[0:07] Good evening and welcome to
[0:10] Yarmouth Town Council meeting of Thursday, September 3rd, 2026.
[0:14] We have a short special meeting first,
[0:18] and that is to act on the warrants for the bond issue.
[0:22] And that will be followed by our regularly scheduled workshop meeting.
[0:26] And, at our workshop meetings, we don't take any votes.
[0:30] We schedule future agenda items.
[0:32] We hear reports, we,
[0:35] we schedule things for operations, meeting, etc.
[0:38] but,
[0:38] we will be doing a vote at the special meeting,
[0:40] and then we'll roll right into the workshop meeting.
[0:43] And, as I said, there'll be, there won't be any votes though, on that.
[0:49] We will have public comment during the special meeting.
[0:52] We will also have public comment during the workshop meeting.
[0:57] There will be, a session at the beginning for general topic of topics
[1:01] if it's not on the agenda,
[1:02] and then if it's on a agenda item, we ask you to save your public comments
[1:05] for them.
[1:06] I'm just gonna do a little check here.
[1:08] I see, some people online.
[1:10] I'm not sure it is Councilor Tang. Okay.
[1:12] I want to make sure we, I didn't want to, miss that.
[1:16] We had him here. Okay. So,
[1:19] we will,
[1:19] start with a roll call, then of the members,
[1:23] and I'll start online so we can make sure we can hear your voices.
[1:27] Heather, other, Councilor rabbit, are you here?
[1:30] Here. Okay.
[1:31] And Councilor Tang, I'm here.
[1:33] All right. Great. Councilor Monti here.
[1:35] Councilor Casey here, councilor Cooper here.
[1:38] And I am here. That's six of us.
[1:39] Councilor Wolf is not feeling well and will not be here tonight.
[1:43] Okay, so, this is special
[1:46] meeting number two, dash 2627.
[1:50] And, it is item 11
[1:55] to act upon a warrant for referendum to be held November 3rd, 2026,
[2:00] seeking appropriation of funds and authorization for bond issuance
[2:04] of $2,050,000 for Yarmouth High School turf
[2:08] field and track project voted on August 20th, 2026.
[2:13] Is there a motion?
[2:16] Yes. Councilor Casey,
[2:18] I just read the orange part.
[2:19] Right, just to just kick it, be it ordered that a warrant for a referendum
[2:24] to be held on November 3rd, 2026, as per a draft
[2:28] presented at this meeting, is hereby approved to be executed by the member,
[2:33] the members of the Town Council, a copy of said warrant
[2:37] draft to be set forth in full in the minutes of this meeting.
[2:43] I. Second motion has been made and seconded.
[2:45] So this is, a bit of a formality, given that we've we've taken a vote
[2:51] on putting this bond forward, but we have to actually,
[2:56] you know, authorize the warrants or whatever,
[2:58] but it's, when I'm signing the law, give us more information on that.
[3:03] Or is that pretty much it?
[3:04] It's pretty much it.
[3:06] The, the warrant basically calls the voters to
[3:10] to the polls for November 3rd to vote on the article.
[3:14] The article is rather long, and it says exactly what you think it says.
[3:17] Shall we vote $2,050,000 for,
[3:23] for the turf field improvements,
[3:25] as well as two projects involving
[3:28] school playgrounds?
[3:31] And then it, lays out a financial statement,
[3:35] which is just an estimate of what the, interest cost will be
[3:38] and how much our total outstanding debt is.
[3:42] And then from that we develop
[3:45] and publish, basically an identical looking, ballot to,
[3:51] to be provided to the voters at the polls or in advance by, absentee ballot.
[3:56] So the questions themselves have already been resolved and voted on.
[4:00] And it's really is you could have done it the other night when you voted, but,
[4:05] for whatever reason, that decided we'll come back and approve the warrants.
[4:09] Okay. Great.
[4:10] Any questions, from the council about, this
[4:13] this motion.
[4:19] Consultation? Yes.
[4:20] I see your hand up. Go ahead.
[4:21] I have a question.
[4:22] That.
[4:26] Can you tell me why the, the
[4:31] the the time was changed?
[4:34] From when we voted on it.
[4:36] It initially showed a payback of 11 years to the tune, about 2.6 million.
[4:42] And this current one reads 13 years to the tune of 2.7 plus 2.7 for,
[4:52] well, there
[4:52] are various iterations that were out, so I'm not sure what the draft was looking
[4:58] like at that particular time, but,
[5:00] both of both of them are really estimations
[5:04] provided to folks in to the council for anticipation of
[5:09] what the bond issue would likely look like and how long it would be,
[5:13] and what the anticipated interest rate might be.
[5:16] But it then reserves, as it must,
[5:20] the right to maneuver that around a bit based on certain circumstances.
[5:25] So both are adequate.
[5:27] Estimations.
[5:29] I don't recall why we went from 11 to 13, but my guess is because we were trying
[5:35] to find room for additional funding to come outside of the,
[5:41] the debt service program to pre fund a reserve in the future
[5:45] for future replacement, knowing that these have a limited lifespan.
[5:49] So we may have,
[5:50] looked at, rebalancing it a little bit in order to shave the peak a little bit
[5:55] in the early years and get more money reserved in a supplemental,
[6:00] school budget appropriation process that would occur over the following
[6:05] ten, 12 years.
[6:08] So this was the request from the school district that met
[6:11] the the the finance office from from the schools?
[6:15] No, no, again, I'm I'm not,
[6:18] I'm not going to able to recall for you all the draft process.
[6:23] But but but the one but the draft that we voted on
[6:28] showed 11 years to the tune of 2.6.
[6:31] And now today we're voting one.
[6:34] That's 2.74
[6:38] to, taking over a period of 13 years.
[6:41] So the one we voted on was 2.6, 11 years.
[6:44] And now tonight we're done.
[6:48] We voted five two.
[6:49] Tonight we're voting on a warrant
[6:53] that has different, this just has different parameters.
[6:57] That's that's what I'm asking.
[6:58] I didn't know that these changed.
[7:01] And I was wondering for that if that change came from.
[7:06] Yeah. No, that would have come from me.
[7:08] And trying to prepare for the the meetings in advance
[7:12] and listening to you and the others talking about how you wanted to
[7:17] try to figure out how if you had to fund this project through debt service,
[7:22] you wanted to prepare for the one that will come ten,
[7:25] 12 years from now and try to create some more room.
[7:28] So yes, it's a little bit more expensive to finance it over a longer time
[7:32] period, but more affordable.
[7:33] And that's all I was trying to do, balance off so that it wouldn't have
[7:36] a higher impact on your taxes
[7:39] in the five years I get that, but this is not our
[7:43] our job is to agree to set
[7:47] forth a want a bond, want to the voters.
[7:51] I thought this was something that's managed by the school committee
[7:54] and the school side of things. Right.
[7:56] They, supposedly telling us what
[8:01] we what they need to put forth to the voters,
[8:04] and we decide whether or not we want to put a forth to the voters or not.
[8:07] Right. That's that's our mechanism.
[8:10] It was not my understanding that we were the ones trying to save money.
[8:15] In fact, that's not our role at all.
[8:18] I, I have not yet seen anything from the school
[8:21] committee seeing that they're actually going to
[8:25] actually assume
[8:26] ownership, meaning pay for it all.
[8:30] I have not seen a resolution come across emails,
[8:33] and now all of a sudden we're changing the parameters that we're voting on
[8:39] and.
[8:42] That's not cool.
[8:45] Say the least.
[8:47] I just want to,
[8:50] that's where we go in order.
[8:52] Okay.
[8:52] First of all, I was not.
[8:55] Did you have any response other than that?
[8:57] Well, it's
[8:59] not exactly, but it is not and never has been
[9:02] the school's responsibility to manage the debt service or to issue it.
[9:06] Only the treasurer is is allowed to do that with approvals of the voters.
[9:11] And in this case, it is every case that I can recall.
[9:16] We provide an estimate knowing that debt
[9:19] service won't be issued for several months,
[9:22] sometimes up to a year or two later,
[9:24] and we can't know what the interest rate is going to be
[9:26] or what makes the most sense in terms of structuring it.
[9:29] So the language says, here's what we think it might be,
[9:32] and you have the authority, if this is approved, to work with the
[9:37] the council chair to figure out what's makes the most sense at that time,
[9:43] if the interest rates are different, if interest rates in the short term
[9:46] go high and long term go low, or vice versa, you want to rethink this thing.
[9:51] So, and I agree, you haven't seen anything from the schools.
[9:56] I know they're working on a proposal that would fund,
[10:00] the future or major portion at least of of a future project.
[10:05] And I know they plan to bring that forward, but they're not ready yet.
[10:09] That much has been shared with me,
[10:10] and that's basically all that's been shared with me so far.
[10:13] So the school department is not,
[10:17] is not responsible for this.
[10:19] That would have fallen to me basically trying to draft things
[10:23] mostly in response to comments and inquiries and advocacy
[10:28] from you and others who felt the same way, that you wanted to create more room
[10:32] for the schools to be able to save money without raising taxes.
[10:36] Further, for the the next iteration.
[10:41] So, okay, you're not locking yourself
[10:43] into this, I well, yeah, I understand it's just
[10:47] the more we lengthen out, the more expenses this becomes.
[10:52] I understand that we don't have that idea of the interest rates,
[10:55] so maybe if the interest rate drops, I doubt it.
[10:58] But maybe if the interest drops over the next few months,
[11:01] then then maybe extending it out,
[11:04] for an additional 11 to now, 13 years,
[11:07] maybe it won't be, it'll be less than 2.74.
[11:15] That's fine.
[11:16] I, I will speak to colleagues on the school committee side and
[11:23] have them figure things out.
[11:24] I just thought it was that the terms changed since we voted on it
[11:30] a few weeks ago. Thank you.
[11:33] Council?
[11:34] Yeah, I have a couple questions.
[11:35] Is there any other way?
[11:37] I'm interested in the statement in here,
[11:39] about the recommendation that we recommend approval of the article.
[11:43] Can an article get get submitted through
[11:46] without us recommending approval?
[11:48] It's an odd statement, I think, like, is there any other way for it to happen?
[11:53] So, the, the law requires that the town council
[11:58] and the school committee both include their recommendations.
[12:02] The council's recommendation is in the resolution that you adopted.
[12:07] It's subject to council recommendation.
[12:10] You move this forward for approval.
[12:12] The school committee had to vote separately because they're not a party
[12:15] to calling the warrant and put on the record, which we included.
[12:19] The school committee recommends approval.
[12:21] If you're asking, do you have to
[12:25] recommend approval in order for this to happen?
[12:28] No. Intuitively, you would say, well, you you're bringing it to the voters.
[12:32] But you could and, say the town
[12:36] council voted 5 to 2 to recommend approval,
[12:41] but you can't take out a recommendation statement altogether.
[12:43] I mean, I wouldn't be there if we didn't recognize you.
[12:46] Council recommendation is already in the vote, right.
[12:49] And the school committee recommendation, whatever it is.
[12:52] Right.
[12:53] Is required by law because the council speaks as one voice
[12:56] I'm not inclined to advocate for, like, posting the vote.
[12:59] I actually am inclined to just take out a recommendation statement altogether.
[13:03] But I think what I'm hearing is you can't do that.
[13:05] I don't know if the council's recommendation
[13:07] needs to be separately itemized.
[13:09] It always has been.
[13:11] But I do know the school committee has to be
[13:14] because they're not in the motion itself.
[13:16] Can we can we fully understand that, or is this already sort of baked in?
[13:20] This is a language moving on that we have an opportunity to to do that.
[13:23] Well, it's
[13:25] it's baked into to in two ways.
[13:28] One, you're just about out of time, right.
[13:30] If we're going to order ballots
[13:34] again, we need to do it tomorrow morning.
[13:37] I think and we have to do it and pay for another whole set.
[13:42] I gotcha.
[13:42] The my next question is related that I can understand that
[13:47] the thing I'm interested in is a line that talks
[13:49] about the annual cost.
[13:53] You mean financial statements?
[13:55] Yeah, right.
[13:56] The financial year kind of okay, matures in 13 years.
[13:58] It's 2.7.
[14:00] So it's roughly
[14:03] $250,000 a year for a turf, right.
[14:07] If it's going to be gone in 13 years,
[14:10] well, 13 is more than
[14:12] you would want given right and normal expected life.
[14:15] But we've drawn I was trying to stretch it.
[14:17] No I gotcha I'm wondering if there's an opportunity to add another line
[14:20] here to point two that just says estimated annual cost,
[14:26] because it's hard to really understand the numbers.
[14:28] Right.
[14:28] As a voter, when I've been in there previously, I kind of looking at it,
[14:31] see what's the numbers at the end of the day.
[14:33] And like, what is what does this mean
[14:34] practically on an annual basis for something that doesn't appreciate?
[14:38] And I have to buy another 1 in 12 years.
[14:40] It's kind of like a timeshare.
[14:41] When I think about turf, I think about timeshares like I want the problem solved.
[14:45] But I also wonder if this is
[14:47] if this is the right way to get the best judgment
[14:49] from our voters in the absence of a kind of annual breakdown.
[14:52] Took my ask is another line here that's not just total debt service,
[14:56] but anticipated annual sort of town debt.
[15:00] Does that make sense?
[15:01] I'm trying to get a, I don't know if can I said I'm done.
[15:04] That's kind of what I'm just a yes, but I want to see if the manager
[15:09] has a response to that or I have a response to, you know, but yeah,
[15:13] you're you're talking specifically about in the financial statement,
[15:17] which just a note, an informational note that goes, yeah.
[15:21] And you're talking about under part two where it says maturities 13 years
[15:26] and principal is $2,050,000.
[15:29] And estimating.
[15:31] So you basically are asking
[15:33] that's specific to this bond issue not the entirety of.
[15:37] All right.
[15:37] Because we're on this is the one that's in front of us okay I just want to clarify.
[15:41] That's what you're asking.
[15:42] So you basically want me to try to divide by 13
[15:46] when I when I think about this as a voter and someone who lives in town,
[15:49] who loves sports, coaches, teams, I want the best field ever.
[15:51] I look at this and I go,
[15:53] okay, a quarter of a million bucks, that's $20,000 a month.
[15:55] That's $5,000 a week.
[15:58] Do we want to do that?
[16:00] When I think of it that way, I go, yeah,
[16:01] I might when I look at the whole number, I'm like, Jesus, no.
[16:04] So I'm trying to give more information to the voter
[16:06] because they're not going to know
[16:07] anything about this until they get into the booth.
[16:10] That's what I'm interested in, because I
[16:12] that's what I'm interested in for new playgrounds and all that.
[16:16] I, I don't know
[16:19] how to answer that question other than to say this isn't the only way
[16:24] that you can inform voters, and we are running out of time.
[16:27] But we certainly could put together a fact sheet
[16:30] for other people and say, here's what all the debts are,
[16:33] here's what we as estimate, and we can only estimate
[16:37] what we're going to issue and how we're going to structure
[16:39] and what the interest rates will be.
[16:41] And this is what that will be on an annual basis.
[16:44] Those were provided to you in those, graphs that I provided with all the know.
[16:48] I feel like I know it. Does this go on the ballot?
[16:51] Maybe is what I'm not understanding.
[16:52] It will be attached to the ballot, yes or no.
[16:54] That's where I'm really interested in just having a little bit more
[16:57] of a practical understanding besides just a big number.
[17:05] I don't know how to answer your question.
[17:08] Education. I'm sorry.
[17:09] I want to speak to that, if that's okay.
[17:11] I hear what you're saying,
[17:12] and I understand you want to have a more practical.
[17:15] I'm not sure that knowing the cost for the town
[17:18] each year is.
[17:21] I think we have to be very careful
[17:23] to write the warrant and not to try to sway the vote.
[17:27] And but but yet to inform voters as much as possible.
[17:30] So I hear you saying you want to inform voters.
[17:32] There's a lot of things we could put there.
[17:35] We could put the, the, the
[17:38] estimated mill rate increase.
[17:40] We could put it that would result from this one thing.
[17:43] We could put an estimated,
[17:48] you know,
[17:48] amount, like I said, two weeks ago, you know, $56
[17:52] for the average household in Yarmouth, we could put a variety of things,
[17:56] all of which might sway people one way or the other.
[17:59] But I don't think that's our job.
[18:01] So I just want to be careful that anything we're doing isn't trying to sway it,
[18:05] but rather just giving information that is typical and needed for bonds.
[18:09] We've done a lot of bonds and other towns do bonds all the time.
[18:12] I don't know if that's what is typically there in the financial statement
[18:16] or the costs area.
[18:17] Whatever the section called.
[18:20] So anyway, makes sense.
[18:22] I don't want to I don't want to sway trying to sway people with the wording.
[18:24] I understand what you're asking.
[18:26] I unfortunately, I'm not confident
[18:28] in my verbatim understanding of what we can come back.
[18:32] I know these these are the things that the law says.
[18:34] You need to put that in there.
[18:36] What your total outstanding debt is going to be.
[18:39] What the interest trust is going to be estimated, and the term you anticipate,
[18:47] and I and I
[18:48] that's, I think I have the same reservations that.
[18:51] Yeah, in addition to the practical one of three printing things,
[18:54] that if I can put that in
[18:57] and make it sound better or worse, depending on what my motive is,
[19:01] then can I also put in why we think it's a good idea?
[19:05] Right.
[19:05] Why the kids needed that as a balance.
[19:07] Yeah. So.
[19:08] So that's why I'm struggling to figure out how to answer your question.
[19:12] Because I don't think there's anything that stops us from providing
[19:16] additional voter information and offering
[19:20] more detail or analysis
[19:23] or straight out advocacy, one way or the other are both ways,
[19:26] if you like, outside of the ballot box, when I think, you know,
[19:30] it's like when you go to the ballot box, you have a choice of candidates
[19:34] and you don't have campaign information in there.
[19:37] So this is just
[19:38] this is the bare minimum legally required stuff that goes into this.
[19:42] I haven't done this for years, so I'm just getting educated as well.
[19:44] Correct.
[19:45] This is pretty much and provided to us by the bond Council.
[19:50] Not not the not the financial statement.
[19:52] He gave me the form. But yeah, okay.
[19:54] We had to fill in the numbers.
[19:57] Any questions?
[20:00] Anyone else?
[20:02] Okay. So
[20:05] we've had quite a bit of discussion.
[20:07] I haven't heard any amendments suggested, however.
[20:10] So are we.
[20:12] Actually, we do need to open this for public comment.
[20:14] First off, my mistake.
[20:16] Sorry about that.
[20:16] So we'll now open a public comment period.
[20:19] If you would like to speak to this item, and your online, please raise your hand
[20:23] if you are here in the audience,
[20:25] you must speak to a come to the podium, introduce yourself where you live.
[20:28] Let us know what your thoughts are.
[20:32] Not seeing any takers?
[20:34] We will.
[20:34] We'll close the public comment period.
[20:37] Bring it back to the council.
[20:38] So now I'll, kind of where I was going before.
[20:40] Are we ready for a vote on this?
[20:43] Mike, do you have your hand up?
[20:45] Yes, I have another question.
[20:47] Yeah.
[20:47] So how, how can we make amendments if these things are already
[20:51] to the printers?
[20:52] Well, it there'd be complications.
[20:54] But you.
[20:55] I mean, you're you have a right to make an amendment.
[20:58] And, you know, we'll just have to figure out the logistics if it if it passes.
[21:09] Okay.
[21:13] So shall we move the question?
[21:17] All right.
[21:17] I'm going to, councilor, we'll start on line.
[21:20] Councilor rabbit.
[21:21] Yes, councilor Tang.
[21:24] No. Councilor Monti.
[21:27] Yes, councilor.
[21:28] Casey. Yes.
[21:30] Yes, and I am.
[21:31] Yes. Also, motion passes.
[21:34] And that is the conclusion of our special meeting.
[1:17:21] And we'll move right into the workshop.
[1:17:27] So the first item on the workshop is announcements and information exchange.
[1:17:32] This is not
[1:17:33] committee liaison reports.
[1:17:34] This is just if there's any like there's a planned festival showing up
[1:17:38] in a few weeks or something, which there isn't, anything from anyone.
[1:17:43] General information.
[1:17:44] Okay.
[1:17:47] We will then we'll now move to
[1:17:49] a general public comment period.
[1:17:52] This is if you want to speak to
[1:17:53] the council about anything that is not on tonight's agenda.
[1:17:58] And just to remind everyone of our, rules
[1:18:00] around public comment, we first of all, we strongly encourage it.
[1:18:05] It helps us.
[1:18:06] We want to hear it.
[1:18:07] It's, And but we expect
[1:18:11] people to, come to the podium or identify on line.
[1:18:15] Let us know who you are. We live.
[1:18:18] Address your comments to us, not to the audience.
[1:18:21] And we are not going to, get in a question
[1:18:25] and answer period, because no one councilor speaks for the council.
[1:18:29] We will take questions, consider, and we may get back to you
[1:18:33] if it's something like, when's the next time
[1:18:34] you're meeting or something we can answer,
[1:18:36] but we're not going to get into, who's opinion on what?
[1:18:40] That's not that's not what the public comment period is for.
[1:18:42] It's for your public comment.
[1:18:44] And, I think that's pretty much it.
[1:18:47] We don't have a time limit, but we would ask you to be respectful
[1:18:49] of everyone's time in the room and, try to avoid repetition, etc..
[1:18:53] Okay.
[1:18:54] So with that, we'll open it for anything that's not on the agenda.
[1:19:00] Looks like we have someone.
[1:19:02] Oh, unstable.
[1:19:05] Richards tower, 136 Portland Street.
[1:19:10] In, August of 2019,
[1:19:16] the town council, approved a c,
[1:19:20] street scape plan.
[1:19:23] Phase one has been completed, up by,
[1:19:29] East, East Elm and Main Street.
[1:19:33] Phase two is not completed.
[1:19:36] Phase three. And for our
[1:19:40] not even really mentioned,
[1:19:44] during the summer, I many times I would be walking up
[1:19:49] and down Main Street, for the clam Festival.
[1:19:54] And I was reminded and looking down at the state of the sidewalks,
[1:19:59] they are a problem.
[1:20:01] And, it's certainly not welcoming or,
[1:20:05] an esthetic to visitors.
[1:20:07] Coming into town because, the,
[1:20:11] seascape streetscape, plan noticed that
[1:20:16] a major objective of the study was to unify
[1:20:20] Yarmouth's Main Street with a consistent treatment of the street,
[1:20:24] sidewalks, lighting and pedestrian amenities.
[1:20:28] There has not been a comprehensive evaluation of the streetscape
[1:20:32] since 1998, and this is reporting in 2019.
[1:20:37] And the current condition of the sidewalks speaks to the need for improvements.
[1:20:42] There are several areas along Main Street where expanded
[1:20:45] pavement area on the sidewalk would be conductive,
[1:20:49] conducive to enhanced
[1:20:52] activity gathering and outdoor dining.
[1:20:55] Much of the concrete has cracked.
[1:20:58] It is cracked from, the route one bridge
[1:21:02] up to or down to depending, Portland Street,
[1:21:07] on both sides of the street, by the NYU campus.
[1:21:11] So, the, concrete
[1:21:14] is, been cracked and settled over the years
[1:21:17] creating tripping hazards and a generally unkempt appearance.
[1:21:22] I urge the town council
[1:21:25] and the town manager to work on this
[1:21:29] because the the nine.
[1:21:32] Well, the seven year delay of the completion of that streetscape
[1:21:36] plan, I think has implications for an item that's going to be discussed later.
[1:21:43] Thank you.
[1:21:44] Thank you, Mr. Styler. Good to see you, Richard.
[1:21:48] Anyone else?
[1:21:50] Come to the podium?
[1:21:52] You just pass it down for.
[1:21:55] Hi, I'm Diane Nichols, 44 Bowmore Lane.
[1:21:58] I was just wondering if the town is going to form a committee to study
[1:22:02] the problem with, motorized vehicles that are going through the town
[1:22:06] and perhaps also, form some kind of subgroup
[1:22:11] that can educate kids at the schools as well as their parents,
[1:22:15] because I think it's a real problem in the community,
[1:22:18] and somebody's going to get hurt, whether it be a kid on the scooter
[1:22:22] or whatever, or somebody walking or running or whatever.
[1:22:25] So I hope the town will look into that,
[1:22:28] as soon as possible, because I think it's a big problem.
[1:22:31] Thank you for your comments.
[1:22:37] Anyone else?
[1:22:41] Okay, we'll
[1:22:42] close the public comment period and move on to item number one,
[1:22:46] which is to hear the reports of the council chair,
[1:22:49] committees, delegates, liaisons and the town manager.
[1:22:52] I checked here, I don't know, consulting or Counselor Abbott,
[1:22:56] if you've had any committees, any any liaison reports.
[1:23:02] All right.
[1:23:03] Okay. Nothing.
[1:23:04] And, here, I think the only only one is counselor.
[1:23:07] Yes. Just briefly, I attended the,
[1:23:10] shellfish.
[1:23:14] I've forgotten the name conservation.
[1:23:16] Conservation. Commission.
[1:23:19] Two points.
[1:23:23] Two points were raised by members of the public.
[1:23:25] A digger, longtime digger, clams.
[1:23:29] That I think,
[1:23:32] should be reported so that some action be taken.
[1:23:36] One is the, lack of coordination and, effort
[1:23:42] to, enforce rules against poaching.
[1:23:47] We are now finding ourselves,
[1:23:51] as a result of surveys that the town undertook.
[1:23:57] We now find that we
[1:23:58] have, a fair amount of, clams out there.
[1:24:02] And so it's bringing in, people without licenses to dig
[1:24:07] and,
[1:24:10] the harbormaster was able to, catch
[1:24:13] one group, doing this and issued a summons,
[1:24:18] but generally, even if, someone calls a dispatcher,
[1:24:22] it does not go to the police or to Will owns the harbormaster.
[1:24:28] So it just, isn't being enforced.
[1:24:31] And that is money out of the pockets of the people
[1:24:34] who are licensed, who depend on,
[1:24:37] the abundance of of these, shellfish.
[1:24:40] The second issue is, that there's,
[1:24:45] continuing problem with water quality,
[1:24:49] in the areas, where these beds are found and elsewhere,
[1:24:54] probably from,
[1:24:57] defective septic systems, and other sources.
[1:25:02] So, I also bring that to the attention
[1:25:06] of the council so that we can keep an eye on that
[1:25:11] and make sure whoever should be monitoring that is doing it.
[1:25:15] Thank you.
[1:25:17] Thank you, Councilor Cooper.
[1:25:18] Anything from the West Wing?
[1:25:21] Nothing. Okay.
[1:25:22] That's the end of item number one, then.
[1:25:26] Item number two,
[1:25:28] to receive report and recommendation of the bike ped committee
[1:25:31] on a draft active transportation plan to schedule action thereon.
[1:25:37] Would you like to introduce this?
[1:25:38] I'm sure we have someone from the staff to speak as Juliana is here.
[1:25:43] I'll.
[1:25:45] I'll let them do their own introductions. Heather.
[1:25:47] Yes? Good evening. Hi.
[1:25:48] Julie de, system planner and liaison to the fabulous by compared committee.
[1:25:53] I'm not actually going to do the whole presentation because we have hard working,
[1:25:57] members of the community who have, helped to lead this project.
[1:26:01] Colin Durant, our chair, and Mike Tremblay as well.
[1:26:04] So they're actually going to give the presentation.
[1:26:07] So, Colin, I'd like to invite you up.
[1:26:13] Oh, brilliant.
[1:26:14] All right.
[1:26:15] So good to see you again.
[1:26:18] I'm going to, I'm Colin Durant. I live on Tenney.
[1:26:21] Lucky enough to be chair of the bike ped committee with a fabulous group,
[1:26:25] of residents that I think is really representative.
[1:26:30] Both sort of young parents, like myself.
[1:26:34] Well, I'm not so young anymore.
[1:26:35] I turn 50 younger parents than myself.
[1:26:38] Middle aged people like me, and then some older residents,
[1:26:43] that walk and there's a real, mix of walking and biking.
[1:26:46] So we wanted to talk.
[1:26:48] We're really excited about, the active transportation plan,
[1:26:52] that was developed and that we've worked on over the past year or so.
[1:26:56] So next slide, these are
[1:27:00] this is just a quick overview of what, myself and Mike Tremblay,
[1:27:04] who is also, on the committee, and we're lucky enough to have him
[1:27:09] his traffic engineer expertise, which always helps.
[1:27:14] This is just some of the main points we're going to touch on.
[1:27:17] What, you know, why even do this?
[1:27:19] How does it relate to the larger plans that have been developed?
[1:27:22] What was the process?
[1:27:23] What is the plan include?
[1:27:25] The key principles, how it's sort of
[1:27:29] set up on and off road, some supportive strategies.
[1:27:33] And then, of course, what's next?
[1:27:34] Because we're all excited about it now and want to want to get some things done.
[1:27:38] So next slide
[1:27:40] next slide.
[1:27:41] We're going to go I'm going to start with some background.
[1:27:43] That's my job. Mike gets into the details.
[1:27:45] So I gave a quick introduction of the bike ped committee when I was here
[1:27:49] a couple weeks ago about the Casco Bay trail.
[1:27:51] But, we worked a couple of years ago to rework our mission, and our vision.
[1:27:56] And this is our mission to create a safe, connected, active mobility networks
[1:28:00] throughout Yarmouth that support a healthy, eco friendly lifestyle.
[1:28:04] I also mentioned, I know our committee also thinks
[1:28:08] about that for all ages and abilities across town.
[1:28:11] That's a really important thing.
[1:28:12] That's always top of people's mind.
[1:28:14] Our roles include education and outreach, including on things like e-bikes
[1:28:19] and e motos, planning for pedestrian and bicycle friendly
[1:28:23] communities, seeking funding and implementation improvements.
[1:28:27] We were established back in 2020.
[1:28:28] And one thing I just want to recognize
[1:28:31] that I think a lot about is the amazing work that the people
[1:28:34] before our committee that that that were previously on the committee,
[1:28:39] that we're working, in town, like Dan who's here,
[1:28:42] that I mean, we are really beneficiaries of their hard work and vision.
[1:28:47] And I think I sort of think about, okay, how can we maintain that?
[1:28:50] And then how can we build on that for like my children and grandchildren.
[1:28:54] So, next, next slide.
[1:28:58] And I also just say, well, we're going to the next slide.
[1:29:01] We're also really lucky here in town to have such supportive,
[1:29:06] town staff that understand the importance of safe streets and implementation.
[1:29:11] Julian Aaron DPW, the the engineer, they're all really great partners for us.
[1:29:17] And I think we're really sort of like outstandingly lucky to have them.
[1:29:21] Because while we can sort of advise, they're the ones that have
[1:29:26] to figure out how to implement it and they're all really committed to it.
[1:29:29] Every year the committee sets, we try to set priorities to keep us organized.
[1:29:33] So we're not just sort of as you would imagine, we get a lot of,
[1:29:37] complaints about speeding, dangerous driving and stuff.
[1:29:39] We want to try to really focus our energy as a committee.
[1:29:42] So our priorities, this year, where to develop this active transportation plan.
[1:29:47] Parallel to that,
[1:29:50] work with the school department to create a safe routes to school plan.
[1:29:54] Another priority, which I'm sure a lot of people are familiar with our
[1:29:56] our traffic calming projects, again,
[1:29:58] to respond to concerns about dangerous driving and speeding.
[1:30:02] And creating as safe as possible spaces for people,
[1:30:07] advising and recommending on, infrastructure funding and projects.
[1:30:12] So if there's a if project before the planning board that that might
[1:30:15] relate to bike or ped infrastructure, we advise on that outreach and engagement.
[1:30:21] I alluded to this earlier.
[1:30:22] We've been working a lot this year.
[1:30:23] Alex, on our committee and others on in particular, micromobility e-bikes
[1:30:28] and e motos,
[1:30:28] and really working
[1:30:30] with the Police Services Advisory Committee to put out some great materials.
[1:30:33] About that so we can educate parents, and youth
[1:30:37] about youth, about the safe use and then also,
[1:30:40] working on our trail,
[1:30:43] in sidewalk network keeping that maintained.
[1:30:46] All right, next slide.
[1:30:48] I'm trying to be quick.
[1:30:49] So what is active transportation?
[1:30:51] It's like one of those wonky words, right?
[1:30:53] Like not a normal person uses
[1:30:55] I do because I'm obsessed with bikes, biking and walking.
[1:30:58] But basically it's that use of human
[1:31:01] powered physical activity like walking but biking, rolling.
[1:31:05] It's like all the great things that people like to do around here, right?
[1:31:08] Walk if they're not in a car.
[1:31:10] I think it's also important to recognize that this includes
[1:31:14] people in mobility devices, assisted mobility devices, or wheelchairs.
[1:31:18] We have to think about, accessibility for them, just like we have to think about
[1:31:23] safety for, for, you know, the kids who are using or
[1:31:26] an older resident who's using the sidewalk.
[1:31:29] Next slide.
[1:31:32] So why now?
[1:31:34] I mean, it's been a long time since the last one. That's why.
[1:31:36] And so, the, the landscape has changed how people think about streets
[1:31:42] have changed.
[1:31:43] Growth in the town has changed.
[1:31:45] The look of our town has changed just in terms of where people live.
[1:31:49] And so, and most importantly, there's been a lot of change
[1:31:54] in standards, how traffic planners and engineers think about our roads.
[1:31:58] And so let's take advantage of that with our new new plan.
[1:32:02] Like it's been over ten years since our last plan.
[1:32:06] Next slide.
[1:32:08] So what was the planning process?
[1:32:10] We released an RFP in July.
[1:32:13] We were really lucky to get a broad range of responses
[1:32:16] from really qualified consultants, which is I think speaks to Yarmouth's,
[1:32:21] how much Yarmouth is seen as kind of a leader in this.
[1:32:24] We're very lucky in that respect.
[1:32:25] Tool design Group was selected.
[1:32:27] They're an amazing firm that works across the nation on projects like this.
[1:32:32] So I was excited about that because we can tap into their nationwide expertise, but
[1:32:36] they also have experience here in Maine, which is Maine can be unique in some ways.
[1:32:40] So it's good to have that experience.
[1:32:42] Kicked it off.
[1:32:43] In November, we did an online survey.
[1:32:46] We also targeted a few key audiences,
[1:32:49] senior focus groups, high schoolers.
[1:32:52] And then we had a public comment period where we got some great comments.
[1:32:56] So next slide.
[1:32:58] So the the plan components, next slide.
[1:33:04] So the one thing I just want to mention this is built on past work.
[1:33:07] It's all connected to the comp plan, the climate Action plan,
[1:33:11] the Vision Zero plan, all of which have been adopted.
[1:33:14] The the creation of an active transportation plan is really a next step.
[1:33:19] It's included in some of those plans.
[1:33:20] And so it's all part of these shared themes of like public health,
[1:33:24] quality of life across town that we all care
[1:33:27] about, neighborhood connections, building connections with each other,
[1:33:31] efficient land use and transportation, and of course, protecting our environment.
[1:33:35] Next slide.
[1:33:37] So the plan starts with a vision statement.
[1:33:40] It's long. I'm not going to read the whole thing.
[1:33:42] You can read it in the document.
[1:33:44] But it's really as you'll see, it's focused
[1:33:46] on creating a safe and welcoming environment for everyone.
[1:33:50] Like I said, that all ages and abilities network,
[1:33:53] network was another key goal here.
[1:33:56] So building more connected networks, I'm sure if you walk around town on a site
[1:34:01] like a sidewalk drops or like a path, and so trying to make it easier
[1:34:05] to get around without a car by connecting those networks, that's also safer.
[1:34:10] Let's, key part of
[1:34:11] this is also calm our streets to sort of, like, slow everybody down.
[1:34:16] We also sort of developed some guiding principles
[1:34:19] that, again, underpin the whole plan.
[1:34:21] Safety, of course, is the first one.
[1:34:23] And prioritize the safety of all users on the road.
[1:34:28] So that's anybody who's traveling often.
[1:34:30] I'll note that often street improvements, will improve safety for everyone
[1:34:35] traveling on the road, including drivers, because it helps slow people down,
[1:34:39] connected network.
[1:34:40] So we want this cohesive, intuitive system.
[1:34:43] We want to close gaps that can be some of the most dangerous.
[1:34:46] I think one of the most exciting projects that has happened in recent memory
[1:34:50] is the crosswalk at the ice cream store, where maples used to be, right?
[1:34:54] That that's a great example of a gap.
[1:34:56] If you before that was in there,
[1:34:58] there was literally like you would put your sort of life in danger
[1:35:01] trying to scramble across from the Beth Condon pathway to get coffee
[1:35:06] or your sweet at maples while VIP's walking to working on your car.
[1:35:11] I can talk about that from my experience, but there was no
[1:35:14] there was no like walk signal or anything.
[1:35:16] And now we have that.
[1:35:17] And that's really so that goes to how this also supports
[1:35:21] economic development in our local businesses.
[1:35:23] And then,
[1:35:24] what we were really focused on is we want this to be practical and implementable.
[1:35:28] Right. So this is a vision.
[1:35:30] We can't do it all at once.
[1:35:31] But we wanted to provide the council, our planners and others
[1:35:36] the tools to make decisions about, okay, what investment makes sense.
[1:35:39] Maybe in the near future what we can do in the, in long term future.
[1:35:44] And with that, we've got sort of a flexible toolkit of designs.
[1:35:48] And the goal is just to like, maintain what we have because
[1:35:52] as was mentioned earlier in the comments, that that's really important.
[1:35:56] We're lucky to have this network.
[1:35:58] Some of it is old and needs to be rebuilt and maintained.
[1:36:02] But we want to continue that progress.
[1:36:04] Like I said, we are beneficiaries.
[1:36:06] I think we I think a lot about like I said,
[1:36:08] we're beneficiaries of the great vision of people before us.
[1:36:12] Right. The sidewalk.
[1:36:13] I, I took a walk today
[1:36:15] and it was all on sidewalks, which we're very lucky to have that.
[1:36:19] And I think it part of our part of our job is to continue that.
[1:36:23] So we continue especially, you know, big project
[1:36:26] that youth have talked to us about is extending the sidewalk down North Road.
[1:36:30] That's a great example of a necessary safety improvement
[1:36:33] based on growth in the town where people now live.
[1:36:36] They're looking for a safe route to get to school.
[1:36:38] So that's a great example of how we extend that.
[1:36:40] But we have to figure out that balance
[1:36:42] of maintaining our system and growing our system, too.
[1:36:45] So like I said, I as you can tell, I like to talk a lot about high level stuff.
[1:36:50] I'm going to pass it over to Mike,
[1:36:52] who's the traffic engineer and can talk about, like, the details,
[1:36:55] how the plan is structured and some of the details around implementation.
[1:36:59] So thank you.
[1:37:01] Thanks, Tom. Yep.
[1:37:03] So Colin, give me a good introduction.
[1:37:05] I'm I'll repeat a little bit about myself.
[1:37:07] Mike Tremblay I am I've been on the bike and back to me since 2021.
[1:37:11] I think, I took a, I had to fill some pretty large shoes and, Sue Ellen Boyd.
[1:37:16] Well, so I'm doing my best to live up to her, her reputation.
[1:37:21] When I moved to Yarmouth in 2019,
[1:37:23] you know, there's a lot of great places to live in Maine.
[1:37:25] And we were, you know, driving around window shopping
[1:37:27] for, you know, what towns we want to live in.
[1:37:29] And, there are a lot of places I kind of vetoed right off the bat.
[1:37:32] And then when we visited Yarmouth, I was instantly attracted to it.
[1:37:35] And a big reason was the fact that you could see people walking around.
[1:37:39] You can see kids riding their bikes to school.
[1:37:41] The one of the slides earlier showed the road school, you know,
[1:37:43] first and first graders and kindergartners riding their bikes to school.
[1:37:46] And that's that's just fantastic.
[1:37:47] And there's not a lot of places in Maine.
[1:37:49] That have that.
[1:37:50] And so I think this is this is personal to me, this, that, this type of work.
[1:37:53] And I'm honored to be able to work on it in the town I live in and and the town
[1:37:57] I love.
[1:37:58] And, I think a big part of it is, independence for for everybody
[1:38:03] young and old and everywhere in between, you know, all ages and abilities,
[1:38:07] as Colin said. So a bit more about myself.
[1:38:10] I've been working on, pedestrian and bicycle and traffic safety
[1:38:13] my whole career, since I graduated from northeastern in 2011.
[1:38:17] Right now, I'm the, planning director at Greater Portland Metro.
[1:38:19] So I'm. I'm in the community working on on transit stuff.
[1:38:22] But, you know, you can't have transit without walking
[1:38:24] and biking network to get to the bus stops.
[1:38:26] And so I think it's all interconnected.
[1:38:28] So I'm going to talk a little bit about what's in the plan specifically.
[1:38:32] If you can go to the next slide,
[1:38:35] a little bit of what
[1:38:37] Colin mentioned already, but there's three major categories in the plan.
[1:38:39] There's the network vision, there's infrastructure toolkit,
[1:38:43] which is sort of how you implement the things in the network vision
[1:38:46] and then supportive strategies.
[1:38:47] So what kind of policy changes or policy, highlights can we have to support
[1:38:51] the plan?
[1:38:52] It's one thing to build a project, but it's another thing
[1:38:54] to continually support that project going forward.
[1:38:57] So I'll get into each of these next slide please.
[1:39:01] The first one, the action plan.
[1:39:02] The, the, you know, obviously the meat of the project
[1:39:06] is getting into what projects should be pursued.
[1:39:10] Kind of the the network vision here.
[1:39:11] You know, it.
[1:39:14] Colin talked a bit about barriers and how removing barriers can be
[1:39:17] a significant improvement to, an experience,
[1:39:20] a network is how you ensure that folks don't get stuck between point A and B,
[1:39:25] you can have a mile of sidewalks around your house,
[1:39:27] you can have a mile sidewalks around your destination.
[1:39:29] But if there's one block that doesn't have a sidewalk or a crosswalk,
[1:39:32] then that could prevent you from walking safely to your destination or riding.
[1:39:36] If you're talking about a safe.
[1:39:37] Safe infrastructure, same thing for crosswalks
[1:39:40] or other kind of, you know, critical pieces there.
[1:39:43] So really the plan focuses on filling in those gaps, where needed.
[1:39:48] And it's also important to note that, you know,
[1:39:50] while often the gold standard is a sidewalk or a wide shoulder for bikes
[1:39:53] or even a bike lane or, or a separate facility, it's not, one size fits all.
[1:39:58] If you live in a residential street with 100 cars a day,
[1:40:01] people probably feel pretty comfortable
[1:40:02] walking in the street or riding in mixed traffic.
[1:40:05] But if you're on route one, a little bit of a different story.
[1:40:07] And so the plan does not prescribe a specific treatment
[1:40:10] throughout the town, it's very, you know, descriptive based on where you are.
[1:40:13] I think that's very important
[1:40:15] for a plan like this, because obviously different treatments
[1:40:17] have different costs and different maintenance responsibilities.
[1:40:20] Next slide please.
[1:40:23] So what projects are in the plan?
[1:40:25] The you made a list on the on street projects.
[1:40:29] Then there's 80. That sounds about right.
[1:40:31] And so I encourage everybody to look through the plan.
[1:40:34] There's 80, 80 projects, you know, typically it's,
[1:40:37] you know, Main Street from Portland to,
[1:40:41] you know, to East Elm or something like that, like a range of, of blocks.
[1:40:45] And they'll call out a specific, a I'll call it a quasi specific plan.
[1:40:49] So, implement traffic traffic calming on these blocks.
[1:40:53] Right. There's a little bit of wiggle room.
[1:40:55] They don't prescribe specific treatments. In most cases.
[1:40:57] It's mostly,
[1:40:58] you know, how we've identified a gap in the network
[1:41:01] or we've identified an issue with speeding in this network.
[1:41:04] We recommend proceeding with this type of a treatment.
[1:41:06] And so there's 80 of those products that deal with on street, improvements.
[1:41:11] And that could be anything from sidewalk, a building, a sidewalk
[1:41:15] or calming traffic or an intersection improvement.
[1:41:18] So if you have an intersection that requires you
[1:41:20] to cross 110ft of travel lanes because it's skewed
[1:41:24] and there's lots of lanes, tightening up that intersection
[1:41:27] can be a significant improvement, not just for pedestrian
[1:41:29] safety or bicycle safety, but for, for driver safety as well.
[1:41:33] So those are the types of products in the street section.
[1:41:35] I again, I encourage you all to read, what's in there if you haven't already?
[1:41:38] Because again, it's too many to list.
[1:41:40] But, this is the type of thing that when we, you know,
[1:41:42] we field complaints or comments from the public about,
[1:41:45] you know, cars going too fast down the street, it's usually going to be
[1:41:48] a street project that will, improve that
[1:41:51] next slide.
[1:41:55] The next one, our off street projects, Colin
[1:41:57] mentioned the Casco Bay trail, a significant regional, trail project.
[1:42:02] The primary projects here, you can read on on the slide are,
[1:42:06] you know, these priority page paving projects off street,
[1:42:11] as well as the Beth Condon Trail extension, over to the Freeport line,
[1:42:15] and then the Casco Bay trail.
[1:42:17] So these, these major, I call them kind of bike and ped highways.
[1:42:20] The the most direct way
[1:42:21] to get from point A to point B on a, on a continuous facility.
[1:42:24] But these are also the regional connectors as well.
[1:42:26] So if you want to get up
[1:42:27] to L.L.Bean and Freeport or if you want to get down to, down
[1:42:30] to Falmouth on Route one, these for these facilities will help you do that.
[1:42:35] On a, on a safe facility and often, these are the
[1:42:38] these are the types of facilities that will be all,
[1:42:40] you know, truly, all ages and all abilities.
[1:42:42] There outside of mixed traffic there.
[1:42:44] You know, you're on a ten foot wide path that's separated from traffic.
[1:42:48] And, you know, hopefully the intersections with side streets are safe as well.
[1:42:51] And that's what these types of projects are looking to do.
[1:42:53] So, oftentimes when you think about recreational trails
[1:42:56] or even commuter trails, these what you're talking about.
[1:42:59] And I think, you know, Colin mentioned a bit about e-bikes
[1:43:02] and other, you know, kind of these, new mobility devices that are out there.
[1:43:06] These are the types of facilities that you kind of want
[1:43:08] to see that kind of activity on.
[1:43:10] So you can imagine
[1:43:11] commuting to Portland on a, on a facility like this because, you know, suddenly
[1:43:14] a 11 mile bike ride with if that doesn't seem
[1:43:18] appealing to you, 11 mile e-bike ride is really, you know, much easier.
[1:43:21] So, that's the sort of thing that we want to point folks to, for
[1:43:25] that kind of a facility.
[1:43:27] Finally, next slide, please.
[1:43:30] Partnership projects.
[1:43:31] So, there's a lot of facilities in town that are not 100% under the town's
[1:43:36] control, typically, you know, state aid, roadways like route one,
[1:43:40] as well as bridges will typically be working with Maine Dot
[1:43:45] on, or other entities, statewide entities on, these improvements.
[1:43:49] And so I think, including projects in this plan will help us.
[1:43:54] Show them that when they advance these types of projects
[1:43:57] that, hey, we have a plan for this road, we'd love
[1:43:59] if you could incorporate this plan into your construction project.
[1:44:02] And I think that's an important point here as well.
[1:44:04] These projects are not necessarily, you know, a list of things that the town
[1:44:08] must self-fund on their own.
[1:44:10] Oftentimes it's just showing, a regional or statewide entity that we
[1:44:13] we have a plan for the street and we have a plan for this intersection,
[1:44:16] and we'd love help to get there.
[1:44:18] So, these projects will obviously be, pretty large in scope.
[1:44:22] For example, Maine dot sorry, GP cog.
[1:44:25] The Greater Portland Council of Governments
[1:44:27] has been working on our Reimagining Route one project.
[1:44:29] So they, from Saco through Freeport, they identified a couple dozen locations
[1:44:34] to, improve on that corridor to try and make the whole corridor a bit more,
[1:44:38] you know, have a similar feel, from town to town and from mile to mile
[1:44:43] and so that's a
[1:44:44] that's an example of a project
[1:44:45] that our plan would like to kind of compliment their plans on.
[1:44:49] Next slide, please.
[1:44:52] So the next, aspect of this and this is a bit less lengthy.
[1:44:55] So I appreciate you bearing with me is the Infrastructure Toolbox toolkit.
[1:44:59] So how do you implement all these things. Right.
[1:45:00] So if you read all those plans you'll read,
[1:45:02] you know, 80 or 80 5 or 90 different projects.
[1:45:05] So but how do you actually implement these?
[1:45:07] I think this tool toolkit,
[1:45:09] sort of builds on the traffic coming to the toolkit that that Julie
[1:45:12] and the planning department, help advance a couple of years ago.
[1:45:14] And also identifies ways you can implement projects both short
[1:45:18] term, kind of as a pilot, you can test them out for a year.
[1:45:21] You can build you can have a quick build project
[1:45:24] that lasts, you know, 1 to 3 years as you wait for additional funding.
[1:45:28] And then all the way up to capital projects, and maintaining,
[1:45:32] maintaining those kinds of projects.
[1:45:33] So, this toolkit is essentially
[1:45:35] the how to the, to the, after the, the action plans.
[1:45:39] What, how do you build these things?
[1:45:41] How do you maintain these things after you build them?
[1:45:43] And so this plan is includes a great toolkit on how to do that.
[1:45:47] And it really helps make the plan, not just a list of projects,
[1:45:50] because I think anybody can come up with a list of projects,
[1:45:52] but also how you how do you implement them.
[1:45:55] Next slide please.
[1:45:59] And finally, the supportive strategies.
[1:46:01] Right.
[1:46:01] So we can lay out a list of projects.
[1:46:05] We can tell you how to build them.
[1:46:06] But I think there's also always going to be a policy aspect to any plan like this.
[1:46:11] And so I said the bike ped committee working with staff
[1:46:14] and other committees as well, I've been working on,
[1:46:16] a number of different kind of policy goals,
[1:46:19] and a lot of them are listed in the active transportation plan,
[1:46:21] one of which that we've been working on is, you know, how do we crack
[1:46:24] the nut of, of, tackling speed limits in town?
[1:46:28] For, for
[1:46:29] and for as long as I think most people can remember, dot is set the speed limit.
[1:46:33] There's an incidence in the past
[1:46:34] where we've asked Dot to lower the speed limit,
[1:46:36] and they come back and raise the speed limit.
[1:46:38] And so I think one of the major aspects
[1:46:41] of any kind of plan like this is how do we, take ownership of that?
[1:46:45] You know, we can implement a roadway improvement project,
[1:46:47] but if Dot says the road has to be designed
[1:46:49] for 35 miles an hour, then there's not be a whole lot we can do.
[1:46:52] And so, being able to take control of that for ourselves
[1:46:56] one way or the other, I think is really important.
[1:46:58] And I think, we've been advancing a, initiative to try and,
[1:47:03] get to a town wide 25 mile an hour speed limit, except where otherwise posted.
[1:47:08] Right.
[1:47:08] So that might be a way to create a more uniform expectation throughout town
[1:47:11] that if you're in Yarmouth, unless you see a big sign
[1:47:14] that says 35 miles an hour, you should be going 25 miles an hour.
[1:47:17] You know, there's not a street that's 30 miles
[1:47:19] an hour or a street that's 20 somewhere else.
[1:47:20] So, that's the one aspect of this of this plan.
[1:47:24] Collin mentioned the Safe Routes to school plan.
[1:47:25] So a lot of, you know, obviously we want people to continue
[1:47:29] to be able to ride and where I can walk and roll to school,
[1:47:31] safe Routes to School
[1:47:32] plan is sort of a nationally accepted way of,
[1:47:34] of of identifying that around school campuses.
[1:47:36] So we hope to advance that as well.
[1:47:38] And then any number of other, policies as well.
[1:47:40] And then I'll mention the very last bullet is, is,
[1:47:43] you know, personal to me as a, as the Metro Breeze guy,
[1:47:46] improving the, access to transit stops and improving,
[1:47:50] the utility of our transit route, the breeze
[1:47:52] for folks who might live further than, you know, the typical
[1:47:55] one quarter to one half mile walk from a transit station.
[1:47:58] You know, how do we get people who live all over town
[1:48:00] to be able to have access to that breeze resource?
[1:48:02] So, again, it's pretty holistic.
[1:48:05] It's pretty comprehensive.
[1:48:06] I really encourage folks in the room to read the plan, if you haven't already.
[1:48:09] And, we really hope that the council, adopts it.
[1:48:13] Once it's once it's finalized.
[1:48:15] So I'm going to pass it off to Julie, who's going to talk a bit more about the,
[1:48:18] next steps.
[1:48:19] And, I'm happy to answer any questions if you haven't. Thank you.
[1:48:26] Next slide please, Sean.
[1:48:29] All right.
[1:48:30] So one of the other elements of this plan is looking at,
[1:48:33] funding and having future discussions about what
[1:48:36] what it would take down the line many, many years to implement this.
[1:48:40] So currently we have the CIP, the competitive process of grants,
[1:48:45] partnerships, where we have a local match that's needed and the, the plan
[1:48:50] and the community engagement basically found
[1:48:52] that it can be a little restrictive in terms of implementation, in hindering
[1:48:56] reacting to, requests for traffic calming projects
[1:49:00] or specific, changes that affect, the operating budgets.
[1:49:04] So the aspiration is that in the future, we can have discussions about dedicated
[1:49:09] funding, and how to maintain existing resources better, like Mr.
[1:49:14] Styler was talking about with the sidewalk.
[1:49:15] So these are conversation that are for the future.
[1:49:18] But we want to make sure that that is part of the, the, I would say
[1:49:24] the next steps
[1:49:24] that come out of the active transportation plan is in in the near future.
[1:49:29] Next slide please. Sean.
[1:49:31] So our immediate action plan, the bike ped
[1:49:34] every year, has been working on budget advocacy and,
[1:49:39] CIP recommendations that were submitted to the town manager and Steve Johnson
[1:49:43] for inclusion in those budget process discussions that happen in the fall.
[1:49:48] And, soon with the town council into the winter.
[1:49:50] So, the next steps, because September is somehow here,
[1:49:54] is to have those discussions with the relevant town departments
[1:49:58] about these parts of the project, whether it's moving the safe routes
[1:50:02] to school plan and developing an ad hoc, task force with the school department,
[1:50:07] PTO and other stakeholders starting to look at those off street
[1:50:10] network expansions with the Parks Department
[1:50:13] and the Parks and Lands Committee policy updates.
[1:50:16] The legislature is not sleeping right now, but there's you know,
[1:50:19] they're slumbering.
[1:50:20] So thinking about having those policy conversations that are beyond Yarmouth.
[1:50:25] And then, of course,
[1:50:26] coordinating with the town budget process and department updates
[1:50:29] so that our colleagues are aware of what this plan entails.
[1:50:33] And then in the winter, once the legislature is back in, sessions,
[1:50:37] loop back in with those key stakeholders on supportive strategy and,
[1:50:41] soft organized community organizing.
[1:50:45] And then, of course, the federal landscape is a little unstable
[1:50:48] right now in terms of funding for transportation.
[1:50:51] The federal Surface Transportation Act expires in September.
[1:50:56] And right now there are a lot of cuts that affect pedestrian, street
[1:51:00] safety, bicyclists.
[1:51:01] You can't even have the word bicycle
[1:51:03] in many plans, at the federal level right now.
[1:51:05] So seeing how that all shakes out and then looking at what can we move
[1:51:10] forward in terms of federal grants and how to shape that?
[1:51:13] So a lot of these are the near-term.
[1:51:15] But the long term, ask, I guess, to the council is to consider,
[1:51:21] endorsing the plan in general, and moving it forward,
[1:51:25] later in the month for a vote in support of it.
[1:51:28] So, do you have any questions?
[1:51:31] But we'll get to that in a second. Thank you very much.
[1:51:33] Julie and Mike and Colin.
[1:51:35] Great presentation.
[1:51:36] And and make yourselves available for questions.
[1:51:39] So I'm going to see if there's any from the council.
[1:51:42] And Sean, could we get, the screen up so that I can see
[1:51:45] the other councils are online?
[1:51:47] Oh, I guess oh, I'm sorry, it's on the smaller screen.
[1:51:49] No worries. I was, I was I can see it.
[1:51:54] Okay.
[1:51:54] So, any questions from the council?
[1:51:57] Council. Casey, I have one.
[1:51:59] I don't know who it's for.
[1:52:00] Thank you for this. First of all, this is amazing.
[1:52:02] It's a lot of stuff, and it's very comprehensive.
[1:52:05] I have not read the whole plan.
[1:52:07] I know it's very big.
[1:52:09] I would like to.
[1:52:10] And I will say the appendices. It's 92 pages.
[1:52:13] Thank you. Yes.
[1:52:13] Well, it's the first week of school, so I haven't had time for that.
[1:52:16] But I will.
[1:52:18] But I do have a question and it may be in there,
[1:52:20] so that's why I prefaced it with that.
[1:52:23] Oh, this is awesome.
[1:52:24] And, you know, if if funding was no issue, this would be a wonderful all of it,
[1:52:28] in my bucket list.
[1:52:30] But, I'm,
[1:52:33] harking back to what Richard said earlier because,
[1:52:36] like, the Safe Schools initiative, I don't know what that means,
[1:52:39] but I assume it means getting to school safely without busses or cars.
[1:52:43] I mean, some students will ride busses, I'm sure.
[1:52:45] So the sidewalks in town are really not in good shape.
[1:52:49] A lot of them.
[1:52:50] And a lot of the almost all the students
[1:52:53] who commute to schools by bike or walking go on the sidewalks.
[1:52:58] We want all of them to and so adding to their like expanding the network,
[1:53:05] making it more connected to other towns and things like that is all great.
[1:53:10] But if when you walk down Main Street or East or West Elm Street,
[1:53:14] it's you trip, you fall, you ride a bike and
[1:53:18] and you get pushed into the street because the sidewalk is has a buffer.
[1:53:22] Those are the main routes.
[1:53:23] And before anything is done to extend, it seems like we should fix that.
[1:53:27] And I know that it's not the bike and ped committee's job to to fix those.
[1:53:32] And I know that I know the budget constraints are under as a council.
[1:53:35] But,
[1:53:37] I wonder how much you're going to you you would advocate
[1:53:40] for those to be a priority, since they are by far the most used parts
[1:53:44] of the transportation network other than roads.
[1:53:47] Yeah.
[1:53:47] So, one quick thing and I want to pass it to Collins.
[1:53:50] So in 2018 and I believe so the bike ped before it was bike
[1:53:55] ped work with Georgia Tech, to assess sidewalk conditions all over town.
[1:54:01] So there's an incredible research which is on the bike ped committee webpage.
[1:54:04] And so that is actually a priority also that the committee has been trying
[1:54:08] to get the people power to do that.
[1:54:10] Again, to look at the Ada and sidewalk conditions,
[1:54:14] because there's definitely the qualitative information coming from people.
[1:54:17] But to get that and assess those priorities.
[1:54:20] So and safe routes to school, that is a federal program.
[1:54:25] That's part of the safe streets for all federal funding package.
[1:54:29] So that having that sort of plan would enable the town
[1:54:33] to submit it to the U.S, VDot for competitive grants.
[1:54:37] So it's a national grant program that that you need to have that plan there
[1:54:40] to get funding for it. So I'm going to pass it to thank you.
[1:54:43] Yeah. The sidewalks are just like I live on a main street.
[1:54:45] I can walk fine on them, but I watch people going into church every Sunday
[1:54:49] and some people are in walkers and things like that, and they it's very hard
[1:54:53] for them to get just that short strip of sidewalk.
[1:54:56] So I would say we completely agree with you.
[1:54:59] And I think, just a couple of different thoughts come to mind.
[1:55:04] I would say, since we started, again,
[1:55:07] thanks to Dan's leadership, sort of thinking about bike and ped projects
[1:55:11] and prioritizing them for town staff as part of the CIP process.
[1:55:16] As part of that, we have always advocated for
[1:55:18] ongoing maintenance of our existing network.
[1:55:22] I would say in in the latest letter, I think we noted that,
[1:55:26] unfortunately, I think last year the sidewalk reserve was not funded.
[1:55:29] So we're encouraging that that happened this year, and we seek
[1:55:32] additional resources to be able to continue to do that.
[1:55:36] So I think we we wouldn't disagree for sure that maintenance is,
[1:55:40] is is really important.
[1:55:41] I think we we have to plan for, for both.
[1:55:45] Part of I'm glad you brought this up because part of what I did not mention
[1:55:49] that I'm so excited about is plans like the Active Transportation plan,
[1:55:54] or as Julie mentioned, the Safe Routes to School plan allow us to access
[1:55:58] additional sources of funding that we might not have otherwise.
[1:56:02] So often you will hear from like, often
[1:56:05] you can't like we could not apply for safe routes.
[1:56:09] Correct me if I'm wrong.
[1:56:10] I'm a fake engineer and planner.
[1:56:12] We could not apply for certain, sources
[1:56:15] of funding for safe routes to school without a plan.
[1:56:19] So often the first thing they look for is.
[1:56:21] Do you have a plan that residents provided input on that your committee
[1:56:26] signed off on that your town leadership signed off on? Great.
[1:56:30] Then it won't get us it.
[1:56:31] Then you can then you can apply for these sources of funding
[1:56:35] and and I would say that the Safe Routes to school plan
[1:56:39] that we've noted is, is actually filling a gap because
[1:56:42] we're we're working with the school department
[1:56:45] now to basically apply the same principles
[1:56:49] to the spaces that the school department is responsible for.
[1:56:53] So, you know, the path to, from West
[1:56:57] Elm to why, yes, for example, is going to need paving soon
[1:57:02] if you if that is part of a bigger project that we could apply for funds for.
[1:57:06] Then they, they would look to have that identified in a safe routes
[1:57:10] to school plan.
[1:57:11] The second thing I'll just note is
[1:57:13] this is the reality of transportation funding, unfortunately sometimes is
[1:57:19] that the resources are provided for new new projects.
[1:57:24] So there's funding for one of this things I've talked
[1:57:27] to some dot people about all the time that drives me nuts
[1:57:30] is there is funding and support to repave roads,
[1:57:35] but everyone should know often they are not providing resources
[1:57:40] to provide enhancements to the sidewalk that's right next to it.
[1:57:45] And so that's part of the challenge that town staff face.
[1:57:48] That's part of the challenge that planners face is that,
[1:57:52] those resources sometimes are.
[1:57:54] And now, of course, in a constricted federal environment.
[1:57:57] So I would say, totally agree with you.
[1:58:00] I think the sidewalk reserve continuing to commit
[1:58:03] to that, will help with that maintenance piece.
[1:58:06] And then, having this plan helps us continue that progress and again,
[1:58:12] on unlock additional sources of funding that, would allow us to take,
[1:58:18] you know, we're the the extension of the Beth Condon pathway.
[1:58:22] It's soon going to go all the way to Freeport.
[1:58:23] We're able to do that because the the state had funds to do that.
[1:58:28] They wouldn't have taken those funds to unfortunately,
[1:58:31] they wouldn't have been like, okay, you can redo your sidewalk instead.
[1:58:35] So that's it's like, I don't know, Mike, if you have anything else to add to that.
[1:58:39] But the other thing I'll note is that the plan purposely doesn't,
[1:58:42] it provides prioritization for each project.
[1:58:45] There's low, medium and high priority projects,
[1:58:48] and they also rank them by, well, how much it's going to cost.
[1:58:50] So any given year staff
[1:58:52] can look at the list and say, okay, we have $15,000 to do a project.
[1:58:56] Let's look at the highest priority low cost project list, right.
[1:59:00] It also doesn't prescribe that, you know, you need to do all these projects
[1:59:03] by a certain date.
[1:59:04] And it certainly doesn't say
[1:59:05] you should do these projects ahead of any kind of ongoing maintenance.
[1:59:08] There's a lot of leeway for staff.
[1:59:09] And, obviously under the council's guidance,
[1:59:13] to, jump around the list and also, you know, if you want to prioritize
[1:59:17] maintaining your existing infrastructure, then you're certainly able to do that.
[1:59:21] And we encourage and encourage that. Certainly. Okay.
[1:59:24] Thank you. This is both of those are very helpful.
[1:59:25] I didn't know about the fact that you had to have the plan to get the grants.
[1:59:28] So that's really important information.
[1:59:30] Also, I do recognize that part of this is on us because we are
[1:59:33] the ones who fund the sidewalk reserve or not.
[1:59:35] And so I do we do I do own that part of it.
[1:59:38] So I don't mean to say it's like someone else's fault,
[1:59:41] but I just wanted to explore how it fit into your plan. So thank you.
[1:59:44] I see Councilor Tang's hand up.
[1:59:46] I'm going to go to him. Consulting.
[1:59:48] You have a question or comment?
[1:59:51] Where's your hand?
[1:59:52] Oh, yep.
[1:59:53] I'm trying to lower my hand. Oh, there you go.
[1:59:55] First of all, thanks, everyone, for the hard work
[1:59:58] in getting the active transportation plan to, at least this point.
[2:00:02] Two questions.
[2:00:03] The first one is there was a slide on the network.
[2:00:08] I guess the, the vision of what the network would be
[2:00:14] and then the slide following that.
[2:00:16] So, I believe the best condom Parkway, the Casco Bay trail
[2:00:22] and, other extensions, of sidewalks.
[2:00:26] But I can't transpose those two pictures, but, it looks like,
[2:00:32] some of it's different.
[2:00:35] So, for example, the the can someone explain that?
[2:00:40] Because the the for example, in that first one of what
[2:00:43] the network vision, is supposed to be the Casco Bay
[2:00:47] trail is not marked on there, so it might be mistaken.
[2:00:52] Yeah.
[2:00:52] So the the graphics you're mentioning in the plan, the first one
[2:00:57] refers to the two, I would say,
[2:01:01] overarching themes of the action plan.
[2:01:05] The first network is all ages and ability.
[2:01:08] The second is baseline all ages and ability, as Colin mentioned,
[2:01:13] is the idea of really focusing on comfort
[2:01:17] for all ages and abilities of pedestrians and walkers, with the understanding
[2:01:22] that, safety is paramount and that separating spaces
[2:01:26] and calming down traffic is integral to that.
[2:01:29] Thank you, Shawn, for posting that.
[2:01:30] The second is the baseline bike network, and this is for more confident,
[2:01:35] riders, we would say, or people who are confident, particularly
[2:01:38] on some of those larger streets, where the connections
[2:01:43] be even beyond town into more rural areas and those are often higher speeds.
[2:01:48] So that's still is about working to, improve the roadway conditions.
[2:01:53] So it's a lot of it's speed management as well.
[2:01:56] But you can kind of see that that's it breaks it down.
[2:02:00] Then into on street, off street and planned
[2:02:04] like those are the partnership projects as well.
[2:02:06] So the the two dots which you can't see so well on this,
[2:02:09] those planned off street include the Casco Bay trail.
[2:02:13] So it doesn't it's a it's this is a blow up of a larger map.
[2:02:17] But that's why it doesn't read so well.
[2:02:18] But even then when you break it down on the next slides, those on street
[2:02:23] projects are then further divided by corridor projects and intersections.
[2:02:27] So those are those 80 plus specific projects
[2:02:30] that are in that huge table of recommendations.
[2:02:34] And then the off street project
[2:02:36] recommendations focuses on those key projects.
[2:02:40] The so that includes the, extension of the Beth Condon Memorial Pathway,
[2:02:45] the Casco Bay trail, those, priority paving projects
[2:02:49] that will improve Ada connections and enable, community connections
[2:02:53] physically and socially in the the fall and the winter months as well.
[2:02:58] And then what isn't even on this map is all those amazing trails that we have,
[2:03:03] those wonderful networks, further out and exploring those and helping people
[2:03:08] have, also safe off street projects
[2:03:11] that can get cut through parks and, and beyond to get
[2:03:14] maybe then even further into a bike path or, route 88, for example.
[2:03:19] And then the last one are those partnership projects.
[2:03:21] So many of them are the bridges projects that are already underway
[2:03:26] or that are coming down the pipeline in the next 5 to 10 years
[2:03:29] and are really opportunities to optimize
[2:03:32] and efficiently work in the ground on construction projects.
[2:03:37] Does that clarify it?
[2:03:38] Councilor Ting, a a bit of, I'm sorry, I don't have, the
[2:03:45] the active transportation plan available
[2:03:48] for me to look on it, but I'll, I'll look at them again.
[2:03:51] Two other questions, if that's okay for me to proceed.
[2:03:54] Councilor Greg. Oh, yeah. Please.
[2:03:56] The floor is yours. Thank you.
[2:03:58] So, the second question was,
[2:04:01] is that the active transportation plan?
[2:04:04] That was, back in 2015, and now that's been revised.
[2:04:09] Now, ten years later, how does how does the,
[2:04:13] proposed, actions,
[2:04:17] that were proposed back in 2015, how many did we accomplish?
[2:04:22] A good amount.
[2:04:23] That was actually an exercise that the bike ped committee did
[2:04:26] well before the RFP was even put forward, when they were working on
[2:04:29] the scope was to go through each of those pages of projects.
[2:04:33] In the 2015 and see what was adopted, what wasn't, and why.
[2:04:38] So, for example, in 2015, one of the recommendations was to have,
[2:04:43] which are, a bike symbol with chevrons above it
[2:04:47] that indicate that this is a shared space for drivers, and bicyclists
[2:04:52] and in those ten years since, it's become kind of common understanding
[2:04:57] that it is not the most effective use of, of markings to separate,
[2:05:02] spaces for people walking and biking in the street,
[2:05:05] whereas advisory lanes or edge line roads or however you want to call them
[2:05:09] is a more effective, strategy of both traffic calming and sharing spaces.
[2:05:13] So that is why you don't see all over town, for example.
[2:05:17] So things have changed, but, many of them were accomplished.
[2:05:21] I think, to Colin's point, all of the work done in route one,
[2:05:25] that is, that came out of that plan, but then also the north of Portland,
[2:05:29] the Napo plan, that is all coming to fruition, ten years later. So,
[2:05:36] and, one last question.
[2:05:37] You know, I appreciate how,
[2:05:41] the active transportation plan does break things down by priority,
[2:05:46] but then also break things down by bike sort of cost categories.
[2:05:50] You know, and and for sure, I like the idea of, you know,
[2:05:55] we got a budget for this if we're going to move things through,
[2:05:58] not only, say, for the projects we want to, we want to implement,
[2:06:02] but also obviously, preserve the and, and, restore
[2:06:07] whatever, resources that we already own.
[2:06:12] So if you had all those, get someone to do the elementary.
[2:06:18] I did not do an elementary calculation of how much
[2:06:21] if we were going to do all of this, how much we would have to say.
[2:06:25] And it's and decide the more practical side
[2:06:29] part of that, because I know that that's probably not going to be possible to
[2:06:32] to do all 80 project is some of the higher priority ones.
[2:06:36] It's a very generic, cost category.
[2:06:40] Right.
[2:06:41] So, you know, for the high cost item, the, the,
[2:06:45] the category starts at 150 K plus.
[2:06:48] I have no idea, but
[2:06:51] I think it's like, doing some of the recommendations on Sligo,
[2:06:56] is going to cost tremendously more than 150 K.
[2:07:00] So are there
[2:07:03] it did you get any indications from the consulting company,
[2:07:06] do they have, a better estimate on some of these things?
[2:07:10] Rather than just breaking them down into those very generic categories and,
[2:07:15] you know, sort of do they have, some points
[2:07:20] that they don't share with us sort of back at the napkin costs for these projects?
[2:07:25] Thank you. Nope.
[2:07:25] Everything that they shared with us is in the plan.
[2:07:28] I would say the traffic calming toolbox that we did a couple of years ago
[2:07:33] also has cost estimates for different tools.
[2:07:37] And, that is why the infrastructure toolkit
[2:07:41] has phased degrees of implementation, because the price point
[2:07:45] for markings of edge line roads are advisory lanes
[2:07:49] is very different from installing, a concrete curb extension.
[2:07:54] So which I, you know, is why the Main Street streetscape project
[2:07:58] is so ambitious and incredible, but it has taken time to fund
[2:08:03] so that if you look at the infrastructure toolkit section,
[2:08:06] it does have, not just, cost ranges for each of the different tools
[2:08:10] that are part of the larger menu, but it also has additional resources.
[2:08:15] I will say that, as you mentioned, with interest rates in your earlier point,
[2:08:20] inflation and the change of,
[2:08:22] pricing and construction materials is also a moving target right now.
[2:08:26] But I think the materials and resources that are provided that are in the report
[2:08:31] present a good spectrum, I will say, of what cost could be to implement this
[2:08:36] and a phased approach over, you know, the next 20 years.
[2:08:41] Oh, sorry.
[2:08:43] The other thing I'll, I'll note Councilor Tang and thank you for these questions.
[2:08:46] I think they're super productive.
[2:08:47] For I think as you go up in cost in the tables in the active
[2:08:51] transportation plan, the more likely it will be that you'll need
[2:08:55] to have a designer of that project can have an engineer going through
[2:08:59] and actually designing the project.
[2:09:01] If you're talking about an intersection
[2:09:02] realignment project, for example, that's not something we might lead.
[2:09:06] That's probably not something we'd be able to do.
[2:09:08] We being the town, without some sort of,
[2:09:12] more formal design that, you know,
[2:09:15] considers how drainage works and considers how traffic moves and things like that.
[2:09:18] And so, I think the idea of the cost category is not to provide
[2:09:22] a precise amount of money for each of these projects,
[2:09:25] but to kind of just indicate to a crowd like this one,
[2:09:28] you know, the council and to the public how much a project, you know,
[2:09:31] whether it's a low, medium or high cost project.
[2:09:33] And then from that point,
[2:09:35] if a certain project is identified as a, as a top priority,
[2:09:38] then certainly I, you know, staff could be directed to advance that.
[2:09:42] I know that the engineering department is very good and has resources in-house to,
[2:09:46] you know, to do that first level of estimation.
[2:09:48] And then if it does have to go to a design process, then, a designer
[2:09:51] would help flesh out all the different iterations of that.
[2:09:55] This, this consultant was scoped to do a very broad,
[2:09:58] active transportation plan that considered the whole town.
[2:10:00] I think asking them to do kind of, specific cost
[2:10:05] estimates for each project would have been a pretty significant add to their scope.
[2:10:08] And, you know, in 5 or 7 years, as we've seen with the last active
[2:10:11] transportation plan, you know, the assumptions and priorities might change.
[2:10:15] And so I think the idea is just to provide that level of, high level guidance
[2:10:18] so that the town knows what to expect for kind of the the next implementation step.
[2:10:23] But you have to add, yeah, I would just say thanks. Yes.
[2:10:25] Thanks again for the question.
[2:10:26] And, I was going to say what Mike was going to say.
[2:10:30] And in addition, I think the cost question
[2:10:33] is so interesting because it, it's, it can be dynamics.
[2:10:36] Right.
[2:10:37] So if, if we get the opportunity to take advantage of a state grant
[2:10:41] that has a certain local match, then that, that, that then
[2:10:46] we might not have planned, like that's a different cost estimate than we might
[2:10:51] have planning for if we were going to, take control of the whole project.
[2:10:55] Right.
[2:10:56] Using North Road as an example, we could cost out
[2:10:59] how much it would cost the town to build that sidewalk.
[2:11:02] But if we were able to get that D.O.T.
[2:11:04] to help with that, that's a different that would cost the town
[2:11:07] a different amount.
[2:11:08] So I think I'll just say that's one, place where,
[2:11:12] you know, the town's relationship with Dot is important and helpful.
[2:11:16] I'll just contrast like the town, as I understand it, had to help pay
[2:11:20] for part of the Beth Condon that went under exit 17.
[2:11:23] Dan, correct me if I'm wrong.
[2:11:25] But it's the cost of,
[2:11:29] wide multi-use path on exit 15
[2:11:32] is included in the Dot project.
[2:11:35] So part of this is also advocating on the state level, which I think we
[2:11:40] as a committee are interested in.
[2:11:41] I've also talked to our legislators about that.
[2:11:44] The legislature's
[2:11:45] going to have to figure out transportation funding because it's a disaster soon.
[2:11:49] And I think as part of that, let's make sure they're also providing
[2:11:53] a commitment to bicycle and pedestrian
[2:11:56] safe infrastructure, for everyone.
[2:11:59] Because that's going to help reduce the burden on the town.
[2:12:01] So it's it's kind of a it's a balance.
[2:12:03] And I, Councilor Tang I, you get to the question that, like
[2:12:08] everyone asks, that that's the trickiest is like, how much is going to cost?
[2:12:12] And I think what what Mike and Julie said, it's hard to really know
[2:12:15] until you know what what our goal with this plan was to help.
[2:12:18] No, it's fine.
[2:12:19] Leaders and staff prioritize and make decisions
[2:12:22] about what to pursue based on what's in front of them.
[2:12:25] Like it. Again, thanks for your comment.
[2:12:28] Councilor Casey.
[2:12:29] Balancing things like maintenance versus a new project.
[2:12:32] Councilor Monti, thank you guys, a couple questions.
[2:12:34] I did read this cover to cover.
[2:12:36] It was riveting on an airplane.
[2:12:37] Thank you for the prioritization.
[2:12:40] It's really, really helpful. Three quick questions.
[2:12:42] Thinking about budget season coming and how to be a good advocate.
[2:12:46] Much of the discussion or the pathway to funding
[2:12:49] has allowed it up through climate change or public safety.
[2:12:53] How has it gone up till now?
[2:12:55] And I don't know how I know that.
[2:12:57] I don't know how long you've been here, but who would have
[2:12:59] that institutional knowledge of how the council
[2:13:01] has approached funding in the past?
[2:13:07] I'm not sure.
[2:13:08] Could you repeat the question?
[2:13:09] I don't sorry, I meant to
[2:13:11] that was we're looking for the resources to do this thing.
[2:13:13] Where how has the council approached this conversation in the past?
[2:13:17] Has bike and ped been views that bike and ped
[2:13:21] been viewed as a climate change related issue or a public safety issue?
[2:13:25] And how have we have a council approach to the funding?
[2:13:27] I think I think it is my opinion is kind of dependent on the project.
[2:13:32] So so it's been just something I think, I think
[2:13:36] more generally it's safety, and just access and equity.
[2:13:40] Equity of access and
[2:13:44] you know, and resource and recreational resources for the town.
[2:13:46] I don't know that it's been heavily weighted towards climate change,
[2:13:50] but someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't.
[2:13:54] It's it's obviously
[2:13:56] related, but I don't think it's a driver.
[2:13:59] Like a strategic.
[2:14:01] Hi. Aaron work director of planning development.
[2:14:04] I think, to get to a little bit of your question is that,
[2:14:08] a lot of the funding, if if it's in the operating budget
[2:14:14] or in the capital reserve budget has flowed through DPW, in the past.
[2:14:20] So it hasn't necessarily been,
[2:14:24] highlighted as a climate action element.
[2:14:27] Although the Climate Action Plan speaks to improve the road networks
[2:14:32] because it reduces vehicle miles traveled and then therefore it reduces
[2:14:36] greenhouse gas emissions.
[2:14:38] That is echoed in the comp plan as well, which is great stuff.
[2:14:42] But I think historically and over the course of the several budget
[2:14:47] budget cycles that I've been a part of,
[2:14:50] that money flows through DPW primarily.
[2:14:54] That being said, we have secured
[2:14:57] grants that, speak to climate action.
[2:15:00] The next extension of the Beth Condon that will be under construction from exit
[2:15:05] 17 to the Cozens River bridge,
[2:15:09] received state carbon reduction funding.
[2:15:12] So the it depends on the opportunity when we're going after discretionary grants.
[2:15:19] But when we're looking at our internal budget
[2:15:22] that has flowed through DPW.
[2:15:23] Okay.
[2:15:24] So no reason it couldn't you couldn't take a look at it
[2:15:26] like a public safety budget.
[2:15:27] Correct. To look at okay.
[2:15:28] So that's super helpful.
[2:15:32] I have
[2:15:32] 2 to 2 nerdy questions for our traffic engineer.
[2:15:35] One is straight related to your daily work.
[2:15:38] More information on bridges.
[2:15:40] I have tried to find right when, particularly when I was running.
[2:15:42] Like, what are the numbers? How much is this being used?
[2:15:45] How updated, how real time are those numbers?
[2:15:47] And can I just bother you personally to maybe send me a link or a link
[2:15:51] about how we behave with respect to Breese and what the projected growth
[2:15:54] is, all that?
[2:15:55] Yes, absolutely.
[2:15:56] I don't have the top of my head.
[2:15:58] But Julie is our board member representing Yarmouth on the on the metro board.
[2:16:02] Metro is a, quasi governmental organization that is governed
[2:16:06] by a board of directors
[2:16:07] made up of municipal elected officials, staff and advocates.
[2:16:11] So we work for you.
[2:16:12] And so I would happily provide any information you'd like.
[2:16:15] My name is all over the website for contact information.
[2:16:19] Planning at DPI match.org gets to me.
[2:16:21] And then we're happy to meet with you or anybody else, especially if you
[2:16:25] you're onboarding a new town manager soon, I hear.
[2:16:26] So, I'm happy to meet with with council
[2:16:29] and the manager or whoever was interested about about that about that.
[2:16:32] Roxanne.
[2:16:33] And my nerdy question is, is it true
[2:16:36] that not striping a road naturally reduces the speed on the road?
[2:16:40] That that's true?
[2:16:42] I believe it's true.
[2:16:43] Based on evidence that I've read. That's true.
[2:16:45] That's so for me, it's the yellow lines.
[2:16:48] Yeah. So? So
[2:16:50] specifically on
[2:16:51] a on a two way, you know, one lane intersection, road, residential street.
[2:16:54] The evidence that I've read is that typically that does reduce speeds
[2:16:59] because you have less, if you have less certainty about the car
[2:17:03] coming at you being in your lane, you're going to be
[2:17:06] both of you are going to act a little bit more cautiously.
[2:17:08] And that's sort of the, the, the idea behind that.
[2:17:10] So I think that's a little bit counterintuitive to folks
[2:17:13] because people think more striping equals more safety.
[2:17:15] And maybe that's true if you're going 35 miles an hour,
[2:17:18] but if it's not true, we you know, if you're not going 35 miles an hour,
[2:17:21] or sorry, if you don't think you're safe, you better slow down.
[2:17:24] Yeah. That's sort of where the safety element comes in. Okay.
[2:17:27] Awesome. Thanks. Thanks.
[2:17:28] Anyone else on the council?
[2:17:30] Before we go to public comment?
[2:17:35] Okay.
[2:17:35] We'll now open it up for, public comment.
[2:17:43] You can.
[2:17:47] Got a bit of this time.
[2:17:49] Richard Styler, 136 Portland Street.
[2:17:54] About, ten years ago,
[2:17:56] there was a plan to reconfigure the route one Portland Street intersection.
[2:18:02] Roads came and still do into the intersection from different angles.
[2:18:07] And,
[2:18:10] come into the intersection in an awkward way.
[2:18:13] As I remember, the plan was to make the intersection
[2:18:16] one with clear right angled turns.
[2:18:19] Instead of coming off of route one traffic
[2:18:22] and to Portland Street, traffic would come.
[2:18:26] Instead of a curve turn,
[2:18:29] right angle turn.
[2:18:32] And that would in turn, caused traffic to slow down
[2:18:37] instead of continuing its speed off of route one
[2:18:41] when there was no hindrance of a red light.
[2:18:45] Ten years ago, and a couple of weeks ago,
[2:18:49] I spoke to the town council about the speeding
[2:18:52] on Portland Street ten years ago, and a couple of weeks ago
[2:18:56] I reported that cars, trucks, semi-trailers,
[2:19:00] propane and gas tankers, Casella garbage trucks, motorcycles
[2:19:05] were going over 25 miles
[2:19:08] an hour in both directions.
[2:19:11] Even the big bus rushes down the street in both directions.
[2:19:16] Today, nothing has changed.
[2:19:18] Cars, trucks, semi-trailers, propane and gas tanks.
[2:19:22] Casella garbage trucks, motorcycles.
[2:19:25] We're then going.
[2:19:26] We're now going over the 25 mile an hour posted limit in both directions.
[2:19:32] Even the big bus continues to rush down the street.
[2:19:38] Even this morning and particularly this morning,
[2:19:41] there seemed to be a real rush of traffic going up and down the street,
[2:19:46] particularly, cars,
[2:19:49] coming from route one down to Main Street.
[2:19:55] Late yesterday
[2:19:56] afternoon, asphalt road equipment came down Portland Street
[2:20:00] with large dump trucks going over 25.
[2:20:04] If there ever was a gateway to Yarmouth, it is Lower Portland Street
[2:20:09] walkers, joggers, high school track teams,
[2:20:12] packs of cyclists use the road and the sidewalk every day.
[2:20:17] Now, as far as monitoring of speeding traffic goes over the past several weeks,
[2:20:22] I have seen just a few, maybe
[2:20:26] five at most, probably fewer.
[2:20:30] Call us stopped and given speeding tickets
[2:20:34] and occasional passenger vehicle is pulled over.
[2:20:37] But I can't.
[2:20:38] In the years that I've been in Yarmouth, I can't recall a single commercial
[2:20:43] vehicle, truck, semi-trailer, gasoline or propane
[2:20:48] tanker pulled over and cited not even this big bus.
[2:20:53] Why not?
[2:20:55] A speeding vehicle is a speeding vehicle no matter what class.
[2:20:59] Now, this is not meant to criticize the Yarmouth police.
[2:21:02] I know that there aren't enough officers to constantly monitor
[2:21:06] the Yarmouth traffic, and handing out tickets will not solve the problem.
[2:21:10] Despite, and least in my view, despite what other people think,
[2:21:15] something structural and permanent needs to be done now.
[2:21:19] I appreciate the work that produced the Yarmouth Active Transportation Plan,
[2:21:24] and I've talked to Julie and Erin, appeared
[2:21:27] before the planning subcommittee a couple of weeks ago.
[2:21:31] But if this streetscape plan of seven years ago
[2:21:35] has completed only one of its four phases,
[2:21:38] I wonder how much of the ATP will come to fruition.
[2:21:43] Implementation. Now,
[2:21:46] bottom line is
[2:21:48] this is a matter of public safety
[2:21:52] and independent of the way ATP.
[2:21:55] I think that we need to do
[2:21:58] some implementation now.
[2:22:01] Now, I particularly am in favor of speed tables.
[2:22:06] I drive frequently on Stevens Avenue in Portland.
[2:22:11] There were speed tables on Stephen Avenue in Portland.
[2:22:15] Portland.
[2:22:15] Just recently, installed speed tables at Pace and Park.
[2:22:22] Well, if if there are giving giving
[2:22:26] the Portland DPW every
[2:22:30] consideration, why would they do that if it wasn't effective?
[2:22:35] And in light of that, I did speak by way of email
[2:22:39] to the Portland DPW when I asked them about speed tables.
[2:22:44] Number one, their cost effective
[2:22:47] speaking to, about the costs
[2:22:50] either now or down the line, not knowing what the cost would be about,
[2:22:55] curb improvements, speed tables would be more cost
[2:22:59] efficient than redoing the sidewalks and the and the curbing.
[2:23:05] It doesn't harm snowplows.
[2:23:08] The DPW told me,
[2:23:10] and they're long lasting.
[2:23:14] And again, they're cheaper.
[2:23:15] They're cheaper than curbing.
[2:23:17] Now, I don't mean to be parochial,
[2:23:20] but I'm concerned about Portland Street, and so are my neighbors.
[2:23:25] I know, and, I know that their petition has presented, been presented to the,
[2:23:31] planning committee, subcommittee about putting speed,
[2:23:36] tables on Portland Street.
[2:23:39] Now, there's even, among us on Portland Street.
[2:23:44] The idea that we would contribute
[2:23:47] the residents on Portland Street would contribute to the cost,
[2:23:52] if not to pay in full,
[2:23:54] the cost of speed tables.
[2:23:57] Now, there may be red tape, but it's so simple.
[2:24:02] If the town council will approve
[2:24:05] that private
[2:24:08] citizens, of a public, public community
[2:24:12] will pay for the speed tables, then what's wrong with that?
[2:24:16] And that could be a model for other streets
[2:24:20] and other parts of Yarmouth that citizens
[2:24:24] pay directly for safety.
[2:24:28] Implementation of speed tables.
[2:24:31] I urge the town council and the town manager
[2:24:34] to move swiftly on the ATP,
[2:24:38] and if the town doesn't accept all
[2:24:40] or even part of the plan, at least let's have speed tables.
[2:24:45] It's right.
[2:24:45] It can be done right away.
[2:24:47] No planning, no dealing with the dot.
[2:24:50] We're talking about municipal roads, not state roads.
[2:24:55] So we have control over that.
[2:24:57] And also to have citizen input
[2:25:00] and direct payment of speed tables.
[2:25:04] I know it won't completely solve
[2:25:07] Yarmouth's speeding problem, but it sure would mitigated.
[2:25:11] And so I urge you to consider what I have proposed.
[2:25:15] Thank you.
[2:25:16] Thank you, Mr.
[2:25:17] Styler.
[2:25:20] Anyone else want to comment on this?
[2:25:25] Yes, I can I
[2:25:27] we want to go, to a public comment on this closed.
[2:25:31] Yeah.
[2:25:38] Good evening.
[2:25:38] My name is Dan Austria.
[2:25:40] I live at 22 Starting to Point Road.
[2:25:43] I am the
[2:25:45] former chair of the bike ped committee, for 12 years,
[2:25:50] and, I, I couldn't be
[2:25:52] prouder of the work that, this committee has done.
[2:25:56] I think that I turned it over to very good hands.
[2:25:59] They have skill sets that I don't have, and,
[2:26:03] I didn't know that we did an active transportation plan in 2015.
[2:26:08] In fact, there was no such thing.
[2:26:10] It is a recent, I'll call it terminology.
[2:26:17] But we started in 2009, with the idea
[2:26:22] of making this a better connected and safer town.
[2:26:26] And we did that with little steps,
[2:26:29] and we found old plans
[2:26:32] that had ideas in them, and we tried to implement them.
[2:26:36] And, one of the things that I learned
[2:26:38] is having those plans is one of the most important things.
[2:26:42] I think that you've heard some of the reasons why you want those plans.
[2:26:46] But I can tell you a story about a plan that was written in 1988,
[2:26:51] called the Public Access and Recreation Plan.
[2:26:55] It was about the closest thing we had to an active,
[2:26:58] transportation plan back then.
[2:27:01] And it had this idea about a trail that ran down the, corridor,
[2:27:05] the CMP corridor, and, nobody figured out how to do it.
[2:27:10] And we said, why not?
[2:27:12] And I won't go into detail about what happened,
[2:27:15] but the fact that there was a plan,
[2:27:18] that the council had approved made a huge difference
[2:27:23] in our ability to actually execute that plan.
[2:27:27] And so I think that it's really important
[2:27:29] to get this, this plan approved.
[2:27:33] There will be changes.
[2:27:35] It's a living document.
[2:27:38] I think that that's one of the things that, I would encourage
[2:27:41] the council to do is to make sure that this is treated as a living document.
[2:27:47] And by that, I mean, you know, every year have some kind of report that said,
[2:27:51] how do we do? Do we get anything done?
[2:27:54] What do we want to do next year and every three, five years updated?
[2:27:59] Because once you've checked all this stuff off, which I hope you will,
[2:28:04] then you have an opportunity to say, what's next?
[2:28:07] How do we do this? Better?
[2:28:09] And I think that that's really important.
[2:28:12] So, you guys did a great job.
[2:28:15] Julie.
[2:28:17] Erin, you also did a great job.
[2:28:19] The other point that I would make is that having these plans
[2:28:23] and seeing the cost of $150,000 is to do it.
[2:28:27] I'll call it the formal engineered way.
[2:28:30] And many times there are opportunities to do things,
[2:28:34] much more efficiently than that.
[2:28:36] And, one of the other documents that we, we wrote,
[2:28:41] I think it was in 2018 was was a route one, complete streets plan.
[2:28:47] And that included a number of ideas up and down the, route one,
[2:28:52] the crossing, at the East Main Street spur to maples was one of them.
[2:28:57] It also connected, to Bayview Street.
[2:28:59] We also wanted a different sidewalk going into Hannaford's,
[2:29:04] and that would have required shrinking the the entrance.
[2:29:07] There would have been major controversy, major cost.
[2:29:10] And, it was two years ago, TD Bank
[2:29:14] came in for a, an application to do some improvements.
[2:29:18] And our wily planner, managed
[2:29:21] to get them to put a sidewalk in,
[2:29:24] that leads into the parking lot.
[2:29:27] I mean, we still don't have a sidewalk all the way to the building, but
[2:29:31] that saves people from having to risk life and limb crossing five lanes of traffic.
[2:29:36] With people turning right, coming south, it's a nightmare.
[2:29:41] So just having a plan and a vision for something.
[2:29:45] Many times you can get 80% of the benefit from 20% of the effort.
[2:29:51] And I think I, I salute Aaron, for, being able to do that.
[2:29:56] And that's the real benefit of having these plans.
[2:29:59] They're going to they're going to change, you may find that
[2:30:03] there's a different way to do it by the time you're done.
[2:30:06] You see all these edge lane, stripes on the, on the roads here?
[2:30:11] We couldn't afford to put sidewalks in, but those things come
[2:30:14] very, very close to meeting all of those objectives.
[2:30:18] And that wasn't around in 2015 when we wrote our active transportation plan.
[2:30:24] I guess it was, but in 2016, it was.
[2:30:27] And, you'd be you may be surprised to know that Yarmouth
[2:30:31] has more roads with those striping on them
[2:30:34] than any other town in the country.
[2:30:38] So they work.
[2:30:39] They're efficient.
[2:30:40] They're, something that we should be considering more for traffic calming.
[2:30:46] And there are opportunities to do that right now.
[2:30:49] But I just I just wanted to to say that
[2:30:53] the other thing that I hope we can do very soon,
[2:30:57] because us warhorses are fading, is someplace capture
[2:31:03] all of the ideas and plans that have been, generated
[2:31:08] in the past 30 years for ideas
[2:31:11] like the connection down at the marinas.
[2:31:15] To get over the Royal River to Town Landing.
[2:31:19] That was done in 2012.
[2:31:22] In 2008, there was a plan to put a bridge over factories Island to connect,
[2:31:27] the Melissa Drive area into, Royal River Park.
[2:31:32] And then, you know, it would be, no stretch to get kids to the schools
[2:31:38] getting on what will be the Casco Bay trail in five, maybe ten years.
[2:31:44] But then you'd have completely off road.
[2:31:46] Not on sidewalk connections.
[2:31:48] I just hope that we can capture all of those someplace.
[2:31:53] They're not immediate needs, but remember
[2:31:56] I said it was 30 years before we built the West Side Trail? You.
[2:32:00] We have to also have not just the immediate,
[2:32:03] but the long term visions for this.
[2:32:06] A lot of people have put a lot of time into that.
[2:32:09] And I just ask that we do that before,
[2:32:12] you know, all of us who are around for those, are gone
[2:32:16] and they're just sitting on a shelf not being used.
[2:32:19] So again, congratulations.
[2:32:21] I think that this is a great step.
[2:32:23] It's something that we, we've, we've been advocating for, for many years.
[2:32:28] I think that the work that we did put us in a position to do this.
[2:32:32] Now, and I'm fully in support and hope that you will support us, too.
[2:32:37] Thank you.
[2:32:38] Thank you, Mr.
[2:32:39] Ostrom.
[2:32:41] Anyone else for public comment?
[2:32:46] If not.
[2:32:47] Okay, I'm going to close the public comment, period.
[2:32:49] Bring it back to the council.
[2:32:50] Now, remember, it's we're here to decide if we advance this
[2:32:55] to the voting meeting, so, that should be our most the bulk of our discussion.
[2:32:59] Certainly at the voting meeting. We can discuss this more.
[2:33:01] We can talk about it at the office meeting if we'd like to.
[2:33:05] But, bring it back.
[2:33:06] Any question? Discussion.
[2:33:08] Council. Monty, did you have anything?
[2:33:09] You're also okay clarifying.
[2:33:12] Okay.
[2:33:15] What are we exactly being asked to vote on in in two weeks?
[2:33:19] We just endorsed this one.
[2:33:21] It's not to fund it in any way, obviously.
[2:33:23] Or to,
[2:33:28] Is it just an endorsement saying.
[2:33:29] Yeah, it's a good idea.
[2:33:30] I believe that's what we're being asked to do is to endorse, the plan,
[2:33:33] by moving it forward
[2:33:36] in two weeks, we'll vote on whether to endorse the plan.
[2:33:39] Okay.
[2:33:39] Typically, we get plans to introduce,
[2:33:44] Described to us, and then we
[2:33:46] debate it, and then we either accept it or we don't.
[2:33:50] We can always push back and say, we'd like you to change this
[2:33:52] or that and then do it.
[2:33:54] Any other,
[2:33:56] Oh, yes.
[2:33:56] Councilor Tang, I see your hand up.
[2:34:00] Thanks.
[2:34:00] Just curious.
[2:34:02] I mean, shouldn't we all read the plan
[2:34:04] before we decide to vote?
[2:34:07] Should shut? Yes.
[2:34:09] I mean, I think that's important, right?
[2:34:11] So, I mean, I've, I've read once,
[2:34:15] I could definitely read it again.
[2:34:19] Now, with all this other input and some of my questions answered it,
[2:34:23] it doesn't make sense to vote to put it on the agenda, to vote on it.
[2:34:29] If some of us it was, you know, I mean, I need to refresh.
[2:34:33] I won't speak for anybody else.
[2:34:34] So I'm wondering
[2:34:39] about that part of it.
[2:34:41] Yeah, sure.
[2:34:42] Well, there's a couple of things we can do here.
[2:34:44] First of all, we've got a couple weeks.
[2:34:45] So yes, I would assume and I would hope that everyone on the council would,
[2:34:49] would read it.
[2:34:49] Prior to that, we can also have this on the agenda for our next ops meeting,
[2:34:53] those, you know, operations meeting next week if we want to,
[2:34:58] talk about it amongst ourselves in that,
[2:35:02] how do we feel about that?
[2:35:03] We want to add on the ops agenda or.
[2:35:08] Yeah, I think that's a good idea.
[2:35:11] And if I could make a request,
[2:35:13] other hard copies available, I can do a I sent them to you, but I can have you do?
[2:35:19] Yes, but I can happily put one for you and and provided it as well.
[2:35:25] That would be great.
[2:35:25] Thank you.
[2:35:26] Would be helpful if you could pick it up, I will post it will break any,
[2:35:30] any objection to putting on the operations meeting next week?
[2:35:34] Oh, okay. So let's do that.
[2:35:37] And in terms of,
[2:35:42] we still need to, schedule action there.
[2:35:45] We're saying in this, we, we would schedule action thereon.
[2:35:48] So, how are we feeling about
[2:35:52] discussion at the ops meeting and then, about into weeks?
[2:35:57] Good to move it.
[2:35:59] We're seeing some thumbs up.
[2:36:00] Council telling you, you just unmuted to.
[2:36:02] You want to say anything?
[2:36:03] Yes. I see your hand.
[2:36:06] Why don't we discuss it at the ops meeting first and then advance it?
[2:36:11] Because we have to make the decision at this meeting.
[2:36:14] So that's what I'm saying.
[2:36:15] How will we go about that?
[2:36:16] Makes more logical sense to me.
[2:36:18] So would it be me putting up as a motion to table it for now?
[2:36:22] And then we talk about the ops meeting and then come back and and
[2:36:26] and decide on the vote.
[2:36:28] Now it wouldn't be the that wouldn't be the procedure
[2:36:30] because we don't have those, formalities at the workshop.
[2:36:34] However, what we would do is we say, look, if there's
[2:36:37] if there's concern that two weeks is too soon, we can always,
[2:36:42] bring up the ops meeting.
[2:36:44] I mean, the council can kind of, you know, we get consensus around this.
[2:36:47] We could put it on the ops meeting next week, and we could bring it back
[2:36:51] for scheduling action at next month's workshop.
[2:36:54] So we'd actually be voting on it in, October.
[2:36:58] Would be would be the, the way we would do that.
[2:37:02] Yeah.
[2:37:03] So I guess, I mean, it sounds like you're advocating for that.
[2:37:06] Is that am I correct in that or that's correct.
[2:37:09] I mean, I, I, I'd ask my other fellow councilors
[2:37:12] is, is, reading 90 pages of this.
[2:37:16] Can you do it within a week?
[2:37:19] Okay, okay.
[2:37:20] You know what I mean?
[2:37:21] Like, I don't know anybody else's agenda and how busy they are in their lives.
[2:37:26] So, I mean, I know I'm going to be busy, but I've read it once
[2:37:29] so I can go back and read the areas with tonight's
[2:37:33] comments in mind to get a better idea, and I'm ready to discuss it.
[2:37:38] But I don't want to.
[2:37:40] I don't want to, you know, push that.
[2:37:43] Yep. My timeline.
[2:37:45] Well, let's hear from the councilors and see.
[2:37:46] I see what you're saying. Councilor Monti.
[2:37:48] Yeah. I think, this is the job of being a councilor.
[2:37:51] We've had the materials.
[2:37:52] We know that, I don't think we can move things
[2:37:57] because we haven't.
[2:37:58] We haven't taken the time to read that, that we have a process
[2:38:00] and it should continue on the timeline of the process.
[2:38:03] I'm sure there'll be weeks where I feel like I'm less prepared than I wish I was.
[2:38:07] But the expectation is we do the work and that's when it happens.
[2:38:11] Okay.
[2:38:12] So you're advocating we move it for two weeks from now?
[2:38:15] Yeah, it goes to ops, we can chat more, but we are ready to go in two weeks,
[2:38:18] I'm sure. Sure. Councilor Abbott, I see your hand up.
[2:38:22] I agree with Councilor Monti.
[2:38:24] I'm ready to move this in.
[2:38:26] You know, throw it.
[2:38:28] Okay.
[2:38:28] And how do we build some table?
[2:38:31] Okay, so it looks like, I think the consensus
[2:38:34] that I'm seeing here is that we put it on the ops meeting.
[2:38:37] Next week for discussion.
[2:38:39] We've got two weeks, where I believe, you know, everyone who anyone
[2:38:43] who hasn't read it or wants to read it again should commit to doing that.
[2:38:46] Within the next two weeks, I will we will move it to the voting meeting.
[2:38:50] In two weeks.
[2:38:52] Okay.
[2:38:55] At ten minutes of nine, we move on to item
[2:38:58] number three,
[2:39:01] to consider requests of residents of Beaumont and Limerick Street.
[2:39:04] Kearney village, regarding maintenance, ownership of a pedestrian bridge,
[2:39:11] do you want to do do you want me to I mean, it's
[2:39:13] I was you haven't been around for a whole lot of the history.
[2:39:16] No, I wasn't in here.
[2:39:17] But I got off by just reading a little bit of the files.
[2:39:20] But I think, Dan, you're probably going to be the one introducing this.
[2:39:22] So she's written to you.
[2:39:24] The folks on Moore and Limerick,
[2:39:28] have some,
[2:39:31] private infrastructure
[2:39:32] that has public rights in use and, and shared with the public.
[2:39:36] And they have asked in the past, for relief or for the town
[2:39:40] to assume their ownership,
[2:39:44] position and responsibilities for them and turn it over to the town and,
[2:39:48] they'd like to come forward and try to see if that can be answered now.
[2:39:53] And, I know that they've narrowed the area of interest
[2:39:57] and request considerably from the prior presentation.
[2:40:00] So it's down to a, a smaller issue.
[2:40:03] So I, I think unless you need me to say more of you,
[2:40:06] turn it over to folks and let them tell their story.
[2:40:09] But thank you.
[2:40:15] I mean, just such as this.
[2:40:18] Hello, everybody. I'm Diane Nichols.
[2:40:20] I'm the president of Makani Village two HOA, and I want to thank the council
[2:40:25] for giving us the opportunity to address this issue.
[2:40:28] Before you, I hope everybody has had a chance to read my submission.
[2:40:33] The second submission was the only change in
[2:40:36] it was citing the legal citation to the area in question,
[2:40:40] which is I'm going to refer to it as wetland Bridge slash.
[2:40:45] You know, the path it's legal description is common area three,
[2:40:50] which, most of the counselors have been out to the area to see it
[2:40:54] firsthand and to walk it and get a general idea of the neighborhood
[2:40:59] and how it intersects and connects with other
[2:41:03] with Makani village one, which is kindred,
[2:41:07] Kindred Road,
[2:41:09] which is a public street, and fieldstone drive where there is also a path.
[2:41:14] But I want to go back a little bit.
[2:41:16] And I know, Nate, you were around for this when the subdivision was approved.
[2:41:21] Many, many years ago, almost ten years ago.
[2:41:25] Part of the approval process was
[2:41:27] that the town wanted a connection between the two neighborhoods
[2:41:32] that would be a pedestrian and bike connection
[2:41:36] as a conduit to get to Makani one public street,
[2:41:40] which in turn would go to the schools,
[2:41:43] the three schools over in that area.
[2:41:47] So there was a compromise with the developer
[2:41:49] to build a gravel walkway and a pedestrian bridge
[2:41:53] that would allow that connection while also protecting the wetlands.
[2:41:59] And so the builder constructed the bridge according to that standard,
[2:42:04] as well as the planning board had certain specifications
[2:42:08] for the gravel path as well as the wetland bridge.
[2:42:12] So the builder built that to the exact specifications.
[2:42:16] And I don't know if Dan Oster, he's not here anymore, but
[2:42:20] he was a little annoyed because he thought it was an ugly bridge
[2:42:24] and that we should have consulted with the,
[2:42:28] you know, the West Side Trail people and all that.
[2:42:31] But the builder built it according to the specs approved by the town.
[2:42:35] The town also at that time in 2017, required
[2:42:40] Bowmore Lane and Limerick Drive to have white painted, segmented,
[2:42:45] like like pedestrian lanes so that anybody driving down the street
[2:42:51] would know that this was going to be used by bicyclists and walkers, pedestrians.
[2:42:57] So those, among other conditions of the subdivision, were
[2:43:01] the ones that the builder did comply with subsequent
[2:43:05] to the the HOA being formed.
[2:43:08] And part of the HOA is requirement for that common area
[2:43:12] three was that we would maintain it, repair it,
[2:43:17] replace it, and we have to assume liability for it,
[2:43:21] which we've done for the last, basically, seven years.
[2:43:27] So then subsequently, I think it was in 2020.
[2:43:31] I don't exactly know the exact date.
[2:43:34] But it was after the wetland bridge was put in
[2:43:38] that the town built the fieldstone trail bridge, which intersects
[2:43:44] fields, the fieldstone drive area, which is a public street
[2:43:48] to our path.
[2:43:51] There is a direct link.
[2:43:53] And I think all those who came out, you saw that that greatly increase
[2:43:58] the traffic that the pedestrian bicycle use off of the trail.
[2:44:03] And it was intentional on the part of the town
[2:44:05] because the town, again, the whole objective, which was a perfect segue
[2:44:09] from the last discussion, was to increase
[2:44:13] pedestrian and bicycle connectivity throughout the, the town of Yarmouth.
[2:44:19] And so the fieldstone path came in, and that is a very long path.
[2:44:24] It's mostly dirt.
[2:44:25] And then there's a boardwalk,
[2:44:27] and it's probably, I don't know the exact measurements of it,
[2:44:30] but it's probably 2 to 3 times as long as ours.
[2:44:34] And I will note that as a result
[2:44:37] of that connection to Fieldstone Drive, all these other neighborhoods
[2:44:42] across 115, including where you live, David and Rainbow Farms Village Run
[2:44:47] and all these little, you know, areas over there are using it,
[2:44:51] as well as the fact that all the people
[2:44:54] from Makani and Applewood and so forth.
[2:44:57] In addition, after that, the West Side
[2:45:00] Trail, which was part which sort of a cooperative partnership
[2:45:05] with the town, expanded out toward our area.
[2:45:09] And part of it was they wanted to expand the trail network over by Applewood
[2:45:15] and Oakwood, and if so, if our trail if our trail and path were there,
[2:45:20] that gave them even more connectivity to other parts of the town.
[2:45:24] So as a result of the West Side Trail coming in as well,
[2:45:28] along with the fieldstone path,
[2:45:30] we had greater use of our trail and it's only grown exponentially.
[2:45:35] Also, the town, and I don't know when this happened,
[2:45:38] put it on their trail network official website.
[2:45:43] And they also I dropped it, but I have the little
[2:45:47] printed thing,
[2:45:49] and it's listed by name, Bowmore Lane,
[2:45:53] as an unpaved trail as part of the school trail complex network.
[2:45:58] So the town has had an intention, as we heard from Galen and Company
[2:46:03] for many, many years, to increase
[2:46:06] pedestrian and bicycle network throughout the town.
[2:46:10] And so our trail currently serves that purpose as well.
[2:46:15] Also, the town has informed us that they're going to cut a curb
[2:46:19] and place a sidewalk on Hillside Street to increase connectivity.
[2:46:24] And obviously safety, because there's so many kids that walk on the hillside
[2:46:29] to get to the schools, you know, morning and afternoon,
[2:46:32] as well as all the other people who are using the trail all day as well.
[2:46:37] So those are clear indications that our trail is an important
[2:46:41] component of the larger,
[2:46:44] our bridge and trail are part of the
[2:46:47] the town's efforts to increase connectivity in the area.
[2:46:51] I want to note that in 2024, on November
[2:46:54] 7th, a memorandum was prepared by the town engineer
[2:46:58] which relieved us of the obligation to, do snow
[2:47:02] removal on the entire area.
[2:47:06] And as a result, there is
[2:47:09] people are just getting by when it snows, that gets packed down and everything.
[2:47:14] So it's okay.
[2:47:15] It's nobody's had any problems on it.
[2:47:18] I want to note, though, that when that obligation was relieved,
[2:47:23] the town engineer noted that it would be similar
[2:47:26] to other adjacent paths,
[2:47:30] which is basically the fieldstone trail
[2:47:34] because the town doesn't do any maintenance on that at all.
[2:47:37] They don't remove any snow.
[2:47:38] They don't do anything.
[2:47:40] So one of the things that was mentioned in the,
[2:47:46] memorandum was that if the town were to take it over,
[2:47:49] we would have to, at our expense, HOA expense,
[2:47:54] bring it up to current town standards for a sidewalk, meaning
[2:47:59] that it would have to be able to hold heavy equipment and provide snow removal.
[2:48:04] It would require the bridge to be reconstructed,
[2:48:08] as well as the path to be reconfigured and wider.
[2:48:12] So my question to the town is why?
[2:48:16] If it's not a requirement now, why would it be a requirement
[2:48:20] for you all to take it over?
[2:48:21] Because it's not being there's no obligation of snow removal now.
[2:48:26] In addition, it would defeat the whole intention
[2:48:29] of the town's trail network and increasing connectivity
[2:48:33] throughout the town of having a bicycle and pedestrian path throughout the town.
[2:48:40] Also, it would detrimentally impact the wetlands,
[2:48:44] which the town is obviously want to protect.
[2:48:47] So I wanted to bring that important distinction to bear,
[2:48:51] because if the town is not requiring us to do it now,
[2:48:56] they can't suddenly impose a standard and say, well, wait a minute, you can't
[2:49:00] for us to take it over, you guys have to bring it up to to code,
[2:49:04] and then we'll take it over.
[2:49:05] And then they want a, a right of way
[2:49:09] to bring trucks on the street to take the equipment off.
[2:49:13] My point is that it's not necessary now, and it won't be necessary in the future.
[2:49:18] However, we are still
[2:49:21] bearing the costs and the responsibility
[2:49:24] of the maintenance, repair, replacement and liability of this path,
[2:49:29] which is serving as an integral part of the Yarmouth Greater Trail network.
[2:49:35] And we believe that it's an undue burden
[2:49:37] on our HOA, which no other HOA has.
[2:49:41] So to the best of my knowledge,
[2:49:44] there is no other HOA
[2:49:47] in Yarmouth who has a similar situation
[2:49:50] with a private infrastructure that connects
[2:49:54] internally to other public streets and neighborhoods and
[2:50:00] and is identified on the town's website in the material
[2:50:04] as a unpaved trail.
[2:50:08] And it just seems that this is an undue burden on us.
[2:50:13] So there therefore, there's no precedent that would be set,
[2:50:17] or any bad precedent or any precedent
[2:50:20] for that matter at all, because there's no other subdivision
[2:50:24] that is in this situation currently that that we are aware of.
[2:50:30] In addition,
[2:50:32] the character in use throughout these last seven years as a result
[2:50:36] of all these factors that I just mentioned, has increased tremendously.
[2:50:41] I have not.
[2:50:42] My house is adjacent to the area,
[2:50:45] so I see more than other neighbors do that are down the street.
[2:50:50] I was the second owner in the neighborhood.
[2:50:53] The amount of usage has dramatically increased
[2:50:57] over the year, year after year after year,
[2:51:00] and having it part of this trail map system
[2:51:04] has obviously made it even more so.
[2:51:07] And there was no way, when we bought into this neighborhood
[2:51:11] that any of us could have foreseen the increased use of this area
[2:51:17] that has happened.
[2:51:18] And plus we had no control over it
[2:51:21] because the town was actively pursuing it
[2:51:26] as part of the greater trail network throughout the town.
[2:51:30] So for those reasons and those reasons that I've outlined
[2:51:34] in my submission to you all,
[2:51:37] we believe that this trail, this bridge trail, serves
[2:51:42] an important municipal public function in Yarmouth.
[2:51:47] And therefore, we are requesting that the town
[2:51:52] take over this common area three
[2:51:56] and relieve us of this obligation.
[2:52:00] Okay.
[2:52:02] I just I just want checkmate.
[2:52:03] I didn't know if you're done.
[2:52:05] Yeah.
[2:52:05] I mean, I will just say lastly that I just think that given the circumstances
[2:52:10] and given the location and the importance of the of it being the conduit that it is
[2:52:16] it it's more than justified for the town
[2:52:19] to at least to consider assuming ownership of this.
[2:52:24] Thank you.
[2:52:26] I'm going to see if the councilors have any questions.
[2:52:29] And they might be for you. Okay.
[2:52:31] Do you want me to stay up here? Might be for town.
[2:52:33] Said. Yeah. I mean, it shouldn't be available.
[2:52:35] It could be for, I don't see any town stopping.
[2:52:38] It might be for someone else to, Does any, council.
[2:52:42] I see your hand up.
[2:52:44] I missed that course.
[2:52:45] Question for you all.
[2:52:46] Can you just,
[2:52:50] tell us how much the HOA has paid,
[2:52:53] for liability insurance for that
[2:52:57] bridge?
[2:52:58] Currently it increases yearly.
[2:53:02] Currently. Right now, it's about 600,
[2:53:05] if I'm not mistaken, $685 per year at the current rate.
[2:53:11] And that is, we have coverage up to I believe it's,
[2:53:16] two incidents, up to $4 million.
[2:53:21] Thank you.
[2:53:22] Council.
[2:53:23] I think it would be for that information to find out.
[2:53:25] Is this,
[2:53:26] in fact the case that there's no other HOA with a similar arrangement in town?
[2:53:30] So we to know that,
[2:53:32] I don't know, off top of my head, I'm not I'm not going to be able
[2:53:35] to think of one off top it.
[2:53:36] But we do have a number of private properties where there's
[2:53:40] a public easement across their property, where there's no paper street,
[2:53:43] or whether it's a subdivision plan where it was specifically laid out
[2:53:48] in, more frequent, more current years,
[2:53:51] I should say, frequently the requirement goes to the developer.
[2:53:55] To put that trail in question of maintenance is usually less
[2:53:58] because there's no bridge.
[2:54:03] So it's not unheard of, certainly, that we have public easement,
[2:54:06] public rights over private properties, whether they're condos
[2:54:10] or regular developments or individual lots.
[2:54:15] Sometimes we negotiate to acquire them.
[2:54:18] So I think generally it's probably true.
[2:54:22] I certainly wouldn't quibble with it.
[2:54:23] I don't know any different facts.
[2:54:25] Can I just interject?
[2:54:27] Yeah, I think also, if I'm assuming what you're saying obviously is correct,
[2:54:32] the difference here is that we are a conduit to the schools.
[2:54:38] The West Side Trail, and it is being promoted on here.
[2:54:43] I did not see any like I scoured this map.
[2:54:46] I did not see any other areas on here that were an HOA,
[2:54:52] part of the trail system.
[2:54:54] So I do think that our neighborhood is uniquely different because of where
[2:55:00] we're situated within the greater plan
[2:55:04] of the, trail connectivity.
[2:55:07] So just wondering if that's coming up for debate in terms of like precedent,
[2:55:10] are we going to have to do this for so many others?
[2:55:12] Like somebody must know that, right.
[2:55:13] That's knowable information is, are there any.
[2:55:16] Well, this is to the best of my knowledge.
[2:55:18] So this is the guy, right?
[2:55:19] This online outlet. Like, I'm so someone to ask.
[2:55:21] I guess that's what I'm getting at before.
[2:55:23] I think that would take a fair amount of research,
[2:55:25] but it's certainly not common that would be in this position.
[2:55:29] And I, I just wouldn't want to cite one.
[2:55:31] We would have commercial establishments where we ask for trail connections.
[2:55:35] And I don't want to quibble with her one bit about what she has to say, the fact
[2:55:40] that it serves an essential public use and value and is promoted as such.
[2:55:46] I can see why it would be a reason for her to say you.
[2:55:49] Therefore you guys should take it over.
[2:55:51] What I would, but it's not the only reason I, but it also saying
[2:55:57] because it accomplished exactly what it was intended to do.
[2:56:01] And so I don't think there's any,
[2:56:05] the town walking back saying, oh, we're sorry we did that
[2:56:09] because I don't think that would be a truthful statement that we wanted
[2:56:12] that we we want connectivity to give a little bit of history.
[2:56:16] And I'm a don't get involved with most subdivisions
[2:56:19] or didn't I'm not going to start today.
[2:56:24] Is at the time of that development,
[2:56:27] it was shortly after the council looked at new comprehensive plans
[2:56:30] and got very concerned and expressed
[2:56:34] a strong, policy preference.
[2:56:37] And I don't know if it was formalized or not
[2:56:40] that we not approve subdivisions that create dead end streets
[2:56:44] and cul de sacs, that everything be connected, and that there was a
[2:56:48] sort of a new way to think about the old way, if you will.
[2:56:52] Leaving out cul de sacs, which just leads to sprawl, traffic issues.
[2:56:56] Busses can't get through,
[2:56:57] you know, all that sort of stuff happens and it makes for a better community
[2:57:01] and all that gets reflected in the, in the,
[2:57:04] complete streets, plans, etc..
[2:57:07] So in this case, the developer proposed
[2:57:10] something that for good practical reasons, wouldn't
[2:57:14] connect the wetland in particular, despite the fact that we had a policy
[2:57:18] says you should and we're not going to waive that at least
[2:57:23] without maybe negotiating a resolution, which is,
[2:57:27] well, we can't get a Roadway Connect connectivity here,
[2:57:30] but we could do a pedestrian connectivity and maybe accept that as a compromise.
[2:57:34] And so that's what came forward as far as I can recall.
[2:57:38] And then and I don't think that was really a problem,
[2:57:42] but the intention was to create a network connection
[2:57:45] with the understanding that you tie into the network.
[2:57:49] And then subsequently,
[2:57:51] the issue came up of the burden of winter maintenance in particular,
[2:57:55] because you couldn't couldn't push anything over it with a heavy equipment,
[2:58:00] couldn't really find people to want to go shovel anymore.
[2:58:05] So I don't know the history
[2:58:07] of who authorized what other them.
[2:58:11] The memorandum which basically said.
[2:58:16] When the obligation was made
[2:58:18] to create maintain a trail, it was for winter use.
[2:58:21] And we understand the problem.
[2:58:22] And so
[2:58:24] a compromise, another compromise was made or a relief was given saying
[2:58:28] you're no longer going to hold you responsible for that part of it.
[2:58:32] And it kind of makes sense because we're not maintaining the rest of that.
[2:58:35] We're not plowing the rest of it.
[2:58:36] All that I agree with in a slightly different way, you understand the history
[2:58:42] and the motivations behind that, but not enough to to quibble about.
[2:58:46] But that's the background.
[2:58:47] So, you know, when you get relief from an obligation.
[2:58:54] You're free to say, because you gave me relief,
[2:58:57] you have to let me off the hook altogether.
[2:58:59] I don't necessarily accept that, but the rest of the argument
[2:59:03] that maybe it serves a sufficient enough successful
[2:59:08] public interest here that we would say, let's take it over as a town.
[2:59:13] And then really, the issue is,
[2:59:15] rebuilding the bridge at some point in the future,
[2:59:18] probably we wouldn't plywood
[2:59:21] and therefore wouldn't rebuild it until its natural life comes to a point
[2:59:25] where you say, oh,
[2:59:26] well, you know, we need to rebuild it because the rails are loose or whatever.
[2:59:30] I think that this stuff, I think certainly makes sense.
[2:59:32] I think the question I'm hoping to have answered
[2:59:34] so we can get to a vote on it, is if there's any way to know
[2:59:38] for the full record suite of data, understand what we're doing.
[2:59:41] Is are there other ones or not that are likely to come up?
[2:59:44] Sounds like the answer is probably no, but we're all
[2:59:46] I would think the town attorney might know that somebody, somebody and he,
[2:59:50] he or she should know that that might be one.
[2:59:52] Okay. I want to just if if I can.
[2:59:55] David, just address something that a couple of things Nate pointed out.
[2:59:59] Should the town take this over and,
[3:00:03] leave it the way it is, as accepted as is.
[3:00:06] And at the time when we've already replaced
[3:00:09] the gravel already because of all the motorized vehicles
[3:00:13] coming down and all of that, we've already done that.
[3:00:15] The bridge is in very good shape.
[3:00:17] It's pressure treated wood and whatever.
[3:00:21] The town could just actually
[3:00:22] just replicate that because underneath that bridge is the wetlands.
[3:00:27] I mean, the wetland.
[3:00:28] Well, it's dry now, for those of you who came out, very dry, bone dry,
[3:00:33] but it runs underneath that bridge and all the way around
[3:00:38] and under and alongside the fieldstone bridge.
[3:00:42] So, our argument is that the town,
[3:00:46] if they take this over, would leave it as is and maintain
[3:00:51] it as is throughout for future generations.
[3:00:56] And again, I do want to stress that
[3:00:59] the amount of people, whether it be children or adults
[3:01:04] using this path bridge over
[3:01:07] the years has grown exponentially.
[3:01:10] There's also been changed uses
[3:01:13] of the path and bridge because when I first moved in,
[3:01:17] there was no motorized vehicles crossing it.
[3:01:21] And there were no,
[3:01:23] there weren't virtually no, like, cross-country skiers or snow showers.
[3:01:28] Well, that's increased dramatically during the winter as well.
[3:01:32] And part of our, is stewardship of this area.
[3:01:37] We have put up signs prohibiting motor vehicle
[3:01:40] motorized motor vehicles, which is basically ignored.
[3:01:44] We've also put reflector lights on the bridge
[3:01:47] to because people use it at night as well.
[3:01:50] And so we also have
[3:01:53] maintained the grass cut.
[3:01:56] There's like a lawn next to the path on both sides.
[3:02:00] I mow my side, my neighbor does her sides.
[3:02:03] And we also have a, kid who does the HOA who tidies it up as well.
[3:02:09] So we have been very good stewards
[3:02:12] of this area and continue to be.
[3:02:15] However, the change in the character and use of this bridge since its inception
[3:02:21] and since the town approved the entire subdivision
[3:02:24] which included this, has changed dramatically.
[3:02:28] And those kinds of things were unforeseen to us
[3:02:31] when we bought into this subdivision.
[3:02:34] If I, you know, personally, if I knew now what I
[3:02:38] back then, I wouldn't have gotten here.
[3:02:41] I literally that would have been a game changer for me,
[3:02:45] the entire thing.
[3:02:47] So there was no way that we could foresee
[3:02:50] this when we first bought into the neighborhood.
[3:02:54] And again, the fact that the town recognizes it's changing exponentially,
[3:02:59] or they wouldn't be cutting a curb on hillside and putting in a sidewalk
[3:03:03] if the growth weren't
[3:03:04] continually to increase, because there would be no need for it.
[3:03:09] So that's kind of like our, you know, the thrust of our argument
[3:03:13] that the character
[3:03:13] and uses change, that we were relieved of the winter maintenance.
[3:03:17] So there's no reason for, it to be reconfigured or reconstructed.
[3:03:23] And also there's absolutely no bad precedent set
[3:03:26] nor any precedent for that matter, that we're aware of
[3:03:31] that would
[3:03:33] not you all would not take it over.
[3:03:35] And we firmly believe that this does, given its location,
[3:03:40] the amount of traffic and the change, the entire change over the last seven years,
[3:03:46] it's really becoming an integral part of the Greater Yarmouth Trail network.
[3:03:51] And it does serve a very it it serves a link
[3:03:56] as part of its mean municipal
[3:04:01] services of Yarmouth
[3:04:04] to justify this.
[3:04:06] Councilor Cooper.
[3:04:08] Just, I was, I'm
[3:04:10] very glad to go there and
[3:04:13] have you give me a tour of the area and,
[3:04:17] because it really puts in perspective what's unique about this.
[3:04:23] And so the, the question of whether there are other
[3:04:28] easements or other situations like this, I think is,
[3:04:33] is not germane because your situation is unique
[3:04:38] in that it's, it's a it's the way kids get to school.
[3:04:43] Three of us, three out of our four schools.
[3:04:46] And I live on West Elm Street,
[3:04:49] which, I've lived there 14 years now.
[3:04:52] And I can tell you that the amount of bicycle traffic
[3:04:57] on the on the sidewalk across the street, we only have sidewalk on one side,
[3:05:02] has grown tremendously.
[3:05:05] And I think that's because the bike and ped
[3:05:09] committee has done so much to increase connectivity.
[3:05:13] And maybe it's just the culture of the kids,
[3:05:16] I don't know, but there's bicycle after bicycle after bicycle,
[3:05:21] and I've as and from your description, it sounds like it's the same,
[3:05:26] in your neighborhood, from from another
[3:05:28] part of town, from Applewood, you know, whatever.
[3:05:32] The kids are coming like crazy and also, and also using the West Side trail and,
[3:05:38] and and using this as, as part of, going from one trail to another.
[3:05:43] So that's what's unique here.
[3:05:46] And that's why I, I favor, the town taking over
[3:05:50] fiscal responsibility for, for this very small area.
[3:05:55] Really?
[3:05:56] Because it's the only situation,
[3:06:00] where we're seeing this kind of,
[3:06:05] use, you know, this,
[3:06:06] very large use by by,
[3:06:10] pedestrians and especially by bike.
[3:06:13] Kids on bikes.
[3:06:15] Well, and to your point, once the fieldstone,
[3:06:18] drive path was open, the amount of of kids.
[3:06:23] Certainly great. And, greatly increased.
[3:06:26] So if you are over in our neighborhood between the hours of about 730 to 9,
[3:06:32] I mean, it's like the the kids are walking, they're biking.
[3:06:36] The parents are taking them, you know, the elementary kids
[3:06:40] as well as, you know, all the kids from village run
[3:06:43] and where David lives in Rainbow Farms, it just keeps growing and growing.
[3:06:49] And I know that when I drive out of the neighborhood during school hours,
[3:06:54] and I see the amount of kids coming up
[3:06:57] Hillside Street toward the schools, and what do they do?
[3:07:00] When I look in my rearview mirror, they turn on Limerick
[3:07:03] to cut through our neighborhood and then go down Kindred Way,
[3:07:08] and then go across the street into the middle school
[3:07:11] parking lot to get to school, because they don't want to ride
[3:07:15] their bikes or walk on hillside.
[3:07:18] So they cut through our neighborhood and there's just more and more of that.
[3:07:22] And that's Necess cutting the town to cut a curb and put a sidewalk.
[3:07:28] Thing there,
[3:07:30] because there is a curb cut and sidewalk on the corner of Kindred Way.
[3:07:34] As you go in across from the, parking lot to the,
[3:07:38] what is it, the middle school.
[3:07:41] But and this is, you know, not even a quarter mile away.
[3:07:45] That's how much traffic there is.
[3:07:46] That necessitates that.
[3:07:51] Anything else from the council?
[3:07:55] All right, well, we'll open it up
[3:07:57] now then, to public comment on this item.
[3:08:00] Can I.
[3:08:01] Oh, yeah.
[3:08:02] Yeah, please. Yes.
[3:08:02] And thank you for the presentation.
[3:08:05] But now it's for the rest of the public.
[3:08:08] If anyone wants to weigh in on this. Great.
[3:08:10] And when that's done, we'll bring it back to the council and decide
[3:08:12] what to do in terms of moving it forward or not.
[3:08:17] Not seeing anybody rushing to the podium.
[3:08:22] Yeah, yeah.
[3:08:23] That's fine.
[3:08:23] No, that's fine. And we certainly not.
[3:08:26] No one's required to at 920.
[3:08:29] You know, I'm not exactly inviting people to stand in line for hours.
[3:08:34] Okay.
[3:08:35] Let's bring it back.
[3:08:36] Any, any other questions or comments
[3:08:40] before we decide if we're what we're doing in terms of moving it on the agenda.
[3:08:45] Everyone pretty okay,
[3:08:47] so, move it to the voting meeting in two weeks. Yes.
[3:08:51] Online.
[3:08:52] When we do the voting, you're saying no vote to the.
[3:08:56] So, Heather, you're saying not to move it to the voting meeting.
[3:09:00] Okay.
[3:09:00] And, council meeting.
[3:09:03] I'm saying yes.
[3:09:05] All right.
[3:09:05] So it looks like we've got consensus
[3:09:06] to move it to the, voting meeting in two weeks.
[3:09:11] And we'll
[3:09:13] well, we always have,
[3:09:15] voting item on the agenda of the operations meeting.
[3:09:19] So if anybody wants to talk about it, ops, we can do that, too.
[3:09:23] All right.
[3:09:26] One question.
[3:09:27] Sure. Yes, yes, that'd be fine.
[3:09:30] Please, please come to the mic though, because just for the broadcast,
[3:09:33] I just want to ask a procedural question.
[3:09:36] So if this obviously is going to move forward to the ops meeting on the seven,
[3:09:40] did you say the 18th?
[3:09:42] No. So, this is what the third today was.
[3:09:45] Okay.
[3:09:45] So on the 10th, we have our operations meeting, which is in the community room,
[3:09:49] pretty informal. We go over a bunch of topics.
[3:09:51] Usually if, people have questions about some things coming up, voting, we'll
[3:09:56] we'll talk.
[3:09:56] Do you want me to be there on the 10th?
[3:09:59] Is that necessary? Well, I'm happy to do it. Certainly.
[3:10:02] Welcome to be there. I'll be there.
[3:10:03] We don't have public comment at those.
[3:10:05] We would all we're likely to talk about amongst ourselves.
[3:10:09] It's possible we would, decide that.
[3:10:11] We want to ask you a question, but, it totally.
[3:10:15] It's a public meeting, so you're more than welcome to be there.
[3:10:16] Okay. Don't feel obligated.
[3:10:18] And then on the the following week, on the 17th, 17th would be the vote.
[3:10:22] Okay.
[3:10:23] Again, we will, we will, it will be very much like tonight.
[3:10:27] It'll be public comment.
[3:10:28] There'll be a discussion.
[3:10:30] I don't think we'll do the entire presentation again.
[3:10:32] Okay. I don't think we need to, because, You have.
[3:10:35] It's been televised. We've heard it.
[3:10:36] But we'll bring it up.
[3:10:39] We'll introduce the, the formal wording, which will be something like,
[3:10:43] authorizing the town to accept, you know, this
[3:10:47] parcel and, property and the all the responsibilities go with it.
[3:10:51] And then we'll open up,
[3:10:53] we'll have questions, we'll open up the public comment,
[3:10:55] we'll come back and have debate, and then we'll vote.
[3:10:57] All right. I'll be there both times.
[3:10:59] Yeah. Okay. Great. Great.
[3:11:00] We love to have, attendees. It's
[3:11:04] nice to look out and not see empty chairs.
[3:11:09] And we'll we'll now move on to item four.
[3:11:12] Yes. You're very welcome.
[3:11:13] Welcome. Yeah.
[3:11:15] Now we look at empty chairs.
[3:11:17] Great, great.
[3:11:19] It's okay.
[3:11:19] We still have Richard and a few other folks.
[3:11:21] Watch out for the kids driving home.
[3:11:24] All right.
[3:11:26] Rushing right along to item four
[3:11:28] to consider an amendment to chapter 401 of the Yarmouth Town Code
[3:11:32] Fees and Permits Ordinance regarding residential commercial bushel licenses
[3:11:36] under the Shellfish Conservation Ordinance.
[3:11:41] Mr. manager?
[3:11:42] Well, the quick intro.
[3:11:43] Yeah, this one is pretty easy.
[3:11:45] You adopted some changes to the shellfish ordinance.
[3:11:48] You created a new class of commercial license.
[3:11:50] It allows people to dig up to one bushel per day.
[3:11:54] And you intended to and did
[3:11:57] in in the motion create the fee, but in the wrong place.
[3:12:02] You didn't put it in the fee ordinance.
[3:12:04] So that's all that this First Amendment does, was to capture what you already did.
[3:12:09] And put it in chapter 401 where it belongs, where the resident
[3:12:12] commercial bushel license would go for $300,
[3:12:16] and the nonresident commercial bushel license would go for 450.
[3:12:20] Okay. So it's a housekeeping item.
[3:12:22] Any questions from the council about this?
[3:12:26] Consulting.
[3:12:28] So that means that the all the,
[3:12:33] shell fishermen,
[3:12:35] shell farmers, diggers, they're aware that once this goes in, it's
[3:12:40] now going to increase like every other fee in chapter 401.
[3:12:44] Right now, it's going to be, with the cap plus 1%.
[3:12:50] No, I don't know what you mean.
[3:12:54] Okay.
[3:12:54] Know I can address that, I think so this is actually a new fee.
[3:12:58] It would not, affect, you know, people
[3:13:01] getting, commercial licenses or regular digging licenses.
[3:13:05] Those those are standalone.
[3:13:07] They're unaffected by this.
[3:13:09] This is a new a new license for just a bushel.
[3:13:12] I guess there's only,
[3:13:15] it will.
[3:13:15] However, if it's in chapter 401,
[3:13:18] like all the other fees, we do have an automatic.
[3:13:21] As you point out, consultation.
[3:13:24] We do have, an automatic, escalator,
[3:13:27] tied to, tied to an index.
[3:13:31] So this would be included in that.
[3:13:33] Now, we do have a few that don't do that.
[3:13:35] Sewer fee, for example,
[3:13:36] does not get indexed, but, yeah, like all other ones, it would,
[3:13:40] and that's probably not aware of that because we wasn't here when we did that.
[3:13:43] That's news to me.
[3:13:44] But in any case, all the more reason that it be in chapter 401,
[3:13:47] if that's where you intended it for to be.
[3:13:51] Now, this is only for the license to get sold.
[3:13:54] The council approved a total of four licenses,
[3:13:59] which means no nonresident licenses were going to be made available.
[3:14:05] That number is set every year.
[3:14:06] But the state, on reviewing this elsewhere, told us
[3:14:11] you can't create a license that's only for residents.
[3:14:14] You can, under law limit it to residents
[3:14:17] only if you're selling fewer than five.
[3:14:22] If it's more than that, and it must be, a minimum of 10%
[3:14:25] need to go to nonresidents.
[3:14:28] Basically, you get to round down
[3:14:29] at five my, consultation to answer your question as well.
[3:14:33] Make sure you.
[3:14:33] Yeah.
[3:14:33] No, I just want to make sure that I don't believe I think I stop there.
[3:14:39] I just don't know if the shellfish committee
[3:14:42] or the members on the shellfish committee understood that.
[3:14:46] Once we put this in 401, that will escalate
[3:14:52] their cost of their permit each year,
[3:14:54] I just that was just a question.
[3:14:57] If the escalator would apply and if the shellfish committee members
[3:15:02] who advocated for this knew that it would increase both.
[3:15:06] You know, the cap plus one.
[3:15:08] I, I that's all. Yeah. I don't I know that
[3:15:12] I may we might get an answer for that.
[3:15:15] Yeah.
[3:15:15] I'm Lynn Camano, the, president of the Shellfish Commission.
[3:15:18] I am now informed.
[3:15:22] Okay. Is it?
[3:15:23] And I, sorry.
[3:15:25] Yeah, yeah.
[3:15:27] A week, meaning the CPI plus 1%.
[3:15:31] Yes. Sorry CPI okay.
[3:15:33] No, that's no problem.
[3:15:34] The number indexes.
[3:15:35] So I'll, I'm sure it's in the, it's in the, in the ordinance someplace.
[3:15:39] Yes. Okay.
[3:15:40] This that I didn't know about that one. Right.
[3:15:42] Thanks. But,
[3:15:45] so let me just before we're kind of kind of
[3:15:49] going into public comment range territory, which is okay.
[3:15:52] Is there anything else quickly in the council? Okay.
[3:15:55] I'm going to open for public comment. Anybody wants to speak now?
[3:15:57] Yeah. Go ahead. You know, when you say sort of in range.
[3:16:02] Rachel Whitmarsh, also a member.
[3:16:03] I'm North Yarmouth, but I'm the,
[3:16:05] also in the commission, so did not realize that it shows
[3:16:08] that there's an escalator within that because we've never had that before.
[3:16:11] We've always, as a commission, approved our number of licenses and,
[3:16:15] approve the rates every year when we vote on that site.
[3:16:19] So if we need to I don't know if we need to
[3:16:22] put out, information to also the diggers.
[3:16:26] There's,
[3:16:27] so it's a good point.
[3:16:28] I so we we made this so we had a discussion
[3:16:32] as a council last year about fees.
[3:16:35] We we changed a bunch of the fees and it came up that,
[3:16:40] you know, sometimes we don't look at a fee for 20 years or longer, I think.
[3:16:44] I think a sewer connection fee hasn't been looked at for like 35 years
[3:16:46] or something.
[3:16:47] And we were saying,
[3:16:48] is there a way for us to kind of keep pace with inflation on these things?
[3:16:53] So without having to go back every year and review every fee?
[3:16:56] So we did build in this escalator and it's really for all fees in town.
[3:17:01] Permit fees.
[3:17:03] You know, building permits, everything except for
[3:17:06] is just a couple that are exceptions.
[3:17:08] And one of those is the sewer fee.
[3:17:11] It's the largest fee that most people see.
[3:17:13] So we didn't throw that one in there.
[3:17:15] And, you know, it's going to vary year to year.
[3:17:20] And we, you know, there's other things in there,
[3:17:22] like we round up to the closest dollar or something, you know, so it's, you know,
[3:17:26] we're not going to have a fee of like $45.22.
[3:17:30] It would be $45 or $46 home tonight.
[3:17:33] But yeah, that that anything I believe
[3:17:36] just about everything in chapter 401 would be covered by this.
[3:17:40] So you the,
[3:17:44] the recommendations that come from the shellfish commit commission
[3:17:47] and anybody else is recommending these to us, you guys,
[3:17:51] you recommend really the number of permits and and you're right.
[3:17:55] And the amount I think if you, I think if you
[3:18:01] recommended a number of permits
[3:18:04] in the amount that was, without an amount,
[3:18:07] it would automatically escalate, I guess if you came to us with permits
[3:18:10] and an amount, we'd have to think about how we.
[3:18:14] James chapter four wanted me to.
[3:18:15] It might it might not get the automatic when I might get
[3:18:17] the number that you recommend to us if we vote for that, you know.
[3:18:21] So I guess there's a way to override.
[3:18:23] There'd be no way to override the escalator because
[3:18:26] we could vote on it.
[3:18:27] We said, well, we don't want to do 450 for a thing.
[3:18:30] We want to make it for 25 or for 75.
[3:18:32] I think there is within the state statute, there is some regulations about,
[3:18:38] the managing the what we charge for a resident versus a nonresident.
[3:18:43] There is limitations and it has to stay within a certain ratio.
[3:18:46] Okay. That's important for us to know. Thank you.
[3:18:49] And I guess we'll just have to
[3:18:50] be cognizant that we're gonna have to, I think revisit
[3:18:55] that, probably with the new town manager just to make sure that.
[3:18:58] Yeah, that that's a that's a sort of consideration
[3:19:01] we probably didn't consider when we, when we made this change last year.
[3:19:05] So it's important to know. Thank you. Yeah.
[3:19:08] I, I'm aware of that.
[3:19:10] I wasn't aware of this, that this ratchet, system, but the, But you're right.
[3:19:15] It's 150%. So that's.
[3:19:17] And the committee had never recommended any amount for nonresidents
[3:19:21] because it didn't create a nonresident subgroup.
[3:19:24] So I just used, what, $5,150, 150% increase.
[3:19:30] But, if my math is any good and it usually isn't,
[3:19:33] if we escalate everything by 3% next year, it'll be out of sync pretty quickly.
[3:19:39] Probably the rounding will get us back, for a year or two, but.
[3:19:42] So we'll have to rethink that.
[3:19:45] Yeah. Thank you.
[3:19:46] Well, we're creative.
[3:19:47] I think we'll reduce the fee by 3% next year.
[3:19:50] But I mean, that's I mean, you could come with that recommendation
[3:19:53] and we'd have to incorporate that. I mean, if we accept it. Yeah, absolutely.
[3:19:56] So I mean ultimately the council will set the fees.
[3:20:00] But the recommendations are usually what they rely on.
[3:20:03] Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Thank you.
[3:20:07] Any other public comment?
[3:20:11] All right.
[3:20:11] I'm going to bring it back to the council.
[3:20:13] Any since we have people here, are there any other questions?
[3:20:15] Well, on this topic that, the experts in the room might be able to answer for us,
[3:20:21] if not, shall we just move this ahead to a vote?
[3:20:24] This housekeeping item. Everybody good?
[3:20:27] All right, all right.
[3:20:28] We'll put that on the agenda for two weeks.
[3:20:31] Moving on now to item number six.
[3:20:35] It feels A55.
[3:20:37] Oh, we only five six.
[3:20:39] Oh, they're both shellfish and the shellfish.
[3:20:41] Oh, my. Well, the other stick around.
[3:20:42] I might have,
[3:20:43] this is to consider amendments to chapter 3 or 5 of the Yarmouth Town Code.
[3:20:47] The shellfish conservation Ordinance, for various amendments
[3:20:51] as required by the Maine Department of Marine Resources.
[3:20:55] Another introduction on this.
[3:20:56] Yeah.
[3:20:57] You adopted a bunch of changes, I don't know, March.
[3:21:01] Maybe somewhere back that about them?
[3:21:04] And they have to be submitted
[3:21:06] to the state Department of Marine Resources for review and approval.
[3:21:11] So they were submitted.
[3:21:12] Oh, a lot of comment came back from the state.
[3:21:16] As far as I could identify.
[3:21:17] There were three issues that two substantive issues, and one,
[3:21:22] I can't really fathom what the objection is, but,
[3:21:26] one was the the failure to identify
[3:21:31] a commercial bushel resident versus nonresident and deal with that.
[3:21:37] And the other, really had to do with,
[3:21:41] I think internal,
[3:21:43] references that were confusing.
[3:21:45] And so there's that there's 2 or 3 places
[3:21:49] where the limits on taking of razor clams,
[3:21:54] which is a four inch minimum by state law.
[3:21:58] So you can't go less than that.
[3:22:01] There is in our ordinance that's been approved
[3:22:04] by the state in the past, basically a tolerance capability.
[3:22:08] So if you have a peck of clams and 2% of them
[3:22:14] don't meet the standards for size, it's not a crime.
[3:22:18] You might have to put them back or something.
[3:22:20] I guess if you get caught, I'm not sure, but it's not a crime.
[3:22:23] If you're sitting there and you know 40% of your clams
[3:22:27] are undersized, you're going to, pay a visit to to the courthouse.
[3:22:31] I think.
[3:22:33] So, language was added for razor clams
[3:22:40] and said the tolerances are.
[3:22:42] And then it was blank and it was unclear what the intention was.
[3:22:47] And so I interpreted the best I could and send it off to the committee,
[3:22:51] to the commission for a comment as well as the DMR to get some feedback from them,
[3:22:56] which basically changed the internal references, saying, here's
[3:23:00] your limits, except as might be permitted otherwise under the tolerance provisions.
[3:23:05] Next.
[3:23:06] And is that okay?
[3:23:09] Is that going to be okay?
[3:23:10] I got some comments back from, Miss Whitmarsh today
[3:23:13] I think is saying, well, maybe you still haven't got it right
[3:23:16] and I have not heard directly from DMR yet on their comments.
[3:23:22] They've asked me for clarification on on one point, but
[3:23:27] that's all I can tell you.
[3:23:28] I think we're going to be close enough that you could move this forward. But,
[3:23:32] the only
[3:23:33] reason I feel any urgency to it, well, two reasons.
[3:23:36] One, I'd like to get it cleaned up before the next person has to understand
[3:23:40] all of this stuff.
[3:23:41] But also the state approval
[3:23:45] was only for a limited time period, and that's going to expire at
[3:23:48] the end of October. So I think you.
[3:23:51] So let's get it taken care of.
[3:23:52] So that's what I'm trying to do.
[3:23:54] I don't have any agenda
[3:23:55] other than get you over the finish line that that you started.
[3:23:59] Love to hear any thoughts you have on this.
[3:24:02] So I know Rachel Whitmarsh of the Yarmouth, North Yarmouth
[3:24:05] and the Shellfish Commission. I just wanted to.
[3:24:06] You did get my. I'm sorry I didn't get those sooner.
[3:24:08] I didn't see the the, revisions or the suggestions until I got that
[3:24:13] handed to me Tuesday. I didn't read them until today.
[3:24:16] There was just a couple things that were in there, like,
[3:24:19] it looks like there was some editing, like some formatting change there
[3:24:22] so that where you, one of the, the suggested changes, where it's
[3:24:26] changing a reference within the document, that shouldn't change
[3:24:31] because we've dropped a there's something that happened within the,
[3:24:35] the formatting where you dropped a, dropped, the lettering.
[3:24:39] So it skipped it basically forced a change
[3:24:42] through that made the internal references off.
[3:24:45] And that's and then I can explain where the
[3:24:49] the razor clam thing, they didn't have anything in their chapter
[3:24:52] and that has that that came through after.
[3:24:54] So and I don't know, there's, I think if I may go, please,
[3:24:59] I welcome your comments and your, your help on this one.
[3:25:03] The, the provision for the tolerance, I think it was over
[3:25:09] the limit basically referred to itself as opposed to the tolerance section.
[3:25:14] So I tried to fix that.
[3:25:15] But the reason it may be wrong may be a formatting change where
[3:25:18] somebody hit a return button to somewhere and everything renumbered F's.
[3:25:21] I'm not sure. Yes, I saw that. Yeah, I saw that as I was mortified.
[3:25:24] But then I think I found it to this afternoon.
[3:25:26] So it looks like the did the formatting things.
[3:25:29] Well it was, it was as submitted to the state was not clear because it was
[3:25:36] saying you can do only what I say, except as I say
[3:25:39] as I what I spent.
[3:25:43] And then yeah, when we got
[3:25:45] so I don't know what's coming from, from the state because we had,
[3:25:48] we had made, we were rushing these through to get to a couple of the changes.
[3:25:51] There were four issues that they had identified
[3:25:54] and we thought we'd covered them. There was one.
[3:25:56] There was a sentence that they had insisted
[3:25:58] we put in which didn't was dropped off of what I saw.
[3:26:01] But if she's not asking for it, we didn't see the point.
[3:26:03] We put it in there because I I'm not sure I'm waiting for that comment.
[3:26:08] If I missed something. Okay.
[3:26:10] I still can't fix it, you know, and I just,
[3:26:11] But anyway, I just want to say it look like,
[3:26:13] other than the the corrections to the formatting and dropping that,
[3:26:17] you know, changing the reference.
[3:26:19] You know, we were fine with, with the changes.
[3:26:22] Yeah, I, I, I hope, they'll send me their comments soon and I'll share them.
[3:26:27] And if I can sort out what you're trying to tell me in terms of how the formatting
[3:26:31] numbering sequence got wrong.
[3:26:33] Okay. That's fine.
[3:26:34] That's great. I thank you that I just want to chase it down.
[3:26:36] I'm not trying to add any language except for nonresident commercial.
[3:26:41] So it's a very important one.
[3:26:42] And we didn't we didn't fix it correctly.
[3:26:44] So thank you for doing that okay. Thank you.
[3:26:48] Any questions from the council about this at this point
[3:26:53] in. All right.
[3:26:56] So I think
[3:26:59] so so now I think where this sits is
[3:27:02] if it's ready for a vote in two weeks, we could vote on it.
[3:27:06] Do you think it will be?
[3:27:07] It should be, I think you think we'll have something.
[3:27:10] I think you'll have something. And if you don't, you just table.
[3:27:12] Okay, so any objection us moving this to the voting meeting in two weeks?
[3:27:18] And if it's again, if it's not ready, we'll table it.
[3:27:22] Okay. Great.
[3:27:24] Now item six.
[3:27:29] To consider an updated report, the Greater Portland Council of Governments
[3:27:32] regarding a review of options for a revised sewer fee structure.
[3:27:39] What are you talking about?
[3:27:40] You want to talk about it?
[3:27:41] I know what I'm talking about at all, but I'd be happy to
[3:27:45] utilize.
[3:27:46] Sounds like.
[3:27:46] Give us a quick intro. So,
[3:27:49] sometime
[3:27:51] spring, I guess maybe winter.
[3:27:53] Concern was raised by a citizen about our fee structure
[3:27:57] and thinking that it may be skewed and and having people who are lower,
[3:28:02] water meter users paying disproportionately more
[3:28:07] for their flow than somebody who's at a higher level.
[3:28:11] And so the council asked GP cog if they would take a look at,
[3:28:16] some analysis of our rate structure to see if it was equitable
[3:28:20] and if there are alternatives that we might consider.
[3:28:25] That report came back and,
[3:28:26] I'm not privy to the particulars, but I think the council found
[3:28:30] it was insufficient to answer and address the questions and send it back,
[3:28:35] and only fairly recently, I think after summer vacations,
[3:28:39] maybe, did it finally come back with some additional, work done on it?
[3:28:44] Or at least I trust that was additional work.
[3:28:46] So really study the original plan.
[3:28:51] I in the
[3:28:52] meantime, I have, I have some working knowledge,
[3:28:55] of course, with the, with the existing fee structure.
[3:28:58] And so I've tried to provide you some understanding of the
[3:29:04] limitations of value that water meter,
[3:29:08] uses have, both in terms of the accuracy and the timeliness, etc., but also
[3:29:13] whether or not it's, theory of taxation really captures what you're trying to do,
[3:29:18] because, quite frankly, there's an awful lot of fixed cost
[3:29:21] in a sewer system that is not dependent on the amount of flow.
[3:29:25] And then there's a certain amount, but that does.
[3:29:29] But there's really almost no decent,
[3:29:33] reasonable way to measure and to allocate the cost
[3:29:37] for a fee.
[3:29:41] Other ways other than either a flat fee
[3:29:45] or a metered fee or some combination of them
[3:29:48] or the system that Yarmouth used for many,
[3:29:51] many years until 2011 was no fee at all,
[3:29:55] which means it was entirely covered by the property taxes.
[3:29:58] Even though a major section of the community doesn't
[3:30:02] get a direct benefit from the sewer system they're not connected to
[3:30:07] and wouldn't be able to connect to the, municipal sewer system.
[3:30:11] So back then, the the interest of the council
[3:30:15] was to move away to some degree from
[3:30:18] strictly reliance on the property tax to having people
[3:30:22] who are direct beneficiaries of the sewer system pay
[3:30:28] some fee.
[3:30:30] I will tell you that the fees collected
[3:30:33] don't cover the full cost of the sewer system.
[3:30:35] They cover about 53% of it, so it's still very heavily subsidized,
[3:30:40] by property tax payers, which
[3:30:44] which, you know, it it is what it is.
[3:30:48] And that a compromise plan or a hybrid plan
[3:30:52] we called it at the time was to have for flat fees.
[3:30:58] Well, we actually three and a half flat fees.
[3:31:00] So we have low users,
[3:31:03] very low users.
[3:31:04] I guess you would classify them paying a certain flat fee
[3:31:09] and then standard users, which is a
[3:31:12] is a broad width of the majority of homes
[3:31:16] and businesses paying another fee.
[3:31:19] Then we would have a high user, which kind of been
[3:31:23] mostly your business businesses, apartment buildings that are single metered
[3:31:27] or some other particular users, who are using more
[3:31:33] than, outside of that, that broad range.
[3:31:37] And then we have a small group called the industrial Group
[3:31:40] who have, potentially very high flows
[3:31:45] and oftentimes very low loads on it.
[3:31:48] So, water treatment is one probably the highest,
[3:31:54] they don't add much biological oxygen demand to the system whatsoever.
[3:31:59] They just add a lot of flow.
[3:32:01] But they use a very high number.
[3:32:05] So their, their cost
[3:32:07] based only on water, but not on waste, so to speak,
[3:32:12] is, had to be,
[3:32:17] figured where there was a
[3:32:20] flat, a flat fee
[3:32:23] plus a surcharge for their high use
[3:32:27] to the, to the extent that it was higher than the high use glue group.
[3:32:30] So that's sort of how we got there.
[3:32:32] And it was tinkered around with by the council to come up with
[3:32:37] what they felt was the most equitable, reasonable thing to do.
[3:32:42] The couple of issues we ran into with that was water
[3:32:45] meter readings are not always up to date.
[3:32:50] We only look at winter reading quarters
[3:32:54] because we don't want to charge people for water use or based their bill on water
[3:32:59] use that's going into the garden or washing the car or
[3:33:02] or the kids are running into the sprinkler system or filling the pool.
[3:33:08] So and that's not that's not an unusual practice whatsoever.
[3:33:11] So we use a winter reading, which doesn't guarantee,
[3:33:14] equity in every case, because there are people
[3:33:18] who are here in the summertime and gone away in the winter, flooding the right.
[3:33:22] But nonetheless, it seemed reasonable.
[3:33:26] And there were a couple of minor adjustments that were made
[3:33:29] for very low income people and for seniors.
[3:33:33] So the system seems to be working.
[3:33:35] It was generating the revenues as targeted.
[3:33:40] And a few years ago, the town
[3:33:43] council agreed to increase the rates.
[3:33:46] It was sometime in the last three years, after I left.
[3:33:52] So what I'm trying to say, and so increase the total amount
[3:33:57] and refined to some degree the allocation of where those revenues would go.
[3:34:02] So I if I got this right, I think 65% of it goes into the capital
[3:34:08] reserve for wastewater equipment and, and facilities, and 35% is treated as
[3:34:13] general revenue, meaning it goes to help soften the budget in its most recent area.
[3:34:17] Yeah.
[3:34:18] And I don't know if that in the long range, whether that's planned to continue
[3:34:22] a trend to move more
[3:34:23] and more to the capital reserve or more to property tax support.
[3:34:26] But, it's it seemed all quite reasonable considering that the property taxpayer
[3:34:32] is already subsidizing about half the cost of the operation.
[3:34:36] So, you can slice and dice that,
[3:34:40] many different ways you can go to a full metered system.
[3:34:43] You could go to a flat fee system.
[3:34:47] You can go to some other combination,
[3:34:50] and you can certainly take that broad band of, standard users
[3:34:55] and break it into two, three, 4 or 5, whatever different levels you want.
[3:35:00] It will require
[3:35:03] more, time from accounting and,
[3:35:08] and the finance department to sort all of that out,
[3:35:12] probably will require some expense
[3:35:15] to pay, munis, which is our software provider, to upgrade the,
[3:35:20] the, the systems and the fields and, and that sort of stuff.
[3:35:23] But I think it's all doable.
[3:35:27] For the most part, I think the council has looked
[3:35:29] at this as a revenue producing objective
[3:35:36] by transferring a at least a portion, significant portion
[3:35:39] of the cost of the wastewater system to the direct users.
[3:35:44] There is certainly justification that every one of us,
[3:35:46] whether we're connected or not,
[3:35:47] benefits from clean groundwater and clean surface waters,
[3:35:52] and in a healthier environment.
[3:35:54] So whether you are a direct beneficiary or not, everybody benefits.
[3:35:59] So I'll just remind the council
[3:36:01] that we're not talking about moving this to two weeks to a vote or anything.
[3:36:04] This is a report that's been brought back to us.
[3:36:07] We should think about
[3:36:10] over time whether we do anything with the fee structure or not.
[3:36:13] But,
[3:36:15] I just wanted to preface that we're not going to come back around
[3:36:17] and we'll do we move this to a vote in two weeks.
[3:36:18] This is this is more of just more of a we're receiving report from GP cog and,
[3:36:23] it will inform us as we go along, into the setting
[3:36:28] and budgets and all, any questions?
[3:36:31] From the council, it consulting.
[3:36:34] Are we going to get that in the, via email or.
[3:36:39] I haven't seen
[3:36:40] it, so I'm wondering where I can get a copy of that.
[3:36:43] Thank you.
[3:36:44] It was sent out.
[3:36:46] I believe we did receive it.
[3:36:47] Might, because I've read that it's in your email
[3:36:49] and we've been, you know, August 14th email.
[3:36:51] I think
[3:36:53] we can't hear you the weekly, the weekly packet on the 14th.
[3:36:57] And I know I said, but I have to say, well, I'm happy to send you another one.
[3:37:00] Yeah.
[3:37:01] Thank you.
[3:37:02] My question, yeah, is like, who who's basically the drive for this?
[3:37:07] It will be an arduous play.
[3:37:08] Or do you imagine there's a motor to the more appropriate for staff
[3:37:11] like when when you're gone and she's back.
[3:37:13] How do we follow up to just keep this is I think one that we can make,
[3:37:17] make a little bit right with that plan and just, you know,
[3:37:21] yeah.
[3:37:21] I can't really answer for that.
[3:37:23] Don Madden would have the most hands on
[3:37:26] in terms of producing the bills and doing the the finance work.
[3:37:29] Steve Johnson is the one who, deals with the customers
[3:37:34] directly and, and trying to make sure the data is correct.
[3:37:37] And the issue that I didn't talk about too much is the difficulty
[3:37:42] of getting the data from the water district.
[3:37:44] And, and so we and we're already facing challenges there.
[3:37:49] We expect them to get, more challenging.
[3:37:53] But that's not going to be a material issue for you.
[3:37:59] It's just another headache that we've already got.
[3:38:01] So they'll be
[3:38:03] they'll be Don and Steve and like like that saying there's
[3:38:06] all those considerations ultimately comes down to us deciding
[3:38:09] if we want to do anything with the fee structure.
[3:38:11] Yeah, but we'll have to get expert input.
[3:38:14] But we've got to decide,
[3:38:16] do we want to
[3:38:17] make it directly proportional or spend two years and things like that?
[3:38:20] But in the absence of a true dry at the town
[3:38:22] level, I'm concerned that it gets lost.
[3:38:24] So but like, it's true.
[3:38:26] It is. It's Don, it's Steve, it's Audra.
[3:38:28] Like, who is our dri
[3:38:29] that we expect to drive it as we we haven't identified the I mean, we,
[3:38:33] we as a council have to decide if we want to be the it's an initiative.
[3:38:38] I think we should I think we should also.
[3:38:40] But I mean,
[3:38:41] we should probably wait until I have town manager here and bring it up, but,
[3:38:47] so that you asked at the last meeting and I think, you know,
[3:38:51] we all know that, it's too late to do anything for September.
[3:38:55] The next bill, I think, is March.
[3:38:57] And so you'd want to back up from that enough time to to have Don work with the,
[3:39:03] but the, the computer programing
[3:39:07] as well as getting the data, work together.
[3:39:10] But I think we are reasonably set up that we could implement changes,
[3:39:15] that are, that are sort of incremental to this.
[3:39:18] Okay.
[3:39:19] And anything else from the Council.
[3:39:22] Okay. So we'll just we're aware of it.
[3:39:24] Right away from it.
[3:39:27] I wish I had done this before.
[3:39:29] Item seven.
[3:39:31] But we are now seven seven.
[3:39:33] I wish I had thought of this before.
[3:39:34] We just talked about item six, but item eight.
[3:39:36] Karen McConnell's been waiting around all evening.
[3:39:39] And why don't we move that up so that she can go away?
[3:39:43] This was not there was item seven for us.
[3:39:45] Is that okay with everyone? Great.
[3:39:47] So we'll move on to item eight, and that's to, consider an appropriation
[3:39:52] where funds from the, from the property acquisition reserve for costs
[3:39:56] associated with acceptance of a gift of property
[3:39:59] and recording of a companion conservative conservation easement.
[3:40:02] We've talked about this in executive session.
[3:40:05] And, Karen, sorry we made you wait so long.
[3:40:10] Probably could have saved ten minutes of that last discussion, but
[3:40:13] unfortunately, the things in the there were a lot of people in a room
[3:40:16] that wanted to hear the other one, so we had to take those first. Sorry.
[3:40:19] And I'm I'm happy to wait.
[3:40:21] I understand that's happened sometimes.
[3:40:23] It's been lively either way, but, thank you to to,
[3:40:28] thank you for having me on the agenda tonight.
[3:40:31] Everything is quite timely.
[3:40:33] Like everything else on your agendas every month.
[3:40:36] So it's my pleasure to present some information regarding
[3:40:40] the possible donation of approximately 40 acres to the town of Yarmouth.
[3:40:44] As of this evening, I, I was provided permission
[3:40:48] to share the approximate location and the name of the resident.
[3:40:54] So happy to clear the air and not feel like we're tiptoeing around
[3:40:57] that privacy for now.
[3:40:59] But this is, particular meaningfully, a meaningful opportunity for the town
[3:41:03] because the property is directly adjacent to Pratt's Brook Park
[3:41:07] on the Granite Street side.
[3:41:09] Pratt's Brook is currently 225 acres.
[3:41:12] It's our largest contiguous number of parcels
[3:41:15] that make up one property and preserve, known as Pratt's Brook.
[3:41:20] The property being considered for donation is currently undeveloped,
[3:41:24] with the exception of some private trails that are used by the resident,
[3:41:27] a small circle of her friends and neighbors.
[3:41:31] The potential additions of this property will allow the town
[3:41:34] to expand and strengthen an already significant area of open space,
[3:41:38] while also providing an opportunity to protect the land for the future.
[3:41:43] Discussions about this, potential donation began
[3:41:46] last October, as I mentioned to you in executive session.
[3:41:50] So it has been going almost a year now.
[3:41:52] When Scott, then Town Manager Scott Allison
[3:41:56] and I, began working with the property owner to better understand her wishes
[3:42:01] and to answer some questions about what a donation might look like in the winter.
[3:42:05] Eric and I, Eric Donohoe, and I, snowshoe the property
[3:42:08] with one of her trusted neighbors and friends.
[3:42:12] It provided us a better opportunity to understand the topography,
[3:42:15] looking at the potential, expansion for trail systems through this section
[3:42:21] and consider the benefits of having this property,
[3:42:23] which is directly adjacent, as I mentioned, to the to property,
[3:42:26] the town already owns and manages.
[3:42:30] Earlier this year, the town
[3:42:31] and the owner also also initiated an appraisal and a survey.
[3:42:35] We're now approaching the point where the details of the donation
[3:42:39] can be finalized.
[3:42:41] Several of the important aspects of the owners wishes.
[3:42:45] I would like to highlight tonight, because I feel that this is a
[3:42:49] one of the most unique partnerships we've had in my,
[3:42:52] just more than a dozen years here in the town.
[3:42:55] The owners specifically requested that the donation
[3:42:59] be protected from future development,
[3:43:01] with the Parks and Lands Committee and the Climate Action Board goals.
[3:43:05] This meets all of that, intention for additional
[3:43:09] undeveloped properties to be added to our current properties,
[3:43:13] and also not have a connection
[3:43:16] to Granite Street at this time.
[3:43:19] So the property is currently split up into two parcels.
[3:43:23] I would call it a roadside parcel and then a woodlot, and the woodlot
[3:43:26] is the one closest to Pratt's Brook, furthest away from Granite Street.
[3:43:30] And she's redesigned the property
[3:43:33] boundary to eliminate any kind of access to Granite Street.
[3:43:37] At this point.
[3:43:38] And that will all be reflected in the survey,
[3:43:41] the deed description and also the plan,
[3:43:45] those wishes are being incorporated into the discussions,
[3:43:50] that also include protections on the property through what we
[3:43:54] what we know as a conservation easement that would be ultimately held
[3:43:58] by the Royal River Conservation Land Trust.
[3:44:02] A draft conservation easement has been created.
[3:44:05] It's been worked on by myself, volunteers from the Climate Action
[3:44:09] Board, the Parks and Lands Committee and other staff.
[3:44:14] Pardon my voice.
[3:44:16] The resident has reviewed the current draft,
[3:44:19] and is indicated approval of that current draft.
[3:44:23] At this stage in the game, it's now being moved on to, a conservation
[3:44:28] easement, review process with attorneys to go through that process with us.
[3:44:34] And once that's reviewed, it
[3:44:37] will then be represented back to you as a conservation easement.
[3:44:41] The conservation easement is not something that has to happen
[3:44:44] at the same time as a transfer of property.
[3:44:47] But we have made that promise to the landowner
[3:44:50] that this will also be happening, very soon after.
[3:44:55] I'm,
[3:44:57] I'm happy to answer questions, but I definitely want to stress that,
[3:45:01] that the donation of this property adjacent to current property supports.
[3:45:06] So many of the town goals that we've identified
[3:45:08] through planning and policy work over the last dozen or more years.
[3:45:12] As you heard, many, many plans dating back to the 1989 park plan,
[3:45:17] has been sort of a guiding structure for us.
[3:45:22] And with the support of the Climate Action board
[3:45:26] and the Parks and Lands Committee, these are really moving forward quickly.
[3:45:31] Most importantly, it does, it does meet more of our goals,
[3:45:35] financially speaking, regarding the cost of this, of this 40 acres,
[3:45:40] because of the generosity of this property owner who is willing to donate the land
[3:45:44] back to a community where she grew up and, and loves and loves
[3:45:48] being outdoors and knows that other people will eventually love this property
[3:45:52] as much as she does.
[3:45:55] As I mentioned in our
[3:45:56] executive session, there are some costs that that we have to consider.
[3:46:01] The survey, the appraisal, getting some boundary markers and signage up
[3:46:05] right away as we take ownership of a property like this,
[3:46:09] the one time conservation easement fee paid to the Red River Conservation Trust,
[3:46:14] legal costs associated with the conservation easement
[3:46:18] and then legal costs regarding the association.
[3:46:22] The associated with the deed and the transfer of the property.
[3:46:25] And then finally she has requested a refund of property taxes over the last
[3:46:31] three payments, which I believe, equal just under $8,000 for that portion,
[3:46:37] in all the estimated totals, approximately $40,000.
[3:46:42] And I do have a breakdown of that.
[3:46:43] Net,
[3:46:44] I did leave some paperwork under your, Yeah, I've got to distribute out there.
[3:46:49] And sorry for Heather and Mike being remote.
[3:46:52] I did not take it with me to email it to you, but I can do that tomorrow.
[3:46:56] It is similar to the one that you reviewed quickly
[3:46:59] a couple of weeks ago when I was with you.
[3:47:03] And then
[3:47:05] let's see.
[3:47:05] So the recommendation would be that the town use the funds as,
[3:47:09] as mentioned earlier from the Property Acquisition Capital Improvement program
[3:47:12] to cover the costs associated with accepting this approximately 40 acre
[3:47:16] donation.
[3:47:18] That account currently has,
[3:47:20] just over $233,000,
[3:47:23] and the total for this would be about a $40,000,
[3:47:26] deduction of that for 40 acres, which is sort of mind
[3:47:31] blowing for the amount per acre in current day speak.
[3:47:34] In my view, this is precisely the type of opportunity
[3:47:38] for which those funds should be used.
[3:47:40] They were established for doing that.
[3:47:42] And more importantly, the opportunity is being
[3:47:44] made possible again through the generosity of this property owner.
[3:47:47] I would love to just put it on record to thank Suzanne Churchill
[3:47:52] for this opportunity to partner with her
[3:47:56] and bring additional acreage to our open spaces,
[3:48:00] for her willingness to make this land available to the community and to thinking
[3:48:04] about this long term protection, within within our valued open space lands.
[3:48:11] Additionally, I'd
[3:48:12] love to thank the staff that have helped committee members
[3:48:15] and others who have worked through all these details on a volunteer basis,
[3:48:20] to get this potential donation
[3:48:23] to the finish line, where we're very close to right now,
[3:48:27] there's been considerable work involved understanding the property, addressing
[3:48:31] the owners wishes,
[3:48:32] evaluating the costs, and developing appropriate protections for the land.
[3:48:36] And just, again, this unique opportunity for the town to make a meaningful
[3:48:41] investment in open space conservation and the community's future
[3:48:45] is right at the top of my, tugging at my heartstrings.
[3:48:48] And I hope it does for you, too.
[3:48:50] Thank you for the consideration.
[3:48:52] And I'm happy to answer questions that you guys may have for me.
[3:48:56] Thank you very much.
[3:48:57] Director McNeil.
[3:48:58] And, I certainly we're thankful to, Suzanne Churchill
[3:49:03] for this, very generous, gesture, and this very generous donation.
[3:49:10] Any questions from the council about this?
[3:49:16] I have a question.
[3:49:16] Maybe, Mark, just for my education, is about any environmental testing,
[3:49:21] any sort of surprises that we would find on that type of land.
[3:49:24] It's not explicitly listed.
[3:49:25] We have an appraisal and a survey,
[3:49:27] but thinking about things like,
[3:49:29] I don't even know if it's fair to think of like, like a pass, right?
[3:49:31] Or other things you might look at on land.
[3:49:33] Do we know that?
[3:49:34] Is it reasonable to do that when someone's offering us land?
[3:49:37] And how do you think about that?
[3:49:38] Or have we thought about it in the past?
[3:49:42] It's attracted to me.
[3:49:42] I'm trying to see what you're looking at.
[3:49:44] I think it's generally directed, but if anyone,
[3:49:47] if you've got an answer, great.
[3:49:49] If not, I don't know where we go with that.
[3:49:51] So I can I can tell you we are lucky enough to work with Jeff
[3:49:56] Schaller, the local neighbor who lives off
[3:49:57] Berry Field and knows this property very well as he's befriended,
[3:50:01] Suzanne over the last few decades that he's lived here in town.
[3:50:05] He knows the property quite well regarding the history.
[3:50:08] He's hiked it through all of the years and watched it
[3:50:11] sort of become a wooded area again.
[3:50:15] It was not ever used for farming that we can tell.
[3:50:18] However, there was the old range road that ran
[3:50:21] through this property that also runs through part of Pratt's already.
[3:50:25] And I would say significantly, that's probably the most history that that,
[3:50:29] that this 40 acres has had.
[3:50:32] There may be runoff from the Granite Street side of the property backwards,
[3:50:36] but, typically and we haven't acquired this many acres at all,
[3:50:41] and we have not done any kind of testing, in my time here.
[3:50:45] I don't know if Matt can contribute to that.
[3:50:48] What?
[3:50:49] Well, not on a general, wooded property
[3:50:52] like this or one that has a history of being undeveloped.
[3:50:55] Certainly on a commercial lot.
[3:50:57] If we were going to buy
[3:50:57] an old gas station or something, we'd want to get that kind of work done.
[3:51:01] But no, we haven't.
[3:51:03] And I don't think normally we would think it was necessary.
[3:51:07] Necessary? Okay.
[3:51:09] Good question.
[3:51:11] Anyone else?
[3:51:14] All right.
[3:51:14] So this is something this appropriation is something that, we'd be asked to make.
[3:51:20] And, in two weeks, so or not, we would be asking for the appropriation
[3:51:27] of funds, and we'll, Karen and I will work
[3:51:30] to confirm all those numbers,
[3:51:34] and probably ask
[3:51:36] for the authorization to receive the gift,
[3:51:40] as well as whether you want to do it now or later,
[3:51:44] authorize the, town to proceed
[3:51:49] to finish up the conservation easement and get it recorded.
[3:51:53] If you want to wait until you see it in final form, that's fine.
[3:51:57] Because this is a bit unusual that they,
[3:52:00] the donor is willing to take it on, trust that we will finish that up.
[3:52:04] And I don't think it's misplaced trust, but I do think we need to
[3:52:09] follow through fairly quickly.
[3:52:10] And so if you wanted to, we could add to to the motion
[3:52:16] to authorize the manager and the chair of the director
[3:52:20] of community services to,
[3:52:24] execute a conservation easement to a conservation trust.
[3:52:28] And it makes sense to me that whatever's
[3:52:31] ready in two weeks, we put as much time as we can into that one nation.
[3:52:35] If we have to come back again and do something later that that's going to.
[3:52:38] But, okay, that may not be my preference.
[3:52:42] I don't know if that's the council's preference.
[3:52:46] So, again,
[3:52:48] I, we have no public, here or, online.
[3:52:52] So I'm not going to even ask for public comment.
[3:52:54] Any, any questions or concerns or anything
[3:52:57] or we just move it, to a vote in a couple of weeks if it's ready.
[3:53:01] If it's not ready, good. We'll table it.
[3:53:04] Sounds good.
[3:53:04] Okay, good.
[3:53:05] All right, let's do that before you. Before you.
[3:53:08] Karen, thank you very much.
[3:53:10] I wanted to say we will say thank you to Mrs.
[3:53:12] Churchill, but also to Karen.
[3:53:14] And I hope you feel better soon.
[3:53:17] Thank you.
[3:53:19] Have a great night. Thank you.
[3:53:20] Thanks for staying with us. Okay.
[3:53:23] Now we're jumping back to item seven, which is to consider an updated report
[3:53:30] of the greater potential Greater Portland Council of Governments
[3:53:35] regarding review of options for revisions to the stay program.
[3:53:41] When I introduced this one, or I have.
[3:53:45] Yeah, I think I'll leave it to you. Okay.
[3:53:47] So this is very similar to, what we just did
[3:53:50] with, the GP code report about the sewer.
[3:53:54] This recent, this past year, we asked GP card to look at our stay program.
[3:54:00] And also to look at that in terms of,
[3:54:03] how it's set up,
[3:54:06] its effectiveness, how it could be expanded,
[3:54:10] how, you know, equitably or how we, you know, equity issues, things like that.
[3:54:15] They have prepared a report and send it to us.
[3:54:18] Again, it was in the same packet,
[3:54:21] I think it's recently been traveling along with the, sewer one.
[3:54:25] So it's very similar situation.
[3:54:26] We're not we don't need to vote on anything in two weeks.
[3:54:30] It's it's an item that's in front of us.
[3:54:32] We've got a report to review and to think about what we might do.
[3:54:37] And,
[3:54:38] we can discuss it as much or as little as people want to tonight,
[3:54:42] and then we can discuss it as much or as little as people want to in the future.
[3:54:46] But, that's kind of my introduction.
[3:54:48] And, Councilor Casey,
[3:54:52] two things.
[3:54:52] One is I would like to discuss
[3:54:53] it as little as possible tonight because I'm exhausted.
[3:54:56] But also,
[3:54:59] is the timings might be for that.
[3:55:01] Is the timing of this similar to the timing of the.
[3:55:04] I know the sewer bills go out in March, so.
[3:55:06] So, we need to figure out how we're doing that sometime before that.
[3:55:09] These. I know these are in April.
[3:55:11] So again, same similar timeline.
[3:55:14] Yes.
[3:55:16] They don't require in April is when we can take applications, right.
[3:55:20] After tax,
[3:55:22] basically, we timed it so that people
[3:55:24] who have to file income information with us in order to qualify
[3:55:28] don't have to do that outside of the normal,
[3:55:31] IRS filing process so that, all the information will be handy.
[3:55:35] So now you could you you can make whatever changes you want,
[3:55:39] whether it's age or eligibility or thresholds or what have you.
[3:55:44] Between now and I would say March would be a good time.
[3:55:49] When people make out their applications, we should be able to know
[3:55:52] what the formulas are. And
[3:55:56] we can always if you do it after that, it would affect the next year.
[3:55:59] Right. So you can go after that.
[3:56:00] But it'd be nice to have it. Okay. In fact, this is possible.
[3:56:03] It's it's built on your income
[3:56:06] from the prior calendar year, meaning
[3:56:09] 2026 to apply in April of 27.
[3:56:13] Based on that data.
[3:56:15] Any questions from the Council.
[3:56:19] All right.
[3:56:19] So again we don't need to do anything with that.
[3:56:22] It's just it's there.
[3:56:23] Please read it. Think about it.
[3:56:25] Okay.
[3:56:26] Item number nine, number or nine,
[3:56:32] to consider or make committee, board and delegate appointments as may be needed.
[3:56:37] I don't believe we have any tonight.
[3:56:39] Anyone from the Appointments Committee want to disagree with me?
[3:56:42] Okay, so nothing tonight on that, item number ten to consider a schedule.
[3:56:47] Other council initiatives and requests as may be offered or introduced.
[3:56:50] Is anybody have new business that they want to
[3:56:54] introduce at this time?
[3:56:56] Oh, I love that.
[3:56:58] Now item number 11 is to hold executive session if necessary.
[3:57:02] I don't believe we need one tonight. Unless.
[3:57:04] Do you have anything?
[3:57:05] No. But I do have a question for the council.
[3:57:09] Councilor Monti brought up something that that will qualify
[3:57:13] for an executive session.
[3:57:14] We need to have the towns attorney there.
[3:57:16] And my request, or my question for the council is,
[3:57:21] could we do that at the very beginning of our operations meeting?
[3:57:24] Could we have an executive session then?
[3:57:27] And would it, it makes sense if we're going to do that.
[3:57:32] Could we start at 634 next Thursday?
[3:57:36] Anybody have problems with that start time?
[3:57:39] That's okay.
[3:57:41] And a half hour should be enough
[3:57:44] time to get a general discussion about it and see what we're going to have.
[3:57:48] So let's let's mark your calendars then for,
[3:57:51] 630 for next Thursday at the community Room.
[3:57:55] We'll go into executive session at the very beginning.
[3:57:58] And then if folks show up, you know, we'll probably have a McCartney village,
[3:58:03] people there, if they show up at seven, then we'll be out of executive session
[3:58:07] by then. We won't have to make them. Wait.
[3:58:09] I'm just going to my calendar and making that change for myself.
[3:58:17] And I think,
[3:58:21] if I get my
[3:58:21] calendar to cooperate, I hate to make people wait around.
[3:58:24] Oh, I'll just do this later.
[3:58:26] I think that's it.
[3:58:27] I think we're adjourned.
[3:58:30] Thank you,
[3:58:32] thank you, thank you, everybody.