Board of Selectmen - Regular Meeting

All right, good evening everyone. Thank you for coming out on a nice cool evening. And for those of you who are online, thank we hope you're warm and toasty in your homes. Uh we are starting the regular board of selectmen meeting on December 15, 2025 at 5:30 uh p.m. Uh in attendance, we have selectman Jim Lampos, we have selectman John Misham, and we have first select woman Martha Shoemaker. We have three people in the audience and we have our clerk uh information items, communications and correspondences. Um, the only thing that basically has been forformational purposes is there's a lot of people that have been through town hall with questions about the referendum tomorrow and basically we provide them with the information packets and try to answer any questions to the best of our ability and tell them constantly we are not a lawyer. So anyway, that's where we are on that. Does anyone else have any information? item. Oh, and we did receive word today that Walgreens will be closing its doors officially on January 27th, which was is 3 months sooner than what I was told two months ago. So, um, something must have happened uh that made them realize that they had to leave earlier than whatever.

Anything, John? No, I received everything uh that you received with uh the exception of Roger Zto from Old Lime Shores who um brought back to my attention the archaeological finds that they had had at Old Lime Shores and to be aware of it as we proceed if we proceed through this project, this sewer project. Okay. I was told a week or two ago that uh they did find out that when they um did the archaeology study for the bridge project for the state that they did find some uh artifacts. Um

I have that report. They found substantial artifacts uh Native American and colonial um substantial at that site. So and then where did they send all that those artifacts? Where did they end up? I don't know. Typically, it's Yukon, but that's where it has been. Um, but I don't know exactly where they went. Okay. All right. Is there any public comment besides those people who are presenting? Anyone online? Anyone in the audience? Martha, I've got a letter from Walgreens this afternoon. Yes, we all did. All All prescribers of Walgreens and old line are being referred to blenders automatically. Okay,

that's all the files are going through. All right. Is there anyone online who has public comment? Paula, would you like to say something?

Yes, I would. Martha, um I'm still concerned about the um voting for the at the referendum because my friends in Florida immediately had sent their um forms in to receive absentee ballots and they paid $12 to expedite the mailing. So, they just received this morning their ballots. So they were very concerned. They went to the post office in Florida, paid $78 to expedite the mailing of their two votes. Um hopefully they'll get there tomorrow. They're supposed to get there by 3:00 tomorrow in order to participate in the voting. So, I hope um you know the town clerk checks the mail and they arrive and their vote is cast.

But thank you. In a concerning situation as you know want to do their civic duty in voting and it's just been very difficult. They were here for five months and um you know there wasn't any voting at that time as you know it had to be postponed until now but this is still not the best time for people who are away from old line. Thank you. Okay. Thank you.

Anyone else online that would like to uh share any public comment? Okay. Hearing none, I will say that any voter whether landowner or um registered voter always has the opportunity a the absentee ballot form is online. You can also always, if you're traveling, take one with you because they are readily available in the town clerk's office to pick up the application so that you always have it with you should you be um away um if something happens in town uh whether it's Italy, Florida, Denver, whatever. But you do have it. And I the US Postal Service we cannot do much with that. That's one thing that's out of our control as the board of selectment. We cannot hurry them along.

It's it's uh it's always a concern, but this season is already uh we're already into the heavy rush season. So, uh with with the holidays and greeting cards and people ordering things, I'm sure that that's part of uh filling up the system.

Yep. But expedite should be or priority mail should be moving at priority mail speeds. Okay. So, next up is the approval of minutes. Uh we have special board of selectment minutes which Jamie you were um invited to it. Oh, John, you were invited to sorry these J's J and J we need J1 J2. All right. So, um this special board of selectment meeting on November 17th, you are invited to attend. Yes. um to give you an update, but you can't vote on the minutes. Jim, have you had a chance to look at those?

Okay. So, it's pretty basic. It was a special meeting um for legal session. Um so, can you provide me with them? I'll make a motion to approve the meeting, the minutes of the special meeting November 17. I will second. Um I think there's no further discussion. All right. Hearing none, we'll call for a vote. All those in favor? I I and no opposed. I'm going to abstain.

Thank you very much. Okay, moving on to our board of uh selectment minutes, which Jen did so nicely to get those to us this morning. They are now posted. Um and I hope that you both have had a chance to read them. Do you have any comments or concerns? I have not. Jim. Okay. Uh, I'll call for a motion. I'll make a motion to accept the minute meetings for December 8th, 2025. Thank you. I have a second. I'll second. Okay. No further discussion. I'll call for a vote. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I.

Any opposed? Any abstensions? Motion passes. Thank you both. All right. Next up is our presentation from our conservation commission. That's you and Brandy and Gary. You're all welcome to come to the table and chat with us. You got because then you'll hear that we'll be able to pick you up on these mics. You got Matt's email. I did. I did.

I caution you that I have a hearing discrimination issue. So even though I'm this close, I can hear what I can hear you talking. But if you don't speak up or you got a lot of pitched voice, I would only hear about 50% of it. So if I look at you kind of strange like what did you say? That's the reason. Okay. That's the only unreparable thing on my body.

Got it. So, um, George came to see me a few weeks ago and said he had done a great deal of homework and had looked at, uh, the conservation committee's, uh, mission statement, uh, compared it to some other, uh, updates within the state and said we needed to make some changes. So, George has done so. Um, and this is the draft. That's correct. So, what would you like us did you want to mention any of the things that you specifically called out?

There is not a major drastic change from what was written oh so long ago. It was a bit casual, a bit unspecific and not all-encompassing. Plus, it did not reflect everything that we've been doing. I'd like to point out that the Connecticut State Statute for Conservation was written for municipalities in the state of Connecticut that may not have open space, wetlands, or land trust, all three of which we have. Erggo, on attachment two to the document that I submitted to the board of selection, you will see the exemptions and the justifications for it. And that's basically all I have to say. It it will read a little more formal than most others, but um since it's an occupation, I used to do this for a living. I like to have things a little tighter and a little more specific. And I think that this mission statement reads relative well and it's 100% accurate in terms of what we're doing. So, we're asking that you review it, run it through your your legal if you have to, and accept it as written, please. And thank you.

Okay. I have I have a copy of the original state statute for comparison and the original mission statement that we started with. Um and shorter

much much shorter. So there is um while uh the original is shorter um it's um written to match the state statutes and says very similar items with um just a select few bullet points that um don't change a relationship with any commission uh but just explains in further detail our um the things we can endeavor to uh inquire about or look into or help with.

In fact, you will find that it is a lot more specific towards other conservation related commissions which was not specific in in the one that exists at the present time. Um, I got a an email from one of the commissions who was concerned that we hadn't been specifically documenting them as part of the work that we do. And I reassured them that as far as the wetlands goes, as far as the planning commission goes, uh as far as um land trust and open space, it is specifically mentioned in here such that that you can see that we are a coordinating commission as well as an educational one. Mhm. So my only thought my thought process takes me to the fact that I think I know that one commission weighed in but I would like the others to to weigh in as well. I know that you had made some you touched base with some people, right? But I would just like their um consent, not a consensus so much, but to have them read it and acknowledge that they have read it. So I believe you still would need um some type of communication from inland to wetlands and planning. Those are the two that I know of that I haven't seen any back and forth. I know you've had some communication with open space, but I'm not saying that they get a say in changing any of this, but I do would like them to be aware that this is happening. And if that would be the case, if we could get this out to them, then we could possibly approve it in January. But I would just like to make

them aware. I don't want anyone to think we did this without their knowledge. It was obvious from the one organization that they were concerned that We were keeping this a secret. And if you go back through our minutes of of our regular meetings, you will see that the progress that was was done was was documented every month from what April, May. I actually believe that he said he noted it in your minutes that he knew that it was he was concerned he didn't know what the specifics were.

Right. Do other commissions when they change their um mission statements, do they do they all bring it to the table for all the commissions to review? Well, that's a good question because you're the first ones that have come to us in the two years. It's a good idea. I think

I think it is a good idea. I do know that it's interesting because there are some boards and commissions that have a mission statement that's actually in our ordinance. There are others that do not. I do not think you have a mission statement within the ordinance. Um, so that's another thing that I would like to, you know, we last year we did uh four ordinances. We brought them up to date because they were not up to date. I appreciate the fact that you went to look at your mission statement and compared it to the new um CGS. That was one of your renov urgent requests on March 28th at your all commissions meeting.

Um, and George took it to heart. I have looked at some of the other conservation related mission statements and privately I will say that there's couple of them that need the same type of update and doing the same requirements traceability that we did because there's some shortcomings in there and some things that this is going to bring out and especially attachment two. Yes. Which is the exceptions in the state statute.

Do you need email documentation or a signed letter from them saying that they reviewed it and approved it? I think it would just be nice if I I'm assuming we're going to let George be the communicator here, but if you would just send it and CC me on that, you know, we would just like you to know that we've done this. I would just I would take the same document that I presented to you and I will send it to wetlands planning uh open space and land trust.

Okay. and just say we want to just make you aware and should you have any questions please respond all they if they have questions we're not asking them to edit revise but if they have any questions for you I think it's the polite thing to do that we respond to them I agree okay I can do that for you I appreciate it very much so um so we are good so we'll put we'll put you on the agenda for January a January meeting. Okay. Okay. And I'll let you know which one. Yes, ma'am. Got it.

Along the lines we're talking about, the wetlands statues are changing the first of January. Okay. So, I know that we'll have a new chair for planning. I'm not sure who that will be yet, but um you could send it, George. You could probably send it to all the committee members if you want. and Katie can certainly help you with addresses if you I will send if it's okay with you. I'll send it to their email addresses that are on the website. Yeah, I don't think that they have uh personal email addresses on the website,

but like in the case of wetlands, I've got I've got Mike's email address, so I can send it to the wetlands um website as well. Well, if you just send it to the wetlands technician, she can send it to the entire commission. Okay. Eric, Eric Knap can send it to the whole commission. So, if you want to forward it to Eric and ask him for um for that information, that would be great. I can do that. Okay.

So, I I I commend you for being uh forward thinking. I think you're right. I think some other uh reviews are in order. I I I've been thinking about uh inland wetlands for a while that were uh were overdue probably for a review. But uh when you first sat down, you said you wanted the board of selectmen to run this through legal. So my question to you is does the conservation commission have their own line item for legal?

Yeah. The only reason I said that was because when I mentioned this to Martha back in the few months ago, she had told me at that time that she had a a legal helper that was going to be for the town and that she would run she would would run it through them. That's the only reason I made that statement. Those are intern policy intern but policy intern doesn't have as much experience on writing a mission statement. But we usually if we're going to do something where it's going to be published and it's going to have legal documentation like this does, we usually do run it through legal briefly. It's cost us about $150 and there are many commissions that don't have it, but land use does and he Okay. Um and

I'm just wondering where that's where that's coming from. It's just to make sure that we've dotted every eye and crossed every cheek. Um, unfortunately the state of Connecticut does not have an auditor office that audits um, municipalities on things like this, which I think is unfortunate because when I was looking at various municipalities um, equivalent mission statements, there was a lot of a lot of towns that got erroneous data that's in there or it's outdated. And you know, I'm not the one to go tell them, but

that's okay. We could probably hire you out for the other commissions, George, so that you could do the work for them. I could do that. I think that would be good. I could do that. All right. So, I will put you on move you to January and um it will be a simple vote. It won't be a presentation, but and we'll talk between now and then, I'm sure. And in the meantime, I will send these out to the planning, open space, uh, land trust, wetlands, and zoning. Thank you. I appreciate your due diligence. You're welcome. Thank you both all of you for coming tonight. Thank you. All right. Merry Christmas to all. Merry Christmas.

Thank you. You, too.

Um, this did not get I don't think I forwarded this to you, but this is from Vicki. Um so every year Vicki has to or she has to appoint subregistars. This is for um cremation, burial and death certificates. Should something happen and she's not here. these people have the right to um not file them but take the applications and and do the initial paperwork. So if Vicki was not so she would like to appoint these people um and she's just running this by us. Uh this will get included in the minutes just so that everyone can see. Um, so does anyone have any questions? If not, I would love to have a motion to approve this for Vicki.

I'll make a motion to approve the appointment of subregistars by the town clerk. Second. Any other questions? Hearing none, I'll call for a vote. All those in favor of allowing uh our town clerk vigoritz to make her appointment of subber registars please signify by saying I I I any opposed any extensions hearing none motion passes the I think I sent this to did I on Friday Michelle sent it to me Friday.

All right this is a list of uh the schedule for meetings. Um, basically you'll notice that we are usually being held [clears throat] on Mondays at 5:30. The problem lies when we have a Monday holiday. It seems like our meetings always come out that week. So there are some months that are a little different um such as July, January, February um etc. and I think June too because no that June one we got through. So these are the meetings that we would like to approve uh for our schedule so that they can get these up on the website. If of course at any point in time either of you have a scheduling conflict, we can always cancel and we can do a special meeting to be scheduled as needed. Make a motion to approve the schedule of meetings as proposed for 2026.

I'll second. Any further discussion? Do we have a schedule for the special budget meetings of January? That's the next thing on the agenda for us to decide. Okay. Um to work through. Okay. So, hearing no other comments on this particular document, I'd like to call for a vote. All those in favor of approving our schedule of meetings for 2026, please signify by saying I. I. I.

Any opposed? Any abstension? Motion passes. Okay. So, special meeting dates. I did not uh print them. Uh they've normally been on Mondays because it works well for select lampost. Um we usually meet for a number of hours. Anita and I have started our preliminary budget meetings today. with departments um from the town hall departments and public works and police. Um we will not meet preliminarily with um fire department because they work during the day. So we usually call them in for a special meeting uh during the at night one evening because of our volunteers and sometimes all that also works for the ambulance association. So um if you look at our calendar um we have three Mondays in January where we can meet. We do invite the board of finance into um sit in um because we changed the process and we did away with um what they called specialist because some specialists were taking their job seriously and others were just saying everything okay and the budget came through. So we felt that there should be a little bit more of a review of it. I have asked that all departments keep things as tight as possible this year because we know that the debt service from the school system will be affecting our budget during this particular year. So we have the 6th, the 13th, and the 27th that are available to us. Um,

so they're all going to be on Tuesday. I'm Janu I'm in the wrong January. I'm sorry. I don't know why it flipped back. Okay. January of 26. So, sorry, the 5th, the 12th, and the 26th. So, the fifth is a regular border selement meeting. Would that be before or after or this would be before? Usually, we have to try to do it during town hall hours. Okay. So, Jim, I would ask what your best timing is as far as starting um

on Mondays. Um, well, I understand that you would want to start as early as possible and since I usually get home very late because Sunday night is my last work day and I have to do all the reconciliations and we want you to get etc. etc. I do come home very very early in the morning. Um, so I would be open to whatever I will make whatever meeting is necessary, but 12 12:30 that's plenty of time for me. That'd be fantastic if you can do it at 12. Okay, let's let's aim for 12:30 because a lot of departments will have problems with lunch schedules anyways. So you said 512 and

26 26. Yep. And we would start at 12:30. We will schedule them. Some um departments only have five or six lines

which is very simply to go through. We can move through very quickly as long as there are not um a slew of questions. We're trying to build that 5 to 10 year plan to for capital and that'll come into play with a few departments but mostly facilities um and police fire department where the we're buying the bigger projects. Those are going to be the ones that are really going to develop that fiveyear plan. It's a 10-year plan. But every once in a while there's a department that has something that need they need something and um we have to put that into play as well. So um I will schedule those meetings for the 5th, the 12th and the 26th. Anita and I'll finish up the preliminary budget schedule this week and then I'll put it out next week sometime. I'll put out these special meetings as to um when they'll be just to also make sure that no one's on vacation those week. I don't want to call for someone who might a department head who might be on a vacation week. So, let's check the ski schedules. Everybody good?

Good.

All right. So, we don't really have to vote on that. We'll just move that through. Um and then I the last item of business is to approve to sign the community connectivity grant for the Halls Road sidewalks. I just have to let them know by the 18th that we are accepting the $800,000 grant. Um and uh there's nothing that I have to sign. I just need to email um them and let them know that we are taking it. But I do want your approval. I will also tell you that I'm putting together a presentation about Hall's Road and where we stand financially with uh the walking bridge, the fishing pier, etc. Um, and what's left in those accounts and we're going to have to have some serious discussions in January as to where we go with those things because those have been sort of motionless since uh the sprint. Well, early summer except for one expense where we did a we had done a spring flora uh evaluation of the river and to do anything near the river you have to have the spring and the fall and if they're not done in the same year then you have to start all over again. So, I did approve that second flora study so that it would be complete and we would have both documentation

and whatever resolution we have for sidewalks over the river. Uh, we're going to be crossing the river. So, that'll have to be done in any case whether we cross it in loop one or not. So, we I did meet with our town engineer. We're not going the sidewalks over the actual Lieutenant River Bridge that is DOT owned would not be put in because they're going to do it in five. They're [clears throat] going to have a big play in that entire um section that has the guard rail. So DOT has got to be involved.

Yep. Since it's a DOT grant, I assume they they would drive this. I hope they would drive this. They are going to drive part of it. Yes. But um we already have some preliminary plans that BSC did right for us. Um that's the basis that I used for the application.

Yeah. And so those are in um we've already gotten one business owner I knew was it was Treasures and I knew that they use that entire area because they have trucks that come box trucks that come in for deliveries or pickups. So I knew that they were going to So I did talk to Brett and I said what do you need? And he said, "I need it to look exact." He said, "I've already thought about this and I want it to look exactly like Laaferage does over in does over in Sabbrook." Okay.

So, that has a sort of uh painted walkway across their parking lot, like this entrance to their parking lot. So, um Aaron was going to go look at that. That's a So, are they are they saying like it would just be from end to end painted or it would just be Would there be a throat to the driveway? Well, are you saying an entrance? Yeah. And a throat? Yeah.

There will be no throat. It'll be as it is right now. And that is why it was left that way over in Sabbrook because all of those businesses in that area used that as a parking lot. There's also a type of thing that when you go in from so far, the DOT wants you to put in an island and the island has to be so much depth from the street. And if you put an island in there, there's no way they can have a car park and back out and turn around.

Yeah. It's too it's too close to the road, right? What do wants to do in general, their overall mandate is uh to reduce curb cuts along their state roads um and to define driveways. So they don't want to see like in and out and stuff like that. They would avoid it along the state road. They want to see one entrance exit. Um, and we had this issue in in Sound View because there was some, you know, that were built a long time ago and there's a state right of way that maybe half of what they're using as their parking lot or front yard, uh, is a state right of way. Um, and they were just paved from the front of the building right down to state road. And there were a lot of issues we had to resolve um with the property owners included moving signs and included narrowing that down because there is a danger to c that's a long stretch to cross completely undefined. Uh, so I'm not saying I have the answer to that, but I'm saying DOT may have a solution that's not

Well, it sounds like there was a solution in Sabbrook and it I mean if it's painted then that it is delineated and defined. So I I think we should take a look at that. Well, yeah, I'm just saying I don't think we can have answers at this point. We can promise a property owner, but they'll be part of the process. Obviously, first of all, you can put in the initial this is what we want and then if they come back and say no, you can't then we go back round. It's more that the engineers come up with something and then 90 I found in two sidewalk projects 90% of your work is talking with property owners and that's appropriate, right? And that's what we will be doing. Yes, we will

obviously working with each individual property owner based on what the engineers want and what the state wants and then what they want the property owner wants what's practical and there's there's a lot you can do there's a lot you can massage but I don't think we can provide promises up front is what I'm trying I didn't I didn't promise I said what do you want we'll start with that and then we move on so I wanted his input now because I did not the original

uh design had two an entrance and an exit well I mean entrances that could have been used either way but the thing that I noticed was that the chestnut marts entrances were a good third to a half wider than what they had put in at the other at treasures and I said well why can't they be this w as wide as that why would you do that this was before I made the phone Well, but certainly um Jacobson, Nathan Jacobson has worked with um Sbrook, Westbrook, Clinton on all of their sidewalk projects. They've all they're all doing Route One. It's all straight down the highway.

No, stay routine. they've done this and I think that we have to um look at their thoughts initially and then we have to go out to our people and and sit down with them and say, "Hey, this is what it looks like. Tell us what you think." Yeah. Um that's exactly I mean the process you bring the preliminary designs to the property owner and they sit down, they go, "Absolutely not." And somewhere in there you figure it out. Yep. So, I just need a motion to approve to um send an email accepting the community grant from one of you.

Is is there any prerequisites that we need to come up with?

No, this is just basically it says I ask that you contact me no later than December 18th. I'm happy to give you both a copy of this um um to confirm that your municipality wishes to accept the funding and proceed with the C connectivity grant process and an email response is preferred and if no response is received your re award is reallocated. I would prefer not to have that happen. Um so basically seven steps that are taken. We uh they assign a project manager to us. Uh they issue a commitment to fund. Um they'll perform an environmental screening to assess the municipality and uh then we're responsible for developing a project design. Once they approve that, they authorize the municipality to advertise the project for construction bids and after the bids, they submit a recommendation for award to the department department um or for signature once they see it and make sure that it's good to go. Grant funds may only be used for construction and construction phase costs above the allocated grant amount are the state sole responsibility of the municipality. So, basically also in this package, we need to get a preliminary um proposal from our um Jacobson and we're going to have to go to the board of finance and the town meeting because I know it's going to be over $20,000 and ask for approval of those funds. So, we will do that. But, so we're we're far away actually we're pretty far away from getting anybody's design at the moment. we are we need a proposal on past first and then from there. Um

but if we don't have to put a sidewalk in there, that's a big stretch that we won't have to pay for a sidewalk. Well, I'd like to um make a motion to accept the $800,000 grant from state DOT for sidewalks on Halls, right? Second. Any further discussion? Hearing none, I'll call for a vote. All those to approve to accept the community grant, community connectivity grant, please signify by saying I. I. Any opposed?

Any um abstensions? None. Motion passes unanimously. Um we're going to do select and general discussion. I do want you to know that there was a brief um I'm going to hand these out. The ethics commission also has some ordinance changes that they would like to have. There was a miscommunication between uh Lou Lou the chair and myself. I thought he was going to let me know after he had spoken to legal um and he thought he was coming tonight. So somewhere I said you can come we'll add you to the agenda but I didn't hear back from him. So, he'll be in January, but if you would go through this um they have tried to um tighten up their ethics commission. So, if you'll read this as homework, that would be great. And then you'll be ready with questions once they get here. It's a very um thorough document that they have drafted. Let's see anything else.

Yeah, I know we have appointments coming up. So, is there a list floating around about um that identifies the vacancies? It was in my newsletter last week. Okay.

Newsletter last week listed all the anticipated vacancies. That doesn't mean um those are up for renewals. We've had a few of people resign over um actually Matt McKenzie passed in his resignation due to some um personal issues today. So he's g conservation is going to have need another person um few people who are getting off or wanting to switch to another one. So the process John that we started when we did these appointments a couple of years ago is they apply through the appointment process you and Jim will both get a packet um of all the you'll get scan documents of all the applications. So, it'll say affordable housing, everybody behind it. It'll be all the people that have applied and you'll get that before we start to do appointments in January.

Oh, yeah. No, I get that. I just I just wanted to know know what's up because I've been known to recruit a few people now and again. So, I'd rather recruit before the Yes. It's also if you go to uh the town website, uh you can pull up vacancies pretty right. The only problem is is it doesn't give you the vacancies for January 25th because that's when I'll plop some of the appointments don't expire. So, if you pull it up, it'll only give you the vacancies that are current. I don't think there's a date factor in there that you can say as of um but Katie pulled up the report as and pulled she and Vicki worked on the vacancy list and that's what we published.

Um there's always something else that's going to pop up. Oh, sure. Uh, when should we start recruiting? Immediately, I I would say so. Get applications in now. Christmas Day. Let's get on it. Um, second, we've already gotten one. I think we got one from this weekend. Second, since we approved the the grant from DOT for Halls Road Sidewalks, can we form a Halls Road sidewalk committee and begin populating it with in this within this process?

We can. I think we should. I wanted to sort of formulate with you. That's why I wanted to do the presentation on Halls Road at the first meeting in January. Um, just to brief everybody. I know John has a somewhat knowledge of it, but I this goes back pretty much. It's a very short it's only like 14 slides. It's not too inclusive, but it it just gives a rundown of what's transpired over the years. And then um Anita will provide the updated funding of that availability. We still have um AI engineers has provided me with a statement of what we owe them. Um there's two two ways. how much it will cost to move forward and how much it will cost to uh cut the project at this point and stop. And it was part of ARPA funding. So I do need you to realize that any money that was not spent from that. The ARPA committee when they made those recommendations said that any money not used would go into our social services budget. So whatever's left would be turned over to that. It's not like we can use it for another project because the ARPA rules were that all had to be done by 2024.

So once it was allocated, that's where it stays. I think and this well this is my sense um that we can proceed on two different tracks to one decide how to dispose of the legacy Hall project and two we have a model for these uh community connectivity grants uh Sound View connectivity grant committee worked really well and it was bipartisan uh consisted of property owners in the area consisted of town residents at charge both Tim and Mary Joe sat in. Mary Joe was official but Tim also monitored those meetings.

Um and it was it was very successful. So I think it was a good model for um what how we should approach this grant and uh and it can proceed ba basically this is a whole different track. I mean, we can decide what to do with the legacy project and it doesn't seem like we can take funds from that and shift over to this anyway. So, I think we just need to proceed cleanly with the sidewalk project under this grant, the separate committee. So, it doesn't get involved in that whole controversy. This is very straightforward. It seems to be what everybody wants and it's funded. So, you know, it's I would like to see those two diverg.

I would I would agree with that concept. I would as well I would like to and I'm I would assume that anyone I don't think the town meeting is going to turn down the funding for the engineering phase of this but I would like to at least get that sort of into a package and then um establish the halls [clears throat] I'm a little tentative to call it halls road sidewalks I'd love to come up with a Well, it is road sidewalks. I don't It is keep it simple. Call it the Route One Community Connectivity Grant. Well, yeah. Um I know

there's no use mincing words. I mean, it's the Halls Road sidewalk committee or committee because it's short term. It's a it's a project. So, let's um look at that for it's not on our agenda. So, we would have to do that January 5th to establish it and then we can ask, but you can certainly still discuss with people if they're interested and then they just won't put their applications until after January 5th. Yeah, I've had a business owner from Halls Road contact me and was very excited about getting on that committee. So, I just wanted to know when we could begin the process.

And let me ask you a question. are these business I mean because I have no problems with business owners who don't live here being on this committee because they are part of our community but we'll have to put that also in the parameters of the choices that it won't just be voter uh property owners here in town I think because they're not all property owners because some of them not all property owners but I think we can have I think there's enough overlap that we can have representation

so then we'll have So start to think too of what the con how many people are we going to have on this committee? Start to think about those parameters in your mind of what we're going to allow. Are we going to allow you know six property or six businesses, four businesses? How are we going to represent? And um like when I think of like the um hideway plaza, okay, there's a number of businesses in there. Um, I don't think that the property owners are going to want to be on this committee. Um, but I think that we need have representation from someone in that marketplace. Um, so hopefully somebody would volunteer.

Yeah. I mean, I don't think we're going to get a flood of applications. I mean, we could probably, you know, see how many applications we get and then decide how many seats we want, right?

So, but we have to put it out there. I mean, I'm more than happy to go talk to each one of them and just say all right down the street and say, "We're here and um we have we have a property. I know we have one property owner, too. We have a house on Alls Road." So that person may be interested in serving as well and seeing what we do. Um but as you know the original thing just so that I I think I told you this but they cautioned us about doing too much over the lieutenant river because their initial thought was when I met with these 12 engineers from DOT that they may widen that bit. It's it would be an ideal situation for me if we could build sidewalks and not include the Lieutenant River.

That's u because that's a an environmental nightmare, b a logistical nightmare. I mean, it's the reason why the whole pedestrian bridge came up in the first place, right? So, if DOT is saying, hey, in five years we're gonna take care of this bridge anyway, it's like bonus, that means we get more sidewalk on road. Yes. Uh, so if we could get DOT to agree because generally when you do these projects, if you touch anything, they make you bring bring it all up to code. So if they could let us stop short of that bridge and pick up again after that bridge, you know, that would save us so much money. We can do so much more work on Hall's Road. Y and then they can deal with with the river, which, you know, it's fine by me. That's yeah,

there are uh Jacobsons did indicate there's one or two culverts there that we are going to have to shore up um and possibly put some type of a retaining wall in. So that'll have to be something that we'll have to consider as we move through. But I agree because DOT said if they widen it, they're going to give us a a guardrail from pedest the walkway. We'll have a pedestrian rail on it, a way to keep them safe from the traffic. And if we can keep the kids on that side of the pedestrian will be great. Um, but I would also hope that this would encourage them to maybe think about doing it sooner than later. Yeah.

I mean, yeah. Um, I don't really want them walking up the sidewalks after we put them in.

Just, you know, talking with people in DOT, this is the kind of project that's really a priority for them. Connecting schools to commercial area, you know, kids going from school to their jobs, kids going from school to hang out at Dunkin Donuts or whatever, they really prioritize that. So, um, I think that they'll they should be very cooperative with this project to help us get around some of because it's it's tough. It's a tough geography in there. It's been so messed with by 95 and the Lieutenant River and some tributaries going through there. Um the drainage is very complicated. Um it kind of gives me the willies just thinking about some of the things that are going on in there. taking the Lieutenant River out was phenomenal, but there's still a lot of stuff that's not obvious going through there because it was wetlands and it was so messed with uh when 95 came through or the Blue Star Highway, but it's actually pre95 that's from the 40s. So,

I I think too that one of um I lost my train of thought. the forget it. I'll come back to it. It'll come back to me. Let me since we're in comment, let me just switch really quickly. I was wondering if you could get from Eric Nath or somebody in Landie's uh determination on what John brought up last week with the clear cutting at Flat Rock. There's a lot of people have come up. He hasn't. paid.

So, it was it was uh inspected by a state forester as well as Eric and they found no violations. So, most uh forestry and lumbering is statute exempt and um it's it is what it is. Yeah, it's kind of my impression because of the storage unit lot that was clearcut. The determination there was private property they can do pretty much what they want. So,

it's funny because in um another town or two, I know that I have had friends who have built houses and when they went to their lot on a weekend to work, they were given citations because they did not have any type of documentation saying they could clear cut. Well, it's

so clear clear cutting is not the same as selective forestry. So, I mean, people might look at that lot and go, "This doesn't look very selective." But, um, everything is not uh cut. The the wetlands area where they were inspected by the state forester and by Eric and they noted no damage. So, they're they're pretty much staying clear of those. And it it it's um you know, kind of like oil is king. I mean, back in the day, Forester was probably king, and that probably contributes to their, you know, exemption by statute. I would I would guess. I haven't looked too hard at the at the history, but um you know, that that's kind of still the way it is. So, they're not they're not clear-cutting. They're not cutting, per se, for a a lot, although they are going to build a house there. So, you know, if they just came in and said, "Oh, we want to cut because we're putting in a house as opposed to we're doing selective forestry. could, you know, Eric would be the one to ask, but that that could have put it in a in a different light. And that's, you know, like what you're talking about, your friends went and did stuff and

and I'm not saying they were clearcutting. That wasn't my implication. It's just that we don't have any clear stats. No, I'm not saying they aren't either, but I'm saying there's there's there's there's a difference. When you have a plan, you start triggering reviews. So if you're building a house, you submit a site plan and at that point that's when zoning can say, "Oh, by the way, you know, you got to do X, Y, and Z." And you get into the realm of zoning and land use.

How many trees are you leaving? If you don't have a building plan and you're not looking for a zoning exemption, my sense is, or at least the way it played out on the storage unit lot and I've seen other lots, my sense is if if you're not triggering that, you have the right to take down trees as much as you want. So, and it's it's it's only when you submit a site plan for a house, what have you, that that's when they can put their thumb and definitely say, you know, keep that tree for here, etc., etc., you know, I I remembered what I was going to say about the bridge and the fishing pier. I did have a conversation with Jamie Zidoriaak who is the person who signed off the deed to or was the person responsible for making the deed for the land [clears throat] on uh Paul's Road was turned over by the state to us with the caveat that there would be a fishing pier built. So she she emailed me about a month ago and said, "So how are things going with the plan?" And I said, "Not nothing's happening." And I said because we had no money in our budget for fishing pier. I said it wasn't on our radar. I said you added it to this deed that we would provide recreational facilities for fishing. Um I have spoken to many fishermen lately who have said don't really think we need a pier there. We like the way it is. We like just one guy said he just likes standing under he likes standing underneath the the bridge. He goes, "I like the hum." He goes, "It's just, you know, it's just soothing." And he said, "And I've also heard that the stripers are coming back.

The baby stripers are appearing and they're about this big." And they said, "You start doing any type of construction with a fishing pier and that those waters, those fish are going to disappear again. They'd like to see the stripers return. I I'm not a fisherman. I don't know.

Yeah. I mean, I think it was legitimate criticism from people who were against the Halls Road project. But what began as, hey, why don't we just reconstruct the old Bow Bridge between the two existing abupments became, you know, now it's a parking lot, now it's a fishing pier, now everyone just started piling in. It's like, all right, you know, let's get a ferris wheel, too. You know, it just got to be a zoo. So, don't mention that. That'll end up in the newspaper tomorrow. We're not putting in a fish. We are not putting in a ferris wheel. Um facicious joke.

So, I just want you to know that's where we are. And I just said to her, I said, "I don't have funding available for this at this point in time and until we decide how we're going to proceed." I said, "You may in years later. may see a fishing pier someday, but it may not it's not going to happen anytime soon. So that's where So there was no deadline attached though. No. No. Just that if we decided to use that for a walking bridge that that the fishing pier had to be created. Yep. So it had to go together.

Okay. Anything else? I hope you both have a wonderful Christmas season and a happy new year. And um please remember to vote tomorrow if you haven't already. I have not, but I will be there. Okay. I will make a motion to adjurnn. I will second at uh 629.