00:00:00,240 S1: Okay. Good morning and welcome. Uh, as I'm sure you're aware, this is the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution. And at town meeting, we're taking part in a tradition that goes back to the beginning of the European settlement of the New World. It is the oldest and arguably the purest form of democracy. In this, the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution. We're continuing that tradition. Town meeting was key to sparking the revolution, and it is a privilege for all of us to continue that tradition at this annual town meeting. 00:00:50,679 S1: Okay. Uh. 00:00:56,240 S1: For we formally open the meeting, we have our state rep. Kristin Kastner would like to say a few words. 00:01:16,469 S2: Hello. Thank you, Mr. Moderator. I am Kristen Kastner. I am your state representative. I'm also fellow resident here in town. I just wanted to say hello and thank you to all of the elected and appointed officials behind me, as well as in the audience. And thank all of you for showing up here on a Saturday morning where I know weekends are also very busy. Um, I'm very proud to say, um, in the last couple of years that we've been doing well, advocating for a lot of the needs here in Hamilton between transportation needs, education needs, um, as well as infrastructure and environmental environmental remediation. And we've been able to bring back quite a bit of funding through both allocation into grant programs as well as some local aid where we can. We brought millions back to this district. And thank you for your advocacy for all of those programs. I'm happy to be your biggest cheerleader and advocate. And I also want to say that we are understand this year today, and these budgets are tricky budgets. It's and we are feeling it. And we at the state understand. And we're certainly trying to push as much as we can. This budget, which is coming together over the next couple of months for more circuit breaker for student aid as well as local aid to the town. So I'm happy to be here. Happy to be a fellow resident and happy to represent all of you. And thank you for all of your work. 00:02:44,620 S1: And I now recognize Bill Olson, select Board chair, for recognition of Jay Butler and Anne-Marie Cullen. 00:02:54,180 S3: Good morning. Good morning Hamilton. I'm also both proud and honored to be here this morning. And thank you all for coming today. And I want us all to take a quick moment and just sort of acknowledge how strong we are in Hamilton, how strong we are as a community, how strong our government is, how strong we are fiscally and financially, how strong our academics and athletics are, how strong our town services and public safety is, and how strong our boards and committees are, but most importantly, how strong we are as collective individuals who try to make the world a better place every day. And that strength really only comes from one place our residents. And so we want to take a moment today to recognize two residents who we've lost this year and their their huge contributions have had to Hamilton. So I'm going to read a few words. 00:03:42,490 S3: I want to take a few minutes to recognize a couple members and residents of our community. When we have recently lost. It is impossible every year to recognize all the members of our community who have passed on. But recently we have lost two people in Hamilton who truly epitomized what it means to care for the community, which is Jay Butler and Ann Marie Cullen. Jane. His wife Kathy, moved to Hamilton in 1992 and to raise their daughter Kristy here. Jay became very involved in his adopted hometown coaching and serving as president of the Youth Soccer Board, serving as president of the Fund Board, serving the Acord Food Pantry. But his greatest impact on the community at large was his work through the chair of the Community Community Preservation Committee and as the chair of the Town Hall, Hamilton Town Hall Building Committee. Jay's work on these boards and committees allowed the town to undertake the current renovation and modernization of our historic town hall, which will open in just a few short weeks. Without Jay's hard work and dedication, it is highly likely that this project would still be in the planning stages. Through his advocacy and stewardship of the project with the Community Preservation Committee. The town hall project was able to be funded without the need to raise taxes or ask for an override. I hope you will join us this summer, when the Select Board will officially dedicate the Town Hall Elevator Edition in his honor. Anne Marie Cullen, American was a lifelong resident of Hamilton and a member of the Hamilton Windham High School graduating class of 1966. The first class that spent all four years in the brand new at the time. High school. She began working as a part time dispatcher in the town in 1974, and became a full time dispatcher in 1980, and was eventually made chief dispatcher, a position she held until her retirement. Her kindness and compassion served her well in the role of dispatcher, and for many who called the Hamilton 911 during their time of need. Ann-Marie was the caring, reassuring voice on the other end of the phone that helped them get their help they needed. Ann-Marie loved serving her community and following her retirement, she served as a substitute teacher at the Bücker school for many years, and also served the town through volunteering and leading the Hamilton Historic Historical Society and the Accord Food Pantry. She believed in doing what she could to help bring the community together, so whether it was Public Safety Day pumpkins and Patton Park, Christmas lights at the park or the Christmas bonfire, Anne Marie could be counted on to get involved and help. And I acknowledge and recognize every year we lose valuable members of our community who are not always able to stop and recognize them all. But please take a moment of silence as we remember Jay Butler and Anne Marie Cullen and all their other friends and neighbors who have helped make Hamilton the special place it is and have since passed on. Thank you. 00:06:42,459 S1: Thank you, Mr. Olsen. 00:06:50,649 S1: The constable has confirmed that the warrant for this annual town meeting has been properly posted. The town clerk has informed me there is a quorum present. This annual town meeting of the Town of Hamilton is now open. Good morning. My name is Bill bowler. I'm the town moderator. Welcome to the April 11th, 2026 Annual Town meeting. And thank you for coming. Uh, we've identified tellers in the event that we need them down the road. Uh, we'll start, as we always do, by saying the Pledge of Allegiance. Please stand if you're able. 00:07:34,209 S1: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God, Indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. 00:07:53,600 S1: I'll start with some general reminders. First, if you're a registered voter in Hamilton, you should have picked up a voting clicker, which looks like this. If you haven't and wish to vote, then you can get one out front. Uh, please turn your cell phone to silent if you need to take or make a call. Please leave the meeting to do so. Third, we welcome non-voters to town meeting, but do ask that you sit in the visitors area, which is located in the back left section of the auditorium, so it'll be easier to know who's able to vote and who is not. Also, there are seats in the front. These first 2 or 3 rows for closed captioning on this screen here. I'd like to introduce the people who are sitting And in front, so you know who they are. Tom McInerney, Cape Law Town Council. Karen Cahill, town clerk. Joe D'Mello, town manager. Wendy Markowitz, assistant town manager. Finance director. Bill Olsen, select board chair. Bill Wilson. Rosemary Kennedy, Tom Myers and Ben Kaluza. Select board. John McGrath, income chair. Alex Rendell's Finn comm and Chris Woolston, Finn. Comm. I've asked non-resident town officials and those assisting the Select Board of Finance Committee to be present here, so they may be available to answer questions. Members of the press and the video crew have also been allowed to be present. Uh, I hope you've read and brought your copy of the warrant. If you did not, there may be still be some copies. Out front is the warrant is the agenda for the meeting, and it was prepared by the Select Board to bring an agenda item before the meeting. I will recognize a member of the sponsoring board, committee or individual so they can make a motion. If the motion is seconded, I will recognize the proponent to speak to you about it. Once they are done, I'll open the discussion up to the voters to ensure that we have an orderly meeting. If you wish to speak, you must first ask me to recognize you. To save time, I ask you to please be standing at one of the microphones that are at the end of both aisles here. Uh, if you're in the overflow room in the cafeteria and you wish to speak, you'll need to come into the auditorium to speak. 00:10:42,700 S1: Once you're recognized, please state your name and street address. We'll use the same rules at today's town meeting that we use at every town meeting. You'll have three minutes to make comments or ask questions about the motion. When your three minutes is almost up, I'll let you know so that you can wrap up your comments if you continue to speak once your time has elapsed. My obligation to maintain a fair and efficient meeting requires that I move on to the next speaker. Your comments and questions must be within what we call the four corners of the motion. Please remember that we are in a legislative session for the town of Hamilton. While we can all agree that spirited debate is welcome, we recognize that being cordial and respectful is a priority for the efficiency of the meeting, and that every person who rises to debate a motion as an equal right to be heard. As such, we expect that at this meeting, like at all town meetings, people will refrain from making remarks of a personal nature about any town or school officials or any person who is in favor of or against the motion and will just comment on the merits of the motion again to ensure that the meeting is run efficiently. Any comments or questions must be directed to the moderator rather than any individual or town official. If I deem it appropriate, I may then ask the person making the motion or another town official to respond through me to the question. Please, no applause, cheering or booing. All motions to amend must be submitted to the Town Clerk in writing. If you need assistance in framing a motion to amend, Town Council will provide you with some assistance. No more than one amendment may be pending. At the same time, a vote is first taken on the amendment and then on the main motion. 00:12:48,320 S1: When a vote is taken, we'll be using the electronic voting clickers Jo de Mello, which will demonstrate the use of the clickers in a moment. In the unlikely event that we have trouble with the new technology. We will revert to the use of voter cards. And I will ask you to raise your voter cards and then decide visually whether there is a necessary majority or other quantum of vote. If I'm in doubt, a seven vote is question the vote. Immediately after I declare the outcome, I will have the vote counted by the tellers. Joe will now demonstrate the use of the clickers. 00:13:33,120 S4: Good morning. I hope everybody has a clicker. One of these. We're going to go through things a little bit here to make sure that these work well. Bear in mind if you registered to use a clicker in this room, it will only work in this room. If you registered to get a clicker for the overflow room. It will only work in that room if you come in from the overflow room to speak here. That's great, but then you have to go back to the overflow room to vote. You'll notice on your clicker there is a green button and a red button next to the words yes and no. Don't press the word yes or no. When you want to vote, press the button green or red? 00:14:07,269 S4: Your votes will be recorded on the two screens to my left and right, and the motion will be on the big screen behind us. We're going to test these. I'm going to ask a yes or no question. And I want you to vote. If you don't think your vote counted, hold it up and click again. But just wait. Give the machine a second to catch up. If 250 people all press the button at the same time, the computer's got to figure it out. Give it a second. All right. Our sample question is, are you ready for this? Are the Red Sox going to ruin our summer? 00:14:46,139 S4: Feel free to hold them up if you don't think it got caught. Hold it up. 00:14:51,620 S4: Hands up in the corner. You'll see that blue light. That's the receiver, so it needs to see the receiver. 00:15:30,139 S5: Hit 361. 00:15:33,529 S6: Going back to. 00:15:39,330 S1: Close voting. 00:15:41,570 S4: All right. A few minutes ago, we had a total of 361 voters. I think it's a couple more now, but you can see everybody's vote counted, so thank you. 00:15:53,490 S1: Okay. We can begin going through the articles in the Warren. 00:16:00,129 S1: Article. Uh, 2020 641-2 00:16:07,210 S1: reports. I recognize finance and advisory Committee chair John. 00:16:16,169 S1: I'm sorry. 00:16:17,129 S4: The finance committee is not going to make a report now. So just recognize Bill. 00:16:21,210 S1: Okay? 00:16:24,809 S1: Okay, I recognize Bill Olson. 00:16:29,330 S3: I move that the reports of town officers and committees be received and placed on file. 00:16:35,600 S1: Is there a second? 00:16:37,200 S6: Second? 00:16:38,799 S1: Any discussion? 00:16:40,399 S3: Yeah. Bill, I wanted a few things. So for those of you who have some free time, we have a 350 page report. Annual report on the town website, has full account accounting of all of the year and on boards committee. So please take a look at that if you have any questions. What we did over the past year. I also want to quickly acknowledge that Bill Wilson is not running for re-election. So this will be his last day of official business on the on the select board. So I want to just thank Bill Wilson for his time. 00:17:15,559 S3: Thank you Bill. 00:17:17,359 S1: Okay. Any other questions or discussion? If not, I think we're ready for a vote. Allow 30s. Voting is open now. 00:18:09,549 S1: Voting is now closed. 00:18:18,789 S1: Okay. The vote is 341. Yay! 18. Nay. The ayes have it. The motion passes and I so declare. 00:18:34,259 S1: Article 11-3. Article four consent motion. I will now read the list of articles to be taken up and voted on as one motion. If you want to ask questions or make comments on an article. Shout out hold as the list is read. Any article that is held will be deleted from the consent motion and taken up and considered according to its place on the warrant. Articles 2-72-8. 00:19:07,140 S1: Oh, okay. Hold on. Two. Dash eight. Two. Nine. 00:19:15,460 S1: Two dash 11 and three dash for. So again that's article 729, 00:19:26,690 S1: two dash 11 and three dash for. I recognize Bill Wilson. 00:19:33,369 S3: Okay. Thank you. 00:19:34,450 S4: I moved. 00:19:35,410 S3: That the articles included. 00:19:36,970 S7: On the list of articles for consent motion minus article 2.8 for this 2026 Annual Town Meeting, a copy of which has been delivered to the Town Clerk to be filed with. The minutes of this meeting be approved by one vote each motion a motion to be deemed a separate action under the warrant article having the same corresponding number except in those motions held. 2-8. 00:20:02,930 S1: Is there a second? 00:20:04,250 S6: Second. 00:20:07,930 S7: I just further add that, as we typically do at every town meeting, we seek to include a number of non-controversial but necessary articles that can be voted on with one vote to allow us to better time manage and leave out our other articles that would like to have further discussion. 00:20:26,839 S1: Are there any questions or discussion? 00:20:33,440 S1: If not, we can move to a vote. I'll allow 30s. All those voting is open now. 00:21:34,190 S1: Polling is now closed. 00:21:42,509 S5: 44 to 82. 00:21:44,309 S1: The vote is yeas 344. Nays 18. The motion passes and I so declare. 00:22:04,029 S1: Article two one. Compensation. Classification table. 00:22:13,950 S1: Um. 00:22:17,670 S1: I recognize it well, Rosemary. I recognize Rosemary Kennedy. 00:22:22,779 S8: Good morning everybody. I move that the town amend the personnel bylaw by adopting changes to the classification and compensation table, as said shown on the handout entitled appendix A, the updated version. 00:22:41,140 S1: Is there a second? 00:22:44,940 S1: Discussion, Miss Kennedy. 00:22:49,980 S8: These rates were set in good faith negotiation between the town manager and the involved unions. And I believe that everybody was satisfied with the fair compensation tables. 00:23:12,180 S1: And do you want to clarify my correct that we're voting on A hand out. Not what was in the appendix. Is that correct? Just so we're clear. 00:23:24,569 S8: Yes, that's. That's correct. Mr. moderator. 00:23:29,329 S1: Are there any questions or comments? 00:23:35,569 S1: If not, we can move to a vote. I'll allow 30s. Voting is now open. 00:24:25,960 S1: Voting is now closed. 00:24:32,920 S1: The vote is yeas 348. Nays 25. The motion passes, and I so declare. 00:24:45,839 S1: Article two. Two. Prior year bills. 00:24:54,480 S1: I recognize Tom Myers. 00:24:58,200 S9: I move that the town transfer from free cash the sum of $79.40 to pay the following unpaid bill. My brother's $79.40. 00:25:12,519 S1: Is there a second. 00:25:17,430 S1: Is there a second? Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Are there any questions or comments? 00:25:26,990 S1: If not, we can move to a vote. This requires a four fifth vote. So. 00:25:36,869 S1: I'll allow 30s. Voting is now open. 00:26:22,940 S1: Voting is now closed. 00:26:31,420 S1: The vote is yeas 279, nays nine. 00:26:38,900 S1: The article achieves the required 4/5 vote and passes I so declare. 00:26:50,380 S1: Article 2-3 general departmental appropriations. 00:26:57,700 S1: This is our annual general town and school omnibus appropriation article. I now recognize John McGrath to provide the Finance and Advisory Committee's report on the budget. 00:27:17,609 S10: Good morning everybody. Before I get into the financials, I just wanted to. 00:27:26,009 S10: I just wanted to offer a thank you to the Hamilton Women News. The reason I'm doing that is the last couple of years I've found in many of my fellow town members have found it to be a huge resource to the town. Um, free press certainly. Rains in Hamilton and Windham, specifically Emma, Tim and Taylor for providing incredibly accurate information and and helping us all understand what's going on in town. So I'd like to offer our thanks and congratulations. 00:28:18,210 S10: So there's a lot coming at us today. 17 warrant articles for 49 pages worth the fine. Come. We wrote 33 pages of commentary. How many? How many? Read all 33 pages. Um, the town generated the, uh, the CFO budget book, which was referenced 370 pages of commentary from all the town departments. Um, the school team. Their final report was 60 pages of information on budgets. Um. 00:28:57,130 S10: And dozens and dozens of meetings and exhibits from the school board. So how do we make sense of all that? Um. 00:29:09,559 S10: You're going to hear today about proposition two and a half override. It'll be commented on multiple times. Um, the last two and a half override we had was in 2008. 00:29:22,920 S5: All right. 00:29:24,559 S10: What's an override? An override is a permanent increase in our property taxes. Basically, it's a base level that's being raised. And then from that point on, um, we measure going forward a debt exclusion. The high school roof is a temporary increase for the life of the project. So pay attention and listen to these terms. But keep in mind that over the last 18 years, we have not needed a two and a half override. All right. And I'll make a comment on that. Let's talk about the financials for a second. Back in October, it started to become clear that we were going to need an override. As we progress through the process. Um. 00:30:22,430 S10: When you think override, you think extra spending. How much extra spending? How much might that hurt? Where we came out was not a 10.5% override, an 8.5% override. Um, what we ended up doing on the budget was coming to the town with several asks. This levy limit budget is a 2.1% increase. You add in the four warrant articles to five, eight, nine and ten. Add in the supplemental budget, all in What you're being asked to approve today is a 5.6% increase year over year. So let me just let that sink sink in for a second. Year over year it's a 5.6% increase when you add all the Warren articles together. All right. So that just sort of frames the ask so that the detail that gets discussed today does not sort of obscure these sort of a high level picture. 00:31:38,539 S10: A couple of additional comments. Um, the fin com feels that the town generates excellent financial outcomes for the taxpayers given limited resources. All right. We have a tax base that does not generate, lots of discretionary income. So our position is that due to the 18 year time period between operational overrides, um, and the fact that the town, because it's so well managed financially, we have a Triple-A bond rating. There are approximately 30 cities and towns in Massachusetts that have a Triple-A bond rating. Hamilton is one of them. All right. So even though we have limited financial resources in town, the town management and committees provide very thoughtful, accurate and responsible budgeting and spending. That's our view. 00:32:58,569 S10: Laurie, if you could go down to the other notes page. 00:33:06,519 S10: Next. Next one. Just a couple of final comments. You're going to hear about the the patent homestead, the high school roof. 00:33:18,799 S10: And those two are separate Warren articles. And we'll talk about them when the time comes. Um, high level, uh, there are going to be some decisions you're going to be asked to make. Um, and just to recap, we made a decision a while ago to put new fields behind the high school. That project was originally budgeted at $15 million, and the school reported that it came in under budget by 1.3 million. So kudos to the team that managed that. 00:34:02,109 S10: Anyway, it's a 5.6% all in budget that we're going to be talking about this morning. Um, listen to the detail and vote, um, however you feel you need to. Thank you very much. 00:34:25,150 S1: I recognize Eric Tracy, superintendent of schools, to report on the school district budget. 00:34:40,550 S11: Quite as tall as John, but. 00:34:44,829 S11: Good morning, everyone. Thank you, Mr. Moderator, for the opportunity to address the citizens of Hamilton. I first like to thank the members of the school committee, the town manager, the select and finance boards, and many others who have helped prepare the school district budget for you today. I'd be remiss if I also didn't thank our Assistant Superintendent of Business and Finance, Vinnie Leone, for his efforts in developing and presenting a detailed, transparent budget process over the last five months. The overall increase in the school district's gross operating costs this year is 5.09%. The school district and town boards have continued to improve transparency each year through a number of joint meetings and boards of boards and chairpersons, so that each entity entities needs are in the open and fully understood. This FY 27 assessment includes no new programs or staffing. It does reflect rapid increases in expenses, including cost of living increases for our staff, large increases in health insurance premiums, and higher maintenance and utility costs. This is also the first year in many that there'll be an override request for school department expenses. It is important to note that our two communities and the school department are experiencing what I would term the perfect storm. State funding and aid continue to lag the School Department's chapter 78 from the state, as remained at approximately 10% for a number of the past few years. The state is yet to fully fund regional transportation and special education costs as outlined in the law, consistently creating a widening gap between budget expenses and offsets. I do have to say our state representatives and senators are well aware of it, and Rep Kastner has been working with us, the superintendents group and many other groups to to correct these issues. And we're looking forward to supplemental budgets hopefully, and a couple in a couple of months. The first slide please. You got it. There's several items to highlight in FY 27 that was approved by the school committee on February 12th, 2026. We initially reduced the budget 1.3 million from our preliminary presentation. This includes a reduction of seven staff members. The budget returns 773,000 to the towns for the fifth year in a row. This year, we see more than 1.36 million increases in the cost of living and salary for our staff. This budget continues to fund other post employment benefits or open account for retirees benefits at 350,000. A goal that was set seven years ago. Health insurance. As we all know, premiums are up 10.5%, an increase of $446,008. 00:37:30,679 S11: Utilities continue their upward trend, increasing by about 50,000. Unfortunately, there will be an increase in the user user fee for families. As we trim the budget, we trim the district offset to these fees, creating an unfortunate increase. This budget also incorporates an assessment shift of 70,000 back towards Wenham. This is the second year in a row that has occurred, and generally that's based on the number of students that are attending the school district from each of the communities. And there's also an increase in the Hamilton debt Service of approximately $71,734. 00:38:08,670 S11: Next slide please. This slide provides the actual assessment to the towns. This year, Hamilton share of the assessment is $27,258,570, 00:38:19,309 S11: which is a 6.19% increase year over year. The vote for article two three is to support the budget that's under the levy for the school department. That number is 26,001 7904 626 million. Excuse me. 179 046 the balance of the override will be voted on in article two four. And that amount will be 1,079,005 24 for the school district. Next slide please. Here's a more detailed look at the FY 27 budget, including debt service, which has been the increasing factor in the past few years. We always begin with the total operating expenditures, which this year is 48,000,048.96 million. And then we add the debt service of 1.96 million to that number. Then we subtract all of our offsets and any other revenues that we have, yielding a final total assessment for both towns of 41.6 million. Next slide please. In 2022, we established the Capital Stabilization Fund with voter approval and required to report and are required to report annually on any changes. This fund is used to offset capital expenses for the district. Much of the original monies in the account was related to the Athletic Facility Improvement Project. The balance reflected here behind me, as is as of June 30th, 2025, in the FY 20. In FY 26, the school committee voted to use 1.7 million of the 2.4 million to pay down the debt on the athletic complex upgrades projects and 450,000 to fund the high school roof feasibility study, which you'll see later in a later article, resulting in a final balance of about 208,000. As of today, one positive note as I mentioned earlier, the Athletic Facilities Improvement Project came in 1.3 million under budget, and the current final principal bond amount is 6.8 million, with a million in interest over five years. Next slide please. This chart represents the budget as we report it to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, is that it is required to be reported this way. It shows a better breakdown of the 5.9009 gross increase in the district operating budget. It's important to note that staffing has continued to be reduced since FY 24, when there were more than 300 positions in the district. The FY 27 budget as presented today, shows a reduction of staffing of more than 11 full time employees over that time period. Next slide. This final slide shows the five year average for the town of Hamilton of the district operating budget, currently 4.22%. The previous five year average was 3.87%. 00:41:07,000 S11: Next slide please. Thank you for your confidence in me to represent the students, the families, the faculties and the staff of the Hamilton Regional School District as we navigate the current fiscal environment, I am resolute in my commitment to collaborate with our boards and our community members to not only ensure responsible budget management, but also to position our district for sustained growth and continuous improvement. We are dedicated to fostering a future of excellence for every one of our students. I appreciate the opportunity to present the FY 27 school budget today. Go, generals! 00:41:49,550 S1: I now recognize Joe Town Manager to report on the town budget. 00:41:56,710 S4: And I am also shorter than Eric. So we're going to keep adjusting this microphone. Good morning. Thank you everyone for being here. Before I begin, I would like to publicly thank the Hamilton Selectboard, the Finance and Advisory Committee, and the Capital Committee, as well as all of our town department heads who are here in the back. And those department heads represent public safety, public works, finance and administration, planning and permitting, health, recreation and council and aging. We have just about 60 full time permanent employees in the town. They come to work every day to serve the residents of this town. And I am proud to work with each and every one of them, as well as to work with the volunteer and elected boards and committee members. The annual budget is not the work of one or even a few people. It takes dozens of us every year to review the town's needs and balance those against our limited resources. Our budget presentation today is unlike any that we have had to deliver here in my time in Hamilton. You have two questions this year instead of one. The first question is what we put before you that will live under the levy limit. The second question asks you to consider an override so that we can continue to deliver the same level of services as we have in my time here. The decision to make this request was not made lightly, either by myself or the select board. Each year we start the budget process. We begin by meeting with the Select Board and the Finance Advisory Committee to ask them to help us set goals for the town each year, including this year. Those goals have included. Ensure the long term financial viability of the town. Provide the same or enhanced services to our residents, ensure appropriate staffing levels, maintain all capital assets, and avoid a proposition two and a half override. Unfortunately, this year we find that we cannot accomplish the first four goals and also accomplish the fifth. If we want to meet the rest of our goals, we must ask you, the voters, to consider to raise the taxes above the limits of two and a half. You are, of course, free to say no, but the Select Board and Finance Advisory Committee wanted to ensure that the voters voice was included in this discussion. So with that, I will get to our budget presentation. That's our new firetruck that you helped us buy a couple of years ago. 00:44:08,170 S5: Okay. 00:44:09,170 S4: Our budget conditions are to adhere to our budget goals and objectives, which I just outlined for you. Absorb anticipated budget. Drivers. Health insurance. Trash within available town funding. Try to avoid a proposition two and a half override. Make other targeted operational changes to improve efficiency, stability and sustainability and adhere to our financial policies. 00:44:30,849 S4: Recent efforts to offset budget growth. We've regionalized our emergency operations center. In fact, we will be transitioning to the Middlesex. I'm sorry. Middleton, North Shore Regional, 911 next week. We start the transition on Tuesday, and by the 18th, our dispatch center will effectively be closed. We have a first year potential savings by doing that of about $350,000. We have potential special revenue from Gordon Caldwell in the amount of $400,000. These are one time revenues and would be used for one time expenses, but it's important that we're bringing that in. The potential revenue increase for taxes from the Gordon Commonwealth Apartments that has now passed by the state and been approved by the attorney general, and the sale is going through. So once that sale is finalized, we'll be able to get tax revenue from the apartments at Gordon Commonwealth for the first time. We're estimating $350,000 in this first year. And we've made the decision that we're hiring. We're promoting our deputy fire chief later this year to be the new chief, and we will not be replacing him. So that saves us another $72,000. 00:45:41,920 S4: The foreseeable increases that we've had to deal with this year, our employee contractual increases at about $214,000. Health insurance increases of $187,000. 00:45:53,760 S4: Increases to our Essex Regional Retirement System of $70,000 $259,000 for increases in sanitation collection. So that's the pick up of your trash, your recycling, your composting every every day. And then utilities increases basically in fuel. I'm going to ask our assistant town manager and finance director, Wendy, to take over here and present the next few slides. I'm recognizing. 00:46:24,159 S12: And I am also shorter. Good morning. 00:46:30,639 S12: I'm looking at the revenue summary just to point out some big ticket items here. The prior revenue, the prior year levy limit starts at $35 million, and the proposition override under the law increases that by approximately $878,000. You'll see the new growth year over year has increased by 250,000 to 500,000. And that's due to the Gordon Conwell zoning change. The debt exclusion has reduced, you can see, by 211,000. So that is the public safety building project was finally paid in full. So approximately $1.4 million, the total tax levy raised of approximately $37.6 million, state aid is 1.1 million, local receipts are 3 million. And transfers and other available funds, mainly the Enterprise Fund, is a little over 600,000 and free cash, which funds capital projects and transfers of $1.4 million. Your total revenue and financing sources is $43,957,687 00:47:37,699 S12: year over year, a 2.43% increase. The pie chart speaks volumes. The the levy limit or the personal and property taxes is 89% of our income. Transfers and other available funds represent 1%. Local receipts is 7% and state aid is also 3%. So your total operating fund sources is approximately $42.5 million. 00:48:08,619 S12: Looking at the summary of expenditures, 00:48:13,380 S12: I will actually fast forward to the next slide, please. So the pie chart gives you the big picture. 62% or $26.6 million is for education, 7% $3 million general government Public safety represents 9% of nearly $4 million. DPW 7% of $2.8 million. Health and Human Services is 1% $426,000. Culture and recreation is approximately 1.2 million, or 3%, and the unclassified That Big Green is $4.8 million, which represents 11%, largely made up of retirement. At nearly 1.8%. I mean, 1.8 million. Excuse me. And your health and life insurance. There's the increase there of $190,000, $1.4 million, and then property and casualty insurance, 375,000. Total town debt service is a decrease of $281,000. And your transfers to general stabilization and capital stabilization is 200,000. Total operating expenditures of 00:49:27,719 S12: Hundred and $87 year over year increase of 2.23%. 00:49:35,039 S12: Okay. 00:49:35,880 S6: Thank you. 00:49:39,719 S4: Also part of our annual budget is our capital improvement plan that will be voted in a separate article. But we'll go over this really quickly for you. Our FY 27 capital plan includes, uh, expenditures for improvements of Patent Park, two police cruisers, portable radio upgrades, vehicle radio upgrades, fire command vehicle, um $300,000 for road and sidewalk improvements around town. I know that sounds like a lot of money, but when you're doing roads and sidewalks, that is not a lot of money. Library parking lot improvement $150,000 DPW vehicle. This is split with the Enterprise Fund, so the DPW director splits his time running the water department and the Public Works Department so we can pay for it out of both sources. We have variable frequency drive finish pumps. This is at the water plant scale. The computer replacements also at the water plant and lead service line replacement part of the water system. When you look at the second side table, you'll notice that the first seven articles are being paid for, or items are being paid for in free cash and appropriate funds. And then the last four are being paid for with money from the Water Enterprise Fund. The total expenditure for capital this year would be 1.1 million $257,129. 00:51:06,389 S4: This side just shows you where we're at with our free cash, with the use of with with reserves. So. 00:51:15,590 S4: As of October of 25, we had a certified free cash amount of $3,714,565. 00:51:23,269 S4: We have funded In the December budget. We paid the bill for a prior year of $26,000, left us with a reduced budget that reduced balance. Rather then we have 5% of the free cash reserves. That is part of our free cash policy that's there for the rainy day. If the worst thing happens and we need money, we can come back to you and ask to use that money. But we maintain that at 5%. That leaves us available free cash of $1,608,000. 00:51:54,420 S4: The next is a list of things that we're asking to spend free cash on this year capital expenditures, open Transfer Capital Stabilization Fund, Digital Digitalization Project, and the Fire Department lease purchase for a vehicle. This will leave us with a available free cash balance of just $202,000 if all articles pass. Next, I'm going to talk about the items that would be under the second article item. article 2-4 will voted separately, but total requests and the supplemental appropriation in the override is for $1,340,505. 00:52:35,329 S4: It's $260,981 for town departmental appropriations. And as the superintendent mentioned, $1,079,524 for additional funding for the schools. 00:52:49,530 S4: The town requests include $50,000 to improve communications with the town. That's one of the goals that the Select Board has set for us is to improve the way we interact with our public, and so we have a request for $50,000. There's $108,000 in the override for patrolmen. Uh, you guys can all ask questions about this when we open it up for debate. But I'll just tell you right now, we used to have a reserve police officer force that would help fill in shifts. Officers take vacations. They have sick days. We could call the reserve officers in and they would fill those shifts with the standardization of police practices a few years ago and police accountability laws. The reserve system is essentially disappeared as of July 1st. We will have no reserve officers available to work for the town of Hamilton anymore, but we still have the same number of hours to fill. If we don't hire another police officer to help them fill those hours, we'll fill the shifts. But it will be forced overtime for our officers. We'll be asking more of them. And, you know, using overtime to fill the shift isn't really the right way to do it if we if we can avoid it. The emergency operations center, we are keeping a full time person working at the at the dispatch center to interact with the public during business hours. We have also been asked to try to consider a way to keep an additional half time person on, maybe on weekends or a little bit later into the evening. We've got that in the override. If the override doesn't pass, we won't be able to hire that person. We do have the full time person weekdays and we've already hired them. They're ready to go on the 18th, but we are not Able within the levy to offer the additional half time person there and then in the cemetery department. We currently have a position in the cemetery department that's been unfilled for several months. We've been trying to fill it and it's been difficult. We actually finally have a couple of candidates, but rather than lay off a person, if we have to cut the budget, we are going to not fill that position. So that would be the department continuing to be down a man from where they're usually at. Um, we're just trying to avoid pain of having to lay people off, but trying to stay within that levy budget. The next slide shows the supplemental Hamilton Regional Schools request, but I believe the superintendent already covered all that. And I will again ask Wendy to go over kind of the updated revenue summary based on the override. 00:55:17,269 S12: So I'll just briefly point out on the revenue summary that you see the override line item right there underneath the proposition two and a half. And then the total levy raised increases to 6.65%. 00:55:33,059 S12: The total operating funding increases from within the levy limit of 3.59% to 6.85%, and the total revenue and financing sources increases from 2.43% under the levy limit to 5.55%. 00:55:50,579 S12: Next slide please. So what you'll see here is the change. You will notice from the previous presentation. The general government line item will increase by 50,000. The public safety line item increases by nearly 151,000. And the Department of Public Works. Line item increases by 60,000. The total operating expenditures increasing from 2.23% to 5.41%, and the total expenditures and other financing uses would increase from 2.43% to 5.55%, for a total of $45,298,192. 00:56:30,369 S12: Thank you. 00:56:33,530 S4: All right. Before I hand it over to the moderator, I just want to take one more moment. Um, hopefully you won't have to hear from me again for the rest of the day, so I'll get this out of the way now. Town meeting is a bit of a production. We rely on a lot of people working behind the scenes to get this done, and I want to take a minute to recognize some folks that really make this happen. Behind the scenes, in particular town clerk Karen Kale and her staff. 00:57:02,489 S4: And and from and from my office, Lori Wilson. Laurie's like the glue that holds us together. 00:57:11,610 S4: Every year before this, we do a walk through the day before and yesterday I was unable to get here. I was had a personal conflict and I last minute I wasn't able to come. Yeah, I think they did a better job without me. So, um, but I just want to thank them for all their effort and I really feel badly about leaving them in the wards yesterday. Thank you everybody. 00:57:34,840 S1: I'll now read each appropriation. And for any item a voter would like to discuss separately, please shout out hold $3,081,345 00:57:48,800 S1: for General Town Government. $3,974,801 00:57:57,599 S1: for public safety. $26,179,046 00:58:07,599 S1: for Hamilton Windham Regional School District $499,936 00:58:16,909 S1: for Essex North Shore Agricultural and Technical School District. $2,836,315 00:58:30,190 S1: for Department of Public Works. $426,569 00:58:39,590 S1: for Health and Human Services. $1,208,591 00:58:48,869 S1: for Culture and Recreation. $4,385,849 00:58:57,989 S1: for. Unclassified. Totaling. $42,592,452. 00:59:09,070 S1: I recognize Rosemary Kennedy. 00:59:12,699 S8: I move that the town raise an appropriate the sum of $42,377,895 00:59:22,099 S8: and transfer the sum of $214,557 00:59:28,260 S8: from free cash, for a total appropriation of $45,592,452. 00:59:37,739 S8: What did I. 00:59:38,380 S6: Say? 00:59:40,300 S8: Okay, I'm sorry, $42,592,452 00:59:46,699 S8: for schools and all other town expenses which are set forth in the 2027 fiscal year budget in appendix B of the 2026 appendix Book and appendix C of the 2026 Appendix Book, with the corrections read by the moderator, excepting those items held. 01:00:07,860 S1: Is there a second? Okay. We'll now have discussion and questions, although we'll be voting on articles 2-3 and 2-4 separately. I think we can have a joint discussion on them. So the floor is still open for Bill. 01:00:29,250 S3: Will I have a comment? 01:00:31,929 S1: Uh, I recognize Bill Olson. 01:00:34,409 S3: I just want to make two quick comments. Number one, just to emphasize what John McGrath said. So there are over 350 towns and cities in Massachusetts. There are only 30 that are AA bond rating. We are one of those 30. So less than 10%. So I want to give you the confidence that these boards and committees are thoughtful and make the right recommendations that will keep our community strong. Um, that's number one. Number two is that just to because we have a regional school district, I just educate, but it has to pass in both towns, right. So the part of the school budget has to pass in both Hamilton and Wenham. It did pass in Wenham on Thursday night. So that's good. And then any overrides or that exclusion need to pass at the ballot box on Thursday. So we're not done today. So you need to also go reminder to go to the ballot box on Thursday and also vote. So thank you Bill. 01:01:20,719 S1: Okay. Any questions or discussion. 01:01:37,800 S13: Just clarification Beth are 270 Asbury Street. Is this. Um, are we just having discussion on 2.3 or were you saying we were discussing 2.4 as well? 01:01:48,519 S1: The discussion is on 2.3 and 2.4. Okay. Votes will be separate. 01:01:54,239 S13: Okay. So this my understanding on this part is this is the basic budget. And then 2.4 is the overrides. Is that correct. Um so I want. The one comment I wanted to make is the reason why I held, um. I was the one who held the HDC money for $175,000 in meals tax, which is more than they normally get. For some reason, the state gave us a a higher amount, and I would actually like to see that money instead of going to the HTC this year to fill in the gap, which is. 01:02:27,469 S1: We'll do that. We'll deal with that when we get to that article. 01:02:30,469 S13: Well, no, it applies to 2.4, which is we have a $250,000 override asked by the town, and 175,000 could be addressed by the HTC by that meals tax. Thank you. 01:02:45,150 S5: Okay. 01:02:47,269 S1: Any other questions or comments? 01:02:54,349 S1: Okay. I guess we're ready to move you. 01:03:01,469 S14: My apologies. Catherine gone 277 Linden Street. Catherine Spano, 277 Linden Street. Is this the appropriate time to ask a question about article 2.4? I want to make sure that I'm understanding that correctly. 01:03:17,059 S1: Um. 01:03:19,900 S1: Yes. 01:03:22,059 S14: Thank you. Bill. Um, I think this question may be best addressed to Mr. Tracy. I am not fully understanding the specific impacts to the school. If the override does not pass today, somebody please explain what the specific impacts would be. 01:03:43,980 S1: Someone from the school. Mr.. Tracy, do you want to respond to that? 01:03:51,539 S11: Yes. Thank you, Mr. Moderator. The answer to the question is if the override doesn't pass, the first thing on the docket would be about 26 positions. It's been listed as 26.6 because it's a part time position in there as well. So 26.6 positions would be taken from the school board school district budget. These positions, um, have been characterized in various parts of town as coming from one place. It would come across from across the entire district. They would come from every one of our schools would be impacted by this loss. Also included in there are a number of maintenance items, including a $90,000 replacement of sprinkler heads that we need to do in this facility here at the middle school high school complex. Um, $10,000 in a floor replacement at the booker in the kitchen that is falling apart daily. Um, $168,000 for security vestibules, which was a commitment I've been trying to make to secure the entrances of our school facilities. Um, at least take that step, that initial step. And then there are There is also the reduction of a late bus one. There were two late buses. In this year's budget there are two late buses next year. We had reduced in the early rounds of FY 27, one in this and put the second one in the override. If we do not pass the override, the second late bus will be not available to students at the high school middle school complex. There will also be another 5% increase in athletic user fees, and I think that's the majority of them. 01:05:30,010 S14: Mr. moderator, may I ask one very brief follow up question? 01:05:33,929 S1: Yes, ma'am. 01:05:35,329 S14: Mr. Tracy, is there going. Is there a possible impact on elementary school students having to change schools if the override does not pass today? 01:05:49,250 S11: Mr. Varner, the answer to the question is, is possibly the reality is the leadership team and I have spent the last months trying to figure out different ways to meet the numbers, and this includes restructuring or rejig where our schools, the way our schools would be set up. For instance, I think I can correct me if I'm wrong. I believe the question is related to moving like grades together. That would be a possibility. If you currently look at our our elementary schools, there are seven teachers in each of the grade levels K to five. We would take one of those teachers away to reduce the budget, increasing class sizes, but then also look at the possibility of shifting grade levels into one building. So for example, one building would house pre-K K and one, another building might have two and three, and another building might have four and five. And that would be to get all the teachers in one place, make it easier to balance class sizes where it would be very difficult. Right now we're in the structure we're in. We've looked at lots of items. We've looked at even the reality of closing down Central Office and trying to move our our people into some of the buildings. There's just no space. So we literally have weighed out a number of options and continue to. We'll continue to look at them through this process. 01:07:08,389 S14: Thank you both. 01:07:09,590 S5: Okay. 01:07:11,469 S1: Okay. 01:07:12,630 S15: Mister moderator, would this be the right time to share my thoughts on 2.24? 01:07:18,030 S1: Um, so I just saw it clear on the record. Are you a registered voter? 01:07:23,190 S5: No. 01:07:23,909 S1: Okay. Uh, under the town bylaws, the moderator has the discretion to allow non-voters in appropriate circumstances to speak to a matter. And, uh, I'm going to allow this young gentleman to speak. 01:07:44,750 S15: Okay. Thank you. Um, I'm Elijah Strozier, and I'm a student here at Hamilton Windham High School. And I thought it would be important for you guys to hear a voice of a student here and how I'm affected and how me and my peers are affected. And I would urge you to vote favorably for the override today for the following reasons. First of all, as the class sizes, we have a smaller school, but it's quite strong and tight knit, and I think the smaller class sizes helps students greatly with access to their teacher. And with bigger class sizes, the students won't be able to ask questions. And like, if I'm even in this school, if I'm in class and there's like 3 or 4 people ahead of me waiting to ask questions, I'm just going to forget whatever question I had and just ignore it. And I think that takes away from the learning experience. And then especially in I'm in advanced chemistry and we do these labs and there needs to be resources and materials and goggles and stuff. But also supervision is very important because there's some crazy stuff that people decide to do in the labs, and we need teachers to be there to watch over that. And if there's massive classes dealing with dangerous chemicals, chemicals and stuff can go bad. And so I think the smaller class sizes are very important. And also just for the kids future, the teachers need to be there. And the the teachers that will be cut will be from extracurricular programs, and they supervise clubs and electives like economics and the chorus and band. And I think a lot of kids, they don't find their future in the core classes like English and math and stuff, but, uh, rather in like band or for me, economics. I really enjoy the economics class, and I've never actually smiled going into a midterm because I enjoy the class so much. But I think those, those, um, extra classes are very important for to help kids find their future and what they want to do. And I think without the override, we wouldn't have enough money to fund those classes or have the teachers to hold them. And I think that would hinder students ability to go on into their path to the future. And also. 01:10:07,479 S1: Thank you. 01:10:09,079 S15: Okay. 01:10:10,720 S16: Thank you. 01:10:22,239 S1: Any other questions or comments? 01:10:26,199 S2: Melissa Axel, 60. 01:10:27,680 S14: Echo Cove Road. Um, we're here again. 01:10:30,520 S2: Talking about schools as pertains to the budget, and I realize it is the largest portion of it. But some of the comments that Joe made, I just wanted to kind of, you know, say something I've said before in these meetings, you know, Hamilton and Wenham function as kind of a pair in a lot of places. And Joe, you mentioned some needs in police cemetery. You know, some of those places could be shared services between our towns. And I would really urge, um, those of you who make these decisions to look more carefully and closely at an ability for us to share those things, because this override is really close. And to hear students and see families worried about what's going to happen, um, to their kids and to the future of our town. You know, I think we can make decisions, um, that are really in the best interest of everybody and not make this about parents versus everybody else every year. Thank you. 01:11:30,630 S5: Thank you. 01:11:35,029 S6: Hi. 01:11:35,750 S13: Deb Safford, Maple Street. 01:11:36,989 S14: I just had. 01:11:37,670 S13: A. 01:11:38,109 S14: Um. 01:11:38,789 S13: A question. I think we. 01:11:39,670 S14: Have to care about. 01:11:40,590 S13: The. 01:11:40,710 S17: Kids as well. But we also have to think about all the taxpayers and the elderly in our communities as well. And I just think that there's kind of an emotional appeal that happens when we just think about the kids. But like as a community of voters, there's a lot of demographics here and a lot of people are just barely getting by. And I don't want to see our diversity in our community, our economic diversity, be lost. And I think that's a valid point, that everyone has to make their decision independent of an emotional appeal. But we have to really think about sort of what we can afford and where we can, um, you know, shift monies around. So I just want to echo the question about the HTC funds, you know, that that maybe we don't do something for one year for that fund. I think they have a lot of money. There is my guess, and I'd be curious to know if there's anyone that can speak to how much money they have in reserve and maybe kind of a slush fund there could be removed for one year and help to pay for some of our town stuff. The other question I have is about the 1.3 million that was saved, um, saved, quote unquote, as you know, coming in under budget, which I guess is great for the the fields. Right. I think, John, you spoke to that. Where did that money go? And is there is there a place because that had been set aside? Where is that money and can that be used in any aspect of what we're talking about? So thank you for hearing all the points of views. Because we do it's really important that we think about the our whole community is not just the kids. It's an important part, but we have a lot of elderly people that are amazing and they're the rocks of our society and we appreciate them. 01:13:18,649 S1: I guess there was a question in there, so I'll allow Mister Tracy to. 01:13:24,930 S11: It was absolutely a question and an excellent question. Um, Mister moderated the fields project last year, was voted in $15 million through fundraising in the community, generous grants, 1.2 million in grants from both Wenham and Hamilton, CPC, um and some of the offsets from the donations, we were able to reduce the amount. The money isn't there. It was. It was not all used. So we took out a bond that was approximately $9.8 million. Actually a band, which is a short term bond, about $9.8 million. In FY 25, there was $1 million paid by the towns towards the debt. For FY 26, there was $1 million paid toward the debt. And in the FY 27, you'll see the $6.8 million, $6.88 million that I talked about in the current bond that we just took, which is also has also $1 million in interest in that. So it's about $7.8 million, and that's a five year bond for the fields. So we didn't use all the money, but we didn't take all the money either. So that 1.3 million doesn't exist in the in the bigger process of the scope. 01:14:38,600 S1: Mr. D'Mello, it's. 01:14:41,750 S4: I just want to address the question about shared services. Great. Great point. Um, I appreciate your asking. So we do a lot of shared services in Hamilton, and since I've been here, we've added a lot of shared services. I've told you a little bit ago. We're going to be reorganizing the 911 dispatch services, and we're going to Middleton. We've since I've been here, we've added a regional conservation agent. We've added a regional human resources director. We've always had a regional animal control officer. When we get into wanting to regionalized things that are covered by union contracts and positions, those are things that have to be negotiated both between the town and its union staff, but also then between the town and the other town. So you need another community that's willing to share those things with you. And then once you get into that conversation, you have to equalize pay rates. So we may pay DPW at one level a time that we want to merge with has a different level. You have to somehow equalize those without upsetting any of the employees. I'm not saying that it can't be done. I'm saying those are longer, harder conversations. We've been focusing on things that we can get done quickly to have an immediate impact on our budget. We're kind of running to the end of those things, so it might mean some more harder conversations over the next couple of years as we continue to look at those things. But they're not just decisions the management can make on its own. We have to have a partner. We have to have a partner in our staff as well. Our workers have to be willing to work with us on that. So we're trying we'll have those conversations. But for this year, this budget we have in front of you what we what we can afford and then what we're asking you to help us with. So thank you. 01:16:13,739 S5: Okay. 01:16:15,220 S1: Any other questions or comments? 01:16:23,899 S5: Yes. 01:16:24,859 S1: Ma'am. 01:16:26,460 S14: Linda Preston, 288 Highland Street. I'm up here because we recognize the need for changes and increases in cost for our community. We want what's best for our town people. For our students, the teachers and and the citizens. But this is a massive raise to our taxes for the coming year. And it's not the only raise that we as townspeople will have. We as families or single people or retired all have felt that crunch. We've all in our own, had to tighten our belts at home and for Social Security and those retired. The increase for this year was two point percent plus, so it doesn't compare. This is more than double that for our taxes for the coming year. As we tighten our belt for costs at the grocery store, at the gas pump, our own health insurance plans and so much more. So I feel that this is more than is reasonable for a lot of us to pay. And I know you've put a lot of work into it. We thank you for that. Um, but it seems extreme. Thank you. 01:17:51,640 S16: Thank you. 01:17:56,079 S1: Seeing no one at the microphones. Uh, I think we're ready to, uh. 01:18:05,439 S1: I didn't see you at the microphone. 01:18:07,479 S5: No. 01:18:08,479 S18: I was close and thinking about it. Beth cook for 24 Asbury Street. Um, I am a parent of a seventh grade student and a ninth grade student. Um, we are taxpayers. However, we choose to send our children elsewhere. Um, and as I listen to this discussion and I'm, um, I'm returning to town. I'm fairly new as a resident here. I first came to Wenham as a student at Gordon College in 2001. Um, my roommate at the time was a proud graduate of Hamilton one high school. Um, and she had school choice into the school from Danvers, which her family was very excited had been possible. Um, this school at the time was considered one of the best in the state. Now, when I visited Hamilton High School, this very school with my son recently, I was surprised to see the library was nearly empty of books. Um, the school was very proud to show me all of the smart boards, all of the computers, all of the technology. Um, and when I asked questions about the education my son would receive. Um, I had many concerns about the lack of paper, pencil, and books. And I realized that we're living in 2026. And, um, the way that the world seems to be moving is very different from what I want for my family and for my children. Um, and so as I sit here and I think about, um, increasing my tax burden as a stay at home mother who's homeschooling one of my children, um, whose husband is a public school teacher in another community. He's been there for 22 years at a local high school. I simply have to ask the question, um, where is the money going and is it going to the right things? Um, I want to believe that this is the town that really believes in education of our students, but I think we've gone completely wrong. And so I cannot in good conscience vote to increase a budget. That, to me, makes no sense. Um, I'd really love to go back to the bare bones and ask, um, what does a good education mean? Um, and are we taking money from, um, organizations that maybe want to see technology grow? Um, rather than critical thinking? Um, I wasn't planning to speak, but those are my thoughts. Thank you for hearing them. 01:21:00,130 S1: Ma'am. 01:21:01,010 S2: Hello. 01:21:01,689 S19: My name is Sharon Esker. I live at 18 Allen Road. I am a resident of Hamilton for 14 years. We moved here for the schools. My son is a junior. He is in 11th grade. He was the one who played the national anthem on guitar for the pool vote. Um. Thank you. My daughter is in seventh grade at the Miles River Middle School. They are both very much into humanities and the arts. Harrison's first love is music. Mr. Fekete has been instrumental in guiding not only his education in music, but also his love of history, economics, math, science. He wrote this beautiful statement about the loss potential loss of Miss Porson, who was his first biology teacher, and his current AP biology teacher. Harrison's main focuses are history. English science is not his main forte. Miss Porson has held him by his hand and guided him to upper level science classes. Because of her expertise, her care of these students, he is now applying to colleges where kids have AP courses at other schools that are double what we offer here. If we lose these AP teachers at our high schools. If we lose the arts at our high school, elementary middle schools, we are risking losing the attention of many of our students. Today, there's a lot of focus on AI, on technology, but it's the arts and humanities that will be guiding us forward if we lose this in our schools. If we lose Miss Postern, if we lose someone like Miss Carter, the chorus teacher in the middle school. Then again, we were missing out. And our kids will be less competitive as they move into the college age. So I am advocating for you to pass this budget override for all of our kids, not just the ones. I there was a lot of conversation of, oh, the sports won't get cut. Well, what about all these kids that aren't traditional athletes? We need these teachers. We need these AP courses. We need this budget. Thank you very much. 01:23:33,029 S20: My name is Ruth Ryan and I'm at 268 Linden Street. And I'm elderly and I support this override. Um. 01:23:46,550 S20: I live on retirement income, yet I feel that there should be what used to be a social compact between residents and the town government. The schools are a part of that. Um, we haven't had an override since 2008. That is remarkable. And I remember during the discussion about school consolidation, Mr. McGrath talked about, um, the lack of investment in the physical plants of the schools over the last several years. And I was quite stunned by that slide. Um, it's never a good time. Never. I lived through the years of people being very anti school when my kids were in school, and we can't shut the door behind us. Um, many of these costs that are discussed today are out of our control, such as insurance and retirement and things like that. I urge you to support the schools. They are the main thing that nobody ever asked the real estate agent the quality of other town departments. But they do ask real estate agents the quality of the school system. It's what keeps your house values the where they are. I urge everyone to vote in favor of this proposition. Two and a half override. Thank you. 01:25:14,819 S2: Sorry. I'll be quick. 01:25:16,220 S21: Um, my name is Margaret Brown. I live at 58 Moulton Street. Um, I grew up in town, and I'm a proud alum of the public schools here and now. I'm an ESP in the school district. Every day I support students who rely on structure, routine, familiar faces, and the certainty that they have a safe space in their school. These are students who often struggle just to get through the day. For them, consistency is not nice to have. It's essential. Right now, our schools are already stretched thin. Staff are doing more with less and we are constantly adapting to meet growing needs. When we talk about losing teachers, ESPs, programs and activities, it's not just about trimming extras. We are talking about removing the very supports that keep students regulated, engaged, and able to learn. In my TLC classroom, relationships matter. When trusted adults are removed, routines are disrupted, or class sizes increase. My students feel that instability immediately. This leads to increased behavioral challenges and more time out of class and a greater struggle to access learning. Not because they can't learn, but because the supports they rely on are no longer there. If this override does not pass, more students will inevitably, inevitably fall through the cracks. Teachers workloads will increase, which limits their ability to provide individualized support, especially to students with the highest needs. When that happens, everyone is affected students, staff and families. Cuts don't just impact one classroom or one group of students, they ripple outwards. They lead to less support in classrooms, fewer intervention services, reduced programming, and fewer opportunities for students to feel connected to their school and community. In the long run, it costs more academically, emotionally, and financially as I see firsthand how early consistent support prevents bigger issues later on. When we invest in our schools, we are investing in student success, staff stability, and stronger community overall. Our community takes pride in our schools. People move here because they want they value education and want their children to learn in a safe, supportive Environment. That's why my parents moved here 30 years ago. Hopefully, if this budget passes, the people will continue to do that. I urge you to vote in favor of the override for all students, staff and community in this district. Our children deserve stability, opportunity and the support they need to succeed. Thank you. 01:27:45,069 S1: I think both sides of, uh, have, uh, aired their their views. So after these two speakers, I think we'll move to a vote. 01:27:58,750 S22: Hello. My name is Chris Payne. I live in Woodbury Street. I also moved here for the schools. Uh, that cafeteria over there is full of families that moved here for the schools. Um, for those of you that are worried about, uh, affording a life here, I understand, I hear you. Uh, The reason that real estate is in such high demand in this, in this town is because of the schools. So, uh, you have to realize that, like, these schools are the crown jewel of this town. They're increasing demand for houses in these towns. Um, and the last thing I want to say is just. If we're not doing this for kids in education, what are we doing here? 01:28:41,500 S23: Please vote yes. 01:28:47,859 S17: Hello. My name is Jessica Hoke, and I'm at 114 Lakeshore Ave. And I'm only up here because I agree with the moderator and I'd like to make a move to vote. 01:29:00,460 S1: Okay, I think we're ready to move to a vote on article 2-3, uh, which is the general school and town budget under the, uh, A levy limit. Is there anyone that wants me to reread the totals? 01:29:23,369 S1: I thought that was a pretty safe bet. 01:29:27,890 S1: Okay. 01:29:31,409 S1: We'll now move to a vote. I'll allow 30s starting now. 01:30:05,489 S6: Okay. 01:30:30,319 S1: Voting is now closed. 01:30:37,680 S1: The vote is set for 12 four. The vote is yeas 402, nays 55. The ayes have it. The motion passes, I so declare. 01:30:57,600 S1: I see, I see that our state Senator Bruce, is here. So might might be time for a brief palate cleanser before we move on to a vote on our. 01:31:15,029 S1: Okay. You're going to have to sit there. I guess. Well. 01:31:22,430 S1: Um, I am not. No, Mister. 01:31:26,149 S24: Mister moderator, I can read a room just as well as you. And I think it would be better to move on with the rest of the town meeting. Thank you all very much. 01:31:33,630 S5: Thank you. Chair. 01:31:40,550 S1: Do you wish to say something after we vote on it? 4.4? We'll see. Okay. Um, okay. We've had this. We've had discussion on both articles three, 2-3 and 2-4. We'll now move to a vote on article two. Dash 2-4. 01:32:11,420 S5: Uh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 01:32:13,539 S1: Yeah. I recognize Bill Olson. 01:32:17,659 S3: I move that the town raise an appropriate $260,981 for town expenses and 1,079,400 $524 for Hamilton Windham Regional School District expenses, for a total of appropriation of $1,340,505 01:32:36,819 S3: to supplement the appropriation under article 2020 642-3 for the fiscal year beginning July 1st, 2026, as set forth in the 2027 fiscal year General Fund Supplemental Budget in appendix D and the Supplemental School Budget in Appendix E of the 2026 Appendix Book provide. However, the the vote taken hereunder shall be expressly contingent on the passage of a so-called proposition two and a half override vote under general Law. Chapter 5921. See? 01:33:06,300 S1: Is there a second? Okay, we'll move to a vote. This requires a majority vote about 30s. Voting is now open. 01:34:08,279 S1: Voting is now closed. 01:34:18,119 S1: The vote is yeas 355, 01:34:24,279 S1: 385. Nays 74. The ayes have it. The motion passes, and I so declare. 01:34:38,079 S1: I'll now recognize Senator Tarr, if he has any. 01:34:51,279 S24: So, Mr. Moderator, I bring a message from the town manager who indicates folks should stick around because we still have a lot to go through here. At today's town meeting, I am going to be extremely brief because I know that there's a lot on folks plates, but I do want to thank everyone who just engaged in this incredible discussion about the future of this community and investments in this community, and how difficult it is to make ends meet. People were passionate. They expressed their best intentions, their best wishes, and it was truly a wonderful discussion. And I do think it was incredible to hear from at least one student. And I now am very eager to visit the science labs at the Hamilton Wenham schools, and I hope that Superintendent Tracy will help facilitate that. But, you know, the discussion that just ensued reminds us in the legislative delegation just how important it is that we redouble our efforts to make sure that the state does its fair share to be able to support public education and support municipal budgets. And I want you to know that Representative Kastner and I are fully committed to not only trying to remedy the incredibly defective chapter 70 formula, which does not treat our communities fairly, but to also make sure that we get full reimbursement of the circuit breaker for chapter four special education. And at long last, hopefully we can get full reimbursement for regional school transportation, which is never happened in my tenure in the legislature. So know that we are committed to those things right now. All we have to go by is a budget that was filed by our governor. Uh, it indicates that minimum per pupil aid would be at $75. That would be a significant decrease from the current fiscal year. We think we can push back on that number and get back to a higher number. But more importantly than that higher number for minimum pure pupil aid, our goal is to make sure that school districts like Hamilton and Wynnum don't receive only minimum per pupil aid. And in order to get there, we need to change the formula. We have hoped that this year, we may finally get a Foundation Budget Review Commission to be able to look at that and begin the changes that we need. So as we move through the budget, we will prioritize increasing minimum per pupil aid, making sure the circuit breaker is fully funded, increasing regional school transportation, and looking to the long term of resetting the chapter 70 formula so that it's fair. And I want to say thank you to Superintendent Tracy, because he's been leading the effort for the North Shore School superintendents to help work with us to partner in this endeavor. And I will leave you with one piece of good news, and that is that we recently passed in the Senate a supplemental budget that uses funding from the surtax on incomes over $1 million and some available state tax dollars. And in that supplemental budget, we did put aside money for the circuit breaker for this fiscal year and for the next fiscal year. But the other thing that we did was put aside $100 million to be able to help cities and towns with the extraordinary costs that have been incurred over this past winter with snow and ice removal and control. We hope that our colleagues in the House will agree with that suggestion, and we hope that very soon we'll be able to send some significant amounts of money to the town to be able to address the budget and address the costs that were incurred with regard to this incredible winter that we just had. That being said, I do want to express gratitude to the Select board, to the Finance Committee, to the School Committee for the partnership that we have, and we will continue to work through that partnership to do the very best we can, realizing the difficult decisions and the difficult choices and the difficult conversations that have to be made. We want to do our part to make sure the state plays a role in making those conversations, and those decisions a little bit easier. It's an honor to represent you in the Massachusetts Senate. Mr. moderator, I appreciate the opportunity to say a few words at the right time. Thank you. 01:39:00,029 S5: Very much. 01:39:01,670 S16: Thank you. 01:39:08,869 S1: Thank you, Senator Tarr. Article 2-5 Capital expenditures. I recognize Bill Wilson. 01:39:18,069 S5: Come on, come on. 01:39:19,390 S7: Okay. This is a long one, so just lean back in your chair. As Joe, our town manager, mentioned in his budget report, we have about $1.257 million of capital through some transfers, so I'll read them now. I move that the town vote to transfer the sum of $866,000 from free cash to fund the following purchases and projects identified in the fiscal year 2027. Capital Projects Plan, as set forth in appendix F of the 2026 Appendix Book, including all incidental and related costs for the police department. Purchase and equip two cruisers 146,000. Police Department again. Portable radio upgrade 90,000. Police Department vehicle radio upgrade 65,000. Fire department purchase and equip command vehicle 85,000. Highway. Road and sidewalk improvements 300,000. Library parking lot pavement 150,000. Part of a DPW purchase and equip the director. Vehicle 30,000. A part of that vehicle cost will be through that transfer. Second transfer $111,129 01:40:35,460 S7: remaining from various appropriations previously approved by Town Meeting. Identified in appendix F1 for the Patent Park Master Plan phase one project, including all incidental and related costs, and also transfer Hundred and 80,000 from our Water Enterprise Fund retained earnings to fund the following purchases and projects identified in the fiscal year 2027 Capital Projects Plan, which is set forth in appendix F of the 2026 Appendix book, including all incidental and related costs. And those are DPW. The other half of the Purchase and Equip Director Vehicle 30,000 variable frequency drive finish pumps 50,000 for the water plant scatter computer replacement 50,000 again for water and for water. LED service line program 150,000. 01:41:32,619 S1: Is there a second discussion? 01:41:37,779 S7: I guess I'd just add, as Joe mentioned, it's a very thorough process for all of our budgets, both operating and capital. It starts out with our great department heads in the back, right. Working closely with our our finance department for the town, working closely with our Finn. Come over to my right and kind of some unsung, unsung heroes. We have a capital committee that has a multi-year plan that looks at capital needs for the town, and they prioritize those. And there's a long process to make sure that we are timely and spend only what we necessarily need in the coming years. 01:42:11,489 S1: Are there any questions or comments? 01:42:21,010 S1: Hearing none, I think we're ready to move to a vote. This requires a majority vote. I'll allow 30s. Voting is open now. 01:43:16,560 S1: Polling is now closed. 01:43:28,079 S1: The vote is. Ayes 346. Nays 36. The ayes have it. The motion passes and I so declare. 01:43:44,359 S1: Article 2-6 water. Enterprise. budget. I recognize Ben Galluzzo. 01:43:52,989 S9: Thank you, Mr. Moderator. 01:43:55,510 S3: I move that the town approve the FY. 01:43:58,949 S9: 2027. 01:44:00,149 S3: Water Enterprise. 01:44:01,270 S9: Budget. 01:44:02,029 S3: As. 01:44:02,390 S9: Set forth in appendix G to the 2026 Appendix book. 01:44:07,949 S1: Is there a second? 01:44:12,149 S1: Discussion. 01:44:14,149 S9: Um, I'll just add a couple of brief notes. Try to keep it short. Um, you'll be noticing coming up and your next water bill that we have adjusted our rates for the water in town, both, uh, with an infrastructure fee as well as a consumption rate increase. We spent several months, kind of this winter looking at, um, various ways to increase the revenue for the water enterprise budget, and that's to begin planning for some of these capital projects that we'll need to incur. Um, we've replaced about 40% of our water distribution network in the town, so we have 60% to go. We also have, um, a series of large water tanks. They're kind of cells. There's four of them networked together at the top of the seminary. Those are over 80 years old now and need to be we need to be thinking about replacing those. So we took the initiative to increase the rates so that we could start to generate a surplus in the water enterprise budget, so that we can start to plan in advance. So that way we keep our borrowing the amount of money that we need to borrow, um, down to the absolute minimum that we can. So if there's any other additional questions. 01:45:39,779 S1: Are there any questions or comments? 01:45:52,489 S7: Stephen McWhorter, 18 Cunningham Drive. 01:45:55,409 S25: I think what we just saw is that we had retained earnings in the water. 170,000 immediately that gets moved to the general fund. Why wasn't that retained in the water budget and used for the capital improvement to keep the residents rates down and affordability. Thank you. 01:46:17,569 S9: That's a that's a good question. I think that and Bill or Joe, you might be able to speak to those individual line items that were read out towards the end. I noticed that several of them, I think, do directly affect our water system infrastructure. So I think it was appropriated in the fashion that was desired. But. 01:46:38,930 S4: I'm going to ask if we can recognize the DPW director to talk about the water budget. And I also say that we do retain 20% of retained earnings as a stabilization fund for the Water Enterprise Fund. So similar to the way we retain 5% of free cash as a stabilization for the town general fund, we retain 20% of retained earnings in the budget every year. We don't ever want to get below that 20%. We try to build up the retained earnings so that we can use the money in retained earnings to do projects. Retained earnings are like free cash. They're one time funds that are left over because we really did a good job of budgeting. And we and then we then we didn't spend all of it. So we have a little bit left over when we have that you want it to build up because when you want to do made water projects, they cost millions of dollars. So I can either bond and take out a bond every time we want to do a water project, or we can try to use the retained earnings for that. So the retained earnings gets built up to be able to offset some of our major investments in the water fund. Tim, do you want to think, um, you can tell I'm not intimately familiar with the water, but the, uh. I'm not really sure, Steve, what you were talking to, but we do use the retained earnings to offset the water rates as much as we can. That's an adjustment we make every year. And that's why we only adjust the water rates every 2 or 3 years here prior to the select board vote, voting to adjust the rates in February. We hadn't done it in three years. It's a game. You're always trying to create a balance. You want to have enough funds in the in the enterprise fund to be able to continue operations. You don't ever want to go into the red, but you don't want to have the rates set so high that we're building up these huge amounts all at one time. Tim. 01:48:22,029 S5: Yeah. 01:48:22,350 S26: Tim Olson DPW director, head of the Water Department as well. I just want to echo Joe's comments. Um, we look, um, we we try to project, we look at the long range plans, short range, long range, larger projects as well as their operations to get through the year, as well as large capital planning down the road. So we set rates projections based on our operational needs, as well as our long range planning to try to limit the bond bonding, use retained earnings when we can to cover some of the smaller capital needs as we are this year. But we are looking at when we set rates, we're projecting out for the future years to reduce the need to continue to increase rates, trying to project and forecast out. 01:49:24,180 S1: Any other questions or comments? 01:49:29,140 S1: If not, I think we're ready to move to a vote. This requires a majority vote. Allow 30s. Voting is now open. 01:50:26,729 S1: Voting is now closed. 01:50:33,760 S5: 20. 01:50:36,960 S5: 14. Okay. 01:50:39,439 S1: The vote is. Ayes 314. Nays 28. The ayes have it. The motion passes and I so declare. 01:50:51,520 S1: Article 2-7 was already voted on in the consent agenda. Article 2-8. Hamilton Development Corporation I recognize Bill Olson. 01:51:05,279 S3: I move that the town raise an appropriate $174,235 01:51:11,079 S3: to the Hamilton Development Corporation. 01:51:14,920 S1: Is there a second? 01:51:18,399 S1: Discussion. 01:51:19,720 S3: Yes, this was held. John McGrath to speak to this. 01:51:36,869 S10: Thanks, folks. There's a couple of points to be made. One, um, has to do with the dollar amount of this article. Um, generally we've been seeing about $80,000 a year flow from the state receipt of mail tax to the town. So that's let's just call that the steady state. Um, and the history, if you want to get into it, um, of HCC, uh, we have approved a town meeting to flow the meals tax money to the HTC every year. Right. So that's sort of the normal process. Um, and the HTC has a specific charter to promote development and business enterprise in the district downtown district. And if you read their annual report, they in fact, um, provide grants. They actually sponsored sort of the development, I think, three years ago on Willow Street, um, generated, uh, some a nice return. Um, so in general, $80,000 a year flows from the state, and the HCC has a specific charter to promote economic development, which we need in town. We really need to sort of grow our commercial business large and small. Why is the number $174,000? Well, we actually asked the state that question as soon as the money came in from the state. The town treasurer immediately reached back out to the state and said, why is it so high? What happened? Multiple back and forth emails and conversations with the state and the state are re certified the dollar amount. They said there was a large one time true up in May of 2025 that generated about 100,000 extra dollars. Due to privacy restrictions, they were not able to tell us which, um, the specific circumstances of the money. Um, I'm guessing it was. The money came from a town who got it incorrectly and they corrected the books. Or, you know, there could have been a particular vendor who hadn't paid their sales tax for two years, and that was finally covered. The state would not give us the details, so we took the money. Um, it's presented here. And to raise awareness back to a couple of questions that were asked earlier. Um, we're trying to promote economic development in the town and restricting the funding to go to D.C., even though there's an overriding play, I think is shortsighted, and we would not support that. Um, so we felt comfortable providing our recommendation to allow the 174 to move across to D.C.. And the term I heard earlier, I think a phrase was used, a slush fund. Um, uh, relative to this, there is no such thing as a slush fund. We monitor very closely the reserve balance of the HDC as we monitor their activities. Um, it's reported annually. It's a book kept by our auditors. Um, the balance, I think, is over half $1 million right now. And if you want to tap into HTC. They have meetings once a month at eight in the morning. Um, and I think they're more than willing to share their plans. And if anyone wants a copy of their report, I'll be happy to mail it to you or Rick Mitchell and Scott Madden would as well. So those are some of my thoughts. Trying to capture everyone everyone's um, questions, comments. Um, thanks very much. 01:55:54,869 S1: Any questions or comments? 01:56:05,710 S25: Yes. 01:56:06,350 S27: My name is Rick Mitchell. 36 Rock Maple Ave, a chair of the Hamilton Development Corporation and one of the founding members 13 years ago. And I'll make these comments brief because they really, um, reflect some of what John mentioned. HTC was created by this body 13 years ago to petition the legislature to create a public non-profit that had the ability to invest in the downtown commercial district to support the businesses that are there, attract new businesses, and help beautify the downtown. John alluded to Willow Street, which is one good example. It took us eight years to develop that project using the meals tax money we brought in public and private investment outside of HD font HTC funds of $8 million that resulted in the development and building of 18 units of market rate rental housing and a commercial bakery on the first floor. That's generating $100,000 in new revenue to the town and providing much needed housing. We provide wreaths and flowers in the downtown. We provide $5,000 grants to existing and new businesses. We've co-funded, um, grants applications to the state to make beautification improvements to streetscapes, sidewalks, and roads. We have committed up to $250,000 to actually take that little green space at the corner of Bay Road and Railroad Ave and turn it into a mini park to in an attempt to beautify the downtown and make it a place where people will come, stay, shop and support the local businesses. That's what we do with this money. It's meals, tax money. Most of that money comes from people outside this town and we are very happy to do it. And we've had great results and we hope you will support this. Thank you. 01:58:27,090 S1: Questions or comments? 01:58:33,770 S1: Yes, ma'am. 01:58:35,649 S28: This is Terra Nova 54 within Mead. Um, first I'd like to start by thanking Jody Malawi's Wendy Markowitz, Vinny Leone for the wonderful job they've done on the budgets. And I would also like to thank the HTC for having been a wonderful neighbor these last 13 years. When the HTC was founded 13 years ago, when it was created, we had a different landscape in town. We now have three A and form based code as law development will happen downtown. By right, there is not so much need anymore for what the HTC has been doing. We are also living in extraordinary economic times, as Jones pointed out this morning. This year we've given up our local call center. We have not hired a fire deputy chief. We've left that position open $72,000 a year, $174,000. Asked by the HTC this year could cover that position for two years. We're also facing a huge increase in trash pickup costs next year. Joe has already said it's going to be even larger, so I'm guessing, well, it's going to be everything's going up, right? Yeah. So, um, $175,000 is a lot. When you look at Hamilton's budget, if you look at what we've just passed, the $260,000 town budget override, the operational override. Most of that could have been covered by the 175 in 2024. The HCC mentioned that it had 500,000 in its coffers Last year they were voted 74,000. This year they were asking for another 175. That's approximately $750,000 in their kitty. If my math is correct, the HCC has always been a good neighbor to us. I think we need to start looking at our bills, our needs versus our wants. And I would just like to ask the HTC this year to be that good neighbor and rescind its request for this money. Let us take this money and put it towards the FY 28 budget and see what we can cover, what we can pay for, what we can take care of in terms of our public safety and other areas in town which really need this money. That's all I'm asking. Thank you. 02:01:09,869 S13: Beth Herr, 270 Asbury Street. I am the one who held this, Um, I. I'm sorry. I'm very emotional. 02:01:17,779 S29: I just had a friend who I've known for 30 years walk out and say he has to sell his house after what has happened here. 02:01:26,220 S13: I lost someone last year. Um, who also had this at their house. An older lady. This is a reality. And I actually think this $175,000 is an easy decision this year not to go to the HTC. They have $500,000 in their coffers. Um, I would also like to ask the the decision from the Select board, which was 4 to 1, and I would like to know, um, why there was a dissenting vote. What the thoughts were on why that person didn't vote for it if they wanted to talk to that. But these are these are real lives that are being impacted. And I'm I've known this person for, I think, 30 or 40 years who just walked out and I'm a little shaken by it. So thank you for considering voting this down. 02:02:23,010 S17: Deb Stafford I just to John's point, you say this is a normal process to do this, but the fact that we vote on it every annual meeting means that we have the right to say no to it, even though it may have been done. And I think that's the point, is that if we have a lot of available money and they have enough to do the work that they're doing, we should be able to have the option to defer that money, as has been suggested, especially in tight economic times. And so I don't think that we should be gaslit in some ways for like saying that we don't think that this should go to this entity. It's not against the HGC is just saying, like, maybe this is not the year to get the extra surplus. You know, even a significant portion of it shouldn't go because you probably have enough to do the work that you do. And we do have other entities that are, you know, the form based code is also providing structure. You know, to be able to hire the other cemetery guy or to be able to hire somebody else with this money. It just seems like it makes sense. And so I just encourage people just to not just vote because we always do it and it's always a yes. Maybe there's a time sometimes to say no. In that sense, a good message that, you know, we can be flexible and our vote actually does matter. Thank you. 02:03:37,319 S1: Ma'am. 02:03:38,479 S30: Lori Wilson, 17 Boardman Lane I've been a resident for over 30 some years. Seven years on the income. And my question is, um, I guess I'm asking the either Wendy or the Finicum when you take one amount of money and put it towards the general fund, what do you do the following year when you don't have that money? 02:04:09,159 S30: Do you understand what I'm saying? Yeah. I mean, to use it, to use it right now and not have it available the following year puts us in another budget situation. 02:04:20,829 S3: Right. So I'll answer, Pastor Joe. So one of the things we found over the last few years is that you don't want to use one time cash to do, you know, recurring costs, because it's kind of the reason we're in the bucket we're in this year is because we used free cash last year to pay down our tax, and now we have the override. So with the extra 100 this is typically 60 to $70,000. Ask this year it's 174. Next year is going to be back to the 60 or 70. So if you take that extra 100,000 and pay down the tax rate, it's going to kick the can down the road. Next year, you're going to have $100,000 problem with our taxes. So it's really not a good fiscal responsibility to use free cash or extra cash for recurring expenses, because it just creates a bigger problem down the road. And we're trying to eliminate overrides in the future, not create situations. We'll have them. So. But I'll let you speak if you have anything else to add. 02:05:11,500 S4: No, just for clarity sake. The the budget for this year has passed, and the supplemental budget is subject to the election. At least this past town meeting. So a no vote on this article. Just for clarity's sake. I'm not telling you how to vote. Everybody vote your conscience. But a no vote for clarity sake would just mean that the $174,235 would remain in the general fund. It would be added to the free cash until a future time meeting, when we would have an appropriation in front of you. But to clarify what Bill just said, as it would be free cash, we would not bring it here and ask you to spend it on recurring operational expenses. It would likely be used for capital or opex or something like that. It wouldn't go into the operational budget to keep a deputy or hire a cemetery worker. Just for clarity. 02:05:56,500 S5: Yeah. 02:05:57,180 S30: Thank you. That's just what I wanted everybody to be aware of. Appreciate that. 02:06:02,579 S5: Yeah. 02:06:03,220 S10: One final comment. No one is no one is gaslighting anybody. Okay. I did hear that word. Um, people can decide how they want to vote here. They can say no. Um, the money would end up in the free cash balance next year, so that's what would happen. Okay. Um, so my viewpoint is let's try to promote economic growth in the town, which would potentially raise tax revenues in the future if we don't promote economic growth. Um, it's a missed opportunity. So I'm trying to recommend that we empower the HTC to do everything they can to create growth in the town, not just sort of status quo. So that's where my comments come from. So. 02:07:05,920 S1: Thanks Mr. Mitchell. 02:07:08,720 S27: Rick Mitchell again, the chair of the HTC. Um, Jon's absolutely correct. I know it's everybody says, oh, there's $500,000 sitting in there. I just told you, we have committed $250,000 of that to do a major renovation in downtown, something the town doesn't have the funds to do. This is being paid through a meals tax that most of you don't pay. So we also built a Willow Street that's generating $100,000 in new cash. We're supporting local businesses. All this money is going back into reinvestment in the downtown. Now, if another project comes up, take a look at Asbury at Willow Street, down by Asbury Street. It's an industrial area. It's ripe for potential development. It should be used to generate a lot more cash than it does now. Um, we're looking at those kinds of opportunities to provide some tasteful, reasonable new development that provides more tax revenue to the town. So. Sure, you can cut us off at the knees today, but it leaves us less money to invest in the future to cut your taxes, or at least minimize new tax increases. So this is robbing Peter to pay Paul does not make economic sense. Thank you. 02:08:41,270 S16: Thank you. 02:08:44,590 S1: Ma'am. 02:08:46,149 S2: Melissa Axel, 60 Echo Cove Road. Um, respectfully, um, if I go into a local business or a restaurant, I mostly see people that live here. I don't think that, uh, to say most of us don't pay these taxes is realistic in all actuality. You know, I am fully supportive of economic development in our towns, but we just approved, um, a portable radio, a vehicle upgrade command, fire vehicle, DPW director vehicle. You know, any one of multiple of those things could be paid for with this money, and that wouldn't be robbing Peter to pay Paul for, you know, ongoing expenses. These were all one time expenses we just paid for. Thank you. 02:09:31,020 S5: Okay. 02:09:32,939 S1: Okay. I think we're ready for a vote. This requires a majority vote. 02:09:43,539 S1: Voting is open now. 02:10:32,369 S1: Voting is now closed. 02:10:43,649 S1: The vote is ayes 234, nays 94. The motion passes and I so declare. 02:10:54,250 S1: Article 2-9 was approved on the consent agenda. 02:11:01,319 S1: Article two Dash ten capitalization. Capital stabilization fund. I recognize Tom Meyers. 02:11:12,279 S31: I move that the town transfer the sum of $200,000 from free cash to the Capital Stabilization Fund. 02:11:19,800 S1: Is there a second? 02:11:23,439 S1: Discussion, Mr. Meyers? 02:11:27,399 S31: So just quickly on this. So the Capital Stabilization Fund is a fund that was established by the town for financial security to offset some of the capital costs per town policy. We have a certain percentage of our budget that should be in the Capital Stabilization Fund. Back in April of 23, the town meeting had approved the expenditure from this account for a new fire truck in the amount of $625,000. So we are trying to replenish the fund to get up to our minimum policy. So this would take $200,000 from free cash to move it into the stabilization fund, per our financial policy. 02:12:06,789 S1: Are there any questions or comments? 02:12:15,109 S1: Seeing none, I think we're ready for a vote. This requires a two thirds vote. I'll allow 30s. Voting is open now. 02:13:10,140 S1: Voting is now closed. 02:13:20,420 S1: The vote is ayes 220, nays 17. 02:13:27,619 S1: The motion obtains the required two thirds vote and the motion passes and I so declare. 02:13:46,100 S1: Article 211 was approved in the consent agenda. 02:13:52,409 S1: Article two Dash 12. Hamilton Wenham Regional School District high school roof replacement project. 02:14:04,130 S1: I recognize Bill Wilson. 02:14:07,609 S7: I move that the town approve article two Dash 12 as printed in the warrant. 02:14:13,409 S1: Is there a second? 02:14:16,930 S1: Discussion. 02:14:25,369 S11: Hi, Greg. 02:14:25,970 S4: Corner home Street in Hamilton. 02:14:28,329 S32: Can I comment? 02:14:29,649 S1: Yes. There's anybody from the. 02:14:31,930 S5: Yes. 02:14:33,729 S1: Just before. Before. Are we going to have a discussion of the roof or just an explanation or. 02:14:42,529 S5: Explanation of what's happening? 02:14:44,409 S1: Right. 02:14:45,210 S5: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You go ahead. 02:14:52,640 S11: Thank you, Mr. Moderator, for the opportunity to explain the high school roof project. Just jump right to the next slide. Uh, it's an overview of the high school. Middle school roof. The area in gray is the projected replacement area. It's about 128,000ft² of rubberized roofing and is closing in on 30 years of age. Uh, we've submitted to the MSBA for many, many years in an effort to get this roof repaired under the ARP program, which allows some financial, um, granting back from the MSBA to offset the cost of all the building roofs in the in the town in a school district. This is by far in the worst condition. Uh, this year the MSBA invited us into the project actually last year, and they have committed to approximately 45.51% reimbursement of the project costs. Next slide please. Um, so this is an early estimate of the costs while we're working through feasibility and schematic design. Uh, it outlines a $4.3 million reimbursement by the MSBA. But there's even better news. Next slide. Back in March, the project went out to bid in hopes of having a clearer numbers for our town meetings. On Monday morning, we met with our OPM to to review the bid documents for the high school roof. And these behind me are the most up to date costs for the high school roof. As you can see, the actuals were about $3 million cheaper than the original estimate. Why? That was my question to the estimators as well. Estimating for public projects has included a substantial buffer and initial cost estimates due to potential financial risks. At the time the project would be executed. These risks include inflation, instability and construction markets in price and pending price increases in oil, which is a key component for materials like rubber roof and sealants. Next slide quickly. And then this is the slide that was prepared before the bids when we, we were trying to figure out the overall cost. But there are some of the variables that were presented to us by the designer and our estimates age, size of the roof are important factors. Also hazardous materials have been identified both lead and asbestos. So that does increase some of the costs. And we're also subject to state prevailing wage, which generally results in higher hourly rates for workers than on other non-commercial projects. And then slide five. Last 111 question that should immediately come to the top concerns the language and figures in this article. The article and subsequent motion were pre-approved, approved by our attorney, the MSBA, and and the bond counsel before we opened up the actual bids. Unfortunately, we're unable to make changes to the number tonight this morning, because we didn't have enough time to secure updated approvals on the MSBA and Bonds Council, which takes several weeks. This is similar to the high school athletics projects, where we approved approximately 15 million, but only took on a bond totaling 10 million because we had several community based offsets. I just wanted to explain that for people why the number wasn't dropped with the cost, but the 7.3 million is what we're really looking at. So thank you for the opportunity to present and happy to take any questions. 02:18:00,940 S5: Thank you. 02:18:02,940 S1: Sir. 02:18:04,420 S5: Thank you. 02:18:05,459 S32: Um, Greg Horner, home Street. Um, when I hear about a new roof project, it's probably boring for a lot of you, but I think it's exciting because I think about revenue. Um, I think about the the cost savings we've seen at the library from having solar there. And the high school roof is a really, really great place for solar. Big flat areas. Uh, no shade obviously. Um, so I want to just ask, what's the plan for solar there? Um, and specifically, like, does the planned roof renovation include funding to maximize the area of the roof that is solar ready. I understand some areas need cost US expenditures to reinforce the strength of the roof to handle the extra weight. And second question aligned with that is are you planning to maximize the revenue through solar power? 02:19:03,129 S11: Mr. moderator, to answer the question, we have been working with our OPM and designer there, a fairly large portion of the roof. Initially, it was 40% would have been able to be used for solar. It is beyond that. More more like 82% of the roof that can be used for solar. So that could be a project that we have been working with the H.W. Cat group, and also Vicky Mazzoni, who has connected us up with some opportunities for solar, just so people aware are also working on a project for solar in a canopy over the middle school parking lot to offset costs, and that canopy goes in with no cost to us or you, and it drops our electric rates down to about $0.09 per kilowatt hour from the current 17, and saves almost 1,000,002 over the 20 year life of a contract. We would sign with that vendor. I would suspect there be a similar opportunity for the high school roof to be able to drop prices down significantly, based on the installation of future solar projects. Two things that are important. The MSBA does require all roofs to be solar ready, all roof projects to be solar ready. So basically the conduits and the connections would be there for us to move forward with the project in the future. And the insulation values on this roof would be dramatically increased and improved. So that would also help with some of the savings of heating during the during the winter months. Does that answer your question? 02:20:31,680 S5: Sir. 02:20:33,559 S25: Steven McWhirter, 18 Cunningham Drive. This just like occurred to me, normally when you do a capital project like this. You go out and get a few bids. And that's one part I didn't really hear about the town. People didn't hear about whether they're bidding on this. And did we get a bid for 12 million? 9 million? 6 million? Were there any other bids? So did the town just go out and say this one contractor, one bid and we'll take it. If you could answer that. 02:21:08,829 S11: Mr. moderator, the state of Massachusetts requires us to go out to bid for any project of this nature and capital in size. We had received three bids. We anticipated possibly five um, groups that toured the roof. When we when we did the pre bid walkthroughs. So we got three bids and all of those three bids came in within 200,000 of each other. Getting that, that $10.2 million down to 7.3 ish. It was actually refreshing to see that they were all within $700,000, and not an 8 million and a 10 million and a 4 million. So all pretty consistent bids. 02:21:48,579 S33: Sir Ed McCarthy, 60 Cunningham Drive. Thank you all for your service, I appreciate it. I just want to make some comments about the solar installation. Um, I have five electrical certifications, but one project recently was going up and working on installation, maintenance and troubleshooting of one of the largest solar arrays in Massachusetts. It's on encore Boston Harbor. What we need to do is if we go for the solar option, we need to budget maintenance for repair and upkeep of these systems. We have a track record in the school, and this is not the this is not a slur, but we don't always maintain our school properties properly. In five years, three out of eight inverters fail. What does that mean? The inverter is a massive electronic box, 10 to $15,000 in cost, and the inverter changes the DC out of the solar panels and helps put it back into the AC power grid. Inverters fail, panels flip out the duty of the roof, the damage. And there's a lot of good to be said about solar. But as the guy who's up on a rooftop in February in 50 miles an hour wind repairing broken connections, testing inverters, they do require maintenance. Just like your car, just like you have to maintain your car. This is a very, very important point. It's totally been overlooked. So we have to budget the money for maintenance, repair, and upkeep of this system. We're adding a new electrical distribution system to the school, and just like any other system, plumbing, roof, Windows. It has to be repaired and maintained and I hope it's something you won't overlook. Thank you very much and thanks for all you do. 02:23:43,719 S1: Sir. 02:23:45,399 S25: Ted over ten Gale Ave. 02:23:47,079 S34: And I'll just be brief, but I'm all for fixing up the buildings. You know, I think that's great that we're getting to do that. I guess a question I have is we heard over the last year how poor Winthrop and Cutler are. So I just was wondering why the decision was made, which I'm all for. But to do this versus what I thought were two other schools that were in tougher shape. 02:24:16,600 S11: Mr. moderator, the projects that we put forward are attempted annually. We the roof, for example. I think there was seven years. I remember I think we requested reimbursement from the MSBA over seven years, and it's really a matter of timing. When these things occur, the the state will take all the roof projects that get submitted into the ARP program and weigh a value of age and draw a line and say, okay, everything over 28 years will be funded this year. We had dropped out of that funding sequence for six years in a row. This past year. We finally got accepted once our roof hit 28 years. So that's the reason why it happened to be an opportunity that was handed to us, presented to us by the MSBA based on the actual roof issues. And there's a lot more work to be done with our elementary school conversation. And many people have attended those conversations, and we've got some great information, and we look forward to a future in a future meeting, bringing some of those results and some ideas back to the community for contemplation and hopefully momentum forward. 02:25:25,549 S1: Okay. Thank you. I think we're ready to For a vote. This requires a two thirds vote. I'll allow 30s. Voting starts now. 02:26:34,209 S1: Voting is now closed. 02:26:46,250 S1: Okay. The vote is 204. Ayes 19. Nay. The vote achieves the required two thirds EIS. The motion passes and I so declare. 02:27:09,889 S1: Article 3-1 sale of portions of patent homestead property. I recognize Rosemary Kennedy. 02:27:22,690 S8: I move that the town approve article 3.1 as printed in the warrant. 02:27:28,680 S1: Is there a second? 02:27:30,319 S5: Second. Second. 02:27:31,920 S1: Discussion. Rosemary Kennedy. 02:27:35,360 S8: So I first of all want to say that I have been privileged to be a member of the Hamilton Task Force in terms of just discussing what will be done with the patent homestead. First of all, we are the generals and paying tribute to the town wide paying tribute to General Patton and in general to the patent legacy. There. Is there a slide of the property? Okay, great. Okay, so the patent homestead was generously donated to the town of Hamilton in 220 12. The gift comprised of 27 acres. The land bordering the Ipswich River to Asbury Street included the patent home known as the Homestead. It was built in 1786. It includes a barn and stable, and has been in the patent family since 1928. The two 2012 donation included the approval to allow for the town to sell 4.4 acres to be residentially developed as property tax revenue, now known as Peyton Ridge. This historic property as a gift to the town, was nationally significant because it has the unique history of having been the home to two famous American generals. Mrs. Joanne Holbrook Patton, who donated the property, had a national reputation of a champion as a champion of community service and philanthropic leadership. The patent family is defined as one of the most significant families in American military services history who honored military Service valued education, family, civics, arts, environment and athletics. Mrs. Patton called Hamilton her home after living in over 40 homes around the world as a military wife, and upon the retirement of her husband, who had grown up at the homestead. She was the wife of Major General George George Smith Patton, the fourth who served in Korea and Vietnam, and the daughter in law of World War II General George Smith Patton Junior and Beatrice Air Patton. Her many local causes, including restoring the sustainability of the Hamilton Windham Community House, intellectual disability services, veterans, and the arts. The essence of Mrs. Peyton's Homestead gift was to provide Hamilton and the public at large a place to remember, service the environment, and to support a community of goodness across all aspects of American life. The proposed sale by the Town of Hamilton is to honor the spirit of the Payton Homestead 2012 donation, with the objective of ensuring 3.23 plus acres of the historic building location is utilized to support the public, veterans and first responders and their families, preserve American Armed Forces histories, and share leadership principles managed by a dedicated, non-profit mission dedicated to the patent family legacy. It's also to relieve the financial burden of Hamilton's annual municipal expense of maintaining and financing the improvement of historic building, the historic buildings use, and the surrounding 3.23 acres where the patent family home is located. The plan is to keep separately and protect all the remaining 19 acre land parcel originated by. Originally donated by Mrs. Patton as the Town of Hamilton Public open space. This includes the Open Meadows Pond Trail access to the Ipswich River, including the unique patent River nature River platform. Of note is the connection of this open space to the Asbury Essex Street County Greenbelt, connecting trails and the Iron Ox Farm, all of which was originally patent family land. The town is extremely grateful for the patent gift. We have discovered, however, that we do not possess the resources, both financial and personal, to properly maintain the property in a way it deserves, and so we have faced the necessary choice to sell part of it. The Patent Foundation simultaneously has come forward with a willingness to purchase a portion of the property. The Patent Foundation was founded by Helen Patton, a daughter of Joanne Patton, and would and the service of the Legacy of Service would continue to the patent family. Just a brief history, a brief explanation of the Patent Foundation of whom we've all been privileged to meet. The president thereof, Jeff Wells and the mission of the Patent Foundation is to lead from the front. It's to continue the patent legacy of service through creativity, inspiration, and education. Restore and enhance the image, virtue, and purpose of America. Focus on veterans, active duty military, first responders and their families rekindle and share the true heart of American patriotism. Expand patents third Army to include us all in unite in Strength, freedom and dignity. Specifically, the Patent Foundation will will focus on seven key pillars honoring and protecting history, arts and literature, conflict resolution, youth awareness and inspiration, education, health and well-being, and provide veteran services and outreach. Using the model, the soldier is the Army. And so finally, the process for the sale. We need the town needs to adhere to the 2012 Gift Agreement provisions. It must first be offered to the immediate family, the patent family members who are Joanne Patton's children. If they decline, the town may sell a portion or the whole property. We have outlined the plan to sell about 3.3 acres, and you can see that highlighted on that slide up above. Again, the open space will be maintained for town use. If the if the patent family members declined to take back the gift, the town may sell a portion of the whole property in the event of a sale, 50% or 50% of the proceeds are retained by the town and 50% are allocated to the surviving patent children. If the town meeting today votes to allow the Select Board to sell a portion or all of the homestead, we will first complete a survey and appraisal of the property and then send it out to bid. The highest bid within the confines of a preferred future use would have an opportunity to purchase. The Select Board has voted in favor of the sale, and we ask the town meeting to vote in the affirmative. 02:35:26,450 S5: Thank you. 02:35:28,010 S1: I recognize John McGrath. 02:35:37,729 S10: Thank you very much. Well done. I'll just put an exclamation point on what Rosie said, and then I'm going to ask the moderator to recognize a member of the Friends of Patton. Uh. Leanne's here. Um. What a gift from the patent family. Um, the property was acquired in 2012, and we've been tracking every year the financial, um, situation with the patent homestead. It has generated $3 million worth of value for the town. Peyton Ridge is currently generating about $180,000 worth of tax revenue. That's a gift that will keep on giving. Um, so even if we were to give the property away, the fact that we were able to create Peyton Ridge, um, is a is an annuity into the future. Um, so I don't really need to add much more, but I just wanted to offer, you know, my thanks to the patent family and for a lot of people in town. I'm looking at Mark, others who had sort of supported the property. Um, and, uh, just the fabulous situation, not only the history, but the financial benefits that have accrued to the town. So I'm going to ask, Mr. Moderator, if you could recognize We really needed to fail. Thank you. 02:37:15,069 S28: Good morning. My name is Leandra DeFeo. I am president of Friends of Patton Homestead and also a Hamilton resident. Friends of Pat homestead is a non-profit that was formed to help support the town and the use of this property. Um, but as, uh, Miss Kenny mentioned, the town has worked diligently to make the best use of the patent homestead. It just doesn't have the capacity to manage this historic property. I was first introduced to Jeff Wells, the president of the Patent Foundation, about a year ago. Jeff is an Army veteran and leads several veteran focused nonprofits. Getting to know Jeff and the Foundation. Over the past year, the board has been very impressed with their work. He has made the trip to Hamilton from Texas three times over the past year, bringing fellow board member and retired three star general Robert Nathan. Both have a proven record of raising millions of dollars for their nonprofits and are dedicated to veterans and the community. In their own words, the Patent Foundation exists to honor, preserve, and activate the patent legacy in a manner that is historically responsible, publicly accessible, and sustainable. For example, they built a veterans center in Texas that is run mainly by volunteers and offers free veterans services. The foundation plans to use the homestead to house a patent archive, which would be a central repository of all patent related artifacts and documents, a historic landmark with tours and a place for veterans services, it would be an active part of the community and open to the public. They have already met with many stakeholders in the area and they are really dedicated to being part of this community. The Patent Foundation's plan for the homestead aligns with the spirit of Joanne's original gift and our organization's mission to preserve history, honor veterans, and welcome community. The foundation's proposal to the town states. Our intent is to preserve the historical integrity of the homestead. Activated as a living educational space, and ensure that the legacy of General Peyton and his descendants remains accessible and meaningful for future generations. We believe the Foundation is uniquely positioned with historical expertise, committed leadership, and public interest support to fulfill this role responsibly and respectively. The board. My board of the Friends of Peyton Homestead believes the Patent Foundation, which is directly tied to the patent family legacy as it was founded by Helen Peyton, is invested in improving, improving and maintaining this property's historic and cultural legacy. We are excited for the future of the homestead with the Patent Foundation and unanimously endorse this sale. Thank you. 02:40:02,920 S1: Questions? Comments. 02:40:05,159 S26: Mark Johnson. 02:40:06,879 S25: On. 02:40:07,239 S35: The Peyton Friends of Peyton Homestead, part of the Select Board. When we accepted the gift and worked very hard for the first five, six, or seven years of the Payton, um, what's now the patent friends of Payton Olmstead to figure out how the town could take advantage of this asset and every solution that we had bumped into. Two big hurdles. The one is to improve the house. The way the services would need to be delivered was not something that we were ever going to fund as a town. We weren't going to put enough money to put fire protection, to put all the different things that you need to enter the house. We just kept running into that and we couldn't find a way to justify to justify it, you really need to have a separate foundation to run it. The Patent Foundation showed up and said they wanted to do. Oddly enough, they wanted to do exactly what we wanted to do, but they had the capacity to do it. They had the will to do it. They really believe in volunteers. They will be able to give access to the archives that we have not been able to do, because the archives have had to have it under the when a museum and the when a museum hasn't had the staff to have the constant public access. So we as a community will enjoy the patent homestead more than when we when we owned it. We will get the exact benefits we accepted the gift for. So it really is an incredible win win win for the community. I encourage everybody to vote for it. 02:41:32,590 S5: Yeah. 02:41:45,430 S5: Hi. 02:41:46,549 S36: I'm Forester Forester, clerk of 308 Sagamore Street, and I hope you don't mind if I don't read my speech. I, as the governor of California said I'm slightly disabled mentally, just. 02:42:01,180 S1: So you keep it under. 02:42:02,260 S36: Three. 02:42:03,059 S1: Under three minutes. 02:42:04,620 S36: I just take it from the top as I was thinking about it when I Joel, I know how hard you worked on this and a lot of other people. I know how hard they've worked on it too. I'm afraid I'm not going to follow you anymore. Thanks. I appreciate the effort. But the the fact is that. And by the way, I try. Good news, bad news. I've found since my accident that I can't stand more than five minutes. So that's the. That's the good news. The bad news is that I do have a couple of comments to make. I felt when I walked in and I saw everybody talking and I said I made a mistake. There was another Irishman in front of me. It's been like the legislature telling me how to vote, and I don't know whether I want to put up with that, but I'll get used to it pretty quick. My But basic thoughts are twofold. And I, I go back to what my son, who was in the oil business and somewhere in western California. He won't tell me where he is, but he's making some pretty good money. And, uh, I he said, you're going to sell the patent property or even a part of it. He says, you're selling the motherlode. You don't want to go out and do that. That's what's been the part of ever since he grew up in Ambler and quite frankly, since I moved to Hamilton, if I live long enough, I will have lived here 90 years in, in the coming fall. In November 30th, which birthday I proudly share with Winston Churchill and Gary Player. I think it was two people that I respect for that much, and I like to share my birthday with them, but the patent property and the name that it's gone with, it has gone through the town where known as the generals. We have an attitude that is outstanding in the way of how to live in New England and how to be New England, and how to behave like it. And I don't see any reason why we should sell that out. How would you all feel if New York decided to sell Ellis Island to some foreign country and keep the statue down there? You'd feel about the same way as I feel about the idea of selling out the patent property, or even a portion of it to somebody who I really don't know why the hell they want to move up here, and how many more went along if they went out of land in Texas and they got some kind of a problem down there that they want to come up here and enjoy our fun. Now that's the way I kind of looked at it. And the second thing is that if you're going to sell it, I mean, I lived in Texas for four years in different times. I went to the Army School in Fort Worth, Texas, not Fort Worth in El Paso, Texas, and the guided missile school. And then I lived for two years afterwards in a small town called Tyler, Texas, which was outside of Texas. And I, I got to know the Texans pretty well. And what they do and what they don't do. And I frankly, I almost married one of them was kind of a nice experience, but I didn't do it and moved east and settled in a different way with a different attitude. And I, I haven't missed that either. I go back to Texas quite a bit because we still were involved with the oil company. 02:45:36,510 S1: I think. What? Your time's up, Tim. It's up. 02:45:41,309 S36: You just got the second point. If you. I don't understand why you want to sell out if you're going to do it. If they got a group to sell, do you got 30 Texans in it with different ideas. Okay. None of them, none of them have ever been to New England, much less Hamilton. 02:45:57,020 S1: Okay. 02:45:57,459 S36: We're going to sell out to them. That seems to me like a con. 02:46:01,860 S1: I think it's been five minutes, Tim. Thank you. 02:46:08,659 S16: Thank you. 02:46:26,899 S37: George. Tara. 640 Essex Street. I'm inclined to vote for the sale of this of the homestead for the reasons given. My main concern is what happens to the rest of the property in the future. Um, I've heard promises. Of course, I'm not convinced. I mean, these are words You may recall at least some of you in the 2023 Town meeting. I voiced a petition that asked for the Selectboard to place a conservation restriction on the southern portion of the property. This is on the forest and fields in wetlands that are adjacent to the marsh. There, the select board shot it down. Their only voiced objection was they didn't want any restrictions. This seems somewhat problematic to me. It suggests that they have plans for this part of the property that are not consistent with the conservation restriction. I find that disturbing. The composition of the Selectboard has changed since then. I'm hoping it's more favorable now. So here's the deal. If the Select board will say that it's willing to negotiate a conservation restriction as described in the 2023 warrant, then I will vote in favor of sailing of selling the homestead. Okay. Oh, and one other thing. Mr. moderator, doesn't this require a two thirds vote? It doesn't say so in the warrant. 02:48:15,079 S1: No it doesn't. 02:48:16,639 S37: It's a sale of town property. 02:48:21,959 S1: Well, we'll let town council address that. 02:48:26,840 S4: Thank you, Mr. Moderator. 02:48:27,920 S38: Pursuant to general laws chapter 40, section three. It's a majority vote. It's only a two thirds vote to sell town property if that property was acquired by eminent domain. In this case, the property was gifted to the town. Thank you. 02:48:41,840 S5: Okay. 02:48:43,239 S1: I think we're ready for a vote. 02:48:46,469 S8: So I just make a quick comment in response to George Tara's comment. Um, there has been no decision about what would happen with the remaining open space as as far as the circumstances are now, it is expected to remain open. I do not believe that there would be a lot of potential for development there, as there is significant wetland in that area, and it is the intention, as we sit here today, to keep that remaining 19 acres open for the benefit of townspeople. 02:49:25,950 S1: Okay, we're ready for a vote. This requires a majority. Vote will allow. 02:49:34,709 S1: 30s voting opens now. 02:50:25,940 S5: Couple. 02:50:31,379 S1: Voting is now closed. 02:50:37,819 S1: Okay. The vote is. Is that. 02:50:42,649 S1: 1184I. 02:50:45,850 S1: Ten a the motion passes and I so declare. 02:50:53,850 S1: Article 3-2 lease of a portion of former town landfill property. I recognize Bill Olson. 02:51:05,010 S3: I move that the town approve article three two as printed in the warrant. 02:51:10,569 S1: Is there a second 02:51:13,850 S1: discussion? 02:51:15,090 S3: Yes. Um, to article three. Dash two and 3-3 are related. They are regarding a town property we affectionately call the Old Town dump. Um, if you remember, years ago we undertook a study to see how we could monetize or or get, uh, revenue out of that property. And due to, uh, significant environmental and ecological and geographical considerations, there wasn't much use of that property, but we were determined to still get revenue out of it. So we did years ago build a solar array. Every sunny day we get, we get revenue to the town. There are also two leases we have on that property. One is for the Rod and Gun Club and one is for the Marsh Mills River marsh rats. Um, two gun and shooting clubs have been good tenants of ours. These two articles are to extend their lease. For 20 years we met with them and had discussions and determined that in order for them to have a stable membership and invest in the property and invest in those organizations, they need to have a longer term lease. And we thought it would be appropriate to to sort of memorialize our relationship for a longer term and and get some guaranteed revenue and guaranteed partners of Hamilton. So these two articles are related to voting them separately, but they are related to extending the. The first one is the Rod and Gun Club lease. The second article would be the Miles River Marsh rats. 02:52:37,000 S1: Any questions or discussion? 02:52:42,549 S1: Seeing none. Ready for a vote? This requires a majority vote. Voting. Allow 30s. Voting is open now. 02:53:37,069 S1: Voting is now closed. 02:53:43,190 S5: 5916. 02:53:47,909 S1: Okay. The vote is 159. Yay! 16. Nay. The motion passes, and I so declare. 02:54:07,950 S1: Article three three. Lease of a portion of former town landfill property. I recognize Bill Olson. 02:54:15,590 S3: I move that the town approve article three three as printed in the warrant. 02:54:20,549 S1: Is there a second? 02:54:24,270 S1: Discussion. 02:54:25,989 S3: This is the second part. This is for the Miles River Marsh rats lease extension of 20 years. 02:54:31,110 S5: Okay. 02:54:33,989 S1: Any questions or comments. 02:54:43,180 S35: John Raymond. 02:54:44,100 S39: 62 Gardner Street. I have a question concerning, um, who is going to be responsible? Should there be any hazardous cleanup from all the lead shot and lead bullets that are going to wind up being in this, uh, down the road? 02:55:00,899 S5: Okay. 02:55:02,299 S1: Joe D'Mello, it's. 02:55:05,260 S4: Uh, it's an interesting question. Uh, the Rod and Gun Club and Miles River Marshal have been operating on those sites for decades. Literally, the Rod and Gun Club, I believe, goes back to the 70s. Um, but the terms of the current leases require them to use only steel shot. So there will be no future lead shot. Okay. If they ever leave the site and the state wants us to clean it up, that will be a longer discussion because there was lead years ago. It hasn't been cleaned up yet, but that would not be worsened by the use of these leases because we're going to require them to use only steel shot. 02:55:37,250 S1: Any other questions or comments? 02:55:42,049 S1: If not, I think we're ready for a vote. This requires a majority vote. I'll allow 30s. Voting starts now. 02:56:42,680 S1: Voting is now closed. 02:56:48,319 S5: One 5718. 02:56:51,120 S1: Okay. The vote is yeas 157. Nays 18. The motion passes, and I so declare. 02:57:03,920 S1: Article three four was approved in the consent agenda. Article 3-5 adoption of specialized energy building code. I recognize Rosemary Kennedy. 02:57:23,239 S8: Sorry about that delay. I move that the town approve article 3-5 as printed in the warrant. 02:57:31,430 S1: Is there a second discussion? Rosemary Kennedy? 02:57:37,790 S6: Yes. 02:57:38,829 S8: I'm here to represent the majority vote of the Select board, and the majority voted against adopting adopting this specialized code. It was it's not about being against an aspirational goal. In a perfect world, everybody wants a clean environment. Our no vote is for is for giving homeowners the opportunity to decide for themselves based upon their financial conditions, when and how much green infrastructure they will install. We already have a lot of old green stretch code in place, which adds enormous benefit in reducing energy costs. 02:58:26,790 S8: This, in part, is a cost benefit analysis. Massachusetts already has the highest electricity costs in the nation, according to the Boston Globe. On April 9th, Mass Save, which is touted as an incentive to decrease the costs of the initial installation of the energy saving. Um, parts of this bylaw mess save has been cut by a half $1 billion. And the mess save incentives are not free money, they are taxpayer dollars. The mess saved moneys are funded in those extremely high fees on our energy bills. So while we are offered these incentives upfront, we are paying for them in the in our utility costs. And I've heard people talk about the school solar to begin with. The grants for potential solar are not automatic. They must be applied for, and they are very competitive, according to Vicky Mazon, who is our energy director in town. There are many grants available without adopting this. In fact, the town hall renovation received a $500,000 grant to put geothermal heat and air conditioning in the town hall. The school already has a program initiated for solar at no cost to the town. The company is installing the panels and the result is the schools will save anywhere from 30 to 50 of its electricity costs. 03:00:20,889 S8: There's also a question as to Which construction this specialized code covers. I think that's one of the problems and one of the concerns with it being so confusing. We're told that it covers only new construction of houses over 4000ft², needing to be all electric with solar panels. In reality, all new, all new construction requires solar, solar, and at least the wiring at 40 amps throughout the building for future electrical electrification. So what constitutes new construction? All new homes of any size. Renovations over 1000ft². The demolition and rebuild of over 50% of the existing floor area, and any detached add use costs. Fairy obviously in July 2024, a 2000 square foot new home. The cost the added cost. It was about $18,000, but that did not include upgrades. Upgrades to an electric panel because in reality a double wiring system is required. Other concerns rich Maloney are building Commissioner has continually voiced opposition to the adoption, stating it's confusing and there's no standardization. The Select Board invited several local developers to come in and talk about this. Each and every one of them was against the adoption, stating it was confusing, onerous and expensive. One developer cited a home in Winchester with a $4,000 electric bill from a heat pump. A resident in Hamilton on Bradford Road, who installed a heat pump, complained of a $670 electric bill in one month. So heat pumps like electric vehicles do not function well in extreme New England cold, so a second source of heat is required. A second vehicle is required. Further, the northeast is prone to severe winter weather. A single source of of energy through electricity is dangerous and impractical. The specialized code is not nirvana. Since 2021, only 16% of Massachusetts communities have adopted it, and the adoption process requires full compliance with no modifications. And when there are amendments, they to become mandatory. So in some Using renewable energy is a laudable goal, but we must leave residents free to adopt their individual compliance as they are able, but to mandate it is burdensome, unpredictable and unfair. We urge you to vote no at this time. 03:03:41,770 S1: Rep. 03:03:44,690 S1: I'm going to have a hear from someone from the Environmental Impact Committee. 03:03:52,209 S1: You can come to that. 03:04:05,209 S12: Thank you. 03:04:06,690 S20: Hi, my name. 03:04:07,610 S12: Is Janey. 03:04:08,010 S13: Moran. 03:04:08,489 S20: And thank you. 03:04:09,409 S12: So much. 03:04:09,930 S20: For. 03:04:10,250 S40: Staying here to the very end. We really appreciate it. So first I want to thank the fine come for voting unanimously in favor of the Specialized Building Code, which is just a little bit more than what we already have, the stretch code. So we have a very green code. Now we just want to make that greener. And I want to thank the Select board for voting to allow this code to come to you. You're the ones that live here, right? You're going to make the decisions about where we go in the future and how we are going to work on our Hamilton climate resolution, uh, which we voted on 2022, in a town meeting that was pushing us forward. And, you know, the green sorry pieces here. But what we're trying to do is to be net zero carbon by 2040. Now, this is ten years earlier than the state, which is going to be net zero by 2050. So we are going this way. This is the flow, the river that we're following. I want to point out that the Hamilton Selectboard was mixed. There were two who have voted in favor of this code, so I don't know if they would be willing to speak, but I hope they will. Um, I just want to add a few more things. Uh, we do share a building inspector. And when and pass this code last Thursday. Um, and, uh. 03:05:54,229 S40: A couple more notes here. Just. Oh, the reason we call this fiscally responsible is because we are looking to become a climate leader. And 57 communities have already chosen this in Massachusetts. And what this does is it goes beyond the green communities. We've been a green community since 2010, and we have received $1.5 million in energy grants, and you've been able to see some of this, the the charging stations, the solar panels. What we don't see is the money that we are saving by these panels that are on municipal buildings. And as pointed out, we do have the array way out there, which is giving us one megawatt in, um, credits. So, uh, why is this fiscally responsible? It puts us in a position to apply to be a climate leader, which we can do in June. We have to do this by June 30th, and then this will open up the possibilities of looking towards grants of 1.15 million. And we can do what we want with that money. It's an energy grant. You can use it to, you know, insulate things like that. And that's one of the things. Just quickly on that code, it creates even more insulation. The idea is to use less energy. And if you're building electric, there's the code doesn't really say anything. That's what we would like. We like everyone to build electric, but we know we can't do that too quickly. If fossil fuels are still an option, and even with an electric house, you can have a backup gas generated emergency system. So they do think about our climate. So, um, that's all I have to say. Thank you very much. And please give this your serious thought. Thank you. 03:07:54,889 S5: Okay. 03:07:55,930 S1: Uh, John. John. John McGrath, Finance committee. 03:08:09,090 S41: Good morning. Apologies. I'm not as good looking as John. Um, as indicated by the non unanimous vote of the Select board, this is an issue that has real trade offs and reasonable minds can disagree. Uh, the fin com tried to take as much of a moderate approach to our recommendation here as possible. I'm just going to read the brief final summary in our writeup for the book of recommendations. This article presents a genuine trade off adoption, would impose additional construction costs on a small number of new homes and detached structures. Each year introduces some risk through automatic adoption of future state code amendments, and may modestly affect housing production and development flexibility on existing properties. Those costs and risks are real and should not be minimized, but at the same time, the adoption is the gateway to climate leader community certification, which would allow us to potentially qualify for up to 1.1 million in state grant funding. With the near term opportunity to install solar power on the high school and middle school roofs that could save the town an estimated $206,000 per year in electricity costs. We considered these trade offs and voted in favor. 03:09:23,149 S5: Okay. 03:09:24,229 S1: Sir. 03:09:28,909 S33: Ed McCarthy, 60 Cunningham Drive. I've spent 50 years in the electrical industry. Everything from putting a plug in the wall to solar arrays, power distribution, power generation. Electricity has been my life. What are we voting on? I spent three hours, 3.5 hours last night doing research so I can make an intelligent vote today, because I don't know a thing about the specialized codes. And I'll bet a lot of you really don't know a lot about this either. So I spent time looking at the ISC code, the stretch codes, the state codes, and I didn't really get any meat and potatoes as to how this is going to affect our electrical distribution and building systems. But the Finance and Advisory Committee. Did a great job and they posted some information which I got from there, adding $33,000 to the house, new house construction, making houses totally electric. As an electrical professional, I don't want my house to be total electric because now I'm buying electricity, which is 60% fossil, 20% nuclear and 20% alternative. Richard Maloney is a building commissioner. What is the building commission? What are the qualifications? I looked up the state and I looked up Hamilton's requirements. This is somebody who has to be a licensed construction supervisor. Five years as a design supervisor, have a four year degree in construction. So when it comes to building codes, I say he's the smartest guy in the room and I am going to take his recommendation and say, no, we don't want this in this town. He knows more about building codes and general codes than I do so as an electrician, I have my own opposition to this. I don't want to see houses with three and 400 amps services. It's absurd how much electricity they will use. Somebody said, start a gasoline generator. You can have a backup. Gas generators don't even start on a 40 degrees. I know this because I own one and I wired it. So you have to have a more sophisticated system for backup. So please, please respect the select board because we've had some very I think it's a very intelligent choice. The select board says no. Richard Maloney, who is our building commissioner, says no. And I, as a trained electrical professional with 50 years experience, maybe it means something. Maybe it means nothing. This is not a good idea for this town. And I request you all who don't know anything about this. Vote no on this one. Thank you. 03:12:06,290 S5: Sir. 03:12:09,569 S32: Hi, Greg. Corner 28 Home Street. I'm part of the Hamilton Wyndham Climate Action Team, and I want to say that I'm proud of Hamilton and Wenham for the decisions that we've made over the past ten. I've been in town 20 years to reduce our climate impact, to reduce our greenhouse gases and by the way, save money along the way. And we have another opportunity here today to continue with a long line of decisions that we've made. Being leaders in this space. And that's what this is. This is an opportunity for us to be a leader. It's an opportunity for us to qualify for a bunch of additional grant funding as well. Um, and it's really the next step for us. So there was opposition to the stretch code when that was passed years ago as well. And that's turned out to be just fine. Um, as far as the concern about the the heat pumps in particular. Um, there's a lot of disparagement there. And the Climate Action team is in favor of all electric homes, because that's how we move to renewable energy. It's hard to replace natural gas with a renewable source. And I think the last few weeks has shown us the danger of depending on natural gas and other fossil fuels, we can generate electricity right here without having to risk, um, wars and such. So just quickly about the heat pumps, I think I'm not quite the time. Um, I live in a kit home over near the library. That was like a Sears kit home. There's a bunch of them around. And so my neighbor has a very similar home. And sometimes we compare electricity bills. I have heat pumps. My home is heated exclusively with heat pumps. The neighbor has natural gas. We're paying about the same. So I don't agree that heat pumps cannot be used to heat our homes in the northeast, Sweden and all through Scandinavia uses a huge amount of heat pumps. And by the way, if you have a refrigerator or air conditioner in your house, you already have a heat pump and you've seen how reliable and long lasting it is. It's the same technology. Thank you. 03:14:22,350 S16: Thank you. 03:14:25,629 S1: Sir. 03:14:26,590 S11: Lou Terranova. 03:14:27,430 S36: 54. 03:14:27,989 S11: Woodland Mead. I have a couple of comments and then a question. It's a clarifying question. First of all, um, I've been in the power business power industry for over 42 years. Thermodynamics. Thermodynamics is my life. And I can tell you right now that he pumps have limitations. They are not the panacea. Um, I also want to point out to you that a study done by MIT, a very respected institution, said that these stretch codes add roughly 4% to the cost of a home. The push for affordability would clearly say that adopting this code would run in the face of that. I also want to remind people, and I take exception to the small impact statement that was made earlier. This town passed three a last year, which means 735 more units could be built over the next several years. All of those would be affected by this code. Electricity is in very high demand. The reason why electricity is so expensive in Massachusetts is because demand has gone up and supply has not grown with it. Many of you may have looked at an email from National Grid. The rates are going up as more electric codes are adopted. The rates will continue to rise. The town can't afford this. So I ask you, please not to. Not to vote in the affirmative on this. And that leads to my question. The Rosie, you said that the recommendation is not to adopt it. Yet what was written on the screen said to adopt it. So clarification. 03:16:09,450 S8: We voted unfavorably. So the Select Board majority does not favor adopting this specialized code. 03:16:19,370 S5: But approve. 03:16:21,530 S11: The bottom line. 03:16:22,129 S5: But worded positively. So the select board as a. 03:16:24,729 S34: Group is asking. 03:16:25,610 S5: You to vote. 03:16:26,010 S11: But the bottom line, the bottom line on the slide, though said to vote favorably. That was the recommendation. 03:16:31,850 S6: The motion. 03:16:36,209 S5: To approve. 03:16:39,729 S1: The motion is to the motion on the floor is to approve the code. The recommendation of the selectmen was to not approve it. Okay. The recommendation of the Finance Committee was to approve it. 03:16:52,889 S5: All right. 03:16:53,409 S11: Thank you for the clarification. Okay. 03:16:54,840 S5: Thank you. 03:16:57,200 S1: Sir. 03:16:58,600 S5: Good morning. Warren Brown, 156 Gregory Island Road. I want to correct a few things that were that were stated about what? Like what is true and what is not. I live in Hamilton, built a house in Hamilton in 2023 to these codes. Uh, my my my house is fully heated and cooled with heat pumps. This last winter, they worked just great. It was 68 degrees and comfortable in the house. No problems. This last year I paid $500 total in utility bills. Why? Because I have solar on my roof. Even with those solar panels covered with snow for a month this winter, which is not ideal for solar. I paid $500 in utility bills. So let's be very clear here. This is not. This is about affordability. When homes are built to these standards, with this insulation, the actual consumption and use of that expensive electricity goes down. When we encourage, when we encourage solar and when we encourage heat pumps, the opportunity to create a standalone unit that provides its own power, that provides that, and that allows someone to live in a, in a in a home with effectively zero utilities becomes possible. That is not possible if you are if you are heating and cooling with fossil fuels. What this code is trying to do is to allow people to actually take ownership of their of their own utility generation, of their own electricity generation, and to have a sustainable house, not just sustainable from an environmental standpoint, but sustainable from an affordability standpoint. I strongly encourage us to vote yes for this, not whether you believe in the environmental side or not. This is good for affordability and this is good for the town of Hamilton. 03:18:40,590 S16: Thank you. 03:18:43,229 S1: Sir. 03:18:46,590 S36: John Perkins. 03:18:47,709 S42: 20, Canterbury clean. Um, a couple comments. Um, it has been implied, not specifically stated, but implied that there's there are effects here that are affect people. What I want to say is that there's no effect to the tax rate. No effects to the town. The town expenses will not increase an iota. This is solely a private. The cost of this are absorbed in the private sector completely. The builder will have to spend a little bit more. Not 4%. I mean, that's an outrageous lie. That it's 4% of the cost. Come on, be real. It's more like a half a percent. A third of 1% will be the increased cost of building a new house. 03:19:49,649 S42: And it's not born by the town. It's born by the purchaser of the house. Anybody who currently owns the house in Hamilton will not see any effect of this at all. There'll be no effect to a current homeowner. It's only new construction. And if you decide to tear down an old house and rebuild it, then yes, you have to apply. You have to apply these new building codes. But if you own a house, you live in a house. Enjoy the house. You can continue forever. Second of all, nobody's forcing anybody to live in an all electric house. You're given the building code. Stretch code. What it does is it prepares the home for all electric. It doesn't make you or force you to be all electric. You can have a gas furnace, you can have a gas stove, you can have a gas dryer. It doesn't matter. But the electrical leads to those locations will be there in case you change your mind in the future. Or if the purchaser of the home from you decides that they want a gas having an electric dryer, an electric stove, an electric heat pump, they're not forcing you to be all electric. Thank you very much. 03:21:26,000 S13: Um, Beth, her 270 Asbury Street. Um, I just want to remind us that we voted to be. It was a non-binding, 2040 climate neutral vote, so it was non-binding. So I think we need to be careful about really how we move forward with that. Fossil fuels are what creates the electricity. A lot of our electricity is already created by fossil fuels. So we're just like switching something out. It sounds like the solar for the high school and the middle school could be okay. Um. It does. It isn't necessarily dependent on this passing. Um, one of my biggest concerns is the underlying metrics will change. And so there's things now that are not part of the underlying metrics that could become part of the underlying metrics. Um, let me tell you as of why you should be concerned. Okay. Let me just read something that was sent to the Essex Town Hall in December of 2022 from National Grid and the. It said r e and it said rolling brownouts and blackouts. Um, the independent system operator of New England procures energy to cover the demands of real time from the wholesale market. They released a warning earlier this year that if we could run into an exceptionally cold stretch, there could be issues meeting the electrical demand. If we run into that situation, there will be rolling. Blackouts become necessary. Okay, so this puts an undue pressure. If somebody wants to do it, great. But it could put an undue pressure on our grid that is already fragile. Okay. And so you might not realize you could be voting for brownouts or blackouts. And then he ends and he says, well, I do not expect this to be an issue this year. I do think it's something for us to think about as we move forward in the future, especially as people switch to electric heating and electric vehicles. So I am urging a no vote on this stretch. Thank you. 03:23:29,139 S1: Mister Olson, you had something you wanted to say? 03:23:31,819 S3: Yes. I also wanted to comment just to try and clarify the confusion here on the select board side. Right. So we as a select board applaud our climate action committee. Right. They did exactly what we asked them to do, which was bring things to town that would improve the town. So we didn't want to make the decision of ourselves and say, no, we want it to be the decision of the town residents. We voted as a majority to not recommend it, because it's not clear what the code is and what the impact is going to be. That's what we're talking about. It's not clear. It's very confusing. It's a new code, and it's just not clear exactly what we're going to be agreeing to. And we didn't want to make our citizens agree to something that we don't even know what they're agreeing to, what the real impacts will be. Right. So but we also know that if we voted for, we might get one point, whatever million dollars to put solar on it. So we didn't want to take that out of the citizen's hands as well too. But the reason at this point, we're saying we think it's a good idea. We just don't think we're ready for it yet until there's more clarity on the code. And that's why I sort of understand why we put it on the warrant. But we recommended not voting for it. It's really put it in front of you and hear everybody's opinion, which we appreciate what we're doing today. So I think, um. 03:24:35,010 S9: Well, I'll hear I'd like to hear from the rest of the folks. 03:24:44,319 S27: 36. 03:24:45,719 S1: Excuse me. Just. We'll hear from the folks that are in line now and then. I think we'll go for a vote. 03:24:53,319 S9: So, Bill, I would like to represent the dissenting view as one one person did ask. 03:24:58,000 S1: Us for that. Well, okay. Well, you I didn't I can't see you. So. Okay. You could speak. 03:25:07,159 S9: I'll just go for it. I think that one of the speakers mentioned as well, kind of the impacts of three a the specialized code would require new multifamily to kind of get up to the level that was already achieved. Um, with the project on Willow Street that Rick mentioned earlier as well. Like they achieved a passive house level. So the new specialized code would also require any new multifamily to get to at least that level that was already achieved by a non-profit developer. So that's kind of a good thing for the town as well as potential future citizens and being able to manage energy affordability that would also come in. So I hadn't heard that spoken to. I thought it was important. Um, speaking from experience, my parents live in Maine. It's a little colder than here, usually about ten degrees colder. They have an all electric home. It's very well insulated. Air tightness really matters in this. So you have to look at the whole system like the envelope included. They used to spend, you know, 12 to $15,000 between oil and electricity. It's been $1,000 a year now. They have heat pumps and solar. It's all electric. They have a backup propane generator that fires up in the cold whenever they need it. And so EVs, they're getting smarter. People charge them at night when energy is cheap and abundant. They're not charging them at peak anymore. So the new construction aspect predominantly applies to homes over 4000ft². So we build like 5 or 6 of those in this town every year. The $1 million in grant money that's available. That was what really attracted me into this, and sort of why I agreed with Finchem and voted in favor of it, was because that grant money is currently funded and available from the state. It may not be there in the future, so time is of the essence. So that was my kind of like dissenting view to kind of round out the conversation. 03:26:46,659 S1: Okay. Thank you. Now I'm actually I'm going to hear from this gentleman first because I think he was in line first. 03:26:55,500 S3: Uh, Jeff. 03:26:55,979 S10: Alsop, 11 black Brook road and 587 Bay road, the post office on. I'm an architect and a builder, and we have been building ahead of all the energy codes for my entire career. It's it is my own business. And the stretch code is, um, perfectly adequate to accomplish everything that everyone wants to do in terms of, uh, you know, even net zero homes. So I want to say that I concur with Rosemary's presentation of the negatives. I agree with most of the negatives from speakers as well. But I want to add that the the the the serious under. You know, lack of information has to do with what the state can actually mandate. And we have no choice in what comes down from that point of view and that standpoint. We just don't know. And there could be rationing. There could be all kinds of different things. Um, and when you see passive House, you know, we we can we can achieve passive house, um, energy efficiency and all the things that, that are implied. But when you say passive House, you actually have to embrace passive House, which is a, a code system that originated in Germany. And they have passive house, you know, certified professionals. I actually looked into getting certified at one point. You actually have to have inspections, you have to have a whole nother layer of of cost in terms of getting passive house. So it's either it's either, uh, sort of pulling the wool over the eyes of, say, passive House or it's actually passive House. So all that new potential multifamily housing that is being contemplated will have indeed a high cost for meeting standards. And also, you know, it's already difficult enough getting permits and going through the processes of inspections. So layering that is actually a large cost and the large cost in terms of time. So I do and we just don't know about what this code is, is actually saying. So I encourage everyone to vote now. Thank you. 03:29:22,719 S6: Okay. 03:29:23,120 S1: Thank you Mister Mitchell. 03:29:26,159 S27: Thank you, Mister moderator Rick Mitchell, 36 Rock Maple Ave. Among my many endeavors in life, I've spent more than 40 years in energy efficiency working for consulting engineering firms specializing in energy efficiency for commercial, industrial, residential, and institutional buildings, and came out of retirement to take the climate resiliency manager job in the town of Ipswich. Um, for me, this is a totally a financial play and I can see why the Selectboard is confused and many of you may be confused as well. So I have a few bullet points. I sent these to Dylan Patel, who is the Northeast Regional manager of of Green Communities. So this is verified information. Number one, under the stretch code that we adopted in 2011, which I helped push, we received $1.4 $4 million in 2000. Since 2010, we've reduced our energy costs cumulatively. Cumulatively. $850,000 since then. Well, our success in green communities now limits us because we've joined the $1 million club. We can't get more than $125,000 from green communities. Unless and until we adopt the enhanced stretch code. If we do adopt it, we're eligible for $1 million in new grants and up to $150,000 in engineering, planning and design grants. So here's the key issue that everybody seems to be arguing over. First of all, I just want to clarify for the board this isn't coming out of mass save. These are regional gas payments that are made by the utilities into a fund for reducing their carbon footprint. It's not mass safe. So first verified by Green Communities Administrator, there's no impact on new additions or renovations for existing homes. Second, new single family homes will have to meet the existing stretch code. And if they. So they're not changing that. They can go all electric. The only time it impacts is under new construction where people want to go mixed fuel. They want to have propane. They want to have oil. They want to have gas. Then they have to meet a higher level of performance. They have to electrify the building and they have to install solar. So yes, if you choose to build a new home in Hamilton, which we do 3 to 5 of a year, and it's going to cost you probably about $1.5 million if you're building a new home without any of these. They were going to add in solar. If you choose fossil fuel to have in your home. So for me. 03:32:32,690 S1: Time. 03:32:33,010 S27: Is a financial play. Thank you. 03:32:36,290 S1: Okay, ma'am. 03:32:40,770 S14: Thank you, Mister Moderator. I believe I was the last person in line when you called it the discussion. 03:32:46,170 S43: I believe the woman over there has already spoken. My name is Sandy Fisher. Live on green Brook road. I'd just like to say that I am, I am and have always been for conversation, conservation, recycling, composting. Way before it was popular to do it. We, um, we've done much to insulate our home, replaced windows, all of that, and regularly received those mailings from National Grid saying, you're great, energy efficient, you know, home, you. 03:33:17,729 S14: Use way less energy than your neighbors. Um, this is my choice. This is what I want to say is my choice. And if I want to make my home 100% electric or not, that's my choice. And for anyone who wants to be green and do that, I want to do as much as I possibly can as a citizen to do that. But I want to say that this is about our choice to choose what we do. Um, and I really appreciated that. Uh, the gentleman who mentioned that 60% of electricity generated comes from fossil fuel, 20% from nuclear and so on. So our green using electricity 03:34:01,920 S14: is just taking it off into someone else's backyard. That electricity is generated in someone else's backyard. The solar panels have a life expectancy. We could go on and on about it, but you have to look at the whole picture. I can't help it. I have to look at the whole picture. I would urge everyone to vote no against the stretch code. People are free to choose what they want to do. And let's let it be that. Thank you very much. And I do applaud anyone who is doing everything to conserve. So thank you. 03:34:37,629 S16: Okay. Thank you. Okay. 03:34:42,270 S40: Jeanie Moran, 21 Garfield Avenue. I just want to clarify. 03:34:46,389 S13: A couple. 03:34:46,709 S40: Of things. Um, builders have said 200 amps will be fine for having it electric. Ready for. Again, it's a new build. It doesn't affect homeowners as you're sitting here unless you decide to take your own house down. But it's, uh, not not affecting us as we sit here. Um, the other thing is about the green. Now, this is really, really important. So we have a CCA community aggregate program here in Hamilton. And you choose you can choose green energy today if you go to the website off of the town hall. And this is what I've done, because I have an electric car. And so, you know, obviously I don't want dirty electricity going in. It does cost a slight bit more, but it's worth it for me. So please consider that. And also you can join a solar farm. So there is green electricity out there. So um, please think about that. I know it's not quite the four corners, but it does affect this. Um, the other thing is just one other comment that was made. Um, the homes we are being told at are being built here are like 2 million, 2.5 million. And even a builder said, well, it's it's not that much to to add the green part. So, um, the last thing is of course, why are we doing this? Why do we even have a climate resolution? It's because of climate change. And if you follow any of this stuff with the parts per million CO2. You'll know that for 10,000 years we had about, you know, 260 ppm. I just checked. It's now up to 430 1 p.m., and this is after we were told 3:50 p.m.. So we got to do what we can. Please vote for this. Thank you. 03:36:37,290 S1: Okay. Thank you. I think we're ready for a vote. This requires a majority vote. Allow 30s. 03:36:51,209 S1: Voting starts now. 03:37:39,399 S1: Voting is now closed. 03:37:49,920 S1: The vote is yeas 79. Ayes 86. The motion does not pass, and I so declare. 03:38:01,280 S1: Is there a motion to dissolve? Is there a second? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. This meeting is dissolved.