Select Board: October 11, 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.

0:00 Heartache that has impacted Israel and the Jewish community worldwide. We condemn the terrorist attack by Hamas on the state of Israel and the intentional and large scale targeting of non-combatants. We stand in solidarity with our Jewish community and all who have endured the trauma of these atrocities. The resulting war will claim innocent victims in the region, and our hearts are with all of the residents of Marblehead that are affected by this tragedy. There is an event tonight at seven 30 at Sherratt Haiyam and also the North Shore a d l. And the Marblehead Ministerial Association is planning a gathering for the community at 4:30 PM on Sunday, this Sunday,

0:48 October 15th, with a location that they plan to announce. So please keep an eye out for the announcements from the a d l and the Ministerial Association as to the location.

1:02 Thank you. Any other, you know, there’s any comments, any opportunity to speak that to it? Uh, Madam Chair, if I could, ID just like to, uh, read a quick statement, uh, to the, uh, Jewish and Muslim residents in town. It is with a profound grief and horror that we witnessed the attacks on Israel. Our prayers are with the state of Israel and all the innocent victims that will get sucked into this whirlwind of folly and evil. Uh, which one attacking side now appears more ego. Just so, again, as a young, uh, marine lieutenant in 1985, I was off the coast of Lebanon for six months during the Israeli Organization of the Occupied Zone. We had the back of Israel then, and we’ll have it now, but then is now we’re witnessing the ancient realities of human nature and

1:47 shocked again at the capacity for evil, which rarely escapes any side. Once innocence or slaughtered and perpetrators seek righteous revenge in the name of their justice, if you have to fight, then let’s hope we can fight for enduring peace. If one must a authentically choose sides, then let’s choose the side that is most likely to cooperate, to deliver practical solutions for enduring peace, freedom and dignity for as many people as possible. Utopia is not an option. How can it be otherwise? When our darkest nature’s reemerged so graphically, so consistently, mainly in the causes of religion and, and, uh, dialectical utopias the oath to protect and defend the constitution that American fighters take, uh, is an oath on the side of America and its allies, warts, and all knowing that our constitution is the moral compass of our politics and

2:32 laws, and that our republic is the best hope for practical peace among diverse peoples. The world has ever seen. Jews and Muslims around the world know this, which is why Jews and Muslims live in peace here in the United States of America to our Jewish and Muslim residents, and all the residents of marble had affected by this new war. We pray with you that you will find peace and reconciliation here and now, and that we may together continue to hold out the candle of hope for all those souls caught tragically in the whirlwind.

3:07 Okay, Thank you. So, um, our first item on our agenda is a, um, public hearing licensing, um, and all the alcoholic beverage license transfer, an issue of stock change of officer, directors and change of managers. So, um, I would like to invite the applicant taunt, unas, uh, veto to the table please, and, um, can present your application. If you wanna correct my pronunciation, please feel free. No, that’s good. Okay. Okay, great. So, um, yeah, I just wanna welcome and yeah, tell us about your, um, application, which we have before us, but I just,

3:55 it’s an opportunity for you to present. Oh, Yeah. We have a place over there for a, um, year and a half now, and, uh, my son Angelo runs the business. Yeah. And then we have to a, um, put him, so like a responsible the leak license because he’s always there every day there, and I have a more business to run around. That’s the point. Yep. Okay, great. So, um, we, this is, um, for, uh, two votes, but first I’ll ask if there’s anyone in attendance who wish to speak in favor of the application.

4:30 And now is there anyone in attendance who wishes to speak in opposition to the application? Okay. And do we have any, um, questions or comments for discussion, um, from the board?

4:44 Okay. You’re running a great business. Yeah, I think you’re doing a thank very much. Yeah. Um, so we’ll proceed to a first vote, which is for the change of manager. So I’ll ask for a motion to approve the application from PIC PE Incorporated, D B a Ilia RNA 261 Washington Street to change the name of the manager on the all alcoholic beverage license to Angel Obito, subject to receipt of the required forms, fees, and approval from A, B, C, C and C O R I. And this is, or Cori, this is a, uh, pulled vote, Uh, Mr. Grader. In favor, Mr. Nye? In favor, Ms. Singer? In favor, Mr. Murray? In favor, Ms. Nunan In favor? Okay. And we will proceed to the change of officers, directors,

5:32 transfer, and issuance of stock. Um, I will ask for a motion to approve the application from peculiar Incorporated D B a, Ilia Verna 261 Washington Street for change of officers, directors, and for the transfer and issuance of stock on the all alcoholic beverage license, subject to receipt of the required forms, fees, and approval from A, B, C, C and Cory, another poll vote. Mr. Nye In favor, Ms. Singer? In favor, Mr. Murray? In favor, Mr. Greater in favor, Ms. Nunan In favor. There you go. Congratulations. Yeah, thank you. Thanks guys. Thank you. We’ll see you soon. Thank you. Okay, next we have an applicant interview for Conservation Commission. So if, um, I could ask Jessica Norton to please come forward and take a seat at the table.

6:17 Hi, Jessica. Welcome. Thank you for Having me. Welcome For your interests in the position. Um, so we have some questions for you, we’ll kind of rotate around the board. Um, we, just so you know, we have all had a o opportunity to receive your, um, letter of interest and your resume, which you submitted. So, um, know that we have all, you know, had had all that information. And so the questions, you know, are time to highlight some of that and also kind of expound on, you know, share something about you that, you know, maybe we wouldn’t know. Okay. So, um, with that, I guess we’ll start with Alexa.

7:01 Awesome. You’re sitting close. I know, right? Um, so yeah, if you just wanna tell us a little bit about yourself, your qualifications, your background, you know, what kind of what brought you here and what you know about the Conservation Commission. Okay. And kind of what you wanna bring forward from that. Marblehead last year with my husband and my daughter, I was pregnant at the time and we moved to Marblehead because my husband grew up here. His family’s from here. So we want to be closer to our friends and our family. Um, as far as background, I’m a project manager. I have been for about 12 years now. And I often deal with, you know, large scale projects, you know, mitigating risks, finding, um, stakeholders, seeing what our customers need, what our vendors need, billing kind of, um, jack of all trades. Our company’s a little bit smaller. Uh,

7:46 they work with a company called British Telecom, but our group is individual in British telecom or kind of a niche group. Um, and it’s management, which, you know, kind of a to z it’s all that stuff. But, um, beyond that, I feel like, you know, you live in one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been, and it’s I’d before meeting my husband, I’d never heard of Marblehead. And then now we live here and, you know, I wake up every day and I just feel so grateful. I remember the day we closed on our home, and I just thought, I can’t believe my kids get to grow up here. And there’s just so much beauty and there’s so much nature, and I feel like I discover something new almost every day. Um, and it’s something that, you know, it’s worth preserving and, you know, rooting for. Yeah. So’s kind of where I’m Okay. And what, like what about the conservation commission? Like, you know,

8:34 can you speak a little bit to that? Sorry, can I finish a follow up? Okay. Sorry. Through the chair. Question two. Yeah, I don’t know if that was a second question, but, uh, sorry. Uh, just, you know, what drew you to that particular, You know, full disclosure? I kind of just saw the opening and I said, oh, let me look into this. And the more I read about it, I was like, oh, this is interesting. I like what, you know, that stands for. I like, you know, the idea of conserving. Um, I went to school in Newport, Rhode Island, so I’m, you know, familiar with like the Preservation Society there, a member of trustees here. Um, just its history, its beauty, and I thought, oh, this seems like a great way to kind of get in the door of see what goes on behind the scenes and, you know, in town how things get done, um, and be a part of something, you know, greater than themself. So it wasn’t necessarily, I don’t have a history as, I mean, I read the,

9:20 everyone’s kind of resume, um, on the actual committee or the commission, and mine isn’t as detailed as that. And I don’t have a background in conservation or environment, but it’s something I still enjoy Yeah. As a citizen. So I kind of was like, let me throw my hat in the ring. Great. Thank you. Thanks for the honesty too. No, I know you just moved here, but if, if, if you might be able to talk about, you know, some volunteer experience you’ve had, maybe in other communities or other organizations and what you might be able to leverage from that experience to this particular. So growing up I was a girl scout all through school into, into my senior year of high school, which wasn’t very popular to be, but, um, so I, you know, familiar with that. Um, I used to volunteer and walk dogs at the dog shelter. And I’m from Westchester County, New York. I don’t know if you’re familiar. Um, and I dunno if I’ve done recently. I kind of just, you know,

10:08 if there’s something that is donated or something that needs to be done, I look into it. I always find, you know, money is the easiest way, unfortunately, to kind of donate when you’re limited on time. Um, but I do like to, you know, give back when I can. I feel very fortunate and I was raised to believe that, you know, if you have something to give, you can give it. Whether it’s time, whether it’s money, whether it’s support, whether it’s just a signature, um, you know, we’re very lucky to have what we have. So thank you. Thank you.

10:36 Uh, now if appointed, uh, what would you do to familiarize yourself with the position and, you know, I know you’ve only been here a limited time, but you’ve, have you had a chance to, uh, to go to a conservation commission meeting? I have not, not yet. But you’ve read the backgrounds of the, of the, of the folks Yes. Backgrounds. So what would you do to familiarize your Definitely Wanna sit down and, you know, pick everyone’s brains at that within the commission. Yep. Um, and kind of what they know what I need to know. Um, I know I looked, I was familiar with, um, M A C C, and I believe they actually offer programming, you know, for people that would like to get a background or like to get, you know, a, um, a degree in that, not a degree, but, um, certification c Yeah. Certification in that. So I would, you know, have to kind of do some legwork, obviously, you know mm-hmm. Get some questions answered and just, you know, I, you don’t know what you don’t know. So I like to always ask questions and kind of dig a little bit. And so I,

11:24 you know, be nuanced, but I ask a lot of questions and mm-hmm. You know, Tom, help me help you guys, and I wanna part of this and let’s I work well as a team. Excellent. Thank you. Okay. Um, Jessica, so what, um, this question is about, you know, real or perceived conflicts, um, that you might encounter as a member of the Conservation Commission. For example, how would you handle situation where your neighbor is appearing before the commission and seeks your assistance? Seeks it as an, in terms of as a neighbor or, yes. Yeah. Right. Well, right. So you’re appointed with the idea that you kind of come in without any bias. Mm-hmm. Right. So that’s what you’re agreeing to do. And so, um, as much as I like my neighbor, she’s a very nice person. Mm-hmm. Um, I wanna do what I was appointed to do. Obviously, you know, I’m representing the town, I’m representing my name. Um,

12:13 and so I would Thank you. How would you approach a difference of opinion between the conservation commission and another regulatory board or a municipal department? Um, I guess it would depend on what exactly we were discussing. Um, but I, it’s a lot of fact gathering. That’s how usually I, I work on things is gather facts, gather information, ask questions, and then kind of decide from there, like what our end goal is, right? Like, what are we trying to solve or resolve? Um, and then, you know, use my best judgment med and, you know, the research I’ve found by myself and the questions I’ve asked to make that decision as awkward as it could be, I’m not, I’m okay with conflict. I’m okay with making, you know, decisions that don’t make everyone happy. Um,

13:01 and my job especially, you kind of have to, you know, give a little pushback sometimes. Um, and it’s something I’ve gotten more comfortable with that I’ve gotten older. Good. Great. Um, okay. Thank you. That’s, um, those are our questions and we’ve completed our interview. Uh, so, um, I’d like to entertain a motion to appoint, uh, Jessica Norton to the Conservation Commission with a term to expire in June, 2026. So moved second. Okay. All in favor? Okay. Congratulations. Congratulations. Thank you. A couple thi two things. You’ll need to get sworn in by the clerk’s office, which is right across the hall. So, um, just call and, you know, connect,

13:47 um, with them in the next few days. And, uh, they, the Conservation Commission meets, um, on the Thursday’s, right? On the, yeah, the second Thursday of the month. And they had been meeting in the Mary Alley, but I know that they have also been meeting online. Okay. Um, and the former chair stepped down, so, um, we can connect you with the, um, you know how, I’m not sure exactly what they’re meeting, I believe they’re meeting like remotely right now because of people’s travel schedules. But anyway, we can reach out to the office. I would Suggest also Charlie Quigley. Yes. Right. He’s the conservation agent. Okay. So he’s the one, he’s the professional staff that works directly with the, the Conservation Commission.

14:34 Okay. Well, thank you so much for stepping forward. Yes. Thanks. A volunteer. Yeah, thank you, Jessica. Hope You enjoy it. Okay. That brings us to the Traffic Safety Advisory Committee and the three, uh, resident appointments that we, uh, will seat for staggered three year terms. Um, so I, um, see, so I just want to kind of start by saying, for those of you that are here for the, for interviews, um, just be aware that we have all received in, well in advance and prepared of your wonderful letters of interest and resumes, and had plenty of time to look at those and digest those before interviews.

15:21 And we have a few questions that we will be asking each of you the same questions. Uh, there’s not five of them. So if somebody, if you don’t, if one of the members on the board isn’t asking a question, we’re gonna rotate. You know, it’s, um, it’s, we we’re all rotating questions. So, and we do, uh, ask that, um, in that everybody step outside before they’ve been interviewed as we call you in. Um, that way, you know, people aren’t listening to other people’s responses as we’re asking the same question of every candidate and going around. But once you have been interviewed, please feel free to stay. Uh, and, um, so let’s see.

16:09 We have 11 applicants, like I said, for the three positions. So we’ll call them an alphabetical order. Uh, the first, um, can We go over the process up front? 1, 1, 1 second. I guess one, you know, in terms of process, in terms of vote, how we’ll handle this, because it is, we, you know, it’s a little bit of an anomaly in terms of normally, um, how we do proceed. Uh, we have, um, we do have, we have come up with kind of a, a efficient way to seek three members during this process and stagger them across terms. And veteran I’ve talked about, and I’ll let him kind of explain the voting process as I say, Right. And for the benefit of the board to kind of be prepared for what happens after the question. So, so again, we, we have 11 applicants for three seats.

16:59 So, so the process that I’m sure is gonna be flawless when we go into it is that after all the interviews are done, uh, and you’ve had your collected your thoughts, um, in the first round, I’m gonna ask each of the board members for their three votes, their three names of who they’re gonna vote for. Um, and I’m gonna keep track on a worksheet. We’re going to go around to the whole board. So we, I, and to be fair as to who gets to go first, I had Kyle randomly make the list for this round. Uh, so Mr. Grader, congratulations. You get to vote first on this round. Thank you. But the, the, the point is you will give me your three names. They’re not ranked, they’re just your three votes.

17:46 I’m gonna keep track after the first round, I’m gonna tally up all the votes, and whoever is the, the largest vote getter of the group will then be selected for really the three year seat. ‘cause we’re establishing this. So we have to create the three year cycle. So the first seat will expire in June on June 30th, 2026. So the highest vote getter will have the seat that expires in 2026. The second highest will have the seat that expires in 2025, and the third highest will receive the seat that expires June 30th, 2024. Um, and then the way it’s gonna work, if we have top vote getters that make it, and they’ll be ranked if we have a tie vote below that,

18:34 anyone who didn’t get any votes are less than than the tie group. They’re eliminated from the list. And then we do another round of votes for the remaining can tied candidates ranked vote. And then I’ll ask you each for one name on that cycle. And again, if there’s one highest voter, that’s the person that would fill the seat. If that ends in a tie, uh, what would happen is the lowest vote getter would be eliminated, and we’d do another round. And by, based on my calculations, we shouldn’t have to go beyond three rounds. And that’s assuming this runs flawlessly, and I’m sure.

19:14 So that’s, uh, that’s the plan. So as far as, as you’re doing your considerations, think of your, the three names in the first round, and I will track from there. Okay. We do have, you have a question about the process? Yeah, absolutely. Well, Not about the process, but about the committee. So there’s three of us potential. Are there other people on the committee? So, yes. So the other members, um, will, are, um, will be town department heads or designees, um, that are responsible for public safety and transportation infrastructure, which we will fi, you know, figure out a step. But we wanted to get the process going with the residents. My my reason For asking is, um, I don’t know if it’s, I know, um, Marvel head’s different than Salem.

20:01 I was on the Salem White Committee for a long time, and if there’s not enough people at a meeting, then you don’t have quorum. And I don’t know if that’s an issue here in Marblehead. Uh, but if there’s only three of us, I wasn’t sure if that’d be enough, if Oh, no. On vacation or something. No, that’s a good, yeah, there, yes. No, um, it will, the committee will be comprised of three residents plus additional department heads, so, you know, um, organ, uh, operational subject matter, uh, expertise. So, um, thank, thank you. So, um, yeah, I wanna remind everybody that we have all received and, and read. I read everything. We do have a lot of interviews to get through. We’re gonna go in alphabetical order, and I will kind of read the order of candidates that we will be interviewing in is first we’ll have Dan Albert, Ben, Judith Black, John Bonner,

20:48 Peter Fleming, Gary Hebert, Russell King, David Kucharski, Jody McGee, Brian Rizzos, Dan Schumann, and Rick Meyers. So, um, I will ask, you know, invite Dan to come forward to the table. Um, Mr. Albert be Before, I just thank you everybody for volunteering. Yes. Obviously, with 11 candidates and only three seats, please stay involved if you’re not one of them that gets, uh, chosen. Yeah, we, we can’t thank you enough. Thank you very much. The Marine room is open also. We want take a look in there and I’ll come out and get people.

21:22 You’re the best. Thank you. Yes.

21:31 Are They all the same? Yeah, She’s just doing in case we no notes for,

21:37 Okay. So, Um, ing, Mr. Albert, welcome to the welcome to the table. Yes. And you get smile. Yes. We have three questions. Um, uh, members on the board can take turns, uh, rotating and asking questions.

22:03 Hello. Welcome. And thank you for your application. Okay. So who would like to start?

22:14 I’ll be happy. I, okay. Well, I mean, I can just Tell us, I thought you were gonna do the first one. Oh, I thought, okay. I thought that was a question. Please tell, like, okay. You just go First on the voting. Yeah. Going smoothly around. I get to talk a lot during this meeting, so, you know, I’m gonna keep you guys awake. You guys can ask these three questions. One, okay. I’ll go ahead and start. Uh, Dan, uh, please tell us a little bit about yourself and what qualifications, experience, and background you would bring to the Traffic Safety Advisory Committee. Yeah. Um, I think everybody’s heard from me more than once here, so, um, if it’s all right, I won’t, you know, go too deep in that. Although I appreciate, obviously appreciate resonate here. Thank you. Yes, I’ll be very, I will be very brief. So let me just say briefly why, you know,

23:01 kind of where this started. My daughter was, uh, gymnast with the Y M C A when she’s little, she’s outta college now. Her coach was Julie Kasner. Julie Kassner’s daughter. Allie was struck at the, um, crossing, uh, of the path at, uh, Mohawk Road. And, um, that just rippled out. She quit as the, um, coach, and that had an impact on our family and was, was very difficult. And from that time, I began engaging with, um, Becky Kern and, um, trying to address this issue. And the deeper I dug, the more I found out. Um, and so, um,

23:46 um, I, I began to, unc, uncover is a strong word, but, but began to understand how things were working and how things might, uh, work better. And I think that’s probably the most important, um, qualification, if you will. Obviously, you know, that I sponsored the, uh, bylaw law, um, but that I have studied this up one side and down the other, and, and been engaged with it for a very long time. And then, of course, as you also know, I, I’ve spoken before about my, my longer background and expertise in the field. Thank you for that personal story. Thank you. And your background. Mm-hmm. Okay. The next question. Yeah, Dan, I was wondering if you might be able to explain experience you have working with, you know, others on a committee or a board, and if you can give some examples of your, you know, productive membership,

24:34 you know, on that team. Yeah, yeah. And, and I’ll be honest, that’s, um, one of the things that’s, um, tricky for me. I have been on committees that, um, work very effectively and committees that, um, struggle to work effectively. And so I’m very, um, conscious of the need to do that. I’ve worked on hiring committees. I, uh, worked on hiring committees at, um, Salem State when I was a professor at a place called Sea Education down at, uh, woods Hole. Um, I worked on, um, uh, uh, you know, sat on boards and that sort of thing. I think, um,

25:18 it’s the most important thing about a committee. And I think what works is, and, and this is kinda my process, you know, somebody will say something in a, in a meeting like this, and I’ll have to say, okay, this is what I heard you saying. Because so much of what goes on and what makes committee work difficult is when we’re not really, um, speaking back to each other. So I know what I said, what did you hear? And that’s what’s so important, um, and what I found is effective as a committee member. Thank you.

25:52 And last question. Anybody, Jim, you wanna Oh, sure. Take a stab. Each member of the board or committee may have a particular vision for that board. Uh, each person may have a concern or a pep project that he or she believes should be, that should take precedent. Please, uh, detail how you would balance your own individual interests and to con collaborate with your colleagues. Yeah. I, I, yeah. So this has been, um, an another area. Yeah, I’m sorry. No, I was Just coughing. Sorry. Um, another area where I think it’s really important, I don’t personally have pet projects in the sense that, um, you know, when I started this, I was sort of like, oh, I gotta rest the steering wheel from people who want to do other things. And,

26:38 and I’m gonna bring this in. And I realized that the car’s kind of broken. And my idea is that we just need to fix this process, and we need, um, uh, uh, you know, again, in the lead up to this, as I, as I campaigned for it, what I heard from so many people is, I, I want this to happen. I want that happen. But I don’t know who to talk to. And, um, let, let me back up. So there’s gonna be people with pet projects, there’s gonna be people that are gonna come to this board and say, we want a stop sign here. Right? And that’s just not the way it works. Um, that, that this committee needs to come together and set, um, really a vision and,

27:23 and some ideas that we can be proactive about, um, how we do this. And I think once we come together with a vision, it’s perfectly reasonable. There’ll be tension with, you know, my pet project, my biggest push, if, if I were, you know, king of the world is fix Bailey Square around, um, uh, Glover School, but that’s not the point, you know, we’ll, we’ll eventually get to the point of prioritizing that. But what we need to do first as a committee is say, okay, here’s what, here’s the way we’re gonna work. And I think the first year is gonna be a lot of that. Here’s what we’re, here’s how we’re gonna work. Here’s our standard operating procedure. Here’s how we’ll receive, uh, requests from the public. And then also, here’s how we’ll begin to understand what we proactively

28:10 want to do. Um, and so, again, I’m trying to be brief, but, um, I understand the terms of pet projects where people, you know, I want this parking space gone, or I want this stop sign. That’s a pet project. And the way I, and I study this a lot, the way it works in other towns is, okay, they come with a pet project, a, a thing they want, and the committee takes it up. The committee does this, the committee does that. The committee has a hearing, and that takes six months. And it doesn’t really help. And I, we already see it here, there are crosswalks that shouldn’t be there. Right. But they’re there because certain groups of people just kind of agitated for them or paid for them or whatever. And we just can’t have that.

28:56 We need to begin with a vision and we need to, um, make it so we all have a pet project. And ultimately the pet project is we need safer streets where kids can bike, people can use masks, transit and drivers aren’t like facing these kids ran, you know, rampaging around on bikes and dealing with pedestrians flying everywhere. So, sorry. No, no. That’s great. And, um, that concludes our interview. And you’re welcome to stay and listen, I like to stay here. Yeah. Best part of my last Name. Be so many benefits to last name with a

29:36 Aaron. So you want,

29:43 that’s the suggested list. We’ve all talked about it. So it would be four staff. I’d be ex officio

29:53 and or designate, Hey, how you doing? Yours delegate. Good to see you. Or designate Right. I to do that on. Yes. Thank You. So do you, Do you wanna pop in that one just so you have the mic? Or pull the mic? Either one is fine. Hit my back. I know. So rude. I know. That’s how courtrooms are set you. It’s kind of alienating. Okay. Welcome. Glad to be here from volunteering. Yes, Ms. Black. We’re trying to make it cozy. Judith. What? We’re trying to make it cozy. It’s not, not easy. We could sing, we could hold hands, we could kumbaya, but

30:29 So welcome and thank you for applying. Um, we have three questions and just get right into it. Uh, we do, um, appreciate, you know, trying to be concise and, and, and brief, but make sure, you know, you do share what you need to, what you need to do. So, um, would somebody like to, uh, um, start out with the first sort of question?

30:54 Okay. I’ll, I’ll pick it. Um, everyone please. Um, please tell us a bit about yourself and what qualifications, experience, background would you bring to the Traffic Safety Advisory Committee? Well, which we have Exactly. We haven’t. So is there anything in, I guess, in, you know, briefly that we, you have that we haven’t seen that you’d like to highlight for us? No, just that, um, I’ve worked on a lot of different traffic issues in town. Everything from idling at the high school to thinking about how to make, um, make our town more accessible for bicycle bikers for pedestrians and thinking always. And it’s funny because in creating these, um, we call them bi videos, bike biver, bike biker driver. It was a cute amalgam. Get it biver, nevermind.

31:44 Um, you know, one of the things that, that we tried to, to teach was two feet, first two wheels, next four wheels next. And in terms of traffic safety, how can you really affect an entire community? And how can you even change the culture of a community to being more respectful to every mode of transit? Um, the idling thing was amazing because it makes, it makes your air safer. Idling creates ground level, low zone, which is one of the main drivers of asthma and any other number of things. Now, contemporary cars turn off automatically, but older cars don’t. And one of the things we were tackling with the high school group is how do you

32:29 change the culture of a town so that people would say to each other, oh, you know, there’s a five minute idling restriction. Instead of you knocking on a window and somebody going like this to you, and you try to nicely tell them there’s a five minute idling restriction. It’s a state law, but it’s never, um, it’s never enforced. So we talked about the way you change culture often is making students aware of issues. Then they make their parents aware of those issues. And you guys all remember the, the anti-smoking campaigns of the sixties, how effective those were. Mommy, do you want to die? You know, you go, like, they were, they were brutal. You’re a little young for it, but, but they, they were ads aimed.

33:16 It was children talking to their parents once they knew how, how hazardous smoking was. And it was incredibly effective. So one thing would be how do we create those kinds of campaigns so that we change the culture of the town? So it’s not one person saying, hi, just stop idling. ‘cause you’re only gonna get misery from people in that case. But how do you start to build that in? And I’m excited about thinking about something like that. Great. Thank you. Um, so, uh, who would like to, um, ask our second question? Uh, so, uh, any experience you have with working with others on committees or boards and example of, um, you know, productive membership, team involvement? Just Lots. So I’m a founding member of Sustainable Marblehead.

34:02 I’m a member of the Rotary Club of Marblehead Harbor, um, on many committees there. I s God, I serve on a lot of committees. I work with three 50 Mass, which is my climate organization. I’m on three or four committees. There. We create actions, um, yeah, Okay. Do it a lot. Okay. And love the give and take of it. And I love what that woman said. I’m not afraid of conflict, which is kind of, if when you get that, you can really grow from it and hear. I love that. Brett, would you like to ask our last question? Uh, certainly. Um, I was wondering if you might be able to, uh, talk about how you might be able to balance your own individual interests and

34:49 elaborate on your colleagues on the broader issues, you know, before the, you know, collaborate with your colleagues, you know, on the broader issues before the community. Well, the broader issues being transportation in town and how to, how to ensure safety in every way and create the best pathways we have. So you wanna know what my specific interests? I’m not sure I understand the question. Sure. I mean, I, I just, I guess talk about how like your individual interests and, you know, collaborating, whether they’re, you know, with the other board members or committee members, and, um, Oh, so you really hope people have different strengths. So you want somebody who really understands. So for instance, one thing I find very exciting is possibly getting outta silos. Because if we don’t start to address things in an integrated way,

35:36 we’re not gonna be able to meet the challenges in front of us. So, for instance, as we rep Pave Roads, can we work with the people that do this as a committee to think about porous surfaces, water needs a place to go. We’re gonna get nothing but more rain in New England. That is what’s happening with our climate. And what we do as a culture is we pave things over and there’s not enough green area to absorb water. So how can we think between the various people that would have input on that, how can we look at creating more porous surfaces in our roads and our sidewalks to address that before we’re flooded? They’re, they’re just, I mean, so yeah, having people that have different specialties. I’m very interested in the rail trail. I bike a lot,

36:21 but also would love to see children walking and biking more, um, for their physical health, for their safety. It’s wonderful for the brain. It prepares you for the day. You all know you get in your car, you’re still asleep when you get there. So creating those kinds of pathways and using a transportation committee to do it. And can I ask you a question? What kind of teeth would this committee have? I mean, you work with other people, you create ideas, and then would it have any teeth? So the committee is designed to be an advisory and, um, to our board. So, uh, So no, Will will, the committee would let me see. Um,

37:10 just wanna be careful about how we, yeah. So, um, I Have it right here. So I think we all, none of us know exactly. So, yes. So, um, so it is to help implement the Marblehead Complete Streets policy, like an implementation arm of the Complete Streets policy, um, as well as evaluating public safety issues in infrastructure in towns, and then, uh, bring that forward to the board and an advisory. That’s because Complete Streets is all about access for those three different kinds of, of groups, traveling, pedestrians, bikers, people with disabilities and cars. Yes. Okay. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And, um,

37:57 I’m gonna suggest that, uh, for the, the third question, I guess, um, the first one’s not really a question, but the, for the, for um, number two, each person may have a special interest, if, is that clearer? I feel like it’s a little bit confusing as we’re kind of going Yeah, because it’s, yeah. So if I would say, if we wanted to ask, you know, each member of the board committee may have a curricular vision for the board or committee. Each person may have a special interest instead of concern, like whether it’s biking, traffic, climate, you know, pedestrian or walking, uh, or specific project that he, she believes would take precedent. Yeah. It’s almost like you have to read The question out for it to be clear. Yeah. To be clear to, I know when you summarized it Was, we have a lot of like, wait a minute, this cycling aficionados and the setup to

38:43 The question. So kind of special interest, I think, you know, whether it’s, you know, cycling, you know, walking, climate, traffic. Um, and why Are you, John? Pretty good. See Time. We’ll see, we’ll see. Welcome. Um, welcome. Thank you for volunteering. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for the opportunities. Opportunities.

39:06 Okay, Mr. Bonner. Um, so we have, uh, kind of three, just three kind of, um, questions. The first is, uh, not really so much a question, but, um, just an opportunity for you to tell us a little bit about yourself, you know, recognizing that we have, um, received, you know, your letter. Sure. And, um, you know, just very briefly, if there’s something you could, you know, uh, say that’s really kind of hones in on what the qualifications, experience, background, um, that you would bring to the Traffic Safety Advisory committee. Sure. Okay. Well, um, I’ve lived in Marblehead 23 years, and I’ve seen in that time, I’ve seen Salem and Swamp Scott do great things around bikes and bike super structure. And, um,

39:53 among my qualifications are, I make films, ev advocacy films for bikes, which have been sort of quite successful, I think. Um, and I’m a year-round rider. I, I’m not a recreational rider. I actually ride my bike, um, as a way of not having a car, a second car. So, um, I’m very, very familiar with, uh, uh, the dangers of cycling and, uh, um, I’ve cycled across the country. So I’ve seen quite a lot of different kinds of traffic patterns in that. And, um, I think I feel that, uh, Marblehead could do a little more, uh, for bikes and, uh, um, the safety of riding both for children and adults and also for cars.

40:41 Um, because if a bike knows where it needs to be, a car then knows where it needs to be, and that’s really makes things much safer. Okay. Thank you so much. Um, Moses, would you mind asking our next question, John? Uh, please describe any experience you have working with others on a committee or board, uh, and please give an example of your productive membership on a team. Okay. Um, I was at the inaugural meeting of the, uh, Marblehead Conservancy about 20 years ago and designed their logo, which is currently what they use. And I also designed the logo for the, um, um, the Marblehead farming share. But I have never served on a committee.

41:28 This is the first time I’ve ever tried it. I’m, uh, interested to see what it will be like. But, um, uh, uh, so that’s it. Well, well, thank you for stepping up. Yeah. Much appreciated. Okay. Thank you. Would you mind asking our next question? Sure. Uh, each member of a board or committee may have a particular vision for that board or committee. Uh, each person person may have a spec, special interest or pet project that he or she believes should take precedent. Please detail how you would balance your own individual interest and collaborate with your colleagues. Yes. I, I, I, as I said, I have interest in, in, uh,

42:09 making, uh, Marblehead more bike friendly. And, um, it’s interesting to me that, that, um, uh, having cycled around Marblehead, there’s not say, a single painted bike, uh, icon on the road to show where some, you know, bikes could be. So I’m very interested in trying to, of course, it can’t be done everywhere, I know that. But I’m trying to get, um, uh, uh, uh, some more, um, uh, bicycle friendly stuff around. Um, one particular thing is, is the, uh, crossroads, the way the bike path crosses West Shore Drive, it’s unfortunately designed so that it’s great for people walking across or

42:56 cycling across, but it’s terrible for cyclists going along West Shore Drive because it’s a pinch point. There’s no way you have to stop now as a cyclist because there’s not room for a bike and two cars where they’ve designed it. And I’d like to think I’d have some, by being on a committee, I would’ve some insight into, um, you know, the problems that cyclists face. And, uh, I’m extremely open to what other people are saying. I’ve just been talking out there, and it’s been very interesting to hear, um, various people’s sort of opinions on, on, uh, what should be done and what shouldn’t be done. Um, I’m open to, you know, I’m not, um, what’s the word? Uh,

43:43 you know, completely committed to it, like a cycling thing. If, if, if, uh, um, if problems arise, then I’m prepared, obviously to take those on board too. Okay. Excellent. That concludes our interview, Mr. Bonner. And you are welcome to take a seat and if you’d like in here, if you wanna stay and listen to others, um, you’re also Okay. No, up to you. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Thank you, John. Thanks guys. Good seeing you. Hey, we next we have Peter Fleming.

44:21 Alicia. Alicia. Alicia, Uh, Peter Fleming. Okay.

44:28 Alicia Sneaks in. Oh, my turn. No, yeah, I was about to say. You ready? That would make you a me candidate for this committee.

44:40 Hi there. Hi Peter. Welcome Dylan. Welcome. Thank you for volunteering. Yeah, of course. Yeah, Exciting. So exciting. It’s awesome to see such a, like, energized group of people. It’s, you can only pick Three. Yeah, I know. So it’s One of those good problems. Yeah, it is. Um, so we have just kind of three questions and um, the first one is, uh, just, you know, if you could just very, like in, you know, a couple sentences we’ve, you know, we’ve, we’ve read your, your letter, um, of interest and it’s great detail. So, um, you know, just, I just wanna give you an opportunity to tell us like, about yourself very briefly and, and, and emphasize qualities and experience background that you know, you really feel would you would bring to the advisory committee.

45:28 Sure. Yeah. So, um, so I, uh, I was previously living in Somerville. I, I moved here in, uh, may of 2021. And, uh, I think three days after that went to my first town meeting under the tent. But, um, yeah, my marketing, my background is in marketing and, um, we did a lot of, uh, we did a lot of research projects. We did a lot of, um, like mark, like campaign management. I mean, I think there are some overlaps there when it comes to, let’s say, like, uh, discussing, um, funding opportunities, grant proposals, things like that, or traffic studies. But so, um, that was originally my career. Uh, I, uh, in February, 2022, uh,

46:16 quit my job because this area, the mobility space, um, city transportation planning really came to the forefront as I had my first child and was using the city, um, riding around with him. Uh, I think it’s just like such an incredible, uh, way to improve people’s lives and improve everybody’s lives in the, in a town, uh, like this. And, um, so this area is, is something that I’m going to pursue, um, over the next, uh, year as my now two-year-old moves into kind of a childcare situation. And so there’s, um, there are conferences like, uh,

47:02 the National Association of, of City Transportation officials that I plan to like do their enrichment programs and things like that. Um, and so yeah, I’m just kind of, this is an area that I’m excited about and have been following along for a long time, even though it’s not, uh, ha has not been my career to date. It, it soon will be, hopefully. Okay. Thank you. Um, Alexa, do you mind asking our next question? Sure. Um, what is your experience with working with others on a committee or a board and just some examples of that in, you know, your productive membership on the team. You know, have you served on any boards in town or, and just in other areas, if you can give some details like that. Sure. Yeah. So I have not, um, served on any groups, uh,

47:51 in Marblehead. I’ve been kind of learning and, and seeing how things work. And this was really, like, hits closest to home for me. So this is the first thing that I’ve, I’ve tried to do here. But, um, where I lived previously, I was a volunteer, um, for the bike committee, and we would do traffic studies. Um, we would do like parking counts, pedestrian, uh, car, uh, bike counts, uh, you know, so you would take all that data and say, okay, how much, how, how much are, um, uh, parking spaces being used and, and things like that. And so that’s, that was, uh, um, done, you know, in a group setting.

48:37 And we would kind of all come together and, and, and bring our experiences together to kind of talk about where we think we could have the most impact, um, for that committee. And, uh, so that was from a volunteer perspective, but, um, that Was in Somerville. That was in Somerville, yeah. I still have the, uh, uh, the traffic study spreadsheets, um, in my possession should they ever come in handy. Mm-hmm. Okay. Thank you. And, um, uh, Brett, could you ke please, uh, finish? Sure. Uh, each member of the board, you know, or committee, you know, may have a particular vision or special interest, uh, that they may wanna focus on. Uh, I was wondering if you might be able to talk about how you would balance your own individual interest and, you know,

49:22 interest and collaborate with your colleagues on the broader issues for the committee. So like, on the, the broader issues of traffic safety? Uh, Yeah, I mean, like you have your own issues Sure. And focus, but obviously the committee has a much broader, so Right. How you balance the, the two and, uh, Sure. Yeah. I mean my, um, you know, as I said, I have, I’ve, I, I walk in town, I ride in town a lot. I also drive in town. Um, and, uh, when I look at, um, any kind of roadway situation, what I’m thinking about is like the most vulnerable, vulnerable users, whether that be extremely young people or older people, you know, who are having like, trouble using sidewalks or something like that. Um,

50:10 so I mean, I, I think that my, where I’m coming from is, uh, from a perspective of like all road users and, and that starts at the most vulnerable, um, set of users. And when we’ve got a system that is working well for those people, and then we’ve got a great system. And, um, so yeah, I mean,

50:32 I, I think I

50:36 would consider like anybody’s concern, um, like without hesitation. Okay. Thank you so much. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks so much. Welcome To like, you know, I said stay, listen if you’d like

50:54 Mary Hebert next.

51:07 Welcome. Hello. Are you all doing? Hi. Good. Good. Thank you. Thanks for volunteering. Welcome. Great. Um, so thank you so much for your letter and your, your resume. Um, and I, we have just three quick questions. Um, okay. You know, uh, the first is just, and we’ve, we’ve re you know, you’ve, we’ve received your resume, but if you could just tell us and kind of highlight briefly, uh, what you think is the best, um, or what you think I is the strongest qualifications experience and background that you bring to the, uh, committee that you would bring to the advisory committee. Well, um, I have a broad perspective. I guess I’d have to say that because it’s, uh, I’ve worked around the country. Um,

51:56 back in 1976, I wrote a manual on how to plan and implement priority techniques for high accuracy vehicles, which was done by the Urban Consortium for Public Technology Incorporated. And it was circulated nationally. And I get traveled to all different cities and tested out, and, uh, and I lived for many years out on the West Coast and, uh, a lot of work in, in Massachusetts, um, Salem Marblehead and, uh, many communities, uh, around the area. And, um, I’ve been a wealth of experience on problems judicial, I probably haven’t seen it to fight, you know, it probably hasn’t happened from a transportation perspective. So, um, and it’s been, you know, it’s been fun career. I, I, um, I officially retired at the end of 2022, even though I semi-retired back in 2014. So I’ve been working many years beyond that because I, I enjoyed it so much,

52:43 but, uh, thought it was time to, you know, as a full-time thing, let it go. But I still take an interest in transportation. I read all the reports, I find out what’s going on, and I, um, would bring a lot of, uh, knowledge to, to Marblehead because I have, uh, been involved in the Complete Streets Committee. I, I did the, uh, I was the consultant, lead consultant on that, so I prepared the report on that and wrote most of the, the priority that were set up. So I’m very familiar with all the projects and, uh, I know nothing comes easily. It, it’s hard work to put things out. You have to check with a lot of people and you have to understand the full issues. And they’re not, they’re not right at the surface. Sometimes they’re, they’re lowest. So you gotta find out who it benefits and who it doesn’t benefit.

53:28 That’s the main thing when you’re doing things like traffic or, uh, especially traffic calming types of things. So those are the kinds of things I would bring to the town if they decide to, to go on these. And again, talking to all the applicants out there, they’re all very, very, very qualified. So I have no problem with any of it. They’re great. So you’re lucky in this one. Very Lucky. It’s gonna be a tough choice. Yeah. So, um, what would you like to ask me about that? Anything to follow up on that, Uh, Gary? Yeah, I’d like, uh, could you, uh, please describe any experience you have, and we’ve seen your extensive resume, but if you could just, uh, reiterate any experience you have working with others on a committee Okay. Or board, and please give an example of your productive membership on a team. Okay. Um, well, I guess I’ll, I’ll go to a,

54:15 a couple communities that I’ve worked with, um, in recent years. Okay. I, um, I worked with, um, town of Groton did a lot of work for them. They had a music center that just got opened not too long ago. Beautiful place. I dunno if you’ve been out there for, but, uh, music Center at Groton Hill. But it’s, it’s, it’s something that rivals Tanglewood. It’s, it’s really nice. Um, but I had to do the traffic impact study for that. That was probably the last major traffic impact study that I did back in, I think it was 2018 or so thereabouts. But I had to work with the board closely and letting them understand what the impacts were gonna be, uh, talk to all the people and I made presentations and work with the, the developer to make sure they did the right things on the, on the site to that. It was, you know, a good site for, uh, for traffic. And,

55:00 um, uh, it was a, it was a pretty complicated project involving a lot of committees and I did a lot of the presentations for that. I have done a lot of work in Marblehead working on behalf of the planning board, doing, uh, peer reviews for projects and, um, other, other things as, as appropriate sometimes just to tell, we’re giving a call to take a look at this and I’d go out there and look at it and not for, and not always for pay. So it was one of those things that, that I just enjoyed doing. But, uh, uh, I have worked with a lot of committees. I understand what, what it takes to, uh, get projects through and get ‘em done. Thank You, Gary. Appreciate it. Uh, each member of a board committee may have a particular vision for that board or the committee. Each person may have a concern or a special interest or a pet project, uh, that they believe should take precedent.

55:47 Please tell us how you would balance your own individual interests and collaborate with your colleagues. Okay. Um, well, I believe that, that when you listen to your colleagues, first of all, that’s, that’s the first thing. But balancing my own interests, I, you know, I enjoy my, my retirement. I do a lot of things, but I have a lot of time be able to do things. So I, I’m able to, to spend that time to, uh, work on specific issues and get them done to the maximum extent possible. Um, but as far as working with colleagues go, I understand everybody has different perspectives on things. And that’s one of the things that has, has made me helpful as a, as a practitioner, is to, is that I understand that the needs of, of, uh, various perspectives, whether it’s the police, fire, town, political,

56:33 they all have their own perspective on how things get to be done. And you’ve gotta understand that it’s not just traffic that drives things. There’s other issues that, that drive things. So, so I think the main thing is to understand the issues and, and, uh, use that understanding to come to an appropriate solution. It may not be your personal best solution, but it might be the best solution because it’s, it’s something that works. And if it doesn’t work, I don’t really wanna be there. I mean, it’s one of those things that I’d rather have things that, that work, let’s put it that way. Excellent. Well, that concludes our interview, and thank you so much. So it’s excellent. And, um, you’re welcome to stay, stretch your legs, you know, um, we, while we get through some others, so, Alright. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for volunteering here. Okay, we up next

57:20 Russell King

57:25 Just flying right away. Morning. Hi. Welcome, welcome, Russell. Thank you. Welcome. Thanks for volunteering. Um, thank you for your letter of interest, which we’ve, um, all had a chance to review. Uh, just, uh, three questions. And, um, the first is sort of just an open opportunity for you to very briefly, um, you know, highlight what you’d like us to know that you think is the most, um, you know, what, uh, is, uh, most significant about your background that, um, you would bring to the traffic and Safety advisory committee. Sure. Um, there are a few things. Uh, uh, I really, I think Marblehead is a fantastic town. I’ve lived here since 96. My wife and I have raised our kids here. They’re out college now. And, uh,

58:12 she grew up here, so her family goes back a bit further than mine. And, uh, so I think it’s, it’s a special place. It’s, it’s great for a lot of outdoor activities. Um, but as we all know, it’s also kind of, it’s kind of a peninsula. There’s only a few, few ways in and out. And it’s, it’s got challenges, um, with all the different uses. Um, I think, um, my background might be useful to the, uh, committee. I think it could be, uh, I’m trained in engineering and physics. Um, I worked as a systems engineer at the Mitre Corporation in the strategic planning department back in the 1980s. I changed my career, however, and I’ve spent most of my, the bulk of my career in public service as, um,

58:58 educator at the Museum of Science for a while. And, uh, a few stints doing work with public relations agencies that cover technology companies. Um, I’ve, I’ve been a technology journalist as well for a while in the nineties. And, uh, but since 2000 or so, I have been a public high school math teacher, and that’s, that’s the biggest chunk of my career. And, uh, I can thank my wife for, uh, encouraged me to become a teacher. Um, something I’d thought about. And, uh, it’s been a great career. And, uh, so I come to this point where my own sons went through Marblehead schools and graduated, and they’re off to college. And, and I watched my friend, uh, Dave Harris do a number of things, uh, for the town over the years. And I’m,

59:47 I’ve been thinking, you know, as time, maybe I step up and, uh, see if I could contribute to the town. And, um, I think, I think I’m very good at speaking with technical people because I am one or was one I always will be really. And, uh, I’m also a cyclist. I’m also a driver. I’ve been driving cars for 50 years. I’ve, uh, I know a fair amount about driving, ‘cause I’ve been done some track days with car clubs and things, and I’ve, and I’ve ridden a lot of miles, thousands of miles all over the country, really. Um, bicycle touring, just riding around here over many years. And, uh, so I, I have feel for what it’s like to be a driver of a vehicle with all the challenges that we have in this area as well as a,

1:00:35 a cyclist or, you know, a walker who has to contend with all of the drivers who are in vehicles, whether they be trucks or cars or you name it. And, uh, it’s, it’s an interesting time because, uh, drivers are not as good nowadays, and cyclists and walkers are just as vulnerable as they’ve ever been, maybe more so. And then you toss in the phones and everything and the distractions. That’s kind of a short little spiel, I guess. Hopefully not too long. Yeah. Um, so, uh, if you can describe any experience you have working with others, um, on a committee or a board, um, an example of just working in that environment and, you know, just if you’re serving on any other boards in town or any other, you know,

1:01:24 anywhere Else. Um, sure. I, um, I was involved for about a year with bike marblehead when it began. And, uh, we were looking at ways to promote cycling to, to, to build education about how to safe cycle, um, how to take care of bikes, how to ride properly, um, and, uh, so I was involved with that. As far as committees and things, uh, not really any committees other than, you know, the work with bike marblehead in my professional life. I’ve, I’ve been on teams that have worked on things. You know, I, when I worked, did work in public relations, you know, there was always an account team for different clients and, you know, people did different things. They contributed to putting together communications plans and trying to sell ‘em

1:02:12 to potential clients as well as existing clients, um, positioning and, and stuff. And, you know, working with, uh, journalists to get coverage, you know, all kinds of stuff. But as a teacher where I’ve spent the bulk of my career, and as, as a, as a journalist, it’s, it’s a lot of independent work where you’re, you know, you’re working around other people, you’re part of a team in a sense, but you’re really very independent and, and doing a lot of planning for things you’re going to do. But, um, I think, um, if I go all the way back to Mitre, my first job at engineering school, I was in a strategic, uh, command control communications intelligence department at Mitre Corporation. We, and we gave advice to the Air Force and clients on

1:02:59 communications systems for the, for the nuclear weapons systems in the United States. And, um, so, um, you know, I had to sift through technical documents to, to find things that were important to put, write them up, you know, write a paper about things and then give presentations and so on. So I think that’s kind of, as a teacher, you do a lot of that. You’re, you’re constantly assembling information, figuring out how to present it, and helping people learn and stuff. Thank You. Yeah. Now, uh, each member, you know, the board of committee may have a particular vision or, you know, for that board or committee, and each person may have a concern or special interest that they believe, you know, should take precedence. I was wondering if you might be able to detail how you would balance your own,

1:03:45 you know, special interest, um, in collaborate with your colleagues on the broader issues before the committee. Yeah. I, I think that, um, what I would say to that is that, um, I’m, I’d like to think I’m a very rational person, and so be very fair-minded. Try to listen well to what everybody, what everyone’s point of view is and what the competing interests are. Um, I think, I think there’s always gonna be some compromise necessary. I mean, I may have some really strong opinions about certain things, um, you know, given who I am and my own experiences and the things I’ve thought about for years. Um, but I also know that for our community to work well,

1:04:30 we need to listen to each other. We need to, um, be reasonable. And I’d like to think that that’s the kind of person I am.

1:04:39 Okay. Great. Thank you so much. And, um, that concludes our interview. And, okay. Uh, you’re welcome to stay and listen or, um, you know, engage with the, uh, Thank you, Russell. Thank you. Appreciate it.

1:04:58 David. Kki, they average like six minutes a piece, right? That right. But who’s keeping, Can we expand this committee? I mean, this is, Yeah.

1:05:16 Right in front of the microphone, if you would. Thank you. Yes. That’s our best audience at home. Can be You got it. Got it. Yeah. Um, welcome. Thank you so much. Sure. For your interest, we have your letter and your resume that you’ve submitted. We’ve all had a chance to look at it. We just have three questions. Um, the first is more of an opportunity for candidates to just briefly highlight, um, in the most briefest term, then emphasize what you think is the most important takeaway about your background and professional experience that you’d like to share with us that would, um, that you would bring to the committee. Sure. I guess, um, you could see from my resume that I’ve served as a planner for the town of Lexington. We’re actually served on the transportation safety committee, implementing traffic calming projects, understanding, uh,

1:06:04 the ins and outs of the various departments, and working with them to implement those projects. Uh, for the last five years, I’ve been the traffic and parking director for the City of Salem. Uh, I oversee our neighborhood traffic calming program. I work with the Traffic and Parking Commission. So it’s sort of what I do. I live and breathe this stuff, and, uh, I’m looking to, uh, sort of give back to the community. Um, I’ve had some experience, you know, participating in the town. I was involved with the Complete Streets Committee, uh, as well as the Resiliency Workshop. So I have that familiarity, um, and as well as with some of the staff that’s in the town. So I think that my experience combined with some of the experience I’ve had already with the town would make me a good candidate. Thank you. Sure. Uh, go ahead, Moses.

1:06:52 Uh, David, uh, you have an extensive resume. I’ve had a chance to look at it, but if you could, uh, kind of highlight any, any experience you have working with others on a committee or a board, and please give an example of your productive membership as part of a team. Sure. So, um, when I was with the town of Lexington, I was the town planner that essentially did intake for requests that might’ve come in from residents, uh, either through a petition. Um, so one of the first things we like to do is collect data to make sure that reality is perception, vice versa. So, uh, working closely with the police department, uh, we purchased, uh, detectors to gather speed and volume data on a particular road or intersection.

1:07:37 Um, we analyzed that data. We also did other data collection. What’s the parking situation like? What’s the local land use? So we took all of that into consideration to determine whether or not something needed to be done. And then we looked at best guidelines. We looked at, uh, M U T C D, which are state and federal guidelines to identify what, what could be done on an interim level. Because sometimes there’s a, is a more of an immediate need to do something, whether it’s improving some signage or introducing a stop sign of that nature. But also looking at, is there longer term efforts that we can identify here, and that may have involved looking at the town’s complete streets, uh, project, and maybe that the two might dovetail in a way. So getting something implemented right away, but also looking at the longer picture of,

1:08:23 of incorporating something into a bigger project. So, Thank you. Excellent. Um, each member of a board or committee may have a particular vision for that board or committee. Each each person may have a special interest or pet project that he or she believes should take precedent. Please detail how you would balance your own individual interests and collaborate with your colleagues for the broader purpose.

1:08:52 I, being as a staff person working in two communities now in Massachusetts, uh, trying to maintain my objectivity is, uh, has always been a goal of mine to, to try to look at things, look at the data, look at the criteria, and find the what is the best solution, if there is one. And setting expectations for residents and, and others, um, I think is, is is key. So for me, it’s, it’s really take in understand that someone might really sense there’s an issue, but use hard data criteria to determine, um, you know, is it in fact something unsafe or can it be addressed? And, uh, develop, you know, ideas on how to implement that. Understanding the resources that other departments have and staff and

1:09:42 the limitations. So that’d be something, you know, just maintaining objectivity in all projects is something I would, I would aspire to do. Good. Great. Thank you very much. Thank you. Sure. Thank you. Thanks for Thank you for volunteering. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Excellent. Excellent.

1:10:10 They all know they can stay, right? Yes, I’ve said it. That’s the only time I haven’t Said it. Well, we scared them with the amount of, yeah. Yeah. I Think we all have found a club. They wanna start out there. Yeah, Same. They’re not, they’re violating Open meeting. We have a lot promise. Just having more Fun friends are being made right outside the wall. Hello, Jody. Hello buddy. I’m Jody McKee. Welcome, king Guernsey Street. Welcome. Thanks for volunteering. Nice to be here. Yes. Um, okay. So, um, Jody, we have just three questions, and the first is really just an opportunity for, um, candidates to, you know, recognize that we, we have your, your letter of interest, but just an opportunity for, you know, you two emphasize what is the, you know, most important briefly important qualifications, experience,

1:10:55 background that you would bring to the Traffic Safety Advisory Committee. Okay. Glad to do that. Uh, first of all, I’m retired, so I’m in town all day. Mm-hmm. Most of the year, for the last 16 years, my wife and I perky have walked every day. The weather has been Clement. Our ma our main trail is Atlantic Avenue, pleasant Street, Wyman Road. And so we see a lot that goes on, on a daily basis. I’ve driven a car on Marble Head for 60 years, which probably gives you an idea of how old I am. And I’ve always had an interest since walking about Tom’s Safety and Traffic. As a matter of fact, before this committee thought was organized,

1:11:45 I have met with Chief Ello,

1:11:51 chief Gilliland, and now Chief King regarding pedestrians safety and traffic in the town. I’ve written a number of articles in the reporter over the years regarding this type of thing. Also, I feel I have, I am a doer. I’ve achieved a number of things in the town over my years here. I was chosen to be the p t o President of the Gary School in the late eighties, 90 early nineties. And I don’t want to beat my breasts, but I almost single handedly kept that school from being closed. It was voted by the school committee to keep it open at a town meeting at the last moment, because of the town uproar about closing that school. I was elected for two terms, the Marblehead School Committee in the nineties,

1:12:40 and in the nine, uh, recently I had a three year battle. And I will say it was a battle and very discouraging lesson in civics. I might add the school committee about getting the Gary School playground to be a playground, to be a green spot and not a parking lot. It was a very disappointing experience, but I’m pleased to say in the end, it has been nominated to be a playground, a green spot forever. Uh, other things I’ve, in the past, I’ve been a big brother in the Big Brother organization. I organized and spearheaded the New Eyes for the Needy Program in Marblehead for a number of years. And maybe the last thing, and maybe the biggest thing that I had to offer was in 1956.

1:13:29 In 1957, I was a crossing guard. And that’s that. Thank you. If you have some questions, I’d be happy to answer them.

1:13:40 Um, so, uh, you know, you did touch on this a little bit, but just anything else you wanna share with us in regards to any experience you have working with others on a committee boards, um, you know, any specific examples that you wanna bring to our attention for productive membership? You know, working as a team, obviously this is a new committee and there’s gonna be, you know, some conflicting interest there. So, Well, as just mentioned, I was an elected member of the school board for six years, and five of the six years I was either, uh, chair or vice chair. And it was in the early nineties. Great. Thank You. So I obviously was able to help the people of the town think I would be a good representative of the town on two occasions. And I might add that competition in those years was very, very strong. There were some incumbents in there that were well-known and well thought of,

1:14:27 and I was able to take it. Thank You. Thank you so much. Okay. You’d like to carry on Brett? Sure. Um, each member, you know, of, of the committee may have a particular vision, um, you know, for that board, and, but each person may have their own pet project or special interest, you know, um, that should take precedence. And I just wonder how, if you can detail how you would balance your own individual, you know, interests and collaborate with your colleagues on the broader issues, you know, of that committee. Well, first of all, I would need to know what the broader issues are. And I think a lot of those are gonna be situations that, that are historical and one to come in the present. Personally, I have some big interests in pedestrian safety. Uh,

1:15:14 I’m annoyed immensely by the cell phone use in this town, people driving with their cell phones. I’m annoyed by a lack of respect for the crosswalk rules where people have rights on the crosswalks. I, I would have those things as my priority, but any other things that come up, I like to think I’m well educated, well traveled and into things, willing to compromise, willing to listen, and willing to suggest I’m a good team player. Thank you so much, Jody. And you’re, um, welcome to stay if you’d like and listen to other, uh, interviews, uh, while we c continue along. Very good. Thank you for having me, and I appreciate your consideration.

1:15:59 Thank you. Thank you, Jody. Thank you.

1:16:06 Rizzos

1:16:14 second to last. Mm-hmm. Welcome. Hi, that’s not true. Welcome. Thank You for volunteering. Hi, Brian. Come In too. Welcome. Happy to be here. Okay. So, um, thank you for your letter of interest. We just have three questions. Uh, the first is just an opportunity for our, the candidate or candidates to highlight briefly, uh, please. Is there anything you wanna specifically to bring to our attention that you think, you know, really summarizes your, um, qualifications and experience and background that would make you, uh, that you would bring to this committee that we should, you know, that you wanna highlight? Okay. Thank you. Um, recently retired from the state police, did 42 and a half years with them, uh, predominantly stationed on the North Shore. Um,

1:17:03 spent a year in Holden. Um, but other than that, in eight years a month as vineyard I’ve been in, in this area, we moved, I moved from the vineyard to Marblehead in 94 and have been a resident with my wife and my three children since 94. I feel that my experience in the state police makes me qualified to assess the traffic situation and the purview of this committee. And I’m happy to, uh, be considered as a candidate. Thank you. Okay. Would you like to ask our next question? Sure. Uh, Brian, uh, please describe any experience you have working with others on a committee or board, and, uh, please give an example of your productive membership on a team. Um, earlier, uh, I was on the school safety, uh, security committee and worked,

1:17:52 uh, very well with the other members that were on that committee. And I was also on one, maybe two superintendent search committees. There’s been a lot of those. Um, and that was a few years ago. Um, I couldn’t get involved with a lot of stuff when I worked for the state police because it was a conflict of interest. And every committee that, or every organization that I wanted to work with, I had a request permission ahead of time. And sometimes that’s not created. So I was able to be available and assist those two committees. But other than that, I didn’t have anything else. Great. Thank you, Uh, Byron. Thank you. Uh, each member of the, of a board or a committee may have a particular vision for that board. Uh, each person may have a special interest or a pet project that they believe

1:18:38 should take precedent. How would you balance your own individual interest and collaborate with your colleagues on the broader mission? I think you’d have to see what everyone’s opinions were about the issues that face the town and try to collaboratively work together to come to a simple solution. Obviously, there’s a lot of issues in town. Um, there’s a lot of problems with some of the traffic situations in town. I think everybody would get together and just try to work it out and then present the best options that they would see for that traffic solution. Okay. Great. Thank you, um, very much. Uh, that completes our interview, and you’re welcome to, to stay or, um, you know, come back when we’re ready to vote. Thank

1:19:24 You very much. Thank you. Thanks for coming. Thank you, Byron.

1:19:35 Uh, Dan Schumann,

1:19:43 Welcome, Dan. Hi. Thank you, volunteering. Thank you. You’re welcome. Hi. So, um, so we have your letter of interest and, uh, you know, you mentioned the sale and bike committee where, where the, you know, your Marblehead cycle. Uh, we have just three questions. The first is really just an opportunity for candidates to briefly highlight, you know, what, what do you wanna emphasize is the background experience that you’d bring to this committee? Um, well, bicycle shop for 25, 25 years and working on bicycle advocacy for the, with mass bike. Um, and going to the bicycle summit in DC to work on bicycle advocacy

1:20:30 and working on the Salem bike committee or bike advisory committee. Uh, in the beginning, I did that for like six or seven years, um, as chairman, and then several other years after that. Um, and I’ve lived in Marblehead, so I know the bike paths and I commute and ride. That’s great. Thank you. You welcome. Uh, so you can describe any experience you have working with others on a committee or board, or if you’re, you knower currently serving on any boards within town or anything else that you wanna share, or just any example of, um, any relationships or board work or committees you’ve been on, just highlighting your membership team building. Sure. That type of any Yeah. Anything of that nature You can share. Um, so I was on the, I was the chairman of the Salem Bike Committee, uh, uh, for several years.

1:21:17 I was on that bike committee for several years, um, and worked with the mayor and, uh, uh, chief and, um, several other people on that committee. Um, and, uh, that was the only committee I was on with any town. But I’ve also been on, I’m a member of the Bike Cooperative, which is a national group, and also the National Bicycle Dealer Association and Mass Bike. Um, and I do work with mass bike on different events and namba, which is the New England Mountain Bike Association. Mm-hmm. Um, on trails. And we have the new trail system here in town, which is donated to them. Um, so Great on those committees. Yeah. Awesome. Thank You. You’re welcome. Thanks. And Each member, you know of the board of committee may have their particular vision, you know, for that board committee, and each person may have a concern or PET project,

1:22:05 you know, or, you know, special interest, you know, that they believe takes precedence. And I was wondering if you might be able to detail how you would balance your own individual interests, um, and collaborate with your colleagues on the broader issues, you know, before that, that committee. Sure. Um, well, my, I know this is a traffic committee, right. Um, but my interests are more for bicycle pedestrian and, uh, wheelchair. My dad’s in a wheelchair. Um, he has trouble getting on the bike path, which he likes to take a lot, um, because it’s too steep in most places. And he is been fighting the town for many years to try to get it level. So that’s one thing. I, and I have a lot of customers in wheelchairs and that are disabled and wanna make that more accessible, but also bikes. And my kids are young and like to ride, so I wanna make the town safer for riding. I’ve seen what Salem has done.

1:22:53 I’ve like, and I’ve seen what Swamp Scout’s doing. And I know Marble has done some on the rail trail mostly, but on the roads there’s really nothing. Um, so I wanna try to push that where we can. Does that answer the question? Yeah, I think you did well. Okay. Thank you. Um, thank you, Dan. Thank you, Dan. That concludes our interview, so you’re welcome to stay if you’d like. Got one more. Um,

1:23:34 Well, Thank You. Hi. Welcome.

1:23:38 Um, so we, uh, obviously we have your, um, your very detailed letter. It’s a lot of substantive, um, information in it. We have three questions, uh, for the candidates. And the first is really just an opportunity for each two briefly highlight, you know, if you, what do you really wanna emphasize, um, for us in terms of your background and experience that you would bring to the committee? Sure. Um, well, I guess I’d, I’d focus on three things. One is just my connection to the community. I’ve lived here for 20 plus years, raised my kids here, um, been involved in youth sports and activities. Uh, so I, I feel like I know the town and I know the people pretty well. Um, the second thing I’d say is I bring, maybe not a unique lens, but, uh, I, I would bring the lens of advocating for pedestrians and cyclists and kids. Um,

1:24:26 I think that’s an important element of safety and tr traffic safety. Uh, and so I, I’ve got a lot of experience with, um, those types of activities. Um, I helped to build the, the, the, uh, rail the trails over at Green Street Woods. Um, I was one of the founding members of Bike Marblehead. Um, I participated in some of the complete streets and the rail trail planning efforts. So I feel like I have a, a pretty good sense of how those things work. Uh, and I guess the last thing I’d say is that while I would advocate for, for pedestrians and cyclists, I recognize that this role would be about integrating the perspectives of a lot of different constituents. And, uh, I think my experience in business, um, I’ve been at Fidelity for 20 years, um, and I kind of understand how you have to work with lots of different constituents in a, in a big organization. Um,

1:25:13 and I’m sure town government’s no different. Um, so, uh, I think I, I could successfully bring that to the table as well, kind of bringing, you know, the ability to integrate different perspectives, um, gather the facts, take everyone’s, um, input and, and, and help to prioritize, um, the, the things that we do. Thank you very much. Yeah. Uh, Rick, uh, you’ve touched on this a little bit, but could you please describe any experience, uh, you have working with others on a committee or board? And please give an example of your productive membership on a team. Sure. Um, well, I guess I can go into a little bit more detail with the, the Green Streete Woods. ‘cause that was, um, a more recent example. Um, I, I listed in my letter all the many of the groups that we had to, we, we got to work with, uh, in order to get that done. Um, and it,

1:26:00 it was a real eyeopener. You know, we, we, we thought that it was going to, to be easy, you know, just build some trails in the woods. How hard could that be? But the reality was, it was pretty complex. I mean, we had to transfer the property from the school committee to rec and park. We had to work with Conservation Commission to make sure that we were, were following all of their rules. And we ended up working with a tree warden because we did wanna take down a couple of trees. We wanted to make sure we did that the right way. Um, and so it, it got pretty complex. Um, we worked with the finance committee to make sure that when we brought the Town Warrant, uh, article, uh, there were no implications for the, for the budget. So there, there were a lot of, um, different folks that, that had an opinion about what we needed to do. Uh, and I think we successfully made everybody happy. Um, the trails are in use all the time now. The kids love it. And, uh, it’s, it’s a,

1:26:46 I think, an asset for the town. Thank you. Uh, each member of a board or committee may have a particular vision for that board. Um, each person may have a concern, a special interest, or a pet, uh, project that they believe should take precedent. How would you, uh, balance your own individual interest with the, uh, and, uh, collaborate with your colleagues for the broader vision of that committee? Yeah, As I said, I, you know, I, I think I would bring a little bit of a bias for pedestrians and cyclists, but, um, I’m, I’d be very conscious to, to not let that cloud any judgment that I would have in this, in this situation. Um, I think particularly with, with infrastructure, it’s such an important topic to the whole town. I mean, it really defines the character of the town. You know, what,

1:27:33 what do you have when you look around? Uh, and so it’s not just about pedestrians and cyclists, it’s about everybody. Uh, you know, people who are driving, people who are walking, people who are, you know, just looking out their window and seeing traffic. Uh, so it’s, uh, I I would definitely, um, you know, be cognizant of all the different perspectives that are important in the town. It’s not just about one special interest group. Thank you. Thank you so much. And that concludes our interview. And actually, you are our last, um, thank You for waiting. Best for last. Right. Thank you for waiting. Right. Um, okay. So I know that we’ll all probably maybe need a minute to kind of organize, um, ourselves, um, Really could just, uh, throw a dart excellent candidates.

1:28:23 We’d have to put a new bylaw through town meeting if we wanted to alternates for this. I mean, there’s just, and I’m not just saying that just because a wealth Of talent. No, there’s, it’s, It’s tough. Yeah. Because I’d hate to lose some of these people. There’s a couple of people going, you’d be good on this, but you’d be, you have strengths here. Not just, I don’t know. I’m just throwing it out there. I don’t wanna bucket it up now, or we can talk about it later. My thought in line with that is, for those who don’t get selected, we absolutely want that input and knowledge and background to, to participate. So, you know, it’s not just being on the committee, but having the committee get that input from all the various, um, backgrounds that we just heard tonight. That would be invaluable. Yes. I was gonna say too, that, um,

1:29:10 and we try to balance out, there’s a lot of overlapping interests, and we try to kind of balance out backgrounds on the committee. And, um, but there’s so many people who referenced great ideas and areas that they’re particularly interested in. And just, you know, these are gonna be public meetings and an o open meeting Process change yourself. So, um, part of the process is participating in that way, and that is a way to affect change just by bringing ideas forward to this, uh, committee as it, um, will, uh, come together and, you know, speaking to those areas that, you know, you’re, you have your interest as, uh, as a public citizen and engaging in the process that way is also contributing. So, um, I guess, uh, do,

1:29:59 do people need a few minutes? I mean, there was a lot of information. I mean, kind of was processing as I go. Uh, would you suggest that we write down our three and then submit that way? Or, or, okay. I had Kyle create Okay. A form. So we have a plan. Okay.

1:30:23 Okay. It’s a good one. Yes. So, so I’ll reiterate. So the idea is we have, we have three seats, 11 applicants. And it’s sort of modeled after, like an election, like, it’s like board where you have more candidates than seats. Uh, you get to vote for the, the, the number by number of positions that are available, and the top voters get the seats. And again, we’ll, as I explained, we’ll do a round of voting in the first round. I’ll ask you all for the three names that you wanna, uh, of the folks you wanna put as members of the committee. Um, after we’ve gone through the whole board, I’ll tally it up. And, um, based on the total tally, um, we may have,

1:31:12 uh, one clear winner, two clear winners, three clear winners, uh, depending on how, how, how the mix goes. And again, the, the, the, the one who gets the, the most votes would be in the seat that expires in 2026, second most in 2025, third most in 2024. If for some reason there’s a, there’s same number of votes for a particular seat, we’ll figure out how to sort it out. Either we’ll ask them to volunteer, or if somebody has a coin, we’ll flip it. Uh, we’ll, we’ll just do a mechanism to figure out who gets, uh, the, which term. So, um, chair, if when you’re ready, I can, um, okay. Start the process. Mm-hmm. Go ahead. So, so again, it’s, uh,

1:31:58 give me your three names slowly and clearly, uh, so I can mark them down and we’ll do the tally. So based on the random selection, uh, the chair always being last, uh, uh, Mr. Grader gets to go first. Thank you. Uh, Mr. Keyser. Uh, well, so we’re really spoiled for choice, which is really a wonderful situation to be in. But at the same time, it’s brutal to, you know, to make, uh, the, the, these kinds of decisions. So it’s, it’s kind of a consideration of, of balance as well as, uh, obviously, uh, experience and, and expertise. It’s, it’s wonderful. And I, and to, you know, and to my colleague’s point, if we can find any way to capture your spirit of volunteerism, uh,

1:32:43 anywhere else in the town, if you’re not selected, it’d be very much appreciated. I want, I wanna let you know that kind of what’s driving my, uh, decision is, you know, principally experience in kind of data-driven thinking, you know, as it relates to, uh, you know, to the, you know, to traffic, uh, and, and, and traffic enforcement. And the other key thing for me was, uh, two of the candidates have kind of an instrumental role in the formation of the Complete Streets Plan, which is actually a very well-developed plan. A lot of people don’t know this, but we have a, you know, kind of a very extensive layering there. So the three names that I have picked out based on that, on those, on those criteria are, uh, Gary Herbert, David Koski,

1:33:29 and, uh, Byron Rizzos.

1:33:33 Okay. Thank you. Uh, next I have Ms. Singer.

1:33:38 I have so many pages. Um, gosh, uh, I know I was nodding my head like more time. Um, okay. So just a, a little background, you know, as I’m looking through, uh, everyone who came, so first of all, thank you everyone who came tonight, um, taking a look at really what the Traffic Safety Committee, um, the advisory committee, what, uh, you know, when it was brought to town meeting, what were the parameters around there in regards to traffic, roads, other transportation infrastructure. And then, uh, really the goal is to bring that information report to the Select board quarterly, any data and activities and make recommendations. So I was listening to, you know, um, what that criteria was in, you know, how, uh, the applicants were gonna look, look at executing that.

1:34:25 And then also just in the Complete Streets as well, just some of the highlights of really, uh, looking for emphasis on highlighting a wide range of users, um, the services for all users, you know, integration of the open space and recreation plan, and really, uh, you know, discussing the, serving the pedestrian cyclists, M B T A, bus, school, bus, rider, motorists, emergency responders. So it, it is really a comprehensive view of what, you know, when you’re integrating all of these, uh, components. And that really focusing on that holistic approach, that emphasizing bringing, you know, several committees together and setting, you know, a vision for that. And then not just the vision, but the execution.

1:35:12 And, uh, who is able to look at that and also, you know, thinking about things like commitments on other boards and volunteerism and, um, you know, the ability to, you know, research in this type of work. So that was really, you know, what my background was in look, you know, looking, making these decisions ‘cause so much, uh, valuable time put into tonight. So, uh, I am putting forth, um,

1:35:41 this is hard. Um, I am putting forth Gary Hubert, David Floki, and, um, Richard Meyers. Okay. Thank you. Mr. Murray. Uh, Gary Hebert, David Gutowski, and Dan Chu.

1:36:02 Okay. Thank you Mr. Nye. Um, I’ll go with Russell King, David Karski, Karski and Byron Rizzos. Ms. Nunan. Yeah. Um, I, I’m coming to my decision along the same lines as Moses had articulated, uh, around, um, kind of the methodical, uh, thinking and experience that can bring some data-driven analysis in people’s, uh, earlier participation and, and, and familiarity with Complete Streets project. Um, as well as kind of rounding that out with, um, with a lot of, uh, a lot of, uh, cycling affection, autos. And, uh, I think, uh, you know, um, as our first candidate had,

1:36:48 had said to me is how I feel I see the process as being the first year, I really wanna emphasize, um, you know, that I think it will be developing a process, um, that this first year in terms of setting the committee up for success going forward. And so, um, with that, uh, um, my, uh, nominations are, um, David Kucharski, um, Gary Hebert, and, um, uh, sorry, Rick Meyers. Okay. Thank you. So,

1:37:29 so on this count, David Chersky has five as the Top Bowl getter. So he would fill the 2026 seat, and Gary Hebert, uh, is second with four votes for the 2025 seat. And then we have a tie between Brian Rizzos and Rick Smears, each with two votes. So what I would suggest, or the next round mm-hmm. That it would be between Rick Smears, Myron Myers, and, and Myron Rezos. Yep. And that we do a round each get one vote. And given that there’s five votes, there would be a a,

1:38:18 a obviously not a tie. So I’ll, on the rotating list, Ms. Singer, Uh, Richard Meyers. Okay. Mr. Murray, uh, Mr. Meyers, Mr. Nye, Uh, Byron Renos,

1:38:36 Mr. Grader, and, uh, Byron Rizzos and Ms. Nunan, Um, uh, Mr. Meyers. Okay. Oops. So there would be three for Mr. Meyers. Two for Mr. Rizzos. So Mr. Meyers would fill the 2024 seat. Congratulations. Congratulations. Thank you. And thank you to everybody. So, um, before, uh, everyone leaves, just, um, especially to able to the, um, those, uh, that, uh, were, uh, uh, seated, uh, the tar the town clerk’s office, you, you, you’ll have to get sworn in. Uh, and so stop by the town clerk’s office. At some point

1:39:22 I will send out Okay. Letters to them first, and then have the Book. Okay. Thank you again to everybody and Everybody else. Please stay Out. Thank you. They made it very hard on us. I do.

1:39:38 Okay. Um, now, now, um, uh, our board also can, um, is tasked to appoint, um, department heads and de or designees, um, responsible for

1:39:56 People won’t be able to hear. Oh, okay. Thank you.

1:40:01 Well, at least the, the phone is sitting. It was, thank you for putting

1:40:12 difficult. Yeah, very difficult. I hate that. Huh? I hate the, sorry. No, it was

1:40:22 Okay. So, uh, just to, um, I’m gonna suggest to round this out while we’re here and, uh, kind of rounding out this committee. We have the opportunity to appoint, uh, based on the bylaw, uh, our department heads designees, um, that those responsible for public safety and the transportation infrastructure. So, um, I’d like to propose, uh, or ask for a motion that we, um, appoint the following people also to the committee, um, police chief or his designee designee, the, the fire chief, uh, or designee, the D P W director or designee, the town engineer or designee, and, um, an extra physio member, uh,

1:41:09 as the town administrator. Thoughts? Yeah. Can you just, I just wanna make sure I have it. So, police, um, police chief, fire chief engineer, chief dp, direct. D p W, director, town engineer, and there are designees, so Yeah. For quorum and, yeah. Yeah. So, or designees so that Yeah, yeah, Exactly. Yeah, that’s fine. So they can send somebody on their behalf from the department Yeah. To the meeting or, and, um, the town administrator as the ex-officio. So, um,

1:41:39 uh, that’s, um, Well, is, that’s a, that’s a, I’m curious what, um, the town administrator thinks of the, of the lineup. Uh, particular mm-hmm. No, seriously, I wrote it, it was my suggestion. It really encompassed enough. It hits every, I mean, it includes everybody, but It was her idea. No, it is something that’s been talked about. Uh, we, we talked earlier on as to who, who best to represent, um, right. You know, like, we have a time, you know, town planner and obviously the current’s leaving, we’ll have another one. But my understanding, you know, the focus, those are the four positions that would be most focused on the, on what that committee would take up. Um, and as an example,

1:42:25 the, the town planner and the, you know, in the future would be more complete streets. ‘cause that’s the bigger picture kind of. So, so that, that’s, we think is the best makeup of, of the committee. Thank you. It strikes me as a rock solid, you know, membership. So, yeah. Okay. So moved. Second. I don’t know that I actually formally made the motion, but up, did I? Yes, you did. Oh, okay. All right. Great. Um, seconded. All in favor. Okay. Um, Excellent work. Motion passes unanimously. Hopefully Many of those still stay involved with this committee, the people that weren’t, uh, selected wealth of talent

1:43:12 And Okay. Load up. So we’ll see. Okay. That’s a big deal. Um, Big committee. Nice Completion. Yeah.

1:43:24 So she’s gonna set up while you do this next agenda. Okay. I was gonna say, she’s gonna, I’m, I’m happy to take things outta order or No, she’s gotta set up her iPad for the presentation. Okay, sure. No problem. Okay. We’re gonna carry along with holiday hours and Veterans Day. Um, I’d like a motion to approve the following hours of operation and observance of Veterans Day for the Mary Alley building in Abbott Hall, Thursday, November 9th, 2023, 8:00 AM to 12:30 PM Friday, November 10th, 10, uh, 2023 closed for municipal bi business. Um, that would be the day, just as a reminder that, uh, Congressman Moulton will be holding a veterans town hall and the building will be open for that day, although o offices will be closed. Uh, okay. So, okay. Let me explain one thing as far as Okay. Why the hours there are Thursday closing early at 1230.

1:44:12 So going to our collective bargaining agreements for the holidays, it’s a full day that they get. And Friday is because our, our hours are only, um, eight to 1230. So the, a full day backs into Thursday afternoon in which we give the employees the holiday off. Okay. And that’s, that, that explains why we close early on Thursday, uh, is to meet our collective bargaining agreement of giving the employees the full day, which is part of Thursday and Friday’s up part of day. Anyways. Okay. Thanks for that clarification. Um, co so if somebody could move the motion, So we’ll move for a second. All in favor? Okay. Motion carries, uh, unanimously and Thanksgiving.

1:45:00 I’d like a motion to approve the following hours of operation and observance of Thanksgiving for Mary Alley Building in Abbott Hall Wednesday, November 22nd, 2020 third, 8:00 AM to 2:30 PM Thursday, November 23rd. Closed all day Friday, November 24th. Closed all day. So moved second. All in favor? Okay.

1:45:21 And so we are now, um, on to our finance director. I noticed we’re, we are twinning, uh, sorry about that. Sorry. I was like, oh, looking at myself. Um, yeah, so this, um, so our finance director is here to present our marblehead um, our revenue, uh, forecast. And, um, is this, that’s something else.

1:45:53 I need. The special magnifying spectacles that I left, see, I Brought these today. We’re Gonna see these are, these are spectacles, but they’re not, you know, I’ll go pick my screen. So while, while they’re setting up, just sort of introduction. So one of the things we did working with the,

1:46:13 Is develop the schedule of budget, building schedule. And so one of the first steps in the process is to project what our, our revenues, uh, we think they will be. And then that sets the baseline for building a budget as to here’s the revenues that are available. We have to build a budget to, to that level. ‘cause obviously we, we can’t go beyond that level. Um, the caveat, and you’ll hear caveat, caveat is that this is early in the process on the projections in that these are the numbers, uh, based on the information we have available now. And they will be refined as we go forward, uh, through the whole process.

1:47:01 So there are some revenue lines that we are digging deeper into to get a better understanding. And therefore we find the numbers, some of the revenue sources, for example, state aid, which is a significant amount, we won’t know for sure what those numbers are till later in the state budget process. What typically happens is the governor will issue, uh, her budget. We will grab those numbers and, and put ‘em in. And then the house will do their piece and their numbers in the Senate. And then ultimately the conference committee of the two, the house and the Senate will come out with the final numbers. And then the governor accepts veto. So there’s, there’s multiple steps that we go through to project those numbers. So,

1:47:49 so, so caveat, caveat, caveat. Numbers will refine as we go forward, but this is the starting point to set the projections for our budget building. With that, I’ll give it to our chief financial officer. Oh, Thank you Thatcher. Good evening. Honorable Select board and constituents out there.

1:48:10 So we’re gonna go over the preliminary revenue forecast. We’ll start with local receipts, then we’ll go into state aid, we’ll go into the tax levy and then we’ll go into new growth.

1:48:24 So local receipts is revenue, that’s from property and other than property taxes and state aid, our primary revenue sources for local receipts are motor vehicle excise. That’s our largest, uh, licenses and permits, including building permits, which is the largest in permits and fees, including solid waste. So for fiscal year 25, we projected 6 million 445, 8 22 in local receipts.

1:48:51 And just for the citizens to view, I I gave a comparative of 23 what actually was versus what was estimated and then what we estimated in 2024. So that’s what this graph is showing. The orange spikes is what we actually had versus the blue is what we are estimated. And obviously we’re just in 24, so it’s all an estimation

1:49:13 in here. So if I, if I could ask absolutely a quick question. There seems to be a very large, uh, motor vehicle excise bar. Yes. That was, uh, projected but not received, right? Is that, is that the way to read That for 24? Yep. ‘cause we’re still, we’re in the beginning of course Of 20. I gotcha. Okay.

1:49:36 Okay. Sorry. Yep. On to on. Um, just to piggyback, I just wanna make sure I understand. So the actual, this is actuals right now, but this is Okay. Estimated this year, sir. Yep. So I have actuals for 23, The fourth the year and Correct. And um, okay. Same with building permits I would imagine. But we have more actuals than we estimated. Um,

1:50:00 and then there’s two motor vehicle exercises on here. So there, Yeah, There’s one for 24 and one for 20. Oh, okay. Sorry. Thank you. There’s a thin line in the middle. There We go. That makes sense. Okay. Thank you. But it’s a great visual. Yeah. Because you Can kind of, so people can see the big spikes. Where we really did well was building permits investment income Because you’re gonna try, you can, you’re kind of basically tracking to where the spikes should be, right? Essentially. Correct. Yep. So that’s very helpful. Thank you. And this is the actual forecast for 2025 where we have the 6 million 445 8 22. But here you can see the biggest drivers being motor vehicle excise mm-hmm. Are the charges for services are licensed and permits.

1:50:50 And then state aid also known as local aid, refers to money that flows into the budget from the state. And Thatcher kind of elaborated on that earlier and how it comes in, we don’t have the number yet from the governor till next year. So we have to just make our best case estimate. So what we usually do, and what I do is I only plug a 1% growth factor as a conservative approach to what the next year will be based on what was actually done in the previous year. And I just highlighted for everyone on the slide that doesn’t know what local aid is, what general local aid is, how we use it for funding versus chapter 78, which is for the schools. Mm-hmm. Sorry about that.

1:51:35 Yep.

1:51:38 Then I made a graph so that people could see based on the chapter 70, which is the largest part of our state aid, how it’s been growing each year for the schools by fiscal year from 2007 to fiscal year 24. And this doubles as a eye exam. Okay. I’m just gonna, we’re gonna just take your to, we’re gonna take your word for it. We’re gonna take your word for it. Good to see that. It’s good to know the details there. Oh, there we go. I can make it a little bigger on the screen so you can kind of see. That’s great. You mounts and then I’ll bring it over.

1:52:22 That’s right. Versus just Going on. We just summarize that ‘cause Yeah, it’s just for your reference. You get your magnifying glass and Yeah, that’s perfect. Perfect. Review the details. Good. So for our preliminary revenue forecast for state aid, we have 5 million 5 0 7 3 42. Mm-hmm. And that’s the 8 million 158 5 69 that we have as receipts minus the 2 million 651 2 27 and assessment charges. And usually assessments grow with the same rate as receipts.

1:53:03 So here I’m showing, so you’re showing a net state aid number. I Know we did that for Yes. For years. So actually I’m showing both. Okay. So on this, these two graphs is the left is the net state aid and on the right is showing the assessments versus the receipts so they can see it both ways. So the so-called cherry sheets. Yep. And, and as I always explain to people, I’m a, back in the old days when there was really cherry colored paper that the d o R sent out on the front side was all the revenues you would be receiving from the state. And then you flip it over and it’s all the charges back to the state for various programs and services. And so the real number is that, that net and, and both, both the revenue side is going up and down in the, uh, the,

1:53:48 the assessment side. Uh, so there’s a lot of, there’s a lot of attention initially on the front side of how much more aid are we getting. Oh wow. That’s a great increase in aid. Then you flip it over and you find out that all your chargebacks probably may have increased more than what you’ve got in an increase in aid and it’s a net loss. Um, I think for the town side we ended up with a, a small $8,000 somewhere around there. Net loss when we factored in the increase in the, the local government aid minus the increases in assessments, it was actually a small net loss on, on the town side and a, um, a modest increase on the school side. So you really have to look at both what they’re giving you and what they’re,

1:54:36 what they’re taking back to have a good picture. Perfect.

1:54:46 And and the next slide talks about the tax levy, which is the amount of revenue committee can raise through real estate and personal property taxes. And then I just go into how the levy limit is calculated. How to calculate the maximum allowable tax levy and how you get to your tax rate, which is taking the levy divided by your total value gives you your tax rate. This is all just informational for residents. Yep. Um, appreciate it. The preliminary revenue forecast for the tax levy, so what I did for this, it’s funny for them to see a little bigger, is I showed what was residential versus open space, commercial, industrial and personal property by the state by year they could see how it’s kind of growing and then they can see the tax, the amount of the tax bill is on the right and how the tax bill has been growing

1:55:34 by year.

1:55:39 So the levy limit that we have right now is 73 4 3 2 29 with other available funds of 33 million 388, 2 73. So our total estimated revenue is 106 million 8 71 5 0 2, which is 31% on the other and 69% on the love limit

1:56:06 In this projection, all I wanted to show on this is the difference. You can see how much we are getting we drive by the tax levy versus the other available funds we have. So what we need to look at for next fiscal year is how we can look at other receipts, other new receipt funding that we can find, uh, new growth. What’s new growth gonna be maximizing new growth ‘cause that’s a part of the levy as we’re analyzing for the need for an override.

1:56:39 So 69% of our revenue comes from property taxes, 31% from other sources, state aid, local receipts.

1:56:51 So here is a breakout and then red you’ll see under 2050 or 25 new growth. Um, this is just an estimation based on the trend of how it has been, but we’re actually digging in deeper to see what we can have and we’ll be working with the assessors in the spring to fine tune this number. So I wanted to highlight that ‘cause that’s a big driver when it comes to looking at the override. And then it shows our debt exclusion, which is offset by the debt service that we vote each year. Mm-hmm. Our other funds that you’ll see in the budget is for perpetual care for 26,000 and a conservation committee fund for 9,000 every year. You notice free cash is declining each year as we want. We’ve adopted our policy now to utilize 5% to keep as our reserves.

1:57:42 Mm-hmm. Yet we wanna make sure that we’re, as it’s declining, we wanna make sure that we’re good in how we’re Yep. So I want to emphasize that, that the free cash number here is not what we’re estimating to be certified. This is the amount that we’re choosing to put into the budget to build budget on with the goal of decreasing reliance on that free cash. Yeah. So what will happen is the certification of free cash, hopefully, and we expect will be greater than those numbers, but our policy goal goal of having free cash reserve of about 5% of our operating budget means any free cash certified above and beyond this number goes towards that free cash reserve. And, and we’ll build it,

1:58:29 we’ll keep rolling over year, over year. So this current, the the, the year we closed, we estimated half a million of free cash and reserve. It came in another half a million higher thanks to some work Alicia did working with FEMA funds and, and all of that. So our free cash certified about a million dollars over what we used in the budget that put us 20% towards our policy goal of 5% of our operating revenues. Right. So this is all meeting our objectives that, well you all voted on the policy to do this. And this is our effort to meet those policy goals. And again, the big, the big win and the reason to do this is to maintain our bond rating.

1:59:17 ‘cause if we don’t have those reserves and really manage this and we take a hit on our bond rating, especially the way rates are these days, it’ll get a lot more expensive to do anything that we wanna do. So this is, this is really important stuff. Well, Thatcher thank you for presenting and, and presenting it this way. ‘cause I think it’s, you know, we, I don’t think we’ve seen this kind of free, this concerted focused effort at, you know, driving free cash to a target level, which is what we’re doing in this instance. So it’s fantastic and, and I think we have to then develop the, you know, stabilization concept, uh, fully to, you know, to meet that. Absolutely. Yeah. So great though. Great.

2:00:03 Absolutely. So at next we go onto the cherry sheet. I don’t wanna over, ‘cause we already talked about it. But that’s the 1% growth, municipal light surplus. We’ll be working with the Municipal Light Board in the future to look at that calculation. Uh, enterprise fund, indirect costs. We have an allocation method that we follow for that. And then we talked about local receipts.

2:00:26 So our assumptions, uh, new growth is based on our trend analysis, but I’m closely monitoring all the permits and new growth in the town. We’ll be looking at that with the assessments bring, as we spoke about, Uh, Thatcher already elaborated on the free cash. Uh, cherry sheet aid is gonna grow by 1% into our conservative estimate, the levy limit by two and a half percent plus new growth. Um, I already spoke about the municipal light plant, and we have some other funds, which include the cemetery offset with the perpetual care funds and the conservation offset by the conservation commission fund. And I talked about the indirect costs. So now I’m gonna just show a, a graph right now for everyone to see. With the $300,000 you can save for 20 and 21,

2:01:12 slightly up a little above three, maybe three 50 and 22. And then 23, you can see we’re a little over the 400 mark. So what we’re looking to do is maximize our new growth, especially with covid and premise. We’re pulled and a lot of construction done improvements done. We wanna really super focus on that area. Um, Uh, my, my additional other, I I being in this business for a few decades, uh, in the municipal business, new growth is the lifeblood of municipalities, uh, healthy municipalities, financially healthy municipalities focus on and maximize that new growth revenue. New growth comes from, uh, when new things are built, um,

2:02:01 that it, it immediately generates a higher value for that particular property in which the municipality can, can, uh, assess those funds. But by capturing as new growth, it gets added to your levy without raising taxes on others. Right? So if you build a nice, beautiful big swimming pool, you, your value’s gonna go up, your tax bill’s gonna go up, but that’s captured on top of our levy. And it doesn’t impact other taxpayers if, if a municipality is not managing and maximizing that new growth revenue. Right? And we all know the cost of providing services going up faster than what the

2:02:47 two and a half increase allows. What you only alternative your alternatives are either start cutting your services or go for overrides, which is a tax increase on everybody. So we are putting particular focus on really dissecting in engineering what’s going on with new growth target that, because as I said, that’s the lifeblood for municipalities to meet. The, the increase in cost of service needs is by capturing that new growth revenue as new growth, not as future appreciation in value as new growth.

2:03:35 Hopefully that’s, Um, fantastic. Love working with Patrick. Yeah, I I just wanna say that this is a, uh, like a key priority, right? That, that trumps, uh, a lot of other things including, you know, potential overrides. So this is a huge, uh, area that we’ll, that we’ll try to track very closely with you, you know, just to kind of on the, on an operating level, making sure that we’re executing against, uh, you know, finding this new, uh, you know, this new growth. Yeah. Especially, well, especially with your honorable board adopting that you wanna do best practices, this is a best practice. You wanna really look when you’re diving into your revenues with real estate and being our biggest a levees our biggest, we really need to super focus and analyze on that source first. So, so couple things that we’re, we’re, we’re building is one,

2:04:24 the data systems that gives us the information Yep. The manager. And secondly, really starting looking at connecting the interaction between the various departments that have certain roles in permitting with the assessor’s office so that all that information’s flowing back and forth as far as what is going on out in the community. So our assessors have that information to be able to go out and capture it. And so we’re, we’re, we’re looking at how, how to improve that interconnection between those various departments. Uh, get rid of the silos and really get a, a lot more data collaboration going on. And then that will result in our ability to, to better capture new growth revenue.

2:05:11 We’re looking at meals possibly next year, um, food, all the taxes that we’re not getting, that all the other municipalities around us are collecting that we’re missing out on that we could, you know, kind alleviate some of the pressure off the taxpayers. Yeah, I mean, I, I think that, uh, you know, we have a duty and obligation to the taxpayers to capitalize on every possible means to raise and increase our revenues, uh, before asking, um, an increase in, in property tax revenues. And so, new growth being one of them is stature, you know, um, very articulately explained, uh, is really important. And, um, we, we really should, I think, uh, be exploring all of our local tax options, uh,

2:05:57 this year in terms of moving forward, just looking at our projections. Yeah. I mean, it’s not just also maximizing, but it’s also seeing what we can do to cut and save internally too. So, you know, if we’re gonna go back to the citizens at some point for an override, we get to say we’ve done the best we could internally and we’ve maximized what we could without going to turnover up. So we have to do that. Yeah. And, and when we, we look at these other revenue sources that are available, right? The local options. So that’s a, uh, a choice that the community has to make.

2:06:31 The approach that I generally would recommend and, and other communities have done when you, when you do particular, those revenues, you know, be it hotel tax, meals, tax, right? The, those are there, there’ll be a lot of debate on that. But what you wanna do is you look at those revenue sources and say, if we’re gonna impose those new revenues, let’s use those revenues and reinvest it into the sectors that are generating those revenues. Um, and, and make improvements that help, you know, in those sense. So the restaurants, you know, and the meal tax, the restaurants could say that’s an increased cost. Yes. One, all the other communities in the area already do it. So,

2:07:16 so it’s not a competitive disadvantage to do it, but what we wanna do is look at those revenues. How do we improve the downtown areas, the, the sidewalks in those areas? How do we generate more business because we’re making infrastructure improvements in and around the business areas that then enhances them. Because right now, without that revenue, our option is to take it from the general taxes to make those improvements, or just don’t make the improvements and keep things just the way they are. So those are the discussions that, that, you know, we’ll look to have as if we’re gonna do this, what would we do with these revenues and how does it enhance us? Rather than just be a take

2:08:02 Madam chair. But yeah. Um, you know, this, this, we did broach this in the past, but we didn’t make the value case, you know, to the, you know, to, to those that we’re gonna, I mean, it’s not a huge tax when you, when you think about it, it’s not a new, uh, uh, it’s not a big number on the, on the dinner bell every night. But I think, and I think the case can be amplified, uh, but we, you know, it didn’t, it didn’t fly last time. It was a function of making the case and being well organized for it, which, which we weren’t at the time. So I think also, um, historically we had, we, it was around the same time, like we were, um, sensitive to the business community’s needs during Covid. That’s actually true. Yeah. Yeah. You’re right. You’re right. Yeah. Well, I, it Coincided with when the company, sorry, looking at this,

2:08:48 it coincided with the pandemic. Oh, yeah. And so, um, there was That’s true. Was, uh, sensitivity around that to the businesses. Yeah, you’re right. You’re right.

2:09:05 Was that it? That was it. Oh, thank you, Alicia. Other Than that, thank you slide. This is awesome. Thank so Much. Um, so this is great. So this is on our, the budget timeline. And then, so the next step is to send out the, um, messages to the depart department heads. Yeah. Next week we’ll be sending out the budget and capital message with instructions. We’ll also be holding a session with Thatcher on how to train the department heads on how to use clear gov. In addition to, I’m gonna send them links that they can look at different articles and how they can enter it as well. Yep. So, again, we’re implementing new tools. Mm-hmm. Um, I do not want to go through spreadsheet, whatever you want to call it, uh, that, you know, using clear gov as a tool to manage our budget building process,

2:09:53 um, it should be a lot better. But as I, I I’ve said recently, as we’re implementing these tools, it doesn’t go from, you know, the way we’re doing it. All of a sudden, everything is just smooth. It’s a process and, and automated, it’s not, it’s still a learning curve for all of us. It’s, it’s a lot of work of, of data uploading into these systems. So, I, I don’t wanna set expectations to, it will be far better than last year, but I think, you know, it’ll take us a couple cycles, budget cycles to really hone the system. Um, because one of the, one of the bigger benefits later on down the road, as, as we get better at using the tools, the department heads, and, and we figure it out, it’s,

2:10:39 it’s the transparency components of it where we can better push this information out to the finance committee who will be working with it, and to the general public to be able to, you know, through their web browsers, go in and, and look at this information and, and as it as it evolves. Um, but again, expect setting expectations. We are learning how to use the system ourself to build a budget, and then we’ll learn better, you know, how, how to better push that information out to the, to the public for the transparency component up. Great. Yeah, I would, if I could, if I could just add, yeah, I mean, I, you know, we just like to really ex ex express the appreciation of the cooperation of

2:11:25 the department heads, because it’s a, it’s a heavy lift, it’s a change, you know, it’s gonna require some, some work, but, uh, it sounds, you know, the payback will be, will be there. I firm firmly believe. So thank you for the collective work, you know? Yeah. We really appreciate it. So this being like the first step in a, in our budgeting Yep. Process, uh, getting these projections Yeah. And messaging to the department heads and, um, the analysis that will continue. So this is a great first step, and thank you for, um, presenting it.

2:12:00 Okay. Um,

2:12:06 okay. So we’re onto item agenda number six. Number oh, snow emergency. It’s that time of year. Wow. Okay.

2:12:19 Overnight parking band. I, um, uh, winter snow emergencies. Uh, So this is the same as prior years. Yeah. We had updated this at town meeting, right? Snow van. It was done a few, few years ago. Yeah. Yeah.

2:12:39 Okay. So, um, looking for a motion to suspend town of Marblehead Article five, section eight, known as the current all night parking van, and to implement in its place a snow emergency response to snow events on, on an as needed basis. Declared snow emergencies will prohibit on-street parking starting at midnight, the day of the anticipated snowstorm on Streete parking will be allowed the following morning, starting at 7:00 AM during a declared snow emergency. If the duration of any snow emergency is more than a day on streete, parking will be prohibited on each day of the snow emergency from midnight to 7:00 AM Any vehicles that violate the provisions of this motion are subject to the issuance of parking tickets and towing notification of a declared snow emergency shall be done through the town website code, red automated call system, town managed social media accounts, M H T V,

2:13:29 and other outlets the town has available. This vote is revocable upon the determination of the police chief, fire, chief Town Administrator, department of Public Works, or their designees that is negatively impacting public health and safety and safety. So, moved. Second. Any conversation? Okay. Um, all in favor?

2:13:52 Um, okay. I am

2:13:58 six. Okay. We have our, um, going next to appointments for our acting treasurer collector, uh, candy i n r. Really? And

2:14:11 I don’t know if you, So we have, yeah. So we have a, a temporary absence of the treasure collector. So the assistant treasure collector is picking up those duties. Um, so the treasurer collector comes back. Um, there are some legal requirements that, uh, has to be afforded to the treasure collector. So for, for Cammie to fill that role, you have to designate her as acting treasurer collector, which gives her the legal authorities to manage our accounts. Okay. Um, so I’ll ask for motion to appoint Cammie. I Nelli, acting treasurer collector for the town of Marblehead. Second. All in favor? Okay. Um,

2:14:59 and next, uh, is a request from, um, the Rotary Club of Marblehead Harbor, uh, regarding their 27th holiday pops reception concert the weekend of December 8th at Abbot Hall. It’s presented, um, before us, so I’ll ask for a motion to approve the request from the Rotary Club of Marblehead Harbor to use Abbot Hall for their annual holiday pops concert on the following days. All in accordance with the usual rules, regulations, fees, and receipts of the required certificate of insurance. Friday, December 8th, 2023, eight to 12:00 PM No. Yes. Okay. And, okay. 8:00 PM to 12:00 PM Saturday, December 9th, 2023, 4:00 PM to 11:00 PM Monday, December 11th. Uh, 2023, 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM

2:15:45 Madam Chair, which Friday? Would that be? Friday? Eight PMs? I think It’s 8:00 AM Okay. It threw me off. Okay. So they Decorate that morning. Okay. Yep. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. So, and the Concert Saturday night, and then Monday they clean up. Yeah, That, Yep, That threw me off too. Okay. So Friday, just thank you many times. Friday, December 8th, 2023, 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM Saturday, December 9th, 4:00 PM to 11:00 PM Monday, December the 11th, 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM Move. Um, all in favor. Okay. Great.

2:16:24 So, one day liquor license, um, simple request from the Brody Club of Mar, um, for the Marblehead Harbor Holiday Pops concert from six to 11. And, um, it’s, the letter is self-explanatory. I’ll ask for a motion to approve the request from Diane Barber Marble Marblehead Rotary Club for a one day liquor license at Abbott Hall on Saturday, December 9th, 2023 from 6:00 PM to 11:00 PM for the annual holiday pops concert, subject to the following conditions, delivery of and receipt by the licensing authority of the required fee, $50 delivery of and receipt by the licensing authority of proof. The alcohol will be purchased from an authorized source, proof that the applicant can receive proper delivery, proper, um, provide proper storage and disposal of all alcoholic beverages purchased, all in accordance with the requirements of general laws. Chapter 1 38,

2:17:10 liquor liability insurance. Alcohol will be purchased and delivered from North Shore Bartenders. No alcohol is allowed to remain on premises overnight. This does require a full vote, Ms. Singer, But actually, yeah. So we, um, if somebody could move the motion. Second. Second, Ms. Singer favor? Mr. Murray? In favor, Mr. Grader? In favor, Mr. Nay? In favor, Ms. Nunan In favor? Okay. Um, this is a, uh, request from, uh, Kate Doula, uh, who is, um, co-chair of the scholarship Drive. It’s, uh, October 15th. And, um, letter self-explanatory. I ask for a motion to approve the request from Kate doula co-chair scholarship drive to hold the annual Marblehead High School all sports booster door-to-door canvas on Sunday, October 15th, 2023 from 12 noon to approximately 3:00 PM

2:17:58 and, um, so moved. Second. Okay. All in favor? Okay. This Sunday. This Sunday. I know. Yeah. Look out for those, um, boosters. Uh, so motion, um, sorry. So this is, uh, an agreement. Um, this is a, uh, about a, this is a concerning a memorandum understanding. And, um, I’ll turn it over to our account administrator for some background on this. So this is for us to purchase SALT for, for the winter. Um, so the agreement is because we’re doing a statewide contract, we’re part of statewide contract through combines. So it’s a collective bidding process, uh, run by the state. Um, this is a unit price contract,

2:18:44 which just means when it’s bid out, um, it, it’s, um, it determines the price per ton that we’re gonna pay. It doesn’t dictate how much we’re going to use that, that’ll fluctuate, obviously, based on the weather. Uh, the good news on this is that prices are coming down. Last year’s rate was $71 and 95 cents a ton, and it’s gone down to $65 and 95 cents a ton. So that’s the good news. Now, the bad news is, you know, farmers Almanac, and everybody else is saying this is gonna be a whopper of a winter. So who knows? But, um, so this is, uh, approval for the, basically a contract or agreement. Uh, allow the, the chair to sign for us to purchase, uh, salt.

2:19:33 And this comes out of our snow budget, Snow and ice. So, uh, we budget about 28,000 in the line. We have 205,000 for the entire snow and ice budget. This is one component of it. If we have a really nasty winter and we have to spend oodles of money, this is the one account we are legally authorized to overspend, um, and catch up later. So,

2:20:01 Any questions? Um, we’ll ask for a motion to enter into a memorandum of understanding to utilize the statewide contract v e 8 1 19 road salt for the 2023 to 2024 season. And authorize the chair to sign on behalf of the board moved. Second. All in favor? Motion passes unanimously. Um, this is a, um, next we have Shellfish Constable, uh, who’s up for reappointment. It’s, um, uh, Dave Donahue. And, um, I’ll ask for a motion to reappoint Dave Donahue. David Donahue as shellfish constable with a term to expire in, um, this June 20, 24. Second. All in favor,

2:20:48 motion passes unanimously. Next we have, um, a, see this might is a letter of interest, right? Mm-hmm. Um, uh, we have a, some letters of interest. We have, um, a letter from Roger pe Pecho for the finance committee. We have a letter of interest from David Bitterman of for the Historical Commission. So these are in our packets. Um, take a look at them and, um, that’s great. I let the kind of continue on with our appointments here. Okay. And, um, that brings us to the Sierra Club request, I believe. Yeah. And, um, regarding an electric school bus fleet.

2:21:36 And I will again, just turn over to Mr. Keer to, uh, uh, for background and help us, um, summarize this, uh, request. So the Sierra Club is sort of organizing this effort is to get municipalities to lobby the governor to, to provide more funding for electrification of school buses. Um, and so, um, it would be more of a, just an advocacy if the board signs on it includes Marblehead on the list of, of, of communities advocating for this. Um, just a sort of a little background there, there is, there are grants that have been provided for purchasing of electric buses. Uh, the previous grant, um, there was a lot of interest. You know,

2:22:24 I get emails from different folks, Hey, there’s a grant for lec, you know, um, electric school buses, we couldn’t apply for it. It wasn’t a benefit to us because there was a num, a minimum number of school buses you needed to be purchasing to be eligible for the grant, which the number of school buses far greater than what Marblehead uses. Um, it is my understanding that there are other grant programs coming for the smaller districts like Marblehead. I think Marblehead utilizes four buses that’ll provide grant money for electric buses, for, for communities that don’t buy 20 buses at a time. Uh, so we, our hope is to, uh, take advantage of those opportunities. Um, you know, the school, the schools will, will obviously be the ones, uh,

2:23:11 applying. So this is just advocacy, asking the governor to put more funding into those grants to provide, to help municipalities have the means to purchase electric, uh, school buses. Does anybody have any, um, questions or, I have a quick question. Yeah. So, so what’s the, what’s kind of the math behind electric buses? Are they that much more expensive, or is it an infrastructure issue around, um, you know, how they, how it gets implemented? Yeah. I, I, I’m just curious. I mean, it’s seems to make eminent sense to have, you know, clean school buses. Uh, uh, But so in, in the electrification in general, um, which, which I’m an advocate of, uh, in the reason for all the grants and such is, yeah,

2:23:59 there are additional costs for purchasing. Your operational costs are different, are much less. Right now, there is, there is some infrastructure to be put in place for charging. Uh, so, so there’s, there’s a cost there, but the effort is by, uh, you know, the state government incentivizing school districts to, to, to invest in this increases the production, which lowers the unit price. And so eventually the costs will come down as you have volume, you know, scale up a volume. Uh, and, and, and that’ll be the benefit in the long run. So it’s the state investing in the purchasing, sort of priming the pump. Yeah. And that the marketplace will then, uh,

2:24:46 it’ll drive the prices down in Terms of acquisition costs. But operating costs seem to be a major factor, too. I mean, I wonder if there, is there like a payback on an electric bus relative to a combustion engine bus? I, you know, based on just the operating metrics? Yeah. I don’t own buses. Curious. I’m Just very close. I’m just curious. Well, I mean, it’d be great. I’d like to follow up On that, but I know it is just my own vehicle Yep. Which is electric. Yep. And I’ve had to fill the washer fluid, uh, and, and that’s about been my maintenance costs in two years. Right? And so, so we, you know, the, the electrification of vehicles, the number of moving parts is shrinking zero significantly. There’s no oil changes, filter changes, mufflers, uh, we talked about earlier, idling in ozone gases, that all goes away.

2:25:36 So there are, you know, all those, all those benefits. But the, the issue is, is as, as getting production to ramp up so that the unit costs come down. Makes sense. Yeah. Thank you. Um, okay. So, um, uh, I’d like to ask for a motion to sign onto a letter of support for statewide commitment to prioritize school bus electrification by 2035. And authorize the chair to sign on behalf of the board. No, move. Second. All in favor. Okay, great. So, uh, next on the agenda, I just wanted to, um, bring an update via, um, uh, you know, my role as our representative on the both the housing committees, uh,

2:26:24 regarding the coffin school, which has been identified as one of the, um, potential, uh, town assets to leverage for, um, in our housing production plan to leverage for, uh, some affordable housing and increase the diversity of, uh, housing choices in town beyond just single family homes. So, um, as a, you may recall at a one of our recent meetings, I provided an update on the school and it, and how it relates to that. And that came out of meeting discussions with our town planner, um, in our meetings where, um, we, uh, you know, it, I, and ideally we wanted to reach out and communicate to the schools and receive an update of whether or not, uh, they intend to turn the town, turn the property over the, uh, to town meeting this year, so that,

2:27:12 that would allow the town planner to submit, um, put out an, uh, request for information on potential uses for the property. And so, um, so since then, that last update, I’d emailed the chair of the school committee just explaining this and asking about a status update. And then, um, after that request, um, the school committee facilities committee discussed demolishing the building. And so, um, just in a second, second effort to reach out and, um, you know, request a status update, but communicate also, um, some information around that, uh, conversation around raising the building. I sent a letter, uh, outlining the work of our H P P I C, correcting some misinformation and assumptions about, um,

2:27:57 demolishing the building and just to provide a history of the Brown School Project for the sake of newer school committee members. Um, as I was intimately familiar with it, having been the co-chair for the campaign, I also just wanted to relay the background information, uh, to the school committee members during a transition of leadership, uh, where the prior superintendent would’ve served as that liaison role. And, um, filled in some of those gaps, uh, for the committee as he had also, um, participated and served on the housing production plan. So, um, I didn’t really, I didn’t receive a response to that letter, but it was, uh, discussed, uh, during the last Thursday school committee meeting. And at that meeting, as we all know, they voted three to two to not return the property to the town, uh, for some other uses. Um, so I just, uh, you know,

2:28:47 we have a lot of, uh, you know, we’re committed to addressing our lack of affordable housing in town, uh, and as a board and working with our committees to, to do that. So, um, the property was presenting an opportunity for new open space ideas and housing, um, you know, for marble head marble headers. As home prices continue to rise, uh, median home prices are a million dollars. So, um, that’s just the update on the property is that, you know, and the exploratory plans for potential other uses are on hold. And I think now we just can move forward, um, and continue to work to implement, I guess, our other priority strategies with regard to editing our housing options, um, to meet the needs of the housing needs of, uh,

2:29:33 various people at different life life stages and address the lack of affordable units. So I guess this is an opportunity to comment Madam Chair, if I can, if I can. Sure. Um, I think, you know, housing is, is kind of be determined mm-hmm. At the conference school. I think it’s something that still needs to be socialized. Yeah. Et cetera, et cetera. We, we’ve been, we’ve had this discussion, but I think there’s some more fundamental issues at stake here. And I think basically, you know, uh, the coffin site is not the school committees, it’s not the select boards asset. It belongs to the taxpayers and residents of the town. Okay. Now, as such, the select board is the senior board that is entrusted to determine the

2:30:19 disposition of taxpayer assets and property. Okay. I think it’s, I think it’s very important to, you know, to articulate that. And the reason is, is that the select board has a well-oiled process to, uh, figure out and socialize what the use is around particular assets. So we formed committees and bodies of experts to help us understand that. So the select board, when it comes to the disposition of assets, really is the lead board in town to do that. And has been historically, I’d like, you know, us to explore statutory, uh, you know, reasons for that to be the case. Okay. Um, I think there’s also, um, an argument to say that the timing is right for the school committee to make a

2:31:08 decision, because it doesn’t look likely that the school will ever, you know, that the conference site will ever be used for a school again. Okay. And there’s a couple reasons right now for that. You know, the fire and police have condemned the, the building, um, you know, the, uh, it’s unlikely that the coffin that the, that the site is going to be available for state school building for the state school assistant building program, you know, given that the schools and the town have agreed on the implementation of the entire school asset base. Right. So, it’s unlikely that we’re gonna get any help from the state to resurrect that site as a school. And it’s really unlikely that we’re gonna get a debt override exclusion to make the coffin into a school. So I’m gonna argue as well, and I’ve done a little of my own research on this,

2:31:57 but I need to have this confirmed. And so this is really just a discussion point that we’re in a non-conforming use situation as concerns. The, the zoning, uh, bylaws and the zoning bylaws are very specific. If you don’t use something for two years and you haven’t reestablished its use, then you’re in a non-conforming use situation. You know, so for these two reasons, you know, number one, it’s never gonna be a school again, and not, and number two, it’s an, it’s currently in a non-conforming use in the bylaws. I think that’s a very significant basic argument, you know, that the schools just don’t have jurisdiction over this anymore. Now we don’t know what we can do. We just hope that the schools will follow their own policies and guidelines when it comes to the disposition of schools,

2:32:43 and they go ahead and make the decision to, you know, pass that site onto the select board. I think that’s, and Madam Jerry and I suggest that we, you know, we, we explore how we can expedite this and, and really, you know, I think, you know, when you role as chair, you know, communicate with the school committee to get them to, to understand that this is our position, and, you know, I would, I would strongly encourage that we take a much more basic approach to this, in that it is the select board’s authority to really address the disposition of assets in the town. Yeah. Madam Chair, I, I, I would agree. I, I think at this point we need legal counsel to give us advice, you know, for all the items. I think That’s correct. Yeah. I mean, just to put things a little bit in perspective, I mean, you know,

2:33:30 we’re playing as Simon Sek likes to say, the infinite game. Okay. And part of that is we’re trustees, meaning we’re here temporary. So we aren’t just elected officials, but we’re trustees of certain businesses, certain buildings, certain operations. And if that trusteeship is not, if that building is not going to be used for a school purpose, the only way to change that purpose, as Mr. Grader said, is to now put it over to us so the community and the town can now vote, have a word, and say, so, um, you, you know, so I think from a, a trustee, from a stewardship, from a fiduciary duty, I agree. I I hate to do that. But I, I would agree that we have to go to legal counsel to get their advice of what our options Are. I just hope, and I didn’t mention this, but I hope that we don’t Yeah. Have to spend more money on legal counsel, uh,

2:34:18 both on the school side and the town side to resolve an issue that is, it has, is imminently commonsensical from a trustee point of view as you, as you say. So,

2:34:31 Okay. Great points. Okay. So, um, I don’t know that we, um, need a motion, but I guess, um, I, I agree that, you know, we can, it’s implied that if we could reach out to the town planner around the use, nonconforming use that Moses had raised up, and, and, and check in on that. And Appreciate your effort in this matter. Chair. Yeah. Thank you Very much. Okay. That brings us to, um, public comment. Thank you. So, um, if there’s anyone present in the audience that would like to make, um, public comment at this time, just please, um, you know, I don’t, you, you wanna wear the microphone, and then again, if you’re, I,

2:35:16 I know we have some audience on online, if there’s anybody in the audience who would like to make, uh, a comment as well, just raise your hand and Kyle can, um, Kyle Wiley, our, uh, administrative assistant can let us know. Okay. So, um, Mr. Albert, and again, sorry, I, I mean, I’m aware. No, no, I, so just state, state your name. You saw me said state your name, um, please. Albert Jordan Roosevelt, um, McLaughin School. I questioned a bunch of people around it, about it for several years now. It’s too bad when the school, they went to the brown school that we didn’t know. Then once that opened, they should have been disposed of. It sat there. I think I read in the paper the fire department’s been up there 20 or 30 times since it’s been closed. Uh, the police department,

2:36:01 there’s been vandalism up there. It’s costing money. Thousands of dollars to keep that building vacant. They have to cut the grass and maintain it to some extent. Animals water, a lot of water damage in there. It’s just yet, uh, it’s a fire trap. Eventually you could have a bad fire up there when someone could get hurt. Um, so I, I, I think you should ask your town council, um, you know, if the school committee doesn’t wanna move, um, now they’re talk, you know, I read in the paper too, they talked about tearing it down. That has a lot of asbestos in it. I went there. Um, so that’s gonna cost a lot of money. I don’t know where they have the money for that. And I’m certainly not gonna be voting for no override if that coffin school is still sitting there. Is it Right, Jason, that I read in the paper, the gas service has been shut off. So the water’s been shut off now,

2:36:49 so there’s no fire sprinkler anymore. So I didn’t even know they would allow that to be done. Uh, ‘cause when I worked for the two school, uh, water department, they let the Gary School stay vacant several years, and the water pipes broke several times during the winters there and did a lot of damage to the building. Thank God they found someone to buy it afterwards. But you can’t leave buildings empty. The longer you leave them empty, the more it’s gonna cost you on liability. And, um, like I say, it can affect the whole neighborhood with animals getting in there, kids getting in there, vandalism. And like I say, if, if, if some type of fire got going in there, um, you know, you’re putting lives that don’t need to be, uh,

2:37:35 risking any life. So I hope if it does catch on fire, no one bothers to go in there, just let it burn down on the ground. Maybe we’ll save some money, but, but it’s not just up to the school committee to let this stuff sit, sit, sit, um, for years. Um, you know, we need to know what’s going on before the next town meeting, and we can just get a petition ourselves, 10 signatures for regular town beat and I’ll get a citizen’s, and, you know, we shouldn’t have to spend a lot of money to discuss this. So I hope we don’t have to go to town meeting and bore them of me coming up there speaking about it. ‘cause it’s just common sense. It should have been dealt with months ago. Thank you. Thank you.

2:38:19 Okay, great. Um, so, uh, town administrator updates. Sure. Uh, a couple things to update on. One, uh, one matter, as you know, we, uh, in regard to the Gallo disciplinary hearing that was held a few months ago. Um, and, um, I received the briefs from each of the attorneys representing in one case of the town, in the other case, the, the, the officer. Um, and then I set a deadline in order to provide, based on, uh, the responses, all the testimony and all the, all the information provided to make a determination and recommendation to this board. Um, I’m just, I’ve informed the, the two attorneys that,

2:39:08 um, I’m extending my, my, my self-imposed deadline. Uh, I’m extending out to December 1st, uh, looking at the calendar of, you know, travel schedules and, and meeting schedules. Um, what I’m trying to hit is that once I complete this task and provide the determination to the board, I wanna make sure the board is ready, that we will, I will ask that you schedule a special meeting of the board to take up, uh, the matter. So, so again, looking at the calendars and such to, to, to make all that happen at, at a certain sequence. So it’s more time for me. Uh, I don’t write these type of documents on a daily basis. So it’s taking a,

2:39:55 a level of effort and there’s just a lot of material to work with, as well as timing it so that when I drop it on the desk, on the table, uh, this board is, is ready to go to, to do the follow-up action. So, again, I’ve informed both attorneys that, uh, my, my, my deadline to, to, to complete this task. I moved it to December 1st, so standby on that. Um, secondly, the, um, just an update on, on positions, uh, that, that we’re trying to fill. So, um, we have posted, um, and, and you know, the, it’ll be out on the ads. We have it posted locally in, in the ad. So we have the sustainability coordinated position posted. Again,

2:40:40 that was funded through the budget group by town meeting, um, to hire, uh, uh, a knowledgeable person to help us on, uh, improving our efficiencies, our, uh, for our facilities and such lower carbon footprint, uh, to implement the net zero plan that, that the, the green community had worked on and, and had been accepted by this board. So that’s advertised, um, the opera coordinator position. So this is a position that’s, um, advocated by, by, by arpa, uh, the federal government to, to, to utilize ARPA funds for. So there was a long range recovery plan that was developed to help, um,

2:41:25 mainly the business sector to come out of the, the impact of covid, uh, and to, uh, have a coordinator to help implement that plan. As well as, um, that position will assist. There is an incredible amount of reporting requirements. So every dollar that we spend on ARPA funds, um, there’s, there’s a significant amount of reporting. And any entity that has received those ARPA funds are expected to provide reporting back to us. Reporting goes to the C F O, and we have to report to the feds, uh, the utilization, all these funds. So this, this individual would help organize and coordinate all that effort. And finally, the other role of this person is, as we all know,

2:42:13 our town planner, longtime town planner, who is more than just the town planner, is leaving at the end of February. And part of the choices we had to make in balancing the budget for this year is that position’s not funded from, uh, March 1st until the end of that fiscal year. So, so we’re not, we wouldn’t be able to hire a new planner until July 1st. This position is gonna help us plug that hole for those three months that, um, you know, sort of backfill, uh, that role. So, so that’s the, the function, excuse me, uh, HR director. We have interviews scheduled, and I am so pleased.

2:42:59 Um, so, uh, hopefully, uh, I’ll be coming back soon with, uh, announcements about that position. And finally, uh, we’re re-advertising the building Commissioner position. Uh, it is a tough market out there. There are, it, it is tough finding a sufficient pool of applicants, uh, for that position. So we’ll keep pushing that out. So unless you have any questions, I’m gonna have some water ‘cause I’m choking. Right. What’s happening? Huh? We’re wondering what’s happening. Yeah, no, I’m just, um, getting whatever allergy attack or whatever’s coming at me. Yeah. So, um, I just, I know there’s been a lot of, um,

2:43:46 I interest and, and concern around the, um, the, the length of the process, um, with regard to the gala matter. And I just wanted to, um, kind of have another opportunity to explain that process. And I mean, we know that we went through a transitional period and there, then there was the hearing itself, and then there was quite a delay. My understanding is in the transcription services or, or there was a problem with the transcript. Is that right? Yeah. So it, it goes back further. So as, as part of this process of the actions, so there was a turnover in town administrators. Yeah. I came on, then we had turnover in legal counsel that advising us. And,

2:44:32 and then we were able to schedule the hearings and, and, you know, uh, do that schedule. And then, uh, we held two days of hearings. They were a few weeks apart. And then as part of the process, the attorneys for each side were to provide me as the hearing officer, their briefs. Um, they had twice asked for extensions. Uh, and, and, and one of the major issues was, uh, that there was, you know, the recordings that were were done of getting them transcribed and for various reasons that was, um, a challenge. So, um, I ultimately set a final deadline, you know, transcripts, no transcripts. This is the deadline. So both, both attorneys provided, uh,

2:45:19 the brief at that time. I initially given myself 30 days to, to, to, to draft up the response, which would’ve been last Friday. This past Friday. Um, and so the reality is, you know, I have my own, uh, crunch to, to, to, to do that, uh, with all the information. So as I just explained, extending that out, the, the key, you know, as far as what’s, what’s important in this process is that the, the process is done correctly. So it’s, it’s more important that I get what I have to do, right? That, that the process was fair and done right. That’s more important than how long it’s takes us to get through the end, right?

2:46:06 It’s, it’s having the right justice provided. Um, you know, at some point it’ll be, the process will be completed, a determination made. Um, we wanna make sure that that’s done right, proper and defendable, um, for, you know, any future challenges as to, uh, as to the whole process. So That’s what was doing. Thank you. I just wanted to put, be able to Yeah. Um, have to give you the opportunity to, to do, to say that again as I, I is a lived experience for me as an attorney, and I have clients that are, um, you know, it’s very frustrating to understand like the wheels and, and like the wheels of, um, wheels adjust the wheel wheel of the legal system. Yeah. Justice is, it was elusive, but the wheels of the legal system do grind slow. The process can be, um,

2:46:55 really frustrating for those. I mean, I’m, I’m dealing with the case I accepted in October. It took four weeks to assemble the transcripts and there was multiple council requests for extensions because of demands on schedules. And so it is, um, something that, uh, you know, I know that you had carved out time for it and the operational day-to-day needs of, um, of the, of the job as town administrator are, uh, extensive and, and and demanding. And so, you know, I I I I take your, I take your point. I wanna emphasize too that it is taking all that into consideration. This is something that we want to, um, make sure is done thoughtfully. Uh, you have, uh, the, the time and, um, uh, and space to, to, to focus on it and, uh, and,

2:47:43 and do it correctly in the best to your ability in the first instance, because it will obviously, um, there’s a cost to that process, you know, being rushed for us.

2:47:57 Thank you. Um, just one other thing, anybody else has anything? Just one other thing about the, um, transition planning around, ‘cause you mentioned, um, the town planner leaving, and I know we, um, maybe have some other folks leaving. Uh, uh, I just, I, I kind of just want us to make sure that that’s something we, uh, continue to talk about and develop a plan. I mean, it’s, it’s October, but, uh, ‘cause I know that obviously Becky wears many hats and attends the meetings at the Conservation commission. She’s, um, with the planning board, the zoning board of appeals. So, uh, the idea is that she will have overlap with, um, with this other person who is going to be, uh, sitting in, I guess,

2:48:42 while she leaves in a temporary position. Right. And, uh, so I just, uh, you know, I still, I still want, I wanna make sure that we really, um, focus on that and thinking about some, some type of like, uh, planning around that. ‘cause between, um, Hudson turnover turning over with the building commissioner and difficulty filling that role. And then, um, potentially some other, you know, retirements coming up, up.

2:49:10 Does anybody else anything? Okay, go ahead. Question. I, I’m sorry I missed the last meeting two weeks ago. Did we mention Arnold and Alexander? Okay. We we’re writing a letter to his family. Yeah. Yes, so far. Great. Thank you. Um, okay. And so we have select board announcements.

2:49:33 Did share anything? I know it’s late. I just wanted to, just came to my attention. Helene Hayslett had, uh, notified, uh, me that, of that, uh, ministerial association and a d l combined event on Sunday at four 30. She had also, uh, asked me if our, uh, if, if we invited us to attend and, uh, say some remarks, uh, as well, either individually or on behalf of the board. So I, you know, I’m happy to, um, if we wanna maybe a couple people work on something and then we could share, you know, kind of share it around if we wanted to, you know, make a collective kind of remark at the event. Uh, or, or if people wanna, What, what day is this?

2:50:18 You know, you had a, um, this is Sunday at four 30 This Sunday. Okay. Yeah. So she’d asked, um, us to prepare some remarks.

2:50:28 So I guess I’m just wanted to see how, uh, member other, uh, how the members of the board felt about that. And I, I guess I can, uh, coming to mind. I, I’m happy to kind of draft something and then we can kick it around. This isn’t something that would be subject to open meeting lots, not something that would be coming before us as a, in a deciding way. Uh, so, or if others are interested in taking the lead on that, that’d be great too. But I, I, I’m just opening it up for suggestions. Yeah. You and Mr. Gray are, are Gabe. Yeah, we can work together. We, The one of you two I’d be happy with. So it’s between you two my mind. Well, I mean, uh, Madam Chair, that’s, that’s your prerogative. If you’d like to, you know, be, be front on that. Yes. It’d be great. Do, well, do you have the, I mean, it’s, so it’s short notice,

2:51:13 so I just want, do you have time to like, um, we can work to like, Let me look at my schedule. I’ll talk to you. Okay. So, um, you know, hopefully we can collaborate and then I can share it out and, um, get feedback and, No, I think go from there. Think I, I think that’s right. Okay. I, I think we need to Sound good. All right. Proceed. Right. That’s all for me. Motion to adjourn. Second. Okay. All in favor.