##VIDEO ID:P## good evening uh welcome to the Yarmouth select board for August 6 2024 uh here in the yarma town hall hearing room uh since this is a hybrid meeting I am going to uh read the following announcement this is to formally advise that as required by general laws chapter 30A uh subsection 18-25 and pursuant to chapter 20 of the acts of 2021 an act relative to extending certain covid-19 measures adopted during the state of emergency signed into law on June 16 2021 and as extended by chapter 2 of the acts of 2023 the armor select board will hold a public meeting on Tuesday August 6 2024 at 6:00 p.m. in the hearing room Yarmouth Town Hall 1146 Route 28 South Yarmouth Mass the public is welcome to attend either in person or via the alternate Public Access which is provided on the town's website please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance 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 and uh Mary I see you standing at the podium do you have an announcement for us today good evening Mary maslowski town clerk I just wanted to take the opportunity to give everyone a a minor election update uh we are in the middle of mailing all the vote by mail ballots people should have received them uh if there are people that still want to uh request a vote by mail ballot they're happy to do so just need to get it to our office the deadline for that though is Tuesday August 27th which sounds like it's a long ways away but it really isn't um we will start inperson early voting on Saturday August 24th we will be here in this hearing room from 9 UM from 9:00 a.m. to 3 p.m. for impersonally voting there will be no hours on Sunday and then we will be here regular business hours for the following week uh with the exception that Friday we will not close until 5:00 p.m. so those are uh the opportunities that people have to vote in person early uh in addition to that the last day of register to vote is also Saturday August 24th we will be open in the town clerk's office from 9:00 a.m. to 5 p.m. for any voter registration so anybody that is not currently registered to vote and wishes to vote in this September primary that is their drop dead date by 5:00 p.m. in our office uh we will be here if anyone has any questions they can certainly call our office and we can check your status thank you Barry I know you're going to be very busy coming up in the next couple of weeks already are do we have any other announcements today under public comments uh do we have anyone here that would like to make a public comment I do see that Vita Morris has her hand up on Zoom Vita good evening are you with us you'll have to unmute you have to unmute your button VA okay can you hear me now I certainly can good evening okay good evening I I was just testing my new tablet to to make sure that the zoom and raising the hand works that's all but I don't appreciate being dumped so that that it apparently the the hand works but it it works a little differently than on the old tablet anyway yeah good evening well good evening and the Hand works just fine all right Joe Glenn Joe I think you need to unmute yourself as well Joe are you there chair uh I don't know if you can hear me I I'm not getting any sound at all I don't know if it's on my end I'm I actually had to close caption to see the comments of the Town Clerk and the previous uh commentor so I'm not getting uh anything from you guys so I won't know if you're hearing me but I'll continue into the if you're getting me you can uh just let me continue but uh if not you can just mute me um I just wanted to uh give kudos out to a young man who was a lifeguard um I was down on Route 28 near the uh Bass River Bridge and it was a semi-trailer that almost took out the whole light at the corner uh I thought it was going to be much worse but the young man who was a lifeguard for the town of Yarmouth came out and um uh right after the damage was done the truck continued on um and I think that was mainly because it was the only safe thing to do uh the other residents and the other uh Vehicles were very Cooperative in the situation um but the young man pulled his car over safely his truck over I don't know who it was but he was clearly in a Yarmouth lifeguard uh suit and uh shirt um he clear cleanly and efficiently and as a former firefighter EMT and and lifeguard and supervisor for many years um the the gentleman did a fantastic job I I hope we can identify or we have identified who he is because it was just uh he did it quickly uh accidents happen after accidents uh because of debris and such and this gentleman um uh did a fantastic job he pulled off the road he got the debris off the road um and things continued as normal so uh if we can identify him uh because I don't know what you're getting and I'm not getting anything um I'll keep my comments uh on other matters I did want to ask if the uh yarmi Housing Authority letter could be read uh I was going to comment on it but um I don't want to speak for the entire housing Board of Commissioners but I did want um that communication to be uh read into the record if if possible because some uh at least one member of the selectman said that they didn't see that letter to me so um but anyway um I'll finish up now because I I don't know what you guys are getting or not but uh thanks very much Madam chair and uh have a great evening thank you Joe and we'll certainly pass your um comments on to Anthony Bennett in Recreation I think we really are blessed in this town with a wonderful staff of lifeguards you feel very safe at the beach thank you and uh as far as the housing are do you have that Bob as part of your update today um I do not but the the letter has been um distributed and um I I thought we were still waiting to hear whether they were going to be able to come and meet with the board that was the we had a request to meet and they sent a letter in lie of that and um we still don't have them scheduled but I hope everyone has at least received the letter and I I don't have it with me to read was that part of our public packet at any point for the public to be able to see what was in the letter um no I do not think it was okay any comments on Joe's um comment about wanting to have that letter read into the public I I will I will say that given that that is such a sensitive matter in town with a lot of concern there is Merit I think in getting that uh response out for people to read we could post it on the website that would be great if we could post that on the website and have it available for folks I think it answers some of the questions that are asked of us as Selectmen why we have not done certain things it kind of show highlights what exactly are the parameters that we have versus the Housing Authority I have the letter in front of me I don't know if you I can send it to you or I don't know if you want to read it but it's not that long I can read it if you want me to Tracy if you have the letter if you could read it that would be great thank you sure and I believe that this was in response to our request to meet this is dated July 16th 2024 uh dear members of the armor select board um unfortunately the board of the Housing Authority Yarmouth housing authori is not able to attend the select board meeting on July 23rd 2024 but we did want to give you an update of the Forest Road Old townhouse Road property at this time our board is still working with the Massachusetts Housing Partnership to finalize the request for proposal in hopes of selecting a developer to build much needed affordable housing on our land Forest Road Old townhouse Road all of our meetings throughout this process have been held publicly and we have been listening to concerns of the public we have been working diligently to place parameters in the RFP to best protect abing neighborhoods the RFP is calling for the site to have natural buffer from surrounding residential area and to have not more than 50 units or 90 bedrooms the Housing Authority's Next Step before issuing an RFP is to ask eoh LC which is formally the Department of Housing and Community Development to approve the release of the contract for financial assistance that they have on the land we are in the process of making that request now and hopes that they will outline the documents they need in order to release the CFI the disposition of the land is subject to State procurement Law chapter 30b as such we are not involved in the design of the development and we cannot give any inputs or update on the matter but we as stated earlier put parameters in the RFP that will try to mitigate any negative effects on the neighborhood and abing properties these parameters will be given consideration when reviewing and scoring any sub submitted proposal proposal any zoning environmental or building permits will be applied for by the developer to the town for proper approval and when a developer is is selected respectfully submitted the housing thank you Tracy and Bob if we could have that up on the website as well I think that would be helpful okay um moving on to our next agenda item uh we'll be hearing from the town clerk regarding the 2024 September State primary election matters good evening I'm Mary maslowski town clerk uh these are our traditional housekeeping items for each election so under the 2022 votes act the board of Selectmen needs to take a vote relative to assigning police officers um what we have traditionally done is kept it the way it was we have had the uh Board of selectman vote to assign the police officers uh and the assignment of the police officers to the police Chief in consultation with the town clerk's office uh gives the police chief greater flexibility in uh Staffing for election day so there is a proposed motion on that um that is included in the letter and then the second item is just the uh ballot warrant that needs to be uh voted on by your board so that we can get that published in the paper um and posted around town um there is also a proposed motion included in the letter for that as well M chair yes I make a motion that the Arma select board hereby designates its Authority given under chapter 92 section 72 of the acts of 2022 to detail a sufficient number of police officers are conable for each building that contains polling places for one or more precincts at every election therein to preserve the order and to protect the election officers and supervisors from interfering in their duties and to Aid in enforcing the laws relating to elections to the police police chief of police in consultation with the town clerk do I have a second second okay any discussion all those in favor I I I Madam chair i' like to make another motion yes I move that the select board adopt the warrant for the September 3rd 2024 Massachusetts state primary election as presented by the Town Clerk and direct that the warrant be duly advertised and posted in accordance with Mass General law the town of yarm Charter and bylaws do I have a second second any discussion all those in favor I thank you Mary I think you're set to go thank you very much okay um our next agenda item is the review the priorities for Coastal resiliency and the vulnerability assessment plan I think president and hi so if You' like to just give your names and your um your titles to um the public please yep good evening I'm a Manda Lima I'm the town engineer the town Yarmouth uh hi I'm Britney hoffnagle uh consultant with Woodle group working with Amanda okay and uh who will be making the presentation today um I'll do an introduction and Britney will be taking over for the presentation well I'll hand it over to you then for the introduction Amanda all right right while we wait for that to warm up um we're here tonight thank you um to kind to take a pause and kind of um see where we have been where we are and where we're going um the there been a lot of um good um work done in the last um four or five years um to kind of look at the coastal resiliency and kind of develop a plan moving forward um there's been really good efforts in pursuing grants to help supplement this in previous um expenditures that um the town has made to do matches for these grants and um where we're going um will also be um shown in the presentation we got all right we got that up and going awesome and um what we're looking for tonight um we're going to be going over the um vulnerability assessment and AD adaptation plan and we're looking for endorsement from the board in regards to that as a way forward as we continue to seek out grants and um provide improvements for our infrastructure in town and with that I'll pass it off to Britney thanks Amanda um as Amanda said we just uh want to set the stage for for how we've worked together collaboratively um in reviewing priorities for Coastal resiliency um so to set the stage uh back in June of 2019 the town completed the municipal vulnerability preparedness uh workshop and that was uh a workshop that brought in town staff and and other uh stakeholders to really discuss about discuss the vulnerabilities that everyone has observed and is experienced in the town of Yarmouth and at the end of that Workshop everyone put their heads together and developed ideas for how we could address some of those concerns and the number two uh priority of of that Workshop was evaluating the vulnerability of infrastructure and considering options for repair so this was a state program uh that provided funds to have the town of Yarmouth hold this workshop and and and discuss these concerns so as a result of that Workshop uh the town decided to pursue a uh what they call the municip municipal vulnerability preparedness Grant action grants for the year of 2022 23 which was a climate change vulnerability assessment and adaptation plan the grant awarded to the town was for $80,000 with a 20K ma 20,000 K mat 20,000 cash match from the town and so the result of this project uh 2022 is 23 was a published report um expressing vulnerabilities and adaptation strategies so I do want to emphasize that this was a collaborative approach between the town um and us and the community uh we worked we developed a steering committee which was made up of the various Departments of the town uh ranging from DPW Fire Department uh GIS and it uh division of Natural Resources town planning and administration and the others that you can see on the screen we also did a series of community outreach events we did engage the Chamber of Commerce to understand some of the important um the concerns um that businesses have experienced here in the past as well as targeted Outreach to the senior center to understand um the concerns of some of those more vulnerable popul s that might not have um access or ability to to escape um climate change impacts uh we did hold two Community public meetings May 24th and May June 28th of 2023 to get feedback from the vulnerability assessment and adaptation strategies and we did present the results of the the work um on July 18th 2023 so just a quick overview of the project I'm going to kind of Zoom through these but we completed this project in three phases first understanding the impacts of climate change and Gathering asset information from town-owned and managed infrastructure so I just want to uh be clear that the data we used for this assessment was really rooted in sea level rise and Coastal storm surge um there's other climate change factors that are are of concern for the town of Yarmouth um but this this work um for these purposes was really rooted in CEO rise and storm surge um we know that temperature and we know that precipitation events are likely to increase in the future as well um but this particular plan targeted steo rise and Coastal storm surge so this is using the state's planning tool called the Massachusetts Coast flood risk model um we call it mcfm for short but it basically describes your annual chance of becoming flooded um in present day through 2070 climate conditions and so um we Ed this as the base data for assessing uh Municipal infrastructure and this is quickly just going through the expected um impacts through 2070 we then uh worked with Amanda and other Town staff to identify the important assets around town um this included buildings generators roadways uh important storage and out buildings bath houses pump stations um and really trying to consider those assets that if they failed during storm would cons would cause a disruption to the town so focusing on vital and crucial infrastructure pieces and this is just a map showing the distribution and the location of all of the assets that we assessed phase two of this project was then taking those assets um understanding the vulnerability to flooding and understanding the assets criticality to tent function and when you consider those two factors vulnerability to flooding and the critical nature of each of those assets we can calculate total risk um so then we could identify where priority should be given to to the most vulnerable assets so to walk you through this process we Ed the mcfm results to assign the probability of inundation map um inundation to each of the assets so this is a graphic showing those assignments to each of the infrastructure um in this this image and you can see how the probability of flooding increases through time so 2030 2050 and 2070 then we score each of those assets using a range of criteria for example area of service loss cost of damage and impacts to Public Safety and in emergency services amongst the others that are seen there and so each asset was given a score of a range of 0 to four across each of those criteria and when you consider all of the assets that we had in inventory uh you have a rank um a system of understanding how critical each of those assets are to the functioning of the town and so this is basically showing you a graph of the criticality score when you're considering all of the scores across those criteria uh so you can see you know water corrosion control facility number one um was highest in this example um whereas some of the warehouses that are across town ranked much lower based on criticality so as I said once you take the probability of inundation the chance that it's going to become flooded and multiply by its consequence score you do get the total risk um and so um then you can use that ranking to identify the most vulnerable assets and develop adaptation strategies to help reduce impacts from CEO arise and storm surge and future climate conditions so the result of this work is again ranking those assets um based in priority from high risk to low risk and then develop adaptation strategies for those selected priority assets and natural resources so for this this result of this work um these are just some examples of some of the top ranking assets but in the column or in the category of docks peers and boardwalks packet Landing Marina Pier ranked high as well as Wilbur Park boat dock and Grace Beach boat dock four buildings and structures uh Englewood Beach and the Yarmouth Sailing Center ranked uh high as well as Taylor Bay Farm and buildings and uh the Bass River Beach and bath house and one thing you'll notice is for these two examples most of these assets are water dependent um and one of the major key takeaways of this work was the highest at risk assets include um more of the water dependent and Coastal infrastructure assets so that was a key takeaway so buildings like Town Hall um and other the DPW buildings the police station uh the DNR office those buildings that really serve those critical functions are relatively safe um and as the climate changes and either things get worse or don't get worse you can always reassess these assets um in the in the frame of of climate change and re-evaluate um their their criticality or vulnerability in the future so I think that was a major finding of this report is that a lot of the Town function would continue but these water dependent and Coastal infrastructure assets were the most vulnerable which makes sense So based on the adaptations recommendations there was a slew of ideas um so with working with the steering committee of this project uh recommendations and the development of conceptual designs were focused on three locations um not just because of one particular asset but each of these locations contained multiple assets that were vulnerable um and so three were selected packet Landing Marina Anglewood Beach sailing Center and the bass ba beach bath house and now I'm going to focus on packet Landing Marina so these were the example conceptual designs that uh resulted in this work um and so we developed Concepts that were themed in Elevate protect and manage Retreat and so these are just examples of those preliminary conceptual designs that were developed for the adaptation plan we also included recommendations for municipal buildings um specifically like elevating buildings on piles elevating interior first floors um employ dried flood proofing techniques and so on we developed recommendations for asset groups so for peers docks and boardwalks we recommended increase height of pilings or reconfigure to increase height through time you relocate water front utilities to Higher Ground um for beaches and Coastal buildings we um recommended reconfiguring existing Beach layouts um or like retreating bathouses away from the water um exploring nature-based options like beach do nourishment to bolster um uh storm protection we also provided policy and Regulatory recommendations um really leaning on um integration of the Cape Cod commission's model Coastal resilience bylaw that was completed in 2021 we also had natural resource recommendations um I think a a big priority in Yarmouth is is maybe addressing undersized coverts including those associated with defunct Cranberry Bogs um and finding ways to continue to enhance existing natural resources we also made some recommendations for identifying locations for marsh migration um if there's open land or area that could serve as migration for existing marshes we want to um focus on those areas and and continue to protect those in the future uh also there's some collaborative future Town Projects that we recommended uh we Rec recommended the review and update of the hazard mitigation plan and incorporate most up toate the most upto-date climate projections as necessary and I believe that's currently being worked on um through Cathy and the planning department um and the other two is considering concept completing neighborhood specific vulnerability assessments inclusive of Resident and business Community stakeholders so the existing ccva focused on town-owned and um managed assets this is another um it's a a level down where we actually include the business um community and residents as well the other recommendation also was to U Iz the results of the Cap Cod commission's lowline roadway project to investigate emergency egress planning for most vulnerable roadways so not only identifying the lowline road project really identified the most vulnerable roads through town we're thinking about taking it further to identify the emergency egresses out of these neighborhoods and making sure those roadways are resilient into the future uh so this brings us to the next phase of this presentation so those recommendations um has spurred into two um almost three now continued projects so uh speaking to those last two recommendations for the town um was the route 28 Corridor resiliency um from our results of the ccva um and looking at the mcfm results this area is is extremely vulnerable it's a lowline flood plane very densely populated and um emergency egress and and Transportation through this Corridor is is really important so um as I said um it's densely populated includes EJ communities and it's really um High concentration of of businesses and residents um that spur the economy here in in town the road network is also vulnerable again lowline roads and it's important to understand the emergency response routes and egresses throughout the these neighborhoods and um Amanda could speak to you know the the repeated Community concerns that this area is facing um by some of the emails that she has gotten bringing attention to you know the severe and now dangerous flooding conditions experiencing flash flooding um that has inundated the road and immobilized cars um and so there is feedback from the community that they're concerned about climate change they're concerned about you know whether the town is is pursuing Solutions and so those concerns as well as the town's vulnerability um spurred the submission of a 2-year minicipal vulnerability preparedness action Grant um for the years 2024 through 2026 year one would focus on that emergency routing and egress analysis um Community engagement would include uh planned tabling events virtual community info sessions and personal interviews with fire police and neighborhood associations um this also includes a presentation to the board um to provide an update on this project year two of this grant request um is really focusing on those neighborhood vulnerability assessments and um public engagement so this year two will'll be F focused on um Community engagement planned with tabling events engagement with a chamber of commerce membership meeting and virtual Comm Comm info sessions um we're also hoping to plan a public Community resiliency event um which hopefully will align with the Cape Cod wide um resiliency efforts that usually have been taking place in June um and uh we're including a second presentation to the board uh to receive feedback on um the final project the grant request was for $178,700 um and to share the good news uh this grant was awarded and announced on Thursday August 1 in Lemer Massachusetts um Amanda attended awards were given to 50 Massachusetts communities our grant was awarded for 16731 so that's a slight reduction um mostly in budget from our um working meetings and um things like that so to um speak on to another grant that you're all familiar with um you gave us support during uh the select board meeting in July to um you endorsed us submitting the grant um and so I just wanted to acknowledge that this project from 2023 2024 also spurred from the the coastal vulnerability assessment so in the um we just presented the results of this but it was the coastal resiliency Grant to conduct a conceptual Alternatives analysis where we evaluated the conceptual design Alternatives that would enhance Coastal resiliency at packet landing and with the goals of advancing the design of a practical feasible alternative that would help achieve the town's goals and the result of this work was the um the town selected the alternative two which was the Elevate option so elevating the um Timber Warf elevating the parking lot and installing a sheet pile bulkhead around the property to reduce impacts from um extreme water levels so from this uh the town was interested in applying for another round of grant funding um which you um endorse the application of um so the next steps of this was applying for a 2-year coastal zone management Coastal resiliency grant for final design and permitting on July 19th 2024 so as part of this project year one is really focused on that preliminary design and filing the necessary permits um and we are including a presentation to the select board uh to receive feedback on that preliminary design before permits are filed year 2 is really taking the the design to its final steps and developing those technical specifications um so which also includes a presentation to the board uh to receive feedback on that final design the grant request for this particular project um was $255,000 383 so the results of this is still unknown um we should hear back about the results of this submission in the next month uh so that's all we have um again there collaboration with the town um Amanda working with the municipal ility preparedness grants and the czm grants and also collaborating with Bill benetti from the Department of Natural Resources and all of the other Town staff thank you uh Mark Forest do you have any comments sure thank you madam chair um just a quick question regarding the accessibility of this report did we get this up on our website yet yes it's on the website it's on the website now okay good no one of one of my challenges was um having difficult ulty finding this document on our website um a prior document was the one that was generally accessible for the public so I'm glad I'm glad to see this here um I think it's a Well Done report and let me just make that very very clear I think you've done some great work um I'm curious during the public discussion of this and the community meetings how many people actually showed up for the CCPA for the climate change vulnerability assessment um were attended by a few we had them available both virtually and in person um so I remember both events we had five or six attendees in person the senior center was very well attended we had a lot of concerns in regards to being able to obtain resources when um they were in trouble that one was um very well attended um I think the struggle and why the the grant that we um just were awarded was kind of morphed into was because we got a lot of feedback from the Chamber of Commerce and from the residents saying yes it's great that we have the town infrastructure be in place but I care more about my house and my business and that's why the the grant moving forward kind of has evolved over time we've gotten many emails in regards to you know roads flooding um during a um a high tide never mind during um a surge event so um so that's why those kind of those two task items have have have moved forward in that um and I think we'll get more output the one thing that Burney had touched upon for that year too is having and hopefully we'll be able to host it at the Riverwalk or pending name in a little bit um project would be at that site that is built for ctal resiliency to have a workshop with FEMA and all the other entities for people to come in um even while we were writing and um drafting up the grant um we found out that the county has a whole handbook on Coastal hazards um so now as DPW and DNR have copies in our and I we have one left at this point so um it's a really good resource um for the residents and I think it really helps because they even though I'm sure they appreciate the town departments um they really were focused on their roadways their houses and their businesses yeah I think that's been my comment as well um I think and that's one of the some of the concern that you heard expressed from me at the last meeting I think it's great that we're focused on municipal facil ities but um there's a much broader concern in the community in terms of access particularly through roads roads that are constantly flooded and being able to help provide access to those areas both for residents but also for for Town Vehicles emergency vehicles you know uh um particularly ambulances and and and Fire and Rescue and so forth so I I'm glad to hear uh that there's a real emphasis now in finding ways to sort of address some of those issues and I think that's going to be very important important going forward um as you know um for many of these projects that are identified as priorities or projects that we we need to pursue we'll be looking for local funds this will be a discussion that won't just take place here in our meetings or in some of the other community meetings but it'll be a discussion that'll take place on town meeting floor so I I think really what's incredibly important is the public engagement aspect of this the public involvement aspect of it and I would like to recommend that you know we and this will be through the Town Administrator but that we find uh ways creative ways to really get this a lot of the information out into the larger community and find ways to stimulate much greater public and citizen involvement uh this work is is is incredibly important for people to be aware of um the storm surges the areas that will be flooded um just helping getting that basic information out to Yarmouth residents I think is vital and I would recommend that we fully engage our Communications team our Communications Department find ways to do videos put stuff on the TV channel uh have more maps available things that people can grab when they come into town hall to pay their bill um just the awareness of how vulnerable this community is for coastal flooding is important and I think as part of the education campaign one of the things that we got to explain is what does resiliency mean this term gets thrown around a lot and I think um uh sometimes we've got to be careful not to get ourselves caught up in the jargon we need to be able to explain to people when we talk about resiliency what do we exactly mean because I hear that Flo you know put out there all the time from a variety of federal and state agencies and sometimes I feel that it's probably better for us to find ways to make the extra effort to really explain what we're trying to do when we want to say making something resilient what so I'm not saying we need to answer that question now but I think that's in part an important component of the public discussion um and I and I do think it's going to be critical to find ways to make some of this information in this report widely available um it's valuable uh valuable information I would say that from my point of view just speaking as one selectman uh the information that you put on the slide where it said I think something like next steps where you identified the road in the areas in West Yarmouth and South Yarmouth that face significant flooding to me uh I'm very in much interested in finding ways in which we can address those problems um you know after reading through this material and spending a lot of time uh grilling poor Bill um on this I I got a much better appreciation for the packets Landing project um one of the reasons why I have embraced that project is because in the the event of a storm that is going to be an area where Public Safety uh emergency response on the water that's where just about everything gets launched so from from the prior from my point of view having the ability to respond to incidents out in the water having that capacity there is vital and to make sure that that facility but um I think there are probably other Municipal pH facilities and this is again just me one selectman Speaking here but to me in addition to those areas that are impacting key portions of our neighborhoods um I'm also concerned about making sure that of the municipal buildings the ones that are critical in terms of Emergency Response Public Safety emergency response those need to find a way to sort of elevate in terms of the priority list so um I could go on those are my initial comments I appreciate you're coming in I appreciate seeing this report finally I know it's been it was done a while ago but somehow I I I I missed out on it but now that I've read it and gone through it I'm very impressed I want to congratulate you congratulate you and doing an outstanding job and it's so good like I said I think we got to get more people aware of it and I know you we we often Try by setting up public meetings but I think this is the kind of work that really requires us to make the extra effort in finding other creative ways to get the information out to people so and that's a conversation we can follow up with later with a with the Town Administrator so thank you madam chair thank you Mark uh Tracy thank you thank you for the presentation um I guess this information is always just surprising to me because I feel like I feel like sometimes um when you look at the scoring for instance that something like a cost damage or an economic impact has the same weight as uh Public Safety and public health and environment so when you see things that have a four that are way down the list on public health and environment and you know it just makes you shake your head how that how that doesn't carry more weight than some of the other things and I I don't I'm I'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around how we got from the three or four risk calculations to the three that were picked because it doesn't seem like the three that were picked are actually the three top ones um I think it's really hard to express all of the results of this work in a small review um uh meeting um so I would encourage you to look at the full report to see how the everything got scored and how it ranked um there is uh top 15 vulnerable assets and you can see how they ranked um so I'm just going based off of like this right to the next steps were the three projects and they don't align I think a big takeaway from it was in regards to what year a lot of the ones like the water um infrastructure that was a lot of it was until like 2070 and I think that that's where it came down in regards to ranking whether it was something that would be closer that would be inundated sooner than I don't you can correct me if I'm wrong but I feel like that that was like a big factor when we were looking into it we had more time to deal with the issue that was a part of the um overall conversation that we don't see right but when I but but lii also was part of that steering committee so she was hyperfocused on the water infrastructure and and then she was able to with um woodold group staff to like dig into like our is everything okay and all of her infrastructure ultimately ended up being in a good spot it was just because the parcel as a whole got kind of scooped into it um you know because it doesn't necessarily mean that what she has and what she's implemented as part of her improvements hasn't been um you know accounted for for Coastal resiliency it was just kind of triggered based on just the gis layer and it scooping it in as a parcel I guess also and this is probably not related that you identified our community as an environmental Injustice EJ I had to Google it to see what that was I'm environmental justice Community how is that something we've been designated as by the state by the state their designated areas in almost every Community Based on um popul uh wage population so it's different factors it could be income based it could be more minority based or language based um and then there's a couple other factors that we don't have in the cape cut area that maybe the city of Boston might have um but mostly for Cape Cod it's it's minority whether it's language um and income um so those are a state regulated data layer that helps they're starting to incorporate the uh the the presence of EJ communities in the grants so that we can make sure that the grant funds are being shared equitably um across the state and in within communities that um that have ejs Justice and usually it just means like a different type of Outreach whether it's having an interpreter or just um targeting certain areas that you're making sure kind of what Market said that you're getting the larger audience um whether we go to the bus stops and are putting our Flyers there making sure that the location is accessible um you know those are kind of some of the means it usually is an additional um Outreach portion of it and um of the route 28 Corridor because that was one of the um feedback that we had gotten from M the MVP program was to include more of the environmental justice communities and it's a was I would say like about half of the that quarter south of 28 um that is that also you know contributes to the um that part of the study okay um so it seems like we're going in two different directions and what I'm trying to also wrap my head around is so we've identified and we've gotten basically a grant we've written for the top priority in this but now we're going to go and do an analysis of other properties how do we move forward on these items simultaneously while we're looking at um business and residential like I'm just and I'm curious how other communities when they come up with those items um are they then I guess financially we're doing the analysis for private for private which does impact the the public in terms of emergency vehicles and things like that but where does it how do you draw the line as to what our responsibility would be well I would say from the top three that were um shown tonight and you're looking at those those were you know targeted based on the findings from the vulnerab vulnerability assessment but there have been other priorities in town that kind of overlap so the the packet Landing one was a was a high priority for DNR and for the fire department in regards to that yeah I understand the town property ones I'm talking about when we do the analysis for the right the private yeah so then the other ones you'll see it says Anglewood Beach and the yarma Sailing Center while the Sailing Center itself may not be a huge interest for others that is also the same area of New Hampshire and Shore Road which is part of the low Ling road so there's a lot of overlap between um the different projects and um in regards to then understanding the neighborhoods because once if the neighborhood itself you know some houses have you know built up and built higher but some haven't so this kind of identifies you know where the risks are within the homeowners to you know because once you know say if there's four houses on a road and only two have lifted their house and the other two haven't the town can't go and say rais the road as an example to kind of keep those projects you know moving forward and how does that impact them with their insurance once that kind of information's been identified is there any negative impact in doing that analysis for them I th this analysis is not going to inform whether homes need or can get away from paying insurance premiums we we are focusing this project on these neighborhoods but also trying to elevate the the engagement and Outreach by doing the coastal resiliency fair I think what we're preliminarily calling it um where we are going to bring in um Shannon Holst or part of her staff to come in and represent um what personal homeowners could do based on this data so she could they residents could ask her questions about what they could do related to FEMA designations or Insurance um but I don't think that we're going to come out this project informing residents whether or not they have to get flood insurance it's just more information building and community community engagement from my perspective okay I just hope we continue on both path so that we don't you know this information's already getting dated right we're how many years into this now we're going to go to the next step but we don't address these issues so we need to continue to focus on finding grant money to address these high priority issues and you know move forward on the other ones I just I just feel like sometimes we get oursel way involved in a lot of things and we don't finish so that's my concern here but I really appreciate all the work and the information thank you yeah I mean I I I sorry can I make a last response um right ahead I really appreciate the feedback and I think this is a lot of work ton of work um and I think the town should um should or is is in a great spot to as Bill said last time or Bob said a couple months a couple weeks ago that making incremental steps based on the ability to um seek grant funding so I think it's you guys have set working collaboratively have set up a really good system of fighting small chunks of of this work at a time um but that's because we have results on one we're doing other studies now and all that's going to come right yeah especially when it comes to private and businesses and then what are what it's our responsibility in that that's what that's what my concern is that's all that's just just how I'm thinking I don't need an answer I'm just I'm just thinking forward okay thank you thank you Tracy Joyce Flynn oh thanks um I had a question that I think is is both for Amanda and Britney um I understand that the coastal resilience um program as it set up protects municipal property right um is that preferably structures rather than roads um because because I wanted to ask is there any way that town owned streets that habitually flood even though they have you know private businesses on them private residences not Town buildings whether they are eligible for any of any of this kind of relief yes um there are um I can name any specific project um across the state right now um but the czm um and MVP do accept applications for grant fundings for lowline roads and things like that um I think we're still in a early stage where I'm not sure an actual project has been completely funded for implementation yet um but studies to assess lowline roads and then design potentially design elevations or move designs forward have been submitted I'm not sure if a project has actually been funded yet um I know other towns have looked at Mass doot to look for funding um but I'm not aware of any particular project at this point that has been actually funded for roads okay thank you we have some roads that um you know I with Coastal resiliency obviously we're thinking of bad weather and we have some um roads that aren't along the coast but that flood very badly every time there's a heavy rain so i' I'd like to think of what we might be able to do to alleviate that situation because of course with climate change and ever more rain and ever more hurricanes that that's not going to go in the right direction right and that one um as Britney had mentioned in the presentation is different this one is just looking at like Coastal Surge and like typical sea level rise um but there are other plans it was a groundwater study that was done in 2003 that talks about high groundwater areas in town and there's been projects from that that have been um implemented um you know typically because the rain comes so quick um we usually when we design something in town um we typically ask for an um a request for drainage funds of a little over 200,000 um which get you about um like three or four sites a year um so you know in order to stretch the our money out and keep the designs feasible um we usually recommend that after a rain event you know that if you have a puddle in front of your house if you have it should reside and be infiltrated within the 24 hours because usually there's a system that's underground but just can't take that initial flush um and then you know then it eventually will all will infiltrate um so there's a couple different um Avenues this one here again is just mostly the the sea level rise coastal storage we've got high groundwater areas and then we just have your standard drainage so few different um pots where you know that people might have a complaint and see a puddle but it's different um depending on where it's coming from different causations suggests different roots and different programs right right but can I can I follow up on that point no but I think this is one of the things we're getting at is that if if the taxpayers are being asked to finance some segment um it's important for us to be able to explain to people if you live let's say in Captain's Village or if you live in New Hampshire or Massachusetts or one of the other areas in West Yarmouth where you're getting flooding people are going to want to know where do they fit in the overall priority list of the town so when we go to town meeting and ask for x amount of dollars to deal with a flooding problem they may be interested in you know the distinctions between the but a flooding problem is a flooding problem for for many people they don't necessarily make the distinctions between a high elevated area or the the the coastal surges or whatever the reality is is that we've got some areas that get flooded on a fairly regular basis and I do think we owe it as a board to be able to establish priorities that basically take into account all of these areas and if there areas that aren't going to be done then you know we need to be honest and realistic with people in terms of what those areas are so I think this is an important conversation to have but it opens the door to whole much broader conversation in the community and I recognize that on the drainage front there's only so much money that we're allocating every year but maybe we need to have a bigger conversation about maybe allocating more money and doing more work and making more priorities on some of these other drainage issues you know I mentioned this before at our last meeting you know climate change is changing these rain events we have rain events now in some of our neighbor and throughout the community and throughout the cape and perhaps the Northeast and around the country where we're getting Storm likee surges you know where these rain events and there may be areas where we as a community can at least have a discussion about whether or not we should be doing more to improve drainage in some of those areas so the drainage flooding issue is is a big issue and it's something that I think I mean it's good to be able to go after Grand opportunities for this one and that one and be able to pick the stuff off but the keep the thing that we have to keep in mind is is that if we're going to the taxpayers looking for money to provide matching grants to deal with some of these problems they have a right to know where their flooding problem fits in the overall Grant scheme of things and that's and I'm I'm just saying that's the that's the question that in a broader sense the broader we have to be prepared to address so I I I mentioned that before in the last meeting I'll mention that again tonight um if we don't have answers at town meeting then it's a chance that some of these projects that some of us might think are a high priority might not get funded at all because we can't answer the broader question of Where Mrs mcgillicuty who lives on nautical Lane you know whether or not their project is going to show up on any list you know and telling people that they have high elevation isn't necessarily the best answer for people if we're dealing with flooding problems you know a flooding you know for some people they a flooding problem is a flooding problem uh they're not not thinking about the the high elevation they're living in an area where they're they're just getting inundated with water so um and I'm not I'm not trying to this is a problem that's a broader issue that we all need to be engaged in I I don't want it for a minute to interfere with the the good work that you're trying to do for the town I appreciate that it's sort of a message to the broader group you know department heads as well as the rest of the board members that this is the issue that we have to be prepared to deal with I'd like to be able to go to town meeting and be able to advocate for a project but I also want to be able to answer the questions that people are going to be asking us about where they may fit in the overall grand scheme of things so and I'm a supporter of maybe you know bringing up a discussion soon on the whole question of drainage uh I've we've had this conversation before with Jeff I know you Amanda and our DPW you guys do a great job and trying to get after we have more drainage issues than we have money for I get that but maybe at some point we need to get all of that on the table and um look at those priorities and where they fit into this stuff and where they don't but where maybe from a community point of view since we're going to be getting Community input um you know we can get community input on that as well there may be things that a town meeting that may not fit in the alphabet soup of Grant programs but may as a community be seen as a priority you know there may be flooding problems in some of these neighborhoods or in Route 28 where people would agree you know what yes it may not be eligible for MVP or this alphabet soup of Grant programs but as a community we support making this a priority in elevating it on our list thank you Mark um may I ask uh if I understand this correctly this is really a grant that so that centers on storm surge the ocean bringing the water in not Mother Nature bringing the rain down right okay and are there any are we aware of any grants or are we looking for any grants that would help us with looking at that climate change and uh precipitation right so when I attended the award ceremony for the MVP Grant it was um in the city of lemonster and that was because of their um storm events that was rainfall that washed out two Bridges um I think they I forget the amount of inches they had received but um but they have they received two MVP grants related to the rainfall the exceedence of it and washing out their Bridge because I as Mark's talking about I I I think that daily we're seeing more and more of this happening in town and it isn't limited to just the captains or um you know to to West Yarmouth I mean it's happening in different areas all over town and we I agree need to look at drainage in general and what we can do in town perhaps to increase the amount of um monies we set aside for that each year but also I think with all of the hype that's out there on climate change there must be grants that are also available for us to look at rainwater or uh precipitation um and the issues that those bring along to town um because yes people here flooding and um there looking at just what the flooding problem is in their house and they're not all being flooded because of the ocean right and I think I'll Echo what Amanda said is that mvp is Municipal vulnerability preparedness program that does cover projects that are temperature related precipitation related and Coastal storm surge related so um we have had a work wo group has had a working relationship with the town of Yarmouth for couple years now it just that our expertise is in CEO rise and Coastal storm surge um there's nothing stopping the town from pursuing other nvp grants that are focused on storm water or drainage infrastructure that's just not our expertise so whether it's through the summary of findings report from the MVP Workshop or other recommendations from our report um I think there's other consultants in the area that would also be willing to collaborate to focus on that issue and would be supported by nvp so I think that's the good news is that information yeah I think that's the good news is that because the town of Yarmouth is a certified MVP Community you have access to funds to focus on anything climate change related it's just my perspective wo group is not an expert in storm water or drainage infrastructure um so we do the best we can to address a lot of the coastal areas um but there's definitely other qualified work groups that we've partnered with and the town has partnered with that can address those other those other um climate factors and I would say it's safe to say Jeff that you're looking into those other Grant possibilities with Amanda yes okay I'm glad to hear it you mentioned about a booklet and that you only had one copy of the booklet left and that it was a valuable tool is there a way to put that on a pdf online so that people could have access to it through the county um and um and we and we can request for more hard copies I just happened to notice we had one left in our um in our vestibule so well also just in general to in general it might be wise to also have an option with a link to the PDF so that people could do it and just read it at home if they would prefer um or from a house booat if they live in certain [Laughter] neighborhoods I want to thank you for your presentation I found it very informative um I have to say on a personal level I'm rather shocked when you look at that map and you see how much is on the south and the west side of town uh what our vulnerability is there versus where the none of those buildings seem to be located in the northern part of town um and that's something overall I think we're going to have to look at is to start prioritizing where we put any future build buildings for instance but I really appreciate it does any of the members of the board have any other questions that they would like to uh have answered at this point this was very helpful thank you would it be possible to endorse where we're at with the plan and moving forward by the board I would entertain a motion to endorse the plan I I uh make a motion to endorse the uh MVP plan specifically the part about Coastal resilience for the three sites mentioned tonight do I have a second on that can I can I sure make a recommendation to the uh proponent of the motion I think what's necessary for for us to sustain a very competitive position in terms of funding is just to endorse the overall MVP plan as presented I mean I think the final plan as a document needs to be approved by the town so we we have to give our seal of approval on this plan so I would recommend if the motion could be changed just to recommend like a more Global thing Global thing to recommend the plan as it is as it's been presented to us this evening that way they can say that this is a toy armouth approved plan okay I amend um I make a motion that uh the board endorsed the MVP plan as presented to us tonight and give it our full support thank you I'll second that and we have a second um all those in favor I I thank you very much thank you okay we next have on our agenda a vote regarding the order of taking six in total and railroad lease agreement for the Cape Cod rail trail phase three Kathy am I calling on you for this no Amanda you're you're back on wearing a different hat Craig will you can sit next to me can't make him drive all the way here all right okay once again if you'd like to introduce yourselves please all right good evening I'm a mandal Lima I'm the town engineer I'm Craig Shan from mot's right of way Bureau thank you all right I'm here tonight to give a project update for a long project in the making and this is the Cape Cod rail trail phase three and uh we're here tonight um because it's it's going it's it's going we got the schedule and um and we're here and I appreciate you guys um U receiving all the amended um motions that Our Town Council has been putting together um as we are finalizing the right away plans and um to get through all these order takings and also the railroad lease um so just as a kind of big picture um this project the Cape Cod rail trail phase three is part of the larger Vision 88 in regards to connecting um Cape Cod via a um off the road path um all the way from Sandwich up uh North and the Marine portion where the arrow is is the location for the um for the phase three portion of the work uh this project will be very beneficial to the town of Yarmouth um it will connect the previous phases one and two and also as you may have seen we're in the final construction of phase three for the Higgins cwed shared use path which goes north to south um so we're going to uh continue to expand our sidewalk and shared use path networks within the town um and this one will will allow us to freely travel from um east to west and west to east um while we're also doing other projects in town to work on going from north to south here is uh just kind of overall Locust map I have the full drawings in my box here um just to kind of give you reference from the West um this there will be a new parking lot on Mary Dunn um it will the path then goes north and heads East East as it goes into the town of Yarmouth there will be a pedestrian uh bridge over um Yarmouth Road in Willow Street and then it will follow the path of the old Higgins craw and then um retain and continue East and the existing path that you um can utilize today will be uh reh rehabbed and it will um end and terminate at Peter Homer Park um so as I had summarized we have a 10 to 12 foot wide path uh with three foot shoulders there'll be a bridge over Willow Street in the railroad tracks um there'll be uh two parking lot areas we're rehabilitating the Bayberry golf parking area and there'll be a new parking lot at the end of Higgin coll um and then there'll be improved roadway Crossings at the disposal area and also at West Yarmouth Road and Old townhouse this is a cross-section of where um the path will be on most typical locations and the important part the schedule uh so it has been um the final submission for the PSN the third one version of it was submitted on July 8th um the bidding oh I somehow still have March in there got to delete that um but was will be on August 17th and the construction window uh will be lengthy but will be expected to start in November and um will end five years later and then at that point that's when the path will be open for full use and that's using the dot tool for um estimating construction Windows the um cost estimate just in regards to just feeling how much of a valuable asset this will be the entire project is estimated over $20 million um the town has paid um through the CPC of 600,000 for design and the remaining was through local chapter 90 funds for the design work um we also just received a mass Trails Grant to help out with the construction services associated with the construction um moving forward so we can kind of hope that there won't be any more Town expenditures um after after we get through the bidding phase um and the two funding sources for the state are on there for this portion of the work and the Yarmouth of the overall cost is about $16 million and the bridge itself is about $3 million not paid by Yarmouth not paid by Yarmouth correct it's the two State funds that are on there that cmaq and the tap well if I can add a footnote to this um this is this project has been uh a priority project for the the mo and um we as a board have designated Peter Smith to represent us on the mo it's a countywide board it sets priorities and uh I'm I serve on the board as well representing barnable County and uh the no board has heard a number of updates on this project um I referenced the the the the board it's it's important what this board always have its rep um you know appointed and up to speak because the board is the one that ultimately determines whether or not it gets funded or not so we have a voice in this whole process and it's important for people to understand that and uh Peter's done a great job and uh we need to continue having that strong voice on the mo thank you Amanda so the reason why uh we're here tonight and I invited uh Craig with me is um we have um completed the uh RightWay process in regards to three um excuse me six um easements that are required or six different properties that will have easements um as part of this work um the majority of them are temporary easements that will last the duration of the construction which is about five years um and I have a summary table I'll go over in a minute um there's one for a slope easement and then a um overhead proposed utility easement for one property um we mailed out the letters of intent on May 7th um we completed the appraisals at the end of June and those were reviewed uh we had written um offers mailed on July 5th and now Town Council has reviewed them they have drafted a motion for your consideration tonight and uh roll to those so those are this is the summary of all of the um the six properties that are impacted um again most of them are just um temporary easements whether it means that dot will go and um temporarily take down someone's fencing um this assessment um will provide new a cost for new fencing to be put back in its place um again these um have been summarized here as about it's about 6800 square feet and the cost associated with that will be um $46,400 and the intent is to use chapter 90 funds for those so it says te that stands for temporary easement just follow the N clure thank you yes um so I do have I just more for the information for the the packet I did provide a little cut sheet and I do have the drawings here um for each location and the limits of those I wanted to go back and highlight them but I just ran out of time and Mary Ellis needed a presentation so I apologize um so again so um and I've I've in most cases I'm just because of the way the do process is it's been very quick um some have reached out um we do send out the certified mailers so we have gotten signatures for them um that they've acknowledged and received our our documents and we'll continue to work with all of these abutters as we get through construction um a lot of the temporary easements are required for the properties um that are near the disposal area right in that like little corner between forest and old townhouse and and that this is one of them this one here is because they the state will be rehabbing that little spur that comes off from Bayberry that goes to Higgins coll um and that one is just a about 12200 Square ft of a temporary easement that is on the realtor's property again this is another one that's near the disposal area at 182 Forest Road LLC and again same area and then lastly this is the one that's the um most northern commercial property on Higgin croll by the roundabout and that one is a one is a temporary easement and the second one is for they're putting in a new utility pole and when they do that they kick out the overhead utilities so then it goes over the private property and that um just you know reserves that space for the overhead wires that come down south on Higgins croll and oh the last other location is the Yarmouth campgrounds they have about 860 Square ft of a of a temporary easement and then transitioning to the lease that the town is required by the state um to sign for the railroad um because we will be going over the railroad tracks um they do require a lease to be signed in um Insurance to be procured um for that duration um I know that in the um in the other phases we've there's been a later date for a maintenance agreement with DCR um but there still will be um a requirement for the town to have the E the lease with the railroad um related to um that work and that's been provided and reviewed by Town Council I have a question that um we had updated um orders of taking uh submitted today yes I didn't see any I just want to make sure in these I didn't see any new motions so do the Motions that were provided originally stay they were the same the only thing that changed was the number of pages it was originally five pages and now it's six sheets that was referenced in the difference between the two motions they kept the same date of the July 29th but they are stamped today's date I have a paper in front of me though that says revised certificate of vote August 6th 24 right right right and on that's for us because we're going to vote it tonight right so I mean that I think but an answer to what Tracy's talking about motions don't have that anywhere else other than in your P your place okay I have that's what I was trying to figure out because it wasn't provided to us with theor just so that I understand we have two motion two votes to make tonight right one is on the lease and the other is on the certificate of the vote on the takings there's two motions there should be two motions I just want to make sure that's what I just said no I'm talking to Bob he gave me one that's the revised one the other one stands yeah yeah does anyone have any questions for Amanda I think I'm good it sounds like a great plan um even if we have to wait for a few years to ride bikes at it and that is worst case scenario five years right um you never know what you're going to get into in construction so we say hey you need to take the temporary easement for five years that's that's the worst case I'd like to make a motion yes I hearby moves at the Yarmouth select board acquire by imminent domain for the necess ne necessary I'm sorry Health and Welfare of the inhibits of the town of Yarmouth for municipal purposes more specifically for establishing constructing operating and maintaining a share use pathway constituting a portion of the Cape Cod rail trail as authorized by article 33 of the town of Yarmouth annual town meeting May 6 2017 that it further authorizes the board's chair Michael Stone to execute and enter into any and all documents necessary to effectuate and the acquisition of the following property easements in the parcels identified as t-23 t-62 s-4 t-41 te e-42 t-49 t-67 p e-27 t-65 on a plan of land entitled plan of RightWay in the town of Yarmouth Massachusetts barnso County showing location of easements for for the purpose of construction constructing Cape cut rail trail phase three for the town of Yarmouth dated July 29th 2024 comprised of six total sheets prepared by VHB and to be recorded with the barnso County registry of deeds with the order of taking and that still further the board award damages for said imminent domain taking in the total amount of $46,400 to the affected Property Owners of said land the amount per record owner being specified in the aformentioned orderorder of taking do I have a second on that motion second any discussion all those in favor I I opposed okay that's passed unanimously another motion I hereby move that the yth board select select board execute the 99-year lease with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation for the right of way known as hyana secondary tract us ra a line code 4174 as shown on a plan prepared by VHB entitled Cape Cod rail trail extension phase 3 federal aid project number pending dated April 5th 2024 and accept a Perpetual easement for parcel 15- eg-1 and 15or eg-2 for purposes of establishing constructing operating maintaining a shared use pathway constituting a portion of the cape cut rail trail as authorized by article 33 of the town of Yarmouth annual town meeting May 6 2017 that it further authorized the board chair Michael Stone to execute and enter into any and all additional documents necessary to effectuate the aformentioned leasee and easement do I have a second second any discussion all those in favor I I that passes uh four and uh one exstension okay one absence one absence excuse me thank you he would also concur if we were here he would he would and is greatly missed tonight uh is there anything else Amanda that we I'm good you're good well thank you very much look forward to it it's very exciting so I'll be able to ride my bike all the way to Provincetown and down to Woods Hole on the other side and down to Woods Hole on the other side what's even better okay just like to add Amanda has been a tremendous partner to work with and we really appreciate uh answering all our emails and phone calls um we hope you we hope you can convey to con convey to your entire Mass do that we would like the [Laughter] same thanks thank you very much we're lucky to have her we are indeed yes thank okay next up we have the update on 669 Route 28 the park name recommendations for the drive-in site utilization committee and I see Mr Sabin coming up to the podium ah good you're coming up to the table with Kathy I know he's been wounded in the work for the park he has been wounded one day had to do it okay I turn it over to you good evening okay good evening ladies and gentlemen uh as you know I'm Jim Sabin I'm the chairman of the drive ins sight committee next to me is our town planner Kathy Williams um we're before you a little while ago to talk about naming the park um back in uh June we did a survey monkey and solicited information from members of the community um as to what they felt would be a good name for this park the committee found that um well let me back up a minute as somebody who grew up in this town I realized that there have been a lot of people that have made some major contributions to this town that are not Town employees that are volunteers that have given their time to this community in so many different ways and those are some of the names that came up to us so we were able to see and and remember remember people like the wolson um you know Jack McCormack uh John Sears other volunteers in our community um we also found that there are some past Town employees people were paid to work in this town who gave of themselves and really made a difference for this community um and for me as somebody who's been here my entire life while the exception of evening once in a while um it was heartwarming to see that we have people in our community that are always willing to step up and give her their time to make this a better Community with that said we felt that it really unfair to pick just one individual to name this park after because there are so many people in our town that have given Through The Years um you have a petition of a group of people that suggested an individual's name I'll point out there is already a plaque in this town honoring that individual um and the reason I say that is because there are so many other ways we can honor citizens who volunteered in this community past Town employees um you know I think of some one individual who I won't name because I wouldn't want to embarrass her who's given huge amounts to this town and to this park I don't think she wants me to name us to name it the Kathy Williams Park oh P wasn't going to say that um but as an example somebody who's given a lot to get this done um so with that we thought it best when we started looking at naming suggestions that we have a couple of criteria um that it was uh locational so that the suggestions of where it is uh is within the name um we looked at historic uh influence uh significance significance thank you appreciate that um and um so anyway we came up with a group of list and in I think in your packet there's a list of all the different suggestions and some of them are kind of quirky um Parky mCP Park made the list of suggestions um madak kees Park as a historic reference made the the suggestions um so a lot of people put a lot of time and effort into thinking about and and within it are some some people gave us some actually you know here's why we think you should name it this um and we appreciate all the input that we got um from the community uh close to 300 people in in a very short period of time uh submitted some names to us um so with that said what we did was we looked at those names and we came up with a list that's not necessarily in any particular order and and quite honestly we came up with a name that isn't even on the list um by putting some things together that kind of make sense so Riverwalk Park is one of the things that we've heard a lot from part of it is was people have talked about it as Riverwalk Park for a while um there's a whole lot of Riverwalk parks and River side parks in Massachusetts and Nationwide um so one of I personally I would like to see this be something that's more distinctive um and speaks out about who Yarmouth is and not like everybody else um but that being said looking at all the numbers uh Riverwalk Park was one of the ones that came up Park is River Landing again looking at trying to tell the location of the property is um using the words parkus river Riverside Park obviously explains it's a Riverside Park and then the last thing we did is we put a few things together and we came up with Parker River Esplanade um an Esplanade being a long flat piece of land to walk and Etc um so we took a couple of different names and put that together and added that as a as a as a last U not as a last suggestion but as another suggestion um so those are the the suggestions that we've come up with um we deeply appreciate the input from the community uh the most important thing is we need an answer from this board in a timely fashion um we have to uh make the sign boards um and start working towards completing the project and know by the way if you haven't been down Route 28 and glanced over to your right or left depending on which way you're going uh you'll notice there's a lot of work going on over there um it turned out to be quite uh beneficial that the the contractors that are doing the sewering are also the ones that we uh were successful in getting the permit to uh do the drivein site so they were able to rather than pack up all their gear and go home for the summer move some of their gear over there and get started on the park so um they're making great progress over there and I would encourage you all to to try to take a peek and and I don't know if the town's PR people uh have the ability to fly a drone over it but maybe something that they ought to do and put it in the you know people are asking us hey what's going on and it's well we're finally getting to to building it so um so I'd take suggest you go take a peek at it um but the most important thing I want to suggest is that you please come up with a name real quick when you say real quick and timely what are you really looking at for a time for us to do that our personal preference is to have you take a vote right this second but we understand that that some people are not comfortable doing that for whatever reason so at your next meeting uh time is of the essence so I I I really would like to personally have you make that vote tonight but I understand some of you are not comfortable doing that so the sooner the better well I think also with the absence of our chair this evening um we probably would postpone but uh uh Mark your comments no I I would agree I'd like to have the conversation on this with with our chairman so I'm I'm I'm happy to defer it to our next meeting I think we can we can hang in there I also agree with uh Jim about finding way to get a drone and find some other way to draw attention to some of the great work that's going on over there so Tracy any comments no um I I read the list I think there's a lot of commonalities there I think um you know I appreciate your your comments and I think it's important that the public get a chance to look at these finalists names and if they have anything to say and if they don't that's fine but if they do I think you know I'd like to hear and give them that opportunity and I think we should vote at our next meeting um they're all pretty similar I guess Riverwalk Park is what's already stuck in our head you know so I think that it's already kind of been around for a few years and familiar to people and um you know but none of none of these options are are are bad it's just you know it's personal preference I don't think that there's anything you know to your point about the amazing people in this town it would really really be hard to to choose either volunteer staff there's a lot of recommendations there that are amazing recommendations and all probably um more than duly uh um deserving so how do you how do you do that you know it's that's really really tough um but uh I appreciate the work that you did and hopefully we'll hear in the next week or so in my we'll get a chance to review it as well so thank you Tracy Joyce um I had a question um and this is thinking toward the future with the park open um in terms of signage um what would be the ideal number of letters or characters for a sign I was just wondering if any of these were maybe too long or Too Short well the sign's pretty big it's 24 square feet um I think you want yeah I think you'd want to be able to say town of Yarmouth and then whatever name I think we would have the ability to do um like if it's Parker's River Esplanade I think we could fit that on it just wouldn't be one long line um it would have to probably the Esplanade part would probably have to go down to the next line but I think we have like three rows we could have we have very creative sign Parky M Parky of course okay thank you if I can just quickly add one of with regards to the comments of individuals um there are a whole lot of opportunities to name things in our community besides large Parks schools Etc uh government buildings uh uh government pieces of land the boardwalk is going to give you an opportunity to purchase a boardwalk plank um you can honor somebody that way um people uh purchase park benches in various parts of the community you go around uh if you go to the the bass hole Grace Beach there's probably I don't know menagerie of eight or 10 of them that are kind of clustered around that have in in memory of so there are many many opportunities for people in our community to honor um people who have given back to our community uh and and for those that that would like to continue to do that I would encourage them to certainly buy a plank um and talk to the community of the town about other opportunities they have to memorialize people well thank you and Jim thank you and your committee for all the hard work that you've U put into this project and it's coming along it'll be here before we know it in rotary with polio they would say we're th this close as dcas well knows we're this close is this close and I want to say take the other opportunity well to say that the majority of the work that's been done on this project has been done by paa and this young lady to my left um they have put some amazing time and effort into this project and again like I said if I were going to name a park after somebody who deserved it be named after her it would be her because she has put a ton of work into this Kathy we do thank you for all your hard work you're more than welcome we really appreciate it and we're all in agreement that we'd like to have our chair present for discussion we'll keep it timely but we' like to have Mike Stone here for it so we'll put this on hold for for now and thank you very much for coming in than thank you have a good night great to see the outpouring of names and suggestions it's fabulous my goodness the Parky MC Park was quite quite an interesting one okay moving on we have board and committee actions and I'm going to turn it over to our new appointment chair a minute you want to do the special town oh I'm sorry I I am I missed one I we have a vote to accept the special town meeting calendar and to set special town meeting date November 19th 2024 Bob we turning that over to you and I I just wanted to reiterate what we discussed at at the last meeting um there's no legal requirement to hold a special town meeting in the fall the board had previously uh discussed the possibility of that and wanted to see what the the time frame looked at uh so um we've laid out each of the iCal steps to set up the town meeting and what that time frame would look like um what I would potentially suggest is that um we could uh accept the town meeting calendar and go through um step two to September 13 and and and after that see what articles you get in then the bo so September 13th would be our Fisher cut bait date right yeah that the board would see the Articles and then say do we need to have a town meeting do we want to have a town meeting and you do not need to until you um take that execution of a special town meeting warrant um the it's it's all up to the um Board of Selectmen it's the board of Selectmen select board's discretion as to whether to call it how meeting okay any comments no no I'm happy to move uh that we approve the the um special town meeting calendar for a tenative special town meeting on November 19th 2024 as presented tonight and do I have a second on that second any discussion all in favor I I okay now now moving on to our new appointment here yes yes well we have um departures and um in the very near future we have arrivals um I'd like the board to uh acknowledge um the resignation of Rick Bishop from the Yarmouth Conservation Commission and uh um thank him for his long service on it do I have a motion Oh I thought that was one oh oh do I have a second second all those in favor I I okay and then the second one for this committee um I'd like the committee to uh acknowledge the long service of Ellie Lawrence also from the Yarmouth conservation commission um for her service and her sailor's expertise that she brought to the Conservation Commission so that's in the form of a motion um and may we please um acknowledge the resignation and present her our thanks and that's a motion that's a that's your motion then I'll second it okay all those in favor I I is there something going on on the Conservation Commission um they're down to five members but are ongoing and started today I know but I mean it's these these people have been there for a while I would recommend watching the uh the meeting that evening yeah there was a very controvers interesting how many how many peers can you put in one river right that that was the discussion and there was some disagreement among board members over that whole discussion so it's sort of laid out there on video okay okay and uh we have the minutes for the July 23rd 202 4 uh meeting those minutes are in your packet do I have a motion to accept those minutes do I have second okay all those in favor I I and then um moving on to the upcoming agenda review so when we were just talking about the special town meeting then that would be something we'd be putting on the agenda for September 10th if I'm I'm sorry I drop dead date is the 13th so it' be September the 17th wouldn't it yes okay so moving on looking at our next meeting which will be held on August the 20th we have the retirement recognition for Cheryl Jacobson 17th Madam chair we still there because um I see that we have also the 10th in September well well why don't we start with the next meeting we have which is August 20th we're going to get to September 20 17th yeah so let's start with August 20th we've got um the retirement recognition we have a hearing on uh a package store can I can I ask about that uh it was brought to my attention I was surprised to see that we have a gas station that has a liquor store license did when did that happen is that you talking about the one the the Mobile station that's Farms Fern L's old place how how did that happen when did that happen we acted on that beginning of the summer okay so we that there was an available license at that time or was it checked to make sure yeah okay and so we're going to be doing that liquor in gas stations that's a I mean that's something that this town's never done before and it looks to me like I don't know what this is but it says the same thing Package Store Food Mart Mini Mart that that's a road we're going to go down I think it's a good question because we've we we've gone down the road and I think the question is is at least you're raising a good question should we have even gone down that road I mean what were the I don't recall as a board we actually had a conversation on the wisdom or lack of wisdom of acting on those kinds of license I was just surprised to see it I don't know I mean it wasn't here but um no this happened probably a month or two before the the the new members arrived on the board okay W yeah and it was brought up and presented to the board I think there was some discussion about the work that they're trying to do to clean the place up and fix it up and um okay no but you you you make an interesting point I'm I'm not I didn't know first of all we had any capacity so that's the first issue the second issue is just like precent setting well I think in in to the benefit of the chair I think it it might be helpful to have him oh wait but I let's have that conversation when chairman Stone's here okay Bob who's stepping in for Dakota in her absence for the town well we have a um a new hire um will'll be starting I think um this week and um I think she's going to be great we're going to train her up and um so and but Pam Barnes has been handling those duties in Dakota's absence but but we do have a a new Dakota starting and so she'll be in her training and um so will she be present for the meeting on August 20th or is she's still be in training and we won't be meeting her yet um you know it would be great to see if we can get her to the meeting I don't want to lean on her too much she'll definitely be brand new okay oh has Dakota left or is this a temporary absence no Dakota left to pursue uh another career and um you know she's grown with her family and just gone in a different direction but she's still around she helped us out for for many months for a while I guess I'd really like to know before before our next meeting um where the state you know I know there's a lot of State rules with this and where our rules and regulations play into that I'd like to review our rules and regulations and potentially um see if we can address the issue I don't you know I'm not making these comments because what I'm seeing and I don't want to make it sound for these other people because that's a totally other issue but um I just want to review the policies that we have and and what our what our rights are on this issue and as a new member I would find it very helpful to do that and and I'd learn from it do we have a maximum number of licenses that we can issue in town yeah there's a quota and there's a whole quota report we can pull for you and show you what the different types of licenses and what the the numbers are for those I think that would be very helpful if we could have that for part of the discussion on the 20th that's what you're asking for right that in in the rule the regulations and policies and procedures fits in because why why has it never been done in the past and then all of a sudden you know what I mean what there had to have been something that restricted it well that's an assumption I know that's why I want to look at the right okay um so that's a separate agenda item it's not the hearing we don't want to sort of confuse the two but I would like to review them before the next meeting and then we can we can work on whether or not we want it to make that the second agenda item after our retirement recognition and before we do the hearing we also have road construction update um and communication with businesses review of the draft charge for a public art Committee for Public art on Town land Bob um in response to tr Tracy's uh comments before isn't there a policy in town already that was established for uh public art yeah I actually researched that and I I found it and and I have it in the office I can provide you copies with it from I is 2014 um there are um some policies it's it's not a detailed policy on um all public art but it it does cover that so um so if we could have that in our packet to be part of our discussion it would be helpful uh Tracy did you have another comment on that I just I just saw a review of a draft charge on public it says on Town land so are we not are we still on I mean if we're going to have a committee review a charge wouldn't we we have a full charge I mean shouldn't it be just on public art and then they let them determine whether it's on Town land or not I mean it seems like we're restricting it and that's what I I thought our our limited charge was for Town land I I I I get the impression that we're looking to discuss this further because there are people who want it not on townland so I think think that that's that's part of the discussion and by doing the agenda saying that it's on Town land only then I think we're limiting that so you might just say just discussion public art I mean if we're going to put a committee to look at it let them I think determine what's appropriate maybe where who who sponsored this particular item to be on the agenda do we know originally was the Chamber of Commerce wasn't it Chamber of Commerce has the Chamber of Commerce um approached the Community Development Department and they've done some work together and I think that they have a proposal that they'd like to share with the select board to get your feedback on so I don't think you should feel like it you know pressed on it but I think it would be great to get all the parties in here and I I think that you know there may be um some disagreement or or dispute around the issue as as well um I I I think that you know i' I've heard a lot of talk from you know some folks in town that would like to see public art opened up and be more um you know prevalent that um a lot of the issue really stemmed from some concerns that the town zoning prevents folks from doing public art and that the the staff you know was uncomfortable at this level saying well let's get rid of the town's bylaws and so that everyone can you know put up murals and things like that but that they did have some limited proposal to help stimulate public art in certain instances is um but I I think beyond that I I I think it's a good discussion to have at the select board level because um I I really think that the community needs some direction on it from what some of the businesses are looking for and what they'd like to see versus what's in the town zoning and you know and how that's evolved and what direction that we want to take it so I'm I'm anxious to see um what the progress that's been made and to see what the select board feels about um trying to stimulate it maybe a large King Kong climbing the monopole tower preva so just so that I understand we're going to that evening for this agenda item we will have in our packet some background information on what the polic what policies we currently have are and then we'll probably have a memo or something from the Chamber of Commerce outlining what it is they'd like us to do so at least we can be prepared the I'm hoping that it's a a joint memo that that we get from Community Development chamber and I know the cultural Council that would be great yeah I just want to make sure that the board's prepared to at least participate in somewhat in a thoughtful discussion without us searching for answers uh uh to some of these key questions like what is the charge do we it sounds like we we may have very well have had a committee before MH it would with a charge and then something happened to that committee it was Shan and Liz and um and um Mona so we had a three person committee were they appointed do you recall they were appointed by the board or they just um no I think they were working at bill hinch's um beest at that point in time they came up with a bunch of things the public art was one of the ideas they were generating Revenue so they had the idea about selling the boardwalk planks and they started selling um Yarmouth gear and um doing some other creative things if I remember correctly so in the past we did some of this but without a committee they just did it they were commissioned by the administrator and they came to us oh so the board the board the board acted based on their recommendations so we had like a our own internal public art coordinator so and I'm glad that you brought that up because it was it was very helpful um because no one had a copy of that uh that old policy and it's not in the town's policy book so um track down Liz I was able to find it you know from the discussion that you had at your last meeting and when this was initially conceived they didn't have that but but now they have that information and so by the time that they come in front of you um I expect to see it all synthesized into you know their ideas and how you know the former policy relates to the new policy and what it is they'd like to achieve okay and Yarmouth Chamber of Commerce jingle and events update well the other item we need to put back on there is the drivein sight right discussion the name the name right MH that's that's a that's I think that's a pretty that's enough pretty good enough for one night meeting so September 10th we have hearing for the annual tax classification are there any other items we should be putting on the agenda for September 10th I think one one item that I'd like to suggest um since the assessors will be coming they'll be coming to make a presentation in that meeting right um I'd like to follow up on a recommendation that Tracy made and I'd like to see if we can at least have some initial discussion on her uh recommendation and this is about um tax incentives or incentives for affordable housing mhm um I believe the Mass general there's a new law that was passed that allows communities to offer tax breaks for people who are renting their homes for affordable housing and some towns on the cape are beginning to have that discussion and I noticed I think uh I it either the town of harch or the town of chadam actually had a presentation from their Board of assessors as to how that that incentive would work love to hear that all right so I think if they're going to come to us and we do this relatively routine uh annual tax classification hearing I would like to have it preceded by a discussion on this new H affordable housing tax incentive that's been recently authorized by the legislature that empowers the towns to provide a tax break all right to homeowners that are doing affordable housing so I think if we're going to get him here that night let's let's talk about something that's timely and something that the board sees as a priority so I'd like to make that pitch okay any other items that we should be putting on September 10th Bob anything that you feel we should have on September 10 um I have to look at it a little closer I I know that there'll be a ton of things that are in the hopper give it a week okay and September 17th we were putting on the um naming of the park uh we're doing that on the 17th August 20 yeah August 20 next meeting oh I'm sorry Okay naming of the park is August 20th okay the 17th we were adding I think that was the date we were thinking of Fisher cut bait on town meeting meeting okay Excuse me yes right I do know that the capik compact has put in to give a presentation sometime in the early fall but I don't yet know what the the 17 the 17 17th yeah okay they're on the 17th um Bob you know one of the things that I think would be helpful for that presentation is um you know Maggie Downey and the staff at the cape light compact are generally very aware of what's happening with electric markets and pricing um it would be I think it would be helpful for the board to have if they if they could because and again they have the expertise it's a very smart group over there but I think there might be some value in the board getting briefed on at least their assessment as to why energy costs are going up and why homeowners and the municipalities on the cape are really getting nailed with high energy costs I think if Maggie and her team can explain to us and for the folks that are watching just what's going on in the energy markets because um you know if if you I mean the the prices are just outrageous and I'm listening to there a governor I forget out in West Western part of the country who is actually introducing legislation to reduce rates and bring electricity costs down but here in Massachusetts it seems between the markets and between the legislature they're doing everything that they can to Just Jack up energy costs you know packing on to the to the bill uh transmission upgrades other other improvements um I mean the costs of clean energy you know they that seems to be a factor as well not that I'm against clean energy but sometimes we don't we don't see what happen that those costs where they end up showing up in some cases in our bills so well that was I when I talked about this because for I've been here for how long we've done everything we can to be energy efficient we've been told put the solar on do all these things to save your energy cost and every year our energy line item budget goes up even after all the Investments we've made so we're not alone no no this is this is a budget Buster for the towns the county um just about everybody and not not and of course homeowners so but your point you know is that we're doing all this stuff in terms of energy conservation we're being told that we're going to save money and we should be a green Community we should adopt the stretch code we should do this that and the other thing but every time you turn around you know energy costs keep going up now I understand the value in conservation is is obviously evident I mean you can't dispute the value of con conservation but on the other hand um I do think it would be helpful to have at least some un better understanding as to why the energy costs are going up in such at such a clip um at some point there's going to be a Revolt well I could ask Maggie to bring the senior power supply planner with her who could give a whole presentation like she's given to the board um at the so what would be nice is if we had if they if they could come and give us you know their sort of a briefing a brief briefing on the three-year plan but also they could give us a separate briefing together sort of a two phase briefing one is what's happening in the energy markets what's happening why are energy costs going up and i' point out that town bills um would be way higher except for all the solar um and one of the things that I think has been very uneven for um um personal residences is that it's been a big investment to uh to get in on the solar um to greatly reduce your bill because a lot of the um the um rental of solar PPA on solar where you rent your roof um isn't really that advantage to to um home owning residents where the outright purchase for those who can't afford it is a big Advantage yeah so there's a there's a sort of evening out thing I think about um um energy Justice environmental justice you know trying to uh to spread those breaks around on the rates the other item that I think we should talk about um soon maybe early September is um because we have to identify V voting locations for the November elections right mhm um and I'm just nervous about where we're going to have the November elections the polling locations because right now we've been doing everything almost at the senior center with the exception of a few places and with the pre as you know presidential elections you get a huge turnout and uh I'm just concerned that in in this presidential election now I know we've been getting a lot of mailin voting and that has taken the steam out of it but I do think there's a value in having a discussion with the town clerk about whether or not we need to have a discussion about polling locations in November MH because um you know is the are the mailin ballots is that going to handle the load um because I've been concerned about this for a while with the number of polling locations shrinking and trying to do everything at the senior center I mean we had a problem you know with with traffic and congestion and a lot of complaints not the last election but I think the after the local election yeah it no it wasn't a local election it was an election I think it was a state election state election so so the people who turned out to vote for Tracy and myself those were not the complainers okay your your voters were we just Happ they they were very content yes they were thrilled I vote there it's I think a lot of us do it's congested in the parking lot they keep a good flow going and it's very organized inside I don't know um you know I get very concerned every time we change it because it's so confusing for people and now they're just getting used to going there and I would hate to see us um you know change that again but I mean I'd be interested to see how many have applied in advance for the mailin vote because if there's a high percentage I think that that would help alleviate maybe your concerns this was a concern that I had at the original when they were talking about it and Mary kept reassuring me that the number of mailin um votes has just um increased substantially to offset that but it wouldn't be a bad idea to have her come back can just give us one more conversation on how things are going and if she she still feels that way yeah cuz at some point we have to sign off on a on an election W like we just did tonight for the September right yeah but we're so we need to have that coners we need to have that conversation a week or two before so that somehow we can address it so I don't know what date that is but we'll leave that to you Bob to figure out when which particular meeting date we put that on the agenda if it's August 20 or sure September 10 we also need to um set a date for um I think that madaky committee we've got all the applicants in and and I I think there's probably for five seats maybe 10 or 11 applicants and um we discussed having an interview night is it going to be called mades we're not going to include any small on this we're going to call it a mes committee because I think that's missing the boote number one number two I would love to have the school tell us what their plan is before we move forward on this because uh just a a little bit of I guess apprehension based on what what happened before um you know we we need to know what their plan is with Emy small we need to know we need to come to a consensus I know we talked about in our goal setting to have an overall use of town building conversation right but if we are going to need to use madaky or remodel mes to replace Emmy small I don't I I guess I'm just a little concerned about starting this committee where uh we don't know what our plan is with the buildings and I know that they're going to be looking at all sorts of things but I think we need to know what the school district District's plan is for Emmy small because that makes a big difference than of what we do potentially so there's a fall agenda item you know literally a discussion with the school maybe we have a conversation with them but you think we should put this committee together go forward to look at madak keys if we could if we're potentially having to use it for another school no I think it's helpful to have a discussion I think your Point's well taken I think it's helpful to have a conversation with the school about what their plans are where they're going what their schedule is because there may be a value to work this into their charge or take it out so basically have that conversation with the school and perhaps the next selectman meeting after that I think we have to know I think they have to know what the I mean okay so yeah the group needs to know what their charge is so we need to this a question that needs to be answered ahead of time I'm going to just go back a little bit in my own opinion of of madaky and Emmy small I was always under the oppression and I've said this before in our meetings that when Emmy small closed we were going to be putting an addition on station F that's how it was built so that we could do that now I'm being told that can't happen because we've built a school there and there's too much congestion well we have a lot of traffic yeah I mean try driving on station EV any day around 3:00 I do good luck but but it makes sense to have all the schools there I say this is somebody who lives off station a on Long P drive if it makes sense to have all the schools there we'll just work around the traffic except the school uh when they came in to talk about their preliminary budget correct me if I'm wrong Bob weren't they indicating that they might want the front end of the madaky um property for a new school for theyve been in front of the board and that's what they've said and that's why yes so this is to underscore you Tracy that you're absolutely correct now we've built a school that Dennis has benefited from on that property mhm that has precluded us now from utilizing that the way that we should have now the town of Yarmouth is going to be on the hook to build an entire new school you're kidding me right because it's Elementary uh I don't know maybe it's just me but I something's not right there m yeah I hear you okay so well I'm not a I'm not a fan of building an elementary school on station F uh the traffic is way too much I think I think uh the select the school committee made some legitimate concerns after I mean we we've done a traffic study we've done an analysis there's no question there are lots of to add another school on that street it's not adding another school it's adding a wing into a school that's already there and how do we know what the population is at the high school now from last I heard there was plenty of room there we may need to I I need to know in my head what the overall plan is and what is what the capabilities are before we look at this property because potentially we may need to use madak Keys Emy Emy small is in terrible condition we may have we know that no no one's calling for the use of small as a school that's that's over with that conversation is over the question is is uh you know what's where do they go the option that we thought was you know basically alive and well was adding on you know on station a to one of the buildings there and some I guess some accommodation was made for that during the design process but the new superintendent came here during the budget review and made it very very clear that they are concerned just as we are with congestion on station AV and thought it would be more advisable to stay in that General facin facil vicinity and H and have that studied because these things need to be studed in a feasibility study and our school committee folks and town officials have been lobbying our legislators to get some approval to at least begin the study process over there the state let me just finish the state has not yet given us a green light to go into the study phase of that as you know this whole process of dealing with new school facilities requires several steps and studies and so forth we've been anxious to actually have it looked at and studied but um that process has been held up now I know the legislators have been putting a lot of pressure on the state to give the green light to that so that's in this conversation that's another item that needs to be updated on as to how far we're going to even studying any of this so um I don't disagree with anything that you're saying all I'm saying is is that these some of these things may need to be sequenced we need to have that School discussion first before because the committee has a charge and the name of the committee I believe was a name that was ultimately adopted a town meeting I think we actually had the town meeting bless this Committee in this charge so if we're going to change its name then that may be one of the articles that we use at at town meeting if its name's going to be changed we'll have to revise it through a town meeting vote well is it me are we is is that and I might have missed it is that the intent is to look at just the mes building no I look at the property okay well I just want to make sure the name says manak so that's why I'm no it was the mes reuse committee and I think looking at the mes property as being something school but staying with the um building of a new elementary school I think part of what has to really be looked at is from the population Trends do we need a second Elementary School in y there was room in the high school and I think that they need to get creative and figure out a way because if the town of Yarmouth now has to build a whole new elementary school after what we just put out for money and and I I have a hard time I have a hard time with that because we were not told that from the beginning that that plan was no longer going to be able to take place if we Endor this plan not that it mattered because the town didn't endorse the plan anyway and they did it but that's a whole another story does anybody have a sense of whether um residents of West Yarmouth feel strongly about having an elementary school in West Yarmouth because I I don't know but that was that was the argument and I think it's important to hear from the school committee or the school Representatives on this because at the budget discussion that's the point they were making is they don't want to see West Yarmouth abandoned in terms of having having a school facility they saw a value in having a presence there with a small school am I adequately paraphrasing what the superintendent said yeah and you know I I think that the other issue is if we incorporate the Emy small school into the discussion the idea is that we anticipate now that there's going to be a new elementary school that we know it's location hasn't been decided whether they're looking for a a piece of the madaky property or the do is completely closed on station AV or another location but I I think the operative point is is that we need to plan now for number one there's an 150,000 square foot Mausoleum that's just deteriorating by the day that's out there that we've got to get a jump on figuring out what we're going to do with and number two the um em small school is going to be abandoned the soonest chance that they get soonest chance that they get so so that's coming in five years so start planning for that property in conjunction with the madis and um I I don't know I I I just wouldn't recommend that you take the whole mes properties and EM small um property study and sit around waiting based on what the school's going to do because I don't think the school's done you a particularly great service by building this you know $125 million beautiful school and moving in and I mean they they didn't even give a second look back towards that property that's our problem and you know it's a big problem and I just think we need to get working on it you know sitting around with the school I I don't want to be you know in a position that we're sitting around for two years now uh waiting on what the school's going to do I think we got to jump in with both feet and nobody's going to build anything anywhere until this select board approves it but um I just assume get the process rolling and and start studying these issues in Earnest I hear you Bob but why can't we at least have the school committee come back soon because they kind of dropped that little aside at their budget meeting about the fact that they were going to put a new school in the front property that when we were looking at madaki they wanted to let us know that they were looking at the front uh part of that property for a new school so why not have them invited at the beginning of September to come in and talk to us and then at the same time we can go forward with at a later meeting than that looking again at our madaki em small charge perfect idea so you're saying Bob just go full bore on both right get briefed on what's happening with the with the with the school committee get and then plan in by September I I honestly think that you ought to get this group going you know figure out you who do you want on that committee get them started and and just make sure that you know they're coming back to see this select board um I don't want to waste their time that's my point I I I think it's great we can do that we can go do simultaneously but at the end of the day we may need the medic building for another school no I I understand and I think they're not going to they're not going to move into that school you don't think so not in a million not in a million years they were talking about a new school let me tell you something the town of Yarmouth the taxpayers in this town are going to have a real problem with an alternative let me tell you that we just paid all that money to benefit dentist is what we did and then they took that option for us to expand there away it's forcing us to have to build a new school that's what what essentially just happened because that was not our plan from the beginning our plan was to do the addition on station a from the very beginning TR Tracy's got a point and and I I think there's going to be a sentiment of if if indeed mes is available to at least looking at some reutilization of that rather than going to a default position of building a new school againi before the original when when we when the school was sold to the communities the question came up about the small school and it was always well we've got room over here to take care of that and that's so a lot of folks were thinking well that's a relief you know we've at least taken that into consideration going forward so we need to be prepared the idea of a a new School absent pursuing these other Alternatives is going to be a difficult cell that's why there needs to be a full analysis of all this I think quite frankly if we have our own committee they could in fact help us um make it make an attractive argument for reutilizing madaki uh I I don't I'm not a huge fan of building a brand new school at all either I mean what's to say we can't put the seventh grade over into the high school and have like many schools do a a middle school SL High School in the same building that's why we need to hear from them I need to know what the capacity is what the numbers are in the buildings we need to know we can't just go off on this road of of trying to build a new school without knowing what our sensus is what's coming down the pike I mean it's just it's well I think for us I think it it' be premature to have any kind come to any kind of conclusions on anything without the proper studies and Analysis being done and like I said that stuff that stuff is on a slow track Bob makes a very good point we just we've got this building this facility it's costing us a lot of money every year just to basically keep it keep the lights on keep the heat on and um you know find some way to you know have it properly insured I think we should move somebody in there temporarily a office building something to keep the insurance down select board officers whatever there you go but I just I I agree we need to look at it okay I don't want to waste these people's time because if they invest a lot of time and they get to wrap their mind around something that they feel strongly about which is already happening okay before we go through the process people are already emotionally invested in certain outcomes and then we say it needs to a school then we've wasted their time I I don't want to do that to to volunteers that's all I'm saying I as long as we know at the at the onset that that's a potential I have a question for Bob about um madaky the building um it seems to me that it's much more valuable as a town asset as a whole building and even more valuable like if you know the property where that wreck of an em small is next to it is also available but um wouldn't there be a major issue of reducing value to the town for any other use but also maybe a security issue um having children in part of the school if somebody has suggested that for the front of the school I mean I'm just thinking all the things we do about polling places to keep them out of the schools and then no if I could no they were looking to put on the front of the madaki property so like down toward higen craw building in entirely new new elementary school and then having then our discussions could be only about the back part and the building of madaky oh oh I couldn't figure that I was picturing so what give them a couple staircases and a couple rooms okay thank you no but the the there's the larger point about building a new school I don't think perod I don't I don't I don't think there's any appetite in spending money for a new school no I really don't how long is the lease over here well that that's over in a few years well there you go I mean that should be that should be that should be on the list of things to evaluate as well so I know this is sort of turning into instead of an agenda item for an agenda it's turning into a discussion that we should probably end and make as an an agenda item uh in and of itself for a future meeting in September earlier than later I've got it got it that would be great thank you Bob any other agenda items that we should be adding or individual items that someone wants to bring up Mark well as an agenda item we need to keep an eye on what our what the legislature is doing with sighting for energy facilities all right there's legislation that some are putting on a fast track that would basically circumvent local control enforce limit our ability to issue permits or to basically enforce our own regulations on any kind of wind energy facility development and um now I'm not anticipating that we've got there any big projects that are going on but it's a little disturbing to see what they're up to uh in limiting uh our ability as the whole concept of sort of preempting home rule and telling towns that you basically got a Fisher cut bait on a permit you know within a within a certain defined period of time and the whole discussion is sort of premised on the notion that municipalities are standing in the way of clean energy development when there's very little evidence to to to to to back it up so I just want to just sort of just flag for you that there may be an attempt to put before the legislature this bill um and it's a very real possibility ility and I think as a board we may want to at least get briefed on it we it it may very well be that we have to rely on ourselves because I'm not sure who from our delegation going to come in and brief us on it but I do think that we should be at least aware that there may be a need for us sometime this fall to get briefed on this energy legislation that will basically limit local control uh the cap and Islands Municipal leaders Association a has sort of made this a priority um they've had some at least initial meetings on it and um as as you know I'm on the MMA uh board the the select Board Association and um I have raised it and there are municipalities all across the Commonwealth that are very concerned about this and so we may see an attempt to get something and all I'm saying is is I may want I may be asking the chair at the last minute saying hey there's going to be a bill that's filed we should at least get on record with our legislators right away um there's not a lot of good reading material that I can easily distribute um but I would recommend that if you get you should be on the mass Municipal Association list you should be getting their newsletters I would urge you because they're writing about this and on their website they have a lot of information about this this this this energy sighting energy reform or this comprehensive energy Bill the house has one the Senate has one the thing that's common about both of them is that they've passed both branches in both bills significantly limit home rule in terms of uh oversight on projects and given everything that seems to be going on in the cape that's probably the last thing that anybody really wants to see happen right now I mean what the towns need is more support and evaluating and better understanding these things not less true don't we haven't had our legislative delegation come to speak to us in a while what about in general having the delegation come in to speak to us in September I don't think you're going to see that because of the elections they're going to be so busy running around campaigning and hustling up votes and I think it would be maybe after November maybe after the election yeah but we may be having if this issue I was briefed by MMA staff today because I wanted to know where this legislation was and they told me that there's discussion on Beacon Hill that they should they could have a special session they may go into formal session for a day to handle unfinished business what that means to me is is that for those that want to push this thing through they're going to sort of have a special meeting to slide that in oh okay so I I just want at least our board to be briefed on it and and have a chance to at least write a letter of opposition or concern to our legislators on it but I would urge you in the meantime I would recommend for everyone on the board to read through some of the MMA material on the sighting and because they've weighed in against the legislation but it seems to be falling on deaf ears Tracy do you have any items that you want to okay Joyce nope I'm good Dorcas the only item that I um would like to bring up is um I suppose we could put it under the title of BU beautification of town it seems that we have an awful lot of dead weed s that are suddenly showing up on all the sidewalks and I mean our our little town areas that are um adopted by various people are lovely but like for instance if you go to the corner of um White's path and Station Avenue it's kind of scuffy looking you know like the places that don't have the landscap right out here wood Roan right right yeah it the weeds the weeds are almost like a two feet tall right right right I walk from my house to the bike path over the nicaro bridge and I had to step over the weeds they cleaned it up for the motorcycle ride but that's it most of it most of the roads that I find are the worst are not ours so um most of them are Route 28 which are the responsibility of the state so we have very little control over that but um the roads you're mentioning Our Town yeah so were you bringing that up as a an agend just just paying attention a little bit more to the weeds in town and as far as I I hear you on like 28 and so forth but you know like we have ad adopt an island maybe we should be talking about adopt a sidewalk or something you might no I think that that's work that the town needs to do I don't think we want volunteers out there doing weed whacking on our sidewalks no I'm talking about on on roads that are not under the purview of the town I thought maybe hop Scot that's the state's responsibity well pressuring the state because it really we're a tourist destination and it's looking kind of sad in my opinion um and then we have the consent agenda moove a consent agenda it's just Garden clip all in favor I I and Bob we you're on okay great well I don't have too many things I had a lovely vacation I just returned from and so welcome back anding to get things focused again but um a couple of things that I wanted to talk to you about I think everyone has seen the um invitation from the airport for a strategic planning thing and I and I just wanted to call that to your attention and um to see I what they're saying is they they'd like to have people schedule if that they want to participate on that and then they're saying you have to go to this um Session One training uh it's like from 5: to 7:00 p.m. on August 26 to be able to participate in the other sessions and I don't know where we've had so many problems communicating with the airport and getting um any consideration whatsoever I I'd encourage us if there's any members of the board that want to um attend that um you know maybe drop me an email um I I I'd like to to try to get as many armouth people from there as possible just to let them know we're not going away I mean that that so so that's a key thing but look at for that email and there's the first one but there's a revised one that came out I think uh late last week uh that that talks about or or more like yesterday um the new date is there's new dates here and what is the new date August 26th is the first one September 9 is the second one September 23d is the third one and the fourth one is to be determined so there's three coming up and and they're not every week but it looks like Mondays 5: to 7 p.m. um and it's been to a million now airport meetings I've been like everyone it's a very frustrating process to you know the public um sessions that that they have because um are these held at the airport or um yeah yeah they're going to be at the Gateway Airport um in the terminal it's kind of interesting is it doesn't say here the specific room but I'm I'm pretty sure it's right in the terminal they they go down the end of the terminal and they set up chairs and stuff I'm sorry that was the 26th the 9th and the 23rd 23rd okay and um I wanted to let you folks know that we have been actually issued our groundwater discharge permit so um it was threatened last time we spoke but I we have a a document in our hands it's still just a portion of what we need um and the what else do we need what are we waiting for well we're not waiting for for anything but we're we're still working with we need additional discharge permits the first discharge permit didn't have as much volume as we had hoped um so so now what's the volume on this one I think it's like 375,000 gallons a day and we needed 1.8 total so that's how way to go got a ways to go and we're working on those and um another thing I refresh my memory um when when we met with Matt proventure on the blue sky he was setting up a mediation and and um there was a member of the board of Selectmen was going to participate in that and um I just got back I got an email that the mediation is being scheduled for Friday August 16 at 10:00 a.m. and I'm pushing to have it remote I don't think anybody wants to go up to the federal courthouse in Boston no not at all but um Mark I think Mark was our Mark you on that mediation yeah I am I think didn't we leave it that we were going to come up with some things to we could put on the table for them was that you available on the 16th let me check I think we we did tell them the items what time 10:00 a.m. um yeah be cutting it I'll be cutting it close I may come in a few minutes late but I'll I can be there can you send me a calendar invite or have someone have Matt do that I sure will it'll be by Zoom right by Zoom so there'll be hopefully a link to zoom in on any other items Bob no that's it for tonight thank you very much and I'm sure I move to a journ second all in favor I thank you all very much