recording in progress Good evening This is to formally advise you that the Yarma Select Board will be meeting today at April on April 15 2025 at 5:30 p.m here in the Yarmouth Town Hall hearing
room at 11:46 Route 28 South Yarmouth Mass 02664 For those of you who uh cannot attend in person but are interested you can go to our website and uh there is instructions on how you can join us via
Zoom The Armor Select Board will consider entering into executive session pursuant to Mass General Laws chapter 30A section 21A3 to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining in regards to
proposed wage and class plan applying to SEIU units A and B steel workers and non-UN employees The chair declares that an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the negotiating position of the body I call
for um a motion to go into executive session So moved Madam Chair second Okay Uh can we have a voice vote on that mark Forest I Joyce Flynn I Liz Argo Hi Dorcas McGarin I We are now in executive
session We will return at approximately six o'clock Thank you in Mexico just let me know You know she had said she wasn't going to be here tonight at the moment Good to see you Ellie You never know
My goodness for Ellie I think a lot of it people are here for Ellie's honor Hello Hi How are you hi How are you nice to see you Nice work Led to believe that they were going to
be coming Do you want me to do that or do you want to do that good to see you Yeah Do you want Do you want I like it I did But do you want to do Love it Really great and the baby Hi Just came
in drawing So there's nothing in the back yet How are you feeling good job getting feedback You can take a seat please We're going to be starting Good evening Our apologies for being a
little late on getting started Um we are back in uh um regular session and I would call for uh everyone to stand please for the pledge of allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all Our first item on the agenda is announcements Do we have any
announcements for tonight i had a quick one I wanted to make note of the new green storm water system that was uh is under construction at Standish Way in Yarmouth Uh another um grant that was uh
the town managed to bring on and it's uh in the process of being completed So another good news for the town of Yarmouth Thank you Liz Do we have any other announcements for tonight i open it up then to public comment Do we have anyone here in the
audience who has public comment tonight okay I see um some hands on um Kurt do you have some public comment yes I do Okay I'm here to ruin your night Okay
So there's a whole bunch I always have a constant list I know you're going to talk about PA Frost tonight and I don't know if it's related but digging shellfish at Mil Creek Does anybody test that shellfish to tell if it's if it's any good with all these plumes of
pollution that seem to be moving everywhere so that's one I know you're going to talk about a farmers market at uh Taylor Bray Farm and I'm curious with all the John Tally hoopla going on right now
um with farmers markets are either Taylor Farm or the cultural center land commercially zoned and you have to have a farmers market Now I could be wrong but it would seem to me maybe you take a look at the
farmers market policy which is yours and see if you can modify that to slow this I don't know I want to say public lynching but it's not pretty as we've all seen Um I brought up before about deadwood trees that are standing on the
side of the road that we're lucky they haven't fallen and killed anybody yet and yet they're still there Where is that Kurt uh White Rock for example um Union Street Just I'm going to suggest to all of you
take open your eyes and look around when you drive around the town because I see things like this all over the place Another one is road runoff And I know you just mentioned storm water but um I've been noticing a lot lately about where the runoff from the roads goes
directly into some sort of wetland There's a lot of it You'd be surprised Now we have storm water money in the budget every year I'm kind of curious what gets done I never hear much of a report on yeah we took that say $300,000 or whatever the number is and
we did this with it last year and yet the same problems that have been existing for decades are still there Um Bay View Beach the street and the parking lot are related The water runs all the way down to Bay View into the parking lot The parking lot's broken
up and it goes right into Lewis Bay Now again I brought this to your attention before Um the parks in the town common idea I know this is a resignation on your agenda for somebody who's so frustrated
at the lack of care for our existing parks and yet we think it's a good idea to spend $100,000 to go study another one think it it's what can between the drive-in and the other parks it's probably what $13 million combined maybe
more for what when we did the the first park there across from Miy Laundry we planted shrubs and there was a bench so you could look out over the creek the b the shrubs are this tall off the ground they're now this tall so when you sit in the bench all you do is look at the
trees because nobody ever ever took care of anything And let's see the other one is the road to override Tracy started to talk about it last time You know everybody says 1.1 million 1.1 million
plus the 2 and a.5% We promised the people that if they passed that override we would keep that money with the roads with the 2 and 1.5% to keep up with inflation And I'm the guy who sat there on town meeting stage and said that So it's one of those things where people
don't think I know what I'm talking about I know exactly what I'm talking about that it's been whack-a-ole with this this particular article since it's been passed It's ridiculous And again go back to my storm water comments You
could use that road work money to help with storm water problem and road runoff problems To me it would be pretty simple I got a little um I was reading an article in the Boston magazine about the bike lanes in the city how it's driving everybody
crazy And it's uh credited to a guy named Bruce Persel says who owns commercial properties throughout the city The city's bike lane project is a triumph of ideology over rational thought You should always think about your rational thought and your ideology
together Not let one over trump the other because then you end up with the messes we have today Like you know another one is is the the road conditions and the constant you know inconvenience is a small word to use for what's going on I've been in how many times myself
just talking about this The whole town is up in arms People can't do business I've been told that Route 28's not going to be repaved till fall When you finish crushing the tourism business you'll have nothing left here Remember that These businesses are not going to
survive Every year it's the cry about well our Russ ratio between residential and commercial tax revenue is way way out of whack And what's it do it just keeps getting worse And yet we continue to let the contractor do whatever he wants with
total disregard for everybody I know one person who had trenches dug on both sides of his property at the same time so he could not access his property at least three times Another time they said "You got to move your truck so we can get through your
property." Then there's another case of where the contractors been storing all their equipment on somebody's property and destroying it and they were told that they would be paid They would be compensated for the rent of their property Person called the town Town said "Call the state." They called the state the state and said "Call the
town." Nothing got done It's time to stop accepting all this We can do better We deserve better Thank you Thank you Kurt Next My name is Jerry Oconor I live in
precinct 4 Does the town of Yamoth give taxpayer money to the cultural center in Yamoth down at Bass River yes we're not supposed Jerry we don't
give comment back on your public comment Okay Protests anti-government protests are being planned and coordinated at the cultural center That's not acceptable Thank you Do we have anyone else in the
room online i see we have Christopher Garin's phone Christopher yes Can you hear me yes I can Oh thank you so much Yes I am here in support of Yarmouth resident John Tally the lobster man During the
April 1st Select Board meeting select board member Mark Forest proposed that the board issue a joint statement regarding the lobster men case Member Forest indicated that he had received significant public feedback in support of the lobster men and he was aware of
media reports about the situation He asserted that as the only citizen-elected board in Yarmouth the select board members have a responsibility to issue a statement acknowledging the case which was then scheduled before the Yarmouth zoning board on April 10th The zoning board
members are appointed and not elected directly by armed citizens Although member Forest did not read a prepared draft or specifically indicate what the statement would say he appeared sympathetic to the lobster man and public and to the public feedback as
well as concerned over the zoning board's ultimate decision how it could influence the town given the media coverage Town Administrator Whittenau added that in hindsight the lobsterman's case could possibly have been resolved differently had it been handled uh
another way But unfortunately once the zoning board denied the lobster man's case in its original October 2024 uh decision no procedural mechanism existed to change it After a thorough discussion that lasted the last 30 minutes of the
board hearing uh the the board decided not to issue a joint statement and left the decision to the zoning board As we all know and saw the zoning board denied the lobsterman's case on April 10th Now we are facing a public rel relations disaster that has spread to the Boston
media and social media which threatens Yarmouth's historic legacy as a Cape Cod fishing town as well as economically damaging the summer this summer's tourist season This case never should have been assigned to the zoning board in the first place Yarmouth's historic
legacy as a fishing camp uh and the unique facts of in this case as they show the cost of enforcing this law far outweighs the benefits in light of the foregoing It is in the best interest of the town of Yarmouth that the select board as the only elected board uh
directly by the citizens uh reconsider member forest proposal and to not only issue a statement but resolve the issue in favor of the lobstermen for the following reasons As Mr Written indicated this matter could have been resolved in the early stages Yarmouth
passed the law in 1981 The Mr Holly had been selling lobsters from his home prior to that when it was legal and he is a licensed uh Massachusetts lobsterman He continued
uh selling the lobsters from his house after 1981 until recently nearly 45 years later uh when somebody filed a complaint For some reason Yarmouth never cited the Mr Tally for nearly 45 years and uh so
during this time it you know it it doesn't make sense For some reason Yarmouth never cited him Uh either Yarmmouth knew or should have known that the lo that Mr Taly continued to sell his lobsters from his home Nevertheless
given this length of time Yarmouth has essentially waved its legitimacy to enforce this law It doesn't fit the unique facts of this case Mr Tali is a throwback to Yarmas historic legacy as a Cape Cod fishing town Allowing Mr Tali
to continue poses little harm to the community given that no one else in no resident in Yarmouth is doing this As a result Yarmouth faces a disastrous economic summer season Yarmouth's planning board reports that Yarmouth's population swells nearly 200% during the
summer That's about 50,000 tourists These proess prospective tourists however are not currently hearing about Yarmouth's beautiful Southshore beaches resorts restaurants everything this town has to offer to vacationers Instead
prospective tourists are hearing about Yarmouth forcing an old-time lobsterman out of business based on nearly 45 years a 45-year-old law that the town has never enforced Yarmouth relies on summer season rental and meal taxes to fund its sewer project as well as other essential
services As this board has discussed in prior meetings businesses and the gentlemen earlier businesses along Route 28 are hurting due to the sewer construction and road closures These businesses are relying on a strong summer season to survive The publicity from enforcing this law threatens to
turn off tourists and cause a subpar economic summer potentially causing a budget shortfall for Yarmouth's government A budget shortfall could force this board to ask the people for a budget override to fill the gap Please avoid a budget shortfall and use your
authority in the best interest of the town of Yarmouth to override this issue immediately Work with Mr Tally and don't delay Mr Written hour you deserve tremendous credit for the accomplishments you have achieved as town administrator You have demonstrated
that your superpower is solving difficult situations Please use your superpower here You identified the problem during the April 1st meeting and indicated that it possibly could have been resolved Don't worry about lawsuits because Yarmouth is already in court
It's the court of public opinion and it isn't looking good and don't hide behind bureaucratic jurisdictional turf battles between different boards because the select board is elected directly by the citizens of Yarmouth thus giving it the authority to act in the town's best
interest Um in closing we should all thank the Yarmouth Police Chief Lennon and the officers on duty during the zoning board hearing While members of the audience were clearly passionate and frustrated by the zoning board's decision the officers properly assessed that the audience members were
law-abiding and pose no threat or disruption to the hearing Instead of clearing the room as requested by the zoning board chairman who presided over the hearing remotely the officers patiently waited for the audience to leave which only took about 10 minutes
The YouTube video of the hearing clearly shows the officers politely waiting for the audience to disperse while also conversing with audience members who are clearly smiling and friendly with the officers No more hearings were scheduled for the night and the audience left the
room And when once the audience left the room the zoning board quickly voted to confirm the minutes of the prior hearing and closed the meeting The entire zoning board miring from start to finish lasted only an hour and 15 minutes closing at 7:15 p.m Can you imagine however if the
officers chose or thought that you know force was necessary and arrested in order to people to in order to clear the room that would have been a worse public relations disaster than we are currently facing So therefore members of the select board in the best interest of
Yarmouth please resolve this issue in favor of Mr Tali Thank you so much for the opportunity to speak Thank you I see Vita Morris you have your hand up Vita can you hear me yes I can Yes I can Go right ahead
I I would like to uh endorse uh u both of what Kurt Sears said especially having to do with u uh the dead trees on uh White Rock Road there Uh that that's really such a disaster It's unbelievable
Uh and a couple of the other things that he said I but I especially want to endorse what this previous speaker said so eloquently about Mr Ali's case and I I uh sort of I want to endorse this idea that that this board needs to get its
act together and reconsider the what happened uh uh at the last meeting or the where where at least one of your members thought that you maybe should have uh thought of of uh doing a a sense of the of the board kind of u vote or what
have you So please I mean listen carefully with what this gentleman said because he presented it in the perfect way and you need to do something about this because as he said you have a a public relations disaster on your hands
right at the moment Now I I want to ask a question unrelated Uh is the public going to be able to participate in the uh warrant uh presentation later on if any anybody wants to make any
comments on Ellie Lawrence's um present citation Yes I will allow that What no I'm talking No I'm talking about I'm sorry The warrant the the warrant article Oh I'm sorry I'm sorry Vita I thought I thought you said Lawrence I
got to get my wax out of my ears Okay Sorry Uh no on that part uh we will not be uh accepting any public comment Okay So so you're in other words All right So I I can do my my piece right
now But but you're going uh away from several years of practice that we had when it was uh had become obvious that the five and six hour and two day meetings had become the norm So you're going right back to it because you're
not giving the people a chance to get their uh questions asked and and answered before we get to the town meeting And so that's that's going to have to be done then right well you bring up a good point Vita I I thought I thought this had become it may
not be a voted uh uh kind of but a tradition because the reason that that was allowed about three four years ago whenever it was to shorten the town meeting Yeah I hear you Vita and we will allow it during that point in time So
you can hold your questions for that portion when we do the uh preview All right that's that's going to hold that until then Thank you Okay Thank you I see Joe Glenn has his hand up Hi Madam Chair Can you hear me i can
indeed Joe good evening Um Joe Glenn South AR I just want to echo all of the previous speakers Uh they all spoke eloquently and all very important points I just want to kind of endorse um what you got coming forward in regards to the
monument because I think it goes to all of those previous points Um the his historic nature of this town and if you can think of 450 families in this town during the
revolution and 445 members fought in the revolution So that's basically one member per family that were in this town That's just amazing But the history of this town goes so much further and it's so important James Otis who a lot of
people know what he said but they don't know that he said it and he was from here and he represented here James Otis was the one who coined the phrase taxation without representation is tyranny That's right here And when the
the naming of the town of Yarmouth uh one of the original Thatchers where that that monument is going to be at Thatcher Park while the the first Mr Thatcher was the first land grant owner in uh Yarmouth uh he was from
Barnstable Barnstaple England So you'd think that they would have just uh carried over the land uh from Barnstable but he didn't They didn't They wanted to name Yarmouth And then what they what it
reminded them of was a fishing village in England Yarmouth uh seaside village in Yarmouth England And my point being that we got to keep this history up We got to learn it We got to preserve it
You know we talk about grandfathering We're talking about greatgrandfathering We're talking about the indigenous people the the Madakesset You know everybody knows the Wanauites but you know the Madakis school that's that's that's the Madakess tribe which was much
smaller It was it was right here And their Madakesset was uh named uh for Madakis was named for the land between the borders of water The old land between the borders of water So that
tells you the history going back thousands of years And lobster was if it wasn't at the first uh Thanksgiving it was at all the other ones And lobster was washing up on shore So we got to preserve that history I commend that the
group that's honoring those revolutionary war heroes and and our our forefathers because they're that that's what started America started not just in Boston Adams and and all the forefathers
they quoted James Otis and so it started here America started right here in Yarmouth Thanks very much Have a great evening Thank you Joe Interesting history lesson Okay moving on to our next item that we have on the agenda because I
don't see any other hands up Um we have recognition of service for Ellie Lawrence might as well have a stand Why don't you have a place at the podium i've got a few things to say first and then we'll give you a chance to to say a few words
Ellie's experience with the town runs deep As a volunteer and as a staff person it seems that Ellie's love of water and the natural environment coupled with her commitment to the town have driven much of this work As a staff person Ellie also known as Captain
Lawrence has worked with both the recreation department where she was an integral part of the town sailing program and the Department of Natural Resources where she was a warfinger and an assistant harbor master for more than 40
years That was a baby As a volunteer Ellie has served on the waterways and shellfish advisory committee for more than 20 years since 2003 And during much of this same time from 2016 to 2024 Ellie also served on
the conservation commission with three years as its vice chair During her time in the conservation commission Captain Lawrence provided invaluable institutional knowledge from her life experience living and working in and around the Bass River She provided
essential support to the division completing tasks and reviews that staff would typically complete when there was an extended vacancy and Ellie even assisted with onboarding and training of the conservation administrators when
there was no overlap in the position Most recently Captain Lawrence participated enthusiastically in a workintensive ad hoc committee to update the open space and recreation plan participating in
twohour weekly meetings for over a year Ellie has consistently and fairly applied the water wetlands regulations and has shown inspiring commitment to wetlands protection and the health of the Bass River especially with complex
and difficult projects The town is truly grateful to Ellie for her service And finally Ellie's generous nature and love and skill of photography has contributed broadly to the town's inventory of professionalgrade photographs of natural
resources as well as hours and hours of donated drone coverage that has helped promote awareness of the town's progress on important projects such as the Parker's River Landing Ellie's good humor and care for others makes her a
pleasure to work with Ellie we thank you Before you say anything I have one more thing to bring up Well I unfortunately you covered everything that I was going to say Oh okay Well I have a citation for you from the town of Yarmouth Select
Board An official citation be it known that the town of Yarmouth hereby recognizes Eleanor B Ellie Lawrence as and on her generous contributions as employee and volunteer And be it further known that the town of Yarmouth extends
its sincerest thanks and appreciation for her tireless commitment to and participation within the community for 42 years We acknowledge her dedication not only as a longtime member of the shellfish and waterways committee and as conservation commissioner where she
served as vice chair conservation commission as where she served as vice chair from 2021 to 2024 but also was warfinger and assistant harbor master in the division of natural resources and the armis recreation sailing program
where captain Lawrence dedicated herself to teaching the skills and joy of sailing to hundreds of children Be it further known that we acknowledge and appreciate the generous donation of time and knowledge of the town's natural resources as demonstrated by Ellie's
work with the conservation division and through her skilled and beautiful photographs and drone coverage in support of town projects This citation has been approved by the Yarma Select Board on this 15th day of May April in
the year of our Lord 2025 Ellie Lawrence Come on back to the podium where we can hear you Mine's short and sweet Um I want to thank you all Uh my family has been Yarmouth residents since way back in the 1600s with six generations uh living
along Bass River I grew up spending every summer on in or mcking around the shores of the river sailing swimming rowing exploring or just watching the river flow It's close to my heart in the early 80s Jack Silver I don't know if anybody remembers Jack Silver he was the
original uh the original harbor master at the time and he offered me a summer job as an assistant harbor master for the town And like a true river rat I didn't hesitate to accept Over the years over the summer I split my time between Bass River and
Lewis Bay learning the ins and outs of the bay and added to my knowledge the waterways of Yarmouth and my love of the natural beauty of the town I would be remiss if I didn't mention that there's a couple of rocks out there that has my name on it among other things
As my experience grew so did my involvement in the diff different aspects of uh Yarmas natural beauty related to the waterways and the opportunities that were available to the public I'm one who believes that the sea can be a great soother or at times a difficult
taskmaster The to me there is nothing more gratifying than seeing children li learning confidence being on the water and mastering a boat That was with the sailing I really love it many years many hats many committees later I can say
that one of the best parts of my involvement have been the people I have met over the years and the friendships that have grown from the association that I've had with the town and I thank you all for being there I want to thank you all for also being on this journey with me I wouldn't have happened without
you So I thank you very much Thank you Ally Thank you four years old to start Oh I would I would also like to add that
there is another committee that I may join And does anyone from the public have any comments they'd like to make for Ellie okay thank you all very much And we're moving on to the next item that we have on the agenda which is the
Taylor Bray Farmers Market We'll give a moment for everyone that's going to be leaving us to go right ahead Great support for you Ellie I love it Thank you Wow Was that her drink under the tree oh I
don't know It's Ellie's take it for Huh she had a fan club for sure Quite an entourage Exactly That's great Thank you do that If you get it all prepared that's fine
We had a big group here for Ellie which was welld deserved Glad to see it Okay moving on to the Taylor Brave Farmers Market I'm going to turn it over to Bob at this point Well we're going to have a a presentation from the committee on um on
on the market and then um see if the board has questions um and um it needs a vote of approval Okay If you'd like to just identify yourselves for us please Sure Good evening Madame Chair and select board members Close up
My name is Lisa McIntyre and with me is Marty Murphy We are both on the board of directors for the Taylor Bray Farm Preservation Association We are requested to be placed on the agenda tonight to seek the select board's approval for a farmers
market held at Taylor Bray Farm in Yarmouthport It would consist of six Sundays beginning June 22nd 2025 and ending September 7th 2025 The market will run from 9:00 a.m to 12:00
p.m Our proposal outlines um a plan to establish a local farmers market at Taylor Bray Farm Our goal is to provide residents and visitors with access to freshly grown produce agriculture
seafood and artisanmade foods and goods which will be sourced from local Cape Cod farms We want to encourage people to shop locally and are hoping to promote sustainability and foster a sense of
community while also supporting the local economy Additionally we would be increasing the use and awareness of Yarmouth Port's historic 1639 farm on the north side in a positive and inclusive manner We are pleased to collaborate
with the town on guidelines requirements and permitting which have been submitted in the farm markers uh markets vendors guidelines which was a group email that was sent
um with Mary Alice Um I would just like to make one note one part of the um email from um the Yarmouth Board of Health I've amended a point number four on the first
page um to include his comment about um including all vendors must be licensed and inspected by the Yarmouth Board of Health instead of and obtain a permit from the Yarmouth Board of Health So I did make that change and um I can submit
that back into um circulation In addition to the guidelines we've also submitted a site plan um which is up on the board um which indicates our existing
buildings parking areas for the farmers market um and also where the um farmers market would actually take place on the farm We have additional area to expand the market but I think um because it is a
pilot project we'd like to keep the farmers market small this year um and um use local farmers and sustainable um resources in the community rather than
um use vendors that offer resale of other people's goods In addition um we've also submitted an application for the use of town owned property and
have attached the certificate of insurance Um on behalf of Marty and myself and the Taylor Bray Farm Preservation Association I thank you for considering our proposal and look forward to discussing how we can make
our vision to support the local farmer and community a reality Thank you Lisa Do you have anything to add no I just This has been Lisa's project and uh she's done a lot of research on it Um thought about doing it
last year ran out of time to organize it put it all together and she's worked on it all by herself She's done a great job I think it'd be a good thing for the for the association and I think it would be a good thing for the town Thank you I'm going to have uh the board be able to
ask you some questions Liz Um I should know but I don't know Is are there bathrooms that are going to be open okay We have a bathroom in the farmhouse All right I I'm also curious I see we have Don McIntyre Trail Is that a
relation my father-in-law Okay So this is a a home This is your baby It is a little It has very close to my heart And today's his birthday So today's birthday Oh wow Um and then I
have one request while you're making amendments to the um parameters Uh also um number nine the um samples that you're that may or may not be passed out individual paper It says or plastic
containers with disposable utensils And as you probably know we are soon going to be banning plastic containers So I think you're going to want to change that Eliminate u plastic containers which is something we're grappling with
but you might as well get ahead of it That's it for me Joyce Well I'm delighted to think there'll be a farmers market in Yarmouth on a second day It's lovely that both weekend days will have healthy food available And thank you for
all the work you put into this Mark I don't have any questions I just want to uh thank you for coming forward with the proposal Um I think this will be wonderful um both for farmers but I think as was stated before I think it's wonderful for the town and showing its
support for our farmers Thank you for your support I also think it's going to be wonderful for the people that live in town to have this opportunity and for Braay Farm I think that a Braay Farm still is kind of like one of our bestkept secrets in town So I think this
will start bringing even more people out to the farm to see how amazing it really is Okay Do we have a motion to accept madam Chair I uh make a motion to accept the planning as presented with the
slight edits proposed by Lisa McIntyre and uh Liz Argo Do I have a second on that madam Chair before we entertain a motion did we open up for any public comments or any You're right We should Are there any public comments
uh yes How many vendors have How many vendors will that support how many farmers can uh sell this stuff there well I think because it's our pilot year that we're going to start out on the smaller size maybe 20 vendors at the max and we'll go from there And the
20 vendors also include um some people from the community as far as education sustainability um whether it's the master gardeners beekeepers things that enhance our community as far as
um I would say sustainability and um you know healthy food choices Okay Thank you Are there any other questions okay I have a motion and a second Um do we have any further
discussion okay all those in favor i I opposed It passes unanimously Thank you very much We look forward to it Before we leave just a note the uh sheep festival is coming up on June 14th It's one of our largest fundraisers of the
year We'll leave some of these around town hall Excellent By all means please do Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Okay Next item that we have on our agenda tonight is the revol Yarmouth
revolutionary war monument design I see Bob Kelly in the room Yeah Make sure you pull that microphone closer so you can Okay Thank you Hello Madam Chair and select board I'd
like to introduce uh I'm Bob Kelly vice chair of the Yarmouth Historic Commission I'd like to introduce uh David Geneopoulos member of the Yarmouth Historical Commission and Robert Shuer who is the designer of the monument that
we are going to talk about today Okay a little background Um the 250th initiative the celebrations across the Commonwealth in Cape Cod Uh research efforts by Jack Dugen David Schaefer document the names of more than
450 Yarmouth veterans which this monument is dedicated to And I might add there are more but could not be proven So to make the list you had to have some document that said you were
actually from Yarmouth Uh if you give if you take a number from the 1790 census which is only seven years away from the end of the revolution there were
651 males over the age of 16 in Yarmouth 455 participant known participants in the revolutionary war is about 70% of that number which is amazing Probably one at least from
every family The design fund uh funding was secured tourism fund overseen by the uh community economic and development committee The community uh preservation act application made for the fabric was
made for the fabrication Uh this will be voted at the April 29th annual town meeting So the funds were available for the design Uh the staff uh has filled also
filled out an application for uh with MA250 grant program to offset the costs of the town Awards are tenatively scheduled to be made in May So we look forward to that With the assistance of Svetlana
Salam the procurement uh program manager for Yarmouth we hired Skylight Studios to do the work with the uh project committee to develop and design and to move forward Skylight Studios is owned
and operated by Robert Shore He has a very impressive resume of monuments and memorials You can look at their at their website if you want to um have a look at his work It really is something In preparation for this
meeting the historical commission hosted public comment session last Thursday at the Armouthport Fire Station There were about 20 people in attendance Um and at this meeting we shared two final
options and took feedback from the attendant attendees This is option one Um well okay I'll just leave that for the moment Um the Armouth Port playground also
known as Thatcher Park as was chosen as the appropriate site for the monument by the select board on December 10th 2024 A subsequent public meeting discussed the possible uh locations on the site uh
within that particular site with a group um set line on the northernmost point While the exact location has not been determined the committee feels the monument should be placed close to the flag pole and away from the
playground as a point of interest a deed from Lewis B Thatcher in 1924 on on the property um uh who was deed uh that property in
90 1903 from Edwin Thatcher And in the deed it states to be used by the town for a common and a playground Both options were presented uh very similar uh with the exception of a
bronze statue and some of other decor uh decorative elements While soaring ego eagle was also considered for a top of the monument The overwhelming consensus was the use and depiction of a colonial
family So what we have here is a man holding a baby with his wife and a rifle and this was the second option The monument is a combination of domestically sourced granite uh from Barry Vermont and
bronze Domestically I'm sorry dimensionally the monument is 11 ft high by 8 ft wide by 2 feet deep Please note the designs are still conceptual so that's why uh it's a line
drawing the the monument will be fully finished in the back The extensive research done has resulted in a whopping 455 names which necessitates having the names placed on
both the front and the back of the monument They'll be placed in alphabetical order The family revolutionary soldier wife and child plow This sculpture represents representative of the
sacrifice demonstrated by the family to support the cause The husband is leaving off to war leaving his famil familial responsibilities including the farm to his wife While most women don't
necessarily go to war they were supporting the war on the home front Granite includes a combination of flat and rustic uh rusticated finishes A bronze plaque with the names
and the year of death for 455 Now some we didn't know what the death year was so there won't be a death date for them But if there were like there are three Seth Bakers there's two with death dates
and one without one So uh you can recognize your your ancestor On the front there's a soaring eagle uh which is a symbol of strength freedom and
vision The scroll in the middle of the monument in amongst the names was um transcribed out of the June 20th 1776 town
minutes It's so it's extremely unique to Yarmouth And it noted that Yarmouth declared independence two weeks earlier than the nation did Wow Uh vertical side decorations bronze
laurel signifies victory honor and glory On the back crossed colonial flags uh Betsy Ross style 13 stars in a
circle Map of revolutionary Yarmouth So the map that's there now is only temporary uh Yarmouth was Dennis and Yarmmouth So we
uh we will craft a new map with those um boundaries uh to be appropriate for the monument because the names on the monument represent old Yarmouth which is was both
east precinct and west precinct space for additional decoration picture words uh is to be determined So there's a little plaque on the bottom so that when other names are discovered after 10 or 15 years they can be added So whatever
words we plan to put down there in the bottom in the back can be replaced with new names when the appropriate time comes Vertical side decorations Bronze laurel
signifies victory honor glory Did I say that already yes So at the at the uh public meeting last week there was discussion about um let me see if I
okay the um engravings of um the laurel leaves on the left and the palm leaves on the right So the feeling was from the committee members that the
bronze stood out more even though there were some comments that the bronze laurel leaves might be overbearing the committee did not think so Um and
uh although the palm leaves are really nice I don't think anyone here in 1775 ever saw a palm leaf So um other issues raised in our meeting was traffic Other than the
actual dedication to the monument uh where there'll probably be a lot of traffic we don't expect that there's going to be crowds of people looking at this monument uh ongoing So we think you
know we don't expect a lot of traffic in the area Um maintenance this uh we we chose the bronze pretty much because uh it's
maintenance-free for you know 10 15 20 years Um and we don't expect much we do expect some but not much maintenance on this monument And uh kids
climbing Um the monument getting hurt It's pretty tall Um I suppose if a kid wanted to get up there he could um and the uh you know the uh uh bronze
laurel leaves um are fixed into the stone and so they're not going to be able to pull those off And uh so uh and also
um the sentiment is that there's a monument and not a lot of other stuff around it like benches and this and that Possibly an interpretive sign to explain some of what's on the monument and something about Yarma's role in the
revolution Uh some of the fun facts are there's 35 bakers on the monument 22 Sears 15 Thatchers five Kelly's no
Ganacopouloses Greens or Shermans You did say there were names still to be added though I did Still researching Yeah Um and so uh the committee chose this
from all the feedback this uh version instead of this version Good choice And the monument is totally unique Robert you'd like to say something about the monument itself
oh well sure It it's unique in the sense that the sculptural elements and the design are unique but it the the design was intentionally made to look historic and to reflect the real revolutionary war and different monuments of that time
So it kind kind of has a history to it you know it's a little bit under the radar but the uh family design uh was unique by me because I thought that um you know it it truly speaks it's
educational in a way Um you know um children will be asking what it's about and what the plow is and what that is a symbol of So it's engaging in that type of way And that um so it and and it kind
of um symbolizes the spirit of the American famil family and you know willing to serve the country our new country and go off to war and leave the farming implement behind And the the
plow actually was inspired uh by the famous Daniel Chester French Minute Man statue at the old north bridge where the minute man man is about to run off and it's plow by his side musket in his hand And then the other
elements um like Bob said I tried to design to make unique to Yarmouth the map and the scroll with the minutes from the town meeting and um you know uh typical images of the colonial flag and
you know the eagle this eagle symbol of American American uh glory and that type of thing So it's kind of a combination of a lot of different thoughts all put together in one design
Very interesting Okay let me see if there are any questions for you Mark Thanks Madam Chair Um once again um thank you for the presentation and thank you for all your work you and uh fellow
committee members um deserve uh a a great deal of praise and uh kudos uh for what you've accomplished Um this design is beautiful Yeah And I attended the public meeting the other night at the Armouthport Fire Station and I think generally the consensus from the
community was that this was this was the appropriate monument And um I should also point out that at the um public meeting there was some discussion about the site And uh I was I was impressed with a comment from one gentleman who
had heard some concern about a monument like this being in a playground and concern about potential conflicts with playground activities And this individual basically said that he actually thought instead of a
conflict it's an appropriate place because what better way for children to learn about Yarmouth's contributions and the contributions in serving this country at the time of the revolution than to be present and to be in an area where there are lots of children to see
this Um and I think the other point that I was struck with was the fact that um this area is sacred I mean when you think about it and what we were doing is we are honoring a sacred site here in
the town of Yarmouth Uh the reason why this site was chosen was because so many people who served who answered the call came to this place this special place here to train and to come together uh to
train and to in common cause on behalf of this this this revolution and soon to be country And um so I can't think of a better way to memorialize to sort of
draw attention to to a sacred site than by blessing it with the presence of this monument here So I think you've done a wonderful job I think your your art artistry your your vision here I think is is wonderful And uh I was very
pleased that even though the discussion the other night at the fire station was a bit spirited Um I honestly believe that um everyone despite the variety of opinions by the end of the discussion there was a great deal of unonymity
behind all of this and I think that's a tribute to you and the way in which you've approached your task Um I think uh your ongoing openness and interest in getting public interest public input public commentary I think has been uh has been uh a tribute to you but it's
also reflected in the support that the community has because I know there's been some concern about the actual location But like I said before I think that discussion pretty much brought it out in the open that that's the sacred site They this is this is we trained there first right and it's in keeping
with the Thatcher deed which is a common and a playground and this is an appropriate structure in a townowned common So I think it's it's entirely appropriate So once again thank you for all your hard work Thank you Mark Joyce
Oh well the design is exquisite and I think you absolutely made the right choice of the two finalists Um I love the juxtiposition of the rifle and the plow and the way that implies returning to life in Yarmouth Um I I really like
this monument When When do you expect it will be completed we expect to dedicate this monument on the anniversary of the day that Yarmouth declared independence which is June 20th next year Oh I look
forward to it Thank you all Liz I and I also just adore it Um I um I just want to be impertinent and and make sure that everything is
authentic the shoes down to the buttons on the dress Um was it a dress it's a concept length It is a concept drawing Um and okay the fine details will be hammered out on the dress Good Because
we've had some issues with not being authentic in the past We want to make sure we're very authentic Okay Thank you so much Thanks I want to really thank you and the commission members for all the good due diligence that you did with this and
as Mark was saying coming to a consensus from the public You you certainly got their input back So I think we can feel very comfortable that what's going to be going to town meeting is something that's really being supported by the town Um and I look forward to seeing it
when we dedicate it next year So thank you all very much Appreciate it Thanks I I have a I have uh one comment I I like to thank Karen Green and Lisa Yeah Uh and also Nate Wetton was also on the on
the committee but Karen Green's knowledge of how the town works and uh you know she helped us uh with all these public meetings uh her and her and Lisa So I'd like to thank them and I'd like to make one other comment and I'll thank
Joe Glenn for his earlier comment uh this is only we can do these historical great things as long as someone's out there doing the research If you don't have the research
you can't do the public display Uh and uh James Otis I believe was from Barnstable and the Howlets were the first family in this area prior to 1639 most of their property in Barnstable but
some of it crossed over um the Milbrook and th those are the howlets of the Yarmmouth just so we're clear Chris I I think you have some comments Yeah Yes I was going to comment on this
being quite stunning and really appreciative of all the work indeed like Mark has talked about that took place I'm actually a D but Jonathan Church came from Vermont so we won't be seeing that The one question I have is um I have worked since the beginning on the
gravestone cleaning projects at the ancient cemetery and one of the things you mentioned was the use of rusticated granite in there And I have to tell you that when we clean stones there they're possibly the most lykan attracting and
most difficult to clean um are things like that The smoother surfaces work a lot better So I just you know I know you're talking about maintenance on the bronze I also think you need to do some consideration of the maintenance on the stone and exactly how it's carved and
things like that because um that whole area you know ancient cemetery and everything has been a nightmare for certain things And if you ask any of the wonderful volunteers over the years will tell you exactly how much we hate the color yellow and other kinds of green and things like that And uh it gets to
be kind of tiresome after you've spent hours and hours trying to get it off of something So I just would ask you to really think and take a look at the carvings and the design on the rusticated pieces about whether or not they'll be able to be maintained without a lot of work Thank you Thank you
And I guess formally just to be sure that we have a motion and acceptance of option A as presented by the historic commission So moved madame chair um and with great thanks to the committee and to the artist Second Second Any
discussion all in favor i I You have a voice unanimous We look forward to seeing you at town meeting Thank you Thank you Thank you Good job Yeah I know his name I thought he was somebody else
Veryautifully done How's that leg doing Bob glad to hear it It's good to see you up and about Thanks Okay The next item that we have on our agenda tonight uh is for discussion and update
on the PAS and environmental nonwater supply concerns with uh Kleinfelder our uh consultant And I turn it over to Bob at this point Yes And um you folks know Nate Stevens and Lisa Stone from Kleinfelder I want to thank them um for
the the work that they've done since the um last meeting with the select board you know they've really dived into the issues surrounding PAS not necessarily in the water supply although their company has done so much for this community to evaluate and help us plan
for the water supply impacts of the PAS but working closely uh with um started with the Hyannis Park Civic Association and other concerned residents near the Mil Creek area the whole notion of any potential impacts and safeguarding the
town from PAS that is just in environmental um areas whether it be just in our our groundwater shellfish that actually came up with a public comment um just this evening I don't know if you folks will hear that early under public comment
someone brought up shellfish and in PAS and and all of these concerns and so at the last meeting when we had that detailed presentation um both Nate Lisa promised that they would come back this evening and um give a a small update on some of the work that they're doing some
of their initial they've just you know started with this whole process So I really um am thankful that you've made it out here you know in person and I I welcome you and I guess I would turn it over to you Lisa Yeah Um good evening everyone Uh my name is Lisa Stone I'm
with Oh thank you I'm sorry Can everybody hear me okay Okay Um good evening Uh my name is Lisa Stone I work with Kleinfelder I've been with Kleinfelder for about three years and I'm a project manager Um I have over 25
years industry experience um for site assessment Madame Chair members of the board uh my name is Nathan Stevens I'm a professional geologist with Kleinfelder off and on now for about uh 25 years and
I'm serving in a technical capacity on this project And just to give everybody a little overview on Kleinfelder um Kleinfelder started in 1961 And since that time um we've got over 4,000 employees working
out of over a 100 offices throughout the United States Canada and Australia And um we've been working over 40 years um for municipalities and private and public um on the Cape
So as as Bob alluded to much of the work that we've done in this geographic area has dealt with municipal water supply So the the treatment the identification of where impacts come from uh and ensuring that
safe drinking water is available to various municipalities regardless of the the source of contamination We also as a company uh work on sites where PAS compounds have been released We've done work on military airfields uh
evaluation of firefighting foam releases much as like what we're talking about uh adjacent to Yarmouth and Hyannis We've also investigated uh publicly owned treatment works landfills and a big area right now uh in the PAS world is the
application of bioolids or residues from publicly owned treatment works that are spread on agricultural fields historically as fertilizer but which contain these compounds And finally especially in Australia we've worked on uh plating and coating facilities where
metal working and metal treatment serves as a as a potential source of release for these compounds So PAS in general uh whenever these conversations come up there's some
necessary background and everybody has slightly different details on on what's involved But the important thing to remember when evaluating these sorts of issues is that PAS itself uh these chemicals are very widespread and they're widespread because they're
useful and because they're useful they've been used in lots of products uh for the past 60 years This includes things like waterproofing weatherproofing uh coatings metal treatment for preparation and plating And one of the
largest uh most sort of popular and uh highest visibility uses has been historical use in uh firefighting foams And the reason that they were used in firefighting foams is because these chemicals are very stable under heat
They allow water to form a physical barrier in the form of a foam that can separate burning liquids from the heat source It separates the fire from the fuel and helps you put the fire out in situations like airfields uh vehicle accidents that sort of
thing As with any product of course there can be health effects And in the last 20 to 30 years or so various adverse health effects with different PAS compounds have been noted Some of these include issues with fetal or
neonatal development There's evidence of liver damage in humans with exposures to high concentrations of different PAS There are apparent immune system thyroid and potential cholesterol level effects where having these compounds in
your blood which most people do because of their widespread use can cause things like elevated cholesterol levels And there's also recent but what the scientific community characterizes as inconclusive evidence for different types of
cancer Understandably a lot of the focus with evaluating the safety of these and other chemicals focuses on what happens to people potentially with exposure There are also environmental effects As as Bob mentioned our focus here is the
fact that these chemicals are present in soil groundwater and surface water in the town And the extent of those environmental effects is not fully known And what I mean is for most of these compounds there isn't a standard for
instance of what can be in the environment that won't cause an effect to an amphibian or a fish or an insect simply because those studies haven't been completed to figure all of this out And as was mentioned at the last meeting I believe uh PAS because of their
chemical characteristics aren't easily removed by the body and so over time they can build up Then you can have potentially these sorts of health effects I mentioned that they're a family of compounds Now overall
depending on which literature source you look at you have anywhere from 12,000 to 14,000 individual PAS compounds meaning chemicals that are made largely of carbon and florine and they're different
in how they're individually shaped and they're different in the functional element that's on the one end of the molecule that gives them the properties that you want but there are many many ways to make that combination and so you have a lot of individual chemicals that can be
identified The most recent information indicates that at least 4,700 different products many of which are common uh have been produced with one or more PAS compounds or may be still on the global market You may have seen news recently
of different jurisdictions like uh the state of Maine actively working to outlaw the presence of any of these uh PAS compounds in consumer products You can't have them in plastic films or you can't have them in stain guards for your furniture that sort of
thing On the right hand side is just sort of a graphical representation that's meant to sort of demonstrate that for this large uh family of compounds The initial work done as early as the 70s and 80s had to do with two of them
PFOS and PFOA These are both PAS compounds with eight carbons So they're eight long is how we think of them with different different chemical ends to different effects Drinking water regulations have now caught up and are starting to regulate
six or in some jurisdictions seven of these compounds and there is available from the commercial laboratories anywhere from 28 to 70 compounds on the list So right now if you take a sample and you want to send
it to a lab for PAS analysis they can identify about 70 of the 12,000 compounds Okay So what that means is that when we're evaluating the presence and distribution
of these different compounds especially uh away from the source especially away from the release we tend to pick up lots of them right we're going to pick up individual PAS chemicals that are
unrelated to anything that actually happened Okay and that's been seen in some of the recent work uh both at the airport and the firefighting training academy and area wide sampling on the Cape right there are compounds that are there that aren't clearly attributable
to AF use at the airport for instance so our function as Bob mentioned we were involved with the town previously in terms of uh working on safe drinking water supplies filtering these compounds from town drinking
water and our function in this particular role is that we're here as as advocates and advisers for you and for the for the community right the town is not what they call a potentially responsible party As far as the state's concerned this the town didn't cause
this problem That may seem obvious but it's an important distinction because the town is not the potentially responsible party The town doesn't directly determine the course of the assessment or the cleanups
especially not in adjacent hyenas The other thing to keep in mind is that although there are many of these individual compounds the regulations are behind the science right we know that there are 12,000 We can easily identify
70 of them Massachusetts regulates six of them And so the PRPs the the uh parties who are investigating and cleaning up their problems are directly regulated on those
six Those are what they have standards for Those are what they know how much to clean up They those are the ones that have concentrations that have been determined to not cause adverse health effects at some level They've been able to assign that number
But as I said your lab analyses are going to pick up more than what's regulated and fewer than what exists The other thing to keep in mind as as we evaluate what's been done at these other sites and how that may affect
Yarmouth is that while they're largely very stable PAS don't break down very easily some of the longer ones do to a degree under environmental conditions meaning you know room temperature and
sunlight And when they break down they break into smaller PAS parts So you can have a compound like a 62 florel which is a long compound and as it moves through the environment after it's released there are places in that
molecule that can break and we can identify some of those fragments things like PFOA we can see those in in analyses So the determination of whether a given chemical in a place
is attributable to a given release is also complicated by the fact that that chemical sort of changes its clothes as it moves away from the release Okay which is not unusual There are lots of chemicals that do this Chlorinated compounds from dry cleaners do the same thing PCE degrades to TCE to DCE and to
vinyl fluoride and finally to ethane So when we are brought in to evaluate what's been detected in Yarmouth it's not a single one to one to say we found this for instance in Mil
Creek therefore it's from the airport Right may it may not be It may be from the firefighting training academy There are even um existing published peer-reviewed studies that demonstrate that uh some of these PAS compounds are present in precipitation Okay so they're
in the rain So this sets up a number of gaps that that we're trying to uh fill right we're trying to evaluate how critical these gaps are in understanding again what's coming into the town So as I said all the PASS do
not have regulatory cleanup levels which means you don't have to um it's difficult to be held to them under the state regulations All the sources of PAS that are already detected in groundwater in the area are not known Right there are
there are compounds on the airport that likely aren't from the airport They have moved with groundwater onto the airport They may be moving beyond the airport The other challenge is that each of the potentially responsible parties so in this case just to simplify it let's just
talk about the airport and the firefighting training academy They are each responsible to assess and clean up their issue So one of the important things that we are currently going into
detail on is for instance when the airport has a sample in a well of of water and they say well these three PAS are ours and these ain't are
not That is uh an understandable and proper attempt to limit their scope to what they are responsible for But that leaves a a downstream receptor like Yarmouth sort of in a bit of a lurch of if it's not yours then who's is
it and who's going to go go look for it And there is always the fact that as you move away from where the samples are taken and as you move through time as the groundwater moves and carries these
chemicals with it and as the chemicals that may be in the soil may degrade and may may slightly change form there is never a situation where anybody doing this sort of work
has 100% certainty You've never taken every sample right at best we're working with small percentages of what we're trying to evaluate Everybody is right the the folks at Horsely Whitten the folks at GZA and us are all doing the
same the same limited knowledge trying to understand what's going on So this is a a a cartoon essentially and it's and it's not dissimilar than what you saw from uh Soul Source Consulting on behalf of the Hyannis PAS community
working group which is that in the uh regulatory documents that have been submitted there have been at least five or six different PAS plumes
identified the Yarmouth Cayenne Panistown line is that vertical black thin line that crosses from the top right down to the bottom center and goes through the BFDA plume The firefighting training academy has a plume Its plume is largely
characterized by one compound PFOS which was the major PAS used in certain types of firefighting foam that were available from the 60s The airport has two plumes which they
attribute to past incidences or training Importantly they characterize their AF as being a different formulation So rather than the the ECF type with the PFOS that the firefighting training academy had they use what's called a
fluoro foam Those foams were produced as a replacement for the PFOS foam Then both cases have identified additional contaminants that they characterize as coming onto their
properties from someplace upgradient upstream in terms of groundwater if you will The largest of those this unknown three that runs basically parallel to Iona road is actually two completely different plumes
There is PAS compounds that are in groundwater samples that the airport I believe took that the airport says are not part of their release There's also a chemical called 14 dioxane which is present
at low levels uh in the same groundwater And then the other two the unknown one and unknown two are simply cases where samples were taken at one or more wells I think in fact unknown one was taken at
a at a drinking water well Uh where the set of PFASP fast compounds that were identified was different than what the firefighting training academy sees where they have their spill Okay The other two features just to draw
attention to are the the cap There's actually two caps that were done on the airport to try to prevent leeching of PAS compounds from the soil into the groundwater There's been some discussion I think that you saw last or last meeting or a graph was shown saying that
despite one of those caps concentrations of one of the PAS compounds continues to climb down gradient And there are the MAR wells a set of three former drinking water wells or I guess drinking water wells again that are under treatment and that
importantly are evaluated specifically by the airport that their pumping captures the PAS All of the airport's plume and you know some amount of the training
academyy's plume is now pulled into those wells because they pump the water out and cause the water to move towards it Now the key issue from Yarma's point of view is do the Marwell wells capture everything have they always captured
everything and is any of what came from one of these recognizable sources in the groundwater soil or surface water in Yarmouth and so uh there was good work done um previously samples taken again by Soul Source uh samples taken by the USGS
samples taken by the Silent Spring Institute of uh surface water in Yarmouth Some of which identified PAS some of which identified the same individual PAS compounds that the airport says are theirs and the
firefighting training academy say are theirs Just because they find those two compounds doesn't mean that's where they came from because those compounds can come from a number of sources But when we looked through the file we identified four primary issues Uh the
first is that under the Massachusetts contingency plan the regulations that govern the assessment and cleanup if you have uh contaminants that move from groundwater to surface water or are likely to move from groundwater
to surface water in a certain period of time that represents what's called the condition of substantial release migration And why that is potentially important is that if you as a PRP cleaning up your site have this
condition you're still uh required to undertake what are called immediate response actions Now that matters because the airport specifically was was uh doing their work under immediate response actions for quite a while up until last
year and they said "Well now we've got our we've got our assessment complete We know where everything is We know what the risk is We've picked the best uh remedial technology and we've implemented that remedial technology Therefore we go into operation and
maintenance We're no longer in an immediate response action So we don't have to give updates every six months." And the period for public comment closed So whereas before the town had a mechanism to directly see drafts of the
reports and comment on those drafts that mechanism is taken away when you go into phase five So if an IRA condition is still present and if that case moves
back into that condition presumably the opportunity for direct public comment would be reopened The second is that even though you have uh surface water benchmarks now in Massachusetts that are meant to be
protective of ecological risks because it's the cape and you're in a sole source aquifer You have one contiguous groundwater you know drinking water supply And we already know that these spills are within multiple areas where pumping wells can capture these
contaminants Our contention is that it would be appropriate to not delineate to the surface water standards but to or benchmarks but to delineate all the way down to the lower groundwater quality standards the GW1 More importantly in some ways and based
on the fact that of the sampling that was done that I mentioned before by soul source USGS and Harvard the fact that same compound was detected in surface water as the airport claims is its tracer compound They say this is the
thing we take responsible for the 62 FDS um which was present in surface water samples that were taken at at concentrations um that were quite high Um the indication to us is that the delineation that they had done
was not complete They hadn't found all of it And importantly specifically for the airport the idea that they modeled the activity of the Marwells as being able to contain all this PAS and keep it from crossing the
border isn't substantiated During the period when the Marwells were not pumping or perhaps even with the Marwell wells pumping some of that 62 FTS is able to get beyond the wells into Yarmouth and show up in
surface water And finally is the idea that and and this kind of goes for both both of the uh PRPs the training academy and the airport Um if the contention is that they have contamination coming onto their properties from some upgradient source
there's a regulatory mechanism There's a thing called a downgradient property status that they file with the state and they say here's our evidence that this is not ours and that it's it's coming from somewhere else and that that hasn't been done yet That's a lot of gloom and doom but there
is some good news Uh there's been recent uh progress As the uh select board may know there's a there's a joint meeting that happens with several of the stakeholders for both sites the consultants the property owners themselves Uh DPW I think representation
from the town of Yarmouth was at the last one There's a work group that meets monthly that's helping to coordinate the work between these two PRPs because their problems overlap uh the Hyannis PAS working group and now Kleinfelder uh for the town of Yarmouth
are also attending these meetings and some of the concerns that we just showed which have been brought up before right these things have been brought up by other parties at various times uh during the progress of these sites is apparently being heard because
uh there's a proposal currently to install additional monitoring wells some new sampling points for groundwater water in Yarmouth to hopefully identify which if any of these compounds are coming from the airport or from the firefighting
training academy and presumably may be shown to either be tied to or not tied to the surface water detections There's also the permeable reactive barrier So up at the firefighting training academy they've taken an additional step to try to keep
PAS from leaving the property Um everybody's familiar with a Britta filter that you put in your refrigerator It's full of activated carbon which is carbon charcoal that's been treated to have a lot of pore space Activated carbon is fantastic at causing PAS to stick to it And so they've injected a
bunch of that into the ground at the boundary of the firefighting training academy to try to cut the head off and stop PAS from leaving in the groundwater and moving off off the property Now
groundwater takes time to move and so they've installed this barrier If the barrier works then what you'll see is clean water progressively moving away from the barrier but what has already left will continue to move driven by the
marwell and the natural gradients etc etc So the firefighting training academy still has a public involvement plan and due to the nature of the joint work between the two the airport and the training academy which we think is great
Um we think that that is a place to continue to provide public comment on both you know as best we can get get make our comments apply to that working group and make sure that things are done uh in the right way We would also advocate that the airport and the
firefighting training academy should go sample surface water bodies in Yarmouth and essentially they should go and try to recreate the results that Soul Source and Harvard and USGS got over the last several years Um and there is a need
because because each PRP only looks at the compounds they have to look at and because they further limit themselves by saying only some of these compounds are us but the results that they're getting
have many more compounds in them right we look at six we care about three but our results have 70 We'd advocate uh continual or continued evaluation of the full data set to try to understand uh whether or not these plumes truly are
separated or can be separated Are they intermingled do they extend further than than we know it's always very very difficult to take a molecule that we find in Mil Creek again and assign it to
a given source Hard to do in court hard to do scientifically right so we look for a weight of evidence We say "Yeah we had that molecule but we also have these seven others that you don't report on but you do have so we think they're related to you." So a weight of evidence approach Our current plan is to continue
to attend and participate in the joint meetings again try to make comments upfront to encourage them to be doing the right thing Provide this independent evaluation of the plume extents and potential sources Again by looking at the full data set we'll be submitting comments recommendations uh to all the
parties through that PIP plan and continue to advise the town of Yarmouth directly including uh we basically have a written summation that we've prepared that's in draft now to be submitted to to Bob in the next week or so uh
documenting you know these findings a little more formal way and I've gone way too long but thank you very much I think that's it Mark any questions yes thank you and uh thank you for being here um for folks that are watching um you know we're I'm
very pleased that we brought you on to help us understand this and to assist us in advocating and and helping uh us really I maybe put pressure but make sure that we put adequate pressure on
regulatory agencies to make sure that the proper studies are being done Um D is sort of driving the train on this and so I want to make sure that as a board we weigh in with D soon and outline the additional sampling and recommendations
uh that need to be pursued Um uh this board went to town meeting last year secured the funding to bring you on board and I think we have from the very beginning have had every intention to aggressively advocate for protecting the environmental and public health
interests here in the town of Yarmouth Um if you were to if you go back to that previous um that depiction that's the one showing the Mar wells and the in the various plumes Sorry there we go That area right
there the Mar wells to the east of that that's uh Yarmouth conservation land That's conservation property that uh we are responsible for protecting and taking care of Um you know one of the issues that I've raised in the past is just the excessive withdrawal of water
from the Marwells which has had an adverse impact on that marshland And that's an issue that that's a separate issue but it's one that we're not going to forget As a former conservation chair I agree entirely Okay Well that's good That's good Hopefully I can get our conservation chair to say the same thing
as you Um and then obviously the other thing that's very disturbing about all this is that we've identified fairly elevated levels and other samples significantly downgradient from the identified plumes that suggest at least based on the the work from Tom
Cameri that those that hit uh is definitely attributed to the airport Yes Okay So the information that we've been getting from the airport has not been truthful or accurate All right I massaged however you want to coach it
we're being spun All right So we're not getting the straight scoop from uh our neighboring community And that's why another reason why it's important to have um your expertise working with us on this So from my point of view my conclusion is is that the only way we're going to get what we need to get is to
put aggressive pressure on the mass D They're the ones that are driving the train We've told the the the Highness Park Civic Association uh they came here and presented to us that we agreed with their recommendations and we're going to aggressively advocate for those recommendations and after that meeting
we as a board wanted to uh have you here so that we can not only advocate for them but to hear your recommendations and your suggestions so that we can put together fairly one very strong proposal to mass D to advocate for you know
taking taking action on So uh I'm I'm I'm anxious I'm very interested in getting to that point where we have in front of us a proposal or a letter or something addressed to the mass D outlining the very specific steps and measures that we need to have
taken So the sooner we get to that point Madame Chair that the happier I will be This is sort of long overdue And I'm glad you pointed out in your presentation that Pas comes there's a lot we still need to know about this contamination And even though we might
want to point our finger at one or two sources the reality is there could be multiple sources Yeah they're almost certainly are Yeah Right And given the rate of pumpage of the Maher wells I would bet a lot of money that we're drawing in a lot of contamination from a variety of sources Yeah I mean I think
if you note you know all the plumes are oriented in the same direction Yes Yes Between the topography the actual drainage to the Mil Creek system and the and the pumping of the wells This is the first time I've seen anything on a map suggesting that there are three other plumes out there that we know very little about Yep And I would like to
think that mass D is going to help drive the train in terms of making sure that we get better information on what's going on with those plumes Yeah And and that always becomes the situation in Massachusetts We're lucky to have what's called a privatized program where licensed site professionals uh
individually undertake the work of assessment remediation under the state rules Mhm And in very limited situations does the state order or tell or force anybody their mechanism is to take what is provided and audit it and
then come back and say this is deficient that's deficient this is deficient And that's why we're couching our things in terms of your reg We don't we don't think they've done that You know that that sort of thing If that makes sense Well I don't think I'm speaking out of term If if there are things that they should be doing that
they're not doing we want to know about it Absolutely All right And the reality is is that so we're anxious I'm anxious to weigh in you know as soon as we can Yep And uh lay out from D what what's next steps need to be done And uh when
do you think we could have something in front of us again we have that in draft and we're looking to get that to you next week Okay that's good So this may be an item for our next meeting and our next agenda perhaps Okay that's good No I appreciate all the work that you're putting into this This is a very very
important issue for the folks here in town Um one other question um Kurt Sears um who I refer to sometime as the sixth select board member Um Kurt was here earlier and in public statements he had asked us a question which I want to pose to you and that is is uh among the
recommendations should we be thinking about shellfish sampling or some other type of sampling beyond groundwater uh that's downstream he had specifically mentioned Mil Pond that that might be an area where I mean we do have shellfish resources in and around that area Um you
can answer that tonight If you don't have an answer tonight you're going to have to have an answer for us at our next meeting when we revisit this Well I can say that sampling of shellfish has been done Mhm PAS has been detected in shellfish
tissue um that work is unrelated to to this obviously right so if that's a concern that the town has as a resource and potentially demonstrating that there's an impact to the resource it's certainly
doable Okay Again it's not a my muscle has PAS therefore the airport unfortunately but no I think our first priority needs to be protection of public health All right so that if we have a resource that could potentially
impact public health I think that has to be our first priority I'm not particularly interested in pointing fingers Um although at some point we're going to be doing that but the reality is for now I think our first priority has to be public health Yeah we can review and include that as Yeah I think I think that needs to be laid out there
Now D may bark on some of these measures but I think we'll have to take a take that up at a later time but I think in the meantime I think we should be asking for all the reasonable recommendations that that you've put on the table And uh I'm sure you've looked at the Hyannis Park Civic Association recommendations
because we're going to really want to advocate for all of uh these recommendations uh you know when we revisit this So understood Thank you Madam Chair Joyce Oh well thank you for a very clear presentation and thank you
for having that little bit of hope at the end one slide Progress is being made It's not a It's not a bad thing I especially loved the triangle illustration because I thought that really hit it home um about the different kinds of threats that are
included I consider it sort of like the anti- food pyramid Yeah that's fair I have a a question that's a little gross but remember that we've been talking wastewater wastewater wastewater in this town When I read about how we have PAS
within us it is in the waste water Ask I mean are we adding to the soil when we urinate if we all have PAS in us adding PAS yeah
you have you have PAS being released into the environment both from excretion um but also from consumer products also from clothing residues uh septic systems are known all septic systems essentially are known to have low levels of PAS in
them wastewater treatment plants are are merely called out because in the act of separating the water from the solids the PAS tends to get concentrated in that residue and that's why it has been identified as a problem like with field application is the gray water in
the gray water correct yeah so when they separate those things PAS are all about interfaces they want to be between the water and the soil or between the water and the air between the water and your fat cells so they find those interfaces and get concentrated in certain by
certain processes if that makes sense so if one wanted to totally escape pests there would not be consumer products one would shed but one would essentially have to live in a desert Yeah I mean again it's in the rain PAS has been identified in precipitation in the Arctic at measurable levels It's it's
everywhere And again it's everywhere I don't mean to be a doomer but it's it's everywhere because of the stability of the compounds and how useful they've been right i mean this is again when you have the plastic ketchup bottle and the
ketchup slides out used to be because they lined them with PAS compounds right microwave popcorn bags your Goretex your stain guard on your sofa your floor mat It's everywhere But what's not clear and
what's kind of a frustrating thing with these particular compounds is we can detect them to very very very tiny levels It is unclear just because you can find it whether or not it poses a risk or whether or not it poses harm Right the
the identified health effects have been things like people who were manufacturing PAS or firefighters big exposures firefighters who were doing you know 15 times a year training because they ran an academy that trained other firefighters you know and they
were bringing them in and testing the foam Those are those are where we've seen clear health effects And so between that and where we can detect there's a there's a lot of space for uh still grappling with it Unlike
some other compounds We know lead's bad at X We know benzene's bad at Y We get that But some of these PAS compounds it's unclear how much is a risk or is not a risk Thank you And then u back to Mark's
concern about kind of what we do Do you think there are any useful lessons from the base cleanup of say a decade ago um of contaminants that would that would help us figure out our program going forward i mean potentially and in fact
PAS has been a concern at the base most recently they they sort of made great progress on the other plumes and then realized they now were required to look for this material and are finding it you know essentially over the entire the entire footprint again Yeah if I can add to that um having been involved in the
cleanup quite extensively Um there's a fairly massive PAS plume on the southern end of the base It's a plume that came from the old fire training area Um and the air force is actually um I would have to say the air force has done a very good job on the cleanup and the
permeable reactive wall that the fire training site is utilizing that technology has been put into use out on the base So we are learning here Cape Cod has become a sort of a laboratory an experiment station in terms of
identifying these contaminants and also figuring out ways to clean them up and um in in some respects this permeable reactive wall that's being utilized at the fire training site is we're going to learn a lot from that project as well So
this is an ongoing education what's going on up there Uh we learn the lessons from the Air Force and their work up out on the base Um that information gets plowed into what the countyy's doing with the fire training site and and and everybody's sort of
watching around here Folks are watching very closely what everybody else is doing and the the lessons are are are very important and I do think that that's actually a very positive aspect of this particular situation right these
different issues are not siloed People are talking to one another data is being shared You know they they are I I don't want to in any way imply that something was done wrong right i'm not here to say this consultant is
terrible or that consultant's terrible We are there to say you haven't considered this and I know why you haven't considered it but we we need you to consider you know this this issue if that makes that makes sense Thank you Liz Um so Chris I was
wondering if we've had any feedback on um blood testing I know that that was when you and the Hyannis Park Association were here there was um an encouragement for Hyannis residents to
get some testing done And I I I bring that forward because I if it should be a part of whatever letter we're about to compose to send off to D should that be one of the components of that letter so I don't know Madam Chair if we can ask
Chris to give us feedback on that Is that permittable sure Thank you I didn't come here tonight to be a public speaker but um the uh obviously I'm a board member of the highest park civic association and I'm your
representative to the airport commission Um and I think that um in terms of question for the blood work that had come from uh silent spring and also from several other groups that had organized it for hyannis and I know that there's
growing concern that given the proximity and the kinds of things going on that maybe we should be looking at um town of Yarmath and residents and it could also be true for most everybody on the Cape given a lot of what we're hear He's shaking his head Yes Um and I think that's part of the issue I was actually
going to state that one of the things that I'm very pleased about with this kind of reporting and the work that people are doing now and with our consultants is that for the longest time the airport sort of pointed fingers excuse me figures at the fire fighting academy and and
they and the airport very proudly announced almost immediately they were into phase five of their studies Well what's happened is a lot of that has been discredited both through some of the work that's shown up even at Barnstable Town Council and along with the work that thank you very the hiring
of the uh consultants here uh to show that indeed it was far more complex and that um they've been very slow to respond to the kinds of requests that Yarmouth has made and I think that what's of also great concern is I know there's been a movement oh the airport
should be moved or something I think the bigger issue right now that we should be moving forward on To tell you the truth is to say absolutely no expansion of that runway 1533 While you have all these unresolved issues about where this plumes are coming from what's underneath
there the fact that they're identifying more and more of this and that we know from all of the research that's been done by a number of the consultants that it is flowing here to us and I think it's very significant that that one plume in particular follows the track of 1533 So you've got to wonder with all of
the terminals all of the aircraft and things that they've had there literally since you know the 1940s um you know what what else was going on there It isn't just direct directly attributable to the fire uh the fire academy and all And so I think there's some further
concerns I also know that a lot of citizens are starting to talk about the fact that there are studies out there about the jet fuel emissions and particularly from small planes It's not from the big commercial ones They're falling on the grounds And some of my neighbors for years have been talking
about stuff they've been finding in their property which tells me that's also going into a lot of our very valuable land They're flying over Lewis Bay They're flying over Mil Creek They're flying over this whole area and and even over you know Yarmouthport and
everything now And they're very proudly you know announcing how much that air traffic is and how much they're doing So I think there are a lot of environmental issues still that haven't been uh completed there that need to be looked at and there's some other airports around Hanskum and I think even Logan
did some of that research that I think before any expansion goes further forward and I'm very pleased to see that this is going on because I think it adds more and more pressure to the airport because they suddenly decided oh they could do a little more work for Yarmouth and the wells and everything after they were confronted by the findings of
consultants who have done a far more extensive work like line Kleinfelder has on on on the fact that no your reports are quite inadequate So thank you Thank you Chris Thank you Chris Any any other Well I I I do recall that we were concerned about not being able to write
an effective letter to the D uh when we were having the presentation from um uh uh Tom Camareri because we didn't have enough solid evidence It sounds like that has is starting to change Okay
Thank you Those are my questions Thank you very much I I think it's important what Mark was talking about that the sooner rather than ear you know later that we can get going on this the better because every day more of it coming out And
uh we really I'm concerned when you hear things of you know that the public comment sections on certain items have been closed when actually they shouldn't have been closed yet without definitive information and hopefully this will reopen that and uh get D to start
working on a situ on a resolution of the situation for us So I thank you very much and we look forward to your report and it's going to be on our agenda for the next meeting that we have which will be May 6th May 6th Okay Yay Thank you
Thank you Great report Very good Okay Mary We have discussion and vote on the annual town election warrant and designation of police assignments to the police chief and the town clerk Mayor you've provided us with a memo um
regarding this and also within your memo is proposed motions Good evening Mary Mlowski town clerk you are correct There are two of the standard motions that we take for every single election Uh the first is the assignment of the police
officers and the second is uh to vote the ballot warrant So I would ask do we have a Madam Chair I'd like to make a motion Mhm Uh I hereby move that the select board hereby delegates its authority given under chapter 92 section 72 of the acts of
2022 to detail a sufficient number of police officers or constables for each building that contains the polling addresses for one or more uh precincts at every election therein to preserve
order and to protect the election officers and supervisors from interference where their duties and to aid in enforcing the laws related to the elections to the police chief in consultation with the town clerk Do I have a second on that motion second what
he said Okay And do we have any discussion all in favor i opposed That's a voice unanimous Madam chair I have another motion to make Mhm I move that the select board adopt the warrant for May 20th 2025 annual town election as
presented by the town clerk and direct that the warrant be duly advertised and posted in accordance with Massachusetts general laws the town of Yarmouth's charter and its bylaws Do I have a second second Do I have any discussion
all in favor i opposed It passes unanimous Thank you very much Thank you Mary Okay moving on to the next item that we have on the agenda is the town meeting preview I'll turn this over to Bob Thank
you very much Madame Chair This is our annual town meeting preview Um now the the purpose of this meeting this evening is to um take a run through the annual town meeting warrant to share information uh with the public
on what the major issues and topics that we're going to see at the upcoming town meeting which will be held um April 29 2025 6 p.m we're going to be at the DY Intermediate School on Station Avenue Um
and now this review is not as detailed of a discussion as we'll hold um at the town meeting for instance Um we're still working on some of the motions and and those issues but we'll be able to walk through so everyone knows what the
substance of um every article is And hopefully folks have questions they can ask those questions And um I I really want to um thank all of the people that have worked so hard on on putting this together I know we have department heads um here Um Jen Mullen our finance
director has just been um a rock star on our town meeting warrant And um a guy who uh really needs a lot of credit um is Bill Scott um who was put together We we won't be able to cover every single one of these but um the town meeting
presentation materials is over 100 slides uh that provide various detailed information Um so that when we get to town meeting this has really helped us facilitate that open transparent sharing of information Um so with that I thought
what we would do is is walk right through so everyone knows what each article is the substance and then we can have um any discussion that um people would like or comments that board members um would make Vita I see your hand up but we're going to wait for you
to get when we get to a particular article that you have a question on if you would um I I will recognize you at that point So if you don't raise your hand until you actually have a question on a specific
article you got your hand up now There you go Good job Okay Bob And we'll jump right in and we're going to start off with article one And article one references budget adjustments These are not for the next year but shortfalls
that appear in the current fiscal year's budget And um the only shortfall that we presently have is um approximately $70,000 to supplement the snow and ice budget And um even though we didn't have
a lot of inches of snow this was a very cold winter And I know the DPW spent a great deal of time sanding salting There was a um couple of storms that we had that was some significant plowing And um and keep in mind that the town does not
um put a a very liberal amount in this article every year And the the reason for not having the budget um very uh liberal in terms of how much money we set aside for snow and ice is that uh
there is a special state law and the only article um or budget item that it applies to Um and it allows deficit spending in snow and ice only if the community appropriates the amount of
money that it appropriated in the previous year So um in order to preserve the ability to handle those very tough years we keep it at the same appropriation amount which sometimes on tough years um it runs a little short On
on good years it's it's enough but if we increased it so that we'd have definitely more than we needed then we um may risk in the future losing that ability um to deficit spend under the state law So there there is some reasoning behind um why we have a fairly
conservative estimate but it's pretty realistic and um being off by 70,000 is you know not a lot in terms of the overall scope of the operation So that those are the total budget adjustments and for a budget that's over a hundred
million um it's it's good to see us you know shows a lot of discipline to live within that Bob Vita has her hand up on article one Go ahead Vita What's your question uh it's not my question It's a Oh can you hear me i can indeed Okay Uh
it's not a question It's It says select board voted 6 I I think the last time I counted there are only five of you You are absolutely right Right That's on the slide And and in the book I'll read from the budget This is the book that we hand
out at town meeting Um and it it has the the votes and the select board actually recommended this article 5 to zero and it was the finance committee that recommended it 6 to zero So good catch there
Okay Thanks Vita Moving on to article two And article two represents the omnimus budget u for the town So these are all of the general fund um town budgets And when we get to town
meeting um we'll have with the moderator run right through each budget Um have questions and and approve it And the total in the the municipal operations um budget that we have under um this
article is a grand total of 51 million So it represents about um maybe half the the town's budget Um a little bit less than that under article two So what we've done before I believe with the town moderator is that we take sections of the budget and then if
anyone has a hold on that particular section for a question he'll hold that item otherwise we move on to the next Isn't that correct exactly And and this gives a chance for um any questions on any of the operating budgets that are under the general fund um in article two
And what we'll see as the um construction of the warrant the way the town budget um is constructed is that there is not one budget article but there's um approximately um eight or so that break
out individual sections of the town budget And we're going to go through each one of those and you'll see how they all come together And it's um largely dependent on the source of the funding And article two represents the general fund budget And um when we get
to the next article article three um that is a special article that has been placed on for the new fire department staffing that will be subject to the override vote And um the reason for that
is that the town meeting vote is going to set aside funds to add four additional firefighters and a supervisor and also the restructuring of the wage scale for FY26 in the fire department And um those amounts required for that
additional personnel is over what the um amounts under Prop 2 and a half allow So the funds for the fire department staffing are going to be appropriated subject to the passage of a proposition
2 and a half override that is appears on the general ballot And in order to separate these out where it is a conditional appropriation in the event that the override does not pass um
these amounts here um you know will not be part of the budget So we will not require another town meeting to to cut the budget So that separates it out And um I know we've got the um fire department here if there's any any
questions on that I don't see any from the public Moving on to article um article four and and this is where we see some of the the structure of the budget that we take independent funding sources that
represent operating budgets and they're separated out from the general fund budget uh which is largely from taxation And article 4 begins a series of these with the golf enterprise budget And again the the golf budget is separate
from the vote we take in article two because 100% of the funding for the golf department comes directly from the revenues from the golf enterprise fund So each one of the individual enterprise funds are acted on separately and the
total golf funding is 5,541,000 and um that is going to be raised by the fees for playing golf Okay moving on then to article six I see no questions Five is I'm sorry Similarly the water
division budget presents um the complete budget for the water department with all of the funds 100% of the funds coming from the fees for water So the water service fees go directly into funding So
that's a a separate article but together each one of these items com comprise the overall town budget And then when we move to article six again that's another enterprise budget that is the septage and this is the amount of money that
operates the town's septage plant and um that total is 3,198,000 and 100% of that budget comes from the fees for the septage when people um have their septic tanks pumped
and it's delivered to the septage facility there's a charge and that pays for this budget Article seven Article seven is the wastewater enterprise budget Um and again the before um all of
the all of the costs here are coming from the wastewater enterprise fund And it's important to note that um obviously we don't have the um the wastewater treatment plant operating yet So the amount of money um in the enterprise
fund we've placed there as part of our preunding program for wastewater So um this these are all programmed expenses that will enable us to get that wastewater treatment plant up and running Uh and in the future it'll be a much larger budget but 100% of these um
costs come from the wastewater enterprise fund and the Okay Article eight Article eight is the cable television communications budget and this funds um all of our programming of the the town
meetings and the communication budget uh and the operation of our our cable television um system that we have for the public educational and government programming that we do and it is funded 100% from the um cable TV contract as
the fees for the uh public access and and that funds the communications department and we have article 9 and article 9 moves directly into the Dennis Yarmouth regional school district budget
um and we have the certified amount of 44,865765 which um is within the guideline budget guidelines that we agreed upon for the school and so this year we don't need any overrides um for that and uh okay we have a question from
Vita on article 9 Yeah I was wondering uh uh considering that there were uh so many new students in the Yarmouth uh part of the um uh district and stuff like that Uh how how did they come in where uh you know their
budget is doesn't surpass the two and a half% increase Can you does anybody know about that at all um yes and the um the reason is that the enrollment is frozen as of October 1 2024 So um at that point
in time um that's the enrollment that's used to um calculate the um the shares And uh one of the issues that um I think helped uh Dennis Yarmouth um helped Yarmouth a little bit this year is the
overall um the part of the formula is the students and part of it is they calculate what the growth in revenues in the two individual towns are And last year the overall growth in revenues in Dennis was slightly larger than the
overall growth of revenues in Yarmouth And that led to a slightly larger assessment for Dennis um and a little bit less for Yarmouth um which didn't make the assessment go down but it helped keep it within the levels that we
can fund within Prop 2 and a half That answer your question Vita uh not exactly but I I I may ask the district people uh to explain that so we can move on Okay Okay Article 10 Article 10 is the Cape Cod Regional Technical High
School District budget and uh that comes in at at 3.832 million and again that is also within the guidelines that we had established um for the educational budget and does not require any extra funding And with that those 10 articles
well actually the the nine because it goes two through 10 those together comprise the operating budgets And and as you can see the town meeting warrant is broken up into sections At first we do all the operating budgets and that takes us through article 10 And what
we're going to see is the next series of articles is still finance but these are the capital articles And in our financial structure the operating budget is separated out from the capital And that way you know we keep um a better
track of all of the capital needs and the personnel needs And so when we roll into it we start with article 11 And it's very similar to the way we do the budget It's broken up in separate articles by the funding source So
article 11 is the capital expenses for the golf division and 100% of those um are derived from the golf revenues directly and it's a total of 245,000 Article 12 Article 12 is a major project
for the Septage Enterprise Fund and it is a bonding amount for $4,400,000 for the purpose of doing rehabilitation to the equalization tank at the Septage facility And um just to
gross everyone out um um a little the that equalization tank is the vessel that holds all of the raw sewage And that raw sewage is obviously um a very corrosive material and over time it
literally breaks down the integrity of the concrete in the tank and it requires uh rehabilitation and Jeff Colby taught me that So that's why I I know it You get an A on that one Article 13 Um
article 13 is the capital expenses for the water division totaling 1.3 million Again all from water um fees And article 14 and article 14 is this is for the water department and it is another
capital improvement bonding and it is for the amount of $5,50,000 for again we had this discussion of the PAS and um this PAS is directly geared towards um assist
creating a system to treat PAS in our water public water supply wells number 10 and number 11 Um and those will safeguard those border supplies and allow us to use them in the future Article 14 and article um that's I'm
sorry article 15 Article 15 is another bonding for the water department and this is a supplemental funding to an existing program to replace water manes in Route 28 in conjunction with the wastewater project Now we've
appropriated $15.6 million to date for that purpose and the design and bidding has indicated an additional $2 million is required to complete that work as we do the wastewater And it's very important that we get those water manes
done at the time that the road is dug up for the wastewater because we do not want to come back Um and so this supplements the 15 So we're going to be putting a total of $17,600,000 of water manes in Route 28
um to update those as we do the wastewater infrastructure Article 16 Article 16 is police cruiser financing Now this is a 4year municipal lease to acquire um police cruisers And um this
is part of our capital improvement program that helps us equalize the cost annually um of the the cruisers This four-year finance program we own the cars at the end of it And these are hybrid vehicles um too that we hope to get So they'll be energy
efficient Article 17 and article 17 is the fire department capital expense Um and um that comes from the the fire department ambulance revenues totaling 347,000
Article 18 Now article 18 is a major capital for the fire department at least in terms of the equipment and uh it is for the purchase of what is called a quint pumper and I and I hope we get a chance at town meeting to talk about this a little bit I really want to
salute the department um for coming up with a very innovative solution to a problem that the um fire ladder truck that we have um has pretty much timed out They only last so long and they're extraordinarily
expensive And we needed an update to the um ladder truck but we also needed an update to the engine And the department has located this kind of newer type of a vehicle that's called a quint pumper that combines the elements of a ladder
truck and an engine for less money than the old ladder trucks cost on their own And this is a way I think to very efficiently meet the needs of the department And uh you know it is also much more nimble than those those old big ladders These things can can get
anywhere and and I I I think that thanks go to the department for coming up with that solution Article 19 Article 19 is the um we call this the omnibus capital article This is the capital expenses for the various general um government
departments and they're listed there There's a total of 4.6 million um and out of that 4.6 6 million There is 3.5 million from free cash but there's also a $1.1 million override that we've
restored to the budget for um highway maintenance to go along with um an additional 250,000 for um storm water Bob Vita has a question on this Uh yes and I just lost uh what number is the roof replacement over the town hall
whatever that's number that's item number 15 under Okay And it's $200,000 That's correct And is is that the total cost for for the uh replacement of the roof yes
Okay Uh uh so uh the solar panels are coming down right yes Temporarily Oh so they go back up They don't go away No no Uh uh That was I I was just using
an expression for for keeping the p replacing the panels back on the new roof Uh you know those panels are almost 20 years old now And um for one thing I want somebody to go back and give me uh
information on when it was that we finally uh uh you know that the uh the savings finally kicked in because uh I spoke with the late George Aair exactly 5 years after the installation of those
panels in 2013 shortly before his death And I had the person who kept pushing and pushing for for the solar panels on the roof uh kept uh assuring us that the cost which was $50,000 if I remember
correctly that in two years time the all of that would uh be paid for and everything else was graded after that Well after two years mind you now I was speaking with George Aier five years later and the the total savings at that point had been
$15,000 So I would like for somebody to tell me when did we finally get to the point where it would became gravy And secondly uh I think uh considering that the the uh the as I said the the useful life of of the solar panels is about 20
years 20 maybe 25 at most Uh and for you to uh then proceed to put those uh panels those solar panels back on this new roof I think would be very u uh uh seriously uh you know uh uh for flawed
thinking to me I I just honestly I need some some of this information and I I I hope you will consider uh uh this once once again as I said because the the the the panels have first and secondly uh I understand that
nobody knows what to do with uh with these solar panels that if somebody decides that finally yeah these are have are finished with their useful life and and what you do with it nobody seems to know at all Is there anybody who who
does uh because as far as I know nobody seems to know And and just for that reason to replace them back on the roof the new roof I would be absolutely out of the question I will say I think Liz may have some answers for you Hi Vita Oh
God Not God just Liz Um I was involved with that installation and with um Peter I can't remember his name right now but he was inaccurate with a two-year payback
Sorry Peter Johnson No it was Peter It was uh No Peter Johnson That's another So at any rate um they it has well paid for itself The um panels are uh those are older panels They are
warrantied for 20 years The classic story that I like to tell about how uh the long the length of the long life length of solar panels is Carter President Carter put a solar field of solar panels behind a high school in
Newberry Port They're still producing energy So solar panels uh putting them back on and yeah it makes perfect sense They are definitely a producing uh power and saving the town money I I know Roby
White House had put together some facts about how much it was saving and those facts do exist and we can dig them up if you really need them But that's I absolutely want to know when the savings started kicking in I would say the head
of BPW at the time that he was giving me those figures There was a a wonderful grant that was given to the town by the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative back then Um so it was not an expensive installation and it paid itself back certainly within 10 years No no I don't
want you guessing I want some real numbers here We'll work exactly when the savings started kicking in That is not the only place where uh it's a little difficult to to figure out what what kind of benefit we're getting for some of those uh even the arrays in the
school district uh and what have you Well you'll be happy to know we have I have we have a a grant later that we'll discuss where we can give you those costs and the savings very very easily with the help of a consultant Consultant Peter we'll get we'll get you
your answer Thank you Do we have any other questions on um article 19 that's it Peta On 19 Okay Article 20 And article 20 is uh an Eversource easement for the um water resource recovery
facility on 99 Buck Island Road So um they need an easement to the electric company to provide power to that facility Um so that is article 20 and and 21 article 21 are wage
adjustments um set aside for uh the settlement of collective bargaining agreements and for non-union personnel that are ongoing So they're not part of the um the budget which just has the actual figures in it Article 22 and article 22 is some stabiliz
stabilization financing and we've had uh free cash positive balances which um have have been good and this article takes 2 million from the free cash account and transfers 1 million into our capital stabilization fund for future
capital expenses of the town and it transfers $1 million to the wastewater stabilization fund um to fund future wastewater costs And these are the important rainy day funds for the town that we're continuing to
replenish Okay And now we're coming up to the capital replace uh cap I mean sorry uh the community preservation act uh articles starting with article 23 Right now we have a series of the CPA and the first of the articles just
establishes the um the various sections that you're required to fund for community preservation which include um reserves for affordable housing open space historic preservation and administrative costs and the subsequent
articles actually fund projects from those amounts So article 24 So article 24 details the affordable housing projects for community preservation and um there are two projects totaling
660,000 including municipal affordable housing trust What should we have article 25 In article 25 are the recreation projects for the community preservation program totaling 1,82,000
Article 26 and article 26 are the historical preservation projects for the community preservation and um those total 872,133 Article 27
Article 27 is for a reserve for open space which places 215,396 into reserve for future open space purchases Okay Okay And article um 20 article 28
that is um a housekeeping item to take you folks remember before we had the community preservation it was called land bank and there was an old article that had taken uh funds and appropriated those for legal costs for the land bank
And lo and behold our um finance folks found there's $33,8587 left in the old legal um account for the land bank and those are being transferred into the purposes for the modern community preservation act So that's a clean up Article 29 In article
29 are the appropriations um from the tourism revenue preservation fund totaling 520,936 Article 30 and um article 30 is the town common feasibility study in the amount
ofund,000 100,000 and we have some very nice slides on that Okay I'm sure we'll enjoy them at town meeting Um article 31 Article 31 is a property dis disposition of a remnant
parcel at Zero Oak Bluffs Road And that is 0.07 acre sliver of town-owned property that we um held a bid for and um the
neighbors bid on that So that will um be transferred to the neighboring residential property to simply it's not buildable or anything It'll augment a single family home property and have a very tiny impact on new taxes for the
town Article 32 Article 32 is for additional costs of $200,000 for ongoing Madak building maintenance Vita did you have a question no just have a comment Okay
Sorry keep going But article 33 is the petition for special legislation relative to the division of natural resources officers which uh as a result of the police officer safety training
act All of our natural resource officers now undergo the exact same academy training firearm training all of the requirements of a regular police officer And in recognition of that new and they are required to be certified
Massachusetts police officers um this seeks to transfer them into the same retirement system as other police officers And that requires special legislation under article 33 And our final article article 34 And article 34
um grants a cost of living increase annually to those u veterans who receive an exemption of their property taxes under Mass General laws And that concludes our meeting
preview Any final questions before we move on to our next agenda uh topic well thank you all very much Thank you Vita for your questions We're moving on now to assignment emotions And I have a question Um with the passing of Gary
Ellis uh at CPA and I noticed that we have the resignation of um Christine as the vice chair Is CPA planning on presenting their articles to town meeting or should we be assigning those to the select
board i would ask Karen because she's the expert I think CPC is I mean Christine's not I think Christine's resignation is effective after town meeting Okay So she was planning on coming to town meeting
and participating Okay The committee has discussed the the different articles and assignments So they're poised and ready to do it I know we've switched over the last couple years but they're they're ready and game Okay Thank you Karen In
that case then we've got uh if I read it correctly about six articles each for the board We take our 30 articles and split it up among us And so uh what you
all have in your packet is a warrant article list which kind of just lists all the articles And I'm going to start with article one Um if there's a there are different ways that we could do this Um in the past sometimes what
we've done is as the select board goes along one takes one to six next one takes seven to you know or do you want to have specific articles would you prefer having specific articles first that you'd like to be able to present and I bring up on
that that Mark probably is going to want to do the town common Well I'm happy to speak on any of the articles that deal with wastewater or POS treatment Um you know I'm obviously yeah I'm I'm very familiar with those projects but in in
the sake of simplicity you said we're each we're going to get six right i'm happy to take the last six Just take them right off the table I can handle those So okay From 28 although 28 is going to be CPC
Six of them 29 to 34 29 to 34 Then I'll take those Okay I'll take those last ones Okay Okay Me to take preceding Do you want to take Okay If we go that would be
starting at 22 going back through through 28 Maybe that I think that might be seven That's the CPC So we're going the other way 23 Start at 22 and work back 22 back is what we're saying Back
Okay Yeah Are we missing one then okay So 17 through 22 That's you That's you Oh I see Liz22 And who's taking 23 through 28 those
will be done by CPA themselves CPC I was doing that too Okay Golf capital expense down through police cruiser financing Uh 16 11 through 16 Okay And
then Tracy would be taking the uh schools which would be 10 nine eight five through 10 right and I'll take the first four You're getting a short shift That's all right She works hard We have to give her
a little The budget's tough Stretch here That's the one you're going to do a lot of reading on Um it's a that's the the worst one to get is article two because that's the only one with a real long motion Congratulations Well thank you all very much We have our
motion assignments Okay And we have discussion and vote of the municipal energy manager grant award I leave that to Bob and Liz who well
um we're delighted that you know we had the board had voted to approve the grant application for the Mass Save um to get the municipal energy manager grant and we've um received word that we have been
awarded a grant for um $45,600 for the 20225 to 2027 So that's like that same amount for three years to fund um a municipal energy manager And um I guess
with their funding they're looking for us to do instead of a full-time position a part-time position So our recommendation is that they need to um know whether we accept the grant I think we accept it and hopefully we can leverage that into getting some more grants and saving a lot of money for the
town So do we need a motion to accept the grant i I think so that because you you approved the getting the application in Let's keep it all together Mhm Do I have a motion yeah So moved Madam Chair I move that we accept the uh the We have a second Do we have any discussion all
those in favor i I opposed That's a voice unanimous Thank you Liz Congratulations to Liz There you go Good job Okay moving on to the next item We have um board and committee actions starting with
um resignation Um is that going to be you yes that's Liz You Liz Oh okay I have it Oh this is my appointment No I have to do the res the resignation Resignation The resation No that's not
Well that says Peterson just read her letter Sorry I know I have it here Here it is Here you go I got it Got it So and I'm not sure if this is read the letter or just I don't I think just just
her resignation and the dates Okay So I have Christine Mars Ziggliano is resigning um from the CPA She will continue on through the end of this round of CPA
applications and the meeting to discuss the CP CPA applications at Springtown meeting uh and probably one more CPA meeting um and then assisting in choosing a new chair and vice chair So
um she says she would resign April 30th Okay So Madam Chair I'd like to move that we uh accept the resignation with uh great appreciation um from Christine on the effective date of April 30th 30th
And I would have Do we have a second second All those in favor i I Okay Note that she wants to stay as president of the Armouth Conservation Trust Okay For the record well we don't have to No action on that but
Okay And u then we have a request to dissolve the library planning committee Um this is since we're uh actually going to be setting up a library building committee this becomes housekeeping for us to um so moved Second All in favor i
I no opposed Okay Voice unanimous And then we have the library building committee and I believe that's Joyce that I'd like to propose One sec I'm sorry There are Mark Can we have you
put into your motion that you also add the library ad hoc committee so moved Okay With a second Joyce you're fine with that I'm fine You're fine with that Okay No changes in the vote All in favor i Okay Hi Thank you Bill
So moving on to the library building committee Uh Madame Chair would you like me to do them individually or would you like me to do them as a clump i remember that there was a real concern in looking at them as a group for balance of skills
It looks like you've got that You have it all listed right here for us Why don't you do it as a group okay Uh I propose for appointments on the library building committee Ellie Tierney construction Um Tom Pendleton South
Yarmouth Library user Judy Tarver construction representative Oh sorry Um Vicky Geianelos Gianetto West Yarmouth library user Dorcas McGuran select board representative Sandy Fe capital budget
committee rep um Susan Brida planning board rep Mindy Harrington library staff and Joseph Lereck library staff So Madam Chair I move that we uh appoint all these individuals uh to this committee What's their term
it would be for the length of the project As long as it takes right second Okay All those in favor i oppose That's a voice unanimous Okay Okay And then I move that we um appoint Chris Peterson
as an alternate to the recreation commission And I have written him up He's uh coached multiple sports He still um is plays hockey He has active he has four children age 4 through 11 And as he
says I'm eager to bring my leadership program development and community engagement to help enhance and expand recreational opportunities for residents of all ages Terrific candidate Okay Do I have a one year i approve that we appoint Mr Peterson as an alternate to
the rec You're making a motion Yes Okay Do I have a second on the motion okay Uh all in favor i opposed That's a voice unanimous an admiration for somebody who can take on new responsibilities with
four people that young at home Uh with the minutes uh for the March uh 26 2024 we started discussion on this at the previous meeting I'm assuming that all the changes that were noted have been made and we are doing this as a vote of
necessity again because of the current board setup versus the board that was in um in in at that time So do I have a motion to accept the minutes for March 26th so moved Second Okay All in favor i And now
we're also looking at the mo uh minutes for December 17th 2024 So moved We have a motion Do we have a second second Second All those in favor i I Any oppose voice unanimous Okay Up up upcoming
agenda review We just added Kleinfelder to the March 6th meeting May 6th May 6th I'm sorry I'm still on the minutes And we have hearing for the Yarmouth Tourism
Destination Marketing District Um and uh the first of the hearing fees and uh we have the local comprehensive plan update and a recap of uh annual town meeting and then we're
also going to be having the town administrator evaluation Anything anyone wants to add to that agenda no No Madam Chair what I'd like to talk a little bit about is to make sure that on this tourism district
um you know we have ample information in our packets about that particular proposal for example Um and we I think we're going to need someone's help and maybe it's yours Bob In terms of making sure
that all of the various criteria are identified I I want to make sure that when we get into this that we've got um and it might be helpful to have this before well before the date of the meeting sort of a checklist on all of the items that need to be together in in
order for there to be a complete proposal for us to vote on So um I know for example that this district I believe is it a Yarmouth tourism destin is or is it a C I thought they were in the process of creating a
Capewide district and they needed to identify a number of towns to be a part of that That was my understanding But when I see this as the Yarmouth tourism destination market individual Yeah No they changed it they they when they first came like uh year ago or year and
a half ago they they were going to do a do it Capewide and then they they decided that it was going to be too hard So they're um picking a couple of towns and I I think um I don't know if they've got any other towns approved but they're going Yarmouth only for this proposal
That's what I recall as well And I think that they were going to do Barnstable too Mhm No my Yeah my understanding is there were they were this was supposed to be a Cape marketing district with a multitude of communities involved in it That was my understanding Um Well that's
needs to be Yeah I think we need what he said when he came that wasn't what he said when he came to your meeting Oh it wasn't He had basically he said that they they can the idea of having it Capewide and then and they were just going to take a few of the towns and he said he was going to start with Barnab
and Yarm Okay my recollection as well Yeah But I still think we need a a checklist in terms of making sure because I think all of the businesses that are participating uh meaning that the fairly large number of hotels need to sign up in order for
it to happen So there needs to be some evidence that that exists Right Right But you know I will tell you it's been a bear We're working on that now even determining what the actual requirements are The whole thing is you know part of that legislation that's only two years old So it's only been done in Cambridge
or Boston So far we're the guinea pigs and you know the Department of Revenue um is responsible for administering the whole program and there's no one up there you can even ask a question to because they don't even know And you the one thing that we're trying to figure
out is there's no we have the surveys not the surveys the uh petitions but but there's no way to certify the signatures on the petitions So apparently it's you know it's not like like a regular
petition that we certify that s such and such a person is a registered voter at such and such address You know these are all just people representing these corporations that you know we don't know what their um job is whether they've had a a vote of the
corporation and and we're not we're not able to certify any of those corporate votes or anything So that you know there's a question about uh you know some of the procedures but we have the statute we have all of the things that says that they're required to do but wouldn't we need to have I mean in order
to know that they're meeting the criteria don't we have like uh I'm just going to give an example that if there was a Marriott hotel in town that we'd need a letter from the Marriott Corporation that John Smith has been
given permission to speak for the clerk has been researching that topic with legal counsel I think she's got her hand raised In fact she may be trying to speak Mary are you with us yeah she's been doing a lot of work on this You have to unmute yourself Mary Or
she may need someone to hear me now I can hear you now So uh sorry I would have stayed downstairs had I realized this was coming up Um we've sent we've done the best that we could as far as doing kind of corporate due diligence to
figure out what entities are typically involved in those in those um particular hotels The way the plan has been sent in for you folks is that it is only 12 hotels within the town of Yarmouth and
they are creating a class of hotels and motel that have 85 or more uh hotel rooms So that's essentially the the 12 members We aired on the side of caution and and sent some to a couple of
additional uh hotels One that was on a petition but didn't meet the criteria and one that uh particularly the 452 I believe is used to be the Town and Country Motor Lodge We've sent
information to all of their um contacts that we could find through the corporate records and through our um assessors database records And I'm waiting for some information back from uh the director of the Bureau of Accounts at
Department of Revenue uh she was at a meeting I was at this week and she is going to do a deep dive and try and get us the information that we need so that we can figure out um what information we can rely on uh to make sure that we know
what the 62% is what the what the 100% is to be able to determine what the 62% is Um the interesting thing with 452 um in the former Town and Country Motor Lodge is that it's currently not operating as a motel It's 100% employee
occupancy but that's only um part-time So so there's been a a lot of Wow divides looking into information to to try and figure out what we're using for a baseline and um you know as soon as we
have the information uh we'll get it to to you folks through Bob Yeah I think it would be Mary do you feel comfortable that you'll have that for our May 6th meeting i I I really I'm not at this point What I did when we sent out the notices was include a cover letter and
saying that you know identifying who the person was that had signed the petition and requesting if that person um was authorized to uh represent any of the corporate entities So you know hopefully they will but um you know if you were
just looking at it it it seems like some people were may have been owners or shareholders and some people may have just been area uh general managers So um those petitions are will be sent to department of revenue this week as soon as we find out to whom they need to go
and um as soon as we can find out more of the baseline information to determine that 62% you know we will but at this point it's uh it's a matter of it's a work in progress It sounds like it's a work in pro progress and it's waiting for information from the
department of revenue to kind of give us some guidance So we're saying that it's there there's no the only other one that exists is Boston and Cambridge So they're still looking up information as well Okay So tentatively then we have it on for May 6th We may be pushing it back
But we still need information right we still need I think a checklist so that we know when we walk into that hearing all of the all all of the various items that are associated with a district have been checked off and there's been sufficient due diligence on each of the
items because we've never done this before Nobody else has No nobody has We're and I'm glad to hear that Mary's on top of it I think it's terrific Thanks Mary for working on this and helping sort it out Get some help from Paul Nuzuki as well from the chamber
I'm sure they're all talking I just want to make sure that I I don't want to walk in cold to that hearing on the 6th No Agreed So we'll say that we need to get all the paperwork at least a week before the meeting Do you want more time than that week is good I think it would be helpful
to have a week ahead A week ahead So if we have questions we can direct them to staff and do do our homework well before the meeting Okay I'm assuming if it's a hearing then it's probably got to be posted at some point And so yeah we're
posting the hearing And you know the only thing I would say is keep in mind that if you don't have all your questions answered you don't have to close that public hearing You can keep that open Got it Good Thank you Okay Thank you Mary
Any other any other um items then for May 6th no Okay Very good Can can I go back to the housing workshop and just inquire as to whether the um Yarmouth Housing
Authority has been invited and has responded um yes No I can answer that question Um uh yes the housing authority has been invited to the meeting and um yes they've responded that um you know they will attend Wonderful And so it's all set
Looking forward to a very informative session for all of us on that next Tuesday Excellent Okay moving on to the next item I just lost my agenda Individual items
Individual items Mark Um this is sort of a scheduling item but I I do think as a board we should be thinking about uh this whole question of maintenance and care of parks and properties and and and have a
very focused discussion uh with with our management team after town meeting sometime to focus on this because this is this is an ongoing question and it may be helpful for us to get a better sense of uh you know how we're managing our parks how we're man because it's not
so much just the parks but it's also buildings you know uh and the may sort of sort of a deep dive into terms of our overall plan for managing parks and buildings public property and because uh this I mean we hear this all the time
and I think what we need to do is get our arms around it and better understand to what extent there are issues um you know for example with the with the the park where we hear the constant complaints about the fragmitees and the growth growth and the lack of seeing
scenic vistas I think just as a board it would be helpful for us to get up to speed on what's going on with that And if and if we do have a a fundamental issue or problem and so I I would recommend after town meeting we kind of revisit that Sounds good to me
The only other question I have is um did we set a date on our goal setting workshop meeting we did not We did not Yeah Okay Is that something we should at least identify tenatively
madam Chair I would feel more comfortable if we were doing that when Tracy's here so we can all look at our calendars And also I just raised um that you do have an upcoming election on the 20th of May That's true You may want to wait to see
who your new board is Standing Yeah Um no And and the only final individual item I have is is that it was great to see uh the board recognize Ellie Lawrence for all of her contributions Um
you know she's sort of one of the unsung heroes in town You know absolutely Given given um you know all the help that she's provided in so many areas Um I mean she's known for her love and her commitment to conservation and her
interest in Bass River and the sailing program I just I mean she's been involved in so many different things And to see the turnout tonight was really really heartwarming to see this room packed with people here showing their love and affection for Ellie because she
deserves all of it She does She really does And well deserved Full disclosure she's a neighbor of mine Um my dogs refer my dogs refer to her as Auntie Ellie and um she's she's just been a a wonderful friend and uh it's like I said
it's just great to see all of the outpouring of support and recognition for her many years of service to our community And it was nice quite frankly to hear that she may be coming back Didn't she give a hint there at the end that she was thinking of coming on board with another committee and uh we're
going to have to pursue that because whatever whatever she gets involved in is always uh she's just such a huge asset to our community So and she makes such a commitment when she does Exactly When you think of how many kids have her to thank for learning how to sail in
this town I bet it's pretty you know and the thing is is with that sailing program is such a widely supported and recognized program and you're right the number of kids I mean you were on the rec commission for a while and and you know firsthand how how important that
program is and how many young people their lives have been enriched by being in Yarmouth and participating in that program and she's a wonderful teacher So to have her involved in that has been a huge plus and it's not just the kids in Yarmouth it's the grandkids coming to
visit the grandparents in Yarmouth and she is she has been invaluable and she will be greatly missed and I'm glad we were able to recognize her today Joyce
individual items anything this week okay Liz I could just let you know that the um municipal energy manager there were 24 awards made that went to 63 municipalities and five regional
planning commissions They've they have uh earmarked $5 million to go out for this program over the three years and they're going to be adjusting the requirements because part of what Bill
was worried about is that there are so many um reporting requirements is that what this poor uh whoever energy manager gets a week of reporting right but they're going to be adjusting that and what they're really
focused on and not even for the first year is to get something accomplished So they're being very reasonable So and we within two months we invoice for the 75% of the first year and they
will so we have the money up front which is nice too Just just a few notes that I had on it Coulder get I mean you will really do we have a motion um to accept the consent agenda So moved Sorry And second
Okay Any discussion all in favor i oppose We have a voice unanimous Bob Okay I know it's late I did have a couple of items though I I wanted to just let you know you know last Friday the town of Yarmath um was the host to the
Massachusetts Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives annual meeting That was a big event People from all around the state I was out there was able to um make some comments on behalf of the town People were very impressed with our area Happy to be here Um I want to let you
know last Wednesday uh we traveled um Sleman Flynn Sleekman Post um and I we we went up to the ABCC for a hearing um on uh you know our ongoing case there And I I just want to say I was never so
proud of our select board members um under cross-examination That was very tough They just did a a great job and represented the town so well and we don't have a um decision yet but we're awaiting a decision And you know but you know it was one of those situations that
we were subpoenaed to go up there Uh it was you know part of the game plan and and that was so they could subject us to the cross-examination and and the ladies u they didn't want to talk to me I guess I looked too mean but
um testimony was great And so um another thing I I did want to acknowledge um the receipt of a number of pieces of correspondence and we heard um you know comments this evening uh you know surrounding the whole issue of Mr Tali
and the sale of the lobsters and um what could be done and all of these things And uh I'll tell you one thing we talked about this a little bit last um week and really struck me that there's so much confusion among citizens about zoning
and and how it works Um I put together a little draft that um I wanted to share with you and and maybe you could give me some feedback on and it's a citizens guide to dealing with local zoning violations and and things
of this nature that um and Liz had mentioned the possibility of something like that but I I was thinking the same thing that um I would like to um have information like this that we can help share and outreach with you know some of the the questions and in people's viewpoints on it are you know just so
mistaken in in so many respects Like a perfect example is that um the zoning decision of the zoning enforcement officer gets appealed to the zoning board of appeals And so many
people have have asked me well the board of selectmen or the town administrator should have sat down with that zoning board of appeals They're not elected they're appointed and should have told them you know what to do And what people don't understand is that is specifically
against the law that when you're uh acting on those appeals under the Massachusetts Zoning Act all you need to do is have one meeting outside of the hearing with that ZBA in advance of their taking and what you've done is completely invalidated their whole
decision and and it gets thrown That's just a one example of um you know how people really don't understand So I think having a guide for citizens could help and I I wanted to ask the board the you know this question is um so obviously on this particular
case you know um the zoning board of appeals had declined to uphold the appeal So um the proponents and Mr Tally they're searching for you know what do we do next and obviously you know they send someone the first thing in the morning down to town hall to pick up um
the papers to fill out for a petition to go to town meeting And I I got to tell you um if you were going to go to court um well you know they could still do that The the way the tree works and it's in my my guide too is is you can sue the
town in court to overturn the decision of the zoning board of appeals which you know that's kind of an iffy dicey thing And and another aspect of the law it does say that every property owner has the right to petition town meeting to look at the zoning So you you can't ask
the town meeting And the uh question I have for board members is does anyone mind if I outreach Mr Tali and uh I I'd like to to ask him you know what he'd like to do with that petition And my my thought is if if I could prevent I I
don't want a nonsensical petition to be received that forces us to hold a town meeting but nobody knows what it does or it's illegal or something And I know we've been through that and you know the question is whether we try to direct Mr
Tally to have some discussions with the planning board before he submits his petition maybe they could um give him some ideas on what he could ask for because when the petition comes in the first thing that's going to happen is it has to go in front of the planning board
Anyways I just wanted to kind of let you know it's a thought I had I I think it's a good one Uh Bob we should be here to help facilitate our um our residents not not not obstruct our residents So uh I'd
hate to have him go to the uh trouble of getting uh petitioned for a town meeting only to be told again it's going to be a nonbinding article and everyone booing and having a tough time at town We want it to be productive if if that's what he
wants then I I think yes please reach out to him and uh and the planning board for their guidance on this so that when they do come to a petitioned town meeting and I and I think if I can just add I think it's important to provide at
least education on process on process All right the kind of amendment the kind of adjustment that would be in order I think that would be incredibly helpful I agree with the chair that the last thing we need is another repeat of that other
town meeting where we find at the last minute that there's a legal issue and a legal glitch I think we may have there may be a variety of opinions on the wisdom of the town's zoning Um and uh
you know on this board we may not have consensus on other boards there may not be consensus but the governing body is town meeting and governance of town meeting is open to all and so at the very least we should be able to provide some
intelligent some thoughtful guidance to residents including Mr colle in terms of how to go about the process of having this addressed at a town meeting And I think that would be incredibly helpful very productive and it might be a way to
channel some of the anger and frustration that's out there in a much more constructive direction So I I applaud Bob's um uh offer I think it's a sound one It makes a great deal of sense and I'm totally in support of it Any other comments from Joyce or Liz no I
think it's great I I wouldn't mind It's up to you but Bob but you know if if one select board member were there too might might be nice as well when you meet with him if you do meet with him just because well now that I'm going to
hesitate on that one because um Tracy brought up a very good point when she talked about the fact that we have to keep ourselves separate from that in the event that there potentially is further action that needs to be taken
Okay And I think it would be wiser for us to have Bob um sit down and um I think we're saying to everyone in town you know there are ways to work things out You don't have to go on Facebook and
vent You know we we are here to help you We were elected to help you and we're going to do what we can to to facilitate that But there are laws out there too So as as um Mark is saying the process knowing the process I mean there are
ways of doing it but I'm also glad that we are answering the letters that came to us and that's what Bob is is handling for us as the select board people who are being appealed to So we we are taking action through Bob to hear this
and do something about it So any feedback you have on the citizens guide um we're working on kind of pretty it up and I'm involving you know the key people and and on this thing my my sole goal is to involve the appropriate parties you know at the planning board
so that when they do get to the public hearing and town meeting it it's more orderly and constructive and kind It was not kind No needs to be more kind No it was not That's all I had for tonight I
think it is Okay Madam Chair I'd like to move to adjourn Do I have a second on that motion oh I was about to make a comment of above but Huh go ahead Oh okay Um the thing that struck me about the hearing was um that it appeared to
take a lawyer with a second goround to say "If you're grandfathered look at look at the look at the previous legislation I mean look look at the previous um case you know look at look at what was decided in 1981 and it seems like um that's something that we should
maybe give a little sentence to here If you're grandfathered about something look back at the past date and get that straight before you go to to a board right no Yeah I know And and it and it's hard like just listen to the discussion I I listened to the radio twice about
the grandfathering Nobody knows what that means It's a term that's thrown around and we we can motherthered either but we can we can we can talk about that one for a long time Let's just take a look at our
notes and we have a motion and we have a second All in favor i Thank you all very much And to the public that have been watching thank you for your participation Have a great evening