Damn it! Good evening. It is. Monday, April 6th, 2026. We’re going to call the Select Board meeting to order. Since we’re all in the room. We do not need to do a roll call vote. Um, this is a joint meeting with fin com, but we’ll recognize that two

members of fin are in the room, but they cannot officially call their meeting to order. And if the third shows up, we will then at that point, uh, do that. So which agenda am I working off of first? Um, I would use our agenda. Okay. All right. I’m gonna go through board and committee openings,

affordable Housing Trust has one opening. Conservation Commission has two openings. Community Preservation Committee has two openings. One opening for member of historic District Commission and one opening for an at large member. The Council on Aging has one opening. The Finance Advisory Committee has two openings through the moderator. Hamilton Environmental Impact Committee has one. Opening. The 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 Wenham Recreation Board has one opening for a Hamilton resident. And lastly, the Human Rights Commission has one at large opening. Rosie just joined at 701.

Just joined so Rosie would have to do a roll call vote. So we’ll start with you. Uh, Rosemary Kennedy, you’re on mute, but I see you say here and now. We’ll just go around the room here. Ben Losa, Bengals here. Call Myers here. Bill Wilson here. And William Olson here. And, Rosie, just unmute for a second

so make sure we can hear you tonight. Here we go. Sorry about that. Rosie Kennedy here. Yep. We got you. Great to see you. All right. Public comment. We will now take public comment for up to 30 minutes. Uh, each speaker should come up, uh, and, uh, introduce themselves,

and they have three minutes to speak. Is there anybody on. Town clerk? All right. Corinne, you are recognized. Hi. Good evening. Everyone hear me? Yes. Hi. Um, just a quick announcement. I want to remind folks that, um, we have an election coming up April 16th, the last day to request a mail ballot is this Thursday, April

9th at 5 p.m.. Folks can request that ballot online. There’s an application on my web page. They can drop it off. They can mail it in. We have to receive it by 5 p.m. on Thursday. And then we’ll get those ballots out. And for a local election, voted ballots have to be received by 8 p.m.

on Election Day. So I also want to remind folks that if they get a mail ballot, best thing to do is drop it off. Back at our office or in the drop box, rather than counting on the mail service. That’s all I have. Just want to make sure

people know. Or if you know of anybody who might be out of town, or has a challenge getting to the polls, please, please, please pass the word. Thanks for the reminder, Karen. I will be out of town. So perfect. Thank you. That’s a good reminder. Anyone else in the

room or online? Raise your hand or step up to the podium? Okay. We now have a consent agenda, so I will read the consent agenda. And then someone can please move it. Except a gift to the Hamilton Fire Department and the amount of $100, except a gift to the Hamilton Council on Aging in the amount of $300

approved tennis court banner request for Hamilton Wenham general Youth Football for April 10th through May 31st, 2026. Approved. Council on Aging banner request for Hamilton Wyndham Garden Club from May 2nd through May 9th, 2026 and approve minutes of March 16th, 2026 select Board Meeting. So moved. Do I have a second? Second. So any further discussion?

Just that I appreciate all the gifts to the town. The Hamilton Fire Department one, as well as the Council of Aging. And I think that, um, yeah, I think it’s good. I think that, you know, one of the things we’ve talked about, and I think we’ve had some volunteers for people to help us write

policies in on the next term once we get through the elections. So I think this is one of the ones we want to sort of work on is these, uh, you know, banners. You know, we got a couple of things on, on the agenda today that I think we

need to look at the policies for the banners as well as the, uh, the cemetery deeds for non-residents. So a couple things that we’ll vote on tonight, but I’m in favor of it now. But I think we should probably should look at that in the new the new term. Uh, any other discussion, comments.

All right. And nobody’s here to speak to those. Correct? Nobody’s here to speak. Okay. Uh. Roll call. Vote with. All these will always start. With. Rosemary. Rosie Kennedy. I., I would just go across the front. Here. Uh, Ben Kaluza, I. Tom Myers, I. Believe Wilson. I am William Wilson. I. All right. So next item on the

agenda is to review the draft script for the annual town meeting, identify motion makers and items for consent motion. Um, so that is the first topic. Um, addition to sort of identifying the motion makers, are we also going to identify if somebody is going to speak to the article? Yeah, we can do that.

Okay. And who’s creating any any and when you need that information by. And well I’ll take notes. And as you guys vote on it tonight with the Flynn comes input. We’ll finalize the script tomorrow or Thursday. Tomorrow or Wednesday the latest. And then you’ll all have a copy of it.

Okay. So Joe you want to walk us through the. Town council is here to help you go over the script. Um, the first couple pages are kind of normal, um, boilerplate stuff that we start every time meeting with. I did want to. I did ask by text the moderator if he wanted to take some time

here at the beginning of the meeting, we just had a couple of recent, um, folks in our town that we lost, Jay Butler and, uh, Anne-Marie Cullen, and wanted to know if somebody wanted to recognize their contributions, particularly because they’ve been vital to town meeting in the past. Um, so.

I volunteered to say something that somebody else wanted to. So where do you where do you want to, like, slide that in here. We’ll just make. Sure it should be. In the very beginning. Yeah. Okay. So we’ll have, uh, we’ll make everybody recognize. I definitely don’t want to go miss over anybody else in the

board wants to join me or say something. Um, I think it’s worth the time. We need to take at the beginning to recognize people have had a profound impact on our community over the past many years. So. You know, I think it’s fine if one. If if you want somebody to, um, also speak, I would be happy

to, um, Jay Burnham really, really picked up the mantle when he offered to go to the CPC and had them help us with the remaining costs of the town hall, because if he hadn’t done that, we would not have been able to renovate our town hall. I feel really, really grateful to Jay for that. Jay Butler.

Jay Buck. Yeah. So, Rosemary, you and I will say something. Okay. So sure. And we can coordinate whatever you’d like for me to do or not do is fine. Okay. Yeah. No, I just I want to just make sure which is fine with the two of you or one of you just recognize the years of

service. Even more so. Absolutely. One thing. And perhaps we can we can send you guys some notes if there’s something we feel might be helpful to. Yeah. Please do. Okay. Well thank you, bill. And, uh, Josh can help me too, with some of the facts and figures. Yeah, like like maybe boards, committees and length of time.

Uh, contributing to the town.. Do our best research, that’s for sure. Um. Where do you think you’d like to add it? I think maybe right to the very beginning. Right. Even before one, uh, have the moderator recognized, you know, call that attention for folks to pay attention, and then recognize

Mr. Bowler. Mister Olson, to say a few words. And I’m just going to have a at the very beginning, a few a short statement about the, uh, 250th anniversary. Of. Revolution and town meetings role in it. That’s great. Oldest form of government. And did you plan on putting anything on the backdrop, maybe a picture or

just anything with a name, like when he.. Let’s see if I can get pictures. I’ll see if I can get pictures. Uh, depends if I can get a picture that will would do them justice. Sure. Okay. Perfect. And so, um, we’ll add that at the beginning to recognize, um, Mr. Olson, for purposes of making an introductory

statement. Okay, Okay, so then we’ll move into the meat of the, uh, the meeting here is after we get started, you’ll get into our goal. I think the first thing you want to do is, are we going to have any reports at this meeting? I think I don’t know if you have any. I’m not aware

of any reports that need to be. I wrote that thing, but that just gets entered into the. That’s generally what we’ve done. Yeah. Would you share that with, um, the rest of the board or not. Yeah. We can’t. So we had to write a what what is the what was the official name. For reporting an annual report.

So it goes into our annual report, which is ready and can be, uh, printed out for people who want it. And it’s been included in our, uh, Boa style budget as well. So a budget presentation. So, um, we can include, uh, we can share a copy of what Bill wrote about the Select board’s updates for

the for the just finished year. And, um, there are reports from other boards and committees and there as well. It’s basically just facts and figures and things that had passed. The CPC did similar, correct CPC thing. We don’t speak to it, but is that just recognized them in any way?

Yeah. So the first article, um, you know, basically typically since I’ve been here, we haven’t had to take a vote on it and we haven’t had that that many reports given verbally. The moderator just recognizes someone. You need to have a motion maker to, to move that the reports to the town offices

and committees be received and placed on file. And so, um, you need to identify who you want to do that. So that’s just reading the motion, right? Yeah. And do we have a list of the reports or is it just reports. It always been just reports. Okay. But. So I’m opening one up from.

That’s dated for which we have this is, just the right rather look. At it. Um, it’s it was sent to you on Thursday. Yeah, I have that one. Okay. That’s all we had Thursday. So. All right. Um. All right. So who on who do you want to have? Make the motion.

Yeah. How do we want to do this? Just kind of yell out, I’ll do it or I don’t, I don’t mind. I know you think there’s a lot of financial ones that you might want to do as well. Uh. Yeah. I typically does. Well, to be honest. Yeah. So I think the key financial ones are the budget

and the prop two and a. The supplemental. Budget focus on who wants to deliver that message. We’re happy to do the motion. Uh, but who’s going to speak. So when we get once you’ve made the motion that Wendy and I will make present the town’s budget, and then the school district will present the school district’s budget, and

then you’ll repeat that process for the the supplemental budget in the second and the next article. But can we just try to stay in order so we can get these knocks? Are you talking about. Article article 1-1 or is. It. 121-2. Sorry. Right. Um, to move the reports to the town offices and

committees and be received and placed on file. So I think it should be somebody on the on the psych board. Yeah, I’m happy to do that. Okay. Okay. Bill Wilson. Didn’t come. Was going to make an comment and report section. Okay. So that’s. You want me to recognize them? Yes. Can you. Do that? You do or whoever.

Wouldn’t be bad to list the reports. And but. I think typically I mean typically we’ve just had the reports. Um, the motion is typically been to receive in place them on file. So a lot of towns I don’t know if Hamilton specifically does it, but a lot of towns will have an annual

report from last fiscal year, which will have, uh, essentially a compilation of all the reports that are prepared by various town boards and committees, usually has town meeting results, things like that. And not every town still does it anymore. Um, so I think that’s typically what that was. However, if there is going to be an actual report

from a border committee, I don’t think you necessarily need to have a motion. The moderator can just recognize, you know, John McGrath, for purposes of making the income report at that. At that time. I thought. We I thought we in previous meetings, we sort of had a motion to accept reports. We have that’s what this is.

It doesn’t have to do both. Doesn’t say it though. Yeah. The motion here is I moved that the reports of town offices and committees be received and placed on file. That I don’t have that in front of me. Oh come on. Oh yeah. That’s one. That’s in the script.

Right? Not in the warrant. You’re in the warrant, not. The script. Gotcha. Okay. Um. Okay, I understand. Okay. And that report is in the go to go. It is. Yes. Correct. Yeah. It’s it’s already on the website. Yeah, yeah. All those reports have already been received on the website. Before that because that’s pretty voluminous. It’s 300 pages of..

Yes, it is. Um. So do we just accept that what he just referenced or we just say reports to capture everything? Um, usually again, it’s it’s really up to you guys in terms of how you want to handle it, but it’s usually to accept the reports and place them on file.

So, um, you don’t have to even vote it technically, in my opinion, because they are already on file. Yeah. Um, and usually this is more of a placeholder type of an article that’s usually on the warrant in case there are some boards and committees that want to make a presentation at town meeting.

Gotcha. Okay. Yeah, I think that’s fine as is. I’m gonna make this easy for the folks filing along at home. I’ll put the, uh, script up on the screen as well. Yeah, okay. All right, so our article 1-3 is the next article. So in 1-2 is the fin. Com going to make a presentation at that

time. Or are they going to make a presentation. Look at the budget article for example. We’re going to do a brief two minute report at the during the report section. Okay okay. Are you going to have a PowerPoint slide. Yeah okay. Okay. Just okay. Okay. Bill has anyone else any other boards or committees approached you.

To, um, there. Yeah. They’ve done, um, well, not reports, but there are. Slides from other. Yeah. So for for articles. But not nobody has asked to submit a report. Right. Okay. Because nobody had checked in with me either. So I was hoping that nobody was going around us.

Okay. So for 1-2, instead of a motion, is it the bill? Is your intention just to recognize John? And okay, so we don’t need a motion. You can move me to 1-3 if it’s okay or whatever is down the road. I think that’s more efficient. Okay, okay. 1-3 is the article three consent motion. We had

some, uh, populated with this with some of the normal typical articles that we put in the consent motion, but we have had to make a change. So what we had listed here was 2-12728292- 11 and three dash. For there was an error in the appendix for article 2-1. We’re going to have to hand out an updated

appendix A, so therefore you you don’t want to put that in the article consent motion, because we want to be clear that people will be voting on 2-1 on the updated appendix, not based on the appendix that’s in the warrant. How do we modify that? We’ll just take 2-1 out of here, and then we’ll have to

make a motion on 2-1. And we can explain that at the time. Okay I missed the call. Firefighter wages. Yeah. No I’m fine with the thing. If it’s in the. In the article. If it’s in the article, do we have to officially amend the article. No, because the motion the article kind of sets the

parameters for the motion has to be within the four corners of the article. So you can certainly it’s well within the scope to take something out. Perfect. So that’ll be you, Bill. Bill, bill Wilson will do okay. So I’ll revise that. So two one will not be included in the concern.

So just so that everybody knows 2-7 is the article, I want to make sure you know what you’re voting on here to have him in cinema 2-7 is the annual financial actions. This is transfers to cemetery and water enterprise and other funds from the general fund. Then there is the 2-8 is the Hamilton

Development Corporation. 2-9 is the open trust Fund, two dash 11 is the community preservation budget. Um, so those are all. All. No, we don’t include two two because it requires a 9/10 majority. So we don’t because if you include something that requires more than a 50% majority, then the entire thing

needs that that quantum of vote. And we don’t want to. Mess with it. 2728292, 11, 11 and three for. Joe. Come. Sorry, could you just repeat, uh, just clarify with point four is 3.4. That is the acceptance of the statute to allow the town to invest trust funds in accordance with the prudent investor rule.. Prudent investor.

Okay. Perfect. Thank you. Okay. So when they get distributions right, just remind everybody when it’s in the consent agenda, we don’t ever read the motion right. It’s that’s we don’t read it. Unless unless somebody unless somebody. Calls holes don’t even talk about it. Right. So I will read for anything that gets held.

2728292 11 34I think it’s held I will, I will. It goes into the normal order. I will do the motion for that. Well I thought we’re just going to read it in the motion. He’s saying, he’s saying if something gets held. Or something gets. Held, let me get held and it gets put out, I will just take

care of any of those. So there’s no confusion. I’ll just those will go back into the drama order and, and Joe will help me keep order and I’ll just do the motion on those. Those are the ones I’ll do. Okay. My volunteer. Yeah. He’s so helpful.

You got you got himself out of all the high leverage ones. All right. Um, now we go to 2-1, which is compensation classification table. Correct? Correct. So that one, because the appendix is being amended, I will revise that motion to reference the handout that will be provided at town meeting to the revised appendix.

But someone will need to make a motion for that. Ben or Rosemary or Tom. Come on. Do you take this on? For which one? Sorry, I was. Uh, compensation clerk. Classification table. Motion article 2-1. Sure. I’m happy to do it. Just whatever you like. I’m fine with it. Okay. Okay. And then, um.

Um, the. I’m sorry. Must been an old version, but the, um, scroll down to that one. Yeah. I’m gonna go down. I’m sorry. All right. Yeah. Uh, the next one is the prior year. Yeah. Go to that one. No, I just want to see. So I’m looking at older version unfortunately. Three. So three.

Okay. So fine. Can’t vote on that one okay. Next one is prior year bills. Yep. Um that has requires a 4/5 vote. It’s only $79.40. That’s pretty impressive. That’s the lowest it’s ever been as long as I’ve been here. Good job. All right. Who wants to have them do that?

Good news for the town. All right, Tom. All right. On that one. I did have one question. Um, I had the amount of $79.40, but I did not have the name of the vendor. I wrote it in. I did.. Okay. Mr.. Randy. Yeah. Thank you. Mr.. Thank you.

Okay, okay. All right. Now we get into the meat of the meeting. 2-3 is the general town departmental appropriations town and schools. So you would rather the a select board move it and then the fin com and you talk to. Is that what we’ve done previously, Joe? Um.

I think typically the way it’s kind of gone is the moderator will call the article and then he’ll recognize usually, uh, Eric Tracy to report on the school district budget. And then Joe, I think is typically reported on the town. I get that, yeah, I’ll get moved by or get moved by. It’s really the only choice, right.

Fin commerce like board. Right. So I think in the past it’s been fin com a lot of times, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be anybody can move it. We’re happy to move the financial motion. I’m I’m happy to do that. Bill if you’d like. That’s and then and then fin com would come up.

So it’s just a very quick introduction by, by uh the select board. Yeah. So we work pretty hard to get this to be separate motion. So I think Rosemary I think you’re reading motion 2-3. Makes sense. Yeah that’s the one. That’s that’s the one. That’s the baseline sort of baseline. Um levy limit budget right.

It’s 2-3. Yes. And then 2-4 is the override. Right. And then Rosemary will recognize John. Mhm. Yeah absolutely. Yeah. Yeah I think we’ll typically haven’t we had like the discussion on the budget before the motion. And just in case there’s any changes to any line items. Right. Um so I think

typically the moderator has in the past I think recognized the superintendent of schools town manager and then a select board member, Rosie, or whoever it may be, wishes to speak. Then, um, we kind of go through, I think, each of the line items and if somebody calls out a hold or they have questions on

something, then we would address those. If somebody wants to change a line item, then there would be, you know, a motion to amend a particular line item. And that ultimately will affect the kind of final numbers. So I think typically we’ve waited and made the kind of the final motion at the end,

I believe, is typically how it’s been handled. Because, Joe, or were you and Wendy going to speak to that article too? So it’d be it’d be the way we’ve been doing it the last few years. The school makes their presentation on their budget request. Then we explain that the town budget and then

the motion gets made and gets seconded. And then there’s general discussion. People ask questions, etc., etc. so. The motion comes after the presentation. In this case, right? Yes. I think that’s typically how we’ve done it. I think the way it’s set up in the script is that the moderator will then

read each kind of general category in the budget, you know, for example, general town government, public safety, Hamilton, Windham Regional School District, Essex Tech, DPW, Health and Human Services, culture, recreation, unclassified expenses. And if people have questions on particular expenditures within those categories, they would call out hold. If not, then those are the numbers. And then

ultimately there would be a motion made to approve the budget and appropriate sufficient funds, obviously, to cover those expenses. Okay. So so, um, I’m sorry, I just have another sort of clarifying question. So obviously we have two articles. Um, and who is going to explain or how will we explain the

difference between the two just so that voters won’t be confused by by this? How how will we handle that? So we’ve we’ve um and I’ll forward after you. I had to get it approved by the town moderator first, and he approved it this evening. Uh, we have basically two different

slideshows. We have a little bit longer slideshow that talks about the general fund budget. Um, under the levy limit, and explains what we’re asking folks to vote for in 2-3. Then after that vote, when you bring up the supplemental budget, we’ll have another 2 or 3 slides to explain what is in the supplemental budget for the

towns. And the school district will do the same thing. Explain what is in the supplemental budget for the school. So we will be very clear that what we’re asking in this article is to vote budgets that can be covered under the levy limit. Um, without the override and that the override items will be

covered in the next vote. Okay. And will we use the term override for the second, or will we use the term supplemental? Whatever the board wants me to use, I’ll use whatever term you. I’m not married to any term. Um, I mean, it is fair to

point out to people that it is a it requires an override. Uh, right. I that’s why I was asking about that. I think, in fairness, um, that that word should be included in the language for whomever discusses it. Yep. So I just want. to go back to that because so the

presentation that because sometimes we’ve done the entire presentation at one time, and then we vote for it in two articles. We’ve done that before. In this case you’re going to do two separate presentations. Is that what I understood, Joe. Yeah I mean basically the first presentation is the longer one,

it really explains all the regular annual stuff and where things are at. And it’s what’s covered under the levy limit without needing the override. And then because it’s separate article, we have the separate second separate question. We have 2 or 3 slides to just go through what the town is asking for in the override. And the

schools will have a couple slides to say what they’re asking for in the override. And then again, during the normal debate, Finn Comm will probably stand up and be recognized and speak. You can stand up and be be recognized to speak. The audience members can tell me. Members can, as Rosemary, ask who’s going to give like the

general like, yeah, like the law. Basically the interpretation of the law. The law allows us to raise up to the levy limit over the law. We have to do a separate like, I’d like to to explain, like the process so people don’t think like trying to because I think some people think it’s like a

negative or sneaking around like it’s that we’re just following the, the what’s allowed by the law. Right. And I want somebody to sort of give that legal definition of how it is so we can. And even if Tom writes up for me, I’ll read it. I want people to understand, like the process of the

override is not a negative thing, it’s just the process we go through when we need more money than. The levy. But I don’t think it should be two separate presentations. I mean, I think you ought to lay out here’s what the town has determined it needs because of these legal

fees and prop two and a half, we’ve had a bucket these this year for the first time. You haven’t seen this. We’re going to vote separately on what we can fit within that limit. And then we’re going to come back at you. We’ve identified items that would get us within the limit, you know, but it doesn’t

mean they’re less important or more important, I don’t think. But it’s it’s separate because it’s I think going after a separate people are going to think it’s. Like it’s not. Different or it’s not needed. You don’t really I don’t know, I think it’s I like the one presentation, as Bill said. And then someone can explain why we

have to approach it in two. We need to. So we so. We it’s easy enough for us to put the we actually have them laid out all together in a row, and then we just stop at a certain point and then we pick up the other three so we can

just go through and do it that way and presented them. For articles. Two, two articles, two articles. But but the two. Yeah. So is the oh okay. So the. The the the the town override and the school over. Are together in one article. Right. Okay. Yeah. Right. All right. So that’s so.

Yeah they they are separate articles in the warrant. That’s how the warrant was set. So for purposes of debate, usually in the past I think we’ve done it where there’s been a discussion on like for example, on the town hall project where we had funding from town sources as well as CPC. So for purposes of

debate, there was a um, combined discussion. So I think you could do that as long as the moderator is on board. Um. And I’m fine with doing two separate discussions, but I would rather be one, one presentation. But please, I recognize the chair of the fine com. Can you hear him? If we

can, you might have to go to the mic because people are online, especially Rosemary. Thank you. Um, in the in our book of recommendations, um, we did a combined conversation similar to what you’re talking about. We started out with each year, the select board fin com and

town management expresses a goal to avoid a two and a half override. Right. So I would I would maybe make that point that it’s expressed by the select board in fin com and voted on in terms of the budget goals. Unfortunately, this year we didn’t achieve that goal.

Then we went into what is an override. What is the debt exclusion. So we basically gave everyone up. To that part of your presentation or part of your part of the book recommendation? We put it in the book recommendations. I wanted to hear what you guys wanted to do, but I think I Bill, I agree

with you. I do believe you need to give an overview explanation of what is to come. There’s a levy limit and then there’s an override. So whoever does it, I just think you might want to level set everyone. Um. I’m happy to do it. I’m happy to have you do it, but I think

it should be a one slide summary of, like, this is where we’re at and why we got here. And it’s just following the process that we follow. Right. Okay. All right. So what I’ll do is I’ll update my slide with some key bullet points a lot. And I’ll send it to you guys. You’ll see it tomorrow okay.

That’d be great. And so you’re willing to do this? I’m willing to do that. with you in the, in the opening. So if you want to read the book of recommendation, just go to that page and you can sort of see the points I made. But, um, it’s really you guys need to feel comfortable with how the

message is delivered. So what we’re saying, I think, is just to try us back to this. What we’re saying here is that before. The motion gets made and before. For article 2-3. radical two, Dash is going to recognize. Bill’s going to recognize Pinkham. Pinkham first. And they’re going to do a one slide summary of what’s to

come. And they’re going to give their presentation on the town on the town budget I’m sorry, on. Is that all you’re speaking to? Let me. Just for clarifying. Were you talking in the report section up front doing that or in 2-3I. I was. I would initially I can do it either place, but I just think we owe.

Everything 100%. A brief overview. It’s like two minutes. So is that what your report was going to be about. Yeah I’m thinking it goes there and yeah, whatever that one dot is. But it can go either way. It can go either way. But it’s different. I wouldn’t say we failed. I would just say, here’s what happened throughout.

No, I mean, and the point is, we’ve succeeded against that goal for 18 years. Yeah yeah. Yeah yeah. So, you know, I just we just need to level set with a message that you feel comfortable with and that we feel comfortable with. So I’ll write up the one page.

Quick straw vote amongst five of us. But would you rather him do that slide when? 2-3. So we’re talking about the time. Would you rather than do it at the report and then come back to it. At the beginning of. 2-3 being 2-3? Um, probably at the beginning. of what, 2-3.

Um, yeah. It doesn’t matter to me. I think it’s cleaner, though. If you say it out of the gate. Hey, a little bit different today, but it does smooth in with that because I think we have too many people talking at two three. I think 2-3 ought to run. You do your presentation, then there’s a

motion. And then further discussion is when his report comes in. But now you got him here. But if you if you started if so, my only concern with him doing it at the, at the top of the meeting, if I can, you know, not everybody’s gonna be paying attention. People will

be getting. Oh, yeah. And there will be people that won’t hear that part of the message. So for that reason alone, you should wait until we have this in front of them. And this is what every look, we’re going to get a big turnout. It’s going to be because of these two articles. Right. So okay. Um, yeah.

2-3. Have him. Are you okay with us doing that? So I’m speaking at the beginning to S3 on what an override means. Yeah, I can, I can do that. And I’ll just I’ll talk to to Joe and to Wendy about particular language. They would, they would like to, um, to, to have included. I think we’re gonna.

I think the fine com is, was going to do that as part of their reports, but they volunteered to do it and to that. So I think we have somebody to do it. But we just were looking for placement to make sure. I think it makes sense to do it at that point. Okay. Yeah, that’s that’s fine.

Whatever. Whatever the consensus is, I will work in in with that. Okay. At 850. Right. Okay. So put it on this move on okay. All right. So 2-3 we do the introduction. You do your presentation school does Eric does his presentation. And then based on comments and discussion Rosemarie makes the motion.

Yeah. Did you want when did you want John to speak. At the beginning of 2-3. The beginning of two dash okay. So prior to. Eric and I being record. Okay. Perfect. Okay. And then Rosemarie makes a motion and then the rest of it goes the way it normally goes.

2-I think the way it goes first is before that happens is when the moderator then reads the various categories. And if people have a hold and then after that’s all done is when the motion comes. Right. And then okay, and then okay. And then if there’s. Any calculator there for your rows, if we need a calculator

for you. Wendy, when do we be ready if there’s any changes. Everybody agree? I think that makes sense to me. But everybody else agree. okay okay. All right. All right. Then we go to 2-42-4. This is the override. Slash supplemental budget. Um appropriations. So we need we’ve already had the large debate. So we need a motion

maker kind of right on jump then. So I will make the motion for 2-4 unless somebody else wants to. But I have no problem making that motion. And then. And should it be called an override or. So. Yes. I think it. Right. Definitely has to be language referenced in the article.

I didn’t on the one on the name of the article, though we call it a supplemental. No. Report in the language itself. It references, you know, passage of a so-called prop two and a half override vote under chapter 59, section two. See. The motion will. Include the. Word override.

So the motion is going to it is say it’ll have the specific dollar amounts and it says so I’ll read you the motion. It says that I moved it to town, raised an appropriate $260,981 for town expenses and $1,000,079, 525 $79,524 for Hamilton Windham School District expenses, for a total appropriation of $1,340,505. To supplement the appropriation

under article 2026, slash 423 for the fiscal year beginning July 1st, 2026, as set forth in the 2027 fiscal year, General Fund Supplemental Budget in appendix D of the Appendix Book and the Supplemental School Budget in appendix E of the Appendix Book. Provided, however, that the vote taken hereunder shall be expressly contingent on the passage of a

so-called proposition two and a half override vote under chapter general. Chapter 59, section 21. See.? So I’m that’s, that’s that’s a lot of language. And my question is if, um, if you can scroll back just a smidge to the, to the heading, I just keep, keep going. Um, where

it’s two, is it 2.4. Could where it says supplemental town Department L and school appropriations. Can the word override be used there so that people will clearly understand. It? Sorry, Rosie. The books already been printed and started being distributed. Yeah. Okay. Well, then there you go. Okay, okay.

I mean, in that language was discussed by the select board when we were creating the warrant. So we didn’t make that up in the admin office. Oh, we call it I mean, I get why we call it that, but I thought it just doesn’t read like it even says contingent on

a so-called override vote on a different day, basically. Right. This is an override vote. No, there’s still a ballot. Question. A ballot question. But I mean, we’re voting on the ballot question to say we approve an override. You’re voting. So you’re voting. You’re voting that subject to the passage of the override at the ballot, right?

Then you would appropriate that money for these purposes. Right? This is the the appropriation article and the appropriation. Saying it’s confusion is confusing as written. I mean. It is confusing. That’s just the legal I mean, I think we. Heard it. Legal override is your technical term, right? I mean, we say supplemental because it’s in addition to.

Right. Well, because you’re supplementing the vote taken under the prior article, the first article, two. Dash three. The supplements that budget. Right. Well, not it doesn’t necessarily have to in this case, it’s contingent upon an override. It has. To know. That it doesn’t. Have to budget. That was 1%. Right. But yeah, but we wouldn’t have this discussion

if we had. A that in this case. You’re right. This is 100% right. Right. But it. Was the. technically have an override. That’s correct. Have a supplemental discussion. Then this year correct. We could if we wanted. What. But why would you. We we tried to pass the budget.

We tried in the past on the school budget. And we’ve created two budget questions. And then generally when we get to this, when we get to the first one, somebody stands up and moves to combine them because they’re all under the levy and it just gets combined. And we don’t even have the second discussion. But we, the

Selectboard has tried at least three times in the past to have that discussion on the time meeting floor by having a second separate vote for what? And yeah, yeah, you. Can do that. You can do that. And it doesn’t require an override. That’s true. Like that’s true for Preston would say that a

few years ago we had two votes. We had an initial vote in supplement the vote. The supplement vote didn’t require an override, but we still did something because we did two votes. So that’s why we’re calling something to vote. But I agree with you. We could have

made it clear, but it does say override right in the language. So it’s not like. It says it in the motion. But but Bill, to your. Point, it’s in both the warrant article and the motion. And when. You get up, when the moderator recognizes you, before you read

the motion, you can say, just for everybody’s clear. This is for the override question. I will say that I have no. So you’re telling me this board is in the past that had supplemental language from not separate from school and town, I get that. But even within the town supplemental.

We’ve had supplemental where I was my first two years here where the school department was asking for a larger increase than the Select board, and Lincoln felt they needed. For a different legal entity, the school department. But but it was it was this is what we think it should be in

the first article. And then this is what the schools asked for. So we’re putting in a second separate article. And because it didn’t require an override in each of those cases, a member of the a member of the school committee stood up and moved to combine the the motions and the articles, and

they were combined in the time meeting floor and voted as one. Motion, disagreeing at the time with the school number. I get that, but that’s not even close to what we’re saying doing here. But that’s. But it’s still. But that’s that’s the mechanism how you create those. It’s called supplemental town department. Like that’s what

they call. But then that supplement happens to be the override, which is why it’s written in the language of the of the motion. I understand. You’re saying it’s different to supplement within a prop two and a half and, and going outside of it. Our intent and purpose was solely to, to differentiate because it was

going to cause a override. If you don’t want to go through an override and make all these boards and committees come back and redo their budget, you know, then let us have a base budget to work on while we do that. That’s the whole reason we did that. But we can’t change the Warren.

No, I know we can’t. Happen to just when Rosie said it, I’m like, yeah, she’s not wrong. I will state when I read it, this motion is article four is for the override. I’ll state that just. And it is in the motions. But. Okay. Thank you. That’s that sounds great.

Okay. So let’s just talk. If if somebody gets up and says I want to combine the motions, can that be done? Can these articles be combined even though one of them requires the override and the other doesn’t? Have you prepared. For that to be able to say, no.

I don’t. It would be difficult to do that. It would. You still end up probably having to take two separate votes anyways, because a portion of it’s not subject to override. The other portion is. And the good news is the school committee has worked with us on this, and they’re aware of the language. In the past, it’s

been the school committee. And I just want to give them. parents legal. No, no, they can’t be combined. All the ballots already printed and everything as well. The ballots about the old right. It’s not about the budget, but yeah. No, but I’m. Yeah. I don’t I don’t see how it would.

Work. It it was set up as two separate articles for a reason. And I think that’s the reason why is because only a portion of the budget is subject to a prop two and a half override. And I’ve seen towns do it. There are other ways to that could have it could have been

done initially, but this was the way that was chosen to to do it. And so when you handle it in two separate articles like this, I think. Is voted the first. Articles is the fact that within the four corners of the first article, 2-3, the fact that it’s within under the levy

limit, that’s part of the the reason for the article and the motion that made the way it is so that the other article requires a motion subject to the two and a half, and it’s not under the levy limit. I don’t think they could be. I think you could make the legal case that they’re not they

can’t be combined because, um, right. Completely different circumstances. Ultimately any kind of right, any any questions concerning the scope of the article or fall squarely and solely within the moderator’s discretion. So, Bill, are you comfortable that these two articles can’t be combined? I’m trying to think back to the, you know, past when we

have had overrides. Um, okay. Um, I think that everything’s been in one there have been cases where it’s been just one. So I looked I looked back at the 2008 and 2009. But unless. They were separate. Articles, if the school budget was separate, then. So when I looked back at the 2008 and 2009 warrants, there

were separate articles for the override there. Um, I don’t don’t know, because I wasn’t there whether somebody tried to move to combine them, but they were definitely listed the same way. We’ve done it here as separate articles. Doing it this way makes sense. Yeah. Okay. Because otherwise, you know. If you don’t have an approved budget.

If you combine them and then the override doesn’t pass, you don’t have a budget. And you got to start all over again and have a special time. I want you guys to walk away and say, no, it can’t be combined. That was why I asked the question so I can get a

firm no, I’m not hearing a firm no, but I want to hear a firm. No, I don’t want to have this discussion on Tom floor on Saturday. So I want to make sure we’re all on the same page that these can’t be combined. So even if it wasn’t an override and it got the regular

budget within got voted down, what would the next steps be? I’m sorry, a your regular. Budget didn’t have an override. I think this is where we’re going. And and we had a budget within. But the the town voted no. So if the town doesn’t approve a budget.

Yeah. Yeah. So then you’d have to come back at it. You’d have to have special town meeting. So then if we were to combine, you know, the answer would be instead of saying no, you can’t like, well, if we were to combine the budgets, we’ve laid out what we’d come back with

that is that is within our levy limit. And that would be article 2-3. Well, it was. number one. Whether the moderator believes that combining them is within the fourth quarter or the first article, and that that can be maintained by combining. Them, you can’t because it’s not it’s not. So if he says no, you can’t combine them.

Because it’s because it’s over the levy. That’s that. Yeah. But if he says if he feels differently. Yeah. I don’t think he said that yet. But I don’t know if it was. He feels different. Like I didn’t even say that. Could happen though. So I’m glad you brought it up. Now I agree with you, but. No pressure.

I just like to be prepared. No, no, it’s that’s great. I mean, I’m just trying to say how you respond to that. You say. Well, yeah. The other thing. Is that’s why we did it separate. Then the other thing is that if somebody tries to make the motion and the moderator entertains the motion, it’s

incumbent on the common selectboard and the school committee to explain that we asked for them to be done this way, because explain the budget situation. If you voted down with them together, then we don’t have a budget to start the fiscal year with it. That means we’ll have to be back

here for a special town meeting before July 1st. And well. I mean, yeah, because, I mean, I assume the way the and I just it would be really an awkward motion if you think this motion is awkward, that motion would be you’re going to be essentially combining essentially the two motions

into one to say you’re going to go through and approve what’s within the levy limit and whatever amount of money you’re going to raise an appropriate to fund that. And then and further to then appropriate additional sums for these various line items in the budget that are supplementing

that vote, that are going to be subject to the override. So you end. Up. Combining essentially the same motions. I think ultimately we get combined into one motion, which would be. , should we have that one motion ready just in case. Now that Bill gave everyone the idea. I mean, I. Think this.

Is not my idea. I’ve seen it happen. I’ve seen it happen before, and I just want. To be right. And I know I remember there was a in 2020, I think it was, was when there was a separate article for a portion of the school budget. That was the second time we tried it. It was the second.

Time and I couldn’t, I, I do remember it was definitely discussed together. I couldn’t recall whether or not they were actually voted together. whether they. were combined vote. They were. They were voted together because the motion was made and seconded and it passed on a voice vote to combine them.

So then we had to take them up all as one. But again, that was all under the levy limit. There was no issue with an override needed or anything else. I you know, it’s up to the moderator. I feel it’s clear that a motion under 2-4 would not be within the four corners of a motion under 2-3.

Because we’re trying to say that’s the levy limit. But that is. That is up to the moderator to decide. So you’ve got from that on Saturday, Bill, to think about how you want to deal with that. I guess I would you really try to combine three articles in the sense because there’s separate gallery.

No, there’s only one ballot vote on the override. The one ballot vote includes the additional request for town and school stuff. We combine the one. So there’s only one ballot question for the override. There’s a second separate debt exclusion question for the roof. That’s completely unrelated. We haven’t even gotten there yet, but that will be another matter.

But we should. If someone tries, we should probably try to explain what we just did here tonight. Have that ready and crisp. But then someone should know the numbers combined on a. Motion costs two of an additional special town meeting. Additional ballot measure. Yeah. I think if we can get it within the four corners, that’s

your best pass. The concept is it goes over the override so it doesn’t make sense to combine them because then you have no budget. Then the town has to has no budget to operate on. We’re trying to give the ability. And the schools also have no. Budget. Obviously, to maintain continuity through a period.

Okay. We separate I’m hearing no, we’re going to move on. All right. Yeah. Two dash. Expenditure. And I’m sorry. And and the fact of the matter is I mean to keep them separate doesn’t hurt the proposed override. Really. Right. That’s correct. Yes. Yeah. All right. Article 2-5 capital expenditures. All right.

Happy to read that if you’re looking for someone. All right. You’re you’re you’re on Capcom. Right I was yeah I make it back. You make it back. All right. Bill Wilson’s volunteering at two, two, two, five. Yeah. Bill. Anything else on two five? Joe. What if they try to. It’s pretty straightforward. All right. Two. Six is water.

Enterprise budget. One. Yeah. That one is on the consent agenda. So I think we had you Bill. Also not. We. Don’t have two six on the consensus. Six is not that. Oh we don’t. Could add it if you wanted. It wasn’t currently listed. Do you guys want to add it. Since we took 2.1.

Oh yeah. I think this might this might garner some attention and people might want a little bit of an explanation about why the water rates are going up. I think that’s fair to think about. I think in the past that has been part of the agenda. If I,

if I recall correctly. But that’s fine. It does not have to be. We just recently had a water rate change. So I think. Um, okay. Rosie’s right that that’s that may engender some questions. If we put it on the consent of probably get held anyway. So okay. And so who’s making that motion? Okay. Thank you.

All right. Um. And do is he does. Do you want Ben to explain anything? That’s right. Anybody else going to speak on it? Or you may have received a insert in your water bill. And this is to fund future initiatives. Or. Happy to. Yeah. I don’t know if it’s going to we should clarify.

Or I’d probably connect with Joe and yeah. Okay. And Tim. Yeah we can, we can. I mean either we can get Tim to talk or. Yeah. Tim for Tim, your choice. But if you’re willing to speak to I think that’s great. Sure. Okay. All right. We’ll get Ben. We’ll get Ben up to speed. Okay.

Tim. Tim. We’d be happy to not have to speak. All right? 2-7 is in the consent, but Bill will Olson will speak to it if, um, if it gets held. Okay. Two eight. Same thing. Yeah. Yeah. I’m. Trying to do this at the same time here. Yeah. Two nine, same thing, which is open.

Oh, we did put seven in the consent. Eight and nine. Yeah. I don’t know if we could put a financial action in there. As long as it doesn’t. It’s a majority vote. Yeah. And as long as well two things have to happen. One, it there has to be it usually we’ve only

included items in it that have been the same quantum of votes. So majority only. And as long as the specific dollar amount and funding sources are set forth in the warrant article itself, you can do that. Okay, that makes sense. We’re reducing tax rate. That’s right. That’s a good move. Capital Stabilization Fund is article two dash.

Two. I think that’s like a playoff game going on. I saw some. Two dash ten. It all go show up. Do I two dash ten is not capitalization fund is um. That’s a two thirds vote. So that typically has not been included. That’s just to restock our capital stabilization fund.

So we’d like to make that motion from Tom. I told her if nobody if nobody wants to I’m fine. Tom said yes. Okay. Do you want. It, Rosie? You’re more than welcome to have it. No. That’s okay. It’s it’s it’s fine to to share the fun. You’re the fun. I like that. CPC, Rosie.

Like you can do it. Rosie would like to do the pat. And what would you like to do? The patent one before we get there. Just to put her name on that one. But you’d like to do the patent one. So, um, 211 is on the consent, which is the. okay CPC. 212 is the is the roof.

Is on fire. Who would. Like that? Is, uh, the is Eric Tracy going to speak to this as well? Yeah, I’m sure Eric will make a presentation on it. Um, but the motion has to be moved by somebody on the Select Board of Income. That’s. It can’t be the school board.

Well, technically, anybody can make a motion as long as they’re a town meeting member. So it could be anybody. It could be somebody from the crowd. It could be anybody. I’ll. I’ll do this. That’s fine. I we need a new roof. Okay. Well you got are you going to do the patent one right after it.

Sure. Then I’ll just do that one. Or if somebody else wants to, just to switch one. Bill Wilson wants to share the fun. Yeah, sure. You’re gonna do the pad one right after Bill. Yeah. Okay. Yep. Okay. And we should look and make sure. The good news is, Bill, that’s a short one. All right? Yeah.

All right. Three one is Rose. Rose, Mary the patent. And who’s speaking to that one? Do we need some background on this one? All right. People understand what we’re doing. I was. I could do a little background for it. Joe. I can talk with you about it.

Yeah, I think Rosie and John are both been part of the patent task force. So happy to have them both speak to it. That’d be great. Yeah, I’m happy to to be a cheerleader for for this project. And, and I will talk to Joe and John prior to so

that we can make sure that all the issues are addressed. Perfect. Rose. And read what I wrote about the recommendations. It gives us a little history. Of financial. Sorry, I can’t quite hear that. What was. That he was saying? That read what the book of recommendation says. He, uh, John provided a history of the price of the

property and the different things we tried out there. So. So where do we get okay, if I already have it, I apologize. It’s on that. It’s on the on the website. Or do we have. It on the. Website already on the website. Okay. Okay. Perfect. We’ll do. Well. It’s not in this one right. Yeah. It’s all.

It’s on the website. It’s this. Yeah. This is the script. And the warrant was done way before the fin com book of recommendation was done. 30 pages of love, what. 300? I thought. All right. I’m just making notes to myself. He’s doing the same thing. We’re gonna.

We’ll be fine. All right? So that we got that one, three, one. So it’s going to be Rosie. Rosie and John. Okay. Uh, article three dash two is lease of portion of former landfill property. And those are there’s two of them. So I think the same person can probably make 3-2 and three

three. I’m going to do that if I. go for it. Two thirds. No majority vote. Majority votes. Um. Did you say, Bill, you’re going to build those and you’re going to do. Both those. Yeah. Do three, 2332 and three three. All right. Three four is consent agenda. But I’ll do it if it

doesn’t, which shouldn’t be an issue. Three five. Adopt a energy building code. bro I know Rosie had said she wouldn’t mind doing that, but I know Tom. You said it too. So I’ll let you guys fight it out. Uh, I’ll. I’ll defer to Rosie first if she wants to. If not, I’ll do it.

All right. Rosie? Yeah. Have that one. Yeah, I I’ve done a lot of work on this and talk to, um, a lot of folks within the town, so, um, I definitely would like to, to do this, to, to present the pros and the, and the cons and that would be, I’m guessing that, um, the environmental

impact Committee will have some sort of a presentation. So I think, uh, I think it should be well covered. So. Yeah. So Joe, what is that presentation going to be right now. Do we have. So I haven’t seen I haven’t seen it, but I know that, um, okay. Um, slides the and.

The chair of the hike submitted slides. So Rosemary, are you going to just be content. Are you going to have any, any, um, content, any you can speak to, to speak, or are you going to have content to show up on the screen? Um. Oh, geez. Um, do you know, I could probably do, um, one

slide that would just talk about the, the, the concerns. Um, and then let people make their own decisions. I don’t know if Jeanie plans to have, um, Genie. Uh, if she plans to have a slide or if she’s just going to speak. Maybe what I’ll do is I’ll just sort of, um.

Echo what what she does in terms of her presentation. Yeah. Rosie, Bill bowler says that she’s already the agency has already submitted a slide and he’s approved it. So we’ll I’ll get you a copy of that. Um, I haven’t seen it. I’ll get it. Bill. When do you need us? When do you need a slide by.

Last week. Yeah, the issue is right around time. So, Rosemary, maybe just make some verbal. Points. Just so one. Question, I. Believe that Finicum voted three three oh in favor of this. Um, and then we were kind of split three two unfavorable. But I was wondering, did you all do an analysis on it or. Yeah, it’s running.

It’s in the in the. Book of recommendation. In the article. Famous book recommendations. We haven’t. Read a book of recommendations. Recommendations. The big one big blow. 33 pages. I guess to your point, I know because we’re split. And so I guess it sounds like the Hamilton Environmental. Impact Committee is going to do something. Right. So I.

Just I mean, if I just want to make sure that we’re, um, considering there’s two different opinions from the select board that we’re. We’re but I’m speaking for the majority and the majority recommends unfavorable action. So I, I brought up Rosemary was that the fin com voted three

zero all in favor. And so I’m if they wanted to avoid the table or if we wanted to give them one because I think it deserves some explanation. Well that’s what Jeanie Moran is planning to do. Right. Well they’re representing the environmental committee. Right. Or is Jeannie on your team? Yeah. Yeah. All right, well.

If you would like to speak, you’re entitled to speak. So if it’s Rosemary can speak about what the majority feels, you can speak with the fin com fields and then the the. HSC will have. Their side. I mean, I think that’s fair and reasonable. Okay. I think if there’s any financial article you guys want

to get up on, you should. Know just be a little more pleasant. I know we do a great job. Yeah. To speak about. The pet. Homestead. Okay. Right. Exactly. Okay. I’m sorry I didn’t hear that. Uh, he’s got, uh, John just mentioned he’s going to speak on a few articles with financials. I was going to

speak to the patent as well, so. Yeah. Yeah. So anything like you said, anything that has a financial impact he should speak to if he wants to. From the fin com point of view. So so just make sure Bill is aware of it. So he sees you in

the front row. He doesn’t always see you. He’s not tall enough. Okay. All right. Is that it? I got more articles. That’s all. The good. That’s all they are. Good. Yeah. Happy with where we ended up? Yes. Thank you. We’ll do our dry rehearsal Friday night. Walk through? Yep. From six until ten. It’s good.

9:00 at night. Bill. That sounds good. You guys will have to do that without me. My son is in the school musical at Swampscott High School. I will be on Thursday and Friday night sitting in the Swampscott auditorium watching my son in his first music, first high school musical.

So. All right, uh, next item on the agenda is report of the auditors for the fiscal year 2025 audit. Asterisk. What’s the asterisk for? That’s that’s one. Those are items that we actually have discussion about. Public comment. Yes. But this is not a public hearing comment. So okay. Well there is one. But. All right. Please introduce yourself.

And you have I recognize you. Let me just show on. The slide. I’m gonna sign up. Yeah. My name is Zach Fentress. I’m here with, uh, CLA. We are the town’s outside auditors who performed the audit for the June 30th, 2025 audit for the town of Hamilton.

How do I turn this into a slideshow that I don’t have this stuff? If this happens, there should be, like, a slide show. This little. Screen on the right. You see it? Got it. Yeah. Not that one. Not that one. Left. Left one on the. Left. Right there. Yeah. Perfect. There we go. All right.

So tonight I’m going to be going through the financial highlights for the town of Hamilton again as of June 30th, 2025. And I’ll also be going through the single audit next slide Jim. So for the agenda tonight we’re going to go over what the terms of the engagement were, what the town

of Hamilton hired us to produce. I’ll go over an executive summary, give you some high level items. Similarly with the financial items, there’s going to be a very high level financial view for the town of Hamilton. Uh, next, uh, management letter or the lack thereof. The town did

not receive a management letter this year. I’ll get into that a bit more later. And then finally some, uh, uh, other required communication that are required by auditing standards for us. Next slide Joe. So first let’s get into the terms of engagement. Uh, the town hired us to express opinions on whether the financial statements are presented in

accordance with government, uh, generally accepted accounting principles. You also hired us to produce a report on your internal control over financial reporting and compliance with laws, regulations, contracts and grants. And then finally to provide some other communication to those charged with governance. So what I’ll call the governance letter.

We’re going to get into that a bit more later. Next slide Joe, continuing on with the executive summary on the first page of your financial statements, you’ll see the independent auditors report. The town received the clean opinion. This is the best opinion you can receive from an independent auditing firm.

And it’s the same opinion that the town has received in prior years. And that report was dated February 20th 4th to 2026. For your independent auditor’s report on your internal control and your compliance, there were no findings. The governance letter communication. Again, we’ll talk about it a bit later. And then again, really want to

emphasize no management letter this year. That really speaks to the town’s adhering to the internal controls and the financial policies that are established and making sure that they’re operating effectively. So kudos to the town for not having a management letter this year. Next, please. And then the final piece of the executive

summary is something a little bit different. This year, the town was required to have a single audit this year. And a single audit is when a town expends more than $750,000 of federal funds in a year, the feds require us to come in and audit a percentage of those federal grants. So the town was

just over this year. You had $757,000 in expenditures of federal grants, which required a single audit. This year, we audited your Arpa grant, which was the vast bulk of your federal expenditures that made up about 615,000 of that 757,000. We go through it with what exactly what the federal government asks us to look at.

There were no compliance issues and there were no internal control findings. And that report is dated the same date as your financial statements. February 24th, 2026, and it has already been uploaded to the clearinghouse. Um, in in time for the deadline. The feds require that to be uploaded by March 31st. So it’s been

uploaded, submitted and accepted. All good. There. Next slide please. Some financial highlights. We’re going to focus on your governmental activities. And that can be found on page 14 of your financial statements. And the net position for the town was about $27 million. And you can see the biggest part of that breakdown is your net

investment in your capital assets was about 24.5 million. And then you see that last bullet there. There’s your unrestricted actually had a deficit of 1.6 million. This is not uncommon in the Commonwealth. Quite a lot of communities have a deficit, unrestricted net position. And that’s really the direct result of your net pension liability,

which is about $12 million in your net open liability, which is about $4 million for your governmental activities. And we’ll get into the net pension and the net liabilities further in the presentation. Next slide please. For your governmental funds, I want to focus just on your general fund, which is can

be found on page 17. So at year end the town had a general fund year end fund balance of about 12.8 or about $13 million. And you can see the breakdown was about 5.7 for committed, about 43,000 for encumbrances, and then about 2.5 million, excuse me, 7.3 million for your unassigned fund balance.

What’s important to note about your unassigned fund balance? That includes your general stabilization and your general stabilization was about 2.5 million. So of that 7.3, stabilization makes up about 2.5 of that. Now you’re on a sign. Fund balance is one of the more important figures in your financial statements. And over the next couple of slides,

I’m going to really emphasize that fact. And what it’s important to note. It’s really the starting point for your free cash calculation. So when when he’s going through and doing that calculation, submitting those forms to the state, this is largely speaking the starting point for that calculation. Next slide please.

So you can see here is some trend of your general fund fund balance over the course of five years. The darker of the two is your total fund balance. And then the lighter of those two colors is your unassigned fund balance. You can see that your unassigned fund balance decreased by about $200,000

from 2024 to 2025, one from 7.3 million to 7.1 million. So it was largely unchanged from the prior year. And the reason that was largely unchanged is due to your your your budgetary results of operation. So the town you had favorable turn backs on your budgetary results of operation of $1.7 million

during fiscal year 2025, when that can be thought of as is that revenues came in greater than what you anticipated, and expenses came in less than what you anticipated, to a net total of about 1.7 million. So you started the year with 7.3 million in unassigned fund balance. You added back in $1.7

million due to your favorable turn backs on your budgetary versus actual results. But then the town determined to use 1.8 million during your 2026 budgetary to to fund your 2026 budget. So that’s why it decreased and decreased by about 200,000. It’s not an exact science, but a great way

to look at it is what is our general fund budgetary results from operation? What do we use for free cash and then a subsequent fiscal year. And you can kind of get back to that 7.1 million. Next slide. Please. So this shows some comparison of your fund balance in your

total fund balance and your unassigned fund balance as a percentage of your expenditures. And the GFL recommends two months or 16.7% when comparing your unassigned fund balance to your total expenditures. So you can see that the town of Hamilton as of June 30th, 2025 is at 17.1%. That very last column on the right hand side. So you’re

right in line with where the CFO would recommend you be for your unassigned fund balance. And that’s a good financial position for the town of Hamilton to be in. Next slide please. Your other post employment benefits or your OHP, largely unchanged from the prior year. You had a total liability of 4.4 million and it

decreased or increased by about $200,000 from your June 30th, 2024 figure. So again, largely unchanged, there was no large change in assumptions or other inputs, which is why it’s largely unchanged from fiscal year 24 to fiscal year 25. Well, you can see down below it says sensitivity analysis of

what would be the impact on that liability. If your inputs or your assumptions change by one percentage point higher or lower, you can see that actually has a fairly large swing in that liability. Next slide please. Next. Another large liability that you folks have is your net pension liability. And in total that net pension liability is about

12.3 million. It’s actually about $1 million increase in the prior year. And this what this represents is the total unfunded. The excuse me, it represents the town of Hamilton’s portion of the total unfunded liability for the Essex Regional Retirement System. And that figures presented as of December 31st, 2024. So the reason for that

million dollar increase, you can see on that second bullet point, the town’s percentage was about 2.9% in fiscal year 25, and it was about 2.6% in fiscal year 24. That little bump up actually increased your liability by about $1 million, which is the primary driving force for that. And then the

last bullet, there is, again, another sensitivity and analysis to show you what would be the impact on that liability if your discount rate was increased or decreased by 1%. Next slide please. Here we have a year over year comparison of both your pension and your old PEB liabilities from a dollar

figure, shared point on the left hand side. And then a funding ratio on the right hand side. Again, on that left hand side, you can see that slight increase on your net pension liability of about a million. And then largely speaking, your net open liability was unchanged from the prior year.

Your funding ratios. There was a slight uptick in your pension from the Essex retirement. And then again, another slight uptick in your net OAP liability. What I want to focus on here is the old PEB. Your old PEB is funded at 29%, which doesn’t sound like a lot, but the average in what we

generally see in the Commonwealth is anywhere from 0 to 10% for towns and cities. Certainly there are some towns and cities that are higher than that, but generally speaking, it’s anywhere from 0 to 10%. So the town of Hamilton to be at 29% is going to be viewed favorably by your users of the financial statements, users of

your financial statements, such as bond rating agencies, what they like to see also is a commitment to funding that liability year over year over year, which the town of Hamilton has done, which again is a good financial position for the town of Hamilton. And it’s going to be viewed favorably by your users of the financial statements.

Some other required communication. This is really the governance letter. So what we’re required to do is have some discussions with you. So your significant accounting policies, those are described in the first note to your financial statements. And we didn’t identify any significant accounting policies that lacked authoritative guidance. You’re no disclosures were neutral, consistent and

clear. There were no unusual or significant transactions. And then as far as your uncorrected or corrected misstatements, there were two uncorrected misstatements. One was for an opioid accounts receivable receivable and one was for a water grant receivable. Neither of them were material, but we are required to to bring those to your attention. Next slide

please. And then finishing off some of your other required communications. There were no disagreements with management. Management did provide us with some representations that everything they gave us was true and accurate. Um management did not consult with any other independent auditing firms during the course of the engagement, and then any significant issues discussed.

There were no major issues discussed, but we do keep an ongoing, um, communication with management here in the town throughout the course of the. Audit. Any questions? Thank you. Um, so you were saying that some of the other towns in the Commonwealth that they’re open liabilities were 10% range or something like that, that affect.

The funding of the liability, not the necessarily the total liability. The total liability really varies from community to community. In fact, your liability is much lower than the community that has a school district, because it’s just really based on the number of employees and not having those school employees here at the town really makes your

liability much smaller. But it’s really based upon the funding of that. What we see is generally when people begin to fund that liability, it’s anywhere from 0 to 10%, which a lot of communities have recently begun to fund it. So the town of Hamilton being at 29%, is certainly an outlier.

Okay. And that you said, was viewed favorably by like credit rating agencies because we’re presumably then what, staying ahead of it or. Yes, making a commitment to begin to fund this liability into the future. Credit. When you read through like your S&P, those credit ratings reports, they do specifically mention

that communities that were viewed more favorably do make a commitment to making those contributions to your OP trust fund on an annual basis. Okay. As simply the fact that we’re funding it and doing that year over year. Not that the credit rating is not tied to the percentage, the percentages or those benchmarks. No, no.

Okay. Are there are there other benchmarks or anything else that we were outliers on? Not everybody has an unassigned fund balance at 17.1%. Uh, most communities are lower than that. Again, certainly there are some that are higher, some that are lower. But being right where the GFA recommends is not. I don’t give that, uh, I’m

not able to say that in every, um, exit conference that I give that a community has that financial flexibility in their unassigned fund balance. So I think a couple of years ago we were probably doubled that. Right. Is there anything we’d call out that we did as a

town to kind of get it back in line, get it in line at 17% from 25%? I thought I saw it two years ago. Yeah. We used free cash. Yeah. We I mean, we’re we we we’ve used a little bit more money, but a lot of it last year so that like brought down

what we had unassigned and we would have been higher than that. Have we not done that last year. But I think our budgets are tighter obviously. Right. Yeah. We’re more accurate. Our budgeting, our reporting, our forecasting are just getting tighter. Yeah. That’s what we do. What that says. Right. Yeah, exactly.

Um, but I wanted to hear John speak. But any other questions too? I was just curious, maybe for the general audience, the fact that we did not have a management letter, if you could just speak to that. But we have other acquired communications. The difference between the two. Another requirement communication, the governance

letter every town gets. It is required by auditing standards. There’s no, you know, really any way around a management letter. I’d say in my history of doing this, maybe 15 for 15 years, I’d say maybe 15% don’t get a management letter. Um, most communities do get a management letter. So again,

that really speaks to the team here in the town of Hamilton and how seriously they take internal controls and financial reporting to make sure that things are operating effectively. So a management letter might call out things. The town might look at, and you’d come back and look at it in the following year, like passwords.

Or we were doing cash reserves. Right. Exactly. I’m just exactly right. Yeah. Yep. So if we had any recommendations to improve your internal controls or your financial reporting process, which. Exactly would work to fix that? And you’d look for it next year? Exactly. Got it. Okay. Can I just add so I’ve been your town manager for

seven and a half years. In that time. Wendy’s been our finance director for three years. And all my time prior to Wendy coming here, we always had a management letter. There were significant things, but we always had a management letter. And in two of the three years that Wendy’s been here, we have

not. We had one item in a management letter last year. Um, we addressed it, took care of it, and there’s no management letter again this year for the second time in three years. Uh, I think that’s a great credit to Wendy and the way she works with her team. Thank you.

Seriously, she takes the she takes the information from the auditors, identifies the problems, and to make sure that they’re not a problem going forward. Yeah, that’s why I actually wanted to call out the difference between the two and and why they’re used in an audit process. And the fact that we haven’t had them in a

few years is really good. We don’t. We don’t get a peek behind the curtain a lot. So we’re going to stop it. When we do, we see how organized and and diligent you guys are with it. So appreciate it. But and I think next we want to look a little more of those funds as we

talked about. So we do have a little bit more peek behind the curtain on what you’re doing. So I also think it’s important that we have great guidance for TLA. Any kind of questions we have. And I know there are available to our guidance. Good point. I had one more question was the two point.

So why do we trend up from 2.6 2.9% on our on our share of the live of the Essex? Yeah, I was wondering about that. Too. Is that we have more employees or we have other towns of less employees. Or it could be a combination of both. Okay. We have no say in that.

That’s a big swing for small. So to put some perspective on that, if you. Look back. Two years, you were at 2.8% okay. So if you look back for um, two years ago, it was at 2.8%. The year before that, I was at 2.8%. In 2024, it actually dropped down to 2.6.

And then it increased back up to 2.9. So the 2.9 figure is more comparable to what you saw in 2023 and 2022. And who. Who, who. , who gives us that number and how does it come? Is it once a year? Yeah, once. A year. Yeah. And it comes from them.

It comes from Essex based. on fees based on it’s based on full time employees who are enrolled in the pension program. And you know, I think there was a year where we had some vacancies and the people had left and moved on. So we weren’t we didn’t have bodies.

And those people, we had positions. It took us a while to get those positions hired. So I think that’s where that came. But it’s it’s 2.6, 2.8. It’s where we’re then, you know, small small movement. We we our fees have actually gone down and we’ll go down in the

FY 27 budget. So I would anticipate when we’re having this conversation next year, you might see that tick down again because we’re you know, we’ve made adjustments. We’re not growing our staff. So. Yeah, just one point from the fin com, um, I paid seven of our book recommendations at the bottom. Um, we basically said

that fin. Com believes that the town of Hamilton and the Hamilton Windham Regional School District manages its financial matters. And a conservative and responsible manner, and achieves excellent financial outcomes for the town, given the limited financial resources at our disposal, this is clearly evidenced, and only by the 18 year time period between the last operational override, but

also by the Triple-A bond rating currently in place. So that’s, I think, a couple of sentences that we can all feel comfortable with. Um, but the key is, given our limited financial resources and I think in the town, our hands are really pretty tightly bound. We don’t have a lot of

discretionary funding. So that’s how that’s how we view it. So anyway. I’d also give credit to the rest of the department heads. We have, uh, we have a group of very dedicated, uh, municipal employees who understand the town’s limited resources. They understand what our funding sources are and how they’re

constrained. And they only ask for what they need. And then they try not to even spend all that every year. They work very, very diligently to try to contain their budgets as much, as much as possible. I agree. How rare is that Triple-A rating? I don’t have the exact stats on that one, so I can certainly

get back to you with the number of Triple-A communities in the Commonwealth. I don’t have an exact number on that. That’s right. Rosemary. Anything? Uh. I was just going to say I we’ve had the Triple-A rating for a while, haven’t we, Joe? Since before I got here. Yeah, I will, I will say, um, when

the town first hired me, uh, a colleague congratulated me that I was going to a town that had a Triple-A bond rating, and to which I said, yeah, the only thing I can do is screw it up. So. So I’m, I’m fortunate to say seven and a half years

later, I haven’t. And I appreciate the support of the fin. Com and the finance director and everybody else. We have not messed it up in seven and a half years. We’re going to continue to strive to not mess it up. Good job Joe. Good job. Tom looked it up, did the Googles 2222 cities and towns

out of 351. have a. Rating? Puts you. That’s even less than I thought. I thought we were around 40. I would have thought it would have been more. I thought it was. Around 40. But but I will say the I will say that Standard Poor’s and um. Moody’s have both been a little bit more

strict lately. I know, I know of a couple of communities that lost the Triple-A bond rating just in the last 2 or 3 years. Um, so mostly due to taking on debt. That’s it. We don’t over love ourselves. And we pay our bills and percent and all that.

Yeah. Do we know what the school percent is on that? I don’t on top of my head. Yeah, we could go. I mean, we’d have to get there on it to can find out. And I was just curious. I can look it up to. All right. Okay. Good job. Appreciate it. Thank you all.

Party. If it was okay. Do you mind if I make a quick comment? Yeah. I’d want to thank Wendy and her team and everybody was involved in the audit. It’s not an easy process. We ask a lot of questions and ask for a lot of information. The town was very

well prepared for us. We had the audit largely done in November, and we had a wait for the Essex retirement to finish their audit just to grab that number so that we could could finish the town’s financial. So I just want to say thank you to everybody involved in the out for being well prepared and

easy to work with. It was a good experience. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, great. Thanks, Zach. Thank you Wendy. Thank you. All right, you. Two, good night. Uh, next item, the agenda is to approve Finicum reserve fund transfer for transition to new Civic Plus website with Ada accessibility. Discuss and vote. Can I introduce this article?

Yes. So, um, we’ve had an issue. You know, our website’s older. I it was new ten years ago. Nine years ago. Um, it the company that serviced us does a great job. They work really hard to help, but they don’t specialize in municipal websites. They, um, actually, I think currently in

Massachusetts, where their only client there was us in Woburn, but I believe it was already moved and we became aware just about three weeks ago, 2 or 3 weeks ago, that in April of 2027, we’re going to be required to have our website be Ada 100% Ada accessible. The town had already been looking

at moving, um, away from our current web provider to to this company, Civic Plus. Civic plus is currently doing most of the municipal websites in the state. Uh, they’re very clear, easy to use website. Um, this is what they specialize in. Um, we had taken a pause on it because our, my previous

assistant, Cindy was going to spearhead it, but Cindy left, so we had taken a pause on it. But when I found out that we were going to have to comply with the Ada accessibility rules by next April, anyway, we looked at it again. Um, we had a meeting with Civic Plus, um,

distilled the scope down a little bit to focus on that component, to transition us to a new website that would be 100% Ada accessible. And then we also asked them to add in C, click fix, uh, component as well. And that came back at a kind of a favorable price. We didn’t have it in the budget to

do it right now, but given that we want to get it done before next April and be ahead of ahead of the curve, we met with the fin com and asked if they’d be interested in funding it from the fin com reserve. They agreed last Wednesday, so I’m

just here to get your blessing to move forward with the project. If you approve it, I’ll sign the contract tomorrow. We’ll have a kickoff meeting later this month. And, uh, Civic Plus will start their work with the goal of transitioning us to the new website effective July 1st. That’s great.

So, um. We’re able to answer all the questions. Or if you want to ask John, uh, about their their vote. So the total total amount. Total amount right now that we’re asking for is what was it, $40,804.60. And then the annual recurring charges will pay for in FY 27 from the line item that’s designated for

that. Anyway, it’s a little bit more than what we normally budgeted in there. But we’ll, we’ll have we’ll be able to fund it without any additional transfers. And procurement processes through. Yeah. The Civic Plus is on the state bid list specifically to do this. So all the services that we’re that are in this,

um, you’ve got in front of you the statement of work, the invoice, um, all the services that are listed in this invoice are part of their state bid. So we don’t need to go out and seek other quotes. They’ve already been cleared by the state. As I said, they are doing the majority of them.

In fact, one of them transitioned to them just a year ago. Next question. Yeah. Who else is around us? So one of them is using them. I believe they’re in Ipswich now as well. Um, most most of the communities are starting. To use them. In their. Test for us. Boxford is definitely using them.

Up time. So they’re up. It’s been good. And no. Yeah, yeah. And you know right now because our website is so old and because it’s not run by a company that specifically focuses on municipal work, we have something outrageous like 1200 pages on our website, which makes it really clunky

and hard to navigate. If you go looking for information, you might get it wrong. Uh, search result, because there’s so many pages there, it’s trying to sift through, uh, civic plus looked at our website and say, yeah, you should have for a town your size and what you’ve got going on for departments,

we should have about 3 or 400 pages. So we have three times as many pages as we need. Um, that alone should make it make the use of function more friendly. Okay. So that’s a full like back end and front end rebuild. It’ll provide training for the staff. It’ll provide training

for the staff, ongoing support when we need it. So does it merge emails and web or it’s just the website. It’s just website. Okay. Right now. It’s a multi-year deal or. Yeah, it’s a two year contract. And would it be renewable every year at that price? Around the

18,000 at some years I’m sure it’ll go up, but we’ll we’ll have advance notice of that in time for budget season over here. So. It’s good. Yeah. We need to vote on that. I made a motion. Yeah. Okay. I would like to make the motion. I move that we approve the transfer of funding from fin

com to town budget. Am I doing this right? I got to go back. To the. After funding to the town managers from the to the transfer. Okay. Yeah, I can say, uh, can I have a motion to approve income reserve fund transfer for transition to new Civic Plus website with Ada accessibility. Oh so moved.

I have a second, second. Rosemary. Uh, roll call vote. We’ll start with Rosemary. Rosie Kennedy. I. Ben, I. Tom Myers, I Bill Wilson. I and William Olson I all right. Thank you. That’s a good one. Thank you. It’s a good one. Nice job Bill. All right. Next item is appointment of Carl Jones Jr to

the Hamilton Winter Recreation Committee to fill an open position, discuss and vote. I think you. Been trying to. I think we’ve been. Trying to break in the back door for the past couple of minutes. That Carlos Junior, no. I think Sean Timmins is here. If you have questions and, uh, I don’t know if Mr.

Starlight is here in support of this. Or is he just a member of the audience paying attention tonight? But, yeah. Sorry, I can speak real quick. So, Carl, can you guys hear me? You guys good? We can hear you. Yep, yep. Thanks. Okay. Yep. No. Uh, Carl, uh, unfortunately, had a

commitment tonight. I couldn’t attend, but I just wanted to, you know, kind of speak on his behalf. So Carl did attend, um, our rec committee meeting, our last, uh, rec committee meeting. Uh, so the committee was able to to ask him questions and, um, you know, at the end, they obviously fully

support, uh, his appointment to the recommended. I move that we appoint Carl Jones Junior to the Hamilton and Recreation Committee to fill an open position. Second. Any further discussion? All right, roll call. Vote. Start with Rosemary. Rosie Kennedy. I. Ben Kaluza, I. Myers II bill Wilson. I William Olson I. Thank you all right. Thank you.

All right thanks, guys. Thanks, everyone. Thank you, thank you. Good night. Thank you guys. A big, big basketball night tonight. Lots of noise coming from the. Rec center. Yeah. That’s. Yep. Big bad playoffs. Playoffs. Yeah. Oh, yeah. All right. Thanks. Yeah. Take care everyone. Thank you. Cheers. Over there.

Um. The next item is on hold for Valerie Peck. Yeah. The, uh, it was a miscommunication. I thought that the fin com had met. I mean, I think I’m. me com had met last Wednesday. They were actually meeting this Wednesday, so we’ll have that on your next agenda. All right. And then there’s a request from former resident

David B Wells to purchase cemetery plots, discuss and vote. The letter is in your, um, it was in your packets. Uh, Mr. Wells describes that he was a resident here for many years. His parents lived here and are buried in the cemetery. And he and his wife would like to be buried next to them.

Looking for a family plot. Uh, two. Spots for him, and he and his wife next to his, uh, parents. Yeah. I mean, we’ve done similar. Like I said, we want to look at that policy. We should, but I think it’s consistent with what we’ve approved today. And it’s different, too, because he’s buying two plots and not a

family plot. So it’s we sort of there’s no unknown there. Sometimes they buy the family plot and we’re like, okay, who’s else? But in this case, it’s just too identified who. So? So any discussion or someone will make a motion and we can vote on it. Well, I think I think this this request comes from somebody

with a, um, very strong history in Hamilton. I think that’s a very fair request. I agree. I agree, and consistent with what we’ve done in the past. So I’ll make a motion that we approve the request for this family to, uh, purchase two gravesites at the Hamilton Cemetery. Second. Uh, roll call, vote.. Rosie. Candidate. I., I.

Will Wilson. I William Wilson, I I’m glad that people enjoy our community so much. They want. to start and end in Hamilton. All right. Good. All right. Hopefully we’ll run out of. Pots. Hopefully.. That’s my more land. All right. Uh, new business. Um, how much? We got a lot of things coming up between town meeting and

elections and a new board and all the other good stuff that comes with it. So I don’t really have a lot I have on my is that we, uh, we had a letter from the community sort of addressing some educational on sort of, um, I don’t want to put your, uh, but the laws of election finance.

Office of Campaign and Political finance. All right. So we so we had our attorney look into it and a future meeting after, um, we’re through sort of the town meeting stuff. We’ll sort of get educated on what that means. It really comes down to spending town money to, um, on

elect election items, ballot items, not not anything. That’s like not anything. It’s a town meeting or like board meeting, but it’s it’s distributed information that affects elections. So we’re going to get educated. I don’t want to summarize it now, but we’re going to get educated by Tom at

a future meeting. What it means, what the law is and how we should make sure in the future that we, uh, don’t have any gray area in that. So we’re very clear with. What we’re doing. I will say that we shared all the materials that we’ve been posting on Facebook, etc., for the upcoming town meeting, and

Warren articles, and particularly around the override question on the warrant. And Tom did not feel that we had violated OCF. He did say that, you know, um, he had some recommendations for things to just make the line a little bit brighter in the future. But the Facebook posts do not count as distribution of material. That’s what that’s

the big thing that we can’t do is distribute materials related to an election ballot question, a ballot question the town can’t use, town can’t use. It’s appointed officials, town employees, etc.. Right, right. So the elected officials such as yourselves, you’re free to say what you want. Um, you’re you’re free to use your money

and send out what you want. Um, the town can’t use town resources to distribute information. We are actually required to have the information in front of me to ask for it. We have to provide it to them. And if we have it on our website, that’s allowed. A Facebook post doesn’t constitute distribution according to the town council.

So we’re okay there. But we just want to make sure going forward that we’re very clear that we don’t reference election ballot ballot questions on a on election ballot. Um, our materials were geared toward, uh, educating or informing the public in advance of town meeting, as we do every year with all of our articles.

It’s all based around town funds for town communications. Right. Exactly. It’s not perfect stuff. It’s all about town. Right? Do you know anything you want? Personally? Does it speak at all to not only town funds, but town opinions or. No, it’s just about because. It’s it’s about finance. It’s finance law. It’s about

spending town money. It’s all it’s about. It’s not about the opinion of it. It’s about. Yeah. We can’t spend time money. Can’t even. You can’t even just create a small postcard, uh, with town resources and send it to every home in town and say, don’t forget, there’s a ballot question on April 16th.

Show up. And you can’t even say that because it runs afoul of OCF. But we didn’t do that. And what we have done is, according to town council, we’re okay, we’re safe. But he gave us some ideas about just making sure that we stay that way in the future and we will.

Um. So but you could do an insert in the water bill, for instance, like we’ve done. Does that. Uh. No, we can’t. Distribute regarding election. We can’t. Distribute ballot election. For example, he example he gave his like, if you if. you could distribute something on email that said, if you want to learn

more about this click here. You can’t put it so that they. That’s there. Yeah. All right. So strange. All right. So we gave you the communication goal and you’re trying. To I’m trying to communicate. Yeah I will say I had I had a little bit of a sleepless night. The night I got the. Uh I got.

The question raised because I was, I was afraid that we had done something wrong. And I was very glad to hear from town council next day that we had. Yes. I was like. This is part of my goals and I can’t mess it up already. Geez, sorry.

I do want to recognize this is, um, Bill Wilson’s last meeting for this term. So hopefully we run again in the future. But we really enjoy working with you. Um, you’re you’re always coming. Thoughtful responses. Calm, clear, concise with your opinions and your and your dialogue and conversation. And I hope you will stay involved.

Neither can calm or fin com or cap com or whatever, but I think a lot of opportunities for you to stay involved in the town. But thank you for coming back. I know you did this when. I took your spot and and I hope you’ll come. Back and enjoy getting working with all of you folks. And I’ll

sit right there next to Wendy. Next time. You ever meeting. So we need guests. Yeah. All good. But you got one more. You got Saturday. But. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So. So before we sign off, I just have a suggestion for a future meeting. Um, and I’ll wait

until bill you, if you have anything else to say. Sorry. I didn’t want to. Oh, no. No, you’re we’re, uh. We’re good. Thank you. Though. I just appreciate everybody’s, uh, collaboration. I think we had great discussions at the table. You know, sometimes they get a little bit heated, sometimes they don’t. But we

always come out of it, you know, as one team, one voice. And they could fault our decisions, but never the process. We take it through. I think. It sounds good. Okay. So I just I just had a, um, a suggestion. So our 250th anniversary is coming up, and I would like to make a suggestion

that we, um, buy some sort of a 250th commemorative flag to put up, um, at, at on our town flag poles and maybe think about some sort of ceremony that would, um, uh, celebrate that. Uh, on around the 4th of July. Are you thinking? Well, yeah, probably wouldn’t be many people in town, but

sort of, you know, it’s just a town recognition of. We are 250. And I’d like for us to to think about something that would be, um, celebratory without being over the top. I mean, I’m thinking a flag raising and just, um, for instance, I’m thinking at Patent Park, there’s there’s,

um, a process underway to, um, refurbish the the patent tank out there. There’s a there’s a, there’s a process for that that would spruce up that memorial. And so I’m just wondering if it could be in conjunction with, with all of that. Um, sure. Can I ask we could also raise the 250

commemorative flag prior to the community block party. Um, at the end of what? Right for the night of the, um, the night that you have the fireworks. In town? Yeah. I mean, I think that makes sense, because it’s right of patent, right? Yeah. And I think we should also do it, do

some sort of ceremony. We do the, the ribbon cutting at town hall because that’s sort of. Yeah. Maybe we could make, um, ju ju 250 push ups. All at one. Time, over the course of a year. Pretty good. Give me a, you know, give me, give me, give me ten days. I’ll knock out 25 a day.

No problem. Um. It’s a great idea, though, Rosie. Something. I think that’s a good idea. You guys get back together and. Figure that out? Yeah, if you guys. Yeah. I trust you guys to figure something out, and we’ll support it. We’ll find the money for it. So not a big deal.

Well, I think there was some money being planned for in terms of the, um, refurbishing of the patent memorial in Patent Park. I don’t know when the exact date is planned for yet. Um, for, for it to be completed. So, I mean, I think that’s something that, that we would need to discuss more, but

I just think it would be a fitting, uh, celebration in light of. Uh. Our little town’s heritage. So you’re envisioning, like, our town flag with seal, with something like celebrating 250 years or something in a ribbon underneath it. Maybe, uh, what kind of a commemorative flag

you I because I can go find and get one made. But I need to know what it is. You want money? Yeah. Um, I was thinking something that specifically celebrates our 250th anniversary in the immediate vicinity of, say, the, um, patent, uh, memorial at Patton Park. And I like the idea of doing it around, um, the black

part, the, um. Yeah, I guess that’s the town block party. And also at town Hall with the opening reopening of the town of the town hall, I think those are big occasions for our small town. And then we do it within the context of the larger, um, countrywide celebration. So that’s that’s what I was

thinking, having a my thoughts. I mean, obviously we should talk about it again, but just having country celebration, right. Like a flag that represents our country. All right. I’ll work with you on it and we’ll figure out what what to order, and we’ll raise it with the with those two events. Sounds great. Okay. Thank you.

Right. Someone’s got to make a motion. I need your. I have a second. second roll call. Vote. Mercy Kennedy. I Bengalis, I. Think I know Wilson.