00:00:01,400	S1:
All right, so why don't I, um, kick off, uh, the meeting. So I want to call to order the. Wednesday, September 25th, 2024 Finance and Advisory Committee meeting. And we do have a quorum online. We'll do a roll call and then we'll do public comment and then HDC. Those are the first few items on the agenda. So let me do a roll call of the fin com members and we'll make sure we know who's with us here John.

00:00:35,200	S2:
Privilege present.

00:00:36,667	S1:
Okay.

00:00:37,767	S3:
Alex Randles present.

00:00:39,601	S1:
Alex.

00:00:41,868	S2:
Chris Woolston present.

00:00:43,601	S1:
Chris. Oh, yeah. And John McGrath is present. As I mentioned, I do expect Harry to join us shortly. Um.

00:00:54,000	S1:
So let me just flash the agenda here quick, and then I'll do the public comment.

00:01:03,501	S1:
Um.

00:01:06,567	S1:
All right. Let me make sure I don't want to share that picture of my parents. That's not what I want to share.

00:01:12,701	S2:
I might not if it wasn't on the agenda. Yeah.

00:01:16,267	S1:
No, no, no. Let's see. Uh, okay. Let me see. Hang on. I gotta admit, someone else I met. So can folks see my agenda? Yep. Good. All right. So we will do, um.

00:01:38,968	S1:
Okay. We will do public comment in a second, but this is the agenda that's been posted. Public comment. Um, we've got, I think, a couple of members of the, uh, Hamilton Development Corp., uh, on a chat with us. Um, wanted to cover, Over the FY 26. Hard to believe we're talking about 26. But you know, we are um, calendar and uh, fin com liaison roles and we'll probably, you know, maybe combine. Um, the next item as well. Talk a little bit about the annual town meeting. Um, I did want to talk about the water project. Um, we want to approve some minutes. Um, and we may decide to go out of order here on a couple of these items, but anyway, so that's that's the agenda. Um, let me just do public comment. Um, I see a couple of names on the zoom that I don't recognize, but are any members of the, uh, any members of the public present who want to make a comment on items that are not on the agenda? So I see, uh.

00:02:58,801	S1:
I see, Mr. Maddon. He's here for each D.C., I believe I see a computer name of Angela and a computer name of Lisa's computer. So I don't know who those folks are, but you're welcome to chime in on, uh, the public comment, if that's you so desire.

00:03:17,167	S4:
Hi, John, this is Angela. I'm here for the HTC.

00:03:19,801	S1:
Okay. Happy to have you here.

00:03:23,067	S4:
Thanks for having us.

00:03:24,167	S1:
All right. Sounds good. And then Lisa's computer. Not sure who that is. Um, if you care to make a comment or, um, just listen in. Certainly. Welcome.

00:03:38,901	S1:
Okay. And I also want to make a note that, uh, Joe de Mello is also on the line. He'll be, uh, Joe is actually here for himself, but he's actually filling in as well for, uh, Wendy Markowitz, who's out on medical leave. So we're hoping she's doing well. And Joe, welcome.

00:03:59,467	S5:
Yeah. Let's not get ahead of ourselves. I don't know that I can fill in for Wendy, but I will definitely.

00:04:04,100	S1:
Yeah. Okay. All right. Hearing. No, uh, no requests for, uh, public comment. We'll move on to, um, HTC. So, uh, just as a preamble, uh, Scott and Angela, um, I did mention to Joe, you know, we just we just had a town meeting the other night, and we're rolling up our sleeves, getting ready for the next one. It's only, what, six months away. So it's never too early to start thinking about it. But anyway, with that intro. Scott, how are you doing?

00:04:37,167	S6:
I'm good. Thanks for having me in the front row of the meeting last.

00:04:41,067	S1:
Uh, on on Monday, so.

00:04:42,868	S6:
Oh, yeah, it was, uh, engaging.

00:04:45,767	S1:
Yeah, it was a wild crowd.

00:04:48,767	S6:
Well, I appreciate the, uh, income book and all the advice that you provided. I thought it was good. Both in person and the written docs. That was really wonderful. Sure.

00:05:00,667	S1:
So what's on your mind, Scott? What do you.

00:05:03,601	S6:
Think is really our, uh. He's our president, and I thought he was going to be here to do this, but, uh, we we talked earlier today, so I'll, I'll maybe ten, 15 minutes probably get through a lot of things, uh, two topics or put them in two buckets. One is assistance or guidance and then the other is just general info. So in the assistance thing there's really three topics. One is, um, uh, your role not sure how you do this role to the capital plan, but there is $2.5 million in the capital plan for FY 26 and, uh, for downtown improvements, safety, sidewalks, uh, curbs, roadways of Railroad Ave And welcome, Asbury. Um. And sorry. And we're. I presume you need to do some kind of analysis, input. Whatever you're you're getting to potentially move, uh, as, I guess potentially moved into an actual born article for, um, in April town meeting. So, um, that's been in the plan for a while. Uh, it's part of it's the town part of what was a grant application that we made jointly between the HTC, uh, and the town, uh, where the engineering work is done. Unfortunately, we didn't get a mass works grant because, uh, of, uh, we don't have a lot of downtown activity that they like to. Uh, lighter, uh, reward. Uh, but that's. So the Bay road section of it is not included in this 2.5 million estimate from Tim, but it's in the plan. So, um, uh, we'd like you to, um, look out for that. I don't know what analysis you need to do for, uh, for that, uh, alternatives. I know there's going to be a lot a lot of spin in plates come next May. Uh, I'm sorry, April, but, uh, it's been in the plan. We've been working this for a long time. Uh, well, before the mass works. Grant, uh, pushing for these kinds of, uh, downtown improvement safety. Uh, uh, we've worked with the town and parking at least signage and marking for downtown, uh, stop signs. Um, there's a lot of activity, uh, that happens down there. There might be some community house members on here, but we have a strong partnership with the community house also, which they, uh, strongly supported both the mask works grants and um, uh, these downtown safety and and roadway sidewalk improvements. So, um, that is in our plan. And, um, I imagine that's going to be a Joe will look at, at, uh, what the actual recommendations will be for the FY 26 budget. But, uh, we're going to ask you to, to pay attention to that and do some whatever analysis you need to do, because it's got to get paid for. And we have a lot of other need to be paid for items. Uh, coming up.

00:08:32,167	S6:
John, are you talking?

00:08:40,601	S1:
All right. There we go. Sorry. Um, yeah. Scott, we. We will schedule a more in-depth item, uh, discussion on that item. So, um, probably what what you guys can probably start to work on for the capital Committee is, you know, okay, a breakdown of what's in the two six. So vis a vis, I don't know, just go back into that document you just referred to like that the the decarbonization project. Right. There are like 15 light items in the $1.8 million breakdown. So I would expect that, um, you'd want to have something like that, even if it's a rough sketch to give to the capital committee. Um, and, uh, you know, an explanation. I think some of that information is already was already in that grant application, if I remember correctly. But anyway, we will connect with the capital committee. Um, and they would be the first point of contact To understand it. And then they come back with a prioritization. So we'll tap into that. I'm thinking that's Joe probably January or December somewhere in that time frame.

00:09:58,167	S5:
Yeah. So I just started working on the draft, um, on the draft budget and ATM calendar. I think I sent you a copy of the first cut at it. Uh, got some blanks in there to still feel, um, need to talk to Heather and figure out when she and her committee want to start meeting with department heads about the various, um, capital requests. But, yeah, the typical time frame is that they usually start meeting mid late November, um, going over what they have, and then they have meetings with the department head sometime in early December. Um, and then they're usually getting a recommendation to me by January that I then, you know, bring to the comp for your, uh, your review as well. So that's You got a couple months to get stuff ready for the for, uh, Capcom, and then the pin comm follows.

00:10:46,200	S6:
So.

00:10:47,467	S1:
Yeah, that's how we've been doing it. Scott is there the first stop and then we're the second stop. But absolutely.

00:10:52,667	S6:
And I think this is how this amount already got into the capital plan, which team has. And we were joint participants in the application. And uh, so he has all those all those documents I presume.

00:11:06,767	S1:
That's okay.

00:11:08,367	S6:
Joe, since you use, um, your department head is inputs to, uh, to the capital committee, Tim can fulfill this request or already has. So.

00:11:22,000	S5:
Yeah. So I think we supported the FTC's request to include this on the capital plan, and that's how it got onto the capital plan. Um, you know, the next step is when it comes up, when it comes to the year that it's anticipated to be funded, it gets more review. Again, I would just say that, you know, the more support it has As with Capcom, the better chance it has is of emerging out of Capcom.

00:11:42,267	S2:
Yeah. One. One thing, Joe, that's sort of tangential is I know the last time. I think we all met with Capcom. One of the things they had mentioned was really wanting to see sort of more detail on road work that we've funded the last few years, because I'm sure, like with Scott's asking for or very specific asks and very detailed that they already have, but I don't think they have that on this sort of general, um, funds that we've spent. And I know a lot of it was Arpa funds as well. But I think, you know, especially if there's there's funds that are still left or that were not expended because there's just too much work to do. That would be good to know because there could be some trade offs and we might want to prioritize some downtown stuff.

00:12:28,667	S5:
Yeah, I see that Tim Tim will be able to provide a good, um, rundown of what's been done and what's to be done. So. Yeah.

00:12:36,567	S1:
Great. Okay.

00:12:39,968	S6:
All right. So that's, uh, that's one thing. And it sounds like Joe has the info, except he needs some more public, uh, input. Uh, I guess, or you haven't heard enough about all of this. Uh, so I'll. I'll, uh, rally some, like, the community house folks or others, uh, who they themselves represent a lot, a lot people. So, uh, we'll do what we what we need. Uh, the second in terms of assistance is, uh, uh, there'll be a warrant article for the HTC, the annual warrant article, uh, that comes forward. Um, we're going to look for correction, uh, to the meals tax revenue. That hasn't happened previously. I'll give you an example. The there's always been a estimated amount provided by the town, uh, which last year was $58,000 when the actual meals tax revenue was 78. So, uh, Wendy told us that we can't get the 78 because the Warren article only had 58 in it. So, um, I think you'll expect a in the past, HTC has provided the language for this Warren article. Uh, we'll do it in some kind of forum work of saying some estimate, but adjusted to be whatever the actual meals tax receipts are.

00:14:02,267	S6:
So that'll be a, you know, you comment on what articles.

00:14:05,567	S5:
I think we could continue to talk about that. But I mean, I think the fact of the matter is we don't know what the the full meals tax is until after the books have been closed and everything's been approved by the state. So, for instance, we just closed the books in 24 and we've had everything up to the state we would now be able to, after FY 24, be able to tell you what was collected. I can't go back and give you something at that point, 24 that I don't know what it is. Um, yeah.

00:14:26,667	S6:
We've been curve every year. So what we're what we'll do this year is, uh, provide warrant language for the select board that has a closer to what the actual have been.

00:14:39,467	S5:
Well, so I mean happy, happy, happy happy to talk about that. It's still gonna be an estimate. And my question is, in the future years when there's a downturn in the economy and we've given you $58,000, but we've only collected 40, you're going to turn around and give it back to us.

00:14:53,200	S6:
Well, it's not you giving it to us, Joe. Uh, this is, by law, the only reason why the meals tax exists is to fund the HTC. So the standard born article language, I think needs to be modified to be the actual amount.

00:15:09,267	S5:
Yeah, we can talk about it, but the, the it was, it was.

00:15:12,467	S6:
A it fits under.

00:15:14,467	S5:
It was a town meeting vote in what ten years ago, 12 years ago to have it fund the HTC. And that's how it was sold to vote it. I get it. We're trying our best to make sure that you get what you do. But we're playing behind the eight ball too. So if you want we can wait and then we'll give you an FY 26. what we collected for FY 25. But you have to wait and then you're really behind. We're giving you ahead of time in a budget before we know what's collected that. So in order to do that we're taking it away from something else.

00:15:43,767	S6:
Well actually.

00:15:44,367	S5:
Because we can only estimate we can only estimate what the receipts are going to be.

00:15:47,767	S6:
Right. So, John, I think for the purpose you can see the conflict that exists here, um, the actual meals tax being $20,000 higher than what town meeting funded. I think there's an easy way to modify the warrant language so that there's a reasonable estimate of what the actual amount is, and then whatever the actual is, is the actual amount that gets transferred to the HTC.

00:16:15,767	S1:
Yeah. So I would I would suggest we put a couple of um, options on the table. For instance it it could be a rolling three year average or something like that. Um, so that if it's trending up, the current year amount would be trending up. If it's trending down the a three year rolling. So that's the first thing that popped into my mind. But I think there's some methodology that we could come up with that would work.

00:16:56,067	S2:
I mean, you could do a like you said, you could do an average, but then you could every year as part of that part of it's an estimate and part of it's just a trip up or down, depending on what the actual receipts were. Yeah. So then it's, you know, it's one number you're approving every year, but it's based on your estimate for the future. And then basically any difference from the year that you now have full data on. Yeah. But over time HTC would basically be getting the meals tax.

00:17:24,567	S1:
So so so we could come up with a couple of options. We can put it in front of Joe and Wendy, get their feedback. You know, something like that, Scott. So I think I get the idea. You guys are obviously trying to do some good work for the town, and funding is is a key issue. So I think we can probably come up with a couple of options. Let's bat it around. Let's not wait till the last minute. Let's, uh, you know, I can probably do them off the top of my head. Um, but maybe, uh, put some thought into it and we can, you know, let's see if we can find something that satisfies all the points of view. So anyway, that would be my. That would be my thought.

00:18:06,400	S6:
I think John's on the right point. What? Whenever this trip happens, the only reason that this meals tax exists is to provide all of those dollars to the HTC. So whatever mechanism that is that that you all can support, that's great. Uh, I can give you some draft warrant language. Just like. Well, we've passed and provided to the select board, and maybe that will help too.

00:18:32,567	S1:
Yeah.

00:18:36,767	S1:
Sounds good. Okay.

00:18:38,868	S6:
One more warn article. Um, there'll be a spring worn article from the planning board. Form based code.

00:18:46,367	S1:
Right. Yeah, I was going to bring that up earlier. Yeah.

00:18:49,267	S6:
Yeah. So there is tons of drama in interweaving inappropriately with all the three. A, uh, implication with all the, uh, three. A pressure from the state. Uh, we want those things totally separated. We jointly funded with the town, uh, consultant util to do form based code for downtown. Uh, but that was because it was in the town with the town. It also included Patton Park. Um, so the, uh, they have since learned to separate the whole Winthrop property and whatever happens with the schools from them from that. But if the if if someone is bringing forward a three, a three, a Warren article that we that that's up to them. Um, our point is have a separate and exclusive form based code warrant article so that that particular zoning for the use of in downtown um and the recreation area of of Patent Park and get your comments and advice.

00:20:00,267	S1:
Yeah. Maybe we can kind of open that up to the, to the floor. But it, it does seem the three A is, you know, the lightning rod and Joe, we're definitely going to have a vote on three a you know we we basically have represented to the town that we're going to do that. So we're definitely going to do it. Having it separated, I think, is pretty logical. Um.

00:20:30,467	S6:
And Angela's on the the call here to, uh, Angela, if you want to share. She's part of an advisory group to the town and represents HCC. Uh, about the the. We need to keep these issues totally separate.

00:20:46,868	S1:
Yeah. Angela, what are you hearing and what are your thoughts on that?

00:20:54,868	S1:
Uh, I've got you on mute there, Angela, if you're speaking.

00:21:01,067	S4:
Okay. Sorry about that. Um, so, uh. Yeah, just basically, to echo what Scott said, I think that if if it isn't clear that the things are separated, there's a chance we'll wind up with nothing that that the form based code will just get voted down. Um, because it just gets lumped with three a.

00:21:18,200	S1:
Yeah. Yeah. So I think this whole discussion will circulate back and forth through the select board, I'm sure. Um, and in the different. And the planning board. Um, so I, I don't know. Any other thoughts? Uh, John. Alex. Uh.

00:21:40,267	S2:
And Scott. Has there been any indication that the planning board was going to draft these things? Sort of. All in one? No, because I would agree it makes sense to have a separate.

00:21:50,100	S6:
No, there's a form based code. Um, but, um, set of bylaws that they're working on, however part. If there's this declared, we're voting on 3AI don't I personally don't know what that means. Um, we're we're not. The HCC is funding direct work in partnership with the town through UTL to work only on form based code. So, um, you guys have to opine on on all the Warren articles that come forward. So, John, as far as I know, um, it shouldn't be together.

00:22:26,667	S2:
No. Definitely not. Yeah. So and then it's it's and they're not we we need to make a independent decision on foreign based code, regardless of whether three A's in play or not. Yeah.

00:22:37,801	S4:
Yes, that's exactly the problem. I'm afraid we're going to wind up with nothing unless that's very obvious to the public.

00:22:43,367	S1:
Yeah.

00:22:44,400	S2:
So yeah, it's definitely a point taken there because we'll do what we can to to clarify that. Certainly.

00:22:51,801	S6:
Cool. So on those items, uh, were uh, HTC in the select board are trying to work out schedules, probably in October to have a joint meeting so we can go over these items with them too. So, um, we're trying to touch all the appropriate bases on those things.

00:23:08,200	S2:
Perfect. Makes sense.

00:23:09,567	S1:
Yeah.

00:23:10,667	S6:
So so that was the assistant slash guidance. I got some info for you all. um, uh, something. It may be you're aware or not, but Lamson Oil property is for sale. Um, best I can tell from the town records it hasn't transacted since 1800. That's the longest round. Um. And. Yeah. Well, when the HGC finds about of properties that are in the downtown business district, we get interested. Is there a play for us? Can we do something to fit with the town's current needs? Our master plan, uh, driven type things, the architectural guidelines. We have a whole variety of of inputs that we get neighbors, other businesses. Well, it turns out that this property, we, unbeknownst to us, this property, have been in some kind of soft sales mode for a year or to two. Even so, kind of shame on us for not knowing it was in play. And we're taking some action to actually begin an assessment of all downtown properties. Inform downtown owners of the HTC try to get rights of first refusal on um, uh uh, all properties if possible, so that we can at least participate in those things. Well, the latest we know from the broker is, uh, they are have a couple bidders are in negotiation with a couple folks, one of which, uh, and this is for some continuing use of lamps and oil, which obviously needs some type of environmental analysis. There's usually two phases that it has to go through and a preliminary one, which apparently they've engaged with either this prospective buyer or Lampson Oil. So it seems as if they're going to continue the way they, they are. Um, and, and they were thrown out numbers over $2 million. Uh, for the property, it's it's up 0.47 acres. It's bounded between the Dodge tree fenced in kind of zone on Willow Street and the garages that are at the corner of Asbury and Willow. Yeah. Um, so we were interested because there's prospective tenants, medical others. Uh, from a business standpoint, type potential mixed use with, uh, rental or apartments or condos, whatever. Uh, above it. Um, and actually with our partnership with the community House, there was a lot of discussion because the community House is actively trying to create a full time daycare. The community house has just a demand way beyond their physical capacity. So we we talked to them about, uh, about that site. But the site really, as it turns out, isn't available to us. Uh, um, so we need to get advance of these things, but I want to bring up to the com that that was happening and also give you the perspective that the ACC has around half $1 million in, uh, in cash or assets. And, uh, we don't own any property, but that half a million, uh, we can't go acquire that property and then held for a while and turn it into a development, uh, of some other use. So just in terms of scale of what the HTC can do, um, this is a reason why the revenue flow to us is so critical. We need every dollar that the that the, that the law provides to us. And, uh, we need to have that available to us and then that can grow our base. And then we can also form partnerships with organizations like the community house or, or developers to execute on the charter that we have. So I just give that to you as an example of here's a, you know, 1800s and rolling forward. Use that. You know new owners want to continue when they're. There could be alternatives that fit the town needs. Um that the HCC which is empowered to do this just can't execute on because we just don't have the money, uh, to do that.

00:27:29,868	S1:
Um.

00:27:31,000	S6:
So that's that's one fii bit. Uh, I don't mean to sound like a whiner. It's just the the reality of the of the resources available to us. Um, and then the other thing that I should be aware of. And Angela is leading this for the HTC, which is, uh, we're trying to, um, uh, come up with a RFQ for Wi-Fi for downtown and Patent Park. Um, there was a lot of talk about cell coverage, which is totally inadequate. People are and, uh, just can't connect all over the place. So, uh, we've met with respect one. Not even a real vendor. Just an educational thing. Um. And Angela has is now, uh, made a lot of made some progress and found out that the town of Andover has done a very similar, um, uh, idea. There's big support in the business community for this, amongst other users who in these areas who just can't connect because cell coverage is a disaster downtown. So we don't have any dollar estimates. Don't. Uh, it'll be a while before this even shows up to be able to come up with something, but we would imagine this would be another thing that we would do jointly with with the town. HCC would help leverage this. We're the one writing the RFQ, probably RFP. We do a lot of this work for the town, um, and then jointly fund it, uh, with the town. So, uh, we don't have any dollars for this yet, but we're not quite sure how quickly this might be able to come about, because we perceive maybe a lot of a lot of support for that also.

00:29:11,868	S1:
Yeah. So Scott and Angela, um, I'm not sure if you attended or listened in, but at the select board meeting, was it last, last meeting? Um, Bill Wilson um.

00:29:29,367	S1:
Walked through. I guess he's in the industry. Is that. Is that correct, Joe? Yep. He actually addressed this topic and just was doing an FYI conversation. Yeah.

00:29:41,400	S6:
Well that's right. And and Bill has been, um, you try to be helpful. Uh, give us a, uh, a company that he actually works for. Some of the people made a presentation at HTC. Yeah, but it's the HTC that's leading this. Yeah. Um, and, uh, we don't have any any estimates related to it. We're trying to go to another town that's done a similar thing, because what we found was and what Bill brought forward was a combined kind of micro cell tower, combination Inn and Wi-Fi. And we're we already know we don't get cell service to the cell tower behind Town Hall is even fully subscribed. So, um, what people really need is Wi-Fi. So that's what we're trying to focus on. And what Angela found was that the examples that we got through Bill's company really weren't helpful to us. We need to go to other communities to find out what they've done. So we're modeling and going down the path of investigating what Andover has done and try to utilize that for, um, our go forward efforts.

00:30:49,200	S1:
Okay. So that's good. Yeah. I you didn't mention Bill. I didn't know if you were even connected, but sounds like, um, it sounds like you are, so. That's good.

00:30:57,901	S6:
Yeah. His update that he provided was from me.

00:31:02,868	S1:
Okay. Sounds good.

00:31:05,868	S6:
All right. So those were the topics, both the the assistance info things, the the warrant articles. Uh, most important. That's right in your wheelhouse. And then the others were more just background about other activities that HTC is doing. And we're going to go over all these things with the select board as soon as we can get together with them as well.

00:31:27,067	S1:
Okay. All right. So we'll, uh, we'll certainly tap into that. I would, um, once you do that, you know, when you do the meals tax item, I would walk in with a couple of, um, examples of what you're thinking about, rather than kind of wait until it drifts close to submission date. So anyway, if you need me.

00:31:53,167	S6:
Absolutely. And I'm happy to say I'll send you or John the draft of the warrant articles that we would provide. If you'd like. That would be the more input. Ahead of time to better.

00:32:04,267	S1:
Yeah. I think you're right. Right. And then the other piece was the, uh, getting with, uh, the, uh, Capital Committee on the, uh, 2.6 million. So anyway. Well.

00:32:18,267	S6:
It's as far as I understand, they don't get input from committees like us. They take input from from Joe's staff. So, Joe, we will should draft along with Tim somehow in terms of what's happening.

00:32:35,000	S5:
Yeah. I'll have, um. I think there's a misunderstanding. There was they don't take projects from committees, but I don't see why they wouldn't have whoever the liaison is on roadway projects. Talk to you about what it is that you're proposing or, you know, jointly with the town. So, um, but I, uh, we'll initiate the conversation and see where we can get you involved with the conversation as well.

00:33:00,067	S6:
All right. Cool. Thank you. Well, we appreciate the time, John. Thank you very much. And Joe, you're listening to.

00:33:09,367	S1:
Sounds good Scott. Thanks. Thanks a lot. Angela, thanks for showing up. Appreciate it.

00:33:15,167	S4:
Thank you guys for your time.

00:33:16,567	S2:
Awesome. Thanks, Scott. Thanks, Angela.

00:33:18,400	S5:
Thanks. Thanks.

00:33:19,868	S6:
Bye. Bye bye.

00:33:21,901	S2:
Bye bye.

00:33:26,100	S1:
All right.

00:33:33,267	S1:
All right. Let's see here.

00:33:38,100	S1:
All right. So, um.

00:33:42,701	S1:
Joe, why don't we, um. Why don't we talk about the calendar? Because that was the next item up. And I did want to then talk to the members about, um, lining up folks against the different departments. We usually spend a little bit of time, you know, sorting through that. Yeah. But, um, let me, um, stop sharing here. I have I have your document. I have the calendar document that you had sent. Yeah.

00:34:12,601	S5:
Uh, it's not quite done yet. Um, I have some dates I have to add in from the, uh, five boards, uh, stuff for the school, um, meetings and stuff. And, uh, I using what you had told me, John, about your planned, uh, meeting schedule going forward. I tried to put in dates that you're likely to meet, but you guys can amend those. Um, yeah.

00:34:32,200	S1:
And can you guys see my see the. Yeah calendar? Yeah. So I sent the, uh. Actually, I think Joe sent this document to all of us. I just grabbed it and started to familiarize myself with it. So you know what we're looking at. Let me just start at the back end town meetings the fifth couple of weeks before that, or, I don't know, 9 or 10 days before that. The final warrant goes out, gets posted. So we're looking at, you know, middle of March to do book recommendations. So just back that all up. And, you know, here we are. Here we are tonight getting started. So that's high level um, what the schedule looks like. So Joe, what do you think? Um anything unusual? It looks like it's pretty standard.

00:35:26,667	S5:
It's it's pretty close to years past, I think, um, the 11 seven date where I have, uh, Wendy completing the finance, uh, the FY 26 revenue projection. That's probably going to be done sooner. Um, but that's really up to when Wendy is able to, um, to do some work from home. And, and it's up to her and her, uh, recovery. Uh, so I wanted to put that date for a date. That was definitely after her return to her projected return to work, but it may be sooner and, um, if if that sooner and we get, uh, the goals. You know, and, uh, you know, kind of guidance from the select board before the end of October, some of that stuff, um, some of that other stuff about, you know, sending out the draft budget to the department heads. I tentatively have it in there for 1015. That's that might be might have to move one one way or the other, depending again, on when these availability and things come and select boards ability to, you know, approve uh FY 26 budget guidance. Um, you've got the what we worked on what was adopted by both the Common Select Board last year. I sent that to you with the draft. Um, yeah. Draft calendar. So if you want to do at your next meeting, vote on that. And, you know, make some changes, give it to us. Once we have it for you, we can turn it around into a, a guidance memo to the department heads. So.

00:36:49,400	S1:
Okay. Yeah. So we can. Yeah, we can do that. I mean, we all got it. Uh, today we can schedule sort of a review. Um, and really, it's a matter of. Is anything on there that shouldn't be on there? Is there anything that's not on there that we think should be on there? So it's really a matter of add and delete? Um, I looked at it just to refresh my memory. So we can definitely, um, give people a chance to digest it, get their thoughts together and we can talk about it next time. So I think that works. So that would be on the ninth. So that sounds that sounds like it might work. I don't know if anyone have any other ideas.

00:37:30,400	S2:
You're talking about the uh, the the memo, the one page memo. Yeah, yeah.

00:37:35,767	S5:
The, uh, I plan to have the same conversation with the select board on the seventh. So, you know, if if you guys are able to approve something on the ninth, then select board gives me, um, their guidance on the seventh. Wendy and I can have that out again. Assuming she's able to work, um, we should be able to have that out by the 15th of the latest. So then that gives that gives the department heads plenty of time to start to do what they've got to do.

00:37:58,000	S2:
So yeah. No. And it's I think what you've got there is maybe there's something we want to add, but the stuff that's in there I think is probably going to be fine because it's I took a quick look at it. It's, it's same as last year and it's.

00:38:10,501	S5:
Yeah, it's been pretty consistent year to year. I mean, I know that Harry had some suggestions last year that tweaked it a little bit, and I think that those were helpful. And so there may be things that Chris or Alex want to bring to the table this year, open to all that stuff. Uh, the select board, um, may have some different, um, ideas. There's been some change there, so we'll see how that goes in conversations.

00:38:32,200	S2:
But right from what we've got in there, I think the language in my opinion looks good. But I if we want to add anything more, that's more, you know, specific to and that's something we can talk about. But uh, um, certainly we can have it to you before that. you're going to send it out.

00:38:47,801	S5:
So I love how John's already color coded the the the document for me. And I'm going to you're gonna have to send this to me so that we don't have two different versions with different colors.

00:38:55,767	S1:
No, I'm just real time.

00:38:57,000	S2:
I love.

00:38:57,300	S1:
It. I just, I just, you know, I'm such a colorful guy, right? So just so just for Chris's benefit. Alex, I know you've been through this. Um, but we have, um, these items are the highlighting green. We actually, um, get together primarily around the school budget since it's such a huge part of the the budget. So, for instance, the other day. Uh, so the five chairs are the. So it's the two, the two select board and both towns, the two Finn comes in both towns and the school board. Those are the five committees. So the chairs of those committees get together a couple of times. So we got together on the 18th. The second time we get together is on the fifth. Then we bring the full boards, all five boards together. All members, all boards together. And again, the focus is on the school budget. So as it's progressing we plug in. Um, initially just the chairpersons, but then we do, um, the uh, full committees and I think we do.

00:40:19,567	S1:
Um, we do, I think two chair meetings only. And then I think we do two.

00:40:26,667	S5:
Yeah. There's a second. Uh, this.

00:40:28,567	S2:
There's a third one there.

00:40:29,400	S5:
Second quintuple board meeting, uh, down there.

00:40:31,400	S1:
Uh, yeah. So anyway, just by way of, you know, familiarizing, Chris, since he's new, that's, that's what these refer to. So it's Again because it's such a large budget. We felt it was good to just do it all together so everyone hears the same message. Um, and it just it turned out to be pretty efficient. And between all these meetings, Joe is. Joe has his hand on the on the tiller. Right. So he's guiding the boat here and influencing the, uh, the school committee and and the superintendent. So anyway.

00:41:10,367	S5:
That's at least.

00:41:11,467	S1:
Yeah. Yeah.

00:41:12,100	S5:
So.

00:41:14,901	S1:
So anyway, by way of, um, just information, Chris, that's that's kind of what's going on. And then, you know, the final.

00:41:27,267	S1:
Let's see when, when we close. So I guess it looks like everything gets finalized.

00:41:35,267	S1:
Probably. Um.

00:41:37,701	S5:
So the select board would close the Warren on the 3rd of March. Their first meeting in March. About a month before. Um, right. And, uh, you know, then from that point, we'd be just in, uh. Warrant prep and and, uh, script prep. Uh, that kind of stuff.

00:41:54,100	S1:
So the only thing that we heard.

00:42:00,968	S1:
The other day, that. And I didn't stay for the whole meeting, unfortunately. But, um, they're trying to land negotiations with the the, um, teachers union. Yeah. Um, actually, multiple, uh, if I'm not mistaken, Gerald.

00:42:18,901	S5:
I think I think teachers are all that's left. I think they have 3 or 4 unions. I think they've got the, um. Um, they they have the clerical done, and they're in final stages of dealing with the custodians. They've already done the, uh, the paraprofessionals, which is a new union this year. So it's really the last big one Is the teachers, and they feel like there are a couple of meetings, 1 or 2 meetings away from having it done. But, um, the chief negotiator for the teachers has had some, uh, medical stuff and has not has missed the last couple of meetings. Um, had postponed meetings for illness and things. So, so.

00:42:56,767	S1:
Um, I mean, the school district is going to have to absorb that. The question is, how big of a hit will it be? Um, it's probably beyond what they were expecting. Uh, I don't know. So. So what we need to do is get a read from them, um, and.

00:43:20,567	S1:
Try to digest that. So some. Joe, I'm sure you're going to be all over that as soon as they try to land it and then get a sense of impact. Because these are these are three year, um, contract renewals. Right. Or so.

00:43:35,501	S5:
Yeah, but they're already there. This is supposed to be the current fiscal year. FY 25 is supposed to be the first year of the new contract. So they're currently working without a contract. And um, so when this contract gets signed, you know, they have they've got the money to absorb FY 25. They hit on FY 25. It's the hit in the FY 26 that we're planning. And then whatever's going to be in FY 27 beyond that. So um, they're uh, that's where.

00:44:02,767	S6:
They're. Yeah.

00:44:03,701	S1:
So yeah. So just kind of keep in mind that they already did a budget. And in that budget was embedded year one of the new contract without knowing what the contract is final. So anyway, so we'll we'll see when.

00:44:18,167	S7:
We'll hear back.

00:44:19,267	S1:
We'll sort it out.

00:44:20,868	S5:
So what was the question Chris. Sorry.

00:44:23,501	S7:
Do we anticipate when we'll hear back from the union.

00:44:27,968	S5:
The both the chair and the superintendent actually, and the assistant superintendent finance all kind of felt like they were one meeting away. I keep saying 1 or 2, but they kind of felt like the meeting that just most recently got postponed was supposed to be the meeting. They felt like they would have a deal that the union was going to take back to the membership for vote. But, um, like I said, that meeting got postponed because of illness. Um, they really, you know, don't think that the union is playing games. They know that other, um, teachers unions around the state are doing something different. They feel like their unions being straight with them right now, they're close on the deal. So when they meet next, that might be it. It might be might leak over one more. But, um, the financial terms they're pretty much comfortable with, they can't share them with us yet, but they're pretty much comfortable with what that is going to look like. It's just some other language and stuff that they have to go through. So.

00:45:22,200	S1:
So as soon as we hear whether, you know, I'll just say, well, we'll get an early read as soon as possible and feed it back in just so we have a sense of what's happening. So. So either either, you know, on the ninth of the 23rd or even via email will. Get get a sense of, you know, what they're thinking. Um, the other item, um, that I can pass on and this is a conversation, um, that, um, I had with Eric, you know, informal, I mean, the School Fields project is progressing. I think you all understand what's going on. And there's a there's some some noise and consternation. But Eric is hoping to bring the project in under budget. Um, so we'll see if he's successful doing that. But it's certainly premature to sort of Count. Count our ducks or eggs or whatever before they hatch. But he's he's hopeful that, you know, things might tip the town's way and that might be a good outcome. But, you know, who knows? Yeah.

00:46:44,501	S5:
So I just, you know, I mean, and I know you, you all know this, but I just like I want to say it publicly because this is a public meeting. I think it'd be great news if it comes in under budget. I think, um, as far as its impact on the actual taxpayer, that would be very good outcome for this. And it's great messaging that the school district ran a very large project, and they ran it in a in a responsible way and came in under budget. That would be fantastic. Yeah, but it doesn't it doesn't really impact our annual operating budgets, because the funding source for that was the debt exclusion. And we can't use any of the funds that don't get spent in that project on the operational budget. So it's a so he's going to have a big increase on the school side because they're paying their teachers a good, good increase, which the town did. So I'm not disagreeing or or criticizing that, but he's going to have a good size increase in the school operational budget side, which we have to absorb through the annual regular tax levy, not through the day exclusion. So it's.

00:47:41,267	S2:
Right. Exactly, exactly.

00:47:43,000	S1:
Lower. It's just lower. That's the only.

00:47:45,367	S5:
Right. It's it's a good benefit because it's less taxes that the town will have to pay in the debt exclusion side. Yeah. That's but and that's great. It's less money out of the taxpayer's pocket. But it doesn't change the way we do our budget conversations.

00:47:58,367	S1:
Yeah. Go ahead. Sorry sorry.

00:47:59,767	S5:
Sorry.

00:48:04,767	S1:
Any any other comment? John, I think I cut you off there a little bit.

00:48:08,267	S2:
No, no, no, I was just sort of reiterating what Joe was saying, so. Yeah. Yeah.

00:48:13,000	S1:
No. Okay, so that was the only, uh, only other item that I got from that the first five years meeting. Um, so we'll we'll see what shakes out. Um.

00:48:28,000	S1:
Let's see. Um.

00:48:33,467	S1:
Joe. Any other. Um, let me just stop sharing.

00:48:39,767	S1:
So we'll we'll work with you on, you know, calendar, if there's any I'll go over with. But more of a fine tooth comb just to double check. But anything, um,

00:48:52,601	S1:
anything else you can think about relative to budget and the town meeting in April. Out of the ordinary. I mean, things emerge over time, but, um.

00:49:09,067	S5:
Yeah. So very, very, very, very. So we're we haven't even sent out the budget message. I haven't even met with any the department heads individually to talk about what they think they need for the coming year. Things like that. But, um, always trying to keep our eyes out about, you know, things that we could do to improve the way we deliver service and hopefully improve the efficiency and decrease the cost of that. Um, our part time health director has been contacted by the, uh, by another town who, um, has a very almost no real health department at all about having him do their health inspections. Um, because they lost their inspector. Um, so I it strikes me as that might be an opportune time to reach out to that of the town. Have some conversations. See if there's a natural fit there to do some things. Um, we've wanted for years to try to find a way to improve, um, the public health function in town. We're doing some of that with the regional health regional public health program that the state is funding. But at the end of the day, some of this stuff, you know, is our responsibility and we need to see what we can do. So if there's a way to improve health there without really dramatically increasing the cost of the department, I'm going to I'm going to be looking for that this fall. Um, I think that, uh, budget wise, we we settled all the all the contracts were good for this year. Uh, FY 26 and FY 27. And that we know what our increases are going to be for our employees. So we can we can start to look at that and see what our revenue is going to be and make sure those two things match up. Um, so I don't have a lot of worry about that. I, you know, I worry about the state of the economy and what that does to our tax collections and things like that. But as of right now, we're, we're I think, you know, I need to see Wendy's forecast, but I think we're doing okay. We got our free cash certified for FY 24. So again we've done a good job of managing our budget and um, working through, you know, lots of people and taking advantage of the fact that we have an unfilled position for 3 or 4 months and using that money and letting that fall default free cash and doing things like that so that we could have some money to spend on some capital projects. So we just have to go through all the numbers and see what they are. I support the FTC's request to have a downtown project. I think that we also have to, um, analyze it against all the other requests and all the other things that we need. So $2.5 million is a lot of money. And, um, you know, we just have to make sure we know what else is out there that we have to address and what the timing on those things are to see when we can absorb it. So.

00:51:47,868	S7:
Yeah.

00:51:49,767	S1:
Yeah. And I, um.

00:51:54,767	S1:
You know, part of part of this is all about sort of capacity, right?

00:51:59,000	S5:
Yeah. I'm also going to have a public works director who's going to have his hands full, um, for the next 14, 18 months with a town hall project. Now, thankfully, the town agreed to give us the the money we needed. So we're going to finish that, we're going to get that started and finish it. And, uh, we have a kickoff meeting with the contractor tomorrow. And, you know, they're I'm optimistic, thinking it's going to be 14 to 15 months. So I'm telling everybody 18 months, maybe 20. But, um, but we're gonna, you know, that'll be a lot of Tim's time, as you noted at town meeting. We're having Tim and Rich Maloney access the OPM on this project. That means. And that's in addition to their regular duties. So, um, taking on a big roadway project or anything like that, I really don't see that being in the cards for FY 26, but.

00:52:43,367	S7:
Yeah.

00:52:44,667	S1:
Yeah. And then sort of from the taxpayer lens April town meeting, the school committee will be bringing forward a new a warrant for the new school.

00:53:00,167	S6:
Yep.

00:53:01,167	S1:
And it will be in the, uh, it'll be of the, uh, it'll be the large combined school. That's right. Now, that's the that's the plan.

00:53:13,901	S5:
It's the only project there was. That's the only project that came out of the feasibility study. So, um, I understand that there's people in town who want the town to propose to elementary schools we went through. We followed the state process to be able to try to maximize state participation in a new school. If it gets turned down, we have to start over again. And maybe that process is different and it results in two elementary schools. But this is the process. Um, the school, the MSBA gave us an opportunity to apply for one school, and the town's trying to take advantage of that and get as many kids served as possible. If that's not the town, but the school district trying to do that, and if the voters don't agree with it, they have to go back to the drawing board. That's all there is to it.

00:53:56,367	S7:
So yeah.

00:53:58,167	S1:
So that that will be the elephant in the in the room in April. So that'll be the, you know, the, the the topic financially that will take up all the oxygen in the room. The other item in April will be a Scot referred to as, you know, sort of three a. Yeah. And Joe, just to remind everyone on the fin com. Um, the plan is to do a vote in April, which is three and a half months later.

00:54:33,367	S7:
Yeah.

00:54:33,667	S1:
Then then the deadline, which is the end of the year. So, um, at some point, I think, you know, you'll be discussing with the select board. Do we officially tell a state that.

00:54:50,467	S5:
Oh, it's gonna you know, we've had we've we've all known this. We talked about it last year during the budget process. We asked for the money to hire you to the we hired a consultant and ultimately wound up being you until. Yeah. Um, so we've all known what we were planning to do here. Um, the chair of the planning board recently said publicly, uh, what the plan was, and now the Salem News is calling, so I'm sure the state's going to know sooner than later. Yeah. Um, whether we go to them or not. The state's going to know. Uh, the lieutenant governor lives in Salem, so I'm sure she still gets the Salem news. Yeah, sure. She gets it on her phone every day. So when when that story breaks, you know they're going to know what's happening. So, um. It is what it is.

00:55:32,567	S1:
So anyway, that. So that's the other, you know, that's the other sort of, um, twist to the April town meeting. Um, as you heard, Scott, um, you know, we are planning to. The planning board will be putting the form based code, um, up.

00:55:54,267	S5:
And they'll be putting the three a up. There'll be there'll be two different articles. Right. Um, you know, I want to be careful of, like, language, like, oh, they're going to be completely separate. The idea. Um, I believe that the article that will come forward in the form based code is that if the form based code gets passed and the other article gets passed combined, that would it would allow the town to be three compliant. But but we can pass the form based code and only affect the downtown without it being, you know, a three way thing.

00:56:27,000	S7:
So yeah.

00:56:28,968	S5:
They're their companion articles. They're not completely separate.

00:56:32,767	S1:
But yeah, it'll be it'll be packaged appropriately. It's, it's uh so anyway, so but just looking ahead, just trying to sensitize everybody to, you know, what's coming. Uh, in the April town meeting, you've got a new school vote, you've got a, a school budget that's now laden with, you know, the new contract. Um, we may have, uh, you know, I'm sure there'll be an update on the fields project. I'm sure.

00:57:04,467	S5:
Um, this project will mostly be done by then. They'll just be waiting to finish the tennis courts and the softball field, I believe by then. Most of the most of the work, the track and the main field will largely be done. And I believe even the outside building the the field house building. So they're going to be in really good shape by April.

00:57:21,367	S1:
So yeah, I mean, there's a lot going on, but um, I, I think, um, it's going to be probably one of the, um, highest octane annual or town meetings that I will have ever attended. And, and, John, I don't know about you or, or Alex, but anyway, there's going to be a lot, a lot there.

00:57:45,567	S5:
So there.

00:57:46,067	S7:
May be a couple.

00:57:47,467	S5:
Sorry, sorry, Alex.

00:57:48,367	S7:
Go ahead. Josh, you.

00:57:49,667	S5:
Just.

00:57:50,067	S8:
And sorry I'm off camera. I had to run upstairs to help kids fighting. Um, but, uh, Joe, you alluded to this, and Angela, I think, even mentioned it. I might have missed that part, though. But if we couldn't be three a compliant if the form based code doesn't pass and the three I code did pass for something. Okay. Yeah.

00:58:09,501	S5:
Yeah. I mean, I expect that what comes out of the advisory committee and the public engagement sessions and the planning board process for the form based code is going to be something that most of the people in town can get behind and support. A lot of the people that, um, you know, we specifically put people on to that advisory committee who were anti three a because we wanted those voices to be in the room. And so if it comes out of the advisory committee with thumbs up, I'm going to feel pretty confident that we got we heard what needed to be heard and we were able to adjust the plan. Right.

00:58:40,267	S8:
That said, that makes sense.

00:58:41,767	S5:
That said, um, that there's still a really, you know, real negative, uh, bent towards three a overall. And the second piece. The second piece. Uh, second article has a real strong chance of not passing. So.

00:58:58,901	S7:
Yeah, that's what it is.

00:59:00,367	S2:
I mean, I mean, and I'm thinking ahead here. Does it.

00:59:07,100	S2:
Does it make sense to put the form based code after the three day vote? The bigger three vote? Because I'm not sure which it's.

00:59:15,000	S7:
Yeah, I mean, I know I think I think.

00:59:16,701	S5:
We're a little. I mean.

00:59:17,767	S7:
Let's, let's.

00:59:19,167	S5:
See what they both look like when they, when they, when they emerge out of the planning board and talk about, you know, placement in the, in the warrant and stuff. The planning board may also be bringing forward an amendment to the inclusionary housing bylaw, um, inclusionary zoning bylaw, because, uh, there's some feeling that that was unclear. Um, and it actually worked out that it wasn't clear when they had the, the tobacco project in front of them. So they've gone back with the help of the Affordable Housing Trust. They've gone back and addressed some of the issues in that. So that might be ready to be, uh, brought to town meeting as well. Um, there's going to be probably an article. The state legislature passed an act called the Patriot Act that allows a similar to, like, a senior tax, Um, break. This allows a tax break for veterans in the community who qualify, and they'll need to be a local adoption of that. So, uh, we'll, we'll probably have that ready for, um, probably have that ready for the spring. The state did pass a, um, state also passed, uh, uh, as of right. Accessory dwelling units. And there's a possibility that the planning board is also going to have to bring forward. I don't know yet if it has to be a bylaw or a zoning change, or if it just has to be some, uh, regulations that they can pass themselves. The state's Office of, uh, Housing and Livable Communities doesn't have to provide their guidance on the regulations until December 15th. The law goes into effect on January 1st. So they're going to give us lots of time to study the regulations and figure out what we need to do to comply, but the it really shouldn't be that big a lift because it's specifically meant to decrease the amount of hurdles people have to go through. If you have a property and you have enough land, you have a right to put an accessory dwelling unit on your property, subject to some limited amount of restrictions. But they really, you know. Title five you know, setbacks and height massing, but they really they can't say no. It's really kind of going to be more site plan review and making sure it fits in with the neighborhood and whatnot. It's not they can't tell, you know. So I don't know again, if that's going to be regulations in the Planning board's, uh, purview or if it's going to be in the form of a zoning bylaw that makes that stuff clear, that might come forward as a second as a, as another article. So we might have a lot of articles at this meeting.

01:01:41,100	S2:
Yeah, that sounds like it.

01:01:42,667	S1:
Yeah. Sounds like it's building up. Yeah.

01:01:45,100	S2:
And we've got topics that are like between like schools and.

01:01:49,100	S7:
And and.

01:01:50,467	S5:
I've already got one feel of.

01:01:51,300	S7:
A prior year.

01:01:52,067	S2:
The two biggest hot button in this town at the same time. So.

01:01:55,567	S7:
And I've.

01:01:55,767	S5:
Already got one bill of a prior.

01:01:56,968	S7:
Year. Yeah.

01:01:57,868	S1:
Oh you.

01:01:58,100	S7:
Do.

01:01:58,567	S5:
Oh, you're gonna love it, too. It's from outside counsel. John. John. John went and sent us a bill. And in August for June, July and August. And I'm like, John, what are you doing? We already closed the books. We. I can't pay you this till next year. He's like, oh, all right. Well I guess next, next spring it'll be like it's found money. I'm like, all right. We'll pay you next spring.

01:02:18,801	S5:
I can't help you. It's like he wasn't he wasn't to buy it. He knew it was his fault. He should have said he should have sent us an invoice earlier. So that was on him.

01:02:28,100	S7:
Oh.

01:02:29,567	S1:
Great. Okay.

01:02:31,501	S5:
It must. Must be nice to be doing so well that you're not worried about.

01:02:34,667	S7:
You're not worried about.

01:02:35,767	S5:
I'm about getting.

01:02:36,300	S7:
Paid right away. You're like, oh.

01:02:37,267	S5:
I can't wait till next break. Yeah, I'm I'm myself. I'm not in that position.

01:02:44,100	S1:
All right. So, um, so, Joe, any since we have you on the on the horn here, um, any other topics coming from, uh, Wendy's? these sort of finance director or anything popping while she's out. I know the audit. Um, I mean, obviously the books are closed, cash is certified, the audit is or have they been in yet? The audit.

01:03:11,467	S5:
The auditors came in before Wendy went out on, on surgery. Um, they did, uh, last week. Ask for some additional information. Diane was able to get that to them. So, um, you know, we're they're working in their background. We probably expect to hear from them sometime in October. I think that'll be, uh, when we'll get audit results. Um, no red flags. Nothing's popped up that they're really concerned about. Um, it's a typical audit process at this point, so.

01:03:37,868	S1:
Yeah. Okay. All right. Um.

01:03:44,200	S1:
All right, so I want to hold off on the, uh, liaison roles. Um, I just thought that I would, um, Joe, since you're here. Um, as you know, and I've, I've vast, vast around, you know, the fin com sort of took on or wanted to take on, um, educating ourselves around the water.

01:04:05,667	S7:
Yeah.

01:04:06,701	S1:
And there's various aspects of that. Um, so I think we're in, uh, Chris and Harry are partnering. I think, Chris, you've done some legwork already. So really, what we're trying to do is just get ourselves educated and that's going to involve, you know, probably talking to you and Tim just to, you know, over the next X number of months, get ourselves up to caught up and get your perspectives and understand everything about water. Um, so we've started to do some, uh, reading and research, and we read The Dewberry Report. And anyway, any, any, any comments you can provide on this because I did you know, I did mention this at the last April town meeting. Um, it's something we want to do. And the reason I'm bringing up water is because three a is a an item. Um, that comes to mind when I think about water. It's like, okay.

01:05:10,267	S7:
Um, yeah.

01:05:11,567	S1:
That that's part of the three way conversation. Do we have enough water in town? Just in general. But then if you do the three a that, that just adds a whole nother layer of conversation. But can you give us your thoughts on water since you, since we have you here? And I'm just sort of going a little out of order on the agenda, but.

01:05:29,100	S7:
I.

01:05:29,167	S5:
Was hoping not to be here till 11:00.

01:05:30,701	S7:
Tonight. Yeah.

01:05:32,000	S1:
We're not we're not going to be. We've been we've been going an hour and a half. And then when people's chins hit their chest, I know it's time to end the meeting.

01:05:40,200	S7:
So so so.

01:05:42,367	S5:
The water topics, a big topic there's a lot to consider is there is the seasonal water brand gets everybody tied up and makes everything that oh my God, you know we can't do anything because we just don't have any water. Um, it's not 100% really the case. The fact of the matter is, you know, 7 or 8 months out of the year, there's plenty of water in the Ipswich River watershed. It just happens that when humans want to use water the most to grow their plants, to take showers, to fill their pools, to drink because it's hot outside is at the time of the year when we don't get a ton of rain and therefore the river is at its lowest. And so, um, so we have to have these seasonal water bands if you want the level of the river to be high enough so that the ecology, the fish life and everything else in the, in the river can survive and the humans can get the water they need. So we get we go through these seasonal water bands. The only solution, if we were to stay in the Ipswich River is to really work with our partners, which is what we've been trying to do. Our neighbors and our other partners around the region to find a solution, and that's going to probably involve things like either tying in with Salem Beverley Water or MW, or in the long run, or having, um, reservoirs built. Having, you know, a big reservoir built that we could fill in the wintertime and hold for summertime usage. Right. I mean, the, uh, selling Beverly water already sort of does that when M Lake is. They have a spot in Danvers and Wenham Lake that they fill during the off season when nobody's using the water, and then they draw from that and they put that through their, their, um, their system in the, in the warmer months when they need it. So, um, all those things cost money. Uh, there is no way for him. Another important thing to keep in mind is that the town of Hamilton, through our water registration, we have the right to take extra millions of gallons of water out of the river watershed every day. We are only using about half of that registration. Right? So despite the water bands in the summertime, which are really seasonal water bans, and they're geared at not wasting water by making your grass green. Like. Like, use them for the important things that you need. We can grow our crops with them. We can take our showers with them. But let's not, you know, be out there making sure that we have a lush green lawn, because that's really not necessary. It's better to leave in the water in the river for the fishes, right? So that's the balance. Um,

01:08:05,701	S5:
we just need better messaging. We could add housing units in the town of Hamilton. We could add some businesses in the town of Hamilton without, like, running out of water. It's not that dire, but. Yes. July, August, September. It gets. It gets tight around here, and then everybody gets all anxious about it. Um, I do think the, the long term, the best long term solution is probably for us to tie into BMW. Right. But that's the most expensive solution to. And then it takes then it takes control of the water and the water pricing out of our hands. We're going to we're going to get a bill from them based on the amount of water that goes through the meter coming into the town, and then we're going to have to pay them PMR and maintain our distribution system on our side. So that's that's how we'll get to the pricing. It'll it'll be a little different. We get this out of the water plant business. We don't have to run a water plant anymore. But. And that decreases some of our future capital costs. But we'll be paying into the MW array or the Salem Beverley Water District to have access to their water.

01:09:06,801	S7:
Yeah.

01:09:07,467	S5:
The other thing is, you know, ironically, you know, these are the things that they tell you, you should never say out loud. Right. If people really wanted us to not have development, they shouldn't be pushing me so hard to find water solutions, because not having that much water is a deterrent to building here.

01:09:26,801	S7:
Right.

01:09:28,300	S5:
So, so the fact that I have all of our residents and my select boards, every select board since I've been here wants us to find a way to solve the water problem. I'm working on it. It's going to take time because it's a big solution. It requires 10 or 15 communities and it's going to require money from the state legislature. We are working on that. I can put Chris and uh, Harry in touch with. I can have, uh, the folks that are working as part of the North Shore Water Task Force meet with you guys and give you an update and kind of where we are and let you know what's going on. And you can absorb all that and bring it back to Fenton. But it's it's funny, I'm solving one problem, but down the road we may create another problem, because once we have that water spigot turned on and we don't have to worry about water, we only have to worry about septic now. Another hurdle has been removed to development.

01:10:08,167	S7:
Yeah.

01:10:09,868	S1:
So it's kind of a catch 22 kind of deal.

01:10:12,267	S7:
And you know, and.

01:10:13,567	S5:
And I think it's worth it to try to solve the solve the water problem. Because I do think that you do, over time have to worry about the health of the river.

01:10:19,567	S7:
So I.

01:10:20,767	S5:
I definitely think that we need to solve the water problem for a number of different reasons. But bear in mind that for the people who don't want us to develop at all, solving the water problem reduces another barrier to development.

01:10:32,901	S7:
Yeah.

01:10:34,868	S1:
Anyway, Chris, I know you're you've rolled up your sleeves and started to dig into this a bit, so, uh, I wonder. I wonder what you're thinking. Are there any more infrastructure.

01:10:49,100	S7:
Upgrades planned for Ottawa or School Street right now?

01:10:55,167	S5:
I so Tim is looking at the possibility of a small, um, treatment system that we could add to this to School Street. Well, because the school street well is not currently usable. Um, it's it's a pop pot for PFAS. About a year and a half, two years ago. We haven't been using it since then. Um, it has come down. It was a it was a big number that made us slow down and stop. It has since come down below that. But it is. No, it is not below what the new standard is, uh, for detection. And so, uh, we'd need to treat that water to be able to use it again. And, um, we're trying to weigh the pros and cons of. Is it worth it? Does it produce enough water to make it worth the, uh, expense? And it might not. It probably doesn't at the level of water it pushes out versus the other wellfield is dramatically lower, and we're really not sure that we get enough bang for the buck in that project. Um, the because of the low level of the water in the watershed during the summertime, we're running into a problem where we're having to, um, to refresh those wells every couple of years instead of every 5 or 10 years. It's like almost every year or every other year at this point. Um, because during the summer when we're trying to pull water out of that bottom of that, well, uh, it's pulling in dirt and other things that just the, the, you know, tear apart the well and then we have to start all over again. So.

01:12:19,400	S7:
Is the GAC facility up and running out of wood? I think it's they called it the gag facility. Um, the town put a bid and starting construction on. Oh, yeah.

01:12:29,100	S5:
Yeah. The, uh, the secondary treatment plant is up and running. We we finished that, um, over the winter, I guess, and started and started operating it in the, in the early spring. It's been operating for a while now. Um, and we've been testing the water, and it's working the way we expected it to. It is. PFAS is at a non detect coming out of the secondary treatment. So um so that's a good that's a good thing. Uh, probably the best quality of water we've had in the town of Hamilton in 15 or 20 years.

01:12:57,167	S7:
Uh.

01:12:58,367	S1:
So anyway, we'll keep the conversation going. I mean, Chris has already dug in, and and and Harry will probably plug in and catch up. So I think it's it's really a matter of us understanding what's probably already in your head, Joe, and in Tim's head and trying to, um.

01:13:17,868	S7:
You know, it it is tough because like.

01:13:20,367	S5:
At some point the, the, um, the tank that we have at the top of Gordon, uh, at the top of the hill on Gordon, Col Gordon Conwell is going to need to be replaced. It's it's an older tank, right? It's it's not leaking. It's still doing the job. It's not creating any issues for us, but it's just an older tank. Eventually you're gonna have to replace it. But if we can make it last 5 to 7 years and we can get tied into Beverly or somebody in 5 or 7 years, well, then maybe we don't need to replace it. Maybe we don't need to spend that 3 or $4 million to replace a water tank. Right. So it's it's we're trying to balance. We're trying to see how long can we make this last. Can we get a solution in the pipeline before we need to spend that much money? Yeah. We're always going to need to upgrade water pipes, but, um, and maintain the distribution system. But the sooner we can get out of the water production business, the better.

01:14:10,467	S7:
Yeah, a big part of the cost.

01:14:13,167	S5:
A big part of the cost of that, too, is, is licensing for the people to run the plant. There's just not enough people out there to run the plant.

01:14:19,701	S7:
Yeah.

01:14:20,901	S1:
Oh my God, there's a. Yeah, this this book has a lot of chapters to it. Chris. Right.

01:14:26,901	S7:
Yeah. And I've been digging online too and just pulling up stuff from 20 1823. And it just keeps going. And so this will. Yeah, this will take a little while.

01:14:38,000	S5:
Tim and I have had one very early meeting, so there's too early to say. We have any plan for FY 26, but Tim is doing some homework to, to to see if there's a more efficient way for us to run the plant.

01:14:49,601	S7:
Yeah. Um.

01:14:51,367	S5:
And that might be by privatizing the plant under contract. And then we can use all that, utilize all of our staff to just manage the distribution system, which would be better for all of us. Um, it also helps set us up for a future where we move off to somebody else. Because then down the road, we won't have the staff at the plant that we would then have to lay off or repurpose. We would have already moved on from that. And this is happening organically, partly because we're down an operator, one of the plant operators, left to take a job in Danvers. And, um, the other operator with the has the right licenses. He's only a few years from retiring.

01:15:27,667	S7:
Yeah.

01:15:28,467	S5:
So, um, you know, and he said that, you know, so it's, you know, we're not. We've been looking for an operator for six months and we haven't been able to find one.

01:15:37,901	S1:
How do you get licensed for that?

01:15:40,100	S5:
You have to be working in a plant.

01:15:42,100	S7:
Yeah.

01:15:42,701	S5:
You have to work your way up and check off. Yeah. It's it's. Bring them in. Start them off and move them up. And the kid that just left for Denver's, um. He got all his licenses at our plant, but he didn't want to be the top guy. He's not really cut out for it. It's not his personality. And so he could take his licenses that we gave him over the last five years. And he went off to Denver, and he's making more money, and and he's never going to have to be the top guy because they've got people over him that want that job.

01:16:10,667	S7:
Yeah, right.

01:16:11,567	S1:
Interesting. So anyway, Chris, there's a there's a couple of more chapters to your book that you're reading.

01:16:18,901	S7:
Are we getting pressure from any of the other towns that want to connect and share with us, or have you been having any other towns? I mean, I think not pressure.

01:16:28,167	S5:
I mean, good cooperation. Like there are the towns. You know, the towns that are right around us. Wenham, Essex. Well, Essex not so much, but Wenham, Topsfield, Ipswich. They're all kind of in a similar position. We're all drawing out of the Ipswich River. We're all, you know, taxed by doing that. We're all looking for a common solution that we can all make this problem easier to deal with. And so it's not pressure. But they also know that the system is currently constructed. I have a water a water registration of x amount of gallons. They have a water registration of X amount of gallons. I can't send my water to them. They can't send their water to me without changes in state law. So they're not asking me to help them right now. But we're all working together to try and help the whole region.

01:17:10,367	S7:
All right.

01:17:13,167	S1:
Well, anyway, uh, Joe, keep, um, keep Chris and Harry in mind. Yeah. And I would I would say, you know, Chris, you can reach out to Tim and have a separate conversation if you want. But anyway, this is just a, uh, an educational Process. And then I think it's fair to say it's something the town needs to worry about. We the town is worrying about it. I think what we're trying to do is spread the knowledge and, um.

01:17:44,200	S7:
Yeah, we need.

01:17:44,667	S5:
More than one.

01:17:45,167	S1:
Person point of view because. Yeah, because there are some big price tags hanging on top of it.

01:17:51,100	S7:
Yeah.

01:17:51,801	S1:
So anyway. Okay. That's good. Um.

01:18:00,167	S1:
Joe, I think I think you can. I think we're sad. I, I do want to spend the last maybe 5 or 10 minutes with the fin com and just talk about, uh, liaison roles, uh, for the, you know, the budget. So I. I'll just flip back to that work.

01:18:16,100	S5:
I don't want to force you to go over your hour and a half time limit. So you got nine minutes left. You don't have to tell me twice. Gentlemen. It was great seeing you all night.

01:18:22,400	S1:
Yeah, we can stay till 1030 if people want.

01:18:24,767	S7:
I'm ready to go.

01:18:25,868	S1:
I think we're we're crisp and at for 90 minutes anyway.

01:18:30,701	S7:
All right.

01:18:31,267	S2:
Exactly.

01:18:32,267	S7:
Good to see you all.

01:18:33,100	S5:
We'll talk to you soon. Thank you so.

01:18:34,567	S7:
Much. Thanks.

01:18:35,501	S2:
That's great. Joe.

01:18:36,167	S7:
Thank you. Thanks, Jeff.

01:18:38,100	S1:
Good update. Thanks. So anyway, a lot a lot there. I mean, we are early talking about, you know, the, the, uh, town meeting, the Warren articles and, uh, but it's, it'll be, uh, action packed and and and and a lot, uh, a lot to it. So, um, any thoughts on anything you heard? Um, and I do want to try to. Chris, can we approve any minutes tonight? You have?

01:19:09,667	S7:
Yeah, I, I think I sent them all to you, but. Yeah, we can approve.

01:19:13,901	S1:
Um, yeah, maybe we can knock off 1 or 2 if you could. If you. I don't have them handy if you could call them up. You know, maybe we could do 1 or 2 in the last five minutes.

01:19:22,367	S7:
Um, the last two meetings. I can do the 14th. I just don't have the zoom link on top from the recording that I can add. But yeah.

01:19:32,000	S1:
Well, I think for that one I had a hard time trying.

01:19:35,667	S7:
I think was an issue.

01:19:36,901	S1:
So we're gonna have to go without it I think, for that one.

01:19:38,868	S2:
It is what it is. Yeah.

01:19:40,167	S1:
Yeah. Which is not not a huge deal. So, um, let me just share my screen real quick.

01:19:50,467	S1:
Where'd it go?

01:19:53,601	S1:
Um.

01:20:00,567	S1:
Here it is. So can you guys see the the worksheet here? So, um, what I did is I. And I sent this to you folks, so, um.

01:20:18,767	S1:
And Harry's not here, but. So we can defer this till the next meeting, and there aren't going to be any meetings between now and then. So what I what I was. I'll just make a couple of comments. So I was I was planning to to you know, if I think forward to the um, uh, town meeting. Um.

01:20:43,367	S1:
I was since I've been, since I'm on the school building committee, I was sort of planning to, um, be able to put a story together around whatever warrant article appears for the new building. Um, so what I'm thinking of, you know, just continuity there. Um, so I'm happy to continue to do that.

01:21:11,501	S2:
That makes sense.

01:21:12,300	S1:
And the only other thought that I had was, um. Chris, maybe you partner with, um, Tim and worry about, um, public works budget, and therefore you can, you can tap in on the, on the, um, water. So that might be a logical pairing.

01:21:38,901	S2:
That makes sense.

01:21:39,868	S7:
Yeah, definitely on board with that.

01:21:41,767	S1:
Any any other thoughts? Those are just a couple of early thoughts that I had. And um, and generally so so Chris, for your benefit generally what we do and you can see from this document is, you know, we usually, um, uh, you know, assign a liaison and then Wendy would, uh, reach out once I, once we filled this document out and give her names, she would say, okay, I'm going to schedule the recreation department budget meeting with Shawn Timmons. Um, and you'll I would get invited if I was the liaison. So that's how it kind of works. work. So, you know, each of us would have two or 3 to 2, three, four departments, whatever. And then you'd be asked to just sit in and be, you know, and participate in the in the budget meetings and then become sort of like the, um, thin, calm representative relative to that budget as we move down the line. So that's kind of what we're doing. So we don't need to finalize this tonight without Harry here, but you guys all have it. If you have any thoughts on what you'd like to do, um, shake it up, you know, get exposed to some new people, you know? Certainly. Um, I think that it's it's fun to learn something new about the town. At least that's been my experience. John, you've probably done every one of these budgets over year, ten years.

01:23:12,100	S2:
So pretty much.

01:23:14,167	S1:
But yeah, pretty much nothing's new, Uh, to you. But, um. Anyway, so. So why don't we. Why don't we, uh.

01:23:25,901	S7:
Just kicks off in January or 2025?

01:23:29,601	S1:
What's that?

01:23:30,400	S7:
When does that kick off?

01:23:32,167	S1:
Um, well, I mean, the the. I bet the budget meetings will be in the month of November.

01:23:36,868	S2:
Yeah. Probably. Right. Uh, sort of. It looks like on the calendar, it's like second or third week in November. Yeah. So right before Thanksgiving, basically.

01:23:44,701	S7:
Yeah.

01:23:45,467	S2:
Not not the week of Thanksgiving, but around that time.

01:23:49,200	S1:
So, you know, so between now and the next meeting, you can just send me. Hey, I'd be interested in doing, you know, this, this and this. And I'll just fill in the form and we can finalize it next time when, uh, Harry's around and, um, you know, I just provided anyway, so we can just sign people up, and if if there are some items that are open, I'll just fill names in and then, you know. So I'll come back in with maybe some recommendations, but certainly. Hey, John, put my name next to HTC and, um, the schools, uh, and the planning board, I don't know, whatever people feel comfortable with. And then we can agree on on next. Next time.

01:24:36,567	S2:
Yeah, definitely. Like the big chunks for, um, for Chris's benefit. Like, Public works is a big one. Um, there's just a lot of different departments and line items, so that's that's a really good one to. Yeah. You know, the, uh, the public safety ones are also pretty big. Um, yeah.

01:24:53,167	S1:
So like for, for example, I haven't done public safety yet, so I thought I might, I might sign up for those. And that's why I did public works last time. That's why I suggest that maybe, you know Chris, take that one. So that's kind of how my mind is working on this. But um, and then.

01:25:09,567	S2:
Yeah, and then school can be a big one to the way you're, you're, you're not actually in a budget meeting for that because those are all done, you know, sort of collectively as described with the five chairs things. But it's a, um, uh, it's still a, it's a, it's a big one in terms of prepping for the actual meeting. Not so much in November.

01:25:30,100	S1:
Yeah, I agree.

01:25:31,100	S2:
Um, and then, then then there's just sort of a lot of odds and ends. Um.

01:25:39,000	S1:
So anyway.

01:25:42,167	S1:
Alex, any questions? Thoughts? Do you like the approach? You know, we can.

01:25:48,000	S7:
Yeah.

01:25:48,367	S8:
I like this approach.

01:25:50,000	S7:
Yeah.

01:25:50,868	S1:
So just. Yeah, just shoot me a note, let me know what you're thinking, and.

01:25:54,767	S7:
Okay.

01:25:55,767	S1:
And then we'll go from there. Okay.

01:26:00,567	S2:
And one other thing for, for some of the smaller ones too. It's, uh, and maybe this is something we can ask. Uh, I'm not sure it's Joe, or if it's if it's Wendy. But sometimes they. And maybe it's easy from looking at the at the at the contact here. Sometimes they do them together. So it makes sense to have one liaison. So you're not basically since these meetings happen like during the day um, you don't want to be dragging like multiple people in for a. Yeah, right. Part of a meeting that may last like 15 minutes. Yeah. And it's always things that like are logical to, to put together like the public safety ones. They'll, they'll do at the same time. Um, you know, usually planning goes along with like I think it goes along with like conservation and a few, a few that are sort of group. There may be a little counterintuitive, but it's mainly just because there's there's one person who sort of handles it from a budget perspective. It's giving a presentation. Yeah. So just something to think about. Yeah. Um, and I think the other thing to say too, is regardless of where the liaison assignments are. When we when the schedule sort of comes out, we oftentimes cover for each other if people have conflicts.

01:27:19,267	S7:
Yeah.

01:27:20,100	S1:
Yeah. And I yeah. And I did that, you know, like I'm working from home. My schedule is pretty flexible. So, you know, I can even at a moment's notice or last minute, I could buzz down to Patton Homestead and hop in a meeting if I had to. Yeah.

01:27:38,667	S7:
So. Exactly. Pretty.

01:27:40,100	S1:
Pretty flat. Pretty. You know. Fungible. Some of us are have that flexibility. Some of us don't. I'm not. I don't travel, you know. So anyway, we'll we'll we'll get through it. So we'll we'll take a first pass at filling in names. We'll get Wendy to kind of get provide a little organization. She might come back and say, hey, can we flip these two names and we'll make it work. So anyway, all right, so shoot me your. Any thoughts? and I'll, uh, I'll fill this in, and, uh, we can horse trade after that.

01:28:14,567	S2:
And then tweak from there. Perfect.

01:28:16,267	S7:
Yeah. Okay.

01:28:17,367	S1:
Sounds good. And just so folks know, um, we do have we do have a, uh, a person who put their hand up and said they'd like to help out on fin com. Jon's actually going to reach out to her and talk to her. Um, and, um, she may initially just serve as a, uh, uh, as a, uh, associate member. But what we're really trying to do is, you know, anticipate turnover. And I think Mr. Privilege is thinking about maybe, you know, heading off into the sunset at some point, although you'll be missed, John, if you do that. But anyway, so just FYI, John is talking to somebody who's putting their hand up, so, um, we may have that person join us at an upcoming meeting.

01:29:09,200	S2:
Right, exactly.

01:29:10,267	S1:
So anyway, so that's that's on the horizon.

01:29:14,601	S2:
So is our next one. Two weeks from today?

01:29:17,100	S1:
Yeah, it's the ninth.

01:29:18,601	S7:
Okay.

01:29:19,467	S1:
Thank you. And and I'm I'm happy to. You know, I mean, I had had to cancel the last meeting. Uh, I, I think I was the last person who, uh, couldn't make it, so I'm happy to rearrange schedules, um, or rearrange the time of the meeting. I've left it as as the second and fourth Wednesdays. And then if we can do it, we can do it. If we can't, we can't. But I'm happy to entertain, uh, any changes? So anyway. Whatever.

01:29:50,100	S2:
Yeah, that still generally works for me. So.

01:29:52,567	S7:
Yeah.

01:29:53,100	S1:
So we'll just leave it and and, you know, if life gets in the way, life gets in the way.

01:29:58,667	S7:
So exactly fit it into my schedule. So this is good. Yeah.

01:30:03,167	S1:
All right. Uh, Chris, can we think we can knock off 1 or 2?

01:30:06,968	S7:
Yeah.

01:30:08,300	S1:
Items here. Let's see.

01:30:10,567	S7:
Hold on.

01:30:14,667	S7:
One.

01:30:19,667	S1:
Okay.

01:30:20,100	S7:
So what?

01:30:20,767	S1:
What's the date on this one?

01:30:22,367	S7:
There we go. Oh, let me go up. There we go. I'm, uh. I'm on a second monitor right now, and I didn't configure it correctly.

01:30:28,868	S1:
All right. I can see it.

01:30:33,300	S1:
All right, so Alex wasn't on this meeting, so. John. John. Harry, Chris called to order. Okay, maybe you can scroll up. Okay. Yeah. This is the one where Cristian came in.

01:30:48,267	S7:
Yep.

01:30:55,167	S1:
Okay. It looks good.

01:31:18,067	S1:
Okay. Anyone, anything catch anyone's eye on this? Looks. I think it looks good.

01:31:26,467	S1:
A German at 819. Geez, that was good.

01:31:30,667	S7:
Quick one.

01:31:31,968	S1:
Um.

01:31:33,567	S2:
The, uh, under the town hall project update. The second bullet point. Um, the 6.5 million was that was approved. Was it 2122 or was it was it was last year, wasn't it?

01:31:55,567	S1:
All right. So let's.

01:31:56,367	S7:
See 23. Uh.

01:31:59,467	S2:
No, I'm I'm trying to actually sort it out in my head.

01:32:02,267	S7:
Yeah.

01:32:03,267	S2:
This has been going on for so long, and I'm trying to think when.

01:32:06,601	S7:
I'm trying to go back through old slide decks to look at some of the presentations that we had, and that date stood out. But I could be totally wrong. You know.

01:32:14,667	S2:
I think the actual CPC.

01:32:18,267	S1:
Yeah, I have.

01:32:18,801	S2:
CPC was actually approved before and it was I think it was just the was it just the 2 million of free cash? It was approved in 23.

01:32:27,400	S1:
Okay. So yeah. So the it was the 2021 amount was. So two different meetings, two different years 4 million bucks. Then we added another.

01:32:48,267	S1:
Another two.

01:32:49,000	S2:
Yeah. Well let's just say previously approved.

01:32:51,400	S1:
Yeah yeah yeah.

01:32:52,868	S2:
Because it is it's like there's no easy way to.

01:32:55,300	S1:
Know because it's multiple meetings over multiple.

01:32:58,267	S2:
Yeah. Different times for each. And then and then keep the parenthetical which is, which is all good.

01:33:03,667	S7:
Yeah.

01:33:04,167	S2:
Perfect.

01:33:04,667	S7:
Yeah.

01:33:05,100	S1:
There you go. Previously. There you go. Good. Thanks, John.

01:33:08,701	S7:
No problem.

01:33:09,367	S1:
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Good. Okay. So, yeah. This is all now history, which is good. Yeah. So I would, um. So when can I. Can I get a motion to approve this, and then a second, and then we can discuss it more if we need to.

01:33:26,767	S2:
I move that we adopt the minutes of what is that? August 14th, 2024.

01:33:35,267	S1:
Can I get a second, a second? Okay, good. Any any more discussion? I know Alex wasn't in attendance, so he can't vote. He would have to abstain. But anyway. Okay.

01:33:50,100	S7:
Great vote.

01:33:51,267	S1:
So why don't we do a vote? Uh, John?

01:33:55,267	S2:
John. Privilege, I.

01:33:59,200	S8:
Third dose. Abstain.

01:34:00,601	S7:
Yep. Alex.

01:34:02,200	S1:
Abstain. Chris.

01:34:05,167	S7:
Chris, I.

01:34:06,567	S1:
And John McGrath and Harry didn't make it. Okay, good. And, Chris, did you have a question about submitting these? I think you did. And I don't think.

01:34:19,868	S7:
Who should I send these to?

01:34:21,467	S1:
Okay. Yeah. So, um, you actually have to add a little footer note and, um, and then it goes to the town clerk because you actually have to attest as secretary. So there's a little footer you have to add. I can dig one out and show it to you.

01:34:40,868	S7:
I can look at the website through some of the historical ones that are posted. Yeah.

01:34:44,567	S1:
There's a little phrase that, you know, as certified by comp secretary on such and such a date. Then it would just go to, you know, the town clerk. So you can just send it in and you can copy Karen, and it just goes to the town clerk and then they'll post it.

01:35:02,667	S7:
Oh, perfect.

01:35:03,567	S1:
Another one. The other couple that you have that need to go in and then this one.

01:35:08,567	S7:
So yeah. Two others. Okay.

01:35:12,667	S1:
So you have another one we can do. Yeah. Sweet.

01:35:22,400	S1:
Okay. So this was last meeting.

01:35:28,701	S9:
Call to order.

01:35:30,667	S1:
706.

01:35:47,868	S1:
Okay. They were the two votes. Well done. Looks good. Chris.

01:35:54,467	S2:
Yeah.

01:36:10,267	S1:
Okay. So on the on the grant. Hang on. On the ground.

01:36:14,167	S2:
One thing we may want to do. Uh, um.

01:36:20,501	S2:
Just in a language of how we describe when we're doing on on recommendations, you may want to say. And this is sort of nitpicking here. Um, Harry Philip, motion to, um, what's the language? Uh, recommend.

01:36:40,367	S7:
Favorable.

01:36:41,367	S2:
Yeah. Favorable. Yeah. To to make a favorable recommendation. Um.

01:36:45,901	S1:
Motion to make a favorable recommendation on Warren. Article. Yeah.

01:36:51,367	S2:
And then everything else from there. Should should, uh. And then same thing on the third bullet point. Um, and then everything else will work perfectly.

01:37:08,267	S2:
Because every once in a while, we, we make an unfavorable recommendation, but we take a positive vote to approve it.

01:37:15,267	S7:
Yeah.

01:37:18,267	S1:
Yeah. Good. Good catch. Yeah. Yeah I know.

01:37:26,400	S1:
All right. So.

01:37:32,868	S1:
On the report of finance director. So was this where we approved those policies, or was this Wendy just reporting that she sent them around?

01:37:47,100	S7:
This is reporting. She's just sent them around. It was two meetings ago or a month ago that we voted and we we approved those minutes, I believe.

01:37:55,367	S1:
Got it. Yeah. Okay.

01:37:56,267	S2:
Yeah. Yeah. That.

01:38:02,467	S1:
Okay. Cool water project. Chris Wilson. Yeah. Good. Nice. Yeah. So here you can make that same change on the motion motions to.

01:38:17,567	S2:
No no no no those are fine. It's only when.

01:38:20,000	S7:
You.

01:38:20,267	S2:
Were doing a warrant article since we only actually adopt the warrant article, we just.

01:38:25,000	S1:
Yeah. I'm with you.

01:38:25,767	S2:
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. But all other motions. It's it's fine for approval.

01:38:30,000	S1:
It's just approval.

01:38:30,868	S7:
Yeah, yeah, I'll do that going forward.

01:38:32,901	S1:
Yeah.

01:38:36,801	S2:
Um. Looks good to me. Yeah. I would, uh, move that. We, uh, adopt the minutes of August 28th, 2020 for Chris Olson.

01:38:47,000	S7:
Second.

01:38:48,467	S1:
Okay, let's do a let's do a vote on John Privilege.

01:38:55,300	S8:
I Alex rentals abstained.

01:38:59,267	S7:
Chris Woolston I.

01:39:02,367	S1:
John McGrath I and Harry is not in attendance. Okay good.

01:39:16,267	S1:
Yeah. These look good. Chris.

01:39:17,901	S2:
Yeah, I like the form of these. These are.

01:39:20,300	S7:
Great. Yeah. All right. Great. I'll keep it on.

01:39:23,100	S1:
Keeping.

01:39:23,501	S7:
Them. Keep it short.

01:39:25,100	S1:
Keeping them. Chris. Chris. But you know. Correct. So nice job. Okay. Um.

01:39:36,501	S1:
Yeah. So Chris, let me know if you, if you need any help getting those in, but I think you you got the right idea. Just grab an early one and then update them and then.

01:39:47,100	S7:
I'll be good from here. Thanks.

01:39:48,267	S1:
Yeah, yeah. The town clerk will provide, um, guidance if necessary. So thanks for leading the charge. Okay. Um, 842. I'd be happy to entertain a motion to adjourn. So moved. All right, John, can I get a second on that.

01:40:09,767	S7:
Second, Chris Olson second.

01:40:11,868	S1:
Okay, why don't we do a quick vote here? Let's see. Let's see if we can get positive approval here.

01:40:18,767	S2:
John Krulwich I.

01:40:20,367	S1:
Okay.

01:40:21,267	S8:
Alex randles I.

01:40:22,868	S7:
Uh, Chris Woolston I.

01:40:24,667	S1:
And John McGrath. Hi. Okay. Um. Thanks, folks. We'll see you. Uh, see you in a couple of weeks.

01:40:34,567	S2:
All right. Sounds good. And I'll. I'll let you know if I hear back from Sandy. John.

01:40:38,000	S1:
Okay. All right. Thanks, everybody.

01:40:40,367	S7:
Sounds good. Thanks, guys. Good night everyone. All right. Bye.