Select Board: July 26, 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.

0:01 What is that? Wait a minute. Sorry. It’s July 26th. Um, this meeting is being recorded by by Zoom. So I would like to call this meeting to order. Um, the first item on our agenda is the approval of minutes from June 28th, 2023. So Moved second. The only thing I had que Kyle question, was there public comment at this meeting?

0:24 Um, I feel like you would’ve recorded it, but Yeah, I saw some, yeah. Down here. Page 80. Oh, Okay. There it is. That’s what I, oh, there it is. Okay, great. That I thought. Okay. Yep. Okay. Does anybody have any other ready to, um, proceed to a vote? Um, all those in favor? Okay. Unanimous. Our next item on the agenda is, um, regards to Marblehead Counseling Center’s request for some did, um, delineated parking spaces. This is a letter in our packets and, um, it’s fairly straightforward. Uh, they’re requesting, um, signage delineating, uh, reserved parking spaces for their counseling center, eight 30 to five 30, Monday to Friday. Um,

1:10 the motion that I would ask for is to, um, approve the request from the Marblehead Counseling Center at 66 Clifton Avenue to restrict parking in the lot at Marblehead Counseling Center, Monday through Friday, eight 30 to 5:30 PM for Marblehead Counseling Center use only subject to review and approval from police and fire. So, move second. Any discussion? Okay. Seeing no discussion. Um, all in favor? Okay. Unanimous. And the next item on our agenda is, um, best Friends Walk,

1:48 Um, for on October 8th, 2023. Um, this is, um, there a letter, uh, around, um, yeah. Uh, a walk on Octo Sunday, October 8th at nine 30 in the morning. Your, sorry. Standard request. So, um, I’d like a motion to approve the request from Emil Lucian to hold the annual Breast Friends walk on Sunday, October 8th, 2023 at nine 30, starting at Devereaux Beach, subject to approval from police, chief recreation and Parks, police details and receipt of the required certificate of insurance. No permanent markings are allowed on the public way and all temporary markings shall be removed at the conclusion of the event. So moved. Second. All in favor, unanimous.

2:34 And next we just have a letter of interest. We don’t need to take any action on this, but we have a letter of interest, which is great from a student for the student reposition from Nico King, who’s interested in, um, being appointed and considered for, um, the task force against discrimination. Student reposition. Put together a nice letter. Yeah, it’s really nice. It’s great. I think. Yeah. Um, there’s still probably one position. Are there two student reps on that? I believe Kyle, They are, they usually just send two forward that they ask to be reappointed ‘cause it’s, Oh yeah. Okay. Short time. Yeah. Great for them. Okay. And they come before you, but they ask to send them. Yeah.

3:20 Okay. Uh, next item five on our agenda is a, um, a request for a chamber music concert on Sunday, August 20th at four o’clock. Um, request to rent Abbott Hall, um, like a motion to approve the request in our packet from Andrea Leblanc. Our, I’m gonna, our p Joni Ensemble to use Abbott Hall on Sunday, August 20th, 2023 from 2:00 PM to 7:00 PM subject to the usual rules, regulation fees, and receipt of required certificate of insurance. So, moved. Second. All in favor? Great. Okay. So now we get to the ARPA projects. Um, item on our agenda,

4:07 which we just received, everyone should have a copy of this. One Of these should pass it around.

4:15 Yep. And I will turn this over to, um, our account administrator. Thank you. Brief us on this. So what’s, What’s being passed around is, uh, two sheets, one’s double-sided. That’s the current pending requests for upper projects. And the second sheet, which is single-sided, are the projects that have been approved up to date. Um, and so what, what you had before you tonight is, uh, request to approve three additional projects, um, that have been, um, um, scored, uh, in, in and analyze. All three have been on, uh,

5:03 on the list for quite some time. Uh, I’ll go through some more detail on, on, uh, on the recent scoring, uh, change to one of them. So the basic, uh, projects that be before you, the first one is the Rail Trail Lead Mills Bridge Construction project. And if you recall from a previous meeting that we were discussing, uh, opera funds and, you know, the balance available, that there were a number of projects that were coming forth that were big ticket items. Um, we were, um, and this is, this is one of them. Uh, we were awaiting for good cost estimates, uh, for these projects before, um, moving forward and submitting them. And so this,

5:52 the rail trail lead mills, um, and Bridge construction project is a section of the rail trails near the, the Salem line. Uh, in the lead, the so-called lead mills area. Um, there was design work that was, that’s already been done. We received a, a grant from D C R to, to complete those actions. This is to actually do the work of making the improvements in the trail to include the replacement of two bridges that are currently not accessible, uh, and, and incorporate them in, into the, into the trail. Uh, the total price tag on this is, uh, $1,426,200. Um, this is actually, uh, less than the dollar value we,

6:42 we’ve been carrying on the upper list, uh, up until we, we got some good quote numbers and we’re able to nail down this number. Um, so I have, you know, a little bit of information on this. Uh, Becky Curran is available online. Okay. If there are particular questions to this project. ‘cause she’s been the project manager for this for quite some time. So she is available for any questions that you may have, uh, on this particular project.

7:11 Okay. Thanks. I’ll turn it over to members of the board. Do you the chair? Of course. Yeah. Uh, I dunno if this is for you or for, um, Becky, just a quick question on the, um, on the grant that we received for the design as part of this project, is there a timeframe that that has to be executed in? Like, is there any limitations on that grant? I would, I Would Becky, so, um, permission to speak through the chair. Of course. Yes, Becky. Thank you. Okay. So, um, no, the, the grant, so we got a grant, um, from D C R was a hundred thousand. And we are the lead community. And Salem is a participating community. And that was for 75% design. That was completed June 30th. And in that, um,

7:59 they also gave us the professional cost estimates and an estimate to bring it to, um, 100% design, put it out to bid, and, um, and then we would, uh, construct it. So no, there’s no time limit, um, because the grant is, has now been completed. Awesome. Great. Thank you. Thank you for doing that. And thanks for leading this off with the grant. I appreciate that work. Um, and so that’s completed. So we’re basically thumbs up to execute This is, this is to ask you, I I will say, uh, for this project and many of these other capital projects, even with the, the request of, of APA funding, we will continue to seek additional grants for these projects. And if we receive the grants,

8:45 that’ll reduce the amount of reliance on the APA fund. So yeah, it’ll come back. So there is a possibility of, of the APA costs being less than what we’re presenting, but by, by authorizing funding through opera, allows us to fully execute the project and go forward and we’ll, we’ll see, you know, the other funds as, as we move along.

9:10 And if I could just add, you know, the, the cost Escal escalates as, as it’s put off. But the, um, this was part of the master plan that we did. We did the rail trail master plan that was also done through a grant. We had a lot of, um, community input into that. And this would be, it’s kind of exciting ‘cause it would not only link the Salem Trail, um, two hours, um, and make it accessible. It would also be the prototype for the, you know, the width of the new trail and the way it would look. You know, when you, when you go down in that area, you know, there’s, uh, a lot of vines and a lot of, um, fencing that would be lowered. So you’ll actually see the harbor when you’re, um, when you are on the rail trail, which is, um, you know,

9:58 gonna be a big improvement and kind of exciting about, you know, that this would be the prototype for how the trail will look. That’s great. Thank you. Um, Becky, I had a question about, um, okay. So you just said it would link the troop trails. Yep. I’m pretty familiar with it. Is it not already linked? So, so it’s linked, but it, um, so the city of Salem participated in this and they’re doing their own project to make a better crosswalk there. Okay. And enhance the sidewalk so that it’s, um, so that it’s a better link. Okay. They are, you know, technically linked, but it, it’s, um, gonna improve it a lot for safety and aesthetic.

10:43 And is there, is, is there any, um, so it’s part of the rail trail master plan is, was there any, um, are there any issues with the current bridge? Is it, is that, is the reason this was prioritized because of the condition of the Crossing? Well, it’s wells not accessible. Yeah. It’s not accessible. It has a lip and it, um, it has, uh, the bollards that, um, are difficult. They’re dangerous. Yeah. When you’re riding a bike, you have to get off it. Some strollers don’t get through. I’ve helped people through with strollers. Yeah. You have to pick ‘em up so it’s not, um, so yeah, it was prioritized in that way. And, um, you know, swamp Scott, we’re also working on, we have the earmark for the design, but that’s just a click behind this.

11:29 Okay. Is there any additi, is there any like mitigation or, you know, other benefits that we should know about to it around like the floodplain and the wetlands area?

11:42 Um, Or is it just, it it’s fine if it’s just about the rail trail. I just am Curious. Yeah, it’s just about the rail trail. Okay. I mean, we are at, we are adding some trees and things. Um, so it’s about, yeah, it’s about the rail trail safety, accessibility, um, aesthetic and, you know, just kind of giving the community an idea of what, um, what it’s gonna look like. Okay. Madam Chair. Yeah, of course. Yeah. Uh, Becky, uh, Moses speaking here, what’s the, uh, what’s the surface gonna be? Is it, is it gonna continue to, so it’s stone dust and are there embankment reinforcements and things like that? So it’s a deconstructed granite, so it’s like a stone dust, but it packs down more. And it will be, that’s,

12:27 that’s one of the things that came out of the master plan was that people wanted to keep it natural, but it also needs to be an accessible surface. And, um, so it’s, it will look like that. It’s called deconstructed granite and it, um, it will pack down more, but it is a stone dust. Thank You.

12:50 Okay. So all of these on the, this first page for on the arpa, these are all already funded, right? So is that the single page sheet? This nothing on the Back? Yes. Oh, oh, this is double-sided. Okay. Okay. Yeah. So this is all funded. Okay. Right. So Single-sided Or, so there’s is Double-sided already funded projects, the double-sided. And what you’ll see is, uh, on the first page, you’ll see, um, you know, alternating white and blue. Um, and then it, the first column turns gray. And the way the spreadsheet works is that when we exceed the total available dollars, it turns great. So it’s beyond the cutoff mm-hmm. Of what’s available for funding. But these are projects that are still, still pending, um,

13:40 Okay. To come forward. But what you will see is some additional projects. So if you recall, um, what’s already funded is, uh, there was already done a long range recovery plan as part of the whole, um, opera effort and, and, and sort of the post covid effort. We’ve also approved through this process, the hiring of a person using opera funds for up to two years to implement the long range. The, the, the, the L R R P plan, some of the projects that are identified in that plan are listed here as the, as pending projects. And, and again, part of the process,

14:26 and, and, and Becky’s been been doing the yeoman’s work on this, is to, um, you know, organize these projects and get, get the better, uh, estimate numbers kind of nail down the details of these projects. So what you’re gonna see is, um, sort of the next phase is to identify those projects from the L L L R R P to be implemented. And, and that’s what’s, that’s what’s pending. So I don’t if, is that, what’s the gray, there’s anything to add to that, but

15:03 Is that what you’re, is this why that is gray? So They’re up in the, up in the blue and white area that’s, that’s ranked. So this is sorted by scoring the scoring process. And is the gray a lower priority? Yeah. So, so right. They, they rank lower and at, at some point, the, the formula on here says that the, um, the cost, the accumulated cost of the projects exceed the amount of APA funds available. Okay. So can I just ask, how did it come? So I guess can you just speak to how it comes up as a priority under the priorities? Like if like public health and safety Right. And you know, as like, and then how the ARPA working group landed on it. Yeah.

15:50 So there’s, uh, there’s criteria. Yeah. Um, they each have a weighted score. Mm-hmm. So some criteria, uh, carries a, a larger score than other criteria. For example, if it involves public health or public safety, it scores a one. Mm-hmm. Um, if it’s, uh, infrastructure improvements like a 0.4 economic, um, you know, uh, something new economic is I think as 0.4 as 0.6. So each, each category has, has a weighted score, and then part of the work of the task force is to review the projects and, and evaluate for each of those criteria what the score is. Yep. So was it scored under, um, infrastructure? Is that what you

16:36 Received? Which ones? The rail Trail, this project? Yes. And, and part of, um, infrastructure and I think economic, I don’t, I, the score, the actual scoring for each project is hidden columns on the printout, but I have it on This bridge. Yeah. I guess I’m just, and is the reason that sea walls and stuff down here in Parker’s Boat Lane is that we expect other grant money to pay for it? Yes. Okay. So the other thing we considered is if a project does have other available funds, um, we try to a, again, there are far more projects that are worthy on the list than there are funds available. So if it has other potential sources that we’re likely to get, we, we look to fund those projects under those other sources to maximize AOR for those projects that are not likely to get other sources.

17:26 Right. Yeah. It’s just, it’s obviously a significant amount, percentage wise of the ARPA request. Yep. So almost a quarter, uh, 25% of the AOR request. I just Yep. Wanna make sure everyone had time to look at it. I’m just seeing it now. I’m just trying to,

17:47 okay. Um, and then there’s other, obviously that we didn’t get to the soft schools software upgrade and Sure. So, uh, the next one is the school town financial software upgrade. And I know it’s a, it’s a topic we’ve been talking a lot about. Um, the current general ledger software that we’re using soft, right. I’ve mentioned numerous times, um, is, is outdated, inadequate, um, software. It is no longer supported by the company that that owns it, uh, which is Springbrook. So it is an obsolete software platform, uh, on top of the frustrations, uh, I and, and, and, and the finance folks and the department heads have as to its capabilities.

18:35 So we absolutely know we need to replace it. Uh, it’s a critical function of the town to be able to manage our resources, uh, our financial resources. What we’re looking to replace it with is, um, um, an E R P or enterprise resource planning, you know, a cloud-based enterprise system that manages our financial software. All of our financial applications, ideally, all of the financial applications are all part of this one enterprise system. So the system is specifically designed to link together all of the various types of transactions that we, we interact with on a financial basis.

19:20 So it’s not just keeping the ledger books, it’s collect. In fact, I’ve identified, and if I may, um, um, the categories that the new software would have, it would include for, um, and not limited to, uh, accounting, accounts payable, budgeting, cash management, e-procurement project, and grant accounting, purchasing, human resources management, payroll with employee access, meaning our employees can log in and look at their own stuff. Um, accounts receivable camera bridge camera is, um, uh, computer aided, um, mass appraisal. So it’s, it, it has to do with our, our, um, assessor’s, uh, information,

20:10 uh, cashiering, basically taking in the cash payments, uh, general billing, mass tax title, motor vehicle excise tax, resident access. So, uh, providing, uh, this financial information to residents to be able to log in and see their particular payments made and, and, and, and amounts owed. Those kind of bill, uh, uh, capabilities, tax, billing, analytics and reporting assistance with, uh, well, so those are the capabilities. And then we’re asking any potential the potential vendor to assist with implementation on site remote implementation options, you know, training, uh, as well as looking to, um, uh,

20:57 have them do the e R P conversion management, but also update our chart of accounts, uh, which is also badly needed. Um, and since if, if we’re gonna move to a new system, let’s, let’s go with a clean and current, um, chart of accounts to better track everything we’re doing. So what what we’re asking to do is, I guess I call it solution in a bottle of, you know, a vast majority of our financial management challenges that, that we’ve been having. So the cost request, $463,803 is a onetime cost. This is the, this is the high end estimate based on information we’ve gotten from potential

21:44 vendors of what it would cost to do the actual migration from the system. We have the systems we have to a new enterprise system. And so, uh, one of the potential vendors, which is, it was prevalent in Massachusetts, um, the, the annual cost would be little over 200,000 for the town, plus 200,000 for the schools. So we’re obviously working closely with the school finance folks. Um, that would be the annual ongoing cost. We’re, we’re not asking ARPA to fund that. ‘cause that’s a, that, that’s an ongoing commitment. We’re asking opera to fund the cost to do the actual migration from the systems we have into this new, uh, enterprise system.

22:30 Um, again, on this going, this has been carried on the list. It was a general, um, software upgrade, but we, we went back in, in regard to the scoring. And again, because of the, the very critical nature of our financial systems and our ability to just keep our operations, our public safety, our health, and as well as any others, we need to be able to rely on our management systems, uh, to do the work. And so in looking at the scoring, we, we ranked this, um, as, as a critical need and therefore, uh, up to this level to be funded.

23:11 Great. Okay. So are there any, are there other questions? Does this, um, nam chair, uh, through you, uh, does this also include some of the enterprise agencies, like the light and the water and sewer? Or is it strictly just the town and the school That would, uh, municipal Light has their own system, and I think the enterprise systems would utilize this, but Municipal Light has their own finance and account. That would be the only, yeah. Yeah. Okay. The chair. Yeah. C F O can Yeah. Come on up. You can come or whatever. There’s whatever. Oh, there’s no mic. No, it’s mine. That’s my job.

23:49 James gave me a job. I didn’t do it. Thanks, Alicia. Good Evening. Alicia Benjamin, finance director through the chair. Um, we do do the lights, um, department and the enterprise funds administrative all through our system as well. That is correct that they have their own, but we also do the administration on our side as the treasurer is the custodian of their funds. Okay. So, yeah. ‘cause I just know there’s so many different bills, and some you have to do a check. Some will accept other forms of payment. And so this might actually make a more streamlined, this Will streamline everything. Everything will be synonymous and synchronous together. Right now it’s all disjointed. We’re using multiple systems that we don’t need to use. Great. You know, I was supposed to delete that. Gotcha. Okay. This is, this is pretty amazing.

24:35 Yeah. This matter through the chair,

24:39 cloud technology has come to maturity and it’s a solution in a bottle that is presenting itself to us. It would be huge, Very important, versus being on a server to be cloud-based is a huge improvement. Mm-hmm. Yeah. This is all, this is all good stuff, but badly needed, uh, this, this, this is a game changer for Yeah. This for everything we do on a, on a daily basis by, by moving in this direction, Yeah. The efficiencies will be immediate. Right. And the residents too, because they will then be able to have access to their information of payments and payments. So it, it gives us those capabilities that we don’t currently have for online payments and, and the information, all those things. Mm-hmm. So,

25:27 so residents will directly benefit as well, uh, you know, our professional staff. Yeah. So this really could save time, not only just from the general efficiency, but now, you know, somebody’s not gonna call you up with a question and you’re gonna have to go into one system to find the answer, to go to another system, to get another, you know, to confirm or, so this is, this is gonna be great. Precisely. And the amount of work they do, she won’t talk about her and her staff just to reconcile the different systems together and get everything to balance is the amount of work they have to do is too much. This solves those type of problems. Yeah. Great. Okay. Thank you very much.

26:13 And then the third, if you’re ready, Go ahead. Yeah. Um, and, and I know we’ve had conversations about this, and again, this is carried under a, a general label, um, on the list. But we, again, another item that has revealed itself as far more critical than, than I think folks realized previously on looking at these. So, uh, this is to replace and upgrade the municipal fiber connection loop. Um, so this is, uh, currently, um, we have our, our internet connections for all the municipal buildings. Um, the schools have have a more robust system in place, but for the townside, um,

27:01 we have a much older fiber system, meaning it’s an old, uh, in a lot of places actually, glass fiber that expands and cracks and breaks and, and, and, and, and creates problems. Um, and the, the way it’s deployed, it’s daisy chaining through the different buildings. So it just runs in a single line like Christmas lights. And that if one, if the fiber breaks in one spot, everybody else down, down downstream is out of business. And where this came really to light as to how critical it was, uh, at least for me, um, as, as I was kind of speaking all these things, when the fire chief came as, as you all know, the, the, the library renovation project is ongoing. Um,

27:50 the contract is needed to get out the basement of the, the, the, the, the library building. This fiber network runs along the poles, goes into the library building into a box in the basement, comes back out up to the pole and continues on to our, our public safety, our our police and dispatch facilities. And the alert was the contract that needed to move those boxes and wires. And given the age and everything, uh, it was a high concern that just by moving that box was gonna knock our dispatch center offline. And, and that’s how precarious we are on the system. So though we knew we needed to upgrade, to me that,

28:38 that really makes it a very much a public safety, uh, matter. So what, what we’re analyzing and proposing, and we’ve, we’ve gotten some pli preliminary pricing that’s coming in at about 480, 400 90,000. So we’re rounding up the 500,000 on the request to, to allocate. Um, and, and obviously we, we, we will bid it out and, and, and get the, get the final numbers, but it’ll be a looped. Uh, it’ll be, uh, upgraded fiber, higher capacity fiber, uh, much more strands. Um, you know, we 144 strands per, per per line. Um, and we’re asking the, the contractors. Uh, what we’ve done is we’ve mapped out all of our buildings, all of our utility,

29:26 all, uh, infrastructure, our pump stations are, are other type facilities, are major intersections. And asking them to design the loop to be able to basically go by all of those facilities to give us a capability to connect everything that we have into this municipal fiber loop. So it’ll create much higher capacity, but allow us to, to loop in all of that infrastructure. The exception is the infrastructure out on the neck. Um, that, that, that just to, to, to run it out to the neck for this new is a significant cost. So we decided, let’s put that off to a later time. Um,

30:14 but as far as the, the, the main portion of the town, um, it will provide, uh, enhanced capabilities. Uh, lots of discussion back in the Article 44 committee work about videoing all the meetings and moving, you know, saving and moving files. You need the bandwidth to be able to, to move video. I mean, we’re doing a lot more streaming, a lot more. The, the, the data demands on our network is much greater. This, um, uh, I think the phrase is future proofs us in that, uh, you know, it’s, it, it doesn’t cost any different to put 12 strands on a, on a pole or 144 strands. Let’s put the, the, the large amount of strands so that we don’t need to put up new wire in the

31:02 future to keep up with the demand for data. Um, by also, by making it a looped system rather than the daisy chain we have, um, it allows redundancy and, and, and resiliency in the, in the line. So if, if some portion, you know, a, a telephone pole comes down and, and disconnects the wire one part, there are other routes that our data can flow in order to maintain that connectivity. And so, um, so the $500,000 request, um, is for us to bid out and procure and to build out this, this fiber loop, um, uh, for, for our data needs. Uh, it, it is, it would be a separate project and other,

31:47 other funding, uh, as, as we connect different nodes into this network. But at least the highway system will be there right out past all our infrastructure, and then we’ll be able to connect in.

32:02 That’s great. I mean, I, I know from the beginning of arpa, as it came down to the states, the emphasis was on exactly doing this. Broadband was specifically like the first criteria, their priority that they had put in as a, as a, as a, you know, requirement for use of funds. Um, and obviously our financial software upgrade is, is needed and really good, you know, has built in efficiencies, bottom line, talking, you know, time of staff and all of that. I think for me, like I’m, and I’m, I’m not, I just, I, what I find it’s hard to, in the process is the infrastructure projects and the prioritization of them. Because one, when we say yes to one, we are saying no to something else. And,

32:49 um, you know, um, um, and the good thing is that, you know, Becky is, is one who really has her pulse on what’s coming in via grants. And, and it, I know she’s a part of that group making that those priorities. Um,

33:13 do you know, what is infrastructure improvements to support economic development and commerce? ‘cause are these ones that we we’re not funding. So There, there are, um, in some of these, there, there are general line items in which we’ve, we’ve broken out some projects from them. And that’s the right, the remaining balance, uh, that’s not allocated. So, um, trying to find the one you were Referencing, it’s, well, ‘cause we’re talking like, you know, the local economy and, and, and commerce and, you know Yep. That it was part hit by Covid. I, um, and I see here infrastructure improvements to support economic development and commerce. And I’m wondering why that just, yeah. And maybe, um, Becky, if you could speak to just help us why this and not this,

34:01 you know, that would just gimme A, because it’s A significant chunk of the ARPA money. Yeah. So we do all these plans and, um, and then they always have, you know, action items. So the rail trail is actually in the Net zero plan. It’s in the Complete Streets priority plan. Yeah. It’s in this plan, it’s in a lot. And that’s how, you know, some of these things got to the list. It’s like, we’ve been doing all this planning and now, so we have all these projects. The select board, you know, has all these projects ready to go, and then you look for funding for them. You know, whether it’s through an override, whether it’s through the budget, whether it’s through a grant. And then we got this funding and the idea was, you know, this one kind of benefits everyone.

34:49 The economic development. Um, we did this specific L L R P that helps with economic development. The first thing, which is you guys have already funded, and we’re working on getting a, um, position that’s here for the, um, for the duration of the ARPA funding allowance. So, you know, it ends in whenever that is, 2025 or 26. Um, and a lot of those projects, um, we will do, we’ve, we did the, the tourist booth and we used ARPA money for that. That was one of those things. That was a big one. We’ve done, um, we’ve applied for, and hopefully we’ll leverage money for the, um, the five corners rebuild and some of the things that came out of the L L R P.

35:38 Right. If you look at the list of things, a lot of the L L R P things are still on and they are, um, you know, we’re kind of waiting until we have the economic development person in place because there’s a lot of programs where we can leverage funds to. Um, so we use our ARPA money with other money to get them all done. But, um, we’re kind of waiting for that, uh, position to be filled to do some of those. But that you’ll see they’re still on the list and they rated very high. Okay. Thank you so much for explaining that. ‘cause I, that does very much help me understand why this is touching on, like you said, all three of those things. I thank you. I just needed a little,

36:27 just a little, you know, kind of more confidence on, on why this versus others. ‘cause um, it’s a complicated process in how they come to us. So. Right. And, and it’s, it’s, some of, it’s kind of what’s gonna be ready when, you know, like we’ve gotten millions of dollars so far for coastal resilience for that project and we are identifying other sources for, um, implementing it. But, you know, you look at the timeline that probably won’t be till 2027 when it’s actually, you know, being built. And so some of that stuff isn’t gonna be good for this funding because it’s beyond when you have to spend it. Right. Okay. Thank you. You’re welcome. Does anybody else have any other, are we ready to, for the motion? Okay,

37:17 so, um, Oh, if I may Yeah. Allowed to, yes. Chief, Just to add that Patrick’s comment, because I think it’s important. We decommissioned all the boxes, all the pole boxes by five, six years ago. Mm-hmm. And we own that, that copper line right now, eventually it’s gonna be deemed abandoned and we’ll lose it to the phone company. If we lose it, then we lose our opportunity to run that fiber. So we gotta keep that in mind. Yeah, Yeah, yeah. There’s a lot of factors, Right? That’s true. And that’s, you know, that’s public health and safety. So I think everyone prioritizes that. Okay. So I’ll just go ahead and make the motion, um, to approve the use of federal ARPA funds for the following purposes and amounts

38:04 Rail Trail lead Mills Bridge Construction, $1,426,200. School Town financial software upgrade $463,803. Replace upgrade municipal fiber connection loop $500,000 for a total of $2,390,000 or, and $3.

38:27 So moved second. Um, okay. All in favor.

38:35 Awesome. Thank You. Okay, great. Thank you Becky, for coming on. Do you wanna read the bottom? You’re welcome. Oh, oh, you’re right. Thank you Jim. Jim has noted that, you know, I’d just like to note that for the, um, the balance mm-hmm. You wanna go ahead and read. Okay. So, um, the total request for the board’s consideration is $2,390,003 out of the total $6,144,030 in ARPA funds available for Marblehead 2,709,310 has been previously approved for funding leaving 3,434,720 remaining

39:21 for additional ar RPA funded projects. So with these projects approved, we will have a remaining balance of $968,000 and $585 968,585 remaining in the ARPA funds. Thanks, Jim. Okay. So next, um, on our agenda as our last item before public comment is our appointment policies and draft. I put this on the agenda to keep this moving along and, um, you know, I, uh, okay. Yeah. Hold on. Sorry, I didn’t bring my notebook today. So, um, we,

40:10 Kyle has printed out some survey responses so far. We have really, actually very thoughtful, um, responses from 48 49, I guess almost 50 of our volunteers have responded to the survey. I think, um, it makes sense to do a second push out and improve on that and, and do a second email reminder email to get some more feedback. Um, I know that there’s a couple boards that, you know, are a little bit different or, you know, we have kind of are adjudicatory in some manner. So I’ve reached out to those chairs, um, Charles at O H D C and, um, uh, I’m sorry, Brian at con com to get their feedback on the process and,

40:59 and their thoughts to bring back to the board. Also. Um, obviously those are very technical, um, boards that we appoint to. They by that nature have, you know, understandably longer tenures. And, um, I think it’s probably been a while since, you know, we’ve tapped them for some ideas on, um, you know, this process with respect to their boards and everything. So just wanted to put that out there. So I’m hoping to connect with them if I can’t, you know, if anybody else wants to join me in that, obviously we can’t have open meeting, we can’t have more than two, but, um, would be happy to include in that, those, those chats. So, um, you know, the idea is that we’ll receive the rest of the feedback well in advance of

41:49 our next meeting, which I know we’re kind of throwing out a meeting date potentially of August 16th. And so we’ll have the rest of the survey results well in advance of that meeting, um, for people to process and, um, and assess it. And then, um, I just put together this, uh, as a way to, um, get going on it. And I had worked with Kyle on memorializing the current vacancy process, plus incorporated some language that I am, I’m supportive of. And I gathered others were from our, from our discussion. So just for tonight, I mean, I don’t, we don’t need to go into and spend too long on this,

42:34 but I just wanted to, ‘cause again, we’re still soliciting the feedback and the hope is that at our next meeting with that feedback and then hearing from some, um, if there’s feedback tonight on what we have in front of us, we could have more of a final discussion at our next meeting and potentially vote, um, vote the policy. So, um, I think it’s, you know, I’d hope wanted to make a space here for people to provide some feedback at this meeting. And I think hopefully that will be more efficient than having people, you know, rather than trying to incorporate a series of amendments into like a final draft Yes. Through the chair. Yeah. Um, just, I just wanna say, uh,

43:22 I am super thank thankful for the responses that we’ve gotten so far. So I just wanna put that out to all the boards and committees. I know we’re still getting these things back, but just reading through everything there’s been ideas and thoughts and yes. Um, things that I hadn’t, hadn’t even occurred to me yet. So, super grateful for everyone who’s taken the time in the middle of the summer to, to respond and really, um, bring out some ideas. I know for me personally, I’m feel like I’m still digesting all of this. Uh, so, you know, I, I don’t know if that I’m at a place to speak to it in depth, but, you know, as I’m reading through all the comments and seeing a lot of the, uh, it’ll be great if we can even bring in

44:08 some more and additional feedback. And then I think it also, uh, reading through all the responses is actually opened up some additional questions that I have that would be great to kinda get some clarity things that, you know, specific boards have brought up or, uh, you know, concerns around their specific board or things that we might want to bring into this discussion. So, uh, I just wanna say one, I’m very thankful for everyone who responded. I think the comments are great and I think that especially, um, if, you know, if everyone hasn’t had a section to read through, you know, the graphs are great, but I, I found the comments, the specific comments, like I have notes on these where it’s like, yes, yes. Um, so even something as small as, you know, where someone had noted,

44:54 uh, that they waited, you know, two and a half hours for an interview ‘cause they weren’t in the beginning. You’re like, can you please just do the interviews at the beginning? I was like that. Yes. That adds a level of respect. Fair point. Um, so maybe there’s little tiny tweaks like that that we might want to decide as a board to put in our policy. And I think that’s meaningful. So I just wanna say one, I’m thankful for putting that together, Kyle, thank you for assimilating the, the data. I appreciate the time on that. And I personally wanna digest everything that’s been thrown at me so far. Yeah, Madam chair, of course. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I’m really impressed too with the, you know, with feedback, the written feedback that we’ve gotten from some of the, uh, from some of the volunteers. And I think it’s a hu you know, very useful, uh,

45:42 exercise. Um, I have the, I share the same sentiment. I’d like to have a little more time to digest and read through it. So to the extent that we can kind of complete the survey effort and we’re satisfied that we got a participation rate that’s high enough. I guess 49 is, you know, is probably a, you know, it’s a, Yeah, I talked to a Couple people, 20% number perhaps. I talked to a couple people that were, were, they were definitely still planning on, on responding. They just got back from vacation and I said, you know, some people we’re sending a second out. Yeah. These people had asked. So I think we’re still in the process Of just making sure, rather you have a thoughtful response than get it to me. Oh, get it Out. Yeah. It’d be great to get I think all the responses so that we can kind of get a weighted sense of what, what’s going on. And it’s great ideas. You know, there’s certain things, like I said, just with the timing or just other things that have been put forward.

46:28 I think one of the suggestions was to have, you know, once a year the chairs of the boards at some point come to us and update us. Right. Which I thought, you know, there’s, yeah, there’s just kind of interesting things coming, coming through. And, um, so yeah, so that, um, so with this, with regards to the survey, so we’re gonna, we’ll send out a second push and continue to reach out as we know people, you know, um, we have, um, people’s names and boards on here, but we don’t, they’re not attributed to their responses. So we just know who’s responded. So if you, you know, if you could, if you see people that you know would wanna respond that you don’t see on here, can you please reach out to them and, you know, remind them. Yeah. I think it would be helpful if they could do it, all of us. Like look and say, oh, I know, you know, so this,

47:14 this person I knew is on the board. I haven’t seen them. Maybe they, I mean I had that experience today Where someone said, we get people, you know, from every single board, at least a couple people from every single board would be ideal. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I mean, I guess Madam Chair, I may Of course. Course. Yeah. Um, you know, before we, if we can get that, you know, complete the survey mm-hmm. So that we get the input that we need to kind of look at the proposed draft policy. Mm-hmm. So in terms of timing, I guess for the, for that feedback loop to occur, you know, uh, if we can push it out a little bit further, it may be better than doing it kind of the next meeting. Um, so if we send a meeting, if we send a push out tomorrow, well, does that make sense or should we wait till Monday to push it out like a

48:01 reminder email for, ‘cause Kyle has sent it out to all the chairs, right. That you had emails for. I have had a fair amount of Yeah. Emails, But I either got the chair or the whole Committees great. Um, Yeah, if the turnaround’s quick, but then, Yeah, so, um, you know, as you, if you, as you have time Thursday or Friday to like, you know, just reply all and re send the reminder, that would be great. And then if we could Monday, I’m off Tomorrow. Oh, okay. Then not tomorrow, then Not tomorrow. Either Friday or maybe, actually it’s probably better to send an email on Monday versus Friday. Yeah. In the summer too. In the summer. So, you know, maybe, you know, Monday the, uh, the 31st I guess it is. Um,

48:47 and then I think a reasonable time for us to, um, print them off and like share them with everybody if we, we haven’t talked about our next meeting date. I, um, I know that’s a little bit out of order, but I guess it’s relevant to this, our discussion with this. Um, I know Kyle had sent out a date for the 16th. Does that work for folks as our next meeting in lieu of the ninth?

49:16 I responded, yes. Yeah, everybody else, everybody. Oh, okay. Yeah. I apologize. No, That’s okay. So we were thinking, ‘cause there’s a conflict on the ninth, if we, if we instead of the ninth meet the 16th and hold the 30th for our August dates ‘cause of vacations, 16th is fine, we Awesome. Okay. Great. Okay. So that would be our next meeting date. So if we get a response out or a push out on Monday, then we give it, you know, we’ll have a full week. You know, we can, I mean, I can keep it open. We can keep it open. I can also make people collaborators. So you could log on yourselves if it’s easier versus looking at it this way, um, to look at it on the Google form. Mm-hmm. If you’re a collaborator,

50:04 you can just hit responses and see it on the screen. I can do that if that, That actually makes sense. Yeah. Okay. All right. I can do that. And then, um, you know, so I, I mean, I think if we don’t have, I think we should have, everybody who’s gonna respond would have responded by, you know, at least the ninth. Right. And then that would be, you know, four business days before our, or five really our meeting Wednesday night, um, that we could kind of chew on for that and, and have that time to review and assess the responses before we dive, you know, into, you know, maybe, you know, that will inform, uh, how we proceed I guess, on the policy. So, um, is there anybody who has any, you know, um,

50:53 I guess res feedback on, on what’s presented now, like that we should be aware of, you know, in advance that you would like to bring to the attention? Or are we good to kind of continue with this on the 16th?

51:11 Yeah, I’m up for the 16th. I’d like to hear more. We can get some more feedback ‘cause Yeah, it’s excellent. I would say anybody that has already submitted but maybe didn’t add any comments, add some comments or if you thought of something you didn’t add that you wanna add Right. Throw it out to us just so we know. ‘cause Yeah, we are taking those seriously. Yeah, I mean, yeah, I think that the madam Chair, I may as well. Uh, yeah, I mean I think this is, this is a really good, you know, first initial cut and I think that it kind of, uh, puts in written format a lot of what Kyle does principally and, and kind of what the policies are. So I think that’s really very useful for sure. I think the, the one area where we might, you know, I can just kind of anticipate probably having a discussion around one is Oh yeah. Is introducing tests, you know, for the, like,

51:57 like religion and so forth for the, uh, diversity piece, right? Oh, Is That and, and the other, where does It say that We’re having No, that’s fine. And, and, and then the other is probably the term limits. I think that we could probably count on some robust debate around that. Oh, okay. And I, ‘cause I think there’s, you know, there’s lots of differences of opinion there. Sure, Sure, sure, sure. Okay. I thought, I thought was not where I thought you were gonna, I mean, I have no problem with that, but I thought, I mean, I assume that we’ll have also, um, you Know what I’m saying, I’m, I’m talking about section Two, of course. I was talking about section Section two B, B and section four. Yep. It Says to ensure boards have a diverse membership I’d be comfortable with period there. ‘cause we are an equal opportunity employer. We’re, we’re a town, you know, ask for religion, race, sexual orientation. We don’t ask those questions, you know, nor does it matter.

52:46 Okay. You know, so to ensure the boards have a diverse membership. Right. Diverse in what sense? Then It could be two pages long. I mean, you’re including in this. Yeah. You know, four or five things. This is kind of boiler, to be honest. This is boiler language I was taking from a lot of other boards. It just really stuck out to me. Like Yeah. I mean it’s like, again, I know we need a lot more Lutherans on these commissions, but, um, yeah. And then the number C, letter C to ensure that the boards are made up of a mix of first time newer and more experienced. So by ensuring that means that’s that we should do it. So that’s, that’s saying that we need a first timer in my reading of this, that we need a first time member when, if that candidate is not the best candidate the first time,

53:35 but by ensuring that the boards are made up of a mix of first time, you know, that just needs in, in mind just reads that we I see. See, right. We need To get a first time member on one one words That a little bit. Okay. Yeah. Or maybe to seek, you know, to seek to just a different words. It doesn’t have to be insure is the, is the operative word there. Sure. I would rather the policies be less prescriptive than Yeah. Hands time. For sure. Definitely Consider just one additional is, as Moses was just saying, the term limits one of my questions never for term limits, but that’s fine. Um, does it state term limits? What? I don’t remember. I’m not for it. But, but no, that’s not in there. I’m just my own appointment. But, um, or my own, I Don’t think there’s anything policy in here about term limits. If a member seeks you,

54:21 they’re talking about 2, 2, 3 year terms and then after that you have to come back. Well, That’s not a limit. That’s just you, you’re, That’s, then you have to do something different at that point. My question is, but That’s not, that’s very different than a term limit. Jim, My question there, so let’s say that we approve this. So, so let’s say long, long-term members that have been here 10, 15, 20 years mm-hmm. Do they immediately get the three year term? Or do they still have to go year by year after that? Just something to think about it. It’s just not clear. Mm-hmm. Okay. So because we do have A lot, it says, although there is no fixed limit on length of service,

55:02 The length of service may normally be limited to two terms of three. Oh, okay. You’re saying? Yep. Okay. Yep. Seems like term limits to me, but May, May normally be limited. Mm-hmm. So, okay. Again, just so different verbiage. Yep. All right. And again, I think that is part of where we all will really look to that feedback. Mm-hmm. So, okay.

55:31 Good. Okay. So that was my only comments on thank you on that. I just, through the chair, I am just kind of piggybacking on what Jim said. I, I don’t know what page that comment was, but there, there wasn’t, I know I started it, um, a comment speaking to that, just if you guys make sure you look at it, um, oh, I think it was this, uh, that it’s maybe halfway through, but just it’s the Bottom page number. Oh, Yeah. Four outta 15. Four outta 15. Uh, it just said someone spoke to just the whole process of, um, if someone was wanting to continue after six years, and it’s the one that, uh, starts with, here are my thoughts, but I, I just,

56:19 I I found that interesting. If you wanna just take a look at that. They basically, um, you know, whoever gave this suggestion just spoke to the difference between, um, if, uh, you know, someone was saying they wanted to continue on, uh, you know, almost, um, just a different process than going through a standard interview that it’s more of like, Hey, can you speak to what you’ve been doing? What if your struggle’s been on the board? What has been your experience? You know, let us know what you still kind of wanna work on that, you know, it’s a, it’s a different conversation than any applicant. So anyway, I just wanna draw everyone’s attention to that. ‘cause it was, it was a thoughtful response That the reappointment would involve that they think it should involve, um, a, uh, just a, a different

57:05 Conversation. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Right. Yeah. You know, it wouldn’t, they shouldn’t reapply. Like it’s the first time we’re receiving them. Yes. Right. Yes. That, that, Yes. That they should be able to speak to what they’ve done. Yeah. Just right to come and say this, you know, this is just, this is what, yeah. This is what I’m working on. This is what’s going on. Yeah. This is, um, almost like a committee update. Mm-hmm. You know, that that’s a different process. So anyway, I just wanted to, it, it stood out to me as, you know, a thoughtful response there. So. Okay. All right. So looking forward to, um, getting collected some more responses on that and, um, continuing that discussion on the 16th. Um,

57:50 next we have public comment. Is there anybody who would like to make public comment? If so, please. Yep. Please come to the microphone and just state your name and, and street. And, um, also if you’re online and you’d like to make comment, please raise your hand and Kyle will let me know. Hi everybody. This has been really interesting to sit here and watch the local town government work. So it’s been, uh, a learning experience for me, and I think in some regards, listening to some of the money that’s going to be spent. Excuse Me. I’m sorry to interrupt. Can you, would you state for the Yes. Elaine Arruda and I live on Washington Street here in Marblehead. Did You catch your name? Elaine. Elaine Arruda. Okay. Thank you. Um, and seeing some of, and listening to some of these projects is really interesting to see how

58:37 Marblehead is moving forward in so many wonderful ways. And I think the decisions that you need to make are probably a lot easier than the topic I’m gonna talk to you about this evening. And that is, I’m the person who actually wrote the board about my vehement opposition to having the pride flag painted on the sidewalk at the information booth on Pleasant Street. I’m very upset at the fact that it’s there and I want it removed. I don’t agree with the unanimous decision that was made by this board. When I wrote the letter, I took a lot of time thinking about what I wanted to say. I also was not aware about the heated topics that were going on in the newspaper. This was strictly me and how I felt about how you all voted

59:27 on this subject. As I, after I wrote the letter and I started speaking with some of my friends and some of the people that I know in the town, I realized that I wasn’t the only one who was feeling really angry and upset about the fact that a factions flag is permanently affixed to a municipal sidewalk. So, I have two questions that I want to pose to the board, and I’m not sure that you’ll be able to answer that right away, but I’m asking one to the first question. One is, how does a group of people or a person actually get the flag removed? ‘cause I don’t think any faction, any group, um, social group should be painted on a sidewalk.

1:00:13 And I also don’t wanna see any group’s flags on a municipal piece of property. So that’s the first thing. The second thing would be what would it take to get an ordinance or some type of civic law that states that only the American flag, the state flag, and maybe the town flag fly on any municipal property, and that no other social groups or factions should be painted permanently on any public sidewalk.

1:00:43 Okay. Thanks, Elaine. Um, I know we all received your email. Um, I took note of your, of your questions and, um, everyone has your email. We can respond by email. Thank you for showing up today and thanks for comments. Okay.

1:01:05 Anybody else online?

1:01:17 Okay. We have a Town Administrator update? Yes, we do. Thank you. Uh, I’m gonna cover, uh, basically three things real quickly. One, um,

1:01:32 sort of a follow on to the earlier conversation about rail trails and, and, and successes. Um, in addition to what we talked about earlier, um, the N P O, the metro, the Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization, which is, um, a board made up of municipalities, state officials, and others that, that determine, um, the use of federal and state transportation funds. Um, have approved, uh, an amendment to award, um, while we had 175,000 for the design funding for the Swamp Scott Branch of the trail. So, um, hopefully, um, uh, the should be available after August in the project. Um,

1:02:19 we’re expecting to proceed no later than than October 1st. Um, I, I’ll I’ll pin this as a, another, success from Becky Curran and her efforts on all, all these efforts. Um, uh, because the nm p o and it decides to transportation improvement plan, much like our ARPA list, is a very long list of projects. And to get it through, navigate through the process and, and to get it successfully funded is a, is a big deal. And, um, Becky has come through for Marblehead, so congratulations to her. That’s great on that effort and, and the continued work. Um, next, um, another area of, I know I get calls, uh,

1:03:04 you may get calls in, in, in, in, in sort of initiatives in all municipalities is just, uh, traffic enforcement, um, in, in both in, in parking as well as moving, moving traffic. So I asked the chief, gimme some information as to what you are doing. Uh, you know, what are the activities? Um, and, and his reply is one, it it is an area that they focus on, uh, they take seriously. Um, and there’s a, uh, uh, you know, a lot of activity in that they do listen to citizen’s complaints. They, um, have traffic data boxes that they deploy out and they collect, um, uh, data and, and, and, and do reporting outta that. That gives, uh, guidance as well as the officers out in the street that are feeding back

1:03:50 information as to, as to what’s going on. That gives ‘em guidance. Um, and I think what the chief refers to is, uh, um, that he states that, uh, to be, to make it a priority post pandemic, uh, to educate and correct drivers on speeding, texting and driving. So, I guess, you know, a few years of covid, we all kind of forgot how to drive as we hunkered down, and now we’re all back out. So, so, um, uh, and I think the key word the chief uses, and I, and I’m being, it’s the educate piece. Uh, you know, it’s not just, um, nailing people that are, they’re, they’re, you know, doing traffic violations. It’s to educate them. Uh, it, it really is the, the overriding goal. Um,

1:04:38 so, um, so in addition to the regular patrol, patrol operations observations and working shifts, um, the, the officers have done two in the past year. Is it a year, uh, conducted 218 selective traffic enforcement efforts at specific locations of concern. So as we get this feedback, there are certain areas, there are problem areas for traffic. They, so they’ve done 218 selective traffic enforcement activities of focus in those areas. Um, they’ve made 758 traffic stops and issued 277 traffic citations as part of that effort. Um, that’s I think, good news for the general public and the traffic and us. There’s 277 people that may not agree with that, but that’s, that’s the process.

1:05:27 Um, in addition, there’s, uh, the same with parking enforcement. Um, one area I, I know in my experience in, in, in, in Avery, this was a big deal, uh, for the downtown businesses to have ample parking available for customers coming and going. And so part of the enforcement is enforcing the time-limited parking, uh, in order to create turnover and parking spots so folks can, can park, do their business downtown and, and move on. And that the spaces are not used up by, you know, residents or, or, or workers that are, uh, uh, you know, using the spaces parking all day, uh, in front of the store. So, um, in that effort, they’ve, they’ve, um,

1:06:12 given out almost a thousand parking tickets so far this year. That’s $28,000 in revenue from that type of enforcement. But that actually helps the local businesses, uh, and their economics, uh, to do that enforcement. Um, the Marblehead Police Department has been for the last two years, awarded the Municipal Road Safety Grant program, uh, which gives extra funding for, uh, enforcement on texting while driving. Um, all you have to do is look sideways out your window. And as far too much of that, um, impaired driving and has purchased two of our posted speed signboards, the, the boards that let you know when you’re going too fast, um,

1:07:00 we are expecting, uh, we’re hoping and expecting with confidence, uh, for another $40,000 grant this year for additional efforts in that area. Uh, finally on the police, um, uh, we, we hired some new officers. Um, they’ve all completed their field training, so they’re fully out, uh, doing their jobs as, as patrol officers on the street. Um, the amount of time from hiring to the academy to field training, it’s upwards of almost a year before you, they’re fully, uh, on their own as, as officers. So that’s good news for us. And then, um, uh, having those officers in place, uh, as well as the, the prioritization of police of you’ll, you’ll see more of the bike, the officers out on the bikes, and, and I’m waiting to see,

1:07:49 I think one of these times you’ll see a chief, uh, out on a bike and I want pictures if I,

1:07:56 the police chief prize a prize. Yeah. And the fire chief will be following in his vehicle. Keep on that. It’s gonna golf cart after. Yeah. But I, I, I think I, I takeaway, I, I wanna emphasize, you know, these are areas that, you know, the police in our office, we get the calls, you know, we hear the concerns. I’m, I’m sure all of that, that the, uh, the, the Marblehead Police Department very active. Uh, and again, the key component is education, uh, sometimes, uh, education through, uh, ticketing. But, but the whole idea is, is one safety. Um, and like I said, on the parking economic activity and, and flow. So, um, again, credit to the department for the work that they do, that a lot of times this stuff goes unrecognized.

1:08:43 The only ones you hear from are the, the ones who have had a training program. Um, but really they, they do a good job out there for, for all the residents of Marblehead. Um, and my last item, uh, I’ve asked the, the, the fire chief gilland, if he could give us, we, we, we have a heat wave coming, uh, in the next few days. So there’s some specific activities that the chief as the emergency management, uh, focus is doing, uh, in anticipation of the, the heat wave that’s coming in the next few days. Good evening. Thank you. So we’re halfway through summer as of today, coincidentally, and we’ve only experienced two days over 90 degrees. That’s gonna change that, that at tomorrow we’ll particularly have three days of extreme heat over 90

1:09:29 degrees Friday gonna be the worst of the three days. Um, taking that consideration, we have to look at two groups, the young and the elderly most at risk from heat. So we’d encourage them to stay inside. That’s absolutely necessary. And to stay hydrated. Um, over the past two summers when we’ve had heat wave, we have opened up a cooling center, usually at the Brown school. Um, that was not taken advantage of over the last two times, but if we do get calls through 9 1 1 or to the station, um, we can set that up on short notice at the Brown school. We have the equipment and supplies that’ll do that. So obviously if somebody’s in need, we will take care of that. Um, if there is a fun side to a heat wave, um, we plan on, for at least the park and rec camp at one o’clock tomorrow afternoon,

1:10:16 we’ll have the ladder truck down there and we’ll be setting up a very large shower for them. And we plan to do the same thing on Friday at three o’clock at the community center for the whole community. So come on down and cool down. So if you have any questions, I’m happy to answer them. No, thanks. It’s, I it’s just such a fun, um, time for the kids when, when you do that. I Even adults, they love it. Yes, Yes. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank You Chief. Chief. Thanks chief. That concludes my, my updates pending. Any questions you may have. Any questions around the update? Thank you so much for that. That was great. So, um, our last, uh, agenda item is select board announcements. And I’d just like to start with, um, uh, follow up on the retreat,

1:11:04 uh, kind of planning. I’m, uh, going to down to, um, the light department tomorrow. Maybe. I’m hoping Thatcher can join me. I can also take pictures. I know it’s been tough to schedule, um, just to take a look at. They have a really nice conference space down there and um, Joe has, um, welcomed us to use it. You know, it’s not usually in use in the mornings or, you know, during the day. We can work around that. So, um, I just wanted to share, we’re kind of thinking that would be a good venue to have that meeting. Um, and, uh, yeah, so we could, you know, hopefully do some kind of like strategic planning and discussions around our financial planning process for this upcoming year and,

1:11:53 um, even longer term and have some bigger picture kind of discussions. And, um, at that time, so is our, so we have, um, if we were to, in terms of planning a date, um, would, are people around the last week in August,

1:12:17 Um, is anybody taking vacation or have, you know, major conflict with that week?

1:12:28 We could also do it the week after Labor Day. And then I also kind of just wanted to get every, all of us are working and I wanted to know, is mornings like, you know, an eight 30 meeting better for folks or is it better to do it in the afternoon, like late afternoon, end of the day? Um, I, I’ve a, I can, you know, be flexible, but I, i, all of us have, you know, um, work schedules. I mean, we could also do it in an evening. I kind of envisioned it during the day, but if, if that’s, if that’s not a problem with folks, what do you guys think? I’m sure, I think September for May works, uh, better. Okay. In August, for sure. I’m gonna be away except for that meeting on the 30th. Alright, great. So we won’t, so and generally we would, we,

1:13:15 we’ll be looking at something for the week, the week after late, like September. And Generally mornings are better than Mornings. Okay, great. Thank you for Me. Yeah, likewise. Are morning’s okay for people? Like’s good for me? Yeah. Mornings are good. Yeah. So it just Depends, depends, depends on the day. Depends on the day, of course. Yep. I mean, I think Typically, you know, for me, Fridays tend to be much lighter ‘cause it’s just a lighter work. I don’t know how everybody else feels. Our Fridays, if we could, is if a Friday is amenable with the light department, would that, is Friday a good day for folks? Yeah. Friday. Yeah. Uh, And then, Then the morning, the eighth. The eighth, Yes. That’s a, yeah, since we’re being specific now That looks, well that’s a short week because Monday, Monday’s a holiday. Oh yeah, good point.

1:14:02 Mm-hmm. So it’s five days of work and four, Yes, that is true. Just they seem to be busier. Short weeks. That is true. Um, Tuesday the fifth, or that’s the day before. Oh, Friday after labor Friday. That’s the day after Labor Day. Yeah. That’s not great either. Yeah. Um, oh, you’re thinking, okay, you’re talking about Friday 15th, The Friday the eighth. I’m Thinking the 15th. I mean, Jim’s pointing out it’s a short week. Oh, oh for people. I see what you’re saying. If they, if that creates a problem with their, your work schedules and taking a morning off, it’s okay for me. So The following would be the 15th, The following Friday would be the 15th or The 15th? Yeah. You know, Either, either works for me. So the eighth I think. Okay. Yeah. Jim, are you okay with the eight? Um, I,

1:14:51 I guess like, yeah, again, generally four day wor work weeks are, yeah, pretty busy. That’s tight. But yeah. Imre, What’s your Schedule so far? It doesn’t show? No, that’s fine. Either one. Okay. Yeah. Um, well what is, I mean, I might obviously like the idea is that, you know, Alicia would be available and, uh, and attend and Thatcher, so, um, A college, No, we don’t wanna get too far into like, you know, where we should be starting kind of budget season, but I also Jill house, what’s that? Maybe Hold both of ‘em and See what Yeah, let’s hold both of them and the eighth and the 15th and we will follow up with Joe also. And um, and also I’m outta town on the 15th. Oh,

1:15:37 you are? Okay. On the 15th. So we’d have to do it on a Monday to Thursday the following week. Yeah. Yeah. So No eighth. Eighth seems The eighth or the 12th. Okay. All right. So I’m At a conference the 10th through the 13th. Okay. We’re back to The eighth. So I know it’s a short week, but hopefully Yeah. You know, we could, if we could also start at eight 30 if people like, if that’s, or push it to the end of the day, but that’s a Friday, so I dunno if people wanna, I would love to spend my Friday with you. I first start at, you know, eight 30 or nine and, um, yeah. So. Okay. Um, all right. So that was what I just wanted to share. Any other announcements?

1:16:26 Okay. So I think we are Motion to adjourn. So moved Second. All in favor. Okay. Thanks everyone. Thank you.