Trustees of Soldiers and Sailors Memorials - Regular Meeting

So therefore, we can take our votes by simple yay or nay. Let's see. On the agenda, we had meeting minutes. We don't normally approve meeting minutes between the two committees, but I decided to do so because we're in that period where we are going to organize, reorganize, and sort of have a clean cut, so to speak. So meeting minutes are on the table, and they're pretty brief because they detail the last meeting, which was on Zoom, and we reorganized. And then we discussed, at that time, we discussed National Night Out and Grafton Day, which is coming up this Friday evening. So if you want to take a moment and just review them and make sure they reflect what you believe happened, then we can vote on them and move on.

Name's incorrect.

Okay, any comments before we vote other than the change that Lucas just pointed out? Okay, so the motion has to be accepting the minutes as amended.

I make a motion to approve the minutes as amended. Second.

Okay, we have a motion and a second. All in favor of accepting the minutes? Aye. Aye? Okay. All right, moving on. Thank you. We are going to reorganize this committee much the same as we did for the Veterans Advisory Committee. And we will be taking nominations and voting for chair, vice chair, and clerk. So I will open nominations for the chair. So I nominate Lucas to be chair.

You want me to do it? No, that's fine.

I can do both. You can do both. I will second for discussion purposes. Anybody want to say anything about that? Okay. All those in favor of Lucas's chair? Aye. No opposed. All right, next position for nomination is vice chair. I would nominate myself for a vice.

I nominate Sean for vice chair. He just nominated himself. Oh, okay. I didn't know if he was, like, kind of second. You got a second. I second that. Okay.

Any discussion on the nomination of Sean for vice chairman? Okay. All in favor of that position? Aye. Aye. Aye. Anonymous vote? Final position is for clerk. Let's be consistent.

I vote Bob Dittoma for clerk.

I need a second. Second. Okay, we have a motion and a second for Bob Dittoma as clerk. All in favor? Aye.

IT'S SO HARD, AREN'T THEY?

YOU GET A LATE AGENDA.

YEAH. SO WE'RE GOING TO BE MOVING ON TO DISCUSSION, FUTURE PLANNING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO GRAFTON DAY AND TRYING TO RECRUIT NEW MEMBERS. SO GRAFTON DAY IS THIS FRIDAY. AND I KNOW I'LL BE THERE, BUT WILL ANYONE ELSE BE THERE FOR THAT MEETING? OR NOT MEETING, BUT THE EVENT. I WAS PLANNING ON BEING THERE.

SO HERE'S WHAT I KNOW. WE HAVE A POSITION ON THE MAP THAT THE RECREATION DEPARTMENT DISTRIBUTED. OKAY. SO WE KNOW BASED ON THAT WHERE OUR POP-UP SHOULD GO. PRAY TELL. WE HAVE SPOT NUMBER 13, WHEREVER THAT MIGHT BE. I THINK IT'S SPOT 13.

I THINK I MIGHT KNOW SOMEONE ON THE RECREATION COMMITTEE.

SO WE HAVE TWO PEOPLE. And I can be available. What I was thinking about was the event runs from 4 to 8. And as we were talking about off camera, I can't imagine that it's going to be really, really busy at 4 o'clock. So should we... kind of spread it out a little bit somebody is ready to go at four o'clock somebody comes in at five o'clock somebody comes in at six o'clock just to kind of you know and you know because it's uncharted territory we don't know we don't know what to bring we don't know what to give away it's it's really yeah it is i mean and i have no work friday so i can go there and set up early okay all right so i can help you on friday get the pop-up set up okay and then uh and then i can come back later on yeah um all right uh well as far as time i'm not i'm not sure yet i got a i got a company coming in and then i also have uh

I told my granddaughter she can do some stuff with her friends. So I'll have to get back to you on a time. But I think from this event as opposed to the last one, the big draw is going to be a fireworks. Yeah. And the beer garden, maybe. We'll see. So I see having more people late, if you follow what I'm saying. Sounds about right.

Yeah, well, and we were talking about it earlier, was that... 4 o'clock people are probably still not out of work.

Yeah.

So you're probably going to have people showing up around 6, 7. Yeah. We know about Holly and Justin. Reach out to them if you're willing to come out for a little bit.

I mean, should we? Should we pack all the crayons in the coloring pages and give those away, or?

Is it an arena event?

Sorry.

Yeah, no, I think that would be fun.

You know what?

They were part of anything else to give away. I know. Unless you want to give out little flags. And we have the documents in the file folder that Stoney keeps. And I think that's really about it. I mean, it may end up being more of a, hopefully, a recruitment, but yeah.

Yeah. I mean, that's true. Yeah, we need new members. Sean knows some vets, don't you? Excuse me? You know some vets, right?

The bad thing is they're not local. Oh. I got two guys in my neighborhood that I'm trying to pin down, but I'm like, well, you know, I don't know.

OUR COMMITTEE IS WHAT, FOR 12? I LOST TRACK OF HOW MANY WE'RE ALLOWED TO HAVE.

YOU REMEMBER?

FOR THIS ONE?

YEAH.

I DON'T KNOW THAT THERE'S A CAP FOR THIS ONE. IF IT IS, I THINK IT'S HIGH, LIKE SOMEWHERE AROUND THERE.

I THINK THIS ONE IS 5 AND THE OTHER ONE IS 15.

MR. CHAIR, I WANT TO ASK CRAIG A QUESTION. OKAY. RELATIVE TO RECRUITMENT, WE HAD PUT A BUG IN CARMEN'S EAR ABOUT, OR MAYBE CARMEN HAD PUT THE BUG IN OUR EAR, I CAN'T REMEMBER WHICH, ABOUT MEMBERS OF THE WOMEN'S AUXILIARY WHO MIGHT

And I did talk to Taryn, who's the head, and she kind of gave me a, we'll talk about it, but not at that time. It did bring it up to her, and she was going to put, there aren't any veteran women.

Yeah, okay.

So they're all daughters of. You're right, okay. And that's, they're pretty active in what they do for fundraising for us and everything, so. have two civilians, so we only need one more. That's pretty low-key, too. I think, you know how nobody wants to really jump into something without kind of

A lot of hair on lifting, yeah. You're right. This is six members. Six members? And veterans' advisory is up to 15. Okay. Chair of the select board or their designee, two non-veteran community volunteers and then three veterans from the community.

So, Mr. Chair, one thing that was not put on the agenda but probably needs to be talked about very, very briefly, is that Gold Star Mother's Day is coming up.

Yeah.

Which means Andy will be reaching out. So I'm going to send Andy a note informing him of the change in leadership, and then he can forward all of his updates to you. Yeah. And I have the... binder with the names of the families from last year. And that's basically the book we used to perform the ceremony.

Okay. So I get that from you.

That's what, September 29? I believe. Since last year's ceremony, Andy sent me a new name. So I have to update the spreadsheet. Okay. And then I'll get it delivered to you. It's a Tuesday.

Is it normally during the week?

No. It's the last Sunday in September. So the 27th. Yeah, this year will be the 27th. Okay.

Because it's the closest to Sunday, right?

I DON'T KNOW, JUST PUTTING A BUG, TOO, I DON'T KNOW IF YOU WANT TO SELECT BOARDS MEETING SEPTEMBER 8TH AND 22ND. IF YOU WANT, WE CAN PUT YOU ON THE AGENDA FOR THE 8TH. OR I DON'T KNOW IF YOU'RE GOING TO SEND ANY IN, BUT USUALLY SOMEBODY COMES IN AND JUST, YOU KNOW, TALKS ABOUT GOLDSTAR FAMILIES DAY, INVITES US TO PARTICIPATE. YEAH, STORN.

DID STORN AND I DO IT LAST YEAR? I REMEMBER THE END THERE. I DON'T REMEMBER WHO WAS THERE WITH ME. YEAH, MAYBE IT WAS STORN. Do you want to book us, or do you want one of us to go book it with him?

No, I'll have you add it to the announcements on the... So the 8th? Yes. We'll do it first thing.

Okay. What about the flag?

Everything that is related is out back in the storage area. It's right where we left it from last year, so we're good to go. Okay.

So they typically gather up the hill, right? At the flagpole by the city. Disperse from there with flags. Yep. And the flags stay out for how long?

That's an Andy question I don't remember. I don't think it was that long. It's like just a week, I think.

It's like Sunday to Sunday. Usually he's the one that handles the... Like we do it here and then he handles all the distribution and retrieving.

I think it's the families that do it. Yeah, we conduct the ceremony. The families that have responded in the past, being contacted, they take care of it. And then... ALL THE OTHER OVERFLOW IS ANDY AND HIS WIFE TAKE CARE OF IT. OKAY. AND ANDY AND HIS WIFE WILL SHOW UP AND DO IT ANYWAY. THEY BRING THEIR BIN FULL OF STUFF. YEAH. AND THEY KNOW WHO'S BEEN CONTACTED AND WHO HASN'T. I MEAN, IT WENT FAIRLY SMOOTHLY LAST YEAR. CHANGED THE DATE ON THE FORM.

YEAH, EXACTLY. TODAY IS SEPTEMBER 27th, 2026. ANYTHING ELSE THAT YOU GUYS WOULD LIKE TO DISCUSS?

I DO HAVE SOMETHING FROM A PERSON THAT I MET THAT WRAPPED THE NIGHT OUT THAT I'M NOT EXACTLY SURE WHAT HER veteran status is, if there is one, or she's just connected to someone somewhere. But she goes to events to discuss PTSD and veteran suicide, such as that. And she asked if we Well, we're trying our mission, so to speak, is to get word out to veterans. Obviously, that's the title of our committee. And I said I would bring it up with us, with the group, and discuss it and see if we feel that that might be an opportunity for us to get some kind of information out to veterans that show up and possible recruitment. But she didn't say where. I can't remember what town she mentioned, but it wasn't Grafton, something, Millbury, something like that. It was further out. I have her phone number. I can reach out, call her, or whatever. But then I also, I was going to mention to her the irreverent warriors that you had met and I think you still have contacts with them, am I right? So is that maybe between us trying to get an event, maybe talk to this lady, see just what it is she does and what she wants to do?

Well, if you get the information, I'm willing to share it with my friend at the Reverend Warriors. Right. So, yeah. Okay. That's easy. All right. Well, I will. Did she get an indication of? what she expected us to do if we participated?

No, I think she went just to do what we did Grafton Night Out, just set up a tent and have information available to hand out.

I remember her. Who? The lady that we met at Grafton Night Out.

Is that the one you're talking about? No, this was the last one when I was there. This most This is some lady I don't even know.

So then the flip side of that would be, would she come to Grafton and do a presentation? That's a thought, too. Okay. Sure. Because that might fill one of our requirements for meet and greet.

Yeah, like an event that we've got to do.

Okay.

USUAL RUNDOWN THAT SHE GOES THROUGH OR PRESENTATION THAT SHE GIVES, SOMETHING LIKE THAT. USE IT FOR, YOU KNOW, AN OUTREACH AND RECRUITING TYPE.

PROBABLY. TO ME, IT SEEMS LIKE THIS WOULD BE MORE SOMETHING WE DISCUSSED AT BAC THAN TRUSTEES.

YES, I AGREE.

IF WE COULD MEET HER OR, LIKE, DISCUSS WHETHER WE CAN DO IT ON ONE OF OUR MEETINGS.

Yeah, she can pop in over Zoom so she doesn't have to make the trip if it's far.

Yeah.

Yeah. Just to talk.

Okay. And if it's something really, really impressive that we really want to promote, we can invite her to a select board meeting. So, sure. Okay.

I will give her a shout.

Anything else? Two small things. Select Board is looking to revise its flag policy in light of our flag policy. Because back in May for Memorial Day, there was the request to fly the Gold Star Families flag for the day. but by the time the request was made, the select board wasn't meeting, so it wasn't something we could approve, even though it's been approved in the past. So the update to the policy would be you approve a flag and then the group holding that flag doesn't necessarily have to come in for approval each time they want to fly it. So you wouldn't have to come in every September for Gold Star Families Day and request the flagpole and all that stuff. You've gone through the process, we've approved you for use, and barring incident, you'd be free to essentially display that flag whenever the poll is available. So it could alleviate some of the roadblocks that prevented it flying in Memorial Day. You also, both BAC and Soldiers and Sailors have a new applicant over the Citizen Activity Portal who will be in Tuesday night for appointment. His name's Jack Fontana. TO BE HONEST, MY FACEBOOK STOCK LOOKS LIKE HE'S A YOUNGER GUY.

CAN YOU BE THERE TUESDAY NIGHT?

YEAH, I THINK SO. 25th?

YES. YEAH, I SHOULD BE ABLE TO. YEAH, THAT WILL BE NEAR THE START OF THE AGENDA. SO IT SHOULD BE PRETTY QUICK.

You might even get to introduce yourself as the new general.

No.

And some questions about it. Yeah, I mean, I'm throwing it out there. If you have anything, I can bring it back because we haven't finalized it. We're going to discuss it further. I can give you the heads up when it's going to be on the agenda again in case you guys want to come in and share opinions. But, yeah, if you want to talk about it now, I can bring that information back.

So when they do it, do they take the American flag down?

The Grafton flag flies on the furthest pole. If you're at the middle entrance, the main entrance to the municipal center, straight in front of you is the American flag.

The big one.

Yeah. And I think the POW MIA beneath it, it's a lit pole. So that one stays up full time. And that pole is taller. than the pole that's at the far end. So we don't run into any, you know.

Because that was just my main concern. My main concern was like you're taking the American flag down and you put some other flag. To me, it's very like old school. It's like the American flag is the tallest flag and it should stay that way. Yep.

Yeah, it's the Grafton flag on the far end. That pole's not illuminated, so we tell people it should come down before sundown or whatever. Okay.

Yeah.

So they fly it for like a day, and then it gets taken down. Okay.

Is your...

As it stands right now, yes, so you have to get approval from the select board for whatever event you're planning, whatever flag you intend to fly there. As it stands now, you have to do that every time you wish to fly that flag. But we do have some recurring events where people ask to fly things. So once you went through that initial process, that initial QA round, and get approval from the select board, you could ask to have that flag flown basically whenever you want, as long as the poll is available. Because it's a flag you're approving. It's not necessarily the group or everything that the group puts forward. It's just the one.

I like, as Lucas said, I'm very hesitant. I like to be, yes.

Only because then it's just that.

I think a flag poll, in my opinion, should be for state, nation, whatever.

Well, yeah, municipal, state, federal. Yes. Mm-hmm. You know, I don't know. Groups and organizations. It's very difficult.

Okay, Goldstown Mothers is.

Well, there's an official proclamation with the Goldstown Mothers, if I'm correct, right?

So that one's different because that's like an official proclamation, I believe, from the state. That's usually part of the process is there's a proclamation that goes along with when a flag is being hoisted.

So it doesn't affect the main flagpole. No, no, not the main flag at all. But then what's your concern?

Well, for me, it's kind of like, well, then you can fly pretty much any flag you want, like ISIS or anything else that you want.

And, like, that's the concern I have is, like, if you want to fly the flag. You can do that now. If the select board signs off on it.

Yeah. Well, that's what I mean. And it's, like, that's, like, a tough. Like, if you want to fly it at your house, like, your private property is, like, whatever you want to do. But then it's, like, town, state, federal property. It's, like.

So wasn't that the purpose of going before the Select Board to get permission?

Yeah, and there are, you know, in the policy it does outline political affiliations. Yeah, it does have guardrails on it.

Yeah, so it's like the KKK is not going to come running up.

Yeah, I mean, like, I want to fly my flag.

we're like oh yeah like it's truly you know the idea behind the update was to make it easier on like this group if they want to do something in the future um we just did india independence day they come in every year and have for the last five or six years um you know so they're recurring approval that we give so that way you know it just removes that one little hitch

You still seem hesitant. Yeah. Yeah.

Sean's going to keep an eye on this thing.

I will. I don't want us to become Boston.

I don't... No, I feel you. It's hard because you want to be... Open to things.

Open to things, but at the same time... Yes.

Right. I don't know. I kind of look at it like... I don't see Germany being like, oh, you want to fly your flag? Go ahead. It's like they just wouldn't. And I don't know. It's a tough situation because I see both sides. Especially being a veteran, I'm just like, I'm very protective of the flag and everything, like the POW, that one, and all that.

Can you share what you're thinking about?

Well, any and every, I could see this becoming an any and every group. Okay.

Well, he suggested ISIS. Can you come up with something worse?

Did you say ISIS? He did. I thought you said Germany.

The German branch of ISIS. No, I'm saying if, like in Germany, they wouldn't be fighting. Like, you know, like, oh, it's an independence day, we're going to fly.

I guess, for us, right here, looking at what we have for flight polls, so... You have, as you mentioned already, the layout, okay? So the flag that people would be using is over here, right? Not far and away, but far enough away from the main American flag. If we have a situation where, as you have the American flag, then you have, like, we'll say the MIA flag, and then you have the Army flag or whatever, Then I would object to anything that wasn't nation or whatever.

ABOUT LIKE MAKING IT THAT PEOPLE COULD USE THE MAIN ONE, CORRECT? NO. OKAY. I GUESS THAT'S LIKE MY OTHER THING IS LIKE THEN PEOPLE ARE GOING TO BE LIKE, WELL, I WANT TO PUT OUR FLAG ON THE BIG ONE.

NO, WE'RE NOT CHANGING POLLS. WE'RE NOT CHANGING THE CRITERIA. LIKE YOU STILL HAVE TO GO THROUGH THAT INITIAL APPROVAL PROCESS. AND AGAIN, THIS MAY NOT, YOU KNOW, IT MAY NOT GO ANYWHERE. THE REST OF THE BOARD MAY NOT AGREE TO THE CHANGE OR, YOU KNOW, SEE VALUE IN IT. BUT I JUST FIGURED I'D GIVE THIS GROUP THE HEADS UP. That was the motivation, truly, behind it, was last Memorial Day.

Okay, go back. Let's say you're not doing the stamp of approval from now to perpetuity or whatever. By having the group, coming in and asking approval, that gets it on the agenda one time. And then announcing it as you are going to on September 8th, that gets it in front of the board and on the agenda again. So you get more notice of it. So maybe if you get into a situation, not a situation, but if you get it so it's automatic, then you're losing a couple opportunities to make notice or broadcast it, however you want to say it. Yeah, I agree. So, I don't know, maybe leave it as is.

I mean, that's my thing. I think flagpoles are important, and they're designed for a specific thing. BUT AGAIN, LIKE, THE SELECT BOARD IS MADE UP OF FIVE INDIVIDUALS WHO HAVE THEIR OWN DECISIONS, AND THEY CAN VOTE ON IT. I JUST KNOW MY OPINION WOULD BE JUST LEAVE IT AS IS, AND THEY CAN COME IN.

WELL, MAYBE I'M GOING OUT ON A LIMB HERE, BUT RIGHT DOWN AT THE CORNER HERE WHERE THEY DID A COMMUNITY POWER GARDEN, OKAY, YOU HAVE A FLAG FULL OF THAT. the garden club or whatever says, hey, I want to put a little garden flag out there and say happy spring day or whatever. So yes, right now we only have three poles together and we have single poles at other points in town.

But isn't part of the policy dictating or clarifying that it's just the one pole?

I'm I believe it says that it's just the one poll. I'm looking it up now.

So if somebody ran a flag up that poll without permission, it's exactly that. Without permission, it's unauthorized. And if it's specifically just one flag poll,

Okay.

Yeah. It's just the one poll.

Just riding the wave? I hadn't heard about it before. It does make sense to have, obviously, have control. And I'm with you. You've got a flagpole, and nothing else should be on that flagpole, period. Yeah, that one.

The first part, you know, 1.1 of the policy outlines, you know, I'm going to call it the order of operations, for lack of a better term, but the order in which the flags are to be flown and, you know, U.S. flag first, Commonwealth second, town third, military and armed forces after that, you know, and what the, I guess the federal policy is. But then it goes on to talk about what Bradford specifically allows. But it is only that one town poll.

So would we call that the community flag poll? If you want to give it a name.

Well, I think that's technically the town poll, right? That's where the Grafton flag mainly flies. Yeah. So you'd be taking down the Grafton flag and. Yeah, that's what we currently do.

So in theory, you could go and request the Navy flag on the Navy's birthday. And once you've got approval, you're good to go for every other.

Navy birthday.

Yeah. Or the Army birthday of the Marines. Marines, yeah. All of it. Okay. Yeah. All right. As long as you don't show up with the ISIS flag.

Yeah. I mean, not that anyone's... I'm just saying that, like... No, it's a good choice. You know, it's something that someone could come and do, and I just want to make sure that, like, there's going to be some...

Places in America.

Something to be like, yeah, no, that's not even going to be a thing that the select... Like, someone could come in and do it, and the select board is just going to be like, no.

No, thank you. It's a legitimate concern and you watch what happens in other towns. People will take out dubious sponsorships for the telephone flags that go up around whenever, whether it's a certain time of year or some sort of town festival, depending on where they are. So yeah, if you don't have policy to say what cannot be up there, you open yourself up to that liability. So we've been pretty good about defining what is and is not appropriate for those things, for these things.

We don't have to be concerned with what's hanging off of a utility pole because that's on the utility company.

In theory, but if we're selling the ad space, that's still a reflection on the tell. And people will still get upset depending on the content. Or could get upset, I should say, depending on the content. And those are the ones that deal with it. Yeah, welcome.

I'm good.

Motion to adjourn. I'll make sure the concerns are shared. All right. Thank you, Andy. Yeah.

Motion to adjourn?

No.

No? Okay. Not yet. Not yet? Hopefully this is quick. Do we have to interact with Daryl at all on maintenance? Because I think in the very beginning when we first got together, We were talking about some kind of a maintenance plan, whereas he was having monuments cleaned. Who's Darryl? Darryl Roberts is the... Parks and Cemetery. Parks and Cemetery supervisor, director, whatever. So that's just, you know, maybe we...

Send the questions you have to me and I'll forward them to Darryl.

CC me, so I'm aware. Yeah, okay.

All right, that's it. Now, motion to adjourn. That was my line, motion to adjourn. You can second. Second.

All right, so I have a motion and second to close the meeting. Just a roll call vote, all those in favor? Aye.