[Speaker 4] (0:18 - 1:02)
Welcome to the Wednesday, August 16th, 2023 Select Board Meeting. Four of us are here, and Doug Thompson will be joining us virtually. As always, this meeting is being recorded, and if everyone would join me for the pledge.

And Sean, we're going to get started and jump right into the County Administrative Report.

[Speaker 1] (1:09 - 14:04)
Thanks, David. It has been a busy week. Just wanted to start with an update on Kings Beach.

As we've discussed a few times this summer, we've had a number of meetings with DEP staff as an offshoot of a meeting with Undersecretary Cooper and members of her staff, including the United States EPA. And we've discussed the feasibility study that we put together that had a number of different options for how we can address the bacteria and impairments to Kings Beach. In these conversations, the staff from DEP did stress that they were more inclined to support an outfall pipe.

They talked about the cost associated with the ongoing operational maintenance of a UV system. Both the town of Slomskut and the city of Lynn and a number of stakeholders that are part of a team that we pulled together over a year ago really have worked hard to come up with a timely mitigation of the impairments to Kings Beach. And we feel strongly that over the next 24 to 36 months, we should be able to implement a remediation.

And the ultraviolet light system seems to really meet that timeline. Mayor Nicholson was very concerned that we would trade off a ultraviolet treatment plant timeline for an outfall pipe timeline that would be double, perhaps even triple the length of permitting time. And so we've made it clear that we certainly expect that the permitting for an outfall pipe be expedited to meet that same 24 to 36 month timeline.

I anticipate that a letter will be sent from the stakeholder group to Undersecretary Cooper along with a number of agency heads really seeking the expedited permitting for the outfall pipe concurrently with our interest in really moving forward with a test or trial scope of work for the UV system. That said, I believe that we have had some of the most important and some of the most formative conversations around multi-agency focus on efforts to address the impairments to Kings Beach. Last week, I participated in a walkthrough of the property at 10 New Ocean Street and 12 to 24 Pine Street with Assistant Town Administrator Pete Kane.

Tomorrow, I'll be meeting with General Bennett, the Undersecretary of Veterans Affairs, and a number of staff to really look at ways that we can involve the VA and the Department of Veteran Services. Last week, I had a wonderful opportunity to attend the Senior Center Luau. I really want to thank the staff.

We seem to have any number of great programs. I've suggested to the Police Chief and Fire Chief that we get Hawaiian shirts to both departments and perhaps have them attend as well. Marzee, Galaska, and our Community and Economic Development Department are working very closely with our Police Department on a walking to school event tentatively scheduled for October 4th.

Marzee and the Planning Board are starting discussions and design guidelines for Vinnin Square zoning and are hosting a public meeting on August 29th at Swampskate High School. Times will be announced shortly. Again, this goes into a number of conversations that we've had recently about really the vision for Vinnin Square and efforts to really drive the economic development of Swampskate's commercial development properties.

The Police Department is gearing up for our transition to back to school. Chief Cassata is here tonight to talk a little bit about that. We are working with social media and looking at recording a few spots on social media just to ensure that we have that program to help our youth stay safe as they walk to school.

There's a number of robocalls and notifications that will be going out as well, so encourage folks to sign up at swampskatema.gov backslash subscribe if you're interested in getting these robocalls or text messages. Last week I met with our Library Director and received an update on the Teen Room. It's progressing along.

A lot of folks are really excited about this and there's quite a bit of buzz. Starting on Saturday, September 9th, the Library will be expanding hours. This is a requirement to continue to receive state aid, so on Fridays they'll be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. So that's an amount of hours that hopefully will help some families and individuals just enjoy the programs and resources that we have at the Library. We have filled a number of positions over the last few weeks at the Library, but I'm pleased to report that we have a new administrative assistant over at the Fire Department, Margaret Weil. Margaret has her Master's in Social Work and has served in a number of legislative positions at the State House of Massachusetts and received the Legislative Aid of the Year Award, so she really brings quite a bit of governmental experience and I'm really looking forward to having her join the team. We are working on our end-of-the-fiscal-year reporting for FY23.

Patrick and Amy, the finance team, are already working on the FY25 Capital Improvement Plan and the budget. We have the team also looking at putting together our annual town report. We're starting a bit early because we've been looking at some best practices and really want to ensure that we continue to put together an informative budget and capital improvement plan.

I'm very pleased to announce that we have been able to promote several members of the Police and Fire Department to higher ranks. Officer Jonathan Lloyd and Detective Candace Doyle both have been acting sergeants over the last many weeks, were promoted to full-time sergeants. Fire Lieutenant Jason Lozano was promoted to captain.

Firefighter Michael LeBlanc was promoted to lieutenant. All of these individuals have really demonstrated a commitment to public safety. I believe that they will serve Swampskate extraordinarily well and they've worked hard to take tests and really make their way through a very competitive process.

DPW has been busy, as always. They've completed Phase 2 of over $1 million worth of paving projects and they've been raking Kings Beach every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. We did get out after the combined sewer overflow events and really rake the beaches every day to ensure that we capture anything that would come out.

Gino has been meeting with MassDOT. In fact, he had a meeting this afternoon to synchronize the lights on the newly completed section of 1A from Whole Foods to Vinton Square. I have discussed with him, you know, seeing if we can sync these lights in Salem and in Lynn and regionally.

I find that sometimes we sync them within a community but it stops at the border and really we need to be syncing traffic regionally. I want to thank John McLaughlin and certainly a number of interns that have really spruced up town landscaping. Certainly we know that we've got some work to do at the cemetery.

I've heard a few individuals share some concerns about some of the sections of the cemetery and I've worked with Gino to ensure that we have staffing and funding to address those concerns. Really pleased to report that National Grid has provided us with an incentive of $1.6 million for the new elementary school. This much is related to Mr. Casper's good work and advocacy for being cleaner and greener. This ensures that we will have energy efficiencies for our geothermal system and really excited about the standard that this new school will have as a cleaner and greener building. Max has been busy working to ensure all of our school properties are going to be ready for the beginning of school and we did receive a $65,000 earmark from our state budget. I want to thank our legislative team, both Senator Creighton and Representative Armini, for their support in securing over $4 million in additional funding for the new school.

This was an earmark of $100 million that helped all the schools that are in the MSBA pipeline receive additional funding to ensure that their original scope of work can really move forward. I think that will be really helpful as we move forward with the school project. We are working with the Senior Center and the ANSL system and looking forward to moving forward with that project.

I just want to thank our rec department, Danielle Strauss and Jackie Camalingo, our police, fire, town hall volunteers, for just an absolutely extraordinary summer block party. We are going to come up with a better name for that event, but I've heard nothing but really positive comments about the four hours that we had celebrating a sense of place on that extraordinary roadway. A lot of great community partners, small business, creative economy, lots of really exciting ideas about how we make that program that much more successful.

I did meet with Steve Cummings, our building commissioner, to discuss the Mission C wall. We are working with state agencies and following the permanent application for a permanent repair to the wall. I expect to see something later this month.

He is watching this very closely and I will keep the board informed of the progress. Our health department is working with a Narcan training program. Town employees will be trained and would encourage select board members if they want to participate to reach out to Diane and we can include you in some of those programs.

Town clerk has been busy cleaning up the voter list and starting planning for state elections in 2024. We also are sending out notices to all boards and committees to start their annual report. It's been a busy few weeks, but that's my report.

[Speaker 4] (14:05 - 14:07)
Thanks, Sean. Any questions from the board?

[Speaker 7] (14:08 - 14:25)
I have a couple questions. On the, so it's Senator Crichton and Jenny Armini brought in 4 million for the schools and 65 for pedestrian safety. 65,000 for pedestrian safety.

[Speaker 1] (14:25 - 14:33)
That's right. You know, a little over 4 million was the allocation for the school.

[Speaker 7] (14:33 - 14:40)
That is great. And would you happen to have any idea on the senior center kitchen?

[Speaker 1] (14:43 - 14:56)
I do have somebody in the room that might have an idea about that. Max, could you join us at the microphone and provide us with the most timely update on the senior center kitchen?

[Speaker 12] (14:57 - 15:12)
Yeah, the rebid is out on the street. We actually have bids due next week, so hopefully we see good results from that rebid and we'll be moving forward with the project.

[Speaker 7] (15:13 - 15:24)
Great. And my last question is, where are we at with the police academy and candidates in that process?

[Speaker 1] (15:25 - 15:52)
You know, I had hoped to have a list, you know, this week. It still may be in the works, but I think the chief is here and he could give us an update. But chief, is that imminently on its way?

Might have to use the microphone. Joe, I'm on it. I got them.

Yep.

[Speaker 5] (15:53 - 16:09)
Good evening again. I received the background, the completed backgrounds for all our applicants that were in the queue for the second round of testing. And then I will be forwarding two recommendations to the town administrator tomorrow.

Great.

[Speaker 7] (16:10 - 16:18)
And so what is the ETA like? What's the next process after that? You have interviews?

Then there's more interviews?

[Speaker 1] (16:18 - 16:32)
Yep. Typically I will meet with the candidates with the chief. Typically it's an hour-long interview, and I will ask them a series of questions, and then the chief and I will have a conversation about what's next.

[Speaker 7] (16:33 - 16:36)
So what would an ETA be?

[Speaker 1] (16:36 - 16:53)
I can do this as soon as, you know, a day. It doesn't take long. It just is a question of scheduling individuals, making sure that they are available and the chief's available.

It doesn't take a long time after I get these recommendations.

[Speaker 7] (16:54 - 16:54)
Great.

[Speaker 5] (16:55 - 17:23)
I can, just to give you an update as well, I can let you know that September is the next physical testing to get into the next police academy. And once all candidates attend that mandatory physical test, they can then be slated for the next academy in October 6, I believe. And that's in April.

I've personally spoken with the academy director there, and they do have slots available for us.

[Speaker 6] (17:24 - 17:24)
Great.

[Speaker 4] (17:26 - 17:30)
Thank you. Any additional questions from the board?

[Speaker 6] (17:30 - 18:00)
I just have two quick things. One with the community development for the walk to school event. If you would like to reach out to the PTOs, I'm sure they'd be happy to be involved in that.

And with the police providing some social media back to school pedestrian safety awareness, sounds like skits or maybe some TikToks, if we could include some bike safety in there, that would be really great because I know there's a lot of young citizens on bicycles that way.

[Speaker 1] (18:00 - 18:37)
Both great ideas. And I think the PTOs would be great if we could have like a bike train or a walking train or different things that have safe houses, just things that really support getting more cars off the roads as we try to improve pedestrian safety going to school. PTOs would be a huge partner in that.

We'll get those bikes polished up and out.

[Speaker 5] (18:37 - 18:45)
I can go back up to the mic if that makes it easier. But we do have $10,400, $10,400 a lot.

[Speaker 1] (18:45 - 18:46)
He's coming over.

[Speaker 5] (18:52 - 19:13)
We do have $10,400 a lot specifically to bike safety training through our municipal road safety grant. So we intend to use every dollar of that. Chief, are you certified to ride the bike?

I actually fell off a bike many years ago, and I tore my rotator cuff and my posterior.

[Speaker 3] (19:14 - 19:15)
All right. Hip hop. I am not.

[Speaker 5] (19:16 - 19:18)
That's why I'm at a desk.

[Speaker 4] (19:19 - 19:26)
He walks. All right. Thanks, Sean.

Thanks, Chief. We'll move on to public comment.

[Speaker 10] (19:36 - 22:26)
Hi, folks. Mara Lau, Outlook Road, town meeting member, precinct 3. Just a few quick things.

I just wanted to comment that the newsletter is terrific. It has lots of good information, and I would just make a suggestion to see if maybe it could live on the front page, because I do think it is hard for us all to get all the good information, and that might be a good spot for some folks who are going there to kind of get some of that. And maybe if the information about Kings Beach could move.

I know that's hard to move a website. Sorry. But it's hard to see that ticker at the top.

Like, it just doesn't jump out. If it lived under the picture or if the picture were smaller, I know that's a big ask, but just a thought. When you visually look at it, at least on a computer, it just doesn't jump out to you.

So I guess we just want some of that information, I think, a little bit more front and center. I just want to also mention that when you're coming to the end of Walker Road, just before Paradise, like when you get to the windy end of the narrow section of Walker Road out towards Paradise, that experiment for the forest is kind of now creating like a block. When you come out, it's growing.

So to your left, you really have a blind spot trying to turn onto a really busy main road, and you don't see the cars as far back as you used to. So I just don't think it looks as tidy as it maybe could, which I know is probably a delicate topic. But if we could maybe just look at it from that edge, that it is kind of hard to sort of see.

I see a lot more people walking on Paradise now. So there's definitely people who are crossing in that crosswalk, and I wouldn't want anybody to get missed because you're kind of just automatically looking to the left. And then I do want to point out a couple of things.

Public comment, in my opinion, should always be held at select board meetings. And it was disappointing that it wasn't. I do understand that it was probably because people wanted to go to hear the music.

Then I think that can be stated. And I'd also like to mention that if the revising of the handbook, I think holding each other a little bit more accountable would be needed, certainly in the board and at town meeting. So if we could keep that in mind, please.

Thank you.

[Speaker 4] (22:27 - 22:48)
Thank you, Ms. Lyle. I don't see any additional comments online. So I think we can move on to new business with the traffic and pedestrian safety update.

[Speaker 3] (22:50 - 23:29)
Can I come in for a second? I just looked at the presentation we're about to hear, and I just would ask, it seems highly redundant of things that we've spent hours on already. So I just want to make sure we're just focusing on the new things.

I don't respect the way we've spent hours listening about things in this presentation. It looks to be very, very similar. And so if we just focus on what's changed since the last time we met, I think that would be helpful to do as opposed to have a rehash of conversations that we've had for some time.

So if we could attempt that, that would be helpful.

[Speaker 1] (23:29 - 25:08)
Sure. We can work expeditiously through some of the information that we've shared and get to the crux of the appropriations. We certainly could do that.

If we're ready to jump in. Diane, could you bring up the presentation? All right.

So we've had this conversation a few times, but tonight we're here really just to go over a few of the changes that we've discussed with how we're moving forward with pedestrian safety. Both Chief Cassata and Chief Archer, along with our Assistant Town Administrator and DPW Director, Gina Cresta, and our Community and Economic Development Director, Margie Golaska, and our Assistant Town Administrator, Pete Kane, have all worked to really look at ways that we can help improve institutionally pedestrian safety. So next slide, Diane.

I'm going to turn it over to Chief Cassata. He's just going to quickly step through a few of these slides, and we'll get into the capital improvements that we're going to be making.

[Speaker 5] (25:09 - 30:34)
Sure. And, Peter, I completely agree with you. We keep talking about this subject and this topic, and I think that it's important to, although I'm here as the police chief, I'm here as only part of the team.

When you look at the part of the team, when you look at everybody who comprises the team, you have over 150 years of experience who are talking about the same thing that we've been talking about for over 20 years in this town, is speeding, traffic congestion, parking enforcement, lack of parking enforcement. There's nothing new that this has been going on for many, many years, and what we are here to tell you today is to give you, to provide with your input, looking for your input, getting the input from our community, the three pillars of what we believe are important in addressing traffic safety in our town. So next slide, please.

We understand that traffic safety, traffic enforcement alone, is not the panacea to reducing fatal accidents, to reducing traffic collisions, absolutely not. And so if you can move to the next slide, Diane. What we are looking at are the three pillars of pedestrian safety.

We're looking at how we can increase our education to our students, to our community, to our senior center, to everybody in town, so that everybody feels safe. I think I've only been here a year and a half, and I can tell you, as the police chief, I have heard nothing but issues and challenges about traffic and traffic safety. Our community does not feel safe crossing the street.

They do not feel safe walking down the sidewalk. And so that is a major issue for us as the police department, for me as the police chief, for us as a team to come together and talk about this. And so that's why I'm not here today to talk about enforcement, because the enforcement wing goes so far.

And that really, truly, I think in 2022 we had one fatal collision. I'm sorry, two fatal collisions. That is too, too many.

And so we don't, this is exactly what we're here for tonight. We are here to gain your input, to gain your perspective and your insight, as well as listen to the community. I've heard countless individuals, I've spoken to countless individuals about they do not feel safe walking down Humphrey Street.

And I, as the police chief, we, as our team, have to do something about that. Whether it's perception or not, that's why we're here tonight. And it's not to rehash everything that's already been talked about.

So, can you move to the next slide? Sorry. In terms of education, we've done several things.

And I'm not going to rehash everything that we've done. But when you look at, I just spoke about our municipal road safety grant that the police department is working on. That is $30,000 a year of added safety measures that we can institute, whether it be OUI enforcement, whether it be crosswalk safety, whether it be bicycle and helmet safety.

That is important to us. One thing I didn't mention is seatbelt enforcement. So, in the three years, we've been awarded $76,000 for this grant.

And we put it to good use, and we expend every dollar of it every year. Last year, in total, we had ten officers. We have ten officers in our police department who are advanced level certified for drug enforcement and alcohol impairment.

So, that is, the acronym is A-RIDE. It's Advanced Level Certification for both. We are also, our Officer Wilson and members of our traffic safety committee within the police department have been working with the schools in terms of instituting a mock OUI like we did a few years ago.

I think that was stopped during the pandemic. Next slide. Again, Officer Wilson is working with the high school video club to complete a PSA regarding pedestrian lights, the safe use of crosswalks, and crossing at locations where crossing guards are located.

We've continued to use our seven speed boards. Now, speed boards are just a calming safety device, but it gives our motorists and our pedestrians real-time information into who is violating speed limits. And we are able to use and analyze that data as well.

We've also been working with DPW and our team to address signage and crosswalk markings, which Dino can elaborate on in just a bit.

[Speaker 11] (30:38 - 31:22)
Just going to rehash a little bit of this. We've made some incremental changes around town. Most of you are aware of what we've done.

I think probably the most important one is the rapid flashing beacons, temporary speed bumps that were put out there. We're hoping to continue to put some more speed bumps out there to get some more positive data on where we're going to put the permanent speed bumps. I say bumps, but as Pete likes to refer to, they're elements.

We're going to be working with the beta group to figure out what exactly we want to install there, whether it's a speed pillow, a speed table, a speed hump, a speed bump. They're going to give us that information. We've recently signed a contract with them, and they're also going to let us know how we should be spacing these because they do this on a regular basis.

[Speaker 5] (31:26 - 33:31)
In terms of some data, last year we had 133 as a town. We had 133 reportable motor vehicle accidents. The year before that, we had 166.

Now, that's only an indicator of our traffic collisions and reportable motor vehicle accidents. That is a 20 percent decrease, but it doesn't change the perception of safety in our town. And I won't go over or rehash any numbers of statistics that the police department has enforced.

So what we plan to do, currently we have worked with professors from universities to bring together a software program that analyzes traffic data. It focuses on risky, it's called risk terrain modeling, and it focuses on risky places. So it takes data, and it also included in that data is the calls for service, any traffic collisions in the area, any citations given.

And what it does is it provides an algorithm for us to think outside the box. Maybe in the morning, people are trying to get to the coffee shop from location A to location B. That's not something that we might think about as police officers, but it gives us, it'll give us an idea of maybe we need to change the habits of our motorists, of our pedestrians.

And that is truly part of the education pillar that we intend to hit, as well as enforcement. And it's a way to ensure that we are able to track this data so that we can come back as a core team and let the select board know and let the public know this is what we have found. And so that is just some of the things that we've started in the police department itself.

I'll let Gino talk a little bit more about the infrastructure.

[Speaker 11] (33:36 - 34:07)
Not to repeat myself, but as we just said, we're going to be working with the beta group. Signed a contract with them recently, and once we find the preferred locations, they're going to come out and give us much more data on, as I said, pillows, humps, tables, and the distance we should be spacing these. But they're going to rely on us, police department, myself.

We're going to tell them the locations where we believe these should go, and then they'll figure out the engineering part of it for us.

[Speaker 9] (34:16 - 37:37)
Diane, can you advance one more? One more. And that one, Gino just went over, so one more.

So what are the next steps in the schedule timeline? Really understand what's going to happen now. So with the information that we're going to be getting from the beta group, they're going to be determining those locations where different traffic calming measures can be used.

As Gino mentioned, that engineering information has to determine, based on the dimensions and the use of each road, and the type of traffic that's on that road, it will determine what type of calming measure, whether that's going to be a speed hump, or maybe it's a chicane, or some other type of infrastructure change. It may not be a speed table. It may be something else.

A lot of things have to go into the determination as to what type of calming measure and where it's located. That's based on intersections, vehicles, or whatnot. That information's being pulled together by beta right now.

Those concept plans are expected by late August, early September, at which point we will then internally review and provide some updates to the select board as well. We'll then get final plans with cost estimates and bid documents put together for late September. That will then result in bringing the information to the board if any needs are needed for you to vote on such measures that we need to make.

With your approval on those items, we can then go out to notice to proceed and award those construction in late October with construction weather permitting in mid-November. Then if we can skip this one and go to the last one. There we go.

Overall, the main concept of how we're going to move forward is the group is finalizing a traffic calming policy, which will help to identify what the policy is whenever a need is determined or a belief that some type of action is necessary. We have a policy that's being put together that the board will be asked to review and approve. That calming policy will determine what elements or what triggers will then require the town to investigate whether or not there is a traffic issue, a speeding issue, and then how we go about making determinations and evaluations as to what actions need to happen, such as collecting additional data from speed boards, traffic counts, enforcement data, based on the requests.

Then the evaluation, temporary measures could always be put into effect. Engineering assessments can be done. Recommendations can be made to the town administrator as well as to the select board.

Then whenever a situation calls for permanent installation, we can then do the permanent installation. But the idea is to finalize this policy so that there's a clear process put into place that the board is aware of, that the staff is aware of, and that the community is aware of how we will go about any future needs.

[Speaker 1] (37:41 - 39:22)
I think the other important thing to really just get across is that we're moving beyond an institutional focus on enforcement and an incremental approach to pedestrian safety. We've got a commitment, not just as a town administration, but from a police department, from a fire department, from a DPW, and general government that we are going to ensure every year we have a capital plan that supports pedestrian safety, that it's not going to be a one-and-done approach. This is going to involve, when we look at our annual paving program, it's going to have a focus of public safety.

We're going to look at if we're going to spend a million dollars on roadway improvements, a function of that investment will be to support pedestrian safety. The chief has talked a little bit about these self-regulating or self-policing roadways. When we put a speed table or a speed element down, that helps us redirect our public safety resources in ways that can strategically ensure we meet broader demands.

We are going to ensure that these roadway investments continue to strategically and wisely support our fiduciary responsibilities but also our strongest commitment to pedestrian and public safety.

[Speaker 4] (39:24 - 39:36)
Sean, a quick question. What kind of grants are available for these measures? There's a myriad of grants.

[Speaker 1] (39:36 - 41:31)
There are grants that come out through the Department of Public Safety. I just emailed the chief today a grant that could be used for school safety. But we've talked previously, a couple of years ago, we actually got a grant for Walker Road.

So we got a complete streets grant, hundreds of thousands of dollars. We have a complete street prioritization plan. We had a town planner years ago that worked on that.

But there are over 50 projects in the complete street program that we can apply for that can help us take some of these dollars and continue to maximize some of these investments. DOT has a lot of annual grant programs. But I think the biggest program is Chapter 90.

That's a big grant that we can depend on every year that we get to help support paving. And if we can roll that into a broader conversation around pedestrian safety and infrastructure safety that's driven by our two public safety functions, police and fire, I think will institutionalize how we ensure a town that's among the most densely settled in the Commonwealth, that is among the most desirable communities to live in, that's only become more densely populated, only more complicated in terms of risk to pedestrian safety, that we actually meet that with annual investments that help us balance those responsibilities.

[Speaker 4] (41:32 - 41:38)
Thanks, Sean. We have a question from Doug who's online. So, Doug, go ahead.

[Speaker 2] (41:38 - 41:39)
Can you all hear me?

[Speaker 4] (41:39 - 41:44)
Yes, we can. Great. First of all, apologies for not being able to hear you.

Now we can.

[Speaker 6] (41:44 - 41:45)
Now we can. Hold on.

[Speaker 4] (41:46 - 41:54)
Hold. Try again.

[Speaker 2] (41:55 - 42:06)
Can you hear me now? Yes. All right.

So, I said, first of all, my apologies for not being there in person. Is there an echo?

[Speaker 6] (42:07 - 42:08)
Not for us.

[Speaker 2] (42:09 - 42:43)
Okay, great. I just wanted to really applaud the multifaceted team approach here. So many of you, Sean and the whole team, that have kind of put in all the work to put together this proposal.

Clearly, it seems you're working with urgency, but carefully, and engaging with a lot of kind of, you know, it seems best practices moving forward. So, just, you know, pleased to see the progress and looking forward to the next steps.

[Speaker 4] (42:46 - 42:47)
Thanks, Doug.

[Speaker 6] (42:48 - 43:03)
So, the first comment I have is, where does the Traffic Advisory Committee fit into all of this? Because I know they sort of recently disbanded. We have vacancies on the Traffic Advisory Committee now, so.

[Speaker 9] (43:05 - 43:10)
It does not have a full body, so it doesn't have quorum at this point.

[Speaker 6] (43:11 - 43:20)
So, would the policy that you're talking about implementing, would it be in lieu of the Traffic Advisory Committee, or it would run in parallel?

[Speaker 9] (43:21 - 43:39)
It depends. So, the policy can be crafted in a way so that the Traffic Study Committee is the one that reviews it, and if that committee does not exist, then it would identify the departments that would review those requests. So, you can switch it.

It depends on how the Select Board wants to move forward with that committee.

[Speaker 1] (43:40 - 46:40)
Okay. Katie, I'd just add, ideally we'd have a Traffic Advisory Committee that would be well-heeled and would help us be a sounding board for a number of the traffic-related concerns. In the absence of that, we have professional staff that can help support recommendations to the Select Board.

The Select Board is the regulatory board that is responsible for the roads, and so we have to work together. I think in the absence of that committee, though, the issues and the risks and the public safety responsibilities still affect the quality of life for the residents, and so what we've decided is that we're going to develop a policy that is going to help us advance these responsibilities with or without a committee. Ideally, though, we'd like to re-establish that committee because we need the help.

We've talked about these temporary speed elements going along roadways to our schools, and we want our police officers and even our firefighters to get out into the neighborhoods and talk to the residents about where these are located, how they're going to be established temporarily and permanently, and helping to get the feedback from these neighborhoods. It's going to be really important for us to hear from neighbors about investments that are going to ultimately help keep their streets safer but be a part of a permanent fixture, and we want to make sure that we take the time to have those conversations, and we can do that during our regular patrols. We can do that during days and times that make more sense, and really help support that education piece because when we talk about those three pillars, education, infrastructure, and enforcement, education is probably 60% to 70% of how we're going to keep Swampskip safe.

Fifteen percent is enforcement, and the smallest percent but among the most expensive is going to be that infrastructure. So what we actually wanted to come here tonight and share is we're going to get a lot better with education, and we're going to get a lot better with engagement, and we're going to get a lot better with the conversations around infrastructure. We've done a lot of the enforcement piece, and I want to thank the chief and, frankly, the department.

We do a lot of that. We do a lot of it. But we still have a lot of the problems, and we've got to figure out how to reestablish a pattern of changes that will lead us to a better outcome.

[Speaker 6] (46:40 - 47:14)
So in hearing that infrastructure is something where we feel like we have been lacking and we're sort of gaining focus towards, you brought up a town planner in years past that's helping these issues, and we don't have a town planner. So I know this is not a conversation about that, but is there any update on that you could give? Because I think they're an integral part to this conversation, and we happen to have somebody who's very helpful in that realm right now, but his job is not a town planner, and we do have that position open.

[Speaker 1] (47:14 - 48:35)
We do. We posted it, and we're receiving applicants, and I've had a few conversations with a few of our regional CEOs about their challenges with open planning positions and the thought that maybe there might be some regional opportunities. But we're still out there actively recruiting for a town planner, and so if there are folks listening that have a background in planning and want to work for Slomskit, we certainly are looking for somebody with that experience.

Unfortunately, if you look at the MMA website and you count the number of open planning positions, it's among the most prevalent positions right now where communities are looking for. It's a really difficult position to fill. These jobs are challenging, and it's difficult to work night meetings and work with a lot of demanding communities.

But that said, I think we have some extraordinary individuals, and I do think we'll move forward and fill that position. It's harder right now than it's ever been.

[Speaker 6] (48:35 - 49:22)
The last comment I have is with regards to education. I know you brought up a couple of topics that you guys want to continue to educate on. One that I didn't hear, which I would love to see some more education on, is distracted driving.

I know there's a big push, put your cell phone down and pay attention, but one of the greatest effects of the speed pillows is that you can ignore them. You have to pay attention when you're driving over them for the sake of your vehicle. So that awareness makes you forced to put your phone down and pay attention a little bit more around ways.

So just maybe a little bit more education or a push in that area.

[Speaker 5] (49:22 - 49:29)
Maybe it's happening. There is a quarterly in the Tomahawks camp. One of them is...

[Speaker 7] (49:34 - 49:43)
No, not at all. I have a couple of questions. How much time do you have to use the MRS grants?

[Speaker 5] (49:43 - 49:57)
Do they go each year? It's actually doing it right now.

[Speaker 7] (49:59 - 50:04)
So you have about another 70 days to use up all the money that you have there?

[Speaker 5] (50:05 - 50:28)
We've already been next year. So we've continued. It makes it very simple for us in that we just update our statistics for the MRS grant, and fortunately for us, Lieutenant Hennessey has continued this for the past three years.

[Speaker 7] (50:28 - 51:29)
Great. So on the speed pillows, tables, whatever you want to call them, I know when there was a temporary one on Pine Street, there was a number of neighbors that were very concerned that it was damaging their home, that every time somebody went over. I'm just hoping with these new things that that's taken into consideration because I'd hate to see people having to deal with their homes being damaged.

So I'm hoping to do that. And then the last thing is I'm not really sold on education and the warm and fuzzy stuff. I have to be honest that I really feel like one great mechanism to getting people to slow down is to pull them over, give them a warning, and if you're handing out multiple warnings, then maybe you can give them a ticket.

And I'd like to know, do you have information? Like can we get information on really how many tickets are written or warnings are written month after month, and how does that compare to last year?

[Speaker 5] (51:30 - 52:00)
I do have the statistics. In 2021, there was 1,211 citations issued. In 2022, there was 1,453 citations issued.

So part of why I said we continue to enforce, we continue selective enforcement, but it still doesn't seem to be working. It's been the same streets, Humphreys, Paradise, Essex.

[Speaker 7] (52:00 - 52:00)
Cureton.

[Speaker 5] (52:01 - 54:03)
Cureton. So it is the same streets that keep coming up, that regardless of enforcement, it's not changing behavior. And so that's why we're looking at other avenues.

When you look at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, it gives several pillars of enforcement. So for us, education, infrastructure, and enforcement have been the three, we've identified as the three biggest topics that that's something that we can address with more of a laser precision focus in that now we try to do as much education as possible, but we really have been lacking in that area. So I think that if the community is informed, that will go a long way.

Again, we don't know until we get the data. Like I said earlier, the traffic collisions, when you look up regionally, we are one of the worst states in the country for traffic congestion, for traffic collisions. In looking up the data, I don't want to throw Chumsford under the bus, but I'll throw Chumsford under the bus in that we're not even close to, so when I try to put a foundation, I try to put it into perspective.

I still live in the area. I don't want my kids to get hit by a car because somebody is speeding. But this is a regional issue.

It's not just a Swampscot issue. We are doing everything that we can. And then with your suggestions, if you say I really would like the police department, the Corps team to focus on a certain area, by all means.

We're not going to fix this tomorrow, but what we're saying is we're willing to try new things to address how can we decrease traffic collisions, traffic speeding, and how can we increase community safety.

[Speaker 7] (54:04 - 54:27)
My last question is vendors on Humphrey Street have been complaining for years that there's never any ticketing on Humphrey Street, that people get to park there and they're there for the entire afternoon, which reduces their ability to have consumers coming in and having some rotation on the available parking.

[Speaker 5] (54:29 - 55:11)
I would say that's not always true. I do see in one day 15 tickets were issued on Humphrey Street on a Sunday. I have seen that.

Now, again, the parking issues are occurring throughout the days. That's one of the things. How can we be effective and efficient in citing violators on Humphrey Street?

So if they say there's no parking citations being issued, I would negate that. I think that's – and I can provide further statistics on that, but that is not true because I've seen it myself.

[Speaker 7] (55:12 - 55:14)
Yeah, I would like to see statistics on that.

[Speaker 5] (55:15 - 55:15)
Sure.

[Speaker 7] (55:16 - 55:17)
Thank you.

[Speaker 5] (55:17 - 55:19)
Thank you. Okay.

[Speaker 4] (55:21 - 55:35)
All right. Thank you, Chita. Thank you, Gino, Sean, Pete.

Appreciate the update. We're going to move on, discussion and presentation on the Community Preservation Act.

[Speaker 1] (55:36 - 58:24)
Sean, I think you have a slide deck. I do. Tanya, could you pull that up?

Thank you, Chita. So, really happy to provide the board, but the Town of Swampscape with an update on the Community Preservation Act. I know the town has discussed this previously.

First time that I worked on the Community Preservation Act was in 2001, the year after it started. And I was working with the City of Peabody, and Peabody was one of the first communities in Massachusetts to adopt the Community Preservation Act, and they've gone on to work on numerous projects that have supported open space and affordable housing and historical preservation. So, really hopeful that Swampscape could stop sending money to the state in support of this program, but actually start getting some of it back.

Next slide, Tanya. For the folks that don't know about the Community Preservation Act, really it's a smart growth tool. This is about planning.

It really helps communities move forward with projects that are just so difficult to get funding for, whether it's open space, historical preservation, or recreational support. When we think about all the must-do's in local government, supporting our schools, supporting health care, public safety, these three priorities always fall back, and they define our quality of life more than most things. These programs support our local and state economies, they support our public health, they support our mental health, our tourism, and the best thing about this is it's just a small amount of money that is matched with a significant state grant.

And so, communities have to adopt in, and it's important that Swampscape just really understand what's at stake. Next slide. Cities and towns can adopt the Community Preservation Act, and we can adopt a surcharge of up to 3% on our local real estate for every residential property, and we'd receive matching funds at different rates from a statewide community preservation trust fund.

Only communities that have adopted this are going to be eligible for this. So next slide.

[Speaker 4] (58:24 - 58:28)
So that means that we've been contributing but haven't been receiving.

[Speaker 1] (58:28 - 1:02:46)
We've been paying every one of the communities that have adopted the Community Preservation Act, and Swampscape's really generous like that, but I do think we have a few priorities that we could use these dollars for. So, these funds, just to give you an example, community preservation, we cannot charge more than 3%. That's the law.

So, if we had a home, I'm sorry, that was valued at $380,000, we'd subtract the first $100,000 in residential property value, assuming that we would actually adopt that standard that's a popular exemption. And so, the homeowner's net value would be surcharged equal to $280,000. You'd apply that to the tax rate, you know, if we had a tax rate of $11.47 per thousand, the amount of the surcharge would be about $3,200. So, with a 1.5% surcharge applied, the surcharge for a homeowner would be approximately $45 a year. The most it would be would be $90 if we went to 3%. And again, for me, you know, this is a small amount of investment that can leverage these three buckets that we so desperately need funding for.

Next slide. So, when we think about just the history, you know, I had mentioned, you know, this has been established, the Community Preservation Trust Fund was established in 2000 by Paul Salucci. It has provided so many projects throughout the Commonwealth.

These are revenues that are collected. It guarantees that communities that are in this Community Preservation Trust Fund have incentives for all of the projects. Next slide.

Again, this is about planning. It's smart growth. It helps us with, you know, all of the key priorities that we are always literally just looking for a couple of dollars to make happen.

Oftentimes, you just need a few dollars to, you know, really work with other grants and other programs. Next slide. Under the Community, you know, Preservation Act, we can issue bonds.

We can look at other revenue streams to fund larger projects where CPA funds are not currently available. We can authorize CPA, you know, funds in Section 11 of the Community Preservation Act, which states, CPA communities may issue general obligation bonds in anticipation of money raised through this CPA surcharge. Again, these are really, you know, important financial tools that, you know, can help support, you know, the preservation of our history, the preservation of our identity as a community.

Next slide. This is a draft of a simple motion and article for town meeting. You know, I do think it's important for us to really think about the particular thresholds, but I didn't want to get into that level of conversation tonight with the board.

I just wanted to say, hey, look, you know, we're on a precipice. We've, over the last few years, we've acquired open space. We've, you know, we're attempting to preserve historic properties, and we're doing it all without the most important grant funding in the Commonwealth.

It just seems as though we're missing a huge opportunity, and I would hate to see Swampskate continue to miss that opportunity. There's too many extraordinary projects regionally that have been supported by the Community Preservation Act, and we're losing out.

[Speaker 4] (1:02:48 - 1:02:52)
And Sean, we're also doing affordable housing, too, so that's one of the pillars.

[Speaker 1] (1:02:52 - 1:07:31)
We're going to do more of it. We're going to do more of this. We're not going to do less of it.

We neglected each of these three buckets for decades. For decades, we ignored some of these most important responsibilities, and I get a sense acquiring some of the oceanfront property, building affordable housing, not just for our veterans but for all of our citizens. You know, we're all getting older.

We're all going to need, you know, some other housing options that will be affordable. Like we've got to get busy kind of working on these projects, and if we don't have these funds, it's going to be that much more challenging. Next slide.

So, again, we've got to assess these funds I mentioned earlier. You know, we can leverage. You know, once a community gets Community Preservation Act funding, you know, there are any number of other grants, other programs that you can connect these dollars to.

Sometimes it just takes a little bit of funding to begin the effort to, you know, support affordable housing, support open space, to put the grant application together, to put, you know, programs together, and this certainly would help us with that. Next slide. Again, you know, it's a primary source of funds.

Communities that have community preservation committees have committees that are focused annually on assessing community preservation needs of the town. They solicit input from every one of the boards and committees. They hold annual public hearings to solicit public input and proposals.

They submit recommendations annually to the town administrator and select board. They prepare annual community preservation plans that are updated annually, prepare applications and materials, and set deadlines. They submit funding recommendations to the select board, and the town administrator will involve all departments and nonprofit agencies.

So these are really, you know, extraordinary committees. Next slide. These are just the facts.

When you look at, you know, five simple facts about the CPA as of May of 23, 195 cities and towns out of 351, 195. So we're actually known as a community that leads on so many levels, but we're dragging the rear end of the Commonwealth. Like, we are literally a lagging community.

And to me, that's no place for Swampskate. People look to Swampskate as a community that supports ideals and best practices, and 195 other municipalities in the Commonwealth have signed up, and we're in a race to the bottom, and that's not where we want to be. When we look at $3.15 billion worth of funding that has been raised statewide for community preservation, for these three buckets, billions of dollars, you know, we've preserved 34,000 acres of open space, 3,300 outdoor recreation projects have been funded, 10,000 units of housing, 16,000 units of housing supported, 6,700 historic preservation projects. There's got to be a few projects here at the Swampskate. There's got to be. Next slide.

You know, this is just a summary. 195 communities, again, 35 cities, 160 are towns, 70% of Massachusetts residents live within the CPA community, $3.1 million, billion dollars, 15,000 projects supported, 10,000 affordable housing units have been created, 16,000 units are supported, 34,000 of open space, 6,700 appropriations have been made for historic preservation, 3,300 outdoor recreation projects, and zero, absolutely zero, for this extraordinary town.

[Speaker 6] (1:07:32 - 1:07:39)
Sean, can you explain the relationship with the history of the CPA and Swampskate and why we have it, why this is coming to us now?

[Speaker 1] (1:07:40 - 1:09:38)
Yeah, I actually can't other than to give you kind of a hip pocket, you know, from what I've heard, is just a few years ago, I think there was a concern that Swampskate was unable to put together the financial discipline to move forward with a new elementary school. We had a number of concerns that, you know, our annual tax rate continued to escalate at that 2.5% every year, 2.5%, and we were at the absolute razor edge of a 2.5 override for years, and so I think there was a culture in Swampskate that said, we're taxing at the absolute max. Now, over the last, you know, seven years, we've actually implemented so many financial disciplinary steps.

You know, our finance committee, you know, worked very closely with the select board to put in financial policies. We've kept our taxes well below the 2.5 levy capacity. We have a financial policy that says the town administrator cannot present a budget that increases more than 2%, and so we've demonstrated financial discipline, and we've shown year after year after year that we have a commitment to protect the financial stability of the town.

I just don't think we can continue to do all these extraordinary things if we don't go out and get additional state and federal grants or state and federal funding. This is, like, one of the glaring, absolute glaring collapses in our fiduciary responsibilities. I really feel as though, you know, we need this more than just on anything if we're going to continue to do extraordinary things.

[Speaker 7] (1:09:39 - 1:10:09)
Can you, could you just send out examples of like-minded communities on the amount of money they've put away and the amount of money they've received just so that it looks a little bit more literal for people to understand and to be more, I think it's easier for people to be supportive and to vote for this if they can actually see that, for example, if they see that Linfield put away $1 million and they received X amount of dollars and it helped their community.

[Speaker 1] (1:10:09 - 1:10:42)
Sure. I do have a list of those communities, Mary Ellen. I'm happy to provide that.

We can update the presentation and just list every community that has been able to raise money and have that money matched. Salem, Peabody, you know, a lot of communities around. And when you look at just the projects, you'll know, we all know them regionally.

And they're incredible.

[Speaker 4] (1:10:45 - 1:11:09)
Any additional questions from the board? All right. Thank you, Sean.

We're going to move on to a discussion on the Pittman House, which would be something that could be potentially funded by the CPA if it were to be implemented when it is implemented in Swampskin. So for that, I'll kick it off to Nancy Schultz, Chair of the Historic Commission.

[Speaker 8] (1:11:10 - 1:15:53)
Yes. Thank you very much for having me back to talk about the Pittman House tonight. I'll be doing this presentation with Doug Thompson.

We've worked on this together. So I'll start with a little review of where we are, and Doug will pick up and talk about possible next steps. So 35 Pittman Road.

I guess we'll go to the next slide, Diane. We really see this as both an affordable housing and historic preservation opportunity. And the last time I was here, I did quote this.

Rehabilitating historic properties to provide affordable housing is a sound historic preservation strategy. This is from the Office of Housing and Urban Development. And, you know, I've been thinking a lot about the pairing of these two initiatives, which we also just heard about in the discussion on CPA, and it really has become clear to me that with the size of our town, we have a small town, don't have a lot of land, we are not going to be able to build a quota or our desired amount of affordable housing lots.

With the size town we have, we're going to run out of land. So I think that this strategy of pairing these two things, preservation and affordable housing, it really adds so much importance to the strategy of taking care of our current housing stock, whether they're something exceptionally historic, like the Samuel Klune Pittman House, or whether they're sort of an ordinary house. I think the idea of recycle, reuse is important here.

So I think it's especially important when we have historic properties such as the Pittman House. Diane, would you go to the next slide? So just to review, you know, this is the Samuel Klune Pittman was really responsible for the separation of Swampscott from Lynn.

He was an important town founder. He served as selectman and our first town moderator. He worked as the surveyor of highways for a decade and served in the Mass House of Representatives.

So he is an important piece of our local history and really integral to our town's history. And the farmhouse that we're looking at at the site, the left side on the image was built around 1800, and we also do not have many surviving houses from that period. Next slide, please.

So we have identified a desired parcel for relocation. One option that we've looked at is 7 Hillside Avenue, which is located half a mile. We have a quote from a house mover.

We have, you know, they are available in the time frame that we're looking at. I've been informed by Wynn that the demo date, they have confirmed that it is September 15th, and the housing moving company that we've engaged with is aware of that timeline and they are able to do it. The negotiations for the lot have become quite complicated, and Doug will explain possibly some of these, some of the challenges that we are up against with the lot that we are looking at and that Wolf Movers, who's our potential mover, thinks would be a suitable location for the house.

So, Doug, I don't know how Doug, we've got the screen up, but can we have Doug?

[Speaker 2] (1:15:55 - 1:15:57)
Do you want me to go take this?

[Speaker 8] (1:15:58 - 1:15:58)
Yes. Okay.

[Speaker 2] (1:15:59 - 1:20:17)
All right. Great. So we've talked about this in the past, that, you know, there are some serious challenges.

There's been a lot of work in the past. There's been an extraordinary amount of work done by Nancy and by Marcie and by Kim Martin Epstein all trying to work through this, trying to figure out a path. Right now Habitat for Humanity has an option to purchase the 7 Hillside lot.

Ideally, ultimately this might go through a friendly 40B process, but that takes way too much time given the amount of time that we have, and so Habitat's not ready to move forward with acquiring the lot at this moment. As we've kind of deeply researched the lot, there's been an enormous amount of investigation into whether or not a house can be sited at 7 Hillside right now without any zoning relief. At the end of the day right now it feels like we need to get some zoning relief.

I'm going to try to quantify whether or not it's a small amount or not, but there is a potential need for some zoning relief at that site. Of course another challenge is financial resources for the house move, for the lot acquisition, for restoration, et cetera. So on the next slide, Diane, we'll talk through what the potential next steps on this are.

Basically we're at a point of, given the time constraints, being the biggest one really threading the needle here. So in an ideal scenario, the Affordable Housing Trust next week would take up this issue, and with the draft budget that you see on the right, ideally the Affordable Housing Trust would vote to support moving forward with this project. The option that Habitat has right now would need to be transferred to the Affordable Housing Trust.

The trust would have to apply for zoning relief at the next CBA meeting, which might need to be called prior to the next scheduled one. Not next week, but one with a proper amount of notice. In a best case scenario, the zoning relief is obtained early in September, and that the process could move forward with a lot of pre-preparation for trying to move the house, preparing the sites, et cetera, in the first half to the middle of September.

So that is a lot of things that need to come together over the next 20 to 30 days in order to make this happen. So if we got to that point and the house was sited there, there would be other work that needs to happen, but there's more time to actually make those things happen, so I won't focus too much on that. Ultimately, ideally, this wouldn't just be a single-family home.

There would be a process to engage either with Habitat or other development partners to go through a friendly 40B process to develop additional units of housing there, as we've talked about in the past. So I'll pause there. I'm not going to go into detail on the budget.

People can see that. That's really more of a discussion for the Affordable Housing Trust at this point, I believe. So I'll pause there and see if Nancy wants to add anything else or if there are questions from the board.

Ultimately, I think tonight the only thing that we're looking for is to make a motion to get the board's support for this effort, both in terms of historic preservation as well as the building of affordable housing. Ultimately, of course, this is in the hands of the Affordable Housing Trust and the CDA.

[Speaker 7] (1:20:25 - 1:20:34)
I have a question. Doug, what do you mean by support? Do we think this is a great idea?

Is that what you mean by support?

[Speaker 2] (1:20:35 - 1:21:02)
Effectively, yes. There's nothing more really that I believe that the select board needs to do right now. I'm happy to take feedback and comments on that.

But ideally, a ringing unanimous endorsement from the select board for this approach would be useful, I think, hopefully, with the other parties that we need to engage with over the next three weeks.

[Speaker 6] (1:21:05 - 1:21:16)
Do we know how long the Affordable Housing Trust, it would take for them to recover these funds? How long do they think that this money would be tied up for?

[Speaker 2] (1:21:17 - 1:21:58)
That's a great question. I don't believe Kim or anyone from the Affordable Housing Trust is on right now. I think they're – I can't speak to that committee or anything.

I think the plan would be for this to be turned around in approximately a year, if not sooner. But there are a couple of different avenues, whether it's being sold back to Habitat for them to develop or another development partner, or even to be kind of a lottery for an individual, for this to be sold to an individual at a very, very affordable price. One way or another, this would be affordable housing.

[Speaker 4] (1:21:59 - 1:22:48)
Yeah, and if Habitat's doing it, it would be a for-sale project. Just one of the questions that I have is, you move the house on the Hillside Ave, what happens if for one reason or another it can't be redeveloped? You've moved the historic property onto and into another area where you need zoning relief, which you may not have eminently.

What happens then? What happens in that scenario, Doug or Nancy? And look, I'm for it.

I'm supportive of these efforts. I'm just curious as to what are the contingencies in the event that it can't be redeveloped or you run into a snag or a problem?

[Speaker 13] (1:22:48 - 1:22:52)
You mean structurally, if the building couldn't be redeveloped?

[Speaker 4] (1:22:52 - 1:23:22)
No, it's a funny real estate market right now. So what if funding couldn't be secured? I'm just curious as to what happens when you've moved this property from Pittman Road on the Hillside Ave. Right now, there's no site control. Currently, there's an idea of the exchange of site control. But I'm just curious as to whether this has been...

[Speaker 3] (1:23:22 - 1:24:26)
But I think, Mary Ellen, I think he's getting to the budget that was in Mrs. DeDougan and the Chairwoman, to correct me if I'm wrong, but the budget that's been put up there is a budget that relocates this house, but it doesn't build and create the new dwellings. Dwelling or dwellings. It just relocates and puts it right there.

Just puts it there. And then it would need a developer or somebody, whether it's the Affordable Housing Trust or another nonprofit or somebody like Habitat, to then say, yeah, we want to do it here. We're going to reimburse you all or some of the money that you've spent to date, and we're now going to do these things historically appropriate and with affordable restrictions on it.

And that component is just, it's the next logical step, but that isn't fully baked at this point. So I think that's what David, when he's mentioning this, I think he's talking about what if that second phase doesn't happen and we then just have a move structure that hasn't been rehabbed, that's sitting on a lot. So tell me if I'm wrong.

[Speaker 2] (1:24:27 - 1:25:54)
I can chime in a little bit, but certainly appreciate anyone else's perspective. I know you do a lot of this work in general, Peter, so I'm happy to take any further thoughts as well. But I think the general thinking, and unfortunately Margie wasn't able to be with us tonight.

She's done an enormous amount of work on this, is that the funding stream would be through something like home grants. Now in this scenario that we've painted here, the Affordable Housing Trust would have ownership of this house. We then would be proceeding to try to access grants.

I believe Margie felt relatively confident were available. She's had pre-conversations with people about that, nothing guaranteed. So the Affordable Housing Trust would have to engage someone, because obviously they're not going to be the GC, to kind of effectuate this development, these changes.

But that would be a potential funding source, and then there would have to be an engagement of someone to actually do the work. At a bare minimum, this house wouldn't be moved at all if we didn't have zoning to allow at least a single family home. And so at a minimum, if this goes through, you'd have a single family home accessing additional grant funding to complete the restoration, rehab of the home, and potentially then a sale either to a development partner or to an individual.

[Speaker 6] (1:25:56 - 1:26:25)
What if the ideologies at some point break? I mean, this is a lot of money, I think, for the Affordable Housing Trust to put into this project, and I just worry somewhere along the lines of David that if it becomes less financially feasible for the project to both be affordable and historically preserved, that the wills of the two entities that are now working together might divert. Does that make sense?

[Speaker 3] (1:26:26 - 1:27:30)
Yeah, I mean, it does to me. I've talked with Nancy about this, and I've talked with Doug a little bit. I love this.

I love the creativity. I love the energy that it's doing. I'm personally not going to be comfortable staying in a vote tonight just because I don't feel like I can tell the Affordable Housing Trust how to spend its money.

That's not an insignificant amount of money for the Affordable Housing Trust, and frankly, we already have a town-sponsored project where we did tell them that we want some money, and I think the cumulative amount of these two projects would be 100% of the Affordable Housing Trust's money, and I know they're very sensitive to the fact that they don't have a recurring source of funds, and so they're a freestanding trust that gets to decide how to spend their money, and so I'm reticent.

I only know what I know here. I'd just be reticent to have them misconstrue my support as saying I've thought through more than surface-level support. Yeah, this is a good ideal.

I don't know if that makes it a good financial decision for the Affordable Housing Trust. That's something the Affordable Housing Trust really, and I personally would want to stay out of that discussion.

[Speaker 6] (1:27:32 - 1:28:18)
Yeah, I think that's where sort of the thorn in my side is about this conversation too. It's not that the project isn't worthy of the funds. It's just I don't know if I have enough information or want to say I support the project in a way that then the Affordable Housing Trust goes and spends their money and then comes back and has an issue that they can't get it back or that they divert from historic preservation because they would like to see their money back, and now they're stuck between a rock and a hard place.

That doesn't mean I don't support the ideas that are trying to be done here and the creativity, as Peter said, that's trying to be initiated here. I just don't know that it's our place.

[Speaker 4] (1:28:21 - 1:29:37)
Yeah, I mean, I support this wholeheartedly. I've worked on this. We've had discussions for, what, well over a year with a small working group as to how we could preserve historic structures and how we can create affordable housing.

I think the challenge is the Affordable Housing Trust is the keeper of those funds. Those funds currently are nonrecurring. Currently, if we are to implement a CPA, it's a little bit of a different story.

So I'm supportive, but I'm not going to tell the Affordable Housing Trust how to allocate their funds. All I am going to say is I'm supportive of the project and I'm supportive of putting a structure in place within the town of Swampskate that allows recurring funds to flow through to be able to support projects similar to the preservation of the Pittman House and the preservation of historic structures and the creation of affordable housing. So I can say that unequivocally.

[Speaker 7] (1:29:38 - 1:29:54)
I have a question. Are we talking about preservation of that house to the super detail, like in the Olmstead District? Okay, so you're not looking to be really strict as far as the preservation.

Right.

[Speaker 8] (1:29:55 - 1:32:57)
I was going to address Katie's concern. We are looking for an exterior renovation that would restore, take off the ugly vinyl siding and restore sort of an appropriate 18th and 19th century exterior, probably wood with paint. And the way that we're thinking of situating it on the lot, we think it would sit better sideways.

In one of the images in the slide, I think it was the first one that says 35 Pittman Road and affordable. Can you go back to that, Diane? I think it's page maybe two.

Maybe it's the second slide. I think if the house was sited, as you'll see, where the porch, there used to be a porch there. The porch has since been removed.

But if it was sited sideways, what we had talked about with Habitat for Humanity as well, was having a more historically appropriate exterior, but the inside would be completely modernized and updated. There's a cute little fireplace mantle of the era on the second floor. There is some molding that could possibly be preserved.

That's definitely from the period. But we would be really mainly interested in the exterior. And what we've kind of looked at on the site plan is that the porch in the front, that porch could be restored, and that could be the front of the house.

The main house could sit sideways on the lot. And then if we were able to work with Habitat, develop a partnership with them and file for a friendly 40B, it might be that we could build out more in the back and maybe add a unit or two. Because we're not moving the entire house.

We'd only be wanting to move the smaller portion and situate it sideways. And that might leave additional room for other units. Habitat for Humanity had originally planned four units for that site.

But it's not anything about the interior. What we'd want to do is have an interpretive sign in the front that talked a little bit about Pitman's accomplishments and just restore it more to a more accurate exterior look, kind of like what they do in Nantucket all the time. They have the outsides preserved, and they allow people to do what they want to do on the inside.

[Speaker 7] (1:33:01 - 1:33:13)
It says here, apply for home funds for renovation, historic preservation, or climate-friendly improvements. Are these home funds? I don't know anything about home funds, but are they pretty easy to get?

[Speaker 1] (1:33:14 - 1:34:06)
I wouldn't say any of the funds are easy to get. The HOME program is a federally funded program that is administered regionally. Is it for affordable housing?

Yep. And it deals with affordable housing projects throughout Essex County. And so Swampskate has an allocation of a small amount of money.

And I do know we've talked about a number of projects, and I did speak with our community and economic development director today about some thoughts about how we would try to help with this project. But that HOME program is relatively small, so it's not going to make a significant contribution to this project.

[Speaker 7] (1:34:08 - 1:34:57)
So I am incredibly in favor of this, and I would really like to see the Affordable Housing Trust, you know, look at these numbers very closely and see about putting their money here and then possibly selling the property and putting their money back in. So that's my stand on it. You have less than a month to go, and I think that one of the questions is, so how does it work?

Who is going to be? Does this go to an affordable housing company like the one that did Michonne? Do they deal with this, or do you hire a general contractor?

Like who's going to orchestrate all these moving parts? Or is it Sean?

[Speaker 1] (1:34:59 - 1:35:42)
I'm happy to help. I've had some conversations. I certainly, you know, the board's inclined to actually see this move forward.

You know, there may be some strategies. This is a nonprofit, Habit Half for Humanity, that's been involved. And, you know, I've been working with Nancy and Margie, but certainly, you know, there's a lot of work that has to happen over the next month.

And, you know, we should have plan B, you know, if properties don't work out, you know, what's next? There's a lot of logistics that have to be thought about.

[Speaker 6] (1:35:42 - 1:35:57)
Where does Habitat for Humanity come back involved? Because on the next step slide, I guess I'm missing something maybe, because you're asking Habitat to transfer their purchase option to the Affordable Housing Trust, and then you're going to apply for home funds. So then where does Habitat come back into it?

[Speaker 2] (1:35:59 - 1:36:41)
You know, down the road, if they would want to engage in, if Habitat's still interested in engaging in the Friendly 40B process, which is much more kind of, you know, a multi-unit site. It's much more of their model. So if they're interested in coming back in once we've been able to, this is all kind of engineered around needing to get the house moved in the short run and getting the zoning and, you know, getting to the first step first.

And then there's, you know, more time to secure different grants, rehab, et cetera, for the primary home. Maybe Habitat steps back in right then, at least through an engagement process, if not an ownership process, to move through the Friendly 40B.

[Speaker 3] (1:36:41 - 1:37:47)
But I think the point that Katie keeps going to, and I think she's totally right, is the Affordable Housing Trust, if they were to spend this money, it would be 100% in with all their money before anything is known on whether or not there can be a single affordable unit created here. Because zoning relief won't be done, there's no nonprofit, there's nothing, but they have now just invested effectively 100% of their money into a relocation of a partial building. And so that's where I'm aligned with Katie.

I'm just fundamentally uncomfortable with giving them guidance. They are the fiduciaries of their money. They get to make that decision totally on their own.

They don't have to come to anybody, they don't have to come to town meetings, to the town administrator, to us, and so I just want to respect that. And if they think that's where they should spend their money, then they know what they're looking at. I frankly haven't even been to an Affordable Housing Trust meeting, so I don't know what they're looking at.

So they may make that decision for themselves, which is fine. As fiduciaries, they can make that decision. I'm going to abstain tonight just because I don't want to have that construed that I'm weighing in on what they should be doing with their money.

[Speaker 2] (1:37:47 - 1:38:32)
I want to clarify that point because in this potential motion, or in this discussion, there's absolutely no indication of directing the Affordable Housing Trust in particular. This is more a vote, a sense of the select board, of supporting this project. If not necessary, certainly not necessary.

I think there is, it sounds like there is general support for it, and that's really appreciated and needed, and absolutely the Affordable Housing Trust, it's up to them how they would want to proceed, and there's no indication that there would be any kind of vote for the select board to tell them what to do.

[Speaker 3] (1:38:32 - 1:39:04)
I appreciate that, Doug. I'm willing to contribute my brain matter and experience and problem solve and tackle these things. Absolutely, there's support, and I love the fact that we have volunteers primarily just doing this stuff.

We all swing, and sometimes we hit it, sometimes we can't hit it as far as we want to hit it, but I'm grateful for that. For that, I'm sure all of us are willing to contribute our time and our experiences to try and navigate this, but this certainly sounds like a worthy endeavor, but also a really challenging one.

[Speaker 4] (1:39:04 - 1:39:11)
Just a quick question. Can the Affordable Housing Trust itself apply for zoning relief through the ZBA?

[Speaker 7] (1:39:12 - 1:39:12)
Yes. Yes.

[Speaker 4] (1:39:13 - 1:39:15)
Yeah? Yep. Okay.

[Speaker 7] (1:39:17 - 1:39:30)
How long can you expedite a permit from the ZBA? They can't call a meeting?

[Speaker 3] (1:39:30 - 1:39:48)
They can call a meeting, but there are statutory notices that they have to post in the newspaper to notice neighbors, abutters, and then put it in the newspaper and then have the meeting, and then they make a decision. Then there is a 20-day appeal period from the point in time where they make the decision before the permit would issue in this.

[Speaker 7] (1:39:48 - 1:39:50)
What is the notice length?

[Speaker 3] (1:39:50 - 1:39:58)
I believe it's effectively two weeks is the general time frame. It has to be posted twice.

[Speaker 1] (1:39:58 - 1:39:59)
It's a procedural due process.

[Speaker 7] (1:39:59 - 1:40:04)
Right, so it's 14 days there. Yeah. So it's 20 days appeal, right?

[Speaker 2] (1:40:05 - 1:40:12)
Yeah, we've worked through the timing, and it's razor thin to say the least for sure. Thank you. Yeah.

[Speaker 7] (1:40:12 - 1:40:25)
So another scenario is you could just move it there, wrap it up, preserve it for the length of time it takes to file a 40B, and then.

[Speaker 2] (1:40:27 - 1:40:36)
Yeah, we've discussed that with the building commissioner and others, and temporary siting does not seem to be in the cards.

[Speaker 4] (1:40:36 - 1:40:46)
Does temporary siting on a town-owned property, so not a privately-owned property, but an already property owned by the town of Swapscott, is that something that is?

[Speaker 1] (1:40:49 - 1:41:03)
It comes with risks, and certainly. Liability. Absolutely.

You know, we've talked about it's not ideal. I'm happy to talk more about it, but it's not what we'd like to see.

[Speaker 6] (1:41:03 - 1:41:05)
Also, it must elevate the cost, because now you're not moving it.

[Speaker 1] (1:41:05 - 1:41:06)
You're moving it twice.

[Speaker 6] (1:41:06 - 1:41:12)
You're moving it twice, and you're moving it further than a half a mile, which I don't know how they charge you, but things like that.

[Speaker 1] (1:41:12 - 1:41:14)
It's not an easy thing to move.

[Speaker 7] (1:41:14 - 1:41:20)
So you can't move it, you can't put it on that lot? Is that what you're saying, Doug? No, that's not what I'm saying.

[Speaker 2] (1:41:21 - 1:41:29)
There's no current scenario whereby that house can go on the lot temporarily. That's where we're at in the discussion right now.

[Speaker 3] (1:41:39 - 1:41:44)
So are you still making your motion, or what are you? I don't think it's necessary.

[Speaker 2] (1:41:44 - 1:42:18)
I think there's support for trying to make this happen. That's the main point. And, you know, we'll be calling on everybody.

The public's creativity, anyone's creativity, where there might be another straightforward buildable lot that doesn't have to go through ZBA, anything that it takes to find a place for this lovely historic home to stay in Swampscott in one piece and not be demolished, kind of smashed in 30 days from now.

[Speaker 6] (1:42:22 - 1:42:23)
Thanks, Doug.

[Speaker 3] (1:42:24 - 1:42:25)
Thank you both.

[Speaker 6] (1:42:25 - 1:42:26)
I appreciate it.

[Speaker 4] (1:42:33 - 1:42:34)
All right, we're going to move on.

[Speaker 6] (1:42:34 - 1:42:41)
Can I ask one more question? Yeah, sure. Have we looked into storing it somewhere?

Can it go somewhere not in town?

[Speaker 7] (1:42:42 - 1:42:43)
That would probably be really expensive.

[Speaker 6] (1:42:43 - 1:42:51)
We talked about it with the Glover House. Did we not? Taking it apart and storing it somewhere until we find a lot for it?

[Speaker 8] (1:42:53 - 1:43:27)
I think we're talking about a different caliber of historic building. The Samuel Kuhn Pittman House is sort of a locally important house, and we don't have many houses in Swampscott that predate 1800. The Glover House is a site of national significance, and I think that the efforts to preserve that would possibly be looking at all of those options.

But for this Pittman House, I don't think that that is an option. Understood. Thank you.

[Speaker 4] (1:43:28 - 1:44:16)
Thanks, Nancy. We can make some pretty good pairs for discussion. All right, we're going to move on now to a discussion of board and committee handbooks, select board handbooks, and the code of conduct handbooks.

I think it's really important. Our former colleague, Polly Tickham, put a lot of time and effort into putting these procedures and policies for all of us. So this hasn't been in effect for that long, but I do think it has been incredibly important in just shaping and really providing the guardrails and the rules of how we engage as volunteers within the town.

[Speaker 3] (1:44:21 - 1:44:25)
So what is your hope tonight? What is it that we're trying to achieve tonight?

[Speaker 4] (1:44:27 - 1:45:07)
My goal would be to run through this with all of our board. I think it's important that we open this up for discussion. Many of us have already signed this previously.

I know I've signed it in April of 22, and I just want to see if there are any recommendations or changes, suggestions. And if there are, let's talk about them, and let's get them in the open. So that would be my goal.

So I think we can start with the Swampscot Select Board procedures, policies, and regulations.

[Speaker 7] (1:45:07 - 1:45:20)
Well, I just have to say I didn't know what we were doing here tonight, so I didn't go through this to make recommendations or changes. It just said handbook.

[Speaker 4] (1:45:22 - 1:45:47)
Well, I mean, the thought was that we would run through it. This was circulated in advance of this meeting. We did want to make sure that we could have a discussion as a board about this.

You know, that has been in place. It says August 24th of 22. I think that was probably been in place since, what, April?

[Speaker 6] (1:45:47 - 1:46:01)
Yeah, but I guess I would just echo Mary Ellen's comment, which is a little bit more flavor as to what you wanted to discuss related to the handbook would have maybe helped the discussion.

[Speaker 14] (1:46:02 - 1:46:02)
Okay.

[Speaker 6] (1:46:02 - 1:46:19)
So, like, I mean, there are some typographical errors and some formatting errors, things that I've, like, noted on my copy in reading through it, but I wasn't thinking, like, you were looking to revamp it in any way or add to it, so I would read it in a different lens with regards to that. Okay.

[Speaker 3] (1:46:20 - 1:47:52)
Yeah, and so I share that, which is it's new, so I think we should still put fresh eyes on it, but the board approved it last year, and it's a different board, and the board should approve it each year, so that way it's been approved. Yep. And if you want to ask us to come back with specific comments, let's bring those comments, typos and those things that need to be discussed.

But those are really helpful because, to be honest with you, they exist for sure in there. But we can come back with comments. But I just want to say my expectation last year was that we're all voting, and once the majority of the board votes to support it, and last year we voted to support it and have all select board members sign it to say that they will abide by it, I just want to make sure we do the same.

And just like we expected committee members, just like when parents sign up kids for sports, they've got to sign waivers. They've got to sign things here. I just want to make sure that we're expecting the same behavior from hundreds of committee volunteers.

So the select board, you know, Diane's in charge of following up with them and making sure they all sign the committee handbooks, but I just want to make sure that last year I don't think there was the follow-up on select board signing, the select board handbook, and I think that's, for me, just to be clear, once everybody has a chance to air their comments or questions about it, that ultimately we all sign it because those are the rules that this board is expected.

And, again, the rules are not policy rules. They're behavior rules, and I think that that's a really important thing for us to sign off on.

[Speaker 7] (1:47:53 - 1:48:02)
I think we should also have a discussion about behavioral rules when we look at this again and how we're going to address that in the future.

[Speaker 4] (1:48:03 - 1:48:19)
Yeah. Yeah, so let's table this until our first meeting in September, and we can get fresh eyes on it, and we can have a robust conversation at that point. So works for everybody?

Thanks for bringing it back up.

[Speaker 3] (1:48:19 - 1:48:20)
Yep.

[Speaker 4] (1:48:20 - 1:48:21)
I appreciate your focus on that.

[Speaker 14] (1:48:21 - 1:48:21)
Okay.

[Speaker 4] (1:48:24 - 1:49:54)
We'll move on to a discussion of select board goals for what should be fiscal year 24. Those should have been circulated as part of our packets. So outlined here are a draft of the town administrator goals as well as the select board goals of the previous iteration of the select board.

So now that we have a new member, Doug, we do want to make sure that we're capturing, you know, what you, Doug, are looking to accomplish as a select board member. So really, I thought it was helpful that we open up this discussion, you know, as close to the beginning of the fiscal year as possible so we can, you know, so that way we have as much runway and lead time here to be able to accomplish our goals and objectives. You know, some of these, you know, some of our goals and objectives from last year were, you know, were, you know, things that could be accomplished within, you know, a 12-month time frame, but others were more long-range planning and some of them, you know, quite honestly aspirational goals.

So I think it's important that we're conveying, you know, to the public and to ourselves and holding each other accountable for what we're, you know, set to do and working with the professional staff and the town administrator to really see these realized.

[Speaker 3] (1:49:54 - 1:50:04)
Can I ask a clarifying? Just the town administrator's fiscal year goals we previously have gone at length and discussed. So really, we're talking about the select board.

Talking about the select boards.

[Speaker 10] (1:50:04 - 1:50:04)
We're not.

[Speaker 3] (1:50:04 - 1:50:55)
Okay. So we're talking about the select board goals. And so I think just to simplify it, I don't recognize one of the goals that's listed under my thing, but I still, frankly, I'm just going to renew all five goals that are sitting under my name on these things, which relate to kind of the fiscal guidelines and working to continue advancing additional fiscal guidelines.

Then the Hadley reuse, the Hawthorne, and then the last one is working with the housing authority on the lack of funding for housing authorities, which is the one I don't remember I was doing, but I'm happy to because I think they absolutely are in need of it, and I will continue doing that. But those are, in essence, where I continue seeing a majority of my off-hours efforts, if you will. Great.

Thank you, Peter.

[Speaker 6] (1:50:56 - 1:54:04)
I have two additions to my list. Sure. So I think in the tail end of the last fiscal year, something that sort of took some of my passion was the idea of a community all-ages center.

And so I'd like to add that to my goals as a push for continuing conversation about that, trying to find a location for it, trying to find funding for it, trying to develop work in conjunction with the senior center, to find out how we can unify a community center which supports all ages so that the senior center doesn't feel to be its own little spot and is more integrated into the community itself.

Also, focusing on hiring a DE&I consultant and managing more DE&I issues in town. That's really quite significant and should be at the top of my list, and I will not stop sounding that horn because there it is at the top of your list. Because daily DE&I issues touch so many employees, so many boards, committees, and I think that there can be training and education to help people gain more knowledge as to how to handle them, how to see them.

People might not even know they're present on their voluntary boards and committees or in their town goings-on. So just continuing to educate the folks that we have moving pieces in town so that we can make this truly put our money where our mouth is and truly call ourselves inclusive and diverse in a way that's meaningful. So I definitely would like to champion that.

And then the last thing, which is probably the easiest, is that I know we've talked a little bit tonight about the newsletter that goes out, and I'd like to see a business iteration of that newsletter. I'd like to see it just go out to local businesses where they can communicate with Town Hall directly and vice versa, where, you know, when you become business in town, you give your email address and you're part of that community and you're communicating with other businesses or Marzi or whomever to just make sure that you're getting all the information. I think that that would be a real add for the small businesses in town, but then maybe, too, there's a way to leverage some of the larger businesses to help our small businesses.

So I think we should definitely try to do that.

[Speaker 4] (1:54:05 - 1:54:05)
Thanks, Katie.

[Speaker 7] (1:54:07 - 1:55:02)
For me, I just want to try to be a little bit more present with where we stand with hiring staffing in town, like the town planner, and getting the police department to the levels that they should be at. Maybe they are at the levels they should be at. If they are, I'd like to know.

And then also getting real clarity on how we want to spend the ARPA funds, and then also putting more focus on our finances and our commitment to being disciplined at staying at the 2% and how are we going to get there, how are we going to stay there. So there's been a lot of work in being financially responsible, and I just want to make sure we keep that turned up.

[Speaker 3] (1:55:04 - 1:55:47)
Thank you. Can I just chime in for a second on that? They all sound like great.

I just want further clarification when it comes to staffing. Our charter is very clear. I mean, we have a policy role to make sure that the town administrator is doing his job or her job.

I just want to be clear and understand what you mean by that because I want to be very clear that under the town charter, the town administrator is responsible for staffing. He has to make recommendations to us on very few positions. But certainly it's fair to expect that we are properly staffed, but that's more than just holding the town administrator's hand to the fire.

Us getting into the details of that is, in my view, the town charter gives that responsibility to our elected CEO. So I just want to make sure that we're all clear on that.

[Speaker 7] (1:55:47 - 1:56:00)
I'm not looking to hire anybody, but if we're at the levels we should be at these departments, that's fine, but I think it's real clear we've asked here at this table about a town planner, town meeting has asked about a town planner, got a line item.

[Speaker 3] (1:56:00 - 1:56:17)
No, no, no, no. Agree that we should be inquiring what more we can be doing. What more we can be doing besides inquiring and besides recruiting.

Please recruit and get things. I just want to be careful about that. I appreciate that clarification.

Thank you. Doug?

[Speaker 2] (1:56:19 - 1:56:31)
Thank you. I've got a little bit of catching up to do. So actually I threw a couple slides together.

Diane, if you're able to pull that up, that would make it easiest.

[Speaker 7] (1:56:32 - 1:56:34)
Wait a second. Are you saying that we could have added slides to this?

[Speaker 2] (1:56:35 - 1:56:37)
Mary Ellen, the world's your oyster.

[Speaker 7] (1:56:37 - 1:56:38)
Okay, here we go.

[Speaker 2] (1:56:44 - 2:01:35)
So through the campaign, I've heard a lot from people about wanting the town to come together more and having a kind of clear, you can go back to the first slide, Diane, having a clear overall plan. And, you know, people from different positions feeling like, you know, Trump's got to change things. For some people, a lot of people, that's great.

Other people, it's not. And so I've been kind of through my first few months here trying to really kind of synthesize all these thoughts and perspectives and, you know, where it's been, where it is, where it's going. I know I'm kind of a new guy on the block here, so bear with me in terms of trying to kind of pull this together.

Hopefully in some ways this will be helpful, kind of putting a lot of things on one page. So, yeah, Diane, if you can go to the next page. So just as a way for me to kind of think about, like, you know, some of these we've talked about, the Community Preservation Act, the Pittman House, Glover, there's a lot of things that have been kind of floating around as kind of honoring our past and our history here in Swampscott.

So I just kind of have listed some of those that I've been aware of, that people are focused on, interested in. And then in the middle, you know, so many things happening right now, different initiatives, you know, with kind of the theme for me overall are, you know, affordable housing, green climate initiatives, and enhancements to our tax base. And so I've kind of notated some of these things to organize my own thinking and to see kind of everything that, you know, is being taken on.

I'm sure I've missed things here. You know, I think a few of the things that the people have mentioned, I've also noted here. And then just how many big things are kind of on the agenda going forward.

And, you know, thinking about putting it in this kind of— putting it all out there like this, it makes me wonder whether or not, you know, we're biting off too much, more than we can chew. Or really thinking about a plan for the timing of these things that is reasonable for the resources we have, for the volunteer time that we have, for the staff that the town has, et cetera. And so I think, you know, a good planning process would, you know, really start to lay these things out and not just have kind of our five individual wish lists, but really be putting them into kind of an organized timeline of what's reasonable and, you know, what are the resources that we have behind them.

I haven't attempted to do that, but I think that might be a useful next step. It's not necessarily kind of, you know, just my list, obviously, but kind of overall putting all this together. If we came back, you know, in September and had all these goals laid out and really think about, like, you know, what really are the priorities, not only for ourselves to be organized, but for Sean to know what, you know, the priorities are, for the town to see what really we've kind of winnowed down to what the priorities are.

I think that would be a helpful process. So my last little slide, Diane, if you can move to the next one. So my summary here is, you know, in line with some of the other comments that have been made, just really needing to maintain fiscal discipline, increase the tax base so we can maintain and enhance the quality of life here in Swampscott.

I, as I've noted before, we've talked about, I'm very interested in kind of really developing an economic development strategy and detailed plans for different parts of the town and kind of integrating the various efforts that are going on in different parts of the town so people understand that and they're connected. The smart deployment of ARPA funds is also a priority for me. And then, you know, two issues that I think, you know, from my perspective, that are really, really critical are affordability, especially housing affordability and climate change and how we're kind of weaving that into our preparation with our new climate action plan, how we're weaving that into all of our decisions, all of our policymaking, all of our development, et cetera.

ARPA could be a centerpiece of economic development strategy, but that's, you know, for further discussion. So that's what I had to share. You can take this down now, Diane.

Thank you. Thanks, Doug.

[Speaker 7] (2:01:35 - 2:01:36)
That was beautiful.

[Speaker 4] (2:01:42 - 2:03:05)
Thanks, Doug. And then just for me, again, I just want to emphasize, you know, my goal, continue to work with, you know, the steering committee to clean up Kings Beach. I think that's a priority for the region, certainly a priority of mine.

I really want to address public housing. I think we have 122 public housing units within the town. I don't think anything's been constructed in the last 50 or 60 years.

These properties are largely not ADA compliant. I think we can do much better for the current residents as well as future residents, and it's much, much needed. But really the only addition that I have is the CPA.

I think it's incredibly important to do this. Everything really links back to housing, and I want to make sure that we're a town that when we focus and when we pass this CPA and take it through town meeting in May and through a town-wide election in November of 24, that, you know, we're not just doing open space acquisitions. We're not just using the CPA to avoid affordable housing.

I want to tackle affordable housing, public housing, you know, head on. So that's going to be one of my goals for this 23-24 year.

[Speaker 3] (2:03:07 - 2:05:40)
So I think these are really great. I'm glad, again, that you're bringing this conversation forward. I would ask Doug raises some good things, but at the same time I also want us to contextualize some of the things that he was just talking about as well, which is because I mean, just my experience, the first time we actually have playbooks, right?

We're actually doing things. Every single thing that each one of us mentioned is sitting in a plan, right, that's out there, and that's been the plans that have been communicated to residents that residents have been part of creating. And so we have these plans.

Some of them are being updated. The master plan, for example, is going to be updated and things like that. But I also want to make sure that we're really careful when we start talking about plans and new plans and new things that we're not just talking past each other, but also not talking past the residents and the volunteers who already have created playbooks for us.

And so I agree with Doug, though, that we could be scattershot. Some things may be dated. Some things may be unorganized, and then we can do better for sure.

So I absolutely applaud that, and I like that a lot. But at the same time, I want to make sure that we're being very conscious about the fact that we do have volunteer-created playbooks. I don't think any of us were on the Master Plan Committee.

I don't think any of us were on the Open Space Planning Committee. I don't think any of us were on the Harbor Committee. But still, committees came together.

They created these master plans, and every single initiative we're talking about, the Humphrey property, the Hawthorne property, the pier, King's Beach, the green initiatives that Doug, that you talked about, economic development, the rezoning, smart growth, et cetera, et cetera. They're all in these plans. Do they need to be brought forward?

Yes. Do they need to be organized in a way to make sure that we're not working across purposes or that things haven't changed such that that doesn't make any sense? Absolutely.

I just want to be careful, though, that we're not all of a sudden saying, hey, let's time out on everything. We're just going to relook at things fresh. We should always look at things fresh, but we also have to do it in the context of, you know, again, we really do have these books that were playbooks that we're working out of, maybe not the most efficiently, but, man, ten times more efficiently than we were years ago for sure, right, because before it was truly scattershot and it truly was actually nothing.

Things weren't getting done because no one had those things. But I do appreciate, Doug, you raising those things and your sense of organizing that slide. Your brain works in a different way than mine, which is really helpful for me, right, to see how you organize things and how you categorize them is a good way for me to see it because then that is going to make our conversations more productive, just to understand kind of where we're coming from on these things.

So thank you on that.

[Speaker 4] (2:05:42 - 2:05:54)
Thanks, Peter. Anything additional about select board goals? All right.

Hearing none, we'll move on. Go ahead. Sorry.

[Speaker 2] (2:05:55 - 2:07:05)
So what do you see as the next step then? I mean, I know, you know, in terms of how this flows down, how this does get kind of integrated. I mean, do we all just have our own kind of little laundry lists and that's that?

I know I take Peter's point. Obviously, certainly my intention wasn't that there was a re-evaluation of everything, not at all, but more in terms of, you know, I looked at the town administrator's goals from last year. It's a long list.

Actually, I have to say I was pretty surprised at how many things it seems like there was a lot of progress on. You know, not surprised, like I'm shocked, but, you know, like for such a long list, it's a lot of progress. And at least that kind of gets my little bit, I guess, to Peter's point, more of my nature as to do we have, is there a next step to this process or is this it?

We just kind of list them out and go.

[Speaker 3] (2:07:06 - 2:09:48)
So can I just take a stab, Doug, at maybe responding first and then see what Dave and others have to say? So I think the list of five, the five of us, the five select board members and the goals, that really was about disclosing and being open to make sure that none of us were working at cross-purposes to each other or to a greater goal of the board, right? To know that if my list is to have everybody wear green, but Katie's list is to have everybody wear blue, then we're working at cross-purposes, right?

And even worse, if the board had already taken a vote, and a majority of the board had already taken a vote saying it's going to be yellow, right? And I'm being overly simplistic, obviously, just to illustrate this, but it's just really to make sure that we're not working at cross-purposes. The second thing is to also recognize the complexity that the open meeting law presents to the select board, and until you sit on this board, I don't think you could possibly ever realize the complexity of that, right?

My ability to talk to you and Mary Ellen about a topic is zero, right? Unless we're sitting in this meeting right now having this conversation about things, but we can't do everything. So we kind of divide and conquer on tasks.

I think it's great that you've been working with Nancy Schultz and the historical people and helping them with Pittman, right? And I know that you and I had a brief conversation just about some technical questions, but for the most part, no one else could join that conversation outside this meeting. And so we kind of take leads on things or work on things outside of meetings that maybe play to our skill set, to our interests, our passions, et cetera, also to disclose that to make sure that we're being consistent.

So that's, I think, where the five, us coming forward with the five lists is to make sure that, again, consistent. You know, as a volunteer, you have a right to work on the things that you want to work on, but if they're at cross-purposes, then we should have that public dialogue, right, to just work through that so we're not doing it. So I think that's what that list is.

In terms of the big macro goals and maybe some specific things, we want to have this done by this date. That's something I think we all have to come back on and still have that conversation about. You know, how do we deem King's Beach progress as success?

Like, how will we – what do we want – I'm just using King's Beach as a name. What do we want in this fiscal year as that? And to kind of set it up, to say what do we think success is on that or what's progress is an example of something that I think, to the Chairman, I say that we can come back and have those bigger conversations as a board of things that we want to drive collectively as a board.

But I hope that that clarification of kind of how the five members stating their goals came about originally was to really make sure that we were just not working at cross-purposes from each other or from the board.

[Speaker 4] (2:09:48 - 2:11:19)
And Doug, just to kind of add on a little bit, I kind of look at it as accountability. I look at it as accountability to each of our board members and accountability to the public. When we ran for office, we made – we certainly discussed things that we wanted to accomplish when we were in office.

And now that we're sitting here as five select board members, how are we going to execute on those promises? How are we going to spend our time moving the town of Swampskip forward? It does seem like we're pushing a rock up a hill at times.

But I think if we're honestly interested and engaged, it makes the work that much easier for us. And many hands make light work. So I think just really stating these goals and having an understanding as to what you're going to be working on, what Katie's going to be working on, what Mary Ellen's going to be working on, and how we can tie that together and how we can continue to further that discussion and certainly feather that into everything that Sean is helping to support, these 26 initiatives, in addition to everything that we're working on, just really helps to make our town that much better of a place to live, to work, and to play is what's exciting. But to me, it's really about accountability.

[Speaker 2] (2:11:23 - 2:12:06)
That's all very helpful. I'll think about it some more. I think the latter piece of what Peter mentioned I think is where I was kind of going, trying to tee up kind of what measures of success are over what time frame for these things, I think would kind of enhance that level of accountability and give more kind of direction and priority to the town administrator as well.

So I can think about that more. We can discuss offline maybe on whether or not that's something to take up at a next meeting. How does this then relate to you?

I mean, those goals that Sean has right now are through when?

[Speaker 3] (2:12:08 - 2:12:45)
Sean, these goals are given to you when, in February or March? No, we did fiscal year. Remember we had a specific conversation, so Sean's I think we actually did on a fiscal year because the way his structure currently is.

I know there was conversation about whether or not we should be changing that, but his current structure is his compensation and his review, his evaluations and whatnot are fiscal year based, and so we never changed it. Last time we talked about shouldn't it change based on something else, but we haven't changed anything else. We haven't changed the contract.

So I think that's right now they're on a fiscal year basis, but I think we all agreed it wasn't the best.

[Speaker 7] (2:12:45 - 2:13:10)
Right, so we came out very late with goals, and so that's why these goals were late, and I think we talked about we were going to continue these goals into 2024, so I think we should agree that these are just a continuance into 2024, and then we did talk about changing because there's an evaluation for the charter says one thing and then the contract says another thing. So that's something we've got to take a look at.

[Speaker 1] (2:13:11 - 2:14:40)
I think, Doug, the other thing I just want to mention is, look, I share these goals, both my goals and the Select Board goals with department heads, and so I think it helps with just ensuring that we are all working together on certain responsibilities. Obviously, the Select Board goals should inform the town administrator's goals, and usually there's consensus when we do meet and we do agree that there are certain common themes that we can establish priorities. Certainly there's so many things that we should be doing.

We could never possibly do everything that we would ever really want to do, and so we have to prioritize our time and our efforts. But it's certainly helpful for department heads to have a conversation a few times a year about these goals, similar to the Select Board, and where we can be helpful as an administrative team with individual board members as you seek to make contributions to this town. We want to be helpful, but it's complicated.

As you look at my goals, a lot of my colleagues have to help me with those, and we have made some progress. The board has helped me with a number of the goals as well. Many of the goals that I have, I need the board's support and assistance with as well.

[Speaker 7] (2:14:41 - 2:14:45)
Do we need to change these? Do we need to say 2024? Is this all just good?

[Speaker 2] (2:14:46 - 2:15:01)
Well, Mary Ellen, no, I don't think so. That doesn't make sense to me. I mean, we've each just—I think just about everyone has added additional goals.

I'm talking about— Yeah, I understand.

[Speaker 7] (2:15:02 - 2:15:04)
I'm talking about town administrator goals.

[Speaker 2] (2:15:05 - 2:15:32)
I understand, but each of the Select Board members just added additional goals. I think almost everyone did. And how it seems quite logical then that that needs to influence what the town administrator's goals are.

So I don't think that just kind of the goals from last year can be kind of rubber-stamped again to go forward for the next year when we just kind of introduce some potential different priorities.

[Speaker 7] (2:15:34 - 2:15:35)
That's a good point.

[Speaker 6] (2:15:35 - 2:16:21)
Well, I think, though, that because of the lateness in review of the goals originally, that some of the goals that the town administrator put forward were unattainable in the timeframe that they were given, right? So to evaluate him on that goal structure doesn't—isn't fair, number one, doesn't seem to make sense. And that's why the original conversation was due to the lateness of the review of the goal structure that we would sort of—I mean, not to say he can't add more, right, or alter them, but I just—I do want to echo that I don't think it would be fair to review him based on these goals in the timeframe that he had.

[Speaker 4] (2:16:22 - 2:17:05)
Yeah, I'd feel uncomfortable moving the goalposts on the town administrator. These are certainly select board goals, so I may need some support and help with the CPA, but I'm going to work on—I'm working on a number of these initiatives individually, so I think a lot of these can be implemented with limited help but without moving the goalposts and just glomming on and doubling the number of town administrator goals from 26 to whatever number. So I do hope that we can get on a more regular keys.

[Speaker 3] (2:17:06 - 2:18:50)
No, no, no, right. So Doug's raising some good things, and as the newest new member, I think let's—I would like to think about what he's saying, and if you don't mind, I agree that we can't just roll this forward. We have to affirmatively say, yep, this is what it is.

How we change it, I don't know, but I think there's a bigger conversation. We weren't really going to talk about town administrator goals tonight, and we would have to collectively talk about that, you know, and we probably all have our philosophies on how to establish town administrator goals. You know, I think Mary Ellen and I aired different philosophies last year on it, and Doug may bring a third philosophy to it, for example.

So I just—there may be a bigger, broader discussion to have on that, but I think in terms of the select board goals, I think they are what we individually want them to be subject to debate when we hear that there are some things that cross purposes, right, or things that we may not be comfortable with. I think Doug has every right to work on and set his own goals in that regard, as long as it's not across purposes of the board generally. So I think that was a good conversation, so I'm glad we had that tonight.

So I think, Doug, what we did in the past is Diane will take this conversation. She'll create a red line of the select board goals. She'll add you, and obviously former select board members would be removed, but add you, and then this document will come back to us to review and then to bless, which is what we did last year.

So the five of us, anyways, we'll move forward with that, and then we maybe at another meeting can talk about the timing of the town administrator goals and what makes sense relative to evaluations and how do we incorporate select board goals into town administrator goals, etc., etc., and have that at a later conversation.

[Speaker 2] (2:18:51 - 2:18:54)
That makes perfect sense, Peter, to me. Thank you.

[Speaker 3] (2:18:54 - 2:18:55)
Thanks for raising all this.

[Speaker 7] (2:18:59 - 2:19:09)
I just want to remove under my goals re-evaluate working with Salem officials to deal with the Glover property, including passive recreational uses. I don't think that was ever one of my goals.

[Speaker 3] (2:19:09 - 2:19:18)
I had that work out for you. I think it was. I just want to know what you did for it and how did it work out.

Speaking of accountability, accountability, I'm curious.

[Speaker 1] (2:19:18 - 2:19:23)
It's a pretty passive recreational facility for some. It is very passive. It is very passive.

[Speaker 14] (2:19:23 - 2:19:23)
I know.

[Speaker 4] (2:19:24 - 2:19:42)
All right. No, but in all seriousness, I think this was a very helpful and great conversation, and we'll certainly pick this up at a September meeting. Thanks, everybody.

All right. We'll move on to the consent agenda. We just have one item on the consent agenda, which is a vote to approve minutes.

[Speaker 14] (2:19:42 - 2:19:42)
All right.

[Speaker 4] (2:19:42 - 2:19:43)
Motion to approve.

[Speaker 14] (2:19:44 - 2:19:44)
Second.

[Speaker 4] (2:19:45 - 2:19:45)
All in favor.

[Speaker 14] (2:19:45 - 2:19:46)
Aye.

[Speaker 4] (2:19:46 - 2:19:51)
Aye. Thank you. We do not have another town administrator's report, so we'll move on to select work.

[Speaker 1] (2:19:53 - 2:19:56)
I wanted to give another. Not tonight. I want to try it over.

[Speaker 3] (2:19:57 - 2:21:17)
I'm going to. I wasn't able to be at the Swampscot Block Party on Saturday, but I did want to share. I heard it was wonderful, and so thank you for everybody that was involved, but I did reach out to have a chance to thank Danielle Strauss for her effort on that, and just to say thank you.

And what took me by surprise, not by surprise. That's a wrong word. What I loved about the conversation was her response, and her response was saying, yeah, doing that on top of all the summer programming and the hundreds of things that are going on, and it's a bit chaotic, but she immediately pivoted to say, but it wouldn't happen without Jackie Camelengo, who is her number two in the rec department, and the fact that she immediately deflected credit to her colleague to me is pure demonstration of leadership. It's just a pure demonstration of leadership, so I just wanted to share that, and I know we all are grateful for what Danielle does and for what Jackie does, but I wanted to share that because I thought it was a really remarkable compliment that she paid to Jackie, but I wanted the compliment to extend to Danielle as well because that's wonderful leadership, and I'm excited to see that, so thank you.

[Speaker 7] (2:21:21 - 2:23:12)
I want to thank Nathan Kent, Daniel Moretzky, and Mr. Joe Dulette for producing this show tonight. I want to give you an update on the Solid Waste Advisory Committee. They're finishing up their presentation that they want to – they'd like to give a presentation on their survey that they finished this winter.

They're also finishing up their recommendation for a bylaw for plastic, so they're going to – I emailed David today, and they're going to need a little bit of time in September and a little bit of time in October. The Board of Health is meeting tonight, and they're discussing Kings Beach and other health issues. Capital Improvement Committee is meeting now to start working on capital improvements, and I'd really like to see us as a committee have a conversation about what our feelings are about capital.

And lastly, I'm working with Jackie with recreation for the farmer's market. At the farmer's market, we have entertainment from 10.30 to 12.30, but prior to 10.30, we are going to have an amateur time, so that if local – I might. So local – and also that would be regional.

You know, maybe if there's some young people from Peabody that would like to come down and sing or dance – whatever, juggle – from 10 to 10.25. Is this a gong show? No, it's serious. It's serious.

Please give me – contact me at emmiefletcher at swampscottma.gov, and we'll get you in in the next eight weeks.

[Speaker 4] (2:23:13 - 2:23:16)
That should be fun. Yeah. That sounds awesome.

[Speaker 7] (2:23:16 - 2:23:39)
So we're going to have a – yeah, we have – I don't know. You know, we have some great talent here, especially like Bea Martin Epstein, who came to our rescue for the 4th of July races and sang the Star Spangled Banner, and she's – we've signed her up, and we're just going to – we hope we get more people. Nice display of local talent.

[Speaker 6] (2:23:40 - 2:24:29)
Regional. Regional talent. Peabody's in that.

Well, I let the cat out of the bag during my select board goals that I'd really like to see a businesses letter come to fruition. Sort of a product of some of the discussions around the block party, and while I think it was a rousing success, we have learned a lot from it, and one of the things I think that we took away from it is just the need for some additional communication, maybe, to some of the businesses, not just on that street, but in general, and a way that they can communicate amongst each other. So I think that something like a business newsletter will be very helpful.

[Speaker 1] (2:24:31 - 2:25:10)
I'll work with Margie and see if we can come up with something that would be, you know, helpful. I think that's a great idea. Oftentimes, you know, small businesses, you know, can be so supportive to community needs, and, you know, it was great to kind of bump into a number of them during the block party and hear from them about, you know, the day, but also, you know, thoughts that they may have about how we make it even better going forward.

I think we need to listen to them and get some feedback from them because I think there were some opportunities for us to really engage them a little bit more effectively.

[Speaker 4] (2:25:12 - 2:25:14)
Doug, anything to add?

[Speaker 2] (2:25:15 - 2:27:01)
A piece of good news I just learned about today. As I've noted before, we have this Community First grant that helps with weatherization and HVAC changes in partnership with Revise, and we have some goals that we have to meet for that grant, and we're like 80% of the way to meeting the goals for the year already, even though we kind of got going many months into the year, so 232 people in Swampscott have done a home energy audit this year, and 80 have done a weatherization, and another 36 have done an HVAC upgrade to something like a heat pump, and so, you know, as a technical matter, we're well on our way to the $60,000 a year grant and meeting the goals for that this year, but, you know, it's really a great sign that this type of effort that's been, you know, advertised through the town newsletter and social media, and there are going to be signs going up around community power, and getting people to switch to kind of New England green, which is still cheaper than the basic national grid price for electricity, so a lot of these efforts, I think, you know, we're all feeling the effects of climate change in one way or another, and I think people for price reasons or climate reasons are really jumping on board with these types of efforts, so we're doing this in partnership with Lynn as well, and their numbers are looking great too, so it's good for the region.

[Speaker 4] (2:27:03 - 2:27:08)
Thanks, Doug. I don't have anything to add, but I would entertain a motion to adjourn.

[Speaker 7] (2:27:08 - 2:27:10)
So moved. Second.

[Speaker 4] (2:27:11 - 2:27:11)
All in favor?

[Speaker 7] (2:27:11 - 2:27:12)
Aye.

[Speaker 4] (2:27:12 - 2:27:13)
Thanks, everybody.

[Speaker 7] (2:27:14 - 2:27:14)
Good night.

[Speaker 4] (2:27:14 - 2:27:14)
Good night.

[Speaker 7] (2:27:15 - 2:27:15)
Thanks.