00:00:00,000 S1: Thank you. 00:00:01,868 S2: All right. It is 630 and we are here for the January 20th, 2026 meeting of the Wenham Select Board. Um, all members are present at this meeting and we can open with, um, public input. Um, this is a time for any member of the public who's here live or virtually, who wishes to speak on a topic that is not otherwise on the agenda. Um, are there any folks here who wish to make public comment? Seeing none, are there any on zoom? 00:00:42,868 S3: No one on zoom. 00:00:43,567 S2: Okay. That will swing us over to the town administrator's update. 00:00:48,901 S4: Thank you, Mr. Chair. A couple things tonight. First, um, some or most are already aware, but, uh, Jeff Seward, our finance director, town accountant is is resigning in his last day will be the 23rd. Right. 00:01:04,868 S3: Yeah. 00:01:06,067 S4: Thursday. Friday the 23rd. And he is as accepted and moving to an opportunity at the MSBA. So we wish him the best of luck. And, uh, he will definitely be sorely missed. Um, so I'm going to leave some big shoes to fill. So good luck, Jeff. We'll miss you. Town hall will be. The HVAC is all but complete. We just need to bring, uh, the mechanical closet that was built in the break room on the second floor. Has to have a sprinkler fitting and a ceiling put in it due to the size of it. So fire regulations require it be sprinkled and have a fire retardant ceiling. So it ended up being a little bigger than originally anticipated, but in order to fit the required mechanicals in there kind of is what it is. But with that, we'll be moving. Uh, all town hall offices will be back in their original locations on the second floor. On Thursday, we'll be moving. We're going to leave town hall open. We think that we're going to be able to, um, move without interrupting services too much. We are going to put out some information that, you know, folks might experience a slight disruption, but, uh, Terry is going to excuse me. Our assessor is going to be sitting temporarily with the clerk's office and permitting will be the first person we set up in the morning on Thursday. So folks should experience very minimal, if any, disruptions. Um, and we want to close town hall, but Bob's opening Monday morning. We should be, uh, completely back to normal. And, you know, that's the hope that the heat is working good and everything seems to be good. Knock on wood, we're moving forward and that will leave behind us. And another interesting update is actually Joe, you want to share this one? He's been. He's been working to help coordinate it. 00:03:11,467 S3: Oh, sure. Yeah. So we received a, um, a letter, uh, last week was addressed to the town. It's from a ice making company in Japan. And they are very interested in, um, visiting in early March. They'll also like to visit the Winter Museum. And they would like to see the Wenham Lake. And they're familiar with its history. Um, former ice making company that I believe Queen Victoria was very fond of. So they would like to orchestrate a visit, potentially have a short tour slash walk around that lake area. Um, I feel like it could be a good event with, uh, you know, looping in the wedding museum, town clerk, select board, potentially, uh, local media as well. So we're getting that, um, Together or organizing that event. It should be around March 2nd or third. So it's exciting news that our sponsors partner over in Japan. So we received the by air bill actually. Yeah. 00:04:04,767 S5: Oh gosh. 00:04:05,701 S2: That's crazy. Yeah. Very cool. 00:04:07,167 S3: Yeah. They're saying they they're hoping the lake is still frozen. They said they understand that you know, we're hoping for warmer weather. 00:04:16,300 S4: Yeah. It's going to be pretty cool. 00:04:18,000 S5: Fun. 00:04:18,567 S4: Yeah. 00:04:19,400 S5: Are we hosting them for a certain amount of time or is it just they're just. 00:04:22,167 S3: Yeah. They literally visiting just for one afternoon. They're staying over at Beverly, one of the hotels, and it's called the Beverly. The hotel. 00:04:27,901 S4: Yeah. 00:04:28,200 S5: I think it's right across from Starbucks. 00:04:30,167 S3: Is that what it is? 00:04:30,801 S4: Yeah, it sounds like a pretty busy agenda. And they're going to be able to, you know, they want to dedicate just that Monday afternoon to hopefully the library museum will be closed, but Joe's coordinating to get them in. Yeah, we'll probably pull some stuff out of the archives that's relevant to the, you know, the Wenham Lake and are gonna make a couple hours out of it and then they'll have other obligations. 00:04:55,467 S3: Is that a title you're bringing up? The actual historian. That's, uh, an expert in the wind in the lake area there. 00:05:02,167 S4: So that's the area, right? 00:05:05,000 S3: Yeah. 00:05:06,400 S6: Yeah, just. Yeah, sure. Yeah. 00:05:09,167 S2: When am I making a comeback? 00:05:10,567 S6: That's right. All right. 00:05:12,167 S3: Very fun. 00:05:14,167 S4: Yeah. Reminder to all folks, uh, and board members here that abatements are due for real estate tax abatement applications are due on February 2nd. Statutorily, the board of Assessors cannot act on any application received after that date. Uh, a postmark by February 2nd is appropriate. So if we get a pope can't be in Town hall on February 2nd, get it postmarked and in the mail, and they'll still be able to accept and act within that jurisdiction on the application. Also, the CPC, I'm curious to see the results are taking some of their votes. Tonight after hearing two rounds of applications, two evenings, the last two Tuesdays, they'll be taking their votes tonight. So that may affect some of the discussion that we'll have on capital a little bit later. But we're hopeful that, um, it all goes through. And that is all I have for you tonight. 00:06:14,467 S6: Okay. 00:06:15,701 S2: Um, just to echo your comments, Steve, about Jeff, I just wanted to say publicly on behalf of the board that we're grateful for the, um, period of really excellent service that Jeff provided to the town and the expertise that he brought, and a lot of the improvements that he made within the finance department. So we certainly are sorry to see him go and wish him well, um, with the state and maybe our paths will cross with him and the school billing administration at some point down the line. Um, that was all I had. Um. Deirdre. Gary. 00:06:52,167 S6: So just a conversation with the town clerk. I hear we have 233 dogs licensed so far. But she does want census forms turned in so we don't have to track people down. 00:07:05,667 S2: Great. Peter. 00:07:06,901 S3: Um, I. 00:07:07,501 S7: Almost hesitate to bring this up, but it's about 2:00 yesterday afternoon. I drove all over one to see all the sidewalks here. They were all pretty clear. 00:07:19,267 S5: They did a great job. 00:07:20,400 S7: Yeah. 00:07:20,868 S5: Yeah. 00:07:21,701 S8: Although it seems they ran out of gas somewhere. 00:07:25,400 S7: On Maple Street. Mhm. 00:07:29,701 S9: From what I saw, it was all clear. 00:07:32,300 S7: What was unclear was clear. It was? 00:07:35,267 S4: Yeah. It sounds like he had three. I think he had three machines out. So this was, uh, a storm that, you know, the planning put in place were. Well, so we had three. At one point they had three machines out there. They followed the boards. So you know, hope you know I think this is what can be expected. Rough. Obviously the significance of a winter event could change this. But you know, a routine winter event is probably and the vendor that he is utilizing as well as the, uh, second the machine, the bobcat that they kind of renovated to take that role, uh, this is probably similar. I think he hopes to be this to be a repeatable occurrence. But, um, you know, you just wanted to caution folks that, you know, if the vendor drops off and they can't get another person in the bobcat, it's still that one machine. But, you know, he's trying his best to to get through the town as quickly as possible. 00:08:33,100 S7: Karen. 00:08:34,868 S5: Yeah, I just wanted to say thank you to the Wenham and the Hamilton Fire Department. They've been extremely busy the last couple of days. Um, it is unfortunate. We have had a, um, someone within our community. They are in Hamilton on Honeysuckle Road, have a complete loss of the house. They have two young children that are at Cutler. Um, the family is extremely dedicated to community service with the Girl Scouts and the church and our, uh, patrons, uh, regularly of, um, stage 284 and the community house. And there has been a donation and meal train being set up. So I'd like to be able to, to share that with folks. Um, any help would be great. It's a complete loss. And unfortunately, it's, um, you know, they've been completely displaced at this point. So it's it's been a challenge and there's really little kids involved. So, um, would love to be able to share that. Like. 00:09:41,567 S2: This is like a GoFundMe or a link or something like. 00:09:44,100 S5: That, or they currently have a meal train. I don't know if people are familiar with that. It's a website where people can sign up and be able to bring the family dinner on a regular basis, and they've set that up essentially every two days for the next month or 6 to 7 weeks, in addition to, to, uh, a meal that can be provided on the same website is a donation link that has been receiving, um, donations that go directly to the family. But the family is extremely involved in all aspects. I understand that there's a they're a Hamilton family, but they are truly community based and have been great friends to several organizations. So whatever we can do, if we can start by sending that link out, that would be great. 00:10:28,267 S4: Just some of the board wants on the website. 00:10:32,400 S2: Um, that'd be yeah. I mean, is there a, um, does even though it wishes obviously when I'm in not Hamilton, but is there like a wish page or anything like that where it might, um, go. Or maybe it could just go on. 00:10:46,567 S4: Yeah, I was thinking, I believe we do have a wish page, but it's not highly traffic. Well, I don't think our website's very highly trafficked anyways, but we can put it out again. There's the policy. Says town business only. But if the Select Board sets the policy. So I think that you would deem it to be appropriate. We can put it on our socials and kind of a news blast. And to the extent we have folks signed up for our alert system that would trigger that. 00:11:15,767 S2: What do people think? 00:11:19,567 S7: Good. 00:11:21,567 S2: Yeah, I. 00:11:22,000 S7: Think. 00:11:22,567 S5: That'd be great. I mean, anything at this point, I. 00:11:25,267 S4: Think I think you sent me that info. 00:11:27,167 S5: Yep. Happy to. 00:11:29,167 S10: Thank you. 00:11:30,000 S2: All right. Great. Thank you. Um, that moves us to our consent agenda. There are two items on the consent agenda. Approval of the open session minutes of December 2nd, 2025, and the appointment of Althea Scranton to the Council on Aging board. Does anybody wish to discuss either of those items separately? Um, as opposed to just voting on the consent agenda? Seeing none, I would entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda as a single motion. 00:12:02,367 S9: Move to approve items A through B in the consent agenda, as printed in tonight's agenda. 00:12:08,000 S6: Very seconds. 00:12:09,367 S2: I will take a roll call. Karen. Yes. Peter. 00:12:11,667 S7: Yes. Gary. 00:12:12,367 S2: Yes. Deirdre. 00:12:13,167 S7: Yes. 00:12:13,667 S2: And Ben is. Yes. And our thanks to Miss Scranton for stepping up to volunteer for the Council on Aging Board. We very much appreciate that. And that moves us to new business. 00:12:28,667 S2: Um. 00:12:30,567 S4: So in the new business, Mister Chair, we will consider taking, uh, C and E uh, as kind of one discussion. Sure. 00:12:42,868 S7: Okay. 00:12:43,601 S2: So we'll start with C discussion and potential vote to open the 2026 Annual Town Meeting warrant to be held on April 11th, 2026 at the Bücker school at 1:00. Any discussion? 00:12:57,667 S6: Yeah. 00:13:00,501 S4: So I just for folks at home that I know where the Selectboard will vote tonight to open the warrant. The warrant will remain open for roughly 30 days for the board. Would probably be looking to close it on their second meeting of February. And during this time. Um, request to the board for their sponsorship on inclusion into the 2026 Annual Town Meeting. Uh, this would be the time to submit those. You also have the option to submit their citizens petition. Where? Um, by law, the board is required to include those in the wine, but this would be the time to submit any articles that you wish the Select Board to sponsor in place on the warrant on your behalf. 00:13:53,567 S2: Okay. Entertain a motion. 00:13:57,801 S7: Move to formally open the warrant today, January 20th, 2026, with an anticipated closing date of February 17th, 2026 for the 2020 sixth Annual Town Meeting, scheduled to be held at the Bugler School on Saturday, April 11th, 2026 at 1 p.m.. 00:14:16,667 S6: Kerry seconds. 00:14:18,100 S2: Take a roll call. Deirdre. Yes. Gary. Yes. Peter. Yes, Karen. Yes. And. Ben. Yes. That's unanimous. We'll skip to item three. I'm sorry. Item E. Discussion and potential vote to select an alternate location for the town meeting venue. Steve, what are some of the candidates? 00:14:36,968 S4: Well, are really only other alternative. And one of the articles that is just dawning on me now that I need to place on a potential article warrant, is to allow us to have a town meeting outside the boundaries of town. But right now really are two options. Besides, the Booker would be renting a tent and doing it in something like Pingree Park or Gordon College would be the only two available, um, venues that would be bigger than the Booker school, because I think that if we were to consider changing a venue, it would be because of capacity concerns. And given the. 00:15:28,901 S4: What seems to be increasing the likelihood of a override of some sort being placed on this year's warrant. That could, um, create a turnout similar to the consolidated school debt exclusion article last year. 00:15:50,000 S7: Right. 00:15:52,367 S4: It could also be something you can change the location up to two weeks before the annual town meeting. We could kind of gauge the reaction once the, you know, if a override article becomes a reality, gauge a community's reaction both in Hamilton and Wenham. Um, and make the call then. But I think it's worth starting the conversation. We can contact Gordon College if it's the board deems that to be an appropriate alternative, uh, to at least get on their calendar. 00:16:33,000 S6: Well, the advantage of Gordon College is the facility actually is larger capacity than any tent we could get. And also, um, they're very generous last time. And I'm kind of thinking back, the Covid tent, although it was not town Ronnie at the time, I think that ran about $30,000 for the rental and the electronics setup and all. 00:16:55,367 S2: That. 00:16:55,901 S6: Stuff. So it's not pretty expensive. It's not cheap to do a tent, right? 00:17:01,868 S2: Right. 00:17:02,601 S5: And that's 30 on top of the roughly 15 for technology. 00:17:07,167 S4: I don't know, I wasn't here for that. I mean I would yeah I mean the yeah I think the technology at the Bücker was ended up. Yeah. Excuse me. Uh, at Gordon, I think it ended up being about $20,000 00:17:23,601 S4: between the clickers and the additional audio visual that we put some additional screens because of the size of the, um, the location, which really wasn't much more, I think, than what it costs us to do it at the Bücker. 00:17:39,567 S6: In the tent, too. Although April should be out of the winter, is, you know, the tent still is subject to certain weather troubles as well, right? 00:17:51,267 S6: Yeah. 00:17:51,868 S5: Are there other options that you're thinking about? 00:17:54,601 S4: Those are the only two. I mean, the only other option I can think of, but we can't do it would be the high school because we don't have local option or bylaw that allows us to have a town meeting outside the boundaries. 00:18:06,000 S5: Even though it's a regional school district. 00:18:08,767 S4: Yeah. Town meeting is is town specific? 00:18:12,801 S7: Is that something we should change? 00:18:15,000 S4: Yes. Yeah. 00:18:15,667 S9: Putting it on the warrant. 00:18:16,801 S4: I think we'd like to put us here. 00:18:18,801 S7: Yeah. 00:18:20,767 S2: I think we'd we'd like to try to avoid, um, what occurred at the special town meeting, which was not really avoidable at the time. But now that we've experienced, um, an overflow crowd and, you know, having to scramble and, and postpone one and reschedule it, um, you probably want to think about whether there's a likelihood, as you just alluded to, Steve, that we might need a bigger venue and perhaps maybe not tonight, but we might want to consider sooner rather than later. Just deciding to hold it at Gordon College to have the larger capacity. Um. 00:19:04,567 S2: We don't need to decide the venue tonight, I don't think, but I'd rather I'd rather err on the side of, um, uh, a bigger space early enough in the process where people, um, you know, people have plenty of notice of the time and the place as opposed to switching the location, you know, 2 or 3 weeks ahead of time. It's not really a good way to do it. 00:19:29,467 S6: And we need check availability too. Right. Yes. 00:19:32,267 S4: Quickly availability. That could affect the date as well. 00:19:35,067 S5: Right. Well, because they could turn around and move it out a week. 00:19:38,467 S4: Yeah, it would certainly be at the mercy if the ultimate decision was to hold it at Gordon College would be at their mercy as far as availability. 00:19:46,100 S3: In June was better because they had everyone was out of session, I think. But now in April was going to be. 00:19:50,501 S2: Yeah. I mean if you go to them, what you would need to do, whether whether they're being considered as the primary or the alternate and they can't do the April 11th, that might tilt the board in the direction of doing it at Buca because I, you know, there's some, um, there's a logic and a regularity to that date, even though I realize it's, it's a Saturday, one Saturday later because of the Easter weekend being in the previous. 00:20:16,701 S5: And bumping it out. One Saturday is school vacation week. 00:20:19,868 S2: Right. Right. Which would be good. So? So it sounds like if you talk to Gordon Cox to find out it's availability, uh, for April 11th, then we could put it on the next agenda and decide primary and alternate. 00:20:36,067 S4: Yeah, we definitely can do that. 00:20:38,868 S7: Um. 00:20:40,167 S2: Okay. Any other comments about item E? All right. So we're not gonna we'll defer on any motion for E. Uh, so should we go to D now or. Mhm. Okay. Discussion and potential vote to select articles to be included in the 2026 warrant. 00:20:59,601 S4: Steve do you have that. 00:21:03,667 S11: I think. 00:21:08,100 S4: So this would be yeah that a a 2026 atm ESP draft there. 00:21:25,067 S4: All right. So how much detail would the board like do. I'm going to go through and explain all the routine articles that we do every year. Do you want to just jump to the potential additions to the ladder? 00:21:39,467 S5: Well, being that we have a 7:00 time frame, why don't we jump to the updates first and then we need to circle back? I think that that would be appropriate. 00:21:50,367 S4: All right. All right. So if you Peter I'll go through every single one. If you want to go back to page one and extreme detail. So. 00:22:05,000 S4: All right. 00:22:08,100 S4: So starting here the cooperative housing which is actually a I'm actually I'm not even completely sure what the ownership structure looks like in this, but it's not a condo and it's not a single family. I think you it's a group of individuals who buy into a single location, and we do not have we've been granting a we have been granting an exemption. Is it the maples? Do you know is it maples? 00:22:39,167 S6: Yeah. Maples are. 00:22:40,167 S4: The maples. We've been granting them local exemptions, which I believe to be the right thing to do. Of course, the seniors, veterans, blind residents and any other, um, statutory exemptions that exist in the mass general law or real estate exemptions, and, but the town is required to adopt a local option to have permission, quote unquote, from the state to do so. So this would be kind of a housekeeping item to allow the community to adopt the local auction option. So we're kind of in compliance with our current practice or to bring our current practice and compliance. The next one is any questions on that? 00:23:24,901 S5: I have a quick question. Does I mean can we change the wording from blind to just disabled at all? I mean, I'd hate to find out that there's somebody who also has a disability that isn't getting a tax deferral because they're not blind. 00:23:36,567 S4: Well, blind is the actual name of the exemption. You have to be blind to get it. 00:23:44,300 S6: For exemptions for other conditions. 00:23:46,000 S5: I know I just didn't read it else in there that said that. So that's why I was asking. Okay. 00:23:51,667 S3: All right. 00:23:53,167 S4: And then the next one is this. Both one and two are from the board of assessors. Over two. They may be pulling back this request this year as they want to do some more, um, analysis on how other communities are doing it. But really the, the, the, the long and short of it is that tax deferral program allows an individual who qualifies to defer their taxes until their passing, or until they choose not to, at which time they have to. The municipality has the first as a first lien holder in the estate, in the event that they were to pass away, and the home in this example was passed to their heirs. The municipality is the first lien holder, and the municipality would have to be made whole for all the deferred taxes plus interest. The interest rates can be high. I believe it's eight. It's 8% annually in the deferral process during while they're deferred taxes, and I believe it jumps to 11%. Once the individual is deceased or stops deferring the taxes so and also the income eligible for the income requirements. Meaning how much? How many assets you can hold and how much money you can make every year. And also be restrictive. So they're looking for ways it's a good program. They're looking for ways to make it more accessible to to folks in one of them. Um, you know, some of the really some of the, the, the, the barriers to being able to qualify for this exemption are you make too much money or the interest rate kind of scares you off. So they're looking to increase the income limit, decrease the interest rate that we charge there's set by state laws is something that Wenham chose to do in the past. It's you know, it's but there's this there is local options that allow you to kind of deviate from what the law states. 00:26:08,467 S4: The next one is adoption of specialized energy stretch code, the board had a recommendation from the Climate Action Committee with. 00:26:18,267 S6: A. 00:26:19,567 S4: Very comprehensive presentation, probably two months ago, a month and a half ago. Four is an operational override for the schools, and the town again remains to be seen. But as we get nearer and kind of finalize our budget projections, both from the town and school sides, it became seems to be becoming more likely. Chapter five is the the tax that chapter 14 of of the acts of 2025. So it changed. It changed the way the communities can operate and um, tax takings. So there's some additional steps that have to that have to take place. And so municipalities need to act within 30 days after a foreclosure to decide whether it wants to retain or sell a property. So that's not enough time to call a town meeting. So in this place with the recommendation, is that town meeting designate who holds the authority to make this decision. And in most cases, it would be the Selectboard in a town this sort of open town meeting form of government. So this article would be asking for the residents to designate the Select Board the authority to do so. 00:27:47,567 S5: What would be another option? 00:27:50,501 S4: I think you'd have to call a special town meeting, but I'm not very well versed in the tax takings. 00:28:01,701 S4: That recommendation from attorney would be that they're recommending all communities designate their, um, to blackboard, but I can certainly look for alternatives and report back. Number six is the Hamilton Regional School District regional agreement amendments. That process, um, has stalled to some extent which to trying to get. This is the busy season for municipal attorneys. And we're trying to get kind of at the stage now where we need to get our attorneys in their attorneys in the same room to kind of hammer out some finer details and coordinating, coordinating that has been difficult. And for folks that are involved, that's why we canceled the meeting last Wednesday. Uh, was because of, uh, an emergency court hearing that came up that our attorney, Lauren Goldberg, had to attend to. Chapter seven is Deidre. This is a request from Deirdre last year, and it got tabled just because it was getting a little late in the process. And this one requires special legislation. Basically, it's looking for a way to restrict, um, folks from serving on multiple boards or at least policy making boards. And so this would you first, you'd have to define what boards you want to be affected by this bylaw. And then, um, you know, ask for special legislation if it, if it requires, um, if the boards designated are elected because the election process is, uh, can't be kind of limited like this. So participants in the election process can't be limited by a bylaw. So that's where the special legislation comes in. All right. Keep going down, please. 00:30:05,000 S4: All right. This number eight is still. I know if you've attended. 00:30:08,300 S7: And I just asked a question with that. So, Deirdre, when you were on Finn Conn. Right. And and the select board, you probably wouldn't be able to do that. 00:30:19,701 S9: I wasn't on both. 00:30:21,868 S7: You weren't on the pin cob. 00:30:23,567 S9: Before I was on select board? 00:30:25,567 S6: No, because Finn com in the bylaws already has that written. Right. 00:30:30,567 S7: Okay, but. 00:30:31,267 S6: I'm talking to other boards. 00:30:33,167 S4: We want to take a quick break for the hearing. 00:30:35,300 S7: Sure. 00:30:36,367 S2: All right, so we'll take a recess in item D and we'll move to item F 7 p.m.. Hearing Select Board of the Town of Winona will hold a public hearing related to petition by Massachusetts Electric Company, dba National Grid and Verizon New England of 1101 Turnpike Street, North Andover, Massachusetts 01845. To consider a request to locate poles, wires, fixtures including the necessary sustaining and protecting fixtures along and across the following public way. Maple Street National Grid to relocate 1JO pole on Maple Street, beginning at a point approximately 935ft, plus or minus, southwest of the centerline of the intersection of Puritan Road and approximately five feet, plus or minus in a southwesterly direction. Installation of 1JO pole number 113 one and all appurtenances in Maple Street when a mass 1984. Do I have a motion to open? Said hearing. 00:31:37,667 S9: So moved. 00:31:38,868 S2: Is there a second? 00:31:39,767 S6: You're a second. 00:31:40,667 S2: We'll take a roll. Karen. Yes, Peter. Yes. Gary. Yes. Deirdre. Yes. And Ben is. Yes. That opens the hearing. And we're pleased to have some representatives from National Grid here this evening. So whichever one of you would like to begin, please do. 00:31:55,400 S4: I'm just sorry. 00:31:56,100 S2: Yeah, yeah, you can just come up to the table. 00:31:59,801 S12: I am a Design engineer John Jenkins, representing National Grid at the 44 River Street office in Beverly. Um, we are petitioning to install one joint on pole on Maple Street between the two existing 113 and 114, in order to bring power across the street to the new construction at Cynthia Circle. 00:32:26,000 S3: Great. 00:32:27,000 S7: Thank you. 00:32:27,367 S6: Okay. 00:32:28,667 S7: Any questions? 00:32:29,701 S2: Oh. 00:32:30,000 S7: Go ahead. 00:32:30,367 S4: Yeah. You just have to make sure I open it for public comment at some point. 00:32:33,300 S3: Right. 00:32:33,667 S2: Right. I'll start with the board. Does anybody have any questions or comments? 00:32:38,200 S5: Okay. Question was is when, um, how long will the disruption take place? Um, between the time you have to shut the power off to the residents nearby. 00:32:47,601 S12: Um, there shouldn't be an outage in order to bring it across. 00:32:52,501 S5: Okay, great. 00:32:54,868 S2: Uh, I don't see any members of the public who wish to be heard on this and no one online, I suspect. All right. Great. Um, thank you very much. Appreciate your time. And, uh, we'll. I'll entertain a motion to close the public hearing. 00:33:09,067 S12: Thank you. 00:33:09,601 S6: Thank you. We need a vote. Yes. Vote for us. 00:33:12,701 S2: I think we close the public hearing and then vote. Okay, yeah. So we'll close the public hearing or motion to close the public hearing. 00:33:19,267 S9: Move to close the public hearing. 00:33:20,801 S2: Is there a second? 00:33:21,467 S6: Here, a second? 00:33:22,501 S2: Karen. Yes. Peter. Gary. Yes. Deirdre. Yes, yes. So the public hearing is closed. And now I would entertain a motion to move the approval. 00:33:33,901 S7: Yes. Move to Grant Massachusetts Electric Company, doing business as National Grid and Verizon New England. Permission to conduct poll work to relocate one jail pole on Maple Street, beginning at a point approximately 935ft, plus or minus, southwest of the center line of the intersection of Sheridan Road and continuing an approximately five plus or minus feet and a southwesterly direction. Installation of one pole. Number one, one, three, dash one and then all appurtenances in Maple Street. One mass 01984 three seconds. 00:34:16,000 S2: Roll call. Deirdre. Yes. Gary. Yes. Peter. Yes. Karen Benes. Yes. That's unanimous. So thanks again, gentlemen. Appreciate your time. All right. So that brings us back to item D where Steve you left off, I think with, uh, number eight perhaps. 00:34:33,501 S6: Yep, yep. That's right. 00:34:36,467 S4: So number eight is Eric Tracy and the school committee are conducting based fact finding meetings where they're looking for feedback on how to proceed with the, you know, the new school. I think everybody is in agreement, at least based on the feedback I've received from the community that something needs to be done to the schools, but where, um, where that kind of diverges is what what is specifically needs to be done. So, uh, he's kind of fact finding, gathering some feedback, and there may be a request for a school facilities needs assessment. So if ultimately, you know, the determination is that we need more information on what the costs are to change the layout of the existing schools or bring the existing schools, uh, into certain end requirements or compliance. This would be the study that, you know, a identifies exactly what has been what needs to be done to bring these schools up to par and, uh, how much that's going to cost so that we can plan the future. But that is. That's a maybe. Right now it may not be. The fact finding may not be done, um, in time for town meeting, but this is kind of a placeholder in case it is the anyway. Any questions on. 00:36:11,901 S6: That? 00:36:14,167 S4: The high school roof. So as most are aware of the high school is has been in dire need of replacement for some time now. We recently got invited to participate in the MSBA uh program, which similar to the new school. Uh, they have similar programs for major capital improvements where they will pay roughly, I believe, 30 or 40% of the school of the school roof project, and it's estimated to be about $10 million. So they would be bringing that cost down to roughly $6 million. And with Vietnam's portion being roughly $2 million. So that would be proposed to be funded by debt exclusion, which would show up on this town meeting. If we want to qualify for the MSBA reimbursement, it's kind of a one time opportunity. We've or I shouldn't say we Eric has, uh, for as long as he'd been here, and I believe the superintendent before that has been applying annually to the MSBA to get into this program and get reimbursement. And we've kind of never made it to the top of the list. Uh, and, you know, now we finally have. So it's, uh, you know, it's pretty important to take advantage of it. It's been certainly it's an identified need that's hard to argue with. 00:37:39,868 S4: Is, uh, number ten is authorization for easement acquisition. So what this is, it's, um, so basically in eminent domain. The four private acquisitions of ten. Practically, we don't have any permanent takings for the route one project, but there are several temporary easements that will need to be taken. And it's it's basically to grant, uh, MassDOT the permission to to do so. However, there are other steps that the town is currently taking. We've just got yesterday morning from the state to final layout plans and identified the parcels that are affected. 00:38:25,467 S3: And where where does that light go? Top of harbor. 00:38:29,868 S5: That is. 00:38:30,267 S6: Cherry. Yeah. Cherry. Both. 00:38:32,601 S5: Both Arbor and a cherry within 100 yards of each other. 00:38:40,267 S6: Mhm. Sequence lights. That's the dot dot plan. 00:38:47,100 S7: So I have a much harder time getting out of cherry than Arbor. 00:38:54,667 S7: For what it's worth. Mm. 00:38:56,901 S4: All right. So anyways, we've we've sent off a draft letter that will go to all the private homeowners that are affected by the project to begin discussions of, um, you know, the taking and what their, what their rights are and, um, and how we're going to move through the project. There are there are payments that are made. The payments will come out of the budget for the for the project and appropriated at town meeting appraisals that we have to have done, uh, to make sure that the payments are fair cash value for the temporary easements. 00:39:35,000 S6: Turning. 00:39:35,400 S7: North, uh, Wenham into North Beverly. 00:39:41,400 S9: Or improving safety. 00:39:46,601 S4: This is a long time. This has been in the works for years. 00:39:51,100 S6: About 17 years, I think. 00:39:54,567 S7: Wow. 00:39:55,000 S2: 15 years. It's been a long way. 00:39:56,667 S6: 2007 I think. 00:39:58,200 S4: Was the first was when the town. 00:39:59,667 S6: Requested. Mm. 00:40:01,901 S2: Progress can be slow. 00:40:04,801 S6: So. 00:40:06,601 S4: Uh, 11. So this is something that Joey might want. You can give it a little update, but, uh, the historic, um, district commission is looking at proposing to the Select Board of Demolition delay for historic structures. I'm going to fill in a little more of the details. 00:40:28,100 S3: Yeah. Um, similar to the, um, the article that, you know, says you can't start with multiple boards. This was left off to special town meetings because the Warren was getting pretty packed. But essentially it would be a nine month, uh, delay on demolitions for buildings that are 80 years or older and historically significant. Um, it would go before the Historical Commission to see if they felt it was indeed historic. It had to be 80 years or older, and then it would go on to the nine month delay. Um, this is I think they actually try to bring this before a town meeting 8 or 10 years ago and believe it failed or it wasn't voted on. But they've been after this for quite some time now to try to get back on the war. So I said I would have presented before the select board again for inclusion. 00:41:12,667 S6: Okay. 00:41:13,868 S5: What's the objection during that nine months? 00:41:17,467 S3: Um. I'm sorry. 00:41:19,267 S5: The what what do they do during that? 00:41:21,367 S3: Yeah. So during a nine month period, the historical Commission would work with the people that want to, you know, demolish the building for, you know, maybe look at different alternatives as opposed to demolishing it. Um, I think that's the main goal, to try to avoid it from happening. At the very least, delay it. So, um. 00:41:38,767 S5: And after the nine months, then we can demo. 00:41:41,567 S3: It. Yes. 00:41:42,300 S7: Correct. 00:41:42,767 S4: Yeah, I think it's. It's kind of tough. Or discourage developers because of the additional carrying costs they have on the home. So you can't just buy a demo and start building it to buy it and carry it for nine months to kind of encourage, you know, instead of carrying it and building a new house, we can renovate the existing structure as an alternative development possibility. 00:42:07,367 S5: Do we currently have a list of historically significant structures? 00:42:10,901 S3: We have a list on on Macross Online's state registry of historic buildings. So they are listed town halls one. Yeah, we do have a list. Yeah. The assessor I think, can pull, um, buildings that are 80 years. 00:42:23,367 S4: Yeah, we have build dates. It's kind of just going to be something. Sometimes you just don't have the date. We have most of the data, but sometimes every once in a while, you get one. That's unclear as to when it was built. It takes a little homework to figure it out. 00:42:38,000 S6: Okay. Nine months also gives the town time to act. You know, in the past we've seen houses disappear overnight. But this will give the town time to intercede and propose alternative plans. Or in the extreme, go to town meeting for acquisition. 00:42:55,300 S2: Would it apply to all properties in the historic district? 00:42:59,667 S3: Yeah, not just in the historic district. 00:43:01,267 S6: In town. 00:43:01,767 S3: Right. 00:43:02,200 S2: Well, I understand. But if even if a house didn't meet anything in the historic districts automatically covered. Right. And then things outside the historic district that meet the criteria would be covered. 00:43:13,501 S3: Okay. 00:43:13,868 S2: Yeah. And most of the demo delay ordinances that I'm familiar with in cities and towns are 12 months. Is there? Was there a debate between 9 and 12, or has the state law changed in some way that nine months is now the standard or. 00:43:28,100 S3: Historical commission has failed? Nine was the better number. I think they did talk about a year. They thought that was too long. 00:43:33,167 S4: Yeah. I don't know the we can definitely. It's probably a good. 00:43:35,968 S3: Idea to watch the. 00:43:36,567 S4: Recording to get a, get a half dozen communities around us and see what they're doing. Okay? 00:43:42,067 S2: Yeah, I'd be worth. I've never heard of a nine month one, but it's doesn't mean it's usually 12. 12 is what I'm familiar with in terms of just, you know, seeing them over the years in different cases. Um, okay. So that moves us to 12 the chickens. Who's going to talk about the chickens? 00:44:01,367 S4: So the chickens, believe it or not. And one of them, it is illegal to own chickens. Without it, you won't have chickens at your house without a special permit. So this would be looking to give the right to have chickens. A small number of backyard chickens. I believe the number was 6 to 8 chickens without the need for a special permit, so it would be small scale residential. 00:44:28,767 S7: It is 6 to 8 agricultural. 00:44:31,100 S4: Yeah. So not can't sell anything or anything like that. But you know for home use. 00:44:37,400 S2: Lots of some allowance for eggs. Six chickens, two eggs. I don't know the count, but. 00:44:44,000 S4: I'm not sure how many eggs you get out of six chickens. I've never. 00:44:47,200 S9: Seen anything. Anything larger would have to go for a special permit still. 00:44:52,667 S4: Yeah. And also, I think depending on the size, then it becomes zoning regulations. Because if it's like a business or, you know, it requires health inspections. I'm not sure the the threshold, but once it gets big enough, it has to have annual health inspections for, I guess, the health of the surrounding areas based on the waste, the animal. 00:45:15,367 S7: Do the butters get any say in, um, special permission? 00:45:21,767 S4: Yeah, for sure you do. 00:45:23,200 S6: For a special permit? Yes. Yeah. You can go to. 00:45:27,167 S5: Our neighbors got goats and they. We had to sign off on it. 00:45:34,000 S2: All right. Next. 00:45:37,601 S4: So this is something the planning board in land use has been working on quite diligently over the last few months. This, the I believe it was 1982, was the last time our subdivision rules and regulations were updated. A lot has changed, so they're looking to both update them for current best practices and also the needs and wants of Wenham, but also to streamline them and eliminate redundancy, which there is a lot of it. Just as you know, additional clauses have been tacked on and rewritten over the years. It becomes a little bit some in some cases contradictory and lengthy and confusing. So they're kind of looking at a complete overhaul. Yeah. This is something I would like to bring up to the board as a request of. So we have a general stabilization fund. But this is another stabilization fund That, you know, can be a little bit more specific in its use and in part the when the town meeting is voted to fund it, they know generally what use it's going towards. And my thought process on the creation of this and subsequently a ask to fund $50,000 out of the capital program is eventually something will need to be done with the DPW site. And if we spend the next, you know, 3 or 4 years putting $50,000 or thereabouts every year into the building stabilization fund, we'll have, you know, generally we have we'll have built a couple hundred thousand dollars that will likely cover all the engineering and planning and estimating that would need to be done to then bring it back to town, meeting with a complete package. So, you know, they would go something like in year five from now, we would go to town meeting and say, you know, will you release these $200,000 of funds in the building stabilization funds so that we can plan for the DPW, uh, change or whatever, whatever the, you know, whatever. We'll probably have some outreach and figure out exactly kind of what generally what we want to do. Then we're going to plan for it. And then at the next town meeting after that, it would come back, having spent the $200,000 and did all the planning and have a design package, that we have a really pretty good idea on what the cost will be to do that project and then ask the voters of town meeting, uh, likely through a debt exclusion, to authorize that bonding so that we can complete the project. 00:48:22,267 S7: Sounds like a great idea. Get ahead of our one offs. 00:48:29,767 S4: Then. 00:48:33,200 S4: Oh, yeah. So this is a bookkeeping item that Jeff just told me about. So we've been carrying a negative balance in our CARES act. So it sounds like basically we got reimbursed for stuff that we spent that didn't qualify for CARES act. So then that got reversed. So we just need to clear that with a free cash transfer to clear the negative balance. Mhm. Um and reason being it was back in I think it happened 2021 ish. But uh the DLR is making time to fix it by 2026. This will be our last opportunity to correct it. Okay. And then finally. 00:49:20,300 S6: The. 00:49:21,400 S4: Ask the asked to authorize us to conduct town meetings outside of the town of Wenham. Right. 00:49:30,667 S2: Okay. So those are 15 potential articles that are beyond the the standard ones. And it might be less. It might be more. It could be some other ones that pop up. And we need not vote tonight on these. Correct. We have time to. 00:49:49,667 S4: No, we have time. I just wanted to get this in front of the board to get it basically knee jerk reactions. Any of them are a no go. Hey, you forgot to add this. I had that right. Because after this, tomorrow I will send start working with Robin and Lauren in drafting the actual articles, because then it becomes easier to just, you know, take one away. But I didn't want to send any. I didn't want to work on drafting anything. That was like an absolute non-starter. I mean, a lot of these are pretty non-controversial and the ones that are maybes, I'm not gonna get going yet, But. 00:50:28,667 S2: Um, do any members have, um, a negative reaction to any of any of these they'd want to flag at this point? 00:50:38,667 S9: It's a good list. 00:50:39,667 S2: It's a good list. 00:50:41,000 S5: The only one I had a question on is the historical one about, um, demoing. 00:50:49,267 S5: If it targets everybody in the historical district. 00:50:53,267 S6: No, it's it's town wide. 00:50:55,000 S3: Yeah. Not just the district. The district already has certain under chapter 40. I believe you can't just demolish any building. Historic district it takes. There's another threshold. You have to meet this up. This is town wide, though. Not just in. 00:51:06,200 S5: And I'm assuming that it doesn't. It'll be, um. Except if there's an emergency or if there is. 00:51:14,000 S3: Yes. If there is a healthy. Yes. Exactly. There would be exceptions for emergencies. Um, you know. 00:51:19,567 S5: Fires, floods, things. 00:51:21,000 S3: Like that, that. 00:51:21,601 S5: You just didn't see that in there. 00:51:23,167 S3: Yes. 00:51:23,667 S5: Yeah. 00:51:24,400 S3: Good question. though there are exceptions. 00:51:28,667 S6: Okay. 00:51:30,100 S2: All right. Um, so I think we're done with, um, item E. The only thing left in the agenda is item h. Old business. And is there anything new for us to discuss on item h? Or did we kind of air out our feelings? 00:51:47,701 S4: Yeah, well, I just want to if you want to pull up the. It's not really new, but I just want to provide you just a quick update. 00:51:58,000 S4: Those, uh, spreadsheets that I emailed you. 00:52:00,501 S7: Mhm. 00:52:11,901 S4: That's one of them. Then there should be another one to. 00:52:15,300 S5: Jot this one first. 00:52:16,701 S4: Um, yeah. We can do this one first. So first this is the. This is the capital request that's been circulated around I. I don't think unless everyone wants me to. Do you want me to go through each one? 00:52:32,467 S6: Yeah. 00:52:33,000 S4: Okay. So if you scroll down to the bottom. 00:52:35,701 S7: I have questions about repave library, parking lot. 00:52:39,701 S4: Yeah, sure. Shoot. 00:52:40,601 S6: You just. 00:52:41,200 S4: Kidding. Okay. 00:52:44,667 S4: You got it. 00:52:46,367 S3: Now we're going through the whole list. 00:52:48,000 S2: All right. 00:52:48,767 S4: You have one comment now. 00:52:53,367 S9: But at some point, we are discussing the capital request, right? 00:52:57,901 S4: Yeah. I mean, well, that's kind of what I'm gauging in that how much information you want, but I do, you know, so this may change how, how detailed are we going and are we going in on it. But so right now we're looking at all in. I've added I met with Mike and Rich and they've added this kind of what we were waiting on. They were waiting on a number of quotes to come back and we just got those back really well, really this morning I got it from Mike until I got here. We're looking at about 920, assuming that the CPC funds the police through the town hall roof, the digitization of historic documents, and the renovation of the restoration of the war memorial directly across the street from Town Hall. We're looking at a spend of or an ask a request of $925,000. 00:53:58,100 S4: You know that that's high. I mean, generally when, you know, if you go back to 2020, we didn't have any capital expenditure. There was there was a debt exclusion for a fire truck, and that was the only capital expenditure. There was a town operational override. There was a school's operational override, and there was also a utilization of free cash to offset the budget. So then moving from there, you know, we had to present we had 250,000 525,000 445,000 820,000. And then most recently, at our last town meeting, we had 700,000. So that's just to say I don't know what is right or wrong, but I think we're we're creeping up to, you know, it may be we want to trim this back and get it more into kind of below, certainly below the $800,000 threshold. There are some on these lists that I think, um, could pretty easily be deferred, uh, such as the carpet replacement to the fire station. I think that. Right. I don't think anybody is going to walk in there and argue that it doesn't need to be done because they're all torn up and but, you know, then it's the question of, well, you know, the basement of the fire station can't be used because of the lead down there. The carpets need to be replaced. I mean, it needs the building itself needs a significant overhaul. It may be that we start discussions, you know, through the next year of, you know, what are we going to do with that fire station? You know, how should we. Probably instead of throwing 50 grand out of here, 20 grand at it, there might be, you know, a bigger discussion. So we're not doing things to be doing things twice. Um, the other some of the questions that were brought up by, um, you know, the, the fin com were kind of around our vehicle replacement schedule. So they were looking at the admin vehicle for the police chief as to that, you know, got a little less than 100,000 miles. You probably could get another year or two out of that. Um, you know that those two things right there free up about $80,000. Um, you know, the you know, look, Jim, I don't I don't I'm not suggesting that we defer it, but I know that, you know, Jim, in this building has been asking for years and years and it keeps getting pushed off and is asked again this year to do the floor over in the basement and paint the walls, which were its asbestos tile down there. And, you know, we would be looking at probably 15 to $20,000 to kind of renovate the downstairs to the level that he would feel comfortable, uh, extending some of his, um, his services, down down there. So but again, you know, that's something that's not a dire need of replacement. The also the concerns of King Kong have relayed back to me is um, the, the fire, you know, given all the expenses we've put into the police station, uh, you know, our additional rugs and renovation of the interrogation room necessary at this point? Or can we get by with with something less, uh, the, you know, kind of the argument was that we've we've put a lot of money into the police station. I know the chief of police would love to kind of tie up the loose ends and get everything, uh, to, you know, kind of be one cohesive renovation. So the carpets are matched and, and, you know, everything's kind of tied together, But, um, you know, I think they're the phenomenal cities. And they'll be coming back with a more formal recommendation. Ah, you know, trying to look at this where you know, what's really needed, what's really needed to get done from like a maintenance perspective and what's kind of how are we doing? You know, for more of a subjective or, uh, look, aesthetic type, type of standpoint. So anyways, with that, I don't know if you want to talk more about the police station or any specifics on this or wait until, I guess, how would you how would you like these to be presented? Would you like a more formal presentation at a select board meeting where the departments come in? Things are. 00:59:02,501 S13: Yes. Okay. 00:59:04,467 S9: Where is fin? Come on. Their deliberations. 00:59:07,000 S4: That's what I gotta try to connect with fin. With Jeff going. I'm not sure that's why I'm not here. Might be a little bit different than years past. Um, maybe we invite them in. Or maybe they want to. I know they're I know they've been reaching out to the department heads individually and kind of doing their own homework, coming back with kind of an analysis that way. I can certainly, you know, we can bring the department heads out to discuss with the select board if that's the way you want to go about it. Or we can see fin coms recommendation where they've already been been reaching out. 00:59:40,367 S7: I think getting things on recommendation would be a great first start. 00:59:48,868 S9: I mean, I do think it needs to be trimmed. I think close to a million is high. Um, so I do think there's a prioritization exercise to be done. I think if we bring department heads in we should include fin com. So it's a one time presentation. They don't have to repeat it. 01:00:12,067 S2: Yeah, I was actually thinking the same. Having a joint meeting probably would be an efficient way to do it. 01:00:18,100 S4: Maybe next meeting, I'll connect with the fan and we'll see you. 01:00:21,501 S2: Yeah, I'd invite the department heads, the, uh, quarter of $1 million new ambulance. I'm assuming that there's a general consensus so far that that's needed. I've heard the chief mention it. 01:00:33,367 S6: Yeah. 01:00:34,701 S4: I mean, am I. Yeah, I would it would probably let the chief speak to that. 01:00:41,968 S7: Yeah. 01:00:42,968 S2: And what about the downtown vibrancy plan? Who's gonna who's gonna speak to that? 01:00:47,567 S4: That would be Kate. 01:00:48,868 S9: It's part of the master plan. 01:00:50,267 S4: The master plan implementation was a specified action item in the master plan. 01:00:55,901 S2: In a particular on a particular timeline. 01:00:59,067 S4: Well, we set the timeline last year. We set like a 3 or 5 year timeline. And this was set as your. I think we're in year two of the timeline and that this project completes complete streets are going to be right and then in next year will be um, um. 01:01:21,701 S4: Oh economic development study. Right. And then then obviously the implementation of the studies as they come due. 01:01:30,501 S3: CPC did just approve 100 K. I was just told to for the digitization records project. 01:01:35,901 S7: Good. 01:01:37,100 S2: So it seems like there's a consensus that we'll hold the joint. We'll at least plan to hold a joint meeting with the fin com hopefully in two weeks. Um, and the various department heads who would speak to some of these capital requests would come in and answer questions. 01:01:52,300 S5: I would like to know why some of the Arpa funds were not used for some of these that have obviously been on the list for quite some time, and some of the Arpa requests that were put through last year Kind of offset some of these. Like, I don't understand why they weren't prioritized. So it'd be great to have the department heads here, because I think there's $15,000 that went to the floor of the chief of police office. When you're asking now for, you know, $5,000 in weapons for the entire entire staff. So I'd like to know why $15,000 went to a carpet for Arpa. But there are other activities that could have been easily, you know, focused on. 01:02:34,901 S4: Yeah, we can we'll bring proof. 01:02:36,601 S9: But that was that was a whole exercise with the prior select board that was predates most of well, half of us. 01:02:45,467 S5: We signed off on it last year. 01:02:47,200 S9: There's no the original Arpa prioritization. 01:02:50,467 S5: No. We signed off on the on adding the police last year. 01:02:53,367 S6: This group. 01:02:54,000 S4: Yeah the the I think we so we had the original Arpa projects and within that project was a police station renovation and layout change, which I don't remember the exact amount, but I think it was $80,000 of our part designated to that. And then the police chief of police came back. We had some surplus Arpa funds that had to be divvied up. And one of the requests that was the police had overrun their budget on the original project and was looking for the $15,000 to complete the chief's office. 01:03:36,367 S5: So you're also asking now for 14,900 and something on here to do the carpet for the entire station. So I'd really like some justification on some where some of these Arpa funds went as well. And why this wasn't on here, because you're looking at having an override. That's to me, it's a little questionable where the money went. 01:03:55,601 S4: Well, it definitely went to carpet. 01:03:58,367 S5: Right. But then if you actually scroll, I think scroll up. They're also asking for carpet. They're asking for weapons. They're asking for a lot of other money that that could have gone to. 01:04:07,167 S7: Yeah. 01:04:07,367 S4: I mean, yeah, the carpet I mean, don't I mean, I'm not I'm not arguing. The point is just that, that definitely went towards the carpet. And this is carpet on the other side of the police station that he wants to match the new carpet. So basically half the police station got renovated in, the other half was untouched. This money that's requested now is to be able to match the rest of the new side of the police station, and also renovate the interrogation room and turn it into half an office, half an interrogation room. 01:04:46,167 S4: Again, these are just requests. Yeah, the chief can come in and. 01:04:51,767 S2: Yeah, they've done, I mean, and they've gotten a good start with it. Hold on, hold on. They've got they've gotten a good start with the requests by, you know, providing at least a fair amount of explanation, like on the copper replacement that Steve just outlined, mentions Arpa and how it only carpeted half the station and so on. So it gives us something to look at in preparation for the Q&A. Peter, you going to say something? 01:05:19,200 S7: No, no. 01:05:19,868 S2: Okay. Um. All right. Anything else in here? Did you want to also look at the, um, the other spreadsheet? 01:05:29,601 S4: Yeah. 01:05:30,100 S2: Okay. 01:05:30,601 S7: That spreadsheet. 01:05:51,567 S4: Can just scroll down to the bottom, quick. 01:06:03,267 S4: The pop ups are like, they drive me crazy on my computer. I got news feeds coming up. I got emails. 01:06:13,300 S4: You just scroll down to the bottom quick. Thanks. Yeah. Unfortunately, it got cut off. But basically, if you look at the town, it the district, this was supposed to show the the overage, but the district is about $500,000 over the levy limit in the town is about $122,000 over the levy limit. Now, if you scroll back up. 01:06:38,067 S4: This little graphic is basically if you look at the very top line, this is that's the kind of a starting point with our first draft of the budget that sat on the Saturday budget presentation, we're at about $272,000 in the Hamilton Regional School District was at the 911. And the reductions kind of shows the reductions that we that they've made and we've made, and they had two rounds of adjustments. And then based on our conversation last time, we're looking at, um, cutting the pleasant porn gatekeepers. We made a general insurance adjustment down $7,000 based on actual spending over the last three years, and then also looking to reduce, um, 1% of every department's expenditure line items. So where that comes from is up for the department head to figure out where they can, what they can squeeze. And then the next one is what's currently still in the budget. So that we're currently at $122,000. Deficit reflects a budget that includes, um, a police that. Yeah, that that, uh, excuse me that that doesn't include, uh, these, these these things? So that would be, um, to get us to the $122,000. 01:08:06,901 S2: Any questions or comments for Steve on this? 01:08:13,767 S14: Is that clear of software, an annual or are we did we buy a package where you pay only. 01:08:19,100 S5: A certain amount. 01:08:19,901 S7: For. 01:08:20,000 S4: You? 01:08:20,200 S5: That's a couple of years. 01:08:21,567 S4: At the annual. 01:08:22,200 S13: It will be forever. Yeah. 01:08:25,801 S2: All right. And then related to this, of course, tomorrow night we have the, um, the five boards meeting. Um, all board members invited 630 at Booker. 01:08:39,601 S13: Yeah, correct. 01:08:40,167 S2: Okay. Yeah. And, um. 01:08:44,467 S5: Vote's being done tomorrow. 01:08:46,267 S2: Um, I don't know. 01:08:47,367 S4: No, usually we don't. I haven't been the one that a vote takes place. 01:08:52,400 S2: Oh, we have a, um. A hand raised Anita Baker. 01:09:01,667 S3: I need to go ahead. 01:09:07,501 S7: I'm going to need the. 01:09:11,667 S3: Same thing. I need you can hear us. 01:09:16,901 S7: In Chicago. 01:09:20,767 S11: Do you hear? 01:09:33,100 S11: Me? 01:09:35,100 S3: I can hear us. 01:09:40,667 S2: Can you move it to a panelist on that? 01:09:43,968 S4: All right. Roger is here actually, to as well. Um, speak on that. 01:09:51,467 S3: Did promote her. She hasn't accepted. 01:09:53,067 S7: I see. 01:09:58,167 S2: Miss Baker, if you can hear us now. If you'd like to speak. You're going to need to click the button that is saying promote to panelist. Either that or unmute. One of those two things should hopefully let us hear you. 01:10:19,467 S3: She declined to be promoted. 01:10:21,267 S7: Okay. 01:10:22,267 S2: All right. Um. Feel free if you do wish to speak. And it's just a technological issue. Feel free to send an email, um, to, uh. What's the email address? When is it? Just select board at Wenham dot. Gov. Select board all one word at Wenham Ma. Gov. Um, just in connection with the meeting tomorrow night. Steve, can you just, um, correct me if I'm wrong on my understanding of where Hamilton presently is with respect to some of its, um, planned budget as it pertains to the schools. And I think, if I'm correct, that the president proposed school budget after that second adjustment of 9187, 01:11:13,367 S2: um, based on a change in apportionment that favors Hamilton, that the end result would be, um, approximately a 1% increase to Hamilton's budget for the schools. Is that your understanding? 01:11:30,767 S4: Yeah. My understanding is, if you what Hamilton has budgeted this year and is asking for a. 01:11:40,667 S4: 2 million. I know the number. 01:11:42,767 S2: I think it was 1.7. 01:11:43,801 S13: $1.7. 01:11:44,767 S4: Million override. But if you take last year's total spend that Hamilton's total spend on the Hamilton Regional School District to this year is the 1%. What is budgeted at 1% increase to their to their schools? Um of what they can afford that represents what they can afford. Hamilton and one of them went up. I think on their side it's about eight, 7 or 8%. Mm. It's about 9% for us. Percent and a half greater because of the assessment shift. And, uh, that resulted in a $1.7 million shortfall. 01:12:28,100 S2: Okay. I thought that I had heard Eric Tracy say that under the proposed school budget, not what Hamilton is saying it can afford, but under the proposed school budget as it stands now, that it would only require 1% increase in Hamilton's school spend. Or maybe I misheard him. 01:12:47,868 S4: Okay, yeah, I know the 1% is what Hamilton is saying. It can afford it can afford 1% more than it paid. 01:12:53,367 S7: Last. 01:12:53,667 S2: I see. Okay. 01:12:55,501 S1: Yeah. 01:12:56,667 S6: On that subject for tomorrow too. I think this board needs to consider how we present at town meeting the two budgets, whether it's going to be one article for the whole shebang, or if we're going to have a town budget warrant that comes in on the levy and a separate school budget warrant, which may or may not come in under the levy. And then whether we would want to present these, um, red line items as a separate warrant article that says, okay, we want to get the main budget done and passed. Now, town citizens, what do you think? Are you ready for an override that will provide these additional services? 01:13:48,100 S7: Well. 01:13:49,968 S2: Yeah. And we talked a little bit in the last meeting about some of, you know, different ways to to present it. 01:13:56,167 S6: But I think that you're going to need to start bringing that up vis a vis the school committee too. So if especially in Hamilton or in Windham, if the school is coming in with a clear override, then giving them perhaps the sense of some citizenry into both towns, that I would not want to jeopardize our operating budget based upon an override on the school budget. So do we want to separate the two budgets into two different warrants? And do we want to have our own budget separate into what absolutely is necessary? And then do you want the these additional that will cause an override. 01:14:42,868 S2: All right, so we'll be in a better position after the five, um, board meeting to have more information. And then, um, at a future select board meeting, we can start to have a dialogue about some of those strategic questions. Um, any other comments or questions about, um, item H, the budget. Okay. Seeing none, I would entertain a motion to adjourn. 01:15:12,501 S9: Move to adjourn. 01:15:13,767 S4: Oh. Roger. 01:15:15,167 S11: Roger. 01:15:19,501 S2: Roger. Just. Just in the nick of time. 01:15:33,267 S2: Roger. Good evening. 01:15:38,601 S4: I see we don't have sound. 01:15:42,901 S4: He's talking. Do you have any sound coming through? 01:15:46,100 S7: No. 01:15:46,767 S15: From the speakers on that. 01:15:54,167 S2: That's something. 01:15:58,968 S4: Maybe try unmuting. 01:16:03,901 S4: Or turning your. 01:16:06,767 S15: Ears. Roger. Want to call someone's cell phone and we can put it right through. 01:16:09,701 S2: Oh, let me see. Roger. Can we hear? Roger? 01:16:13,801 S7: Can you hear. 01:16:14,267 S2: Me? Yes, we can now. Excellent. Good evening. 01:16:18,200 S7: Good evening. Good evening, Mr. Chair. Roger's marriage seven on River road and town moderator. 01:16:25,801 S2: Hello. 01:16:27,467 S7: Hi. Um, so Steve had asked me to, uh, join tonight. For what? Looks like it was with this item on the agenda. The discussion about the potential alternative locations or just timing and venue generally. Yes, um, I don't. I got on to the meeting. I know a little bit late, but I was I jumped on while you were still on item D, so I'm not sure how I missed that. But anyway, I'm happy to answer any questions or provide any thoughts. If the board wants us or otherwise you'll create listening. Queue up to you all tonight and, um, we can have a good night. I'm here and I'm happy to provide any thoughts that the board may want. 01:17:08,267 S2: Well, where are we left off with item E? And we ended up taking C and E together and then moving back to D, which is, um, why there's a little whiplash there, but item e, item E, um, where we landed. Roger, is that, uh, Steve and Joe are going to find out from Gordon College the availability of the Bennett Center for April 11th. And if it's available on April 11th, then at our next meeting, we will have an agenda item about selecting both a primary and an alternate location. And there was some discussion on item E that, um, if there is an override this year, which there may well be, that it could, um, result in large numbers, uh, maybe even as large a group as the special town meeting. And would we want to anticipate that possibility in our decision as to which venue to make the primary, um, town meeting venue? But as a start, we need to find out whether whether Gordon is available on that date. 01:18:18,267 S7: Uh, Mister Chair, would you just. In case I'm not available for that next meeting, would you like me to share any thoughts I might have on location, based on our experience of special town meeting? 01:18:28,801 S2: Yes, I think that would be excellent. 01:18:31,667 S7: Uh, so, notwithstanding a couple of technical hiccups, which I think were largely due to the first time use of the event centre venue, um, including unfortunately, blowing part of the power grid about 30 minutes before we were set to open the doors. Um, kudos to everyone who jumped in to work to get the power back up and running on that part of the circuitry over there. Um, but anyway, uh, aside from a couple of technical issues, I thought that overall, um, the venue worked very well for a large scale town meeting. Uh, having everyone in a single room, um, was advantageous for a number of reasons. Uh, not the least of which was that the, uh, meridia voting system was much more responsive in that single room, even though we were still using multiple, um, receivers. The illumination, I think the technical, uh, I am that got eliminated with the relay points. That really sped things up in my observation, and then just not having to rely upon assistant moderators and coordinating multiple rooms was, I think, enabled us to move through the articles with more speed and efficiency. And then there was also a number of spaces within the facility where folks with, um, you know, kids or other needs were able to either spread out, use tables, you know, have kids, you know, run around and get the energy out if they needed to. Um, I thought on the whole for, you know, a large town meeting, it was a pretty good option. Um, and so if the, you know, board anticipates a turnout that might be in excess of the 200 people or so that can get into the actual gymnasium at Buca. Um, it's certainly something that I would urge the board to at least consider, assuming it's available. 01:20:46,567 S2: Great. That's very helpful. Appreciate the detailed review, Roger. We'll certainly take that on board. Are there any questions of board members for Roger? Yep. Okay. Great. And thank you, Roger, I appreciate you joining. Um, is there anybody else with their hand up? Just since we seem to not have the numbers. Okay. All right. Now, I will entertain a motion to adjourn. 01:21:12,501 S9: Move to adjourn. 7:51 p.m.. 01:21:15,968 S2: Second roll call. Karen. Yes, Peter. Yes, Gary. Yes. Deirdre. Yes. Ben is. Yes. We're adjourned. Thanks. 01:21:22,968 S3: And you forgot that. 01:21:24,100 S2: Are we going to have any discussion about this? How about what? Oh. About the.