Select Board: June 14, 2023

Transcript captured from MHTV’s Vimeo auto-captioning. No speaker labels; proper names and dollar figures occasionally misheard. Click any timecode to jump to that moment in the source video.

0:04 All set. All right. Seven o’clock. I’d like to bring this meeting to order. Uh, I just want to announce that this meeting is being recorded and videotaped on Zoom. Uh, we have an agenda, uh, a 19 item agenda tonight, and I’d like to get it kicked off with, uh, Becky, if we could, who’s gonna give us an update, uh, on the Coastal Resilience Project and the Lead Mills project. Na, yes. Oh, and we also have, we have a, a guest as well. Great. So, um,

0:35 Um, Nassar is our consultant, as is Barbara Warren, and he’s gonna run through some slides for us. Nasser welcome. Can you, can you hear us okay? Yeah, I can. I can. Yeah. That’s great. We can hear you loud and clear as well. Am I too loud? No, we have a new soundbar apparently, so it’s, you’re coming in with extra volume. Awesome. I don’t need to project as much. Okay, great. Well, thank you very much for, for, uh, coming to update us, and, uh, we look forward to your presentation. Great. Um, well, this project is, uh, nicely called the Municipal Shipyard Resiliency Improvements Project. Um, it’s a collaborative effort with the town of Marblehead,

1:22 the Municipal Light Department, the Harbors and Waters Board. Uh, coastal Zone Management is, uh, supporting the project with, uh, grant funding, uh, Salem Sound Coast Watch. Collins Engineers and Woods Hole Group are the consultant team, uh, supporting the project. Uh, the project area for those who are not familiar, uh, includes Parker’s Boatyard, Marblehead Municipal Light Department, Hammond Park, commercial Street, pier, Marblehead Yacht Club, and the Cliff Street Boatyard. So it’s like contiguous, like six parcels. Um, all, uh, down owned. The issues affecting, um, the project area include, uh, waterfront structures that are degraded, uh, and boatyards that are de degraded and in need of investment. Um, this has been exacerbated by deep and more frequent flooding,

2:08 as well as erosion. And, uh, these are predicted to increase with sea level rise and the effects of climate change. And finally, the public access, uh, to, and then across the waterfront, uh, between these sites is limited and disconnected. Um, so this project builds on prior work that, uh, C Z M Coastal Zone Management has also supported. Uh, and the 20 19 20 21, there was a condition assessment that Woodell Group did, uh, found that seawalls in this area were mostly poor or in fair condition. Um, some potential high level resiliency options were identified. Uh, last fiscal year, we worked on, um, a process that was informed by, uh, public and stakeholder engagement. We analyzed the risk of the site to future flooding from sea level

2:56 rise coastal storms. And then, um, as a near term implementation action, uh, M M L D was able to install, uh, purchase and install flood barriers, uh, that will protect the basement of the building, which includes geothermal equipment and H V A C for the facility. Uh, we also developed conceptual resiliency options and cost estimates for, uh, the entire six, um, site, site in this most recent ground, uh, round of funding. This actually a, a two fiscal year project in the first phase that we’re just wrapping up now, um, runs through June 30th. We’ve been conducting public and stakeholder engagement as well. Uh, we’ve advanced the designs for those conceptual options, um, previously identified to a 75% level.

3:42 And we recently submitted our first permit application, which was an expanded environmental notification form to, uh, the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act office. And we’ll be having a public meeting on June 20th at 1:00 PM. Um, I think, um, Becky Curran can provide you with the information if you’d like to join. Uh, over the coming year, we’ll be working, uh, additionally on public and stakeholder engagement. We’ll be completing the design and the permitting for these improvements. And mm, M L D is planning on improving some, uh, doing some, uh, near term, uh, public access, safety and signage improvements. So what is this project? What are the project goals? Um, the project goals are mitigating long-term risks from sea level rise,

4:30 storm surge and waves, uh, supporting existing water dependent industrial and recreational uses, and enhancing public access to and across the waterfront. So, basically addressing the challenges we identified early on, the proposed improvements include raising seawall boat yards and parks to mitigate Taiwan storm surge flooding, installing, installing wave attenuating floats to mitigate wave over topping risks, um, repaving the boat yards and improving commercial vehicle access at Commercial Street here, increasing open space at Hammond Park and expanding dockage, uh, at all the facilities. Um, and finally creating a continuous safe and accessible waterfront pathway that connects from Parker’s boatyard through Hammond Park all the way to Cliff Street. So these are the 75% design plans.

5:17 I’m just gonna walk you through some of those improvements on a spatial level. Uh, first set to really focus in on what’s mitigating the long-term risk from sea level rise, storm surge waves. So one of the main improvements is to reconstruct and raise the existing sea walls. Um, behind those, uh, there’s some areas that are low lying that would, uh, flood from wave over topping, um, that might go over these sea walls plus basically splash over, um, as well as, um, their, they kind of need to be filled to provide some more structural support for the raised seawall and to avoid operational conflicts, uh, with boat lifting equipment, for example, um, and other operations that are going on. And finally, the, uh, wave attenuating docks on the waterfront. So these are needed because,

6:04 um, the, the sea walls are proposed to be raised to, um, the level needed to protect from storm surge flooding at the 1% annual chance. That’s like a hundred year flood in 2050. So that’s with, uh, about two and a half feet of sea level rise. Um, but there’s still residual risk from wave over topping, um, not only in that very extreme future condition, but also in smaller storms with bigger waves. And so these wave attenuating docks provide that extra level of protection. In terms of, um, the other improvements to support the existing uses, uh, the boat yards will be repaved as part of this process, uh, the parking lot, which may be used for staging equipment and, uh, construction related activities. And then there’s an existing, um,

6:53 rocky outcrop that kind of juts into the commercial street, uh, right of way, which, um, pushes the commercial fishing, uh, operation, you know, and parking a little bit closer to the Hammond Park entrance, uh, which, uh, currently there is no sidewalk. So it ends up putting people that are trying to go to the park in conflict with, uh, the commercial fishing operations that are important to maintain. Uh, we’ll also be increasing open space as part of the reconstruction of the sea walls. Um, an existing, uh, abandoned or defunct, uh, pump station that dates back to when this was like, uh, M M L D facility was like whole power plant, um, that would be removed, um, which would increase open space and improve views from, from the, uh,

7:39 existing park. Park would also be kind of opened up more broadly. And then finally, there’ll be an increase in dockage from the wave attenuating docks and additional approximately 270 additional linear feet of dockage.

7:53 Finally, uh, in terms of the public access improvements, um, we’re proposing to construct a new timber boardwalk that would connect from Parker’s boatyard to Hammond Park. Uh, currently, um, there’s kind of an informal use of, uh, the seawall, the existing seawall. Um, despite mml MLDs, uh, attempts to prevent that from happening, um, it’s rather unsafe. And so this would provide a very straightforward place for people to go to cross from two, from the two, um, lots. And it would integrate well with the existing network and the, um, non interfere with the existing boat storage, um, locations and, and uses. Another element is just the new stone dust pads that would be constructed, uh, inland of the seawall. So a nice waterfront walk. Um,

8:40 currently there’s a gravel, um, uh, more like a larger gravel, which is difficult for people with disabilities to, to, um, traverse. And so this would be more accessible for people with difficulty walking and, uh, those who use wheelchairs. Um, in addition, there would be a new sidewalk constructed, uh, along the side of the M M L D, um, property, uh, connecting to a new crosswalk across the, the street. There’s currently a rocky outcrop here that prevents, uh, people from going from the existing pocket park that’s here to Commercial Street in Hammond Park. And so people end up having to walk along right in the middle of the roadway, basically. And then through several parked cars down a flight of steps to get to this, uh, park that has, you know, benches and, and beautiful views of the harbor.

9:28 And so by doing this, we’ll have a continuous walk, uh, throughout the, uh, project area.

9:37 Uh, finally wanted to present the 75% cost estimates. There is a full design plan in case people are interested in looking at it further. Um, just, uh, reach out to Becky and she can provide that. Um, the clips streete boatyard component is about 4.6 million. The Hammond, um, mm, m L D and commercial Street component is about 4.1 million. That includes the boardwalk to Parker’s boatyard, and Parker’s boatyard is about 4.8 million. This includes all the, um, wave attenuating docks. We do have a separate, um, uh, cost estimate without the wave attenuating docks or separating out the wave attenuating docks in case those were to move forward separately. So the total, uh, for the full proposed project that we’re seeking approval for from the permitting agencies to construct is 13.5 million. Um,

10:23 obviously this would, uh, require grant funding and, um, you know, may happen in phases over time, and, uh, that that’s, uh, sort of something we foresee. And, um, obtaining the permits for the full project doesn’t prevent the town from moving forward with, uh, elements of the project, but not including the whole project. And trying to get that permitted would mean that if you added something in later, it would be more difficult and add to the timeline to, to move that forward. That is it. I, uh, welcome any questions, uh, that you may have for me or for Becky or others. Uh, I see Joe Wallick, pred also on the, um, meeting. Thank you very much, Nassar. Appreciate it.

11:10 So, um, Nassar had mentioned that this is a, so this has been a multi-year, and this is our third grant from the Coastal Resilience Grant from Czm, who’s been a wonderful partner in this. Um, this is, we’re at the midway mark of this. Um, we are June 30th, 2024. We’ll be wrapping up this phase of it. So we’re just midway. We just wanted to give you an update on what’s going on, and there’ll be plenty of stakeholder engagement and public process as, as we move along. Um, but these are the same plans that we were doing last year, just, um, uh, refining them and developing them to the 75%. I have a quick question. Can we make those plans available or have they Yeah, I’ll put them on the website. Yeah. Thank

11:55 You. I’m, excuse me, I’m losing my voice, but I mentioned last year, um, you know, so all the sea walls, has there already been any thought about connecting from Parkers over to Hammond Park? Straight across? Um, yep. Oh, Okay. Yeah, there’s a timber boardwalk. No, no, but straight across. So, so that inlet there. Oh, filling it in. Filling in. Lots of talk about that. Good. Okay. Cause I used to be, but, but Permiting, that’s not a Yeah. Permitting wise that it’s proved to be difficult, but yes, we have discussed that a lot. Yeah. Because That was just a railroad Yeah. Before, so it’s not a real beach. Right. Environmentally there’s issues. Oh, yeah, yeah. We have talked about that. Yeah. Cause then you could use the granite from Hammond Park, uh, those granite blocks right. On the harbor side.

12:43 Right. And we, yeah. Yeah. And this is granite faced Yep. Has been under discussion. Good. Thank you. Yep. Jackie? Yes, through the chair. Uh, did, he mentioned something about, I wrote down that there’s, is there a forum on the 20th? What? That’s the, um, MEPA with, um, mepa, what do we call it? Um, a consultation. Consultation, yeah. So after you filed the, um, the application for the secretary’s certificate, there’s a, um, there’s a public meeting where the agencies are invited to offer comments or ask questions. And, um, the public is, is welcome as well. Yeah, I’ll put that on the community. Okay. Yeah. Just in case if anyone has questions on That. Yeah. Um, uh, for general members of the public, they should be, uh,

13:31 contacting the mepa, um, contact person, Nicholas Moreno. So we can maybe put that contact up there, uh, rather than just posting the meeting information. Oh, right. So that can be registered. Yeah, yeah, that’s correct. Yeah. Okay. So if anybody’s interested. Okay. Okay. Gotcha. Great. So it requires a pre-registration, is that what you’re saying? Yes. Yeah. Yeah.

13:56 Okay. Yes. A couple questions. Are the, um, floating docks are the, um, could, do those serve dual purposes? You know, are they usable for recreation as well, I’m assuming? Absolutely, yes. And, um, okay. One, one advantage of these. Well, the main, um, the main advantage is that they’re gonna help to, um, you know, make these, uh, seawall improvements long lasting by protecting them from wave damage. And, um, of course, they’re multifunctional, so they’re, they are docks, they’re intended to be used by boaters. Um, you know, the 99% of the time that you don’t, uh, have large, large waves. Um, the other thing about ‘em is that they can stay in, they will be in all year. So, um, I think the current docs are,

14:45 um, yeah, it says nice, less robust, and so they have to be pulled out during their months, but these would stay in all year. And so would those be covered under the grant, or is that something that our, like the Harbors and Waters board would fund? So we’ll be shopping for, um, for funding for this, um, in different phases. Okay. Yeah. For the docs too. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I just, I know that like DA Aqua is out there now and maybe there’s an opportunity for the Harbors and Watersport to like, capitalize on Dock Space, additional dock space, if you can, if you can, if they’re, I don’t, I don’t, if they’re just standard docks, you know. Um, and then I guess I just wanted to see how, um, the Harbor Working Plan tied in with, um,

15:34 with these plans in the sense of, you know, was, is the paving of Parker’s boatyard consistent with the Harbor’s Working plan Recommendation? Yes. So they, they incorporated this in because they knew it was going on, and so we’ve incorporated that into the Harvard plan, and they actually identify some, um, potential funding sources for this as Well. Okay. I’m not sure, are there Chi, is there kayak storage down at Parker’s? No. No. Okay. I Don’t think so. Okay.

16:09 Okay. Any other questions? Thank you. No, sir. Thank you very much. We appreciate the, uh, the presentation. Thank you all. We’re gonna move on to our next agenda item. I guess it’s, uh, we’re looking for a Lead Mills project. Yes. So I was gonna update you on, um, lead Mills and the railroad right of way project in general. Um, so we did a master plan a number of years ago, um, for the, we got a grant from the Department of Conservation and Recreation to do a master plan for the railroad right of way. And we’ve been implementing it. So we applied for another, um, D C R grant, uh, for the Lead Mills portion. Um, and we are the lead community and Salem is participating.

16:54 And so we got money to do the design of that. And we have been working on that. It, um, includes, uh, replacing the Bridges, the dry and the wet bridge there at Lead Mills. So it goes from the Salem, um, trail through the Lead Mills property. Um, and it’s pretty straightforward. It’s just implementing what the master plan said. The 11 foot wide deconstructed granite, it’s a different surface. It’s the surface that was identified in the master plan. And, um, it has some, um, benches at the end of Lafayette Street and Salem’s also doing some, um, bike, uh, lanes there and things like that that’s on their property. Um, so that’s another grant that’s wrapping up on June 30th. Then we will, uh,

17:43 move to permit it, go to the two conservation commissions, and then, um, and then moved to find, um, funding to implement it, put it out to bid and do that. And then there’s one more thing going on in the railroad right of way, uh, project is that we got $175,000 earmarked from, um, Congressman Molten, um, two years ago, um, as part of, or I guess a year and a half ago about, it’s part of the, we are part of the Border to Boston Trail. So this is for the design, and it’s working its way through, um, the bureaucracy to get us, um, the money. And I’ll issue a request for proposal soon. Um, we had met with the, uh,

18:31 complete Streets, uh, Group last week, um, to talk about, to talk about that. But we will be issuing a request for proposal for a designer as soon as we get the Okay. And it’ll be sometime this summer that we can spend the, that money. And that is from the Swamp Scott line. Um, you’ll recall there’s Seaview Ave and then the Swamp Scott line, and there was sort of a little, um, no man’s land in between that, because it never connected to anything. So it’ll start there and it’ll go all the way to Smith Street. And, um, it will be a design for all the crossings, however we approach that in this particular, um, project, that portion of it, there’ll be a lot of public engagement because there’s decisions to be made

19:16 about different things. Um, and there’ll be stakeholder engagement and the people that are involved. Okay. And is the stakeholder engagement gonna be, uh, directed by by you? Or do we have Consultant? Yeah, we, so we’re gonna hire a consultant. A consultant, and then, yeah. Yep. Okay. Yep. So that’s the update. That’s Great progress. Yeah. And so that, I just wanted to update, it’s Interesting to hear what the 175, uh, was gonna be used for. So that’s, yeah, that’s very interesting. Yep. Any other questions?

19:45 No. No. Okay. Thank you so much. Welcome. Much appreciated. Thank you, Becky. Thanks, Becky. Becky that you can continue, huh? Back in two minutes. Okay. Um, okay. I received a note that we have young guests in the house. I don’t know whether they’re, whether they’re still here, but I was thinking of moving the, uh, moving the, the pride pavement up on the agenda if we could. Is that all right? Alright. So that way we can, because there’s, there’s a, there’s a number of you here, so we thought we would go ahead and do that, and Anthony, but They won’t, they won’t testify. How’s That? Thank you for, for being here. We appreciate it. Thank you. Uh, I’m Anthony Silva, 47 Elm Street. It’s so good to see you all.

20:31 I am just wrapping up my chairmanship of the Marble Lake Shore Council of the last six years. Uh, the state mandates term limits, so we have to take a year off unless we want to, if we want to be, uh, on there again. But I am happy to report very quickly that in those six years we’ve grown the council and we’ve also grown its mission. Uh, we started with five members, we now have 14. I’m also happy to report that everybody’s younger than me, except one who has been on the council since the beginning, 1983. Um, but this proposal is, um, really important because it is among the first that the Marblehead Cultural Council has taken on, on its own accord by a unanimous vote. We voted to, uh, develop an ar art cultural project for Marblehead that would show our

21:19 support for the L G B T Q community. And, um, as you know, we’re funded by the state. We are representative of the state. The Mass Cultural Council works to elevate our rich cultural life in Massachusetts. And they partner with us, and they fund us to expand access, improve education, promote diversity, and encourage excellence in the arts, humanities, and sciences. Over the past six years, we funded about $50,000 in tremendous art and culture and activities all over the town. And it’s a real, been an honor to, to be on this, on this, uh, on this council. So this is, um, new for us. What we want to do is we want to, um,

22:05 develop a, uh, space in Marblehead that celebrates diversity. Uh, this is not, um, just a design, but this is a real statement for the town. Our artist is here. TJ Deli mm-hmm. Is right here. Hello, tj. Uh, a recent, um, resident of Marble Lake. You moved here a short time ago. Sorry. You Moved here a short time ago. Uh, no course. Uh, I live here for 10 years. 10 years now. Okay.

22:33 That’s plenty long enough for,

22:38 No, I never be a townie, maybe, but, uh, I’m getting close. I live down street. Uh, I’m a professional artist and also with a friendly open, uh, gallery. Uh, would be a vision being a platform of, for art and friendship in Marblehead as well. Not only art on the wall, but also interaction activities around the art, uh, from openings. Uh, so we, we played on, on art, new art exhibitions every two, three weeks. Excellent. And, uh, yeah. Workshops, artists, talks, all kinds of things also. Yeah. Particularly then, uh, equality is a big theme for, for the gallery,

23:23 uh, where that connection with society between art and society, we feel this is really important. And, uh, yeah. So we, we are grateful to be, uh, working with, uh, the Cultural Council on this project. Well, we’re grateful to you Too, sir, for your proposal. Uh, he has come up with a wonderful proposal. Thank you. Thank you. Which includes not just, uh, symbols of the, uh, rainbow flag, but also symbols that we, uh, can relate to in terms of a heart representing love, acceptance, and what this town should be about. Um, we, uh, I won’t go through all the, all the iterations. This was first proposed back in, in November, and we’ve, we’ve talked about different proposals ever since. But, you know,

24:09 our school system is well known for nurturing arts in all students, as is the marble little theater. And I did wanna mention this. You may have heard that Alex Newell originally from Lynn, uh, won the Tony Award for best performance by an actor in a supporting role in a musical. Mm-hmm. Um, they performed many times at mlt. And, uh, I think this would be, uh, a wonderful way to celebrate hi, uh, their, uh, pursuit and Broadway, and also our acceptance of, of those folks here in Marblehead as well. So the design, if you have questions for, for, uh, tj, he’s, uh, very, uh, agreeable to answer any questions about the design. It would go on the four concrete slabs in front of the information booth. It would be a wonderful statement for every visitor, the Marblehead. And, um,

24:57 we hope to continue to fund this so it’s updated and repainted as the years progress. And I’m open for any questions. Okay. Well, I guess, uh, elements of the design are obvious, but I’m just curious how you came up with, uh, you know, how tj how you came up with the, with the design. Come on up. Come on up, tj. Come On up. That’s, that’s quite straightforward, I think for, uh, even for the, you know, for the whole theme, the, the pride month, right? Right. Sexual equality is Yeah. Is an important theme. So I think it, like, you, you stick to the, the symbols that are you commonly used and do something with that, where it’s one slab of concrete, so maybe, you know, like make something in the middle and then, you know, let it like,

25:44 kind of point towards that Yeah. As kind of a design. But, So it’s gonna use four, four slabs there, right? Is that Four slabs? Yeah. And you know, like, you know, there goes, The dimensions are roughly, totally wide in, in the 425, uh, inch by 60 for slab 60 By 25 Per slab. Per slab. No, in, in total it’s in Total. Gotcha. In total, it’s four slabs, 2 25 to be exacts slide variations in the measurements. Yeah. Yeah. It’s the four slabs right by the, um, the bench. Yeah. Yeah. Do you have this photograph? I, We do. It’s get black and white, so it’s just, you just point to an Anthony. Yeah, it’s, it’s right here. These four. Okay. 1, 2, 3, 4.

26:29 They’re really well balanced, aren’t they? Right. In the, They really are. Yes. And they have The, there’s symmetry to it, so Yes. And the, the brick lining is I think will work really well. Absolutely. I wanna say that, that the cultural council have been working with, uh, town officials. Becky’s been terrific. And, uh, we’ve been working on, uh, design concepts and, and locations. And, uh, the town has been wonderful in negotiations with, uh, developing this plan,

27:01 Get that thing under control. Yes. Well, it looks like it’s, it’s, you know, very tastefully done and, uh, and, and a lovely, lovely scale, but at a, at a good location as well. Yes, yes. Yeah. Hopefully it’s recognizable. It sends a message of, you know, acceptance and tolerance and, uh, absolutely. Inclusion. Absolutely. Um, yeah. Yeah. We hope to do other, like, uh, for example, uh, exhibition around, uh, environmental justice in September. I’m, I’m contacting all the public schools from elementary to Yeah. Yeah. Uh, to like involve them and seeing exhibits and like, you know, we’re doing projects with artists, things like that. So yeah, it fits really well, and I hope to contribute to the decision for the Community. This plan also will not cost down on Marble Penny. Yeah.

27:48 It’s funded totally by the Marlee Cultural Council through state funding. Great. Yeah. Having just come from, uh, the Juneteenth, I’m sorry, Having just come from the Juneteenth, um, Celebrate, celebration. Celebration, I’m wondering if you could figure out a little bit of, not only L G B T Q, but put something in there for that effect. I’m wondering if that could Yeah. So you know about that. So the, the, if you look at the history of the flag and what it includes, what it constitutes, there’s a whole history going back from Yeah. I think they finally got to the, the six first it was eight colors, now it’s six colors, the horizontal lines, that’s the pride. Mm-hmm. Uh,

28:36 you know, same sex, uh, acceptance in communities. Yeah. But, but that has expanded and has all, all kinds of variations that, so they made sure that they were also included. So the, the, the second iteration is from I think 86 with, uh, uh, where you got these points, uh, on the sides in the color. Yes, yes. Right. Here it is. So first it was just those lines. Then this was added. I actually have the color copies for Everybody. Black, black, brown, light blue, light pink and white. Mm-hmm. And Eyes. Okay. Yeah. I know we have a black and white Person, so thank you. Yeah. So, so, so that was then also pointing to less advantaged communities, uh, and, and, and gay people in those societies particularly. Uh, and,

29:23 but then they went further to say, Hey, wait a second. This is also about why, why shouldn’t this be, uh, also about gender equality? Uh, so, you know, so in that sense, the light pink and the light blue are added, so mm-hmm. You know, so, and then, and then, uh, finally I had to change that, uh, uh, or update it, because Yeah, I kind of like the last project I did in, I used this, uh, this flag design, but now I realize that there’s already a next version, which includes Yeah. And that’s intersects. It’s like, yeah. What’s the exact variation from the last one, um, to explain? Yeah. So it’s, it’s, it’s even more inclusive. Uh, so also indigenous tribes, you know, it, it, it’s, it’s like, you know,

30:11 Color makes a difference. You know, it’s the most, uh, inclusive flag, uh, in, in this field that there is at the moment. Yeah. And I’m, uh, yeah. Then respectfully use, they Call it, we’d also Like to find a place for a plaque to, uh, uh, thank the, the Marvel Culture Council and to explain Okay. What the message is. Great. Thank you. All right. Great. Any, uh, other questions from the, from the board comment? I, um, yeah, I think so. I think they, they call, they re rebranded the progress Pride, right? For, to recognize for people of color and bipo. Yeah. Um, so It’s the intersects, uh, progress prides. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Flag. I’m curious how, um, how often you think it will need to be, um,

30:59 repainted and is it something that, you know, somebody could, once TJ has done, his craft could like, you know, for if you’re not available for some reason, is this something we can keep up? You know, I guess I’m just curious how long it, it lasts. It’s absolutely not rocket science, like, uh, painting it, uh, no. So, you know, I did some research into the paint and, you know, a really solid paint that you can’t have trucks run over 24 7, but that they guaranteed me from Sherman Williams, the paint expert there in this case. Uh, that, uh, you know, it’s, it’s for heavy traffic, heavy foot traffic, uh, that it will, will last. Uh, but, so it’s one layer and then a second layer where you mix in kind of,

31:46 it’s not sand, a very fine sand a second layer of the same color on top. And, and then you have also that it won’t, that it doesn’t get slippery. Mm-hmm. Hmm. Uh, and like, you know, I, I researched what I would do is like, uh, like kind of a transparent finish, non slop, uh, non-slip finish on top. Uh, yeah. But the, the, this gentleman from Sherman, uh, Williams says that’s not even necessary. Okay. Had to have like a finishing, um, layer that, you know, you could get. And from there, yeah. If, if somebody, I don’t know, you know, wants to make a, a voice against it or, you know, whatever, I’m, I’m very happy to recreate or adjust the next to the next next flag, or mm-hmm. Uh, uh,

32:33 it may be a nice opportunity to engage the, the community. Mm-hmm. I like to make it into a collective art, uh, project. Great. Erin, to answer your question directly, the council has already discussed the possibility of either, uh, under our state mandate, we can fundraise, we could find sponsors, or we could, uh, fund it ourselves for a maintenance. Yeah. I’m just thinking about our hard winters and our absolutely. Salt on the, you know, the council Will Take that on. I think it’s, I think this is, um, really such a great initiative for the cultural Council to take on. And, uh, especially it’s so timely right now with, as we, I think, as much more progress we make as a society in intolerance and acceptance

33:20 and expanding, um, our, you know, the, our, our our acceptance and, um, of just, you know, people of color and all different, um, sexualities and everything, we are fear, fear, hearing a loud voice in other parts of the country. Mo mainly thank, thank thankfully around like, the backlash to that. And I think sometimes I think I just have to remind myself that’s because that those, those voices are coming from a place of, you know, of fear, of fear that it’s becoming so now thankfully mainstream and, um, accepted. And then people, we want to, you know, make up for lost time, make sure people in our community are feeling, um, safe, and that this is,

34:08 this is their, um, that they’re, that this is their town and they should, and that we are proud of them and, um, and who they are. So I think it couldn’t be, um, more timely on many levels. Thank you. I couldn’t agree more. Thank you so much for saying that. It’s beautifully, uh, said, spoken. Yeah. I mean, yeah. Yes. I mean, it still goes on and, and it still goes on in this town. We had, we, you know, I received an email from our principal at the veteran school, some really, um, uh, just frankly ignorant and, and bigoted, um, postings on social media. And so while, you know, sometimes I feel like we live in a,

34:53 I maybe get too comfortable, it’s, um, that there’s reminders like that, that we cannot be that comfortable. And there’s, that lives in, it does live in the town and, and just small towns like Marblehead. So I, I really think that again, you know, um, the, at the national level, kind of some, um, hateful speech rise in that. And then also just kind of with recent incidences in town, we’re just celebrating pride month. So I dunno if it was planned or just kind of coordinated, just kind of fell, fell from November to hear. Um, I just think, uh, I wanna thank the council, council to bring for bringing it to us. Well, Great. Thank you. And we feel the same way. It was a, a unanimous vote. Um, and that’s exactly what we discussed. Um,

35:38 I think it’s incumbent upon us to make powerful statements Yeah. Times like these. That’s right. And, um, this is, this is one of them. And it could be more. It’s beautiful. Thank You. Uh, I think, uh, I don’t think there are any other questions. I think, uh, love and art have always been a way to build bridges, and, uh, you’re doing it in a, in a very tasteful, uh, beautiful way. So you, thank you very much for that nature. Thank you very much, sir. Great. Thank you. Is vote. I think with that, I’d like to enter, I’d like to entertain a motion, if that’s okay. I think we can, I think we can move it along. I, no, we always saying hold it. We didn’t have a vote. You’ve made a, you’ve made a great presentation. Thank you. I’d like to entertain a motion to approve the request from the Marblehead

36:25 Cultural Council to create a pride pavement located outside of the Marblehead information, both between Essex and Pleasant Street facing Memorial Park, subject to no cost of the town and coordination, and final approvement approval by the town administrator. Second. Second. All in favor? Great. Unanim. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank, thank you. Thank You very much for Thank you. It was great. Terrific. Thank you very much. Take care. Uh, next item is, is our private drain connections. We have two to vote on. Thank you, tj.

37:02 Um, and these are really, these are both sump pump connections to, uh, to, uh, drains owned by the town, proper drain outlets. And you’ve got the contracts, as you can see in your package motion. Pretty self-explanatory. Um, I’d like to entertain a motion.

37:25 I’d like to entertain a motion, uh, for the license agreement for Private Connection, the town draining system as presented between the town and Peter Reuter and Mary Rocket. 34 Blue Beer Road, Elm Street. Moved. Second. Second. Any discussion at all? Any, uh, okay. Uh, all in favor, unanimous. Second motion, Elm Street. Again. Uh, entertain a motion to license agreement for private connection to town radis as presented between the town and Lake Elizabeth, L L C and Samuel Carpenter. 18 Elm Street, 18 Elm Street. Uh, motion, please. So moved. And a second. Second. All those in favor?

38:11 Unanimous. Next item is the Horribles Parade. Great offense. Yeah, he is exactly right. We have a letter from, uh, Carol McHugh and Joan Chaplin. They’re the co-chairs of the Gary Vf, Gary five VFA Hors Parade Committee. And, uh, the motion is pretty self-explanatory, and I’d like to entertain that motion to request from Carol MCC and Joan Champlain, Gary, five Veterans Fireman’s Association to hold the annual horrible parade on Monday, July 4th, 2022 at 10:00 AM subject to approval from the police chief and receive of the required certificate of insurance. The parade route will be the same as in previous years, starting at the ending at the National Grant Bank. Rain date is Sunday, July 10th, 2022. Registration will take place at the Gary 5 210 Beacon Street on Sunday,

38:58 July 3rd, uh, 2022 from six to 8:00 PM or in the National Grand, uh, parking lot on Pleasant Street on Monday, July 4th, 2022 from eight to 9:30 AM So moved. And a second. Second, almost. No, just, I’m sorry. They were error. They’re all 2023. So they’re Tuesday. Did I read 2022? I gave you the wrong. Okay. Uh, so the motion will be revised here. 22. It’s Tuesday, July 4th. Mm-hmm. Thank you. Sorry. 23. So the motion will be corrected to Tuesday, July 4th, 2023. Sunday, July 9th, and Sunday,

39:44 July 9th, 2000. July 3rd, 2023. And, and Sunday, July, Monday, Monday, July 3rd, Monday, July 3rd. Thank you. Okay. 2023. Sorry about that. I should have, I should have caught that. Sorry. So moved. Okay, second. Those in favor? Thank you. Cut. Present, present. Present. Yeah. Okay. Uh, item number five, a star of a C request for one day liquor license. I’d like to entertain a motion, uh, and this is for the, uh, Paris Social on, uh, Saturday the 24th. And a motion to entertain the request from Monsignor Timothy Moran

40:30 for a one day liquor license at Our Lady of the Sea, 85 Atlantic Avenue on Saturday, June 24th, 2023 from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM subject to the following delivery and of, and receipt of the licensing authority for the required fee. $50 delivery of and receipt by the licensing authority of proof that the alcohol be purchase from a, from an authorized source, proof that the applicant can receive proper delivery, provide proper storage and disposal, all alcoholic beverages purchase, all in accordance with the requirement of general law. Section 1 38. Uh, alcohol will be purchased from a and p wine, wholesalers, L L C. Can I have a, it’s a polled vote. Can I have a, a motion? So, motion And a second. Second. Second. Okay. Uh, Okay, let’s start here. Ms. Becker in favor, Ms. Singer? In favor, Ms. Nunan In favor,

41:16 Mr. Nye? In favor, Mr. Grader In favor. Okay. Unanimous. Uh, let’s see. Agenda item, uh, number five is from the Marble Head Arts Association. And, uh, they’ll be holding several events, uh, where they’ll be serving beer and wine. And the motion again, explains that it is from, not from the Marblehead Museum as, and so I’m gonna revise the motion. It’s from the Marblehead Arts Association. I’d like to entertain a request from the Marblehead Arts Association for three one day liquor licenses at eight Hooper Street on the following dates. June 15th, 2023, 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM July 20th, 2023, 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM And August 17th, 2023.

42:03 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM Subject to the following delivery of and receipt of the licensing authority, the required fee, $50 delivery revenue received by the license authority of proof that the alcohol will be purchased from an authorized source, proof that the applicant can receive proper delivery, provide proper storage and disposable alcohol beverages purchased, all in accordance with crime General Section 1 38. Alcohol will be purchased from CAP’S courts. This and a second, second, Singer in favor? Afternoon in favor, Mr. Nye. In favor, Ms. Becker. In favor, Mr. Grayer. In favor. Thank you, Thatcher. Uh, the next, uh, agenda item is a, uh, wine, uh, yeah, uh, uh, alcoholic license for, from the, uh,

42:50 old Marblehead Improvement Association. Uh, it is for their annual meeting. I’d like to entertain a motion, uh, from a request from Marianne Criswell, old Marblehead Improvement Association, to use the old townhouse on Sunday, November 12th, 2023 from 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM for their annual meeting, and to serve light, refreshments and wine at no cost, subject to the usual rules, regulations, fees, receipt of the required certificate of insurance, and to waive the rental fee for this event. So this is for a, uh, use of the old townhouse, and it is not a license for, uh, wine or beer. So, second. Second. Uh, all those in favor? Just quick question. Um, Unanimous the Original letter, I’m just assuming it’s a typo, just says Sunday,

43:38 November 12th, 2003, but, okay. Just figured, just wanted to double check after the Date. Oh, yeah, that’s right. In the letter. Yeah. But we corrected it. The motion. But the motion, motion. Motion. The motion says 2000. The letter is that, just wanted to double check. Okay. Awesome. Nope. So you’re all in favor? We can vote yes. All in favor? Yes. Clarify. That’s unanimous. Thank you. Uh, the next is a, uh, private wedding, uh, for the Lee Man Mansion. And we have a request from, uh, Lauren McCormick, the Executive Director of Marblehead Museum. Um, so I’d like to entertain her up. Motion to request from the Marblehead Museum for one day liquor license at eight Hooper Street on June 17th, 2023, uh, 5:00 PM to 9:30 PM subject to the following delivery up and receipt of by the licensing authority, the required fee,

44:24 $50 delivery up and receipt by the licensing authority of proof that the alcohol will be purchased from an authorized source, proof that, uh, that the applicant can receive proper delivery, proper, provide proper storage and disposable all alcoholic beverages purchased in accordance with the requirement of general law. Section 1 38. Alcohol will be purchased from CAP’S wholesalers. So moved. Second. And a poll vote please. Yes, Ms. No. In favor, Mr. Nye In favor, Ms. Becker In favor, Ms. Singer? In favor, Mr. Grayer In favor. Next on our, uh, agenda are the contracts, and I understand Becky is here to answer, uh, any questions. Uh, we do have several of them. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. We will, uh, I’ll entertain a motion for each vote, and then we’ll vote on each of them,

45:11 uh, independently. Okay. And I think each of the contract vote language or self-explanatory. So I’ll just go ahead and entertain a, a motion to vote to award the contract for Hobbs House Garage painting and carpentry project to Tom’s painting and contracting of Marblehead in the amount of $23,125. And authorized the chair to sign the contract on behalf of the board. So, second, any discussion clarification? Okay. All those in favor, unanimous. Uh, the next one is entered in a motion to vote to award the contract for Ocos exterior paint and carpentry projects to Tom’s painting and contracting

45:59 Marblehead in the amount of $23,820, and authorized the share to sign the contract on behalf of the board. Somewhat second. All those in favor? Unanimous, uh, vote to award the entertain motion vote to award the contract for the old house, uh, old townhouse exterior painting project to John SRIs and Company, incorporated of Peabody Mass in the amount of $29,500. And authorized the chair to sign on behalf of the board moved. Second. All those in favor? Unanimous. Uh, the next is, uh, a motion to vote to award the contract for supply and deliver cast

46:45 iron manhole frame and covers and catch basin frame and grates to EJ USA Inc. Of Brockton Mass and the amount of $41,307 and 72 cents, which include the base bid and alternate and authorize the chair to sign the contract on behalf of the board. Moved. Second. All those in favor? Pretty exact bid. What’s that? Pretty exact bid. It’s an exact bid, indeed. That’s, that’s not the, uh, Alicia rule? No. Well, that’s only in budgets. We only on the budget contracts we wanted to the penny. Yes. Perfect. The next vote is for the E P W to award the contract for Monument Restoration Project at Old Berryville Hill, uh, to Village Green Restoration of Fal,

47:33 uh, Falmouth mass in the amount of $10,000. And authorize the chair to sign up the contract on behalf of the board. Moved. Second. All those in favor? Thank you. And finally, a vote to award the contract for the Grace Hollers Railing project to Neland Construction Company of Medford, mass, Massachusetts, in the amount of $48,600. And authorize the chair to sign the contract on behalf of the board. Second. All those in favor? Thank you. Uh, and now we have a fantastic draft of our financial policies, which is, uh, which look at first blush, very comprehensive and very well done.

48:20 So we’re very pleased to, uh, Alicia, do you want to, uh, do you want to talk? Well, I’ll start. Sorry. I’m sorry. Yeah, I’ll just start it off. Somebody, please Go ahead. You, you, you jump in. Please let Her do any details. So, yep. Um, as, as we, just as you know, uh, in the, uh, annual report for the last couple years has been carried forward, draft financial policies that, that put in place. And so, um, the, the, we talked about this way back when, uh, at some point that, that we need to implement them. Uh, I remember mentioning at some point, I wanna wait till we have a finance director to look at the pol, you know, the, the proposed policies and to, to make changes or suggestions or recommendations otherwise. And,

49:07 uh, with Alicia on board. And that is what she has done. She’s, you know, what’s been the draft policies that have been carried are really just high level summary statements. And what Alicia has been able to put together is very detailed, specific policies for all kinds of various transactions and activities of the finance department. Um, so, uh, first of all, these are just draft policies, and they’re here tonight just to do an initial presentation and for all of you to, to take the time to read and, and, and peruse them. And we will schedule at, uh, you know, soon in a meeting for adoption of the policies. Um,

49:55 and so, you know, look for your input on, on these as well as our continue work to review and revise as necessary. So, what’s here for tonight is the, the first one is, uh, uh, overall financial policies for the town, uh, which, uh, covers subject such as, uh, budget guidelines, financial reserve policies, um, how to handle department transfer requests, debit management policy, investment policy, audit policy, other employment benefits, policy, uh, department receipts, departmental, uh, turnovers, departmental expenditures, purchasing policy, user fee policy, anti-fraud policy, petty cash policy,

50:42 employee reason reimbursements, contact with the media promotion, professional development, technology use policy, any philosophy of terms. Um, why this is important to have these and to cover all these subject areas is, uh, one, our, our, the bonding agencies are asking that we have these and that, uh, we have policy in place and we follow them. Uh, and, and also our insurance policies would want us to have policies in place. So some bad transaction happened, um, that, you know, it, it, it’s not a result of because of lack of policy. Uh, so these are important. Um, so that first document is the, the, the big document, which is the overall fi financial policies. Um, I,

51:31 we have sort of a pink or salmon color, uh, tab. And, and the second one that’s in here is town of Marblehead, federal Grant Policies and Procedures. Um, as a municipality, we, we receive numerous federal grants and grants come with requirements, uh, on how we handle ‘em, how we we transact them, the timing of when we must expend, um, and also importantly how we report, um, uh, to sort of go to a related subject, part of the conversations we’ve been having about our financial software systems and such, um, what’s critical about that is when it comes to federal grants and state grants, there are very specific reporting requirements.

52:19 And so part of the software systems is to make it easy to be compliant with the reporting. And the policies are the guidance on how and when, uh, we, we should, uh, handle federal funds that we, we receive as a town. And then the third one, um, um, credit card policy. So, um, we, we need to use credit cards in certain transactions, uh, as a town. And, but we also need to control credit cards is probably one of the most dangerous instruments to not maintain control over. Um, examples of, uh, and I’ll use an example from my, my other community I was at of why we need credit cards, for example. Uh,

53:06 initially we had in Framingham is police department training that, uh, some police officers had to go to train, they had to sign up for conference, they had to travel, stay at a hotel. The conference is like a month and a half away, so they needed to reserve early and all of that. And because there wasn’t a good credit card process at the time in, in Framingham, uh, the officers had to use their own credit cards to do all the reservations and the travel and all the expenses, and they couldn’t get reimbursed until after it was all done and turned in receipts. So they were carrying the cost and the finance charges, all that. That should be, uh, uh, you know, as an organization, you know, we should be handling those transactions and it helps us to keep record

53:55 of those transactions. So those would be under the control of the finance instructor. So that’s the major subject areas. And, um, Alicia is here if you wanna provide any more detail in depth as to what we have presented. Thank you, judge.

54:12 Good evening. Honorable Select board and the public. Um, thank you Thatcher, uh, through the chair to our everyone. Um, the financial policies in front of you are really, really detailed. And they’re actually gonna be more that I’m gonna be working very closely with, uh, Thatcher on, uh, coming down the pipe. The federal is extremely important so that we make sure that we’re spending money properly and lawfully, and that they look at that and they, that’s very, very important to the federal government. Credit card, internal controls, the stature stated extremely important. We wanna make sure that they’re, they know they’re accountable, they’re gonna be held accountable. We wanna protect the town. We wanna protect the town’s funds. So also in there is not only a policy, but a form that they’d have to sign to protect the town. Um,

55:01 in addition to that, uh, we’ll also probably have some trainings coming up too for town-wide. And I’ll be working very closely with the town administrator on that. We’ll probably pull in the state too on some procurement and purchasing that doctor and I have discussed, in addition to the enterprise system that we would like to implement, in addition to the transparency with the clear gov, lots of great stuff coming down the pipeline. Love working with Thatcher, and I’m excited for all the things we have coming up.

55:35 Well, Teamwork makes the dream more. I, I can’t tell you how, to me, this is exciting. And I, and I, I look forward to reading through it and, uh, and, and, and asking you some questions. It looks not only just entailed, but very comprehensive as well. So, uh, the job well done. I know it, it takes a lot of effort to, you know, to put, to put this together. So, um, it’s a significant advance on what we’ve had. And, uh, I think that’s a function of how, how much you, both of you pri prioritize this work. So thank you very much. Thank you so much. Thank much needed. Yeah. Any other, uh, comments? Um, I just curious, um, how much of a springboard or look back with the ori, like the ones from a past administration, did you do, and then I guess,

56:20 um, where did you look to, to kind of come up with some of these policies? Some are from my previous experience of, of things that I’ve done and some I’ve, I’ve looked at your policies that are before, and you’ll see a lot of encompassing as background. And this is more of a guide of how to get to that point. So if it says, okay, we wanna protect, but this is how you’re going to protect that asset. So kind of expansive on what was originally there. Yeah. As a part of it. Another part of it is I brought in the treasurer Treasurer and I reviewed it in detail Town administrator and I reviewed it in detail. So it’s been a big team effort. Um, it’s a work in process. Yeah. Um, so you can definitely expect changes. We want to get something out.

57:06 We want you to look at it. We wanna know that, want you to know we are protecting the town. I’m implementing internal controls as we speak. I’m explaining to folks on my team why we do what we do and how to protect the town and what laws must be followed. And we’re gonna continue to expand. There’s, there’s more to come. Yeah, it’s great. It, it, um, it’s, it’s, um, I like the, the table of contents is the way it’s broken out. Um, but more, um, there’s just a couple things that I didn’t see, like standing out at me, but doesn’t mean they’re not in here cause I just haven’t read it through. But have you, um, uh, thought about or have a policy in here around like report, like monthly reporting, free cash and that stuff? Or, I mean, I’m sorry. You know, like the rec filing cash, um,

57:55 and a capital improvement plan like aspect, which we’re in our other Yeah. Just comparing them. I’m just, I don’t see it, but I don’t, Yeah, that’s gonna be a separate. So me and Thatcher are still working on a more in detailed. So yeah, this is what I have so far, but we’re gonna have other documents coming forward. So you’re gonna have capital assets. Mm-hmm. We have more, more coming forward budget. Yeah. This is great budget budgeting capital. But we didn’t want to throw it in here. We thought it would be a little bit more detailed. It’s very much easier to follow than our la Like what, I mean, just kind of looking at it, you know, at first glance, I, I think it’s, it’s very much more, um, easier to read through and accessible. So, so part part of the approach is, um, this first one is sort of the,

58:40 the main body of what we’re on pla we want in place. Uh, we want get these voted and adopted as policies fairly soon. Yeah. So that when, when Alicia is asked or challenged by whatever agencies, we can say, yes, we have policies. Some of the things you’re referring to are, are additional policies that we want to do some further work on. You know, revisions such, there’s a lot of work going on, A lot more work to be done. But, uh, these first few are like, um, we’d like to get them in place as we’re working on others so that we can do the check mark,

1:00:05 Look at say, you know what, these, these look pretty decent and they don’t need to be 100% everything you Want. We can always a amend them. We can always a amend them. Gotcha. Turn on the speaker we just said. Yeah. We just add an electric. Oh, I’m sorry. Oh yeah, They all, oh, automatically reset. Thank you Jim. It can be here. Yeah. Thank you. So, yeah, so, you know, get these to, uh, as near to perfect without necessarily being perfectly in place. Get ‘em in place we can revise as we go forward. Yeah. And these are, as Moses said, that the, the, the most compliance ones and then the procedure ones we will continue to work on and present when ready. Okay.

1:00:54 Anything, Thank you. Yeah, no, I just wanna say thank you. I know we’ve had a lot of conversations about, I mean, this makes me so happy. Um, yeah, that’s great. So happy. Uh, so yes. I mean I, you know, like read everything just to, yeah. Great. Thank you. Thank you. We we’re lucky to have someone with experience knowledge. Yes. So happy and Puts in way too many hours. Yeah. That’s amazing. Thank You. Thank you very much. Thank you. Appreciate the update. That’s great. Uh, so that is, uh, we will, we will revisit that and schedule that. Yeah. Yeah. If you add a future meeting, that’s great. Okay. Uh, the next agenda item is establish a donation account for the, uh, what is being called now, the Gary Playground. And, uh, Becky,

1:01:41 if you could please give us a, an overview. We do have a couple of neighbors back there. Yep, we do. So just wanna give you a, a quick, this is just simply asking you to set up a donation account for, um, for a playground. So, or park. Um, when we sold the Gary School, um, we subdivided it went to town meeting, we subdivided it, and we kept, what was the playground? The school yard and the construction is being completed. And as part of the sale of that, in addition to the funds that, um, the developer paid us, there was a, um, a, um, commitment to give money towards this park. And so we’re just starting. So I’ve spoken to,

1:02:29 and Cher and I have spoken to several neighbors that have asked about it. And so the plan is to, um, get a designer and meet with the neighbors, find out what they want, and, um, then have some public meetings through the, the larger public and, uh, come up with a plan and then, um, implement it. So, um, some of the neighbors very generously have offered to donate funding for it, you know, so we’ll cobble it together, um, with the money from the developer and what we fundraise. And then, um, you know, there’s some other sources we might go to as well, so that, this is just that. But I just wanted to give you that background. That’s Really great. And Bob Bragg’s Here. And Paul, Yeah.

1:03:14 Perfect. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, so That’s the extent of it, but just a little background. So now you, you know, to the extent you’ve had, you know, we, we make every attempt to socialize this as broadly as we, as we can. Yes. And I think, so your next agenda item is to, is to have a meeting, uh, a broader meeting of, of, of the neighbors Yes. And then a broader meeting of the public. So yeah, we’ll go through the whole, um, the whole process. But this is, we’re just at the beginning. Um, we’re waiting for the, the, um, condominiums there to be completed and get that funding, but that’s, that’s coming to a close. Yeah. When do you think that that’ll happen? Um, Initial, um, sometime this summer. Yeah. But I thought we would have a meeting with the neighbors maybe, um, in the next two weeks. Okay. Yeah. Just to get it going. Okay.

1:04:02 Yeah. Uh, anything from the board? A question about who’s, so, um, who, who’s designing the, or we you put it out to bid the playground. Yeah. We don’t, we don’t have a designer. Okay. It’s really just An initial, I just remember like with the build, like playgrounds now, it just, it like, it’s evolved so much. Yeah. So like, you know, the equipment, the concepts of it. Right. Um, there’s so much new, like, it, it just amazes me how much it’s evolved. And when we did the building, they did the building project for the new school. The conversations around the playground, Jackie probably remembers were like, um, just kind of mind blowing Oh, yeah. Things that went into it, you know, just accessibility and all that stuff. Um, and, and, yeah. Okay. So I think that’s it then. Yeah. Uh, neighbors, do you, do you, uh,

1:04:49 would you like to, to make a comment or, uh, I know, I know you’ve been very engaged and you’re Yeah. Uh, up to the, you can come up. Yeah. Come on. Go ahead. Up to the, to the, to the microphone if you’d like me. If you’d like to, or, yeah. If you want come up, we’ll come right up. Here you come. Right. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Expect, expect nothing less of you. Both of you. Expect nothing less. Both of you. Thank you for having us. I’m Paul Pruitt. I’m Bob Bragden. Bob Bragden. Um, Yeah, we’re just here on behalf of the, not just the old town, but the entire town. And so, um, you know, I’ve lived in Old Town now for coming up on three years, but, uh, it’s actually my fourth house in town, so I’ve lived here for, you know, 20 some odd years. So, um,

1:05:36 so the thought behind this is to, um, kind of rally the community around this, uh, re-imagining of what we’re referring to is Gary Park, or Eldridge Gary Park, or, um, because I know, you know, Fort Sewell has recently been renovated. Uh, we’ve got Crocker Park, and then of course there’s Hammond, is it Hammond Park too? So mm-hmm. Uh, all of those are waterfronts, but this, this is somewhat unique, this parcel of land because it’s, you know, it’s not on the waterfront, it’s sort of in the center of, of old towns. So there’s a real opportunity to really like, refurbish into this as something special. And I, I kind of think of in my mind as sort of like the central Park of Old Town, but, but again, it’s not just for Old Town. It’s, you know,

1:06:23 when you think about all the people that, that come to visit Marble and who visit Fort Swell and, you know, crocker Park, you know, anyone, any outside visitors we ever have are always amazed at, you know, some of those properties that the town offers. So we’re just looking at this piece of, of property as, as a real opportunity to also make an amazing impact. Yeah. I don’t recall another time. We’ve, we’ve had an opportunity to, you know, create a park in town, you know, the ones we have been around for a long time, you know, Glen Mills aside, it’s an entirely different opportunity, and we think we can really get a playground out of it. It’s a parking area, but also get a really, really nice park in the center of all town. Yeah. Because it, it’s always been used as a play, as a, uh, you know,

1:07:09 Gary’s school playground. Yeah. And so, you know, it’s no longer Gary’s school, it’s now the Elbridge, which is being transformed, as you all know, into something, you know, high-end condominiums and, um, uh, which is, is coming on. It’s beautiful. It’s gonna look, I mean, it’s coming on beautifully, but we just want a, a park to kind of, not just match that building, but to, to, you know, invite all, all, um, community members. So that, that’s the thought behind it. And, uh, you know, Bob and I are here on behalf of trying to, again, rally the community into donating funds, uh, enough to make it, you know, really impactful for us to really do it. Right. Hence the donation account.

1:07:54 Correct. Exactly. Correct. We need, we need a donation account account in order to, to jumpstart it. We’ll listen to that. We’ll, appreciate it. Where I’m gonna entertain a motion to establish you want, you want Yeah. Just a quick, yeah. Just a point of clarification. So, um, Becky, this kind of was for you actually. So did just, is it correct that there was some funding that we’re getting from the builder? Yes. You know, from that, that will be mm-hmm. Basically put towards this. Yes. And then the intention here is to take that and then to fundraise to increase that account. Yes. So we could, you know, have enough to mm-hmm. Yeah. The, the amount as far as I’ve been informed, uh, is $10,000 from the Yes. Right. Which, and then There’s, um, there’s also, um, there’s some grant opportunities mm-hmm.

1:08:41 That we did for the, um, ops playground, and That’s okay. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, no, I think this is great. My children went to Gary and we’re in that area as well, and my daughter walks the dogs and still goes there nostalgically all the time. So I’m a huge fan of this. And yeah, happy to, to participate in any way. I think it’s great. Thank you. Excellent. Alright, gents, we’re gonna, we’re gonna just get down to the business of the bra time. If, if we could, if you give us permission to do, shall we? Yeah. You guys are good. Thank you very much. Thank, thank you for waiting. Thank you. Thank you both for waiting. Thanks for taking an interest in it. It’s great.

1:09:21 So, uh, absent any further discussion, uh, I’d like to entertain a motion to establish a donation account for what we’re calling now. The Gary Playground donations may be sent to Abbott Hall, hundred 88th Washington Street Check, uh, checks made payable to the town of Marblehead. And note in the memo line, Gary Playground. So moved. All those in favor, unanimous. Thank you very much. Okay, so this here is from a letter from Alicia. So this is the end go end Of year transfers. The end of year transfers. That’s correct. So the first page describes that’s Yeah, go ahead, Patrick ahead. Yeah, so, so was in front of you is, uh, two page. So narrative memo of all the train end of year transfers.

1:10:08 This is what every municipality goes through at the end of the fiscal year, cuz it ends June 30th of this month. Um, and that, you know, we have authorization to spend at the department level or at the, the, the, uh, what, what are we, some salary or expenses, right? Salary expenses, but at anyways, at, at the bottom line levels. But individual line items may either be over expended or may have surpluses based on just how transactions go during the course of the year, uh, of that. So, um, at the end of the year, we, uh, follow master law, uh, chapter 44, section 33 B. Uh, we are allowed to make end of year transfers from surplus accounts into deficit

1:10:54 accounts in order to balance out the account. Uh, the total in, in the transfers is $563,259, which represents about 1% of the total town budget. So basically our variance from budget is about 1%. I think that’s outstanding for all the transactions over the course of the year to manage at that level. And our goal is to do even better next year. Mm-hmm. Thank you, Thatcher. Um, uh, I’m, I’m, I’m also pleased that it’s, it’s, it’s actually a relatively low number, uh, and what you’ve got in your package here is you’ve got the year end transfers there. So it’s basically a transfer from the following accounts. And I’m gonna read that as part of the motion and the,

1:11:41 and those transfers amount to 563 2 59, and it’ll be transferred to other accounts that are described in the second box there in your package. Okay. So you can see, uh, all the items and the amounts transfer from and transfer to. And, uh, what I’m gonna do is I’m gonna entertain a motion, uh, I won’t go through every, uh, read every number of the line item. We’ll just vote on the transfer from amount and the transfer to amount, uh, subject to my reading, the, uh, uh, the description here is that, is that okay with everybody? Anybody have any other questions, uh, regarding that as we, okay. So I’d like to entertain a motion, uh, to,

1:12:27 uh, as presented in your package to authorize the following YEAREND transfers in accordance with Mass General Law Chapter 44, section 33 B, the year end transfer, which totals $563,259 from the fiscal year 23 appropriation line item listed below titled, transfer from the, uh, to the fiscal year 23 appropriation line items listed below. Uh, and tr titled, so that was from a listed below titled transfer two as submitted by the town’s finance director, said, transfer subject to the concurrence of the town’s finance committee. Uh, the transfer funds come from the following accounts. They come from the assessor’s salaries, fire salaries, highway salaries, finance expense, finance salaries, salary reserve, energy reserve,

1:13:17 uh, waste salaries for a total transfer amount of 553, 250 $9,000. 63 63, thank you. 563,000 Thank you. 259, uh, thousand. And I don’t need to think, I think I’m, we’re just gonna vote on the whole thing, right? Yeah. Or should we Vote on Oh, you can say and transferred to, yeah. And the transferred to, uh, you know, that that amount would be transferred to, uh, the select board expense salary board, salaries, fire expense, public building expense, public building salaries, police expense, police salaries, police indemnification of officers, highway expense, clerk expense clerk salaries, election and registration, planning, board assessor expense, snow removal, veteran benefits, expense, and all of these items, as you can see in your package and your part of the motion am, uh,

1:14:03 amount to the same 563,259. So all those in favor? Well, can I just Oh, yes, please. I’m sorry. Yep, go ahead. Please go ahead. Um, so just for discussion, um,

1:14:17 what happened with snow removal? I feel like, I remember Amy mentioning that the sand and the salt, the material, it wasn’t so much we had, we had a fairly mild winter. Right? So I’m like, just curious about this number. Yeah. So we, you, you still spend a good amount, uh, even though there’s not snow. And we did have, uh, a handful of events for plowing, but what what you also have is the freeze thaw cycles. So you have a lot of sanding trucks. So crews do go out overnight and they do sanding and solid thing and those type of operations, plus the cost of all the materials. Oh, sorry Amy, I thought you would No, That’s fine. You’re doing perfect job. I did a perfect Job. Okay, then did you, I made her say that adjust for this, for the,

1:15:03 for our FY 24 budget then, So no, the snow and ice will stay at, well, it’s 105,000. Right? It’s the steady amount. It’s A fund. Keep us saying, as I explained to Tom, we do this, you cannot cut it, right. Cause you lose the, but you are, that’s the one line I’m you’re authorized to over expend legally. Right. And then, um, and you’re allowed to carry deficits. We’d rather not. So it’s reconciling for the current fiscal year, so as not to have to carry though we’re legally authorized, uh, a deficit forward. Okay. And then the only other question I had was about the public building salaries. Yeah. Um, were under budgeted. Is that, did we just, did we hire somebody? No. Um, which, wait a minute.

1:15:51 It’s on the front to cover public building salaries and the amount of $80,000 for the department salaries were under budgeted. Yeah. So that, um, um, so what I did was, I, go ahead,

1:16:09 Your Honor. Through the chair, what I did was I looked at their salaries that they expended, and then I projected out for the year, and I found that it was short. Okay. That it just, it just wasn’t budgeted properly, to be completely honest with you. I was trying to find the right words to say that. Yeah. Did We, and then I’m assuming, but did you find this out after we budgeted for next year or, Well, I was scrubbing the books at year end. That’s when I go through each and every budget and I start looking at each one in detail, and that’s how I look at it. So if I see a percentage that’s way off, like everybody else’s, about 75%, 80%, and you’re at 93, something’s wrong. Okay. Yeah. So there as, as we had to explain as we’re doing the new budget, right. In the past come up, They Were, yeah. And, and they were putting multiple people into, you know, the, the line item for, uh, director level. That’s right.

1:16:56 Because they were changes in people, different people fill the role and we’re just combing through it to sort it out. So, so this is cleaning up for the current fiscal year? Yeah. We did our projection for the next fiscal year, uh, as best we could, you know, and that will settle in a as we move forward. Okay. Great. Thank you for the clarification. Yeah. It’s always interesting to see these year in reconcile. They, they, they tell a story, you know, themselves. Yeah. They’re, yeah. But again, this is a small amount. Okay. Are we ready any more, uh, discussion? All those in favor? Okay. Unanimous. Thank you. Um, and I guess, uh, agenda items 12, I think We’re, well this, we’re gonna not ready. Not ready. We’re gonna hold off. Yeah.

1:17:45 $13 for scholars. Um, so they like to hold their, uh, ninth annual run on Sunday, October 1st, 2023. I’d like to entertain a motion, uh, for the, from the request from the marble head dollars for scholars to hold their annual run for the fund 5K on Sunday, October 1st, 2023 from NI 7:00 AM to 11:00 AM subject to the FA approval from police, fire, recreation, and parcel department, police details and receipt of the required certificate of insurance. Name your town of Marblehead, as additionally insured, no permanent markings are allowed on the streets, and any temporary markings must be removed at the conclusion of the event. Second, please.

1:18:30 Second. Second. All those in favor? Okay. Outstanding. Great. Run.

1:18:38 Okay. So now we have, uh, executive session, um, release and hold motions respectively. So, uh, Ms. Thatcher explained before, uh, on advice of counsel, we can release the minutes of executive sessions after a certain period of thought, which we, uh, shall make public with this motion. And also we continue to hold, uh, certain executive session minutes, principally because the legal cases are pending. Mm-hmm. So, uh, that is the explanation for that. I’d like to entertain a motion on advice from town counsel. After review of our executive session minutes, the board shall make public the following, select board executive session minutes December 11th, 2019,

1:19:25 April 27th, 2022, May 18th, 2022, May 25th, 2022, January 5th, 2023, no, November 2nd, 2021 portion of minutes that is resolved, uh, regarding collective bargaining. So moved. And a second, please. Second. All those in favor? Absent discussion. Okay. Unanimous. Uh, and for those to, uh, continue to hold, I think that in a motion on Divisive Town Council, after review of our executive session minutes, the board shall continue to hold until deemed appropriate by counsel. The following, select board executive session minutes November 23rd, 2020, and November 2nd, 2021. So moved. Second. All in favor. Thank you. Okay. This is a letter from, uh,

1:20:14 Diana Rogers. Um, water and Sewer is a, yeah, just a notice of water and sewer rate hearing notice. And, uh, the Marble Head, uh, board of the Water and Sewer Commissioners would like to invite, uh, the public to attend the Water and Sewer Commission’s annual rate setting hearing to be held on Monday, June 26th, 2023 at the commission offices located at 11 Tower Way building number 11. So that’s an annual event, and, uh, anybody is interested in attending and do so.

1:20:54 So, um, I think we, you know, we already did the, uh, fried pavement agenda item, and I think we have arrived finally at the public comment portion of the agenda. And we’d like to open up the mic to to public meeting. We have folks in the room and anybody online, we do have someone standing here. Sir, if you would, uh, Step to the, hi, my name is Dan Albert. Yep. I’m, uh, 58 Lester Road. As you know, I was, uh, appointed the designee to the M B T A, uh, M B T A advisory boards, and I just wanted to give you a quick update. Uh, I promised I wouldn’t say anything negative about the M B T A.

1:21:41 I will say it’s been a little hard to engage with the board. So I’ve been, uh, doing a lot of legwork with the MPO and with our elected representatives. I think there’s three things that are worth, um, having on your minds at some point. One is at the Better Bus project, which I think you know about, uh, will kind of come to fruition over the summer. It’s delayed a little bit, and the timing’s uneven because of, uh, shortages of bus drivers. What’s gonna happen is the route that currently goes through, uh, VENnet Square gets eliminated, and also the last quarter mile of the 4 42, uh, route, the route stays, but the last quarter mile goes away. So it starts at Mulford Street. It’ll end up giving us 30 minute headways through most of the day,

1:22:28 45 minute headways from about 10:00 AM to, uh, uh, 1:00 AM I’m sorry, 10:00 PM to about 1:00 AM. Um, that, so that should be a good thing in terms of bus reliability. The other is I’ve talked with, um, Jenny Armini, uh, quite a bit. She’s very excited about a, uh, busway is what they call a dedicated lane on the laneway for bus. This will enormously speed travel by bus. Um, but the most interesting thing, um, that I’ve talked with people at the advisory board as well as Senator Creighton’s office and, uh, Jenny Arm’s office is the electrification of the commuter rail line. And a lot of people think of this as a, uh, you know, a sustainability as a green thing, but, which of course it is.

1:23:16 But for us as a town, the reason it’s really, really, really important is because it’s gonna transform the, uh, reliability, the frequency, and the speed of trips to Boston from Salem and, and, uh, uh, swamp Scott. Um, and that has to do with the changes in the cars and, and the nature of the technology. Um, so it’s something we really want to pay attention to. Senator Creighton and, uh, representative Armeni have co-sponsored or have sponsored bills in the Senate and in the House that would require that line Newburyport Rockport line to be electrified by December 31st next year, 2024. Now, as always, that’ll probably slip a bit,

1:24:03 but that is the first line in, uh, uh, the first in line to get electrification. And so that’s really important to us. I think it’s worth, uh, thinking about it in the context of the Salem branch of the, uh, bike path, uh, whether that gets paid at some point, but more importantly, I think it’s something we need to keep on our radar because hearings will be coming up around that bill and any sort of, um, um, letters, you know, uh, uh, voices of support, if the Select Board decides to, uh, put them forward, um, would I’m sure be appreciated. And I’ll update you again at some point on that. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Albert. Okay. Do we have anybody in the room? No.

1:24:50 Anybody, uh, online? Kyle? I don’t see Mr. Okay. Uh, Patrick, if you could, uh, move us to your town, uh, administrator update, that would be great. Okay. Um, a lot of my recent focus was the work we’re doing on the policy. So I think we’ve, uh, I think we, we’ve, we’ve covered that one. Um, uh, I just wanna make a couple sort of work projects, uh, in the community. And, and Amy, if, if there’s any, any other details. Um, one sort of internal, uh, the new fuel station is, um, being put in place at the D P W. Um, it is critical that we replace the existing, uh, fuel station.

1:25:36 Uh, it has park seated, its life expectancy. So we, we we’re moving forward on that, uh, as well as some major road projects. And, and maybe Amy will, will give, uh, some insight. Um, you know, I, I’ve heard in my year here, uh, a lot of, a lot of comments about the roads, um, and, and getting roads fixed and all the construction. And the challenge as I’ve come in from outside and seen, uh, and working with Amy, um, is, uh, getting the coordination not just between water, sewer and D B W, which is accomplished by having Amy and that, and that dual role, but also getting the utility companies, the other players that have infrastructure on our streets and,

1:26:24 and start better coordinating the projects makes, um, it, uh, it makes it more efficient. So we’re not putting new roads on old pipes and things are being torn up. Mm-hmm. Um, and trying to minimize the, the delays of the worst roads when they can be repaired. So part of the challenge is there may be a road that’s really bad, but information we get is that, you know, gas company or somebody is scheduled for two years out to go and dig the entire road up. So how do you manage the fact of, you got a really bad road everybody’s complaining about, but balancing that. So, um, but we do have some current projects that are being done. So if Amy, you wanna provide any updates, uh, to those efforts? Thank you.

1:27:12 I love putting her on the spot. So, um, our Miller, our milling contract is in, uh, we’re doing Elm Street, Watson, Rockaway Street. They’ve moved over to Beacon Street, uh, and they’ll be headed out to the neck to do Ocean Ave. Um, so, uh, we hope that the structures, everyone should be careful around the structures. You have to drive slowly and you have to try to avoid them. They are not friendly to tires. Uh, there is signage up, but people really need to make sure that does happen. Um, so they, they now will set the structures to the right height that will take about a week, and the pavers should be in, hopefully by the end of next week, uh, to start paving all those roads.

1:27:57 And I am assuming they’re gonna go in the same direction. So Elm won’t be paved first. Then the smaller streets off of Elm, then Walkaway Rock, uh, Rockaway Watson over to Beacon and then out to, um, ocean Ave. So, and we have held off on the small drain project that we have to do on Pleasant Street until Elm Street is paved and that we’re not affecting traffic in both places. Um, you know, communication’s been hard to, I find communication hard to get out because, you know, paving depends on rain and even though the pavers not due here today, he was working somewhere else if it rained. So he gets delayed, even though we don’t understand that we had a sunny day and he was supposed to be here by the end of next week. But looking at the forecast, it looks like,

1:28:44 you know, I can always get pushed off. Yeah. But, um, they moved around really quickly moving forward quickly. Yep. And what they’ve really worked hard on is updating the website and putting, pushing out the information as best as possible, ever changing, but, um, communicating with the public as best as possible, um, is what we’re focused on. That’s, that’s a priority. Yeah. Your attention to this is great. Is great. Yeah. And we are trying to use, uh, the code red system for like a neighborhood. So all of them that got the notification about Ocean App, we didn’t put it out through the whole town so that we’re not overusing, um, that Beacon Street went to the whole town because we felt that might affect a lot of different people since there’s so many people working in that area. Awesome. So, but we are continuing on and, um, we ha I mean,

1:29:32 I feel we have made progress with communication with National Grid. Um, we now have a year and a half scheduled out with them, which I haven’t seen in the past. I mean, they, they generally try to work with us, but we’re really trying to push them to tell us where they’re gonna be. So it does seem to be moving slowly. You Feel like they’re they’re giving a good Yeah. A credible schedule. Yeah. And they do come in like, that’s huge, you know, once a month. And, um, they have dedicated three crews to Marblehead to try to get ahead of our paving schedule. So because the utilities are the thing that’s gonna slow it down, and gas has gotta go first before water can go. So pushing them is hopefully gonna make the rest of it go faster. Outstanding. So I’m happy to highlight, uh, uh, an area that, you know,

1:30:19 all residents are, are see and feel, uh, that there is a lot of good work that’s going on, uh, on the current projects, but to, but make the whole effort even better. So thanks. Thank you. You, um, much appreciate much appreciated it by the businesses too, especially as you Know. Yep. And then finally, um, I, I, I just want to comment on, so I joined the rest of you in participating in the Memorial Day, uh, parades activities, and, you know, I’ve done it in several different communities. I, I have to give credit Dave Rogers, and I’m sure there’s, he’s got a whole crew of people that, that supported him, but he’s the one visible me, outstanding job on organizing it. One of the best logistics efforts, uh, I’ve seen of moving a lot of people around through the community. Uh,

1:31:07 he did an outstanding job. I really enjoyed participating. My, my only regret is I showed up in my civilian suit and all my military buds showed up in full uniform. I won’t let that happen again. Alright, Colonel, we’ll take your word for it.

1:31:28 That’s cool. Concludes my report. Awesome. Okay. I was gonna cover the, uh, the, the, the streets safe routes on this. So, um, yeah. So we are moving now to the select board announcement, so if anybody has anything, uh, Alexa? Yeah, I mean, I guess just, I wanna say thank you to everyone who’s been involved. You know, you mentioned Dave, which was great, and I think there’s been so many recent events with the Pride Festival and today was Juneteenth and the Firefighter Memorial and just, um, a lot of great events that have happened into all the people who go into making Marblehead so special. I was just somewhere today and they were talking about how amazing Marblehead is in its civic engagement with the people of Marblehead. And it was, it was just great. Cause it was somebody who wasn’t from here. I was like,

1:32:15 oh yeah, just, it’s always really surprising how involved everyone is in local government. It just, it was great. It was great to hear. So, um, anyway, just wanna thank everyone who’s been working through those projects and, and all the work that’s been going into those events in the last couple of weeks and today too is fabulous. Thanks, Erin, anything? Uh, no. Alright. Oh, can I add one more thing? Sorry. No, um, just a reminder too, um, I know you guys have put the work into, um, the FAQs and those types of things for the override that, that is on the website. Just a quick reminder for everyone that that’s up there. Um, just wanna make sure I put that out there as a reminder. No. Yeah. Thanks. Sorry, Jim. Anything Jackie? Uh, I’d just like to bring to the attention of the town that, uh,

1:33:02 we’ve got some exciting news from the, uh, superintendent that, um, you know, he shared an award with us from the Safe Roots to School Initiative that the Glover School received at the State House, uh, uh, this past week. And, um, you know, we are, we are really here to commend, uh, the Glover School principal, uh, Doran and her team for their hard work to get this recognition. And it’s basically the governor, uh, the Glover was the exemplary program winner for the Northeast. And the award is for setting a great example by crafting a new or exhibiting safe roots to school programs through innovation, creativity, um, and, and, and, and, and a big effort.

1:33:48 So there were lots of, uh, uh, initiatives, uh, in the walk, bike and roll days, crossing, guard, appreciation day, um, and, and a host of other, um, initiatives that make it safer to, uh, to get to school. So this is, this is a, you know, something that, uh, we’re very, very pleased that, you know, the schools are paying attention to. And, and in this instance, particularly, uh, Ms. Hope Duran, the, the, uh, the principal of the Glover School who went to the State House to receive the award. So Thanks. Outstanding job. Well done. It’s our first year. Yeah. As Principal. I know. Outstanding. Outstanding. Okay. Uh, I think that brings our, our meeting to a conclusion.

1:34:34 If there’s nothing else, then have a motion to adjourn. So Moved. Okay. Second. All in favor.

1:34:44 We’ll be here all night. Not done.