00:00:02,200	With you, Rosemary. Mercy Kennedy here. Lee McCoy here. And Tom Myers here. All right. So we will start off, as we normally do with board and committee openings. So we have one opening for the Affordable Housing Trust, two openings for the Conservation Commission, one opening for the Council on Aging.

00:00:26,430	We have the Community Preservation Committee, two openings, one opening for a member of historic district Commission and one opening for at large member Hamilton Environmental Impact Committee. One opening historical District commission, two openings for a three year term. Two openings for a two year term.

00:00:46,300	One must be a resident of historic District and one must be a resident realtor. And then we have one at large Human Rights Commission opening. And at this moment, we will move to public comment. We will take a maximum of 30 minutes. No speaker will be allowed to speak for more than three minutes. And I’m not seeing anyone at the microphone. No one on line, no one online.

00:01:11,030	So we will move to, uh, select board liaison reports. Uh, I’ll start with you, Rosemarie. Anything to update the board on? Uh, I think I reported on everything last month. There are several meetings coming up this week, which I will report on at the next meeting. Hey, Rosie. Hold on one.

00:01:32,130	Second, Rosie. We’re good on the sound issue here. You you’re not coming through in the speaker in here. But I think. Up front. I don’t think I. Huh? Let me let me change my location here. Up there. I might I might be in a bad location. I’m going to change locations. I’m sorry. Powered up. Rosie, say something.

00:02:16,700	Hi. Can you. Can you hear me? No. We’re only hearing from the speaker in there. Is it because the projector is not on? Oh, hold on. Did you not turn the project on? That might be part of it. I’ll just turn that way. Out. And I should turn it back down. I want to get.

00:02:35,100	To that working better. All right. Take a second to. It was that. Firing up a minute. Here. All right, Rosemary, can you talk to us? Yes. Can you hear us? Can you. Say something. To Rosemary? Now, we don’t hear you at all. That didn’t help. Okay, so now. We’ve lost audio. Completely.

00:03:35,170	How about that, Rosie? Is that any. Can you hear me now? A little bit, turn up a little bit more. Let’s see. Uh. Okay. We’re good. I think so, Rosie. I turned it up. Yeah. Okay. Can you. Can you hear me? Yeah. All right. We’re good. Okay. Okay.

00:03:57,230	I also changed locations because, um, sometimes the internet service here in Hamilton is not all we would hope it would be. Anyhow, here, here I am. Um, I said, in terms of my, um, committee reports that I think I reported on everything last and our last meeting and that there are three meetings happening this week.

00:04:23,430	So I will report on those meetings at the next meeting. Okay. Great. Thanks, Rosie Lee, anything. From you? Yeah. So, um, the last couple of weeks, I’ve met with several of the town staff from several departments to introduce myself and chat with them about their roles and responsibilities.

00:04:41,670	DPW, finance, Police clerk, HR and the building inspector, I think is all of them. Um, and then, uh, the Hamilton Foundation met last Wednesday. Um. Great meeting. Uh, they do just a quarterly meeting. And so, um, it was good to meet them. They’ve had three applications since March for financial assistance. They did a bylaw update.

00:05:04,970	Um, they’re planning a fundraiser. And their water bill insert that goes out in the fall, I believe. Um, they had a successful scholarship, uh, high school scholarship, and they discussed, uh, Asbury Commons and, um, and reviewing electrical and gas rates.

00:05:26,970	Uh, on, on bills for people to take a look at that and make sure it followed on an article in the paper about that as well. Um, and then, yeah, I have a few meetings this week as well. Great. Thanks, Lee. Uh, no updates on my end. Uh, so we’ll move over to the consent agenda.

00:05:44,570	Can I just really quick make to become a board member? But just, uh, not a liaison report, but just some news for the board. Um, the last word we heard is that the closing, the final closing of passing a papers on the sale of the Gordon Conwell student Apartments is set to take place this Friday. Oh, wow. So we’re expecting that to take place.

00:06:02,630	They’ve got a team in town to handle the, uh, the renovations that they’re gonna be doing, and they’ve already met with the building inspector. So things are online to go there. And the town was awarded again this year, the second time in a row. Uh, the government Finance officers Association’s budget presentation award. Excellent. Distinguished budget presentation award. So, yeah. All done.

00:06:23,330	That’s mostly the department heads in, Wendy. Yeah, but that’s a good, good work by everybody. Yeah. Great work to the team. And that’s a it’s a huge honor to be pulling out two years in a row. And you know it’s great. Great show to the town of what we’ve done. All right.

00:06:39,400	Uh, consent agenda. We have minutes from July 29th as well as July 6th. And then, uh, approving the annual tour de greenbelt to ride through Hamilton. Uh, so I’m happy to entertain a motion to approve that. Or if we want to discuss any of those separately. Uh, we can do that as well.

00:06:56,430	I make a motion that we approve the consent agenda. My second. Um, I just have some comments. So you have a comment? Yeah. Just concerning the June 29th, um, minutes.

00:07:31,400	I just made a small edit, and, uh, just pertaining to the, the the approximate date when, um, Scott Sundquist will be leaving Gordon Conwell. Other than that, I thought. I thought those minutes were fine. And I did send that back to Catherine. So. Yeah. Rosie, I saw that. So I adjusted it in the in the hard copy that I have for you to sign. So if it gets approved, it’s. That should all be taken. Care of. Okay, great.

00:07:49,300	Then I then I think we’re all set. Thank you. Joe. Yep. Great. Thank you Rosie. All right. Uh, roll call. Vote. Uh, Rosemary Kennedy. Rosie Kennedy. I. D McCoy. Lee McCoy. I and Tom Myers, I. All right. Excellent. Agenda approved.

00:08:10,900	Uh, we’ll head into the the main agenda, and we will start with a department head report, uh, with the Tim Olson. Tim Olson, DPW. director. I think, um, um, wanted to bring everybody up to speed on the recycling program.

00:08:39,000	I think it’s a good idea that I kind of give a sense of where everything is, uh, what other residents can be expecting, and then also how we’re going to, uh, look at maybe commercial properties downtown and how we’re going to do the pickup down there. Uh, since we are confining, you know, them and businesses to a barrel of recycling, and it does pose some challenges that I have some ideas on how to remedy. Um, right now, we’ve I think we’ve deployed about 95% of the barrels.

00:08:58,230	I think the listed there’s about 100 people on the list for the small barrel. Uh, that far exceeded the original order that Casella put in for small barrels. So we are residents. Just remain patient. We are. We have them on the list. Uh, we will deploy the small barrels as soon as we get them in town.

00:09:15,870	Uh, Casella has committed to picking up recycling until that time. Uh, so there shouldn’t be any issues with recycling. Pick up. Uh, use your large barrels. Um, for the residents started waiting on small barrels. If they’re able to utilize a large barrel, they use that and they’ll come and switch it out.

00:09:31,870	Uh, if not, and continue to use past practice on your recycling, and then we’ll get you the small barrel as soon as possible. I do not have a date on that, but I’ve heard like a week or two. They should be here and then distributed throughout the community.

00:09:50,530	So, um, that’s obviously residential. I know some people have asked for additional barrels. Uh, I’d like to get the, uh, everybody having one barrel first, and then we can look to go a different direction if if our additional barrel if, if, uh, if we decide to do that, um, the commercial properties downtown do serve.

00:10:08,130	It is a little challenging because they used to throw away as much, pretty much as much recycling as they wanted to. A lot of cardboard. Uh, we have some heavy users or heavy cardboard generators downtown. Uh, some words upwards of £20,000 of produce. Some weeks, uh, they’ve been in contact with me.

00:10:28,130	I’ve been trying to work with them, um, trying to figure out a. They’ve always been in the program since I’ve been here. Uh, even when I believe Hiltz was in town. And then when Casella brought over, they brought over in, like 2020, 2016, uh, businesses did have pickup. They were part of the program.

00:10:47,630	Um, but with the one barrel, it is challenging for them. So what? I have some ideas if you’d like to be here, here are my ideas. I’d love to share them, but, um, they are. That’s the challenge that we have now is trying to get the, you know, the businesses downtown to participate.

00:11:02,600	And, uh, you know, how we are going to move them forward. Um, my idea is to give everybody one barrel. And if there are overflow needs, maybe have certain locations, uh, that Joe and I can help or pick out through town that have larger dumpsters for cardboard only.

00:11:22,870	Um, good. I maybe a good location would be the corner of Willow and Railroad in that parking lot. It would take up a parking space, but that is a business center. Town. Um, they would be built to only accept cardboard.

00:11:44,000	Um, so that would prevent the, you know, trash and illegal dumping and things like that. Uh, also, we could upsize our cardboard dumpster at Town hall, uh, once that is open, um, we could have our monthly e-waste, but also cardboard, uh, drop off. We could have that. And so maybe certain areas around town that we could have a little larger dumpster for the overflow.

00:12:04,530	Um, businesses that don’t choose to do that. Maybe they have the ability to have their own on site as a private dump, you know, dumpster. Uh, but giving them the one barrel. And then an alternative for an additional overflow. Uh, maybe that’s something to consider.

00:12:24,270	So, um, more to that and more, I mean, I think we are continuing to pick up, so we’re not in a, um, a drop dead date or anything at this point. But I think that’s something we have to work through. Um, no. I’m sorry.

00:12:43,070	So, Tim, you’re saying that, um, because the solution is not been, um, found yet, that we’re the Casella is still going to pick up sort of the old school way of doing things, just sort of picking up the recycling period is, is that. Do I understand that? Right? Yes. Until there’s a, um, solution. Yeah. A seller has committed to pick up the recycling, uh, using past practice.

00:13:08,070	Uh, I’m hoping to have a solution within the next couple of weeks with the small barrels distributed, as well as, uh, talking with Casella and getting them to be able to bring up a couple additional, larger dumpsters. Uh, location is what we’re trying to work on right now. Okay. And, Tim, I’m sorry.

00:13:27,270	I just have one more thing to add that, um, Kelly Roller, who is one of the co board members, has volunteered to help seniors apply for the smaller barrel if they need help. And so they could just contact the CoA. And Kelly Roller will be available to help them. Yep. I mean we we keep an active list down in the DPW.

00:13:51,800	We push that list over to Casella pretty much weekly. Um, they’re knocking off some, uh, they I think they’re distributed around 35 barrels. Last week. The rest of their stock that they had. And then there’s, you know, they’re going to get to the list.

00:14:06,270	But we keep a running list, uh, at DPW. So that’s as long as they’re calling DPW and requesting a barrel. We’re hopefully within a couple of weeks have everybody the correct size that they want. Um, and, and be able to manage. Yeah. And I know you are. Thank you.

00:14:23,900	I just wanted to get it out there that if people are unsure how to do it, then there is somebody available to help as well. As you. Write. Always do. Yep. So so Tim, for um so pre this changed the businesses downtown. They just used whatever the same process that every residential purchase, whatever barrel they had they put out there is that.

00:14:45,170	Yeah. And then some I think some businesses just stacked cardboard. Yeah. Uh, piled. It up like on the side. Slide it out and piled it up. And the day before Casella comes in and grabs it all. Yeah. Um.

00:14:59,800	Has anyone been in touch with the businesses of, like, what is like, you know, what would be useful for them or helpful? Have we had any contact with anyone downtown? So I have had contact with a few businesses downtown. Um, the main contact has been the Cord Food Pantry because they do generate quite a bit of of produce and boxes.

00:15:17,830	Um, they are right there with where the lot, the parking lot is. Yeah. I figured maybe that would be a good location for them. Uh, she it seemed I really didn’t get into too much detail with them because I wanted to obviously see if this is even a program we want to move forward with.

00:15:35,430	Um, you know, talking with her, uh, she’s she says we do generate a lot. We will probably need, like, seven barrels. And I’m like. And that’s what kind of got this conversation started about what is there is there an opportunity for something else that will, you know, be able to service not only them, but other businesses that

00:15:56,230	occasionally might have more cardboard than, than normal? Right. So, um, that was kind of the the idea behind it. Yeah. And for that, that property, is that where we put it, is that in their parking lot on their property, or is that town property that we’d put it on?

00:16:11,700	I believe that parking lot is I’d have to look by, I’m sure I think most of that town, the lot is town property but I there may be a little bit of a couple shared somewhere, but yeah, that’s something that I’m working with Casella on, but

00:16:27,730	also making sure it’s in the right spot for them to be able to pick up. Yeah. Easier than, you know, for their truck. So yeah, I like the creative, um, thoughts on how to how to support the businesses.

00:16:45,600	And uh, as far as costs associated with like getting like, I know you said possibly one down by the town hall. Is that what’s the cost associated with getting these, these dumpsters together? So the one at Town Hall is part of our contract. Okay. It’s always been part of the contract. Um, it it, you know, if we add dumpsters, I’m sure Casella may.

00:17:04,270	I mean, I don’t know for sure, but I would expect them to, you know, there might be a small fee for that. Yeah. Okay. Um, I’m not sure, but I know the one at Town Hall is there. We need it dumped.

00:17:21,130	Anyway, uh, with town hall, um, you know, just the business there. We generate a lot of cardboard, so we get that dumped as part of the contract. Yeah, yeah. Um, so for. dumping, um, dumpsters. They had to bring in different equipment. Correct. And so, um, and, and then they would need to navigate down through the cars that are often parked there.

00:17:44,700	Maybe they’re coming through early enough that that wouldn’t be that the parking lot wouldn’t be full. We could make the arrangement of late or early, um, depending on when that lot fills up.

00:18:01,200	Um, I would definitely, if that’s something we want to look to do, I would look at talking with some more businesses down there. I think there are quite a few businesses that do park there. Um, I’m not sure what time they start. Um, but it would be something that they would pick up in an off time. Okay.

00:18:16,670	And is this a is this a large size dumpster, or is this similar to the one that they have at the, um, affordable housing in the. Um, the one that they proposed was a ten yard, which is about the same size as what’s at Town Hall. Um, similar to the one that’s right next to the park building, I believe. Uh, the the Brown Park building near the pool. Oh.

00:18:36,370	Okay. Um, so. It’s so is there is there some way. you know. I’m sorry. But, um, you know, just trying to figure out it, you know, if not, if there’s no space, then maybe we just open up the town hall, we get a larger 20 yard dumpster, a town hall, put it

00:18:54,130	in, and we have monthly drop off. All right. And so a cord and the other business would need to transport that to the town hall. Correct. Okay.

00:19:14,270	So, um, so, um, Tim, the only thing that I think about is the aesthetics of having a dumpster right there in the the parking lot. I mean, aside from the fact that it’s a very small and tight parking lot, I mean, I, I totally understand the the issue that people are having. I just, um, I don’t know how I feel about having. Uh. The aesthetics of a dumpster being in that parking lot.

00:19:37,000	I mean, certainly a thought. I just wonder if I just wonder if there could be some other solution that would be agreeable to people. Yeah, like I said, if there’s not enough room there.

00:19:57,530	Um, if if it’s going to pose more of a challenge, we are, we would take up a couple spots there for that. In which I know parking is pretty tight downtown. Maybe we just do a monthly. Um, I mean, we can talk with Joe, but, you know, something like that. Opening it up for. That’s the drop off. Uh, we don’t have a transfer station.

00:20:14,600	Uh, we don’t have that ability. Um, you know, but maybe we can do something with town hall that’s a little bit more frequent. Uh, for drop off. So they wouldn’t have to hold it for a full month. Yeah. Is there other locations that would make sense in the downtown area, or.

00:20:34,300	We don’t really have many, uh, down there. Um, you know, I was just trying to make it local for them to be able to, like, walk it down and drop it off. Most of those, you know, the businesses right down railroad, but, uh, there really, it’s really tight.

00:20:50,170	I mean, not a lot of the businesses have dumpsters for that reason. You know, they just need one barrel or a trash barrel, right? Um. And what about the. Um, takes it out of town? Yeah, but there’s always alternatives. But I think, you know, just looking at trying to find a spot that makes sense.

00:21:08,530	That’s not too, uh, detrimental or. And, you know, poses any challenges, right? So. Tim, what about, um, what about the businesses down in, um, where the CVS and the and the what is it? Crosby’s down there. Are they all set or, uh, tell me tell me how they would utilize this system.

00:21:33,570	Yeah, they we don’t pick up there. Uh, I think they they must have, uh, containers maybe out back. I, I have been back there, but we don’t. They’re not part of the town program. Okay, okay. And and that’s interesting. Is they’re just trying to to educate myself.

00:22:01,900	Why is it that some businesses have their own distribution? Smash. Smash towers? No. Smash! We are in recess until we can get Rosie back. Uh, we can call Rosie. We are, uh, we have been, uh. Had an issue with our zoom. Uh. And so we had to disconnect. And now we no longer have a quorum. So we will be in recess until we sort that out.

00:24:51,630	Okay. Hi. Test that. That sounds good. All right, we got you, Rosie. All right, we got you. Thank you. Rosie. It’s a good thing I charged my phone for again today. All right, so we are. We’re back in session. Uh, we opened at 724, 720. Yeah. Okay. Uh, so we are back inside.

00:25:12,670	We have Rosie on the phone. Uh, and we will resume with Tim. Um. I know Rosie had a question, I think. Rosie, your question was, how did some businesses get into the program and others don’t? God, I totally. Oh, right. Okay, so.

00:25:32,270	So my question was how, uh, I’m just I was just wondering, for my own edification and maybe people who are also listening. How is it that some businesses are, um, required or are responsible for their own trash removal and others are dependent on the town? I’m just trying to understand how that works. So when I got here, we we kept it status quo.

00:25:53,930	Since I’ve been here for a full ten year contract, uh, prior to that, I, I’m not sure how businesses, which businesses were part of the program. I’m not sure if the town went through a, um, you know, considered businesses that didn’t have the ability to have a dumpster because of, uh, small lot size. Um, no parking areas.

00:26:17,630	Is essentially Crosby’s. And that Hamilton crossing that doesn’t get picked up. And I think. Uh, Cumberland Farms, I don’t think gets picked up. Uh. Probably it was most likely I could ask somebody to go back and look, but it was most likely during the the approval process for getting Hamilton Crossing and Cumberland Farms

00:26:35,430	built. They were probably conditioned and and the and the and the and the zoning process. So there was probably some kind of a condition because, uh, particularly because Crosby’s and CVS are such large businesses and they had the land to have a dumpster.

00:26:55,270	And those, those companies typically expect to have to have a dumpster that’s part of their business plan. That was probably written into the, uh, approval process for that project getting built in the first place. It’s generally how that ends up getting out the whereas the rest of our businesses are small businesses located in older buildings.

00:27:13,870	They’ve been here for decades, and they’ve always just kind of been treated that way. I think. Yeah. So businesses like Hamilton Market, honeycomb, the, the businesses over off of Willow, those all are on town.. I believe most of them are.

00:27:33,470	I mean I’m thinking some of the newer ones I’m not I know honeycomb, I think I mean she reached out. She is she’s part of it. Um, so smaller businesses. I’m not sure if that was part of their business plan. I don’t okay, I’m not sure. I just know that we’ve always picked up there and that’s we kept it the same pickup location.

00:27:53,200	Um, and there really hasn’t been an issue, uh, up until when we have now changed the program. Uh, and so I think these businesses really in the town really needs to think about how we want to treat those, the businesses that may have enough space for just a recycling dumpster.

00:28:14,230	Uh, you know, the trash is limited or is minimal, um, or they pay the overflow bag, uh, cost, uh, but we can control the trash. The recycling wasn’t controlled before, and now we’re trying to control it. So it’s a whole different ball game for some of these businesses that generate a lot of cardboard. Uh, it’s it’s usually clean cardboard.

00:28:32,900	I’m sure there’s, you know, it’s not, you know, a lot of it’s just boxes from produce or or goods, you know, or Amazon or whatever it is. Um, but I think now that we’re trying to control the volume of it is that’s the, the issue. And we’re do we want to try to help them out. And, you know, give them at least something to use.

00:28:51,930	And if they need more than that, maybe they we have to figure they have to figure out a different plan or, or, um, bring it somewhere else. Um, okay. I think it’s just we’ve changed what they’ve always been doing for the last, you know, several years. So that’s the question.

00:29:10,400	Um, how do we want to get into that and how we want to handle that? Um. How much feedback? How much like, have you gotten complaints from the businesses downtown of, like, you know, since this has been rolled out, have you have they been in touch? They’ve they’ve they were concerned that their recycling

00:29:25,600	wasn’t going to get picked up because we were saying effective July 1st, which that was the the initial roll out date. I said, you know, there is a transition period with any change, there’s going to be a grace period.

00:29:42,930	Um, they are now still getting the recycling picked up, but they know that there’s going to be a time that they won’t, um, and they’re trying to figure out, you know, with through me, what is the is the town going to allow them some other way to do that? So they, they’re not going to get it picked up once we officially move to the big the blue barrels because.

00:30:01,300	So I’m gonna put a yeah I’m gonna put a date on once everybody once every I know everybody has a barrel. That’s the whole process. Once all these small barrels come in and we get those distributed, and I can, you know, comfortably say most, you know, everybody has a barrel.

00:30:19,930	Um, we are going to say effective this date barrels are to be used. Right. Uh, Casella wants to go there. They’re they’ve been wanting to do this, and they’ve been kind of sending a third truck through because they know that they don’t have enough barrels to pick up that kind of recycling outside barrel recycling.

00:30:37,600	So the businesses are saying that they’re not going to be able to fit it into one barrel. They’re going to need like like the acorn, you say one seven. A few of them. Yeah. I mean, the majority of them are they I haven’t heard from, but there are some heavy, I think volume generators uh, that are.

00:30:51,430	Is this easily is it more easily solved by giving extra barrels to those extra recycle barrels. So those businesses. I, I just think that. I’m asking the.

00:31:07,530	Question I don’t yeah, I don’t, I don’t know, I mean I would say, you know, where does it where does it end? I mean, yeah, maybe maybe say honeycomb, maybe they get five and then a cord gets eight, seven, eight. Um, I. Mean, then once a week we’re having 40 barrels lined up on railroad. That’s right. Yeah. It’s like. I. Yeah, Rosie’s point. I know a dumpster doesn’t look too appealing. Neither do does 50 barrels on the street. Um, so.

00:31:32,030	The good news is, if it’s if it’s just a cardboard dumpster and we can get a new one. Um, they don’t, because it’s just cardboard. They shouldn’t have stuff in it that’s going to make them smell. They’re not going to. It’s not going to be any overflow. Tim did say these would be sealed.

00:31:46,700	There’ll be like a an envelope that you could slide your cardboard in and like a little slit and then that’s it for the rest of it’s sealed so people can’t put other stuff in there. Stuff that is, as I said, going to smell won’t be in there.

00:31:57,930	So it’ll be a big box. Yeah. Um, but I mean, you gotta try and figure out where’s the. Yeah, it is nicer than a dump, a regular dumpster that’s gonna have the trash and the stench and all the drippings and all that. Um, but but I get I get to this point.

00:32:14,270	I mean, it’s not, you know, it’s a it’s an eyesore. But I also think, you know, what’s the alternative is either we don’t support the businesses downtown or we, you know, have 35 barrels, you know, lined up, as you know, and it’s gonna, you know. Yeah.

00:32:30,100	I mean, like I said, we have we don’t really have a lot of room downtown. Um, for that, you know, for a dumpster. That was kind of the spot that I thought. I mean, it’s not ideal by any means, but, um, but like I said, once we get town hall back, we can have that as the alternative. The overflow.

00:32:48,400	Um, we can maybe even put a Joe. We can maybe even put a ten yard barrel outside the gate at Town Hall. We take up two spots or spot, and we. That’s another location that we can use. And if people want to bring it down there and drop it off, they’re not getting into the DPW.

00:33:03,400	They’re not getting through the gate there. It’s accessible. Yeah, we can do that. Um, but it will take work from them to, to get that there. They’ll have to transport it. And it’s just changing. Maybe the way they have to get rid of it. So.

00:33:22,170	Again, if it’s cardboard and it’s folded up, broken down, it’s cleaner. So it’s not we’re not asking them to transport waste trash. It is a lot of cardboard. When a cord when a cord has their stuff out. And same with timeless interiors. It’s a lot of material. So yeah, yeah. It would take a lot of trips and a.

00:33:39,930	Hatchback, you know, maybe, maybe we could. What we could do is we could talk with Casella about certain locations. They have to pick up differently, and there may be a fee to that. And maybe we could, if it makes sense. You know, that fee is kind of absorbed by the business.

00:34:00,530	Um, or something like that. Um, you know, a cord. They have to put it out. They have to stack the cardboard. And every week they get picked up by that third truck. But they got to pay, you know, or I’m just throwing that out there instead of having a dumpster.

00:34:17,000	Maybe if there’s only a couple businesses like that, we treat them. Yeah, it might be worth getting a sense of the businesses that are going to have a large volume. I know we have a quarter is obviously gonna you know, they generate a lot of cardboard. I imagine Hamilton House probably, you know, has a lot of, you know, cardboard as well.

00:34:32,470	I mean, what other um, is, is weathervane is they have their own weathervane. Do they have their own town dumpster belt back there? I don’t I don’t think I don’t remember that one. I don’t believe so. Um, I don’t know that to be true. Yeah, it might be.

00:34:50,130	It might be worth getting a little bit more information about which businesses, you know, and kind of, you know, roughly what their quantity is and maybe. Yeah, with a couple of put a couple solutions together of like the dumpster, what that would look like maybe, uh, having a conversation with Casella and what, you know, they might be able to offer as far as alternative pickups,

00:35:05,700	but, I mean, it’d be nice to have a couple options to weigh, um, and sort of impact on business, impact on cost, aesthetics, all of that.

00:35:18,470	I mean, because some people had the like a conversation with me, they’ve called in and said, hey, what if we have a large like a wedding? Or we get, uh, we’re moving and we have a whole bunch of boxes at one time? Yeah.

00:35:33,930	And I said, well, you know, I think that may be something you want to call Casella and schedule that as a separate, you know, as a pickup. Yeah. But it has to be done at a certain way, and it has to be broken down or whatever. So, um. Or if you have a wife that orders from Amazon every day. Yeah. The sound was so distorted. Thank you for the effort. I apologize for interrupting.

00:35:54,130	Anyway, so I don’t mind looking talking with them to see what their options are. Yeah, yeah, I think I think, yeah, maybe. , um, or go through Joe or however you want me to relay that message. Yeah.

00:36:07,830	So we were thinking, Rosie, uh, that it might be better to first one kind of get an idea of the businesses that and what their need is in that area. So we have a better sense of volume.

00:36:19,630	And then, um, Tim was saying that he could, you know, go back to Casella as well and see if there are some options that we could pursue as far as like a third pickup or a special pickup for downtown. Um, so he’s gonna, you know, go back and get some more information and come back to the board. Sounds good. Yeah. It’s just so tight down there. Yeah. So. Okay. Oh, yeah.

00:36:34,230	So I mean, I he said that, but I just to reiterate that it is both the timeless interiors and of course, it doesn’t seem to be that they always have stuff out. It seems to be that they get huge loads. Just all of it I think. And so.

00:36:48,630	I think the liquor store also gets a lot at one time, like a delivery comes in. Yeah. Now they have a lot of boxes. I mean they’re nice boxes if people want to use them for moving or whatever. But, um, I do see them occasionally out there on the, on the roadside ready for pickup. So.

00:37:04,170	Yeah. And whether that, I mean, whether they could coordinate their, their need so that, so that it could be a single trip for Casella or some sort of. Right. Well, I think that’s kind of how we do mattresses, right? We do mattresses every other Wednesday.

00:37:17,670	So we coordinate, we get the call in to the DPW. We need a mattress pick up. They pay for a mattress sticker, they come pick the sticker up. They put the mattress on the sticker on the mattress. And then we give Casella that list for that.

00:37:33,000	Following Wednesday, we can maybe even do something like that. They can come down and get a sticker. Maybe they pay an extra fee. We they put the sticker on the cardboard, and then we schedule a pickup. So something like that. Yeah. Yeah. That’s what we plan, Tim, you and I, you to talk to Casella.

00:37:50,070	Maybe we’ll have a little more conversation with some of the businesses down there and have a couple, a couple, 3 or 4 options that we can share with the board at the next meeting on the 17th, because this is all going to start to come quick. We want to try to have have an answer for folks. Make sense? Thank you Tim. Yep. Thank you.

00:38:15,170	All right. Uh, we’ll move to, um, agenda item two. And we’re going to vote to approve income and asset limits for the FY 2027 senior Tax Exemption workout program. And we have Chief Assessor Jane Dooley with us. And we’re going to fast forward to it. You can see it’s in your packet. You all have packets.

00:38:35,000	And Jane will present to you what you need to vote on I think three separate votes. Jane. Yeah okay. So uh, so Hamilton has something called a chapter 91. It’s a special act that’s unique to the town. Get senior who have, uh, limited income, not get a break on taxes.

00:39:03,230	So, uh, we budget $50,000 a year and in the last five years, we served 22 households. So we like to increase that number. So, uh, more proposing these incoming outside limits. I don’t know if you took a look at it or not, but, um. Oh, it’s usually 65 years or so.

00:39:36,300	Are you is this board of assessors recommending that you increase it to keep it at 65, or increase to 70? Keep keep it at 65. So the board is the board of assessors is recommending that you maintain the age limit for the program at 65, that you, uh, approve a total household income limit of

00:39:55,530	$70,000 for a single person and $90,000 for a married couple, and that you approve total household assets of $225,000 for single person, or $300,000 for a married couple.

00:40:14,200	Right? Um, you know, as I look at it here, you probably you could probably do it in one vote if you wanted to make a motion to to accept all those limits and do it in one motion. Jane, could you just.. I know there are several, um, senior exemptions. Could you just review just briefly what this one is for? Um, so, uh, are you remember of what Arthur Oppenheim from Select Board at Finance Committee.

00:40:41,470	So they put the special act forward. So it just helps, like, we don’t really like to get the numbers of how much money people know. I’m just I just. Is it a is it a, a tax exemption. Is it a. Tax element. That’s definitely.

00:41:05,530	So if they meet the qualifications they get a break it. So we find out that divides up $50,000 based on people’s household acts at the rink their age and the, uh, you know, all those variables. So it’s really evenly distributed. And it’s a super complex algorithm. So okay. But but it is a reduction in the actual tax bill. X percent or X. All right okay okay.

00:41:36,900	And it’s underwritten by a $50,000 an appropriation in the budget that. Right. Right. So shift okay. So we’re just trying to help some of the older folks stay in town. Absolutely. I think that’s a very laudable goal. Yes I agree.

00:41:55,600	Do we get a lot of folks in Hamilton that get to utilize this. Is there a fair do we have a. I think so Jane said that over the last five years you’ve been helping about 22 families. Great. Is that how many families did you hold help. We’ve met his 33, but the average is 2222. Per year. Yeah. Okay. That’s fair.

00:42:13,570	So that’s that’s a substantial number of of people. That’s good right. Yeah. They need that help. It’s yes they do. They do. So anything that will help with the tax burden I’m certainly all for right. Any other comments or questions from the board. Just one other question.

00:42:39,400	Is the household income is that steady from last year or has it increased? Huh. Is it creeps. The program was put in place in 2010 and it has a we have an increase in household income. So this is you should keep like 47,000 for single and 72 for married. Okay. Give the economy and what you get for your dollar.

00:43:10,400	We thought this was more realistic okay. Yeah I just I just wasn’t sure I, I don’t remember what the figures were from last year. So I appreciate you you helping me with that. Okay. Just one question I brought up. Is it possible to index this again, something so that we don’t have to readjust it every 16 years.

00:43:34,900	Would be, wow. It’s written it to the ax at the Select board to vote on it. But the board sets. 16 years was not too bad. Believe me, it would be easier if I didn’t have to come here every year, but I don’t. Okay. Sounds good. All right. We’re ready. I’ll entertain a motion.

00:43:59,400	Okay. I’ll make a motion that we approve the chapter 91 special act, senior exemptions, increasing the age or not increasing the age. Keeping the age of 65 years old for an applicant. Total household income of 70,000 for a single person, 90,000 for a married couple.

00:44:16,270	Total household assets of 2220 5000 for a single person and 300,000 for a married couple. Second. All right. And we are all here now, so we don’t need to do roll call vote. So all in favor? All right. Motion passes. Thank you. Jane. Thanks, Jane. Appreciate it. All right. Moving right along. Uh, so third agenda item.

00:44:37,030	We are going to table. There was a change in plans. And we will revisit that one at a later date. So we will skip over, uh, appointing John Green as associate member of the CBA. And we will move into a review and discussion of the cemetery plot purchase policy.

00:44:56,730	Uh, and, Rosemary, I know you’ve been, uh, um, given the the challenge of looking at some of our policies, and I know this is on the list, so I’d love to hear what you’ve done. And, um, we can talk through some of these changes, so take it away. Thank, uh. Let’s see.

00:45:12,130	I think it’s in our packet, so I think I talked about this briefly at our last meeting. And the goal, I mean, the the purpose of it is to, um, sort of, uh, protect a finite resource that is meant to be a benefit to Hamilton residents.

00:45:41,500	And so thinking about that, um, it seems that there are particular circumstances where, um, ex residents would qualify and, and two cases I thought were important or would be in the case of an elderly person who goes into assisted living or a memory care unit, and they don’t, and whoever is organizing this doesn’t have time to to think about this.

00:46:06,100	And so they would retain the right to purchase a cemetery plot indefinitely. Um, and likewise, if somebody moved out of state or out of their home and their address changed, the this in the same way that somebody in an assisted living legal address would change, um, if this person was unable to care for themselves, they would still retain the right to

00:46:29,670	purchase a cemetery plot indefinitely. And so that, I think, is the easy part. The hard part is where somebody moves out of town voluntarily. You know, I think the reality is we can’t say that you can continue to to plan to purchase Cemetery Plot in Hamilton.

00:46:52,070	If you moved out of town 30 years ago. Well, where did you go? Right? I mean, I think I think that’s that’s a realistic limitation. So what I decided, um, might be a reasonable, um, solution is number three for resident voluntary voluntarily moves out of town, not not more than five years prior.

00:47:15,030	And that person had a substantial tie to the town. They’re eligible to purchase a single cemetery plot. If it’s a husband and wife, then they would be able to purchase two cemetery plots and then just loosely defining some substantial, substantial ties may include attending Hamilton Williams School for the majority of K-12 or residing in town for ten or

00:47:38,000	more years. Um, and then exceptions to this policy may be allowed due to extenuating circumstances and all exceptions must be approved by the Select board. But I think we all know we’ve had sort of uncomfortable situations here. And we just.

00:48:06,130	We don’t have infinite space, and we need to think about future town residents. I mean, anybody has the option to purchase a cemetery plot while they are a resident, but if you move out of town and it’s been more than five years, well, you know, we can’t continue to accommodate these these situations.

00:48:27,530	And it’s very sad when somebody comes in here and asks us, it’s very uncomfortable. So that was what I thought would be reasonable. And I don’t know what others think. Yeah, I, I agree, it’s always an uncomfortable conversation to have because, you know, they’re looking to buy a burial plot and usually they have some like, well, you know, I had some connection at some point to the.

00:48:47,470	Town 30 years. Ago to know someone or they have a family member or whatever it may be. And. Yeah. Um, so I do like I like number three in the sense where you find out, like what a connection to the town would be. I like having criteria that we can wait against.

00:49:01,130	I always think I come back to four and I think we always like, you know, I feel like we do this with policies about, like, these extenuating circumstances where I feel like everything ends up falling in four and then like they just come to us and we approve it because we feel bad.

00:49:12,570	Right? So I don’t know if we can, like, define like you did a number three. Like what an extenuating circumstance might be like. I don’t know, like what is something that we would not approve in three, but we’d improve in for. military service. What? Somebody left town, uh, to pursue military service and. Yeah.

00:49:29,070	Yeah, like spending a career in the military. Their family was settled in Kalamazoo, Washington. They still wanted to be buried here because they their parents were here. And they, you know, something like that, right? It would be nice if we could like.

00:49:43,930	And I’m not saying we have to, like, stick to these buckets, but at least like, maybe like an idea of, like what that fourth category looks like. Yeah. So I feel like otherwise if someone’s gonna come in and be like, well, you know, I really liked, you know, my I played golf in myopia once and loved it and. Right, right. Yeah. I just I just think.

00:50:00,370	Okay. So yeah, I agree. I spent a lot of time thinking about. No. No, no, I think you did a great job. And I really and. For I.

00:50:14,970	Don’t know, I think because I looked at other towns policies and they sort of had that clause thrown in, maybe we don’t have that clause thrown in because you’re right. That becomes the the exception where every person feels that they have extenuating. So. And I did the same thing with the abatement policy. Right. I know I was you know, and I put like a clause like that in there.

00:50:31,870	And then I realized, like everything was coming back to us and we’re like, oh, well, I guess we got approved the $2,000 water abatement or something, I feel like.

00:50:45,230	And then I feel like we got stuck in that position, that awkward position of like, oh, well, the residents paying because a leak or this is their, you know, a cemetery plot. I feel like we always get put in that position where maybe if we have defined it a little bit, I don’t know what the answer is. Right. Of what that definition. Well, because. You know, I couldn’t think. Of I. Think that’s why I didn’t put. It in. I can’t either think of it.

00:50:58,100	That’s why that’s why we end up in this position. Right. So so I’m wondering if we should take that out and realize that we can revisit a policy at at any time. Right.

00:51:18,470	So maybe we could I mean, I don’t know what’s our, our policy to review policies is but but yeah, that kind of stuck in my craw too. But I even. Think the substantial connection to the town would, would, would qualify for Joe’s example of what the military. Service. Exactly. I think I think I. Think we could probably. Still limited by five years, though. I mean. Yeah, maybe not the five years piece of it, but yeah.

00:51:34,800	So yeah, maybe that’s what it is. But yeah, yeah. Um. We should set some. Some so. You could. So yeah, I think. Yeah. Exceptions I don’t know, I, I don’t have an answer. Well, but. We’ll find an answer. We’ll find one. Joe, I like your comment.

00:51:56,200	I think that was very humane because it’s the same thing somebody left to perform military duty, had strong ties to the town. And then comes back. But why can’t somebody think of that? You know, why don’t why can’t I? Don’t know. I’m just. People are joining the military out of high school or. Right? Right after college. They’re not thinking.

00:52:15,700	You’re generally not thinking about where your final resting place. Is going to be. Right? Right between the ages of 18 and 25. Yeah. Yeah. I don’t know what. What do others think? I think that’s. Yeah. That’s an extenuating circumstances such as long term military. Service, maybe even just. Maybe even like.

00:52:34,530	Yeah, just like putting that keeping that line in there. But then maybe like adding that. Right. Yeah. Such as. Yeah, I. Like that example of maybe another example. Yeah. So it wasn’t that you voluntarily left in that sense that. Oh geez. Well I’ll think about that later. I mean, you’re. There’s to leave. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. That’s that’s okay. Yeah. I would go for that.

00:52:58,100	Yeah. So that. I guess someone that went to prison in another state could also probably qualify to. Right. It this way. Oh, know, I guess I don’t know. Uh, I don’t know, I don’t yeah I think, I think. we could I like what you did with, with, uh, I think we could probably. Yeah.

00:53:22,700	So technically, to adopt a new policy, revised policy, you’d need to do two public readings, and then you’d vote on it after the second public reading. So, um, you still. I’m sure I’m assuming, I think want to hear from Ben and Bill on this. Yeah.

00:53:41,000	So, you know, maybe we’ll ask them to comment back for you prior to the next meeting. So maybe make for a little bit more meeting and then. Uh. It’s a good example. Yeah. And then if everybody feels like it, you could do a reading, uh, first reading at the next meeting that would get it started towards being adopted.

00:53:57,370	Well, isn’t this the first reading? Not if you’re gonna make changes. You haven’t heard from Bill and been. Yeah, well. Well. the next meeting would be the second reading, and then we would vote at the meeting after that. Okay, you. Can do that. I does it does the does the reading have to be on a complete and the like ready to go.

00:54:13,570	The reading supposed to be on a complete on a reading is supposed to be on a complete policy, like you’ve finalized all the revisions you can make. So, um, I think you can. You have time to do this between now and the next meeting. So the next meeting could be the first reading. Okay, well.

00:54:27,830	I’m not trying to slow you down. So, yeah. I got a lot of policy serving. You, just kind of. Crafting just that little caveat at the end. Like, such as someone that left town. Waterfront for a dedicated. Military service or something. Yeah. Yeah, yeah I do.

00:54:44,930	I agree, Joe, that was a very good suggestion. And and good good for the support. Okay. So I’ll. Know it looks great. Push that out a little bit. See. You know, my mind is always on. The senior is always on the seniors. So Joe helped me to refocus. So, so on military people. I think that’s very good.

00:55:01,500	Yeah, yeah, this is great. This is always a tough one. I agree with you, Roseann. You know, when we get those, those requests that come before the board, I think it’s a lot of it is just, you know, give it to them because we, you know, they’re deciding on their final resting place, you know.

00:55:15,230	So it’s like oh yeah. And that’s. Who am I to decide where you want to. Be better. Yeah. But at the same time there is some real concern around where there is limited. Space and there are there are, you know, where have you been living for 20 years? Right.

00:55:26,800	Then you need to figure something out. I mean, it sounds it sounds less than empathic, but in reality, it’s not. Because we’re a small town. We have a small cemetery, and we cherish the the history and the beauty of, of and the peaceful environment of our cemetery. And so.

00:55:48,970	Like I said, people always have the ability to purchase cemetery. But before they move out. Of that, well, that’s what I said. Right? Exactly. That gets them out of the right. And that’s in the little the little preamble here that they can keep. Current residents may purchase burial plots for immediate need or future planning.

00:56:10,500	So everybody always has that opportunity. Yeah. So anyhow. It makes me think about what you know, I’m going to be doing now here. Yeah. Go purchase. One now and then and then. So yeah. Yeah. Oh no. Sounds great. Thank you very much. You remind me real quick is the is the policy.

00:56:27,600	If a person wants to sell do they sell person to person or they sell. Yeah. They sell it back. To sell it back to the town. And should that go into the policy as well. Or is that. That’s a good point. I probably should. Oh, well. Wait a minute. Yeah.

00:56:40,270	We’ll make sure that it’s clear if you’re gonna update the policy, update it to say that, uh, someone who purchases a plot needs to sell it. And that’s. I don’t think that’s. Ever been any anywhere. It was. Just sort of. It’s a good idea that it goes in. I like that idea because we. Was urban legend prior to this. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. That’s good.

00:56:58,030	It was just established best practice for people would do that. But, um, I mean, how many people are going to go on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace to list a cemetery plot? I agree, most likely not going to happen. But websites to do it. And my parents sold theirs to a friend. And so. You.

00:57:12,270	Know, but yeah, it’s a good idea to get in the policy further. Okay. Okay. Interesting. That’s fine. I’ll I’ll add that as well. Okay. This is cemetery plot. Go for these days. Um, it’s on our website. I don’t know offhand. We have we have single plot.

00:57:32,070	We have we have prices set established for single, double and family plots. Excuse me. Yeah. Yeah, yeah I did I. Did. See dollars for two. Yeah. Something like. That I think. That’s right. Yeah I think that’s right. Okay. Yeah. Interesting. Oh okay. Sorry. One more thing. Yeah. Go ahead. Is if a person did want to sell their plot to a friend.

00:57:51,200	They need to come before sell it for it and make sure that there were either current resident or that they fit one of the exceptions. So they so they fit that. Let’s say. So they they sell it back to the town technically. And then and then on the same night approved selling it to the friend.

00:58:06,230	Okay. You could probably work that out if they come and let us know that’s what they want to do. Okay. I think yeah, that’s, that’s, that’s. A good idea. So they couldn’t sell it for a profit. But then they have to sell it out of the town and sell it to the.

00:58:17,930	They can’t be making income off this. So I would I say would we would say that. No we would sell it back and. Um no that’s. I don’t know if that’s something. Is there a, you know, a risk there, you’d. Get back what you paid for it and then the new person would pay what our current rate is.

00:58:35,030	Yeah. Oh. Although if. You want. A couple. Years ago before the race went. Up, if we could arrange it then on the side, I could be like, oh, and I’ll give you an extra $500 to to. Yeah, we can we can regulate that outside. Yeah. Right. Yeah.

00:58:47,600	And that’s, that’s a very good point that if somebody wants to sell it to a friend, they need to fit into the same criteria. So so yeah. Bravo for that. Okay. Great. Yeah. All right. That was good. Great. Good job. Thanks. Thanks. Um, so then you’ll make those revisions.

00:59:07,270	We’ll we’ll, um, you’ll share that with Ben and Bill for feedback, and then we’ll bring it back to a future meeting to discuss again. We’ll try and do it for first reading. For first reading, that’ll be. And that’ll be the first reading. Yeah. Great. Okay. All right. Uh, moving on.

00:59:25,270	Review and discussion of the FY 27 goals. Uh, that began at the June 29th, 2026 workshop. So you it’s in your packet. I believe it’s about 5 or 6 pages long.

00:59:45,070	Um, I took both from my notes and the minutes from that meeting, and I looked at the recording and I filled out the spreadsheet that that had been proposed as the as the goals sheet. This isn’t in no way intended to be a final. I wanted to present the board with something that you could each think about, then talk about, and we can make amendments that you want.

01:00:02,600	We can add tasks and timeline measures of success. We can add goals that you want to add that aren’t currently here. I think I captured everything that was, um, discussed during that meeting on the 29th. But until you start to finalize them that we have time and room to add to it. Yeah, this is great.

01:00:26,030	Thank you, Joe, for for pulling this all together. I see there are a couple of items in red here. Is that like, those are specific ones you want us to weigh in on? So, I mean, um, is. Yeah.

01:00:43,030	Gordon Conwell, Browns Hill I mean, I had there it was carryover from last year and we had talked about it at the meeting, but I didn’t really have a sense from my notes or the minutes of whether we needed to keep that as a goal. With this, as I know the sale is expected to close this Friday.

01:01:01,330	Is there more there that the board wants to do? Or consider a Gordon comma? And then, um, economic development goal planning goal? I think they were raised as ideas of things that we should have goals about, but there wasn’t any real specifics. And, um, I had no way to kind of put together tasks and measurements of success without understanding a little bit more from the board.

01:01:18,570	So I was just really asking for input and feedback from you so that I could flesh those out. Yeah. I know the economic development goal, I believe, was brought up by Ben. Yeah, I was going to say, I remember he went into some detail on some thoughts.

01:01:33,870	So maybe we want to wait for him on on that particular one. But I know for, for Gordon Carmel and as you noted, the sale being the seventh, there’s nothing more for us to do other than we will potentially receive some sort of payments at some point. We should be getting a check for $400,000 right after the seventh.

01:01:50,900	Yeah. And then there would be additional, aren’t there additional depending. On down the road, if more if other parts sell, then we’d be getting additional money. But. Right. But then the the next thing is the $400,000 when. So where does that like that 400,000.

01:02:05,730	Where does that come into as far as the goals of how we want to utilize that? Um, is that part of the Gordon Carmel like goal, like a continuation of that, or is that going to fall into some other bucket? I think it’s going to fall into some other bucket.

01:02:19,470	So like all funds, unless they’re designated, um, either by state law or by a vote of town meeting, all funds that are collected by the town are general revenue funds. They go to the general revenue, and they don’t get spent until they are appropriated somehow or designated to be in some other funds. So you can create a special revenue fund. You can.

01:02:33,070	There’s a lot of things that we can do at town meeting. We have a lot of we good news, good news. We have a lot of money this year that we have to have a conversation with you in fin com and then ultimately the town meeting about what you

01:02:48,830	want to do with the 600 plus thousand dollars for the South Tower lease sale and for the 400, actually $500,000 we’re getting out of the Gordon Commonwealth sale.

01:03:07,970	Now, that’s a lot of money, and we’re we’re going to be asking you to look at, uh, repurposing the quote unquote, field stabilization fund, because the way it was drafted, we were never able to use it. It’s accrued quite a bit of interest. So we’re upwards of $670,000 in that fund now. I mean, all told, you’ve got almost $2 million, 1,000,000.75 of but it’s one time money.

01:03:24,930	So you have to determine how you want to use it. And what how is it going to benefit the town taxpayers the most? Where do you want to direct it towards things like Patent park, highways. Roads? Are you spent within a time frame like? No. But but it’s a it’s an ongoing. Yeah. It’s a one time. We wouldn’t we wouldn’t we wouldn’t recommend at all.

01:03:41,170	It’d be used at all in the, the annual operating budgets because it’s one time revenue. So once it’s gone it’s gone. So it’s. Capital money. It’s, it’s similar to. Having. Similar capital and actually specifically with both. So specifically with the. Funds from the stabilization field that was that was proceeds from the sale of land.

01:04:05,130	And that has to go to capital. So you can designate it for specific capital, but it has to go to capital. It can’t be spent anywhere else. You know. That’s I think the money from Gordon Conwell and this I’m just thinking this.

01:04:22,070	And people can tell me I’m not thinking clearly, but that’s kind of a windfall. And I think we could think of some creative way to develop a fund that we could draw from every year for particular purposes. Um, and I don’t know what that is off the top of my head. I mean, I you all know I have a strong affinity for, for seniors.

01:04:52,000	Um, and, and that wouldn’t be the only population, obviously, that that would use it. But I don’t know, I, I would my inclination would be to make it sort of a.

01:05:18,230	A fund where particular people who fall into a category could apply for, for small amounts of money every year like this is just thinking off the top of my head like, uh, maybe seniors could have their, um, excise taxes on their cars paid for.

01:05:38,400	And I know that, you know, it’s just it’s not a huge amount of money, but it’s but it’s a meaningful amount of money, and it won’t deplete the fund to be able to do other things. That’s just a thought off the top of my head. Yeah. I mean, I think I think this is good to have, you know, these sort of ideas and creative things of like what’s going to be most impactful for, for the town.

01:05:54,200	Right? I mean, these like between the Gordon Caldwell money, between the sale of the the tower, um, and obviously the the stabilization fund, I mean, if we’re looking at 1.6 or close to $2 million that can be spent on improving, like, yeah, we couldn’t diversify it.

01:06:11,000	And, you know, make sure that we’re impacting a number of different, you know, um, demographics within the town. But I think a goal and I’m not sure where it fits on here. And I have to dig in a little bit deeper, but it should be like you said, Joe, working with the fin com. And maybe it’s a separate committee.

01:06:25,070	You know, part of the capital committee or part of the, you know, um, a separate group that really looks at this fund. And what should. We use it for? The needs? What do we need? Right. What do we need beyond just, you know, your standard capital partnership. Is it Patent Park, is it you know, something for seniors? You know.

01:06:40,970	For the sidewalks, right. Is it what is it that we can do? No. I think we have little funds and little buckets for those sort of things. This would be a personal need for for real human beings. Is is what I’m thinking about. Right. And.

01:07:07,070	Because Peyton Park is going to be well funded and, um, I think we should use it for something that meets. How do you. I’m just. I’m. How do you think Patent Park is going to be well funded? Well, it’s funded from Arpa money, $800,000. Isn’t that. The Arpa moneys all gone. But I thought it was like 800,000 was allocated to Patton.

01:07:26,870	Well, the bulk of the money the board voted to designate towards the water treatment plant to get the secondary treatment, uh, online to remove for the the vast majority of our money went to that some was dedicated.

01:07:44,530	We did put some amount small amount aside for something that patent park but it wasn’t. And then we did repurpose some money at the last town meeting to take care of the gazebo and some things, but you have a pilot park master plan that was roughly $2 million worth of improvements. And there’s no there’s no current debt. There’s gonna. Be fine for that.

01:08:00,170	Corrected. Okay. I thought there were there were, uh, there were grants and and funding for, for that. And what. About and like, I know there’s like like the master plan of, like the downtown improvements to like, wasn’t there something associated is there is there. No.

01:08:18,600	Those are all those are all things we have to, you know, you know, the the downtown, um, the downtown plan, revitalization, revitalization plan. We have taken it once in the past to the state looking for, um, grant funds from the old masterworks program. And we’re with one stop grant is what it’s called now. We plan to do that again.

01:08:36,730	Uh, we’re currently working with the engineer to get design up to 75% of the project engineered with better cost estimates and a determination of if we can phase it. And that will wind up landing on the five year capital plan. It’s been on the capital plan as just a placeholder, $2.

01:08:56,470	5 million, but no detail. We’re hoping to have that into the five year capital plan this year with better detail, better understanding of where that stuff needs, you know? And then we have to have the conversation, where’s that money going to come from? And yeah, and I’m liaison to the HTC and should know better.

01:09:12,530	But they are eagerly awaiting this costing estimates for for the downtown project to understand how they fit into that as well. Yeah. Yeah. Because that’s a that’s a big one too, where that’s the that’s a meaningful impact for everyone.

01:09:30,130	Um, and you know, getting you know, there’s the bike lanes and just revitalization down there. And I think there’s a lot I mean there’s a lot. Right. And I think these are the the conversations we should be having right of, you know what? What is the the best. Um. Best value for bang for our buck here. And we’re going to sell the patent homestead. Uh, the three buildings in 3.23.

01:09:47,170	Acres has the. RFP. The RFP will be advertised starting this week on on Wednesday. So, um, then we have to leave it open for a month so we won’t. Get it. Back till September.

01:10:04,530	But, um, you know, when that property sells the property, the funds we get from that will be one time funds from the sale of the land. So that will also will get half of it. Half of it goes to the patent family, and our half will have to be go to capital. So you’ll, you’ll have based on based on the the valuation of the property, you’re going to have another million plus there.

01:10:22,030	So you really are going to have, um, you know, 2.7, $2.8 million of money of money, one time monies that we can really plan for, how to get the best use out of it. The loss of conversation is going to happen between now and then. Your board fin com probably a capital committee.

01:10:39,470	Um, but a lot of those projects that we have to do, lots of capital and infrastructure investments, we have to make.

01:10:55,170	It’s going to cost us less if we do it now than if we do it in 5 or 10 years, and it’s going to cost us less if we do it with money we have on hand, as opposed to doing it by bonding. Exactly. Yeah. Um, you’ve got an opportunity in the next couple of years to tee up some good projects that won’t cost the taxpayer, but we’ll improve, um, the quality of life for our residents here.

01:11:08,830	I mean, I mean, I think and you’ve talked about having conversations with the fin com with the Capital Committee with this board. I mean, I think this is a real good opportunity for some community engagement. Right.

01:11:21,070	And what what is the town, you know, think of, you know, you know, what do they want? Do they want I mean, I’ve seen, you know, people talking about, you know, Patent Park and wanting to see some updates there. I’ve seen downtown and wanting to see updates there. But what else is what else is on. You know. So maybe there’s some community sessions that we could hold.

01:11:34,470	So I think that it’d be great to do some community listening sessions and get ideas in. I just I would say that I’ve seen it happen in other towns that sometimes when you invite that in, then you wind up with, you know, um, paralysis by analysis, then, oh, we’ve had 20 great ideas.

01:11:53,730	Nobody wants to make a decision on which one we push forward. So I would say have the listening sessions and then have the boards and committees rank their preferences. Yeah. No, I. Bring something forward to town meeting. So you have a plan. Yeah. So.

01:12:09,930	So do we need to walk in though to the, um to having Finn come take a look at that and what the needs are and trying to come up with an analysis of what those would be do. Do they need also that downtown estimate before walking to that, before attempting to accomplish that, or is that.

01:12:28,570	I mean, I’m hoping to have that estimate by the end of this, this month, if not sooner. So BSD Group knows that we’re trying to get our budget season and our our discussion of capital starts in the in September. So I’ve we’ve been playing to them that we needed those estimates and that design done uh this month. So okay great.

01:12:46,500	I just point out that Patton Park was one of my top priorities. And I don’t think it’s on. This one. Okay. By park. Yep. That’d be great.

01:13:07,930	You know, the, uh, Hilton went a Little League had offered, um, when I was in my prior term on the board to help do some renovations down there. And I’m wondering if we could tap into them again and, um, revisit that and see if they would still be willing to contribute. Um, to to that effort. Yeah. Yeah, that’d. Be great.

01:13:28,730	Well, and I think actually, um, you know, one of the other things that we talked about at one point was that I think there’s, uh, and the problem is, is that this takes someone organizing it, but the opportunity to allow people to participate in some of those activities related to the park, I think really helps with community building, allowing people to, you know, if we if we get an order of trees and

01:13:43,670	letting people help with digging the holes and planting the trees and being able to sort of be a part of that and be like, oh, that’s a tree I help plan. You know, 30 years ago, um, yeah. But but it takes someone to plan it and actually manage that. So, um.

01:14:00,230	We don’t have a lot of extra people. I know. Did you just hire someone? Finally hired, um. Finally hired somebody for the full time administrative assistant from Paul in my office. And she’s been here for two weeks now, going on two weeks now, which is fantastic. So, um, and she’s doing she’s doing great.

01:14:19,300	She’s picking it up. So. Is Laurie helping to. Orient Laurie’s help? Hilary’s helping to orient her, and. But Laurie goes leaves for vacation this week, so we’ll Kristen will be on her own for the first time. Um. Sure.

01:14:42,600	So, um, so if we what’s the next step on this? We walk through and rank these ourselves. Do we have a conversation with. So, so typically, um, the board can have conversations and meetings. Uh, individually.

01:15:02,870	You can share your thoughts with me and the chair, and we’ll try to circulate it into another draft of this and get it out before your next meeting on the topic, whether that’s on the 17th or in September. Would it be helpful to to have these ranked or just like, these are the ones I care about, is the ones I don’t. Care about? Well, I mean, I’d be looking.

01:15:20,300	I mean, unless you want something to come off, I’m assuming most of these are going to wind up on the list, but I guess, yeah. That’s a. It’s a long list. Every year. It’s every. Yeah, it gets bigger and bigger every year. And so I mean. We all taking some things off the list the last couple of years. I mean I feel like we’ve taken some things off the list.

01:15:33,430	The last couple of big things. Right. Yeah. Big things. Yeah. I mean, and the fact we’re taking Gordon off. You know, it took me years to do it. So project. Yeah. The town hall project. Exactly. Yeah. And then. Um, the. Town homestead. Tower. Done. Patton homestead. Exactly.

01:15:48,530	So there are a lot of big projects that are, um, coming into fruition. So that’s. Very. That’s the second cell tower permanent. And we’re just waiting for them to start building. Right, right. On that when they’re gonna start. Um. I. I asked Mark today and, you know, their timeline and our timeline aren’t necessarily in alignment. Uh, they’ve got their permits.

01:16:07,970	They there’s nothing else they need from the town. They have up to ten months to to pull the building permit and start building. So they haven’t pulled the building permit yet. They’ve done all their study. They say they’re going forward this year. Next ten months though. But in the next ten months it should start. Okay. And Joe, how tall is that. Cell tower.

01:16:22,270	Going to be? Uh, I don’t know if. 70ft or 100ft somewhere. Oh, I. Don’t remember offhand. I don’t remember. And the carriers, we haven’t they haven’t decided on what carriers. Well, it’s going to be Everest again. And they, they typically build for Verizon, but then they’re going to try to attract other carriers. They’re still.

01:16:40,270	Got the way they have to team. AT&T has got permission to put that um, that pole top thing on on Walnut. So that should be going forward as well. So and this is going to improve downtown right. Yeah. Because I know a week. What is it going. Yeah.

01:16:56,170	If, if, if a new tower at the public Safety building doesn’t approve downtown I don’t I. Well new tower. At the town hall I just, I thought that one would prove downtown. But no. Well that was too low and. Yeah, you know, I. Didn’t realize you needed so many of them.

01:17:11,970	Um, but all I want to be. I just want to get a phone call at Crosby’s. If I can get my wife’s phone call from Crosby’s. I definitely think the one. Even though it’s for AT&T. I do think that the one, the pole top one is going to help, and that’s going to be quicker. And then I.

01:17:25,270	Think, when’s that one what’s that one schedule for? Do we know. That one? They were trying to get it done this summer. But I, I, I’m not even sure what they need to I mean they’ve got the permit that they need. They’ve got approval to go forward.

01:17:37,330	I don’t even think that they need to pull a building permit. They need to pull some kind of permit to block the street for a day while they install it. But it’s not.

01:17:49,000	Is that it for towers in Hamilton, or is there other like gaps or areas that they are looking at? I think they’re trying to to to fill in gaps because, you know, coming up one a there’s there’s other and I don’t want them in us or kind of dark spots. But yeah. Yeah. Well don’t give up your landlines just yet. Yeah. I brought my landline with me tonight.

01:18:08,830	Yeah. So I mean, if you want to, if you want to rank, if you want to rank your choices or say which ones are your priorities, and we can I can use, you know, common ones among you will we will get moved to the top of the priority list.

01:18:20,600	And yeah, I guess back to to Lee’s point. So, you know, this is a we’re continuing to edit this document. But Bill and Ben I Matt you’re going to want to weigh in.

01:18:32,100	So we’re probably going to want to provide you feedback separately and then bring this back for is there a vote on this or just more of just eventually. But I don’t think we’re ready for that yet. Yeah. At some point. Yeah okay. Okay. Anything else we want to discuss here.? Um, just on the e-bike bylaw. Yeah.

01:18:53,070	There was another, um, article that came out in the the patch news, uh, a couple of days ago. And I don’t have my phone. Um, but I did. I did send it to myself, but it talks about the continually heightened concern of, uh, medical people and police and parents, um, about the burgeoning use of e-bikes without any, any criteria.

01:19:19,930	And I will tell you, I was driving down the street and I came across this adorable little 11 year old boy who was sitting on the side of the road with an e-bike. So I thought, oh, let me just get a man on the street kind of interview.

01:19:37,170	And he had a helmet on. But I asked him how old he was and he said, I’m 11. And I asked him how long he’d been riding that bike. He said, A few months, and I asked him where he rides it, you know, just trying to get his understanding of his knowledge.

01:19:55,230	Now, the kid was adorable and I know he wanted to do the right thing, but what is the right thing? And I just would not want to see any of our darling little kids hurt.

01:20:13,800	So I was so that heightened my awareness of the need to put some boundaries in place just because it’s there doesn’t mean that young kids should be using it. And last week I again, I saw, um, some little kid riding, um, one of those mini motorcycles around on the tennis court. I was like, whoa, what are you doing here? Right? I just it was it was upsetting.

01:20:36,670	I thought, boy, it’s out of control. So those are just more circumstances that make me aware of the need for for that bylaw. So I don’t know, in reality, does this belong here on our goals or should? Should somebody be writing a bylaw? What do you think? I think it’s worth talking about more.

01:20:59,770	I mean, I agree with the e-bikes and they’re a little terrifying to me too. I was going down union the other day, and someone was riding in the middle of the street. No lights, nothing. And it was it was dusk. I almost hit this person.

01:21:13,600	You know, teenager or young child that was in the middle of the road, just zooming down there. Yeah. I had the same experience on Union Street. As well. Yeah. Um, I know I talked with some, some people I know in Danvers, and their select is actually looking at this as well. I don’t know if it’s worth exploring what they’re trying to do.

01:21:27,700	And, you know, if there’s some language we could borrow or something like that. But did we hear that there’s something, uh, in the state legislature? Yeah. Also. Yeah. Yeah, there is something there. And and I did look at it. Was it not cover. Well, it’s very legislative. So it’s a broad.

01:21:48,800	It’s they’re trying to satisfy police chiefs across the state who all want something to hang their hat on. Because and we certainly can write our own bylaw that’s more particular to our needs. We have a lot of kids here. We have a lot of a lot of kids who have the ability to have e-bikes.

01:22:07,470	So I think that it’s going to go to the top of my list. And, and I have spoken with, uh, chief Guy about that as well. Yeah. I think it’s worth continuing. I mean, I’m interested in, you know, seeing what we could put together. Yeah.

01:22:27,200	Um, if I voted in favor of a bylaw for e-bikes, I would probably lose all respect for my son who keeps asking me for one. But I’m not giving. Them one. How old is this little. Young nine and a half. I’m like, you are. What do. I think? That little peanut that I saw on the tennis courts? He looked pretty small to me. So, yeah. You know. Yeah, I think it’s, uh. I think it’s a good conversation to keep. Yeah, yeah.

01:22:50,630	So anyhow. So what what is the ultimate goal of the e-bike scooter law? To give the police the ability to enforce rules that we. Have to make the rules. Make the rules. And then give the police the ability to enforce them to.

01:23:15,800	That would be a bylaw that would have to go to ATM for for a passage of time anyway. So that would be something like, you know, like what? Like speed limits or something. On. It. Or like. age helmet, you could include. Age where they can ride. You ride. Um, what class? What’s classified as an e-bike? You know, so, so basic, basic nomenclature.

01:23:38,270	And then, um, you know, there have to be consequences. It’s not just, oh, no, you can’t ride it. There have to be consequences. And maybe we need to pull parents into this because it gives the kids. The bike. And chief Guy was was. Interested in conversation. Yeah, exactly. Okay. Okay. Good. So anyhow. So Joe, what.

01:24:00,100	What did we typically do? Uh, with, like, if, like, there was this, like, boy was interested in pursuing a bylaw. What is that general process. So do we actually do we work with town council on that. Do we? We can we can hire we can have town council work with you on it.

01:24:13,430	You bring something to them or do we do. We can do it either way. We’ve we’ve done both. Um, both have typically if it’s going to be a bylaw on something that’s going to go before town meeting, I like to involve town council as early as possible. Yeah.

01:24:28,400	Um, because we have a better way of being sure that it’s going to be, you know, pass muster with the, uh, with the attorney general and everything, the secretary of state when it gets approved. So. Okay. So we’ve done that before. Ask town council for the initial draft.

01:24:49,230	And then I think, um, on some bylaws, um, I have taken the initiative to review them and then send it back to town council. And, um, we just decide what what we want to do, given the, um, the draft that town council sends us, if that’s not a burden for for them. I mean, there isn’t anything yet.

01:25:10,370	Right? Well, maybe we bring this, you know, we have three members tonight. You bring this to the larger board when everyone’s here, and we can talk through about next steps. I think it would be better to. I think I’m sure Bill and Ben would want to weigh in as well. But I think you’re going to want to do the same thing with the dark, Side Dark Skies bylaw.

01:25:20,330	Yeah, Yeah, get a draft of one. I know that the citizens, the ad hoc citizen’s group that’s been working on it, has some stuff, so I’d take that, give it to town council. Say, give us your best take on what is currently being done in other towns with this in it.

01:25:34,530	And give us a good draft that we can. What exactly is the Dark Skies bylaw? What does that what are the details of that and what what do we what are we regulating there? Um, lighting. Lighting. Outdoor lighting at night. Yeah. And write. Down lighting. And is there a need to have lights on all night. And can we types.

01:25:51,630	Of lighting to. like the coolness, the hotness, the coolness of the color actually also impacts. Yeah. Um, you know, native life, you know. So yeah. Okay. Yeah.

01:26:08,270	Is that just apply residential or is that going to apply to town facilities, the schools and all that? Or how does that generally work? Or. It depends how you’re it depends how you write it. Um, yeah. We’re you know, we’re we’ve been without a policy. We’ve been trying to do our best. So, you know, I know that a lot of thought was given by the architects when they plan the outdoor lighting for the town hall.

01:26:23,700	Um, so it’s going to be kind of current with current. It’s going to be compliant with current, kind of dark skies best practices right now. Um, but that, you know, it’s not the same thing that the garage is. Right? The DPW yard is right next to us, and that’s hasn’t been considered yet. Right. So yeah.

01:26:42,370	Yeah. And and Andrew is an attorney also. And she will be very meticulous about thinking about how to write it. And maybe we don’t put the whole burden onto town council, but maybe send maybe if they’ve done a draft, um, using other dark sky bylaws, we could take our draft and send it to town

01:27:05,930	council. I don’t want to speak for Anne, but I just know what a little smarty pants she is, and she’ll have something good written. Yeah. That’s great. Anything else on goals? No. Tonight for me, I’m. No, not tonight. Uh, new business. Just talked about a lot of new business.

01:27:30,800	Yeah, I think we did. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we did some stuff.. I don’t know. That’s our a quick question about Patton Park. Um, when does the work begin on Patton Park? Uh, the gazebo was going to happen in, uh, in the fall, probably September. I think they’ve opened the bids.

01:27:44,630	They’ve got they’ve figured they’ve got what they need to do to go forward with the project, but, um, they will wait till we get through the park’s summer parks program and stuff and can can block off the area.

01:27:59,230	So what about the other project, the walkways project? I have to ask Sean about that, but it’ll almost always happen in the fall because they want to get past the heavy use time of. The summer. And I thought maybe the the culvert, the the flooding was going to be a high priority item down there as well. If phase one deals with drainage and walkways.

01:28:22,200	Right? I mean, I, I haven’t seen the Patent Park master plan, to be honest, and I just, you know, my my gut responses, how much more stuff can we put in in that park? Really? What you mean? Well, I don’t. There’s not a lot more stuff going in the master plan, a lot of improvements and things.

01:28:45,730	Yeah. Um, and. Those are the bathroom facility improvements. The bathroom facilities. Areas, trees, walkways. More trees. More walkways, uh, handicapped accessible walkways to make, um, navigation of the park. Where are you going to put them? Walk. Parents. I wonder. what the. Walkways in the master plan. They they they go around.

01:29:03,530	The lake. They go around the lake, which we may not be able to like right away, do all the way around, but we can make it more complete than it is now. So kids love that. Okay, that’s. That’s cute. Okay.

01:29:16,870	I mean, I think I do think that there’s a good opportunity to sort of tie those different pieces together because it does feel like sort of the lake is one part, the playgrounds another part, the fields are another part that they sort of get separated into. You know, I think that the walkways will help sort of tie that all. Together, unify it. Yeah. But they are separate areas.

01:29:32,270	They have separate, separate uses, separate populations. I kind of like I kind of like the idea that you can be in the, um, tennis courts and then you could go to the park and then you could go over to the, um, lake. Lake? What is it? Pond. Yes.

01:29:54,030	And, um, and yeah, it’s just I think it’s kind of, um, organic and it’s. Kind of. Yeah. But I think that’s what Lisa, though, the, the, the pathways will make that more accessible for everybody. Yeah. Yeah. I think the accessibility. Is people people with mobility impairments can’t necessarily right now enjoy the park the same way you do.

01:30:10,770	Right. Exactly. Yeah. I mean like. Yeah, I just think of little kids running over there. Yeah. I think there’ll be plenty of space for the kids to still run around.

01:30:23,400	And I think that, you know, you know, to your point, supporting all populations and all of that earlier point of like and I think, you know, the accessibility piece is going to be huge for people that want to come down to the Sunday night Patent Park Band and listen to music and sit by the gazebo, I think it’ll. Be really good. That’s very true. I think it’ll be great for for everyone to sort of have that opportunity.

01:30:35,370	So I need to look at where where the paths are planned, because I, I just find that part very full. Um, one of the things we were contacted by, uh, parent with, uh, concerns and suggestion of, of fencing the playground, um, which is not part of the patent park master plan at the moment.

01:31:01,330	Um, you know, related to, uh, child safety, especially for kids with, um, special needs and. Raise it with. Um, I mean, one thing I think that would be really important to have a conversation about is, is that when when that does happen at parks, it is definitely, um, great for

01:31:22,600	parents to give them. That allows them to be a little bit more fluid about letting their kids run around a little bit more, but it also does very much isolate the park from other people. who participate in the park. Right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, it creates a barrier, which is the purpose. But then. It goes both ways, though.

01:31:40,870	Yeah. Yeah. There’s pros and cons and. I and all of our walkways now currently all the walkways that are available are adjacent to the playground, which would make whether you it’s something to. Think about what. Kind of a fence is being contemplated for the playground. There isn’t one right now. That’s what. No, no, that’s what I’m asking.

01:31:59,530	What kind of a fence is being contemplated? None. The the parent reached out and was sent us some information about, um, how playgrounds with fences around them are, are better for safety for young children and also for kids with special needs. Um, specifically like autism and stuff because of kids that like to. See the water.

01:32:20,330	I understand, but I’m just wondering aesthetically what kind of. Offense that’s not been. It’s not. We’re not there’s no discussion about it. It’s has been contemplated. Maybe it was just raised by. It’s not in the master plan at all.

01:32:36,470	The master plan and the master plan was developed over lots of public and public open sessions, taking input from residents, users of the park, asking what people so that that I want to know why a was a park was a fence discussed. And I think just out to one A at the time that. The. Well there’s there’s the that fence across there.

01:32:58,270	But um, currently I, I don’t know that there was a. Right. Uh, I’m not sure that that would pass as a security. The current limits there would certainly not keep kids from being able to get through it and access one. A these are just things.

01:33:16,330	to think about considering you could go forward. Yeah. There’s no no plan at the moment. All right. Okay. With that I will take a motion. I move, we adjourn. A second. All in favor?