Town Council - Special Meeting

Okay, Wendy, would you please call the roll?

Sorry.

President Paul M. Roderick. Here. Vice President Thomas P. Welch III. Here. Counselor Peter D. Connerton Sr.

Here.

Counselor Christopher M. Logan. Counselor Charles R. Roberts.

Here.

Counselor Dennis B. Toronto. Here. Counselor Barbara A. Von Villis. Here. We have a quorum, Mr. President.

Please join us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America

Okay, we'll get started. A lot of teachers in the room today. Welcome. So we're going to have executive session. So that requires us, it shouldn't take that long. We're going to have to ask you to step out. But after that, you know, we'll vote on what we're going to vote on and we'll open free open discussion after that. Okay. So let me just read that in. Number one, executive session, presumed division around general law. sections 42 42 6 42 46 4 and 42 46 5 a 2 collector bargaining bargaining neam class teachers union review discussion and or potential vote and or vote a potential action and or vote an executive session and or an open session motion recess open session reconvene an executive session second all in favor aye aye okay so just give us a few minutes um

You guys good?

Yep.

Okay. Uh, thank you for waiting patiently. Um, vice president.

Motion recess, executive session, reconvene and open session.

All in favor. Aye.

Motion ratify the NEAM teachers union contracts, September 1, 2026, all the way to August 30th, 2029. Any further discussion?

Hearing none, all in favor?

Aye. Motion to seal executive session minutes pursuant to section 4246-7 of O'Reilly general law. All in favor? Aye.

Okay. So we have a contract with the teachers, so that's awesome. Thank you very much. Yeah. um last executive session i think it was 10 days ago when we received the fiscal impact statement we talked a little bit about to uh superintendent emeyer i call him billy so i just super doesn't flow right with me so billy we had discussions about you know he presented it to us and um it seemed very fair so lisa you and your team thank you for being reasonable for yourselves and for the town Um, but the exciting part, I think for the rest of us is that, you know, this is the first. Uh, three year contract since 2018, it was ratified through 21. So it's really since 21, it's the first three year contract that we've had with the teachers because it kept doing rollovers. And one of the things we talked to Billy about in executive session was, um, that's exciting because we're going to open a new school. Right. And. we don't want to be negotiating. I'm sure you don't want to be negotiating going into a new facility, a state-of-the-art facility, which you guys deserve and the kids deserve. And as the flow of this whole educational process, with schools becoming four stars and one just missing four stars, The job you guys are doing. It's exciting. It's exciting for Middletown. It's exciting. I'm sure it has to be exciting for some of you to get in some of these facilities. And we're excited. And I think that having this contract going there and not worrying about. negotiating next year i think that's a huge win for everybody where you can get in your classrooms and the ones that are going to these new facilities um and and you know utilize the tools and that you have um to improve education so we're excited we thank you very much um billy thank you greg billy nash the school committee the the administration and and again lisa you and your team it's um it's kind of a different um a little bit of a different vibe or dynamic or just being able to have conversations and just reasonable simple you know conversations with with teachers i remember the day back sitting here and some of those fights were bad and they were angry and it doesn't have to be like that you know we can we're all we're all adults and we're all trying to do the right thing for ourselves and for the town and and to make it better whether it's things we do or what you guys do with education and um really that's what's important at the end of the day so again thank you very much congratulations and um we can't wait till uh for a year from now being moving into these to that new school and um even the even the remodeled uh high school and even potentially it might be a little bit behind but even forest avenue so we're gonna have some great schools with some great teachers with some great results and how lucky are we and how lucky are our kids so thank you very much we appreciate it okay All right. Any other, did you guys, Lisa, you or anybody want to say anything? Okay. That's probably the easiest conversation we've ever had. I just wanted to make sure we have the opportunity. Greg or anybody want to say anything?

I just want to thank the teachers for what they do every day. This was a big deal for the town and for the teachers and the schools. Going into the new schools 3 year contract, the teachers were very reasonable and it wasn't easy. We started in April. It was a long process, but. It was a, it was a good thing for the schools, the teachers. So, thank you. Thank you guys.

Okay, anybody else I just like to say, okay, I knew my teacher was going to go.

Well, I have a great, great connection, strong connection with, um, with the school department and with the high school particularly, but I am extremely proud of the way that the direction that the school district is going in. And I just needed to say that out loud.

Okay. Excellent. Well, congratulations. And, um, thank you for your, for being reasonable and good luck to you in this new school year. Thank you.

Okay. Hey, let's go to, uh, let's move on to number 2, which is the, uh, the town updates.

Communication of Jay Edwards project manager downs construction company in reference to renovations to the middle town town library at 110 enterprise center. Posting receive said communication 2nd, we have a motion to 2nd, receive all in favor. Hi. Hey.

Counselors, how you doing? Jake? I'm very well. How are you?

Excellent. Thank you.

We have you have before you a letter from us and all the backup for your budget going over the items that we would like to have the Council approve this evening. The total is $1,187,209 and this will pretty much complete all of the open items. We have one open item remaining. It's on the HVAC mitigation. And the only reason we haven't got that right yet is because we got the design a little bit late and the contractor is going through trying to make sure that they can get the design back into budget. So the first item is for Downs Construction. Change for additional charge for additional time the amount of $32,345. The charge from Odin's LO Architects for the door design, the schedule extension, sound mitigation changes, and the funding assistance in the amount of $51,090. Uh, this incorporates the entire package for the furniture portion only. Um, that is 500,134 dollars. You have the library shelving system and the book carts from Tucker library services. And that is an amount of 285,919 dollars. Skylight shade panels. Furnished only. They'll be installed by the contractor under their contract for $13,200. Town compact shelving system from Donegan Systems. This is for $49,375. You have all board construction to install a sound masking system for $92,691. You have the work at the front entrance to reconfigure it for $150,002. And finally, you have the infrastructure for the washer-dryer hookup at $20,167. Oh, they're separate. Yeah, they're separate resolutions.

We'll take one of the rest.

The rest of your evening will probably be spent on those resolutions.

Yeah. Yeah. So we'll take one at a time. Could you just explain or Sean? I just want to make sure that the folks here and the folks listening or that will listen to it in the future understand what this is. It's part of the project. Some of this stuff is additional stuff that we weren't able to do because of the donations that were made. So now we're able to do that, and I want to make sure that's clear to everybody, okay?

Yeah, all of this money is within the budget currently. Right. All the money you've received, all the money you had already put aside, all of the items that were discussed, plus enough money for the base amount of the HVAC mitigation are all included within your overall budget.

But the overall budget's been adjusted with the money we got from Van Buren and...

So over the past months, the administration, the library, organization have been applying for grants uh from foundations and as we've also been soliciting grants from people uh the total amount of grants that we receive towards the project above what the town has raised through the the debt that's been issued is one million six hundred eighty three thousand three hundred dollars and those are from organizations like the van buren foundation champlin um John Kane, But there's others and then as far as donations private donations to date we've received 618 thousand $400 there's been a couple large donations that have come through the town and then there's a really a lot of hard work at the library has done. Internally with their, their donation drive. So this is a project that has been recognized by the local nonprofits of support activities within our communities as as important to a clinic island and they've. Really come up and made generous contributions towards it. And then again, the donations that we received are also significant and equally as important. And I think that represents people's local interest in making sure that this project is done in a meaningful way for all of the residents, not only here in Middletown, but on Aquidneck Island. So a lot of the work that Jay described is above the original scope that we had laid out when we started the project. And when I say above the original scope, we were working within a budget. We were trying to be thoughtful. When we went out to the grantors and the foundations for the donations, all of that, We talked about what things that were needed to make this not only a better project to the town administratively, but to the library and its patrons. So, for example, we'll talk about air conditioning and sound attenuation. The original project, if you recall, we looked at the air conditioning units having remaining useful life in the units. And that over future years, we would replace those units. As a as a failed. What we've been able to do through people's generosity is basically. Put in a brand new system. put in a new control system, and while doing that, address sound issues that will make the environment in the library more useful for the patrons that are there. And again, that enhancement has only been achieved because of the foundations and donations we received, Another example is the front entrance. At the beginning project, we were looking at retaining the front entrance. What we've been able to do is modify the front entrance so that we have a double set of front doors that open to the front of the building. It will provide a better feature as you enter the building. Just like the front door of your home, it will be more enhanced. but it will also be more functional in the fact that it's wider. It will have a better handicap or people that are challenged just moving into the building. So again, another enhancement that We saw it down the road, but because of, again, people's interest in the project and providing leadership with us, as well as donations. Those are two good examples of what we've been able to achieve while still sticking with the original budget. Some of the items in here tonight, furniture and things like that. Those are part of the original project. While they show up as change orders, it's really a timing issue. If you remember, there was a guaranteed maximum price contract one. There was a second one. These things are building upon one another. But every two weeks, the building committee meets and we go through these items to make sure that we're working off the original budget as well as with the foundation and donor support that we're receiving. So, We are in budget. We still retain $508,000 in project contingency. The project is well underway. If you're interested in a tour, we can arrange for that, but we are well underway with the project. I would say we have one change order that's included in the budget that's in your packet tonight that's related to some modifications to the HVAC system. And it's mostly related again to managing sound. We need to make some modifications to make certain that we don't end up with any drumming or other noise issues as we push air through the building. That will likely be, uh that change order would likely be on the docket for the first meeting in september uh again it's accounted for in our budget but uh it's really the last piece to the public puzzle uh that should be the last major change order that we would anticipate with the project so Um, so that's the budget part we are on budget and again, we have 508,000 dollars remaining in owner's contingency. Uh, the second piece on time. Uh, we're still the working schedule is to have this done work substantially complete by the end of December. Um, so we're really not far off from where we thought we would be. I think we thought originally October we had the delay from the state. So we're working. You know, still towards end of the calendar or having the project completed. And, uh. based on the long lead time items that we are managing i think we'll still achieve that and so does the project team okay thank you sean does any council have any questions of of j edwards dennis or i watch to the the issues of

So is it okay if I read this in for the minutes?

Yeah.

Okay. It's actually from Paul Mankowski. uh he asked me because i have chatted with him in the past he has concerns about budgets and wanted to know kind of does the numbers and things along those lines so he had a number of questions this isn't directly towards you i think it's more for the project as a whole so uh he says i don't take things very personally okay perfect neither do i monday night's uh council jen and excuse me i'll start from but please see if you can get some answers on library project expenditures Monday night's council agenda includes a request to approve 1.19Million expenditures for the library project. The project plan schedule, total construction, furnishing and financial costs and progress to date are unclear. Schedule has slipped 6 months as the construction manager at risk cost has increased by about 1.8Million and construction and engineering costs have increased by about 100,000 dollars. Council should demand an expenditure pause until the administration provides the public with a detailed project plan and a clear accounting of the total project cost. A detailed expenditure timeline, including costs incurred to date, contractual obligations, and a financial plan with its total interest and bond insurance costs. Town strategy fund this project intentionally circumvents the town's charter referendum requiring through a series of consecutive short term notes followed by insurance of long term debt. This approach denies taxpayers the right to vote on major. Capital expenditures here is what middle town did. And we'll do October 24th. Excuse me, October of 2024 financed purchase of an older building for the library with a 1 year note for 3.4Million. October 2025 refinance the 3.4 million enrolled the project into a one-year note of 11.4 million to include building modifications for a library. October 2026 plans to refinance in that entire project into a long-term 20-year bond for some to be determined amount. Total cost of the entire project remained blurred in addition to the schedule and cost increase previously cited the town will add a 1.4Million expense to expand municipality administration and employees offices spaces in the library. Expect some reimbursement from the state and is facing turbulent bond market that could increase bond insurance and interest cost. also claims that the public private venture will offset cost it shows an unplanned 115 K PPV expenditure in the current budget. There's no single place where a taxpayer can view the total project plan total cost and schedule. And that was basically Paul had asked me to read that in he'd like to make it a part of the minutes of the records. I shared this with Don, the chairman of the Library Committee, and he has responded to this. So we're going to have him kind of help us, point us in the right direction so we can get answers to these questions. I haven't ordered these numbers, so I personally take it with a grain of salt, and I'm going to look into it a little bit more myself. But I guess the one question I just have is, you know, when I look at this, And I did go visit the website. Don sent me the site, the library site, and you can go in and you can see the agendas, you can see the minutes, you can see the budgets, you can see the change orders. So you can start to piece it together, but it's kind of hard to, you know, I can look at it because I have a little bit of a business background, but if the average person goes, it's kind of hard to follow. So I guess, you know, is there a single document showing the original budget All subsequent budget revisions expenditures incurred to date remaining obligations projected completion cost financing cost anticipated grants or reimbursement and the final estimated tax obligation. kind of what i'm being asked like people ask me questions all about that but how much do we have left to do and what is our obligation at this time and in the end how's this going to look totally from a financial standpoint how much are we going to get back from the state so i guess it's just getting maybe having a document will might be a little bit more transparent and easier for people to find this information or maybe we have a If people are interested in a webinar or seminar on it so they can present this information. I know Don got right back to me. So I know he's got it all figured out. So I'll keep going with him. But I did want to read this into the records. And there are change orders here. And that's one of the things that I get concerned about in projects is change orders. have been able to get people to donate money. What I'm hearing is that those donations are basically being used to do things that we were hoping we could do day one, but we couldn't. So that sounds great. You know, I'd like to see, you know, Sean, one of the things that was asked is, you know, when these change orders, it says that the proceeds is from interest income eligible private donations eligible grants and all expenses recorded the town's grant and capital project fund. A lot of spots and you talk to that a little bit.

Well, I think going back to what you originally asked for is the finance office can put together a financial schedule that more or less encompasses the information that Mr. Minkowski is looking for. And with that, I think that would provide the detail that you're asking about right now. I would say from a transparency standpoint, you know, when you say more transparent, I don't know that there could be a more transparent process. The amount of work that goes into the Don's completing and the library staff to for the library board construction. I mean, we started out with an ordinance. They have a specific set of tasks. You actually have three council members that in some combination show up. Peter Connerton, Tom, and Paul that participate in those meetings. You have two library board of trustees. So you have two boards that are participating in those. We have a project manager, a construction manager. There is a wealth of information that's going on. And even from a transparency standpoint, you have the docket that's before you tonight with all the supporting documentation. I think, you know, if we had a report card for transparency, we would get an A right now. But as far as the schedule that Paul's asking for, that can be put together by the finance office and provided at the September meeting, I think. I'll talk to Mark when we do the project status update. That's the easiest thing to do.

yeah we're getting to that point in a project right it's a big project we're coming down to the end of the project I think it's really good it would be a good exercise like I said I reached out to Don and just I think it probably is going to be pretty easy for him to answer in regards to what obligations we still have and so Mark's the town treasurer and Mark should answer the question about where we are from the treasury that's right I mean, I'm not looking for answers tonight, but if we could just maybe making it more accessible, you know, maybe a little bit more, or, you know, for people who, like I said, I went in and looked at it and I saw the documents and I can see the timelines and I can see the change orders in there. And I, so I get it, but the average person, if there was an easier way of doing that and just kind of answering Paul's questions and I can work with Mark, if that's what, you know, if that's your recommendation, Sean.

Mark will have something on the docket. So.

Okay, great. Thank you, I think further counselors any other questions for Jay is that one quick question.

Where any the funding sources that they dictate the extra expenditures like so like when we got the grants private donations that is did that cause any of these change orders.

No. From what I understand, there's only been a couple of small donations that actually stipulated where they wanted the money to go. Other than that, all the money that has received your donations have been open-ended. Okay.

John Potter, And I would say on the foundations, we have gone in with specific ask like the air conditioning. John Potter, And and other projects they they want a very specific request for the funding and then they've been again supportive of all of those those requests that we've had.

And the big part of this that I'm looking at the table that shows the funding and expenditures. The 2.06Million. That was led by what again? I'm sorry. So what? Why? Why was that increased so much on that level? Because that's just a big 1. it's a big jump.

It's the front entrance air conditioning. Don Finan- mitigation, I would, I would probably rather just provide a with that September update I can provide the itemized list of what those items are.

Don Finan- Thank you. Don Finan- Okay don you're gonna have you done you're gonna have your chance here in a second. Don Finan- Okay, all right well i'm going to call you up in a minute Thank you Jay Thank you okay. Don Finan- Okay done. Don, you're up.

Don Morin, 549 Twitter Road. Thank you, Mr. Town Council President. I do have a prepared speech, but the question Mr. Roberts asked is, it's the Excel workbook and there's tabs that explain everything in those line items, if you want to look at the detail. Thank you again. As you know, I chair the Library Building Committee, and I, along with other supporters of this project here today, encourage you to approve these resolutions before you. These changes have made possible through great work of the Building Committee, library personnel, town administration, town council, and many others. These efforts have raised over $2.3 million in grants and donations to support the project, and we continue to solicit more. This has allowed us to include many items that would not have been possible without these funds. Also, it's important to note that the town's financial obligation to the project has not changed. I'd like to briefly address those who have spoken out in opposition. Through the notable efforts of the Town Council and the Town Administration, this new library will place an existing structure that is in serious need of upgrades with no impact on the taxpayer. The current building has suffered from collapsed floors due to the weight of the books, as the building was never intended to be used as a library, having been originally built to serve a Navy daycare center. Just this past Wednesday we had to move our building committee meeting from the front conference room to the interior of the building, because the air conditioning in the front part of the building is no longer able to adequately cool the space rather than poor taxpayer money into an aging building. The town has developed a creative approach to use existing resources that will provide the town with a new library that will be more than double the size of the existing one. allowing for additional services and programs that we could never have imagined offering within the current space, while at the same time providing a large community room, additional conference room and study space, a local history room, all spaces that the town currently lacks and can definitely use, all of which will be accessible to the public after hours. As for those with concerns about the location, the new library will be much closer to the center of the town geographically than the current building, and it will be about a mile or less walk from every school in the district once the school construction project is completed for the fall 2028 school year. it's adjacent to an existing affordable housing senior housing complex affordable season housing complex on one side and on the other side sits a new residential property that's currently under construction that is expect expected to house 81 studio single bedroom and two bedroom units not to mention affordable housing currently planned for carcer street Regarding transparency, the library building committee was established by town council via town ordinance in January of 2025. It consists of two members of the council with an alternate, two members of the library board of trustees, the library director and assistant director, the town administrator, the town facilities director, and three community members, of which I am one. The committee meets twice a month on the first and third Wednesday. All meetings are posted and open to the public. And at each meeting, both the budget and schedule are reviewed in detail. All meeting materials are posted to the Library Builder Committee website, and they're available for anyone to review at any time. Regarding the concerns raised by the letter read by Council of Toronto, all answers can be found on the Builder Committee website. And I have reached out personally to Mr. Mancosi to address his concerns. In all fairness, I could probably do a better job of I do maintain the website. I can probably reorganize it to make it easier to follow. But every answer to every single question he has asked is information that we review at every building committee meeting, and it's readily accessible to the public. While it may have been wonderful to have a new library as part of the town center that was initially envisioned for its current location on West Main Road, it would have cost a lot more. An analysis performed by some who are opposed to the project stated that new construction would only be about $3.4 million more than this renovation effort. unfortunately although i'm sure it wasn't intentional the analysis overstated the reimbursement amount for new construction while the analysis properly used fifty percent of new construction costs for reimbursement it unfortunately did not consider the fact that reimbursement is capped at three hundred dollars a square foot per rhode island regulations for public library construction reimbursement 220-ricr-60-15-1 This error alone caused an overstatement of $2.4 million in reimbursement for the new construction. Also, the town has already received its commitment from the Office of Library and Information Services, and the amount of reimbursable square footage for the renovation portion analysis was also understated. taking both into account the new library would have cost at least six and perhaps upwards of eight million dollars more than this renovation project and would have certainly required an increase in taxes unlike this option both the library building committee and the library board of trustees have unanimously approved these changes and i encourage you to do the same tonight i'm available to answer any other questions you may have thank you thank you don okay

All right. So any of the council council have any other questions of Jay Edwards or Don, before we move on. Okay. We're going to tackle these one at a time and some folks would like to speak on some of these. So let's go to number three, which is the resolution of the council. The count town council agrees to change. Order number 1 in the amount of 32,345 dollars and 0 cents that funding for this change order is from the bond anticipation note proceeds. interest income eligible private donations and eligible grants and all expenses recorded in the town's grant town's grant or capital project fund and that the finance director is authorized hereby to execute this change order on behalf of the town motion to pass that resolution yes i'm recusing from this item okay uh terry we're going to tackle one at a time though okay

Good evening, Terry Flynn, 34 Warren Avenue. I'm submitting to Council documents of the Library 110 Enterprise Drive project budget over the last two years. In August 2024, the project budget was $10.9 million. In September 2025, the Council passed a resolution to finance not more than $11.4 million for the project, yet the project budget was $11.9 million. Finally, in July 2026, the total project cost is reported to be $14.2 million. There's not seem to be any clear line items that reflect interest costs or financing fees. It is important for the public to know what those costs are to the town for this project. More importantly, does the Council have a cost limit for this project, where the cost has increased without consideration of the financing costs from $10.9 million to $14.2 million over the last two years? Thank you for answering these questions.

I do not.

Anybody have any questions? Mark or Don, whoever. We'll go to Mark. He's the finance guy.

Good evening, Mr President, members of the Council. Earlier this evening, we talked about preparing something for the next docket that would include what Terry Flynn is asking for.

Don, do you have anything to add based on what Terry said?

As I said, made in my statement again done more into 549 Turner road it's it's we've received additional funding, so we put it back into the project So yes, the project has gone up, but the base project has stayed the same the cost for the town has stayed the same the lack of impact on the taxpayer has stayed the same.

And, and I would like to say we're not borrowing any additional funds. Like it seemed to be, that was the point of Terry's comment. It's still 11.4 is what the authorized. That's all we can issue.

Okay. And you'll have those documents for the next meeting.

Excellent. Thank you.

Okay. Any further comments or conversation this morning? Yes.

um i think it's also important to note though like we we got donations we got extra funding but we could actually just reduce the amount we spent instead of just adding it into the project that's so you're right there's not an increase in taxes but i just got my tax increase today and it was pretty hefty so you know i i think you know there's also that thought that's where i am on this like i i think we continue to take bond premiums and donations and things instead of you know, helping to reduce the taxpayer burden where we're actually just adding more to the project. So I'm, like I said, I appreciate all the effort, everybody. I'm going to vote against all these. Thank you.

So I just want to clear that up. There is no taxpayer burden on this. That was the whole point of doing what we did. So.

But you're telling me if we didn't do a change and we didn't add this cost.

There's no cost to the taxpayer on this project.

so to to say that that's not accurate well the the money's being used from the from the ppv fund there's no tax dollars that go toward this project they were still within the original amount has a project going up yes it has because of the donations that we received and some of the things that we were going to couldn't do now we can do so if we can replace an air conditioning unit now versus having to replace it in five or 10 years down the road, it's gonna be a lot more cost-effective today than it will then. The entrance is one of the things that was looked at. Would the new one suffice? It would, but one of the things we got in the Van Buren grant was for this type of project, this type of change specifically, to be able to make it more handicap accessible um and just make a better overall building so i'm not sure those grants maybe you can answer this question can be used to reduce the cost of the project that's i don't believe that's what they're for i'm not commenting on the downs change order which is what i've recused myself from um i'm gonna address

discussion that's happening about the overall project budget. So in regard to the grants, the grants are for specific items. The grant doors aren't giving money to the project so that we can spend it the way we want. We address certain enhancements. They want to see enhancements to the building. they want to see enhancements to the library program. So the suggestion that we can accept the grant money and reduce the overall cost of the budget is not accurate. It's the same with the private donations. In many cases, the donors aren't making donations to reduce the debt service. They're making donations specifically to see improvements to the building for its long-term operation.

um to enhance its ability to serve the public or to provide additional services uh so um I got conflicting answers though and I'm not from you and then also the project management I asked specifically if any of the additional funding directed any of the change orders and I was told no so now you're telling me the opposite of that though

So we submit grants, and I'll use Champlin for example. The grant is specifically for air conditioning, the air conditioning system. The original proposal, the original project, we weren't going to replace all the air conditioning. There might have been one or two units that were at the end of their useful lives, but the bulk of the air conditioning units and the control system, all of that was going to be done in time over using future capital dollars. uh the grant application uh meeting uh with the library staff with the foundation a grant was specifically written for those those units and that's what that money will be spent on um the same with the Van Buren's. We met with the Van Buren Foundation. There were specific items discussed. There's actually a specific item they requested that we put into the building, which is, I think, one of the change orders tonight, which is a system that manages sound, not so much mitigation of the air conditioning, but sound across the entire building. So that's what i understand it to be i think mark would say the same thing as he accounts for all of the dollars in the project but there is no easy way to supplant the project dollars with the grant dollars as much as i think as the people that have to ultimately make the decision on raising taxes or not raising taxes it would be convenient It's just not the reality we operate on whether it's the library or the schools, the foundations are investing in the town of Middletown because their expectation is that we will provide a better service to our residents in the community.

Oh.

Yeah, so where Terry is going to go here is to say that the PVP money. Although the project does not increase the tax burden. that that money that comes in from that agreement is taxpayer money, right? But everything that that fund has paid for, police, fire, now the library, is infrastructure that we're gonna have to pay for one way or another. and the fact has been said from the very beginning of this that it's not going to increase the tax burden and it's not so you keep picking at that like like oh you could take that money and decrease the taxes well but also and the way I want to look at it is say we're building a brand new library haven't had a brand new library ever we're going to make it as as good as we can provide as best service and way more stuff than we ever had why wouldn't you want to do that what and when you go out and i'll use my mother as an example hey she's going to give money to the the children's room why is that because she was a kindergarten teacher she wants children that's where she wants the money to go She doesn't want the money to pay down. So everybody gets a penny off on their taxes. We didn't ask the Van Buren's for something that, that was already part of the project. They want to go above and beyond. That's what this is about. It's not costing you any more money. It's providing a better service. What is the problem? I don't get it. Thank you.

Okay.

So Just Peter just asked me to address one more issue, or not to forget. I didn't write down all of the figures that Mrs. Flynn referenced the timeline of budgets. So the total revised budget to the a revised budget for the project as of right now is so the total width contingency is ten million nine hundred and thirty four thousand three hundred and twenty nine dollars what's actually been um what we've identified is as needing to spend as of right now is ten million four hundred and twenty six thousand six hundred eighty six dollars That leaves a net owner's contingency of $507,643. I think the last number that Mrs. Flynn referenced was 14.6 or 14.2 million. So if that's the number she thought we were working on, then we're $4 million favorable from the last budget that she's referencing. Again, the budget is controlled by, so we have Mark as the town's treasurer will monitor the budget. the building committee through don is relentless and reconciling that to the what we call the downs control budget which is the budgets that's maintained by our project manager and this is brought up at every project meeting that we have with the library building committee and then the other point i would just add is what mark said is we have a an amount that we can borrow up to we can't borrow more We're not going to borrow more, but we have been fortunate in getting money from foundations and donations to enhance the project. But again, as of right now, as I stand here, we have committed to spend $10,426,686. We have an unspent, uncommitted owner's occupant contingency of $507,643. Okay.

okay so yes but this is it we're not going to keep going back and forth whether it's you whether it's him or whatever it is but i would just ask if we're going to state numbers and facts make let's make sure they're accurate in the back in the package that i gave to wendy as you should know i would do is i have copied and referenced the documents where i got the numbers if um you want me to have that back wendy i can read the documents where they came from and the copies where they are.

Yeah, I just you can read them, Terry. That's fine, because those are your numbers. We have numbers. We have a finance director and we are on budget and we are not on time because of what happened with the oldest. But we'll certainly listen to what you have to say.

These are the documents and I'm going to respond to count the wealth, the documents that I got the numbers from. And I may mispronounce this name. Odin's Weedon's Hello Architecture, August 12, 2025 preliminary plan review. also council resolution 2025-76 and the rhode island office of library information services construction reimbursement application all of those experts that have those numbers are in the package that wendy's going to give to you i'll give this back to her and then i'll address mr

okay but that doesn't mean that that's accurate this what we have is that we are not going to provide false information that's not what we do well those are our accepted have you checked with the finance director and the numbers that we actually provide or the building committee those were provided too i just asked you a question that you um with our with our finance director or our numbers did i need to if it's in accessible to the public you say you things are accessible so i accessed that's fine but i just want to make sure the numbers because you've tainted this whole project that is and you you have you've thrown you haven't been in favor which is your opinion i respect that i don't agree with it however i just want to make sure that the numbers are accurate so we're going to find out whether your numbers are accurate or the town's numbers are accurate i think that's fair

They are in published documents that the town council has approved. You cannot throw at a member of the public who's actually accessing numbers that you have put out online and call them wrong. I think that's wrong.

So I think what's wrong, too, is that happens all the time, Terry, whether we agree or respectfully disagree. Like a couple of Mr. Mankowski's numbers in that letter, totally inaccurate.

Well, I've submitted the supporting document. If you have updates or you'd like to correct what has already gone out, that's perfectly fine. I have two comments to Mr. Welch. Number one.

And if I'm wrong, I'll apologize, but I don't think I am.

Well, I, you know, I can't apologize for getting documentation on the internet that just town documents from town meetings just like this. So, you know, what would you have me do beyond accessing the information that's available? okay really sure it's totally unfair for you to take that road i don't think it's unfair it's my opinion i respect yours and you should respect mine and i haven't been against this project i've been against the process of the project just like the flock cameras imagine or the um speed cameras sometimes it's simply the process that is the problem i won't even bring up middletown center but by name ppv tom you can't make me look like someone who doesn't want something good for this town we both work very hard for this town i didn't leave the dais and leave the council chambers that's how much i care about this town however ppv right now i assume it gets spent in full every year it's supposed to whatever it's paying for now is not going to get paid for once you use some of those funds for this project it's going to leave a gap that taxpayer funds are going to have to cover second point is that you don't have permission to use taxpayer money for this project you never went to referendum that's a problem you're using other people's money to do something that they didn't approve of thank you thank you terry okay i'm going to ask a question look we're going to move on okay any other comments or questions yes

okay don on more in 549 turner road just one comment your both of your numbers are correct ms flynn's includes the purchase of the building which is another 3.4 million on top of the 11 million there's a 14. thank you okay did you fill out a form okay you were sitting there you could have filled one out but come come on up

I do want to hear what you have to say. I don't always agree with you, but I do want to hear what you have to say, sir.

John Garleano, 22 Wood Road. I'd just like to address Mr. Welch, okay? Brand new building. The building was built in, I think, 1988, okay? Let's be honest. I'm not saying that's a terrible thing, but it's already almost 40 years old, okay? That's like taking a... 2001 caddy and dressing it up and saying i got a brand new caddy all right you very often have said things that were totally untrue like the library was never part of the original plan because you keep denying it because it's not true and i know you're never going to get apology out of you because you sat and screamed at a 95 year old man as did paul paul had the decency

apologize at the next meeting and I watched you sit there all I am so happy you are not running thank you all right let's let's get past this let's leave the personal stuff here and let's move on so okay any other comments or questions regarding the library number three the resolution okay I've read it in. We have a motion and a second. All in favor?

Aye. Anybody oppose?

Oppose the vote.

Okay. Okay. All right. Let's move on to number four. Number four is a resolution of the council in reference to the town council agrees to change order numbers 345 As indicated three four and five is indicated below for the total amount not to exceed $51,900 and zero cents $51,090 excuse me and zero cents for the funding for these change orders from from the bond proceed bond anticipation note proceeds interest income. eligible private donations and eligible grants and all expenses recorded in the town's grant or capital project fund and that the town administrator is authorized to execute um this change on behalf of the town the change order i'll read it in uh number three fundraising donor outreach materials five thousand dollars Number four is value engineering entry door redesign ductwork redesign and schedule extension 37,590 number five H back sound mitigation recommendations. For $8,500 for a total of $51,090 motion to pass that resolution that can have a motion to second to pass Terry. Okay. I'm sorry, I thought you wanted to talk on every one of them. No, thank you.

Okay, Dennis, thank you for clearing that up.

So are you grouping all these funds together because you don't want to identify what's being used for what equipment? Is that why you're rolling this all into interest income, eligible private donations, grants? of that whole fund. I mean, you're rolling it all into one. As it says here that when we look at the 500,000 is going to be put in the general purpose for projects.

All of the numbers you see here under this item are for the architect. There are redesign or new design issues. That's all they are. There's nothing in here materially is strictly for changes to the architect. Right but I guess it says here that.

Going to be the proposal is going to be funded by the bond. anticipated note proceeds interest income eligible private donations eligible grants and all expenses recorded in the down grant or capital project fund so i'm just assuming those are multiple funds coming into one bucket and they're just being associated with these changes, yes. Thank you.

anybody else have a comment or question. All right, we have a motion and a second. All in favor, signify by saying aye.

Aye. All opposed?

Motion passes. On to number five, resolution of the council regarding town council approves the recommendation to approve the furniture, fixtures, and equipment in the amount not to exceed $500,134.00. And that the funding for this proposal is to be from the bond anticipation note proceeds interest income eligible private donations and eligible grants and all expenses recorded in the town's grant or capital project fund and that the finance directors authorized to hereby execute said purchase on behalf of the town.

As such resolution.

Second. We have a motion and a Second discussion. Number five.

I would have voted for four. So yeah. Okay. Motion second to pass motion a second to pass. You've read it in. Yep. Okay, we did not discuss. We did not discuss. Okay, so I have a few questions on this one. When I was reviewing the amount of This is the firm, this is the furniture one, so I counted up the number of chairs, because I kept seeing chairs chairs chairs and it was a nice job with how you guys broke all this down. On this quote from wb mason. How many chairs you think we have here. Maybe I'm off a few because I was not using my farm calculator, just doing it by hand.

Don Moore and 549 Turner Road. So we have a large community room in the front of the building. That room alone has 114, 112 chairs that can be stacked and moved. So that's the bulk of the chairs. They're basically like conference. You can use them for some with arms, some without arms. But you use that for setting up, you know, maybe you have a concert, maybe you have whatever. So that's the bulk of them. Then there's chairs, obviously. There's some comfortable chairs throughout this chairs in the conference rooms, you know, so, but the bulk number is in that room.

Okay, because I was like, man, this is a lot of came up to 386 chairs.

I'm like, what are we doing with 386 town offices have chairs as well. But the bulk of them are in that one room.

Okay, I just wanted to make sure because I looked at it and, as I kept reading I said, I have to add these up because it seemed it seemed a little over the top and I figured there was an explanation for it um so that makes a little bit more sense to me Dennis.

Thank you, Paul that just means a little bit into Sean I know i've asked this before and just still kind of. I want to ask it again is in regards to the town's anticipation of what they're paying for percentages, their town furniture in this bid as well. Yes. So are you just keeping that as like a separate ledger for the town? So the town's going to pay 25% of the overall cost of this building?

There is a separate ledger. Yes.

You know what percentage it or what the numbers are going to be there? Or will that be something Mark can tell us next time?

Um, we can add that to information that we need to provide the council. I don't know if it could be ready for the 1st meeting in September, but we can provide the. The breakout between the town and school library.

Because that's not included in any reimbursements from the state. Correct?

That is correct.

Okay. Thank you.

I thought that was somewhere in here.

I think this is part of the comprehensive schedule that Mr. is looking for.

yeah i thought that 370 was the library part 129 was the town part of of the furniture i'm pretty sure it's broken down on 549 turn around if you have the wb mason in front of you yes the first section of it yeah you'll see the first four or five pages of the library there's a subtotal and then there's a few pages the subtotal for the library is 370. something to that effect and i was more inquisitive of the total project paul

yeah and in our oldest reimbursement it's broken up separately, you know the reimbursement rates for the library and nothing for the town that's all clearly in the oldest reimbursement that we brought to you back in May June I don't yeah yeah.

Okay, but my understanding is we I mean there's been a lot of updates since then, so I would just like to see updated numbers i'm sure it's all above ground i'm not trying to being. accusative of anything is going doing wrong i'm just looking to see you know what that percentage increases, so we can see what portion of the town is paying towards this project so that's all. Okay.

we're gonna get a we're gonna get a breakdown of that right. Yes, break that out. So we can see and identify that. Hey, this is what the town cost is. This is not reimbursable. This is what the what the library cost is.

This is what's reimbursable. Okay.

Excellent. Okay. Is there any questions or comments on number five? We have a motion a second.

All in favor? Aye. Anybody oppose? Okay.

Thank you number six resolution of the Council in reference to town Council proves the recommendation to approve the library shelving and book carts for the total amount not to exceed. two hundred eighty five thousand nine hundred nineteen dollars and zero cents that the funding for this proposal to be from the bond anticipation note proceeds interest income eligible private donations and eligible grants and all expenses recorded in the town's grant towns grant or capital project fund and that the finance director is authorized hereby to execute said purchase on behalf of the town motion to pass said resolution second Is the motion a second to pass? Is there any discussion on the shelving and the book carts? Okay. Hearing none, all in favor? Aye. Anybody opposed? Okay number seven resolution of the council that the town council approves the recommendation to approve the skylight shade panel for the total amount not to exceed thirteen thousand two hundred dollars and zero cents for the funding the funding for this proposal would be from the bond anticipation no proceeds interest income eligible private donations and eligible grants and all expenses record in the town's grant or capital project fund And the finance directors authorized hereby to execute said purchase on behalf of the tenant. Motion to pass said resolution. Second. Don, can you explain exactly what this is so everyone's clear on it?

Don Martin 549 Turner road, so there are two skylights existing in the building today, this is basically some. Think of it as a dampening of the light, you know if they're bright, so this is an these are basically. cloth shades we put it put it out to bid, this was a low bidder I should have pointed that out like wb mason was the low bidder we put it out to several companies.

Lowest responsible bidder. There was actually another one that's what we do, yes, yes, I learned that lesson.

um, so this is basically the materials to their large skylights the construction manager has the Labor to put them up. But it will help basically with dispersion of light from these two big skylights in the main part of the library you'll still get the light, but you won't get interference with the you know the hanging lights and all that other stuff.

electronic no they're not. Right. By a rated cloth. movable they're not movable okay.

it's meant to just serve as a dampening feature because they don't interfere with the rest they're using it as some natural light to play in with the rest of the lighting and where you as you remember we're opening up the library to the rafters.

Right.

The lighting will be up there along with this. So they're using this and then a design with lighting around it to use this as a source of light, but but not overpowering, you know, all the other lighting.

Okay. Any discussion on this? Hearing none. All in favor? Aye. Anybody oppose? Thank you. Number eight resolution of the council. that the town council approves the recommendation to approve the finance office compact shelving system for the total amount not to exceed $49,375.00. Funding for this proposal is to be from the bond anticipation note proceeds, interest income, eligible private donations, and eligible grants and all expenses recorded in the town's grant or capital project fund that the finance director is authorized hereby to execute said purchase on behalf of the town.

Motion to pass said resolution. Second. We have a motion and a second to pass.

This is the shelving piece for the town side, which is not reimbursable. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none, all in favor? Aye. Aye. Anybody opposed? Thank you. Number nine, resolution of the council, in reference to the town council, approves the recommendation to approve the change order for Allberg Construction Corporation in the amount not to exceed $92,691. Funding for this proposal is to be from the bond anticipation note proceeds, interest income, eligible private donations, and eligible grants, and all expenses recorded in the town's grant. or capital project fund and the town administrator is authorized hereby to execute this change order on behalf of the town motion to pass said resolution second we have a motion a second to pass is there any discussion i want to just explain this one because there's no real

Yeah, this one, Don Morin, 549 Turner Road. This one actually is something that Council Roberts directly asked about. When we put our application in for the Van Buren Charitable Foundation, we asked for over a million dollars. They came. They toured the library with us. They gave us some funding. They gave us 880,000. You accepted it back in June, I believe. They also had the recommendation of their board president or board chair. Sorry, the terminology. They wanted to do an improvement to the sound in the library. So this was a direct request from the Van Buren charitable foundation to do some sound masking. What it does is it adds some like speaker systems in the building because it's opened up to the rafters to try to essentially deaden noise so that you can have conversations in different parts of the library and it won't, I'm sorry, it won't carry throughout. So this specifically, we actually, there's a $92,691 check from the Van Buren Foundation currently on its way, it should be here this week, for this specific line item at their request. They also have committed to up to $250,000 for that. So the balance of the 250,000 we're going to use to help with the sound mitigation that we haven't brought forward to you yet. So we have another 158,000-ish from Van Buren to use toward that change, which will bring, as Town Administrator stated, probably in a couple weeks.

Okay. Thank you, Don.

And I just want to add that cost associated with the sound mitigation that don just referenced is included in the dollar amounts. That word that that was included in today's docket the the $10 million that I discussed so we're we're accounting for that change it's just the paperwork is not ready to bring forward to okay there's not a large change coming to you that that isn't accounted for the numbers we're discussing today okay.

Thank you. Any further discussion or comments from the Councils?

Thank you. I really appreciate all you guys are doing, Don, especially you and Jay. Again, I tried to make this point a few meetings ago. I guess I'll quote Terry, too. It's not that I'm against the project, just the process. I think this is too much money to take out to borrow without voter approval. That's simply it is. So I'm not trying to

cut down your project i'm not trying to talk bad about anything you're doing i appreciate what you're doing thank you all right thank you charlie okay so we have a motion a second to pass said resolution all in favor aye anybody opposed okay thank you number 10 resolution of the council town council approves the recommendation to approve the change order for allberg construction corporation in the amount not to exceed 150 000 in zero cents I'm sorry $150,002 in zero cents. Funding for this proposals be from the bond of anticipation note proceeds, interest income eligible private donations and eligible grants and all the expenses recorded in the town's grant or capital project fund. And the town administrator is authorized hereby to execute this change order on behalf of the town.

motion to pass said resolution. Second.

It's important on more than five for nine turnaround. Yes, sorry. I'm not sure why it was left out of the motion, but this is for the front entrance reconfiguration. It gives us to two sets of sliding door. I'm sorry, swing doors. Instead of the entrance now like goes right to left, it's going to have a sign out front automatic door openers and then it reconfigures that the entrance because there's some heat in there that needs to be moved. And so it's basically a front entrance reconfiguration.

Okay, thank you. Okay. Any further comments or conversation based upon don's input. We have a motion to second to pass that resolution all in favor I anybody opposed number 11 Thank you resolution of the town council. approve the recommendation to approve the change order for all bird construction corporation in the amount not to exceed $20,167 in zero cents the funding for this proposal is be from the bond anticipation note proceeds interest income eligible private donations and eligible grants and all expenses. recorded in the town's grant or capital project fund and the town administrator is authorized hereby to execute this change order on behalf of the town motion to pass that resolution okay this one i'm a little iffy on john moore and 549 turner road i kind of anticipated this so i prepared a few just a few notes just yeah i think there needs to be more put it under contact yeah so

Just a reminder, you know, the library is designed based on the building program that was approved by the Board of Trustees back in December 2024. And that program was developed with the assistance of our library consultant Lauren Starr. Lauren is both an architect and a librarian and she's worked for many years as a library building specialist with the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners. Well, in that recommendation, it was to have a washer and dryer on the premises. And the only reason we're here tonight is the washer and dryer was in the schematic design. It was in the design development, and it was accidentally left off the construction documents. Otherwise, we wouldn't even be in discussion here tonight. It would have already been in the design. It was accidentally omitted. If you weren't aware, the librarian can add more, but they currently pay to take things out to have them cleaned today. Things like children's toys, tablecloths, other items that are used for various programming activities. The future library is going to have an innovation center where we can offer cooking classes, more art classes, as well as a community room that's going to have a kitchen that you can do for community events that the town can use. That's just going to increase the need to do laundry. So rather than have it as an expense to send out, this gives us the infrastructure to put a washer and dryer into the storage room behind the innovation center. And also allows us to use more items this lot of items you can't use today in the library, because they need to be frequently learned to think about the children's space right young kids put things in their mouth, so you have to. Constantly wash them, it would be great, and I think the library director has seen this at a prior library that she worked with. You can throw them in at the end of the day, you know i'm clean and when they come in the next morning they're ready for you to use again. The this is for the infrastructure all appliances for both the Community room the innovation Center and throughout are being donated by home depot, so this is really to put the plumbing and an additional hot water heater and that was missed in the construction documents.

Okay, so I got to ask a real silly question because I was listening to your explanation and kids putting stuff in their mouths and, you know, toys. I'm not sure toys go in a washing machine. Do they? I mean, I don't know. Go in the dishwashers. Go in the dishwashers. Okay. I didn't know there were dishwashers. I thought it was just a washing machine.

Hi, Kimberly Esselman, library director. So currently we have tablecloths that we put on the front whenever we go to an event. Whenever we're anywhere, we have our tablecloths. But we also have stuffed animals. We have the scarves that we use during story time that are supposed to be cleaned regularly. We spend about $50 a month currently on dry cleaning. um going to the bigger building as as mentioned we'll have the community room where we'll have linens for all of those tables i think there were with 112 chairs i think there were 16 tables plus 12 linens there we'll have dish towels we'll be doing cooking classes in the innovation center fabric arts classes all of those things we'll want to be able to throw in the washing machine and dryer beforehand so it'll increase exponentially um to what we're doing now these are washer dryers i'm hearing i'm hearing dishwashing stuff those are separate that's separate so what you're voting on is the infrastructure to add the washer dryer we've gotten the washer dryer three dishwashers and um and three refrigerators donated by home depot yes it was very nice of them yes we're thrilled with home depot they're amazing so this is the infrastructure to get it there yes okay and you currently do not have one we do not

Okay. Questions. Okay. All right, so we have a motion to second to pass all in favor. Aye. Anybody oppose number 12 memorandum of the library direct finance director to the town administrator in reference to the library renovation project donations.

motion to receive said memorandum and

We have a motion, a second to receive. All in favor? Aye. Okay. Mark.

This evening there was a lot of discussion about the donations. I've been working with two individuals in July and August and they have made pledges of $250,000 each and it was with stock. The first one that I'm going to talk about wanted to do a stock donation in two tranches. We received the first tranche, and that one was for about a half of the 250, and we received $125,728.31. The second tranche date is still to be determined, but I am still in contact with that individual. The second individual donated it all in one tranche. So he did all of his stock and his was $250,000 pledge and we received $251,230.85. So the total for the stock received is $376,959.16 and we're expecting one more tranche of about $125,000. but we have two very generous donors. We also have on the August 19th Library Building Committee meeting, I received $3,500 more in donations, 2,100 donated for the children's learning and play area, One thousand equipment in the innovation Center $100 for the outdoor learning and Community spaces and $300 wherever needed. For the 500,000 pledge I forgot to mention that there was no specifications of where that dollars will go to except for the project. But tonight i'm asking you to accept these donations as part of the project okay.

So yeah, we had a couple of along with the library and the team working towards donations. We had a couple of pretty generous donations. I don't think we're done yet. I actually met with these individuals almost two summers ago now. I don't want to say their names because I don't have permission to say their names. I do want to get that first if they choose to do so because I believe based on the naming rights, they have naming rights in these buildings based on the library's new policy. um so we thank them right now hopefully i can say who they are at some point um they asked for a tour a year and a half ago whatever it was we gave a tour they like the building they like the project we also gave another person um i've myself and someone else has met with this person four times so we're waiting for an answer for them they've toured the building and september 7th i'm meeting with another person to hopefully get a generous donation from that individual as well who's interested in this project so um it's all good stuff you know so

Oh question mark I don't understand the word tranche.

And it's just two times like they're doing the pledge in our tranches us the time that they transfer the stock so one is giving it twice Okay, the other one did it all in one one time so when it says tranches like times when they're dying two times okay.

new word. When it says that the stock amount is $125,000. That means it's $125,000. It's not $125,000 worth of stock. That's correct.

Because I worked with our investor who sold the stock. Okay, very quickly, and then they transfer the money in our account.

Understood. Thank you.

You're welcome.

The tranche, or more commonly spelled tranche, is a single-part portion or installment of a larger whole most often used in finance to describe divided sections of money, loans, investments, or bonds.

Right off the top of your head.

No, off the Google. Okay, having said that, so all good stuff. Hopefully we can get... I'm hoping we get another million dollars. I really do. Whether that happens not remains to be seen. But I think there's a good possibility that we can get that. So Okay, having said that, where are we number 13 mark, thank you for the explanations resolution of the Council reference to the town council hereby accepts the donations. From the friends of the middle town public library of $3,500 and the donations last pledges from to private donors consisting of approximately $250,000 each totaling $500,000 in support of the library renovation project that the funds be designated and applied in accordance with the donor intent as follows. $500,000 for the general purpose of the project, $2,100 for the children's learning and play area, $1,000 for equipment and the innovation center, $100 for the outdoor learning and community spaces, and $300 for where most needed. And that the finance director is authorized hereby to allocate and expend said funds in accordance with all town purchasing policies and procedures. Motion to pass that resolution. Second. We have a motion, a second to pass. Is there any discussion? hearing none all in favor aye anybody opposed okay let's move on to the consent calendar any councilors would like to remove anything from the consent calendar hearing not Motion to approve the consent calendar in its entirety. Motion to second to approve the consent calendar in its entirety. All in favor? Aye. Let's move on to number 18. Here's a permit application for a special event permit from Ad Impact Network Incorporated from Bike to the Beach, New England 100 mile charity bike ride from Boston. Benefiting autism service providers to be held on Saturday, September 19 2026 beginning at 11am to 3pm route through Middletown various town roadways ending in Newport motion to grant said special event permit I can Have a motion to second a grant. This is pretty cool. If you looked at the map or all the maps that they sent us from Boston. All the way down there coming into reports with the whopping road shoot a bowl mill lane going down in the avenue hanging rock road. Purgatory Road all the way up into Memorial Boulevard in Newport. So kind of cool. And for a great cause. Any conversation, Tom?

I'd just like to say that that emergency action plan that they put together.

was nuts i know all the examples of everything that could possibly happen i know i don't think i've ever read one like that before so it was good any further conversation or comments here and not all in favor aye anybody opposed thank you town administrator on number 19 memorandum of operations of facilities manager in reference to extending concession stand operational hours motion to receive said memorandum second the motion is in the second to receive all in favor I do we have will do we have shown who do we have it will come on up, Mr cronin and we talked about this at the beach committee meeting yeah I will crone facilities and operations.

The concession stand would like to extend the hours through the end of September. Operating. 11am to 6pm. That's the request. That's pretty simple.

I like the straightforward approach. Perfect. So contractually, this is just the town saying, Okay, you can have an extra two weeks. Right. Okay. He counts as have any issues or comments about that?

It doesn't cost the same thing, right? Right. Thank you.

Good good question yeah I mean like like utility wise because i'm sure they can use some pretty good electricity.

yeah i'm sorry so that would be the utilities that they'd use but on the flip side of that we get some 8% of all sales right that they.

yeah that's probably good and yeah and some of the clothing I can't imagine also want to call me they will if it's cool but sometimes it's nice days, so we get a percentage of that. Good. Any other comments or concerns? Well, thank you. Thank you for sitting patiently for that presentation. Okay.

motion to approve the request of fire and water concession SB Inc holder of the contract for satchel speech concession for an extension of the operating 2026 season to include through the month of September 2026 from the hours of 11am to 6pm for this season only and authorize a finance director to execute a contract amendment.

motion to second to approve is there any further conversation on this one. All in favor. Aye. Anybody opposed? Thank you. Number 20 agreement between the state of Rhode Island through its Department of Transportation and the town of Middletown in reference to municipal road and bridge program state funds.

Motion to approve said agreement and authorize the town council president, town solicitor, and town administrator to execute said agreement on behalf of the town.

Second. Okay, Sean, can you just explain what this is, please?

John Potter, Sure, the state has a program where they provide the town funding for paving of local roads basically it's a program that. John Potter, Our public works director works on to identify when we identify our road paving this these dollars get it added on top of the. the money we have available for spending. We're in the process of executing the agreement for this upcoming year. However, it was discussed that we didn't sign the agreement last year, although we've been provided the money and spent it. So this is administrative in nature. We just need to get your approval so that myself and the solicitor can sign off on the paperwork to fill out the file with the state. Okay.

Any comments or questions?

So the state gave us money and we didn't sign the contract. Correct.

Yeah. All right. It was $108,000. Okay. Thank you.

Great. So we have a motion to second. Is there any further conversation? Hearing none, all in favor? Aye. Anybody opposed? Boards and committees, number 21, appointment of one member of the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee to complete a term, expire March 2027.

Motion to appoint Jeanine Nelson to the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee to complete a term expiring March of 2027. Second. Motion to second appoint Jeanine Nelson, expire March 2027.

The only one that applied. all in favor aye because i just want to say that because there's no other nominations that's all anybody opposed thank you number 22 appointment of one member to the uh please note that council waltz is recusing from this you fill out a form okay appointment of one member of the conservation commission's term expiring july 2029 motion to reappoint melissa welch to the conservation commission term expiring july 2029 second We have a motion and a second to appoint Melissa Welch for a term expiring July 2029 for the Conservation Commission. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none, all in favor? Aye. Aye. Anybody opposed? Thank you. Number 23, appointment of one member of the Library Board of Trustees, term expiring September 2029.

Motion to reappoint Joan DeFinis to the Library Board of Trustees, term expiring September 2029. Second.

We have a motion and a second to appoint Joan DeFinis, reappoint Joan DeFinis for a term expiring 2029. Any further conversation is the only one that are reapplied. All in favor?

Aye. Aye.

Anybody oppose? motion to adjourn second motion a second to adjourn and by doing this tonight tackling the other items alleviates the night before the primary on the 8th so because we just we really haven't we had one meeting in august so this will help out so i appreciate your patience and uh thank you everyone thank you all in favor aye okay