[Speaker 2] (0:00 - 0:59)
Being of National Grids Path 1 incentive program that will range from 1.4 to 1.6 million, the MSBA has increased our school reimbursement by as much as possibly four million dollars. We have geothermal systems may be a candidate for reimbursement as well, so a lot of good projects including a solar system will also have a reimbursement. We are switching to a new emergency notification system, so our new system will be OnSol for notifications, so I want to encourage everybody to go to the town website.

You can sign up at swanscottma.gov backslash subscribe. We'll be getting a lot of information about these notification systems. Lastly, our Veterans Day program will be Saturday, November 11th at 11 a.m. at Monument Ave. Please mark your calendars, come by and thank our veterans for their service. That is my report.

[Speaker 3] (1:01 - 3:05)
I have a question. So I understand when you're saying how frustrated you are with Kings Beach because I'm equally as frustrated and I'm also I'm also very confused here because I hear that you're you have a steering you go into a committee and there are conversations going on with the steering committee. I had a chance to talk to our state representative Jenny Armini.

Jenny Armini is telling me about a pilot program for a UV system. Ultraviolet system. We had a presentation from a client coder here on the 9-1 report and on our infrastructure and during that report it was never disclosed that there was a previous report from EPA saying that they were very disappointed in the fact that we are not addressing our source elimination in the matter in which they should with the manner in which it should be done.

So I'm hearing all different things and then finally I'm also concerned about the spending of the 2.5 million. That money the 2.5 million needs to be approved by the select board. Now I know that Amy Sorrow a couple weeks ago the director of finance said that it was up to the town administrator and I asked Amy to please I think it was four weeks ago to please send me the information.

I never received the information but I did look it up and there is mass general law that's very clear that is the select board that votes on how appropriations are spent grant appropriations which I'll copy and send it to you in the morning. But my big concern here is it just seems like everything is going this way this way this way and we're not having really big conversations about really where the governing board is saying where they want to go with this and what's the direction. And I just want to know what are we doing?

What are we doing?

[Speaker 2] (3:05 - 5:34)
So I'm happy to respond to that Mary Ellen. What are we doing? We've been working you know as hard as we possibly can to put together a coalition a regional coalition over the last two years.

It started at Swansket Town Hall to look at alternatives to simply just doing the same thing year after year that was getting us to the race to the bottom the worst beach in Massachusetts. And so we've worked hard we've been able to go out and get five million dollars through our legislative delegation. We've got two million dollars for Swansket, two million dollars for the city of Lynn and we've been programming a scope of work that would help us address how we can prioritize some of these alternatives whether it's ultraviolet light an extension of an outfall or some additional you know work with you know IDDE for Kings Beach but also for Fisherman's Beach.

And so we have a scope of work that we've provided to the select board that helps frame that conversation for the EPA and for New Hampshire DEP. It's it's complicated but we've made the most amount of progress over the last couple of years that the town has ever made on really focusing in on how to fix this problem. I have I have been to meetings at the regional headquarters.

I will go to Boston to meet with the EPA. I want everybody pulling their oar in the right direction. I do feel frustrated that we get memos from the EPA telling us that they wanted want us to be more aggressive and and frankly I want them to be more aggressive in showing up at in the halls of Congress in Washington DC and in on Beacon Hill asking for not two million dollars we need fifty million dollars.

Anybody that thinks that we're gonna incrementally solve this problem in the next ten years by just putting two million dollars in here or two million dollars in there this needs a massive investment in state or federal dollars. I've shared that perspective for the last two years and I'm gonna continue to fight for this town because I want to see that beach cleaned. I want to see it safe for everybody and and frankly I get people's frustration.

You know I I want more people frustrated with this. It should not be left for a future generation. We should fix this in this generation.

[Speaker 3] (5:34 - 6:18)
I don't think anybody's in in disagreement with that. The concerns that I have is when I watched a wind water and sewer meeting in late August and they're talking about how they're spending their 2.5 on CCTV and they're also commenting commenting on how Swampscott is spending their money on the steering committee. I'm a little bit concerned there because I wanted and then hold on and I see a document after our last meeting saying X amount of dollars is going towards studying a pipeline or $200,000 is going here when we've never even had a conversation about spending.

We haven't had that conversation. If I have an opportunity to sit down and have that conversation I'm gonna say I want 2.5 going into source elimination.

[Speaker 4] (6:20 - 7:53)
I do think this is the essence because you are spending an enormous amount of energy but I don't think we're all on the same page about exactly where that energy should go. I think that people have expressed and I won't you know make an indication of majority or unanimous or whatever that we do need to put the vast majority of that not all of that 2.5 into source elimination. So I think we need to have a very specific conversation.

I think maybe we'll have that at the next meeting. It's not literally on the agenda for a vote tonight but hopefully the next meeting we will have a vote to specifically outline how we spend the 2.5 and how we spend the 2.1 and how we move forward on this and whether or not any of that money goes towards anything but source elimination because you're spending a lot of time and thinking about getting a lot of money from a lot of other people which is real effort but I'm not so sure that I believe that if you look at a lot of other communities around here that have had to deal with consent decrees they didn't go running to Congress or the State House or anything else they did steady two million dollars a year with SRF loans basically to fix their pipes and so there are different ways to get there and I understand you don't really believe that that process works but ultimately we need to decide and give you clear guidance about what the strategy is I think so I think that's the the disconnect from my perspective.

[Speaker 1] (7:54 - 10:48)
Mr. Chairman can we just agree to put this then on our next agenda it's obviously not been on our agenda for discussion tonight so it kind of limits it but I do want to just say two things from what I'm hearing here. First of all Sean I I'm gonna thank you you you are the original Safe Kings Beach because you actually the one three years ago four years ago that started showing up and I went with you to meet with the prior mayor of Lynn and I sat in the room with you when your number one topic and your number two topic and number three topic were Kings Beach right in the prior administration I've gone with you to meet with the current mayor and your number one problem topic number two topic and number three topic were Kings Beach you are the only one that has created the connectivity with Lynn and why do it why is that important because no matter what we do here I don't think there's anyone that's gonna feel satisfied when we do a hundred percent replacement a hundred percent replacement every pipe in Kings Beach is still not accessible because we aren't the sole source and none of us are gonna be satisfied we can feel good we placed all our sewer lines we've taken care of our crap right but none of us are gonna be satisfied if Kings Beach isn't cleaned up and and and you've recognized the need that we do have to collaborate and there actually is a disagreement right now potentially between Swampscott and and Lynn as to how to do it and what to do but we need to bridge that because the political will won't be there to support the financing and the technical assistance and the permitting path to do these things if we aren't on the same page so we are not living by ourselves here we are we are living with Lynn Sean you are the first and only person who has sought to collaborate with Lynn I agree with my colleagues here that we do need to have a bit more conversation on this but I also don't want you to from my perspective to hear any deterrence from you continuing building those bridges and those connections we do need to have a little bit more conversation here but I for one we have to fix our stuff right but I'm not going to be satisfied when we get to the end of it and find out that Kings Beach is no more accessible than then is today because not all the stuff has been fixed it's a regional problem we do need to have that regional coalition so I'm grateful to you for doing that and I hope that you don't hear anything that would deter you from continuing to build those bridges but I do agree that let's have a little bit more of a collaboration here now Doug and I are now derelict and delayed in in in the committee formation which I think again we have a number of great residents have tremendous input here and and we need to get that Advisory Committee going to also inform us because as we said before we're spending you know 25 minutes right now on Stacey Brooke but there's no shores of issues that we can spend 25 minutes on tonight and then next meeting next meeting and frankly we need to you know we are spread and we have to take advantage of and use that expertise and use your time as professional staff to come to some consensus on things but so if we can have that next meeting I think a lot of good points have been raised tonight so I appreciate that yeah I the

[Speaker 2] (10:48 - 12:21)
only thing I just want to share I do think like it's important that as a board we talk about how we're gonna spend any money you know I don't want there to be you know concern that somehow we're gonna go off and spend I have put a scope of work together back in August to spend that 2.5 because I I want to get busy I'm not I'll do IDD forever like that's what we do that's what municipal managers do it's not glamorous it's fixing pipes my focus has been on on solving the problem of how why we can't use that beach and in the sense that it's either IDD or nothing like it has to be a combination of the two and so we're always gonna do IDD that's always part of our responsibility we're an MS for regulated community I have to buy federal law support the Clean Waters Act I I endorse that and I embrace it I don't want that to be a point of contestation what I want is a sense that you know we've gone down this path and and we've got alternatives and I'm working with a regional collaboration between Lynn and Lynn water and sewer and we have a few alternatives that we want to study so that we can come back with the possibility that we may be able to dramatically expedite the cleanup or the protection of human health in a way that brings that beach back to its historic prominence as one of our state's greatest assets you know that's what

[Speaker 5] (12:21 - 13:09)
we're focused on so with all the with all the information that we're that we're receiving Sean how do we you know how do we get all the stakeholders at the same in the same place at the same time so we can clear up all of the all of these misconceptions and all this information that seems to you know seems you know the right hand doesn't necessarily know what the left hand is is doing so how can we get the DEP EPA Lynn water and sewer the Lynn City Council how do we get everybody together when can we get it together and how do we and and how do we have a productive a productive meeting with all of those groups and all those individual stakeholders bring in our state and federal delegation for that point and and and let's let's let's have a let's have a robust discussion and conversation about solving this problem

[Speaker 2] (13:09 - 16:23)
once and for all you know David I'd love to pull everybody in I do think it can get complicated because we have you know it's a democracy everybody has different ideas about things and so I think we have my role over the last couple years is to try to build consensus I'm working with a group of stakeholders that have different ideas and and the thought here is that you know we're we're gonna explore the viability of a few of these ideas and narrow it down to a preferred option but it we do need to have more meetings and I do believe that we need a committee I think we need help there's so much misinformation out there that it it really is upsetting to me that folks don't know all of the you know complexities of you know these multi-million dollar you know infrastructure systems they're there it's complicated I do like the idea though that we have a King's Beach summit you know perhaps at some point I I think I need to sit down though with my professional colleagues in government on a local state and federal level and really talk with them about methods and means and and how they are you know administrating administering some of their responsibilities and and whether or not they're going to give us a hand with really looking at doing something different than IDDE just because it works for one community doesn't mean it works for every and and it may not work at the same level of expectation in terms of the urgency to public health in a waterfront community than a community that you know is landlocked and so I think there's a whole range of opportunities to work with the EPA to kind of get a better scope of effort and again I'm not looking to do less I'm looking to do a lot more I just need I need some financial support because as Peter has mentioned you know it there's no shortage of obligations that we have for any number of responsibilities yet David I think we can start perhaps with a maybe there's an opportunity to have a joint meeting between Swampskate Select Board and the City Council and the mayor you know but tomorrow morning I'll be meeting with the mayor I'd meet with him regularly I talk with him regularly you know I perhaps there's an opportunity to have one or two members of the Select Board join me in the meeting so that we can really start to think about how we lead more effectively and how we present information publicly more effectively I have worked with I've got a scope of work from Kleinfelder to build a website and to get much more information out to the public they've recently hired an individual that has some experience with community outreach and so we're going to be advancing a few initiatives that really hopefully will help bring more information out to the community.

[Speaker 7] (16:24 - 17:11)
So since even though this isn't on the agenda every other colleague has spoken on it I just would like to add my two cents that either the town administrators report has a section for Fisherman's Beach or that Kings Beach now includes Fisherman's Beach because while the two are not succinctly well Kings Beach may be multiple stakeholders problem Fisherman's is ours and so you know the fact that we aren't talking about that with regards to just what we have to do because we are the only stakeholder in at Fisherman's I think that's a big mess and so we either need to be talking about it in the concept of Kings Beach and carving it out to say this is what we're doing or we need to be talking about it by itself.

[Speaker 2] (17:12 - 18:12)
Katie I appreciate that when we responded to or when we sent the scope of work into DEP for approval it included some a scope of work for Fisherman's Beach and and there are synergies when we mobilize for Kings Beach we actually can can get a better value for contractors if we include some of that scope of work for Fisherman's. It has been discussed at length you know once we did the asset management study and we you know we kind of recognized that you know we can't spend all of our attention just on Kings Beach we've got an entire town that we have to focus on it's just a question of you know funding we do have a significant amount of design work that we can advance and it's my hope that we can really do a significant project for Fisherman's Beach. We can.

[Speaker 4] (18:14 - 18:14)
Absolutely.

[Speaker 1] (18:16 - 20:00)
All right it's much more to be said but all right can I just ask we have the census coming out we have annual bills coming out etc here this change in notification service I'm just gonna jump to I trust that this notification service is going to be met better more flexible you know achieve better results for us but I do want to make sure that we over emphasize our efforts to make sure the transition from one system to another because this new system doesn't create automatic rollover of people who have subscribed to the existing notification system that we be putting something in the census a bright yellow card that says register you know the old system is not going to work anymore put this we're putting it in the tax bills we're putting it in not just online because that's just a limited world that looks at those things that we're using existing calling system to send notifications and not just once but five times I mean I just think is that we've got to do something and it just needs to be for the next six months ever present in every single thing we say we've got to have a subscribe to the new notification system for example many of us on the bottom of our emails have a subscribe to the town newsletter link we town employees need to be putting a link that says on every email that goes out they're getting something that gives a link to everybody who gets it that says here notification system just click on this it's gonna take you right there I just want to make sure we're doing this extraordinary extraordinary effort because that this is a good opportunity not only to have a better system but to make up for the fact that our current system we haven't gotten as deep into the community with those notifications as as we can because they're telephonic they're text their email they're multifaceted so let's just please with every mailing let's go out you know everything that we send out every email we send out let's market market market the notification system you know I

[Speaker 2] (20:00 - 20:20)
brought that up at the hardhead meeting this week and I was told that we have working on all those opportunities to make sure that it's ubiquitous throughout the town and we're gonna look at many many opportunities okay thank you I appreciate that drive people to enjoy getting those calls from us thank you I

[Speaker 1] (20:20 - 21:20)
appreciate that and then my last sorry mr. chairman last thing is on mission on the bay again I know that at one point DEP actually issued a letter regarding chapter 91 eligible or not eligibility jurisdiction and so I don't read anything about chapter 91 jurisdiction in your update I read about what WPA Wetlands Protection Act jurisdiction great it's nice to see them doing something I think what you said to me privately is you've let mission on the bay know that don't mistake you being nice for you being a pushover this temporary condition they are using public land for their temporary condition it's a plan that belongs to them it's not a safe long-term condition and I appreciate the fact that you are staying on them and you're gonna hold them to account it's an unfortunate situation but they don't get the luxury of sitting back and they've already missed deadlines to submit plans and frankly it brings into question their commitment because it's going to be an expensive fix for them but that's not our problem and right now they are seeking the benefit or getting the benefit of public land and and also it's

[Speaker 2] (21:20 - 21:57)
a non safe condition out there they have hired one of the most reputable chapter 91 consultants and I do believe that they are moving with some deliberate speed although not fast enough and so we'll have that conversation with the Conicom they are the enforcement agency they have power to issue some you know regulations and certainly our building commissioner has been in these meetings and you can attest that we are we are going to compel them to replace that

[Speaker 4] (21:57 - 22:35)
wall thank you I just want to kind of went through it Sean but the positive impact that max is having with these grant programs the IRA for the climate friendly aspects of the new school I don't know if you actually mentioned the numbers you know millions of dollars actually in savings from doing these things and then on the lightest note I love the fact that you said the solar system will also have reimbursed gonna be great maybe he's still not picking up on it the solar I want solar on everything

[Speaker 5] (22:38 - 22:57)
moving on all right moving on all right public comment public comment it can be made by members of the public I will limit you to three minutes please get up to the microphone state your name and address and precinct if known but I will limit you to a strict three-minute time frame thanks

[Speaker 12] (23:04 - 25:20)
my name is Larry Swayze I live at 79 Millett Road Swampskat I've had the pleasure of being on the Harbor Advisory Committee also past Commodore of the Swampskat Yacht Club reading some things in the local item and listening to some work by Save the Harbor Save the Bay Committee I've noticed that we always talk about Kings Beach but recently they're starting about the pollution at Fisherman's Beach and please don't take this wrong but Fisherman's Beach is our home this is my home my boats out there our grandchildren are the sailing program the kids are there all the time we have the Harbor Fest we have the town I mean I spoke to Daniel this evening just for a moment and I'm not sure she is aware of the pollution level in our Harbor and the last thing we want to do is get something out there rumors spreading about horrible pollution I would like to see numbers posted if it's in fact numbers that are unhealthy put a flag up just like we're going on one beach we just can't hide from it it is what it is it's our beach and my grandbabies are swimming there and in the sailing program and my boats there so I didn't want to take a long bit of time here and I appreciate you all getting let me have a few moments but this is not the stepchild Kings Beach I don't go there please I understand what we're doing over there but Fisherman's Beach is is my home and I would like for you to please focus on that and I would hate to see that red flag like it was ninety percent of the time at Kings Beach this last year I would hate to see that and I hate to see our sailing program and all those programs that Daniel does so very very well shut down many days of every summer because we have not done our job and I'm not here from the perspective of saying throwing this at your side on your desk I'm saying if I can help if the community can help let's step up this is our beach this is our town let's make this thing happen let's not drag this anymore and I want to thank Mary Ellen for stepping up and mentioning this right away because it is so important thank you all

[Speaker 14] (25:33 - 27:14)
hi I'm Art Friedman 82 millet Road I've been living in Swampscott since 77 I have a boat in the harbor and I'm past chairman of the Board of Health and a few years ago anyway I appreciate bringing up this situation with the Kings Beach and Fisherman's Beach I think the biggest concern I have not knowing this by the way because I'll just the other night the Yacht Club a presentation was given which really opened my eyes we also know Kings Beach has been an issue for a while but Fisherman's Beach is just totally new kind of blown me away because the health issue was the children in the water the Recreation Committee they have the saps in there with the kids the children are swimming I know what you're trying your best to facilitate and get this rectified but I think it's important maybe it can be done in stages but the other thing is the testing from what I was present was presented the other night the testing wasn't done this year at least it wasn't brought out if it was I think we need to do the testing on both beaches and frequently because if there's a problem we need to put signs up no swimming because the kids are in there every blinking day and I see him off the pier and and I and I know the town you know maybe you can form a committee with some public member if they with some of the say Kings Beach members and to help facilitate if you would to get this done because I know a lot of things the town has to do but public health the safety of our children is very important thank you

[Speaker 5] (27:20 - 27:27)
we have a we have a hand raised on on teams like to recognize Katie Arrington

[Speaker 13] (27:38 - 29:35)
you should be able to speak Katie and I live at 40 Ward Street in precinct 3 I'm speaking tonight in support of the ongoing discussions and efforts that have been occurring about the importance of clean water at our shoreline I carefully follow the discussions and enjoyed attending the recent event at mission on the bay by the safe things Beach Group I am impressed and grateful to the many residents who have been championing championing this cause I'm grateful to the town for the millions of dollars it is already spent to address this issue I'm grateful to the blackboard and town staff for taking this issue so seriously and for continuing to make solving this issue a priority I work in the construction industry so I know that complex issues are daunting but they are solvable when you honestly identify the issues and have serious people committed to solving them I'm encouraged by the fact that we have residents elected officials and town staff that are serious and committed to working to a solution my family has lived here for generations and I know this problem is generations in the making but it cannot take generations to fix at the same time you are all charged with addressing so many other issues supporting our schools fixing our roads helping our businesses creating affordable housing on and on choosing one issue in favor of another is not an option I'm encouraged that swamp spot is prepared to tackle all the issues tonight I just want to encourage you to continue addressing old beach while it can seem overwhelming Swampscott is making progress and making a difference thanks very much thanks Katie thanks Katie

[Speaker 11] (29:42 - 32:00)
hello my name is Lewis Chisoulo 48 Farragut Road I've been here a couple years in Swampscott and I'm originally from Boston but first I just want to give a shout out to Andrea and Liz from Saves King Beach you know they deserve a hell of a lot of credit they're kind of the unsung heroes on really bringing the the the beats to March to for everybody especially for us who kind of feel like we're living in the background and not you know don't sit at the big table I really want to say I think we need a town meeting we really need the voice of everybody we need to stick together on this Katie said and it stands true Fishman's Beach is this is our problem this is our baby we need to fix it but we need to fix it together we need to work together we need to have you know you talk about all these different steering committees and all these different people can't sit at a table together left doesn't talk to the right well Fishman's Beach is the left hand the right and we could all talk together but we just need to plan it get it out there the information that was brought to our attention was kind of discouraging like I said I'm from Boston coming up here the beach life from the city life and now I feel like I can't even say I can't even send my kids to the beach now especially Fishman's where we spent all summer and then to find out this news was kind of horrific that's all I'm asking we need to really step it up it's wintertime this is the time to get it done enough with the scoping the projects we need to get you know boots on the ground get it done and we could talk to professionals who could lead us in that direction but Sean we're gonna do it together we need we need these people to all sit together and let's work together enough enough of different people talking let's all get together put a plan together and work together on this even you know we can run fundraisers if we if that's the old-fashioned way to get the money we could get it done but let's work together that's what the town's about thank you

[Speaker 5] (32:02 - 32:02)
mr.

[Speaker 9] (32:04 - 35:29)
Chillo hi I'm Mary de Chillo I live in precinct 4 I would like to ask tonight that we have a pre-existing Harbor and waterfront committee that has been advisory committee that's been in existence for I think 2016 is my best recollection on this it may have been before that I would like to ask tonight that that particular committee I don't know if they've addressed any of this or if they've been it's been on the somewhat followed that committee for a while now the idea of any problem with sewage of Kings Beach has never been raised to my knowledge publicly I'm asking tonight that any work that is being done or a plan to be done on that Kings Beach which is now I think they voted last week to go ahead and recommend a plan for the pier to be extended changed and extended that the that the board here and via the town administrator and the board reconvene that committee and basically bring that committee into the discussion about save Kings Beach it's all one of its a Harbor and waterfront committee and it's only been concentrating on Kings Beach and its concentration has only been on getting this new different plans have changed along the way this new decision that they've made is about bringing in they've gotten a grant from the state and to explore building no building of that dock in my mind should happen before any of this is resolved and I believe very strongly about this that you need to do first things first on this do the water testing do consistent water testing and make sure that we identify what is happening there and and also bring that committee into a into a larger committee that includes save the beach last thing we need is to have all of these scattered committees when there's a pot of money that needs to be going after and people going after a small part of you know whatever the pot of money is my own personal opinion and this is my own opinion on this is that the Harbor and waterfront committee has not engaged the community in a way that they need to and I think the terms of Kong Kong there's a lot of committees that have been left out of that process as well I've talked to several people on the on the board here I've sent stuff to you in the past about this so it's not anything new that I'm saying that has not come from me you you know this from stuff that I've sent you but thank you good evening I'm Kilmer Swayze 79

[Speaker 15] (35:29 - 36:39)
Millard Road I walk the beach from Fisherman's to Red Rock every day so I see the red flags and I know what's going on I have grandchildren that swim in Fisherman's Beach I also am a person that listens to the notifications that come over the phone we get them for everything I think that if you want to get the community involved and you need to get money from our congressman get them involved you need to get the townspeople involved so if we're making announcements about the trash the pumpkins that can be dropped off why can't we put notifications especially from the Board of Health because I think the Board of Health should be involved too that it's not safe today to go swimming and get the parents get the people involved so they know what's going on and I mean the phone you listen to it or at least I do and I'm hoping that with putting the cards in the mail like you said which is an absolutely wonderful idea that you have to get the word out there I mean it's it's crazy thank you thank you

[Speaker 10] (36:51 - 39:24)
hi everybody Andrea Moore 15 Sheridan Road I just wanted to take a couple of seconds and acknowledge that I really appreciated last meeting it felt like we really turned a corner I really appreciated the movement to create a committee for sewer infrastructure I do think it's desperately needed and I think it's going to add the voices that are that are missing from the table right now that are going to help speed up the process and create the harmony that so many of us are looking for and I also wanted to address just a couple of things that were discussed tonight first I wanted to clarify that from our position at Safe Kings Beach we are very much on board with fishermen all of the work that needs to happen at Fisherman's Beach I want to clarify that there's no conflict we don't see anything like that we actually live in our the ones who went to present to Swampscot Yacht Club last Thursday to tell them to inform them about the results of the 9-1-1 report because nobody had and we felt like they should know so we very much support all of that in support of as much of the 2.1 million going to fixing Fisherman's Beach and the and the sewer infrastructure there second thing I want to say is a note about source elimination and the possibility of seeing federal funding I have had conversations with the people who can cause that to happen and and without naming names I am told that there is not a possibility of state and federal funding for source elimination so I would appreciate if we would just step on the gas and start that work because waiting around is not going to do anything for us furthermore there is a 2% of loan that we applied for a couple of years ago that we never used that 2% loan is how we pay for things like that to expedite the process and 2% as we all know from interest rates is a great interest rate and we can pay for it through things like raising the sewer rates which we have the lowest in the region so there is a clear solution here and I would firmly support that we do that last note about UV and outfall Sean you had said that we are looking for an alternative I want to be very clear to the public this is not an alternative it is a partner it is something that will happen alongside source elimination UV and an outfall would never replace IDD under the consent decree and so it is something we are doing congruently and not instead so we cannot afford to wait any longer we need to begin you know lining the pipes fixing the pipes finding the misconnections and doing that work at both Kings Beach and Fesserman tweets thank you thank you

[Speaker 1] (39:30 - 40:36)
all right we'll move on to this can I just ask so we are going to have this on the next agenda because there's a lot we don't comment on public comment but I think there's a lot of things to comment on here and we sit quietly and I just get concerned that when people hear statements like it's time that we start spending people that are listening for the first time are not understanding the full history when they say it's just as easy as getting a 2% loan and that we gotta start doing things it's not as easy as that and so it's not to make excuses but I also wanted with all due respect to staff who literally for years have been doing this before anybody in the community was yelling about this I do want us to make sure we have a robust conversation so people at least know where we've come from because that is informing where we're going to and if it was as easy as stroking a check we would all tomorrow stroke a check and so I just want to make sure we are gonna have it at our next meeting because we just spent an hour kind of getting here and it is a little frustrating because I want to make sure all the information is not getting out not just some of the information it's all good information but we've got to have a more robust point and Doug's point unequivocally this is on the agenda for November the

[Speaker 5] (40:36 - 40:45)
15th thank you yep all right we'll move on to appointment of a new director of planning and land use with that I'll hand it off to the town administrator

[Speaker 2] (40:45 - 42:30)
sure over the last few months we have been searching for a new senior planner new assistant director of community development but after a number of conversations I'm actually pleased to recommend that he can actually be approved to be our new director of planning and assistant town administrator Pete has an extraordinary background in planning I think that frankly I've never worked with anybody that has a more sound command of planning and processes he has experience working with our master plan he's got a great sense of humor he's you know somebody that I think will help us at this critical juncture we have more projects and more possibilities whether it's with Humphrey Street with the Hadley School with the Hawthorne with Vinnyn Square right now we need the most extraordinary community and economic development and planning function and I think between Mowers Neat Alaska Marissa meaning and he came I think we will have a nucleus that will help support all the critical projects that we have and projects that we hope to have with

[Speaker 4] (42:30 - 42:36)
that that sounds great what's the reporting relationship and what happens

[Speaker 2] (42:36 - 43:24)
to HR so we're going to be posting for an HR manager the reporting relationship will be that Pete will report to me and he will work with Margie and the community and economic development department they have a great working relationship we're gonna certainly be looking for somebody that has experience in municipal government but I'm confident that you know we'll be able to transition smoothly he has agreed that he will not transition down to the planning department until we fill the position in the HR position we had an

[Speaker 3] (43:24 - 43:30)
HR we had our HR was shared with the schools can we go back into that you

[Speaker 2] (43:30 - 44:20)
know I I'll continue to have conversations with the superintendent I do think that at this point you know it's likely that we will be looking for our own HR director we have a lot of complicated responsibilities on the townside not just just recently coming out of civil service but you know it you know hiring on the townside and managing the HR responsibilities in the townside we're out to RFP for a diversity equity and inclusion consultant and I envision that our HR director manager is going to be really busy with managing a lot of the general government side of the HR challenge so my other question is if he

[Speaker 3] (44:20 - 44:34)
was the HR our HR director there are no issues with an HR director also taking the job of the planning director is there anything we're not crossing any

[Speaker 2] (44:34 - 44:56)
there's no you know conflicts of interest there's no this is basically a reorganization allowing us to you know you know take advantage of somebody's existing skill set and support a transition I'm really happy with this

[Speaker 3] (44:56 - 45:19)
decision could I get a motion to you know endorse that recommendation I do

[Speaker 1] (45:19 - 45:53)
want to just for the record our Charter does not require us to take a vote I'm happy to show our support by doing it but you actually have the authority under our Charter to make the sign but I also want to second what Mary Ellen just said and between Margie and Pete they reflect actually a realization that the things that we're working on a real and that we're not gilly-dallying around community development planning that we are we are in the execution phase and we need their expertise so I'm grateful that Pete Cain's decided he's going to retire

[Speaker 3] (45:53 - 46:22)
I think there's one more thing that we really should take note of and the amount of work that the planning board has had to do without having a town planner has been really significant so you know Angela Ippolito and that whole crew really carried the brunt of this and I appreciate all of their hard work and so now I'm glad Pete's gonna swoop in and take care of it.

[Speaker 2] (46:22 - 46:26)
Pete did you want to share any thoughts or comments?

[Speaker 16] (46:28 - 46:53)
I'm excited at the opportunity, I'm glad that we're able to solve the need that the community has had in this department and we'll definitely make sure that HR, the human resources element, is properly staffed prior to any transition because we don't want the staff members to not have that support.

[Speaker 7] (46:54 - 46:59)
Would you like to give a small update on the DEI position?

[Speaker 2] (47:00 - 47:10)
We have to. Why don't I ask our HR director who is vacating in the near future.

[Speaker 17] (47:10 - 47:14)
So the DEI consulting RFP is still open.

[Speaker 16] (47:14 - 47:33)
The close of questions occurred last week. Those responses were released this week and the responses for the proposals are due in two weeks. There was a lot of interest.

[Speaker 4] (47:37 - 47:40)
So we're taking a vote or not?

[Speaker 7] (47:40 - 47:41)
Let's do it.

[Speaker 4] (47:42 - 47:44)
We have a motion, we have a second.

[Speaker 5] (47:45 - 47:57)
All in favor? Aye. Thank you Sean and Peter.

Thank you. All right we'll move on to discussion and possible vote on town fees. Sean is that you?

[Speaker 2] (47:58 - 48:02)
Actually Patrick are you able to speak to?

[Speaker 1] (48:05 - 48:19)
And I just ask there's just a one page memo, two-sided colored memo that looks like maybe it continued beyond the two pages we have. It says treasurer collector and nothing else is included in our packet.

[Speaker 5] (48:19 - 48:20)
I thought that was aspirational.

[Speaker 1] (48:22 - 48:35)
And so if there is more that's not in our packet I would ask us to table this. All right. Because we haven't looked at any of this and I just don't want you to have to present twice something that.

Yeah why don't we. Is there more than these two pages? Yeah.

[Speaker 5] (48:36 - 48:37)
Treasurer, is there.

[Speaker 1] (48:37 - 48:39)
This is everything that I had to share tonight.

[Speaker 8] (48:39 - 48:40)
Okay.

[Speaker 1] (48:40 - 48:43)
But is this all the fees? There's a valuation of treasurer collector.

[Speaker 7] (48:43 - 48:46)
We only have two pages of fees so if there are more I want to see them.

[Speaker 1] (48:47 - 48:56)
So is that all the fees we're looking at? It's not all the fees in the town? No.

So we can respectfully just suggest and table it so that we're having one fee conversation as opposed to the same conversation twice?

[Speaker 2] (48:57 - 49:08)
Yeah. I think that would make sense. We'll move.

Our director of finance administration is on vacation this week and frankly I'd love her to have that conversation with her as well.

[Speaker 5] (49:08 - 49:15)
All right. Great. Thank you.

We'll move on to water and sewer consumption update. I believe that's also. Mr. Luddy?

[Speaker 18] (49:16 - 49:16)
Yep.

[Speaker 8] (49:19 - 54:00)
I have a very brief presentation I can go over. Thanks, Diane. So I'm going to provide a brief update on borderline water and sewer consumption and results.

I'm going to go right to the next slide, Diane. So just to recap, probably the last conversation we had about water sewer before the board was in April when we voted the new rates for fiscal 24. So just to recap what the board elected to do is to increase rates two and a half percent for consumption at each of our three tiers and to increase our tier two and three base rate.

Diane, if you go to the next slide, those new effective rates are included for your reference. Next slide. Commitment one was billed out in August.

It includes water usage for May, June and July for all of our accounts. Water usage compared to last year was down 19 percent, which is a significant variance. We have some contingencies in our budget for revenue estimates.

But that works out to a revenue shortfall of about $90,000 in the water fund and $94,000 in the sewer fund projected. Obviously, this is quarter one, so this is our initial estimates. Next slide.

This is a snippet from a report we get from the Mass Water Resource Authority. We purchase all of our water through them as well as all the other communities listed here. On a calendar, year-to-date basis, you can see Small Scout is down 15 percent in water consumption and Nahant and Marblehead similarly are down 13.2 and 13.5 percent respectively. So lots of communities are seeing a reduction in water use. Next slide. A big factor here, especially in the summer months, which is what this commitment covered, is rainfall.

Unfortunately, that does from time to time affect our revenue results in the water and sewer fund. I've included some rainfall information from the last 10 years as reference, but obviously we know it rained a lot this year. That's going to prevent people from using water to wash their cars, water their lawns, fill pools, things like that.

That's likely contributing to the results that everybody is seeing. Next slide. Just some takeaways.

Shortfall of, again, $90,000 in water and $94,000 in the sewer fund, estimated just based on Q1. Rainfall is a contributing factor. The water fund is more vulnerable to a wet season than the sewer fund because we have irrigation bills that include just water charges, not sewer.

So water is slightly more vulnerable. The revenue shortfalls we're seeing in Q1, we expect that those will be handled within the financial constraints of the town with minimal impact to rate payers. We have options down the line that I'll talk about on the next slide for how to address any revenue shortfalls later in the fiscal year.

But we do, as a policy, maintain 20% of the operating budget in each fund in retained earnings for any situation at the year end where we have a shortfall. Next slide. Next commitment is being billed out on November 15th.

We'll likely see some impact as well in commitment two from rainfall that occurred in August and September. We're going to continue to monitor the MWRA reports monthly. We'll meet with the DPW director and business manager on that.

And we'll make recommendations to the select board in the winter or the spring regarding any action that needs to be taken to address the revenue shortfall in the water and sewer funds. And we'll continue providing you updates and reports until we get to that point. I'm happy to entertain any questions on this.

[Speaker 5] (54:01 - 54:19)
Patrick, in 21, it looks like we actually had more rain in 21 than we did this summer. Did we also have shortfalls in 21 because of the copious amounts of rain?

[Speaker 8] (54:19 - 54:37)
Yeah, there was similar pressure, I think, in the first commitment. But year-end results weren't dire, so that's why I don't want to overreact to the Q1 results. There's some contingencies in the budget, but definitely less consumption that year.

Got it. Okay.

[Speaker 5] (54:38 - 54:41)
Any additional questions, comments from the board?

[Speaker 1] (54:42 - 54:48)
So the message is turn your faucets on, everyone, and hope it clears all of our pipes at the same time.

[Speaker 2] (54:50 - 54:55)
It's counterintuitive. A lot of folks are like, oh, wow, you have a budget problem because people are conserving water.

[Speaker 1] (54:55 - 54:58)
Listening at home, open your spigots.

[Speaker 2] (54:58 - 55:37)
But we're first quarter, and it's helpful to kind of understand how rainfall affects grates. And we may get to a very dry spring if we have minimal snowfall and other things. We'll see a budget correction.

But at this point, I think we all should be ready to hear that we're going to need to use some retained earnings to increase rates based on just the data that we're looking at. Okay? I just have one question.

[Speaker 3] (55:37 - 55:41)
Where are we as far as retained earnings? Are we over the 20%?

[Speaker 8] (55:42 - 56:00)
So after all the appropriations from our last certification, we were still above our threshold slightly in each fund. Amy's submitted our balance sheet for the end of fiscal 23 to the state, so we should have recertified retained earnings this month. And we'll be able to give you updates on that balance.

[Speaker 1] (56:02 - 57:32)
So that's a really important question that's being asked, right? Because when you guys have projected future years, and we keep saying that we want to keep rates at a certain amount, let's assume we spend not a single dollar in anything but water and sewer operations right now, right? We're at 3% to 5% annual increases.

When we start increasing, we're at three and a half as a subsidized number this year, right? So we need retained earnings. Did we use retained earnings this year?

We might not have. You actually might have gotten us there. But in your future years, when you go to that chart that you gave us, in the future years, you have us using retained earnings to stay in that same range.

And that's before we ever talk about how we're going to pay back the low-interest MWRA loans or the bonding for other infrastructure projects. And so that's going to take our sewer and water rates to double-digit increases per year, which, again, we may have lower than average. We don't have the lowest, but the lower-than-average bills on some of these things.

But we also have a higher percentage of the constituency of our public that pay these bills that can't afford double-digit increases in a year. So it's just the retained earnings are just a huge, huge element for this because it's part of the soup that makes sure that we make sure our increases are livable. And as one of the governors on us, when we say, hey, we want to fix every sewer main in town or lateral in town tomorrow, it's ratepayers that are paying it.

And unfortunately, that's – we have a large number of elderly, occupied, cash-constrained, single-family occupants in this town. And that really – it's just something we've got to be able to subsidize that rate.

[Speaker 3] (57:32 - 57:48)
Can you send us – I had asked for, like, a forecast on what a 2% loan on, say, 2 million – I think I asked for 2 and 4 million, what kind of impact that has on the rates.

[Speaker 8] (57:48 - 57:49)
Yep.

[Speaker 3] (57:49 - 57:50)
When you get a chance, can you send that to the board?

[Speaker 8] (57:51 - 57:51)
Yes.

[Speaker 1] (57:51 - 57:58)
Sure. Are you tying that to a specific program that currently exists and that's issuing 2% loans?

[Speaker 3] (57:58 - 58:07)
Yes, there is an existing program. But I just wanted to know what the actual impact on the rate is.

[Speaker 1] (58:07 - 58:16)
Yeah, so if you actually did a – I mean, you could probably do, if you don't mind – you could actually do a sensitivity table that both dealt with principal and interest rate and give us a sensitivity table on it.

[Speaker 8] (58:17 - 58:18)
Similar to what we do with the tax rate.

[Speaker 1] (58:18 - 58:35)
Yes, exactly the same thing that we worked on with the tax rate. If you do that, I think that's just going to give us more – we're going to be more flexible to be able to say, okay, if it's a combination of 2% and 8%, and it's this amount or that amount, and we can talk about, like, what range you should use. But I think doing that sensitivity table would probably be much more dynamic.

[Speaker 3] (58:36 - 58:38)
It'll give us an idea on how we can forecast that.

[Speaker 2] (58:39 - 58:41)
It doesn't go as far as you think.

[Speaker 1] (58:41 - 59:00)
No, of course it doesn't. But it's good to at least know what it is. And how it translates to – we know how things translate to taxes, because we've been for years analyzing and analyzing and analyzing.

It's water rates. We've never seen the economies and know what the multipliers are based on rate payers. We've never seen that, actually.

[Speaker 8] (59:04 - 59:08)
All right. Thanks, Patrick. Thanks, Patrick.

You're welcome.

[Speaker 5] (59:08 - 59:19)
All right. With the board's indulgence, we'll take item six out of order. We'll have a discussion and possible vote on an inter-municipal agreement for shared building commissioner services with the town of Marblehead.

[Speaker 2] (59:20 - 1:02:09)
So I'm pleased to present this to the board. I think for some time we've talked about regional services with our neighboring town of Marblehead. Sometimes, you know, it seems like we're in different countries, but, you know, we share so many similar features.

You know, our prior building commissioner was the former Marblehead building commissioner. Prior to getting the job as the Marblehead building commissioner, he was Swampskate's building commissioner. So we've been flip-flopping building commissioners over the last ten years.

I had an opportunity to have breakfast with Thatcher Kieser, Marblehead's town administrator, two weeks ago. I invited Steve Cummings, our building commissioner, as well, and we talked a little bit about Marblehead's efforts to really hire a building commissioner. There's a real dearth of certified building commissioners throughout the Commonwealth.

That's another pressure point that many municipalities are seeing. Marblehead has struggled to fill that position. And Steve actually had a chance to go over and meet with the inspectional services department in the town of Marblehead and came back and shared a few perspectives with me.

It gave me a sense that this is really something that we ought to support. Marblehead does have a need right now, and it's very helpful when cities and towns are struggling that we help out. I do think that there are some efficiencies here, and I think there's some opportunities for Swampskate and Marblehead to further collaborate and think about ways that we can share services and really find some efficiencies.

This agreement will see the town of Swampskate receive a little less than $1,000 a week for these shared services. We anticipate that the hours may range from 10 hours a week to 16 hours a week at the high level. I've talked with Steve about making sure that Swampskate's a priority, but certainly we have an intermunicipal agreement in the packet, and it outlines a standard there of terms and services.

With that said, I would like to ask Mr. Cummings to share a few perspectives and give us a sense of whether or not you think this is a good fit. Steve, you might want to get on the phone.

[Speaker 5] (1:02:10 - 1:02:13)
Joe's coming. One second, Steve. Stay where you are.

[Speaker 6] (1:02:19 - 1:04:12)
Hi. So the first two points I want to make is that Swampskate is my priority. The second point I want to make is that whether something comes out of this in the future, this is a trial basis thing right now.

I can't commit to anything until I see all the dynamics and how they work. It's got to be give and take. It can't be just give to model ahead without taking for Swampskate.

With that being said, they do have a bigger staff than us, and they have a good staff. I have a small staff. I have a good staff, and there's going to be a lot of changes coming up.

A lot of inspectors are getting older. Plumbing, electrical, people are changing. Newer, younger guys are coming in.

Like I said, this would be a test to see if this could work, and if it could work, it could really benefit both towns because we could get a lot of support. As you know, we have two very part-time stipend plumbing inspector and electrical inspector, and it's always worked out, but it could be very crippling very fast. With full-time, they have a full-time and a part-time electrical inspector and a full-time plumbing inspector.

It could be a good thing for both communities. But I would have to test the waters for a little bit and see if the dynamics work. Without, like I said, Swampskate is the priority, so I have to make sure that everything works out in Swampskate first.

[Speaker 4] (1:04:14 - 1:04:24)
Thanks, Steve. Go ahead. Conceptually, it sounds great.

Right now, you're a full-time building commissioner for Swampskate, correct?

[Speaker 18] (1:04:25 - 1:04:25)
Mm-hmm.

[Speaker 4] (1:04:25 - 1:04:55)
How do we envision Abracadabra? Now we're going to take care of two communities with the same person. Actually, Marblehead's even bigger.

I understand they maybe have more staff. I know I hear you're out doing inspections all the time, et cetera. Synergies all sounds great, but I just want to make sure that we're not, you know, I don't hear exactly how we're all of a sudden going to create that.

So you want the workflow?

[Speaker 2] (1:04:56 - 1:04:58)
Well, I don't know. I understand. So it's a great question.

[Speaker 4] (1:04:59 - 1:05:26)
I also don't want to—I don't want to just—I'm sorry. I appreciate here we are sitting in Swampscott saying Swampscott's first, but if we're going to have an agreement, like we're committing to basically on average 16 hours for Marblehead, right? I mean, that's a commitment.

That's not just like, you know, we're going to have to take care of their needs, right? That's an agreement. We can't just say Swampscott comes first.

So I just want to understand how this is kind of realistic, how we're leveraging Steve this way.

[Speaker 2] (1:05:26 - 1:07:27)
Yeah, it's—look, I think we've been clear. We're going to have to give it a try. There may be pressure points that just make it just not feasible.

But we get a sense based on the work cycles. Inspectional services actually has a cycle. You know, we see a lot of permits in the spring.

In early summer, it trails off. There are different times of year that it actually—you know, there may be more time for some additional duties. Steve not only sits here in front of us as our building commissioner, he's also our part-time facilities director.

And so, you know, we do have two smaller municipalities. We have limited commercial. Like when we look at the types of communities, yes, it can get very busy.

There are days that he is straight out. But, you know, we're on a different schedule. We work a four-day schedule.

Marblehead works a five-day schedule. There's different dynamics that can help us, you know, flex to some efficiencies. And so we want to give it a try.

And I do think, you know, I've asked Steve to really think about this critically. And this is not an edict where I'm saying, hey, Steve, you're heading over there for 16 hours. It's, hey, are there opportunities for us to really work in a regional inspectional service office?

I think there are many of these opportunities. Like we have, you know, a number of departments that, frankly, you know, are smaller municipalities. And, you know, communities that are a little bit bigger have more efficiencies with staff.

We don't have those efficiencies. So, you know, I'd like to see if we can find those.

[Speaker 5] (1:07:28 - 1:08:29)
I mean, I certainly think there's the opportunity to, you know, to share resources and do more, you know, by potentially sharing staff and regionalizing and considering these types of opportunities because it allows us to do more with less from a budget perspective. I did have an opportunity to talk with the Marblehead Town Administrator. And, you know, we are a similar community.

We do have a lot of similar needs, similar wants, and, you know, we have similar demographics. And, you know, we don't have to be North and South Korea. We can work together for 364 days out of the year.

And on Thanksgiving Day, we can still hate Marblehead. But I do think that this is the opportunity to have, you know, to really start, you know, potentially having a larger conversation about some additional efficiencies and opportunities. And I'm excited about that personally.

[Speaker 6] (1:08:30 - 1:09:36)
So, Doug, can I just make one more point? It is a good time of year to try this out. We do slow down this time of year.

Just jump ahead for a second. If this did work out, Marblehead's willing to put on another full-time local inspector. They have one full-time now, and I have a part-time, which we may be able to share that other full-time if it works out.

But just also, in this slow time, for instance, as you know, we're scanning all our files. And part of the contract was they come in and pack them up. Well, we're a little slow right now.

I'll pack my own files because I'm not going to sit there while we're a little slow and watch you pack the files. And I want to know where the files are and how to access them. So with that being said, this is the slower time of year that I can obligate to whether the files will be packed up.

And it's a perfect time to give it a try in the slower time and see if something can come out of it.

[Speaker 4] (1:09:38 - 1:09:43)
Yeah, I'm all for it. I just want us to be honest about whether or not it really works when it gets busy in the spring.

[Speaker 6] (1:09:44 - 1:10:13)
We would have to make a decision by then if this is going to work. This isn't going to be a, you know, we're going to have to, if it works and we're going to regionalize, it's not going to be like we're going to regionalize 10 years down the road. It's, you know, like you said, we can't, you know, it's got to all happen sooner than later if it works so that we get the support back that we're given now.

[Speaker 3] (1:10:14 - 1:10:20)
So how many hours does the building inspector work now? What is that office?

[Speaker 6] (1:10:21 - 1:11:35)
Bob works, well, Bob actually just retired and we're looking at bringing another part-time building inspector in from, he was a commissioner, he retired from LEND, and he was willing to come in for the 10 hours. So he comes in 10 hours, he comes in for two five-hour days right now, and he mainly, we try to schedule as many of the, we have a lot of small inspections that are important, but going out and looking at insulation in bathrooms and framing in bathrooms, there's a lot more important decision-making, zoning things that I can be doing in the office, and that's what is good about having the 10-hour local, that we just load up on those two days, and we seem to be keeping up pretty well with that. We also don't just do those two days. I don't like anybody to wait over the weekend, so I will pick up a few inspections when needed, as needed, but to your answer, right now we have, you know, a 10-hour local inspector, and it seems to have worked out for the last two years that I've been there, and I think prior years before I was there.

[Speaker 3] (1:11:36 - 1:11:54)
Okay, because it just seems to me that, you know, we have such big jobs with facilities and with building in town and things like that. This just seems like we're taking a really big bite of an apple here.

[Speaker 6] (1:11:55 - 1:12:12)
And it's a test, Mary Ellen. You know, like I said, it's a test. If things start falling behind and they're not willing to give a little, then sorry, we can't help you if you're not going to help us type of thing.

It's got to be a team. Like, that's what it's all about in the end result.

[Speaker 4] (1:12:14 - 1:12:32)
One small technical thing maybe, Sean, it says here that building commissioner supervision will be provided by a town administrator. Is that a shift in reporting? No.

The direct report to the building commissioner. Okay, I misunderstood. I thought Margie was.

[Speaker 7] (1:12:34 - 1:13:00)
So the idea is this is the tip of the iceberg, right? So you would try this out, see how this relationship works, and then sort of if it works, it would flow into a sort of an intermunicipal building department, basically, right? Where services, other services would be provided such that we were both benefiting and not just you going to Marblehead.

[Speaker 6] (1:13:00 - 1:13:05)
Correct. I do believe that if it works, it would be a benefit for both towns. Right.

[Speaker 2] (1:13:06 - 1:14:10)
So, Kate, you actually, you know, kind of touched upon, like, our prior building commissioner was a part-time NAHAT building commissioner, inspector, or an official over in NAHAT. So we had thought about, you know, could we actually look at a Marblehead, Swamp Pit, NAHAT inspectional services office because we do all sorts of inspections. And for me, that would be a very efficient way for us to just, you know, have a number of full-time employees that are shared throughout a population that really would be about the size of a small city.

Right. And we'd have full-time functions and efficiencies to go with it. This is a start.

We'll see. We'll report back sometime, you know, probably right around March when we pull the budget together, and we'll have probably a good sense in March whether or not this is going to be something that we could budget for.

[Speaker 1] (1:14:11 - 1:14:26)
Can I ask, can you tell us, how does scheduling currently happen? How does someone schedule an inspection currently? Can they do that all online and book your schedule online, or is it still human-to-human?

[Speaker 6] (1:14:27 - 1:15:04)
It's still human-to-human because there are some elements to it, but I do have a full-time administrative assistant who does most of the booking. If I answer the phone, I will do the booking as well. However, there's always somebody there to answer the phone, book the appointments, especially where the plumbing inspector, electrical inspector are so part-time.

You know, we don't want people just to feel like they're being pushed off, so we like to book the appointments as they call. Okay. Thank you.

[Speaker 4] (1:15:04 - 1:15:23)
Yep. Motion? Yeah, motion.

I move for us to support the proceeding with this innovative trial agreement to share building commissioner services with the town of Marblehead.

[Speaker 3] (1:15:23 - 1:15:24)
So moved. Second?

[Speaker 4] (1:15:26 - 1:15:27)
Is that a second?

[Speaker 3] (1:15:27 - 1:15:29)
Yeah, second. All in favor?

[Speaker 2] (1:15:29 - 1:15:32)
Aye. Thank you.

[Speaker 5] (1:15:33 - 1:15:36)
Thanks, Steve. Thanks, Steve.

[Speaker 2] (1:15:37 - 1:15:41)
Get back to work. Head over to Marblehead.

[Speaker 4] (1:15:41 - 1:15:41)
You're already confined.

[Speaker 5] (1:15:42 - 1:16:16)
All right. We're going to move on for a review and possible vote to approve the MBTA multifamily district maps. Angela Ippolito from the planning board was going to join us.

She had a conflict this evening, but rather than postpone the conversation we've already had the benefit of her presentation at our at our last meeting. So in the event that there are any additional questions or comments from the board, if there are none, we can move right to a vote to approve the multi-family district maps.

[Speaker 4] (1:16:17 - 1:16:55)
I did have one question. I mean it's probably not critical. I was just wondering whether or not, maybe you guys remember I had to jump off at the end last time, so it's my bad.

Do we have any sense of doing this? How many, I know this isn't really literally creating units. Do we, we kind of strategically put these in places where it kind of made sense, obviously.

Do we have any sense of how many units realistically there might be room to actually create with this geographies we've chosen?

[Speaker 2] (1:16:56 - 1:17:15)
Like I asked that same question when I initially reviewed it and the sense was not sure, but we're basically, we've got areas that actually comply with the spirit of the, I know we're in compliance.

[Speaker 4] (1:17:15 - 1:17:28)
That's not an issue, right? I'm just, and I know we've got Vinnit in here, so there's definitely hopefully going to be units there, but some of the other ones I was just wondering, you know, they're at what appear to me like very hilly areas and other things like that.

[Speaker 2] (1:17:28 - 1:17:40)
So I don't think, the bottom line answer, I don't think very many. We're being compliant, but it's not helping us really drive the need.

[Speaker 1] (1:17:43 - 1:18:49)
So I might answer it in a different way. So I agree, it's not very many. So if you're looking to comply with the law, we're gonna comply with the law.

If you look to live to the spirit of recognizing the need to create housing in every community, because that is the reason that every community has overpriced housing, then we are not doing that. And that's partly a byproduct of the fact that we are so built out and our parcels are so small that it is prohibitively expensive to accumulate more than one parcel in which to build a multifamily project in an economically feasible way. So I think just, it's important to flesh that out because I, again, I think we're doing what we need to do, and there's no criticism at all, but I also do want to understand the fact that this doesn't, we're in a town that both recognizes the need for affordable housing, but then when we talk about density, single-handedly opposes density almost everywhere.

So it's a conundrum. That's 22 for us. And so this does comply with the law, but I don't think you should, with the exception of Bindon Square.

[Speaker 4] (1:18:50 - 1:18:52)
Which maybe will be in better shape than most places.

[Speaker 1] (1:18:52 - 1:19:07)
Yeah, no, no, no, no. Fair enough. But with the exception of Bindon Square, this is, I don't think, going to materially increase our multifamily stock in our town, and so therefore is not really getting to the underlying objective of 3A.

[Speaker 2] (1:19:08 - 1:19:12)
But people won't be upset, and so we must be doing something right. That's the irony.

[Speaker 5] (1:19:15 - 1:19:19)
All right. Do I have a motion?

[Speaker 3] (1:19:24 - 1:20:02)
I make a motion, but I'm not really sure if this is the right motion. Do we have a motion already written? Or do you want me to read you what I have?

Sure. So I make a motion to adopt the 3A zoning map and compliance model as submitted and recommended that the planning board, and recommend the planning board move forward with drafting the zoning regulations, which will also be presented to the Select Worker approval. This also means that an article for a 3A zoning overlay amendment will be included in the May 2024 Town Meeting Warrant.

[Speaker 1] (1:20:03 - 1:20:04)
Potentially.

[Speaker 4] (1:20:05 - 1:20:06)
Maybe.

[Speaker 3] (1:20:06 - 1:20:07)
Hopefully.

[Speaker 1] (1:20:07 - 1:20:08)
I second that.

[Speaker 4] (1:20:09 - 1:20:13)
I'm not sure it has come back. Does it have to come back to us again? If it's on the warrants.

[Speaker 1] (1:20:13 - 1:20:13)
Yes.

[Speaker 4] (1:20:14 - 1:20:18)
There was another comment that I think Mary Ellen had in there about us approving it again.

[Speaker 3] (1:20:19 - 1:20:27)
We would have to approve it again. We'd have to approve to put it into the warrant.

[Speaker 5] (1:20:27 - 1:20:30)
Yes. All in favor?

[Speaker 3] (1:20:30 - 1:20:31)
Aye.

[Speaker 5] (1:20:31 - 1:20:41)
Thank you. All right. And we will move on to discussion and possible vote on the creation of a Water and Sewer Infrastructure Committee.

[Speaker 1] (1:20:42 - 1:20:53)
We're gonna, Doug and I need to murmur and perhaps we'll be ready to have that discussion in the November 15th meeting. We are going to work on a description.

[Speaker 3] (1:20:55 - 1:20:57)
I think we have a description. I don't think we need to wait.

[Speaker 1] (1:20:58 - 1:21:05)
No, we don't have a description. So if someone has a description, I believe Doug and I were charged with creating a description since I haven't literally spent a second on it and I admit that.

[Speaker 3] (1:21:05 - 1:21:07)
When were you charged with it?

[Speaker 1] (1:21:07 - 1:21:08)
I believe at our last meeting, the two of us.

[Speaker 2] (1:21:08 - 1:21:11)
Well, there was a sign up.

[Speaker 1] (1:21:11 - 1:21:21)
Yeah, I was at a meeting. When we talked, when I proposed doing this, I suggested and I volunteered Doug to join me on this. And Doug was in India and I was in Europe and neither of us connected yet.

[Speaker 3] (1:21:21 - 1:21:24)
I just don't think, I don't really see why we need to wait.

[Speaker 1] (1:21:25 - 1:21:48)
So what's the scope? We were... No, I'm just curious.

What's the scope? I mean, you can read an email from a resident, but that's just one idea of the scope. And I think the scope really matters and we've had this really long conversation about traffic study advisory committee that we've had to reformulate several times because the scope really matters.

And so I appreciate that we've gotten some input from residents here. But besides reading that email, I haven't done anything more.

[Speaker 3] (1:21:49 - 1:22:16)
I don't know, really. So my opinion is, I don't think you have to do anything more. I think that scope that we received, the resident was Liz Smith.

I think that scope was, actually, I didn't get the email on my regular account. I don't even have it. Do you have it, Doug, on yours?

Or does somebody have it on theirs? I have it. My feeling is, scope that was submitted to us...

[Speaker 1] (1:22:16 - 1:23:22)
It wasn't submitted to us. It was an email that was sent out. I'm just, it's something different than the fact that we've crafted it, staff has reviewed it.

We've had nothing. And again, no disrespect to what it is. It could be brilliant.

I'm just letting you know. I'm just letting you know that we haven't had a conversation about it. And I don't believe it actually includes everything that we may want to make sure it's a successful venture.

So I'm not chiming in with an opinion about it. I'm just saying that I'm letting you know. I'm not going to vote for it.

I read half of it on an email. I didn't know we were actually voting on a committee tonight because we hadn't actually sent anything in our packages tonight. The tab is actually quite empty.

So I appreciate the let's go ahead and do it here. But if we talk in circles with a committee, then I'm not looking to waste anyone's time. And I want the committee to be successful and I want to make sure we have a charge that is the correct charge.

And I also want to set the expectations correctly for the committee and what the committee and advisory committee's role is. And make sure staff sees it because staff is going to be involved.

[Speaker 5] (1:23:22 - 1:23:30)
And that's all just important to me to create success. That's all. So to that effect, will you and Doug be ready to present?

[Speaker 1] (1:23:31 - 1:23:35)
Doug promised me earlier tonight that he and I would be ready to present. Okay, great.

[Speaker 3] (1:23:36 - 1:24:10)
In the meantime though, I would like to make sure that we have 25 to 30 days where people who are interested in serving on this committee or committees that we're going to put, you know, come up with a clear purpose that people already start to send in their applications now. And that we have, we start to have a pool of people who are interested and that we can fill that pool sooner rather than later. I mean, we've already waited, you know, two weeks.

Guys have been...

[Speaker 1] (1:24:10 - 1:29:25)
Okay, so yes, so let's do that. But I'm really, I'm just going to, you've opened the door now for me to talk about what I was frustrated with earlier. I appreciate all the focus on this.

Town staff has been focusing on this for years. And again, I appreciate that there is a renewed urgency. Respectfully, you know, you didn't just join this conversation, Mary Ellen.

You've been part of town government for years. And so I'm just saying, like, everything can't be hyperspeed. Let's just be realistic about expectations here.

To set it, fine, let volunteers submit their thing, but this idea that we can just turn a switch and we're going to fix a hundred years of zero investment by the town of Swampscott and fix it is a fallacy. And so we can sit and play to the audience and say, oh, I'm glad everybody's recommending this stuff like that. And I think it's important.

And the focus is the rightful, righteous focus. And I wish we'd spend this much time on roadways. I wish we'd spend this much time on trees.

I wish we'd spend this much time on our environmental areas and resiliency, which we do nothing. So whoever didn't want to build the pier, the pier will be underwater. You don't need to worry about the condition of it.

The pier will be underwater shortly. But let's spend the time. We have to spend the time on all those things.

And we have that burden. That burden's ours. And we've known through experience that creating advisory committees just because we need to say, oh, people are upset about traffic, let's create a committee.

That committee sits and spins wheels. Literally sits for hours. That committee, historically, Traffic Advisory, sits there for hours because they don't know what they're empowered to do because they're residents.

And who are they to tell us which way streets should run and where a stop sign should be? They volunteered for it, and they're knowledgeable, but they don't know what to do because there's no synergy. We didn't properly work out synergy with town staff and scope and for them to understand what the decision-making tree's going to be and what we want the decision-making tree to be.

That stuff all matters. And so I appreciate this. And look at the fishermen's beach stuff.

I'm going to put that on a separate path. I'm bothered by the fact that the test results happened in September and you didn't ring an alarm bell for us on fishermen's beach, right? Because that's new, different, right?

King's Beach, a little differently. Not any less important. I'm just saying we've been focused on that.

But I just want us to, not take a breath to slow down, but we're doing you a disservice if we're going to give everybody the impression that us just being quick and doing all this stuff we're going to solve these issues. We are going to do it. The energy's here.

But I'm telling you on the committee, everybody who wants to apply should apply. Great, I agree with you on that. But we don't know what a good committee is yet.

We don't know what a successful committee is. I believe that the email that came in could be brilliant. Again, I'm not passing substantive judgment here.

But I also want to set the expectation here. If this was easy, I believe that the nine decades of people that lived in this town before us would have done it. I believe that.

I don't believe they were just cheap and short-sighted. I believe it was easy they would do it. But they didn't.

No one did. And so it's our responsibility. And great, I take that responsibility.

Let's have that responsibility. But I also don't want to mistake that influx of emails and just showing up at meetings and pounding the table is going to get it fixed. There is something that's been going on.

There's been bridge building that's been going on outside of this stuff. And yes, we need to shape policy and do these things. But there are financial realities.

The committee's a great idea. Hey, I came up with the idea and I said it last meeting. I think it's a wonderful idea.

But I don't think it's a wonderful idea to make the residents feel like they're being involved. I'm not looking to make them feel good about it. I'm looking to get the benefit of their knowledge in a way that I now, through my experience, know that we're able to take these committees and tell them what the scope is and work with them as to what the scope's going to be so that they don't get frustrated when they keep meeting and saying, but we thought it was this, we thought it was this.

Instead, I want it to be a committee that we really worked out a mission statement and scope. We talked to town staff who's going to have to work with them to say, does this work? Where does this make you now inefficient in what you're doing or cause a problem?

Let's hear it. Doug and I need to hear it as we draft something. Doesn't mean we're going to agree with them, but we certainly need to hear it so that when we're meeting with them, we're able to say, this is with clarity your mission, and we can answer questions so that they, how do you judge success?

What is success? So I just, again, on this whole topic, I appreciate the passion. I love the passion.

I'm, Fisherman's Beach drives me crazy beyond belief. And not because it's Fisherman's Beach, just because it's another beach. Right?

And you should be ringing alarm bells for us, Sean. Because I didn't read the 9-1 report until we started having the conversations to do it here. But we also need to do it correctly.

Not slowly, correctly. And so I appreciate your passion for it. I appreciate the fact that you raise it every time you can raise it.

We all want to do it. We all want to scream from the rooftops to do this here. If we had the answer, if we all knew how to do it, we would just do it.

But this committee is a really important opportunity for us. But if we just frustrate the committee, we're going to lose that brain matter that we so need, and that passion. We're going to lose it.

Because they're going to say, this is ridiculous. I show up every meeting, and you say these things, and you guys do nothing with it. And that's not success.

So we've got to be careful in crafting this to make sure that there is a meeting of the minds on this. And this is, to me, the only thing that we're actually doing right now is creating the committee. And so that puts a lot of pressure on it to make sure that we're doing the right thing.

The rest of it is just talk. The rest of it is just talk. The committee is the only thing that we, so far, have actually taken affirmative steps on.

We haven't yet.

[Speaker 4] (1:29:25 - 1:29:26)
Well, we said to do the committee.

[Speaker 1] (1:29:27 - 1:29:31)
You shouldn't have gone to India, and I shouldn't have gone to Europe. We'll cancel our vacations.

[Speaker 5] (1:29:31 - 1:29:33)
So how much time, realistically?

[Speaker 1] (1:29:33 - 1:30:19)
November 15th. I'm being serious about this. Doug and I have to do it.

And I am grateful, Liz, for your email. You probably have shortcutted a lot of the effort here. And so, again, no disrespect.

Your passion and your energy is second to none. And I love it. And you're the exact person that I'm thinking of when I say I want to get this committee correctly because I don't want you to say, why am I volunteering my time?

There's nothing more disrespectful than volunteering time for no reason, for feelings. You're not heard. You can be disagreed with.

You can have debates. You may not get everything you want, but you don't want to waste your time. Right?

And I've seen too much of that with committees in this town. So, again, I hope you take no offense by my passion with this topic. Great.

I appreciate that. Thank you very much.

[Speaker 3] (1:30:19 - 1:31:29)
I just want to say, I respectfully don't agree with you. I feel like we have a document here that shows purpose. It's similar to other committees that we have.

And if we want to wait another couple weeks, but at least people can know that if you are interested in serving on a committee like this, start sending in your resumes so that we can get something going. I want to see a committee formed sooner, as soon as possible, so that they can inform and help educate the select board on a number of different things and to help Chino and to help Sean, whatever they seem to think. But I want to see, make sure that we have something going so that information that's coming through, we have a good understanding of all the information and that we have ways on which we can turn around and get different funding and put a little bit more pressure on possibly, say, Moulton and some of our other politicians out there on the federal side.

And my worry is that it just goes longer and longer and longer. So, if we're waiting another two weeks, two weeks isn't going to kill us.

[Speaker 4] (1:31:31 - 1:32:25)
I do want to raise one kind of substantive thing that I think Peter and I are going to encounter. It's been raised tonight, it's been raised in other places about, do we need a separate committee? And I just wanted, you know, if you want to say that this is what we should go off and think about, but I want to just raise it openly to see there is a water and sewer rate committee already, there is a water and harbor committee already.

I could make arguments why this is very different, the type of people, the essence of it, etc. But I just want to make sure that I'm just raising that up right now. If there's any strong feelings, perspective about, you know, oh, yet another committee, we've got all these damn committees, or this is a very important, distinct committee, and we really need this to be distinct and that's a purposeful direction that we should go.

[Speaker 5] (1:32:26 - 1:32:59)
My vision, my opinion here is these are separate and distinct committees. So I think if we're talking about, you know, if we're talking about a water sewer infrastructure advisory committee, that is a different charge than a water and sewer rate advisory committee or the harbor and waterfront committee. I mean, those are just three separate and distinct committees, and I think the focus here should be is more.

[Speaker 1] (1:32:59 - 1:34:57)
So I'm 80% there with you. I think harbor has a separate subset goal and a master plan that they're working from in doing things, and again, respectfully, what they're working on now is resiliency. They're literally the only committee in town.

Maybe conservation commission is doing a little bit, maybe private non-profits are doing things, but realistically, I'm true on resiliency right now. They are our resiliency committee. That's another conversation for the night, because we've got to do a lot more on resiliency.

$100,000 in capital expenditures over the last five years on resiliency probably is not going to save our shoreline. So yet another thing we've got to work on. But I do think the rate, we should think about combining with the rate committee, and the reason is this, because for example, we can't disconnect the solution from financial reality.

We just can't do that, because then you're going to have people over here, then it just becomes an advocacy committee that's not tethered to how do we make it financially. I want to take the advocacy and the intellect and the engineering knowledge and combine it with, well, now how do we make it happen? Because if we have it, we're all going to sit in a room, we're going to agree we need to do it, and we need to do it fast, and we need to do it yesterday.

That is actually easy. We will get there. We may fight about what's the process and what should we do.

We will get there as a community on that. It's how we do it that is going to be the rub, and then the prioritizing of what's the more important thing between two things. I think we should talk about, and Doug and I, if okay with you, will come back with a recommendation, but I think incorporating, and those individuals on that committee, by the way, are really knowledgeable about how we've been setting water and sewer rates, so bringing their similar staff in there, and the fact that they have a lesser learning curve, whatever, on those things may be a good thing. If you'll entertain it, let us do on, Doug's asking a really great question, something that the stuff in front of us tonight doesn't address, so let us do on that, and come back and give you all a recommendation on that, because I think it can, because I think that matters. Fair enough.

We have to pay for this.

[Speaker 4] (1:34:57 - 1:35:01)
Katie, Mary Ellen, any strong feelings one way or the other on that?

[Speaker 3] (1:35:02 - 1:35:26)
No, I think for me, I don't have a problem with having a rate committee, and having this committee, and then probably after a year then, you know, resolving the rate committee or merging the both of them, so I don't really want to lose the rate people, but the rate people might, the rate committee might say, oh no, I don't want to go on that committee, because that's going to be a lot of work for a good amount of time.

[Speaker 7] (1:35:27 - 1:36:15)
Yeah, I mean, the first thing that comes to mind is folks sign up for committees for two reasons. One, either just to be a part of something in town, right? But on the second hand, it's maybe because they have an interest or an expertise in what they're signing up for.

So to say, oh, rate committee, now you're charged with this task, it's not really fair to the folks who raise their hand to say, I want to be on the rate committee. So, without having that sort of discussion, I would want to understand, you know, no, they actually want to be a part of the discussion, they want to be part of the solution, they agree that this is sort of interwoven, I would sort of, these are all volunteers. We don't want to tell them what to do, they came here because they want to help us, so let's just want to be deferential to them.

[Speaker 5] (1:36:17 - 1:36:43)
Thanks, Katie. Alright, well, November 15th, all will be revealed. Alright, we'll move on to the consent agenda.

Consent agenda is designed to expedite the handling of routine and miscellaneous business of the board. The select board may adopt the entire consent agenda with one motion 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 3] (1:36:45 - 1:36:51)
I have two questions. One is, I'd like to know if we can delay voting on the minutes, I didn't get a chance to read them.

[Speaker 18] (1:36:53 - 1:36:53)
Sure.

[Speaker 3] (1:36:54 - 1:37:11)
And two, can you just tell me what this the November 11th, what that event is? It's a fundraiser. It's a fundraiser.

Why Dockside, and it's not the local VFW?

[Speaker 2] (1:37:12 - 1:37:41)
You know, they just wanted to support our veterans. The applicant is Dockside, a brand new business. It's an opportunity for them to give back to the veterans.

Who's running the event? Who's running the event? The Geron Foundation.

What do they do? What is the event? It's a Veterans Day celebration.

They're going to have a corn hole, and they're going to serve some beer and wine on the lawn of town hall.

[Speaker 4] (1:37:43 - 1:37:49)
So I had a different question. Am I not following this right? Dockside Pub has a liquor license, right?

[Speaker 1] (1:37:50 - 1:37:58)
Yes. For a defined premises. So a liquor license is a specifically defined premises, so they can't take their beer and wine license on the road with them.

[Speaker 4] (1:37:59 - 1:38:19)
The local licensing authority cannot grant special licenses to any premise. Any premises that has an alcohol so we can't give it to the Dockside Pub, but we can give it to the Dockside Pub when they're operating on town hall. I'm not sure what you're reading at the moment here.

[Speaker 18] (1:38:20 - 1:38:21)
You're talking about C.

[Speaker 7] (1:38:21 - 1:38:47)
So it's the issuance of, I believe, a permit at the address of Dockside Pub for the premises. So we could not issue a liquor license on that premises because they have a liquor license issued already. So this applicant is asking for a liquor license somewhere else.

[Speaker 3] (1:38:47 - 1:38:59)
Outside of their premises. So how does it What is the event? It's a cornhole tournament.

[Speaker 2] (1:38:59 - 1:39:04)
You can sign up and toss gene bags into boards that have holes in them.

[Speaker 3] (1:39:05 - 1:39:06)
I got it.

[Speaker 1] (1:39:09 - 1:39:10)
It does have alcohol, though.

[Speaker 5] (1:39:12 - 1:39:16)
Mary Ellen, do you want to be my cornhole partner?

[Speaker 3] (1:39:17 - 1:39:18)
No, I don't.

[Speaker 2] (1:39:19 - 1:39:23)
It's a brand new small business doing something for the community turning over a leaf here.

[Speaker 3] (1:39:25 - 1:39:32)
No, I did vote for alcohol for Veterans Day before. One of the events.

[Speaker 1] (1:39:32 - 1:39:33)
Veterans alcohol, we're for.

[Speaker 3] (1:39:34 - 1:39:46)
I just don't do it during the week or at 9 o'clock in the morning. I do want to say, liability insurance, I am not comfortable when that box is a no. I got it today.

[Speaker 4] (1:39:46 - 1:39:52)
Great, thank you. I have a question, too. Do I have a motion?

[Speaker 7] (1:39:53 - 1:40:00)
Also, have we worked out any rules and regulations as Peter's brought up multiple times regarding these types of events?

[Speaker 1] (1:40:02 - 1:40:11)
Yeah, just say no. You're going to come back with that really quickly because that's going to be a good answer here. As opposed to hemming and hawing on this.

[Speaker 7] (1:40:12 - 1:40:14)
We've asked probably like a half a dozen times.

[Speaker 1] (1:40:14 - 1:40:30)
We just have to do it. How about this? Tonight you get a vote, but after tonight you shouldn't expect one-day liquor licenses to get approved without you showing that we have those rules and regs in place.

It's overdue. It should have been years ago.

[Speaker 4] (1:40:36 - 1:40:44)
I move to approve this one-day liquor license. The consent agenda less the minutes. That's it.

That's all there is.

[Speaker 7] (1:40:44 - 1:40:47)
There's also a grant permission for a run.

[Speaker 4] (1:40:48 - 1:40:57)
Yes, thank you. I move approval of the consent agenda. Minus the minutes.

All in favor.

[Speaker 5] (1:40:57 - 1:41:00)
Aye. Thank you. Select board time.

[Speaker 4] (1:41:04 - 1:43:17)
I do have two things. One, to everyone's joy or horror, now we're on to especially Peter's looking at what we do about the Glover. So there is work.

So we are doing work on formulating whether or not there's anything that can be done in that regard. that's all there is to it. Not much more really needs to be said about it at this point.

Some assessment being done of what that entails. Are there legitimate opportunities to salvage it? I think primarily at this point this is not about moving that house.

This is about taking it apart and potentially rebuilding it somewhere else. It's the only option even on the table. So that's all I had to say about that.

The other thing I want to say is that even though this is really kind of way beyond our purview, we did make a statement last time about the Israeli Hamas situation. In my opinion, we made the right statement at that moment in time. I think events have continued to transform there.

I just want to state for myself that I think that my horror at what's happening in general for everybody in that area and that Israel has every right to defend itself, but the ramifications of that are horrific at this point. I just didn't feel comfortable leaving the one statement out there for myself without representing the fact that this is an evolving situation. I hope that there's a way for Israel to defend itself while not adding to the incredible mortality that's happening throughout the Gaza Strip.

So.

[Speaker 3] (1:43:24 - 1:44:33)
It's a little hard to talk about solid waste there for that dog, but I will. The Solid Waste Advisory Committee had their public meeting last week, and it was good attendance there. I was surprised at some of the people that showed up.

I was very impressed. They asked great questions and I think they helped the Solid Waste Advisory Committee tweak a couple things. Solid Waste Advisory, they did a great job in the meeting because it can be a little bit of a tough conversation because you're asking people to get ready to do something different or something that they're really not up to speed on, and that's really what it was.

People weren't up to speed on it. And the committee made everybody feel really, really comfortable. And it felt like it was a group effort and wanted to work together and that was great.

Also, there was a good amount of people online and people still following up with different questions. So, they are finishing their little tweaks. Then they've got to come back in front of us and we've got to make sure that it's ready for...

[Speaker 5] (1:44:33 - 1:44:37)
Are they going to be November 15th or first December?

[Speaker 3] (1:44:37 - 1:45:41)
What are we doing as far as... We just have to make sure it's ready before the special town meeting. So, we can push that out.

And then the only other committee that I have to talk about is the Retirement Committee and they, at their last meeting a few weeks ago, they are interviewing advisors. They do this every seven years. They had three advisors that they were interviewing.

The one question... The one subject that did come up is they had sent... I want to make sure everybody understands that we all received a letter, a September 11th letter and it was just a reminder that the insurance will expire June 30th 2024 and Sean is working on that.

So, for the retirement people that are home watching, we did get your letter and Sean is working on it. So, that came up again. And there was a concern that the select board did not get the information and I promised I would say it again tonight.

[Speaker 7] (1:45:45 - 1:45:51)
I attended the Solid Waste Advisory Committee meeting and something that came to mind...

[Speaker 18] (1:45:51 - 1:45:51)
Online?

[Speaker 7] (1:45:51 - 1:45:52)
I did, yes. Online.

[Speaker 18] (1:45:54 - 1:45:56)
Struggled many things at once.

[Speaker 7] (1:45:56 - 1:46:58)
I had an earbud in and it's feeding children. But I... Something that came to mind when we were...

When that meeting was occurring was the request for a business newsletter because a lot of the conversation that was happening seemed a little bit like maybe... I totally agree. They made it feel very conversational and very collaborative so that people didn't feel like this was an edict that was coming down but more of a conversation that was having...

No decisions had been made yet and they were trying to come to the best decision to serve the purpose of their end results, the Solid Waste Committee's end results, but also not overbearing the businesses. But I have... We talked about this and I think it would be sort of a ripe time to try to facilitate that and I'm happy to work with Margie or whomever in order to get a list going of businesses who want to be a part of it and then I understand there's a lift because we've got to create something that doesn't exist.

[Speaker 2] (1:46:58 - 1:47:06)
The monthly newsletter I think we could turn into a business newsletter. I think we do a quarterly or I talked to staff about that.

[Speaker 7] (1:47:07 - 1:47:30)
Absolutely. Let's start somewhere and then see where it goes. But I think that there is a call from businesses, at least some of the businesses that I've spoken to, that they feel like they sometimes are late to the party.

So if the information was someplace where we could say, oh, sorry you were late but you don't have to be late in the future because you're going to have access to this newsletter in the future.

[Speaker 3] (1:47:30 - 1:47:33)
What about if we just added a couple pages into our regular newsletter?

[Speaker 4] (1:47:35 - 1:47:37)
It's not focused really on the business community.

[Speaker 3] (1:47:38 - 1:47:38)
Yeah.

[Speaker 4] (1:47:40 - 1:47:41)
They're going to get stepped up.

[Speaker 7] (1:47:45 - 1:47:53)
I mean not all business members are residents so I think there is a distinction there. Is there a chamber?

[Speaker 3] (1:47:55 - 1:47:56)
Are they still?

[Speaker 2] (1:47:57 - 1:48:05)
They're active. And they send out a news member briefing periodically.

[Speaker 1] (1:48:12 - 1:51:51)
I have two real quick things. Harbor Advisory and Waterfront and School Building Committee. Two committees that are just continuing to work away and do what they're charged with.

I do encourage people to get in touch with the Harborfront Advisory. What they're working on with the pier is not an aesthetic thing. It's not a feel good thing.

It's not trying to it is a born of absolute necessity which is our pier and storms have shown us that our pier is going to be underwater. We are not and there are just some realities about that. If the pier doesn't upset you then the fish house should upset you because the fish house is at the same elevation.

They are really working and we just have the benefit of having some consultants who give us so much more time than they've ever paid for this but we've got to invest more. The efforts that they're looking at are resiliency. The tangential benefit is other opportunities in the harbor.

Uses of the harbor, increasing mooring fields or doing things and becoming more of a seaport town are some of the tangential benefits but what they're talking about with breakwaters and what they're talking about with the piers is about resiliency and it's not negotiable. Mother nature is not negotiating with us and so they're moving ahead. I appreciate the fact that 80% of the town farmers market this year I ran into the chair of the Harborfront Advisory Committee.

He wasn't there selling products. He was there sharing information about and answering questions about the pier so I just encourage people to go on the town website. Jackson Schultz's information is on there.

He would be happy to meet with anyone. It's just important that people understand the path. It's a multi-year path that we have to go down to get grants.

Good news for those that are concerned that the grants for resiliency are taking away grants for sewer lines. They're not. There are coastal zone management and the Seaport Advisory Council have specific grants that deal specifically with these issues that only go for these issues and that's where the grant fundings for those are.

Frankly the conversation is going to evolve into more of the breakwater which again is designed to protect our harbor but that's a tangential event. Really what it's going to do is it's going to break the current so that currents aren't and tides are not as violent if you will at our seashore once the properly engineered breakwater is there. I just want to lift them up.

They just keep doing it and having conversations. School building committee, I just want to say I know that we have a tour for some of the boards coming up there. I had a call today and I appreciate you lifting up Max Casper for what he's doing but really it's a byproduct of so many people.

Neil Duffy has been select board, post everything else, keeping us honest about making sure the tax incentives that are out there for the sustainability. Suzanne Wright, the town business business manager, we had a call this morning to go through the increased dollars that potentially are coming hoops and hurdles and challenges to doing those things and making it happen, retaining consultants and attorneys and doing those things but they are again just continue just doing it and this school is on budget and on time which is pretty remarkable given all the different things there so I just wanted to lift them up as well because they're doing Yeoman's work and they spent as a volunteer committee frankly some of them on the committee, it's a full time job and so we're fortunate to have them.

[Speaker 5] (1:51:52 - 1:51:59)
Thanks Peter. I don't have anything additional to add but with that I'll entertain a motion to adjourn.

[Speaker 3] (1:52:00 - 1:52:01)
So moved.

[Speaker 5] (1:52:01 - 1:52:02)
All in favor.

[Speaker 3] (1:52:02 - 1:52:02)
Aye.

[Speaker 5] (1:52:03 - 1:52:27)
Thanks Joe. Aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye.