00:01:19,100	I’ll. All right. Good evening and welcome, everyone. What a wonderful turnout. This is great to see. Welcome, everyone, to the town of Wenham. Select board Meeting for September 8th, 2026. It is 601. Glad to see everyone here. We’ll do a brief call to order tonight in attendance. We have. Gary Cheeseman Peter Clay and Timon.

00:01:43,100	Deirdre Pierotti, myself and Finn may be joining us momentarily. And we have a very special ceremony this evening, and I am happy to turn it over to our Chief of Police, Kevin DiNapoli. Thank you so much, I appreciate it. Thank you to the board for allowing this event.

00:02:04,100	I these are the best, best parts of my career to be a part of this and to to look out in the audience and see the support that we have from all the friends, family, relatives and from the town as well. Um, this is what makes it all worth it. So I can’t thank the board enough.

00:02:18,400	And the town administrator for allowing me to to do this. And thank you everyone here for, uh, for being here and being a part of this. Um, we have a few different things going on here. We have some recognitions. We have, um, retirement that we’d like to acknowledge.

00:02:35,770	We have a few new hires, we have a promotion. So this is this is pretty good stuff. And I love to see the sea of Blue here. The support from the brother and sister officers. Uh, so I love the fact that the room is cramped. This is. This is a good thing. It’s a good problem to have.

00:02:51,130	So I think what we’re going to start off with, Mike, is if I could have Sergeant Moses come on up. Um, I want to first start by saying, you know, as a chief, you’re only as good as the people that you have.

00:03:10,770	And, um, when when I became a chief and we worked so closely with our with our union, and Mike Moses was such a big part of being that conduit to making my, my job and my life easier with the men and women that work with us. And being that sound voice of reason that that kept the seas moving in the right direction.

00:03:27,300	And I went to him on a regular basis with with stuff that we were dealing with, whether it’s negotiations, whether it’s the day to day operations of the agency. And he he was an incredible help.

00:03:46,570	Um, so the fact that he’s moved on to greener pastures is a big loss, not only for the town, but for the the department as well, and the residents and everyone, everyone here. Uh, so, Mike, a little bit, um, as far as, um, his background, he started here in Wenham as a reserve officer in oh four.

00:04:08,000	He then moved on full time, uh, in oh five, I became a sergeant in 2014, and then, uh, just retired this past April and the end of April. Um, and so he, you know, he gave a lot of his time, effort and service to this community. And I know everyone here was very lucky to have not only as a sergeant, but as a brother officer.

00:04:22,830	And I can’t thank him enough. We have a nice plaque here that, um, I’d like to present to Mike so he can hang it in his in his house. Um. Do you want to make a speech? I knew the. Answer. Okay.

00:04:56,900	Next person I’d like to have come up is, uh, Sergeant John Phillips. And I believe your fiance is coming up as well. I’m gonna give that to you. I’m gonna, uh, just talk a little bit about John, and then I’m going to have the clerk, uh, swim in, and then, uh, we’ll go from there.

00:05:18,370	So again, I know I probably sound like a broken record, but I’m so incredibly proud with what we’ve done with this agency and the foundation that was laid before me and what we were able to build upon. And now John is one of those people, um, when he went for the sergeants process, which was a very thorough process to go through, he did a phenomenal job.

00:05:34,770	He worked his butt off, and he put himself in a position to succeed and to get where he is now. He’s he’s an incredible mentor. He’s very involved with, uh, training in our agency. And I know that’s a big part of of his future. And he makes a big difference.

00:05:53,500	Um, he comes to us with a bachelor’s degree from Salem State and a master’s degree from Southern New Hampshire University, which builds upon the the solid education that so many of our officers have, which is so important to bring with them to the day to day duties in the department.

00:06:11,700	So, uh, when we brought forward upon Sergeant Mrs.. Our retirement, that opening was created where John was able to step forward, and he’s already done a phenomenal job. And I know moving forward when, uh, when I’m off to pasture myself, he’s going to be a part of the future of this administration.

00:06:29,070	And, and the, uh, along with our other two sergeants, um, to making this place what it needs to be to to go with the deputy chief as we move on to, to better things. So I just want to thank John for stepping forward. And if the clerk wants to come forward and we’ll move forward with that.

00:06:49,000	Do you solemnly swear that you will uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America, Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and the bylaws of the. And they will faithfully, impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent upon you, as opposed to the. Thank you so. Much. Appreciated. Chief. Congratulations. Appreciate it. Thanks a lot.

00:07:44,030	Congratulations. You appreciate you for. Thank you. We appreciate it. Thank you. Okay. Um, we now have two new officers that I’d like to present. I’d like to have, uh, Officer Menard’s and Dumas step. Up. So, um, this is somebody you want to root for. This is somebody who wants it very, very badly.

00:08:17,200	And he came to us, um, with such a drive to go through this strenuous process. And, and you can feel the passion of how much he wants to learn and how hard he is and himself. And what a perfectionist. Um, we call them Dumas.

00:08:36,830	Uh, he went through the full time police academy, the Neco Academy, Northern Essex College Academy, and graduated in April of 26. Um, when I interviewed him at the literally at the police academy, I first interviewed him in the in the break room there we have somebody coming to see you. Come on up.

00:08:58,230	Um, and I knew, right? I knew right away just the feeling I got you that you could feel. The passion of what he wanted to be a part of. And I was so excited that he was able to navigate through the process. And I was able to present him with a full time officer, and he’s full time position, and he’s been doing a really good job.

00:09:14,830	After working his butt off in training and learning every day. So I’m super proud and happy to have, uh, management here before us and to move forward to be a part of this agency. Um, as we, you know, step ahead. Um, if your wife would like to come. Up. And.

00:09:46,430	Do you solemnly swear that you will uphold the Constitution of the United States of America, the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and the bylaws for the title, and that you will faithfully discharge this, all the duties incumbent upon you as a consultant to the best of your.. Mat, come on. Up. Congratulations. And congratulations. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you, thank you. You’re welcome. Thank you.

00:10:46,000	So everyone knows the state of law enforcement right now. And it’s tough to get really good people. And it’s almost like sports. Like, it’s like free agency. And we stole this guy off the free agent list, and we’re so, so lucky.

00:11:08,130	Um, Matt, you know, he’s he comes with us with some great experience he’s got about what I think. Eight years experience started at Bu Police Department, and then we went over to Brookline, mass. Police department. He’s got some experience in detectives. Uh, he’s working towards his associate’s degree right now.

00:11:23,600	And, you know, when we met with myself and the deputy met with Matt the first time right away again, you just get that click, you get that feeling, and you know right away. And, uh, seeing just a few weeks that he’s been here, his interaction with all the other officers and with the residents in town has been everything we’ve hoped for and more.

00:11:40,500	So we’re so, so lucky to have him as part of our team. And, uh, you know, specifically, I just want to mention. That’s the best. That is the best. Um, I, I remember at my swearing in, I feel like it’s two minutes ago, my kids were doing the same thing.

00:12:01,400	So I absolutely love it. But this is a testament to the again, I want to thank the board for allowing me the opportunity to. This is one of our additional officers, these officers that we’re able to bring forward. So, um, the town is so lucky.

00:12:16,430	The police department is so lucky, and myself and the DEP are so very lucky to have these two officers as part of our team. So I just want to say congratulations to Matt.

00:13:12,370	Do you solemnly swear that you will uphold the defense of the Constitution of the United States of America, the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and the bylaws for the town of Oregon? And that you will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties come upon you as an officer. Congratulations. Congratulations. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you. Job. Thank you. So I now I would like to also have, uh, awesome Mac Korean officer. Um, Melissa DeLucia.

00:13:52,370	And Officer Dumas again to please step. Up. So they didn’t they didn’t know I was going to just recognize just a small token of appreciation for, uh, for us. And I know I spoke with the the fire chief, um, about this as well.

00:14:21,770	And, you know, our officers did what his officers do quite a quite a bit and don’t get enough credit for as well. But, uh, so a couple weeks ago, we, uh, we had an incident where there was a came in as a structure fire, and our officers went to assist our, our brothers in public safety.

00:14:37,400	And while there, uh, it got information that there was a dog, uh, inside the residence. So, um, our officers assisted while assisting the fire department. We were able to handle the scene and go in and get the dog out of the house safely.

00:14:54,830	So, uh, just a small unit citation, which I will read, uh, that I’m going to put in each one of these officers personnel file for a phenomenal job. Well done. And I think it’s important in this type of setting, uh, to, to recognize them for this, for this service. Uh, this is a unit citation awarded to officers Krikorian, DeLucia, and, uh, Dumas for professional teamwork.

00:15:14,630	Effective response, coordination, and dedicated service to the community. On Thursday, August 27th, 2026, officers Krikorian, DeLucia, and Dumas responded to the report of a structure fire in Wenham. Upon arrival, the officers confirmed that all residents had safely evacuated the building. Shortly thereafter, they were informed that a family dog remained inside, working in a coordinated manner.

00:15:38,770	Officer Dumas secured the exterior and managed scene safety, while Officers Krikorian and DeLucia entered the structure to locate the animal. They successfully retrieved the dog and brought it safely outside to its owners. The calm handling of the situation.

00:15:58,370	Effective communication and commitment to the welfare of the community’s residents and their pets reflect positively on these officers and the Wenham Police Department. I know you’re ready. To kill me. The picture of. Thank you so much to the board again for allowing me to do this. Thank you to everyone for coming. We do have some cookies and water outside. Um, if I fail to recognize anyone.

00:17:03,030	Um, I take responsibility for that now, but I just can’t thank everyone enough for being here. I can’t thank all the friends family members in these offices for being here, for doing everything. That you guys do every day. I am. The luckiest. Chief on the. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much, chief DiNapoli.

00:17:29,830	Thank you all for being here. Congratulations and welcome to the new officers. And thank you all for your fine service. We’re a lucky town indeed. I think we will. About five minutes. All right. We’re gonna hold for five minutes to allow everyone to shift. Good evening. Good evening. So we actually.

00:17:55,800	Know the the family that had the house fire. so touching. It was the. Effect of. That deep humidifier in the basement. Yeah. That was pretty massive. The pastry diet. Well. We heard more. Speculation, chaos. Uh, we talked. in the sense. That trying to deal.

00:18:21,330	With the name of the firm that was looking to buy it, kind of a cabinet. That’s pretty good. So they said, oh, it’s like a soap opera. Okay. There are. Evacuating it down to. But yeah, they it was thinking that it’s, uh, like the, the what everyone kind of leaves in his office. Was that because it’s like a restructured financing or something like that. So I like her purchasing it again.

00:18:43,400	Everybody I love is super. I was yes. So I don’t know I don’t pretend to understand but that’s what they. Thank you. Oh wait. Let’s resume the meeting. We’ve done the call to order and had a wonderful ceremony. Thanks to the police department, we are going to move on.

00:22:17,430	We’ll first have public comment if anyone would like to address the board on matters not on tonight’s agenda. Michelle, you want to go? Joe. Joe. Why don’t you open the meeting? Oh. Uh, do you want to wait till the Iron Rail. Why don’t we wait till we get. Is that okay? All right. Okay.

00:22:36,230	Hi. Michelle Bailey to Remington road. Um. I’m curious as to what the town might be doing in relationship to the, um, Penguin Hall property. It’s my understanding that it was sold at auction to Martins Construction.

00:23:02,830	Um, and I know that the town is one of the people or entities listed as debtors. Um, and with the bankruptcy being dismissed, not discharged. I would like to be sure, as a taxpayer, that the town of Wenham is getting the money that is owed to it. Um, I know at one point there was, um, discussion here at the board about keeping track of the water payments.

00:23:24,170	Um, and I do believe that those did go into arrears in the recent history. I’m also concerned that there’s no electricity in the building and whether or not there’s water going to the building. I’m concerned about the people that were just here. If there were to be an incident there.

00:23:41,400	Um, and we also know that the reason that the property was discharged out of bankruptcy is because there’s no insurance on the building. Um, so there’s a lot of risk. And I’m hoping that the town will be looking at and addressing that.

00:24:00,230	And then the other thing I noticed on the goals list, that there was supposed to be a bid put out for the light in, um, August. And I’m hoping that we’ll hear an update on that from the town administrator. Thanks. All right. Thank you. Michele. Uh, we can’t deliberate on anything, but no comment, sir.

00:24:24,500	I mean, I can, uh, I can’t say in the Penguin Hall property the town has filed intent to, um, to lean to the. The lien is is in place. Uh, for the, um, for the back taxes. I don’t have the numbers in front of me as far as the water bill and what’s currently due, so I can’t speak to that specifically.

00:24:44,800	And also, when you mentioned Michelle, when you mentioned the light in August, the bit on the light, what what exactly? I’m not familiar with with that. Tonight’s packet under your goals.

00:25:11,270	Um, it relates to the light being put here on one a and that those, um, construction things would go out to bid in August of this year. So I’m just curious if those went out as part of the goal statement. Yeah. I don’t believe they’ve gone out yet.

00:25:29,830	It’s probably going to be at some point in the fall that that is a dot project, and that would be the Dot’s bid package that they would publish the original, um, the originally working towards an August date, but I don’t believe that has been met. Okay. Thank you Steve. Okay. Sure. Come on up. Uh, good evening, David Miller from 12. Wallace Drive. Um, we are here this evening to express the boulders.

00:25:53,630	Opposition to the Hamilton-Wenham Recreation Department’s decision to offer pickleball classes at Pingree Park. We have provided our position to both the select board and directly to the recreation Department. Pingree Park is not an appropriate location for pickleball. Our concern is not a matter of personal preference.

00:26:09,630	It is based on measurable and well documented noise and quality of life issues associated with pickleball courts located close to residences. Acoustical engineering studies conducted in Massachusetts communities have established recommended separation distances between pickleball courts and neighboring homes. At Pingree Park, the distance between the proposed courts and residences is dramatically less, nearly ten times closer than these studies suggest.

00:26:29,430	One of them has not conducted an acoustical or siting study to determine whether pickleball is appropriate at Pingree Park, nor does any such study appear to be at planned. Nonetheless, the recreation department is now offering pickleball instruction at Pingree Park as a suitable suitability decision has already been made and of course, has not, nor would it be favorable.

00:26:46,000	There is a notable aspect to these classes. The program is being offered to non-residents. In other words, while realm residents have living immediately adjacent to the park, have unaddressed concerns about the impact of pickleball noise on their homes and lives, the rec department is actively inviting people from outside the community to come to Pingree Park and participate in

00:27:02,700	a fee based program. Pickleball noise has generated substantial controversy throughout Massachusetts. I was able to easily identify no less than 17 recent cases in nearby communities. One of the most recent is Methuen, involving, well, the conversion of tennis courts to pickleball courts.

00:27:21,400	The case is being scheduled to be heard in Newbury Superior Court on September 17th. We’re not asking the Select Board to decide the future of pickleball in Wenham. We are asking for something more basic and reasonable. There are numerous pickleball facilities in our surrounding community. We respectfully ask the Select Board to direct the Recreation Department to move these classes to another location.

00:27:38,970	I have brought with me a petition with 38 signatures, which is 100% of the Boulder residents supporting the request. I just made. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Yep. You can give it to Michelle. All right. Thank you for your comments.

00:27:59,770	That is not on tonight’s agenda, but I’m sure it will be on an upcoming agenda as we continue those discussions. Any other public comment? Anyone on zoom? Okay. All right. Thank you. With that, we will move to the town administrator’s report. And update Steve.

00:28:22,300	So I have two quick updates tonight and then I’m going to pass it to Joe, who’s, um, who’s been working on, um, there’s been a lot of, uh, staffing changes. So, uh, retention. I mean, excuse me, uh, recruiting and hiring. So Joe will give the board an update on that.

00:28:41,500	So first, uh, as we’re just talking about the Pingree Park tennis courts area, the select board for for residents. Uh Select Board is working in conjunction with the Wenham Open Space and Recreation Committee, looking for ideas for alternative uses of the tennis courts. We have a survey which is out on the web right now.

00:29:01,270	You can get more information on the website that will link you directly to the survey. There is a list of, um, you know, dozens of of alternatives of, um, different, different questions to get the community’s feedback.

00:29:20,300	As far as what would be the most advantageous for the community as a whole, um, to go where the the tennis courts are currently located at at Pingree Park. So it’s on the website in a couple of different places.

00:29:33,570	It should be able to be found front and center on the home page, but if you have any difficulty finding it, please feel free to reach out to me or or anybody in the Select Board’s office, and we’ll be happy to direct you there. And secondly, there is a nine over 11, uh, remembrance that’s going to happen on nine over 11. That’s Friday at 10 a.m.. We’re asking folks that are interested in attending to try to get there at about 15 minutes early.

00:29:55,530	So about 945 that will take place in front of the fire station. Thank you. Joe. Uh, thanks, Steve. Um, Select Board, I just wanted to give you an update on several hires. Recent hires for for Wenham.

00:30:13,130	Um, I also wanted to highlight that over the past year and a half, we’ve had we’ve been receiving a number of very strong applications for town positions, which is great. We’ve been fortunate to have a deep pool of qualified, talented candidates to choose from, which has allowed us to be very thoughtful in making these hiring decisions. I think this is a positive reflection of the town as an employer, and the quality of the organization.

00:30:30,270	We are continuing to build. First I wanted to mention we met the two great hires for the police tonight, so I also wanted to mention the fire department. We hired, uh, Michael Burke as a full time firefighter. So beginning this summer, the town began accepting applications for the full time firefighter position.

00:30:46,200	Um, this was voted to be funded at the annual town meeting back in April. An interview panel consisting of Fire Chief Cavanaugh, Captain Joyce Call, Captain Anthony Nichols and the Hamilton Deputy Fire Chief Daniel Sullivan, and myself interviewed multiple talented and qualified candidates.

00:31:05,770	Um, the panel unanimously recommended Michael Burke for the position Michael had been serving with the town of Windham as a call firefighter for at least two years. He has experience as a pool technician and assembler, and since joining the department, Michael has been doing excellent work and by all reports, he’s just been a great team player and

00:31:21,970	has been enjoying his job and is very enthusiastic about his new role. Next, I wanted to mention our new permitting coordinator. Um, earlier this year, we said goodbye to Maggie Baldwin, who is a hardworking employee who unfortunately required she had to resign for personal reasons to fill the position.

00:31:39,630	Um, the zoning enforcement officer, Rich Maloney, and I interviewed several qualified candidates and ultimately selected Brandi Vautour. Um, Brandy has a, uh, experience background in real estate, and she has a great interest in coding. Um, and anything to do with permitting.

00:31:55,570	And she’s been a great asset to the team so far in the building department. So, um, we’re happy to have Brandy on the team. I wanted to mention, um, as many of you know, uh, Belinda Young will be retiring around the new year. Our treasurer, collector, and Belinda’s dedication, knowledge and passion for the town will be greatly missed.

00:32:14,970	And again over the summer, an interview panel consisted of Belinda, um, Janet Seiko, Earnest Jackson and myself, and we conducted interviews for the position of treasurer collector, and I’m happy to report that we, um, unanimously recommended Jen Davis, our very own assistant accountant, for the position. And Jen is very excited to start again. She’ll be starting around January 1st.

00:32:37,770	Jen has an extensive background in municipal experience. She served as an assistant treasurer collector in the town of Georgetown, as well as a finance clerk for the town of Georgetown as well.

00:32:53,270	And she’s been with the town of Wenham for several years now, and just been a great, great employee here, does a fantastic job. And we’re very excited to have her start. The treasurer collector position next. I wanted to mention, um, we also are preparing, unfortunately, to say goodbye to our DPW water Administrative assistant, Sheila Bouvier, who has been one of the town’s longest serving employees.

00:33:14,370	Sheila has been a wonderful asset to the town. She’s been dedicated, hardworking and always willing to help out. She will be. Certainly she will be missed and to fill the position, DPW Director Rick Souza, Water Superintendent Eric Mansfield and I interviewed a number of excellent candidates and we decided on selecting Colleen Sullivan, Colleen, interestingly, had previously applied for the permanent

00:33:34,070	coordinator position, although she was not selected for that position, she remained interested in joining the town and continued to pursue opportunities with us. We believe she will be an excellent fit with the DPW and Water Administrative Assistant position, she has extensive background in um. She worked for.

00:33:57,300	She managed daily operations for four commercial office buildings totaling 800 zero zero zero square foot retail components. She worked with um multiple tenants and resulting in several awards in that line of work.

00:34:17,900	She has supervised a team of 12 people, provided performance oversight, reviews and training to direct reports and colleagues, and she’s also worked on developing annual budgets and financial performances throughout the year. So we’re very excited to have her start around October 1st. Finally, again, with Jen Davis being elevated to the treasurer collector position. We are currently in the process of filling the assistant accounting position and beginning tomorrow, Jen, earnest, Belinda, Janet and I will be interviewing four candidates for the position of Assistant Accountant.

00:34:37,130	We hope to get that started later in the fall to have a training overlap with Jen before she accepts the um officially starts the position of treasurer collector again, I just wanted to share these updates because I think they demonstrate both the depth of talent we have been able to attract the town, and the quality of the hiring processes

00:34:53,300	being conducted by our staff and interview panels. We have been fortunate to have some very strong candidates for these positions, and I’m excited about the people who have recently joined the town and those who will be joining us in the near future. Thank you. Thank you Joe. It’s been a busy six months.

00:35:09,900	And, um, you know, we got some great new team members and we’re happy to have them. Thanks, Joe, for all your hard work. Let it for you. All right. Thank you. Yes, that’s a great report, Joe. And I agree that one of them is a desirable location and shown by the strength and quality of all the applications we’re receiving.

00:35:28,130	So congratulations to the team for chair’s report this evening. I just have one item that I would like to mention, and I’d like to say thank you to our town clerk, Dianne K. Bucco to our election warden, Dorothy Gowdy. And for all of our volunteers who worked the recent elections. Thank you.

00:35:46,400	And our also our public safety team, who helped to keep everything running smoothly and take care of anything that arose. As we all know, this is a critically important function in the times we are living in, and we are deeply appreciative of people giving of their time and attention and care to our

00:36:04,030	elections. And we look forward to the next one, which is coming soon. No rest for the weary, right? Diane? All right, on to Gary. Anything au on the election to.

00:36:25,800	I just remind everyone that, uh, all our signs as I expect to be more coming for November has to be on private property, not on public right of ways. So if they’re out in front of your house, make sure they’re on your side of the line and not on the sidewalk or so forth. Thank you Gary. Then. Uh, just that today was the first day of.

00:36:41,930	the year we had, uh, except for the kindergarten last week, I think, uh, and I just want to point out everybody that means that there’s going to be a lot of kids walking, especially to Buker on Arbor Street and the nearby streets.

00:36:57,930	And, uh, during your morning commute and, uh, a little bit earlier, at 3:00 on the way back, um, you know, having, uh, a house that’s positioned and had kids that I’ve walked to school on Arbor Street, those crosswalks are very important and a little bit dangerous.

00:37:15,070	I can’t tell you how many cars haven’t stopped for me, as I’m trying to cross, and we’ve had to install that flashing crosswalk, um, kind of a little closer to where we are here because of, uh, you know, a strike of a child a number of years ago. So please, please be very mindful. And I’m looking forward to the report on the, uh, 25 mile an hour speed limit report later at today’s meeting. Thank you.

00:37:30,330	Good point. Thank you. Finn Peter. All set? Clean. Ben? Uh, yes. I just want to, um. Echo. What? Michelle Bailey, um, spoke to with respect to the future of the, um, Penguin Hall property, I do think that that the town not only has a role, but probably a responsibility to try to insist on transparency on what’s going

00:37:57,130	on there in terms of the, um, control, ownership and future plans for the site. And I think both from a and Michelle mentioned some of these. But from a fiscal point of view, uh, risk assessment point of view, land planning and even like public welfare in terms of the individuals who worked and

00:38:15,800	or were educated in Wenham, who have been negatively affected by events in connection with that situation. So I just wanted to echo that because I thought that was a very good point.

00:38:34,070	And perhaps on a future, um, meeting agenda sometime soon, there could be a discussion on, you know, what the role is Select Board might be in trying to, um, fact find and understand sort of what’s happening there and what, um, potential paths are for the future of that site. Agreed. Thank you. Ben. All right. Next we do. We have Chief Cavanaugh. So we have some fire appointments.

00:39:06,000	We’ll give him a moment. Okay, so we will for the moment. Um, hold on. Item A on the agenda. The appointment of. Call firefighters, and we will move on to item B, which is a discussion of the town wide 25 mile per hour speed limit.

00:39:41,170	We have Police Chief DiNapoli, who will present our one year update on the implementation of the town wide speed limit. Thank you chief. Thank you again to everybody. And, um, you know, when we rolled this out a year or so ago, um, it was precipitated by some, you know, concerns of citizens.

00:40:04,100	We had a real scary incident on a street in town where a young child was was struck, which really caused us to have a real deep, intrinsic look at if the speed limits are what they should be and what might be better for the residents in town and the folks passing through town. So I spoke with area chiefs.

00:40:25,470	I did some research on some municipalities that did lower their speed limits. Um, how they would do what what streets are eligible? Um, what we needed to do or me as a chief or the board to, um, make sure it was within our purview to be able to do it.

00:40:43,170	Um, and then it was at that time that we, we realized that most streets were eligible. There were three being, um, 97. Um, one a main street and then um, 22 um, which would every, every other street was eligible to do it. Uh, so we did we did do that.

00:41:03,900	And what I was able to do, we have a pretty good internal, um, system records management system that tracks a lot of the officer initiated activity that our officers are doing on a regular basis. And the real credit does go to our offices.

00:41:21,500	The ones that are out there, the patrol units that are doing these day to day patrols and these, um, stopping these vehicles and keeping an eye on trouble spots. And, you know, specific to what they identify. And then also citizen complaints and emails and, and info that comes in for concerns or residents that are speak of people speeding in their neighborhoods and whatnot.

00:41:42,330	So we have all that data. And then what I was able to do, I was able to run it two different ways. I ran it. I used September 1st as my guideline, so I went September 1st, 24 to 25, and then I did 25 to 26. And so I was able to, uh, break down, you know, stop citations.

00:42:03,170	I was able to also do it if a specific question comes up about, uh, specific streets, uh, to talk about, I have the accidents broken up by, uh, by months as well. And then again, how many tickets, how many warnings, how many money fines, things of that nature.

00:42:21,830	Um, you know, over those two year period. So essentially, one, before we change the speed limit and one after two for the most recent years. So, um, I can talk a little bit about that. And I can also answer specific questions.

00:42:40,970	If board members or anyone has any questions about a specific street or specific type of violation, but just looking over the past two years, again, calendar year, 12 month period years from September to September, um, going back two years ago, um, we had 112 total accidents. And then this most recent year dropped down to 92.

00:43:07,230	So that’s a, uh, 18% drop in total accidents in town, which obviously is a positive, uh, a positive thing. Total traffic stops went went up, um, 35%. So we had about about 400 more total stops from our officers, which were lucky to be in a municipality where, um, a lot of our activity is that officer initiated activity.

00:43:29,230	Our officers out there pounding the pavement, being visible, setting the tone. Because absolutely, in my 30 some odd years or 60 total, somewhat years of the deputy and I, we know there is absolutely a direct correlation between visibility and motor vehicle enforcement and crime reduction. And so we’re big on that.

00:43:49,130	Our officers don’t have to be told that because they’re they’re passionate about being out there and being visible. So those traffic stops did go up. Um, warnings went up 46%. So they went from 610 to 890. So obviously the first one I mentioned is that two years prior, citations issued up 20%, 440 to 530.

00:44:16,770	Um, this is one the average you’re able to the officers are able to uh, in certain circumstances enter the speed. Um difference the change in average over speed. And it’s dropped in this past year over the speed limit. It’s dropped on 19%. Okay. Which is which is a good thing we did when we first did.

00:44:38,670	Some of you might remember when we first did roll out this reduction, we did a media blitz, if you will. It went on social media, a newspaper, did an article. I was pretty open and vocal about it. Um, I did get some some feedback. 90% positive, about 10% negative.

00:44:57,700	Or I shouldn’t even say negative concerning questioning what it would lead to. But for the most part, um, I did receive when we rolled it out. Uh, positive. Um, positive feedback. The speeding complaints have gone down 40%, 280 calls of speeding complaints went down to 168. Okay.

00:45:21,770	Which is, I think, a pretty notable, um, difference to to see that. Um, again, the focus shifted heavily towards education. I always say it’s that muscle memory, that education, if I’ve ever been stopped. And in my 53 years on this planet, I know, oh my God, I got to slow down. And it really does make a difference.

00:45:38,600	Would it make a difference if it’s a ticket or a warning? In a lot of circumstances, I don’t think it really does. I think the interaction with the officer, the understanding of what you did wrong, and it really makes you pause and have that internal review and it’s going to slow things down

00:45:54,470	without a doubt. So it’s not always about that money. Find that citation. And our officers use good, prudent judgment on the decision of whether or not to issue a money fine or not. They take a lot of things into consideration relative to, uh, driving record time of the day.

00:46:17,330	Um, location, pedestrian traffic, um, all those different things are a factor. If somebody’s going ten over at two in the morning, is it as egregious as ten over? Uh, maybe by a crossing post or in a morning? Um, you know, when there’s school traffic. So those are the little things that, um, people certainly take into consideration.

00:46:40,230	Um, high speed violations exceeding 40 miles per hour. So are a 62% drop in the last 12 months. Pretty neat. Pretty cool. Um, main areas again, I can break it down by, um, by citation or by street. If there is any specific questions.

00:47:00,170	And I was able to pull a lot of data, but not all the data in some stuff, if a question comes up and I don’t have it, it might be the type of thing. I just got to crunch it a little more, and I can probably get it and provide it to you if I don’t have it now.

00:47:14,630	Uh, because the way the records management system works is a lot of bells and whistles to it, so we don’t have it totally down pat. But I can certainly find, um, find that as far as the, um, accidents, the main street, obviously one a in the last calendar year, there’s, uh, that had the most accidents, so was 21 accidents.

00:47:35,770	And then the other two roads were Topsfield Road and Grapevine Road. Those it dropped down to ten um, with were the two closest to that for accidents in town. And then the rest all were two, three and four much smaller numbers. Um, and then again I have it, um, broken down by street.

00:47:58,200	The difference from year to year. We’ve gotten a one example I’ll use. We’ve gotten quite a bit of complaints on Cherry Street, uh, over the last year or so. And just going, let’s see. Uh, so two years ago, uh, we had 153 stops on Cherry Street with a total money fines of $530.

00:48:25,430	Okay. This most recent year, 301. Okay. So literally doubled money fines, um, $2,150. So up. Ridiculous amount. Quite quite a bit. Just based on our and our enforcement in that area. But again, I have every street.

00:48:48,900	I’m not going to bore you with reading every street, but if there are any specific questions or anything I can answer, please let me know. I have some questions. Kevin. Um. Just so you now. Um, I was driving from 22. Okay. Um, Essex Street. Yep. And, um, I stopped to come. By this person. Crazy woman. Um, was literally right on my butt honking a horn the whole time.

00:49:16,900	You know, I’m going, like, uh, down Bridge Street at, like, 28 miles an hour. Okay. I’m. I was being pretty racy. And this woman pulled in and just started screaming at me. Screaming at me? Yeah. And, um, so anyway.

00:49:38,030	And that’s happened to my wife a bunch of times, too, so I’m getting a lot of flack about 25 miles an hour. What would appear, what I think about is. Roads like Larch Row, once you get like, cross the railroad tracks going um, east. Um, Grapevine Road, part of that is actually, um, 35.

00:50:06,870	Anyway, on when it’s 22 and, and I think Cherry Street and actually Bridge Street again, once you get over the bridge, I just, I just think common sense would say that. Yeah, we go 30, 35 up Bridge Street. Once you cross the bridge, same on, um, grapevine. You probably slow it down when you get to, uh, the school. Gordo, I just I don’t know what your facts say about that. I mean.

00:50:35,130	It’s say about what do you mean as far as it being too slow in certain areas? Yeah. My my argument to that. Is, in certain areas, what I’m talking about are areas where there aren’t a lot of houses. Right? I mean, Bridge Street, once you get across the bridge, not a lot of houses there. Um.

00:50:54,800	I mean, there’s certainly there can always be different arguments that, hey, what about this spot or this area? And one thing that that I can stand up here in concretely say is that our officers are keenly aware of what you’re what’s egregious and what’s not.

00:51:16,170	Now we’re we’re talking about two different arguments. If somebody might get frustrated if the speed limit is too slow. And we’re also talking about the enforcement action that our officers are taking, and they are not taking money, fine. Enforcement action for somebody that’s going 30 and 25 not happening. Not a chance.

00:51:37,200	I don’t think any of these there’s exceptions to every rule, but it ain’t happen. And I’m not seeing it because the emails would be flying into me and I’m just not seeing that. The only email I got, and it’s frustrated me because I printed it out. I got one today saying, hey, we can’t make the meeting. We wish we could make it.

00:51:52,730	Please, please, please do not change it. We thank God you did what you did. And, um, so the the the it’s just I’m just not getting that. And I understand that it is slow in certain areas. I would be lying if I said otherwise. Without a doubt.

00:52:14,430	There are probably certain areas where you could say that’s definitely a little slow. It could creep up, but it creeps up on the other end too. So now if it’s 35, people are going 45 and now it’s, you know, feet per second to be able to stop quickly enough.

00:52:35,170	You know, when you don’t have much reaction time, it goes through the roof as those speeds go up. So my argument when I drop these speeds is to, hey, you pull in town. The DPW director Sousa did a great job with his his people putting those signs entering when I’m 25 unless otherwise posted. That to me. I want people to feel that.

00:52:58,270	And if you feel a little stressed driving through Wenham because you have to slow down. Oh my God, that road, those roads are too slow. And when them then I’m the bad guy and I’ll feel those emails all day long and I will sleep like a baby.

00:53:11,570	Because I always say when people bring it, bring it up to me. If that’s what’s on my gravestone. He lowered the speed limits in town to 25, and some of the roads probably was too slow.

00:53:26,500	Well, then, okay, because I have four kids, and when my kids were this little, like the little tyke that was running around during the last ceremony, I would have been beyond thrilled. If I live in Redding, if if they lowered everything in town to 25 miles an hour, I would have had no problem with it. And again, Peter, you’re not crazy. It is a little slow in certain circumstances.

00:53:46,230	I overtly concede that point, but I also think the good far outweighs the bad. I really passionately believe that any other right. I will open it up to the public in a moment. And I think one more comment. All right. I want to give the others a chance. To okay. So we’ll come back to you. Who’s next then? Uh, thanks.

00:54:06,530	Thank you, chief, for that overview. Sure. I just had a few questions. One relates to Peter’s comment, and I just wondered whether, um, there are any. Statistics, please. One relates to Peter Clay’s comment, and I wondered whether there were any statistics regarding road rage complaints and if those have gone up at all based on, um, people.

00:54:32,200	who tailgate. Random people. I think people the, the the ones that I’ve heard unofficially are just from different people in town, at different places where I meet them is all person behind me was frustrated. They were tailgating me a little bit, stuff like that.

00:54:57,230	Nothing officially or formally, uh, road rage, where it’s enforceable other than yes, certainly. Following too closely is enforceable. If an officer sees that you can give a citation for that. Uh, but nothing formal relative to like other than frustration, if you will, on occasion. But I haven’t seen it, uh, substantial. So. No, no statistics that show, uh, tailgating citations, for example, having gone. Up.

00:55:18,600	I can hold those. Then I can definitely Try to see how many warnings we’ve given for that. That’s the type of thing, though. If an officer doesn’t see. That. Right.

00:55:35,300	Um, people usually aren’t gonna call afterwards to say I was on such and such a road, and I was being targeted because people had passion enough to be so frustrated that they got a call after that. That’s the type of thing see me avoiding. Are they see me at Tommy, it’s, uh, 25. So slow in. The first, ones, too, you know. Right. More of a casual interaction. Comments are not as form.

00:55:51,130	Yeah. Second question. Um, I’m curious as to the Grapevine road accident numbers. If you if you don’t have them, I do. But yeah, no I do. Um, okay. So grapevine. Two years ago is four. And this year. is ten. Most recently. So went from 4 to 10. Okay, so the accidents on grapevine happened to increase.

00:56:38,130	Yeah. And I’d have because there’s only ten I could go through each one to find out if they were winter related. They could you could have 8 in 1 day if it’s an ice storm. So it’s you can’t totally know for sure, but I could certainly break those down.

00:56:54,100	Thank you. Then my last question had to do with, um, excuse me. The 19% drop. I think it’s a 19% drop in average miles per hour over speed limit. Mhm.

00:57:15,700	Um, so does that mean that the, the real speed number dropped even more? In other words, if, if um, the average miles per hour over the speed limit pre the 25 limit was let’s say 20, right. And then it dropped by roughly 20% to say 16. That’s 16 over the lower speed limit of 25. So in other words you’re talking about a pretty significant real, um, decrease in people’s speeds. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Okay. That’s that’s significant. I just. Wanted to understand that. Yeah.

00:57:42,800	Okay. Thank you. Well, I see the 25 is a success, especially the numbers. As we spoke, the 19% decrease on the speed of citations. Also, you said the number of speed complaints as well as reduction in the very high speed citations. Those are the three, especially the very high speed citations.

00:58:07,630	I think that was a major concern over a year ago. So I think we should stick with the it’s a simple, clear message. It’s 25 in Wenham and be safe because I see it as yeah, I mean certain stretches in some place might be a little tough.

00:58:24,230	But on the other hand, I’m thinking, you know, what’s the risk to the children or pedestrians or joggers and so forth out there? So I think, you know, 25 is the way to go. Thank you. Gary Finn. Thank you, chief, for the presentation.

00:58:44,070	Um, you know, I’m I’m looking at the numbers you gave, and I’m having the same reaction as as most of the other folks at the board. They all look great. They’re the things that I was hoping to see as a result of this change. Um, you know, and I’m, I’m very much in favor of holding it at with a 25.

00:58:59,100	And just as Gary was saying, it’s very simple to say within Wynnum, unless it’s a state road, it’s 25. Um, frankly, I’m looking for reasons not to. I can’t I I’m struggling. I’m looking at the at the statistics you gave. You know, you said that, you know, the the complaints you’ve received from, uh, from residents of overspeed complaints are down 40%.

00:59:20,170	I’m looking for the statistic that says complaints about the speed limit being too low. Being up, you know, some amount, and I don’t see it. So unless you have some statistics that kind of show residents, you know, uh, feelings that it’s too low in some way that we can measure.

00:59:38,270	You know, I don’t I don’t see that in your presentation. So, you know, I’m looking for a reason not not to like this. And I’m on. Our time now. And like I said, I understand some of the. It is slow.

00:59:57,800	I’ve looked down and said, wow, I, I didn’t realize I was going, you know, 32 and, you know, because you realize 25 is is slow. It absolutely is. But it’s a good it’s a it’s one of those net, you know, plus minus. You’re a math guy. You know it’s like it far outweighs I just, I just I get the frustrations that exist.

01:00:16,670	And I don’t stand up here pretending that’s not the case, but I just I just think, um, if I’m a resident in town, whether I have kids or not, I’m. I’m happy if the speeds are slower. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thanks. Peter. Uh, Kevin. Is this true? Theoretically. Beverley is a 25 miles an hour town. I don’t know, I can’t even say.

01:00:37,930	I’m pretty sure it is. It is, it is. And, um, so I just think about driving down Cabot Street. I wave at Henry’s on the right, and it’s an up through North Beverly. It’s 25. Okay. And then when you get down by shore, it’s 3035. Okay.

01:01:01,700	Actually, we’re just kind of crazy because you got shore on one side. You got the middle school on the other side, right? And then as you cross the railroad tracks and you start coming into, um, a more densely populated area, it’s 25. So they move it back up and down and same thing. There are a whole bunch of those streets that are like that over by, um.

01:01:21,700	Uh, Beverly golf and tennis. It’s it’s one speed when you go back, coming up from I think that’s not Liberty Street by the, uh, by Cummings area. And then and then it speeds up. Right.

01:01:48,830	So they literally they, they look at the sections of the street and they say, you know what? We can actually increase the speed here. And I just use that as evidence of an approach that I’m suggesting that Beverly is already doing. Right. Right. And, and, and I understand that.

01:02:11,300	Um, but I’d also my argument to over the years is many, many citations could be written because people they don’t when it fluctuates like that, people don’t see the fluctuation and it ends up morphing into all one speed. And then they are getting citations because now they’re 20 over the speed limit because they didn’t realize it. Whereas if it’s, um, if it’s one, uh, speed, I think it’s, I think I just I get what you’re saying.

01:02:29,530	I totally get what you’re saying. But once we start fluctuating different roads, then we’re kind of back to where we were before. And I think it causes it kind of takes away from what we’re looking to accomplish. So I’m just going to offer this up as an idea.

01:02:45,430	I think we should do a survey or come out with, like if you were going to increase the speed on certain sections of the road, and we could probably agree to that pretty simply because, as you say, you know, where the slowdowns are. I mean, um, reach an agreement.

01:03:07,670	Um, to gather on that and then put a survey out and see what people say. I defer to the board on. Okay. So we’ll come back to that idea. Um, I want to make a couple of comments. First, I think on the Beverley roads, I would wonder how many of those are actually state roads, because 97 does fluctuate speeds. I’m just questioning.

01:03:29,230	So that would bear looking into a little more specifically. I understand what you’re saying. Peter and I have heard from people that, you know, this section of Cherry Street is too slow, and this part of Larch Row and so forth.

01:03:49,030	There are certain streets, however, when we were going through the master plan process a few years ago, in which I was vice chair of that committee, the number one complaint that we heard from people throughout the process about the town was taxes are too high. That will surprise no one.

01:04:08,900	The number two complaint that we heard from people was, there is too much speeding on my street, and it didn’t really matter which street it was. It was very often repeated. People drive too fast on my street and somebody needs to do something about the speeds speeding. There are some examples in tonight’s packet. We there I don’t know, some ten, 15. Ten now. You know.

01:04:35,100	Ten letters that were signed by Cherry Street residents asking for more enforcement, not asking for the speed limit to be raised. And here’s one of my concerns with what you’re saying, Peter. What I don’t hear from people. I hear people saying, raise it on this part of Cherry Street, raise it on grapevine.

01:04:55,170	But I don’t hear people who live on those roads saying, please raise the speed limit where I live. And that’s my concern that almost universally, when we hear from people, it’s where I live. It should be 25, but somewhere else, it’s okay. It should be higher because it’s frustrating.

01:05:16,030	And so I think any survey needs to basically incorporate that and to hear from people who live on those streets. I heard from people on Larch Road today that the speeding is excessive and they want more enforcement too. So what I’m typically hearing is more enforcement of the speed limit, not raise it. All right. So that’s my concern with what you’re saying.

01:05:36,430	The people who tend to live in those places are not looking for it to be raised. Okay, those are my comments for the moment, but I want to give the public a chance. If anyone would like to come up and speak to this issue. Sir, come on. Up. Bill Nichols, 114 Topsfield Road.

01:06:04,100	Um, I drive for Uber, so I am spending a lot of time on the roads around here. And I would say the majority of people that I carry were not in favor of the 25. So I’m not trying to change anything. I’ve had people go by me on Cherry Street, the street in front.

01:06:22,230	When you’re in front of Mary Martin’s house, I’ve had people go out around me and continue on, which is not a good thing in my mind. I would like to if anybody was going to do anything, see, some of the sections of road made a little clearer. You can’t drive some of them.

01:06:45,170	25 you just can’t like the big hill coming down Cherry Street from 97. I defy you to go 25 miles an hour there, and there’s a lot of places like that. But thank you for your time. And thank you for your time. And I hope I never meet any of you people. Professional. Yeah. Thank you. Kevin.

01:07:08,130	Yes, ma’am. Please come up to the microphone. Of the 168 calls to. Excuse me, can you identify yourself? Linda Banks, I live on Cherry Street of the 168 calls, I’m probably 100. Um, I’m not, so I’m not so concerned about the cars going 32, you know, 25. That’s that’s okay. Sometimes you can’t go 25.

01:07:36,970	I’m concerned about Mayor tree, iron tree. Uh, let’s see. Guinness beer. We seem to have huge truck traffic and no shoulders. A very narrow sidewalk. Lots of little kids, dogs.

01:08:03,830	So if you’re going to have the speed limit at 25 for cars and they’re going 30 if they’re in a big semi going 30, it’s twice as long to stop. I mean, and the houses are between Pleasant Street and one A going east. The houses are really close to the street, and when those big trucks go by, I mean, you’ve all seen the big tree trucks, you know, um, they couldn’t stop if they had to.

01:08:21,970	So you can’t raise it. You can’t possibly. And maybe particularly on Cherry and Monument, I put out 50 letters. I got ten responses, which was 20%. Um, I think maybe we could do something about the weight of the trucks on the using Cherry Street and Monument Street as a cut through.

01:08:46,900	I get it that Cherry Street’s a perfect place to cut from 97 to 1 A, and that you only have the Asbury Inn down in North Beverly to cut through. But it’s a residential street with no shoulder and lots of kids and dogs. I got passed on Cherry Street this morning. I was going 30.

01:09:12,030	Arrest me, and I got I got passed on Cherry Street right before the Martin house and the school buses were out. Even the school buses speed when they’re empty. I mean, that’s bad. So you can’t you can’t possibly raise it. You just can’t. Somebody will get killed. Thanks. Thank you. Any other comments? Any. I’m just going to go ahead, sir.

01:09:43,470	Are there any people on zoom. To no one with their hands raised? Okay. Hi. Ted Batchelor 50. Grapevine I live. In that corner that. Probably sees some. Of the most accidents, particularly. In ice. But my concern. Is more the intersection of uh, uh, Essex and Grapevine Road. And sometimes you can get blinded there for way stops.

01:10:08,600	Have worked wonders at the four corners, and I wouldn’t mind seeing a three way stop at the Essex grapevine intersection. Yeah. Just because it’s very easy to get blinded from cars coming from the Gordon College.

01:10:31,000	And while I’m trying to turn left, I’ve almost created accidents because of a sudden person coming around the corner. So that would be a great spot for a three way. Yeah, the sightlines are challenging. Is that chief? Is that. One last? Hang on you talking? It before we before we finish on that, is that something for you, chief, to think about or rich or you enrich to take a look at that intersection? Yeah. Of course.

01:10:58,730	All right. So my only comment is I would never. I’m talking about being very selective. Just a like three, 4 or 5 little sections of road in Wenham.

01:11:20,930	And I would never go to on Cherry Street between Mount Pleasant Street to one A, I would never go more than 25 there, or I would recommend not going to 25. So I’m in complete agreement. So just just 3 or 4 little sections. That’s all. And that’s exactly what Beverly does. And it’s not 97 that they’re doing it on. It’s all over the place. I mean Cherry Street I think is open for discussion.

01:11:47,330	But there were a lot of problems at the other end of Cherry Street, also at the crosswalks, with kids not being able to cross traffic was going too fast. They had to paint the sidewalks, put more signage. You know, I don’t know if it’s still an issue, but it was a big issue. So I think Cherry.

01:12:03,330	Street thought that section.. I’m talking about the one closer to 97. That’s where you’re talking about the other section of Cherry Street, not the one closest to one. A, and I’m not going to fall on my sword for Cherry Street. I’m about grapevine, Larch Row, Bridge Street.

01:12:19,370	I’m not sure what you mean by Bridge Street. That’s not in Wenham Street. Some Hamilton. Leave that to that. Uh, no. Actually, once you go before you go over the bridge on Bridge Street, you then enter Wenham. I’m walnut. I’m sorry. Okay. Excuse me. I apologize for that. That makes more sense. Okay. Yeah.

01:12:42,270	All right. Great job. Coming. Thank you. Thank you, thank you. Chief, I, I mean, I don’t think we need to end this. We can continue the discussion. Let this conversation hit the papers, see if we get feedback from there. Also, um, and revisited.

01:13:02,930	I mean, I don’t hear I hear your concerns, but I don’t hear the full board saying, let’s change it tonight. So I think for the moment we’re gonna stay where we are and continue the conversation.

01:13:20,230	And, chief, if you could look into those questions like that, Ben raised on the accidents and perhaps on the streets that Peter is asking about to look at it more carefully, closely on those streets specifically. That would be helpful. We’ll do. Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay. One quick question. Come up to the mic, please. The truck push. The truck. Traffic, as I said, is really increased on Cherry Street. I think it’s because of Google Maps.

01:13:44,870	I think Google Maps is telling all these truck drivers that aren’t residents of Cherry Street, you know, aren’t Cherry Street. You know, when I’m Hamilton, people like the tree guys to use that as a cutoff cut through.

01:14:02,970	Is there any way we can get a hold of Google Maps and tell them to send them to North Beverly, or send them to a wider road? I don’t know about getting in touch with Google Maps, however. If there’s a school bus or a garbage truck on Cherry Street and a semi-trailer comes by, they can’t both. They can’t both go. I think your point is valid.

01:14:21,830	I do think some of our streets are being used as cut thrus, and that tends to lead for speeding. It happens where I live to, chief. I don’t know if that’s within our jurisdiction to be able to limit truck traffic or if there’s anything. I don’t. Think so. I think. Um. It’s with Dot, I don’t know, with weights and measures.

01:14:42,900	If the board even has the authority to limit over this time or that time, I’m really not. Sure. There’s a lot of specifics to. More complicated, but thank you for the comment. I do agree it’s an issue. All right. We’re going to move on from speed limits.

01:15:07,000	Would you like to call the Iron Rail Commission to order? I call. This meeting of the Iron Rail Commission to order on September 8th, 2026. Members present Natalie Kavanaugh, Ted Batchelder, Erica Ciampa, Andrew Willett and me, Lorenzo. Thank you Lou, thank you all for being here this evening. All right. So sorry it was. No no problem. Mike. Place for a second.

01:15:31,000	Yeah. So this is, uh, at our last meeting, uh, Kate provided a pretty comprehensive overview of the Iron Rail working group that met a number of times. And ultimately, what their recommendation was. So there was some, some, some brief follow up discussion that will allow for more of that tonight.

01:15:49,700	So what we’re going to do tonight is we’ve worked to basically distill the recommendations into a more, um, succinct, uh, framework. So each slide is a different recommendation that would use.

01:16:11,900	So we’d be able to use that format of verbiage to then request the planning board, um, to make any changes to our zoning to accomplish these things. And also a reminder to the Select Board that this is to this meeting is to hopefully arrive at a consensus on what we’d like to have done at the Iron Rail so that the Select board can host a public information session next week.

01:16:36,330	On Thursday, uh, location to be determined. So, like Kate, go ahead and go through the first 4 or 5 slides and I’ll take the last slide and we can discuss it and take it from there. Great. Thank you Kate. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Um, next slide please.

01:16:54,800	Thank you. All right, so as we had said before, site one, the recommendation is to pursue a long term ground lease. And so basically the theme was really recreation. When we had the working group and maintaining recreation.

01:17:20,500	And this seemed like a great way to retain the actual ownership of the this particular part of the iron rail parcel. Um, but then maybe increasing more recreation opportunities and also adding in some other complementary opportunities, um, such as restaurants or some sort of retail professional office space, etc..

01:17:45,530	Um, this was a really great idea because and it was 100% um, with I know, at least with the working group, 100% preferred because it can contains we keep ownership of this parcel. And when you see the next slide, um, the recommendation is to keep the soccer fields, which is right next to it.

01:18:05,500	So we actually have the most valuable piece of this 80 acre property kept into, um, ownership by the town of Wenham. It also will create some revenue. So it would create an annual lease revenue. And then of course, if this was expanded, it would also create more property tax revenue. Um, you know, it takes us out of Steve likes to say the landlord business.

01:18:25,770	Um, basically once we sign over a lease, we do not have to do any sort of operational maintenance responsibilities, which is great. Um, like I said, it would preserve flexibility for the future. Do we need another fire station? Do we need public safety down there? Do we need a school built down there? It keeps that open for the future.

01:18:43,800	And again, it supports the local economic activity and job creation. Next slide please. So as I said, um, this site number two is the most valuable site. It’s got a lot of frontage. Um, it’s a larger parcel. Um, the working groups recommendation was to keep this as this whole area, as a recreational facility as much as possible.

01:19:14,200	And so the thought was for now to keep these as soccer fields. Um, because they really said that soccer and gymnastics was so important to keep here. Next one, site three is up by the cemetery. Um, this is a completely forested site. Right now, there is 6.5 acres over there.

01:19:39,300	Um, not the best topography, but not something we couldn’t work with. Um, up there. And it was thought that in the master plan, one of the biggest things was to diversify when housing stock. And this would be a great place to put in, um, what I like to call starter homes or cottage cluster homes.

01:20:01,330	And so the state just passed, as you all know, this new chapter 40 wise starter home district where basically you would put four smaller homes in in acres parcel and um, the town, the state would actually pay you for infrastructure costs for doing this.

01:20:22,630	And then they actually would pay the developer so that there’s more incentive for a developer to build these smaller homes. Um, this really fits well with our master plan. Um, what it does is it creates affordability for middle class housing. Um, starter homes for, you know, younger families, downsizing for older families. So it’s a great opportunity.

01:20:44,000	So the working group said, hey, this is our number one idea for that area. But if that doesn’t work, maybe a flexible development community, um, where there be four condos in, uh, a beautiful house up on that site. Um, or the last suggestion was a higher density senior housing, um, facility up there. And.. I think that is it on that one. Next slide.

01:21:09,970	So I have a question. Sure. Could you go back to the previous slide and you said something about, uh, would pay you infrastructure costs when you were talking about 40. Why the cost of infrastructure is usually borne by the developer, right. Yeah. Not the town.

01:21:26,530	And then they will then apply to the town to give it to the town and make it our responsibility to maintain what part of you pay you for the infrastructure. You’re talking about? It could be things like, um, planning. So it’s like money to me to do planning for a community like this.

01:21:44,870	It could be things like sidewalks, um, utilities to get utilities to that area. Um, possibly building roads up to that area to help building roads. So it wouldn’t actually help in the development, but we could use it for infrastructure to get that development. Um, more valuable for the developer and more workable. Thank you. Yeah.

01:22:07,670	All right. Next slide. So if you look at this whole 80 acre parcel, we’re talking about only disposing of this 6.5 acres or so. This is this could be worked.

01:22:33,830	Um, one thing that is exciting with this is if we keep the iron rail area in land lease, we can keep access to all of the already existing trails. And those trails go up. Actually, to that new development. If this is the way we go. So there would have there would be trails that would actually go all around this parcel. If you look at what seems like train tracks there, that is around where there is a current trail that’s flooded most of the year.

01:22:55,300	Um, that goes to what residents like to call Dodge’s Island, and there are trails there to the Essex County Trails Association used to maintain that area. But due to what I surmise is, um, beaver activity, it’s now too flooded.

01:23:15,500	But I have talked to a few of the land trusts and Essex County Trails Association, and they’re willing to partner with us to maybe do some sort of elevated boardwalk and reopen that passive recreation area. Next slide. All right. So how does this work with the master plan? So in the master plan under economic growth.

01:23:43,900	So economic development was very important of course in in the master plan in expanding businesses. And actually Iron Rail was pointed out in the master plan as a site where this can happen and as you can surmise, increasing that commercial recreational use, um, would help bring in more jobs, more taxes and recurring revenue with that land use option, um, for housing, diversified housing stock was a

01:24:08,900	big thing right now. And that big part of the master plan. And as I went through with site three, that chapter 40 or similar middle class housing, um, would definitely diversify the housing stock.

01:24:30,830	And Wenham, um, number three and the working group thought that this was especially one of the most important things is to maintain the recreation spaces, especially for gymnastics and for soccer. And, um, and a lot of people I remember when we first started the Iron Rail best youth study, I was actually at the recreation area, and a lot of people wanted that Dodgers Island trail. Those Dodgers Island trails back.

01:24:53,700	It’s really beautiful up there. So, um, this would be a great way in retaining that, um, site one to be able to maintain and retain those trails and work with, um, a local land trust or someone to get a boardwalk and get that back up for the community.

01:25:10,300	And sustainable land use. So I think this is a great way out of the 80 acres up there. We’re talking about developing two small areas. Um, so balancing conservation with development, I think we’re doing a great idea, a job there also, but also if this goes forward in the RFP, um, even with that

01:25:31,430	chapter 40, why we can put in sustainable design characteristics on anything we do. Um, within reason. So I think it’s it’s very much aligned with the master plan. Thank you. Yes. Go to the next slide. So you’re back when we hired Dodson flanker to do the best use study.

01:25:54,170	Really the the number one I would say um supported use of the site was recreation in nature. So whether it be indoor recreation, sporting or outdoor, which is really why, you know, the work group continued to carry that theme.

01:26:18,100	And, um, valued the preservation of the soccer fields and also recommended that the iron rail building, the one immediately adjacent to the DPW site, be zoned to allow for, you know, some sort of indoor recreation or sporting, uh, last week the board heard from the owner of iron rail, gymnastics and his concern that a long term lease may not be, um, conducive to a small business owner.

01:26:41,870	Uh, the board also discussed that, you know, is the leasing of the land. Like, what happens if we can’t lease the land? So do we need a plan B or or what? So, you know, I think two things.

01:27:00,830	You know, we thought about, you know, what if we can’t lease, if the board continues to, you know, want to move towards the land lease, uh, and the zoning options as recommended by the, um, the working group, you know, we could seek town meeting to grant authority to for the select board to lease and dispose of so that, you know, we could move forward

01:27:18,530	with an RFP that is specific with the leasing. And if that was not to work, you know, we can kind of go and regroup and move on to a plan B, which, you know, potentially could include disposition of that portion of the property.

01:27:35,570	Uh, the also the, um, if, you know, land lease is again, a priority. And the board heard from the iron rail gymnastics and there was an alternative that was, um, presented to the working group, however, did not make it to the final.

01:27:57,470	The because we believe that, you know, the the thought was that this would the leasing would cater to the indoor needs of the community and allow that to move forward. But there was a thought that one of the smaller soccer fields could be used as, um, a disposition to be used as a development for an indoor recreation facility. So I wanted to bring that before the select board.

01:28:22,600	Um, just there was there has been some conversations about it. I think soccer is, you know, some representative from soccer’s here tonight, uh, to discuss with the board, but, you know, really from that, if the board wants to discuss, you know, how it wants to move forward, if it wants to leave.

01:28:39,270	Uh, exactly as the working group recommended and move forward into the hearing. We can do that. Or if you want to discuss, discuss alternatives or any changes. All right. Reactions to that from the board first. Anyone? Ben. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, thank you, Kate and Steve.

01:29:08,700	Um, Deirdre and I were each members of of the working group that Kate spearheaded. And we’ve said before how we felt that, um, at least I’ve said. And I think you’re. Deirdre has also said that we regarded that working group as kind of a model of how it ought to go. Um, and the credit goes to Kate. And leading that process.

01:29:29,370	And it was a very collaborative, comprehensive, thoughtful, um, process that emerged with, you know, a plan, a, uh, as you outlined and as you outlined as well, um, that plan A includes zoning site one to continue to permit recreational um, uses such as gymnastics, um, albeit on a long term lease basis, which was also a very, um, spirited

01:30:01,330	point of discussion amongst the working group, which reached a consensus that that that was had many benefits, um, to the town and seemed to be in the best interest of the town overall.

01:30:23,200	And then site two, as you indicated, um, there was a very early consensus in the group that the soccer field should be allowed, should remain soccer fields under town ownership and not be, um, uh, set aside for potential development, um, including on the revenue road, smaller portion of the, the, uh, the soccer fields on the road.

01:30:47,200	So and, you know, it was very useful, I think, to get, um, the presentation that we did from the Iron Rail Gymnastics Academy owner, who, you know, has been providing that service to, um, the town and the region for a long time. Um, and I understand the points there that he’s raised.

01:31:09,670	But in my mind, anyway, um, I’m still in favor of the plan that the working group endorsed understanding, as you said, Steve, that it may be that that there isn’t the interest and the parts of plan A don’t come to pass. And in which case, you know, obviously, the town would need to reevaluate, um, things. So that’s my take. Um, I wouldn’t change a thing.

01:31:31,570	I think it’s really good. I think the working group did an outstanding job, and unfortunately, you know, when you do something this ambitious, you know, some people might get hurt. But I think the greater good is being, um, maximized here. Gary Irvin.

01:32:05,330	I think the one point that for me overrides everything is the fact that this is the only significant size parcel that the town owns in town, that we should look very clearly at what the future needs for the town would be.

01:32:28,130	So I think the disposal by sale of the gymnasium building doesn’t play with me because I see that long term there may be an expansion of DPW or other town requirements there. So I think that section we could, uh, ground lease, as I think the working group said, the, uh, the soccer fields we have, uh, you know, we have the same thing with Huntington Sports.

01:32:47,400	How many pickleball courts, how many soccer fields we need overall. So if there’s a solution there, that, uh, one field goes to, uh, a gymnastics building, then that might be the route out.

01:33:11,930	And I think the housing is a great idea in there, but I’m a little bit concerned whether that will become a, um, just a lost corner of the property and that just a few houses back there, will it meld well with all the recreation in there, or are we long term causing problems that a housing area next to DPW and next to, you know, very largely used recreational facilities will cause, you know, complaints of noise or whatever that we’ve had from others.

01:33:35,400	So I like the of the lease, land lease for a site one, site two, I think, you know, stays recreational, whether it’s soccer or a mix of soccer and gymnastics fine with. And then the housing area, I think, um, might take a deeper look because we have a cemetery.

01:33:58,870	Uh, concerns there access off Rubber Road there. And the other aspect that we haven’t heard to is disposition of the scout barn and that area in there, knowing that if you look at the map that to get to the housing area is going to be very difficult because you have to share or rebuild the access road to the cemetery or come in

01:34:22,430	from the gymnastics side on the little isthmus of land to avoid the wetlands. So I think access we ought to look a little bit closer to that. And overall to I think, you know, the we need to come to a conclusion on this, but we also have a big question about what happens across the street, which I

01:34:43,830	think may have economic impacts upon what is viable on site one. As far as commercial development or buildings as well. And speaking of Penguin Hall. Uh, I appreciate all the process. You know, the the detailed work that you guys have been doing, uh, and leading and with the working group.

01:35:06,970	And I want to thank you on that. And I don’t want to throw any wrenches in there by trying to change the process, but I think it is important to think, as you were talking about plan B, you know, what are we going to put in front of the the townsfolk between now

01:35:17,930	and the next? And when we want to have them vote for it and the plan B is an interesting idea. Um, but obviously makes it even more complicated.

01:35:30,870	You know, the question that folks are going to have to decide yes or no on one issue or yes on least no on on sale. Um, and, uh, you know, the points that you’re bringing up pretty important on, you know, being able to maintain the land, you know, 30, 50 years in the future, get it back and then, you know, have space for DPW or something like that.

01:35:49,400	But I think the process is fantastic and I’m looking forward to seeing it continue to play out. Thank you. All right. Just a few comments for me. Then I’ll ask you to respond, Kate, to a couple of things, and then we will open it to the public. Okay.

01:36:04,130	Just as a reminder, this has been a multi year process that started several years ago with Dotson and Flicker and focus groups and community shirts and so forth. So just to ground everyone in the fact that there’s been an extensive amount of community input, this last phase, the goal of the working group was to refine the still somewhat general recommendations that came out

01:36:26,270	of that entire process. And the consulting report to get to something more specific. So, like Ben has been mentioned, I was also part of the working group, and I am in favor of the recommendations, though I’m happy to hear the feedback and comments.

01:36:45,930	I think we are trying to get to a point where we can do something. Um, there needs to be some action. We do know that this property is a liability for the town, and the cost to rehabilitate it ourselves is upwards of $6 million, which is not feasible for the town to manage. Um, with residential tax base.

01:37:02,770	Right. So we do need to move forward. We need to get to a place where we try to make some decisions. So that is the goal at this point in time with further refinement, however, is Gary said this, this is a significant opportunity. One of the biggest parcels the town owns.

01:37:22,870	We do need to be careful and thoughtful. I personally am very much in favor of the housing I and I’m going to let Kate speak to that, but I do think the area can accommodate what has been proposed with the section Y housing and meets a huge unmet need in the town for that middle housing that we heard repeatedly is missing in

01:37:44,200	the affordability issues in this town. I would be open to this. You know, we’ll I’m sure we’ll hear from soccer momentarily. But I think one of the biggest parts of this process is trying to balance all of the stakeholders, um, and trying to do the best by everyone that we can, while

01:38:02,930	also, again, moving towards an end point to actually doing something with this parcel. Okay. So I’m just going to ask everyone to keep that in mind. The goal is optimization. The best for the community at large.

01:38:25,330	The town at large, and also trying to satisfy as many stakeholders desires as we can as is feasible within those constraints. Okay, so just some grounding. Kate, if you could speak to just a couple of things like what Gary raised about the area and do we have a slide that visualizes this, what this slide is talking about? The piece of the soccer fields.

01:38:45,070	Um, we do not have one, but I could pull up the map quickly so everybody can look at it. Um, with the road that if you come off of Lee road, that road that goes up to the cemetery would have to be turned into a real road. Right now, it’s a dirt road, as we know. Um, there are wetland constraints over there too.

01:39:03,270	So I would say, um, you know, it’s not impossible at all, but it would take some engineering for the road. This is the. Area right here. From what I understand, it is a revenue soccer field area. And so those are kids that are seven years old and under that use that area.

01:39:35,900	One of my thoughts that I was trying to think of is if this area was sold for gymnastics, what that would do to the soccer program, because it’s very important to the town. And so are there other areas in town that another fields could possibly be used? It would be a smaller field because it’s for the, um, seven you.

01:40:02,030	So one idea I thought of was next to that Hamilton-Wenham rec center. If we could get maybe some CPA money and make that field nicer for the soccer people.

01:40:22,200	Um, also, we have Pingree that we’re looking at right now, the tennis courts, and it could be maybe a multi-use field for, you know, flag football, for lacrosse, for soccer. That’s a nice, beautiful area as well. Okay. Thank you Kate. You’re welcome. Madam Chair. I’m sorry. Either it either now or at some point I’d be interested in, um, whether the Iron Rail commissioners have any comments as well. Yes, absolutely. You all should feel free to come up and speak.

01:40:58,970	Ted Batchelor again 50 grapevine I guess you could say I’m going to butter in some sense. I’m also on the Iron Rail commission. Um. Yeah. Site one. Um, unfortunately, we haven’t kept up with it over the years. So yeah, we have here is maybe one of the best solutions for site one.

01:41:21,700	Um, what I just heard about site two, the soccer field. I’m a little concerned about, um, thinking gymnastics in that area. It’s already at capacity. The soccer wise. And also many times parking is just overflowing.

01:41:45,470	So, um, they feel it’s getting the best town usage right now as soccer fields, and it just isn’t room to put gymnastics in there. Uh, due to capacity and parking. Um. My biggest concern is, uh, site three. Um. It just seems awful tight getting 43 units in there. And cluster zoning and, uh, yeah, the original concept of buying the property was for town usage and maintaining open space. And so that gets lost in the sale.

01:42:15,400	And other points are. Yeah, Gary brought up. Uh. The cemetery expansion in the future. We don’t know when that’ll be. 25 years, 50 years. But, you know, if we develop it into housing, then we’d lose that room for expansion.

01:42:34,670	So I think that it’s an important issue. And I thought it was all secured for that, but I guess not. Um, yeah. My third point is, uh, statistics on cost.

01:43:01,330	Um, ten years ago, it was felt that tax revenue from adding new housing was not going to equate what it costs to, say, put kids through the school. Like, yeah, this was a balance there that costs more. Send kids to the schools and other public services versus what you’re going to receive in tax revenue. So that’s, you know, it just doesn’t seem logical to trying to develop.

01:43:22,670	I know it’s well-intended, uh, you know, to think about housing for first time home owners, but I just feel it’s the wrong site. And as in the butter and also concerns about Penguin Hall, particularly now when I hear who’s purchased it, um, I’m real concerned about overdevelopment in our area where we’ve been trying to maintain open space and also, uh, watershed, uh, not just for

01:43:53,000	our town, but for Beverly, Salem. So those are my points. Thank you. I think that has to be the first time we’ve ever talked about any part of Wenham being overdeveloped. Michelle is on our way. Up. On this issue. Okay, Michelle, can you let him. Bill, let Bill ask his question. Absolutely. Come on. Go ahead. Bill.

01:44:31,470	Hi. Bill Wilson. 19, Lake. Wenham Cemetery. Commissioner. And, um. Statistically, this area. Shown up. Here. Iron rails, about 15% full. And depending on the dynamics over the next couple of years, a lot of different variables about fill burials, cremations and so forth. We estimate that will be about 50 to 90 years before it’s. Full.

01:44:57,200	Um, given this. area out here, this is. The expansion. You know, if you. Do a. Kind of. A ratio that’s 50 to 100 years, probably going a hundred years down there. But there’s nothing. after that.

01:45:15,430	I think we have to look carefully for the next generation and and think ahead a little bit here and preserve a little bit. But just keep that in the management of this thing. We’re not looking for a lot of land, but just the right land. Um, I think we need to talk with Kate, go out there and do the measurements, be sure we’re doing the right thing. Come up with some statistics.

01:45:31,270	As far as the projections on the burial rates and expansion required to keep it for maybe 200 years, that would be the goal and see if we can fit it in. This area here. And if we need more. That’s up for the next generation. Beyond that. Thank you Michelle. Michelle Bailey, two Remington.

01:45:52,670	Um, I 100% agree with what Bill said. That’s something we need to really think about. Um, I also wanted to just sort of bring up when the cemetery was first built out here, there was a lot of controversy. Like, I don’t know, maybe you guys were here. I don’t think anybody else is really here.

01:46:09,470	But there was a lot of controversy about building the road out there. Um, so I think we should be sure to revisit that and what the issues were with that.

01:46:26,600	Um, because we don’t want to go down that go down a road and find out we can’t put a road there. Um, I also am concerned about, you know, needing to have the tool dual egress, potentially. Um, as we saw when we built over near the airport.

01:46:47,700	Um, and how that’s going to be is that going to that road currently the dirt road from the whatever the island back up into the cemetery? Um, the DPW has a lot of stuff stored out there. It’s very thin. Um, I would imagine you would look at taking down the scout barn in order to make a road big enough. There. Um, I’m concerned about that.

01:47:07,500	I want to be sure that we understand that recreation isn’t just sports, that some things that kids do are clubs, activities, and that the scouts are one of the major organizations that’s teaching civics in this community. They’re the ones that are there supporting our veterans. Every single time. Um, and they provide service. So I want to be sure that we’re meeting those needs as well.

01:47:29,870	And the, um, I support the idea of us finding a place for housing, uh, starter housing in particular. I think that, you know, even on my own road, I say all of the branches grow up to be colonials now, and there’s not really a lot of that.

01:47:51,870	However, I’m not sure that this is the right spot for that. So I would encourage you to really think about what are we going to get out of that? And then my other question is, is where already receiving leasing revenue from the building.

01:48:15,270	So how would a land lease be any different other than taking away any sort of liability to fix the building? Um, you know, when I was on a what was called the town Advisory Committee and we looked at possibly selling this property to New England Academy, um, that was bringing in a significant amount of revenue. And we needed a way to replace that.

01:48:33,000	And we couldn’t come up with anything, even if we had sold it. So we did. We said that that was not viable. So I’m curious as to, you know, did we look at how much revenue we’re currently getting and how we would replace that? So thank you. Do you want to answer that piece? Yeah, sure. So we did look at that.

01:48:52,830	The iron rail probably brings in about 100, $125,000 a year. Once you adjust for, um costs such as staffing and various, you know, ad hoc maintenance requirements. Um, we believe that site, you know, again, we had an appraisal done probably two years ago now, possibly three.

01:49:18,800	And it was that site was current use, probably about $1 million. So that would be, um, about $150,000 in taxes, tax revenue. And um, excuse me, 15 is the current use would be it would be $15,000 as, as a sale.

01:49:46,000	And then the, um, the generation of the income of the property would result in a value that would offset that to basically a net zero. So we would replace the revenue that’s brought in by the Iron Rail. The town would remove itself from the liability of being a landlord, and also the responsibility to, uh, you know, fix the structure, bring it up to Ada compliance, which, you know, we’re estimating we believe conservatively at about $6 million.

01:50:09,670	Um, that debt service over 20 years would be about 300, $350,000 a year. So if you look at it that way, that we remedied the structure and we continue to lease it out, and we’re making 100, 125,000, and we’re spending 300, $350,000 on debt service. You know, it doesn’t really that doesn’t make economic sense either.

01:50:30,800	So we’re really looking at a way that, you know, at least will break the town even with that site, uh, and also remove us from the liability of, of managing it, actively managing it. Hi.

01:50:52,830	Lindsay Whitman, 28 Mayflower Drive, though I’m here as the treasurer of troop 28 that, uh, runs programming out of the scout barn. Um, I do have some comments, but I actually had a question first. Could you the site one is the scout barn included in that? We couldn’t. We were looking. Well in all situations here. The scout barn would either be what would be included in the land lease, or it would be, um, demolished.

01:51:14,570	Okay. So it’s still unclear. Sort of. Whatever the the long term land lease person, if they had a use for it, they could, you know, remedy its, you know, structural deficiencies and utilize it or um, you know, remove it. Okay. Thank you.

01:51:40,330	Um, so the as people I hope are aware, scouting has a really long history in Wenham. We’re actually about to celebrate our 100th anniversary, and we had the pleasure of Deirdre joining us to help honor our 108th Eagle Scout earlier this spring.

01:51:58,870	Um, we, uh, as has already been mentioned, we help with all sorts of events and dedicate service, um, back to the town in terms of the Veterans Day lunch participating and Wreaths Across America, the Memorial Day ceremonies and multiple Eagle Scout projects.

01:52:16,530	Um, in the past and in the future, as we have four coming up that will all be completing Eagle Scout projects in the next year, we hope. Um, one of them is my son. Um, and but but I hope you all agree that the scouting is great. As the treasurer, I’m here to actually talk a little bit about just how the barn is used in both our operations and how it impacts our finances specifically.

01:52:36,970	Um, so we use the barn every week during the school year for meetings, um, and year round for storing gear that can vary from tents, cooking gear, climbing ropes, and even the very large Iditarod sled that we used at winter Klondike events.

01:52:55,470	So a very wide and varied size and shapes and sorts of different things that we store there. Um, losing the barn without access to a similar space would have real financial and operational implications for our troop. Um, we currently pay no rent for meetings or storage, which really keeps scouting accessible for all families. What this means is our scouts don’t pay dues to us.

01:53:14,200	We only charge back for activity costs, and we fundraise to cover the cost of equipment and badges and some of the programming. So using this kind of freely accessible space for storage as well as meetings would add an unknown overhead amount that we’d have to pass on to families.

01:53:32,370	And it would make scouting less accessible for all. It would also mean losing that at will flexibility that we have for scheduling around families calendars, rather than when there might be an open slot in a community sort of shared community space.

01:53:52,130	Um, and the barn also allows for multiple meeting rooms, which is really valuable when you’re working across a diversity of different ages and scouts at different ranks, from near Eagle Scouts working on their projects, to first year scouts being taught by the older Scouts, their initial um advancement requirements um, outside of the barn, actually, within the Iron Rail area, we have a bottle return and what we affectionately call bottle Barn, and we actually process,

01:54:15,630	uh, about a trailer full of bottles every month. Um, and it raises about $4,000 a year and also provides that service to the community in terms of processing those bottles and recycling them. Um, losing access to that site would further impinge our financial situation by cutting off that that vital source of fundraising.

01:54:41,200	Um, so, uh, as you consider and debate about Iron Rail future as a representative, scouting with two kids in it, I would really hope that you consider keeping scouting in those considerations as well. Thank you. Yeah. Hi. Good evening everybody. My name is Joe Shankman. I’m actually a lifelong resident of Hamilton.

01:55:02,600	Um, I still live there. I grew up on Lake Drive, so just over the border. But, uh, I was actually a member of pack 35 and Wenham back before it went to I’m sorry, in Hamilton, but back before it went defunct and later, troop 28, I actually became the troops 83rd, uh, Eagle Scout back in 2020, 2005.

01:55:22,330	Rather, I built the bulletin board that was recently torn down right outside of town hall here. Um. It’s okay. I didn’t hurt my feelings at all. Ouch. Um. Uh, but when my son began, uh, grade school a couple of years ago, he was excited to follow suit.

01:55:40,930	Uh, since then, I’ve actually become the scoutmaster, uh, for pack 28 here in Hamilton. Uh, Wenham, I keep saying that here in Wenham, uh, we’ve collectively gathered about 40 scouts that we have, uh, we split them up into about three dens in total.

01:55:58,600	We have 12 volunteers that orchestrate an entire year’s full worth of activities, most of most of which take place at the barn. Uh, the barn not only offers the space that we need, but it really provides a permanent location for our pack and troops. History.

01:56:17,530	Uh, when scouts, when scouts enter the barn, specifically Cub scouts, they know they’re a part of something much bigger than themselves. And the Cub Scouts can see kind of what lies ahead of them.

01:56:30,670	As far as what what happens in the troop? Uh, my son, for instance, he can walk into the barn, he can see pictures of me in my scouting gaze. Me, as you know, 12, 13, 14 years old. He sees my name under the rank of Eagle Scout, and he can feel proud to be on his own similar journey.

01:56:46,400	Um, on a separate note, uh, one of the best features of the barn, I should say, is that it’s a standalone structure. You can imagine kids under the age of ten, uh, they’re they’re quite loud, and it takes a lot of the stress away from the leadership, knowing that that we’re not going to get any type of noise complaints from that.

01:57:04,500	Further, as you were talking about the, uh, the trails, the location of the barn is unbelievable as far as we can just head out the door and go on a hike with the kids. Um, do birdwatching, all sorts of different type of outdoor activities. Um, and for that, it’s it’s amazing.

01:57:22,100	Uh, scouting does so much for our community, and our community has done so much for scouting. Both Wenham and Hamilton. It’s a fantastic relationship that I hope to continue for years to come. And as we consider the future use of the iron rail property, I just sincerely hope that the barn and the Scouts are taken into consideration. So thank you. Thank you. Hi everybody.

01:57:49,130	Brad Shepherd I’m the president of Hamilton-Wenham Youth Soccer Association. Um, I’m here just to ask the board not to consider any plan at Iron Rail that takes away existing recreational field space. Um, taking away that space would change the way Hamilton-Wenham News soccer operates for our towns. Um, and it’s really just a matter of the size of our program.

01:58:18,470	We consistently send about or consistently register about 300 children in our program, uh, pre-K up through eighth grade in the fall and another 500 in the spring. So around 1200 children annually, um, pay to play? Uh, no children are turned away.

01:58:45,730	The area in question on site two uh, is used for our travel program. Um, our travel program alone sends 30 teams to compete in ICSA, the Essex County Youth Soccer Association. 30 teams is more than some towns that have a significantly higher population than US send to the league.

01:59:15,670	And the reason being is because we allow any child that wants to play travel soccer, to play travel soccer, um, this area is, as mentioned, is the home for our third and fourth grade programs, but it’s been used, um, it all. It is, uh, sizable enough to put 11ft, 11 v 11 field across. So it’s used by all our our programs.

01:59:43,870	Um, you know, if it’s taken away, we would have to consider another operating model for Hamilton-Wenham News soccer. I mentioned we send 30 teams to travel. Other towns don’t send that many teams because they host tryouts. They you know, we have over 150 volunteer coaches that coach as well.

02:00:10,070	Um, that would significantly reduce the volunteers that that, uh, you know, take a part in this program. Um, you know, there’s a lot of things that whole site, site two, is completely taken care of by Hamilton-Wenham News soccer. We pay a license fee to the town.

02:00:30,870	Uh, we pay thousands of dollars of user fees to the the joint recreation departments of the board or of the towns, um, and we continue to keep that property in immaculate shape without any Expense from Wenham taxpayers, um, specifically the area that they’re talking about selling over here.

02:00:59,170	Um, the whole field, long before I’ve was on the board, the whole field was invested in, uh, by the board and by the residents that take part Hamilton-Wenham News soccer. That includes the, uh, equipment shed on the grapevine side. It also includes full irrigation of all the fields and a well that was dug and is located on field seven, where they’re considering selling. So our wells, there are controls for the irrigation are there.

02:01:22,600	Um, and there’s just been so much put into keeping these fields the way they are. Even prior to me coming. And that’s one of the reasons I’m here today. Um. Yeah. I mean, that’s it. The, you know, the field space around our towns is, um, not sufficient enough.

02:01:49,330	The field space that we have is overused. Um, there’s nowhere to put our program if we’re going to remain this size anywhere else in the town. Thank you. Once again. Hi. Um. I’m Michael Walton. I live on Arbor Street in Wenham, and I. Dedra. Thank you. Um, in 2016, I have four kids and multiple grandchildren.

02:02:31,000	And in 2016, my granddaughter was doing karate at, uh, North Karate in Beverly. But she kept telling me, I want to do gymnastics. And I said, okay, so one day I’m sitting at her karate practice and, um, and elderly, uh, very kind and thoughtful woman was sitting next to me.

02:02:54,930	And I don’t know what spurred the question, but I said, I’m sitting surrounded by karate. I said, do you know anywhere where there’s gymnastics? And she says, oh my goodness, you have to go to Iron Rail Gymnastics Academy. She goes, my kids went there. My grandchildren go, there, I go.

02:03:18,530	My goodness, how long is Iron Rail Gymnastics Academy been? This is in 2016 and I heard you reference how old it is. It was 31 years old at that time. I said, that’s impressive. Karate class ended. I put my granddaughter in the car and we went right to Grapevine Ave Road and walked right. And I Gymnastics Academy. I was stunned ages from 2 to 8.

02:03:48,400	The amount of gymnasts in that room, the enthusiasm, the teachers, the joy, all of it. She was signed up the next day. Just wasn’t prepared. That evening.

02:04:14,600	But I signed her up the next day for the next five years, she was at Iron Rail Gymnastics Academy, and because of Rich Healey, the owner, his incredible partners, Aaron and Helen, after those five years, it affected her life in more manners than I can express in the number one word is confidence.

02:04:39,070	And from the time I spoke to that kind woman at the karate, uh, everywhere I went, I would ask people, do you know Iron Rail gymnast? Oh, of course I know, I know so-and-so. I had a daughter, I had a kid, my neighbor, and now I’m that person. And I get asked frequently about Iron Rail Gymnastics Academy. It’s not 31 years old. And what’s not 36? After my granddaughter went for five years, it’s 41 years old.

02:05:04,800	It is a staple in the town of Wenham, and we talked about priorities and and the, the strength of when am I believe in addition to its history, is that we always put the kids first.

02:05:31,500	And that’s my history and one of them and what Iron Rail Gymnastics Academy has done, they have always put the kids first for 41 years. So I conclude by simply saying, lot of work here. But when the dust clears, in addition to some other wonderful organizations, the Cub Scouts, the soccer and other matters that were spoken tonight, I hope Iron Rail Gymnastics Academy carries on for who the kids. Thank you. Thank you Michael Richard was a good leading.

02:06:07,230	Behind the follow. Thanks, Mike. Um. So rich Ely. Iron Rail gymnastics. Um. so the. The proposal that was. Put forward. Kind. Of like I, I said before, the, um. What I see.

02:06:36,530	As, um, the issue with it is for a small business like mine to go in and do a 100 year lease on a property that Steve is saying there’s $6 million worth of work on. Um, there’s all of these, you know, there’s all of these other things to do. A 100 year lease doesn’t make sense for a business like mine.

02:06:56,870	And I think all of the, um, all of the feedback going back to the Dodson and Flanker report, there was huge gymnastics and keep soccer over there. Um, and the scouts too. I there’s there’s a lot of feedback for the scouts as well. Um, but to keep to keep us over there, to keep the uses over there, um, that that doesn’t it, it doesn’t work for a small business like mine to be able to do that.

02:07:19,030	Um, I’m willing to work with whatever solutions the town is, you know, able to come up with. I mean, we’re willing we’re willing to work with the town on whatever. We would just like to stay in town. And that’s that’s kind of, you know, an important thing.

02:07:39,070	Um, I know in the, in the master plan, there was, um, part of the master plan was to keep sustain locally owned businesses in town. This is a perfect opportunity for the board to be able to do that.

02:08:01,570	Um, part of it was to rezone residential areas with existing businesses that are non-conforming, which every business and one of them is non-conforming at this point to allow expansion for those businesses. And, um, for the future. This is a perfect opportunity for the town based on based on the the, uh, master plan to do that.

02:08:25,030	Um, and the Dodson and Flanker report, which was a couple of years long, clearly showed that the town would, like us, would like us to stay, and we would like to stay, um, and just, you know, a couple things about, you know, we’ve been there for a long time. Yes. But we also we put a lot back into this community.

02:08:45,800	Every time there is a fundraiser, whether it’s Melody Miles, whether it’s any, any school fundraiser in town, private schools, public schools, we always donate to all of those programs for the Hamilton-Wenham gymnastics program.

02:09:07,500	And I mentioned this last time for the first five years that the program was was, uh, you know, an am I a program we provided the use of that space for free, and we have continued to provide the use of the space as it added discount. And I totaled it up conservatively over the last 20 years, since the beginning of the program, we’ve donated basically $75,000 to the Hamilton-Wenham High School gymnastics program. Um, so we’re part of the community.

02:09:30,670	We’re part of the fabric of the community. Um, and like I said, we’re willing to work with the town on whatever, you know, solutions kind of we can come up with. We just would like to stay. We’d like to stay in town. So, um, if anybody has any questions for me, I’m happy to. Answer them. Okay.

02:09:53,030	All right. Thank you. Rich. Good evening. Hi. Um, my name is Olivia Young. I just want to briefly talk about my personal experience with Iron Rail Gymnastics Academy and explain why I feel it plays a huge role in benefiting benefiting our local community. I grew up in Hamilton.

02:10:17,600	I attended the Hamilton-Wenham Public Schools from third grade through senior year of high school, graduated in the class of 2015. I attended my first gymnastics class at Iron Rail when I was three years old and continued as a gymnast there through my senior year of high school.

02:10:33,630	Iron Rail Gymnastics Academy is a space that’s unique to our community, and I can speak about my personal experience here, but I feel it’s more important to address the many generations of children and families in our community that this space has benefited.

02:10:48,630	There are so many young members of our community, like myself, who learned at Iron Rail how to be a team player, how to be disciplined, how to navigate a challenge while being safely supported by incredibly dedicated and kind to coaches. The Iron Rail Gymnastics Academy has the ability to provide a sense of belonging for children from all backgrounds, all skill levels, and of all ages.

02:11:07,930	While I understand it’s important to consider the potential value of having alternative uses for this space, I worry that the loss will leave a huge hole for young members of our town’s. I question where the gymnastics team will practice without Iron Rail. There are no other spaces available in our area that are properly equipped to allow for practices and competitions.

02:11:27,530	I worry that this team will not be able to continue without the support that Iron Rail provides, which would be a huge loss for us. I was captain of the gymnastics team during my senior year and this team, which was supported by Iron Rail, was incredibly important to my high school experience.

02:11:43,030	Today, I’m an ICU nurse at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. I can confidently say the traits that I carry that make me successful in my job, or traits that I developed during my time as a member of the Iron Rail gymnastics family.

02:12:00,200	I asked the town carefully, considers the impact of losing the Iron Rail Gymnastics Academy space, as it’s a space that will continue to provide a sense of belonging and opportunity to many young people in our community. Thank you. Thank you Nancy. Hi Nancy, model five. Great Pond Road in Wenham, um, girls soccer coach at the high school.

02:12:19,400	I just want to point out my boys at four were at Iron Rail doing gymnastics. Um, and then became soccer players. But, um, obviously want to just acknowledge the importance of the gymnastics and the scouting. Um, I wanted to be very clear about that picture being put up as U7 soccer.

02:12:40,300	Um, for a couple of reasons, because plenty more kids than just U7 use that. But I also wanted to tell you what happens to those U7 kids. They grow up and hit the high school. We have 100 boys and girls soccer players at the high school right now.

02:12:59,400	We it’s not just a varsity program, it’s those kids who come up and they don’t have to try out. They can play on a level that is appropriate for them, and they can play all the way through the high school 100 kids. It’s about a fourth of the population at the high school right now are playing soccer, which is pretty incredible.

02:13:19,070	So that third field is crucial to our soccer program here in town. Thank you. Thank you Patrick. Um. Patrick Waddell, five Great Pond Road. Um, I have a couple quick questions to sell land in this town. Town owned land is two thirds vote at town meeting.

02:13:44,230	Is that correct? So, um, um, a little town history when we get one, when we get funds windfall, we put it to the tax rate the next year. So if we sell this property. Let’s say we sell it for one tenth of our budget, $2.6 million.

02:14:04,530	I believe our budget is 26 million. Last year, I believe I’m going to see $8,800 come off my taxes for one year. That’s it. That’s how we do things. We’re not we’re not turning into something else. We’re going to we’re going to lower our taxes for one year.

02:14:24,270	Um, and one of the things that is great about this town, you know, Nancy says, is 100 soccer players. We are very proud that we have a 78% athletic participation rate at the high school. It’s unheard of if you have to start cutting kids, that rate is going to drop. And the other thing is, this isn’t one field. That’s three fields.

02:14:45,600	One field. If you go 11 to 11, but 77, you know, you know, three different soccer fields running at the same time, plus the parking. Thank you. So Patrick, that was specific to that piece. The soccer field. Correct. That is being proposed being sold. So not the whole site. Just that. Just that.

02:15:03,930	Area is three soccer fields, not one. Thank you. All right. Have we heard. Nope. Matt. Go ahead. Matt Bailey, two Remington Road. Um, I’ve been involved with scouting for many years.

02:15:31,670	My kids went through the program, had a number of kids make Eagle Scout and very proud of the work we’ve done with the town of Wenham, and very grateful for the support of the town over the years. The barn is a wonderful facility, but when we, um, look at the overall needs of the town, um, one of the things kind of thinking through all this and we saw it here tonight.

02:15:49,370	We had a wonderful ceremony for your police department, for our police department and the fire department. And it’s really not a room to have that type of event. Right. You jam people in.

02:16:09,470	And so when we talk about, well, maybe there needs to be a replacement of the barn, there really needs to be thought of a community center that could deal with large meeting space for the town, but also Cub Scouts, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, um, you know, community groups. Uh, if you’re a Girl Scout unit trying to get space at the library, um, it’s very difficult. Um, I also have heard the county use of space, uh, in the library as well.

02:16:32,530	So space is a problem. I don’t know how that fits in our planning discussions, but, um, Iron Rail does have land. You know, when you’re looking at a long term, um, you know, thinking about kind of what the community needs, right? You know, the community does want their taxes lower.

02:16:51,130	But I do think there’s a real need, um, for a community, community oriented space. And, you know, you had your election, you know, you borrowed from the wind museum.

02:17:08,230	Um, you know, there may be ways to get, uh, Homeland Security money for, like, a, you know, there’s there’s sometimes buckets of money that are available for things like this. So, uh, I just encourage maybe thinking a little differently. Um, as far as what the community needs in terms of, uh, you know, getting the community together. And I know we have the CPA act money, um, that could be a possible source of funds, I think.

02:17:27,330	But I do think there’s generally a need for space. Um, obviously the scouts will be interested in finding a long term home. Um, but, you know, the scouts have a use, obviously, but there’s other organizations as well that have needs that are community oriented. That’s very difficult and Wenham to fill.

02:17:46,600	So I ask for that consideration. I just want to thank for the thank the town and very grateful for all the support over the years. Thank you. Thank you, Matt. Hang on. All right. Have we heard from everyone in the public this evening? Iron Rail all good. Okay then.

02:18:09,570	Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh, two things came up was, uh, folks were were speaking a second ago. Um, one of them was about the, uh, the cost of putting in more housing, um, to the town.

02:18:24,200	I think that folks that are interested in, in, uh, a little deeper dive on that should take a look at the the three a analysis that was done in the last year or so. It talks about, uh, you know, the incremental cost of a single family home and where the, the threshold is for, um, you know, incremental costs of the to the town in terms of, uh, school

02:18:42,670	attendance. It really flips as you go from the two bedroom to a three bedroom house. And the cost of the town, uh, that’s a good place to take a look at that.

02:18:57,200	Um, anything that’s a standalone versus multifamily, you know, there’s the multifamily or the, uh, the houses that are joined together, significantly less expensive for the town long term. And, uh, you know, the the idea of the town, uh, taking ownership of all the utilities and then having to maintain them the streets and, you know, the sewer and and the water, that’s where the cost is. Um, so take a look at that.

02:19:13,130	Um, and then the second thing was taking a look at the, uh, the scout barn. Um, one thing that didn’t occur to me until about six years ago when I had an opportunity. Um, you can actually pick up and move structures to another place for next to no money compared to actually building them.

02:19:31,900	Um, a bill. I took a two car garage about the size of this room and moved it about 3000ft through. I didn’t have to move any power lines, just had to cut down a few trees, and it cost $15,000.

02:19:47,900	Um, and then you don’t have to deal with, uh, you know, the structure is grandfathered in, so you don’t have to deal with, uh, you know, changes to, you know, bring it up to code and that sort of stuff. You just have to worry about the foundation and the landscaping, that sort of stuff.

02:19:59,230	But it makes it significantly less expensive, and you get to keep a historic structure. You recall the house that that rotated here on, um, here on one, a um, it’s actually significantly less expensive to do that than building a new structure. So that might be something to think of.

02:20:17,830	And, um, I’ve moved one house and one one garage and helped a bunch of family members doing the same thing. There are a lot of camps and that sort of stuff up and up in Maine. They get moved all the time. So, um, that’s an idea for how to keep costs down, if that, uh, if we end up going that direction. So thanks.

02:20:29,900	Thank you. Finn. Okay, so I think our goal this evening was to hear the input and the next meeting, we need to finalize our. This this meeting. I mean, this is kind of I mean, this is as far as timing goes, we figured that the latest we could deliver the request to the planning board would be their

02:20:57,970	first meeting in October. So that put us, um, having setting essentially what the Select Board prefers. Uh, tonight or what they would like to present to the community at the information session next week on the 17th.

02:21:27,200	And then it allows the select board one more meeting to make any adjustments before making its final recommendation or request to the planning board to draft zoning. Um, in time for town meeting, which, you know, talking to Margaret and the planning board, they’re already, you know, a little stressed that this is already not enough time, but we think we can align it with town meeting. Uh, but really, we can’t go any later than that.

02:21:44,300	The first weekend, for the first week in October. So basically the last meeting in September, the Select Board meets and that would be it. But I need to know, what are we going to present to the public? Because the public hearing is set for next. Week. I mean, the board can make changes to that schedule.

02:22:05,670	Not having a hearing, changing that hearing to something else. But that’s how it stands right now. Madam chair, I have a suggested motion. Um, I’ll just make the motion.

02:22:35,930	Um, so I would move that the, recommendations of the working group that’s presented this evening and in the Kate’s earlier reports be presented to the public information session next week as the recommendations of the Select Board. All right. Well, first, is there a second to that motion, and then we can discuss. Okay. No. Not yet. Then. All right, I think I think we’re I think we’re trying to take it all in. From what we’ve heard this evening, is my guess.

02:23:13,070	That’s where I am. Um. And I, I have sort of puzzle pieces moving around in my head. Well, okay, if we did this, we could move that. And if we did that, we did. You know, it’s. It all is linked together, right? We make one move. We make one change.

02:23:29,330	Someone else is put out. So there’s a lot of chess pieces here to move around. So I guess that’s what I’m struggling with. The refinement of this. I think the land lease is still that is where the working group landed.

02:23:50,130	I think it’s still questionable in my mind as to the feasibility and practicality of it, and also some of the points that Rich has raised previously. So I guess that’s one place where I’m stuck. Yeah, I’m Madam Chair. I’m feeling the same way. It’s very complicated. I’m not quite ready to to. Vote to, uh. Vote with that motion quite yet.

02:24:10,400	You need a little more time to think about it and see it a little more. Kind of. Concisely put together in my in my mind. So thanks. And the only point I would make is, I guess I really didn’t understand that the scout building was getting blown away.

02:24:30,770	It would be part of it as it currently it would be part of the sale. It would be up to the new owner. But we have not explored explicitly. the idea of moving it. No. One thing we did, actually. I did. I’ve had someone else has raised that issue. Um, I don’t know where we would move it to. I guess that’s the first question. A little bit of upland.

02:24:53,630	And how much the site can actually accommodate. I mean, I’ve heard for years, as I’m sure many people here have anecdotally, but it’s statements that have come from DPW and fire Department officials that the building is structurally unsound.

02:25:12,530	So I don’t know how it works, how it works with how it works with moving it, and whether it would survive. Um, a move. But again, it’s anecdotal. And so, um, I don’t, you know, I’ve recommended in the past that someone actually makes some formal inspections because if it is a safety issue, obviously we want to know that.

02:25:33,200	And the people that use it a lot, um, can speak to that as well. But if I can again, Joe Shakman. , um, so. not a. Contractor, I built my own house, so I have some experience, uh, the barn, as opposed to beam barn. Um. The structure. itself is quite sound. I will. Agree. The siding.

02:25:52,370	And the facade of it rotted trim. The siding itself does need to be addressed, but, um, anytime you guys want, I can give you guys a tour. Um, you get a. pretty good look of all the framing when you get up to the attic.

02:26:08,630	Um, a lot of cobwebs. So don’t wear your best clothes. But, uh, the post and beam structure is is quite sound. In fact, there’s there’s a band that, uh, there’s a kind of a more updated finished area on the second floor. Uh, a band practices there. Um, electrical has been brought up.

02:26:28,200	It’s not knob, tube or anything like that. Um, it’s all at least wiring and, uh. Yeah. So definitely I would I would not take what you hear from other folks, especially from folks who haven’t been in the barn. Um, come see it for yourself. And, uh, yeah. Thank you. Thank you. So we did.

02:26:50,770	Actually, Ben and I, um, did have a tour, thanks to Lou. I will admit, I stopped at the attic. Cobwebs where I drew the line, but we saw the rest of it. Um, I think one of the big issues is the septic is a is a significant issue. Um, currently on a cesspool. It’s in wetlands.

02:27:12,530	That’s that’s a significant issue as to how we would manage that in any kind of a move. So we do have this issue of a public forum next week. And that’s also where we’re stuck.

02:27:31,800	I mean, one option is to present where we landed to take that feedback into our next meeting and see where we which would give us time to think it through and see if we’re at a point where we can land on a final recommendation, or to the point where it can go to the planning board. So you had a slide that had, uh, concerns Kate. Yes. Can you show. That, please? Show mine where you go.

02:28:00,570	So that first bullet. What does that mean? So in the working group, Kate, you speak to it also. But in the working group, the suggestion was raised that the town retain ownership of the land. Basically to preserve its future options. Right? So that future Wenham could potentially do something different if a need arises.

02:28:35,800	So people were enthusiastic about that idea about trying to retain the land, but selling the rights to the building essentially, so that that again, could be released from the town, that we would not have the responsibility, the upgrades and all of that, which, however, raised some concerns about that.

02:28:58,200	As he mentioned tonight about the feasibility of a small business owner in that kind of situation, this is not my wheelhouse. So I’m not going to try to replicate what you’ve said. But there was you talked about hedge funds investing and so forth. Do you want to just replay that comment for us? Sure. Um. So. In.

02:29:19,570	Uh, there’s a there’s a trend in youth sports right now and it’s it’s not just in gymnastics, it’s in soccer, it’s in lacrosse. It’s in all sorts of different youth sports. That large corporations and private equity firms are getting into. Um, bat space.

02:29:42,570	And what that does is it it displaces local, you know, local groups from doing that. And, um, you know, and I mean, the if, if you’re looking at like, like somebody like me to take over 100 year lease, 100 year lease would be something that is, you know, a a line item on a balance sheet for a large corporation, for somebody

02:30:06,000	like me who, you know, doesn’t live in a huge house and drives a, you know, 15 year old car, like, that’s not that’s not the kind of thing I’m willing to.

02:30:25,230	And as I expressed before, I’d be willing to buy that building and a little bit of land next door, if you pull up the map, actually, um, for. Okay, can you pull up the map of where. You. Are. Okay. The maybe the larger one. Okay. Yep. There we go. All right. So this. Now one. I and I don’t I don’t want to speak for you. But one of the things. That I had heard was the beginning. Debbie was looking to expand.

02:30:51,300	So they want to. Come over here into this portion. Okay. Um, well, we’ll work with that. Um. This is a. 15 foot driveway right now. It’s 15ft wide. You can’t do a. So if there was going to. Be a one. Way in one way and, you know, like right now it’s a loop.

02:31:14,330	It’s effectively a loop drive, right? So if you were going to make this side. A. Street. You would have to double. the side of. the the size of that road minimum. It’s going. To come out. It’s got to at least speed up.

02:31:27,030	It’s got to be at least 30ft back to, to do anything. And then if the DPW is going over here that needs some space, that eats space, right. Um, I don’t know exactly what the you know, what the working group kind of was.

02:31:46,800	I know there was a lot of fun that went into everything, but so one of the things that I was saying was this, if this remains a loop, right? And then the DPW comes over here, you can just keep the loop kind of going that way. Right.

02:32:06,830	You made this, uh, El Dodge way, right? Because, uh, without the street and the town of Wenham named after Mister Dodge, who I really like. Lord was a nice guy. Um, and he was behind kind of, you know, buying this property for the town. I mean, it was a big thing, but like I said, we’re willing to to purchase, uh, purchase the building and maybe some land next to it.

02:32:29,100	If you made this into a town road going in and out, you would still have. You still have extra space for the DPW to expand. Going over, um, so that’s that’s fine too.

02:32:48,400	Um, and you could take the scout barn, like Finn was saying, if you took the scout barn, you could take the scout barn, you could put it in here somewhere on this side. And it would still allow, uh, it would still allow us to maybe expand our use over there. So, I mean, I think there’s a way to work. Rich, just step back to the mic place. That’s okay. There’s. I mean. Everybody here.

02:33:11,770	Is serving the community, the soccer, serving the community. We are the scouts are. Everybody here. Is for is here for the good of the community. And I just feel like maybe part of the plan needs to be revisited.

02:33:34,230	Um, just to come up with the, you know, the the best thing for everybody. Take off. Take it off the plate of the town to have to upgrade that building. We’re willing to buy it that that immediately takes that liability off. Sell us a little bit of land to go with it. We can expand. That’ll be tax revenue to the it’ll be a one time. It’ll be a one time sale.

02:33:53,870	So the town will get that money up front. They’d be ongoing tax revenue to the town. Um, and after you look at what what you’re talking, you know, what the kind of plan is? You’re not talking about that much like the the property isn’t that huge.

02:34:15,800	This is this is a little bit less than three acres inside this loop right now. Right here. Yeah. It’s a little bit less than three acres. So you’re talking about. Okay, we gotta go with the roads. Gotta go out here. Okay. So that’s another 15ft, okay. That you have to do to make it a two way road.

02:34:30,200	If you were going to do that, a new commercial building has to be 75ft off of the weapon. Isn’t that right? Okay. So a new commercial has 75ft off the ground. So I mean, I again, I, you know, and then you’re gonna have future expansion over this way with the DPW.

02:34:55,870	Um, I just think renaming this street after Mister Dodge and allowing us to, uh, you know, so buy the building some land, I think would would be a good solution for everyone. I think it’d be a good solution for everyone in town. I think it’d be a good solution for soccer.

02:35:09,800	I think it’d be a good solution for the scouts to be able to move that in up a little bit. Um, so that’s my suggestion. Okay. Thank you. Rich. Now, sure. One thing that that I heard tonight that I think we should make sure happens, I don’t know whether it should be a motion on it or not.

02:35:33,300	Is that there be a, um, discussion between probably Kate and, uh, Bill Olson? The cemetery commission on the point of the amount of land that may be needed for that 200 year plan and therefore figuring out what the exact boundaries of of the site three development site would be.

02:35:57,270	So, you know, the the recommendations, as we’ve discussed, include housing on site three. But, you know, there’s certainly been no there wasn’t any hard and fast decision from the recommendation from the working group as to exactly where the property line or the boundaries of that would be.

02:36:18,130	So I think having that analysis with the cemetery commission makes a lot of sense and wouldn’t necessarily delay, um, a plan that if the plan ends up being sites one, two and three, as per the working group recommendations. So anyway, I don’t know if that’s something that we should make a motion about, uh, make sure it happens or, um, or not, but. Really, I we’re already going to do it.

02:36:38,330	Yeah, I think I don’t think we need a motion for that. And as long as it’s the box is checked, then that’s that’s good. I mean, perhaps the presentation to the public next week is not definitive and that there is option A and B, for example, on the lease versus sell. Um.

02:37:07,800	Like I said, I personally am still hung up on that and have been since the working group. I agree in principle. It’s a great idea, but in essence, I think, you know, this is just the reality of it. But the town retaining the ownership of the soccer fields into the future, I mean, that to me is future.

02:37:27,530	Wyndham’s decision as to what happens with soccer 25 or 50 years from now, when demands on land are even greater? Right. But I think that’s not what we’re deciding overall today. Despite talking about carving out the field, which was helpful. Michelle, did you have a comment? Um. I have a question.

02:37:49,670	So it’s my understanding there’s a gas tank under that.. Which part? Yeah, that would be included in the DPW expansion. But that’s also a very old tank. And with the expansion, there’s a high likelihood that that would be removed. And now most places are going to above the ground storage tanks. Okay, for a number of reasons. So that would be.

02:38:15,030	Because that’s my question. Is that the reason why the town wants to keep it is because you couldn’t sell that land and have the tank underneath. Okay. Yeah. All right. So and then, um. And we’re trying to preserve space for DPW needs also. Yeah. No, that was my that was really my question.

02:38:34,270	Like can you even sell it? And then this lease thing, isn’t there a limit of 30 years the town could do a lease? Or is there a different regulation for land. Lease long term land lease? I think the town could authorize, you know, 100 years or 50 years with town meeting approval. Yeah, it would require town meeting vote. Gary.

02:38:57,700	So I. see the demand for recreational is number one. We’ve heard from the different groups, whether it’s, you know, scouts or soccer or gymnastics, uh, the preferred has been to maintain ownership of the property.

02:39:25,500	Uh, is there a middle ground there that, uh, the, the gymnastics building to be sold? It’s been talked about. The lease or sale. Is there a third option that would meet the term, the town’s long term needs of having it a sale or the first right of repurchase in the future? That we would say that it would not.

02:39:48,630	You can use it for gymnastics, but it would not be a property that would be sold for other purposes. And then sometime in the future, if it came up, the town would have first right of refusal to get that property back. That might be a solution there. Uh, this site three up there.

02:40:09,930	So, you know, the housing certainly support by this been kind of a late add to the thing in the past it was proposed to put the a recreational facility in that area. And perhaps we need to expand a little bit, uh, to see what the disposition of the property will be coming up shortly might be a housing opportunity there.

02:40:33,030	And as well as Penguin Hall or there is the one property in between the two, this is a Notre Dame property that might suit some of the purposes here. But I would say as far as the forum next week, I think, you know, we’ve had a lot of feedback.

02:40:53,000	So I think we would need to have some sort of plan A or plan B or plan A contingencies and something I think we need to offer the town something substantial before we go to the forum.

02:41:14,930	Would you want to say something? I’m just wondering if there’s any any way we could get, um, the idea of a small business not being able to, uh, get or not being attractive, to have a long term lease on a property. Um, I’m, I’m not in that business to be able to say that that’s true or. I’m not saying it’s I’m not saying it.

02:41:31,700	I’m just saying that there’s there may be bankers out there that could put something together for you. And I just don’t know. Um, so I’m hoping that there’s some way to get some sort of opinion on that. Um, I don’t want to create an offer that’s going to fail, or a situation is going to fail.

02:41:46,400	So I’m wondering, you know, if Salem five or some local banker could, could kind of say, all right, yeah, we don’t have a program like that. It’s not going to work. We don’t do that sort of thing and you won’t find it.

02:42:03,000	Um, it might be helpful to basically have that that opinion as we talk about option A or B, um, in front of the, the town, if you want to have gymnastics, you’re gonna have to sell. It would be an interesting, absolute statement to make. Um, as opposed to, you know, um, if you want to do a lease, you’re going to lose the gymnastics sort of thing. So you’re likely to.

02:42:22,730	I mind if I. Respond, no, go ahead. Um, so. I’ve been speaking with local developers that we have relationships with and asking them if that if the land lease would be. Um. Attractive to a developer. Um, and basically what I was told is it will be a lot harder to get financing for it.

02:42:43,600	It’s not impossible. But for even a major developer, it could be difficult. With the lease option. With the lease option. Um. The developers were not running away, but they were saying it’s not as easy as the normal route.

02:43:04,100	And what do you think about Gary’s suggestion to sort of try to have it both ways? I have a right of first refusal. Yeah, I think it’s a it’s a good idea and I don’t know if the town would then be putting aside money every year to be able to purchase it back if they needed to.

02:43:17,930	Um, if that’s an opportunity that would be available to the town, or at least the option is still there. All right. So I think in the interest of time, um, let’s try to make some draw some conclusions.

02:43:43,330	I think, Kate, if you can all chime in or disagree, but if we can separate a little more in a little more fine tuned fashion, the three separate areas. Site one, the sort of thought exercise that we’re having of the lease versus sell and or sell with potentially the right of first refusal, seems to be the big issue on that parcel.

02:44:08,000	I’m reluctant to let go of the housing, but is there a way to visualize what that might look like on a map, so that people have a better sense of how it might fit on the site? You’re going to have the discussion with Bill about the cemetery. So we’ll have that piece of information.

02:44:28,730	Um, we definitely heard a lot of don’t touch the soccer fields. So I’m feeling like that’s I don’t hear anyone arguing for that. So I guess for the moment we’ll put a pin in it. And I think you talked about the, um, wetland area. That’s potential.

02:44:56,130	We would retain ownership of that because at one point I think we talked about selling it. , or we would have the opportunity to retain it and work with. Work with the groups instead of selling it. Okay. I specifically talked to a local land trust, and they’d be interested in partnering, partnering with us and the Essex County Trails Association.

02:45:20,000	Um, would also be interested in helping us find grants for that, um, putting in some of their funding. And then we could also go to CPA funds to get that elevated boardwalk there. So maybe that’s also its own slide. Just to make that clear to the public. Sorry. Now I lost. My last Gary was. Go ahead.

02:45:41,830	I would add to the question of the, uh, from roughly through the entrance of the cemetery as it is now, the road up through there. What would mean need to be done legally, given the wetlands and so forth, and engineering wise, to either put housing in there or recreational building there, or

02:46:04,270	a moved scout barn in there, whether that road which those at which level or how much cost that’s going to incur, because I think that’s a wide range.

02:46:23,530	And if you look at least in the map wise, you know, it’s a very narrow place in there to replace a maybe a 12 foot wide driveway into the cemetery with a full blown street. So I think that’s a technical question. We ought to know. So I think the question of where the scope barn might go and the feasibility of that is not super clear.

02:46:48,070	I do like Rich’s idea, um, of moving it and then suggestion of moving it up. But I don’t know that we’re going to have time to do that feasibility before next week, but maybe that can be presented. Kate, as a potential solution. While we all think about that a little bit more.

02:47:12,770	I would just speak in favor of, um, at the very least for next week’s information session, that the presentation that Kate gave that states what the working group came up with, that be presented, um, I fear that we’re starting to create a recipe for paralysis, for the paralysis on action here in the working group had representatives from every single board in the town that are subject matter experts and

02:47:40,000	represent constituencies, um, as well as a, uh, at least one member of the public. Um, a lot of work went into it, a lot of analysis, a lot of thought, a lot of consideration of all the various stakeholders.

02:48:02,470	So I think, again, at the very least, I would really advocate for it being presented in the same way that Kate did tonight in terms of here’s what the working group, here’s what the working group was and here’s what its recommendations are. And then and then, you know, the various points that have been brought up, you know, can and will be brought up again.

02:48:17,270	But I worry if we go in with sort of a, not a really clear, um, sense of what was recommended, that you’re going to have a lot of, you know, people that’ll show up who are coming into a cold, um, and that doesn’t apply to anybody in this room, but people who, you know, may just be shooting

02:48:35,870	from the hip and giving their initial reaction to things. And that, again, to me, isn’t a very good process and could lead to, um, more, more years of inaction on the site. Yeah, it’s a fair point.

02:49:01,670	Um, however, the board, our board does need to be behind the recommendations in order for it for that to happen. Kate, how clear? How clear is this feeling to you in terms of revision? You’re good. Okay. All right. Any last? All right. Um, I want to thank everyone for coming this evening.

02:49:29,870	I think hopefully, you are aware, but I’ll stated explicitly, I think I can safely speak for the board, but the value of all of you and the organizations that you’re representing is not what’s in question. I think we all realize the value. We all support the value. Many of us have partaken in various things that existed. Iron.

02:49:49,730	It would be nice if we could continue as is in perpetuity. It’s not. Unfortunately, it’s unfortunately not feasible or viable. But the value we’re fully behind and we appreciate everything that you’ve brought to the community. We would love to accommodate everyone to the fullest degree. We’re going to do what we can. Okay.

02:50:13,070	But thank you for coming this evening and I appreciate the constructive, respectful conversation immensely. And that is what always makes me proud of when I’m all right with that, we do have to finish the rest of the meeting. We have others who have been waiting patiently, so thank you very much. Can I just do something really quickly. Really quickly? Do a point. Appointments okay.

02:50:32,230	Yeah. Should we do the appointments? Even though the chief wasn’t here? Is that fine? Should we just. Well, yeah. You can make the appointments. I think you should. All right. So firefighters usually make them without the chief. But he was here. I thought he went, okay, you can go ahead and make. Them. So.

02:50:47,170	All right, so we’re taking agenda item A briefly before we move on. Sorry, Bill. Yes. Peter is going to give us a motion on item A. The appointments. Move to a point Kevin. And pull William L Adams Taylor W Silverstein to provisional call firefighter firefighter status for a term effective September 8th, 2026, through June 30th, 2027.

02:51:17,630	Jerry seconds. All right, we’ll go to a vote. Gary. Yes, Finn. And. I. Deirdre I. P uh, yes. Ben. Yes. Thank you. Motion passes. Okay. Thank you for waiting patiently. We are to the Purple Heart community signage, and we will have Bill Wilson once again of the Veterans Committee to talk about where the signs should be placed.

02:51:42,170	Can. Because the way for the slides to pop up here. A lot of meeting. If they are they going to stay. Sorry. What was does the Iron Rail Commission want to go up. The meeting? Would you like to adjourn? Lou. Yes, I. Move that we close the meeting of the Iron Rail Commission.

02:51:57,930	All favor? Um, yes. Yes, yes, yes. Great. Thank you. Thank you all for being here as well. Thanks, Gary. Okay. Uh Purple Heart Community. Signage. Um, I’m Bill Wilson. Williams, veterans committee. Dean Peterson, chair. Williams. Veteran committee. Both Navy veterans. So we’re here to help to get you folks back on schedule.

02:52:22,330	So I got five slides, five minutes. Next slide that.. So what we’re going to talk about today is the proclamation that you’re all involved with on late July. It came to flag that we are part of the community there.

02:52:42,630	And one of the comments, one of the whereas is in there, you have to place a couple signs in town. We took action to figure out where that was. We had a committee meeting today. As a matter of fact, we have recommendations on where they should be placed. And then there’s always a path to get things done here since it’s a one, a a state road, there’s certain things you get to do.

02:52:59,600	So I’ll talk briefly about them next. So in missing some graphics there, but that was the thing that you had signed. All five had signatures there. And there was a call out there that says whereas and it stated that whereas the town desire to be publicly recognized, Purple Heart recipients through community awareness,

02:53:21,570	commemorative activities and installation of our community signs, which is where you come in at appropriate locations within the town. So that was taken at the meeting. There you can see the sign. Dean has a sign here. So it’s a pretty good sign. Representative of how we feel as veterans. We want the community to know about that.

02:53:42,830	Very nice. Next chart. I’m not Vanna White. So we talked about today extensively. As a matter of fact, um, we want them gateway placements where we want them in town on route one, a northbound Beverly, to Wenham sign, and in the southbound sign.

02:54:02,670	So two ends of the town, they’re set up there at Pingree Park there as you come down from Hamilton, there it will be right there along the wall at Pingree Park. Follow the arrow up there. You can see the town line there. Come down a little bit right around there. It’s the gateway into Pingree Park.

02:54:17,770	It’s not a lot of cluster there. It’s clear people can see it as they drive by. And that’s what we want. Then coming in from the Beverly side there, we want this a little closer, not from down here. We enter the town a little further down, where it’s less clustered.

02:54:31,830	We have the old Flint golf course, air open space, um, you. Peter, I get that right. Yes. Reverse it. Today at the meeting. They’re down near the stone on the right hand side there. So that’s the two. The discussion evolved into. This is the start. We want to do probably four more in town.

02:54:51,600	So one of the guys went out there and did a study. So we’ll be back again. But this is what we want to take of now just to just get going here. Next chart. So sequential steps things we have to do. Select board approval. You have to approve that. We’re going to do this in in recognition of what we are told to do.

02:55:09,630	And the proclamation there. It’s in the HDC but we don’t need there. Um consent. It’s written in the bylaws there for HDC that government, people or government select board can do what they want to do. They don’t need permission from HDC to do that.

02:55:28,600	But just to note, it is within the Historic District Commission on Route 1A. So your approval is all we need to go forward with it. But the next part is we have to submit a formal request to our master Department of Transportation, Highway Division, for whoever that is there, and they oversee all the the streets, all the mass

02:55:46,730	streets in the in the Essex County. They’re including one of them. So we have to submit a formal request on letterhead signed by either the chair by you or DPW saying, hey, this is what we want to do. It’s pretty well structured.

02:56:05,730	It’ll just put down the two points and once they approve it, once we get it back, then they they will install the signs. We’ll give them the signs, they’ll go out there and they’ll Of that. Next and final. Chart summary. We feel that the gateway placement is really a vital component of the public recognition. It’s kind of like a brand.

02:56:24,170	It’s a veteran community wants to put out there. This is who we are. This is how we feel. We feel strongly about it. It’s it recognizes those people that gave a little bit more than the rest of us did. The level of honor and gratitude for standing up there.

02:56:41,770	And it’s a foundational identity or a brand, if you will, that the community actively honors the high price paid for their freedom. Their veterans. So this is a part where it gets interactive with you folks here requesting you select board approval of that Commerce Gateway Purple Heart sign locations, and permission to proceed with the next steps for implementation. So do I need a motion or. That was very efficient, Bill.

02:57:04,300	Thank you. Under five minutes. Five seconds. Excellent. Yes, we do need a motion. And you want to do this one? Sure. Yes, Gary. All right, so move to allow the Purple Heart Community signs to be placed along the public ways at the entry points of the town of Wenham, as displayed in the meeting. Second.

02:57:21,770	All right, we’ll vote. Gary. Yes. Ben. Finn I Deirdre, I. Yes. Yes. You’re all right? Yes. Okay. Thank you. You’re back on the schedule again? Not really. Thank you. Bill. Look forward to seeing those signs. I like that they’ll be nice and visible. It’s a great placement. Thank you very much. All right. We. Oh, goodness.

02:57:50,600	Friends of the library. Request. Do we have someone online. Over here? Oh. Oh. She’s here. Goodness. I’m sorry you had to wait so long. Yes. Please come forward. This is just an invitation. This is a. Oh, this is great. Mary Ann Cannon from 13 Foster Street in Wenham.

02:58:13,770	And I’m here on behalf of the friends of the Wenham Library. Hamilton Windham Library, the only regional library in the Commonwealth. And your invitations? I won’t read them, but you each will get one, and it will tell you what we’re planning to do. Since last January.

02:58:33,330	We are planning to have at First Church on November 13th. Uh, a gala and a silent auction on behalf of the 25 years the Hamilton Public Library has been here, and you will see that, um, there’s more than books involved here. Many, many, many programs. So that’s really all I have to say. And I’m very grateful to Mr.

02:58:57,870	Poulos for allowing me to come tonight. The chair. Madam chair, do I pass these out? Sure. You’re welcome to. And thank you. I apologize that you had to wait so long. We’ll have that electronically. I’m sorry. What? We have that electronic. Yes. She can. Have it. Okay. I still didn’t hear you. I’m sorry.

02:59:15,630	We. He said we did. He thinks we got these electronically. But you’re welcome to pass them out. We have the donation form and the receipt for the donation. Everyone who donates 50, maybe to 100 folks will get a receipt. Uh, because. And I want you to know that because your official document.

02:59:36,370	Thank you so much. Thank you for your patience this evening. I appreciate it. And how nice to get an invitation. That’s lovely. Yes. Take care. Thank you very much. All right. I’m going to suggest, Steve, if it’s okay with you. Absolutely not. Ixnay on ethnic. Yes.

02:59:59,400	Can we, can we hold on finalizing the golden goals and objectives until the next. Meeting? I know.. Yeah, I think that. Be all right.. In the interest of that, we’re at the three hour mark already. Totally fine. All right, in that case, um, the next meeting. So we are scheduled for next week. The 16th. 17th, 17th. Oh, gosh. Yeah, yeah. But we do not have a location.

03:00:23,230	We will put together the location, I guess is TBD. We could do the museum. The Booker school is out, the library is out. Well, my concern was the. Room on. Iron Rail is the 17th. We could eliminate. I mean, we could do it here, and we can eliminate these two tables.

03:00:44,070	The board can sit there and then, you know, Joe, Michelle and myself can just join the, um, the the audience. The audience. And I would add a number. of people wanting to do. That because. The Iron Rail Commission, will it be a meeting for them again as well. Or they’re invited? I mean, they were kind of like, you know, not asking it, but they.

03:01:02,270	Yeah. Tonight. It’s up to you, the, you know, the the museum. We gotta check availability. But that has its, um, have challenges over there because none of this camera equipment is over there. So Bill has to come with this portable stuff and set it all up, and it’s just not as good as seamless.

03:01:23,270	Uh, that’s not to say we couldn’t do it. The concern is whether we would overflow if that many people were interested. I mean, we don’t really know what the turnout will be. I should think with AV, you know, that’s, uh, we’ve seen usual Select Board meetings that the online option or.

03:01:42,430	I’m going to watch it later is a better reach than expecting people to show up. Do you feel comfortable? We can accommodate everyone. I think so, I mean. so you get 30 or. 40. Visitors in here. What’s the capacity. Of the room? Right on the doorway. I don’t know what it is.

03:02:02,600	I think it’s like a hundred people or something. Yeah, 76 people like that. If you’re sitting or standing, we don’t want people standing the whole time. Yeah, well, I mean, so we’d would basically extend these rows of chairs out to probably about here. Okay. We’d sit. Back against the wall. All right.

03:02:22,170	It’s up to we can try the, we can try the museum. It’s like no escape. I mean, I think we can probably expect most of the people that were here this evening and then other interested parties. I mean, there’s no guarantee. So.

03:02:40,700	Yeah, we could move it and have an empty room, but I feel like that’s a bit safer. Opinions? Yeah, I don’t think I don’t think we’re gonna. Have a I don’t. Think we’re gonna be too. Crowded in here. Yeah, I don’t. Think so. I don’t think so. Okay. All right, fill it up with seats, Steve. Yep. We’ll do. That and maybe have a screen in the hallway just in case. Mhm.

03:03:01,830	That’s doable. Yeah. We’ll see to do with that. The monitor I. Don’t with a monitor. Here public turn around. Maybe we could just stream. I mean let me see. Just as an overflow. Yeah okay. All right. All right. With that. So we got just the schedule wise Friday.

03:03:26,030	We’ve got the nine over 11. Yes. The 17th in our next meeting. Here’s the 22nd. Correct. And just. Leaving on. Friday quarter ten. Yeah. Be there a few minutes early. Yeah. We got the two meetings in October. In November we decided to have the Select Board on the 10th and 24th. Is that correct? Because we got the elections on the third.

03:03:48,770	I believe so, yeah. Okay. And then we’ll worry about December later. We will. We didn’t hear. Unfortunately that wasn’t available. But the employee appreciation lunch did that go well? No. Great. Good. Here. We gotta have some. At one point we have about 40 people in the room. Yeah. Wow. That’s great. Yeah. Good. Well received.

03:04:14,500	And then we’re able to send food to police fire for the rest of their staff that were alternate hours. Okay. Yep. That was a big success. Everyone was appreciated. Uh, Joe, Michelle did a really good job setting everything up. So. Excellent. Thank you. And the pizza is good at that. Place.

03:04:35,270	We’re gonna be a little bit of a sleep. Pizza is pretty good. All right? Yeah. Do we? Okay, I’m gonna stop the food talk. Do we have a motion? Yeah. So I move that we adjourn. The September 8th. Um, sled. Board meeting at 904. Yes. Carrie. Seconds. All right. Ben? Yes. Peter. Yes, Deirdre.

03:05:02,630	Yes? Can I hear? Yes. Thank you. And good evening.