My daughter was one about Right? You’ll be all set. All right? All, right? Uh, good evening, and, uh Hello. Apologies for, um The late Start. We were in an executive session that ran over. Um, but it is 7:29 P.m. on Monday, May the 20th and I am calling to order the, uh,

meeting of the Hamilton Select board. Uh do I need to say, Do I? Everybody’s here. Well done, Everyone. Um, first things first. We’re just gonna run through some of the board and committee openings. Uh, if you are looking for a way to get involved, I suggest you, uh, find out more about some of

these awesome openings. We have two openings on the conservation Commission, uh, to associate openings on the council on Aging, Uh, one opening and one associate opening on the Finance and Advisory Committee one opening on the Hamilton Wyndham Cultural Council two openings for three year term and two openings for two year term, one

of which must be a resident of the historic district, and one must be That realtor on the historic District Commission one opening on the Human Rights Commission one associate opening on the Planning board and one associate opening, uh, on the ZB, a zoning Board of appeals. Uh, I recently.

Somebody said to me, how do I even apply to be on one of these boards? Joe, How. Does someone apply to be on one of these boards if they’re interested application on the town website, If, you can download the application complete it, submit it to the time Manager’s office, right?

You can, uh, add in supporting information like your resume or Uh, a letter of interest and, uh, that gets forwarded to the boards of committees that you show an interest in joining those boards of committees will contact you to have you meet with them. Discuss the position and your the role and then They

would take a vote and submit, uh, a a recommendation to the select board and asking for you to be appointed. Thank you for that, Joe? Um All right next we have our public comment. Uh, we welcome members of the public to make a three minute uh, comment on topics that are not already on the agenda as a

reminder if there is something on the agenda relevant to the comment, we ask that you hold your comments, uh, to that place in the agenda. Uh, but if there are other topics that you’d like to discuss now is the time. Ryan raise his hand. Ryan Ryan Ryan on the agenda, though. Oh, I thought he raised

his hand, Maybe just adjusting his camera. Brian, We’re all staring at you awkwardly wondering if you’d like to say something. No, I I’m Sorry. I don’t have a anything for public comment. All, right? Awesome, Uh, anybody else online or in person who would like to make public comment?

All, right? Uh, Next. We’ll move on to select board and town manager reports. I’ll start Joe with you. Yeah. Just really, Um, the town manager report is being con, uh, filled in by the department heads. We’ll have it for Friday, and it’ll be disseminated as usual, but I did want to use this opportunity to make people

aware that the town is collaborating on a public information session or forum. Um, will be promoting that soon that will be held on June 12th here at the library. It will be done in in hybrid fashion with a zoom webinar as well as Room full of seats for people who

want to come in and talk with us about kind of how we got to where we are and where we’re at and what the process going forward is with regard to things like Town center plan that we hired you for the proposal? Um, that the state the state three, a zoning law and the Sorry State three, a

zoning law and, uh, and the school at elementary school project, among other things, we’ll probably Tho. Those. Three things will probably dominate the conversation that night. If we have to have a second one to talk about other, um things that are in front of us. We can always do that.

But I. I think those are the three pressing things they there is some overlap. There is some concern about how we got here. So. We want to have a very public comment, Um, information and sharing session with the with the public. To add one thing if you can add to it, but, um, I know I’ll be very glad

when the paving is done, But can you Can you just any message you wanna give in terms of patience or pre planning or proactive paving for wear all the paving going on in one day and all the stuff? So. So, so what’s happened on Monday is the state. Um Mass highway is is doing a resurfacing of the

road from the train tracks to the Ipswich line. Um, they’re in the first process. They’re doing coal planting where they’re removing and then putting back, uh Several inches of Blacktop. They’ll, then do all the structures in the road and then they will come back that they should be done with

this first phase by the end of this week, we’re expecting maybe even as early as Thursday and then they’ll come back and they’ll be working a little bit at a time on just the structures in the road that the drains and things like that, then they’ll come back later on and add, uh, several inches of

new black top on on top of that, but the first part of it will be done here this week. And you’ll, you know we shouldn’t have too much, uh, problem with traffic by Thursday or Friday. By next week. That’s their plan instead of have most of the

equipment out of town, uh, before the end of the week. So they were working on the southbound side of the road today and tomorrow I haven’t been out since lunchtime, So. I don’t know if they got all the way to the train tracks or not. That was there They were they wanted to stay late to try to

get to the train tracks southbound, and then they would turn around and start north tomorrow from there so Bill. Any updates for the for the group. I know we’ve shifted liaisons. Tom. Did you have an update on the schools or do you want me to or Uh, if you have an update here, what school

committee did, uh, meet? Excuse me? Uh, last Thursday? Um, they There was a long, um Citizens. Comments section about 30 minutes of a lot of participants, you know, challenging, Uh, the the decision on consolidating schools versus the the values pros and cons of regional schools. Um, I just want to

bring up. They also talked about the polling that’s gonna be done. Uh, it’s not gonna be a mailing to everybody in the town, but they’ve, uh retained services from signal polling company and they’re gonna A representative profile, uh, of the community, um, trying to get the most number of respondents over over certain questions, uh, to see what’s

preferred. I think that the general questions they’re still looking to develop them are pretty much given the pros and cons of the the selection that they made, which was the consolidation of the school of color. Uh, but also give three or four other, Um, uh, selections or areas that they

did look at so that there’s a meeting. I believe tomorrow, uh, that the subcomittee is having their developing the questions, I think Vehicles going to go out. It’s going to be taxed phone calls mailings, but really, it’s a company that focuses, uh and knows the profile of Massachusetts and Hamilton. One of, um and they’re putting questions and

the vehicles of how they communicate. That’ll get the most respondents. So, um, I know a lot of people are interested in that. I know there was even some discussions about, you know, Winthrop coming off the table. I want to make sure that was clear that you know that wasn’t driven by

us. Um, but that was actually brought up in the comments again, uh, by by a citizen, um, but but look for that survey. It’s coming out. Um again, It’s representative, It’s not the entire community. That Nothing for me. Thanks. Rosie. So. I’ve just introduced myself to all my new liaison positions.

I haven’t been to any of them yet, Except for the CO A and I’ll just Again reiterate how well the COA is doing, Uh, lots of interest. Today. There was two There was a lunch and learn with two grannies on the road. And, actually, um, so they came and gave a presentation. It was

very uplifting and encouraging other than that, I do, Um, I will be hooking up with the, uh, CB A and the UM Conservation Commission and that other boards that I, um, assigned to next week. Well. I’m good right now. Other than that. Um, just quickly I’ll say to reiterate, uh there has continued to be a

lot of conversation around three. A. Um, I know there’s continued, uh, private citizens meetings and obviously we encourage, uh, ongoing information sharing, uh and we have begun the process to kick off our engagement with you. Um and you know, we have done the best that we can to include

folks who have raised their hands. Through emails to the town to Joe to whomever in that process. Uh, we’ve gotten a couple of I’ve seen a couple of sort of Miss informed posts, uh, online and even some emails we’ve gotten, you know, asking if this is something that’s happening, um, sort of under

the cover of darkness and it is not. We have been, uh, multiple times asked folks to please let us know if they would like to be included, Uh and folks who have asked to be included have been included, and we’ve tried to, you know, create a group

that is a representative sample of folks who are, you know, pro con ambivalent. Live near live, far affected and unaffected. Um and so you know there. There’s certainly nothing Nothing there. Uh, that hasn’t you know been presented to the public But again, if you would like to be involved in the process in any

way we continue to encourage folks to to email us and we can make sure that you have the information that you need to be involved. Can. I just add something to that. So. There’s the group that’s been put together and it’s been referred to as an advisory committee. But. It’s really kind of just a stakeholder engagement, and

it’s It was the suggestion of you Tell the to identify people, and we like the idea, so we worked to identify people that could just give them some of their time. Let them inform you tell About, the community and what the community needs and wants are and and get as many different voices into that

conversation as possible. There are also gonna be two very large scale public engagements and then surveys and other things for you to to continue to get as much feedback. The this group is not quote unquote driving the process. They don’t make any decisions. They’re Ju. They’re their role is to inform you till about the community

What it is they love about the community. What what it is, they’d like to see, uh, protected and what it is that that they’d like to see, particularly the town center, Uh, evolve into over a course of many, many years. The, Um, the the process for passing zoning still goes to the

planning board. Um, it’s It’s not driven by this process, but two members of the planning board are part of this process, because ultimately if any zoning is gonna be proposed, it’s going to be proposed by the zoning board. I proposed by the planning board and then voted on it to me so again,

this is not an effort to Separate people out. It’s actually intentionally done to bring people into the process and get as much input as possible. Um and we’ll we’ll be going over all that again on June 12th, So. I hope people are able to make it or at least log in through zoom and

participate that way. And as always, Nothing has changed. Nothing having to do with downtown 43 a happens without the vote of the town. Yeah, Cool. Um all right, we’ll move on to our consent agenda. There’s only one item approving the minutes of April 22nd 2024 Select board meeting. I will entertain a motion to approve I

move that we approve the minutes of April 22nd and the consent agenda. 2nd 2nd by Rosie all in favor. Hi. Hi. Um all right, moving right along, Uh, the first order of item of business today is to approve a request from the Hamilton Wham regional High School to allow graduate flags along Bay Road.

And Brian is here to talk about that. Let’s just approve it. I know I was like That’s like Brian, speak my nephew’s graduating, so that’s very exciting. All. Right. Brian, take it away. OK. Uh, thanks for having me here tonight. Um, So one thing we’d like to do this year is through both.

Uh Hamilton and Wenham, Uh, place. Um not a great a sign for each graduate, um, going down one. A, um, you know, with their name in the picture. Um, you know, just as a way to celebrate the kids, um and I. I think it would be a It’s Just a nice, uh, I think community building

event because everybody who’s driving down one day is gonna get a chance to see that. Um, so that’s the ask. It’s you know, right around 100 and 17 or so signs. Um, and the idea would be to place them up that, uh, we, um, of graduation, Um

after Memorial Day, of course, and then leave them up and get them down. Um, you know after the graduation ceremony is over, probably early the following week. Are these, um like yard signs. Yes, there are 18 by 24. I mean they’re the same things you see all over the place.

I mean, I think that’s delightful and super fun. I make a motion that we approve the, uh Request from UM Hamilton Windham Regional High School to allow graduate flags along Bay Road for the week of May 31st until after the Monday after graduation. Second that Oh, wait a minute. Let me just

amend that. The. When did you wanna put it up? What date like the 28th. So yeah, anytime after Memorial Day really 28 until until the week after. Get, a second from Bill second. All, right, Uh, all in favor. I All right. Great idea, Brian. Uh, thanks. Could. I ask just one question. Uh, if that’s OK, Um

I. I think I had requested that they be in the public way. Um what What is the definition of the public way. The area of the sidewalk, the grassy area right next to the the curb along Bay Road is a public way so you can you can put it in along there.

It probably be better as much as possible to be on what we refer to as the southbound side because there’s a lot more of that on that side from the town center out to the high school. Um There’s plenty of room in front of that grassy area in

front of the CO a that we can we can just you can do some there as well. And. I. Just. Be careful. There’s There are some places where there’s like some private property and Laws and stuff. They come right out. So some of those folks may not

want you or they may feel like putting a sign in front of those houses would be would tell people that that’s where their graduate lives, and they don’t so just just try to be as much as possible. Publicly OO obviously publicly space on OK, So. It’s just that grassy area between, um The sidewalk.

Yeah. I’m going the curb. OK, Got it. All, Right. Well. Thank you very much. I. Appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks. Bye. All right next up, is reviewing the project priorities and or a funding request for Patton Park and sidewalk improvements. So, this is the madam chair. Yes, sir, I

have to ask. Can I. Ask the the the Select Board to table this and I can explain why it’s my favorite when someone does that. Um, the reason I I’d asked for for, um, table I. We do need to, um We do need to allocate this funding. Before the end of

December. That said. As you know, we have a very large bid out on the town hall project right now. We have identified that just a little over $6 million that could handle that. Our. Concern is that if it comes in a little bit over, we have nothing else If, we wait until the bids are open at the

end of June. I and my guess is we’re not gonna have to tap this, but I after a long conversation with our DB, W director and the arch, we thought, Well, maybe we just asked the board to wait until the first week of June. Uh, July. And With any luck we don’t have to use any of this

money for that, but to cut off the funding source to close a small gap. Um, when we can just wait a month and a half and probably be in better shape. Uh, I’d I’d ask to table this until July. I think anyone here who’s ever done a construction

project. So Joe. I think that that’s fine. Only had one question before you, is it. But. This is part of my ass was not just identify money, but identify what the money was spent on. Is there Anything we wanna go over in terms of the proposal in terms of the

different Items or we just want to table the whole thing and talk about it when we know what money we have. It’s very so did you look at um last the last meeting’s agenda. There is a super comprehensive. I see that, But? Is there anything we need to talk about? No I saw.

There’s a super comprehensive Now now, my question. Is there anything that’s still open on it, or we agree with everything. I think the question was. What amount will we have and where we want to put it, so I think That might depend on town hall because if we only have 200 instead of 500 does that change

our priority? I like the detail that this has, and I just want to know if you want any input on this detail, or you think you have enough right now and, um, I, I think ultimately the board is going to look at it and make a vote. Um, if you

wanna send some feedback to me and Tim over the next couple of weeks that that’d be fine as well. I think that, um I. I’m honestly, super optimistic that we’re bids and public bids have been coming in lower than people expected them to, including the athletic fields.

The turf fields came in lower their be, They’re gonna be able to do the whole project. They didn’t think that six months ago that that was gonna happen so I’m I’m cautiously optimistic but out of an abundance of caution. I wanna just have this available in case we need to have it.

I’m hoping we don’t have to, and then we can come back in July and you guys can have a great conversation about which parts of the patent park and sidewalk um, master plan you want us to use that mic for And. Then, we can get under contract and get going gangbusters right after that, But we don’t wanna Cut

off, you know, cut off a funding source that we might need to help close a small gap agreed. So. Let’s table, so someone has to sufficiently say, Let’s Take. Just say, table table so table Delightful are any of us worried about the sound that this makes when you talk No, OK. Someone’s complaining. All right, cool.

Jack. Did you want to say something? I? I am getting feedback that the select board if you try to join the meeting Are there, two zoom links. Online and people are joining the executive session. One Executive session. One should not have been publicized. We. Didn’t we Didn’t post that one. So. They’re getting the following message that the

select board isn’t an executive session. Waiting for host to start the meeting. Hm? All. These people dialed in, based on the Yeah. That’s why I wondered if they were on the two? No, it couldn’t be because I got off on that. I mean people who who’s trying to join

and don’t realize that we’re on a regular session now. Yeah, but they shouldn’t have the zoom link for this executive session. Right. All, right? It was Corey. So. He’s here so we don’t have to worry about it. We’re gonna go with user error there. We love you. Uh, all right. So. The next is, uh, reviewing a request.

Argentinian Piece of that. That why you send Joe an email session was posted. When he said. Um, I think if they we’re tabling it, But. If you have questions and you came here. Can you ask, right? They’re fun. Yeah, you came. You’re here. Yeah. Yeah. Go for it. Thank you. Uh, ja. Jack Davis also,

uh, speaking for my wife, Robin Davis, and just some questions about the, uh and I realize the, uh these are non arpa related questions, but, uh, our concern was about the bandstand. And the needed renovations for that in in Patton Park and also the issue of, uh The Railroad Avenue sidewalks, But.

Maybe, The joke could answer this question. Um, does the DPW have any line out of money for just regular maintenance? Because the the bandstand You know there’s rotten wood peeling paint and so forth. We’ve talked to you about about this any any kind of advance that was recently hit with some

Really pretty gross vandalism as well. There’s some acted stuff that had to be cleaned off of, uh, we have We have some budget in in DPW for that. I think the The feeling is that the part the structure is Need of care that it’s beyond what we could do with just Ma

maintenance, But, uh, I’ll talk to Tim again about trying to make it as functional as possible. So, the select board decides what? Um what they wanna focus on OK, right. And then the, uh Realize that the the A P a funding didn’t touch you know the Railroad Avenue? Sidewalks, but, uh, you know, just Citizens opinion that Um,

I think the improvement of Railroad Avenue, uh, in in terms of the uneven, um, sidewalks and also they, I think the very anesthetic Uh, spray painting there. Doesn’t ref reflect well on the town. Just personal opinion. So just you talking about the full stretch of or just the downtown stretch to Willow just the

downtown stretch in front of the post office and so forth. Uneven. I think it’s even sort of a tripping hazard someplace as well as being sort of ugly and, uh, Having a third world appearance, but, uh, anyway, thank you. That’s just a concern to be noted.

Thanks. Thank you. All, right? Uh, Next up is reviewing a request for a citizen L led effort to create a bus shelter for students at Forest Street and Gregory Island Road and I believe we are joined Eric Memo by Eric to talk about it, Um And just to

kick things off. Uh, Eric can tell us a little bit more about sort of the projects involvement and I, but ultimately this is as it says a citizen, a private citizen who is offering to bring the resources and build to do this, uh, for students that are standing in the rain and snow.

Uh so, Eric I hand it over to you to tell us a little bit about what you’re thinking. Um, sure. Eric Mimo. Uh, three Beach Street in, uh, South Hamilton. Thank you, uh, for this meeting? Um so, yeah. About three years ago, there was an effort by the town to,

um, build a bike rack on the corner of Forest and Gregory Island Road, um, in our small community down on, uh, Tobacco Lake. There are, uh, quite a bit of kids, uh, that get on the bus there. I’m not sure the exact number but I think it’s somewhere between 10 and 20 right now, and I believe that

number is gonna grow in the next couple. Years because a lot of new families have moved in, and, um, have Children under the age of or between the age of, uh three and five or three and four. So, um, next to the spot that the B, Uh, bike

rack is there is another, uh, open area that is somewhat almost level. Um, directly adjacent to it. Um, so I submitted, Uh, plans and drawings, um to a A, An official bus stop. Uh, right next to it. Um, it’s a concrete pad is, uh, what I pro Um, I believe it was, uh, 12 by 20.

Then. I would put a pergola on top of it, Um, giving it a shelter, and, um, I was planning on putting some solar lighting because half of the year um it’s dark when the kids get out to the bus. And. Um and I thought it’d be compliment the bike rack itself. Um, I planned on doing all this

through. Uh um Volunteers, Uh, for effort. I am a licensed general contractor. Um, in, uh, the state of Massachusetts so I’d run it under my license and work with, uh, building department for permitting, um, the DPW did offer some, uh, resources as far as, uh, helping to prepare the site.

Um, we have to just clear out some vegetation and, um, my drawing. I believe I have, uh Approximately 14 footings to support the structure and then um, uh, vote 40 tons of gravel to, uh, build the base for the concrete pad to be placed on. Um, and that is what we proposed, and, um and we were

hoping the, uh, town will look for approval. We. My goal is is to acquire the funding. Uh, hopefully by the end of July and perform the, uh, project in August, um, before the school season starts. In September. The include in your packets was a donation a license agreement

that was drafted by KP law. Uh, Eric has completed the that, uh, agreement as well as providing the necessary uh, insurance and release of, um, liability, um, documents that were required by that were recommended by KPY. And as he said. This is no financial impact to the town.

Um He built it with With the money he raises and and the volunteers that assist them in it, And, then we’d have something there. That, the the community. Uh, and in that part of the time could benefit from So 100% for it. I just had a couple of questions, but I think it’s great and thank you

very much. I just said you said mention plans. I didn’t see the plan. So. Yeah, so the plans were submitted to the building. Uh, Commissioner, who would have would have to review them and make sure that they they were sufficient. Um, I Think Ri Rich Taylor may may have been a little over designed but

definitely thought that they they’d suffice. For what? Um, uh, you know for for that. For that, uh so it makes sense for that spot and that size and and did Tim. Tim, look at it, too. Yeah Tim, As, as Eric said, Uh, Tim and Pete Bob. Actually Pete

Cob spoke to Eric about, you know, using some town labor to just clear the site and remove the vegetation and make it ready for, um, you know, For the construction and and then Eric would take over. Yeah. So. Yeah, so as long as they’re DPW in our billing commission

looked at it. I’m comfortable with it. Yeah, I mean as far as I’m Sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt. No, go ahead as far as the plans in drawings. Um once I get the town’s approval. I will work side by side with the building inspector and make sure it’s designed in approved what he wants as far as

building co and what needs to be done? So. That was my que again. I echo, Uh, bill sentiments. I think this is a great idea, and I love to see it Come together. I. I just have questions about like precedent and Property and folks building things and like If. We say yes to this.

This does not in any way. Set precedent for I’m just I was just thinking like I when it came up with the agenda. People were like, Oh that would be so fun to build a bus stop near my house, and I was like, so I think KPY is, uh um Assessment

of that question, because I asked the same question is that the town select board at any time can choose to accept a donation based on the different the the the specific circumstances in which the donations offered, or you can choose to decline it, um and just accepting a donation, in this instance, doesn’t necessarily you know, require

you to accept and somewhere else later on, if the town at the select board at the time doesn’t feel that it’s in the town’s best interest to do so. And, whose property is it? It’s town town? Yeah. So that was my other question, though, allowing it’s an unbuildable

art. It’s, uh, like a narrow strip of, you know, just overgrown We did clean it up and put the bike rack in and a couple of stones to keep people from driving on to it, But. It’s, uh, it’s largely just a a vegetated small lot. That is not buildable for anything other than something like this.

No I. I just add II. I think it’s a great idea, Eric. Um, since it is town property, we were just talking about the gazebo at patent. What about upkeep down the road. Any liability if the the covering were to fall or how does that get maintained? So? It’s safe.

I mean I think that’s something the town will will have to look at in the future. We own the property. We’re allowing them to build it, so if it needs to be refreshed once in a while, we’ll have to have that as part of our DPW budget and something

that we’ll look at, But. We’ve been sort of doing that as far as trimming the grass around the the bi American stuff a couple of times a summer just to make sure it doesn’t get overgrown and look and run down it. Yes, they would add, you know, you know, half hour maintenance every summer to the

DVW making sure everything there looks good right before school starts, but I don’t think it It doesn’t seem like you know, it’s always worried about the material selections could be a low maintenance material selection. That would be better, so I just Yeah. Sorry. No sorry to interrupt, gentlemen. Um I, I.

I’m Building this for the town and there was no way I. I plan on doing any low maintenance build on this. My name is on this and, um I plan on having all the Children show up on concrete day to put their handprints on it. Um so I will be building

everything out of pressure for you that is required. And. I plan for this bill to be maintenance free for at least 30 years. Um, I take pride in my work, and if I’m donating something to the town, Trust me it will not be done half In any manner. That’s great No. That was my that thank you, And.

That was my comment to build something that was low. It sounds like you’re gonna build something that doesn’t that’s gonna be very sturdy and and resilient. So. Thank you for that. You’re welcome, Eric. I have a couple of questions. Um, it’s gonna be a solid roof.

I. Think of a pergola could be just a a sort of a a rotted roof. But, you’re gonna do a solid roof and well, there’ll be a back and sides on it. Well. So for safety reasons. Um, I like to do, Uh, like I said. It’s A. It’s a shed style roof.

Um, so it’s higher in the front than it is in the back that we all the water and snow and ice all fall to the back. Um, so the front is open. Um as far as putting sides on it. Um I don’t wanna put sides on it, Um, just for safety reasons, um for

visual. So when kids are inside or I don’t wanna block it off so anyone can hide inside and then run out into the street. Um, but I did find another Resource Avenue. Um, that actually has a very, um actually just put it on my home and it’s a very heavy duty.

Clear plastic. Um, and that’s made for like, um, I’m almost afraid. I think it’s 100 and 20 Mile an hour winds and it has a zipper system and if I can do it within the budget, um I would like to have permission to install that because it is transparent sides. Um, and that would actually keep the entire

inside wind free. And, Um and, uh, you know, free from snow and rain and anything else like that. But. It’s 100% transparent and clear, but I’m not sure if I’m going to raise enough money to provide that the first year. Um, that may be something we have to add on afterwards. Um, but I do plan

on having the sides open visually all the way around If PE. If people want to donate to this. What’s the best way for them to do that. So once we get this approval, um I have a team that is going to build a, um, Facebook page and, uh, we’ll

have the donation process all set up through that, and then we’ll be able to link it to any other Facebooks that already exist for the town and then I also have 30 vendors That said. We can post the flyer around the town as well, Um, to help raise funds as well. Yeah.

Sal. I’m not sure we own a lot of small, unused fires. I do. From. I. See kids standing there, freezing in the rain and the snow a lot, So I think this is a A great donation, Eric Doesn’t say it says review request not vote. So Are we

voting tonight? I think you need to vote and, uh, once you vote, we can have you, um, sign I’ll make a motion to prove the decision that effort to create a bus shelter wouldn’t at fourth Street and Gregory Island Road, P the application. Committed by Eric Mimo. Second All right all in favor.

Hi. Yeah. Animus. Thank you You have a unanimous I go for go raise some money. Raise money. Thank you very much, Um I’m looking very forward to this summer. Thank you I. Appreciate it. All right. Thank you. A. Great donation. It’s Really, Um all right, Uh, the next topic

is a request by private citizens to use the CO a for a public information sharing session. Uh and we decided to add this to the agenda for two reasons. I think, um Courtney Ashwood and a couple of other folks had me. Had an a Three a information session at the Legion a couple weeks ago.

It was very well attended. Um and I think there was a lot of interest in curiosity, and they have asked to host a second session at the CO A. Um, we do not currently have a policy around the use of the CO A for Public meetings of that size.

We’ve we’ve sort of approved them on an ad hoc basis. The DTC had it been there a few weeks ago. Um So I think there is sort of a A later item to maybe put together a policy of some kind. I think the only thing we wanted to discuss is

because it’s three A and because it’s at a Hamilton public space being very clear that this is not a town endorsed or town led information session. Um, I think this particular you know, meeting I Think there’s a an attorney from Rockport and a couple of other experts that are there all like, you know, super respected and whatever,

but the perspective of this group. Is sort of leaning towards no on three A. And, since we’re trying to keep the public discourse more open. I think we just have to be careful. Just? So you know they have withdrawn the request. They. They we were trying to get through this process and

they wanted to make sure that they had a site, so they they locate another site. I told them to let me know. I would like to, you know, go in your pockets. There were some, uh, drafts of a facilities use documents that we’d like to, you know, get your input on.

You know we don’t have to go through it extensively tonight, but if you could offer me any suggestions you have, it’s very much similar to the facility. Use, um, documents that we use for the patent homestead. Um, it was kind of drafted based on those and it was some input

from Town Council Town Council is willing to draft this whole separate document if you want, but we were trying to get this turned around quickly, so that we We could, uh Could offer it to Courtney and her folks, but, um As. I said. They withdrew. Um, I know that town Democratic committee is also looking to

use it, uh, for an upcoming meeting, so we Like to have a standardized way for people to request it and then have it approved. Um You know? To, a director had talked about wanting a policy through the CO A, but they never got it done.

Have some kind of a Is there a list of sort of Areas like locations of town. You can You could seek to use for events so I mean you can use this room? Can you the light in the Hamilton Wenham Library has its own policy for use in this room, and there’s a whole process

that is managed through the library. It has nothing to do with us, Um, the only real rooms for us would be, uh, the new memorial room and the town halls redone and the council room and, um, you know, so We would you know when I would think that when we reopen town Hall, we We’ll want a policy

for that, and we’ll probably try to have it mirror the policy that we’re putting in place. We it’s just something that even though I’ve been here 5.5 years, we’ve just never had anybody ask. It’s, uh, the only thing I can remember doing, um Few years ago, then Hamilton Wham Garden club always uses

the outside area to do a plant sale. And. Um they they got a forecast for rain, So we allowed them the last minute to just move because they do it there every year. Just a lot of them last minute to move it indoors so that, uh, they could go forward with their with their fundraiser, but, um And.

That kind of sets precedent. You know if you’re gonna let one group use it, you have to make it available, but we should have a policy around that or or at least standardized form. So happy to draft the whole policy. Happy to take your feedback on the

draft documents that we put in front of you. There is no urgency to do it tonight, but, uh, if you want to get back You let me know. Do. You want me to have the policy drafted? Do? You want to just go forward with the documents that we’ve drafted? You want to make changes to those documents?

We’ll get it ready for you to vote on at a at a future meeting. I also I also had a Um, I had a question too around Hamilton Residents versus Wenham versus anyone. I mean, I think, In. The case of the Hamilton Windham Garden Club. There’s Hamilton. It’s a.

Hamilton When I’m in the case of the DTC. It’s a Democratic. It’s It’s Town specific and not that you can’t just have a Hamilton resident put in the the, uh, request, but I It just struck me that. I think Courtney had technically venom. And so that should just be part of our thought is like And.

Maybe. The case Is any any person anywhere any time, but I didn’t know if it needed to be town specific. I think it’s up to the board and I don’t know what the You know CO A is a very intimate place. There’s a lot of love and pride that goes

on in there. Um If. I were organizing this. I would want, um, a town residents I. I would want it to to be town. Um I don’t know. Do. We think it’s OK to have venom? Two? Probably, but, um, but I definitely think we should entrust our wonderful senior center to just local folks. This my opinion speaking

as the chair of the CO, a Yeah, well, and I think that’s a good point for just I don’t think we’re looking to draft a policy tonight. Correct. But as we do You know, like starting there that it needs to be. A local event for mostly local attendees. Were. I mean Best Case scenario. It’s A. It’s a

location that we should leverage and use as we have it. But Worst case scenario is we don’t want to misuse it. We don’t wanna have The. Wrong Events are the wrong or the wrong sort of outcome, So we just have to think about that IN the policy Yeah and and I like the fact that if you’re

going to open it to one, you open it to everybody with the same expectations. Um I like that we may or Or may not require an independent insurance contract. Um, I don’t know. Does, the town have something like that available and there could just be a rider. Uh, generally the town wouldn’t look to cover private groups.

Um, you know, for instance, and we we We very consciously made an insurance writer. Part of you know the use of the patent homestead. Uh, it’s it. It’s a little bit of a lift, but because you have to contact the, uh uh, a company, but they’re

usually like 100 $125 to get for the day and, uh, lots of companies do that do offer of those policies and it protects us. So if they take out that policy, and something happens while they’re there, it protects them, too. Because then they don’t have to pay for it out of pocket. We’re not

stuck in litigation with the resident. They’re trying to get back money to fix something that they accidentally broke. So. It’s it’s It might actually make sense to to have that. And. I think that, um You know? Little less likely with something going on at the Council on aging. Then, maybe at a patent homestead when

you’ve got an event or something, but in any case, we we just want to protect the town’s asset and our our residents who might be looking to use this facility, said having the insurance keeps him from having to dig in their own pockets. Something was wrong. I think that makes sense.

I’ll. Just ask just a parallel question. Um, while the town halls at the patent homestead that’s not available for public use in in inter internal rentals are really difficult, but we are trying to do some outdoor things that we can and we’re gonna try to investigate a couple of other things here.

So, for instance, Thursday night will be the first, uh, music series out there. Unfortunately every time Holly schedules a music series. We wind up raining right now this threat threat of showers Thursday night in the forecast, So, Um it’s only Monday. You never know this is It’s New England don’t like the weather.

Wait a minute. I’d like someone to report back on the tick situation. What the ticks. That’s What. I’m scared of outside Has. Anybody mowed their lawn. Yet this year. Their T. Excuse Me it is no. May. I know No, Mo. We’re no Ming one side We’re mowing the

other. My. My my wife keeps wanting me to model grass down the so I’m Gonna keep saying it’s no more. She’s no, It’s like I didn’t sign up for that. I’m like, Well. I’m not running the more I’m here for the pollinators. Um and if you want to come up with a draft, that

would be a good starting point. All, right? Thank you and it sounds so it sounds like the the The. Uh, request has been removed and I think but again. I Have if they came back. I think we don’t have grounds to say no currently, but we should just We should try to adopt

something That makes sense. I agree, And if if everybody thinks this is OK did our town council think this was OK Joe? So? We don’t they drafted? What? We templated it off. So. Like. I said, I’ll I’ll run that by them as well as, uh, pull together some, you know, just a couple paragraphs of policy

language to accompany this and then and bring it all to you in a future meeting the end of June or or die or something? Yeah. I agree we should get it done sooner rather than later. Just, just in case we don’t have a lot of facilities available so I think it’s a It’s a great idea. All, right?

Uh, the next is, um the discuss a need for a one page statement about very proposals and projects. Um so, uh, A resident had sent an email. I think One of the themes of the last couple weeks has obviously been like distribution of information. Centralization of information. How can people get

involved? Where do they go, blah, blah, blah. Um And. So. We talked about putting together A literal one pager on 8.5 by 11 paper that literally lists the large initiatives in town and basically says, Here’s What’s Here’s the progress of this thing. Here’s how you participate in this thing, and

Here’s the Resource for how You can access information on this thing. Um, it is a completely non-biased nonpartisan. It’s literally, you know, like 133 is in this state. This is what we’re waiting for the school building project. This is where we are. Here’s where you get information. Here’s a link to the website. Here’s the process.

Here’s where we are here as we get the website, and then we would do a mail drop so directly in mailboxes, no postage, we would just have the The post. The post Dole carrier drop them into all the mailboxes in Hamilton. Uh, it’s a flat fee flat fee. So kind of what we do with the time war

right now that wa that warrant card that we sent out that has a QR code. That’s what we’re doing with that. Well. That’s fun. I think that’s a great idea. More information. How often do you do it? Well, we’re just gonna do it this one time

first. It’s about $100 right to do the job. Um and then the cost of just printing. But again. We’re thinking, just like an easy one pager. We can print them out in town hall so and you know, I was thinking about doing a similar type of mailing to make sure everybody knows about the June 12th event,

June 12th event. Everybody June 12th event, which we can actually put at the bottom of this one too like for, um, and that way we can put a link to sign up for the town manager report. We can put a link to the website for the school building project. Uh, we can put A forthcoming, like, you

know, coming soon for the, um, three. A, Um and then any, you know related information about sort of 133. Don’t want to overdo it. We want it to be simple, but we want people to finally have access to an index of where they can find these

links. So the The. First thing was just to let you all know that this was something that we’re gonna be putting together. We want to approve something next meeting because In order for us to get it out before the June 12th meeting we would need to have some approval in our next select board meeting or we

won’t have time. Um But as far as topics I think, uh, the ones that we have on there, the three a zoning, the school building project, uh, Gordon, Conwell 133. And was there another Yeah. I feel like there was a big one that we were thinking of, like there was, but I can’t remember what it

was. Hold on. Let me But just wanted to check and make sure that those felt like the right Things to put on there. Yeah, Who’s gonna write the statements. I’ll draft it for you. Joe was gonna draft and then I was actually thinking Rosie Town center form base code was he was going to send

it to me and I was thinking you and I could editorialize. His draft. And, then have that ready for the next meeting. I’d love to. OK, Great. Thanks, Um and again. I’m. I’m literally hoping like two sentences for each just to sort of, say like This is what we are, and mostly just to direct people to the

information that they have, um and then get more people to sign up for the town Managers report. Um, because I it shocked me. How. Many people still don’t know about time man’s report also, just let us know how you prefer to get your information like that. Are there things that we can do to

reach more people. It helps us on that end, And so, um Um, also, we were gonna do link to the town Facebook page, which I know is not for everybody, Um And. There was one other anyway. We’ll draft something shortly, and Rosie and I will editorialize and bring it back for approval. I’ll be I’ll work

on a lot of it tomorrow. Um So again that that’s progress towards communication. I love. Good idea. Um it’s a great idea. And then, uh, The next item is discussing the rules of liaisons and boards and committees. This is there’s I think there’s uh, a code of conduct in our in our packets?

This this noise? Um We only brought this up because Obviously not just us, but all boards and committees. There’s a lot of conversation that happens online. There’s a lot of conversation that happens when some of us visit other meetings and it was we just KP law had had done a nice job of

reminding us that a if you speak, you need to be very clear that you’re speaking on your behalf of yourself as a personal citizen. You are not speaking on behalf of the board. And if you do speak on behalf of the board, it has to be because of an explicit designation by the board to

speak on behalf of the board with A. You know a specific agenda or item? Um and I think this It’s just important because you know, we’ve all sort of seen conversations that are happening where people say Well, this is, you know, I think this I think that And then that gets sort of

proliferated as like the board had said X or Y or Z, Um And. So just a super stark reminder of that. You know if you show up at a school board meeting or a fin com meeting or if you talk online, we should all just be saying as a private citizen

or as a citizen. This is my perspective. Um And If you speak as a citizen at anything? Do not introduce yourself as a member of the select board. Unless you are there to speak on behalf of the select board. Um, otherwise, that introduction is sort of considered an authorization of speaking on behalf of the board.

It suggested that you’re speaking of what So Um any questions? Yeah. Yeah. Throw them up. Come up. The Um alright, really is a liaison though we’re there just to be a conduit not inform, but you know, kind of just Yeah. Cause I. Think by definition you if you say I’m the liaison, Then people think you’re speaking.

Behalf of the board. Well, I think that’s like where it comes down to like. You know? If I think the, um the three A is like a really good one like Rosie’s there to listen, right? I mean I’m just using this example because it’s top of mind. But. She can’t say anything about our perspective

unless we as a board have said. This is the perspective we have on three A and we would like to offer our official perspective for the board to consider. Um right, just because we can get in hot water with our if we use liaisons or you at the school board, breathing saying, Well,

I think consolidating is a hell of an idea. Was that a good bill. Um You know, because then we get illegal hot water because our liaison speaking on behalf of the board, said that it was a hell of an idea. I. Don’t do you know what’s really funny is my first meeting is at

the, uh, CB next week. And of course. What. Did I. Get in the mail. My, Very next door neighbor is putting in a request to, um Have an addition put on it, So. That’ll be a case where I Identify myself as a as an abutter, right? Not

anything else. Um, question for on the on the on that comma, which I Think I. I agree with Mike. Question. Is that a lot of times I thought the generous be about something else. A lot of times, people sort of. Ask us. What’s this like board’s opinion on this or that and for instance, like with the school

like it never came to us, So we never really Had to make an opinion or got to make an opinion, and I’m wondering if it would make sense at some point for us. To have an opinion and a consensus if you will look to us for for that

type of thing, and we actually did it at the end of Sean’s term, when we actually voted to extend the lease, So it was our small way of saying, Hey, although we’re not involved in the project or the process and we don’t get to vote on it.

We want to the community know that as a select board, we we We’re in favor of a 3 to 24 to 150 that we want to extend these on Cutler. So. I’m just saying that sometimes it makes sense for us as even when, like the project on on Tobacco, right?

We did never comment on so I Like something like this. We like to stay in our lane, but sometimes it might be important for us to have an opinion out there. Just, so people know where we stand on it. Just something to think about. No. I agree. I think, um Just.

So. Sorry. You weren’t here for our, um Meeting this time. I. I mean I think the school one is such an interesting one? Because I. I mean I’ve I’ve had said this a lot like my personal opinion as a parent and a resident is not necessarily my public

opinion as a of arbiter of budget and funds and equity and resources like those two things actually sit A little in opposition. Actually on this project. Um and I’ve struggled a lot with that publicly about how to talk about that that what I think is is right for the whole is not necessarily

what I believe is right for the individual that would make sense. And I’ve had to sort of sit that one out and I and my only comments to people have just been like, you know, I have to trust the process of the group that has been designated to that process to show us the information.

That’s relative, but I don’t know if we want to have a For or if we could even come to a consensus as a board around what our perspective is. Yeah, if anything, though, I think, especially if we’re sending out one pager with statements and big topic areas. We should have what we’ve, we should all know

and be consistent about what’s been done about it, just like there was confusion on what we voted on for extension of leases and time frames. We should have a cheat sheet on every everything that goes out on the one page or that says, Here’s things we’ve spoke about, or we voted on. So we’re all

Singing from the same So. We have an official position and then when we designate ourselves as private citizens, you can reiterate this is this Yeah, Yeah. I think that’s helpful Backup? But I. I. Just. It Isn’t that one page statement. Just sort of information. Yeah, I wouldn’t go on the one pager but we

would always have a backup. So if asked and where a liaison we could stay. Oh, well, we have spoke about this on this day. We did this that type of thing but not give our own opinions. Here’s what we did as a board, right? Exactly. OK? Well, it’s

an art, not a science, and I think it’s a good idea. That’s what I what I’m learning. Um OK the last thing any other sorry. Discussion on, you know expectations of the liaison role on what you’d like to hear back at meetings or what? We

should all be. Cause a lot of times we punt a little bit and others and that’s OK. I do the same. I’m just wondering if My perspective on that than others. I think the the most comments that I’ve heard consistently, and I’m sure it’s the same for y’all is The lack of connective

tissue that people feel between initiatives whereby the select board could, though not our purview could be some of that. Connective tissue, and so I think as long as we’re having robust conversation in our In our sort of top of the hour that it’s less about like reporting back like I talked to

so and so on Friday, and he wants to know if we have orange cones. It’s more saying, like This thing dovetails with this thing. And. Are, we having a transparent conversation, And, is that information getting back to the other boards? Um, because I think that’s where I’m hearing the most sort of

push back is like how are y’all not connecting these dots? And. It’s because the process does not encourage dot connecting so Different boards have different statutory authorities. Um, on the one hand you wanna be connected and know, Know what each other are doing, but on the other hand, people get very,

um, upset or thinking that you’re trying to, uh Force an outcome. Yeah, Um or think that? Oh. So. You’re you’re making these decisions without public input, So. It’s important to let the public processes play out the way they’re supposed to. The playing board has its authority. The ZB a has its

authority to select for certainly has its authority. It’s important for everybody to be talking and aware of what each other is doing, but it’s it becomes really sticky if the side board wants to start recommending things. Um It’s not something we’ve done a lot of here and I don’t think it’s

necessarily something you wanna do. But, but even just saying, Oh, we think this leads people to think that you are are trying to show but part of that is when in in your in our roles as Liaisons, I think other than just sitting there. We might have questions from time to time, so I don’t think that

necessarily will reflect a position but it will reflect a thought process, right? We just Asking questions about it. I think asking questions makes all the sense in the world is particularly the able to inform the rest of the board here about what’s going on and and board of committee. Yeah.

I mean, I. I agree and I, I think Gathering the most information that you can in the broadest possible sense, I think is The Challenge, I think comes where You know, And. We all have biases towards certain things like we can’t lead the witness. Yeah. I think it’s none of our base. My opinion is when I’m as

liaison to something I mean C A is a little bit different, but the other entities like I, I think about the con com and the CB. I mean I’m there as a just taking the information and asking questions. Yeah I. I wouldn’t want to, um Yeah I. I will be very careful about not overstepping. Uh, I’m just

There to collect information is the way I think of it or if I think if you see that they’re missing information. I think that’s the other thing to bring back that, like, you know, the ZB A was talking about this, but I don’t think they know that this thing is happening over here, and I think those

are the connective tissues that Especially with the EB a coming up. There’s just a lot of stuff. Yeah. There is it’ll be interesting in a great learning experience. I’m very excited to be part of it. Let me know how that addition goes. She knew about this A while ago I had no

idea of great They’re They’re lovely neighbors. I’m thinking. Do I want this? How much so I’m looking at my bedroom window and sort of trying to anticipate how large this edition is going to be, so I’m just gonna go knock on their door and say What. Are you thinking so? I’ll be, I’ll be

all up to snuff. All, right. The. Last. Juicy topic is the regional school district agreement, priorities and processes And I, as you all know when I do agenda setting I like to time. How long each of these things is gonna take and Joe assured me. But. This last

item was not going to be A chunky. I feel like assured you this and maybe a little bit, maybe a little heavy handed, but we’re not here to Finalize anything. We’ve This is about reopening the regional school agreement and deciding what it is that we want to focus on within that. Renegotiation.

So. I set the table for you, please. All, Right. So. Um, obviously, there’s Hamilton Select board has been working to get this agreement reopened for several years. Finally, the Windham Select board and the school district have agreed to reopen. There’s been some back channel discussion between the administrators. Um, the the superintendent myself, the town

administrator, and and, uh, Wenham, as well as the chairs of the different governing bodies about what’s the best process for getting our priorities on the table so that we all know what we’re talking about and moving that forward with the attorneys on each side KP laws what has already been

disclosures filed, so KPL will be resenting the towns of Hamilton and one of jointly and District Council will represent the district. Um, it’ll be Lauren. Um Goldberg from K PR will be the primary negotiator for the towns. Um, what we want, I. Think get out of this. Discussion is. There’s been suggested that the the five

chairs, Um, Committee, which is made up of the chairs of the select board and fin coming in each town and the school committee, as well as the superintendent in in our time, man time administers. Would would be a vehicle to work with the attorneys to have the negotiations of the things that

come out of this discussion. So we did provide in your packets. The two letters that were sent back. I. Think now 2021. I believe Bill Olson was the chair at the time. Uh, when we were initially initiated this trying to get this off the line, and, uh, so that outlines several things that this

Hamilton select board at that time identified as priorities for, uh, discussing in a reopened agreement. Um We? I think There’d be a couple ways to handle it. But we’d love to hear from this board a couple of years later. Uh, if there’s anything in addition to these things that you want on the

agenda when the five chairs start to meet, and then the process would be if you all agree to move through move things through the five chairs, and then this board would have the opportunity to vote as we get closer and we have iterations of draft new draft agreements and things like that.

So are you talking about, Um, items that we would like, OK? Yes And again? I think Caroline’s point was that we don’t necessarily have to go through the whole list tonight or but you can Mail her. You can email me you could Suggest some things now if you have them off on top of mind, and

we’ll write them down, But we wanna make sure that we’re presenting our attorneys with everything that we think should be discussed when we set that 1st 1st meeting. I can think of two things off the top of my head there really burning issues And. The first is that when they come to town meeting

and they ask us to allocate money for X, we expect that X with that money will be utilized for X. But, um Diverted into something else. That has been a huge problem capital or operating expense because I think they just vote a bottom line right Bottom line budget, But. The problem is, they argue for certain things

that may or may not happen, because it’s the bottom line budget. In that state law. I don’t I mean, We can ask, but I don’t just You know, in the interest of driving a hard bargain. We can ask, but it I. I think the district’s gonna say, say, Los says, I don’t

have to do that. So why would I? Why? Would I tell you that I’ll do that? I have to approve the budget either, Right? Unfortunately, we always know how that works. So hard bargaining. I mean, you know the reality is we want to provide the schools with with what it needs, but it’s unfair

to taxpayers to consistently have Uh, Designated funds what they consider designated funds not utilized for the for the item, so that’s I also remember the stabilization fund that was passed last year. That now means that that money doesn’t even come back to the town, right and only the school committee decides that and that.

And, not just my opinion, but in a lot of people’s opinion to use that funding for the turf fields when it is known that the high school needs a new roof. That’s not good use of taxpayer money, and it’s sort of an arbitrary ability for them to just not be responsible to the taxpayers. We’re not a

school system with the funding source attached were two towns that have a finite amount of money available and we want to provide for the schools, but we want the schools to ante up and be financially responsible. Financial. I mean, right? But I mean we have certain we only certain leverage we can pull because town meeting voted for

that fund right so that the slide against our our recommend? We all spoke against it right? So, But. Um, the one thing I did have here was in the if you read the bullet points of the email I was talking about Um The budget and then talking about transparent mechanism for

like auditing or report on the budget. And so that’s something that we wanted to add into this show, so there are four bullet points that we had in the letter back in. As, Joe said, But, So I think I Don’t Know job we address any of these? I mean? Some of them have been organically kind of addressed,

right? We’ve got So. So so some of the better at some of you, we we’ve We’ve had some progress based based on the working relationship between the current administration and the town, but it hasn’t been sort of documented. It’s not It’s not and it’s not in and it’s not in. So. So the

apportionment of payment of cost. That’s the 3 to 5 year. Yes enrollment average or whatever. It’s It’s currently a a three year rolling average, and we we talked about wanting to Smooth that out by HA by having it be longer five years or seven years or something like that. So. Um, that’s I.

Think, I think something we still wanna go to and ask about, and we’re trying to get included in the in the new agreement, and I think it’s I do think it’s something the school districts open to It’s interesting I’ve had Less enthusiasm from the folks in we have talked to about that.

They be not inclined to to smooth that out. But And. I don’t know. I mean It’s not all we We provide a lot of real estate to it. I don’t know if there’s a way to work that into the equation as well. But I. I would agree with a, uh sorry.

Five chair meeting kind of Starting with this framework of the bullets that Mr Olson chair Olson had done back in 2021 and, uh, seeing what the combined entity comes back with. For what the important topics are, but I think these are these four are pretty good. Is there.

Um, is there an item to, um State that somebody from the Finance committee in this town in in each of the towns should be members of the school committee. Is that I I’m sorry I didn’t read over you, but it’s a very general says Need for a transparent mechanism for regular reporting of district

revenues and expenses to assure accountability to the taxpayers, so that could be done through a number of ways Be done through F. It could be done through an auditor could be done. But. Yeah, we’ve kind of tried to make a general to get the conversation open, but, yes, I agree. There’s gotta be some.

Whatever That mechanism is so like the five Meetings. You know that that’s a good mechanic. Jeremy is required. So. That’s one of the I mean if we if we could ask that the five chairs meetings be utilized as part of the budget process and, uh, create more transparency in earlier conversation going forward, That’s what we’ve been doing,

it’s been working well, it’s gotten us to better results. We haven’t argued about the school budget in the last two years. I It means largely because we’ve been using those five chair meetings. So if we try to get that into the agreement, then it doesn’t just It’s not just a result of the people and the

roles it becomes part of the process. No matter who’s involved, exactly, And so that’s a a sort of binding. Um, if we get it into the contract, yes, and that’s that’s would be great because that’s exactly what materializing it. Like. I said. I reading this saying, Hey, we got actually got a

better at the budget conversation. We’ve actually Done a lot of things that we we just got. We gotta make it put it in the in document that signed so that when we’re not here still gets done. Yeah. Well here came back and it’s still there. So. That’s good.

We’re gonna Yeah. So that this is one of the first five chairs meeting. I think we’re trying to schedule one right now? Um, I, Haven’t I. Don’t have it on my calendar yet, But. I think that that’s what we’re we’re trying to get done now, now that the town councils involved been approved to move forward,

so I have a Question. That is not intended to sound insensitive. But when we look at cost to educate we do it per head. But. We. Don’t look at like relative outplacement by town. No. So that, you know, I mean the whole Per pupil expenditure thing is not. That’s not how the budgets formulated. It’s. It’s a way

that people explain the budget on the backside after everything’s been done, so it’s I mean I actually think it’s a It’s a poor mechanism for having that conversation because it winds up skewing the information and you wind up saying to yourself. Well if we’ve only got X number of

students, then we should be able to, but it’s where those students are and whether or not you can have if you have enough teachers at at every requisite level to address the number of students in that grade. So it be It becomes More inflated than it really is, in some ways that I guess I was just

thinking like the way that we charge back. Is a percentage right when I’m 60% But that assumes like a homogenized Cost per child, right in the way that we do it and I was just wondering like, and I’m not suggesting this a good idea, And I don’t even know if it’s legal, but I’m like If, for

instance, Hamilton is 90% of our out placements and venom is 10. Does that weigh into it all or right, vice versa if 90% of placements actually came from win versus like, Would, you wanna get that granular in the levers? Or is it actually better to keep it as a A percentage based cost.

Like something we probably should raise during the conversation in in Agreement and see what people think. Because I think that’ll be a tough one to get agreement on, but we have to have a conversation and in order to move it forward. Yeah. Another option. What about households, you know, instead

of students, like every house has the opportunity to utilize it much like police and other services the town provides should it be based on households versus students or II? I That’s What The. Whole bullet is How. Do you look at abortion? I think another question that’s always hard to

find an answer to, um Um, transparent data about choice students. I. Think. One of the issues is, um, we Participate in the choice program. I mean people are always asking. Can. Can. We ask whether a child needs an IEP when they come into the school, will they need an outplacement? Um, before

they they admitted, and to my understanding? No, we We. Do not ask that. Um, but then the question becomes who pays for for those costs and I. Don’t think there’s um, a solid answer on that, and I think that’s important If. We are going to participate in the choice program. What. Are.

We paying, right? Um, just informational at this point. Is there a more I think For this conversation like I don’t know what levers to pull because I’m not familiar enough with the agreement to know what levers there are. So. I guess I’m A like is there somebody who who knows like I. I assume that

Bill when you put this first one together with these bullet points, like those represented The lovers we wanted to look at, but how would we know if there were levers that we should be pulling that we are not pulling? Because the reason we’re asking to reopen. It was a good

conversation to have with our counsel counsel. That’s what I was thinking, like. Should. We Go. Should. We go into executive session with counsel Should we just talk to them on the side of our desks. This was three years ago after many discussions at select board meetings, and so it wasn’t done

in a vacuum, But it was wasn’t done in executive session, but we sort of went through it. We all read it. We went through ball by ball, and he would be surprised when you read how how antiquated it was, and it still is. So we That’s what we did. So we all came back with ideas.

And I just wrote, and we made the best. We just decided the best way to do it is just to sort of. Say. Hey, the chair sends it to the chair and that was the best way to start that conversation. It didn’t unfortunately take because they

wanted to focus on other things at the time, but but we did our due diligence to really go through it line by line, So. I guess that’s a question like you feel like you guys. You knew enough as you went through it to feel like you, like found

the things right? But That was three years ago so we may have a different priority now, so we should read it again. And just did you get a letter back from when I on what they thought their lovers were? Is that did I miss that? No, they didn’t

provide a letter, but when I was going through a three years ago, they they I mean three years ago. They just said they didn’t want to reopen the agreement. And, then this time they just said that. Yeah, well, we think it’s a good idea to reopen the agreement, but they didn’t say what they wanted to

talk about. Yet. They have a vested interest here, right? I guess I don’t know if it’s worth looking at other Regional agreements or just speaking with KP law, but we probably should know what the lovers are. I like this. It’s a little more. Um, it’s general, but it also focuses on important issues.

Things that are just not even addressed in the, uh In the agreement. The agreement is just south, the antiquated, so that’s good. We also made the decision like it. Did it make sense time to rewrite the whole thing or to just focus on four B like what’s it like? What was the best way to get that built

the app. I think right now because of what’s going on, it makes sense to rewrite the whole thing right and not just and I think Council feels that way. I mean basically, what you have here is an agreement that was originally done for a regional high school in 1959 and then was amended, based on

adding in other grades, and then amended again. One Essex Essex was originally Of the group and then left the group. It’s like All they’ve done is amend a 1959 document several times and not really updated, uh, to current. Law so The. The method for choosing select, UH, School committee members in the

in the agreement isn’t even allowed under state laws. I mean it’s illegal like the having to be from When. They announce it. Who was that the registrar doesn’t have there or the or the clerk doesn’t do the agreement. The clerks in the town have to get this the sign.

They, do it. They. They were being turned in at the school together at the superintendent’s office, and nobody knew Corin was able to get them to agree to give share those with us, But it’s not writing, but it’s not writing Isn’t it OK to agree to whatever we want to Um, as long

as it doesn’t violate state law, right? I. Guess. My question is and we’ll ask KP about this, but, um I mean if if we agree to it, then How. Would it be violative? Right. Oh. Well, for instance, like the thing the thing you started off asking

about is get away from a bottom line budget in this in 1993 Education Reform Act says the towns give districts a bottom line budget and then the district superintendent School committee decide how that money gets spent. And they come to you and ask you for the money and they approve it. And then

during the course of a year if things change, they have the their they they are granted by the state that they know better and they should be able to make adjustments if they need to transfers. That’s so that was like the fight and that’s been in place since 1993. And, then that gets certified, and we

should just understand that whole process and what happens then? Because also the the budget meetings that we have been having right? They’re not codified. We just do those? Cause. I think that that would be part of it is like the the agreement does call out that they’re supposed to have a a

that big the big Five boards meeting is a part of that We’ve got them to do that twice now, instead of just once because it used to be that you did it the one time the towns went in and said What are financial challenges were the school said.

That’s great This is what we need for a budget and they went forward and there was never any more conversation until it showed up at town meeting. So we’ve got we’ve had a good working relationship with the superintendent and his staff and the and the current school. And. We’ve had multiple meetings, both with the five

chairs and then even a second meeting with all the boards that has been has gotten us to a better result each time. OK, um, that that’s encouraging. So this issue about the stabilization fund. It’s a lot of taxpayer money left in there, uh, last year, and I’m I’m still very upset that that

money wasn’t used for the roof. Um, the high school roof. And. So. My question is, if that was that was approved at town meeting. I understand that, but could, uh Could amending that be part of the process like maybe we would have thin com people involved in decisions be because we didn’t that that

that’s I don’t know. It’s a Stabilization fund the same thing as a budget. Does with the state. Consider that the same thing, but that’s taxpayer money that’s left over at the end of the year, and we decided to leave it to put it in a stabilization fund. But It seems that maybe we were not as

careful as we could have been about deciding how it comes out. And. So. That’s my question. Could. We have a little more oversight. I mean the the Select board and the F at that time recommended the town meeting to not approve it. The School department requested it. The school department knew what the Law on on, UH,

Stabilization Funds School Department stabilization funds were and we tried really hard to influence them to make some. You know, acquiescence to us on that they took it to the floor town meeting. The Select board moved for unfavorable action. And Town meeting voted in almost Actually they? They took

issue with the way the slave Bo made the motion and and silence and and voted in in anyway, so they they leverage the turf. They made it about the they made it a turf field vote and not a stabilization fund vote. So. We sort of were at a disadvantage. So is there room

to look at that again? We can talk about it. Yeah. I mean? I think one of the big issues that was raised was the ambiguous nature of stabilization funds. Is that once they’re there It takes like an act of God to get rid of them. And. That was one of the reasons that we recommended

against it was that it was It was never that we disagreed with funding the turf field. We were vehemently against a stabilization fund as a mechanism for funding the turf field because of their relatively new they They have very little checks and balances to them. You could put up to

10% of the operating budgets of both towns into the stabilization fund without so it was like something like $200 million can end up in that stabilization fund that we cannot do anything about that. That’s the if, if the if the schools made up that, uh, the, um allocation Um Arrangement.

Why. Can’t We try to talk to them about having finance people. I think we can, but in terms of how how it’s allocated, I think they show it does have to go towards capital improvement costs, right? That’s A very Yeah and but in a gallery over here, it can’t be

used. I think I think it can be used in operations they can’t use it for like funding of of certain things, but we were told and again we have I want to be careful. We have a Relationship with the school board and with Eric and like So.

I think we We have a good faith agreement that like once the turf field is taken care of, they would use some of those funds for I think they talk about like H vac. There were other projects. There were a lot of others. But I think this

idea of to your point, like codifying. C, Can. We put like a a local level lens over how that money is used. I don’t know we can. We can so that so that’s sort of my point. I’m wondering, you know that seems like an important Um Point of negotiation, more oversight from income people like I’m not

saying John’s heart is warming. Do. You see you say FK and John. He was visible little sparkles appear on his zoom. He’s like, Yes, yes. What do you think, John? Yeah. We actually talked about the, um The stabilization fund. In the last two budget cycles, So. It was in the five chairs, meeting. We actually

spoke about it, Rosie. Um so we were engaged in the discussion. If you look at the last If. You look at the three year trend of what’s been going on with the schools. It’s been very favorable. To having a more conservative More, Um Eight budget and This. The superintendent has led the way.

And. I mentioned this at town meeting. They did a very good job of squeezing out money this past year out of the budget, um, in a very detailed level, so the the trend Rosie of the last few years has been extremely positive to be very conservative. Um, squeeze money out. They don’t really need and

to reduce the, uh Excess in deficiency, the E and D portion of the budget, So. I think you look at a three year trend and it’s very positive in that direction that you’re suggesting, But. I think you should codify it, Um, in the agreement and just say it needs an extra level of scrutiny

because this concern So. That’s my View of the last sort of three years that that sounds encouraging, John. Thank you. So to keep things moving. I know we’re here at the end it It sounds like everything we’re saying is Roughly covered in this thing that bill has, I think within the specificity of

budget. There’s also like um or a portion of payment, There’s real estate. Tax applications, but otherwise I unless anybody has anything additional, like it seems like Between budget, transparency, apportion and payment and committee. Those are the themes and we don’t know when I’m gonna bring to the table or School districts was discussed by the least from

our side. That is all more or less covered, even in the discussion we just had tonight. So. I do think that there’s I. I would be interested to just talk to KP law like As a refresher to just say as a town that currently holds four of

the five schools. And pays 60% of the cost. Is there anything we need to know going into this that we are overlooking Because. It seems like there should be a basic level of funding versus then a split level of funding, as opposed to just Portioned out, and I’d be curious to look at other regional agreements or

have A shark of a of a lawyer say y’all are so silly. Why, didn’t you think of X? OK, Um, Does anybody have any new business? Yeah. We got a lot going on. Never a dull moment here on the Hamilton Select board. Should. We send a letter

over to Wenham like Bill did back in 21 from you asking, you know with these bullets and maybe asking for I mean some of the years before you have the meeting? So you come in with a The purpose of this letter was to try to get them to vote to

reopen the agreement. They’ve done that. I mean I’m just trying to solicit Now we come in. From when I might be curious what their bullets look like. That’s all There’s there’s the opposite of ours. I can I can I can try to get Steve? To share with me whatever they’ve discussed so

far. Bring it to you. I think they have the same. There’s gonna be. They want the apportionment piece? Obviously different, but they want the transparency they want, you know, frugal, spend and I. I do think, though, that we’re gonna probably have to come in a little bullheaded around the

cost stuff and just how that’s done, and I would be just curious to see how other towns do it. Um All, right? Uh, new business Anything. All, right. So. We have conversations with John. We have the one pager that we’re gonna draft before the next meeting. Um Were there

any other take two days. Five chairs, five chair meeting with Publicizing the publicizing the We authorize Jo to Maybe work on a Policy for policy policy. You facility use policy facility use policy. Um OK? At us. That’s a lot in the next two weeks. OK you’re gonna do

great. We Believe in you. I make a motion to adjourn all in favor. Thank you, everybody.