So do I. >> Recording in progress. >> Good evening everybody and welcome to the Yarmas Select Board meeting of January 6, 2026. We are going to I'm going to ask for a motion to go into executive session. The
Yarmmer Select Board will consider going into executive session pursuant to Mass General Law Chapter 38 section 21A3 to discuss strategy with respect to Revolt Construction Inc. versus the town of Yarmouth and CDM Smith if an open meeting may have been determined
detrimental may have a detrimental effect on the litigation litigate I can't speak tonight I apologize litigating position of the public body and the chair so declares which I do I'll take a motion >> still moved
>> it second >> all's in favor we'll do a roll call vote >> forest votes I >> votes Igo Ice >> Lynn I >> Tracy Post I um and for the public's uh knowledge we will uh at the conclusion
of our executive session we will come back into open session >> recording stop >> recording in progress. >> All right, welcome back. Good evening everybody. Um, welcome back to the Arma Select Board meeting of January 6, 2026.
We're going to begin with the Pledge of Allegiance. Please join me. >> I aliance 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 all. We're going to uh begin our meeting with announcements. Does anybody on the board have any announcements? >> I do not have any announcements this evening, >> Dorcas. >> No, no announcements. >> Joyce,
>> I don't think Joyce is on yet. >> Got to come back. All right. I don't want to skip her. Bob, do you have any announcements this evening? >> Not. >> Okay. >> Liam, if you see Joyce, you're going to let her in, right? >> Okay. And we're going to move. We'll go back. He's >> not on yet. Okay.
>> Afraid of that. >> We're going to go to uh public comment. Is there anybody here that would like to address the board? Please come to the podium. Good evening, Dr. Smith. Good evening. >> Good evening. Mars Smith, Superintendent Dennis Yarmmouth Regional School
District. Uh hope everybody had a lovely holiday. Happy New Year. Uh just briefly the I've already provided the board with a a detailed letter. I'm not going to go into all the details in the letter. Uh just but for the sake of the public um we don't have access to that letter. Uh
I want to address some of the uh discussion that happened on the December 16th meeting. And really again, nodding to go a bunch of detail in that letter, but I know a proposal was uh discussed in that meeting that would include moving the seventh grade in our district
to the high school and would include then rolling our third grade up into the intermediate school. And that would somehow allow us to consolidate all the students and not have to um uh consider a build option at the Emmy small uh school and replace that school. And I
provided again the the the the board with a lot of detail uh around how I don't see that as feasible. However, I as I ended that letter, I'd really like to uh you know through the chair love to come back and have a more detailed. this
isn't the the right form for that because doesn't allow for the back and forth, but I'd write like to, you know, again, just as I stated in the letter, I welcome the opportunity to uh through through the chair to be able to come back at a later meeting and have that discussion and to be able to provide some context that I wasn't obviously
able to be at that meeting. Had a personal conflict. My kid, he's a musician. He had a concert. I had already missed another big event for town meeting. So, um I had to go be dad that night. Um, and so anyways, I'd like to be able to give a well-rounded um,
perspective um, and to be able to have that where those who pay attention these meetings can also get that that information as well. Thank you. >> Excellent. Thank you very much. We have it at our place and we will discuss that I think um, you know what when we can get you on the agenda. Okay. I see a
hand up online. Is that Vidos Vicki? I can't see it. I'm sorry. >> Veto. >> Vidos Patel. Oh, maybe it's Vita. >> Oh, V. Vita's iPad. >> Hello, >> Vita. >> Oh, Vita. >> Happy New Year.
>> Happy New Year, Vita. >> Okay. Uh, so you can hear me, right? >> Yes, ma'am. >> Uh, you know, I don't understand what is going on with the people in this town. And uh there's always somebody who's
ready to make a wacko proposal that then ends up putting us as a butt of jokes on radio programs and what have you. I mean it I just don't understand. Don't we have enough serious issues to to do some
work on and what have you instead of uh you know coming through and I'm talking right now about this uh proposal the for the uh from I guess the health board of health uh of which we don't seem to have
a director yet anyway uh to deal with smoking with the young people. This is this is something that is so wacky honestly and we just finished you know uh dealing with one of these
problems but this to think that not only I mean that this this proposal doesn't even include marijuana which is probably in in the final analysis even more uh dangerous to young people than than the regular cigarettes. I I just I I really
don't understand why the board would take up something like this. uh instead of just putting telling people please please come back with something very serious instead of something like this to for us to deal with because there are so many serious problems that the town
faces. Thank you. >> Thank you Vita. I' I'd ask you address those um comments to the board of health. It's they're uh by law in their purview. >> Okay. Is there anybody else here this evening that would like to address the board?
Okay. All right. Joyce, is Joyce back with us? >> No, >> she may be having a hard time with >> All right, we're going to um let me just see if it was advertised for
6 PM. It was. So, we're going to move to our first public hearing, which is um the first reading of our golf fees. So, if the people members of the golf committee could please come forward while I read that into the record. Um, a legal notice the town of Yarma 2026 annual
golf fees. A hearing will be held by the select board on Tuesday, January 6th and January 13th at 6 PM at the Yarmouth Town Hall 11:46 South Yarmouth Mass for 2026 proposed golf fees. Written comments will be accepted accepted at
selectman@yarmmouth. us until January 12th. Verbal comments will be accepted at the hearing. The board meeting will begin at 6:00 p.m. So, what we have here are uh proposed fees, and I can go ahead and
read them. They're not too extensive this year, but the annual fee uh existing is $1,425. They're proposing $1,475. A senior annual pass existing is 8 $175.
The proposal is for $900. The link's annual pass after 12 p.m. is currently at $375. It's proposed to be at $400. The under35 annual pass is now at $900
and is proposed to be at $935. The young adult annual pass is currently at $385. It's proposed to be at $400. The junior annual pass, which is under 19 years of age, is currently at $130
and they're looking to uh propose that at 135. Twilight annual pass, which is after 2 p.m. is $840 and they're proposing $875. And for daily fees, green fees are currently at 12863 and
proposed to be 1356. Uh, golf cart for 18 holes for a passholder is 1876 proposed to be 1970. Golf cart for a passholder for nine holes is $11.40 proposed to be $1.99.
Golf cart 18 holes for a non-passholder is $2947 currently proposed to be $30.94. Golf cart nine holes for a non-passholder is$9.44 currently proposed to be $2041.
Range fees currently for small a small that is that a bucket of balls. Okay. >> $9.36 proposed to be 9.82. A medium bucket is 1935 proposed to be 1402. And a large bucket is607 proposed to be 1687. For
club rentals currently for nine holes it's 36.81 proposed to be 36 3865. For 18 holes, currently it's 58.95 proposed to be 6190. And for a premium
set, it's 911 proposed to be 9567. And the handicap maintenance fee currently sits at 66.84 and it's proposed to be at $70.18. So with that, we have your letter and your proposal, but if you would like to give your presentation for the public
and introduce yourself, that would be great. With that, we'll open the public hearing. >> Thank you. I'm Scott Kilmer, the director of golf for tonight. >> Uh Dennis Hoy, the head golf professional at the Yarmmouth Golf. >> And we'll go through this uh a little bit quickly and I know we got a lot on
the plate tonight. So, >> you want to hit this one first? >> Sure. Um the some of the promotions we've had uh for Yarmouth Golf in the past year uh or coming up this year is uh we're going to be the host site for the United States
Golf Association Junior Qualifier for boys and girls in June which is a big event uh that qualifying for a national uh tournament uh amateur tournament which is great because we've had uh over the past couple years we've had a lot of junior events statewide that come through and they keep asking us to do
more. So we're doing something right I think. So, it's really nice to have people come and their families to come down when we have these events. Um, the Lynx course, uh, this year is going to be hosting a junior amateur qualifier for the state of Massachusetts, which is
the Mass Golf Association. Um, we've continued a great partnership with Mass Golf over the last few years, uh, which has been a great thing because they're the governing board basically for golf in the state of Massachusetts and we've had a really good relationship with them and hosting tournaments with them, uh,
over the last several years. Uh, also this year we were fortunate enough to be uh, featured on Channel 5 Chronicle program. We had a big uh thing on that which was we were fortunate enough to be on the same episode with uh LPGA Hall of Famer Pat Bradley which was a big get
for us. She just got a uh Hall of Fame uh section at Mass Golf uh up in Norton and we were on the same episode as that and it showcased our Lynx course uh which we just did all the renovations for. So that was a really good feature for us. We were also on uh myself and my
assistant Ian have been doing golf lessons on uh New England Sports Network and a show called Golf Destination TV. We've been at the end of uh several of the episodes uh for that program and it's been really good for us to get publicity for the golf course and uh
hopefully people are learning a few things from us while we're doing it. So it's but it's been good publicity and then we were also featured on a show called Golfing the World on NBC Sports Boston uh this past year as well. So, we've gotten a lot of really good publicity uh both in the Boston area uh
but a lot of these programs are actually shown not just here but on cable networks in Florida and different areas. So, we're getting a lot of good exposure all around the country from the stuff that we've been doing. So, >> awesome. >> Thank you, Dennis. Um so, just to recap
2025 real quick, it was another very busy year for us. We did over 97,000 rounds, over 58,000 at Bay, over 38 at Bass River. Um, at Sold Rounds, uh, memberships is roughly responsible for
about 46% of those rounds. So, very busy every day, which is great. We sold 1,460 memberships, total revenue 1.5 million, and then we netted about $600,000 after all the capital improvements we made that year. We do a couple big
tournaments. Um, uh, mainly the Top Shot, Cape Cod Veteran Tournament, and then, um, the TBI tournament, which supports DY athletics. Those are the ones we do every year to help support what we can. Um,
just wanted to recap a few things that we completed in 2025. The picture here is a nice fancy new bridge we put in at Bats River. Um, everybody's been very happy about that not having to go all the way around. Uh, it's been a big time saver, a big help for all of us. Uh, a
couple of the other things is we redid the grill and and bathroom at Bayberry. We did some clubhouse improvements and staging area at Bass River. Um, another cart improvement over at Bayberry. and then some new furniture and accessories for both the pro shops to get them up to
the new way of doing things that we can then further bring into our investments. So, just we've been very busy trying to change the whole atmosphere of golf and how everybody's enjoying it and keeping up with the times here. Next one just excuse me kind of shows
where everything's going. We're we're not focused on one thing. We're trying to spread it around to keep it all around the golf operation so that we can better every aspect. We're we're investing in new equipment to help uh for example, we got a core officer to help speed up a ration so we don't have
to take a whole week to do it. We can do it in two days less uh guys. Uh it's one machine that can do work a couple guys. Got a couple new tractors, a new truck, stuff like that. But then, you know, we have to do the bathrooms. We've done driving range improvements for them as
well. And we're working on a new carn study with PAR to to see what that looks like in the future. Dennis can hit on that real quick. >> Yeah. Um what we're taking a look at is the uh current uh place at Bever Hills where we keep our golf cart storage is
getting old. It's probably been there since the golf course opened. Um and starting to get in a little bit of disrepair. So, going forward, we're looking to do a new building on site that's going to be able to use uh electric switch over from gas to electric golf carts going forward. Um,
and at the same time, the top level of that, we were trying to look to put in some sort of a a pavilion area because a lot of times when we have major events and tournaments, for those who have been up there to see, we don't have a ton of space uh with our restaurant at Bever Hills, but we have huge events asked of
us all the time. So, we're looking to have something where people can come have meeting rooms, but it wouldn't be just for the golf course. It would also be for the town uh as an area where people could have meetings and different things like that at a new site because over the last few years in town with a lot of places moving out, there's not
very many places for people to have functions, meetings, and things. So, we figured it was a great idea to incorporate that and what we're trying to do going forward. And part of that too was to look at even doing golf simulators which are indoor golf simulators that you can use in the offseason. You can charge people to come
in hit balls in the offseason and try to set up something like that too. So you can keep our money coming in all year round and try to make it a you know just a higherend overall facility. And that's one of the major things. There's been a lot of work done over the past several
years at Beverly Hills, but this is the one thing that could bring it up to a totally new level. So, that's something we're getting Yeah. to look at right now. >> Madam Chair, may I ask one question? Um, on the meeting space, what would be the maximum
um occupancy that you'd have? We're shooting between uh we're looking at anywhere between 200 and 250 people to hold in a building >> for for a tournament or function space. >> Would there be just one major meeting room or are you looking at also having a
couple of other areas as well? It would be like one one big function area with a like a smaller conference room type deal would be the the kind of like what we're looking for >> because just as an example when we have like a major golf tournament we've had um we've had some tournaments that have
gotten so large we've had to open up more than 18 holes because we have 27 holes on site so we had to go further. We've had 168 people in the Top Shot tournament over the years. Uh the boys invitational tournament, which was the fundraiser for DY, had about the same amount. So, we had to use extra holes.
But when everybody finishes, there was no place for everyone to go to eat and do the the rest of the tournament things and the raffles and things that a lot of these charities want to do. So, this is an opportunity for that to all be right there in house. And it would be a great thing. But like I said, that's only
during tournament time, but it can be utilized by anybody in town that wants to use it for meeting space. and it's just a good idea because there really isn't much of that in our town right now. So, >> great. >> Yeah. So, that's one of the big projects we're focusing on. So, just just to recap real quick, we've already thrown
about over two million into the the courses to get them up to different level. We're just still really behind the eightball on making and the investment. So, we're getting as quick as we can to get up to speed. One of those obviously was the Lynx project that we threw three million $3 million
at to get that really up and running. We've had great review, great fanfare for it and and people really love that one. That one is not funded out of the retained that is funded out of that debt cost and you we do have a very healthy retained earnings right now, but we do have major projects coming down the
pipeline such as wastewater to Bay and Abass River course that definitely needs some investment. So, it does look significant, but it will go quickly once we hit >> those bigger projects. Um, I did provide
a budget which I handed out as well, um, because it wasn't quite clear. Sorry about that. >> Can I just ask a question about what you just said? Are you are you insinuating that the golf course is paying for the the wastewater project? >> No. No, but there's obviously um like
whatever wastewater is done, there's obviously some issues that we have to solve after. Like for example, if it it goes on the drive range, we do have to put the driving range back. we may not want to put it exactly back the way it was. So, there may be some investment that we want to throw at it to get a
little bit better of a a product. >> Are these all part of the a capital plan? You I I'm sure we had I know you guys had the capital plan last week, but are those all part of it that can be seen what your what your projection is over the next few years with your retained earnings? >> Yeah. >> Okay.
>> Yeah. We don't have a a full-on plan of the wastewater yet as we're working that with with Jeff and and DBW to figure out what it fully entails yet, but we do roughly know it's, you know, probably driving range upon and stuff. We just haven't got to the point of what it all could look like at the end of it and
what that entails for us to make sure that we're all kind of getting what we want at the end of it. >> So, uh, just this basic budget um kind of just shows I handed it out. Sorry that wasn't clear. But um how this all works
for us is is a key membership number. Being over a million really helps us balance every year and that's you know why we're kind of here for the fee hearing is staying around that number is is where we want to be. Um we we didn't happen to bring in you know $6 million
last year and we've done quite a bit to to really step up the courses and we'll continue to do that to bring in the caliber golfer we want. But I wanted to provide that to you guys so you understand that's that's where we're looking at and that's where we want to stay. So a modest fee increase is what
we're after. Um >> can you just on on on that particular screen there that you gave us the 2026 budget? Do you have any actuals yet that you can how how on track are you with that >> for 2026 the current round? We're
actually above. We're roughly 350,000 above running above last year's numbers >> in revenue. So, we're another having a very another strong year from last year. >> So, I'm sorry, you said o above last year. So, over the 6.3 million. >> Yep.
>> And you budgeted for 5.1. >> Yep. So, we're we're having another very healthy year. Very going to put some more money in the bank to continue to fund some projects in the future. >> Okay. So just you recap this. This was the ask
of of what we're kind of looking for um for the fee increase. Um and then the memo associated with that there there's one outliner if you will. We are that we was recommendation and we had numerous meetings with golf committee that the
links pass to go back to the original rate that was paused for a year for the construction and then we would all like that to see that set back at the same fee as original. Can >> you tell me how many of those passes you have? >> How many lakes passes we have? >> Do you have that number you have?
>> Um it's approximately like 120 people. >> So So I mean we're talking peanuts in terms of going over the 5%. We're talking a couple hundred bucks, >> right? It's It's not an earth sh and truthfully the uh the rate that you get to play that links course is that's a
tremendous uh deal. It really is. >> I have a I have an issue because the town has voted to stay within the 5%. So, um if it was a big difference, you know, we're talking if you kept it within 5% times a hundred people, you're only
talking a couple hundred dollars of discrepancy here. >> Yeah. It's not it's not the uh it's not a shattering number. No, that's um >> and it's not that it was just uh as we had meetings with the golf it was voted and passed and we wanted to pass along
the the intel that this is what we're >> I just don't think it's worth upsetting people going over the 5%. I can't I mean we did it once before we we allowed it because we were in the black and you had to be self-supporting supporting but my personal opinion is it's not it's not
even going to make it's not a drop in the bucket and why would we go when you have retained earnings at the level you have why would you go against the town meeting vote >> yeah I I understand the the thing and it would drop down I think about 385 would be the the new fee um
>> so we did have uh numerous conversations about it. Just wanted to make sure that we're bringing it in front of you. >> I appreciate that. >> That's what it was. But >> where I was gonna go with that. >> I guarantee it. You said she's gonna say >> But those are those are the fee categories and it all works out to
roughly a 4% increase through all of it. And that includes the links up. So if you drop that back down, it'd be actually less than 4%. >> You'd be at at 5% you're at 39375 instead of 400 times >> would be 390 because we don't want to do 393. But even still, so you're talking
seven, >> you would set it at 390. >> $700, >> right? >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> So that's the only one that was, but yeah, like you said, it would be set at the the 390 in that case. So as we go forward, why why the need is is pretty
much we're we're we're working on a very big capital plan on all the courses. Uh we've had a quite a few of these right now. We're in in uh a window replacement plan at Bay. We're we're working on a patio improvement plan at Bayberry. We do have some more projects down in the
future at Bass River and then obviously wastewater and and infrastructure upgrades, all that, you know, will work itself out through it. But these are the reasons why we're going after it. And then the key operating costs and why our budget looks our way is the lease
packages. We don't have much control over it. It's just a new fee really of of the cost of everything that went up significantly. um fertilizer and chemical have leveled off, but that's the new cost. You know, what we used to buy for $25 a bag is now $50 a bag. Unfortunately, that's just
the new cost. >> Get any or anything organic? >> We do we do tap into the organic market. We do quite a bit of um like a sea blend type brand of of fertilizer. Um and we kind of mix mix and excuse me, mix and match with some others, but we we do our
part to to use. We are also zone 2 with chemicals, so we can't use anything that leeches into the groundwater and stuff like that. We had a big uh board of health meeting um back in October to explain that to the public and everything. So, we do our part to to stick up with the environment and
everything. We know we have the the monarch areas on the links course as well. So, anything we can do to help out, we we do our part there. Um, but those are really the main reasons why we're asking for the fee increase. And
then this is the comparison to the towns. Fortunately, I don't have Brewster for you. They haven't fully voted that one through or still kind of in the thing. But we're all roughly in the same kind of boat. We're not quite the highest or the lowest, but we're just kind of right in that happy medium,
if you will. But it is hard. Every year we we put this up and it's hard to compare apples to apples. We do have 45 holes to support where other courses only have 18 or 36. So we have the most acreage to support and hence the reason our our fee is a little different than
most. Um and then we do the memberships as well. So our growth rate is roughly around 8%. Like I said we did 1460 this year. Uh just shy of 1300 the year before. We do a pre sale Black Friday
sale. We do 4 days worth of membership sales this year. We brought in just shy of 300 in that um 4 days of sales. So, you know, that's been taking good traction for people to grab it at last year's pricing that they they want to.
And I think that's with that that's pretty much what we got. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. >> Would the board like to go to the public first? >> Okay. Is there anybody in the public that would like to speak to the board about these fees?
>> See anybody online? >> Seeing nobody, we'll go to the board. Does anybody on the board have any questions or comments? >> Sure. >> Sorry. >> Yeah. I I I'm very curious. First of all, thanks for the presentation and once again it's it's great to see all
the hard work that you're doing and the and the benefits of it and the fruits of it. Um this um Hills cart barn renovation function facility sounds interesting. Is solar an
option for that? >> Yes. So that'll >> we have right now we have 110 carts. Um we do need more. We're looking at trying to get up to 125 as a number. So, we're looking at ways to put possibly solar on the roof and then store it through a
battery or what have you to to to be able to charge the carts is what we want to have happen. >> Yeah. And the room required when you're doing uh electric carts is a lot greater. Right now, the gas carts are, >> you know, right up against each other. >> Exactly. >> When you do that, you have to be able to
get around to be plugged in and they need a little more room as it is. So the building would have to be a bigger footprint. >> Yeah. Does the function room itself enable you to market the the course to other group? I see a lot of heads nodding in the audience. Yeah. No, no.
It it it it opens up options for larger events because one of the things we we would try to um go for down the road because we've been talking about this since we've been together is uh you'd love to have like a state championship like a Massachusetts Open or something like that, but it requires a you know
>> having a place >> having a place for people to meet afterwards and do you know the function portion and the the signing and the scorekeeping and all the other things like that. And those are the things. But mostly we've also talked about what a great asset it would be for other
people, not just the golf course that a town whether it be town bodies or everything to be able to come up there to meet uh in a you know a bigger room if you have to do certain things and whatever because that that's one of the things that seems to be missing >> and if you have a vendor in there that could you know eventually do weddings
and different things in there and then you can market it for a whole different animal at that point. >> Yeah. And I think one of the advantages of being able to do something that's at Babbury Hills is, you know, we have an issue, as you know, at Bass River where you have neighbors concerned about noise and activities, whereas at Babbury
Hills, it's a pretty isolated area. So, you have all sorts of opportunities um to generate, you know, other revenue and activities that can support what you're doing. Um, another question, who do who's doing your marketing? I mean, you obviously the word's getting out that, you know, this is the place to
golf. Who's who's who's doing that? That's you. Okay. No, that's good. I think I think >> Yeah, it's actually multiple of Dennis handles quite a bit with the the Pro Shop staff. We work with the chamber as quite a bit as well. We we have some radio stations, some TV work and then um
obviously Massolf is one of our big partners in in on this and they help out greatly. Yeah, Mass Golf did um did a great article just recently on uh it was their 125th anniversary >> for Mass Golf and also was Bass Rivers. So um they did an article on our course
and the history of Cape Cod and how at one point I guess the Cape Cod Canal was going to go down Bass River, believe it or not. >> Yeah. And it was part of this article and I never knew that but uh but they found it out and it was it was really good. So it was really good publicity and it went all over the state so people everywhere get to read about that. So
>> yeah, >> that's great. Well, thanks for answering the questions. Thanks for being here tonight and thanks for doing a great job. >> Thank you. Thanks, >> Marcus. >> Thank you. Great presentation and I really appreciate the hard work that I
know has gone into all of this and um certainly you're reaping rewards as well. I like u Mark very excited about the idea of the cart barn and um being able to have a venue to go along with um
I think is going to be huge. So thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. And I um I I had um some of the people who I was my
I represent asking if we if it if there couldn't be more benefit to the local people. So the Yarmouth residents and I don't know enough to dive into it but I am the voice of those who say we in some
ways the visitors who are coming onto the Cape are getting a better opportunity to play golf than the locals. >> We we did that just so you know they were forced to um they were in the in the black. They were forced to be
self-supported. We ch we challenged them because we were going to have to go private >> and at that point in time they used to have a discount for residents and they had to go in a different direction. >> Now could it may come back that's I guess what the the um the locals are are
bristling. >> Yeah. So, um, just to answer not really roundabout way, but the the discount is really not kind of like in our favor will, but we do offer other alternatives for for membership for for the the Yammer player, if you will. Um, so they
do get to book three days out and we also do um set away tea times for them. Okay? >> So, they have access to the white course Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday and we we decided to give that a little more in this upcoming season. um we're aware that they're you know we do allow public
to book anytime and and we do know that they're wanting to play as well. So it's more of fact that where we can create opportunities for them to to play a little more um to get it out. But it's it's more of this formula looks works a lot better than us and offer more of a
discount on it. Yeah. But >> thank you for listening. Um, I also was quick to um note on your key operating cost slide that your energy costs are up 125%. >> What happens >> over last season? What's that?
>> It's your green energy. >> Oh, yeah. Well, we knew we that was going to catch my eye, but um and I think it's >> You should be happy about the electric carts. >> I He looked right at you. I thought it was great. >> Thumbs up. >> We don't have them yet. That's it's all part of the plan. But um most of our
energy cost comes from uh running the pump houses and in our big big energies producers. We also have to buy gas for the carts which is quite a bit of money. But um we're looking at avenues to put solar in and around the pump houses to
get those to come down. Obviously we have a plan um for the cart barn to do that as well. Um so any avenue we can to explore our highs are pretty promising too. Some people love the fact that when they go back to their car, it's not steaming hot.
>> Hey. Yeah, that's that's um possible thought into the parking lot as well. We also had uh one time Bill when Bill was here, we discussed about putting it over the driving range as a way to get some shade. >> Yeah, they did that captain's course >> and then you can still hit balls and still get some some solar that way. So
there's there's obviously your >> agenda. Yep. >> Excellent. All right. Thank you, >> Joyce. >> Oh, hello. Um, I have a a great interest in the energy savings that Liz mentioned, but I would love to know
whether the solar installation that would be maybe to give a little bit of shade at one hole on the course could possibly solve the longstanding security problem where um there's a um a barrier
with the street uh along on the Bass River course where people have been um well, hit by flying golf balls. I've been told in the past by um golfers that that would require a configuration of
the course, but would it be possible that something that provided a long skinny amount of shade for golfers with solar on top, which would be a very sunny spot because the uh barrier on the
outside is the road. Um >> I'd say this is a stretch from a fee hearing >> to mitigate the uh the problem. >> Um just to answer that briefly, it's uh the challenge to Bash River is obviously High Bank Road goes right right next to
one of the holes. Um there's no perfect solution for us to solve that problem. And and the best solution going forward is to re reroute the two holes so they go the opposite way to solve 90% of the
problem. It doesn't guarantee the problem goes away, but 90% of it will go away. Um we can't put up a net. We can't do anything like that. It is treelined already. I mean the net would have to be 300 to 500 feet high in order to solve the problem. So, um, it's in our master
plan at Bass River to reverse the two holes. Um, and that's something we're we're looking into as we get to that, you know, three to five year window down the road. We do have a wastewater project with Bay we got to tackle first, but that's that's kind of in the plan of we do want to help solve that problem,
but the best solution is to reverse the two holes. creative thinking. Joyce, though, >> the very first letter that I got after being elected to the select board in 2024 was from someone who was hit and
got a bad bruise while driving uh along the edge of the Bass River course. Uh, and it's now 2026. So, I would love to see a date attached to the idea of reversing the two holes if that's what
it would take rather than a huge barrier and if the solar um shade area would be of no use in this. >> Joyce, do you have anything on the fees? >> Sorry. >> Do you have anything related to the fees?
>> The fee? No. Other than I guess I'm saying that um financial planning should be in for the whole reversing for safety per purposes. >> It's reasonable. >> Okay. It's in the capital, right? >> Y it's in there. We just need to make sure we can afford it all with
everything on the docket. That's >> right. >> So, um I I have questions about the the basically the P&L that you gave us with with at the bottom where it talks about transfer to golf capital. There's two different lines there about transferring
to go golf capital and the general fund. What what um is the general fund to cover benefits? >> Uh the general fund is the uh the indirect cost to the town. That's that transfer to general >> covering it's covering things outside of
the enterprise expenses. Okay. >> Yep. >> And then the cap golf capital is the those are all our capital items that got approved at town meeting. >> Why is it split into two like that though? I'm just trying to figure >> uh the 220, the 2022, and the 2023. Those are two separate town meeting
articles, like the fall and the spring. >> Um two town meetings, the two numbers. >> Okay. All right. It looks like your your budgeting is very under very, let's say, conservative. if you're already at 6.5
at a minimum for this year and we're we're budgeting for for next year at 5.8 eight. That's a million dollars under. >> We're kind of um with with you know bobbing loot a little bit, but with the do and everything, we're kind of forced to be very conservative.
>> Yeah. It's it's kind of like they that's how they like to see it. We don't want to go crazy too high. They generally don't like to see more than a 10 or so% increase uh every year. So, it's more to stay on a little ther service side. >> And also um the last two summers it has
not rained. which is huge. Obviously, if we get a rainy summer, >> it impacts everything. So, >> right, >> my only my only thing on the is the 5%. I just don't think it's I I can't support going against the town meeting
vote. If you want to go back to town meeting and ask the people for um in excess of the 5%, I think that that's something that you should do, but I'm I'm not going to support that. Not for $700. >> I agree with Tracy. if it was something that was at town meeting. That's my only comment. So, we are going to continue
this until next week. We'll have our second. Do you have something durkus? >> Well, just a point of order basically. So, can we change that from 6% to 5%. >> We can show you that. Yeah, we then I'll give you an updated one that shows you it down to the 390. Y
>> I I would feel more comfortable with that as well being at 5%. >> Thank you, Tracy, for catching that. >> Not a problem. Mark, do you have anything else? >> No. >> Okay. So, we will um continue to take public comment on here. It's good that
you chose uh Yman's work on the committee's behalf and your behalf that um when you ask for public comment on a on a golf fee that there's nobody really to speak because, you know, there were many many years where there golf was a
four-letter word in this town. And so, you've done wonderful work that we helped help change that. Yes, absolutely appreci very much appreciated. So, we will we will continue this to next week. >> Thank you. >> And um and we will be voting the the
fees at our next meeting. >> All right. Next up, it says annual fee review. And for the um general government fees, I'd like to recommend that um we continue this portion of the hearing until next week.
um also which will be the first hearing and then we'll have a second hearing after that and that is at my request that um you based on our overall budget situation and um you know incorporating the revenue mix and expenses together um
I've outreached I know at least the the DPW and and asked them to do um a little bit more analysis to see on the sanitation piece if it's possible and would be supported in our local economy to potentially look at some addition fees that may support um the expenses in
the budget. And um so I'd like to give them an extra few days to get that information together. And so what we'd propose is to continue this fee hearing for the second piece until next week. >> I think we should open the hearing >> and um you know, not take a presentation
tonight, but then move to postpone it. But if anybody's here to speak on it, maybe they could just say a few words and then we'll make a motion to to move it because we have we have it advertised already for um tonight and the 13th. So we'll have to um continue this until the
13th and then as the first hearing and then we'll have to um set the date after our next meeting after that for the second hearing. So I'm just going to open open it so that way we can continue it. Um, notice is hereby given that two
public hearings will be held at the Arma Select Board meeting scheduled for Tuesday, January 6, 2026 and Tuesday, January 13, 2020. It says 2025, but it's 2026. Concerning fee increases for the following
departments, which are as follows: fire, public works, and waste management. The Yarmouth Select Board will begin at 6 PM in the hearing room at Yarmouth Town Hall, 11:46 Route 28 South Yarmouth, Masso2664. Written comments will be accepted by the
Select Board at Select Boardy. US until 4:30 Friday, January 2nd. Verbal comments will be accepted at each public hearing. Persons interested in the change in in these changes are encouraged to attend. So, we have fire
and uh waste management fees on here. Um, with that, we'll open the public hearing. Is there anybody here that would like to speak to any of these fees before we continue it? I just don't want you to have come here for nothing. >> See choices up when we get to the board.
>> I don't think she put it down. >> I think you're right. >> Okay. With that, I will take a motion to continue. >> So, moved to second. >> All those in favor? We'll take a roll call vote. Mark >> Forest votes I.
>> McGuran votes I. >> Go I. Joyce. >> Joyce >> I. >> And I vote I. So this will be continued until um the 13th. >> Right. >> Can I just ask a question, Madam Chair,
on the fees? One thing I don't see is beach parking. Um, I know that's not public works or um, you know, that would be coming under parks, but we did originally talk about doing um,
all the fees in January. So, >> well, I I guess the we we talked about that and the the the feeling was that the beach parking was raised last year and so um maybe they felt they didn't want to keep
pushing it up too fast. So, that's kind of a question I I think the DPW has. >> We did collect a fair amount of additional revenue this year from the fee increase last year. It's not something we were recommending to move forward. If the board wanted us to take a look at that, we we certainly could,
but we had it been a number of years since we went up last time, so we just didn't think going up every year was the the right um direction to go. We're we're pretty competitive with our uh neighbors as well, but it's certainly something we could look at if the board wanted to.
>> Are we on the low end of that or um I I'm I can't off the top of my head remember where we stand in that. We're not the lowest, but we're not the highest either. >> Okay, >> Madam Chair. >> Yes. >> Yeah. I I I think it would be helpful at
some point soon to revisit the these costs, particularly when we get into the discussion about how we're managing our parks. We've had this conversation about uh park management and looking at our costs and looking at our overall planning and staffing to make sure that
we're you know because there have been some concerns in the community about are being able to adequately keep up. We're adding parks and uh some of the parks that we have brought online we haven't been able to adequately maintain. So I think it's I think it's a legitimate
item to bring up as part in the context of that conversation >> and that conversation is February 3rd. >> So that's that can be the start of it. >> Include the fees in that. >> Okay. >> Well, we can't it's got to be advertised. >> Well, it's February 3rd.
>> We have to make sure whatever we're discussing is is advertised first. So, we have to get it advertised before it gets on the agenda. Okay. Because these ones are these ones that we're talking about now are already advertised. Got >> Yeah. So, okay. With that, we we took a
vote and we're going to continue that. So, next is um a vote to review the water conservation bylaw and enforcement. Okay. Hi. >> Here by myself. >> All right. I'll advance the slides.
>> Oh, thanks. >> Hello. Good evening. >> Good evening. Uh Jeff Colby, public works director, and Lori Rosala, the water wastewater superintendent. And we have a couple of slides here with some background information on this next topic for you.
>> Okay. So, um we were asked to talk about the water conservation uh bylaw and the enforcement of it. So, I just wanted to start with um we'll go through the current drought status. Um some of the requirements of our water management act permit related to water conservation.
um than the town bylaw and how we're getting the word out to some of our residents, all of our residents hopefully. Okay, so currently we are in a significant drought. Um that's according to the Massachusetts Drought Management
Task Force. Um they have another meeting on Friday, so we'll see if that will change our drought status at that point. >> So their last meeting was November 1st. >> Uh >> no, December 10th. >> December 10th. Okay. Yeah, the the map
is weird. They have a date at the top and a date at the bottom. >> I don't I don't know why they do that, but um so we have actually been in some form of drought since December of 2024 according to the drought management task force. So over a year now. Uh mostly
significant uh though we um did drop down to mild drought in July of this year for a short time and then we're back up back up to significant uh since August. Um, go to the next one. Um, I just wanted to show this is a
groundwater monitoring well located in Barnstable, a USGS monitoring well. Um, and this shows the last about 20 years of groundwater data. Um, and you can see can kind of see the orange dot on the very end. Um, that's where we're at now at about this one's at 26.88 ft below
ground uh ground level. Um, so you can kind of see looking back we're we're low, but we're not the lowest we've ever been. We were lower in the early 2000s when we had a more significant drought, as well as in 2016 was kind of our last more major drought. Um,
and the next one, but the thing that's kind of important to note is that groundwater level is not the only way that the drought management task force determines the drought level. There's actually six indices that they use. Each has its own formula. Um, and you can, if
you are interested, it's on the Drought Management Task Force web page, which is at the bottom of the screen. But they look at precipitation. Um, and the thing to note there is they're not looking at the last month or the last couple months, they're looking at six to 12 months of precipitation. Um, so even though the last month or two
has been really wet, it doesn't mean that of the last 12 months, we've caught up. Um, they also look at stream flow, the groundwater level that I just showed you. um the elevation of the water in lakes and impoundments. Um evapot transanspiration which is the rate that
the water evaporates um and then the fire danger. Um fire danger is usually very high in the summer. Um and that seems to kind of rule um particularly in the summertime. Um so the drought management task force um goes through
all these indices and decides the level of drought. Um, just for people's background, the task force includes, um, many state agencies. There's members from Mass D, uh, fishing game, the state fire services, public health, public
utilities, as well as the National Weather Service, Mass Rivers Alliance, and from my point of view, our kind of representation there is the Massachusetts Waterworks Association. Um, there's a few others. So, it's a it's a pretty wide task force um, that's
making these decisions. Um so why this is important to us is that whatever the drought management task force deems as the drought level um is applied to our water management act permit. So in our permit with the state
for pumping water um we have to enforce uh or in uh yeah enforce restrictions based on that level. Um so during a mild drought we're only allowed to irrigate one day per week. That's watering grass is really what they're mostly concerned
about. And when you do, it has to be before 9:00 a.m. and after 5:00 p.m. Um, and there's exceptions for ornamental plants. Um, and then at level two drought, there's no air irrigating your lawn again with that exception for water
watering ornamentals and flower gardens. Um, and then after that, um, at level three, there's no watering of anything. Um, but the thing to note is that that's for non-essential outdoor water use. Um, which we'll go to
the next one. I wanted to go through what that means. Um, because we do get a lot of questions on this at our office. So, the this uh language on this slide and the next is taken directly from our water management act permit. Um, and it's actually worded kind of as a double negative. So it's the non-essential
water use is use that is not required for. So basically the things listed here are essential in their in their definition. So things that are essential and I b bolded the ones we get a lot of questions on. Um are public facilities
used for cooling stations such as splash pads. Um so the sandy pond splash pad is considered an essential use of water and we don't restrict it. um production of food including vegetables and garden vegetable garden. So if you have a garden at your house growing food, no
restrictions. Um and then to meet the core function of a business. Um and this comes into play with the Wicked Waves Water Park. Their business is water. Um so we can't restrict their business. Um
the and on to the next one um is irrigation of public and private fields, playing fields, um such as like the DY fields. Um we get a lot of questions on that and I have actually spoken with DY facilities to make sure uh this was last
summer that they're watering before 9:00 a.m. and after 5:00 p.m. as required um by our permit. Uh they do also DY does have their own well in on that on the high school facility. I'm not sure where or which fields it actually applies to, but they do have some of their own flexibility there because they have one
of their own wells. And the one thing I didn't highlight on here that I should have is golf. >> Um golf, >> all the golf courses have their own water management act permit and they have to follow the rules set out in their permit which generally means less
watering of fairways and more of teas and greens. Right. >> I don't golf so I don't know all the words. Um but um so that that's on them to regulate themselves. That's not on the water department. They're not using town drinking water for that. Um and in
in addition as um Scott mentioned um over at Bayerry Hills and Lynx that they're using a lot of the effluent from the septage plant. So that's a great reuse that doesn't even touch the groundwater. >> Um >> might want to add to that reuse. a it was a banner year for the amount that
they used from the septage facility and we're looking to increase that over time. Obviously, that's a large source of recharge for our our new wastewater treatment facility as well. But I do want to give a kudos out to G for really using a lot of that um effluent uh this
year. So going from there um from the state level down to the town of Yarmouth, the town uh has a water supply uh a bylaw chapter 142 water supply and conservation emergencies. Um the re most
recent version was adopted by special town meeting in November of 2022. Um and it does allow the select board or um their design of the town administrator to declare a state of water supply emergency or water a state of water
conservation. Um and with that in place, they there are fines for a violation of the bylaw starting at a warning. Second violation is $100 and then a third or subsequent violation is $300. And those are per day
per vi per violation. Um so the uh I do have a copy of the full bylaw if anyone needs it. But that's the general uh idea is that um there are there are some fines associated with not following bylaw. Public notification. So the bylaw does
require notification through a newspaper. Um but other options that I think could get more people would be um road signs. We did have that sandwich board on the right side made up. We have several of those made up that we will have around town this year unless the
but unless we don't have a drought which would be great. Um we can use the variable message boards which we have in the past. Um we use you know the town's social media and the website. Um we did a code red call which is the reverse 911
last year. Uh, and last year we did do bill stuffers. Uh, so we kind of knew in advance because the drought started so early. So they did go out in the January, February, and March bills warning people that we are in a drought and be prepared. Um, that's the letter in the middle. Um, a few years ago when
we had a drought, it was kind of closer to the summer. We didn't have time to hit all our bills because the way we bill. So we did send out a postcard just that other that direct mailing. Um, so we try to get everyone in as many ways as possible. Lori, can I stop you for just a second?
Aren't we in a drought? Didn't you just show that we're the Cape is considered as being in significant drought? >> Yes. >> So, would this wouldn't this apply? >> Yeah. Yes, >> it would apply. We just You mean the sign not being out?
>> Well, the signs and also putting something into the bill stuffers. >> Yep. Yep. Um we will um we can we will put them in the bills this year as well. Um I we didn't do January, but we'll we were kind of waiting to see hoping that it was because with all the rain it would improve. Um but we'll get the
signs out. Just nobody's watering right now anyway, so luckily we don't have to worry about it. But yeah, we'll we will get the word out um in those stubb this spring as well. >> Thank you. So um there's also ways for our customers to do their part. Um, one
thing is if you don't get code red messages already, please sign up. You do that through the um, Yarmouth police website. Um, those that's the all call system, the reverse 911. Um, that's important for more than just drinking water related things. So, um, everyone
should sign up for that. And then notify me, which is the emails that are email blasts sent out through the town and that's on the homepage of the town website. Um, another thing that we get a lot of phone calls on and people get really angry about is when um, irrigation is running during a rain
event. Um, so I mean it's a waste of money for the person whose yard it is. It's a waste of water. Um, so installing moisture sensors on your irrigation system is a easy smart thing to do um, to help with that. Um, >> do you know how we how people can do
they what do they do? Google. >> Yeah. Like Rain Bird, they all have um different sensors that you can install in your systems >> um to measures the moisture in the >> Yeah. And irrigation contractors can easily do that. That what we see is the
maybe the older systems don't have that rain sensor, but they're pretty common in new systems and any irrigation contractor can install those. Um, another thing, um, I kind of blazed over it earlier, but drip irrigation is a very efficient way to water. Um, and
it is allowed more so than any other form of watering. So, if you install drip irrigation um, that's a good way to save water. Um, and also to, you know, make it easier for yourself when if there you are in a drought, you can use the drip irrigation for through
significant drought. Um, so that's another thing to consider or to get a rain barrel which I'm going to talk about more late in the next slide. Um, and then I'd like to remind everyone that we have a customer portal. Um, we have a a good advanced meter reading system that sends all the data to the
cloud and any customer can log in and see their data and also set up alarms. So if you have a high flow, a lot of people don't understand that their irrigation system can use over a thousand gallons a morning. um they get high bills and they don't understand why. So, if you have if you're logged
into our portal and set up alarms, you can see, you know, when you go over a given threshold, you'll know. Um also, there's a lot of information about how to fix leaks on um the EPA website, the water sense website. So, um if you go to
our page, it links to that. Um toilets are a big offender of wasting water. We have these little kits at the water department if anyone wants um that shows you how to look for leaks in your house and gives you these die tabs to see if your toilet's leaking. So, anyone's
welcome to pick these up at the water department as well. And then the last thing I just wanted to do a little pitch for our rain barrel program. Um it's what a rain barrel is. It collects the water from your downspouts and then you can use it to water your flowers or clean things in
your yard, whatever you want. um as long and you're not using, you know, fresh treated water, you're using this water. Um it's a great way to save water on your property. Um and so we work with a program called the Great American Rain Barrel. Um they do all the work. They
provide the rain barrels um but you can purchase them um through us on their website and they'll deliver them to us and you can pick them up from us. It saves you cost on shipping and trying to figure out how to get it. So they we have one day that you can come and pick
them up. So if anyone wants information on that, you can go to greatameanra rainarrel.com, search for yarmath and and buy your rain barrel through that. And that's all I have. Any questions?
Okay. So, um, the reason that we're getting this is because there were a lot of complaints, um, about lack of enforcement, why have the rules, and I think that you kind of touched upon it a little bit, but I think for the public's knowledge, I
think you've taken a good approach in terms of education. Um, so can you just talk about what's happening now in terms of the enforcement? I know the first time they get a warning, you really haven't um gone to the next step of ticketing
anybody and is that kind of what you're here today to to talk about or you just giving an update? >> Well, we're generally giving an update. Um we certainly want to hear from the board whether, you know, finding or going to the next level is important. We
really feel that the education is the big piece of it. Um warnings can can go a long ways as well. Um what I will say although we do have the ability to uh institute fines the collection of those can be very difficult u dealing with uh talking with some of our neighboring
communities that do that. Uh that gets to be a whole higher level of administration in collecting and administering fines. So we prefer to uh educate and this is I think you know part of that. Uh, one of the things that is also very important is when we've
been in this conservation mode and increased education, we've definitely seen a decrease use in water overall. Um, I think we've shown that in slides before. We can certainly show that in in other slides, but we're well below where we've been when there's been a um unrestricted, you know, period of time
for water use. It's it's millions of gallons. uh for the most part the public is uh responsive to that and we can see it in our water use information and data that we get on a daily basis. Um I don't know if you have any specifics you want to mention on that but people are
responsive. I think that the concern that we hear and I'm sure that that you hear is that when somebody sees someone that's not but the general public is responsive to these um conservation measures and we're seeing that in the usage. >> Good. So the education's working. I think so. It's it would be difficult to
try and fairly enforce u we have over 16,000 customers so to and I'm sure there's like a few in every neighborhood and how for us to actually track them all down and and you know get them all and feel like we're being fair in our in our um
uh enforcement would be difficult. But at least by sending warnings, we get the word out and um that way hopefully people will respond without having to go to the step of fines. >> That part for the irrigation, we talked at some some length back. We also talked
about a back back fill, a backflow. >> Yeah, backflow pretor. Yes. >> Yes. We talked about those pieces before. Is has the department water department done anything? I I know we had asked about how we can help people get those types of things. Has there
been any movement on that? No, >> no, generally not. There's um common practices, good practices for installation of irrigation. Uh and for the most part, systems are installed with backflow devices. Um but whether we
don't go in inspect every single system is the bottom line at this point >> and they should have the backflow on it. Absolutely. We just don't mandate it. >> It is mandated. We just don't we don't go and check um for backflows on uh fire suppression systems and other buildings
that have a a known hazard that we actually go and test them uh once or twice a year depending on what type of device it is. But we don't test there's no way to test the ones on irrigation systems and we don't go make sure that they're there in the in the uh
precipitation measure. What's the cost of something like that? the Rainbird, >> it would be a couple hundred dollars for uh that type of device. It's not a significant cost >> and then installation on top >> depending on who you use, right?
>> Mark, did you have any questions? >> Yeah, I do. Um, thanks, Madam Chair. And uh I mean one of the reasons why I've asked that we put this on the agenda and talk about it is because this is an area where we get them a lot of complaints. People complaining that the town is not doing enough to enforce the water
conservation bylaw. Um, every summer I this is all I hear people complaining about is that, you know, they called they called the water department, they, you know, fked on their neighbor or there's somebody prominent down the street and uh they're they're not
following the bylaw and and then they they feel that nothing's being done and and this this is this has been just a sort of a fairly steady stream of complaints that I that I get uh particularly during office hours and even even off hours. So, um I think it's
important that we do more to educate and I I like the signage. Um I know when I travel in other Cape Towns like in Brewster or in Chadam, the sign the water conservation signs are very wellplaced and they're very well I mean
they're noticed. You can't miss them. And I think that's uh I I'm glad that you're amping up the awareness. I think that's that's an important step forward. Um, but I also think that um we need to have a conversation about what more we
can do in terms of issuing warnings and issuing getting the word out particularly for folks that have been reported as violators. Um, you know, staying on top of them and and and being persistent with them.
Um, we also need to educate our residents on how to file a complaint uh and and how best to do that. If it's best to do that online or if it's best to just make a call to the office, is there someone that they should call or is there a complaint hotline or
something like that. So, I think um that that would be a suggestion that I would like to see uh considered. And uh now how many warnings have been issued last last year? So um from people calling in
and as you mentioned we kept a list and um we would I don't maybe you couldn't actually be called a warning we would send that notice that went out um in the letters again um to let them know that >> just in case you missed it this is going on. Um but we did we haven't gone beyond
you know doing anything really official. Um I'm not I would have to figure out exactly what an official warning would look like. Um but we did re send out the information >> re-education. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Yeah. There may be there may be some value in actually issuing a warning
>> and having having a notice that has a warning that you've been you know a report's come in you've been >> you know if someone makes makes a complaint it would be helpful to follow up on that and then and then issue a warning if they've been observed not in compliance. I'm a big believer in
education and warnings. Um, I'm just not getting the sense that we're we're doing enough of it. That's that's what constituents are complaining to me about. >> So, we I think we sent out about it there was about 200 of those people that were that we sent letters to last year.
Last year. >> Yum. And the calling our office is the best way to report it or Yeah. >> Just the two ladies that answer the phone keep track of it for us. >> That's good. >> Thanks. >> Focus. like Mark, um, education of
course is very key and, um, I I also would like to see some kind of formal warning this year. I think that if they get something like that, it's going to mean a lot more than, oh, this is just another letter from the water department and I don't really have to do anything
about it. And I know that what's been shared with me um is there's a lot of shall we call it neighbor shaming that's going on in some neighborhoods, you know, like where collectively the associations have gotten together and
kind of >> let it be known. Um and I think the squeaky wheel, you know, if we can the combination of I think folks bringing it to their attention and then seeing something official. I hear 200. Just from the amount of
people that got in touch with me last summer, I would think there were a heck of a lot more than 200 people out there that probably should have warnings >> probably. >> Yeah, >> that's what was reported to us, >> right? And I think if it's encouraged and
people are educated to the fact that they can do that, you know, give the water department a call. Um, I like the idea of having more signage out there reminding people maybe for instance getting it on the um, lighted boards the school department talking to the school
department. It's amazing going down Station Avenue how many people do and how that really is something that they see. That one in the Chamber of Commerce um, over on 28 uh, I think has a great impact. But I wouldn't I would not suggest or
recommend going to an actual fine system at this point. I think we still need to educate. But I would like to see a little beefing up, shall we say, of the warning system. >> Okay. >> Liz, you ask? >> Yeah. I have the letter that we got in
October from the conservation commission and it really struck me strongly because they they they're concerned and they um they had three possible um
suggestions. They almost all three are already being followed. So there's not much help there. But I think that they are hoping that the um warning letter is followed more possibly with a fine for
chronic um issues when we when we see the same when when nothing's changing. Um, so I I understand that you had 200 reminders that you sent out and if there was a a
way of keeping track of how many times you're getting this the complaint against the same person and then that then a letter maybe even from conservation to make them understand that it's not just about um it's a serious issue in the town of Yarmouth
that threatens everybody because I'm not sure that's that's getting through to the to the offenders. I think they're just thinking, "Eh, it's my lawn. I'm a business. I I need this this nice lawn because I'm a I'm a business anyway." And I think the fact that they can call
into the water department to um let let you know that there's an offend somebody who's not following the rules is really important, almost like a hotline. And um for really bad chronic non-compliance,
the conservation commissions couldn't we asks if we couldn't consider water shut offs. So >> technically the bylaw does allow shut offs. >> That's what they immediately assumed. But they they're they're pushing for a lot more um
control over this. And so I I and I think they're right. Um, I would also note that that for those of us who are listening at home, I had uh somebody who came in when I was doing my office hours and she couldn't hear her toilet running. And I think that's also
um a problem for some of our older um residents, the Yarmouth people, is that they can't we most of us can hear that toilet if it's running. And she couldn't. She has bad hearing and it cost her $800. So, um, that's an issue that again, education, I don't know what
you do about that other than the blue tabs, but I guess you'd have to renew those because they're going to be used up. So, it's that's a Christmas present, I guess, for all of us who are over 70. We get the blue tabs in our stocking. >> And then the rain barrels, I just
wondered, they're closed, right? So, there's no mosquito. We're not getting mosquitoes out of those. >> They have covers. >> Okay. because I know I can't collect water. Nobody should. So, but um so yeah, I guess I'm I'm a voice for for
more more of a ruler hitting the the knuckles than we've had, especially if we if and I guess we're waiting to see if maybe we get out of where we are significant drought. And if we do, then maybe this is all moot. But if we don't,
I think that it's time to get a little bit more serious about it because yeah, it's offensive when you you're following these rules and you and you see people who just are totally ignoring it. So, thank you, >> Joyce.
>> Thanks. Um, I of course am very much in favor of education. I also love the idea of the rain barrel idea and the community involvement that that that entails. Um, I'm trying to think if there are ways to reach more people. You
know, maybe um an electronic mailing of exactly what Lori was presenting to us uh maybe send out to the head of Yarmouth newcomers um and to every other civic organization around and ask them
to forward it to their members. Um, obviously there's still going to be some people that don't get the message, but I do think that we have to uh we have to give enforcement authority somewhere here, I guess, division of national n
natural resources because when someone gets a letter as part of the 200 letters and then gets another letter, I mean, this could go on forever. And I I think that the first $100 fine might snap it right in its tracks. I thank you for all
the good work you've done on this because I know it's a it's a um an awkward issue because everybody loves their water and thinks they're entitled to it. Uh but I just like to say thank you and thank you for the big drought signs and they were a reminder to me as
I would drive along that we had to be careful of water. Thanks. >> Great. Well, I appreciate your work on this. I I'm more of an educator. I don't I think that we need to um I think we need to um
tuck that away when we are in a serious crisis. And I'm not sure we're in a serious crisis right now. I mean, um, we were I was just thinking about sell we we were not that long ago selling
water to another town. Yeah. I mean, we had a lot of water. >> So, um, and, you know, it's it's hard when, you know, people go around and they see the town like the golf course and things like that where we're, you know, we're still watering. It's
allowed. I get it by state standards, but it just it's kind of hard for us to enforce it upon our residents when we're not, you know, I mean, we may be cutting back, but we're still watering. So, I think you have to lead by example. I mean, if we were in a serious crisis, we
should stop watering. Um, so I I think we just need to keep >> and to that point, we do. The town has irrigation on most of our town buildings and we turn that off and follow all the rules. It's the playing fields that I I realize people are seeing being
irrigated, but you know, a case can be made and that's why it's in the Water Management Act permit that it's a safety issue relative to kids playing and that type of thing. >> I don't think people understand the difference when they see it. That's that's the point. It's perception, you
know. So, we just need to be cognizant of that. And I I think, you know, maybe even even if it's a if it's a m if somebody calls and they've you've sent them a warning and, you know, maybe give them a phone call. >> Yeah. >> And reach out to them directly. I know that's a lot when you're talking to
>> Thank you very much. I appreciate your update. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. >> Next, we're going to go into our budget workshop for FY27. >> Thank you. had this problem. >> So, people should get the blue tabs at the water department.
>> Do we have any at town hall? >> Uh, no. >> Maybe we >> Yeah, maybe we could. >> Blue tabs for everybody. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Lori.
Thank you, Madam Chair. here for our annual your annual budget workshop session for the fiscal year 27 annual town budget. I want to start off with just thanking all of our town department heads and welcoming them here into your
chamber. Um, we've got every department represented here in your community and I do thank them for all of their continued hard work and the patience that folks have had with the all of the detailed analysis that we've been going through for the last couple of months now. Um,
and the information they've provided in preparing, defending, presenting all of their budget requests. Um, we're here uh recommending a total budget that comes in a shot of our our revenues at um 122
million $710,627 all totaled, but that's net of the cherry sheet charges in county taxes. Now, the total budget is up 1.5% from the the previous year. Uh, I think it's important to note that our general fund revenues in the general fund portion of
that budget is up um 2.5% just over 2.5 about 2.6%. um it's brought down a little bit some of the um accounting for the enterprise funds and the way those revenues work especially with the funds that we've been using for wastewater um bring down
the total um budget but um we are tapped in that 2 and a half u percent range and I want to get to that in in a lot more detail. I I I think that um our our first big issue that we want to start with is um this is about this evening
with the budget workshop the presentation of our uh new format uh town budget book that um all the select board members have and I know it's online it's difficult to it's getting so huge and um detailed uh we've provided
electronically for the public for departments and Um I I just want to um call out Jennifer Mullen. She's here our uh finance director. Uh the work that she's personally done in um preparing
this budget book, it is a completely uh new format than we've seen in the past and it's a huge leap forward for our community in the presentation of the financial materials. Um it is a high highly detailed budget book that uh has
all of the um analysis of revenues, analysis of expenditures. Um there's detailed narratives describing each uh cost center function. There's um graphs that cover several years of um
performance in there. And this evening what we're going to do is we're going to walk through the budget book um department by department and present the um annual budget where we see here and we have again departments available to answer any questions that you might have
on the budget. Uh but before we get to the the budget book, um I do want to relay um somewhat our our general concerns. Um also um when we talk about this budget book, I need to give special thanks. Mary Alice Florio in our office
is just tremendous. The way she um prepares this material, gets it ready for for everyone. And without her production, we wouldn't, you know, have any of the books or or anything anything. So So thank you. Um, Mary Alice, um, I I want to talk a little bit
about the revenues, but but first I want to orient you to what I see as the big picture, um, for FY27. And, um, I'm not going to make any bones about it. I've got a lot of apprehensions about this budget, about this fiscal year. Um this
will be a very challenging fiscal year for the community that um we've got a couple of forces that are acting together to create some very sincere challenges. Um first and foremost um we
are dealing with um a slowdown in the overall growth of um primarily our nonproperty tax revenues and um um I want to get to that a little bit. When when you look at your chart we can see
that um that 24% slice those are the non-propy tax revenues. We're going to see the the property tax is a very stable resource for the community. The um values in our community have been
very steady, very steadily um increasing. The property tax is limited, we all know, by two and a half%. The total amount of dollars that we raise um is limited. and and with nearly 70% of the budget tied up in those property
taxes, it really ties us into that 2 and a.5%. That's what our target is um for the revenues unless in recent years we've seen some additional growth from year to year in those nonpropy tax local revenues that have allowed us to work um
collaboratively with the town departments um the educational team everyone to uh try to keep up um a little bit uh with some of the the budget growth. Um, we see the, you know, one difference between the chart in in your budget book and and my chart is
when I talk about the state aid, I net out all of the charges. And I think it's important to point out that um, the state really helps us out about 1%. when you subtract the charges that the state gives us from the money that they give us in aid um you know we might get
around two million but um it's all taken away and and what we have net to devote to town meeting for the operating budget is about 1% and um we have the enterprise um funds that are set out um
a little bit from that and um that is roughly eight 8% But the key problem factor that we're facing now in terms of the the revenues is that 24%. So it's about a quarter of our budget that we depend on for most of the growth,
anything over two and a half%. And um what what we're seeing this year is that net of the water revenues which are directly set and they come in the general fund. It's not an enterprise, but um they're directly set to meet the
um capital debt service needs. They're growing a little bit more because we set those rates to meet the costs. The other nonpropy tax local revenues uh you know in their uh outlined in your budget book and I think it's really great the presentation that would give you uh you
know sense for where we were last year. um motor vehicle excise, other excise, the meals, rooms, um solid waste fees, recreation, all of that laundry list of nonpropy tax revenues. Um what what
we're seeing is a slowdown in growth to um about 2.6% from the previous year. And um that is an estimate. And the thing that I'm concerned about particularly is that in
even achieving that estimate of that 2.6 growth um we are getting dangerously close to hitting at 90% of our collections previous collections. And that 90% that 10% range can be seen
as that's a red line. It's a warning flag. You should not be in a position that you're estimating the receipts at um less than or you know more than 90% of your collections to have a buffer of less than 10% puts you in direct
jeopardy of not collecting the amount that you estimate. And while there's no penalty for having collections um in excess, if you ever have a deficit in your revenue collection, um keep in mind that that there are very strict
consequences for communities that do that that every dime of that has to be deducted from your next year budget and it causes um intense turmoil. So, we're at a situation here where these um nonpropy tax local revenues are growing much slower and we're at a level that
we're not comfortable um you know going much beyond in terms of um estimating those. So, so that's you know problem number one that we've got the slowdown in in revenues and um this comes at a time when the costs are continuing to
rise. Um we know we've faced um on our town site over the past couple of years, you know, huge retention problems. We've addressed those uh with, you know, fire, police, across the board. Um we've analyzed town wages, found them to be
very much below uh what some of our neighbors are. We um had been falling behind. And so we're uh trying to deal with that. at the same time just watching um wages around us outside of our organization um rise at a level that is you know beyond the two and a half
percent. So, uh, the the budgets that we have are over 75% tied in with whether it's wages or the benefit programs. It's really the heart and soul. Whether you're on the education side, whether you're on the town side, when you're in the service business providing the
services, there's a lot of wages there. And and right now, we're just in a part of our economy. And this is not a Yarmouth issue. This is not even a Cape Cod issue. is, you know, um across our entire region. Massachusetts communities are um facing these issues I think
particularly strong um this year in that um we see generally wages rising at a rate and uh benefits costs higher than the the growth in revenues. So um just dealing with that
problem creates a lot of strain. But there's a a couple of issues that um we haven't been able to completely get our arms around um yet that that we're working on. And I think a lot that's in this budget um is going to be a continued dialogue as we go through the
process of analyze these um things that there are um have been this year coming up for this year some very large enrollment shifts in our regional education system that are putting additional financial um pressures on the
town. Um most notably uh some of the uh educational costs at the Cape Cod Regional Technical High School are growing um at a faster rate than we had anticipated uh based on previous performance. Um we have heading into
this year 30 new Yarmouth students in the Cape Cod Regional Technical High School. Not that's a growth in a single year of over 21% of the Yarmouth enrollment. That I
don't think is precedented. Um and that uh is is a massive issue and um what that does it's not a fault of the the school system but um there is an actual formula that that provides that it's a
population-based assessment and um for 21 um% you know 30 new kids that's over $800,000 of money in addition to just the normal budget increase that we um that we count on. And um you know in it
creates an enormous um pressure to to find those new revenues at a time when uh on the town side we've got labor costs that are rising. We're struggling to meet those. We've got um now issues with the Cape Tech in the enrollment and
um I know that um Dr. Smith uh is presenting now information in front of the school committee for the Dennis Yarmouth Regional um school budget. And you know it it appears that that budget has same pressures that all of our
budgets are that make it so that uh it may not be possible for that budget to come in at a a two and a half percent. the numbers that we're seeing maybe if it's six to 7% you know that is significantly larger but um you know the
bottom line is that uh revenues are sort of u you know capped at at what we have them costs are rising not just in education education and the town side and so um we don't have the ability to
reduce enough without having drastic reductions in order to meet some of these new education costs. So, it's not a a factor of just education. It's a combination of um there there's not enough flexibility to meet a lot of this
additional um additional pressure. And that's what we're going to see um throughout the budget. And you can take a look at at some of the um the individual pieces of that. I just want to, you know, maybe show uh in in the budget. Another piece of this is is we do have
this thing still works. Here we go. I think Jeff killed the battery. What happened? >> Let's try one more time. Put it on the
green. Okay. Um and you know to give you a sense um you know you see the state aid and it took a a little jump but you know when it takes a jump that's you know
maybe 30 $40,000 uh and and and you can see this situation these this is like a 10-year analysis. it's so flat and it's all within um you know $100,000 range that you know this is a permanent problem
that um we're not able to count on the state for additional state revenues. um the local estimated repeat uh receipts piece. You can see that we we were lucky that we had some growth since the um the
low point during that 2021. That was when the pandemic was really had a chill on um a lot of economic activity and and we've rebounded significantly and and over these past few years, we've been able to use this growth in these
nonpropy tax receipts. But um quite sincerely, this year's growth is deceiving because it shows the water department growth which is all tied up in the capital projects in a debt service. If you net out that growth,
what we see here is is basically this line here is flat. Um, so so our we we don't have that that local estimated receipt growth for 2027 that we have in the past and we can't use the water revenue for other things. It has to go
just towards um their their programs. And you can also see and and I think you know to me this is a a positive chart. Um you know looking at 10 years of the property tax levy it really shows I
think some conservative overall um management of the town's tax base that um it is very stable and it's a very slow growing uh revenue source. We've from time to time had very small types
of um overrides to um you know keep the service levels the same but there have not been any spikes nor will there be uh in terms of the overall property tax levy. But what you also will not see is you will not see a miraculous um well we
have all this new property tax money coming in that's going to solve our problems that we can continue you know the forecast will we'll continue to have 2 and a half% growth um in the foreseeable future and and by looking at
the 10year uh it hasn't changed you know that should tell you some it's not going to change that is your property tax and we um tell you what you're going to be getting in property taxes next year, too. And it's not going to be more than 2 and a half%. That's kind of, you know,
the issue of of what rules the the economy that we work under. Um so, couple of key issues um for the for the budget overview before we get into the
um the budget books. Again, um the total budget is coming in at 122,710 627 and that is up 1.5% from last year, but the true growth in the general fund um is 2.6%. That's the
revenue amount that we have. Um the capital spending has been um recommended with with you know, we've done a great job with the capital planning. It's a combination of um funds that we have um from free cash and um we've maintained
the roadway maintenance under the levy budget consistent with the prop 2 and a half override that was in I'm not sure exactly what year but maybe 2015 sound maybe 17 in that range and so we've managed to restore that. Um,
again, there was a brief period of time that was taken out of the budget, but but that's back in there. Um, and the um educational operating budget in um
this package is provided for at a rate of 2 and a half% growth. And I know the certified budgets have not been prepared yet. Um, we'll need to work together collaboratively with the
education leadership in our community to determine exactly what those final amounts are, exactly what our financial plan for meeting them are. But, um, I I think the kind of the bad news right now is that taking all of our our revenues,
we don't have, um, an excess of funds to set aside for that projected increase over Proposition 2 and a half. And so, um, that is going to be a a challenge moving forward. And we're going to have to try to meet that. And, um, the
budgets for the other town budgets, what what we've done, um, and and again, I want to thank Jennifer, um, for her work together with me, together with the departments, we've really gone through with a fine tooth com. We've tried to preserve your service levels. Um right now we did not think it was appropriate
to come in with a situation where you know we were um you know reducing uh positions that provide direct services. We tried to say um how much can we cut things back. Let's have a very conservative budget that retains the
service levels that that we have now. we thought it was important to to present that and um so we we think that we've we've done that and but you know I don't think anything's off the table in figuring out um how you know we we move
this forward to um eventually it has to all uh you know come together but um couple of points I would make overall focus has been um on the implementation of the goals of the select board and in
my um budget memo. I tried to detail some key areas that that um we're doing that the we start with the goals of the town and um you know thankfully working through the the capital program. It's where a lot of those initiatives are.
But the the key thing that I need to point out is that um it was very important to us to preserve the positions the the management of those programs. um whether it's the infrastructure for wastewater, whether
it's the water department and the PAS, all of that, the water issues, the um economic development, community development, all of the key goals depend specifically on management through this budget of personnel that make the
expenditures happen. whether even even if the expenditures are included in the capital program, none of it is implemented without the management of these department heads. And um I would say I'm very proud of this group that they are 100% locked in to those goals
and making them happen. But you know, we thought that we needed to make sure we preserved the staff that is needed in order to carry out those goals. Um we do have in here the existing any existing labor contracts are fully funded. Um and
we've implemented the um cost of living increases that are in there. So there's no labor contracts that we've left um hanging. Um we've got funding in here. Um, and it's not uh, you know, a major
increase to the budget, but um, we've been able to take care of that 6040 split for the HMO programs because we adopted that 6040 split for the lower cost programs that have the lower inflation and um, so that
is not a big hit to the budget and I and I think it's uh, been a big win-win for the town in terms of the retention strategies by targeting that 6040 split towards those HMOs. Um what we are going to do is hopefully save costs not only
now in the budget by having people in the more um the more costconscious plans but also the inflation over time in these plans is lower and what we're trying to attack is the inflation. And you'll see in a minute a couple of
points I have on that inflation. Um and and again, the roadway maintenance is still in the property tax levy. Um yeah, this thing's getting a little bit tired with the budget. >> We all are, Bob.
>> So, I'm kidding. >> All right. Um we so far have in we've reserved 2.5% increase um for the Dennis Yarmouth um educational system. We know
that that is problematic based on the numbers. Um, and I want to thank Dr. Smith. Um, again this year, outreaching us in the fall early in the process, sharing numbers, sharing concerns. Um, we have more information that we've ever
had and and I think that, you know, we're going to have a lot of um work ahead of us to try to uh bring this whole thing together. But I I do thank the school system for all of their efforts to to bring us together. Um, additional funding will also be required
to address the um, enrollment in the Cape Cod uh, technical high school. >> Yeah, they may. And um, we also um, want to point out um, even though the funding is is very tight,
we've tried to work um, some initiatives into the budget and um, you know, in a very uh, creative, innovative ways that are efficient. And I think the Department of Public Works has an initiative to convert. We have a vacant mechanic position that we've had a lot
of difficulty um filling that and and a lot of the the work still has to be um outsourced that the these mechanics that you hire can't just take over um all of the new equipment. And so um one initiative is to move those funds into a
building and grounds superintendent. And I think that issue has already been brought up once this evening. We've made um a focus in this budget of um not only increasing the funds in the budget for the actual um you know park maintenance, maintenance of the grounds, but um we're
also increasing the management in the department to assist in um overseeing the building and grounds maintenance at at a much higher level. And there's a lot of money tied up in the capital with that. And um we also working together with the water department, wastewater
department. Um the only other new position that we have is an asset manager that will help protect the all of the infrastructure that we're building now um into the future. And those are some critical items that um we
see and and they're not um impacting, you know, that that 2 and a half% portion of the budget, but um they are allowing us to better implement some of the select board goals. Um and now I mentioned the health insurance. Some of the things that we're trying to target
is the inflation in health insurance. That's where our problem is, is how that goes up every year. And um to give you an example, we're estimating and it you know if we're not able to do cost control, uh it may even be higher that
health insurance rates are going up a minimum of 8%. Um this year retirement is going up 6.7%. Now I want to tell you um these these benefits that's over $600,000
right there of just new cost for these benefits. To give you an example of how, you know, people say, "Oh, don't say inflation because it's not inflation." But to give you a sense for the the increased cost, last year those two items, health insurance and retirement
went up a little over 300,000. This year it's well over 600,000. So what we're seeing is the rate of inflation in the retirement, health insurance, you know, these benefit types of costs is doubling. and and that's an example of these are the higher costs
that we're trying to fund with slower growing revenues. Um so um I I there's probably um well we do have a little good news is the debt service is down slightly um and that reflects we have no big new debt coming on and we're you
know in year um you know three or four of a couple of key bonds like the middle school Cape Tech and um the the DPW is really all of the debt we have we have very low debt right now um and so it it
does look like we're going to require some type of um Proposition 2 and a half relief in order to address some of these additions to the budget. But um you know, we want to be very conservative in in how we're looking at this. And um
that basically is what I wanted to give you for an overview. And I I thought that what we would do with having all of the departments here is take a walk through the budget book just department by department so that you can just see the individual increases for And there's
so much detail in this um in this book. I I think that it'll answer a lot of questions for you. And the departments are here for any additional questions. And so I'll skip over the revenue section, but I do encourage um you to go through it. In addition to having the
numbers, it explains, I think, very well what exactly some of these revenue items are. Um it's got um definitions, descriptions. It's really wonderfully put together. Um I wish I could think of things, you know, this this good all the
time, but it's great to have um our team that that has worked to pull pull this all together. And it starts off we've got the select board and your mission statement. The goals are reflected directly um in in the budget book. And
then um you go over to the I'm on page 18 of the book. And that's what starts off. And it does have a lot of charts and graphs, but um we're going to see the same format for each of the departments. And the one thing I want to show you when there's a lot of items,
you're probably used to seeing you list all the items and at the bottom there's a total. And in these charts, if there's a lot of items, you'll see the total on top and then it'll it'll list them out. Um but in the um select board um you
have the moderator selectman salaries um the expenses and it's all um the same as last year. So um I guess we'll we'll take each department if you want to stop and if anybody has any questions we can ask them on um while we're there and
then keep moving along. I don't want to hold this up, but personnel summary page 19. Six part-time, wouldn't it be? >> Five board and one moderator. >> Yeah. >> And I I want to point out
this you're going to find out that some of this um data like on the how many full-time equivalents are in each department um has been carried over from previous things. So you might find it's not 100% accurate, but what I will tell you is every number we've gone over with
the fine tooth comb. So all of the budget numbers are accurate. And um >> how many positions were added this year, Bob? >> Total >> staff wise >> total townwide. Well, we we had the the
last year um in public safety were the increases. So So that that that doesn't count. There are still some that are not filled yet, but I would say um maybe two to three new new positions and um we mostly I'll try to point out where where
there's a new position um have been like a transfer from one area to another. Um the the only one I can think of off the top of my head and correct me if I'm wrong is the asset manager is new >> and there's a new position in wastewater
which is the plant um manager to get the plant up and running. >> What was the first one you said? >> First one was an asset manager for water and wastewater. >> There's none projected in this budget. >> No. >> No new positions.
No. So then we we go to the um administration side and um we have the salaries and again the total is on top
not on the bottom and then expenses um and >> now I I don't want to bel labor things so are we going to be doing more fine tooth comb with different departments at at future dates or is this our fine
tooth comb? Well, you are free to set up a lot of times with some of the bigger departments like the DPW or police will set up a separate night, but with it's, you know, the timing of it, it's it's usually better if we can, especially on a lot of the smaller departments if get
the questions out of the way now so we don't have to because there's just not enough time to have, you know, the finance committee, they'll be going through every single department and generally the select board will just focus on some of the larger departments. Well, I just looking at for instance at advertising in under administration and
advertising in FY in FY25 was about $1,500 and then in 2026 we've gone up to $20,000. Did we actually use that one? Maybe it's two fine tooth comb. I
don't know. Yeah, the um that covers um I don't know why it's listed at at 1458, but um >> the first guest want to >> do you know that FY25 is um what page
are you on list? >> Page 20. >> Okay. >> Um yes. So in FY25 we spent 1,400 in advertising but we always budget around 20. So FY25 is what we actually spent. So it was low that year. We really
didn't want to decrease any line items, especially with advertising. I think some of the advertising that comes out of this would be for positions and things of that nature, especially if we have to do a search >> and you have a um >> you know, you have to go out nationally.
So we like to keep that line items. So that's an important note really actually for all of these items that actual should not compare actual to the budget so directly. >> Yeah. I mean it gives you an idea of what we actually spent. Um but usually
there's a specific reason. >> Okay. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> So um and it carries over on to page 21. You can see where um get goes into emergency management and
then um we maintain the account here for any of the um step increases for department heads and then um energy costs. Um luckily with electricity and gas, we've got a good handle on those.
Um legal is in here and that's been um pretty steady. we've been able to keep a lot of the these administrative accounts down. >> That's great. >> Um and so there's the legal also for the um
bargaining and then you get into the um county retirement is there and and again that that's the number that we talked about that 6.8% 8%. This just a preliminary number, but that's 388,000
in county retirement assessment that um have and we still haven't got their final number in. >> Um then we have unemployment is in there. And then the um the health insurance we have estimated at 8% increase. And there's a lot of issues
going on there that, you know, we're talking about the GLP drugs, what impact that's going to have. Uh I guess um you know, I I heard something along the line of that in two years 80% of our
population is going to be considered overweight or obese. And so that's scary. >> I hate to be in that category, too. That wouldn't be Diet Coke either, would it? >> Not a chance.
>> And then that budget also includes the um insurance which is listed out there. You can see the amounts for the town's insurance and um budget detail reports after that. So um
there's no questions on that. The next budget is the IT and central purchasing. And this supports all of the town's networks and computers. Um and and you can see it's the purchase expenses. The um IT salaries,
which there's a slight decrease in there. >> Where's our communications? Is that in here? >> That's in a separate budget. It comes out of the cable. >> I thought they were under it. But their budget and funding comes as separate because it doesn't come out of the general fund. It comes um
>> cable receipts. >> Yes. So the these are funds from from the general fund and then um it's sort of like a enterprise fund when you get to the communications and they're in there too. >> And where is the en the new energy manager? >> The energy manager is a grant fund. Um,
and they fall under the DPW engineering, but they don't have money in their budget for that because right now we've just got the grant funds, >> not supplementing that position. >> No. >> Okay. And then um um that you you see the IT
expenses where they have all of their repairs and maintenance and overall the budget is is down a little but there's you know a lot of pressure on that budget and and they do have a lot of their um IT improvements are also
factored into the capital budget as well. So, >> and I just want to mention that when you see the salaries go down in the IT budget, there was a position moved over to DPW. It was the GIS. >> What did you I'm sorry, say it again, Jennifer. >> The salaries decreased because the GIS
position was moved over to highway. So, when you see highway, when you look at that budget has increased salaries and >> thank you. Good point. >> We just moved the position from it to DPW under the engineering divisionus 12. That's good. that
>> and then we get into the um finance department um where we have a another you'll see in a moment a position transfer. The assessors are the first budget listed um there and
they have their salaries and expenses. And um after that is the accounting department and you have accounting salaries followed by their expenses and then the auditing expenses for the community is a
separate um line item. And um I I might you know point out that um this budget format in conjunction with the comprehensive financial report is what has led to the the town being awarded
the um government finance officers association um budget presentation award. So um that audit is under accounting and when we get into the treasurer
collector you see um a reduction almost 15% in the in the salaries and that is a position we think we can better manage the whole sticker system um with transferring um
an employee from the treasur's office over to the clerk's office so that'll better serve better serve the public and you'll see that over in the clerks which is the next budget the clerk registar shows a growth in their full-time
salaries and that's that person coming into that department >> so it's an actual FTE >> okay >> one full-time person and and they're going to be serving the public and doing stickers from the clerk side which is more accessible and it's not going to
get tied up we get a lot of you know when people come in for the bills, excise, and the stickers all at the same time. It it makes a big line. And by separating those out, we're able to um and that was a um an improvement made by the finance department, which um I I
just thought was great. And so when the town clerks, there's the salaries, expenses, and then the election and registars salaries. Um and and we've had we've seen a lot of growth. We've had a lot of elections in
recent years and this year is um fairly uh constant. So So we've been able to level fund most of the elections budget. And then we get into the the finance committee where we have the reserve fund
for emergency and unforeseen expenditures. And uh we continued that at $100,000. So that if that's a fund, a reserve, is that a growth, then you're going to put another 100,000 in it?
>> No, it it um closes out at the end of the fiscal year. >> Okay. >> So, um it's called a fund, but it's all within the general fund, and it's a reserve. So, um it's available to use by the finance committee for again if there's an emergency or unforeseen
expense up to 100,000. And currently this year, um we haven't spent any of that. Um you know, potentially at the end of the fiscal year, they may need to use some of that. >> Didn't we create a a reserve that we appropriated money to?
Yes, that's the capital reserve. Um, so we it's a separate stabilization fund that we create stabilization fund >> to to reserve funds. This is operating budget. >> Okay. >> So, okay. >> We we reserve a small amount in the operating budget and this is not for capital
>> specific to operations. I got it. >> Exactly. Something that comes up so that way you don't have to, you know, run to town meeting um immediately. Then we move into community development and um their material is listed on page
40 and um we've got the community development salaries, community development expenses and follow and that is the natural resources division.
general funding in the animal controls under there. All of the harbor master patrols, all of the waterways, you've got the natural resources officers salaries um laid out. No new positions, no new um major items there.
I could ask one question on the bottom of page 44 is I see that the actuals for the the shellfish propagation is more than we've budgeted. Is that going to be a problem?
>> Actual is more than what's >> No. >> No. Um >> good answer. Okay. >> Yeah, that's not a problem. Um so just to mention one of the unique things that Yarmouth can do is u make budget transfers.
>> So through the year if we see that um a line item needed more money we can through the finance committee and the chair of the select board transfer money throughout the year. >> That was new wasn't that something you asked for? >> No this is something that's been long-standing for the town of Yarmouth
but um it it's different than other communities. So we do do that. Also, I also want to mention that when you go to town meeting and you vote the budget, those the numbers that you vote at town meeting, you can't overexpend that
number group. So, you might see um a line item in the operating expenses that exceeds it, but it probably um there was an excess in another line item. So, we manage it by um the town meeting vote. >> Gotcha. Okay. Thank you. But I guess on
on that point before we leave it, I I do want to acknowledge the Department of Natural Resources for you know the aggressive approach that they've taken towards the shellfish propagation program and you know there have been a couple of opportunities that have presented themselves working with um
other local groups and uh working with the department over the last um couple of years. the, you know, the work that they've done with oysters and and other programs that that they've really taken advantage of everything that we can do. And if if we um, you know, work with,
you know, Dave's here, I I know um, with the DNR and they have a program, even if it's not 100% in the budget, if we have some additional funds, as you can see, the amounts are not astronomical, it has a payback in terms of services for
residents that's really great. And so, anything that we can do >> even promote that. >> Yeah. >> Shellfish fresh from Yarmas is something. >> But you you have um an actual cost in 2025 of uh 47,000 and yet a budgeted
cost of only 29,000. You don't think it's going to go up? >> Well, no. that was I they did some special projects that were related to establishing the oysters and things and um >> you're not going to keep I mean that doesn't it's not ongoing that was just a one time deal
>> it was um um a higher level that we do annually so um >> deal >> yeah and if if if it there's opportunities to kind of um promote other programs like that or take advantage of opportunities you know
we'll work with the DNR to make sure that they get the money in there to to try to do that. So after DNR comes the senior services division and on page 48 your salaries
are laid out and the um expenses get a lot of ground covered for a small budget. And next we have the library um department on page 51.
There's salaries um and operations. One issue that we have with the library that we're very mindful of. Um and I I welcome Dave Aronson here. It's his first budget workshop with us. um that
they have very specific uh library certification requirements that involve the level of expenditure and then the combined level of expenditure over several year period. And uh so we're very mindful of those certification requirements and um this budget
maintains the library state certification um and meets all of the um their needs and the overall increase is very very modest. So, >> can I just ask Bob on um part-time per
um you you have a change of 11%. Um are they adding part-time positions then? >> Well, it's it is um I think just increasing some of the hours that I mean it's only going up from 43 to 47,000.
>> So, there's I don't think there's a major increase there. >> Okay. But but it is to to make sure that they maintain a certain amount of hours. That's one of the certification requirements. >> So they put it in the part-time and that saves money from adding a full-time
person. >> So then when you look at your personnel sum summary, you have 11 FTA and part-time. So it's combined FTE and part-time come up to 11 bodies. >> It should be plus part-time >> plus part time. >> So the 11 does not include part-time.
The other issue too is if you have somebody out a full-time person and you know in order for hours and you need sometimes you need to the part-time will really fluctuate so you might have to bring somebody in if somebody's out for an extended period of time. So that's why the parttime fluctuates.
>> Okay. So then the the next division is recreation and on page 55 it lays out the recreation full-time salaries seasonal and the and the overtime
and this is um the town budget. In addition to this, we maintain the revolving fund that uh enables them to operate specific programs and um this funds all of our our
lifeguards and seasonal operations. So recreation then we get into the public safety departments. Um the police department is on page 58. And I just want to give you
a small example of the um you know the increases here are very um minimal. And you know when I indicated I I had a lot of apprehensions with this overall annual budget process. We again tried to
be as conservative as we as we could in order to um keep the overall numbers within what we have for revenues. But um there were some items in the police department. And one specifically I I want to mention that's not included in
here that um I I really had a hard time with because I I felt that the need was demonstrated tremendously is that um the chief had proposed adding a new nighttime lieutenant. >> Um so it's a command staff person that
would help keep the night staff which is so many of them tied into the overall management. One of the great strengths of the Yarmouth Police Department is that they have a command structure that um ties everyone together as part of the
organization and and make sure that they're all um you know oriented towards the exact type of performance training all of the standards supervision whether you're on night or day. And you know one of the areas that we need to beef up is
that nighttime supervision. So we don't have the nighttime lieutenant in there. It's a big huge need. Um it's not going away. We're going to come back and get it. One thing that we did do um at least I was I was happy with um another initiative of the the chief is we beefed up um some of the training uh numbers in
here to provide um a little additional for for training. and the department needs as much training as possible on on all of the new procedures, equipment um under under the post the um I just want
to say our department is completely on top of that. the management is extremely strong and um you know we we have to be there to to kind of support to to keep that management strong and areas such as the supervision and the training are very important and I just want to
acknowledge um you know Chief Lennon can >> I ask two questions about this budget. >> Sure. >> Where are we at with our SRO's in this budget? We got funding think the school cut it and we got some funding last year but what is the projection in this budget?
That's the first question. The second question is relating to both police and fire with the recruitment that um there was a a stipen that we were offering and that came out of free cash. What happens in this budget for those items? I can
>> well the second one we're still on the um >> yeah you can talk about the SR >> let's let's um let's recognize Chief Lenin. Chief, you heard those questions? >> Maybe we can bring them in. Yeah. >> How are you tonight? Sorry I couldn't be
there in person. So, as far as the SRO position goes, the school is still only funding one position for Nick Pascarosa. So, the police department is absorbing the positions for Shawn Brewer and Alex Axaros. And we have been using the
$50,000 in overtime that was appropriated last fall town meeting to supplement any uh staffing that we have that we're if we're short on the road and we have somebody in the school, that money is making up that difference. to what's going to happen in this budget
though the budget for next year >> looks like that $50,000 is is >> we are going to keep um the two SRO there as best we possibly can uh we are moving in a in a positive direction with
hiring we have two people in the academy now we are working on getting four into the into the June Academy and we have two lateral transfers that are interested in coming over so if all works out in about a year, which would be covering this budget, we will be back
up uh almost fully staffed, maybe down just two or three positions, which then helps us tremendously absorbing the cost of having the SRO in the school. And then as far as the uh the stipen for the lateral transfers, we haven't had as many people take advantage of that as we
were hoping, but with the two that we are have looking at coming over, we uh between police and fire, there was $100,000 put up. Neither of us have spent I don't think we've spent any of that money yet. Uh but we have two that are coming over. So we're still we're still looking to use that. And when we
do get a lateral transfer again, it does save the town about 90 about $60,000 rather between putting somebody through the academy and then hiring a lateral. >> Excellent. Thank you. >> Fantastic. >> Um I noticed that there are two overtime line items.
Is there a difference between each of those, Jennifer? Yeah, you have your regular overtime and then um you have overtime for training and then you have your pack overtime. So there's really three over timeline items. >> So one of them should say overtime training.
>> Yes, it just Yeah, this is the way it came over from our financial management system. If you look in the warrant booklet, it does designate training in there, but that's what it is. It's training. >> Okay. So the one that's 151,000 is training. >> Yes. 14400
140,400. >> All right. I'm sorry for the >> training and then the pack overtime is the same. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Welcome. >> Thanks, Chief. Any other police questions? >> No, just wonderful news.
>> And next after that is the fire department. And on page 60 lists out the fire salaries, fire expense accounts. And then the EMS expense account.
>> I have a question on the uniforms and other clothing. I know it's up 22%. We're increasing it to 129. I'm hopeful that that >> covers the um getting them out of the PAS uniforms. Is that going to keep us on track? How many How many new uniforms
does that get that are healthier and safer? >> Yeah. Come on. Come on up, Chief. >> Come on up. Come on. >> Don't be shy. >> Come on down. >> I know you said you're going to do a little bit at a time, but I just don't know what what that looks like when you say a little bit.
>> Yeah, those uh that increase is actually just covers the uh contractual agreement with uh the collective bargaining unit on uh like uniforms that they wear daily has actually >> What about the turnout gear? Where is it? Uh we've spent uh he probably more familiar with the actual number, but it was uh we got 100,000 last year and
we're we're working through that now. Uh little >> that's not in this budget. >> No, no, that was in the capital article. >> Yeah. >> And we're looking to do that again. I hope >> another 100. Yeah, we need to get the money. We need >> We're getting there. As far as um what
we're purchasing at this point um gives us one full set of turnout gear, >> excuse me, >> for one one firefighter. >> No, no, no. uh one set of turnout gear for uh our whole first line crew. Um we will be looking to replace uh another
set of that coming up in the next few years to get 100% POS free. Um that would be the plan going forward. >> All right. So it's in the capital. It's not in this uniform. >> Yeah. Each each set of turnout years is close to $6,000. So that's why we're working through it little by little.
>> We got to do it as soon as possible. >> We agree. >> My opinion. Thank you. >> Sure. Just a quick question on the turnout gear. If um that's one set, so if they've been involved in a fire, an actual fire today,
>> can they turn around and use that same fallout gear the next day? Or >> so at this at this point it's recommended what they do is they take that first set of turnout gear out of service. Um we clean it. It has to dry before it can go back into service again. um that's at the point where they
would use the other set of gear that they have while they're trying to get the new set in back into service. So there would be some lag time in between that and we're I mean we're striving towards that. We we're going to need more funding. You know, if you if we're
hoping to get to that 100% then we're going to need a little bit more funding coming up. Um which we're planning we're we're discussing how we're going to handle that. >> And how long is the lag time? uh probably eight hours. >> Eight hours. >> Okay.
>> Thank you. >> So, what you're saying is ideally in a perfect world, they'd have they'd have two >> two full sets of gear, right? >> Okay. >> That was my only question. >> More questions for fire chief walked all the way down here. Let's grill on >> I mean,
how you okay? >> Yeah, I'm gonna make it. >> This is great. >> Thank you. recruiting going >> uh well we uh we had to work through the the a little bit of a bargaining process to implement the uh the stipen and we just offered it and we haven't had
anybody take advantage yet so we're we're hopeful. Gotcha. >> Great. >> Thank you, Chief. Okay. And that brings us into the municipal inspections department, which
starts on 63 and the numbers are listed on page 64. Um, building inspector salaries and the building inspector operating expenses. another department that
>> the amount of money covers a lot of ground. >> And in that same department is the health division, page 67.
And you can see the um >> does that include a a hopeful eventual filling of the the seat? >> That's right. >> And um Veterans Administration is is in
the health department budget um as well. So you can see the veterans um expenses and listed out in the health department. And then we get into the public works department which starts with the
facilities team. And um right now we we don't have the new position listed under facilities yet. It's still the salary number. We're carrying it under under highway, but um
we're going to be moving that over so that we're going to switch the mechanic into the facilities, but you can see the um >> you won't be doing that for will you be doing that for this budget? >> Um it'll be it'll be for this budget. It
but but the numbers just haven't gone over into the >> Okay. But so you are going to re rejigger. Okay. >> Yes. But it's not going to have a a a bottom line impact on it because it's still in the same department. >> Gotcha. >> And you can see with we have at a 25%
increase in the repairs and maintenance budget. That's really the big increase for this department. And with the additional oversight, um we hope to make some continued significant progress. And then the next one is the DPW
administration and engineering. And as um Jennifer pointed out that um we've moved the GIS position over from IT into the um engineering and and I I I think that that's been a tremendous
improvement in terms of um really being a spark plug towards using the GIS in a um a real practical and wonderful way. So that's reflected in there. Um you can see
uh some of the energy expenses. I know the diesel account um has had to come up and um so we've got the salaries there and that's that increase
and then the administrative expenses are carried over on page 74. And then the engineering expenses also. And next we get into the highway department. >> There's one little question on um admin
page 74. I noticed that um dues and memberships are kind of low comparatively to the actual the actual expense was $235 and we budgeted 700. >> Am I looking at the wrong place?
>> Page 74 dues and memberships under DPW admin expense. >> I was looking at engineering Wait a minute. 74. >> Yeah, you're looking in engineering. >> Okay. Y >> the FY25 number
was high there. I'm not sure why that was. >> So 600 is it's not a big deal, but is it adequate? >> Again, when we do um >> you can switch things around. All right, moving on. Thank you.
Okay. So, that brings us into the highway department, page 76. And you can see our we've restored the tree program for the last few years, and we've been able to keep that going.
Greenhead Fly Control, then the salary budgets right there, highway expenses, and then the machinery expenses. Just a quick question on that. The uh tree expense that's for uh removal of
dead trees or planting of new trees. >> Both >> both. Okay. >> And then we get into the snow and ice budget. which again, you know, has a strange state law associated with it, is that
you're allowed to deficit spend for snow and ice as long as you appropriate at a minimum what you appropriated in the previous year. So, for that reason, we try not to have an escalating appropriation that we may not be able to meet every year. So, it's set at a
pretty low rate, although um it hasn't snowed in recent years, although this is probably the coldest winter so far we've seen in in many years. So, um I I think we'll probably go over this year. Um but we'll be able to deficit spend for that
um you know, because of the state law in the requirements. So, we keep it that's where we come up with that number. Have have you already, Jeff, been able to reach um up to this point with all the snow that we've had, have you kind of hit the point of where we were for the
total of the winter last year? >> We've exceeded last year already. That's what I figured. >> We're probably going to spend, like Bob said, the the whole budget pretty quickly here. We're only in early January. >> Not to mention, both of our storms were on a holiday. So, what I mean, that's that's a that's an extra >> expensive storm. Yes.
And I just want to point out the personnel summary. There shouldn't be one on here. And um it was just carried over from a previous page. So >> Oh, the title. >> And you can ignore that. There's not seven FTEEs in the snow and ice budget. >> We wish.
>> And the next is the waste management facility. And again, this is farmed out under Weston and Samson. >> No, >> no, this is um um operated by by the town um
>> Oh, this is the the dump. >> Yes. >> As opposed to the septic. >> Okay. >> And now now one of the uh the transfer station, right? So um one one of the issues we're confronting that is requiring some increases in this um
particularly in the in the part-time is that um this is regulated by the DP and I think we're all familiar with the kind of the strong armed tactics of the D and regulating our our operations and and they have mandated increased oversight
in some of the sanitation operations that um you know they wanted us to have additional full-time salaries but we've been able to meet the oversight requirements using part-time staff and trying to keep it as efficient as we can. Um, but um, just so you know that these are these facilities are operated
under a permit from the DP and they come down and they look right at every person's salary, everything that's going on and and they're trying to get us to increase it. But of course, um, aside from the recycling bins, they haven't given us too much additional money.
>> Very tricky. So the next one um is parks department 85 and think that's like three three fulltime FTEES is three
>> FTEES >> six in parks it says 10 but you know and then cemetery is there any reason not 10. >> Is there any reason that they're under on page 85 that in the parks
admin repairs and maintenance has disappeared? Probably got put somewhere else. >> I think it was moved to the parks expense repairs and maintenance. >> The way the um and just for clarification, >> that makes sense. We put the budget book
together. This new budget book is actually extracting the information from our financial management system. And so the account structure that has been set up there's like subsections under this like park expense, beaches expense, some some you we're looking at maybe trying
to consolidate some of this. So um this is the first year that again you're seeing it the way it is in our financial management system. So it gets moved around. When you look at the town meeting vote, it's like all together, but they can move the money around.
>> And then the next one on page 89 is cemetery. >> That's salaries, expense, care, and maintenance and >> and three FTEEs. >> Three FT and and and again that um we should point out that um some of these
operations are supplemented by the um trust funds we have for cemeteries. And that is appropriated at town meeting. When we do that, you know that big long motion, we hate reading. >> Yeah. >> That incorporates the cemetery money and all the side money. And from there we go
into education and and again um for the Dennis Yarmouth Regional School District we've included at this point the actual amounts for the debt and uh 2.5%
increase in operating. Um and you know we understand that's going to be an enormous challenge that we're going to need to work out um what those final numbers are. The similarly with the Cape Cod Regional Technical School, which we don't have the final assessment yet,
we've put in the actual costs for the for the debt, >> which is up about 14 15% plus we put in the the 2 and a half% um which you know
when we match this with just the student piece, it leaves us about 600,000 short of of where we anticipate. will wind up um with the tech school. >> So the actual student piece isn't in here. >> Correct.
>> So that two and a half% doesn't include the 30 people shift. So and we already know what's happening. So why what why are we doing that? >> We um >> I'm just trying to figure out for budgeting purposes why we set it up that way. what we've sort of isolated right
now is um what our potential shortfalls are and I think we need to get a firmer handle on those combined with the um it's an estimated 600 on the Cape Cod Regional Technical Technical School. We're not 100% certain um what the
number is on the DY, but we need to put those together and and that's going to be our shortfall that we're going to have to to try to manage. And um you know, the idea is that we we've tried to reserve as much of our revenues for the
education, right, as their proportional share of the total revenues are. But um we didn't feel it was appropriate um because we had new students there to go into other budgets non-related and start cutting people out of those budgets to provide for the education. I think we
need a plan to how we're going to meet those amounts over that amount and you know if there are impacts what are those impacts and how we're going to try to manage that. >> Yeah. I mean I I understand that but we've never done that in terms of the population shift before.
I don't think we have ever seen a 21% population. >> We haven't, but we've always funded we've always funded the requested amount. Not at that number, but I agree. But I mean, it's it's our number. So, what you're basically saying is we're going to go for an override.
>> That's what it looks like. >> I in order if we want to maintain current service levels and um you know, if if not um you know, it's going to it's going to take it's going to take a lot of cuts. So a after that it goes into the
>> wastewater uh enterprise funds and um wastewater reflects the new position for the plant operation but it's from the enterprise.
Is that why it goes up to 267? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> And then the water department in the special revenue fund is um next on page 98. And and as you can see,
the the revenues here are increasing um in in order to meet the planned uh increases in the capital costs and keep them within that fund. And the golf fund is next. We've had a little talk about their budget
tonight already, but it's listed out in detail, including, you know, the revenue piece as well as the expenses, salaries, and the amount of detail in here, I think, is tremendous to have this in a budget book. I'm glad to see it. It um
lays it out. And then the next um final of the enterprise funds is the septage system which is on page 111. On to page 112.
>> This was Weston. >> This is the one that's operated with the um contract. Exactly. And then um the cable fund is on page 115. Get into this where communications come in. >> Yes.
>> And it's got a breakdown of the revenues and then expenses, salaries, and then there's a a section on the municipal debt. I want to point out on page 19. >> Can we just go back to that because there's >> Sure. >> So there's an 8.9% increase in that that
and there's two FTEEs. Is there a new person? >> No. >> Oh, there's just who? >> Yeah, there are two. >> Who's on who? Lori and who else? >> And um Marcel is the she's the um
>> communications assistant. Yeah, she does the website social media. And so I think we're scheduled to come in with the communications team next month for a update with the board. We're working on that now.
But so that's the cable. And next section is the municipal debt. Um I want to point out there's a typo on page 119. Um there's the two charts, the current debt position, uh and they're both in
boxes. The first one it says outstanding short-term debt. That's the outstanding long-term debt. And the second box is outstanding short-term debt. >> When when I was trying to remember when did we borrow se $70,000 for roads? What year was that? We had an override, but I don't
remember. >> I have to go back and look. It's been on the books for a while, I believe, but I'd have to go back and look at the actual debt schedule. Um, I do want to make a couple comments about debt. Um, we do have some bond anticipation notes out there um that are
due in April and we will be borrowing um rolling those over. We'll probably do a um a bonding and so I guess my point is is I'm looking at how I'm structuring it right now and working with financial advisors. So the debt numbers will
change. it won't affect, you know, our two and a half or um but I'm I'm going to probably have some short-term debt out there and then do some bonding as well. >> So, does this 24 million include the interest? Um where the bonds at now? >> No, the 24 million is principal only. It
doesn't include interest any of the interest. It's the outstanding principal debt. And then the payments that are due, including the interest and principal, are on page 120. And you see the
>> and those numbers will probably change. >> Slightly declining. >> Get better. So that's helping. >> Exactly. Right. So as you can see um the overall budget picture is far far from resolved.
Um in in the departments there's very little new spending. Um basically just the services that you have and you know we've still got some challenges ahead.
>> Jennifer, thank you. Very comprehensive. >> Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Does anybody know this is like my my class of finance 101? >> Madam Chair. >> Yes, sir. >> First of all, I want to thank all the
department heads for being here tonight and being available to participate in this discussion. Um, obviously a tremendous amount of work has gone into putting together this budget. Um I and I take seriously the uh comments
and the commentary from the town administrator that we're facing a very serious financial situation and that everybody clearly has sharpened their pencils and really done the best that they can uh to come in with a pretty
tight budget. That's that's what we're seeing here tonight. Um and I mean the the situation that we're facing is very serious. Um revenue growth is just non-existent. Um there's not much else coming in. If
you look at our municipal, you know, our nonpropy tax receipts, uh those those those dollars are not growing. Um we're in a tough spot. And um you know when we when we when we close the books at least on the calendar year for 2025 I don't
think there's going to be anything to get excited about there either. You know I look very closely at the I and I appreciate our staff putting together those monthly reports that we get looking at what's happening with revenues. I mean we've been we've been seeing this building for a while and now
we're faced with this situation. Um, and I would agree with the administrator that we have really no choice if we're if we're going to basically hold this together and uh come out of this or we're going to have to have some sort of override. Uh there's no there's no way
through it. Um uh particularly with the schools and if we don't and if that doesn't succeed then obviously it's going to even be more difficult for for our departments uh in terms of going forward. So, um, we're in a very I don't
want to call it a a perfect storm, but it seems like it and it seems like it's going to be tough probably for a while. Um, there's nothing on the horizon that shows the state situation improving dramatically. Um, I really appreciate all the department heads and all the
staff looking at grants and other ways to bring monies in to cover costs and to cover projects. There are things that we need to do like packets landing. you know, we're going to need grant money for things like that. We're going to have to be increasingly relying on grant dollars uh to help us. E even on the
capital side, um the amount of certified free cash that we've got to work with isn't what it used to be. Um it's come down a bit, but still our needs are growing. So, um the reality is is that we're in a very very tough spot right now. And uh I don't know if the finance
committee chair is still here, but >> Richard's here. Thank thanks Richard. Good luck in uh reviewing all this. You you and you and your team have your work cut out for you and uh I certainly here on the select board will be interested in your your your recommendations and
the results of your work because um I think I think our finance team and our department heads have really done a pretty impressive job in pinching pennies here. So uh hopefully you can find some more good news somewhere uh that we can we can we can utilize. But
um I don't anticipate we're going to see significant changes when the finance committee is done. I think you've done a great job in putting this together. We're in a tough situation. We've got to all pull together. So, thank you very much for being here tonight and um you know, this is just the first in a series
of steps that we've got to take in terms of getting ready for the next town meeting. So, um, but I appreciate you're putting it putting it pretty direct to us, Bob, that we're facing some tough times and, um, we've got to pull together. So, thanks for that update.
Thanks for the for the report. I very much appreciate it and thanks everybody again for being here tonight. >> Thank you all for being here tonight. Um, I think we all realize that this is going to be a a tough year coming up. Um, and
I'm glad that we're talking about it now in January. And I think that the more we keep everyone in town involved in our conversation, too, I think it's going to be important because an educated public will certainly help us when the time
comes to make the tough decisions. And I think they deserve to know all that's going on as well. Um but I I foresee that at some point this year we're going to be asking our our fellow um residents
to um to approve an override and all of you are doing your level best to make sure that that is as minimal as possible. But I do see it coming down the line. So, keeping the
folks out there educated, the more we talk about it, the better, I think. And thank you very much. >> Anything else? >> I would um like to say that I'm so proud to be uh on the select board and a resident of this town because we are
facing a real challenge, but we're also facing a huge turnaround in the town of Yarmouth. I think we're going to end up in another uh few years being extraordinarily proud of what we've accomplished. But what with tackling the sewer, which is so important, and having
our shellfish propagation program, getting hopefully a new library that's up to the standards of the rest of the the world. And I also want to do a shout out. We have an energy manager that we're not paying for who will help us
find where we can save all of the buildings that the town handles and that the school district have potential savings um when they're when she has a chance to get in there and assess what
needs to be done to make them much more energy efficient. So, I we have some opportunities coming our way that um we just need to feel feel strong and and um and keep doing our work.
>> Thank you. >> Joyce, are you still with us? I don't see her there anymore. >> I don't either. Okay. Well, thank you very much for the update and for all of you being here and Bob for your comments and uh we look forward to honing it. I
uh you know Mark's been saying and beating the drum about the capital projects and you know my my fear is when you know you couple overrides and then go back for capital. It's just it's it's tough for people and they'll just vote
no right down if you put too much before them. And some of them, you know, can't afford it. So I'm nervous. Um, I'm nervous that we're going to have to make we're going to have to make some adjustments. So,
we'll see what happens going forward. Thank you very much. Um, our next item is a discussion about the housing authority working group. We received a letter from Drew Krauss. >> It's here >> who's in the back. Um, Yarmouth Housing Authority has asked if we can form an ad
hoc committee or a working group of two. Uh, >> okay. Thank you. >> Yarmouth Housing Authority board members together with two members of the select board and perhaps other town staff. Its purpose would be to advise the Yarmouth Housing Authority on wastewater and
storm water concerns connected to the project on Forest Road. The Arth Housing Authority uh recognizes the board's legitimate concerns regarding these important issues. We hope to review these areas with you in more detail and study possible solutions. We expect the
an update uh from Laura Shufelt from MHP at our board meeting on January 13th to begin to consider a revised RFP. Perhaps our working group could be organized not too long after that date. Um, all right. So, Drew, are you the chair
of >> I'm here. >> Were you the chair? Are you the chair? Did you write this on behalf of the the board voted for this? >> Yes. >> It wasn't just one member. That's the whole >> Just just making sure. >> Yep. That is the fact of the matter. Yeah.
>> Okay. How does the board I I don't feel like I have the expertise. It needs to be staff if we're going to do it. I can't offer anything in terms of groundwater um that's going to be able to >> to be valuable to to the situation that we have. our staff is quite busy right
now with everything that we have on the plate on our plate and I don't know Bob how you how you know if you can task somebody that has the expertise um perhaps we could have a a select board member if they want to be advisory but I don't know how we can offer
anything regarding the groundwater situation that they have there that's I mean we've had engineers look at the the problem and I think we've we've identified the problem to the best that we can as a board and our concerns there. So, um
>> well, you know, I I would say that we've looked at this um before and when we had the initial RFP and you know, the issues been out there for a while and um I I think we've been quite clear, this board's been clear. Um, I I know I have my concerns and I've discussed it with
some of the the town staff and we had them review it before that the critical technical issues that we have on this project deal with uh you know number one the um wastewater issues and potential impacts on our public water supply wells
that are directly adjacent to this site and um you know just as chilling are the adjacent neighborhoods storm water management problems. I mean those those are critical issues. Um um we've sort of been you know because of a lot of uh you
know there hasn't been a lot of community support. Let's just be you know plain for this project. It's stifled our ability to um you know really articulate these concerns to um work with the um the housing authority. So, I you know, I I would say that if if
if it was voted and approved by the select board, um I I think we have the resources to to really put a fine point on some of these concerns, especially I I I think that the town water department staff and their consulting engineers from Kleinfelder would like to comment
on the potential um impacts on the public water supply wells. you know, whether it's PAS and other concerns. And um you know, I I think there's no question that, you know, we went to a a presentation. I think we were all appalled to hear that the original um
engineer that was hired by the state was saying that they wanted to put a a conventional Title 5 system in. Um we we'd like to weigh in on that and if we could resolve at least those issues. Um but um you know we're also mindful that every time we somebody says something
you know that there's a whole group of people out there that you know want to put them in the public stocks. So I I would say is that you know what what we'd like to do is is try to articulate those concern the technical concerns of the town and maybe give some food for thought. So I I I'd say that that we
could participate and to have a member of the select board you know kind of supervising the operation would be great too. So, um I I mean we're all very concerned about the development, but um I don't want to put our head in the ground and and and not be strong on on
those technical issues. >> I agree. I think that they need they need to hear the technical issues that we're concerned about. And frankly, I'm impressed that they finally reached out to to try to work with us, which is what
we've kind of been asking for for several years. So, um I I I don't want to stifle that relationship building and seeing if we could come to some type of consensus and and and maybe it's just, you know, educating and proving our point that maybe this is just a bad
location. We can work on uh trying to see if we can find a better location for it. But I mean, we have to start somewhere. And I don't think without um articulating our position on on the environmental issues here um
it's going to work. So uh I don't know if anybody when do you guys meet typically? >> Uh second Tuesday of each month. >> And when how often do you talk about this project? Is it something that like when you do talk about the project you could send an invitation or I don't
>> certainly well for example our next meeting is on the 13th >> of this month and uh we we're relying on the mass housing partnership for a lot of technical advisement on this and the representative from the mass housing
partnership will be presenting a revi her ideas for a revised RFP on the 13th >> and that will include uh research we've done about wastewater and storm water. >> What time do you meet?
>> 5:15 p.m. at the >> on the Winslow Grey Road there. >> We're going to be meeting here that day. So, >> right. >> Yeah, that's a tough time meeting. >> Huh? >> Well, I mean, so that none of us between now and January 13th, we're not going to be able to provide. >> I'm just telling you like like you
asked, do we talk about it? That's >> the next time we're going to talk about it. My point is if you're if you're already at the step of recreating an RFP, it was it's going to take us some time to be able to get that information. Do you think we're not going to have that by January 13th? That's
>> Yeah, we're not No, we're not we don't have to uh we're not on the point of developing an RFP and issuing it. We would we want to talk to you guys about it. >> Okay. and and show you what our ideas are for the revised RFP and find out
from you from your technical experts what exactly what it is you know >> okay I don't know maybe we can have somebody at that particular meeting and then in the future um >> like my my naive idea of it was there'd
be other there'd be a special little group that would be a >> yeah because >> public body that would meet at other time at another time >> that probably is more valuable because I don't think anybody here can come and sit through your entire meetings in case you talk about it. So maybe we need to
have sub meetings. >> Sub meetings. Yeah. >> Like it would be a task force or working group or have some title >> or >> I don't I mean, I'm in favor of of of Bob working with them to come up come come up with something that will be
helpful that where we we're maybe we can move forward, you know, >> two of us from the uh from the board of the housing authority meeting with staff and hopefully a member of the select board on a mutually agreeable time.
>> We do meet on the 13th, so we can't make that meeting. So whenever whenever it is I don't know if we want to designate somebody wants to be kind of the liaison to this working group. Tracy, I would because I've had experience with the RFPs and I actually was talking to Drew
that it would be very smart when they presented the RFP to us >> what last summer >> whenever >> whenever that there should be these aspects embodied embedded in the RFP and that they could still go back up and and
add it as an addendum. So I I I've stepped into it already. That is an area of expertise for me. Well, the RFP, they have a professional. I think that I think that what we need to bring to the table is the town's more this board has to represent the town's position on
where we're at, where we've been with with this particular project, >> but it does need to be represented in the RFP and that's what was lacking. So, yes, it's first we need to get the right information and then it needs to be brought to them so that it can be presented in the RFP to any potential
biders that this is what's expected of you. Right. Like we're not like one possible outcome would be we wouldn't issue an RFP. We'd say, "Yep, this is the wrong idea." That's not what I'm thinking right this second. I'm
>> That's what I'm thinking. >> That's what you're thinking. But But we don't know. But we're But that's what we're going to be discussing. See, I'm not >> But I think the town has heard >> shoving it down. >> Yeah. No, I understand. But but if we can convince you that this is the wrong place, which is what I think the town
has been trying to convince you and work with your >> to potentially do an RFP at a different location, >> right? >> And that's where I'd be going with it. So I'm I'm not I personally >> The only thing that if there were people who were determined to do it to try it
again, my theory, my my understanding is that the the difficulties that would be presented to the market would be so substantial. Nobody would even respond to the bid and that would seal the deal. No, no interest in >> I don't know yet. Yeah.
>> Well, I want to see them develop. I want to see them develop somewhere else. And I want and I want them to work with the town on that. And I don't think that >> I don't think it's going to be a simple it's as simple as just an expertise on an RFP. I think it's going to take some complex looking at maybe transfer of
property or or something along those lines. That's my gut feeling on it. But >> I I have to agree with you, Tracy. And I think that um what's really critical for us is the involvement of the actual town staff, people that have the expertise
and perhaps even um a consult being made with our um with our attorney on the legal aspects of it too to find out what could and couldn't be done. And and it it
I can see why you'd like to have a select board member, Drew, but I have to tell you that personally I think it's more the expertise from this town and it certainly would be what I'd be looking for anyway. Just >> so your idea. Okay. So, let me just make
this point like there uh just to be honest about it that right as of this moment the board of commissioners of the uh Yarmouth Housing Authority does still think that that could be a viable place to build housing. You guys
totally disagree with that. That's that's where we stand at this moment. >> But let me let me Madam Chair, let let me just make a comment here. Uh this is this has been litigated before town meeting. >> Yeah, I know. >> No, but the point is is so when you ascribe where we're coming from, we
follow the edicts, okay, >> in orders of town meeting. >> Sure. >> So if our governing body is basically saying, listen, it's in the best interest of the town not to develop the site and reacquire the site and have the land set aside for conservation purposes. That's the that's the town.
That's the governing body's position. >> Okay. I and I think it's important just to be abundantly clear that for a select port, if we wanted to somehow change that, it would mean having to go back to town meeting and getting a different type of direction. But I don't necessarily think that that's something
that you're going to see happen with this board. I think town meeting, like I said, has litigated this, debated it endlessly. >> They've litigated it. I >> town meeting is litigation. >> It's litigation. What is that? >> No, it's not. >> I don't understand. I'm using it.
>> I know what you mean about the town meeting. >> It's debated it. It's debated. It's debated it. All right. The sides have basically engaged in combat on town meeting floor and have rendered a verdict. >> So from my point of view, the town's
people have spoken >> on this. >> Mhm. >> Unless the governing body of the town takes a different position, I'm not sure. But anyway, do we want to do we want to go ahead with this working group so we can get the information and cooperate on that way
or not? >> Well, I definitely I definitely think Bob's offered some >> Yeah. >> town staff, >> but the staff is the one who's going to be able to >> articulate, especially maybe to to mass housing, >> right, >> where we're coming from.
>> Now we're talking at some point in time, >> you know. I mean, >> take my batteries back. I know we're >> Thank you. I didn't use them. >> We differ in our opinions. >> At the moment, we do. Yeah. >> But honestly, I think that this conversation is a good one because we need to have the conversation to be able to move past this.
>> Right. >> And we haven't been able to do that. >> That's right. So if we can have a working group in in in any way to to to to be able to uh give our opinions on both sides and maybe come to a a different path where you can build
housing successfully, which is also our goal, right? >> Um then that would be great. But I just don't think it's as simple as writing an RFP and and going down the same path that we've we've been on because as Mark
has articulated, >> we take our orders from town meeting and so um >> you know to the point where we can try to uh >> when was it the town meeting voted? Uh >> there there were several actions taken. I don't have
>> I know that I've read of two in the records that I can remember. I haven't I don't remember the dates, >> but the end result the vote was to instruct the select board to reacquire the property >> to reacquire the property. I I'll have to check into that. >> But that but we can't act unilaterally on that. We that property was put in the
hands of the housing authority, right? >> So there has to be a willing >> seller, >> right? >> So that we we >> So we want to Yeah. That's why we're going through all this, right? Yeah. Simple as just saying, "Okay, we got >> No, but I I you know, I I I like uh our
chair. I I respect and very much appreciate you coming here and engaging in conversation and >> and I like the fact that we're down to brass tax here in >> Yeah, we are. And maybe we can property for you to develop on. I mean, that's
Yeah, >> that we don't know. >> I don't know of any myself, but >> but >> we'll see. >> Let's Let's talk. >> Yeah. >> All right. So, so Bob will maybe hopefully find somebody that's going to be able to get some information to them
for the 13th is or >> I I don't know whether >> critical on the 13th. we're going to be able to solve this for the 13th, but we'll agree to meet with them and and start exploring the issues and if the RFP process isn't moving forward, I I think that's a good >> that's a good sign and I I appreciate
the opportunity and it'd be good to have somebody keeping tabs of this from the select board because >> so let us know when when it's set aside and some one of us will will try to attend. But again, I I'm I'm thinking more of in a big in a bigger picture that we need to have a conversation
about what other properties are out there that if we can reacquire this property and perhaps trade with them or do some type of um agreement, I think that that's in everybody's best interest >> and that's something that would have to go back to town meeting and all this
other stuff. And so, um, at some point we're we're we're going to need we're going to need the the board to >> But I I the reason I mentioned the 13th is that's our next meeting and we are going to discuss uh Forest Road with our technical
expertise from MHP. That's why I mentioned that. Not that we're going to immediately approve an RFP. That's not that's not it. And I just want to make my position clear because I don't think it was somehow that I my my feeling is that
there are enough proponents and including MHD that want to see an RFP go back out and that would be the final way of determining that the project is not feasible. >> That's the way you end it as well. >> We've ended it as far as I'm concerned.
>> Yes, I hear you Tracy, but I >> I don't care what MHD says. Something down our throat. And it's not MHT that I'm concerned about as much as his colleagues who may want somebody to make that statement. So this is this board member saying if we had the RFP go
out with the the necessary requirements to make it a feasible project, nobody's going to respond to the bid. >> Well, I don't know. >> But but the people of this town have spoken that they don't want that project there regardless. So why would we support an RFP process?
>> Why did we support it this summer? >> We didn't. We didn't. >> Well, it they were they're doing an something. >> Yeah. And they're gonna keep doing >> giving marching orders to do. >> Well, not by us, but they they they it's their property and they can do it, but it has nothing to do with us, >> right? So, maybe it's a nice bit of
counsel as friendlies from us to note that if you did an RFP with the requirements, nobody would answer the bid. So, that's just a little piece of friendly advice. >> Drew, thank you very much for coming forward. >> Yes. Thank you.
>> Yes. and I this is what I I've wanted to do this for quite a long time and now recently I've been in a position to be able to do it. So what what I told you is exactly what the >> commissioners there at the YHA that's where we're coming from tonight
>> and we're not about to throw out another RFP >> again >> but we are working along those lines as I speak and it's clear what the difference is at the >> and I'm happy to go through the town meeting articles and the history with because I I came to this >> I have looked at them summaries of them
but I don't remember precisely what they said but I know the gist of It is exactly what you're telling me. Yeah, I get that completely. >> I just say right church, wrong pew. >> Yes, I know. >> So, so let's >> listen to what people are saying. >> Yeah. Okay. >> All right. Well, we will we'll talk
soon. Thank you, Drew. Thanks for having >> a lot from that budget review that whole thing. >> I know. I know. >> Drew, is this your pen? >> Not your pen >> that was left by someone else. >> Okay. And we have a water bottle here. Everybody's leaving everything. >> It's like it's solid gold. We maybe I'll
grab it. The budget's going to be fixed. Rabbit. >> All right. Our our next item, an hour late, is um support letter for uh the Drudge program. There's a letter in the packet to uh Governor Healey and Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll
requesting um that they support the Cape Cod dredge. >> Madam Chair, I'd like to make a motion that we as a board uh support uh and endorse the letter >> second >> for on the Massachusetts dredge program. Any discussion on that? I see Joyce is back.
She's back twice. >> She doesn't have a mic. >> Okay. >> But she's back with us. >> Hi, Joyce. You're muted. >> One of them is not muted. >> Thank you. I just got unmuted.
>> You're going to have to turn the other one off. You've got feedback from Yeah, but you're online twice, Joyce. >> Yes, I I am because Okay. >> Sounds like she's coming from the mountain on high. >> Okay. >> Okay.
>> Maybe you could mute her for us. >> Yeah, that'll be good. >> Okay. Sorry, Joyce. Um, okay. All those in favor? Hi. >> Hi. >> Okay, we do we have to do a roll call vote? >> No. >> Well, if Joyce was voting, we'd need to do that. Um, but if you want to be safe,
>> I think we should. >> Roll call. Forest votes I. >> McGarin votes I. >> Argo I. >> Post I. >> All right. All right, that's approved. >> Thanks for hanging in there. You can go home now. >> He's got the next one.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There you go. >> Next up, we have a letter. Um, in our packet for um insurance requests. I think that this is um something I completely and wholeheartedly support. There's absolutely no way that Jack would have been able to foresee that. And and you know,
>> Madam Chair, I would like to make a motion that we vote to endorse the recommendations to uh for providing health insurance to Mr. Kaine. >> Absolutely. >> Second. >> Any discussion on that? All those in favor? >> I I wholeheartedly I sorry. May rest in
peace. Thank you, Joyce. >> Who's there? Joyce is there. She came in on >> All right. So, that passes unanimously. >> All right. Boards and committee actions. Joyce, are you prepared? >> Yes. >> All right. Take it away. >> Okay. Um,
as our very first, I'd like to um announce the resignation as of January 1st of Mark as our Emmy Small Building Commissioner representative. Um we thank him very much. We know that uh uh emmy
small school building uh duty is not a light task. Uh and so we just give them double thanks. >> Yay Mark. Thank you. >> Um do I is there discussion? >> Someone should move to accept the resignation though. >> So moved.
>> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. We have to do roll call now. >> Forest votes I. McGarin I post I >> Argo I >> I Clint I >> very good >> next
>> and I'd like to propose Janette Mayay um for a three-year unexpired term for the historical commission to run through July 2027. >> So moved. >> Um any discussion?
>> No second on that move motion? >> No. Okay. Is >> there a motion? >> Yes. Second. >> Ready for the vote? Okay. Um, if we're ready to vote, uh, let's go. Flynn, I
>> I >> Okay. Thank you. Uh, then I'd like to propose Nancy Gunnar for a three-year term on the age friendly community team. Um that would run through October 2028.
>> Any discussion? >> Second. >> Uh all in favor? >> I >> I Forest votes I >> McGarin I >> Argo I post I >> Flynn I >> Okay. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Roll.
>> Uh then we have a batch of renewals. Um the first of those is Sean Iiggo. Um and uh that's um for a five-year term through January 2031. Um and that's for zoning board of
appeals. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Uh all in favor? >> Forest votes I. >> McGarin. I >> I Margo I >> Flynn I. Okay. And then the next four are other
members of the zoning board of appeals each to be renewed for one year um for a term that runs through January 2027. Um in your handout it says January 26th, but that's a typo.
>> And these are all alternate members, >> correct? And they can only be appointed for one year. >> Okay, so um here are the names. Um, Richard Nez, Anthony Penabiano,
Tim Scandan, and Rich Chestwick. Chest. Uh, any discussion? >> For votes I >> McGar votes I >> I win votes I. All right,
>> moving. >> Well, >> thank you for your patience. >> We got one more. >> What about the recycling and solid waste committee? >> Yes, we still have one more. Uh, and that's a reappoint of Abigail Santos for a three-year unexpect unexpired term
through February 2027 on recycling in solid waste. >> Two years. But >> any discussion? >> Well, my math would say that's two years. It should be 2028 for a three years choice. Would it be
>> It's uh um I have it from Pam. It's 2027. It's a remainder of a term. >> Oh, remainder of the term. Okay. So moved. >> Second. >> Forest votes. I >> favor. >> McGarin votes I. >> I. Argo. I
>> Thank you, Joyce. >> Thanks, Joyce. >> Votes. >> Thank you, Joyce. We have a approval of the minutes of February. >> Madam chair, I'd like to move to approve the minutes of February 11th, 2025. >> Second. >> Any discussion on that? All those in favor? >> I. Forest. I
>> Okay. Upcoming agenda review. The one of the things that um uh Dr. Smith had talked about in public was his letter. I think that um we should see if we can find an opportunity to put him on there
to to discuss so we can have some dialogue. >> I have on on um February 3rd that we have the school feasibility update and a letter regarding a regional agreement update. >> I don't know where that came from, but
>> is that on our upcoming agenda items? >> Yeah, it's for February 3rd. >> It's fine with me. Sounds good. Don't you think? >> Do you guys not have that? >> We talked about it, but it wasn't anything that was finalized. >> It's on my sheet that I put >> on tentative that we we we wrote it on.
It was mentioned, so we wrote it on. >> Yeah, that's great. So >> I guess my question for for Tracy is um >> uh are there this you know sometimes it's important for us
to talk amongst ourselves >> about school issues. All right. So um what we should be clear on is that if we want to at that meeting have a discussion amongst ourselves about issues that we think need to be addressed and discussed for example
let's say in the school agreement that we can have that opportunity amongst ourselves to talk about those things. >> Well I think there should be two separate two separate agenda items. >> Okay. That's that's why I'm bringing this up because >> I do think there was a lot of information that was put out >> yes
>> at last at the last meeting that um should be addressed and questions should be able to be asked about that. So I think he you know I >> I think that he should have the opportunity to address that. I also think that we should discuss we're going to have to discuss first of all a
another appointment >> who's going to somebody has to represent the board and this is same thing that happened last time. Eric was our representative. he got frustrated >> and he resigned >> because they went in a different direction. Um, >> and so we're going to have to have that
discussion. Um, as far as what I see here, and I I didn't see how it how it got here, but it must have been part of your conversation last time, the feasibility update and the letter regarding the regional agreement. I think that's a conversation amongst us, >> right? So,
>> so maybe we have we have two separate school related agenda items. I think that his to address his letter. >> Sure. um and and in response to the um December 16th meeting um because I I you
know I I met with him and um you know I I do think the scope of our discussions here I wasn't here but went far beyond um what was advertised and um which is fine and I think he has the
right to address him but I also would like to ask questions. You know, I think Mark has pointed out um you know, his frustration with and and the reason for his resignation is you know, I don't think he feels that all the options are on the table. And um
you know, I think to build consensus with the public, if we want this school to be approved, we need to make sure that they know that every opportunity and every option's been looked at. And so if >> if it can't be done,
>> if something can't be done, I think he has the he should have the opportunity to >> explain that to the public. Um and we should be able to ask questions. >> So So I see it as two separate >> two separate things. Hopefully he'll um
be available to come at that meeting. >> You want to have both agenda items at the same on the same meeting then? >> Yeah, I think so. I mean, we're going to have to we're going to have to discuss another representative at some point in time. >> Um, >> I would think sooner than later because >> we don't want to be unrepresented.
>> Well, that's that's the problem. We we don't want to be unrepresented. >> And the other thing is is that I I take exception to the position that we've heard expressed from the school people that there aren't opportunity. I mean, let's face it, I represent this board on
a number of boards and I like to have the ability to come back and report to the board on our deliberations in these other venues and on these other committees and periodically get guidance and advice from the board >> and um I don't think anybody that we
appoint in the future should be restricted in any way from having those very candid conversations >> and and the problem is it's not on the agenda. >> No well the thing is it has to be posted on the agenda. Right. >> Right. So I I would I've you know I've in the past I've tried to stretch
stretch the boundaries but it's you can't do that under the open meeting law. If there's something that we want to talk about and have a conversation about we've got to post it. And I respect other people who might want to come in and participate. I don't deny anybody that opportunity to come in and
giving it given a chance to to to say something. But no, no one should restrict our ability to talk to one another about the things that we're asked to represent the board on. And I feel strongly about that. >> I agree. And I think I think now early early is when we want to have these
conversations. Um because again, you know, we don't want to wait to make sure we're not looking at everything till later on. >> And so I think it's it's part of it's part of building the public consensus. I think the public needs to see and
understand and very make it very clear that a new builder is is the only option. We need to be convinced of that. So, he needs to be able to >> convince us, >> articulate and be able to answer to some of the things that were said, >> right?
>> Um anyway, anything else on the upcoming agenda? >> Can you just kind of quickly go through what we have on that next meeting? >> The next meeting is the um is the 13th. We have >> we have communication coordination for the uh no
>> yeah the communication plan is tenative at the end but we're going to recognize them for their participation or their part in the trench collapse. We're going to have the second golf fee hearing. Um we're going to have a second >> first fees meeting
>> listed on here as second. Yeah, but that's >> it. It'll be the first >> we're going to have um new liquor licenses for Bay and Bass River, energy manager update, economic development update for special events,
and uh tenatively the communications. We talked about something else today, Bob, about next week. >> We were gonna we well, I'll wait till he answers. We talked about two things today on the phone. Now I forget I >> title five tax credit.
>> We skipped that last today. Tonight we want to have that slide onto the January 13th. >> What I would recommend on that item is I don't think anybody on the board's against that legislation. It's about
getting cash, getting a payment. It's a refundable tax credit, >> right? >> Um everybody supports it. It's like being for, you know, you know, >> you like ice cream. Yeah. >> Exactly. So, I think if someone were to draft a letter for the board, maybe a
letter that's similar could be easily addressed and dispensed with, but I think we Yeah. Having a draft letter in front of us. So, if there's a vote in a discussion on a draft letter of support for something like that, I think that would be the best. I I think that what the issue was is aren't these tax
credits that are already approved and we just don't have anybody to talk about it or present it or the information I nobody knows. I mean the idea just keeps coming up. Let's talk about the tax credits but >> it's but who's the >> we don't have anything. >> Who's the expert that could present it?
>> State Rep. >> Well, too bad we don't have our own state rep. >> Yeah. >> Well, we're missing half of our state rep. We had half the town covered, not the other half. I don't know if I have it in front of me, but the letter from Doug Oh, here it is. There's a fairly
good letter from um Doug Brown, I'm sorry, Jonathan Kaufman on it that and I can get more information, but yeah, it's it and it's in committee right now. So it's written testimony in support of the bill is what?
>> So you need a le a letter like Mark is saying a letter to support the if we could if maybe you could take a cut at it and I can kind of help you with it. I I just have been so straight out I've been able to take this. >> How many other municipalities is probably written >> number of municipalities have sent letters of support
>> MMA website there's probably a draft letter there. >> It's fine. I will take that on. >> Yeah, if you could do that Liz that would be a huge help. Great. >> Because then we we've got just so much stuff to do. >> It'll be a letter of support for the legislation. >> That would be great. >> I got you. All right.
>> Joyce, you have anything on upcoming agenda? >> Nope. I'm good. Thank you. >> All right. Individual items before we go on. I'm sorry, but on um so just add to February 3rd that that we have to have
the fees hearing number two if that's when it would happen and that you wanted to include a review of beach fees. >> I so that would be February 3rd. And on the >> I I don't support right now having to go through beach fees. I think I think
we're fine. And I think the discussion about revenues should come from a broader conversation about parkland management >> in terms of >> which was coming up in March. >> Yeah. So let's let's just deal with that after the after the March meeting. >> If the March meeting comes up with, hey,
listen, we need to do more and we need to come up with more revenue. Then >> March meeting are you talking about then? Because I have it as part of February 3rd. What? What were you talking about? Um, Dorcas March meeting. >> I thought we had been talking about March 3rd.
>> There is. >> No, that's it's not on there, but it could be on there. There's a discussion on the Parker's River Landing policies for managing slashusing the park on February 3rd. Now, is that what you're talking about?
>> No, that's >> No, >> that's just what how are we going to have the park usage? But but now we're tying trying to tie beach fee review. >> No, we're not going to do beach fee review >> at all. >> No. >> Okay. >> I don't think so. If the staff says that they don't need it and we just did it, I
don't >> Mark, is that what you're saying, too? >> I don't think we need to do a fee. We have we have nothing to go on. The first thing that to me the predicate or the the discussion that has to happen ahead of time is are is there more that we
need to do for the care and maintenance and upgrade and upkeep of our parks. >> Right. >> That's a that's a that's a conversation yet to be had. >> But it is on February 3rd. >> I I don't have that in front of me, but if that's the date that we're >> No, it's Parker. That's for the Yeah,
that's the Parker River. There needs to be a plan for in order to utilize the park. We need to have a plan >> that's just for that park. >> That's right. Parker's River. >> So, do we want to add to the So, we don't want to expand that. We want to add another agenda item which is
overarching review of park management. >> And that's and that's on the list of items to to be scheduled, I believe. >> And I would look at it is >> titatively we could do that on April 7th. >> April 7th. We have an April 7th marked here with
absolutely nothing on it. >> Oh, okay. >> Okay. Um, we have enough for our >> we've got enough >> we have enough for our meeting next and we will discuss at that meeting. >> And I hate to bring it up but I you know
I love it um or I hate it but we do have the fair treatment endorsement back. So that's going to have to come back on our agendas. You voted it down. >> You voted that it go to The unanimous vote was that it be sent to town council. >> It's back.
>> Wasn't unanimous >> and now we have to review it again. >> We don't have to do anything. >> You don't have to do anything. But I would promote that there are a lot of people who are expecting that we're going to review it again. Is that the wish of the board? >> I haven't seen anything from council.
>> It's on your table. >> We only got it today. We just got it today. >> Yeah. Take a look at it. It was there this evening when you came in and >> I haven't had a chance to even read it. >> No problem. >> We have other things that are to do.
>> Well, agreed. >> Actual issues. We keep spinning our wheels about stuff that you keep coming back. It will be the third time we'll talk for hours about something that's going to go absolutely nowhere. So, but >> I I'm with you, Tracy. However, there
are a lot of people who are very vested in it. And although you're not, it's not fair to just >> I didn't say that. Last time this board asked for it to be here, it came here. We can do it again. But I'm telling you, you're wa It's a waste of time >> and I agree with you. So, we're wasting
more time with the discussion. It needs to come back. End of discussion. >> It's your opinion. >> Yes, it is my opinion. >> All right. Individual items. >> I'll pass. >> Joyce, you have anything? >> No, I'm good. All right. I move we
accept the consent agenda. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Second. >> All those in favor? Roll call. >> I. >> Forest votes. I >> I >> I. Okay. Town administrative. >> Okay. A couple of items. I want to thank everyone that participated in all of our
website redesign focus groups and uh we've launched uh the communications team, the new town website. And so I'm real interested in getting some feedback um on that. It's vastly um easier to navigate and I think it's got a lot more
information. All old links are um that were broken are are off that. So go on the town's website, take a look at it, give me a little feedback on that and um that'll be something great that when we get the communications team in um that
we'll be able to um talk about that. And um I I just want to say on the communications team um Amy is um locked in, you know, with me on this. And you know what we're doing is we're we're going to take some time and we're meeting with the communications team to
try to address some of the issues and concerns that select board members have raised that maybe you know we can kind of work better together to elevate that level of communication with the community. And I know you guys are in a um perfect place to help us um you know
get there. So what we're trying to do is is bring some um you know maybe change that whole process. And so when we come in and talk about a communication plan that um will be able to focus on some of the issues you guys have have raised. So we're working on that now. Um and I also
I wanted to mention that cyber security training. Um we've got um these requirements working with the state and the town's insurance that we have to do the training process and anyone who is on the town's network um which means has
an email supposed to do it. So um I've been tasked to ask you guys to check your emails on the cyber security training and um >> I don't I don't open any of them just in case. >> Start it. Yeah. Yeah, >> just in case. I'm trying to keep everybody safe. I didn't open any of
this. >> Look at the Look at the emails. And if if you start it >> if we have Paul send us something that tells us what we can open because we're trying to do what he told us. >> I know. >> Yeah. If it looks suspicious, don't open it. >> Yeah. >> Right. >> Here's something interesting. I want to
thank Liz very much um with her assistance. We had a meeting um with a member of the Friends of the Library that's interested in um working to coordinate library interests in the community for a private fund fundraising
project. And um we're going to work to assist this effort and to try to see if we can um help them. It has to be done privately. We can't do it. So it it can't be done by town officials, but but we want to be there. I mean they have a lot of questions and to link up with the
outreach and my feeling is that even if um you know a ton of money is not raised that outreach alone of tying in the south and the west parts of the community to have outreach will be real positive. So any effort like this if it starts to move forward has to come in
front of the select board and there's some things that you know you have to know about and approve like if they're going to name a room or something of that nature. So, um, I wanted to let you know we had some preliminary meetings. We hope to, um, really work to assist
that effort and get get that moving and get them in front of you. And in the meantime, too, I know um, Amy's meeting with the library committee. They're getting ready to start their outreach project and they're going to be setting up community meetings to kind of share their information. So, there's a couple of outreach items going on with respect
to the library that are going to, you know, be back in front of you to stay on top of you of it. And um just also finally um we um had a meeting today. We we have the results of if you remember the recreational field study that we
started I mean a couple of years even before we started the the madakis. We've got those results kind of coming in. It's a really a very nice analysis of what the um playing fields needs of our community in a very, you know, quantitative way and what possible
scenarios are out there for trying to meet those. Um and obviously it's got to work together with you know there's the whole Madakis committee and everything but um what we're trying to do is get um that study completely finalized and we've got it. You'll notice that we didn't really talk about it but it's on
the upcoming agenda. We're going to have recreation and the consultants come in and we're going to be able to have that detailed discussion. It's the first time I've really seen it of exactly, you know, we all talk about not having adequate, you know, recreational playing fields, but I think we've got a good
handle on exactly what that means and um how that all works together. So, I I think that um you'll find that a fascinating discussion. We're planning that and it's listed I think in February. Is it >> February 3rd? >> So, um just a couple of key things. >> Madakis reuse committee going to be part
of that discussion or >> the madakis is a little bit separate, right? Madakis has they're coming in with their recommendations and um it you know they've got so um their fields
>> of their recommendations all related to fields >> right but so so you could look at it this way the um the study on the fields analysis what we need for fields really sets the baseline so that we could use that information to
work with the the muck And if we do a process that we're in a process that we're going to um they're going to present their final recommendations and then we're going to evaluate the possibility and potential of a um public private partnership that would be a regional recreational facility for that
property. Now the field study has they just it's not part of their action plan but you know they looked at the site and they said well what would it you know cost to put a big huge recreational facility there but but that is just information to feed into the muck
because the muck is a much broader see what we're doing now I mean this is really interesting because with the comprehensive plan and the capital plan and the muck we're bringing every one of these like resources to bear making some
decisions. So remember you've the muck is a is a higher level analysis that incorporates multiple stakeholders and the whole town into analyzing what we're going to do with that site. Now the recreation study they're just looking at
what do we need for fields. So when they see, you know, um, Madakis, they're like, "Well, what would happen if we took the entire property and covered it with fields and, you know, just to show what it would look like?" But but that's not the policy direction of the town.
The muck is is trying to factor in recreational needs along with the potential housing and make those recommendations. So, you know, you could get a portion of um recreational fields out of the Madakis, but the thing is is
you're not going to be able to get the entire town. So, yeah, it's not going to be all things to all people. So, there, you know, maybe um other things that we have to um incorporate maybe even into um like a private developer. Um by
having that information, we know what our sites are, what our needs are. So it's a broader discussion >> administrator. I sort of >> So if that answers your question, you know, it's a it's a piece of the puzzle, but it's not dictating to MUK. MUK is at
a higher level and then higher than that is you folks. So but everything is going to wind up coming through this board. So, but but I think it's exciting to see, you know, some of that process kind of come into fruition. And now that we have all of this information, you know,
it's almost too much information because we know we can't have everything that we want, but but it helps us to kind of plan and and remember what we talked about with the capital. A lot of this stuff is not what we're going to do tomorrow. It's what we're going to do over the next 10 or so years, that kind
of thing. So, but it's it's you'll find it fascinating. I think >> that's all I had I for tonight. It's been a long >> madam chair. I'd like to make a motion to adjourn. >> Second
call. >> Forest votes. I >> mur I >> I do I everybody. Happy new year. Like happy new