Select Board: February 26, 2025

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 That’s better. Better? Okay. Okay. Good evening everyone. It is Wednesday, um, February 26th. It’s seven 15. I’m gonna call our meeting to order. Now. We are having just come out of an executive session, and the board would like to make a statement on, uh, the officer, uh, Gallo disciplinary matter. Um, on behalf of the board, after careful consideration, we have decided not to pursue an appeal in the matter of Officer Gallo. The select board would like to express its unwavering support for police Chief Dennis King in the disciplinary action. In taken in this matter. As public officials entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring the safety and wellbeing of our community, we stand behind the Chief’s decision to uphold the integrity

0:46 of our police force and to maintain the highest standards of conduct among our officers. The civil service disciplinary process is extensive and highly structured. We stand by the process itself and believe it was a fair and thorough one Board’s decision to adopt the findings and recommendations of the hearing officer was not made lightly, but with the understanding that accountability is a cornerstone of effective law enforcement and essential for maintaining the public trust. While we may not agree with the outcome, we respect the process and the arbitrator’s ruling, and we are committed to moving forward in the best interest of all parties involved.

1:24 Okay. Um, first on our agenda is, I believe public comment. Anybody has any public comment they would like to make? Mr. Jordan, Albert Jordan Roosevelt Avenue. Um, we took the police chief outta civil service years ago. I don’t know how it was accomplished. I know we went to town meeting, I believe. Um, I think we need to look at the police department itself. Swampscott is pulled out of the Civil service. Um, nothing against any of the police officers and Marblehead, most of ‘em do a great job. Um, but, uh, when I was working for the state, I’d get calls out at night to go do a call and come back several hours later, late at night

2:09 and see police cars parked in the same spot for several hours. I, I think we need GPS on the police cars in Marblehead, like the state police has done. And, um, I think we really gotta look at civil service. We spent a half a million dollars here. No matter who was right or wrong. We’re gonna abide by the arbitration, put the guy back to work, that’s great, but we need to take control of the situation. There’s other situations that have happened recent with other police officers that have gone through the academy. We can’t keep throwing away a half million dollars here. We’ve gotta control this in Marblehead. We can’t wait years for this to happen. Um, and it’s, you know, it’s gonna happen again, and it’s gonna happen more frequent. I see it every day in other towns around, um,

2:56 around Massachusetts and others just read the local papers. Um, you know, so I really hope that the selectmen, I don’t know who was able to take the police chief when Picarillo had an issue years ago and take him outta civil service. So it can be done. It was done as swamps get, um, we still can get good candidates. There’s a lot of people that wanna apply for these jobs to, well, well, paying jobs might not be as easy as in the past, but we will be, we’ll still be able to get qualified people. Thank you. Thank you for your comment. Um, is there anybody online that would like to make a comment? I don’t see any hands. Okay. Seeing no hands raised and nobody in the audience, we will proceed to our Town Administrator updates. Thank you, Madam Chair.

3:41 Um, a number of items to, to update the board on. Uh, first of all, chief King is to receive an award, uh, coming soon. Um, congrat, the a DL has chosen Chief King to receive the ex Essex County Law Enforcement Community Leadership Award at this year’s North Shore, A DL Law and Education Day Breakfast, which will be May 14th, encourage everyone to, to attend, um, the Ward. The award recognizes the chief’s commitment to working with the A DL, the fight against Hate. Chief King is being recognized along with Swamp Scott, chief Ada, I say it right. Um, both chiefs are active working with the A DL North Shore Advisory Group on antisemitism

4:27 and Marblehead and Swamp Scott, to include providing training at Temple Emmanuel to about 50 Temple staff on threat assessment and security. So again, the, the award ceremony be at the Curwood Country Club is over 300 attendees and supporters from across New England, um, that attend this event. So, congratulations, chief. Um, speaking of police, there are still a few slots left for the 10th Citizen Police Academy, uh, which is on Friday mornings at 9:00 AM starting on March, March 14th. So if anybody’s interested, go to the, uh, on the town website or in person at the Council on Aging, or the Marblehead Lease Department. And like I said, there’s only, I think only a few seats left.

5:14 Um, I don’t know if I updated it before, but we had applied for the time, applied for, uh, $130,000 grant to update the Marblehead Comprehensive plan. This is a comprehensive planning documents, a land use document. All communities are required to have an updated plan in order to be eligible for certain grants and programs with the state. Uh, marble, marble Head’s plan has, has expired. We applied last fall, but we were given notice that we were not eligible for the grant because we were not in compliance with the, uh, MBTA zoning, um, at the beginning of the year because of the Milton decision.

5:59 Uh, we are currently back into compliance. We have filed, um, the, the, our report that we had to file that makes us interim compliant. So, congratulations. We’ve been awarded $130,000 grant in order to go forward to redevelop the, um, the MAs, the comprehensive master plan for the community. So, um, just want to emphasize the importance, um, of having access to these grants to be able to do these critical, um, critical efforts for the town. Um, if we become non-compliant, we would be ineligible for the Housing Choice Initiative. The local Capital projects fund, the Mass Works infrastructure programs, and, um, um, MBTA Communities Catalyst Fund,

6:48 which is a new fund the state recently announced, as well as, um, become less competitive for, um, the, the competitive other competitive grants. So, um, as of right now, we’re on the right, right place. Uh, next I I’ve given updates in regard to some of the work at Mary Alley in the pending rug replacement project. Uh, the week of March 10th is the week that’s scheduled for the contractor to come in. What’s important for, uh, and this is gonna be terrific for the employees and the residents coming in, it’s gonna be, you know, a a, a new fresh look throughout, uh, Mary Alley. Um, um, it’s pretty much looked like the hospital that it was, uh, many years ago in a lot of ways.

7:36 Um, what’s important for the public to know is that during that week, there will be interruptions. Uh, we’ll have to, so they’ll do the hallways first. Um, and there’s reasons for laying rugs as to why they do the hallways. First, they’ll cover the, the new carpets, and then they’ll do all the office space. So under the, under the contract, the employees are gonna be responsible for cleaning up all the materials that are on the desk cabinets and such. But as part of the rug contract, movers are gonna come in and move the furniture out when they put the rugs down in the opera space and move everything back. And as I reported, we’ve been doing some reconfigurations and some construction inside the building to make it, uh,

8:23 a more, um, useful workspace. And we’ve cleaned out a ton of documents that have been stacking up, either getting rid of them according to the Records Retention Act, shipping them down to the Everly, where we’ve created a, a document storage and a whole bunch are being boxed up and being shipped out to the company that we’ve just contracted to start digitizing all of the documents. So it’s allowed us to create some new space. And again, the reason for the RUG project, what initiated was first we had the break in to the offices in which somebody went through and did extensive amount of damage. And that was followed by a water break. Yeah. That flooded another part of the office.

9:09 So, um, for those reasons, uh, a chunk of this project is being paid for by insurance proceeds, and we used DARPA funds to supplement the work, rather than doing 60% of the rugs, we supplemented to do a hundred percent, uh, on that level. Um, but anyways, we will be interruptions on the, on that week, we’ll make announcements as to what areas, um, you know, what departments will be, will be interrupted as that work goes on. Um, and finally, um, the town website update. Um, you know, I announced a great fanfare at the state of the town rolled out that we’re rolling out the new website. We rolled it out. Um, but what we discovered was there were just still, uh,

9:56 there were too many broken links and information not loaded into the system. So we rolled it back to the original Civic Plus, uh, website. The, the, the site that’s been there all along. Um, our CFO and IT person are working closely with the vendor. Um, frankly, it was a matter of, they had a personnel go on paternity leave and nobody picked up the project, so things didn’t get done. So we’re working directly with the vendor, uh, to push through to get site up to what we had expected per the contract. Um, we will definitely go through and do a QA check before we turn it back on, but that’s the reason why, um, we’ve gone back

10:44 to the Civic Plus site so that the information that was there is there. And we hope to be able to have, uh, the new website up and running as soon as the vendor can meet all of our requirements. So that, with that pending any questions concludes my report. Any questions? Nope. Okay. Um, and we had, um, an interview and an appointment scheduled for Conservation Commission and a letter of interest from Mr. Jean record. Um, and I think he wanted to further, uh, communicate with the commissioner chair. So we’ll postpone that, uh, interview for now. So we have an opportunity to talk with the, the chair of the Conservation Commission.

11:30 Um, and we next have, um, here we go. Yes. Uh, the bell ringing, uh, from a request from, sorry, Judy Anderson.

11:50 Don’t have a motion here. I, Well, Judy’s here. Oh, sorry. Um, would you like to come up? Yeah, sure. Someone was in front of me. I was motion. Hi. Hi. Okay. There’s no motion. Okay, that’s fine. This is just a, a point of information because Les, two weeks ago, you all kindly approved Okay. A bell ringing. Yes. Including Abbott Hall and lots and lots of, um, hopefully all we don’t know of the places of worship in town, were ringing bells at 11 o’clock, and I thought I should come in case people had not heard that announcement or didn’t read it in the paper to say why that happened. Just briefly. And that was because, um, last weekend, February 26th actually, which is,

12:38 what is that today? Mm-hmm. Um, 250 years ago, um, the American Revolution, shooting war almost started in April. It could have, it could easily have started here, um, or in con or in, um, Salem, just in the same scenario that it did in Lexington and Concord. As the British troops marched through Lexington on their way to Concord to seize weapons that they had heard were cannon that were being stored beyond, um, con Concords North Bridge, they encountered the militia in Lexington shooting happened, people died, and seven years later, the war ended. So it was a, it was a tough time could have happened in Marblehead so easily where the British landed in Marblehead by sea.

13:24 You know, you had the Paul Revere one if by land two of two of by land one, one if by land, two if by fee. Um, they landed by sea here. And that I think is relevant for April and Ev everybody in the country, in, in Massachusetts anyway, is gonna be celebrating that milestone in two months. But it could have happened here, and it didn’t because of negotiation, because of respectful communication, because of striking a compromise, um, among the officials in charge, and there were 240 troops withdrawn, bayonets, it could have ended so differently. Mm-hmm. So I think that was a really important near miss that we avoided. And, um, there were good reasons that it was avoided. Several of the ministers in the churches gave sermons along

14:09 those lines, and that’s why we had the bell ringing, was to celebrate that because they did ring bells in alarm because it was a Sunday when they marched through. And that was because everybody would be in church and not on the roads. It wouldn’t be tripping over any 240 troops. And it worked in our, in the rebel’s favor and worked in our town’s favor that everybody was in church. And so the announcement could be made. The regulars are on the march, so cooler heads prevailed, and the war didn’t happen tomorrow at the Mus Marblehead Museum. A wonderful speaker is going to, giving a talk about that. It’s sold out in person, but there’s plenty of room on Zoom. So I really encourage anybody who’s remotely interested in the revolution or Marblehead history, um, to tune in to that sign up today or tomorrow.

14:55 It’s tomorrow night on Zoom. Um, the scholar, the historian will be busting some myths because Marblehead in the 18 hundreds played up its role in the, in the event things that didn’t really happen. So, but they’re in Rhodes history as fact, because it was a little bit of, of hearsay and oral history that actually turns out not to have been true, but they didn’t know that at the time. So, fair enough to Samuel Rhodes, I’ll be giving a program again on, um, April 27th on Sunday afternoon, Sunday noon at Old North Church, about the people involved, who were these people. And tomorrow night at the museum, uh, the historian will be talking about the event itself. And it all, it involve, well, it involves four stolen brass cannon,

15:42 and it’ll be fascinating. So I hope everybody tunes in and, um, I hope people will come to my talk then on Sunday, the April 27th, which is a week after the Concord and Lexington time to remind people this could have happened in Marblehead. And I’ll be talking about who’s who and you know, who they were and how it came to be and where did they land in Marblehead, and having some walking tours about that also. So thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you so much for fascinating elaborating on that historical background, and yeah. And it sounds like a good response to your event tomorrow night. Yes. The museums has a great response and, um, that historian is super. So everybody sign up. Yeah. All you, Judy, Thank you very much. Thank you, Judy. And stay tuned for the Revolution two 50 committees activities through the next year or two, especially. That’s when Marblehead was mostly involved,

16:28 and then they were out at Privateering at Sea. And that, that’s hard too, but I mean, that was brutal. Yeah. So thanks. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Um, we have a letter from the Historical Commission just notifying us. Um, you know, you, you’ve, as it appears in, in the, in the packets that they have, uh, made the decision to donate the, um, world War II machine gun that was found in the collection. I think there was an article in the paper, right?

17:01 Oh, okay. Sorry. Um, and I think, uh, so, um, they’re gonna be donating it to Springfield Armory of Massachusetts for their collection. And, uh, so I guess we could, uh, why don’t we have a motion in support of this action from the Historical Commission to donate the weapon, the World War II Machine Gun to the Springfield Armory for their collection. So Motion Second. All in favor. Okay. And that brings us to the consent agenda items. Um, I’ll Need a motion to accept the following consent agenda items, except those placed on hold, if there are the minutes of February 5th, 2025, to declare the following items

17:50 as surplus and no longer needed for municipal purposes. So they may be disposed of in accordance with our policy. Pitney Bowes NPR one Postal Machine, the metal banquet table, office chair, small rolling cart at public library items that are in our packet. Also, the Marblehead Festival of Arts. Uh, permission to use the following venues for Marblehead Festival of Arts July 4th, events in June and July, subject to approval from police, fire, rec and park fees and receipt of the Cerate certificate of insurance and required tent permits, um, for se, is to remain open to the public at all times, required police details. No permanent marking shall be made on the streets, and any temporary markings will be removed at the conclusion of any events. Coordination and approval from the select board will for all times, um, is needed.

18:35 Uh, also First Look, event Festival of Cod and Whale Exhibit Auction on Friday, May 30th, 2025 from five to 7:00 PM Champagne Fort Sewell set up event and cleanup. Um, on June 28th, 29th, and the 30th, the Abbott Hall use of Abbott Hall for Awards Night, Wednesday, July 2nd, 2025, six to 8:00 PM Abbott Hall in the old townhouse for the Artisans Market Exhibits and Log Store, street Festival, Washington Park, uh, street on Friday, July 4th, 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM And, um, museum, uh, uh, the, um, the Festival of Arts Road race, five at 10 K, um, on Saturday, July 5th, 2025.

19:25 The most Second. All in favor. Okay. The consent agenda. Now, um, this, we, the, um, home rule petition has come back from, uh, the House legal counsel with some suggestions there as they appear in your packet. And I just need a motion to approve the edited draft, uh, on advice of Office of House counsel to the Home Rule petition filed by the town regarding increasing the membership of the Board of Health.

19:57 Move second. All in favor? Okay.

20:04 And we have, uh, one day liquor license for the Festival of Arts, uh, marble Head Arts Association in Temple Sinai. I need a motion to approve the request for a one day liquor license from the following Marblehead Festival of Arts, Sunday, June 29th, 2025, at Fort s Sewell, 4:30 PM to 7:30 PM Marblehead Festival of Arts, Friday, May 30th, 2025 at Abott Hall, 4:30 PM to 8:30 PM Manna Project at the North Shore Temple Sinai, Saturday, March 22nd, 2025 at One Community Road from 6:00 PM to 11:59 PM And then the Marblehead Arts Associations nine requests. The dates listed in the packet here and the times accordingly, subject to the following conditions, delivery of and receipt by the licensing authority

20:50 of the required fee, $50 delivery of and receipt by the licensing authority of proof that the alcohols we purchased from an authorized source, proof that the applicant can receive proper delivery prop, provide proper storage and disposal of all alcoholic beverages purchased. All in accordance with the requirements of general laws. Chapter 1 38, liquor liability insurance for all events held on town properties, alcohol is not allowed to be left unattended or stored on town premises overnight. This is would be a poll vote. So moved. Second. All in favor? A Roll call. Oh, sorry. Yeah. Every time. The box in favor, Ms. Singer. In favor, Ms. Murray In favor, Ms. Noon In favor. It’s the most fun part of the night for me. I know. Okay, so next in our packet, the, um,

21:39 uh, MAPC is, uh,

21:43 collecting signatures and a campaign in favor of extending, uh, the hybrid meetings permanently through open meeting law. It will go before the state legislature, and, um, they have requested, you know, people to sign on to the petition as you can read it in the packet. And, um, in hopes that it would, you know, that we can get a permanent extension via, um, open meeting law to continue on as, uh, it certainly has increased civic participation in government. And this is anything else you wanna, This is, um, so if you approve it, there’s no letter we send in or format, that’s why it’s not on our letterhead like we usually do. The chair would log, go in onto the website

22:29 and electronically sign in on behalf and add, add the her and the town’s name to the list. Okay. So, um, so motion second. All in favor. Okay.

22:50 And, um, now we just need a motion to post the warrant as it appears I formally posting the warrant, um, which has go to print.

23:09 So you want me, Yeah, do you wanna Walk you through, Walk us through, I mean, are we going through every article? I feel like we’ve reviewed this. There are 52 articles in total. Um, the articles up front are your standard articles that are at every town meeting, um, all the way through. I don’t know what number, um, uh, article 22 are all of your standard, typical, uh, um, warrant articles. And Article 22 is the budget, the Tom budget. There’s, um, there articles in there, there for each of the collective bargaining units. We’re still in negotiations, so we still have to settle, but there, uh, spots in the, in the Warren article to, to take those matters up.

23:56 Um, so one through 22 are your standard business for the town. Um, 23 is the so-called, uh, M-B-T-A-P-A, the late district. Um, it’s the same language as last year. It’s gonna be a public hearing at the planning board. March 11th is the date. So that language is in here. Again, it, it’ll be the, the same language as per year. Article 24 following that will be an article on, um, another zoning bylaw change for accessory dwelling units. So Marblehead Head Town meeting cast, uh, by bylaw addressing ADUs. This is the secondary residential units on, on, on,

24:46 on single family properties. Um, subsequent to the town meeting action last year, the state legislature passed an A DU law. And this, uh, article at town meeting is to make changes to the bylaw to be consistent with the state law. So it’s, it’s mostly, um, a adjust making adjustments to not be in conflict with the state. Um, and then the following, uh, article number,

25:22 ‘cause this goes on a number of pages and, and there’ll be presentations to summarize the detail of these contents. Um, article 25 is, um, uh, updating the flood plain maps so that, um, all residents that fall into a floodplain qualify for insurances and, and such. So, um, those three articles make almost half the paper here. Mm-hmm. Um, and, um, you know, again, each one will have, uh, uh, a three presentation to explain what exactly is being done. Um, from that point, we have some, uh, financial articles, prudent investor, which will give our treasurer’s office

26:09 more flexibility in investments, hopefully, um, better returns, uh, transfer of stabilization funds. Uh, article 28 is to, uh, uh, send to the general court or the legislature request to allow for, uh, um, establish a means tested senior citizen property tax exemption. So, um, there’s, there’s a number of these. Uh, the, the next, following our adjustments to exemptions, tax exemptions, and I, we’ve spoken about this to give seniors and others who qualify for exemptions, bigger exemptions, uh, uh, the max exemptions that we can under the law. There is the article three, the, the coffin school reuse.

26:55 So the school committee has voted to release back, back, um, it needs town meeting to complete the transaction, to put coffin school in the hands of the select board to determine, uh, what next to do to that property. We have a transfer of Gary School playground, which is being, uh, um, done over into, into, uh, a nice park. Um, article 33 is a Mary Alley building, HVAC system request. Um, the, the 1950s system in the building is on its last leg, and that affects us both in the winter for heat in the summer for cooling. Uh, there’s way too many air con window air conditioners in the summer, and, um, too many, um, plugin, um,

27:44 heaters in the winter, uh, to keep the employees comfortable. So we’re looking to, uh, put that on. Sorry. Have we gone out to bid on that? No. So we’re getting, we, we have a, we have a contract that, that is doing the assessment to give us the price, the scope, and the price of the project. So before town meeting, we’ll have, we’ll have all those details in place, um, followed by the school roof and HVAC system project that’s been talked about. Um, article 35, it, it says appropriation of article 11th of May second, 2022, which sounds confusing, uh, in that article was, um, language regarding the fire station on the,

28:30 um, what’s the street? The, the street. Franklin. Franklin Street. Thank you. Um, Franklin Street Fire Station to do certain work on it. This would expand the language to allow us to apply to some other parts of the building that need to be, um, updated and, and, and fixed up. So it’s just, uh, uh, updating the language to, to have some more flexibility for that building. Um, stormwater Enterprise Fund, um, we’re looking at establishing, uh, the MS four, the, the, the requirements of managing your stormwater, your drains that are going, you know, from the streets and out.

29:16 We are under mandate requirement, all municipalities to actually manage that flow. And so what a lot of municipalities are needing to do is create a stormwater enterprise fund to, to be able to generate fee revenues to go into that fund, to, to cover the cost of all the work in compliance. So this first step is simply to set up the fund and then in the future years to to, um, uh, figure out the rate structures and how, how we’re gonna go forward. How are Just in, once we set up that fund, where are those actual revenues coming From? So it’s an enterprise fund, right? But Again, like what, what are you charging people So different communities are doing in different ways? And that’s what’s being okay. You know, Amy EW is working on. So in my own community, um, it’s, it’s a

30:05 surcharge fee based on my water sewer rates. Gotcha. Uh, other communities, which is far more complex, is based on the amount of non pervious area and your property. And good luck trying to figure that calculation. So anyways, this is the first step years, um, article 37 resend the age limit for the police department only for hiring. Um, it, it increases the age. Um, I think it’s capped at 32 is the cap. And it’s looking to lift that cap does not affect the fire. So the cap will remain, the age capital will stay in place. Um, building permit fees, the next four articles, um, so we have building permit fees and we have electrical installation.

30:51 So those are two fees that currently reside in our bylaws and that need to be set and changed through town meeting. And for the first time in 15 plus years, last year we did some tweaks to the rates. So the first two articles are asking for town meeting to allow the select board after a public hearing to set the building permit fees and the electrical installation fees. So, so the, the, the, it would come here. So it’d be much like what water sewer Commission does for their fees. Um, the health board sets their fees, park and rec set their fees. This would have the select board

31:37 set the permit fees for those things. If, uh, if town meeting chooses not to accept these, the next two articles are fee adjustments that we’re asking town meeting to then therefore make adjustments to. Um, and what we’re simply requesting is moving from $15 per thousand to $17 per thousand for a comprehensive permit. Last year, we adjusted all the individual items and left this alone. This year we’re adjusting the comprehensive. And then additionally on the electrical installation is adding, uh, a, a fee for connection and installation of electric storage batteries set at $17 per thousand. So what’s happening in people’s homes are the large

32:22 home batteries as backup systems. Um, and those are, um, those are not plug and play, that, that’s a pretty, um, significant installation and inspection requirements for safety reasons and others. So, and would that also get to the fire Department? Just so they know where the house is? Okay. I just wanna make sure that’s, those dots are being Connected. Yeah. Yeah. Don’t tell the chief that, but No, she’s, you didn’t hear it. Yeah. The chief’s on it. No. And it’s a coordinated effort between the building inspections and the fire department on that next, uh, transfers of cemetery care trust fund and lots trust fund for cemeteries, for capital projects. It’s moving out of their trust funds into, uh, giving them access for, for projects, parking tickets,

33:10 increasing the fee for snow emergencies, um, from 50 to a hundred. Um, this was passed in, I don’t know how many years ago. Went through town meeting, went to the legislature and it never made it through, I think two legislative cycles. So part of our kind of working with our rep and, and, and figuring out they never succeeded. So we’re gonna ask how meeting to vote again to resubmit it back to the legislature, to, to hopefully this time get through all the wickets. You Have to do that because it’s been two years. Yeah. It’s been What’s expired and then yeah, it’s expired. Yep. So it’s gone to another legislative session. Okay. Um, the next, so starting at Article 45,

33:57 these are the citizen petition articles. So these were filed by citizens. The first one is storage of fishing gear and lobster traps. So there’s been issues that we’ve been dealing with of, of, uh, commercial fishermen, lobstermen, uh, storing lobster traps and gear on their properties, which brought to our zoning is not allowed. So it’s been, let’s call it a tradition. Um, so when complaints have come in, we’ve had to deal with addressing the complaints. So, uh, as a result, uh, citizen petition to authorize the storage of commercial fishing gear in yards of single family. And this lays out some parameters as to some compliance you have to meet to do that.

34:44 Um, the next citizen on appropriation of funds for an independent audit. Um, but we, we already have, uh, an audit that that does it. Citizen petition is to have another audit firm under the purview of the finance committee, uh, do audits next, sustainability coordinator to eliminate the sustainability coordinator position, uh, residency requirement for department heads. Assume town administrators, I don’t know that applies to that too. Uh, town meeting parliamentarian, uh, and, uh, having a, an a residential attorney non-affiliated, uh, performed the job of parliamentarian for town meeting. Article 50 is placement of prop two

35:30 and a half on ballot to, um, I think it’s to require each question to be a separate question. Um, article 51, town meeting, reconsideration procedure, uh, establish some pri some parameters on town meeting. And Article 52, uh, establishing a recall provision for elected positions. That is the list of all the articles geared up for a town meeting this year. Mm-hmm. With your vote, we officially put the warrant in place.

36:07 Okay. Everyone Okay with the order and the presentation of the warrant.

36:17 Okay. So we’ll need a vote to formally post the warrant for town meeting 2025. So Motions Second. All in favor? Okay.

36:33 Uh, next we have a, uh, we have our third letter of interest for the Disabilities Commission. So we should set a deadline and go ahead and schedule interviews.

36:49 So our next two meetings are March 12th and the 26th. Um, I guess we could, uh, are we doing any other interviews on the 12th already? The 12th is kind of busy. Okay. So then let’s do, so coming to you with different transfers of license. Okay. Yes. Then I think, yeah. We’ll that will be a long, yeah, that will be a, okay. So then let’s do the end of March. Mm-hmm. Okay. So do we wanna say when letters before the 21st? The 21st, and then we will do interviews on the, on the 26th. Okay. And just a letter in our packet of resignation from Carol McCauley on the Conservation Commission.

37:34 Uh, like a motion to send a letter of appreciation to Carol for her service on the conservation committee. Commission a motion. Second. All in favor.

37:46 Okay. Now I think that, are we done? Yeah. Okay. So that brings us to select board announcements. Um, do we have any announcements?

38:02 Uh, I’d like to congratulate the asa Lisa on, uh, coming in, not just coming in first place on the two mile at the state championship, um, but beating a 40 plus year old record and, uh, and Levit in the nation. So he’s, you know, my son has raced with him and, um, the past two years in cross country in one year at Spring Track, and he’ll have another season of spring track with him before he graduates. And just such a, he’s a great kid, uh, doing a great job. And, um, and I’ve been texting with his uncle, uh, who also was a, a track and, and cross country at, he said he wishes he could run as well as his nephew, you know, did. So congratulations to Nate and all the athletes that participated there on, on Marblehead.

38:47 Um, the other thing I’d just like to mention too is the passing, uh, of Carl Siegel. And I’d like to ask that we send a, uh, letter of condolence with family. He’s been just a lo I mean, the wooden signs in town, a lot of them, he made, uh, big Rotarian gave back to the town tremendously. I mean, I can tell you when I first ran for the board, the first six years I was on, and seeing him fill out that by hand outside in the hallway, it’s just, it’s just such a institutional, you know, thing. And then his longtime service, you know, on the water and sewer. So, uh, so I’d like to make that motion. So moved. Second. All in favor? Great. Yeah.

39:33 Carl in the, I don’t know if you’ve been here when he, when he, I think maybe the out of last, Last year on the board last when I started. Yeah. I mean, just him on election night is just iconic Marblehead. I tried to replicate it, um, with Zoom and I just couldn’t match It. I gave up. I didn’t do it this past year ‘cause I just couldn’t match it. Um, any other announcements? I just wanted to draw the board’s attention to some dates. Um, we need to, we have warrant night, which I, what night is warrant night? I have April 10th, no, sorry, April 7th. Seventh, yes. April 7th for board members is warrant hearing. And we’ll also have to go, um, organize with, uh,

40:20 a meeting with the FI finance committee and, uh, Kyle had sent out a, uh, request for people vulnerability for department budget meeting date. And, um, if, I don’t know, have we landed on a date? Were those dates? I mean, we don’t have to do it now, but I just thought we’re getting, it’s getting close. It’s the 25th. I believe we’re gonna, we landed on the 25th, March 25th in the morning. Is that the morning time slot? It’s like, Yeah, like, yeah. All Right. So just, I have mark your calendar At 1:00 PM is that correct?

41:00 We can look in the office. Okay. All, so mark the 25th then hold that for your, for your calendars. And then Just to be clear, so there are two dates for FinCon. So for the board would have interest, one is March 31st, Monday night. The 31st is when FinCon reviews the select board’s budget. And then the following week, the April 7th is when they make their recommendations. Right. So those are two Mondays in a row that are gonna be of interest, but we Have the following week, our war Hearing, The warrant hearing is on the seventh. Yeah. The, um, meet with them on the 31st, But I think Patrick was saying there’s two fin meetings, Right? So before, right. So the March 31st is when they’re reviewing Yep.

41:48 The select boards by all the departments under the select board. So that’s of, I mean, that’s the department heads and myself dealing with that, but that’s mm-hmm. Of your purview. And then the following week is when they do the whole budget recommendations overall. So those are two, two monies in a row that are particular interest. Yeah. Yeah. And it’s also a reminder to the public that, you know, that’s a great opportunity to come. There’s a lot of meetings between now and town meeting where you can come ask questions because I would love to see town meeting be two nights or less. That’s, that would be my ultimate goal. I don’t know if Jack Ridge would agree or not, but I think I would like to go at two nights or less. And I think if you can ask those questions at those meetings, then town meetings should go a little more smoothly. Yeah, Good point.

42:33 Um, and I’ll just say I wanted to acknowledge, I’ve received a number of emails regarding the state auditors, uh, determination. Um, the, uh, MBTA Communities Act, the Saba mandate continues and the state auditor has entered the ring. Um, so I do intend to put that on the agenda for discussion. And we’re working to have some, uh, legal, uh, explanation on the change in the landscape, the legal landscape, that that may or may not present, uh, for our consideration. And so we’ll, um, we’ll make sure that, you know, we can have counsel walk us through it

43:18 and then have an informed discussion and, um, eventually make a dec decision on whether or not we’d like to pursue that avenue. That Will be on March 12th. Yeah. At our regular meeting. Our regular meeting On March 12th. Yep. Thanks. Okay. I think that’s everything. Um, we, a motion to adjourn? So motion To second. All in favor. Great. Thanks everyone.