Board of Selectmen - Regular Meeting

Chris, we're going to call the board of selectman meeting of February 10th, 2026 to order. Um, if there is anyone from the public who wishes to speak to something that is not on the agenda, uh, step forward. Seeing none, we're going to move on. meetings. First, we're gonna invite Caitlyn from the Baker Free Library to update us. You could just step forward to there and just doesn't matter. Just press the button so it's green. And evidently, you need to talk directly into the microphone. Bring it a little bit closer to yourselves. Welcome, Caleb.

Thank you. Thank you for inviting me. I think it's great that you guys do this.

Yes. Um, so I will start by saying the building and I are well acquainted with one another at this point. I have done every season with this building. I have seen it in winter and spring, summer, fall, all of the seasons. So, I'm hoping it's not hiding anything else. But the trustees and I have been having lots of really great conversations about what we want to um do with CIP and kind of putting some more time into thinking through what really kind of triaging what needs to be done, moving some things around a little bit. Um primarily because um late summer we had leaking in the building and it was revealed that it was actually the like the original tin and the IA boards are all rotting. So that's like creating um a issue with leaking. So it's not actually the roof. Um so that and the HVAC took a bunch of my my year, but I think we're in pretty decent shape with with just knowing where we're at with the building. Um so there's that. That's get some of the not so fun stuff out of the way. Um programming is doing really really well. Um I think I had shared last year that we had a new adult services librarian and then of course Juliana has been with us as the children's librarian for quite a while. Um but both of those programs are doing really well. Um Amy does uh book groups um two at the library every month and then one at White Rock. So that's great outreach for us. Um Juliana has started going um she does her story times in the building, but she's been able to start going back into um some of the daycarees and doing programming for them as well to get some of those kiddos that wouldn't normally be able to come to us because they're in a program. So

that's been really good. Um we we've got monthly board game nights and craft nights. They fill. It's great. Um so that's all really good. Um We're prepping for the summer reading program, which is always one of our biggest um undertakings of the year. And I think people uh find it interesting that we really start prepping for that in January because it's it's a big undertaking. So, we're working on that. Um I also thought I would just um I handed you a handout with some of our digital offerings and I thought I would just point that out because it's fascinating to me when I into librarianship 20 years ago, everybody thought I was insane because they thought the way of books was sourced. Um, and I think it's really fascinating. I always say to people did the the digit digitizing of libraries didn't really make less work for us. It's like double because we have the print collection that we still maintain and we have just for example in January we circulated 4,027 print items and then we added to that this whole digital world that we do curate and take care of pay for and like steward that um and that is that circulation was 245 57. So about half print is still king. We still do a lot more print than we do digital, but the digital is definitely a chunk of our work um that we do. So I just thought I would mention that. Um other things, let's see, some of the challenges we've had. We had uh one of

our main book vendors um went under um and there's not a ton you It's kind of surprising there's not a ton out there. So, it kind of left one um really big supplier trying to fill that gap. So, that was a little bit of a challenge. We I did reach out to Gibson's and they offered us a nice um comparable discount. So, we started doing some work with the Gibsons here in conquered, which was really great of them to kind of negotiate that contract with us. Um, and then the the the company that's kind of left standing is um kind of getting back on their feet. They had to hire a lot. Um, so that has uh affected our supply chain a little bit, but we're we're working through that. Um, one of the things that I'm excited about is the trustees have been super supportive of me starting um, scheduled professional developments with the staff. So, we have um, four professional development days now. Um, two of those we just come in early and we meet until we open and then we open and start our day. And then two of those, the trustees approved us opening as like a delayed start at noon to do some of our um our bigger things that need to be done. And then on Columbus Day, we are um closing. It's not a paid holiday, but we're closing that day. Um we did it last year, we're going to do it this year. It's a full PD day. Um this year, uh the fire chief was nice enough to host us. We came down and we did um CPR, first aid, um fire extinguisher, like we we just we hit them all. AED training, we got it all done. Um I just think it's really important because we have so much of the public coming through to hit all of those really important things and make sure we're current on all of it. So that

gives us like built-in time to make sure that we have time as a staff to make sure we're all um up to date and current. Um what else? Our meeting rooms are super busy. We're um we have a staff member um Leisel does adult services programming and meeting room. Um and I check in with her periodically like what what percentage this week did you spend on each thing? And it fluctuates depending on where we are in the year, but the meeting room stuff takes a lot of of time. Um which is good. serving a really important role in the community. Um what else? We have candidates night coming up. Um we did move the time back to 7 um so that people could go up to the uh school meeting and then come down and hopefully participate in Canada night. So that is the 19th at 7. And Lauren would be very disappointed in me if I did not say that our social media following has increased over a 100% in the last year and we did go viral.

Your social media the social media that is coming out of the library is amazing. It's great to bring awareness and like it puts us back. Love it. And people like to It's like, you know, I think you feel it when you walk into a building and like people are having fun versus like it feels like, oh gosh. Yeah. I mean, you think of like having fun, right? Kind of um combats the vision that people might have of stale old quiet libraries. Yes. You know, our library is super fun. Go to the library. No more shushing, right?

Yeah, that's right. That's right. I joke that I know her shuffle. I know Lauren, she's our Lauren is our marketing librarian and she has this like shuffle and I know it very well and it's like what real do you want to post today? Um but yes, we we we actually had um a gentleman from New Jersey call and tell us that he saw our video and he wanted to uh make a donation for one of our bags. It's just like a small donation, but like and and he wanted to, you know, a way to show support and so it's it I mean the word is getting we we did go viral. Amazing. Yeah.

I I use a library now more because I have a 5-year-old do. Do you have a sense of like usage overall? How you measure it? And is it increasing? Is it increasing? Yes. I I would say it's definitely increasing. I have I don't I didn't bring the numbers with me, but I would say um on average it would be fair to say we have we see about 4,000 a month. Um that's like a rough estimate because that's counting one series of doors and it counts when you come in and you leave. So we divide it by two

and we do have people that like leave out of other exits and stuff. So it's like a modest number. If anything, it's a little bit higher. Um, but I think the great thing too is I feel like um we do a really nice job of hitting all the different demographics. Like we we see a lot of the kids obviously at at the storytime programming, but it's really, you know, we have like book clubs that hit all sorts of different um adult populations. as we go into White Rock. Um, and I've gone and done that with Amy and that's that's great, too. And yeah, so I mean there that that doesn't count at the door either. That you know, when we're going into White Rock and going into daycarees, obviously those populations aren't being counted, but

So 4,000 is a modest, I would say, number. Great. Yeah. Thank you for coming out. Appreciate it. Thanks for all your work. Really appreciate it. Absolutely. All right, moving on. We're going to invite Andrew Hatch of Community Power to address the board. Um, this is in response. The board had sent a note expressing some concern about uh community power and asking um some questions. So, they've taken the opportunity to and thankfully, thank you for coming um to sort of address some of the issues. So, both your microphones are on. Over to you.

Yes. Good evening, Select Board. And manager. Um, thank you for the opportunity to come and meet this evening. Uh, my name is Andrew Hatch. I am the community energy advisor for the the coalition and uh I'm joined tonight by Jackson Kaspari, director of member services. Um, as you rightly said, uh I am here tonight largely in response to a letter that was received by the Marramac County Community Power. um that was received on the 19th of uh of January um just a few days after we had the last uh Marramac County Community Power Council meeting uh that previous Friday. Um Marramac County contacted me and asked uh me what they should do and uh I very much suggested that they respond and uh recommend that we came in to meet you all. Um the letter that uh we received uh through them uh we read and uh I addressed uh uh town manager stack about this uh as soon as I I got it. Um just following up to try to understand the the genesis of it, the chronology. Um and uh he confirmed that you know it had been developed by the town attorney. Um, I uh advised him of the response letter and made sure that that got into your packet tonight and encouraged him to look to the earliest opportunity to get in front of you. Um, I've done what I can to review uh the background to this. I found for example that uh on the 13th of January uh your board packet contained a prior um version of this uh that was dated I think the 9th of December. Um but I'm not sure what had happened and transpired to the creation

of that because I have yet to find uh earlier uh references to to any of this issue. So um I watched the uh the board meeting uh where um selectman Nicolopoulos and Vice Chair Brennan made their comments and uh the motion was passed unanimously to uh submit the letter. Um and I was obviously concerned to read that selectman Nicolopoulos said he felt that Marramac Community Power had misled the board and uh later on in his statement said questions were asked directly by me. they were brushed aside and now six months later we are dealing with that. So I'd be interested if you were uh in any way interested in entertaining a dialogue tonight just to explain a little bit more of that and then vice chair Brennan also shared his feelings of being misled. So that was

that's a great that's a great opportunity to me ask my first question. What is the current uh unit default rate here in B today? So the rate for UN unit uh has just changed as as February the 1st the rates came into force. Yeah. And the unitil rate for residential customers is 12.061 cents. And what was it before um 21? Um I could get that. It's not in front of me. And what is the community power rate for 21? I beg you pardon sir. the community power rate for 21.

Yes. So the community power rates that have come into force are uh for unitil customers 14.92. So I've got my earlier rates here. So to answer some 30% more

um the amount in terms of of cents uh per kilowatt hour is 2.881 to be accurate. uh the prior period which expired at the end of January their six-month period so they ran from August to January uh the unitil rate uh then was 11.77 so it went up slightly as did the community power rate so um we have seen u between around two cents and then 2.8 8 cent uh differential uh in the last two rate periods.

Correct. And so just so you understand, when this program was pitched to us, it was pitched to us as a cost savings. This wasn't this wasn't some altruistic let's get power that's not generated through coal or diesel or or carbon. It was save money for the town of Bo. Um and the plan in the presentation was we're going to save money. And I raised all these concerns when you were pitching it to us and they were brushed aside that, you know, we have a system and we're going to beat and though it's possible we might not, our goal and our plan is to beat we're going to save the town of Booney. We're now costing the town of Bo taxpayers some 20 24

24% on every tax bill. We've sent you a letter and we asked you nicely, how do we get out of this miserable deal? and instead I get a letter back saying, "Let's talk." No, what I want is a plan to get out for all of our taxpayers so they're not stuck in a death spiral of what this is. And so, are you going to offer us a path to getting back uh getting out of community power?

Well, the letter that was addressed to Marramac County by your chair, Mr. McDaniel stressed that the purpose of this communication is not to formally withdraw from either Marramac County Community Power or CPCNH. However, your prompt attention and provision for this information is critical for the select board of the town of Bow determining what course of action is within the best interest of the town of Bow and its residents.

Right? We weren't triggering because if we were to back out, we would then trigger a penalty and you could assess us untold amount of money for this deal that isn't good for us and we would then have to buy out at 25% across the entire period. We are interested in doing that. And so what we're saying is how do we get out? What options do we have to extract ourselves from that in a time where you can plan appropriately with your energy buying going forward so that this can stop for the citizens of Bow? Now, we we danced around. We want to get out of this terrible deal because we didn't want to trigger that penalty. What we're asking for is a path to get our citizens back to where they should have been before this scheme was pushed on us.

Well, thank you, sir. And with respect, Chair McDaniel, do you endorse that is the view of the of the select board and you would like me to respond directly to Selectman Nicolopoulos in that regard or would you like us to continue to try and uh set the record as it actually is and give some statistics and some uh and to view into what we where we've got to what leads us to where we are today and where we are moving going forward. or is this a direct request as I'm hearing from from the from the selectman?

I can't speak for the rest of the board, but I think the letter was as Nicolopolis said, we danced around, but we were asking pretty clearly I think for a path towards exit. My point is if there is trouble exiting this program, you know, this meeting is recorded and people are watching this and if there's not a cooperation from both sides, if we look to exit, I think it will probably cause more problems for the group as a whole. So, I'm not speaking for everyone else, but I would like to hear your response to SA Nicolopolis.

Yeah, I'm I'm happy to um chime in on this. Andrew said, "I'm Jack Spasar. I'm the director of member services for the community power coalition in New Hampshire. Um, we certainly understand your concerns, right, given the the rate comparison. I will just preempt that by saying that since the launch of community power programs through CPC&H, there has been a significant shift in the marketplace in the way the utilities procure power. They went from fixed full requirements contracts where we had an active portfolio management advantage and this was in place at the time when we were launching programs through a directive at the PUC. They've gone to 50% market exposure for the co small customer group meaning that only half of their costs are known and proxy rates are being set with without the other 50% being known. Now we are expecting because of the volatile conditions in the market, it's been incredibly cold, prices have been extremely high that we could see significant undercollections come into play which will impact pricing in future periods potentially this next rate period. So that is just to say when this was initially pitched there was one system that was in place that system has gone through a significant shift and we believe that is distorting some of the price signals for customers. I'll also just make the point that your customers, we've made it very easy for them to leave at any point in time. That is one of the beauties of this is that we are driving competition. Customers have choice. They can opt out or opt back in or opt up on a month-to-month basis. And I think we've been pretty effective in working with our communities to spread the word and have seen customer actions as a result, which is totally reasonable. Affordability is an issue. We understand that people are able to leave and when we have better pricing in the future, we hope they come back to address your exact questions, right? So,

uh, an exit of this nature is is a bit unprecedented for us. So, we're working through this. We have language in our contracts which you have spelled out uh within your letter and you've asked for two things. the minimum waiting period that the town of Bo would be required to remain a member of Marramac County Community Power without incurring a cost of withdrawal. So that is triggered at the point of time in which we were to receive a termination notice through Marramac County Community Power because costs in this industry are fluctuating fluctuating all of the time. We have to have that notice in place to actually tell you what the time period will be for that exit. It cannot be longer than 36 months. That is the maximum period of time. But we would have to then determine through analysis what the waiting period would be until we could return all of your customers to utility default supply in conjunction with the utility without financially harming the customers that remain within Marramac County Community Power. Now, I will say just from an understanding of sort of financials and cost obligations at this point, you're probably looking at around a year or so, but we would be working with you uh on a, you know, to make that as fast as possible within the provisions of the contract, right? If that was the will of the select board.

And so, what is that one year? Imagine it's somewhere between one year and three years of costing every resident of B 25 24% of it. What are we talking about in dollars? I I object to that statement because we do not know that the cost differential over the next year or three years is going to be what it is today.

But but you can you're projecting here and saying it's going to cost one to it's going to take one to three years to level out how bad of a deal we need to let you out of BO. So we're going to need to overcharge the citizens of Bo by some 24%. If you haven't caught on, I was never a fan of this scheme. I said this is exactly what was going to happen that you weren't going to be able to deliver what you deliver. The people that sat in that at that table said this is going to save Bo money. It's going to save Bo money. It's going to save Bo money. And then the next rate setting it turned out that it isn't saving Bo money. And now it's not saving Bo a lot of money. And it's going to take one to three years to get us out of this deal because you need to spread out this bad this this bad contract over our folks. What is it going to cost people? How much are Bo residents paying for power through community power today at that 25% uh vig to figure out so that they understand what you're doing to them? so that the next poor community that thinks about joining your coalition understands this is exactly what's going to happen.

So to respond to that, I will say um we peaked savings at over $20 million for our customer base that has when when Bo was in the program, not no before Bo. So at some point before you had enough base where you could beat the market as soon as you had a a base the size including Bo you weren't able to do it and you're good continuing to fail at that objective.

Thank you for your comment. Um, I disagree in that the whole concept was rooted in pool purchasing power. Meaning when you have a larger amount of customers that are participating, you can spread individual costs to a greater extent over that customer amount and you're able to go out and be more attractive. Think of a bidding process. How's it working? Just so we can just so we can stay focused. I just I know I Chris I we need a path to getting out. You're telling us it's a year, it's three years. Let's figure that out and let's be honest with the citizens of both.

So in order to do that, like I said, you would submit a letter. This select board would submit a letter to Marramac County at which point we would follow the provisions of this contract, work with the county and provide a time frame. That is all I can tell you. I can tell you the maximum amount. I can tell you what I know today, um, which I've stated, and we would have to work with you on that. So, we need to submit an actual letter And that will trigger that process. The letter we submitted is more advisory. This is you need a letter saying we want out and that triggers that. Correct. That is correct.

I just I need to make a comment. Um Mr. Hatch when you are just sitting here now just to talk about how it feels disingenuous when you sit here and quote us the community power rate at 14.92 and the unitel default rate of 12.061 061. That right there is part of the disingenuous presentation that we got because understand when people wanted to opt out of your program as residents, they were not charged and put on the default program with UNEL, they were given the variable rate. So even the it it feels and not an accusation. The impression and the feeling is lying by omission. We're going to quote you the default rate. We're going to talk about the default rate when we compare our community power rates. We're not going to touch a variable rate. And as a matter of fact, when you ask as a select board member, um what happens if someone wants to leave the program, we we get what uh we just heard, which is you can come and go as you please. No mention that we are going to be on a variable rate. And that right there is the most egregious thing in my mind of what I have heard because we are not getting the default rate. It is not no penalty involved. That variable rate is penalizing and I understand that it fluctuates which is why we use the term variable and that some months that variable rate may be lower and may be higher than others and it averages out and we get a default rate. I get all that. That's not here nor there. That is not the point. The point is when you sit here and say our community power rate is this, the default rate is this. You've got us thinking great, we just go back to the default rate when that is not

what's taking place. And that is what is really really hurting people in the community.

I um to respond to that, I would say customers can take advantage of the fact knowing that the variable rate is in play, which happens. is you put on the variable rate until such a time that the new unit rate cycle begins then you go onto a fixed rate. Thank you for bringing up that point. You should have let in with that. We are actually working to improve our websites to better um explain this exact issue uh and point people to the resource that is fairly hard to find with the unit zone website unfortunately. But customers, if they were to opt out this period around, would stay say with community power. They would be smart to stay with community power for the month of February and then they could take advantage of cheaper variable rates uh throughout the remaining period and still get a pretty good deal. So if they do understand that piece of it, it doesn't it's it's not a bad impact to them, but I think there is some explanation and communication that we could assist with that goes along with that.

And they are forced to stay on that variable rate until uh August, right? So for a a pretty large chunk of time, they are forced to pay that variable rate. So I will re ask selectman Nicolopoulos's question. What is the unit variable rate today? Today in February it's 17 cents 606 and that is the problem. Do you see that? That is the egregious problem.

We we can acknowledge that the presentation they gave us when we when this board voted the majority of this board voted to enter this program was reckless at best. Misrepresentation at at is more probably fairer. Um, I think I'd like to make a motion that we authorize our lawyer to start the note the notion for getting out of this program uh without a penalty as their analysis requires. I will second that and my apologies to the town of I have a motion and a second. Any further discussion?

Yeah. Uh, first, thank you for coming. I want to know what you want another letter that says we want to pull out, but wouldn't it be irresponsible of us to immediately send you a letter saying we want to pull out and not ask the questions first that we did with our first letter? I mean, that seems like the right course of action. Come here, give us more information, right? But now we're saying now you need an official letter and it's going to take us longer to get out of the program. Not only that, that we're going to penalize our customers. I am a believer, I was a believer in community power. I was a big supporter of it. I really thought that we were going to save money because that's what we were told. So, I agree with Selectman Nicolopoulos who is saying we were misled because we were indeed, and this is coming from someone who supported community power, we were told community power was going to save us money. That's not what's happening here. So, I'm really frustrated because I wanted this to work. I wanted to see PE communities coming together and kind of beating the system a little bit, saving a few bucks for every community member. That's not the case. I think we're going to have a vote. I suspect we're all on the same page of how it's going to go. You're going to need to let us out of this as as swiftly as possible. is then then I that's an indication of how I'm going to vote on this.

But like we're going to need to work on this because you got five mad select persons here and a mad community who can't even get out easily. By the way, the website does not allow you to pull out of uh community power easily. I've heard from a number of um community members who have tried to pull out of the program and they've had difficulty. They've been put on hold for a long time when they try and call. So, it's not as simple as it was made out to be. Again, to echo Select Woman Colby, it was presented to us that you could opt out at any time. You'd get the default rate, you'd still be fine, and it would be easy to do it.

I was a believer of that. Now, I feel like Selectman Nicolopoulos, I feel misled, and that is a really tough place to be in. We're in the middle of a vote, but I know that Mr. Pin, Mr. Pin would like to speak. Just grab the mic there if you could, Matt. Just so people at home can hear you. You can It's wireless. You can stand up and

prior select and Matt Coolen. I was here when we voted on this. Um and Angela and I don't agree on a lot, but this is something I absolutely agree with. Um I'm sorry that I voted against this. Um I'm I'm sorry we're in this position as a town. Uh I hope that you guys vote the way that you see fit here. Um it it it I voted against this and Chris and I were I think it was a three to2 vote Chris if I remember correctly when I was on the board but um so uh just here for this reason you're all going why the hell is he here but for this reason alone um thank you for backing us out of this thanks Matt appreciate it all right we have a motion in a second any

I I just just out of curiosity and I know this is thanks for coming I know it's hard to sit here and take the abuse. But just out of curiosity, how how many other communities are trying to do this at the same time? And does that have any bearing on your time frame, the one to three year time frame to get people out? At this point in time, we are not looking at any member exits. I think conquered just signed up, I think, right? They just voted to approve it. Conquered is an active member. Yeah, I think they just say yes, they have just did it program

which is aligned with some of their city's goals. I will just make the point that you you raised the 17 cents the next month of March 10.554 oh excuse me 11.081 April 9.665 665 May 9.323. So I mean there and after it is made up for I do understand your point that immediate sticker shock may may be tough for customers.

Listen understand those savings are leaving community power. Those are savings that residents of B who opt to get out of this individually would benefit from after February. Staying in community power would would not be a service to any single res happens to be listening tonight. There are a lot of other things we are doing for customers uh beyond rates but I understand that affordability and hearing from the night that your folks were here pitching the program. Okay. It wasn't for anything else than money. We made that very clear. Okay.

We did not have and did not put forward any altruistic other goal than to save our residents money. Hold on. We Okay, we have a motion in a second. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. Tanya. Eyes. Have it. 5 nothing. Thank you, gentlemen. Start working on the analysis even before you get to. We have a consent agenda. Motion to approve the consent agenda. I'll second. Thank you for asking my question. I don't know. It doesn't seem

there must be a they're clearly making the the purchasers pay the use and there must be some trigger. Uh but I didn't I didn't speak to Carrie on that. Might be like within a certain amount of time from there is there is a time frame within which you have to take the current use or you lose the penalty. And we've discovered that. We've discovered that with a few other properties in town. And these figures need to be paid to the town of Bose. Is that correct? Yes.

And I mean just I mean obviously these folks know that they are some of these folks may have purchased these plots a while back um and are just now coming out of current use or or just now going to be getting that bill. So, I'm just I'm curious as to So, they've all all of these residents have filed these documents at once. Mr. Sack, I'm trying to I don't know the full just of why they're all at once. Regardless, the the land is coming out of use.

It's a 10% penalty. It is the price of buying a house in Bow on land that was current use beforehand and is good. Yeah. So it is what it is. Yeah. I'm not concerned about just wonder why they're all coming out of current use. One is why are they all at once? And two, I I guess I just I feel like it would have been part of their process when they got a mortgage or you know, so I don't Did all these people get a mortgage at the same time? They used Yeah. Sandy, do you have any insight?

Do you want to take a mic with you? You could just sit with one. We should just mic up Sandy. Yeah, just mic her up.

Your your mic needs to be on. Yeah, Sandy. Crystal, one view drive. So, um, uh, I know that, uh, first of all, there's 17 houses or 17 properties, and I know the other ones did come through kind of were dribbled through a few at a time. uh current use kicks in when like the shovel goes into the ground. So it's it's in current use until they really they start building

and and I wasn't aware of the time frame, you know, after that or whatever for filing, but um but I know it's when the shovel goes into the ground. So, you know, there were some properties that were open that are being built and there are some that are, you know, were built, but we've had some of the uh current use training section through works with this program, the New Hampshire Municipal Cyber Defense Program. So, they come in and they provide training. They review our and help us develop our plan, our strategic plan on how we're going to deal with these incidents. Interestingly enough, uh, Monday, no, no, last week, the end of last week, um, someone noticed something nefarious and saw something not, you know, out of line and it was perfect because we had it fresh in our minds and it, you know, it kicked in. We contacted the right people. If it gets bad enough, they'll come in, they'll wipe all your computers and get you up and running in days. Uh, but it was interesting. And this Emily McGovern um is a specialist with this uh organization. Um and again very interesting uh process and very

interesting topic. Um so we're still a couple of things we um one of the things we came up with was to put some stickers on the key hubs so we all know where they are when if you need to go to that. Um, and also, uh, we're going to do a quick checklist that everyone can keep by their on their desk that, okay, if you start seeing this, here's what you do. You know, here here's what you do to get out get out of it. Inform who you need to. Uh, personnel, we have a new U building maintenance person, uh, Emily Dorman. She started last week and she's filling the spot that Andrew Morass um he transferred to the Department of Public Works. So, he's going to be training and getting his CDL and great employee. So, I'm glad, you know, we're we're keeping him somewhere within the the group. Um phone system and communications, they had a project kickoff meeting uh for the replacement of the phones and all of our connections and interconnections. Um and that's currently anticipated to be up and running by the end of March. So they've they've been meeting they have a weekly meeting weekly progress meeting master plan um the subcommittee met you on that Sandy.

Yeah. And so they reviewed Yeah. Yeah. Surprisingly.

So they reviewed uh and they were taking a look. They got about 500 responses to the survey that was conducted. Um, and they're looking at uh plans to hold a community visiting session at the end of March, which everyone would be invited. And I know the last time they did it, they divided the subject areas. If you're interested in transportation, you can meet with this group for so I think they're sounds like they're kind of going that way. U we have a land use assistant opening in community development. uh the person that we've had and she's been with us for a while, very good, but she's uh taken a similar position in another community. So, we have an opening in that. That's a full-time position. Call volume for fire. Calls were up 11% for them in January and about 75% of the calls are ambulance related. Police had a busy January. They made 20 arrests. beat the candidates night. Um, Caitlyn mentioned that and just please note the time change. It was scheduled for six and they've moved it to seven. Um, town ponds open for skating still so far so good. It's cold enough so it's still open. Uh, summer camp though, there's hope. Summer camp registration will begin soon for our two summer camps. And there's also openings for some counselors if you know anyone that may be interested in being a camp counselor with our program. There's another position open in the town clerk tax collector's office uh for a part-time account clerk. Um we have Oh, is it not working? the

and the uh new pole pads are being programmed. I had prepared for use. Uh dulla was in room B with them all over the place and programming and training and and that's my report. Oh, Tanya was also employee of the month for February. Tanya deserved to be employee of the month. How that happens every month. Yeah. I'll make a motion to accept the minutes from Jan 27, 2026. Have a motion to second. All those in favor say I. Can I? Nope. Never mind.

U. I make a motion that we accept accept with a lot of regret the resignation of Amanda Osmer from the BDC. Um, what that family has given the town of Bo is immeasurable and she, as outlined in her letter, has too much that she's juggling. Hopefully she'll be back someday, but we'll send a letter. Second. And the person you've appointed tonight, Brandon, we he's with the pony. Yeah. Yeah. Organization. He's with the Ford. I like that we appoint back appointed somebody before we accepted the opening. Um, okay. So, we have to vote on town warrant. Did we vote on that last one? There's a handout.

We need to just vote on the accepting of the resignation. All those in favor say I. All those in favor say I. I. Eyes 75 nothing. Tony, is there a handout for the town warrant? Hey, David has it. David. Okay. So, what we need to do, obviously, we've placed stuff on the warrant. We now have to indicate whether we support that because it's listed either five, nothing, 41. And so, we'll go through. While we're doing that, Kip, can we also do want to also divide them up? We usually do that later, but while we're talking about them, I am fine doing that. People are also fine with that. I Oh, I think I did. I put it on there.

We should all end up with four, three, four.

Yeah, it should. It made sense. Yeah. Um, all right. So, we need to number one is on the B. So, you have in front of you. I'll sign these after just so I can focus. So, number one is the ballot. The number two is on the ballot. Um, is there zoning amendments? So, the town meeting start at three. So, we I'm not going to read all of them. I'll summarize them and then we will vote. I don't think we need to read them. We know what they are. That's what I'm saying. You say number three. I'm I'm in favor. All right. So, does everyone have it in front of them? Just we're all working from the same sheet. Yep. Him sheet. It's a It's a religious term. I went to a religious school and you would know

making the same song. Um even All right. So on on warrant number three regarding the water connection uh or potential water connection to conquer um I will ask for a vote. All those in favor say I. I. Oppos nays. That is five nothing. I'm happy to do that one. Okay Chris will unless somebody else feels really passionate about I would say it's a longstanding issue and you have been here the longest. So yeah. Uh maybe you'll be doing all 10 of them at the end of this then. All right. On number four which is uh the general municipal operations. All those in favor say I.

I post eight. Eyes have a five nothing. Happy to do that one too. Anybody else want to? No. Does the budget committee rep? Are you fine with that? I mean let's let's let Chris take the heat out of the out of the gates on this one. I mean it's a great budget. present. All right. Five is um capital reserve. Uh all those in favor say I. I. I'll do that. Angela Brennan will do number five. Number six to raise money for town roads. I'll do that one. Oh man, I'm trying to do two in a row here.

These guys do something. All those in favor say I. I. I have nothing. That will be Elena Colby. snooze or lose. Even if she loses the election, she will be there on that night. So, do you have to say something awkward before every election? Contested election. You have to say something awkward before every election every time. Came home and I see no signs out. Great. All right. Number seven. Uh to appropriate 500,000 for the community building. I'm going to take that one. And that's five. Uh all those in favor say I. I.

I. That's five nothing. I'll take eight. All right. Number eight is 175 from Bo Rec to the um uh community center fund. So I made I the this is for the addition. The addition. This is the addition unless you don't want me to. No, I think all those in favor say I. I. That's is five nothing on the proposed addition. I I made a uh un enforceable uh promise to Jeff Knight that as we build out this project that we call him and get his insight because he's he has a lot of friends that Yes. And I believe he's already been consulted um about it too. So thank you. We will

for sure. Okay. So Ian will do that one. Number nine is to raise 150,000 from Bo Rec to the community center. All those in favor say I. I. I. Um I You should do that, K. It's the same It's the same argument as Yes. as seven. Can we the community center? Yeah. Um yeah, these and typically they're in um numerical order. So that's why you have the 500, the 175, and then the 150 in dollars monetary. Yeah. I mean, you don't have to. We can move them those around. We can Yeah. Maybe we can maybe we can rearrange them next time if we need to.

Well, it's just it's literally the same argument. Yeah. Yeah. Number seven and number seven and nine to be eight. If you can move nine and eight to nine. All right. That'd be good. Yep. Now, just know that the budget committee voted on them with the other set of numbers. Just make sure that Oh, yeah. I got to flip the vote on it. Yep. Chris, who was just on number eight who voted against? Do we know? Um, uh, two people um Mike Mayo and and the chair of the budget committee. Nope. Um Lisa Franklin, they were a no on current number eight.

Uh they were no on the 175. Okay. Right. Number 10, which is to raise money for a six wheel dump truck. 10. All those in favor say I. I. I. Eyes have it. Five nothing. Ian will do that one. Number 11 is to raise money for a front loader. All those in favor say I. I. I. I have it. Five nothing. Ian has that one. Oh. Um, number 12 is 64,000 to replace trim andia on the big free library. All those in favor say I. I. I. Anyone want to do that one? That's five. Nothing. The library will do that. The library will present it, right? Yeah.

Okay. Library will do that one. 13 is 56,000 to authorize a upgrade of the heating system in the existing community building. All those in favor say I. I. Eyes have a five nothing. That seems like a lot of money. You just voted I I didn't say anything. Well, I heard I heard it over the left ear. I mean, budget committee voted a zoning. Who wants to present that one in in the capital reserve fund? Uh taking the heat out of the basement, the furnace, and putting it. It's a temporary solution, right, to make that building. Angela, I will I will do this one. Oh, I was going to say, okay, unless Elena, you'll do that one. That's fine. and Angela can give me the information.

All right. The next one, number 14, 53,600 for the purchase of mobile radios and new cover for the police department. All those in favor say I. I. Eyes have it. Five nothing. Do that. Mr. Flanigan and we'll do that. He ends up five. Four. That's four. That's five. Actually, you're doing a front end loader, a dump truck, mobile. I'm going to steal the addition from him eventually, but we'll perfect. Yeah, you should probably. You did one last year. It's all related, right? I'm doing the I'm going to take the addition from Ian. Number eight, 789 will be mine. Okay. And then the final one, number 15. No, there's more on the back. Oh, number. And who's doing radios? I got radios and Oh, sorry.

41,400 for roof and siding at DPW. All those in favor say I. I. Eyes have five nothing. That will be Angela DPW. Okay. Um, so looking ahead to 16, I got it. Let's just vote. Do you think we should put 16 by 14? So, no, I think it's it's a different issue. I think Chris is going to do that one. This is 20. I mean, this is your department, Chris. But I just I in favor of 16 say I. I.

16. Is there guns? Police Department. You may or may not know that SA Nicolopolis has some What's the countdown now? One. They all don't tell people. All right. Number 17 is to modify provisions regarding an optional tax credit for a service connected total disability. You don't need to to vote on it, but someone will will want someone to present it. I can do that one. We'll do number 17. We don't need to vote. And then petition. We don't need to vote. This is the petitioners. The petitioners present that. You know who that is?

Who is the main petitioner? Do we know? Uh, no. It came through kind of because we need a main couple here, a couple there, but Okay. If you want to put my name down to have a select board member like facilitate. dangerous game if we start advocating and provide I'm just trying to be helpful. I'm not just says reading. All right. So that is three done. Can we go back again to the So just I want to make sure I'm clear on the uh So seven beauty building. So seven is going to stay where it is and that's eight and nine will switch. And you're doing all three. You're doing all three. I'll do seven. That was Yeah.

Okay. And we all We'll sit afterwards and confirm all this because we have public hearings on the next meeting. And so, wait, who's doing the front end loader number? I got I got 10, 11, and 14. Dang. You have all those kind of I had one last year. Tanya, I'll sit with you after. I got I got um All right. Board committee reports. Oh, do you want the notes? Uh budget committee is done it to work. Um, I had a budget presentation last week. The town budget went amazing. I couldn't I couldn't elicit a single question out of people. Wow.

I was like, "Come on." It was still a lot of money. And even the water project and that nothing couldn't get Yeah. And then the school still went pretty fast. Um I think you know once you have an opportunity to explain how and why that budget is what it is, it is what it is. Um afterwards the budget committee voted on warrantless for the town supported all of them. Majority vote support all of them and for the school supported all of them except the um bleachers at Premier Field. And I think that's really just a statement of times are tight,

right? the optics are are such great process. You know, the town has really developed a phenomenal process with the budget committee and working with schools. That's it. Uh chairman Mcdana,

any other committee reports? Um I uh was happy to fill in for Colby this morning at Heritage Committee. Um, you know, it's always such a great group and it's interesting always, you know, the ideas that they have and how much they do with so little funds. Um, but they, um, they did have some questions about the 300th anniversary and where we were with that and with the volunteers that we have, they were just looking for a bit of communication as to what the next steps are, preliminary dates on things. So, um, if we could

Yeah, if we could start that communication. I yeah, I think um we should plan on meeting I was trying not to do it around all of these other obligations that everyone has because most of these folks are already sitting on another town committee. Um, so the fear was if we're all in all these different directions with budgets and uh prep that, you know, maybe we shouldn't start until after town meeting. But if you feel if the board feels any differently than after town meeting, I kind of mentioned that. I think that's fine, but just maybe communicating to to them beforehand

that we're about to start kind of thing. Yeah, I had I had kind of mentioned that, you know, after town meeting things will right settle down a little bit and can probably focus a little bit more on that. But if they get some communication between now and then just to say, "Hey, we're going to aim for late March or and it might even be good um to mention it at town meeting that we have this in case there's anybody else that wants to volunteer or donate to any kind of celebration or whatever it is that the committee comes up with. It might be just One more trick.

Um, something else I want to mention is that I am I am on the strategic planning committee for the school district and we're working on basically what we need feedback from the community and something for people to look out for after town meeting is we're we're looking for volunteers for focus groups. Wow. to see where, you know, we have a bunch of questions and just kind of have focus groups for an hour and a half and and see what what people think. We have surveys that we're going to send out to the community. And so hopefully we're we're getting to that point where we're going to need community involvement as far as surveys and focus groups.

Do they have one, Ian, that they're update you're updating or is this Yeah, we're updating. Yeah. Like a master plan. So that committee started back I believe in September and we've been meeting a few times a month since then. So it's it's actually it's going pretty well. All right. Bottom line,

I want to thank Tanya or David or whoever responsible. I want to thank Tanya or David or whoever's responsible for making the sound go away from the humming of our network system is pleasant. Thank you. Second, second col.

Uh public hearing is scheduled uh same night as candidates night um starting at I believe 5:00 uh for open enrollment and that is at the high school if anyone is interested in that attending that public hearing. Um, again, I will reiterate that uh election law has changed and please, please, please, if you are planning to register to vote, look up the new uh documentation laws um to be familiar and not get caught off guard on election day.

Um, just a just a big thank you to the DP DPW. They are this winter's been pretty rough and those guys are going late day late light late light late light late light late light late light late light late light late light late light late late hours and long days and um just thankful that we have them and they just they do a fantastic job and I you do see some of the comments on on Facebook oh you missed my road but I mean there's hundred there's 100 miles of roads to pave and and these guys are they they're short-handed and they're doing all they can do and they they do a fantastic job and Tim does a good job. disheartening that when someone complains, there's probably 40 residents who step in to defend DBW. Absolutely. So, people are pretty right. Quick to quiet down.

Yeah. And again, tonight, they're probably going to be out all all night again tonight. And so, it's just Yeah. More snow on the way. Yeah. And so, I feel bad for Tim's budget also. Yeah. Selectoman Brennan. Vice Chair Brennon. None. Chair has none. We'll make a motion to journ. Second. All those in favor say I. I. Eyes have it. Five nothing. Thank you everyone. Look at that. Miss Miss