[Speaker 6] (2:29 - 3:41)
Welcome to the June 4th Select Board Meeting. This meeting is being recorded. And before we start, I just want to, before we start the pledge, I just want to say that I'm going to do everything I can to continue the great efforts by David Grishman to run efficient meetings.

And I do request that we ask to be recognized. Please be mindful of the time that we're here. I'm going to try everything to stay away from four-hour meetings, but we are a busy community.

But the goal is to stay away from four-hour meetings. And most of all, I just appreciate your patience as I learn this new role. So if you could please stand for the pledge, I appreciate that.

Okay, we're going to change up the schedule just a little bit. We're going to do public comment first. So do we have a public comment?

Do we have any hands up for public comment?

[Speaker 16] (3:41 - 3:42)
I'm not seeing any.

[Speaker 6] (3:47 - 4:08)
Steve Iannacona. Do I see his hand up? No, he actually texted me beforehand saying that he wanted to speak.

Oh, wait, wait, there he is. He just popped on. Give him a second.

Okay. Do you want me to unmute him? Yes, please.

Hi, Steve. You're unmuted.

[Speaker 10] (4:18 - 6:28)
Hi. I'm sorry. Thank you for allowing me to jump ahead of people.

I didn't expect to be this soon. I did want to speak to the public comment tonight concerning the housing production plan that was on the agenda for tonight. Had I not checked, by the way, Steve Iannacona is precinct four.

Had I not checked the select board agenda a few days ago, I and I think several others would not have known about it. Well, the effort people put into the plan, it is detailed. Staff had to be congratulated on the incredible amount of data and research that was put into the draft.

It's going to, at 99 pages, it's going to take more than one night for review. As of this afternoon, I do not believe that I have seen what the completed effort is. The one I have seen, which is the updated version of the 2015-2016 plan to the 2022-24 housing production plan has missing data, mention of the Hadley School as a possible site for low income housing for the elderly, red line notes in the draft asking for updates, et cetera.

I was told there was a plan approved by the planning committee months ago. No idea how to access it. I'm not sure if this is the same document or not.

Thus, if the public had no notice of and no access to a completed copy of the plan, at least as far as I know. I don't recall this being on the agenda at the last town meeting. Weird for such an important issue.

Please, by all means available to publicize items, take every effort to publicize items that are going to be on the select board agenda. Perhaps a month of future planned items listed on the select board page each week's agenda might work out so that people could plan ahead and know what's going to be coming up. And I thank you for allowing me to speak and have a good night.

[Speaker 6] (6:28 - 6:40)
Thank you, Steve. Is there anyone else for a public comment? Okay, not seeing anybody.

We will move on to the town administrator's report.

[Speaker 2] (6:41 - 16:52)
Thank you, Mary Ellen. You're welcome, Sean. The town will be moving forward with our community power options.

Just wanted to let folks know that the town has been one of the first communities in Massachusetts to aggregate our community power. 70 plus percent of our residents and businesses subscribe to community power as an alternative to National Grid's basic service. This is a program that really helps Slomskip be cleaner and greener and be a leader when it comes to environmental stewardship.

So really proud about this. We've saved over $7 million in aggregate as a community. This is something that it's hard for people to really feel or see.

But if you subscribe to National Grid, you would be paying peak rates during times where we actually have a very steady rate. And that's a really great thing about Slomskip. So feel proud about that.

We will have some information at our next meeting that hopefully will continue a program that really helps Slomskip and over 50 communities in this commonwealth be investors in industry-leading green energy. I want to thank all those that worked hard to put together our second annual Heritage Festival. This is a program sponsored by Slomskip's METCO program.

And sure, it's an annual event that really helps celebrate such a unique piece of our heritage as a community. These programs get better and better every year. It's wonderful to see a number of these programs that have been seeded over the last couple of years.

We've had a couple of dozen people turn into hundreds of people. I have no doubt thousands will enjoy these programs in years to come. But certainly wonderful to be invited to spend some time in the dunk tank again.

I would encourage some of my colleagues, including my chiefs here, to join the Heritage Festival next year and lend your time in that wonderful dunk tank. I had a wonderful opportunity to speak at a very special program at Town Hall honoring our trees. I want to thank Vera Castron, Anna Nishati, Richard Frankel, Jennifer Honig, Jim Olivetti, Brian Drummond, Tara Gallagher, and Gino Christopher.

Their efforts to advocate and advance strategies for Swampskip's tree canopy. Swampskip Town Hall is an arboretum. We have a wonderful species and all sorts of interesting trees.

Several of those trees are named in honor of veterans who have sacrificed their lives in honor of our nation. Jim Olivetti actually gave a very moving speech and remarks. David shared some of those thoughts as well on Memorial Day.

But really wonderful tribute. Thank you to David and Katie for being at that event as well. I attended a trial of a disinfectant technology at Town Hall two weeks ago.

This was coordinated by Save the Harbor, Save the Bay Executive Director Chris Mancini. Chris is really working very hard to try to explore every option. We're looking at this.

The data is complicated, but certainly we're looking at everything possible that could help us mitigate the public health issues associated with Kings Beach. The town hasn't spent a nickel on this technology. I don't expect to.

But we are going to be a partner in continuing to look at technologies. I do have some data that I will share with the board later this week that helps us see how this technology does impact bacteria. This has to be vetted through DEP and the EPA very, very carefully.

We have aquatic life and microbiomes that have to be protected as well as humans. And that's a complicated responsibility. I'm pleased to report that we have promoted Firefighter Lt.

Michael LeBlanc to be our next permanent captain and Firefighter Michael Begnell as our newest permanent lieutenant. Both are a credit to the Swanscot Fire Department and to the town of Swanscot. I'm incredibly impressed with their performance in the selection process but also their backgrounds.

I look forward to working with Chief Archer to have a ceremony before the select board over the next few weeks to really just recognize their contributions to the town. We have a community meeting on June 11th at the high school in this room at 6 p.m. to talk about our new elementary school and some of the traffic patterns that are emerging. We have a lot of staff, Max Casper, Gino, Chief Casada, and Officer Wilson coordinating meetings for this public presentation.

So I want to encourage folks to join us. You can also join us on our Facebook page or our website. General Court has enacted two statutory amendments that affect the sale of alcohol beverages by on-premise license holders.

This is a holdover from the COVID-19 pandemic. They essentially allowed for the sale of mixed drinks for takeout. So if you want to buy a takeout drink in Swanscot, you can have it delivered to you or take it home.

This is now a state law approved by the Alcohol Beverage Control Commission. We continue to work with Anthony Athanas and his attorney to discuss efforts to save the Glover. I want to thank the Athanas family.

They have been wonderful partners. I've certainly worked with them with the acquisition of the Hawthorne. But this is a national issue of importance.

We're about to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the revolution that started this grand American experience. And Swanscot has a really special property that highlights one of our nation's most significant heroes. But more importantly, the regiment that bears his name.

That regiment was among the most diverse and most extraordinary of our Revolutionary War groups. And it's important for us to really understand that history and celebrate it. We do have our chiefs here tonight.

They can update you on some of their departments. I did have an opportunity to cook lunch. Again, at the Senior Center, I would encourage some folks that have some culinary talent to head down there and see if you can entertain some of our seniors.

It's really great to engage with our seniors. They have lots of questions. They were very curious about town meeting.

Very curious about some of the actions that we have taken in town to acquire open space and all the things that we're doing. But it really is a great opportunity to engage with staff. Did tour the facility again.

Talked to staff about improvements down there. Mary Ellen, you've been very clear about making sure the disposal will work. And we have new dishwashers on the way.

So Max Casper is working very closely with Heidi to make all that happen. I want to thank everybody that came out for our Pride celebration. These programs save lives.

I just want to be clear about that. They're wonderful. They create community, but they save lives.

Our young citizens that were in attendance, the folks that really helped support the program, from Shore to Nagley and all the groups that really spent time creating community. Most importantly to Danielle Strauss, Kate Kane, our rec department, and Danielle, David, and Katie for your attendance there. We have to lead on these issues.

It's important that people know that Swampskin is a community that accepts everybody for their infinite value. We see hate in this community. This week we have seen acts of hate.

And it's important for us, especially during this month, to stand up and say, not here. And we're going to make sure everybody is safe. So proud of the fact that we'll be reading a proclamation tonight and just ensuring that as a community, we are going to help everybody just feel like they're infinitely valuable.

Recreation is busy as ever. This week, 12 to 4, we have our harvest festival on Fisherman's Beach, a harbor festival. We have a chowder competition.

So if you like chowder, head down from 12 to 4. There will be a competition. You can vote.

We have a farmer's market from 10 to 1 on Town Hall lawn. And Juneteenth will be Wednesday, June 12, from 1 to 4 at Town Hall lawn. So mark your calendars and come down and have some no-cost, low-cost fun in Swampskin.

[Speaker 6] (16:53 - 16:56)
Any questions? Doug?

[Speaker 16] (16:59 - 17:00)
Oh, you're on mute.

[Speaker 6] (17:01 - 17:12)
I can read his lips. So I do have a question. Can you just, what is the date on the traffic meeting?

What was that? June 11th. June 11th, yeah.

[Speaker 7] (17:12 - 17:14)
What time is it? 6.

[Speaker 2] (17:14 - 17:14)
6.

[Speaker 6] (17:15 - 17:17)
And how are we going to be publicizing that?

[Speaker 2] (17:17 - 17:20)
It's actually on our website. There's a flyer.

[Speaker 11] (17:23 - 17:25)
100 flyers. There we go.

[Speaker 2] (17:30 - 17:46)
Great. So flyers delivered to the residents. About 100 about the new property.

And a robocall. Everybody's favorite. You know, we'll go out reminding folks that they can show up and meet with us or participate online.

[Speaker 6] (17:46 - 17:52)
Right. And the focus of that is to address the traffic that we're going to be having with the new elementary school.

[Speaker 2] (17:52 - 18:38)
Every new school will have new traffic patterns. I think there's a lot of concern about how they're going to evolve, where the pressure points will be, how public safety vehicles will access the neighborhood during peak traffic times. Lots of questions that are serious.

And we, you know, are going to work with the neighborhood. If we have follow-up meetings that we need to schedule, we will. We're going to make sure that we listen and just help this neighborhood get ready for a new school.

It's wonderful. We've got traffic consultants. We've gone over this numerous times.

But we want to hear from the residents and hear about where they think there may be some significant pressure points that perhaps we should address.

[Speaker 6] (18:38 - 18:57)
Great. Thank you. So we're going to be skipping our Eagle Scout tonight.

Our Eagle Scout's going to come back at a later date. There was a little mix-up with his schedule. So we'll move on to reading the proclamation.

Katie will read the proclamation for us.

[Speaker 7] (19:00 - 22:09)
Pride Month Proclamation. Whereas our nation and our community were founded on the principles of equal rights for all Americans, and whereas Swampscott is committed to being an inclusive community and welcoming of all people, regardless of their sexual orientation and gender identity, and recognizes that we are a diverse community enriched by this diversity, including those that are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning, and whereas the town of Swampscott supports the rights of every citizen to experience equality and freedom from discrimination, and whereas the movement towards equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender LGBT people took a historic turning point on June 28, 1969 in New York City with the onset of the Stonewall Riots, and whereas we will never forget that 21-year-old Matthew Shepard, a college freshman at the University of Wyoming, was brutally attacked and in an act of homophobic violence in 1998, where he was abducted, bound, robbed, and pistol-whipped by two local men before being left for dead after being tied to a fence in a field outside of town in freezing weather for 18 hours, and whereas violence against the LGBTQ community continues to be a critical issue in the United States, with violence towards transgender and gender non-conforming people facing intensely concerning trends, and whereas while there has been remarkable progress towards acceptance and equality in recent years, members of the LGBTQ plus community in the United States and around the world still face an unacceptable level of discrimination and violence. This includes LGBTQ plus people who are not safe at home and those who do not have a home in which to stay, and whereas we must push back against those who threaten the safety of LBGTQ plus residents and challenge our progress, we must continue to make the case that all human beings share something fundamental and common, all of us want to be loved and all of us want to love, and whereas Swampscot celebrates its diverse LGBTQ plus community and is committed to ensuring equality for all of our residents, employees, and visitors, and whereas the people of Swampscot's LGBTQ plus community are a vital part of all fields and professions and contribute to a stronger and welcoming Swampscot, and whereas we have improved attitudes of society by encouraging inclusiveness throughout our community and celebrating Pride Month, and now therefore by virtue of the authority vested in the Town Administrator and each of the below select board members in the Town of Swampscot, we hereby proclaim the month of June as Pride Month in the Town of Swampscot, Massachusetts, and encourage all faith-based and non-profit organizations, residents, businesses, and public institutions to acknowledge, honor, value, and celebrate LGBTQ plus people and encourage everyone to treat others with mutual respect and understanding. And witness thereof, we have here unto set our hands and cause to be affixed the great seal of the Town of Swampscot, Massachusetts, this 5th day of June, 2024. The select board.

[Speaker 6] (22:09 - 22:43)
Thank you, Katie. You're welcome. So, now we will move on to our highlights of the evening.

And that is an update and discussion from our super team. And which, is there anybody, which one of you would like to go first? I'll go first.

There we go. All right. So, we're going to have an update from Chief Graham Archer from our Swampscot Fire Department.

Thank you, Chief.

[Speaker 4] (22:43 - 31:42)
Good evening. Thank you. Good evening.

Am I on? Sounds like I am. Okay.

I'm happy to give this annual quick report to the select board of sort of a retrospective on FY24. And I look forward to FY25 for the Swampscot Fire Department. Looking back at FY24, some notable events.

We had the retirement of Captain James Snow after 40 years on the fire department. It's a record that not a lot of people meet. If former Chief Green is out there, I know he's saying, I did it.

I did it in Red Delano, but it's a real mark of accomplishment for him. He did 40 years with the department with distinction. As well as Firefighter Rob Thomas O'Neill, retired this in FY24 after 25 years.

I had the distinct pleasure of promoting some really outstanding candidates this year. Oh, I'm sorry. Recommending to the administrator to promote some outstanding candidates this year.

Lieutenant Jason Lozano was promoted to captain. Lieutenant Michael LeBlanc was promoted to captain. Firefighter Michael Bagnell was promoted to lieutenant.

A real highlight also was we hired our first civilian administrative assistant, Margaret Weil. She was really just, it's, you know, we, Sean talked to me about, you know, when I first assumed the role about the need for administrative assistants on the fire department. And, you know, it's something we'd never had before.

We had always had a firefighter slash clerk do payroll and some of those administrative tasks. You know, I wasn't opposed to it, but I didn't really dig into it until after a couple of years on the job and getting over some hurdles. And we got into this fiscal year and we really took a look at it.

And my first inkling was when I reached out to one of my peer chiefs and got their job description for their administrative assistant. As I went down the list, it really started to dawn on me about the number of things that I was dipping my toe into, juggling, managing, but that could be help, that I could use help doing. And we brought on Margaret Weil.

She has just an outstanding resume of service in government at the state and federal level, as well as non-profit and in academia. And she's just, you know, our concern was someone who didn't, you know, didn't have experience with the unique schedules and benefits of a fire department. It's a really different schedule, that it would be difficult.

Her learning curve was almost vertical and she's hit the ground running. And I just really wonder how we managed before we had someone like her there. So I couldn't be happier about that.

So accomplishments for FY24. We hired two more outstanding firefighters, Santiago Garcia and Jonathan Thibault. Having the flexibility to do a more thoughtful hiring process since leaving civil service.

You know, doing interviews and really getting to kick their tires has been terrific. And we've been able to select some really outstanding candidates and these two definitely fit that bill. I oversaw the installation of a new life safety fire sprinkler system in our station.

This was funded 50% through a $100,000 federal grant. And the time was good enough to put up the rest of the money. You know, every once in a while, we get trade magazines, trade publications, and we'll see the embarrassing happenstance of a fire apparatus catching fire in a fire station.

Our fire station has one central staircase to get out, and the other three poles go down into the apparatus floor. The more I thought about what to apply for in this federal grant a couple years ago, the more I became concerned that if one of these older trucks had a problem on that main floor, we're above it with almost no way to get out of the building. So I'm really excited to have the installation of this fire suppression system.

Hopefully it's never needed. But if something goes horribly wrong, it's the town of Swampscott doing our level best to protect the people that serve the town. The pace of training has increased.

With a lot of our new hires, they really have dug into training at the fire academy. They've been taking fire officer trainings through the academy. We've always had, you know, a handful that took these classes.

They're intensive and rigorous. And we have a bunch of them that have signed up to start taking these classes and get themselves on a track for supervisory positions. We also face some challenges.

Staffing continues to be a challenge. For a variety of reasons, for most of the time I've had this job, there have been people who have been out who have had medical issues or a variety of reasons that there have been long-term vacancies. And that puts a strain on us.

It puts a strain on the budget. It puts a strain on staffing. So that's something that we've been working on and we're looking to come out of it hopefully this year.

More on that in a bit. The replacement of our ladder truck for myself and a lot of our firefighters remains a top priority. Our ladder truck is really reaching the end of its serviceable life.

A ladder truck is a major capital investment. So it's a bridge we're going to have to cross at some point. It's functional right now.

I don't want to give the impression that anyone's safety is in jeopardy. But it requires a lot of focus by our officers, our firefighters, and my mechanic to make sure that it's ready to go at all times. And it's produced by a manufacturer that is now defunct.

So getting parts for it is becoming very difficult. Almost comically difficult to find parts for it. The change from civil service, it keeps coming up.

But it's been largely accepted and generally viewed positively by the staff. There remains some wariness and I am working with the staff to smooth that over. The new people that we've hired have been warmly accepted to a person.

They really have. It was a sea change. In some ways I'm surprised that we made it through it as quickly as it happened.

And it wasn't really quick. But we got there and if you ask the majority of the people that are employed on the fire department, they'll tell you that it's working. And it was worth doing.

And if you have an occasion to plug into some of the goings on at civil service today, you probably wouldn't be tempted to look back. It's an agency that's struggling to evolve. And it's a difficult thing to do.

So I'm happy that we made that move. Looking forward to FY25, we're going to be holding our third firefighter entrance examination this summer. We're really working hard to make this.

The first two were very well attended. But we're really working to make this one even more so. We want to get a really good pool of candidates that will last us a couple of years so we won't do this annually.

We're trying to outreach as much as possible. Anyone have any ideas? We're always open to ideas on how to really outreach to untapped populations or groups of people that might be interested in doing it.

In response to the vacancies I mentioned, in FY25, we're looking by we, I mean Margaret, my administrative assistant and myself, we're really looking to implement a wellness and fitness program to try to mitigate some of these vacancies at some point. The vacancies are caused by a variety of reasons. But there is a program developed in coordination with the International Association of Fire Chiefs.

[Speaker 6] (31:42 - 31:52)
Chief, I don't want to interrupt you. Just one second. Diane, are we okay?

I just want to make sure we're still on.

[Speaker 4] (31:53 - 33:05)
Thank you. There's a program that's been developed in coordination with the International Association of Fire Chiefs and the International Association of Firefighters for firefighter wellness and fitness. It's a voluntary incentive-based program to promote wellness and fitness really holistically.

I don't think that it's something that would be an effective response to the vacancies that we can, frankly, really consistently be seeing year after year, which are really putting a dent in our budget. I think we're going to take a look at a video. We'll get back to our recruitment efforts.

We're going to look at a video that Joe Dillette and two or three years of his class really did a fantastic job of putting together and that we're going to be showcasing at upcoming open houses for recruitment at the Firehouse and for the upcoming entrance exam that's coming up soon.

[Speaker 11] (33:06 - 33:31)
Can I just see if I can share this on the screen? Sure. Will it share now?

[Speaker 7] (33:31 - 33:34)
Yeah, it's outlined in red. Okay.

[Speaker 2] (33:37 - 33:55)
Can you just expand it, Diane? There's a right-hand corner.

[Speaker 16] (33:55 - 33:55)
Yeah.

[Speaker 2] (33:58 - 34:00)
And just minimize the peg.

[Speaker 7] (34:08 - 34:08)
That's okay.

[Speaker 5] (34:28 - 34:29)
I hope this is worth the wait.

[Speaker 4] (34:36 - 34:36)
What's that?

[Speaker 7] (34:37 - 34:38)
Do we not have the volume?

[Speaker 4] (34:38 - 34:39)
Yeah, unmute.

[Speaker 16] (34:46 - 34:58)
So if you escape out of that.

[Speaker 2] (34:58 - 34:59)
We're talking to kids, actually.

[Speaker 6] (35:05 - 35:10)
Just add your music.

[Speaker 13] (36:01 - 36:16)
When I was a kid, I'd say I was always interested in firefighters. I always collected fire t-shirts.

[Speaker 12] (36:16 - 36:21)
I grew up in this town. I moved here when I was little. I enjoy working with the public.

[Speaker 14] (36:21 - 36:30)
The idea of helping people every day is what really sparked my interest. The more I learned about the career, the more I fell in love with it.

[Speaker 4] (36:33 - 36:45)
There's a lot more expected of firefighters today than there used to be. We're expected to be a real support network for the community. We're expected to engage with the community, and we look forward to that.

[Speaker 12] (36:45 - 36:54)
In addition to fires, EMS is a big portion of our call volume. We also go to car accidents. Those are fairly frequent.

[Speaker 19] (36:54 - 37:01)
Boat issues, pond issues, ice, carbon monoxide issues in homes. We go to anything and everything if they need us.

[Speaker 12] (37:01 - 37:06)
And then there's a lot of mental health problems that we assist the police and the ambulance service with.

[Speaker 14] (37:10 - 37:19)
It's kind of like being home with my family. We come to meals together, and nobody's ever alone on a call. Everyone's always there to back you up if you need it.

[Speaker 17] (37:19 - 37:25)
We all want to be together. We all want to have each other's back. We want to support one another.

We want to hold each other accountable. That's the biggest thing.

[Speaker 4] (37:25 - 37:33)
Before we can build a good relationship with the community, we need to build relationships amongst ourselves. And we work hard at doing that.

[Speaker 14] (37:33 - 37:36)
Coming in here, I was nervous, but everyone was really welcoming.

[Speaker 13] (37:37 - 37:56)
I'd say that I was pretty worried. I mean, why wouldn't you? A new job with 32 guys.

Within my first day, they were very welcoming. It's like almost a brotherhood and a sisterhood. It's automatic friends and brothers that I didn't have before that I can trust and lean on.

We go on some outings. We went to a Red Sox game not too long ago.

[Speaker 18] (37:56 - 38:07)
We have an ice fishing thing we're doing this Monday. We go bowling. Some guys play softball.

That's one of the best parts of the job is the friendships and the camaraderie you have with the guys you work with.

[Speaker 15] (38:07 - 38:22)
When I had the opportunity to come and talk to the chief, and I had the opportunity to come here and work, I already knew that this was my home.

[Speaker 12] (38:25 - 38:37)
It's important to have diversity in the department because it gives us an accurate representation of everything in the community. Other people's perspectives, points of views.

[Speaker 13] (38:37 - 38:42)
So a bunch of different people together, you see different views that you might not see before.

[Speaker 14] (38:42 - 38:47)
We all have our own abilities and perspectives to bring to the table.

[Speaker 17] (38:47 - 38:57)
We all have to respect where we come from. There's different cultures, there's different ways of life, and we all have to understand that about the next person.

[Speaker 4] (38:58 - 39:11)
When we're choosing somebody to join our family, we look at the whole person, we look at the personality, we look at character, language skills, and life experiences that really help us to engage with a diverse population and people with different challenges.

[Speaker 13] (39:12 - 39:21)
I think that it's good having a woman on the fire engine. Sometimes there's some woman problems that maybe they don't feel exactly comfortable talking to the guys about.

[Speaker 14] (39:21 - 39:35)
Especially if it's a type of OB call where there's a woman that's pregnant or having problems, I'm kind of the one that jumps in and makes her feel comfortable. And being that person to be there for them is just really important.

[Speaker 15] (39:35 - 39:41)
We are progressing as one, a society, and two, as a community, and it's important.

[Speaker 19] (39:46 - 39:50)
It's a great job. First and foremost, you get to help people.

[Speaker 4] (39:50 - 39:58)
We're really looking for people that are eager to join a team and help people and have a good time doing it.

[Speaker 15] (39:58 - 40:06)
I like being part of the community. It's so easy that people want to talk to me. It feels really good.

[Speaker 12] (40:06 - 40:31)
If you are committed to working in your community, helping people in your community, can work well on a team, and are interested in a day-to-day lifestyle that is not predictable, sometimes it's very exciting, sometimes not so much, but it's always interesting. Be ready to be diverse, be ready to be open-minded, be ready to learn.

[Speaker 14] (40:31 - 40:43)
I would say buy a scanner and go to fires, watch the firefighters work, do your research, see what's required to be a firefighter, and just train, work hard, and you'll do it.

[Speaker 4] (40:43 - 40:57)
If people can look inside and think that they've got that, they have that passion, I hope they will come to Swampscot and take a look at what we have to offer and apply, and give us a chance to take a look at you.

[Speaker 13] (40:57 - 41:06)
It makes me feel good. I like helping people. It heals me.

Helping other people heals me. It's worth it. I enjoy it.

[Speaker 6] (41:11 - 41:42)
That was great. Thanks.

[Speaker 4] (41:46 - 42:26)
So, yeah, that's just a little bit of a taste of our outreach efforts. This whole project of going it our own, recruiting and hiring, has really been challenging, but it's been tremendously rewarding, and we're really enjoying the challenge. The union has worked with me on it, and it's really coming together well.

We're kind of really excited about it. Every time we have another entrance exam, we can't wait to dig into a new pool of candidates and see who the hidden gems are in there and who's going to be next.

[Speaker 6] (42:28 - 42:34)
Great. Any questions? How many members are on the fire department?

[Speaker 4] (42:36 - 42:41)
So, fully staffed, there are 32, plus a deputy and myself, so 34.

[Speaker 6] (42:42 - 42:44)
And then an executive assistant?

[Speaker 4] (42:46 - 42:52)
Oh, plus Ed. And a dog? And Ryan.

And a dog, yes.

[Speaker 6] (42:52 - 42:56)
Okay, great. All right, thank you. So, next up?

[Speaker 1] (42:57 - 42:59)
I'm not following that. I know. How do I follow that?

[Speaker 6] (43:00 - 43:01)
Now I want to be the fire chief.

[Speaker 1] (43:01 - 43:07)
And I know who Joe Gillette likes, because I talked to him about a year and a half ago. He was supposed to do the same thing for us.

[Speaker 6] (43:12 - 43:14)
We're going to have to get a town therapist.

[Speaker 1] (43:16 - 1:01:59)
We're going to create a new TikTok channel now, as soon as I leave this building. Yeah, it's a phenomenal video. So, trying to follow that.

Thank you again for letting me just kind of give you, I'll give you a high overview of everything that's been going on in the police department this past year. Some of the goals that we had set, just looking back at some of the things that we had talked about last year, was community engagement, traffic, and pedestrian safety. Mental health continues, just like the video just showed.

We get a ton of mental health calls, the police and fire department, that we respond to. And so that has been very important to us. And I'll touch a little bit more on that.

You know, in the accomplishments, Graham touched on leaving civil service. And that has been a huge windfall for us. December, we just swore in seven individuals, seven outstanding individuals.

And the three of them were, some just graduating from the police academy, three of them were actually new hires to the town, and two were lateral officers coming from other police departments. It was incredible. And I do have to give credit to the Select Board.

Without Brown nosing too much, you know, you see in the law enforcement world right now, it's so difficult to hire police officers, whether you're in civil service or you're out of civil service. And I will say that we did change a couple things in our hiring process, but having that bonus, having the bonus for new hires and for lateral officers was absolutely incredible. So in the last testing process, we had nine written testing phases where individuals would come in, they'd take the written test.

We had close to 150 total applicants during that time. It was a very, if you remember back in October, we pretty much, I think it was October of 23, is when the Select Board said, okay, yes, let's go ahead and do, let's start the bonus. And it was quick.

And so I have to give credit to our officers, our team of officers who did a lot of work. So every one of those applicants has to be vetted. We are going to go through every single one.

And so again, they just did an outstanding job. We're starting to see the rewards and benefits from that. Some of the other accomplishments that I'm proud of is the traffic recirculation.

We always talk about traffic, and it continues to be an issue for us in town, whether it be speeding, whether it be Graham and I and Sean and Gino, the slip lanes. It continues to be an issue. So we continue, we are continuing our education and enforcement with those efforts.

Another accomplishment is our, with the help of Brian Wilson, our school resource officer, as well as the school, LaTanya, and the team at the school, we secured a $320,000 grant in collaboration for the Safe Schools Grant. That is absolutely incredible. That is just a ton of resources, education, and training that's going to help us all and help our children be safe.

And it's just incredible. We also got the Municipal Road Safety Grant for $28,800. That will continue our efforts.

That's just in addition to help us continue our efforts so that we always have officers out there conducting specific, based upon what the grant, each month there's a new, whether it could be pedestrian safety, it could be speeding, it could be red light or stop sign running. There's a different area of focus every month. And so our officers have done an outstanding job with that.

And when I talk about the new hires, I have to, you know, we hired our new administrative assistant, Matthew Deulis. He has been phenomenal. He has hit the ground running for someone who's not had, had the, I guess the, no, it's just, he hasn't had the ability to work in a police department.

No, not just, you are young. He could be my son. But to have someone who came in here and just fit in seamlessly, not having any experience in a police or law enforcement organization.

And he has just hit the ground running. And he is always asking questions. And he's actually helping us improve a lot of processes.

So I have to give credit to Matthew. We're excited to have him. So he was hired in January.

Again, Joan Pena, Nicholas Cruz were hired in January. They came out. There are two lateral officers.

They hit the street immediately. And they have been phenomenal. It has been awesome to see them come in and just fit in.

They both came from other communities and they bring that knowledge of just having worked in a different environment. And so it's been, it's been a pleasure to see them. We just had John Posada who just graduated from the police academy May 3rd.

He is currently in field training and he will be completed in August, on August 2nd. So you will see him out on the street by himself once he's completed with field training. Currently, Sam Harrell, Nicole McGee, and Angelica Noble are in the Linfield Police Academy.

They graduate on July 29th. So I hope to see everybody there. They will, they'll start their field training shortly thereafter and they'll be finished.

They will be on the street by themselves November 8th. So we're starting to see the rewards of these hires. It's coming in now.

I wanted to recognize two officers, Detective Mike Chandler and John Cassidy Jr. They both have their anniversaries this year, five-year anniversaries. So as we get our new batch of officers in, we still have our other officers that continue to work hard and I just wanted to recognize them for their hard work and service. We had one, two, three, four officers.

Four officers, either retired or one left to go to the state police and last year, or this year, and Officer Tom Lucas who sadly passed away. So it's been difficult for the police department. Somebody who's been a part of us for 22 years.

I wanted to recognize Tom and everything that he brought to our department. In fact, we made a commemorative pin for Tom with his badge number on there. So he was a fantastic, amazing guy.

We promoted, this was last year, but it was the end of last year towards August of 2023, Sergeant Candice Doyle and Sergeant John Lloyd were promoted to sergeants. They have both been phenomenal. They absolutely, John Lloyd, right now, we have not had a traffic officer and because, you know, until we fill the ranks in patrol, once again, that's actually being filled this week.

He has been outstanding and continuing to work on not only enforcement efforts, but getting me the stats and the data of what our enforcement efforts currently look like. And so he's continued that job. He's working overnights and midnights as a new supervisor, but he has been excellent.

Candice Doyle, who is our sergeant now in criminal investigations, she, her background has been in investigations and we have had some sensitive, critical investigations and she has been excellent in handling the cases, handling the case, not only the caseload, but as well as any emergency, emergent investigations that are coming in, just like the check washing cases that we've recently heard about. Let's see.

Some updates, just to kind of give you a larger overview. So far, we've had 7,968 calls for service this year. It's about on par.

Typically, we receive anywhere from 17 to 20,000 calls for service each year. We've had 45 arrests. We've had 1,137 motor vehicle stops.

We've had in town 145 motor vehicle collisions. And 134 parking complaints. We've had 37 domestic incidents and we have had over 101 well-being checks.

Just like you saw in the video, well-being check, mental health continues to be an issue in Swampscot. And Officer Caruso, as a side note to that, Officer Caruso has taken over our mental health task force where we still have a, we have a person with a clinician 20 hours a week between us and Linfield Police Department who share those responsibilities. So when we have a person who has been in crisis, we're able to, not only with Elliot, with Department of Mental Health, with Lynn Probation, with several service providers, we're able to follow up on those individuals who call for help.

So that we're, not only do we respond to somebody needing help, we follow up with them as well. We've had 492 public records requests. It stays, we stay very busy just in administratively.

That is typically handled with, through Matthew as well as Lieutenant Fraylor as well as Captain Cable. So we are currently working on trying to get some type of software data that will house public records. It takes, it's a lot of work, it's a lot of redaction sometimes and it's just, it's time consuming.

We've had 46 body-worn camera requests this year. So a body-worn camera request, if we have an incident, the Lieutenant in charge of the body-worn camera request has to go through that incident and now redact certain information if there's license plates. If there is an individual that should not or cannot be identified, we'll blur out faces and that's a very time-consuming process.

Community engagement, we have continued community engagement. When I got here two years ago, one of the biggest things that, one of the things I wanted to see was community engagement and how we have been responding to our community. We've had 47 distinct events since then and I have to give credit where credit is due.

We make fun of him a lot but he has been outstanding. Brian Wilson and Sora, our comfort dog, they probably have the majority of these community engagement events. Whether it be Brian responding to Beverly High School when a high school student committed suicide, the stabbing and Lynn Classical.

I had the chief call me and said can you have Brian come and help us. Townwide events, he is there. First responder events at the Unitarian Church, he has been everywhere and so he has been a huge, he and Sora, mostly Sora we say, has been outstanding.

He's been incredible for our department. Right now, looking at our top calls for service, what keeps us busy? It is if we're called, it could be a call, somebody calling in, a citizen calling in or an officer just being proactive in conducting area checks.

So area check, building checks, it could be whether it be suspicious or the officer just proactively wants to go out to an area, I'm going to check this area, I'm going to check this building. We've had over 2700 calls where we have gone to check an area. So that seems to be one of our largest.

Again, motor vehicle stops. We are continuing our efforts. We have, we are on par to double what we did last year in terms of motor vehicle stops and citations.

And so, that is just our officers being proactive, going out there. When we do get, I don't want to say complaints, but if somebody calls and says, hey, there's some issues going on in this part of town, we not only conduct special enforcement, but if we can tie that in as well with our MRS grant, we'll focus in on that area as well. The animal control officer, Scott Constantine, has done a phenomenal job of this year, just this year alone, we've received, he has received 181 calls.

So he stays very busy. Ten of those calls were in reference to animal bites. And I think he is, he is one of our unsung heroes in the community because he works so well with us, with other, whether it be NOAA, whether it be environmental police, the EPA, the Harbor Master, we had that deceased whale recently, he has been instrumental in creating this partnership with the police department, animal control, and our federal partners.

And one of the things that he also brings is because he works so well with our partners, we are not, you won't see sometimes we'll have a stray animal or he has a deceased animal that he is taking care of. A lot of times we as a community may not even be charged for that type of, whether we have, if we have to, if there's a dead animal and that's obviously we have to take it somewhere. Because of his relationships, we don't see extra invoices or payments.

And it's just, it's not about the money, it's about the relationships that he's created with those partners that has been just, like I said, unsung hero for us. Again, pedestrian safety, we talk about this every day, every week. We've worked with, you know, with Graham, with Marzi, with Sean on what, how do we, what do we, what do we need to do as a town?

How do I ensure that our, our kids are safe, our families are safe when you're driving down the road? So, this year what we were able to do was recommend 32 additional speed tables in certain locations. I know we'll probably share that with you shortly if not sooner than later.

16, 24, or I'm sorry, 24 radar speed signs and additional 24 radar signs to go up in the community as well as 16 flashing crosswalk beacons. One of the recommendations that we had on Lower Humphrey from Phillips to the Fish House is to examine and install maybe pedestrian and flashing beacons in that area to assist and as well as enhanced street lighting in that entire area with the solar glare as well as the removal of potentially the crosswalk at 90 Humphrey where the slip lane is. We have all talked about it and we are all on the same page.

Now, it's just a matter of what do we need to do to get this done right now? We all agree. We are all meeting and so that has been incredible for us.

That's pretty much it. We are scheduled right now. We are the biggest line item when I look at the budget is our overtime and I attribute that to the challenges that we had before we did the hiring.

So, when you look at collective bargaining and you are thinking about okay, well, how do I manage our costs in overtime? There are so many rules and stipulations that we have to abide by in terms of when does an officer get called in? So, any nine officers a day on a 24-hour day can take the day off.

That's not necessarily, it's not vacation, it's not sick time, it's not comp time that's causing, that has caused it. It was the hiring process and when we were down, we still have two additional vacancies that we are looking to fill. When we had four vacancies at the time with the retirements, the retirements and the sudden passing of Tom Lucas, it just exacerbated everything for a short time.

So, we should be able to reap the rewards soon when our academy, our student officers come out of the academy and are on solo status. So, that's pretty much an update. If you have any questions, I probably have a ton more stats and information, but I just wanted to kind of give a high overview of what we're seeing so far midstream this year.

[Speaker 6] (1:02:01 - 1:02:03)
Any questions? Katie?

[Speaker 7] (1:02:06 - 1:02:15)
I'm not sure if this is exactly as for you, Quesada, but I wondered if we have been in discussions about bringing back the traffic committee?

[Speaker 6] (1:02:18 - 1:02:20)
We are going to have discussions on that.

[Speaker 7] (1:02:20 - 1:02:21)
We are going to have discussions on that.

[Speaker 6] (1:02:22 - 1:02:23)
We probably are going to bring that back.

[Speaker 7] (1:02:23 - 1:02:36)
Okay, because I know that we're going to fill that position soon. I know Sergeant Boyd has been doing a great job, but it's not really in his job description right now.

[Speaker 1] (1:02:37 - 1:03:07)
Yeah, he is not stopped. So, he has been amazing. This week, we are filling the traffic officer position.

Now that we have Officer Cruz and Pena out on their own, as well as Officer Quesada, who is graduating from field training soon, we feel that it's more, it's now time to get somebody who is just dedicated not only to traffic safety, but to community engagement as well. Does it kind of go hand-in-hand?

[Speaker 7] (1:03:08 - 1:03:47)
Yeah, I was just thinking, for me, when I hear about traffic safety, most of the instances that have traffic issues also link pedestrian issues, right? Because the slip lanes and the crosswalks often end up either becoming a traffic problem or becoming a pedestrian problem. So, I know we have, with the new school opening and the conversation happening on the 11th, I just know it's a very large topic and it would be great to have a little bit more community engagement in that all year round and not just when we're opening the new school.

I know we had issues staffing that committee, but I think we maybe could maybe integrate some there.

[Speaker 6] (1:03:48 - 1:04:00)
What I would like to request is that when we're finished with the year, before the end of July, if we can get copies of the stats, call stats, we can all have those copies. That would be great.

[Speaker 2] (1:04:00 - 1:04:22)
Certainly. Yeah, the chief just actually sent to me late this afternoon, copies of, I think, stats over the last couple of months, so I can get that out tomorrow. I just had a chance, I haven't had a chance to take a look at it, but certainly the idea is to get a more frequent update on some of those stats, so hopefully we can get into a routine.

[Speaker 11] (1:04:23 - 1:04:31)
Great. Thank you, chief. I actually had a couple questions.

I'm sorry. Daniel Leonard, you're on. So you have two vacancies.

[Speaker 1] (1:04:31 - 1:04:31)
Yes.

[Speaker 11] (1:04:32 - 1:04:35)
Does that include the traffic position, or is that separate?

[Speaker 1] (1:04:35 - 1:05:04)
No. No, that's just two new vacancies that we have. Okay.

Currently, we are working off, we are working off our last list that we had. We are looking at potentially laterals first. Okay.

And so we probably have at least, almost 10 laterals that we are looking at to vet. So they would be an immediate assistance to us on the street.

[Speaker 11] (1:05:05 - 1:05:13)
Okay. So what was the, I heard you mention the retention bonus. I don't honestly know what that amount is.

Could you tell me?

[Speaker 1] (1:05:13 - 1:05:35)
It was, and it was, thanks to Sean, it was Sean's, I said $1,000. During that time, it was from October-ish of 23 to the end of December of 23. New hires received $2,500, and laterals, lateral officers received $10,000 after their three-year stint.

[Speaker 11] (1:05:36 - 1:05:40)
Okay. And Chief Archer, how many vacancies do you have?

[Speaker 4] (1:05:41 - 1:06:02)
We have three currently. I have one candidate that's been fully vetted and get an intended conditional offer that we plan on bringing on in the very beginning of July. Okay.

And then the new entrance exam will be used to select, to fill the other two.

[Speaker 11] (1:06:02 - 1:06:09)
Okay. And were you able to, do you offer the same, the same retention bonuses? Is that?

No. Okay.

[Speaker 6] (1:06:10 - 1:06:34)
I just wanted to check. Thank you both. I have one question, Chief.

On the hiring process, is there room for flexibility in the hiring process? Did you make any changes other than the bonus system, but in the actual structural way in which you go through the hiring process, if you wanted to tweak it a little bit, is that a possibility or is that locked in?

[Speaker 1] (1:06:35 - 1:07:56)
It's pretty much locked in. We worked in step with the union when we developed the hiring process. So we don't want to sway from that process.

We don't want to open Pandora's box if we do it one way this time and then another way another time. The only thing that I would say that if there was anything that was different besides the hiring bonuses was the constant communication. So we made it it was a mandate that our whether it be our officers, our lieutenants, our sergeants, even myself contacting each applicant reminding them every week hey we see that you applied.

We want you to be a part of our department. It was just that constant communication where I think that was really the selling point. I remember as a new officer you will be lucky if you come to our city or your town or you want to be us.

That's not the way it should be. So we made it a concerted effort to we're going to call every single person on the list because not only do we want them to feel special because they have applied for us but that's the environment that we're trying to create.

[Speaker 6] (1:07:56 - 1:08:02)
Thank you. Any other questions? Doug?

[Speaker 9] (1:08:02 - 1:08:11)
Thank you both chiefs. Chief Cassata thank you so much for the update on the traffic safety measures.

[Speaker 6] (1:08:12 - 1:08:23)
Doug hold on one second. Can you gentlemen turn up that volume? Okay Doug.

Try again.

[Speaker 9] (1:08:24 - 1:08:25)
Did you hear anything?

[Speaker 6] (1:08:25 - 1:08:26)
Yes. Now we got you.

[Speaker 9] (1:08:27 - 1:08:46)
Okay. So I said thank you both chiefs and then Chief Cassata on the traffic safety stuff. That all sounds great.

Look forward to seeing the details on all those measures. And then can you remind me do we have any unarmed response capability for clearly mental health calls?

[Speaker 1] (1:08:47 - 1:09:15)
We don't. Well not unarmed. The component that we do have is the mental health clinician who is able to spend 20 hours a week with us.

That is after the fact. So that's something that I would love to see in the future and that is definitely what we're starting to look to in law enforcement. So nothing yet.

But we have a component of that. Okay. Got it.

Thank you.

[Speaker 6] (1:09:15 - 1:09:16)
All set Doug?

[Speaker 1] (1:09:17 - 1:09:17)
Yeah.

[Speaker 6] (1:09:17 - 1:09:29)
Okay. All right. So everybody set?

All right. So now my favorite department in Swampscott the Department of DPW Department of Public Works.

[Speaker 2] (1:09:29 - 1:09:30)
I thought you weren't supposed to have favorites.

[Speaker 6] (1:09:31 - 1:09:41)
I do. I'm sorry. I'm sure I'm going to be on Facebook tomorrow or whatever.

It's okay. But DPW is my favorite. No offense taken.

There we go.

[Speaker 5] (1:09:41 - 1:10:08)
Quick overview of Public Works. Right now we have 16 members in the workforce. I have an office manager, one clerical staff, and myself.

One vacancy right now. Assistant engineer. Having quite a bit of trouble filling that position.

As my good friend Vicky says. Over the years I've actually gone through nine assistant engineers for various reasons. Vicky likes to joke, after a while do you think it might be you?

[Speaker 11] (1:10:10 - 1:10:10)
Never.

[Speaker 5] (1:10:11 - 1:15:16)
Anyways I'm hoping to fill that position. We're working pretty hard at it. These 16 guys, who I'm really proud of, out of the 16 I've hired 15 of them.

The one that I haven't, guys like to joke I'm responsible for him too. He's been here for quite a while. These guys, as I said, I'm quite proud of them all.

They're hard workers. They're visible. They're out there doing a lot of work.

These 16 guys in charge of water, sewer, drains, parks, highway, highways, sidewalks, roadways, potholes. We have a mechanic, cemetery. Last year we did 80 plus burials at the cemetery as well as planting 1500 geraniums for Memorial Day.

We have a forestry department. We have 3,000 shade trees in Swampscot. The DPW office, the phone rings off the hook.

People want trees down for whatever reasons. They want them pruned or they want new trees which we like. We'll get into that in a minute.

Of course we do a lot of planting on the monument and trying to make the swamps look beautiful. We just put up 44 hanging baskets today. Once we put those up, we're in charge of watering them, keeping clean.

I'd be remiss if I didn't thank John McLaughlin for all the volunteer hours he puts in day after day. Just briefly go over some of the previous year's accomplishments. Planted 75 new trees.

Took down 37 trees. When we take down a tree, unless it's deemed an immediate hazard, we have to have a tree here and as a result of that tree here we ended up taking down 37 trees. Pruned over 200 trees using Chapter 90 funds plus additional appropriation from Tom Meaton and using money that was carried over from previous years.

We did a 1.1 million dollar pavement project last year which constituted 29 total streets being paved or at least portions of those. Working with community development. You'll hear this a lot because we work pretty closely with MAZI.

We made improvements to the Windsor Playground previous year. We also made significant improvements to the Borough Street at Railroad and Borough at Columbia Intersection. I think that's working out real well.

I get beat up a little bit about the speed bumps. Maybe they're not as high as they should have been but I'm going to tell you I drive through that intersection and I see the people first thing in the morning and at the end of the day getting off that train and just shortening up that crosswalk having those bump outs there has been a big benefit to the town. Alright so a couple of other things we utilize the beach rake the beach rake goes out it's actually going out this week I like to try to get out first weekend June right through Labor Day three days a week raking the town beaches keeping them as clean as we can.

Street sweeping we're out twice a year usually takes us about four weeks in the spring and four weeks in the fall to sweep every street I try to notify everybody as best we can we publish which streets we're going to be sweeping I get the message brought out but ultimately we end up somebody doesn't see it they leave a car out and they're chasing us to come back. One of the recent goals we just completed the floats went down on Fisherman's Beach that was huge it was touch and go trying to get those in by Memorial Day we did it now the big push is to try to get the old ones out of the lot Republic's going to drop a dumpster tomorrow we're going to do our best to get them all out of there because we have the Harbour Fest on Saturday and I want to give as many parking spaces as we can all right so all new yeah anybody seen them down there we were very fortunate you know when I put out that I got the capital request I really didn't know I used some of the experts down there it's probably $150,000 to replace the floats all in we had prices ranging from $75,000 to $210,000 was a little reluctant for the $75,000 because their next lowest one after $75,000 was $120,000 but Cavanaugh Marine phenomenal everything they did and they did it for a pretty decent price I asked him how we could do it he said he was trying to keep his guys busy through the winter they were in union shop and he said I'm not looking to make money I just want to keep my guys busy so we hit the jackpot there so there's going to be some surplus tree planting we just finished planting 28 trees there's still two more to be planted that's part of our capital article we received a couple years ago we just depleted this year typically we're going to plant the goal is to plant 30 trees in the spring and 30 in the fall you'll be happy to know we've whittled down the waiting list it used to be a bone of contention we used to say to skirt the waiting list if you wanted to buy a tree you'd go out and buy the tree DPW would pick it up

[Speaker 6] (1:15:17 - 1:15:18)
throw me crazy

[Speaker 5] (1:15:18 - 1:20:27)
it worked we're going to some of the projects that are either ongoing going to be happening in the very near future working with Max Casper roadway improvements to the new elementary school we opened the bids last Tuesday bids came in a little high but we have the money we're going to be just south of $500,000 to do roadway improvements over on Orchard Road Humphrey we're hoping to get that started pretty quickly we signed the contract today and between me and Max we'll be overseeing a lot of that work also working with Max to get the lower parking lot at the middle school paved that's being engineered right now we talked about putting it together with my paving project but that won't work most of my paving projects we mill and overlay mill down two inches then overlay that parking lot is in such a state of disrepair that we're going to have to grind it right down and put in that new four inches goal is to get that done pretty quickly obviously we'd like to have that done by the start of the school year I'm optimistic that we can get that done King's Beach seawall repairs we just finished phase four so we're right up to the mission on the bay seawall we completed that with the help of Tom Neaton in the town actually by the time we started at the Lynn Line got the mission we were into that for 200 2.2 million of the town dollars and 450 thousand dollars of FEMA money Stacey Brooks Sewer Main Rehabilitation we're on to phase two right now you've probably seen the EST I know you saw the EST trucks today you know the camera and all the lines in the phase two catchment area that's what EPA wanted us to do that they said you know just the whole area we want to see what's going on and once they take a look at those we'll know what we have to rehab because as you know we're relining these sewer mains but we can't reline anything that's offset or that's been broken that's why we camera they'll tell us all the streets that need repairs we'll make the repairs and be able to line that talked to Kleinfelder today if everything goes accordingly we're going to put that bid out this winter with the hope of starting phase two in April of 2025 Fisherman's Beach Rehab that's just got moved up Kleinfelder will have completed the scope of work we're looking for late June this month or early July advertisement and award the contract by mid-July signing the contracts all goes accordingly we'll be able to start that in the middle of August what I mean rehabilitation work we missed out we didn't this actually should have been done last year for numerous reasons we didn't get to that but we got another $500,000 MWRA money beautiful thing about the MWRA loans zero interest so all we're doing is paying back the principal we're going to be doing that contract I worked with engineers last week drones will be completed this week advertising in the next two weeks hope to have a contract signed by the beginning of July construction start mid-July at the end of July we're going to be doing Atlantic Ave relining that sewer water main excuse me from Blodgett Ave to the Marblehead line that will complete Atlantic Humphrey's been done from the beginning to the end part of that we're going to do Beach Bluff Ave from Atlantic up to Marston Street and we're going to be doing Palmer Road from Humphrey to Atlantic the estimate for that is 1.2 million dollars which we have the funding for roadway paving we're going to be doing another probably have about $750,000 using this year's funds that will become available on July 1st and surplus funds from the previous years hoping to have that contract out by mid-July ideally start in September to pave those roadways hopefully they can complete it this year otherwise it will be the spring of next year we don't like to pave in the summer time anyways they pave they roll it they can still scuff up the asphalt with the tires and that's pretty much it amongst the other things our guys are on call we work 7 to 3.30 daily and I have two guys on standby from 3.30 p.m. Friday to 7 a.m. Monday morning they have a cell phone with them and if an emergency gets called in to the police they get paid hour by hour to come in on those it's real convenient to have them in the summertime because starting after Memorial Day we empty the trash barrels every single day of the week including the weekends I think they've been doing a pretty good job just hired five summer help starting last week all pretty good guys starting off very good thank you

[Speaker 6] (1:20:30 - 1:20:36)
that's it I see one of my family there you go um questions Katie Phelan

[Speaker 20] (1:20:37 - 1:20:40)
yeah I saw Katie

[Speaker 7] (1:20:40 - 1:20:51)
at 7 o'clock this morning yes I saw each other very early this morning um has the port-a-potty been delivered to Phillip's beach is that normally you guys can handle that

[Speaker 5] (1:20:51 - 1:20:59)
no I don't think so I can follow up with a no problem

[Speaker 7] (1:20:59 - 1:21:04)
also I think I'm supposed to ask you about your hand in bearing espresso

[Speaker 20] (1:21:05 - 1:21:10)
yeah that was unique that's quite

[Speaker 2] (1:21:10 - 1:21:11)
an accomplishment

[Speaker 20] (1:21:11 - 1:21:14)
that was quite an accomplishment talk a little bit

[Speaker 7] (1:21:14 - 1:21:24)
about it because I've had a lot of people come up and ask is it safe is it going to erode are we ever going to see this whale again if you know a little bit about it maybe just a couple

[Speaker 5] (1:21:24 - 1:22:46)
so we started meeting with Noah and they gave us two options to get rid of that whale actually three the first one was to do what model head did drag it out 55 miles at a cost of $27,000 and had that work out not very well so we eliminated that we took that off the table second one was drag the whale to shore have a company come in with chainsaws prop them all up put them in a dumpster and haul them to a landfill I didn't like that idea nor did Sean third one was to bury them on the beach we've done that in the past with seals never a whale but we'd probably get one whale a month washed up on the beach dead and that's what we do with the protocol is to bury them this one was a little unique because we had to go as far up onto the sand as we could because water seeks its own level we waited to low tide we were still able to get down 10 feet buried them and we were able to get probably six good feet of fill on top of the whale and I'm pretty confident that whale is not coming back up it was compacted pretty good we get complaints Sean knows I was going down there every single day last week and after because we're hearing that the whale smells no you know what it smells I'm going to lynch you or drive and the smell for whatever reason was real bad the past couple of weeks on the shore

[Speaker 2] (1:22:47 - 1:24:30)
yeah Gino that was remarkable I you know was on the calls with Noah with Gino and you know they were encouraging us to bring it out tie it up and you know this was two weeks after Marvel had dealt with it so you have literally a huge whale that's decaying and there was no question it would have cost us far in excess of twenty seven thousand because we would have had pieces of espresso to deal with and frankly for Gino to take the time on a weekend where he had his daughter's is just a testament to his dedication and commitment to this town we reached out to a contractor that frankly lives in Swansket and we were very fortunate to mobilize that quickly and really address a huge public health issue and a pretty short order and so I want to thank Noah I want to certainly thank Thatcher Kieser in the town of Marblehead because we did learn from their experience and they were helpful through and through we had talked about the possibility of borrowing the Marblehead Harbormaster boat to try to drag it but there was no question that that was going to be an exercise in probably some Facebook amusement for a lot of folks what Gino was able to pull off was extraordinary and I want to thank Merino Construction and you know the two or three individuals that spent the time on that Saturday to take care of that issue

[Speaker 5] (1:24:30 - 1:24:31)
hats off to Nick Menino

[Speaker 6] (1:24:31 - 1:24:45)
Nick Menino always really does so much for the town you know and never he never asks for anything just really appreciative

[Speaker 2] (1:24:45 - 1:24:58)
yeah I I went down to Gino's office after one of the calls and I was like Gino find somebody to bury it and he was like as soon as he got back to me he said he's got Nick I was like well we got a plan

[Speaker 7] (1:24:58 - 1:25:18)
I just have one sorry I was going to say I think thirty five years ago a dead whale washed up on Kings Beach and I wasn't alive you were alive and my husband said they buried it there he was in second grade he got to go down and see it and he's never seen it ever again so I think everybody can rest assured we're not going to see it again

[Speaker 5] (1:25:19 - 1:25:33)
we did have one portion that washed up a week later and we're confident that that was part of the whale when it was banging up against the sea wall and we're going to bury that as well oh okay we are good

[Speaker 6] (1:25:33 - 1:25:45)
with this I just have one quick question on the floats was that a joint adventure with the Swampscat Yacht Club did they also pay for floats or that was all the town

[Speaker 5] (1:25:45 - 1:25:57)
all town we own all those floats so in the past I believe the yacht club may have owned one of them may have purchased one of them but they're all DPW town not DPW town owned floats

[Speaker 6] (1:25:57 - 1:26:02)
okay all right great Mr. Grishman yeah great

[Speaker 8] (1:26:02 - 1:26:19)
Gino can you speak to how the paving projects are syncing with our sewer projects as well just so we're not ripping up bondage streets and and then how National Grid and the utility companies are doing their share yep I can speak

[Speaker 5] (1:26:19 - 1:27:30)
on that so right now National Grid went in and laid new gas mains on Elmwood Topelo Juniper Middlesex and they're maybe missing one more so what National Grid would do they own coming back and cutting a year later one foot on each side of the trench so what I've made the agreement with them and it's been working out pretty well they give me that money so instead of them coming back and doing that I take the money and I pave the whole street curb to curb there's no sense in just having the middle the street like Elmwood Road right now that's in real tough shape so that's going to be paved this year using our funds and National Grid funds once again the way we coordinate it right now and it's always a bone it contains people I feel bad telling them this Jessie Street we went down and put a new water main on two years ago not because we exposed the gas main they call it an encroachment they have to come in and lay a new gas main but then they want the street paved right after and I said you can't you really have to wait for that street to settle for one year we're just wasting money

[Speaker 11] (1:27:31 - 1:27:31)
okay

[Speaker 5] (1:27:32 - 1:27:32)
well

[Speaker 6] (1:27:33 - 1:27:39)
is that it David okay well thank you very much gentlemen

[Speaker 7] (1:27:41 - 1:28:27)
oh hold on a minute one more thing I know all three departments spoke about community engagement and I just want to thank each of you for prioritizing that it is a real pleasure to see all three of you and your teams out and about and having positive community experiences because not every time we call you is positive right sometimes it's negative and so to have those positive relationships it helps when you're in tough stressful situations and you see a familiar face that you know from the farmers market or you know from the pride event and it really is meaningful and so keep it up because I know a lot of community members value you know just seeing you and your teams around and thank you very much for doing that and encouraging them to do that

[Speaker 5] (1:28:28 - 1:28:33)
as corny as it sounds these guys are my friends now right

[Speaker 4] (1:28:33 - 1:29:08)
we're friends on that note I realized after I was finished that Margaret Weil is going to be a little upset with me I didn't mention our expanded youth firefighter program this summer our third annual youth firefighter program is full from August 5th to August 9th but this year we're expanding to a teen firefighter explorer program from Monday July 29th through August 2nd and ages 13 to 18 and we still have a couple of spots I think four spots available for that

[Speaker 6] (1:29:08 - 1:29:11)
and how is that advertised other than at this

[Speaker 4] (1:29:11 - 1:29:19)
meeting on the town website as well as recreation website that's primarily that as well as the fire department Facebook page

[Speaker 6] (1:29:19 - 1:29:21)
so what's the age group for the one that has the vacancies

[Speaker 4] (1:29:21 - 1:29:50)
is age 13 to 18 13 through 18 and that is August 2nd I'm sorry July 29th through August 2nd the firefighters get a real kick out of the program they've done it like I said three years now with the youth age 8 to 12 but they wanted to advance it a little bit with a slightly older group of explorers and have a little bit more fun with even more fun with them and do a few more different things

[Speaker 6] (1:29:50 - 1:29:51)
great

[Speaker 1] (1:29:52 - 1:29:55)
we have one as well so I'm not going to be like

[Speaker 4] (1:29:55 - 1:30:00)
well me too we have our youth leadership and we are

[Speaker 1] (1:30:00 - 1:30:08)
planning a national night out with Danielle Strauss and recreation in August I can't let him show me up again

[Speaker 8] (1:30:10 - 1:30:12)
I don't have time to the

[Speaker 1] (1:30:12 - 1:30:20)
hype video I'm going to be calling Joe as soon as I leave thank you

[Speaker 11] (1:30:20 - 1:30:21)
thank you

[Speaker 6] (1:30:21 - 1:30:47)
guys for all you do thank you we are we are not going to be we're taking off the discussion and possible vote on the agreement so now we're going to move to Margie Glasgow with discussion and a possible vote to accept the Swanscott housing production plan

[Speaker 3] (1:30:47 - 1:42:18)
great thank you good evening it's really difficult to follow these three right as we have a discussion about planning documents so this housing production plan has been reviewed by the affordable housing trust as well as reviewed and approved by the planning board if you can go to the next slide so what is a housing production plan it's a five-year plan strategic plan that documents development by municipalities to guide creation and implementation of housing policies and projects housing production plans provide updated information on demographic information economic and housing characteristics and trends including market conditions for municipalities they also address housing needs establish goals as well as promote affordable housing the plans also ensure sustainable development and create a road map for communities to create vibrant inclusive communities and support future planning and grant making this plan that's in front of you is a road map plan that really outlines a criteria how the town of Swabscott can demonstrate compliance with the state's requirement for creation of production I should say of affordable units so the state has a policy that in order for communities to be able to deny a comprehensive permit or a 40B project you probably have heard about that municipalities have to produce half a percent per year of new housing or one percent of additional new housing every two years in order for the town of Swabscott to comply with this regulation we would have to produce 32 units and this document kind of has plans how we could reach those numbers and again the numbers in regards to denying the comprehensive permit it's a process that we would have to work with our zoning board of appeals and we would have to have the state approve our plan so if we can go to okay great thank you so what is affordable housing HUD or housing urban development the federal agency defines affordable housing as spending of no more than 30 percent of income of housing cost so it would be for individuals or families they should not be spending more than 30 percent of their income affordable housing on the other hand is housing that is subsidized that is deed restricted that has gone through an affirmative marketed plan to populate the units or to render units as well as it's available to household earning at or below 80 percent of area median income so for family of three and swabs cut it would be the family would have to earn 100,000 700 thousand dollars in order to be able to occupy those units an example of affordable housing for us would be the mission or outplace those units when they will be up and running that would be affordable housing as they have undergone all of that criteria in order to be affordable obviously we also have public housing and that falls under a different criteria so what percentage of if we can go to the next slide so what percentages oh no I'm sorry you were in the right place I just stepped ahead a little bit what housing is affordable in swabs cut when you look at the graph on the left hand side it really shows swabs cut at 4% and also includes the percentages of subsidized housing units or affordable units in surrounding communities for the town of swabs cut we have about 251 units of affordable housing and that includes Duncan Terrace Cherry Street and sort of some of the other public housing as well as the units at Michonne we have approximately a little bit over 6,300 year-round housing units that are a year-round housing that are located in swabs cut right now as I stated we are at about 4% of affordable housing units when the Elm Place project comes on board when we add the 114 units of those units to our year-round housing units we will increase our affordability or subsidized housing inventory to approximately 5.8% you probably have heard about the 10% rule that any community that falls under 10% a developer can come in and bill or file submit a comprehensive permit and be able to have greater density and construct the housing that perhaps might not be something that the town is supportive of so we are slowly on our way to reach the units and again this document outlines some of the strategies we should follow how to reach affordable housing the housing production plan also has some information about key demographic information for the town and you can see through the population graph on the right hand side that we have had a small uptick of individuals who are residing in swamp scotch so right now the 2020 census includes 15,000 and 111 individuals that reside in swamp scotch this population growth is sort of confusing at one point because when you break it down and look at the age population or age division in regards to population it really shows age and population so we definitely don't have as much children within the town as well as the aging population but we're fortunate to have swamp scotch that's trying to address and create policies and programs that assist the aging population additional housing trends that are included in this document includes the breakdown of the type of housing that we have and that's really interesting you can see the graph on the right hand side that really shows that the majority of our housing or at least more than half of all of our units are 53% single units single detached units we also have about a quarter of our units are units that are larger between two and four units we do have a very low vacancy rate and we have about a 73% of households that are home owners and obviously the remaining would be the rental units the document on the housing production plan also talks about the cost burden that our residents are faced with and it really is interesting or really difficult to see that at least 40% of our population are cost burden when you compare that data to the state affordability we're a little bit higher as the states list that 36% or 37% of the states individuals are cost burden also the census data provides information in regards to the percentages of households who are really paying more than 30% of their income towards housing and that number is really staggering because it's almost 30% more and at least half of sorry at least 13% of the individuals spend more than half of their income on housing so this really speaks to the cost burden when it talks points in regards to the percentages of rental households that we that reside in Swabscott and again talks about the cost burden so the analysis of the out of this data is really shows that we have a great need for rental housing and obviously affordable rental housing for individuals that fall between the 50% of area medium income when you look at that if you can go to the next slide thank you Diane the housing production plan also includes housing strategies in regards to development preservation of the unit of housing units it makes how do we reach suitable it talks about making suitable public property available for affordable housing similar like we have done with them as Sean that we create affordable housing for elderly residents it also talks about to continue to partner with developers on properties that is similar like we have done with the project as well as maybe some other smaller scale that will bring in affordable units for the child and then obviously want to support the efforts to improve the housing stock that we have additional housing strategy talks about building capacity building and it's really to continue to have a relationship with our residents with our landlords as well as with any development in town that would really come in and build suitable housing affordable housing or housing that meets the need of our population as well as to really capitalize while trying to continue to invest in our affordable housing trust you probably are familiar that the trust does have funds that they can make loans to developers they were able to help them with some of their cost burden in order to bring the affordable housing into town and the next steps in regards to this document is that we would ask I would respectfully ask for the select board to approve the plan once you do that we will file it submit it to the state for their review thank you I'm happy to answer any questions I know this was a fairly quick run of the entire document but if you have any questions I'm happy to address them

[Speaker 6] (1:42:21 - 1:42:21)
questions

[Speaker 2] (1:42:23 - 1:42:42)
just one point I wanted to make we had a caller you know at the beginning of the meeting mentioned that there may be a few edits that we have to make to this document before we finalize it because there are some you know a few technical edits that we need to

[Speaker 20] (1:42:42 - 1:42:42)
make

[Speaker 2] (1:42:42 - 1:42:47)
but generally it has been reviewed by the planning board and approved by the planning board

[Speaker 3] (1:42:48 - 1:42:57)
the unit the account for pine street was incorrect and there was a couple other edits that I need to make David

[Speaker 8] (1:42:57 - 1:43:26)
just a few things when we include pine street I think we're going to get our number up to 6.4 percent based upon my math which you know it's not 10 percent it's not above that but it's certainly a long way from where we started and we are making considerable progress some of the things that really shocked me was really the affordability gap and this

[Speaker 18] (1:43:26 - 1:43:27)
was when

[Speaker 8] (1:43:27 - 1:44:32)
interest rates were on the floor now that interest rates are in the sevens that affordability gap is widening considerably so one of the things that really stood out to me in this was really it addressed the need for the redevelopment of public housing so just to update everyone here I've been in contact with Kevin Johnson as well as the chair of the Swampscott Housing Authority and they're working to schedule calls Sean so we'll certainly want to bring that working group back together so we can try to move that process forward I know we did allocate funds recently and we want to make sure those are deployed absolutely as quickly as possible so I know Kevin is at the ready Charlie Pazios who's the chair of the Swampscott Housing Authority is certainly at the ready and I think it will be a good time to continue those conversations with the Housing Authority and their board this summer

[Speaker 2] (1:44:32 - 1:45:13)
Excellent David I did speak with Kim Martin Epstein this weekend and we talked about the possibility of working with another Housing Authority and really collaborating with a very innovative leader that has been really successful in helping to advance projects with Public Housing Authority so I'm very optimistic about that I think there's a lot of synergies happening right now and those are residents that really need our leadership and support and this is really positive news

[Speaker 8] (1:45:13 - 1:45:33)
Great and just one other thing Margie just a question about on page 70 of the report it talks about the missing middle housing is there how will the missing middle housing and the Humphrey overlay district sort of feather together any idea there I know

[Speaker 3] (1:45:44 - 1:46:18)
I'm putting on page 70 think there's a lot news and really increase affordable housing in town

[Speaker 8] (1:46:18 - 1:46:20)
I have a

[Speaker 6] (1:46:20 - 1:46:32)
quick question for you David so the housing authority is state right it's run by state is there also a federal component I mean do we have an avenue

[Speaker 8] (1:46:32 - 1:46:56)
yeah I mean there's a HUD program so I do believe I believe that members of the of the Swampscott Housing Authority are evaluating that HUD program there it but it it is a state run program it would I don't know all of the details or what it entails but I can get smarter about it and certainly we can you know I can report back

[Speaker 3] (1:46:56 - 1:46:57)
but I

[Speaker 8] (1:46:57 - 1:46:58)
don't

[Speaker 3] (1:46:58 - 1:47:22)
know all of the details but I can get smarter about it and certainly we can you know I can details or entails but but I

[Speaker 8] (1:47:35 - 1:47:35)
don't

[Speaker 3] (1:47:51 - 1:47:56)
know all of the details or it and but I I can get smarter about it and

[Speaker 9] (1:48:20 - 1:51:02)
so I but I I can get smarter about it and year, you know, we all talk about how, you know, our over 65 population is increasing. If I'm reading this, right, we're somewhere near like 20, 20%, 19%, over 65, but projected to go all the way to like, almost 30% by 2030.

I mean, just just, you know, that just like stopped me cold. I mean, that is just a massive, massive shift. So I'd be interested to find out, I think that's a projection, obviously, for 2030.

And probably from MAPC, or whatever, I think it'd be, I don't know if there's any way for us to check in on that to see whether or not we're really changing that quickly. But just to kind of, you know, add some emphasis to this point about what we're doing for the, you know, over 65 crowd and how we're adapting our housing stock to meet that need. So that was just one observation I had.

The other was, you know, a little bit emphasizing what you or maybe David also mentioned is that, you know, just also to stop and think 20% of folks in town have income less than $35,000. You know, 700 people are living in poverty here in Swampscott. You know, we talked about how housing is getting really, really expensive.

And, you know, there's many, many challenges for people in the middle, of course. But, you know, we, you know, to this point about public housing, seriously subsidized housing, like what we're doing in Pine Street, we need to be thinking about a lot more of this to meet the needs of people that are here today. And so, you know, we need Pine Street, obviously, we need the Glover, maybe with even more affordable housing than what we have slated there.

Same thing with Vinan, maybe we need to, you know, rethink, I think, as you have in this report, our inclusionary zoning percentage is 10%. You know, is that really, are we really going to get there with it being a 10%. So I think, you know, to inch up from 5.8 to 6.3 to get to 10, we're going to need to dig deep, I think, and really reconsider some of the things that we have, as you pointed out. And so just kind of applauding that and encouraging us to, we have to take some maybe difficult decisions to move this ball really towards 10%.

[Speaker 6] (1:51:05 - 1:51:09)
Danielle, are you all set? So, oh, I'm so sorry, Katie Phelan.

[Speaker 7] (1:51:11 - 1:53:01)
Just to piggyback a little bit on what David and Doug were saying regarding, you know, making substantial progress in that 6% to 10%. I, I understand the push for the big projects, because they're so like, aggressively moving the needle, right. But I was actually pretty interested to read some of the pages about the zoning constraints that we have for the constraints on multifamily housing.

I know one, two, three multifamily additions, not going to move the needle a lot. But if multiple ones happen multiple years, and we continue to be welcoming to multifamily housing opportunities as people are remodeling. It's also a great income perspective for young families to come in and, you know, buy a multifamily or, you know, have an affordable unit.

And so I would like to know a little bit more information about how we are going to manage our zoning constraints in that regard. I know we just made strides to allow, I'm going to get the acronym wrong, ADU, Accessory Dwelling Units, yeah, ADUs, which is great. But it's probably not going to move the affordable housing needle that much forward because of our lot sizes and the availability for houses that exist right now to build those units.

It's a pretty small number. It might not be small, but it's difficult, right? Because we're already living on top of each other in a lot of parts of town.

But I think there are lots that, you know, could benefit from multifamily options that right now are just constrained from zoning perspective.

[Speaker 3] (1:53:02 - 1:53:49)
Well, that's definitely something that, you know, that we should be taking out with the planning board to have the discussion. We just, as you know, town meeting just approved the MBTA legislation that provides by right ability for a property owner to be able to construct multifamily dwellings. So I think that's a tiny step that we're trying to do that.

And, you know, maybe it's time for us to look at other zoning areas or districts in town and to find out, you know, how do we create, you know, opportunity for growth in those. And I'm happy to bring that to the planning board. And perhaps that could be something that, you know, we could strive to have discussions about the zoning and the impacts to the neighborhoods.

[Speaker 7] (1:53:49 - 1:53:51)
I would love to see some more data on that.

[Speaker 6] (1:53:52 - 1:54:13)
So we received this packet a little late. Some people didn't get a chance to read it entirely. Some members of the public haven't had a chance to look at it either.

So I would just like to postpone a vote, move that to our next meeting, if that's all right with everybody. That's fine.

[Speaker 3] (1:54:14 - 1:54:29)
And then what I'll do is for the next meeting, I will make the small changes in regards to update some of the comments that Steve had pointed out in regards to, I mean, that's something that we're working on already anyways. Okay, great. I'll have an updated just chart for you.

Thank you, Margie. You're welcome.

[Speaker 16] (1:54:30 - 1:54:31)
Thank you, Margie.

[Speaker 6] (1:54:32 - 1:55:28)
Okay, so moving on to our consent agenda, the consent agenda is designed to expedite the handling of routine and miscellaneous business of the board. The select board may adopt to enter the consent agenda with one motion at the request of any board member. Any item may be removed from the consent agenda and placed on a regular agenda for discussion.

I am going to take out one item, item number one, to have a conversation. And I don't know if anybody, does anybody else want to remove anything? So then could, if nobody wants to remove anything, could I have a motion to accept item number two, three, and four, which are discussion of possible vote for Hazel Hitchcock to the Climate Action Resiliency Committee to fill the vacancy for the Swampscott High School student representative within one year term, 2024.

[Speaker 8] (1:55:28 - 1:55:29)
So moved.

[Speaker 6] (1:55:29 - 1:55:32)
Second. All in favor?

[Speaker 8] (1:55:33 - 1:55:33)
Aye. Aye.

[Speaker 6] (1:55:34 - 1:55:38)
Okay. So hold on. I only read one of them out of it.

[Speaker 8] (1:55:39 - 1:55:40)
It's fine. It's a consent agenda.

[Speaker 6] (1:55:40 - 1:55:58)
Okay. So all of them. So the one that I want to pull out is the discussion and possible vote on a change of the name of the Climate Action Plan and Climate Action Resiliency Committee.

I just wanted to make sure that, who actually named that committee? Was that town meeting that named it? And is it okay that we just change it?

[Speaker 2] (1:55:58 - 1:56:14)
I do believe it's okay that you change it. I don't know who named the committee. I do know who recommended.

And you're the select board. You're the governing body of the town. And I think you can change the name of the committee.

[Speaker 6] (1:56:14 - 1:56:20)
Well, I think my concern is if this committee was formed by a town meeting, that was, that's really my, my question.

[Speaker 9] (1:56:20 - 1:56:21)
It wasn't.

[Speaker 6] (1:56:21 - 1:56:21)
Okay.

[Speaker 9] (1:56:21 - 1:56:23)
Select board, select board did it.

[Speaker 6] (1:56:23 - 1:56:30)
Okay, good. So then I'd like a motion to approve the, to change the name.

[Speaker 9] (1:56:31 - 1:56:32)
So moved. Second.

[Speaker 6] (1:56:33 - 1:56:34)
All in favor?

[Speaker 9] (1:56:35 - 1:56:35)
Aye.

[Speaker 6] (1:56:35 - 1:56:39)
Aye. Okay. Now to select board time.

[Speaker 7] (1:56:42 - 1:57:47)
Katie Phelan. I know we've already mentioned officer Wilson's name quite a few times tonight and Sora, but I just want to recognize both of them and all the efforts of the physical education department at the Hadley elementary school today, we had field day, Stanley also celebrated their field day a couple of days ago. Clark will be celebrating theirs.

It's a super difficult endeavor. It requires a ton of volunteers and time and energy. And, um, I appreciate officer Wilson bringing Sora down and enjoying the celebrations at field day and all the parents and, um, the PE staff who make the day so wonderful for our kids.

It is the last field day that we're celebrating at the elementary schools. Cause we'll all be in one new school next year. So there were many parents who are lamenting that it was our last, but it's also very exciting because we will be celebrating an amazing field day next year too, I'm sure.

So thank you to everybody and good luck to Clark's field day. Hopefully it doesn't rain.

[Speaker 6] (1:57:49 - 1:57:49)
David.

[Speaker 8] (1:57:50 - 1:59:26)
I had a few things. Uh, so I got an email from, uh, from Liz Smith and as the liaison to the, uh, water sewer infrastructure advisory committee, just wanted to provide some, uh, some updates, uh, they are, they are preliminary results have confirmed the outfall issues at fishermen's and King's beach are still points of bacterial contamination. Uh, the water sewer infrastructure advisory committee has worked with Sean to acquire equipment and reagents for testing this summer.

They have also built an online data sharing portal for the public dissemination of results. They are currently collaborating with the board of health draft texts and frame results. Uh, they are training additional town staff to facilitate, uh, testing.

They also trained two of our select board members, uh, myself and, and Ms. Palin a few weeks ago. Uh, they've also identified signage locations and wording to improve communications about what areas are for swimming and which areas are to be avoided, uh, due to contamination. Uh, and Liz does want, they do want to present to us at a, at a future meeting.

So, you know, hopefully that will get on an agenda, uh, soon. And, um, also just, I would like to have, um, to have the, the one day liquor license for East regiment, uh, as it relates to the strawberry festival on September 23rd, added to a, to a future agenda. Uh, that was something that was taken up, uh, at a meeting, I believe last month.

I don't think we took a decision on it, but now that we have the strawberry festival rapidly approaching, I'd like to see that added, please.

[Speaker 11] (1:59:28 - 2:00:26)
Danielle, do you have anything? Sure. So I wanted to thank the department heads that were here today.

Um, without the three of them in their departments, we would be nowhere. Um, DPW fire and police, very valuable. They, they do a tough job and they have to answer to every single person in this town, so I commend them for that.

June 11th. I want to thank Sean and Max Casper, Diane for their work in coordinating that community forum for the new school traffic patterns. I think that neighborhood has, um, really deserves their due course and, and to hear from them and their concerns.

I know that they've lived through this construction for, you know, the past year or so, and it's, it's not always easy, but I certainly want to hear what their concerns are and make sure that we're approaching it, you know, in the best way possible to make sure that we have a successful opening day for the new school. Um, and that was it. Yeah, that's all I have.

Doug. You also think for me?

[Speaker 7] (2:00:26 - 2:00:41)
Okay. Yes, of course. For that meeting, that community meeting.

Um, I understand it's about the traffic. Is it more for the neighbors or for anybody to come?

[Speaker 2] (2:00:42 - 2:00:42)
Okay.

[Speaker 7] (2:00:42 - 2:00:57)
I just want to make sure because the PTOs were sharing it and stuff, and I didn't want to take away from the neighbors that they thought that that was just a neighborhood meeting and it's a public meeting. Everybody's welcome to it. Will we also be talking about pedestrian, um, crosswalks and walkways?

[Speaker 2] (2:00:57 - 2:01:25)
And public safety, um, leaders, Gino, Max, you know, we're, we're ready to talk about, um, every update that we can for pedestrian safety, but mostly we're going to, uh, take some time to listen, uh, give everybody a chance to ask as many questions as they have. And, you know, we'll stay for as long as we have to, just to ensure that people can get, uh, updates, uh, on this incredible project.

[Speaker 8] (2:01:26 - 2:01:32)
And that will be right here in this room recorded. So folks who can't make it in person or watch that evening will have it. Great.

[Speaker 2] (2:01:32 - 2:01:41)
You can participate through, uh, teams. You can ask questions, uh, remotely. Uh, we are going to try to make that as accessible as possible.

[Speaker 7] (2:01:42 - 2:02:11)
And I have one more, um, suggestion I meant to say when the chiefs were here and Gino, um, I know that the police department and the fire department have their own Facebook page and we have a town Facebook page. I wondered if we could do like a spotlight on our, um, new hires so that we, when we see them out and about, we know who they are, we know, um, how they're serving us and what their background is. I, I know I love to see them out and, but sometimes I don't always know their name or where, how they came to be here.

And it would be great.

[Speaker 2] (2:02:11 - 2:02:59)
Even if we could just go through the whole department and that way we can just make sure we, I was in a community in New Hampshire and I went to a coffee shop and I actually picked up a baseball card of a, um, police officer. And I was like, wow, that's a great way for the youth to actually see. And on the back they had their high school, their favorite ice cream, you know, their, you know, just some personal information that just, you know, made them more accessible.

So, you know, there are a number of strategies that communities are employing to actually help, uh, our public safety officers really connect with the community and Katie, I I'll follow up with that and we'll come up with some, some good ideas that community helpers playing cards.

[Speaker 6] (2:03:00 - 2:04:58)
Tonight's production is being brought to you by Nathan Kent, Nate Beischeim, Daniel Morinsky, and Mr. Joe Dulet. Thank you, gentlemen. Um, I want to remind everyone that we have our rabies clinic, which had to be rescheduled due to illness.

Our rabies clinic will be at the DPW yard on June 12th from 530 to seven. Um, Dr. Arthur Friedman is once again, uh, volunteering his time. So please come down.

If you would like to have a rabies certificate longer than one year, just bring up a past certificate. It can be expired and then we can get you a three year. If anybody has any questions, just feel free to email me at marylandfletcherofswamps.ma.gov. Um, we also received a letter from the chair of the disability commission today, um, Jill Susry. And the letter is requesting that we really step up and make sure that we have a clear path, a clear lane, um, where we've put, uh, chairs and things like that outside. And they're requesting something straight so that people with disabilities can get through. I don't know who the, um, enforcement part of it.

So I think when you, when you drive down and you, and you see it and everything's fresh, you do see tables that are, that aren't giving the four feet. Um, so if we could just have the building commissioner take a peek at that and get some help, that would be appreciated. And I think the disability commission would be pretty happy with that.

So, and that's it. And, um, so if I can have a motion, so moved to adjourn in favor, everybody in favor. Thank you.

[Speaker 8] (2:04:58 - 2:05:01)
Thanks, Mary Ellen. Congratulations on your meeting two hours and three.