Select Board: August 13, 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 All set. All right. We’ll call the meeting of August 13th, 2025 to order. We’ll open up a public comment. Anyone with public comment? Anybody online there benefit that you see?

0:18 I Don’t see any hands up. Okay. L Jordan’s on vacation. All right. Hope he’s having vacation. Are we move to the town administrator update Thatcher. Okay. Just a few things on the update. One, um, given a lot of questions in regard to co lane property. Um, Cove Lane on the neck, um, Oh, you need to have your mic on, on, I need This one. Yeah. Okay. Um, um, seems to be, uh, known for a long time as, uh, public access down to, down to the beach, uh, waters for, for many, many, many years for a lot of marble headers. Um, the ownership of the property came into

1:07 question and dispute, um, in which, um, of residents claiming to have, um, private ownership to the property and, uh, trying to not allow access through through Cove Lane. Um, so, uh, to our current understanding, um, that it didn’t transfer to sole marblehead ownership back in the 1930s, 1950s, whatever transactions, um, as best we can tell that it’s joint ownership of the abutters to the lane, which allows the abutters to have access to that property. Um, again, neighbor disputes that,

1:52 or the attorney for, for resident disputes that, so all I’ll say right now is we are, our town council is working the issue, they’re doing the, the, the deep research on, on the deeds and the records and such, uh, is communicating back and forth with the attorneys of the residence. Um, and we’ll see where, where this ends up as far as, um, the disposition of how is the property owned. Again, there’s a dispute as one party says it’s totally private ownership, and we’re saying, um, it’s common, common ownership amongst, uh, abutters. Um, so we’ll work through to get it resolved.

2:39 Um, we’ve been trying, you know, not to, we we’re hoping to avoid conflict at the site. We’d rather people not try to engage and, and resolve the issue on their own to let us kind of work through the process, the legal process, and figure it out and let’s, you know, get the facts based on the records and, and, and resolve what the, the disposition of that property actually is. So, I May, oh, go ahead. No, go ahead. I, I just wanna say, I mean, clearly I, I think everyone’s aware the sentiment in the community is to really push back on this, uh, or, or, you know, push forward whichever way you want to look to keep it open. Let’s, um, and I think everyone knows ownership does not preclude

3:26 the use by other people. And my only message is to our attorney is, you know, work through it step by step. But, um, the community really wants to go forward with this. So, and, uh, what is the status with, uh, public access signs or, or the no trespassing signs at at this time? Uh, that’s, that’s what’s in dispute. Okay. Right. I mean, uh, so I, I don’t have an answer sitting here right now. Um, as to whether one party is correct and has the right to prohibit or the other party has unfettered access, I, that’s the answer that we’re trying to work out. Okay. So the overwhelming message is we are looking into it, we have our attorney working on it, we’re gonna obviously fight hard

4:12 for the town of Marblehead Yes. To ensure that, for that, for that, right. Yes. Access. Yeah. We’re not walking away from this issue. And it, it could set a precedent and, and I’ll just say in my neighborhood, I mean, the way things were laid out, the concept of real estate even a hundred years ago was completely different, you know, and we are passed and roads were and who owned them, and they would just subdivide. And we have private ownership that people in the neighborhood have a right to, and you gotta really dig. But, um, uh, ownership does not preclude use. So, Yeah. Okay. Um, just to clarify, they haven’t, uh, actually nobody has, um, sought relief for or declaratory judgment in the courts at this time? No. So, Nope, it’s thus far as far as what I’m seeing, it’s correspondence between the attorneys. Yeah.

5:00 I just echo what, um, has been said that we vigorously defend the public’s use of, right. Yep. Yep. And, and our attorneys have, I mean, they’ve been working it, so, so other updates as that comes in. Alright, Thank you. Um, next, uh, another piece of property, cliff Street Boatyard cleanup. Um, um, you know, we’ve, we’ve done contracts here for cleanup. I, I guess I would just summarize that, um, we’ve got a clean bill of health on the work of, um, cleaning up the Cliff Street boat yard, um, I’m trying to think of the word, the, the, from years ago of, of liquids, oils or whatever that, that were in the soil. So, uh, the work has been remediated and done.

5:48 So, uh, we, um, we received a, um, at least a draft permanent solution with no condition statement. So that’s DEP way of saying there is no, no need to put any restrictions on the use of the property. Okay. Um, and then switching to another piece of land that seems to be the theme tonight. Um, uh, August 26th at four o’clock Smith Street Rail Trail crossing, ribbon cutting. So this is the part of the trail that, oh, and we have flyers. Um, so it’s a ribbon cutting, uh, ceremony. This is what we refer to as the trial showcase projects.

6:34 So it’s a, a section of the rail trail to set up the prototype of how we think we want to, uh, set up the remaining sections of the rail trail as to setting the dimensions and the materials and, and those sort of things. So we encourage one folks to come to the ribbon cutting, ‘cause it’s, uh, work of our community development planning folks and others, uh, in public works, um, and municipal light, uh, all working together on this. Get folks to see, to go out there and see the prototype and get their feedback, encouraging the public input and as a, as another marker of progress in, in the overall rail trail efforts that we’re doing. So again, that’s August 26th at 4:00 PM

7:24 Good Folks. All right. Good stuff. Alright, well, moving on. We have, uh, openings on the Conservation Commission. We have some interviews and possible appointments. We have, uh, two applicants, Allison Fry and Brandon Collins. Uh, the process will be that we will call each of you, each of you up and ask you some questions, have you introduce yourselves. Um, we do ask that the person that is not being interviewed step outside just so you can’t copy their answers. Um, so, um, and I’m just doing this based on who’s first on my list. So Allison, if you don’t mind coming up, and Brandon, if you could step outside and, uh, go into the, the sound booth. I appreciate it. Yeah, absolutely. You go into the, uh, selectman’s office. Okay. Yeah, Allison. Thank you. Hey, good evening. And I’m sorry, Dan, is there one or two openings? We have. So actually, so we have three vacancies right now.

8:09 Oh, great. So we have two vacancies for a three year term. Sorry. Thank you. And one for a two year term. Okay. Yep. So we have two people interviewing for three. So if you don’t mind, um, just give us a little, tell us a little bit about yourself and, uh, and why you’ve applied. So, good evening. My Name’s Allison Fry. I, um, moved to Marblehead about two and a half years ago, and I work at Salem Sound Coast Watch as the associate director. I’m involved in habitat restoration, gras, salt marsh restoration, wetland protection, um, as well as coastal resilience. So I work on a lot of, um, like coastal resilience grants. And, um, yeah, so that’s particularly why I’m interested in this position. I feel like I have a lot of knowledge to share. Um, one of the first projects I worked on at Salem Sun Coast

8:56 Watch, um, was an eelgrass under floating dock, um, study where we investigated the impact of floating docks on Eelgrass habitat off Nous head. Um, and I studied some of the wetland bylaws for Marble Head, um, for that project. Great. Excellent. I’ll ask you a few questions, Jim. Mr. I wanna start. Okay. I would just say I’m an Augustus head man, and, uh, we have very healthy eelgrass population. Every now and then a doc would land on ‘em, but that doesn’t happen in a while. So, um, so I, I, I think you partially answered this, but I’ll ask it just to be official. Please explain why you’re interested in serving on the Conservation Commission. Yeah, so I think since like setting down roots in

9:42 Marblehead, I’ve really been interested in being more involved with the town. Um, and especially with my work with Salem Sound Coast Watch, I think I have a lot to, to offer to the Conservation Commission as well. Um, as far as eel grass restoration and wetland protection, and then my work with Coastal Resilience, um, and all of these big grants. Um, and, you know, selfishly I’m interested in learning more and more involved. Awesome. It’s a good selfish thing. Hi. Hi. Good to see you. Uh, so how would you approach a difference of opinion between the Conservation Commission and other regulatory boards or, you know, departments if there was a, you know, different priorities type of situation?

10:28 I mean, I think the, the role of the Conservation Commission is to enforce the bylaws and the Wetlands Protection Act. So I would try to just make sure we are aligned, um, with those regulations as much as possible and just be consistent across rulings. Um, but again, I’ve never served in a role like this, so I’d be open to, to learning more and kind of, um, you know, seeing others in the Conservation Commission, how they react to those differences. Great. Awesome. Great. Have you ever attended a conservation commission? I have, yeah. Um, I attended a Marblehead Conservation Commission in July, and then I’ve, um, presented at Salem Conservation Commissions and Essex and other towns in, on the North Shore. Okay, great. And if appointed, how would you familiar

11:13 familiarize yourself with the role of the member of the Conservation Commission? Well, I have it on my calendar to attend though, on tomorrow night there. Yeah. Um, but I’d love to, um, gain access to a lot of the Mass Association of Conservation Commission resources. I know there’s a lot of like, webinars and resources to train conservation agents. Um, and I hope that, you know, there’s some, I don’t know if there’s funding available or, you know, free access to resources to educate myself, but that would be the first stop is to, um, to go to the Mass Association of Conservation Commissions. Okay. Okay. Moses Allison, thank you for stepping up. Thank you. And volunteering. Really, really appreciate it. Um, what would you do about a real or perceived, uh, conflict of interest as a member of the, uh, you know, of the, of the Conservation Commission?

12:00 So, you know, for example, if a neighbor of yours appears before the, you know, the commission and, uh, you know, is seeking your assistance. Sure. Um, well, I’ve thought about this because, you know, we don’t currently Salem Sun Coast Watch doesn’t currently have projects in Marblehead. Yep. Um, but I do a lot of eelgrass work. Um, and so I think like a conflict of interest personally that could come up. So I’d have to recruit, recuse myself from certain votes and such. Um, as a teacher, I’m a part-time teacher, so I have no problem, you know, enforcing rules, um, and not playing favorites. So I would have no problem with a neighbor or someone familiar, um, trying to, you know, get Curry favor. Sure. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. That’s great. I mean, I think I don’t have any questions that I need answered, so Thank you. Thank you.

12:46 Well, thank you. You’re welcome to take a seat here. Perfect. And, uh, a friend then You’re welcome to stay. Awesome. Thanks for your time. Thank you so much for volunteering. We appreciate it.

13:07 Welcome back. How, how was the sound booth Found out? My friend is pregnant with her third, so, Alright. Alright. You gonna stay or you gonna leave now? No, I’m fine. Good evening. Thank you. Yeah, thanks everyone. Um, if you don’t mind, uh, taking a little time to tell us maybe about your background and while you’re applying to the Conservation Commission. Yeah, so, um, I’ll start from the beginning. So I’m from Lake George, New York. My mom’s a scientist. I grew up, she’s a ologist, which is the study of fresh water and how it interacts with the water basin and upland development, everything like that. So I, I actually grew up in Lake George interning, uh, for RPIs, um, the Darren, the Darren Freshwater Institute Fund for Lake George, lake George Association. They’ve all now merged.

13:53 Um, and, um, I was involved with writing a bunch of, as a intern, uh, renting a bunch of upland development codes for the state of New York. Um, always been a huge part of my life. And, um, fast forward here, I moved here in 2015. Uh, Dan knows I’m in real estate. Um, it’s really important to me to protect this town, protect the watershed, and it’s just, it really, it really breaks my heart and also hits a, hits a, a spot in my heart to protect it. And, you know, there’s been a few times over the past few years where I think there’s been, people have done some things

14:41 that have, you know, I don’t think are right. And that’s ultimately what urged me to, uh, apply for this position. You know, it’s, it’s, uh, it’s really important and Marette is really special and I just want to make sure it’s protected. Great. I’m gonna ask you a few questions, Jim, if you wanna start Yeah, Yeah. Um,

15:02 You’ve, you’ve sort of answered a bit, but, um, maybe elaborate on why you’re interested in serving on the Conservation Commission, uh, if you can. Well, so, so the, the watershed is really important to protect, right? Yeah. And, and making sure that houses and real estate are done in the correct, correct way is really important to me. And I think that, um, you know, it’s, it’s being in this position, potentially on this board allows me to help protect the, the watershed of Marblehead and this, um, I call it the ocean. My, my wife will call it a, a bay or, you know, it’s different, but, um, it just gives me that opportunity to help protect it.

15:46 Uh, so how would you deal with or approach a difference of opinion between the Conservation Commission and let’s say other boards or, you know, municipal entities in town? Well, great question. I think, I think ultimately it comes down to, you know, we’re, we have the Watershed Protection Act that, that we to abide by. And there are specific guidelines and, and restrictions that you have to adhere to. And ultimately it’s, to me, it’s you, you have to adhere to that and you can’t sway your answer because somebody wants you to. It’s, you have to protect it. And that’s ultimately where, where I’ve always come from. Okay.

16:31 Awesome. Great. Have you, uh, have you ever attended a conservation commission? No. What I’ve dealt with them in the past with, with clients doing buildings and stuff like, and, and projects and stuff like that. I’ve, I’ve always, anytime I’ve ever had a, a client who’s applied for something, uh, one of my, one of my clients and good friends is Chris Al on the board, and he’s, he told me, he’s like, you need to do this. He’s like, this is, this is your wheelhouse. Uh, I always am there, I’m always listening and I always wanna learn about it, so. Right. So then if appointed, how would you familiarize, familiarize, familiarize? Familiarize myself. Thank you. Appreciate that. Yeah. With the, uh, with the role of a member of the Conservation commission, I mean, I would just, I just fully immerse myself with it. And whether it’s, it’s reading all, all that I can, I always, I literally grew up doing this on a,

17:18 on a lake versus a ocean. Um, but it’s, you read as much as you possibly can. You talk to as many people, you shadow them, you just do what you can to do it. Right. Okay. Great. Alright. What would you do about a real or perceived conflict of interest? So, for example, a neighbor or a real estate client is coming before the commission, uh, seeking your assistance. Well, again, I, I think that’s gonna happen at some point. I’m sure it will. Um, and a neighbor or somebody, you know, it’s always part of it. But I, I laugh because I literally grew up with this. My mom being in this role, she’s, she was the one of the foremost ologists in the entire country in the world for first, one of the first females doing the job.

18:06 And people love her and hate her. And I’ve grown up with, look, you’re, you’re right, you’re wrong. And there’s a gray area in the sense of how you respond. And you can’t form enemies, But You have to figure out a way to get it right. And, and you’re asking a, a conflict. It’s again, it’s how do we move them to make it correct. Ultimately, I mean, I, I literally grew up with all my friends and parents and families. They’re all developers and, and they hate me and they love me. And they, they all respect my mom and myself because that’s the only way to get through it.

18:51 You don’t form enemies. You figure out a way to make it. Right. Alright, Thank you. I think you have a great background for the position. You answered the questions very thoroughly. I just have one question. Is it worth, uh, taking my family on a vacation Lake George? Possibly next summer? I’m my favorite. I just came back. I’m sorry. I’m a I’m a freshwater guy. I love lake. Oh God. You might have just ruined it after all that. It’s, I know, I know. There something, there’s something You can go swimming. I can drink the water. I can, I can be fresh and clean, but a I want my, I want my place to be like there, you know, where it’s, it’s pristine. And that’s ultimately where it comes down for me. Appreciate

19:38 It. So you wanna make George now? I it’s definitely on the list and I’ll give you a lot of ations Where to go. Thank you so much. You’re welcome. You have a seat. Thanks. Appreciate you. Thanks a lot. Appreciate you volunteering. Um, any discussion? Like, there are two good applicants, actually, the, the two three, there’s two three year terms. We have two three year terms and one two year term open. Okay. Do we need to designate or, well, no. So we, if well, we have some options here, we could designate them both the three year term. Mm-hmm. Um, or if you have a preference, we could designate one for three and one for two. Is this because of the freshwater comment that you’re thinking about this? I mean, beaches and all that other stuff? Uh, I think so. The lifelong commitment to conservation, conservation Might be a little more important. Yeah, exactly. So if I,

20:25 I’d like to see them both in three year terms. Yeah, I would agree. That makes sense. Yep. That makes sense. Despite that for sure. Agree. Absolutely. Um, so if I could have a motion to appoint both Allison Fry and Brandon Collins, the Conservation Commission with a term to expire in June, 2028. So moved Second. All in favor. Unanimous. Welcome. Thank you. We’re so lucky. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. We’re Very fortunate to have you. And we’re gonna take the, this, um, our agenda a little outta order. We’re gonna move to our host community agreement assignment, um, number 11, just because we do have someone online. Number 11, right? Yeah. Well, I thought we’re gonna do it after Allison, I just promoted, um, oh, Alison, Jeff, Lisa, I’m sorry. Fine. Absolutely. So I suggest, um, After Allison, I’m happy to do that.

21:10 Perfect. So let’s do that. I appreciate that. Don’t skip the hearing. Hearing. Do you want me to,

21:16 So we’re on constant hearing, constant aging. Oh, counsel, Aging. You want Okay, number Allison. Sorry. You want me to go to Lisa and Marcy? Nope. Stay in order. Council on Aging. We’re good. That’s what I’m saying. You want me to stay in council and aging? Yes. Okay. I, All right. Did I suggest Nope. You, you order me around. That’s fine. I’ll remember that. So let’s stay on number three, the Council on Aging. Uh, we have Lisa Hooper. And Marcy Schwam. Yeah. And Lisa’s online. Lisa’s online. Good evening, Lisa. She’s Coming up. Yeah, just trying to get her microphone working. Are you suggesting that after this we move to number 11? I I was gonna after Allison. Before Logan. Gotcha. I should have read you perfect hand, Right, Lisa? Great. Lisa, can you hear us?

22:03 No. Marcy’s gonna have to take charge. Okay. Marcy, can you hear us?

22:13 Oh, wait a minute. Hold on. It’s, You’re there. I can see you. I can See. I see. Hey, Lisa. You know why? Because Yeah. Turn that all the way down. You want me smooth it? Yeah. Yeah. Alright, I muted.

22:32 We have, All right. Can we bring her back up? Marcy, can you give us a, a audio check? Yeah. All right. And Lisa’s there as well.

22:48 Lisa, you there as well? I’m here. Can you Hear me all? Awesome. We can. We got two different backgrounds. We got Marblehead and it looks like possibly the Alps in the background there. Um, Oh, okay. So if you guys, I know that you guys, uh, voted on June 12th to approve the change of the length of board service, um, from two, from two three year terms at three, uh, three year terms before having to leave the board and reapply. Correct? You guys just want to give us the details on that. Sure. Lisa, you want me to do it? Sure. So, um, the board, so just a little background, original for years, the COA board was a nine member board. And then right around actually the year that I joined,

23:35 so it was right before COVID, we went to a seven person board because we pretty much only had seven people at any one time showing up. So it’s been a seven year, it’s been a, uh, seven person board for the past couple of years. And with COVID, some of us self included got a, a late start because we were put onto the board a little bit later than usual. And we feel that we’ve made such great progress over the past couple of years that to have some of us that might wanna stay on leave, take a year sabbatical, and then come back and apply again and interview with the select board

24:23 is almost more disruptive and we lose the continuity. So what we wanted to do, and we voted to come before you, is to have three, three year terms so that an individual that really is active can stay on for the three, three year terms and then go out and reapply. You know, which would at that point be year number 10? I doubt that very many would go for that fourth term, and there might be some that opt out that one or two terms. So it’s not obligatory, but we wanna have the option to be able to go, um, three, three year terms.

25:06 Good. Does anybody have any questions or comments on, yeah. Are the, are the three year terms staggered at this point? They are staggered, yes. Fortunately. Great. Great. And I, I would say most appointed boards do not have term limits. Um, right, right. So this would be somewhat consistent with that, uh, more consistent with that. So I, I don’t see a problem with it. Did you guys consider getting rid of term limits altogether?

25:35 We talked about, I think we weren’t quite sure if we were able to do that, correct, Lisa? Yes. We weren’t sure it real, this hasn’t really been reviewed in 30 years. Sure. So, sounds good. Um, do we need to vote on this? It Says we have to final approval in the policy, so we probably should. Okay. Alright. Any discussion or any opposition? No. Seems reasonable. Uh, could I have a motion to approve the change in operational policy policies for the Council of Aging? Uh, to change the length of the board service from two three year terms? So three, three year terms. So move Second. All in favor. Thank you. Thank you both. Thank you.

26:21 Appreciate our work. Bye-Bye Lisa. Excellent. Bye. A lot. Have a good night. You, you bet. Thank you. We’re gonna move on to number four. Thanks for your work, continued public hearing with Shin Dynasty. Mr. Lewis, if you’d like to come on up.

26:39 Thank you. I would just like to announce this, a public hearing continued from November 13th, 2024 on the revocation of the wine malt beverage license held by she Dynasty one Atlantic Avenue. Welcome back. Thank you. Um, we have received your email on the update, uh, which sounded at least in recent update from college tonight, that there has been some progress since August 5th. If you wanna give us any updates since the last time we met? Yeah. So, um, there was a, I guess a long negotiation period between our contractor and our landlord, which is why there was a bit of a delay. Um, but they came to agreement, they signed a contract at the end of last month, and our contractor has begun work. Um, I’ve met him at the business last week.

27:26 I’ve been checking up. Oh, Can so I’m excuse, sorry. We need to, Sorry, that off. Keep going. I’ve been checking up on their progress almost daily, um, just to make sure that somebody’s there, somebody’s doing something. And, uh, you could see that the firewall is almost complete. It’s been complete on the floor level. Um, and I believe it’s been completed all the way up through the ceiling, but there’s some work that needs to be done in the basement. Um, so it’s basement level all the way up to the top. Um, but it’s been, it’s coming along in that avenue. And then, um, the a DA entrance, uh, the, they have to reframe the door ‘cause it wasn’t large enough and order a electrified door. I saw that the electrified door was not yet installed,

28:12 but it was at the business and it looked like they’re still working on framing that, that door out. Um, I was not given a exact timeframe on when, uh, my landlord’s portion of the work would be completed. Uh, our contractor did say that he thought maybe they would give a, a kind of early inspection on the work that’s been done so far at the end of this week or, um, next week. Uh, when I first spoke with him about the length of time, um, for the work to be done, he gave me kind of like a rough, you know, one month to three months to finish everything, including my landlords and my work. So, uh, that’s where we stand From, from what Date?

28:57 Um, from I’m, I mean, they started now, so now, So one to three months, So September, so in November sometime. So hopefully before November. Before November or November. So you have the same contractor as your landlord? Yes, sir. Okay. Um, just So that, you know, it’s a lot more smooth transition to start our work. So besides the a DA entrance and the firewall, what other major components of the project are so still outstanding? What’s outstanding is the floor needs to be installed. Um, yep. Portions of the ceiling just needs like the ceiling tiles to be put in. And, um, the rest of the appliances need to be either reinstalled, ‘cause all the appliances were, you know, removed

29:43 or, um, some of the bathroom fixtures need to be put up. Okay. Hopefully it’ll be on the, on the month side As opposed to three. I really hope so. I mean, Well, I guess, I mean, that’s, it’s good that I know you guys just pulled the building permit. I, so it’s good to see that progress. Um, I think you’ve got, it’s November 13th is is the year, is that correct? When we opened this November 13th was when we opened this, right? Yes. Last. Okay.

30:19 Any, any thoughts? I mean, I guess I would, I mean, I’m gonna be a hundred percent honest. Before I heard that you started doing work, I was inclined to, to go the other way on this, but I’d be, you know, I guess based on hearing that you have pulled, pulled the permit and that work has started. Yes, sir. Um, you know, my concern here is that it has been so long and the, you know, the, the good of the good of the town of marble Hood is what we need to think about. But I would be inclined to, to, you know, continue, um, maybe give, come back and said a month to, to three months. So maybe come back to our September 10th meeting. Yeah. Would be my thought. Come back and give us another update Sure. Then, and we can hopefully see more progress.

31:04 Anybody else have thoughts? That’s just one, one person’s opinion here, just Through the Chair. Yeah, absolutely. What would you say, and based on where you are right now, you know, I know we talked when you came before, but in the progress that you have made, do you have a reasonable expectation of things accelerating at this point? I mean, it was at a standstill, so it wasn’t moving. I’m hoping that, uh, you know, the work can move along seamlessly from the completion of my landlord’s work to the completion of our work, and that there isn’t a delay in between. Um, I’m trying to, sorry, go ahead. No, um, you know, I’m trying to stay on top of them.

31:49 I’m trying to, you know, be on the phone or get updates from the contractor, um, just to know that, uh, you know, what’s the term, like the squeaky wheel. Um, I’m, so I’m trying, I’m, I’m trying to do what I can in, in my position. And just so I understand correctly, you’re waiting for your landlord’s work to be finished and then your work will begin. Is that correct? Yes, sir. Yes, ma’am. And has anyone given you a timeframe of what that would be? You know, like a couple weeks, a month for the Landlord? You Mean for the landlord to, yeah, I mean, oh, for the landlord. Obviously you’re rolling over and I don’t know this particular contracts or the, obviously the details of the situation, but I just know personally from my own experience, you know,

32:37 sometimes I’ve worked with contractors and they have, have other projects and then, you know, they, it’s then they’re gone for a couple weeks. Right. ‘cause something else needed, you know, was more pressing at that moment. So just trying to be realistic for Yes. So the fact this has been going on a long time without revenue. Right. Um, I think what’s encouraging is the, uh, the contractor happens to be a friend of my sister-in-law and it’s also a, a friend of a friend of our landlord. So as far as on a more personal level, I think he’s willing to try and just get this done and get this open for us. Um, Okay. Okay. Yeah. So, you know, you’re not, you’re not kinda like the mercy of the, of the landlord in terms of your timing too much,

33:25 I guess it just, it just seems that it’s been dragging on for a long time and it’s understandable ‘cause there’s a lot of backlog in, in the construction. Yeah. It’s been a really long journey and I’d just like to see the end of it. And There’s no, no payment issues or anything like that? No, sir. No. Okay. Um, what is the extent of the landlord’s, uh, responsibilities versus shin diocese is gonna be responsible for the a DA door, is that right? No, that’s, um, landlord’s responsibility. So landlord is doing a DA, the firewall’s done. What else on the landlord landlord’s side needs to be completed for you all to do your job? So the, the completion of the firewall, um, I don’t believe the basement portion has been completed. So that needs to get done. And then they need to

34:10 install the, the new door needs to be electrified, and then the floor from, uh, that entrance to the, um, entrance will need to be like smooth. Mm-hmm. There’s a basement entrance that’s like a, a like a hatch lift. So they’re gonna have to come up with a new, um, a new hinge for it, one that’s flushed with the ground. Uh, but I believe that’s the extent of what her work is. And, um, like I said, he’s, he’s, he gave me the indication that there’d be a initial inspection either the end of this week or sometime next week. Okay. And but so they’re not actively working there now are actively Oh, they are actually, yes. Doing work.

34:57 I was there like Before the inspection. There’s, there hasn’t been an inspection yet. Oh, okay. Yeah. So they, the inspection is to see how far they’ve come with the work and if, if, you know, the firewall looks good and the a DA entrance looks good. Um, like I said, I know that they’ve ordered the door because it’s, it’s sitting inside of the building. It hasn’t been installed yet. Um, the framing looks like it’s being worked on, was a, you know, where the door is supposed to be. It’s kind of blockaded, but it, they’ve been, um, the frame for it. So. Okay. Just remind me how we got here. We had a contractor that was, how many contractors have we been through at This point? This is, this is the second One. Second one, okay. So it was the first contractor and working with that and that relationship devolved

35:45 and that took its course, or, So what, what happened was the building department saw that there wasn’t a firewall between my business and the next business. So they said that there had to be a firewall. Right. And when, um, That was like a year ago, or That was last, the end of October. Okay. Yep. Um, so when we found out there was no firewall, that responsibility landed on my landlord. Mm-hmm. And so when they sought to, to say, Hey, put in a firewall, um, we were asked to have a, a DA entrance, um, installed. The a DA entrance took a long time because, um, the architect felt like there wasn’t a good place to put one. So they sought a variance from the city and then the state to install it in the back door, so Okay.

36:34 To make the back area Nice. Um, the state asked them to come back, I think three, three times. You know, they, that’s the first test. Okay. January, then February and then end of March they got the approval. Okay. So let’s, let’s con everyone’s good with continuing the hearing until, uh, our September 10th meeting? Yes. Yeah. Okay. Hopefully, uh, come back here with a, a, a little bit of a smile on your face and some, uh, some progress at least. Yeah. I have a little curl now, So, yeah. At least a little corner. Right. And the, um, you know, hopefully we can hear by then, and at least the landlords, um, that side is done and then it’s put into your hands. So you have Control at that point. She, she should’t be online listening too, so I don’t think we need to hear from her. Okay. Um, do we, alright.

37:22 I don’t think we need to vote that motion to continue. Yeah. So could I get a motion to continue the revocation hearing until our September 10th and require just, uh, and require an update at that meeting? I moved. Have a second. Second. All in favor all See you in a month. Thank You. Thank you so much for your time. Good luck. Yep. Absolutely. All right. We have a fun one here. We get to, uh, welcome up Allison Jenkins, uh, who is our new Chief Procurement Officer. Welcome. Welcome. I know a lot of people in this town are very excited about that We work. So, um, welcome. Thank you. If you wanna tell us a little bit, we have your, your resume that we’ve seen. Just tell us a little bit of

38:07 history and how you ended up here. So, um, I think this is my 19th year in municipal government. I’m a resident of Hamilton. Um, I started working for Hamilton and doing chief procurement office duties, um, there, and I was also a select board member so that I could perform all of my select board duties, um, and review the town manager at the time. I, I then left the town of Hamilton and went to Reding. I was in Reding for almost 10 years, um, as the chief procurement officer, I left and went to the city of Everett only to find the city of Everett or any city government is

38:54 so different from town government. Um, and so then I saw that you had posted the position. I actually grew up in Winthrop, so I missed the water dearly and would, would always come to Marblehead when I was in the vicinity of Winthrop. Um, so it, it appealed to me to come back to the water and especially to come back to a town form of government. And that’s where I am today. Well, welcome. We’ve heard good things throughout your, the process and, and so far. Excellent. We we are so excited. Yeah. There’s your big smile that we’re hoping for. Absolutely. Yeah. I look forward to relinquishing the title. Yeah.

39:40 Yeah. Be careful. Its all, it’s all coming on. This is all about Yeah. This is,

39:47 No, she came in, uh, Juan we’re pleased to have someone with such direct experience doing this function. And during the interview, you know, had already gone into, was it Redding and set up the first sort of full-time shop, as you all know, in, in Marblehead, uh, the chief procurement officer was, uh, a split duty with the town planner. Uh, you know, Becky wearing that, those two hats and many others. Um, but the workload is so incredible for all of the transactions that are going on, all the projects that are going on, um, to have, uh, a subject matter expert who’s focused on that. And that what it does is, one,

40:33 it makes the, the products better. Our products, our, our contracts are better, our processes are better, those things are better. But also the other department heads who are sort of forming their function and doing their job can now spend much more of their time focused on the core function that they’re here for. And Allison will manage the, you know, the procurement parts for them. The department heads still play a significant role. And, and, and all of this, they’re, the ones have to define the scope of what it is we need. Um, you know, they’re part of the process. But I have Alice on board to navigate all these things. And I think her, uh, first impression of first week on the job there was, there was a lot of pent up demand that just suddenly slide into the,

41:22 into the new office space. Hopefully we didn’t scare you away in the first wave. No, not at all. As that said, for the town of Reding, um, it was similar to Marblehead. It wasn’t centralized and I was the first to centralize it. So I’m accustomed to it. I look forward to it. And, um, I’m actually really, I’m very excited to be here. Great. All right. Thanks. Awesome. That was, that was, you’ve answered one of my main questions, and this is kind of like one of the capstones in Thatcher’s, uh, plan to, uh, you know, make our government more efficient and get the distributed departments to utilize centralized services. Mm-hmm. So, you know, I’m, I’m actually happy to hear that there’s a, you know, pent up demand for Yes, there is. For What’s going on because, ‘cause

42:07 I said I feel like a kitchen, um, contractor at the moment, and everybody’s been waiting to get their kitchen done over. Yes. We’re so excited you’re Here. Except you can’t charge more. No, We can’t, Unfortunately. Yeah. Yeah. That’s great. Great. Welcome. I almost feel like I should let Thatcher make this motion, but Yeah, you can have, you can ask as many as you want. Sorry. So you were on the select board in Hammy? Yes. And so you were, uh, the executive in essentially the executive function in Hamilton Yes. On the select board. And then you went to a city and you note you made note that cities run a lot differently because they have a singular executive, not, uh, any, like, what was the biggest difference between a city and town that you saw?

42:53 Anything in particular jump out or?

42:57 One big thing I would say between the city of Everett and the towns that I’ve worked for and lived in was, um, resident involvement. Mm-hmm. Resident involvement in a town and going into having to get a, the vote of your residents and have, um, them support all the work that the municipal government is doing is so much different than having to fulfill just the desires of one person at the top of the, it it’s very different. Our town meeting’s in May. So you’ll see, I saw you town me and I was surprised you don’t have a special town meeting. Those aren’t popular in this time. I, I figured that since you don’t have one,

43:44 I assume they couldn’t be popular. And I, I have a lot of friends in Hamilton and I, I think your latest special town meeting wasn’t that popular either, but that’s a story Difference. Well, I think it was a third special in a row Anyhow, Because we fi faced the same struggles that you are with three A. Sure. We almost got through a meeting without talking about it. That Wasn’t, I apologize that I wasn’t trying to lead.

44:08 Well, welcome. Thank you. We’re excited to have you. Um, no more interview questions. You’s already got the job here. If I could have a motion to appoint Allison Jenkins, chief Procurement Officer with a term to expire in June of 2026. So moved. Second. All in favor. Welcome, unanimous. Thank you. Thank you Allison. And you bet, much welcome. Thank you for being here. Thanks, Allison. Got it Now. So I, I’ve, I’ve requested to promote, uh, the individual to come up and didn’t promote, so we can, We’re gonna keep moving on. I like this. Yeah. Okay. So let’s move on to Logan to talk about our from, um, Logan Casey, our sustainability coordinator, is gonna come up and talk about our zero emission vehicle policy, the draft that we have.

44:55 Welcome. Good Evening everybody. Good evening. Good evening. Thank you for coming tonight. Yeah,

45:08 so I think you’ve got, you’ve got two agenda items in a row. Yeah. So, um, feel free to combine. Cool. Yeah. So looks like we’re gonna do, I think it sort of made sense talk about the Green Communities program mm-hmm. And this, the zero emissions. Yeah. So as part of that. Correct. Yeah. Good evening everybody. Logan Casey, the sustainability coordinator for the town. Um, yeah, tonight’s presentation is gonna be these kind of two items combined together. I’m actually gonna start with the green communities and give a little context about that program, um, as it’s part of the reason why we’re looking at this zero emissions vehicle, um, procurement policy, but it’s not the only reason. Um, but yeah, I’ll, I’ll kind of give a summary of that, which will kind of give some context leading into this policy and I’ll explain it that way. So, um, yeah, just a quick agenda for tonight.

45:54 Um, I am gonna give a quick overview of the Green Communities program. Um, the program itself, the benefits for the town, if we were to apply, and some of the previous town actions that kind of led us to kind of considering it and having this discussion tonight. Um, and then I’ll go into kind of the two criteria on, um, that if we wanted to apply for the program that we still need to check off, which are the, uh, zero emissions vehicle first policy, as well as the Energy reduction plan. Um, I’m gonna dive into the zero emissions vehicle first, uh, procurement policy tonight. Um, and I’ll talk about the energy reduction plan a little bit more as an overview, um, as that plan will come at a, at a later time for your, uh, review. Um, so to give a quick overview

46:40 of the Green Communities program, um, it provides technical assistance and funding, um, to municipalities for projects that improve energy efficiency, uh, and reduce carbon emissions. Uh, it was created by an act of the legislature in 2008, um, and it awarded the first designations. Uh, so the first communities, uh, received their designation in 2010. Um, out of the 351 municipalities, about 300 have applied so far. So, uh, this is a very popular program across the state. Um, it’s given out about, uh, $54 million worth of, uh, discretionary, or excuse me, designation grants, uh, as well as competitive grants, um, to do these energy efficiency carbon reduction projects.

47:25 Um, and, you know, more than 30 municipalities have been, you know, able to secure over a million dollars since their designation. Um, so there is definitely a potential for funding that we don’t have access to now. And, um, that’s kind of why we’re looking at this tonight. Um, some of the benefits, um, sorry. All right. It’s alright. Yeah. Uh, so some of the benefits, uh, to this program is, uh, so off the bat, uh, if we do all of the criteria necessary to apply and we apply, um, and are awarded a designation, there would be an initial designation grant that the Green Communities program would award us, um, between 150 and $700,000. Um, we could use this for any of the kind of eligible project types you see on screen energy

48:12 conservation measures, HVAC equipment like heat pumps, uh, LED lighting and building control equipment, ev charging and ev vehicle procurement, as well as the technical support and training that I mentioned. Um, so, uh, and then as well too, uh, after we kind of become a green community, uh, we then are eligible for their competitive grant program, which is a program that opens up about, uh, every six months, every half year. Um, and you can apply for up to $225,000 per round. Um, so again, this is another way that we can kind of fund our energy, improve energy efficiency improvement measures, as well as kind of, uh, lead some of the vehicle transition that I’ll talk about in a second. Um, and this is kind

48:58 of the Green communities funding aspect, um, but also joining this program will, uh, benefit, uh, residents and businesses as well. Um, so, uh, becoming a green community, um, will open up additional programs through the Mass Clean Energy Center, um, that, uh, you know, they have sometimes studies where they, you know, will help, um, you know, uh, large buildings, commercial operations, decarbonize. Um, they’ve had programs where, uh, residents could get involved in, uh, vehicle to grid technology, you know, using their, uh, ev cars to send the power back to the grid through the battery. Um, so these are kind of an example of the programs that, uh, you know, our residents might be able to take advantage of if we become a green community as well.

49:44 Um, so some of the past actions that kind of led us to, you know, me getting my job here, um, and also to, you know, one of the main goals in the net zero action plan to kind of consider becoming a green community. Um, it really starts back in 2018 when town meeting adopted Article 45, which, uh, you know, sought the town to move to a hundred percent carbon free energy, um, including in our energy production, building energy use and transportation, uh, and move with fiscal responsibility while doing so. Um, in 2023, uh, you know, we helped with the help of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council. Um, we put together a net zero roadmap, which kind of put together our, you know, formalized this Article 45 goal

50:29 and kind of set out this larger net zero greenhouse gas emissions goal, uh, to meet net zero by the year 2040. Um, of the goals kind of included in this roadmap, uh, becoming a green community is one of them. Um, definitely because of this financial, you know, aspect, it unlocks a lot of funding needed to kind of achieve this net Zero goal. Um, as well too is adopting a zero emissions vehicle policy, which we’ll talk about, uh, is a goal, and, uh, kind of working to incentivize energy and electrification and town is also a goal which this, uh, program would help unlock. Um, overall this program aligns with our net zero goals that we currently have adopted, and it would help provide, you know, the financial support that we really need to kind of actuate on some of these,

51:16 you know, projects, um, and energy efficiency measures we want to get into. Um, so to get quickly into the technical of it, there are five main requirements that all communities need to meet in order to become a green community. Um, and then there is an additional, um, there’s additional step for municipal light plant communities, which Marblehead is. Um, so I will just go to the next slide where I have the ones we finished checked off, and I’ll kind of quickly talk through. So Marblehead has three out of the five of these criteria on already completed. Um, the as of right zoning for renewable energy facilities, um, basically allowing energy production through renewable energy like solar to be installed in town has to be as of right. We currently allow that. So that’s checked off.

52:03 Um, as well as we have to have a permitting process that is one year or less for citing renewable energy facilities. All of our permitting processes are one year or less, so that is not an issue there. Um, and then in 2018, um, as part of Article four, or in a separate article, excuse me, um, there was an article to adopt, um, the Massachusetts Stretch Building Code, which, uh, has higher building energy efficiency standards, uh, for new and renovated buildings. Um, this is something that we’ve already adopted, so, uh, we, that’s not part of tonight’s conversation. Um, the last bits, um, that we do have to do are the energy efficient vehicle procurement policy, which I’ll get into in a second. Um, as well as developing the energy reduction plan

52:48 and, uh, establishing a baseline for our energy use. Um, the last portion that I’ll, I’ll quickly mention because it is important, is the Municipal Light Plant Communities topic and adopting the renewable energy charge. Um, this is something that I actually presented at, at the light board a couple of weeks ago and started this conversation with them. Um, because we are a municipal light plant, uh, we don’t automatically pay into the fund that Green communities, uh, is partially supportive of. Um, so we need to add a charge to our rate payers. Um, in order to join this program, it is 0.5 mil of a cent. So it’s one 20th of a cent per kilowatt hour.

53:34 Uh, it works out to be about five to $6 per year, uh, you know, for an average family of four. Um, so that is kind of another consideration that the Lightboard is also making concurrent to this conversation happening tonight. And, and Logan, may I ask, is that their decision, the light board’s decision? So as I understand it right now and the conversations with the Lightboard, it is solely the light board’s decision. It’s, Yeah, so, so that would be about 50 cents per month and, and what happens with that money? So it is, it is indirectly going into the Renewable Energy Trust, which is part of, of this Green Communities Act of 2008. One of the requirements to join the program is you pay into the Renewable Energy Trust, um, which is a certain trust

54:22 that helps distribute, um, you know, funding for clean energy projects and studies through the mass CEC. Um, this is different from the funding that comes from the actual Green Communities program. We actually, in a very indirect way, we already pay into the money that’s coming out of the Green Communities program. Um, but by paying this renewable energy charge, we then become eligible for this Green Communities program, Which in the event we get that, that first year when we’re eligible, we get between 120 and $170,000. Yes. Back year one. Yes. On, on award onward. Yep. Okay. Um, great. So with that, I will jump into kind of the meat of the conversation, which is the Zero Emissions

55:07 Vehicle First policy. And as I mentioned, you know, this is part of the Green Community’s criteria as kind of the larger conversation, but, uh, this is also a procurement policy in its own right. And I, you know, definitely should be considered in the larger context just outside of the Green Communities program as well too. Um, but so why are we kind of considering this? Uh, so again, policy requirement for Green Communities, and it’s also a requirement for the Climate Leaders Program, which is kind of the next step after Green Communities that kind of just launched a year ago. Um, this is also another opportunity for more funding, but, um, we’ll cross that bridge if we get there. Um, it’s also part of the goal of the 2023 Net zero roadmap, um, which calls

55:55 for moving our municipal fleet to, uh, net zero emissions. Um, and to give you kind of some metrics to give an idea of kind of how much, um, on-road vehicles contribute to our, uh, carbon emissions in Marblehead. Um, it’s about 36% of the total community, you know, share of the pie. It’s the second largest, um, you know, source of emissions after buildings. So, uh, it’s definitely one of the places where we really wanna start focusing on now, especially in the easy areas. Um, we have just 15 years to reach our net Zero goal by 2040. So, um, a lot of our town vehicles, you know, have an average age of 50 year, 15 years for a lifespan. Um, we have about 170 vehicles in our fleet. Half of them are light duty, um, which is kind

56:42 of the vehicles that we would like to target with this, uh, procurement policy. Um, and, you know, quickly talking about some of the benefits, um, you know, it will help us transition to this net zero goal and getting more zero emissions vehicles in our fleet. Um, but it’ll also, you know, give us some cost savings. It’s gonna help raise the fuel efficiency of our fleet. So we’ll be using less, you know, gasoline, diesel, less electricity to actually do our day-to-day operations. Um, and as well as, you know, uh, battery electric vehicles, hybrids, you know, typically require less maintenance than their, you know, uh, conventional counterparts. So that can see some, you know, longer term reducing costs, savings for maintenance. Um, and then also in kind of the larger community health perspective as well too,

57:29 we are removing these pollutants from our air, you know, um, the town vehicles are, you know, vehicles that are operating 365. Um, so it’s really important that, you know, we can move these vehicles that are going to be in town all the time as soon as we can to zero emissions.

57:48 Um, and so the policy itself is a couple pages long, so I’m not gonna get into every single detail tonight. I did share it with the select board in advance, and I have additional copies if there’s anybody in the public or the press, you know, interested in reading it. Um, but I do wanna highlight kind of the, the large kind of overview of it. Um, so when it, when we talk about zero emissions vehicle first, um, kind of what are we talking about here? So under this policy, it would essentially mean that anytime, you know, the town is considering purchasing a municipal vehicle, we’re gonna look at it and consider electric options. Um, if it’s not feasible, you know, whether the technology is not available or potentially the vehicle’s use is not suitable for an electric, we’re gonna look towards, you know,

58:35 plugin hybrids, uh, which have an, you know, all electric operation component, um, and then can operate on gasoline or diesel. Um, then hybrids and then finally the conventional vehicles. Um, it would also set, uh, minimum fuel efficiency standards, um, set to kind of what the minimum EPA fuel efficiency standards are today. Um, and looking to make sure that whenever we are purchasing vehicles, we’re making sure they’re at as efficient as they can be. Um, and finally kind of on what this policy is actually going after. So, uh, again, we’re gonna be looking to target the light duty vehicles. So, um, these are vehicles under 8,500 pounds. Um, you know, typically, um, you know, vehicles

59:22 that you might see, like our building department, um, you know, our inspector drives around in a bolt ev. Um, we have some, you know, uh, you know, uh, Ford trucks as well too, of various types, um, in the fleet. Um, so generally kind of these light duty vehicles, they have a lot of commercially available electric or hybrid alternatives. Um, uh, while the vehicles exempt currently and kind of give us this leeway and where the technology is not as advanced yet, are heavy duty vehicles. So, you know, anything over 8,500 pounds you might think like, you know, our large school buses, um, a lot of our DPW equipment, um, emergency response vehicles are also excluded from this policy. So, um, you know, like police cruisers that definitely need

1:00:09 to be operating 24 7 or need to be able to operate 24 7, um, with minimal downtime, um, you know, we’ll still try to get the hybrids, but, uh, maybe the batteries aren’t available just yet. Uh, as well as like off-road vehicles, um, you know, such as construction vehicles as well too. Um, as current, um, this proposal proposes to start this starting in fiscal year 27. Um, so kind of, you know, give us the chance to actually talk to town staff, let them know that this policy would be implemented. And while we’re going through the, um, you know, the asks for next year’s fleet, um, you know, this is part of the conversation and, uh, the sustainability coordinator and the chief procurement officer would kind of be involved in helping coach, you know, uh, the various,

1:00:54 uh, vehicle needs across departments. Um, and as I mentioned, the staff support. Um, so we will have kind of staff support from myself as well as the procurement officer, which we’re so, so lucky to have. I’m one of the people that is smiling ear to ear, um, about that hire. Um, but, you know, will also to help us, you know, we’ll have access to state contract procurement. Um, so we’ll be able to kind of expedite the purchase of these vehicles. Um, you know, purchasing with state contracts, you can typically, you know, get a little bit better of a deal if you’re working collectively, um, as well as create communication materials specifically geared towards municipal staff. Um, you know, I, I think, you know, people I’ve gotten the, you know, impression that a lot

1:01:41 of people on the staff are very interested in moving towards this goal, but I think there’s a lack of information out there. So, um, definitely part of this policy is kind of explaining, you know, what vehicles are actually out there. Um, you know, what considerations you might have as you’re transitioning. And, um, you know, the easy the, you know, more, um, you know, logistical things too about, you know, like, where are you gonna charge it every night, or making sure we’re getting the EV charger placed in as well too when we’re ordering the vehicle. Um, there’s also the Mass Fleet Advisor program, which I am currently working on, um, with Mass Ec and the town. Um, this program will, we’re basically dumping our whole vehicle fleet information, um, into this, uh, inventory for them. And they will give us, uh, information on how

1:02:27 to transition our fleet, kind of which vehicles we might want to prioritize that make most sense, um, as well as kind of the available rebates, tax incentives, um, and you know, how to install, uh, EV chargers at kind of various garages. Um, and then, uh, what I’m working on with the Green Committee right now, or the Green Marblehead Implementation Committee is, uh, the Municipal Fleet Transition plan and kind of getting that completed. Um, that will include some language on charging strategy, again, making sure, you know, when we’re ordering, you know, electric vehicles plugin hybrids, that we’re making sure we have the charging equipment necessary to, you know, make sure they’re operating optimally, um, as well as kind of the larger fleet transition plan that will be as part of the Mass Fleet Advisor program.

1:03:14 Um, and then finally, this will be super brief. Uh, the last criteria on that the select board will need to consider and adopt prior to adopting or prior to applying, uh, to green communities would be an energy reduction plan. Um, and essentially the overall goal of this plan would be a statement from the town that we want to reduce our municipal building energy use by 20% over five years. Um, this would be achieved, um, by, first we would conduct an energy baseline, which we’ve already done, um, basically outlining for the year, calendar year 2024, you know, what was each building’s energy use. Um, and from that, we’re having, um, a consultant power options develop this energy reduction

1:04:00 plan for us, which is going to recommend specific reduction strategies and projects that we can undertake per building, uh, and also prioritize which projects we should do for, you know, kind of biggest savings to least amount of savings. Um, this can include things like insulation, lighting, building control systems, HVAC equipment. Um, so it’s, it’s kind of all expansive. And, and, you know, the goal, overall goal is to reduce our energy usage, which helps with our net zero goal, but we’ll also save us some money in the long run as well too, which is, uh, another great benefit. Um, so in summary, uh, the two kind of things that I are leaving for the select board to, you know, start considering and hopefully asking me some questions on and giving some feedback to is, uh,

1:04:45 the zero emissions vehicle first policy. Um, tonight I have, I’ve given you the kind of draft that we’ve con built together internally, um, and would appreciate your feedback on, um, and at a future meeting, you know, I can come answer questions and, you know, hopefully ask you to adopt it as well. Um, and then as the energy reduction plan, um, you should expect that sometime in October. Um, we have the energy baseline together, as I mentioned. Um, we’re just waiting for power options to kind of get all the data together and put the plan together. So, um, and then, uh, there was one request when I went to the Lightboard Commission that I just wanted to make the select board aware of, um, as part of this discussion. You know, they are, you know,

1:05:31 considering the renewable energy credit, um, and they were interested in, you know, seeing if the select board would be re interested in reaffirming the support for applying for green communities. Um, you know, this is something that the select board had kind of outlined when they adopted the Net zero roadmap in May of 2023. But, you know, that was a couple years ago and this different group of people. So, um, you know, it would be another point of conversation for you guys as well. Um, the application deadline is December of 2025, so, um, if we, you know, adopt these two, um, criteria on over the next two months, which I plan to have ready for you before December, we’d be able to apply as early as December. Um, but you know, if there’s anything else we can just kind of wait, it’s a, it’s every half, every

1:06:18 half a year we can basically apply. So, So every six months we can apply in June if we don’t do in December. Exactly. Yep. Alright. So yeah, that’s it. Uh, thank you very much. And, uh, I’ll take any questions. Thank you for that presentation. Yeah. Uh, very detailed. Um, Jim, it sounds like you have a question. Yeah. On, on, I, I read the, I got into the details of the, uh, zero emission policy and it said we are feasible. You did mention that we are feasible on technical. I, I assume we are feasible would also include cost. In other words, if something was cost prohibitive, you would not be boxed into buying. Is that a correct standing? Okay. Yeah, most definitely. I think, you know, one of the interesting things we’ve found with like one of our most recent procurements is, uh, you know, I, I was talking with our health director

1:07:04 and our building commissioner about their new, uh, truck purchases they wanted, and we were looking at either conventional F-150, uh, the electric or the hybrids. And, uh, we ended up going with the hybrids and with all the incentives with them, they actually ended up being less than the conventional ones. Um, so, uh, like in this light duty range, it there, you know, electrics, hybrids are definitely getting more cost competitive. Um, you know, there is, you know, the flexibility is kind of built into this policy though. Understanding that, you know, costs and operations might limit that transition. You know, um, I, I think one good example is kind of the heavy duty vehicles that, um, you know, there’s not as many, um, kind of electric hybrid models out there to begin with.

1:07:50 Um, but also to, I think operationally, um, they’re a very different conversation, um, than you might have to deal with if, you know, if you’re like plowing snow or laying down salt, you know, um, you know, those are like critical operations that you’d never wanna be, you know, forced to be delayed by like charging or something like that. So, um, you know, every, every vehicle would be a conversation. Um, this, you know, policy is prescriptive in the fact that we want to move towards this goal. Um, but it does, you know, offer the flexibility and, you know, that would really come through, you know, conversations between myself, the town administrator and the procurement officer. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. I also, let’s just get impacted. Please, sir. Sir, hold on one second. I’ll, I’ll hold on one second. I’ll give you an opportunity to speak a after this.

1:08:36 There was nothing. I have an app. Yeah. So, we’ll, we’ll, I’ll, I’ll allow public comment after. If you wanna have a seat, I’ll call you up after, after we’re just done is our, is our procedure. Uh, yeah, I, so you can call Isaac. I’d like to, uh, I’m Sorry, you can call me Isaac. Isaac. Isaac. Thank you, Isaac. I appreciate that. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think that’s a really good example. I mean, I think one of the things that’s always in the back of my mind is that, you know, there, and by the way, great presentation a lot, a lot of very laudable objectives. Uh, and I think it’s great because it’s a lot of it’s downstream, uh, in terms of, uh, you know, at the point of consumption, uh, and it’s, all of these initiatives except for net zero are probably pretty independent from kind of the base load cost of electricity, right? Where, you know, we’re, where we’re having to figure out how

1:09:22 to move away from fossil fuels, and that becomes much more of a, you know, state level strategic decision. But my question always is, uh, you know, what are the, you know, to, to kind of meet the objective of doing it in a fiscally responsible way if we accept these grants, which are, you know, wonderful and create a whole bunch of possible initiatives, you know, are we baking in additional costs that, you know, that may, uh, you know, may put pressure on the community in any way? Now, I, I ask that question just broadly. Yeah. Because I think with anything that we talk about, you know, there’s a, there’s an incentive to run after, you know, short term money. Yeah. And then there may be consequences down the road.

1:10:08 But, you know, I think as market-based solutions really start to mature and evolve, I think the adoption of a, of, of, you know, a lot of exciting innovation can happen. It’s just that, you know, are we going out over our skis with more expensive options and they remain expensive, you know, or at least just be aware of the potential costs that we’re bringing to the table. Yeah. You know, that Right? That the state’s not gonna subsidize forever, You know? Yeah. So I think in response to that, in terms of, you know, costs outta the town, this has been a conversation with our light board Or the consumer, right? Or the, or the, yeah. With the rate or, or the rate payer Area. Um, you know, it is, you know, they will have to adopt the renewable energy charge for us to participate in this program. And, you know, based off of, that’s,

1:10:55 That’s not small though, right? That’s not, it’s not a big, it’s not a big charge, right? No, it’s a, so it works out in 2024 based on that usage. Our cumulative usage is a town, it works out to be about $50,000 contributed into the green community or into the renewable energy trust. Right. Um, you know, we get the, you know, initial designation grant, which is 150 to 170,000. Um, and then we become eligible for this competitive grant, which has only grown in size over the years, and has only become more frequent in the amount of times they offer it. So, um, you know, with the renewable or with the energy reduction plan, once we have that in our hands, it will give us a prescriptive list of all of the things we need to do to kind

1:11:42 of start reducing our costs, like insulation, um, you know, uh, windows, uh, you know, things, you know, maybe like heat pumps. And, you know, in Marblehead we have a benefit where the electricity’s actually lower than, um, you know, a lot of the surrounding, um, utility communities. So that’s a benefit for us. But, um, yeah. You know, once you, we have this energy reduction plan Yeah. You’ll, on the town side, we’ll have a big list of projects. You know, we will, we’ll definitely make the, the, you know, monetary use out of the green communities program. If we No, that’s what I, I would just ask you to be cognizant and, and express that, you know, as, as kind of the, the trade off that, that, that the town might be made, you know, might having to choose, choose between. Do you understand what I’m saying?

1:12:29 But I, but I would add, it seems to me most of the incentives are towards the capital investment mm-hmm. Portion of it, right. In order to make it easier to get into the operational savings that happen. Exactly. Because already Steve Cummings, who has the hybrid, I forget, I won’t say the numbers, but the, the fuel mileage he’s getting on that truck. ‘cause it’s a lot of local shorts. So there’s a lot of battery use is phenomenal. So that’s a, the savings is on the operational side. So the, the grants and such help us deal with the capital costs that may be higher, but again, the marketplace is driving down the actual prices. Well see. I, I think, But the operational costs are,

1:13:15 you know, ongoing is where there’s real savings to That. I think that that case needs to be unstated and underscored. I mean, I think that is, that is really key. Yeah. Um, yeah. And then My, my own direct experience, uh, having an electric vehicle mm-hmm. You know, I paid a little bit more upfront, upfront, but the cost of fuel to use that term, it’s about a third of the cost. My, like, my cost to charge the car is about a third of the cost of gassing It up. Gassing it up. Yeah. No, that’s right. Sure.

1:13:52 I have a few questions. Absolutely. Um, so how much of our fleet is currently of the light, um, duty fleet is, I think you said they have like around 90 of those, uh, vehicles out on the road for the town, and like, how much, how many do we have currently that are electric? Two. Okay. All right. And then, um, okay. Fully Electric. Fully electric. Fully electric. And now we’re bringing some hybrids in. Yep. Now we got a couple And, and there’s hybrid police cruisers. Yep. Cruises and the hybrid police cruisers. And, and in fact, Ford, um, it’s pretty much the only model they make, the hybrid how You, um, and then, so

1:14:36 I mean, there’s the upfront cost you consider. So I think you, you say like, of the light duty cars, how much, what is like the price differential now on, on say, like, say we wanted to order a water meter van mm-hmm. And, um, you know, they drive around all day long, stopping going, stopping going. Uh, what, what’s the difference, just curiosity, just outta curiosity between, you know, a regular, if we went to the market for regular car versus an electric on that? Yeah, I mean, it’s, it’s really hard to say because it is really dependent on the vehicle model. I know, like for an example, like a Ford Transit versus like the Ford E Transit, their electric version. Yeah. They’re about the same cost. I think it’s maybe a two, $3,000 more for the electric version. Um, so like the private, you know, auto

1:15:25 companies are definitely trying to market these, um, you know, as decently cost competitive. I will say that, you know, battery electrics have been, you know, in the past, you know, higher price, more luxury vehicles. Um, but I think, you know, they are more price competitive in where the town is actually looking to buy vehicles. Kind of like, you know, the 40 transits, kind of like the entry level, um, kind of like Chevrolet bolts that we already have. Um, so, uh, you know, they, they will have some, you know, higher upside expense. But also say too, you know, we have, uh, the federal tax credits that are portly going away, um, that we’ll have some access to until the end of the year. Uh, but we’re very fortunate to live in the state of Massachusetts that also has, um, a lot of incentives available for, um, battery electrics, uh,

1:16:13 through the more EV program. Um, we are eligible for, um, anywhere between, I think like 3000 to $7,500, um, back kind of based on the category of vehicle we buy. Um, and that’s in addition to kind of the additional brands that we go after too. So, um, you know, it would definitely be, you know, part of the cost. Uh, you know, also to, uh, in, in the addition, you know, worked into the, the zero emissions vehicle policy is also conversations about we need to, uh, you know, for these battery electrics or plugin hybrids that we’re getting, we’re thinking about the charging as well too. Mm-hmm. And, um, making sure we’re thinking about that upfront investment as well too, to make sure they’re, um, you know, they, they work well operationally.

1:16:59 And so in the policy, it wouldn’t just be because like if it’s, I mean, financially feasible would, wouldn’t just mean that if we’re buying an EV car and it’s, you know, $5,000 more expensive, we wouldn’t necessarily just buy the regular gas car because there’s the annual savings over the lifetime of the vehicle. Yeah. It’s also the, that you’re factoring in when you make that purchase decision too. So. Yep. That would definitely be part of it. Yeah. So it’s not reliant on subsidies per se. I mean, you, you could, you’re gonna get a, a return on that choice mm-hmm. Presumably right over time. Yeah. Alexa, thank you. Thanks. Um, this is just, uh, piggybacking a little bit on Aaron’s question, but just to, um, you know, with your question about, uh, just planning for the vehicles and things like that, and I think that’s one of the things that, um,

1:17:46 Logan touched on is for putting this out there, because we have, historically in the last couple of years, even, you know, if we’ve, uh, maybe a department has put forth saying, we’d like to order a hybrid vehicle, or, you know, that’s been budgeted for, but then the reality is just the availability wasn’t there. So, you know, when we say two, I think totally electric, but other things, it, it, there has been a concerted effort to address this, but you know, like I said, there has been in the last couple of years just the availability issue as well. And so I think that’s important as we look at this holistically with the planning, is like, what are the incentives that are out there? How do you reduce the holistic cost on it, and how do you plan for if we do say, uh, you know, department says, okay, we’d like to target this fleet

1:18:32 that we are as proactive as we possibly can, because, you know, as you said, once those vehicles come on board, now we’re here. So if we can get in front of that to not, then, you know, get something. And I think it’s important too, just understanding the purchasing on the municipal side versus, you know, if I was a consumer on the market and going just, you know, looking at apples to apples buying an ev, you know, vehicle or a hybrid versus a regular, there might be a bigger delta than in the municipal market. There’s other factors that come into play. So it’s not just, um, that one consideration, you know, and it’s going to, as you said, it’s gonna change depending on what’s available and what our charging network is. But I just wanna say that, you know, we have,

1:19:18 and the departments have been really trying to, when they’re looking at these fleets, but unfortunately, if there’s that timing where they’re not available, then if we can, you know, catch that too. ‘cause that has happened. Yeah. Okay. I just have one point of feedback. Um, but the only thing that caught my eye on the policy, just in terms of, um, feedback would be the transfer between departments. I don’t know if that’s too onerous or restrictive. Um, I, where are you looking for? Um, it’s c it basically that we wouldn’t be allowed to like transfer mm-hmm. An old police car to the school department for some other use if we owned it. And we, you know, I think I can remember a few times where we maybe, I feel like we wanna say we gave like a truck to the school department, they put a plow on it. Like, so just that’s one thing that like, you know, maybe

1:20:05 yeah, no, I don’t know one piece of the policy that may be, you know, maybe a little bit restrictive for Us. Yeah, no, I’m happy to elaborate on that specific point. And that was actually when we presented it to the green committee, that was, uh, a comment that Andrew Petty actually brought up as well too. Yeah, it does happen. Yeah. No, it definitely does. And, um, so this policy, again, you know, it’s, it’s meant to kind of set the ground rules, but not to be too overly onerous. Mm-hmm. Um, it does kind of set guidelines for if you are doing vehicle transfers, um, you wanna make sure that the vehicle we are transferring to another department, if we are going to keep it, our municipal fleet, that it meets certain energy efficiency standards. Um, so, you know, if we’re gonna keep it operating for, you know, x number of years longer, it’s, it, it, it makes financial sense versus

1:20:52 actually making the investment in a new, more efficient vehicle. Um, it does have some exemptions. So, you know, this is, again, all up to the conversation, you know, when we get around to, um, you know, presenting budgets, getting all the department requests in, um, you know, if it makes, you know, financial sense, if it makes sense for the town’s needs, um, that we transfer a vehicle to another department, um, and it, you know, might not meet those standards for some reason. There are way, I, I think it’s, uh, you know, through the recommendation of myself and the town administrator, um, that could be basically waived. But, um, yeah, we are, you know, as part of, you know, these conversations has kind of been mentioned as by all of you, um, you know, we’ll be doing a lot of kind of the math behind it of, you know, what is, you know, the delta between the, you know, upfront cost

1:21:38 of the purchase of the vehicle, but over the, you know, long-term lifetime operation of this vehicle as well too. You know, how much, you know, savings or potential additional costs are we gonna see. Great. So I think we should take some time be before our next meeting Yeah. And look through this Great. Um, against you comments. I, which is great. Yeah. I mean, those is additional. And, uh, Isaac, if you wanna step up, if you don’t mind just stating your name and your address. Appreciate that. Hi. Oh, Isaac, uh, Bayview Road. Tardy Bayview Road, um, actually drove here tonight in a fully electric vehicle. Uh, you save on brakes, um, because it charges back into the system, so there’s a whole lot of savings. Um, Ford just made our announcement that in the next two or three years, they’re gonna have vehicles for 30 grand.

1:22:23 So, and you can power your house with the, with the vehicle for a week. We’ll see. But, uh, I think this is all tenable, but I do have a fundamental question, and I don’t want to be sound facetious, but how does this funding get impacted by three A? No, that’s a good question. I’m just gonna look away from you while I talk in the microphone. Thank you. Thank you for waiting. Appreciate it. Um, but yeah, so, you know, with our recent non-compliance, we have been in communication with our, uh, department of Energy Resources regional coordinator, Dylan Patel, who’s been, you know, helping me kind of get these application materials ready, but has also kind of been, um, you know, helping like the lightboard kind of with, you know, adopting the renewable energy charge and kind of all the, the tidbits within that.

1:23:10 It was brought up at the Lightboard meeting where I presented this as well too. And, um, Dylan’s state and kind of what DOER is publicly stating right now is for the competitive grant program. So the one that we’d be able to apply for every about six months, 225,000, um, that program definitely considers MBTA community compliance. Um, so that would be a factor if we were approved in, in the ability to kind of, uh, apply and, you know, successfully receive those grants. So that is definitely consideration, um, on the discretionary grant. Um, it’s a little gray area right now. I am asking, I’ve asked Dylan, I’ve asked, um, to see if he can poke higher up to, um, see if we can get an official, um, opinion from DOER on kind

1:23:56 of what their stance is regarding the designation grants. Um, because, you know, theoretically that money is given to you as soon as you become a green community. Um, you know, uh, again, this is just kind of, because we are in this, you know, new zone, it’s kind of a gray area that, uh, is kind of being worked out as we’re having these conversations right now. So, um, you know, I’m sure by the next time we talk, I’ll, I’ll have more details for you, but, um, as what I know right now, the, uh, the com uh, the competitive grant program would be affected by compliance. Yeah. I mean, I think it’s something, thank you for bringing that up. Uh, I think it’s something that we need to take into consideration when we think about asking rate payers to spend money, um, and to commit to this before without knowing.

1:24:41 I’m not saying that we shouldn’t do, but that’s something that should definitely come into consideration when we’re deciding the timing on doing this. Yep, for Sure. So one of the, one of the challenges, the whole subject, it’s not like all these state agencies are one monolithic, um, policy, right? So we have, as a municipality involved in so many different agencies and so many different programs. The state agencies themselves haven’t flushed out what should apply and what doesn’t apply to three A. So, um, so it, it, it’s not, we’re we’re generating the list of all a grants. We’re identifying the ones that we’ve got a definitive answer, the ones that we need to probe, because there is no one answer throughout all these different agencies

1:25:28 on how they’re gonna handle this. Mm-hmm. It’s a Very manual process. So I think it’s gonna be a question of timing on this. Yeah. It would be great to get an update, a periodic update to, for the board. Of course. Yeah. That’d be great. Absolutely. We appreciate, thank you, Logan. Good job. Thank you for your time. Appreciate it. Alright, let’s move on. Do we just keep moving on with this? All right, we’re gonna move on to number eight, Marine Corp. Two 50. Moses, if you’d like to give us an update on this. Yes. This is the, uh, result of a petition from, uh, Seth Moten with the participation of, of yours truly to, uh, find a way to be part of Marine Week, which is occurring in Boston. And so it’s basically, uh, the Marine Corps’s way

1:26:14 of approaching, uh, communities in certain regions and celebrating the 250th birthday, uh, of the United States Marine Corps. Now, there is, I’d like to read you a portion of the asks that they make around how the town, you know, uh, would, would kind of receive this right as part of their consideration. So, Marine Day in Marblehead, and, you know, we stipulated that, you know, set the date for August 21st, 2025, honors the US Marine Corps on its 250th anniversary celebration, while highlighting the town of Marble Head’s common cause with the Marine Corps in devoted service to our nation, held during Marine Week in the Boston area.

1:27:00 The event joins the happy occasion of the Marine Corps birthday with a recognition of time and place at the site of Fort Sewell, which defended the town during the revolution, and famously provided covering Cannon Fire for the USS Constitution with its detachment of 60 Marines against two British frigates during the war of 1812. The celebration also highlights Marble Head’s unique role in the American Revolution, especially, uh, general John Glover’s Marblehead Regiment, the first militia to volunteer for Washington’s continental army at Cambridge, Massachusetts in June, 1775. Uh, this year also marks the 258 Ann 50th anniversary of the commissioning of the Schooner, Hannah, out of Marblehead, the first ship commissioned by General George Washington in September, 1775,

1:27:45 for armed interdiction of British shipping. The ceremony also honors marine veterans and all veterans who served in common cause over the long history of our nation as we approach the 250th anniversary, uh, anniversary next year. So the Marine Corps will take that written notice into account in terms of setting the tone, you know, for the, you know, for the, for the, for the ceremony. And it’s really important to understand that, you know, Marines take, uh, our birthday celebration, uh, very seriously, you know, in honor of the course’s history, the traditions, and the sacrifice to our country. And it also reaffirms on many levels the motto of the Marine Corps, which is Semper Fidelis. And that also includes Emra, Fidelis to our form

1:28:31 of government for the people and by the people. And the commitment that the Marine Corps has to, that is probably, and the all of the armed services have to, that make it possible for us to have a free and democratic nation. So that’s the spirit under which I think that would, we’d like to undertake, you know, undertake this ceremony. And the details on the actual, um, Yes. Ceremony, the details, uh, is August, is this Thursday? This coming Thursday, or, sorry, uh, Thursday, August 21. So a week from tomorrow, and it will be happening at, uh, let’s see, Fort s Sewell. It’ll be happening at Fort s Sewell. Um, and I, the ceremony begins at, uh,

1:29:18 you know, I need, I need, I need to be con let me confirm the details. Let’s, do you have the details? Yeah. So I thought it was 4 34 30 To 6 16 30, yeah, four 30 to six. Right. So the ceremony starts at four 30. Yeah. Okay. Okay. I just wanna be clear on that. Well, 16, 30, 1800 don’t mix and match. Yeah, right, right. Okay. Thank you for that. Yeah. Um, okay. And this will, don’t wait, and it’ll just be taking place at Fort s Sewell. Correct. Just be taking place at Fort s Sewell. Now, do you have, do you have an updated agenda item? Um, I should, I should let you know that it involves, um, the Quantico Band. So they’re coming up from, from, uh, Washington, DC it involves the pretty world famous silent drill team of the, of, of the Marine Corps. Uh, it involves a flyover of, um, likely four F 18 jets.

1:30:08 Okay. And I think there will be, you know, kind of a, you know, I think it’s very much an epic opportunity for the Marines to be located at Fort Seoul in that, in that ancient fort that has, you know, stood, stood in the town’s defense for so long. So, and there’ll be also a cake cutting ceremony, which is mm-hmm. Uh, you know, part of the, part of the drill. So, Jamie, a question, well, Is there also gonna be a band later afterwards at the Landing? There will be. And this is, they, there’s actually a marine rock band, so, correct. I have, you know, I’m not sure what that’s all about. I’m sure it’s, they’re excellence, it’s a, I’m sure I understand. It’s, I’m sure they’re, hold on. The select quarter is not sponsoring the No Marine rock. That’s correct. No, no. And by the way, this is very much a, you know, kind of a Marine, uh, sponsored event.

1:30:55 It’s tightly contained within what the Marine Corps is going to do. What we have to do is basically provide the venue, the parking, the safety, and everything else the Marine Corps Is doing. And, and I also want to add in, uh, conjunction with the birthplace of Marine Corps aviation, Marblehead, the F 18 Cs when they fly over will have ge Lin built engines with local talent From, from Lin, Massachusetts. Yeah, that’s right. That’s, Yeah. So we do have a letter here from, uh, from Chief King, um, requesting that we, uh, closure of some of the parking spots on Fort Beach, and he has provided a map of where the parking restrictions will be. And it does look like there’s some marine bus parking at the, uh, the old North as well as it looks like over by Little Harbor.

1:31:41 That’s correct. That’s correct. Yeah. Okay, great. So, so Ted Moore has, uh, you know, has set up two spots, two, two, uh, two spots for two buses. And it looks like with, on here it says event location. Yep. Uh, 1600 to 1800. That’s, uh, but we, the, The range are coming earlier, The coming rehearsal. Okay, great. So we’ll get, we’ll make sure we get the exact, but the, the event does start at, at four 30 for us, the Public portion for us, civilian four 30 start, um, the restrictions are in place because they’re gonna come in early. The band Sure. They’re gonna do a practice run themselves, so, so they’re gonna need access. Yep. Anybody else have any other questions for them? Moving On, I just was gonna ask who, who is going to help promote, or what groups in town can we ask to help publicize it? It’s a week from tomorrow,

1:32:27 and I, I, I just wanna make sure we do our best to, um, let the community know so that when the band comes and that, and the silent is it silent Drill team comes that there, we’ve done, like we, we have put on a good, um, audience. We give A good ception a Audience. It’s a two tiered, uh, effort. The Marine Corps itself is publicizing broadly throughout, throughout the area. And we also have John Gil Foil, who is our own, uh, media specialist who’s developing content and, and sending out process, Good Handles And so forth. So when we went to the new website vendor, um, as, oh, did I mention we Oh, launched the Congratulations. The looks great. It looks great. Maybe I should have put that in my update,

1:33:12 but I’ll put it in the next one. Let Let it keep going smoothly. Yeah. Let then we, yeah, we wanna make sure. But so John Gilfoyle’s, uh, company is, we’ve migrated as host hosting our website and doing all that, but he also provides communication services. So that was part of the package we got when we, when we contracted with the website, is that for events like this, so we have, we have arranged with him connected him and his firm with the Marine pr, and they’re on it. Um, the paperwork that Moses has been finalizing is the official, uh, authorization. So we’re all sort of waiting to make sure that,

1:33:58 that everything was good to go before we, uh, fully went public Authorization. To the Marines. Yeah, to the Marines. Does he Have our social media accounts? Yes. We’re, We’re, so he’ll put it on Facebook and the, and the Instagram. Yeah. We’re setting up those links, so they’re getting information from us as to what Facebook accounts, getting admin rights. Those, those things have been worked out. I, I also wanna say, I think there was something in the current Yes. Addition today that people will Oh, good. That’s what you read about the Landing? That’s what I read about the Landing. Okay, perfect. Yeah. So the Marines have already Focused on what could go wrong most.

1:34:38 They’re busting all the Marines out of town probably before then. So this is for Close down for local. Yeah. So the Marines did a press release already, and I think that’s where it got picked up. That’s where you, that’s where you’re Picking that. They are also during the event will be live streaming the event on the Marine network worldwide. Um, and the plan is also that for, ‘cause Fort Sewell is not the largest place to cra people in. For those who don’t act, can’t actually get into the fort, the plan is to have a large monitor right below the entrance. So the folks on Front Street, if you can’t get into the fort, will have a visual of what’s going on inside the fort. Great.

1:35:24 Great. All right. So let’s move forward then. Could I have a motion to approve the use of Fort Sewell on Thursday, August 21st, 2025, second. Hold on, hold on. Slow down, slow down, slow down. I’m usually the one who’s trying to speed this. Everybody relax a little bit. Let me do my job. I was just making sure I was excited about this. I’m excited to prove for the Marine Corp 2250th birthday celebration event, subject to approval from police and fire, receipt of required certificate of insurance, and authorized Moses greater to coordinate and sign any documents required on behalf of this request to moved. Second. All in favor, unanimous. Could I also have another motion to approve? I won’t pause. Temporary parking regulations and the recommendation of Chief King for August 21st, 2025.

1:36:11 Marine Corps’s 2250th birthday event as follow is Fort Beach. All Fort Beach parking spaces are restricted from 12 noon to 6:00 PM public parking spaces from Franklin Street to Fort Sewell, restricted from two to 6:00 PM posted signage by DPW prior to the event block Front Street of Franklin Street to traffic from two 30 until 6:00 PM times. And restrictions are subject to change based on public safety needs. The area around Fort Sewell will have additional police presence for the closing of streets and the movement of Marine, Marine Corp personnel as needed. Moved. Second. All in favor, unanimous. One more motion to prepare citation honor of the Marine Corp, the Honor 50th birthday. So, move. Do I have a second? Second. All in favor? All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your work on that, Mr. Greater, am I on? Any

1:36:59 Pleasure. Gonna move on to select board, uh, goals, review and possible vote? This is stuff that we talked about at our retreat, um, about a month ago. Um, veteran Aaron put together and hopefully sent around what we talked about, summarized it. We have our objectives broken down into different goal areas and status updates from where we are right now. Our main goal areas are good governance, communication, public engagement, finance and budgeting, capital planning and investment, community, quality of life, workforce and human resources and community development, economic growth with subsections under those. I know if people, I’m open to how we’d like to discuss this,

1:37:45 um, if we wanna go through it or people would like to make changes. Yes. I’ll just say that. Um, so I just, this was just my effort, effort to summarize like what I, my understanding of, and the takeaways were from the meeting. So I, um, hopefully people have had a chance to go through it and, you know, correct. Make corrections If there’s things that, you know, I are not represented the way people remember them or want them to read. Um, and if not, we can continue it. You know, people haven’t had a chance to go through it. Yeah. Um, but, uh, just that, the idea being that we could kind of put these concrete down and formally adopt them for the year, uh, um, for the goals. So I’m, if there’s, if people have gone through them

1:38:32 and there’s only like some few wordsmithing or they want some changes, we can go through that now. Or if people need more time, That’s fair. Do people, I don’t, I think looks Becausecause. I don’t wanna go through every single thing and read It looks like a, it looks like a good summary. Yeah, I think, I mean, I went through it and it looks, I think it’s very representative we discuss in a good, I think it’s a good communication tool as well, You know, and then hopefully we can put this up on, on our website, under our goals, um, under select board might be an appropriate thing that we can get out there on the public as well. Yeah. That’s not like, I mean, the formatting, I Think if we want to change the formatting and some words, we can do that Yeah. Before we, before we post it. But that’s gonna be a general guideline for it. Yeah. For some reason when I shared it on OneDrive, like I had bolded, I had made the, um, like the head,

1:39:18 like just some of the things didn’t translate. Yeah. I think we, so we’ll visually make it better, Visually make it better. Right. But the substantive Yep. If everybody’s comfortable with the substance of it, we could, um, we could formally adopt it tonight. Any Comments? I guess, I guess one of the questions I have is, you know, in terms of the implementation, all of the, of all of this in a, you know, kind of a, in a strategic way, who does what, where? Um, this is where the G-F-O-A-I harken back to that. It’s been a while since you mentioned that, But this is where A-G-F-O-A document does kind of, uh, isolate each of the strategic initiatives of the department and essentially kind of breaks down either guidance from the

1:40:04 select board or, you know, uh, brings up potential strategic needs, uh, to the select board to, to, to back and find funding for, for example, I’m just, uh, you know, I know that the, you know, the, the GFOA document itself organized by department, you know, while it’s breaking down the budget, can also break down the kind of the strategic, you know, co-locate the budgeting with the strategic initiatives and the implementation, the strategic initiative. Hold on one second. Alexa, comment on, Sorry, I just wanna pause for a second. So, do you want to take this and align that first? Is that, is that what you wanna do? Well, I, I just wanna make sure I understand. I’m, I’m not necessarily Oh, no, no, no. Against it.

1:40:51 I just wanna, does that make more sense to like fold that into this project? That’s already a project We do. I think it’s a, or you want it to be, I personally think, I personally think it’s a great opportunity because I think there’s kind of like a top down discussion and appreciation of kind of priorities and initiatives that the select board would like to see. And, you know, it, does that match the, you know, the directives, uh, or, or the, you know, the priorities of the individual departments that are implementing all of this, right? ‘cause we’re not, you know, we’re not necess, you know, we’re not driving this to implementation and anything that we, you know, prioritizes a strategic initiative has to get paid for, right? Or we need to find funding, funding for it.

1:41:38 So if there is an alignment between the budgets of the departments and the strategic initiatives, now some of, some of these initiatives can, can take place in the, in the select board office. Right. But many of them occur down at the, you know, down at the, uh, with a lot of marks. That’s, yeah, because, you know, my experience has been with strategic plans is you, you write them, you publish them, and nobody looks at them and they sit on a shelf. So, so I’m just mm-hmm. I’m just kind, what I’m kind of advocating for a little bit here is to get some alignment with the, with money and the implementation. So do you wanna take what you think, like, do you wanna take a draft version and bring it back to us? Like fold in what you think would fall into the GFOA and bring it back, You know, as A review? Well, I think, yeah, listen, our very first, and I need to circle up, you know, I think the question I would ask is,

1:42:25 we now have the GFOA pretty much not in auto form, but pretty close. But there’s still work around, you know, when Thatcher sits down with each of the departments and say, Hey, okay, what are your, you know, what are you, what are you doing in the next quarter? You know, there is a sense that there’s a plan and or in the next year that there is a sense that ties into what the, the, the select board wants to do. Well, If that’s the case, wouldn’t it be, I Mean, I’m not sure I’m the one that’s going to, because this involves ongoing discussions, and I think Thatcher can see what the desires of the select board are. Yeah. Couldn’t you take this document and fold that it’s into the appropriate, obviously not all of these things would flow Into this, or you’re just wondering how, right. Yeah.

1:43:10 Flow, you know, you, it’s basically kind of a, you know, a template of, of things that you can take and say, okay, well this, this is a line, this is where we’re working with the GFOA, this is how we could execute and would have the financial implications. But this is just more, you know, I see this more as a, um, you know, like a framework, a starting point even, you know, with things specifically, like just with the meetings and things like that, there’s no specifics on when and how that’s executed. It’s just, this is the goal is in regards to, you know, just general governments, how do we improve it, right? So what do you, Isn’t, isn’t this also a framework allowing Thatcher to know what our goals are? I mean, That’s The things to adopt these as for him to do that.

1:43:56 I agree. So when you talk about implementation, I think this, I think this reflects the collective wisdom such as it is of the select board, you know, and kind of what we would like to do. And obviously that’s been leavened with the town administrators, you know, input. I’m just thinking that to, you know, how to put it, you know, to kind of operationalize it in a way that we can, you know, see it reflected in, uh, you know, throughout the town organization. I mean, we do have, you know, different departments, different boards, and you know, if there’s a way for us to, you know, to make that part of the underlying objectives of each of the departments every year through the GFOA process, now what you’re doing is you’re really concretizing, you know,

1:44:42 what does get implemented, how with what money, right? And maybe not all of these get implemented, or we need to find additional capacity to implement. And a lot of these are not financial, right? Well, I think that’s right. A lot of these are policy and, and that’s good point. No, It’s a very good point. So I think that we can break those down. So am I, tell me, am I, if I’m hearing you right, yeah. We can still prove these goals. Of course. And then, and then I think you’re talking about the next steps. I’m Talking about next Steps about the next steps, right? I think, I don’t think we’re saying he needs to do that now. I think that we can improve these goals and those are the next steps as move forward and maybe segregate which ones of these go into the GFOA. Yeah. Which ones are appropriate. But, you know, a lot of these, if they are policy driven, they, they fall under the select board, you know, department without question. So, so Right. So there are, there’s a whole host of kind of things that, that do that. Yeah. It’s just a thought, frankly,

1:45:28 because I think what it does is just concretizes what we’re trying to do. So as, as part of a steep strategic planning, right? And strategic planning is a cycle, right? That goes through, and we’ve talked about this at the various retreats we have. Yeah. This is the first step in the cycle. This is the, the, the, the executive level mm-hmm. Setting the direction for the organization. So what happens from here with the adoptions of this as we go into the next budget cycle and with the policy matters, sort of the, what are the initiatives we need to focus on? This is what’s given us the direction. And so as we build a budget for next year, we’re Taking Their goals, right?

1:46:14 The departments have goals, but those, all the department goals are looked at to align with these goals. Yeah. Right? So you’re setting the, the first top level direction of the organization. And then as we go through the, again, the budget process, which is reflected in the budget, which is formatted for the GFOA, what we’ve, uh, what we’re looking at at the department level as such, right. We look to align it with what’s here. Well, I think, but I agree with that, but I also think that strategic planning is very much an iterative process. Yes. Not, right? So, so I think think part of it is too, is that we want to take ideas and understand the range, the, the limit, the limits of the possible, and, and, and that which is less possible.

1:46:59 And then, so the select board can also be informed about its goal setting process within a, within a realistic context. Now, I think we have, because you know, we’ve had your, you know, you, you, you’re intimately familiar with the, you know, with, with the operations of the town. So, um, and we’ve had the, and these are all pretty, you know, these are all pretty, pretty reasonable. Yeah. And we, and again, at the retreats, we’ve had the report outs That’s right. From the prior year’s goals where we’ve reported out and ticked off all the ones that have been accomplished and the ones that haven’t, you know, the status or are they still the goals and that feeds into the next iteration. Yep. Okay. Yeah. Is that, I would, I would just, sorry, Mr.

1:47:45 Chair, I would just add another plug. I think from my point of view, the advantage of having the GFOA, uh, breakdown of the individual departments in terms of their budgets and then also have the strategic goals of each of the departments is really a very valuable information tool for, for, for c you know, for the, for the, for the, uh, residents of the town. I really do. You can always say, you know, what have you done here? Why? What do you, you can just turn to page, even though it’s page 50, it’s only four or five pages on the department and their, and their budget and their projections. And it’s very useful. It’s A quicker summary than looking at clear. Yeah. In some ways it’s great. So you mm-hmm. It’s a big, it’s a relatively big book, but it, but it’s very well organized. Yeah. It’s just something to Yep,

1:48:31 Sure. Okay. Thank you. I appreciate your No, I think it’s, appreciate Your, your indulgence, Mr. Chair, Appreciate your, your input. Mr. Um, does everyone wanna move forward with provenness? So if I could have a motion to approve the select board goals as presented for 2025. Same second. All in favor? Unanimous. Moving on. We have the National Opioid Litigation Consortium settlement, Thatcher, we have a memo here from you if you wanna summarize That. I think, uh, fairly detailed, laying it out. So let me speak generally. So we’re all familiar with the opioid epidemic that raised the country. Um, and then there were lawsuits filed against

1:49:17 the principal entities that were, um, assigned the responsibilities, uh, uh, of that. And through that process, um, there were, uh, settlement agreements, uh, that were made with different entities and, and these settlement agreements, um, there’s a consortium of, of attorneys that are representing, as I understand at least all the public entities. And so the attorney generals in the various states organized to, to deal with the lawsuits. Um, there, there’s a, a, an organization of attorneys who are representing collectively the municipalities for these agreements. So there are a number of agreements that have already been put in place in which Marblehead

1:50:05 is already a beneficiary of payouts from these. And then over time, there are more settlements being made, or in the case of the Purdue Farmer, uh, uh, a sort of, uh, an update to agreements or additional agreements that are made. So as part of that process, um, we get between the, the, the, the legal consortium representing the municipalities and guidance from the attorney generals. So the Massachusetts Attorney General provides guidance, makes rep recommendations to the municipalities, to, we could either continue a lawsuit individually, town of Marblehead versus all of these entities,

1:50:52 or agree to be party to the settlements of the, the, the, the, the conglomerate negotiations. And on the advice of Attorney General, that’s, that’s the path we’re taking. So, so what this would be is there are settlements in place with, in the, in this case, nine different entities. Um, and the actions being asked for here is to authorize, uh, me, because in the municipalities, they designated the, the, the leading full-time person to be the, the, the designee to interact with and communicate with and, and sign off things. So as the town administrator would give me the authorization

1:51:37 to make the agreements, as I’ve laid out in the, in the motions, um, the memo details it, but one is an authorization to do a on, on a vote on the Purdue plan, which is, uh, uh, an additional settlement with Purdue. The second one is authorization to sign the, the called geese of the government entity settlement agreement, uh, for the Sackler, uh, agreement. And the third is authorized and to sign participation in a nine defendant that’s assuming there’s the, the additional Sandoz opioid settle, uh, authorized sign participation in another, um, settlement agreement, which involves nine different entities. So, okay.

1:52:26 So it seems, I mean, there’s no downside there. There’s no downside. It basically allows Us to receive money, Right? Yeah. What, what are the implications for Massachusetts, uh, and Marblehead in terms of potential settlement? So we’ve, we’ve already received upwards of 330,000, and that’s not counting the emails. I just got the other day with notifications of additional, um, wire transfers coming into our account. Oh, okay. Um, now with this money comes specific requirements of what they could be used for. And on the second page of the, of the memo, use of funds and impact, uh, such as community education and prevention programs, treatment services for substance use disorders, recovery, housing support services, distribution

1:53:14 of lifesaving medications such as nal, naloxone, naloxone, uh, public health, infrastructure and training. So, so we have a working group of our public safety and health folks, and our strategy is identifying three focus areas of, from this list and to identify entities that provide these services and fund through those entities. Got it. We, we’ve consciously decided that we, the town, we don’t have the, the bandwidth or the, the expertise to deliver these services. So it’s identify entities who already do this and provide funding to them

1:54:01 that serve the community of Marblehead. Right. Outstanding. Okay. So if I could have a motion to move that the select board authorize the town administrator vote on behalf of the town of Marblehead to approve the Purdue Farmer bankruptcy plan, including the 6.5 billion Sackler family settlement as recommended by the National Opioid Litigation Consortium. The vote shall be submitted via email to the consortium by the required deadline of September 23rd, 2025. In accordance with our specified instructions and based on the summary information provided to the board. So moved. Second. All in favor? Unanimous. Could I have a motion to move that the select board authorized the town administrator to execute the governmental entity settlement agreement? Gisa Squa release on behalf of the Town of Marble Hood by the submission deadline of September 30th, 2025,

1:54:47 using the DocuSign platform provided by Ruper to move. I’ll second. All in favor, unanimous. And a third motion to move the Marwood Select board authorized the town administrator to execute all required participation forms on behalf of the town of Marblehead for the opioid settlement agreements with Algen, Amal, AAX, Hickma, and Div Indivior, myelin, sun Pharmaceuticals, Zydis, and if applicable, Sandoz as recommended by the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office, town administrators authorized to complete this process using DocuSign platform provided by the settlement implementation Administrator Rubus, and the separate portal for Sandoz if, if applicable and accordance with participation deadline of October 1st, 2025.

1:55:33 10 minutes. Second. All in favor, unanimous. Thank you. And we will move on. Do we? All right, do we have someone here for this? I, I. So our next on our agenda is a host community agreement assignment. There is a request to assign the host community agreement from Seven Leaf Sisters to K-C-C-S-L-L-C. Yeah, I’m not, I’m not sure if they’re just monitoring or, or, or looking to participate. Okay. So I’ll, I’ll, I’ll give the summary. So Marblehead has two host community agreements in place for adult retail cannabis sales, um, and, uh, one of which is, uh, seven Sisters. Um, and, and again, licensing is done

1:56:20 through the Cannabis Control Commission at the state level. So there is an entire vetting process that goes on at the state level. At the local level. It’s a requirement of these entities to enter into a host community agreement with the local municipality, which sets up such terms. Uh, the existing agreement, uh, in place with Seven Sisters. Um, uh, there is a transaction scheduled, at least based on the last information I have for K-C-C-S-L-L-C doing businesses, cannabis culture to buyout or purchase the Seven Sisters Company, um, and take over the responsibilities and all of the existing terms

1:57:07 of the host community agreement in Marblehead that was agreed to his seven Sisters. Um, the, um, the, um, KCCS, uh, or cannabis culture already is already operates in Northampton. Uh, Northampton was the first municipality that actually opened shop, uh, however many years ago. Um, and so, um, there’s a couple set. One the transaction is expected to go through based the latest information tomorrow for the sale, and then there’s an upcoming meeting. I, I I don’t have the exact date that, for the cannabis control commission to vote to approve the transaction.

1:57:52 So the vote that I’m proposing would authorize, uh, the, the transfer of the host committee agreement from Seven Sisters to, um, KCCS. And they, they, they have indicated maintain all the terms, the employees, in other words, um, based on the subscription business as usual as to what the company was, was doing or intending to do. And the vote would be contingent upon Cannabis Control Commission doing their final approval.

1:58:31 So this is basically no change to what was approved in 2021. It’s just a question of who’s the Ownership? Who’s the ownership. Yeah. It’s a transfer of ownership. It has to, to be authorized at The local level, and we had no obligation to give notice other than through our agenda for this. Okay. Alright. All right. Mr. Here, I have a, I have a question. Yep. Um, are they operating right now? No. Okay. They’ve Not, they’ve not opened, correct. Neither of the either one? No. Okay. And so how often are we renewing the host agreements? So the terms Yeah, yeah, I’ve looked at ‘em. There are, um, are they three memory? Yeah, I think there were like five year agreements and there are six months to a year apart. Um, and so there is an expiration date more than a year out.

1:59:20 I think I, I’d have to go back and look, but yeah. Okay. Yeah. ‘cause this says it was from November, so it must go on its anniversary date. Yeah, I think, Uh, so are are, do we have an obligation to go back out to market for the agreements? You know, if these shops are not opening, they’re holding these and people are, you know, maybe potential retailers are looking at Marblehead. Oh, they already have filled their two slots. But I mean, we have, but nobody’s opening. So I guess I’m just wondering like, how regularly are we checking in with Mr. Shara for, um, the one up on West Shore Drive and I guess why haven’t they opened and, you know, what are their obligation

2:00:09 to just keep renewing their applications versus allowing for the possibility of another vendor to come in? Right. So, so we haven’t actually, so there hasn’t been a renewal. I’ve looked at the terms. So there are, there’s no language in the agreements that gave us the ability to, uh, before the expiration to pull the h the host committee agreement for lack of opening. There’s, there’s, there’s no mechanism in the agreement that gives us that, um, there was a mechanism if they didn’t meet certain requirements early on for zoning and things of that sort. But based on my review of the agreements, uh, we have to just write out to the expiration of the current agreements. When the current agreements expire, then we have options.

2:00:56 Well, unless mutually agreed one. Right. So I guess, does Mr. Shara still have interest in this license agreement? ‘cause I haven’t heard from him in four years, so Yeah, I It’s never, It’s a long state process too. Yeah. Once is there, is there an Automatic EE expiration of the HCA? Yeah. They, the, it has an expiration date if it’s not, yeah. Yeah. But if it’s not, I’m not aware. I’d have to go back and look again. I’m not, yeah, I, I don’t recall seeing an automatic renewal. ‘cause that would’ve, that would’ve definitely popped the flag in my head. So it’s waiting out for the expiration. Now, I would say this, having been heavily involved in this, when I was working with the city of Framingham, when, when this industry was red hot and everybody was jumping in, right?

2:01:44 There was a lot of competitions in the, the market saturated. And so it is not unusual statewide that there are a lot of entities who have host agreements who have not been able to open. So, so, you know, I was aware working with Becky early on as ‘cause as part of the background, um, and, and again, this is for the two adult retail categories, there are other categories that are not limited, um, for selling the cannabis. And we’ve had conversations with different entities that have sort of come in lots of conversation and, and then move on. So I would, I would say that

2:02:31 the concern about them not opening as a lot to do with the state of the industry at this time. Sure. Sure. And it’s waiting for the expiration of the host community agreements. And then we can look at Okay, what are our options at that time? But if we could just check in with Yeah, I don’t know the name. I mean, the applicant is, uh, mark Shakara. Yeah. For the other one, we know what’s going on with this one. Yep. But I don’t, I mean, let’s just check in because if he wants to release it, maybe it is economical for somebody else, right? I don’t know. Yeah. Would you remember what the renewal, uh, conditions are? Let’s just say that it’s the same owner that is going through renewal process, but has an opened, you know, what, what are our rights to either transfer the HCA or to terminate it, you know, and

2:03:17 and require another application process? Well, again, uh, my read of it, there was no mechanism for us to be able to initiate. Yeah. I don’t remember any action to the, in, to the expiration. No. But when the expiration happens, When the expiration happens, Can we just terminate the license period? Well, it expires with that applicant, but we still have, we always have two. We always have two. Yeah. We always have two slots. Yeah. And so when the agreement expires, Then there has to be another reapplication. It’s a We Would Yeah. Say okay, they can reapply and we can also open it to others. Right. Those have yet, because it’s, it’s out a future day, haven’t sat down and kind of explored, had a Business over. Well, I’m just curious. I’m just curious because HCA is taking over, uh, you know, what, one year before, you know, prior to the, there must, there presumably is an advantage to being, you know,

2:04:05 an HHCA signatory already in the renewal process. Yeah, that’s what I’m trying to understand. So Yeah, it, it, it would be our desire that they become very active, you know, and participate. I mean, some of the interest is we get 3% of sales, um, has been major changes in how the impact fees are, are are, are done. But Are they still going down Or, yeah. I mean, the state’s pretty much pulled back heavily restricted, um, impact fees. In my experience in Framingham, we, we collected fees, but never charged them to anything. So as I, as I talked about back then, uh, when this industry opened, I think about it, it’s, it,

2:04:50 it was an illegal activity that became sanctioned, but heavily regulated by the state to allow it to, to open. And so at the beginning of this, it was brave New World, and no one knew, you know, what to expect and firewall, firewall to banks. Yeah. So, so they were belt suspended and duct tape put on everything. And since the industry has matured and has gone through its economic cycles, I think folks are getting comfortable with the concept of it’s, uh, uh, another activity, uh, for folks. And, you know, it hasn’t had all the impacts that people feared when, when this industry first

2:05:37 was allowed to go into business, Ask for, uh, on this actual amendment. It says, whereas the town, the company previously answered that, that certain host community agreement dated as of June 14th, 2024. Did we, We we did an amendment Well. And it says, and then amended as of July, laws changed. 20. What’s that? I Think ‘cause of the laws of the cannabis, we had to amend it. We were out of compliance, but they had rolled back some of the regulations that we could impose. So, so I guess my question on that is our host community agreement started in 2024 or 21? No. So it was an amendment to the Original contract. This is not what this says. So this says that we entered into a certain host agreement dated June 14th, 2024 and amended July 22nd.

2:06:22 2024. Yeah. Let me check. Yeah, that’s not right. Let check, check that language Be all right. So it might be the 2020, the first 2024 may not be 2020 Be 21, something like that. So let’s just make sure we have that right. We’ll check on that. Okay.

2:06:40 All right. Could I have a motion to approve the assignment? The host community agreement for Seven Leaf Sisters Inc. To K-C-C-S-L-L-C and amendment agreement contingent upon approval by the Cannabis Control Commission. This amendment does not take effect. Just as a note until the closing. So moved. Second. All in favor? Unanimous. All right. We’ll check on the date, right? Yeah, we’ll double check that date before we sign it. Yep. Thank You. June 14th, 24th. Okay. We’ll just double check that. Um, moving on to our next agenda, school committee notification, our vacancy. On August 8th, we received a letter from Al Williams, a chair of the school committee, um, notifying us

2:07:25 that they have a resignation from Brian ota, effective July 31st in accordance with Massachusetts General Law, they have voted to declare the seat vacant. Um, at this point, we will, uh, have a joint session to, um, basically approve or appoint a new member. Um, what we’d like to do is open up, um, and ask for letters of interest and resumes, resumes to fill the vacancy. And we are proposing if we wanna move forward with that, uh, that all letters of intent should, um, of interest, um, given by September 5th, and that we will hold a joint meeting with the school committee and to interview applicants on the 10th

2:08:11 of our regularly scheduled meeting. So if I could have a motion to accept letters of interest and resumes to fill the current vacancy on the school committee, and to hold a joint meeting with the school committee on September 10th, 2025 to interview all applicant’s deadline to submit letters of interest and resumes September 5th, 2025. Please submit to both the select board at Abbott Hall, 180 8 Washington Street, or email Wiley K at marblehead mass marblehead mass.gov, and also to Al Williams at the Marblehead Public School Administration nine Wier Road. Or you can email williams.dot al@marbleheadschools.org. I have a motion. Shall move Second.

2:08:52 Oh, second. I thought Somebody said second. Thank you. Nope. All in favor, unanimous. All right. Moving on. We have some consent Agenda items if I could have the motion to approve the following consent agenda items, old Town House Rev two 50 Community, September 20 to 21. 2025. Headers and Revolution Weekend subject to the usual rules, regulation fees paid to the town and receipt of the required certificate of insurance dollars for scholars to hold the 10th annual run for the fund 5K Road race on Sunday, October 5th, 2025. Subject to approval from police and fire. Police details require certificate of liability, no permanent markings are allowed in the streets, and any temporary markings must be removed to the conclusion of the event Shanty number one, to Mark Lozier renewed

2:09:39 for 2025 to 2026, subject to receipt of required forms and all fees be to the town Abbott Hall, Saturday, August 1st, 2026, request from Aaron Martin for wedding ceremony, subject to the U usual rules, regulation fees paid to the town and receipt of required C of I, old Town Hall, Friday, September 5th, 2025. Wings, women discovery presentation, subject to usual rules, regulations, and fees paid to the town in receipt of the required certificate of insurance and the minutes of July 9th, 2025, July 15th, 2025, and July 23rd, 2025. So moved. Second. All in favor.

2:10:19 Moving on surplus equipment at the police station. Uh, we have a request from Chief King to declare two pieces of police equipment is surplus. A precision solar control, estimated value of a hundred dollars in scrap metal. And a 2017 Ford Explorer, if I could have a motion Move To declare those. All right. Second. All in favor?

2:10:51 One day liquor license. If I could have, this is for the Friends of Council on Aging. If I could have a motion to approve the following application for one day liquor license from the Friends of the Council of Aging on Wednesday, August, 2025 from four 30 to 6:30 PM at the Judy and Jean Jacoby Community Center at 10 Humphrey Street, subject to the following conditions, delivery of and receipt by the licensing authority of the required fee of $50. Delivery of and receipt by the right licensing authority of proof that the alcohol will be purchased from an authorized source. Proof that the a applicant can receive proper delivery, provide proper storage and disposal of all alcohol beverages, purchase, all in accordance with the requirements of general law. Chapter 1 38, authorized distributor to determine

2:11:36 before license is released and alcohol will be purchased from CAP’S importing. And I have a motion. So Moved. And the second. Second. And this will be a poll vote. Mr. Zi In favor, Ms. Singer? In favor, Ms. Newman? In favor, Mr. Grader? In favor, Mr. In favor. And we have some contacts, contracts were approved. Thatcher, do you wanna walk us through? Yeah. Uh, anything we should know about this? Uh, just, uh, the first one, the digitization project is just an extension of time, not cost, um, the TROs Playground Sporting, which is being paid for through the Rec and Park revolving fund account, and, um, uh, police station flooring project, which is paid for out of Article eight of Tom meeting 2025.

2:12:23 Okay. Any questions on those? Nope. Seems pretty straightforward. Motion to approve the amendment as presented to contract 2024 dash 0 63 records, digitization project between the town and MetaSource LLC by extending time for performance until June 30th, 2026. And authorize the chair to sign on behalf of the board. So moved. Second in favor, unanim. Motion to award contract 2025 dash 10 schell’s Playground Sports Legging Project between the town and Ham Electric LLC in the amount of 21,100, uh, sorry. 21,100. 21,000. Sorry. This is just written wrong. $21,750 and authorized the chair dis sign on behalf of the board. Somewhat second. All in favor? Unanimous.

2:13:11 A motion to award contract 2025 dash 0 1 7 police station flooring project between the Town and Penalty Floors Inc. And the amount of $14,234. And authorize the chair to sign on behalf of the board. So moved. Second. All in favor? All right. Do we have any, uh, we have one other thing in here, added our agenda. We have a letter of interest for old and historic. Um, thank you for old and historical commission vacancies. Um, we do have Michael Hall. We do have an application here I would like to recommend. Um, we do have two vacancies, uh, one full and one alt member.

2:13:56 Um, why don’t we, if it’s okay, why don’t we open this up now and ask for any applications due by September 19th and we can hold interviews on the 24th. Sounds good. Sounds good. I don’t, we need vote on that. Right? And we also have, um, two vacancies on the taxation aid committee. We have received two letters of interest. Um, why don’t we set the same deadlines for those of, uh, September 19th for application since September 24th of interviews. Sounds good. Sound good? Do we have any announcements? I, yes, go Ahead. Um, um, for Lisa Hooper had asked us to, uh, uh, publicize the Council on Aging’s dedication event, um,

2:14:45 of the, uh, beautiful park behind the Council on Aging, the Bocci courts and the landscape architecture is really nice. And so they’re having music refreshments and the dedication of the, um, new area, uh, at, um, a week from tonight, four 30 to six 30. Great. And I would, uh, like to send condolences to the family of Rose Collins. Uh, she was a former Con Kong member. I understand. She played taps for hundreds of veterans, uh, mother of Theresa and Amy who passed away last week, as well as to Jim Devine. Yep. Who was a lifelong Marblehead and, um, citizen and a firefighter. So, um, I dunno if you want to send a letter of, of, of condolence from the board and recognition of their dedication to the town of Marble Hood.

2:15:31 So moved. Mr. Chair. Okay. I second. Okay. All in favor? All right. With that, if I could have a motion to adjourn. Moved second. All in favor? All right.