Select Board: May 27, 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.

0:03 Order. We will open up for the public comment. If you want, we don’t have a microphone, you can just stand up with public comments.

0:26 It’ll be a record. All right. Is there anybody online for public comment?

0:35 Nope. I’ll just close public comment, and we will move on to town administrator update. Patrick? Thank you. Chairman, I have four items, well, five items on my update. One, now that we’re on the road to compliance, MBTA compliance, it’s going through the state process for sign-off, but we’re already submitting our grant applications that we were not eligible for previously. So, the first one is the MBTA III-A Catalyst Grant. We’re applying for a $867,000 grant. There’s no match required, and it’s for improvements to the rail trails.

1:23 The Catalyst Grant is a grant specifically created, I’ll say it, a reward system for compliant communities under the MBTA zoning. And so, the grant is very flexible as to all the categories. So, one of which is for rail trail projects. Because it’s part of the intermodal transportation, it supports- … intermodal transportation, it supports housing and those efforts of connecting communities and neighborhoods and such. So,

1:59 we have that application in. Next, we also have the Community One Stop grant application. Again, it’s a MassWorks grant that we was halted on.

2:14 It’s for $70,000. There’s a 10% local match. This is for advancing the Five Corners intersection project to bring it from 50% design, 50% to final design funding on that. So, as we’ve talked about before, in part it’s for traffic improvement, but also looking at it as far as enhancing the design and layout of that area to make it more conducive for the businesses and pedestrians. And later on, we’ll be approving an outdoor dining out there. What we hope to do in the Five Corners is expand that pedestrian space to make it more suitable for outdoor dining, outdoor activities.

3:01 Really make it more of a draw for the business community in that segment. So, we’re applying for a Community One Stop grant. Next update. I reported that it was going to happen. It has happened. The Senior Tax Relief program held at the Council on Aging. Highly successful. There were 67 attendees. And they looked at the senior tax relief information, specifically the state senior circuit breaker and Marblehead’s new means-tested senior exemption program. And again, what we’ve talked about, we initiated some time ago, as we knew several years ago that we were heading on the path to proposing overrides. What we wanted to do is implement

3:49 every opportunity we have to provide and expand programs to protect those that are on fixed incomes that qualify to protect them from the increases that would be caused by just general tax increases and Proposition 2 and a half overrides. So, in that effort is, one, implementing these programs. Two, educating seniors and making sure the word’s out there to provide them that information. And then Picket House exterior improvements. I’m highlighting this. So, the Picket House is– The final action we’re taking is exterior painting

4:35 of the building. We’ve done new siding, new windows, new trim. A bunch of work on the exterior, protecting the exterior of that historic building. We’re fortunate in the sense that the Picket House comes with a trust fund. So it has its own revenue source to maintain the buildings. But what I want to highlight is the outstanding work. Steve Cummins, our building commissioner, and a whole bunch of other folks in the buildings department, where we’re systematically going through the buildings with the resources that we have to really start maintaining our buildings. And again, in the override scenarios, there is additional funding to really expand the ability to better maintain all of our

5:23 public buildings, especially the exterior envelopes. If the roof’s leaking and the windows are leaking and the stairs are failing, if you don’t address those needs, it deteriorates the interior of the buildings, and we lose those buildings. So, the Picket House is an example of how we’ve done all the work for that. And finally, I’ve inserted in the back page is a flyer. Beauport Ambulance Service, as you know, that’s our new ambulance service we brought in last year. They are offering community CPR classesThey’re going to do free classes for up to 18 people.

6:08 You have to register for it, and it’s education@bowportambulanceservice.com, if you can remember that. Scheduled for June 4th at 4:00 PM. So this is just a service that Bow Port is providing for free, to provide CPR classes for the community. It’ll be held at Abbott Hall upstairs here in this building. In addition to doing that, they also are going to do CPR training for the entire Rec and Park staff. So, great service. We’re very appreciative of Bow Port and the service they provide in the community for ambulance service, put these add-on benefits at no cost to the town. With that, that concludes my update.

6:55 Great. Bo, can I ask a question? Sure. Was that part of the contract or is that something they just bring up? It’s possibly something- It’s all part of their willingness to give back to the community. Okay. Yeah. And they had talked about that- Okay … as far as their– I know when we were interviewing all the different… That they planned on being a real contributor to the community, and they’re following up on it. Great. That’s great. Yeah. Alex, want to go? All right. Next up we have a public hearing for business carry and beverage license, Marvel Yacht Club at 4 Quick Street. Applicant, Michael Mentalk. This ultimate public hearing, this public hearing has been legally advertised and the board is notified. Mike, if you don’t mind coming up.

7:43 Michael. How are you? Good evening. How you doing? Good. How are you? Good, thanks. Hope I’ve been making sense.

7:52 So, we see that you have an application for carrying. Anything you want to tell us about it? No, I don’t think so. Looks like a different story. Yeah. Looks pretty straightforward and, uh- Do you guys have any questions? No. Looks like you’ve just still have your tips or bat trained person, hours of operation, 8:00 to 9:00, 8:00 AM to 9:00 PM, and seating capacity of 60. Yep. Great. Any questions for Michael? All right. Thanks for coming out. Awesome. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. Yeah. Is there anyone here who would wish to speak in opposition to this application? Anyone want to speak in favor of this application?

8:30 Okay. Very well. Post public hearing, any comments and so forth? Government here. Looks pretty straightforward. Just a quick note, the town does own this property. They both sign off the application as the owner of the property, as well as approve the application for the carrying license. If I could have a motion to sign off and approve the application for Marvel Yacht Club at 4 Quick Street. Its manager, Michael Mentalk, for carry-in alcohol beverage license, beer and wine. Subject to approval, completion. We’ve seen and received the required forms, fees, departmental approvals, and board approval. Such permit shall ex-expire upon approval from the ABCC for any future transfer or application of a liquor license. The tips or bat trained person must be on the premises at all times if carrying is allowed. Hours of operations, carrying on Monday through Sunday, 8:00 AM to 9:00 PM. Seating capacity, 60.

9:19 So moved. Second. The poll vote. No? No. No questions? Okay, nope. Okay, let’s get in second. All right, all fair. Thanks, Johnny. All right. Next up we have, what we’re calling efficiencies and revenue opportunities. Dan, if you want to lead this? Yeah, sure. Is it, fast forward to tail? I can assume. Clicker on it. Okay. As it’s being followed up, because we’ll get into budget season, people talk about revenue opportunities and efficiencies and so forth. So along the way, with all the work that goes into the budgets and overrides, it’s kind of tough to address those. But this would be a good time to talk about it, and really,

10:06 it should be a year-round effort that we’re always looking for that. So what I did, I captured some ideas that I’ve heard over the years and, as well as I’ve come up with. And the idea is maybe have a discussion here, and then at the end, maybe there’s a motion or two that we can give, the town administrator, a couple of assignments to do, go and explore further. But just some of the things that have been kicked around is when you purchase services out to bid. Purchase services you don’t want to put out to bid typically, but it’s a good practice. And a example is over in the school department, the controller recently put the print contract out to bid and ended up saving 20K. And as he would say,

10:53 it may be crumbs in a $100 million or $50 million budget, but a lot of crumbs make a cake. So, the idea here is we would ask the town administrator, now that we have a new procurement director, to evaluate opportunities to put things out to bid and maybe benchmark what other communities do. And I know when Michelle Preston was here, for example, she was actually on the bid call up in Bolton. And as a rule, they would put legal services out to bid every three to five years as a best practice. And I think that’s one that would be really pushed to put out to bid, especially since this year we combined legal services into one line item.

11:40 It used to be spread out all over the place. And I think it’s like a 200 or 250K line item. So it’s a nice little package. Other things that could be put out to bid, standardize, take a look at different software packages in vendors. So, that’s one idea. The other idea-To maybe brainstorm some efficiency ideas is ask the town administrators to set up some working groups to focus on ideas. And it could be made of different groups. It could be board members, department heads, town employees, citizens. I know in my world, if we want to fix things, we look at the machinists and

12:28 mechanics, and not the board of directors sitting in the cushy chairs. We just had a big event at my work. We had people come in from literally all around the world, and one of the people that facilitates it, a sensei who’s from Japan, and he ignores all the executives and goes to the people in the shops that do the work. And, but maybe if we look for employee perspectives on how things get done or not, and I don’t care where you work, employees are always going to say, they always identify something that’s non-value add. I probably said that 10 times today at my day job. This is non-value add in what we’re doing. Also, get the citizen view on services and possible

13:14 improvements into departmental efficiencies. That’s talked about a lot between the schools, the different departments, IT stuff, can we have efficiencies there? And then the last thing, employee cost savings suggestion incentive program. Depending on how old you are, you may or may not remember this, but back in 1991, we filled Welfare with gun money. The state had a huge budget gap, huge, hundreds of millions of dollars. And the politicians were throwing their hands in the big cushy chairs. Meanwhile, there was a woman by the name of, I think her name is Kathleen Bess,

13:59 who was a part-time employee of the Department of Welfare and had two kids at home. And apparently as something, when she put her kids to sleep, she was reading federal regulations and found out the state was missing out on $500 million in reimbursements from Medicaid. Solved the problem. So you can look that one up, but there’s people in the trenches that’ll have a lot of good ideas, and that’s just an example. So. But anyhow, why don’t we go to the next slide and then some other ideas, and we can open up to the rest of the board, I think. Little bit hard to read, but this is something from similar to my day job. We have a lot of action trackers for deliverables,

14:46 and one thing I’ve learned in the first year here on the board, there’s a lot going on, a real lot going on, more than I thought. When you read the papers, you think there’s so little going on. And one of the things that makes things a little bit different is we observe the open meeting law, which is good. So unlike my day job, we can’t just have a Zoom meeting at the drop of a hat and get all five board members on and start talking about what to do. We probably did it half a dozen times today at my day job. So this would have things for tracking, for deliverables and it could be the type of thing that the chair of the board or the administrator review weekly and maybe monthly or even every meeting we

15:32 bring to the board so we can be kept up on date on the little things and the big things. I’m just thinking in the MOU, there’s going to be a quarterly sit down with the two board. You have that in it, just so you know it stays on track and we don’t get nine months goes on, “Oh, geez, we didn’t have that review.” And, so that’s an example. I would be glad to help out with that. I know it keeps me on track, my job. So it’s simple, but it would be nice to put that in writing. And then, just on the third slide, I’m going to talk a little bit about some revenue opportunities. This is always a good one.

16:20 One thing, I must have heard a million times, BP Williams is always talking about it, but a lot of other people. Round Top Road, long-term parking, commercial parking, I think it’s free right now, not charged. And monetize that, I think that would be something that might be a way to get revenue. Another idea is when we look at the beaches, tie them to the actual cost of services. One example is animal control, tie that to the cost of the licenses for animals. Promote and expand the paid use of town properties like Abbott Hall. We do some, but we could probably do more.

17:06 Another one that some communities do is, and this is an interesting one, a betterment fee for private roads, so-called non-accepted roads. And as you know, there’s no funding to redo private roads, and there never will be. But the way a betterment fee means that the residents of the road agree to the town comes in and replaces the road at their cost and through the betterment fee. But it’s a win-win because one thing is the residents would pay the volume rate that the town does, and the town also gets another road done. I know in Argos, we’ve done two roads ourselves, the neighborhood association. We’ve had a land pay to do it, but it’s at a rate that is,

17:55 if the town did it, it would be a fraction of it because if you come and do 300 feet of road, it costs a small fortune, believe me. And then other things just in generalIt’s always good to benchmark other towns for ideas. I know we like to do it our way in Marblehead. And just because they do it differently in Swampscott or Danvers, sometimes we don’t like to do it, but it’s always for a greater love. So those are just some of the ideas I had. I don’t know if– I bet this is Alexa’s last meeting, so if it’s your last chance to throw some things out- … or Thatcher or just see what people have the

18:41 thoughts on this. Work on the saw. I know, right? So I can share my point, yeah. Go ahead. So I think I had mentioned to Jim after I brought it up at the last meeting, I really appreciate the revisit. And Dan, we’ve mentioned like at previous core meetings, we’ve had high level engagement, interest engagement of interest conversations with other elected officials. It’s a big undertaking to do the operations and efficiencies and received such great response to that. And so I think that there’s such a willing– I really do think that there’s a willingness from those conversations to do this. And I think the natural next step

19:28 would be to put together some type of a working group, and I think what we’ve stumbled again around was just how to go about it. Is it the elected officials really need to be the drivers politically of it? Because there’s different elected boards and different department heads answering to different elected officials. And so I think reaching out to some people, in particular, we were focusing on facilities and grounds. Is there a way we could share facilities with the school department, for example? They have a far more robust facilities and maintenance for them than the town side does. And, just that’s how they decided to allocate the budget. That’s great. Were there opportunities for us to do that and

20:14 really just very introductory conversations around it, and they were well-received and with regards to groundskeeping, there’s a lot of different departments in town that are cutting the grass, and it just kind of naturally came to us as something that it was a great starting place. With Brecken Park, we have cemetery, even the highway department, and then I found out even the Board of Health, they have their own landscaping needs that they do a couple times a year out there. So, I’m happy to participate in any way to keep moving it forward. I do think the interest is there from the political leaders, and so I think, it’s time to maybe get it more formalized and move forward. I think it’s a perfect timing.

21:01 It’s always hard. There’s always so many different things that come up, and some of the times the big picture, all the things you want to do and then all the actual things that come up just in the course of the year. So I appreciate the motivation and the interest in grouping around this and getting people together.

21:24 Anything else, Stephen? Yeah, I feel like, Jim, these are really great ideas, but I feel like I need to add a little bit of history to this because, the folks in town that live the day-to-day, all of these issues are pretty well

21:44 boiled over. So they’re all pretty well understood, I want to say. I think what they’re offering, which is really great, is we got to find a better way to communicate it and brag about what’s going on in town. I think we do a woeful job of informing people what’s going on. And I have to say, when Thatcher first came on board, along with Alicia, his mandate was to do a gap analysis. Right. To find out where the pain points were, to do a centralized resource management type of operating plan, okay? And that has begun to be rolled out, and there’s been a lot of progress, certainly, with the ideas around technologies. It’s a completely different, I want to say, organization with

22:32 continued issues, of course. But as I like to say, I’m a lot more optimistic now than I was four years ago, when we had some real issues. Some real issues that Thatcher and his team addressed. So I think we–

22:51 My only concern is that we micromanage the delegation of the town administrator, and I think we have to understand what that could potentially do. But that doesn’t mean, as you suggest, that we shouldn’t be tracking ideas, discussing them with the town administrator, surfacing them, maybe, kind of having a discussion around prioritizing them as a board. But I don’t want folks to think that the leadership under Thatcher– We’ve come a long way from where we’ve been. And I think a lot of these issues, we will continue to refine that, but I would lean pretty heavily on the leadership, the operating leadership of the

23:38 town to continue executing against the plan. I think, should one of the overrides pass, I think we’re going to be in a much better position to be able to do that. So that’s my only reaction. Just as a reminder that there’s been a lot of work, and the day-to-day folks really know all of these issues. The question is, do we have a place where we can perhaps discuss the prioritization of these issues? Totally. Yeah, go. I think that’s a really good point out that- Yeah … there has been a lot of work within the-Within the departments that which we are capable, that we have a town administrator that can help oversee and can manage that. I think as you often point out, we have a very decentralized form of government.

24:26 Mm-hmm. And so I think what I’m thinking of, I think what some of us are thinking of, is more of across, I think what Jim’s hitting to is reaching out across departments. And while there’s department head meetings and everything, I think there is somewhat, because we have decentralized government and various elected boards, that is political leaders in town that I think that we need to draw those people in, and it’s more appropriate at that level to start the conversation. I think that that is facilitated by working groups and representatives of different boards so that

25:09 different department heads can feel that their elected leaders are at that table and that we’re working together. We’re always working together. Yeah. But we’re sensitive to the balance of power and that there’s departments, the health department reports to entirely different board, and obviously the school department reports to the school committee. And with all these different department heads reporting across town to different departments, that sometimes I think that creating space for

25:43 that conversation at a higher level that is collaborative across those factions, if you will, it would be valuable. We were in a meeting, I can’t even remember what we were meeting about, it was pickling at the schools, and came up discussing the facilities department actually. As kind of just testing the waters about it. What would it be pos– high level. And certainly interest so much more to discuss about how that would actually be implemented. But out of that conversation we found out that they were going out to contract, I think it was Thatcher Road, an electrical contract that we could have tied in with ours, and so we worked to

26:29 leverage that together. But I don’t think we would’ve done that without the conversation. So, am I representing that right, Jim? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just having that- Fun points- Yeah … taken. Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. But it is good. You’re absolutely right that there’s been a lot of operational inefficiencies that in this conversation we should acknowledge. And I know Amy McHugh in particular just very recently reorganized the entire department not long ago. It was a lot of work that her and Thatcher went through, so. Well, yeah. But just to distinguish between the two. Distinguish between what we have kind of authority over and then I think that higher level collaboration inter- I think that’s fair. No, I’m not disagreeing with you at all in that regard because

27:17 I think the boards do need to communicate and facilitate. And this is, I think what’s been happening. But to facilitate what Thatcher’s strategic plan is for the operations. And now already we’ve centralized HR, and that’s a big deal because we have such an exquisitely balanced set of departments out there with their own HR capabilities. But we know that that’s problematic because you have to kind of organize the liabilities across all the employees and so forth. So there’s HR, procurement, finance has always been very centralized, but it’s even more so now, particularly with the technology initiative. So technology’s been centralized, finance, procurement, HR, and there are probably some other areas where we can gain efficiencies, centralized efficiencies, across the

28:06 town. And to your point, though, to get the different boards to understand that they should use the services of the centralized functions. And so using the sort of… That’s kind of where we get resistance. Sometimes the boards don’t want to use, they want to preserve their own capabilities for them. And I think our challenge, perhaps is to convince them for efficiency reasons to adopt the more centralized approach. So I think what I’m- That’s all I’m saying … I think what I’m hearing- Like kind of example out there, and this is my example only, and nothing is broken and there’s no need to fix it. But, and I do wonder, we have all these barrels and we have recreation and parks, and we have a waste department. And so it’s become over time, recreation

28:54 and parks is responsible for all of the trash barrels- Yeah … and all of the waste, not just at their locations where they’re having programming, but at random barrels across town. Like down at State Street Landing. And so people have absorbed, departments have absorbed different roles and responsibilities over the past 50, like 100, 1,500 years. And sometimes I think a questioning of why that is. And we do have a transfer station, a whole waste department. Does it make sense? I’m not opining on the merits of this at all, but I think the question is valid. Okay. Does it make sense to have a waste department? I think that we could have this conversation for a long time. Yeah. Yeah. Right? But I don’t disagree with you at all, what you’re saying. I know what you’re saying. So Jim- But I just think I

29:40 am in support of a working group and putting some more meat on this. Yeah, that’s what I would say is I think it’s a great start. I would like to see it expand some to multi-year capital planning as part of this and some other things that you guys talked about, so that we can… I think that this, as opposed to just jumping into this, I like the concept, and I think we have a little more work to do, and I don’t know how we work on that, whether it’s here or if it’s a smaller group that puts together. And I also think that this is a great thing. I love the concept of talking about efficiencies. We’re bringing some citizens in Because like you said, some of the workers and all that, to get some input- Well, and communicate it, right? Yeah. And to- Let them know what’s going on. So I think it’s a great… I’d like to share them-

30:25 What if- So for me, I say, Peter, a lot has been done. In my role, it’s never finished. Yep. It’s continuous improvements. And there is departmental stuff, and there also is stuff not purview, which is the select board departments. And I think this requires more, but I would like to actually, I realize we have a make one motion, relative to purchase service fee, and I think we can do something with that, and I’d like to make a motion that we ask Thatcher and Allison Jenkins to re-evaluate various purchase services, such as legal, and decide which ones are appropriate to put out to bid. I’d just like to take an action at this point.

31:10 So that’s my motion.

31:14 So, I would like to understand a little more about exactly what is on the- That consists- Can we put this on the agenda and maybe bring Allison in- Yeah … to speak to what- Okay. That would be my suggestion. I’m totally okay. I’m not against it. I would just like to learn more and make sure that we’re encompassing everything- Okay … that we want to, as opposed to just pushing it forward. And I would- What if we put it on an agenda? Sorry. Yeah. Why don’t we put it on the agenda for when we… Maybe that’s our first meeting, right? So, that’s what I would like to see as well. Okay. So, but yes, I would just like… I don’t want to push this away. Okay. I just want to spend more time. Keep it as an agenda item. Yeah. And we can have a conversation, I think, with Thatcher and basically maybe prioritize what- Well, the ask would

32:00 be for them to do that. They would evaluate different purchase services and say, “Here’s a couple good ones. We looked at other ones. This doesn’t make sense.” The ask is not to micromanage anything, it’s just look down the list of purchase services, and are there ones that make sense to go out to them? I personally think legal services, as an example, is very right to go out to bid. That’s an example. Mm-hmm. Or it can be something as simple as printer contracts. And what you find out when you talk to them, and preferably, is when you put stuff like that out to bid, you can do studies, and you find out, geez, it’s a printer over there no one’s using. Mm-hmm. And then you go into, say, an elementary school or early med school, and the thing is going 24/7. Mm-hmm. Without…

32:47 It forces you to think what you need and what you want, as far as a purchase service, anything itself. If we did ask them to do that, I would not expect them to come back to the next meeting with it, because it’s a lot of work to figure that out. So, I had a couple points. Yep. In regard to procurement. So one, we’re doing hundreds of procurements all the time. So there’s a lot going on. We’ve done the printers. Yeah. So we’ve done those type of things. So one thing I would suggest as part of the conversation is, we’d be happy to provide an update of what we have done and all the things that we’ve looked at.

33:35 There’s a lot. One of the significant areas in procurement that we’re focused on before we start- Sure … shooting at the dartboard of services is making sure that our procurement processes are nailed down, our policy’s in place, everybody’s compliant, right? So there’s been a lot of focus on improving those things, because the real money savings is being really good at the procurement processes and nailing it down. We’ve done great strides under Allison. So, that’s just procurement. I think there’s a whole number of efficiencies that’s been touched upon here

34:22 at the operational level. So, happy to provide some more information to the board of what’s being done. It’s not just at the administrator level or CFO, but at the department levels, too. There’s a lot of work being done, a lot of really smart decisions. The other point that needs to be discussed is what is the role of the select board, vis-a-vis the administration, where you are as far as a policy-making board, or are you a day-to-day operations board? And so I would suggest treading carefully of knowing where you’re stepping between that because the trend in municipalities is the select board is policy

35:09 making and has the professional staff to actually manage or run the day-to-day with the expectations implicit that all of these efforts and ideas to create efficiencies are part of the operation. So, I think that needs to be part of the conversation. Lex wants to- Yeah. Thank you, Chair. So I appreciate what you had to say. Some of the things that I wrote in my… I actually wrote policy making procedures, ironically, while everyone was talking. But I think my takeaway from this is, I would say, and obviously, this is for you guys to move forward with, but I would ask what is the ultimate goal?

35:56 Is it to inform the board? Is it to gather that information so you know when you’re looking at bigger pictures, budget issues, efficiencies, what are we doing? What have we done? What are the other things that we could be addressing? And is that working group functioning to-Be a think tank or kind of a let’s throw around these ideas and then have that in a way that you can then give the day-to-day operations department heads opportunities to say, “Hey, here’s a bunch of ideas that we’ve looked at or we’ve thought through. Perhaps this is something that’s workable.” Some of the things that Aaron was saying, maybe there are things that we have done that

36:42 perhaps made sense 10 years ago because of the equipment, because of the resources that we had, that perhaps now we should pivot, or maybe there’s a reason why we haven’t pivoted. And I think that allows us to say, when we are looking at bigger picture policy decisions, to say, “Well, what is the financial implication of those decisions? What is the one-year, two-year, three-year? Could we potentially fund whatever that pivot might cost?” So I would just ask you guys, I think, as you’re looking at this to consider what is the goal. Is it a brainstorming? Is it a directive? What is the purpose that you’re trying to achieve? And then work backwards with that working group of what is the role of the board, and then how is that giving you information to do

37:28 your job? And it could be– I love the spreadsheet. I think any information that we receive as the board helps us to be better decision makers. And at the end of the day, there’s only so many

37:43 hours that we’re together to digest all of this information. So, is there ways that we can deliver that information more effectively? Maybe this is a mechanism to achieve that and then be able to make better decisions. But that’s just, as you move forward with it, one of the things I would think about. What is the ultimate goal you’re trying to achieve, and how does it fall in line with what our role is? So I’d like to make a suggestion. Maybe at the next board meeting, I don’t know if this would fall in line with what you’re thinking. Maybe Allison, Chief Procurement Officer, and yourself and or Alicia, as you suggested, maybe give us an update. And I think it’s not bad because she hasn’t been here that long. I think it’d be good for other boards to hear what she does and learn about

38:28 the process. I think that’d be a good starting point, and then we can continue this. Does that make sense to you? That makes sense. Just to be clear, as far as policy versus operations is, I view the board as we’re on the streets, we’re in a coffee shop, we’re talking to people, and we’re just trying to bring input. Yeah. Again, it’s not saying that things have not been happening. Mm-hmm. But it is a continuous process, and people approach us all the time with ideas. And- Yeah … I feel that we have to give them the air time. Like I said, round of roads, if I had a nickel for every time people brought it up, it wouldn’t have been an old ride. But it’s just– Some of these different ideas. A lot of them are

39:16 just good ideas, and I just want to keep them going and- Sure … really, it’s a continued- I think it’s a good starting point. We’ll move on with the next meeting, and we can continue having the discussions and developing. Yeah. Yeah, okay. Mr. Chair, just if I may. You may. For a really quick final thought. By the way, this is a long evolution, right? 15, 20 years ago, the select board was very hands-on, and the departments were very independent. So with the first town administrator, we tried to knit together a more centralized process, and it’s actually a pretty challenging job for the town administrator to be, without being a town manager. He’s kind of like the lead influencer through the select board. So I think what we’ve tried to do, by tradition, is to really understand that line between execution and the delegation

40:05 authority that we give the town administrator and our role kind of as creating the airspace for Thatcher to execute against our policy. So. Good to go, Bob? Yeah. Okay. So moving on to, we have a proclamations request from Jason Gillan for Monsignor Moran.

40:30 Jason asks if we would, on behalf of the parish council, request that the Town of Marblehead issue select board citation and recognition of Monsignor’s 50th anniversary of ordination to the Catholic priesthood. Goes on to say that Monsignor Moran’s dedication has touched countless lives through his ministry, compassion, and steadfast guidance. There will be a celebration on June 14th and requested that we be part of that through a tribute. I will read the citation for vote on. A citation honoring Monsignor Timothy J. Moran on his golden anniversary of priestly ordination. Whereas Monsignor Timothy J. Moran has faithfully served in the Lord’s service as a Catholic priest for 50 years, has generously offered his life in the service of the priest and to the church. And whereas Monsignor Moran has devoted himself to the

41:16 spiritual care of the faithful and trusted, excuse me, to him at our Star– Our Lady Star of the Sea in Marblehead, celebrating the sacraments with reverence, preaching the gospel with conviction, and accompanying parishioners in times of joy and sorrow. And whereas through his ministry of pastoral leadership, compassionate counsel, and tireless dedication to parish life, Monsignor Moran has strengthened families, nurtured vocations, and fostered a deeper love of the Eucharist. You guys know more of a– Just help me out, Jason. Eucharist. Eucharist. Thank you. Eucharist. Thank you. I’ll never forget that one now. In tradition of the Catholic faith, and whereas the 50 years of priestly service stand as a powerful witness of faith, charity, and perseverance, enriching not only the parish community but also the wider civic life of the town of Marblehead, including as chaplain of the Marblehead

42:04 Fire Department and beyond. And whereas this example of humility, prayers, and selfless service have been a source of inspiration to his parishioners, fellow clergy, and the wider community, reflecting the heart of a true shepherd who seeks to serve God and be served.Now, therefore, the Marblehead Select Board hereby recognizes and honors Monsignor Timothy J. Moran on the joyful occasion of his golden anniversary of priestly ordination, and extends its deepest appreciation of his half century of faithful and generous ministry. And that will be on June 14th. Quite a- A prompt one. Yeah. Congratulations. Yeah. Thank you for bringing that to us. I said thank you for bringing that to us. So, can I have a motion? I didn’t get it. No, I read that item in the motion. Motion to prepare a citation in honor of

42:50 Monsignor Moran, 50th anniversary of ordination to the Catholic priesthood. Second. Second. All in favor? In further chair,

43:01 Mr. Gilman, are you looking for a member to read the proclamation or no? Okay. Are you looking for a member of the Select Board to read the proclamation? It’d be nice if someone- We can both figure it out, but I- I- Yeah. We can talk about that I’ve been nominated by the town, so thanks.

43:18 There I go. We going to have to- Wait, I’m all good. Whoever, everybody- We’re already been down. I guess. We’re all good. All right, let’s move on to EYC temporary parking restrictions. Steve Kane, anything you want to add to this email? Cool. No. All right, so- Straight forward. Straight forward. All right. So, perfect. Motion to approve the request from Jared Charney at the Eastern Yacht Club for temporary block Foster Street on July 4th, 2026, from 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM, from Harbor Ave to Put-in-Yacht Club, subject to approval from police and fire, and a police detail. Eastern Yacht Club shall notify the residents of Balch Lane by Foster Street that they will not be able to travel by the Eastern Yacht Club during those times. Second. Second.

44:03 All in favor. All right, we also have Five Corners is looking for the outdoor dining similar to last year, the exact same plan they had from last year. If I could have a motion made and seconded to approve the following application for 2026 temporary outdoor dining accordance with town policy on temporary outdoor dining. Five Corners Kitchen, 2 School Street, subject to receipt of required forms, fees, insurance, and approval from fire, police, building commissioner, and town administrator. Second. All in favor? We also have a request from the Old Essex Stage Company, Eastport Sewall. I have a motion to approve the request from Old Essex Stage Company, Eastport Sewall, on Friday, June 19th, 2026, from 5:00 to 8:30 PM, subject to the usual rules, regulations, fees, and receipt of the required

44:49 certificate insurance. Second. A second. Thank you. All in favor?

44:57 Moving on. We do have three letters of support authorizing the chair to sign up for an application for underutilized properties. Similar to what staff was also talking about with the Mass Work. Yeah. All right, cool. Yeah, Aiden? All right. Motion to approve the request of the following letters for an authorized chair to sign on behalf of the board application for underutilized properties program, Mass Work infrastructure program, Five Corner intersection, MBTA Community Scenic Fund application rail trail. I’ll just mention that- Let’s get a second … I described two of them. Yeah, let us have a second. Come on. Second. All right, now you can. So I described two of them. The Mass Works infrastructure- Yeah … the Five Corners and the MBTA, the rail trail. The third one is the application for underutilized property, part of that’s for the attic project-

45:44 Yeah … for the Historic Commission. Okay. Okay. All in favor. Unanimous. Next, we have some consent agenda items. We do not have minutes, we’ll cross that out. Motion to approve the following consent agenda items subject to the usual rules, regulations, fees, and receipt of the required certificate of insurance that’s required. Gary 5 VFA annual Harbor Freight, Saturday, July 4th, rain date of July 5th. Parade route will start and end at National Bank. The bell ringing on July 4th, requests that the church bells throughout the town be rung on Saturday, July 4th, 2026, at the usual hours, 7:30 AM to 8:00 AM, 12 noon to 12:30 PM, and 6:00 PM to 6:30 PM. And there’s some temporary parking restrictions, as requested by the chief for July 4th Harbor Freight. Same rain date, the 5th.

46:31 Fireworks display, Thursday, July 4th, rain date, the 5th. And Festival of Arts Street Festival, July 3rd, 2026. So moved. Second. All in favor. We are revisiting- Question. Yeah. Did we do the Old Essex Stage at- Yeah. So- Already did it. We, yes. Last Saturday. Yeah. We’re moving quite quick here because we’ve got- Saturday. Yeah. Yeah. We both missed it, so. You better keep up. I actually don’t even know. We did. We did. We did. It went there. We go here. Yeah. This one up about The Spirit of ‘76. We had this at our last meeting. There was some further research done. Mm-hmm. This is a company that does produce and does sell. They can sell them to retailers. They do sell wholesale, so

47:18 they are not a nonprofit. Something that we discussed that last time. I did look on their website as well, and it’s hidden a little bit, but that they do produce, and then they sell directly or do other things. If anybody wants to have any discussion on that? I think it’s outside of what we usually do. Yeah. Okay. Isn’t this like our– It’s just our– We probably should develop a policy on this. I think that right now, based on our history, and this is- Yeah … for profit. Yeah. Because it’s a no, we probably need to make a policy on that. 100% agree. Yeah. Yeah, there’s a pretty bright line, though, between the profit and the nonprofit. Yeah. Yeah. Like governmental. This one is. This one is. Last time it wasn’t clear to us that- Yeah … they do this on behalf of the museums- No, they were selling- … for the museum. No, they were not. See if a patient- No … can- Yeah. This is definitely- They’re selling the image.

48:03 But they also sell to- Out … outdoors and outside. Yeah. So it’s not, it’s– And they’re called museum. Yeah. So I would ask for a motion to deny the request from Martin Lancun, Art of Museums LLC, to use an image of The Spirit of ‘76 on archival quality-Prince. I’ll second. All right, you guys. If we slow down, I’m trying to get through this. Prince. The credit town of Marblehead purchase. Can I have a motion please? I’ll second. All in favor? Yeah.

48:35 We have some contracts. Doctor, you want to go through those couple contracts that we have? Yeah. So the first contract, this is for the big Mary Allen building project, the HVAC, windows, fire suppression, et cetera. It’s funded through Article 33 of 2025 annual town meeting on the Mary Allen project. So, this came in at $5,430,435. So this is to approve the contract with Campbell Construction Group. And that’s within the budget that we had on this. So the article was $5,750,000. Sorry about that, yep. So it was 300- Thanks … and $18,000 change. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Why don’t we do one at a time then? Yeah. So if I could have a motion to approve contract 26-58 for the town

49:24 and Campbell Construction Group, LLC in the amount of $5,430,435, and authorize Chair to sign on behalf of the board. I’ll move. Second. Any discussion on it? No. All in favor? Unanimous. Second one, Patrick. So this is a change order due to the asphalt prices. Asphalt, as you know, is made of lots of oil. Right. And the costs are going up. So this is a change order of $150,000 for Timberlea. Yeah. Contract. And this is for the general annual- Oh, it’s for a specific-

50:09 Is this for a specific road within Marblehead? This is the Diamond Lot grants. Okay. That are combined into one contract. Okay. For this year. Yeah. It is able to meet the asphalt requirement, but also to make sure that we can finish the work that we’ve lined up for the year.

50:28 Okay. I’ll get a motion to approve change order number two for contract 2024-053 for $150,000 between the town and Richard E. Timberlea, Inc., and authorize Chair to sign on behalf of the board. I’ll move. Second. All in favor? All right. We are moving on to select board announcements.

50:49 Do we have any announcements anybody would like to make?

50:54 I would be honored to recognize our outgoing select board member, Alexa Singer. And then before I do so, I’m going to give a shout-out to your daughter, Amelia, who’s here back from college. And thank you for sharing your mom with us for the last five years. I know she’s a working mom, and you and Haley have been very supportive. Yeah. So, I did write some things down. So,

51:23 the first time that I ever had a conversation with Alexa was after we both were candidates in 2021. And despite having so many mutual friends in common, we had actually somehow never met before till we were candidates for this role. So as we got to know each other, it became clear that we shared many of the same motivations for running. As working mothers raising children, we wanted to bring a fresh perspective and help ensure Marblehead was planning for the future, modernizing with the times, and remaining a place where young families could continue to put down roots. And we were a part of a field of 14 candidates, and even briefly wondered whether one of us should step aside and support the other. Thankfully, we didn’t, because I cannot imagine… Sorry.

52:09 I cannot imagine you not being here. So, over the past five years, we’ve both learned that change in municipal government happens a lot slower than you imagine when you first arrive. I got you, Jim. Looking back, I think we both have a much healthier respect for that process now than we did then. And Alexa definitely showed more patience and grace than I did in those early days, and Moses Grader can attest to that. Alexa brought a calm and thoughtful presence to this board from day one. As the first pilot to ever serve on the select board, she has a remarkable ability to stay composed under pressure. She even approached difficult issues with a softer but incredibly savvy style

52:54 that I really came to admire and learn from over the years. Marblehead’s government structure is complicated and layered, but Alexa has an unquenchable thirst for knowledge, and I honestly think she read the entire Massachusetts Select Board handbook, cover to cover, before our first meeting, and that thing is close to 300 pages. While I, like most people, used it as a doorstop, Alexa treated it as summer reading.

53:25 And it came in handy sometimes. And as we came to learn the many ceremonial events and functions that come along with this role, Alexa was always determined to get every detail right. Even randomly texting Jim Nye for his advice on the proper attire whenever she wasn’t fully convinced by my initial guess. And to Jim’s credit, he learned to tolerate us new girls and our endless rookie questions remarkably well. And yes, I think it’s fair to say the arrival of two first-term select board members may have added a little length to meetings in those early years. Also, physically.

54:05 Okay. So she also has a tenacity that has served this town extremely well. She pushed hard for Marblehead to establish its first sustainability coordinator position because she understood how critical that role would be for a coastal community facing aging infrastructure, climate challenges, and the need to compete more effectively for state and federal funding opportunities that we had too often missed in the pastAnd her work on that remarlehead committee earned her tremendous respect among those citizen volunteers in particular. During her time on the board, she was a force as our board worked to modernize how local government operates and communicates with residents. The board formalized financial policies, secured upgraded information technology and

54:51 communication systems, and established the first-ever Select Board email addresses so residents had better access to their elected representatives. While here, the board was an early adopter of hybrid meeting technology and equipment, which created far more opportunity for residents to tune into and participate in local government. Alexa has never been afraid to ask thoughtful questions, weigh in meaningfully during budget discussions, or challenge all of us to think more carefully about the long-term impacts of our decisions. She’s a great listener, and always strived to understand the challenges department heads faced, whatever the issues might be. She cares deeply about the people who work for this town and has earned their respect as well.

55:36 Most recently, her work helping create more public information materials in this really important time, and the flyers with department heads reflects her belief that residents deserve greater insight into the hard work happening across the town, and a better understanding of how their local government operates.

55:54 Most importantly, Alexa has served this town with intelligence, professionalism, and genuine care for the community. And serving alongside you these past five years has truly been an honor. Thank you for your service to Marblehead, for your friendship, and for all of the hard work you have given this community. And I know that your impact here will continue to be felt long after tonight.

56:26 Thank you. I did write a couple things, which is funny because you talked about some things, so now I can omit those things. But, I did write it down, so I didn’t want to mess it up. Is that the Select Board handbook? Well, no. It is a small portion of the Select Board handbook. I hope you’re ready for tonight. But I’m just kidding. Actually, I just had to make the font big, so I didn’t have to use my glasses. So that’s the truth. Okay. In the spring of 2021, in the middle of the pandemic, as Erin said, I ran for elected office for the first time. The world felt uncertain. Local government felt more important than ever, and I believed I could make a difference and bring a new voice. Tonight, many years later, I leave this seat grateful beyond words that the voters gave me that chance. Serving on the Select Board has been one of the great

57:15 privileges of my life. The work hasn’t been easy. There have been late nights, hard votes, and moments where reasonable people disagreed strongly. When I first arrived on this board, I started on day one asking tough questions when they needed to be asked, not to be difficult, but because that’s the job. When I look back over the past five years, I’m so proud of what we have accomplished. Some of the things that Erin just highlighted in regards to HR and community development and our comprehensive roads and sidewalk, and just really shifting to, as much as we could, strategic forward planning, and things such as bringing our financial policies and procedures forward. And things that seem small, such as the Select Board email addresses, but

58:00 those things meant such a big deal because it gave the residents the opportunity to reach their elected officials. And we also faced some failed initiatives and overrides, but we kept showing up. We went back to the community. We heard what people were telling us, and we came back with something even better, a three-year comprehensive plan that gave residents real choices and a path forward. None of these were my accomplishments alone. They were ours, built through collaboration and hard work. But I want to be honest, not everything about this job was tough decisions. Marching in the Memorial Day Parade, Veterans Day, gathering together at a 9/11 ceremony, the firefighter remembrance, just to name a few. These moments reminded me why local service

58:46 matters. They are simply deeply moving about representing the town at events that ask us all to stop and honor those who gave so much. And then there was the police versus fire softball tournament. I had the honor of playing for the fire department. Now, I will not stand here and tell you that we won. The scoreboard was not our friend. But I will tell you this, we had, without question, the funniest, most spirited crew on that field. And I would play again in a heartbeat. To the Marblehead Fire Department, thank you for letting me be one of yours, even just for the day. And perhaps the greatest gift of all has been the people I encountered on this journey. If you want to find true joy, find your people. I stand here tonight and tell you I actually sit, because I’m not standing.

59:35 I found mine. Working in rooms with so many others who genuinely care, who show up and give countless hours of their lives, not for recognition or any financial gain, but because of the shared belief that we owe something to one another and to the generations that come after us. I want to thank my fellow board members past and present. I stand before you a better person than I was before I knew you. Moses, you’ve been here before I arrived, and we often saw things from different perspectives, and I know we are better leaders from what we have learned from one another. Erin, you have been with me throughout this journey and have helped champion so many initiatives. Dan, who’s taken on the role of chair in one of the most challenging years on record for Marblehead, and Jim, who has shown up on

1:00:22 day one ready to work and proven himself as an asset. All of you have represented true governance by committee. I thank all of our employees and department heads, our town administrators, in the past, Jason Silver, John McGinn, and Thatcher, who’s been with us. It’s a difficult job having this many bosses with a lot of opinions. ButThen there’s Kyle. I want to thank Kyle, the hidden backbone of this town and the day-to-day operations. Marblehead would be lost without you. I know I would’ve been. You are our institutional knowledge, our gem, and always the calm within any storm. I also want to thank everyone on our boards and committees, and for all the unseen labor that goes into making Marblehead thrive. I want to thank every resident who held us all to a high standard.

1:01:10 That is democracy working exactly as it should. And to my daughters, Amelia and Haley, you are my whole world. Every night I miss spending with you, every hard vote, every moment of volunteer and public service, has been rooted in wanting to leave the town a better place for you and your generation.

1:01:32 Thank you for sharing me with Marblehead. You mean everything. And while tonight is goodbye to this seat, it’s not goodbye to the community. I pledge to remain approachable and available to anyone who wants to talk, share a concern, or connect. I may no longer serve on the board, but I want you to know that my door remains open. And finally, to those who carry this work forward, to future select boards, I leave you with this. Find common ground wherever you can. Treat everyone who earns a seat at this table as an equal voice from day one with something valuable and unique to offer. They earned the right to be here, too. Listen first, truly listen to all of the voices on the board before making a final decision. And do not be afraid to try

1:02:19 new things and take risks. Educate yourself and learn from the past. Let it guide you, and always make your own decisions on a vote. Never take the easy vote. Vote for what you believe is right for Marblehead, not just what the popular choice might be in that moment. They often do not align. You will make mistakes, and that is part of being human. The real work is to move forward. Keep showing up day to day to serve the town. And above all, show respect, dignity, and grace toward each other, and toward every single citizen you have the privilege of serving. They are why you are here. Never lose sight of that. I’ll still be here cheering from the sidelines. And knowing Marblehead, the sidelines never stay quiet for long. Thank you, Marblehead. It has been an honor.

1:03:20 Can’t touch that. I’m going to let you- Well, I- … have final- I just want to say that it’s been an honor serving with you. You two, especially in the early days, came in super hot. And it was actually pretty fabulous to get to know you, especially to get to know– To hear about your character of a father who’s a former Marine, and I then knew that we would have a very good relationship even though we may not have always agreed. And that’s really a wonderful thing, and a wonderful example. I thank you for that. It’s been very rewarding to have you with us, so thanks again.

1:04:03 Thank you. Alex and I have a actually longer history than sh- Both sleep on the sport, actually. We go back. Through our daughters, Amelia and Lauren, Haley and Emily, and same age. So what happened, our daughters, I believe, met at the Y first, and this is when my wife was a stay-at-home mom. And then before long, I kept hearing these stories of this whirlwind named Alexa, who I hadn’t met and I could hear all these– My wife would come home with these stories about Alexa. And she was only always just known as Alexa back this day. And I had visions at first of someone out of the old TV show, “Dallas,” which didn’t turn out to be true at all. But you lived up to all the hype itself. Lots of energy, and the town has been better

1:04:52 off for you. And you’re not going away. Going for a signs way. Thank you very much. Yeah. Thank you, Alexa. I’m honoring 55, like you said. We’ll see you soon. And thank you for all my first year, so I learned a lot from you. I can tell you I’m never going to wear ear worthless ballistic green. I thank you, too. Thank you. You’re amazing, and I appreciate you. Would you like to ask for a motion then? Yes. Close meeting. Motion to adjourn. Yeah. So moved. Thanks. So moved. We have second? Second. Second. All in favor? Last one.

1:05:39 Yes. Okay. That’s what we’re back from the party. Yeah. All right. We won’t get 70 votes because- We’re not. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely. I know. It’s been wonderful.