[0:00] All

[0:07] right, we're gonna call the meeting to order. Um, please stand for the pledge

[0:11] of allegiance.

[0:17] United States of America for it stands nationy.

[0:26] Please remain standing for a moment of silence.

[0:33] Thank you. All right.

[0:37] Next item on the agenda, we have resolution and proclamation for our

[0:40] valictorian and validatoran. Um, should I read it down there or up here? Just

[0:46] think a microphone would be a little better. So, I'm going to read it from up

[0:48] here. Um,

[0:53] all right. Going to read our resolution. Um whereas Pier Pierce uh Pierce I'm so

[0:57] sorry is valid Victorian of the Char regional high school class of 2025

[1:03] whereas is a student of the highest caliber and whereas Pier will be

[1:07] attending ween college in Northern Mass where she will be studying biochemistry

[1:11] with plans to attend medical school and whereas has been involved with Girl

[1:16] Scouts and whereas was co-president of the earth club and whereas Kira was a

[1:23] varsity soccer player for two years, then volunteered to coach girls U1 team

[1:27] through Ocean State North Kingtown soccer. And whereas every resident of

[1:32] the Cherokee community is extremely proud of her. Now, therefore, it be

[1:36] resolved that the members of the town council and the town of Richmond hereby

[1:39] congratulate Kira Pierce for her outstanding academic and extracurricular

[1:43] achievements and wish her the best of luck as she continues her education and

[1:47] pursues her dreams. Be it further resolved that this resolution shall

[1:50] become a permanent part of the official record of the town uh council of the

[1:54] town of Richmond given under seal of the town of Richmond the 17th day of June

[1:58] 2025. Congratulations.

[2:08] I'll read the other one then we'll do a motion to approval. Um

[2:13] whereas Maya Iskander, Salatoran of the Charo Regional High School class of

[2:18] 2025, is a student of the highest caliber and Maya is a member of the

[2:23] National Honor Society and whereas has been captain of the girls volleyball

[2:27] team her senior year and whereas was president of the VASA,

[2:32] the vocal athletes advocating against substance abuse. And whereas Maya was a

[2:38] volunteer uh dosent I don't thank you at the

[2:42] Misfit Aquarium. And whereas Maya will study biochemistry with a Spanish minor

[2:48] on prehealth track at the University of Florida. And whereas every resident of

[2:52] the Cherhill community is extremely proud of her. Now therefore, it be

[2:55] resolved uh that the members of the town council

[2:59] of the town of Richmond hereby congratulate Maya Iskander for her

[3:03] outstanding academic and extracurricular achievements and wish her the best of

[3:07] luck as she continues her education and pursues her dreams. Be it further

[3:10] resolved that this resolution shall be a permanent part of the official record of

[3:14] the town council of the town of Richmond given under seal of the town of Richmond

[3:17] the 17th day of June 2025. Congratulations.

[3:26] Now, could we please have a motion to approve both of our resolutions? Uh,

[3:31] motion to approve the resolutions honoring the charo validictorian and

[3:36] saludiatory. Second. All right. Um, any council

[3:41] discussion? We'll go for I just want to say it's been a while since I've been to

[3:46] graduation. And I went more than 10 years ago when my older kids were in in

[3:51] graduate from Charo and I loved it then and I went this past year as a member

[3:56] council and it's just such a great ceremony and very uplifting. So I know

[4:00] people don't like to go out on Friday night but if you got nothing better to

[4:04] do next year on the night of graduation, you should definitely go because it's

[4:07] it's it's great to see the the energy and the pride that every student has on

[4:12] their face when they go up and and get their diploma. So it's it is a great

[4:16] makes you feel good when you leave. So awesome. Thank you. Right. So we'll go

[4:21] for a roll call vote. Councelor Dinsmore, yes. Madnick, yes. Reynolds,

[4:25] yes. And Will Cox, yes. Congratulations again.

[4:30] You just need the white version. Yeah.

[4:46] [Music]

[4:54] Yeah, we're stand up picture. Oh, you want

[5:00] you want to like present them?

[5:06] Oh, I didn't get a script before this. You only graduate once. Congratulations,

[5:11] please.

[5:27] What I said, there council I should know. That's what I meant.

[5:31] Um,

[5:34] but he's not here. Okay. We really appreciate it. Congratulations

[5:40] again. Have a good night.

[5:47] You don't usually get invited to the pictures.

[6:01] I can't hear.

[6:05] I don't want her to sit up. You can have whatever you want. VIP.

[6:11] All right. Are we ready to continue on? All right. Um, next we have the public

[6:17] hearings. I have a motion to open a public hearing

[6:21] for the Preserve Property Management Company.

[6:24] Uh motion to open the public hearing on the outdoor entertainment uh license of

[6:29] Preserve Property Management Company LLC for the clubhouse range and Hilltop

[6:35] Lodge. Second. Have a motion or a second. Any

[6:39] council? Well, we'll just open the public hearing. Councelor Gins, yes.

[6:43] Madnik, yes. Reynolds, yes. And Will Cox, yes. All right, so we have our

[6:47] public hearing open. Any council discussion before we go to the public?

[6:50] Yeah, just so they're we're requesting waivers. We just had this come up at a

[6:57] previous town council meeting. The waivers are only for religious,

[7:00] charitable, or civic organizations. So, I know this is a unique situation.

[7:05] Preserve is a very unique business in Richmond. How do we handle these types

[7:09] of things? Past councils have um done a motion to

[7:15] approve without waiverss. There's never been an issue there before, so I don't

[7:18] anticipate there being one again. So if you wanted to do that motion, we could

[7:21] do it again. So moved. Well, I meant like after we

[7:26] close the public hearing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. When we get there.

[7:31] Getting ahead of myself here. All right. Any other council discussion?

[7:36] Anybody from the public want to speak on the preserve license?

[7:43] All right. Um have a motion to close public hearing. So moved. Second. All

[7:48] right. All right, we got our motion, our second. We'll go for our vote. Councelor

[7:50] Dinsour, yes. Madnick, yes. Reynolds, yes. Will Cox, yes. Um, now we'll go for

[7:56] that motion, please. Councelor Maddick. Yeah. A motion to um

[8:01] approve the outdoor entertainment license for Preserve Property Management

[8:05] Company LLC, the Clubhouse Range and Hilltop Lodge located at 87 Kingtown

[8:10] Road between the dates of June 2025 and June 2026

[8:15] with dates varying by event. I'll second it. Um, any further council

[8:22] discussion? All right, we'll go for our roll call vote. Councelor Dinsmore, yes.

[8:26] Radnick, yes. Reynolds, yes. And Will Cox, yes.

[8:30] Okay, on to our next public hearing. We have an outdoor entertainment license

[8:34] for Richmond Smoke. Can I have a motion to open this public hearing?

[8:41] All right. Go ahead. It's on the designated uh hearing opener. Uh motion

[8:45] to open a public hearing on the outdoor entertainment license of Richmond Smoke,

[8:51] 1219 Main Street. Um second. I'll second it. And we'll go for a roll call vote.

[8:56] Councelor Dinsour, yes. Madnick, yes. Reynolds, yes. And Will Cox, yes. Our

[9:01] public hearing is open. Any council discussion before we go to the public?

[9:06] Nope. Um I had a note just to mention that last year there was a noise

[9:11] complaint. I'm going to still approve the license, I think. But, um, I just

[9:16] wanted to say to the public, if you have an an issue with noise, there's a proper

[9:20] venue for reporting that. Um, so I'd encourage you to do so because even if

[9:23] we issue these licenses, those ordinance, noise ordinances are still in

[9:26] place. And I guess as a reminder to the applicant as well, they're in place. Any

[9:30] other council discussion? Council, I see. No, I was I was just

[9:35] going to add I was going to you mentioned alluded to I was going to ask

[9:39] the chief if the if there had been noise complaints, but you just covered that.

[9:46] All right. Anyone from the public have anything they'd like to share? Sure. Go

[9:49] ahead, Mr. Benson.

[10:07] Uh Dave Benson, Wyoming, Rhode Island. You've already alluded to this. Um

[10:13] I rise, Madam President, to speak against this application. Uh I live

[10:18] about a thousand feet from the venue. I live in a very quiet neighborhood

[10:23] called Canab Park. Many of you know it. It's got about 35 homes.

[10:30] Uh it's very quiet except at this time of the year when people mow their lawns.

[10:34] That's kind of the extent of the noise. Um

[10:39] I and I don't presume to speak for anybody but myself.

[10:44] I understand that the town ordinance says that the noise limits are 75 dB at

[10:51] 200 ft. And looking online, I find that that's about it was supposed to be about

[10:56] the noise from your vacuum cleaner. Um, but the noise from the live concerts

[11:02] is annoying, especially when it's added to the

[11:06] highway noise and the gunfire from the preserve.

[11:10] I talked to the last council about noise in general. Um, and I'll tell you the

[11:16] same story now that I told them. Uh, my son lives in Pucket. He was down for

[11:22] dinner one night. It was a summer. Uh there was quite a loud concert at that

[11:28] venue. Gunfire from the preserve, lots of highway noise. And he said, "It's

[11:34] definitely quieter. It It's definitely noisier here than it is in Pucket,"

[11:39] which kind of struck me. Um some concerts are louder than others.

[11:45] I think after that one particularly egregious concert, they managed to tone

[11:50] things down a little bit. Uh just wondering if there's any way you can

[11:55] uh mandate some sort of monitoring of the noise levels uh when these concerts

[12:01] take place. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else from the public like to

[12:06] speak? Go ahead. Um when you get to the podium, please

[12:10] state your name for the record.

[12:18] Um, I'm Oriana Kenyon. I'm the general manager over at Richmond Smoke. Um, I

[12:22] recently took over uh at the end of February. Um, I have a couple of staff

[12:26] members here as well. Um, I would just like to say that I do agree that last

[12:32] year it was too loud for the community, but since I

[12:37] have taken over in charge, we have changed the music genre exponentially,

[12:42] like not a lot of metal anymore. It's been like country, bluegrass, you know,

[12:46] like things here and there. We are trying to be respectful of the community

[12:49] and everything else and trying to, you know, abide by everybody and try to make

[12:54] them happy as well because we do know that, you know, sound travels and

[12:58] everything, but we we respect the community and

[13:01] we just, you know, we keep that in mind now. Yeah, I appreciate that. Thank you.

[13:10] Anybody else from the public or anybody online?

[13:15] All right. We have a motion to close public hearing, please. Motion to close

[13:18] the public hearing. Second. All right. Our motion, our second. Uh, councelor

[13:22] Jensler, how do you vote? Yes. Madnik, yes. Reynolds, yes. And Will Cox, yes.

[13:28] Um, okay. So, now could we have a motion on the license? Motion to approve the

[13:33] outdoor entertainment license for Richmond Smoke 1219 Main Street between

[13:39] June November Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays 1:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.

[13:47] Second. All right. So, we have our motion and our second. We'll go for our

[13:50] roll call vote. Counselor, can we just Oh, further discussion. Yeah, I go

[13:54] ahead. I I just want to you did but I I want to thank Miss Kenyon for for

[13:58] stepping up and let letting us know the change in you know circumstances there

[14:03] and I would if you haven't already maybe encourage you to exchange contact

[14:08] information with Mr. Bankston just so if there is an issue you guys can can talk

[14:12] about it and uh you know maybe you could check in with him just to check in just

[14:17] you know I but I appreciate you stepping up and being here and wanting to make

[14:21] things uh you know good for everybody. So, I appreciate that.

[14:28] All right. Any other council discussion? All right. Um, councelor Dmore, how do

[14:31] you vote? Yes. Madnick? Yes. Reynolds? Yes. And Will Cox? Yes. Um, all right.

[14:37] So, it's all for our public hearings. Now, we have licenses.

[14:41] First one is an application from the preserve Hilltop White Birch um for a

[14:46] one-year indoor entertainment license. Motion to approve the indoor

[14:51] entertainment license for Preserve Property Management LLC, the Hilltop

[14:55] White Birch, located at two Bumblebee Lane for a one-year license.

[15:01] Second. All right, we have our motion and our second. Any council discussion

[15:04] on this one? All right. Um, we'll go for a roll call

[15:09] vote. Councelor Dinsmore, yes. Madnick, yes. Reynolds, yes. And Will Cox, yes.

[15:13] Another out uh indoor entertainment license. Uh, another for the preserve

[15:17] clubhouse double barrel. Motion to approve the indoor entertainment license

[15:22] for preserve property management LLC clubhouse double barrel at 87 Kingtown

[15:28] Road for a one-year license. All right. Second. We got a motion. I

[15:32] second. Any council discussion on this one? Madam Chair. Yes. Sure. So, I just

[15:36] want to note to the residents and the audience that

[15:40] there's an interesting circumstance here where the preserve is asking multiple

[15:45] licenses here for both outdoor and and indoor entertainment licenses. And the

[15:50] reason they're asking for both is that some of their indoor events may end up

[15:53] being outdoors. So I know the the preserve it sometimes um

[15:59] you know can be polarizing in this town but I just want to point out that they

[16:03] are requesting both licenses for outdoor indoor indoor entertainment

[16:08] which is setting a good example I think for the rest community case and indoor

[16:11] entertainment event does end up outside they have the proper licenses in hand

[16:17] awesome any further council discussion all right

[16:20] we'll go for our roll call vote councelor Dinsmore yes madnick Yes.

[16:24] Reynolds. Yes. And Will Cox. Yes. Thank you. Um, now we're on to our new

[16:30] hires. We have first discussion and

[16:34] consideration of Brian Sheay for summer camp director.

[16:39] Oh, I'm sorry. Assistant summer camp director. I'm not liking my screen

[16:43] today. I'm going to blame everything on that.

[16:46] Um, I have a motion on this item. I'll make

[16:51] a motion to approve the the hiring of Brian Sheay's assistant summer camp

[16:55] director. Second. Sure. We have our motion, our second. Any council

[16:58] discussion on this one? Brian here. No, he's not.

[17:06] All right. Um, so we'll go for a roll call vote. How do you vote? Councelor

[17:09] Dinsmore, yes. Madnick, yes. Reynolds, yes. And Will Cox, yes. All right. Now,

[17:14] we have discussion consideration of hiring the summer camp counselors. Um,

[17:18] we can do this all in one motion, I'm assuming and hoping. Thank you. Motion

[17:23] to hire the following summer camp counselors.

[17:27] Erica Christensen, Julia Al Fontaine, Amanda Moira, Isabelle Woody, Haley

[17:32] Silva, Joe Mcnite, Alexis Dugas, Joselyn Pazuti,

[17:38] Elena. Tried to practice that one. I apologize.

[17:44] Joseph Kuna, Audrey Oscorus, Daffhne Grim.

[17:50] Second. Right. So, we have a motion or a second. Any council discussion on hiring

[17:54] camp counselors counselors here? No, they don't need to

[17:59] come. Kaitlin, do you want do you want to say anything or um No. Okay.

[18:06] Question. No, I didn't know if you wanted to say anything. That's No, I

[18:09] don't have any questions. They don't want you to come here

[18:13] ready to say something and then they didn't ask me. No, no, no. Even if we

[18:17] don't ask you, I mean staff always does just say like raise they raise their

[18:20] hand if they're sitting out there and they want to say something. So, um Okay,

[18:25] it's all good. So, we'll go for a roll call vote. Councelor Densor, yes. Yes.

[18:30] Reynolds, yes. And Will Cox, yes. All right. Uh discussion and consideration

[18:35] of hiring Arthur Burton as a DPW driver. labor, truck driver, laborer. I have a

[18:41] motion on this item. A motion to hire author Burton as DPW truck driver

[18:48] laborer. Second. Thank you. We got a motion and our second. Any council

[18:51] discussion on this item? Mr. Burton here.

[18:56] How you doing? Good. How are you? How are you? Just always give the

[19:00] opportunity to people we're hiring or appointing to say anything they want. We

[19:03] don't have to. It's not interrogation or anything. No, I know. I I love Richmond.

[19:06] is a great town, beautiful people, and I look forward to making a positive impact

[19:10] here. Awesome. Great. Thank you.

[19:16] All right, so we'll go for a roll call vote. Councelor Dinsmore, yes. Madnik,

[19:20] yes. Reynolds, yes. And Will Cox, yes. Welcome to the party. Thank you.

[19:27] Appointments and resignations. We have discussion and uh consideration request

[19:30] for a planning board appointment with one vacancy. We have two applicants for

[19:33] this one. Uh Nancy Hess and Christopher Serpia. I'm sorry if I'm mispronouncing

[19:39] that. Um are applicants online or here? NH.

[19:54] And um Christopher, if you're online, please raise your hand, let us know

[19:57] you're there. Um, what I was thinking we could do is hear from both applicants

[20:01] kind of like we did with other ones when we have one position and two applicants

[20:04] and then we'll put a motion on the floor for decision making

[20:10] here behind us. Nancy, you should have audio.

[20:17] I'm going to face. Good evening.

[20:21] Good evening. We can hear you.

[20:27] Um, did you want to share a little bit about why you're interested in the or

[20:29] coming back to the position? Um, anything else you'd want to share with

[20:32] us is great as well. Uh, sure. I've been a town resident for

[20:38] about 35 years. And of that time, I think 20 or more, I have been a previous

[20:44] volunteer for the planning board. Uh, with the recent brief hiatus, um, I

[20:49] think that's probably one of the longer serving members. I am a professional

[20:54] planner. I worked for the federal government, the private sector, three

[20:58] municipalities in Washington County, and currently employed by statewide

[21:02] planning. So, I would like to return to volunteering and helping my own

[21:08] community with my planning skills. Awesome. Thank you so much, Erin. Did we

[21:14] find our other applicant on there?

[21:26] I don't have a raised hand unless it's Miss Taylor Swift or resident Richmond

[21:31] resident GWP.

[21:35] You can chat if you can't raise your hand. I would love to have Taylor Swift

[21:38] on our planning board, but I don't think she's a Richmond resident.

[21:43] Maybe West will take her.

[21:48] All right. Um, so with him not being here, we can't hear from him. I guess

[21:52] we'll go straight into our motions. Um, did he say anything? Cuz sometimes

[21:57] applicants reach out in advance, say, "Hey, something came up." Okay. Just

[22:00] making sure. All right. Motion to appoint Nancy Hus to the planning board.

[22:04] Term expiring January 31st, 2026. Second. All right. Any council

[22:10] discussion on this item?

[22:14] Yeah, sure. Go ahead, Mark. I just say thank Nancy for coming back. I think,

[22:17] you know, she'd be a great addition. Her experience obviously is speaks for

[22:20] itself and I think she'll be again a great addition to the planning board.

[22:26] Again, agreed. Yeah, for sure. Um, all right,

[22:30] we'll go for a roll call vote. Councelor Dinsmore, no. Madnick, yes. Reynolds,

[22:34] yes. And Will Cox, yes. All right, on to our next item. Discussion consideration

[22:39] for renewal for senior activities of Joan Bergus for renewal to the senior

[22:43] activities committee. I have a motion to approve this, please. So moved. Second.

[22:48] All right. Any council discussion for renewal? They don't have to be here.

[22:52] I don't see her here. All right. So, we'll go for a roll call

[22:56] vote. Councelor Dinsmore, yes. Madnick, yes. Reynolds, yes. And Will Cox, yes.

[23:01] All right. On to we have Jacqueline Lombardo. Request for renewal to the

[23:05] Senior Activities Committee with a term expiring May 31st, 2028. Can I have a

[23:09] motion to approve this? So moved. Second. All right. Uh any council

[23:13] discussion? All right. Okay, we'll go for our vote.

[23:16] Councelor Dinsel, yes. Madnick, yes. Reynolds, yes. And Will Cox, yes. Now we

[23:21] have discussion and consideration of Jeffrey Noble's request for appointment

[23:24] to the finance board. He is here trying to hide.

[23:29] If you don't mind just stepping up and sharing a little bit of your interest in

[23:32] the finance board.

[23:38] Hi, Jeff Noble. Uh Richmond resident for 10 years. Um I already serve on the

[23:44] board of uh tax assessment review and uh given the

[23:52] process of the last budget and the referendum, not just like the results of

[23:56] the referendum, but also the process seeing you guys up here going through

[24:00] line by line. You're doing a lot of work. I thought maybe I could help out

[24:04] uh to alleviate that work by volunteering for the finance committee.

[24:09] I also thought maybe um there's an issue with communication, you know, as we've

[24:14] seen some misinformation came out about the budget and I'd like to try and

[24:19] provide more information to the public because this is truly a unique situation

[24:24] in my experience having lived several different states and different even a

[24:29] different country you know a direct democracy basically of approval of an

[24:34] annual budget and so the executive authority for lack of a

[24:39] better term, actually rests with the voters through the referendum. And it's

[24:44] difficult for voters to make informed decisions unless they have all the

[24:48] facts. So, I'm hoping to take the budget and help the finance committee

[24:54] make a better presentation to the public so they can make informed decisions

[24:57] about what they're voting for and make the town better. So, that's my spiel.

[25:03] That's awesome. Sounds like a good idea. Any questions? Let's see. Anybody have

[25:07] any questions for Mr. Noble. All right. Um, thank you. So, we'll go for a

[25:12] motion, please. Motion to appoint Jeffrey W. Noble to the finance board

[25:18] with term expiring November 30th, 2029. Second. All right. Any further council

[25:24] discussion? All right. Uh, thank you for stepping up

[25:28] for another board. I look forward to that idea actually have more information

[25:31] from the finance board to the public. I think that'll be really helpful in

[25:36] future years just so people can learn more about the process and get more

[25:38] information before we start telling them to vote.

[25:42] Um, yeah. Thank you. We'll go for a roll call vote. Councelor Dinsmore, no.

[25:47] Madnick, yes. Reynolds, yes. And Will Cox, yes. Thank you.

[25:54] Um, we have a resignation of Christine Donahghue from the dog park committee. I

[25:59] have a motion to accept. With regrets, please. Motion to accept the uh

[26:04] resignation of Christine Donahghue from the dog park committee with regrets.

[26:08] Second. Any council discussion? All right. Um councelor Dmore, how do you

[26:13] vote? Yes. Madnik? Yes. Reynolds? Yes. And Will Cox? Yes.

[26:20] I think we all want to skip this next one. Say, did we have make a motion? We

[26:24] can't leave. We even have our towns lister voting

[26:28] against it. Um all right. Uh motion to accept Karen Pinch's resignation with

[26:33] regret. Second. Any council discussion

[26:39] and with and with great thanks for her many years and dedication to say our

[26:43] silence is sadness.

[26:47] Enjoy your retirement. Thank you. All right. So we'll go for a roll call

[26:51] vote. Councelor Densmore. Yes. Madnick. Yes. Reynold. Yes. And Will Cox. Yes.

[26:56] All right. On to our But you're not leaving yet? No. No. No.

[27:02] On to the consent agenda. Do we have anybody have anything they want to pull?

[27:06] Yes. 2C, please. 2C. The finance report. Okay. Can I have a motion to pull the

[27:12] others? Approve. Sorry. Yeah. Approve. Motion to

[27:15] approve the remainder of the consent agenda.

[27:19] Second. All right. We have a motion or a second. Any council discussion on these?

[27:25] All right. Um, council Moretti vote. Yes. Madnick. Yes. Reynolds. Yes. And

[27:30] Will Cox. Yes. All right. What would you like to talk about in the um finance

[27:36] director's report? All right. Bear with me, Danielle. I got a couple questions

[27:39] coming at you and for the council. All right. So, let me just uh scroll down

[27:43] here because there's a number of pages on this. Um

[27:47] Danielle should know by now. I do read these things.

[27:51] All right. So, I was looking at um the income and

[27:58] we just got to find the right page here.

[28:04] Revenue. So, in miscellaneous income year to date, it's 250,715.

[28:12] The projection and the budget was 136500.

[28:16] So, we've doubled the income. And then I went and I looked down um further on in

[28:22] the detail for income and I saw that the detail pay for police officers was way

[28:28] higher than what we expected. So I think and and correct me if I'm wrong just if

[28:33] I'm understanding this, we get paid for the detail pay and that detail pay then

[28:37] gets transferred to the police officers. Yes, we pay the police officers after

[28:42] they do it immediately and then we get reimbursed from the companies that do

[28:46] it. But if you look at the net here detail revenue and then you look at the

[28:51] detail pay, you kind of have to subtract those two, right? And that will give you

[28:56] what's left over. Okay. So there there's no additional revenue coming into town

[29:00] for that. It's one to one. It's just Yeah, we get monies for cruisers like

[29:05] the cruisers they do and we put that aside into the um police

[29:13] for the capital purchase. Okay. Um, just as a reminder, last time I was

[29:19] told that you were very quiet in the meeting, so I can hear you fine. I don't

[29:22] know how you're coming across online on Zoom and I'm all right. I just wanted to

[29:26] make sure. Okay. And then I think we pretty much

[29:31] know what's going on here, but I just want to bring it up. So, our legal

[29:34] services has almost doubled the projections and there's um

[29:42] there's been quite a bit of litigation and it took me a little bit of time to

[29:46] find it. Now I'm trying to find it on the expenses which is we page four. Page

[29:51] four. Yeah. Yeah. So, litigation is $106,000 over our projections. And in

[29:56] order to really understand it, you had to really you had to go down into the

[30:00] actual expenses. And there were some fees in there from attorneys I wasn't

[30:05] familiar with. And I know this is coming at you cold, but do you recall

[30:12] um what that litigation was for that litigation line item is well it's

[30:19] honestly so high because of the preserve.

[30:22] Okay. So there we have different um where is that? Where is it? Is the Is

[30:31] there a specific law from your Yeah. No. Well, there was one in there. I I

[30:37] noticed I'm going to find it.

[30:46] Was it? I think that was a label. Yeah. Ah, okay. Police. Yep. Okay. And then it

[30:55] looks like on page two

[31:03] of revenue. So summary of activity year to

[31:09] date are we expected to have almost $491,000

[31:14] of um increased revenue over expenses? Is

[31:19] that am I reading that correctly? the summary of activity are we expecting we

[31:23] still have a whole month left and everybody has to get their bills in by

[31:26] the end of okay June so so we won't know for another month okay I was just

[31:31] looking at the projections and wasn't sure if that number was going to No we

[31:35] still have several weeks okay expenses and then if we scroll down

[31:41] into expenses for on page 10 hoping this is just a pass through but

[31:48] there is

[31:52] there is a charge for $120 for portable toilets for the food truck

[31:59] event on May 8th. It's just a pass through. Yep. Okay. Uh

[32:04] we just got the check. We just put it in. All right. It gives us a check the

[32:08] day of the event. Okay. I want to make sure that we got reimbured because it's

[32:11] very clear in that pay it. Yep. Okay. Thank you for your time. All

[32:20] Motion to approve item 2C. Second. Any further council discussion on this item?

[32:26] All right. Councelor Jens, how do you vote? Yes. Mick, yes. Reynolds, yes. And

[32:30] Will Cox, yes. All right. Um, sorry, I'm going back to my agenda.

[32:36] We are on public forum. Um, the purpose of public forum is to give members of

[32:40] the public an opportunity to address the town council about items not on the

[32:43] agenda. We ask you to limit your comments to three minutes. You have one

[32:46] opportunity to address the council during public forum. This is out of

[32:49] courtesy uh for others who wish to speak to ensure we have equal time for all.

[32:54] There will be a timer which will go off when your three minutes are up so you

[32:56] know to finish. If you need more time, we welcome you to submit your comments

[32:59] in writing to the town clerk to be included as part of the record in the

[33:02] communication section of the agenda. Um all comment should be directed to the

[33:07] president and not any other person present. With that, do we have anybody

[33:10] who'd like to speak in public forum? Sure. Go ahead, Mr. Ser.

[33:16] I'm just setting your timer. I'm trying not to go over Bob say

[33:23] I just want to I know it's on the agenda but it's already been voted on but I

[33:27] want to welcome Nancy Hess back and I want to say how much we're going to miss

[33:34] this pinch. Um did a great job for the town of Richmond. Um

[33:41] there's been some people that have stood at this

[33:44] podium that have made condescending remarks about

[33:51] the way this government is run against people in this government and everything

[33:56] else. And it's funny, but they're not here tonight. But I think that in this

[34:03] day and age with all the stuff that's happened, this is the elected town

[34:07] council. If you've got a gripe with them, bring it up. But to grandstand and

[34:14] make a big point about nothing, which one in particular has done and then you

[34:21] go and you read some of the Westerly son things and complains about them being,

[34:28] you know, other people being condescending and everything else. I

[34:31] think all this stuff needs to stop. Let's treat people with respect like

[34:36] supposed to you're inelected positions. I personally think this is the best town

[34:41] council I've seen a long time. Thank you. Thank you.

[34:47] Go ahead. I have to get up there. You can stay there. Thank you. I just want

[34:53] to say that I've I'm an old lady and I have been here since we've had town

[34:58] administrators. I've known them all and I am so sad to see Karen leave. She's

[35:04] been an excellent one and I am very sorry she's leaving. Thank you. You're

[35:10] very sweet. Thank you.

[35:18] Anybody else from public forum? Anybody online?

[35:22] Nope. All right, we will go on to reports. Lady of the hour. It's me.

[35:31] All right. So, the first thing I want to do is just share um some information

[35:34] about the community center that we're sharing with Hopington. Um Hopington is

[35:40] currently renovating um a building that was existing. They've gutted it. Um, I

[35:46] did tour it on uh May 23rd and Erin actually has some photos that

[35:59] um Sam had just asked me to kind of answer a few questions while I was there

[36:05] and one of them was like when is it going to be done? So that'll be October

[36:09] or November of this year um if all stays on target. Um, as far as what services

[36:15] they're going to provide, um, the state actually had certain requirements in

[36:20] order to get the grant money. Certain activities had to take place there. Um,

[36:25] that was, um, education, uh, workforce readiness and health

[36:31] initiatives. Um, so at a minimum, those things will take place there. Although I

[36:36] know they're also planning to do some recreation activities there. Um, I did

[36:41] send you all today the uh memorandum of agreement with Hopington. Just um I know

[36:48] you I don't think you were all here when uh we signed to that. So, it's refresher

[36:53] for some and new information for others. But we will have equal access to that um

[36:58] at resident prices. So, whatever Hington residents pay, if anything, for a uh

[37:05] service, we would pay the same rate as well.

[37:09] um and have equal access so they wouldn't get priority over Richmond

[37:15] residents. Um so um that's pretty much it on that

[37:20] unless anyone has any questions on it. Were you able to I sorry I wasn't paying

[37:23] attention. Were you scrolling through all the Okay, thanks. I do have a

[37:26] question. So one thing I read in that contract is that it's only good for five

[37:29] years. Is there an opportunity you think to extend that? I'm sure there would be

[37:33] an opportunity to reopen that conversation. Yeah, that was something

[37:36] that we had questioned as a council. We did not think it wasn't our favorite

[37:41] part of it. Um, but we were told by the then solicitor that it was a part it was

[37:46] limited because of the grant. Um, because I don't know it it made sense

[37:50] that they needed that to say it in order for the grant process to go through.

[37:56] That was the reasoning we were given. Fiveyear limit. Yeah. I'm hoping that

[38:00] towards the end of the five years we can extend it. If I remember correctly, the

[38:04] five years is the time during which those three activities have that are

[38:08] mandated by the state have to take place. Um, which is, you know, what we

[38:14] gave our money for. So hopefully after that time period, then we can

[38:19] renegotiate. I mean, we've lately had a really good relationship with Hopington.

[38:24] Um, so I don't see any reason why we wouldn't.

[38:30] Any other council questions or discussions?

[38:33] All right. Someone from the public. Oh, sure. Yes. Just wanted to ask you where

[38:38] is the building? Can you just um come to the podium and state your name for the

[38:40] record? I was going to be the same thing. Location, location, location.

[38:46] Julie, I'm just curious as to where the building was. Are you familiar with the

[38:50] Crannle House? Yes. It's that building kind of behind it. Um, so the the old

[38:57] house is kind of right on the street and it's like kind of through the parking

[39:01] lot and right behind it. Very good. Yeah. Thank you. And thank you for all

[39:05] your services. We're wonderful. Appreciate it. It's a great area over

[39:09] there with all the basketball courts. Yeah. Fields fields. Yeah. Right.

[39:15] Definitely. All right.

[39:18] On to our next one. Second item I have is uh an approval for an easement with

[39:23] Rhode Island Energy. Um, as you know, we have the four log chlorination system

[39:27] that's going in on KG Ranch Road and this is just um for the um for the power

[39:35] lines for that chlorination system. Awesome. Can I have a motion on that?

[39:42] Uh motion to approve the easement with

[39:46] Rhode Island Energy Naragans Electric and Verizon to install utility pole at

[39:53] AP uh 3V-2-00001

[39:57] AG Ranch Road. Second. Awesome. Any council discussion or questions?

[40:03] All right, we'll go for our vote. Councelor Dinsler, yes. Madnick, yes.

[40:07] Reynolds, yes. And Will Cox, yes. I think that covers The next thing follow

[40:13] because you mentioned pole placement. We may be able to. So the plan that was

[40:17] attached will be included in a typical pole placement petition. However, um

[40:24] Verizon and Naragansa Electric who still installs the poles for Rhode Island

[40:30] Energy hadn't submitted the placement in time. However, it's understood that that

[40:35] is the location. So you may be able to approve it

[40:39] conditional approve it the petition even though we

[40:44] don't have a physical petition because there is some time element to department

[40:48] of health and a consent. Okay. So if we made a motion to approve with consent

[40:53] that you you give a final approval later just to make sure it's matches what we

[40:58] have. Can we do that? Yeah. All right. So I'm putting a motion on the floor.

[41:01] Motion to approve uh the pole placement petition um with the condition of a

[41:06] final approval from our town administrator. Second. Any council

[41:11] discussion? All right, we'll go for a roll vote.

[41:14] Councelor Densler, yes. Adnick, yes. Reynolds, yes. And Will Cox, yes. All

[41:19] right, one more item. Thank you. Yeah, the last thing I have actually, we were

[41:23] going to have someone from GZA on the call and I don't know if he's on. He

[41:28] sent an email um a little before 4 today saying he had his daughter's dance

[41:33] recital, but he sent me a whole update that I can read if he's not here yet.

[41:39] Okay. Um so this is again an update for the

[41:46] environmental study that's going on at for Richmond Townhouse Road. Um, so we

[41:50] said GZA environmental consultant was contacted by the town to assist with the

[41:54] four Richmond townhouse road redevelopment projects

[41:58] being funded by the US Department of Housing and urban urban development. HUD

[42:03] requires an environmental review for all funded projects. The environmental

[42:07] review is conducted to assess the potential environmental impacts of a

[42:11] project that is funded by HUD. The environmental review is a mandatory

[42:14] process before any funds can be spent on the project.

[42:18] site is located directly across from the town hall adjacent to Cherhaho

[42:22] furniture. Approximately 5.0 acre currently vacant property is mostly

[42:27] underdevelop undeveloped woodland with a portion previously cleared and used as a

[42:32] staging area for the recent Ry dot roadway improvement project. Propos

[42:37] proposed project is the development of a community recreation space consisting of

[42:41] a pre-fabricated pavilion with ADA compliant restrooms and accessible

[42:45] parking and associated septic and utilities. The ER takes into account

[42:50] many factors including the surrounding environment, natural resources, air,

[42:55] water, soil quality, and human health among others. The ER is completed in

[43:01] sections for review by the HUD assigned project manager. Once sections have gone

[43:05] through the pre-review process, they are compiled and submitted to HUD for

[43:09] official approval. The pre-review process is designed to streamline the

[43:13] approval process once officials submitted officially submitted. We are

[43:19] currently in the pre-review process with many sections with the HUD product

[43:22] project manager. Several community notifications take place as part of the

[43:27] review. required notifications have been sent to aerial uh area tribal

[43:32] communities, historic preservation society, etc. So they are made aware of

[43:37] the project and for their comment. These letters were sent on May 25th to various

[43:42] entities. They have 30 days to respond. If no response, then we may proceed. As

[43:48] of 61725, we have not received any responses.

[43:53] Currently waiting on HUD's pre-review of several sections. They've expressed

[43:56] their apologies for the delay in review, but they are currently severely

[43:59] understaffed with this project being passed along to a West Coast

[44:03] representative. Lastly, although the ER has not been

[44:06] finalized, the results of our review find that we do not anticipate any

[44:10] adverse impacts that would require an alteration the proposed project or

[44:15] standard away. Sounds all good. Awesome. Anybody have a

[44:20] question on that? All right. Thank you, Karen. Sure. All

[44:27] right. So, we'll go on to the chief's report.

[44:31] Everybody, good evening. How are you folks? How are you chief?

[44:37] I have to comment like everybody else. To serve with Karen Pence for the last

[44:43] 10 years has been you really you are somebody to be proud of and truly have

[44:49] integrity. I don't know how you keep track of all the things that you juggle

[44:52] on a daily basis, but it's impressive. You'll be missed and I wish you very

[44:57] happy retirement. Uh, I just wanted to update you on Derek

[45:01] Adams. He's the patrol officer that we hired back in January to fill one of two

[45:06] vacant positions. One of those was tragically caused by the death of Sy

[45:11] back in October. He is everything that we hoped he was going to be. He

[45:16] graduated high in his class. He was six out of 44 when they add up all the

[45:21] points as to academics, athletic performance. Um the director of the

[45:26] academy actually called me. We had a conversation. He said, "You got a really

[45:31] good guy there. Good luck keeping him." He said, "He's he's the kind of person

[45:35] he'll fit in any." And he he's very attentive and he's been in FTO. So what

[45:40] happens is the academy goes on for about five months. And when you graduate from

[45:44] that, you have about 14 weeks of field training. senior officer who's been

[45:48] trained in observations of all the requisite skill sets that you need. I

[45:52] mean, the most important thing is hiring the right person that has the right

[45:55] personality, has integrity, cares about the public, they're going to succeed

[45:59] because that's what the public wants and they create less problems because in in

[46:04] his instance, he really treats people respectfully professionally. But the FTO

[46:09] uh trainers are so impressed with him at his level of attention to detail, taking

[46:15] notes while he's learning, trying to get the best performance he can on himself.

[46:20] Just really impressive. So he's in a position, probably has about 10 weeks to

[46:24] go depending on where he's at at that time, but right now he's right on track.

[46:30] I'd like to thank the field training officers behalf

[46:33] Taylor and Andy Bry filled in. Awesome. Thank you so much. Thanks,

[46:39] Chief. All right. Um, we're not in a public forum. We're

[46:44] adding to the town clerk's report. We're on I wanted to follow the chief if you

[46:49] didn't mind. It has something to do with the police department. Um, sure. Bravo.

[46:54] Um, I've been at the high school for quite a while now. And the chief sent

[46:58] overman Mike Ellis who just Today's the last day

[47:03] of school at Cherokee. Patrolman Ellis was the SRO did a

[47:09] remarkable job for the high school. Not only did he take care of the kids, but

[47:14] you found out that the kids approached him and had conversations with him

[47:20] initiated by students. That's unbelievably wonderful. That goes to the

[47:25] professionalism of him and also of our chief for giving him to us. And I want

[47:30] to shout out to him. Perhaps the town council in the future might want to have

[47:34] a commendation for this for this gentleman. Thank you. Thank you. I

[47:39] agree. He's amazing. Excuse me. Do you mind if we grab your name, sir? Your

[47:43] name for the record. Oh, Cardos of C do River Junction. Robert, thank you.

[47:53] All right. On to our clerk's report. Okay. So, um, based on last week's

[48:01] vote. I confirmed with Danielle in her timelines and the board of elections and

[48:08] um I think we alluded that we could probably have it July 1st. However,

[48:12] that's Fourth of July and I have concerns of having enough pole workers.

[48:16] Um plus having a popular holiday vacation might not be ideal for a vote.

[48:23] So, Tuesday, July 8th is what is proposed and the voting hours the same.

[48:28] will be here at town hall from 8 am to 8.

[48:32] All right, that sounds good to me. Do we have a motion to approve this date?

[48:36] A motion to uh set the date for the uh Richmond budget referendum on July 8th,

[48:42] 2025, 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Second. All right, so we got our motion, our second.

[48:48] Any council discussion? All right, roll call vote. Council

[48:52] Dinsour, yes. Fick, yes. Reynolds, yes. And Will Cox, yes. I see you need us to

[48:57] approve the ballot question as well. Yes. So I don't know if it's the

[49:01] preference of the council to have the previous question

[49:06] which was um shall the Richmond municipal budget for fiscal year 2526 as

[49:12] adopted by the town council or should you want a new one that has to

[49:19] let the printer know. Okay. I like it as is. Um anyway, my only

[49:26] thought was to add the word revised since it was revised. So people

[49:30] understand it's different than it was before. But that's six of one half does.

[49:34] I think at least it's clear that this is a revised from the pre previous.

[49:40] I support that. You want to put it into a motion? Sure.

[49:44] I make a motion to approve the ballot question just to add the word revise to

[49:49] what Erin just stated. Where would you want

[49:54] you to say the question like where do you want it to say revised as revised by

[49:57] the Richmond Town the revised budget adopted by Richmond Town Council?

[50:02] Perfect. The Richmond municipal budget for fiscal year 2526 as revised and

[50:08] adopted by the town council be approved. Sure. Second.

[50:12] Any council discussion on that? All right. Council vote. Yes. Madnick. Yes.

[50:17] Reynolds. Yes. And Will Cox? Yes. All right. Thank you, Aaron. on to our EMA

[50:22] director's report. Um, Nicholas, you are here. Tried to hide, but we called you

[50:28] anyway. Um, thank you so much for getting this to us. Yeah, I'll turn it

[50:33] over to you to share what you'd like to share. Um, so just I met with uh Talia

[50:39] and Gary. Talia is our town planner. Gary, our DPW director, reviewed the

[50:43] items that were presented as uh hazards. There were 29 in total first in 2022.

[50:49] Um, I went through basically kind of sat down with them to try to guess and I

[50:55] shouldn't say guess decide where we're at on those items and move forward if we

[51:00] need to move forward on them. Um, I sent the memo to Karen. I believe she

[51:05] forwarded on to all of you as well. Um, basically we just I laid out every

[51:11] question um in reference back to the hazardification plan to try to get um

[51:17] you guys as much information as possible.

[51:19] Uh most of the items are either in progress, have been completed, or have

[51:24] been addressed based on where they're going to be in their progress. So for

[51:30] that much, it's pretty much up to date now. Awesome. Appreciate it. Any council

[51:36] questions? Yes. Sure. Go ahead, councelor Madnick. Bear with me. This is

[51:40] going to be a while because I read through this whole thing. It was very

[51:42] important that um we went through this. So, I'm basically going to go down the

[51:47] same numbering scheme that you provided us based on the actions in the hazard

[51:50] mitigation plan. I don't expect you to know the answers to these questions, but

[51:54] perhaps you can look into them and get back to the council so we can decide um

[51:59] how to take action. Very similar process to how we went through the comprehensive

[52:04] community plan. Um it's important that we go through these and understand what

[52:08] needs to get done and how the council can help facilitate this because this is

[52:12] really important to town residents. make sure that we can um protect our town and

[52:16] protect the safety of everyone that lives here. Um okay, so um number one

[52:23] which is the uh implement the mitigation strategies

[52:27] identified to reduce flood vulnerability and routine damages in the lodge

[52:32] neighborhood. So there is a grant um through the natural resources

[52:36] conservation district that was um implemented to and awarded to study the

[52:42] flooding in Valley Lodge. Do we know what the status of that study is? Do we

[52:46] have any results on that? I do not. Um I can try to get answers on that. U

[52:52] respectfully though with the with the agenda item like listed as a hazard

[52:56] mitigation update, right? Should we be getting into specifics of specific areas

[53:00] in particular? I know people from Valley Lodge get very upset and not upset like

[53:04] passionate about their area. I would just want to just proceed with caution

[53:08] with getting too far into it. I don't know. That could just be me because the

[53:12] agenda item does just say um I'll go to it because I have my notes up and it's

[53:18] not fair that I can ask questions that we ask. No, no, no. I'm not saying it's

[53:22] not fair you can't ask questions. Nobody's saying you can't ask questions.

[53:25] It just says EMA director's report annual hazard mitigation plan review. I

[53:28] just with um the first question being about Valley Lodge, it just gives me a

[53:32] little bit of pause just because I know that a lot of people would want to be a

[53:36] part of that conversation um and be notified of it. That's my concern. But I

[53:40] think that would be a concern I guess for the solicitor to I think help us out

[53:44] on Sure. Go ahead. No, I I think the the

[53:48] question is what's the status of the study? That's

[53:52] not what are we going to it's not a what are we going to do about it. It's what's

[53:55] the status of this study. And I think that's that's fair. Exactly. Why I'm

[54:00] saying when we go forward proceed with caution and just give what we know, what

[54:05] we don't know, and we'll come back later with it actually being noticed on the

[54:08] agenda. Um, sure. Go ahead, Karen. I have some.

[54:11] She might have an answer. Actually, just this week got uh an announcement from

[54:16] NRCS about a stakeholders meeting related to this PL 566 um project. And

[54:25] that meeting is July 1st at 10:00 a.m. at our community center in the second

[54:32] floor of the police station.

[54:37] I can share that. with you all. That'll be good to share everywhere. Yeah. I

[54:42] mean, I think we should put it on the website and Facebook page as well.

[54:56] Okay, I can uh I can move on. Um so I'm just going to skip to the ones that have

[55:00] been completed that are in progress. So number three in the hazard hazard

[55:04] mitigation plan is elevate the road beds at Mechanic Street and Switch Road at

[55:08] Diamond Brook, Pineh Hill at Metobrook, and Pineh Hill at Whitebrook. So it says

[55:13] it's in progress. Um do you know which portions of the road beds have been

[55:16] elevated or um tended to? Uh I don't off the top of my head. Um I have that

[55:22] conversation with Gary and I honestly don't remember off the top of my head.

[55:25] Okay. Um if possible, do you think you can Yeah, I can work with Gary and get

[55:29] you that to the council. Okay. Um for numbers four, five, and six on a

[55:35] hazard mitigation plan, it had to do with um potential acquisition of highly

[55:40] floodprone properties, there are federal um programs that allow for um purchase

[55:47] of homes that keep getting flooded out, but there's been no parties interested

[55:50] in that. So, I just want to make that statement. Um number seven is storm

[55:54] water management improvements and that address runoff from 195 and three. Um,

[56:02] and I'm going to tie this in with number eight, which as well, which is upgrading

[56:06] Colulberts to manage summer runoff for one uh route 138. So, I guess the

[56:10] question for you, Nick, is do you think it's worthwhile to set up a meeting with

[56:14] Ry dot to talk about this? And if any action has taken place and how we can

[56:19] work together to try to mitigate it. Yeah, absolutely. Um, I I don't have any

[56:24] contacts with Ry. I'm still obviously very new trying to get my feet wet with

[56:28] every department in the state. Um, but I'm going to This was just to get you

[56:33] guys a report of where we were at from what the information I was able to

[56:37] gather in the couple short months. Absolutely. This, like I said, this is

[56:41] great. Now that we have it, we can start taking actions to try to move this thing

[56:46] along. Um, that's what we're here for. So, number nine is interesting. It's

[56:51] update design storm precipion precipitation amounts to for subdivision

[56:55] design. I know that Talia's here, so she might pipe in with this one, but I don't

[57:02] believe that the town manages or regulates a storm water precipitation

[57:06] amounts has to do with RIM with the um Rifties permits. Um does the town have

[57:12] any input or control over how these storm water management precipitation

[57:16] calculations are performed? I'm not sure on that.

[57:20] All would be the better one to speak on that for sure. that

[57:25] I'm not prepared to apply on that right at this moment in time. Okay.

[57:31] Um, all right. So, number 10 was hire a grant administrator to be tracking,

[57:36] pursuing, and managing hazard mitigation plan related grants. So, hazard

[57:41] mitigation is going to be another focus of the grant writer position that we

[57:44] just removed from the budget. So this is going to be delayed until

[57:48] the town is open to hiring a grant writer to help with hazard mitigation

[57:52] programs. So another reason why a grant writer would have been important

[57:56] position. Um okay so moving on to

[58:02] number 11 and kind of number 11 and 12 has to do with stream and river

[58:06] flooding. So, it's uh coordinating um with town and local agencies and the DPW

[58:13] to um determine if there's any blockages or debris in some of our waterways. So,

[58:20] Nick, do you know if there's a an alert system or some way that the residents

[58:25] that we can maybe publish that the residents can reach out to DPW if there

[58:30] is a blockage that's creating flooding? Uh usually anything that is discovered

[58:34] is usually just called into the DVW directly and they report it that way.

[58:38] Okay. Um if it's a major event, we open the EOC, the emergency operations

[58:42] center. It is staffed. We'll have somebody there that takes those calls

[58:46] while Gary is on the road helping, assisting in other ways because we have

[58:50] a small crew. We have to do with what we can. Um but we do put somebody from EMA

[58:55] in the EOC to take those calls and try to help in any way we can. Do do you

[59:00] think it's worthwhile to consider putting something on the Richmond

[59:03] website about contacting DPW if there is some kind of blockage? Uh potentially.

[59:09] Yeah. As as long as it's to it's address it as major blockages that could

[59:14] potentially cause more flooding and damage to other properties. I think

[59:18] that's the big thing. If it's a small drain that's just a little puddle at

[59:22] this point during a major event that might be end up further down the list

[59:27] than something that's majorly causing a road to be closed or something like that

[59:31] where we have to address it right away. All right. Um so moving on to numbers

[59:38] 14, 15 and 16 in the plan which have to do with um wetland restoration

[59:45] um pursuing permanent land protection for various parcels within within

[59:50] Richmond um that happen to have be high priorities for for flooding. So um has

[59:56] the conservation commission been engaged at all about progress on these and if

[1:00:01] there's any interest in moving forward with some of these mitigation actions? I

[1:00:05] haven't heard yet on that. Okay. Um, do you think you can reach out to them?

[1:00:11] Yes. And and ask if there's been any move in and maybe we can have discussion

[1:00:15] as a council and a conservation commission on what we can do about

[1:00:19] those. Do you want to put that into a motion

[1:00:23] for coun uh for a direction to town employee? Yeah, I just gonna kind of

[1:00:27] wait till the end. That was the first direction I think I heard. Okay. All

[1:00:32] right. So, I will make a motion to um request our EMA director to reach out to

[1:00:38] the conservation commission to discuss items 14, 15, and 16 and their status in

[1:00:44] the hazard migation bud. Second. Any further council discussion on that one?

[1:00:49] All right, we'll go for our vote. Councelor Dmore, yes. Madnick, yes.

[1:00:52] Reynolds, yes. And Will Cox, yes. All right, on to your next question. We're

[1:00:57] almost there. There's 29 of these, so um just

[1:01:02] plus do we know on so number 17 is implementation of the recommendations

[1:01:08] from the PL566 program but since we just got some information that they're going

[1:01:12] to meet with us um I guess that's my questions move but essentially what I

[1:01:16] was going to be asking is how any of that was being implemented some of their

[1:01:19] direction but we haven't had anything um

[1:01:24] number 18 is raising the retaining wall around the pump station at Wood River

[1:01:29] Drive um do Do we know if anything has any action that's been

[1:01:36] taken for that? If it's how it's being funded because I don't remember seeing

[1:01:39] in the capital improvement plan. Um just in conversations with Gary again, it's

[1:01:45] been in on the list of projects. Uh it's not r if you

[1:01:53] following with what the hazard mitigation had laid out. Um it was not

[1:01:57] labeled as a high priority item. uh

[1:02:05] it's labeled as a low priority yet. So that's why it hasn't been brought

[1:02:09] forward as far as that goes yet. Okay. So that's just something we'll do when

[1:02:12] we have budget in time. Correct. Got it. All right. Um

[1:02:20] Okay. For number 19, which is encourage private owners to create emergency

[1:02:25] action plans. And what you reported to us for number 19, this has to do with

[1:02:29] dams. Um, you said the Wood River Dam has an e EAP emergency action plan that

[1:02:34] was submitted to Ry dot since it's a Ry dot dam.

[1:02:39] So the the EMA completed an EAP for uh the the dam Horseshoe Falls, but the

[1:02:46] owner is currently unknown. So, I reached out to the state on this because

[1:02:50] um I did find our EAP that we had created in

[1:02:54] 2022. Um

[1:02:58] when I reached out, they do not um because it's not considered a

[1:03:02] high-risisk dam, they do not feel that it needs to be um gone into uh title

[1:03:07] searching and that because obviously it has to be funded for for title

[1:03:11] searching. um in conversations with other uh departments as well and we have

[1:03:17] no idea who the current owner is. Um the previous owner was redacted I shouldn't

[1:03:22] say redacted crossed out at the time of the EAP for the last known that we had

[1:03:27] and when reached out to he was not the current owner. So okay so no but they

[1:03:33] claim it's low risk so it with or without an owner shouldn't be be an

[1:03:38] issue for us. It's great. Um okay so number 20 is assessing opportunities for

[1:03:44] dry flood proofing of the town hall and then 21 is implementing dry flood

[1:03:48] proofing at town hall and this is to protect um vital records. I know that we

[1:03:53] now have an online system. So, this question is mainly directed probably to

[1:03:56] our admin and our account clerk. Is do we still have a concern over protecting

[1:04:01] paper vital records in our basement? And is there action that the council needs

[1:04:07] to consider protect them or do anything about it? Who wants to

[1:04:13] take this one? You guys are smiling back and forth at each other. See some eye

[1:04:16] rolls, too. Be a good one. Yeah, we lost a lot of records

[1:04:20] um not land evidence in 2010 that weren't required to be filmed. The

[1:04:26] records there is a um little I have implemented a process to review

[1:04:34] the records in the locked area of the basement to ensure that no more um

[1:04:40] records go on the floor and they're raised. However, um we do have a

[1:04:47] secondary vault with a locking mechanism that's raised for that is not currently

[1:04:52] being utilized. So, we do have a plan in place to replace that as historical

[1:04:58] record funds become available. Um but we need to go through everything and all

[1:05:03] departments need to um remove whatever we can destroy that we don't need to

[1:05:08] retain. Um that needs to happen before projected.

[1:05:13] But we need to retain records that are permanent but not necessarily are all

[1:05:19] filmed. So that is a concern and plus archive is saying that there's not

[1:05:25] currently a digital accepted practice to remove those permanent records from a

[1:05:30] physical paper form because of the changes in format like we used to have

[1:05:36] floppy discs and CDs and even scanning and converting to PDF. So microfilm is

[1:05:42] really truly the only way that that process is expensive and those are

[1:05:46] stored offsite. So I don't have concern of land evidence and probate just that

[1:05:51] is filmed and not stored there but um there's other permanent records that are

[1:05:56] not that will need to be addressed. Have we had any flooding issues since 2010 in

[1:06:02] the basement? Not yet. Aaron, is it um Rhode Island Foundation

[1:06:08] that provides the historical record fund? There is there's a grant for the

[1:06:13] Rhode Island, but also through um conveyance and taxes. It's state law

[1:06:17] that um funds be set aside for every recording and a percentage of that goes

[1:06:22] towards technology and a percentage goes toward historical records. And as that

[1:06:27] builds up, um it's, you know, recorded in deeds. It's not a budgeted, it's not

[1:06:32] a um and it can only be used for those two purposes. And so that project is um

[1:06:39] going to be quite expensive. So we're not there yet, but it will the basement

[1:06:45] will be addressed before the upstairs vault due to the need storage.

[1:06:51] So um because we have scanned maps and done other projects, we've used

[1:06:56] historical funds and so we just need and obviously recording is still flow in

[1:07:00] this economy. It is glad to see the vault has been very busy the last few

[1:07:04] weeks. So that was a good sign that people are um you know looking to

[1:07:09] record. So hopefully recording will increase and we can get that.

[1:07:17] Right. That's all I got for that one. All right. So, um, number 22 has to do

[1:07:22] with repair the perimeter fencing to secure the Shanik Hill radio

[1:07:25] communication tower. Um, you know, if that's been implemented

[1:07:32] that part of the Yeah. Yeah. So, that that uh fencing is repaired if it does

[1:07:37] get damaged at all. It's just unfortunately children get into the area

[1:07:42] and break fence sometimes. If it does, it's discovered that it's fixed. Okay.

[1:07:47] Yeah. So that was part of the uh upgrade and everything. Uh no that's the upgrade

[1:07:52] is separate. Okay. The the security is totally separate from the upgrade of the

[1:07:56] town. Okay. Yeah. Didn't we we talked about this recently that we got a grant

[1:08:00] for some additional uh cameras systems for the town. That's part of the

[1:08:05] security measures. Well um we actually we applied for one for cameras but I

[1:08:12] don't think we're going to get it because we don't have the match.

[1:08:16] Um, but we have the the USDA money for for the tow, right?

[1:08:24] That doesn't include any security measures around it. I can't remember to

[1:08:29] tell you the truth whether cameras were included in that specific grant or not,

[1:08:33] but there was a separate grant that we had applied to Senator Reid for cameras

[1:08:38] here everywhere here. Undisclosed locations. Yes. Thank you. You're

[1:08:44] welcome, Chief. I was like, "Don't say too much."

[1:08:50] All right, almost done. Um, all right. So, number 23 was um backup uh new

[1:08:56] backup generator for town hall. So, we got that one. So, that's great. And

[1:08:59] then, so number four, number 24 and 25. So, the first one is develop a Richmond

[1:09:04] debris management plan. The second one is update the Richmond emergency

[1:09:08] operations plan and community emermergency management plan. Um, I know

[1:09:12] that some of these emergency management plans might have some safety issues,

[1:09:16] security problems, so you wouldn't want to publish it. But generally for both of

[1:09:19] those items, are they published? And if they are published, are they accessible

[1:09:24] to the public? Um, as far as the emergency action uh operations plan, I'm

[1:09:29] not entirely sure on the two plans themselves. I know there are certain

[1:09:35] parts of it that are supposed to be kept back because of security reasons, safety

[1:09:39] reasons for everybody. Um I'm currently trying to locate the most recent uh

[1:09:46] action plan. We're in the process of obviously getting everything to me for

[1:09:52] um EMA. The last update that I have been able to

[1:09:56] find in the EOC has been from 2011. Um after talking with Josel, there was a

[1:10:01] more recent plan done. I'm just trying to locate it. Um so that's in progress.

[1:10:07] Um, and once I do get the most current one, it will be updated to today or when

[1:10:13] it gets done.

[1:10:18] All right, moving on. All right, so number 27 28 have to do with um fire

[1:10:23] protection. So 27 is develop a wildland urban interface fire plan or community

[1:10:28] wildfire protection plan and 28 is improve emergency access to fire gates.

[1:10:34] So, we had a fairly large fire local to us a couple years back, the Extorum

[1:10:39] Wildfire, and there was a new forestry initiative that was um actually um

[1:10:44] chaired by our district representative um Megan Carter. Do you know if 27 28

[1:10:50] are being addressed as part of that new forestry initiative? So, I believe uh

[1:10:55] they are in there as well. Um I'm not entirely sure how much of them is

[1:10:59] involved in it, but from my understanding there's a lot

[1:11:03] going on uh from Representative Conside as well as the chief of Richmond and a

[1:11:09] few other chiefs in the area that are heavily involved with it.

[1:11:14] Okay. And then the final one has to do with um increased public education on

[1:11:17] tickborne diseases. Um the conservation commission is the lead on this.

[1:11:25] Do you know if there's any um additional information

[1:11:29] published on our website about about that. You said it was unknown. Yeah, I'm

[1:11:34] not I did a little bit of digging. I couldn't find much. I know Department of

[1:11:37] Health has a little bit listed on their website. Um other than that, I'm not

[1:11:42] sure on other resources we have, if we have anything posted here or if we have

[1:11:46] anything. I didn't really find anything on our website. So, well, might be worth

[1:11:51] considering. um URI just right down the road. Of course, um they have something

[1:11:54] called a tick encounter and it's a fairly straightforward website that you

[1:11:58] can go and click on. It'll tell you all kinds of information about ticks, what

[1:12:02] kind of ticks we have, what kind of disease they carry, and then how to get

[1:12:04] them tested. Um it might be worthwhile to consider putting that a link to that

[1:12:09] on our website so people can look at that in case they have any concerns.

[1:12:15] And that's all I got. So, I really appreciate your time doing this and

[1:12:18] thank you for sitting here, everyone, and listening to me drag on for 20

[1:12:22] minutes about it. You're welcome.

[1:12:28] Nick, I I have in my file an emergency operations plan that's dated 2016. The

[1:12:34] plan itself doesn't have a date on it, but the date of the file is 2016. I

[1:12:39] think that was the that was just Yeah. Okay. A review from the 2011.

[1:12:45] All right. Thank you again. Thank you. Thanks, Nick. All right. Next, we have

[1:12:50] our land trust report. All right. Can take the podium and share with us what's

[1:12:54] going on at Salia Preserve. Yes. All right. Hi everyone. Suzanne Payton, um,

[1:13:00] current chair of the Richmond Royal Preservation Land Trust. Um, yeah, I

[1:13:05] just wanted to give a quick update because it's been a really long time

[1:13:08] coming. Um we have completed the parking area for the sale of preserve the

[1:13:14] property just as I did submit the um the final report from Horsesley Whitten

[1:13:19] which was the engineer that we had hired to do the design for the parking area

[1:13:24] and then we went out to bid in the fall. We hired um a construction firm Celitro

[1:13:29] Property Solutions. They've done the construction. It was completed in May.

[1:13:34] We've submitted the the final documentation for our our permit from

[1:13:38] Rhode Island DEM and so it's all finalized. We just need to install the

[1:13:42] sign. We're working on the final sign and then we're hoping to have like a

[1:13:46] groundbreaking or you know ribbon cutting, I don't know, opening. Um but

[1:13:51] so just to give you an just everyone broadly, the property is 112 acres. It

[1:13:57] doesn't have frontage on the it didn't have frontage on the road. We have a

[1:14:00] ride of way through the adjacent property to what's now the parking lot

[1:14:04] which you can see there which is at the end of Chelsea Farm Drive. And so we'll

[1:14:08] have a trail head there. We had an Eagle Scout back in uh 2022 construct a kiosk

[1:14:14] on the actual property which will be just sort of down the trail a little

[1:14:18] ways. Um, and then we had another Eagle Scout just this spring who constructed a

[1:14:25] beautiful bridge across a stream. And we've got about a 1.7 mile trail that's

[1:14:30] already blazed and ready for the public. Um, so as soon as we get a sign

[1:14:34] installed, we'll be ready to open it. And this was funded through a trail

[1:14:38] grant from Rhode Island DEM. We originally applied for the grant in

[1:14:42] 2020. Karen knows that there uh with the permission of the town council. Um, the

[1:14:46] bid, the low bid was way above that. Um when we finally got to that point um the

[1:14:52] grant was not awarded until 2022 and then by the time we got all the design

[1:14:56] and everything done um so we asked for another 40,000 and they gave it to us.

[1:15:01] They amended the grant, added an extra 40,000 and extended us through December

[1:15:06] of 2025 to complete all the paperwork. So, we've been submitting um all of the

[1:15:11] documentation and they'll be reimbursing us for I I was worried Dan was gonna

[1:15:16] bring that up that we've paid out uh over $100,000 um but it will be

[1:15:22] reimbursed uh as soon as I get everything into ecics um from from Rhode

[1:15:27] Island. And I think that's it. I just wanted to it just we're excited. So,

[1:15:33] it's a beautiful beautiful property. It's really gorgeous. really hilly.

[1:15:39] There's some beautiful big rocks with moss all over them and it's it's just

[1:15:42] it's forested and gorgeous and yeah, that's awesome. Thank you so much for

[1:15:46] all the work you put into that years and years. The whole committee um put a lot

[1:15:50] of work our land trust uh put a lot of work into it and I really appreciate,

[1:15:53] you know, you guys volunteering and putting your time and effort into it. Um

[1:15:57] I have one question. Sure. Is it open to the public? You know, we're here talking

[1:16:00] about it. If someone were to go there, would they get in trouble? No, that's

[1:16:02] the whole point is that it's open to anyone,

[1:16:07] everyone. Absolutely. Um, honestly, if you drive there now, you can you can

[1:16:12] selfn were we don't have the official sign up

[1:16:15] yet. So, and we Oh, we also had um Pete Stson help us to create a trail map. So,

[1:16:22] he GPS the trail. We've got the map. We need to have it printed and then posted

[1:16:26] on the kiosk. Um, so we're just doing a few final things to make sure that the

[1:16:31] public sort of knows where they are and it's well signed and all of that before

[1:16:35] we officially open it. But I think the neighbors have figured it out.

[1:16:40] I see sign that there have been hiding. People are hiking. The dog that there's

[1:16:44] the dogs are Yeah, people are walking their dogs and and enjoying it locally.

[1:16:48] Good. Um, yeah. Good. Awesome. Thank you again. Yeah, that's great. Thanks,

[1:16:52] Suzanne. All right, on to new business. We're

[1:16:56] kicking it off with councelor Dinsmore's request. Do you want to share a little

[1:17:00] bit and then give us a motion a request or dis for discussion and consideration

[1:17:04] of approving a resolution opposing Rhode Island General Assembly Bill H 543625

[1:17:10] and S uh 35925. Um I just want to read the U

[1:17:19] resolution. Sure. and

[1:17:25] it goes

[1:17:29] state of Rhode Island, town of Richmond on the subject of Rhode Island general

[1:17:32] assembly bills H5436

[1:17:37] 2025 and S3592025.

[1:17:41] Whereas the state of Rhode Island has a written constitution and whereas article

[1:17:47] 14 of the Rhode Island Constitution provides for a means to amend that

[1:17:51] constitution. And whereas House Bill 5436 and Senate Bill 359 seek to curtail

[1:17:58] the rights afforded by section 22 of the Rhode Island Constitution such that

[1:18:04] their legal effect would be substantively

[1:18:08] equivalent to an amendment of section 22 of the Rhode Island Constitution. And

[1:18:13] whereas should the general assembly and the electors of Rhode Island wish to

[1:18:17] amend the Rhode Island Constitution, the amendment process shall follow the rules

[1:18:22] long established in article 14, section 1 of the Rhode Island Constitution. And

[1:18:27] whereas Rhode Island House Bill 5436, Rhode Island Senate Bill 359 seeks to

[1:18:33] bypass this amendment process. We conclude that House Bill 5436 and

[1:18:38] Senate Bill 359 are extra legal by their very nature.

[1:18:45] Therefore, we the town of Richmond representing the residents of Richmond

[1:18:49] who seek to abide by the laws of the state resolve to oppose the two proposed

[1:18:54] bills H5436205 and S3592025.

[1:19:01] We have further resolved that this resolution be sent to the governor of

[1:19:04] Rhode Island, all members of the general assembly of Rhode Island, Lieutenant

[1:19:07] Governor of Rhode Island, and the attorney general of Rhode Island, and

[1:19:10] the town councils of all cities and towns in Rhode Island.

[1:19:17] Get a motion for us.

[1:19:21] Um, make a motion to approve this resolution.

[1:19:26] Propose the island general assembly bill H 5436 2205 and S3592025.

[1:19:34] I'll second it. All right. So, we have our motion, our second for discussion.

[1:19:37] We're going to do council discussion first, then go to the public. Any

[1:19:40] counselors want to add anything? Do you have anything you want to add? Councelor

[1:19:43] Dbor got anything? Sure.

[1:19:49] Sure. Go ahead. His hand was up first. Mark, I don't think he raised his hand.

[1:19:52] I heard your voice first. Go ahead, Councelor Maddik. Well, I'm gonna

[1:19:55] actually I'm gonna let Mark go first. I'm going to yield my time to him. Mark

[1:19:58] is an attorney. Like to hear what his perspective is on this or I say All

[1:20:02] right. Go ahead, Councelor Reynolds. Well, I mean, my perspective isn't a

[1:20:05] legal one. Uh, I I I do not support either of these bills. I think they're

[1:20:10] overly broad. I think their definition of what an assault weapon is is uh is

[1:20:16] too broad. Um I think it infringes too too heavily on legitimate

[1:20:24] uses of weapons for hunting and and sport and other reasons. So for that

[1:20:28] reason, I don't support them. The issue I have with this the language of the

[1:20:33] resolution is we're essentially saying we think it's unconstitutional. I don't

[1:20:37] know if it is or it isn't. Uh I don't support it whether it's constitutional

[1:20:42] or not. I don't support it. Um them I should say there's two bills. Um so I

[1:20:48] mean I again it's six of one half dozen of another I guess but I would prefer a

[1:20:54] resolution that just simply states you know we don't support these bills. We

[1:20:58] think they're overly broad and um you know something that you know kind of my

[1:21:04] keep it simple uh mantra. Go ahead, councelor Mandex. All right. I'm gonna

[1:21:09] make make two points here. One's going to be part of what Mark just said. I

[1:21:13] just want to point out that so far in the six, seven months we've been here,

[1:21:17] councelor Dinsmore has brought in front of this council as the lone Republican

[1:21:22] two divisive topics, immigration and firearm legislation.

[1:21:28] It It's just disappointing that we're here discussing these things that the

[1:21:33] council has very little influence in. And I I would expect that we bring more

[1:21:38] meaningful ideas to the table that we can do something about as as a town.

[1:21:42] Can't really do much about this. Even if we adopt the resolution we all agree

[1:21:46] with here, the GA and the Senate are going to do what they're going to do. I

[1:21:50] don't know if these resolutions have much effect at all. Um I just think as a

[1:21:55] council we can do more meaningful things, more constructive things that

[1:21:58] help the town. Focus on the stuff that we all know that that will help.

[1:22:03] Economic development was a big one. Um, but these two things, immigration and

[1:22:08] firearms, it there's a lot that goes into them and

[1:22:11] we can discuss until we fall asleep tonight and there's going to be people

[1:22:15] on either sides of the discussion and they get really heated and I I

[1:22:19] personally don't like having those things because of how emotional we get.

[1:22:22] With that said, I agree with what uh Council Reynolds said. I would suggest a

[1:22:27] resolution that's in in opposition of the House and Senate bill

[1:22:32] very simply um but removes the constitutional legality and amendment

[1:22:36] sections in here because I'm not an attorney. I'm not a constitutional

[1:22:39] attorney. None of us are. And I don't think it's for this council to discuss

[1:22:45] what like extra legal means. So I echo what um council Reynolds said. I don't

[1:22:51] agree with the way that the House and Senate bills are written as is. Um I

[1:22:57] think they're way too broad. I think they're virtually uninforcable

[1:23:01] and they're going to end up being challenged in court and they're going to

[1:23:03] go nowhere. So I agree with um Council Reynolds in

[1:23:11] pushing, you know, forward with a different resolution, not this one

[1:23:15] specifically. Okay. Right. Um so you had your chance.

[1:23:19] I'm going to go and then we'll go back to you for a second. Bite of the apple.

[1:23:22] Um, so I'm going to say I agree with both of you. Um,

[1:23:27] I I find I find that our resolutions do

[1:23:32] have effect. I like to think they do. I like to hope they do. Um, when we send

[1:23:35] them up to the state, I do think that there's a good a voice if all the

[1:23:40] communities come together and we're all sending the same resolution up that

[1:23:42] they're looking at it. At the very least, our representatives is looking at

[1:23:45] it. And with this particular bill, we already know that Rep. Cotter has voted

[1:23:49] against the bill. We already know that Senator Morgan's going to do so soon if

[1:23:52] it gets to the Senate floor. So, if we would be talking to all the other

[1:23:56] senators, which they should be listening to their community, not necessarily

[1:23:59] ours, but I do believe that there's a strength in numbers where if you're

[1:24:02] getting the same resolution from multiple municipalities, it does have a

[1:24:07] lot of weight and it can make them rethink what they're doing. Um, but this

[1:24:12] isn't the same resolution, so it would be very different. Um, I agree with some

[1:24:17] of the amendments, the floor amendments that some of the the House Republicans

[1:24:21] put on the floor. Um, including I didn't like there was one issue with the bill

[1:24:25] where if you had a certain gun, you couldn't like it's it's no longer legal.

[1:24:30] And I don't know much about guns. I'm going to throw that out there. I shot a

[1:24:32] gun once in my life thanks to a friend last year. So, I'm not as educated as I

[1:24:37] should be on this, but if you had one of the guns that they're saying you ban,

[1:24:41] but you're allowed to have it because your grandfathered in. You couldn't

[1:24:44] drive to your friend's house to use it together. You have to go to one

[1:24:47] location, which the Senate Republicans are saying that the only location is Big

[1:24:51] River Management Area. Too restrictive to me. Like, you can't go to your

[1:24:55] friend's house. I just think like in our community, that's what our constituents

[1:24:59] want. They want to go to their friend's house. if you have a smaller property

[1:25:02] and you have someone who has a bigger one to be able to shoot recreationally,

[1:25:04] you should. Um, there's a few other floor amendments

[1:25:08] that the Republicans made that I did agree with. Um, so I think I'm a little

[1:25:13] bit more moderate as councelor Madnik said, you know, we're bringing up very

[1:25:17] political issues. We're a little more moderate with this one where I don't

[1:25:20] believe we should be just banning things just for the sake of banning them. You

[1:25:23] know, we should have regulation when needed, but we shouldn't just be

[1:25:28] outright banning something. So, I don't agree with either bill. I don't agree

[1:25:31] with um the amendment because actually we should be any resolution we have

[1:25:35] should have a sub a at this point for a house bill. Um

[1:25:39] and but I also think that this resolution doesn't really reflect what

[1:25:44] we want it to reflect because like was already said, we're not

[1:25:48] constitutional attorneys. Um, and I do think it's a little too late in the

[1:25:52] season in the session because now by the time we amend a resolution and get it to

[1:25:58] the Senate, get it to our representatives, it's it's almost over.

[1:26:01] Um, this bill is going to be heard in the Senate on Thursday or tomorrow, I'm

[1:26:05] sorry, tomorrow. Yeah. And it's already passed the House. So, I just feel like

[1:26:08] it's a little too late. Um, and actually, I know this was given to us by

[1:26:11] a constituent. I have a lot of respect for that constituent. And I told him

[1:26:14] this directly, you know, I don't want to bring this to council because I don't

[1:26:17] want it to create a polarizing issue. we're all getting along so well. Um the

[1:26:20] community is getting along way better than I've seen in the past with

[1:26:23] councils. So I wanted to keep that momentum going. So um I told him

[1:26:27] directly I wasn't going to do it. But I did actually submit written testimony in

[1:26:31] opposition to um these bills and sent it to my senator and my representative. So

[1:26:38] I would encourage anybody else to do the same. I think that's all I have to say

[1:26:41] hopefully. Council, you had more you want to add? Yeah, I just want to say

[1:26:45] that I hear your feedback and that uh that's the reason why I brought it

[1:26:47] because I was approached by Gary. So that's why

[1:26:54] May I speak? Sure. We'll go for a uh comments from the public. Sorry, I just

[1:26:59] had some water. Please state your name for the record.

[1:27:03] Chambers from Richmond. First, while I'm up here, I want to

[1:27:07] thank you, Karen Pinch, um, for your 10 years of honorable service as town

[1:27:12] administrative to Richmond, and you've been supportive and a friend to the

[1:27:18] Richmond Historical Society. Um, whenever we've had a question or a

[1:27:22] problem, you're go to and you've been a consistent model of expertise, kindness,

[1:27:30] and grace under pressure, which I can't even imagine. and I aspire to be Karen

[1:27:34] Pinch and I wish you all happiness in your retirement. Thank you. I'm speaking

[1:27:41] tonight to ask the Richmond Town Council to reject the resolution proposed by

[1:27:45] Council Dinsmore. I don't know if people even know what

[1:27:49] these two bills I'm sorry talking to you. Thank you. Um

[1:27:54] that they're talking about are. It's called um

[1:28:01] the Rhode Island Assault Weapons Ban Act of 2025.

[1:28:07] This bill has been worked on for over 12 years since

[1:28:13] Sandy Hook. So every year it's been amended, worded, taken um Rhode

[1:28:20] Islanders um input into account to make it legal.

[1:28:29] They know what they're doing up there. Half of those legislators are lawyers,

[1:28:33] right? Um,

[1:28:40] got to find my place. Okay. Um, and what the bills do

[1:28:46] is to seek to restrict the manufacturer, sale, purchase, and possession of

[1:28:51] assault weapons. You may say, "Oh, they don't describe it well." You know,

[1:28:57] there's so much gunsplaining that goes on when these hearings are on.

[1:29:04] in the bills, it tells you what they consider an assault weapon. So, people

[1:29:10] do not just say, "Okay, yeah, this is an assault weapon." They know what they're

[1:29:13] talking about. Um, assault weapons are exceptionally deadly firearms common

[1:29:18] place in mass shootings. A poll conducted in February 2025

[1:29:25] indicated that 64% of Rhode Islanders support a ban on the sales and

[1:29:29] manufacture of assault weapons. We're not just talking people in the city, the

[1:29:34] big city. I live in Richmond

[1:29:38] and I'm sure 64% of people in Richmond may not have as big mouths as the people

[1:29:43] who are supporting guns anywhere and everywhere,

[1:29:47] but I'm sure at least 64% would agree that

[1:29:51] a civilian should not have a weapon capable of mowing down dozens of people

[1:29:57] in a matter of minutes in their gun safe or laying around their

[1:30:04] house. Assault weapons are weapons of warfare and do

[1:30:09] not belong in the hands of civilians. And I know the chief probably doesn't

[1:30:13] want to comment, but what I have heard at testimony is police officers do not

[1:30:19] want civilians with easy access to assault weapons.

[1:30:26] And they're not for hunting. You can't use them for hunting. It's illegal to

[1:30:30] use them for hunting because you would end up with this big of a piece of a

[1:30:35] deer once you shot it. Thankfully, the House bill has passed

[1:30:41] already, and we await a vote this week on the Senate bill. Passage of these

[1:30:46] bills into law would protect Rhode Islanders by reducing the likelihood of

[1:30:50] mass shooting injuries and deaths via assault weapons.

[1:30:55] The Richmond Town Council needs to focus on issues that will improve our town's

[1:30:59] economic viability and community spirit and to support common sense gun laws

[1:31:05] rather than tear them down with this harmful, divisive, and meaningless

[1:31:10] resolution. Voting against the assault weapons ban

[1:31:13] bill does not demonstrate a concern for keeping communities and children safe,

[1:31:18] promoting safety, or preventing violence. It indicates the exact

[1:31:23] opposite. And I have to say I'm really

[1:31:26] disappointed that the three Democratic um town council members are okay with uh

[1:31:35] this resolution. Maybe not as how it's stated about the legality of it, but

[1:31:42] assault weapons should not be in civilian hands. And I apologize for my

[1:31:46] allergies. If you must pass a resolution, if that's

[1:31:51] that's your goal tonight, I suggest it be a resolution and recognition. Do you

[1:31:57] know what this month is? June is National Gun Violence Awareness Month.

[1:32:03] That would be a valuable resolution to pass or at least to acknowledge the

[1:32:09] importance of gun violence awareness and how it affects every one of us. Thank

[1:32:13] you. Thank you. Anybody else would like to speak? All right.

[1:32:19] And we have two online. All right. After Julie will go online, then we'll shift

[1:32:22] back to in person. Julie was Richmond. Uh I'll be very brief. There's a lot of

[1:32:27] arguments on both sides, but the basic fact is this law as written does not

[1:32:32] describe an assault weapon. It describes a lot of legally carried, legally

[1:32:37] purchased guns. And to pass this bill, the Rhode Island would criminalize a lot

[1:32:45] of citizens that have them legally, use them legally.

[1:32:50] And I think it's it's just bogus. Um,

[1:32:57] if this bill were accurate in what it says and did include only assault

[1:33:02] weapons, that may be a different story. But as written, it does not. Thank you.

[1:33:08] Thank you. Anyone want to give questions to somebody online, please?

[1:33:20] Hello. Can you hear me? People like sorry

[1:33:33] Parker, you should have permission.

[1:33:48] will come back to you.

[1:33:55] Gary, we'll come back to you just in case you didn't hear her.

[1:34:03] Buttonwoods Motorcross, you should have permission. Please state your name for

[1:34:07] the record. Jordan Carlson, Richmond resident.

[1:34:15] You can go ahead. All right. I just wanted to state for the record that uh

[1:34:20] you know the Constitution is one of the most important documents that we have.

[1:34:24] And you know, in in light of the I saw a lot of no kings protests, I just want

[1:34:31] people to be reminded that the reason that we got rid of the king in England

[1:34:35] was because of a small tax and because of the banning of firearms. So if you

[1:34:41] really want no kings, I suggest that you respect and admire, you know, the second

[1:34:48] amendment as it was written to never be infringed. And I would also say it's

[1:34:53] very important to adopt resolutions to show the general assembly what the true

[1:34:58] fabric of Rhode Island is, which is, you know, the Gatsby was burned here and

[1:35:02] this this country was founded in this state. So to infringe on anybody's

[1:35:07] rights because you're afraid of getting shot means you should probably just, you

[1:35:10] know, not live in America because guns are one of the most founding things that

[1:35:15] we have.

[1:35:18] Thank you. Thank you. Did we get Mr. Parker back?

[1:35:28] DWP have permissions

[1:35:47] if you're having like connect. Oh. You should have permissions. Is he

[1:35:58] say if he's having connectivity issues, he can call in who? Gary, I'll prompt

[1:36:03] you to unmute and so just respond to that.

[1:36:08] It come up

[1:36:13] um lower. I don't Are you on an iPhone?

[1:36:20] Um,

[1:36:28] the calling number. Oh, I think it's nine or on the lower screen, you should

[1:36:34] see a mute microphone button. ask.

[1:36:41] That's ter.

[1:37:01] Put the phone number in the chat box, but may not get kicked out.

[1:37:08] I'm really still glad we allow the accessibility of this option even when

[1:37:12] it fails. So Gary, you're on an iPad. I can see you.

[1:37:28] So there should be a microphone icon in your meeting controls and it has a red

[1:37:32] line through it. Just tap it to unmute.

[1:37:38] Now try it.

[1:37:56] Okay. Now tap it one more time.

[1:38:07] Yes, it's still Can you just kidding? I just te You want a chat

[1:38:14] and I can read it? Okay, that that sounds like good. So, he's

[1:38:18] going to put his chat into the chat and we're going to move on to in-person

[1:38:22] um people. You can go ahead. Um Mr. Stoner,

[1:38:27] you do. Thank you so much for your patience, too, everybody.

[1:38:30] Garrett Stoner from the town of Richmond. Um, I appreciate councelor

[1:38:34] Madnik's comments. I too wish that this agenda item were not on the agenda. I

[1:38:39] don't think this is a town council appropriate agenda item. Uh, and this

[1:38:45] conversation uh reminds me of the divisiveness of this issue. But, um, you

[1:38:53] got me at the Rhode Island assault weapons ban 2025. I've worked in public

[1:38:59] schools for over 40 years and I can't count the number of children and

[1:39:05] adolescents who would not come to school for days after school shootings. I can't

[1:39:11] count the number of children that I've had to talk to and help with problems

[1:39:16] related to fears and anxieties. There's simply no reason for assault

[1:39:21] weapons unless we're in some kind of a war, in which case they'd be in the

[1:39:25] hands of soldiers. Period. I'm sick of the conversation.

[1:39:30] I'm sick of the arguments and there's no reason for these guns. I I can

[1:39:35] appreciate I don't know what the bill says to be honest with you. I don't know

[1:39:39] which one which ones belong. I appreciate the comment. I can't speak to

[1:39:43] that. But I'm I'm kind of sick and tired of people being killed by assault

[1:39:48] weapons in this country. And uh and this issue is too divisive. But at the same

[1:39:55] time, uh, we have to start somewhere and we're not doing anything. We're just

[1:40:00] we're not moving forward. We're we just continue to, uh, look at look at it and

[1:40:06] kind of with awe. You know, there was a speaking of no kings, a woman was

[1:40:12] walking around with a sign at the No Kings protest in Providence on Saturday

[1:40:17] and it said, "If you don't like abortion, look away like you and ignore

[1:40:22] it just like you ignore school shootings." And that's what we're doing.

[1:40:26] We ignore school shootings. They largely take place with assault weapons and

[1:40:32] there's nothing you can say that can justify them. So, if you approve this,

[1:40:38] take my name off the town Richmond uh town of Richmond residence because

[1:40:43] you're not representing me in doing so. Thank you. Thank you.

[1:40:49] Did we have anybody else in person or online?

[1:40:58] Was Mr. Parker? No, I'm not. Hey, when that happens, um

[1:41:02] is Mr. Parker's testimony like in the chat. He's going to he's going to try

[1:41:07] and call in. Okay. I feel bad cuz he I know he was the

[1:41:12] resident who asked us to put this on the agenda. Um and he mentioned last after

[1:41:16] last meeting that he may be away and we'll try to zoom us, but um we may have

[1:41:20] to take his written word and put it on the communication section of the next

[1:41:25] agenda because I don't want to tie up too much time.

[1:41:30] Should

[1:41:33] I Did we lose him again?

[1:41:39] Yeah, he said. All right, we'll go on to our next uh

[1:41:44] new item with my apologies. Thank you for being understanding and thank you

[1:41:48] everybody for your patience. Um all right, so on to Oh, I'm sorry. We have

[1:41:53] an action item on this council. Oh, we have the motion on the floor, right? And

[1:41:57] you seconded it. My apologies. So, any further council discussion?

[1:42:04] I guess I guess I do. We want to amend it to be more simple or do it's I don't

[1:42:09] want to spend a lot of time on this either. I think we have, you know, town

[1:42:12] things we should be dealing with, but I I think we amend it to be very simple. I

[1:42:18] I pulled up and I had looked at um a bunch of resolutions from other towns.

[1:42:21] Some of them are actually way more detailed than this. I don't think that

[1:42:25] they're useful. Um, but I think and I've and I've got the bill up and I've read

[1:42:30] the bill a couple times and there are things in it that I agree with. There

[1:42:33] are things in there I don't agree with. Um, there are things that people have

[1:42:36] said tonight that I agree with. There are things that people said that I don't

[1:42:38] agree with. Um, it's a very complex situation.

[1:42:43] I do hear what everyone is saying. I've got kids in school. Like, I get it. But

[1:42:48] the way that this bill is currently written and there's a and I will just

[1:42:52] read a a part of it. And again, I'm I am not um I'm not an attorney, but when I

[1:42:58] read it, um there is a part in here.

[1:43:03] Let me just find it. One second.

[1:43:08] So, it's it's essentially going to um prohibit a semi-automatic pistol that

[1:43:13] has a fixed magazine capacity exceeding 10 rounds.

[1:43:18] I've I've handled these pistols. I've shot these pistols. I know people that

[1:43:23] have them, my neighbors. I I don't see how you can enforce this.

[1:43:29] And and I and all the amendments that, as you stated, that some of the other um

[1:43:37] legislators had um submitted got turned down. They didn't even really have a

[1:43:42] discussion about the the merits or drawbacks of the amendments. So,

[1:43:47] I don't like the way that some of this is written in here. Um it doesn't mean

[1:43:52] that I'm for assault weapons or against assault weapons. So to Mark's point, um

[1:43:58] I would like to have a simple resolution that just states that the Richmond Town

[1:44:02] Council opposes these two um bills in the House and Senate as they

[1:44:09] are written. Meaning I want them to go back and keep

[1:44:13] working. Yeah. Do you want to put that in to a motion

[1:44:17] to amend the motion on the floor or would you like to withdraw your

[1:44:20] motion so we can make that? I can I can ask him to I'll make a

[1:44:25] motion to amend it. That's what I'm saying. All right. So, I'll make a

[1:44:28] motion to amend the

[1:44:33] motion to approve the resolution as is um to simplify what has been presented

[1:44:38] to us to state that the Richmond Town Council um does not support House Bill

[1:44:45] 5436 and Senate Bill 359 as written.

[1:44:53] I'll second it. Um, any council discussion on the amendment

[1:44:58] to the motion? I'm fine. Fine. Awesome. Because I'll

[1:45:04] say I I agree as well. I have kids in the district. I know what it's like to

[1:45:06] have watch your kids grow up in a in in that area where they they're

[1:45:13] having lockdowns all the time. We want to stop that. We want to have our

[1:45:16] schools be safe. But I agree that this bill is overreaching and it's not well

[1:45:20] defined. And that example you gave was perfect. Thank you for giving it because

[1:45:24] like I said, I don't know enough about guns to to know the specifics of which

[1:45:29] are and aren't. But as I'm learning, I'm um which I think we all should be open

[1:45:33] to learning. As I'm learning about it, I'm like, this is just what

[1:45:37] our neighbors have. This is just what average citizens have. And I just don't

[1:45:41] think that um it should be taken away. And I think that they should have more

[1:45:45] of a conversation up at the state house and not just not even consider the the

[1:45:50] resolutions this year. you know, um there wasn't much opposition to like

[1:45:54] stated reasons as to why they opposed those amendments and nobody stood up

[1:45:58] that I saw on the Senate floor or the um House floor and said anything. So, um I

[1:46:05] agree. So, anybody else? We'll go for our roll call vote. Councelor Dinsworm,

[1:46:10] yes. Manick, yes. Reynolds, yes. And Wilcox, yes. So, now we have our amended

[1:46:15] motion on the floor and we'll go to vote for that. Um how do you vote? Councelor

[1:46:19] Dinsworm, yes. And yes, Reynolds, yes. And Will Cox, yes.

[1:46:24] All right. So, we will go on to discussion

[1:46:29] consideration of a zone change for residential from residential zone two to

[1:46:35] public and governmental hub at four Richmond Townhouse Road and

[1:46:41] authorization for the clerk to advertise for public hearing. So, can I please

[1:46:44] have a motion to authorize the town clerk to advertise this for a public

[1:46:49] hearing? So moved. Second. Awesome. Um I believe

[1:46:54] we talked about this in the past. I'm just going to give a brief update. I

[1:46:57] think it was this council. Um where we want to change the property across the

[1:47:02] street from residential to governmental because we own it and we're doing work

[1:47:07] to it and there's some other reasons as I believe as well. Um let us know if you

[1:47:12] have questions and we'll bring it up at the public hearing.

[1:47:16] So we'll go for a roll call vote. If there's no further council discussion,

[1:47:19] councelor Jensen, yes. Madnik, yes. Reynolds, yes. And Will Cox, yes. All

[1:47:25] right. Request of councelor Madnick for discussion to create and install

[1:47:28] permanent signs at the Richmond Transfer Station recycling area. I would request

[1:47:33] um and make a motion that we move this to the July meeting. I would like to

[1:47:38] have this discussion while council Councilman Pomeano is here since he's

[1:47:44] been kind of leading this effort. Um, I will add that um, this came out of my

[1:47:49] own experience at the transfer station and I went and I saw a full hose reel,

[1:47:55] like the reel and the hose sitting on top of one of the recycling bins and I

[1:48:00] was like that that's going to get rejected and that's going to be I don't

[1:48:03] know $500 down and the numbers I think last I knew were $1,500 in the first

[1:48:09] quarter strap like debt out of $6,000 for a year and it's like we're

[1:48:14] squabbbling. pulling as a council over budget items that are way less than

[1:48:17] that. And it's like I want to I like to have this discussion

[1:48:22] with um with Jim here, but if you guys will humor me

[1:48:30] as a motion to move on new business L3 to the July

[1:48:37] um 15th meeting. Second. All right. Any council discussion?

[1:48:43] We'll go to vote. Councelor Dinsmore. Yes. Madnick. Yes. Reynolds. Yes. And

[1:48:46] Will Cox. Yes. All right. Next on the agenda, we have to form a administrator

[1:48:52] search committee as required by article 4 section 1C of the town charter with an

[1:48:56] appointment of the town council member to serve pursuant to the charter.

[1:49:00] So we should have a discussion I think on what we want to do as far as the

[1:49:05] search committee and then make some motions to put that into action.

[1:49:13] Yeah. you want to I I have a couple ideas I'll throw out. I was thinking we

[1:49:16] could um I wanted to actually postpone the appointment of a town council member

[1:49:22] to the next meeting just because again council promis not here tonight. Um and

[1:49:27] also just advertise to our next meeting and members of the public, people who

[1:49:32] are interested can apply. Use the form online to apply for any board or

[1:49:35] commission. just check the other line and

[1:49:38] uh it doesn't say other the blank line that you check the box next to and write

[1:49:42] it in. Um and we'll review those applicants at that time at the next

[1:49:48] meeting. Anybody have anything they want to add?

[1:49:52] Oh, I think that makes that makes sense. Put it out there so people who are

[1:49:55] interested can can apply and then we can look at them and make a decision at the

[1:50:01] next the July meeting.

[1:50:07] All right. Do we want to set any criteria tonight as far as how big we

[1:50:10] want this group to be, anything like that, or do we want to see what we get

[1:50:14] and go from there? We want to set any kind of expectations.

[1:50:20] I'd hate So, I' I'd hate to say it's going to be three or five and then get

[1:50:25] four or six good people, right? Want to have to exclude somebody. So, I'd rather

[1:50:31] let's leave it open. If we get 10, then we're going to have to say, "Okay, we

[1:50:35] got to we're going to pick five." So, I think that's going to have to be kind of

[1:50:40] the first decision we make depending upon how many applications,

[1:50:44] you know, um, you know, whether we're going to limit the number, um, depending

[1:50:49] upon the number of applications we get. Um, so, so I', like I said, I'd hate to

[1:50:55] say it's going to be four and then get five good applications. So, I think we

[1:51:00] can I think we can leave it open unless anyone thinks about I agree.

[1:51:07] Makes sense to me. My concern was that we do get 10 and then, you know, I have

[1:51:11] obviously wouldn't want a group that big. That's my opinion, but um I can see

[1:51:15] wanting to keep it open so we can be flexible at the next meeting, right? And

[1:51:18] I'd hate to say we're going to have five and then we only get four applications

[1:51:22] and Right. You know, you know, I but I agree. You don't want it too big. I

[1:51:27] wouldn't I couldn't see it being more than five just because of the

[1:51:32] number of people. But five's a good number. Yeah. You know, that's a goal,

[1:51:36] but I don't think we should set it as the Okay.

[1:51:40] You know, yeah, I think I think three is too

[1:51:44] small. Five is Yeah. is a good goal. You get some people with different

[1:51:50] backgrounds, different demographics. they have something to bring to the

[1:51:53] table and I think that's that's a reasonable size, but I'd like to see

[1:51:58] who's who's interested in this. Okay. Anything else anybody wants to add?

[1:52:05] All right. Um, we should do a motion to ask our town staff to advertise the

[1:52:11] position or the openings on the town administrator searchhiring committee.

[1:52:18] So moved. Thank you. include the deadline for

[1:52:24] yes whatever it is be very clear about what the deadline is for applications to

[1:52:29] be in the hands of whoever they need to be in the hands of July 9th

[1:52:35] I don't think I need to amend the motion you guys just know to do that the

[1:52:38] advertisement do you want to do the 8th to make sure it's in on time because you

[1:52:42] need it by 4 p.m. July 9th that's a typical agenda deadline so

[1:52:49] case there's in the last minute. I'm I'm okay with that. Someone missed deadline.

[1:52:52] What? Not so sad, I guess. All right. So, I did get a second on

[1:52:57] that, right? Council Mandic, you seconded it. No, I'm I made a motion to

[1:53:02] move it. Oh, okay. I'll second it. And we'll go

[1:53:05] for our roll call vote. Councelor Dinsmore, yes. Madnick, yes. Reynolds,

[1:53:09] yes. And yes. All right. uh request of Chris Fox, executive director of Wood

[1:53:16] Pocket Tuck Wild Watershed Association. Thank you for your patience, by the way.

[1:53:22] Thanks for having me. Um you should get a gold star for for getting that name

[1:53:27] right because not many people do. Your name? No, the name of the association.

[1:53:32] Oh, I I try to work with them sometimes. They gave me a hat. I know.

[1:53:38] Uh I'm the director of the Wood Pocket Tuck Waterhed Association. And I can

[1:53:41] only say it that fluently because I have to say it a thousand times a week. I

[1:53:44] appreciate being here. I'm here because uh the town of Richmond owns a culvert

[1:53:49] on Hillsdale Road that is a bit of a flooding nuisance. I know it's a

[1:53:53] nuisance for Gary at DPW when it over tops the road. The road has to be closed

[1:53:58] causing subsequent damage to the side of the road. Uh from our organizational

[1:54:02] standpoint, it is uh what's called perched covert pipe pipes which means

[1:54:07] it's a pipe system with water that flows out which prevents any wildlife that

[1:54:13] reside in the river from moving up or down from that location. Technically

[1:54:17] they could go down if they go through the pipes and fall out like a nice water

[1:54:20] slide but otherwise they're not getting back up the river again. So our interest

[1:54:23] in this project was to restore connectivity to the Beaver River at that

[1:54:28] location. Back in February of 2024, the previous council here authorized our

[1:54:34] organization to serve as the project manager to replace the Hillsdale Culver.

[1:54:39] Since then, we retained the engineering firm of Fuss and O'Neal to develop a

[1:54:43] design and a wetland permit application for the replacement of the Culver. To

[1:54:48] date, we've spent about $200,000 of our grant funding to develop this design.

[1:54:53] The design's been created in consultation with the council's

[1:54:56] designated town staff members and the design is now ready to be packaged into

[1:55:01] an application to alter a Rhode Island freshwater wetland. The design is a

[1:55:05] packet that I supplied to you folks. Um, as the property owner, only the town can

[1:55:11] sign and submit the application. This is one of the few places in the project

[1:55:14] where I can't represent you. Um, so I'm here tonight simply to um secure the

[1:55:20] council's approval of the submission of the wetlands permit application and to

[1:55:24] designate a staffer to sign the application on the town's behalf. I

[1:55:28] think in my request I had put Karen down as the person name but that was or

[1:55:33] really so it might be prudent to either not

[1:55:38] designate a specific person or designate maybe town administrator because we're

[1:55:43] expecting submission to happen sometime in the next 30 days. I'm not sure when

[1:55:47] Car's last day is but hopefully we can get in the door before she goes. I'm not

[1:55:51] exactly sure we'll be able to Okay. Um,

[1:55:58] so when we do a motion, we usually authorize you to sign. We can just skip

[1:56:00] that part and I can sign, right? That might be cleaner just because there's a

[1:56:05] lot of moving parts. All right. Um, all right. Do we have any motions to throw

[1:56:10] on the floor? Uh motion to authorize

[1:56:15] uh the submission of the application to RIM

[1:56:20] for the Hillsdale Road Culver Replacement Project

[1:56:24] be signed by the council president second. Right. Any further council

[1:56:29] discussion or questions on this? Yeah, just maybe this is out of bounds

[1:56:35] and you can uh correct me, but do we know the one the timeline and then is

[1:56:39] hill going to be shut down while this is? Yes. So, we have not secured

[1:56:44] construction funding yet. Anticipation is construction funding is based on a

[1:56:49] bidding competitive bidding process. It's probably going to be somewhere

[1:56:52] between 800,000 and a million. If I can raise a million dollars on behalf of the

[1:56:57] town of Richmond between now and July 1st of 26, we hope to start construction

[1:57:01] in July of 26. It's being carefully planned such that road closure would not

[1:57:07] occur during the school year so we wouldn't affect bus routs. Uh road

[1:57:11] closure would be for approximately four to eight weeks depending on weather and

[1:57:17] it would be posted on the road months in advance the project is coming. the road

[1:57:20] closure is happening and there will also be a provision for traffic to U-turn and

[1:57:24] turn around when met with that closure and obviously we'll be working with

[1:57:29] chief fire chiefs making sure everybody's aware of the closure and

[1:57:33] alternate routes for responding to emergencies

[1:57:37] and sometimes when there's closures it ends up on notify me which I love to

[1:57:41] plug when I can and tell people to go online and sign up for notify me it's

[1:57:45] super easy um any other questions

[1:57:50] All right. So, we'll go for our roll call vote. Councelor Dinsmore, yes.

[1:57:52] Madnick, yes. Reynolds, yes. And Will Cox, yes. Thank you again so much for

[1:57:56] your help and securing that for the town. Thank you.

[1:58:02] All right. So, we have communications, petitions, proclamations, and

[1:58:04] resolutions. We have a motion file. Well, does anybody have anything to pull

[1:58:07] first? I'm sorry. All right. Motion to file. Second. All

[1:58:12] right. Go for a vote. Councelor Dinsmore, yes. Madnik, yes. Reynolds,

[1:58:16] yes. And Will Cox, yes. All right. Now we're going on to

[1:58:20] executive session. My turn. Yeah. Motion to move into

[1:58:28] executive session pursuant to RAI general laws 42-46582

[1:58:33] regarding litigation 36 and 37 Woodro Bounder dispute and pursuant to general

[1:58:39] laws 42465 A5 regarding potential acquisition of real property. Second.

[1:58:46] All right. We go for a roll call vote. Councilmore, yes. Madnick, yes.

[1:58:50] Reynolds, yes. And Wilcox, yes. That was some nice timing on your end.

[1:58:55] That was good.

[1:59:13] You're good. Thank you. Um, can we please have a motion to exit executive

[1:59:18] session? Motion to exit executive session. Second. Motion in a second. Um,

[1:59:22] how do you vote? Councelor Dinsmore, yes. Madnik, yes. Reynolds, yes. And

[1:59:26] Will Cox, yes. Motion to Can I please have a motion to seal the minutes of our

[1:59:30] executive session? Motion to seal the minutes of executive session.

[1:59:35] Okay. Um, councelor Dmore, how do you vote? Madnik. Yes. Oh, no. Isn't here. I

[1:59:40] know who else made it. Reynolds. Yes. And Wilcox. Yes. Um, so we've

[1:59:46] closed, we've sealed, and we made two votes in executive session. The first

[1:59:51] was made by myself and I believe seconded by Councelor Reynolds. I didn't

[1:59:55] write down who seconded it. Y. Okay, good. um to the motion was to authorize

[2:00:01] the town administrator to engage Al Dioro to draft a legal description to

[2:00:04] effectuate the settlement of the Wood River I'm sorry Wood Road alleged

[2:00:10] encroachments that was unanimously approved by all council members. We also

[2:00:14] had a motion to approve the signing of the purchase and sales agreement by the

[2:00:18] trustees of the land trust and other documents to effectuate the land trans

[2:00:23] the land transfer. Um, we had councelor Dinsmore abstain, madnick approve, rs

[2:00:30] approve, and myself approve. Think we got through everything we

[2:00:34] needed to. I think so. We'll do a motion to adjurnn. So moved. Second. Council

[2:00:40] yes. Magnetic. Reynolds. Yes. And Wilcox. Yes. All right. Right.

June 17, 2025 Richmond Town Council Meeting

Transcript