[0:09] roll call of members, revermainer here, Julie Baker, here, Michael Murphy, here, Jason Brioff, his abstent, and Jeffrey Walter.

[0:18] And Creen was the agenda properly posted?

[0:21] Yes, it was. Thank you. This meeting will be recorded and available on the town website.

[0:27] And I'd like to ask you to all stand and say the pledge of allegiance.

[0:33] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which stands,

[0:40] One nation on your own, any invisible liberty and justice for us.

[0:51] Thank you.

[0:52] Now I'll open the meeting up to public comment.

[0:56] We have any public comment in our audience.

[1:05] David Rawley, 79 Balanced Rock Road, chair of the Leansboro Community Development Committee.

[1:10] I just want to report real quickly on Leansboro Day.

[1:13] It was a tremendous success.

[1:14] The weather was perfect.

[1:16] We had a great turnout of both town businesses.

[1:19] organizations, town government related people, the public, we had a great turnout, the musicians,

[1:26] the kids, you know, participation opportunities under the tent, the bounce house, and everything

[1:35] was great, and I just wanted to thank everybody who came out, both as a business and organization,

[1:42] the community development community, all of our sponsors, we have a lot of people who don't

[1:47] money to support the day, the musicians,

[1:53] hopefully, oh, and all the volunteers, we never

[1:56] have enough, but we always do have some volunteers, so it was a great day, thanks for

[2:00] everyone, you came out.

[2:02] Thank you.

[2:05] Do you have anybody on Zoom?

[2:12] Can you hear me?

[2:14] Yeah, I can hear you.

[2:16] Okay,

[2:19] what I wanted to say is we continue to be in negotiations with cyber-sectories.

[2:28] We understand.

[2:30] Thank you.

[2:31] Could you identify yourself?

[2:33] Sorry, Jay.

[2:35] Oh, I'm sorry.

[2:35] Goose of Jones with James, Jay.

[2:39] Thank you.

[2:41] All right.

[2:41] Sorry, guys.

[2:42] So, we've been in talks with Cyprus and there's still a lot of issues to be ironed out.

[2:54] And there's part of this process that we feel as though we've sort of been circumvented on.

[3:02] But that's fine.

[3:03] I'm here to say tonight that, in talking with Cyprus today, we're going to continue to

[3:11] move and negotiate with them.

[3:14] We're not going to do any settlement with the town.

[3:18] We're not going to deal with any situation that puts us in a upside down situation.

[3:32] and so we have not been part of your negotiation, I've tried, we haven't really had a voice

[3:42] in this process, the chairs aware of this, vice-chairs aware of this, and that has become

[3:52] unacceptable to us.

[3:54] So moving forward, we're just going to talk directly with Cyprus, they know exactly what

[3:59] we're looking for in terms of how we'd like to see this thing resolved so we can close.

[4:08] And if that, if that doesn't happen, if that doesn't happen, then it's going to be questionable.

[4:24] It's it.

[4:25] Okay, thank you.

[4:27] Welcome.

[4:28] Do we have anybody else for a public comment?

[4:53] Okay, then I'm going to move on, we're going to do old business, update on settlement agreement with J.M.J.

[5:02] We had probably a two-hour meeting with J.M.J.

[5:07] and it was, we didn't get anywhere with it.

[5:11] It was complete waste of time in my opinion.

[5:16] Julie, did you have anything you wanted to add to that?

[5:23] I would say it's always productive to talk to our negotiating partners and I think that it wasn't very fruitful in this case, so that pretty much there's no forward progress on that settlement agreement at this point and that's about all that there is to say about it.

[5:55] All right, one more move it on to new business now.

[6:00] Approval to negotiate with Cyprus, so we'll be the town and Cyprus.

[6:07] I think what we're just looking for here is for the select board to nominate representatives that might be the two members of the select board to engage directly with any questions that Cyprus might have.

[6:22] moving forward that might relate to formal interactions with the town.

[6:31] So are you looking for two select board members?

[6:34] Yes.

[6:34] That's right.

[6:37] So I'll just jump in here and say that I have been in several meetings where Cyprus has been doing their due diligence to inspect the property

[6:50] You know, just part of their normal business to meet with other departments and so I've been sitting in on some of those and I would be willing to continue in that role.

[7:03] To take that forward with negotiations just having become familiar with what it is they're looking for and how they're going about their business.

[7:13] Um, since I've been doing this since February, um, with J.M.J. and now, with Cyprus,

[7:22] although I have not met with Cyprus as much as Julie has, um, I would like to continue,

[7:27] you know, as, um, I'm gonna go.

[7:40] We need a motion.

[7:43] We need a motion.

[7:46] I make a motion for a deputy leader to proceed with the

[7:50] I will.

[7:58] Okay, motion has been made in second.

[8:00] Is there any further discussion on this?

[8:04] Hearing none, all those in favor say I.

[8:06] All right.

[8:07] It's unanimous.

[8:15] Next on the agenda, we have acceptance of name change for Baker Hill.

[8:21] From Baker Hill Road District, too.

[8:24] The Baker Hill Economic District.

[8:25] And we have a draft letter,

[8:31] which reads, the or Senator Mark and Representative Barrett,

[8:36] the Lanes Ross Blackboard is writing to acknowledge that its acceptance of the Baker

[8:41] Hill Road District's request to file legislation to formally change its name from the Baker

[8:47] Hill Road District to the Baker Hill Business District.

[8:50] The name change addresses the 2018 amendment in special legislation to reflect the work of the

[8:58] of the Burpsure Mile.

[9:00] So I would definitely need a motion on this.

[9:03] So moved.

[9:05] Second.

[9:06] Does there any discussion on this name change?

[9:09] So I would like to just use the discussion period

[9:13] for a little bit of stepping back

[9:16] and bringing people along with this

[9:20] because those of you who don't live

[9:23] and bring that every day may not be

[9:26] as aware of where this is coming from.

[9:30] So we'll kind of go back to the history

[9:34] of the Baker Hill Road District,

[9:36] which was started in 1989 by legislation.

[9:41] And in 2018, there was a session act that updated

[9:47] the powers of the Baker Hill Road District

[9:50] to include economic development efforts.

[9:53] And so we've got copies of that here.

[9:55] I don't know if we have them out in there out there.

[9:58] Okay, so if you wanted to refer to them.

[10:00] And the economic development effort powers

[10:05] were quite extensive as they amended the original act.

[10:10] So as you're reading these, please be aware

[10:14] that the original act is still in place,

[10:17] except for where certain things are struck out

[10:20] and then they're replaced with the additional powers of the economic district.

[10:27] Now what's significant about this is I just have to kind of convey that in my journey of

[10:35] learning more about the town and really doing the research that I've done on the bigger

[10:42] Hill Road District out of the interest that I've had in what that particular entity is,

[10:50] We take a me quite a while to understand to key features of the district.

[10:57] One is that it is a special taxation district, and I know you've heard me say this before.

[11:03] It's a special taxation district that allows taxation of the commercial businesses on

[11:09] that property above and beyond the property taxes that the town already collects.

[11:15] And that's important to the town, it has been important to providing public safety services to the town for many years and that now is enhanced by the fact that in 2018 it was also it had powers added to be an economic development district.

[11:39] So, what we have found out in the course of Cyprus equities doing their due diligence in

[11:49] looking at the property and inspecting the property is that actually the fact that the

[11:58] district is an economic development district is a very significant value to that potential

[12:06] buyer and that developer. So in the interest of supporting the concept of them not being

[12:17] just, the road district, if you will, but a business district, I'm very supportive of changing

[12:24] the name or having it is actually a legislative name change, but sending a letter to our legislators

[12:31] asking for that name change to occur?

[12:36] I think we're we're we're writing to

[12:38] acknowledge that we accept it. Okay, that they've already have filed on their own

[12:44] yes, right to change it. We're just sending a letter of acceptance from the

[12:51] from the select board. So I've had a motion and a second and so now I ask

[12:57] All in favor say aye.

[12:59] Aye.

[13:00] That's unanimous.

[13:19] Okay.

[13:19] Next on the agenda, we have a point for

[13:21] Regional Planning Commission alternate.

[13:27] We're still looking for a nominee for the alternate.

[13:32] We have a current vacancy now with the change in the positions

[13:36] as appointed through the Planning Commission.

[13:39] So this is just an announcement that we would like that position

[13:44] fill from, and that can be from members either that have had experience with the planning board

[13:50] or members of the other members of the community that would like more exposure to how

[13:55] pro-traditional planning commission works, how the planning board works, and how those

[13:59] bylaws generally come into fruition. So again, calling out to the community more generally,

[14:06] I know we've got representatives here that have been working on those boards and they also

[14:10] Do engage with residents to try to see if they can identify people that might be willing to serve.

[14:19] So again, just a broad request from the community.

[14:23] No, would they send you a citizen's interest form?

[14:26] They can, yep.

[14:27] Thank you.

[14:28] So that can be either sent to me directly or to the town assistant.

[14:32] We do have citizen interest forms on the town website.

[14:35] Any questions?

[14:36] Please email town assistant at Lainsboro.

[14:48] So

[14:52] next on the agenda we have Squantle Road Issue.

[15:00] If you have anybody here from public who want to speak on that, if you want to just come up and introduce yourselves, name and address, please.

[15:11] Dave Donay from seven squadthorough.

[15:16] And just want to mention that nine years ago, we actually signed all of the residents of squadthorough signed over there half ownership of the road.

[15:28] I don't know, if you knew, back then we all

[15:30] properly owners all owned to the middle of the road.

[15:34] And the time was looking to get ownership,

[15:36] so they could get some grant money, maintain it,

[15:41] plow it, like they had been doing,

[15:44] but they just wanted ownership for grant money.

[15:46] So we weren't made any promises back then,

[15:51] but we asked if they could pay the rest of Squantorot.

[15:55] It's about half a, and the other half goes kind of downhill and washes out.

[16:00] We have some pictures of that.

[16:03] But so that was done.

[16:06] There was a number of other streets.

[16:08] I don't know how much grant money was gotten at the time.

[16:11] Of course, it's probably not around anymore.

[16:14] But what we're asking is, the first 170 feet were, there was construct, they tore it up

[16:24] to put in a sewer line, a water line, and a hydrogen for a new house that was being built.

[16:31] And they said they're going to repave it, but they wanted to wait until all the construction was done.

[16:35] So it's been a couple of years now, and the construction is all done up there for the new house.

[16:42] But we were just wondering if at this time it might be a wise time to pave the rest of it as they are repaving that.

[16:50] the first hundred and seventy feet, then there's about about two hundred feet that's not

[16:55] paved.

[16:57] I think the water department was saying they're going to repave the part they had to

[17:03] tear up for doing the sewer, water, and hydrogen, just waiting till construction was

[17:11] done, which it is.

[17:13] And that was, I think part of the payment, I'm not sure, but it was a water department's

[17:18] If he said Kevin said that was going to pay for it, I think it was almost 40,000 to put that sewer in.

[17:27] And just hoping that the highway department could see the way to do the rest of Squanto Road because it does get washed out.

[17:37] So the picture that I'm looking at on the screen, where is that the house or I mean is that the part of the road that goes down to the new house?

[17:44] Or is that the road part that goes down to nearer cans that have no?

[17:48] Actually, it's squatting a dead-ends at HOMO Mac, it's paper-street, so it doesn't go through

[17:55] when it's a HOMO Mac, that part of HOMO Mac is a paper-street.

[17:59] This is coming down to an ending at HOMO Mac, HOMO Mac, HOMO Mac, HOMO Mac, so if you were to

[18:07] go up and down, you'd go down there against it.

[18:10] So this is you leave near against it, you come up, now you're going down there, and that's

[18:14] what we're looking at when we're going down there now.

[18:16] And you're looking to ask the highway department to finish paving the road?

[18:24] Yeah.

[18:25] Because the water department was just responsible for the part coming up that they tore up.

[18:32] Just saying if that can be done, I'll just mention one other issue.

[18:39] And they're not here, they're out of town, people that...

[18:44] So, the new house, one of those pictures though, no, it was another one.

[18:51] Well, that's, okay, they're affected by that.

[18:55] So, the new house is, if you can see sort of a blue house through there behind that, so that's

[19:01] the new house.

[19:02] Right over here by this yellow shed, they're, their pipes froze last year and they had to

[19:10] run a hose from the new people's house to have water all winter.

[19:14] And there was discussion that maybe the pipes weren't low enough, we were just thinking

[19:19] this would be the time to correct it before the winter hits again, and especially if they're

[19:24] going to do any paving, now's the time because they'd have to tear up part of the paved road

[19:32] beyond what the water department's going to repave.

[19:35] There's a little section.

[19:37] So, frozen pipes up, is Kevin? Kevin's here for the water department.

[19:43] Oh, okay.

[19:54] Mark Seager's on the attorney for the police were really firing water district.

[19:58] First, the water district did not do this work.

[20:01] The homeowner did.

[20:04] The water district didn't have anything to do with this construction.

[20:06] They came in, applied for a connection.

[20:09] We're told what they had to do, including install a fire hydrant.

[20:12] And they got a row of an opening permit from the town, and I believe the majority of the work on the road was related to the sewer connection.

[20:23] There was already a water line that ran up squanto with its service, the bowling property that the house is built on, his mother's former property in a line was separated because it was illegal under the state regulations.

[20:38] So they needed to install a new connection, but the water district didn't have anything to do with the construction.

[20:46] Typically, if the water district does do any work in the road, it has a provision in this budget to resurface as much of the travel lane as possible.

[20:55] But because this was one connection being done by conjuring as part of the sewer connection, the water district.

[21:02] And I believe Kevin told me thought they might be able to do it, but the rate pairs at the

[21:07] last annual meeting froze our rates.

[21:10] So we don't have any discretionary funds to address the issue like this.

[21:15] Typically we probably would, but this year we can't, because of people voted against the

[21:21] rating increase.

[21:21] Are you talking about the frozen pipes?

[21:23] No, the frozen pipes have actually been around for a long time, when I was first hired

[21:27] by the water district, they were frozen in 2013.

[21:31] And water just spent, water just spent over $100,000,

[21:34] unfreezing the pipes.

[21:37] The reason they're so shallow, it's all ledge.

[21:40] And there's no plan to go back in and lower them.

[21:45] I don't know, because quite frankly,

[21:48] we would probably cost half a million dollars to do the houses

[21:51] on that street because of the ledge.

[21:54] And that presented a problem back in 2013 when they thought them all out.

[21:58] So, if the water district didn't do any other work, then the water district doesn't really have any responsibility here.

[22:06] But when they called Kevin Kevin said, well, if we had to money, we'd probably be surfaced the road.

[22:11] Oh, Kevin, it works for the water.

[22:12] Kevin is a superintendent for the water district.

[22:16] And typically, what the water district does is we don't replace the water main unless we've been told by the town that the town is repaving the road anyway.

[22:25] because historically there's always been problems with a trench going down the road.

[22:30] And then it settles differently. And then it gets repaved. And so generally, you know, if you are familiar with Al-Savir,

[22:38] long view or even summer street when we ran the line down to Berkshire Village, we repaved half the

[22:46] road rather than just the ditch because it was a bad winter. And we had extra money and it's part of

[22:52] our grant that we were able to get authorization from USDA to do that. But we don't have the funds

[22:57] is here unfortunately, and I would just say that the town can always ask, if Nate decides

[23:05] he wants to resurface Quanto, he can always ask the water district if it has any ability

[23:10] to assist the town do that because maybe at some point in time they will want to lower

[23:16] the water main, but right now it's just prohibitively expensive.

[23:20] So the question I have for you then is the water line that goes down to the house that I was

[23:26] It does it freeze from the road to their house because the pipe that goes down the road itself is not low enough or is it their line from the connection to the house is not low enough?

[23:40] I don't remember call what house it is, but one of the problems they had back in 2013 is not everybody has copper pipes

[23:46] and you can't file a pipe with a welder if it's not a copper pipe.

[23:51] So I don't know the answer to that question. We could find out and I could let you know, but I don't know the answer to that question.

[23:58] Because usually, if it's, if it's the water main itself, then the time would be, or the water would be responsible,

[24:06] but if it's from the connection to the house, the homeowner's response.

[24:10] Well, that is the policy of the district is if it freezes between the corporation,

[24:17] and get your property line in the water main,

[24:20] then it's on the water district to dig up the road

[24:23] to see if it can fall out.

[24:24] And we actually had a situation down on,

[24:28] not whole Bermak, but the last street,

[24:32] we had an issue with that, this winter,

[24:35] and nobody wanted to dig the road up in the middle of February.

[24:38] So we think it got thought out down to the corporation,

[24:42] but it would just been a mess of anybody dug it up.

[24:45] All right. Thank you. Are you prepared to answer any of this tonight, or do you need a

[24:53] Okay. Thank you, madam. Thank you, Mark. You can wait a minute. If you have any more questions.

[25:06] And Dave, I don't know what DBW director,

[25:11] um, the, the paving, that the unpar, the unpaved part

[25:16] is a section that we are going to pay.

[25:20] It is a plan, um, I'm actually, I have a meeting over with conservation now, um, but yeah,

[25:29] they're over there sitting over there, um, and they just want to list of everything, you know,

[25:34] that I'm going to be paving and stuff, so in that is, you know, it is on the list of things

[25:40] for me to do, resurfacing any of the initial beginning is not, that's not on my radar right

[25:49] now whatsoever. Like I said, that would probably have to be something to talk. Like you said,

[25:56] maybe with Kevin to see if, you know, to help out possibly with, you know, any kind of funding

[26:03] of any sort with the cost of laptop and everything that needs to be done on that.

[26:10] But that's not just something that I have, like the money right now to do it, and it's

[26:17] to resurface that as, because we just, we actually resurface it five years ago, I believe

[26:23] what?

[26:25] And then they did, they came in, did the construction afterwards, you know, put patches

[26:30] and, you know, does not look anything like it did before?

[26:35] Wouldn't it contract to be responsible for now?

[26:38] They are.

[26:43] To get them to, I don't know, I guess, really make it look like it did when they, you know,

[26:50] before they started is not the easiest process.

[26:53] So Cosmetically it might not look good, but functionally.

[26:57] functionally it's fine like it's you know the laptops there is just

[27:00] cosmetically it does not look the way it did when they started okay I

[27:05] definitely know that but like yeah the the back-off that is unpaid will be

[27:11] paid this year okay um did you have any more questions in me um no does it

[27:18] bored you have any questions cuz there are chances something is going to be done

[27:23] that water line is that water line in the road like should we make sure that

[27:27] is taken care of before it gets paved so it doesn't have to be ripped up. He

[27:34] had had the answer to that one. Does it make sense to pave it and then rip it up

[27:38] by a year to find the water line? We're not in the city but it's been like that.

[27:45] And as I said, the right pairs reject the rating creases here. We just got almost a

[27:52] million dollar transfer of money to finish our new wealth from the federal government and

[27:56] I don't think we're going to be getting any more loans from them right away.

[28:02] It's a difficult situation because there are other properties over off of Narraganset that

[28:07] have an issue with being frozen up, but the water district can't just keep spending

[28:12] $400,000 to fix a water problem for one house or two houses.

[28:16] And that really is what it boils down to.

[28:18] It's not a high priority list.

[28:21] We go on, we help people when they get frozen up.

[28:23] If we can, but to spend that kind of money,

[28:26] just to fix one house problem is not being responsible

[28:29] in the water district and it's on for your situation,

[28:33] but we're trying to deal with it the best we can.

[28:37] And there's a future, we do have an asset management plan

[28:43] that identifies a pressure equalization plan

[28:47] for the entire near-against area all the way up the whole map where we would loop everything

[28:52] so everybody has the same amount of water pressure and if there's a fire and a hydrogen

[28:56] gets turned on we don't cause a problem over on balance rock or someplace else but in

[29:02] terms of addressing this one house that frees us up that's and I don't know where it happens

[29:08] if it's if it's a district in the district we'd go out and lower the corporation it wouldn't

[29:12] got the whole street and change everything.

[29:16] And in 2013, I think we had sustained below zero temperatures for over three weeks.

[29:23] And there's really not much you can do to keep the frost out unless you just keep digging

[29:27] deeper and deeper.

[29:28] You know, and the way things are going, who knows how deep it's enough anymore.

[29:33] So, you know, we're cognizant of the issue, you know, we'll address what we can when the problem

[29:39] comes up but you know we're trying to get a reliable water supply right now and once that's

[29:46] in place then we can go back and focus on following up with this plan but I think this whole

[29:54] situation

[29:57] brings up another unspoken.

[30:01] Issue. And that is the private sewer line. And they're digging the road up all the time. And they dug it up. And there's really nothing, you know, the water was incidental to the sewer. You know, a one inch water line is not the same thing is, you know, you can put into the trenching machine is not the same thing as a six inch or four inch sewer line at the proper grade. And I don't know, you know, I don't want to go into the history of how it was ever allowed to begin with, because I didn't think it was a good idea then.

[30:30] But, you know, the road opening permit isn't enough to get people to go in and do the work.

[30:37] And as Narraganski gets built out, we have more and more people, for example, Mr. Graves ran the sewer line up to his two houses.

[30:45] You know, but we redid all of Iroquois when we put the water main up the home of Max.

[30:49] So it covered up any potential issues related to that private sewer line being there.

[30:54] but as you go further out on there against it

[30:57] and if people start paying to have it go up the hill

[31:01] and put in drop catch basins and stuff,

[31:04] you're gonna have a nightmare.

[31:05] Unless there's some other kind of regulations

[31:07] and place on design and reclamation

[31:11] after a project's over with.

[31:14] So I just want to bring that up

[31:15] because a lot of times the water and sewer goes

[31:18] in the same time and the water's not the problem

[31:20] unless it's a main and if there's a main,

[31:22] the Water District generally resurfaces the entirety of the roadway, because we add the existing

[31:30] connections back onto the water mains, so we necessarily have to go to the edge of the road wherever

[31:35] the water means. So, but I think this might be an opportunity to address the whole

[31:41] private sewer line and some of the standards you might want to look at. Imposing is that construction

[31:46] get built up.

[31:52] When you say that it's on your plan to resurface that rotor,

[31:59] David, do you have a timeframe?

[32:04] This year?

[32:06] This is definitely a year.

[32:08] Yeah, definitely.

[32:08] This year.

[32:09] But most likely not before winter?

[32:11] Not all.

[32:12] I'm not.

[32:13] I'm not.

[32:14] I'm not.

[32:15] I'm not.

[32:17] I'm not.

[32:18] I'm not.

[32:19] I'm not a DPW, do I'm kind of like you said literally people are sitting all their waiting for me

[32:25] Okay, they're so I can keep talking about my fading plans and as soon as I get a lot of the go ahead

[32:31] I don't know a lot of this

[32:37] Yeah

[32:39] All right, let

[32:42] me see where was I now

[32:45] All right, so we've got this Guantarota shoot all straightened out now

[32:49] right

[32:50] Except for the frozen pipe situation, but that's complicated, obviously.

[32:55] I mean, I say it's too bad Kevin wasn't here.

[32:58] And Ken supplied the water to the house that was frozen by a hose all went along.

[33:05] There was someone there with a welder, whatever running from the towns shut off down to his house.

[33:15] Over night Kevin was there Kevin didn't Kevin pay for it. I think Kevin actually

[33:20] I think the water department paid for this guy to try to throw out from the shut-off down to the house

[33:26] And he figured out that that's not where it was frozen. Oh, where was the present under the road from from the from the main in the water

[33:34] Mean itself

[33:35] Coming over from the main the main runs up one side of the road

[33:39] Then it goes under the road to the shut-off for this person's house

[33:43] So it's under the road.

[33:45] That's why we're thinking, if you're going to pay the road,

[33:48] that'll be the time to investigate from the main,

[33:53] underneath the square of the road to the homeowner's shut-off.

[33:55] I think that's the time.

[33:56] So there would be the bother district's responsibility, right?

[34:00] Yeah.

[34:01] None of

[34:04] the road.

[34:04] With the corporation be way over on one side of the road,

[34:07] and then it goes under, are you with Kevin?

[34:10] Yeah, I can do that.

[34:10] And to be surprising, people back there are

[34:13] to their basement and all over the place.

[34:15] that was a recent construction job, so that was the

[34:21] complication, like who's responsible from the main

[34:25] under to the person's shut off, the homeowner thought it was

[34:29] the town was hoping they would dig it up and lower it down

[34:31] or insulated, but it's not my dog in the fight, it's not my

[34:35] house and he's not here, so I don't know what more.

[34:38] So maybe if I might suggest to him that he be in touch

[34:42] directly with Kevin at the water department, so they can

[34:44] side, and since Kevin worked on, he should know where it froze, who's responsibility is it?

[34:51] And then Kevin can talk with me at DBW.

[34:54] And there actually is a second house, the froze, too.

[34:57] It's a little further down the main.

[35:01] On.

[35:02] On.

[35:04] There's just down a little further.

[35:05] He's down back, down a long driveway, and he froze.

[35:10] So he froze from his connection to his house.

[35:15] That's the complication, they're wondering if it was...

[35:19] The water is not sharp.

[35:20] They're just nice.

[35:21] All right.

[35:22] And quite frankly, some people up there run,

[35:25] sorry to say if they run their water, I went along.

[35:28] Because they froze up like this.

[35:30] Right.

[35:30] I was dead.

[35:32] All right.

[35:32] So we'll be back on a little bit.

[35:35] Yeah.

[35:35] All right.

[35:36] Good. Thank you.

[35:37] Yes.

[35:37] All right,

[35:46] next on the agenda is appointment.

[35:48] Deb, I'm sorry to interrupt.

[35:50] But we did get a letter from conservation.

[35:53] Oh, okay.

[35:54] Perhaps we should read into the record.

[35:56] It's time to read it, Mike.

[35:58] Sure.

[35:58] Okay, sure.

[35:59] This is from the Lanesboro Conservation Commission,

[36:04] sent on Tuesday, September 8th, 2026,

[36:08] sent to you, Deb, to Gina and to Karine.

[36:11] The subject is the Squanto Road Select Board agenda item.

[36:19] I saw that Squanto Road is,

[36:25] I can take it.

[36:28] I have my guesses who did that, too.

[36:30] No.

[36:31] I saw that Squanto Road is on the agenda for the Select Board meeting tonight.

[36:37] The Conservation Commission was contacted by DEP last week.

[36:42] That two calls regarding turbid water in the lake and the reporters with the S.N.

[36:49] parentheses, meaning maybe one, maybe more.

[36:53] The reporters believe the issue was on Squanto and Rowan Oak Street.

[36:58] We received the information on the afternoon of 911.

[37:03] DEP did a site visit to Squanto Road and Rowan Oak Street on 9126 and did not find any violations.

[37:13] Joe Tribus also did a visit to the area on 9226 and found no violations.

[37:20] The work on Rowan Oak Street is well outside the buffer zone and does not appear to have any direct connection to the lake.

[37:28] The property at

[37:30] Eight squanto road had a permit issued by conservation. Erosion controls are in place between the edge of work and the lake. I followed up with the owners to make sure make them aware of the concern.

[37:46] Joe also spoke to a boulder who reported that much of the lake is murky slash brownish, which is likely related to the, forgive me,

[38:00] Sinobacteria outbreak.

[38:02] DEP did not share any contact information for whom may have called, and the commission did not receive any reports of concerns,

[38:11] So we are not able to follow up with the caller to get additional information or provide any follow-up.

[38:19] Please let me know if there's anything else that we should be aware of or if there is any additional information available.

[38:28] Thanks, Stacy.

[38:33] I may.

[38:34] Yes, so I think there was perhaps, I think they're dealing with this conservation meeting, so that's right.

[38:43] So there were two different issues, and there wasn't, there was perhaps some misunderstanding,

[38:50] not misunderstanding, but there wasn't sure if the issue that they've been dealing with

[38:54] on the conservation side was related to the issue that was being posted tonight.

[38:58] So that's fine.

[38:59] I just want to make sure we got that letter into the right thing.

[39:05] Thank you.

[39:05] You welcome.

[39:08] All right.

[39:09] So next, we have appointment of selection committee for the Founded Administrator

[39:12] position.

[39:17] I'd like to have two people on the select board.

[39:20] be part of this selection committee. I myself as chair and Julia's vice chair. I think

[39:28] would be a good representative of the Slack board, but I am open to suggestions.

[39:40] Okay. Would you like to make a motion then? I think we probably should do that.

[39:46] I'll make a motion to a point, Deb and Julie, as representatives from the Slack board on the

[39:57] Okay, so motions have been made in second and any further discussion.

[40:03] Okay.

[40:03] All those in favor say aye.

[40:04] Aye.

[40:05] That's unanimous.

[40:11] Okay.

[40:12] So just for some more broad direction in terms of a selection or a screening committee.

[40:21] So in terms of process just because I appreciate this for this like board for disability

[40:27] of the community, the role of a selection or screening committee is to receive and review resumes.

[40:35] To conduct interviews of selected candidates using established questions,

[40:40] to compare the experience qualifications and interview of candidates to identify a certain

[40:46] number of finalists that will get for reference and background checks and ultimately to complete

[40:52] the reference and background checks and take a vote to present an unranked list of chosen candidates

[40:57] that will go to the select board. Usually no more than, sorry, no less than two and no more

[41:03] than four. So effectively the selection or screening committee forms as a temporary committee,

[41:10] the agenda is need to be posted and they offer the select board who is the appointing authority,

[41:17] the final list of candidates for a final interview for the Town Administrator position.

[41:24] So for this position for Lane Sparrow, essentially the next steps side from having now

[41:30] that we have a five-member board, as the chair mentioned, we can have two members of the board

[41:35] on a selection or screening committee.

[41:39] This question is about the number of members from the community or staff that would be on this committee.

[41:48] I do have a number of people that have been either submitted interest forms or have been nominated by board members,

[41:57] and that can be open up for discussion, so not sure if you want to discuss first, size of concern.

[42:05] So, Gina, assuming that you would be also on it?

[42:09] That would be for the board's decision.

[42:10] Yes. Okay. So, that's that's three.

[42:13] That would be three. Yep.

[42:14] So, then we need to decide.

[42:16] To decide.

[42:17] So, look at various by community.

[42:22] I would say, probably a total, a total size of seven or eight for the committee would be a reasonable side.

[42:29] Now that full number doesn't need to be the number that goes into the interviews, the pre-interviews for the select board, there can be a small number that goes into the final interviews.

[42:43] So that doesn't have to be determined here.

[42:45] I would suggest that the total number of remaining people be decided as the full committee tonight.

[42:53] And then once that body meets, they can decide who wants to go to be in person interviews and what, what?

[43:03] Number actually just want to go and go through the resume themselves, which have to remain confidential throughout the entire process.

[43:12] So Gina has made a list for us to look at and to vote.

[43:17] And if we decide, well, let's first decide is eight does eight people for a selection committee sound good to you or would you want more or less so it would be if that's eight then it would be the three of us and plus five other folks and and I received I have about seven people that have that of names that have been presented and we're going to ask also if they're in the same way.

[43:47] additional people tonight, that would be interested in getting on that list.

[43:51] That's right.

[43:52] Or Michael or Jeff, if you have any suggestions of people to put on the list,

[43:58] No, at this point, although I'll give it some thought as we discuss it,

[44:02] I have two quick questions.

[44:04] One before I forget, should we make a motion to a point Jean

[44:07] into this group?

[44:09] Does that call for a motion?

[44:09] That'll be part of this.

[44:11] You can do that.

[44:12] As long as that sounds definite.

[44:15] Yes.

[44:15] If we do one vote with all of them then, after you can include me either as part of the larger group.

[44:23] Excuse me, like Gina should be a separate.

[44:26] Just my opinion.

[44:27] I don't think there's any.

[44:28] Go ahead and do that.

[44:29] I'd like to make a motion to a point.

[44:31] Gina to the selection committee for the Town Administrator position.

[44:39] Okay, motions made in second into a point.

[44:41] Gina to this town selection committee.

[44:44] All those in favor say aye.

[44:45] Aye.

[44:46] Aye.

[44:46] That's unanimous.

[44:48] My second question is, without obviously giving out names or anything, can you say how

[44:53] many are town employees and how many are from the community so far?

[44:58] I'm sure, so I...

[45:00] I have at the moment two

[45:07] town employees and five members of the community.

[45:11] Not counting you, right? Not including me, yes.

[45:16] Two town and how many from the community?

[45:20] Five.

[45:23] My personal opinion is eight is a lot.

[45:27] I could live with eight, I guess, but I think it's a lot.

[45:31] I do have more words to say about it, but I don't only want, but I think, you know, from my experience

[45:39] doing this in previous opportunities, it's a little bit easier this smaller, the group.

[45:49] You know, I don't want to rule out members of the community.

[45:52] I don't want to rule out members of town staff who are interested.

[45:57] So I think one doesn't sound like much, but

[46:00] I do the motion and so that we can make that official.

[46:04] Sure.

[46:04] I'll make a motion that the committee be a total of seven people.

[46:11] Okay.

[46:12] I second.

[46:14] All right.

[46:18] All those in favor of a seven member selection committee say aye.

[46:23] Aye.

[46:23] That was unanimous.

[46:29] All right.

[46:29] And so before Gina passes out the little voting sheets,

[46:33] I think what we'll do is we'll just vote on them ourselves.

[46:36] We'll give it to Gina, she'll tabulate, and then she'll come back and tell us what the results were,

[46:42] and then we can make a motion to nominate and vote on, putting those people in the suction committee,

[46:49] so that we can not begin our meetings.

[46:53] So again, go ahead, I'm sorry, you can go ahead.

[46:55] So before we do that, just back to anybody else want to express interest or do those have any other people,

[47:03] any of us who should be on that list before we vote.

[47:06] Well, should I say who's on the floor list so so far? So we've got Lyndon Moore's

[47:13] Tom Vosin, Barb Hassan, Ruth Knish, Gwen Miller, Robert Dirkson, and Darlene Healy.

[47:23] Okay, and that sounded like three. Well, that's staff, I guess. I guess Lyndon's another staff.

[47:30] No, so my mind. And would it be beneficial at this point to indicate about how many

[47:37] resumes or applications you have. So that this committee we have an idea of what the

[47:42] workload is. It's in approximation. I'd say about

[47:46] screen about 45. Yeah I would

[47:58] grace. So if we've got three people appointed and it's

[48:04] seven. You'd take four or four from this level. I just want to be here on the

[48:09] Did you have anybody who wanted to add to the list?

[48:13] No, at this point.

[48:14] Anybody else from the audience?

[48:16] Want to add to the list?

[48:18] If it's an unwilling.

[48:20] But I don't need to do it.

[48:22] If you guys like me, better than people in the list.

[48:25] I'm happy to invite.

[48:27] All right.

[48:27] So we'll add your name to the list.

[48:28] You need to vote.

[48:29] You need to vote.

[48:30] Just vote.

[48:35] Yes, it does.

[48:36] Then just fold it and send it down.

[48:38] So basically you're going to circle four.

[49:37] Okay,

[49:40] next down the agenda we have approved minutes from the select board meetings of August 10th and August 24th and he changes on the 10th

[49:54] and he changes on the 24th.

[50:05] Okay,

[50:07] seeing nothing in here and none, I take a motion.

[50:10] I'll make a motion that we approve the meeting minutes for August 10th and August 24th,

[50:15] 2026.

[50:16] Now, second,

[50:21] motion has been made in second, is there any discussion on that?

[50:25] Hearing none, all those in favour say aye?

[50:27] Aye.

[50:27] That's unanimous.

[50:35] Next on the agenda, we have a approval council payable warrant, 2708, effective 826 in the

[50:41] of $866,389 in 44 cents.

[50:47] Accounts payable weren't $2,709, effective $827,26 in the amount of $47,463 in 10 cents.

[50:57] We have an Accounts payable deduction weren't $2,709, effective $827,26 in the amount of $30,896 in

[51:06] and payroll warrant 2704 effective 82726 in the amount of 111,589 dollars and 14 cents.

[51:20] Oh, make a motion that we approve those as presented.

[51:26] Motion's been made in seconded any discussion on these.

[51:30] All those in favor say aye.

[51:31] Aye.

[51:32] That's unanimous.

[51:38] Board to record decisions of previous executive session reviewed for public use.

[51:44] The day of the original meeting was May 28, 2024, we reviewed August 10th, 2026, and we have decided to keep that as a draft.

[51:57] We reviewed the minutes of May 13th, 2026, or we reviewed the original meeting was May 13th, 2026, we reviewed at 8 August 10th, 2026,

[52:11] And we are not going to release those minutes.

[52:16] The date of the original meeting was May 26, 26,

[52:20] and we reviewed August 10, 20, 26,

[52:23] and we are not going to release those minutes.

[52:27] The original meeting was July 2, 20, 26.

[52:30] So we reviewed at August 10th, 2026. We will not be releasing those minutes. The day to the original meeting was June 22nd, 2026. We reviewed at August 10th, 2026, and we will not be releasing those minutes.

[52:50] The select board comments. Our next meeting will be on September 21st already.

[52:58] Time goes by too fast.

[53:03] Hope and Gina would get done before I finished reading.

[53:21] Is that on a Monday?

[53:22] Is that on a Monday?

[53:23] Is that on a Monday?

[53:32] Yeah.

[53:32] So let's see.

[53:33] Oh, that's the 12th.

[53:37] Who used it?

[53:37] So we usually meet on, I wonder if Ryan could do the 13th and the 26th.

[53:44] Because what?

[53:45] Finance committee meets and planning.

[53:49] Good to hold.

[53:50] There's the fifth.

[53:52] Okay.

[53:53] Our office.

[53:58] Who?

[54:01] Ryan, can you hear us?

[54:04] I can.

[54:05] When is your vacation?

[54:07] Is it going to interrupt one of those?

[54:09] Well, they will.

[54:10] But it's fine.

[54:10] I have other people that can cover.

[54:12] I just need to know the dates.

[54:13] I can book someone.

[54:14] OK.

[54:15] Do you want to do the 13th and the 26th?

[54:18] Just Tuesday and the last Monday?

[54:23] I won't be here on the 26th.

[54:25] Just FYI.

[54:27] But those dates otherwise sound fine to me.

[54:30] Mike, Jeff.

[54:32] Yeah.

[54:32] work for me. Okay, so we'll do October 13th and October 26th and Ryan if you could get

[54:38] somebody for the 13th. Thank you. All right, thank you.

[54:47] Okay, and Gene

[54:51] and you tell us

[54:51] the results. The results of the votes for the four members are Lyndon Moore's

[55:00] Ruth Kenish, Gwen Miller, and Robert Druxin.

[55:04] Lyndon, Ruth, Gwen, Gwen Miller, and Robert Druxin.

[55:11] Everyone got a vote at least

[55:17] one.

[55:17] OK, so the selection committee that we

[55:22] we just picked from public was Lyndon Moore's,

[55:25] Ruth Kenish, Gwen Miller, Robert Durks,

[55:27] and Al need a motion for that to be up to the selection.

[55:30] I'll make a motion that we appoint those four highest vote

[55:36] Getters to the Town Administrator Selection Committee.

[55:42] So if I can ask them all to come see me as soon as possible, we do have an initial meeting tomorrow for everyone that can attend at 10 o'clock in the morning.

[55:51] That is meetings have to be posted. I posted an advance given the time period that we're on.

[55:57] I will have packets of candidate packs ready to go and will base our subsequent meetings on the availability of the committee and schedule will be forthcoming from there.

[56:11] Okay, so we've got the motion to have a second.

[56:19] Okay, all those in favor say aye.

[56:20] Aye.

[56:21] That's unanimous.

[56:23] Could I ask a related question about the possibility of a non-voting recording secretary?

[56:30] is someone who was interested?

[56:33] So I'm going to be recording secretary.

[56:36] Because?

[56:38] Because of the confidential nature,

[56:41] and I'm going to be sitting there anyway,

[56:43] so I figured I might as well just go ahead

[56:44] and be the secretary.

[56:48] So even though all the resumes have gone

[56:50] through Korean Sands, for example.

[56:54] Well, I just figured that's one less thing

[56:55] that Korean has to do with another schedule.

[56:57] Well, Korean just expressed an interest in it.

[56:59] I would really like to be part of this as I have to work very closely with this person just to observe.

[57:07] I have expressed that to Jean Anne truly.

[57:12] So I'd like to suggest an alternative method for that.

[57:18] As seven I as board members would be on the selection committee.

[57:23] I would be interested in meeting with each one of the staff in town hall to understand any.

[57:31] You know, any wish list, if you will, considerations and then, you know, I could share those with

[57:39] DaV or she and I could split that up and meet with half the staff each, one of us individually

[57:46] to collect any ideas and input on kind of what their preferences are and bring that to the table

[57:57] in my role on the selection committee.

[58:00] And any concerns that they may have, now the staff of town hall has not seen these.

[58:13] So we have they?

[58:15] So we would be basically,

[58:21] how would we do that?

[58:24] Because...

[58:24] No, it's just in general.

[58:26] In general.

[58:27] In general.

[58:28] In general.

[58:28] I mean, they don't review all of the applicants.

[58:32] We get their ideas about what qualities and what parameters they would like to have considered.

[58:39] That makes a lot of sense.

[58:41] I think staff deserve an opportunity to offer input.

[58:44] And in a way, at the A to S.

[58:45] And the A to S.

[58:46] That's right.

[58:47] Absolutely right.

[58:48] Absolutely right.

[58:49] So I agree with that, although I still think,

[58:51] Korean, if she's interested, would be a great recording secretary, non-boding.

[58:55] The

[59:00] patient, sir.

[59:06] Our past in 616 North Main Street, ladies and gentlemen.

[59:09] In the past two times when we had these ad hoc committees for this kind of a process,

[59:14] typically what happened was the committee would be they amongst themselves would choose the chair,

[59:21] and they would ask for the person who wanted to be the recording secretary.

[59:25] So it isn't, I appreciate the fact that you've self-nominated as the chair,

[59:31] but I think in fairness to the rest of the group that

[59:34] you might have a better sense of comfort, you know, knowing everybody had to say in the matter,

[59:40] and and also had their part in saying why they wanted to be in that particular position.

[59:45] So I think you jumped the gun just a little bit tonight and you might want to have that

[59:50] open discussion because maybe somebody on that committee has been in that position before or has

[59:55] experience to do that, and then the recording part.

[1:00:00] No disrespect to our town secretary because she's administrative assistant, does a fantastic job, but

[1:00:07] it's also one of those situations that has a lot of confidentiality to it. And amongst

[1:00:14] the parties there, you know, you should have somebody qualified enough to take minutes to

[1:00:21] the meetings. It's not like there's a lot of minutes because most of it is just your reading

[1:00:26] resumes. You have a bunch of criteria. Two times ago, when we were hiring Paul Seeloff,

[1:00:34] there was actually a gentleman that ran the meeting, and he had the collection of questions

[1:00:39] that were the criteria to separate the pile. Okay. If you want, I can give you that, so you

[1:00:46] can use it as a guideline, because it was invaluable, because what I heard you mentioned 45 resumes,

[1:00:52] It will take, even if you took the top three criteria and went through the list, it cuts that pile down significantly, and you don't want to be going over.

[1:01:05] Everybody can look at them at the same time and say, this one meets those three criteria, put it in that pile.

[1:01:10] And it just makes the process less, less strength.

[1:01:14] Right.

[1:01:15] Thank you.

[1:01:15] Yeah, if you can get that to gene.

[1:01:17] I'll get that great.

[1:01:18] Thank you.

[1:01:19] Is that acceptable?

[1:01:21] Sure.

[1:01:21] work for me. All right. Let's see. We had the vote. It was unanimous and I think that was it.

[1:01:29] Do you want to do the executive session? Motion.

[1:01:37] I moved at the select board going to

[1:01:38] execute a session for the purpose of discussing one

[1:01:49] simple thing. Perhaps the motion to

[1:01:52] to review and sign the executive session meetings for me 10 26 not to convene an open session.

[1:02:06] Okay.

[1:02:06] Moses, the main question.

[1:02:08] I will second that.

[1:02:10] May the second and all those in favor say aye.

[1:02:12] Will the polvo aye.

[1:02:13] Deborah Maynard.

[1:02:15] Julie.

[1:02:16] Aye.

[1:02:16] Julie Baker.

[1:02:17] I Michael Murphy.

[1:02:18] Aye.

[1:02:18] Jeffrey Walter.

[1:02:19] Thank you.

Select Board-9-8-26

Transcript