Board of Selectmen - Regular Meeting

Okay, good afternoon everyone. I'm here to call the regular board of selectmen meeting for May 4th, 2026 to order at 5:30 p.m. At the table, we have select

We also have selectman Jim Lampost and I and Martha Shoemaker for select woman. So, now that we've gotten attendance over, we're going to go through information items, communication, comments. Um, whoever's online, please mute yourself. Thank you so much. All right. So, one of the things that I'll tell both of you is that tomorrow at Whit Sands Beach, they're going to be driving the steel support beams in for the new gazebo with um if all goes well, I'm assuming it will. Uh we started uh selling beach passes, well, parking permits are also in our neighborhood, we call them beach passes. Um and also the golf cart uh stickers. today. Um, we had a good showing. Um, I wouldn't say it was crazy, but it was a nice steady flow. And also, I just wanted to both of you to know that I'm going to be sending you some options for possible summer hours. Um, the staff here has asked over the last year if we could institute some summer hours. we would still reopen our normal 35 hours but a reduced rate on a Friday. Um some of the towns do do this. Uh we have all that information that we will provide to you along with three options and I would just look for your input if you and if you feel strongly one way or the other and if there's a particular option that you think might work best for all of us. Um, anything else by any of you?

No. No developments, no correspondence.

Okay. Okay. So, next up is public comment. Is there anyone here who would like to offer public comment from the audience? Anyone? No. Okay. Is there anyone online who would like to offer public comment? If so, unmute yourself. Okay, looks like no public comment. Okay, hearing no public comment, we're going to move on to the approval of minutes. We have our regular board of selectment meeting for April 20th, 2026. And I need a motion to approve.

I'll make a motion to approve. Second. Thank you, Jim. Thank you, John. Do you see any necessary changes, edits, revisions that you think need to be made? I did not personally. I didn't either. Anything? Okay. Hearing no nothing, no changes. Thank you, Jen, for your wonderful work. Call for a vote. All those in favor of approving the minutes from April 20th signify by saying I. I. I.

Opposed? None. Any abstensions? None. Motion passes. Okay, we are moving on to presentations. And our first presentation is Elena Jalbert. Elena, come on up. Elena has been our Yukon intern. Um, and have a seat right here by this mic.

This is Jim Lampos, John if you haven't met them before. and Elena's been working here about three days a week um coming down from West Hartford um to work on our policy book. And when uh during my first term, I realized that a lot of departments had policies um they were scattered around town hall and um because of my background in education, I always had there were always policy books in in the teachers labs. There was one in the administration always there was one in every building and I thought we really should put all of our policies together. So um Helena took on the task and why Ela she's got a short presentation for us and then we are going to email both of you uh the policy book um but she has homework in it for us as well. So, Elena, go to it. And if you just say next, Katie will turn your pages for you.

Is this on already? Yeah. Okay.

Um, hi everyone. My name is Elena. Um, as Martha's introduction told you all, um, I'm from the Yukon School of Public Policy. Um, I'm a master's student. Um, actually, not anymore. I just finished school. So, um, part of my program, um, being an accelerated master student was the internship program. Um and I was matched with the town of Old Lime um and brought here to do policy work as Martha said. Um so that's a little bit about my role. Um during my time here I did policy drafting and development um municipal research and analysis, administrative and operational support and then some inter departmental coordination to get the manual done. Um and that's what I spent a majority of my time doing while I was here. Um you can go to the next slide. Um, so I just wanted to quickly go over some of the bigger projects that I did during my time. Um, one of the more lengthy projects that I did was um, the Halls Road improvement presentation. Um, so when I came in, this decision had happened a little bit before um, the start of my internship. Um, everything was Halls Road. Um, and I was, you know, somewhat unfamiliar with it. Um, so I spent a few weeks in the town clerk's vault um, going through minutes. Um, I read through minutes from a bunch of different boards and organizations, specifically the Halls Road, um, committee. Um, and I put together a timeline and the funding breakdown for that project from start to finish. Um, and I developed presentation materials and some analysis. Um, I worked with some representatives from Halls Committee and with Martha, um, and a few other town employees to kind of prepare this, um, you know, overarching timeline overview of of what happened with that. Um, and then we brainstormed and assembled some next steps for Halls Road, what to do um, going forward. So, that was one of my larger projects. Go to the next slide. Um, second, I've been working closely with the board of finance to develop a

couple key policies for them, being the unsigned fund balance policy and the capital projects policies. Um, I've been meeting with them about once a week for the last few months to go over this. Um, so I've been researching a lot of state and federal statutes um to help them kind of work through what they want to do with their policies. Um, and they have a working group put together to write some of those policies. So, I've been working with them um to kind of talk about what they want to do, how they want to structure their their own little policy manual that they're working on um and how we can kind of get those procedures a little bit more in line with state federal statutes. Um all that stuff and go to the next slide. Um and that brings me to my policy manual, which we'll talk about a little bit more in depth soon. Um but basically, this is an interdep departmental policy manual. Um supposed to be a living and evolving resource for the town. So over time it'll change to meet needs. Um we can change anything in there. Um but it exists to kind of yeah bring departments together, make sure everything's kind of working functionally. Um kind of also standardize and formats existing policies to make it more in line with the rest of the departments in the town. Um so there's some new policies in there. There's some existing policies in there. There's some policies that have just been edited a little bit to match the needs of the town a little bit more. Um there's also some those board of finance policies I've been I mentioned in the last slide, but there's also some existing finance policies um which were, you know, pretty pretty lengthy, hard to go through. Um so those don't really have much change to them. Um and yeah, so there's over 25 new policies in there across eight different town departments. Um and the rest of them are existing or slightly changed. You want to go to the next Um, so yeah, just a little bit of what I did while I was here. So, improve some consistency, increase transparency for the town, um, compliance with state and federal laws, and then strengthen that

financial policy framework as I mentioned. Um, and I filled those gaps in in policy with some necessary additions to make daily administrative operations go a little bit smoother for the town. Go to the next slide. Um yeah, so my my time here has been invaluable to my professional development. I got a really really neat opportunity to see how municipal policy and you know municipalities in general function from the inside out which is really cool. Um I will be continuing my public service at the US federal bankruptcy court. I'll be starting in a couple weeks. Um and I'll be specializing in operations. Um and yeah, this has been a unique opportunity. I'm very excited um to show you guys what I've been working on and thank you for the opportunity. Any questions for Elena?

Thank you for all that work. It's very helpful.

So, she's put together this draft copy and she's given us homework and uh I'll send it to you electronically. If you want a paper copy, I'm happy to print have it printed out. But she's got us things are highlighted, but if it's a new policy and those have to be approved by us, except for the board of finance ones which are approved by their own board. Um, and then she's got some that are um existing policy with a few edits and she'll have outlined or redlined them where she made some edits and it could have just been some typos, misspellings, etc. But we will review them again and approve each one of them so that they are solid. And then there's um an existing policy with no change. So if it's green, it's good. Um if it's yellow or gray, we have some work to do. Um and we'll just take a couple of them at a time. We won't throw it all in one meeting because that would be a lot. So we'll send this to you and we'll start off maybe with each section, human resources, etc. And I just really appreciate the fact Elena reached out to each department head. She asked for their help. She met with them individually. Um they went through their files to find policies that might have been hidden in a file from many years ago and um suggested changes to her and then she'd do research and say go back to that department and then said how about this or what about this? So she did a lot of u stuff and it was all on her own. She really I mean she came to me weekly and said what do you think what do you think and sometimes I could get back to her immediately and sometimes I was like I'll see you tomorrow. Um but yeah we've enjoyed having her here.

Thank you so much for the opportunity. I've enjoyed it as well. Yeah. And we'll see you still this week. Yes. All right. Great. Any No thanks. Is I have to ask is there Jeff and her family? No there's not. Not to my knowledge. Okay. Thank you. Terrific. Thank you so much. And you do have a copy of this for your master's program and that as well. Yeah. Okay. Good. All right. I'll see you tomorrow. See you tomorrow. Thank you.

Okay. So, next up we have CSW Energy. Um, if you gentlemen would like to come to the table. With us. We have Alan Brown. Bill Rob Cle. Alan Brown. Bill, do you want to come to the table?

Bill McNamer is a resident of Oline who knows a thing or two about energy. And when he heard we were looking into this as a possibility, he sort of uh agreed to be my coach, my tutor on what solar energy is. Um CSW Energy was suggested to us by the town of New City of New London. They had done a project um and uh Andy Russell had asked me to look into it. So, we did and we're racing to a finish line because there are dates and we're trying to work with some funding for the month of July. So, we're quickly moving with some options. So, they're going to give us an update. They've been here. They've done a sitewalk. We've taken drone photos. Bill's been sat in on couple of meetings with them and also with uh town of New London. And they're going to give us a their information and I haven't shared your engagement letter yet, but I will after this meeting with both John and Jim, but you can give us the how it works.

Well, too, thank you and thank you for having us. So, my name is Alan Savings. I'm with CSW Energy and Rob

Hi, Rob. Rob Cle and I'm CLE sustainability advisors and together we are uh seeking to be your clean energy adviserss for the the town of old line. So we were introduced or or recommended by the city of New London. We have been uh their consultant and clean energy manager for about eight years now and have supported them on a handful of projects which include a closed landfill uh in the city of New London on top of their uh separate from that a project on their high school. separate from that a number of projects that they participated in what's called virtual net metering. Um and our role with them is uh we are not a developer. We do not build the projects. We do not own the projects. Our role is to support them in their clean energy endeavors. Uh and our role as a result of that is to take the technical findings and the opportunity and support them in a competitive bid process. The engagement letter that was mentioned is essentially our fee for a service where our role gets incorporated into the RFP. The winner of the RFP is ultimately who is the one who pays us for our services. With that in mind, what we were asked to do is to evaluate the landfill, the closed landfill on Four Mile Road. Um so we were able to do that last week. We gathered some documents and information and the urgency around this is more about the impacts of the one big beautiful bill which was a federal bill uh an act that was passed last year which has some dramatic changes to the

federal tax benefits associated with solar projects. And that July time frame is a deadline in order for projects to be safe harbored. So the whole premise here is to make an attempt of going out to bid, having the market review the opportunities, submit their proposals, and ideally they would be able to safe harbor the project before the safe harbor deadline, which is July 4th of this year. Hence why we're here. Hence the engagement letter and uh the project itself just to give a primer on that the project would be available and eligible for participation in virtual net beatering which is an opportunity for that project to reside on the landfill. Being that it's considered a brownfield or a landfill, it unlocks additional benefits through the state program which then the ultimate developer or awardee would build that project and be able to point some of the financial benefits to the town accounts. Um so that's you know by hosting and by utilizing your Eversource accounts there will be a financial benefit that will be made over the course of 20 years which ultimately that owner will work with the uh with Eversource to make those necessary allocations. So did I miss saying?

No. Um but perhaps I'll just give again at a high level um what you get with both of us is we are your um clean energy advisors. So we are on your team and it means a couple of different things. So we bring different things to the table. Um I am a a lawyer by training. I'm the former commissioner of energy and environment for the state of Connecticut. Um, so my contributions to uh your clean energy efforts are understanding the legal and policy implications of all the different programs and that are happening in Connecticut and at the federal level and help guide you through those um as well. I also would be engaged as your attorney and can work with your town attorney um for any contracting that would result from the selection of a bidder through the competitive RFP process. Allan and his team at CSW bring the financial background and the engineering and technical background which are again those are the triumvirate that you need to successfully deploy clean energy. You need to know the law and policies which are complicated and you need to have in your corner someone who understands the engineering the financing um all the way through the development of the project. So we help you competitively procure the developer, but then we stay with you through the lifetime of the project, through its completion as your owner's representative through that construction process. So we are there to manage the um any change orders, any sort of things that are happening, obviously working closely with your town staff, your public works staff, um the landfill staff as well, but we're there in your corner as the development process is proceeding. um uh through its process. And that's really what the um engagement agreement you'll see sort of outlines our steps in the process is first understanding what it is that you want.

What is your sort of vision for a clean energy deployment? The landfill came to the four as a a a unique initial opportunity, but we're also here to have conversations with you if there are other things on your mind in town that relate to clean energy or battery storage as well. We then help you run that competitive RFP process. We engage with your procurement managers or your other sort of town folks to make sure we're following all of your typical town process for procurement. We help you evaluate any the biders that are we we both advertise and bring the bid to the marketplace. We help you evaluate the bids and we are there throughout your decision-making process when you select the awarded bidder. And then once selected we help through the contracting um the engineering the technical sort of development through construction.

So can you give us a little bit of a timeline because we know we're tight. So can you tell us what your working timeline would be tomorrow? I had a feeling that was what we were going to say. Brett,

uh, I would say, you know, ideally we would prefer to have the RFP out for about 3 weeks so that folks can gather themselves and sort through the logistics for a site walk. We find that to be beneficial, especially on a closed landfill. So, all things being equal, if we're in early May, uh you know, hopefully have the RFP out and we'll have bids back by the last week in May, which really doesn't give a lot of time through the month of June. specifically. I think we looked the border selectman meetings are I think it was June 2nd and I'm

this one the 4th then so it' be the second in June and then there was well we have two a month so and we can always have a special okay so uh I would say you know if we circled May and said that was RFP month both being out and administration then June is really the remaining time for contracting and allowing the developer the opportunity to safe harbor the project. So, if the RFP could go out some point next week, that would be incredible. But I just know on our end we can accomplish that. It's whether or not it can be accomplished holistically.

Let me ask you this. After the sitewalk, what were the findings? because I really haven't had the time to talk to the other Alan. Yes. Um because it was so our initial findings were better. So when we looked at it from a GIS perspective through a desktop review, it looked a lot slopier along with the drawings. And when we got on site, it actually looked a little bit more favorable uh because some of those slopy tolerances are uh they're pretty well suited for solar racking. So, I would say we're in a better than than when we originally evaluated this site. Okay.

And do you think we would get a sufficient amount of responses from an RFP that's that quick of a turnaround?

I do for two primary reasons. One, through the state program, landfills are sought after because of that uh in additional benefit that's unlocked because of it being on a brown field. That's the case for both the state program as well as that federal program. When I mentioned the tax credits, there is an additional 10% that gets unlocked because it's on a brown field. And then uh in addition, now is the time when developers are looking to safe harbor projects. So they are, you know, because they know what's coming up too.

Exactly. So they are primed and doing this already. So, I think this would be a welcomed exercise. And Ed was with me when we went on the sidewalk. He was there because that is very protective of they both said it's the cleanest landfill and trade transfer station they've been to. Um, but he was there and he understands he volunteered to move his leaf pile and he said he even moved the brush pile if we could get additional

we could get additional uh solar panels on it. Um so he was very receptive to uh moving forward. Um Bill has here now and do you want to say anything to our other selection? Um just a couple of things um on the uh the site and since the RFP is being considered uh for next week. Will you be sending the RFP out to include that lower area as well that that should that should

so all all of that all of those elements would be incorporated into the RFP and then in addition uh as Rob mentioned we would follow all the procurement rules and requirements but to the extent possible our preference is to put as much into that RFP giving guidance so that those that are reviewing it before the sitewalk have a firm understanding of what the potential is and then we're more exchanging on the site and not necessarily collaborating. Okay.

And and in that process, it's really about giving the bidding community as much information as we can and that it's consistent information across all the biders. So, it's not they're not guessing and this if you higher quality that goes out means higher quality bids that come in. Right. I would just say in addition to that the hope and expectation is that the more information we can put out the more bitter community feels confident in what's possible and then in addition to that want to try and mitigate as much of the question and answer period as possible to keep that tight RFP timeline intact

and to your question that's one of the advantages as to why I think people are going to respond they're going to see a lot of that pre-work has been done. They aren't the ones that are going to have to go out and do a lot of that on their own dime and at risk. So, I think that's very important. Also, the interconnection. We hear about how difficult it is to get uh projects connected to the Eversource grid. Uh we believe that the connection right there on the road is going the interconnection is going to be available. So, all of those argue for um there's going to be a very um I think I hope a very robust response. Um Martha, I'm not sure what conversations you've had with your um uh fellow members here, but the two legal uh requirements here that we're we're contemplating, I don't know whether it's worth a couple of minutes just to describe what those are.

Okay. So there's going to be two comments and Rob, please tell me when I'm wrong. One is going to be a power purchase agreement that basically says that we are going to is the town line town of the line uh uh take advantage of this virtual net metering, but we're also going to commit to buying the energy that's coming out of the uh of the solar field, which I think we're going to want to be, but it will be a binding agreement. The second is that the site lease there will be a legal agreement between the town and the owner of the um of the solar field that allows them 15 to 20 years. I said 15 years 20 I think

20 20 I didn't know whether the town had a 15-year li limit but that will um uh require the um the child to uh enter into that site lease with the um uh with the developer owner and Alan can you explain to John and Jim what happens at the end of 20 years um when the site leases

cover the option agreement as a first Yeah. Um, no. And and so you're you're spot on. What we've found is effective, particularly at this early stage of the development when you don't know if there's interconnection, you don't know if they've received that state incentive. We usually do an option agreement that just says that you're you found a developer, you're collaborating together, and that's a sufficient enough legal document, a legal contract in the eyes of the federal tax incentives that you have someone engaged. you're going through the development process together on this option agreement and then those other documents can follow later. But that's a a streamlined way to and again in our you know tighter timelines to just make sure you've now found a the equivalent of a dance partner to go through the solar development process together. Um Allan can talk about this. Um, one one of the other things that is actually a benefit to you and I'll I'll let Alan finish with what happens at the end, but during the um solar array arrays lifetime, you don't own it, which means you don't have to operate or maintain it. It is on the um developers to make sure that it is running. They are monitoring it 247. It is in their best interest because it is only paying off the cost of building it when it is generating power. So they want it to be generating as much power as often as it can. So they will do that maintenance, monitoring and correction of anything that goes wrong and the routine maintenance and sort of annual maintenance. And then the end

I can steal your thunder if you want, but go ahead. The end it's theirs to decommission and that also gets built into all of those long-term contracts that it's on them at the end of the the lifetime. Um that is their equipment they have to remove. had returned basically the landfill back to the prior condition um minus um you know with reasonable wear and tear. Will you uh anticipate that there would be a purchase option at that point for the town or is that not something that you see included?

Um it depends and there are sometimes either the options to extend beyond the 20 years. It's a little bit of, you know, in 20 years, I think we'll we'll make sure the town has all of the potential options at their disposal. Um because in 20 years, we're not sure what that next thing might be that might actually replace it or they might um repower it with something else. Exactly. Good. The technical. And is there is there a a possibility that the company would no longer be in business after 20 years and then now we're stuck with decommissioning something or

Yeah, I would say that's always a potential but these are always financed and typically from a contract perspective if that happens it is transferred say to a bank of America and then Bank of America then transfers it to whoever would own it at that point. So it's not abnormal but Somebody would own someone. Okay. Yeah. Because it is a a revenue generating asset through the entire 20 years. So, um the those who loan the money up front will have that right to take over in the event of a a loss of the primary income.

I would say it's also part of our vetting as well is to make sure that the financial wherewithal is there as along with that long-term funding. Just being a complete layman on this just understand the technical aspect of it. Uh this is going to connect directly into Eversourc's grid and or there will be could there be a micro grid for old line considering that we are going to have contract of purchase. So this project as we're discussing would reside at the landfill will be directly plugged into the Eversource circuit and as a result of that in lie of offsetting any on-site usage it's technically considered a front of meter installation meaning it will go directly to the grid and then electronically there will be benefits tied back to old lime's accounts but from a micro grid or battery standpoint. Um, this type of project doesn't pair with batteries.

So, we're not seeing a storage aspect to this at all. Not in this scenario. In other scenarios, it's absolutely a potential, but for this one in particular, it would not. I mean, it helps with safety. We have had the absolutely the battery storage discussion in the past. Of course. Yeah, we're happy to. We have that conversation often.

Yeah. Yeah. No, and those are I we know that this one is coming at you with this very tight timeline, but there are is a um an update to the state's battery storage incentive program that just came out in April. So, it's it's a a version 2.0 of the previous program. That's something we're happy to again in that we are your strategic clean energy advisors if we're engaged going forward. Those are the types of things that um we routinely with our towns figure the right sort of cadence of meetings. Um whether they're um one town wants them monthly, monthly, quarterly, you know, depending on what you would like. Those are the types of things that we're happy to as you're thinking about battery storage, electric vehicle chargers, you know, other potential for solar in different parts of your facilities, we're there to to help give you that, you know, expertise in the marketplace.

We'll certainly take it on a case by case basis, but let's not let's do one. I think we I think we all agreed to avoid battery storage on that site in the previous meeting. Yeah. I mean, the fact is front of grid, I think, is you know, connected directly into Eversource is a positive for us. Right. Because I mean part of I think part of what spurred this is um the the the future requirements of of electric buses and the bus barn being next door. So the the what the setup that you're describing is we the solar field would be right to the grid and then the town being bus owner would potentially get meter benefits.

Should we have to go to electric? to go electric buses up bar. Sure. And and those will literally be virtually credited even directly to that account. You can direct at that future account and over the 20 years you can actually pick which accounts are getting the the benefit. And if you have that new big bus charging load coming on, we have others who the towns who created a new um community recreation center and thought, well, that's a lot of electric load, you know. So again, that's a pool and that's and and that's one of the things that you're going to a parking lot. You mentioned parking lot solar where you're going basically in New London.

And they just won they won that state program incentive carve out today. Just today. Great. New London. Which I guess we Oh yeah. Yeah. We should talk about that a little bit. uh so that everyone understands, you know, we're going to go for an RFP, hopefully find someone that offers a deal that we want. Um and then that has to get submitted to the state and we really don't have a project until we get picked by the state. So please, I'm not sure everyone's

aware of that nuance. So the ENRES program is uh nonresidential renewable energy solutions because it's an acronym for everything in clean energy.

So the ENRES program uh is basically managed by PUR the public utility regulatory authority. Then they then they hand it down to UI and Eversource to administer and and maintain and manage. The Enres program typically has two auction windows where projects can be submitted into it. One in the spring and one in the summer. The one in the spring was it started in March, ended in midappril and the awards went out today which is why we just mentioned in London. This year on account of that one big beautiful bill acceleration the program the second uh summer program window moved up. So everything was moved into the spring auction. However, we heard today that there may be available capacity that opens up in the summer. So, to Bill's point, the way that this would work is go out to bid, pick an awardee. The awardee safe harbors the project that's done before July heading into August. If that NRA auction opens, then that awardee would submit into that auction. They then submit on behalf of the landfill project around midepptember. We would hear back if the project wins. Then we have an awardee, they have a safe harbor, they have the NRES state incentive award, we have a project, then it goes through engineering, procurement of materials, construction of project, commissioning of project to give you a relative timeline. All in all, after that NRA is awarded, let's call it September, it would be late next year at the absolute earliest that that project would be online and available

and sending benefits to Alan. If the project or the program doesn't open in the summer, then it will reopen in the spring next year and that's when the awardee would submit in and hopefully fingers crossed, knock on wood, they would win and then in April time frame that project would kick off. So, how long do you anticipate for construction time?

Construction isn't the longest pole in the tent. It's really interconnection and getting it submitted to the utility company and the utility company providing feedback. That's typically several months. I wouldn't even want to say here what it is, but it's typically I would say a minimum three four months for that process and then in addition having deep approved,

right? So the the fact that it's on a former landfill is terrific for all of the benefits from financial, you know, in it gets preferential treatment both at the state and federal level, but it means you have to go through the Connecticut deep um postclosure permitting process. So they just have but thankfully they've been doing a lot of these um so they have it. this is not going to be a surprise to them that this um and the the types of technology used for solar and landfill are pretty much standardized now. So, but um I know that they're they've lost a staff member there. Um they're just currently trying to rehire right now. Um I have a student who is applying to that job. Um so that could be that one which will can operate in parallel path obviously but that could also be a number of months for that process. This is likely smaller than sighting council.

Oh yeah. Yeah. So we're below the threshold of requiring that can get sighting council approval. So it' be local which also takes yeah a series of but you'll have to go through your local permitting process um your um inland wetlands you're probably need a planning and zoning planning zoning and 824 so because we're the financial stewards of the town along with the board of finance your letters of engagement don't really mention any financial costs but what happens if we get no bids where are we and what would we what would be our financial obligations to both of you. None. We try. Yeah.

Okay. I love those types of agreements. There's there's no anticipated upfront cost by the town to uh out to bid or and is there kind of a rule of thumb for potential revenue based on the size of the uh the scale of project or is that too volatile at this point? too volatile at this point only because the bids really what happens is the bids that go in are codependent on the bids that were just awarded and since they were just awarded today we really don't have a level understanding of what's in and what's not. So I would say at the moment I I wouldn't want to

and and that's only one level of uncertainty around the that sort of state incentive bid price that is likely going to be a winner. There's then all the other uncertainties around supply chains and the the solar market at the moment which is why we go out to competitive procurement and and get the marketplace to to put numbers down on paper and actually right present it to you and hold them accountable to it. Bill, this all sounds really good. Do you do you have any things that we should be looking out for? Seems to benefit right now for a site that we're not really doing anything with. So,

yeah, I mean the the the site is um uh it's not going to be used for anything else. So, it's a perfect site for solar. You have the interconnection there. um you have the ability here to get a lot of the work done at no cost at no risk to the town. So um I uh I I strongly advocate for uh for for moving forward. One thing that wasn't mentioned was the contracting period, that site lease, the PPA. That is going to happen in parallel or, you know, um it's going to depend. I mean, if we uh um uh depends where we are in terms of all these all these dates, but Rob, how long typically does it take to hammer out the PPA and the site lease?

Three, four weeks. Yeah, three or four weeks is probably a good estimate and it's really until they know that they've been awarded that incentive from the NRES the Eversource program. They don't really have a project because that is really the core one of the core funding mechanisms for building it. And at that point, if they get that award, the option agreement, which will have some in embedded in the option agreement, we usually put in likely sort of future terms for that long-term agreement. That then is the point in time where we move from option agreement to long-term contract.

Now just add in addition to the technical and site parameters that are included in the RFP, we also include contracts. So a draft at least of the of the option agreement, we invite them to submit their standard PPA lease agreements that they use. So we get a a sense of of where what types of terms and conditions and that's part of our evaluation of their overall RFP package. It's the technical and financial side. It's also do they have any objection? We actually tell them they can't object but do they our option agreement and then give us your proposed standard um PPA and it's so we get to take a look at that

in the process. Here's what I would see as the risk long term, and I think it's truly minimal. Um, what we're going to most likely get back is a rate that we will have to pay for the power that's generated at the solar field. Um, it typically Yeah, I'm sorry.

Yeah, the one I'm apologies to. So, the way that it it works is less of a power purchase agreement. Meaning, if you think of a power purchase agreement as if it were on this roof, you're buying the electricity that is generated from the project and offsetting your on-site meter. In the virtual net metering scenario, we keep talking about the NRZ. Technically what you're doing is splitting or technically the developer is splitting that revenue with you. So you're not necessarily buying but you're sharing in the revenue. So said another way, if the revenue stream from that incentive is a dollar and you're picking someone who offers to share 10% of that dollar or 10 cents, then 10 cents of that dollar is going to be electronically allocated to your accounts or paid to you via AC from Eversource. So you're not it will be a cash payment. Yeah.

As opposed to correct. So it's more of a revenue share and less of a firm agreement on and and and that's that's great. So um is that going to escalate with time? Typically does not.

It does not. Okay. So um you know we're going to be getting 10 cents after doing all of this. And um that that sounds pretty good right now, but if prices electric prices go down um the risk is minimal, but um we'll still get that 10 cents, right? For as long as the as the program is there. So um there's really no pricing risk to the price of electricity then that has been removed. Yeah. So that that is um is not going to be a risk. I was not aware that that's the way the transaction will take place

because when when you get, you know, someone coming out and giving you the residential solar uh uh spiel, um it's you're you're assuming prices are going to go up like they're saying they're going to go up. And if they don't, you've got the risk. That risk is not here. I didn't realize that. Yeah,

thanks for the explanation. The the oversimplified way to view this is there are two net positives for old lime in considering this project. One is you have a closed landfill which is a coveted asset for the sake of this program both at the state and federal level. In addition, you have a utility account profile that a developer can't develop a project without your involvement. So the oversimplified way to think of this is you're essentially leasing your utility account usage profile to a developer to qualify and quantify their project on your landfill. And the question is which bonafide developers will bid and which bonafide developer has the best offer but can actually achieve the project and create a net benefit for old line. That's the way to to to really view this opportunity

and it would be sight specific. Any contract that we would sign with that developer would be specific to that site and not account.

There are different ways there are different flavors. When we mentioned New London earlier, they have they are part of a virtual net metering project. We all know where New London is. The project is located in Winchester, Connecticut, nowhere near New London. But because of this virtual net metering capability, that project is there and tied to them, they are also participating in a virtual net metering project that is at their Bateswoods landfill behind New London High School. Same concept, all tied again to New London utility accounts, but that one is within the confines of New London. So, same premise could be in totally different locations.

So, all great questions. Oh, no. Terrific. Yeah, please feel free. So, um, we, um, have the two agreements. I know that neither one of you have had time to read them. I've digested them slightly. Um, but I'm happy to send them to you both tonight and then would ask that if we could have a special meeting some night, this, some afternoon, whatever time works for both of you. But Jim, you can join us um, remotely um to get approval. And if you see any questions, if you could get them back to me within 24 hours and then I can send them out remotely and have you CCed on it so that your questions are answered. Would that work for both of you?

Sounds good. And then we should have answers for you by Wednesday, Thursday at the latest. Great. Sounds good. Yes. Okay. Great. All right. Thank you so much for coming. Thank you. Rob, can I just ask one more question? Sure. Um, you mentioned I mean I know you have that legal background as well, but can you tell me if um New London also involved their town lawyers? Um, yes. Yes. Yes. Okay. Yeah. Oh, and you should, it's written in there. You should feel free to share that town attorneys. Yes. Yeah, I will as well. And I'm happy to work with them if they have language that they would specifically.

Okay. Terrific. And I'll put a rush on that one as well because that sometimes thank you. Pleasure to meet you. Yeah. Thank you all for coming. Appreciate it. Okay. Now we're moving on to new business. Warning. No, Cheryl. Cheryl. Cheryl. Sorry. Sorry. I jumped too quickly. Cheryl, I'm so sorry. Cheryl is here to share with us the updates from the America 250 committee to let us know what we're going to be doing to celebrate this season.

We will be doing a lot. Thank you very much. Um the first thing I want to do is recognize the members of our committee and of our picnic planning team. So very quickly in alphabetical order on the America 250 committee we have Kathy Deo, Jim Lampost, Alli Lang at the library, Christine McGregor, Michaela Pearson, myself and Mark Turilliger. On the picnic planning team we have Susan Ericson, Karen Gistler, Tim Griswald, Don McCarthy, myself and Barbara Rosansky. And then we're also supported by a lot of organizations in town who have gotten very involved. the historical society, the library, museum, arts organization, senior center, even the cemetery association is involved. So, uh it's been a very uh uplifting experience having so many organizations come together with our citizens. So, we are approaching this in three ways. the uh sharing inclusive stories, leading or participating in commemorative events, and engaging the public in celebrating the 250. So, in terms of uh actually I'm going to give you these handouts. This is just a print out from the website. This is the page called calendar of events. Thank you, John. So, um, and I'm not following this, but this is your when you turn the page, you'll see all of our different activities and events that are going on, and that can be found on explore oldline.com. America 250 events. Um, so the first thing we're doing is telling um sharing inclusive stories and engaging the public in learning about key figures and events in Old Lime's

history. We're doing that with the website. Um, we are getting a lot of visitors to explore Old Line, specifically those America 250 pages. I just was looking up the analytics this month. We had 400 over 400 unique visitors to those America 250 pages. So, that's pretty good. Um, we have blog posts on there and uh, hot off the presses this afternoon, I posted a um, a blog article written by Mr. Lampost on Washington's visit to Old Lime, who did he visit? Did he dance the minuette with anyone? You'll have to read the article to find out. Um, I shared that on the town's Facebook page right before this meeting. Already 22 people have looked at that blog post. So, we're getting lots of good engagement with the public. Uh, organizations are having lectures, walking tours. The museum and other arts organizations are having exhibitions related to the semi-quincentennial. So it may feel quiet but there is a lot in the works and a lot going on. The second area is leading or participating in commemorative events honoring the birth of our nation as well as those who sacrificed for our democracy. So, we've um had a few events underway already, including the Charter Oak Descendant Planting um which uh took place just two weeks ago. I think we have a link to a pretty comprehensive article from Limeline on our website sharing photos of that event. There is a community quilt project right now where members of our

community are invited to uh create a square for a friendship quilt that will be pulled together all at once um in June and it will be displayed or unveiled at the July picnic that I'll be talking about. Um we have the things like the Duck River Memorial plaques which you you all have been working so much on. Um, there will be a commemorative booklet that will share everything that happened this year. Um, and that should be finished in time for the January town meeting. And at that time, we've talked about a time capsule. So, at that time, we will probably do the time capsule because we'll put the commemorative book in the time cap capsule hopefully at the town meeting. And then there will be some proclamations including one that's being drafted for Martha to consider for the 4th of July recommitting to the ideals of the declaration. Okay. The third area is engaging the public in celebrating the nation's semiquincential. And we're doing that with things we've always done like the Fourth of July parade at Sound View and the boat parade at Rogers Lake. Um, there's also national activities that we are promoting to our residents such as Fourth of July bell ringing, 2 p.m. ringing a bell 13 times for 13 colonies, a July 8th public reading of the Declaration in honor of the 250th anniversary of the first time the Declaration was read in public. And then along with the rest of the nation on July 5th, there's an America's potluck. We are having a townwide picnic. July

5th at Townwoods Park from 1 I I'm sorry from 12:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Uh residents are invited to bring their picnic makings. If people don't feel like packing a picnic, the Lions Club will be there with burgers and hot dogs and the usual. We're going to have music, live music by night shift. Um there will also be children's programming. Um a tablescape competition for those who want to go all out on their picnic display. Uh the food share garden will give tours um for about an hour during that time to show people what's going on with the food share garden. And I feel like there's one other part of that. Um I think that's it. But we are um making a point of involving our safety officials in the planning of this. We have our first safety meeting on Wednesday the 6th in the morning and that includes the emergency management director fire marshal, president, state trooper, um ambulance, several other people who will help coordinate and think about how that date is handled. We're hiring fire police to excuse me to handle traffic and parking. So that is going to alleviate some of the burden on the police department um on a Sunday uh in July. And um I've been talking to resident state trooper McGregor and he seems comfortable with the plan right now. And we'll talk more on Sat I mean on Wednesday morning. And I think that is it. Any questions?

Cheryl, I just need you to know that the safety meeting Jarrett is going to represent me because I have to be out of town. Okay. For an appointment. Um but he'll rep if you have anything specific for me if you'll let me know tomorrow. Okay. I can get back to you before then. Sounds good. Thank you. Um, I'm excited. Um, I know Jim's working on his squil square and I'm sure John's going to start tonight. So, we'll all We're working on a bipartisan together. Yes. Um, and I hope to have one ready for you by the 29th. That's my goal.

So, we gonna be the three of us as Mount Rushmore. Okay, we'll sew it. I'll try it. That can be the centerpiece. I'd like to publicly on the record thank because she's done an amazing job and a lot of leg work. Cheryl as always just along with her other the other work she does for the town but hurting the historical cats and also just with all the different organizations. It's a lot of coordination and uh you know we really owe her our debt of gratitude. Thank you. Your commitment to this town is amazing. Thank you.

We appreciate it that you don't winter anywhere else. Um okay. Okay. So, we'll get in touch and I'll be in touch with you tomorrow about you have any questions. Very good. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for being third under presentations. No problem.

All right. So, under new business, um the approval of the town warning, I forgot to bring you both copies. It's pretty simple. Basically, it says that we're moving to a town meeting um uh for May 18th, but I forgot to bring it with you. It's literally three lines and it's going in the newspaper. It is approved. But I'll tell you what, since we're having a special meeting this week and we can't do anything about the town meeting until the board the referendum tomorrow night, wait for or tomorrow for the school budget, we'll just put that on our special meeting agenda and I'll send you both a copy of it. Um, appointments. We have some appointments tonight to the flood and erosion control board. um Don Bugletta uh would like to move from an alternate to re regular 2 and I forwarded that to you um on Friday uh and she has the backing of the flood and erosion committee. So, could I have a motion to appoint Dawn to a regular position which would expire on um I wrote the one day 10. Of course, it's 28. It is. I didn't write it wrong. You got it right. Uh that regulatory position will expire on January 31st of 2028.

I'll make a motion to appoint Don Thugo to the flood and erosion full-time member. Full-time member flood and erosion committee. Second. Okay. Any further discussion? All those in favor? I I

Any opposed? Any abstensions? Motion passes. Thank you. Um the next one up is our road and public safety. Um John Flood had uh attended meetings uh for road and public safety. Um, Greg Ftoma is quite excited because John has a background in IT and he's willing to work to uh be the old line coordinator for all the data that comes off the speed signs. Um, which would be great. He'll work with the T2 school up at Yukon to be able to get that and read it off of the cloud that it's stored on. And that way he'll be provid providing monthly reports to the road and public safety committee. Um, so if we could name him to the regular six position. It's a lifetime with that committee because it's under the board of selectmen. Um, if I could have a motion to appoint John Flood to uh, road and public safety.

Make a motion to appoint John Flood for the road and safety committee. I'll second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor of appointing John Michael Flood to the road and public safety committee signify by saying I. I.

I. Any opposed? Any abstension? Motion passes. Also, Mr. Flood uh stayed on that night. There were two meetings back to back and um as you know, we've been looking for someone for our WPCA that would be from the other side of town. And um Mr. blood lives up on Saunders Hollow and he um is excited about joining the um WPCA. Um so I would like a motion to appoint him to a regular position. That position would be um expiring on January 31st of 2029. I have a motion for that. I'll make a motion to appoint John Flood to a regular position on the WPCA expiring January 31st, 2029.

Second. Okay. Any discussion? All hearing none. Call for a vote. All those in favor of appointing John Flood to the Water Pollution Control Authority, please signify by saying I. I. I.

Any opposed? Any extension? Motion passes. Okay. Okay. And the last one is Sarah Stall stall. And Sarah has asked to be put on. Why don't I have the application in front of me? It's right because it's on top. Um Sarah has asked to be put on for the conservation committee. George is here to make sure that we got get it through this meeting. Um she would be filling in for the regular six position. um which I'm sorry I don't have the expiration date but it is the regular six position for conservation. So if I could have a motion to appoint Sarah Saul SHL to uh the conservation commission.

I make a motion to appoint Sarah Saul to the conservation commission for the regular six seek and I have a second. Second. Okay. Any discussion hearing? None. Uh, all those in favor of uh appointing Sarah to the position on conservation signify by saying I. I.

I. Any opposed? Any abstension? Motion passes. You got another full-time member, George. Okay. Um, I am going to provide you both with the draft. Suzanne wrote this up. We are not going to consider it today was not I want you both to have time to read this. Um the top part is basically those uh pieces. I also emailed this to both of you I believe today but um I would like you to read it and go through it. Um I know that Suzanne has worked with um our legal team on this but I'm going to run this tag one more time just to make sure we didn't um forget to dot an eye or across the tea. Um and then we would consider this at our next meeting to please be um approved. That's okay with both of you.

And this goes to town meeting after us, right? Yes. This would have to go to town meeting. I mean, this has been presented and discussed and it seems to be the same packet. I mean, I'd be happy to move it forward. Okay. I like the fact that she cleaned up she cleaned it up a little bit just so that it was um easier to read because the last time it was kind of a lock in one place with her along with her explanations. I'm happy with it. Um and it's really up to the town voters. I mean because it goes to town meeting is an adoption of a new ordinance.

I'll make a motion to approve chapter 150 taxation revisions as presented by Suzanne Thompson. Second. Any further discussion? Do we do we just do we need to uh fill in some numbers here under 14? No. Look, we have a legal team that does that because they connect it to our ordinance book to make sure that follows. It's it's with the understanding that they'll fill in the the numbers. The numbers after it becomes codified. Yes. Okay. Afterwards. Great.

Right. If it becomes codified and Suzanne would be here at the town meeting to explain this. Okay. Any other discussion on that? All those call for a vote to approve the chapter 150 taxation ordinance revision and um new areas to be considered by the town voters signify by saying I I

I. Any opposed? Any abstension? Motion passes. Okay. Uh brief update on the blue and gold memorial markers. Um we had a meeting this morning with the historic district. Um Mary Ellen Bashion has worked so hard on this and so diligently. She made up the size of the stone that they had talked about at the U meeting and she came over with the Duck River Garden Club about a week ago. We went outside and we started placing them in various places. And then the original idea was to put them in the round garden, but really and truly to mount those on stones and put it in Why have a garden? We would just have stones and three signs in that round spot and we'd have some small plants around it. But the garden over here on okay

on that side of the building. But then we were standing there and then we came up with a brainstorm and we thought, what if they went and they became just the markers and went on the wings of the stones that are out here that are already here. So, we went over and I wish I had the I I'll send you the pictures because the historic district this morning did not come. They weren't favorable of it. Uh because uh it was a little bit uh they thought it was repetitive wording, although there's no repetitive wording in the two mark byway markers. Um and uh Mary Ellen is very patient and she said that she'd be more than happy to come back in two weeks and do a sitewalk with them to and even Ed Pin who sits on the historic district had used AI and had put the true byway markers on the stones um and Nick Folton is willing to come and help adhere them correctly to the stone. So there's all this cooperation plus we had Dick Mason the BFW gave their full-fledged backing that they love the idea that it would be perfect on those two wings of the design. They also um the American Legion also gave their full backing. So everyone's on board um except for the historic district who wants to do a sidewalk. one of the things on their mind and Jim or John if anyone knows the original intentions of why there were those two wing walls to either side of where the monument the center of the monument sits. Um if anyone knows any historical background on why it was designed that way um they

thought it might be that it was to be more of a solemn revered space and that's why they didn't want it so busy. We feel that the byway markers would be a nice addition and add something to that space. The um other item on it is if you look straight out that window, you'll notice that the um on the flag pole there is a brown board with it a brass plaque noting that the American Legion um provided the flag roll to the town. Um, the brass plaque is t tarnished. The board is brown and splintery. And I said that we would like to update it for America 250. Um, I have to fill out a letter of replacement for the historic district. So, Eric and I will fill that out and we'll have the same size board and uh we're going to take the plaque off and have it polished and then we'll read it in the exact same space just to give you an update of how we're trying to make this town look special for July 4th. And um

so we're basically just replacing the wood and we need approval for that. Yes, one for one. It's a one for one replacement. I won't change the dimensions. I told them I will change the color. It will not be a brown piece of splintery wood. It will probably most likely be white to match the flag pole. And Eric Olsson thinks that he might figure out if we can do some sanding and painting on the flag pole. I did ask them if they needed I needed their permission for that, but they said no. We could paint it if we wanted to flag because as you can see there's a lot of rust. Do we need to get approval of of what shade of white we're going to paint it? No, I I did ask that about when I went

because there's a lot of different shapes. Mhm. I know. I did ask that to the historic district when I was painting the town hall a few years ago. They said no. There were no there's nothing in their guidelines.

Okay. I do feel that it's a little overreaching on their part. I think that this is um the memorial town hall. I think that those byway markers are a wonderful addition to our town and that the Ducker Garden Club um is wonderful to take care of the garden over there. They're also going to take care of the planters here. However, both all three planters were also discussed as that they looked like clutter when they're next to the monuments. I said that they would be when we don't use one or three of them, they very nicely put them behind, but during different seasons, they decorate it in diffs.

So, just to backtrack, the the you don't want to put them over here over by the tree. I'm I'm just trying to get them on the property. I think that was thoroughly rejected by the historic district. We don't want signs on Blime Street. So, we thought that this was a great, you know, we had five women out here and we all thought this is a perfect place for them. This is where they belong. Um but it was not met with the same

um related topic. Uh, have we had any discussions on adding Revolutionary War veterans to uh the honor world here at Town Hall? The ones that were sent to us last year, Mr. Kelsey? Yeah.

Um, I haven't looked into it, but I can get pricing and then we'll have to get approval because I'm sure it's going to Are you thinking more along the lines of a brass plaque? something that matches, you know, uh, in the vicinity there just to bring it up to. I mean, I think we're we're a good Civil War um, but we're we don't have any commemoration in town for uh, Revolutionary War through 1812. I don't I don't think there were any 1812 casualties. But in any case, you know, that period of time. So David Kelsey had um an intern who did a lab work research and he provided it to us last year so that we could um so I can what I could do is

pension roles or pardon pension roles from the revolution. I don't know 40 cheese for there's a few different databases.

And so what we'll do is I'll take a couple of pictures of the things that we have and then I'll get some pricing from um some of the signage well and see where it will be. Okay. Uh I think I forgot ordinance chapter 101. I think I got confused with the tax ordinances. So, you'll have to forgive me. I'll move it to the next one. It's not a good um Oh, it's with Vicki and Katie's changes. If either of you have any change, you both received those and um as you can tell, there's a lot of changes that we'll have to make. So, I think that I'm just going to make the draft and I'll do it. And I'm sorry I didn't have time last week. We had some craziness happening here at town hall and it's taking up more of my time than I needed to. So, anything else? I know we didn't put select general discussion on here. We can certainly amend the agenda and add it if either one of you would like to do so.

I'm also done. No, I just uh on the market we kind of went a little astray on the revolutionary war, but that would be a great addition for the the 250 to get that included. Okay. Okay. Okay. We need a motion to adjurnn. Make a motion to adjurnn. I'll second at 64 and6.