[0:01] I mean, this will be looked at by the board, obviously.

[0:05] So right Where I was going was, those are already,

[0:08] yeah, this sheet's already baked in.

[0:10] We just need to finally

[0:11] Make a decision.

[0:12] Decision. It just say yes. Just say yes or no,

[0:14] or maybe, or whatever.

[0:16] Okay.

[0:21] Yeah. Alright, cool. I, I'm all set.

[0:24] Does anyone else have any other

[0:25] Questions?

[0:26] Nope. No, I'm good. No, I'm good.

[0:28] Thank you, chief. That's it.

[0:29] Thank you, chief. Yeah, chief, good to see you.

[0:32] Do you want to stay? No, no. I did not. We

[0:34] Still got more.

[0:35] We got plenty of things. If you

[0:35] wanna sit back there and watch.

[0:37] No. Well, I, I, I wanted to budget for re

[0:42] for re reclassifications specifically

[0:45] the recreation director.

[0:47] Just a little bit of an update on that

[0:49] because we, there's been questions from fin com about,

[0:52] about funding the, the, the finance director

[0:55] and also the, the Munis improvements

[0:59] Dispatcher Discuss that's in here.

[1:02] And I,

[1:03] I think, okay.

[1:05] Next. All set? Yep. Yes.

[1:09] Seeing your chief, the finale

[1:12] have dinner. Can I,

[1:16] No, you have to stay a couple hours.

[1:18] See you, chief. You still

[1:19] Got a good night, chief?

[1:23] Oh, boy. Where are we at now?

[1:29] Well, if you wanted to just, you know,

[1:32] touch on the recreation director, then you guys can,

[1:35] can vote on the reclassification

[1:37] requests and the new positions.

[1:40] There's also a, a reclassification

[1:43] on the classification plan for

[1:46] the finance director position, which Carrie can speak to.

[1:49] And then article 18 is, is the, the Munis improvements.

[1:54] I know that Cheryl and,

[1:55] and Carrie had spoken to expenditures in fiscal 26,

[1:59] but I just wanted to get on the record as

[2:02] to, you know, what we've been doing.

[2:03] And just, just a summary. I don't want mean

[2:05] to put Carrie on the spot here,

[2:06] but she's, she's been doing yeoman's work.

[2:10] Okay. So where do you wanna start

[2:13] At the beginning?

[2:16] Do you wanna start with Munis on the article 18?

[2:20] Sure. Okay.

[2:21] So from a, from a payroll HR standpoint,

[2:26] we are kind of, we're still plugging away.

[2:29] We actually stuffed

[2:32] and sent out our final paper paycheck last week,

[2:36] April 3rd for the town employees.

[2:39] And we will be working on stuffing

[2:42] and sending out the final paper payroll

[2:45] for the school department this week. Long time coming.

[2:49] Just for perspective, how many total employees is that?

[2:53] 700 and something? It's

[2:55] About seven with, with seasonal seasonals,

[2:57] about 7 25, 7 50, 50. Depend

[2:59] Still getting checks every Literally pieces

[3:03] of paper folded and put into an

[3:05] Envelope.

[3:06] Every, it's not a physical check.

[3:07] We require direct deposit. There's a few, a handful

[3:09] of people that get a physical check,

[3:10] but it's at, they call it, it's a advice.

[3:13] Like it's your direct, it's a copy

[3:15] of basically your check in direct deposit. I

[3:16] Get it. Every month. You get it

[3:17] Every month.

[3:18] Yeah. Right. Exactly. So there you go.

[3:19] You're not gonna get it anymore.

[3:20] It goes right in the shredder. That was the last,

[3:22] That's right. It goes right in the

[3:23] Shredder.

[3:24] That was the last month.

[3:25] However, we couldn't get rid of those paper statements

[3:29] until we had another avenue for individuals

[3:31] to view their payroll information and access the W2s.

[3:36] So we have launched,

[3:38] I can't remember if last time I came in,

[3:39] if we had launched ESS or not.

[3:42] We probably hadn't, 'cause I think it's

[3:43] been an over a month or so.

[3:45] But we launched ESS,

[3:47] it's probably been about a month now, five weeks.

[3:50] So employees can go in, you can make some updates to,

[3:54] you know, w fours, your state taxes, you know,

[3:58] address information, contact information.

[4:02] We are just about done with finalizing accruals

[4:07] for the entire town.

[4:08] This is not the school side.

[4:09] I know they're working on their, they have their own system,

[4:12] but on, on the townside, we have been tracking accruals

[4:16] for all departments, pretty much by the honor system.

[4:19] There's, there's, we did have,

[4:21] we do have some full-time employees

[4:22] in Munis that are tracked properly.

[4:25] But a lot of, a lot of departments are, like for,

[4:28] for instance, the fire department, they're, they're sick.

[4:31] And vacation was never tracked in Munis.

[4:33] It's always been pen and paper.

[4:35] I was always told it can never, it can't be done.

[4:38] But with ITP

[4:39] and the Munis consultants that we have,

[4:42] we actually had a meeting on Monday morning.

[4:46] Sherry had sent over all her numbers,

[4:48] and we have set up accrual tables.

[4:50] We're not using them yet,

[4:52] but we're, we're, we're gonna be hopefully very soon.

[4:56] So personal time ev everything by July one will be

[4:59] automated and accessible

[5:00] through the employee self-service platform.

[5:04] Next year. W2s, we won't be mailing out W2s.

[5:07] You'll go to the platform and view them or print them.

[5:10] I think probably most people are, are doing that. It's 2026.

[5:14] So that's probably the,

[5:17] the biggest improvement we've made since the last time.

[5:19] Isn't that, isn't that required though,

[5:22] Required you change That to be mailed in the W2 forms?

[5:24] No. No. Required,

[5:26] No, no.

[5:27] It's not required. You have to furnish them

[5:28] by the end of January. You don't have to mail them.

[5:31] How are you furnishing them? How? Online?

[5:34] Online to active employees? I mean, well, well,

[5:36] That's terrible.

[5:38] I can't believe I can, I can't believe how how this,

[5:41] this world, what, what it's coming to.

[5:44] Anyways, that's, I'm

[5:45] Just, so some, you, you, you will get some w2s

[5:48] that you will have to mail out.

[5:49] But everybody that's in an active employee has access

[5:52] to the ESS system will go online and get them.

[5:54] It's the state does it, I mean,

[5:56] the state's pro the biggest employer in

[5:58] Massachusetts, I understand, understand.

[6:00] So, yeah. So we've, we're, we're working with ESS.

[6:05] We have a couple. We have even a little, little help desk.

[6:09] Tara and Anita, if they have,

[6:11] if people have issues logging in, they go to them.

[6:14] Kelly, like I said, we're working on accruals,

[6:17] we're working on job class specific to positions.

[6:21] So when we have specific job classes,

[6:23] when you enter somebody, you have certain object in origin

[6:26] and accounting, you know, accounts that their payroll

[6:30] and everything gets charged to.

[6:32] So we're setting that up. Different pay codes.

[6:34] I mean, we've, we've kind of just been flying by the seat

[6:37] of our pants, trying to get things done.

[6:38] But we're, we're really trying

[6:39] to utilize Munis, you know, for what it's for.

[6:42] So job classes are, we're working on,

[6:45] and we're working also.

[6:46] We had our, we actually have a meeting tomorrow,

[6:48] our second meeting to start looking at doing

[6:54] time entry, like time entry and getting rid of paper.

[6:58] So we've gotten rid of the paper

[6:59] with advices, giving to employees.

[7:01] Now we're trying to get rid of the paper

[7:03] that we go every week.

[7:04] Comes through each department or biweekly now with payroll.

[7:07] So literally we get paper sheets. I, I review payroll.

[7:11] Literally. I sit there

[7:13] and I review payroll on paper every week, every Monday.

[7:16] Biweekly takes me, takes me about a good half, almost,

[7:20] almost a whole day, half day, depending on how,

[7:22] how many issues there are.

[7:24] So we have have our second meeting tomorrow to move towards

[7:27] that, to just direct time entry for a department like mine,

[7:31] like Marc's, it'll be easy.

[7:33] There's only a few employees

[7:34] and your pay doesn't really change.

[7:36] You know, it's the departments like police and fire.

[7:37] I'm not sure how far we'll be able to get with them.

[7:39] But if we can eliminate, you know, manual entry for Tara

[7:43] or, you know, doing payroll, then that's huge.

[7:46] So that's kind of an update where we're at on the Munis

[7:50] for payroll and, and HR functions

[7:52] anyhow. Have questions on any of that?

[7:57] Well, and Mr. Mr. Chairman, so, you know, so the,

[7:59] you know, the, the article would, would fund more

[8:01] of this great work.

[8:03] That's, that's, I mean, we've, from

[8:05] where we were four years ago and, and, and,

[8:08] and longer than that to where we are now,

[8:09] it's, it's unbelievable

[8:11] Made, right.

[8:12] The goal is, one of the big goals to get

[8:13] to is personal action actions, automating them.

[8:16] But you can't automate a personal action that's, you know,

[8:18] somebody gets promoted or you get a reclassification

[8:21] or you get a step increase.

[8:22] We can't automate that to all the system.

[8:25] So until all the information prior to that is built

[8:28] and in place and accurate.

[8:30] So that's kind of the end goal.

[8:32] 'cause now those are paper too, you know, so it's, it's,

[8:37] it's really kind of, everything's building to

[8:39] that, to that process.

[8:42] And we're hoping to do more in ESS right now.

[8:44] It's, you know, view only right now.

[8:46] We would like to have people, you know, you can go in

[8:48] and request time off through ESS, that kind of thing.

[8:52] We're just, we're, we're not, we're not there yet,

[8:54] but we're, we're in view only.

[8:56] And you can make some minor, minor changes.

[8:57] So it's a, it's a good platform.

[9:00] So it's kind of like, Tyler sounds good when Tyler has it.

[9:03] 'cause it's like, for me, I think I told you once

[9:05] before, I can see my accrual of sick time.

[9:08] I can see, I can go in on the platform

[9:10] and request time off, see what I have

[9:12] for vacation time, right. And

[9:14] All those things.

[9:15] Right. They can see balances.

[9:16] Right now they're not, not every single balance is accurate.

[9:18] Like I said, it's, we're, we're just finalizing that

[9:20] with a couple depart couple people.

[9:22] Right now we're in actually really good shape.

[9:25] You can't request it quite yet,

[9:27] and you can't see what you're

[9:28] using. But we're gonna get there.

[9:30] Good. Yep.

[9:32] Does anyone have any questions,

[9:35] Mr.

[9:36] Chairman? Is there a dollar figure attached to that? Or

[9:38] A hundred thousand.

[9:39] A hundred thousand. Okay. So we see. Okay. Thank you.

[9:43] Okay, Well if we're good with that,

[9:49] One of that's request one of the, one of the re no,

[9:52] not on Munis, but I know one of the reclassifications was

[9:54] for the finance director position.

[9:57] It's just kind of a formality

[9:59] because the position was approved, had

[10:02] to be approved at town meeting,

[10:03] and then it had to go through the DOR for approval,

[10:05] though we had to wait the 90 days.

[10:07] I think it just kind of got lost in translation

[10:09] that we never put deposition on the classification

[10:12] plan where it belongs.

[10:14] So we're requesting to have

[10:16] that position put on the classification plan as an M seven,

[10:20] which is along with the DPW director

[10:24] and the assistant town administrator HR director.

[10:30] So again, it's just a formality.

[10:31] Okay. And you guys would've to vote on that, right?

[10:34] You, you, you, you vote on the

[10:36] classification changes, all that.

[10:37] So it has to come to this board.

[10:42] Okay. And then

[10:48] what else did we want to talk about?

[10:49] Oh, just the, that's not included in the,

[10:51] the budget for the July one though.

[10:52] So that would be a vote. That would be something

[10:54] that they would have to, the M

[10:55] Vote separately.

[10:56] The M seven doesn't have any, any costs associated with it.

[10:59] It's just literally putting it on the,

[11:01] on the classification plan. Right?

[11:03] It's not right. Right. Yeah.

[11:07] I mean, technically that position

[11:10] and with the salary that Cheryl was offered,

[11:14] it was, it would've been off.

[11:15] That's that. Well, actually it wasn't, it wasn't off

[11:18] that scale, but it wasn't an exact amount of, one

[11:20] of the steps on the M seven compensation scale.

[11:23] So technically she was off step a little bit,

[11:26] but it's still in line.

[11:27] The annual salary's still in line with that, those,

[11:30] those six steps in the compensation scale.

[11:35] Okay. Yeah, We're good. I'm good with it.

[11:39] Anything else? And then just if Mr.

[11:42] Chairman, if anybody, I just wanna make sure we touched on

[11:44] the, the recreation director again, just

[11:46] because it's been a subject of some discussion and,

[11:50] and there's a couple, couple articles and,

[11:53] and the warrant articles that deal

[11:54] with the recreation department.

[11:55] So,

[11:59] So you want it, so Just touch on

[12:00] Yeah. Where, where we are with it.

[12:01] So the recreation director position

[12:06] has obviously been something that we've talked about

[12:08] for, for quite some time.

[12:09] And, you know, that we, we desperately need here.

[12:12] At one point, I think we, this board talked about maybe not,

[12:17] not approving it, not funding it way back when we started

[12:20] early on the budget season.

[12:21] But I know it's, it's, you know,

[12:22] I know it's sounds like hopefully it'll get approved and,

[12:26] and move forward by this board.

[12:29] We are currently, we have a job description in draft

[12:32] that I've been working with Sean McBride on,

[12:36] or not, not me personally.

[12:38] Lisa's really been doing the work on,

[12:40] on updating the job description and working with Sean.

[12:42] We are, we would like to, you know,

[12:47] have this position ready to go, you know, now

[12:49] and start posting and, and, and hiring for it.

[12:51] But we just don't have the funding. So we have to wait.

[12:55] I talked to Sean, I talked

[12:56] to Mark about posting this position, hopefully in,

[13:00] in the beginning of May, anticipating

[13:03] that this will be passed and approved.

[13:06] And then, you know, shortly

[13:07] after town meeting, we would have, you know,

[13:10] hopefully have applicants

[13:11] and a good applicant pool to start doing interviews

[13:13] and have somebody in place, you know, by July one for when,

[13:18] you know, when we have the funding.

[13:20] So again, I think, I know there's been some,

[13:24] there's been some talk about, you know, the, the camp, the

[13:27] before school after school program.

[13:28] What are we gonna do after, you know, Debbie,

[13:30] retired long-term recreation employee.

[13:34] And certainly, you know, that that job is,

[13:38] is more than just an admin.

[13:39] So I think this person coming in will be a big help to

[13:43] that, to that department.

[13:44] And, and we need some knowledge there

[13:46] and can help kind of start the process along, you know, even

[13:49] what we're doing within payroll, you know, automate some

[13:51] of these things online enrollment, you know, it,

[13:54] it's very archaic the way that we do things.

[13:56] And I think without somebody in charge,

[13:57] it's very difficult to get these things done.

[13:59] So I think a recreation director can really, can really help

[14:02] with things like that and, and support, you know, the admin

[14:05] and, and Paul and the, the, the, the seasonal staff

[14:08] that's there and ensure that all the compliance is met.

[14:12] So we're, we're in good shape.

[14:13] Like I said, we have a, we have a

[14:14] job description ready to go.

[14:16] We have it listed as an M two

[14:19] and I don't know if you have any other,

[14:21] other questions on that.

[14:24] You know, I, one thing it's on the budget, it has it at

[14:28] a higher rate than the cost that's in recreation now.

[14:30] On the new position requests, is that up to that amount

[14:35] and it's 75 on the

[14:37] budget, on the level two?

[14:42] I would, I think that's right.

[14:44] 'cause the, the way that the, the way

[14:46] that the budget works is, is it, it breaks it down.

[14:49] So if it's a $75,000 salary, it'll show us like 67.

[14:54] And then the rest of it is, is populated with,

[14:57] it breaks down like the value of, of the vacation time.

[15:00] The value of the three personal days.

[15:02] Okay. Yeah, no, I,

[15:04] I just remember seeing 75 the last time we were looking at

[15:06] the budget and it was still 62 7 here.

[15:08] Yeah. All right. That's all for me.

[15:17] I, I, I think, does anyone have any comments on anything

[15:24] Related to that or Related to that? No,

[15:28] I saw the job description this week,

[15:30] but I know I had some comments that I had sent, I think

[15:34] to Marc, but they seem to be

[15:38] contemplated in there in terms of like the roles and stuff.

[15:40] 'cause I think a big component in, in

[15:41] that is gonna be standing up programming

[15:43] that we currently don't have.

[15:47] You know, we have and, and,

[15:50] and that programming, you know, when people hear,

[15:52] rec director might think it's all youth,

[15:56] but that's, you know,

[15:57] it might be geared more towards youth, but that's not the case.

[15:59] It could be senior program. It, it could be whatever.

[16:02] But you know, when we have kids in town

[16:05] that are playing basketball, for example, in other towns

[16:09] because we have nothing for them, that's pretty bad.

[16:13] Yeah.

[16:14] Yeah. I think this can be a start of

[16:16] where we should be. Right? And,

[16:17] And you're not gonna get there day one.

[16:18] No. Right. But we have glaring gaps that we try,

[16:23] we take care of everybody, right.

[16:25] Or at least we try to, right?

[16:27] We have programs for seniors, veterans that, you know,

[16:30] children are a big part of this town. So,

[16:32] Yeah, I mean, I think that this is a big position.

[16:34] I mean, this person is gonna come in

[16:36] and basically be starting from scratch basically.

[16:38] Okay. There, there's, there's obviously a camp,

[16:40] there's before and after school.

[16:41] But I think that, you know, if we can model, like some

[16:44] of the surrounding towns do,

[16:45] and I'll just use Wilbraham as an example.

[16:47] 'cause I think they do an excellent job.

[16:49] I'm one resident in Ludlow that's gone

[16:51] to Wilbraham for sports for my kids.

[16:53] 'cause Ludlow doesn't offer them.

[16:54] I've done other things in Wilbraham.

[16:56] 'cause Ludlow doesn't offer them. So it's, it's, you know,

[16:59] they, they communicate, they get programs out there.

[17:02] They have so many different, so many different programs.

[17:05] They have trail runs, they have, they have,

[17:07] you know, pickleball lessons.

[17:08] They have a, a bazillion things for you. They do.

[17:11] They just have so many options

[17:13] that I think it's really a model.

[17:15] I, you know, I think we, we should, we should go to,

[17:19] you know, you can sign up for any sports, you know, right

[17:21] through the same online platform right now.

[17:24] You wanna play soccer, you gotta go LYSA,

[17:27] you wanna play football, you gotta go

[17:28] to the youth football association.

[17:29] You wanna go basketball, you're dealing with it.

[17:31] It's, it's very difficult

[17:32] and very unorganized for, for parents.

[17:34] And I'm, I'm saying that from experience

[17:36] and I'm, so I'm sure a lot of you have been there too.

[17:38] We've all had the experience at one point. But,

[17:41] So I, I think this is gonna be a, a large, a large job

[17:46] for somebody undertaking. So I think, well

[17:48] The, the, the recreation department in

[17:50] Wilbraham is very high.

[17:53] Their budget, it's probably up to 800,000

[17:56] A year.

[17:57] Probably didn't start that way though. It's

[17:58] A lot.

[17:59] It's gotta be close. 'cause when I was, when I was there,

[18:00] it was already almost 504 something.

[18:04] But it speaks for itself.

[18:06] Well, absolutely. I'm not, it really does, you know,

[18:08] I'm not But I'm just saying let's realize

[18:10] that the budget will get there.

[18:11] Yeah. 'cause not one person's gonna be able to do all

[18:13] No, no, no, no, no.

[18:14] I'm saying as to model it system

[18:15] Is that, you know, just, I started in HR 12 years ago.

[18:18] It's just me. So yeah, it takes time to build those things.

[18:21] I, but I do think that this is gonna be a very,

[18:23] this is gonna be a key job.

[18:25] We're a senior center was, what, five, 10 years ago? Yeah.

[18:28] Look at it now. Yeah, and Vet center too.

[18:31] Good examples all around.

[18:33] I mean, I've said it before, is I think

[18:34] that this is the baseline right now.

[18:37] 'cause I think that, you know, back years ago when Park

[18:39] and Rec was dismantled

[18:41] and it was put into DPW I think the end game here is, I,

[18:44] I've said it because I, I've talked to Brian in, in Wilbraham,

[18:48] I've talked to Andy Rogers in South Hadley online platform.

[18:51] We've been talking about this for a couple years.

[18:53] It was introduced, but then it was denied type of thing.

[18:56] So it was blue sombrero or my rec

[18:58] or any of those platforms to where you start with recreation

[19:03] and then eventually we build our programs

[19:05] and I think it's a park and rec director down the road.

[19:09] Obviously it's gonna cost us more.

[19:10] We're gonna have to probably establish a budget.

[19:12] And we're trying to, we're kind of doing that with a

[19:14] stabilization fund a little bit.

[19:16] But I think down the road then, I mean, park

[19:18] and Rec director helps oversee the golf course too,

[19:22] because I think it,

[19:24] it has more eyes on it and we see what's going on.

[19:26] It's all recreation. Yeah. Yeah.

[19:27] So, I mean, it's all recreation.

[19:28] So I think over time, I mean, can we do it now?

[19:31] No, but we just see where, where we start and get our fields

[19:36] and our parks in better shape,

[19:37] and then hopefully be able

[19:39] to build the pro build it back up.

[19:42] I mean, we can't do it in one, one year. So I'm

[19:44] Sure most of the first year will be needs

[19:46] assessment and analysis anyway. Right? Yeah. What are we

[19:48] Missing?

[19:49] It's no different than the pond committee.

[19:50] You know, we've talking about that,

[19:51] that they're in the middle of building

[19:53] that program right now.

[19:54] And it takes a little while to get it under steam

[19:55] and get it rolling and, and get it funded

[19:57] and get established.

[19:59] So, good stuff.

[20:02] Hey, listen, if we can bring in people from other

[20:05] communities to participate in our services, that's

[20:07] outside money coming in.

[20:08] So that's, that's a big, that's a big deal. So,

[20:12] And I know you've, you've said it, we've had discussions

[20:15] before where you said you go outta town

[20:17] as well for, for services. For services,

[20:19] Exactly.

[20:20] And, and again, it's not just youth sports,

[20:24] it's yoga, it's, you know, whatever.

[20:26] Exactly. You know, it's things like that. So

[20:29] Programming it. Yep.

[20:31] Alright. I didn't see any

[20:36] of your comments on the draft job description, so I don't

[20:40] Know.

[20:41] It was probably just a thumbs up

[20:41] because the question I had Oh, okay. Was answered in there,

[20:44] So.

[20:45] Okay. Gotcha. Okay.

[20:45] It was already covered. Okay. I hadn't seen it.

[20:47] I had asked some questions, I think. Okay.

[20:49] I sent them to Marc and Amy. Okay. Cheryl.

[20:51] And when I read it, okay, I can, if you sent me an email,

[20:54] I can respond if I overlooked it. Sorry,

[20:56] I just, I thought you meant you made changes. No,

[20:58] No, no, no, No.

[20:59] Alright.

[21:00] Do you have anything else, Carrie, final?

[21:03] No, I don't. No, no.

[21:06] Not unless you have any other questions for these.

[21:07] Anyone else have any other questions? Can I go home? Yeah.

[21:11] No, I was, I was gonna send Carrie home.

[21:14] Go have dinner. No, I,

[21:17] I'm good on page three. A six.

[21:18] Yeah, I know we rifle right through.

[21:20] We still got the articles and the budget.

[21:24] Thank you, Carrie. Okay. Thank you.

[21:26] Thank you. Thanks, Carrie. Good seeing you. Thank you.

[21:31] All right. Let me get back to my agenda

[21:35] before Manny Falls. So

[21:36] We got one of those, oh 6:40

[21:38] Long time ago.

[21:39] 26 47. Did we do 48? We're on 48. 48.

[21:43] Okay. Oh, okay.

[21:48] I think that Twice. Item 26 dash 48,

[21:50] charter communications and annual

[21:52] notification of license fees.

[21:54] Motion to file Mr. Chairman? Second.

[21:58] Motion has been made. And seconded. All in favor? Aye. Aye.

[22:00] Aye. Motion passes.

[22:03] 5-0. 26-49. Charter communications.

[22:07] Annual annual notification on billing and termination.

[22:11] Motion to file. Mr. Chairman. Second.

[22:13] Motion's been made. And second. All in favor? Aye. Aye.

[22:15] Aye. Motion passes 5-0. 26-50 zoning

[22:20] Board of Appeals reorganization.

[22:23] Mr. Chairman, Mr. Alves,

[22:24] Do these Yeah.

[22:27] From the zoning board of appeals,

[22:28] they have reorganized their March 11th meeting

[22:32] and voted to reorganize as follows.

[22:34] Alan Aubin, chairperson. Mike Parker, Vice chairperson.

[22:37] Elaine Hodgman, Member. Waldemar Rodrigues, Alternate. Member.

[22:41] Member. Now just approve the member.

[22:43] Yeah, they'll, they'll have to handle that, but yeah.

[22:47] Motion to file.

[22:50] Second. Motion's been made and seconded. All in favor?

[22:53] Aye. Aye. Aye. Motion passes 5-0. 26-51

[22:57] Planning board reorganization.

[22:58] Mr. Chairman, at the March 26, 26 meeting

[23:02] of the Ludlow Planning Board, they voted

[23:03] to reorganize as follows.

[23:04] Ray Phoenix, chairman. William Ellison,

[23:07] vice Chairman. Kathleen Houle,

[23:09] Secretary. Christopher Coelho, member. Joel Silva,

[23:11] Member. Haley Rivers, associate member. Motion to file.

[23:15] Second Motion's been made and seconded.

[23:18] All in favor? Aye. Aye.

[23:19] Aye. Motion carries. Five zero. Item 26-52.

[23:23] School committee reorganization.

[23:25] Mr. Chairman, at the March 24th, 2026 meeting of the Ludlow

[23:30] School Committee, they voted to reorganize as follows.

[23:32] Sarah Bowler, chair. Amanda Codding, Vice Chair. Jeffrey Laing,

[23:36] Secretary. Christopher Manfredi, member. Jeffrey Stratton,

[23:39] member. Motion to file.

[23:41] Second Motion's

[23:42] been made

[23:43] And seconded. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Motion carries

[23:45] 5-0. 26-53 Letter from Elizabeth Dumaine.

[23:49] Request for special municipal employee exemption

[23:52] as a lunch monitor in the Ludlow Public Schools

[23:54] for the senior work abatement program.

[23:58] Swap

[24:03] Mr. Chairman.

[24:04] Mr. Alves? So with these, it's a situation

[24:09] where they're a town employee,

[24:11] but they won the lottery for the SWAP program.

[24:16] And to do both, we need to approve it.

[24:21] Yeah, because you can't have two two sources of,

[24:23] of revenue income through the, so

[24:27] what this does is it would, it would make the lunch monitors

[24:30] as a class, especially municipal employees,

[24:38] Any discussion of questions. Is it,

[24:39] Mr.

[24:40] Chairman is, isn't there a requirement

[24:42] for income requirement for, for the workout program in town?

[24:46] Yeah. Do we have that? We don't have that.

[24:50] Like being below a certain income. Yeah. What

[24:52] Do you mean?

[24:53] Well, this program was developed

[24:54] to help out seniors and help out people.

[24:56] A good question that were, that were,

[24:57] you know, that needed the help.

[25:00] It wasn't just to, to bring it to anybody. And I know that

[25:05] Was like a cap rate on it. I

[25:06] Dunno if that's in there.

[25:07] There was caps, but I don't know if we have,

[25:09] I think we talked about this previously

[25:12] and I don't think there was a cap,

[25:14] but I know that other people have talked

[25:16] about putting a cap on.

[25:17] It's just the, the verification of the income process is,

[25:21] is cumbersome.

[25:22] And you know, it's only Amy

[25:24] who pretty much, you know, runs the

[25:26] Program.

[25:27] I don't, I don't know if that's in there,

[25:28] but I mean, at the same point, my income could be zero

[25:31] and I could be sitting on $4 million.

[25:35] Well, yeah. Taking RMDs outta my retirement account.

[25:37] I mean, I if if you wanna

[25:39] work, I mean you, you're working right? Not

[25:42] Just a handout.

[25:43] Most of the, most of the senior, the senior abatements

[25:44] and all that, there is caps for everything.

[25:45] You both, it's both income and and assets.

[25:48] But I don't know. And we

[25:50] Also don't fill our open abatement slot.

[25:52] That's gonna be my other question. How many

[25:53] people get turned away?

[25:55] Like when we do this lottery,

[25:57] I don't think I saw something like 80.

[25:59] Right. And we don't fill that.

[26:00] I think it's like, yeah, I think there's 60 something

[26:02] slots and I think we had like 80, 80 applicants.

[26:08] I think that's a secondary discussion though.

[26:10] I mean, in terms of this, I don't see

[26:14] an inherent issue if someone

[26:16] essentially wants to work two jobs. I

[26:18] Agree.

[26:19] Somebody wants to pretty much volunteer

[26:21] and they're gonna get a stipend

[26:22] Still working.

[26:23] We're not. Yeah. Yeah. I would make a motion to

[26:28] request special municipal employee exemption

[26:30] as a lunch monitor for Elizabeth Duma.

[26:33] Can I ask a question? Second? Yep.

[26:36] Discussion. Yeah. So how

[26:37] Do you, are you able to differentiate her work

[26:39] versus the abatement program? 'cause you got a a

[26:42] That's a, a good call.

[26:43] What's, what's the question? Can you differentiate

[26:46] employment versus abatement?

[26:48] In what way? The Work that they're doing?

[26:50] Yeah. Is She getting paid for abatement? No. No.

[26:54] It's just a, It's an abatement.

[26:55] So you have to work this, this was the question.

[26:57] So you, you have to work all of your hours,

[26:59] then you get a $900 abatement from your, from your taxes.

[27:03] But you also get a, you also get a W2.

[27:06] But I think what he's saying is his,

[27:07] her regular employee status.

[27:09] Yeah. Is it included in the abatement

[27:12] what the work she's doing for the abatement?

[27:15] It would be extra hours. Almost like

[27:17] a, it's almost like a double dip is

[27:18] Yeah, that's what I'm asking. That's

[27:20] What I, that that's exactly why it has

[27:22] to be a special municipal employee.

[27:24] So you can't, you can't,

[27:26] you can't have two incomes from the, from the town

[27:29] unless there's, there's certain ways to do it.

[27:31] Now there's, there's, there's ethical disclosures.

[27:34] This is one of them. Or the, the board says, okay,

[27:38] you are a employee full-time or part-time

[27:42] and you also work, you know, part-time for this board

[27:45] or you're doing the senior work abatement.

[27:47] You have to either get a special municipal employee status

[27:51] from the board or file disclosure

[27:54] documents with, with the clerk.

[27:56] I think what,

[27:58] and I, I could be wrong,

[27:59] I if you talk about something different,

[28:01] but if this person is working for the

[28:07] school department already working for the school

[28:10] in a lunch program and they turn around

[28:13] and said, Hey, not only do I wanna get paid,

[28:16] but I wanna save them my taxes and apply for a swap program.

[28:20] They're already scheduled to work.

[28:22] Yeah. I that's, I I'm not sure

[28:24] that's exactly what we're talking about. I'm, I I think I'm

[28:27] No, it's, it's a different performing a different

[28:29] duty for the swap.

[28:30] What the question is, is can they apply for the swap

[28:34] even if they're just doing the same job,

[28:35] they're already getting paid to

[28:36] Do No, it's gotta be a different job. Okay.

[28:38] I think that was kinda the question with additional hours.

[28:41] Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And you can differentiate.

[28:44] You can't just say, oh, I worked, you know, 10 to 12

[28:46] of the schools and that's part of my, my,

[28:48] my swap. Marc Strange

[28:49] is get the hours.

[28:53] It's gotta be, I wanted

[28:55] to make sure you differentiate that.

[28:56] That's, so this is vet that's vetted when,

[28:59] As part of the swap program?

[29:00] Yeah. So the way, the way the lottery works is you get

[29:02] picked and then you, you have like your preferences of

[29:05] where you wanna work and then you get assigned. I see.

[29:08] That's what's the what's the Yeah, no, that's, that's,

[29:11] that's crazy the way it's the way it's done here.

[29:13] And I've always said that What's the age?

[29:16] The age for senior.

[29:20] It's in the bylaw. I wanna say 62.

[29:22] Don't quote me on that. But it's in the bylaw.

[29:25] Yeah. See the way, the way, and I,

[29:26] and I used to run it over there and they would ask me if,

[29:31] and then I don't know why, but it would be need,

[29:35] a department would request a person to work off

[29:38] and then this person would be somebody that

[29:43] can fill that position.

[29:44] Not just, it's a lottery.

[29:46] So, okay, you get a lottery now you're gonna work

[29:47] here, you're gonna go in there.

[29:49] And they know nothing about

[29:51] what they're doing, where they're going.

[29:52] It, it makes no sense to me. You know.

[29:55] So you used to look at, you used to look at the,

[29:58] where they could go like, you need a secretary

[30:00] to do filing this person.

[30:01] Obviously you still secretary, you know. Yeah.

[30:04] So, but I don't know. I, this has

[30:06] Been like this for years and years.

[30:10] I, I think we have a motion.

[30:11] Motion was made and seconded.

[30:14] All in favor? I

[30:16] I'm gonna abstain.

[30:20] Why? Because you're over 62?

[30:22] Because I don't know, I just,

[30:23] I I'm the special employee status is they bother me.

[30:28] Don't ask me why. They just do.

[30:29] Yeah. In the same sense with a lot of things though.

[30:31] It's, we never have people that actually

[30:33] do the, you know, we're

[30:34] Agree.

[30:35] Don't, we don't have the people. So

[30:39] passes 4-0-1. Item 26-54.

[30:43] Letter from Robert Callahan.

[30:44] Request for special Municipal Employee exemption

[30:46] as a courier in a Ludlow Public Schools

[30:48] for the Senior Work Abatement program swap

[30:53] Mr. Chairman,

[30:54] Mr. Gennette,

[30:55] I move to approve Robert Callahan

[30:57] for Special Municipal Employee Exemption

[31:00] as a courier in the Ludlow Public Schools

[31:03] for a senior work abatement program.

[31:07] Second Motion's been made and seconded.

[31:09] All in favor? Aye. Aye.

[31:10] Abstain. Okay.

[31:12] Aye. Motion carries 4-0-1. Item 26 dash 55.

[31:17] Letter from Office of Leasing

[31:19] and state office planning requesting RFP

[31:21] for the Commonwealth search for lease space.

[31:24] Got anything to give them? Motion to file

[31:30] Second Motions has been made.

[31:34] And seconded. All in favor? Aye.

[31:35] Aye. Aye. Aye. Motion. There's nothing to do with

[31:37] That.

[31:38] Motion passes. Five zero. Item 26 56.

[31:40] Letter from the Board of Health in support

[31:42] of opioid settlement funding requests

[31:44] for sharp's containers in the amount of $1,565.70.

[31:49] Mr. Chairman. Mr. Gennette, do we know

[31:51] what the balance is on that opioid fund right now?

[31:54] It's gotta be up there. It's a good, yeah,

[31:55] it's, it's, it's up there.

[31:57] We just got another, a couple more and they were big,

[31:59] but we got a couple more deposits.

[32:01] Certainly more than $1,500. Yeah, I mean

[32:04] It's, if we're getting over 150 right? Or

[32:06] Something Like that.

[32:07] I, I can check on that 'cause they,

[32:07] because I cares is coming in next week.

[32:10] So I'll, I'll, I'll for this. I'll double check on that.

[32:13] Okay.

[32:15] I'm, this is what it's for. So, Mr.

[32:17] Chairman, I move to approve the Board of Health in support

[32:20] of opioid settlement funding request

[32:23] for sharps containers in the amount of $1,565 and 70 cents.

[32:28] Second Motions been made. And second. All in favor?

[32:30] Aye. Aye. Aye. Motion carries five zero

[32:33] item 26-57 Eversource Trans Transmission right

[32:37] of way work scheduled for Spring 2026 at 648 East Street

[32:41] and a parcel off of Chapin Street.

[32:44] Motion to file. Second

[32:46] Motion's been made.

[32:47] And second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Motion carries.

[32:50] Five zero. Item 26-58 Christ the King annual Beano report.

[32:55] Motion file Mr. Chairman. Second.

[32:58] Motion's been made and seconded. All in favor? Aye.

[32:59] Aye. Motion carries. Five zero

[33:03] Item 26-59.

[33:06] Charter Communications upcoming pricing changes.

[33:10] Oh boy. Again,

[33:14] I'm gonna, I'm gonna have, I'm gonna start on MLP

[33:17] and we're gonna get fiber in this town.

[33:18] We're gonna, we're gonna change things around here. Hmm.

[33:22] I I will say one thing is that I had this discussion

[33:26] with someone, me, for like 10 years

[33:27] have been trying to cut the cord.

[33:29] Never cut the cord. Guess what?

[33:30] It's come full circle now because I went

[33:33] and I did my phone with Spectrum and they looked at my bill

[33:37] and they go, oh my God, you're paying way too much.

[33:38] I'm saving $280 a month right now. Yeah.

[33:41] I i cable has come full circle, I think to the point

[33:44] where I, I got one guy going, I can't watch the Red Sox

[33:47] or the Bruins because it's on

[33:48] NECN and I don't have that platform.

[33:49] And I go, that's fubu. Oh, then I gotta pay for fubu.

[33:51] And I go, I got cable and now it's all come full circle

[33:55] and I'm paying the same,

[33:56] if not less than all the streaming services.

[33:58] Huh? So

[34:02] You still have to pay the internet if you want.

[34:04] Yeah. Internet access, right?

[34:06] Yeah. Yep. And if you,

[34:07] and if you have just the internet, then you gotta, it

[34:10] price increases to like 90 something dollars.

[34:12] Yeah, they're getting paid in.

[34:14] They eliminated the everything else.

[34:16] Remember if you took the phone off that

[34:17] they save five bucks?

[34:19] No, they don't do that anymore. Nope.

[34:21] So when you take the phone off, it's off.

[34:23] So, Mr. Chairman, just to make note for the community

[34:26] service activation applies when services activated via self

[34:30] installation or professional institution will decrease

[34:33] by $10 from 30 to 20.

[34:35] Change of service. Oh, they're all decreases. Look at that.

[34:38] Well except for one will decrease from 15 by 15.

[34:42] From 60 to 50.

[34:44] Professional installation will decrease from by 15,

[34:48] from 65 to 50.

[34:50] So, and the hourly labor charge will decrease from by 15.

[34:54] From 60 to 50.

[34:56] But the reconnection fee will increase by $3 from $2

[34:59] to $5. Just for

[35:04] They're beating Eversource to the punch

[35:05] by dropping rates. Yeah.

[35:06] Motion to file. Second.

[35:09] Motion has been made. And seconded. All in favor? Aye.

[35:11] Motion carries five zero. Item 26-60 Lupa Zoo.

[35:15] Invitation to Community Summer Safety Day to be held.

[35:18] Saturday June 20th, 12:00 PM to 3:00 PM

[35:21] Mr.

[35:22] Chairman. Thank you Lupa Zoo for the invitation.

[35:25] Motion to file. Second. Second.

[35:28] Are we putting them, will they be on the

[35:31] events board on, on the website,

[35:35] On the on get Lost Month though?

[35:37] Yeah, on our, on our,

[35:40] This wouldn't be on our town calendar

[35:42] 'cause it's not a town event, but,

[35:44] but there's a got lost in Ludlow calendar

[35:46] that has all the town events.

[35:48] Yeah, they, they might have actually already submitted.

[35:51] Okay. Back.

[35:57] I had a motion. Did I have a second?

[35:59] Yes I did. Okay. Motion's been made. And second.

[36:01] All in favor? Aye. Aye. Motion carries.

[36:04] Five zero. Item 26-61 Ludlow Community Center

[36:07] Randall Boys and Girls Club.

[36:08] Request from Lysa to use the field from April 12th

[36:10] through June 15th.

[36:12] Monday, Thursday, weekly, 5:30 to 8:00 PM

[36:16] and Saturday's weekly 9:00 AM

[36:19] to 3:00 PM excluding 4/11/26

[36:22] and 6/6/26. No rental fee.

[36:25] Chairman did, did we not,

[36:27] I was about to ask the same, well

[36:29] Not hand this right back to the community center to do,

[36:33] I don't know why it's coming to us now.

[36:35] It's coming back. 'cause we, we put it in the hands.

[36:37] It's been years since we've had 'em.

[36:38] Yeah. The the, we did this last year.

[36:41] I I can, I can sign this. Yeah.

[36:43] But just for transparency's sake, just so everybody knows,

[36:47] you know, that all three

[36:48] of these are organizations are gonna be using the fields

[36:51] and, and what sort of, what the times are.

[36:53] So, and I and I, I also talked to someone

[36:56] that's indirectly involved

[36:58] and there was a little bit of a conflict

[37:01] but they worked it out

[37:02] and so they said

[37:04] that they were just wondering if anyone needed to be here.

[37:06] I go no, because it looks like everything's worked out

[37:08] now. So Yeah. That's

[37:09] Why we decided to let them work it out.

[37:10] That was it. What are we gonna do, you know, as the hub.

[37:14] But I think we were just the sign off once a year

[37:16] because this is a once a year type of thing.

[37:18] Yeah. Okay. Or until they get to the fall maybe.

[37:20] Yeah. Sounds

[37:22] bueno. Motion. What are

[37:26] We doing?

[37:27] Do we need to a motion to sign these and stuff

[37:30] Or is It inform You

[37:31] Don't have have to sign them. I would just say

[37:31] Approve.

[37:32] I can just sign. I can just,

[37:33] or if you want to approve it, it's fine. Motion

[37:35] To file them. Just

[37:36] File 'em. File 'em. Alright.

[37:37] Yeah. File 26-61 file. 26-62.

[37:42] And is the third one the same thing?

[37:46] 26-63

[37:49] Second You wanna file,

[37:52] you wanna file all three at once?

[37:54] Sure. Do you wanna talk about any

[37:56] of 'em individually? I'll break you down.

[37:58] Well, the fir just read out which

[38:00] organizations just so to be

[38:04] Mr.

[38:05] Chairman, I move to file 26-61

[38:08] request from LYSA, 26-62 a

[38:13] request from Western United Pioneers

[38:15] and re re 26-63,

[38:19] request from IFA to use the fields

[38:24] at the Ludlow Community Center. Second.

[38:28] Motions been made and seconded. All in favor? Aye. Aye.

[38:30] Motion motions carry five zero.

[38:33] Item 26-64 MMWEC Pipeline Right of way.

[38:37] Work near Stony Brook Energy Center.

[38:42] Motion to file Second.

[38:44] Motion has been made. And second. All in favor,

[38:46] Abstain. Aye.

[38:49] Aye. Motion carries 4-0-1

[38:54] Item 26 65 Commonwealth of Massachusetts, department

[38:57] of Public Utilities

[38:59] and Department of Tele Telecommunications and cable.

[39:01] Notice of public Hearing and request for comments.

[39:08] Motion to file

[39:09] Mr. Chairman. Second.

[39:13] Motion's been made and seconded. All in favor? Aye. Aye.

[39:16] Aye. Motion carries five zero. Item 26-66 Mass.

[39:20] DOT bridge inspection report for West Street

[39:23] slash Chicopee River dated 2/17/26.

[39:26] Someone should probably read this one.

[39:28] Yeah. Is there an update on Ames Chairman at all?

[39:31] Do we have anything that's, I mean, not one day goes

[39:35] by that I don't get a

[39:36] Yeah, question. I,

[39:38] If I remember correctly, reading it all it really did is

[39:40] it showed some pictures too of heaves

[39:42] and things of that nature and snow was actually

[39:45] Yeah, this report's useless. Yeah,

[39:47] This report Does.

[39:49] Every comment says can't see there's snow on it.

[39:51] Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Thank you.

[39:53] I'm sure, I'm sure that the actual

[39:57] Need a state job, Municipal or state. I was excited.

[40:02] I was excited when I saw it.

[40:03] I thought it was gonna be something that

[40:04] they're telling us what's going on.

[40:05] We're gonna do it. But

[40:07] We Had an update on Putts bridge, didn't we?

[40:11] So, I mean, sorry.

[40:14] You're probably looking at a juggling act

[40:17] over the next like three to five years

[40:20] between the two bridges.

[40:21] Yeah, so I mean,

[40:26] I think I know, I think we know where this is going.

[40:28] It's just that it's not official with anything.

[40:31] So I would just leave it at that at this point.

[40:35] Do I have a motion to file on this?

[40:40] You have a motion to file? I, I just,

[40:41] just say you, you made it James? Yeah.

[40:43] Okay. Second. Motion's been made and seconded.

[40:46] All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Motion carries five zero. Oh,

[40:51] here we go. Give him a nudge.

[40:55] Item 26 - 67 Chief Brennan, request for authorization

[40:59] to charge medical expenses and loss wages

[41:00] to chapter 41 111 F for injury sustained

[41:04] by a police officer while on duty on 3/30/2026.

[41:08] You gotta read this one.

[41:12] The motion please. Got it.

[41:15] Motion to approve.

[41:17] 26 - 67 Chief Brennan, request for authorization

[41:19] to charge medical expenses

[41:20] and lost wages to chapter 41 111F for an injury sustained

[41:25] by a police officer while on duty on 3 30 2026. Second

[41:29] Motion has been made.

[41:30] Second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Motion carries.

[41:33] Five zero. So just so you know,

[41:34] I wondering, This one falls on you

[41:36] now 'cause you're the junior.

[41:38] Got it. And you're the freshman. So

[41:40] Rookie hazing.

[41:41] That one is, that one started with me I think maybe

[41:44] five or six years ago.

[41:46] And it's section 111 F not 1-1 F. Got

[41:49] It.

[41:50] You'll become a pro at it. Trust me.

[41:53] In your sleep already

[41:54] In your sleep, you'll know it, right?

[41:56] I I wasn't even reading the paper anymore.

[41:59] Moving on to unfinished business board to discuss

[42:01] and probably approve, repair

[42:02] and replacement of the roof of the gazebo,

[42:04] I believe continued from March 17th, 2026.

[42:07] I believe this is tabled at this point. Yeah. Okay.

[42:10] So we'll table that. We have a quote coming in.

[42:17] This isn't even the last page.

[42:19] What's going on here? Unfinished.

[42:21] It's never ending. Two more pages.

[42:24] Oh here we go. Board to discuss

[42:25] and possibly do we want

[42:28] to vote on fiscal year 27 budget proposal?

[42:32] I think it's time. Yeah, I mean

[42:36] If there's any questions, if

[42:37] Anyone has any questions about the budget

[42:39] or anything, I mean, what's our number?

[42:40] We're right around 190 excess. Is that still the same?

[42:44] I didn't get all the way to the bottom of this.

[42:47] Let me see. 189. Right? 189. There

[42:50] Were some changes that were made

[42:52] and I'll, I'll explain those.

[42:54] There's a few outstanding questions.

[42:57] Thank you. Well, One of them would come from

[43:00] Pond.

[43:02] From what? The pond committee.

[43:06] Mr. Chairman, can I ask a Mr.

[43:08] Alves. A question or I guess question and or comment?

[43:12] We've talked about a few changes tonight,

[43:20] you know, particularly the pond.

[43:21] Yep. You know, maybe we should iron that out.

[43:27] No, I agree. That's what I was saying is I think with

[43:30] All those changes, I think we should absorb those

[43:31] and be able to review them.

[43:35] That's just me. But,

[43:38] So they're Mr.

[43:39] Chairman. So just a couple more in addition to the pond.

[43:44] We just received our,

[43:46] 'cause our, our contract with CMD is up in June 30th.

[43:50] So Charlie just sent over the new, the new proposal

[43:54] for fiscal 27 and beyond.

[43:57] I have not had a chance to look at it yet.

[43:58] I think there's a slight increase in the proposal.

[44:02] So, so we'll have to absorb that in the fiscal 27.

[44:06] And then we just, we should ask Melissa, when she was here,

[44:08] they just, they just did a bid for their cleaning con

[44:13] contract cleaning company for fiscal 27.

[44:15] And that's slightly higher than what was in her budget.

[44:19] Not, not gonna, not gonna break anything.

[44:21] But we, we do need to make those adjustments.

[44:28] Yeah. Personally I'd like to see all the

[44:29] changes be able to review that.

[44:35] The, just just to finish up, Mr.

[44:37] Chairman, the vets in, we had

[44:40] to increase the vet's budget by 5,000

[44:43] for essentially postage.

[44:46] The Hubbard Memorial Library reclass

[44:48] that 20 something thousand dollars savings is reflected in

[44:52] that, that new sheet that you guys have.

[44:54] And then the treasurer collector did a small adjustment

[44:58] to the treasurer budget based upon calculate calculation

[45:02] error with their salary

[45:04] and then increased the, the postage and the 'cause.

[45:08] We, we, we outsource our, our bills.

[45:11] So she increased the postage and the collection services.

[45:14] So that's all reflected in, in in what you have there.

[45:17] So that's the 180 9 8 29. Yeah. Okay.

[45:20] So do we wanna make notes on some, like you were saying

[45:25] about, 'cause we do have, pond Commission is on page one.

[45:30] There's a zero there.

[45:34] Yeah. Pond Commission is not,

[45:36] is not in that budget right now.

[45:45] So we make the changes and approve it next week.

[45:50] Yeah, I mean if you guys want to discuss it and then

[45:53] Yeah, that would be my preference.

[45:54] But I mean, anything outstanding we

[45:56] should give the direction now.

[45:57] But I think of what we're thinking. Right?

[45:59] I I I don't think we should be

[46:00] doing it on the fly next week.

[46:01] It should be my my opinion. Here's the changes.

[46:05] Here's everything we consider this week.

[46:06] Get it to us at the end of the week

[46:08] or middle of this week, review it ahead of time and

[46:11] Then what we do is next week we're just

[46:12] Final questions. I

[46:13] Agree.

[46:14] Yeah, no, that's where I was going with it.

[46:18] So Mr.

[46:21] Alves, what was the number on pond that we were looking at?

[46:26] Was it, I gotta go back to that. Slide

[46:31] It 36, So no, no it's not 36.

[46:34] So under the guise of

[46:39] trying to front load and prepay what we can now,

[46:44] it leaves the remainder total needed of 14,000.

[46:52] So what's the number of,

[46:53] That's what would be needed for fiscal

[46:54] 20 based on their protection here.

[46:57] Now I know there's some uncertainties with

[47:02] Minechoag Pond and what might need to be done.

[47:08] You know, so I I don't,

[47:12] maybe we should go above that a little bit. But

[47:14] I was gonna say 20 To, I don't think we're at the 36

[47:17] because we're taking route two.

[47:23] Yeah, I have here the, the, the prepayment

[47:26] for fiscal 26.

[47:29] That was 38.

[47:31] 38. If you back out the 15, I have to, I have

[47:34] to confirm we still have it then you're at 2325.

[47:38] That's where fiscal 26.

[47:40] And then we don't know the number for what the spring of

[47:44] fiscal 27 would be or did they say? No,

[47:48] No, they have it here.

[47:49] So calendar year 26 is 43,000.

[47:53] But that would be under the assumption that we pay

[47:57] prior to July 1st.

[48:02] It it, it's on their, it's on their,

[48:04] if you have their PowerPoint here.

[48:06] Yeah. So I basically fi fiscal 27,

[48:08] even though you're front loading it, you're still gonna have

[48:10] to do fall and spring.

[48:15] And spring is probably their more important time when

[48:18] they're the beat as far as I

[48:20] Remember.

[48:21] Oh, 'cause this has the fall on 26. Oh it does. Okay.

[48:23] Well calendar. Yeah.

[48:26] Okay. Oh, that's, they did calendar and fiscal.

[48:28] That's right. So, so

[48:29] Then the spring's covered by the, you know, the 15,000,

[48:33] you know, maybe a little, would

[48:34] You be like 20, A little bit contingent

[48:36] contingency on top of that?

[48:37] This is the one I'm looking at.

[48:39] Is this, is it different in, in the, this is the,

[48:43] that one you, the email.

[48:45] It's printed in our materials.

[48:47] Yeah. You, you also had one you were showing too

[48:49] that had what Mark's showing right now. Correct?

[48:52] That's the first page If we prepay.

[48:54] Yeah, that number's a little different.

[48:55] It's, these are the numbers they're talking about. So

[48:57] It's five grand more on their presentation in that 38.

[49:00] Yeah.

[49:03] And I think as they're considering,

[49:05] But but you, you, you gotta see, right?

[49:07] So if you do that prepay

[49:09] and you look up above on the right Yeah.

[49:11] That says fiscal 27, the Haviland's on the prepay,

[49:14] the Harris is on the prepay, the Murphy's on the prepay.

[49:16] But we don't know if that's Oh yeah, I guess so. Yeah,

[49:21] It's all of 26.

[49:22] Yeah. So it would just be Wade and Alden.

[49:26] Yeah. This says 14 five

[49:30] That, that says 14 five for Wade and Alden.

[49:34] No, Harris,

[49:38] Because you got Alden down here too. These are

[49:41] Different numbers.

[49:42] Yeah.

[49:44] Wades down there too. Oh yeah. Wades here.

[49:49] So lemme take

[49:54] Oh you know why?

[49:55] Because they have it broken out to half the year here.

[49:57] That's why.

[49:59] Yeah, That's why I'm saying is that, that's what,

[50:01] remember what I said is that you do something

[50:03] but then you budget them Fiscals 27 right.

[50:05] Will be budgeted the full 30,000.

[50:08] Yeah, it should be some, I I would

[50:09] say it should be somewhere in the middle, right?

[50:10] Yeah. 25, 30. Yeah,

[50:12] I I would say it's 30 because I, I have a feeling that

[50:15] Minechoag is gonna come in high

[50:17] and then we really don't even, I mean Wade's on there,

[50:19] but we really don't know Wade.

[50:21] Right. Well they still have to do a lot of research.

[50:24] Yeah. So Right.

[50:25] That's why I'm saying on top of that

[50:26] for I'm, I'm fine with the 30

[50:28] Because I think that's where their number was and

[50:30] and that's what there was, Linda was saying it was like 30

[50:33] that, that's why I was saying is if we had taken from

[50:35] that 36 on that option one and you took the six out

[50:39] and you put it onto the, this year and you had the 15,

[50:42] but then you, their fiscal 27 is the bid budget they're

[50:46] gonna have going forward over the years.

[50:49] Right. So it's the, it should be 30 for 27. Okay.

[50:52] I'm good with the 30, but I still think it's important

[50:54] to do whatever we can this year.

[50:56] No, 'cause then that's gonna give them breathing room. Yeah.

[50:58] Maybe it's something they're not

[50:59] even thinking about right now.

[51:00] Right.

[51:02] Well and we also, Or if a cost goes up

[51:04] between now and then

[51:06] And in the same sense, I think once we get past

[51:08] and you get, and I know

[51:09] that they did say about in the future is adding ponds in,

[51:13] but in the same sense is that the main, the maintaining

[51:16] and the maintenance of it should drop the price

[51:18] because now we're not doing 15 on Minechoag or whatever.

[51:22] But any ponds that we add in should keep in that 30

[51:26] to 35 range I would say over the next few years.

[51:29] So, so

[51:31] I just have a comment so Mr.

[51:32] Chairman. Sure. So the prepayment

[51:34] that's on the front page Marc,

[51:35] 38,250 does not include the $5,000 permit for Minechoag.

[51:41] It says the 15,000 for treatment but not the 5,000 permit.

[51:43] Ah, so that's where you get the, is

[51:45] That's that's The, the front load.

[51:46] The entire 2026. Got it. Yeah.

[51:48] Yeah. The numbers between

[51:49] between the two were 5,000 contrary. Yeah. Yeah.

[51:52] But that's because their permit,

[51:53] they're anticipating the permit ahead of time.

[51:55] But it in fact in that 38, so if had the permit

[51:58] and you're at 43,000 for 2027 is

[52:01] Say 43,250?

[52:02] Yes, that is correct sir. Okay, perfect.

[52:04] Thank you. Alright, so that's 26.

[52:07] Yes. Okay. Leaving And the remaining ponds for 27

[52:11] where January to June of 2027.

[52:14] Haviland, Harris, Murphy, Minechoag to be determined though,

[52:18] and then Wade to be determined,

[52:20] but just those three would be at 14,440 for fiscal 27 for

[52:24] Half the And that's half the year.

[52:25] Yeah.

[52:26] For the remain, yeah. Remain FY 27 fiscal year.

[52:38] So we're right on 30.

[52:47] I'm fine with it. I mean, yeah, I Marc did you incorporate

[52:51] into Sorry.

[52:53] No, go go ahead. Go ahead.

[52:54] Did you incorporate on this new copy the questions I had

[53:00] like there was like 10 12 grand in reductions?

[53:02] Yes. Those, those reductions are reflected on there.

[53:05] All right. So I found

[53:09] what I would call some fluff in

[53:15] increases that were requested in general expenses that

[53:18] history did not approve of them.

[53:23] It was only 12 grand. But if you're taking that

[53:26] and you're slotting it in here on top of what they need

[53:34] 30 right now would put you,

[53:35] We're not realizing the 30, I guess is

[53:37] what I'm getting at you.

[53:39] Well what you're saying is if you realize the 30 you're at

[53:41] 159 but then you add 12 back in or deduct 12.

[53:45] Right? 12. 12 was moved, Put you at 171.

[53:53] So 30 I I'm fine in the 25, 30 range.

[53:56] I'm not gonna quiblle over a couple bucks.

[54:00] I would recommend the 30. Okay.

[54:02] Because of the Minechoag if it does get the permit. The

[54:05] Unknown.

[54:06] Yeah. Be 15, 15, 9, 14, 15 To

[54:07] Be 20.

[54:08] You're 29, right? Yeah. So you better go with

[54:10] The 30.

[54:11] That's the one you gotta take care of. Yeah.

[54:12] Yep. Correct. Okay.

[54:13] So is everyone good the gentleman? We're putting this in.

[54:16] We'll bake the numbers again.

[54:17] Is there anything else on here?

[54:22] I think we need to vote on the classifications.

[54:26] Classifications, but I don't know if

[54:28] anybody else had one off. Like

[54:30] Is that A difference?

[54:32] I guess department questions would be the thing

[54:34] to do now if anybody had 'em.

[54:35] I was fine with the classification.

[54:37] Mr. Sanches. I, I thought just

[54:41] regarding the fire department, I thought the chief had asked

[54:42] for two firefighters, but I only see one.

[54:44] Was there, there was only one request. I thought it was two.

[54:49] He request Mr. Chairman, he requested two.

[54:52] And the discussion was, you know, we can probably

[54:56] fund two if we, if we use the ambulance revenue fund

[55:00] or we can do one out of the operating budget

[55:02] and then see where we are next year

[55:04] and see if we can add another one, the second one.

[55:07] So, so to answer your question, he asked

[55:10] for two, but there's only one in there.

[55:11] It was two. Yeah. I do not like the idea of going

[55:13] to the ambulance subscription fund for

[55:15] A, it's not the ambulance subscription fund.

[55:17] Ambulance revenue fund. Sorry,

[55:19] Ambulance revenue Fund.

[55:20] Yeah. And that revenue has gone

[55:21] up over the years, is that correct?

[55:23] Yeah. So which is continuously,

[55:26] it's been a generating revenue for the, for the town.

[55:30] So yeah. But now that we have this extra 171 potentially,

[55:35] does that help with the, giving them the two

[55:38] or open that discussion back to two

[55:39] or No, that discussion's over done with

[55:44] You guys are the board

[55:48] Discussion?

[55:49] I can, I can speak for me.

[55:51] I I mean my comments at the time were

[55:54] in alignment with what James said.

[55:56] I think the preference to fund recurring

[55:59] expenses Yeah.

[56:01] Should, should be through the,

[56:02] through the budget that's in line with

[56:06] It doesn't fit the budget. Right.

[56:08] What's that? Adding another firefighter

[56:11] One.

[56:12] Right. So two would on the, on the, on the other part of

[56:14] that, I think it's prudent at times when you can realize

[56:17] some excess capacity, you know, to account

[56:22] for who knows what.

[56:24] And you know, I know this isn't a fire department thing,

[56:29] this is in general, you know, growing too fast, too quick

[56:32] can sometimes be a problem.

[56:34] And that that's has nothing to do with the fire department.

[56:35] That's just a general statement.

[56:37] And just from where I sit, I'd be more inclined

[56:40] to do one at a time and grow over time.

[56:43] I can go add one. You see where you're at, you know,

[56:46] I got no problem if we have capacity next year, you know,

[56:50] for another firefighter to being at the top

[56:52] of the list if it makes sense.

[56:53] Sorry, I'm, there's more people that way.

[56:56] Well, that I'm used to being on the,

[56:57] That's the, that's the model for fire chief anyways is,

[57:02] you know, progression and how many years out and he plans

[57:05] accordingly for,

[57:06] for positions down the down the road and everything.

[57:09] So to get one this year, one next year,

[57:11] I think he would be very happy to have the position

[57:13] and a consideration for another one

[57:15] that next year. I think that's, I think

[57:16] Like I said, that would be my mindset for any

[57:18] Department. I, I concur. Like

[57:19] I said, I was asking for clarification.

[57:21] Yeah. I con I concur.

[57:22] You know, I think having some excess capacity is,

[57:26] is, is nice for once

[57:31] On my end.

[57:33] I know that if he does one this year,

[57:35] and that's what the board wishes one this year,

[57:38] one next year puts him at full.

[57:41] He has full rotations. Okay.

[57:43] And I, and I know he and I talk to him a lot

[57:46] and I know that he's been on this for about five years now,

[57:49] is trying to get to these numbers.

[57:54] So whatever the board wants.

[57:59] So it looks, what's the inclination?

[58:04] I'm, I'm okay with this list.

[58:07] Okay. This list being the classification and total?

[58:11] Yes. Okay. Just making sure I,

[58:13] Oh, we're going to that quick.

[58:14] Alright. So one, one firefighter

[58:19] rec rec director.

[58:22] This whole list is in there, right?

[58:24] I already asked this question. Yeah. Okay.

[58:26] Hold on. Sorry Mr. Chairman. No, go

[58:28] Ahead.

[58:29] Mr. Accounting and planning are in there as well?

[58:35] No. Okay.

[58:36] 'cause that's throwing me off 'cause they're in red

[58:38] and that are in, in red. The red

[58:40] Ones that are in red are not in the budget.

[58:42] Okay. Because I know

[58:43] that we had said something about counting and

[58:45] Planning. Okay. Yeah. Sorry

[58:46] About that.

[58:48] Too many colors. Anybody colorblind? It's tough.

[58:50] No, it's tough. If you are

[58:52] White lettering would've been better.

[58:55] Sorry,

[58:57] I, I think Mo most of these we've,

[58:59] We've Talked about at length, right?

[59:02] And, and I will say dispatch supervisor 100% on my end.

[59:06] So I, or I'll get beat over the head with a stick.

[59:11] But I mean, it, it makes sense

[59:12] and I think in the direction that we're going with possible,

[59:16] hopefully sometime bringing on other towns.

[59:18] So, I mean, so we're looking at police at, for the

[59:23] doubling the special dispatch supervisor,

[59:28] which is an increase of $33,250

[59:31] and the library, which we pretty much discussed earlier

[59:36] and I think we had approved that one.

[59:38] I mean, anything that's on here,

[59:40] we've pretty much approved already.

[59:41] So there's any

[59:44] Did we officially Approve this?

[59:46] I think there's a not the whole slate

[59:48] agenda item to approve them.

[59:50] Yeah.

[59:52] Yeah. There's, here we go. Board to discuss, we'll,

[59:55] we'll throw this one up here now then board to discuss

[59:57] and possibly vote on fiscal year 27 new positions

[59:59] and reclassification requests.

[1:00:04] Have a motion.

[1:00:08] These have to be one by one. I don't think so.

[1:00:12] No. I think you can do what is as

[1:00:15] Presented.

[1:00:16] Yes. Yep. Alright, Mr.

[1:00:18] Chairman, I would make a motion that we

[1:00:23] approve the new positions

[1:00:25] and classification reclassification requests

[1:00:29] and contemplate them in the FY 27 budget

[1:00:32] as presented. Second

[1:00:34] Motion has been made. Second. All in favor?

[1:00:36] Aye. Aye. Aye. Motion carries five zero.

[1:00:40] So this is good.

[1:00:44] We are still on the budget, but that moved us over to that.

[1:00:47] So, really, Mr.

[1:00:50] Gennette, you said you're good with the rest of this,

[1:00:51] so it's really only the Pond Commission

[1:00:54] addition of 30,000 on this. And then if Mr. I guess Mr.

[1:00:58] Alves has a, a notation that you'd like

[1:01:01] to make at some point on the 12,000 less,

[1:01:05] or is that already reflected

[1:01:06] You?

[1:01:07] You already Marc already. Okay. Changed those.

[1:01:09] Do we need a motion to put the 30,000 in or

[1:01:13] No?

[1:01:14] Right. So he'll,

[1:01:15] He's just gonna redo it.

[1:01:17] Mark, we'll make all the updates. Yeah.

[1:01:18] Get it to us this week. Okay.

[1:01:20] And then we'll have it to review ahead of time.

[1:01:21] We can pick the final vote plus

[1:01:22] The 12 you were talking. Okay. And

[1:01:24] That, that's already in there.

[1:01:25] So, oh, I, I can show you that after. And it's a

[1:01:27] Little birdie said another meeting next week. This is

[1:01:29] An old iteration.

[1:01:31] Yep. Yep.

[1:01:32] Requested increase. So the question was board

[1:01:36] to discuss and possibly vote.

[1:01:38] So we discussed already

[1:01:40] Down, we Voted on one below,

[1:01:41] but we're not voting on this

[1:01:43] Right table.

[1:01:45] What do we, we're

[1:01:46] Tabling vote a vote on fiscal, fiscal year 27.

[1:01:50] Budget proposal. I'm not done. Oh,

[1:01:53] Okay. We'll, go ahead.

[1:01:54] Can we put the leaf back on the table?

[1:01:56] Where are we at with free cash?

[1:01:59] What's the update and what's

[1:02:00] our plan to get to where we need

[1:02:02] To be?

[1:02:03] Yeah, that, I just got a, so I spoke to

[1:02:07] CLA today who was our, who was our interim accountant

[1:02:12] last year, and they're gonna be helping us close

[1:02:15] out fiscal 25.

[1:02:19] And we'd spoken to town council

[1:02:22] and there was a little bit of a discrepancy as to, to

[1:02:26] your question, Anthony, was if free cash is not certified by

[1:02:31] town meeting, whether town meeting can

[1:02:34] appropriate the free cash.

[1:02:36] So, so the, the, the end

[1:02:40] of the story is, the answer is no.

[1:02:42] Right? So,

[1:02:47] So right now it looks like we have two options.

[1:02:50] One is to appropriate from stabilization

[1:02:53] and then replenish with free cash

[1:02:57] or see if we can push town meeting to a, a later date

[1:03:02] in this fiscal year, which I don't, I don't know that we can

[1:03:05] because I, I think it's in the bylaw that, you know,

[1:03:09] town meeting is the first

[1:03:12] second Monday in May.

[1:03:16] So, and that, that's, I just got off the phone

[1:03:20] with them right before I came in here.

[1:03:22] So still in, in conversation with, with town council.

[1:03:26] And I'll have more, I have more

[1:03:28] for you guys next week. So how

[1:03:29] Did we get to this point?

[1:03:32] It's a broader discussion. Definitely.

[1:03:38] So we still have time basically when we approve,

[1:03:43] if we approve the budget next week.

[1:03:44] Right. And when certified cash has to be in to,

[1:03:47] what's the deadline for it?

[1:03:50] The free cash has to be certified Yep. By town meeting.

[1:03:54] Okay. And may, May 11th.

[1:03:58] And so if then when we put the warrant out, it has

[1:04:01] to be in everyone's hands two weeks out.

[1:04:05] And if we have it certified, then we'd have to put some kind

[1:04:08] of amendment on the, on the stage if it, if it changes

[1:04:13] Anything, it's the motion.

[1:04:14] So, you know, let's say you guys close the warrant next,

[1:04:19] next Tuesday and,

[1:04:22] and Kim sends out the warrants

[1:04:24] to town meeting members on, on Wednesday.

[1:04:26] Everything's signed. It's just the articles.

[1:04:30] The actual motion is what act is, is is the,

[1:04:33] the actionable item.

[1:04:35] So we have until May 11th, you know, where,

[1:04:38] so we'll we will have everything prepped.

[1:04:41] The warrant will be what the warrant is.

[1:04:42] We might have to adjust language

[1:04:43] depending on what you guys want to do.

[1:04:47] And, you know, we'll have the motions ready to go.

[1:04:50] And if it's not gonna go forward, we'll have to either

[1:04:55] pull the articles or we'll have to use stabilization

[1:05:00] and with the understanding that free cash will be coming

[1:05:03] down the pike and then

[1:05:07] that free cash will be, you know, replenish stabilization.

[1:05:13] But yeah, I mean there's, there's, there's plenty

[1:05:17] to talk about as to how we got here,

[1:05:20] but right now is not, is not the venue for that.

[1:05:34] Hm. What's next week's meeting?

[1:05:40] Is it, is that a joint or No, no, just a, okay. Yep.

[1:05:46] Imagine the agenda won't be this long. Next time should

[1:05:50] Be much shorter.

[1:05:53] Okay.

[1:05:58] Alright. So lemme work on this agenda.

[1:06:03] I Mean, I'm, I, Mr. Chairman

[1:06:05] Yes.

[1:06:06] Year after year. I mean, free cash has been an issue.

[1:06:08] I mean, this year now it's, this is,

[1:06:10] this is over boiled now.

[1:06:12] You know, I think

[1:06:14] that broader conversation's

[1:06:15] gotta be had at some point in time.

[1:06:17] You know, if we just can't continue like this

[1:06:22] If Mr.

[1:06:23] Chairman, so if, if there are personnel issues involved,

[1:06:26] which this may involve, that can't be Right.

[1:06:30] Had in open session.

[1:06:32] Well, no, that's where I was kind of going

[1:06:34] with next week's meeting is do we put in an executive

[1:06:40] Could do that?

[1:06:48] Hmm. I I would put it in there.

[1:06:52] So it would be five what we were normally 5:30 next week

[1:06:54] or did we have executive?

[1:06:56] No, no, we're at 5:30 next week.

[1:06:59] Well, seeing that certified cash in an effects town

[1:07:01] meeting, then I would've, I would recommend putting in an

[1:07:03] executive session for next, next week's meeting

[1:07:05] for five o'clock prior to the meeting.

[1:07:10] It's kind of like, like we normally do, it's a

[1:07:17] talk about any kind of in open could be detrimental.

[1:07:21] Mr. Chairman. Yeah. Yes.

[1:07:22] As, as much as I would like to talk about, you know,

[1:07:24] the personnel issue ahead of town meeting

[1:07:27] and what happened, we should probably just get,

[1:07:30] get across the, across the finish line for town meeting

[1:07:33] and then we can worry about, you know, what's kind

[1:07:35] of happening with personnel issues afterwards.

[1:07:39] Or I don't know if we need to stack our deck without,

[1:07:42] you know, in the middle of all

[1:07:44] everything that's actually going on.

[1:07:45] I think we could probably get a good review process of

[1:07:49] what actually happened for the year

[1:07:51] and then kind of come at it from a,

[1:07:53] a, a different perspective.

[1:07:54] I don't know that we need to add it

[1:07:55] in the middle of our, our,

[1:07:58] I it's more for, I, I don't disagree.

[1:08:00] I mean, I don't think it's really gonna

[1:08:01] change the process at all.

[1:08:03] It's still, we're still gonna be backed up against town

[1:08:05] meeting for free cash, whether we have an executive

[1:08:07] session of what happened or not. I

[1:08:09] Mean, personally I'd like to know, just know, in general.

[1:08:13] Well though, you've seen, you saw my email

[1:08:16] and, you know, you know, my position on it.

[1:08:18] I'm, I'm, and I'm with you. I, I completely agree.

[1:08:21] I just don't know that this is going to be conducive

[1:08:23] to trying to get us where we need to be for town meeting

[1:08:27] and instead of chasing, you know,

[1:08:30] or even no putting people on the hot seat

[1:08:33] in this situation right now, we can always come back and,

[1:08:36] and put people on the hot seat right after.

[1:08:38] Well I, I'm just saying is we're not putting anyone on the

[1:08:40] hot seat then it's just more

[1:08:41] of an explanation of what's going on. I,

[1:08:43] I've said, I've said my

[1:08:44] piece, whatever you wanna do, Mr. Chairman,

[1:08:46] I mean it, I'd rather do the executive

[1:08:50] because I mean, in general, I mean,

[1:08:54] Well you're the chair, you can just

[1:08:56] call it an executive meeting.

[1:08:57] That's it. Just call it,

[1:09:00] We'll have an executive.

[1:09:03] It's, and to your point, yeah,

[1:09:05] it's not gonna affect anything we do

[1:09:06] after executive going forward.

[1:09:08] The budget's, the budget and free cash is free cash.

[1:09:12] It's just more of an explanation. Okay.

[1:09:16] What are the two options again, Mr. Chairman?

[1:09:19] So with free cash. Yeah.

[1:09:22] One is is that we take from, we go from stabilization

[1:09:24] to offset and then replenish

[1:09:26] or the other one is moving town meeting.

[1:09:28] Well what's the, what's the chances

[1:09:30] that we're actually gonna have free cash

[1:09:32] certified by town meeting?

[1:09:34] Well, if we have free cash certified by town meeting,

[1:09:36] then there, there is no issue.

[1:09:38] What's the chances of that actually

[1:09:40] Happening?

[1:09:41] When I asked CLA about that, they were, they were doubtful.

[1:09:47] Okay. There's, there's a lot of issues going on.

[1:09:50] Okay. Is there any impact to,

[1:09:53] by using a stabilization fund, any impact to

[1:09:56] bond ratings or anything like that? No. Okay. Thank you.

[1:09:59] Well, We, that helps.

[1:10:01] I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm under the assumption

[1:10:03] that if we used stabilization

[1:10:06] and a week later CLA certified free cash,

[1:10:08] that it's just gonna, it's just gonna go right back

[1:10:11] in that it won't be Yeah.

[1:10:12] Until another town meeting that we

[1:10:14] re replenish stabilization with it. Yeah.

[1:10:17] We, we would just, you know, so there would be no,

[1:10:20] no appropriations from free cash.

[1:10:22] So typically, like I said,

[1:10:23] we usually have like a million left

[1:10:25] over whatever that number is.

[1:10:27] We would have that in full

[1:10:29] and then we would just, you know, depending on

[1:10:31] how much we took outta stabilization.

[1:10:33] Replenish stabilization,

[1:10:36] I don't have any concerns about replenishing stabilization.

[1:10:39] We're, you know, we're probably, our target is between seven

[1:10:42] and 9% of the operating budget.

[1:10:45] We're very close to 9%.

[1:10:47] We have been putting in $300,000 every year, which is the,

[1:10:49] the lowest, you know, we could certainly make adjustments

[1:10:53] and, and get that back to where it needs to be.

[1:10:55] If there was a shortfall, I don't expect there

[1:10:57] to be a shortfall, but, you know, it's not ideal, obviously.

[1:11:02] And, and we'll talk about that,

[1:11:04] but it's not, it's not fatal, you know, it's just,

[1:11:06] it's just not, it's not ideal.

[1:11:10] One more question, Mr. Chairman Sanchez.

[1:11:14] So from the year before we had certified X

[1:11:16] and then we had 3 million left over.

[1:11:18] Yeah. So can that 3 million still be used

[1:11:21] or it has to be certified with this as well? Okay. Yeah.

[1:11:23] Certified. So after, we'll Put it all together

[1:11:25] After July 1st.

[1:11:27] Free cash can't be touched again until it's certified.

[1:11:31] That's where we're getting to.

[1:11:32] Six and a half. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Thank

[1:11:34] You.

[1:11:38] Okay.

[1:11:48] We'll see that.

[1:11:49] Do we want sit here and discuss what we're gonna do then?

[1:11:52] If, if we're not gonna have it ready?

[1:11:55] Meaning we have two options.

[1:11:59] I, I'm personally, I don't want to move town either.

[1:12:02] I, I don't think we can move town meeting.

[1:12:04] I think the bylaws fixed. I think the only

[1:12:06] Option's gonna have to Civilization.

[1:12:08] Yeah. So, okay.

[1:12:09] And I wouldn't do that to the town members

[1:12:11] Anyway.

[1:12:12] No, no

[1:12:14] One option.

[1:12:16] Okay. We Would just be compounding a

[1:12:18] problem if we tried doing it.

[1:12:19] Yeah, I agree. Alright, so that one was board

[1:12:23] to discuss and possibly vote and I there was a table.

[1:12:27] Well, yeah, because we're gonna

[1:12:28] wait until the numbers, you gotta

[1:12:29] Wait until the pond At the end of the week.

[1:12:32] Yep. Okay. Hey, look at

[1:12:36] This new business board to approve

[1:12:38] and assignments from meeting of March 3rd, 2026.

[1:12:42] Mr. Chairman, I move to approve

[1:12:45] the meeting minutes from Tuesday, March 3rd, 2026

[1:12:50] with four members present.

[1:12:54] Second Motion's been made.

[1:12:56] And second. All in favor? Aye.

[1:12:57] Aye. I abstain, right?

[1:13:00] Yeah, you can abstain. That's fine. Take that one too.

[1:13:03] Board to approve assignments for meeting

[1:13:05] of March 17th, 2026. Mr.

[1:13:07] Chairman, I move to approve the me meeting minutes from

[1:13:11] Tuesday, March 17th with four members present.

[1:13:15] Second Motion's been made. And second. All in favor?

[1:13:18] Aye. Aye. Aye. An abstention

[1:13:22] motion carries 4 0 1.

[1:13:24] Both do abstention or to approve

[1:13:27] and sign seasonal liquor licenses

[1:13:29] for Gremio Lusitano Club Inc.

[1:13:32] Ludlow Country Club and Ludlow Fish and Game Club Inc.

[1:13:34] Ah, shoot

[1:13:38] Mr.

[1:13:39] Chairman,

[1:13:40] Mr.

[1:13:41] Gennette. I move, where is it?

[1:13:42] Lost it. Third one down, new business.

[1:13:47] Oh, Mr. Chairman, I move to approve

[1:13:50] and sign seasonal liquor licenses for Gremio Lusitano Club

[1:13:54] and Ludlow Country Club and Ludlow Fish Game.

[1:13:57] Second. Motion's been made

[1:14:00] and seconded. All in favor? Aye.

[1:14:02] Aye. Motion carries five zero.

[1:14:07] Board to review and sign the contract.

[1:14:09] Pardon me. Board to review

[1:14:11] and sign the contract between Access Care Partners

[1:14:14] for its portion of the non-federal match required

[1:14:16] of the Area Agency on Aging in the amount

[1:14:18] of $3,626 and 6 cents.

[1:14:22] Mr. Chairman, Mr. Gennette,

[1:14:24] I move that we sign the contract between approve

[1:14:27] and sign the contract between Access Care Partners

[1:14:30] for its portion of the non-federal match required

[1:14:33] of the Area Agency on Aging in the amount

[1:14:36] of $3,626 and 6 cents.

[1:14:41] Second. Motion's been made and seconded. All in favor? Aye.

[1:14:44] Aye. Aye. Motion carries five zero. Board to approve

[1:14:48] and sign the one day alcohol permit

[1:14:49] for purse bingo to be held at St.

[1:14:51] John the Baptist School on May 15th, 2026

[1:14:54] from five to 10:00 PM

[1:14:56] Can you do that one Manny? Sure.

[1:14:58] Mr. Chairman, Mr. Silva,

[1:15:00] I moved that we approved the one day alcohol permit for

[1:15:03] purse bingo to be held at St.

[1:15:05] John the Baptist School on May 15th, 2026

[1:15:09] from five to 10:00 PM

[1:15:11] Second. Motions been made and seconded.

[1:15:13] All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye.

[1:15:15] Motion carries five zero.

[1:15:17] Board to approve the environmentally

[1:15:19] preferable products policy.

[1:15:22] A

[1:15:32] So, Mr.

[1:15:33] Chairman, I can explain this. So in,

[1:15:37] in the years past as part of the, the application package

[1:15:42] for a recycling grant from the DEP, we would have

[1:15:47] to, Jim Goodreau would send me, forward me an email

[1:15:52] that I would send to all staff

[1:15:54] and board members, essentially, you know, reminding people

[1:15:57] that they need to, to recycle.

[1:15:59] That was enough to suffice for the grant application.

[1:16:02] They've, since DEP has since increased

[1:16:06] or made the requirements more rigorous.

[1:16:08] So now we actually have to have a, a policy that says,

[1:16:12] you know, essentially encouraging

[1:16:15] or requiring town employees to, to recycle.

[1:16:20] And that's what this is.

[1:16:27] Mr. Chairman, Mr. Gennette,

[1:16:30] I move to approve the environmentally

[1:16:32] preferable products policy.

[1:16:35] Second Motion's been made and seconded. And all in favor?

[1:16:39] Aye. Aye. Aye. Motion carries five zero.

[1:16:45] Mr.

[1:16:46] Chairman. So Jim, Jim put this together

[1:16:48] and he put my name as the, as the signatory.

[1:16:52] I'm happy to sign it. Or if

[1:16:53] we, you want me to send it around?

[1:16:54] You guys can sign it. Mr.

[1:16:56] Chairman, I move to approve the town administrator

[1:17:00] to sign the Environmental Preferable Products policy.

[1:17:05] Second. Motions made and

[1:17:09] seconded. All in favor? Aye.

[1:17:10] Aye. Motion carries. Five zero.

[1:17:14] There you go. Aye. I said

[1:17:17] Aye.

[1:17:18] Aye. Here, hold on.

[1:17:23] Oh,

[1:17:26] There's another one.

[1:17:27] There's another one.

[1:17:35] Okay.

[1:17:41] Just I think that one's only one signature. Double check.

[1:17:45] Yeah. Boards declare

[1:17:48] the fire department's 2002 Pierce Arrow Tower as surplus.

[1:17:52] Mr. Chairman, Mr.

[1:17:53] Gennette, I move to declare the fire department's 2002

[1:17:58] Pierce Arrow Tower as surplus

[1:18:03] Second.

[1:18:04] Motions been made and seconded. All in favor? Aye. A Aye.

[1:18:06] Motion carries five zero Board to discuss

[1:18:09] and approve adding the position of municipal finance.

[1:18:11] Yeah, we already, yeah,

[1:18:13] We voted.

[1:18:14] Did we actually vote on it?

[1:18:14] I believe so. Yeah. Did we? Yes we did. Yeah.

[1:18:18] Okay. Tired? I don't think we did.

[1:18:20] I don't think we voted on it. We did.

[1:18:22] Carrie mentioned that. I don't think we voted. Oh

[1:18:24] Yeah. Well,

[1:18:25] Well let's do it.

[1:18:26] have to vote again if, if,

[1:18:28] Do it again or to discuss

[1:18:30] and approve adding the position

[1:18:31] of municipal financial direct finance director to the town

[1:18:35] classification plan at the M7 level.

[1:18:37] Mr. Chairman, Mr. Gennette.

[1:18:39] I move to approve adding the position of municipal finance

[1:18:43] director to the Town's classification plan at

[1:18:46] the M7 level.

[1:18:48] Second Motion has been made and seconded. All in favor?

[1:18:53] Aye. Five zero. Board to discuss

[1:18:55] and possibly vote the restructure committee liaison list.

[1:18:58] I think I, I had,

[1:19:01] I There's something in your packet for everyone.

[1:19:04] I mean, we can chew on it right now if

[1:19:06] you wanna look at it. And then,

[1:19:07] Mr.

[1:19:08] Chairman? Yes. I I think we should look at 'em

[1:19:10] and then kind of study it a little bit

[1:19:13] and see if there's something else that

[1:19:14] No, that's what I was saying is saying that we don't have

[1:19:17] to vote on it now, but yeah, that's something that I, I,

[1:19:20] I was put in the, I put in the packet, sorry.

[1:19:23] But if there's anything, 'cause I know

[1:19:24] that there might be one or two.

[1:19:27] I know Mr. Alves had said something at one point, so,

[1:19:30] and based on actually worked out Anthony would be that

[1:19:35] because he is vice chair

[1:19:36] and I, I figured that's where it would end up.

[1:19:38] But, so just if you guys just,

[1:19:41] and I gave, I gave you one, right? And you have one? Yeah,

[1:19:43] Yeah, Yeah.

[1:19:44] I mean, just go ahead and take it

[1:19:45] and we can, we can put it back on the agenda for next week.

[1:19:48] Sorry, just so everybody knows, I'm comfortable

[1:19:50] with this list, but if anybody wants

[1:19:52] to move anything around, just lemme know.

[1:19:54] Yeah. I mean, take take till next week. Yes.

[1:19:57] There's nothing that has to be done right now.

[1:19:59] I mean, we've gone later than

[1:20:02] we've been a month or two after, so

[1:20:04] Yeah.

[1:20:05] So that'll be a table. Okay.

[1:20:11] And we already did this one too. Did we?

[1:20:15] Oh CIP board to discuss

[1:20:16] and possibly vote on fiscal year 27 CIPC recommendations,

[1:20:21] Mr.

[1:20:22] Chairman. So the Capital Improvement Planning Committee has

[1:20:26] made their recommendations.

[1:20:27] They're presented here.

[1:20:29] It's actually gonna be really easy

[1:20:30] because there was only, there was not a lot of requests

[1:20:33] and there was only one request that was not approved.

[1:20:38] And that was the ACOs vehicle.

[1:20:40] We tried working, we, well,

[1:20:44] we, how do I wanna say this?

[1:20:48] A request for an animal control officer vehicle,

[1:20:51] excuse me, was in. Bless

[1:20:53] You.

[1:20:54] And we had started by asking, you know, what, what type

[1:20:58] of vehicle does the ACO really need

[1:21:00] and what is the price for that?

[1:21:03] Well, when they came back with a price

[1:21:04] and it was exorbitant, we said, well wait,

[1:21:07] that's a little too much.

[1:21:09] And then so we said, you know,

[1:21:11] we really can't do that right now.

[1:21:13] We might have to plan for something like that.

[1:21:15] And then the ACO came back with a much cheaper vehicle

[1:21:20] and we're like, well wait a minute, are we paying

[1:21:22] for a vehicle that's not gonna meet the needs of her now?

[1:21:25] So we kind of got caught in between.

[1:21:27] So we're fully expecting to have

[1:21:28] to review the ACO vehicle again next year just

[1:21:32] to get some better information around it.

[1:21:34] It was declined for that reason. Okay.

[1:21:39] But that was the only thing that was declined.

[1:21:43] There was one other consideration, though.

[1:21:47] Normally we have HVAC units for the schools.

[1:21:50] They didn't request any, we don't know why.

[1:21:53] We don't know what happened. I had asked Mr. Manfredi

[1:21:56] to go back to the school department and, and ask why,

[1:22:00] because we have a lot of HVAC units

[1:22:02] and they have about a 25 year lifespan on 'em.

[1:22:05] It's almost like the police vehicles

[1:22:07] replacing two every year.

[1:22:08] If they lasted 25 years

[1:22:10] and we have 50 of them, then we gotta, we gotta cycle

[1:22:13] through them through a certain amount of time.

[1:22:15] Otherwise we end up with a whole slew of them that need

[1:22:19] to be repaired all at once.

[1:22:20] So it's a kind of a routine thing.

[1:22:22] If they don't need 'em, that's great.

[1:22:24] Maybe we get a extra year out of 'em.

[1:22:26] But I just wanted to make sure of what it was.

[1:22:30] So I put out a request to them

[1:22:31] to at least let us know what was happening.

[1:22:34] I just did, I went through an energy audit with

[1:22:38] NV five over the town's energy audit.

[1:22:41] And I was on the roof at the,

[1:22:43] I believe it was the high school.

[1:22:45] And the walk-in freezer unit on the roof sounded like

[1:22:49] it was gonna die in front of me.

[1:22:50] It was horrible. So to not have a request at all

[1:22:53] for at least that unit was kind of surprising to me.

[1:22:56] So I let the school know about it

[1:22:58] and they're gonna do a little bit of research

[1:23:00] and they'll probably come back next year as well.

[1:23:02] Well, you have one on here. Replace ca cafeteria hvac.

[1:23:06] Oh, did they add it? Yeah. Did we add it?

[1:23:08] Tony, did we add that? Do you remember that?

[1:23:11] I, I think that was a, an addition from fiscal 28.

[1:23:16] Remember? Oh, you

[1:23:17] Did request it to move over you, right?

[1:23:18] Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. I think it was, oh,

[1:23:20] it was up, it was further in the 28. We moved it up.

[1:23:23] I think that's what happened.

[1:23:24] 'cause there was a little bit of

[1:23:25] You did request them to move one.

[1:23:27] Yeah.

[1:23:29] Oh, that's right. 'cause we just didn't want to get hit

[1:23:31] with too many of them back into 2028.

[1:23:33] Yeah. Yep. So we we advanced it.

[1:23:37] Yeah. Well, there you go.

[1:23:39] There you Go. Problem

[1:23:40] Solved.

[1:23:41] There you go.

[1:23:42] Does anybody have any questions on this?

[1:23:45] Nada. I I normally

[1:23:50] I would read through these so the community can hear 'em,

[1:23:53] but we're kind of pushing, pushing our luck. There's

[1:23:56] No community.

[1:23:57] There's no community listening, always watching. They're all

[1:24:00] Sleeping.

[1:24:01] They died off at the pond committee.

[1:24:02] What The, weren't the Bruins playing tonight?

[1:24:04] There's an asterisk next to the Gazebo Park sign

[1:24:09] and it says favor funding, but did not vote.

[1:24:13] Include

[1:24:18] Design sign, gazebo Park, 32 free cash.

[1:24:20] What, where are you seeing that?

[1:24:22] The top one is digital sign

[1:24:23] for Gazebo Park has an asterisk and on the back it says,

[1:24:27] So Please note the CIPC, the committee favored funding

[1:24:30] for this project, but did not take a vote on its inclusion

[1:24:33] in the capital article.

[1:24:34] Yeah,

[1:24:35] Mr.

[1:24:36] Chairman. Oh yeah, chairman James,

[1:24:38] you were gonna bring it tonight. Yeah,

[1:24:39] Yeah, yeah.

[1:24:40] So this didn't meet the requirements as a capital project,

[1:24:45] if I remember correctly.

[1:24:46] And we did want it to get funded

[1:24:49] and the select board can choose to fund it if they, they

[1:24:52] so choose, but because it didn't meet a cap,

[1:24:54] our capital requirement,

[1:24:57] we didn't approve it for funding. Does

[1:24:59] That sound, what did it fail to meet?

[1:25:04] I don't remember. I I think it, if, if my memory serves,

[1:25:08] it wasn't that it didn't meet the requirements.

[1:25:11] We just, in the meeting it was talked about

[1:25:15] and then it wasn't actually listed in the list of,

[1:25:19] of capital that as, as you, you, you see it in the,

[1:25:23] on the sheet with all the free cash expenditures and,

[1:25:26] and I think the committee just missed it.

[1:25:27] Correct. And then I don't know if it, it was Tony or,

[1:25:30] or Lewis caught it that, that they didn't actually voted.

[1:25:34] Right. So the discussion was, you know, they,

[1:25:36] they generally sick that night.

[1:25:38] Were in favor of it.

[1:25:39] And that the select board, you know, can,

[1:25:42] can ultimately vote to recommend it if, if,

[1:25:44] if they're in favor of it.

[1:25:46] So this 32 2 is included with the total number. Oh,

[1:25:49] That's right.

[1:25:50] So we didn't want to have a a I

[1:25:51] wasn't calling another meeting.

[1:25:52] Correct. I chose not

[1:25:53] to call another meeting just for this either. Right.

[1:25:56] Yeah. So you're bringing it. Yeah.

[1:25:58] So it's, you're bringing it here now? Correct. Okay.

[1:26:05] My comment on it would be yes, only

[1:26:07] because I've had it in my notes that I think, you know,

[1:26:11] just on the communication side is if it was either there,

[1:26:14] I was thinking even front of town hall.

[1:26:16] But is this gonna have like town events?

[1:26:18] It's gonna say when the election is, things like that. Yeah.

[1:26:22] Okay. I mean, I don't have a problem with it.

[1:26:26] I think it could only help.

[1:26:29] Well, especially since we had a very light year.

[1:26:32] If we're gonna do anything like this,

[1:26:34] it's probably the, the year to do it.

[1:26:36] That's correct.

[1:26:40] Any other comments on it?

[1:26:45] Other Than the fact that we technically don't

[1:26:47] Have free cash?

[1:26:48] No, that was the Oh, that part. Yeah.

[1:26:53] Do we table this too? Or do you vote on it?

[1:26:59] Yeah, Because this hinges on free cash.

[1:27:02] You know, I, Or do you vote on it now?

[1:27:05] Just to be ready?

[1:27:07] Not as far as the capital project,

[1:27:09] but just kind of what's going on in the world right now.

[1:27:14] Apparently fertilizer prices are going

[1:27:15] to be going up exponentially.

[1:27:18] That may change how the DPW has to purchase stuff.

[1:27:22] And I'm just want to let everybody know

[1:27:24] that there might be some operational expense associated with

[1:27:28] that if they can even get it.

[1:27:33] Hmm. And that's a bid process, right?

[1:27:40] Yeah, the DPW does their. Yeah.

[1:27:42] And, and the and the golf course. Yep.

[1:27:50] Again, that's not a capital thing,

[1:27:51] but I just really kind of wanted to,

[1:27:53] it was in my brain space the other day to bring it up. So

[1:27:56] If, if I could recommend Mr.

[1:27:58] Chairman, maybe it is prudent to, to table it in the event

[1:28:03] that, you know, we do have to use stabilization

[1:28:06] and the board votes for it.

[1:28:07] I can make, I can indicate

[1:28:10] that the source is stabilization instead of free cash.

[1:28:13] We don't have to redo the whole document.

[1:28:17] It's a minor thing, but I think it's an important thing.

[1:28:25] You should vote on it as a whole.

[1:28:26] So does anyone, are everyone agree

[1:28:28] with tabling this as well?

[1:28:31] Yep. Yes. Okay.

[1:28:33] Yeah. So I mean,

[1:28:40] fire, we could approve,

[1:28:41] but we'll approve it as one, I guess.

[1:28:44] All right. That's tabled.

[1:28:50] Alright. Did new positions

[1:28:52] and reclassification requests.

[1:28:56] And we already did the library with the M2 to M3

[1:29:01] and M3 to M2. Board to review

[1:29:05] and discuss annual town meeting warrant items, articles.

[1:29:09] I already did That. That little thing.

[1:29:11] We, we did some of them.

[1:29:12] We did some of them, but not all of them.

[1:29:14] I'll, I'll go quick. I'll go

[1:29:16] Mr.

[1:29:17] Chairman. Mr. Alves. We approve these one by one?

[1:29:22] No, no. You, you don't have to.

[1:29:24] I mean, if you want, if you want to, you know,

[1:29:28] it depends on if you want to yank, yank an article or,

[1:29:33] Well, some of these are annual anyways.

[1:29:35] Yeah. I mean,

[1:29:38] article one Town Officer reports, that's

[1:29:42] Standard town committee reports.

[1:29:44] Standard electronic voting devices.

[1:29:47] Okay. So if we end up having a discussion on

[1:29:49] one, we might have to vote.

[1:29:50] Okay. Got it. Yeah. Okay.

[1:29:52] Yeah. So Article one is

[1:29:57] the Town Officer Reports article,

[1:29:58] which is an annual article.

[1:30:00] Same thing with Article two,

[1:30:01] which is the town committee reports.

[1:30:04] Article three is an electronic voting devices

[1:30:12] Article that we'd use reserve funds

[1:30:17] to purchase electronic voting devices.

[1:30:22] So, you know what, what this would do is, instead of,

[1:30:24] you know, town meeting members raising their hands,

[1:30:27] they'd actually have a device that they would,

[1:30:31] they would choose, they would obviously hit a button on the

[1:30:34] remote and it would,

[1:30:35] it would record their vote on, on the screen.

[1:30:39] The, to the cost was $8,200.

[1:30:42] I think that was for 150 or 200 of them.

[1:30:47] And, you know, we'll have, we'll have some,

[1:30:50] some more background information at town meeting.

[1:30:54] You know, this is something Kim

[1:30:56] and I have been talking about for a little bit.

[1:30:58] A lot of towns are doing it.

[1:31:00] It enhances transparency and it's more efficient.

[1:31:03] It's more expedient. So any questions on that?

[1:31:07] Article four is, would just change the bylaw

[1:31:10] that would allow the electronic voting devices to be used.

[1:31:15] Article five is the budget Article six revolving funds,

[1:31:20] which is an annual article,

[1:31:21] article seven Commission on Disability, which is their

[1:31:26] funding of the $4,900.

[1:31:28] Article eight is for Celebrate Ludlow.

[1:31:32] If you recall last year there was, we, we removed funding

[1:31:35] for Celebrate Ludlow.

[1:31:36] 'cause we've used the $5,000 in community funding from

[1:31:40] from USA recycling to to fund Celebrate Ludlow.

[1:31:45] But they do more activities.

[1:31:46] So now they're, they asked for a little bit more funding.

[1:31:50] Article nine is the annual chapter 90 funds acceptance.

[1:31:54] Article 10 is the mass DOT contracting, article 11,

[1:31:58] capital Improvements.

[1:32:00] Article 12. The DIFF special revenue Fund, which we will use

[1:32:04] to, it looks like we're going to be using that to, to, to,

[1:32:09] to pave Steven Street.

[1:32:12] Article 13 is the Finance Committee Reserve

[1:32:14] Fund annual article.

[1:32:17] Article 14, also an annual article.

[1:32:19] The Building Infrastructure Fund.

[1:32:22] Article 15 would fund seed money

[1:32:25] for the general stabilization fund.

[1:32:28] Excuse me, it would be, that's the, the $300,000

[1:32:31] for the general stabilization fund, which we do every year.

[1:32:34] Article 16 is the LHS Turf Field Replacement Fund.

[1:32:39] We've been putting a hundred thousand dollars on

[1:32:41] that fund every year until we have enough money to pay

[1:32:45] for a replacement article.

[1:32:47] Seven radio communications maintenance funding also

[1:32:50] funded from reserves.

[1:32:51] Article 18 we talked about with Carrie.

[1:32:55] Article 19 would deposit seed money into the capital

[1:32:59] stabilization fund, newly created

[1:33:01] Article 20 would put seed money in the park

[1:33:04] and rec capital stabilization fund also recently created

[1:33:09] Article 21 would

[1:33:12] dedicate $200,000 in reserves

[1:33:15] to our Opeb trust fund. Yep.

[1:33:19] On the opeb, I know Opep can be used for cemetery

[1:33:22] and everything, but we're gonna use the,

[1:33:25] the other funding source for the fence around the cemetery.

[1:33:30] Yeah. Yeah. So Jim, Jim's aware of it.

[1:33:32] Jim's on, on top of it.

[1:33:33] Okay. So we're gonna, In fact, I just got the latest

[1:33:37] Opeb can't be...

[1:33:38] No, it's the, the summary Perpetual Care Cemetery. Oh,

[1:33:40] Perpetual.

[1:33:41] Okay. But you can use this. No. Yeah. You got

[1:33:43] It's in the same op.

[1:33:45] Yep. It's, it's not opeb it's, it's the

[1:33:49] cemetery Perpetual fund.

[1:33:50] But the statement has OPEB and,

[1:33:53] and the cemetery fund and the state.

[1:33:55] Same statement that

[1:33:56] That's, I didn't know it either.

[1:33:58] I looked at it, I was like, what?

[1:33:59] I can't believe you could use that.

[1:34:02] Well, they got a lot of money in their perpetual anyway.

[1:34:04] Yeah, they do. They do.

[1:34:07] Article 22 is submitted by the planning board.

[1:34:10] It's a $10,000 request to, to pay Ms Sunnerborg,

[1:34:15] who was here tonight to implement some

[1:34:17] of the housing production plan recommendations.

[1:34:21] Article 23 was the public safety HVAC

[1:34:25] article 24 proposes

[1:34:28] to move the annual town election date to

[1:34:31] the third Monday in May.

[1:34:34] The reason for that, and, and Article 25 would change the,

[1:34:39] or that's the town election.

[1:34:40] The town meeting would be moved up

[1:34:41] to the first Monday in April.

[1:34:43] The reason for that is, you know, the,

[1:34:46] the public safety HVAC bond is a perfect example.

[1:34:49] So if town meeting approves the, the, the,

[1:34:51] the the ballot question, we have to actually ho host

[1:34:55] an unbudgeted and,

[1:34:56] and unexpected special town election to the tune

[1:34:59] of about $25,000.

[1:35:03] It's also, as Tony's experiencing tonight, I mean he's,

[1:35:06] he's, he's had the benefit of being on fin com,

[1:35:08] but that won't always be the case.

[1:35:10] So a newly elected select board member gets

[1:35:13] dropped into the first meeting.

[1:35:14] You're voting on the budget.

[1:35:16] You're voting on, on town meeting articles.

[1:35:18] It's highly inefficient.

[1:35:20] So the, the reason that there's such a, there's 35 days

[1:35:25] between the town meeting

[1:35:27] and the town election is that's, that's a state law.

[1:35:30] There needs to be 35 days between the, the time

[1:35:33] that the select board votes

[1:35:35] to put the question on the ballot

[1:35:37] and when the, when the election actually takes place.

[1:35:43] Article 26 would just change the references of Board

[1:35:47] of Public Works to select board.

[1:35:49] Article 27 is,

[1:35:52] or the amendments to the Unreasonable Noise bylaw amendment

[1:35:55] are the, the Unreasonable Noise bylaw.

[1:35:57] I don't know if if Bill wanted to talk

[1:35:59] to that at all. This is his.

[1:36:00] Yeah. This, this was, we got the actual

[1:36:07] Ordinance ordinance

[1:36:08] In place and originally we had put in decibels,

[1:36:12] but then we dec I guess it was decided not to

[1:36:15] because the feeling was that it might not have passed with

[1:36:20] the ordinance and the decibels

[1:36:24] after feedback from citizens,

[1:36:30] we decide, at least I decided,

[1:36:32] and I don't think the board, the board's fine with it,

[1:36:34] that obviously this is something that goes to the,

[1:36:37] to the citizens is that we 65 decibels from 7:00 AM

[1:36:41] to 10:00 PM and 50 decibels from 10:00 PM to 7:00 AM

[1:36:44] in essence this ordinance

[1:36:47] or this unreasonable

[1:36:49] noise standards.

[1:36:52] And now decibels give something

[1:36:54] that the police can at least have a guidelines to.

[1:36:57] In the past, there really were none.

[1:37:00] And they're obviously, we had some discussion,

[1:37:02] I had some discussion with the chief just saying, Hey,

[1:37:06] I think they're $40 for the forum if we could equip,

[1:37:09] equip the police officers with 'em.

[1:37:11] So if they go out on a call, they have 'em with 'em.

[1:37:15] So, Mr. Chairman, I have questions.

[1:37:20] So this whole 50 decibels from 10:00 PM to 7:00 AM

[1:37:26] exterior construction maintenance, all this other stuff.

[1:37:29] So your neighbor can get out on their roof

[1:37:31] and start doing roofing.

[1:37:33] Not that they would do roofing in the middle of the night,

[1:37:35] but, and as long as they stay under 50 decibels,

[1:37:38] this can all happen through the middle of the night.

[1:37:49] It refers back to, so the construction noise standards

[1:37:52] and the maintenance noise standards between

[1:37:57] 10:00 PM and 7:00 AM is is 50.

[1:37:59] It would be 50 DBA 'cause it refers back to the,

[1:38:03] I don't think there should be any noise

[1:38:05] allowance in the middle of the night.

[1:38:11] You know, we already got a problem

[1:38:13] with dumpsters getting picked up in neighborhoods

[1:38:16] at four o'clock in the morning.

[1:38:19] You know, and they're gonna go, well it wasn't 50 decibels

[1:38:21] or nobody's been reading it.

[1:38:22] And I just don't know that I,

[1:38:27] I like the whole 50 decibels from 10:00 PM

[1:38:29] to 7:00 AM And I also think that

[1:38:31] that's gonna tank your tank, your article.

[1:38:34] Well, so let's, let's go back to the original thing is

[1:38:38] that the thing would've been tanked with decibels in

[1:38:41] It.

[1:38:42] So I'm just saying if you do your 65 decibels from 7:00 AM

[1:38:45] to 10:00 PM and leave it, I think you're probably fine.

[1:38:47] But as soon as you allocate that, you can have up

[1:38:50] to 50 decibels of noise from 10:00 PM to seven.

[1:38:53] Am you,

[1:38:55] But in the same sense is if we're gonna put the decibels

[1:38:58] in almost every community

[1:38:59] that does these decibel levels Yeah.

[1:39:01] Has a, has a till 10 or 11 or even midnight

[1:39:05] and then they have decibel levels after.

[1:39:07] And is 50 a decent decibel level for that?

[1:39:10] Yeah, it's actually in some instances it's been higher.

[1:39:12] Some it's been lower. And the, the 65, that's been up

[1:39:17] to 70, up to 75, I think.

[1:39:20] And, and looking at the research,

[1:39:22] because those were the actual original numbers

[1:39:24] that we had put out. Yeah,

[1:39:26] You I'm sorry.

[1:39:28] No, no, go ahead. You also have establishments.

[1:39:29] They're open till 2:00 AM

[1:39:32] Yeah.

[1:39:33] But they can't have outside music playing until,

[1:39:35] Well does this, that's for

[1:39:37] outside music or is it for all noise?

[1:39:38] Well, they can now because they can, they can do it.

[1:39:41] They can play till 7:00 AM if as long

[1:39:43] as it's under 50 decibels.

[1:39:46] You can have an acoustic band playing out all night.

[1:39:49] No, because they, their ordinances No, they have

[1:39:52] or on their, on their license.

[1:39:55] It's also based the, their, their licenses also have,

[1:39:58] based on cer, they have 'em on their,

[1:40:00] because actually, to tell you the truth, if we want to get

[1:40:03] Vanish Valley, it says till 12:00 AM But his hours

[1:40:06] of business are till nine.

[1:40:09] Yeah. He He, he cuts it. Yeah,

[1:40:11] That's, he cuts it.

[1:40:13] Yeah. I mean there's been instances where it's been 9 0 7

[1:40:15] or something, but it's like...

[1:40:17] I just, I, I think this is dangerous is all

[1:40:19] That.

[1:40:20] I'm telling you, when you put decibel levels

[1:40:22] and everything, that's basically

[1:40:24] how it's done anywhere else.

[1:40:28] There's the window of time during the day

[1:40:31] and then there's the window of time at night.

[1:40:33] I agree with putting decibels for your hours of operation.

[1:40:36] 7:00 AM to 10:00 PM is quite the, the range for you

[1:40:41] to have noise, construction, all those things.

[1:40:44] So here's the flip side.

[1:40:46] If you don't put in the nighttime ones,

[1:40:47] that means it could be a hundred, right?

[1:40:49] There's no, there's no discerning it. Right?

[1:40:52] You, you don't have any kind of number on

[1:40:54] It.

[1:40:55] Well, you could say those activities

[1:40:55] are prohibited during that time. Oh

[1:40:58] Sure.

[1:41:00] What was that Anthony? I'm sorry. It's

[1:41:02] Sorry.

[1:41:04] I'm two hours late for bed. I'm two hours late for bed.

[1:41:09] I said, what did I say?

[1:41:10] You could have, I thought it said this

[1:41:14] last in the last one.

[1:41:16] You know, activities are generally prohibited

[1:41:19] or are prohibited during the hours of X and Y.

[1:41:24] That works, It'll definitely tank

[1:41:26] Mr. Chairman.

[1:41:27] Mr. Alves, Unless you're not done. No,

[1:41:29] I'm good.

[1:41:33] If I put this bylaw aside and,

[1:41:35] and I know you're, you're trying

[1:41:36] to promote this from a good spot, just in a general sense.

[1:41:40] I'm not a fan of re-litigating something.

[1:41:42] We just put out six.

[1:41:44] I would say that about anything we were trying to change

[1:41:45] that we just approved six months ago.

[1:41:48] Just 'cause we haven't seen, I I haven't gotten comments

[1:41:53] positive or negative that it's working. That it's not. I

[1:41:57] There's been, you guys may have, there's no, there's no,

[1:41:59] there's been no outdoor music.

[1:42:00] Right. So I I think that proves my point almost that we,

[1:42:04] we just approved something in October.

[1:42:06] We haven't even seen if that works.

[1:42:08] And again, I'm putting this aside, any article.

[1:42:10] If if we were trying to tweak six months

[1:42:12] later, I probably wouldn't be.

[1:42:16] That's all. But

[1:42:18] I, I know you're trying to do the right thing.

[1:42:20] I'm not Well understanding the, how it started

[1:42:25] and where it got to,

[1:42:30] I'm not, I'm not,

[1:42:31] You know, the road that we're gonna go down, if this,

[1:42:33] if this article doesn't go in,

[1:42:35] Mr. Chairman, we can

[1:42:36] Vote, we can put it in. We can

[1:42:37] Well that's the thing.

[1:42:39] Voting on it. And I'll tell you

[1:42:40] what, you know, what's gonna happen. Well,

[1:42:43] Absolutely.

[1:42:44] It's already happened. I already got called,

[1:42:48] It's gonna get shot down.

[1:42:51] That's why we didn't put it in originally. Mr. Sanches.

[1:42:53] Oh no. It just says construction is permitted

[1:42:57] between 7:00 AM and 8:00 PM Yeah, that's,

[1:42:59] That's what I was getting at. And then

[1:43:00] In There somewhere, it tells you when

[1:43:02] You can do it.

[1:43:03] Yeah. It's only right, it's only prohibited

[1:43:04] between the 65 decibel

[1:43:07] and also construction is not permitted on Sundays.

[1:43:11] So you can't do construction at night regardless,

[1:43:14] according to number two.

[1:43:17] Or I'm sorry, after 8:00 PM

[1:43:21] on weekdays and Saturdays.

[1:43:24] So each one of 'em has, and then you have maintenance noise

[1:43:27] also between 7:00 AM and 8:00 PM weekdays

[1:43:30] and Saturdays generally prohibited on Sundays.

[1:43:33] So that would be, dumpsters would be included in that.

[1:43:36] So, well,

[1:43:38] You're never gonna get it passed based on dumpsters

[1:43:41] because then we've had this maintenance discussion.

[1:43:43] Mainten is now you've got USA's gotta wait until 7:00 AM

[1:43:47] Yeah, they got, they have an,

[1:43:48] or I don't think it's seven though.

[1:43:50] They have an ordinance.

[1:43:52] Yeah, it's something It it, yeah,

[1:43:54] it's a little, little fluffy. I think it's 7:00 AM

[1:43:57] Past three locations I've lived in, in, in town.

[1:43:59] There's dumpsters being picked up between three and 5:00 AM

[1:44:03] It's ridiculous.

[1:44:06] It sort of Rough. I won't say where

[1:44:07] because it's not the business's fault.

[1:44:08] Yeah,

[1:44:10] No.

[1:44:11] If I, if I was a dumpster business,

[1:44:12] I would want do it in the middle of the night too.

[1:44:14] That's what I would want. But

[1:44:16] that doesn't mean the residents are appreciating it,

[1:44:21] Mr.

[1:44:22] Chairman. No, I don't, I don't disagree with the fact

[1:44:23] that one, not picking up trash at 3:00 AM But if someone's

[1:44:26] picking it up at five or 6:00 AM I guarantee you

[1:44:28] that when you go into the next contract negotiation

[1:44:31] and you say it's not till seven, that

[1:44:33] that fee's gonna go up.

[1:44:38] I'm just, 'cause you've limi you're limiting their hours.

[1:44:41] Well that's a good, that's a good angle.

[1:44:43] I hadn't thought of that,

[1:44:45] Mr.

[1:44:46] Chairman. So the bylaws already done.

[1:44:47] It's, you're just adding what's in, just

[1:44:49] Adding the, that one dec,

[1:44:50] those two lines with the decibels.

[1:44:52] Okay. I think we did the

[1:44:54] Rest of it's already done.

[1:44:55] It went through, it was ratified by the attorney general.

[1:44:58] It, it usually took a few months. Okay.

[1:45:00] We did that one at October. Is that October?

[1:45:03] Yeah, that one was October

[1:45:05] and it got probably a couple months ago.

[1:45:09] So this is to solidify a number decibel.

[1:45:13] It's, it's, it's to give guidelines also Guidelines.

[1:45:16] Okay. Tools

[1:45:18] To, to be honest, I mean the, the decibel levels

[1:45:21] that we were told was like 127, which was near impossible.

[1:45:26] So you don't, Mr.

[1:45:28] Chairman, you don't think this is gonna pass.

[1:45:36] It barely pa, actually the article itself without the

[1:45:39] decibels barely passed, if I remember correctly.

[1:45:41] So if you believe that this is not gonna pass,

[1:45:44] I would recommend that you pull it off.

[1:45:46] And much for what Anthony said too,

[1:45:48] we get an a better op opportunity

[1:45:50] to see what's happening in the community

[1:45:52] and come back at it at a different time when it probably has

[1:45:56] a better chance to, to even be,

[1:45:58] well, I don't better received

[1:46:00] Mr.

[1:46:01] Chairman, I don't think we should pull it off

[1:46:03] because we had it, A lot of people in here,

[1:46:06] we actually told them that we are going

[1:46:09] to put this article to town meeting.

[1:46:11] Oh, okay. With desa was, if you recall, I

[1:46:13] that's, we did tell him that. It

[1:46:15] Actually, I I don't think you were here for that,

[1:46:18] that initial one. Yeah, I mean, it, it, it,

[1:46:22] But I'm part of the board. I get it. Yeah.

[1:46:24] Yeah. No, I mean it's, you can more than make the,

[1:46:27] the motion to not have it and we vote on it. I

[1:46:31] I'm just thinking that you, if if this goes in

[1:46:33] and you're expecting it to fail,

[1:46:34] it's not gonna be coming back any, anytime.

[1:46:39] I think it's gotta pass. It, it could. I don't know.

[1:46:42] Because last time, I mean, to, to be honest, I mean, maybe

[1:46:46] minds have changed, but when we did the actual ordinance,

[1:46:50] it was close and it might have been 10, 12 votes, 15 votes.

[1:46:55] I I'm not, I'm not gonna make a motion to pull it.

[1:46:57] I was just trying to make a, a debate about it.

[1:46:59] And, you know, if, if you got it on there

[1:47:02] and you want feel good about it, then, then

[1:47:04] No, it is in the same sense we're, we're responding to

[1:47:09] a large contingent of people in a whole neighborhood,

[1:47:13] two neighborhoods that were very adamant

[1:47:17] about what was going on.

[1:47:18] And so it, it's to this point is that we're doing our job

[1:47:21] by responding to the citizens

[1:47:23] and now it's up to the rest of the citizens

[1:47:25] to make the decision if they think this is correct.

[1:47:27] So be it. So, you know, I agree,

[1:47:31] I agree with all that to a sense.

[1:47:33] Just, we haven't let the first part play yet. That's all.

[1:47:38] What happens then is we get back into a full season,

[1:47:41] like a whole summer of I'm not,

[1:47:44] I'm not stopping It.

[1:47:45] No, I know. Yeah. Okay. All right.

[1:47:48] Okay. Me keep going, Marc. Yep.

[1:47:50] Sorry I didn't, It's No,

[1:47:53] I mean that's what we're here for.

[1:47:55] We gotta discuss it. Yep.

[1:47:58] Article 28 is, is the petition

[1:48:03] for additional alcohol licenses.

[1:48:06] So, you know, I I put in three additional on-premises

[1:48:10] consumption, which would basically be, you know,

[1:48:13] all alcohol for restaurants.

[1:48:16] Just, you know, we, you guys can always reduce that

[1:48:20] or we can, if town meeting approves it

[1:48:24] and we get three licenses, you can always be discreet as to

[1:48:27] how many of those you, you, you you award.

[1:48:30] But I feel like it's an economic development tool,

[1:48:32] particularly with, you know, hopefully East Street, you know,

[1:48:37] developing a little bit and, and the mills.

[1:48:39] So that's what that is.

[1:48:41] Yeah. This one in general has been around for

[1:48:44] Bill Rooney was on this one years ago too, right?

[1:48:47] Yep. It's on premises. Sorry. No, yeah, it's on premises.

[1:48:50] It's not more liquor stores

[1:48:52] On prem...

[1:48:53] Yep. No. So, and I think my whole thing is

[1:48:55] that if something else goes into the mills,

[1:48:58] if it ever any point Franks gets blown up

[1:49:01] and something goes in there, you know, things of that nature

[1:49:05] that it's just to be able to allow for,

[1:49:09] and also at some point too is anyone that has beer

[1:49:11] and wine, they can move into a full, right.

[1:49:14] Yep. Which we like a bar burrito who was just, who wanted

[1:49:17] to get into margaritas or something.

[1:49:20] I I actually gotta message him

[1:49:21] and see if he's actually done that.

[1:49:23] Yeah. Okay. That's all. Thank you. Yep. What

[1:49:25] Is, what would that bring the total to?

[1:49:29] I'd have to look. I, I have, I have a chart

[1:49:30] that has all the licenses on it.

[1:49:32] I'd have to look, I can let you know.

[1:49:35] I'm just curious. Article 31 is the

[1:49:40] recreation department restructuring.

[1:49:42] So this is, this would be a local act that needs

[1:49:45] to be approved by the legislature.

[1:49:47] Essentially what this article would do if passed, Excuse me,

[1:49:52] it would, it would make the recreation Commission

[1:49:57] an appointed board instead of an elected board.

[1:50:01] The recreation department personnel would,

[1:50:04] would then be supervised under the Department

[1:50:07] of Public works with the thought being

[1:50:11] that the Recreation Commission would be focused on policy

[1:50:16] creation, program creation, things of that nature.

[1:50:20] More of a policy and programming board.

[1:50:23] And that the day-to-day management would fall under the

[1:50:26] select board, the town administrator and the DPW director

[1:50:31] and, you know, to, you know, make sure that the,

[1:50:34] the grounds were were, were taken care of and,

[1:50:37] and taking on equipment.

[1:50:39] Equipment was, was up to par.

[1:50:41] Buildings were, were taken care of.

[1:50:44] And Yeah. But I think those are the highlights.

[1:50:50] Last but not least is the senior work abatement.

[1:50:54] We talked about this before when Eric Segundo came in,

[1:50:59] the vet's, the, the vet's abatement.

[1:51:01] He, he offers partial abatements based upon how many hours

[1:51:05] of, of of work the veteran has done.

[1:51:08] And so we're just matching that, we're just matching that

[1:51:12] that feature and the senior work abatement program

[1:51:18] Have a discussion.

[1:51:20] Oh, that's right. Marc, could you go back

[1:51:24] to stretch code?

[1:51:26] Yeah. I misinterpreted this process. Okay.

[1:51:29] Like when BJ was here, I took that as informational.

[1:51:33] Yeah. So I held some of my comments.

[1:51:39] It's Fine. So no,

[1:51:41] I I know we just skipped over a couple.

[1:51:43] That's what, that's all. Oh,

[1:51:44] Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[1:51:45] Oh yeah, yeah. Of course.

[1:51:50] Why did you have something to say Manny? Hmm.

[1:51:56] I'm kind of wishy washy on the, on the cat one.

[1:52:00] I just,

[1:52:07] are we creating like a paper tiger here,

[1:52:09] like the enforcement, right.

[1:52:11] Is it actually gonna happen?

[1:52:15] And I had asked the question, you know, hypothetically,

[1:52:20] if this were in place last year,

[1:52:23] how many violations would we have?

[1:52:24] And it was 10.

[1:52:26] Well, she's had 10 warnings. Yeah.

[1:52:29] Yeah. She didn't say that she would have

[1:52:31] 10 citations. I, I

[1:52:32] Just, I don't know,

[1:52:34] is this thing fully baked? I, I don't know.

[1:52:36] That's a good question. So, you know, Mr.

[1:52:40] Chairman, I don't mind if Anthony if you... No, I'm good.

[1:52:42] Answer some of your questions a little bit.

[1:52:44] You know, we had tasked the a CO to come up with policy

[1:52:50] and as part of her full-time job when we made her full-time

[1:52:55] and she came at us with policy and it was a lot.

[1:52:59] And it was so much that we couldn't,

[1:53:02] there's no way we put all of that in front

[1:53:05] of town meeting 'cause it was just so much.

[1:53:06] So we had to pick and choose and I think she

[1:53:08] took a page outta that.

[1:53:10] And she's picking one point of contact at a time,

[1:53:18] whether I don't want

[1:53:21] to say it should go not go forward or go forward or whatever.

[1:53:24] I think that she's not

[1:53:29] intended to be a policy maker by trade.

[1:53:32] She's an A CO. Yeah.

[1:53:34] So I think that, I think that's

[1:53:36] what you're feeling here is all, is all is I'm saying I

[1:53:40] No, it wasn't and it wasn't a knock on on

[1:53:42] that at all. It's just, I

[1:53:44] No, 'cause I, I understand

[1:53:45] what you're feeling when you're reading it.

[1:53:47] It is just it when you say it's not, you know,

[1:53:49] fully baked kind of a thing.

[1:53:51] So maybe we need to provide her with a little bit of, but

[1:53:57] I don't know AI

[1:53:59] To Mr.

[1:54:00] Alves's question though, how is this gonna

[1:54:01] affect the budget down the road?

[1:54:03] Sure. How to ChatGPT?

[1:54:05] Is this a couple hundred bucks? Is this five grand?

[1:54:07] Is this 25 grand?

[1:54:10] I mean, I don't, that's now

[1:54:12] I'm looking what's budget down the road.

[1:54:13] Because I mean, when we really look at this is to

[1:54:15] where we were four

[1:54:17] or five years ago with a, with a couple

[1:54:19] that was doing it basically for peanuts.

[1:54:23] Volunteer. Yeah. Almost volunteer work to now full salary,

[1:54:27] full benefit, automobile, office and everything.

[1:54:30] I mean, I, I'm, I'm not saying that I,

[1:54:33] I disagree with all of that.

[1:54:34] I'm just saying is that we're going, so what,

[1:54:37] what's the impact gonna be down the road on

[1:54:39] this as a budgetary item?

[1:54:41] So I I I hear you.

[1:54:43] But I think it's a necessary,

[1:54:45] well I think it's a necessary service.

[1:54:48] My my issue with this is I don't understand how

[1:54:52] fining people or citing people

[1:54:54] or even giving 'em a warning is gonna cause them

[1:54:56] to call you more often.

[1:55:00] That's my, that's my friction.

[1:55:02] That's, I think that's my main concern here. Right.

[1:55:03] We can put something on paper. It

[1:55:04] doesn't mean it's gonna happen.

[1:55:15] I am not opposed to it

[1:55:16] because it's some action that's being taken care

[1:55:19] of towards feral cats.

[1:55:25] I'm just citing my concerns. I

[1:55:26] Yeah, no, I'm, I'm not, I'm not arguing. You all have

[1:55:29] Votes at town meeting too.

[1:55:31] Oh yeah.

[1:55:38] But I feel your friction on it

[1:55:43] Any so No, no.

[1:55:45] I, I, oh

[1:55:48] No.

[1:55:49] I mean, my only concern I mentioned it was thank you Mr.

[1:55:51] Chairman. It was just the, the wording there.

[1:55:53] You know, and like you said, Mr.

[1:55:55] Alves is the enforcement and everything, you know, you're,

[1:55:57] you're volunteer taking care of feeding them,

[1:56:00] controlling the population.

[1:56:01] One of 'em has got a broken leg.

[1:56:03] Are you making them responsible

[1:56:04] now or you were volunteering?

[1:56:08] It's still the town's responsibility. You had

[1:56:10] Good questions that It is just, I don't know,

[1:56:12] something's just not right with that whole section.

[1:56:15] And you're right. Why would somebody call, I know risking

[1:56:19] the cat being hurt and then

[1:56:24] Well we can certainly Taking a, you know,

[1:56:25] a vet bill to the, to, to

[1:56:27] Mr.

[1:56:28] Chairman, we can c we, there's certain concerns.

[1:56:31] I mean, we can try to certainly pull it off

[1:56:33] and put it in next time and get some more in depth.

[1:56:36] Exactly what's gonna happen with this.

[1:56:38] Because it seems like in October, you know,

[1:56:42] you're not comfortable whether you're not comfortable with

[1:56:44] It.

[1:56:45] And I, I mean we can vote on it. That's fine.

[1:56:47] I, I guess when did this come to light

[1:56:52] It?

[1:56:53] She just recently, I mean she literally,

[1:56:55] she came in into our office

[1:56:59] and the, she came to see me about her budget

[1:57:02] because her budget is, according to her,

[1:57:05] is gonna be overspent because of things like this.

[1:57:08] You know, so you have people who are feeding feral cats

[1:57:12] and they either they die or they, they need a vet bill

[1:57:15] and they call her and say, the cat's sick,

[1:57:17] can you come and take care of it?

[1:57:21] And so she takes it to TJO

[1:57:22] or whatever and, and, and gets it.

[1:57:24] And then, and then we, I mean we, she,

[1:57:26] but we have to pay for that.

[1:57:28] Right.

[1:57:30] I don't, So it was only, I don't even know,

[1:57:33] a couple months ago, maybe, maybe less.

[1:57:36] And I don't think the volunteers caring for cats is

[1:57:40] what she was talking about.

[1:57:41] I think she was talking about people

[1:57:43] that are just feeding cats out in the community

[1:57:46] and then calling, I don't think she was saying

[1:57:48] that the volunteers that have been helping to take care

[1:57:51] of cats and do things are the ones

[1:57:53] that are calling her to say this was

[1:57:55] Not, that was her intent. Yeah.

[1:57:57] Yeah. And Mr. Chairman, I understand

[1:57:59] that and I appreciate that.

[1:58:00] But again, there's no distinction. That's all. Yeah.

[1:58:03] Or differentiation or,

[1:58:06] And, and I besides That Right,

[1:58:08] I see that point as you're in, in

[1:58:09] so many ways you're caring for the cat, right.

[1:58:12] As a resident. Oh, it dies or it's hurt.

[1:58:16] I'm wash my hands of it

[1:58:18] Now. Right.

[1:58:19] And now it, now it's on

[1:58:20] Us because I don't want the vet bill.

[1:58:22] Right. Okay, fine.

[1:58:25] Yeah. There could actually be more,

[1:58:27] more feral cats out there if nobody's gonna do anything

[1:58:30] or help out the cats.

[1:58:32] Yeah. That's, But there has to be a benefit for people

[1:58:35] to call and say, Hey, I got a family

[1:58:36] of feral cats in my yard, not a citation.

[1:58:40] You know what I mean? Like

[1:58:42] you should get a reward. Yeah.

[1:58:43] There's a lot of, there's a lot of questions though.

[1:58:47] Like I said, it was just, I think we should pull

[1:58:49] that one quite on saying

[1:58:50] It just needs to be rewarded

[1:58:52] or Well, so that's the thing, right?

[1:58:53] Like these articles say submitted

[1:58:55] by the select board, right, right. We

[1:58:57] Don't have to submit 'em.

[1:58:58] You're put Right. But that's what I'm saying.

[1:58:59] You're putting your name behind it if,

[1:59:01] if you have that many questions.

[1:59:06] And I think these questions are passive compared to

[1:59:09] what town meeting's gonna ask.

[1:59:10] Yeah. Yeah. And why isn't it, why isn't it submitted

[1:59:13] by the, by her.

[1:59:16] By the

[1:59:18] She, she's technically under the select board's umbrella.

[1:59:22] She reports to, to the, oh, okay. Police chief. Alright,

[1:59:32] I'll, I don't want to do this,

[1:59:34] but I'm going, I'm gonna say it.

[1:59:38] Let's, let's pull it.

[1:59:40] And I'll work with her to try and come up with

[1:59:43] Something, some Decent policy.

[1:59:45] I'll, there we go. I'll work with her on some,

[1:59:47] some policy stuff.

[1:59:49] Beautiful. You know, when she wants to do stuff,

[1:59:50] we'll work together on it.

[1:59:52] Do we need to vote to pull it or no.

[1:59:53] An ai No, we just, we don't need a vote,

[1:59:56] we just need to pull it, I guess.

[1:59:59] Alright. Providing,

[2:00:02] she accepts my help if she doesn't accept my help.

[2:00:04] That's, that's on her after that.

[2:00:10] The second one's the stretch code.

[2:00:18] I've been toggling kind of back and forth on it,

[2:00:21] but I can't see

[2:00:24] where the ends justify the means on,

[2:00:26] on the stretch code. So I,

[2:00:30] I, you know, you personally, I wouldn't support the

[2:00:32] Stretch code Yeah, Mr.

[2:00:34] Chairman, you know, where I am.

[2:00:36] I wouldn't put it forth in,

[2:00:37] and the reason I wouldn't put it through and,

[2:00:40] and I'm is simply because the, our, our,

[2:00:44] or most residents,

[2:00:46] most people just don't have enough

[2:00:47] information on that, on it.

[2:00:49] The only thing they're gonna have is that, that dangling of,

[2:00:53] of funds, but they really don't have who, what or where.

[2:00:56] The other thing that I didn't mention as well is, you know,

[2:00:59] we had three individuals sit here,

[2:01:02] where's the funds come from?

[2:01:04] Who's paying for all those funds? You know what I mean?

[2:01:07] It's like, it couldn't have been too cheap

[2:01:09] to have three people come in here and speak on this.

[2:01:12] And, and it just seems to me another funneling

[2:01:15] of money, money, money.

[2:01:17] I don't know. I just, I have my reservation.

[2:01:20] So I, I mean, whether you decide you wanna put it through

[2:01:24] or not, I will speak against it at the,

[2:01:26] at, at the town meeting.

[2:01:29] I wouldn't expect anything less. Manny,

[2:01:35] I'm, I'm strongly, strongly opposed to it.

[2:01:38] But, and,

[2:01:40] and I also wanna say that I didn't do much research,

[2:01:45] but I did research some in, in the map

[2:01:47] and that they got so many communities on there,

[2:01:49] and I Hampden's not on it.

[2:01:51] Wilbraham, I don't think has, they're looking at it now. No.

[2:01:54] Wilbraham's in, do they

[2:01:55] Do they just, there's only must have been just recently,

[2:01:57] There's only four towns

[2:01:59] that are not on it in three counties.

[2:02:01] Granby, Granby, no. Granby's in it.

[2:02:04] And it's not even on the map.

[2:02:06] But anyways, it doesn't matter. It

[2:02:07] is, I don't care, care about the

[2:02:08] Communities.

[2:02:09] Hampden, Montague and Russell, those

[2:02:11] Are... Hampden is not in it.

[2:02:12] Hampdens not in it. Those are the four that are not in it.

[2:02:15] Hampden, Russell, and Montague Okay.

[2:02:17] Are the only ones that didn't do it.

[2:02:19] So what we're basically saying is,

[2:02:21] is we're smarter superior than all those

[2:02:25] than 300 other cities and towns.

[2:02:27] Yep. But you know, you guys do

[2:02:29] what you wanna do. I'm all for it.

[2:02:31] He's gonna be gone. I think, I think part of that though,

[2:02:34] is if you miss it when it's hot, you're late.

[2:02:40] We're, this is Ludlow Anthony. We're always late.

[2:02:45] But I don't think that's an argument

[2:02:46] to say we should do it now.

[2:02:49] Right. Because the state had their shiny ball,

[2:02:52] Sins of the fathers.

[2:02:53] They sent the money to the shiny, you know,

[2:02:55] they chased it, then they found the new shiny ball

[2:02:57] and they're not putting money here anymore.

[2:03:00] Well, it's because they're just pushing the agenda now.

[2:03:02] So we're gonna, we're gonna ac accept the ramifications

[2:03:06] of it regardless, and not have the opportunity in.

[2:03:08] They, They did the same thing with CPA though.

[2:03:11] They, they put CPA out there

[2:03:13] and says, oh, we're gonna match funds in

[2:03:16] the first year, first two years.

[2:03:17] Yeah. They match 100%. Beautiful.

[2:03:19] So they got, they got towns in there all

[2:03:21] of a sudden, all this money there,

[2:03:22] Nothing.

[2:03:23] And in four years having to deal with the code anyway.

[2:03:26] So we might as well get money if

[2:03:27] we're gonna have to deal with it anyway.

[2:03:29] Mm.

[2:03:30] I guess here's my question, Mr. Gennette.

[2:03:33] Is this, sorry, I keep doing this. You're fine.

[2:03:35] Is this proposal the

[2:03:40] way driven by the way you're describing,

[2:03:42] following other communities?

[2:03:44] Or is it a response to what we're hearing in the community

[2:03:46] that we need here by people in town?

[2:03:54] That's a good question. This is more of my agenda. Okay.

[2:03:59] This is not something

[2:04:00] that community residents have approached me

[2:04:02] and said that they want it.

[2:04:03] Okay. I just don't know that they, they know about it, but,

[2:04:08] but they have not, I have not been reached out to it.

[2:04:10] This is an initiative that I have trying to

[2:04:13] further energy efficiency in Ludlow.

[2:04:16] It's part of the reason that I did the Ludlow power choice.

[2:04:20] It's part of the reason I'm chasing

[2:04:21] green, green communities.

[2:04:23] Power choice is very good. And there's other things that,

[2:04:26] that I'm hoping to do down the line as well,

[2:04:29] that grant money would certainly help.

[2:04:31] You know, I mentioned earlier an MLP with fiber in town.

[2:04:34] That's something that, that I'm trying to work towards.

[2:04:37] So there's, there's, there's other things on the table.

[2:04:39] You know. Okay. This is, this is just a step in.

[2:04:42] It's just want some background there. Yeah.

[2:04:43] It's not, it's not, it's not something

[2:04:46] that's gonna stop me from doing those other things either.

[2:04:48] Right. I don't want you to think that I have

[2:04:50] to have this in order to do those other things.

[2:04:52] I don't. Okay.

[2:04:54] No, I appreciate that answer. That's, that's good

[2:04:56] background on that.

[2:04:59] The other power choice was a good program, Mr. Chairman.

[2:05:01] The other thing is, and from what I'm seeing out there

[2:05:04] and reading and, and, and Green is starting to back away,

[2:05:09] whether it's cars or,

[2:05:10] or certain things, it seems to be kind of dying out.

[2:05:15] It is. It, it

[2:05:16] Really, but I, I think it's backstepping right now,

[2:05:18] but I think that, you know, it's only

[2:05:20] because of the, the current climate and what's going on.

[2:05:23] I think it's all coming back. Yeah.

[2:05:24] Maybe. But, you know, but like,

[2:05:25] I mean, even, I don't think it's going away.

[2:05:27] I don't think we're all going back to maybe even,

[2:05:28] Even Ford 60 hot Rods.

[2:05:30] Even Ford and a lot of the manufacturers for cars, they're,

[2:05:33] they're backing, they're backing away from the EV cars.

[2:05:37] But anyways, I, I don't

[2:05:42] Okay.

[2:05:44] Can put an EV car on an east west rail in the state.

[2:05:48] Sorry, Since 2013.

[2:05:58] So look, I want this in on the article.

[2:06:00] You guys wanna take it off?

[2:06:01] I'll, I'll obviously vote against it,

[2:06:03] but it's up to you what you wanna do.

[2:06:09] I just don't, I just don't think the public has an,

[2:06:11] has enough knowledge of what,

[2:06:12] what really, what you're really gonna get.

[2:06:14] I just don't think I, well, I think I would take it on.

[2:06:17] You're take it on next

[2:06:24] So It's easy.

[2:06:25] So again,

[2:06:28] 90 people that'll be whittled down to about 70.

[2:06:31] 'cause we'll barely have a quorum.

[2:06:33] But in the same sense, this is the job

[2:06:35] of town meeting, right?

[2:06:37] I mean, they're supposed to research this stuff.

[2:06:39] They're supposed to know it. And That's correct.

[2:06:42] That's, yeah. I keep going back to it's our form government.

[2:06:46] And in the same sense, I, you know,

[2:06:51] my concern is more of like

[2:06:52] where it's gonna cost us in 20 years.

[2:06:54] I just think that, it just seemed too many times now

[2:06:57] where grant funding just dries up.

[2:07:00] But in the same sense I'm looking at it is, I know that

[2:07:03] the other part of it is, is that, sure, it's cost a lot now,

[2:07:06] but the homeowner 20 years down the road is when they're

[2:07:09] going to start to realize more of the savings of it.

[2:07:12] So, and my statement once

[2:07:14] before was, is that when anybody,

[2:07:15] when anybody's buying a house

[2:07:16] and they're 30, 31, they're not thinking about 20 years.

[2:07:19] They're thinking about their mortgage payment

[2:07:21] and what they're, and taxes and getting PMI off.

[2:07:26] And maybe they think about their water bill

[2:07:29] and their cable bill, you know, but

[2:07:31] Water bill is supposedly gonna be the highest

[2:07:34] Water Yep. Utility

[2:07:36] That we're gonna be paying for

[2:07:37] Water's about to go.

[2:07:39] I heard that a long time ago. Yep.

[2:07:41] Mr. Chairman, I mean, you, you

[2:07:43] Sanches To your everyone's point.

[2:07:45] I, you know, I I'd say let the precinct members decide.

[2:07:48] I mean, I'd leave it in, I would be my recommendation.

[2:07:51] I mean, you got 300 communities that've signed on board.

[2:07:54] I don't think builders are going to lower their price

[2:07:56] because Lulo doesn't have a stretch code.

[2:07:58] I think that the cost is gonna be the same.

[2:08:01] 'cause whether they build in Holyoke

[2:08:02] or build in Ludlow, that's the same cost.

[2:08:05] I think people are building energy efficient homes anyway.

[2:08:07] I mean, Mr. Silva was saying

[2:08:08] that he built an energy efficient home.

[2:08:11] But I I also hear that side too.

[2:08:12] You don't want the government telling you

[2:08:13] what to build either.

[2:08:15] But we're also leaving grant money on the table.

[2:08:18] You're talking a moderate increase.

[2:08:20] From what I've re researched

[2:08:21] and what BJ's presented in her presentations

[2:08:23] and everything I researched, it's

[2:08:24] a moderate increase in code.

[2:08:26] You're talking one to 2% increase in cost versus a 20

[2:08:30] to 40% energy savings in the long run.

[2:08:32] So, I mean, we're all looking

[2:08:34] for energy efficient appliances.

[2:08:36] We're looking for energy efficient, everything.

[2:08:38] So I, I agree with everyone.

[2:08:40] I think it, it's an opportunity for the precinct members

[2:08:42] to review it, and it's up to them to decide.

[2:08:47] But it gives an opportunity to be energy efficient.

[2:08:50] I mean, it's affecting homes 3000 square feet or, or

[2:08:52] or bigger, you know, affordable housing.

[2:08:55] You're, you're building 1000 to 2000 square foot homes,

[2:08:58] not 3000 square foot homes.

[2:09:01] Yeah. And that stretch code, the small

[2:09:04] residential is 2200 square feet

[2:09:07] at 2200 square foot home in this,

[2:09:09] in this town's about $500,000. Five 50,

[2:09:13] Right?

[2:09:14] Yeah. Well, no moderate in

[2:09:15] or low income is building a $500,000 home.

[2:09:20] No, I mean, again, it's to the point of saying, like,

[2:09:22] there's saying there's those modular small homes.

[2:09:25] If you had an area that had tru the Truman's, you know,

[2:09:30] little houses around a pond or something,

[2:09:32] and you're around a cul-de-sac or whatever.

[2:09:34] I mean, I don't, but is a builder gonna build that?

[2:09:36] Is it they they'd have to build 50 of them

[2:09:38] to make what they want to make.

[2:09:40] I mean, I, I don't know.

[2:09:41] I mean, honestly, in this town and,

[2:09:43] and getting off the subject a little,

[2:09:45] you're sitting there if you want to generate revenue

[2:09:47] through, you know, taxes

[2:09:49] or anything, it's gonna be more commercial. So

[2:09:52] The clock has The clock chimed.

[2:09:55] Well, we've turned into a pumpkin.

[2:09:57] I think the clock stopped. Wow.

[2:10:01] Unless anyone has a motion to, or not a motion,

[2:10:05] but to remove the article.

[2:10:08] Anyone that wants to, but I,

[2:10:12] I would keep it on. That's just me.

[2:10:14] Okay. Then keep it on. I, I don't think we need a motion.

[2:10:16] No, we don't. I think we just had a straw poll, I think.

[2:10:18] No, I mean, Are people the same?

[2:10:24] I just in a general sense, I'm, I wanna keep it on.

[2:10:28] That's fine. The,

[2:10:33] I don't think we can forget.

[2:10:34] Right? Yeah.

[2:10:37] Town meeting decides, but we still propose these things.

[2:10:40] Right. So it should be under the guise that we support,

[2:10:44] or at least the majority of the board supports.

[2:10:46] Right. What we're presenting used

[2:10:48] To be that way, you know, then suddenly

[2:10:50] kind of got away from that.

[2:10:51] It used to be the, the board voted so

[2:10:56] and so through to, to,

[2:10:59] Yeah.

[2:11:00] That's, that's what I thought happened

[2:11:00] with these. It used to.

[2:11:01] That's fine. If I recall. It used to be that way. But

[2:11:04] See what happens.

[2:11:10] Is that, oh, is that it? That's it.

[2:11:15] You guys wanna stay for another hour? So

[2:11:18] I promised my wife I'd keep you guys here till midnight.

[2:11:21] Sweet 30. I, I, I drive, drive down to work then

[2:11:23] Have a lot of closing comments.

[2:11:24] I have left at midnight. A lot of closing that way.

[2:11:27] You forgot about my town administrator's report.

[2:11:31] There is nothing on here. That's right. Nothing.

[2:11:33] It's a long one. There's no, there's no report.

[2:11:37] Sweet. Sweet

[2:11:40] Is Right.

[2:11:41] Town administrator's report, board updates.

[2:11:45] One. Do we Talking about, do we need

[2:11:47] to approve the warrant

[2:11:50] Next week?

[2:11:51] So we removed what one? Yep. And we'll approve. Okay.

[2:11:54] Yeah. So that should be open and shut. And

[2:11:56] I, I have comments from town council too that

[2:11:58] I'll incorporate.

[2:11:59] Okay. The final change. Okay. Yeah.

[2:12:04] Mr. Chairman, are, are you board updates? Yep. Mr.

[2:12:08] Gennette. So, I just wanted

[2:12:09] to thank Jeff Stratton for coming in earlier.

[2:12:12] We really did have a really good

[2:12:13] superintendent search committee.

[2:12:15] It was, they did a really good job. They really, really did.

[2:12:18] And congratulations to Mrs.

[2:12:19] Cannoyer for getting the position.

[2:12:21] I thought she was arguably the strongest candidate

[2:12:25] and to know that they have already got a contract with her

[2:12:28] and they're almost ready to finalize That is, is good stuff.

[2:12:36] Thanks for the work. Anyone on board?

[2:12:40] I do if, do you want me to do it? Or you can do it.

[2:12:44] Mobile Home Rent Control board met

[2:12:47] and we made a decision on the rent

[2:12:52] increase, stay the same, decrease.

[2:12:56] And originally, I think it was 400, it was from 195

[2:12:59] to basically 495.

[2:13:01] 496 was the increase that the owner wanted.

[2:13:05] The, and the mobile home rent control board. Thanks.

[2:13:12] Decided based on possible undue burden

[2:13:16] to the residences that we reduced it to.

[2:13:18] 390 on. Thank you.

[2:13:23] Sure. You don't wanna bring over anymore? Oh,

[2:13:25] I'm going.

[2:13:26] Okay. Thanks.

[2:13:28] But that was Mobile Home Rent Control board.

[2:13:30] I'm expecting some openings on

[2:13:32] that board pretty soon as well. Well, you

[2:13:34] Had resignation.

[2:13:35] We got one. I'll take care of it. Just

[2:13:37] Pop it over there.

[2:13:41] Does anyone else have anything

[2:13:43] Too late?

[2:13:44] Too Late? Okay. Yeah.

[2:13:46] Mr. Chairman, well, Do you want to, you

[2:13:48] Want me to do these?

[2:13:49] Oh, sure. Go ahead. I got one thing

[2:13:51] that I want to do in there.

[2:13:53] So this is just closing comments

[2:13:57] And updates.

[2:13:58] All. And updates. All right. Cool. Town events.

[2:14:01] Friday Rotary, Heart

[2:14:03] of the Community Celebration.

[2:14:05] 7:00 PM Gremio Lusitano Club Entertainment.

[2:14:11] I've been there the past few years. A nice event,

[2:14:18] Mr. Chairman.

[2:14:19] Oh. Oh, he's not done. Oh,

[2:14:21] He's not done.

[2:14:21] I thought you were done. He's done. I thought he

[2:14:22] Said he was done.

[2:14:23] I'm, I'm slow at this time of night, but I'm not done.

[2:14:24] Yeah, no. Okay. Town of Ludlow Memorial Day Parade.

[2:14:29] If you or an organization would like to join the parade,

[2:14:32] can email

[2:14:35] Ludlowma250@gmail.com and register by May 1st.

[2:14:40] The parade is on May 25th at 10:00 AM

[2:14:46] town of Ludlow Town wide Community Cleanup Day.

[2:14:48] May 2nd, 9:00 AM the Veterans Memorial.

[2:14:52] Back Up. You can find more information

[2:14:55] on the town's website or Ludlow.veterans.us.

[2:15:02] Other than that, a few weeks ago I was at the senior center

[2:15:06] for a 100th birthday.

[2:15:08] Oh yeah. And I presented a citation on behalf of the board

[2:15:12] to Miss Miriam Stone.

[2:15:14] So happy 100th birthday.

[2:15:19] As I said there, if you think about it,

[2:15:22] the country's turning 250.

[2:15:23] Ludlow turned 250. So she's been alive

[2:15:26] for 40% of the history of this

[2:15:28] Wow Country.

[2:15:29] That's interesting to think about. Hmm.

[2:15:33] And I should have thanked them while they were here.

[2:15:37] I attended the Easter egg hunt at the library with my

[2:15:39] daughter this past Saturday.

[2:15:42] Very nice. And it was, I appreciated the way they did it,

[2:15:46] because it was, you could go in ahead of time,

[2:15:49] you color in your, your, your egg.

[2:15:51] Then they had 'em all planted around

[2:15:52] and it was like, you know, go find this egg.

[2:15:56] Go find that egg. And it helps out the two year olds

[2:16:00] that would probably get pushed aside from

[2:16:02] Hmm, That's cool.

[2:16:03] From all the eggs. So that's it.

[2:16:06] Manny was staring at me that whole run on sentence.

[2:16:08] So I was trying to keep it as long as I could go. I'm done.

[2:16:12] Yay. Yay.

[2:16:15] All I have is again, I'm gonna congratulate Tony over there.

[2:16:19] Oh, thank you. And welcome Tony.

[2:16:20] I gotta tell you, this is probably the longest

[2:16:23] meeting you will have.

[2:16:24] Okay. Thank you. It's, it's nothing like this. Wow.

[2:16:28] You know, know, and we passed, we passed the baton on to Mr.

[2:16:32] Rosenblum, and he would just let people talk and talk.

[2:16:34] I used to just cut him off and say, okay, we're done.

[2:16:38] You know, for his own talking. See what you're doing.

[2:16:40] Yeah. Okay. We would've been here till nine

[2:16:41] if he was the chair person. That,

[2:16:44] That, that Wasn't happening.

[2:16:45] No, that's not true. And we just had a lot on, on the,

[2:16:49] our agenda and things that we really needed

[2:16:52] to get done. So,

[2:16:54] Worth it With that.

[2:16:56] Un, unless Tony would like to say something.

[2:16:58] I mean, that's up.

[2:17:00] Thank you for all the voters who voted,

[2:17:02] appreciate the support,

[2:17:03] and I'm looking forward to working with everyone

[2:17:06] and getting things done.

[2:17:07] So, thank you.

[2:17:09] Mr. Chairman, Did you, did you have something too?

[2:17:13] Of course. Okay. Go ahead.

[2:17:14] When don't I have something to say. I, I do have something.

[2:17:16] I do have something. No, I wanted to say thank you

[2:17:19] to Tony for, for running

[2:17:21] and really do appreciate that he's here.

[2:17:23] He's gonna be great on the board.

[2:17:24] He's gonna be an excellent select person.

[2:17:26] And as far as this really, really,

[2:17:27] really long meeting the next time, please make sure

[2:17:30] that you don't do it on my birthday.

[2:17:32] 'cause this was ridiculous. Oh,

[2:17:34] ...all days.

[2:17:37] All the days too.

[2:17:38] Happy birthday to have the longest

[2:17:39] meeting I've ever been at.

[2:17:42] No, I, I've left here at midnight.

[2:17:44] I left my family in the kitchen

[2:17:45] with my birthday cake. I'm kidding. I didn't have

[2:17:47] You notify, notify us.

[2:17:49] I would've brought a nice cake for you.

[2:17:52] I'm sure you would've. Yeah. Is

[2:17:56] That it?

[2:17:57] That's it. Oh, by the way, happy birthday. Thank.

[2:17:58] Appreciate it.

[2:18:03] I I, I do have one thing.

[2:18:04] I had someone, did you say,

[2:18:06] you said cleanup date, didn't you?

[2:18:07] I did, yep. Okay. I do have, one thing here is

[2:18:10] that someone reached out to me about this citizen in town,

[2:18:16] Codtober Fest, spring Fling edition.

[2:18:18] So, as many of you people might know,

[2:18:20] I think it was a few years ago,

[2:18:21] there was already a fundraiser for Cali Codding and things,

[2:18:28] she's now awaiting a heart transplant.

[2:18:30] So Sunday, May 3rd, 12 to 6:00 PM at Vanished Valley.

[2:18:33] There'll be raffle items and food and things of that nature.

[2:18:36] So I was asked by a citizen to go ahead

[2:18:41] and say this, Codding's, it's a, you know,

[2:18:45] Amanda's obviously on the school committee, so I wanted

[2:18:48] to put that out there though.

[2:18:49] Everyone's asleep now, so they'll have

[2:18:51] to catch this on the recording, I guess tomorrow.

[2:18:54] And the recording will be late because it's 24 hours.

[2:18:57] So, anyways, also,

[2:19:01] congratulations, Tony.

[2:19:03] Thank you. And thank you for instilling your, well,

[2:19:07] maybe it's not confidence in me, is

[2:19:09] that the fact is it's just

[2:19:10] like, oh, well you're next in line.

[2:19:13] But thank you.

[2:19:17] You know, a few things I, you know, I'd like to get to

[2:19:19] where we get the, the boards

[2:19:21] or like departments in here a little bit more, just

[2:19:23] so it'll help in the budget process, maybe

[2:19:25] to see things a little bit earlier.

[2:19:30] I'm glad I saw that. I didn't know the digital board was on

[2:19:32] there, but I, you know, I've had comments from some people

[2:19:34] just about communication.

[2:19:35] I go and as I had said, you could put it on everything.

[2:19:38] You could put it on. It's just a matter, I mean,

[2:19:40] unless you have to spoonfeed it

[2:19:41] to someone on their living room couch.

[2:19:43] I mean, sometimes you just don't see stuff. Yep. And, yep.

[2:19:48] And as one person said to me,

[2:19:52] it's the third weekend of March every year.

[2:19:56] And to that point, I said to someone,

[2:19:59] we had one contested race,

[2:20:00] and we had, I think I saw one sign for you

[2:20:03] that I might have saw.

[2:20:05] No, it was, what was it? What was it for?

[2:20:08] Oh, it was for Board of Health. Board of Health.

[2:20:10] I saw one sign for each person.

[2:20:13] So the thing that wakes you up to voting is the fact

[2:20:16] that you would normally see, when there's contested races,

[2:20:18] you would see signs all over the place.

[2:20:21] Especially usually select board and school committee.

[2:20:24] We didn't have that this time.

[2:20:26] And again, thank you to anyone who has run for a position.

[2:20:31] Is in a position, has been in a position.

[2:20:34] We just ask that, you know, more people volunteer.

[2:20:40] So, oh, and Mr. Alves has one more thing.

[2:20:43] I have one more thing, and then I'll close

[2:20:44] It.

[2:20:45] It's gonna, it's gonna last for 50 minutes, I promise.

[2:20:47] I just wanna thank Evan for being here,

[2:20:51] dealing with our crap.

[2:20:52] Do you have a mic or can you pan on yourself?

[2:20:54] No, you can't do that. No, I can't. No words.

[2:20:56] He's over there saying, just close the meeting already.

[2:20:59] Thanks. So, yeah, you wanna close the meeting?

[2:21:02] I make a motion that we close at 11:10 PM Thanks, bud.

[2:21:06] Second

[2:21:08] Motion's been made and seconded.

[2:21:10] All in favor? Aye. Aye.

[2:21:11] Good night.

Select Board - April 7, 2026 (Part 2)

Transcript