[Speaker 1] (0:20 - 1:45)
All right, good evening everyone, welcome to the September 28th, 2021 Swampscott Select Board Meeting. If you wouldn't mind joining us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Good evening, in a minute we'll have public comment which is an opportunity for residents to speak to the board about items that are not on the agenda.

We ask residents to keep their comments to just a couple of minutes, refrain from political statements and to the extent there's any questions or comments about town personnel to please reach out to the town administrator or any select board member outside of the public meeting. Two ways to communicate with us, three ways. If you're here live you can come up to the microphone.

If you're on Zoom you can raise your virtual hand and we can call on you on Zoom and otherwise you can email me at pspellios at swampscottma.gov and I will check my email periodically. Before we get to public comment to give people a chance on public comment, there is, Allie I guess I'm going to jump around and go to, bear with me, we're not ready to do or are we ready to do library?

[Speaker 15] (1:46 - 1:46)
I'm sorry?

[Speaker 1] (1:46 - 8:53)
Are we ready to do library now or do we need to wait? Okay, I apologize. All right, so let's just go to public comment first.

If you're on Zoom please raise your virtual hand if you'd like to speak or otherwise you're welcome to email me at pspellios at swampscottma.gov. She's joining at 745, Allie? With the indulgence of the board then I want to use this three minutes before four minutes before we go to our first matter which is a vote for an interim library director to share a letter that I think many people have seen at this point and I think it's worthwhile sharing and sharing frankly at seven in the evening as opposed to the end of the meeting at ten at night so that people hear the letter and understand the concerns.

So let me first read the letter that was published today in this in the Lynn item. To the editor, I'm writing to express my deep disappointment with the Swampscott Housing Authority. Elected in the spring of 2019, I imagine bringing my select board experience to bear on important and under-recognized issues in our town.

50% of the public housing units for elders and disabled persons in Swampscott are not accessible. They are second floor units only accessed by walking up a full flight of stairs. As of August 2021, there were more than 2,500 applicants for elder and handicapped housing units in Swampscott, many of whom cannot climb stairs.

Since 1991, the Americans with Disabilities Act has required new construction and renovations to have elevators in such housing. 30 years is far past the time when Swampscott public housing should have met the standard either with renovations or new construction. During my one and a half year tenure on the Housing Authority, I have pressed for full discussion of accessibility for all and long-term planning as a regular meeting agenda item.

Unfortunately, the board leadership of the Housing Authority has continued to ignore the need for such a substantive discussion. There is no sense of urgency to rectify this problem and discussion of the issue has not even been put on the table. This summer, the Housing Authority board passed up an opportunity for a $50,000 feasibility study grant that could have provided $15 million in state building funds.

In a three to two vote, pursuing this agenda was voted down even when the town's economic and community development departments offered to write the grant, even though the town's economic and community development department offered to write the grant for the Housing Authority. Frankly, I cannot continue to participate on a public housing board that does not have consensus on the priority for addressing an accessibility problem for elders and disabled persons. Housing Authority meetings are dysfunctional and the board is not moving in a positive direction for current or future residents.

I resign. Town of Swampscott leaders have offered their support to the Housing Authority. Many thanks for their engagement and care of our residents.

I certainly hope that in the coming years, there will be a change in Housing Authority leadership to functionally benefit current and future residents of Dougherty Circle, Cherry Street, Cherry Court, and Duncan Terrace public housing. Naomi Dreeben, Swampscott, Massachusetts. A few weeks, maybe now it's a few months ago, the Housing Authority was nice enough to join us here at a select board meeting following their vote to not submit an application for technical assistance to help the Housing Authority begin a conversation about how to bring the Housing Authority properties into better condition and to make them accessible to the seniors and disabled residents that are tenants of the Housing Authority. At that meeting, the select board and town staff offered to be partners with the Housing Authority. We offered to help them make their meetings more accessible and to televise them so more people could be involved.

The Housing Authority has not responded to any of the invitations that was made by this board or by the town since then, has not returned inquiries from town staff to help them have meetings here where they could be televised and shared with residents so residents could all see what discussion is happening here. The Housing Authority represents a significant, overwhelming significant portion of the affordable housing in Swampscott. Even if it didn't, it deserves the utmost contemplation and care from this board, from town residents, and most of all from the Housing Authority.

Having sat with Naomi Driven on the select board for many years, there is no one more driven to help residents than Naomi was. I am truly saddened by Naomi's departure from the Housing Authority, but I don't blame her at all. It is time for us all to take note of what is happening and what is not happening for Housing Authority residents.

We talked about it at our previous meeting. I appreciate the new Executive Director and the effort to improve simple standards of living in the units. For example, making sure that there's operable outlets in the bathrooms.

While I appreciate that was a capital upgrade that was done recently, I don't think any of us should feel proud and feel satisfied that we fulfilled our obligation to these residents merely by putting an outlet in their bathroom. I also don't think we should feel satisfied or content with the fact that the Housing Authority also recently relocated outlets from behind ranges so that residents could actually have an outlet in their kitchen. I'm grateful that they did that, and I think it's an important project, but it's not something that should make us feel as though we've accomplished what needs to be accomplished here.

We have an affordable housing problem in Swampscot, and the Housing Authority right now is the predominant way in which we are meeting it. There are opportunities to not only improve the living condition of residents in the Housing Authority and make sure that every single one of them retain their housing in the Housing Authority, but there are also opportunities to make sure it's fully accessible and that residents can age in place for as long as they want to in these units, and there's also an opportunity for us to partner with the Housing Authority to make sure that some of those 2,500 people that have applied for units but are not getting units will have the opportunity to house themselves in an increased number of Housing Authority units in the town of Swampscot.

So I just wanted to raise that and share Naomi's letter because I think it's a really important dialogue and I urge residents to get more involved, express interest in it, run for the Housing Authority. It is an elected position, oftentimes unopposed, oftentimes merely a signature or two gets a person onto the Housing Authority board. I could not agree more with Naomi Dreeben that something has to change on the Housing Authority such that we begin addressing the serious conditions of the Housing Authority and the need to make sure it's fully accessible.

So with that, I want to welcome anybody else if they want to say anything, otherwise we're going to go to our first matter.

[Speaker 10] (8:53 - 9:37)
I'll just quickly echo that. I mean, I also served with Naomi. Naomi is a tireless advocate of the town.

I know when she got on this board she was very excited because she felt that she could apply her resources to the citizens that are underserved and for her to feel that she needs to resign from this board because of its inaction really sends a message. And I think this board's lack of action is inexcusable and there needs to be change. So again, as the chair has said, it's an elected position.

I'd encourage anybody to run and if anybody on the board is listening to this, I'd encourage them to reach out to us in a partnership and let's get some things done here because it's long, long, long overdue.

[Speaker 8] (9:39 - 10:06)
Yeah, I just wanted to share a few comments from our last Affordable Housing Trust meeting last week. So we had a meeting. It was on Zoom.

There were a number of residents from Housing Authority properties who joined us and begged and pleaded with us. Can you help me? When you say us, you're the liaison for the select board.

I'm the select board liaison to the Affordable Housing Trust. So they begged.

[Speaker 1] (10:06 - 10:09)
That doesn't make sense. You're not a member. I just want to make people don't understand what you're saying.

[Speaker 8] (10:09 - 10:12)
Oh, I am actually a member. I'm a board member of the Affordable Housing Trust.

[Speaker 1] (10:12 - 10:15)
I'm sorry, I'm the Affordable Housing Trust. I'm sorry. I thought you said Housing Authority.

My apologies.

[Speaker 8] (10:15 - 11:14)
No, no. These are residents. Sorry.

These are residents of Duncan Circle and Doherty Terrace who joined us at our meeting and begged and pleaded us as Affordable Housing Trust members and as elected officials to help them, to help improve their conditions. And it was heart-wrenching and heartbreaking that there was such a disconnect between the efforts and energies of some Housing Authority members and the select board and those individuals who are elected to represent the residents of Doherty Circle, Duncan Terrace, and Cherry Street. So, yeah, again, please run.

Please run for these positions. Please be the change that you want to see. These residents are relying on you and on us to help, but we can't go at it alone.

Thank you.

[Speaker 7] (11:16 - 11:25)
I'll just say, I mean, I agree with everything that's been said. Thanks for laughing at me.

[Speaker 5] (11:25 - 13:30)
I'm sorry. No, no. I'm sympathizing with Neil.

That's why I'm talking. I really am. And I'm just going to add.

I am a little confused, I guess, and I mean this in an administrative way. I guess I would recommend maybe we put it on the agenda for an item soon just so we can have a more maybe in-depth or substantive conversation. I agree that it's a major concern.

I agree with everything Peter is saying and the concerns that were raised and Naomi's feeling of frustration, I think, is really understandable. So I don't mean it in any way like that. I just am noting that I don't know how much to say given the agenda, and I do want to have adequate time, I think, to address that to the extent that we can.

I also just want to add that I had been invited to a housing authority meeting where they were going to be taking votes, I believe, on who's going to be chair the following year, and I was in touch with Naomi and Cindy, if I'm remembering her first name, and I apologize. And I wasn't able to attend due to actually an emergency meeting of some kind for the board. And I regret that I was not able to attend that.

There was on their part an attempt to reach out, and we had planned on making a time to meet and that I could meet with them and discuss those issues in greater detail. So there is remaining, at least a remaining member, if not more, on the board on the housing authority that I would say would be interested in meeting, and I just want to put it out there that, you know, definitely reach out. I'm still interested.

I know the board is, and we can hopefully continue that conversation with those who do remain for now, and there will be engagement on our side. But if we can put it on a future agenda to have a more in-depth discussion about what we could do, what's in our authority, what's not, I think that would be helpful.

[Speaker 1] (13:30 - 14:33)
So we could. I appreciate you saying that. So the reality is this is a housing authority that's under the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, specifically the Department of Housing and Community Development, and the Department of Housing and Community Development oversees this housing authority amongst many others throughout the state, and I think as though it's time for us to discuss whether or not it's, we're at a point where we need to communicate with and include DHCD in our concerns, so that they can help us understand how to work and partner with the housing authority to write something that doesn't seem to be written at the moment.

I will say one last thing. I don't know about a vote for a chair, but I do know that their last meeting they did take a vote, and their vote was to decide to not have liaisons to other committees, and specifically they had one liaison to one committee, and that was Naomi Driven as the liaison to the Affordable Housing Trust, because Naomi continually showed up and Naomi continually wanted to have a conversation with the other committee in our town that's actively working to increase affordable housing in our town, and the housing authority did take an action. They did take an affirmative vote, and they voted to eliminate liaisons.

[Speaker 5] (14:34 - 14:36)
Including the one to us? With me?

[Speaker 1] (14:36 - 14:44)
I don't even know. They can't. That's our liaison to them.

They had liaisons to other committees, and so they eliminated that one. Maybe they eliminated another one that I'm not aware of.

[Speaker 8] (14:45 - 14:50)
They added a second liaison to the Affordable Housing Trust. So there were two members.

[Speaker 1] (14:50 - 15:35)
So I think Cynthia Tennant now is also joining them. That's correct. And so my, there's, Polly's making a really good point.

There's a much more robust conversation for us to have, and it may be an uncomfortable conversation, but I think it's been far too long it hasn't been noticed, and if it needs to be uncomfortable, that's unfortunate, but it needs to happen regardless, and so let's include it. Let's invite the housing authority back again, and let's talk about perhaps finding the help from the state to right the ship here and do that. Right.

Agreed. Thanks. Next we're going to move on.

I think I see the attendees that we need to see. Next we're going to move on to a discussion and vote on an interim library director for the town of Swampscott. So let me turn that over to Sean Fitzgerald.

[Speaker 2] (15:35 - 16:56)
Sure. Thank you, Peter. So I'm really pleased to introduce our liaison from the Library Board of Trustees, John Tripp, and tonight I have the pleasure of recommending Jennifer Inglis as an interim library director.

Jennifer comes to Swampscott after serving as a library director for the Linfield Public Library, and as the chief of public services for the Boston Public Library, and the library director in Hunt, as well as library director in Whitman. She's been a school teacher, high school teacher, and a children's librarian. I think she brings a wonderful background of experience, but also engagement.

She has been recognized as somebody that really is a leader in public service, and it's a real pleasure to introduce her. But before we introduce Jennifer, John, why don't you say a few words and discuss a little bit of the work that the Library Board of Trustees engaged in to find such an exceptional individual. John, you're on mute.

[Speaker 12] (16:59 - 17:52)
I'm pretty sure you did that deliberately, Peter. So, yeah, so, you know, we were incredibly lucky to have Jennifer apply for this position. As you know, Alice was resigning at the end of the month, and we were tasked with bringing in an interim director so we could take sort of a longer approach to finding a long-term solution for the library.

So Jennifer's resume came across our desks. We had a great interview with her. We checked all of the references, and everything came back stellar that Jennifer would be a great asset.

She has great leadership qualities. She's a team player. And, you know, most of the staff that she's worked with in the past have flourished under her leadership.

So, you know, we definitely recommend Jennifer for the position.

[Speaker 1] (17:55 - 18:06)
Great. Do you want to introduce Jennifer, John? You can go back on mute and say, no, I'll let Sean do it.

It's okay.

[Speaker 12] (18:07 - 18:10)
John, why don't you go ahead and do that? I'm sorry. I don't have Jennifer's.

[Speaker 2] (18:10 - 18:15)
I'm happy to do that. Hi, Jennifer. Hi.

Welcome to Swampskid Select Board's meeting.

[Speaker 15] (18:16 - 18:17)
Hello, everyone.

[Speaker 2] (18:17 - 18:30)
Jennifer, if you could just take a minute and share with the board a little bit of your thoughts about this position, what you know about it, and frankly, what you know about Swampskid based on the few conversations that you've had over the last week.

[Speaker 9] (18:31 - 20:12)
Sure. Well, I know Swampskid got pretty well from driving from Salem to Nahant for a long time and going out to eat at all the wonderful restaurants along the water because Nahant has very few businesses like that. So I feel like we're neighbors already.

I do live in Salem and, you know, North Shore is home for me now. And I have a second grader in school. So I'm really excited to be part of the Swampscot community officially.

I know Alice a little bit from being colleagues. When I was in Nahant, I reached out to the neighboring library directors to just sort of meet, and she was happy to do that. And then in Linfield, I was a part of Noble.

So I'm very familiar with sort of the players who are around. So I think that will help with some of the transition as the permanent search is conducted. I think I can help with some stability at the library when she leaves because I have that experience.

I also, you know, have a lot of ideas of ways to have the library be part of the community outreach kind of things. I love to talk with people. I love to work with community organizations.

So I think that would be a really great asset. I really think staff are the most important thing. We have at the library.

So learning from Alice and her last week here, I'll get a chance to get all of her information and suck that in and then help with the bridge to the permanent director.

[Speaker 1] (20:15 - 20:30)
Thanks, Jennifer. Sean, do you mind giving us a bit of information about the process going forward and the timeline for the process going forward for recruiting, identifying, and bringing on a permanent?

[Speaker 2] (20:30 - 21:48)
So I've had several meetings with Ellen Winkler, the chair of the library board of trustees. And we've discussed over the next few months following a similar engagement process that we've outlined for the chief of police really give the public a chance to really share in a conversation. We haven't outlined exactly that specific timeline, but certainly, you know, we're hopeful that we can work with Jennifer and support a inclusive process that gives the community a sense of how we're really envisioning a 21st century library.

Swampskate has a lot of wonderful programs. Certainly, there's a lot that we want to sustain, but we certainly want to have that broader vision for, you know, what's changing in terms of our information age and how do libraries really go beyond the walls of just the building, but really out into the community. I would expect that over the next few weeks we'll outline that schedule.

Certainly, it's our hope that over the next three to six months that we will be able to recruit and hire a permanent library director, director of library services for the Swampskate Library.

[Speaker 1] (21:50 - 21:53)
Great. Questions by the board?

[Speaker 7] (21:55 - 21:56)
No.

[Speaker 1] (21:57 - 23:05)
Jennifer, thanks for stepping forward. Thanks for bringing your expertise and your knowledge here to Swampskate. To the library trustees, Sean has talked about this often with me and Ellen in particular, but Tript and John as well, thank you for the seriousness in which you're taking this position and filling this position with someone that will be able to continue the vision and the efforts Alice has done so much for the library and her team have done so much for the library.

And I know the trustees with Alice and the team have been working on visions for the future of the library and continuing to have it be an incredible resource for our whole community. So thank you to Alice and the trustees for all their work on this. With that, is there a motion to accept the town administrator's recommendation to appoint Jennifer Inglis as the interim library director for the town of Swampskate?

So moved. Second. Any discussion or comments?

Hearing none. All those in favor?

[Speaker 15] (23:06 - 23:06)
Aye.

[Speaker 1] (23:08 - 23:15)
Great. Jennifer, unanimous. Thank you very much again.

We look forward to visiting with you and hearing your thoughts and learning from you.

[Speaker 9] (23:15 - 23:16)
Great. See you next week sometime.

[Speaker 1] (23:17 - 23:20)
Congratulations, Jennifer. John, thanks for being with us tonight. I appreciate your work.

[Speaker 9] (23:21 - 23:21)
Bye-bye.

[Speaker 1] (23:22 - 24:16)
Thanks, John. Forgive me as I continue to meander around our agenda because I'm going to. I want to stop here for a second.

We have Amy Saro. I think we have Amy. We have Amy Saro, who's the town accountant and director of administration and finance with us.

Neil Duffy had asked a really great question about ARPA funds and how Swampskate is preparing and administering ARPA funds from the federal government. Amy has brought together a beginning of a working group to prepare not only for ARPA but also potential infrastructure dollars that it looks like Washington is posed to approve as well. And at Neil's suggestion, we thought it made sense for Amy to come here and just give us a brief update, Amy, as to your efforts and what your thought processes are going forward here.

[Speaker 6] (24:17 - 26:05)
Yeah, of course. Thanks for having me. So the ARPA funds is the American Rescue Plan Act that was passed by President Biden.

Swampskate is going to be awarded $4.57 million that can be committed between now and December 31, 2024. We started this working group that is made up of representatives from the select board, the finance committee, and key town staff to really work on making sure that we are utilizing these funds in the best way and making the most innovative investments that we can. We have reached out to our department heads to start working on ideas that we can bring before the working group, as well as I've reached out to my local and national listserv to gather examples of their scopes of work.

And there are a few wordings that we can bring in an administrator to really manage these funds and the reporting for it. We're also in very early beginning talks with other neighboring communities to see if there's any regionalization opportunities that we can have. I have sent out copies of the eligible uses to our department heads and our working group so that they can start with it.

I've already had a few department heads come back with recommendations already. And the biggest thing that people are leaning towards is utilizing these funds for our water and sewer infrastructure, as well as preparing to combat climate change in our coastal community.

[Speaker 1] (26:09 - 26:19)
So my understanding is that 5% of the funds are available for us to use to retain an administrator to help us administer these funds and kind of oversee ARPA. Is that right, Amy?

[Speaker 6] (26:20 - 26:25)
That is correct. They can do our project management as well as our reporting and oversee the funds.

[Speaker 1] (26:25 - 28:02)
So that's a really exciting opportunity for us to bring in expertise. And so at last week's discussion, I believe Amy is going to advance that process so that there can be an RFP that's reviewed to send out an RFP to do that. While ARPA, Amy, while ARPA does have strict categories of uses, and it would be great if you wouldn't mind emailing the entire select board with that information that you previously shared.

Of course. With the working group, that would be great. So while ARPA does have specific categories in water and sewer infrastructure, it happens to be one of them, which is why it's going to rise to the top, if you will, on ARPA funds.

Amy has also asked the working group and through the working group to department heads to begin thinking about projects generally, infrastructure projects generally, which is how to prepare ourselves to be in the best position to be able to maximize the opportunity when the state most likely is administrating and trying to find communities that are ready with shovel-ready projects for infrastructure projects.

We know that we have no shortage of needs, but what historically I think we've been short on is getting them to a point of shovel-ready, which means design, public process and design. And frankly, we also, I think, universally believe that we would be benefited by having the project management assistance to help us when the time comes not only get the funds but also have additional census count, whether it's consultants or personnel that are here to help us project manage these programs appropriately. So that ask has gone out to staff and department heads to start doing that so that we are not feeling as though we're late to the ballgame when these funds become available.

[Speaker 6] (28:03 - 28:33)
We also, even though the water and sewer infrastructure is a very exciting part of this, there are community uses for this as well. It's in addition to combating COVID-19 effects and the public health emergency. So I know Margie particularly had sent us some ideas regarding those community uses and how to improve those businesses.

So I don't want to gloss over those very important uses also. Right.

[Speaker 7] (28:34 - 29:08)
Questions, Amy? Yeah. You mentioned like studies or design services as a potential use.

Is that is there? So I assume, Amy, that the categories are, you know, it doesn't have to be a specific project like a construction project. It can be like engineering services or a technical study or feasibility study.

It doesn't matter how we spend it as long as it's under a certain umbrella, if you will.

[Speaker 6] (29:08 - 29:36)
No. So we can hire a team of consultants to oversee the funding and project management. That is somewhat limited in scope of what they're doing.

They're allowed to manage all the projects that are eligible under ARPA. They are allowed to oversee all that funding and handle the reporting for us. But we can't have them creep outside of those guidelines.

[Speaker 7] (29:36 - 30:09)
Oh, yeah. I mean, I guess so what I was saying was, you know, I know like this year we have a $150,000 grant to do, you know, sort of an assessment of our infrastructure, which so obviously we don't need that because we're doing it this year. But would that be something that will be eligible for ARPA funds or does it have to be actually a project where you're, you know, doing something?

It cannot be included as part of the project, I guess, is what I'm asking. Or does it need to be shovel ready?

[Speaker 6] (30:10 - 30:15)
It needs to be shovel ready. There is very little uses in here for actually developing the design.

[Speaker 7] (30:16 - 30:24)
Thanks. That's what I was getting at. And you said committed by 12-24.

So I'm assuming that means it doesn't have to be completed.

[Speaker 6] (30:25 - 30:41)
Correct. We have until December 31st, 2026 to expend the funds. So all the contracts need to be signed.

All the purchase orders need to be submitted by the end of 2024. But we have two additional years to actually pay those out and finish them.

[Speaker 7] (30:41 - 31:06)
And these, I just want to be clear because there's been conversations, I think we're going to talk about it later tonight, that about other ARPA funds that can be used towards water and sewer. And, you know, there's been dialogue about that over the past couple of weeks, you know, sort of a comprehensive project to address Stacey's Brook and the outflow to Kings Beach. And this is separate and apart from that.

Right.

[Speaker 6] (31:06 - 31:16)
So we only have one bucket of ARPA funds. There is, I think Peter mentioned the additional infrastructure.

[Speaker 7] (31:16 - 31:17)
Right. Okay.

[Speaker 14] (31:17 - 31:19)
Got it.

[Speaker 7] (31:19 - 31:33)
Okay. And is it open for, are we able to apply for these funds now?

[Speaker 6] (31:34 - 31:37)
We already have them. So we did already apply.

[Speaker 7] (31:37 - 31:41)
I mean, I guess I mean, like, when we identify projects, can we.

[Speaker 6] (31:42 - 31:46)
Yes, the eligibility period started on March 1st, 2021.

[Speaker 7] (31:47 - 31:47)
Okay.

[Speaker 6] (31:47 - 32:03)
We already have half of the money already in our bank account. And that we can use up to half of it in the first year, but we do have to be mindful that it's supposed to last us until 2026.

[Speaker 7] (32:08 - 32:09)
Thanks.

[Speaker 6] (32:10 - 32:11)
You're welcome.

[Speaker 1] (32:12 - 38:42)
Any other questions, comments for now. All right, Amy, thank you. Appreciate you being here tonight.

Next, we're going to move on a discussion and potential vote on a deed restriction prohibiting market rate residential housing at the Hadley school property. Those of you who follow us and follow town government know that going back to fall of 2020, the select board engaged in the conversation contemplating the future use of the Hadley elementary school in the event that a new school was approved. And that new school would not be located at the Hadley elementary school.

Given at that time, we sponsored a warrant article that went before town meeting to ask town meeting to create a study committee to explore the reuse of the Hadley site in such an event. There were two main considerations that the select board included in actually three considerations. The select board asked town meeting to include as parameters of the study.

First, that to the extent possible, all or a portion of the historic building of the Hadley elementary school be reused. Second, that the property include civic and or cultural uses open to the public. All or a portion of it open to the public and available for the public.

And third and most relevant to tonight's discussion is that market rate housing, i.e. condominiums and apartments for market rate housing, be excluded from consideration. At that time, the select board had taken a vote last fall and unanimously supported these three limitations. It went to town meeting in November of 2020 and town meeting overwhelmingly approved the formation of an almost 20 person committee.

Made up of residents and representatives of various committees in town to review the future of the Hadley school. This committee came back 30 plus days ago with after eight months of deep exploration and presented to us and to town meeting and to the town potential reuse options that included civic and commercial and mixed use commercial space. Potentially even a hotel that included consideration of senior affordable housing.

Not dissimilar to what the town has successfully done at the Michon school and presented those findings to town meeting last month. The select board at that town meeting had also sponsored a warrant article to ask town meeting for permission to allow the select board. To file and to execute and record a deed restriction that would restrict the use of the Hadley school for market rate residential housing purposes.

There was discussion at town meeting about whether or not that made financial sense for the town. Without going into too much of the detail, I think it's worth just noting the basis for why I believe the select board recommended excluding market rate housing. And why town meeting overwhelmingly supported both the creation of a committee that would study everything but market rate housing.

And they also approved last month allowing this board to vote on execute and record a deed restriction prohibiting market rate housing. And I think it simply comes down to this. In a land constrained densely populated town like Swampscott, on balance reusing the Hadley school for civic community and other uses that bring the community together and create places for us to meet and explore and enjoy Swampscott together is a higher priority than increasing the supply of market rate housing.

We have no shortage of neighbors and market rate housing. Importantly, affordable housing is still on the table and a really important consideration because related to our earlier comments about affordable housing, affordable housing is something this town drastically needs. So tonight before the select board consistent with the overwhelming vote of town meeting is a discussion and a potential vote by the select board to have us execute a deed restriction which will be recorded at the registry of deeds.

That will prohibit all or a portion or any portion of the Hadley school from being used for market rate housing or as parking for market rate housing. Thereby preventing market rate housing. The only way in which this deed restriction can be removed is a subsequent action by town meeting.

So therefore said differently, this decision is now after tonight will be in the hands of your town meeting representatives and therefore in the hands of the community to decide whether or not they at a later date want market rate housing. We believe that that is not going to be the case that people are going to be excited and see the opportunity to use the Hadley school for one of the all the choices civic cultural mixed use commercial or senior affordable housing. So tonight we have that vote before us.

Town Council has drafted the declaration of covenants and restrictions for our consideration. It's a simple one page, a little more than one page document for this board to consider and vote on. Before I open up for a conversation on this, we're focusing right now on the future of the Hadley school in the event that the new school is constructed and the Hadley school is no longer used for educational purposes.

But there's also another school that people have inquired about that it's important to talk about, which is the Clark school. What happens to the Clark school in the event that the new elementary school happens? And the answer is clear and unequivocal.

The school department is will continue using the Clark school for educational purposes. It will become the new handicap accessible home for the integrated preschool, a tremendously popular and important program that serves a large number of Swampscot residents and potentially even a broader swath of Swampscot residents when it has its new home at the Clark school. The Clark school will also serve as the new home of the school administration.

By relocating the school administration and the integrated preschool to the Clark school, we will be freeing up significant space that's currently occupied by both within the middle school. Something that the middle school principal, Jason Kalishman, has expressed great enthusiasm for so that he can increase programming and opportunities for the middle school grades within the middle school program. So with that, I want to open it up for conversation or discussion, and then ultimately see if there's a motion to take a vote on this.

[Speaker 10] (38:44 - 38:47)
No need for discussion is pretty clear it's the will of the board and the will of the town.

[Speaker 8] (38:47 - 38:49)
Yep. All right.

[Speaker 1] (38:49 - 39:06)
With that, is there a motion to approve and to authorize the select board to sign the declaration of covenants and restriction restricting prohibiting market rate housing or parking for market rate housing on any portion of the Hadley school property?

[Speaker 14] (39:06 - 39:07)
So moved.

[Speaker 1] (39:08 - 39:12)
Second. Any questions or conversation? Hearing none.

All those in favor.

[Speaker 14] (39:12 - 39:13)
Aye.

[Speaker 1] (39:13 - 39:16)
All right. It's unanimous. Thank you.

[Speaker 5] (39:16 - 39:29)
I have a question. The notarizing. Not about not about the vote.

Just I saw the walk. So we're just going to come back to town hall or something.

[Speaker 1] (39:29 - 39:33)
Yes, we need to. We need to have wet signatures with the notary. So we're going to need to sign this at town hall.

[Speaker 5] (39:33 - 39:33)
Yeah.

[Speaker 3] (39:36 - 39:37)
So I'll coordinate with all of you.

[Speaker 1] (39:41 - 39:58)
Great. Thanks. All right.

With that. Now, we're going to move on to. Thanks for letting me just mark around here.

We're going to move on now to a vote on the twenty twenty one twenty two boards and committees appointments and.

[Speaker 2] (40:02 - 42:14)
Ali. Yes, I was on happy to talk about this. One of my favorite subjects.

So after the last meeting with the select board a few weeks ago. Ali Fisk, our director of communications, and I sat down and we literally scrubbed every application and we looked at the committees. Ali has worked tirelessly to help improve our ability to recruit and really try to encourage committees to think more about inclusivity.

Think more about how we meet the board's expectation that we go out and get new citizens to engage in our government. I really want to applaud her work. She has taken this so seriously.

We did meet. We went through every committee. She explained her engagement with every committee chair.

We talked about the individuals that have been put forward and we both feel confident that we have a cadre of individuals for reappointment before the board that will help continue to support many of the activities and projects that are before the town. However, we also realize that we have to do a better job and we have to continue to encourage some of our committee members to really, you know, serve in an alternate capacity to make room for new members. We do have a number of individuals that have applied for committees that we just weren't able to find a position for, but we are committed to continuing to advance some of these opportunities.

And tonight before you, you have a number of individuals that we feel confident will help support the work of the town going forward. With that, Allie, any additional updates that you wanted to provide or?

[Speaker 3] (42:14 - 43:17)
No. So I have a presentation that I can step through if we want to go through by board by board. The kind of outlines who's up for reappointment.

As Sean said, we did take a very careful look to make sure that, you know, there were no opportunities to bring someone in who had submitted an application. There are still a lot of remaining vacancies and we are actively working on those to the point where you should see some coming up on the agenda in the next couple of weeks as we're getting people settled in to appointments. So any vacancies that you see today, please know that they're all actively being engaged and being filled.

The only questions that I might raise here is that I believe there are three individuals that have been outlined in this and they're outlined in my presentation as well, who were non responsive. And I don't, I want to leave it up to the board to decide what you want to do in the case of a non responsive board member who did not get back to my numerous requests to ask if they were interested in being reappointed, whether or not you take no action on them or choose not to appoint them.

[Speaker 1] (43:18 - 43:45)
So let's let's flip through. Yep. And I think we can address those then.

I think what's really important is to identify just specifically who is up and who you're recommending. And then also to highlight vacancies. Yep.

Because I think that's a really important thing for people to hear about. And then we'll stop if anybody has a question on a specific board and committee, but keep going and then maybe do one vote at the end for the entirety if that's okay.

[Speaker 5] (43:47 - 43:48)
And we'll address your question.

[Speaker 1] (43:48 - 43:56)
As we go through it, we'll, we'll look at who's the non responsive committee specific that we should think about. So, yes.

[Speaker 3] (43:57 - 44:30)
Okay. All right. So, starting with the affordable housing trust there, this committee is six members.

There are four who are seeking reappointment right now. Kimberly Martin Epstein, Joan Honig, David Grishman, Eileen Vogel. There are no vacancies on the board, but there are also no pending applications for this position either, or for this board.

And the town administrator recommends reappointment for all four members.

[Speaker 10] (44:31 - 44:35)
Can we do a background check on the Grishman fellow? Second.

[Speaker 2] (44:38 - 45:08)
Dave is actually a liaison from the board. He's not really. No, he is.

He's a member. That's right. I'm sorry.

This committee is relatively new, and we have a really crackerjack committee here. And, you know, again, I think what's important with this new committee is that we seek continuity, get the committee, you know, focused. But it's one of the most impactful, impressive committees that we have.

And I think the goal here is to just keep members focused on affordable housing.

[Speaker 3] (45:10 - 45:56)
Next is the Andrews Chapel Oversight Committee. They have six members. One member is seeking reappointment, and there's one vacancy on the board.

There are several pending applications, and the town administrator recommends reappointment for this member. Dana Anderson. Athletic Field Advisory Committee is less than one year old.

There are 11 members. Two are seeking one reappointment. Two are seeking reappointment.

One member declined reappointment, so there's one vacancy on the board. There's two in that there's one of them is an ex officio. There is the town administrator recommends reappointment for the two members seeking reappointment, both who are very active.

[Speaker 1] (45:56 - 45:59)
Can you explain what a vacancy is for ex officio?

[Speaker 3] (45:59 - 46:21)
So the ex officio vacancy was somebody who I believe was originally filled by someone from the athletic department. I don't remember if it was an athletic department representative specifically, but for that reason. So it was Kelly from the school department previously, and it hasn't been filled by someone who fits the same.

[Speaker 1] (46:21 - 46:26)
Right. So ex officio is ex officio. It's not something we vote on, but can we just get that filled?

[Speaker 3] (46:26 - 46:26)
Yeah.

[Speaker 1] (46:26 - 46:27)
I mean.

[Speaker 3] (46:28 - 46:33)
There was an effort in the when this was formed to fill that.

[Speaker 1] (46:33 - 46:34)
Can we maybe communicate with the superintendent?

[Speaker 3] (46:35 - 46:35)
Yeah.

[Speaker 1] (46:35 - 46:41)
And see if the superintendent's successful in doing that. That'd be great. Thanks.

[Speaker 3] (46:42 - 46:44)
Yep. I need to write.

[Speaker 7] (46:50 - 47:01)
OK. Allie, are there applications or I know there were multiple applications when we established that there were multiple applications.

[Speaker 3] (47:01 - 47:09)
People who had not been selected the first time around. So now that somebody has been has declined reappointment, there is an opportunity to fill it.

[Speaker 7] (47:09 - 47:10)
But maybe open it up again.

[Speaker 1] (47:10 - 47:18)
So can I just ask why didn't you mean that we didn't reopen it yet? And so therefore, it hasn't been reposted. That's why we're not appointing someone.

[Speaker 3] (47:18 - 47:20)
Yes. Yeah, exactly.

[Speaker 1] (47:20 - 47:21)
I understand. Great.

[Speaker 3] (47:21 - 47:59)
It's the board of registrar voters. There would be no action recommended at this time. The reason for that is that so super just is not seeking reappointment.

It does leave one vacancy. And I'm communicating with Sue Duplin about this. Paul DeBolt needs to be.

We need to receive a letter from I believe it is the Republican town committee who needs to write a letter to recommend him. We have not received that. So Sue is actively working on getting that or finding a way that we can reappoint him without that.

So at the moment, there is no action. She would hope to bring this again to the board in the next couple of meetings to resolve this because it's been pending for a while.

[Speaker 1] (47:59 - 48:03)
So Sue Burgess, was she the non-party affiliated appointee?

[Speaker 3] (48:04 - 48:04)
I don't know.

[Speaker 1] (48:05 - 48:43)
And Janet Fisher, the Democrat party appointee. So I guess my second question is, is the appointment here consistent with other committees in evergreen appointment? Meaning they serve until we don't appoint them such that I just want to make sure that we have two board of registrars in place, that we don't have a non-functioning board because I think you need two at a minimum here.

So let's just make sure that if we can just inquire that Paul sits until Paul doesn't sit. And that we also can in a timely fashion fill Sue Burgess's position.

[Speaker 15] (48:44 - 48:44)
Yep.

[Speaker 1] (48:45 - 48:46)
Would be great.

[Speaker 3] (48:46 - 48:46)
Okay.

[Speaker 1] (48:47 - 48:49)
Thank you, Sue, for serving for all the years that you did.

[Speaker 3] (48:51 - 49:13)
The Conservation Commission has eight members. Three members are seeking reappointment. There is one vacancy, which is an alternate.

And we are going to be bringing forward a... Nope, not for this one. And so there's an active search for Conservation Commission member right now.

We did review all of the applications.

[Speaker 1] (49:13 - 49:19)
So two. There's an alternate. On our sheet, we have an alternate and a member as showing vacant here.

[Speaker 3] (49:20 - 49:21)
Yours might be...

[Speaker 1] (49:21 - 49:26)
Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. We show an alternate and a member vacant.

[Speaker 3] (49:26 - 49:34)
It's true. So this one is outdated. Yours is correct.

So yours has... I believe it was Jonathan Grabowski is not on that one.

[Speaker 1] (49:34 - 49:37)
Nope, he's on it. Yeah, I just think it's just one line short.

[Speaker 3] (49:37 - 49:38)
Tom Ruskin?

[Speaker 8] (49:38 - 49:39)
Yeah, Tom Ruskin.

[Speaker 1] (49:39 - 49:40)
Sorry, Tom's not on it.

[Speaker 3] (49:40 - 50:00)
So Tom, yep. So since I created this PowerPoint, Tom did step down. Okay.

So there should be two vacancies, both of them. Yeah, so they're actively searching for... So at this point in time, it would be...

But in any case, Sean recommends reappointment of the three members, Tonya, Jonathan, and Randall.

[Speaker 13] (50:00 - 50:00)
Great.

[Speaker 3] (50:05 - 50:34)
Constables. There are six constables. Three are elected and three are appointed.

One of the appointed constables is seeking reappointment, and the two other constables have declined reappointment. There are no vacancies. Sorry, that is wrong.

This is a little outdated. I apologize since we just had those. There are vacancies.

We have not received any interest in those vacancies being filled so far. And the town administrator recommends reappointment for constable-seeking reappointment, which is Palminsky.

[Speaker 1] (50:34 - 50:53)
Am I correct? This is the only committee that we can advertise that you will get $100 per year stipend if you are a constable, and you get to then serve process. So this is the only committee we can give you a financial bounty for.

It's a good chance that several select board members are going to be seeking the constable.

[Speaker 2] (50:53 - 50:57)
You have to ask for it. Certainly. So the catch is you have to ask for that stipend.

[Speaker 1] (50:57 - 51:02)
You have to ask for the stipend. Don't tell anybody. That's going to be a positive budget variance for the year.

[Speaker 2] (51:02 - 51:05)
It has been a positive budget variance for the year.

[Speaker 1] (51:05 - 51:10)
Now you know why your taxes aren't going up. It's that hundreds and hundreds of unpaid constable stipends.

[Speaker 2] (51:11 - 51:11)
All that process.

[Speaker 1] (51:13 - 51:13)
All right, Allie.

[Speaker 3] (51:14 - 51:17)
All right, counsel on aging. Since I last met.

[Speaker 1] (51:17 - 51:19)
Hang on a second, Allie. We're a different order than you.

[Speaker 3] (51:19 - 51:19)
Are you?

[Speaker 1] (51:19 - 51:22)
There we go. All right. That's fine.

We're good. Sorry. That's fine.

[Speaker 3] (51:22 - 51:49)
Since I last came before you, there are two vacancies, two new vacancies. Heidi Weir had to step down as she's now staff and another member stepped down. So there are two vacancies that are currently actively under review.

The town administrator recommends reappointment of Marilyn Cassidy, who's currently serving as the chair of the committee. There have been a lot of appointments to this board this year. By the way, I believe there's four this year alone.

So it's a lot of new members. Stop me if you need to. I'm going to keep going.

[Speaker 5] (51:49 - 51:53)
So it just sounds like the other pending applications will be reviewed for the other vacancies.

[Speaker 3] (51:53 - 55:11)
They're currently under review. So the cultural council is it's a state agent. It's a state.

How do you put it? One of 329 cultural councils in the state. Thank you.

Statutory. And so statutorily, they can have between no less than five members and no more than 22 members. That means that they obviously have a tremendous amount of vacancies for what the state requires.

So 16 vacancies means that there's no currently no risk if they're not being enough room for some of the pending applications. I am working with the cultural council to fill those. We did actually disappoint two people last meeting, if I remember correctly.

So we are making some progress. There's great candidates. Sean recommends a reappointment of Jason Ballesta, who is currently serving as the chair of the board, doing a great job.

Earth Removal Advisory Committee is nine members, six of which are voting members. There are two members seeking reappointment. There is one vacancy, which is specifically for an excavator, excavating engineer.

And that's one that's been a little tricky to fill. Town Administrator recommends reappointing the two members, which are Captain James Potts, who's serving on behalf of the fire department, and then Theodore Smith, Jr. Harbor and Waterfront Advisory Committee. They are comprised of 10 members.

Seven are seeking reappointment. There are currently no vacancies. We did review the applications for this committee.

Sean feels as though the members who are serving this committee are doing so very effectively, they're making great progress, and feels as though we should recommend reappointment for all seven members who are currently up for reappointment. The Historic District Commission is comprised of seven members. One member is seeking reappointment.

There is one vacancy, and we are reviewing that vacancy. But nonetheless, Sean recommends reappointment of Benjamin Franklin, who is the chair of this committee. The Historical Commission is comprised of nine members.

Three members are seeking reappointment. There are currently no vacancies. Town Administrator recommends reappointing all three members, which are Dana Anderson, Nancy Schultz, and Kim Berry.

Open Space and Recreation Committee is comprised of 10 members. One member is seeking reappointment. There is now one vacancy, and the Open Space and Recreation Committee does have a candidate that will be on the agenda on October 6th.

They've reviewed all of their applications. The Town Administrator recommends reappointing Antonia Vanderwitz, who is the vice chair. Rail Trail Design and Construction Advisory Committee is comprised of 10 members.

Three are seeking reappointment. Two are non-responsive. There are four vacancies on the board, and the Town Administrator recommends reappointment of the three responsive members.

The non-responsive is the question mark.

[Speaker 1] (55:13 - 55:46)
So I think my suggestion on this one is that we don't reappoint the non-responsive. I think we've had some conversation. I think you've been trying for some time on this.

We don't reappoint the non-responsive because I don't want the non-responsives to stay on, not attend, and then for them to have quorum issues. So that would negate that as we're finding additional members of the committee. Otherwise, I think we're creating an inherent quorum issue that they're going to stumble over regularly.

So if that's okay with everybody, that's how I would suggest it works. I agree.

[Speaker 5] (55:47 - 55:52)
Yeah, I agree. I just wonder why we wouldn't do that for every non-responsive.

[Speaker 1] (55:53 - 56:12)
Well, I hadn't looked ahead to non-responsive. If it wasn't a quorum issue, then maybe we'd give it another chance and see if someone just didn't respond. Like, for example, Jean Reardon on the War Memorial Scholarship Fund is the other one.

It doesn't create it. But her being on it and not doing it, I don't think creates a – it may create the same quorum issue. That's the only other one.

I just hadn't looked ahead.

[Speaker 3] (56:12 - 56:19)
Actually, I have a question about that, speaking of quorum issues. So if they go down to only having four members, though, on a ten-member board, they don't have enough people.

[Speaker 1] (56:20 - 56:30)
No, it's not based on – it's appointed members. Vacancies aren't members. So their quorum is now going to be factored on based on the number of appointed members.

[Speaker 5] (56:30 - 56:35)
Okay. Yeah. It doesn't seem right, but it is.

Interesting.

[Speaker 3] (56:36 - 56:37)
So you could have, like, a two-person board?

[Speaker 5] (56:38 - 56:59)
Yeah. All right. I think we should probably – I just feel like this should just be a – like we should kind of just create a policy.

Like, I don't know, maybe a certain number of emails, a phone call, and a letter. And then no matter how many vacancies or what quorum issues, at some point.

[Speaker 1] (57:00 - 57:01)
You are?

[Speaker 5] (57:01 - 57:01)
Yeah.

[Speaker 1] (57:02 - 57:04)
So why don't you come back to us at a later date?

[Speaker 3] (57:05 - 57:05)
I don't want to put more on you.

[Speaker 1] (57:05 - 57:10)
No, with a suggestion. Why don't you just come back with a suggestion of how to deal with it? That way you collectively know it's good to deal with it that way.

[Speaker 3] (57:10 - 57:12)
Should we take no action on them for now, and then – No.

[Speaker 1] (57:13 - 57:20)
I think right now we should vote, like we said, and just do what we said tonight. But going forward, it allows you to independently know what to do.

[Speaker 5] (57:20 - 57:23)
Yeah. I think it helps you, too.

[Speaker 3] (57:23 - 57:34)
Yeah. Okay. All right.

So just so I understand, the vote tonight, anybody who's nonresponsive would essentially remove them from the board?

[Speaker 1] (57:34 - 57:38)
Correct. We're voting to not – we're affirmatively voting to not reappoint them.

[Speaker 2] (57:41 - 57:45)
We're being responsive. We are being nonresponsive.

[Speaker 3] (57:45 - 58:09)
No, they're not responsive. Got it. Recreation Commission is comprised of nine members.

One is seeking reappointment. There are three vacancies. I'm actively working with Danielle to fill those because we do know that there are many great people out there who would be very helpful to what Danielle is doing.

Town Administrator recommends reappointment of Janelle Cameron, who is instrumental to the Recreation Commission.

[Speaker 2] (58:11 - 58:12)
So many things.

[Speaker 3] (58:14 - 58:35)
The War Memorial Scholarship Fund Committee, they are comprised of eight members. Two members are seeking reappointment. One is nonresponsive, and I admit also I do not have contact information to reach them.

However, I have not gotten responses. So I think part of it is maybe you don't know if there's anyone on the board here who does have contact information.

[Speaker 1] (58:36 - 58:39)
So I think you've got to just reach out. She's also an alternate on the Historical Commission.

[Speaker 3] (58:39 - 58:39)
Okay.

[Speaker 1] (58:39 - 58:56)
So therefore, I think I just reach out to the Historic Commission chair and ask. Jean works at the post office as well, but I don't think we need to hound her at her place of work. You're not calling us back.

The irony is we can mail her a letter.

[Speaker 3] (58:56 - 59:06)
We can mail her a letter. We can mail her a letter. I will dig a little deeper on her and if we could take no action on her tonight to give me another chance to try to nail her down.

[Speaker 10] (59:06 - 59:07)
Sure.

[Speaker 3] (59:07 - 59:09)
That would be great. I just got the joke about the letter.

[Speaker 5] (59:11 - 59:19)
I think you had said two are seeking reappointment, but it's just one, right? You are correct.

[Speaker 3] (59:20 - 59:22)
I misspoke on that one.

[Speaker 1] (59:23 - 59:24)
Sorry. Right. One's a decline.

[Speaker 3] (59:24 - 59:24)
Yep.

[Speaker 7] (59:24 - 59:25)
One's a decline.

[Speaker 3] (59:33 - 59:39)
And then the final one is the.

[Speaker 1] (59:39 - 59:52)
Can I just suggest maybe to the town administrator and Allie that maybe we ask our veterans services director as well if either. Actually, I have some ideas for this. Let's talk to our veterans.

[Speaker 2] (59:53 - 59:59)
Allie and I did talk about we have a couple of new members that are engaged in the veterans post and they would be excellent.

[Speaker 1] (59:59 - 1:00:02)
There's one in particular I'm thinking about that would be.

[Speaker 2] (1:00:02 - 1:00:03)
I think we have the same idea.

[Speaker 1] (1:00:03 - 1:00:06)
So I think we can fill these vacancies. I think there's ideas.

[Speaker 3] (1:00:07 - 1:00:11)
Yeah. They haven't met in my tenure here in Swampscott. Yeah.

[Speaker 2] (1:00:12 - 1:00:14)
I don't know, but we should fix that.

[Speaker 3] (1:00:15 - 1:00:15)
Yeah. Okay.

[Speaker 2] (1:00:16 - 1:00:43)
This committee was defunct for years, and their primary responsibility is to issue scholarships to high school students. And so it's a really great committee, and it historically has been staffed by our veterans in Swampscott. And so we should reach out to our veterans, our VFW post, and see if we can engage them in that effort.

[Speaker 3] (1:00:44 - 1:01:05)
So the Zoning Board of Appeals, I have new information that I am trying to sort of reckon with here in this conversation. One of the members has moved to Nahant Daniel Doherty, and so I think there's just a question right now in terms of reappointment for that particular member. Okay.

[Speaker 10] (1:01:05 - 1:01:16)
I know he's moving back to Swampscott. I don't know if he's done it yet. So he may still be resident.

Do you know? I don't know. I spoke to him two days ago.

[Speaker 3] (1:01:16 - 1:01:34)
Okay. So I think that at this point in time, just trying to determine the best way of whether or not the town administrator does recommend reappointment of these two members. And I just was going to put it on hold in terms of just trying to figure out whether or not there's any more information that needs to be gotten.

[Speaker 1] (1:01:35 - 1:01:37)
Yeah. So let's just table that one, and we'll come back.

[Speaker 3] (1:01:37 - 1:01:37)
Okay.

[Speaker 1] (1:01:37 - 1:01:38)
Thank you.

[Speaker 3] (1:01:47 - 1:01:51)
Great. And that is.

[Speaker 1] (1:01:51 - 1:02:00)
So you also have this other sheet on ours, which is other town boards for which there are appointed all or in part by the select board but don't have any appointments up in 2021.

[Speaker 15] (1:02:01 - 1:02:01)
Yes.

[Speaker 1] (1:02:01 - 1:02:48)
And you just follow up with us. You don't need to do it tonight. Just let us.

It seems strange that all these committees don't have any appointments or when they're up or just send us something to let us know when they're up. Because it feels strange not to have a single. Some of these committees are now, frankly, probably need to be dismantled, like civil service.

It met. They fulfilled their charge. They're done.

Article six is created by town meeting. Article six hasn't met in a while. I think we've got to regroup with CIC and fincom to that was a town meeting mandate as well.

And I think we've got to regroup about how we're going to rejuvenate and bring that back to life. For example, I didn't even know that we have a harbor master committee. I never even heard of that.

[Speaker 3] (1:02:48 - 1:02:54)
There's not a harbor master committee for some reason. It's just listed on our boarding committee application. And so that one is a mystery as well.

[Speaker 1] (1:02:54 - 1:03:03)
But it also says for a number of members, number of vacancies, three, which is because we have one harbor master. So we need four. It's great.

[Speaker 3] (1:03:03 - 1:03:07)
I would appreciate, yeah, the opportunity to figure out which ones are.

[Speaker 1] (1:03:07 - 1:03:11)
Yeah. So, for example, the renewable energy committee, it's strange that there is an annual appointment.

[Speaker 3] (1:03:11 - 1:03:13)
Yeah. It happened last year too. There was some.

[Speaker 1] (1:03:13 - 1:03:22)
Yeah. So we've got to fix that. Something's off.

There's all because of staggered expiration terms. There's always going to be, I think on some of these, always going to be an appointee.

[Speaker 3] (1:03:23 - 1:03:23)
Yeah.

[Speaker 1] (1:03:24 - 1:03:28)
That's okay. We'll figure it out. Like, for example, the turf field advisory committee, we can dismantle it.

[Speaker 3] (1:03:29 - 1:03:32)
Is that something that would require a vote? Should I be coming to the board?

[Speaker 1] (1:03:32 - 1:03:41)
Yeah, we probably should. I mean, by the time we dismantle the turf field, we're going to need a new turf field. Turf field two advisory committee.

Just changed its name.

[Speaker 5] (1:03:41 - 1:03:44)
Can we do that? Is it not okay to do it now?

[Speaker 1] (1:03:44 - 1:05:01)
Well, I don't think that. Let's just let Allie go through it and make sure she's comfortable with it all. Just make the recommendations because I'm being a little whimsical and just making jokes about certain committees.

I just want to make sure they truly are done, for example. The harbormaster may be that there's one harbormaster and three assistant harbormasters, which is where the four came from. I don't know.

I'm making it up. Let you guys do that homework and come back to us on that. All right?

Okay. So, Allie, we're going to talk about this and we're going to make a vote, but I just feel like I need to say this. We're going to make a vote to be consistent with the materials here, but your minutes need to specify specifically who is voted for what because the minutes are the thing that years from now when someone else is looking at this and said, I just don't know who is up, you know, which year.

The minutes are what people will look at, find this data, and the clerk will be able to say, I went back and look at minutes. And this is, you know, Dana Anderson was reappointed for the interest chapel for a three year term, you know, expiring in 2024. Right.

So our vote probably is not going to specify. We're just going to refer to this document here with the amendments. Sorry, say that again.

We're just going to vote to approve this with the few changes that we just went through, but your minutes need to include what this is.

[Speaker 15] (1:05:01 - 1:05:01)
Yep.

[Speaker 1] (1:05:02 - 1:05:09)
Thank you. Sorry about that. That's a pain.

All right. Any questions or comments on this thing?

[Speaker 5] (1:05:11 - 1:05:33)
No, I really appreciate it, Allie. I know this is a lot of work and I was all fired up about it last time. No, it's okay.

I appreciate you and Sean being responsive. Yeah, realistic demands and and coming back and having this. So I really appreciate it.

It's great. Thanks. Both of you.

[Speaker 2] (1:05:34 - 1:06:18)
Look, I think we both really do get the board's desire to, you know, bring more inclusive efforts to staff in these committees. And I think it's important that we we really keep faith with that. It's my expectation that that doesn't just happen, you know, during an annual process for that.

That has to be a week to week, month to month focus. And I know Allie is is really passionate about that. And she really wants to ensure that we have, you know, a different type of process for how we just go through this formal appointment.

And I'm really pleased that she cares about that.

[Speaker 1] (1:06:21 - 1:06:46)
All right. So I think as though the motion is to approve the appointments as set forth in in the materials, except for to affirmatively vote for the Rail Trail Design and Construction Committee to not reappoint Marcy Benson and Marianne O'Neill. And with regard to the War Memorial Scholarship Fund Committee to not reappoint Jim Schultz.

[Speaker 5] (1:06:47 - 1:06:51)
Also, Paul DeBolt is coming back.

[Speaker 3] (1:06:52 - 1:07:04)
Yeah, we're coming back on that. That one does. Yeah, she cheated.

That specifies as no act that specifies no action. Sorry. And then there was one other.

We're waiting on Daniel Doherty.

[Speaker 1] (1:07:05 - 1:07:07)
I'm sorry. Correct. The zoning board.

[Speaker 3] (1:07:07 - 1:07:13)
We're tabling that. I'm sorry. Did you say Jean Raritan?

We're going to we're we're putting that one on hold until I can make sure I can get a hold of her.

[Speaker 1] (1:07:14 - 1:07:19)
Well, you don't have it as a vote anyways. So you say non responsive. So, yes, we're not voting her yet.

[Speaker 5] (1:07:20 - 1:07:22)
Well, we're but we are voting Heather Roman.

[Speaker 1] (1:07:23 - 1:07:29)
No, we're tabling all of the zoning right now. They're evergreen appointments. So they're still there until we fix it.

[Speaker 5] (1:07:30 - 1:07:31)
But why would we not do.

[Speaker 1] (1:07:31 - 1:07:43)
Let's just. I just wanted to say, I don't know what's going on now. Let's just go back to the chair and figure it out and make sure everything's copacetic.

Yeah, that's all right. Is there a motion?

[Speaker 10] (1:07:43 - 1:07:44)
So moved.

[Speaker 1] (1:07:44 - 1:07:47)
Second. Is there any further conversation or discussion?

[Speaker 10] (1:07:48 - 1:07:49)
No.

[Speaker 1] (1:07:49 - 1:08:21)
Hearing none. All those in favor. Aye.

Aye. Aye. All right.

Unanimous. Thanks, Ali. Appreciate it.

Thank you. Thank you. Next up is a discussion and potential vote on a amendment to the calyx piece.

Peak leak. Lease. Excuse me for 16.

New Ocean Road. Ali, I don't think we. I see Margie.

Never mind. There she is. Margie.

So give us. It's a very simple and specific amendment. Just really in a couple sentences.

Let us know. And we'll see if there's questions about it.

[Speaker 4] (1:08:21 - 1:08:56)
Absolutely. So the, the lease amendment. Really formalize formalizes the additional parking that will be allowed by calyx peak.

And it includes six additional parking spaces. That would allow calyx peak to park on. Veteran services, parking lot.

For a fee of $2,000. That will increase annually by 3%. And the, the, the fee or the donations that will be made will be used for veterans services and their families.

[Speaker 1] (1:08:59 - 1:10:00)
So this plan is consistent with the plan that we previously remember several months ago now. Representatives of the veteran center were here as well that evening to share with us a plan. And so this is consistent.

This plan is the same plan that you all, we all saw back then as well. This is just codifying the arrangement and the finalizing it. The lease is actually the, the parking is really, the economics are really covered by the original lease thing.

The, the donation is a donation that they're going to make to the town for the purposes of benefit veteran services. And I, and I, I'm personally excited about it because there's, they had a great event this past weekend and there is a rejuvenation happening at the veteran center. Thanks to a lot of long time participants in the veteran center and some people who have really joined it recently.

So this is going to be a good infusion of, of money and hopefully activity and resources to, to help veterans get what they need here.

[Speaker 5] (1:10:01 - 1:10:32)
Just so Margie really good work. Thank you for, I know this was a long process. And I'm also really excited that veterans certainly deserve veteran center and all of its members certainly deserve this.

And I think it's also, I'm appreciate that. Hey, let's be agreed to that. So question is, is it going to the general fund?

How, how is the money being, is it being earmarked? Is it being directly donated?

[Speaker 4] (1:10:32 - 1:10:35)
Well, it's a donation, so it will go.

[Speaker 1] (1:10:36 - 1:11:11)
Yeah. So, so by virtue of this vote, it's effectively us voting to approve the donation for its intended purpose, which is what we have to vote for. And we're, we're approving the lease, but we also, when the donation comes, we don't have to approve the donation coming.

We have to approve the purpose for which the donation will be used. And so consistent with the lease amendment would be for veteran support services. This is like a, we're like a letter of intent.

So we're voting on, well, this is an amendment with Calix. It binds Calix to do these things and it gives Calix the right to do these things. Right.

So it's, it is an amendment, but functionally, it's also operating to accept the gift for its intended purpose.

[Speaker 5] (1:11:11 - 1:11:12)
Right. But is it going?

[Speaker 1] (1:11:13 - 1:11:16)
Gifts are not in the general fund. So the gifts stay outside.

[Speaker 2] (1:11:16 - 1:11:25)
And then the town accountant will put this on the non-general fund ledger and just make this as part of a donation for a specified purpose.

[Speaker 1] (1:11:33 - 1:11:35)
Margie, any update on schedule for Calix?

[Speaker 4] (1:11:36 - 1:14:21)
Yes. As you know that this past, this past May, Calix received their provisional license from the CCC. They completed their permitting through, through our ZBA.

By ZBA granted them a special use permit and for a retail marijuana establishment, they received site plan special permit approval, as well as a special permit for coastal flooding overlay district. They also went to the conservation commission and they were issued an order of conditions. The order of conditions was appealed by the, by the DEP, but we are addressing the issues and awaiting a response from mass DEP.

In regards to the construction, if the board agrees or votes on this amendment, the contractor will be able to install a perimeter of fencing or construction fencing with wind screening the week of October 4th. We will schedule a neighborhood meeting in the week of October 11th. The demolition sort of planning or pre-planning for the demolition has been, has started.

They the Calix had retained the services of a pest control company. They actually started the process to discontinue all of the utilities. So they submitted their request to national grid.

They did find some evidence of asbestos in the drywall. So they were working with, they are working with mass DP. They actually notified them of that this past Friday on September 24th, there is a 10 day notification period to mass DP and to the department of labor.

And they already received their, their clearance letter stating that remediation can start on or before October 10th in regards to the demolition timeline. It should take about one week for the demolition and the site clearance. And it is anticipated that construction would, would take approximately six months pending any unfrenzied weather conditions.

This should bring us to a completion in early April on may of next year. Construction parking will be all on site. We talked about it.

We addressed it. The veteran center did offer additional parking during construction to assure that there's no construction parking on Curry street and access to, and from this side will be only from new ocean street or one.

[Speaker 1] (1:14:23 - 1:14:52)
Thanks Margie. Can we please, do you mind just circling up with the town administrator and I don't even know, I would say traffic study committee, but I don't know that that, what it is the police department to figure out how we can affirmatively restrict. And if the residents on Curry are fine with that to restrict parking to residents only and to have it signed and permitted that way.

So that way they have greater protection and that they don't have unwanted visitors in the near term here.

[Speaker 4] (1:14:53 - 1:15:06)
Absolutely. And we will also hold weekly meetings and make sure that the residents of Curry circle have my contact information as well as Gino's and, you know, we're there to address any issues during construction.

[Speaker 1] (1:15:07 - 1:15:32)
Great. I don't know who it is. So I guess I see a hand raised and I'm thinking it might be Malcolm Maloof.

I think that the name's not clear here, but Ali, do you want to just, Hi Malcolm. Is that you?

[Speaker 11] (1:15:33 - 1:16:22)
Yes, it is. How are you doing? All right.

My question is in the wording you will use, I'm the commander of the veteran center of one of the clubs and the way that was worded, it sounded like the land that the club is on or the clubs are on is now part of the pot drop. Is that what I'm hearing? In other words, that whole lot, I know it's still considered one lot and it's split, but now it sounds like we are part of their actions rather than them.

Part of our actions, their lease include the veterans club.

[Speaker 1] (1:16:23 - 1:16:42)
It does not, sir. It just allows this, this amendment just allows them to park six cars on the spaces that we previously discussed. And Margie and Calix and the veteran center folks had previously discussed.

It doesn't include anything more. It's just merely a right, right to park their cars there. The there's, there's no other differentiation.

[Speaker 11] (1:16:43 - 1:17:02)
Okay. I think Margie, if you could, I think I'd like to speak to you about that and just make sure we're on the same page about what's going on. And that's really all I want to discuss.

And if that's the way it is, you can turn me off and I just want to make sure that Margie and I can coordinate this, please.

[Speaker 4] (1:17:03 - 1:17:11)
Malcolm, I'll follow up with you tomorrow and I can share with you a map. I think you saw it before, but I'm more than happy to schedule a time to meet with you tomorrow.

[Speaker 11] (1:17:12 - 1:17:13)
Thank you, Margie.

[Speaker 1] (1:17:15 - 1:19:16)
Great. All right. With that, any questions or comments?

Is there a motion to approve the lease amendment for execution? So moved. All those in favor.

All right. All right. Thank you, Margie.

All right. Next up is we're going to take a clarification vote just for the upcoming October 19th special town vote. As you may recall at our last meeting, we took a vote to authorize the gymnasium at the high school as the location for the upcoming October 19th townwide vote relative to the new elementary school.

The high school will continue to be the voting location, but we are going to just modify our vote to just specify the high school. Generally there are efforts underway to see if the cafeteria can be used instead of the gymnasium, which will be easier in and out for residents. And if that becomes possible, we just wanted to take a general vote here, but there's no change in location.

It is still the high school. And there, if anything, this will allow perhaps it to be on the cafeteria that previously the school administration needed the hat cafeteria, but plans are underway thanks to the efforts of the superintendent and the high school principal to see if they can relocate some programming and free up the cafeteria and do that. So town council has given us language that alley you're going to put on the screen for us just to vote, to just meet technical compliance by just having it be the high school generally, as opposed to town council did indicate that we previously did not need to specify the gymnasium.

We could have just taken this vote generally for the high school, just like we do with middle school and other places. So this is actually more consistent with how we've done it historically and that the gymnasium was unusually specific. So we're just correcting that.

So the amendment language, I started the motion languages in front of us. If there's no questions or comments to someone want to make the motion.

[Speaker 8] (1:19:16 - 1:19:37)
Sure. I motion to amend the board's nine 2021 vote to designate a temporary polling place for the upcoming special town election to provide generally that the polling place is designated as the high school generally rather than the gymnasium or any other particular location within said building and to ask the clerk to update the board's vote.

[Speaker 1] (1:19:39 - 1:19:44)
Is there a second, any conversations or questions, all those in favor. Aye.

[Speaker 15] (1:19:44 - 1:19:44)
Aye.

[Speaker 1] (1:19:45 - 1:20:23)
Great. Last but not least on, on our new and old business is, and I'm looking at my calendar is for us just to pencil in meeting dates. So to update meeting dates.

So with that our traditional meeting dates would be the sixth and the 20th. I want to suggest that we keep the six and move the 20th and I guess at this point suggest that we meet the six and the 27th of October. That's okay.

[Speaker 5] (1:20:23 - 1:20:30)
Which would be the first and the fourth, six and the 27th.

[Speaker 1] (1:20:31 - 1:20:48)
We keep in the sixth at six, the six at six, the 27th at six. Oh, that's what I meant to say was the 26th at six. Yep.

That's good.

[Speaker 13] (1:20:55 - 1:21:06)
27th, 26. School committee has this room on 27th. Yes.

[Speaker 4] (1:21:08 - 1:21:09)
All right.

[Speaker 1] (1:21:09 - 1:21:29)
So that would be the sixth and the 26th at six and then the third and the 17th of November would be our normal first and third Wednesday. Third and the 17th, which would be our typical, the 17th is the conflict school committee.

[Speaker 3] (1:21:30 - 1:21:51)
They have scheduled their meeting for that day to avoid Thanksgiving holiday. And previously we'd been able to hold two meetings at the same time, but we can't now because of the broadcasting zoom conflict. So we'd have to find another date.

I did reach out to them and ask, they could move, but didn't get the indication that was possible.

[Speaker 1] (1:21:54 - 1:22:34)
Well, they are, they are gracious hosts to host us in this taxpayer funded room. So we will, we will move our date to another date. Because we would not want to displace our hosts.

That would be awful even though it is the third. And even though we just displaced ourselves another month because they were, that's okay. We can do this.

So how about the third and the 16th? Sure. Good.

Is that a yes or no?

[Speaker 5] (1:22:34 - 1:22:41)
Yeah, it's good. I just, I, is, is this, is this seems to be coming up a lot.

[Speaker 1] (1:22:41 - 1:22:45)
I don't know if this is an ongoing, I think it's this time of year in particular we run into this.

[Speaker 3] (1:22:45 - 1:23:16)
And we used to be able to work around having them both happen at the same time. It's just that we can't now, because this is the only room that's set up to do the broadcasting that we need. We're going to work on trying to get another room set up.

But February is another example of the school committee books every Wednesday for their budget hearings or budget meetings. You guys have them too. And we used to be able to do that and we can't.

So, but I did, I did reach out and encourage them on days when they can't, if they're going to reschedule to try to reschedule for a non first and third Wednesday for this reason.

[Speaker 5] (1:23:16 - 1:23:23)
I appreciate it. I don't, I just have a standing thing on Tuesday. So I just need to.

[Speaker 1] (1:23:23 - 1:23:37)
Right now I'm I'm with you. I think ideally we're going to avoid this. All right.

So there we go. Thank you. I'm going to move on now to the Margie has her hand raised.

Margie has her hand. Margie, do you really have your hand raised?

[Speaker 4] (1:23:37 - 1:24:03)
Yes, I do. I hope you don't mind. I just wanted to just point it out that both of those meetings, the 26th and the, and the 16th, those are the nights that the ZBA is scheduled to meet.

I know that they've been meeting virtually, but I know that they wanted to start to hold the meetings maybe in hybrid. I'm not sure. I'll, I'll double check with Mark.

I'm sure, but the chairperson just to assure that, that they didn't have anything scheduled that was.

[Speaker 1] (1:24:03 - 1:24:08)
So what, what, what dates, Margie, you just said numbers. Tell me, tell me, I'm sorry.

[Speaker 4] (1:24:09 - 1:24:20)
So October 26th, Tuesday is a ZBA meeting and November 16th. There's a ZBA meeting on the 16th and on the 30th.

[Speaker 13] (1:24:20 - 1:24:21)
So.

[Speaker 3] (1:24:26 - 1:24:29)
But Margie, those meetings, have they held any of them hybrid yet?

[Speaker 4] (1:24:30 - 1:24:32)
No, they did not.

[Speaker 3] (1:24:32 - 1:24:37)
Cause I know those ones might be possible in the police station. It's just a little different for the select board.

[Speaker 1] (1:24:37 - 1:24:41)
No, the, the, the matters before them are not going to allow them to meet in the police station.

[Speaker 5] (1:24:41 - 1:24:45)
Okay. But they don't have a designated location right now.

[Speaker 1] (1:24:45 - 1:24:49)
Well, I think this is their designated location. It's just that we're tripping over them because we're switching our days.

[Speaker 3] (1:24:50 - 1:24:50)
I don't know.

[Speaker 1] (1:24:50 - 1:25:03)
They're, they're high. They're, they're not meeting in person, but I know they want to. And I think there's some pretty important petitions coming that frankly facilitating meeting in person may be appropriate just because there's a lot of public interest.

And so.

[Speaker 5] (1:25:06 - 1:25:10)
I'm Tuesday or Wednesday. That's I cannot do any other night.

[Speaker 1] (1:25:10 - 1:25:11)
So.

[Speaker 4] (1:25:12 - 1:25:20)
I mean, I'm happy to double check the agendas for, for those two days for the 26th and the 16th and get back to you. If you like.

[Speaker 13] (1:25:20 - 1:25:20)
Joseph.

[Speaker 1] (1:25:33 - 1:26:07)
Right. All right. So let's do this.

Let's do. Look at, I'm avoiding the 20th cause it's the day after. The town election, frankly, and, and I don't think that we need to be having meetings and having, I just think it's just too much stone going on.

The 19th is the town election. So we can't meet them. The 26th.

So look at it. I think we got. The 27th.

You said the school committee's here. That's why we're out. And the 26 were out because the zoning board.

[Speaker 3] (1:26:09 - 1:26:12)
I guess. Yeah. That's the zoning boards new to me, but yes.

[Speaker 1] (1:26:12 - 1:26:21)
I mean, honestly, at this point, I'm going to run for housing authority. They don't televise their meetings. So it doesn't matter.

So I can, we can, we can meet in any room. That may be a solution.

[Speaker 3] (1:26:21 - 1:26:30)
So the 20, sorry to come back to this. October 27th. Joe, the, the conflict that I'm aware of.

Oh, yes. Yes. Yes.

Yeah.

[Speaker 7] (1:26:32 - 1:26:39)
Are we. Resistant to do. Zoom meeting like for one meeting just to.

Do it.

[Speaker 1] (1:26:40 - 1:26:41)
All right, let's do it. We're going to do a zoom meeting on.

[Speaker 5] (1:26:42 - 1:26:45)
If I'm the restriction, I'll do what I can.

[Speaker 1] (1:26:45 - 1:26:46)
Well, you are. You are the research.

[Speaker 10] (1:26:47 - 1:26:53)
It's okay. Like, she's not. I can't do Thursday.

Tuesday, Wednesday.

[Speaker 1] (1:26:57 - 1:27:05)
I'm going to tell my God between you and the school committee and the zoning board. This is literally the biggest debate we're having in the night.

[Speaker 10] (1:27:07 - 1:27:12)
Thursday nights are my nap night. It's been a long week at that point. I'm elderly.

I can't.

[Speaker 1] (1:27:12 - 1:27:38)
I appreciate it. All right. So we're going to do.

We're going to do. I'm sorry. We're just going to cut to this.

We're going to do Joe. If we do a zoom, can we do it in the same night as a school committee or should we do it on the 26th? I mean.

Yeah. All right. So I'm going to go back to the 27th, which is the school committee night and do a zoom for us on the school committee night.

The 27th. Is that okay? Wednesday, the 27th.

Sure.

[Speaker 7] (1:27:39 - 1:27:39)
Sure.

[Speaker 1] (1:27:41 - 1:27:47)
All right. We haven't seen Neil's attic in quite a long time. His third floor.

It's nice.

[Speaker 7] (1:27:48 - 1:27:52)
It's a lot cooler. During the summer when he's like sweating.

[Speaker 12] (1:27:54 - 1:27:56)
Wow. There's a lot of pressure on you. He's sweating.

[Speaker 1] (1:28:00 - 1:28:12)
All right. So we're doing the six and the 27th. The 27th is going to be virtual and we're doing the 13th and the sorry, the 3rd of November.

And the 16th of November.

[Speaker 7] (1:28:14 - 1:28:15)
Well, it was the 16th as EBA.

[Speaker 5] (1:28:15 - 1:28:17)
I thought that was a conflict too.

[Speaker 4] (1:28:19 - 1:28:23)
Yeah. 16 is the ZBA. If you like, I can just double check to see what's on.

[Speaker 1] (1:28:24 - 1:28:31)
We're just going to do, we're going to do zoom on the, we're going to do zoom on the 17th. We're just going to do it. We're just going to get our meetings done.

[Speaker 3] (1:28:31 - 1:28:39)
I also can go back to the school committee and say, and we just haven't been able to, we don't have another date. Can they find another one? We could ask them that.

[Speaker 1] (1:28:39 - 1:28:44)
Well, for now let's hold it and you can have those conversations. Let's tentatively just plan. We're doing 17th on zoom.

[Speaker 15] (1:28:44 - 1:28:45)
Okay.

[Speaker 1] (1:28:46 - 1:29:09)
All right. Allie, will you do a favor and just send us all something that reconfirms the chaos that we just discussed? Thank you.

I appreciate it. I'd like to revisit those dates if we could. That is only because you will forget this night even happened.

Probably. So let's be honest about that. Donald.

All right. Mr. Town administrator, the floor is yours.

[Speaker 2] (1:29:09 - 1:35:57)
Okay. I just wanted to update the board, but also the community that we continue to see additional cases with the Delta variant. It just is important for us to remember that we are still dealing with the pandemic.

We're seeing, you know, that vaccines are effective, but there may be some waning immunity. So individuals are receiving booster shots and we want to make sure that folks have masks. And if you're in a area where you can't get separation, we encourage folks to wear previously.

I've discussed our solid waste contract with the board. I've sent a revised proposal, but it's my hope that our next meeting will engage in a discussion about recommendations for an extension for our solid waste contract. I want to welcome our new assistant town accountant.

True trying boo, trying as a recent graduate of Salem state university with degree in accounting. She also attended university and Ho Chi Minh city in Vietnam. She really has a terrific background.

And she also is joined by our new human resources, generalist and benefits coordinator, Bonnie Lavoie. Bonnie started this Monday this past week. I sent a letter at the request of our legislative delegation to our colleagues in a number of different stakeholder agencies.

I this letter really seeks funding to help us address a number of challenges we face with impacts to King's beach through infiltration and exfiltration. It's my hope that we can get a dedicated earmark with some of the American rescue plan funds. There's a specific allotment of funds that are identified in a legislative request targeting 19 communities that have high CSO.

So this is a unique opportunity for Swampskate and initial indications appear very favorable that Swampskate and other communities will be successful in getting a significant funding through ARPA. I did attend last Thursday night, a meeting that mass sport held virtually to hear an update on block two recommendations that ultimately are going to lead to additional flight patterns over Swampskate. If this goes through, we have serious concerns about, you know, the impact of public health and the impact on noise and on Swampskate.

We have until October 4th to share our concerns with mass port. I reached out to the chair of the community advisory committee last week, had a conversation about, you know, giving disaffected communities more time to really study and understand the impact. I was really bothered with the lack of, of focus on public health and the lack of any conversation really about the public health impact to communities like Swampskate that will be seeing more air traffic over the next few days.

I'll continue to reach out and work with other disaffected communities in Hunt and Winthrop to really broaden our advocacy. We have installed traffic signals that we discussed previously. We have a strobe up at the intersection of Blaney street and pleasant street and the DPW has also installed a rapid flashing beacon on Hunt and Winthrop street in Palm Rab.

We have additional beacons to install over the next few weeks and we will continue to make investments for pedestrian safety. This past week I signed off on a scope of work for design and engineering services to evaluate the widening and resilient CNC improvement for the pier. We have a meeting this Friday to talk about our critical path for the project, but I've given the board a copy of the scope and certainly would welcome any involvement by members of the board.

We have a request for our cultural council grants. Our cultural committee would like individuals to submit applications for funding for arts, humanities and projects that would benefit Swampskate. Any group that really has a great idea about how to really bring culture or humanities to Swampskate are encouraged to apply.

The deadline is October 15th. You can visit our town homepage for more information. We have a senior center art exhibit on October 3rd through the end of November.

This is a great opportunity to go down and see the art that our seniors are working on Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. We have a retirement party for Alice Devoe who is retiring after 38 years of dedicated service to Swampskate. This was rescheduled this Friday, October 1st from 1 to 3 30 p.m. Alice has been a wonderful part of Swampskate and will leave an indelible legacy. I look forward to seeing Alice as a number of our town colleagues that have retired recently, but certainly I don't expect that we'll miss her too much because she lives close enough to Swampskate that we'll likely see her all the time.

But if folks want to come by and say congratulations to Alice, please come by town hall or the library. Lastly, there are many opportunities for our residents to vote in our October 19th election, but you must register by tomorrow, September 29th, if you expect to fulfill your duty to this democracy. So please come down and make sure you're registered.

[Speaker 1] (1:35:59 - 1:36:48)
Thanks, Sean. On the pedestrian safety, I appreciate the beacons getting up. I would ask that do as Gino said, which is be thoughtful about our location of them and make sure that they aren't in proximity to something else that blocks them from a certain direction.

And take a look at the ones that are up, for example, and use those maybe as test case to say, is there something that decreases the visibility of them because there's a telephone pole or something else that's in close proximity? I understand that they need to be near the sidewalk, so they're used. And, and so I don't know the solution on things, but let's, let's make sure they're being put up day one in the, in the right locations.

Okay. Thanks. Other questions, comments for the time minister.

All right. Select board time.

[Speaker 10] (1:36:49 - 1:37:01)
I just have one thing I'd like to congratulate the swamps, got girls field hockey team on their one nil thumping of the marble head magicians do in part to stellar goalie work. I will throw that one in there.

[Speaker 2] (1:37:04 - 1:37:06)
Always nice to beat the magicians.

[Speaker 1] (1:37:07 - 1:37:11)
Indeed. Other comments?

[Speaker 7] (1:37:11 - 1:37:12)
No.

[Speaker 1] (1:37:12 - 1:43:12)
All right. I just have one thing tonight in the mail. Many swamps got residents receive some material regarding the new school.

And over the next several weeks, we're going to have a healthy debate as a community about the new school and the future of, of school buildings in Swampscott. And it's a really important dialogue. And I encourage everyone, those for the schools, those against this proposal, and those that are learning about the proposals to participate.

So I'm Scott's a really smart community. So we're going to have this debate with accurate information and the proposal should win or lose based on accurate information. And so I'm going to use my prerogative and select board time to make clear a couple of things.

And I intend to use every time I have a microphone to make sure that correct information is being inserted into the public domain for discussion about the school. I appreciate the passion for which the group that is opposing the school is sending out information and their feelings about it. And I, we don't know who they are.

We just know that it comes from a Laurel have address near the school. And we understand the traffic concerns could be a concern from them. We understand and we don't diminish just because they live in proximity to the school does not mean that they don't have genuine concern about our children and about our education in our town.

We all, even though we may not agree, I may not agree with their position. I do respect their right to have the position and I do respect their concern for children and for education in our town. But like I said, I'm going to use every opportunity I have to make sure that we have this debate with public information in the material sent tonight.

It cites the town as the source of information that residents taxes are going to go up by 35%. This is incorrect. This group has consistently, whether it's an emails to town meeting members on solicited emails to residents or in mailers cited a document that the town administrator created in 2018, which is a 10 year budget projection, which under our charter, our town administrator has to produce.

And that budget production was about if we didn't make structural changes to the way in which we spent money and to our revenue, what would be our tax picture in that situation? And that showed over a 10 year period that taxes would go up by 3% per year compound interest rules will tell you that gets to roughly 35% in 10 years, but that 35% is if taxes went up by 3% per year. And if the town didn't do anything, what information is not being provided is as follows.

The actual results from fiscal year 18, the actual results from fiscal year 19, the actual results from fiscal year 20, the actual results from fiscal year 21 and the approved budget for fiscal year 22, all of which show significantly better performance thereby negating anything further for the remainder of the term in terms of tax increases. Furthermore, the information that's being distributed makes it seem as though the school will cost taxpayers 35% more in taxes. That is incorrect.

Going back over almost 18 years ago, the finance committee, the select board capital improvement committees, the town's outside bond consultant and the town financial team has reviewed every single option reviewed by the school building committee and ultimately recommended the current proposal is the most financially prudent option for Swampscott in the highest year. In the highest year, the school will cost the median taxpayer not more than $300 in the highest year starting in fiscal year 35. That amount drops down to $215 again in the highest year, it's $300 as the highest amount for the median single family reducing down to $215 in fiscal year 35.

Secondly, the mailer that went out tonight said the operational costs for the schools are going to go up by 11%. That is incorrect. The school department has provided information to the finance committee relative to increase cost.

Correct. Cost will go up. The information provided by the school department to the finance committee and others reflects roughly a 1% increase and that includes not only increases in utilities because for the first time we're going to have schools with proper utilities, HVAC, proper heating controls, actually more than two outlets per room so that people can actually charge their technology.

It also includes increased busing, something that the school department has committed to as well. Third and last for tonight is it cites that, and we heard this again at town meeting and when a resident got up and said, I haven't actually done the calculations, but by my rough math, it looks like there's only going to be three quarters of an acre of open space with the new school. Well, I appreciate that resident at town meeting acknowledging that they didn't actually do the calculations that they actually didn't know.

But funny thing. And when you say things that it shows up in other things tonight, it showed up in the article saying the new school is only going to have 0.75 acres of open space. That is incorrect.

It has based on actual calculations from the design team. If anyone had cared to ask over three acres of outdoor space, plus obviously the 7.3 acres of Ewing woods, which is a remarkable outdoor natural classroom and opportunity for our students to enjoy. So I appreciate you all indulging me to let share this.

I intend to use every opportunity as I said, to make sure facts are correct. And we have a debate just on the facts. Everybody is allowed to have their own opinions.

They are not allowed to have their own facts with that. Anything more for tonight? All right.

Not bad for starting later than usual. You sure you don't want to make a public acknowledgement about that or anything like an attaboy.

[Speaker 7] (1:43:12 - 1:43:14)
Just a thank you. Thank you.

[Speaker 1] (1:43:14 - 1:43:25)
And a motion to adjourn and motion to adjourn. All right. Is there a second?

Second. All right. All those in favor.

Hi. Thanks everyone. Have a good night.

Thanks. Hold on one second.