Select Board: May 13, 2026

Transcript captured from MHTV’s Vimeo auto-captioning. No speaker labels; proper names and dollar figures occasionally misheard. Click any timecode to jump to that moment in the source video.

0:00 Along with the time you can sign up to the microphone Al Jordan, Roosevelt Avenue. I’m just curious, I don’t know if you guys have agreed in Southwest EXSO or… But I’m just curious. I noticed over on PBD there’s been several articles in the paper and I’ve been talking to the city council over there, and they’re claiming their sewer rates are going to go up three to five times what they are now. They’re part of Southwest EXSO. So I was wondering now, maybe we could invite our advisory person from Southwest EXSO in to explain what’s going on, because we’re going to be voting these big overrides, and I want to find out about some big surprises that it seems like it’s coming. This is what I was told from out of town. It’s coming to Marblehead, too, and I don’t hear anyone discussing it.

0:46 The other thing, I had a few people come up to me and tell me the school department found $2 million or something. So I don’t know, but that’s a good rumor. That they apparently found $2 million that wasn’t accounted for. And I’m just curious on the plus side, and I’m just curious on who’s doing their accounting up there and if there’s going to be any other surprise. I hope it’s a $2 million plus, not a $2 million minus. So maybe we can look into that and find out what’s going on so I don’t have to hear these rumors going around town. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Jordan. Number eight on our agenda tonight is an update on the SESD. Okay. We’ve got Amy McCue speaking. I think you will be pleasantly surprised based on what you heard from PBD. Okay, great. Anybody else like to speak?

1:32 Yeah. Okay, great. Amy Hertz, Bouvier Road. I’m pretty sure everyone at this table knows my name because I have been emailing and calling quite a bit over the last month. I actually spoke with this meeting last month, and I hoped I would hear from someone. Did not, but I did today. Thank you very much. 2:30 this afternoon, we received a response. For those of you who aren’t aware of what my issue is, as a town in 2022, we voted for Article 11, which was $12,475,000 for road and sidewalk repair. The language in that article was clear. Repair does not say additional construction, and that is where we have this issue. Your response today

2:19 stated that you cleared it with your attorney. The town has done nothing wrong. You have the authority to use those funds to add more sidewalks. However, I have to ask, does that make it right? Telling voters the money is for repair and then having the authority to use the money to add new sidewalks, which we’ll have to maintain, seems to me disingenuous, not fiscally responsible. Why? Well, in 2024, the town commissioned a study of Marblehead’s more than 71 miles of sidewalks, which determined we have $61 million in repairs that are needed. Repairs are needed to our existing network of roads and sidewalks. I’ve lived in this town for almost 30 years. My husband grew up here.

3:05 We raised our children here. I have been a special educator in Marblehead Public Schools for the last 16 years. As taxpayers and voters, I’m hoping you will agree. My neighbors and I, if nothing else, deserve communication. To date, we still have seen no plan. We haven’t been told where exactly these sidewalks are going or how they will impact the trees or our properties. These are our homes. It is an emotional matter. I’m here tonight to ask that you give us time to review your response before moving forward with any work on Bouvier Road. Get us information. I would ask you to please have the DPW show us the plan for what is proposed. Finally, as I mentioned, I work with seventh and eighth grade students

3:53 before at MVMS, and we teach them that language matters, okay? That your voice matters, and to stand up when something isn’t right. Our students recently took part in a mock town meeting. I need to be able to look them in the eye and say what we vote for at our town meeting is what we adhere to. I need you guys to be able to do the same. Thank you. Thank you, Amy.

4:22 Good evening. My name’s John Acid. I’m also from Bouvier Road. I’m at 43 Bouvier Road. So I’m a neighbor of Amy’s, and I have a similar concern about the road and sidewalk repairs. Number one, I want to thank you for the written reply to our concern that we brought up. That was brought up on April 8th. Today is May 13th. I received it around 2:30 today. I kindly ask, give us a little bit of time for this before you start putting in sidewalks on a side street, that I really don’t understand. Number two, and I want people to understand one thing. I applaud everything the highway department’s doing.

5:08 They’re busting their tail out there and throwing the winter we had, I applaud. So this is not personal at all. What I’d like to do, though, is, when I went to the town meeting, you put together some really good white papers, and it says something, “Marblehead Roads: What Voters Need to Know.” You’re all familiar with that. I want to highlight two things. Number one, we’re at capacity in the department, spending $3 million a year due to workforce contracts, year’s weather, et cetera. So we can’t do any more over the next three years. And my understanding is the overrides were not asking for additional funds. Number two, to date, we have 14%

5:54 of the recommended maintenance budget. So I kindly ask, what is our plan in the next three years?You all drove here tonight up and down Washington. Buy some shock absorbers. I walk around town all the time. I’m tripping. I grew up in a family with a mother who has a disability, and my father and my brother both have Parkinson’s. I bring them to town. They can’t walk around. So I really would like to see what is the three-year plan? What is the priorities that you’re sending? It ought to be safety. I’m a big safety guy, my background. It ought to be high volume areas. We only have

6:41 48% of the need. And if you listen to everything at the town meeting, it sounded great. I think you owe it to the 20,000 residents to share with the town what are our priorities, where are we spending this limited funding? Are we doing it smartly? Instead of just saying… I don’t get it. And I will tell you, I reviewed this. It’s a beautiful document that we had consultants. We spent over $170,000 on it. I understand it has prioritization in here. I understand you can’t go one, two, three down the list due to logistical constraints. But I can’t figure out why you’re putting in sidewalks on Bouvier based on this, with the 14%. I can’t understand

7:28 driving around town, the new sidewalks across the street from Tedesco. It’s that important, if I understand it. Every resident in this town deserves an understanding of that plan. This is the same magnitude of the high school roof. So please, I hope you can just communicate to us what is the plan. I think we’re all reasonable people. If there’s legitimate safety or high volume things, we’ll understand it. So with that said, I do thank you for all your time, and again, I do applaud all the work that’s being done across the town. Thank you, John. Thank you. Appreciate you coming out. Yeah. I have to mention, because I walk around town a lot, I do not understand what you’re doing on West Shore Drive. Okay.

8:16 It was not needed. We said we were going to repair the sidewalks. All the tree roots is still going across these curb cuts right beyond them. The sidewalks are still impassable. The town meeting didn’t vote for that. It was to repair the sidewalks. And the Tedesco Country Club, that’s a joke. A private club that gets a big tax break to be doing all that work so people can access their parking lot. And I used to bring my mother, passed on five years ago, to the Catholic church in Marblehead, that has a pedestrian light that you have to walk over a big curb. That’s where they should be putting a curb cut, where hundreds and hundreds of people use the sidewalk to cross from Seaside Park,

9:02 not the sidewalks… And let’s not blame the highway. It’s not the little people up there. I’ve gone up and questioned this. It’s the people that don’t call back when you leave a message, your department heads. So the public wants to know what’s going on. Let’s stop spending the money, big, big money that’s unnecessary, and let’s maintain the sidewalks that we have that need repair, not put curb cuts in this town unless they’re totally necessary. Thank you. Thank you. I think what I heard here is communication is important. So we will, and- Well- I appreciate hearing that, John. That’s what I’m hearing loud and clear from what- What I also want to make very clear is what is the priority? Mm-hmm. We have limited funding.

9:48 Sure. 14%, 30- Well, part of that is communicating it, too. Yeah. Fair enough. Yeah. All right. I just wanted to- No, I hear you. Let me just add to that, that there is a pretty detailed prioritization plan with photographs all over town, and we’ve got a multi-tiered repair strategy. But I think one of the things that got baked into this idea of the sidewalk expansion, you can correct me on that, and I think in Amy’s mind, whenever we redo a road, we should also include the sidewalks as part of the effort to be responsive to the complaints that we’ve had, generally speaking, around sidewalks. So- The execution, but I think that’s where it’s come from … so I respect that comment. What I would say, if we had

10:34 a lot of funding, it makes totally sense. But it’s all about safety. It’s all about high impact of busy streets, and you’re putting in sidewalks on a side street just so you can have completeness? And I do, I will give you a written reply to this letter that we got today, but we need some time. We just got that. And we hear you. So it’s- We hear that loud and clear. We respect that. Thank you. We hear it from both ears. Okay. So, yep. Yes? Just clarification. I mean, I know we’re not here to engage in a dialogue so much, but I just wanted to allow our town administrator to respond. What has been the outreach to date? I know you’ve had a lot of conversations with the director of DW, Amy McHugh. I know that she has– I mean, I’ve received correspondence with her back and forth,

11:20 waiting for what’s our official response to this. Amy has met with many neighbors. Maggie has been out on the street with many neighbors. There was one gentleman who had a boat, who had been parked when we spoke, and had some concern that Maggie and I was working around. There’s been conversations around planning. They have been out there. What has been the outreach to date, and what is the plan beyond this legal opinion? What is the plan for the community engagement piece with the neighbors, relative to the scope of the project? I know that there are legal requirements. There are requirements under the American with Disabilities Act. When you repair a road, you are required by law, per Chapter um90 funds. We

12:08 are required to make improvements to the sidewalks. There’s some accessibility. I’m not an expert on it. I don’t want to misstate the legal context of it, but there is legal requirements that come with the Chapter 90 funds, and so some of it sometimes doesn’t make sense. And even on West Shore Drive, sometimes it does make you question the priorities of it, but there are some limitations around the state statutes and the law. So I guess if you could just tell for the board and for everybody, what is in the outreach today, and then what is the plan so the neighbors can have an understanding of the scope of the work, and beyond just that, okay, yes, legally we can do this. Is there some meeting? Is there a Zoom? What is in the notification?

12:55 What’s the plan? So if I understand, at the beginning phase of the project, that there was some notice given, and there was a Zoom meeting and such to explain the project. And one of the things that Amy and Ally Maggie talked about is, as we roll forward on these projects, and there’ll be more and more of these throughout that, we need to do a better job at the front end of convening a neighborhood meeting, showing exactly here’s what the results should look like well in advance of the deployment. So it seems to me that the timeline between all the notices and the deployment of the contractors was pretty short. So definitely there’s been a lot of email on it.

13:42 Amy? Just one second. Does the notice go out door to door? Can I speak to that? Sure. Yep, thank you. Unfortunately, I wish Amy were here. She’s on her way. But March 30th, the work started. That afternoon, we got our first door tag notice. Yeah. So it had already started, and they apologized. They didn’t expect the workers to show up. Okay, fine. There was a Zoom meeting. Thank goodness I went, because that’s the only way I would’ve known that they planned to pave this public way in the middle of my yard. That plan that was presented that night has changed. I only know this verbally because now it’s on both sides of the street where it was just one. So-

14:27 And the only communication I’ve had is tonight … I’m going to suggest that, where this is not on our agenda, and it feels like we are deliberating a little bit outside of that, that we do convene another meeting to continue this. Right. Right? So just because it’s not on our agenda, and we are sort of bordering on some deliberation here. Yeah. So why don’t we, if I continue this, I will personally reach out to you tomorrow. Okay. And I apologize that you’ve had to come here and do this. Yeah. If I could be part of the- Nope. Definitely not. For sure. Yep. Absolutely. Yeah, for sure. Can we refer it to a select board meeting or a meeting with neighbors or- No, I think meeting with neighbors, and let’s convene between DPW and the town administrator, and we will-

15:12 If possible, I would just- 100% … ask. I’ve been down this several times with my bike. I drove by today and- But in any event, if there’s a possibility, I don’t understand the plan either. I’d like to- Sure. We’ll- If there’s a walkthrough, and if it’s possible, I- I will make sure that you’re involved with that. Okay. Appreciate that.

15:31 Something else, maybe? Yeah. Good evening. I got put off at town meeting. Yeah, can you state your address just because of- 24 Shepherd Street. Thank you.

15:42 I just want to say that the essential staff employees of this town, they make this town work. And Terry Toros and you guys, an email saying all the new town positions that came, there was quite a few of them. How come the non-essential people weren’t going to get included before the essential? That is my question. Thank you. Appreciate it. So I’m waiting for a meeting. Mm-hmm. I’ll tell you later on. Are you guys going to talk? No, I don’t like it. Is there anybody online? Probably. Okay. So we’re going to move on to town administrator update.

16:28 Here you, sir. Oh. Oh, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Thank you. Yeah, just one more. Yeah. Apologize. Thank you. Yeah, there’s not a real microphone there anyway, so. Yeah. There’s a microphone right here. Yeah. Yeah. I’m Francis Nielsen at 28 Norris Avenue and- Right … and, I’ve come to ask if the board of selectmen will consider having a reading of a Declaration of Independence on July 4th, since it is our 250th anniversary. I’m suggesting that we have a reading, maybe starting 15 minutes before one of the bell rings at noon, or I think that the other one’s at 6:00, where we can then start

17:13 ringing the bell as the declaration is being spoken. But I would like to suggest that, and one possibility is, of course, on the steps of Adam Hall. Mm-hmm. Another is the steps of Town Hall. And there’s another possibility, too, at Prophet Park, before one of the concerts begin. Sure. I just wanted to suggest that. I think we need to talk to the Festival of the Arts. The street festival is the day before, so the streets will be open on that day. And so just like you to consider it. I hope you will endorse that,

18:00 and we can start organizing and figuring out.How we can do that. Sure. Thank you, Francis. Maybe it’ll be something we can take on our next agenda to discuss. I think that’s a- I think that’s a great idea … I think it’s a wonderful idea, Francis, and we’ll definitely take it under advisement and- Right. And- And get together and make a plan. Right. And I’m on the Route 250 committee, so I’m happy to– And- Great … we’ll be talking about that on Monday. Great. Thank you for showing up. Anybody else today? Nice. Now I will officially move over to you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. I’m going to highlight four things. One,

18:38 give recognition primarily to our finance team over the last many months. So in addition to all the public-facing work that’s gone on as far as developing all the budget scenarios, the override scenarios, all the presentations, and all the reconciliation on that.

18:59 During that time, the whole finance team had to meet the requirements in order to get our free cash certified, which came in about $6.1 million. Very close to what we had estimated. They also had to complete the Schedule A, which is the primary reporting of the town’s finances to the state. It’s a very comprehensive quote, which requires coordination and working with a number of the finance departments, treasurer, collector of town accounting, and assessors, the school department, as such, to meet all that reporting requirements. They are wrapping up the AFAR,

19:44 what’s the acronym?

19:50 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report. Yes. I can just read. Yeah. Yeah. I don’t know that. So the AFAR, which is a– Mr. Greater will share with everybody how comprehensive- Right … reporting is required, as well as, as we continue to deploy the modules from the VUNA system. So, we’ve deployed the revenue module, started using that. There’s a couple components, the auto exercise, the VOD exercise, that needs to be loaded in a few months, but deployment of another module of the VUNA system. So, shout out to our whole finance team. While they were seen in a lot of publicly facing, they had a whole lot of other work going on in the background in order to meet all

20:38 our financial reporting requirements. So congrats to them. Next, in line with the finance department, and you may have note that our town accountant, Chris Holick, took a position with the town of Saugus. So we’ve been searching. We are hiring a new town accountant. He starts on Monday. His name is Nicholas Gilmore. And he’s coming in– Actually, we plucked him from Amesbury. So I’m not sure what response I’m going to get the next time I’m in Amesbury City Hall, but- So goes that. Anyways, he currently serves as a financial payroll analyst for the city of Amesbury.

21:25 So he’s got a lot of different experience in accounts payable and receivable and cash reconciliation, payroll processing, insurance deductions, and tax compliance activities, on and on. He is also a graduate of the Commonwealth’s Local Finance Fellowship program. So that’s the Department of Revenues program for specific training for municipal finance. So young kid getting all the checkbox and certifications, so we welcome his coming on board starting Monday, where he’ll go through orientation programs.

22:05 The next update is launch of a Marblehead Alerts emergency notification system. So we’re all familiar with the phrase Code Red, which is the platform that we’ve used in the past for all our emergency notifications. As we reported previously, they had a cyber attack that wreaked havoc on the database. So there was a lot of work on there, and we ended up having to just shut down our system during the winter using that system. So we found this new platform,

22:44 and the takeaway for tonight is that residents, we need them to go on our website and hit the main page, scroll right to the bottom, and you’ll see a logo there. So Marblehead Alerts, and it’s run by called Regroup, is the actual platform that runs, which put our own branding on it. Folks, to click in, even if you’ve been in the Code Red system, not all the data from Code Red, again, they got hit with a cyber attack, not all the data transferred over. So if you want to make absolutely sure that you’re in the system, the contact information is current and correct, to go in and go through the process to register.

23:32 Any questions on that? So individuals need to go- Yeah … actually. Residents- Residents … and businesses. And businesses. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Okay. So it’s fairly easy to go in. I did it myself today. Okay. So let me get through. And finally,

23:53 on May 21st, from 1:00 to 3:00 at the Jacoby Community Center, the assessor’s office, working with the counseling agent, is having a senior tax assistance information session. So this is an information session for seniors-On all of the programs that we offer for discounts, abatements, every opportunity for residents to take advantage of those programs as

24:26 our taxes go up and brand new override go up even more, that this is an opportunity for seniors on fixed income to learn about and to take advantage of any and all the programs.

24:41 Specifically, we have the Senior Circuit Breaker Tax Credit program, as well as the newly enacted MA, the Means Tested Senior Tax Property Exemption program. So this is from how many in a year ago that it was passed for a special act by the legislature. So thanks to the work by Jenny Ameen and State Senator Brendan Creigh, they got the legislation passed. Governor Maura Healey recently signed it, so the law is in effect. So the Means Tested Senior program, so it’s an additional program for Marblehead seniors to take advantage of for tax breaks. So any questions, reach out to the Council on Aging. But the date again, Thursday, May 21st

25:29 from 1:00 to 3:00 PM at the Community Center. Great. And that concludes my updates. Thank you. Thank you, Patrick. Next we have Ro down the corner about Memorial Day to give us an update on what’s happening. Good evening. How are you tonight? You’re good. Good. I’ll also be participating in that. I was asked today. Oh, okay. Good. Yeah. Great. To discuss veteran benefits discounts. Mm-hmm. So thank you for having me. So Memorial Day, business as usual. We start off Friday. We kick off with the breakfast hosted by the Council on Aging, sponsored by the Masons, and that’s usually a couple hundred people. After the breakfast, there’s a few of us going over to Star of the Sea Cemetery to

26:15 flag those graves. Saturday, we have grave flagging at Waterside. Sunday, we have a Star of the Sea ceremony with the VFW at 1:00, run by the Monsignor and at the VFW. Then comes Monday morning, 8:00, Clark’s Landing for memorial service for those who died at sea. Move on to the Old Town House, gather up for the parade. From there, we go to Memorial Park. From Memorial Park, we have a little ceremony. We have a couple of great speakers, and there the parade will kick off, head over to Waterside Cemetery for another ceremony. After that, there’ll be a contingency of anybody is welcome really, to go back to the Old Town House to raise the flag, and the VFW has

27:02 stepped up. They’re having a full barbecue this year, not just refreshments. Great. So that’s for that. I’ve gone over the op plan with the chief, and he okayed it. He gave me the route. We will have a police escort, and everybody is more than welcome. I’m counting on all of you to participate again as last year. So I’ll send your operational notice, your matching notice tomorrow and- Well, we’re standing by. Thank you. And is your dad available as well? My uncle. Your uncle? He may be, yeah. We’ll see. Okay. And if there is- Do you want to call him? No, that’d be great. Yeah, that’s fine Is there anyone else that you think might want to participate? We have the scouts doing the pledge, and we have Liz Taro, who’s going to be doing our singing because the band backed

27:50 out. Okay. So- They’re down to six kids. Oh, wow. So- That’s right … that needs to beef up. Okay. So Liz, Willis Jr., I and Raleigh, reached out to her, and she said, “I would love to take care of that.” And- Great. Yes. And then we have Jim Shea doing the music with the Jeep because matching bands are $8,000. So we’re not going to get- We are not getting a matching band. I’d rather use that money for gift cards for veterans. I’m sorry. Sorry. Mm-hmm. It’ll be a condensed parade route like last year. And the trolley will be available. The trolley will start at the VFW to pick up people and

28:36 ride around town. Great. And that’s all I have. Good job. Looking forward to it. Give an update. Okay. So we, with the help of Chief Gillan, we were able to secure a beautiful chair for the POW/MIA dedication. So I’ve been refinishing it. It’s almost done. It needs about another couple coats of some beeswax. We’re adding the plaque. The VFW offered to sponsor it with the stanchions and the flags and the ropes, so minimal cost to the town of Marblehead. And the chair fits right in with all of this decor because it… Chief, how old is that chair? 1800. So it’s beautiful. It was one of the only ones that wasn’t damaged.

29:21 The velvet’s intact, so I got a special vacuum to clean the velvet and special polish for that type of wood because you can’t be too strong. Great. Where is it going? To be determined. Okay. We’re going to process this for the select board to accept this. Okay. So when the chair is ready, we’ll present the chair, but- Mm-hmm … identify an appropriate location somewhere in the town. Well, we’re looking forward to seeing and accepting the chair. So out of the 351 communities, over 200 town halls have a POW/MIA chair. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So it’s about time since we’re like the birthplace of the Navy. Pretty crazy. Appreciate you stepping up and doing that. Yeah. Well, it needs to be done- Yeah … because we need to recognize those who never made it home. Yeah. No doubt.

30:07 Okay. And that’s all I have. Do you have any questions of me? No, you’ve done a pretty good job. Thank you. Thank you. We’re trying. We’re moving forward, so- You’re doing a great job … it’s a good thing. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you Next up, we have the Task Force Against Discrimination student rep interview appointment, Caleb Sidman. Come on up. Good evening. Yeah, how are you guys? I’m good. How you doing? You can sit right down here. Thanks. You get a chair. It’s not the POW chair. It’s a normal one, for sure. So, good evening. We got your email. Very impressive on what you’re doing, so thank you for all you’re doing. Maybe tell us a little bit about yourself and why you want to serve on the task force. So, my name is Caleb Sidman. Caleb Sidman. I’m a junior at Marblehead. I’m 17.

30:54 This year, on the anniversary of October 7th, there was a student who went around the school and painted swastikas in two of the bathrooms in the school. And so, in response to that, as an officer of the Jewish Student Union at Marblehead, myself as well as the fellow officers, as well as some of my, not my, but some of the class officers, started the Marblehead Alliance for Growth, Inclusion, and Connection, also known as MAGIC. And we have tried to start working on decreasing discrimination in the schools. So, in particular, we want to focus on the lower schools like Village, in particular, and because we believe that discrimination is kind of something you’re born with, and it’s something that you’re raised

31:39 with, rather than something that people want to do. People don’t want to be discriminatory, it’s something that happens when they’re put in these conditions of privilege that we see a lot in this town. So, besides that, other ways I’m involved in the community and around, so BBYO is the largest Jewish teen movement in the world, and I am the president of the New England region of that. So, overall, my want to be on the Task Force Against Discrimination is mainly due to helping stop antisemitism in the town, which we have seen a lot of recently. Yeah. Great. Yeah, thank you. I saw your Best Buddies Club. I did that as well. So that’s great. Appreciate you stepping up. It’s very impressive, especially with what’s going on in this country and in this

32:26 world. So, thank you very much. Anybody have any questions or comments? No? I’m so impressed- Yeah … with the initiative that you’ve taken, and at such a young age. And I think the MAGIC group is so smart to be, those kids in that Village School look up to high school students. I think that mentorship idea, and reaching out to a different school is really such a great idea. I think you’ll be a great addition to the task force and it’s just very impressive and we’re lucky that you apply. It’s also impressive at 17 years old to sit up here, so you did a great job. Thank you. Yeah. Absolutely. Caleb, well, thank you for stepping it up to the municipal level here-

33:13 Yeah … in a visible way and look forward to your participation. Thank you. I’m excited. Yeah. So, just so you know, we do have reappointments the end of June. Okay. So I have a feeling we’re going to appoint you here. We don’t have the official vote, but then we will reappoint you at the end of June. Okay. Just so you know when that comes up. So, if I could have a motion to appoint Caleb Sidman to the Task Force Against Discrimination with a term to expire on June 2026. So moved. Second. Second. All in favor? All right. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. Keep up the great work. Thank you, Caleb. Pleasure to have you. Congratulations. All right. Next up, we have a public hearing licensing for

33:59 Red Lantern. So, I would like to open the public hearing. This hearing has been legally advertised in the paper. The applicant is Red Lantern Inc., 165 Pleasant Street. Ricky Zhong, Kwing Hong, if I could call you up. Good evening. Good evening. Good evening. Welcome. Anyone can come up to the- Okay. Attorney Chris Coleman- Hi, Chris … on behalf of the applicant. I have with me tonight Amanda Breen. Hey, Amanda. She’s going to be the proposed manager at the location. To go over some old ground, the location has 2,500 square feet, 58 seats, 58 indoor, 18 outdoor, open since ‘97.

34:44 The layout and the floor plan is the same as it was when it was Mai Thai Lounge. Cuisine, also Asian. The menu has been provided with the application. It has small plates, large plates. In looking at the menu, it says it’s high-end seafood. Chicken, beef, and seafood dishes. Rice and noodle also. The proposed hours are Saturday through Sunday, 11:00 AM to 12:00 midnight. And the manager, as I said, is proposed as Amanda Breen. She has good restaurant and alcohol experience. She was the manager of Mai Thai Lounge since 2022. 2021, actually. She’s also a US citizen.

35:30 She has her TIPS training, and she will be there 40 hours plus a week. With the application is also an entertainment license. It’s no different than what was there before, the type of entertainment was TV, background music most of the time. They do have a DJ, karaoke, and live music on occasion. Be happy to answer any questions that you might have. Are these the same hours that they’re currently running, or are you looking to expand? 6:00 PM hours on the license. Okay. The license hours haven’t changed. Okay.

36:01 Any other questions? No? It’s great to hear that you’re making a go of it and best of luck. We’re working on it. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. This spot has been tough, so look forward to seeing that work. Yeah. For sure. Absolutely. You guys have anything else to add? Great. Does anyone wish to speak opposed to the application?Anyone who would like to speak in favor of the application? We’ll close the public hearing. Any other additional questions from the board? Okay. Well then, if I could have a motion to approve the application from Red and Lantern Inc. as presented for common victual license at 165 Pleasant Street. Manager, Amanda Breen, subject to the receipt of the required forms, fees, and receipt of the required certificate of insurance.

36:48 Hours of operation will be Sunday through Saturday, 11:00 AM to midnight. Seating capacity, interior 158, exterior 18. So moved. Second. All in favor. If I could also have a motion to approve the application from Red Lantern Inc. as presented for the transfer of the alcohol beverage license at 165 Pleasant Street. Manager, again, Amanda Breen, subject to the receipt of required forms, fees, ABCC and CORI approval, and receipt of the required certificate of insurance. Hours of operation, same, Monday through Sunday, 11:00 AM to midnight. Seating capacity, interior 58, exterior 18. So moved. Second. This will be a poll vote. Mr. Zisson? In favor. Ms. Singer? In favor. Mr. Greer? In favor. Ms. Newton? In favor. Mr. Bos? In favor. The next up we have for the annual and

37:34 Sunday entertainment license, they are looking for, looks like for the same times, 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM. Any questions on Sundays? No. If not, then we have a motion to approve the request as presented from Red Lantern Inc., 165 Pleasant Street, for an annual and Sunday entertainment license, Sunday through Saturday, 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM, subject to receipt.

37:58 All right. Yeah. Of the required fees, that no music is heard from the street, and approval from the Commonwealth’s Department of Public Safety for Sunday entertainment. So moved. Second. In favor? Yes. All right. Thanks for coming. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for waiting. Good luck. Good luck. Amanda, when do you plan to open? Well, as soon as all the permitting is in. Okay. Yeah. Good luck. Thank you very much. All right. We’ll be there. All right, next up we have a hearing for the transfer and pledge of license inventory of alcohol beverage

38:29 package store. I would like to open this public meeting and also announce this hearing has been legally advertised in the paper.

38:38 Sarvpreet Corp, did I pronounce that- Pretty close. Pretty close. Then we’ll take it. 22 Bessom Street. Good evening. Give me the right plan. Okay. Location. Mr. Chair, members of the board, my name is Tom Truex, an attorney in Salem, Massachusetts. I’m appearing on behalf of the proposed licensee, Sarvpreet Corporation. Thank you. And with me to my right is Mr. Brijesh Patel. He’s the president of the corporation. Okay. And this is a husband and wife team. Excellent. And his wife is, um, Priyanka, and she is the proposed license manager. Um, the underlying transaction’s fairly straightforward. It’s the sale of the liquor store with all the assets, including the transfer of the Section 15 package store all alcoholic beverages license. The only extra on this is that there is seller, there is bank financing on it. So, um, Rockland Trust Company is

39:26 requesting that this board approve a pledge of license and a pledge of the alcohol inventory. I’ve included in my package the, uh, the proposed, uh, promissory note from, um, and the pledge of license documents from the bank. Um, as for experience, um, they both come before you with plenty of experience. Um, Mr. Patel, he comes before you with eight years of liquor license experience, liquor store experience, package store. And, uh, his wife comes before you with four years of package store experience, um, liquor store experience, um, both working at, um, Beach Bluff here in Marblehead, so. Great. Um, and they’re both, uh, gonna be working there full time. They’re both TIPP certified. And, um, I guess the only other issue with… The only other thing is, I would mention, is that, uh, Village Liquors does have a

40:13 point-of-sale system, which requires whenever you scan a, uh, tobacco or an alcohol item, it comes up saying you have to request ID. Mm-hmm. So it’s just another safeguard that a lot of stores have it, but they have it as well. Um, as for operation, the only change will be in personnel. Store hours remain the same. Store layouts can remain the same, and store operation will remain the same. So all in all, it’s pretty much gonna be a turnkey operation, which is these two appearing before you instead of the prior owners. Okay. And we would be happy to answer any questions you may have. Why don’t we just see if there’s anyone who wishes to speak opposed to the application? Anyone in favor of the application? All right, so let’s close public hearing. Any questions from the board? Sounds great. Yeah. I, I know the store well. And, and, and it’d be nice to see his smiling face.

41:01 Yeah. Good to know there’s- I’m not gonna say I know the store well, but so, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, I, I mean- Well enough. Well- Yeah. We, we, we go, we go together. Yep. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. That’s one. Um, what’s… Once- Mr. Vinbach. Yeah. What’s the, um, when’s the proposed time to, to transfer? Well, it’s a bureau ABCC. They run about, they’re running four to six weeks roughly. Okay. And the financing is in place? Yeah. They’ve got a place? Also, yeah, there is a, um- Yeah. They have all that … a loan. Commit letters in- Yeah. All right. Everyone good? All right. Well, sorry to make you wait for this, but if I could have a motion to approve the application from Sarvpreet Corp. as presented to transfer all the alcohol beverage package store license and pledge of license inventory at 22 Bessom Street. Manager, Priyanka Patel, subject to the receipt of required forms, fees, and receipt of the certificate, required certificate of insurance.

41:49 Hours of operation will be Monday through Sunday, 8:00 AM to 11:00 PM. Sundays… Sorry, through Saturday, 8:00 AM to 11:00 PM. Sundays, 12 noon to 11:00 PM. So moved. Second. Bold. Ms. Singer? In favor. Mr. Greer? In favor. Ms. Newton? In favor. Mr. Zisson? In favor. Mr. Bos? In favor. Congratulations. Thank you. Look forward. Thank you. Moshe says you’ll be six or seven days a week apparently. So, yeah. He’ll, he’ll- Document … he’ll keep you open. Yeah. Thank you very much. Good to meet you. Thank you. Appreciate it.

42:19 All right. Looks like we have one more here, soIs anybody here for that? We don’t have the applicant from that meeting. Yeah, so we are not going to open. Should I still open it and then continue? No. It has been advertised, so I need to open it, right? Mm-hmm. So let’s open the public hearing. This hearing has been legally advertised in the paper. This is for Marblehead Yacht Club, 4 Cliff Street. I would like to call the applicant to the table. There is no applicant. If I could have a motion to continue the meeting, the public hearing. So moved.

43:04 Second. On? It would need to be a date specific, yes. Yes. Okay. Why don’t we continue this until May 27th? Our next meeting. Same, so moved. Same second on the date? Second. My bad. Thank you. All in favor of continuation. Looks like it’s unanimous. Ms. McHugh, come on down. So Amy is going to talk to us about the

43:30 SESD update, which she just came from a meeting. Are you doing a presentation? If I can. Go ahead. I join. I feel like we- I have to delete one slide because I lost my slide deck and can’t build it fast enough. We have to move the

43:47 Maybe.

43:50 I think we have it this time. Good evening. Can I borrow a piece of paper? You want a piece of paper? Yeah. I lost mine. In the office. Okay.

44:02 Yes. Yeah. That was in here. Yep.

44:09 In the- X.

44:14 No. It’s the front. Again? Yeah. It is.

44:21 Oh, this can be shown now. Are you in? Are you sure I did? I don’t know what’s going on. Yeah, I’m sure you’re in. There it is. Press forward. I see you in the room. Okay. Let me delete this slide. There we go. Press forward. Share. Slide again. Hmm.

44:51 I think this would be easy by now, right? Slideshow. It says it’s coming. There we go. Hmm. There we go. Cool. Oh, now you know the big story. Did we get right to the- Started at the second one, but that’s okay. We’ll start at the second one. Okay. We’ll start at the first. So I’m just here, to talk to you about, I’m sure you’ve all read in the paper about the SESD assessments that are coming forward, and that Marblehead really is a different story, than the other towns. So I just wanted to give you some background on why that is, and now I’m going to read it because sure, I’ll do this right.

45:40 Sorry for not being prepared. I did just come from that meeting. Okay. My voice will open.

45:47 Without glasses, come on. Okay, it’s already open. No, we’re not. This whole thing needs… Hmm.

46:01 Okay. Rewrite. Sorry. Okay. There we go. So, open. Ah.

46:13 Still open today. Take your time. It’s all right. Let me see if I can do this by… Oh. Moses could tell a joke or something while we’re waiting. No, I’m- Moses … my mind’s at 10 foot cloud. Is it? I’m still recovering from the, you know, all the I mean, you’re the one who threw it out there. No, I did. I didn’t Moses, will you test me the water? I’m going to try one more. Will you test me the water? That’d be fine. Did you finish? We did. We finished. Yeah. Sorry about that. The permit? It’s real. Yeah, it’s real. Isn’t there, isn’t there two? No, there’s only one. No. Okay.

46:54 So, if everybody, SESD, which is South Essex Sewage District, is committed to public health and keeping our water environment, water quality high in our water environment, which is Salem Sound, our harbor, Salem Harbor, all of those harbors. They have, along with many other municipalities, come into some very challenging times with budget. The treatment

47:23 district, excuse me, the water treatment plant was upgraded in the ’90s, but now it’s ready to be upgraded again. So they have put forward, if you go onto their website, and we also have a recording of what they just put forward for the Water and Sewer Commission, a centennial plan, which is a 20-year plan of upgrades, and also the challenges that they’re meeting in their operating budgets, which is residual disposal, which we’ve heard more than enough about how disposal is increasing. It’s increasing for SESD, too.

48:00 So Marblehead is a different story, and the only reason we’re a different story is because we had a major piece of infrastructure break in 2013, and at that time, it is a piece of infrastructure that only Marblehead uses, but SESD owns. So you saw a large spike in SESD’s budget, but Marblehead was the person who paid that whole portion of that repair. And the repair turned out to be a full replacement of the two lines under Salem Harbor, if you all remember. At that point, that’s when Marblehead saw a doubling of the sewer rates. Um-So following Carl Segal, who was the chair at the time, he put forward a plan to borrow money for 10 years, saving us a million dollars in

48:46 interest, and also setting us up for the success right now. Because Carl, being the ultimate engineer, realized that all of our infrastructure’s getting older and that things are going to have to… We will see costs coming forward. So to understand how this is going to affect us, we really need to understand what Marblehead sewer budget is. Marblehead sewer budget is made up of salaries and expenses. That’s our operating budget. That’s for the in-town collection system and the sewer department. The SCSD portion, which historically is the largest portion of our budget, and that is an assessment for the treatment of all the sewage that we send over, and then capital improvements.

49:28 So here’s what the projected percentage and change year over year for Marblehead’s assessment is. You can see that in FY27 we have a negative, and that’s what we saw in our budget this year that was presented at town meeting. The payment for the pipeline has dropped off. The last payment was made in FY26, and so now FY27, we have a drop. You’ll also see that in FY31 we see an 80% increase in our assessment.

50:02 Maybe it will change that. Okay.

50:07 Oh my computer. Yeah, get that all. And I need to change. Come on. I’ll try it this way. Okay. So what we do next is we add our salary and expense operating budget. And to be able to do this, we’re projecting 10 years out. That’s a little hard to do, but what I did was look back at our historic numbers and at things that were happening right now, and we generally see our labor go up about 4% and our expenses go up about 5.

50:35 And here’s where our capital improvement really happened. So capital improvement projects for our collection system are our 28 pump stations. We still have 17 that need to be rebuilt and replaced. Most of them went in in the ’50s. They were upgraded in the late ’80s. My crew is definitely a victim of our own success. They have been able to keep these things running, and they have been able at a great level, but unfortunately, now the parts that we’re looking at are not available to us because the stations are getting so old. So we’re seeing a lot more problems with our stations, smaller stations. But

51:14 10 years ago, we made a conscious decision to delay some of the larger projects as long as we could. We also have an administrative order, which is talking about infiltration removal from the sewer system. So another capital improvement project is lining of the sewer systems. All the funding lately has gone to the lining of the sewer systems. So you will see that that drops off, SCSD. Let me go back one more. So you will see that our construction article, which is also known as our capital improvement money, our construction article this year, or for FY27, is $2 million, but you can see that SCSD, that million dollar dropped off. So

52:00 now we can push more money into our sewer system. So we’ll be increasing our capital improvement projects. That’s why you see that blue line high. Then we’re going to be able to stabilize that, keep the capital improvement investment the same for three years. And then when we get to FY31, where you see that spike in SCSD, we’re going to be able to drop our capital improvement funding down that reflects that year. So you drop that one year, which offsets the big assessment from SCSD, which basically neutralizes it. Exactly. So now you see that nice blue line right in the center gives you a nice stable budget all the way across for the- So that light blue line that’s thicker is what our increases in sewer rates will be over those years? Right. So that’s the total budget- Okay, great

52:45 … what that total budget- Total budget … will be over those years. So you can see all the bars are adding, and then that spiky line is that capital improvement budget that we have the ability to put forward projects, large projects, or put forward small projects. So what’s driving the spike in the SCSD? Um- As to- So that’s a really long… Well, it’s a 22-minute presentation to see what the spike is, but one of the s- Short one is- In summary. The short one is that. In summary,

53:14 every district is going to see roughly the same percentage of increase. We are a small percentage of the whole, but our percentage is going to go up the same amount. So it’s going to hit our ratepayers the same that it would hit others. Where we have already had the doubling of our rates way back when for our pipeline, no one else has really had to deal with that. They’re going to have to deal with that now. Right? So now we can put our money back in. In FY31, there is a major budget item for Marblehead, which is to replace the forcemain. That’s still in design, that’s still in talks, but that is a multimillion-dollar project that has to happen. And it is really the Achilles’ heel of our system. It has been put in a while,

54:01 and it needs to be replaced. So Amy, in this chart- Mm-hmm … can you give some data on what those percentage increases look like? So, is that, like, a 3 or 4% increase over those years? So this is the budget, right? Right. So the budget you’re going to see most years are 4 to 5%. Sure. We have a couple of 6% years, and then FY31 is an 8% increase. And historically, we’ve been in that 4 to 5% range. Historically, we’re at 4 to 5%, so it’s not a huge difference. Amy, FY31, is that also the improvements at the water plant? Meaning that’s a big year for the improvements at the SED. That’s when the first tranche starts for improvements in the centennial. So you have some smaller ones in FY29.

54:46 Yeah. FY28 is when the residuals budgetHits. So they’re looking at a $2 million increase in getting the residuals, the same type that all the towns are looking at.

55:01 Then in FY29, you have some projects that are in the plant, but they’re spread out between all of us. And again, we’re only 7% of a big project, so we’ll see an increase, but not as– percentage-wise, about the same. Yeah. Dollar-wise, ours looks different. Yeah. I did attend the meeting earlier, and there’s about $400 million of work they’re going to do over in Cap Cove. Yeah. But it’s spread over many years, and there’s five– Actually,

55:33 before I misspeak. There’s five. Two towns and three cities involved in some of it. Yeah. So you’re talking about, my guesstimation is about 75,000 households to split it across. So it’s split across a lot of households. So I think the news articles were talking about thousands of dollars a year increase. We were doing some back of the envelope, Cat, and not even close. No. Not even. I don’t want to speak actual numbers, but- That’s okay … it was really– You hear a number like 400 million, but there’s probably roughly in the five communities 175,000 people or 140 of it, roughly. 190, yep. Hundred and ninety, okay. 190,000. So it’s not as simple as that. No, I know. But just to give you-

56:19 There’s big loads and loads and rates and- It is a lot of stuff … so our rate is set. 10%, 10 to 15. And again, we are a percentage of a whole, too, so those numbers are different, but when a project only benefits that city or town, then that city or town takes the whole amount of that project. So when that pipeline that broke under the harbor, we’re the only ones that use it- Mm … we took the whole budget. The whole. We had to pay for the whole budget. We took our big hit before. Right, yeah. And a lot of the municipalities are taking their hit now. Yeah. Right. And they’re doing similar things. There are other pipelines- Yeah … under other parts of the harbor coming from different places. And those, that’s part of that 400 million is getting those pipelines replaced, but we won’t be paying for that part. Yeah. The chair said the pipeline, not plural,

57:08 for Danvers and Beverly, there’s one that is aging. Right. And they not only have to replace it, but they have to do a dual like we have now- Right … that we did 10 years ago. And we were the poster child for when ours broke, and they went out and assessed everybody’s so that they can replace them before they break. Good. Yeah. Now, we didn’t have a big break, and we were able to put divers down and get it fixed that day, but then when we did the assessment, it needed to be replaced. Correct. I remember. Yeah. I did have a picture of the pipe, but it was- Yeah. 2013 it broke. Yeah. And then we repaired it, and then we had to go, because we repaired it, they did not consider it an emergency anymore. So we had to go through a full permitting. So it took about a year. So we had a really nice winter.

57:55 2014, 2015, we had a terrible winter. That’s when we were out putting it in. What interest rate was it on? Two and a half percent. It’s SRF. Oh, yeah? Yep. So this was– MWRA is at 0%. Got it. SRF, it was 2.5%. We were able to pick 10, and the payments started in 2015. So we had– That project was almost all done before the payments actually started, and our last payment was FY26, and those payments were roughly 1,000,033- Okay … a year. So although this is a budgeting struggle for all, Marbleheads does not have that headline of 400% or double your rate. And we have the ability

58:42 now to be able to really invest in our infrastructure for these years to keep our rates stable, but to turn around some major projects- That’s great … that are really needed. So thank you- Thanks … for letting me update it. Super clear. This was helpful because there’s been a lot out there in the news, and I know there’s a lot of fear out there, so great job by your board to present this as well as plan for the future. Yeah, and you’re planning just all of it. Thank you so much. Yeah. It’s great. Yep. I have to give Carl Segal kudos for- Yeah … having that much thought. Yeah. So big headlines, if I was going to walk away from here, is that we will have similar increases, maybe a point or two higher than we’ve had in the past, except maybe a little bit of a bump, a couple points more in fiscal year ‘31. Yeah, fiscal ‘30 then ‘31 is the big jump. And then it’ll level back out to continue where we were in the past.

59:29 Right. Great. Good. Thank you. All right. Thank you. We appreciate you coming. Appreciate you running over. Yeah, long night. Okay. All right. Jenny. So I am going to open up the… No, you’re good. We don’t have him here. This is a continuation of the revocation hearing of Shin Dynasty 1 and Atlantic Ave. This public hearing was opened on November 13th, 2024 on the revocation of the wine/malt beverage license number 00042-RS-0656, Shin Dynasty, 1 Atlantic Ave. I do not see Mr. Lewis in here, so

1:00:15 he is not present. There was some communication. I think he connected and they’re coming back. Okay. But I think we need to have him here, correct, to do anything? Well, I think that we’re going to close this out. Okay. Do we need him here to close that out? I would be opposed. Yeah. He’s been here a lot. Yeah. So I am happy- I don’t know- He’s presented many times as far as I’m concerned. Just so everyone knows, the 304 inspection has been completed. Okay. At this point, I am happy closing this. Yeah. He’s done everything we’ve asked of him. We’re just saying he’s not here, but I don’t think we need him here for that officially Soft opening for him I think he did. Yeah. I think so too. Yeah. So- Who’s to say the same thing.

1:01:01 I would like to…

1:01:05 If I could have a motion to close the public hearing on the relocation of the license held by Shen Dynasty. So moved. I’ll second. Second. Okay. Do we need to poll this? No. All right. All in favor? Yeah. That’s after a couple of years, we’re done with that. Well, congratulations to them. Yeah. It looks great. Team work. Yeah. Next on our agenda was the polling locations. However, we voted on this last year, and it continues. So when you voted last year, it’s left open. Correct. You won’t need to vote again unless you make another- Unless we change it. Okay … So it goes into perpetuity unless you change it. Okay, so I think we are moving on to number 11. So number 11 is to prepare a proclamation honor of Joan Gullboyes.

1:01:52 This was a request from Bob Peck, celebrating Joan Gullboyes’ retirement at the Landing on May 20th, and has been there as a 15 years of service as Executive Director of MHTV. So I think that would be great. That’s a long stint. If I could have a motion to prepare a proclamation in honor of Joan Gullboyes’ retirement after 15 years of service as Executive Director of MHTV. So moved. Second. All in favor? Great. We have a couple of outdoor temporary dining applications. One from Alia Taverna, one from The Landing. It looks like these are the exact same ones- Same … same plans, everything as we’ve done the last couple of years. It’s the exact same. We’re good. Yeah.

1:02:38 We’ve got the process down. Okay. Yeah. They’ve been doing it since 2020. Okay. Yeah, it’s been- Double, whatever Number 12 remark. Yeah. Yeah. And this is all subject to- Yeah, we’ve- … fire, police, all that. Okay. So if I could have a motion to approve the following applications for 2026, temporary outdoor dining in accordance with the town’s policy on temporary outdoor dining. Alia Taverna, 261 Washington Street, subject to the receipt of required forms, fees and insurance, and approval from police, fire, building commissioner, and town administrator. The Landing, 81 Front Street, subject to the receipt of required form, fees, insurance, and approval from police, fire, and coordination of days, hours of operation on the public way with the town administrator. So moved. Second. So poll vote. Thanks. Ms. Rooney?

1:03:23 In favor. Mr. Disson? In favor. Ms. Sanger? In favor. Mr. Green? I have to abstain on the landings. Okay. It’s a box. In favor. Yeah. Looks like passport one. Of four with one absence. Next we have a donation to the fire department from William Lundergan. Looks like we have a check from the Pequot Tribal Foundation amount of $5,000. This is money to be used exclusively at the sole discretion of the Marblehead Fire Department. It’s a great thing to be able to receive. I’d like a motion to accept as a gift to the town, a donation amount of $5,000 to be used exclusively at the sole discretion of Marblehead Fire Department. So moved. Second. In favor. Great.

1:04:08 14, we have a few consent agenda items. I get a motion to approve the following consent agenda items subject to the usual rules, regulation, fees, and receipt of required certificate of insurance as required for, let’s see, the Festival of Arts Road Race, June 20th, 26, subject to approval from the fire and police. Police details and no permanent markings are allowed on the streets, and any temporary markings must be removed at the end of the event. We also have the minutes of March 11th, 2026, and March 19th, 2026, and Abbott Hall for Juneteenth, June 12th at 4:00 PM. Were you here to speak on that before we do that? I- I heard you speaking … I came just to speak. Okay. I’m- But I’m just here to- Just for- Support … support. Okay. Yeah. I had heard you speaking about it. I didn’t want to exclude you. Sometimes we do that. So, okay. Thank you. Great.

1:04:56 Thank you for coming. Did we have a… Sorry. moved. Okay, great. I’ll second. All in favor? All right.

1:05:05 There was a request for you or- Receive … if you… Yeah. 100%. Just, yep- Okay … I’d be happy to do that. Wonderful. Thank you. For sure. Yep. Kyle can help coordinate that. Great. Yep, for sure. We’d be more than happy to do that. Thank you.

1:05:24 Spirit of 76, looks like we have a request from Marblehead Historical Commission to reproduce a Spirit of 76 image. Patrick, do you have any- So- … info on this one for us? So what they’re looking to do is reproduce the image, I think for, much like what we do for sales at their museum. So they’re describing here, 16 by

1:05:58 20, 11 by 14. So they’re various printable sizes on archival quality- Mm-hmm … paper. So it’s basically to be sold at the- Okay … museum. Any questions, comments? So this is more or less sponsored by the museum? I- It’s Marblehead Historical. Historical. Yeah. I’m sorry. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So they’ve had their-

1:06:30 The person on the line just pulled up their form that it was sent us, as it was on something that sort of- Oh, they didn’t- This is not- But they signed off They went through the store s- same one, Tom? Yes. Can you just give us a little, so this is for…

1:06:49 Oh, so all right. So can we get a little more clarification on that? This looks like it came through the Historical Commission, but it is not for- Yeah, that’s my question. Yeah, thank you. That’s what I’m trying, no, I’m seeing this is out of Florida. Right.They need a winter store because she made us four adventures.

1:07:08 An art museum? And they’re using it just to sell- Yeah … the image? Yeah. In a museum. At the museum. It’s in Florida.

1:07:21 What’s every, something that is we’ve done in the past for- Real quick, so generally speaking, you’ve not approved it, but it’s called for commercial purposes. Like the hot dog. Yeah. Well, um- Okay … based on the application, what this here is- Sorry … they’re looking to sell, and they’re selling it, which is kind of the commercial play, in support of the museum, their museum, um, art of museums, um, in conjunction with that. So, um- I wouldn’t mind another waterfall on this. Yeah, I just wonder what the background of the owner- To be honest … what is this? I would too, especially after our experience with the hot dog thing. Yeah. I’d like to- Yeah. Maybe we get another waterfall on this. Yeah.

1:08:07 Yeah, let’s just figure out who they are first. Okay. If they’re doing it for non-profit. Yeah, clearly we want to support them in there, but- Yeah … let’s get another waterfall on this. Why don’t we, uh, why don’t we pass on this one? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Great. Save things. Thank you for bringing that up, Tim. Uh, we have a few contracts. The first, Dr. Wanley speak on this. Yeah. You know more about them than I do. So, uh, we only have two. Okay. Yep. The third one we pulled. Uh, so the first contract is, uh, municipal fiber network project. So, as you recall, we used ARPA funding to do the town fiber loop. Mm-hmm. We allocated a half a million dollars of ARPA funding for it. Um, what was left off of that, part of the project was running the fiber loop out on the Nap. So, um, our former sustainability coordinator in

1:08:53 working with the Marblehead Light Department applied for the fiscal 26 community compact IT program grant, and successfully was awarded the grant. Um, so the, the cost of the project is 94,000 and change. The grant is gonna cover 89,792. Uh, there is some residual balance in the original fiber project in, in our ARPA fund. So we’re gonna do the balance of the $4,725 using the ARPA fund remaining from the original fiber project. And that just needs to be spent by the end of this year, correct? Yes. Okay. And as far as the contractor, uh, we, through the procurement, we’re able

1:09:38 to, um, um, extend the existing contract because it was less than 20% increase. So the same contractor that did the main portion of Marblehead, we’re doing that. Great. Any questions? No. I move. So I have a motion to approve change order number two for contract 2024-031 between the town and Contract Corporation. Authorized chair to sign the change on behalf of the board. So moved. Second. In favor? Pat? Uh, this n- next contract is, um, if we allow either Matt or Elaine to come up here, they’ll be so excited to talk about it, we won’t be able to get them out of the chair. Sure. Um, what this vendor does is they have vehicle-mounted LiDAR, which is

1:10:26 a like radar, um, radar, uh, system, that they drive up and down the roads in a high resolution, accurately maps the conditions of all our roads, feeds the data, data in, and allows us to use that data to make assessments of the roads and therefore prioritize road conditions at a very high level of detail. Um, so this would be for a contract of three year services. This would be coming out of the public works line item for other professional and technical services. So the first year is 13,200, so there’s some set up, and then 9,000, 9,000 in the next couple years. Yeah. I believe it. They go by calendar year. The first year we’re gonna split the project.

1:11:13 So at the total. Okay. It’s November. Okay. It’s November 1st. Okay. So we only have five months. So the first year is gonna be half of that with water and sewer will pay the other one as the rest in our current budget- Yeah … for our fiscal year ‘27? But yeah. So it’s, they, they have… Right. So then- So actually you’re gonna get it done in fiscal year ‘26.

1:11:34 But then you have… Okay. We get it signed. We get it signed, and that’s, and that’s paid a lot of your current budget. Yeah. Okay. So the, and then year two would be ‘27. Okay. Thank you. So now Amy, I know that there’s been a, uh, you know, an initial analysis that went all around town- Right … assessed the state and prioritized the state. Is, is this, is this like, uh, like adding to that capability and updating more regularly? Or what, what’s the- Yeah, so this is- What, what’s the purpose of this? This is exactly what… that right. So rather than have the consultant come in and do the driving around, we- we’ll have the ability to- Got it … do the driving around, get the assessment. Um, each year you can pick a different asset. So we’ll always do the roads. So, and we’ll have them come in and drive the first year. That also includes the driving. Um, next year’s if you

1:12:19 want, you don’t have to pay for the driving. You can get the equipment and mount it on your car and drive around for a week and get whatever you feel like getting from that information. But, um, the next assessments we’ll probably do are trees, so we’ll do tree assessment. Um, and we’re, this year we’re gonna do signs, roadway, hydrants, and manholes, which will be every kind of manhole. That one might not work so well, because they can’t tell the difference between a storm manhole and a water gate and a gas gate, but we’ll have pictures to be able to decipher it. So what type of reports will you get out of this? Like this gets the data and it actually gives you out as a report then? Give you an Excel sheet of things that it’s pulled down as far as ratings, thickness, potholes, uh- And it prioritizes them for you then? And it gives you- This is a 3D imaging. Yes. Yes. So this will give you the three-dimensional image of all those

1:13:08 assets that they’re mapping Pretty cool. Now, have you seen an AI report, and what it looks like, and what we can expect? We did. I popped my head here and I thought, “Oh, great.” No, it’s pretty impressive. But I know everyone’s pretty excited about it. Yeah. We’ll be able to, if we ever get our GIS platform up and running, we’ll be able to merge it with that. And it gives you the ability at any time to go borrow the equipment and do something else too. So we’ll have a better reading. So we’ll know. Right now it’s been five years, right? We don’t know where things have– Certain ones have deteriorated faster than other ones, and some have gotten better. So we’ll be able to keep up with that. So what’s happening is the technology that’s available has just- Mm … been so much better. It’s taking advantage of that better

1:13:54 Well, it’s multi-asset too. Yeah. So you just- Yeah … have next dimension capability. Yeah. Right. So- It’s pretty cool … in GIS, in effect, they’re working on a two-dimensional map. This will create three-dimensional maps of our assets. And that’ll merge with GIS? Or you’ll be able to overlay it? I don’t know if the three-dimensional will come up- Sure … but all of the assets that you get, the asset tables will, and then they’ll be able to. Got you. Okay. If, that’s a long way for us. Our GIS- Okay. Let’s start with basics … is a process. Yeah, yeah. Okay. If I could have a motion to approve contract number 26-56 for 31,200 between the town and CYBL, and authorize chair to sign the contract on behalf of the board.

1:14:40 Second. All in favor? We have a one-day liquor license from MarbleInternational One Design. If I could have a motion to approve the request for the one-day liquor license from Marble International One Design Fleet, Inc. June 15, 2026, 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM, at the King Cooper Mansion, subject to the following conditions: Delivery of and receipt by the licensing authority of the required fee of $50. Delivery of and receipt by the licensing authority of proof that the alcohol will be purchased from an authorized source. Proof that the applicant can receive proper delivery, provide proper storage and disposal of alcoholic beverages purchased all in accordance with the requirements of GLC 138. Alcohol purchased from Kathy’s Important Distribution, Harpoon Brewery, Pirate Dog

1:15:27 Brand. Can I have a motion, please? So moved. Second. Can I ask for a vote? Mr. Zisson? In favor. Miss Sanger? In favor. Mayor? In favor. Miss Rooney? In favor. Mr. Bott? In favor. Last but not least, do we have any select board announcements? Yes. I have two, actually. Sure. I have a meeting scheduled with the town administrator. I haven’t told Tim the agenda, but I want to share with everyone what I have on my mind. During all these budget discussions is efficiencies and doing things differently. So I just wanted to kick off some idea with Thatcher, the idea of bringing him back to the board at some point. And if you’re around, Dan, if you want to jump in.

1:16:12 But there’s a lot of different ideas I have, things we’ve talked about. One thing, I’ll just quickly go over three things that come to mind, and I think we can all brainstorm some ideas, is Mike Piferling talked about putting printing services out as a bid, a purchase service. They saved 20,000, but they also found that they were using printers more over here, less over… It was a good exercise. So I think now that we have a purchasing director, that would be a good exercise to go through because you don’t have to put purchase services up to bid. And the one that comes to mind for me is in the budget, we consolidated legal services into one item, which I think was a really good idea.

1:16:58 And that might be one that we should put out as a matter of practice to bid. I think most communities do. We never have. And I think it forces a couple things. One, this is just an example. It forces you to think about what you want for that service. Just like the printers, they said, “Geez, we need more printers here, but we really don’t need them here,” and that type of thing. So that’s one idea that I had. The other is maybe, from my day job, a couple of ideas is starting maybe a point at Thatcher set up some working groups to look at efficiencies, maybe interdepartmental. Even maybe have one group might be a person or two from the select board, a person or two from school committee, a person or two from fincom,

1:17:46 but then actually have some employees, the people actually doing the work. And it doesn’t have to be schools, it could be cemetery, because they have the ideas. That’s what we do- Mm … in my day job. We have people come from all over the country, vice presidents, people from Japan, and they end up listening to the mechanics and so forth. And then the last thing from my day job is, there’s so much going on. And people think, oh, it’s all 3A and budget, which are big, but we saw Bouvier Road and stuff. And I have in my mind a select board town administrative tracking sheet that we could develop this, maybe Thatcher and Dan keep up the important issues. Because I see so much going on that slips through the cracks and stuff. So those are just some of the ideas.

1:18:32 I want to talk to Thatcher, and the idea is maybe bring them back, maybe bring some others into these discussions and move forward now that we… I think it’d be good. I think it’s just an expectation of continuous improvement for the town. So that was my first thing. My second thing is Thatcher recognized all the work the finance people put through. I have to say, I went down to the high school a couple times to see the work for the town meeting going ahead. Mm. And again, a Herculean job down there. And I know I came in on a Friday, and you hate to-Call out a name because there were so many people involved. But I walk up, and there’s a scissors lift up there,

1:19:19 like 50 feet up, and it was a little wobbly up top. And I see an electrician up there having to run special power for the screen, and I said to Jason, “Who’s that?” “Oh, that’s Mike Alponis.” And so anyhow, I just booked that. That was Friday. And then I stopped by there Saturday, and he was on the lift again in a different place. And then later that night, I see him pushing a barrel of trash out at 10:00, and I said, “Jeez, Mike, that’s a long day.” He says, “Yeah, I got here about 5:00 and it’s 10:00 at night.” And that’s just an example of what- He ran 275 feet of conduit in two days for that screen. Yeah. And I’m just watching him, and my shoulders are getting stiff.

1:20:04 But anyhow, a lot of people, really. And that was an interdepartmental effort, really impressed by our employees overall. So anyhow. It all came together amazingly. Yeah. We had a little betting pool that the screen wouldn’t work, and we’re going to play. The screen and the sound system and- Yeah … everything. The layout was awesome. Yeah. So we had a meeting after action meeting- Mm … with a bunch of us, and we- Yeah … collected the notes and the action items, and it goes into the folder for next year’s meeting. Then we pull it up when we start preparing to know what we will want to improve on. And there’s some things set up. Any other

1:20:50 announcements? Just a little one. My last Green Marigold Committee meeting is tomorrow. If anybody wants to attend, come visit. But just a note for the board as well, because as I step off, you guys are going to have to fold into it. And I think that folds into, I believe it might be maybe the same week or it could be the week after, but just a heads up on that. Thanks. Yep. Great. I just have one announcement, that in the last 24, 48 hours, there’s been a lot of discussions around early voting, which we have done traditionally, and I would just like to announce that I’m very much in support of conducting early voting for the voters. And I just encourage members of the board that feel the same to advocate for that. I know that

1:21:37 our town administrator has offered any support we can to this endeavor. And I know that there are volunteers in the wings who would help to conduct early voting, and it’s a whole group of peaceful people who are invested in seeing this happen that would do whatever they can to help out. So that’s my announcement. I’m very much in support of early voting, and whatever our board can do to support that, I think that that’s really important for our democracy as we face one of the biggest ballot initiatives in the last two decades. Sure. So the mechanism for this to happen is the board of registrars

1:22:26 needs to meet, and they have four members, three at a party plus the town clerk. And it simply needs two out of the four to vote in favor of early voting, and what that creates is the request to the select board. The select board will authorize it, but it has to be based on the request of the board of registrars. I think it would be great if they could meet and vote one way or another. Yeah. So that we can- Do they have a meeting set up? There’s nothing posted on the agenda, is there? It’s not posted, and we’ve offered to give support for a hybrid meeting to facilitate anybody who may not be in town.

1:23:12 May I ask, was that process used for the referendum last year? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And I seem to remember, I could be mistaken, people on both sides of the issue were in favor of it, right? So it’s not really like trying to drive the vote any different direction. Forward. Forward it. Yeah. So to initiate the vote at the board of registrars, is that something the select board could do? Or is it- They have to convene the meeting … or is it based on their- They have to convene the meeting, host it. Anybody. Is there a chair? So why do they convene the meeting? Do they have to vote the right way? They would need to convene a meeting, host a meeting in order to vote to recommend to the select board for early voting.

1:23:59 That triggers the movement to where it comes here and then you would vote to authorize it. No, I understand that. But do they, as a matter of course, make that vote, or is it something based on our wishes to see a vote taken? Why do they sit down and discuss early voting? I think traditionally it’s what’s happened. I think this is out of the norm, Moses. Yeah. So why? Well, there- I think that’s why … let me explain it to me. There are three categories of voting before Election Day. Right. So there is absentee ballots. So that is still available. Yeah. And then there is a mail-in ballot, but the requirement for those

1:24:46 is you have to have a reason why you’re not available to vote on Election Day. Like a medical thing. Not for mail, no, just absentee. For absentee. But you have to opt in to mail. Yeah. By May 27th. And so the idea of the early voting is it opens the opportunity for no excuses to come in early- Right … to vote with no explanation, no reason other than the convenience. So the request, what we’re hoping for is- Well, we’re making a request to the board of registrars then To initiate the process- We’re doing it … which comes back to the board. Got it. Okay. And they have to respond to that request. They don’t have to. They could not meet, right? I think that we- Well, that’s what I’m asking … we have reached out

1:25:32 to and asked for that question. Yep. Yeah. They’re not- There’s nothing that we can do officially, right? Well, we- As a regional government. Yeah. Yeah There’s no mechanism I’m aware of that forces them to meet. They have to respond to- Well, they have to determine the need or whatever. Again, I would like to see them convene and make a decision one way or another, as opposed to a post not doing anything is what I would like to see. So. Yeah. And again, our office has offered whatever support we need- Mm-hmm … to facilitate and make it happen. It just seems like a precedent has been set with last year, doing it twice. Yeah. So. And one last thing. I know Aaron mentioned volunteers, but could you also potentially

1:26:20 have town employees from other departments who are willing to- Work … overtime? Yeah. There are some rules and laws- Yes … that limit certain acts. So for example, only the two clerks in the town clerk’s office can actually process votes into the secretary of state system. So the issue is any volunteers and help would be to help do the other tasks that are not restricted- Yes … in support. I think what I’m hearing is that you’ve offered to do whatever you can- Yeah … for this law court and for the town to support them in the event that they decide to do it. Yeah. So they- No, that’s fair enough. I think the registrar’s office is one of the few state mandated independent boards.

1:27:07 Mm-hmm. So they really come under state statute, even though they’re appointed by the slot board. Mm. It’s a little bit like ThinkTown, being owned by Town Meeting with the OG. So yeah, I’m just more out of curiosity. Yeah, no. More out of curiosity. No, I hear. All right. Well, thank you. With that, could I have a motion to adjourn? So moved. Second. All right. All in favor? Thank you all. Yeah. Our crazy photo bomb guy.