[Speaker 4] (0:27 - 14:31)
In this lecture, we are going to look at how to calculate the value of a constant and we are going to look at how to calculate the value of a constant and we are going to look at how to calculate the value of a constant and we are going to look at how to calculate the value of a constant and we are going to look at how to calculate the value of a constant and we are going to look at how to calculate the value of a constant and we are going to look at how to calculate the value of a constant and we are going to look at how to calculate the value of a constant and we are going to look at how to calculate the value of a constant and we are going to look at how to calculate the value of a constant and we are going to look at how to calculate the value of a constant and we are going to look at how to calculate the value of a constant and we are going to look at how to calculate the value of a constant and we are going to look at how to calculate the value of a constant and we are going to look at how to calculate the value of a constant and we are going to look at how to calculate the value of a constant and we are going to look at how to calculate the value of a constant and we are going to look at how to calculate the value of a constant and we are going

[Speaker 3] (14:59 - 29:30)
to look at how to calculate the value of a constant and we are going to look at how to calculate the value of a constant and we are going to look at how to calculate the value of a constant and we are going to look at how to calculate the value of a constant and we are going to look at how to calculate the value of a constant and we are going to look at how to calculate the value of a constant and we are going to look at how to calculate the value of a constant and we are going to look at how to calculate the value of a constant and we are going to look at how to calculate the value of a constant and we are going to look at how to calculate the value of a constant and we are going to look at how to calculate the value of a constant and we are going to look at how to calculate the value of a constant and we are going to look at how to calculate the value of a constant and we are going to look at how to calculate the value of a constant and we are going to look at how to calculate the value of a constant and we are going to look at how to calculate the value of a constant and we are going to look at how to calculate the value of a constant. Thank you. .

. . .

[Speaker 9] (30:09 - 30:11)
. . .

. . .

.

[Speaker 3] (30:37 - 30:38)
.

[Speaker 9] (30:41 - 31:18)
. Thank you. Thank you, and we're gonna actually start with the Girl Scouts.

There's a number of Scouts that are here, and the Select Board and the Town of Swampskid are gonna present them with citations to the Girl Scout Troop 70539 for earning a Take Action Project badge. So I would love to learn a little bit more about the badge and what the Girl Scouts did to earn that badge. So is there anyone who wants to offer up some additional information?

[Speaker 12] (31:18 - 31:18)
Come up to the microphone.

[Speaker 9] (31:19 - 31:24)
Yep. And just tell us your name, please.

[Speaker 13] (31:25 - 31:39)
My name's Hannah. I troop spray-painted catch basins to tell people not to dump things in, like, trash, because it leads to the ocean. All right.

All right.

[Speaker 9] (31:46 - 32:18)
Thank you. Thank you, Hannah. No, it's such a great project, and we need to certainly be mindful of pollution and making sure that we're taking care of our environment, leaving our town, as well as the Commonwealth, in a better position than how we found it.

So I applaud you and all of the Girl Scouts' efforts in making our town a little bit better of a place. So, thank you. Any additional questions or comments from the board?

Do we have the citations?

[Speaker 12] (32:19 - 32:20)
Yeah.

[Speaker 10] (32:27 - 32:28)
Good question.

[Speaker 9] (32:29 - 32:33)
He's got them in the bag. We've got them.

[Speaker 3] (32:45 - 32:45)
Thank you.

[Speaker 9] (32:46 - 32:55)
Yes. So these citations have been signed by each member of the select board, as well as the town administrator, and we want to give them to each and every one of the Girl Scouts.

[Speaker 12] (33:00 - 33:15)
So this one is for Charlotte. Charlotte wants to come up and get hers. Grace, you're next.

There you go. Thank you.

[Speaker 10] (33:15 - 33:17)
You want to stand here? Charlotte, you want to stand here?

[Speaker 3] (33:18 - 33:19)
Yeah, we'll take a picture. Yeah, right here, we'll take a picture. We're going to take a picture.

[Speaker 10] (33:19 - 33:19)
Yep.

[Speaker 12] (33:21 - 34:16)
Alice. Alice, if you want to stand over here, we'll take a picture of you. And Abby.

Addie, sorry, Addie. Here you go, Addie. Mary.

Who?

[Speaker 2] (34:16 - 34:17)
Reagan. Reagan. Reagan, sorry.

[Speaker 12] (34:24 - 34:35)
Savannah. Take a picture. Yep.

[Speaker 3] (35:04 - 35:29)
Here, come around. Well done. Oh.

Just get used to that. Whew.

[Speaker 10] (35:44 - 35:49)
Okay. You have a quorum, right?

[Speaker 9] (35:49 - 36:21)
Yeah, we do. We're fine. All right.

So it's a little past seven o'clock. Apologies. We're going to open up the public hearing.

Oh, yeah, okay. Yep, you're right. Thank you.

We'll open up to public comment. Go ahead. Just please state your name, your address and precinct if known.

Yeah, and we are being recorded this time and always. Thank you, Katie.

[Speaker 3] (36:22 - 36:22)
You're welcome.

[Speaker 7] (36:26 - 44:19)
Hi, good evening. Marlau, 15 Outlook Road and town meeting member precinct number three. Going to just read what I had hoped to present in public comment on September 11th, which was the second reading of the Hadley RFP.

Thank you for closing the door, Katie. Okay, so bear with me, everybody, because it's going to sound odd because it's not something that's on the agenda tonight. But if you could just keep in mind that the opportunity for public comment didn't happen that evening.

And so I just want to make sure it gets read on public record. I would like to be heard this evening and appreciate the full attention of the board members to the details of what I have to say. I would like to begin by stating that it's not easy to get up here and speak at these meetings, not because I am unable, because I am raising contradictions and often complaints along with procedural concerns, whether intentional or not, that I feel are very important to be heard and acted upon.

I recognize your role as volunteer positions, though elected, and I do appreciate your dedication to volunteerism at the expense of your own personal time. Regardless, you have tremendous decision-making power that does automatically come under scrutiny. This vote should not happen tonight in a remote meeting.

Opportunity for this important vote on an RFP that would change the landscape, the gateway to our seaside community has not been sufficiently vetted by the board and public comment has been absent, fully absent from the process, this process. Mr. Grisham, the chairperson at the 9-16 meeting stated that public comment, asterisk stating comments not on the agenda would not be heard. I've never heard this restriction before.

Additionally, this first and second draft were not posted to the town's website as it should have been. It was buried in the Hadley Reuse Committee, as was the pinnacle report from May's town meeting that town meeting members were not directed to before town meeting this past May. A number of very engaged individuals at town meeting addressed they were expecting more public discussion of the three final proposals, but what transpired was the select board went ahead and forged a specific path.

That was proposed as a financial choice, but finances have been said to be important at some venues and then less at others, like a town meeting when the vote to support this direction seemed less secure. Concerns in this proposal include giving over a rooftop structure on Hadley that would change the historic nature of the structure completely, create even event conflict with adjacent public space on our town's Linscott Park, add volume of the already dense community that navigates sound from Mission on the Bay performances. It allows for a two-story structure of parking, which would mean the loss of an open field and a playground.

Where is the plan, an actual plan, to replace this open space? The all-too-brief conversation at select board meeting on 9-6, the notion of invitation of ideas from developers and not to curb their ideas. The developer groups are not by nature a meek, mild profession that are not afraid to ask for commissions beyond what is granted.

They will push the boundaries to make a project bigger and more lucrative. This is the nature of the profession. This will greatly negatively affect the nature of this space.

That should be available to our community members. Items like solar panels, thorough replacement of the septic to the main, and an unfenced property so citizens can pass through the area. And yes, a public space, so this boutique hotel is not exclusive and unapproachable to our citizens.

The mention of boutique is upsetting as we as a town have worked so diligently to be inclusive. Boutique certainly does not sound nor feel inclusive. That is why specifics of non-negotiables should be included.

This board is allowing this project to spiral far beyond, to spiral far beyond what was voted on at town meeting this past May. This group is far too passive about this proposal. Peter Speleo stated that he attended a couple of the requested tours of this property this summer with possible developers.

Did Katie Phelan also a liaison on the Hadley Reuse Committee? At a minimum, this vote should not happen tonight. In the best interest of the town citizens, this should be sent back for another look at town meeting.

If we can find $7 million to secure important open space, we too can find important monies to support a project that would better represent our town today, not harken back to a century ago. We have changed for the better. So that was to be read on the 11th of September.

So just quickly, I want to add just a couple of additional points that I'd like to add tonight. Hadley was opened in December of 1911. It has always been a school.

It has always been a place of supporting public education. It's not too late to change the course, and I really hope that we can do that. I hope that the board would consider doing that.

And under no circumstances, Mr. Grisham, was I intending to be disrespectful, but the fact that public comment felt like it wasn't allowed at either meeting leaves me feeling troubled, because public comment, although not easy to get up here and do, and I'm sure not always easy to listen to, is an important part of it. Lastly, I'd like to leave you with the fact that the process does matter. So it's not just, I'm not standing here complaining about the outcome just because.

I don't like the outcome of the Boutique Hotel, which I clearly do not. But the process of it all does matter, and public process does matter. So additionally, the meeting that we had the day before school opened, it doesn't seem like there will be another meeting.

This is regarding the Vinton Square project. We need to have some type of a plan for public meetings so that there's a threshold of being able to reach people. I've spoken about this before, so that there's a level playing field when there's a big project, like say, like Hadley, and Vinton Square is a privately owned property, so we have little to do with that in the big scope of things other than putting input in.

But this is a public property. There needs to be even more, and it's not gonna sit here idle for 10 years because the board is not going to allow that mistake to happen again, as did with Michonne. So the hastening of things to, in terms of a timeline, it's just a little bit disingenuous.

So I thank you for your time tonight, and I hope to continue to speak on this, and I hope you will consider my thoughts.

[Speaker 9] (44:19 - 44:25)
Thank you, Ms. Lau. Any additional public comment?

[Speaker 3] (44:28 - 44:28)
All right.

[Speaker 9] (44:29 - 44:54)
Hearing none, we'll move on. 7 p.m., public hearing, which is continued from June 26th of 2023, with the Earth Removal Advisory Committee regarding the Holcim NER, Aggregate Industries, Northeast Region Annual Earth Removal Permit. Do I have a vote to enter, to reopen the hearing?

So moved. Second.

[Speaker 10] (44:54 - 44:54)
Second.

[Speaker 9] (44:55 - 45:04)
All right, all in favor? Aye. Aye.

We've reopened the hearing. We have representatives from Holcim here.

[Speaker 2] (45:05 - 45:15)
We will, any comments? Well, I think the only point of business tonight is the decision whether or not we're gonna further extend. I don't know that we need public comment on that.

[Speaker 9] (45:15 - 45:19)
I don't wanna shun public comment, so I'd use these questions.

[Speaker 2] (45:20 - 45:44)
I don't think the applicant needs to chime in about this is not a permit hearing. We're not voting on the permit. I think the intention was tonight to create a further extension of the existing thing, but if we want to have everybody chime in as to whether or not we're going to extend the permit on the same terms, let's do that.

I might have comment depending on how it goes, but right now, I don't have anything to say.

[Speaker 9] (45:44 - 46:16)
Aaron, go ahead. No, no, I'm good. You're good?

Yeah, okay. So right now, we have a permit that expires at the end of this month. It would be my recommendation to enter into a short-term extension.

90 days would get us to the end of December, which I don't think would work with schedules and holidays, so I would entertain an extension from the 30th of September to the end of January of 2024.

[Speaker 10] (46:16 - 46:26)
I have a question. Why do we just keep doing these short extensions? Why don't we just do something six months?

Is there a reason?

[Speaker 2] (46:27 - 46:29)
Well, we are in the middle of a lawsuit.

[Speaker 10] (46:30 - 46:31)
Yeah.

[Speaker 2] (46:32 - 46:39)
No, there is no reason. I mean, to answer your question from my perspective, we can do a six-month extension if we wanted to do a six-month extension. If you want to make a motion.

[Speaker 10] (46:39 - 46:41)
Is there a disadvantage to that?

[Speaker 2] (46:44 - 47:38)
Again, without getting into conversations that are non-public in nature, in the event that there is not, I think the spirit was that there was ongoing discussions between the parties to try and resolve the litigation. Those haven't, to date, materialized into a definitive result, and so I think the thought was ERAC has actually put forth a different permit than the one that we're currently extending for this year, and so if these were to break down, for example, and hypothetically speaking, I'm only speaking hypothetically, and a settlement wasn't to be had, I think ERAC has put forth some recommendations for this year's permit, so I think we were trying to be sensitive to that, but a four-month extension versus a six-month extension, I'm fine with a six months.

If that's what you're seeking, to me, I'm fine with that, too. I don't think it changes anything, personally.

[Speaker 10] (47:39 - 47:47)
So then I'd like to make a motion to extend this to a six-month extension. Do we need to check the calendar?

[Speaker 12] (47:48 - 47:49)
The end of February.

[Speaker 10] (47:50 - 47:50)
End of February.

[Speaker 9] (47:51 - 47:55)
Well, not the end of March. Oh, October. It'll be a five-minute extension.

Okay.

[Speaker 12] (47:56 - 47:57)
Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt.

[Speaker 9] (47:58 - 47:59)
You have a second?

[Speaker 2] (48:00 - 48:07)
So it'd be 31 days after the end of February, is what I understand. Yeah, it's the last day of March.

[Speaker 12] (48:07 - 48:08)
It'll be a great night.

[Speaker 9] (48:09 - 48:11)
It'll be something. Second?

[Speaker 12] (48:12 - 48:14)
Yeah, I second that. I'm in favor of that.

[Speaker 9] (48:14 - 48:15)
Okay, all in favor?

[Speaker 12] (48:15 - 48:16)
Aye. Aye.

[Speaker 9] (48:17 - 48:23)
Thanks. We need to close the public hearing, or do we need to continue it?

[Speaker 2] (48:23 - 48:56)
I think we should just, I think we've been just continuing, and continuing, and continuing, so I think we should just vote to continue it to, we have to, we know what our second meeting is. Let's do this. Let's just vote to, we don't have our assistant here tonight, who has the calendar, but we should just vote to, let me just, yeah, just let me finish my sentence, because I'm gonna suggest we do it sooner, in that way, when she's here, and then we vote again to continue it to the real date.

So I think what we should do is, we know what our first meeting in October is, right?

[Speaker 7] (48:56 - 48:57)
Yep, the fourth.

[Speaker 2] (48:57 - 49:22)
October 4th, right? So we just voted to continue the permit, so that's not gonna change, but we're now gonna just continue the public hearing until October 4th, is what I'm suggesting, at 7 p.m., because then at that time, we can then find out from our assistant, what date, and we can think about when we want it reopened, because the night of is probably not the way to do this. Is that a motion?

Yes, I think, I don't know what I even said, but yes, so moved.

[Speaker 12] (49:22 - 49:23)
Second.

[Speaker 9] (49:23 - 49:24)
All right, all in favor?

[Speaker 12] (49:24 - 49:24)
Aye.

[Speaker 9] (49:25 - 49:26)
Aye. Yeah, thank you.

[Speaker 11] (49:28 - 49:35)
And the intent would be, that we would need to be here Yeah, you don't want us showing up on our I think we're just talking at that point.

[Speaker 9] (49:36 - 49:39)
Yep, I mean, you're welcome to join us.

[Speaker 11] (49:39 - 49:41)
Understood. Maybe we'll join on Teams.

[Speaker 9] (49:44 - 50:23)
Yep, got it. Thank you. Thanks.

All right, thanks. All right, we'll move on. We're gonna have the reading of the National Hispanic Heritage Month Proclamation.

I'll start, and then we can go around the board. The National Hispanic Heritage Month Proclamation by the Select Board. Whereas each year, Americans observe National Hispanic Heritage Month by celebrating the histories, cultures, and contributions of American citizens whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, Central and South America, and.

[Speaker 12] (50:23 - 50:44)
Whereas for the first time in our town's history, we recognize Hispanic people here and anywhere in the United States as we pay respect to the cultures and populations and celebrate the contributions of all Hispanic people for the culture of diversity, innovation, and resilience that has had an indelible impact on the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the United States. And.

[Speaker 2] (50:44 - 51:00)
Whereas the observation started in 1968 as Hispanic Heritage Week under President Lyndon B. Johnson and was expanded by President Ronald Reagan in 1988 through the legislative encouragement of Congressmember Esteban Porras of California to cover the period at which it is celebrated today.

[Speaker 1] (51:03 - 51:20)
Whereas nearly 480 years ago, the recorded Hispanic heritage has been a part of the DNA of American culture with an undeniable influence in education, public safety, infrastructure, economic development, culinary arts, and governance.

[Speaker 10] (51:25 - 51:58)
Whereas in the words of Cesar Chavez, preservation of one's own culture does not require contempt or disrespect for other cultures. And thus celebrate the contributions of the robust Hispanic, oh, how do you say that? Diaspora, diaspora to include Spain, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, El Salvador, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela, and.

[Speaker 11] (51:59 - 52:11)
Now, therefore, on behalf of the entire select board, we do hereby proclaim September 15th through October 15th, 2023 as National Hispanic Heritage Month. Keep going.

[Speaker 3] (52:11 - 52:11)
Yeah.

[Speaker 11] (52:11 - 52:31)
In the town of Swampscott, Massachusetts, and encourage all faith-based and nonprofit organizations, residents, businesses, and public institutions to acknowledge, honor, value, and celebrate Hispanic people's historic and current contributions locally and beyond, while also recognizing the ongoing interconnected struggles of all Hispanic communities locally and beyond.

[Speaker 9] (52:31 - 52:42)
In witness whereof, we have hereon to set our hands and caused to be affixed the great seal of the town of Swampscott, Massachusetts, this 20th day of September, 2023.

[Speaker 1] (52:46 - 52:47)
All right.

[Speaker 9] (52:56 - 53:15)
All right. Thank you. We will move on.

We're gonna have a discussion with Solid Waste Advisory Committee's presentation of survey results. With this, I will kick it off to Wayne Spritz, Chair of Solid Waste Advisory Committee.

[Speaker 5] (53:16 - 54:23)
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, select board members for having us tonight. In the fall of last year, 2022, the Solid Waste Advisory Committee sponsored a town-wide trash survey.

The survey was, and we'll go into the details of it in just a moment. The survey was responded by over 900 people within the town. The committee really spent a tremendous amount of time, I would say well, well in excess of 100, well over 100 hours combined.

And we felt that we were finally at a point that we wanted to be able to present to you some of the findings. What we're gonna do here is a basic overview summary in very quick form. But we have submitted not just the summary, but the report with more details.

And we'd be happy to hear any questions you may have. So I'm gonna turn it over to Emily Westhoven and Kathy Mick, both members of our committee who have the presentation ready to go. Thank you.

[Speaker 6] (54:25 - 55:30)
Yes, so thank you to the select board for having this opportunity to present basically just the highlights and a few recommendations that came out of the survey. And I trust that you had the information in your package and you can refer to that. So we'll keep it very brief.

As Wayne stated, we had a really great response from over 900 individual responses to the survey that hopefully will give us a good qualitative and quantitative snapshot of some of the awareness about the trash and recycling programs, which are two different things, right? So we wanna talk about that. And also provided the public with more constructive feedback to give.

And that was also part of the analysis. And part of what took so many hours for us, or especially me, is because we're not professional survey people. So some of it just takes a little longer.

So as you know, that consists of about 12 questions in the survey and some demographic data. And I will pass it along for some of the highlights of the results to Kathy.

[Speaker 8] (55:30 - 1:02:39)
Sure, so next slide, please. And I also wanted just to say thank you to all of the residents who took the time to fill out the survey. That's a lot of people.

We really spent a lot of time reviewing their responses and appreciate the time everyone took just to give us that information. We did have that open-ended sort of opportunity to provide more input or questions at the end of the survey. And we had over 300 people fill that out as well, which was incredibly informative.

And so here we're gonna present just some of that. Again, you'll see that in your packet. And that will be posted online too.

So everyone in the town can see all of the comments. We wanted to capture everything so that people really knew that we were listening to them and hearing what they were saying. So it's probably no surprise that one of the most popular sections of the comment or topics were the trash barrels.

We received the highest number of distinct comments on the trash barrels' size, but also shape, animal accessibility to them, some questions about the policy and whether it would be revisited, proportional distribution of barrels to residents and households. But just wanted to acknowledge that that did receive most of the distinct open-ended public comments. But then we also had a number of highlights about the blue bags, the overflow bags that people are able to purchase.

We noted that more than half of all of our respondents entirely, so over half of the 900 people who did respond to the survey indicated a minimal use of the blue bags. So either they never used them in a year prior to the survey or they used them maybe once or twice, which is pretty good. But 20% reported regular use of those bags.

And regular in this case was at least twice a month or more. We had some people who reported using them every week. And so because we gathered the demographic data, we were able to take that data and sort of look at like the size of the households and whether there was any sort of correlation between the size of the household and usage of blue bags.

So we did see that large households, which we are counting as four people or more, represented almost all of the responses that said they used a blue bag very regularly every week. But I will note that also the number of respondents from those same number of households who reported almost never using the blue bag or never using it was even higher than the number who used it every week. So we think that's really a positive finding.

But one really interesting thing that we noticed in both the quantitative questions and in the open-ended survey questions was that the people who either said the trash barrels were too small or who reported regular use of the blue bags also reported not composting. So we think that's an area that we can really kind of dig into a little bit more in the future. And then finally, another highlight is that the metal and styrofoam drop-off programs that we offer as a town were fairly widely known, but people seemed to have less awareness of some of the other programs that we offer, like tire recycling or mattress recycling.

Next slide, please, wherever you are. Thank you. So looking across all this information, we came up with really a number of things that the select board might want to consider moving forward with, although SWAC is going to proceed with some other avenues.

But we wanna talk about our two recommendations to you at this time very briefly. So one is an overall just offering additional recycling and waste disposal events as well as education to accompany that. We observe that people have items that they don't know how to dispose of or would like to dispose of and don't see opportunity to do so.

Here we see that oil paints, solvents, old TVs, the ones with the tubes, most people just need help getting rid of. And in addition, there was survey question 11, which asked where people dispose of their electronics so you can bring them to Staples or Best Buy. But the majority of people, 367, said they didn't know.

So that's something we really want to remedy because we don't want people having to keep old stuff around in their house. Thank you. And then in the comments, we did sort of compile all of the things that people either didn't know how to recycle or wanted more recycling opportunities.

And these were very broad or got very narrow like Keurig pods. So you can just look at these, but things to consider. And then next slide, please.

So some of our recommendations to the select board, which will need some of your support. One is having additional hazardous waste disposal days or at least promoting the ones that we're having. Of course, we have a new collaboration with Marblehead, but I think it's either not well sort of recognized among residents.

They don't know that they're happening. And then there's also a cost issue because we did hear that a lot of people find the cost just too prohibitive to participate. So if there's a way to consider how we might defray some of that cost for residents who are finding it difficult, because we really don't want people keeping that stuff in their house, but it is not the most inexpensive disposal cost.

Tire collection, a little plug for Saturday. We have one coming up, hooray. But that was very successful, continue to do that.

Obviously, electronic recycling is an issue. People don't know what to do with them. Not only promoting it, but perhaps just raising awareness of other events.

And then one thing that we actually sort of need to look into more, because there aren't a lot of options, are those bulky, rigid plastic, like old kids' toys that hang outside, like the slides and the picnic tables, and then old recycling bins, ways to recycle those. And then finally, the last one before I turn it back to Emily is because we did observe that kind of gap in people who were saying that their barrels are too small, and they're using a lot of blue bags, but they're not composting, and we want to consider ways to offer more public composting drop-offs, perhaps, or ways to make composting more accessible to more residents in the town.

[Speaker 6] (1:02:42 - 1:07:58)
Yeah, so I think from the highlights results, we know that the diversion, because the residents do have a smaller barrel, the diversion of things that are not supposed to go in the trash bin, residents will hold this back, which is great, but sometimes they hold it back to the point that they have it in the house and don't know how to dispose of it because they also want to dispose of it correctly. So I think the communication part and the education part is key. And I think the push communication that we really push information out as opposed to just having residents go to the website and look for information, I think is always very helpful.

I think we know from the times that a call goes out for the Metal Recycling Saturdays, even though it's a regular event, I'm sure Gino will see more drop-offs just because the reminder went out again to do that. So I think the push communication, as much as we can do it without being overwhelming to the residents with too many calls, I think there can be a good limit to do that. In terms of the pull communication, the survey also clearly stated when asked the residents, where do you look for information regarding waste and recycling?

The absolute majority goes to the town website. So that has to be the source for the information that always has to be most up-to-date. It's also can be more user-friendly for people to find information, right?

To not only for dates, but also on how to do things differently, how to, where, if it's not available in the town of Swampscott, where else can you go? So that is the source and has to be there. We can say we like to continue to act as sort of the trash and recycling ambassadors, also out to the residents, not as only in our committee and advisory role, but we have certainly one member in our committee who is very, you know, staffs the farmer's markets, is out there with the residents.

So really to talk to people, because people do have questions and sometimes it's a very easy answer to give to. And then one of the things that we suggest is actually focus groups too, because I think we would love to talk to, especially residents with a lot of blue bag usage, to see, you know, is there a pattern or is there more education needed that it may apply to more residents actually that we can help and say, you know, you can actually get rid of that or if you really started composting, that would, you know, bring down your use of blue bags and that way your cost. Next slide. Going into another recommendation from the survey is the recycling barrels and that they should have lids.

And there are two reasons for that. One is on windy days, that the recycling doesn't blow around in terms of on the streets, parks, lands, you know, pollution on the beach on that. The other reason is for, of course, water that on rainy days can really soak up the paper and the cardboard, make it heavier and then also add to cost.

Now, the town used to sell those open bins and a lot of residents still have them because they don't know that they shouldn't use them or that they can replace them with something. Also, some residents just have open bins themselves without the lids, just because they think it's easier to use and we understand. But if we can encourage, educate residents for the lids to be on top, that would be, you know, very helpful for the town.

And we're going to the next slide, Pete. So again, there's a lot about education in terms of, you know, why the lids should be on there. Also reminding residents again that they can use their own barrels at home.

If they have one with the lid, they just need a recycling sticker that the town can provide them. They were just reinforcing that message again. And then thirdly, you know, we can certainly consider whether the town should offer a discounted purchase of bins with lids that residents can come to to say, well, we need a barrel.

At this point, I don't think we're recommending that the entire town should receive new barrels provided because I don't think we need kind of uniform conformed barrels at this point, as long as the hauler doesn't require automatic pickup, right? So I think less plastic and less rigid plastic that anybody needs to buy or have, I think is good. But if there was a discounted program, we would certainly encourage and support that.

And I think, as yes, we will be posting the entire results for everybody to see, including all the comments. And please do take a look at that too. The resident feedback, also in terms of how it's grouped to, you know, what the majority of residents were commenting on, would be very helpful.

Questions?

[Speaker 9] (1:08:01 - 1:08:01)
Questions from the board.

[Speaker 12] (1:08:02 - 1:09:10)
I just have some observations. First of all, the information that you provided to us is fantastic. Thank you for going through all of these comments and sifting through all this information.

You know, the takeaways sort of I was thinking about when I was looking over the presentation and the survey results is, you know, further education. We have a very aged population in town. I grew up with, you know, reduced reuse recycling you know, in school when I was little, they were teaching us how to use the recycle bins and what to recycle and what can't.

My parents, they didn't grow up that way. So when I go to their house, I see the things they're putting in the trash and my kids are like, Gigi, probably you can't put that in the trash. And so if we could maybe have some events at the senior center or some places like that, where we can sort of be lending that education.

And then also in schools, right? Because teachers are always looking for enrichment programs. I know science enrichment and STEM enrichment programs are always welcome in the elementary school level.

So any sort of suggestion you have for those types of programming, whether you provide them or you know folks who do, we would love to hear it so that we're making sure that the youth is also educated.

[Speaker 5] (1:09:10 - 1:10:46)
So I just wanna speak to the one very good observation about programs at the senior center. Actually, there was a very successful program a few months ago that Alex and I spoke at that has been offering free recycling. In fact, a new composting, public composting container went up at the senior center and it's been, from my understanding, talking with them of wild success.

In fact, I believe Nia, our public health nurse, has been asking for funding in the last few months to be able to continue this program by giving small barrels, not barrels, small containers for composting to senior housing. In particular, I believe she's looking for about $3,200. We've been trying to discuss money for that.

And they're not, Sean, to direct to you, I don't know if you have feedback for that at this point about the recycling dividends program. But yes, we're very aware of that in the schools. In fact, we had a meeting just last month with Max Casper regarding composting and recycling in the school, trying to keep that program going, talking about what the real-life feedback is of how easy it is or how difficult it may be to both recycle and compost.

One of the challenges that we all have is contamination, is either wish cycling, putting things in that can't be recycled, or putting things into compost that can't be composted. So that contamination really tends to degrade the program as a whole. So about education and enforcement both.

[Speaker 12] (1:10:47 - 1:10:53)
I still offer up my recycling if you wanna come make a video at my house about the do's and don'ts. I'm very happy to learn from y'all, so.

[Speaker 10] (1:10:54 - 1:11:00)
We did get a number of volunteers from the school report. And also if I can- You had a number not answered.

[Speaker 6] (1:11:01 - 1:11:49)
Sorry. The reuse has gotten into a lot better, more public. Part of it, the town is supporting that too, through the town yard sale.

So things are not necessarily being thrown away. They're offered for somebody else's use. And also we could see from the survey that quite a few are using, whether that's Facebook or other sort of social media marketplace in order to give things away.

Sometimes free, sometimes to sell, but not so that the throwing away is not the first step or the first step, but the reuse. Yes, and we're actually very happy that Big Blue Bargains is there again and opening, I think, next week, right? I think there's an official opening next week.

So I'd support them too.

[Speaker 9] (1:11:50 - 1:12:27)
So Emily, I just had a question just for the committee. When you talk about push communications and really trying to get the word out as much as possible, I mean, that's only as good as the number of email addresses or phone numbers that we have. So are there any ideas that you and your committee have that could really drive additional collection of phone numbers and email addresses so we can continue to expand that pool so that makes those push communications that much more effective and efficient from the town perspective?

[Speaker 6] (1:12:27 - 1:13:06)
Because we do wanna help, but I mean, this is- Right, and if people don't subscribe to it online, they are not automatically on it, it's true. I mean, on social media, I'm trying to remind residents as often as I can to subscribe, but I think that's obviously not enough. It's a sliver of who we can reach, but it's a good point to put that in any newcomer information, that's for sure, right?

Farmer's market, anything that the town does to remind. Because I think every resident sort of thinks they're automatically on a phone list and they should automatically receive calls, correct?

[Speaker 8] (1:13:06 - 1:13:27)
Well, when we distributed the survey, we also put the QR codes or the surveys in town hall proper, so just finding other places to put the information too. We really tried to spread awareness of the survey through various means and channels so we can continue to think about that as well.

[Speaker 10] (1:13:28 - 1:13:32)
That's true. And you also put something in the newsletter every month.

[Speaker 6] (1:13:32 - 1:13:33)
Mm-hmm.

[Speaker 10] (1:13:34 - 1:13:36)
Right, we did, we did, yeah.

[Speaker 5] (1:13:36 - 1:13:37)
Did we miss this last one?

[Speaker 6] (1:13:37 - 1:13:57)
But that goes only to the people that already have at least an email, right? Already in the system, so it's the same issue. But yeah, it should be even here at the select board.

Residents should be reminded, again, that they're posting to sign up so that they receive calls and receive communication.

[Speaker 9] (1:13:57 - 1:14:11)
And a question about our commercial businesses as well. Have the commercial businesses that you've been in touch with, have the restaurants really engaged and embraced this composting program and the recycling program?

[Speaker 5] (1:14:11 - 1:17:12)
So that's an excellent point of conversation and it's something that, and I'm gonna kind of jump over to the food and beverage plastics bylaw update for just a moment if that's okay. Perfect. And we can always jump back, but it winds perfectly back into your question.

We were just discussing this. So as you know, the Solid Waste Advisory Committee has a working group that has been meeting every week to almost every 10 days for the last couple of months. And we've done a lot of the background research.

And one of the things that we have a lot of, we have a blind spot too, a true blind spot, is what are the commercial businesses doing? We know what we hope they would be doing. We know what the state mandates that they do.

And that mandate for composting is anything over 1,000 pounds per week has to be diverted from the solid waste, municipal solid waste stream. Whether or not they're doing that, we have no, we're blind, to be honest. And there's some lack of understanding whether or not that is the director of public health's responsibility to enforce or whether or not there is a separate agency within the Commonwealth under the DEP to enforce that.

So we have, and in fact, we've been talking about in our next year's goals that that may be one of them to really work on is the commercial businesses, particularly as we start to engage more with them as it comes to, in particular, the plastics, takeout plastics bylaw. So just to give you a quick update on that. So as I said, we've been working on that.

Kathy, Alex, and myself, we're meeting almost every week, sometimes more, sometimes less. And at this point, we have a meeting next week, a virtual meeting next week with SWAC members to present a preliminary draft. Everyone's, it's a public meeting, everyone's welcome.

We're gonna try to go through it and try to drive consensus on the key points. There's a number of things that, as we've been going through this, we agree, some things we disagree, and we're gonna try to work that out through deliberation within SWAC. After that point, what we'd like to do is take that to a public hearing to which select board, Board of Health is invited.

We are definitely pushing to engage directly with the food and beverage service businesses that will be affected by this, get full public feedback, come in, consolidate that public feedback, and then approach a combined meeting of the select board and the Board of Health to make the final proposal, the final draft. So we feel that we should be pretty solid by then. So at that point, then we would assume it would go to council for review.

[Speaker 3] (1:17:13 - 1:17:14)
Yep.

[Speaker 5] (1:17:15 - 1:17:27)
So again, next week, we have a virtual meeting, 6 p.m. next Wednesday, to review it in public. Yeah, no, okay. You have any other questions for, yeah.

[Speaker 1] (1:17:28 - 1:18:49)
Thank you. I guess, in terms of, you know, just the, Chairman calling you. Oh, I'm sorry.

I just, Wayne had asked me if, you know, I was gonna come up with some money to help, you know, some of these efforts, but I just wanted to share, Wayne, certainly I'm happy to meet and talk with you and the committee about finding ways to help fund some of these initiatives. Really do appreciate all the trash talk and all the recycling talk. Look, we know that our young citizens are gonna be the key to actually engaging all of our older citizens.

They inspire me, they inspire all of us. We had several of the Girl Scouts here today. They are ready to champion these efforts.

Speak to them, inspire them, and give them a sense that, you know, they can help us. They communicate with their parents. They help us understand that, you know, it's their future that we're squandering, and we should give them all the information, all the stickers, all the flyers, all the things that help them really be the ambassadors that we need.

They're the future, and we should just get them going, but thank you. This is a wonderful, you know, volunteer effort, and it's not just trash talking. It's really, it's the environmental stewardship that we need, so reach out to me.

I'm happy to help.

[Speaker 11] (1:18:52 - 1:18:53)
I think Peter has a hand.

[Speaker 2] (1:18:53 - 1:18:59)
No, look, I'm gonna, you're a member of SWAC, so maybe. No, I'm not, actually. Right, who's the member of SWAC?

Mary Ellen's a member of SWAC.

[Speaker 10] (1:19:00 - 1:19:00)
Yeah.

[Speaker 2] (1:19:00 - 1:19:02)
All right, well, then I'm not deferring to you. Do you have something you wanted to say?

[Speaker 10] (1:19:03 - 1:19:27)
I just, when you do have the public meeting, can you ask the town moderator if he can send out an email, or he has an email list of town meeting members, because if this is coming up into, at town meeting, maybe it'd be a good idea if they saw that and they had an opportunity to go to a public meeting, and also, just to make sure, if you communicate with Joe, that there's a video of it so people can.

[Speaker 5] (1:19:27 - 1:19:45)
Yeah, we video every, we record. It'll be on Teams, so we record it all. Okay.

This will really be for kind of an initial internal deliberation piece of it. If you find that helpful to be heard, by all means, you can push that and.

[Speaker 2] (1:19:45 - 1:19:47)
Well, Mary Ellen, I think you were talking about when you get to your public hearing.

[Speaker 10] (1:19:47 - 1:19:48)
When you get to your public hearing.

[Speaker 2] (1:19:48 - 1:19:50)
Oh, no, I'd want to do it right here in this room.

[Speaker 10] (1:19:50 - 1:19:51)
Yeah.

[Speaker 2] (1:19:51 - 1:19:51)
Yeah.

[Speaker 10] (1:19:51 - 1:19:57)
Well, I'm saying, as far as getting the communication out, is to contact the town moderator, just so that he can.

[Speaker 5] (1:19:57 - 1:19:59)
Oh, okay, I understand, I'm sorry.

[Speaker 10] (1:19:59 - 1:20:00)
Send out an email to town meeting members.

[Speaker 5] (1:20:00 - 1:20:03)
We want as much participation as absolutely possible. Yeah.

[Speaker 2] (1:20:05 - 1:20:14)
David, Peter? No, go ahead, Doug. I am going to yield to you, and I'll.

You want to be the final? No, I just, I let you ask the questions.

[Speaker 11] (1:20:16 - 1:22:07)
Okay. So, thank you very much. I've enjoyed this whole process, and there's just, you know, I mean, you're doing a great job of kind of boiling it down, but there's a lot of great data even behind this, and so I want to, like, pull one of them up, which some of you will not be surprised which one I pull up, that 30% of all of our solid waste is food waste.

So I want to just really. Statewide. What's that?

Statewide. Fine, yeah. I doubt we are terribly different, but anyway, so.

Composting, I just want to, like, triple down on that, and the fact that we really need to think about more public spaces. We really need to think about facilitating more private use of composting, and we've had conversations about this. I hope that we will kind of get into it deeper and deeper about the trade-offs potentially of actually maybe even supplying people with composting as a ready-made, just like a recycling bin, like a compost bin should become just like a recycling bin, and really diverting, as our next contract comes up, from the waste stream everything in terms of food scraps and have that kind of get into that mentality. So that's my kind of, like, public pitch about that. The other thing is that the conversations with Jeff, emails and stuff like that do indicate, seem to indicate to me that he has this on the radar about supporting that program that Nia and Sabrina have been phenomenal about running at the Senior Center.

So it'd be great, Sean, if you can absolutely confirm that for us so we can get them moving on that with these funds that Jeff has available.

[Speaker 1] (1:22:08 - 1:22:52)
Oh, you're really nailing me down, I guess. Not this moment, but just so that it's been, it has been drifting, and we need to kind of. Look, we have some of those funds.

I'm happy to have a conversation, I guess, without getting into the specificity. Lots of things that we need to do with solid waste, with recycling. I'm happy to have the conversation.

I do think we need our health director and Nia, and frankly, we can talk about revenue and how we can generate more revenue and do it without just simply impacting the general fund operating budget. We are on a tight budget. That doesn't mean that we can't do a lot of these extraordinary things, but we might have to be creative.

John, aren't there grant opportunities?

[Speaker 9] (1:22:52 - 1:22:56)
Absolutely. So I would hope that we can, that we can put.

[Speaker 1] (1:22:56 - 1:23:02)
Those are some of the programs, but there's also other community activities and other things that we can do, and I want to be helpful.

[Speaker 5] (1:23:04 - 1:23:44)
So to be clear, the Recycling Dividends Program is something set up by the Department of Environmental Protection that gives, based upon a point and credit system, I won't get into the details, we get about $10,000 a year. I believe that money goes straight into the Enterprise Fund as opposed to going to the General Fund, which then allows us the purview to use it for programs like this. So it's a little easier than having to, like some other committees may be able to get funding, get money, it goes to the General Fund, and you have to have an article or special authority to be able to transfer those funds.

I don't think that, correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think that applies particularly here, which is a good thing, because that's what the money is actually meant for. I understood the program.

[Speaker 10] (1:23:44 - 1:23:46)
Are we sure it's going to the Enterprise Fund?

[Speaker 1] (1:23:47 - 1:23:48)
I will double check on that.

[Speaker 10] (1:23:48 - 1:23:49)
We'll check tomorrow.

[Speaker 1] (1:23:51 - 1:23:51)
Thanks.

[Speaker 10] (1:23:52 - 1:24:13)
So before you leave, I just want to say how much I appreciate your folks and your hard work, and I just, I really don't know what else to say. You work so hard, you're really patient, and you're really dedicated, and I don't think there's, well, I don't want to say there's a better committee out there. I just want to say how much I appreciate it.

[Speaker 6] (1:24:14 - 1:24:14)
Thank you.

[Speaker 10] (1:24:14 - 1:24:15)
Thank you, Mary Ellen.

[Speaker 6] (1:24:15 - 1:24:19)
We appreciate that you attend pretty much every meeting.

[Speaker 10] (1:24:19 - 1:24:24)
I'm petrified not to attend. Wayne will be calling me, what?

[Speaker 12] (1:24:27 - 1:24:29)
Before I give you a comment, I have a question.

[Speaker 2] (1:24:30 - 1:24:31)
I only have questions, go ahead.

[Speaker 12] (1:24:31 - 1:24:35)
What does one do with a giant Little Tikes play structure?

[Speaker 6] (1:24:35 - 1:24:49)
Currently? Well, it's very difficult, so you could, basically, it's bulk, which also costs, obviously, as a resident, right? So you would order a bulk sticker, but then it will go into just a regular waste, and it will not be recycled, so.

[Speaker 5] (1:24:49 - 1:25:34)
We have tried, we have called, and in fact, Johnny Gold, who's very connected within that industry, no one is taking it. There's not a market for it, and one of the reasons is that, you know, you have to be, from an industrial standpoint, ready for it. You have to have special grinding machines for it.

We're not aware of anything available right now, but that doesn't mean that it can't happen, and one of the goals that I've had for the committee is to do more regionalization, to talk with other committees in other towns to try to gain traction with them for common cause elements like this and other things to see if we can try to motivate a new solution.

[Speaker 3] (1:25:35 - 1:25:38)
That can shift to any market for the swamp sidewalk.

[Speaker 5] (1:25:39 - 1:25:40)
Yeah, well, swamp's got free brawl.

[Speaker 6] (1:25:40 - 1:25:44)
Oh, oh yeah, no, if it's usable, yeah. If it's usable, yeah.

[Speaker 12] (1:25:44 - 1:25:47)
If it's usable, of course, you know, that's always the first, right? Swamp's got free brawl. Yeah.

[Speaker 9] (1:25:47 - 1:25:49)
It's just an exchange of free goods on social media.

[Speaker 12] (1:25:49 - 1:26:00)
Like, somebody just comes and grabs it, and then it has a second life. And also, I wanted to just briefly touch on glass recycling, because I know we've talked about that multiple times, and it's sort of like the bane of SWAC's existence, I think, because it's...

[Speaker 6] (1:26:00 - 1:26:49)
Right, I mean, you know, the glass is, you know, being taken, but it's not being recycled. Recycling sort of implies that you're actually using the product again to make the same product, right? And so, and glass is a great material to do that.

It's perfectly recyclable, right? You make glass out of glass. But currently, it's basically collected and it's crushed, and then it's mostly being used for, you know, street services, or actually as a layer, protection layer in landfills in between.

So, it's being reused, but it's not being recycled. So, it's not that the glass is being, you know, is ending up in a, you know, just in waste. It's not.

It's being sorted out, crushed, but it's not being, you know.

[Speaker 8] (1:26:49 - 1:26:55)
But the redemption facility, you do want to talk about briefly, Bottle Bill?

[Speaker 6] (1:26:55 - 1:26:57)
Oh, that's plastic.

[Speaker 5] (1:26:57 - 1:26:58)
So, for plastics.

[Speaker 6] (1:26:59 - 1:27:00)
Or with the redemption.

[Speaker 5] (1:27:00 - 1:28:16)
So, the glass that actually gets collected. Okay, so one of the issues at the sorting facility is because it's contaminated. Those get crushed, it's contaminated, and it can't be used for anything.

And because of that contamination, the value of that is basically nothing. So, they end up making it as topping for a landfill. But, as far as my understanding is, the redemption glass, because it stays cleaner and will somewhat hold, right?

It has more value. And I believe that glass does, in fact, get recycled. And there is, you know, one of the things we've been doing over the last few months is collecting and tracking the state, all the bills within the House and the Senate that are talking about everything from the Bottle Bill, to, I think I'll skip that stuff, which is about condiments and utensils within restaurants, to eliminating dangerous chemicals within wrappers and things like that.

So, we're trying to stay abreast of what's going on at the state level so that as we can recommend policy at a local level, there's some level of conjoined.

[Speaker 9] (1:28:18 - 1:28:38)
And then, just my last question is, so, if presented with the opportunity of buying soda, for instance, which is terrible, I know. But, you know, if we have a choice. Not the Board of Health.

If we have a choice. So, aluminum is always preferred since aluminum is more easily recyclable.

[Speaker 5] (1:28:38 - 1:29:02)
Aluminum is easily recyclable. And it's, in fact, so much more environmentally friendly to recycle aluminum because of the environmental cost of energy and water. To make new aluminum from rock, 10 times the cost.

So, yes, recycling aluminum is an unbelievably efficient process, comparatively.

[Speaker 6] (1:29:02 - 1:29:34)
And especially if you redeem it. So, if you redeem it, it's even more likely to be absolutely recycled because it's sorted, it's not contaminated to other products, right? So, redemption is, and that's where, you know, they're working on with the bottle bill, you know, if the redemption goes up from five cents to 10 cents, you know, that more residents, more incentive to really redeem them, you know, the stream of returning those items into the market is much better.

[Speaker 1] (1:29:35 - 1:29:41)
But this is not awesome. And I'm kind of, you know, I'm trying to get rid of these.

[Speaker 10] (1:29:41 - 1:29:42)
None here.

[Speaker 1] (1:29:42 - 1:29:49)
Single-use plastic bags. But anybody that brought the container, you get a gold star.

[Speaker 6] (1:29:49 - 1:29:51)
It's always the best. It's always the best.

[Speaker 10] (1:29:55 - 1:29:59)
Wow, so your work is cut out for you. Look at this, David. Oh, right, yes, single-use.

[Speaker 5] (1:30:00 - 1:30:10)
Look, I'm gonna get better, too. Yeah, the key is, you know, those plastics have high value and they're highly recyclable, and the number one's and number two's.

[Speaker 3] (1:30:10 - 1:30:11)
Oh, there you go.

[Speaker 5] (1:30:12 - 1:30:18)
We'll address some of these issues next week as well in terms of some of our suggestions recommended.

[Speaker 2] (1:30:19 - 1:30:42)
So I have three really quick questions, questions, comments, I'm not sure what they are. Let me just, I added the third, which is a single-use plastic bottle ban. 1,000% for it, the state just, the governor just signed an executive order for state agencies, and I believe the number was 100,000 single-use plastic bottles safe purchases every year.

And so I'm just, I'm putting that out there. Other communities have done it.

[Speaker 5] (1:30:42 - 1:30:43)
When did that happen? When did that just?

[Speaker 2] (1:30:43 - 1:31:58)
This week, just this week. Oh, look it, I'm, this is good, I'm kind of on the cutting edge of recycling news. But other communities have done it and the world hasn't, you know, the sky hasn't fallen.

And I, Sean actually recently gave me a reusable bottle and I hate it when he gives me swag, but candidly, I use it all the time now, except for tonight, apparently, because I have one hiding under my screen here. We're not perfect. But I actually want to speak to the recycling covers.

The recycling covers, besides glass, paper is our heaviest recyclable. And the delta between wet and dry is crazy. And so this will pay for itself.

If we just take the simple math of rain events, et cetera, here, this, we will be able to afford to buy everybody in this town a container that has a cover, just, I mean, we need to do the math and do it, but simply that alone and the- Yeah, I think there's an ROI for it. Yeah, and I think that we should, so I would welcome, not to put more burden on you, but I just welcome all of us, like, just let's look at that because that is one that actually we see. We are paying more for recycling than ever and that's not gonna change, so.

[Speaker 5] (1:31:58 - 1:32:14)
This originally came out because, you know, all of us walking down Humphrey and seeing this stuff on a windy day just blowing into the beach and into the parks. It's just like, you know, trying to wrap your head around that and the only solution is to cover it, to start.

[Speaker 2] (1:32:14 - 1:33:32)
Yeah, I think the secondary issue is- I think we can help, but I think, look at the state's gotta, the state's on top. I'm sure somewhere in the state they're also recognizing that, and so these grant programs that got us to where we got with the solid waste stuff, hopefully will be expanding over time and begin to become available, but I still think if we just did the, this is gonna tie into my last comment, which is, I wanna, it would be great not to add to your burden, but even from staff, we used to get reports about trash and recycling and volume, and so that we could see the trends and understand it, and one of the things that when we, the original group that, you know, did the change in solid waste, Polly Tickham was part of it, her and DEP really worked on estimating how many blue bags, and when I see 20% kind of being the estimate there, well, it was contemplated that 15% was the number, so 15 to 18%, I think, was the exact number that they actually came back with based on demographics in Swampscot and stuff like, so like, that data's validating, right? And so I, but I also, we've been, it's been enough time since that's all happened that I think we've lost track of, I'm gonna say for myself, I've lost track as to where our trends are, and where's the contract going in the future, just because seeing that also tells us, explains the freight train, the economic freight train, nevermind just the right thing to do, but I think bringing that forward also.

[Speaker 5] (1:33:32 - 1:34:06)
So every month, every month, I do post the data on, not every, sometimes, we skip a month, almost every month, we do show the consolidated data, and we show the existing trend line, and our trend line is, by 2030, a reduction of 30%, and we started adding not just tractor cycling, but we started adding all the mattresses, all the black, all the black earth that gets collected, not just by the town, but by community-wide, so what we're actually, I don't wanna take up too much of your time, and I know I have the habit of doing so.

Right.

[Speaker 2] (1:34:08 - 1:34:12)
They say that about a lot of people, and I think they're totally wrong when they say that.

[Speaker 5] (1:34:12 - 1:34:13)
They're wrong.

[Speaker 2] (1:34:13 - 1:34:15)
I think they're totally wrong, you're perfectly fine.

[Speaker 5] (1:34:15 - 1:34:32)
Thank you, well, the interesting, and I'm happy to, at another invite, be able to go over the data again, but the interesting thing is that our entire consumption has gone down, which I find is fascinating, based upon years past, so even though.

[Speaker 11] (1:34:33 - 1:34:33)
With the population going up.

[Speaker 5] (1:34:33 - 1:35:13)
Even with the population going up, and one of the interesting things, I think we're starting to recognize that we should really be looking at this per person, as, you know, come out with that data, as opposed to just town-wide. It would be very interesting to look at what were we, in terms of population, three years ago, two years ago, and today, et cetera, and see how those numbers change, but I think that not just the policy of what we're doing is forcing people to rethink how they evaluate their solid waste output to the curve, but I think the message is getting clearer, and the other economic incentives to do so. We're just consuming less waste that goes to the.

[Speaker 2] (1:35:14 - 1:35:17)
So, Wayne, you said you post it, or make it available, where is that?

[Speaker 5] (1:35:17 - 1:35:21)
We post it, so it's on video every meeting, but we have been talking.

[Speaker 10] (1:35:21 - 1:35:21)
No, it's in their minutes.

[Speaker 5] (1:35:22 - 1:35:26)
Yeah, and it's in, oh, it's in their minutes. I don't know if it's in the.

[Speaker 6] (1:35:26 - 1:35:28)
Not the. We can, and we should.

[Speaker 2] (1:35:28 - 1:36:44)
If there's a way to make it more readily accessible. I mean, I'll find it. Be happy, direction.

But I think this is a perfect example where the data, first of all, I love. I mean, the use of data to drive and to inform decision-making is paramount, and there's so many things that we do that the data's amorphous, and it's more of a feel than it is a fine-tuning of things, but here's a situation where we have proof, and what you guys are doing really matters, and it's informing decision-making, and it's taking the decision-making out of, in some ways, the emotional, right? And I don't diminish the importance of the emotional.

I'm just saying that it's elevated it to be able to say it's undeniable what the problem is, and it's also undeniable what the solution's doing, right? And so when we are able to bring those things together, I appreciate that there are still some people that think the barrels are too small, but overall, the data's telling us something, which is, hmm, maybe the rollout wasn't the best rollout in the world, but the program itself is working, right? And so that was very data-driven in a very, I was gonna say wonky way, and at the time, I was like, oh my God, you're really, I mean, I remember Polly coming to DDP.

I can't remember the woman's name, and I don't.

[Speaker 1] (1:36:44 - 1:36:45)
Sharon Kashida.

[Speaker 2] (1:36:45 - 1:37:00)
Sharon Kashida, who I remember them just sitting there, and they would wonk out on it, and it works, and you guys do a lot of the same thing, and it really works, and it's validating, and so I just wanna make sure we keep seeing the data, too, because I think we are enough times past, if you will.

[Speaker 5] (1:37:00 - 1:37:08)
Yeah, we will make more of an effort to actually publish just the data, so it's not kind of buried. We can most certainly do that. Anyways, thank you for everything you're doing.

[Speaker 2] (1:37:08 - 1:37:09)
Thank you. Appreciate it.

[Speaker 5] (1:37:09 - 1:37:10)
Thank you. Thank you.

[Speaker 1] (1:37:11 - 1:37:27)
Appreciate it. Thanks. Wayne, let's meet.

Okay. I think we've got our capital plan coming together right now. Recycling barrels have an ROI, you know?

Let's talk about. Well, there should be a lot of grants for that. We can look at grants, too, but we don't have to do it immediately.

[Speaker 5] (1:37:28 - 1:37:38)
I think the hauler does take some responsibility for that, as well, and that might be pressured into the next contract for that, as well, as I'm associating, so.

[Speaker 12] (1:37:39 - 1:37:55)
Well, if we do think about these things, how to recycle, how to figure out, get rid of what we have, if people have those blue barrels, and they wanna dispose of them properly, how they go about doing them. I know when we have the new barrels, it'll allow.

[Speaker 6] (1:37:55 - 1:38:19)
Just the rigid plastics. A program like that would create a lot of excess rigid plastic again, right? Which I personally am not very happy about.

That's why I would like to do it more targeted. You know, because I don't need a barrel. I have perfectly fine with a lid, right?

And it says recycling on it. So, but it's definitely something that we could look in more detail to make sure that really everybody has it.

[Speaker 12] (1:38:20 - 1:38:27)
Also, just more education, that people can use a regular barrel. Put a sticker on it. You don't need a fancy barrel.

It doesn't have to be blue, it doesn't have to be.

[Speaker 5] (1:38:27 - 1:38:28)
We hand them out at the farmer's market.

[Speaker 12] (1:38:28 - 1:38:29)
Yeah, yeah.

[Speaker 6] (1:38:29 - 1:38:35)
As long as the hauler doesn't require a standardized barrel for pickup. Yep, there are actually three questions.

[Speaker 10] (1:38:37 - 1:38:42)
And don't forget, the hauler has a program that you can apply for funds to. Remember they told us that?

[Speaker 6] (1:38:42 - 1:38:46)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. That is correct. It's a big company, Republic.

[Speaker 9] (1:38:46 - 1:39:34)
Yeah, yep. Thanks again. Thank you very much.

Appreciate the education. All right, we're gonna move on to a vote of the consent agenda. Consent agenda is designed to expedite the handling.

Oh, sorry, I skipped something. With the indulgence of the board, we will skip item five tonight and we will reconvene on that at our next meeting. October 4th.

Okay. So we'll move on to the consent agenda designed to expedite the handling of routine and miscellaneous business of the board. Select board may adopt the entire consent agenda with one motion and at the request of any board member, any item may be removed from the consent agenda and placed on the regular agenda for discussion.

[Speaker 12] (1:39:35 - 1:39:39)
Can I just pull out the meeting minutes, please? Yep.

[Speaker 10] (1:39:41 - 1:39:45)
Four. The sixth. The seventh.

[Speaker 11] (1:39:46 - 1:39:51)
And I'd like to pull out the board appointments briefly.

[Speaker 12] (1:40:00 - 1:40:03)
Did you wanna vote on the consent agenda as modified?

[Speaker 2] (1:40:03 - 1:40:13)
Yeah, so yeah, we'll vote on the consent agenda as modified, do I have a motion? So is that, I just wanna be clear, that's the one-day looker license and the approval of the minutes from September 11th. Correct.

Correct.

[Speaker 10] (1:40:13 - 1:40:14)
Correct, so.

[Speaker 2] (1:40:15 - 1:40:15)
So moved.

[Speaker 10] (1:40:15 - 1:40:16)
Second. All in favor?

[Speaker 9] (1:40:17 - 1:40:20)
Aye. We'll start with appointments.

[Speaker 11] (1:40:21 - 1:40:49)
Okay, so unless I missed something, I see detailed information about the first candidate on the agenda. But the second candidate information is very sparse. Sparse, am I just reading this correctly?

[Speaker 9] (1:40:51 - 1:41:05)
Yeah, I mean, that's what I have in my packet as well. I don't, I mean, we don't have a, I mean, the volunteer forms were both filled out. Yeah, yeah, okay, yeah.

I don't think there was anything, Sean.

[Speaker 2] (1:41:06 - 1:41:46)
You know, Danielle has. No, I mean, you spoke to me. Yes.

I appreciate the questions. I'm just gonna say it again. This is a perfect example of something that maybe we can bring it to the town administrator before we get to a public meeting because it's always awkward when we start talking about individuals who are trying to volunteer.

So I just. That's why I referred to them as one person too. No, I understand that, but he just responded with names.

And so I'm just saying, just, we don't do it to be secretive. We do it just because it's awkward when we start trying to, and I'm not saying you're going there. You're just making a factual observation.

It just becomes very awkward when we're talking about the qualifications of individuals and having to do it publicly, and that's, again, why it's kind of funnel-steep.

[Speaker 9] (1:41:46 - 1:42:10)
No, I understood, and look, some of the applications come in different shapes and sizes, and look, the application was simply received. There was no resume. The chair of, the chairs of these boards have interviewed.

I believe Sean has interviewed as well. So that's, we have all the available information done.

[Speaker 11] (1:42:10 - 1:42:56)
Yeah, so then the remaining concern I have is about our process because the handbook that we just went over, unfortunately, has us still interviewing these people. So we're kind of in a little bit of a jam about this from my perspective. I don't know if we actually touched on that last week, or, and I'm not sure it's really necessary for us to be interviewed.

I don't think it actually is the best process for it, but that's kind of what it says. So, and when, you know, when it says that, and this is what I have to look at, that's all I know, it kind of creates a little bit of a jam for me.

[Speaker 1] (1:42:57 - 1:43:27)
Yeah, it's gonna be an incredible amount of time for the board to schedule interviews for every individual that- Again, I'm not suggesting that that should be the process. I think in some ways, you know, having the town administrator, having the board chairs, you know, provide recommendations, I think helps to, you know, ensure that, you know, we're vetting the candidates and we get a sense of their, you know, background and their, you know, interest in really serving on these committees and their, you know.

[Speaker 10] (1:43:30 - 1:43:47)
I think the process needs to be re-evaluated and for the better, and there's a way to do it. And I've been working on trying to put some recommendations together. So if we can get it on the agenda in the future, bring it up and let's see if we can tweak it, make it easier.

[Speaker 11] (1:43:49 - 1:44:21)
Yeah, and just to be clear, what I'm saying is, I'm not trying to make this into a mega thing, but I guess I'm just saying that I'm urging us to just get rid of that piece of the handbook that says that we're actually interviewing these people so that we're clear about what our process is and that we're putting this in the hands of the committees and town administrator, and you're bringing that recommendation to us, we're giving this information, and that's what we're relying on. That's really what we're doing, anyway, so.

[Speaker 2] (1:44:24 - 1:45:26)
So we actually had this conversation when we went through the handbook, just so I appreciate we're having it again. I don't know why we're having it again tonight, so I think where we left it last time was Mary Ellen saying exactly what she said. She had concerns, I think was the phrase she used, and that she was gonna work on some ideas.

And Sean is responsible for making a series of changes to the handbook, and so that's why I think, I assume that's why it hasn't come back yet. It just hasn't, he was taking the notes that night and was gonna make the red lines, so I think we're, I hear you. I don't think it actually says that we have to interview.

I think it says something different, but the point is, I hear your point. We talked about it the other night as well, and I think that's kind of the whole concept is, I think we agreed to table it because Mary Ellen wanted to have further conversations generally about that process, so we kinda not kicked the can. We just delayed, I think, further detailed conversation on appointments because of the interest expressed by Mary Ellen, so I'm just.

[Speaker 10] (1:45:27 - 1:45:46)
So I would like to see, though, that as, we're gonna do that at a later date. We have two individuals here that have been vetted by the town administrator. I wouldn't wanna see holding that up only because these are committees that.

[Speaker 11] (1:45:46 - 1:45:59)
That's fine, are we all in general agreement that we don't really expect to actually be interviewing these people, or whatever, if you pulled it up, whatever it says? Is that something that we're?

[Speaker 10] (1:45:59 - 1:46:14)
I think today, we don't expect to be interviewing them, but I think when we turn around and look at our process, we would have to decide how we want our process to be done. I mean, right now, we're out of compliance within the handbook, but we haven't voted on the new handbook yet.

[Speaker 2] (1:46:15 - 1:46:23)
It's, yeah, we're waiting on that line changes, yes, yes. So Mary Ellen, I agree with you about moving forward with these two tonight, as do I.

[Speaker 12] (1:46:23 - 1:46:24)
As do I.

[Speaker 2] (1:46:25 - 1:47:05)
Okay. So I would make a motion to appoint, to make the appointment set forth in the agenda for the Open Space and Recreation Planning Committee, and for the Rec Commission. Are these both three-year terms?

Again, this point always drives me crazy. Okay, so they're for three years terms, but that has to be in our packets, right? And so we just, I mean, I think previously we've had it, we need to have the full committee so that we know who's on the committee and what positions are being filled and how long the position is.

That's just background information that we should have. That should just be standard. That would be my motion.

Okay.

[Speaker 11] (1:47:06 - 1:47:25)
Do I have a second? Second. All right, all in favor?

Aye. So I'm gonna be voting against this because I feel like it's not in accordance with the handbook that we have right now. It has nothing to do whatsoever with who these candidates are.

Okay, I'm just gonna wanna be clear about that for everyone's sake. So, okay. All right, all in favor?

[Speaker 3] (1:47:26 - 1:47:26)
Aye.

[Speaker 9] (1:47:27 - 1:47:35)
Aye. Opposed? Okay.

Thank you. And the minutes for nine, six.

[Speaker 12] (1:47:37 - 1:47:42)
I have some updates for the minutes. Sure. I'll submit them to Diane.

[Speaker 10] (1:47:43 - 1:47:46)
That would be great. Oh, okay, submit our changes to Diane?

[Speaker 9] (1:47:46 - 1:47:50)
I think so. Okay. Yeah, and then we'll just, we'll take it up.

We'll take it up on October 4th.

[Speaker 10] (1:47:50 - 1:47:51)
I'm good. Okay, great.

[Speaker 9] (1:47:51 - 1:47:56)
Okay, great. Sean, town administrator report.

[Speaker 1] (1:47:57 - 1:57:13)
Sure. So, last week I had an opportunity to meet with the Marblehead Counseling Center with Representative Armini. We had a very productive discussion with the board of directors and the executive director.

A number of Swanscot residents are on the waiting list for services there. It really is a wonderful program and Marblehead is supporting the center with the use of a town-owned building, but also makes a direct appropriation. But certainly, they're seeing more and more individuals.

They have a number of relationships with local police departments and health centers and senior centers and school departments. We discussed the opportunity to really pull together a service summit to really talk about where the gaps are or where the opportunities are. Certainly, you see a number of opportunities to get Swanscot residents more services.

This past week, we sent out a notice that we are eliminating the boat storage lottery. This is a program that has been longstanding in Swanscot. I know that this does present a hardship for some folks, but the town has really struggled over the last few years with a number of individuals that have stored their boats illegally at Phillips Park.

We did get a grant to help build pickleball courts in that location, so there is a demand for that real estate. And frankly, there are risks and costs to the town. But certainly, we are looking to see if there are other areas in town.

We're a town of three square miles. We don't have as much land as other communities, and so really, we're really in a tough spot. Last week, I did have an opportunity to do a site visit at the former courthouse of General Glover.

This was a longstanding effort. We had tried to get into the property in the middle of August. Unfortunately, the property really was quite a bit damaged through water, and we're still trying to figure out what, if any, kind of salvage you know, material we can take from the home.

I did have a meeting today, and I've met several times with the Historic Commission, and we're still trying to work through a way to honor and recognize General Glover. We have been working with Affordable Housing Trust Committee to try to figure out how to relocate the Pittman House. Unfortunately, ZDA did vote against the variant, or didn't take any action on a request of variance last night.

It's a complicated initiative, but certainly appreciate the efforts of all those involved. This past week, or this week, I met with Undersecretary of the Office of the Executive, the Executive Office of Veterans Affairs, and General Andrea Gayle Bennett, with a number of individuals, number of veterans agents from Linn, Swampskate, and Nahant to discuss an opportunity for Swampskate to build some veterans housing. We are out to RFP for that project, and they're due on Monday, so we should have some information on Monday as we look to move forward with that project.

We are in the middle of our capital planning. It's, I wanna thank our finance team. They've been working with department heads over the last few weeks, and the deadline for this year's capital projects is the end of September.

As always, I've really encouraged department heads and committees to really think big. And so, even tonight, hearing from the Solid Waste Committee about some of their ideas, these are opportunities to put projects in the queue. Doesn't mean that, frankly, we're gonna fund them the first year.

In fact, I wanna see projects in the capital improvement plan for at least three to five years before they really come up before town meeting. That gives us a chance to go out and look at grants, look at other alternative strategies for how we fund those. Generally, we wanna have a 30-year horizon so we can see two-and-a-half life cycles of vehicles and capital needs.

Most facilities, systems, building systems last 20 to 30 years, so you wanna see that 30-year window so you can actually see your debt schedule, debt service, and help balance the impact of the operating budget. I have met several times with Heidi Weir and Bob Powell to discuss their efforts to really think more broadly about a senior center and a community life center. We've revised some of their presentations to really start with a much smaller scope of project, really that feasibility level.

So we'll be submitting a capital project around 100,000 dollars to really establish a feasibility study for a senior center. And I think there are opportunities to really work with a number of other committees or groups or initiatives. The sense of a community life center or a community center really seems to be a theme that this board has talked about, certainly Katie has talked about.

And so this could be a really important opportunity to collaborate. Our library is busy. They have a busy strategic plan that they're advancing that really talks about that future of that 21st century library.

They have increased hours. We really wanna thank Jonathan Nichols, our library director, for really listening to the community and finding ways to expand access. We wanna see that library be a wonderful resource.

This Saturday at 1030, there's a program to recognize extraordinary former colleague, Sandy Maltz. So just wanted to share that with the board. I continue to work with Mayor Nicholson.

We continue to talk about some of the funding strategies. We will be having a meeting the next couple of weeks with an update to really talk about what the next steps are. I have a meeting scheduled tomorrow with Client Velvet to talk a little bit more about asset management study and some of the recommendations for Kings Beach.

I have asked Gino and Jeff to really look at spray painting some warnings in English and Spanish on the seawall to ensure that folks that go down there understand that the proximity around the Stacey's Brook outfall really is dangerous and we wanna make sure that we redouble our efforts to connect with the community. Max has been busy working on our senior center kitchen. The hood bids are in.

There are a few tweaks that need to be made, but he's really eager to move forward. Town hall garage is moving forward. We've filled up both bays with concrete, so we won't have to worry that anybody will be falling through the carriage house forever.

The fire station sprinkler project is out to bid. He is working on $100,000 capital improvement project for our DPW that was included in a prior year capital improvement plan. Again, it might be helpful for this board to meet at the DPW, get a firsthand view of that facility.

It is one of our most important priorities. It is in need of replacement. Let's see.

I have had a number of important conversations with the police department and police union over the last week. We have a plan to really expedite and really go out aggressively to support a recruitment for candidates for vacancies we have in the police department. We've hired a company to help us expedite some of the testing.

We have a schedule that runs from September through November. I expect to have candidate background packages in my office by September 10th. I think we'll have an opportunity to continue to work to fill some of those positions.

[Speaker 12] (1:57:14 - 1:57:14)
November 10th.

[Speaker 1] (1:57:15 - 1:58:26)
I'm sorry, November 10th. Our human resources department has been very busy working with our fire department. So Mr. Cain has been working with Chief Archer to conduct some fire department interviews with filling two vacancies. We have library and community development positions that are being interviewed for at this point. And Mr. Cain will be at a North Shore Mass Hires event on November 8th. Recreation department has been busy.

Unfortunately, we are gonna have to cancel Swamptoberfest. I don't wanna cancel it, but frankly, the opportunity to reschedule it is gonna bump into any number of community events over the next few weeks. And it does look like we're gonna have another rainy weekend and the logistics of getting all the bands and all the equipment, it's a lot more complicated than folks realize.

And frankly, we're gonna get the word out right now that it's just gonna be canceled.

[Speaker 12] (1:58:26 - 1:58:27)
Go ahead.

[Speaker 10] (1:58:29 - 1:58:31)
What about later in October?

[Speaker 1] (1:58:32 - 2:01:59)
I frankly have asked that same question and it's frankly, it's something that I hope we can coordinate, but there are other programs and events that we've got scheduled in October. So I certainly will get back to the board if it's a possibility. I would love to see it rescheduled.

I hate to cancel events. I'd like to just reschedule them. There is a car show on October 8th.

Lots of fun events happening. We wanna see more low cost, no cost events. So I do think there'll be news of additional events that we'll be scheduling for the fall and winter.

We do have COVID protocols that are in place. I was seeing an uptick in COVID cases. So if you do feel as though you're under the weather, take care of yourself.

Make sure you mask up and keep everybody safe. We have flu vaccines that will be passed out on September 28th from four to 6 p.m. at the Senior Center. We do have a tire collection event, as you heard, on September 30th at 8 a.m. to noon. And we are gonna see a urgent care center opened up at CVS in Vinton Square. Really wanna thank the board members that showed up for this year's 9-11 Memorial. We do this every year.

I wanna thank the fire department, certainly Chief Archer for all his work to coordinate the event. There was an event in Boston on 9-11, and a number of Swampskip firefighters were honored. We are gonna be looking at events to really ensure that the younger generations really understand the impact of 9-11.

We do an event in the morning on 9-11, but certainly having an event later in the day where folks could attend after work and with families I think would be something that would really help us all just understand how important it is never to forget why we were attacked and why we should come together on 9-11. Unfortunately, Reach Arts is gonna be vacating their property and terminating their lease with the town. I will be meeting with Reach Arts to talk about continuing use of that building, but certainly wanna give the board and the town a heads up.

Lots of opportunity to kind of talk about future uses for that property. We've heard a lot about big group bargains needs and other community groups, so there may be some opportunities to really think about some broader uses. We are putting together draft of the annual or the fall special town meeting with several proposed articles.

We haven't set a date, but we certainly should do that at some point. My report. Oh, lastly, I just wanna congratulate Andrew and Jemmy and Darkside Pub for their soft opening.

We have a new restaurant on Humphrey Street, and I think it really is exciting to see Humphrey Street starting to come alive, and I hope to see a few more restaurants come to Small City.

[Speaker 9] (2:02:00 - 2:02:01)
Thanks, Sean. Questions?

[Speaker 10] (2:02:03 - 2:03:04)
So I have a question on the boat storage lottery. I am disappointed that a notice went out in September because I think as a prior boat owner, I generally always figured out where I was gonna be storing the boat in August, so some concerns that I have is people are left with not being able to find a decent place to put it. The other thing is, has this been cut out because people broke the rules too much, and do we absolutely have no place in town to put 10 boats and keep that going?

Because I think it was a good thing to have. I think it did help quite a few people, but I just wanna know if there is any other place in town to put it, and if the rates are an issue, then just raise the rates, but do you have any- Yeah, I think there are a lot of issues.

[Speaker 1] (2:03:04 - 2:04:26)
It's not just because we had scoff laws. I think there are any number of encumbrances to that property that make it difficult for the town to actually use it for other purposes. I think there's a just attractive nuisance risk of having boats there.

We have to have our general liability policy. This is a small program. We could literally put 12 boats there.

We have a significant number of boats in the harbor, and frankly, we do have a pretty low cost. It's $15 a foot. You go over to an adjoining community, it could be as much as, well, a reasonable price would be $140 a month, and it could be many times the cost.

So I don't think we're gonna generate enough revenue to actually help offset the cost associated with the town's encumbrance of that property. That said, we are gonna look at other areas and see if we could be helpful, but we're a small town, and it's a significant impact to a public property.

[Speaker 10] (2:04:27 - 2:05:22)
My next question is capital plans. So I have brought this up with David, and I do wanna see something on the agenda in the near future to discuss capital plans. So for example, out of our capital budget, what is the opinion of the select board on where does the select board wanna see capital monies being spent?

For example, in recreation, pickleball courts, just everything involved in the capital plan. I was disappointed in some aspects of the capital plan last year because there are things that weren't really detailed, and I think that we should be getting a little bit more into that plan, and I'm sure that's what's gonna happen this year. And then, but I think that as a select board, it's important that we weigh in on where we wanna see some of the capital.

[Speaker 1] (2:05:24 - 2:05:27)
Well, you do, you get it.

[Speaker 10] (2:05:27 - 2:05:35)
We do after, we don't before, and I think that we should be starting to do it, we should be driving the bus and giving direction on where we'd like to see it.

[Speaker 9] (2:05:39 - 2:05:57)
Sean, just from a timing perspective, I mean, we still have capital requests that are rolling in through the end of this month. So I think that if we include this as an agenda item at our second October meeting, perhaps with a joint meeting, a CIC, we can have that discussion.

[Speaker 2] (2:05:57 - 2:07:13)
Happy to coordinate. So I'm just gonna chime in on this because I think as though the town administration and the financing will have just received the request. Again, the analogy of driving a bus doesn't actually work for me in the select board.

I believe we can help the bus decide which direction to go, but we have a town administrator under our charter who makes a capital recommendation to us and to town meeting, and we should definitely chime in on that. We don't have enough conversation. It frankly comes way too late in the process and it's fully baked.

So I'm agreeing with you 100% on that. That's my point. Yeah.

But I just would suggest that October before it's even been vetted is, again, I think so historically, the town administrator has rightfully asked developed department heads and committees to think big. It still needs to be vetted and shaped a bit before it shows up on a capital plan. And so we can certainly see everything that was asked for, but I think I just don't want to get it too raw because I don't really want to be in the sausage making.

I'm happy to, you know, once the professionals are able to say, this is where we think we are, not final recommendations, but these are ones that we think are ready or not ready or appropriate, and just give us that context is helpful. So we're not viewing it without that lens. So I totally agree with what you're asking for.

[Speaker 10] (2:07:13 - 2:07:33)
Well, one of the concerns that you actually brought up when we were talking about capital in the past was talking about a percentage of capital going into recreation or open space and things like that. So that's one of the reasons why, you know, I question at what, when do we come into play and start saying, look, this is where we think the direction is going.

[Speaker 2] (2:07:34 - 2:08:10)
Yeah, no, I appreciate you raising that and you're right. And that's more at the policy level though than the project specific level. So maybe sooner than later, we have a policy conversation without necessarily flipping through a capital plan and we can familiarize ourselves with the current capital plan from last year to help us with that conversation.

But I don't, policy should not be based on what's the current capital plan. It should be based on this is the right policy or guideline or something to help guide. I hear you on that and I do feel good.

So maybe not, I'm just saying maybe we do it without all the wrong findings.

[Speaker 9] (2:08:10 - 2:08:16)
It's on, it's Sean and I are talking about this and this is something that we do want to include on a future agenda.

[Speaker 10] (2:08:17 - 2:08:24)
Thank you. Yep. And I am really happy to see that there's gonna be a hiring process that is 49 days.

[Speaker 1] (2:08:26 - 2:08:26)
Me too.

[Speaker 12] (2:08:27 - 2:08:28)
Just slightly longer than yours.

[Speaker 10] (2:08:30 - 2:08:33)
Yep. But in the ballpark.

[Speaker 2] (2:08:36 - 2:08:49)
So I guess I have a couple of questions, but not one, I'm gonna follow up on the boat storage thing. I just, if you can follow up and explain the boats that are currently parked in Phillips, parked in line, we're not doing boat storage. I'm just curious if the half dozen or so.

[Speaker 10] (2:08:49 - 2:08:49)
The storm.

[Speaker 2] (2:08:49 - 2:10:22)
Boats in storage, I'm just saying if we've created a role, some were able to do it, but others weren't able to do it. I'm just, it's one of these things again. We just, I hear you.

I agree with Mary Ellen about the notice. We've gotta, we cannot, we can't the day before a snowstorm tell people they can't park on the street. You know, we gotta tell them a year before.

We gotta have a bylaw. Oh wait, we do have a bylaw during snow emergencies, right? I mean, we just, we gotta be better at that.

That's an unfounded forced error. And I think people just feel like, even if they don't agree with the policy, that's okay. I think we can at least serve it up with right timing on that.

And then I know we may have some things that we have to deal with negotiations and whatnot. I do appreciate your focus on hiring, and specifically the police, and you have begun to detail a new hiring process. I remain unconvinced, because we haven't had the conversation yet, to understand how this new testing service is going to be representative of a diverse application pool that we want to have, and isn't effectively a privatized civil service equivalent, for which I won't support.

And you've said it's not, but I just ask you to come back to us and help us understand that. When we get a list, how do we get a list and what it is? Because until I'm shown otherwise, it feels like we just went back into an established system, and I just want to make sure that it's not one that's fraught with the same challenges that we had.

And I'm not looking to have a dialogue tonight about it.

[Speaker 1] (2:10:22 - 2:11:09)
Appreciate that, Peter. I feel like I've been clear to Chief Quesada, and frankly, members of the union board, that it has to really be emblematic of the, the agreement that we signed, that had established the goals of why we were leaving civil service. It was a document that was signed by the select board at the time, and the union board that had a preamble about the importance of inclusivity, and really thinking differently about how we were gonna go forward, and really seek to build that 21st century police department.

[Speaker 2] (2:11:09 - 2:11:53)
So we just, I hear you, and I appreciate, and I do not doubt for a second your conviction on this point 1,000%. It's more that we're not, it's not should, it's not subjunctive, it has to. Understood.

And so I don't see it as a trial of error. You now agree, you're working towards an agreement on something which tells me that you've come to the conclusion that you are satisfied that it's not my fear. And so I just ask you to come back to us and tell us what is it that got you comfortable that it's not, because I appreciate that we're trying to expedite hiring.

I'm not willing to sacrifice those ideals and goals to do it, so I'm just asking you to come back with that information, because that's, to me, not negotiable.

[Speaker 1] (2:11:53 - 2:12:07)
I appreciate that, Peter. At this point, look, we've got to trust that we've got some good people trying to help ensure that we honor the principles that we've got.

[Speaker 2] (2:12:07 - 2:12:42)
I'm sorry, you're not, I'm not being clear. I'm not doubting the good faith of anyone. I'm just saying that we're subscribing to a pre-established system that has nothing to do with us or any employee.

That's a third party, and I want to understand that pre-established system. And that's the one I'm not trusting, and I don't have any presupposition about. I just want you to put my concerns to bed, and I don't feel like I've heard that yet.

And I'm trusting that you were able to put your fears to bed, because you've endorsed this.

[Speaker 1] (2:12:42 - 2:12:49)
And I just. It has features, and we can look at certain pools of candidates. Just ask me to come back and explain how you got your company.

[Speaker 2] (2:12:49 - 2:12:49)
Sure.

[Speaker 10] (2:12:50 - 2:13:05)
Are we talking about, we're talking about advertising and casting a wide net for all candidates to apply, or are we talking about specifically hiring minorities? No, we're not. What are we actually?

I just want to know what we're talking about here.

[Speaker 2] (2:13:06 - 2:14:11)
We're talking about, we're talking about the goal of making sure that we, however we cast our net, it includes a diverse application pool. We are now saying we're going to use a private company that does testing so the town doesn't have to do its own testing, an established private company that other communities have used. Maybe their experiences would be illustrative to understand their experiences, but what I want to understand is, does that testing service attract that diverse group of applicants such that we will be getting our information from a source that will reflect the diverse pool of applicants that we are desiring to be able to see through here, is what I'm asking too.

That was a major concern with civil service because the evidence was very clear that that wasn't the case with civil service. So we got out of it, and I just want to make sure that this new system that we're getting our testing service from isn't inadvertently also not representative of the public.

[Speaker 10] (2:14:12 - 2:14:13)
How long have we had this testing service?

[Speaker 2] (2:14:13 - 2:14:19)
We haven't done it yet, we're doing it right now. That's the 49 day thing that you were excited about.

[Speaker 10] (2:14:19 - 2:14:24)
This is the same testing service that we've used before, isn't it? Or it's a brand new testing service?

[Speaker 1] (2:14:25 - 2:14:53)
So we're not waiting for a test. We actually have a firm that has over 140 individuals that have taken the test, passed the test, and of that cohort, there are individuals that are diverse, and we will have an opportunity to invite a number of them in a very short order to be screened and evaluated. Thank you.

Thanks.

[Speaker 9] (2:14:55 - 2:14:56)
Select board time.

[Speaker 10] (2:15:00 - 2:15:51)
I have a couple things. Go ahead. I just want to give you the update on the assessors.

They're getting ready to have a meeting or work with Patriots, they start to do their work now. The senior center will be hosting a Saturday trip, but now it seems like there might be a problem with weather. It's to have roadies out at all the little concerts.

The van will be out driving people to different concerts. You saw the Solid Waste Advisory Committee tonight. Disability Commission is up and going again, and they will be looking for an additional member to their committee soon, so if you know people.

I'll talk to Diane about advertising that, and capital improvements has also started, so that's the update on my two committees.

[Speaker 2] (2:15:53 - 2:17:32)
Rudy, Peter? I only have one thing, which is I want to, over the last two weeks, the zoning board has had to deal with a lot and had a lot on their plate, and last night, the chair of the zoning board started her meeting by commenting on a prior meeting and what she thought was concerning decorum or lack of decorum by petitioners, representatives of petitioners, and it was a good reminder just that she said we're volunteers, but I don't care if they're volunteers or they're staff.

The decorum has to be better. I also received a call today that someone actually criticized a zoning board member after the meeting as well about the decision, and that someone is not a member of the public. That's someone that's affiliated with the town, and as their liaison, that's why I got the call, and I appreciate, I will be honest with the chair, who's Heather Roman, man, she has a level head and such a gift, and I don't have that skill, but she was really thoughtful in the way she explained it, and they made some hard decisions and maybe not popular decisions.

They don't make the rules. They follow the rules and implement the rules, but I just wanted to appreciate what they did, but also just ask people to, again, remember when they come to these meetings to show grace and kindness and patience, and that's it.

[Speaker 9] (2:17:34 - 2:17:40)
I don't have anything, so with that, I would entertain a motion to adjourn.

[Speaker 2] (2:17:41 - 2:17:43)
I'll move. Nine of seven, this is Grace. Second.

[Speaker 9] (2:17:44 - 2:17:46)
Amen. Patience and kindness. All in favor.

[Speaker 3] (2:17:47 - 2:17:47)
Aye.

[Speaker 9] (2:17:48 - 2:17:49)
Thanks, everybody. Thanks, Joe.