictability of usage. Uh so I don't know what you call that but in other words if the West
Yarmouth if the West Yarmouth Library needs to s to cease to exist to have the amount of circulation or or usage uh by population um if the West Yarmick Library exists does that mean that the state looks at
the the project less? So that's my concern. I think all of you are doing a wonderful job. Um and uh you know whatever you determine I think it's just a it's a tough road to ho. So uh good luck. Thank you Joe. Thank you for your comments. Okay. I'm going to go to the
public um here. Is there anybody who would like to sir please go to the podium and identify yourself. Um, my name is uh Arthur Warren and my wife and I live in the village of West Yarmouth.
And I have to admit I'm going to speak to you tonight uh with an admitted bias. My wife and I met in a library. So libraries hold a special place in our
hearts. It's a story book tale. The Simpson site recommendation meets all the criteria, checks all the boxes established by the library committee uh for a new library location. That said,
the Simkin site is in South Yarmouth. The new library site would retain a major resource in the South Yarmouth village. The village of Yarmouthport has a library. It is reasonable
for the West German village to keep a library in order to preserve the village structure which I think is very very important in this town. Uh I grew up here, graduated from high school and can appreciate the three villages, their
differences um and uh from political to social, economic, uh they're all important. U as the library committee research points out, the multiple library village concepts in
play here on the cape and it works. Uh we just saw that Barnstable has seven locations. Uh Dennis five library locations and Felmouth three. I think that's important. It says
something. There's a demand for uh local libraries notwithstanding the technology that was pointed out here by our town manager and the need for space. There's no doubt past is not prologue. We want to go forward and make a terrific
statement here for the residents um and obviously uh our visitors the tourists that we discussed uh here earlier from trying to target and market the library committee consultants report opines
that Yarmouth needs approximately 25,000 square feet of library space keeping West Yarmouth open as a branch reduces the square footage required
uh for the new building and I think would reduce the cost of the new building. I hope I have that right. If we have 5,000 square ft available in West Yarmouth, you need 25,000 square
ft. 20,000 is the net new building. Lower cost, lower state grant application. uh that may help the library uh committee's cause. Uh and as a reminder,
the West Yarmouth Library 1965 building and the 1971 edition was gifted to the town of Yarmouth by Mr. and Mrs. E. Herald Casting. It is a memorial to their teenage
daughter. It served as an architectural high point along Route 28 in West German for the past 60 years. It's part of the fabric of our life experience in West Yarmouth
and I believe indeed all Yarmouth. It's certainly a building to be proud of al along Route 28. So assuming the Simpsons site selected, keeping the West Yarmouth Memorial Library open as a branch uh supports again in my view the unique
village concept here in Yarmouth and preserves an important part of history. I hope you as select board members uh can find a way forward to uphold the
intent of the casting gate gift to enrich public services. That's what that building is all about. Uh and I think all residents young and
old will benefit. Uh, as the library building committee public meeting, I was at the meeting last week with my wife. Comments were made about the commercial value of the West Yarmouth property.
Please, as select board members, any repurposing of that library building should not be confined to a use for commercial enterprise. It should not be
used for commercial enterprise. That building was a gift. There are other people here in Yarmouth who may make gifts to the town. And if you don't treat that gift with respect, it could
create a terrible chilling effect on gifts of land, scholarship funds, building and the like. Look, you're dedicated public servants. You do a great job. I sincerely
appreciate everything you do. We hope you can give serious consideration for the purpose of the West Library Library Memorial Gift and either through reuse or as a branch uh go forward to meet the
needs of all the residents in the town of Yarm. Thank you very much. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you, Mr. Warren. Um yes, ma'am. Please. My name is Angela Carbone and I am a library board member, but tonight I'm a
West Yarmouth resident and um like Arthur, who is a neighbor not too far away. I love my West Yarmouth library. I I truly do. I can walk to it from my house. I can ride my
bike to it. But it's not a central library. It definitely is out in one part of the town just as a south Yarmouth bribery now is almost in Dennis and I would love to see the West Yarmouth Library
continue but that's not what the meeting tonight is about. Tonight it's about if we are going to look at building a library for the 21st century which is where we are um and beyond we need a
place that has more than how many acres does West German have.36 we I mean it's it's it's impossible to put a a a library there that is going to be a 21st century library and I think
the town deserves it. Um, it's the Simpkins property looks ideal. I think it can coexist quite it seems pretty obvious it can coexist with a town um with a with a
a town common kind of central V that would that would create a new village which would be lovely especially with the town hall right across the street. Um, and in terms of the seaside festival, how many days of the year does
that happen? Three. I don't Three. Three. Yeah. Um, and and I and I again I don't think that it precludes having the festival there. And people who go parking who are parking for the festival don't park on
the site. They park behind Shaws. They park everywhere along North Main Street or Old Main Street. Is that North Main Street? Yeah. Old Main Street. Old Main Street. Old Main Street. I mean, so I don't think parking for the seaside
festival should should prevent us from having a a beautiful new library. I think the town people deserve it. Um, and I would love to see the West Yarmouth Library stay open and stay open
as a library. And that's my personal and kind of selfish reasons, but um, Yarmouthport Library is open. It is not a town library. Uh, Dennis libraries, they have libraries all over the place. They're not they're not town libraries.
I mean, they are they're connected to the town, but they're not funded by the town. Jacob Sears Library is one of the prettiest little libraries you would ever find on the Cape and it's in gorgeous shape. It It's beautiful. It's private. It's part of the town, but it's
run. And I think I think West Yarmouth now has enough people in it to who can support their own library. And I would I would be one of the people going out there to fund raise for it as well. But that's not what we're talking about tonight. We're talking about where are
we going to put the library? Simkins has the space. It has the bus line. It has accessibility to people who truly need and use the library. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Carbone. Um, thank you.
Yep. As you well know, I'm Christine Gley. Um, I've been a homeowner in West Yarmouth for over 44 years and my husband Paul and I were actively involved in supporting and working on issues of preserving the environment and supporting the quality of life in our
neighborhood and the town. And during that this time, we became active users of the West Yarmouth Library, including during CO when the Hyannis Park Civic Association held its annual meeting on their beautiful front lawn. I have attended all of the meetings of the
library building committee this month after a long period of time of not knowing or participating in what was going on and like the majority of the residents of my neighborhoods whom I have spoken with remain adamant that the West Yarmouth Library should not be closed. After careful review of the
extensive materials that have been do discussed this month by the library building committee and they really have done a lot of work. It is my belief that the West Yarmouth Library is historically important and a good focus for the work now beginning on creating a more welcoming and environmentally
enhanced roadway into Yarmouth versus the currently overly developed con commercial Route 28. The West Yarmouth Library needs to remain in operation where it is. Given the perceived need for meeting space and enlarged spaces, I
would support the development of an alternative site for a new building perhaps at Simpkinsfield as the current South Yarmouth Library might be converted to a museum. We heard during these discussions that would mean that the users of that library would also
have a library in their neighborhood that is like the users in West Yarmouth would still have. The other alternative is to again re uh retain the West Yarmouth Library but work with the Madakis utilization committee to see
about incorporating the requested library spaces in other words meeting spaces and things into their plans. But no matter what final choice on another location is made. I will only support such a plan if West Yarmouth remains open as a library. And I'm going to tell
you if you know you close it, um, basically I'll wind up going over to the Hyannis Library. The trying to get from West Yarmouth to South Yarmouth is can be a nightmare and it hasn't been helped by the construction going on currently. But you're looking at summer traffic
that started just, you know, a weekend ago. I couldn't believe what was going on with the stoppage and even getting over here tonight. There were jams at various areas that getting over there. The other thing that really concerns me a lot is that you will be asking us as
residents of West Yarmouth to use our tax dollars to support that library in South Yarmouth that we will have a difficulty using. And yet we're also going to be then asked to try to raise funds and create some kind of foundation or come up with money. Currently, as it
stands, you're already running two branches of a library. So, it doesn't seem to me that it's impossible that you can't continue with some kind of function uh functional library in West Yarmouth at in public funding and not just foundation money. The other part I
have to say and I I you know I realize it's now water over the bridge but I was actually a trained focus group leader and was required to do that in many many times as my in my job and my professional experiences and the only experience I had quote in the study
about the needs for Yarmouth libraries is I went to some event in West Yarmouth where I was actually asked to pick a partner who I didn't know who there and build with a paper model what an ideal library would look like it was one of the most bizarre kind of public feedback
things I'd sort of participated in. now may they may have indeed without my understanding the knowledge they gained from it um it was is sort of very different and so I have concerns about that but I thank you for your time and understanding and as I said I think
there are a lot of people who have a lot of concerns because I've even heard from people who said they don't want to spend more money on another library because a bigger library because they're not sure who's going to use it or what. So I think there's some big moves of foot that are going to have to, you know, really gain a lot of public support, not
just about West Yarmouth, but just about the whole idea of an expansion of a library. And I have to tell you, the students who are out here getting their scholarships while we were waiting, every was on their cell phones. I mean, getting their information or doing whatever out there while we were waiting to come in from your executive session.
So um I do thank you all for the time, the patience, and the work that has gone on into all of this. Thank you, Chris. There anybody else who would like to speak? Oh, thank you. Okay, Mark, do you have anything to add
now? Yeah, I'd just like to add a couple of comments here. First of all, um I want to thank the committee for all of the work that you've done. It's an incredible amount of work in a relatively short period of time and uh it's very thorough and um I either
watched the video of your meetings or attended some of your meetings and um very much appreciated the way in which you were able to generate discussion and feedback from the community. Um you know I've lost track of the number of library
meetings. What do we do about the library meetings? Um there hundreds of them and I've been to them decades decades of them. Um and you know one of the things that I've observed is is that your recommendations are very much consistent with
recommendations that we've seen before. All right. So you're following I think a very very good pattern. We've come very close to making a decision as a community. We've just fallen short. what you've done for us tonight through your
work o over these many weeks is you've taken us to the next step. That's a place that we have not been able to get to before. Um before I came here, I was reading through the um the transcript of the 2004
town meeting. Me too. Yes. in the debate and the discussion uh within our community about what it was we liked about the recommendations of the library committee to build a a a new library on
the old Bass River fish market site and what we didn't like and the reality is is that in 2004 town meeting went in one direction but then the voters went in a different direction the community was divided but what I learned from that debate and that
discussions and the recommendations of the committee that had your job was they liked each village having a library. They made it clear that they weren't making future decisions about what happens to the village libraries, but
they needed to build a new facility in order to meet the huge needs at one of our libraries and that was in South Yarmouth. And so we're kind of back to the same point. But what we've done tonight is we've actually picked a site
and vetted a site and done a lot of work on it and um and I want to commend you for that because you've actually brought us to a point which I believe is where we need to be. I think your recommendations are spoton. As you know, I've been a strong supporter of the
common idea. Um and that's not my idea. That was an idea that Tracy Post and a host of others in this town had years ago that I thought was a terrific idea. I still do. I think it makes sense. And I think the comment is consistent with
your recommendations. I think they can coexist. And I thought it was a stroke of genius that Mindy you put together this festival so that so for the skeptics in the community all right that might not think we can do a festival in
a common and maybe have a library um well we'll have that opportunity to test that out no pressure no but I think but I think as you have mentioned before it actually a library facility on that site whether
it's the use of the Maca And I believe that that's that's an option that we owe our voters to check out and vet. But if the MacArthur school can't do it, there plenty of areas there that can be utilized without interfering with uh the
the Sears playground and some of the other areas that have been designated. Uh based on my work and just the study on the common idea, I think that all of those pieces can fit can fit nicely. So, I think you've done an outstanding job. I completely support your recommendations. Um, I'm also, again,
full disclosure, I'm I love the South Yarmouth Library. I've loved the West Yarmouth Library. I've spent enormous amount of time with my kids, my family in all of our libraries. I think we're blessed by the libraries that we have. I would not want to see the West Yarmouth
Library go. Uh it'll break my heart to see us build a new library to replace the South Yarmouth Library, but I as a select board member want to see some public utilization of that, whether it's as a historical museum or historical archives, a way to interpret Yarmouth's
history. You know, they do a good job in Yarmouth Port with the Bangs Hallet House and some of the functions that are up there, but we need something like that here in South Yarmouth. And I think it was great to hear the the historical society offer to to do something in that
public vein with that building if we as a board so decide to go in that direction. So I want to thank you for your recommendations. I embrace them completely and enthusiastically and once again want to thank you for all your hard work. Thank you.
Well, as somebody that was sitting in the room, thank you very much. I mean, I know exactly how hard you um you reviewed all of this, how passionately um you you spoke of your feelings and of listening, wanting to listen. And West
Jarmath at the end of the day, it it is something that we, the board, are going to have to do something about. We've heard from the community. we know what the community wants and it does play a very vital
part of our community. So, um, but all said and done, thank you and I agree with you wholeheartedly. I think Simpkins is the logical place to put it. And I know we say it's not really physically the center of town, but
ideologically sort of it's the center of town and 28 really is main street for a lot of people in town. So um but not for residents of Yarmouthport of course not. That's true. Well, as I say different area,
it just makes a lot of sense. So anyway, I'd go with Simkins. Great. Okay. So um Madam Chair, would you like a motion? I think Madam Chair, may I make one small comment? Sure. Um I think that I want to speak for the
committee. I think we we sometimes enjoyed the process, sometimes wanted to strangle each other a little bit, but we listened. I really want to thank Judy, who's not here tonight, and for leading us. And I really want to thank Bill, who really kind of held our hand going through this process. and of course
Durkas who sat with us the whole time and corrected us on certain things. So um again thank you for hearing us out and thank you very much. Um can we have a round of applause for them? Sure. I can I can I I totally echo Mark's um
feelings. I think that um to Dorcas's point, my my thought originally was concerning about it being um a you know, we went into this having a wanting a central library, but I think
that the community and our board has such a strong feeling to the West Jarmath. I think our board is committed to keeping that. And um to that end, I don't think we need a central um centrally located as much if we have the
commitment to keep West Yarmouth and of course Yarmouth port will won't change. So um and you know repurposing um South Yarmouth to something that is um you know beneficial to everybody would would work out too. So you know Simpkins I
think is great. Again, my concerns I've already said if we can make it work. I I I'm not sure how um we're going to move forward working with the people with the lease and how that's going to fit into it. I think that that's a very important piece to it. But, you know, the Little League, Seaside Festival, common area,
all that. If we can make it all work on that site, I'm I'm on board. I'm looking forward to the crosswalk that slows traffic down, too. Did you want to make a motion choice? Uh, madame chair, I'd like to make a
motion that we approve the committee's choice for the site for the new library and encourage them to go forward with the state library process. Okay. Do we do we want to add our feelings and thoughts on the area? Additionally, keeping the other things
as part of it, looking at it and and uh commenting on West Jarmath as part of it at all or I I don't think that's necessary. I think we've all spoken loudly and clearly. They've all got a pretty good sense of what and I think quite frankly they share. I mean, I think we're all on the same page more or
less. So, I I don't think it's necessary. Madam Chair, Bill, did you want to suggest something? just uh a lot of the recommendations go to some of your points with the exception of the seaside festival. The the common is mentioned in there to collaborate. So I
think if in your motion you speak to the recommendations you'll pick up that if you want to add incorporation of festivals then you pretty much in on the same page. So the board we don't think it's necessary. We have we have spoken. I
think everybody knows I just sometimes you know in retrospect a year from now we're not here I want to make sure that people understand our intent. That's I think we all listen I will be here. We just got reelected. So I'll second your motion Joyce. And
again, let's make it clear that uh we we're accepting this committee's recommendations as outlined in in the uh the briefing presented to us tonight. Is that in keep? Is that helpful? Yes. Okay. The grant. There you go. I'll second that. Okay. Any other discussion? Just I want to make sure this is the
language the grant requires. In what way is the this is your town your your select board uh approval that you go forward? I don't know what the grant requirements are for T for the select board approval. Oh, okay. Well,
what they will review in January next year is both a design and the site. So, so there's nothing required of us. Okay. Correct. You'll be safe. This is a good vote. Very happy. Yeah, we're safe. Good. All those in favor? I. Any oppose?
Pass unanimously. Thank you very much. Congratulations. Okay, seeing as I tried to skip over that last time. Thanks, B. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Um, Chief and Amanda. Yes.
Come on down. You too. That was quite a meeting. Thank you so much. Thank you for All right, we're going to keep going here. So, uh, soon as you're ready, introduce yourself and uh,
thanks. Just needed. Oh, we're trying. Good evening. Thank you for waiting. Thank you for being here. And if you could just introduce yourself and Yes. Good evening. And I got a new position
of city engineer. I hear earlier this evening. We got to change the logo with that. No, I think there's less now. Town engineer Amanda Lima. And I'm here tonight with the chief, Kevin Lennon, chief of police. Thank you. and
we're here to discuss the conversion of an all hallway stop for station in Wood. Uh so just to bring up some recent background of you know where we've gone over the last couple of years. Um we got a request in uh 2022 for a um potential
stoplight. um in those inquiries that the sign committee receives, we'll utilize the Cape Cod Commission um to gather data for us. So, they did conclude a traffic signal warrant and at that time it did not meet that warrant.
Um we then rolled right into the corridor study for Station A, which originally didn't include uh Wood Road. Um but with the public feedback and really wanting to uh bring that intersection to be more safe um we they
had made a short-term recommendation in which they presented to the board this past January uh and that would be to convert the intersection to an all-way stop. Um as a short-term measure um the police department had reached out um and we did add little signs to the stop
signs you know noting that the station a um traffic does not stop um and with the increase with the construction activity the intersection has seen more traffic. At the same time, uh, Mass DOT has been doing a lot of these, um, material grant
program opportunities, um, which we've been participating in, um, as they come up, um, in January, they introduced, um, an always stop materials program, um, in which, there's a couple statistics on here, but, Delaware DOT and North
Carolina DOT saw a reduction in crashes of about 70% by converting a two-way stop to an all-way stop. Mhm. So we went moved forward with that. Um they had um consulted with GPI um in which that that
report is attached to this presentation and they completed that in May um with some feedback. We asked them to expedite the report. Um so since then we've been able to um sign the memorum of agreement. Uh we've also had our sign
committee meet and then um now we're here tonight. Typically we when we do get these requests um they do need to meet the federal um manual uniform traffic control devices um section 2B.12
um in regards to meeting one of the warrants. Um if it does meet that warrant um the sign committee would make the recommendation and usually it's a consent agenda item. Um but given the fact with the participation with Mass DOT um and then providing the materials we just wanted to come here tonight to kind of go over what the intersection
will look like. And I'd just like to pass it off to the chief in regards to what we've done on a temporary measure for the intersection. So during some of the construction meetings with the the contractor doing the sewer work, we talked about how we could change the the intersection to make it safer because we did realize
that the traffic from the detours going to that intersection was making it more difficult for people to cross. uh with the if you were in the past there was a a barrier preventing people from going south on station past Wood Road, but you could go north. We realizes that was
creating confusion because people that were trying to cross on Wood Road thought the traffic was going to stop. So from we've had 16 crashes at that intersection since January 1st, seven of them since May 1st. So we attributed
that to some of the confusion by the by the drivers. I looked at all the accident reports, looked at the narratives that the officers wrote, and they were all operator in attention, not paying attention to the other traffic. So, what we decided to do at the meeting was if construction is going to be in
that area, we'll make it a T. We will block off the ability to go south on station A or north on station A at all. Construction is now south of that. So, we decided to turn it into a temporary four-way stop. We can do that because the construction is affecting that area.
So, we worked with the contractor to bring in the large sign boards that you see, the new red uh the new red light that's there, and then we work to have them put up temporary stop signs. So, the police department has chief, did are
we off the air now? No. Okay. I don't know why that that's an interesting question. Yeah, you might want to check that out and find out what's going on because that's what they're watching on TV right now. You can keep going. Good. So, the police department has assigned officers to that
intersection 153 times since May 1st. We do what's called a traffic enforcement future call. So, officers go down there for a certain amount of time. They watch the intersection to see if there's any violations. We've made 60 motor vehicle stops since May 1st with uh violations
specifically to the Woodro station A and a lot of it is people just rolling through the stop sign or people speeding trying to bring attention to the public that we are going to be changing the traffic pattern. They need to slow down in that area and we've seen some success. There's not been a traffic accident at that intersection since uh
June 14th, June 16th rather. Madam Chair, I got a question specifically about the accident data. Is that okay? Um, Chief, are most of the people involved in the accidents from off Cape? I I can't answer that. I didn't I didn't dive that deep into it. We didn't dive
into that. No, because I'm asking the question because we just seem to be having an epidemic of bad driving. All right. I mean, I've I' I've witnessed it myself. It's amazing. I did I did not dive into that. But so, what we what we've done to today is we have
traffic barrels in the road alerting people to the new traffic pattern. So, they will slow down as they're approaching the intersection. The four-way stops are up. We actually remove the cross traffic does not stop. Little placards because that was causing a little bit of confusion. And if you're
driving uh southbound on station a you'll see a sign just past St. Pas. And if you're driving driving northbound, you'll see one a little bit south of the intersection. Again, alerting motorists that there is a a traffic pattern change. uh the officers that have have been there, we ask them to be there
about 15 to 20 minutes at a time and they have seen since this has gone into effect that people are recognizing there's a pattern, they're actually stopping. There are a few people that just don't recognize that it's a that it's a four-way stop now and they have gone through. When we're there, we address that. But, uh we're seeing that
uh I'm hoping that we're seeing a change because the accidents again have not been occurring. Our traffic stops are going down as well, which means people are recognizing it. And this is going to be a good segue into the permanent implementation of a four-way stop. And
it allowed us we're going to have this for probably about five weeks. Correct. Didn't they say they'd be out there till about June July 7th? Right. So, probably five or six weeks of the temporary using the the the detour and the construction to allow us to set up the temporary a four-way stop until it gets rolled into
a full four-way stop after uh the material comes in and we get approval from the board. How long does that I mean I remember years ago when they put the intersection uh on Buck Island Road and I remember driving like you just you know it's a
it's it's something that I imagine um takes time what what is that time do you know that it to change for people to be aware and really be conscientious I know for the U proposed site for the
permanent They recommend 6 months. So 6 months of having message boards, six months of having flags, 6 months was and then it has like new intersection signs ahead. Um so that was the recommendation. That makes sense. I mean it it is it is
a change. I just I I fully support it. I think um I'm very appreciative of of what you all did to act so quick. I know it was already in the works, but just the sheer number in recent months has been alarming. and you know dangerous.
We lost somebody. Well, um Mark, did you have Yeah, I um correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the station have corridor study? Didn't we ask the commission staff to look at this intersection? Correct. And didn't they
come back with no recommendations? Uh so the initial um analysis was for the traffic signal and it did not meet the warrant, but as part of the short-term measures for the corridor study, it was that it did meet the warrant and then as their corridor study um so they're
recommending and supporting what we're doing. Correct. Yeah. And then now since then DOT hired an engineer and they wrote a comprehensive report that also is included. Okay, that's good. No, I fully support this. I think it makes all the sense in the world and uh I'm glad
we're doing it. So, thank you a couple more slides. Sorry. I just wanted to show what u the proposed final if I can. There we go. Wake it up. Uh so this is the proposed um permanent intersection improvements. Um so again, Mass Dot is providing the materials. Um
if we get approval tonight for this um conversion, um they'll be able to put in that fabrication. Um what you'll see on here they there will be um two stop signs northbound and southbound on station AB. They will be the LED blinking signs that will be blinking continuously. They are solar powered. Um
you'll see that on either side of the intersection. Um also the stop ahead which we've already installed um some of the signage but it will be um compliant signage that will get replaced. There's also one that says new traffic pattern but that's just part of of the package. Um and again they'll have the orange
flags. We've got the message boards. Um, we also will be able to um coordinate with the approval um putting in the stop bars that are currently not in the temporary setup but will be and also converting the lens for the overhead light that um we currently shut off
because it's the has the orange lens on it for slowing down. Uh so that will be converted to to red as well. So with um the approval tonight from the select board um again DOT will be able to move into fabrication for those signs
and we um would be in hopes to have everything completed by the end of July. Great. Thank going back to what I was saying. No, I'm just really glad to see that you know attention is being paid to it.
Kevin, it's amazing this story of what you're saying for the accidents and already just that slight change from this uh points out how important it is. It's just going to be trying to remember. Geez, I'm going down Station Avenue and let me stop. But I'm very
happy and very supportive. Thank you. Uh it seems like a good idea given how crazy the traffic is. It'll get everybody slowing all the way. I was delighted to see that there are those little yellow signs warning you you'll be coming to a stop sign. I mean that's
idiot proofing it. That sounds great. The stop bar the is that the pavement stripes? Correct. Okay. So we are putting those in. Correct. Just on station. Correct. Yeah. They're already on wood currently. Oh. Oh, right.
Because they weren't they wouldn't exist. So there's no marking. So I think I was reading that there were there's the option of marking that's before you get to that stop bar I guess is the terminology. Yeah. One of the
recommendations um in the report is that you could do stop ahead on the pavement markings. Yeah. And that could the sign instead right. Uh you can you can also add that in. I kind of liked that idea for Station Avenue. maybe not coming from um 28, but coming from the school
district to have that uh stop ahead warning. I it wouldn't be very expensive. I don't think it's painting, right? Yeah, it it can I like I like that idea because as you're all pointing out it this is going to be a tough one
to change old habits to stop at at that point especially because you get up a little ahead of speed there going past the church. Okay. Um I like the plan that you've outlined here. I'm very supportive of it
and I'm looking for a motion, please, from somebody in the committee to approve the approve the presentation and the four-way stop as presented. I make a motion that we approve the four-way stop um and the presentation as
presented with all recommendations. Second. Any discussion on the motion? All those in favor? I Any opposed? Pass unanimously. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you. Let's hope keeps working.
Good job you guys. Thanks. All right. So, we are behind on our agenda here. The next You're doing so well. I know. I was Thank goodness. I was cruising at the beginning. Um All right. So, we have all the information here. Next, we have um a
discussion for um a request for resignation from our state representative. And um Mark, did you want to Yeah, I'll speak to this. Um Madam Chair, I want to thank you for putting this on the agenda. This was done at my request. Um shortly after we
became aware that uh two other towns select boards have basically called on Representative Flanigan to resign. And in your packet are the letters outlining their rationale. And so I am uh you know
my motion for consideration is is that we as a board call on Representative Flanigan to resign and that we inform him of our reasons and our rationale in a letter perhaps similarly to the concerns that have been raised by the
Brewster Select Board and the Dennis Select Board and um we notify him as soon as possible. I would second that motion. Do we I mean do you want to discuss talk about the um well I mean we have a
motion a second. I just I don't know if that I think it's pretty vague in terms of what you want the context of the letter to be. Um I'm very comfortable drawing upon the language that the se both select boards have utilized and if you would like to
charge me as the one drafting the letter for the board to review and then we can act on it at our next meeting that's fine. or we can just authorize, you know, it to to to go out utilizing the language in one of the letters. I'm I'm very flexible. I just think at this
point since the other boards have weighed in. I think the the the the issue that I have with that, I don't have a problem with it. I I think, you know, my concerns are not as much with um the charges as much as it is the dereliction of duty. In my mind, he is
not um you know, we're we represent our community. Uh they're charged to represent our community. Uh not showing up for votes and not putting any budgetary items for our community forward in in a budgetary um you know,
cycle is something that I'm I have a problem with. And that's not really mentioned in those two letters, but I think well it I believe it is. It's just not strongly enough. And perhaps we should just principally emphasize the those aspects of the the reality is the
job's not getting done. Yeah, exactly. The job's not getting done and our people are not adequately represented. I discussion. Are we having any discussion? Sure. We were having a discussion. I'm I'll weigh in too. Um I tried to call him today and got no
answer and his mailbox is full and for me that was plenty. That's not how you behave as the representative. So I am I support the letter. I I do want us to write our own letter. I thought that there were parts of the Dennis letter
which were good, parts of the Brewster letter that were good. I think and I didn't don't recall seeing it, but it in the in the dentist letter I was told it said there would be 10day I think there is. Please respond by 10 days. I would like us to include that too. I don't
think we'll get a response, but I think it's kind of courtesy. No, my only comment to that is, you know, one of the things in the charges against him was that he stayed employed. You know, you can stay employed, but you don't need to be employed on the tax
dollars if you're not doing your job. So, find employment elsewhere if you're not willing to go to the state house and make votes on behalf of your constituents. I mean certainly um we have a job to do that we're elected to do if we just don't show up after so
many meetings. There's there's a there's a way by which people can remove you from office. Um and I don't disagree with anything that's being said. I'm just I'm I'm happy to write the letter and draft it however the points should
be put in the in the letter. So did you have anything to add? um just that it's it's a sad episode and I mean it has done more harm to Yarmouth where two candidates ran against him when he was um gaming the system and and using money
wrongly. Um I I I just think he has to resign. I I mean I know the legal system will you know pursue one area but I think when he's not representing us at the state house in in crucial budget discussions
that that's enough for me. I agree. Okay. So we will charge Bob to write the letter. We will send it out and um we get to see it first. Yeah. We'll send it out and um if you guys can put in your motion that you authorized
me to sign that. I'll sign. But we get to see it before you sign it. Correct. Yes. He's going to send it out for review and then we will sign it. Thank you. Yeah. We do this letter thing. We'll you'll see it. There'll be no discussion in any emails about it. You
can email myself or Bob only. So make your comments and then we'll send out a final version. I think it would be better to have everyone's signature on the letter. I agree. We can do that so we have to bring it back at our next meeting or the letter can be circulated or we can come in to sign it once it's
been done. Okay. Yeah. Okay. I'm happy to come in once as soon as the ink is dry, but we'll still get a draft out to everybody and then administrator will draft something that we can review back and then right we'll send comments back to him and then once
it's done. Did we vote on that? Not yet. All those in favor? I I Any opposed? Okay. All right. Is that enough direction for you, Bob, to Yeah, absolutely. All right. Good. His notes here. Notes. All
right. Board and committee actions. Okay. Um I move that the board uh accept and give thanks to Jay Frapp. Um he is um resigning from um the uh zoning board
of appeals and from the golf enterprise committee. I second that. Oh. Oh, of course. Yeah. Um is there discussion? All in favor? I I'm sorry. I forgot I was looking to Tracy as chairman. You're
the chair. Okay. Um then we have new appointments proposed. Um I uh nominate John Greco as a member to serve as a member of the library building committee. Um and that will be for the duration of the project and I second
that. Uh is there discussion? All in favor? I. Okay. Uh I nominate uh Courtney Butler uh to the serve as the town representative or one of the town representatives to the Midcape Cultural
Council. Um that appoint oh committee sorry have to change that for the minutes also. Um uh that's for a three-year term that will run through 2028. Second. Is there discussion on that? Any
discussion? That is the um are we appoint again? Is this an appointment or is this a a a recommendation? Um it's a motion to do an appointment. Okay. Okay. Any further discussion? Okay. All
those in favor? I I opposed abstensions. Okay. Um then we have reappoints. Um, uh, I propose the nomination of, uh, Edwin Hoops as a reappoint for a full three-year term to the Conservation
Commission. I second. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Okay. Um, I also propose Ellie Tierney um, as a a three-year appointment uh, reappoint.
She's been serving in a temporary capacity to to the conservation commission. Second. Through June 2028. Both of them. Oh, sorry. What? Through June 2028. Through June 2028. Right. Both of those are through June 2028.
Second. Any discussion? Okay. All in favor? I. Okay. And then um this is one of those committee member to serve on another committee as the first committee's
representative. Um I move that we uh appoint as conservation commission representative to the community preservation committee Paul Huggin. I second. And that's a three-year term. A representative is usually an annual
basis, isn't it? Um, okay. Through 2028. Yeah, that been three years. I I I think of that as annual also. I I well only my years serving on the planning board. I was uh we we realigned our committee
appointments on an annual basis. So that's why I'm just asking the question. I I think a year is appropriate. So that's your motion. You're amending your motion. One year. Uh yes. Second. Second. Thanks, Mark.
Uh any discussion? All in favor? I I. And that ends the uh committee appointments portion of the the evening. Great. Um Madame Chair, I move that we um accept approve the
minutes for the April 23rd, 2024 board of selectman meeting. And I understand I believe that has to be done by necessity. Yep. Mhm. I'll second that. Any discussion? All those in favor? I. Any opposed? That passes. And madame
chair, I uh also move to approve the minutes for the May 7th, 2024 select board meeting. Again, by necessity. Second. Any discussion? All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Okay. The minutes
are approved. Individual items. Um, Mark, agenda review. We're gonna I'm gonna do individual items. I'm gonna pass on the individual items given the time. All right, all set. Liz, no individual item. Okay.
And now we're going to go to um the agenda review. Then we have um 4th of July. And then um our next meeting will be our board of selectman goals on July 12th. And then we have a full list um on
July 22nd. So I don't think there's um really much to discuss on that. We've got it jammed up full. When we meet on the 22nd, we can reassess where we might be. I see that you have um
additive on here, Joyce. Yes. Go ahead. Oh, I was going to say I'd like to um uh postpone the um community access television um presentation because um they're at an interregnum right now where they're u going to be hiring a new
director. It's only an acting director. I think we should wait and get the full director. Okay. And what about your um your committee policy? Will you be ready on the 22nd, you think, or should we Oh, that's fine. Okay. All right. So, the um
community access uh Cape Media Center update we're going to put off, Bob. Okay. Then um I I was approached by the chair of the u water resources advisory committee that um he
would like his committee to report before he does um any more appointments and reappoints. Um so I just I pass that on to you as a um a request. Yeah, we're working on um him for the rack is coming
in for the um 22nd. We wanted to put him together with the wastewater project update and he's on board. He's in communications with me and Okay. Um and Jeff he communicates in many directions. Yeah, he's great and we go to all the rack meetings and so Madame Chair
faciciously she says that since my birthday is August 5th, if you'd like to have a cake that day, I'm just fine with that. Is that you? Dorcas's birthday. It's my birthday on August 5th. Yeah. Dorcas's birthday. We'll celebrate. Did Were we going to try to have the
Yarmouth Housing Authority in? Yes. They're the 20. They were on here. They were on for July 8th, which we didn't. Oh, yeah. We moved them. Congratulations. Thank you. So, where did they go? Let's see. I think they're probably at the end. Well, I I'm not sure how the
coordination maybe they weren't even available that day. But do you have anything on that, Bob? What date um do you want them in? I We've had trouble scheduling them. Um let's try. Can we try for August 5th?
August 5. Can we try there? Y housing authority was tentative. We had them on for July 22. That's what that's what's listed on here. Yeah, it's on here tentatively, but if we can't then maybe we can move them. Okay. We're on
July 22nd, Liz on the second page. Okay. But we're Okay. The second one down. Should I do July 22nd or should I do They're on for July 22nd tentative leave. If they can't, we'll we're going
to we're going to try to do August 8th. All right. And also July 22 is the um town meeting calendar. It's not August 5. All right. Consent agenda. I had one
question on the consent agenda. Um let's see. Is it the appropriation? Yeah. No, we we I talked to Bob about it. I think we're okay. Does anybody have a motion on the consent agenda? Madame Chair, I move the uh uh that we
approve the consent agenda. I second that. Any discussion? All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Okay. Um Bob, take it away. Okay. And to
try to make it easier for the board, um I handed out a draft town meeting calendar. Um, and the game plan is to put this on the agenda for approval on July 22. And it what it basically says
right on on the first line, approve the calendar. But I wanted to just give it to you in advance so if there's any problems that we don't come in with a bad date and have to because we don't won't have a lot of time after July 22 to get this rolling. So, um if if
there's any problems with we're saying November 17 um looks like a good date and I've been working with, you know, the planning board and the uh town clerk and the moderator and everyone seems to like that date if the select board likes
it. So, this will be on your agenda and um so that's a future one. um you know short affordable housing update the um working with the affordable housing trust and um mock key participant in
this as well. Um we had a a recent meeting that um I just took a a a vote on a project that we had been working on that um I I think we all feel um very successful for the community. We've been working and we reported to
the board earlier that we're trying to look towards smaller residential developments with a commercial component to fit under the town's um existing zoning that supports mixeduse development, supports village style
development, supports the architectural um integrity historically themed in the Route 28 corridor to set a tone for longlasting highquality development that uh keeps the commercial in. And um as
you know, we've had a program that we've been having RFPs looking for developers to meet all of our needs. And we've offered support in terms of helping to plan that, helping to design that, and um helping to have subsidies to make it happen to the level of quality that we
hope to see. And uh we took a vote this past week to um issue a contract pursuant to an RFP we did to Bay Ridge. Um and they um are going to be developing um a number of residential
units. I think it's 11 or so units, four of which are going to be um affordable units along with two commercial spaces. and the um the architectural renderings of this we've gone through several iterations and I would say it's
absolutely beautiful and it's the type of development that is also consistent with all of the work that we've been doing together with the planning board our economic development specialist uh laying out a pattern for village style
mixeduse type development in our central corridor that will hopefully spur additional private investment just like the infrastructure that we're putting in. So, I wanted to make people um aware of that and we I have all of the um
renderings and things that you know we can share as well. But what was the name of the development company? It is the Bay Ridge Realy LLC and and it was a competitive process that we went through. Um and they um ranked extremely high and so the the housing trust um I I
thought did a great job with that and and also I would acknowledge Mary Wagan our housing administrator um great job putting that together and and it's just great to see and this is the kind of talk that's going on throughout all these boards. We've really been trying
to focus on, you know, using this comprehensive planning process to um bring everything together and not have all of these individual agencies and boards, you know, just doing their own thing, but but having it geared towards uh the type of development that u we had
outlined in the zoning in the plan that that we'd like to see. So, um I thought that that was very interesting. Another item I just wanted to make you aware of. I'll pass this around. Um Diane Kaine,
our um elder services coordinator gets um huge kudos this month that we've been u designated a dementia friendly Massachusetts community. Great. and we're already an age friendly community
and it's difficult to get these designations because it in incorporates a whole series of activities and um sensitivities that the community has to have. So, the whole age friendly um council and uh the senior services, I
thought that was a great job. And um I I wanted to just mention geez, we I tried everything we could do to, you know, keep Bill down here. This looks like it may be his last meeting um with the select board. Um and um what a
tremendous job smiling Bill's done for us. Yeah, just you know the library thing, you know, with the his fingerprints were were all over it, you know, the thoroughess, the detail, um everything. And so we're going to miss Bill
tremendously. And just, you know, my personal thanks, Bill. Thank you, Bill. Thank you. And I I I might mention that um you know, we we've heard a lot especially in municipal management, you know, and you you've seen it in all of our positions
here in town. It's getting more and more difficult to locate, you know, these career um professional whether it's administrators and now the public safety teams and finance. It's it's been really hard and um I I thought we were going to
have a tremendously difficult, you know, period trying to fill Bill's shoes. We've um initiated the recruitment process. Um we have a very highly competitive field of approximately 45 candidates. Wow. Which um exceeded my
expectations um tremendously. And um so the interview process is starts with the first round next week and I I've assembled a crack panel of um you know our our finance director, DPW director,
human resources director and myself um and and I I do that on purpose because I really benefit from um you know the input, the synergy, the different uh backgrounds and so um I I feel we're going to be successful at that. Um, no
one's going to fill Bill's shoes when, you know, the level of experience and expertise that he brought to this job was tremendous, but we're really going to have to, you know, run to kind of keep up with the times. And so, that's just a smattering of the
critical. He's been invaluable, hasn't he? We are definitely going to miss you, Bill. We really are. Whole another level. We wish you the best of success. Yep. Muck medicis the library committee sewing you think
of all the committees and all the we wouldn't be I guess we understand why you're fleeing we do but all those projects you know you got the site you got an architect as a consultant you're trying to say we're okay you're
trying to make us feel good that you're leaving it's not going to work sorry dude it's not going to work the departments. I mean, I'm thinking of all the departments that you've worked on and helping get their operations in gear. All the work on the capital budget
that capital outstanding work there. I mean, we could we could I could stay here all night. I'm not going to do that. Of course, across the street, it's going to be Bill Scott Towns. Common. Yeah. He's had his fingerprints on so many important things here in town. We're going to We'll find a bus
stop for him. Isn't that what we do for That's it. Bill Scottway. You could put it outside the West Yarmouth Library updates. Okay. 28. Like a move to a journ. Wait, I have one more real quick. Mark, it's about the boat ride. I wanted to inform this group that
we had been invited to I forgot. He'll send an email. Yeah, he's going to email us with a date. Yeah. I I met with um the gentleman from Friends of Bass River. Friends of Bass River and he's sending out an invitation. So just get
your foul weather gear um together. Foul foul fowl you know for for voting I don't know if I have fowl gear but we'll give you a date but make sure you come everyone Mark
you're moving to um you're moving to adjourn. Yes I move to adjurnn. I would second that. Yeah. All those in favor. Good night. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you all. It might be cool when we go out now. We Great job. That was a big agenda.