Town Council - Regular Meeting

session. Second. All in favor? I. Motion to seal the executive session minutes pursuant to section 42467 around general law. Second. All in favor? I. Okay. Presentations. Immediat immediately following executive session number two, communication of Emily Sullivan, Middletown uh bicycle and pedestrians advisory committee chair reference to ebike safety and awareness campaign presentation to the town council. Motion to receive communication begin said presentation. Second. All in favor? I I welcome.

Hello. Um thanks for having us. Um Emily Sullivan, chair of the BPAC. With me I have Tucker Holmes, uh, vice chair of the BPAC. Um, so we're here to present um, and look for support from the council for a ebike safety and awareness campaign. Um, I assume you guys have the slides in front of you or should I I don't know if we do. Grace, do you have the presentation? Thank you. Time's up.

All right, there it is. There's no news that ebikes have obviously taken off in the past couple years. Um there's been a huge increase in use uh especially amongst students. Um and coming up on springtime, we thought this was a a great opportunity to try to look at um starting an awareness and safety campaign um to really get some messaging across and share a lot of information that people might not know about ebike um laws and safety practices. Um it's actually something that Newport has has recently started an effort to do. Um so kind of looking for some continuity uh between communities. Um and so looking for support from the council and also feedback on how this can be an effective um campaign approach. Um so the goal of the campaign would be to improve safety and maintain the availability of dependable transportation via ebikes through increased awareness, education, and enforcement. Um, so just going to talk through um the current Rhode Island state ebike laws, a lot of which people don't know there are any. Um, talk about what an ebike is and when something becomes um not an ebike anymore and a modified uh basically motorized vehicle that needs a um license to operate. Some safety statistics um the campaign approach and kind of next steps. Um, so Rhode Island state law does have some ebike um, laws in it, and I'll share on the next slide where it is and why a lot of people don't know where it is because it's in a very non-intuitive place in the laws. Um, but a lot of people don't know that you actually need to be 16 years or older to operate an ebike based on Rhode Island state law. Helmets are required for up to 21 years of age and ebikes are to obey all traffic laws.

Um so it's actually listed under the registration of motorcycles um where that is located in Rhode Island state law. So a lot of people just aren't aware um you know a lot of parents a lot of people just don't know some of the state laws around ebikes um in terms of who should be using them. Next slide. Um so there's three classifications of ebikes kind of getting into what an ebike is. Uh there's class one pedal assist up to 20 miles an hour. Um class 2 pedal assist and throttle up to 20 miles an hour. And then class 3 pedal assist up to 28 miles an hour. Um however, with some very simple and very youtubable um modifications. There are it's very easy to um modify an ebike to reach up to 30 and 40 miles an hour. And at that point it would be no longer considered an ebike and it would actually be classified under US law as a um moped or motorcycle and would require a license to operate. Um and a lot of people just don't know that that um you know whether they don't know that their kids are making these modifications, how they're making these modification and what that means uh in terms of changing the the um bike as it is. Um, so some safety statistics, um, probably not a surprise, uh, and certainly not intended to to scare people, um, but ebike injuries have more than doubled every year, going from 751 in 2017 um, to over 23,000 in 2022. Obviously, a lot of that due to increased use. Um, less ebike riders actually wear helmets than conventional bike riders. Uh the incidents tend to be more severe likely well not likely due to the speed um at which ebikes are moving and a lot of the

top hazards are um with control issues and crashes with motor vehicles um likely due to the fact that people aren't really sure where they're supposed to be riding ebikes. Should they be in the shoulder? Should they be in the lane? Should they be in the sidewalk? Um in the bike lane. So, a lot of confusion on kind of where they're supposed to be and also how drivers should be interacting with them on the road um in comparison to a typical bike. Um so, again, not trying to limit the use of ebikes. Ebikes are are good. Um you know, a lot of trips on this island are less than four miles. Um and it's an distance that's very easily covered by an ebike. They're dramatically less expensive than a car um to both own and operate uh and buy and it's a real realistic transportation alternative and they also give teens and students a sense of responsibility and mobility. Um so they are good but I think those statistics just show that there's a need for some um outreach in terms of safety and how to um and awareness around proper use of them. So, what would this campaign look like? Um, so I mentioned Newport is currently doing a similar approach. The graphics are from their campaign. Um, and we would be looking to kind of come up with our own um our own graphics. But it would start with public outreach and awareness. Uh, you know, keeping messaging on what an ebike is. Um, you know, what the laws around it are. Um, you know, the fact that they should obey all traffic laws. um and and getting that message out to students and other ebike users in the community um to try to just get some consistent messaging and safety awareness around the use of ebikes as a whole. Also looking to provide uh clear

messaging if you go to the next slide. Um you know just very uh simple messaging that's comprehendable. Um, I know we already do a great job of of having all of our public outreach um, uh, bilingual, so also providing it in multiple languages. Um, again, these are from the Newport campaign efforts. Um, but providing resources of where to go to look for more safety information. Um and uh leading into the next one of providing resources, Bike Newport provides free ebike classes um where they talk about the how to properly use an ebike based on the um rules of the road. They also have a bike replacement where if there is somebody who has an ebike that's under the age of 16, they'll offer them a free um regular bike replacement uh until they then become um 16 and able to use the ebike. Um so another option um of providing it and then local partnerships. So, we would really want to make sure that this same messaging is coming across. Um, it could be uh partnering with um the school's resource officers, uh our public affairs, and getting things out via social media. Uh and just making sure the messaging is consistent, whatever graphics or tools we end up using, um getting those out uh to schools um especially. And also, you know, um the I know Newport is actually working with the police department on they'll they'll issue um citations to any ebike users who are under the age of 16, call their parents um and tell them that they shouldn't be on the ebike and they'll refer them to Bike Newport to get a replacement uh in the time being. Um and then next steps. So we would be hoping to work with the town on developing what these graphics look

like. Um and then work on with the police department and the schools on distributing this information to spread this consistent messaging and awareness. Um national bike to school day is coming up on May 6th. Last year uh Kuanas had donated helmets for us to give away and we reached out through the list serve to schools and we gave out um over 70 helmets on national bike to school day or in advance of national bike to school day. So looking to do something similar and also providing this messaging um consistent with that uh effort as well um to get it out to students um who are requesting helmets uh and also to the schools to get out to all students as well. Um that's all I have. I think the last slide is just sources of kind of where those statistics came from. Um but that is how we're kind of hoping to approach this and certainly open to feedback um or discussion or suggestions.

Okay. Nice job. Excellent. Um [snorts] did you want to say something? Yeah, I did. Go ahead. But he did too. No, no, you go ahead.

Okay. I'm I'm just concerned that that um Are you planning to do any kind of a presentation at the high school, for example, frankly, I have my my perception of what the kids do? They're just crazy on it. I [clears throat] mean, they really are. And it seems to me that that some sort of a presentation I I don't want to say to scare them, but at least to to raise their level of awareness would be very important at at a place like the high school and even maybe the middle school. Yeah, we would certainly be open to doing that. I think it would be more meaningful and impactful if we partnered with the police department to help give that presentation in the school resource officer um and had them involved in that discussion as well.

Presentation. I'm talking about something being done in in a big room, you know. Okay. Like not at the schools like a separate event. No, I'm talking about at the school. I mean, we're talking about school age kids. Yep. Yeah. No, I think like doing some type of assembly presentation, but I think having the school resource officer there to kind of provide that help with that would be more [clears throat] impactful as well than just the BPAC. But

yeah, I think what you're going down to it like we used to do this in our high school before prom season. We had a MAD come in and we some of our students would we pretend they were in a car accident. You know what I mean? It was and so like I think what you're saying I I drop my kid off school some days like you're right. They they're crazy. they're driving and maybe they need to see at the high school level what can really happen. You know, they've heard some stories. I mean, some of these kids have we had a soccer player on one of my teams almost lost the spleen over this, you know, some data and some data, you know, about injuries and things like that. Yeah. So, maybe maybe something I like the idea of teaming up with the police department and fire department, too. And,

you know, I don't know. But you're right. The high school level I think needs to see it. Um I do think there's quite a few kids that are under 16 still ride ebikes as well all over the place.

Yeah. And that's it. The Newport schools there um the officer that's you know at at the middle school um has you know approached students directly if they know that they're not 16 or asked them you know how old are you and there's been a conversation with their parents to inform them just let them know because again a lot of parents just don't know that that's a law. Um, so just informing them like, "Hey, your child showed up to school today on an ebike. They're not 16. Um, you're going to need to come pick them up. They can get a bike replacement at Bike Newport to use until they turn 16." Okay, Tom,

I'm just wondering where are ebikes allowed or not allowed in the roadway, sidewalk, lane of travel. So, they are supposed to be obeying all traffic laws. So, they would be in the travel lane. Oh, no. and in the right hand travel lane. Yes. Yeah. Okay. Thank you.

So, um Emily, I was trying to I was taking notes as I was listening to the presentation and um you know how to get the information out there and who to work with and you pretty much hit on all of them. Um public public affairs officer, he's always looking for something good to write andform informationally wise to get out there. Um but that would have to go through Sean, the town administrator. Um, I think it's important maybe I don't know. Do we have anything on the website about ebike regulations or if somebody wanted to find that? I don't I don't know. Maybe that's an maybe that's another area of opportunity. I

I would say yeah, we'll work with I know Chief Ryan had done some work. I want to say Terresa Santos actually had inquired of the police department about ebike rules at one point in time. So I think uh working with Jay and the police department are important. The um the other population which is sort of touched upon but is a major user of ebikes is the uh the hotel and restaurant workers. Um I know in the past I've talked to Barry about this at Bike Newport. Um

you really got to go out at night to talk to the people on those bikes that are, you know, basically on black bikes wearing black clothing, no lights. um [snorts] uh that's the population probably at greatest risk uh because they are [snorts] they are using them uh in the dark uh and they're not visible. Um I know we're focused on the the students, but we have a large population. We do

um you know that uh is not necessarily going to be on our website. Um it's not necessarily going to plug into anything to do with government. Um, so it really is one of those issues where you've got to get out on the main road and and try to contact them or um there's a couple of the church groups down on on Broadway that the uh the different hotel restaurant workers you know go to that you know try to work uh Lori Turner would be good at that and have the contacts with the Spanish community, Brazilian community to uh you know channel communication in that regard which I think is a little different than what what Matt does through the the social media. So,

yeah, that's a good idea. I think it's a good idea to work with some of the hotel ears. Um, you know, the Kakitis, Mr. Kempar has four hotels here as well. Um, I'm sure they know a couple of the other folks that own Holiday and I'm sure those guys all intertwined with each other to be my guest. Um, and I think Sean, you touched on it. One of the things I wrote down was awareness. And you touched on a little bit too, Emily, awareness in different languages because that's important. Um, if we can't communicate, then what good is it, you know? Um, and there's some really good ideas. I think the MPD, as you said, Charlie said, and Barbara, with the uh with the schools, I think you should try and get on the docket for the school committee to be able to make that presentation to get yourself into the schools. Um, I think those would be uh some good starting points. Anyway, any other councils have any other

uh just I just think it's a great idea. I mean, Emily, you going to pair this with regular bike riding as well or is it separate or um our plan is to kind of keep it separate. Um I think there's a important distinction between regular bike use and ebike use. Um so I'd rather kind of keep that as a separate approach just so it's very clear. um you know what safety statistics and um laws apply to ebikes um rather than kind of mix the two. And if you know and I don't expect you to have to know all the stuff, but are there any other safety requirements for ebikes like headlights, brake lights, turn signals, anything like that? Not in the Rhode Island state law. No.

But there is the ability for people to modify their bikes to put those kind of things on them. Correct. Yes. Yeah. I mean, would that be a suggestion that BPAC might get behind? Yeah. especially if they could be traveling at night. Yeah. And maybe [clears throat] if we do a little more digging on safety statistics, struggling with that word. Um and you know, lights versus not having lights, reflective clothing. Um you know, we can certainly include that. And um

um and then you know, I I absolutely agree and I think you alluded to that, working with the school system to get in there and do it. regarding the um the hotel workers you referred to and such. You know, maybe the town could sponsor someday in the spring getting the hotel, you know, owners or developers and come up with one day down the beach or something and do a demonstration setup down there, you know, for that that community to reach out on that the landscapers too, right? Yeah. Yeah. That's another good one. And then another question I had is just because you brought it up, how how can you identify if an ebike's been modified to increase the speed, is it easy to see or radar gun?

Um, it depends on how fast it will go. Um, but I don't know if there's a visual capability to see, but it just how Yeah. [laughter] Yeah. because there is a lot of YouTube mechanics out there. That's for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Well, thank you very much. Good presentation. Yeah, it was very good. So, what are you what else are you looking for from us? I want to make sure you walk away going, "Yeah, that was that was that was worth going there." Or, "Hey, I didn't get any direction."

Um, I mean, I think just knowing that, you know, the council's in support of it is great. And we'll work with um the public um outreach to like develop some graphics and what information should be on them. Um, and then I think the next step is we're hoping to um as we look into the National Bike to School Day, include that information once it like look to get it approved uh whatever outreach flyers we have um by that time so we can include it in conjunction with that helmet giveaway and then also we'll move forward and reaching out to the school committee to do a a presentation in the schools as well and what that will look like. Um if that can also be on bike to school day. I think that's a great opportunity and timing as well. Um, but we'll see what you know what it works with the school schedule, but certainly hopefully before the end of the year.

So, like I the more that I hear from fellow counselors here and Sean as well, like you know, it's it's not just the schools and I feel like this is deserving of some kind of an event, you know, like on a Saturday or something. I don't know. Like, you know, obviously cost-effective event, but, you know, is that something that you guys would be interested in taking part in? I mean, we'd have to reach out to other departments, too, obviously. But,

yeah, and I think, you know, if there's other, especially when we get into the summer, you know, other town um hosted events, I'm sure the BPAC would be happy to have a representative to pass out these uh theseformational flyers. I mean, we want to try to get them out as consistently and to as many people as possible until people are sick of seeing them and, you know, are like, "Oh, yeah. I've seen I've seen the ebike thing already." Um, so we're happy to go to other events and and pass them out as well or have a specific event for this topic. Yeah. Okay, Mr. President. Yes, sir. Just just one other question. Um, Emily, do you think you're going to need any funding or you believe you will? Any idea what it might be

um for the flyer outreach? I don't think so. I mean, Kuanas is Well, that's what I donate. They used to do a similar bike safety helmet um donation. So, they've been donating helmets, which has been great. Um, and then we last year we coordinated with uh Lorie Turner actually and, you know, get the helmets picked up and distributed. Um, so we're planning on doing a similar approach um as well this year. Uh, so I think I don't think we would need any funds. Well, if you do, let us know. Okay,

go on. So, what I might suggest, and I can talk to Emily and Lorie Turner, is um I would probably do some sort of event, not so much an event, but pick a night, pick a couple nights to intercept people on the West Main Road that ride at night and give out lights, uh bike lights that they can recharge. Um, so statistically, just because I do ride a bike, um, a few miles a day, um, lights are the most have the highest, um, result safety wise. Their effective closing and all, that doesn't really do it. If you look at the the publications from the insurance people, but but people don't die in bikes if they have lights. That's that's basically the rule. So,

they're not that expensive, are they? Like, no, they're they're inexpensive. And I think if we contact a couple of the companies, we can get them, you know, even at a further discount. But I think if we are, you know, use the police department, use volunteers to get on West Main Road, East Main Road, as they're coming down, if they don't have a light, stop them and give them a light that um, you know, and hand out the materials that, you know, hey, we want you to get to work safer, whatever it is. that would be a way to address that population that's not the captive, you know, population at the schools. But um

yeah, and this could be good timing, Sean, because um as I'm listening to you, the um population for that work for that ride ebikes for landscapers, as Tom mentioned, those types of um positions, um those guys go to work early and that that time frame is coming up here very shortly. So, not just at night, but in the morning if if police, whoever it is, can have lights and get them out there to these people that

and I think working with Emily, we can work with Barry. I think there's a number of of groups, but but then we would have, you know, not only that opportunity to to intercept them and hopefully create a safer situation. Um, but also from a data standpoint, we'd get a better feel for how many people are are actually out there. Um, and mechanically they're they're probably changing their their setup to go faster. Um, [snorts] but they're they're they're cruising through those corridors. Um, you know, to get downtown or get out of town. So, [snorts]

um, that would be my, you know, an event that I think we can easily put together. And that that doesn't address the school population, but addresses that that work population that is, you know, relying on an ebike to to work and and commute, you know, on a on an economical basis. Okay. Any other questions or suggestions? Emily Tucker, thank you very much for your work and your presentation. We appreciate it. Thanks. All right. Thank you. It will make a difference.

Okay. All right, let's go to uh number three. Memorandum of town planner through town administrator in reference to development impact fees studies and ordinance amendments town code chapter 150. Motion to receive said memorandum and begin said presentation. Second.

All in favor? I run. Uh good evening, Mr. President, members of council. Uh thanks for this opportunity uh to present this report to you. Um, as you know, the town uh back in 2004 adopted an impact fee ordinance. And this ordinance allows for the collection of fees to offset um the impacts on town infrastructure of new development, residential and commercial development. Um each new development is assessed a fee based on its uh calculated uh anticipated impact on infrastructure and these fees go directly into those specified funds based on the category and can only be used to um make improvements within the individual categories that they're collected for. So for example, impact fees can't be used for operations. You can't take impact fees that are collected for police and switch it over to fire. It's got to be um used for the the category that's that it's collected. So each um every five years we're required to update the study that's um done to calculate the amount of fees that we are able to collect in each of those funds. So, we're here tonight. Um, I've got Richard Ruiz who is from DTA who is our um consultant that prepared the two reports that you have on the docket tonight. There's one report that is a it's labeled a general fees report which includes fire, police, uh,

recreation and general government. And then there's a separate um fee report for sewer and that was done at a an earlier time um within the last year. So Mr. Ruiz is going to go through his presentation of of what they've done for us in terms of calculating the fees. I'm going to stress and and I think Richard will stress as well that this is this these um fees that are presented in the reports are the maximum amount the maximum fees that the town can defensively collect in each of the categories. It doesn't mean that we're recommending that level of fees. You're not required to proceed with that level of fees. It's the maximum amount of fees that you're able to collect. If there's an interest in reducing um the fee structure compared to the report, you can certainly do that. Um I'll also note that our ordinance has exemptions for certain projects. For example, um low and moderate income housing that that meets the state definition is exempt from the impact fees. Um also we had a pro provision that was adopted back in 2004 that any existing um developed undeveloped lots at that time were also exempt um from impact fees. So that exemption remains. You may recall that a few months ago there was some ongoing discussion um at the council level and with other folks about the possibility of of instituting another exemption for accessory dwelling units. Um, there was some concern about charging fees for accessory dwelling units. That's something that's not recommended or it's not suggested at this point. It's not, you know, I didn't include it in my memo, but if that's something that the council is interested

in proceeding with, you can certainly add that as an exemption or even consider um charging a lower level of fees for ADUs versus single family uh units. So really any anything's on the table. It's it's entirely a policy discussion uh on the part of the council as to where you want to go with this. Uh I'll let uh Richard present to you what they've calculated and then he's available to answer any questions about the uh the process that that he went through to calculate the fees. Okay. Thank you, Ron. How you doing? Good, sir. How are you? Good, thanks.

First off, I'd like to thank you for having me here and I've I've really really enjoyed visiting your town. I've never been to Rhode Island. It's just it was a it's a beautiful place. In fact, you landed in the right spot. Yes, sir. In fact, I was telling Ron it snowed the other day. It's the first time I've ever seen snow. I've never seen snow coming down before. Very first time. I know. Very first time in my life. Yeah. Last Sunday night into Monday. I I got here uh Saturday uh night. Oh my god. And I got to the hotel. I looked out the window. I was like, "Oh my god, snowing." I took pictures and I sent them home to everybody. Where are you from? Beach, California. Oh wow.

Yeah, I do most of my work out here on the east coast and uh Florida and up this way, but I've never uh I've never been this far north. So again, you have a beautiful town. I really enjoyed uh I've enjoyed visiting. Okay. Uh so Ron said, we've been working on this for a while

and everybody's been extremely helpful. And I'd like to start if you can go to the first slide. Okay, that that's pretty much us. We've we've done this for a very long time. I've I've been with the company for many years. I've gone over hundreds of development impact fees. So, I'm familiar with it and I can answer all of your questions. So, we go to the next slide. Here's where we start. These are development impact fees. And if I can just go over it briefly, why you use them? They're different from other fees. And the best way to do this is to give you uh an example. Let's say I'm a developer. I'm going to build 20,000 square feet of commercial or I'm going to build 10 houses. That additional uh development adds to the local economy. It adds property taxes, sales taxes, jobs. It's a net it's a net addition to the city, but it also uh results in what economists call negative externalities. It adds additional strain on your resources. You have additional strain on water, sewer, storm drains, fire, police, and so forth. And that's what this fee does. It it tries to mitigate some of that cost to the developer. An example, I could use a personal example. My late mother was in a retirement home her very last year. It was a large uh facility and I'd see firemen in there every day and I would talk to them. They would come to the retirement home every single day. So, it resulted in a lot more calls. So, that's what a development impact fee is. And when we do it, uh, when we calculate these, as Ron said, what we're going to do is we're going to calculate the maximum development impact fee level that you can charge. It doesn't mean that's what you have to charge. That's just what our NECA study says you can. You can charge the maximum. You can keep the fees anywhere under that. You can keep them where they are right now. You can lower your fees if you want. But what you have to do to h uh to use these fees is you have to have this study.

That's what this study is. And again, it's a sensitive calculation because you want to generate revenue, but you do not want to discourage development. So, it's it's a very sensitive calculation and that's up to the city to decide. And these are the fees we're going to look at. Government facilities, police, fire, parks and recreation, and sewer. We can go to the next slide. All right. There are a number of methodologies you can use in calculating this and they have to be defensible. This is what we've chosen for general government, police, fire and parks. We've used what we call a level of service. We look at the standards you have. What you have right now, we project that out 10 years and say to maintain that same level of service, what is the fee that needs to be charged? And that's how we calculate that. It's probably the most common methodology and it's the probably in my experience the eas the easiest to defend. Uh the next one is sewer and we did that a little bit different. It's a plan based. What we did is we worked with your city staff and we looked at the things that you're going to plan over the next 10 years and we calculate the fees based on that. this type of calculation. We look at your current your current population or your current uh population in business and your projected and we only charge it towards a new development. And go to the next slide. This one kind of looks like the same. That's why I made it in black. Uh this these are the basis. This is how we charge the fees. Uh we person serve. That's pretty much the number of people that you have, employees, visitors, and residents in the city. We do that for general government, police, fire, and parks. Excuse me, general government, police, and fire. Parks, we base the fee

on the number of acres per thousand residents you have. And for sewer, we look at the gallons per day and we calculate a sewer usage rate. And that's pretty common. So, that's how we calculate that, right? And we've provided this large uh study. It's probably around a hundred pages. It looks like it's a whole lot, but when we put these studies together, we we take great pains to make it as easy to follow as possible. I mean, any one of you or somebody in staff or any person could actually sit down with it on a Saturday morning with a cup of coffee and a calculator and run through the fee calculations and come up with the same numbers. I've I said I've done this a long time and I've seen a lot of other studies and often times they're written by engineers for other engineers. They're often difficult to follow. Ours is very straightforward and plus you have us as a resource to contact if you have any questions. All right, we can go to the next slide. And these are the fees we've calculated. As you can see, they're much higher. These are the maximum allowable fees. This just says with this study you can c you can charge this up to this level and it's better to be able to generate a much higher level because you can always come down as I said you can charge anything up to that. You can keep your fee levels where they are. You can increase them a little bit. You can cut your fees in half if you want but you do have to have this study to be able to back that up. So that's what this is. And we have a so you can see uh these are for single family residences. Uh this is what the fee would be uh per unit and uh per thousand square ft for the non-residential fees. Can we go to the next slide? This is for sewer. Sewer we did different. We didn't do residential and per thousand square feet. We did

residential for just uh or per unit for residential and we did per meter size for uh non-residential. And that's fairly standard. That's probably the clearest way to do this. Right. We can go to the next slide. And these are basically the findings. We used the Rhode Island Development Impact Fee Act. We updated these five fees. As I said, we did residential development fees per unit, non-residential development fees per thousand square foot and sewer fees we did a little bit different per unit for uh residential and by meter for non-residential. And again, one of the things I want to stress is in order to uh to use these and implement these development impact fees, you have to have an exit study. And that's what this is. And it's up to the city to decide what you feel comfortable with. What's the housing availability? Uh what's the affordable a availability? And what fee would be consistent with your long-term planning? And again, our job is to come to you, calculate the fees, and present it. We don't have a recommendation whether you should do it or not. That is up to the city. So, that's pretty much the presentation.

Okay. Well, thank you. Um Yes, ma'am. Yes, Mrs. Vonillis. My my question is, are these fees annual or are they one time? These are just a onetime fee. Like I said, if I'm going to build a a 5,000 foot house, okay, I'm going to build it and I'm just going to pay that one time fee. Okay,

let's say I I I'm adding to my house, then I'm not going to pay it. or if I I tear down the house and it's reszoned and you put something commercial and industrial, the new owner would would pay that one time. And again, that's why we have to be real careful with these calculations because they are not a constant income stream that comes in every single year. You're only collecting when you're building. And again, you want to collect the revenue to help defer a lot of the infrastructure, but you do not want to discourage any investment. Well, again, that goes back to the city on what level you feel comfortable with in it. Oh, go ahead. Um, sorry.

It's okay. So, I guess I mean it's like you said these uh you make you don't make a recommendation what we should do. You just present what what could happen if we chose to do that, right?

Uh yes, sir. We can help you. Often times the city will come to us and say, "Well, you know what? Uh we have housing our housing ranges from, you know, 500 ft² to 5,000. We don't want to charge everybody that one straight fee, you know, 2,000 a unit or 1,000, whatever it is. We'd like to tier this. We'd like to say, okay, from 4,000 to 5,000, it's going to be X amount. From 2 to three, it's going to be a little bit less and so forth and so forth. So, we can help you with that. Well, again, what we don't do is we don't make a recommendation on what fee level. It's your town.

You're more familiar than we are. All we're doing is we're showing you how to do it. We we've given you a defensible plan. So if it get ever gets challenged, you have something to point to. If you have a fee uh fee schedule and you haven't calculated it in, you know, 10 or 20 years and we see that that can be challenged. A developer can come up and say, "All right, you know, I don't like these fees." Uh these fees are based on the land uses and the demographics and infrastructure cost from, you know, 2008. They're not relevant now. And that's the reason that these uh nexus studies are required. Yeah. So I guess some of the things I struggle with now is I was actually on the council when we implemented these fees was

I believe it was council of Allen Court at the time made the presentation to us. Um but it's a much different time now.

You know it's uh we weren't struggling with housing like we are now. So you know I know that's exempt Ron said that uh uh moderate and low income housing uh are exempt from this. Accessory dwellings are not. Um, so how do you line that up with with the state law, I guess? Um, do you make another exemption? Do you get rid of them in totality? Because, you know, we're trying on one side of the on one side of the um some of the council initiatives um and our committee initiatives are to create affordable housing. So at any level, it's not just right,

you know, it's senior, it's workforce, or maybe you don't use the word workforce. I think we got scolded from that a few weeks ago at a presentation, but um you know, it's even kids that we struggle here. I don't know about where you're from, uh Mr. Ruiz, but in California, but we struggle with our own kids being able to afford here. Absolutely. So, having said that, you you want to um have these fees to help offset some of your capital costs as you move forward, but at the same time, how do you how do you move forward with even if it's not affordable housing? Yeah.

You know, cuz some of this could be another 20,000 $23,000 in some cases. That's a lot of money for people, too. And again, when these were implemented, it was a much that was 2004. That was 20 uh 22 years ago, roughly almost 22 years ago. So, it's a little bit and it's not at you. I'm just speaking out from memory and where we were a little bit of history versus where we're at now. And the initial much different.

Yeah, we we see this all over the country. I I've hear this I've done this a long time. I I hear this a lot. I mean, it it is a lot. And I've I've spent a lot of I've gone to a lot of uh sessions like with with developers who were just yelling at me uh for two hours saying well you know we can't do this we can't build and we tell the city okay uh that is up to you like uh their areas where you have an ADU an ADU will say all right for the first 750 square feet we're aren't going to ch charge a fee u so we're only going to start charging it after that. California has that. Very few ADUs in California are over 750 square feet. So, most of them are exempt, but that's what the city has to decide. I mean, you're you're looking down the road. And as I said, you have development impact fees now. You can cut them in half. You can you can make them any level you want. It's a matter of what your city feels comfortable with and what's consistent with your with your your goals and objectives. Yeah.

All we're doing is we're saying in order for you to do that to be able to defend it, you have to have uh this study. And so now you do and that's one of the uh that's one of the things that the city uh has to uh or excuse me, the town has to determine. Okay. Any of the councils? Peter, Mr. President, when are we making a decision tonight? I don't we don't we don't have to make any decision tonight. There's there's nothing on the document. We can just uh it's a presentation. we can kind of get a feel for what we want or don't want and it's up to the uh the group here what you want to do. Okay,

um so here's my problem. I spoke out about against this the last time we increased the fees, but um I'm trying to understand I I realize that a new household impacts the infrastructure of the town or community, right? We've Middletown's been here from since 1743, right? And in 2004, we got on board this impact fee. So all that time prior to 2004 Mhm. the town provided sewer, fire, police, the whole thing.

And then you the the new house obviously impacts the usage, but now you've got a new tax base, right? You've got new people that are coming here paying taxes. So [clears throat] to me, and I know this isn't a nice word, but it looks like a money grab to me. Yeah, it's a So, but so I'm just I'm unclear as to what changed. Okay, I can't go back to to general.

What this is, it's just another tool in the toolbox. You know, you have different sources of revenue. Like I just finished some work in Florida and Florida is looking at abolishing their property tax. So all of the cities are panicking. Uh they need the same services but they don't know where the money's going to come from. And all this does and you know your city's finances and I don't. This is just another tool for you. Whether you decide to implement it or not is up to you. You could make Yeah, you could make the uh the fee $100 per house if you want to. But in order to do that, you have to have this. So, uh, [clears throat] that's fine. And I and I don't mean to come at you. No, no, no, not at all. Not at all. Sounds like he's used of it, right? Oh, yes.

The other thing I just I just want to say is that um the ADU thing obviously, right? We've got an affordable housing issue, right? And we're saying, okay, this on I know you have a different classifications there and we can decide what we want to do on ADUs or not. Mhm. But ADUs are people that create use water and sewer and fire and police and the schools and all the rest of it. So I don't understand why they would be exempt when they are stressing services. That is the that's the issue when you get to exemptions. You start with one and pretty soon you have a you have so many exemptions you you've taken the you've taken a big portion of the revenue away.

And that's just that's just a thought on applying this. You can take an ADU and you can give it a regular rate of whatever a single family is. And that goes back to those tiered numbers that I was talking about. Let's say it's $1,000 maximum for a 5,000 foot house and above. Once you get down to 2,000 ft or it gets lower when you get a $500T ADU, you know, maybe it's $75. Again, that's up to what to the to the town. I completely agree. I'm just whining. It's not to you.

No, no, no. What's what that's why we do this and you're going to look at this and you may have some questions later and I have my uh phone oh sorry about I have my phone number and my email you're welcome to contact me anytime and I can walk you through you can go through the study if you'd like walk through you have any questions please contact me I mean that's why they sent me thank you okay Charlie thank you Mr. president. Yep. How you doing? Thanks for coming in. Um, you know, back in 2004, this I I feel old right now, but I was working for National Home Builders and and I was going around trying to get developments approved and and things like that. And I can tell you in my experience, in my opinion, development fees were meant for one thing, which was slow down development.

That's why they first came out. There was all kind of impact fees that we were getting hit up as builders because back then the term was urban sprawl. you know, we were we were adding too many houses back then. Now here we are, you know, 20ome years later and it's like now we don't have enough housing. So I I think, you know, in my opinion, you know, I keep hearing from other committees, from other boards and things that, you know, we we need more housing in this town. And for so for to me, like I can't support increasing development fees. I I've I just I I because I know what the purpose is in my opinion and this from my experience that they they were put in place back in the early 2000s

to basically slow down development. It uh that that's that's that's the case in a lot of town a lot of cities. I' I've I've actually heard that. I I've actually met with city staff and said they've said we don't want any more development. Coronado, California very upscale. There's Navy bases there. They don't want any more development.

Yeah. Uh but we have a lot of growing cities too. We have a lot of cities that are planning, you know, millions of square feet of infrastructure. Uh they're growing towns. The cities are growing. They don't know where that money is coming from. And so what they do is they give us our their capital improvement plan. We use a plan-based approach. They say we're going to build, you know, 10 million square feet over the next 20 years. Uh we want to implement these fees to pay this off because we don't have the tax base right now. We don't have enough people. We don't have enough businesses to do it. And in that case, the development impact fees would be really strong. Development impact fees and their objectives are different depending on the town and depending on the economy. It's hard to compare. Uh

yeah, but when you're when you're if you're adding a home though, right? So you're adding a home, you're going to collect these development fees upfront, but then you're also adding a tax base like it's been brought up by other counselors here that that should be paying for all the things that you're listing out here. So, and and I know you're doing the study, so we appreciate the study you you coming and doing this for us. I I just for me and we're in a town where we we are we're lacking housing. We're lacking affordable housing and and I just feel like this just takes us a step.

Well, I understand. I I read an article by one of your someone on your planning commission when I started working on this. It was written in January. I I can't think of the gentleman's name. And he made that point. and he said, "Well, we're looking at the surrounding jurisdictions and our fees are much higher and that's just not good for development." It may not be this maybe you should not be working development impact because again, we're commissioned to do this study. Give you an objective point of view, but we don't have any skin in the game. I go home, I start on my next project, your your town and your city. You decide [laughter] no snow involved. Yeah. If I had Did you want to learn how to shovel snow?

No, I just That was so cool. I'm sorry. I know that sounds you guys are used to it, but I've never seen it. I looked out the window. Holy smoke, it's snowing. This is just like, hey, I'm off the subject, but it depends on it depends from town to town. And again, we present this to you in case you do want to implement these. I mean, you may have fees right now and you may cut them down, reduce them by 90%. But you still have to have a nexus study that says you can do it or you can cut fees alto together. I mean, that's again, that's up to your town. Thank you.

Okay, we do have some folks that would like to speak on this item. So, uh, Mr. Frank, uh, you had your, uh, your request in first. Lawrence Frank O'Donnell Road I think you've addressed many of my concerns and in particular I hope you will consider the effect on building additional housing in this town and how to encourage that rather than discourage it. The impact fees certainly discourage it and in the future I hope they will be reduced if not completely eliminated. Thank you. Thank you sir. Okay. Uh, Terry

Terry Flynn, 34 Warren Avenue. Thank you for the time to get a few questions answered. I'm sorry I was a little late, so if I'm redundant with what was answered, um, just give me the quick answer and um, I'll move on. I just want to confirm I looked quickly at the ordinance that was being proposed and did the ordinance get written so that the maximum state allowed was what was being recommended middle town charge. There is no ordinance proposed on the docket. Sean, can you speak into the mic, please? Oh, I thought I saw that. Uh, it was filled in. Um, these are proposed um showing the maximum the proposed fee structure. That's all this is.

So, it hasn't gotten to an ordinance yet. It is it does it become a current fee structure. Does it become an ordinance or is it a policy? It would become an ordinance depending on the council's actions taken, but that's not on the docket tonight. Right. Okay. So, um, so the council would then decide if it wants to do a state the state maximum or something less. Is that true? We could we could raise we could do his recommendation. We could do less. We could get rid of them in in totality

and I support them. I think that, you know, developers or new projects should help out with the unintended or intended unintended consequences that there are going to be for the cost of the purpose of the development. Um, so thank you for clarifying that. Have we done any and maybe that is what the study was for is to see what the other communities like Middletown are charging for impact fees. That's a good question. That would have to come from from Ron or Mr. Ruiz. So like a comparable. Am I going to be impacted on my time or if I let Ron? Oh, it's charged to your time. Um, give me time.

Go ahead. Go ahead. I'm just kidding. Go ahead. It was about three years ago. We looked at other towns in Rhode Island to just to compare what we were charging versus other towns. And our our fees, our current fee schedule is in line with the handful or so of other towns in Rhode Island that do charge impact fees. So it's it's comparable these new this new potential fee schedule again the the maximum potential fees coming out of these reports would be significantly higher than we're charging now and what other communities are charging but our current our current fees are in line with other communities. Okay. How many other towns in and one of the questions I had was the other towns and cities in Rhode Island charge impact fees? How many? Yeah,

it's it's a handful, maybe a few more than that, eight or 10, um I can get you a number. Yeah, I just I was just curious. Okay.

I think once other towns find out that are having development, some towns aren't aren't having development, maybe they're rural and it doesn't it's not an issue for them. I think for those that do start having development, they will certainly grasp on to try to fill those holes where extra expenses are being incurred. just an opinion. Uh so my other question is are the rates definitive once the ordinance is passed or is it an up to rate that is charged? Are the projects looked at individually and you determine a an impact of that particular proposal or is the rate firm and definitive? That's the rate on whether it's a single family, whether it's a multifamily, whether it's commercial.

Ron, you're going to need you're going to need definitive. That number is definitive. It's not a negotiable rate that you look at the project and say, "Okay, this is the maximum." So, every single every single family house gets charged that amount that amount. Every multif family unit gets charged that amount. It's not on a case- by case basis. Question. So, could the ordinance be written where you have two fee schedules? Maybe one for developments that are not including a certain amount of low to moderate income housing and maybe a lower fee for those that are since we're trying to encourage so low to one of the things you missed Terry was low to moderate income housing are ex are exempt from this. Totally exempt from impact fees. Is that a state law?

Access accessory dwellings are not at this point in time. Yeah. That coming down from the state. Okay. Um can uh those who are applying for developments and are subject to the impact fees is there a mechanism where they can um off approach whatever body would do this uh for some relief on the charge.

I'm not I don't think so. I think once the fee is set, there's no I'm not sure you can start that, you know, exemption process where, you know, you're you're making decisions for one and then I'm not sure there's any everyone's unique. Maybe they are. If it's I think that's why it's said if it's single family, it's single family. If it's low and moderate, it's exempt. Um, so those are things we kind of need to look at, I think, a little bit. We need to look at, in my opinion, we need to look at accessory dwellings. Um, you know, it's a lot of money when you look at it for I look at it like, okay, if you know, one of your children decide they can uh build a house here and, you know, all of a sudden there's an extra 20,000 or $23,000 involved in this impact fee. It's like, wow, that's a lot of money for, you know, and we're we're starving for housing. So, does this is this really going to affect it or doesn't it affect it? You know, since low and moderate are exempt, that's another question we have to ask ourselves, you know, at what where's the where's the break point, I guess. I don't know. And that might have been a good portion or part of the study to do is to find out at what point do you discourage single family, you know, uh, builders or families coming into town because it's too high and they do go to another community. And but you can set each amount separately. So you might have a a lower impact fee for a single family where there's a you know a you know a nuclear family trying to get started versus a multif family which is going to have some some economies of scale and some some per unit too. So you know multif family is going to be more right. Yeah, but but per

it is per but how many units are in that multif family, right? Is that what they go by? So if you have a multifamily house that only counts as one. No counted it's counted per unit. So recognizing that the impact of a multifamily unit because it's a smaller housing unit, less people, less impact. the rate the fee for a multif family unit is less than for a single family house where you're likely to have more people living in a house versus an apartment per unit. So if there's three units in there, they're paying that fee three times. Each unit is paying you're paying a a fee on each unit.

So one of the proposed fees was single family was $18,000. Multif family was 14,000 and change. So if there's three units it's it's $42,000. Yeah. Okay. Seems like that single family should go either by bedroom or square footage because you could have a single family that it is two ends of the spectrum. You could have a two-bedroom, you could have a sixbedroom. Yeah. Okay. Um, so what do you guys just want to sit on this for a little bit and think about it and uh bring it back? Um, what what do we want to do, Mr. President? We want to send questions to Ron after the fact to get more in depth or

up to you guys. We'll do whatever you guys want to do as a as a group. My current position is I'm not really in favor of it, but I'm willing to look more into it. Okay. More questions answered, but yeah, I mean, there was some good questions raised. I mean, you know, I think um you know, the single family is, you know, is it what what defines a single family? Is it Terry brought it up? Is it a square? Is it square footage? Is it because it's going to have different impacts or just something to think about? That's all. I think um you guys have any recommendations on what you want to do? Well, I can I Yes, sir. So, I would like to get more information for starters. Okay.

You know, just some questions that need to be answered as we weigh changing this ordinance is for example, have we ever refunded impact fees? So, we collect impact fees, but that doesn't mean we've used them. Have we given them back to those developers who have built? Yes, we have. So, we'd like to understand that. That's a fact. We have. I would like to understand that more. Okay. Then I'd also like to understand for the impact fees we have collected, what are those capital projects that they've gone to improve over the course of the 20 years that we've been doing this? Has it gone to sewer? Has it gone to other infrastructure projects? Or has it gone to like we collect for police and fire? has that gone to capital improvements for things like cruisers or pumpers or

or the police station or the fire station. So, I mean, I'd like to understand that detail as well as we weigh out the fees because that may help us make a a more bold decision about what we do. Yeah. If we get rid of them completely or we keep something as a token or do we have to increase it because the infrastructure needs are so high. Okay. So, what I think we do then is we forward a list of questions to to Sean and Sean can get them to Ron and then when they're ready. I don't think there's any Is there is there a time frame on this? Okay. It's budget season so there's a lot going on. So, um wait till after.

We can we can wait till after if you choose if that's what chooses. I don't want to continue to put pressure on on you guys if it doesn't need to happen if there's no time frame. So get the questions in and then um we'll get some answers. We'll make decisions. If if you're satisfied with the with the answers from the questions. Yep. Okay. And the information you feel you have enough in information to make that decision then we'll make it at that time. So we'll tackle this when we get those answers to those questions or we feel comfortable Sean that you want to put it back on. Yep.

Yes sir. Just in the current ordinance, there is a paragraph alternative means of satisfying assessments for subdivisions and land development projects where basically the town can accept a dedication of land construction to public facilities in le of payment of impact fees. So there at when this ordinance was originally adopted, there was at least consideration that in lie of paying the fee, there was another way of satisfying the requirement. So um that might be something we explore.

Yeah. And the only other thing I would ask the the council and the and the public to think about is um the sewer fees because the sewer fees, you know, we have to we have to take pressure off of Wave Avenue. Um we've just gotten some money for that. I think a million bucks or 1.1 million or something like that. And we're trying to continue to source money uh to be able to cuz 90% of our flow goes to Wave Avenue um cuz it's the lowest point and you know we're trying to we're trying to redo that pump station down at at some point on Cardington where West Main Road and a lot of that flow can go that way and take the pressure and take the overflows off of Wave Avenue when they do happen. So, think about it. 90% of it goes all the way to Wave Avenue because it's the lowest point. From there, it has to get pumped up the interceptor up Memorial Boulevard down to Wellington, wherever it goes there through Newport. It goes on a tour of uh of the waterfront, I think. I don't know. And uh and it gets down to the to the treatment plant. So, that's some of the things we're trying to do. Um, so I' I'd want you to uh at least keep that in mind as well as housing and um and the fee structure itself. So, if any recommendations are welcome um because we see this every once in a while and uh we're going to make sure that uh we create that balance of affordability. At the same time, uh we're protecting um uh our infrastructure or have the ability with some revenue coming in to um offset the cost of the taxpayer for those uh for those infrastructure potential infrastructure improvements if it does get used. And again, if it doesn't get used, we've given it back in the past. It has to meet certain criteria. Is it 10 years?

10. So 8 and two is 10. Let me get my farm calculator out, Ron. Yeah, that's 10. So, um, yes. So, we've done that in the past. So, okay. Any other questions or or concerns? Welcome to Middletown, Rhode Island, and thank you for for your presentation, sir. And we're glad you got to experience some of the weather we experienced. Thank you. All right. All right. Excellent. Uh Wendy, we cannot move on until 6:30. Correct. Uh motion to recess. Second. All in favor? I. Thank you.

5 6:30. Great. So, we good. Okay, folks. We're going to get started. Reconvene. Second. Okay, we're going to get started. So, we have a motion, a second to reconvene. All in favor? I. Thank you. Let's move on to the regular meeting on school construction number four. communication of um Billy's not here, right? The superintendent. No. Yeah, he is not here. So, who's going to make that pres? Who's going to make that? Uh, it says communication of superintendent schools reference to Middletown Public Schools memorandum of understanding amendment number one. Uh, Justin, I believe. Okay. What's that?

It's okay. We Justin, that's going to be you, right? Most received said memorandum. This is this is the continuation of the uh the change order from the last meeting. So we that's what I'm saying. Yeah. So it's Justin. I think council asked us to uh present the budget. You wanted to be certain that uh the budget was adequate to present the uh to approve the change order. So that's we're here tonight to do that. Okay. Yes. All right, Tom. Motion to receive said communication. Second. All in favor? I I Okay.

And just Mark Mark will be part of that presentation and myself, but but Justin will will start off and and walk us through the budget. Uh he's handed out a a a bigger, more readable copy of the budget. Uh but he'll he'll walk us through where we are with the uh uh the work that's been uh approved um as well as the contingency amounts. and we'll we'll show you that um the project is is well managed. It is where we've represented it. Uh and I think that's it. I think it's overall we we you know again a lot of oversight from the build the school building committee which does a tremendous job and holds us accountable on a monthly basis. So with that I'll turn it over to Justin.

Thank you Sean. Um before I get to the enlarged uh budget form, I just wanted to go over a quick budget update that was uh included which shows that you know the available funding of the projects now is um 200 million784,38. Um what is in what that is comprised of is the $190 million bond, the $484,38 appropriation uh from the general fund which was approved um last year uh for the uh upgrades uh for the shelter uh which were some alternates that were approved early on in the uh RTA process. Uh and then the additional funds, uh $4.6 million of bond interest as of January 31st of this year, and then there's $5.7 million of bond premium. So that comprises the 200 plus million. Uh the project budgets that we're proposing for the middle high school, Valley Elementary School in Forest Avenue, uh total 199 uh,800,125. Uh there have been no changes to the middle high school value elementary school budgets and we are proposing uh based on the estimated pre-esign um budget proposing $6,244,825 for the Forest Avenue school. Um, and right now excluding contingencies, we're anticipating to spend um just under $188 million. Any questions on the

available funding and proposed budgets before I get into the detail of uh what we are proposing for Forest Avenue. So I think um Charlie one of the questions I think you had last time is you know at one point when the bids were coming in uh Justin we were and it fluctuated dependent upon you know what meeting it was cuz the bids were some meetings we had you know five bids some we had 12 or whatever was coming in at that time if I recall maybe I'm off a little bit on the number but um so right now um with the bids that came in. Where are we under budget? You just said we're 188.

So, because I thought we were like I thought we were more like six at one point was 6 to 8 million or 5 to 8 million under what the bids came in at. That was Yeah, that was the budget for the construction which has now been revised to reflect the actual uh GMP. So, I don't I don't have that actual delta with me. We've since um revised the budget based on the GMP for for both schools. So, you're what you're saying tonight is that we're at $188 million.

I'm saying that yes, based on what we are projected to spend um excluding the contingencies is 180 just under 188,000, excuse me, $188 million.

Okay. Now we have those contingencies for you know proposed you know for changes for um impacts. Um we just had the blizzard of 2026 which may have a financial impact against the contingencies which could increase that that number um you know by an unknown amount. Right now it's still being um you know Gil Bane is working with Collers to determine what the impact is of the blizzard. So, anytime that we have an unforeseen or we have added costs for changes that are requested by the owner um you know by the town of Middletown or the school that is what affects the contingencies and would raise the um the total anticipated cost.

So, how would the blizzard affect the cost? So, it's uh it's considered an act of God. It's an um a non-typical event. um which is covered in the uh AIA uh contract documents. So clean up or additional costs associated with cleanup repairs because of the storm um get applied to the owner's contingency and that's not covered under the guaranteed maximum price.

It is not. The guaranteed maximum price includes winter conditions and general winter conditions. It does not include um [clears throat] what would be considered a you know an un um a non-typical event. What what types of what types of additional work would it be? Snow removal. It's snow removal work. Excuse me. To continue the work.

Yeah, it's the snow removal. Um it's repairs to the temporary protection that was set up. Um and that's really the only um issues that we're having. Uh very fortunate. It was just damage to the uh those temporary tarps which were put up to um heat the space so that we can continue work inside the building. So they were down, you know. Yeah. Okay. All right. One quick. So did they issue a force major to you guys on this project then? They issued a notification. Okay.

Yeah. I don't know what the term is you guys use but that I mean so they basically have notified us that there wasn't a significant event right correct act of god and that it's going to impact it basically it impacts schedule and cost

yeah it's just a notice of reservation of rights uh for additional costs for acceleration or um repairs associated with the okay with the event okay questions All right, thanks. Um, so getting into the detail, uh, and I'm right now I'm just looking at the, uh, the yellow column, um, for Valley, excuse me, forest avenue. Um, looking at the total construction line, um, um, we have an estimated value of, um, $4,915,800. And what that number is comprised of is the um August 2021 DBVW um 5-year capital plan that was developed uh when we were doing stage one with RIDE. Um it has also been escalated for today's dollars and and it includes things that were not originally included in that um assessment which was uh new playgrounds and um uh a new elevator.

Okay. So the so new playgrounds, new elevator and escalated cost from 21 takes them from the 49 4,915,000 to the 6,2448. No, that that's just the construction value of the the 4.9. Um so that's the construction value and then there are the um uh fees and expenses. You have the $530,700 um that we're here to request approval of for uh for the design. Um and then uh expenses like there's um printing costs, uh consultant reimburseables, um moving and relocation for moving uh the students uh out of the school and back in uh advertising costs for um uh requests for proposals. um you know miscellaneous expenses which totals um you know $627,200 in miss in uh fees and expenses.

And then contingencies 147,500 in construction contingency and 500 um 54,300 in owner's contingency. So the so the 4.9 plus the 627 and the contingency 70172 will get you to where gets us to the 6.24. 24 million that we um have initially uh put aside for this project. Okay.

So that is all I have um to present today. Um other than you know maybe a I had also included a schedule um a preliminary schedule going into um you know assuming approval today of HMFH's proposal. And I do have a a milestone event in uh May 11th um which is following the schematic design uh review um by um well following schematic design schematic design estimating and then value engineering. Uh I'm expecting to have a finalized budget for Forest Avenue by May 11th.

Okay. It will no longer be an estimated value. Any councils have any questions of Justin? I do. Charlie. Hey, Justin. Thank you. Um, a couple of things on on the appropriation from the general fund, the 484308 that we're counting into our budget now. Um, we going to get that money back from other towns on the island? Like, how does that work? because we're putting that we put that forward but then this is the regional shelter right so are we getting reimbursed so I think that's a Sean question

yeah that's that's a question that should be directed to me so the towns um are not contributing towards that uh we did put in legislation last year with our state delegation it it didn't get approved it was resubmitted this year uh for a $990,000 uh appropriation from the state to fund it so We are lobbying for that money right now.

Okay. I'll and I'll stay with you, Sean. So, the $10 million in bond interest and bond premium, like it's $10,300. Is that Did I add that up right? So, [clears throat] we're counting that now as part of our budget. I I saw the emails today that you guys it's in an account, right? So this is this is for the residents to know because I think some residents come and they say I thought the budget was 190 million and and now it's you know it's grown so which it has. I mean the at the end of the day here our budget is now $27 million. That's what I'm looking at on on the sheet here. Right. [clears throat]

Yes. Is that a question? Yeah. Yeah. Yes. the the the project the scope of the project has grown. Uh the amount of money that we have borrowed has not correct. The amount of money has not but we're counting on this interest. So what other uses if we what could we use this bond interest for? Is there any limitations on or the bond premium like would that could that just go back into general fund for the town? No, it it would it would go back towards the project or paying debt on the project. Okay. But it it wouldn't become a a general a general revenue of the town or an unrestricted revenue of the town. [clears throat]

So then it really comes back to for me Justin going back to you is how comfortable because we're counting now $12 million in contingency on if we add in this project right we're estimating $6 million $580,000 is the ask right now to pay the architect. Um, [clears throat] but how confident are we on that $12 million contingency at this point? Confident in that it's enough money to come back. I mean, are we going to spend that $12 million is what I mean, that's a contingency, right? You're holding that there until the project's done. Correct.

So, I'm hopeful that we spend as little as possible because any money that we don't spend goes back to the town or is less um debt. um you know unless the town has the bond but we don't really know until the project

we won't know until the end. The contingency is there to make sure that any unforeseen conditions can be accounted for during the course of the project. You know we still have two years of construction over the three schools. um which is why we hold the contingency to address unforeseen um you know unforeseen conditions that are not included in the guaranteed maximum price.

Yeah. Now before we went through several opportunities where we went as a as a building committee you know our architects at the time they're on under contract they they did a full analysis of all the schools. I believe they scanned every school. I don't know for sure if they scanned this school in particular, but so this this 580,000 now that the ask is tonight like that's about 8% of the project about that. Okay. And that's been generally this whole project we've been paying the architects about what 7 to 8% total. Um we've been paying a little bit more than that. Yeah. Okay. And that's common?

Uh it's common anywhere from 8 to 14%. eight is actually on the lower side of what you would spend on an architect. Okay. Uh total project,

but this is I mean in my mind again I I got to go back I supported these bonds like crazy, right? About building these new schools. This this was a surprise to me when this one came up. I didn't you know I never never thought we were really going to go into for a staff like this. Um, so for me it's I I personally would like to see some more comfort that we're really going to get this $12 million back out of the contingency. I don't know, it doesn't sound like we will get all of that back. Um, but I also know that, you know, our town, we are projecting tax increases in this town and it's to the tune over the next 5 years. It could be 3.4 almost 4% every year we're going to get tax increases. So any chance, you know, I I took it out of home equity loan on my house to do some projects. I didn't go all the way to the top. I wanted to, but I didn't. So that's kind of how I relate this myself. So, but I appreciate you putting this together and and and um giving us the information to make a decision. So, thank you.

Um Justin, if uh we use this money for Forest Avenue, is it not reimburseable? All of the uh all the funds for Forest Avenue will be reimburseable.

Exactly. So, if we're looking at costs going ahead, it makes perfect sense to me to use bond premium money. You you're concerned, you're saying we could give it back to taxpayers or not. And maybe you say not directly back to taxpayers, but lower our debt instead, which then reduces the burden on the taxpayer. or we could make these upgrades to the school, get 55 cents back on it, which is a better reduction than giving them the money back. So, this is a no-brainer to me. I don't understand the problem. This is a smart move. We're getting more bang for our buck. I am fully on. Great job. Thank you,

Sean. I just want to make sure based on the numbers. So, say the numbers the number right tonight. Say I know you said in May you'd have more hardc is that right? We would have um formal estimating done by May based on the but just tonight's number 6,244,800 um that would be reimburseable 55%. Accurate [clears throat] correct. And so that's 3,43,434,640 and you'd get that back over three years. It wouldn't take 20 years to get that back. That would be reimburseable over three years. Yeah.

So, it would cost 2,810,160 to make these improvements. I'll trust your math. Yes. You trust the farm calculator, please. Um, having said that, um, that $3,434,640 reimbursement, and I'm using tonight's number, and that's an estimate. Yes. um that money could go down go towards paying the debt. Correct.

Yeah. If I can put a slide up I just to talk about the debt because this is coming up as an issue. Grace, if you can put up our slide. Um I'll hand this out because Thank you.

Yes. Thank you, sir. So part of putting together this year's budget is is looking at what you're getting to, Mr. President, is looking at how money coming back to the town can be used to stabilize the debt. Um, we are going out to borrow the second transom money, $105 million here in April. And I think the concern is that somehow there's going to be a a massive second tax bill that's mailed out. And that that's not the case. And that's what this slide illustrates. Um if you were to look at the bottom, uh so so the total bar represents the amount of money that we're repaying um each year. But on the bottom, the blue section, that represents the amount of debt service that's coming out of property taxes to pay for the the $190 million that is being borrowed. As you can see, it's it's mostly flat. It's just over $4 million. Um, and the way we're managing it, um, we just look at 2026 and 2027. Um, we're actually using some fund balance to to make the payment in 27 so that we don't have to uh make a a payment from from tax bills. And while we're using fund balance in 27, what we're going to end up doing is repaying that uh when we receive our first refund from the the state of Rhode Island. There'll be a massive payment that comes in for these prior years. The fund balance will get repaid. Um, you'll see that filling in in 2028, that that magenta bar, and then in 2029, you'll see that reimbursement from the state

coming in every year, paying for 55% of the debt. At the top, you'll see what we're calling the debt stabilization amount, and that partly includes the $3.5 million that you're talking about that we'll get back from the state. uh we'll we'll receive that money and use that amortizing over the the course of the loan to offset the taxes. I mean offset the debt service so that we're not increasing the taxes that the local taxpayer has to has to make. Um I guess my point being the money is going back into the project the $3.5 million that we would get from Forest Avenue. Um, the other point I would make is that we're we're going to manage the debt so that there's not another increase in taxes to pay for this project. So, um, again sharing this tonight, I primarily just want to highlight that the money does come back into the project and offsets the debt. [snorts]

Okay?

If that makes sense. But I just want to make sure you're clear and what you said was um and I had this conversation with you this week or this past week on the phone was I want to make sure that the the everyone understands that even though the second um wave or trance, whatever you want to call it, of borrowing coming up here in April, the additional 105 million um it's already built into the tax right with the I have about $250 to $300,000 that we're managing. Um I think the way we're looking at that right now is to introduce that $300,000 over a three-year period. Uh but for the most part, yes, the 4.1 to $4.3 million is built into the tax rate. It's built into the current budget and there is no large increase in spending that we're you know or t we're not going to have this large need to increase taxes in order to pay for this project further. Um and that that is what I'm saying tonight. Um, it is, you know, 90 to 95% funded right now. Again, with that exception of that that $300,000 that that I'm talking about that we need to build in at some point, but we have time to do that.

All right, Charlie. Yeah. I want to be clear, too. I'm not saying that the project is adding taxes to us. I What I'm saying is we have and and you can answer this, Sean, like we just submitted a five-year forecast to the state, right? And that showed that our taxes are going to go up over the next 5 years every year incrementally 3.91% something like that. I don't have Well, it only shows it based on a set of assumptions. I mean, we don't you're going to make decisions. This council could decide, you know, and I I we went four years without a tax increase and there were other understood

implications from that. But, you know, it it ultimately there is no intergenerational equity. Mark's tired of me saying that, but but each council with each budget makes a decision on how much it wants to spend on police, fire, education, libraries, general government. Um, those are, you know, you'll make those decisions with this budget that's that's coming up. Uh, you made it on the last budget. Another council will make decisions in the the next fiscal year. Understood. I understand. Unfortunately, the same thing happens at the state level. Um, understand. I I guess I don't I don't I can't I'm not trying to cut you off, but my point is is that we did forecast to the state that we are going to increase taxes over the next five years

based on the assumptions known.

Correct. So to my point about this project, I am I am I've been so far behind these projects, it's not even funny. Okay, I'm just saying overall my job is not just I've been in the I've been on the building committee where you're so focused on one little thing. Well, I'm looking at the whole town right now and I and and I know there's an affordability problem in this town right now, you know, and and I'm trying to help that. That's all I'm trying to do here. So, if there's any way we can bring money back from this project and and put it so that we we can maybe have a year where we're not raising taxes 4%, we're raising it 2%. It helps to keep our residents in this town. And that's that's my point. I'm not going after this project. I'm not saying that this project is increasing our taxes. I think this one of the best investments this town has ever done. But what I'm saying is overall the forecast over the next 5 years is not very good for people that are struggling right now to pay their taxes. Thank you.

Okay.

And I think I just want to point out again the the savings or the reimbursement is coming back into the project. It's it's the magenta part of the the program. Um uh and again the and then the other piece is projected on where we are uh with the debt and and how how it's issued. We have a plan not to further increase property taxes again trying to keep the town affordable uh to pay for this additional work. If anything, I'd suggest if we if we don't do the work um at some you're you're going to have to add to your capital program uh in a future period. um in that future period, whatever $6 million is is going to be a greater number. So, you're going to have to go out for a bond and that bond would only be reimburseable

by 35%. So,

you know, you would have to add add something out in an outy year and you wouldn't necessarily have the amount of refunding or or something to offset that cost. So, it would cost a taxpayer more. Um, so again, we will have a definitive schedule of numbers for you when we issue the the the next bond because I think one of the things that we've talked about internally is that similar to your deficit reduction program and how we did the ARPER program, um, the the finance office and myself feel that we should adopt, you know, what this this debt service payment is as as a resolution of a council. to this council so that at least we memorialize the plan that um this is our this is our plan to pay off the debt service. Uh the plan was for it to be level and and not to in a future period have taxpayers additional monies uh for the project. I think uh and I think the building committee uh you know they've always expressed trying to be good custodians of of the the money that voters have approved and they want to make sure it's spent wisely but also looking at the outy years that um the promises made to keep this affordable you know have been met. So we look forward to bringing that to you with with the final numbers here probably in April May. But there is there is not going to be a giant tax rate increase in the upcoming year to pay for for this project regardless of what we've borrowed to date and what we plan to borrow in the next couple months.

Okay. Thank you.

Yeah. So, I mean, um, just want to recap a little bit is so the number is we'll have some hard construction numbers in May, I think Justin said, but you know what's what's uh anticipated at this point in time or estimated is 6,244,800 reimburseable at 55% means of 3,434,640 reimbursement, which would cost um 2,810,160 in today's dollars if we don't do it, which we can choose not to do it for sure. Um um and use just using today's dollars, not whatever the cost could be 10 years down the road, which would probably obviously incremental. Um and I'm just using today's numbers because I don't know what that cost would be down the road. I know it would increase. I think we would all realize that times 35% $2,185,680 would be reimburseable. End up costing a little over $4 million today's versus 2.8. That's in today's dollars. It obviously costs a lot more down the road. So that's a decision we need to make. And again, that'd be reimburseable within 3 years. Sean has it spread out in the chart here in the magenta color over um 25 years or so. 27 years. Um due to the fact to repay the $4 million that would be borrowed from the general fund to offset uh the 27 um debt um payment that would come uh $4 million of that payment of the 8 million or 8.2 million um that would come out out of the general fund.

I hope everyone followed that. It's easier for us because we have the visuals and the paper that unfortunately that you guys don't have in front of you. So, any councils have any questions? I want to make sure everybody got their questions answered whether they agree or disagree, but I want to make sure that uh the questions were answered. We do have uh Terry, you want to speak on this item? Terry Flynn, 34 Warren Avenue. Thank you very much for the time this evening. Had to write fast because Justin was talking fast and it's um kind of new information um in a in the big picture and I appreciate that being presented. This is a voters's perspective. The school bond debt is a big issue and so does voter expectation. The $90 million debt that was voted on was to build the middle school and high school and to renovate, improve, repair, furnish, and equip school facilities throughout the town and all attendant expenses, including demolition, engineering, architectural, landscaping costs, etc. all $190 million debt for all attendant expenses for the schools. That's what the voters voted on. Justin just outlined a $200 million project, 190 million in the debt, 4 million out of the general fund, 4 million earned in bond interest, and then more in the bond premium. Haven't had a chance to look at all those numbers carefully because they're evolving real time. As we spend more on the schools project,

more than $190 million in debt that was supposed to cover all attendant expenses of the schools, the more we spend on the schools project and don't raise taxes, the less we have to invest in other areas of the town. It's simple math. roads, contract obligations, insuranceances, services, seniors, facilities maintenance, Atlantic Beach District and Middletown proper improvements, those who are housing and food challenged. We have plenty of projects in this town that have needs, not just the schools. and the voters voted to go into debt of $190 million that should cover all attendant expenses. That's what it's written. That's what our understanding was as voters. And this $6 million we found out at the last meeting or so was for a school that needs to be brought into compliance with code and it wasn't planned for already. Wasn't wasn't in the big plan. Now we have act of God expenses more in that project and who knows what else might come up. That's why you have contingencies and you stop the bleed on a project. You don't take advantage of of a sale if there's simply not any more resources. RID's base reimbursement is 35%. For anything that qualifies. So, you really are only getting an extra 20%. I'm not saying it's a small amount, but if somebody, you know, wanted to save 20%, sometimes that's a no-brainer.

If you don't have the money, you're not going to spend something to save 20% really. So if we're only getting 20% if we reimbursement extra if we invest now we still have to pay 45% of something that we didn't vote to afford. $190 million in debt for all attendant expenses for the schools. Everything allin. That's what the voters voted for. And there are other areas of town to invest in. And it's no longer $2 a day, is it? Really urge. I'm urging the council to reject this project addition to the schools until the definitive numbers are in and it the endgame outline on the finances is clear. Thank you.

Hang on. I'm not sure we can get the final numbers in unless we move forward with the design. So that's that's part of and the numbers of the that's part of that process and to my knowledge we're only borrowing $190 million. We're only borrow we can't borrow more what the voters said. Yes, the projects more now because of other stuff. I get it. But we're still borrowing 190. We're not b we can't we can't by law borrow any more than that.

I understand you you missed the point. But that's okay. the the the voters voted to spend $190 $190 million for the school project period and go up to debt up to $190 million in debt. But this but not to invest more and more and more into the schools of the town when there's many other areas of the town that need investment. Right. But you couldn't use some of this reimbursement money for those area other areas of town. pay back pay down the bond so that the the voters aren't burdened. Keep it in the project. Definitely

and understood and that's a decision we need to make Terry whether we want to what the cost would be down the road versus what the cost would be now with an extra 20%. And 20% used to use that analogy which I respect as a sale. Um 20% of what is the question. So, is it 20% of $100 or is it 20% of $6 million? That's a big difference.

I understand that. And as we know, ride can be negotiated with. If you have a very good project and you need to meet the budget, they have thrown money in even on this project. So, nothing's definitive and those monies will be there down the road as well um without having to burden or put at risk the things that that need to be maintained and people that need to be assisted in our town. [clears throat] Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Is there anybody else? Uh not until

Okay. Any other councils have any other questions? Okay. All right, let's move to number five. um was continued from February 17, 2026 regular meeting resolution of the council in reference to approval to award change order number 8 in the amount of $530,750 for supplemental services for Forest Avenue Elementary School to HMFH/DBW Architects. Funding for this change orders from the school improvement bond proceeds, bond interest, and/or bond premium, and all expenses recorded in the school department's capital projects fund. And the town administrator is authorized hereby to execute this change order on behalf of the town of Middletown.

Motion to pass that resolution. Second. Okay. I have one more question, Sean, just for clarification purposes. When the when the legislation was written for this $190 million dollar bond borrowing that the voters approved, was it was Forest Avenue included in that um legislation? Forest Avenue will fall under the definition of the legislation that was passed. Forest Avenue was part of the town's phase one submission to to ride. Um Okay. I just want to make sure that

yes, Forest Avenue was was definitely part of the phase one application to ride. [snorts] Um deficiencies were noted in that and um I think at prior meetings to this it's been explained that as we've moved through the process or the project um we've moved money we moved money from the the uh elementary school into the high school when we put that out to bid to make sure we had adequate funding on on a budgetary basis. Uh once we had an actual cost, money was shifted, you know, monies were shifted back over to the uh Valley Elementary School, you know, renovating the the current high school. Uh and now the opportunity is to go back to that last piece, which is Forest Avenue School. It was part of the phase one and phase two discussions. [clears throat] Um RIDE has approved, you know, these projects for reimbursement. Um it falls under what voters voted for. um it it it you know the attended expenses it's it's it it it basically what that definition is it allows us to pay for the different cost associated with the the scope of the project but um again these are these are all issues that have been discussed um over the years now at this point with the school building committee

okay um [snorts] it has been very transparent of what's been discussed and and really I think through risk management And through proper project management and value engineering and uh you know a lot of expertise at the table we are able to address forest avenue without funding essentially operations by deferring maintenance on that building further. So

okay we do have someone like to speak at number five Audrey. Uh, thank you. Audrey Mloud, Fifer, 442 Third Beach Road, Middletown, Rhode Island. I wasn't really quite sure which item number to put my question under, but is the $12 million contingency fund in an interestbearing account? Yes, it's money set aside that you're not using. Is that in an interestbearing account? Yes. Okay, that was my question. Thank you. That was easy. Audrey, stop serving up softballs. All right, just kidding. So, is there any other questions? Charlie,

just a point that I want residents to hear. Tonight, we are voting on a change order for the architect. Correct. So, we're not voting on increasing the budget at this time. That is going to come back to us. That's correct. Once once he once Justin gets the hard numbers in May, sometime in May, you said. Is that accurate? I don't want to hold you to say a time frame that I'm not on. I want to be clear. This isn't going to be hard numbers. It's going to be estimated numbers by a third party estimator and by the construction manager. They will not be, you know, we won't be submitting RTAs for approval of subcontractors at that time. That will be after uh the construction documents are are completed.

To Jolly's point, this is just for the design so we can get a a handle on what it's going to cost. Correct. Okay. One last question. Is that so is this a an allowance $530,000 or they know they're going to spend that $530?

No, this is a this is a lump sum value for the design for the design estimating. Um the only thing that would potentially come out of this and back to the town would be is if the project didn't move forward, any construction administrative costs that are included in this 530,000 uh dollars would come back to the town. So this is a complete scope of the architect for design estimating and construction administrative services through closeout. Thank you. Okay. Any other questions? All right. Thank you. So we have a motion and there's anybody else want to speak on this? No. No.

Okay. So, we have a motion to second to pass said resolution to authorize the town administrator to spend $530,75 uh for the architect um for to for the design improvements for Forest Avenue School. There any further questions or comments? Okay. Hearing none, all in favor?

I. Anybody oppose? Thank you. Good discussion, folks. Let's move on to the public [clears throat] forum number six. Public forum pursuant to rule 25, the rules of council. Citizens may speak on one subject only said subject of substantive town business neither discussed during a regular meeting nor related to job personnel or performance. Citizens may speak for no longer than 5 minutes um and must submit a public participation form to the council clerk prior to the start of the meeting. All items discussed during this session will not be voted upon. Okay. So, we do have some Mr. Frank. U this item is on the agenda. It is being continued or withdrawn. Sean, withdrawn.

It's being withdrawn. So, I don't know if you still want to comment on it or if legally is Can you comment on it, uh, Mike, if it's being withdrawn? It's no longer on the docket. So, I would Well, we haven't withdrawn it yet. You haven't withdrawn? Yeah. So, you could withdraw it first and then Okay. So, let us withdraw it. So, we're we're within our realm of uh allowing you to speak on it because we don't want you not to speak on it. So, if you don't mind, um, can we just, uh, move to that item and, um, withdraw it, Mr. Frank? So, it's not on the docket. And then you can, what number is it? 22. 22. 22 and 23.

Okay. Under the town administrative form of the docket, number 22. And we have permission to go forward with this, correct? To move it up. You guys good with that? Okay. Communication of police chief flock in reference to flock cameras. the resolution approval. Motion to withdraw this item at the request of the administration. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Number 23, resolution of the council in reference to in reference to installation of six cameras and oneyear annual subscription awarded to flock safety funded from the rescue wagon fund and authorizing the finance director to execute an agreement on behalf of the town. Motion withdraw this item at the request of the administration.

Second. Is there any discussion on this one? Hearing none. All in favor? I. Let's go back to public forum. Um Mr. Frank, thank you for your patience. Okay. [laughter]

Lawrence Frank at O'Donald Road. Even though tonight's docket items 22 and 23 have been withdrawn, police chief Jason Ryan's flock camera resolution sent to the council two weeks ago deserves comment. 250 years. In that measure of time, this country has matured from what rights and privileges benefited a few to now, where we now celebrate freedoms for all guaranteed by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. At least that's how it should be. Our war of independence was punctuated with strategies that almost led to the defeat of Washington's armies. Sometimes pure luck and missed opportunities allow the colonist to achieve success that we remember today. We have been we have been promised freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of association, freedom to travel, the right to privacy, all all without government control. And yet here we are today with the town administrator previously and Middletown's police chief now advocating an attack on these basic ideas. It doesn't take a close reading of the police chief's presentation to see how misguided and dangerous these ideas are. either by accident or design. He and the town administrator are adding to a government universe that wants to be fear wants you to be fearful of what you do, who you meet, what you say, always wondering if Flock and its government's partners are watching you. This is an extension of the collapsing of American rights that is being instituted by Donald Trump. Let's look closer at the future of what

police chief, the police chief and the administrator want. In his presentation, Mr. Ryan authorizes the use of flock cameras in of mobile flock cameras instead of fixed units. These are over-the-counter smartphones enabled with a flocks mobile app. His presentation suggests using these Flock cameras to capture license plates by merely pointing the camera at cars in private driveways and entering the data into Flock's database. Rather than relying on stationary cameras advertised, you have a you have police and others now seeking out and cat cataloging license plates just driving up and down Middletown streets. The police the police can target individuals at will. These types of fishing expeditions, these invasions of privacy are specifically permitted in the flock proposal. There is more. There is a claim that flock can be used to identify quote terrorist related activity. Who gets to define terrorist related activity? Federal government officials, Middletown officials, White House lies are now part of our national conversation. Flock is a national dragnet offered under the guise of safety. It wants to have a national database with links to government information. It wants to know who you are, where you are, and who you associate with you with using a simple click of a mouse. In our 250 years, this nation has suffered many lives lost to preserve our democracy, to preserve and enhance the freedoms that we take for granted. We are not perfect. There is more to be done, but it will all come crashing down if we did not step up to stop the

chipping away at those things we hold most dear. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Frank. Okay. Is [clears throat] there anyone on Zoom? No, there is not. Is Zoom working? It is. Excellent. There's someone there. Their hand is okay. Excellent. So, let's move to acting as a uh board of license commission. Motion to act as a board of license commission. Second. All in favor?

I. Item seven, application of Newport National Golf Club Incorporated, DBA, Newport National Golf Club, 425 Mitchell's Lane for a BV liquor license for the 2025 2026 license and year for the use of the same premises. This requires advertising for a public hearing and notice to the butters to be held on April 6th uh 2026. Motion receives said application notify butters and advertise for a public hearing to be held on April 6th, 2026. Second. Okay. Motion to second. [snorts] Any discussion? All in favor? I. Uh, would anybody any councils want to remove any items off the consent calendar?

Hold on. Motion reconvenes the town council. Sorry. All in favor? I. Any councils like to remove any items from the consent calendar? I'll take that as a no. Hearing none. Vice President. Motion to I forgot the word. Adopt adopt the consent calendar in its entirety. Second. We have a motion, a second to adopt the consent calendar in its entirety. All in favor? I. Let's move on to license application of John. And John, I'm going to apologize as I butcher your last name. Skresp uh Middletown for a private detective license for the 2026 2027 licensing year. Motion to grant said license. Second.

Is there any discussion? Wendy, what's the Just out of curiosity, what's the process? Process is as far as who it goes to the police department. It does. It has to be cleared by the police department before um the council can clear it. So that's that process has already taken place and once the application comes in, it goes there and goes there, comes back to me, then I put it on the Okay. Excellent. Uh any further discussion hearing? None. All in favor? I ordinances number 18, communication of Middletown Beach Commission chair in reference to decision on horses using bags. Motion received said communication. Second.

The motion to second receive. All in favor? I. Okay. So, um, so I don't know, Peter, if you want to talk about it, you want me to talk about it? We're both on the deeds commission. Well, I I I can talk I could speak to it. Okay. um that at that meeting uh I think there were up to a dozen or more people involved in the equestrian world u voicing their

disapproval or their umbrage with the uh uh ordinance change. Um the beach commission um concluded after that that they'd like to give it another year, see what happens. The equestrian center said they would make try to be more vigilant and ensuring that the horse droppings were picked up. As a matter of fact, they indicated that um tell people to call them um and they said they'd pick it up whether it was from their center or not, they would come down and pick it up. So if residents see that if the council wants to continue with the recommendation, that's I I would suggest to do. So um I think they're giving them a shot. So what I think we this is just my opinion and Mike, if you need to weigh in here, please do. Um I think instead of tableing it, I'm not sure we've tabled anything for a year. don't.

So, I think we vote it down and then if they see fit, then they come back to us. If I'm going to vote it down, I don't know how the rest of the council is. But I think that should be I think that should be the procedure. If you guys are okay with that, I agree that's a prudent policy. Could you speak into the microphone, please? Loud. I agree that's a prudent. Thank you, sir. I could hear you loud and clear. Okay. Okay. Tom,

I just have a question. So, the beach commission brought this up, but what about the uh the police? What about the animal control? What about any of that part? The horse on the road, the the the manure on the road. We're we're talking about the beach and the beach says, "Oh, we'll give it a year." Why wouldn't we hear from I um I think at some point she weighed in with these people, didn't she? They they mentioned her at the meeting. I'm not sure to what extent. Olivia, your animal control officer. I'm not sure of that, Mr. President.

Yeah. So, um, one of the things they brought up was the safety of the horses and the riders and the public because the bags, most horses horses can get spooked easily as the bag gets weighed down as some of the stuff goes in there. And come to find out, half of the stuff doesn't even end up going in there anyway. um as it as the horse goes, it's hitting against the horse's back legs and it creates a safety issue. So that's what we were told. Um so as far as that goes, exactly what Peter says, I can't answer that question about Olivia um solid because she wasn't there,

right? Um, but what I do know is that um, just what Peter said, they will they after each ride they send out they have a golf cart they bought or a gator and they send out somebody to go pick up the horse manure. Um, and like they said, even if it's even if it isn't from them, because other people come down and bring trailers down and and trailer horses down to the beach in the offseason and ride them, um, they would pick it up. So, I think they're extending beyond because most people assume it's coming from them. The majority it probably is coming from them. So, um, that's just my opinion. So, as far as Libya goes, I don't uh I I can't answer that question solid.

Okay? And all I'm saying is just throwing it out there to everybody to consider that it's not just the manure on the beach. It's on Third Beach Road on the way to the beach. That's what we're talking about. What? Okay. But the it just seems odd to me the beach commission is going to recommend that we table it for a year or whatever. Vote it down when she should be here because she has to deal with it. I don't get it. Sean, have you received any complaints or any issues from Olivia with this? I haven't seen her to discuss it, so I don't know if there's been an improvement or not. Okay. But is the ordinance is the ordinance on the docket tonight? Yes. Yes. Yes,

it is. It was continued to tonight. Okay. So, uh let's move along here. What uh you guys want to vote on this or you want to you want to wait to hear from Olivia? You want to vote? Charlie, I'll vote. Want to vote? I'll vote. I'll vote. I'm going to say no. But I get it. Then don't vote. Okay. I'll vote no. Oh, he has to vote. I'll vote yes, rather, I should say. So, that's up to you. All right. So, let's uh let's take a vote. Um, I'll read it in number 19. There is someone that wanted to speak on Zoom. No. Um, oh, I'm sorry. You're right. Sorry, Chris.

Oh, sorry, Chris. Chris Khil, come on up, sir.

Chris Khil, 375 Wyatt Road. So I need to first off ask a couple of questions and secondly hopefully get some clarification. So I think we all know that they do not pick up the manure from the roads. I mean that is as as early as last week. There were four riders with a guide um left the horse manure on the road beach road and went to the beach. So, some of the questions I have here are what allows them to walk their horses on town roads. Well, that's a good question. I'm not sure I have an answer. Okay.

U followup is going to be is a residents only. I don't I think it's I think the majority of it, Chris, and I I'm not sure. Okay. Um because some of it's uncharted water to the question. So, good question. So, so the to answer the question about

uh picking it up when they're on their ride. They said they don't pick it up immediately once they're done with the ride. They said they send out uh their go their gator or golf cart, whatever it is to collect. They're not going to get off the horse there and pick it up because most time it's somebody paying to for to to ride a horse and I don't know what the experience level is. So that brings me to the question of are they paying the town or are they under contract with the town to use the roads for commercial business? I don't I don't think so. So can any resident take their horse and walk it down any road in Middletown? Yeah. I don't see why they can. Yeah.

And there's no no ordinance that prevents them from doing that. I think that's a problem. That's a real That's an oversight that I think needs to be needs to be looked at. And who's who's really who's on the hook if something happens with these horses and pedestrians, you know, and as we all know during beat season, their beach road is pretty tight. You've got very little room for walking. There are no sidewalks. You got people walking with kids in strollers, cars, scooters, horses, bicycles. Nobody wants to walk in horse maneuver. Nobody wants to ride their bicycles through it or even drive through it. So it it creates quite a quite a pinch point there at many locations. So my main question here is what allows them to do it to use the middle town roads.

I don't I'm not sure I have a legal answer for you, sir, at this point in time. Is that I can endeavor to answer. It's not a a question we looked at in advance of the meeting. Um, but there's nothing presently prohibiting the uses of horses on town roads. And I think as other council members mentioned, you know, the town has been here since 1743. So public roads would have traditionally been used by horses. Um, and so just because there's nothing in an ordinance prohibiting an activity doesn't mean it's prohibited necessarily.

Okay. So it goes back to anyone can use the roads resident or non-resident. Yes. Okay. So getting back to the bags, every major city in in the nation has horses. Province, Boston, New York, you name it, they all have bags on their horses. So I don't see where such a such a big request to have horses bags put on horses. I'm more concerned honestly with the liability of those horses on town roads. Okay. Anyone's horses on town roads. If you recall, there was a child that was ejected from one of those horses down in front of Peabuddies last summer.

I was I'm not aware of that. Yeah, there was a I wasn't that wasn't um that wasn't good, but it brought up the issue of, you know, liability. So, I'm not sure. Um so, so let me ask this then, Chris. What is the what is the town's liabilities? Does it fall under the trust? Is that what happens? I I was just going to point out you actually have an ordinance 70.03 riding horses generally which states that persons may ride horses on streets and highways located within the town only between the hours of sunrise and sunset. So the town has legislation that allows people to ride horses. Uh the data doesn't answer the liability question. Do we know that or no?

I I think it's just similar to driving your car. the liability will be on the the horse, not not the town, but on the person riding the horse or the automobile or you know that that's where the the risk is. It's not on the town. So these these folks have to have insurance to operate this business, I would assume. They may operate without insurance. I don't think we know that, but we're not sure. We don't know that. Okay. Maybe that's something we need to find out. I don't know. Maybe maybe it's beyond our scope. I don't know. Okay. Mhm. And is there a fine for not picking up the source manure as well as there's a fine for not picking up your dog mess which is part of the ordinance.

I I can only say I know Olivia issues tickets. I don't know what the fine is, but I can I can get back to the council on that. And on a side note, as far as the dog ordinance, the enforcement is is um the enforcement is lacking greatly on the beaches as far as, you know, dogs being leashed. Um I was down third beach today, 3:00, five dogs. Only one person was kind enough to, you know, was respectful enough to leash their dog. The other four just ran rampid. Any day, anytime. Um, I just think enforcement needs to be addressed here also. So, thanks for giving me time to speak. Good questions. Thank you. Appreciate it.

All right. Okay. So, let me read number 19 in. Um, we received number 18. Number 19 is continued from January 20th 20 January 20th, 2026 regular meeting in order to the town of Middletown. This is the second reading. In audits amendment to the town code of the town of Middletown, title 11, general regulations, chapter 90, animals, 90.03, disposition of carcasses and waste. Motion to adopt said that ordinance.

We have a motion and second to adopt said ordinance. Uh, all in favor? All oppose? Okay, let's move on. Other communication number 20, memorandum of prevention coalition. Middletown prevention coalition director in reference to Middletown Wellness Month proclamation. Motion to receive said memorandum. Second. We have a motion, a second to receive. All in favor? I. And Lori, before we go and come on up, we'll go into the resolution. We'll hold that till you're done. Okay. Go. You can you can go there. 21. Resolution of the council reference to Middletown Wellness Month proclamation. Motion pass said that resolution. Second. Yes, sir.

How you doing? You've changed, Lori. Yep. I'm just kidding. Lori passed the buck to for part of it to me. Just Yes. I'm not sure we know you. You probably don't. Okay. But I will introduce myself. So, I'm not I'm not worried. I I'm I'm fine talking about myself. [laughter] Okay.

But good evening. My name is Chris Williams and on behalf of the leadership team of the Middletown Prevention Coalition, we're respectfully requesting the town council to proclaim the month of March as Middletown Wellness Month. Wellness Month has been a part of our community for the last 5 years and has become woven into the fabric of our town as we continue introducing wellness practices and mental health resources that will help to enhance a healthy lifestyle. We've incorporated a robust schedule of approximately 55 plus events and activities that will encompass a wide range of participants including youth, adults, families, and seniors with the flyers that have been provided in the packet. Um Loriy's going to highlight some of those activities.

Good evening everybody. Um, so the first flyer you have in your packets, um, it is entitled Wellness Month 26. Um, and this is what we refer to as our overall flyer. So, I would invite you to maybe pull that out so you have a sense of what's being offered across the community. On the front side, those are some communitywide events that we're doing. Um, as Chris said, we've attempted to target the different sectors of our community. Um we um have some new businesses that actually have reached out to us this year and asked us if they could participate in the event, which is really exciting. Um we've got a self-defense workshop for women. Uh the new art uh island art on Quinnick Avenue reached out to us. They're going to do some preschool programs, art, creative things uh with families there. Uh, Newport pickle ball is offering a family day pickle ball to teach families, kids, adults how to play. Um, we're partnering with the library for a library wellness series. Um, uh, some of the practitioners, we got a chiropractor, a doctor coming in to talk about topics related to health. The whole goal of wellness month, I would add, is to introduce our community to wellness practices as a means with the hopes that they will incorporate some of these practices, stress reduction practices into their lifestyles, uh, to to have a healthier lifestyle, if you will. Um, and then on the bottom of the overall flyer, uh, Kim Chandler at Inner Light Yoga has opened up 12 of her yoga classes for free. 10 slots in each of those that participants that register through this flyer um, can go to those workshops for free. Um, the other flyer that Wendy handed you tonight is the school-based flyer. Um, and it says schoolbased flyer. Um there are some

elementary assemblies on kindness that dovetail with SEAL uh social emotional learning curriculum, the state guidelines. Uh the God middle school dodgeball tournament that I'll talk about in a minute. Um the Islanders committed, the God Islanders committed students are sponsoring that for their students and also adults in the community. Um, and if you flip over to the other side of the schoolbased flyer, this is one that I'm really most excited about. Um, we are we have now 5% of our teachers trained at the high school in mental health first aid that allowed us to implement the teen module of mental health first aid. So, at the end of the month, we'll kick off the first workshop. Um, and that'll go run through next year. Um, we've got self-defense for girls lacrosse team. one of the coaches there expressed an interest. We actually kicked off this morning with the restorative tease over at Forest Avenue, which is a big hit. Uh 40 almost 50 teachers came down for their TE's. Um the other flyer that you have, mental health first aid. We are continuing our communitywide uh implementation plan. You'll see from looking at this flyer, there are two workshops that are geared to the teachers that have not gotten trained yet or that need to reertify. their certifications have been good for three years. This is our fourth year doing mental health first aid across the community in the schools with our teachers. Um and so that highlights that. And last but not least is our dodgeball tournament. And I stand before you with a message from our middle school Islanders committed students. They hereby are requesting that you put a team together. They would like to play against you. So I leave on that note. Any questions that you have in terms of uh the programs and workshops?

I feel bad, you know, nailing seventh and eighth graders with the dodge with the ball, you know. No, I don't. Eric, you don't have [laughter] Well, should we lost actually? Hey, we've had we've done it the past three years. Three or four years. Yeah, it's a lot of fun.

Funny, I'll tell you a funny story. So last year, the way the the game goes is, you know, there's six or seven of us run out against six or seven and the and the balls are lined off. I don't know, six, seven balls lined up across the center court on the on the gym floor. And you know, when they say go, you you run up and you grab a ball. We try and beat them there. Some strategy behind us. Some people don't run up. You grab a ball and you're trying to hit somebody. If they catch it, you're out. So you get eliminated like that. If you get hit, you hit somebody, you're out. So, we're all out. Who's left? There's three two other people on their team. Mrs. Von Villis is there. She's the one. They throw it at her. She catches it and they're out. It was awesome. I thought she was going to get hurt. [laughter]

That was the highlight. You know, when Mrs. Santos is here, the name Peter Peter made up shirts for uh Mrs. Santa on the council and it was called Santos Slayers I think it's called right and it's a white shirt I blew that I still have it um you know and it has numbers on the back stuff like that so it's it's a lot of fun it's a good it's a yeah it's a fun fun afternoon you know and then of course my son has on video when Peter Conington went down the first year and banged his head on the on [clears throat] the court he went down backwards fixing the floor huh I got a bill for fixing the floor

yeah that's Yeah, maybe the impact fees can fix that. So, um I'm just kidding. Um but it's a lot of fun. I mean, it was that was a lot of that was a lot of fun, you know. And of course, you know, I I I don't want to speak for the whole group, but I'm I'm a real sore loser, you know. So, [laughter] I I don't care what age you are. I come to win. I know one time the young girls, they they put us against I don't know, they're probably sixth grade and they had these little outfits on and like Cinderella outfits and we're whipping balls at him. The little tutus. Yeah, the little tutus. I don't think the parents were too happy about that. But what are you going to do? It was all in fun, you know. So, we'll see you there. [laughter]

I can't wait. Can we Can we practice tonight? Hang on. I can't. No, I'm just kidding. [clears throat] Charlie, did you have a couple things or comment? First of all, thank you for everything you do. this sure right now as we all know this this is so important to our kids to our community it is so I thank you for everything you do and the coalition as well and then I would ask you to try to you know get she to get a team together as well last year he kept talking about it but he didn't get the team together so let's get some more belt teams together and uh I have tried all right and uh

you don't remember the name of his team it was all show and no go that's what it Okay. Excellent. Thank you so much. Thank you. We appreciate it. All right. So, any further discussion here? We have a motion to second to pass said resolution. All in favor? I have. Lori, can I get a pink Can I get some ribbons for my mailbox? Thank you, Tom. You didn't read that in. I did. Did. I did read 21 in. Okay. Yeah. Motion to second and pass the resolution. All in favor?

I I town administrator part. Um we've already done the flock hammers. So we'll move on to number 24 memorandum of finance director through town administrator in reference to lease purchase of two fire pumper vehicles. Motion to receive said memorandum. Second. Have a motion to second to receive. All in favor? I and we'll move right into 25 before discussion. Uh resolution of the council in reference to authorizing the purchase of vehicles and equipment for use by the town and the financing thereof through one or more uh equipment lease purchase agreements and authorizing execution and delivery of said equipment lease purchase agreements and related instruments and determining other matters in connection therewith. Motion to pass said resolution. Second.

Sean Patrick.

Uh good evening. Included in your packet this evening was the memorandum from the finance director and I apologize the subject uh is mistitled. It's it's for two ambulances and one fire pumper/tanker. Um these items were at the request of bond council. Um at if you remember at the December meeting when we were about to purchase our two fire pumpers uh the fire station we had originally approved the purchase and approved a resolution but bond council wasn't satisfied and that we needed to repass a resolution uh signifying that the the general fund is going to pay for the debt. But as you know, when we pass the resolution, the rescue wagon is appropriating the money to the general fund and then the general fund is paying. Um, so it's just really a a cleanup resolution that the bond council was requesting that the

Yeah. So that's what they weren't satisfied with with the way it was flowing. Correct. And these they needed clarification on how it was flowing. Correct. And then these purchases that were approved by approved by the council were in December 16, 2024 and September 16, 2025. So prior to us making that purchase for the uh the two fire pumpers. So, this is just cleanup work um that we're requesting the council to approve as well as uh this is going to be with the DPW equipment and vehicles that you had priorly passed um a couple meetings ago. So, it's just all going to be into one issuance.

Okay. So, um, so let me ask you, I guess, because this is when I read it, it's, um, it it's it's it's worded differently than normally it is because it's usually very specific on what we're purchasing. So, I know that we talked about what we were going to purchase for public works, and I understand that this is a cleanup from there, but I would just ask that at least so the residents can see exactly what's being purchased. Um, I think that's important. Okay.

These are written by bond counsel, so we're trying to satisfy legal requirements. That's the only thing I would say is I mean, we can we can pass multiple resolutions, but bond counsel. No, I'm saying about the item on the agenda. Okay. Yes. Okay. Y that that's what I I get this part that's but written by bond council y legally, but I think the item in the agenda needs to be a little bit more specific as to what

um was being purchased. Okay. Can we just talk a little bit about how long it takes for some of this emergency equipment to I mean I know the answer but I want the residents to know the answer because I know with police cars and with fire rescue wagons and with pumpers um we get we've been trying to get ahead of this because now there's only to my understanding there's only two manufacturers in the country of of of fire pumpers and that type of rescue apparatus. Um I'm not sure on the uh rescue wagons, but I know in the fire pumpers. So it takes a couple of years before you see these things. Only takes them like two or three months to to make them. But since there's only two suppliers or or or manufacturers of these of this type of equipment, you're waiting in a line for, you know, 18 to 24 months, I believe. And that's where the the hang-up is. So, if we're trying to keep up with our fleet, if we're not ahead of this at this point in time, and we don't try and stay ahead of it to stay in the line or at least try to get to the head of line. I'm not sure you ever get there. You do eventually, but it's kind of reciprocal if you don't. So, I just want to make sure that everyone understands that. Um, I know we do because we go through it. Uh, but I want to make sure the residents understand why this is being done.

[clears throat] I would just say the estimated delivery date. Uh so when in December 16th, 2024 is when the council authorized the the purchase of the two ambulances and that they're anticipated to be received in in late 2026 or early 2027. So that's that's two years that

we've been in the waiting. One thing I learned on the council, I haven't learned much here, Patrick, but uh over the years, one thing I've learned for sure is don't mess with the emergency services, especially when it comes to equipment, especially this day and age where you have to wait over two years to get a piece of equipment. So, we got to stay out ahead of that. So, appreciate Sean and your team uh uh doing that. Is there any questions? I have one. Tom, is this something we have to vote on or should we just rubber stamp it? [laughter] Okay. All right. So, I could say point of order and you could correct him for Let's just Let's just move forward, guys.

Sure. He can be. Let's just move forward. So, um Patrick, thank you. Um any further questions or discussion? Um we have a motion to second to pass set resolution. All in favor? I I Anybody opposed? Motion carries. Motion to adjurnn. Second. We have a motion to second to adjurnn. All in favor? I. Thank you. Good night, everybody.