Board of Selectmen - Regular Meeting

Good uh evening everybody. It's Monday, November 17th, 2025 at 5:30 p.m. and with the quorum being present, I'll call to order the free temporary select meeting. Uh tonight's meeting will be recorded and will be available on our town's YouTube page. Uh tonight we will be going into executive session and then coming back into open session. We'll be we will be going into executive session for the following three reasons. First, master of law chapter 38 section 21A1 to discuss your reputation, character, physical condition or mental health rather than professional competence of an individual or discussion um or discuss the principles or dismissal of or complaints or charges against a public officer, employee, staff member or an individual. two, [clears throat] Mass General law, chapter 30A, section 21A7, to comply with or act under the authority of any general or special law or uh or federal grant in grant and aid requirements. Specifically, general law chapter 3A section 22 for the purpose of reviewing executive session minutes for approval and determining whether such minutes shall be released in the matter of um approval of the executive session minutes from uh September 9th, 2025. And third, uh, executive session pursuant to general law chapter 38 section 21A7 to comply with or act under the authority of any general or special law or federal grant in aid requirements open law to review for consideration of release u the executive session minutes for the following executive session meetings date listed in attachment A. So with that, I'll entertain a motion to go in executive session.

Motion made second. All in favor? I I Sleman Lope. Yes. Slickman Zagar. Yes. Sleman Matthews. Yes.

for what the town wants to do. Um, as mentioned, the site lies fully within the NHSP priority habitat. It's a habitat for eastern box turtle. And then there's three rare plants, which I don't know the names of. Um, those plants tend to be wetland plants and would be located more in the areas of the the the the wetland that's on site and not the upland area that's in in the front portion of the site. The big thing about the box turtle is it's a species of special concern, I believe. And natural heritage wants you for every acre of disturbance, uh, they want you to protect one and a half acres of the of the parcel or property. So for this particular thing, 31.3 acres of parcel, there'd be about 12.5 acres, which maximum that natural heritage would allow you to use.

Okay?

And a permit from the natural, they would require a conservation management permit if you were to disturb up to that maximum amount or close to that amount. And also, if you did disturb, if you disturb over 10 acres, you get bumped into the to the MEPA process, the Mass Environmental Protection Act. And you also have to file um an environmental notification form. Um and then you could get scoped to do a um by MEPA, you could get scoped to do an environmental impact report or or a draft environmental impact and a final environmental impact report. I don't think with just the depending on what you were doing and just the fact that there's that the MISA disturbance and you'd have that conservation management plan that you would need to do any additional um uh environmental impact reports because they can look at uh MEPA can look at you know everything traffic land use um historic um different different things you know so they could force you into say a um a study to see if there's any archaeological uh things there. You may have to get that evaluated, but I don't think we need to get scope for that, but it is it is a possibility, but not likely.

So, I have a question [clears throat] related to that. So, say we have 12 acres, 12 and a half acres we can actually build on, right? Say that you know there's a lot of other space there like would we be prevented from, you know, making like if we want to do a nature trail, you could do a trail. I believe I believe that the natural heritage would be okay with a trail. They wouldn't be okay with like an open field that that you know. Yeah. I guess it's like really asking what like what what by disturbing or you know what does that really mean? But if a trail like because I think I think it'd be cool to have some trails there already extensive trails too there. Yeah. You know the the good thing is there was no plan of building anything beyond the primary building which is the console of edging library. Right. So that's at the beginning of the property closer to the Bulock Road.

Yeah. The things in question here is at towards the back protected species in that back left corner right where where is where it says where the wetlands are right. So the species are there or plants are there and I'm assuming tend to be there. Yes. So the box turtle is at in the same area or is it in the box turtles like they box turtles like disturbed areas. They like sandy areas. They like farm fields. Um, so they they would likely be more in the in the in the western portion of the property also. Yes.

Right. Because my concern is like, you know, this is public land at the end of the day. I want the public to use the land to go and explore. One of the surveys we've gotten back from the town is they want more open space, right? So having the bike the bike trails and everything else, I don't want to I want that to still be an option. But from hearing you think we'll be all set. I I believe minimal concern that you'd be okay with trails you know this due diligence that Riverhawk performed was you know due to a lot of things that he just mentioned but also trials and tribulations of things that happened here

right they spent a lot of time and money with um issues with the the bedrock here so that they dug to make sure bedrock was good um in speaking with uh Riverhawk as well as Chuck and Kevin, everyone had nothing but phenomenal things to say about the soils. Um, it was brought up that there was they were worried about some of the the topography of the ground. Uh, Chuck seems to think that that's not a big deal that if it's good stuff and we can push it around on site, it actually might come to our benefit. Um, and then uh prop based on the amount of spaces. You you seem to think that we'd be able to fit more than one building down the road if we ever decided to, right? Based on the amount of space that we're allocating for a current building because right now what we're worried about is COA library, right? That's that's what this is all for.

Correct. But we also have been very big into saying we want it for future use, of course. Yeah. Right. And if it was just for that one building, then I feel like it's a lot of money to spend for just that one building for this parcel of land if we can't do enough. But if we can put another building down the road there, I'm not saying what it is when it'll be, but yeah, it makes me feel a little bit better about purchasing the land. Right.

Just to add a couple of things that which kind of add to the benefit of this property over over, you know, any property. um the this is I believe it's in the residential zoning district. I don't have it written down. So, but within that district there's a limit of 30% coverage and the zoning bylaw designs coverage as buildings and impervious area. I would have to talk to the building inspector to make sure to get some clarity on that but that 30% would be buildings and pavement would only be about would be less than the 12 acres that you can disturb. So, your zoning bylaw might restrict you more than natural heritage would restrict you. Interesting.

And then another thing that I thought about um a couple days ago, um this doesn't have town water, right? You would need a a well on site. So, it would be a public water supply well. So, there's a big protective radius around a public water supply well. So, I just did some quick calculations today. If you were to say have a 5,000galon per day flow, which would be pretty high, you know, it should encompass three those three users, that would be a 205 foot radius protective zone one radius of where you really can't touch anything anyways. Yeah. Right.

So that if you put that in the back on top of natural heritage of land that you're not going to touch and you keep it protected, you could put your well back there and it's it's it's the same. And then other properties It's tough to find 30 acres of land that aren't 28 acres of wetland nowadays and 2 acres of upland. You know, most properties you look at in Massachusetts are impacted in some way by either wetlands or riverfront area, you know, or other resource areas, wetland resource areas that do limit the the total amount of development. And and just to be clear, I I even went a step further and had, you know, talked with Debbie as well as some other individuals about, you know, the amount of money we're paying for this land. And if we have only a small amount that we can use, do we get to the point where we try and find other parcels

in this area? And and the answer is they don't exist. Yeah. Um and then right to to Mr. Rigo's point the um the issue with the public drinking water source is here right like we have it's 500 ft and it's from the elementary school and then that actually hurts some other land over here for us that we can't touch because of that right so um so because of that well and and it makes sense right we don't want to put buildings

yeah and you could you could you know it's I'm I'm not sure the distance but you could put you could school up to a well. You may be able to get that protective area on this parcel and and hook the school up and and and and maybe make some other land available, you know. Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. All right, cool. So,

I had a question. I I don't remember what I was looking at, but at one point it had a shade on there or shaded whatever color I can't remember, but it said otr Oh, yeah. That that's um outstanding um was it Otto outstanding water resource area and I think that's just um an area that drains to Long Pond which is considered a a public water supply surface water supply. So any area that drains to that is can out an out an outstanding resource water I think. Does that affect anything with the permits?

It doesn't. It affects some things you do with filing under the Wetlands Protection Act, but it does it doesn't affect anything else. Okay. I will say that on a negative side is obviously having to do all these filings. And what does that come down to? It's two things, right? It's time and money. Time and money.

Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. This will be extended uh permitting due to natural heritage. And you there will be extensive permitting with with natural heritage. And if you were going to do 10 acres of building and um and pavement and impervious area anyways, that would probably cook kick you into into the MEEPA because it is publicly funded. So, and it it sounds crazy to think that we would want to do that, but I also do want to be able to do whatever we can to make sure that we are able to use every square inch of that land that we can. Sure.

Right. So, um I and I'm not trying to hold your feet to the fire, but can you give any rough guesstimate of how long something like that would take? I I I think um the permitting could be completed within a year with a natural they say less. When we spoke with natural heritage on the phone, they they set a shorter timeline, but I think a reasonable timeline would be one year to to and we and we're not ready. So, that's a that works in with what we got. Um I think the current building that we're talking about, the COA library building with asphalt, we're looking at four and a half acres of of Okay. Yeah.

Who makes the call? I should I should know this, but to put something in a heritage is that done by the state or is that done by who who like So you said all this property is designated as protected. Yeah. Right. It Yeah, they it is it's natural heritage program. somehow. And there's um if somebody or someone reports a turtle, they see a box turtle,

then they figure out how far a box turtle usually travels in its lifespan, and they figure out what barriers might stop it from traveling over those lands. So, they don't put any existing developed land into that area, but anything that's outside of that and where the travel might travel a mile or so, they they they put into the protected. I can imagine these box turtles probably cause developers a lot of headaches. [laughter] Well, I mean, if they take 70% of the land and make it undevelopable, it's it's a very big thing. There could be one box turtle out there that that that you know could cause you to lose, you know, 15 acres of land or more, you know, the use of. So, it's it's it's a big deal really. Yeah.

Okay. I appreciate you coming and speaking to this. Thank you. No problem. Thank you very much. [snorts] All right. So, is there anything else we do not talk about in this though? I think

there's two things that I wanted to say that the grant if if we continue on with the library grant and we get the construction portion of the library grant, there will be some uh we can put the cost of purchasing the land in and get reimbursed to some extent. Um I would estimate that at $200,000. So, that helps a little bit. I know the cost is expensive, but there will be some refund if we go forward with the grant. And the other piece that I think is really interesting is the two parcels that are next to this owned by the same family, the same trust are in chapter land, which means if they were to ever go to sell them, they have you the town has a first right of refusal. So that gives the town the opportunity down the line to potentially purchase those parcels as well, giving you another campus up there. Now, um I'm not sure that will happen, but just it is that that it may be available. So, it's nice to know that we may be able to get more of the land down the line.

Yeah, absolutely. And this is this is this land as well is in first refusal. So, yeah, if you want to purchase it now. Yeah. But does that mean six months? Does that mean Yeah. You don't have any no control and they could use it internally, right? Not sell it and develop it themselves because they are they have that potential within their family, their developers. Yeah. Um when it when Yeah. I don't think that the sit and wait for them to do something like that for first refusal it makes any sense at all. I just want you to have all the information. They have a lot of the family has a lot of land, right? And they'll do something.

Yes, they do. So, all right. I I just want to bring home the fact that we did look we did see there's nothing else around and this is prime location and I know it doesn't come cheap but yeah no I totally agree centrally located yeah I mean it's literally it's where all what's where we are now it's like we're right it's you know is it everything we wanted from a land no but it's also it gives us a lot of pros as well it's it's I think This is Yeah, I think this is better than I I mean I had I was worried that we were going to have even less usable land, right? To be honest with I I thought originally that we were going to come back at less. So

yeah, and that that the number was the absolute maximum that you're going to get from from natural heritage, but yeah, you know, usually it's they don't look I'm hopeful that they're nice to us because we're the town trying to use it and not a developer. Yeah. I'll ask you this like you know if there's like let's say there's one turtle. Yeah, turtles do migrate and they do pass away unfortunately, right? Same thing with species of of plants. I assume they do their periodic review from time to time, right? It's not sure. I mean, as as part of this development, I I think once the turtles are there and there there was evidence, we did as part of the picture of the shell,

we we did have um someone go out and do kind of a a more comprehensive investigation and they they thought it was pretty good habitat for the turtles and they did see the the turtle egg there and so these turtles must have like a amazing positive impact on the environment. Well, you know what it is? It's interesting and I don't I should say this in public, but that if you look at the box turtle um where they live in the country, like this is about as far north as they get. Oh, really? Right. So, there's not that many of them because they don't like it when it's cold. They're like me. They want to be south. Right. [laughter] They're not flying home. That's

right. So, there's none in there's none in Northfor County. There's not in Worcester County. There's not in Hampshire County. There's none in New Hampshire because this is the limit of their habitat really. So I think as you go south you see more box turtles than than than you do here. You know they're in Plymouth County and on the Cape. You recommend any signs? Let's say we we purchased the land. We build the building. The trails are open for more people to use because now will be parking lot so more people will use this land more often which is what we want. Yeah. Should we put signs up saying turtle nest nesting or you might and that to be that's not really my area of expertise. So um we

the turtle people will show up and they will protect them. They're in my neighborhood and they're very passionate group people and they protect you're going to get you're going to get um definitely lots of protection for the turtle. Absolutely. Now we want to protect the turtle especially and and you know it will even involve turtle sweeps before construction. It will involve turtle barriers before construction. So, there'll be things that have to be done to protect Yeah. the turtles. That makes sense. Yeah. All right. [snorts] All right. So, I think we're good there. And then we're going to vote to to whether or not to move forward,

right? Because if we we have we have to with we have a PNS through December 31st, which they're actually asking for an extension till January 8th. But if we we are not going to buy the land, we have to let them know 30 days prior to. So, I'm just trying to make sure that given that now we have much more um information that we had, you all still want to move forward. All right. Okay. So, with that, I'll entertain a motion to move forward with the land purchase of Bulk Road. A motion made. I second. All in favor? I I All right. Thank you very much. Pleasure as always. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Then I'll just we should just do agenda item eight as well because it's related.

Yeah. So this is discussion vote whether approve and sign the first amendment to the purchase and sale agreement for vacant land on Bulk Road Easttown Mass and extend the closing date to uh January 8th, 2026. So I'll enter a motion to extend the um closing date to January 8th, 2026. A motion made second. All in favor? I I Okay. So now I'll go back up to agenda item one.

Discussion vote whether to declare the following items as surplus and what to do with each item. So there's ex three exterior doors as A B is a 2025 Ford F-150 tailgate. Uh C a F350 Superduty tailgate and D a E350 Superduty Ford cutaway Starcraft van. The whole van, huh? Yeah. Yeah. It's like one of the old handicap vans van. Okay. So what are our recommendations [clears throat] to do with this stuff?

It says to send them all to municipid in the memo with, you know, kind of what the estimated values are is, but I just hesitate with [clears throat] going what we deem as estimated values and being too high. We've had this happen before and every time I bring it up, if we we put the minimum threshold that we can sell it as a little bit less, it doesn't have to come back to us to be re revisited and say, you know what, the highest offer we got on the tailgate was a hundred bucks. Yeah.

Well, well, it's we say it's 500. So, say it came at 300. Then it has to come back to us. We can't sell it. It has to come back in front of us again. So the only thing I would say is that we start at the threshold a little bit lower that we deem um because like the uh value of the van that we have on here was from NADA or whatever. So it might be a little bit too high and hopefully it goes higher and then we get more money out of it. But I'm just saying just to save the office. Okay. So So do So what do you think for the exterior doors might do 50 bucks each? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I I would even go lower than that, but that's okay. The tailgates, the two 250

250. Yeah. You'll make some money on the tailgates. Yeah. I'm sure like people crashing them all the time, right? Absolutely. So 250 on BNC. Mhm. Does that make sense? Yeah. Yeah. It's still a good deal. And then uh for the Starcraft van, want to put it at like eight grand.

Yep. I was actually The number was in my head, so it's good. What would pay for it? [laughter] All right. So, uh, so with that, I'll entertain a motion to declare items A through D as surplus with minimum bids for A at $50, B and C at $250, and D at $8,000. Um, surplus and put put these items on MUN bid. A motion made. Second. All in favor? I.

Okay. Discussion and vote whether to accept donations for the holiday home decorating contest. First, second, and third prizes in the sum of 150. This is from us, right? So, I will entertain a motion to accept our donations. Motion. Holiday decorating contest. Motion. Uh second. All in favor? I I thank you, Wro. [clears throat] Teamwork. Good job, boys. Um item six. You can't help but laugh at that one. I I almost said [clears throat] no. [laughter]

6 discussion of vote whether approve agreement between the town of Freetown and Greenman Person um for Inc. for engineering services for proposed North Main Street sidewalk 40 grand. Does that sound right? Yeah. This is the one that came up for vote at the special town meeting. Yeah. And didn't get any votes from the resident. Well, got minimum votes from the residents. Yeah. same exact thing.

Yeah, a resident had put a petition on and then so Chuck's just saying, "Well, residents want it. I'll I'll do it." But it is 50 grand just for the engineering and construction oversight, which I thought was a lot of money. Um, I did look at the I think it's 1,800 ft of Yeah, it's not much. I think it was 1,800. 1,200 maybe. It says 1,200. I got to look at the thing of just w sidewalk reconstruction. Sorry. So 50 grand just for the design. I mean, I guess I'm I don't know. I have no idea. These things are always way more expensive than I expect them to be. Yeah, this one just is relatively high, but that's what it costs. Engineering's crazy money.

So labor. So it's it's like 100 grand. I'll take all right. Am I reading this right? Yeah, because No, no, it's 49,120 with the Oh, you're right. Oh, sorry. You're right. I thought it was the Okay. Um, so you know, um, this is if the this is if the board wants to go forward with the sidewalk reconstruction. I think the sidewalk on South Main costs more than a little more than $250,000, right? So

we're talking about I would say similar in in cost. It's probably going to be 250,000 300,000 construction costs. So, um, the board can decide not to move forward with this if they choose not to. I I'll put it up for a vote and then we'll see how you guys want.

So, so I mean I guess Yeah. And I before I I just want to say is we we do need to think about do we want to spend $49,000 if we're not going to move forward with it, right? like part of my decision needs to lay into the fact of are we going to take the next step, right? And if we're if we say, you know what, the town really can't afford to take the next step or the people aren't going to want to. Chuck might find other ways to want to spend his chapter 90 money, then we've theoretically thrown the money away. So, um, you know, that's that's just the only way I'm looking at it as far as if if we all think that that's a great idea, then and we're going to move forward with the next steps, then great. Let's do it. I'm not seeing anything wrong about it. I'm just saying just my thoughts on how we need to look at it.

And these weren't identified in you in the what was it? Clean open streets. What's it called? The uh complete streets. Clean streets. Right. When when we did those this these weren't identified, correct? I don't I don't believe they were. I think South Main Street was, but not I don't remember. I'd have to go back and look. [clears throat] I think it identified areas that didn't have sidewalk up on South Main more towards the far river line. There's area that does not have sidewalk. Right. [clears throat] Yeah. Right. And there is a sidewalk there. There's a currently um not good. Yeah. It's not perfect, but it beats at least there is a sidewalk. At least there is something there that's manageable versus other areas in town that don't have a sidewalk.

And then part of the other issue becomes is like, you know, part of that sidewalk at one point there's a stone wall that comes out like into it. Is that part of someone's property? Like what's that going to entail? The thing I've complained most about with South Main Street is, you know, who gets this better than you? Roger. Is there's telephone poles in the middle of a sidewalk. Right. Right. So, we're going to put up this beautiful sidewalk, but are we still going to the And it does a sidewalk needs to be more to me than just something that people can walk or bike on. It also needs to be something that is handicap accessible, right? Child, people pushing strollers with their babies. What I keep seeing in South Main is it's easier to stay on the road versus being on the sidewalk and that's not what we want.

Yeah. So, I mean, that all needs to come into play that I think if it's going to be done that it needs to be removal of that stuff from the sidewalk. Um, yeah, and I don't know if any of this will entail that, but I will say that, you know, [clears throat] sitting in the town hall, we do have a lot of pedestrians that walk the South Main Street, North Main Street area. So, I do think at some point [cough] we really do need to look at pedestrian traffic there and make sure it's safe for our pedestrians. Yeah, 100%.

So maybe in the engineering we ask them to look at making the sidewalk wide enough to be usable if we're going to do the work and spend the money do the engineering. I mean, maybe I can find a grant if we're MBTA compliant to do to do it if you know, we can maybe ask him, hey, how much to to really engineer this so that it's it's as wide as it can be with what we have for the road layout. And if we have to do some takings, that we look at that. Um, I'm not a fan of takings. They're they're not the easiest. Nor am I. I just want to make sure that if this is done, then it's not right. Just

so I mean we can do that with the engineering if if that's something that um the board is inclined to do. Uh well we can you can pass and have Chuck come in and talk about it. Um you know clearly he he he has the fund he has funding in his um budget from prior article monies to do repairs. Yeah. Yeah. The the thing that gets me is like we have other sidewalks already identified that or other areas that we can touch first. I don't know spending 50 grand on something the residents said no to was just a few short months ago. So they said no to it. They said no to it. All right. I think we hold on this then and hold on it and have Chuck

have Chuck come in and talk about it and then Yeah. Okay. So we're going to pass on that agenda item which is six. We did seven and eight item n ambulance abatements and write- offs. So for October 2025, it was $122,584. Um with that, I'll entertain a motion to um approve those ambulance abatements for October 2025. Motion made second. All in favor? I I

All right. Jen, item 10, vote on whether to pursue having a the Vietnam uh V Yeah. Vietnam veteran moving wall come to Freetown in 2026 and how to fund this event. This is sort of like a passion of mine. So,

um there is this moving wall. Uh it's just a it's a replica of the Vietnam wall. They come to your town and they set it up. Um you have to help them put some little um 2x4s on the ground to set it up. It cost $8,000 for them to come set up the wall. You also have to pay for a hotel room for a one hotel room for six nights while they're here because the wall comes for like four or five days straight. They set it up. I think it would be something awesome to do, especially surrounding the 4th of July. If we can get those dates, I don't know. Um my thought was possibly we could use the donation account of the selectman to pay for for it. Um, and you know, I I don't know what was in your packet, probably that information. And unfortunately, I couldn't get the printer to print color, so I can't show you pictures, but it it really is just a really nice way to honor the veterans. And of course, you would have events all around the the moving wall in terms of you'd have probably um honor the vets. You would do different the veterans, you do a lot of different I think um ceremonies based on having this. So, I thought Hathaway Park would be a nice place to set this wall up and we would invite the other towns surrounding us to come and see it. I just it's just a little thing I I just uh I just think it would be an awesome thing to bring to Freetown.

I I couldn't agree more. My father was in Vietnam and uh yeah, I I think it's a great idea and thank you for bringing it forward. Honestly, I think that that's a a short amount of money for what it it can do. [clears throat] All right. And I'm sure Bob will, you know, be all over this as well. Yeah, I think it's something we really have to collaborate with all of the departments, the the VFW, the veterans, the um Bob Clea, the cultural council, the par, everybody. Right. And because we just don't want it to be set up there, not honored. Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah. To get schools involved as well because they do a lot of they're doing a lot of things with veterans and everything else. So that I'm sure they would send some folks or some kids that would want to participate as well. Yeah. So yeah, I'm waiting for um I sent an email. It's it's like almost a volunteer. You don't get a quick response like if what their schedule looks like for 2026. I asked for the July 4th time frame either before or after. Um so I'll know more hopefully about the dates, you know, but that doesn't give us a lot of time to start coordinating, right? because we want to have all the representatives involved and it's just like I said sort of a passion project of mine

and so you're thinking the the our Boris Lman is it just our budget or our um donation budget you have the donation account and I believe you have 25,000 in there maybe we could even join in with the VFW or other organizations to fund raise I'm sure that's something they can probably tap into and help because I'm sure because they're very hands-on, right, that we have a great veterans in our community, great organizations. I I wouldn't be surprised if they said, "Hey, we want to help, too. We want to jump in on this and and uh yeah, maybe we can find other ways around it." But I think at this point, we make sure that we fund funding's there, right?

Getting it there and the people being there and then if there's something else that we decide we want to make this event bigger and have other things, then maybe we work with them as far as funding for that. Um, but yeah, I think yeah, just the initial and I think the thing you have to pay a $3,000 deposit and you pay the rest when they get here. But I, you know, it would be nice to honor the veterans and that are here in the town of Freetown. I'd have a big ceremony for them. I just And I if this is a thing. Yeah. This is it, but it's not. Um, I said not a great picture. Yeah. But you can look online. I didn't even know this existed. Len, hey, I think they have a this thing. And when I looked at it, I was like, I love this.

So, um, all right. I'll I'll keep the board updated as I move forward. Yeah, sounds good. So, so with that, I'll I'll entertain a motion to, um, pursue having the Vietnam veterans moving wall come to Freetown 2026 and to pay for it via the motorcycle donation budget. A motion made. Second. All in favor? I. That's cool. All right. Agenda item 11, discussion vote. um whether to approve the letter of intent for net metering agreement between town free town and New Leaf Energy.

Um this is just an agreement where we agree to purchase electricity from an offsite solar farm. So there's one in Rochester being built and they need to sell their power to somebody. So we look at our electric bills and say we use 100,000 kilowatts that will purchase 100,000 kilowatts of energy.

We actually um will get credits for that. We'll get the credits that solar farms get. We get to keep a percentage of the the credits and then we have to pay the rest to this new leaf. They asked for a letter of interest. I I vetted it with town council. him and I had a conversation, him, the town council, and the um salesman from New Leaf. We worked out the letter of interest. So, basically, the town will get a 12% credit on all its electric bill, just electric moving forward. So, there's nothing else we really have to do. Um that's that's just all it is. We I just have to get him the rest of make sure my electric you never want to buy more than what you actually are going to utilize. Mhm.

Um but of course knowing that we're just going to keep using more and more electricity. I don't think that will happen. I'm probably going to gauge it at 80% of what we currently use so that we don't ever That's what I was just going to say is like what do we do if whatever the number is and we try to come in close. If we're more than we just pay the 100% rate, right? But if we're less than, can we hold it or we just lose it? We just lose it. So, um, so there's really no I don't know that there's a downside for the town. No, because you're going to do it at 80% when you see our usage and it's not going down. Right.

Right. Well, I will tell you I think that I just saw the I I want to I got to go back and check, but now that the fire station is up and running with the addition, I think that bill just doubled. So, even with um the current bills that I've got, there's going to be more because of the fire station addition. So then do we do it at 100% what we're currently at knowing that the that's going to give us the buffer in the opposite direction, right? Yeah. So I don't think there's a like I said, I've already vetted this through town council. It's just that I guess they need this letter of intent to sign get their financing for Okay. solar farm. That's a no-brainer for me. All right. So that a motion to approve the letter of intent for net metering agreement between town free town and New Leaf Energy.

Motion made. Second. All in favor? I IM12 discussion vote whether uh to approve the agreement between town of Freetown and Scots Oil Inc. for replacement disposal of the old oil tank at fire station one. The oil tank's outside. I was going to say the that's the one we see outside, right? That we we drive by. Yeah. And it's old and it's starting to really $5,000, right? Yep. All right. Got to do what we got to do. So that entertain a motion to approve the agreement to the town of Freetown and Scots Oil Inc for replacement and disposal of old oil tank one at fire station one. Motion made second. All in favor?

I item 13 discussion vote with approve the agreement between the town of Freetown and Stark Architects for architectural and civil engineering services for the uh town of wow services for Freetown Beach master plan. This is for the feasibility for the town beach that we've talked about getting done. Trying to find what's 91. I got it. I think. All right. Any questions or concerns on this one? No. No. I'm happy to move forward with this.

All right. Great. All right. So with that, I'll enter a motion to approve the agreement between the town of Freetown and Stark Architects for architectural and civil engineering services for the Freetown Town Beach master plan. Motion made. Second. All in favor? I I Okay. [snorts] Agenda item 14, discussion of vote whether approved service group between town of Freetown and Spre Technologies for fire and police IT services. I feel like we just signed this. Like we [clears throat] sent a different one. Different one. This is for the maintenance agreement. Okay, that's right. All right, cool. And is it similar to the last one? Uh like ratewise, no crazy changes.

This one's just a flat rate for the monthly maintenance that they come in. I forget what it is. It's different for the fire station and the police station, but they come in every month. Yeah. $150 per month submitted. Yeah. Okay. Any questions or concerns? Nope. All right. All right. So, with that, I'll entertain a motion to approve the service agreement between the town of Freetown and Spre Technologies for fire and police IT services. Motion made. Second. All in favor? I I This is a tough word. Um item 15, discussion vote whether approve the agreement between town of Freetown and Modules. Modules

sounds good. Modules Corporation for the new trailer uh the transfer station. Yes. So, we got the new trailer at the transfer station. It's a used trailer, but it's the one we looked at a couple weeks ago. Yeah. Yeah. We came in to ask if it was all right and so it's moving forward. Awesome. I should mention that Carl went back to them and did get them to do include the delivery and um set up as well for the same price. Module lease. Module lease. Okay. All right. Great. Any questions or concerns? No. Thank you, Carl. Yep. All right. So, with that, I just had a motion to approve the agreement between the town of Freetown and Module Lease Corporation for a new trailer at the transfer station. Motion made.

Second. All in favor? I I Okay. Item 16. We have three. Unless I'm missing some and I've lost two on there. Yeah. each have one truck. I got I just I I split up my pages. Okay. All right. So, they have snowplow applications for the winter 25 26 seasons. Bobby Emerald, Shane uh Tvar, John Bernier, uh Ken Kenaz Felix, and Chris Bernier. All them get all their information in.

We did. Everything's all the insurance, all the paperwork, all the All right. Awesome. Any questions or concerns of these folks? No. All right. Well, this is seems like we're getting some good. We're making it somewhere. And that and last time you have that one person has like 10 trucks. All right. So, with that, I want you a motion to approve the snow applications for the winter 25 26 season for the names listed in the in the agenda. Motion made. Second. All in favor? I. I. All right. And then personnel. Um, I think we're not ready to have that one today, right? So, we're going to pass on personnel because they're just waiting some paperwork. Uh, and then I'll kick it over to boards and park commission. Thank you. Parks Commission. Wow.

Well, you've done enough talking, so I can gladly take over. Uh agenda agenda it agenda item number 18 discussion and vote whether to authorize a county administrator uh to sign the agreement um and associated documents for the finishing of the pickle ball basketball court at Haway Park. Um yeah, it's really a no-brainer. I'm excited for this. Me too.

Likewise. Um it's it needs to be done and you know we've all talked about this so yeah. Um all right. So with that I entertain a motion to authorize the town administrator to sign the agreement and associated documents for finishing of the pickle ball basketball court at Hathway Park. I'll make that motion. Second. All those in favor? I I. Now comes the hard one. [laughter]

Agenda item number 19. discussion vote on which colors to use for the pickle ball basketball court at Hathaway Park. So, um in in your packet, we got a whole bunch of different colors. Um a bunch of different stuff. And here and on there, it does show some of the colors. I was wonder I saw that on your bag. I was wondering what that

Yeah, I got this fancy little thing. And this is actually the blue color that you'll see in some of that stuff. And I actually like this blue color. Um, and I'll I'll give my personal bias as to why I think that it's going to stand out a little bit more and we we do want the court to stand out away from the grass and stuff. So, um, if you ask me, my vote is on this this blue right here. But, um, you know, I think you need two colors for the main courts, like one for the pickle ball, one. This is This is one of those decisions we'll get dragged for. [laughter] In front of each of you, you have how do you think you're making it this drawing in front of you? We'll just show you like how many colors you're going to need to pick. Okay. Can we just go with with exactly what they provided and say, "Hey, this is how it goes."

Red, white, and blue. So, the the this diagram that you're seeing here actually is lined for both basketball and pickle ball. So, I'm okay with that lining, right? Because it kind of makes it universal. Um to to Lann's point is I guess then we need two different colors. We need that internal and that external. So what do we want to do as far as colors internal and then external? I don't like this color. And I guess if I was going to do this color then do we do it on the outside for contrast to the grass? So then what do we do for the inside? I don't know.

Kind of like the red, white, and blue look. blue core, red, white lining, and then the red on the the outskirts or interior. What's the company called? Sports court. [snorts] I definitely think that pickle ball itself should be blue, right? Playing basketball, playing pickle ball, the more colors you have, the easier it is to uh score and everything else. You don't want to be scoring from the kitchen area, which is a pickle ball term. I'm not trying to sound sexist when I say this, but having three guys try and pick out colors for something is quite hilarious. I [laughter] was thinking to myself, I'm color blind. I'm color blind on top of that. So, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. I like the blue and red. That is my favorite. Blue and red. Blue and red. Blue and red. See it down on the bottom right? I like that. Like here. Yeah. Looks good. I I like that. And then it has the white lines. Yeah. Um red, white, and blue. So it's the the inter So it's actually the interior is blue, the exterior is red. I think it looks sharp. I'm okay with that, right? Cuz then it does it still gives the contrast and makes the car pop. So I like that. So yeah. All right. Red, white, and blue. Red. Let's run with it. America. All right. So um agendas. So the blue the red color is uh bright red and bright blue. Is that where we're going?

Yeah. There is terracotta. Deb, you like terracotta instead of bright red? It looks the same to me. Actually, yeah, we have that in that single sheet cuz then I should I call out the colors? Do I need to call out the colors or Oh, it's probably terracott. What was that? Trevor's got them. I like the bright because I'm half blind, but right there it will pop. Yeah. This is the terracotta, right? But I think we kind of like the bright. Yeah, they're going bright blue. Want a little brighter? Yeah, it looks it looks pretty.

All right. So, I'm going to run with it. So, I entertain a motion that we choose bright red for the external perimeter of the court and bright blue for the internal color with white lines. Motion made. Second. All those in favor? I. Excellent. Oh, I'm going to get our bread. Don't mind me. [laughter]

Okay. Thank you very much. Um, so I guess just sign now, right? Sign. Sign. It's just me, right? This is also study.

This one right here.

Just me. That's which is just that and this one is

all three of us. Correct. What did it smell last week? Right. Like what was it? A small jumper coming. JP [snorts] has 60 something inches. Yeah. 60 in. JP has have they've gotten this this year they've gotten over 60 in. I mean they don't have that in depth because it's like melted in. No thank one before Halloween. Yep. Couple years ago.

It felt cold when I was walking in here tonight. It's cold this morning. This was the first day I started my car out of and everything. I am exhausted. is good. Maybe is good. All right. So, with that, I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn. Motion made. Second. All in favor?

I I Wow, that was a good one.

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