Board of Selectmen - Regular Meeting

Good evening everybody. Uh it is Monday, October 20th, 2025 at 6 PM. Um the Freetown Police Station. With the quorum being present, I'll call to order the Freetown Board of Suck meeting. Uh tonight's meeting will be recorded and will be available on the town's YouTube page. Um so we'll kick it right off with agenda item one. This is for open session minutes from September 29th, 2025. Any questions or concerns on this? Nope. No. So with that, I'll entertain a motion to approve the open session minutes from 9:29 2025. Motion made. I second. All in favor? I I policy.

Item two. Uh this is discussion of vote whether to accept a donation from Scott and Donna Tims uh to the library in the sum of $100. And we'll and we're going to make this to the um library donation account. Perfect. Any questions or concerns with that? No. That was very nice of them. Thank you very much, Scott and Donna Tims. We appreciate it. So, with that, I'll entertain a motion to accept the donation from Scott and Donna Tims to the to the library library donation account for the sum of $100. Motion made. Second. All in favor? I.

I. Agenda item three. This is discussion of vote on awarding the printed trash bags for uh 2025 through 2028. It looks like um we sent we requested multiple bids. Mhm. Uh we only got one bid back. So there was three companies we reached out to. Interro Packaging, Interro Packaging Corp, uh Uniat Corp and Waste Zero. Um the first two did not or emailed and said no bid. I sent it out to 10 different companies. Okay. And so these are the no bids are on. Yeah. reason that and and way zero just is is the company we currently have. Correct.

So I think it's important just for the record that we do get a lot of complaints unfortunately about um about the trash bags and we understand that and every year we do reach out to multiple companies or every time the contract is up and we can only go with uh you know who bids for them. So that's that. And then is is the price going up substantially? I I don't I saw the price in here. There's a lot going on. Um I guess it's just like for the same, you know, year-over-year is it or contract over contract. Is it substantially increasing? I don't think it did. Not that we have much of a choice anyways, but And they're on the state.

They're on the state bid list as well. And they're the only one that does the flexible material by any chance. No main meeting. Okay. All right. Perfect. I just wanted to make sure because it was something that was bid on. So sorry. Yeah. Yeah, looks like looks like it's five five uh bags per roll for 625 for the small and the large is five for 1250. So it looks like it's the same. Yeah, I think he's talking about what we're charging the cost. Okay. Oh, the cost of purchasing. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So, any questions or concerns on this? No, it is what it is unfortunately.

No, these are the updated bags. So, we took the the feedback we received from the residents and made sure that we changed the bags so that they wouldn't break as often. So, if you notice them now, they're in different packaging. They're shrugging material. They're more stretchable. So, it'll alleviate the the need to package from another bag, right? So, what we were doing before was one bag and you put that bag in and then put it inside the trash. So, this should alleviate some of that. So, it's good news for the environment. Okay. All right. All right. All right. So with that, I'll entertain a motion to award the printed trash bags for 28 through 20 25 through 2028 contract to waste zero. Motion made second. All in favor? I.

And now agenda item four. Is this the agreement for uh with waist zero? So um with that, I'll entertain a motion to approve the agreement between the town of Freetown and Waist Zero LLC for printed trash bags effective 101 2020 1021 2022 through 1020 2028. Motion made. Second. All in favor? I I.

Okay. Agenda item five. This is discussion of vote awarding the council on aging parking lot improvements bid. Uh we got two bids back on this one. One of them was substantially lower than the other. If I remember correctly, I get there's so much in our packet related to the trash bags. It's like 50 pages. Mhm. You had one bid for $519,775 and the other was $352,500 which was JH Landscaping and Construction. Yeah. Wow. So that's a huge delta there.

Mhm. All right. And did this have to get this go through the whole um process of the bids being evaluated and everything? Okay. Great. All right. So, any questions or concerns? No. It's a nob brainer. Yeah, it's gonna look great. All right. So, with that, um, I'll entertain a motion to award the council on aging council on aging parking lot improvements bid to J&H Landscaping in construction, Inc. Motion made. I second. All in favor? I

I then item six, just the agreement associated with that. So with that, I'll entertain a motion to approve the uh agreement between the town of Freetown and JH Landscaping and Construction for the Council on Asian Park and Line Improvements. Motion made second. All in favor? I I All right. Agenda item seven, discussion and vote whether to approve the following policies and these are listed A through D on the agenda. So it's the vehicle use policy is A. Then we have global positioning systems vehicle tracking, B, C is security camera policy, and D is a abuse and misconduct prevention policy.

Yeah, I just have one a couple of on vehicle and I printed it out. I'm sorry, I forgot to bring it, but on vehicle use policy when that talks about um not uh operating under the influence, it says employees may not operate the town vehicles while under the influence of alcohol or illegal drugs. I added marijuana in there because it's legal now, but we don't want them operating under it. So, I added the word marijuana. And then on one of number 19 here, it says the town vehicles are to be used for conducting town business only within town limits. I took that out because

sometimes you got to go to Fall River, you got to go to New parts or whatever. So, they can only be used for town business. So clearly if they're going out of town, it should be for town business, but I'm not going to restrict them to the town of Freetown. Lots of times we have highway personnel going for parts all over the place. So I did make those two minor adjustments. I I apologize. I printed it and forgot forgot it at the office. But so you'll be approving it subject to those two minor changes. Yeah. So the the number the town limits one you're did you remove that they need permission to to drive out of the town? Yeah. I just removed that language because Okay. Alto together. That's just cuz this town business is all encompass.

No, absolutely. I just wanted to make sure because if we removed that first part but then still needed them to get permission. Yeah. Um I would like somebody at the highway department obviously they're going to get the the permission of the the highway surveyor, their supervisor, but I have other department heads that run their own departments. They're not I mean if it's for town business it's for town business. Yeah. know we don't really it's not it's not been an issue and I didn't want to leave it in there. It just it's just it just wasn't applicable for how we operate and sometimes people have to go out of the town to to run to do their jobs. Now do any of these have to be negotiated with the unions?

Yeah. So once you approve them I will um then send them off to the unions and ask them um for their you know to negotiate with with me impact bargain as we call it. So yes, that will be in the next step. So there's still a process here, but at least we have something in writing at this point because we all, you know, there's a lot of town vehicles that are being operated. And there's other stuff, you know, the GPS. Um, and then the security cameras are all fairly new this year. So just what we use the information for, what it is, and and abuse and misconduct is just that, you know. Well, yeah. If we don't have one of these, you know, it's going to come up and be right. Yeah. Yeah.

So, these are policies that have just been lacking, I think. Um, so I will go to the unions now. They've all been vetted through town council myself and um we'll then send them off to the union. Okay. Any questions or concerns? No. No. The these are great. Yeah. All right. So with that, I'll entertain a motion to approve the policies listed A through D in the agenda um with the changes Debbie recommended um related to the the vehicle use policy. Um and for her to send those to the unions for negotiation. Motion made. I second it. All in favor? I I It's so nice not needing to do roll call.

I know. I'm loving it. Goes by much smoother. So much faster. Roll call. Roll call. I know. Keep getting it. Agenda item eight. This is discussion of vote whether to call a special town meeting on Monday, January 26, 2026 at the Apon Regional High School beginning at 6:00 p.m. And so obviously this date works for them. Yeah, everyone's good with this. Yep. Good. There's no holiday or anything we're not thinking of on January 26th? No, not yet. I think the weekend before, right? Correct. And I'll be out of the country the week before too. So I'll be getting back on that Saturday. This happens every time we have town meeting. Come back from

I just think it's going to be the first blizzard in a decade. Very strong possible, right? As usual luck. Okay. All right. So everyone good with this? Yes. All right. So without intend a motion to um call a special town meeting on m Monday, January 26. January 26, 2026 at uh the Apon Regional High School at 6 PM. Motion made. A second. All in favor? I I.

All right. Now we have the timeline. That's agenda item nine. So on 10:20, which is tonight, we vote on the uh timeline and call and call the meeting. Um we're also going to open submission of the warrants. Is that on our agenda? Yes, it is. That's next. So, so tonight also we'd open submissions for the warrant on 10:21 8 a.m. through 10 through 11:21 2025 at 11:00 a.m. Then tomorrow there'll be physical postings uh the town hall, police, fire, and junior's convenience store and libraries. Um also tomorrow we'll do a Facebook and website posting on 121 warrants on the board selement agenda to approve and close warrants for submissions and approval to be sent to town council and finance committee. Then on 12:15, warrants on the board selectment agenda for discussion and vote to open, approve, finalize, and close the warrant. And then on 1216, send final version of the warrant to the finance committee. Um, also all right. Then we have warrants given to the town council on for posting on 17 2026 and then warrants get um posted publicly no later than 1 1920, 2026. This timeline seem reasonable.

It does. It does. Okay. So with that, I'll enter a motion um to approve the proposed timeline for the special town meeting on January 26, 2026. A motion made a second. All in favor? I I All right. And next is just u open the special town meeting warrants for submissions. So with that, I'll entertain a motion to open the special town meeting warrant for submissions on 10:21 2025 at 8 a.m. And it'll be open through 11:21 2022 at 11:00 a.m. A motion made a second. All in favor? I I Okay, moving on to agenda item 11. We have some snow plow applications. Are these our first two? They are. Yeah.

Sad. Yeah. How many do we need? Like 40. Well, yeah. It's just more sad that means winter's coming. So, it's sad for a couple reasons. Yeah. Okay. So, uh the two applications we have are Nate uh Nate's Oil Burner Service, Inc. and Wayne Coutau. That one kind of right? I believe so. All right. And so they provided all the required documentation. They uh insurance, all that stuff. It all look good. Lola vetted them. There's also so much. Um. All right. Great. Well, at least we got two step in the right direction.

Mhm. And obviously this is at that new rate that we uh agreed on last time, right? Correct. Yeah, it it actually is marked on those. I see that. Yeah. All right. Great. So with that, I'll entertain a motion to approve um the two snow plow applications in listed in the agenda for the winter 2025 and 2026. Motion made. I second. All in favor? I

I Okay. Agenda item 12. This discussion of vote whether to authorize the community program director to publish and maintain an online interactive map of part participating opt-in addresses for the holiday home decorating contest and approve the date of the contest as the following. A registr registration deadline is Sunday December 14th. B, voting period, Tuesday, December 16th through Monday, December 22nd. And C, um, winners announced Tuesday, December 23rd, that looks good to me. Yeah. Yeah. Bring on the lights. Yep. And how do we actually do that? Like it we must have we did this in the past, right?

Like a map. Kylie does it. Yeah. It's pretty cool. It's like it like a electronic map on the internet and it puts pins where they are located so people you agree and you opt in to say and they vote online. You can come to my house and they vote online obviously. Yeah. Have them posted like we put them on the town's Facebook and whatnot as well. Cool. All right. Sweet. That's cool. Any questions or concerns? No. It's good stuff. Let's do it. Okay. So, with that, I want to send a motion to authorize the community program director to publish and maintain an online interactive map of participating opt-in addresses for the holiday home decorating contest and approve the timeline as stated in the agenda. Motion made. Second. All in favor? I.

I. Okay. Agenda item 13. uh discussion of what on what to do with the town offices services hours for the Friday after Thanksgiving uh in observation of Christmas and New Year's holiday. This is one that comes up every year. So Christmas New Year's is on a Thursday. Okay. So do we happy will come back in for Friday? Excuse me. And we've always just um we've closed the town hall to the public, but allow people to come in and still allow the employees to work if they want to work.

Yep. And the reason being is we have no way of knowing who will take personal time and who won't and if and probably half staff that day. So if you come to the town hall, you might not get service and it's more frustrating for the public if we stay open and yet they come down and there's nobody there to help them. Yep. So this has been the protocol. This rings a lot of bells. I remember this now. Yes. I don't work for the Friday after Thanksgiving, but I use personal time, but um some people enjoy it because they can get caught up on work or whatever. They want to save their time for other things.

Okay, so close to the public on Friday. Got that one. Then exh Christmas. X I just had a several Christmas years were closed. So, um is a question around the surrounding days? Um, I think it's just the fact that it was a Thursday for the holiday and it would put it in that same category. Are people going to come in for four hours on the Friday or not? Um, I wouldn't be inclined to change the Friday schedule for Christmas. Yeah. Well, for New Year's for sure. Um, is when is New Year's also? Yeah. They're all going to line up.

Weird. Yeah. Is that always Is that how it works? year. Thanksgiving's always on Thursday. Oh yeah, Thanksgiving's always on Thursday. So when Christmas and New Year's are always on the same day, but the other ones not. And you know, we're we're only open half days anyway, but I I the day after New Year's I would definitely be open. Um you you have the the town office open. I would. And I don't know about the day after Christmas. That's that's a tricky one, but it's a double-edged sword because you almost think you're going to run into the same issue you just talked about with Thanksgiving,

but there's also might be a lot of residents who are off that want to try and come in and we just did it after Thanksgiving, but I I would tend to leave it open. I I'll deal with what I have to deal with if So you think you should leave you're suggesting leave it open for Christmas and and New Year's Eve. Christmas I for close Christmas open the f Friday after Christmas. Christmas Eve we close at four last year. Did we close early? I don't think we did.

I don't think so either. Or did we close two hours early? Did we close at two? I would suggest that if we were going to do anything, it would be with Christmas Eve because a lot of people do have Christmas parties. So, I would be more inclined to being open the day after Christmas, but closing cuz no one's coming into town hall at I say no one. Most people are not coming into town hall at 3:30 on Christmas Eve. Just see what my schedule. Yeah, I think we might have close a couple hours early and then we gave Highway the equivalent because they only work till 3:00. So, we gave them Sounds familiar to leave at 1. Yeah. See, that's what I would be more inclined to do. And I know that that date's not on the agenda, so we might have to vote on it a separate time, but that's my my thoughts. Well, we we left an hour

says offices close at 3 p.m. on December 24th last year. So, we close at 3 and then we highway we close at 2 because they they only work so that's what we did last year. Yeah. Yeah, that that worked for me. I I think I think we can vote on this because it just says the Friday after Thanksgiving observation of Christmas and New Year holidays. I think that's pretty Yeah, I think we'll be fine. Yeah. Okay. So, just to make sure we're on the same page. So, Friday after Thanksgiving closed to the public on the Friday. Mhm. Mhm.

Christmas we on Christmas Eve we close at 3 p.m. Um and on the Friday after it's open to the public, right? No, no change. I don't have to really say it. There's no change. So just the only modification for Christmas is that Christmas Eve will close at 3 p.m. and then New Year's is nothing. And then the highway department will Yeah, we'll leave it to I just Okay. highway will close at two. Okay, that works for me. Carlos, go with that. I'm good. All right. Yep.

So, that a motion um to have the town offices closed to the public on the Friday after Thanksgiving and to um have a uh early, you know, uh the office closed at 2 p.m. for the highway department and 3 p.m. for the other town offices um on Christmas Eve. Motion made. Second. All in favor? I I all right. I might get some requests from the library different hours, too, but we'll we'll follow up with that. We can uh now I'm going to kick it over to personnel.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh personnel board item agenda 14 discussion and vote whe to approve the appointment of Toby Christian to the soil conservation board effective 922 2025 through 630 2026. It's a good thing to have extra people and more bodies in these these uh boards. So this is just another routine um individual coming in and wanted to be part of the community. So I don't see looking at the application I don't see any reason why Toby isn't a great candidate. Perfect. Any concerns, questions, comments? Not at all. All right. That said, I entertain a motion to approve the appointment of Toby Christian to the soil conservation board effective 922 2025 through 6:30 2026. I make that motion. I will second it. All in favor?

I I All right. Kick it off to you, Suber.

Thank you. I appreciate it. Agenda item number 15, discussion, vote on which uh option, paint or flooring system to finish the pickle pickle ball basketball court at Hathaway Park. Uh so currently what we basically have is in asphalt square. Um but in order for it to be lined and properly used, it would need uh some covering. And there was really two different options that were proposed to us. There was one that was like a grinding of the asphalt with um almost like a paint type material that would go over the top of it and then another one that was um like a flooring system that goes on the top of it. Uh the nice part with the flooring system is it seems much more durable and then if any cracks or anything happen underneath with the asphalt, it's not as affected as easily. And if you've been down there, it's like it's like um like a really like smooth cement material, right?

It's pou concrete. Well, concrete. Yeah. Rather. I don't know what I'm saying. Polish. Yeah. Yeah. So, it needs to be ground down, right? And that would be the issue. So, um they're both the same. I think these look cool. like the the the the system like the whatever whatever it's called looks like does it like I see they have a basketball court like does can you actually play basketball on that though? Yeah. So that was one of my questions was is because we've talked you know we people still there playing basketball with it. We don't want to limit it to just one thing. So it can it's being used on a lot of basketball courts. So what you're seeing in the packet is that you know those systems in being used currently in basketball courts

and it look I think they look great too and I'm sure if like if there is any damage like it seems easier to replace what gets damaged, right? Mhm. It comes with a 15-year warranty. My only concern for that area is it is prone to flooding, right? So are we like ram jetting it into the concrete? Got to be. I assume, right? That's what I assume. My concern is like it floods and then now we having we have a floating basketball court somewhere else. Yeah. Don't want that. Then I started thinking about the veteran workoff program. Can they just paint it? You know, looking at Amazon, you're looking at a bucket, a five gallon bucket that covers, I don't know, 300 feet per gallon. You could paint it on and then highway department come in and do the lettering, the striping afterwards, right? Because you can just buy a stencil for $100 compared to $24,000 for

that much.

To me, it's like I I I'm stuck in that price. Um, so what happened originally was we get a price to do this, right? And I think the price on this etching on the top was $4,400. And so we get uh Lan actually got a grant to do the the the concrete that's out there and a lot of the work in the highway of course did a lot of the work to get it to the point where it's at. Um, but the gentleman who had quoted us then he's like, "Oh yeah, you know, I'm not going to paint it. It's not going to sit." It's been a pro, it's been a process and we've been trying to find someone to finish this now for some time and then we were able to track down these uh people on the land with the system. Um, but everybody that we got prices from said, "Look, you didn't seal it. It doesn't have a vapor barrier. It's going to crack. It's not going to last. We we can't do it." So, uh, I think the system is the way to go. And that you'll see on the agenda. The next topic is the opera money because we had put opera money away to do the original to finish it originally. So there's some opera funding.

That's great. There's some there's actually a little bit extra opera funding that I can put towards this. There's probably half of it I can pay for it out of OPA and then I was I wanted permission to take the other half out of the uh parks and wrecks um you know maintenance. Is that well funded right now? Yeah, that has the the $175,000 in it.

So, I know it it sounds like it would be an easy thing to paint, but I I don't think it is. And that's why I think originally that's what was going to happen and then everyone's like, "Oh, forget it. I can't do that." And I think it has to be first roughed up. It has to be they have to take that smooth finish off. So, they first have to like grade it and then they have to put some kind of a seal to it because of the the vape no having not having a vapor barrier and then painting it. So, it's not as simple as just painting it. Those lines are actually etched into the concrete. And so, yeah, we've been looking at options and unfortunately it's not just have them go out and paint it because we would have done that already. But, um, it's the Portuguese and me there.

No, but she went into a little more depth, but that's why I brought up the whole idea with the cracking and stuff like we're going to send people out there. We're going to do it and then it's going to not look the best. I mean, I will say the good news is that that that gets used all the time.

Every time I drive by there, there's kids out there playing basketball, not pickle ball yet, but they're out there utilizing it. So, I I like that. I like the fact that we didn't just waste money out there. They're using it without striping, without anything. They're shooting hoops and they're out there um utilizing that. I think they might have utilized it for um Zumba and yoga too this summer, you know, when we had those free programs going on. It's a night pl a nice platform for that too. So, at least if it's being utilized. Yeah. And can we do it because we since we do have the basketball court, basketball hoop set up there and but it's set up for pickle ball. Can can we do it so it's it has both lines, right?

You can. Yeah. So we have like some samples of this is before in Brockton. This is after. That's sweet. This is before in Chelsea and after way nicer and like colors. We'll have to decide that. Right. That's right. So, it's a little bit of a learning curve for us, but um I think it will get I think it like I said, we've got some rapper funding and I think it it I think it'll get utilized. If it's there to use, let's use it. Yeah.

And people are using it, right? And that was in our my talk with Debbie about this is people are using it. So, it's not we're not just throwing money at something to throw money at it. My son and I use it. We go down. Yeah. I use it and then it's it well theoretically the only other thing might be is putting some fencing up on two sides, right? But then beyond that, it's done. It's there. It's going to be the best it's going to be in far as where it is because to your point is if we have any flooding or if it's going to crack, but I mean I don't think it floods up to that area that often. So that's pretty high. But

um well, you know, it's it's on the side of the river, so water can definitely get up there and it's like plastic, right? I mean, so that's the Boys and Girls Club in Taunt, I believe. Yeah, this is the before of that one and then that's the after. But they have to be drilled down. But that's your original question, right? Right. They don't move and you can't take them up. I asked, "Can you steal them?" And they said, "No, I was like, I'm going to walk away with a piece of the court." You know, you'd be amazed what people want to steal these days. So, absolutely. As a concern has um builtin like drainage. Yeah. And whatnot with it. The specs were there was a flyer with all the specs. See that? See the permeated there,

shock absorption, all different kinds of information. Cool. And I this was actually cheaper their estimate than painting really by like $800. But wow.

And I do have um I did get a quote for the fencing on the end. Just waiting for the right funding source. I'm not I'm not there. I figure each end if we can put some fencing up so that we don't have basketballs and pickle balls going everywhere. Um, at some point the whole thing might want to be fenced in, but of course we have to wait for funding, right? I don't want to spend all the money on fencing right now and see how it gets utilized. I I only brought that up because I I use the words finished and I don't want anyone to assume that I'm in like and then all of a sudden, you know, six months from now we're back here talking about putting fencing up around it and and these guys are going to be like, "I thought you said we were all done." You know,

might be talking about putting another one in. If I if I if I if it's going to if I if it does what I think it's going to do. A couple of people told me that that the the biggest issue you're going to have is once you have one up, you're going to need a second one. Yep. You got a league going and free town league kicks up and we got another thing. Not that I've ever played but I wouldn't mind learning. Yeah, people love it. Company that we did get the quote for the flooring one if you do that. They are on a collaborative list so Oh, great. Um they're on source well. So we don't have to go out for bid although we've been to get anyways. So all right cool. Yeah. Are you guys good with that? Yeah.

No, I'm all for it. And of course my challenge goes out to both to all of you. Let's just do it. Show the public we can do it. Mhm. All right. So, with that, I'll entertain a motion to go with the flooring system to finish the pickle pickle ball/b basketball court at Hathway Park. I'll make that motion. A second. All those in favor? I I agenda item 16, discussion and vote to approve the funding source for the finishing of the pickle ball/baskball court at Hathaway Park. So Debbie just alluded obviously we have some opera funds. Um

I would say half opera and half from the article for parks. Okay. So so do I need to call out an amount on each one of those with the amount and half just so you say 50/50. Okay. I'll let you know if something changes. I I might have a little more opa than that. So I might be able to skew it a little bit more towards the opera but I I need to get with Matt first. Good. Perfect. Yeah. The more the marrier from that side. All right. So with that, I will entertain a motion to approve the funding sources be half oper half parks and wreck uh for finishing of the basketball/pickle pickleball/b basketball court at Hway Park. I'll make that motion. I second.

All those in favor? I I. All right. Thank you. So moving on. Anything from the town administrator?

Oh, we're all good. We the fire station as you know had the open house yesterday with their their buildings 95 or 98% complete. So that was very exciting. Um thanks to the uh Senator Rodri who started us off with a seed money for that project a few years ago maybe now. Um and here we are with the real live building built and I I believe everybody's happy with it. So that's exciting. Other than that, we're just moving on with uh working on course on MBTA communities, trying to get that prepared for January's meeting, but it's kind of a a little bit of a quieter time for us.

It's It's like nice. We We actually got two things done this year. Mhm. Right. Like the pod pod is done. And like for the COA and then the fire station being done like like a lot of times it feels like these things are never going to be finished because they just like it takes so long and to actually see them complete is is really nice. We're working on uh siding fire station 2 over on County Road because that one's um you know needs a little bit of love over there. So we we actually are met some contractors at Carl's heading that off

uh to get that all vinyl sided and get this office wrapped and everything so that building will look good. I think my next step over there might be the parking lot, but I'm not sure where the funding will come from right now. So I'm going to hold off on that. And as you you signed the you saw the bid stuff for tonight for the parking lot for the Seaway. So, we're gonna go through a little bit of growing pains again over there. We're digging up the parking lot, but it needs to be done. The parking lot is a little chaotic right now. And with uh the wonderful programming that Rebecca and her team is doing over there, her her events are full. Yeah.

And the parking is a little um difficult and it's not ADA compliant. And so we're going to expand the parking and and make it as as much parking as possible because also the food pantry will utilize it sometimes on a Tuesday night and sometimes the ball fields but right up to the back of the COA. I don't know that everybody's aware of that. And so when they're having big tournaments and the COA is closed on the weekends, they will be able to use that same that parking area. So it's a win-win for us um just because of the location of it. So, um, but it's it's a little bit of it's going to be messy. We're going to do it in phases. Of course, we'll get into that weather, you know, where we're going to have muck and mud, but we'll get through it.

Um, and the the Lulu lift on the U senior center, we put the foundation in for that so that it would be done before the parking lot got done. So, we're waiting here on the grant if we get a grant to do the Lulu lift. If not, we we voted at town meeting to have the funding to build the Mulu lift, which is like a mini elevator for people to get uh to the second floor because the COA is not um Is that a state grant or a federal grant? It's it's a it's a state grant. Is it subject to I think they haven't said, right, they haven't told us, but you know, we don't know. Definely know. Uh but just speaking of that, you know, we have multiple federal grants. We just saw today that there's a pause on all federal money, too. Yeah.

So, I don't know if that's affects our bridge, which is grant money um that we're working on. That's $500,000 for design on the bridge, but I'm going to say I hope not. And then we also got um a million dollar for expanding the water system. That one is so new that I think that's the one that will most likely get paused and pulled back. Um so, that's I think that's where we're at in our office. I don't know. So, uh, it's a little bit, like I said, we're on pace. We're we're we're not as overwhelmed as we were there for a little bit. Yep.

But always working on more projects. You know, the library and the COA building. I'm sure that that stuff will start coming together now that we are moving forward with that. Yep. That's going to be a whole another layer of bunch of decisions to be made. Let's put it that way. And actually, coming up the land, we're going to have to have some more discussions about the land and purchasing the land. Okay. So, that'll be coming up on one of the next agendas. I'm not sure. Okay. All right. Public input. You guys have anything? I think you need a new basketball hoop. You're going to redo the the ground level. If you look at the other photos, everything is in pristine condition. So, you'll make the ground look nice and the and the basketball hoop itself is

the one down in a Sona that the one that you had. If that's the same one. No, those are just samples. We have No, we have a brand new one. We just put a brand new one in half. But we do have a basketball court right here that we do need those four hoops updated and looked at. So this is a almost like a prerequisite looking at the systems for the flooring that that's needed right up the road here. So something to look at as well down the road. So yeah. Is there is there no one in town that would contribute when you're looking for a parking lot to be paved? You must have pavers in town. Yep. No one wants to just donate something. Does anyone ask if they'll donate the time and materials?

I I mean, it's $350,000. It's a big parking lot, so I I think it would be a lot to ask one of these contractors to donate. Uh we put it out to bid. You know, that's what we have to do for public procurement. back. Um I mean I do I I know you're saying there like I think there is opportunities like for for us to you know just get like sponsorships and things you know put your name on the sign but some of those things do get kind of messy right um but yeah I mean I I don't I don't know what the mechanism really for us would be to go out and ask for folks to to donate right for something of that nature right we could post it you know using all of our you know But I'm not sure how.

Yeah. Sir, could you just state your name for the record? Sorry, I'm bad of that. I'm supposed I'm supposed to ask you to state your name for the record. Steven Ceceri. We connected on uh social media and LinkedIn. I'm running for the eighth Bristol district. Okay. Nice. So, I live in Westport. This is my first meeting here and I went to one in Westport. So, it's it's pretty unique. I've seen some stuff online and they're very well organized here compared to what I saw in Westport. Just the building setup is just very nice. So yeah, um I think the ideas I have for the a business that I run is that most people don't connect with the community and ask people to donate. Everyone's trying to get funds from here, there, and everywhere. So I think there's plenty of people in the community that just need to be asked. Yep.

Because they're not going to step forward. And people know people. So even though $350,000 sounds like a lot, you have a lot of smaller projects that people could probably donate to. and then you take your money for the larger project that someone's not willing to go all in on.

Yeah. I think there's something there too. I I've like been always kind of curious about that. Like if there was a like a wish list that we could be like put out, you know, and and and then you know in turn I think you'd get your like like say you know if it's you know Joe's concrete company whatever like you know they would get lifetime advertising on that you know but there have to be agreements in place right because that's when things get messy. But yeah like I do think that that's something we should look into for sure. Yeah, it's a good call out to try. It's just figuring out the mechanism as to how we do it without um the lawyers always, you know, get make things messy. Yes. That's why I'm thinking instantly where my head goes.

There's always the, you know, the look of impropriy, right? Like, okay, Joe's concrete. He only gets a permit because he donate with the town. Yeah. No, I know that those are the mess. But local businesses do donate quite a bit quite a bit to the local sports leagues from baseball, soccer, football. They they do have signs. They do contribute materials such as, you know, like Cape Cod aggregate. They donate the stone dust and all the other raw materials for the baseball fields, things like that that is on town property at least to the baseball fields into the softball and everything else. Yeah. And like Kar does a lot of things. Gorgeous does a lot of things like they do like you know there's lots of they help out when when when when they can, you know, sports fields, right? Stop and Shop is always

Stop and Shop does a ton of food for us. Um cuz we have our um our food pantry um which is serves you know not just Freetown but it's regional and Stop and Shop you know them being located in a Soneta for their distribution center. They donate a ton of food. So does Amazon um so and a lot of other folks too but yeah so we do have I mean we do get a lot of donations that way. I think like stop and shop is helps us a lot with a lot of things. They put on a cookout. They also give us t-shirts and stuff for our um the green the Yeah, the cleanup day. Yeah. Um so we do get the the donations from the smaller XL helped out with the ball fields. Absolutely.

Um and different things. So they they are donating, but I I think for ours with the ball fields and all of the kids that come to play ball here, the town provides the fields, but we don't provide any funding and we don't charge anything either. So they the donations, a lot of them will go towards that and the food pantry, which are great things for our town residents. However, you know, um, so we are getting we are getting donations, just not the not we're not asking for $200,000 from one person, you know. Well, it could be from a a number of people, right? Yeah. So, I think the wish list idea is good if you start to fund certain things and you can see who's donating. Some people would just say anonymous.

Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. And not everyone's looking for their name on a sign. Yeah. I wouldn't be. Mhm. I hear you. A quick question on your on your bids. Yeah. When you're getting two bids, which is one more than the typical bid. You're getting one bid from a you know a a source. Is there anything in their clauses when something goes wrong that they're warranting something if they don't perform on time that they're actually going to be penalized?

So, I mean our Yeah. Yeah. So, the contracts will have the uh condition like if they don't finish on a certain time that depending on the contract and the size of the contract. Today, we have different a few different ones, but you know that they have to pay a certain dollar figure um $1,500 a day past certain days. Obviously, everything needs to be warrantied probably for usually around a year. Uh but yeah, we have a contract that created by town council. We fill it out, we finish it, and then town council vets it. So everything is under contract.

I mean, to that point though, I think there is a bit of a broken system just in general, right? Where like, you know, a lot of times we legally have to take a low bid, right? In most circumstances and then there's change orders, right? Which which unfortunately those are the rules that we have to play by, but you know, um it the incentives are not always in the right place, right, for someone to come in with a low bid and then change order us to death. And it's just it's kind of a and then the high then the high bid. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah.

You know, we have some discretion in certain things like for example for trash services um were exempt where we we didn't have to go with the low bid um and you know we went with actually a higher bid on that because it was a local a local company that you know and that was a big controversial thing that decision we made. Um I think it was the right decision still. Um but yeah like 100%. Yeah, it depends on what it is. But yeah, they're like sometimes you just you got to take the low bid and you kind of if we get more than one bid, which a lot of times we don't, you know, so it's the public procurement laws and that's it's 40 actually hurts at 30B and then it actually hurts small towns like ours, I think, because I can tell you

a law change. You're trying to change there. Trying to change it, but we just for instance, we had to put a boiler in the fire station. A local person gave us a bid of $15,000 to replace the boiler and then I had to put it out to bid because it was over $10,000 and it came in at uh 29,500 and that local person didn't even bid because they didn't understand prevailing wage and all of the paperwork that they needed to do. They were like, you know, small company. So, we end up paying double. Yeah. Yeah. which if there's yeah exemptions for like local businesses like I think that that's something that should be you know taken like because and reinvesting in your own community like that makes a lot of sense to me you know but

and I find that the local businesses do 110% because it's their town and they don't want their name out there uh so I find they work above and beyond absolutely so it is it's not good which you know there is legislature in front of the governor to change some of the procure retirement laws, but it it was been there for a couple years. It got passed over last year. So hopefully this year she'll sign the bill changing the the we have a higher threshold that before we have to go out to you know cuz right now it's 10,000, right? Which you can't change a light bulb for 10,000 like unfortunately it's been 10,000 for years, right? So I think they go trying to go up to 100,000. Yeah. Which which would make more sense, I think. Mhm.

Agreed. All right. Anything else? Oh, we got a sign. So to stay stay in open session while we sign that was that would have been a tough one. Good old open mean all three are COA just me parking COA Oh actually we didn't ask that question. When when will the COA park lot begin? Will be the fall spring or we waiting? I think it's going to start pretty soon. Let's do it. I'm excited for that cuz I would love to get it ready for springtime. I think it's going to be ready for spring. Right. And the city with basketball courts. Uh the pickle ball court. Um, did he give a time frame as far as materials and everything else? When has been in charge of that? Did they say when they could um start that? I don't know.

I didn't really have too much discussion with the flooring guys. They didn't know which way we were going. Yes. Just the top one. Just you. Yeah. Just make sense make the changes, but I wrote them out. Okay. Cool. Did you figure out what I was doing? I think it look it down. Yes. Policy. It's section 10 and 19. conduct energy security camera plows. Yeah, 10 foot plows. That's That's pretty good. Good start.

Why do we have to do winter? I know. Trust me. Minimum eight or nine. We have uh eight nine 10. So, you know, and every year we kind of raise that price every year because let's face it, we're all competing the same for the same resources across towns. Um, luckily over the years we haven't had much snow, right? Depending on how you look at it, you either love it or hate it, right? I hate it cuz I love snow. Um, but it saved quite a bit of money as far as the budget and everything else. And now you look at it as far as plows and the way again the way the system works with the state and and local governments. We have to have every insurance known to man to be able to plow for the town. So that's a burden on the plow drivers. So the price needs keeps going up every year.

And one last note, we do finally we have new heat in the town hall. We will not have no heat days this winter. Listen exciting. Town hall has come a long way. We changed the windows for engine efficiencies. We got handicap everything. new bathrooms, uh, heating, cooling systems. It's up tod date and I'm so excited for the people that that work there. So, I can't last year was was 200 years in the making. It's it's it's there. So, I'm very happy for that. Yeah. So, that that's that is another thing that we have done this year and that is done. That's awesome. Mr. Carl, I have to say that was more Carl than me, but that's great. Doing a lot still part of the process. So, thank you all. Yeah. All right. All right. So, with that, I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn. Motion made.

Second. All in favor? like it. All right.