Permanent Cable Committee - Regular Meeting

Call meeting to order at 07:03.

May I ask the Chairman?

Yes, sir.

I'd like to make a motion to accept the minutes of our meeting of 01/21/2026 as submitted.

You did that for the last one too.

I did?

Yeah. Says right in the house.

Absolutely. It's a habit.

Motion was made. Anybody wanna second it? Second.

I'll second it. Thank

Thank you. You, Donna and Bob. Alright. For all the paperwork taken care of for the changing Donna's name in the first one. Was all that taken care of.

I think so.

Donna's name was spelled wrong.

Was spelled. Yep. In November. Was that a Yes. Yes. It was.

Did Laurie did Laurie take care of that?

I took care of it.

You took care of it. Okay? I did. So motion was made and seconded. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any. All so passes.

There's nobody abstained. Okay. The second page on the thing. What's a I don't have an agenda in front of me.

Okay. So I have on our iPads the FY 2627 budget up next. So what I did was I included the letter we got from the director of finance from Sue Nickerson. She sent a letter memo per your request to serve as notification of the transfer of the funds from the PEG access and cable fund to the town of Middleborough General Fund for FY twenty six to cover salary, not to not indirect cost. It's just salary. And the amount of the transfer is $87,126. So

we need

to get the money. Right? Jesus.

And

I also needed approval for the f y twenty seven budget. Sorry. Yeah. It's at the wrong page. I redid the layout so you could see what was the budget for FY '26, the budget for FY '27 requested.

I included the breakout of the $65.35 town McCann split on the line item for the regular pay director. So the total I would need approved is $453,076.85 for the f y twenty seven budget.

Mister chairman, I can make a motion to approve the FY '27 budget. 453,076, is that

Yeah.

And 85¢. This is reflecting.

Yeah. Motion to make a second.

Second. I'll second. That's better.

Motion to be made in double seconded. Any discussion?

Just one question. Since you transferred this money, we lose the interest on it.

We we don't.

We don't get interest. You don't?

This is a town account. It's like a revolving account.

Okay. So this is the only amount of money that will come out of the budgets. Is that correct? For town?

This is the the amount that we're transferring for the salary split. Yes. We're not doing any other. That's just for FY '26. Yes.

Karen Karen gets paid by the town and gets paid by us?

I get paid. Yeah. My check comes from the town, and then the funds from the cable fund reimburses the town Okay. For that amount.

Let's see. This came from.

Nickerson.

Nickerson. This covers that Can you the insurance situation that we have for years and years?

It because of the whole media department being in in here now, we don't pay any additional indirect costs. Costs. Okay. Okay. Oh, that's Nick calling. Uh-oh.

But it did say to cover salary and indirect costs.

Can you just Is

there a question?

Ahead, Bob. Do have a question?

Yeah. Because way back when, the town manager at that point,

you know, signed any of these guys, Mhmm.

Wanted to take over

I got the the

entire cable, including the money. Okay. I can hang

up That didn't happen? I

know it didn't happen.

And keep you on phone.

That doesn't necessarily preclude anybody from taking Would

you rather me just keep her on the phone? Okay? We both on

the phone.

It it would be a high hurdle. A very, very high hurdle.

Every Yes. Just so you know, every year when we put our budget into the town meeting

I know she's also that

it can be spent. They have nothing they can say about it. They can't change anything. Right. But they we put it in for expenditure. The language is in there that the board of selectmen have appointed the permanent cable committee, the only ones that can expend this money. So nothing can go unless we pay it. Okay. So that 87,000 is 87 is it 84 No. 87. This next year is actually the money that we're paying, Karen. Okay. Excuse me. But the town is paying, Karen. And

I'm gonna keep you right here, Nick. Sorry, Todd. I got Nick on the phone now. Don Donna's gone. Okay.

Couldn't have a conference call.

I don't know how to do that with the phone like that.

So the the money coming out doesn't mean anything because we we seal it by doing it within the budget every year. And so the current cable company can only be the one to expend it. But, again, Karen is being paid by the town 65% Yep. And by us, 35%.

Oh, but Gotcha.

Yeah. We're making out on it.

Does she know that

It's actually the opposite, Bob. The town pays the 35%.

Okay.

Pays 65.

Does miss Nicholson know that this money after this goes through?

Yes. Okay.

That there's no way that the town can take the money from the cable? Yes. Okay. Yes.

Alright. She's been there for how many years? Three years now, Karen?

Yeah.

So she this isn't her first year even though McGill's all done this this Friday.

Yesterday.

Yesterday. And Joe Perkins is now the town manager interim town manager. The old police chief. You know that. Right, Bob?

Oh my god.

Anyways, Steve made the motion. It's been seconded. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all in favor? Aye. Aye.

Thanks, Nick.

Thank you, Nick.

Any abstentions? Any go re negative, it passes.

He has a nice plan to up on.

So I'm just gonna go back a couple pages. We're gonna just go back to our budget for our current budget. I just wanted to give a total where we stand. I have not received the February payment from Comcast yet. I'm assuming it's because of the snowstorm, so I'm waiting for that.

I did receive a payment from Verizon. Mhmm. We got franchise fee for the fourth quarter, which is basically end of last year, of $50,780.53 from Verizon. Comcast will probably be about the same amount, maybe a little bit more. So that brings our total account balance, which includes the 87,126 for my salary being taken out. Our account balance is $7.00 $2.06 81 and 49¢.

Okay. Okay?

Mhmm. Hey. I can we I apologize. That's why I made the mistake. But, Karen, that line that says regular pay under the next year's budget,

Which

Regular paid director, 65% town. No. 35%. Doesn't say who. Like Steve said, it should have been two lines.

But I didn't put the third so the line is regular pay director 65% is that amount, the $84.05 85 slash That's cut. Slash town thirty five percent and forty five. That that's supposed to be just it's separate on its own. I didn't wanna put that in the breakout of that line item because it's not really part of the budget. Like, do you know what I mean? You told me to put it in there so you could see it, but I didn't know.

That's the that's the only line that bothers me the way it's written. Alright. That's why I said what I said.

So you want me to make it a separate line item and then do a negative forty five five forty five out of on that blue part.

What do you think, Steve?

I was thinking of different ways we could do it. You could do it in parentheses, or you could do it just a separate line with parentheses just to continue the line across and just as the second line just say parentheses town share 35% or 45,000

Okay.

Five forty five ninety four, something along those lines. Just so that it shows bing bing. You

know? Okay.

Because that

What is That confused the cam share? 35%?

65.

So then that's what that's what's confusing me because it says 65% slash town.

Yeah. So

slash say 65% slash McCann.

Well, I put the slash in and break it out so the town 35%, 45 would be on its own, and that the 65 would be the full line. I see what you're saying.

That would be the Yeah. The actual the extension option.

I just added in so if I had just written regular pay director, 35% town with that amount, and then 65% at the end, it would say that next to the 84.

Correct. Put it that that way.

Just just to show

Alright. I'll show it a different way next time.

It's been accepted the way it corrected. Steve, can you make a motion to accept it as amended?

Do you want to amend it right now?

Cameron's gonna take care of it, she said. Okay. Because she has to get this she has to get this in, Steve.

Okay.

That's why she's doing it tonight.

Okay. I'll make a motion to amend, what is it, line one hyphen five one zero zero zero one as as we've spoken to delineate the difference between the McCann portion and the town portion of Karen's salary. I think we understand how we can do that.

Yep. I'll rewrite it.

Motion's been made. Any seconds? Second. Motion's been made and seconded. Any further discussion? Hearing none on the amended vote. All in favor?

Aye.

Aye. Any opposed? Any abstention? It passes. So the amended amount, Karen, is passed. So you change it, and it's already been passed. You can submit it.

Okay.

That work for you? Yep. I'm I'm sorry. That that one and even after I went by, they said it just doesn't read right. Okay.

Yeah. It it was on it on first look, it was a little confusing. Karen helped to explain it, but I think we can make it even simpler.

Thank you.

Yep. The next sheet I have is the education breakout of their 20%. Because we haven't got Comcast yet, I've only got Verizon in there. So that brings up another $10,156.12 for MET to use. So their remaining balance, I did take out the reimbursement for the entries that we'll be voting on later out of this and the service call that he had for his audio issue. So his remaining balance available is $28,762.02.

Okay.

The next thing on the agenda I have is the notice that we got from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts regarding our Verizon renewal licenses expiring in March 2029. They give us a three year notice. So we need to figure out what we're gonna do as far as our Verizon negotiations. I know Triano is not gonna be doing it anymore. I didn't know if you wanted me to reach out to the other guys that

He isn't going be I just met with him two weeks ago, and he said he was gonna do one. He is? This one.

Okay. I thought he was I thought he was done. Okay. So I'll send him the letter then if you want, and you can let me know if he's gonna or not. If you if that's what the board Yeah. No. Committee wants.

What we need to do is just crack the letter saying that needs to come from the, though.

From the issuing party.

Is Yes, sir.

This is Verizon and they're probably just going to say they want another five years. Same terms for another five years. As they've already warned us, you know, if they hadn't modified their their contract already, they'll go for another five years under the same terms.

Well, we could ask alright. And new capital would be part of that five years.

Absolutely. Yep.

So it does say, as the issuing authority, you may begin the process of determining your community cable related needs and review Verizon's performance under the current license. It's you must notify Verizon if you elect to begin the ascertainment process. You may also be required to begin the ascertainment process if you receive notice from Verizon invoking the formal renewal process. You must begin the ascertainment process within six months of receiving such notice. So I haven't received anything from Verizon yet, but this is just the Commonwealth telling us that the we're we're there.

You know,

they Okay. Let me let me talk to Bob before we do anything. I'll make sure that he's still gonna do it because he was doing my trust when I mentioned.

Steve did notice that the notice that was sent was missing page 10. So I did reach out to the secretary sorry, the administrative assistant to the select board to let them know that page 10 was missing. She just had forwarded this in an email to me, but she didn't say where it came from. I assume it was Mike Gala. Oh, no. It's Verizon. It would have been the new one.

Yeah. Whoever it is. Yeah.

So not Mike Gala.

No. They

I have the new name,

but I

don't have it off the top

of my head.

Yeah. I know who you're talking about,

Bill. Not Niles.

Yeah. He had left, unfortunately.

No. He's gone. Yeah. It's probably the the lawyer that was very the sort it's gonna be. Nothing else.

Yep.

Yeah. No. It's a woman.

Oh, good. The

the replacement for the Verizon representative, cable negotiation representative. So

We should find out if

And it's at page 11 too. Okay. It goes 912.

No. That's an 11. Zoom in. Yeah.

It would be nice if if Bob Triano was with us on this one, or we can we we know what they're gonna say. And I'm not sure if a full ascertainment's gonna get us anymore. But

I think we just, you know, keep what we got and ask for just to continue.

That's because they they

were given,

so just you know?

They split what Comcast gave us because Comcast was ten years, and they wanted to be five. So they split that cut that capital. Yep. So they'd have to give us the capital. They gave us same exact. Absolutely. Yep. But let's

Yeah. Talk to Bob and let me know.

Yeah. The other side of it too is who did you wanna go with if we if we don't have if Bob doesn't?

The the other person I know of is Bill Solomon. He negotiates a lot of the He's a

he's a

mother. Communities on behalf of the communities.

Oh, he that's what we were talking about before the All over at Southeast What

what one of those people? Solomon.

I guarantee, like, it's rare to have anybody but

him do it. So

and he's active because I've been on mass access, and people have talked about it. And he's spoken up on mass access, the the forums, and said, you know, reach out to him. So he's pretty active online and in touch with a lot of the PEG studios.

Okay.

I won't say anything to him, though. I'll get his information, but I won't we'll wait to hear from Bob.

Well, I mean it's all about. We it it's a vote of the committee if they wanna stay with Bob. Or I'll go and do something new. I just figured

I think this will be an easy one. I hope I mean, I really think it should just mirror what we have.

Yeah. We could fight and kick and scream forever. Ago. But I don't think we're gonna get anything.

Two years ago? It was really two years ago.

Seems longer.

We signed two years ago.

Yeah. We we started the process before, but they've already said that they, you know well, we asked the question then. You know, what happens if you haven't modified your contract? Before then, they said, well, we'll just continue an extension of what you have now. So I would say

That's what that's what Neil said.

Let's see what he says. You know, what mister Treano says. And

Yeah. I'll ask him because I gotta ask him some questions about something else personal. Okay.

You ready to move on to the next thing?

Always.

Alright. So we have well, I have an email that well, it's not an email. It's an invoice from Adam for the entries that he paid for Mhmm. For his students. It was a 100 and

$150.

$50. He would like to be reimbursed

for Did we cover that in the last meeting? No. I sort of

That was a different thing. Oh, okay. Yeah. He was reimbursed, but it was for a different.

Okay. So he's looking for a $150, and that's to him personally?

Yes.

Okay. Mister chairman would like to make a motion to reimburse Adam for a $150 for Entries. Entries for the NATAS student awards, Boston, New England chapter.

Second.

Motion been made and second to pay reimburse Adam a $150, and it's been seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions passes?

I wish him a lot of luck. I hope they bring back all kinds of awards.

Just somebody's already done this in a camp?

Yeah. He does these all year. He does. He gets a lot of awards, though, too. So I did actually send him a link to some other awards through the the the not the regional. The Alliance for Community Media has Good. An awards for, and they have all kinds of categories, a lot of student productions. So I sent it to him if he was interested, but haven't heard back. I do have one small invoice that I got probably 05:00. It's the annual invoice from Mass Access for our membership.

It's $100 if you want to. It wasn't it's not in the packet because it it was so late.

Okay. Mister chairman, like to make a motion to pay this invoice for mass access community media membership for one year for $100.

Second.

I mean, does that motion's been made in the second and discussion. Karen, how many people does that cover?

That is for all of us. That's that's for our the membership for McCann. Okay. And what's great is, hopefully, we'll get some conferences coming up that we can introduce Joe to. Yes. Hey, Tom. Sure. So that's it.

Motion. Second. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? It passes. After hours?

Yep. So as, you know, you and Steve both know, I was talking to you about our badge, key card entry system that is end of life, I guess you'd call it. The system that works off of Windows is no longer supported. So, currently, our badges, I cannot update, add badges, or take badges off our system. I also cannot you know, if somebody lost a badge, I can't disable the badge.

And we're not getting a list of who's coming and going. The system's just not connecting to. So I reached out to our facilities manager in town who has a system at the town hall, and he has this company that he uses after hour systems. I think his name was Jared. And he came in and checked out our system and gave us a he's given us a quote to upgrade it, the control system, replacing these existing access card system, reprogram, and do all the tests needed for this building.

It's re it says replacing existing access card system. Yeah. Does that mean the cards are no good?

These cards that we have, we'll just have to put them into the program that he's putting in. So it's we only have about 25. I was telling Steve, like, 25 or 30 different people, so it's not that big of a deal. It's not like we have 100 But

you said it's only covering eight?

Eight? That's how many spots we have where you can hit the card. You know what I'm saying? The doors. 123456. And then that town. Yeah. That's eight.

For this system, it's the two door access. This is enough for us here? Yeah. Okay.

That's not the that's not how many cards they're giving me.

Oh, no. No. It's just it's a

Yeah. I got

two door access control system. Seems like it would be one door and then another door, but we've got two doors there. Do we have access?

Two door access system, the two replacement. It was just like a card system. I don't know what eight is. No. Don't know. I thought it was the little things where you hit the badge on it because we have two on that door. We have two on those doors. That's only, like, four. So I don't know.

Wanna get some clarification on

that before?

Not covering it's not covering town hall too, is it?

No. Because they've already got there. I yeah. I just noticed that. So Just yeah.

Get some clarification on that and handle that at the next meeting if you if you get the information we need.

Yeah.

Does the system now let take you let you walk in, Karen? You and

Yeah. We can get in and out. I'm cons and the people I just can't assign any new cards to anybody

Okay.

Or disable any cards.

Well, if it comes in and if it's necessary, it's

Yeah.

Just over 3,000. So did we increase our figure, Steve? Do you remember?

I think we may have.

That sounds In '5?

I five comes to mind. Yes.

So if after, we could do it and then bring it back next month. Mhmm. Steve and I could do it. Okay. You know? If once it's just a replacement. Yeah. It says 8. I just don't I can't pitch eight things there.

Let me let me I'm

gonna text Matt right now.

Who are you calling?

I'm gonna text Matt and ask him.

Replacement of existing access card system, but it's with a two door access control system. I don't know. It's it's it's written strangely.

Jay, I got nothing to do all day so I pick these things up.

See, you should have plenty of time to do it. Oh, yeah. I got tons. Yeah. I shovel

Why why you're down in Kutuah? You had four days, didn't you?

I shovel snow. Oh. You should get a snowball. I I should. I know where it is.

What type is it?

It's time for a new one.

What type is it? That's a good question. I haven't used it in so long. It's it it just sits in the in the garage and sits and sits and sits until it goes to the repair shop and never comes back.

You do the one right in Wareham Street?

No. No. Okay. Alright.

So we'll go we'll skip that one.

You want you wanna you wanna cover the second part of the after hours?

Yeah. The other estimate quote is to connect the monitor that I repurposed out of the control room and put into my office to have connection to our security cameras so I can see who's at the door in the hall or wherever from my desk. This is a quote for a cable and the HDMI splitter system. The monitor's already provided. And

the labor for the Yeah.

So the total for that is $532.50.

Okay. Mister chairman, I'd like to make a motion to accept the estimate from after hour system. Their estimate number $1.00 $4.04 2 or $532.50 to run a cable to

Karen. Second.

Motion to be made and second. Excuse me. Motion to be made and second. Any further discussion on it? Hearing none. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any abstentions? It passes. Thank you, Nick. I heard you.

Okay. The next quote looks like a really long list of items. It's actually two systems. I am taking back my request on the first part of it. I decided we the data video automated presentation kit.

We don't really need a kit. I was looking for a singular camera that can do the voice tracking that we can can connect to our current switcher that we purchased a couple years ago. So I'm gonna remove that $3,369.60 off of this quote. The second item is the Nikon z eight mirrorless cam camcor with the lens and the all the little items that come with it, it consists of so that is $6,547.30.

What was that number again, Karen?

$6.05 $4.07 3 and 30¢.

And 30 pennies. Okay. $6.05 $4.07 Yeah. 30¢. Okay.

That includes it it's a movie maker kit similar to the last one we purchased. I am trying to get more of these kits for McCann. And so we'll have the camcorders that like, we we have now, the the four k JVCs and

the

Panasonics. On the surplus list, you'll see I wanted to donate some of the older ones to Adam to use for the the elementary school. Mhmm. We'll see that later. So I

I noticed when I was looking through this earlier, a lot of this stuff could get backlighted on you because it's they listed country of origin in China. Yeah. I'm like, oh, boy.

Well, you know, that's what happened the last time I bought all that equipment. Remember? They have the they have the tsunami out there, and everything was back ordered. So it gets here when it gets here. It's not like we don't have other cameras. I just I have some projects I'm gonna work on, and I thought this would be a fun thing for

Will this work the way you were telling me about it it somebody's talking?

Oh, that's that's the that's that's not this this camera, the $6,000 one is just a, like, a camcorder, DSLR camcorder

K.

To take out and shoot events and not

necessarily meeting. That kit was the one that did the automation. Right?

Yeah. I do have another quote for just the camera, and it's $450. So that's a lot better than 3,300. So I do wanna try that try that out with our current switcher. So my request for this quote would be to just purchase the Nikon z eight kit, which is $6,547.30.

Okay. Mister chairman, I'd like to make a motion to accept the quote from b n h one one two seven four four one zero four nine as modified to $6,547.30.

Second. Motion's been made and seconded to accept the the cameras from BH.

You wanna do this separately?

Yeah. Okay. Any discussion? No. Second. Hearing hearing none, all in favor?

Aye.

Aye. Any abstentions? It passes.

And mister chairman, I'd like to make another motion to accept a quote from B and H. Their quote 1127659925 for a camera.

This is for the the voice activated camera that

Yep.

Is just separated out of that kit. Okay.

And that would be $450.66.

Second. Motion been made and seconded. Any further discussion? Drink a lot. Okay. Hearing none. All in favor?

Aye.

Aye. Thanks, Nick. Alright. Matt did get

back passes.

Sorry. Matt did get back to me. He said he'll take a look at the quote and get clarification from Jared, but he think he said something about being two modules per point on that's why there's eight instead of four.

K. Okay. Let's

So that makes sense.

Find out what that's all about.

Yeah. So I'll go So

that even covers the front door that goes into the town hall? Yeah. Can it?

Yeah. That's we've always had it access.

Outside door?

The two outside doors on both sides, self main and center, and the two interior doors.

Okay.

Okay. Dell Technology. Dell Technology.

Yeah. So this was interesting. Every year, this is, like, such a headache to deal with Dell.

When did my second go? He went to get water. Second go?

He'll be back.

He went to get a water.

Oh, okay.

So in this year's episode of my dealings with Dell, every year, they have a new person that I get a deal with. Of course. So this is to purchase our software software that we use to do all our editing

and Adobe Creative.

Of our Adobe suites. Yeah. So I told them I'd like to add two more users. So we had five. I wanted to add seven. And she got back to me, and she said, well, if you purchase through the government purchase systems for the state of Massachusetts, they have this level if you look at this quote, it says level LGA level nine. She said, you can get it for significantly less money. And I said, well, I've always been told I've been ordering through the government. And she's like, oh, well, you are, but you're at this level two. And if you have you have to have over a 100 people in your group and all this stuff.

And I said, what does this mean? Like, can I she says, you can change and order with the group, the state, and you can get your products that you want for the $7,908.33? I said, well, will that change anything that we have currently? Because we save a lot of information for our software in the programs. And she says, absolutely not. Everything's you know, they won't lose anything. It's they'll just log in with a different same user, same equipment. I said, alright. So I just wanted to show you. They call it the enterprise, if you look to the far right, an enterprise account versus the team's account.

Mhmm. So my request is to allow me to purchase the enterprise account for the seven users for the all apps edition and the four users of just the for me a pro. So I can You

want the level nine?

I want I want the enterprise. Yeah. The $7,908.33.

Is that a direct This is purchase with to Dell? Or

So this is a purchase through Dell, and then Adobe sends me Yep. The certificates. They my it expires on April 1, so I wanted to make sure we didn't lose access to our software. Okay. Because you can't buy the software anymore. You have to buy a license.

Well, mister chairman, I'd like to make a motion to purchase the enterprise product of Dell Technologies for Adobe, which would be LGA level nine, and that would be for $7,908.33, Karen?

Yes.

That'll be a direct purchase from Dell is there an identifying number on here? There's a Not that

I can see unless you use those ones way back at the beginning that say manufactured pod.

You can just say quote created for me from a cam on 3326.

The the quote from 3326. The

From Kylie Thomas.

From Kylie Thomas. Yeah. Second.

Motion's been made in second. Karen, it doesn't change the format or anything. Correct?

Nope. I'm just adding two users so we can set up all of our laptops and the workstations we have in the other room. So when we have more people coming in, they have their own user ID.

Okay. Motion to be made and seconded. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all in favor? Aye.

Any opposed? It passes. I'm sorry. I was trying to get a nick.

He's there.

I know. I fell asleep.

The last item in the packet is our surplus list, and I was going through the list with Steve before the meeting. Some of the items most of the items are items that were in the Selectman's meeting room before we upgraded that system back during COVID. Alright. Yeah. So that stuff was just sitting here on the floor, and Joe had some fun going through all of our assets, figuring out what's being used, what's not being used, what's sitting there, what can we use. So in order to give it away or dispose of it, we have to surplus it. So that's the majority of what's on this list. Some things

And that's a request through the to the Selectmen. Correct?

That's the stuff.

Doesn't have to be, though.

Right? It's through you. It's I just Yeah.

Because they don't they didn't pay for any of this.

No. Because we're a town department, technically, our funds are through the town. The PEG Access Fund, we have to surplus that. But you it's you that does that, not the Select board.

Does it cost anything to surplus it to get rid of it, Karen?

Depends if you're sending it to a recycler or not. Or I know Tara has the IT department has equipment that she shreds, and I think they actually pay her. So because they they get the metals and whatever from it.

I I noticed that they have electronic surplus recycling days occasionally, but you have to pay Yeah.

You'd have to pay for those. What I'm thinking, if there is something that's not damaged, I mean, I'll put the list out there, but I could just let other people at Mass Access know what we have. Like, say somebody does want a modulator. You know?

Well, I mean We gotta I already see I already see two cameras going to

And it's Yeah. That's I did block those off for him because he I talked to him, and he said that would be great.

And that'd be good for the new school, as you said.

Yeah. The kids you know, they they're still good cameras, and they're not brand new, but, you know, having a fifth or sixth grader using them.

We'll see if see if they're surplus to other systems. You know, they're

And then the audio board the

Need a motion.

The audio board, hold on, was I talked to Brentwood School about them. Oh, okay. They they were upgrading their audio board, and I said, well, I have one that's perfectly fine. It's actually more than what we need.

Mhmm.

It was overkill from the get go. I said, you're welcome to it, but I need to get it surplus first.

That'd be perfect for them. Absolutely. Need a motion?

Yes, please.

Okay, Mr. Chairman, I'd like to make a motion that the list of equipment that Karen has provided be considered surplus and disposable.

Say a second? Second. Motion's been made and seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Thank you very much. It passes. So, Karen, you're gonna take care of getting it surplused out to Yep. Willow?

Yep. I do have some studio updates that you know, they're just things I didn't wanna tell you. So Joe has a phone. Big news. LCN, I asked I requested a couple phones, and they dropped them off. So he has a new phone. I put another one in the workshop room. So

You gotta need something to talk on? Yep.

I know. We get that. The rotary auction is set to go off this month. They are going online only for their bidding through the bidding bidding owl that they've always used. For more information, you can get that on the McCamp Facebook page or go to rotarymiddleboroughrotary.com.

And I also wanted to update you. We did Joe and I have a plan for our summer workshops, and we're hoping to get some kids that are interested in videos to come to the studio. And instead of just having them learn the basics with, you know, raw footage that they create, we actually have a project idea that we've been tossing around to do some business reels for local downtown merchants where the kids can go and work with different businesses to create almost like a little commercial advertising. Not necessarily, like, come on and buy something, but we did these business reels last year with the office of community development. And there were a lot of businesses in town that really appreciated having those out there.

They could share them. It would give the students at our workshop something to focus on and learn skills about basically selling themselves in a product and how they do something, but also learning the skills. Joe's gonna teach them how to use the camera and how to edit, and we'll get a finished product out of it and work with our community and our neighbors here in the downtown. So that's that'll be fun.

Who's gonna teach Joe all this stuff?

Joe knows this stuff. He's he's planning he's already making his graphics and filling figuring out what he's gonna do with the program and what what days are gonna be best and try to reach out, get Adam to notify his students and maybe some kids at the high school that didn't get into the program that are interested in in it. So we're we're still working on that part. But I do have a meeting K. March 25 with the planning community development and the merchants.

They have a bunch of different things that they're working on, but I wanted to be able to throw this out there to them at that point. The other thing I have is our studio update report that Zach put together for our January, February 2026. Our current access users, we have six, not including Joe and Lori who are employees and subcontractors. We have currently six active users. We've been doing the local loop podcast in January, February.

We did episodes eighteen, nineteen, 20 through 23. They were all released. There were two recording days on January 26 and February 23. Those both but both got canceled because of snowstorms, but we were able to get some local loop podcasts on edited and out the door. We did have the goat podcast.

We recorded another episode four for them on well, they recorded it on January 27, but they have not edited a version to give to us to play back yet. I think they have something edited that they've been airing on YouTube. The twenty seventh and final episode of off the record with Jay McBrayl, the town manager, was a special extended version. He sat down with Neil Rosenthal. And Good. Good. It was a really it was a nice show. Jay's leaving for Harwich. He's last his last day was yesterday. Let's see.

The other program we have, we're doing with Rebecca Mitchell.

So are they doing coffee with Joe?

I told Joe I did warn that. So I had my media my media budget here meeting with the Select board on Monday, and Joe was sitting right next to me. And I before I left, I said, Joe, we need to get you in the podcast room, and I need to take your picture for the newsletter. And he's just like, oh. He didn't seem to be a fan of that, but we'll see.

We'll see where where if I can get him in the podcast room. The other program we have is the pulse with the the public health nurse, Rebecca Mitchell, and she came in to record episode five. We don't have anything currently scheduled with her, but she's been busy planning a community baby shower.

Really? A what?

A community baby shower. So the town's taking donations, if not some the weekend of third weekend in March, they're doing a baby shower at the town hall. Oh. K. Other updates. A live streaming workflow was established to broadcast meetings directly to the Cablecast system using equipment we already have at the station. This new workflow allows us to go live anywhere that has a reliable Wi Fi connection. So we tested that out last Thursday. That was the first day we did that Mhmm. For the select board meeting at the police station.

We'll be doing it again on Monday for the select board school committee joint hearing meeting about their budget at Nichols Middle School. And then a week from then, we're gonna have the candidates night live from the COA. So we've got three live shows in

Very cool.

One month. Let's see. We let's see. Zacks has centralized DVD creation along with our DVD archive project to support staff expansion and increase use of the DVD archiving system. The former CG laptop laptop that was upgraded to Windows 11 and repurposed as a dedicated DVD printing workstation.

The DVD printer works more reliable on Windows. Staff can now access a laptop via remote desktop, any computer on their network to print DVDs. So that's our studio update. And the last thing I have is an update from the Plymouth County retirement appeal that I placed. You wanted to talk about that, Bob? I did Yeah. I did talk to an attorney today, and I sent him all my documents. He's out of West Brint Water. He came recommended by Steve. He seems really nice and very He's a good Very

good guy.

And he's gonna give it a go for you know, look at my documents and see what what we can do. I haven't

The reason asked Karen to bring it up was it wasn't because she she should have been paid back in the day from the town. Roger had it going through a temp company even though she was working pretty much you're working full time. Correct, Karen?

Yeah.

It's just for the purpose of taxes being taken out, and then we'd end up having to pay the temp company. So and then they were trying to come up with a job description for her, and that was back when Charlie Cristello was town manager, if I'm right, Karen. Yep. And I just think that we should give Karen, like, up to x number of dollars to get this cleared up or straightened away. She is an employee of McCann, and now she, you know, works part you know, partially for the town.

But she shouldn't have lose any of her beginning time, which was, what, almost a year, Karen?

It was a year and eight months.

So that's a long time, and the town dragged their feet doing the job description because it was between the town manager and, they they really didn't

The unit too, if I remember. Right?

Yeah.

But I'd like to put a, you know, a cap on it. She doesn't whether she spends it or she doesn't spend it all, just to get the research done if she does have a case. And then from there, I think we can go forward. But I put it back onto the cable committee because they were the ones that didn't get involved with it because Roger Brunell and nothing against Roger. He was doing what he thought best at the time.

He should have made her a town employee. You know? I wish she was working all these hours because the union came to me many times because I was chairman back then, and they came to me many times and says that she should be in the union. And that's saying, tell the town manager that because he was dragging his feet because the town manager in the union would try to come up with a job description. Actually, I think it was Jean Spaulding and a lady that was over in can't think of her name.

Ruth.

Ruth. Ruth Jeffries. We're the ones that were doing the job description.

So in that year and eight months, I did not get paid any vacation time or any time off. I took time off, but I was unpaid.

Is this through the State Retirement System? Plymouth County. Plymouth County?

So what I'm requesting is to buy back my time. So I'm actually gonna pay them. And

then you get

the time. Yeah. But I also would was asking if they could reestablish my start date to be the March Whenever you started, you know. Twenty first or whatever it was. I can't remember off the top of my head. Because in April '22 2012, six months prior to me getting Mhmm. They changed the rules on in Plymouth County retirement. So you have to be older to retire. You get a lesser percentage when you retire. Like, all the rules change if you were hired after April 12 versus hired before April 12 April 2012.

Oh, it's not your fault that the the town manager at the time dragged his feet

No. I know.

On on this appointment. It's it's not like It

came down to it came down we sent we had sent letters, which I'll I'll continue looking, Karen, within my files because I sent letters to Charlie to get your job description done so that you could become, you know, a town employee paid for by McCann, and we'd take care of everything. They're just gonna pay it with we're gonna take care of the insurance and everything. That was a vote of the committee back then, but we have to go back in the minutes to find that. The department itself research on that. I don't think they go back that far.

They they go back. If if I'm

not mistaken, they go back to the old tape days. Am I right?

No. It wouldn't be tape. It would we we weren't taped, Bob, back then. Say it again, please.

They weren't recorded.

We we were not recorded back then.

The other thing is all my emails that I had through Yahoo and all that before they we created the you know, before 2017. I don't

have access to any of those emails. I know. It's a shame. Can go. That's a shame.

But I've got I've got things that you might try and get through.

Dan, could you write to Yahoo and ask them if you could get emails that at your email address, you know, prior to x x, y, and z? I'm just saying Yahoo sometimes will open it up if

Okay.

You know, might have to do some paperwork to bother, but I think Yahoo is pretty good.

Okay. I'll give it a shot.

So But, I mean, that's just for documentation. What I need from the committee is to make a vote, to a certain amount if they wanna do it. And it's my it's my feeling that we should do it. It's a shame. But

Can we I'm supposed to have a meeting with mister Burns miss Burns. Right?

Yes.

When I get back from Florida so he can overs he can give me kind of a ballpark of what he's gonna be able to do and how much it will cost so then I can have a number to

give you. First meeting is free?

Yeah. It's like a consult.

Okay. Well, if you wanna wait till the next meeting, at least the committee now has a good idea with what you're looking for.

Yeah.

March 25. Time to make a motion.

I have to have to wait.

What date do you wanna meet next month?

Well, if you wanna hold.

Will you be here?

So our regular meeting would have been the eighteenth, but that's two weeks from now. So I don't know if you wanna hold off for the twenty fifth or just go do, like, mid April, the April 15, or if that's too long. Why don't we go You can do the April 8?

No. Not well.

To you guys.

Is that a Wednesday?

They're all Wednesdays.

We can do the fifteenth. That's the middle of month.

April 8 is fine. Don't do early?

That's what it's a fourth. So 01/23. That's about four. Yeah. It's about a month. Yeah. We could do we could do the eighth or the fifteenth. Yeah. You

want Okay.

Which date?

Why don't we do the eighth? Because I don't know when school vacation is, and I don't want out of

That's not the

The school vacation's not the week of the fifteenth?

She usually usually at the Twentieth? Yeah. Okay.

It's day weekend, whatever that is. Yeah.

Yeah. That's a good day.

So April 8 is our next meeting?

April 8. Okay.

Okay.

Is this time good? I know you all are retired and all. If you wanted to meet earlier,

we could. I don't know. I may have to wake up in the afternoon.

It's it's tough enough at seven. Oh, jeez. What's a longer day I knew? But it's tough enough at seven for everybody to get in. I mean Okay. Except for Steve who doesn't

I show up

finally get out the He wants a.

I think he was here at four usually. 03:30, 04:00 today.

I had some luck to do. For my mom.

He did his mail.

So he read read a magazine to, you know, check my mail. I make good use of the time.

He was off the Cape as well. He can't. Yeah. Okay. I need a motion.

Mister Chim, make a motion that we adjourn to 04/08/2026 at 07:00.

Done well. I I'll second that.

Thanks. I've been reading up on it.

You've got you've been practicing. I can tell.

Yeah. Yeah.

Motion's been made by Bob Denise.

Whoo. Amazing.

And seconded by Steve.

Warren will appreciate integrity. Great.

All in favor? Aye.