1 00:00:05,330 --> 00:00:25,130 Hi. It’s 7:00. This. I’m calling to order the September 22nd, 2026 Select Board meeting. And we have assisted living devices available for anyone who needs them. If you’d like to use one, please let a staff member know at any time during the meeting. Impact is recording this meeting. 2 00:00:25,130 --> 00:00:41,130 Any person may also record this meeting after notice to the Select Board Chair. In order to run the meeting more efficiently, the chair requests that persons who would like to speak on an agenda item do so during public comment. 3 00:00:41,130 --> 00:01:05,730 No questions from the public will be taken during the business portion of the meeting. Public questions should be directed to the Executive assistant at our Morse at Munson Gov, and we’ll be handled accordingly. And please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands. 4 00:01:05,730 --> 00:01:41,600 One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Public comment. Mr. Cole. Hi, I’m Reed Coles, um, Uh, speaking, I of 2780 road. I’m speaking for the Munson Municipal Arts Council. Uh, an organization that’s a committee of the town. 5 00:01:41,600 --> 00:02:03,700 We presented a proposal to the Select board, and, uh, it is to secure the House of Art or it’s purpose of its present purpose of being, uh, serving the public with art and culture. Uh, the board has told me that I won’t be sitting at the table during discussion of that item. Um, I could go into it here. 6 00:02:03,700 --> 00:02:20,130 I think he only gave me about two minutes, so I don’t have a lot of time to go into it. I have proposals here that anybody can have, and I think they should invite me to the table so I can explain more in depth exactly why I feel that my proposal is a great 7 00:02:20,130 --> 00:02:42,900 proposal to solve a problem, a problem that they have been dragging their feet with for months. And we are at a point right now where we need the the Munson Arts Council, the House of Art needs a boiler in order for us to continue our operation in full stride. 8 00:02:42,900 --> 00:03:04,400 As we are doing as a 100% volunteer organization, I might add, serving the public and, uh, you know, in a very generous manner. And I would like to speak on this subject that I presented to the board. And the board has not allowed me or according to what Miss Oni has just said, that they won’t feel questions. 9 00:03:04,400 --> 00:03:28,530 And that just seems ludicrous to me that they won’t feel questions on a topic that I presented, that they have no, probably idea as to what I’m talking about. 10 00:03:28,530 --> 00:03:48,700 Because most people, if I ask most people in this room, who knows what the Munson Municipal Arts Council is or does or anything, and the same with this generous group that at one time, not too long ago, they wanted to knock the damn house down because it was in the way of the firehouse, and they did it without knowing what the art council was, and they didn’t know they had the person that brought the motion never had set foot in the building, and they just wanted 11 00:03:48,700 --> 00:04:00,930 to tear it down. Well, that made a lot of sense, and I don’t think it makes any sense for them not to invite me to the table to talk about this thing that I have presented that I think is a great, a great thing. 12 00:04:00,930 --> 00:04:15,370 It will solve a lot of problems. It’ll save you all a lot of tax dollars from them, wasting time on a lease and a request for proposals and a this and that. And they want to lease and redo it every three years. 13 00:04:15,370 --> 00:04:38,830 And we can sit here every three years and argue this one out. But I don’t have time for that. You know, I’m limited. Thank you, Mr.. Coles. You’re a. Thank you. Any other public comment? Seeing none, we will move on. Let’s start with the poll. Petition. We have two this evening. Um, hello. These are our reps from National Grid. 14 00:04:38,830 --> 00:05:08,700 The first poll petition is for Paradise Lake Road. It’s a jointly owned poll. And having given due notice, Massachusetts Electric Company doing business as National Grid and Verizon New England Incorporated, request permission to locate poles, wires and fixtures, including the necessary sustaining and protecting fixtures along and across Paradise Lake Road as follows. 15 00:05:08,700 --> 00:05:37,230 National grid to install one jointly owned pole beginning at a point approximately 715ft east of the center line of the intersection of Hilltop Drive, it is a new mid span pole, P11 50, with a 45 foot class two pole as shown on the plan attached. The case number or plan number is 31343561. 16 00:05:37,230 --> 00:06:02,970 Your petitioner agrees to reserve space for the fire, police telephone and telegraph signal wires belonging to the municipality and used by it exclusively for municipal purposes. Yes. So this. pole is. To supply power. To a resident. And it’s also, um, since it’s kind of a long span that is going to help it be more reliable. Um, so yeah. 17 00:06:02,970 --> 00:06:21,530 Is there are there any questions from the board? No, I see that, uh, the highway and water sewer approved the location. Water sewer and water sewer is up there, but not the. Those locations have been approved that they marked. You guys marked the locations, right? Yes. Yeah. 18 00:06:21,530 --> 00:06:43,930 So that’s all set then? If there are no questions, I’ll take a motion. If there’s any. Butters. No move. Oh, excuse me for a second because it’s a hearing. Are there any a butters that wish to speak? Okay. Seeing none, then I will ask for a motion to give permission as requested. To moved. Second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. 19 00:06:43,930 --> 00:07:13,200 And the second petition. Mass. It’s only Massachusetts Electric Company having provided due notice. Um, doing business as National Grid requests permission to locate poles, wires and fixtures along and across Bethany Road as follows. 20 00:07:13,200 --> 00:07:44,300 National grid to install one solely owned pole beginning at a point approximately 425ft north of the center line of the intersection of Betty Jean drive, National Grid. To install one solely owned pole, 45-1, to provide service for number one, 32 Bethany Road, and the plan number is 31343651, and the petitioner agrees to reserve space for fire, police telephone and telegraph signal wires belonging to the municipality and used by it exclusively for municipal purposes. 21 00:07:44,300 --> 00:08:00,870 Uh Ken Kriegel with National Grid and this is Jeremy Ludwig. Yes. Um, this is a new pole directly across from the existing pole to give us a location to have, um, undergone primary for our new building where we are moving. Okay. 22 00:08:00,870 --> 00:08:16,770 Any questions from the board? Yes. I’d like to make a comment that we’re glad to have you move and stay in Munson. And you’re doing it. The contractors and you guys are doing a terrific job over there. Very professional. Everything looks great. You’ve been cooperating with the town, too, so that’s good. That’s all I. 23 00:08:16,770 --> 00:08:36,600 Had so emotion. Pleased to give permission as requested. So moved. Second. All in favor? All right. Oh. I’m sorry, Butters. It’s a hearing. Again, right? Are there are Butters? Yes there is. Come on up. Oh, no. Oh, okay. This is when you would say if you have any concerns. Well, no, I mean. 24 00:08:36,600 --> 00:08:54,200 Come on, come up and talk because we can’t hear you when you’re talking in the back. Of the room. That’s okay. I want to get up. Okay. All right. Then. It’s a motion passed. So yes, the motion passed. Thank you. Whoo! Who? Motion. Did John make? The motion and who seconded. Keith. Okay. 25 00:08:54,200 --> 00:09:23,100 Just Rebecca’s first night. So speak up. Please. Okay. Thanks. You guys. Thank you. Later. Thank you very. Much. And next is the town administrator report. Yes. Thank you. 26 00:09:23,100 --> 00:09:39,300 Um, so, on the realm of public hearings, um, and to delve into another agenda item that’s on for later, I’ve asked on the agenda later to change our November meeting dates. And one of the reasons is because the special town meeting is October 26th. And so then we have to have a joint meeting with the board of assessors following that. And it’s going to be about two weeks before everything’s ready. 27 00:09:39,300 --> 00:09:58,870 So I proposed on your agenda, just as we did last year, to have our joint meeting on Monday, November 16th, and our normal meeting would have been November 10th. And that is the day that the public hearing is going to be done by MassDOT for the route 32 Main Street reconstruction project. 28 00:09:58,870 --> 00:10:14,300 And I really think it’s important that the three of you attend that public hearing. So that’s set in stone already. So we’re going to have to definitely make some adjustments. So I wanted to announce the public hearing that there’ll be flyers coming out. 29 00:10:14,300 --> 00:10:29,670 It’s all run by MassDOT and it’ll be on Tuesday, November 10th at 6 p.m.. And it will be held at Granite Valley. So if you go ahead and put that on the agenda for the next meeting, the board can discuss what days we would like to have. I have it on number nine. Okay. So if you want to do that now, since we’re talking about. It okay, fine. Okay. 30 00:10:29,670 --> 00:10:54,970 And then Galen bingo. Tonight is for proclamation. But we also had a, um, retirement sendoff scheduled for her on October 2nd. That. Sorry. I had to turn down to. That’s okay. 31 00:10:54,970 --> 00:11:14,030 So we had it scheduled for October 2nd, and something has come up that Galen, um, has to be at, uh, she has a family funeral to attend, unfortunately. And so we’re going to change her retirement sendoff to Wednesday, September 29th, and it’s still going to be from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.. We’re going to do it in this room. 32 00:11:14,030 --> 00:11:26,930 So anyone who wants to come and visit Galen that day, she’ll be holding court as the Queen of Munson that day and talking to people about the old times and all the good things that have happened through the years, and all the problems she’s helped solved. And she was actually showing her family tonight in the hallway. 33 00:11:26,930 --> 00:11:40,630 A lot of the things that she was really instrumental in, and getting things framed and putting the cane up from the oldest resident in the community, that was something that Galen did with me when I first got here, and she ordered the case, and I thought it was really important that we showcased that. 34 00:11:40,630 --> 00:11:54,530 And she ordered a beautiful, um, gold plaque to go on it to announce what it is. So Caitlin’s done a lot for the town that people have no idea of. So I just really hope everybody comes out and says hi to her and we’ll have some snacks and everything like that. So Wednesday, September 29th, from 10 to. 2 I. Will for keeping the day October. 35 00:11:54,530 --> 00:12:11,670 We’ll leave it that day since I already done. Yeah. Because Galen would also say, oh, they changed the date. I already did the proclamation, so she’s gonna be fine with it being. That day. My Social Security papers. October 2nd is still going to be her last official day of work for the town of Munson. 36 00:12:11,670 --> 00:12:34,100 You say the 29th. September 29th. Wednesday. Wednesday from 10 to 2. I’m looking at. Tuesday 29th. Correct. It’s Tuesday, September 29th, from 10 to 2. Thank you for catching that read. That’s why we need people to help us out here. And that’s all I have. All right. Thank you. 37 00:12:34,100 --> 00:12:56,770 Then we’ll move on to in the community. And I’ll ask the clerk, please, to read the proclamation for Miss Bingle. All right. Yes. Okay. Whereas the Select Board would like to take this occasion to express our sincere and grateful appreciation for your dedicated 38 years of service starting in 1988 as a part time administrative assistant in the 38 00:12:56,770 --> 00:13:23,400 cemetery department, and then in 1999, working for the selectmen office, where you have remained since, working through blizzards, floods, a tornado, and most recently, the Covid pandemic. And whereas you have worked under boards consisting of 13 different elected select board members, three different town administrators and have recorded the minutes for over 750 select board meetings. 39 00:13:23,400 --> 00:13:47,770 This is a singular achievement by any individual in our town’s history, and you did so while being the kindest and most upbeat ambassador for the town. And whereas you have lived in Munson, next door to your sister since 1986 with your husband of 28 years, Donald, before his sudden passing on August 11th, 2002, and your 40 00:13:47,770 --> 00:14:09,830 children, son Richard and daughter Shannon, who have both given you the most precious joys of life, namely your three granddaughters and two grandsons. And whereas you enjoy watching your grandsons play baseball and run cross-country and watching your granddaughters play soccer, softball, and attending their dance recitals, you are so 41 00:14:09,830 --> 00:14:27,870 committed to your grandchildren that you have never missed a game or practice. Weather has not stopped you, nor have you missed a dance recital in the last 18 years. 42 00:14:27,870 --> 00:14:47,570 And whereas you have given so much of yourself to your children, grandchildren, and the town of Munson, it is now time for you to enjoy your your getaways to Salisbury, Vermont. Take trips to Hobby Lobby, watch golf and the Patriots without the need to unlock doors and answer the phones or take minutes. It is now time for you to relax and enjoy the fruits of your labor. 43 00:14:47,570 --> 00:15:26,530 And now, therefore, the Munson Selectboard hereby declares this day, the day October 2nd, 2026, Galen Bingo Day in the town of Munson extends to you our sincere congratulations on your well-earned retirement. We extend our best wishes to you for your continued success, happiness, good health in the years to come. And thank you for all your service to the town of Munson. 44 00:15:26,530 --> 00:15:47,500 For working for everybody and with everybody. And it’s a job that I’ve loved doing. You know, I was always looking forward to coming to work every day. And I’m really going to miss that. And I appreciate everybody, all the people that I work with. 45 00:15:47,500 --> 00:16:21,030 As the people retired from my generation and the newer generation came, even people younger than my own children, they always accepted me. And I think that’s what kept me young at heart. So I appreciate it. Thank you, thank you, thank. You. Galen, we’re going to have to make arrangements for tomatoes. You have to bring Winston. You’ll have. Thank you. Thank you, John Galen. 46 00:16:21,030 --> 00:16:56,730 Thank you, thank you. And now you can go home. Galen, you don’t have to stay. The rest of the night, okay? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Thank you, thank you. Thanks. Next on the agenda is the Munson Memorial Classic. And Tara’s here. And Jack, Gary. Guys coordinated the maroon tonight. Know that? I know that. Was all. Coincidence, now, see. 47 00:16:56,730 --> 00:17:16,100 That coming? Didn’t we know Caitlin’s been awesome? She’s helped us a lot with a lot of paperwork. So my name is Tara Souls. I live in Thompson Street. Jack Perry. I’m the one. Stafford Road. I’ve been. I grew up in this town. And, uh, it’s been my home. And it’s my kids home. 48 00:17:16,100 --> 00:17:35,030 So this year, we’re, uh, going to have our 30th annual Munson Memorial Classic and commemorates the passing of my wife, Cathy and her sister, Kelly that both, uh, passed within eight months of each other back in 1995 and 1996. The Williams wasn’t able to be here tonight. She’s feeling under the weather. 49 00:17:35,030 --> 00:17:54,730 She was going to drive up, but it’s a three hour round trip. So, uh, she wasn’t able to make it. Excuse me. Um, we pretty much. I think everyone got maps. And just so everyone’s aware, I know with the new Keith being new on. I’m sure you’ve heard of it, but we wanted you to be in your. Too. 50 00:17:54,730 --> 00:18:18,500 Okay, so a lot of people definitely know the route. Yeah. Um, so this year we’re having it. The registration at the Unitarian Parish Church, due to the memorial Hall being closed down. Um, so we have a couple things. One, um, using the parking at the Dave Greve Park, if that’s still okay. 51 00:18:18,500 --> 00:18:36,630 Um, I know that there’ll be a little bit of foot traffic on that part of Lincoln Street, which obviously we can’t shut down, but we just want everyone to be aware that there will be runners. 52 00:18:36,630 --> 00:18:58,130 I think Lee would like to use the, um, gazebo to make announcements to get the runners together, which she brings them down to the start of both the five and a half marathon. Um, so there’s that. And Jack does. We asked about parking down at, like, the highway department. I sent a map on that. Usually park roughly. 53 00:18:58,130 --> 00:19:13,630 There’s about space there for two rows of 15 cars, and I cone it off so that no one blocks the highway department and no one blocks the fire station. There’s an open lanes for everyone to get in. We I block off some spaces if firemen need the for sale and need to get to the fire station. Yeah. And then we close it off. 54 00:19:13,630 --> 00:19:30,030 Once we fill it up to what I think capacity is. So we’re just hoping that’s still okay. Yeah. When Lee was here, she let us know about both of those and said that she had already talked to the highway surveyor and to the police chief. Yeah. 55 00:19:30,030 --> 00:19:47,600 We also contacted the water sewer just because they’re buildings down there as well, and parking, just so they were aware of it. Um, we we were wondering if, um, in the past, being at Memorial Hall, we were able to use the dumpster for, like, all our trash. Would that still be okay to do? That’s even though we’re at the church. 56 00:19:47,600 --> 00:20:10,070 Yeah, the highway department is where. Yeah. That’s fine. Um, I think we contacted the police chief, so he’s. We get a couple of guys that kind of help us out. Especially, like where Bumstead comes on to 32. Um, we try to keep the the runners on that side and cross. 57 00:20:10,070 --> 00:20:32,630 We have a police officer at Stafford Hollow. It’s across there. Um, a concern we have is just the traffic that flows from 32 into Monson, and then vice versa. We’ve had a couple issues where drivers don’t care, you know. 58 00:20:32,630 --> 00:20:47,000 So we have cones that are set the entire length of 32 from Stafford Holloway all the way to the chute, which starts at is that Park Ave. Yeah. So Park Ave to the end. So it’s still ending in front of Memorial Hall. That was going to be my question. So you’re still staying on that side? Yeah, if that’s still cool. 59 00:20:47,000 --> 00:21:04,100 Well we’ll slide it down a little. I know Brian, um, had it just concerns with just the way the ambulance would come out. So we moved it down a little bit. So it frees up that that area, um, I don’t know. There’s like a thousand things. 60 00:21:04,100 --> 00:21:22,100 I think. I mean, again, you guys have done it for so many years. Yeah. I think we just like to make sure everyone’s, everybody’s. On the same page. Exactly. Yeah. And I don’t know if there’s any questions or concerns or. My only question is what’s actually on the agenda tonight. And that is for us to vote for. 61 00:21:22,100 --> 00:21:41,830 Uh, the parking ban request, which basically runs from 210 to 230 Main Street, which is right in front of the Main Street Tavern. And because your run is on Sunday morning, I was wondering what time you were going to cone that area off, because I think it might be a concern to the tavern if early 62 00:21:41,830 --> 00:21:57,430 on a Saturday night you want to cone off all the parking spaces in front of the business. As far as I know, it’s not done Saturday night. Okay. No bother. Steve Slow. Zack does that early in the morning. Okay. Sunday. So it’s usually between 7 and 8 a.m., right. 63 00:21:57,430 --> 00:22:10,670 And I believe you guys always have conversations with Kim about. To happen. That is. Yeah. He’s gonna, um, contact him at the tavern. Okay. Because it said Saturday night in the papers, and that’s why I just wanted to. Oh, yeah. I meant to say something. That’s on. My bad. Okay. I wanted. 64 00:22:10,670 --> 00:22:27,270 To check. Yeah. So it’d be Sunday morning, and. And it’s usually because they used to open up for. But I think they open up one. During football season. They open earlier. Yeah. So we, we we’ll get in touch and then we’ll just let you know that. It worked out okay last year. Yeah. Oh I’m sure it’s fine. 65 00:22:27,270 --> 00:22:42,800 Yeah. Yeah. I think people started flowing in there. We were taking the chute down. But I would like to say thank you again for your continued support year after year. It’s really, really appreciated. Yeah. You’re very welcome. You’re doing a very nice thing. That’s a great event. It really is. 66 00:22:42,800 --> 00:23:04,600 Yeah. Yeah. A lot of the money we raise, we end up, we donate to Griffin’s friends. So Griffin Keller was a young boy that had passed away of cancer. So we donate to there. Um, I don’t know, Cup fundraiser. Foundation. And they. That’s foundation that supports, uh, pediatric cancer patients at Bay State Medical Center. 67 00:23:04,600 --> 00:23:25,970 So they trips for families and. They support the family. So yeah. So and even if you’re not a runner, I’m not I know it’s shocking to hear that you can go to the event, hang out, support the runners. It’s always fun. I was looking for. Volunteers, always looking for volunteers. 68 00:23:25,970 --> 00:23:39,370 I jumped in the first year to help out, so it’s a lot of fun just to go down and just see, you know, a lot of people having fun and again, rooting people on because the fastest runner is good, but it’s always the people coming in. The little at the end that need that support and motivation to. 69 00:23:39,370 --> 00:23:56,900 So I’ve driven the half marathon, but I give them a lot of credit. I really do. I did the five K. So just. Let’s see. That’s okay. My team, let’s be on record. For that transfer. I did not do the half marathon. 70 00:23:56,900 --> 00:24:16,670 Like like my two kids and my my nephew ran it a couple of years ago. They did the five K. So they were like yeah, yeah. So yeah, unless there’s other questions if we’re. Anything from either board member before we take a vote. Yes. No I’m good. I mean, I read everything and you know, I know you guys, you know, do a great job. So I really have no concerns. 71 00:24:16,670 --> 00:24:39,100 Awesome. Thank you. So I’ll take a motion, please, on the parking ban request. Don’t moved. Second. All in favor? Aye, aye. Awesome. Thank you so much. I appreciate you. Reach out if you need anything. Definitely. Thank you so much. Thank you. And next is the gifts to the town. Request from the Munson Athletic Booster Association. 72 00:24:39,100 --> 00:25:05,770 Jessica is here for that. Okay. Welcome, everyone. Thank you. Nice to see you all. You’re wearing your Munson. Blue, right. And that is ironic. Is it? Um, good. Evening everyone. Thank you so much for the opportunity to speak. My name is Jessica Allen. 73 00:25:05,770 --> 00:25:23,970 I’m a new member and a parent volunteer with the Munson Athletic Boosters Association. Um, the boosters goes back to my mother. Would be proud of me and probably is watching on TV. So I’d. 74 00:25:23,970 --> 00:25:40,670 I’d like to give a slight nod to the group of parents back in the 1980s that started this organization to help, um, you know, kids going back that many years, you know, going back to, um, really, um, she got involved with my oldest brother was going through school and the junior senior high school starting in grade seven, and she was a proud president of the boosters for an approximate 25 years. 75 00:25:40,670 --> 00:26:00,430 Um, and then, of course, all her kids grew up and life went on and other folks took over. And, um, the boosters has a, I think, a very successful, proud background, even since my mother, um, retired and, um, they’ve raised a lot of a lot of money that help our student athletes as they’ve gone through school. 76 00:26:00,430 --> 00:26:19,530 Um, and so I’m a new member because my daughter Callie is just entering the seventh grade this year. And so we’re finding ourselves at a time where, um, this group is really starting over the boosters is is starting over because our treasurer is the only remaining member of the previous leadership. 77 00:26:19,530 --> 00:26:45,100 Uh, there’s a new group of parents, including myself, that has stepped forward to keep the organization going. Um, we’re here tonight to request, a $4,000 gift from the town to help us rebuild the boosters. Um, the the enthusiasm of this new group of parents is there. We’re ready to do the work. Um, but the truth is, we’re starting over, um, from scratch with a balance of just over $300 in the booster account. 78 00:26:45,100 --> 00:27:03,830 Uh, I just would like to clarify that the $4,000 is not intended to fund just one event, or simply to be spent down. It would give us the initial working capital that we need to get concessions going again to support fundraising efforts and to begin generating revenue that can be reinvested 79 00:27:03,830 --> 00:27:22,170 back into months. And student athletes and athletic programs. Um, so the asked tonight essentially is for seed funding to help a long standing volunteer organization to restart and become financially stable again. Um, so, um, you know, we have parents that are stepping up. We’re a new group. 80 00:27:22,170 --> 00:27:36,530 We have momentum. We’re excited to get to work. And, well, I guess we just need a little help getting off the ground again. So thank you very much for considering our request. And I’m for and for supporting months and student athletes. 81 00:27:36,530 --> 00:27:57,100 And I’m happy to answer any questions that I have, with just the caveat that I have limited knowledge only because I, admittedly am a newer member. Thank you for. starting again. 82 00:27:57,100 --> 00:28:14,300 Um, what happened to the boosters? If you know, I mean, why why have we slowed down so much with them? Because I can remember back in the day when your mom was there, that people would actually come to the house and solicit donations. That’s a riot. So, yes. And she’s proud to tell you, I’m sure she sang it looking at her TV right now, that they had themselves so successful that they were proud to have at the trail at the time. 83 00:28:14,300 --> 00:28:28,700 Even like a trailer food trailer, um, that they were able to work out of and travel to the fireworks and all kinds of games and whatnot. And in fact, they even got so good that they got themselves an even nicer trailer. Um, after that. 84 00:28:28,700 --> 00:28:44,700 Um, and so they were, they were really super successful back in the day and had, you know, all kinds of really cool events. Um, I am I dating myself, I talk about, remember the cow patties out here in the field and, you know, they were really creative with with the things that they did. 85 00:28:44,700 --> 00:29:06,630 And, you know, I do want to give kudos to our most, um, recent crew, um, that that was leading, uh, boosters to because I do have a copy of, um, their document. It’s sort of like their guiding principles, if you will, their handbook. 86 00:29:06,630 --> 00:29:26,900 And so I can see in the handbook that that even this latest, um, leadership that is now gone, that they had historically raised and spent money on athletic equipment, scholarships, athletic awards banquet, which is an essential, as we all know, as former athletes here. That’s an essential piece of what this group raises money for senior gifts. They’ve any scoreboards that you see at athletic fields. 87 00:29:26,900 --> 00:29:43,100 Those were, um, raised by the most recent generation of leadership that we had signage, bleachers, ads, goals and nets, pitching machines and other athletic needs. So this last group, as I understand it, was a very, very successful group in their own right. It’s just that by the time, um, you know, we all stepped in this year that leadership is now gone. The treasurer is again is the only, um, you know, officer that exists. 88 00:29:43,100 --> 00:30:02,300 And so the balance, um, is just over $300 at this point. Thank you for stepping in. Yeah, certainly. So, um, you know, and we owe on the application, I just wanted to note, because it didn’t feel good to put on the application, that we didn’t take any. 89 00:30:02,300 --> 00:30:19,870 There was a field that asked me, have I sought funding from other sources? And at the time, the answer was no. But I’m here to tell you that we did. Actually, since the application, we went to Adams, IGA and, um, got ourselves on this roundup concept that they have there. And so they were nice enough to include us. 90 00:30:19,870 --> 00:30:32,600 And my understanding is that in mid October, um, our boosters will be on the list for that. I didn’t want to come here and, you know, let you all know that we haven’t been trying. We just had our first meeting last month. And so we’re trying to sort of get concepts going. But the truth really is, you know, we’re starting with nothing. 91 00:30:32,600 --> 00:30:47,600 And so even just to get concessions going to, to try to buy, you know, merch style inventory, I work in marketing in my full time regular job. Um, it just requires a it requires a bank, you know. 92 00:30:47,600 --> 00:31:03,000 And so I just really want to do everything I can to help this group to sort of get that bank so they can start to buy concessions. The Gatorade, the water, the chips, the candies, the chocolates, and some basic things like, um, sports hats, maybe the t shirts, something to kind of get them going so they can create some momentum and create some, some success 93 00:31:03,000 --> 00:31:16,700 for these kids. There’s also an educational opportunity, I think a PR event, if you will, that’s warranted for this group that I happen to be organically good at. And so we’re trying to create an awareness campaign to let parents know that, hey, do you know, Paul? I see you all nodding. 94 00:31:16,700 --> 00:31:34,470 I know you all appreciate the partnership too. It’s, you know, the money for the awards banquet comes from the athletic boosters. So any kid that you see who’s got their letter, maybe you back in the day select board moral real letters that we all value. 95 00:31:34,470 --> 00:31:49,570 Our plaques from any um, you know, from from things that we’ve won, um, you know, tournaments and accolades, um, sports coats, you know, all these things are funded by the athletic boosters. 96 00:31:49,570 --> 00:32:03,370 And I don’t know about you, but I still have all mine from back in the 90s, you know? And so that’s just so important to keep these things going for our kids and for folks to understand that this is where this all comes from, as well as, um, you know, um, scholarship awards, you know, which I was also, in the 90s, a recipient of, which meant a lot to me as I was headed to an expensive school. 97 00:32:03,370 --> 00:32:24,800 So just when you get a definite date on the Adams Roundup, let Jennifer know and we can announce it at the select board meeting. Really? That’d be amazing. Thank you so much. We certainly appreciate you keeping this thing going. Uh, it’s so important for the youngsters to learn about competition in their high school. Young, young, young ages. 98 00:32:24,800 --> 00:32:42,270 But, uh, after that, like you said about the letters, all we got back then was a letter for each sport each year. But those letters really meant something. And when new people put on a banquet and whatever and give them jackets and whatever, it really, uh, the youngsters appreciate it. 99 00:32:42,270 --> 00:32:57,330 For what? What they’ve done, you know, during the year, whatever success they’ve had, it’s it’s a good thing. It really is. We’re proud to be from this town. Right. You know, and it’s cool to have your, your blue and white and, you know, the recognition of being from us and, and representing your town. 100 00:32:57,330 --> 00:33:13,930 And, you know, we’ve got we’ve had a long history, as you all know, of, of sports teams that have even won state championship titles. So we’ve got so much to be proud of for the little town we’re from. And, um, you know, this is just such a great organization and long standing. And, you know, I just it means everything to keep it going. 101 00:33:13,930 --> 00:33:31,100 Gentlemen, any questions for Jeff? No, just a comment. And the list of things that you listed out there, as far as, you know, things that the past organization has been able to do. I mean, those things are so expensive. So it’s really good that they were able to do that. So looking forward to some good stuff happening. Awesome. Thank you. 102 00:33:31,100 --> 00:33:48,070 I hope you get enough volunteers to help you because it is a volunteer thing and it’s hard for people now with everything that’s going on, but hopefully you’ll you’ll get a lot of people to get in there with you and and help you succeed in this. 103 00:33:48,070 --> 00:34:02,400 I’m glad that you mentioned that, because the good news is for morale is that we had our first meeting last month with a fresh, energized group of parents who we’ve got some standard work, if you will, around the way that things are done with this handbook that we can follow. But they’ve also got some fresh ideas about maybe some new ways that they’d like to approach some things. 104 00:34:02,400 --> 00:34:18,200 And I am a huge believer in collaboration, um, and allowing people to sort of create this thing into their next generation of what they’ve liked, like to see. Um, and so we have a at the last meeting we had, uh, we had a table full of, uh, of parents around the table. 105 00:34:18,200 --> 00:34:29,200 And then we even think that next, next month, our goal is to make the meeting, perhaps to have a zoom option for it, because we know folks are busy and they want to be involved. But maybe you can’t be there in person for one reason or another. 106 00:34:29,200 --> 00:34:44,000 So we’re just trying to continue to keep the awareness out there on social media and recruit and make participation easy. Um, and just a little plug, you know, is, is you don’t have to necessarily go to the meetings. 107 00:34:44,000 --> 00:35:03,770 Um, you know, if you can’t make it via zoom or in person, we’re also going to have, as they have in the past, you know, these sign up links. So as you know, basketball season gets going. You can sign up online to maybe work a concession booth. You know, um, and help to sell to do vending and whatnot. Um, I my understanding is that those basketball concessions can make some serious money. Um, so that seems to be a really good opportunity. 108 00:35:03,770 --> 00:35:22,700 Thank you. Gentlemen, I’ll take a motion, please, to use gifts of the town to provide them onto an athletic booster association with $4,000. Seconded. Oh. So. Moved. I’m sorry. Sorry. Second. All in favor? All right. So much. I really, really appreciate it. On behalf of all of us. Thank you for doing us. 109 00:35:22,700 --> 00:35:40,600 What you’re doing, kids. Most importantly, thanks. So do you want to take a minute just to tell people how they could contact you to join or volunteer? Oh, sure. So thank you so much then. So, um, the months of boosters has a Facebook page. Um, I believe there’s a message feature on there. 110 00:35:40,600 --> 00:35:53,930 Um, and goodness, I do have the next meeting date is in my phone that I don’t have on me. Um, but it is in October. And so if you go to the months and, uh, boosters Facebook page will be definitely promoting that next meeting where you can attend either in person or virtually. 111 00:35:53,930 --> 00:36:07,430 Um, and then watch for sign up links if you’re interested in doing concessions, we’d love to participate. I would guess it doesn’t have to be a parent to participate or be a part of it. That’s exactly it is. 112 00:36:07,430 --> 00:36:22,270 We’re inviting the students to also be a part of raising the money, because back in the day, I have some very distinct memories of working in that trailer, doing concessions myself and picking little. Is it ferns in the woods to make wreaths? I have a lot of trauma going to to to, uh, Brimfield to pick trash. 113 00:36:22,270 --> 00:36:36,830 We had a lot of fun events that we did that raised a lot of money that my mom signed us all up for. But in the end, you know, it’s a good thing. Volunteerism is is good and it helps the kids. So it’s definitely worth it. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Next we have a gift to the town. 114 00:36:36,830 --> 00:37:13,070 Request for the cemetery walk. Mr. Warwick. Hi, Matt. Jacob. Good evening everyone. Matt, where’s the cemetery foreman? I’m here for a request for $2,500 to subsidize the grant funding from the state that we didn’t receive this year for our 2026 historical cemetery walk. Didn’t receive. Did not receive. Horsemen. So, uh, regardless of that, we are still having the program. 115 00:37:13,070 --> 00:37:29,770 It’s going to be Saturday, October 10th. We already have flyers made. So if you see any of these around town, this is going to have a lot of the information that you’re going to be looking for, such as the time, the things that we’re doing that’s different for this program, where parking is going 116 00:37:29,770 --> 00:37:52,200 to be, where to contact me if you have any questions. Okay. We know that you’ve been doing this every year. And and it really seems to be an event that a lot of people enjoy. Do either of you have any questions for Mr. Warwick? No. I know it’s been a it was especially a success last year. 117 00:37:52,200 --> 00:38:12,600 Anyway, I heard a lot about it, a lot of good things. Yeah. So this is year five now. Um, five years ago, when we did this program, I didn’t expect to be here five years later, but it’s, um, you know, through a lot of the work of volunteer efforts. 118 00:38:12,600 --> 00:38:33,870 That brings us all back here. Um, I’ve had members that have been dedicated to doing roles, whether it be acting, volunteering, running the house, serving the concessions, and, you know, to get that kind of return is something that’s important to me. 119 00:38:33,870 --> 00:38:55,730 Um, just a little bit of background on all this stuff we had originally found. I believe it was four complete scripts and two incomplete scripts, and all these were originally written by members of the Historical Society in the 1990s. 120 00:38:55,730 --> 00:39:15,670 So last year we actually ended up redoing one of the original complete four that we had, and we were kind of on the fence about how to move forward with a lot of this stuff, knowing that, you know, return guests are eventually going to see, oh, you know, we saw this one three years ago, and just this year we ended up finding another batch of them. And one of them was titled the 12th annual. 121 00:39:15,670 --> 00:39:36,800 So once I figured that out, that was kind of like my new goal. We’re almost halfway there. I would like to tie that record that would be happening in 2033, and I would expect everybody to show up because I’ll be there. Oh. Um, are you. Um. Advertising that on social media at all or. 122 00:39:36,800 --> 00:39:59,670 Yep. So I actually just did a segment on impact earlier this morning. We’re advertising on 977 Facebook, the Journal. Um, and a lot of word of mouth stuff, too. 123 00:39:59,670 --> 00:40:17,300 I basically tell everybody I come in contact with during the workday, um, you know, if you’re interested in any of this, uh, historical stuff about the town cemetery architecture, the Jacob Thompson house, um, they’ve had a lot of success with their new social media marketing that they’ve been doing. So we’ve been getting a lot of outreach through that outlet as well. So all the advertising has been covered. 124 00:40:17,300 --> 00:40:34,000 Why don’t you just go ahead and give us an idea about the time and place, just to let people know? Sure. So we actually decided to do a couple things differently this year based on some of the feedback that we were getting from previous events, and one of them being was the tours of 125 00:40:34,000 --> 00:40:52,530 the Jacob Thompson House. After the program. Um, because we’ve seen such a high demand for that, we decided that we would have the house open before the program this year as well. So parking would be a Granite Valley Middle school. You can tour the Jacob Thompson house from 6 p.m. 126 00:40:52,530 --> 00:41:12,300 until about 645, where you then make your way up to the top of hillside, where we would begin the program. And then at the conclusion of our program, just like in the previous years, the Thompson House would be open again for tours with the apple cider and the donuts and the roasted chestnuts. Okay, gentlemen, any questions? Yeah. How is attendance. 127 00:41:12,300 --> 00:41:33,630 Been? So attendance has been really good over. And I’m not really good at the head counting when it gets dark out. But you know, just based on the pictures and everything that we’ve seen from other people, it seems like annually we get more and more attendance. 128 00:41:33,630 --> 00:41:57,670 So, you know, the first year that we had, it probably could have fit everybody in this room. And I think some of the last walks that’s been estimated, we’ve gotten about 200 people, um, which is crazy to me because I’ve volunteered and participated in events that were much more expensive, much more advertised than, you know, my little thing at the cemetery on a Saturday night. 129 00:41:57,670 --> 00:42:11,830 And, you know, the turnout for that is kind of another thing that keeps me coming back because, you know, 1 or 1000 people, I’m going to do it again every year. But a thousand feels a little bit better, huh? Yeah. And you’ve done a great job with it. 130 00:42:11,830 --> 00:42:33,100 Matt, I will say this is something that you took on and you live it. You breathe it, and we’ve had employees from the town and other, you know, residents who have participated, and they take the costuming very seriously and their roles very seriously, where the audience even gasped when someone was. Yeah. Well, give it away. But yeah, we have a. 131 00:42:33,100 --> 00:42:57,870 Lot of fun doing it. Um, I mean, it’s something again, five years ago I would not have expected to be passionate about this, but it’s something that has honestly become part of my identity, and that’s cool with me. Okay. 132 00:42:57,870 --> 00:43:18,930 Um, I’ll take a motion and please to use $2,500 from the gifts to the town for the cemetery walk. So move. Second. All in favor? Aye. Thanks, Matt. Thank you. I appreciate it, and I hope to see everybody here on Saturday, October 10th at 7 p.m.. I will be in Michigan, but otherwise I would have been there. I’ll see pics for you. Thank you. Thank you everybody again. 133 00:43:18,930 --> 00:43:44,400 Thank you. Have a good night. Next are appointments to the Municipal Financial Sustainability Task Force. I think this will complete the task force. We have the first, um, candidate is Robert Morgan and he is the nominee from the Planning board. 134 00:43:44,400 --> 00:44:12,730 And second is Kenneth Parks, who is the nominee from the Finance Committee. So I will take a motion, please, to appoint those two people to the Municipal Financial Sustainability Task Force with effective immediately, with an A termination date of June 30th, 2027. Moved second. All in favor? All right. All right. Thank you, Mr. Foster. 135 00:44:12,730 --> 00:44:32,700 In our continuing series of department updates, we have Mr. Foster, the superintendent from the Munson schools. Good evening. Good evening. Thank you for having me. You’re welcome. All right. I told us. While I. Had 40 slides. And I had a. 45 minute. Presentation prepared. But I was joking. 136 00:44:32,700 --> 00:44:43,400 Um, I just want to give you an update on the schools, and I’ll start by saying we’ve had a really good start to the year. Um, it’s been I say that has said this a lot the last couple weeks, and every time I do it, I knock on wood. But it’s been a pretty smooth start. 137 00:44:43,400 --> 00:44:55,870 Um, we did have one leadership transition over the summer, so we have a new principal at Granite Valley. Her name is Serenity Greenwood. She’s doing an awesome job and we’re excited to have her. And so that’s, you know, that’s been the one change in our leadership team going into this year. 138 00:44:55,870 --> 00:45:13,700 Um, so again, it’s been a smooth start. Our enrollment is steady. As of yesterday. We were at 798 students. That’s good. I think there’s some, um, one of the other pieces of good news on the enrollment front is our kindergarten class is 71 students. 139 00:45:13,700 --> 00:45:26,630 Um, so we actually had to make a change, post a budget where we reduced a class in another grade so that we get a for kindergarten, because you don’t really want 25 kindergartners in a class with one teacher. It doesn’t work out well for anyone. Um, so we’re actually at four kindergarten classes this year. 140 00:45:26,630 --> 00:45:39,730 Um, and we’re also right now at the high school in ninth to 12th grade. We’re at about 166 students, which is good. Right. We think we figure at 40 and a grade is a good kind of stable number for us. 141 00:45:39,730 --> 00:45:51,070 I mean, obviously we’d love to grow that number, but that’s a good, you know, a sustainable number for us. So I just want to give you updates on four things. Um, I want to talk about a new strategic plan. And I want to talk about some of the new programming we have going on. I will give you a budget update, because that is ever important. 142 00:45:51,070 --> 00:46:03,200 And I want to talk a little bit about some new grants that we’ve received. So in terms of our strategic plan. So I think I shared this when I met with you guys last year that, you know, a big part of being a superintendent in your first 143 00:46:03,200 --> 00:46:16,230 year is doing a whole lot of listening. So I spent a lot of time last year listening, and one of the byproducts of that is taking all of this data. And I put together what’s called a report of entry plan findings. And so if anybody’s interested, that’s on our website. 144 00:46:16,230 --> 00:46:31,230 And it’s basically a report of what I learned and all that listening. And so once that report was done, the next step was to sit with my administrative team, sit with the school committee, sit with our staff. 145 00:46:31,230 --> 00:46:43,930 And we have we have what’s called a district instructional leadership team, which is a group of our staff who meet 4 or 5 times a year. And so spending time with that team, we work to develop a five year strategic plan for the months in schools. And so the school committee adopted that plan in August. 146 00:46:43,930 --> 00:46:59,430 And so that is also up on our website. So if folks want to see our strategic plan, I’m going to give you the real short version. We have five strategies in our strategic plan. And there’s lots of detail in the strategic plan. 147 00:46:59,430 --> 00:47:13,500 But engaged students, empowered educators, excellent curriculum, effective partnerships, and efficient operations. And so that is the focus of our work for the next five years. And it’s a five year strategic plan because change and real change anywhere is not easy. And change in education is not easy. And there’s nothing that we do that gets done in one year. Um, it takes time. 148 00:47:13,500 --> 00:47:29,670 And so the five year plan is intended to really lay out the work that we’re going to do over the next five years. The other thing we did as an administrative team is then identified within that five year plan. 149 00:47:29,670 --> 00:47:46,930 What is our focus for this school year for the 2627 school year? And our focus this year is really in four areas. Um, within the realm of engaged students, we’re talking about establishing restorative behavior practices across all our schools. When we say restorative behavior, we mean, you know, how do you reinforce the right kinds of behavior as opposed to just punishing the wrong kinds? Like, yes, we still have discipline. 150 00:47:46,930 --> 00:48:02,000 Yes, we still have a code of conduct, but it’s never really worked great to just tell kids what’s wrong. You have to also talk about what’s right, and you have to reaffirm what’s right. 151 00:48:02,000 --> 00:48:18,470 Um, within the area of empowered educators, where we’ve created a new instructional vision, which is just I mean, ultimately, it’s a piece of paper, but it’s a statement about what we think teaching and learning should look like in all of our classrooms every day. And really starting to, like, visit classrooms and talk about making that real. The third is implementing high quality curriculum. 152 00:48:18,470 --> 00:48:30,770 I’ll talk a little bit more about that in a second, because that’s one of the big areas of new work this year. And then the last is expanding our pathways at the high school level. And I’ll talk about that a little more as well. So that’s our strategic plan. 153 00:48:30,770 --> 00:48:46,170 But anybody who’s watching I would welcome to to check out our strategic plan on our website. So in terms of new programming that we have going on, I mentioned that one of our priorities and our strategic plan is excellent curriculum and having high quality curriculum. And I’ll just I won’t go deep in research. Um, but there is lots of research. 154 00:48:46,170 --> 00:49:02,130 And there was a study done by an organization called TNP that talks about the importance of high quality curriculum. And one of the things that study looked at a bunch of classrooms across the whole country. 155 00:49:02,130 --> 00:49:18,670 What they found was, uh, the average student in these classrooms they looked at was losing 500 hours a year of instructional time to curriculum and tasks and activities that were below grade level. They weren’t at the level of rigor that students should be at for the grade level they were in, and that’s why it’s so important for us to invest in high quality curriculum so that the tasks, the activities, the books we’re having kids read 156 00:49:18,670 --> 00:49:36,800 are rigorous. They’re at the level that our students should be aspiring to. And so one of the things we’ve done this year is we have brand new English language arts curriculum in kindergarten through fifth grade. That’s a product called Core Knowledge Language Arts. We also have a new English language arts arts curriculum in sixth through eighth grade. 157 00:49:36,800 --> 00:49:55,470 So really K-8 we have new curriculum. We’re using an English language arts. We also have a product called Project Lead the Way, which is our kindergarten through fifth grade science and engineering curriculum. That’s something we’ve used a little bit, but now we’ve formally made that our official K-5 science and engineering curriculum. 158 00:49:55,470 --> 00:50:12,700 Um, we also have brought in, uh, we’re piloting a product called Character Strong, which is I would describe it as a character and wellness curriculum. So obviously this is something that’s important to do in schools, right? Yes. 159 00:50:12,700 --> 00:50:31,770 We teach math and we teach science and we teach reading and we teach writing, but we also teach values like respect, empathy, cooperation, courage, and historically, in our months in schools, that’s been sort of done in whatever way each school did it. But there wasn’t a consistent throughline across all three schools and how we were teaching character and wellness. And so we’re piloting that this year with our counselors. 160 00:50:31,770 --> 00:50:50,570 And then if that, we feel like that’s effective next year, our teachers would it would get involved in teaching those lessons on some of those character traits and character values. And then another new program, additional other new programming. 161 00:50:50,570 --> 00:51:07,700 So I talked about expanding pathways and the critical importance of, you know, we part of my listening was hearing from students and parents about what they want for their schools, what they want for their learning experience, and increasingly, what you’re hearing is that families and students want learning that is connected to life, learning that’s connected to careers, right? Yes. Again, we’re going to teach math. We’re going to teach reading. We’re going to teach writing. 162 00:51:07,700 --> 00:51:25,700 Um, and so we’ve had because that’s the demand, right? We’re responding to what our families are saying they want. So our early college program started this year. We have 13 classes that we teach at Munson High School that are approved through Southern New Hampshire University. And so when those students take that class, they’re getting college credit for their class. 163 00:51:25,700 --> 00:51:40,930 And so if you think our students can get credit, college credit in 13 classes while they’re in high school, and you turn that into dollars for our families and how much money they’re saving, potentially by their student earning that college credit while they’re in high school with us. 164 00:51:40,930 --> 00:51:58,270 We to this year is the second year of our medical assisting and engineering and advanced manufacturing pathways. And one of the beautiful things about this is these are not an either or. So our students can be in the medical assisting pathway and be taking those classes for which they’re earning college credit. 165 00:51:58,270 --> 00:52:17,130 So it’s not a you’re either going down the medical assisting route or you’re going down the early college. It really is both. So right now we have across our medical assistant courses, we have, I think, 40 students enrolled in our medical assisting pathway. Uh, we have, I think, 47 course enrollments in our engineering advanced manufacturing courses. 166 00:52:17,130 --> 00:52:34,730 We’re in the works on two additional pathways, one in computer science and cybersecurity and the other in business. That was based on surveys we put out to our families and students last year. And those were the pathways that they were looking for, the things that they wanted to learn. And lastly, on our pathways, we also have a really robust work based learning program. 167 00:52:34,730 --> 00:52:47,400 We have 21 students, I think this semester, uh, out in internships. Some of them, I think, I don’t know if this semester or not, but some do their internships in town hall. We have students who do them at places like Munson Savings Banks, savings Bank. 168 00:52:47,400 --> 00:53:02,930 We have people doing internships in my office, um, with with Jessica Smith, who does our wonderful communications work, and they’re learning about what’s it look like to communicate on behalf of a school district. So that’s our new programming. Um, the last two things I want to talk about is budget update and grant funding. 169 00:53:02,930 --> 00:53:21,870 So we’ve been really aggressively going after getting new grants to support. So I just talked about all this new work. So we’ve been aggressively going after grants to support that work. Uh, I just mentioned the expanded pathways. So we’ve secured $160,000 in grants supporting our career pathways so far. 170 00:53:21,870 --> 00:53:37,070 That’s supporting things like, we have a CNC machine that will be delivered in October for our engineering advanced manufacturing pathway. So students are going to be learning on the state of the art equipment that they’ll be using if they go get a job in that field after high school. 171 00:53:37,070 --> 00:53:59,630 It’s purchased other things 3D printers, laser engraver, robotics, and those are just examples from our engineering pathway. I mentioned the curriculum we’ve gotten, um, two grants from the state that totaled $260,000, supporting the new Ela curriculum in K through eight. Now, importantly, it doesn’t pay for buying the curriculum. It pays for a little bit of buying the curriculum. 172 00:53:59,630 --> 00:54:12,970 It is mostly paying for professional learning and coaching for our staff, which is critically important, right? You guys know we’re a small school district and we don’t have. Right? If you’re in a larger school district, they have things like instructional coaches who spend their time helping other teachers learn a new curriculum, or they have a curriculum director, which we You don’t have. 173 00:54:12,970 --> 00:54:31,000 I try to double as a curriculum director, but, you know, it’s not the same. Um, and so the, um, this this is critically important funding because we have an organization that the organization I mentioned before, TNP, that did the study. 174 00:54:31,000 --> 00:54:48,500 They will be coming into our schools all year this year and in the next two, uh, providing coaching. And that means going into a classroom, helping a teacher interpret and use the new curriculum, giving them advice. It’s not evaluative, right? They’re not evaluating teachers. It’s not they’re not being critical of teachers. It’s really a support structure that on our own we can’t provide. 175 00:54:48,500 --> 00:55:04,000 And frankly, you know, I don’t want to spend money on curriculum. And then we don’t have the training to use it the right way, because then I’m just wasting the money by buying that curriculum. So I’m excited about those grants. Um, we have one that we’re pursuing right now. 176 00:55:04,000 --> 00:55:19,300 Uh, Town Administrator Wallace is aware of this one because she’s been part of some meetings about this. Um, we’re pursuing a half million dollar grant from the Nellie Mae Foundation that would support wraparound services in our schools. So one of the things we’re finding is for many of our young people and their families, there are a lot of outside schools. 177 00:55:19,300 --> 00:55:35,270 There’s a lot of outside school stuff going on in their lives that becomes a barrier for them. Being successful in school and the school system alone can’t fix that or can’t solve that. And so this grant would be around a community wide effort to provide more support. 178 00:55:35,270 --> 00:55:49,070 And it can be around a range of things. It can be around mental health. It can be around food insecurity, housing and security. But we want to provide wraparound support so that when our when we identify a student or a family for whom there are barriers to them being successful in school, we have options not just through 179 00:55:49,070 --> 00:56:01,730 the schools. We have partners across the community that we can lean on that can support those students and those families so that we remove those barriers so that those kids are successful. 180 00:56:01,730 --> 00:56:15,670 So I want to know at the end of October, if we’ve been successful on that grant, I do think it’s important, since I’m speaking publicly to talk about the fact that one of the questions we always get when you get a grant is, well, does that save the town money? And there’s sort of two halves of that. Two answers to that question. One is it generally, generally don’t save money in our operating budget. 181 00:56:15,670 --> 00:56:29,530 And the reason, frankly, is funders don’t want to pay for operations. They don’t want to pay for a teacher salary. They don’t want to pay for my salary. They want to pay for new shiny things. And so you can get a grant to buy a CNC machine to put in our engineering shop. 182 00:56:29,530 --> 00:56:45,130 You can also get a grant to support the purchase of a curriculum, but covering the things that we have to do every day. Generally, funders don’t want to pay for that. 183 00:56:45,130 --> 00:56:59,600 The way it does help our budget is so the example, um, with these curriculum investments we’ve made and again, one of the grants paid for a little bit of that, I don’t I’m not coming to the town and I’m not coming in my operating budget for money to buy that curriculum. 184 00:56:59,600 --> 00:57:12,830 And whenever you buy curriculum, you buy it for a minimum of three years because nobody you don’t ever buy curriculum for one year, because you don’t want to do that to teachers and kids. Like new curriculum every year. And so you buy it for three years. And so some of these investments we’ve made in curriculum mean that we don’t need money for curriculum in those subject areas and grade levels for 2 or 3 more years. 185 00:57:12,830 --> 00:57:26,900 And so it means we’re able to reduce what we need, um, in a future budget year, or at least for a couple of years. And I should also say sometimes grants help with capital, right? Like we had put into the town capital budget. 186 00:57:26,900 --> 00:57:39,500 We had put a request in for a CNC machine because we knew we needed that for our engineering shop. When our capital request is submitted to the town this year, there won’t be a CNC machine because we have a grant that’s covering that. So that’s really the grant update. 187 00:57:39,500 --> 00:57:52,230 And the last one is my budget update. Um, so I want to update you because I think you all know we came to you with our first budget request for FY 27, and then we came back with a revised budget request later, where we reduced the amount of the ask and we made some 188 00:57:52,230 --> 00:58:05,430 assumptions. So I just want to update you on where we are with those assumptions. So the first one was that we assumed that the state would fund the rural aid at $20 million for FY 27, and that was a little bit risky because at the time, the Senate 189 00:58:05,430 --> 00:58:22,430 had proposed 16. Then the House proposed ten, which was very concerning. The governor had proposed 20, but at the end of the day, um, rural aid was funded at 20 million. And so that assumption is we’re solid. So we don’t have a revenue shortfall on that assumption. 190 00:58:22,430 --> 00:58:38,230 Um, we did have a small reduction on our title one federal funding, but we had already accounted for that in our budget. Um, we reduced the out of district tuition for students with disabilities who were not able to serve, who we send out of district schools, because that we were anticipating we wouldn’t need as much. 191 00:58:38,230 --> 00:58:56,530 Right now, we’re okay on that front, but I want to be transparent in saying we have two students new to the district this year who likely will need 1 to 1 aides. 192 00:58:56,530 --> 00:59:13,130 And so if you think an aide is about $22,000 per year, right, that’s something that wasn’t, you know, we because we reduced our special education budget, we we’re monitoring that closely. We also have a two students for whom we’re contemplating whether they actually need to be would be better served in another setting. And that obviously would dramatically increase our tuition. If we have to move forward with those two students. 193 00:59:13,130 --> 00:59:26,830 And again, when it comes to our students with disabilities, right, we have to do the services and the placement, that is what they need. And so I think I’ll have to keep you posted over the course of the year on how our special education costs are looking. So that’s really the assumptions we made. 194 00:59:26,830 --> 00:59:42,170 The good news is, having said all that, right now our FY 27 is on track. So we’re not projecting a deficit at this time. Um, and we’re watching it closely. So we update the school committee every month on our variance and where our spending is relative to our budgeted spending. 195 00:59:42,170 --> 00:59:59,700 Um, and then the last thing I’ll mention, this goes back to a little bit the grants at the end of well, in FY 26, we made some strategic investments, like the curriculum. I talked about where again, those were three year purchases, so that our FY 28, 29 and 30 budgets won’t have to have dollars for those items. 196 00:59:59,700 --> 01:00:16,930 And so I do think as we move into FY 28, we’ll be paying attention to where we can scale back our operating request because of the some of the strategic investments we made at the end of the at the end of last fiscal year. And we did one of those actually wasn’t really a strategic investment, but because of special education, transportation. 197 01:00:16,930 --> 01:00:35,300 Last year, we ended the year with an $80,000 deficit in, uh, our van transportation services line. And we identified funding within our budget to cover that. So that was something we didn’t have to come to the town and ask for an additional, you know, funding allocation at the end of last year. So that was a lot. 198 01:00:35,300 --> 01:00:56,900 I might have talked too fast, but I’m happy to take questions. Just to follow up on the last point, how’s transportation looking budget wise going? Right now? It’s looking better. So ironically, so far this year, you got to talking to the Mike Lee. If you’re going to talk. Um, yeah. Come on. Down. 199 01:00:56,900 --> 01:01:09,930 Well, so the biggest variable in our is the van transportation because much like the tuition and the the 1 to 1 aides I talked about, it’s a function of a need of the students. We have so far this year. I’m knocking on wood again. Um, the our van transportation is coming in under budget at this moment. 200 01:01:09,930 --> 01:01:24,330 And so we’re lower than we have in the budget for vans. Now that can change, right? I mentioned two students who may need to move to an out of district placement. They would be getting riding a van to that placement so that unfortunately the transportation can change in a hurry. 201 01:01:24,330 --> 01:01:46,070 The other thing I do, I should give a shout out to Leah and to McCarthy, who are our transportation vendor. Um, one of the things that came up in last year’s budget process was, can we reduce routes because we spend. Leah what’s big? What’s a big bus? Um, 60. 67,000. 202 01:01:46,070 --> 01:01:59,000 So. Right, every big bus we pay per day, right. So they can do as many runs as we want, but we’re paying 60,000, $7,000 for a big bus we’ve had for years. Um, ten big bus routes. And McCarthy worked hard over the summer and they cut it to nine. 203 01:01:59,000 --> 01:02:12,900 Now, we it’s not a savings because we built that into our final budget. So the final budget that was passed at town meeting reflected nine routes. But we took a risk because we basically said to McCarthy, hey, we’re going to nine routes, help us figure it out. And they did. And it’s going okay. 204 01:02:12,900 --> 01:02:34,800 Yeah, we had a little I mean. There’s a couple people that have been concerned because the ride is long. There’s a microphone. The microphone. Is not getting you. Okay. Leo zipping this road. Don’t bring it up. Don’t say it. Um. We’ve had some. 205 01:02:34,800 --> 01:02:58,100 Uh, couple concerns from parents that, um, they feel that the ride home or to school is, is longer. Um. but really, uh, no one is longer than an hour. Um, and for regular transportation, that’s not even a law. Um, we could go over an hour if we needed to, but that’s a long. That’s a long time. Yeah. Um, so there have been concerns. We. 206 01:02:58,100 --> 01:03:15,930 I’ve worked with McCarthy, um, to look at those nine routes. And if we’re able to accommodate, we try to accommodate. Um, but it’s it’s I think it’s worked really well, you know, and it’s only been a couple, you know, people with concerns. And that was really like the first week. 207 01:03:15,930 --> 01:03:31,900 And you’re always going to have, you know, some, some tweaking going on with the routes. So I haven’t heard anything lately either. And the first bit we, I mean, you’re going to get complaints in the first week. Every school district everywhere forever because it’s just the bus routes all take longer on the first week. So and we had some we had some. 208 01:03:31,900 --> 01:03:51,800 There were some. Some hiccups, hiccups. Also some of the longer routes. Right. We you know, Mr. Morrell and how many miles do we have with. Those people don’t know where they live. 209 01:03:51,800 --> 01:04:08,000 So so the longer routes instead of, uh, the elementary school, instead of putting the buses numerically, we lined them up where the longest routes are leaving the school, just leaving the school first. And that caused a little confusion. Um, there were some changes in bus assignments when with the drivers. Um, and. So I just got on the bus with the driver. They know that’s not necessarily your route. 210 01:04:08,000 --> 01:04:29,770 That’s not a good thing. Um, but I think we we worked with the staff and they were great. And, um, we solved all of those problems. And you didn’t lose any kids, right? No, no. Everybody knock on that one, right? Not not even close to. But McCarthy’s been fabulous eye candy. And it’s a three year contract again. 211 01:04:29,770 --> 01:04:48,400 It is. Yeah. Well, uh, with options. Well. Right, right. We have some options. Yeah, yeah. I’m glad we’ve got a administration and a superintendent with so much energy and enthusiasm. Oh, you’re you’re in there plugging away and. Oh, I was going to give you a personal update, so. 212 01:04:48,400 --> 01:05:03,330 Oh, just, you know, because I believe in buying what I’m selling. My my daughter is a ninth grader at Munson High School this year. So she, she that was now I will say that was not me. That was her choice. That’s exciting. She’s a school choice then, and she’s having a great time. And she gave us great feedback. 213 01:05:03,330 --> 01:05:19,300 We’ll give another shout out to our food service department. Oh yeah, because she did tell her father, oh my God, that’s true. We’ve never. Seen food like it’s so. Yeah. So Food Services was really excited to hear that. And quality time with dad on the way to school. 214 01:05:19,300 --> 01:05:39,070 Yeah I don’t know if she’s excited about that, but I enjoy it. I’m a little interested in the curriculum. It seems like we have gone from historically where we had a curriculum director and the teachers and the curriculum director worked on the curriculum for, I don’t know if it was for the whole 215 01:05:39,070 --> 01:05:55,070 grade or for their particular classes, but now we we buy curriculum programs. Is that typical for a smaller rural school? Is that. , well, in terms of smaller rural, I just think it’s it’s becoming the standard. 216 01:05:55,070 --> 01:06:11,130 And I think that’s because there has been so much research and this has nothing against our teachers. But, you know, when you say to teachers, we want you to develop it all yourself and, you know, are you going to have is right. 217 01:06:11,130 --> 01:06:25,000 You’re talking about when you’re talking about purchasing curriculum, you’re talking about curriculum that’s been developed over years by people who have PhDs in brain science and how you learn to read and like our teachers are phenomenal, but asking our teachers to have the same level of expertise about, for example, how a five year old learns to read like they just don’t have that level of expertise. 218 01:06:25,000 --> 01:06:43,200 And so I don’t know, you know, urban, suburban, rural, um, I think at this point it’s becoming the standard that you, you invest in a product and then really the work of a teacher shifts. I think of it as you shift from lesson planning to lesson preparation. Right. 219 01:06:43,200 --> 01:06:58,900 So you’re still you’re still doing that work ahead of a lesson, but you’re digging into that curriculum and you’re thinking about how you want to use it, as opposed to coming up with something. And so I do, though, know that some of this is new or although I will say in K-5, Ela, we’ve had a product at least as far back to 2017 that was purchased. 220 01:06:58,900 --> 01:07:14,800 So this is replacing something that had been purchased previously. The other thing I should add is in August, the governor signed a law that is I don’t know the name of it, but it’s I think of it as the science of reading law. 221 01:07:14,800 --> 01:07:35,400 And the science of reading law requires that by the start of next school year, every school district in Massachusetts has to have a purchased, state approved curriculum for K-3 literacy. So we made sure in our selection process that the product we purchased for K-3 already meets the state requirement, right? So we were we would have to do it anyway. Yeah. It makes sense. It absolutely does. 222 01:07:35,400 --> 01:07:51,970 I think it’s just because of what I shared about the, you know, we want that level of rigor for our kids. And again, it’s nothing against our teachers, but we just want to make sure that what we’re putting in front of our kids is research based. 223 01:07:51,970 --> 01:08:06,930 I was also surprised to hear how many kids are participating in the pathways program. It’s a lot. It’s great. It’s exciting. I mean, I’m excited about all of that. And I think the staff are excited. I think the early college piece has been a big win as well. That I think our families are probably the most excited about that in terms. 224 01:08:06,930 --> 01:08:24,730 Of when does that start? It started this year. There are kids today who are in classes for which they’re earning college credit. So you really don’t have any historical data about which schools will accept those credits? Is that an issue at all? Well, I mean, we’re assured that it’s not. 225 01:08:24,730 --> 01:08:37,500 And I will say there are other schools in Massachusetts that have partnered with southern New Hampshire on this same program ahead of us. And so I think there’s some data out there. But, I mean, southern New Hampshire is a, you know, respected, accredited two for four year university. 226 01:08:37,500 --> 01:08:56,530 So I don’t foresee our students having issues, I think, is there a chance that at like Ivy League schools, they might turn their nose up? I think there is that possibility. Good, good. Gentlemen, any questions. I like I like to hear all about the grants because that’s really good because there’s, you know, there’s so many grants out there. You just have to dig in and, and. 227 01:08:56,530 --> 01:09:18,470 And you spoke about the, the large ones. We’ve also received several probably a handful of just like smaller grants that just supplement, whether it’s sending someone for professional training. Um, but just a little here and there, that helps. Yeah. Go after what you can before the election. After that, it’s going to be tight again. You dry up. 228 01:09:18,470 --> 01:09:48,500 Yeah. I don’t have any other questions. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Thank you very much. For coming for coming in. No, thanks. For having me. Thank you. Yes. Thank you. Leah, don’t forget your bag. I don’t want to have to drive it to be rolled later. 229 01:09:48,500 --> 01:10:10,770 Next, we’re moving on to old business and continuing the discussion for the request for proposal for the House of Art lease and discussion of the alternate proposal. As you heard from Mister Cold before, from the Municipal Arts Council. And basically, I’d like to start just with the proposal for Mr. 230 01:10:10,770 --> 01:10:29,970 Kohl’s, and to say that I appreciate very much that he took the time to think this out and to propose it, present it to us. He did give us the proposal in writing. So we’ve had a chance to take a look at it. And the issue with going forward with that proposal is that. 231 01:10:29,970 --> 01:10:55,570 if that it doesn’t allow us to have a lease and really the the predominant issue here is that we want a lease with whoever is using that building so that we can know who’s going to be responsible for what aspect of everything, so that we can have everything in writing. And if we don’t do an RFP, we can’t do a lease. 232 01:10:55,570 --> 01:11:18,700 Part of it’s it’s the law. So part of part of the the way that we can get that lease is that we have to go through that RFP process. 233 01:11:18,700 --> 01:11:39,300 Um, we, we do need to define from the town’s perspective so that we have the ability to, um, project the, the things that the costs that the town will be responsible for. As far as maintenance and upgrades, other expenses define and limiting the uses of the building. Um, determine a rental amount, talk about what insurance we’re going to require. And those are all reasons that we need to have a lease in place. Um. 234 01:11:39,300 --> 01:12:04,500 Is there any way that we can incorporate the two with having the transfer over to the Municipal Arts Council, but also having a lease. But transferring to the Municipal Arts Council doesn’t accomplish really anything because the town still owns it. 235 01:12:04,500 --> 01:12:22,730 So if if the point in transferring it to the Municipal Arts Council is to say that they will then be responsible for the building and some of the the issues that the town has as far as expenses and that kind of thing won’t be something we need to consider. That’s not correct. The town will still own the building. 236 01:12:22,730 --> 01:12:45,100 The town will still need to budget for whatever our responsibilities are under the lease. That building is a town building and it’s on the National Historic Register. That annex building. And, uh, that is very eligible for grants to take care of that building. 237 01:12:45,100 --> 01:13:06,470 So we’ve got to look at that to and to what Keith just said. I kind of I’m looking at the proposal that they’re written thing that, uh, read me made up. And I would leaning towards us getting together with them and discussing both things to try to combine it together. 238 01:13:06,470 --> 01:13:28,400 But I guess from what you’re saying, we still have to do a request for proposal legally. Yeah, I checked with town council. But that doesn’t mean that, uh, we can and, well, you can’t involve them. Before the request for proposal, I suppose. You cannot. That’s illegal. All right. Yeah. Uh. so we already think about some of these ideas these got here. 239 01:13:28,400 --> 01:13:49,600 I’d say you’re already on the cliff there because you’re having a lot of conversations with one group about this RFP. Right. And it you know, that just that gives an appearance that we are favoring one group over the other, which we are not allowed to do under the RFP. 240 01:13:49,600 --> 01:14:09,070 So that’s part of the reason we haven’t really gotten into a discussion. More specifically about either one of the municipal arts councils, whether it be Mac or whether it be the Municipal Arts Council. So I’d like to leave that discussion at this point. Now. 241 01:14:09,070 --> 01:14:34,530 And leave it that at some point in the future, it may be something that we can discuss further. And the so the second part of this agenda item is to talk about the RFP and to go through what would have what would be the highlighted portions of the RFP that you should have had in your packet. 242 01:14:34,530 --> 01:14:56,370 And I had some homework to provide you guys with the expenses, which is in your packet, right. It’s a one pager. It looks like this. On the top it says House of our expenditures. So if we can. Move like this John. Yeah, I got it. Oh, no. This one pager. I got the proposal here, I the RFP here. Oh, this one pager. It’s House of Art expenditures. 243 01:14:56,370 --> 01:15:18,870 It’s right there. Yeah, I got it here. Yeah. Thank you. So let’s let’s start with the request for proposal. And on page I’m not sure that’s not the pages aren’t numbered. 244 01:15:18,870 --> 01:15:39,270 But in section one the term of the lease is for a period of three years with a success of three year renewal term at the sole discretion of the town. Is that a concern for anyone? Anyone want to comment on that? Three years? I think it’s reasonable. Okay, I got a question. Please let me go back to that first page with the House of Art expenditures, that Mr. Moran submitted to us. We haven’t gone through that yet, John. 245 01:15:39,270 --> 01:16:06,070 We’ll go through the expenditures when we get to the finance. All right. You mentioned that first. That’s why I mentioned. Okay, go ahead then. On on section three. There’s a there’s a blank in the description of the premises. 246 01:16:06,070 --> 01:16:26,200 And I’m not sure what that complete with um, was supposed to reference, but as far as I know, the only thing on that piece of property is that wood frame building. Well, there’s a deed for that. Isn’t there a separate deed for that? No, no, no. But when it says complete with I think it’s, it’s referencing that there’s something else on the property that would be part of the lease. And I’m not sure. I’m just wondering if the deed. 247 01:16:26,200 --> 01:16:47,030 Has that would. Be these are the numbers in there. The square footage? Yes. We checked with the. Um, might be deleted. So we can delete that, complete with. And then the blank should be deleted down to number three. 248 01:16:47,030 --> 01:17:13,300 In section three, it is anticipated that the details of the lease agreement between the town and the successful respondent will substantially conform in form and content, including, without limitation, the following terms. In terms of the lease agreement which we just agreed to would be three years. Yeah. And a yearly adjustment, which is would generally be an adjustment for inflation. 249 01:17:13,300 --> 01:17:41,430 Have either one of you given a thought to what that adjustment percentage might or should be? I don’t know what the average would be in a lease. So one of the things that I talked about with the internal staff was if we wanted to use the, um, property insurance cost as one of when we get to the, um, price, you know, for 250 01:17:41,430 --> 01:17:58,970 the minimum price, we thought we could use the property insurance because that’s paid for by the town right now, and that we could do the yearly adjustment of if that increases. I mean, we’re not looking to make any money on this. Um, so. 251 01:17:58,970 --> 01:18:16,030 So are you talking about a percentage or are you talking about an actual figure that would. Whatever the problem. Yeah. I mean, the property insurance would be under the price part and it could say that, you know, the property insurance, if it has an increase, it will be the new term of the price for that lease. 252 01:18:16,030 --> 01:18:33,770 I don’t think you need a yearly adjustment in the, um, section. You’re talking. The town paying separately for the for the insurance on the building. We pay it now we are paying it. The goal is that if it’s leased out, we’re not paying the insurance. 253 01:18:33,770 --> 01:18:54,700 Yeah, but why? Why would somebody release it? You have to pay the insurance. That’s what I’m asking. That’s what we still are building. But that’s what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to transfer the expenses to the lessee so that the town doesn’t have to continue to subsidize what’s going on in the building. And it’s not really them paying it. 254 01:18:54,700 --> 01:19:10,600 It’s that their price for leasing the building would be the same amount as the insurance. We would still have the insurance. They would just be giving us that same amount of money that we had to pay in. So it would be a wash. So I don’t think you need the yearly adjustment. In my opinion. 255 01:19:10,600 --> 01:19:29,400 It’s just so you’re just suggesting that it follows the whatever the premiums end up being for each year. So if it goes up, if it ends up going up 5% in a year. So it would that cost would be passed along. Well, what I’m saying is I don’t even think before. 256 01:19:29,400 --> 01:19:47,930 I don’t even think you need the yearly adjustment. You don’t have to have that in there. Okay. And then you could just under the minimum evaluation criteria of price, put language in there about the insurance cost. Yeah. So if you’re all okay with taking out the yearly adjustment you could do that. I am. I’m fine with that. 257 01:19:47,930 --> 01:20:23,700 Okay John. Yeah okay then moving on to the next page, section five. Um, the proposed uses must be compatible with the town’s intentions as stated in the RFP, particularly the schedule of limitations as to use. Which is, um, appendix A, three pages after right. So that would be paragraph one of appendix A, are there any. 258 01:20:23,700 --> 01:20:46,770 Changes you’d like to make to that? It’s actually that whole part. All appendix A is basically the schedule of use right now. Just the first paragraph. Oh just the first paper okay. Yeah. No. So it says the premises are owned by the town of Monson. 259 01:20:46,770 --> 01:21:06,430 The premises have been operated as a community arts center and shall continue to be used for arts and cultural uses. The structure and all improvements are the property of the town of Monson. The premises are located at 200 Main Street in Munson, mass. 260 01:21:06,430 --> 01:21:50,130 So the important part of that is that it’ll be continued to be used for arts and cultural uses, and that is a limitation that will be included in the lease. Okay. Um, next, the minimum evaluation criteria. This is something that I think it’s hard for us to come up with a figure on. Exterior. I’m not really. Sure, without talking to a professional. What kind of professional? A real estate professional. About? A minimum bid in the proposal. 261 01:21:50,130 --> 01:22:10,470 Well, I think, again, I think when towns are doing anything to any sort of policy or RFP, it’s at your discretion. As long as you’re not breaking the law to set the parameters how you want them to be. So you could say the minimum bid is $1,000. 262 01:22:10,470 --> 01:22:36,130 Well, if the bottom line is that we’re trying to cover our our charges, then we can look at this sheet of paper and see that the property insurance is roughly $1,250 a year, and that at least for the last year, the water and sewer charges were $830. Those are usage charges because they’re not being paid right now. 263 01:22:36,130 --> 01:22:48,600 Right. But that’s what. That would rate. That’s what the charges. Were brought that up. Now would you just say they’re not paying that right now? Right. Because it’s a town owned building. So we. Don’t are going to bring out. Yes. Why are they. Because it’s a town hall building. 264 01:22:48,600 --> 01:23:06,570 This is to show for the future that these were the historic charges, because we wanted to have a approximate amount of how much water in usage cost would be to provide into the lease to say to the RFP, prospective bidders, this is how much you’d have to pay for water and sewer based on this type of usage. 265 01:23:06,570 --> 01:23:21,770 Again, the point is having the lessee pay the expenses of the building, so that would include the amounts that we pay for insurance, and it would include the amount of water and sewer. Okay. I’m not in favor of that because it’s a town building. 266 01:23:21,770 --> 01:23:40,000 The town water department and sewer department, they, they they shouldn’t charge that town building just like they don’t charge the other town buildings for water and sewer. I don’t I don’t like that. But then the town is subsidizing who ever is ends up being the lessee of the building or lessee of the building in. The amount what you want. I just say I don’t like it. 267 01:23:40,000 --> 01:24:04,430 I that’s all for $2,000. You’re going to limit very much who can get involved in the RFP. Now with all of this stuff, with all these charges and everything. But this is going to be the actual lease charge. 268 01:24:04,430 --> 01:24:28,830 The the total of the expenses that the town is incurring on behalf of that building are what ultimately would be the least amount. And so, again, the whole point in this, in having a lease is to try to get the lessee to basically pay whatever expenses the town is incurring on behalf of that building. 269 01:24:28,830 --> 01:24:47,870 That’s all weird as far as I know, and we’ll discuss it later. We don’t have to charge an amount over and above that for the lease. We can just recoup the expenses that the town incurs. And as far as I’m concerned, that would be sufficient. Oh, I’m just saying, I don’t think we should charge the the. We see anything anyway, but water and sewer. 270 01:24:47,870 --> 01:25:10,200 That’s all I’m saying. The town building. I understand what you’re saying. It’s going to be occupied by a non town organization, but it’s still a town building. I. I don’t think we should be that, uh, cheap. Mr. Valley. That’s the right word for it. Uh, well, I’m not really. 271 01:25:10,200 --> 01:25:34,500 You know, I’m just reading this here as a minimum bid, and then it says the proposal must meet or exceed the minimum annual payment of X dollars. So is. And I’m, you know, I’m I’m, I don’t know. Are we saying that if the minimum bid we set the minimum bid at 1000. 272 01:25:34,500 --> 01:25:51,800 But the proposal must meet or exceed the minimum annual payment, so do they have to go in this case with what we’re trying to do? Do they have to go hand in hand like we wouldn’t be able to put, you know, an amount? Um, that exceeded what we were going to then ask for annual payment. 273 01:25:51,800 --> 01:26:10,400 They don’t have to go hand in hand, but I think it’s better practice if they do. So I think if we can look at what we’re expending on behalf of that building and use that for the minimum criteria, and also use that for the lease amount, then that would that would be appropriate going forward. The current people in the lease been paying that. 274 01:26:10,400 --> 01:26:35,000 No, we don’t have a lease. We haven’t. We have no. Since 1999. No. Call it a lease. All right. It’s something that happened. We have nothing. We don’t have any document. Working pretty good as far as I’m concerned. I like it, I like the way it is, but. I’m only one person. 275 01:26:35,000 --> 01:26:57,770 Going on like this for a long time. And until this point, I don’t think we’ve been at a budget point where we feel like we are counting every dollar, and it seems fair to me that the person or group using that building pay for the expenses that the town is incurring. 276 01:26:57,770 --> 01:27:19,230 We’re not we’re not making any money off of this. We’re not asking for an amount over and above that, just that the town not subsidize whoever ends up leasing that building. So again, is there an option? I’m just going off. 277 01:27:19,230 --> 01:27:38,370 What? Johnson is there a is there an option where it can be? You know, we were talking about transferred before, but can it be can it be shifted in some way? Um, you know, to, to John’s point so that you can stay. I brought that up several years ago and it was shot down by Mr. Morrell. 278 01:27:38,370 --> 01:27:54,970 What I brought that idea of several years ago to go to town meeting and gift it to the house. The Munson Municipal Arts Council. And you didn’t like that idea? No, we’re not gifting the building. Yeah. See? Oh. but that’s not. I think that what I’m thinking, though, that’s the only way to leave it. Status quo. 279 01:27:54,970 --> 01:28:14,700 Like you say, you would like to leave it is to actually gift it. Like, what’s the benefit of the town owning the building? John? The the room. For what? Someday that building is going to not be there anymore. And the town has property there. You’re going to keep squeezing in what the town owns. 280 01:28:14,700 --> 01:28:29,930 The town can use a building. Maybe it won’t be used for. Maybe the building will still be there, won’t be used for art in the future. Be used for something else. But it still occupies a space. The town owns the land. You don’t give away that land like that. 281 01:28:29,930 --> 01:28:45,730 The other side of the town hall should have. We should own that building too. But they gave it away 100 years ago. That’s what I’m saying. This space, the land that it’s on. It’s important to. Keep the land. Just the house. Just get the house. The land stays with the town. I don’t know if you can. 282 01:28:45,730 --> 01:29:05,770 Do that, what I had said earlier, several years ago was go through town meeting, gift the house. And as long as it continues to stay as an all arts and culture center, it would always be under that auspices. Once it stops being an arts culture center, it reverts back to the town. 283 01:29:05,770 --> 01:29:33,500 That’s what my idea was, and it didn’t get any support. Because then it also separates the town being involved because it’s very murky. It’s still a prevailing wage for projects. It still has the Arts Council, who are very independent, capable people having to be in this dance with the town. 284 01:29:33,500 --> 01:29:46,830 And I think they’ve shown for many years that they’re very capable of handling this building without us being involved. And I think it just muddies the waters when we try to do all of this. 285 01:29:46,830 --> 01:30:02,300 And I know it’s legally we have to if we want to stay in this lane. But if we stay in this lane, just let them have the house, have them have the ownership and the stewardship of it. And if someday it stops being an arts and culture center, which hopefully it doesn’t, it reverts back to the town. 286 01:30:02,300 --> 01:30:18,500 And then people who are going to be here long after me are going to deal with it 50, 70 years from now. I just think this has gone on so long and I don’t want to start pontificating. So it would free them up to get the grants. That. They can get. Yeah. 287 01:30:18,500 --> 01:30:32,130 And I had sent Alan several things about grants and things, and a lot of them are contiguous on are you a nonprofit or are you separate. And Bob knows that. I’ve talked to him about it, and I, I’ve talked to all of these people about this several times over the years, and we still aren’t making any progress. 288 01:30:32,130 --> 01:30:49,000 But part of that discussion was that they need to be the owner in order to apply for many of those grants, right? But if they become the owner through a transfer of the. Oh, I’m not disagreeing with you. 289 01:30:49,000 --> 01:31:06,330 I’m saying that this would allow them to go forward and get some grants at they otherwise wouldn’t be able to apply for. And that was the discussion we had a couple of. Years ago. Better chance of getting a grant or it’s still a town owned building. No, not necessarily John. No, there are there are, there. Are specific arts and culture grants. That they cannot apply to if they don’t own the building. 290 01:31:06,330 --> 01:31:24,100 But there’s also federal and state grants you can get if you’re the town, because the town owns the building too. Well. You know, there’s that way too. So I will say this, John. 291 01:31:24,100 --> 01:31:42,930 For the amount of money that’s available right now for communities and the amount of time we all have to spend on these grants and research for all of them. And this is not to say one is more important, but the priority for the town departments is not the arts cultural center. That’s their priority because that’s what they do every day. 292 01:31:42,930 --> 01:32:00,300 And I can’t become the arts cultural, you know, steward, it’s not what I do every day. And I think it ends up putting a lot back on the town employees to do things. When there’s other people who are doing all of this already. And there’s a municipal arts council that can apply for grants, which. 293 01:32:00,300 --> 01:32:20,570 So there’s the Munson Arts Council and the municipal Munson Munson Municipal Arts Council. The reason the Munson Municipal Arts Council was created many years ago was for the specific reason that they could apply for grants. They have some of the same members, of course, but sometimes we get bogged down in the little details. 294 01:32:20,570 --> 01:32:37,700 And I again, it’s not my opinion. It’s just or it’s not my decision. I’m just giving my opinion. So how could we move forward? Well, we need to decide whether we want to move forward with the lease or not, because if we don’t want to move forward with the lease, then we don’t need to go through the RFP process 295 01:32:37,700 --> 01:32:58,900 and we don’t need to do any of this. I’m in favor of, um, not going forward with the lease. I am also.. So then if I would. Take, that’s fine. Well, yeah, I know we need to take a vote, but let’s talk then about the alternative. 296 01:32:58,900 --> 01:33:23,700 Would would the two of you and and this is something I think we’ll have to put on the next, um, agenda because it’s not. I don’t believe that. It’s it’s covered by this. Although I think that this is flowing from our original discussion. If we don’t go forward with the RFP and lease, then. 297 01:33:23,700 --> 01:33:44,170 I think it’s a good idea for us to decide as much as we can how we would like to move forward, and whether that means transferring ownership of the building only, which is something that can be done. John. Um, I think that that makes a lot of sense. 298 01:33:44,170 --> 01:34:06,570 Again, we talked about this a couple of years ago, and there was some determination by the board that, I should say, members of the board that they didn’t want to move forward with that. 299 01:34:06,570 --> 01:34:26,870 So if that makes more sense to the two of you now or to the three of us, then let’s look, instead of having town council continue looking into this, let’s have town council looking into potentially getting us a deed that will allow us to transfer only the building. I don’t want to move the building either, but why? You don’t want to. Move the I don’t I don’t want to move to have the building owned by them. What do you and you’re going to be responsible for repairs and everything. 300 01:34:26,870 --> 01:34:44,870 Exactly. They will. Well. They whoever, whoever, whoever has it, whether it’s in an RFP or the existing people that are there now, it’s going to cost them serious money to to do some of that work in that building. It’s got to be done. And John, that’s, that’s where that. 301 01:34:44,870 --> 01:35:07,130 Freedom that’s for that group to do. And again, they’re great stewards of the building. They fundraise, they have events that they put money aside for. That’s not for you to worry about. Well all right I’m going to say this now. It’s it. 302 01:35:07,130 --> 01:35:29,400 We do have a, uh, a discussion coming up about the, uh, special town meeting, warrant articles and everything. And it I was going to make a proposal because it deals with an emergency that exists in that building right now. They don’t have heat. And I was going to propose that an article go on that town meeting for $10,000. 303 01:35:29,400 --> 01:35:52,600 That’s the number I was told to replace that boiler and heat. That building. Uh, because I consider this an emergency and he’s getting colder and it’s going to keep getting colder as we go on. They’re going to need heat, and that building can get ruined without it. Uh, and I think we should get transferred $10,000 out of the stabilization account. 304 01:35:52,600 --> 01:36:10,500 That’s what the stabilization account is for, specifically. You people don’t want to touch that stabilization account. You think it’s made of gold or something? You can’t touch it in a big cloud. But that’s too bad. That’s what that money is for. It’s only $10,000 now. Yeah. Wait, wait. I’m not done yet. 305 01:36:10,500 --> 01:36:25,030 It’s only $10,000 that I’m talking about. And you can’t let that building. You can’t just think, oh, now we’re going to close the building because we don’t have any heat in it. Shut the water off and everything. 306 01:36:25,030 --> 01:36:43,570 That building is still going to decay with cold weather and everything else and not being used. I. I can’t see the reason why anybody wouldn’t go along with that motion to take 10,000 out of stabilization. I think you got, what, 1.4 million in it or something. Okay. 307 01:36:43,570 --> 01:37:03,870 What 10,000 gonna do? I just I think that, um, we, I think the quicker we make a decision on which way we’re going with this is going to help for everyone to be able to line up what they need to line up. And we also have to have legal correct look into that avenue. So I just think that we just need to. He is an immediate concern as far as I’m concerned. 308 01:37:03,870 --> 01:37:18,470 And regardless of what we decide tonight, John, you can still make a motion to put something on the warrant and we can talk about it. As far as how. Much time do we have when we’re going to be posted by. Okay. So again, you guys are way off topic. 309 01:37:18,470 --> 01:37:35,930 You need to stay on the topic of the House of Art right now, right? When we get to the special town meeting where you can talk about. That. We’ll talk about it again. This is this is part of this same discussion, because unless we understand this, we can’t go forward. Right now. So make a decision on this. So Mr. Morrell. Yeah. 310 01:37:35,930 --> 01:38:01,500 Understanding that we can still move, we can still discuss whether we want to put a warrant article on to, to expense that new boiler that is not part of the decision that we’re making right now. Right. Well, wait, I agree, I wait till we get that a special town meeting right here coming up. 311 01:38:01,500 --> 01:38:25,570 So if it’s agreeable to just transfer the building to, would it be the Municipal Arts Council or would it be Mac? I think it would be the municipal. It would be the. plain and Simple Arts Council. Allowed the municipal. But if it’s the municipal Arts Council, aren’t we still under prevailing wage? Yes. So what? So it’s. 312 01:38:25,570 --> 01:38:48,000 It’s way. More money. No no. No no. You want it. You want less money to be paid. Yes. So it would be Munson Arts Council, which is a non-profit that’s private organization. Here anyway. Yes. Well, then we don’t have to do the prevailing wage stuff and it’ll be cheaper. 313 01:38:48,000 --> 01:39:14,170 Whatever they need to do to so rather than what we’re talking about this evening, what we started talking about with the RFP and the lease, let’s talk about whether we want to transfer the building to the Munson Arts Council. I don’t have a problem, and I’m not out of place asking, uh, these people here what they think of that. 314 01:39:14,170 --> 01:39:35,530 I’d like your opinion. I think. Are you opposed to care? Then you can. I’m sorry. Mr. Moran. Come on up. Yeah. Uh, Alan Moore and president of the Arts Council. Uh, I very happy with the direction this went. 315 01:39:35,530 --> 01:39:53,670 Uh, in terms of the discussion of the building, I’d like to compliment recalls for his passion in bringing this issue up and making everybody think about the town and our culture. Um, it sounds to me like if you transfer the building and not the property to the Munson Arts Council, it benefits everybody in the long run. The town still has the land. 316 01:39:53,670 --> 01:40:13,930 The council has the building. We we can we can apply for grants to to do what we do. We’ve we’ve been maintaining it for over 30 years. And, um, John, excuse me, Mister Morrell is absolutely correct. Uh, time is of the essence to to get a new boiler in there. 317 01:40:13,930 --> 01:40:32,730 We’ve held off because we’re kind of we were waiting for at least for months and months and months, knowing full well that in anticipation this is coming, this is going to happen. We got to do something with it. 318 01:40:32,730 --> 01:40:47,200 Uh, and if we can keep it to a situation where we’re not paying prevailing wage for a future expenses, I think, again, it benefits the council, benefits the town, benefits everybody. So it sounds good to me that. I I’ll tell you, I didn’t know about the boiler. And I don’t know if these other gentlemen knew about the boiler until a couple of weeks ago. Okay. So I just found out. I think. Part. 319 01:40:47,200 --> 01:41:08,230 Of part of what Mr. Morrell’s issue was, is to make sure that we’re asking you if you feel that you are financially able, as the Montana Arts Council, to take care of that building. Yes, we. Are. Okay. So that’s. You can get a grant and. We can get grants, and we have ongoing projects. 320 01:41:08,230 --> 01:41:23,530 It doesn’t bring in a lot of money, but it brings in enough for us to continue to function. And that answer. Jennifer’s concern about having our people try to get the grants. If you people. Right, you know that. So I think that that works. Keith, what do you think. I’m in favor of that? Okay, absolutely. 321 01:41:23,530 --> 01:42:00,730 So I’ll take a motion then that we pursue transferring the building to the Munson Arts Council. So move second. All in favor? Aye. All right. Oh. Don’t go anywhere. No. You’re good. Okay. Continue discussion on the municipal Association Selectmen handbook and select board rules. Regulation, policies and procedures. 322 01:42:00,730 --> 01:42:25,000 I’ll just say, as far as the the Massachusetts selectmen handbook, I mean, it is what it is. And we will use that as a reference guide. I mean, I don’t think that there’s any question about that. What’s under our control is this document that’s entitled rules, regulations, policies and procedures. And in having gone through this, a lot of it is duplicative. 323 01:42:25,000 --> 01:42:45,000 A lot of it doesn’t apply any longer. Um, a lot of it is just a reiteration of state law. And I think we have a 12 page document here that really could probably be one page. 324 01:42:45,000 --> 01:43:06,970 And so what I, what I would like to propose is instead of this document, we come up with a 1 or 2 page policy. That’s a select board policy that we will put in place rather than this document. I would agree because I’ve gone through it as well. And there’s I’ve got a lot of things that, um, there’s, there’s, there’s things two ways that can go two ways. 325 01:43:06,970 --> 01:43:21,870 Things that maybe we should be doing and things that we are doing that we shouldn’t be doing. So there’s, there’s a little bit of both in there. Um, so yeah, I’ve been, I’ve been working on that on the side. I’ll make changes later and add ons. Well, yeah, I’d be in favor of that too. 326 01:43:21,870 --> 01:43:57,430 So I’ll ask the two of you if you would submit something in writing to town Council about your comments on this document. Then we can proceed from there. Okay. Got it. Not a problem. Thank you. Thank you. And next, moving on to new business, approving the minutes of August 10th, 2026 executive session. I haven’t seen them. 327 01:43:57,430 --> 01:44:35,630 Are they completed, Mr. Varley? They are not yet. So we’ve we have a problem under the open meeting law about the. Timeliness of of minutes and. Basically. I don’t think I wrote it down, but there is there’s a section of the Code of mass regulations. Here it is. It’s 29. 328 01:44:35,630 --> 01:45:03,370 11, subsection two minutes shall be created and approved in a timely manner and timely manner is defined as generally within the next three select board meetings or 30 days, whichever is later. This meeting happened. On the. 1042 days ago. And so I think that we’re not in compliance with the Code of mass regulations. 329 01:45:03,370 --> 01:45:27,900 What I would like to suggest is that even though you very kindly volunteered to write the minutes, that maybe we should talk about reverting back to the way that we’ve done things before, and that is to submit the recording to the executive secretary to produce those minutes. I would counter with that. 330 01:45:27,900 --> 01:45:50,830 I would I would bring us into compliance, and then we would should look at our rules and regulations and what it says in there, because we technically are bound to that about actually recording meetings. So I think that I can I can get us compliant with 30 days. 331 01:45:50,830 --> 01:46:12,730 Um, I will do that within the next five days and get us all all, all caught up and submit those for your review. And then. Um, we should. Probably talk about that whole procedure and how that should be done, because in our rules and regulations, it says that no one should be recording executive sessions. And yet we that’s been our practice. So that’s an issue. 332 01:46:12,730 --> 01:46:34,600 And I didn’t realize that it said that we couldn’t. But let me say this, I think the better practice is absolutely not recording executive sessions. And I think the better practice is to have an unfortunately, I don’t know that any of the three of us know shorthand, but. Yeah. But the the best. Practice maybe. But yeah. 333 01:46:34,600 --> 01:46:56,270 The best practice, of course, is to take the minutes during the meeting so that you can have them prepared and have someone type them up for us immediately. I’m not sure if. Do either of the two of you feel like you could take minutes during the. I like the recording because you get everything. 334 01:46:56,270 --> 01:47:14,530 That’s absolutely. You get everything that’s set on it. That’s said during the meeting. Somebody taking minutes. It’s going to not necessarily involved marked down every every little bit of the thing that’s being said. Right. But the minutes don’t reflect the entire recording. Right. It’s not that’s not what minutes are. 335 01:47:14,530 --> 01:47:32,230 Four minutes are not a transcript. Minutes are just to show the the important parts in. The. Okay. I thought, I thought in a minute something like that executive session. You had to know. All right. 336 01:47:32,230 --> 01:47:49,170 I mean, I you know, I would you know, I took on the task from the recordings and if you if we do that, we decide to do that and I will still I will still find a way to make sure that notes are recorded as we go. Okay. 337 01:47:49,170 --> 01:48:16,370 So as long as you can get those minutes done so that we can get them approved, then I will. Okay. I will ask you to complete, um, the August 10th, August 29th, September 3rd and September 17th executive session minutes. Not a problem. Okay. Thank you. And next new business request for warrant article to. To do the open session. We have the 25th. Oh I’m sorry. Yeah. 338 01:48:16,370 --> 01:48:50,230 So I’ll push the executives to 1013 meeting. Yes. Thank you. August 25th, 2026. Open session minutes. Those I think everybody’s reviewed. Yeah. So you just need a motion to approve. So, um, I, I move to accept the August 25th, 2026, um, open session meeting notes. Seconded. All in favor? Aye. And the September 17th, 2026 open session minutes. 339 01:48:50,230 --> 01:49:07,630 Those are because we we open those are kind of in the same together. So those will be. Okay I’ll. Put those again. Done. Put those on if you can put those on the on the 13th to those. And keep just actually in reference to that, can you make two separate word docs for that. 340 01:49:07,630 --> 01:49:29,270 Because we need two separate ones because executive can’t be with the open ones. Open. Yeah. Correct. Not a problem. Thank you. Thank you. And next is a request for a warrant article to purchase an electronic voting system aka clickers. So I have that in your packet. I did a draft um, article for you. 341 01:49:29,270 --> 01:49:50,000 And I have a placeholder for the warrant. If you, um, take a vote and it’s in the affirmative to put it in there, this is, um, it was brought forward by Keith, and it is for electronic clickers for use in annual and special town meetings. 342 01:49:50,000 --> 01:50:09,930 And because it is a, um, one time purchase, it would be free cash that would have to be used. And, um, so just to talk about the process of the warrant and how articles are placed on the warrant, we don’t have a process written down. So we have a practice. I guess I would say that we’ve followed through the years since I’ve been here. 343 01:50:09,930 --> 01:50:30,070 And again, I’ve said this at meetings before the opening and the closing of warrants is not a real thing. It’s kind of a tradition in a community. If they don’t have a bylaw, which we don’t. And so when we quote open or close it, it can still get articles presented to it. 344 01:50:30,070 --> 01:50:45,000 We could still have a citizen’s petition article coming up to the day of town meeting. To be honest with you, most people try to follow along when we say, oh, the warrant is going to close. Just actually, I don’t think that’s true. I think until it’s posted. Jennifer. Right. I’m sorry. Posted once it’s posted. Right. 345 01:50:45,000 --> 01:51:01,600 And so we do like to announce the dates, just so the public knows. And so Keith had asked me to put together an article and I had, um, told him that I would put it on. And so then I let the chair know that I was going to put it on. And, um, Pat said it can’t go on the warrant. 346 01:51:01,600 --> 01:51:24,570 It has to be separate for consideration by the board before putting it into the, um, actual draft warrant. And so that’s what I did here. And again, the warrant itself is, I’ll call it business of the town. So it’s articles from Community preservation. It’s articles from Water and sewer. 347 01:51:24,570 --> 01:51:39,970 It’s articles from, um, internal discussions that I have in the finance staff has with department heads as we’re working through the year, you know, things come up. Oh, hey, I need this to fix the tanker truck, which is one of the things that’s on there from the fire department. So the warrant grows organically through that. 348 01:51:39,970 --> 01:51:55,070 Um, no one’s ever told they have to have a warrant. It’s basically to the department heads. Do you need do you have a need for a warrant? You know, um, sometimes conservation will have warrants. Sometimes the zoning and planning with zoning bylaws or changes, they’ll have specific articles. 349 01:51:55,070 --> 01:52:14,400 And so that’s how that came to be. So this draft article is for your consideration tonight. And if you again take a vote and review it to put it into the warrant, then it would become part of the special town meeting warrant that you’re going to vote next. Right. 350 01:52:14,400 --> 01:52:35,530 And then so just to give a little background on this, was that I, you know, by, um, you know, submitting this to you, Jennifer, I did not want any special, you know, process to be put in. All I want or would like to see this go through the process the correct way that it should. 351 01:52:35,530 --> 01:52:59,830 And I know with our conversations that we just had and the rules and policies, there’s there’s nothing in there. You’re right. We have no policy for that. And probably going to be one of my recommendations when we get to that. Um, but I mean, this, you know, this this came from originally this whole clicker. 352 01:52:59,830 --> 01:53:22,530 Clicker electronic system came from a citizens petition originally, and then the select board appointed a committee, which John and I both sat on. And the committee made a recommendation back. I believe it was last May. Yeah. And it didn’t make it on onto the warrant. Okay. 353 01:53:22,530 --> 01:53:41,470 So I’m asking for consideration, uh, to put this on the warrant and put it to the floor and let let the citizens decide whether they want to spend the money on this great feature that we could have for our town. Problem. I’ve got a problem with it. Only because it we got we got, uh, we cut two officers. I think we’re three short now. 354 01:53:41,470 --> 01:53:56,000 Right? Um, police officers and we, uh, we got three short in the highway department. We cut, and it’s going to be a tough winter for everybody. The police and the highway. Those are public safety departments. And I don’t think in my mind, You’re not as important as having the clickers on a town meeting. 355 01:53:56,000 --> 01:54:15,130 I know I was on a committee, and. And you guys convinced me that it would be a good thing to have. But in this situation, we’re in financially, I cannot vote for it because of the priorities we have to set priorities. And public safety is more important to me than somebody. 356 01:54:15,130 --> 01:54:31,800 I’m not trying to be a wise guy raising a paddle or hitting a clicker. That’s what it comes down to. And it’s a it’s going to be a continuing expense after that to maintaining the clickers and everything. We have to think of that in the future. Right. Which which we did in the recommendation. It’s an ongoing thing. 357 01:54:31,800 --> 01:54:48,730 The initial thing is this is the big cost. Is this right here initially doing a net, I think at 25,000. Right. Yes. That’s for for a start up request. That’s the request. And I would just say and I understand, I’m not saying that public safety is is not important at all. 358 01:54:48,730 --> 01:55:09,770 But the last time it was debated on, on the, on the town meeting floor, the some of the things that were thrown out were, oh, you know, if we spend the money on this, we’re going to have to cut the library. We’re going to have to cut services at the senior center. And basically, um, it’s apples and oranges. 359 01:55:09,770 --> 01:55:29,970 And those cuts were made. People somebody lost their job at the library, even though this money was not spent. So, you know, the public safety and all that stuff is all, all separate. This is this. is spending this money is not going to make or break a position with the police department or anywhere else. 360 01:55:29,970 --> 01:55:48,530 Well, it’s going to make things worse. It 25,000 means a lot that highway department, I can tell you that it’s not going to put another employee behind the wheel, but it’s going to pay for some outside services we’ll need because they lost three men. 361 01:55:48,530 --> 01:56:05,070 Uh, and and the winter is not going to be a priority for anybody. It’s a big town with a lot of ground to cover. 106 miles. You got to cover that with five men. That’s pretty hard to do. Not easy. I was stuck with six guys for years, and I know what it’s like. I’m just. I’m just my my fully. 362 01:56:05,070 --> 01:56:22,870 My goal here was for the people that put it to the people and let them decide. Just give it a, give it a, give it a fighting chance. Let it go through the process. Well, we don’t have the money either. 363 01:56:22,870 --> 01:56:47,400 According to town council, we’ve only if if the things that are proposed in this warrant are agreed on and and passed the town meeting, I think we only have a balance of $18,000. And you’re asking for 25. We don’t have it. That actually includes the time I included the 25 in that figure, just so I could see where we’d be. Yeah, well, so that’s 18, 18,000. We’ve got one. 364 01:56:47,400 --> 01:57:16,730 We appropriate everything else, right? Yeah. Well, I’ll throw in my $0.02. I don’t agree that giving or using $25,000 for the clickers doesn’t affect the rest of the town, because we have a bottom line. And if you take 25,000 off that bottom line, that’s 25,000 less that can go to other places. 365 01:57:16,730 --> 01:57:41,200 Um, from my perspective, also, this is something that even though it’s been done through a citizens petition, it’s already been on town meeting warrants twice. And my personal perspective on that is I don’t like to see things put on again and again until the people who are the proponents of that get what they want. 366 01:57:41,200 --> 01:58:07,400 I think I think that the fact that it’s been on there twice already is more than enough. And I’m also going to say that given the fact that we begged department heads to go to the bare bones on their budgets for this year, that it’s just disrespectful to them to say that we can’t give you $2,000 for something that you 367 01:58:07,400 --> 01:58:28,330 really need, but we can use $25,000 for clickers that I don’t think we need. So that’s my perspective. One other point that I missed that I should mention that if we passed these things that are on a warrant currently at town meeting, the way it is, we have $18,000 left for the rest of 368 01:58:28,330 --> 01:58:43,830 the whole year. Who knows what else is going to happen during the year if you appropriate 25, which I don’t know where you’re going to get the money, then you’re really in the hole. If anything else comes up, it isn’t an emergency, but it should be taken care of. 369 01:58:43,830 --> 01:59:04,270 You’re not going to have the money to appropriate. You’re not going to be able to do it right. That’s correct. Right. Oh, I mean, I’m I’m not against the clickers necessarily. Uh, because I voted for them. I accepted it, but I’m just against using that money right now because of the situation we’re in. 370 01:59:04,270 --> 01:59:25,030 And I’m really concerned about the police, the fire and the highway. I really am. And the other departments won’t be able to rebound either. Uh, in the future, if which we’d like to see them do. I’ll take a motion, please, to put on. Would it be article 20? No, that was just okay. My ex. 371 01:59:25,030 --> 01:59:55,330 Is okay to put on an article on the warrant for the special town meeting in October entitled Electronic Clickers for use in annual and special town Meetings. Do I have that motion? So moved. Second, I’ll second it. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Nay. So it’s Mr. 372 01:59:55,330 --> 02:00:28,430 Varley, I and Mr. Morella, and many nay and I will. I will follow up by saying that if anyone wants to put it on as a citizens petition, they certainly have the right to do that. Review and approve special Town meeting warrant for October 26th, 2026. 373 02:00:28,430 --> 02:00:47,770 So you have the revised draft warrant that just got finished revisions today in front of you. Um, I could go over a couple of things. You could go over it one by one. I’ll take my direction from the board. Well, I think you should go through the entire warrant. Okay. 374 02:00:47,770 --> 02:01:11,130 And I think that unless there is something that we want to do differently, we can just take one vote. On the whole warrant. Yes. Everybody good with that? Okay, so article one, and again, this is a draft warrant. It still can change. It can change up until the night of town meeting with the financials. Because the financials can always change. Yeah. 375 02:01:11,130 --> 02:01:36,870 So article one is to use free cash for three items to supplement the FY 27 budget. We have a retirement from the police department that we were unaware of when we started planning for the FY 27 budget, and that officer is retiring effective October 31st. 376 02:01:36,870 --> 02:02:02,400 So the buyout for that, which means a sick buyout and vacation time buyout based on their IBO contract, is $19,689. Police department, again for expenses due to a retirement that I just spoke about and other vacancies. We already have. Uh, Chief Gasperini is actively looking to send two candidates to the police academy, which I believe starts in January. So $9,000 for that. 377 02:02:02,400 --> 02:02:21,370 The fire department has a need for $1,400 for uniform allowance. And that was due to a career firefighter leaving. The uniforms were already purchased, and now they have a new firefighter who started and they have to buy the uniforms again. They don’t fit the guy. We could. 378 02:02:21,370 --> 02:02:41,870 Get it’s not the Rockettes, John. You don’t have to be a certain size. So that’s article one. And again that would be all free cash because those are one time expenses. Any questions on that one. Article two is also to supplement the FY 27 budget. 379 02:02:41,870 --> 02:03:04,170 And these would be raise an appropriate appropriate because these are not one time expenses. And these are all for the most part because of the reductions that we asked departments to make at the May Town meeting budget season, because we were looking to be able to close the gap of the, um, commitment that the Select Board had made to the 380 02:03:04,170 --> 02:03:33,670 school department. And so if you remember, we reduced the town budget by 380 or the overall budget by 383,000. And the bulk of that was from town departments. And so the select board, we have postage that needs $3,000. Technology needs 12,000 human resources membership and dues, 1500 conferences, 1500 Council on aging Protective Clothing, 400. 381 02:03:33,670 --> 02:03:56,530 Mileage, 200. Internet 225. I’m interested. Do you know what the protective clothing is in. The driver? Right. It is for the union employees who are driving vehicles, but it’s also for our non-union cook because she needs aprons and special gloves. And unbeknownst to me, she was buying them herself. 382 02:03:56,530 --> 02:04:14,070 And I don’t think that’s a good practice, that we have employees bringing in their own things to do the job that we’re asking them to do. Thank you. Um, Jennifer, what about the postage and technology first blackboard. Can you explain that a little bit more? Yeah. So postage is one of those accounts where unfortunately right now postage I believe it’s $0. 383 02:04:14,070 --> 02:04:33,630 78 for the meter just keeps rising. Um, we have a lot of, uh, costs that are, uh, non-negotiable. We have to send things out through the mail. We have things that have to go out. And this postage meter is used by all of our departments, not just this building. 384 02:04:33,630 --> 02:04:46,870 Um, so we have people that are coming in from all the different departments. And if the zoning department has things to send out to a butters tonight we had the pull petition. That’s a butter things that need to be sent out when we send out bills, when we send out checks. 385 02:04:46,870 --> 02:05:06,200 The postage machine is one of those things where we just can’t get away from the expenses. We’re always trying to lower that however we can. We like to see if companies will take an electronic transfer for a payment. Um, that’s not always the greatest thing from the finance directors side. They don’t like to do that because they don’t like anyone having our bank account, which I get. Um, but unfortunately, postage. 386 02:05:06,200 --> 02:05:21,600 It’s like years ago when they said, we’re going to get rid of paper, we’re never getting rid of paper, and we’re never getting rid of postage. Um, the technology is, um, we have a, um, agreement with Andre computers, entry technologies. I’m sorry. That’s the company that supports all of the town. 387 02:05:21,600 --> 02:05:42,000 Um, technology needs from our servers, from supporting all of our staff. They’ve been heavily working with the fire department on the renovation. All the electronics that have to go in there. And so we have about a monthly bill of about $8,000 that we pay to them. 388 02:05:42,000 --> 02:06:01,670 But it’s also services and or supplies that we have to supply. And again, it’s a cost of doing business. Um, we have a lot of trainings that they do for us for phishing and cyber attacks. Um, it’s if you’ve been following the news recently. Um. And I feel much more, um, stable with this company. Um, I feel very supported with it. 389 02:06:01,670 --> 02:06:16,400 And, you know, we actually have cyber risk insurance that we get. That was something that started years ago through Maia, which is our property insurance company, where they have cyberterrorism rider that you can get. And I’ve always gotten it every year because you just never know. 390 02:06:16,400 --> 02:06:37,370 And you don’t want to be in that situation. But Andre, I can tell you, is a wonderful, um, company. And it’s just, again, the cost of doing business. Thank you. You’re welcome. Um, treasure collector expenses, land court. That’s $6,000. And that’s through, obviously. Treasure collector’s office. And it has to do with, um. A couple of tax type titles. 391 02:06:37,370 --> 02:07:06,270 Exactly. Yeah. Law department and claims expenses. Labor, 15,000. Litigation, 35,000. If you remember, we only put in $5,000 to each of those accounts at my town meeting, which was seriously underfunded since last year. 392 02:07:06,270 --> 02:07:23,470 We spent $68,000, I believe between those two accounts, the labor line this year alone is going to be having labor support for the Acme Union contract. It has labor support to the Select Board for the town administrator and the fire chiefs employment contract, as well as other employment issues that come up. 393 02:07:23,470 --> 02:07:42,700 And we rely on town council for and as far as litigation, we have, um, a lot of things that come across our desk that were, were, um, under mass general law required to do for the community. And we also have people that we have a case going on right now, a gentleman, I believe, from North Dakota, that has decided that he has rights to some land in town. And we’re in a we’re named in a lawsuit from him. 394 02:07:42,700 --> 02:08:00,730 Um, next week, Sherry and I are spending a day in Springfield under deposition for a trash lien case. Um, that dates back probably ten plus years, if not longer. And again, these are we. I asked town council. I said, where do you think we’d be? And she said, use the same numbers as last year. 395 02:08:00,730 --> 02:08:16,770 And again, when we know these expenses are going to be there, it’s incumbent on the town to be a good client with businesses, because one of the things that people like doing business with towns is towns pay their bills, but we don’t want to be the town that says you have to wait six months or 396 02:08:16,770 --> 02:08:33,800 worse. We say, we can’t help you, so-and-so resident, because we don’t have any money to do that. And it’s quality of life issues. That’s what we’ve been dealing with a lot lately. 397 02:08:33,800 --> 02:08:56,200 We have a couple board of health issues where they’re trying to enforce sanitary codes, where there are a lot of quality of life issues affecting people in a neighborhood. And it’s incumbent on the Board of Health and the public health director to do their job. And we need the assistance from the attorneys, um, highway Department petroleum 25,000. I don’t think anyone is, uh, unaware of the price of gas and diesel, even more so and so. 398 02:08:56,200 --> 02:09:10,270 Amy Hersey and Kate Baker looked at that a little bit over the past week or so. And again, these are going to be all estimates because we don’t know how much it’s going to be used through the winter season. 399 02:09:10,270 --> 02:09:27,330 Um, Amy did make sure that the tanks got filled up last spring, you know, before we went into the fiscal year. Um, so 25,000, we’re looking to put in there. And isn’t that petroleum for all town departments? It’s all town departments. The tanks live at the highway department. 400 02:09:27,330 --> 02:09:42,270 And we used to do the budgeting under the select and with the change with Gail and retiring, we actually switched that responsibility to Amy, since she’s the one who schedules the people that come in to do the testing of the tanks and all of that. So it was more appropriate for her to handle that. Hired equipment is $10,000 and that is for the landscape company that we have. 401 02:09:42,270 --> 02:10:00,930 Do the Hillside Cemetery. And we, um, that comes from the cemetery perpetual care account. And we had it on our projection sheet in the spring under the cemetery work. Um, under available funds. But it didn’t get coded properly to the ledger. So we have to do something. It’s. 402 02:10:00,930 --> 02:10:21,730 The money’s already been appropriated. We just have to do this. Um, entry, um, building salaries. There was a position that was regraded. We have a position that, uh, actually does two full time positions for us. And in the past four plus years that the person has worked for us. 403 02:10:21,730 --> 02:10:38,400 This has been a goal of mine to regrade this position and to more codify exactly the duties that the person is doing. And, um, additional duties were also provided into this job description at the time. 404 02:10:38,400 --> 02:10:57,470 And I followed the wage and classification plan that the Select Board endorsed a few years ago when we had, um, capital strategic solutions do that process for us. And when a position is reclassified, it could move a different grade, it could move a different step. And that’s what happened with this. And so that would be the difference for that position for FY 27. 405 02:10:57,470 --> 02:11:15,630 And again, the position that the person holds has uh public safety issues with it enforcing mass general law. Um, the zoning enforcement officer, all duties that no one wants to have. Um, and several years ago, when we didn’t have a zoning enforcement officer, the Select board served as that. And again, not a, uh, appropriate way for the Select board to work. 406 02:11:15,630 --> 02:11:35,370 Jennifer, I know you said that it you know, when you reclassified, you used the the scale, the wage scale. How does how does it end up? Um, as far as being is, um, in the market itself. So like in the surrounding area, how does that end up falling in the range for that position? The new classified. 407 02:11:35,370 --> 02:11:54,600 Right. So I would say that position, um, I actually have to change the title as well because typically towns end up people doing more than one duty. So some people end up with all these duties that are from three different job titles or things like that. 408 02:11:54,600 --> 02:12:24,000 So this position is doing a facility director position and also a building commissioner position. If I was looking to hire a facilities director only position, I would be in the 100,000. And zoning Enforcement. And zoning enforcement, including benefits Building Commissioner, which is a level higher than an inspector. I would be in the one 20s. So combining those duties together, I think we’re at one. 409 02:12:24,000 --> 02:12:42,900 243, I think is what it came out to off the top of my head. Well worth it. The employee has saved the town an exorbitant amount of money over the years for the teamwork that he does with other departments, highway, Park and rec, the fire department. 410 02:12:42,900 --> 02:12:55,130 I received so many supportive comments through the years about the employee and the can’t do attitude. And what do you need to get done? I can make it happen, you know. Just tell me what we need to do. 411 02:12:55,130 --> 02:13:15,800 And I think I referenced this one time before that Paul Foster and I have that same thought process of if we have someone here already and we know what they’re adding a value, how can we utilize them more and know who we have versus, okay, have to hire for this person, this position, and then you don’t know what you’re getting. And again, saves on the benefits. 412 02:13:15,800 --> 02:13:32,330 And I know the school department recently ran into this when they were looking to replace a long term employee who retired in facilities, and they advertised a position. And everyone that was coming in wanted above what they were offering, which I believe was around the hundred, and they ended up not being able to hire someone at the position level 413 02:13:32,330 --> 02:13:48,470 they wanted. And it’s just unfortunately, it’s part of what’s going on in the municipal sector too. People aren’t looking. They’re not running here to work here anymore. 414 02:13:48,470 --> 02:14:04,930 I have a friend that works for the MassDOT, and he said, years ago I used to call my buddy and say, hey, you know, your idiot nephew or he his buddy would call me, you know, your nephew, he wants a job. And now it’s like, no, I need your idiot nephew to come work for me because people don’t want to work anymore. In general, it seems. 415 02:14:04,930 --> 02:14:25,800 And then municipal factor brings a whole different level, you know? So when we have good employees. Very general statement. It’s true. It’s true. You it. There’s a lot of things that play into that. But back, back. To get where you’re going. Yes. Yeah. Thank you thank you. Maintenance building and expenses. You guys heard about this from Justin when he was here for his department update. 416 02:14:25,800 --> 02:14:44,570 So pest control. And again, these numbers, originally he had asked for additional from the 8000 up to about 11,000. I had to knock it down because again, we just don’t have the funds right now. And we put in the fire sprinkler maintenance that has to be done here. 417 02:14:44,570 --> 02:15:02,100 And a new line for the fuel oil from the Bellman Museum, because we did not have a line to fund the oil for that building. So let me interrupt you. Is this where we talk about the boiler for the House of Art? Yes, because maintenance building is where it would live if we wanted to do that. Well, yeah. Yeah. I’m ready. Here I go. Okay. 418 02:15:02,100 --> 02:15:17,000 So let me talk about that a little bit. So because maintenance building is where everything falls under for all the town buildings, you know, we have one budget for repairing things at town buildings. 419 02:15:17,000 --> 02:15:36,270 And Justin’s assisted read and Bob and Alan on things down at the House of Art. And so if the Select board was inclined to do that, I want you to be aware that we already are in a situation where we don’t have a lot of funds for everything. 420 02:15:36,270 --> 02:15:58,670 On the converse side, I understand that there is a need because it is September. Um, I would like I would like to know more from the, um, the, the group. I, I always. mention Arts Council, Arts Council, the Mac, the Mac. Um, I did receive some quotes that they received. So I have those. 421 02:15:58,670 --> 02:16:14,430 But again, I don’t know where they prevailing wage were they not. There’s asbestos that has to be removed as well. Some I know one company said that they would include that. Another one had a separate quote for it. 422 02:16:14,430 --> 02:16:29,830 So again, not apples to oranges, but also the other piece I would say is there is Community Preservation Committee monies that could be applied for in the spring. And I know that’s in the spring. 423 02:16:29,830 --> 02:16:49,930 So could we repair it for now through the winter? You know, is it literally on its last leg, you know, do we need the full one right now? Those are some questions I think, that still need to be answered. And I guess I would say this to say we were not in special town meeting time. And Mac called and said, we have no heat, we cannot get it to work anymore. Then we have to make a decision. 424 02:16:49,930 --> 02:17:09,170 Do you go to the reserve fund and ask appropriations for a special reserve account? Because it’s an unexpected expense and it. Yeah, maybe you do. That’s what that account is for to, you know, John can say stabilization, but there’s 35,000 that is put aside every year for the appropriate finance committee reserve. And that can be used for those types of things. 425 02:17:09,170 --> 02:17:33,170 Then my suggestion is let’s wait. We still have time before the warrant gets posted. We can get more information. We can talk to Montana Arts Council. Are we going to have another meeting before the warrants posted? Yes, and we have the information about the no. Our next meeting is October 13th. Yeah. There’s four weeks. In October 7th. 426 02:17:33,170 --> 02:17:49,770 There’s four ways I think they could be funded. It could be funded through, uh, uh, article with article eight that’s on the warrant, the Preservation Commission. But they’d have to have. No, you can’t do preservation. We don’t have they have to go through the whole application process for that. And they’re not taking applications until February. 427 02:17:49,770 --> 02:18:05,200 I didn’t say it was going to happen. I said, there’s four ways. No, but I’m trying. But that’s not a way. It’s not a way. So that can’t happen. So that’s one you can’t do. But it’s a way that could have been done if it was attacked earlier. Correct. All right. 428 02:18:05,200 --> 02:18:22,170 Uh, article ten deals with a capital stabilization stabilization account. Is anything going to be put. In there? You’re on the old one. You’re not on my current. One, John, because I took that off. Okay? Because it didn’t have a number on it. Right? Because I had it on as a placeholder. All right. 429 02:18:22,170 --> 02:18:39,930 Uh, and the other way is a grant, and it’s too late to get that. There’s no way you’re going to get it that quick, even if you got it. Yeah. So that that’s out. 430 02:18:39,930 --> 02:18:59,130 So it’s either to to find out what the number is we need and take it from stabilization and put an article on there or take it out of that maintenance building expenses for the for that, for that building. And we could still use stabilization for that or go to the finance committee for reserve fund. But no matter what to do, this has got to be dealt with. And before you can’t have another special town meeting after this one. So before the heat is needed. 431 02:18:59,130 --> 02:19:21,730 I’m not the chair. I’m sure. Can I. Bring a point up here? I’m the treasurer for the Arts Council. Okay. We do have the funds available. Please tell. Me to go. Sorry. Yeah. Yeah, that’s. All right. Maybe if he. Yeah. Really want. To. Hear you really loud. 432 02:19:21,730 --> 02:19:38,400 Right? Uh, Bob Wilson, ten old stagecoach age old stagecoach drive. Monson. Uh, I’m the treasurer of the Monson Arts Council. We have set aside the money to do this work. We’d like. 433 02:19:38,400 --> 02:19:56,570 We’d love to be reimbursed after we do it, but we’ve got to do it before any of this stuff happens, okay? I mean, we gotta get, you know, if we reach out to contractors now, if we can get it done. by November. Okay, that’ll be early. Oh, excuse me, excuse me. You’re saying you have the money now to fix that? I have the money now to fix it? Yes, we’ve set it aside because we knew this was coming. 434 02:19:56,570 --> 02:20:10,830 We’ve known this was coming for a while. It gives us a little more time to get them reimbursed. Can we be reimbursed? Can reimburse them too. Can we reimburse through the CPC? Leave your account alone. Well. Well, we need to. Get dry and leave it alone. 435 02:20:10,830 --> 02:20:27,200 Keep your money. We need to get it out. You’re going to need it for something else. Probably. And we should appropriate it with it. One of these ways that either either out of the free cash, which is crazy to do, I think, because we’ve already won’t have anything left as it 436 02:20:27,200 --> 02:20:45,870 is or stabilization like or what Jennifer said the reserve fund or the finance committee, but they’ve I would hope they would do it if we don’t put an article on they’re going to have to. If they don’t do it, we’re going to be in trouble. So they have a meeting Monday night, the 28th Finance Committee does. 437 02:20:45,870 --> 02:21:06,770 Oh, so who could, uh, propose that to him, you or them? I can do it. Okay. And I would suggest one of you fellows be present at that meeting here, too. Well, I know Alan won’t be, but I bet Reed couldn’t come with me. Reed, can you meet me Monday on the 28th? Here. 438 02:21:06,770 --> 02:21:21,370 Is it a date? Uh. Try to get the money from the reserve fund. And, uh, my wife. Get your heels. Sharon knows. So how about this? In the meantime, you guys decide on your own what is the best quote, price wise. And make sure all of the keys are crossed. 439 02:21:21,370 --> 02:21:45,700 And I didn’t get it to me by Friday, so I can get the form done. Please. And thank you. Yeah. Yes. Thank you, thank you. Okay, back to maintenance building. So, are we done with that? Yes. Okay. Audit. And actually, uh, axe, aerial studies. This is fixed asset service that we have to do for our new audit firm that we have. 440 02:21:45,700 --> 02:22:05,870 And, um, $2,500 salaries from the elections that is coming from town clerk that we need more money for the election salaries. And again, we knew a lot of these were going to be underfunded. We told you we’d be back here. Um, so here we are. 441 02:22:05,870 --> 02:22:29,730 And so that is a total of 150,325 to raise an appropriate. And so that’s where it would take out from our excess capacity right now is 168,000. So that would leave us with 18,000. Okay. Um, let’s see. Number three is prior year bills. This happens a lot. 442 02:22:29,730 --> 02:22:54,870 We have three prior year bills, one for select board to the cable connector for 2000, fire department for Goose Town Communications, $176.73. And highway for John’s Paint store for $19.95. Paint store now John. Yeah. I know you’re gonna say that. Um, four, five, six and seven. I’m not comfortable speaking to them because they come from the water and sewer department. 443 02:22:54,870 --> 02:23:13,300 Okay, so if you have questions on those, I would tell you to speak with them. But they’re really their own animal. They do all of their articles. Town council checks them for legal language, but they handle all their finances. We don’t. The money is all coming from. They’re all. From the collection. It’s and it’s all just transfers from one account to another to pay their, their bills. 444 02:23:13,300 --> 02:23:33,130 So then that brings us to article eight, which is community preservation Committee. They only have one this year for this town meeting. Um, and it is for $42,800. 445 02:23:33,130 --> 02:23:53,200 And it is for the Jacob Thompson house at seven Main Street to, um, fix the repair that, uh, there’s a leak in the roof. Article nine is, um, from the school committee. If you are a follower of town meetings, you’ll remember that there was an article to create a special education reserve fund a couple of years ago. So we created that first. That was the first step. Then we had to create a policy that was done. 446 02:23:53,200 --> 02:24:16,700 The school committee accepted the policy, and now this is the step where we will transfer the money, which comes from free cash of 88,000 320,080 $0.04 to the Special Education Reserve Fund. And what’s that is used for, John, because you’re looking at me is unanticipated, extraordinary or volatile special education costs. 447 02:24:16,700 --> 02:24:38,270 So as Superintendent Foster talked about tonight, he was saying that they possibly have a student that they may need to provide different schooling for. And so when that happens, if they don’t have any funds aside for it, it becomes a hit to their current budget. Okay. 448 02:24:38,270 --> 02:25:00,370 These funds come into the town from Medicaid, uh, services that are provided through the school. So the school department employees who work with students who have special needs or high needs, there is a mechanism where they can bill Medicaid and they bill Medicaid. The money comes in, and it was going into the general fund tonight, going into the general fund. 449 02:25:00,370 --> 02:25:20,430 And so now that we’ve created this account, we have to do this to then transfer the money back to the schools. So it’s coming from it’s not it’s coming from free cash later. It’s coming from free cash. But it’s we don’t have that much free cash. We do. Why is it why am I cold in the front 150,000. We got 18 left. 450 02:25:20,430 --> 02:25:42,270 No that’s not. No, that’s excess capacity. That’s the excess. Capacity. Yeah. 18,000. And that excess capacity is not free cash. Excess capacity is what we have for that fiscal year. We have excess capacity of 168,000. We’re using 150 of it. The free cash is separate from that. 451 02:25:42,270 --> 02:26:01,030 And besides, this is their money. They’re getting reimbursed from Medicaid. And we’re just putting it into the account. Because legally it has to come into the town’s general fund. So it has to come into the Treasury, into the general fund, and then it has to go out. This is the legal mechanism for it. Okay. Yes. 452 02:26:01,030 --> 02:26:16,270 Okay. Think of it as chapter 99. I know, but did they getting reimbursed. You put an 88 and you get reimbursed. They’re going to turn that back to us when they get reimbursed. No, that is the reimbursement. That is. 453 02:26:16,270 --> 02:26:33,530 So when they get reimbursed, it comes to the town first. We’re the holder of it. We’re the only treasury for the entire town. Okay. Now I got it. Okay. Article ten is by the police chief. 454 02:26:33,530 --> 02:26:56,500 And this is, um, I know he’s spoken to you guys about this during his department head updates, and this is to purchase the outdated tasers, and this would be a free cash expense, and it would be moneys going into the capital budget. And it’s $14,800, and it’ll be for five years. We’ll have to have a payment for that. 455 02:26:56,500 --> 02:27:20,070 Article 11 is from the fire chief, and that is to repair the tanker, because we have all the valves on it are leaking, and the tanker supplies water to about 65 to 75% of our town because they lack hydrant service. And right now that is unfortunately making Chief Harris a little concerned about any fires that could have caused a catastrophic failure because of the valves not working. And we’re working on a final quote, but we are estimating around 20,000. 456 02:27:20,070 --> 02:27:40,430 So that’s why the money can change. And again, that’s free cash. Article 12 is, um, a article on rescinding, uh, borrowing that was done a couple of years back for the wastewater treatment plant, roof and boiler projects for everybody’s reminder, we don’t keep our poop in town. 457 02:27:40,430 --> 02:27:59,000 We send it to Palmer and they take care of it for us. And so we have to participate with them when they have capital projects. And the roof and the boiler came in under budget. And when that happens, there’s this again, whole legal mechanism. 458 02:27:59,000 --> 02:28:20,400 And town council is basically working on this for us because that is their job to figure out how to do it. And article 13 is from the Water and Sewer Commission. And this is something that, um, Craig Jalbert worked with Dale, um, his administrative assistant office, um, administrator on creating a new bylaw to accept the mass general law. Chapter 40, section 58. 459 02:28:20,400 --> 02:28:38,130 It’s the municipal lien charge, and it’s there’s several sections to it. And then it talks about the applicability of all the different water and sewer fees that they would like to have as, uh, ability to lean on the ratepayers. 460 02:28:38,130 --> 02:28:53,630 Bottom line is, he said that there are a lot of people who aren’t paying, and they have no mechanism to enforce that. So if they have the lien, it will allow them to put a lien on, and at least they’ll eventually get their money back. And this is not for the use of the water or the sewer. This is for those different fees that they have listed here. 461 02:28:53,630 --> 02:29:06,870 So Craig will be at the meeting to speak to that. And I have under on page eight, I have Selectboard highlighted because I don’t know if it would be the Selectboard that would do the abatement or if it would be the water sewer Commission, because this is all water sewer commission. 462 02:29:06,870 --> 02:29:29,800 So I have a question for Kate. When we sit down, sit down and do this final review, and article 14 is a citizen’s petition that we received. Um, regarding article three of the General Bylaws, Finance Committee and that, as you all know, goes on as written. And so that is on the, um, up ballot on the warrant. 463 02:29:29,800 --> 02:29:53,900 And it is looking to change how the Finance committee is appointed instead of it being all from the town moderator. It has consisting of Joint appointment authority with the town moderator, the chair of the Finance Committee, and the chair of the Select board. 464 02:29:53,900 --> 02:30:14,170 So the moderator only appoints at the annual town meeting, the Finance Committee appoints at any other time during the year when somebody resigns. This is instead of the town moderator by himself. She is only mentioning that the town moderator. It’s only referencing that portion of the bylaw. Yeah, yeah. That might exist now. Yep. Yeah. So if the board doesn’t have any questions, Mr. Bailey, you do. 465 02:30:14,170 --> 02:30:35,700 I just have a question. So that would mean we wouldn’t have to discuss item number ten. Correct. Because we. Which one’s ten? It had a separate line for citizens petition. So 789 ten. Oh, correct. Let’s get them getting us out early. 466 02:30:35,700 --> 02:30:59,530 Mary Watson told me that she goes, you need it on the agenda too. I said, oh, I put it on the warrants. What are you talking about? On the agenda? I have the citizens petition. Oh, on the agenda? Yeah, on the agenda. Yeah. Yep. So yeah, we talked about that. Um, so and again, just to, um, regroup, we had 168,000 available in excess capacity. 467 02:30:59,530 --> 02:31:42,230 If we use all of what I just stated under res and appropriate, we will have used 150,325. And that would remain a capacity of 18,099. Um, for. There’s this, um. Hold, please. I just want to get you this number two. Um. The stabilization account right now has 1,815,000. The capital stabilization account has 205,000. 468 02:31:42,230 --> 02:32:05,930 And Memorial Hall stabilization is 43,000. And so if we use all the free cash numbers, where did I have that? If we used free cash for all the things that I listed, that would be $180,406 of free cash used. And we don’t have a free cash number yet. 469 02:32:05,930 --> 02:32:21,170 We probably won’t get it till the end of next week, right? Because right now they’re still closing the books and sending everything into the Department of Revenue. And then we wait for all that to come back. So we have the certified amount to bring to town meeting. And this warrant will now go to finance committee Monday night. 470 02:32:21,170 --> 02:32:50,570 They’re going to start reviewing the articles, um, to, um, do their recommendations. So I will ask the board for a motion to approve the warrant as we have just reviewed it. Temporarily. Why? In case what if the finance committee doesn’t. then it can reserve fund transfer. So it gets changed again. I can change the numbers at any time. John. 471 02:32:50,570 --> 02:33:27,430 The finance, the financial side of it, the numbers could change the night of town meeting because we could say we just got that quote in for the tanker repair and it’s 15,000, not 20. So moved.. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Thank you everybody. Now that was a lot. Chief, you’re up. 472 02:33:27,430 --> 02:33:53,570 Report on the flock license plate reader program and status. So, what do you want. To know? Thanks for coming. Yeah. As much as you want. To. Tell us past my bedtime. Mine, too. But here we are. So. Yeah. So, um, as. Is the. Board should know that, uh, with the budget cuts that we had, we did lose our software, um, funding for our cameras. 473 02:33:53,570 --> 02:34:18,630 Um, I have been in contact with flock, and our contract was cancelled as of the 13th of September. Um, certainly. Uh, anybody that’s asked me, I’ve been very open about it. Um, however, I was put in a position of. I’m operational security. 474 02:34:18,630 --> 02:34:40,570 I don’t necessarily wanted to let everybody in the world know that we no longer have that system. It would be a bank with an alarm system down and advertising. Yet your alarm systems down. Um, the cameras did exactly what we hoped they would do. Um, our bennies and motor vehicle thefts, dirt bike thefts, um, dropped to zero. 475 02:34:40,570 --> 02:34:59,630 Um, last year we had two, uh, so if you go on, uh, the state website, um, they have our neighbors reporting, which is a national incident based reporting. Um, we have two listed motor vehicle thefts, but those are actually we’re actually, uh, used for that authority. 476 02:34:59,630 --> 02:35:18,830 So I lend somebody my car, they don’t return it for a week, and I report it stolen. Um, they weren’t, uh, what we were seeing when we, uh, decided to get those cameras. So, uh, that’s that. Okay. I think you’re a good thing to have if you’re not doing anything wrong. What are you worrying about? Yeah. And that’s simple. To me. 477 02:35:18,830 --> 02:35:38,870 And again, in the media, you know, you certainly see, uh, police officers doing very dumb things and, and my personal opinion is fantastic that they have an audit system that catches those idiots, um, you know, like, uh, bankers who embezzle. Right. 478 02:35:38,870 --> 02:35:58,970 That doesn’t mean I don’t use a bank or or, um, you know, any any technology, any tool can be misused. Um, you know, in any profession is going to do it right now. It just seems as we’re in the spotlight. Um, you know, we had a very robust policy. 479 02:35:58,970 --> 02:36:19,800 Um, our department is very small in that, um, you know, if somebody, uh, checked the cameras for a certain case, you saw it in the log. Um, you know, and we we knew about it just because our case volume, uh, was so small. Almost like having two more cruisers out there. Well. And so so that was the other thing. You know, the cameras, they they didn’t run license plates. 480 02:36:19,800 --> 02:36:40,170 They didn’t issue tickets. Um, what they did was, um, if a plate was listed in NCIC, which is, uh, the National Crime Information Center, um, if it was listed as stolen and it went by, it would pick it up an alert. Alert us. 481 02:36:40,170 --> 02:37:04,700 Um, and that’s exactly what it did for those individuals that were coming into town, uh, to commit break ins and stealing the dirt bikes. Um, Chief Kozlowski, my predecessor, um, posted very quickly after we had the system up and running about, uh, we were in several pursuits, um, and that’s all we can do. 482 02:37:04,700 --> 02:37:26,500 Generally, it was juveniles or individuals know that in Massachusetts, we generally don’t pursue vehicles. Um, so they would speed up and we would put our lights on and, uh, send them into the next town. And, you know, ultimately, uh, Chief Kozlowski, his opinion, in my opinion, is as long as we’re protecting our residents, that’s what we’re here for. Our residents. Um, and like I said, it worked as advertised. 483 02:37:26,500 --> 02:37:52,130 So if we don’t have the service anymore or not paying for the service. Um, so we don’t have access to that software, but are the cameras still recording? So I’ve, I’ve talked to flock. They say they are not as of the 13th. How do we verify that? Well, I suppose until they’re removed. 484 02:37:52,130 --> 02:38:16,170 Um, that’s the only way. Uh, we would know. And by contract, they had a short period of time to remove. Them. Commercial, commercially. Availability or whatnot. So? So they will be removed. It will be okay. It’s under the contract. Okay. So and again, any, any resident that asks for the contract, they got a copy of the contract. Thanks for the update. 485 02:38:16,170 --> 02:38:37,000 To you. All right. Thank you. Good night. Good night. Oh he’s. Not I’m going to sit tight with. Oh yeah. We know what’s coming. Yes, honey, do you guys have a thumb drive? What are you doing? I’m actually going to in the. We’re gonna win it. Yep. Okay. In the. interest of time. Time. All right. 486 02:38:37,000 --> 02:38:59,330 All right. It’s past everyone this time. Kenny Ryan is the executive director from West Com. So this is a presentation on the use of artificial intelligence prepared by axon. Annette and Anthony. Anthony Masaya is the deputy director at. Nice to meet you. Very nice. Our partners in. You’ve been here once. Before for. Uh, dispatcher Commendation. 487 02:38:59,330 --> 02:39:22,000 Yes. Oh. Show off microphones. Oh, God. No, please. No. Don’t touch that. Yeah. Don’t touch the. Microphone. Touch them. All right, so, um. Thank you for letting us come in. 488 02:39:22,000 --> 02:39:41,600 Uh, we we had, uh, opened it up to all of our communities, um, just because we had done, uh, we’ve been approached, uh, last month, uh, by, uh, news outlet to do a story on, uh, AI. Um, we are utilizing some of it right now. Um, it’s a great tool. Um, the thing that we are now looking into, and it is not in operational yet, it’s in the early stages. 489 02:39:41,600 --> 02:39:59,930 Uh, we are vetting it and testing it, um, is to utilize that as a tool to help our dispatchers with some of the business line only calls. So there’s a separate number for business lines when you call in. 490 02:39:59,930 --> 02:40:19,670 Um, and this would um, and it’s not going to be like your legacy, uh, you know, call and you have to push all these numbers because I know that frustrates my parents to death. And the bar that I’m holding this, uh, program to is can my 80 year old mother use it? Um, so, um, I get very frustrated with AI. Um, I. Am super. Excited about the the program, um, that we are going to be using. Um, they are phenomenal. We can. Um. 491 02:40:19,670 --> 02:40:37,270 Set it for all kinds of things. Uh, we are going to be infant stages. We’re going to. Well, it’s going to be we’re going to be fully transparent when we’re going to start it. Uh, we’re going to be testing it. Um. Starting out. Small. Starting out very, very small. Um, what did, uh, Virginia use? Uh, yeah. 492 02:40:37,270 --> 02:40:57,700 So, uh, about a month ago, we met, uh, virtually. We didn’t travel all the way down there, but, uh, Fairfax County, Virginia, uh, has a centralized, uh, 911 dispatch center. Uh, they service a population of 1.1 million people, take about a million calls a service a year. 493 02:40:57,700 --> 02:41:21,630 Um, and what they did, they took about a year to build it. And when they went live with it, they had it on during business hours, Monday through Friday, every other week until they were getting to a point where they could let it go full, um, speaking to what it is actually going to do and what the 494 02:41:21,630 --> 02:41:49,370 purpose of this was, is our dispatchers taking. In, in our computer aided dispatch system take about 160,000 calls for service a year. That’s what gets documented. So if there’s a structure fire, it’s not just one call. We’re getting five, six, ten, 20 calls on that same incident. 495 02:41:49,370 --> 02:42:12,370 Um, at the same time, somebody might want to renew their license to carry, which comes in to us, but all it takes us to do is to transfer it to the license to carry officer. This system can make that transfer. Uh, same thing goes for, uh, police detail requests. 496 02:42:12,370 --> 02:42:39,770 Uh, construction company is doing work on route 32. Um, and they might want 8 or 10 different days worth of of details. That dispatcher can be stuck on the phone for 5 to 10 minutes, taking those detailed requests. This AI system can handle that. And also send an automated email out to the respective agency. 497 02:42:39,770 --> 02:43:05,270 Um, without jamming up radio waves or the channels with unnecessary radio traffic. Those are the calls that we’re looking for this to be used on, the calls where you need somebody to come out. That’s not what we’re gearing this towards. You’re going to get a dispatcher if you need help. 498 02:43:05,270 --> 02:43:31,330 Um, there’s safeguards in place if if you mention anything having to do with a fire related call or a medical related call immediately, it’s sending you to a human. Um, we’ve built it in. You are the eyes not to touch anything fire related, anything medical related. Um. You asked for a human. It sends you right to West com. So there’s a lot of. You know. 499 02:43:31,330 --> 02:43:51,630 Guardrails that we put up already. Basically, what the company has provided us is a voice and a user interface. We build everything on the back end on how we want West. Com to present this what calls we want it done. 500 02:43:51,630 --> 02:44:11,530 When I when we spoke about meeting with Fairfax County, Virginia, their call volume is so immense that it handles every call that comes in on the business side. Um, no matter what, no matter what it is. Medical fire related, we don’t want that. We’re not we’re not that big. We don’t plan to be that big. 501 02:44:11,530 --> 02:44:30,100 And we don’t want to take away that level of service from the community. Um, I do have the test. Uh, this is the test program. I’d love to play it for you. So you can just kind of hear and see how how it works through it. So, um, we have affectionately named her Willa. Um, so when she answers, her name is Willa. 502 02:44:30,100 --> 02:44:52,970 Um, and I’ll be able to. Thank you for calling West Regional dispatch. This line is being recorded. My name is Willa. What city or town are you calling for? And how can I help you? Hi. I’m calling for months in mass. How can I help you today? Uh. I’d like to book a detail, please. A police detail. 503 02:44:52,970 --> 02:45:22,500 Let me ask a quick follow up to make sure I understand. Got it. Let me gather a few details. Uh, uh, ours. Kind of. Yeah. It’s coming in and out of service, so hold on. No problem. Take your time. Can you start by telling me your first and last name? Uh, my name is Charlie Brown. 504 02:45:22,500 --> 02:45:52,330 I got it, Charlie Brown. What’s your callback number? My callback number is (413) 222-1234. That’s (413) 222-1234. Is that correct? Yes it. Is. What company are you with? I’m with ABC construction. What city or town are you requesting? Police detail. 505 02:45:52,330 --> 02:46:13,770 And what is the date and time of the service? Well, I’m going to throw you a curve ball here. Will, I have multiple days of details that I need for this week? No problem. Go ahead and give me the city or town and the dates and times for all the details you need. 506 02:46:13,770 --> 02:46:40,430 Okay, my first detail request is for Wednesday, September 23rd. I’m looking for two detail officers for one, two three Main Street. Got it. What time is the service? On September 23rd. On September 23rd. I need a police officer for 7 to 3. 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. and one officer from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.. Got it. 507 02:46:40,430 --> 02:47:04,670 Is there a meeting location different from 123 Main Street? Yes. I’d like to meet in the parking lot of 110 Main Street. As the police cruiser required. Yes, I need two police cruisers. Please. Who receives the billing? That’s going to go. The building is going to go to ABC construction. Let me confirm everything. 508 02:47:04,670 --> 02:47:25,300 The request is for Charlie Brown with ABC construction. Callback number (413) 222-1234. Police detail. And now Massachusetts. On Wednesday, September 23rd, one officer from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. and one officer from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.. Detail location is 123 Main Street, with a meeting location at the parking lot of 110 Main Street. 509 02:47:25,300 --> 02:47:48,730 Two officers and two police cruisers are required. Billing goes to ABC construction. Is that correct? Yes. I also need a detail for. Thursday, September 24th. Got it. Let me help with the next issue. Thank you for sharing this information. Let me transfer you to someone who can help with your request. Please stay on the. 510 02:47:48,730 --> 02:48:07,100 Escalates. So takes all that information. Now this is what a dispatcher has to go through every single time we get a call for detail. Um, so phones are still ringing. Uh, could be somebody that needs a medical call. It could be all kinds of different things. 511 02:48:07,100 --> 02:48:26,700 We take all this information, have to enter it all into the to the cat, and then reach out to our, uh, our agencies for it to streamline this so nicely. It types it all up. It’s just going to be, um, so, so much, so beneficial. 512 02:48:26,700 --> 02:48:39,500 Our dispatchers are dealing with over 3000 plus detail requests a year. Um, so it doesn’t sound like a lot, but it’s taking time away from what, you know, other calls. 513 02:48:39,500 --> 02:48:57,630 It could be, um, if for some reason and I know, you know, we’ve been obviously we got a little beat up, admittedly a little bit beat up on our on on the website, on the, um, with our interviews. Uh, um, and a lot of legitimate questions. Uh, we are going to be honest, this is not our first rodeo. I’ve been in dispatch for 30 plus years. Um, you know. Yes. Emergency calls do come in on the business line. And that was a concern. 514 02:48:57,630 --> 02:49:12,100 Uh, so we started just setting up a lot of Different. Things being recorded. My name is Willa. What city or town are you calling for? And how can I help you? Um, I don’t know if it’s an emergency. But I want to make sure I get you the right help. 515 02:49:12,100 --> 02:49:29,770 Can you describe what’s going on? I don’t know if it’s an emergency, but I’ve been having chest pain since 3 a.m.. I’m transferring you to West Ham. Dispatch immediately goes to a dispatcher. I mean, we have, uh, we keep betting all kinds of things. If there’s any type of call you want us to throw at it, it’s been. 516 02:49:29,770 --> 02:49:47,830 It’s the highlight of my morning to come in the next day and look at the test calls that Penny has done the night prior. Got a little. Fun with it. So. I always take advantage of those details. You just said I do. Yeah. 517 02:49:47,830 --> 02:50:11,300 And another benefit to this, uh, especially with the details, is chief can speak to it. This is not a new conversation about the the burden and not specifically just the West com either. Um, the the detail request calls coming in to dispatch. There are third party vendors out there that operate call centers specifically for details. 518 02:50:11,300 --> 02:50:37,230 One of our other agencies should be fully operates off of a third party. Um, but to fund that, they take a percentage of the admin fee that gets charged on top of the detail rate, which then comes out of the, uh, revenue for the town. Um, with this, we hope that that’s not needed anymore. Because offering a service. 519 02:50:37,230 --> 02:50:58,870 still to. Yeah. To our even. If I wanted to call a police department and, uh, ask a question, um, not an emergency type thing. Uh, that person would transfer me or would take the questions and call the police themselves and get the answer. 520 02:50:58,870 --> 02:51:22,400 How does that work? If if what we’ve built in doesn’t have the answer for you, it would send you to us. Yeah. If I, I brought up earlier the, um, example of the license to carry, uh, being one of them. That’s another one. We get quite a lot. 521 02:51:22,400 --> 02:51:41,200 And that only on our end is it just takes picking up the phone, taking the information, and then we transfer it back out to whatever the. Chief who, who, who would answer the phone. Whoever happens to be in the building or. It depends on what extension. It would go to. So if it was an LTC question, we would go. To officer okay. Okay. 522 02:51:41,200 --> 02:52:01,900 And if he’s not working and or in the station at that time, it would go to his voicemail and then he’d follow up. Uh, okay. But we’ve got it built in that the AI can actually transfer that without having our input. Because I know some of the residents who might be watching right now would want to know that stuff. You know? Yeah. And we’ve we’ve built in the easy. 523 02:52:01,900 --> 02:52:24,700 14511 is being recorded. My name is Willa. What city or town are you calling for and how can I help you? I’m here. To help. I need help. Okay. Help! Please help me. You’re sorry? I’m transferring you to West Comm dispatch. Please. One of the other ones calling. The regional dispatch. She does. 524 02:52:24,700 --> 02:52:39,270 Need to be recorded. My name is Lilah. What city or town are you calling for? And how can I help you? Wait a minute. Are you a robot? Can you describe what’s going on so I can get you the right help? If you’re a robot. Robot? I don’t want to. Talk to you. For the non-emergency line. 525 02:52:39,270 --> 02:52:52,570 Please describe what’s going on so I can get you the right help. I want to talk to a human being. Please. I’m an automated assistant for the non-emergency line to get the right help to you quickly, please describe what you’re reporting in detail. I would like to talk to a human. 526 02:52:52,570 --> 02:53:16,700 Please let me transfer you to someone who can help with your request. Please stay for a minute. But your speakerphone feeds back into. Okay. Yeah. So, um. Yeah, we’ve been testing all kinds of different things on it, so, um. Yeah. 527 02:53:16,700 --> 02:53:36,030 So we’re treating it as a phone tree that’s upgraded, you know, instead of hitting me because we’ve all had the phone trees that if you want to speak to the LTC officer, press two. But when they came, when when they got to us, they didn’t listen to that phone tree and hit zero and to speak to dispatch. So we’ll call you. 528 02:53:36,030 --> 02:53:53,970 People don’t even have a question that really related to eye to you. It’s stupid stuff. But before this, before this position, taking the phone calls. Uh, yeah. We were. Are they going to sell cookies down at the main street tomorrow or something? Why didn’t my trash get picked up? When is the power coming back? Yeah, when. One of the fireworks. We can. Fireworks. 529 02:53:53,970 --> 02:54:15,270 We can build in those one time things as well. When’s the parade? We can go in a week before. You’re calling. The parade? Yeah. It’s. At this time. This is the best place to park without having us take away from being 911 ready or already being on a 911 or answering Lieutenant Szymanski on the radio. 530 02:54:15,270 --> 02:54:32,370 Uh, there’s a lot of benefit to it. Um, if and that’s why we’re taking so long to make sure we get it right. Tony gave the best quote with the interview was, we’re gonna we only have really one chance to do this, and we want to make sure we’re going to do it right. 531 02:54:32,370 --> 02:54:51,000 Um, so we are being very, very methodical with it. Um, I think we’re doing we would be the first in Massachusetts to utilize it. Um, so we’re setting a precedent. So we want to make sure we’re doing it. Right. But not the first in the country. There’s 6911 centers that have had this in place for about a year or more. 532 02:54:51,000 --> 02:55:06,570 Um, the other thing that was great for information, we got back from Virginia was, uh, when they first rolled this out, um, they, they attached the. Um, the. The survey to it. Um, so we followed suit with that. 533 02:55:06,570 --> 02:55:21,200 So, um, every time I call, I get the text coming up after we disconnect, saying, would you like to complete a survey? Three quick questions, you know, how do we do? Are there any concerns so that we can get that feedback from it too? So that’s really something, especially for people like me or seniors who haven’t have a clue about technology. 534 02:55:21,200 --> 02:55:38,900 I mean, that’s amazing what you just did. I’m glad you gave us that sample. Yeah, you can’t explain it until. Yeah. Right, right. Excellent way to do it. Yeah, yeah. Thank you for that. And it’s concerns. If anybody out there wants more information or has any further questions. 535 02:55:38,900 --> 02:55:53,200 Uh, they can call the police department and ask to speak with any of the leadership at West. Whether to keep them.. Now, is it going? Well? We answer the phone. So it’s going to be a three digit number, or is it going to be a full blown regular phone number to dial? It’s just a regular. It would. Be calling the police department phone number. 536 02:55:53,200 --> 02:56:18,730 And when you would normally get into dispatch, that’s just an in-between thing that if it can direct it itself, it does. But if it can’t, it still rolls right in. We are. Not. Replacing our dispatchers. We love our dispatchers. There’s nothing we can’t we cannot put a put a dollar on it. But we want. To. 537 02:56:18,730 --> 02:56:35,330 Use this. This is a great tool to enhance what they’re doing and give them a break because they are just it is a busy center. Um, and it’s we’re doing it. They’re doing a fantastic job. But we can take any little pressure off of them. 538 02:56:35,330 --> 02:56:52,630 I mean, each one of these detail calls takes approximately 4 to 5 minutes. Um. For a single. Detail single. Yeah. And, uh, to be able to, you know, things are still going on, and, you know, we want to give good service to somebody. I’m sorry, sir, you’re gonna have to hold on. You know, we gotta answer something else. So we. 539 02:56:52,630 --> 02:57:12,200 It’s it’s good customer service, I believe. And one thing I didn’t touch on, but I feel it really vital is there’s always a human in the loop. Whether you’re talking to Willa or not. We have it pulled up on a screen and can see it in real time. 540 02:57:12,200 --> 02:57:35,630 And we always have, as I put it, in the in the MassLive article, a scram button that we can force a transfer to dispatch. So if we don’t like what the AI is saying or we want to talk to you, you know, oh, I know this person, we can hit the button and bring you in to, to a human. Nice. That’s a good feature. Sounds great. Any questions? No. 541 02:57:35,630 --> 02:57:52,870 And I’m glad we could play it for you, because you truly don’t understand it. Um, you should see all the different voices we got to choose from. So see. All the voices that she. Does. Yeah. Yeah, we’re really batting it. Um, we’re really proud of it. 542 02:57:52,870 --> 02:58:11,430 Um, I know there’s a lot of questions with it, but, you know, we’ll be very transparent. We’ll be letting everybody know or we’re not just going to roll it out. Um, we’re going. To if you need someone to test it. John’s available. All right John. Yep. Don’t forget to. Dude, there’s been no details you made there. Exactly right. Yeah, yeah, I am fine. I’m up. 543 02:58:11,430 --> 02:58:29,230 So thank you for letting us come in. And thank. You for coming outside of our meeting. Anytime. If you guys ever want us here, we’ll be more than happy. To come and visit your communications. Yes. That is one of the things on. All of their lists. Yes. It is amazing. We are doing great things there. 544 02:58:29,230 --> 02:58:48,300 We’re very, very proud of it. We’re proud that we are handling our responders and our communities. Um, we’ve been our senior center a couple of times. We’ll be at your what is it. Public safety. Yeah. And while you’re there, make sure to thank a dispatcher because they do really amazing things in that room. So yeah. 545 02:58:48,300 --> 02:59:03,900 Thank you. Agreed I agree. All right. Thank you. Very much. Thank you. Thanks. Have a great night too. Thanks for coming, Mike. Good to see you. I know you don’t have a long time. My name is back up. Willow was Mike’s, uh, naming. So Mike Meaney. Yep. 546 02:59:03,900 --> 02:59:34,700 Is a resident of Munson, and he works for, um, West Com as well. Yes. You all know we have a. Year of. Regional interoperability. Interoperability coordinator. Thank you. Thanks. You. Thanks, Jonathan. See you guys later. Thank you. Chief Harris, come on up. You’re in the hot seat now. You’re my. 547 02:59:34,700 --> 03:00:03,530 First item on the agenda. Chief is just to discuss a performance evaluation process and a timeline. Now that we’ve started, or getting ready to start the negotiation for your contract, we noticed that for the past two years, um, the, I guess selectboard chair decided not to institute. 548 03:00:03,530 --> 03:00:23,270 Um, an evaluation. And I want to make sure that we get that done. So we will be scheduling something with you. I know that you’ve given Jennifer some dates, and we will be getting in touch with you on that. 549 03:00:23,270 --> 03:00:49,600 Um, basically, I think we’ll we’ll end up following the same process that we have for the evaluations that we’ve done on other contract employees, and that is to use the same evaluation tool that we received from Mead Solomon, our town council, and basically the process is that the three select board members will complete that evaluation form. Um, we send them to town council for compilation, and then we will meet with you. 550 03:00:49,600 --> 03:01:07,630 Before we meet with you, though, we’ll give you the opportunity to look at the compilation so that if you have any questions or concerns before we have the discussion, you’ll have that information available. And at that point, if we need to, we could schedule an executive session. 551 03:01:07,630 --> 03:01:25,530 If we need to do that for a discussion. But um, generally this will be this is a process that’s done in open meeting. All right. So just to just to let you know about that. Um, do you have any questions? No. Okay. 552 03:01:25,530 --> 03:01:41,830 I would make a comment that I would not in favor of this with you or the police chief, because I don’t think we have the knowledge enough to really evaluate you two people, because we’re not really in that department much or don’t have a lot of knowledge about it. But that’s that’s my opinion. I think it’s a difficult task to do. 553 03:01:41,830 --> 03:02:01,100 And to be fair, with the town and to be fair with you is it is going to be difficult, I think. I just want to make that comment. Okay. And I’ll make two comments to that. 554 03:02:01,100 --> 03:02:22,970 The first is if there is something on the evaluation form that needs to be revised because it doesn’t make sense within the context of the chief’s job, we will do that. And secondly, I think we all understand that we don’t know how to be a fire chief. What we can evaluate on are the parts of his job that we understand. And basically that’s the administrative parts. So that’s what the evaluation tool will focus on. 555 03:02:22,970 --> 03:02:40,030 Um, and and again, once we talk to town council about this, we’ll ask her to send out the evaluation form to the three of us in case we don’t like the way that it’s set up or we want to make changes to it. 556 03:02:40,030 --> 03:03:10,470 We’ll do that before we start the process. So next on the agenda is for the Select board to vote, to enter into contract negotiations with Chief Harris. And so if there are no questions, I would take a motion, um, to enter into contract negotiations with Chief Harris. So move second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. So we kept you late for this? Yeah. 557 03:03:10,470 --> 03:03:37,270 Thanks for coming. Thank you. Appreciate it. Hi, chief. Thank you. Have a good night. Thank you. You too. Our discussion to vote and amend and approve. Minutes from the August 11th, 2026 open session. 558 03:03:37,270 --> 03:04:02,300 My concern with the way that the minutes were written, and it’s not a huge concern, but because it’s some substance, I wanted to run it by you. The two of you, before I asked to make the changes to it. And basically the two places in those minutes that I was concerned about are under the open meeting law. 559 03:04:02,300 --> 03:04:28,570 There was open meeting law number two that was discussed, and that was, um, basically the attorney general’s declination to review because of timeliness and what I was concerned about is that the minutes didn’t reflect that. And here’s what I would want to add. The attorney general declined to review the complaint because it was not timely filed as required by law. Within 30 days of the alleged violation, and closed the matter. 560 03:04:28,570 --> 03:04:50,870 That was not included in the minutes. And I think that it just explains what the, um, what happened from the attorney general as opposed to the way that it was written in the minutes, which just which says, for reasons stated below, we declined to review this complaint. 561 03:04:50,870 --> 03:05:10,130 The rest of the information can be found on the town’s website, rather than sending people to the town’s website to find out what the A-G said, it seems much more reasonable to me to just explain right in the minutes what the attorney general did. And of course, all of this information is on the website. 562 03:05:10,130 --> 03:05:25,670 So if anybody wants to look at the full opinion, they can do that. But when you read, you read the you read that though. Didn’t didn’t you read that, um, what you want to add was. Yes. I thought you read that during that meeting. So yeah. 563 03:05:25,670 --> 03:05:42,100 So I think it no, I so I’m basically agreeing with you that it was work. If I remember correctly, you did say are you reading from, from the, the determination. So. Right. I mean I don’t really. 564 03:05:42,100 --> 03:06:08,500 Have and I can I can give you this so that you don’t have to retype it. And the second one was under the open meeting law, item number three. And that was town council’s response to a complaint. 565 03:06:08,500 --> 03:06:35,130 And basically what was listed in the minutes was by failing to create a sufficiently detailed agenda for their June 23rd, 2026, meeting and adopting a policy without a formal vote of the board. The rest of the complaint can be found on the town’s website. It doesn’t say anything to me, so instead of that, what I and this is a little bit longer and I apologize. Um, what I put was the what I explained was what the complaint was. And then town council’s response. 566 03:06:35,130 --> 03:06:58,570 Factually, Missoni as acting chair, included an agenda item titled Department updates. Police Department Chief Gasperini. This was to be the first in a series of department update segments during which the department heads would provide updates to town residents and the board. 567 03:06:58,570 --> 03:07:25,870 She and the town administrator prepared an email with discussion, potential topics that was noted that the department heads could use to help them prepare for their presentation, although none were required. The first alleged violation was failure to create a sufficiently detailed agenda, but Department updates is substantially similar to report from department heads, which has been determined by the AG to be sufficient. Notice. 568 03:07:25,870 --> 03:07:50,400 The second alleged violation is adoption of a policy without a formal vote of the Selectboard. The AG’s responsibility is limited to interpreting and enforcing the Open Meeting law, which does not cover alleged procedural issues as are complained of. 569 03:07:50,400 --> 03:08:12,800 Even so, the town denies any procedural irregularities and denies that a policy of the board was enacted, but rather, as Chair Miss Owen would like to invite department heads to speak, to provide information and greater transparency. So basically, the minutes didn’t even explain what the two parts of the complaint were. And so that’s that’s what I added. Okay. 570 03:08:12,800 --> 03:08:36,330 So, um, so basically, um, if you if we vote to make the changes, then the changes will be made and then sent out again for us to review. And then. We’ll, you can look at them before we vote on the minutes. That’s that’s fine. Okay. So let’s take a vote on that. 571 03:08:36,330 --> 03:09:03,570 Um, let’s have the board vote to agree to amend the minutes from the August 11th, 2026 open session as provided. Second. All in favor? Aye. Thank you. And discussion. And vote for the November meeting schedule, including fiscal year 27 tax classification hearing with the Board of Assessors. Proposed date Monday, November 16th, 2026. And generally, that’s what we do. We do it on a Monday night. Um. 572 03:09:03,570 --> 03:09:17,100 Because the planning board meets on the Tuesday of. Our our off Tuesday. We don’t like to mess with their night because they have their set nights. So last year we did Monday. 573 03:09:17,100 --> 03:09:35,600 I can’t remember if we did the previous year, but this is what we did last year. And I checked with the board of withdrew in the board of assessor’s office, and he said that would work for him. And it works with the finance department because following Special Town Meeting on October 26th, then there’s steps that have to be taken to prepare for the tax classification hearing. 574 03:09:35,600 --> 03:09:59,630 So that gives them the time frame to get that ready. And so that’s why we’re at this date with the calendar. And now with the public hearing for the MassDOT on November 10th, it again gives us another reason to change the meeting date. 575 03:09:59,630 --> 03:10:23,030 And just again, for, um, reminders last year and the year before our meetings in November, the second week always falls on Thanksgiving week, and the board has always taken that week off. So if you did change it to Monday, November 16th, that would be doing your only meeting for the month. In case in less an emergency occurs. As we always say. 576 03:10:23,030 --> 03:10:41,730 So how did the two of you feel about that? I’m fine with that. Okay. Mr. Morrell. Yeah, okay. And we’ll post the meeting as a joint meeting with the board of assessors because they attend as well. You’ll have several votes to take that night. 577 03:10:41,730 --> 03:10:59,600 There’s actually three votes key that will have all prepared for you. Um, because they are kind of lengthy. Um, and it can get a little confusing because the board is given the option to set a commercial tax rate. And even though it’s never happened, they have to have that vote every single year. So we’ll make sure you have all the information available ahead of time. 578 03:10:59,600 --> 03:11:27,130 Okay. Thank you. Thank you for that. Don’t., um. You want to vote that or. Yes. Okay. So we’ll we’ll vote to schedule at least at this point in time, our only meeting in November will be on November 16th, 2026. 579 03:11:27,130 --> 03:11:52,800 And it will in part be a joint meeting to do the tax classification hearing with the Board of Assessors. Okay. So moved. Second. All in favor? Aye, aye. Um, we did get the information from Mary Holt, but since, I mean from Mary Hall, from Mary Watson. But since we already talked about that, we’ll skip over. Oh, the citizens petition. The citizens petition. Yes. 580 03:11:52,800 --> 03:12:13,100 Okay. So open meeting law, complaint status. This is. What happened with. Uh, what’s. That number ten again? We already did it when we were talking about the articles for this campaign. Finance committee. Yep yep yep yep. I thought there was something else you were going to mention. Okay. 581 03:12:13,100 --> 03:12:39,800 This is town council’s response to a complaint filed by Mary Hall. The alleged violation date was June 15th, 2026, the date of the complaint and the date received is July 17th, 2026. On June 15th, 2026, pursuant to a public records request, Miss Hall was provided with a series of documents. 582 03:12:39,800 --> 03:13:08,130 Miss Holt filed a complaint on July 17th, 2026, alleging that the Board and Board of Health violated the open Meeting law by engaging in deliberations outside of a posted meeting. This response addresses only the complaint made against the Select Board. The Board of Health needs to respond separately. Um, there were. 4 or 5. 583 03:13:08,130 --> 03:13:30,000 There were five allegations in the complaint. The first or the first issue with the complaint was that it is rejected because of use of improper form. The Attorney General’s open meeting law regulations provide that all complaints shall be in writing, using the form approved by the Attorney General. 584 03:13:30,000 --> 03:13:55,130 A public body need not address a complaint that is not filed using the Attorney General’s complaint form. This complaint, filed on July 17th, 2026, was not provided to the town on the official form um, issue number two on timeliness. 585 03:13:55,130 --> 03:14:19,830 The complaint is also untimely complaints alleging violations of the Open Meeting law must be filed with the public body within 30 days of the alleged violation. The complaint was filed with the Town Clerk on July 17th, 2026, which is 32 days after the alleged violation was discoverable. Moreover, many of the email communications that the town assumes you are referencing in your complaint include you as a direct recipient or a carbon copy party. 586 03:14:19,830 --> 03:14:47,870 As such, you would have received these emails when sent in 2022 and therefore have been on notice of any alleged violation, making them discoverable to you for the past four years. Number three, the complaint lacks specificity. Here it is alleged that the board deliberated outside of posted meetings through email communications. 587 03:14:47,870 --> 03:15:12,530 However, you do not attach or otherwise site specific email communications referenced in the complaint. The town provided you with many public records. On June 15th, 2026, so it is unclear to town council or the board which you are referencing. Issue number four no deliberations outside a posted meeting. 588 03:15:12,530 --> 03:15:35,470 Even setting a said even setting aside the filing and submission requirement issues, the emails are largely between the town administrator, Jennifer Wolowitz, and the executive director and senior staff attorney of the Massachusetts Association of Health Boards, Cheryl Sabara, to coordinate a time for her to meet with the Selectboard and Board of Health in a joint session. Her presentation and some wrap up notes following the meeting. 589 03:15:35,470 --> 03:15:56,270 These emails are not subject to the open meeting law, because neither party is a member of a public body, which the Open Meeting law governs. Of the email communications, which include board members who are subject to the open meeting law. They are only regarding scheduling for the joint meeting and therefore are not deliberations. 590 03:15:56,270 --> 03:16:17,400 And finally, issue number five. Miscellaneous allegations. Your complaint also makes allegations that the town improperly responded to your public records request. As made clear in the Department of Open Government Body of Decisions, their obligation is to enforce the open meeting law. 591 03:16:17,400 --> 03:16:53,670 Therefore, they declined to review any allegations of violations of laws other than the open meeting law. And so we find that no violation of the open meeting law occurred. So now I’ll ask the clerk, please, to read the correspondence. Okay. And select board correspondence. And responses. September 22nd, 2026. Item number one, uh, expenditure ledger for all departments through 831 2026. 592 03:16:53,670 --> 03:17:22,900 Item number two, letter of resignation dated nine one, 2026 from Dennis Duckett. From his position, board member on the Monson Council on Aging, item number three. Letter of resignation dated nine one, 2026, effective immediately from C Thomas Tracy from the Town of Munson Finance Committee, and number four is a vote for a banner request for 593 03:17:22,900 --> 03:17:46,900 CR Levesque for nine seven, 2026 previously approved by the Town Administrator. This is one of those times when we had authorized the Town administrator to do some ministerial work during our summer break, and so we will take a vote to ratify her approval of the banner request. So I will take a motion. 594 03:17:46,900 --> 03:18:04,700 I’ll make that motion move to do that. Second. All in favor? All right. Any questions. At all? Did that banner go up already? It is. Up and down. The event. Has already. Okay. All right. Yeah. That’s why again, we were lucky I guess I would say it was within that summer time frame. 595 03:18:04,700 --> 03:18:30,730 But it’s also one of those times where it wouldn’t be a bad idea if your board had that designation at all times, because these weirdo things do come up. So all in favor. I. I yes. Thank you. Okay. All right. 596 03:18:30,730 --> 03:18:59,000 Item number five, uh, request, uh, from resident residents for emergency road repairs on Grandview Terrace, Munson, mass. Uh, this was forwarded to the Munson Highway Department dated August 31st, 2026. Item number six. Letter from Tilson notifying us that they will be operating their Munson Materials facility during the weeks of September 21st and September 28th. And Earth product materials will be excavated. 597 03:18:59,000 --> 03:19:27,370 The plant processing machinery will be operated and construction aggregate materials will be for sale. Item number seven. Thank you. Card from the grieve family for the town’s efforts to refurbish Dave Creek Park. Item number eight. Invitation to the members of the Select Board from Granite Valley. Uh, for the Veterans Day Assembly on November 10th at 9:30 a.m., item number nine. 598 03:19:27,370 --> 03:19:57,330 Uh, Department of Environmental Protections. August 27th, 2026. Letter with Notice of Responsibilities. Slash. Notice of response actions to 60 Upper Palmer Road. Item number ten, Eastern Hampden County Shared Health Services Director’s Report dated August 20th, 26. Item number 11, meeting minutes from Munson Water and Sewer Commission for August 5th, 2026. Item number 12. 599 03:19:57,330 --> 03:20:25,970 Uh, meeting minutes from Munson Cemetery Commission meeting for August 6th, 2026. Thank you. Is all the correspondence. Mister Morrell, anything you’d like to raise Mister Valley? Um, no, I think I think I’m good. I think we’re late enough. This administrator. Oh. Thank you. Thank you, Rebecca, for your first night. Good job. Thanks, Rebecca. Long one to Rebecca. 600 03:20:25,970 --> 03:20:25,970 Motion to adjourn, please. Might as well give you the all at once. Motion to adjourn. Oh, so moved. Second. All in favor? Aye, aye.