Select Board: November 19, 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.

0:23 Ready? We’re good. Alright. Let Meeting November 9th, 2025.

0:34 Alright, let’s open up with Public comment. Do you wanna speak And your address please? Albert Jordan Roosevelt. Have I mute this? Gonna mute us. Go ahead. Yeah. I wanna thank, um, the highway department and the tree department for cleaning up around the coffin school outside. I know the neighbors appreciate it should have been done a long time ago. It was a big safety issue. Um, I’m just wondering, I’ve talked to several departments about, uh, three abandoned vehicles over there. Uh, there’s three now. And, um, they’re blocking the building. Um, the kids are going in and out of ‘em. Um, you can’t see the building. They’re supposedly breaking all the windows. You got this big school bus blocking

1:21 so you can’t see if kids are in there damaging the building. Um, I spoke to the school department about the school bus. They told me they gave it to the fire chief. I spoke to the fire chief. The fire chief told me they didn’t give it to ‘em. Um, so no one knows who belongs to these vehicles. Now they need to all go to the junkyard ‘cause they’re no good anymore because they’re all vandalized. But it would be nice just to get ‘em out of there. And the other thing that’s a little wooden shed that they use behind the annex, that was for the garden that was out there. It’s, it’s a fire trap over there. The town should spend a couple hours and go over there, uh, with a backhoe and just knock it down and take it away. It can be done in a couple hours before someone gets hurt. Thank you. Thank you. Thank You. Just so you know, that is being taken down. Thank you. Yep. Anyone on one? Okay.

2:09 John, can you hear us from Hi. Thank you. Can you hear me? Good Evening. Great. Um, I’m John Livermore, 19 Russell Street. And, uh, just wanted to say a few words about the importance of Marblehead becoming a green community. Um, a small group of us started sustainable Marblehead back in 2017 with the mission to preserve our past by protecting our future. And almost immediately we set to work preparing the path for the town of Marblehead to become a green community and tap into the multiple benefits for our town. We prepared, prepared the first town wide greenhouse gas inventory and presented our report to the select board who endorsed it in 2018. And later that year, our warrant article was overwhelmingly approved at town meeting to work toward

2:55 using a hundred percent carbon free energy in electricity production, buildings and transportation. And then in 2019, we presented to the select board Carbon Free Marblehead 2040 a Climate Action Plan framework that working with town officials led to the creation of the Green Marblehead Committee and the adoption of Net zero by 2040. Target in the net zero, uh, roadmap. So since becoming a green community is the next logical step on this path to achieve Marble Head’s goal, to be free of carbon pollution by 2040, I wholeheartedly urge the select board to adopt the excellent energy reduction plan that Logan will be presenting this evening. And I thank you so much for your leadership. Thanks John. Appreciate that. Anybody else on, oops, sorry.

3:43 Yeah, sorry. My name is Eileen Haley, OU 44 Longview Drive, and I’m here to also speak about Mar Light becoming a green community and the energy reduction plan that you’re going to be reviewing tonight. Um, there are many advantages to Marblehead being a green community. Uh, and the main thing is that Marblehead could access $150,000 in the first year that were designated and up to 250,000 each subsequent grant cycle, which would bring in a million 125,000 to the town in the first five year period. And this, these green community funds not only reduce the amount that mar by taxpayers have to spend to modernize our town buildings, but by making our buildings more energy efficient, they will cost less to run in the future, saving the town money going forward, and thus the energy reduction plan you’ll

4:29 be reviewing tonight. Um, and as you know, there are also several criteria for becoming a green community that require your support and action is our select board. The first, which we’ve already adopted, is the zero Emission Vehicle First policy. Thank you. Thank you. And second, um, the, the criteria for green community include creating and adopting a policy that our town will reduce its energy use over 20 20% of the next five years. And you’ll be hearing from Logan about that tonight. But this plan will save the town money and utility costs analyzes with our net zero roadmap that you adopted in 2023. And then finally, um, the select board, I hope, will send a letter of support to the municipal lightboard stating that you want the town to become a green community because of the benefits to the town. And you request the lightboard

5:15 to take the steps needed now conditional on us becoming three A compliant. This will support the lightboard in taking its step to move ahead with the renewable energy surcharge, which will, is a key step in becoming a green community. So, in conclusion, I want to thank you for completing Step one, urge you to review and adopt the Energy reduction plan at step two. And I hope you can work with a lightboard, uh, on the renewable energy charge. Thank you for all you’re doing. Thank you. All right. Does anyone else I just say live. Go ahead. Okay. Uh, well, good evening. I’m, I’m Michelle Bell. I live on Ocean Avenue, and I’m, you know, I think we all know it is just a delight and joy to see all of the many children riding their bicycles safely to school on the new Marblehead Rail Trail.

6:02 And, you know, one of the real bonuses is that it has, one of the positive outcomes is that the Rail Trail project is that it confers both health as well as environmental benefits to current as well as to future generation of marble headers. Well done. I hope that the select board will continue to prioritize and support other new plans and programs that also have the potential to have the potential of significant health and environmental benefits as the energy reduction plan about to be presented by Logan Casey as part of our towns application process to become part of the green community. Thanks.

6:43 Anyone else? Line? I will go. All right. Good evening. Good evening, short person here. Um, my name’s Elaine Lahey. I’m an IDA Road, and I’m here also to speak in strong support of the, um, presentation that Logan’s going to be doing on the Energy Reduction Plan. I’d like to just share quickly my three reasons I support it and I hope that you might consider as well. First, this plan is simply good fiscal stewardship. Energy efficiency projects lower our utility bit costs, which in turn reduces the burden on taxpayers. We’ve heard a lot recently about rising expenses across town. When we’re presented with a clear opportunity to reduce ongoing operational costs, it seems

7:31 to me like a straightforward common sense step. Even better. This plan outlines logical, prioritized actions that help us sequence projects for the greatest financial return. That’s something I hear a lot, uh, from town Administrator, Thatcher Keer, and a lot of the town departments like the Highway Department and the Tree Department. There’s always like logical steps that you have to do. And this sounds to me like the same type of really great planning. Um, this type of planning also inspires a lot of confidence. Second, the plan aligns with the town’s commitment to reducing energy emissions. It not only benefits our environment, but it also creates healthier, more comfortable buildings for our municipal employees and the town, um, the staff

8:20 and student in our schools. Third, adopting this plan fulfills a requirement for applying to become a green community. That designation would open the door to additional funding and grant opportunities, again, easing the financial load on our local taxpayers. So to me, this plan is a huge win-win. It saves money, improves our buildings, and advances our climate goals. So I respectfully ask you to pass the Energy Reduction plan after your consideration. Thank you. Excellent. Anybody else? Close public comment and move on to town Administrator Update faculty. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

9:05 Um, I have three items that I wanna review and I have the memo in the packet. Uh, first item, um, we have received notice from our town planner, a, uh, Alex Heitler. Uh, um, his resignation as our town planner affected December 12th, 2025. Um, incredibly, um, uh, he is, uh, sort of a life decision. Uh, his partner who is studying medicine in England, and, um, looking to where, you know, where they’re gonna go to pursue their careers. And it seems that their opportunities are in Australia. So, um, uh, he’s been with us out, been with us

9:51 for a good part of a year. Um, and by all, all Accords, the staff, the boards, everyone’s dealt with him. He has been an outstanding member of our staff. Uh, we’re sorry to see him go, but we are excited about his opportunities for his own, his own future, um, with that. So we will be, uh, posting the Tom Plan position shortly, advertising and moving forward to fill that very, very critical position. So we wish all, uh, Alex, best of luck on his and do, uh, next, uh, through our HR department, Tom Howard. We’ve implemented a Employee of the Month program. Um, and part of the, the basics of how that program goes is,

10:42 uh, employees can nominate other employees. There are no, no rules of, uh, limitations as to who, who can nominate whom. Um, and so we, we’ve implemented that plan. And, and, and the first employee of the month, for the first month that we’ve had this program for November is Amanda Elli, who is our payroll and benefits person. Um, and as a reward, those who receive employee of the month will receive a day off and whomever nominates the winning nominee will have a half day off. And obviously they’ll coordinate with their departments, uh, to make it all work. So, uh, Victoria,

11:30 uh, I struggle with her last name, Victoria, in the assessor’s office. Uh, she is the one who nominated Amanda, so she will get a half day off. Um, part of the reasons for, for Amanda is her leadership and initiative. She managed our recent, um, the town’s life insurance, open enrollment effort, working with all the employees, all the carriers, uh, all the information sessions that were held. Um, her positive organizational impact, um, she just works great with everybody. Um, she exemplified town values, um, of reliability, respectful colleagues, willingness to help across departments. And her, her other contribu is just

12:17 having a positive attitude. She’s in a customer service role. That’s a tough role to be in, and she’s just always positive. So, congratulations to Amanda to thank you to Victoria on this program. So each month we will have, uh, new, new, new winners on that. Um, outstanding. Yeah. Yeah. I, it, it is. Great program. Um, and finally, uh, uh, sort of an update is we, we track, uh, the impacts of our non-compliance with three A and working with different agencies to define, you know, what, what programs are we no longer eligible, what programs are we eligible for? We sort those things out. Sort of one in which we determine that we’re not eligible

13:03 is the Community Transit Transit Grant program. Uh, and what this program has done is it works, uh, it is the means in which our Council on Aging has been able to get these shuttle vans that it uses for transporting seniors members of the Council on Aging, uh, to their doctor’s appointments and, and events and such. So it is, uh, the vans are a vital lifeline to, to really our most vulnerable residents. Um, last year, the COA provided more than 5,100 rides to more than 200 residents using these vans. Uh, the community transit grant program provides 80% state match for these bands,

13:50 which are on a cycle to be replaced. ‘cause they, they take a beating with the miles that they’re putting on. So, uh, right now, out of the four bands, three of the four bands have been funded through this program. So the challenge for us is that we are currently not eligible for these grants. Uh, there are the, the, the grant also provides some operational support funding. We, we’ve seen $45,000 for this grant. Um, so the challenge here is until we become compliant and eligible, again, any replacement of the vans would have to come from Marblehead, you know, sources of funding, uh, and to meet that challenge. So again, as we go through all our programs and such,

14:36 and sort out which ones that three A noncompliance is having an impact, this is, uh, this is having an impact in its own critical program. With that, that’s my update pending. Any questions? You, I just wanted to say one thing. Uh, obviously the Tom Planner is a very critical position, so, but, um, as positions come open as they do in any organization, I think we need to be very careful about filling them, given the revenue projections. Uh, so we really have to think careful of both the town and potential incumbents coming in. And, you know, whether you want to bill ‘em now or you need go, wait, I know what we would do in my day job. We’d probably wait. But it’s just something to think about

15:24 that just as jobs open up that we may not really just post them and, um, until things can become a little clearer. But there’s a certain, in the case of the planner, we’re on the holidays, you’re probably not gonna be interviewing anyone till January, February timeframe. Maybe the revenue makes will look better, who knows? But it’s just to be very cognizant of it. Uh, that’s all in, in general, not, and I’m not focusing on planners, but as jobs open up, that’s all. Yeah. We’re absolutely cognizant of that. And we have those conversations with the department head. Yeah. And, and there oppositions that are absolutely critical. And there are positions, like you say, that we may have some flexibility and to take advantage.

16:10 Yeah. It, it, I I think the town’s very intent to begin with, and I don’t, I don’t think there’s any that, you know, you really want to do without, it’s just, um, it’s just one of those things. So anyhow, just a comment. Right. What Else? Um, so impractical matters for the Council on Aging. Are we take, does this mean we’re losing transportation services or if we need to service them? So this is an impact on the replacement schedule for these veins, right? So they have govans they cycle through, you know, a new van. I don’t know, I don’t know what their cycle exactly is. So, um, if, uh, if they are scheduled to, to turn in a van, because they, they put quite a few miles on these,

16:57 and, you know, in that cycle they would normally apply for the strength to help pay for, um, the new vans coming in. Um, then it would have an impact. Do we know if any of the vans are up For I, yeah. I don’t have that specific schedule. I, I, I’m not, um, talked to Lisa directly on this, but it looks Like the vehicle one grant was done in 2015. Seven theory. Happy be. So we, Yeah. Tenure, we have a 2015, uh, we have one vehicle received 2015, 2018, 2023, two vehicles in 23. So it would probably be the 2015 vehicle. That would be the next one up. And, you know, we’ll, we’ll talk to Lisa as

17:43 to the condition and such. And maybe the, the physician’s point, you know, on vehicles is you have to wait a year and you have to patch it up and keep it running, uh, you know, and hopefully become eligible and, and hit the next cycle.

18:03 Um, and so are we, I know we have a list of things that we’re being actively kicked off of. Yeah. In terms of funding, um, uh, grant funding, where can people find that right now? So I think we posted, we updated from content. I’m looking at Logan in the back of the room because it’s, it’s on community development web page. It’s Okay. There’s a, so I, I hope that people in the community that voted against or didn’t have enough information to be informed can take stock of all of the actual revenue loss. Um, and it’s a shame that we, and I will say it, we had a campaign

18:48 of active disinformation and fearmongering that went out. I mean, I frankly find it shameful that we are one of the handful of communities. There’s 177 communities that have followed the law, complied with, complied with the bipartisan law, signed under Governor Baker, and that we are now in this situation, and we are, you know, um, I, I just, I’m, I’m still flabbergasted by it and it’s heart wrenching being on this side table. And people thought we didn’t know what we were talking about when we said this was gonna happen. We were told, no, they’re lying. They don’t know what they’re talking about. We’re not losing this money. You know, it’s there.

19:33 It, this is, there’s real consequences. Elections have consequences, and people need to really show up and know what they’re voting for. And I feel like, um, I just need to say my, say it again. I don’t, I, I’ll say it, um, as much as I can, because it’s our staff, our town employees, our seniors, these real consequences for this. We are losing money we don’t have. And there’s things that we are not getting that we could be getting. Um, and it’s, again, it’s just, we we’re up against a big disinformation campaign, and at some point we’re gonna have to have a reckoning about it. So we’ll see whether it’s in the form of an Attorney general or whether we can pass another plan and have a second bite at the Apple. But again, every meeting I think we’ve had,

20:21 you’ve brought us something that we’ve lost. I think every single meeting we’ve had this come up. So I really hope people in the community are paying attention to what we’re losing out on. Thank you. Thank you. What else? With that, we will move on to item number three. We’ve got, uh, Bob here from Marvel Community Access and Media. I think he’s here to make a pitch. He is Bob. Hi, Bob. We need help. We need help. All right. We all need help. What help do you need? We need more people. Yeah. So, uh, as you all know, and, and thank you for giving me this opportunity to try to get people in the community to think about joining the board of directors of MHTV.

21:08 MHTV has been operating as an independent nonprofit since 2009. And when it was first created it, Comcast used to run the studio. Now it’s all run and paid for by primarily the, the, uh, cable providers. So when the articles of organization, uh, were drawn up in the bylaws, initially, the select board, uh, appointed, uh, most of the members, uh, to get it started and retained the right to, uh, have one seat that every three years gets appointed by the select board, ed Bell rest his soul. Mm-hmm. Uh, he was the original, uh,

21:56 select board designee, and he stayed in that position, um, until he retired. Uh, and his position has been open now for probably a couple of years. It’s posted. You folks do a great job of posting it, but nobody applies. It’s one position. Um, we are now a seven member, uh, board of directors. We also have a vacancy from the schools. The schools need to appoint someone as well. And we’re trying to get them to, uh, to do that. So there’s school representation, uh, on MHT v’s. Board. And in terms of perhaps an incentive for people to why now versus any other time, there are some major changes that are taking place at MHTV.

22:42 Uh, Joan Galla Boy, who has been our executive director for a very long time, done a fabulous job, has resulted in multiple annual national awards of excellence for the work that we do. She’s, uh, retiring and we’re in the process of, uh, seeking, uh, a replacement’s the wrong word, but a new executive director. Uh, we were all set to, we have a screening committee, uh, that is doing that. We’ve, uh, hired out an independent, uh, search, uh, organization, and we were all set to interview candidates when the reigns came through the roof at the studio, which has been out of commission.

23:27 Now, as you all know, we’re not even live broadcasting, uh, select board meetings because the studio is inoperable. We’re still able to put programming out there, but our our live programming capacities are severely impacted. Uh, I’m told by Joan today that hopefully within a month we’ll be back in business. But there’s been all these insurance companies and so forth. But the idea of getting involved with a new executive director who will bring her or his visions and an opportunity to, uh, tackle new approaches, perhaps to bringing public television to the town through MHTV, uh, is, is, I would like to think an exciting opportunity.

24:13 I’ve been on MHTV since the inception, and, uh, it’s a great group. And, uh, I would hope that as a result of getting this word out a little bit more vigorously through me, uh, tonight, that some folks would just send in a letter to the select board expressing an interest, and then the usual process, they come in, get interviewed and get appointed. So thank you for giving me the opportunity, uh, to make this pitch. Well, thank you for coming. First of all, thank you for all you’ve done. How much of a time commitment does the people are listening or reporting? So, the, the board, uh, typically meets once a month. We, we generally meet on the first Tuesday of every month. And the, the time commitment, it’s not a killer.

24:59 It, it really isn’t. And if you like media, you know, it’s, it’s an opportunity to learn about things that maybe you never knew about. So, uh, it, it’s a fulfilling position. And, uh, I, I hope that people are into the call. We, at the current, I wear that hat as well. We’re constantly promoting the vacancies, you know, and, and we get the word out there too. But, uh, again, thanks for your time. I know you’ve got a busy agenda. Appreciate It. Thank you. Go Chair. Is there, should they reach out to you? Like, let’s say somebody has questions who’s listening, who’s sure had some follow up, was thinking, Hey, maybe, maybe this is the right fit, but isn’t sure about going through the process of applying yet. Should we direct them your way? If they wanna follow up with

25:46 Certainly, I think, you know, that they could, they could call the MHTV line. We could set up a time to meet, uh, happy to do that. Good idea. And, And Bob, just one suggestion. Our friend James Marone makes all these elite videos. Maybe you could commission him to make a promotional one and how fun it would be to be a board member working with Bob Beck and the rest, and, Oh, I tell you, that’s a real thrill.

26:11 He could be in good to video. Just a Good idea. Yes, Jim. Jim. And, you know, the, the whole gang. They’re, they’re, they’re fabulous. Thank you. Just, you know, we are voting on the roof Yeah. Later on tonight, so, Well, Yes, after that pitch, we, we we’re gonna be in trouble if we don’t. Um, moving on. Next Thank you, Bob to MWRA issue with the bond, uh, Kami, you wanna come up and give us the overview for that, please?

26:45 So this just, you know, this is for the water bond for a million dollars, uh, issued from the MWRA.

26:52 Hi, Kim. Hello. Good evening.

26:58 So this is borrowing of a million dollars, uh, for,

27:03 um, this is from Article 17, uh, 2023, uh, which authorized 1,000,022 400,000, uh, for the construction and reconstruction of the water ification system. So this is borrowing pursuant to that. Um, and then we had documents ready to go for that one. Were your reviews and signatures, And I think you mentioned when I was talking to, is interest. It’s an interest free. Interest free, yeah, absolutely. Interest free loan over 10 years. And here, here comes, here comes another pitch.

27:38 Should I give you the course? Evening. Evening. Uh, so just, we are in MWA, uh, community. We get all our water from MWA, and this is actually one of the benefits that MWA has. So all the rates that you have, they go in and, um, when they have any kinda un reserve fund that goes into this type of loan for every community. And so they set aside money, um, through different plans for every community. And there’s an allotment that you can borrow or not borrow. Um, the water and Sewer Commission has not borrowed, uh, didn’t borrow originally. So we were able to, uh, do a large project, um, which we borrowed for earlier too. Uh, it is already baked into your rate. Um, you’ll see it if you come to the rate study in June, you’ll see how we, uh, do, uh,

28:26 pay the funding for the way back. But it is 0%. It is, it spreads out a project, the cost for 10 years. It allows us to do major projects like Humphrey Street, ESCO Street, so then we can get ahead of the paving plan, right? So you’re not waiting for years and years. And instead of being construction for two or three years on a road, it would be like 10 if we had to break it up into the payments that we could, uh, do this. So it is a really great program. Great. Do we have questions? What specifics or things Relatively straightforward.

28:59 All right. You made it. Thank you.

29:06 Yes. You leave it up there. We’ll sign it. Uh, could I have a motion to approve the issuance for a million dollar water bond as more particularly described and the document prepared by bond counsel distributed to the board? So second on favor the unanimous. Let’s move on to number five. Chief, and I think you have, uh, officer Yep. Officers going up. Lieutenant office. Welcome. Welcome, welcome, John. Thank you.

29:36 Thank you for having us. Oh, thank you for all your work. I appreciate it. Alright, so, um, for about seven, six or seven months now, you’ve been hearing about the re-accreditation of the police department. Um, we gave you a formal notice probably back in April. We had it during the Super Bowl town meeting, was actually our assessment week, um, believe it or not. And we were able to make it through town meeting and the assessment. Um, and so I just think that to, to kind of close out a little bit of what the Recr reaccreditation is, is to talk about it a little bit, um, recognize, uh, the police department and the commitment from the officers and everybody that’s involved, and especially recognized Lieutenant Ovi Dave

30:24 and Officer Dan Gagnan, who is the, um, accreditation manager and assistant accreditation manager. Right? So I think that just a good opportunity to give a little bit of what it means to be, um, an accredited agency, um, in the Commonwealth. I’m gonna let Dave talk about that, but I’m, I’m just gonna highlight just a couple things and I’m gonna read to you what at the accreditation, um, uh, ceremony that I had written down that I think expressed just in a few, um, two small paragraphs that represented. And, and as I say this, just take into context, there’s about 258 police agencies in the Commonwealth, and only 112 of them achieve this actual accreditation. There’s process to getting to accreditation, um,

31:10 but only 112. So we’re one of 112 out of 2 58. So this is what we presented when we talked about what it meant to the, um, police department. The town of Marblehead has 32 sworn officers and nine dispatchers who proudly protect and serve our 4.2 miles of land and 20,000 residents, a town rich in tradition in history, known to many as the birthplace of the American Navy and home of Glover’s Regiment, who rode Washington’s army across the Delaware River on Christmas night in 1776 to attack the British at the bottle at Alo Trenton. Our community demands the best from marble. The Marblehead Police Department, its founders set those standards. The rigors of maintaining accreditation have made, uh, MPDA professional, innovative, and forward thinking department

31:55 that values the highest standards in law enforcement. We are, we see the value every day in one form or another through the work we do and the acknowledgement from community members. Not only our officers handling each call with empathy and compassion, but we’re also following best practices to ensure amongst other things that our investigations are, um, thorough and complete. Our interactions with individuals are just and unbiased, and we put the care of those who need us above all else, through sound proven practices. And so that’s what I had presented to when we got our award. Um, and so kind of reflects how I feel a little bit about it. So the accreditation manager, so Dave is a credit, is every day, that’s like a motto. He writes it, he actually wrote it on my, my whiteboard in my office.

32:42 Um, and you do have to live it, but you have to be able to believe in it because it is such a big deal to the police department and how we interact, how we train. Sometimes you get requests and you say, well, I chief, are you asking for that request for training, uh, additional funds for training? These are the reasons, because we are following the best practices, not just because we’re following minimum standards. So, um, I’m gonna let Dave talk a little bit and maybe answer questions if you have it, but this recognition is for the department, um, and Dave and Dan had a lot to do with it. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Uh, just also wanna clarify that despite popular opinion, the chief and I are not related. Thank you for that clarification. Steve Barber, though there’s been a lot of talks about that.

33:27 Um, so just, uh, just a little bit, uh, more on the nuts and bolts of accreditation. Uh, as the chief said, uh, there are 258 cities in towns in the program. We are, uh, one of 112, uh, that are fully accredited. We, uh, achieved that in 2019, uh, under Chief Picarillo. Uh, so I, you know, I just wanna thank him for kind of helping, uh, get us over the hump. He was actually our original, uh, accreditation manager. Um, then he got promoted to chief, and, uh, we went from there. Um, I wanna say that first also that I’m grateful for the chief, uh, king for keeping, uh, keeping us in this position and having the confidence, uh, to keep it going. This is our second re-accreditation, um, our re-accreditation, and that’s our fourth assessment overall. And they’ve all been different, you know,

34:13 first certification and then, which is kind of like, I guess the, the, the JB uh, part of it, you kind of, uh, dip your feet into it. Then full accreditation. Now we’re actually working on our, on our fifth assessment already. And what’s the purpose of accreditation? It kind of gives us a, uh, a solid, uh, structure to, uh, keep us, uh, in line for things that are mandated by law, but also things that, um, that, that make us accredited. And those are, those are things that cover everything from patrol, the training, hiring, uh, discipline, uh, all things. Uh, there’s virtually nothing in the department that, uh, isn’t touched by accreditation as well as, uh, every member of our department from crossing guards, uh, dispatch, uh,

34:58 the chief kind of bears the lion’s share of, uh, a lot of memos and emails. And we probably have thousands analysis, report analysis. Um, so we probably have, you know, thousands of interactions in the course of three years, literally. Um, and it’s very important to have a chief that, uh, we never have to worry about why we’re doing something, just what we have to do and, um, how we’re gonna do it. Um, there are folks in my position who don’t enjoy that luxury, so it makes it a lot easier. Um, also, uh, how do we get to, uh, being accredited with all these, uh, all these standards that we have to meet. Um, even, uh, Kyle Wiley over here, uh, she has received, uh, memos from me on things that I’ve needed

35:43 to help us, uh, with compliance. Uh, our new employee of the month, uh, she heard from me. Uh, so payroll, human resources, the fire department comes in and does an inspection for us. Uh, the school department helps us, uh, with some of our displays that we have to publicly display our organizational chart. It’s one of the most important things that we produce, uh, for the, uh, commission. And, uh, a lot of things are based on that, and it is highly scrutinized that people report to who that we, we see they’re gonna report to, um, and that no one is, uh, answering to more than one person. Uh, things like that. Um, having Dan Gagnon, uh, as a partner, uh, he, he’s, um, just a great resource accreditation. Um, despite all the, all the paper and questions that we have to answer, there’s a lot

36:30 of subjectivity in it. So we, we are often, you know, finding ourselves, we’ve had conversations about, you know, do we meet the spirit of the standard? Do we meet, uh, the, the letter of the standard? And, uh, you know, e every, every assessment for every city and town is different because there are 274 standards that are mandatory, that there are another 70 that we do that are, are what we, it’s called, they’re, they’re optional standards. And so for us, our, our assessment’s different than the one that it is for Salem. So Salem might have, I don’t know if they do, they might have a, a hostage negotiator or a tactical response team. We don’t have those things, but we have a lot of things that are related to community engagement. We might do more on the way of, uh, promotion or hiring, um, things like that.

37:17 So ev every every, every assessment is different, and that’s, um, something that we’re, we’re very proud of and, and how we deliver that. Um, yeah, and just, and just being thankful for every supervisor in the department who we have to, um, uh, relate to. When we were going through our, what was supposed to be a three day assessment, it actually ended up being two days because, um, our folks were all well prepared. Um, I don’t really coach anybody up. It’s not, this is not a, um, it’s not a, a drill to just, you know, rubber stamp things. Uh, we have four assessors coming in. They were from the hunt, um, Manchester by the Sea Mansfield and, um, and s August. And they, so they’re folks like myself, we are all responsible.

38:02 Uh, we have to commit to going to other cities and towns to do these assessments. And these folks came in and it’s, it’s a long couple of days, but we were able to get it done in two days. And, uh, so we, you know, we, we got some kudos for, for being well prepared, uh, but it took a lot of work, um, by everybody in the department, folks outside of the department, and, uh, just a great collaboration. So really just, just just belongs to everybody in town. And, uh, you know, Marblehead iss certainly well worthy of, you know, having accredited police department. We’re proud to, you know, deliver it again. Okay. Thank you. That’s okay. Before, ask questions if I’d like to read this. Oh, sure. This is a publishing, this is from the Massachusetts Police Accreditation Commission. It says, dear Chief King, it’s my pleasure to confirm that on September 16th, 2025, the Massachusetts Police Accreditation Commission voted

38:48 to award accreditation to Marwood Police Department. Accreditation status has been awarded for another three year period, ending October, 2028. The integrity vested in your department continues to presume functional compliance with program standards in between assessments, which includes complying with all new and amended standards adopted by the commission re-accreditation demonstrates your department’s ongoing commitment to delivering an exemplary level of police service in your community, as you know, is a lot of hard work, as you mentioned, and a department-wide effort. We commend the Marble Police Department for accomplishments and applaud you for personally, personally for your leadership and the role of the process. We look forward to working with you and your continuous pursuit of professional excellence On behalf of the commission, thank you for your participation in the Massachusetts Police Accreditation Program, and congratulations on

39:34 another job well done. So, congrat, congratulations that,

39:43 any questions or comments? Well, my, my only comment is we’re incredibly proud of our police department, and, uh, you, you’re dedicated to, uh, to a way of life, to a standard of professionalism. And, uh, that goes above and beyond. So it’s, uh, you know, it’s, it’s, uh, it’s, it’s a great pleasure to see that and we’re very proud of that. Thank Jim. Thanks. I just echo what Nelson said, selective member as resident. Um, I, you know, you, you do us proud and I think that, I’m really glad that you put this on the agenda. I’m really glad that we’re talking about this. I don’t feel like sometimes some of this stuff, the compliance, it’s like, sounds kind of bureaucratic and there’s a lot you have to do to kind of work through those things, but I mean,

40:30 you all are rubbing up against like, you know, people’s basic rights, constitutional rights, and the level of professionalism and science really, really is, I can’t think of a more important place, um, for it than law enforcement. And I know it was a tremendous amount of work. I believe it does it last for three years? The, yeah. So I just wanted to thank you, Lieutenant and Officer Gagne, um, for, uh, for all the hard work that went into that. And the whole police department really works very, very hard. And I don’t feel like we have the opportunity to recognize it as much as we all feel it. Um, but we, we know you all work very, very hard and some of the stuff that’s behind the scenes, like the compliance stuff and the professional development

41:16 and the trainings and the grant writing that goes on and bringing extra money in is, it’s really, really a, a such an asset to the community. Thank you. Yeah, just I think to point that out, and I think for the community, anyone who’s listening is that this is something that takes a lot of planning, a lot of structure. And you know, I think you highlighted that this is, you know, elevating things to above, you know, what a bare standard is, is really going to look for what are the additional things we can do? And some of these programs require funding, and then you guys are working hard to try to support. How can you get that funding out? Can you secure that funding and the grants and the other sources that, that’s another whole level of work and dedication to that, you know, helps alleviate the pressure on the town, but then is also still providing excellent services.

42:04 So, you know, the two of those combined together, I think is really important to highlight. And that really the, the dedication to looking at getting in front of all of those and from someone who’s had to write grants and getting from taking care of the timelines and just that alone is a lot of effort. And then to execute and get the training done, and then apply for the accreditation, uh, just it’s great and just wanna recognize that. And hopefully you guys walk away feeling proud for yourselves too, the work and the time that you put into it. So, yeah, it’s awesome. We, we, we appreciate, and I will say that it does drive our, um, it drives our operations, drives our training. Dave and I regularly talk about

42:50 how does this particular training, which is already outstanding, how is the deescalation part of use of force fit in within the new policy? And it does drive it. And for competitive grants, it puts us in a strong position. It throws strong governance and organization. And in competitive grants, it’s often what gets, makes the difference between, uh, an award and not getting award. And so the work we’re putting in for sure is showing its benefit, but it’s hard. Yeah, we, this, this one, this one was, um, I think a little bit easier because the re-accreditation has got, but this one, um, I thought we were really like showing mm-hmm. Some strong improvements over time.

43:36 And the assessors really, really saw that. The biggest gig was that we didn’t have our running, um, generator that we were, we were re um, we were putting in our backup generator, but that’s how specific it is. They want a plan on how you’re gonna organize and you’re gonna deal with a power outage and your backup generator is being made. Well, what is the plan to deal with that? I mean, that’s, that was like one of the only, but it’s, um, and it goes and, um, you know, uh, Dave and Dan do a lot of work and they, they really have committed themselves to it. And so I’m fortunate to, to be, you know, kind of lead all of the, the group. But, um, many times this is a leader list position in mind where they have to make decisions that are not necessarily,

44:21 uh, in my interest, but in the interest of the department, they do it really well. Very well. Thank you for your leadership. Yeah, thank you. Yeah. Alright. Appreciate it. Thank you very much. Do this. Thanks guys For coming through us.

44:34 Yep. All right. Next up we’re gonna move on to municipal energy reduction plan presentation from Logan Sustainability Coordinator. And as a few of the members of the audience talked about and supported this, this is the next step in becoming green combined. Mm-hmm. So I think tonight we’re just gonna have, we’re gonna present Yep. And then we can vote on it at our next meeting. Yes. Good evening. Good Evening, buddy. Anybody wants to see it? It’s up on the screen behind you. Mm-hmm. Awesome. Great. Um, yeah, good evening everybody. Uh, Logan Casey, the sustainability coordinator for the town. It’s good to see you guys again. Um, I am returning to present on another item, um,

45:23 the energy reduction plan that is related to our town’s, uh, you know, longer term goal to become part of the Green Communities program, as outlined in our net zero, uh, uh, about 2040 plan that I’m working on. Um, so tonight I’m gonna go through, uh, and kind of just give the executive level summary of what the energy reduction plan is, um, as well as just kind of a green communities update and where this plan will get us and, um, kind of the future actions that the select board might need to take. So, uh, the energy reduction plan, I’ll, I’ll quickly talk about what the plan actually is, um, why should we consider adopting it, um, and then go into a bit of the details and the data, um, kind of are energy baseline and what our buildings currently, um, use as well

46:09 as our vehicles, um, as well as talk about the strategies, uh, that the plan has put together, uh, and requests that we implement. Um, so I’ll just jump right in and start with the Energy Reduction Plan. So, um, what is the plan? Um, this is a plan that, uh, it’s, it’s defined by the Department of Energy Resources, DOER. Um, and it is a, uh, general plan for municipalities to reduce our energy use across the municipality, our municipal buildings and vehicles by a minimum of 20% over five years. Um, this is required to apply to become a green community. So this is why we’d have to, you know, prepare and adopt this plan. Um, although, you know, it has this goal

46:55 of reducing our energy usage by 20% over five years, the goal is non-binding, so there’s no penalties if we can’t meet that for some reason. Um, although it, you know, benefits our net zero plan. So there’s definitely, uh, you know, goals that we’ve already set to get there, um, and the contents of it. Um, so it includes that energy baseline, which I’ll dive into, uh, in a second. Um, that is based off of our energy data usage from fiscal year 2024, which as a reminder runs from, uh, July 1st, 2023 to June 30th, 2024. Um, and then as well as the actual energy reduction plan, um, with the various specific strategies and projects that we can take on various buildings, um, as well as, uh, our, our our vehicle inventory.

47:41 Um, this plan, uh, developed by, we are working with Power Options, which is, um, a nonprofit, um, company that helps other nonprofits as well as government entities, um, you know, develop energy plans, renewable, um, siting projects, um, you know, so this is right up their alley for them. Um, we, we use some of our American Rescue Plan Act funds, uh, $9,500 to contract with them and help develop this plan. And, um, we’re at the draft stage now. Um, the plan, uh, goes above the 20%, uh, minimum and recommend has a set of actions, uh, that will get us potentially up to a 45%, um, energy, annual energy usage reduction. Um, so lots of, you know, good things for us,

48:27 and we’ll definitely help that net zero plan. Um, why adopt it? So, um, you know, the first one is improved efficiency to our buildings. Um, our buildings are, you know, uh, of various ages around town, um, of various years of being built. So there, you know, uh, different conditions, different types of insulation. Um, this plan is giving us a general overview on, you know, areas we can start, you know, chipping away at and, you know, what’s the, you know, areas we should prioritize to improve the efficiency. Um, not only to reduce the energy that our is using, but make it more comfortable as well for the occupants in the building. Um, you know, not only maybe students or, you know, municipal staff, but the public as well. Uh, with those energy efficiency improvements we’re,

49:15 you know, heating the buildings less, we’re cooling the buildings less, we’re ideally using less lighting, um, or less energy for lighting. Um, that will hopefully reduce our energy consumption and save us some money. Um, which, you know, especially, uh, you know, given the larger financial context that, um, you know, I’ve heard about talking about in town, like this is definitely one of the ways we can kind of keep the inflationary inflationary pressures on our utility costs down. Um, and then finally, uh, this definitely supports our net zero, um, by 2040 goal, um, as I’ll show in a couple of minutes. Uh, our building emissions and vehicle emissions for the town account for about 2% of our community emissions. Um, so if we can have that, we’ve become, you know, about 1% of the community wide emissions getting us closer

50:01 to that net zero goal. Um, and as I’ve already mentioned, it’s a requirement for us to apply to the Green Communities program, um, which, you know, in the end goal would get us additional funding to kind of implement these projects to talk, uh, just to give a brief overview of the baseline. So, um, this baseline was calculated by taking all of our, um, electric bills as well as all of our natural gas bills and kind of putting them into a, uh, a state inventory software called Massachusetts Energy Insight. Um, and then this, uh, software also polls, um, all of our municipal vehicle registration data. Um, so we’re able to get a, you know, a complete holistic picture of, um, you know,

50:46 what the town’s building, um, use energy usage is, as well as our vehicles. Um, in this inventory we account for 25 buildings, um, as well as 28 water and sewer, um, station facilities. Um, and you can see kind of in the pie chart, they just make up a pretty significant chunk out of, um, the energy consumption. So it’s important to kind of put those apart. Um, as well as our vehicles as well too. We have 175 vehicles, um, in our fleet. Um, it’s split about, uh, 69 of them are light duty, 65, our medium duty, and then 41 are the heavy duty, um, our, our energy breakdown. So the total energy consumption, um, the most energy we’re using is going into the heating and cooling and the lighting of our buildings.

51:33 Um, this is, you know, it makes, it makes sense. Um, and then, you know, vehicles are definitely a part of this as well too. Um, you know, water and sewer, um, facilities also, you know, typically make up a, you know, decent chunk, um, three to 5% of, of municipalities typical energy consumption. So these are normal. Um, and then open space as well too, just general lighting for that. Um, it’s actually 0.2, but it’s so small, uh, kind of rounded up. So, um, this accounts for, you know, about 60,000, um, million BTU, um, British thermal units of energy that we use every year. Um, that’s about three hundred and seventy, three thirty seven hundred tons of million tons of carbon, uh, carbon dioxide equivalents.

52:20 And like I mentioned, that’s about equivalent to 2% of all of the emissions we emit every year in our community. Um, so recommendations on how we can kind of reduce our energy goals, uh, came in two parts. Uh, the first section is buildings, and the second part is vehicles. Um, so out of the 25 buildings that were inventoried, uh, this plan focus on strategies for 14 of the highest energy users. Um, some examples of these include all of our school buildings. Um, this makes sense because they are the largest square foot buildings typically. Um, you know, they have a lot of people in them, you know, a lot of hours of the day. They’re also year round facilities. Um, so it makes sense that they’re hi the highest energy users.

53:06 Um, also on the higher list is our public works building, um, Mary Alley, which we are, um, you know, putting a new roof on with more insulation right now. And we’re starting a heat pump project for eventually, um, as well as our fire central fire station and police station. Um, the plan addresses kind of the various actions we can take in, in a set of near term and long term strategies near term being, you know, one to three years, um, with estimated payback periods of two years or less. Um, so these can thing can include things like, um, having professionals come in and evaluate the building’s heating set points, um, how frequently the equipment is running, um, you know, optimize things like ventilation,

53:51 how much fresh air is coming into the building, how often we’re, you know, heating or cooling the building. Um, these things, you know, are small kind of dollar value items. Uh, but you know, if we make these investments now, they will pay dividends very quickly. We can, you know, get back basically the cost of these investments and, and we can recuperate them in one to two years. Um, so they make, you know, a lot of sense to kind of get those near term improvements. Um, things also like reducing lighting loads. Um, so, you know, converting to more LED lightings throughout buildings, um, you know, having motion detectors to automatically turn lights off, um, as well as reducing plug loads, um, you know, choosing more energy efficient appliances, um, choosing appliances that might be able to shut themselves off

54:37 or go into low power mode when not in use. Um, and then the longer term strategies, which are kind of the, you know, bigger, um, you know, building investments, you know, for looking at things like the Mary Alley building where we’re going, you know, redoing the roof, redoing the heating system. Um, these are kind of the larger longer term projects, which, you know, might include electrification, like heat pumps, you know, like at the Mary Alley, um, deep energy retrofits. You know, if we have, you know, a historic building, maybe we want to go and do a, a, a, a building wide insulation improvement project to really, uh, get that weatherization up and increase the insulation so we’re not using as much energy to heat. And cool. Um, as well as this plan looks into potential renewable energy generation projects, um, uh, especially our schools, again,

55:24 you know, those are very large square footage buildings. We got a lot of space on the roof. Um, so you know, this plan outlines, you know, very preliminary technical estimates of, you know, how much power we could potentially generate and will give us ideas if we wanted to pursue it in the future. Um, these, you know, building, uh, you know, projects that are outlined, uh, are projected to save us 25% of our annual energy usage, um, if we implement every single one of them. Um, so it’s obviously it will be over a couple of years. It’ll take a while to implement them, but, um, that is definitely gonna get us, um, you know, a big chunk of that 20% over five years. Um, the second part is a little bit shorter because you guys actually acted last time on those zero emissions policy and,

56:11 and got ahead of us on a little bit. Um, so with the municipal vehicles, um, we’ve adopted the zero emissions first vehicle first procurement policy, um, which will, um, from here on out, uh, whenever we are procuring new vehicles for this town, we’ll be looking at the most energy efficient options. Um, you know, typically for our light duty vehicles, there are a lot of commercially available, um, all electric vehicles out there that are very easy to, um, kind of switch over to make that jump to electrification. Um, but also, um, will save the town a lot of money in energy efficiency improvements just moving from, um, fossil fuels to electricity. Um, the plan outlines that, you know,

56:56 we adopt about six light utilities, zero emissions vehicles a year. Um, and you know, again, as the conversation with finances, you know, some years you might not buy as many vehicles some year, you know, you replace a bunch. Um, so it can fluctuate over time. Um, but you know, in, in the larger context, in fiscal year 24, um, the town on a whole purchased six hybrid vehicles as well as two all electric vehicles. Um, so we’re definitely, you know, capable of kind of hitting that, you know, around six average a year. Um, you know, if we are, you know, doing about six, uh, you know, converting our light duty fleet, um, our fleet will reach about, you know, um, one in four vehicles in our fleet will be all electric by about 2030 if we’re converting at that speed.

57:44 So that’s a, that’s a good pace for our, our net zero plan, um, but also to, it will give us time for the more medium and heavy duty vehicles where there aren’t as many commercial options for electrification out there will give us some more time to kind of think about those harder to electrify items. Um, vehicles alone, uh, will project to save us about 20% of our energy usage, um, as we start to implement this over time. So, um, you know, just replacing older vehicles that are less energy efficient will naturally save us more money. Um, and then finally, and kind of this will be the transition point to the update regarding Green Communities application is, um, you know, how will this plan actually be implemented? You know, where are we gonna get the funds to do this?

58:29 Um, it is required by the Green Communities program and, um, you know, the Green Communities program has two, uh, grants that we would be, uh, have access to if we were, um, a designated community. So, uh, the designation grant. So as soon as we were accepted, we’d be, um, given a kind of welcome grant of 150 to $175,000. Um, you know, we could hit the ground running, kind of doing those near term, you know, energy efficiency projects that we see, um, or that we’re likely to see, you know, paybacks for within the first couple of years. Um, and then there’s also the competitive grant program, which is, um, now open on a bi-yearly cycle, or, uh, excuse me, uh, it, it’s open twice annually.

59:17 Um, uh, so the competitive grant, um, the original, uh, standard program is $250,000 per round for projects that we could apply for, um, all on this plan. Or we can, you know, invent our own projects if we wanted to as well. Um, but newly announced is up to half a million dollars for full electrification projects. So, um, you know, if we were a green community right now, and, um, you know, if we had, you know, if we were talking about this, you know, around the whir road building time, um, that would be a definitely eligible project for this kind of grant program. So, um, there’s a lot of state money available to kind of, you know, get these projects rolling. Um, but you know, as soon as we get these, you know,

1:00:03 capital projects completed, we will see a return on investment in the form of, um, you know, using less energy, which will save us money. Um, additionally to one thing that we are working on with the, you know, examples, the Winter Road project is taking advantage of the mass save incentives that are out there and available to the municipality. Um, because, uh, all but one of our, um, buildings in this inventory, uh, have gas service. Um, we qualify for some mass save benefits, um, as larger buildings. And, um, you know, we’re taking advantage of that. Um, and you’ll kind of see that in the coming months as the heat pump project for the Mary Alley building gets underway. Um, and we submit our, our incentive requests for that as well too to kind of save us some money on that. So, um, that is the energy reduction plan.

1:00:51 Um, I don’t know if it’s, I don’t know if there’s any immediate questions there, if I should just continue right there. Um, Um, does the, does the, um, light, do the light commissions have a position on it? Have they taken it up or On, uh, adopting green communities or, Yeah, I think some of the things have to do with like, all obviously lighting and, Yeah. So, um, the light department is, it’s a little for, because we’re special in Marblehead and we have our municipal light department, um, their assets aren’t actually included in this inventory. They’re kind of considered, they’re considered the utility for the town. Um, you know, which it, it, it wouldn’t, it wouldn’t make more sense if, you know,

1:01:36 we were in a community that had an investor own utility like Eversource or National Grid providing us power. Um, it’s just a little technicality for Marblehead. But, um, I mean, they are very invested in their own goals. They have their own net zero goal as well too, to, um, get to, you know, I I, I don’t know if it’s 100%, but pushing towards, um, you know, completely decarbonized, um, energy, um, and, you know, their utility or their, uh, office building as well has, is completely electrified On that path. And it’s, the idea is that it’d be something that the town and the schools collaborate on with regard to the Exactly, yeah. These, yeah, this energy reduction plan is basically every other building in town. So, um, yeah, this, this Green Communities funding could be used basically at any building.

1:02:23 And, um, you know, we’d probably start with a lot of the school buildings since they’re some of our biggest energy users. So I’d be working closely with the school colleagues. Aaron, were you asking, were you asking if they were on board with becoming a green community? Or were you asking about that? Yeah, they taking position on the, so I don’t think so. I think, I think Eileen might have mentioned, or somebody mentioned that there, that the process would be to pass this, and then we would ask them to pass it subject to, yeah. So they have to vote on it after we, the rate change that’s I was asking. It would be, I think I’m, I, I have a, on a slide. Okay. So I think I’ll address it monetarily. Um, hold on one Second. Yeah, Logan, quick question. Does, does the, uh, designation grant or the competitive grant is, are they affected by 3:00 AM? Yes. And I’m gonna address that.

1:03:09 Um, so to kind of put in the context of where we are with, uh, applying for the State’s Green Communities program, I just wanted to bring up the application requirements again. Um, so there’s five main criteria on the townside that we needed to kind of take care of. Um, and then because we’re a municipal light plant community, um, there’s one item that the light commission also needs to adopt, which is what you were referencing earlier. Um, because you guys have adopted the fuel efficient vehicle procurement policy with the Zero Emissions Plan, um, uh, we are only one step away on the select boards action, um, from being ready to apply. Um, you know, obviously reviewing and adopting this energy deduction plan would, uh, be what the select board needs to, to kind

1:03:54 of get us ready to apply. Um, and then we will be, uh, with the light plants, uh, asking them to adopt the renewable energy charge. Um, so in the context of this, uh, the remaining actions for the you guys to kind of consider tonight, um, is one, adopting this energy reduction plan, like I mentioned. Um, you know, I hope to come back at, you know, the next, uh, select board meeting if your agenda allows, allow you a chance to ask any further questions, and then hopefully a request to adopt the plan. Um, I know we’ve had a lot of conversations with Thatcher about things that select board adopts and accepts, but, um, adopting this is necessary to, um, qualify to become a green community. So that’s why we make need to make that specific motion. Um, and then, uh, as Aaron, you were mentioning the, the,

1:04:41 like commission’s, uh, renewable energy charge. So, um, I’ve previously gone to the, like commission and, and presented to them, um, on the Green Communities Initiative and kind of what the townside is working on to get there. Um, there has been some discussion about the renewable energy charge and, um, I think the, the like commission would like to see, um, some, you know, letter, you know, reaffirming the support, um, from the select board of the Green Communities program. Um, and, um, you know, the, you know, I guess the thought that the town will take advantage of these funds if we’re eligible for them. Um, as you know, the, the Light Commission will have to adopt a, a small nominal, um, you know, renewable energy charge fee to rate payers in order to become eligible for this program.

1:05:28 Um, the other kind of, uh, you know, complication to this is our three a non-compliance, um, conundrum right now. Um, so I have been, you know, working directly with our DOER, um, you know, regional coordinator, Dylan Patel, who’s been, um, really great connecting us with, um, you know, doer’s legal counsel, and kind of working through all of these brand new questions about this law. Um, they did get back to us, um, regarding both of those grant programs. So unfortunately, if we were to apply to become a green community, um, we would be accepted and given the designation of a green community, um, but we wouldn’t be awarded any of the grant funds. So we would not get that designation grant until we became, um, compliant with state law.

1:06:14 Um, and then as well too, we wouldn’t be allowed to apply for the competitive grant programs until we’re compliant. Um, so with that said, that also creates a complication with the, uh, Lightboard and the Light Commission adopting the renewable energy charge. Um, you know, in, in my conversations with them, I think they do have some, um, you know, valid concerns about adopting the renewable energy charge too early, and, you know, having this charge being applied to rate payers before the community can actually receive any benefits of these grant programs. Um, so, uh, as part of kind of, um, this language that I’ll bring to you at a future select board meeting, you know, will, will be some consideration of how to consider three A in this process.

1:06:59 Um, you know, maybe it’s something that, you know, the, you guys endorse us applying to become a green community, you know, contingent on, you know, when we become and that it, you know, makes that financial sense. Are there certain times that you can apply or it is on a rolling basis? So it’s on a, it’s open, uh, uh, uh, twice a year. So in, uh, at the end of June and end end December. Okay. Can you say that Again? End of June. End of summer? Mm-hmm. Okay. So I think the, the, the play here, what they’re asking for is this next time. And then the life board would like to see us vote on asking them to pass that subject to being three A compliant in conversations that I’ve matter with them as well.

1:07:44 Yeah. So I think makes sense is, but I agree not to spend the money until we are there, but it’s ready to, you got all loaded to go when we, when and if we become Compliant. Yeah. So we wouldn’t be able to be able, we wouldn’t be a Greek community until the three A Compliant, right. Because then we’re not eligible for it. Right. Well, this may be open. We could choose to do it regardless. We could been, and we don’t, But, right. Right. Yep. So at the risk of beating a dead horse once again for the second time on our agenda is something that I would like to think of Marblehead as a community that is part of the solution and not the problem. And, you know, when we have all the other communities sharing in a bipartisan network to address the housing crisis, you know, that we would choose to be a part of that solution

1:08:31 and joining all of the other communities in that we are part of one collective commonwealth. We are one state. And also I would like to see and think that Marblehead is a community that would like to be a part of the solution to climate change and to making, protecting our earth and our resources. So, you know, I, I would, it would be in my, in my vision of our town, we are a green community. That’s how I perceive us. Um, it’s been, you know, the three a thing is disappointing. And so, you know, I just hope that, again, it’s like the, this will come up again and I just hope that we remember what type of a community we wanna be. Um, where what do we represent in this town? Are we part of the solution or are we part of the problem?

1:09:20 Thank you, Logan. Yeah. You know, maybe this is a time to, uh, raise an issue that I wanted to bring to the attention of the board. I think there’s an another way that we can be proactive here in a practical sense, because who knows whether three A gets approved or not, I don’t think it should stop the initiatives that, you know, you’ve worked so hard on and many others. Okay. What I’m gonna propose is that we have an analysis that gets done on a grant triage. Okay. So that we looks, that we look at grants that have been denied so far because of three A, that we look at grants that have been applied for and are pending. So we understand what that level is. And I think that we should also look at grants that we’re projecting for the future that haven’t yet,

1:10:07 you know, been applied for, but something that are integral to the town plan. Okay. And to, into the work you’re dealing with, then I’d like to develop an OA debt override kind of level and plan for this. Okay. And ultimately to understand what the tax impact is per medium household income across the brand programs. Okay. This is a back, this is a, you know, this is a plan B, plan C, uh, but it’s something that I think that we ought to put, uh, in place, you know, uh, as a responsible board so that we can continue these projects and we don’t get, you know, waylaid by a three A, you know, potentially rejection once again. Mm-hmm. So I’m hoping that perhaps, you know, at our,

1:10:53 at our next board meeting, we should do this triage and we should understand the implications. So we have to, you know, to, to the, yeah. But I think with a, with a, you know Yeah. To the tax base, so we Have the funding end of that. I’m sure you Yeah. And then the question would be to what all the grant programs that we’re seeking hoping to achieve, which, which ones to put on the list, for example Yeah. Are Harbor projects. Yeah. Right. That’s what’s the Number on that, like the shipyards project, total million, 10 million. Right. Yeah. Right. Do we we throw that into the mix, or, or not those? Well, listen, I think a lot of these, uh, you know, a lot of these projects that are coming full are for the benefit of the town, and I think most

1:11:38 of the voters really appreciate that. And as I’ve said before, we ought to keep the investment proposition going. You know, the town should continue to work on those, and we can figure out the funding by H**r Crook. Yeah. Right. And we can certainly do it through a debt override, you know, program. If three A kicks in, all the better. Yeah. But, you know, we, I, I don’t, I don’t think we have to take a chance and hold all of these projects hostage to three A in case it hasn’t been. Can I ask a question along those lines? So specific to this, other than the grants, what are the benefits of being compliant? Not, not, not the energy reduction plan, like that’s clear on what we’re gonna do, so, so to be a green community, what are, what are other benefits for people to understand outside of the grants? Well, I mean, the, because

1:12:24 We have everything in place, sorry, interrupt. We have, we’ve done everything there Having, yeah, we’re getting all the planning, like the strategic planning in place and like the policy to, um, you know, get this green Community segments nation. But, you know, for, for me, as the sustainability coordinator, this is actually helping us, you know, start to implement the net zero plan, which is, you know, net zero commu greenhouse gas emissions community wide by 2040 is a, is a very, very large goal to achieve. Um, so, you know, coming in and kind of starting to triage it with the limited resources I have available to myself, I’m, you know, thinking about, you know, what on the municipality can we do to kind of get, you know, our 2% of that total community emissions in check and, you know, things like the energy reduction plan as well

1:13:09 as the zero emissions vehicle, um, procurement policy. Um, those are kind of these first steps that will definitely start pushing us forward in that direction. So, um, you know, if, if anything, these are plans that benefit our strategic, like long-term planning as a town and get us closer to that net zero goal. Um, but, you know, I wouldn’t necessarily discount those grants either too because, um, you know, and, and to this larger point, um, you’ve been bringing up tonight about, um, you know, kind of, you know, if we don’t have access to all these grant programs that we’re starting to hear about, you know, what other, you know, sources of funding, you know, should we be looking for or how do we prioritize these ideas? Um, I have been, you know, having conversations with, um,

1:13:54 you know, my boss Brandon Callahan about, you know, um, departmental requests for next year. And, um, you know, understanding that we will likely not be applying to become a green community this December. Um, I have put in our department requests, um, for things like, uh, matching funds to support, um, like ev charging implementation for our municipal fleet, um, you know, to kind of help support, you know, those six EVs that we’re starting to plan on getting every year, um, as well, uh, you know, understanding that a lot of these energy efficiency projects, they have payback periods of, you know, two years or less. Um, there’s not a lot of, you know, projects you can invest in these days that give that, you know, quick return on investment.

1:14:41 I think there’s definitely, um, you know, I, it, it will come into the larger, you know, priority planning process of how the town wants to, you know, spend money next year’s budget. But I do think, you know, as the sustainability coordinator, we should definitely set aside a little bit of money for these energy efficiency projects because we will see return on investment, you know, right away. And it’ll, it’ll, it’ll help our, you know, larger fiscal inflation, you know, um, problems. But, um, also too, like it’s gonna help that net zero goal. So, um, yeah. Besides, you know, if we don’t have access to the state funds, I definitely think it’s still worth, you know, looking at how we can prioritize local months to support this. I think it’s part of that we show what, what 25% will save us, right?

1:15:27 If we’re looking at this analysis, I think we should have all the numbers to show on, on, on that, right? I think that’s an important part of this, beyond doing the right thing to really show that the, the concrete numbers. And for those who can’t see it out here, I mean, this report’s amazing how, how in depth this is. So thank you. And I, yeah, I I just have one observation. Um, a few meetings ago, we, uh, voted to approve the white vehicle policy where feasible. I think it makes sense. This makes sense. It’s all about the New England dollars and cents, you know, saving money. And I think the plan is the next meeting to vote on this, which I would be ready for it. The one thing I’m a little unclear after this discussion, I don’t feel that we’re probably ready to send any kind of communication,

1:16:12 um, to electric light at this time. Uh, and I don’t think I would be ready on December 10th to do so. I think it would be premature my opinion Until what it, what because of, Because there’s a lot of uncertainty, uh, some of the things Moses laid out. The other thing, I, I have a a, a, a smaller thing about the language of that is, is I don’t know what the language is gonna look like, and there’s a very small rate change involved in this. It’s, it’s small, but I am, I think on my experience with the charter committee, I’m very sensitive to the select board telling the electric light or any other electric board what to do with one of their primary responsibilities, which is rate setting.

1:16:57 Even though it’s very, I, I would, if we were to write a letter, it would say we’re all on board with a green policy, you know, do what you need to do. I wouldn’t say change your rates. I don’t think that’s what they’re asking for. I think they’re asking for support. Yeah. I would just, I would just say would be very careful with our language, that’s all. We’re not asking any other board to do something specific. No, I know, but I, in prior meetings, I think I heard, I think it’s morphed over the time. That’s all. Uh, but I, I, I’m not one to tell another electric board what Sure. And then we can discuss that language. Sure. But my point is, I, I think we’d be ready for this next meeting. I’m not sure about the, the third step, whether it’s premature. We put that on agenda. We can discuss what that language would look like. Yeah. Yeah.

1:17:43 Go. Um, is there any lag time between the application and acceptance? Do you know? Like you, Uh, it’s like a one to two month period before we’ll know. Okay. Um, but I mean, when we apply, we’ll, we’ll be ready. So we know we’re gonna get that stamp of approval, but it usually takes one to two months for the designation. You know, If we, if the, if the three A is holding the board’s willingness or, you know, uh, which understandably, you know, um, to support it, if we wouldn’t reach the benefits of the funds, like, you know, if there was a lag time, maybe we might wanna think about going ahead and adopting it, knowing that, I mean, at some point, either Marblehead will choose his destiny around three A

1:18:29 or the state will tell us what we’re doing. And I mean, this period we’re in is not it. It’s, it’s fine. I, I mean, where we’re in noncompliance, it’s a matter of how we’re gonna get to compliant, whether it’s the state or whether it’s the Town of Wildlife. So, um, if there was a lag time with something we might wanna just consider adopting and then knowing, you know, that we would be able to take advantage of it down the road. Can I follow up with one on those and then we can you, we get on this, if we passed it, and if Marble would light passed it and submitted called in December, is that money that first 150 sitting in escrow to come to us? Or is it just thank you? Or is it, or is it just gone?

1:19:16 So in other words, if we pass it, let’s say December and we get designated in February, I’m assuming that’s when they release 150, because we’re not three A, it Would just be withheld until we’re, do we three A compliant? We get it when we’re three A compliant? Yes. Yes. Okay. So it’s not that we don’t get it. Yes. Okay. I’m just, just clarification. Again, I’m not saying we should, do we discuss The next meeting? The whole thing about the true the rate Issue? Well, that’s not our decision either, as, as you mentioned. No, just timing one. Someone needs to think that. Yeah. Well, that, that will be the from Marble Light. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. I wouldn’t wanna be on Marble to Lightning raise the rate incrementally much anything out. I mean, I think it’s five or $6 a year, right? Something like that. It’s, it’s small. It’s less than $10 a a

1:20:02 I think it’s about five to $6 a year for an average household. Yeah, That’s, yeah. So 50,000 know all this. Thank you all. This is not, not public comment. I appreciate it though. Um, yeah, we can discuss this further, but I don’t think it’s our decision on that our decision could pass this and then make a recommendation on whether or not we support it. Yeah, let’s go fine with That. Uh, Lou’s quick question in regards to the designation grant, which I think is probably gonna be one of the issues that keeps coming up for questioning know, I have 150 to 175,000 as the range of that designation grant. But that’s my first question. What, you know, how, how is that determination made between that, those two numbers? Just, we, It’s, um, it’s just the, there’s a formula the state uses

1:20:48 to figure out how to give out the designation grants. Um, it’s based on like population and square mile size, and also like EJ communities, things like that. So, okay. Um, the, our coordinators kind of said like, this is the, this is the estimate of around what you guys would get, but it, it would, the, the numbers would matter on kind of what year we technically adopted it. Um, Okay. Why does the year change Things like population size, if that varies from, you know, I mean, that’s only every 10 years, but, you know, like things like that, or like the, um, EJ data, if we had a, an additional census trapped or, uh, one taken away, something like that, that might affect the number in a way. Okay. Just trying to figure out some of the criteria.

1:21:34 And do you know of, uh, because I think this could be a question that people might have as well. Do you know if there is any other communities that have been in the same situation that we are in at this point where they applied, were granted, but then were not eligible, you know, because of being out of compliance where this designation grant type thing was actually held? Like, has this actually been executed? What is the, you know, the confirmation that that is how this would Yeah. Definitely play out. That it wouldn’t play out as, oh no, this is, you know mm-hmm. Lost the opportunity. I just wanna get a little more confirmation on what you know about that. Yeah, no, I, that’s a great question.

1:22:20 Thank you for asking. In my conversations with the DOER regional coordinator, um, for the three a situation, we are the test case, unfortunately. Um, so this is new. Um, you know, and it’s also kind of, we, it is complicated by the fact that we do have a municipal light plant, so we also have to adopt this renewable energy charge that, you know, uh, if you were, uh, under Eversource National Grid from electricity, this wouldn’t Right. Be a question. Um, there have been cases where DOER has withheld or tried to reclaim funds, um, because of non-compliance, um, with either the state law or, uh, certain green communities measures. Um, the most notable example would be, um,

1:23:06 the state energy stretch code or building energy stretch code, which is something that, um, in an open meeting style government like Marblehead, um, has to be adopted by town meeting. So, um, we adopted the, um, stretch building code in 2018, um, pretty non-controversial. So, um, you know, if that was repealed at a future town meeting for some reason, um, that could, you know, affect our green communities compliance. Um, and that has happened to some communities in the past where there has been, um, you know, reaction, um, to the building code. Um, and there has been, you know, efforts to kind of repeal it at a town meeting. Um, so it’s, again, that’s only happened in, I think, one

1:23:52 or two communities, but, um, that, that is kind of an example of, of enforcement procedures that they have taken in the past. Okay. Good. Thank you, Logan. Yeah. Thank you all. See, thank you. Hard work. It’s impressive. Yep. Absolutely. Yeah. Um, so I was gonna wait until like next, next meeting Yep. To request on an agenda, but, um, just, it is germane, I just to fill kind if board, but, um, uh, the publicist relates to facilities and up operating facilities and HVAC and all of that, um, in a conversa casual conversations with, um, Steve Cummings, who’s incredible, um, who’s such an asset and kind of was asking him just the questions

1:24:38 around like a capital improvement plan and like, you know, is that something that you’d be able to execute or help out with? Um, I know it’s one of our goals that we all decided, I know we all really, um, feel that we could beef up our maintenance around the buildings. And I think to your point about inventory and collecting a catalog of what we’re losing out on, um, you know, it’s kind of germane to a catalog of what it is, um, we need in over the next, you know, five to 10 years. And so we can discuss it at the next agenda. But I thought it would just be a good opportunity to, since we just had the conversation about, um, uh, capital plan, we like pushing that along a bit. Um, I know we talked about it this summer, but, um, pushing that along again and how it could beef up our facilities department. So, um, perhaps we could put that on the next agenda,

1:25:24 but I get a, just got a chance to kind of update you guys on Great. My thoughts on it. Great. Thank you. Okay, let’s move on to shellfish constables. Let’s move on to something that is not affected by three A right now. Right now, right? I don’t, I don’t, I don’t think, I don’t think it’s a client effect. Well, so we do have three on our list, but I do not see one of the applicant’s, Eric Bur. So, uh, we had two vacancies. We had, he has been contacted multiple times through emails, um, and with, and didn’t respond. So we are gonna proceed tonight. Uh, why don’t we call off, we have two applicants. We’re gonna go in alphabetical order fields. You’re probably always up front with your a So, Felix, come, come on up. We have Felix ler. Hey, Felix.

1:26:13 Hey, good evening. Good evening. How are you doing? Thank you for waiting. Thanks for having us. Sure. Um, I know, I mean, I know a lot about you, but maybe tell us a little bit about yourself and, uh, why you’re playing. Sure. Um, lifelong resident of Marblehead, avid fisherman, avid boater, avid clamor. I have a bachelor in Bivalve Science. I’m just kidding about that. Um, but, uh, always wanted to, uh, enjoy, uh, this resource that we have and make sure that it remains for generations to come. And, uh, just it’s as simple as that. I just, just really enjoy giving back to the town, having just retired, have some free time in my hands. So Now you already do that. You’re assistant Harbor master as well. I am. I appreciate that. Does anybody have any questions? I don’t think we need to fish for clam jar.

1:27:00 This is crucial. Are you supposed to ask New England know If I, if I say no? No, if, if I say clam, I think I’m, I’m patronizing it. Um, it’s, I I like both speak from the heart. I, I got lobster corn es mostly. Whoa. Hey, you hat, Moses, do you have another germane question here? No. Yeah, Perfect. Well, that, that really solidified it for me. It was, it was a conflict at one point. So if I could have a motion to appoint Bill Sandler at Shellfish Shellfish Constable with a term to expire in June of 2026. So moved. Second. Second. All in favor? Thank you folks. Thank you. Very issue. Thank Jill. Jennifer, if you don’t mind coming up,

1:27:49 we might as well just answer the question. Get out the lag. Good evening. Hi. Co style. I don’t think we have much of that up here. No, No. A couple things up my sleeve with that, Bob, You love to tell us after. Well, we’ll get your, your letter. That sounds like you have a good background as well. Just wanna tell Thank you Somewhere. Um, I’ve been in Marblehead probably for 30 years. I come from upstate New York, but grew up on the Great Lakes fishing, doing less glamorous than clamming smelting in front of my parents’ house. Um, when we were lucky enough to live in Marblehead in the gold weight neighborhood, actually look over the clam beds, and I may spy people with my binoculars. So I think, you know, I just have a huge vested interest in keeping the clam beds

1:28:34 alive and healthy. I love seeing the abundance. I think I went out on the last day, last year and was really heartened by how much, how plentiful it was. Um, and I just wanna be part of the legacy that we’re, I mean, it’s a beautiful thing. It’s a great resource. So that’s great. Thank you. Thank you for, and again, thank you for waiting. Please Mind if I leave after this. No, please. Did we, we would absolutely not appoint you if we stayed to let you go out there and rest up with the binoculars. Right. So if I could have a motion to appoint Jennifer Duffy as shellfish constable with the term to expire June, 2026. So moved. Second. All in favor. Thank you. Aye. Thank you. Thanks. Thank you, Jen. You learned a lot. So much.

1:29:20 Do they have to be sworn in by the Ah, yeah. Yeah. So if you guys can both go and be sworn in by the clerk. Yeah. Jennifer, I don’t dunno if you heard that, but you need to be sworn in by the clerk. Yeah. So you can go. No, no, no, she’s not. No one sworn in. Jack will give you his child of recipe. Yeah. Jack can not s swear you in, even though he thinks he might be able to just so know, let you know. All right. Moving on. Uh, we have a public hearing, uh, for Shin Dynasty. If you would like to come up. Um, this is a continuation of public hearing open on November 13th, 2024. It’s revocation of a wine malt beverage license number 0 0 0 4 2 dashs dash 0 6 56 in Dynasty one Atlantic Avenue.

1:30:08 Good evening, Mr. Lewis. Hello. How are you? I’m good. How you doing? We have received your letter from, on the update of, of the progress you’ve made. Maybe if you just want to tell us in your own words where you stand. We do see that you’ve asked for an extension as well. Yes, sir. I mean, it’s, for us, it’s days away from finalizing everything. Um, we’ve completed the plumbing inspection, the electrical inspection, the building inspection. What we’re waiting on is the gas had to be turned off because we needed to change the meter. Um, so National Grid is coming back tomorrow. Um, once that gets back turned on, we need to make sure that the heat system works there. Um, the heat system’s good,

1:30:53 then we can turn the water back on, get the water inspection done. Once the water inspection’s done, we have hot water. We can have the health inspection done. Um, it’s just, I mean, we were right up to the wire and we were trying to do everything we can to, uh, complete this. I’m, I’m just nervous about like next week being Thanksgiving weekend, um, it being a short week, like every day matters for mm-hmm. What we’re doing here. And, um, I’m trying to push every, every which way I can to, to get this, this done. Um, I hope my letter conveyed that I’m very confident that we would be open before the end of the year if given, you know, any extra time. I’m, I’m very confident that we would have these inspections done

1:31:40 before you guys would be having your next meeting. Um, we’re just, we’re just right there and really just trying to Got there. Finish it Up there. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Any discussion mean, I just Yeah, go ahead, Jim. I, I just, um, You know, I’ve observed double D down there a lot. Yes. I think. Which city Plumbing was on your job? Yes, sir. Then four trucks. Yes, sir. I couldn’t, I couldn’t get to mar house’s pizza, but something, I’m sorry. Uh, but no, I, there’s been a lot of action down there and I know you were held up, uh, as not unusual. The, uh, prolonged time to land. What, how to do work before you could. So ever since it’s been turned over to you, I I’ve seen a lot of activity personally. So it’s just my observation.

1:32:26 I don’t think we’re in a position to be able to do that. Inspections are to give you a formal extension. I mean, inspections. Correct. The inspections are November 30th or, and it, it is usual. It is the usual for the state. So I think that, you know, at this point we need to, to keep each of that as, as from that standpoint. And hopefully you get it done. If don’t get there, we can cross our road at that point. We’ll see. We’ll be by Next meeting. Right. Meeting. Yeah. So, Yeah, so I kind of felt like our hands, our hands applied license, you know, so I found entirely sympathetic to, you know, your, your situation, you know, I know you’ve been diligent in reporting to the board and these things are like beyond your control,

1:33:15 but at the same time, we as a board can’t go to use the legs. So, um, and at some point I thought that, that, like, it’s, our hands are tied at November 30th, right? Yeah. November 30th. They set by the state. Our inspectors are, you know, as soon as you’re ready, our inspectors ready to jump in. Yes. So it’s not down delay. Yeah. And then how, but today’s the, what’s today? The 22nd. The 19th. 19th. Okay. So 19th, how many business days between now and then? Oh, gone. Right. Four and a half. Four and a half business days because of the holiday. Almost Black Friday, the city’s open. Um, So what do we, I just, what do we need to do to preserve that license for the town, if, if that lapses?

1:34:00 So as I understand it, um, so that license would become available and then, um, you could reapply or any other mm-hmm. Entity could reapply for the license so that that’s what happens. It doesn’t go, it doesn’t go, may apply. We would no longer have possession of the license and would have to reapply. Reapply. And then It goes through the full process. At our Discretion, We have the ability to extend there. No, it’s different than I thought. Not, not really with the November 30th deadline. Okay. That there Is the ability to extend up to November 30th. I think we keep this deadline. You stay in touch with us. Please stay in touch with, with Kyle and, and Steve, Steve Cummings will be on it. The person that we won’t slow you down from the town tides.

1:34:48 Steve Cummins. Can I write that number? Yeah. So Steve Stevens, head of inspection services Attorney is trying to find, My attorney is trying to find like if there’s an exact date or whatnot. Um, you need a wall Okay. On inspection. Exact date for, and A, a fire inspection as well. But that should be done. Hopefully they’re familiar Monday. Um, Yeah. Fire it’s water. And, and that’s, that’s how that reviewed it. Yeah. Yeah. So I would focus the effort on doing everything possible on November 30th. Mm-hmm. Um, and how I, so Steve’s, Steve’s away next week, but the other inspectors, plumbing inspector who I know working, They’ve already signed off. They’re

1:35:33 around, right. Signed. Well, those guys have signed off. Yes. They’ve, They’ve signed the building is signed off as well. So actually Steve’s not even employee here. So you put all your sign off water, it’s Water fire and, and health. Mm-hmm. Right. Okay. Yeah. Okay. So we, yeah. Yeah. All, all the, all the inspectors, including on the health side, we’re all tuned into the effort here. So we’ll fire No, we will do our best to stay on them. You do your best to continue within your control. I know you’ve been trying hard and, you know, well, Alex, I have to say since, since the last meeting, this is a, uh, you know, a great rapport, frankly. I mean, really come a long way. And I think you’re down to the finer punch list. So, uh, yeah. Your Fingers crossed for you. We Probably, I’ve been trying to do everything humanly possible to, to, to do it, let alone like, you know,

1:36:21 I don’t have the skillset to be in there, like putting pipes together and all that. Yeah. But yeah. Well, we, we understand and we will hang in there. Yep. Crush these last few days. I Good, good luck. Obviously voted to give it chief, so we wanna see that here. Yeah. So, um, if I could have a motion to continue the public hearing to December 10th, 2025. So moved. Second Favor, you. Thank you, honor. Welcome for all your Support. Yeah, thank you. Yeah. And again, reach out if you need help from our side and that we can control. Thanks. The next, uh, we have on our agenda, uh, just put on the agenda coffin school

1:37:06 discussion slash update. We know that, uh, Brenda Callahan had a meeting last week for the public, which was well attended. Uh, got a lot of input. Brendan has prepared, uh, a memorandum to the select board that is in your packet here, basically high level. We did receive five expressions of interest EOIs for reuse of the coffin school. And those are from within the town departments. Um, ranging from, we did receive from municipal light department, from cemetery rec park, housing Authority, and the community development plan. Um, also for the request for information, which is not a request for proposal, which is to get out information to see what people want on the private side. We did receive three cemetery reiterated.

1:37:52 They came back in, they actually submitted twice, went to the EOI and went to our fi, um, as well as Harbor Light Homes, a local nonprofit developer who discussed, uh, 40 affordable housing project. And the third in there was the, the housing authority of Marblehead. So next pro, next step will be, we do have another public hearing in December or that, that Brandon will be holding. I Forget we set the specific date Yeah. The defendants to have another Public. So we’re gonna continue to get community input. Obviously. I know Jim, you attended a local neighborhood one originally. Uh, we’ll continue. We we’re hearing a lot. Um, we’re hearing a lot from surveys and that, you know, open space is important. Um, some com component of housing as well. And Brenda will continue to get that public input. Yep.

1:38:37 And then after we do that, it’ll be our job to, to put together, help work in the RFP when, when we put it out, and to come up with a fair flooring system based from that public input to on, on how we will choose somebody. So I just wanna give an update any comments we want to have in discussion about it Now. I, I just wanted to say one thing. I, I hope for the, uh, second public meeting, we would get a, some more additional input. I, I almost feel some of these’s missing. Uh, we brought input from town departments, which are good. The RFI went out, which was directed at housing, and we got input from that. Um, but the last meeting, understandably seemed to be reaction to the RFI and the housing and concerns, which is all good stuff to hear.

1:39:23 But what I thought I might hear is people coming in, ‘cause people approached me and said, and you know, just say what people have come up. I’d love to turn it into a farm, or I’d love to turn it into an outside, you know, art gallery or something. And, and no, I, I thought people at the last meeting might do that, and I really didn’t hear any of that. And I’m, I’m not saying those good or bad ideas, and I don’t know how we would get those, whether we should be asking, have we asked like non-profits in town, what if they’re interested or what This, it could have been the RFI much this and could have respond to R frp as well. Mm-hmm. Well, I, I just feel we’re in the, uh, brainstorming phase. Mm-hmm. We are early. Yeah. And I, you know, I would just love to hear those ideas. You know, maybe they’re, well, I, I’d love to hear crazy ideas even just to, uh,

1:40:09 say we thought about it. I just, um, I I, it it’s almost like people are focused on certain things already. And I just, uh, I I’m hoping we get the, those things out there. ‘cause people have, and I’m sure people come up to others and said, I, I think this would be good. Think, uh, you know, um, I mean, to your point, Jim, I think we, it would be very helpful to have kind of like a freeform list of all the potential uses. But I, I did hear a couple of comments about open space. I think a lot of, you know, especially old time or marble headers live in the neighborhood talking about that. Um, and you know, and it is an asset that we can preserve. We don’t need to rush the judgment necessarily. Right? Yeah. But I think also the idea of, uh, you know, kind of affordable specific use, maybe employee housing or something to that effect could also be, Yeah. I, and I guess the Existing structure On, on the open space,

1:40:54 I’ve heard some general, general ideas on it, including dark parks and this, that, and the other. Sure. I’m surprised there weren’t, uh, just more, let’s just say other open space or other like, you know, I haven’t Even thought of that. Well, you know, you have to kind of formalize that process a little bit. Yeah. I think that’s what you’re getting at. And I think another meeting is, it’s, it’s useful to do that, you know, and I think in facilitated meeting that we’ve done in the past for these committee, you can kind of formalize that a bit more. Yes. With that lists and, uh, people putting stickies up on on Exactly. And stuff, you know, just to kind of immortalize that a little bit. Yeah. But you know, I think, I think we just continue to listen. I agree. We’re the brains going process right now. Yeah. If some correct. That, like, I think you said that could come late too, right? If we keep certain open space, we don’t have to decide right away if we keep that with the town,

1:41:40 what we’re doing with it. Right. It’s almost like that could be down the line. Well, I think that’s right. Yeah. Right. And make, we keep that space within the town and we, whatever we do in the other space, yeah. We could spend years deciding what to do with that in theory. Yeah. And really get it out there. It’s a question of that division of that space if we decide to do It. Yeah. I, I just, like I said, I just, uh, I, I thought there’d be more unique ideas. I Mean, I think it’s a real opportunity that we have here to really what we hear, even during, oh my God, I’m gonna say three A again. Um, even, even during those debates that, you know, that for veterans Yeah. For the elderly and for, you know, affordability and for, and with a real preference towards marble headers. Yeah. And I think that’s what we heard. And we have that opportunity to do something here.

1:42:25 So it’s very important to think that we spend time, you know, listening to time for that. That’s all good. And I’ve heard that, but like, also, one of the things I keep hearing is, oh, why didn’t we put the library there? And what I don’t want to be is five years from now someone saying, you know, why didn’t we put the Moses grader that Marine Corps museum? And you know, the one thing is nice, but, you know, but I, I just, I, I feel, ‘cause we don’t have a master plan. Right. And I just feel like there’s some things out there, you know, we’re probably gonna go a certain course, but I’d just like to, well, Jim, I’m glad you’re, you’re emphasizing this. ‘cause I think the Cap, the marine, that’s, that’s,

1:43:08 No. Just, just being able to capture these ideas and kind of putting it down and then figuring out a way to kinda prioritize it. Yeah. Ultimately we, we, we have the decision, but we’ve really gotta justify what we know, what we end up doing. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I have some similar impression to Jim. I, I’m surprised at how quickly it seemed just at least in that one meeting. And what I’ve heard, um, there’s probably people that haven’t weighed in yet, I, we want you to weigh in. Um, but how quickly people coalesced and, and brought consensus around, um, senior, some type of a senior affordable designated housing for Marblehead seniors and some type of preserved, you know, know, open space area. Whereas I remember not recent memory,

1:43:55 but that what, I mean, you were more intimately involved with the Gary School and I think you were as well, um, there, that whole Gary school study. I mean, there were some ideas all over the place, some off the wall, like, but like, you know, I mean, we were all over the place with that. I don’t know if it’s just a matter of like, if it’s just a reason that we kind of went through that exercise not too long ago and, you know, there was quickly like some economics about it, but people reality hit and, or, or why we’re not seeing that the around. It’s just Yeah, that’s a good example. That was a facilitated dots. Sticky notes. Yeah. And I remember, well, I can’t even recall if it was where it was held. Uh, but it was, was it Like in that evening? It, well, I, I think what I think what was,

1:44:43 but anyhow, I remember going into rooms and, uh, a woman and daughter were there and they had some good ideas that were, you know, the, the art Space. Well, everything from an art space to art to gyms, to, to, you know, public facility. Well, look, I think one of the questions, uh, the, the issue with Gar School is that we had this really magnificent buildup, right? Yeah. And the, you redoing that and just prohibit it. Uh, unless it went into private use where it could be, where it could be developed. So that was, that was kind of like a challenge there. That remains a question, I guess with the, with the coffin school, not so much the annex, but the coffin coffin school itself. We had the building, you know, and so that, and that’s one way to kind of manage that. And then we could do the same thing we did with Gary, which was hive off, you know, uh, a, you know, a, a part

1:45:30 of the land that stays in town under town control and then, and then develop some other portion. I, I mean, I’m here, I’m hearing I’m completely Yeah, I I heard that as well. Uh, Aaron, that there, there seems to be kind of a little bit of a consensus going around There. There were, there’s no a combination solution there. No, but I think there was for people already jumped that for some reason. That’s Yeah. Yeah, yeah. No saying, and, and maybe that’s where you end up. I just, I don’t want to, I I think our town moderator was there, you know, go, go slow to go fast or whatever. No, no museum for him. Well, you know, you just Give him Moses one. Geez. Shellfish museum. A shellfish museum. He, He, there, there it is. So, so I think maybe what I think what I’m getting here is that we can encourage friend and when he pulls this next meeting, maybe we hold it in a different format as opposed

1:46:15 to disinformation and so that there is more input. Yeah. Um, and because I think a lot of those people were neighbors. Yeah. Uh, who, who had that. So maybe if we can, we can talk to Brenda about that, about uh, getting more input that way as well. We Could even hold it in different space too. Like we could use the brown school. There’s little Definitely need a bigger space. That’s one kind. Like, you know, I hate we have people come out and have, we have, we’re so limited here. Like, but we do have really nice facilities that can accommodate these type of sessions better. So I that would be, should This could better part done there. I like the idea of doing it a little bit differently next time, you know? Yeah. December’s coming fast on the box. If we can pull it off, great. I not Well, if we have to do another one, do another.

1:47:01 Yeah. Like, we’re not gonna, we we’re gonna get full input here, which, which is clear no decisions have been made. Um, I think, I think the question is how, how, how do we want to formalize kind of a feedback loop, right? Yeah. So like, one idea is just to make a list of all the, and then have people put on kind of see where the, where the, where the, where the consensus emerges. Like rank, right. And then at least, at least get a, a a sense formally so that, so that you can know, so we can put it back to the tenant. One, one thing along those lines, we were mentioning about the building being three years now we’re about to vote on a contract soon. Um, Brenda and the community development are going to get a, an asbestos, uh, basically looking at how much it would cost to abate it and also how much it would cost it to demolish that it’s very short money.

1:47:46 And that way when, and if we do go to RFP, that comes out play because we have, we already know that. So Yeah. Or we can go into the, you know, well, yeah, that’s right there. There’s strategies around that. Right? ‘cause they could go into redevelopment costs. You have the development themselves do that. Right. But we won’t have to make a contingent. At least they have a pretty firm number. Oh, a hundred percent, right. As opposed to the unknown and, and thinking worst case scenario. So, and, and Brenda did ask me a question, I checked That’s right. David Sandon was the project manager for the Bell school and, you know, different size building, et cetera. But five years ago was 1.4 million to demolish and abate the Bell school. Right? Right. So smaller property, older property. Five years later, it’s gonna be a big bill. We’re gonna find out. Yeah, absolutely.

1:48:31 We good with, uh, we good with it? Moving on, moving on, moving on. Good thing. Yeah. All right. Um, next, already that fine. We have to open the annual town meeting, open the warrant. We have, uh, four things that we need to do here. If I get a motion that the annual town meeting be held on Monday, May 4th, 2026 at 7:00 PM So moved. Second. All in favor, we will, along those lines, we will announce as we get closer exactly where it is. I know that we, but we can, we can do that. But that will be done in the, in the proper amount of time as well. And I know we had good feedback on where it was last year. Motion to open the warrant for May 4th, 2026. Annual town meeting.

1:49:17 So moved. Second. All in favor, unanimous warrant is open. Uh, move to close the warrant for the general public on Friday, January, 2020. January 23rd. 2026 at 12 noon. Second. All in favor and a motion to close the warrant for town government boards and commissions on Friday, January 30th, 2026 at 12 ninth. So moved. Second. All in favor meeting is rock and wrong.

1:49:51 Moving on to number 11. This is a, a nice story. We do have a donation from William Lundrigan and the amount of $5,000 to the Marblehead Fire Department to use their sole discretion. Um, like to thank Mr. Lundrigan and the trustee from the Qua Charitable Foundation. So if I could have a motion to accept the gift that found 5,000 donation from the Qua Charitable Foundation and to place in the control of the fire chief, please exclusively at the sole discretion of the Marble and Fire Department. So moved. Second. All in favor?

1:50:32 The motion, um, that we send a letter of appreciation for the, uh, ven Donation. So moved. Okay. I won’t get All in favor, thank ms. Soon. Uh, we are moving on to the overnight parking ban and winter snow emergency. If, if you remember that we did have the ability within the, so I for to change that. It used to be a certain time period and at the request of the DPW and fire and, um, and police that we changed it to, that they will give notice. And this we vote on in February. We just have to do it again. Mm-hmm. And so at this point, if I could have a motion to suspend a town of Marblehead traffic regulations Article five, section eight, known as the current all night parking van, and to implement and is place a snow emergency response to snow events

1:51:18 on an as needed basis. The DPW director, fire Chief, and police Chief and coordination with Town Administrator shows established the start and end times of the deployed snow emergency based on the forecast of weather conditions or live weather conditions as required to keep streets maintained and safer vehicles and pedestrians, any vehicles that violate provisions of this motion of subject to issuance of parking tickets and towing notification of an deployed snow emergency shall be done through the town website code red automated call system, town managed social media accounts, MHDB, and any other outlets the town has available. This vote is revocable upon the determination of the police Chief fire, chief town administrative Department of public works, or the design needs is negatively impacting public health and safety in favor.

1:52:06 Along those lines, since it’s, there is now a hundred that did get passed and signed by the governor, um, for some emergency, correct? Yes. So that passed last and just got approved by the governor last week. Thank you. That’s great. Uh, rail train, rail trail signage. Maggie, come on down.

1:52:33 Good evening. So this is for rail trail signage? Yep. On the, uh, pleasant and Smith Street segment. Yep. So this is, um, the same sign that you’ve seen before. It prints red. Um, it is not red. It is brown. Um, and so this is just, it’s actually the more updated mockup of it. Um, just the vote that was done in the October meeting was just for the Clifton Rockaway section. And this is for the, um, the trail etiquette signed for Smith to Pleasant.

1:53:04 Any questions? I think we went through this and you found that it was brown last time. Yes. Full disclosure up. We do have Looks like foot and a half call on a foot log. Yep. All right. Well, thank you for waiting all the time to, yeah, thank you. Do that. So, if I get a motion to approve the request for Maggie Wheeler, town engineer to install the proposed rail trail science presented for Marblehead Rail Trail at the Pleasant and Smith Street segment of the rail trail. One second. Okay. All in favor? Like, quiet second. Was that what you were saying? Yeah, I can’t, no, I said second, but it was like It wasn’t loud. All right. We need a couple seconds there. Yeah. There, um, consent agenda items we have. Um, I’m gonna read through these and if you want to, if I could have a, I’ll read

1:53:51 through ‘em if you wanna put a hold. Um, if I could have a motion seconded to accept the following consent agenda items. Accept those put on hold the minutes of October 22nd, 2025, November 5th, 2025, and Bo November 13th, 2025. Uh, task force discrimination use of Abbott Hall Library, or, sorry, Abbott Hall. Friday, January 30th, 2026 for Holocaust Remembrance Day Chamber of Commerce. 54th annual Christmas Walk Tree Lighting Parade, December 5th through sixth 2025 for the following events. Bless you and venues, subject to approval from police and fire, usual rules, regulation fees and receipt. The required of certificate of insurance, the annual tree lighting is Friday, December 5th, 2025 at National Grand Parking

1:54:36 lot, starting at five 30. And the tree lanes at seven holiday res Garland swaps and bows. And approximately 150 holiday res and Garland wraps are at the business districts starting the week of November 24th, 2025. Subject to approval from the Marville Municipal Life Department. Receipt, the required certificate of insurance. All duration shall be removed by January 5th of 26th. Holiday lighting, turn on holiday lights at the old townhouse and State Street landing by Friday, November 21st, 25, and the 54th annual Christmas walk parade. Saturday, December 6th, 25. Trade begins at noon at the State Street Landing continues onto Washington Street and then onto Atlantic Ave. The parade route continues from the police station, taking a right onto Gary Street, and then right onto Pleasant Street.

1:55:23 Continues down Pleasant Street, past Village Plaza and ending at the national brand parking lot. Temporary parking restrictions for annual tree lighting. Christmas Walk Parade, December 5th, sixth, 2020, as recommended by the police chief as follows, for the tree lighting on December 5th and the of an over crowd that creates a public safety concern, the board authorizes the chief police to close the pleasant street between School Street and Spring Street or Essex Street, between Atlantic Avenue and Pleasant Street. In either case, traffic will in be interrupted only as necessary. Santa’s arrival at Park landing on December 6th at about nine 30 in the morning. The parking lot of Park landing closed in its entirety at 8:30 AM until such time as safe to reopen Christmas Walk Parade number 6 25.

1:56:08 Staging for the parade will be on Front Street between the BYC and State Street, including Darling Street at about 10:30 AM and stepping off of Park Landing on route, including State Street, Washington Street, Atlantic Ave, Gary Street and Pleasant Street. The closure of Front Street between water and State Street and Darling Street in its entirety from 10:00 AM till 12:30 PM All streets along the parade route will be controlled by police officers as needed to facilitate the safe passage of the parade. Historical Commission use of Abbott Hall, the summer 10 20 25 for holiday gathering. And I would also like to declare the following item surplus and no longer needed municipal purpose and available for the disposition in accordance with the MGL, chapter 30 B and the town’s policy on surplus equipment, police, property room, firearms as presented in attached in our packet,

1:56:56 the coffin, school playground equipment and the holiday hours at Abbott Hall and Mary Alley for the following holiday hours will be observed at Abbott Hall, the Mary Alley Hos, uh, Mary Alley building, uh, December 22nd, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM December 23rd, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM 24th, close all day, 25th, close all day, 26th, 8:00 AM to 12:30 PM December 29th, 20 5:00 AM to 5:00 PM 30th of December, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM closed on both December 31st and January 1st of the following year. And on January 2nd, 2026, 8:00 AM to 12:30 PM I move. I heard that one. Thank you. All in favor? All right.

1:57:42 15. We have some contracts to go through. We will vote on each of these individually. The first one, which we have labeled as a, is the Franklin Street Fire Station. This is for placement on the left side of the fire station. Of all the siding, it’s gonna remove and install new PLA board, um, and the amount of $43,000. This is being funded through Article 11 of the 2022. Thank you. Uh, if I could have a motion to approve contract 26 6 staff 19 to point siding on the left side and other improvements of the fire station between the town and Unicorn, Inc. The amount of $43,000 and 0 cents, and authorize the chair to sign the contract on behalf of the board. So, second in favor, you’re all good.

1:58:30 Next contract. Uh, this is for the entry doors to Abbott Hall. This is actually a, a nice one. Um, not that they all nice, but this is a $14,000. The doors on the side will be completely refinished. It’s been a while. Also, uh, you’ll be doing a lot of work to the locking system. Basically, it’s a place for a lock to go into. That door has been used, original doors been used for a few years, and that is a gift from Historical Commission. So thank you to the historical commission for that. And they will not be removed until the end of the winter. So, if I get a motion to approve contract, 26 dash 20 to refinish the historical entry doors at Avid Hall between the town and Old Boston, and the amount of $14,000,

1:59:17 and authorize the charity to sign the contract on behalf of the board. Second, all in favor. Moving on to Moses Picket house citing replacement. This money does come from the charity that was established with maintenance of the property. So a lot of much needed improvements. Um, a lot of it is supervision to replace siding and trim. Do you go by there? Uh, if I get a motion to approve contract 26 slash 21 to replace the siding at Moses Picket House, located at Ken Franklin Street, between the town and Unicorn and, and the amount of $47,000. And authorize the chair to sign the contract on behalf of the board. I gotta do this. Move Oh second. All right. All in favor, right?

2:00:03 Make sure Moses gets credit for that one. Mm-hmm. Uh, next one is alert software for the fire department. And this will update the IP based alerting solution to automate process of alerting fire and rescue personnel. Um, this isn’t the amount of 241,000 $154 80 cents, again, funded through warrant Article 11. So this is just an extension of the date. So, okay. So there’s no cost change here? Correct. Okay. Awesome. Perfect. I’ll speak quiet then to extend contract 2024 dash 0 4 4 for the fire station alerting system until June 30th, 26th, between the town and Purvis Systems Inc. And authorized charity sign change order on behalf of the board. Boom. Second. Second. All in favor? All right.

2:00:51 Digitization project. This is a change order, um, for 23,344, and this is to continue digitizing files with MetaSource. So, so the original project to digitize all our documents we paid for with aqua funding. Mm-hmm. Along with the digit digitizing of all the documents, the vendor has software options for managing of the documents. So we held off making decisions on the software side mm-hmm. To kind of see how the project goes, evaluate the software and such. So we’re ready to go forward with the management software,

2:01:36 which will be paid for out of the, uh, IT budget. Okay. Will this be an ongoing cost? That software or? Yeah, I think this, uh, subscription. Okay. It’s a subscription, So we buy it and there’s a continuous subscription. Thank you. The 23 is approved. Yeah. So about $8,000 here. Um, any other questions on Not Okay, great. To amend the contract, 2024 dash oh six three for the Digi digitization project between the town and MetaSource by $23,344, and to extend the contract until December 20. It’s December 30th, 26, between the Town and Purpose Systems, Inc. And authorize Mad Source pay. So between the town and Meau. So not purpose, correct.

2:02:24 So let’s just do all that and let’s correct between the town and MetaSource. Thank you. Making me look about here. And authorize the chair to sign the change order with Meau on behalf of the board. Second purpose was the fire thought. All in favor? Okay. Thank you. Um, a roadway and sidewalk improvements. This is resurfacing, resurfacing of roads and sidewalks, making sidewalks 88 compliant. The original contract was for a little over a million, and this is an additional cost of 240,000. We are, again, back at Warren Article 11, 20 22. Mm-hmm. But I can have a motion to approve the change order number one for contract 2024 dash 30 roadway and sidewalk improvements with DNR contracting.

2:03:11 And authorize the chair to sign on behalf of the board shall. Thank you second. Anyone second? All right. All in favor. This next one is for the Ford, um, for the police department. This is a three year lease, and this is for hybrid, um, vehicle, uh, 73,000 interest rates are 5.73 and three annual payments. If I could have a motion to approve contract 26 slash 32 for the lease of the hybrid Ford and scepter between the town of First American amount of $73,724 and 43 cents. And authorize the chair to sign the lease on behalf of the board.

2:03:57 Second, Moving on to Elm Street Park improvements. These are some additional work that we need. In particular, there’s some granite that was taken out of the own unknown cistern, uhhuh, and to build stairs out of that. And some, some, um, help me out here. Big word, Walk away. No, no. Keep coming. Benches. Benches. There we go. Um, it says it right here. I should have just been able to do that. Um, the funding for that is coming through four different sources. We do have some coming from buildings and grounds. Historical commission, again, was nice to give us 5,000. Rec Park is pitching in 5,000 and from the pri from the neighbors, uh, friends of the Gary School playground are

2:04:42 throwing in a little over 4,000. So why are, well, why is it that, why is it $20,000 if we, if we, we own the gran, right? So, so Take it all the original. It wasn’t an original ‘cause we didn’t know the system was there, so they had to take it out. Disposing of the granite. We’re gonna make good use of it, but it’s gonna cost a little bit better. Yeah. So to keep it historic there, since it came do stairs, it really, It looks right. These are enormous. Yeah, these are big Boys. Yeah. Paying contract. I think we kept some of those as well. Yeah. Correct. So for GPW. Yeah. But it makes, it makes Senate too. They’re, they’re there. Okay. They’re storing them. Okay. Nice. It’s been well, Yeah, looks good. It looks really good. Yeah. Stairs up the side on the back. Yeah, looks nice on there. So, yeah, that’s good work.

2:05:30 So if we could amend the contract 2024 dash oh seven seven for the Elm Street Park, improvements between town and Raphael Construction by increasing the contract amount by 19,800, sorry, 19,880. And authorize the chair to sign the change order on behalf of the board. So I’d like to just mention, oh, yeah, I didn’t probably finish that. All in favor. Thank you. Uh, Brenda Kahan did a lot of work meeting with everybody to get this money, so please thank Brendan for that. Exactly right. Marblehead Trail Rail Trail Y, which is a WYE junction actually told me that that’s how they, what they used to call it back then. Um, this is for an amendment to meet federal requirement, to hire an independent consultant to review the cost estimates,

2:06:15 funding source areas coming from our maintenance building and grounds. If I could have a motion to approve contract 26 slash 34 for the professional engineering services between the town of Apex Company’s LLC and the amount of 6,500 authorized charity, sign a lease. That’s not right. Sign it. Sign the contract. Another pay sign the contract on behalf of the board. I’ll discard. Could I have a motion for that question? I move second. I second. But I have question. Yep. What is those? What is this? What’s the Y junction part? Where is this? So the y is literally with a bras meet break a letter Y. And I had the same question Down at the power grid. Yes, yes. Okay. Yes. And I guess in the railroad days when they had Ys, they used the word Y instead

2:07:00 of the letter YI had to ask the same question. And I never knew why was spelled WYEI Didn’t either. That’s It’s gonna be a cross when you’re doing that crossword puzzle. Yeah. That’s gonna help you there. I went through the same process. There’s a federal requirement. So, so this is, oh, and this is, so again, the, so the original source of money is the federal earmark money. It comes in to pay for this part of the project. And so the federal government has a requirement to hire an independent contracted to evaluate the price to, to validate the cost. So moving the trail of that connection. Yep. So, so we have to pay someone to review the cost estimate of the contractor for the project.

2:07:48 Okay. And we’ll do the same process. Many things that don’t make sense, but, But we, It’s a checkbox on the MAs dot. That’s who we’re working with. Yeah. We have to have that checkbox. Sorry for the No, it’s a good now it’s, it’s a, a detour with the y. Um, I think we have that, a motion a second if I All in favor.

2:08:15 Unanimous. This is for the hazardous building material investigation that we were discussing before with the amount of 59 50 at the coffin school. This will give us a report and preliminary cost estimates for the abatement de demo of the building and waste disposal. We are expected to receive a report in about 45 days, and they’ll spend about two days in the field. I could have a motion to approve contract 26 dash 35 for professional engineering services within the town West End Sampson amount of $5,950 and authorize the chair on the contractor behalf. Boards Move second. All in favor? Next up, we have a contract for the veteran school DW roof replacement.

2:09:01 This is what, uh, Bob, he was discussing before. Uh, MHCV is out. Um, there is a contract here and the amount of $289,000 to actually between us and Pac, Akon, Akon, you right here. Pac on. We have Two seats. Source. These are 11, 20, 22. Okay. Same source. Okay. Yeah. So this has been gone through procurement and all that. Yeah. And through the school. So we just have to the back, John back hat. Oh, oh, oh.

2:09:47 That was wrong.

2:10:00 You good? All Set. Okay. Cool. So, a motion to approve a contractor, a veterans middle school DW roof replacement between the town and PAC on LLC and the amount not to exceed $289,000 in authorized fair as sign on behalf of the board. So moved. All right. Second. All in favor. Moving on. We have some one day liquor licenses, um, bubble bar out at Hall December 6th, 25 and December 7th. And the Rotary Club called Fox Number 13th. If I could have a motion to approve the request for a one day liquor license from the following bubble by Boston Bar and Wine only December 6th, 25 and December 7th, 25 at Abbot Hall from 1:00 PM to 6:00 PM Rotary Club, Marwood Bar

2:10:46 and Wine only December 13th, 25 at Abbot Hall. Six 30 to 10:30 PM subject to following conditions, delivery of receipt by the licensing authority of the required fee of $50. Each delivery of receipt by license authority of proof that the alcohol will be purchased from a source proof that the applicant can receive proper delivery, provide proper storage and disposal of all alcohol beverages purchased in accordance with the requirements of GLC 1 38 Liquor Liability insurance. No alcohol is allowed to be stored on premises overnight. Alcohol will be purchased from Martini or Verizon Liquors and North Shore bartenders. Can I have a motion? So moved. Second. And as we poll votes, Mr. This in favor? Ms. Same in favor? Mr. Graver? In favor, Ms. Moony In favor, Mr. Fox

2:11:33 In favor. Next we have from the Board of Retirement, uh, a letter from Lender Gifford. Send a copy of the annual budget as required by MGL Chapter 32. I think they’re just fulfill their duty To do a delegation file basis budget, and Well, that’s why we do it now. Okay. There’s no vote required here. Correct. Let’s put that into the record. Perfect. They’re obligated to And they’ve done so, um, next we do, we have an open, uh, seat on our finance committee. Mm-hmm. Um, we did receive an application from Ramon Garcia, which we have here. Ramon sits on our housing, um, committee as well.

2:12:20 And he has, he has submitted this, uh, I would recommend that we set a deadlines to submit letter of interest given the holidays at the end of the year through December 30th. Sound good? Sounds reasonable. Perfect.

2:12:34 We, uh, one opening, right? We have one opening. Yep. Yep. Um, and this is a letter from Charles Ner. Thank you. Um, he is the representative of the Massport Community Advisory and for the past few decades they’ve worked with Massport and F-F-A-F-A-A to reduce noise. Um, d is help me out here. Thatcher. What are we doing here? So He’s resigned. He’s resigning. Thank you. He is Notifying. Okay. So we have a resignation. Okay. Okay, great. So that up that, So we’ll put that appointment up. So we’ll post that as well. How long you been on? I I was going to, Uh, uh, Quite a while. I’m gonna Yeah. Say you may wanna, uh,

2:13:21 make a motion to send them a letter. Appreciation. I do know, yeah. One of trade journals. I get aviation weakened space technology every now and then A letter from him shows that including Eliminated, which I don’t agree with, but that’s a story. Ridiculing Day

2:13:41 Automation. So I have a motion. I would So Move on that All a second. All in favor, Tim? Uh, select board announcements. The only announcement that I have is that we may have to have a meeting next week. Um, tomorrow the school committee is voting on a proposal for the granted contract for the replacement of the roof at the high school. And they will need us to then approve that contract. And it is time sensitive in order to be able to order the HVHC, um, components that go along with the roof replacement. Yeah. So if, assuming that they pass it tomorrow, it has been passed through subcommittee. If they pass it through their board tomorrow, we would probably be shooting, if they pass tomorrow’s Thursday, we would give 48 hours on Friday.

2:14:27 Probably Tuesday, December. Nope, November. Thank you. Got, yeah. So just heads up that we’ll be looking up for that. We’ll probably just do a quick afternoon meeting Yeah. And they can present to us. I, I Did sit in on that sub Yeah. Zoom and Gene Raymond indicated that he would appreciate that in some sense of urgency. Yeah. That they’ve made the decision which Way to go. Yeah. Mike and Henry reached out as well, so we can, we can definitely accommodate that. It’s interesting that they ended up where they did. We can discuss that contract ended up with a full replacement. Okay. Yeah, let’s just wait. Get through there. Yeah. Listen, I’d also like to, you know, it’s very, very sad to say that Mark Miller, our, uh, our town label Labor Council Council, uh, passed away

2:15:12 after a long struggle with an illness. And he’s been, uh, you knows, you know, in the service of the town for about 20 years. And a and a real ally and a great contributor to resolving many, many issues and, uh, you know, on behalf of the town. And I propose that we send a layer of condolence and recognition to the, to, to his Senate. Yeah. I so move Second at the same time. All in favor. Thank you Moses. Bring that up. Thank you. Anybody else? I just wanna say, as usual, the um, veteran’s Day sir ceremony was, was very good. One unique part of it is, uh, the late select board member Harry Christensen, was awarded the Medal of Fidelity. That’s correct. Which I was not terribly familiar with. I was familiar with some 60 years ago Harry was awarded the

2:15:58 Silver Star and, uh, Pearl Heart, and, which is quite something to say the least. But then 60 years later, he was awarded the Medal of Fidelity, which really, in my mind, recognizes continued Sacrifice. That’s correct. Really. Um, mm-hmm. Something else. I I did not know him as well as some of the other people there, but it was, um, quite moving in my opinion. So. Well, you know, it’s, it’s our, our country has a capacity to, uh, to also mention the service that, uh, you know, veterans give when they come back and, and serve the country. And it’s important that that continuity and connection be, uh, be maintain. They come back as, as citizens and get rewarded as well. Great.

2:16:43 Well, thank you. Could I have our motion for, no, sorry. Um, so the school department is going through, uh, uh, kind of a staff audit, um, accountability, um, process and anticipation of the, um, budget deficit and, um, override option. So I thought, um, you know, if we could put on our agenda to, um, have, have a discussion, maybe bring Steven around the capital improvement plans. We have a prioritization of needs for the next five years. I mean, obviously like it will take some time to do do that, but I think it’s good to start the conversation if we could put that on the agenda. Do people feel that that’s a good thing to Well, my, my only concern with that is just getting ahead of the FinCon a a little bit on that.

2:17:29 Um, well, uh, I think, I think high level, uh, that’s right. But I know that FinCon is gonna be pretty involved with, not to say that we can’t do it anymore on the capital side though. Uh, capital, the capital project, right. Yeah. Look, and, and again, I think on the capital side, I think we probably should take our cues from, uh, from Bachelor to a large extent simply Right. But just having like, you know, like what does it look like? How long does it take to deliver that? What’s the process? And then, um, you know, and doing our, you know, when they’re doing their kind of, um, staffing level assessment, you know, could we start to talk about some operational, um, ideas that maybe we could streamline as well so that the voters, uh, you know, are aware

2:18:14 that we’re having those conversations. And I know, you know, we have individual conversations with department heads and everything, but maybe you could even, um, you know, just put it on as a discussion item. I think that dovetails with what you were discussing before in line Correct. About putting that on. So, for sure. And that’s in line with what you had brought up earlier. I think that’s, or you know, conversation, obviously there’s certain things that are really, we wanna be always be very mindful of never eliminating physicians that then turn around and create more problems down the road. And I think, you know, they’re sometimes, uh, being really careful when we and how we execute on anything such as that. Yeah. I, I guess, I guess the thing is I think there’s a

2:19:01 deductive process that takes place, you know, in terms of doing the analysis and that that needs to take place. So I wanna make sure if we have a conversation, you know, we’re not just expounding on platitudes saying, yeah, well we need to be, we do need to pay attention. I think. But I think that is, that is happening under the vigilance, both of town administrator and, uh, ideally the schools. Yeah. But the, but the schools clearly are looking at FinCon. I think that that audit is something about, uh, large, I think, uh, from, from the exigencies of the, of the FinCon. Yeah. And I think, I think we’re just talking general more from Steve Rights. It’s just, I mean, ‘cause I think a lot of these things are happening. It’s good for the public to know what’s happening as well. Yeah, no, and we are looking at it, so I don’t think that we’re gonna get ahead of fin income or any, any of that reporting.

2:19:46 So Are we prepared to brief, I guess And uh, Yeah, I mean the school probably looking at staff and that’s an operational matter, which depends on must synergy. So the capital side, and we have that capital, the reinstitute capital planning committee. So we will be gearing up and again, that committee’s role is to look at capital projects above about a million dollar threshold anyways. There’s also the capital planning we have to do as part of building the budget, but for less than a million dollar items they come out.

2:20:21 So if we do it as one process, but the information gets segmented out based on the, the threshold. So we’ll be prepping to, to make some decisions as to what would go to the capital planning. So the first decision as we talked about is what’s the allocation that we think is available for capital, right? If, if we decide there’s $0 for anything capital, then uh, right then, then there’s nothing to present. Now that’s not likely the situation, but you know, what are the one, are the million plus projects that would be coming for, I have said we’re looking at a whole number of our historic buildings that are just,

2:21:07 if we don’t do anything soon, we’re gonna damage the historic aspects that the lift, which should be an elevator in the old townhouse is probably high on that list. And there’s other things. Um, so there are items that we know that we’ll need to put together, but I think what you’re looking at is, and Steve and I are having these conversations, we need to go out and identify what are the other things that we don’t yet know that need to be put on the list. Yeah. Well I would agree that having a discussion about the process for the clarification of people who are listening is really important because there, there is, there’s kind of a two-tiered approach as you described, rather. And so a lot of that, you know, there’s a, a fixed amount kind of every year that goes to regular money

2:21:54 and small capital and there’s expenditure charges, right. That largely get driven by the operational, you know, the operation side and then you have the debt override piece of it, which goes into kinda longer term plan. So a hundred percent right. I mean, we need to look at what our potential debt burden is, so to kind of fund these projects. So the more we have, the more we go the that. But I guess, I guess my own point is when went by that, are you ready? Are, you know, are folks in town ready? But maybe January is better. Yeah, I, I mean mean, I would say, I I was gonna say on that, if it’s upcoming meeting, we’re at the start of the journey. Mm-hmm. Especially having Steve come on board in his capabilities. Right. So, so we’ve gone through a whole period where we’re in transition for that role.

2:22:41 So it’s been challenging now with Steve on board and managing a number of these projects and having his skill level to do so, gives us the capacity to take this on. Okay. But we’re at the beginning of that journey. Let’s see where we’ll have discussions, well, what we put on Yeah. Agenda in December where we are. Yeah. I’ll think a general conversation. We’ll, well how we approach it’s, it makes Sense if it’s too, if it’s premature, I just didn’t want it to get away from us. Oh. Because we’re gonna hit budget season. Things happen quickly. Yeah. Mm-hmm. And then the operational side, you know, we’re gonna re you know, revisit any like the, you know, organization of things to maximize some efficiencies around town. Um, you know, I’m not sure like you’d have to talk

2:23:28 with some department heads and see would, would get their thoughts on it. Yeah. You know, it maybe they have probably some good ideas about, you know, what would be great for, um, you know, to maybe the people are already working together anyway, so let’s, I dunno, I’m glad you’ve been working on one of the reasons we haven’t gotten. Yeah. Motion to adjourn, please. So move. Second. All favor. Thank everybody.

2:24:02 I’m gonna call your phone because I wanna speak to you on that green thing before you make a decision.