00:00:00,000	S1:
All officially called the Wednesday, February 25th Select Board meeting to order as a zoom call will do a roll call vote. We'll start with Rosemary.

00:00:10,167	S2:
Rosie Kennedy here.

00:00:12,868	S1:
Great to see you, Rosie. Tom.

00:00:15,467	S3:
Tom Meyers here.

00:00:17,667	S1:
And just one more look out here. But I don't see Bill Wilson or Ben Kaluza yet. And I'll say William Olson here.

00:00:25,267	S3:
Yeah.

00:00:26,267	S4:
Just text me about the thing they should be thinking. They. I think that they're in the wrong. I think they went to the teams meeting.

00:00:34,467	S1:
All right, well, before we get going here, I want to take a quick moment to thank our public safety group and our our, um, and Tim and our, our, our Department of Public Works for keeping us up and running over this all these storms we've had and they've been working long, tireless hours, lots of overtime. I don't think we see all the work they do behind the scenes. So I wanted to a shout out to Public Safety and our DPW group, uh, great leadership and great workers to, uh, keep our town, uh, safe and up and running. So, Joe, I know they've been working. I don't know if you want to say anything else, too, but I know you've been keeping track of everything, but, um, any updates on all our services through throughout the weekend and Monday?

00:01:13,300	S4:
Well, you know, I just let people know that I think most people don't realize it while the town is out of power. Um, our public safety and DPW workers are trying to operate on backup power. Unfortunately, in the middle of the storm, the public safety generator went out and our folks did a great job of pivoting. They, uh, referred the calls to Ipswich. They were being dispatched through their cell phones. They were. They didn't miss a call. They didn't miss a beat. The DPW crews were on straight for 23 hours to try to make sure the streets were clear before they went home. And then they came in the next day and did the sidewalks opened up the buildings. It's, uh, we have a lot to be proud of with the people that work for the town of Hamilton, and we really appreciate them.

00:01:58,000	S1:
Thank you Joe. And Bill Wilson joined. So Bill Wilson, we're doing a roll call vote. Just say you're here and you can hear us.

00:02:08,167	S1:
I know we just logged on, so maybe he's still getting connected.

00:02:13,567	S1:
There he is.

00:02:18,467	S1:
Hey, Bill.

00:02:19,400	S5:
Hey, can you hear me?

00:02:21,067	S1:
Yeah, I got you now. Yep.

00:02:22,667	S5:
All right. Perfect. Sorry about that.

00:02:25,868	S1:
Um, and then I also wanted to just remind people that, uh, for the upcoming elections. The papers are due at 5:00 tomorrow, so I know, uh, Corinne and Joe are on to confirm that, but. Yes, 5:00 tomorrow, all papers, all signatures handed into town clerk's office. What time are you closing tomorrow?

00:02:46,667	S6:
Oh, I'll definitely be there until five, if not more.

00:02:50,667	S1:
Okay.

00:02:50,901	S7:
Hear me?

00:02:52,167	S6:
Yep.

00:02:52,467	S7:
Okay. Thank you. Yep.

00:02:55,868	S1:
And, uh. All right, so we'll get on to the, um, agenda. I just want to make those two announcements real quick before we get into things. All right. Here. So we've got, uh, open positions, and I'm going to go through our laundry list of board and committee openings. Uh, affordable Housing Trust has one opening. Conservation Commission has two openings. Community Preservation Committee has two openings, one opening for a member of historic district commission and one opening for an at large member. Our council and agent has one opening. Our Essex North Shore Agricultural and Technical School Committee has one opening that is available.

00:03:38,801	S4:
That might be filled. Bill bowler did refer somebody to the school committee for a vote, so we're waiting to confirm that that person has been appointed.

00:03:45,801	S1:
All right. Great. Uh, Finance Advisory Committee has two openings to the moderator. Um, and, uh, I believe I saw John McGrath on. He can love to talk to you about that, I'm sure. Yeah. Get some help on the board. Yeah, we actually have a.

00:04:03,000	S8:
Candidate in the mix, so we're happy. Good.

00:04:07,400	S1:
Excellent. Uh, Hamilton environment Impact Committee has one opening. Historic District Commission has two openings for three year terms. Two openings for two year terms. One must be a resident of the historic district and one must be a resident realtor. Hamilton Recreation Board has one opening for a Hamilton resident, and the Human Rights Commission has one at large opening. Um, this is the time in the meeting we open for public comment. We'll take it most up to 30 minutes and, uh, allow each speaker three minutes. So if you have a comment, please raise your hand, and Joe will, uh, show. We'll get to you. So, Joe, I'll let you, uh.

00:04:49,601	S4:
Right now we have Jacqueline here. Somebody got some feedback on them. Be careful folks. If you're not speaking, please mute.

00:05:00,501	S4:
Phil, right now you have Jack Whittier.

00:05:04,567	S9:
Okay. Okay.

00:05:07,400	S4:
Okay. Yeah. Do you have. Are you in the room with somebody else that has this meeting up to as well, or do you have it on in the TV in background or something because it's echoing?

00:05:14,667	S9:
Yeah, it is excellent. But no, the answer is no.

00:05:22,901	S9:
No, no. Let me go ahead by again. I'll join. I'll rejoin you.

00:05:32,367	S1:
Yeah. We'll we'll come back to you. Maybe turn your volume down. It might be your volume. Might be anybody else? Joe?

00:05:41,667	S4:
You know what, Bill? What I'm wondering is, uh, maybe it's you. Well, it should be working with everybody, but you have two things. And that they're both.

00:05:49,567	S1:
No, but I don't.

00:05:50,601	S4:
Want me to touch.

00:05:51,367	S1:
It. I don't I don't have yeah, I don't have audio on the other one.

00:05:54,067	S4:
Uh, Jeanie Moran has her hand raised.

00:05:56,667	S1:
Okay, we'll go to Jean and we'll go back to Jack.

00:06:00,367	S10:
I defer to Jack.

00:06:05,367	S10:
You can let him speak first.

00:06:07,000	S9:
I think I came right back in. Thank you. Um, okay. To talk now. Sounds like everything's all right on my end. Uh. Good evening. This is my first opportunity to speak to you. I was just, uh, sworn in today as a new member of the environmental impact Committee, so it's my pleasure. And, um, I'm going to keep this very brief. I'm, uh, talking to you in support of adoption for the warrant of the specialized energy code. And we attended a fair number of other town meetings over the last few weeks, and we're one of many communities Committee. Uh, considering this and the, uh, it enables us to continue Hamilton's heritage as a climate steward. So Emmett Holt presented a lot of technical details. I realize this is coming up later tonight as a topic on the agenda, but I just want to review it for you that it it isn't. Um, we've done all the hard work so far in terms of getting, um, some of the criteria established to get us to a climate leader, uh, position which enables us to apply for um, funding from a very reliable state funding source, the Department of Energy Resources and the. They've supported us for years, and the opportunity sits there for more support for future investments. So with that, I'd be glad to answer your questions, but I realize it's on the the agenda for later in the evening. Thank you.

00:07:37,100	S1:
Yeah. Thank you Jack. Yeah, we will, um, have that discussion later. We have, uh, some home builders and developers in town are going to join and give us their sort of Opinion on impacts and their you know, how it would impact, you know, future development in town and their cost impacts and things like that. So we just get their feedback and as we make a decision. So that's great. So that discussion will be open later.

00:08:03,067	S1:
Uh, Jean.

00:08:04,801	S10:
Okay. Thank you very much. Can you hear me?

00:08:07,667	S7:
Yes.

00:08:08,868	S10:
Okay, good. Um, so I'm Jean Miranda at 21 Garfield Avenue, and I am chair of the Hamilton Environmental Impact Committee. And I've spoken before about, uh, hoping for the adoption of the specialized code, but in particular to be putting it on to the warrant, as Jack has already said. Um, again, it it will if we are able to become climate leader community, it will open up $1 million in grants that we can apply for to continue our decarbonization and weatherization and, um, all of the other possible projects to do with energy. And we're very excited for the town Hall to be opening up in May, I hope. Um, which will be a decarbonised town hall, which also is, uh, mirrored in a different version. Uh, the Wenham Town Hall. I also wanted to mention that, um, both Wenham and Hamilton are pursuing the status of climate leader at the same time. Um, and the money? $1 million could be used entirely for Hamilton projects. Uh, Wenham could possibly, you know, reach $1 million to. But it could be joint money used for the school system, too. Again, focusing on energy issues. Um, but doer recommends that we have, uh, public information meetings, um, about the climate leader and specialized code. And so I have set up with the library, Hamilton Wenham Library for Thursday, March 5th from 6 to 7 for anyone to come and learn about the specialized code in their large meeting room, and our monthly meeting will be held right before that. And of course, people are welcome to to join our monthly meeting to at any time. So this one will be the monthly meeting. And the open discussion about the specialized code will be again, uh, at the library March 5th from from 5 to 7:00. So people are welcome to join us and I hope you will. Thank you.

00:10:14,567	S11:
Jean, is there any flyers or anything advertising that? I'm just wondering if it's been pushed out, like the Facebook page or anything like that, just to get more people involved? I think that's a great, um, great thing you're doing, getting that together. Um, just curious if there's anything we can put out there for the community.

00:10:29,100	S10:
Um, working on it as we speak. So, um, I can get that to the select board and, um, the flyer we have also published a, um, we just put together a specialized stretch code explanation so that one's ready to go. I could email that to you tomorrow.

00:10:47,501	S7:
Excellent.

00:10:48,100	S10:
Thank you. I'll get those both to you. Thank you very much.

00:10:53,567	S4:
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Bengalis who joined the meeting at about 708.

00:10:59,167	S1:
Excellent. Hey, Ben.

00:11:02,767	S1:
Can you hear us? Are you there?

00:11:07,100	S12:
Yeah. Hi. Sorry. I'm sorry. All right. Sorry. It's all good. All right.

00:11:13,968	S1:
We have a consent agenda. We have meeting minutes from January 20th, 2026. We have meeting minutes from February 2nd, 2026. Thomas Bolton, select board. And we have the approval for the 30th annual. Amazingly enough, a melody mile road race, which, like you said, year after year. So 30 I don't know if it's continuous years, but 30 years. So, um. Before we make a motion to any discussion from the board on these three items.

00:11:50,000	S1:
Can I have a motion to approve? Uh, meeting minutes from 20th January 20th, meeting minutes from February 2nd. And the annual Melody Miles road race on doesn't actually have a date here, but it's in. It's in the packet.

00:12:05,267	S2:
May 22nd or 23rd.

00:12:09,567	S4:
Thanks, Rosie.

00:12:12,400	S11:
So moved.

00:12:14,567	S1:
Do I have a second?

00:12:15,767	S2:
Second.

00:12:17,801	S1:
Any further discussion?

00:12:20,200	S12:
No.

00:12:22,667	S1:
All right, I'll roll. Call. Vote. We'll start with Rosemary.

00:12:25,100	S2:
Rosie Kennedy. I.

00:12:27,767	S1:
Uh, Tom Myers.

00:12:29,000	S3:
Uh, Myers, I.

00:12:30,801	S1:
Bill Wilson.

00:12:35,601	S1:
I didn't pick you up there. Sorry.

00:12:39,367	S1:
I think you're on mute. Still.

00:12:45,067	S5:
Uh, Bill Wilson.

00:12:45,868	S1:
I got you, Ben.

00:12:49,968	S4:
Uh, Bengals II.

00:12:52,100	S1:
And William Wilson, I. All right. Agenda. We got a busy agenda, most of us getting ready for the, um, our next town meeting. But we'll go through a few things first before we get to those topics. Um, first one is a department head report with the treasurer, uh, Peggy McLaughlin. Uh, and talk about town fund investments and new prudent investment acts. So, sure, I'll turn it to you, and then you can lead a discussion with Peggy.

00:13:22,501	S4:
Yeah. You'll remember the board had asked previous and previous meeting a month or so ago to have an update on how our funds are invested. Uh, so we've got, uh, Peggy here it is. Good timing, because Peggy also wants to speak to the board briefly in favor of putting the an article for the Prudent Investment Act onto the town meeting warrant. Prudent Investment Act is a new state law that allows towns to invest in a certain way. And Peggy has all the info for you, so, Peggy, I can take it away.

00:13:56,467	S4:
Peggy, are you Peggy? Sorry.

00:14:13,400	S13:
Keeps going back to me. Am I okay now?

00:14:16,167	S7:
Yes.

00:14:16,801	S13:
Sorry. I had a great intro and I was muted. Hi, everybody. I hope you're all doing good. Um, I have been asking Joe and, uh, Wendy about the prudent investment the last couple of years. It's what we do for our open funds right now. Our trust funds. All we can do is use the legal list, and on the legal list, all you can do is invest in certain accounts. The prudent investment allows us to go a little outside the box and make a little bit more money on the trust funds we are making. I want to say about 6.5%, maybe a little higher since 2012 with our open. With our trust funds, we've only been making about 2.5 and our return rate of return. So the prudent investor just gives us a little more opportunity to make a little more money on those trust funds that are stable monies, and we just use the interest off those accounts. So for me, it's I think it's a great idea to start investing our money. That way. We don't have to do everything you're not allowed to do. Stabilization still that the state wants left at this state legal list. As far as investing, it's only your trust funds that they're opening it up to. and we have been able to do our OPEC funds that way. Um, I'm not sure what you guys are looking for as far as investing overall. Like, um, we've been doing really well with Salem five MMT. They've been giving us pretty good rates the last couple of years. Just in our general funds, we've made about $600,000 in interest, and that's just on our regular banking account. So we've done well. Um, I'm not sure investing what you're looking for. Is it long term? Is it short term? What are you looking to do?

00:16:11,100	S5:
So 600 K and then, uh, investment is incredible. What do we do with that? Um, is that go back into the fund. It's in. Can it be used in other areas? What happens to the interest of the.

00:16:23,367	S13:
Well, the 600 K is general fund. So that went back into our general fund.

00:16:27,267	S5:
General fund? Okay.

00:16:28,267	S13:
Yes. The other accounts have done really well as well.

00:16:31,901	S5:
So what about the trust funds? I guess you were talking about trust funds at two and a half versus prudent funds at six, I think.

00:16:38,501	S13:
So the trust fund, like the cemetery trust fund is when we were talking about Tim, can use the interest on that to keep the maintenance and all that in the cemetery. He can't use the principal. So that's why they're saying you should use the prudent investment, because you can make more money on the principal. And then that gives Tim more money in the cemetery fund to say to work on the cemetery.

00:17:00,501	S5:
Okay. So but if you go to the prudent or whatever it was called investment, it still has to be for cemetery. It can't be brought into other stuff, correct or correct.

00:17:10,467	S13:
It's just for our trust funds. And the OPEC fund is what the the state is allowing prudent investments.

00:17:16,667	S7:
Okay.

00:17:17,367	S13:
Everything else.

00:17:17,868	S7:
You have.

00:17:18,467	S13:
A legalist.

00:17:20,100	S1:
You have to back up a little bit. What we had sort of asked for summary is that we have a lot of. We've talked about these different funds we have in town. And we're going to be creating new funds was some of the money we might be getting from Gordon Conwell. And we have a patent, some money from the patent. So we're trying to figure. We're trying to understand all the different funds we have, what the balances are of those funds, and what the yearly return is, just so we can sort of understand big picture on what we have out there and what, you know, because we're going to, you know, we have a lot of costs coming up and we have a lot of debt coming up. We just want to understand as a town what are what are all. We just wanted to make sure we didn't lose track anything. So we're kind of looking for that update, right? Joe? That was kind of the ask.

00:17:56,267	S7:
Yeah.

00:17:57,400	S13:
You're looking for the balances of all our accounts as of now.

00:18:01,367	S4:
I think just to understand what the what some of the funds are. Maybe if you could give an example, you know, give a list of what the funds are that we have and what they go to. I know there's 2 or 3 funds that are used specifically by the Conservation Commission, for instance. Just give them a try them a little list because they don't know. Not everybody sees the whole whole account book.

00:18:21,567	S13:
Okay. So for for banking accounts, what I have is our operating payroll and vendor account. Then we have like the HTC accounts, we have a money market account with Salem five, which a lot of that is swept into, like a, uh, where they keep the monies in a bunch of banks invest in that money because you can only keep 250 in the account. We have lockbox has its own separate account. That's where everybody sends all their money for tax payments. The same with Unibank. We have a bunch of different accounts. So those are considered like our general operating account that we have. Then we have like the MMD investments where we have the um, recreation fields has money in there. I also have a little just I move some out of the regular accounts because we were doing pretty good. So I moved 2.5 million out there just to make more interest for the town. And then we have, uh, the MMD, a we had moved money from CPA out of there just to be available because they were spending a lot. Now we have the Bartholomew Trust funds, which are all our flower funds, cemetery funds, sale of lots and grave funds. We have our capitalization stabilization. Our capital stabilization fund. We have our stabilization fund and our recreation for the fields. We have that in MDT as a fund as well.

00:19:53,167	S14:
Peggy, Peggy's on the right track here. Excuse me, but we have to file a balance sheet every year with the Department of Revenue. So I actually do have a list of all the funds. Peggy's doing it. And because there's pooled cash. And then, of course, there's special revenue funds. So I can share a screen and ask you if this is the particular document you might be looking for. And then I can send it out to you guys.

00:20:20,000	S1:
I mean, the conversation was more started about when we were seeing money from, um, the Gordon Conwell. And we talked about whether we want to establish a different fund. I said, what are all the funds we have? So we're not really worried about the general, the general fund and the and the and the annual cost of. We're more than all the funds we have set aside for the special events or the stabilization fund. So that's sort of what we wanted to understand and focus on, because there's, you know, what money is left in the patent fund and what other funds we were were not aware of that, just sort of earning money out there that we're not spending, we're not planning on. So that's kind of what I and I don't want to speak for the whole board. But does a board agree with.

00:20:58,868	S7:
I mean, to share.

00:21:00,067	S14:
Do you want me to share a screen bill and.

00:21:01,467	S7:
See.

00:21:01,667	S14:
If. Yeah. Is that all right, Joe?

00:21:03,467	S7:
Yeah.

00:21:05,100	S13:
Are you doing the cash for the end of the year account when?

00:21:08,601	S14:
No, no, I'm going to share the balance sheet. So hold on one second here and just tell me if this is what you might be looking for. So you can see here every fund is at number. Can you see my screen?

00:21:22,267	S7:
Yes.

00:21:23,267	S14:
Yes. You see, every fund has a number associated with it, and it's specific to that fund. There's a name and there's the amount right here, the fund balance. So we have to report this every year. And this is I think this might be now that I'm hearing it clearer, this might be what you're looking for. So every department has different funds available. But there's specific to what they can use them for. So is this more of what you guys might be looking for?

00:21:50,100	S1:
This is this is outside of our general fund.

00:21:52,567	S14:
Yes it is.

00:21:53,901	S7:
Okay.

00:21:54,968	S5:
So what's the what's a total of all these fund numbers.

00:21:59,000	S14:
So the Special Revenue Fund's $3 million right here. And then of course, you have your capital projects funds and then you have your trust funds and your enterprise. So this is how it's broken out. And if this is the type of document you're looking for, I can absolutely send this out to you.

00:22:20,400	S13:
So for.

00:22:21,000	S7:
Our.

00:22:21,767	S13:
Our OPEC stabilization for Capital General Fund and Rec, we have 6,000,396 as of the end of last year in those. If that's what you're asking.

00:22:38,400	S5:
All right. So.

00:22:39,501	S14:
So you can see them right here as Peggy and.

00:22:41,868	S4:
Yeah. And these are the trust funds in the stabilization fund.

00:22:44,167	S7:
Right.

00:22:46,000	S14:
So so there are there are quite a number of funds. So when you're talking about Gordon Conwell, that's exactly what you're specifically, we would specifically be asking you to set up a special revenue account.

00:22:57,067	S7:
Right.

00:22:57,267	S14:
Which would be deemed specific to what you what what the town would, would expect to spend it on.

00:23:04,200	S1:
And that different accounts or just different funds within one account.

00:23:07,868	S14:
Know different special revenue, all different accounts.

00:23:11,400	S7:
So that's the question as far.

00:23:13,100	S14:
As investing, Peggy has them Separate. Peggy, you can talk to that part.

00:23:18,601	S7:
Yeah.

00:23:19,300	S13:
Some in.

00:23:19,868	S7:
The.

00:23:19,968	S13:
Book, some with Bartholomew. Write it. Just some with Salem five. It just depends on what you can do. CDs. It depends on what we're looking for. You could do treasury notes. You can invest it in our bigger accounts if you just want to, you know, and we can keep it separated by Wendy's GLS. It's just it's what your plans are. Are you going to spend it in six months or are you going to let it accrue interest? It's how you want to, um, how you want to invest the money. What are your thoughts on that?

00:23:49,000	S2:
So, Peggy.

00:23:51,167	S7:
Uh, are.

00:23:51,567	S5:
We over funded? Is my concern here? We've got $6 million dedicated to specific funds parked in areas for dedicated spending. Is that good or bad? This says 7.3. I heard 6 million earlier. I mean.

00:24:05,968	S7:
Uh.

00:24:07,200	S13:
Well, stabilization, you have to keep that amount of money, right?

00:24:11,267	S7:
Right.

00:24:12,167	S5:
Which one? Capital stabilization. Which one? We've got a bunch of them.

00:24:15,567	S13:
Well, we have. We just have two. Capital stabilization and capital.

00:24:19,667	S5:
Right.

00:24:19,868	S7:
So every.

00:24:20,367	S5:
Stabilization capital. We have a stabilization fund. So are we. Are we parking money in areas that make sense for when we need it? It's the overarching question in my opinion. What do we have money parked in like areas that are sitting there idle that could be used in better spots.

00:24:39,267	S4:
So if I could offer some of the some of the funds here that are set up were set up because they were bequests, they were gifts to the town. The Clark Fund, for instance, was gift to the town. And it's got specific goals.

00:24:49,267	S5:
All make sense to me. But we're talking overrides, folks, right? So are we. Parking money in funds that could better be utilized elsewhere is my question.

00:24:57,667	S14:
So right now, Bill, all the all the this was general stabilization and the capital stabilization. Both are under the policy at the policy limit right. Same as free cash. But we have to keep 5% aside. So that's the policy that drives how much money sits aside. So right now we're within the policy limits. And capital stabilization is actually behind because of the fire truck. We took money out. And then we're recouping. So this is the third year that we're trying to recoup. And as we're recouping the depreciation rate keeps going higher. So it's a moving target. So in the capital stabilization for example we're not there yet. It should be 1.9 million. So we're underfunded in that. But the general stabilization we are making the cut year after year. Uh barely. But we're at the reserve. We're not over the reserve, for example.

00:25:53,567	S13:
And the OPEC fund is that other post employments. We kind of have to have that fund by the state.

00:25:59,667	S1:
So let's talk about the, um, recreational field stabilization fund, the 680,000. What is that earmark for?

00:26:06,300	S13:
For what I understood that's earmarked to pay on that bond that they took out for the field. That money was set aside to use to pay for the fields.

00:26:17,767	S1:
So are we using that to pay for the fields?

00:26:20,000	S13:
We have? Not yet.

00:26:21,601	S7:
Yeah.

00:26:22,567	S13:
I don't.

00:26:23,200	S7:
Know.

00:26:24,267	S13:
That would be more, I guess, a joke question.

00:26:28,167	S14:
I believe there is special language. Is that correct, Joe?

00:26:31,000	S4:
Yeah, there was, there was. We got into some dicey situation with this because the town has is set aside with the caveat that whatever we spend on the fields, if it's fields, the one of them is going to use, they have to set aside their share. And so we had this money. We could have put it toward the principal and not borrowed as much, but one of them didn't want to take their vote the way they did, as I recall. So they were just taking the vote as part of the debt exclusion, and they weren't going to set aside money. I think we put we had this money and we had money from something else that we were putting it. And because it wasn't raised together, this couldn't be applied that way. Now you could. Now that it's all, all the money's been borrowed, we could look at finding a way to have this offset. Some of what the debt exclusion is on the Hamilton taxpayer's bill is. But that would only be for a year or two, because $680,000 is going to go away pretty quick. But you could you could alleviate the burden a little bit on the taxpayer, potentially by applying this in 1 or 2 payments over a couple of years and try and take it, take down how much of the debt exclusion has to get passed through to the taxpayer.

00:27:40,200	S1:
That's at least taking on, or at least using the interest to pay down the debt if it's even like, you know, $50,000 a year. Did this start at 500? I mean, I don't know, John, you were doing 500,500. Yeah, we made 180. So so we made $180,000 over the past. What it is 5 or 10 years in interest.

00:27:59,400	S7:
Yeah.

00:28:01,100	S1:
That's good to hear. So I mean, so I, you know, I don't think we're going to go I don't think we're going to go fund by fund. But John, I think there's something we want to get into in the next year, sort of go through these funds and answer the question that Bill asks. Like, are we are we are these funds? Do we know what each one is for? Are we using it appropriately? We over funded, we move things around, but we don't want to have money sitting that could help our taxpayers if if the money could work for us in a better way. So, um.

00:28:25,267	S7:
Exactly, exactly.

00:28:27,100	S5:
To me, I think we can. I think we have opportunity here. $7.3 million sitting in front.

00:28:33,567	S1:
Plus we have another three. Plus another three.

00:28:36,200	S5:
Plus another three.

00:28:37,567	S1:
So we have ten. Yeah. But I mean, obviously some of it has to stay because it's, you know. Yeah because it's required. But but. Right.

00:28:45,100	S13:
But you also.

00:28:45,667	S7:
Have to think that.

00:28:46,868	S13:
In those dollars is money for the debts that we've taken out, you know, to finish the town hall project for all those things that money has been given to us, it's in these accounts, but we haven't paid all the bills for everything.

00:29:00,601	S5:
Yeah. So if we could lay that out like once.

00:29:02,868	S7:
It's right here to pay down.

00:29:04,567	S14:
The capital projects. Bill. Sorry.

00:29:06,367	S7:
Okay, perfect.

00:29:08,767	S2:
So I have a question that just gets back to to to the main question, talking about the type of, um, um, location where we invest this money. I mean, now, I presume we're in money market funds and they're safe. Totally safe. Um, ventures is is that correct? Do I understand that correctly?

00:29:32,868	S13:
The, uh, trust funds and the stabilization are all with Bartholomew. Yeah, investments and all those monies. Are there a lot? Our operating funds are in, like Salem five, eastern Bank, and they're all funded, and we have them in the sweep accounts. So they get anything over 250 gets moved. So it's all FDIC all covered. And and yes, we are protected in all those ways.

00:29:56,567	S2:
So so so that's my question. And then if we opt to go elsewhere to, um, Invest this money. How would we decide how prudent our investment should be? Who would decide that? I mean, that that gets us into dicey territory, right? The stock market's doing really well right now. But I think when we're talking about town funds and trust funds, I get a little nervous when I think about the degree of risk that we would incur.

00:30:32,000	S13:
Well, that's the other thing with Bartholomew. Like with our OPEC right now or 7030 risk because that's like in there for long durations. Our trust funds are at a 2080 right now. So there's not really much risk you can pick. You know we can decide we want a 6030 a 2040. That's all up to us on how you want to put this money. We do have options.

00:30:56,267	S2:
And right and and so there's my question would, would Wendy help us to decide what would be the most prudent risk. A formula for how? How would we do that, I guess. I'm trying to understand that I as I said, it makes me a little nervous to think about incurring a potentially higher risk. And when is enough. So I'm just asking the question.

00:31:23,167	S13:
Bartholomew has been really good, and we've we've been very fortunate and they do not go out and take chances. They have also said if you have questions, they'd be more than happy to come to a board meeting or do a zoom meeting and go over everything with you if you'd like that too. I know they've come once before to a finance committee meeting a couple of years ago. They're more than happy to talk with you as well, if you'd like.

00:31:49,167	S2:
So you're saying we would stay with Bartholomew?

00:31:53,367	S13:
Bartholomew for our trust? Yes.

00:31:55,501	S2:
Okay.

00:31:55,968	S13:
And if you want to do, like, a a CD or, you know, we're not. Bartholomew is not who you would go to for that. You would go to different banks locally or reach out to other vendors and see what they offer.

00:32:08,367	S2:
Right. So I'm just trying to understand if we decided that we wanted to incur more risk in our in our trust funds. Um, who would we go to for the proper advice for that? I guess that's my question.

00:32:23,100	S13:
I could have Bartholomew come and talk with you. Okay. I would think they would be the best. That's. What do you think, Wendy? To me, that would be the best way.

00:32:31,367	S14:
Well, Peggy, Peggy would be the the. Because she's the treasurer. She would be the one to actually make the decision. We could we could make recommendations. But as the treasurer, um, that is, you know, uh, what she does, and but she but Peggy also uses great tools like Bartholomew, like MMT. And they help to advise us, giving us the pros and cons. So we have sat together and made a decision. A recommendation. You know, and like, with small money, for example, and just said, yeah, we think this is the right way to go, but Peggy has the final call because she's the treasurer. I think that's what you're asking, Rosie.

00:33:09,467	S2:
Yeah, yeah. And and just how do we decide how much risk to incur? So just just general questions. Um, okay. Okay. That's that's very helpful. Thank you.

00:33:20,667	S1:
And to get back to your original comment, your comment was about us adopting this new policy for investment of trust funds. What's the value? I mean, you chose a lot of different spreadsheets, but what's the value of the if we voted for this of the monies that would be eligible for this different investment.

00:33:37,567	S13:
Cemetery and the flower funds and stuff, there are about 550. You can't put the stabilization in that 550.

00:33:45,467	S1:
So so be under $1 million of the of the monies we have set aside. Yes, yes. Okay. So it's not a they're not risk, they're not risky funds. We're putting in this.

00:33:54,367	S7:
No they're.

00:33:54,767	S13:
Smaller.

00:33:55,367	S7:
Than.

00:33:56,100	S13:
The big funds, they say, like if we had scholarship funds, but we don't really have that and stuff, you could make more money doing it that way. We don't have. I guess the schools would have that.

00:34:09,400	S1:
So Joe, in the packet there's a Cape law.

00:34:13,367	S3:
What do you think. Yeah.

00:34:14,267	S1:
So yeah that's what they wrote up. Right up. Is this what we're going to be discussing for the warrant?

00:34:23,067	S7:
Yes.

00:34:24,367	S1:
Yeah. So can you. Can you pull it up and speak to it?

00:34:34,601	S4:
I read this a couple weeks ago, so it's it's going to be foggy in my mind, but basically it's just that the state is now allowing certain limited amounts of funds that are under a total of $250,000. Is that right, Peggy? To be invested differently, such as with, with, uh, with, uh, But outfits like MMT or Bartholomew, which, because of the way they manage the money, comes with a little bit more risk, but generally with a larger payout. So the idea is that.

00:35:03,968	S1:
Right now, can you pull up that.

00:35:05,367	S4:
Funds aren't allowed because we haven't adopted that section of the state law? PEGI is not allowed to to use Bartholomew for those funds. The the request here is could you put it on the watch and see if time meetings in favor of it. And that would give her the option to invest those funds like like the ones that she was just mentioning into with Bartholomew or some similar entity to improve, improve how much they make for the time.

00:35:32,167	S13:
How we invest the open funds right now. We use prudent investment for the open accounts. They are just now when they open the opens account. The state gave cities and towns permission to do it that way. They did not for trust funds and stabilization, but now they are for trust funds. Still not for stabilization, and it is just giving them, um. It's giving them more places to go to invest. Right now, you can only do the legalist. If you do prudent investing, it gives you more options to invest in other places. And like I said, our OP is making 6.6.9,

00:36:13,667	S13:
6.75% and our trust funds are making 3.16 as of two 2912 is what they sent me today. So it just gives us an avenue to make a little bit more earnings on our investments.

00:36:30,000	S1:
And John McGrath, is this something you guys would be willing to look at? You have time to look at this before town meeting to give an opinion.

00:36:39,167	S8:
Yeah. I mean, we can we can certainly talk to, uh, talk to Peggy. Um.

00:36:49,367	S1:
He sounds like we're already doing it, so we're already doing it, and we're already doing it with a much bigger fun. So the press is there in town to do it, but we just want to just look at it and make sure these additional trust funds make sense as well.

00:37:00,300	S8:
Yeah, yeah, we can, um, we can express an opinion on it. Um, I'll tell you right now, what we're simply doing is giving the treasurer additional flexibility. Um, and one thing Peggy could probably tell us is if we had invested this for a year, what's the dollar difference between 3.16 and 6.75? I mean, so it's it's definitely worth some money, but basically you're just you're just giving the treasurer additional flexibility.

00:37:34,000	S1:
But we can think about. Yeah. Sounds like about $15,000 right. 3% 500,000.

00:37:40,267	S8:
So my recommendation would be let's do a bit more study on this. And, uh, make sure all you folks are up to speed on it. And I'm certainly willing. To get up to speed on it. But, uh, it sounds like we've kind of caught you guys off guard here. Um, and really didn't prep, uh, well enough in advance to make a decision, but I think the decision is easy to make. So if you want some more study, I would recommend you do that.

00:38:14,767	S1:
Yeah, man. I mean, not this is the first discussion we've had. So I think you're always surprised the first time you have a discussion. But yeah, but that's what's all you got. You got to start somewhere. So I appreciate everybody talking about it. And yeah and.

00:38:26,000	S7:
I will say.

00:38:26,968	S14:
I apologize. That was uh, on me. Uh, the budget took over and I lost sight of this. So my bad for not bringing it sooner.

00:38:35,000	S2:
I just have one further, um, clarifying questions when you talk about the trust funds, which includes the cemetery perpetual care funds, um, is it many of the trust funds that you just, um, listed for us, or is it just those few funds?

00:38:53,767	S15:
Well, it's flower.

00:38:54,868	S13:
Funds, so it's like family, uh, flower funds. So there's probably 10 or 15 different little, um, family accounts that make up that group, along with our cemetery and the, um, flag fund. And, uh, yeah, the sale of lots and graves are also all built into those.

00:39:16,667	S7:
Yeah.

00:39:17,167	S1:
Okay. It appears like it's all in probably under $1 million of funds.

00:39:21,300	S7:
Yes.

00:39:22,067	S2:
Yeah, yeah. Okay.

00:39:23,868	S13:
So what would happen is if we do this with the trust funds, the stabilization and the trust funds are all in one bucket right now. They would take those out of that bucket and leave stabilization where it is. And we would be able to invest this money differently.

00:39:39,667	S7:
Okay.

00:39:41,701	S1:
So Joe, what do you recommend for next steps? I'm not sure we're going to be able to also add this to the warrant at this point, but if we wanted to, what does it look like?

00:39:50,267	S4:
Oh, so you can close the warrant next week on Monday. So the the if you don't have it on the warrant now then it's another year that goes by that we we can't do it at all. We can't have the conversation we have two months before time meeting. Um, you know, my recommendation is to put is to plan for it to be on the warrant. And let's have the conversation between now and town meeting and hope everybody is comfortable with it. And you can always, uh, make a motion at a time, meeting floor to take no action that we want to take. We want to study it for further and ask the moderator to take no action. Have that ratified. You don't have to move on it. But if you don't, um, take the next couple of weeks to look at it, then you'll you'll miss another whole year.

00:40:32,767	S8:
Yeah, I'd recommend leaving it on the warrant. And I think we can rally around this. It's for the benefit of the taxpayers so we can, uh, I think, step up and get educated. So.

00:40:43,267	S13:
Yeah, just let me know if there's something I can do, what else you'd need, or I'm more than happy to do it for you.

00:40:51,200	S1:
All right, Joe, let's let's move on from this topic. But let's put together a plan between John McGrath and more information for us and get it on next. Next item. I don't know if it's too late to put it on next week's meeting to talk about it further.

00:41:05,868	S4:
We can we can get back to more with more information for you for next week. I think that it you know, your goal is to close the work next week. So all the items that are are up for discussion on the warrant are on the agenda. Essentially you've already posted that. So you'll you'll have the right to talk about it again next week. We'll, you know, try to pull together a better idea specifically which funds how much money is in them and how much could have been made if we've been using the Prudent Investment Act in the past versus what was made that sound fair? Wendy?

00:41:38,267	S1:
Yeah, yeah, it'd be good to see that that spreadsheet highlighted with what funds you're recommending for this that would that would comply with this new.

00:41:46,701	S14:
Oh yes. Peggy and I will.

00:41:48,200	S7:
Pull that again for you.

00:41:49,501	S3:
All right. Okay. Appreciate that.

00:41:51,000	S1:
Anybody? Anybody else in the board or any comments? I think that's good.

00:41:54,100	S5:
But we don't have a list of the funds in the dollars. Right? I saw it on the screen, but it's not in the packet. Right?

00:41:59,801	S7:
No we don't.

00:42:01,167	S4:
I mean, people can ask for, but we don't generally publish that, so we can.

00:42:04,767	S5:
No, I'm not asking. I would want it in the packet though. I want to look at it.

00:42:09,601	S15:
Yeah. We can give you. I can give you a list.

00:42:11,501	S13:
Of what makes up that fund. It's got the family names and everything by account.

00:42:16,601	S2:
Yeah, that would I.

00:42:17,601	S5:
We're going to talk about it Monday. We need that in advance. Yeah.

00:42:20,701	S7:
Yeah, sure.

00:42:21,167	S13:
Right. How about the last statement that I got from Bartholomew for December? And it would have each account.

00:42:27,367	S15:
Perfect.

00:42:28,267	S13:
With the current balance as of December 31st, I get them for quarterly.

00:42:33,100	S1:
I can make it simple. Just make it simple for us to understand.

00:42:36,000	S7:
So it's an Excel.

00:42:37,167	S1:
Spreadsheet.

00:42:37,767	S13:
That you would just see the names and the dollar amount. That's all.

00:42:40,901	S7:
You see? That's simple. Thank you. Yeah.

00:42:43,601	S4:
Perfect. Yeah. Well, thanks. Okay. We'll need that tomorrow because I gotta put the package together tomorrow from Monday.

00:42:48,167	S7:
All right.

00:42:48,767	S13:
I'll email it up to you, Joe, in the morning.

00:42:51,200	S1:
Thank you. Peggy.

00:42:52,067	S7:
Appreciate it.

00:42:52,868	S13:
You're very welcome.

00:42:54,167	S14:
Thank you. Peggy.

00:42:55,667	S13:
You're welcome.

00:42:58,901	S1:
All right.

00:43:00,067	S13:
Have a good night, everybody.

00:43:01,267	S4:
Have a good night, Peggy.

00:43:02,067	S7:
Thank you. Good work.

00:43:03,467	S1:
Good. Good discussion.

00:43:05,000	S7:
Thank you.

00:43:05,901	S1:
Approved. Common license. Thank you. Peggy. Um, for new owners of five suns discussion votes. So. Yeah. Uh. Uh, so we had a great, uh, family in town running five suns, and it seems like they're turning it over to a new ownership. So, uh, we're sad to see them go, but welcome the new owners with open arms for our community. So I'm sure they're here to to talk about what their goals are for the.

00:43:31,267	S4:
I hope they are. We we we we accept them. But first of all, their package complete. They've done everything that they were supposed to do to get to this point. Wendy. I mean, sorry, Lori, um, told me that all their paperwork is complete, their insurance, their inspections, everything's in. So it's really just a matter of you guys voting on it. Um, I think they're here. Um, is anybody from the, uh, the new entity here?

00:43:57,267	S16:
Yes, yes. Hi. Good evening everybody. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you all. Open the.

00:44:03,801	S1:
Camera. Nice to meet you.

00:44:05,100	S4:
Nice to.

00:44:06,968	S16:
Meet you. How you doing? Hi. How are you?

00:44:09,100	S4:
Good to see you.

00:44:10,167	S16:
Good to see you too.

00:44:13,100	S4:
You guys want to tell me.

00:44:14,801	S1:
What's your plan on the board.

00:44:16,367	S4:
About what you're doing?

00:44:18,167	S16:
Yes. So I've been in the business for 12 years now. I work for my family on Peabody House of pizza, and five years ago, I got my own place. It's a Stoneham house with pizza and my buddy I. And the same thing. And being in this business, you know, I sold my Stoneham house to read it, and after that I was in Lynnfield and now I'm in Ipswich. I own Ipswich for three years, so we're planning to take over five sons. We like the town of Hamilton not just for doing business, but we want to be part of the community, help the community as well. You know, that's the that's the goal to to make everybody happy.

00:45:00,100	S2:
Do you have a date for for taking over the business?

00:45:04,367	S16:
So we're signing the final March 2nd, but waiting on the on the landlord lawyer approval. Probably by tomorrow. We're hoping so. Everything else I think is done.

00:45:19,501	S1:
What's your signature? You're going to what's your signature? You're going to change anything that's sort of more. You were going to keep things the same or what's the plan for the know? Everything is going to be the atmosphere.

00:45:28,801	S16:
Yeah, everything is going to be the same. We're not going to change anything. Even the employer is going to do the same. They're there. They're kids willing to work with us. They're going to. The couple is going to stay with us for like three months. They're going to show us how they do their recipe. So we're not going to change anything. We're just going to do a smooth transition and hopefully make it better.

00:45:53,901	S2:
I don't know. It's going to be pretty hard to be.

00:45:57,000	S7:
Yeah.

00:45:58,701	S1:
Yeah. She's been a great steward of the community and she's been helping out with lots of events. I'm hoping you guys also joining all the community and charitable events that.

00:46:06,667	S16:
Yeah.

00:46:06,968	S1:
The great vibes on this provided over the years.

00:46:09,167	S16:
Yeah, the same thing. We're going to help the community. As for anything you need, any donation or whatever, you know, count on us or everything. We're glad to happen. We're glad to have to help you and community.

00:46:25,400	S1:
All right. So I'll accept the motion and we can have further discussion. But I'll accept a motion to approve the common victor's license for. Let me go to my sheet here. Comic books. License for new owners of five sons. Do I have a motion to have a second?

00:46:44,868	S11:
Second?

00:46:47,100	S1:
Uh, Tom, Ben, Rosie or Bill? Any more questions or comments for the new ownership group?

00:46:53,868	S2:
Well, we certainly wish you lots of luck.

00:46:56,200	S7:
Thank you. Okay.

00:46:57,667	S11:
Welcome to the community.

00:46:59,467	S7:
Thank you for all your customers.

00:47:01,601	S5:
So it's all good.

00:47:03,267	S7:
Uh.

00:47:03,701	S1:
There were. We're a loyal group, so. Yeah, you can care about.

00:47:06,400	S11:
You'll be at my house at least once a week. Just tonight.

00:47:09,601	S16:
Well, good to see you around all the time. To meet every one of you in person. Right. I think.

00:47:15,801	S7:
We met.

00:47:16,200	S16:
Before together.

00:47:17,868	S4:
My last comment.

00:47:18,801	S11:
Is to learn that buffalo chicken.

00:47:20,567	S17:
Pizza recipe. Really? Well, that's my favorite. Okay.

00:47:24,167	S16:
We're going to show you personally on the store.

00:47:30,367	S1:
All right. Thank you. I see nobody's raised hand. Okay, so I think we'll do a roll call. Vote. Start with, uh. Uh, Rosemary.

00:47:41,667	S2:
Rosie Kennedy, I.

00:47:44,000	S1:
Tom Meyers.

00:47:45,100	S11:
Tom Meyers, I.

00:47:47,200	S1:
Uh, Bill Wilson.

00:47:48,567	S5:
Uh, Bill Walton, I.

00:47:50,767	S1:
And Ben.

00:47:52,167	S17:
Ben Kaluza, I.

00:47:53,801	S1:
And William Olson. I so unanimous uh, and we look forward to a many nights of pizza from five Suns. Thank you for keeping the business going.

00:48:03,701	S5:
Good luck.

00:48:04,100	S7:
Good luck.

00:48:04,767	S16:
Thank you guys. Thank you guys I appreciate it.

00:48:10,567	S1:
Uh, next item on the agenda is designate Police Chief Edward Guy to sign police details for 2026 election as needed. Discuss and vote. Joe, who's presenting this topic?

00:48:20,167	S4:
Uh, I will, uh, and Karen can jump in if you'd like, but, uh, this is becoming kind of a standard, uh, topic. It used to always be that the police chief designated the detail crews for elections a couple of years ago. The state changed the law, seeing fit to give it to give that responsibility to the select boards. Since that's happened. The Hamilton Select Board every year annually designates the police chief to do the job they've always been doing, which makes more sense. Um, so, uh, we just, uh, at the request of the town clerk, we've asked you to make that again so that chief can, based on his staffing, the assign the officers for the details.

00:49:00,467	S7:
Okay.

00:49:02,868	S1:
Any other questions?

00:49:04,367	S5:
Pretty straightforward.

00:49:07,067	S1:
Do I have a motion to designate Police Chief Edward Guy to sign, please. Details for the 2026 election as needed.

00:49:14,300	S5:
Yep.

00:49:15,601	S1:
A second.

00:49:18,701	S11:
Second.

00:49:21,667	S1:
Uh, Curran, did we miss anything? Are we all. Are we all good to vote?

00:49:24,868	S6:
No. Absolutely. All good to vote. Thanks, Joe. Thank you all.

00:49:29,100	S1:
All right. Roll call. Vote.

00:49:30,601	S2:
Rosemary Rosie Kennedy, I.

00:49:33,567	S1:
Tom.

00:49:34,267	S11:
Tom Myers, I.

00:49:36,300	S1:
Uh, Bill Wilson.

00:49:37,567	S5:
Bill Wilson I.

00:49:39,601	S17:
Ben kaluza Ben Kaluza I.

00:49:43,000	S1:
I went Wilson, I all right. Moving right along. This is going to be a little bit longer discussion. Um, Joe. Just. Joe, just to recap, does anything we need to sign, uh, that I need to come by and sign, let me know, and I'll come by tomorrow.

00:49:56,767	S4:
Yeah. There's going to be a bunch of stuff that you guys need to sign. Um, some of it will ask you to try to stop by before the weekend, but otherwise, I'll just bring everything Monday night to the Council on Aging.

00:50:07,501	S17:
Okay?

00:50:08,400	S4:
Okay. Um.

00:50:09,200	S7:
All right. So.

00:50:10,667	S1:
So review the next item, review updated budget proposal and options. And for proposition two and a half override. So I just want to give a quick summary of where we ended up before tonight's meeting. And then we can see where we go after tonight's meeting. So prior to tonight's meeting I feel like we've agreed as a group that we do not want to have our town budget rely on an override to get passed. So what we decide to do is a compromise with the school committee is that we would vote on a on a balanced budget, which would be basic services, not level services that would meet our current levy level as a combined vote. We would have a second vote for the override, which would have a few hundred thousand dollars of of Hamilton items that would bring us back to a level services budget, and then the school would would add their monies over and above the levy limit for a combined override. Um, that way what we felt would happen if the, if the budget passed, we at least would have a budget to work with. And if the override failed, we'd have time to work on the override without impacting our town budget over the next weeks and months. Um, there's things we would have to give up that we that we would like, but it's our opportunity to go to in front of the community at town meeting and say, hey, we want these things are important and override is is allowed to happen. It's legal to happen. It's just a additional process to have happen to sort of pay for things that, um, that we want to have that we think are part of our services and dealing with obviously, a lot of increases in costs between trash and insurance and, and, and, and unions and things like that. So there's a bunch of reasons why we have it. But, um, and then what we did last year is a big part of it is that we used free cash last year to sort of help the process and that just kick the can down the road a little bit. So although our budget is not as big of a change from last year, this year, the $500,000 deficit of free cash sort of makes it seem like a worse jump than it is. So. So that's kind of where we're at right now. So we kind of have to decide as a group what the numbers are. Just going to give us a presentation on what the numbers look like. And we decide as a group if we're all comfortable with That compromise of having to split a split article. One article would be a basic level of sorry basic services to meet the levy limit. And the second article would be the override to have what we considered a level of service. So did I state that correctly?

00:52:36,868	S4:
You did. Thank you. I appreciate it. That saves me a lot of talking costs. I'm going to do the next part talking. Um, so I wanted to provide you some budget updates really quick as we, um, to help you with your decision. Since the last meeting, I'm quite a while ago now. Three weeks ago, the Hamilton Regional School District reduced its assessment to Hamilton for operating. This doesn't include the debt service because the. That's a pass through from the debt exclusion ex from the previous debt exclusion. So this is the operating budget assessment for Hamilton is now 25 million. 973. 746 Wendy can jump in anytime I say anything wrong and correct me. Um, the town was able to reduce our insurance costs by $96,967. And we've also shifted $64,557 that we had in the budget to be raised in appropriated. We're going to take it out of free cash because it's actually for the final lease payment on a fire department vehicle, and therefore it's a capital item. So it is it is allowable for us to use the capital to use free cash for capital items. So, um, this creates a new deficit operating deficit of 1.340 $505 and the overall operating budget for FY 27. So the town has the town meeting. Wendy and I had previously recommended that we could put on the override $50,000 for the part time communications position that would had originally been recommended. We could put $108,000 for new requested patrol officer and the HPD that was requested. We could put the another $42,981 that was originally proposed and requested for the Public Safety admin. We are keeping the full time public safety admin that was recommended by John in the finca, but we were originally had one and a half there, so moving half of him out. And then we would recommend putting, um, $60,000 for a currently unfilled position in the DPW. That position has been open for almost a year now. And, um, we put that on the override that would result in a town override of $260,981 and a school district override of $1,079,524.

00:54:48,868	S4:
Your other option, if you felt that you wanted to make it a little bit, um, more even, is that there are two additional options for Town Override. There's, um, 45,475 for half year admin position. Uh, that is expected, uh, mid-year and $69,300, $350 for a half year police patrol position that is also expected mid-year. So we have we're anticipating two mid-year retirements. Um, if we put these on the override and the override doesn't pass, we just wouldn't fill those for the last six months of the year. We they'd stay open and then we would be trying to bring them back in FY 28. So this would result in a $375,806 town override and a $964,600 override for the schools. So those are your kind of your two options. Um, either way, the amount of money that we're trying to split is $1,340,505.

00:55:49,467	S4:
Just whether just how much of the bite you want to take for the town and how much you want to shift the schools.

00:55:56,100	S11:
Joe, can I ask a question? So I think the messaging that we have is that the initial vote is for a basic services budget, and then the override is for level service budget. But it sounds like we're offering new positions. And so for the override. So how is that level services. Is that. That seems like extra.

00:56:15,667	S4:
Uh. Yes or no? I mean, but we we we build a budget based on what the what the select board and the fin com and the department heads tell us. During the budget process, we need to continue to provide services. Uh, there's not really any I wouldn't call any of these fat. Like, you know, we've got some. We're really we're really actually at some meat. When you talk about the the, uh, police officer, you kind of keep in mind $180,000 when they request a police officer. Part of the reason we're funding that is because we have. Well, part of the reason we requested that is because we're getting rid of the entire reserve police patrol program, because there are no reserve police officers anymore. So we had over $100,000 annually scheduled into that to pay reserve police officer salaries. There's nobody to pay there so that that program is going away. This was kind of a one for one. What we're saying is that we would get by using overtime, uh, and probably potentially forced overtime to fill vacant shifts if officers had to call and say.

00:57:13,868	S17:
Okay. I mean.

00:57:14,868	S1:
I mean, all these things we have now, he's having a different forum, Tom. So it's not necessarily a like when you say level, it's a level of concept of service is not you're allowed to change sort of how you provide the service. But it's it's the same service we have now because we have the communications that we talk about, but we do it internally. We're not doing a good job of it. Right. So and we have the public safety admin position, but we're getting rid of it. So we're trying to keep that transition that we recommend. So yeah it's not like level like one for one, but it's level in terms of the services the town requires and how we provide those services to the town.

00:57:48,767	S11:
Yeah. No, I think that makes sense.

00:57:50,901	S5:
It does. But it's still like how many FTEs incrementally year over year is it?

00:57:57,267	S4:
Well, you've already eliminated, uh, four full time and two part timers with the move of the, um, I don't want I don't want to understand. I don't want them to sell that. We've already changed the way we're going to provide service with the move of the dispatch, which I think was the right call. But we already eliminated four positions. And now with the first level here, you'll be looking at another three FTEs, two full time positions, and two part time positions. And then if you get into the, uh, second level of what we're recording as possible or that we're suggesting is possible, that's two more full time. As for half of the year. So it would be at the end of the day, three PhDs for six months and five FTE for the last six months of the year.

00:58:42,968	S1:
So so I'm not I'm not in favor of the second one.

00:58:45,767	S5:
Yeah.

00:58:46,000	S17:
Me that's.

00:58:48,000	S1:
Obvious because.

00:58:48,968	S17:
That.

00:58:49,400	S1:
Yeah. Sorry. Go ahead.

00:58:51,968	S17:
All up from where we were a year ago. That's a total workforce reduction of eight full time equivalent. If we went all the way with the second option. Am I doing that math right, Joe?

00:59:04,000	S4:
Yeah, just. Yeah. Just about. Yeah. We before we already lost from the. And then the others that we're proposing here. But part of the reason we recommended it this way is that if you wanted to go more than the, the, the 260, um, 981, we're also we're trying to get away from, uh, having to lay anybody off. If we lay anybody off, we have to then account for unemployment insurance and a host of other expenses that come up when you lay somebody off. So we wind up, you almost have to lay off three people to get the value of two. And we're trying we're trying not to do that. These would be positions that would be vacant because they're going to be retirees. And rather than, uh, fill them and spend that money, you could you could save yourself the, the money for six months. And we would be trying to bring them back in 28. I guarantee you we would be right back here this time next year saying we need to bring those positions back into the fold.

01:00:03,868	S7:
Because we need to.

01:00:05,467	S5:
Get there as well next year.

01:00:07,467	S4:
I'm sorry.

01:00:08,200	S5:
Are we saving additional money with the 901 desk? The call center in the following year?

01:00:14,767	S4:
Yeah, we expect to. Yes.

01:00:16,567	S5:
So I mean, that's going to offset it. I mean, we got a little bump because it's half the year, right? You got savings. So I mean, I don't know that you'd have to come back for more money after that. For love.

01:00:28,167	S4:
No, no, no, we just might we might be. We'd be looking to bring the police officer positions back, at least. But we should have the money. Like you said, the goal that, you know, insurance inflation slows down. We stopped getting banged with double digit increases to our insurance. We have a known contract in place for, um, the trash and will we'll be able to bring those, those positions back easily in 28. But the unknown is this time next year I'll be negotiating with four unions and they're going to be likely looking for pay increases. So how much we give them impacts how much we actually have to bring back those other positions.

01:01:12,100	S1:
Joe, these two questions don't affect that. The quantity. These two options don't affect the overall number of the override. It just it just affects that divide it up. So I think that if we kick the can down the road in this 110, $15,000 for positions next year, we're doing the same thing we did this past year where we kicked $500,000 into it, and now we have to make up that 500. So I'm not in favor of kicking the can down the road by eliminating positions we need to fill the next year. So I'm in favor of this first option.

01:01:43,667	S11:
Um, I have a question. I know we've talked about this before. I'm just sort of drawing a blank now about how we arrive at the 1.3 million for the override, because I'm looking at this and it's like, if the if the school can reduce their override to 960, why are we why are we settled on. It has to be 1.3.

01:01:59,567	S1:
No, we're we're giving them a we're giving them an extra 125. By eliminating those two positions. So we're just shifting the money from the town to the school.

01:02:08,467	S7:
Yeah.

01:02:09,267	S4:
So if I if I eliminate those two positions for the second half of next year, that money would be still in the budget. We'd give it to the schools. That way they wouldn't have to raise it in the override. And then that the number they'd need in the override would be 964.

01:02:23,000	S1:
That's why the total number isn't changed. It's the same total number. It's just shifting money.

01:02:27,701	S11:
Yeah. No.

01:02:28,467	S1:
That's that's what. But that's what we did last year. We shifted 500,000 of free cash to the school budget. And then. And then what it does is it creates a huge void this year.

01:02:38,567	S11:
Yeah. That makes sense now. Um, the other question was I haven't seen anything from the school about are they itemizing their override as well like we've done here?

01:02:50,167	S4:
But I'm not I mean, they haven't been that other than the positions that they've already voted to eliminate, which is how they got their budget down. Um, so they made some moves and they, they also reduced insurance. So they've already made moves to reduce that assessment down. Um, other than those positions, we recommended that they be transparent about it, but the I'm not going to push it too hard because at the end of the day, school department gets a bottom line budget, whatever amount of money you give them, the school committee and the finance director have the right to move money around during the course of the year and make changes based on whatever the expected need for educational purposes is so they can present.

01:03:36,300	S7:
I mean, we we.

01:03:37,601	S1:
We recommend.

01:03:38,300	S4:
It, but they can.

01:03:39,000	S1:
Change it in the meeting. Right. And the meeting we had Thursday, the last Thursday a week, two weeks ago, we recommended they come up with a list so people understand what the real pains are and what people have to give up. But I'm not. Yeah, Tom, I haven't seen anything from them on that. But we we thought it would be we recommended it but it's up to them.

01:03:58,501	S5:
Yeah, that only helps her, cause, I mean, I would hope they would do that.

01:04:04,100	S1:
I would think so.

01:04:05,000	S5:
But identifying the pain of not not, uh, proven in override. So.

01:04:09,901	S8:
Hey, Bill.

01:04:11,267	S1:
What do you need from me? Yeah. Go ahead. John.

01:04:15,300	S8:
Bill. As far back as November, we've asked them to start to package up their message on a on a about $1 million override. So that request has been out there for a couple of months. So it's not a, you know, a recent ask. So.

01:04:30,767	S1:
Right. I mean, but they're they're looking at a whole package like this is the package rather than itemizing it. So it's like it's hard. Is it because they're giving us all the adds to the budget from last year? But obviously they add up to a lot more than a million bucks because their budget went up by 3 million. Right. So it's they're giving us a $3 million list of shopping list, but not the million dollars they'd have to give up if they didn't get the override. So. Um, so, uh, Rosemary and and, uh, Ben, anything else in terms of if we need to vote on this tonight, what other concerns do you have or questions or comments you have on this approach?

01:05:08,067	S17:
The only concern I have about the approach. I think I also I just want to I have a couple of comments and then maybe one minor concern, but first comment last time I think it was three weeks ago we met. We talked about we hadn't had an override, something like 8 or 9 years.

01:05:23,667	S4:
Longer than that, 15 more than 15 years.

01:05:26,701	S17:
You know, which is amazing given what happened after, you know, the Covid years and then following and seeing inflation just absolutely going through the roof and to have made it this far, you know, the 2.5% is the number that the state gives you that allows you to kind of work within that number and not needing to exceed that for however many years it's been is just a real testament to, uh, improving efficiency every, every year, everywhere we can find it. Um, so that's that's one comment. It also looked like the concept of, um, getting rid of the recycling thing that that's gone away. Um, I'm not sure if we had a conversation about it, but I mean, I'll just say, like, I'm happy for that. Like, I didn't feel great about, uh, so just telling people, yeah, we're not going to pick up recycling every week anymore. I think that kind of goes against what we've been trying to do on the environment front, so I'm happy to see it go away. But I just wanted to talk about it. The last thing one and then my area of concern was around calling it basic services. If you're new to town meeting, um, you know, maybe you think that's like, oh, that's where everything always starts, right? You know, I think really what it is, it's a reduced service, right? It's not a basic service that I think there's some messaging there to clear it up for people who might be new to this process.

01:06:43,567	S1:
I think that's not makes sense. That makes sense. Yeah. That's a that's a valid point.

01:06:50,667	S4:
On the, uh, you deserve an update on the on the recycling. So, you know, in preparation for the last meeting, we were kind of scrambling, trying to find ways to be creative and imaginative. We looked at the really large increase that's expected when we signed a new contract with the seller, and we were we kind of pulled it apart and looked at, um, at the cost of recycling collection and thought that might be an area we could say, um, we, we did say at the time that we were we were making a rough guess that if you went every other week, we're showing half the cost. But it wasn't it wasn't really equal to that. There's a number of different reasons for that. We had a long conversation with Casella about it. It winds up instead of being, you know, whatever we were showing $300,000 in savings really winds up being more like 75, 65 to $75,000 in savings. There's, um, there's a lot of that goes into how they have to schedule trucks and, and staff and everything else. And their point was, if you go to every other week, Hamilton had such a good track record with recycling. If they go to every other week, they have to anticipate the weeks that they are picking up. They've got to be longer so their crews will be out longer those days because there's going to be more to pick up. So they wouldn't, they wouldn't. They did not recommend us taking that look at it. There's also some additional costs built into this contract because they're planning to provide new totes and things for the recycling, etc.. So, um, those things would still be there. They're getting new trucks to be able to make the route work faster, but those costs for the new barrels and stuff would still be there for them. So, um, that said, when it was only $75,000, we said, well, that's really not worth it. The juice isn't worth the squeeze for, especially for all the angst and anxiety was going to cause. So we, uh, we pivoted and that's when we came up with the the kind of second option down here.

01:08:42,501	S1:
No, I hear you. That makes sense. Um, Ben, you go back to your first point. I think it's interesting to talk about the messaging of the override. Like it's not a bad you know, it's a bad thing to have an override, but it's a good thing we've been able to fight it for this long, right, because of the inflation. The interesting thing that we're looking at is that even though we're having to override our tax rate might go down next year because of inflation. Right. Houses are worth more money. So even though we're paying more in taxes, our tax rate is actually might go down. So so unfortunately tax rate and and levy are inversely related. Right. So if the houses are worth more money the tax rate actually goes down to raise more money. So we haven't got that number yet. But it is possible it has nothing to do with our tax rate. It has to do with the amount of money we're raising. So it's an interesting, um, discussion that we're not actually raising the tax rate. We're just raising the tax levy.

01:09:35,901	S5:
Yeah. But it.

01:09:36,400	S7:
All.

01:09:36,601	S1:
Comes.

01:09:36,868	S7:
Down to.

01:09:37,267	S5:
Talk. It all comes out of the pocket of citizens. Although their house is appreciated.

01:09:41,000	S7:
Right.

01:09:41,767	S5:
They're feeling it regardless of the tax rate.

01:09:44,100	S7:
Absolutely.

01:09:45,901	S1:
But if your house doesn't right. If your house doesn't appreciate, then you don't feel as big as a burden as somebody else's house does. So it's a it's a weird it's a weird dichotomy.

01:09:54,567	S5:
But if you don't realize it, it doesn't mean much. Right? It's you live.

01:09:58,601	S1:
In and what's the what's in? John McGrath. I don't know if you've done the math yet, but what's the. I have 1.3 million. What's that per average household? What's the what's the point.

01:10:09,567	S7:
For that question?

01:10:11,100	S8:
Yeah, I haven't done the math yet, but.

01:10:13,567	S5:
We need to do that math, Joe. I mean, I'm surprised we don't have that.

01:10:16,968	S4:
Well, I mean, part of okay, I appreciate that, but I mean, we we didn't know what the math was going to be. I can't do the math, though. I know what number you want me to focus on.

01:10:26,267	S5:
I've had this one out there for a bit, right?

01:10:29,000	S7:
Yeah.

01:10:29,300	S4:
Well, once, once I know which direction you're going, we can break out. What the what what the override will mean to the average taxpayer. You know.

01:10:37,300	S5:
I don't understand your question. What do you mean, direction? It's 1.3. It's whether or not we give more to the school or more to the town. On the second one. Right? It's 1.3.

01:10:46,267	S4:
Okay? I understand. Yeah. All right. We. Yeah. We can we can break that up.

01:10:52,868	S5:
I think we need that. And as far as how we break it out. I don't want to like. I think it is what it is. I like the first one. As Bill said, that's the real. The real. Like financial need for each, each entity, whether it's the school or the town. It was the first number, I think was a 260 for the town and a million something for the schools. That made sense to me.

01:11:17,000	S7:
Yeah, yeah.

01:11:18,200	S1:
I think Joey did a great job getting it in line with what our goals were without. He were very creative, which I appreciate, and I don't think I just don't create any holes for us next year. And I think that this does not create many holes for us. Um, it creates some things we're not able to do that we wanted to do this year, but maybe we can pay for it next year with what Bill was talking about, with the additional savings of the transition, maybe we make more money off of that transition. Uh, Rosemary. What else? Uh, rose, you've been, uh, quiet and listening, so I'm sure you got some comments. Any other questions or comments you have?

01:11:52,100	S2:
Yeah, I just I agree with, with Bill w that I think the first, um, recommended override with the two 6981 town override and the 1.079

01:12:08,000	S2:
override for the schools. I think that's a fair and accurate analysis of the of the needs of both parties. And I think the town has really Joe and Wendy have done a really good job of, um, cutting things to the bone. And I think, um, Joe's own comments that everybody needs to find a way to live within their budget. And I think by doing the additional cuts of the town for the benefit of the schools. Just seems to me, uh, that that we're walking back our commitment to the town. We are representing the town. We certainly appreciate the position of the schools, but they have to make their own decisions. And so I agree with Bill Wilson that this if we do choose the second article, that this one, the first one the town recommended override should be what we go with.

01:13:21,467	S4:
I think.

01:13:24,667	S2:
I'm I still there.

01:13:26,000	S7:
You know sorry.

01:13:27,100	S1:
Sorry I Muted sorry. So I have a question for John McGrath. So John we're supposed to vote on this tonight. Um on which direction we want to go. And is there any reason why we should not vote tonight and wait for Finn Comm to look at it, or are you good with us? I'm Moving forward with a vote on this approach tonight?

01:13:42,467	S7:
Yeah.

01:13:43,067	S8:
I mean, Pinkham has reviewed this budget, um, across two meetings. Um, we're going to vote on it on next on Wednesday, actually. So we needed the final numbers. But I we've been projecting a $1.5 million override for a couple of months. Um, and we've been through it multiple times, so I feel comfortable with it. Um, and I feel comfortable with the rationale bringing it to the town. So I think the key indicator of how healthy financially the town is is really the, uh, the interest rate on the bonds. And that is a single key performance indicator of how financially prudent this town is and how well done the financials are. Um, and the fact that we've gone 15, 18 years without an override speaks to the quality of the management. So I feel very comfortable bringing the story forward, using the levy limit for the flat budget and then the override. So. And we've been through these numbers multiple times at fin gum. And we'll vote formally on it on Wednesday night.

01:15:04,968	S1:
Okay.

01:15:06,000	S2:
Yeah.

01:15:07,667	S1:
Everybody else feel comfortable voting on this right now.

01:15:09,868	S8:
And Bill its bill is probably about $55.58

01:15:15,968	S8:
tax rate. Okay. So we'll do that final.

01:15:20,667	S5:
And we should layer that with uh you know, the roof the debt exclusion. And and we got to lay this out for the next five years. Right. With everything else that's coming our way. I think that's I think we should talk about that at town meeting.

01:15:33,167	S7:
Um, so.

01:15:34,367	S4:
You know, Wendy, just I mean, makes sense. Since, um, John threw out $0.55, I'll just say that, Wendy just. I was going to wait and make sure we double checked our numbers, because I wanted to make sure we were perfect, but. Right. Rough math. Wendy's thinking it's about $450 increase annually on the average tax bill across the town.

01:15:52,367	S5:
So that's helpful. And what's.

01:15:54,868	S7:
That.

01:15:55,100	S4:
Time of year. So you're talking about like $101,213 a quarter for the average tax bill.

01:16:02,467	S5:
So 450 a year on a what, 800,000 or House average. Average.

01:16:10,367	S14:
Yes, about 816, I believe.

01:16:12,300	S7:
Okay.

01:16:18,367	S7:
Okay.

01:16:19,701	S1:
All right. Um, so, Joe, what is the what does the motion need to how do I need to say the motion here?

01:16:27,767	S4:
I you know, you guys can use your words, but I'd say, you know, a motion to Approve a.

01:16:37,400	S4:
Request for $1.340505 million override with a $260,981 town override, and a $1,079,524

01:16:50,667	S4:
override for the Hamilton Windham Regional School District.

01:16:55,667	S1:
So I'm going to move that. So moved five a second.

01:17:00,767	S7:
Second.

01:17:03,000	S1:
Any further discussion or questions?

01:17:06,868	S1:
Anybody in the on the zoom call have any questions or comments.

01:17:16,801	S1:
All right. We'll do a roll call vote. Uh, Rosemary Kennedy.

01:17:20,167	S2:
Rosie Kennedy, I.

01:17:22,868	S1:
Uh, Tom Myers, Tom myers.

01:17:24,868	S11:
Hi.

01:17:26,467	S1:
Mr.. Wilson.

01:17:27,667	S5:
Bill Wilson, I.

01:17:29,601	S1:
And Ben Galluzzo.

01:17:31,868	S17:
Ben lose the eye.

01:17:33,868	S1:
William Olsen eyes. So, yeah, I mean, I think it's, uh, some hard decision. I think we hard work. We got there, and we just got to get to school now to align with it. But I think we have a plan moving forward. So can you update us on the schedule for the vote? Because obviously it, you know, has to pass in both towns in order to you know, but what so when is when am voting. When are we voting.

01:17:55,567	S4:
So the election day isn't going to change from what I understand, the town of Wenham, because they were not sure that the Booker would be big enough to handle the annual town meeting this year. Wanted to move their, uh, annual town meeting to Gordon College. Gordon College was not available on April 11th, so the Select board voted last night to have their town meeting on April 9th. We'll have our town meeting on April 11th. And then both towns elections should.

01:18:26,267	S7:
Still be.

01:18:27,300	S4:
Five days after hours. So April 16th or whatever it is. Uh. Thursday night. Thursday.

01:18:34,167	S7:
Uh.

01:18:35,267	S4:
Thursday 16th. Yeah.

01:18:41,267	S7:
Okay.

01:18:41,567	S4:
And so the override will have to pass at both town meetings and at the ballot box. But it's a 50% majority vote. So.

01:18:50,968	S1:
All right. Thank you.

01:18:55,667	S1:
All right. Next topic review proposed Warren articles for annual town meeting, including sale pad, homestead Gun Club lease renewals, specialized stretch code, prudent investment rule. We talked about operating override and debt exclusion discussion and possible vote tonight. So I asked, um, Tom and Tim Ford to attend a meeting, but I have to and it looks like they're on. And so, Joe, is anybody else talking to any other subjects? But I was going to go right to them and kind of go out of order a little bit.

01:19:29,100	S4:
Yeah, I know that you invited them, so you should go to them first. But just so you know, uh, representatives of the Hamilton Wine and Rod and Gun Club and the miles of marsh rats are here as well as, you know, members of the patent, um, the friends of the Patent Homestead, uh, and the, uh, Hamilton Environmental Impact Committee. So we've got a lot of opportunity for a lot of people to talk besides me. I'm going to turn off my mic.

01:19:52,100	S1:
So Tom and Tim and Heather, thank you for joining. Um, we ask you sort of join because we've been having some discussions with our Environmental Impact Committee on adopting sort of the second tier of the stretch code, which really affects new builds in Hamilton, but it allows us to get more state funding, up to $1 million worth of grants for public properties, for energy upgrades to those properties. If we choose to choose to choose to select and upgrade those facilities. But we didn't want to vote to something on the town warrant, that would become a big burden for somebody trying to build a new house in town or upgrade their house. And so we're being told that there's some solar impacts to a 4000 square foot house. You have to put solar. And so my question for you guys is I don't know how familiar you are with that, with this and sort of what the use of the impacts on a builder wanting to come to Hamilton or if you think it's going to negatively impact development in town and a good way or a bad way, just get your thoughts on it. So I'll open it up to Tom and Tim to sort of ask questions, give their opinion. But thank you for joining.

01:21:03,467	S18:
I'm going to let my brother go first because although there's a lot, it's still doing some development. But he's intimately familiar with the the stretch code and has been subject to that. My understanding is, is 50 communities that have accepted the super stretch code. Um, and out of the what, 350 of us, so I'm glad you're considering it. But you would be on the front wave of communities towards accepting it. I think Beverly and Salem are the ones local that have accepted it. Tim.

01:21:38,267	S1:
That's correct. Yeah, yeah.

01:21:40,501	S7:
Yeah, I have.

01:21:41,000	S19:
Some recent experience with the, uh, with the super stretch quote, for lack of another term. Um, the, uh, you know, if you, if you adopt, if you adopt the super stretch code, you're going to be looking at 400 amp electric services to these houses. So a 400 amp service as opposed to a 200 amp service will add on average about 10 to $12,000 per house. Um, the 400 amp service, um, is not commonplace. I'm thinking, um, I don't know, how many stops do we have in Hamilton? One of them new starts, maybe 3 or 4. Yeah. I wouldn't think it's much more than that. Um, part of the problem. I just finished one in which I finished 1.55.

01:22:24,067	S1:
A year on average. There you go. Go ahead.

01:22:26,100	S19:
I've no homes. Um, I just finished one in Winchester a couple of months ago, and that was under the super stretch code. And I just got a call in the last week or so about their electric bill and their electric bill in that house. They moved in in October, and for the month of January, they got an electrical bill for $4,200 from Eversource. So of course they're going through the roof over that. We didn't have options. So they had adopted the code. So we we did. Um, it is an all electric home. Um, my experience with it is I've also had one experience down in Manchester as well. They haven't adopted it, but they were going to adopt it. So I started this house. I ran a 400 amp service into the house. I also had to pay National Grid. I think it was about $8,500 to upgrade the line between two transformers. So it's fairly expensive. Um, with only five starts. Yeah. The other thing that they're experiencing in Winchester, Winchester actually only has probably 5 or 6 new stats a year, believe it or not. But they have a lot of bigger projects coming online, which they're forcing all electric. So National Grid is having problems providing Eversource in that case is having a problem providing ample power. And I think that's going to be the same case here on National Grid. I don't know if anybody has spoken with National Grid about that at five sites per year, but if you get if you get a big project in town, so if you got a three day project or a big 40, be or something happens over at Penguin Hall in Wenham, um, it's going to be very costly to upgrade the electric coming in into that site. Um, you know, with a single family residential house. I would say the uptick is about 10 or 12,000 bucks.

01:24:12,667	S1:
But what about the solar aspect of it?

01:24:15,667	S19:
We are getting houses solar already. So under the existing structure, Energy code houses a solar energy, so we're piping up towards the roof line so that, um, panels can be added without sort of having to take down ceilings and whatever. But we're not putting solar panels on at this point. Um, solar has kind of fallen out of favor. I mean, it seems it seems to me that, you know, when we're building new houses, uh, eight years ago, six years ago, people were talking about solar on a regular basis. They were also talking about geothermal. Both those options have kind of fallen out of favor in my mind. Um, I've seen the big the stretch. Your energy code is actually been a good piece of legislation, and the houses are certainly much more efficient in the amount of thought. So the amount of engineering thought that goes in into these in advance and also during construction and the, uh, and the quality control for all of the insulating, uh, aspects is way up. And I think that's all good. That's, that's money well spent. The next step with this energy code, I'm not quite sure there yet, to be honest, and I think it does place another burden on new home construction, which is the price of new home construction is crazy. And so when we talk, it's interesting to me because I've been listening to the budget talk and I think of these new homes that I'm building here in Hamilton and Wenham. I mean, those tax bills, everybody's paying $40,000 and requiring very few town services. And so when we talk about where revenue is for the town going forward, I mean, not everybody's in favor of this, but I think the best source of revenue going forward is creating these sort of bigger homes on smaller lots. And I think that's what we've got. I mean, I know not everybody's in agreement with that, but it seems to me that, you know, the numbers aren't lying there. Um, you know, we're talking about the average price of an existing home being at 800,000. You know, these new homes are 2.5 million.

01:26:17,000	S18:
And from what I've read, the motivation behind the super stretch code is just to follow in line with the Commonwealth's objective, to be net zero by 2050. It strikes me as we have some considerable amount of time to let the bugs work out. You know, the for a while that we all thought we were all going to be driving all electric, and now both Ford and GM are way back on what they're going to produce. And that because there is no demand. So I don't know the urgency of matching the Commonwealth's objective of 2015 net zero. I think we could let a few more, more entities experiment with the super stretch and and see where it shakes out. I don't believe that some of the work that's being done now by Tim and others to put make all these garages EV ready is reasonable.

01:27:12,300	S7:
Right?

01:27:12,567	S19:
That's part of the that's part of the stretch code, though. So whether you adopt this stretch code or not, it's going to happen that that that will continue.

01:27:21,067	S1:
I mean, part of the urgency for us and I would say for the climate community, obviously, we've tasked them with with being with the Hamilton, being a sustainability climate leader, right leaning from the front. Um, so that's what we've tasked them with. Obviously, there's money that we could get from the state for grants without a lot of commitment on the public side for public funding. It's more on the residential side. So so it doesn't put a lot of burden on the town. It puts it on obviously the new homeowner. So and if we just if we had a project in line we would potentially lose, you know, grant funding to fund those projects. I'm not sure, you know, if we have those that list to go. And I know that, uh, my screen just jumped around here, but I know we have our Emmett Emmett on to comment on the stuff. That's kind of the urgency is like, are we giving up sort of grant money by not approving this? And let me just remind everybody, right. The concept of today's meeting and in Monday's meeting is to decide if we put it on the one right. We're not we're not voting as a group on whether we agree with or not. We're voting on whether or not we think we should put it in front of the town to vote on it. So we have to make sure that we we don't want to put stuff on the on the town board to put it on the town hall. And we want to make sure that it's that it meets, you know, it has consensus, it meets the goals of the town and, and would get a favorable vote. So that's kind of what we're debating about. Not not whether we agree with it. We're going to vote for it, but whether or not we want to put it on the warrant. So just to frame that conversation.

01:28:43,567	S7:
Um, and to.

01:28:47,100	S18:
Just to frame our, uh, our inputs, we don't do starter housing. So the $15,000 an hour to a $2.5 million house is not going to it's not likely to pass, you know, preclude someone from going ahead. So maybe it does make sense to. Would it.

01:29:07,167	S19:
Affect.

01:29:07,601	S18:
Would.

01:29:07,801	S19:
It affect uh, additions and adds, for instance.

01:29:11,000	S7:
Yes.

01:29:11,868	S2:
Yes, absolutely.

01:29:15,100	S19:
Well, that would be a concern because the average there's still a lot of homes in Hamilton, one, especially in the downtown area that have 100 amp services. But I think Bill post, probably 75 has a 200 amp service. But if you're quite an aide to you which say maybe 1000ft², all of a sudden you may be taking those existing 200 amp services and having a great upgrade them to a 400 amp service, which would be a significant add on to these bigger homes that I'm doing. Um, it's it's an issue, but it's not significant in all honesty. But for the you know, I was talking with, um, with the, um, admin person at the billing department this week and she said she had 20 applications for ADUs. And so if they had to be all electric, I think that that would be a consideration.

01:30:05,400	S1:
So just to update the format here tonight, right? So we asked Tom and Tim to speak to a specific topic. I want people, we have people. Just real quick. We just want to do the format here real quick and let you speak. And then we've got a couple of people raising their hands. We'll definitely do public comment. So I wanted Tim and Tom and Tim to speak. I wanted to um, I wanted to be able to respond, and I wanted obviously all the select board members to ask questions and stuff. So, um, so I'll turn it over now to the rest of the board to ask Tom and Tim questions, and then we can go to, uh, to our climate committee, go to em, and then we can have public comment. That makes sense. So go ahead, Ben.

01:30:41,501	S17:
Um, so there's my understanding is that there's not a prescriptive requirement to go to a 400 amp. And the specialized code, is that correct?

01:30:52,000	S7:
That's correct.

01:30:53,100	S19:
Yeah, right.

01:30:53,868	S17:
Based on what you think the market wants or how the home is being electrified, whether it's with, um, electric boilers and or heat pumps or a combination of that or how many EVs You know, you think a potential buyer might want that starts to lead you towards a 400 amp or 200 amp services. And in many of the cases, for homes, 4000ft². Now is that correct?

01:31:19,701	S19:
That's correct.

01:31:20,267	S7:
Right on.

01:31:21,167	S17:
Yeah. Um, I think it's worth noting, I'm pretty sure. And someone can fact checking on this, but that our ADUs, um, the they're capped at at 900ft². Um, and those are in most cases, and I don't know what's coming through in terms of whether they're attached or detached, but my understanding is that the detached ADUs are not subject to, um, this, these requirements that the Climate Leaders Program brings in because of their size. Um, if they're attached to the home, that's different, you know, that then starts to get into some pretty tricky math on the size of the existing home. Um, so I just wanted to clear that up based on the research I've done so far. And I wanted to get you guys input on the AMP service. I might have some other questions, but that clarifies it for me, so I appreciate it.

01:32:08,901	S5:
I'd be curious if those 20 applications that are they attached or not or like what's the likelihood of because it sounds like it's a big difference in cost, right? Attached or not?

01:32:22,968	S17:
Well, I think the research I did to I'll speak for myself because I don't know if we have anybody from the town here. But number one, uh, if you're home, if you're expanding the size of your home by either doubling it in size or increasing it by 1000ft² or more, you could become subject to these new requirements, you know. So if you have already, let's say you have a 2500 square foot home, and then you added an attached Adu at 900ft², which is what we potentially allow. This is where the planning department would be pretty handy. Um, that you would not be subject. So if you've got a 3000 square foot home, you attach a 900 square foot Adu. You're not subject to this new requirement if you exceed 1000ft², or if you double the size of your home, you could become subject to this new requirement around achieving air tightness in particular, less so a concern actually about whether you need to go from 200 to 400 amps, which is performance based. It's not prescriptive based. The real issue there is around air tightness, as Tom and Tim were talking about, trying to do that in an existing context is problematic. I think it really mostly is going to apply in a context. If somebody has happens to have a 1000 square foot home, they also happen to want to or actually have to have a 900 square foot home. And then they would want to attach a 900 square foot Adu to it. You know, that's what our current bylaws would allow, which then it could become subject to this. But that seems like it's a pretty small edge case to me.

01:33:54,868	S1:
So just on the call here, so you can unmute and speak to some of the stuff. You have the facts and figures, but, um, but anything you want to comment on what Ben just said.

01:34:06,601	S7:
Yeah. Well, um.

01:34:09,167	S20:
The edu thing, if it's an extension of existing house, I don't think there is a requirement. I haven't really looked at that that much. I think one of the key things, though, is the 400 amp service is not specified for anything. The goal of what they're trying to accomplish with this, um, stretch code is to do the pre wiring. So with new construction, you don't have to rip apart all the walls to rerun the wiring. So that's the key thing there. And I mean you talk about running the wiring for the EV and the garage and all that. We've all had a lot of us on this call. Call have had to do that. Um, but the 400 amp service isn't required. Uh, you need to wire to the roof to get the solar. There is a certain requirement now that's been added to put solar on this, but you don't. The other thing is it's not required to be an all electric house. You can still have gas, you can have all that other stuff. You just have to wire so that you can put in the heat pumps and all that kind of stuff. So you have to wire for an all electric house, but you don't have to build an all electric house. That's kind of the key thing.

01:35:22,067	S7:
Um, okay. Well, I'm.

01:35:24,501	S20:
Going.

01:35:24,767	S7:
To say, I don't.

01:35:25,467	S18:
Know, 1000ft. I think it changes at 4000ft. I think it does. It has to be all electric.

01:35:31,200	S20:
No, it doesn't. It doesn't have to be all electric. It has to have some solar, though. There's a certain amount of solar required on all of all of the new construction for this now. Uh, yes, there is under 4000 and above 4000. So there's a there's above 4000. You have to have enough solar to meet the solar needs of the house, but you could still have a gas house, so you don't have.

01:35:55,868	S7:
To.

01:35:56,968	S20:
Have the solar for heat pumps and all that kind of stuff. Um, the only.

01:36:02,567	S7:
Other.

01:36:02,767	S1:
Sounds like it sounds.

01:36:03,567	S7:
Like.

01:36:04,367	S1:
The fact that.

01:36:05,267	S7:
I think.

01:36:05,901	S1:
That a little bit because there's a difference of opinion here, but we'll fact check that.

01:36:08,868	S7:
But, um, yeah.

01:36:09,868	S20:
That's why we'll.

01:36:10,701	S7:
Have a link. I want.

01:36:12,267	S1:
To.

01:36:12,367	S7:
Get.

01:36:12,667	S1:
To that. I want to get to the rest of the board, though, to ask questions.

01:36:15,667	S20:
So then I just really wanted to bring the. My understanding is that the Wenham Selectboard has already voted to, you know, uh, go forward and put this on their warrant. So we're trying to be in coordination, um, with them to at least give the voters the opportunity to decide, uh, because, again, the great advantage here from a town tax you were just talking about the override for taxes is if we put solar on high school, in middle school roof, that's like $300,000 a year in annual costs, uh, that the town can cut out of their budget for the schools. So there's, you know, not you're not adding a whole lot with five new houses a year having to do this. Uh, that's the only effect it's going to have. And the flip side is if the two towns can get together, agree to vote, get $2 million worth of grant funding. The school is getting the new roof. That's what the overrides for. Um, we can go ahead and in the following year, try to put some solar on it and really start saving some money.

01:37:26,267	S1:
No thank you. I mean, the, the the plan and the pathway makes sense. We're going to make sure it makes sense for the town. But um, I want to go to the rest of the board. So, Ben, any other questions for, uh, Tom and Tim?

01:37:37,767	S17:
No. It's great. Thank you.

01:37:40,067	S1:
Uh, Tom Meyers, any questions for Tom or Tim?

01:37:43,267	S7:
No.

01:37:43,767	S11:
No additional questions.

01:37:46,868	S1:
Uh, Rosemary?

01:37:48,667	S2:
Yes. Um, I've been doing, uh, concerted research on this issue over the last several days. And I think the most important thing that I've discovered and is that we, as we can see in this discussion tonight, is it's a very convoluted new law, the specialized stretch code. Um, there are many requirements. And if one looks at the rags, which I did as carefully as I could, not being a technical person, the reality is that the state has their own certified passive housing inspector who is certified from 40,000 courses to decide if you're certified and if you're in compliance with all these new requirements. So it doesn't surprise me that we all have a different opinion about what it means. But what I've been able to glean from this is that, Um, if we are now in the the stretch code, which I think is a wonderful code, we have been able to, um, make a lot of improvements in, in our green energy, um, goals, and I totally support that. However, when we talk about the specialized code, I think we need to go into this for the right reasons. And two important things I want to bring up before I bring up specifics generally, is that this code will be enforced by the town building inspector. So say the regulations. And Rich Maloney, who is our building instructor, is not in favor of this. There's no, um, there's no unification in this rule. If you ask your town, if we ask the town voters to vote this specialized code and we have to agree to every upgrade, every amendment that comes along in the future. And that worries me because we don't know where this is going. Um, the second thing I wanted to say is Vicky Mason, I've been in touch with Vicki Mason, and the reality is about any grant that would be applicable to the school solar panels, the new the new roof. Should the town decide to vote for that in the debt exclusion, it will be wired for solar panels. Um, Vicki has disclosed that this is this is not a done deal that one would have to apply for this this grant, much as we would have to apply for any other grant. So I don't think we should be making the assumption that Hamilton Wenham would be the entity who is awarded this $1 million um, grant. So and Vicki did also say that there are other ways we could go about getting solar panels on the on the school roof. I think it's a very good idea. I think we need to look at the whole picture. Um, there are there's a there's another partnership that she has been involved with, and she said it might not be quite as lucrative as if we if is if we own the panels, the solar panels ourselves. But there would be a way to get, um, a very reduced cost to get the solar panels. And obviously we would need to speak to Vicki about the particulars of that. Um, so those are just sort of the facts that are, that are in indisputable. Um, I think that one of the important things that we have not discussed very much is the cost of electricity. There's one particular resident in town I won't name her or or her address, but she did all the. He did all the right things, got the heat pump and, um, has a high has all this high efficiency equipment in his house. And even with all that, his electricity bill was $620 for the month of December. And so I think the reality is for the state to say that we want to use all electric, um, utilities in the house houses we has anybody taken into consideration the cost of electricity? And I don't think that that we have we have spent so much time thinking about an aspirational goal to become, um, carbon neutral by the year to 50. I don't disagree with the goal, I. I disagree that this is the right time to do it, because electricity costs are so high, because we have a finite and limited, likely finite ability to expand our electrical grid. And as it is our electrical grid, two thirds of it comes from natural gas anyhow. So I think what we're doing is putting the cart before the horse. I'm very pleased that the Ford brothers came on and talked to us about real life experiences, because aspirational goals don't always translate into present, practical goals. And I think we should consider that strongly as, as a, as a perhaps a barrier to, to wondering if this is really the right time to do this. Not that isn't that it isn't a good goal, but is this the right time to do it? And we have to feel comfortable that this is something we're asking our residents to vote on. And if we don't have enough information about it, if there needs to be a special certified person to be able to decide if you're compliant with all these gazillion new rules, and if our building inspector is saying, this is not a good decision, then I gotta say, I don't think it's a good decision.

01:44:17,467	S1:
Thank you. Rosie. Um, did you talk to Rich?

01:44:20,501	S2:
I have talked to Rich. Yes. And his opinion has not changed on on this at all. He does not agree with this. Um, they're just, you know, one of the things that Rich and I talked about were, you know, let's see how it plays out with some other communities. I know there was a community. I think it may have been Essex who actually voted in and then voted it out because it was so onerous on on the residents and, and so I'm not sure if it's Ipswich or Essex. My memory wants to say Essex, but I think we need to think carefully about what we're doing.

01:45:14,200	S1:
Is this me or is everybody not hearing Rosie?

01:45:16,200	S7:
Yeah. I mean.

01:45:17,467	S4:
You dropped.

01:45:17,968	S7:
Off. Yeah.

01:45:19,400	S4:
And you dropped off.

01:45:21,267	S1:
Yeah. Rosie, you're.

01:45:22,267	S7:
You're you're up.

01:45:23,567	S2:
More than my shit.

01:45:24,667	S5:
Yeah. You. Rosie.

01:45:26,100	S7:
Oh.

01:45:26,968	S5:
We lost you for, like, the last.

01:45:28,100	S7:
30s.

01:45:28,667	S1:
To 30s.

01:45:30,667	S2:
I'm sorry.

01:45:34,367	S7:
Okay.

01:45:34,567	S1:
No. Good. Good points. And thank you for for doing the research. Um, I'm just going to go to, uh, Bill Wilson, and we'll go sort of, sort of circle back to public comment.

01:45:44,701	S5:
Yeah, I just worry if we're. I mean, I love the idea and the but are we chasing the title and a label and we're ahead of our skis. You know, I've heard about 400 amp service. I heard it tonight about, you know, 10 to 12 K increase. But then I heard a counterargument that said, no, you just got a pre wire for EV for roof. I don't know what that costs. You know like I don't know enough about the cost benefit analysis you know for the town versus are we transferring that cost to our citizens. Uh so I worry a little bit about, you know, making a premature, you know, decision on something that, you know, 50 communities have. I, I wish I think that's great, but there's a lot that haven't. I worry about what grant money is going to be available in this political environment. And, you know, are we just running too fast? Should we do a wait and see and make an informed decision down the road or do we go ahead? But I still honestly don't understand. You know, like what the cost of, you know, an 80 unit will be. Yeah. We argued. No, it's only 900. Is it attached? Is it not? I don't feel like I have enough information to make an informed decision other than saying, I want to go there, I want to be there, but I don't want to just say yes because I want to be there.

01:47:01,200	S1:
Yeah. I mean, I think our I mean, you know, we, we, we, we have an environmental impact committee, um, we support them, we ask them to do certain things for us. They've done those things. They've done their homework. So I want to give them credit for doing their homework and and coming to us with what we've asked them to do. Um, I don't want this to be a public, uh, um, sort of repetition of what we've asked for. I think it's just more about where the code is at, not necessarily where our committees are to make sure it's clear, concise code. Um, so I just want to give Emmit and, you know, and Jean that sort of comment that I think they don't think this is about our committee, it's about sort of are we ready for. Is is the state ready for this code to be implemented and and how would it impact us to implement it. So, um, I want to go to public comment and we can circle back. Um, but Dave David has been raising his hand patiently. So I'll go to David Perron. Chief.

01:47:52,167	S21:
Uh, evening, everybody. I'm also here for the, uh, Hamilton and Ron Gun Club, but I'm also a resident of the town, um, just to help with Tom. And Tim's mentioned, um, there's things you guys have to know about the EV. Um, I'm. I follow cars and tech heavily. Um, right now, EVs are in big trouble because their tires are running at a 50% higher rate of degradation. So they're causing a higher pollution rate along the roads and river ways around areas. So there's a push for them to have to redo their tires. The uh, market on resealable EVs is really bad. So they're now having trouble with, uh, Overstock on EVs. So they're trying to figure out what to do with those. There's the loss and value of the electric vehicles. Um, I know Toyota and a few other cars in Japan. They've completely abandoned 100%, uh, electric vehicles. They're stationary over to a hybrid system. So all these things are going to trickle. As Tom and Tim said, the GM and all the major car manufacturers in the United States are pretty much abandoned, 100% electric because of the weight of the cars. The talk of a 100% electric drive is also tearing tires and causing more issues. So these are all things that are going to come down the line in the manufacturing space, which will then start to change how everyone's going to look at, you know, forward progress and what you're going to have to put in for voltage and then amperage for houses. Um, then you also have the other side part where, you know, we're all still waiting on the audit release that's going through Beacon Hill right now. So we don't know what's going on with that. And then you also have to look at the fact that now there's a larger push for nuclear that's being gone out to like, New Hampshire's looking to do a nuclear plant. So now you have that. Uh, Japan and has also created, um, small, almost like 18 Wheeler sized nuclear reactors that they can put in the back of trucks. So there's also talk about that. The US also just loaded one on a C130. So there's a massive energy shift coming. Um, a lot of this in popular science uh energy magazines. So to support what you're saying is yeah. Cart before the horse. Rosie's right. Like there's a lot of tech changing very quickly right now due to the energy crisis and the need to. And also the AI boom. So that's forcing a lot of regulation changes. So a lot coming down the pipe on that. That's my $0.02 for you guys to think about in terms of what you've been discussing on this subject.

01:50:18,868	S1:
Thank you. Jeff. Jeffrey, you had your hand raised at one point, but I don't see it now. Did you mean to put your hand down or you wanted to say something?

01:50:27,868	S22:
Thanks for bringing you back me back in. Jeff Allsop I'm 11 black Brook road and also 587 Bay road, the post office. Um, my initial, uh, comment was that we, you know, we're green builders. We have, um, we do a lot of building science. Um, and to the, to the 200 amp to 400 amp, we have. No, we don't see any need for 400 amps in our custom big homes. Kind of like the Fords. You know, we can do it all in 200 amps, including, you know, the EV chargers. And, um, and we have all electric buildings out there. So, you know, from the standpoint of, of being forced into a requirement like that, it's counterintuitive to my to my mind. Um, I just also want to confirm, uh, Rosie's conversation with Rich. I've had multiple Conversations with Rich about this. Um, well, he's inspecting our projects, or we're just, uh, you know, chewing the fat on where things are going. So I, um, I don't think it should be on the warrant. I am a taxpayer in a lot of different ways in town, and and I'm very committed to, you know, the health and well-being of of our town. So I don't I don't think this is an appropriate time.

01:51:56,200	S1:
Thank you.

01:51:59,667	S1:
Uh, Jean.

01:52:01,901	S10:
Hi. Um, Vicki sends her apologies for not being able to come tonight. Her family member has been ill for quite a while. Uh, she. From my discussions with her, where she meets with her, like, every month. Um, she's 100% for the specialized code and for us applying to become climate leaders. So there's no question in my mind that, uh, she's for this. Um, but, uh, your comment about Rich, uh, the building inspector, I'm sure is correct, but I was present in a meeting and went home and heard him say to the folks there, uh, the town hall, I will do whatever the voters vote. You know, he's the inspector. He has his own opinion, but he's going to follow through with what is required. So, um, a couple of things I did want to remind you of our Hamilton Climate resolution of 2022, uh, to become a net zero community by 2040. Um, one of the positive things about very positive things about the specialized code, which, according to Dillon Patel, is just like, here's your stretch code and it's just a little bump up. You know, it sounds like a lot, but it's there's already a lot of requirements that we're doing already. Um, that it does require multifamily houses to become passive homes now. Um, where, you know, with the technical term of that. Um, but we have that in Willow Flats. Uh, you know, the chargers, the electric, the solar, everything is already there. Um, so I don't know if anyone's familiar with these folks. Cause we development trade growth companies and, uh, construction by H.A. Cohen Hassan, Inc.. Um, but it can be done. And we also know that the Harbor Light homes that they're building the 45 unit down on. As for Asbury Common, they're very much into, uh, passive home building as well, too. So as we look forward and think about more multifamily homes coming to Hamilton in the future, we definitely want them to be passive homes. Um, I would say at this point, all homes should be passive. We shouldn't even be including fossil fuels. Personally, that's what I think. Um. Uh, I might have said that sometimes you want to have a stop and say, okay, let's figure this. But the specialized code does not ask for an all electric home. It asks it to become a possibility of all electric. But you can still include the fossil fuels, um, at this point. And, um, Rosie, about $500 for electricity, if that's covering all your heat and all your needs and cooking, I think that's pretty reasonable. Or 600, uh, it would be easy to have a gas bill of 5 or 600 or more. So, um, plus then you have your electricity, and you probably all know that heat pumps, you get a little bit reduced electrical rate if you have heat pumps in your home. Um, so, so I just want to say, uh, there obviously there are issues. Concerns? Um, Dylan Patel tried to present all this to this look board, um, with the slides, and it's, you know, it's hard to keep track of everything. Um, and one last thing about. I just wanted to say one last thing about the, uh, solar being required for 4000ft² or more. Um, if you have trees, then it's not. You know, they're not going to make you cut the trees down. Um, although I see no builds, they often, usually are cutting all the trees down, unfortunately. So so I think the mindset, I think that we are on the road to becoming net zero by 2040. We've made a lot of headway. There is timing to this, uh, to have it passed for us to put on the warrant, then to have it passed by the residents. Then we apply in June 30th to become the climate leader. And then we would have to wait until February 2027 to apply for the million dollar grant. And but they have also assured us that the money will last through 2027. Um, after that, we can't say. But, uh, that's, um, that's my opinion. I would very much like to have this on the warrant so that people, the residents, can decide for themselves. Thank you.

01:56:43,767	S1:
Thank you. Any more? I want to close. There's no more public comment, so we'll close. Anybody else wants to go? I'm going to close the public comment section and go back to the board and thank everybody for their input. And I know, Ben, as you raise your hand, you just want to comment on it. I think we'll go around the room here. But, um, there's another question. Do you have a question? Okay.

01:57:03,601	S17:
Good question for Jeff. I think it was he said a green home builder did.

01:57:09,167	S7:
Jeff. Jeff. Jeff. Yeah.

01:57:11,601	S17:
And so, are you doing passive house construction as well? Is that.

01:57:16,667	S22:
Um, not not technically passive. You know, there's, as Rosie had said, there's a lot of certifications involved with being designated passive. But I'll give you an example. Or the middle building, um, behind the post office is a new build. It's about 4500ft².

01:57:37,000	S22:
Um. It's commercial. We have, um, about 12 occupants, lots of computers, lots of lighting. It's 100% electric. And the largest bill that we have monthly has been $450. Whether heated by, um, heated by electric or cooled by electric. So, you know, the. Yes, I am in the historic district. I did want to put solar panels on it. I got turned down. Um, another one of our buildings has solar panels. I'm not opposed at all to solar. Um, had we had solar panels on that building, it would be net zero. So no, no fossil fuels. So, you know, it really can be done. It's an attitude and it's a desire. Um, you know, when I market our office spaces to people and tell them that their, you know, their share of $450 for all utilities is peanuts. It makes marketable. So it's a very positive, positive thing.

01:58:46,667	S17:
I was wondering about kind of like one of the concepts that I understand about passive House was sort of as well, if you have power outages or things like that, that they stay warmer longer. And I was wondering if you, if maybe any of the developers had heard anything from their customers on that end on new builds of of those performing better, um, in outages. We had a pretty good sized one here on, on, uh, on Monday, but I was looking for a little feedback on that if anybody's seen any additional benefits from it.

01:59:15,000	S22:
Well, the problem with Hamilton's larger housing stock and and the Ford's know this and and and, um, you know, the comment for multifamily housing I agree with too, you know, if you're going to build new, um, you know, insulate, right, insulate tight and ventilate, right. That's sort of the, the mantra. So, yeah, if you're insulated properly, you don't have to, um, you're going to be tighter and warmer and, and more efficient. So yeah, there's good things. But we're already doing that with the stretch goal.

01:59:50,667	S7:
Right. Exactly right.

01:59:56,567	S1:
Okay.

01:59:59,367	S1:
I think we'll go right one more time with Ford and then decide how we're going to move on. But I just wanted my comments, obviously our support, what we tasked the climate committee to do. Um, We voted at town meeting to to adopt some goals. Um, I am caught because I although I agree the code seems to have some clarity issues as well as future proofing it with the with the fact that once we adopt the code, we don't get to approve it in the future with the change other other than vote it down at a meeting in the future. But I also don't like being an obstacle to the town voting on what they think they might want to do. Right. And so is it our job to bring it to the town with as much information as we can to let the town vote on it versus us? Decide as a group of five that the town shouldn't vote on something that we've asked our climate committee to put together. So I guess where I'm at right now with is and I'm not ready to vote on it tonight, but I think what I would like to see is a one page from my opinion one page fact sheet. I still think there's some clarity issue, so I don't know if it's possible by next Monday to put together a one page fact sheet of all the things we talked about tonight to get some clarity on some of the things that sound like we're of different opinion, or not quite sure of the right answer. So, um, like a one page, I know you put together a nice slide deck, but I think there's some questions that came up tonight. So, um, in my opinion, I'm not ready to vote tonight. I'd like to see one page factsheet for next week and we could take it up again, but I will I will follow the will of the board. And as for the people that have an opinion. So, um, I'll go to Rosie next.

02:01:36,400	S2:
Um.

02:01:39,267	S2:
I think the overarching principle here is that people can opt to go all green and all passive, um, energy, and, and they should be able to do that. Um, but I think that the cost for the whole town to be subjected to it, um, and all future amendments is, is quite a daunting thing. And like I said, I'm not a tech person. But trying to understand this specialized code is like reading it in a foreign language. And they have. And there are special people who are trained within the state to understand this. And so I again think it's a lot of goal. I think that people certainly have the right to to do with their property what they want. But I don't think we should force people into something that perhaps has a lot of changes coming down the pike.

02:02:47,567	S7:
Makes sense.

02:02:49,100	S1:
Bill Wilson, are you ready to vote on tonight or not? Vote on it. Or what's your thought?

02:02:56,901	S1:
You're on mute.

02:03:03,167	S5:
Yeah, I think Monday is Monday's a good night. I think I'd love to see that one page. I want to also add in the first vehicle policy, and I'd like to hear more from the building inspector. I know everyone, a lot of folks have talked to him. I've heard nothing, you know, from his input on this. So I like that to hear about his input as well. I love the idea of it so, but I just don't want to get ahead of my skis and I still can't. It's it's about cost benefit analysis for me. Like we got a $10.2 million roof replacement coming from the schools, right? There's grant money on that. What's the grant opportunity we forego by not making a decision this year versus next? Do we know that?

02:03:42,868	S2:
Well, we don't know if we would be awarded a grant.

02:03:45,467	S5:
It would be even what we're eligible to apply for. Like we've gotten grants in the past, right? So like what what door is open for what grants? Um, are don't open if we don't do this.

02:03:57,000	S4:
I don't I think that the short answer to that bill is that the $10.4 million route project is going forward without any grants. There's a grant from the state, from the MSBA that's going to pay whatever percent of the port, $44 million of the ten, 10 million, and then the towns are going to have to do a debt exclusion to pay for the roof. The question is, can you add solar to the roof afterwards? The attic is proposing that you could apply for up to $2 million in grants, 1 million from Hamilton, 1 million from Wenham to put solar on that new roof after the fact. But that won't stop doing this or not. Doing this won't change the trajectory of the new roof. It just changes whether or not you add solar and when.

02:04:37,467	S2:
Well, it'll be solar. It'll be solar ready. Joe, as part of the as part.

02:04:42,767	S7:
Of.

02:04:42,901	S5:
They're going to rewire it and do.

02:04:44,100	S7:
Everything there.

02:04:45,701	S4:
Are and then and then the hicks concern is that what they're being told by the state is that after 2027, there, there's no guarantee that the state is going to have this fund for climate leaders anymore because of what's going on at the federal government and other changes in the and the energy environment. And they're they're just proposing they just the legislature just proposed a new, um, a whole new energy legislation, a whole new set of energy legislation. So I'm, I'm not sure how this guy gets treated in that. Um, I think that's a, you know, a cost of concern. The I wanted to ask Jeanie, and she may not know, but when they say 20, 27, do you know if they're speaking about fiscal 2027 or calendar year 2027?

02:05:27,467	S10:
I do not know that, but that's a great question.

02:05:30,200	S4:
Um, the if it's fiscal 2027, the board could always take this up. If the board doesn't put this on the on the warrant. Now, you could always do it at the special. Still get it in and maybe have time to apply because we're not even allowed to apply till next year anyway. Jeannie. Right.

02:05:47,767	S7:
It's likely the fiscal.

02:05:49,801	S11:
It's likely fiscal 27. Those grant programs generally run fiscal.

02:05:53,968	S7:
Yeah.

02:05:54,567	S4:
So probably 15.7. But we're not even allowed to apply until.

02:05:58,467	S7:
And.

02:05:58,968	S4:
Later this year anyway.

02:06:01,267	S7:
Right.

02:06:01,567	S1:
And build on the cost and the bill Wilson signed the cost benefit analysis Bill Wilson that we were talking about like we we want to know what it saves the school and electricity which would lower their budget. Right. So that's kind of the overall overarching thing is do we get a free $2 million package that saves the school $200,000 a year and an electrical cost? That's sort of the cost benefit you're looking for that we need?

02:06:22,367	S7:
Yeah. So we.

02:06:23,067	S5:
Could. But does that require a vote in April to get that 200? Or is it when later we go and put solar panels on there and.

02:06:29,667	S7:
One.

02:06:30,067	S5:
Year from now or whenever it's complete? Are we committing now for something that happens later where we could, you know, I don't know, see how this develops. So anyway, I think I need the one pager and Joe on the vehicles. I mean, I know, I know, we've heard that it's a first policy. Meaning you don't have to, but do you do you foresee a future where the fleet of vehicles for the town is, you know, primarily electric versus Gas?

02:06:58,000	S4:
No, not in the. Not in the short term. Not in the next. Probably not in the next five years. The fact of the matter is, the technology, particularly for our heavy equipment, isn't there.

02:07:06,767	S7:
When we talk.

02:07:07,167	S5:
About weight, we talk about batteries. So like we would be saying yes to that, but knowing we probably would not do it right.

02:07:14,200	S7:
Right.

02:07:14,400	S4:
We wouldn't be able to. There's a limited number of vehicles that we'd actually be able to buy, and we've had mixed success even with some of the vehicles we did buy. I'm interested to see how the schools do over the course of the next 2 or 3 years with the electric buses that they just bought, because they got those all paid for with the grant there. And again, that I want to see how that program runs, because those are bigger vehicles. And I want to see what the wear and tear is, how soon they have to replace them if it's worth the investment. The tech isn't there yet as far as I've been able to determine.

02:07:43,801	S5:
But as a community, we got the benefit of grants for electric buses without this.

02:07:49,100	S4:
Well, yeah, I'm not saying they shouldn't have done it. I'm glad that they did.

02:07:51,767	S5:
I'm glad they did it. But I'm just.

02:07:52,868	S7:
Saying give us a day. We didn't give up.

02:07:55,467	S1:
We are still says, yeah, we got the grants without this, right?

02:07:58,367	S5:
So I'm trying to know. I'm trying to understand the difference of what we can get, you know, versus how we are today and available to us versus having that designation.

02:08:07,968	S2:
Well, Vicky has said to me in an email that there are other ways to get solar panels on the roof through through different programs. She didn't go into, um, exact detail, but I could forward a copy of her of her email.

02:08:28,367	S7:
Um.

02:08:29,100	S5:
And it's just really the difference. And and Bill, you've said this too. It's like, are we transferring costs to our citizens for the realization, you know, of grant money, that I still don't understand the difference. You know, that the town might realize.

02:08:42,767	S4:
Rosy, rosy, could you.

02:08:43,667	S7:
Say, I mean.

02:08:44,467	S4:
And I'll share what? The full.

02:08:45,300	S7:
Board. Sure, sure. Right.

02:08:48,000	S1:
Right. I mean, I think Tim and Tom said it best. It's a $2 million house. They're not going to not build it because there's next to $12,000 in electrical costs. So it's not going to stop that type of home builder, but it's still a cost that we're putting on the on on a somebody trying to move to Hamilton and be part of our community. Um, Ben, any other questions or comments you want to. You want to put it off till Monday?

02:09:12,868	S17:
Yeah. Um, I mean, um, I think the fact sheet will help us out. Your last comment there, Bill, I couldn't agree more. You know, it's like the folks who are most impacted by it are in the, you know, $2 million home range. I'm not seeing this hitting our average everyday citizen based on everything that we've discussed so far. Um, I think the potential for the grants is is large. I think we've been very successful at getting grants in the past as well. We have a really good track record of that, as well as using them for deferred maintenance projects. You know, so things that we had to do anyway. So it's like I look at our track record. It's like we've been really good at getting that money. And that's, I think, worth its weight in gold to our citizens. Um, so, I mean, I'll tell you where where I'm leaning is towards like, this makes more financial sense to have it as an option and like kind of the the hedge against it would be that we have to have a special town meeting to repeal it. If the state changes something and all of a sudden it becomes a an actual cause to our everyday citizen. You know, so, you know, I'm kind of like looking at it in that sense of like, what's the upside potential? We've been really good at getting those dollars, you know, and then like, how would we hedge against if it kind of, you know, went the way that was being expressed here of if they start piling in other requirements that make it a concern for the for the everyday homeowner. So that's kind of my take. I look forward to the one pager. Thanks, Bill.

02:10:42,601	S2:
Okay. I just wanted to clarify something that indeed it's not just people who are looking at $2 million homes. We. We must not gloss over the fact that, um, section uh, chapter 22 includes additions to homes or renovations that are 1000ft² or more. So we are talking about average people. I had a renovation, um, addition on my house, which probably added up to close to 1000 a square feet and being required to do all the things, all the owner's things would, in this day and age, put it beyond my capacity to do a renovation like that. So I don't think we should gloss over the reality.

02:11:39,100	S1:
Let's have that on the yeah, let's have on the fact sheet. So I understand exactly what's required for that. And Joe, if you could have Rich at the next meeting and maybe have him have some stats on how many 1000 square foot additions we permit over the course of a year.

02:11:52,767	S7:
Yep.

02:11:53,100	S1:
And I don't think we've got.

02:11:54,000	S7:
The time.

02:11:55,300	S1:
And talent I think we got to yet. Tom, any closing comments before we move on?

02:11:59,267	S11:
Yeah, just a couple of things. I mean, I'm I'm sort of in Ben's camp. I understand the there's probably, you know, some impact. Um, you know, we're looking at five houses a year, you know, maybe $12,000. I think that the cost to the average taxpayer is probably not going to be felt as as hard as we're probably thinking it. I think the benefit is potentially higher with some of the million dollar grants, with easing some of the burden, with maybe putting solar panels on the roof of the schools and easing that. I think that's going to have a bigger impact on the tax base than, um, the, uh, the burden that it's going to cause. So I'm interested in seeing the one pager. I'm interested in talking with the building inspector. I don't know if we can get him in on Monday for some questions. I think, you know, I've been supportive of the hicks work, you know, since day one, and I know they've been pushing this forward. They've done a great job moving this along. I think there's opportunity for the town to move this forward. Um, I think, you know, I do want, you know, learn a little bit more about the, the cost impact, you know, through this one pager that we see next week. Um, but I think, I think, um, Ben spelled it out pretty clearly. Um, you know, with some of the impacts on major renovations and, you know, just these small amount of homes that are built a year, I think it's it's a not a, an impact. And if folks feel it is a major impact on them, you know, we provide them the detail, we allow them to vote and they can vote it down. I don't think we should withhold it from the voters. Um, give them the opportunity. It's not like they were enforcing this on our own as a select board voting it in. We're giving the voters a chance to to make the decision and be a climate leader. Um, so, yeah, I'm happy to to push this to to Monday.

02:13:37,167	S1:
So, yeah, be prepared to vote and discuss, discuss and vote next Monday. I appreciate everybody coming. Tom and Tim and Jeff and everyone else are invited to attend next Monday's meeting, and if I missed something or misinterpreted something, please reach out to me or Joe and clarify comments and Emmett and Jean as well. Thank you for doing your part and helping us become a better community. I promise you over.

02:14:02,200	S7:
Time that you're.

02:14:03,801	S1:
A jackass there too. Yes, and thanks for joining the group. So, um. All right. Great discussion. So thank you.

02:14:10,067	S10:
I just wanted to add, first of all, thank you for a very lively discussion. Um, and I just want to remind people about the first part. Anyway, I'm getting tired. The, um, the electric vehicle first policy as a vehicles replaced. You consider first. Could it be replaced by an electric vehicle? If the answer is no, you don't do it. And, um, I am way in favor of the electric school buses. And I'd like to say I wish I had that when I was a student because those diesel fumes were terrible.

02:14:47,467	S7:
So just my last thing.

02:14:51,167	S10:
Thank you very much.

02:14:53,367	S1:
So we can move on to the, uh, uh, gun and rod club with with David. So, uh, Joe, what's, uh, can you lead us into that topic discussion?

02:15:01,467	S7:
Yeah.

02:15:01,701	S4:
So just real quickly before I turn it over to Jeff and Dave. So Dave is here on behalf of him with one Rod and Gun Club. Jeff is here on behalf of the Miles River Martial Arts. Both leases are up in 27, so they need to be renewed. Um, after consulting with town council, there's information in your packets about the clubs and where they operate. Uh, on the town land out at Tobacco Road. I'll let them speak more to it. And specifically, the things to keep in mind is they're asking for leases longer than they've had in the past. I think they're looking for 20 year leases, um, regardless of the term of the lease. The town council noted that these do have to be put back out to bid. There's a requirement on the law every so often. They we did do Miles River marsh rats Not so long ago. But we're there asking for a longer term. We should put them out to bid again. So what all this question does is I'll authorize the select board to enter into leases for the use of the property. For gun clubs out there, we can do the RFP simultaneous to town meeting or even finish it up afterwards. But we just we want to make sure we get this before the voters because, uh, the Select Board can't approve a lease longer than that, longer than three years. So and I'll leave that to Dave and Jeff to go into the details.

02:16:14,000	S21:
All right. Uh, Jeff, do you want to go first?

02:16:16,767	S22:
I was going to I was going to hand it off to you.

02:16:19,767	S21:
All right. Hey, I'll I'll take I'll take the first shot.

02:16:22,200	S22:
That's fine, that's fine. I, um, mine might be more simple in a way. Um, the the marsh rats are. It's a, um, a skeet shooting club. Um, so it's it's, um, it's only shotgun. Um, we were a tenant on the on the landfill for quite a few years. Um, at least a decade or more. Um, and we were, uh, we were evicted for the cap. And when the cap was, um, completed. Uh, we went through a very long process, um, with all the town boards, the Select board, um, planning board, Conservation Commission, and of course, the DEP. And so, uh, we have, um, copious, uh, permits, um, recorded permits with the, with the state, the DP and, and we've complied with all, all the requirements of the planning. Um, we, we, uh, had a were granted a town meeting, a three year lease. Um, I believe it was for, um, Joe, you might be able to help me, but it's around $8,500. And each year of that first three year term we increased. We paid an additional 500. So we're just we're right about $10,000 currently. That program was for a rollover. We had a three year term and then another three years that was allowed with with that lease. So we're coming up to the to the end of our sixth year. Um, so we are, we are um, set for, for renewal. Um, I can say that we, um, you know, we in our lease, it's it's pretty explicit that the town police officers and others have, you know, are welcome to come and train and shoot. Um, we have, uh, it's a small membership of 50. Uh, we're not quite at 50 at this point. Um, we've operated now without incident of any kind. And and as far as we know. No complaints. Uh, our our schedule is is restrictive. We're we shoot on Sundays and Saturdays, um, between ten and roughly two. Uh, we do have the ability to have special events or other shoots, um, throughout the year. So, um, we're hoping that. And we feel we are good neighbors. We're we're really cooperative with the Rod and Gun Club. Um, we share, um, you know, a strong interest in safety and, and and training and, um, we're looking forward to a 20 year lease. Uh, the terms being negotiable, but, um, in the process of getting to the back to the dump, we have a capital, um, you know, a capital investment in that property. Um, approaching $150,000. So with all the permits and planning, site work, grading and and infrastructure. Um, you know, we we we we're not amortizing it over six years, and we'd really like to amortize it over a longer term. I was just being made aware of the RFP nature of this. We did go through that. Um, and uh, our proposal obviously one. So I think we're confident that we would, uh, not be forced to undo our, our investment and leave. So hopefully you'll consider it and put us on the warrant.

02:20:20,601	S1:
Should we do each one separately or.

02:20:22,901	S7:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

02:20:24,868	S21:
Yes. All right. So, Hamilton running gun club. Um, I'm the new VP who took over. Um, myself and Pat Cullen. He's a Beverly fireman. We our we've been fighting with the old leadership to make it more open to families, make it a more family orientated system. Um, we have a huge growing number of women, uh, women members now. Um, that's been our that's been our fastest growing segment. Um, the reason we're asking for a 20 year lease is the club has been there for 50 years. It's pretty well established. Um, but we also have a lot of elderly members as our members age. They don't pay fees due to their age. I'm trying to shift the club to a more youth orientated program. Archery, fishing? Uh, skeet and trap like Jeffs group does something that opens some of those Olympic, uh, style shooting events or scholarships that kids don't really get. Um, we've also in the agreement, um, I've spoken with the community house. We're going to make the club available to the community house upon request. All we need is at least three weeks so we can shut so we can shut the club down. Make sure it's safe so the kids can come up there and go fishing. Go walk in the woods. You know, obviously working with, you know, keeping them on our side of the property. So they're not going over to the other side. Um, we have the archery stuff going on now. We have a new archery director, Drew Connors. He's a, uh, you know, new dad. So he wants his kid the opportunity to get out there. Um, but we also have to improve our property. You know, again, the buildings have all been there for an extended period of time. Things are getting old. Um, we have a new treasurer, Donna. She worked at Salem State for a number of years. She was in charge of their finances for 30 years. She's putting together a long term budget for us. But we want to, you know, better pistol houses so they can be quieter, better rifle houses, so we can muffle some of that ambient noise from the reverberation from the, uh, firearms. Um, we, you know, we'd have to work with the com. Um, we want to put up the cell shotgun, catch nets. But those are extremely expensive. But they also are better environmentally. So a lot of plans that we have to try and pull the club into, like the 21st century. Um, but with that, we need we need to make sure that our investment is essentially protected. So that's where the 20 year lease comes in. Um, I've also reached out to the senior center. Um, we want to do senior fishing days. Uh, you know, events for seniors also that they can get out there. Um, in terms of helping the town, a group of our members went down the old fire trail, um, and actually cleared the fire trail that goes out into that back wooded area, which was completely overgrown trees down. And that's supposed to be a fire access road that was not cleaned out. We cleaned all that out. We've been Finding. You know, we've been cleaning up the best we can around the area because again, it is an old dump. But old barrels, old tires, we've been getting them down and actually properly getting them disposed of over at um, proper dump sites. Um, went to environmental, started getting some of those invasive species out. So we're our membership is hungry for improvement. We're in a good place right now. And we have like I said, we have a large growing number of, uh, women members, which is completely changing the the demographics of the club. So we have a lot more kids coming. So so we're slowly shifting into more of this outdoors recreation club versus just the rod and gun club. So that's where I kind of like the idea to go for 20 and make more improvements came. So that's what we're doing.

02:24:11,767	S1:
Thank you.

02:24:12,167	S7:
Dave.

02:24:12,400	S4:
Bad Bill.

02:24:13,267	S7:
Jeff.

02:24:13,567	S4:
And to the members of the board. And one of the things I'd like to keep in mind is that the property is is 10 or 12 acres or so in total, but a lot of it is wet. Uh, we had an assessment of the property done when Patrick Redford was still the planning director a couple of years ago, and it turns out that less than five of the acres is actually dry and would be usable, buildable for any other reason. And it's all broken up. It's not contiguous. It's not one five acre lot. It's pieces. So the way we have it right now, it's not really good for what else? Um, we have an opportunity to make it's not a ton of revenue, but we do get some revenue from both clubs. I think we're around $15,000 or so from the Hamilton project. Just under 10,000 from, uh, Marsh rats, I believe, if that's right. And, um, you know, we'd be looking probably with a new lease to make some adjustment to that, but, um, it's not going to really attract any other uses at this point.

02:25:11,467	S7:
Yeah.

02:25:11,667	S21:
Our goal right now is, um, on the contract we see, I think we're at 13.5. We'd be willing to jump to 15 K for locked in 15, guaranteeing the town $300,000 over 20 years. Um, but then that allows us to build the capital gains, improve the grounds, improve what we can offer to give back to the town. Um, one of the agreements we did come up with is, I know the town's looking to do a front gate. That front gate access area to the town's property. Um, the membership has agreed that if if we get the 20 year lease, we'll then also, within financial reason, pay one third of the cost of improving that gate if it's going to be electric sliding gate for the town so that they can have keycard access for the DPW. We're willing to throw in and help pay for a portion of that, because that also protects our, you know, our investment. And it also helps protect the, um, anyone who's using that property. So I know that DPW had issues with illegal dumping. So we're willing to help pay in to protect that issue at that gate.

02:26:15,467	S1:
So, Joe, what I got into you, Mark has a question, but I'm going to go through the board first and we'll get to public comment. but, um, so Joe, what might so talk us through again what you're looking. What does the board need to do tonight?

02:26:26,868	S4:
We just again, we just want to, uh, tonight, we just want to talk through some stuff. You're going to finalize the warrant on Monday. You don't have to vote on this tonight. Um, we will be asking you to vote on Monday whether you want to include include the articles on the warrant for consideration by the town meeting. If the town meeting doesn't.

02:26:42,767	S1:
Is it to negotiate? Is it to negotiate a 20 year lease?

02:26:45,167	S7:
Is it.

02:26:45,367	S1:
Actually is it.

02:26:46,367	S7:
The lease.

02:26:46,701	S4:
Authorizes the Selectboard to sign leases, which you will which I will negotiate on your behalf. And you'll you'll have the you'll have the final say before they get signed, which is exactly.

02:26:55,901	S7:
Why.

02:26:56,100	S1:
At least won't be. So at least isn't going to be written. We're just we're just authorizing the negotiation of a lease, right?

02:27:02,100	S4:
For a short period for the certain pieces of land.

02:27:05,567	S1:
For up to 20 years.

02:27:07,267	S4:
For up to 20 years.

02:27:10,567	S1:
And then, John McGrath, have you looked at this? What's the pros and cons of negotiating a three versus a 20 year lease?

02:27:19,868	S8:
Yeah. I mean, if I can get the terms, we can just, you know, connect on the, you know, the, you know, similar to what we did with the, uh, the buyout of the cell towers, we checked the present value of the lease payments, what's really worth to the town. So if I can get the terms that are being proposed, we can crank that out over the weekend and just have it available. So it's it's simply not as elaborate as the cell tower buyout or longer leases or whatever. So but we're happy to we're happy to look at it. I don't have any terms, though, in front of me.

02:27:57,968	S1:
I'm not sure we're going to have to. I mentioned we're not going to have terms. We're just going to have the we're just voting on the authorization to negotiate terms, not actually the terms. Rachel.

02:28:06,467	S7:
Yeah, right. Okay.

02:28:09,367	S5:
But it's.

02:28:10,267	S7:
I'm understanding what's.

02:28:11,467	S5:
The structure of the current three year. Sorry. Am I a mute?

02:28:14,467	S7:
Um, no.

02:28:15,200	S5:
Is it an escalator or is it a fixed price that I heard earlier?

02:28:19,100	S4:
So the the the current contract that the market for martial arts had, as Jeff said, was three years with three year extender because we wanted to bring them in line with the the timing of the Hamiltonian gun club in case something had emerged and somebody wanted more access to the whole property. We both leases would be up at the same time. That hasn't happened. We've done an assessment of the property since then, and we've determined that it's not likely to generate much interest, even if we put it out on the market. The Hamilton one, Hamilton one and Rod and Gun Club has a 50 year, almost 4040 plus year history with the town, 50 year history with the town. And they've um, they have largely been, um, um.

02:29:04,067	S21:
Uneventful.

02:29:04,868	S4:
Every time the Leafs have been up in the past. So, um, we will we'll have to put out an RFP because it's for the lease of the land. And so the state law requires us to put it out. We put out the RFP for the lease of the land and for the use of as a gun club as a miles away, or in the case of martial arts, martial arts, it'd be for a shotgun club, and we'd take respondents. The two that are there are likely to respond. I don't know if there's anybody else in the market that will respond.

02:29:33,767	S7:
Right. And yeah.

02:29:36,801	S5:
No, I think they've been there 50 years. There's been a great tenant, I guess we'll call it. But have you ever considered other use of that area solar or anything? I mean, 20 years is a long time. That's the only.

02:29:49,400	S7:
Reason. Yeah. So.

02:29:51,200	S4:
You know, the solar took the the piece of the property that they thought was usable above the, above the, the old.

02:29:58,200	S7:
Land. And there I remember we did we did a.

02:30:01,167	S1:
Study.

02:30:01,467	S7:
Like.

02:30:02,067	S1:
I don't remember we did this study like five years ago. And we looked at the entire property and we looked at we sort of did this study, and I don't know if you can pull that study for people to look at, but we we did a.

02:30:12,000	S7:
Study of.

02:30:13,167	S1:
Property.

02:30:14,067	S5:
Yeah, yeah, I knew there was a study. That's why I asked, and I didn't know the outcome.

02:30:18,367	S7:
Yeah, it was.

02:30:20,567	S4:
Less than half of the properties actually usable. And the even the property that's buildable is a lot of it is within a buffer zone of a wetland. So you really limit what you can do there. It's not like you can put housing there or anything like that. And who wants to put housing on top of an old dump next to a solar, um, farm anyway? So it the options are really very limited. Um, there might be some use at the front of the property where the DPW uses it for things like, um, drop offs. You know, they, they do some, uh, composting type activities at the front of it and some, you know, store some materials for road improvements. That's that's all they use it for. So, uh, if the town gave that use up, there's an acre and a half two acres there that might be usable for somebody else, but that wouldn't necessarily impact the gun clubs.

02:31:15,000	S7:
So yeah. So this.

02:31:17,567	S5:
Is definitely.

02:31:18,067	S7:
In fact.

02:31:19,000	S1:
If this didn't get passed, we we can start the select board, can sign up to three year leases without approval of the town meeting. Is that what you said?

02:31:25,100	S4:
I'll I'll double check with Tom. I'll double check with.

02:31:27,067	S7:
Town.

02:31:27,868	S4:
House so you can sign three year leases. Um, we just want to be careful because they're coming out of extended leases six years from Marshall. Mark.

02:31:37,868	S7:
Yeah, there's some there's.

02:31:39,167	S1:
Some duration.

02:31:39,868	S7:
Of.

02:31:40,567	S1:
Right. There's some duration of lease we can sign. Like we're not going to tell me. Is that correct?

02:31:44,467	S7:
Yeah. Arthur was ten. Double check that you.

02:31:46,467	S4:
Normally I would say yes, but since you're just completing a ten year lease and a six year lease, you might have to, you know, get permission again. Otherwise you just otherwise boards would just continually run three year leases and never ass town meeting. And that state doesn't want you to do that either.

02:32:02,000	S5:
So isn't that.

02:32:02,667	S7:
What we've been.

02:32:03,367	S5:
Doing.

02:32:03,601	S7:
Or.

02:32:05,601	S4:
No. The last the Hamilton One American Gun Club got a ten year lease in 2016.

02:32:12,000	S5:
That was in front of town meeting. You're saying or no.

02:32:14,467	S4:
I'm.

02:32:14,667	S7:
Sorry.

02:32:15,200	S5:
This hasn't gone and that didn't go in front of town meeting, did it? Or I'm asking.

02:32:20,667	S4:
But I thought it didn't. Even council thought it had. I thought.

02:32:23,400	S7:
It had. Yeah. Yeah. Um, that's.

02:32:27,400	S22:
A those are really good questions because I was, I was interested that we had a rolling lease, you know, so that we could renew it at least for one term. Um, I wasn't actually aware at that time that it was had to go to an RFP and go back to town meeting. I thought it was just going to be the select board that could make those renewals. Yeah.

02:32:50,067	S7:
I was.

02:32:50,467	S21:
Defending.

02:32:51,901	S22:
A legal lease. You know, it's been lawyered. And and, you know, there's actually a document that lays out, you know, how we operate and, and how we pay and all that stuff.

02:33:04,701	S7:
So yeah, we had to do it.

02:33:06,501	S1:
We had to do it for the school, right? We do it for the school because the school needed a longer lease. We went to town meeting, so there's duration that has to go in front of the town meeting. So that's why I'm trying to figure out if what what are we allowed to do?

02:33:17,667	S21:
My understanding is that you have the authority to go to up to a ten year. Anything. After that, we have to go to town meeting. That's why we we're bringing this forward because we're asking for 20. So that's why it has to go to town meeting.

02:33:30,767	S1:
All right. So yeah. So Joe just just confirmed that for next. But, um, we'll vote on next time, but Rosie and Ben and Tom, anything else? Any other questions asked? David and Jeff before we vote on it next week and be prepared to vote next week.

02:33:44,567	S2:
Yeah, I don't have any questions. I think they've explained things very well, so I'm happy with that.

02:33:51,567	S7:
Yeah.

02:33:52,000	S11:
Same here. No questions.

02:33:53,300	S7:
For me.

02:33:54,767	S17:
None.

02:33:56,601	S1:
All right. We have a public comment from Mark Johnson. Mark, sorry to keep you waiting, but thank you. Go ahead.

02:34:02,367	S23:
No. No worries. Mark Johnson, uh, Peyton drive, Um, having served on the landfill steering committee. Years and years and years ago. Oh, my God, it's a long time ago. Um, we looked at what was developable. Uh, this is before we actually closed the landfill. Um, we actually went out to bid, trying to look to if someone would have alternative uses. And there were no practical uses and anything residential. People didn't want anywhere to be near with the gas coming off of the landfill and so on. Um, ironically, one of the highest spots that was not polluted or subject to the landfill was exactly where the marsh rats would be shooting over. Because there's a there's a rise of land across the wetlands. Um, but the Conservation Commission let us know pretty clearly that there's no way they would allow you to build a bridge over to even put anything there. And anything you put there would still be bound by all sorts of setback requirements of being away from the wetlands a certain distance. So you have this block of high land across the way where you're shooting over towards, um, but it's there's not enough up acreage that's buildable to justify the cost of the bridge that's left. So we look to, to see if there was anything there. The, the other thing that we were really concerned about when it came to the leases was this the state let us know when we went out to bid, um, because the EP was very involved when we were getting ready to close. This thing is they said if the gun clubs ever went away, the state would be the town would be responsible for cleaning up. And they said basically, as long as gun clubs are in place, um, annual maintenance, preventative cleaning up shells, not using lead shot, all that stuff was just manageable. But the moment a gun club no longer becomes a gun club, there is a cost. There is a cleanup required by state law. And we, the Selectboard at the time were saying, well, you know, if it's three years, we can ask the members to sort of budget to afford a cleanup fee for ten, 15 years out. You know, because it's just such a short period of time. And so we were always struggling with how do you handle the idea that to do something right there, which sounds like the marsh rats are doing, you know, beautiful plans and it sounds like the right the right idea is that suddenly you have enough of a long term plan that you can, in the lease, sort of dictate what happens at the end and how do you handle the cleanup and what's the what's the annual sort of cleaning up responsibility and what's the end of lease responsibilities? You couldn't do that when the term was was really short and three years. So I'm in I'm in. You know, I love the plan. I like what it's doing. There's not really no alternative use for it. Um, it sounds like you guys have, you know, a really clever way that you want to use it. Um, I just, you know, keep your eyes. I'm just going to tell the select board. Just keep your eyes on the end game. of what happens when the lease is over. And then, you know, just make sure that you know you have enough time to plan for it. That's all.

02:37:08,100	S5:
So anyway.

02:37:09,367	S23:
Good luck. It sounds like a good idea.

02:37:11,300	S5:
It's disturbing. We've taken that liability. So right now we have that right. Like if.

02:37:16,567	S7:
The library kicks in.

02:37:17,667	S23:
If the gun clubs leave.

02:37:19,367	S5:
No, I know, and I don't want that, you know, but I'm just saying, like, we don't have any protection within our lease agreement today on clean up cost. That's what I just heard.

02:37:27,567	S23:
Yeah. Um, so the original time, the original concern was that the for years, the shooting over the marsh was with lead pellets, and that was into the marsh. And there was no no one went through and cleaned that up. So as long as the enforcement is of the steel, then the current use of the shotguns would not be doing the damage that the old lead shots.

02:37:52,901	S21:
And we've been liming. We have a we have an environmental steward and we've been liming out there for years Also, just to make sure that anything, even with the steel and everything we do, lead reclamation, we clean that out regularly. It gets taken down.

02:38:05,601	S23:
That sounds very reasonable.

02:38:07,767	S7:
Yeah, well that's great.

02:38:08,767	S22:
We also we, as part of our permitting, um, it's called a you would know it's called a pickup post cap, you know, a DEP permit. And so part of our cap, uh, permitting, was, was an actual management plan for, uh, cleanup of, of debris, wads, all that kind of stuff. So we we're doing it continuously and, um.

02:38:37,200	S7:
And we're. Yeah, the.

02:38:38,567	S23:
Other guys are your audience. Um, you know, I'm I'm in favor of what you guys are doing. I just think because it's 20 years or something. Long time to give a little bit of long term planning and thoughts to it. That's all.

02:38:51,801	S21:
Why we want the longer lease to gives us that nice long term planning.

02:38:56,501	S7:
All good.

02:38:57,567	S5:
It is.

02:38:57,968	S7:
A good.

02:38:58,300	S1:
Um, so everybody should be prepared to vote on it, um, next Monday. Any other questions or comments? Thank you for coming, David. And Jeff. Sounds like you have great plans and leadership and thoughtfulness and proactive planning for your club. So good to see your involvement.

02:39:13,367	S22:
Terrific. Thank you.

02:39:15,300	S7:
Good night. Have a good night. And we'll.

02:39:17,367	S1:
And then we're going to end this I think I have I think we have energy for one more topic. Let's do the patent homestead. So do I read the letter in the packet? I'm assuming I'll read the letter. Seems exciting. Seems promising. Um, once again, just about timing and about approach. About what we need to get done now and what we're. And I know that's something we've been talking about for many, many years, but but it always seems quickly when you try and put it on a meeting and the next two months and Joe kind of walk us through what you need from us tonight and what the timing looks like.

02:39:48,400	S4:
So I'm, I, I'm we got a monkey wrench a little bit Rosie old Greek uh, thrown into our elapse. Just today we got an opinion from counsel that they had researched the deed that was filed after the gift. And basically the deed says that in order to sell to a third party, we first have to get the property appraised and offer the property to certain heirs of the patent family that are remaining at that cost. And if they decline it, or if there's a bunch of different steps. But the short answer is if they decline it, then we can sell it to a third party. Third party. So we just found this out today. We have been operating under the assumption that the agreement had said that we were that in order to sell the property, then we would have to give, um, 50% of the proceeds from the sale would go to a charity of the patent family choice. But that is not what is on. That is not what was registered with the deed. So I just got Leandra and Mark, I know you're hearing this for the first time. I just got that this afternoon and shared it with the board maybe two hours before the meeting. So I will send that to you and to the rest of the members of the patent task force. Um,

02:40:58,801	S4:
key things to keep in mind. We want to make a decision about how we want to move on with this property in this calendar year, because we haven't really budgeted anything in, uh, in FY 27 for maintaining the buildings. Um, we know we're moving out of here in the spring. Uh, call it May sometime. So we've been carrying the cost of the of the building for the last two years. As operating town hall, we have. We haven't tapped into the patent fund. There's only about $20,000 or so. They're the one a museum currently is paying, uh, $500 a month for the space that they lease from us to maintain the archives. But they're selling the archives to this same group. The Patent Foundation. And the Patent Foundation is interested in keeping the archives in place. So we can probably, at the minimum, change the lease and at least in the short term, give them. Let them lease the space to maintain the archives here while we figure out the long term. But, um, we might have to go back to the drawing board here. The fact is, it's been studied up and down over the last seven years since I've been here, we've tried a number of different things to have this property carry its own weight. Uh, as a municipal entity, we just aren't able to do it. We're not able to move quickly enough. We're not able to devote the resources the building needs. As a municipal entity. We have other, more pressing needs to spend our capital and things on. The purpose of the gift was to try to preserve the patent family's legacy in the town, to preserve piece of history, to support military veterans. Um, Leandra and Mark fill in for me where I'm starting to fail here. We're.

02:42:46,100	S4:
Not able to do that without incurring significant cost on both an annual and on a capital basis. Going forward. So as the town removes the town offices from here, if we're able to partner with an entity, a non-profit. Granted, they wouldn't be paying taxes, you know, but they would be able to take over the management of the buildings and whatever piece of property we sell to them and take that cost center off of the town, and with the same goals that the town of vision. When they accepted the gift in 2013, the town would then retain the remaining pieces of open space the big lawn, the parking area, the access to the Ipswich River to continue to be used as passive recreation for the folks in Hamilton. And we could even, you know, go if we go forward with the plan to build the Joanne Patton Pavilion on the part that the town retains. The patent foundation has no problem with that. They would they'd be happy to have us as neighbors, uh, running limited programming there as well. So this offers us a lot of opportunities to do a lot of the things that town has said that they wanted to do over the last 5 or 6 years, but reduces the town's expense in doing that. Um, what we would be asking if we put this on the warrant would be just for the town meeting to authorize the Selectboard to sell a piece of the property. Currently, we're scheduling the survey of the property to show what part we're interested in selling, and then we have to have it appraised. Uh, the appraisal will go into our RFP. We've already drafted a rough RFP, but it needs or it needs the it needs the the diagram or the the survey to show what we're selling. And it needs the appraisal price so that we know a target that we're looking to sell it for. Um, Patent Foundation has to be informed of this latest development with the deed requirements. And they can go back to, uh, Helen Patton is on their board of directors, so I'm sure they will take that information back and discuss it with her and figure out how to proceed There.

02:44:45,767	S1:
But but but Jo Jo Jo.

02:44:47,667	S7:
Just a.

02:44:48,767	S1:
Short circuit. Just a little bit. Because it's late and a lot of detail, but the nuts and bolts of it are all we need to worry about right now. With all the levers we got to pull is just authorizing us to sell the property. Whoever buy, whether it's patent buys it back, or we sell it to the Patent Foundation, or somebody else gives an RFP and offers twice as much that we can all work out later. Right.

02:45:11,267	S7:
Right.

02:45:11,501	S1:
All you need right now is approval to just put on the market. Right?

02:45:15,467	S7:
Right.

02:45:15,868	S4:
The town manager and the board of Selectmen or Selectboard? Excuse me. Um, are the entities in the town that manage that business process, that business aspect of it? But we need the authorization to sell from the time. So if you want to move forward in this calendar year, we can decide to not put it on the warrant for a special for annual town meeting on April 11th. But I would say that we would need to have be ready to go at a special town meeting in the fall because we we are.

02:45:41,968	S7:
But but that was my question. That was my question. I don't know.

02:45:44,567	S1:
I don't know. We would wait on. We don't really care about the detail. We don't really we're not going to really know who's going to buy it anyways until we go through the RFP process and the appraisal process. So the only thing you really need from us is as a town, as a select board, are we do we want to move forward with signing the property or revise it? And I don't know that we need to wait for that discussion. I think we all have an opinion on that now, but I'll go around the room and ask that question. But I mean a lot of leverage. We got to pull the things I do. But actually the only question you're asking tonight is, do we have the do we want to put in the warrant to, to, uh, allow the village to get property, get sold. So I'll go around the room here. But, Rosie, any questions you got on that concept?

02:46:21,000	S7:
Yeah.

02:46:21,567	S2:
No, because I've been in the loop on this. I, I agree with your analysis that we're only agreeing that we want to we give that select board authorization, um, with the town manager to, to sell the property. And I think there are a lot of ways to sort of deal with this. I mean, it's a bit of a monkey wrench, but it doesn't mean it's not going to happen. And yes, all we need to do simply is just say, that's sort of one thing we can decide tonight that we can we can resolve that issue.

02:46:59,467	S7:
Uh, then.

02:47:02,968	S17:
Um, I think I'll make sense in terms of the direction of travel. I the only question I would have would be, um, do we have Joe? Might be a question for you. Do we have flexibility in terms of how the RFP is structured? Yeah. Um, to try to achieve, like the outcome that we want as far as community benefit.

02:47:23,300	S4:
And that's the initial the initial draft already already speaks to that already outlines the things that we're looking for in the sale of the property. So the respondents would have to, um, you know, kind of fulfill those requirements. Or we could choose to not sell it.

02:47:37,567	S17:
All right. And can we have like when we get this, like maybe in a couple of weeks or a few weeks, I could get that in front of the board so we can all have a look at it. Be great.

02:47:47,167	S4:
Yeah, I definitely bring it to you for it, for input. I mean, um, that would be. That'd be fine.

02:47:54,267	S1:
And we have, we have, um, I think the only important thing I think we need to do for me, that we need to set aside is that we have the ability to parcel off the a piece of the property so we can keep we can keep a lot of the.

02:48:07,601	S4:
You've already done it once. Yeah. We we we own the property. So even though it was a gift, we own the property so we can do with it what we want. We can divest ourselves of it in pieces. We can keep it all. We can sell a piece of it. I think that we're well within our rights as property owners to to parcel it.

02:48:22,767	S7:
Off, kind of to cut it up.

02:48:24,968	S4:
A lot. So that's why we're having the A and R survey done.

02:48:28,267	S7:
Okay.

02:48:29,400	S1:
Uh, Bill Wilson, I know we've been talking about this for years, so yeah.

02:48:32,267	S5:
No, I, I'm in a general agreement here. I mean, it was nice and packaged the way it was, the intent of the gift and to continue on, uh, the way it was packaged. I do think it's better to go to town meeting with a kind of intended use. So if we can describe the RFP and what we want it to be versus just give us, you know, a blank cheque to sell it and do whatever we want.

02:48:52,868	S7:
That's a good point. Yeah.

02:48:53,868	S5:
You know, so that's my.

02:48:55,367	S7:
Own good point. Yeah.

02:48:58,667	S7:
That's a good point.

02:49:02,968	S7:
And Tom.

02:49:04,100	S4:
I did ask Mark and Leandra and John to be here on this item because they've all been involved in helping the town, trying to figure out how to what to do with the property over the last five or so years. So I don't know if they have things that they want to add or not.

02:49:18,667	S7:
Hey.

02:49:19,167	S1:
Tom, go. And then we can, uh, you know, we can go around the room. But. Tom.

02:49:22,667	S7:
Yeah.

02:49:23,167	S11:
I'm I'm in an agreement. I, I agree with all the points made. I think, Bill, you had a good point on selling the package. I'm supportive of that. But overall, the direction I'm. I'm in agreement.

02:49:33,501	S1:
That means the properties Was something I really wanted to maintain, but it just turned out it just wasn't the right type of property. Being a residential, trying to turn in a commercial. Thank goodness we had it for the last couple of years for Town Hall to be there, and we got some good use out of it, but I think the property is the more valuable thing to us. And the fact there would be the fact that it could possibly go to the Patent Foundation, I think is a real big win for everybody that maintains the family name and the family stuff. But yeah, we definitely would like to hear anybody who wants to speak who's been working on this in the background.

02:50:05,167	S6:
Sure. Hi, I am Leandro DeFeo. I am president of the friends of Pat homestead, and I also live in Hamilton. I was first introduced to Jeff Wells, who's the head of the Patent Foundation, about a year ago, and over the past year have gotten a chance to get to know him. He's been up here a couple times, visited for Military Service Day, and it was up here recently for a couple of meetings. Um, met a couple members of his board, and just my entire board has been really impressed with Jeff's work and the entire patent foundation. They really their plan for their homestead really alliance with the spirit of Joanne's original gift. And then also our organization's mission, which Joe was, you know, getting at to preserve history on our veterans and welcome community. Uh, that's exactly what they want to do. So it's really a great situation, and we're excited for this opportunity for the homestead. Um, and our board definitely endorses the sale.

02:51:09,567	S1:
That's good.

02:51:09,968	S7:
To hear. Thank you sir.

02:51:12,701	S23:
I think, uh, Mark Johnson on also on Friends of Patton Homestead. Um, you know, we gave a lot of thought as to why town meetings should approve this. And it was pretty clear that we had really lofty goals when we accepted the gift agreement to do all the programming and all the things we wanted to do. What we learned over the last ten years is it's really hard for the town to do that, to take advantage. To take care of the property the way it needs to takes money. And that we really couldn't deliver the programming and the the respect of the history that the Patent Foundation would be able to do. So it's really exciting that the Patent Foundation would step in and do the things that we specifically accepted the gift agreement to do. And we're hoping that if the town remains possess possession of the open space land, which is important, very important, um, and that's properly protected that the way the, the non-profit, the Patent Foundation would take care of the property and what they would do there is exactly what we wished that we could have been doing over the last ten years. Um, so so that's, you know, we're really excited that this opportunity happens now, and it happens to be exactly when the town is moving back into a town hall. So it seems the timing is really good as well.

02:52:40,067	S7:
That's it.

02:52:40,501	S1:
Yeah. No, it's I think. Yeah. No, it is good timing. And I applaud the, uh. I don't know if it was hard work to find us or luck to find us, but I applaud the, uh, the solution here, because I think it is something that we've all been trying to find the right solution for the last ten years, working really hard to. And this might be the right. The right answer. Sounds like we need another fund set up, Joe.

02:53:00,367	S7:
Yeah.

02:53:00,567	S4:
I think that, um, that while the state is the state's state law is pretty clear, the, um, proceeds from the sale of land or from the sale of real property by a municipality have to go into capital so you don't have it doesn't go to general fund. It can't just go to anything. It'll go to your capital stabilization fund or some other capital fund for future capital purposes.

02:53:22,901	S7:
Okay.

02:53:23,567	S1:
And then John McGrath, you guys are going to talk about this at your meeting on Wednesday too. Is this It's on your agenda.

02:53:31,400	S8:
Yeah. I mean, we're going to talk about all the Warren articles, but I mean, this financially, this has been a win for the town. Um, if you go back over the ten years because of the sale of Pat Ridge and the revenue generated by that, and we obviously are sitting on $680,000

02:53:53,367	S8:
in the Fields fund, which was part of the sale. So anyway, um.

02:54:00,767	S8:
Yeah, we're spending a lot of money every year to keep to maintain it. And I think this is a win win if we can get the foundation to take it and a win win for the town, because we'll have open land. So. So we'll we'll discuss it as well on Wednesday.

02:54:18,567	S7:
Okay.

02:54:21,667	S7:
So once again.

02:54:22,667	S1:
Be prepared to vote for this on Monday.

02:54:28,100	S4:
I think you've already discussed the prudent investment rule and the operating over on debt exclusion. So we have all those questions, um, laid out for you that actually we'll have a draft of the warrant tomorrow. So, um, well, you know, filling in numbers and finalizing details, but Tom McKinney has already been working on the warrant. So, um, just really whether whether everything stays in it or we take some things out, um.

02:54:53,100	S7:
Joe. To that.

02:54:54,767	S2:
Joe, just a quick question. Um, there's a slot for citizens petition. I've not heard that there are any.

02:55:01,868	S4:
Nope. We we, uh, created the draft of the table contents account for everything. I removed the zoning articles after the planning board voted last week that they did not, or two weeks ago that they did not have any zoning articles until you closed the warrant. There's a possibility that citizen petition comes in. So I'm leaving it there. But at 5:00 on Monday, if nobody is come in with a, uh, citizen petition. Then you close it that night. We'll remove that right from the bottom of it as well.

02:55:28,901	S7:
Okay.

02:55:36,567	S7:
Um.

02:55:38,000	S1:
All right. No, I think it's a good discussion. I think that we're. I think most of us know where we're going to end up, but I think it's going to vote in four days. We might as well just think about it and, uh, be ready to vote on Monday when we're a little fresher and we'll have less things on the agenda.

02:55:52,467	S7:
Yeah.

02:55:53,367	S4:
Hopefully it'll be a little quicker meeting than Monday because you've already talked at all.

02:55:59,000	S1:
Joe, anything else we need to discuss.

02:56:00,601	S7:
Just real quick.

02:56:01,968	S4:
You had me placed under new business a discussion of a dedication of Town Hall Edition.

02:56:05,868	S7:
Yeah, yeah.

02:56:07,767	S1:
I was remiss in the beginning of the meeting to talk about Jay Butler when I was on the call, so I apologize, but I wanted to take a moment to thank Jay Butler for all service to town.

02:56:15,367	S7:
And, uh.

02:56:16,367	S1:
And as a, as a group, we decided to do something. So, Joe, is this something that is just part of that discussion?

02:56:22,300	S4:
Yeah. So I mean, you know, members had mentioned that you wanted to do something to recognize all Jays efforts. I thought that in light of the fact that Jay, as the leader of the Community Preservation Committee, uh, actually, Rosie had mentioned first that, you know, maybe we should do a plaque for him at the at the town hall when it reopens. And, uh, you know, taking that a step further, why don't you consider naming the, uh, addition after Jay Butler? You wouldn't. The town would not be where it is with regard to that building without, um, without Jay and his, uh, stewardship through the Community Preservation Fund. I remember the first real conversation I had with him after I became town manager here. Um, I started here in September, and then I was up at the cemetery for, I think it was for, uh, Veteran's Day. And Jay pulled me aside and he said, I want to figure out how to pay for the town hall with community preservation funds. I said, well, I said, I don't know. I'm not sure you have enough money to pay for all of it. He said, well, I want to pay for as much as I can. I said, all right, Let's do that. So he's been a champion of the town hall project. He's been a champion of the community preservation of a number of different things in town. I believe he was a Little League soccer coach. Uh, just a great guy, uh, involved in his community and his churches. And, um, he really helped keep the town on on task when it comes to the town hall. So building on on Rosie's idea to put a plaque, I think you should vote to put a plaque. And the plaque should say this edition is dedicated in the honor of J. Joseph J. Butler for his leadership and stewardship and helping the town renovate town hall or something along those lines.

02:58:01,567	S1:
I'm in favor of that and just put on the agenda for next Monday as well. And, uh, so we can have a put out as a topic for discussion. We can recognize them and vote on it. And, uh, but I'm in favor of that. Anybody else probably shake their head, but yeah. Rosie. Great idea. So thank you, Rosie, for coming up with something that makes sense.

02:58:23,367	S1:
That's all. This is PowerPoint. I'm gonna miss his PowerPoint presentations. Who's going to take over those? PowerPoint? Those are works of art.

02:58:30,167	S4:
I think Robert.

02:58:30,767	S24:
Kirkman was organized.

02:58:32,868	S4:
I think Robert Preston was is is the voting is the new chair? Um.

02:58:37,467	S5:
He is he says it's the president, though I don't I don't get that, but he's a new chair.

02:58:48,400	S5:
So yeah. No, I'm I'm all in for that. I there was some in our last meeting though. They were talking about maybe something on the athletic field, too. I don't know if it's worth coordinating to what we're doing, but, uh, I'm all in on the addition. Recognition?

02:59:03,400	S2:
Is the addition just the elevator or is it something else as well?

02:59:08,501	S1:
An entry.

02:59:09,100	S4:
An entry into the staircase that goes around. It's the the the it's the addition becomes the new front door, for lack of a better term of town hall. It's considered the main entrance to and from the building, and it'll, uh, you know, most of the parking will be being back. Most people who enter that building will go in and out through that addition, the same way they do at one of the town hall now. So.

02:59:31,267	S24:
Okay.

02:59:39,400	S1:
All right. Anything else? Good meeting today. Good discussion. Lots to ponder.

02:59:46,367	S1:
Anybody else? Anything to add before we, uh, adjourn?

02:59:52,400	S11:
Motion to adjourn.

02:59:54,200	S2:
Second.

02:59:57,167	S1:
All in favor? Roll call. Rosemary.

03:00:00,400	S2:
Rosie. Kennedy, I.

03:00:02,868	S1:
Tom Myers, Tom Myers.

03:00:04,767	S11:
Yeah.

03:00:06,000	S1:
Bill Wilson.

03:00:06,767	S5:
Bill Wilson, I.

03:00:08,767	S1:
Ben Galluzzo.

03:00:09,801	S17:
And I.

03:00:12,167	S1:
Thanks, everybody.

03:00:13,300	S5:
Good night.

03:00:13,767	S24:
All right. Thank you.

03:00:14,601	S1:
Thank you. 10:00 on the.