Board of Selectmen - Regular Meeting

Good evening everyone. We'll call the um regular board of selectmen meeting to order for April 20th, 2026 at 5:30 p.m. Um in the town hall meeting hall, we have selectman uh John Misham and selectman Jim Lampos at the table. First select woman Martha Shoemaker is online um remotely and uh I believe we have our clerk Jen Datam and some guest in the audience. Um I don't have any information and communications correspondents at this time. Do either of you gentlemen have any?

No. I have one um email concerning um sewer work in the private beaches of the town doesn't have direct jurisdiction of Okay. Thank you. All right. Do we have anyone for public comment? I can't see the audience. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Well, they're gonna basically reiterate what I'm gonna say to you guys. So, it might be more or two. Hold on. Is that Greg? That's Greg. Yeah.

No, Greg's going to get added to the agenda in a minute. So, he's coming up for Roaden Republic is unless he has something for just general public comment. I have a question. Hey, Laura. Laura parent is online. She has a comment. Go ahead, Laura.

Uh or a question. Um I believe I read somewhere that you are going to have the umart license plates um effective May 4th or something. Will you be discussing that this evening? It's not on the agenda. No, we um we are not discussing um we are discussing beach passes, etc. As far as pricing, we're going to add that to the agenda, but um we are starting our golf cart and parking passes on May 4th.

Okay. And there will be information out so that we can all comply. Yep. We will get it out to you this weekend. Thank you very much.

You're welcome. Is there anyone else that has public comment? Okay. Hearing no others coming forward for public comment. Um before we do the approval of minutes, there are two agenda items that I would like to add. um one and I emailed both of you this weekend about that. Um Greg Ftoma would like to represent road public safety committee uh to come before us to with some request and also to add a discussion on um the parking passes for the beach and uh trash and recycling bins for cost analysis. So, if I could have a motion from one of you to add those two items, I'd like those to be under new business. The first two items.

I'll make a motion to add road and public safety discussion with Greg Futma. As item number one under new business and as item number two, discussion on parking passes and other items at the beach. Can I have a second? Second. Okay. Thank you both. Let's call for a vote. All those in favor of adding road and public safety and discussion on parking passes and trash recepticles to the agenda, please signify by saying I. I. I.

I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Motion passes. Thank you both. Okay. Uh, next up is approval of minutes. We have our regular board of selectman meeting minutes for April 6th. Does anyone have any comments on that? I do not. Not

the only thing that is misleading under public comment. It says that um under Sloan it says that the deed from 2014 is contingent on a construction of a pier. It doesn't say that. It says that we would provide recreational fishing and crabbing experiences. So it doesn't talk about the pier. The pier didn't come into play until 2025 24 when they sent the second deed over. But it isn't even in the deed. It's just an agreement with the state on the side. So, I don't know if we want to make a change. I just don't want people to believe that it is in that 2014 deed. And Jen did provide me a copy of it. Um, it's not in there. So, maybe we should just make a note. Anyone else on just April 6th? No,

you got it. You're gonna have to talk to me because I'm not there in the room. No, I don't think we have any comment on that. Okay, John and I both Is that a motion? I'm I'm not sure what what you're asking for. I think that we should just make note that it is not in the deed. It's not listed in the deed. It's a side agreement with the state and it didn't come into play till 2024, not in 2014 if anybody went to look for it. That's all.

Um, so can I have a motion to accept the minutes on April 6th with a note about that one 2014 date? I'll make a motion to approve the April 6th minutes with a note specifying that the pier was not included in the 2014 deed. Okay. And we can enclose attach the deed to the minutes as well. All right. Can I have a second John? No, I'll second. Any discussion?

I just think the minutes reflect what people said. I don't think we need to go to the extent that we're trying to uh make make corrections about what people said. Well, he handed the deed to us. That's why I just wanted it noted. Any other thoughts? Okay, hearing none. All those in favor of uh passing the m u minutes of April 6 signify by saying I. I. I. Any opposed?

Any abstensions? Motion passes. Then we had a special meeting on April 10th, 2026 um for two items regarding um the proposed settlement for animal control and also the additional debt service funding. Um can I have a motion to accept those minutes? Make a motion to accept the minutes of the special meeting April 10th, 2026. and second. Any discussion?

Yes. I believe we should add I believe we should add uh 20 business days as uh the motion that was passed rather than 20 days. Okay. Thank you.

Any other comments? Okay. Hearing no other comments, call for a vote. All those in favor of passing the minutes, please signify by saying I I I opposed. Abstensions. I abstain. I was not present at that meeting.

Thank you. Okay. Motion passes. Okay. Now we're under new business. Um Mr. Fatma, if you could come to the table, please for road public safety. Hi, good afternoon. Uh, my name is Greg Fto. I am the chair of the town's roads and public safety committee. Uh just for the record uh which I believe Jim and Martha are probably familiar with uh since they were among the creators uh the committee was established as a forum for residents to discuss uh public safety problems and in the committee's uh discretion uh it would have the opportunity to bring concerns before this board for uh its consideration. Uh exactly that happened last year. Two residents from Brighton Road attended a meeting of the committee uh and discussed what they felt were some safety issues with speeding drivers on the roadway. Uh the committee asked them uh if their views were um ex held equally by the other members of the residents of the road. uh in the following meeting, following month, they came back with a petition that I shared with you in Martha. So I I I'll leave a copy for her with our office. Uh a petition that they claim was signed by basically everyone in the in on the roadway over 90% of residents. Uh and they asked for for three things for the committee to consider. One, that the speed limit be lowered from 20 to 15 miles hour. uh that speed humps be installed. Uh and that slowdown signs be put on the

existing speed uh speed limit post signs. Um the committee uh was also invited with uh by them with images of the roadway. If Katie is available, if you could uh share those with the board, that would be terrific. Are you seeing it on the screen? We just see the first the first um slide, Katie. It says road and public safety.

There it is. You can just

you can keep scrolling through those, Katie. The one thing I would I would note uh when you're looking at these images is that this is perhaps a unique road. Uh among the the the pages I just gave you, uh the average roadway width should be 20ome feet wide. I actually went on this roadway uh and measured that it's only 16 and a half ft wide. It's a quite narrow roadway. Uh and you have obviously two-way traffic on the roadway. uh if you have a parked car there uh makes it a little bit more difficult. Uh and there you can see how tight it is when two vehicles pass one another. Uh and in contrast um I live on Hefon Farm Road and Hefon Farm Road has a 15 mile mile per hour speed limit which is what the residents of this road are requesting. Uh and that road is 24 ft wide quite a bit wider. Um so um I think the the committee felt in in um listening to the residents and and and doing a little bit of research and and looking at the Rotary and so forth that the that the residents uh requests seem to be reasonable. Um much like the beach communities, there's quite an increase in seasonal traffic when the Oang Beach Club is open. Uh and so we would suggest uh seasonal speed humps again much like the beast communities where they would be up during the summer months when you have uh expanded traffic and they could be taken out and in the wintertime. Uh I spoke to Edante who has strong feelings about speed humps. Uh but his concern is primarily that they could damage his snow plows. He's got a a trunk full of sand. uh it makes it diffic diff difficult to go over the speedhouse but they would not be in place on the roadway at that time. Um I also spoke with Frank Pep Lara um who right now is

talking to vendors about buying speed humps uh and if uh the board still approves that we could perhaps piggy back on his order. Uh he has an installer. So uh the road safety committee right now has the budget for one speed. the uh community requested two. Uh so I would hope that we can get one up soon before the the busy season starts uh and we had had monies in the next budget uh to perhaps purchase a second one. Uh unfortunately when when the committee was first started uh a previous chair went through the budget cycle really not sure what the committee's charge was going to be. So there wasn't sufficient money budgeted for an expense such as this. I also reached out to trooper first class McGregor who is the top resident trooper uh and to the fire department. Neither has an objection to to the installation of speed humps. So I would also uh ask them u if you have the time uh there are some residents from the community that are here that would like I think would help to for you to hear their personal point of view and personal concerns. Uh one of the residents is Jeffrey Samman who was one of the the gentleman who attended the committee and presented the petitioners to the neighbors. May we call them? Would you like to

I have no objection but first ter which which you three they're all three residents which you would like to who wants to come up yeah just remember to state your name and your address

I uh Greg Fox I'm at 15 Brighton Road um as Greg mentioned I think this becomes a problem an issue that becomes exac exerbated when the beach club is in season uh because you do get a lot of traffic. Um the post and speed limit is 20 m an hour. I'd be happy if people went 20 miles an hour. The fact is people go exceedingly beyond that 40 45 50 m hour and this is uh oftenimes I think there's probably alcohol involved as well with the beach club members uh because I've seen driving also very erratic. Um it's also compounded in season when you get a lot of outoftowners who think they have access to a public beach and they go flying down that road realize that they don't have access to the public beach and you know you can sit and watch to it in about 10 seconds they're flying back the other way. Um you know we have four granddaughters uh we can't let them play in the front yard when it's in season because it's just too dangerous uh with the traffic uh the way they just speed up and down. Again, I think the speed bumps are critical. You can lower the posting speed limit to 15 miles an hour. People aren't paying attention to 20 miles an hour. Like I said, I'd be happy if they went 20 miles an hour. Um, so it's clearly a problem, especially during the uh the warmer season when the beach club is in session. My fellow neighbors also shares your comments. I'm Pette Draco and I live on 12 Brighton Roads and I I walk my dog daily and most of the time, especially like he said during this summer season with the beach club and everything, people fly down the road. I have to actually get off the road to so we don't get hurt. Also, um I have a daughter uh who lives

with us. She's in a wheelchair. It's in a motorized one. Oh, hi. Hi, honey. Hi.

She's here zoomed in. You want And we try. She wants to walk the dog. She wants to just take, you know, ride down the street and you can't because the street is narrow because the cars are traveling so fast. It's impossible. And it's very, you know, it's depressing. It's just terrible. And it's a liability. I mean, we we just don't want to see anything happen to anyone. And also, before Kristen takes over, my next door neighbor, um, he has three small children and they can't go anywhere near the street. It's just they he's right on the corner and they come flying around the corner. They come flying up the street and it's it's a dangerous it's a dangerous situation. So, do you want to let Kristen?

Go ahead, Chris.

Sure. I just wanted to mention that when I'm going down the street in a wheelchair, I usually have to have someone come with me. I can't just take the dog for a walk or anything like that because the cars are coming so fast. someone needs to kind of keep their eye out and they're always telling them to slow down, slow down. And no one listens. They just zoom past and I have almost been hit. My friend has almost been hit. And it's it's an accident waiting to happen. And it mostly occurs 98% of the time during the warmer months once the beach club is open.

Thank you. And I will say Thursday evenings to speak Thursday evenings is is even worse because that's when they have their dinners and they have to be there by a certain time and they are flying up and down that street. If you had an officer sitting quietly just checking speeds, you'd be shocked. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for listening. Mr. Sam.

Yeah. Um, my name is Jeff Sandman. I live at 3 I have a don't I have a cottage. Um, I own property at 37 Brighton Road. Um, I don't I assume this has been mentioned, but I'll mention it because it's important that one of the major problems is the beach club at the end of the road. Um because even though there's a big sign there posted there that says please obey the 20 mile speed limit and I don't I don't think anybody really pays attention to it. Um it's particularly bad at night. Um but it's not very good at all. And when once they start leaving, they just line up down the road and it's it's it's and they don't go and they're not following the speed limit at all. I have there's another problem I've caught with even I stopped a couple of kids who were speeding down the road on their motor little scooters. I actually got out and stopped them and told them that you obey the speed limit on this road. So, um, I've been I've owned the property since 1993, and the problem has never, it seems to be getting probably worse as time goes on because everybody's nobody's obeying speed limits anyway. Um, but I want somebody to be a speed limit. I don't know that I'm whether the speed limit is the most important thing. I think speed bumps are more important than anything because that's the way to keep people from speeding. They they have to slow down. If you put up a sign for speeding, they don't they don't have to pay any

attention to it. So, I would I would put my you know, I would put my endorsement for speed bumps on Brighton Road. Thank you.

Thank you. I I just would like to say one last comment. uh in that um members of the of the committee did reach out to the old line beach club. The old line beach club was was very cooperative in trying to communicate with their members and ask their members to drive safely, but obviously they have no control over their members when they're coming and leaving the the property. Uh so again I would ask that you consider uh the request of both the committee and the residents that the speed limit be lowered that eventually two speed humps be installed uh and that slow down signs behed as well. Thank you.

To clarify, Greg, are you looking for an appropriation for an additional speed bump for this season? I before we had well if that's something if if uh the board is in favor of having it installs I could talk to uh the finance director about we I believe I have the budget to pay for one and then I will have monies uh July 1st to pay for second. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. Then we would also have to um get some money for installment because the ones at Sound View are installed professionally. They're not done by parks and um public works, but public works could be trained how to do it correctly so that um there's no um destruction to the road pavement, especially as we get into the winter months because I know they put plugs in because they do take them out. So, I'm happy to work with Ed to get the um signs changed to 15 miles per hour. Um, and then the speed bumps if Greg will do some financial um, investigation. Um, I think he has to talk to Frank Capalardo. One of the things is is that the speed humps, bumps, whatever. Uh, they are going to be a little different than the ones they get at Sound View because the width of this road is different. So, they could be a little less inexpensive. Um, and then we can get some pricing before our first meeting in May and uh see about installing them before the Memorial Day weekend. They do have money in their budget um for it. So, do either of you have any other questions?

What What's the cost associated with the company installing and removing the speed humps? We don't, it's not a company, but there's a person that lives down in the shoreline that does it for uh Frank Papalardo in Sam View. And I don't know. I I'll have to check, Don. I'll have to check to see how much he charges Frank to do it.

Frank, I I spoke to Frank today uh and he thought rough ballpark figure was $1,200 for the install. uh and he is giving me those figures based on his costs. Uh and he thought that uh the speed humps for Brighton Road might be a little less expensive because it's they're going to be shorter. They're not going to be as it's not as wide a roadway as many of the other roads in town. Um, so this gentleman would would uh drill holes in the street, install bolts uh and and and I guess take the speed humps up in the fall and and put casts so to protect the roadway. I

think that cost though is for all three streets of Hartford, a Swan, and Portland. And there's three set they have. Um, is it two sets now that they have? They're getting a third gym. Is there two sets of pumps now on each road? There's currently two. Yeah. And I think they're adding one more this year. But so they it could be because of the number of speed humps he's putting in. So Greg, if you could speak to um that installer and get a price for one, that would be very helpful to us. Okay, we'll we'll do.

Okay. And I'll look into the pricing for the speed signs to 15 and also talk to Derek McGregor about uh when the beach opens those first few weeks if they could have some patrol people down there in the evening especially once um and during the day to see how things are going after school gets out. Any other thoughts? As someone who lives on a a road that's straightway to the beach, I can sympathize with the residents of Brighton Road. Uh and it is a narrow street. Uh and in my experience, speed bumps have been very effective and slowing down tempering traffic. So, um I'd like to see this added to our agenda um in two weeks so we can take action on it.

I I like the idea of the speed humps. I would be uh in favor of of two for that length of road. Uh I mean you are going to experience some uh intermediate uh speeding up and slowing down. That's what that's what occurs. Um but I also have to wonder if there's a much of a benefit and reposting the speed limit. Um, as the people that made comment tonight stated, it kind of doesn't matter what the speed limit is, it doesn't have an effect on the people that are driving. So, I think the the hump is uh much better uh as a as a traffic calming device than a speed limit sign that uh people are going to probably not pay attention to unless the police are sitting on the road because that's how speed enforcement works. when when the police are there, people take notice and they slow down and then the police are gone. Uh they don't take notice and they drive as fast as they feel safe. So that's that's that's what happens everywhere. Not not just on Brighton Road. That that's what happens on Jim's Road. That's what happens on on my road. Um you know, I've had people tell me that I can't believe you walk on Flat Rock in Mile Creek. Um because you know, you're taking your life in your own hands. So, it it it just um I'm not sure the cost benefit of trying to change a speed limit sign for 5 miles per hour is there, but I'm definitely in favor of the speed humps.

Yeah, I'm not I'm going to vow to your professional experience on this. Do is there a downside to uh lowering the speed limit to 50 versus 20? Uh well, the the the downside is people I don't think it's going to it's kind not going to be a behavior changing uh modification. Um it's going to increase the amount of fine that someone would receive because you're decreasing it by 5 miles per hour and fines are uh determined by how fast over the speed limit the the person is driving. So other than changing the amount of potential fine, um I don't I'm not sure that the benefit is there.

Is there any element of um increasing the contempt for posted regulations if you have a speed limit that's too low for the road? I seem to recall hearing something about that at some point, but like I said, I'll have your experience on this.

Yeah, I mean, it's still it's still an STC issue. So, I mean, it's supposed to be we're supposed to have when we're changing a speed limit, we're supposed to have a engineered traffic study conducted. Um, and I we're not we haven't even reached that subject. So, again, there's going to be costs associated with that. And I I think um for 5 miles per hour, I I I would rather invest the money in in two speed humps and see what the result is because I think that would be pretty positive outcome.

I do agree with you, John, about the speed signs. I think that it would help us um it would benefit if we made sure that we were doing some tree trimming so you could actually see all the speed signs. Um, and I we are going to have to invest in a speed hump or bump sign um to warn people that they are there. um we will let the police and the fire department emergency management people know that um if we're going to install them. They're not a fan of them, but they've worked around them in the shore in Sound View area and I think they can work around them on Brighton Road for this short season of 12 weeks to have them up. Um, but we'll get prices and we will report back in two weeks to both of you if that's okay with you.

Sounds like a plan.

Okay. Okay. So the next thing on the agenda is our additional um parking passes and um some of the things as you know we now do our parking passes um we can pay for them with a charge card but there are fees associated with the charge card. The parking pass itself cost us about 65 cents to be printed and uh we charge $30. We've charged that for a number of years. I think we changed it when I was a select person. Um we changed some fees around. Uh actually I think our first year in Jim we changed it because Tim had two for 75 and um one was 30. So we changed it two for 60. Um, so but Anita brought uh and she is online. There are some fees associated with the charging. It's 93 cents per speed uh per parking pass uh $1.71 if you buy two that the charge is incurred. So it does decrease our revenue. I don't find that it's a huge decrease uh in revenue. Um, and then also just that there are fees also associated with, and I thought Michelle had sent me, but I cannot find the pricing of the um, trash recepticles, which we pay about $90 each for um, for the 90gallon. Um, and that's a fee of about $249 and $4.83 that we can deal with in two weeks. Um, but I think that since we'd like to do the parking passes, do you

feel that we need to raise the parking pass fees to uh include more of the fees from the um it would only be if you charged and I I just think it's minimal and it's these are taxpayers. It's the least we can do for them. I think it's appropriate if there are additional credit card fees that we tack on that fee, but the fee only. Um, not to raise the actual base price of the of passes. Um, but I think it's appropriate to charge a credit card fee to capture that expense that we're children.

The state does that with taxes. You know, if you pay your taxes online and you pay with a credit card, the state will charge you that fee. So, okay, John, what do you think? Uh, I mean, we can taxpayers can pay online for the for the beach pass. So, we have a credit we have a credit card machine. They don't pay online. They come into the office. Online. Okay. So, it's not really

a convenience for the town because people are still coming in to pay. I I I think it's kind of a fairness thing. if somebody comes in and pays with a check or cash as opposed to a card, uh you're really not the town's really not receiving the same amount of money because the card is being used. So,

um I I think we see it more and more where the credit card fee is being passed on to the user. And in fairness, just like when you're paying taxes, you you have to pay the additional fee, I think uh rather than just raise the beach pass prices, I would be in favor of what Jim recommended and pass the actual charge on if we feel that we, you know, as a fairness.

I hadn't thought of it that way. So, I appreciate both of your opinions. Okay. So, I guess I need a motion to include the credit card fee. Um, and we'll make sure that those are the right ones. 93 cents or $1.71 for two um to this year's um purchases for credit cards and we will put that out there um on the website prior to um the sales going into effect on May 4th. Would one of you like to make a motion on that? I'll make a motion to include credit card fees for those people paying credit cards for trash receptables and beach passes. Second.

Well, let's Okay, got it. Okay. Thank you. Any further discussion? Hearing none, I'll call for a vote. All those in favor of including credit card fees for the uh purchases made on credit cards, please signify by saying I. I. Hi. Any opposition? Any abstensions? Motion passes. Thank you. Okay. Is Suzanne in the room? Yes.

Okay. So, if we Our next up is Suzanne with new tax ordinances. And on April 17th, um, and she sent us a detailed list of the things that have to go into chapter 150. um some new, some old, and some edits. So, Susanna, do you want to quickly run us through those? Um my proposal would be that um although this is written now quite nicely. I would like to um put these into a format such like we did last year with the ordinances where we redlined what we were taking out put the new additions in and have those ready for the meeting on next in two weeks so that we can pass this. it would have to go to a town meeting uh later on early in June, early July so that people can vote on it and we do have some other things that will be coming up. So we'll have a town meeting later this early in the summer. So Suzanne, do you want to run us through briefly?

Yes. Yes. So again, this is information that I'd send out um earlier in April. So this is something we started a year ago taking a look at what tax ordinances did we need to have in place to be consistent as a statutory town. We have to follow the state statute that there are certain things that we must do through a town ordinance asking people to you know add or take away 99 cents seems kind of crazy but you have to do that when it's other people's money with public funds and as a statutory town we have to go through that process. So, um, none of these are actually take out some and add language. It's correcting tax practices that we didn't have ordinances authorizing what the freedom tax collector was doing anyway. So, if you look at these and these all have to do with efficiency of the department. These are not collections related but these are efficiency costs administrative and asation has gone up as postage stamps have gone up over the last you know at least 20 years and even before that it makes sense then to move some of these numbers up and so I've compared with other towns around us same similar size similar number of tax bills they are the same government model with selectment board of selectment model and had they gone through the ordinances as well so the first one. Uh, and I did not put numbers in because I was well I'll let someone who knows numbering to make sure they put the right numbers in on them. But, um, the first one is the wafer property taxes. This has kind of become a moot point from the standpoint that the state legislature made changes to motor vehicle taxation that went into effect October of 2024. Basically, the minimum valued vehicle is $500.

um utility personal trailers are no longer taxed or you know lightweight dirt bikes even though they might have a license plate on them but anything above that valuation the assessor will um put it on the grand list as taxable. So you start comparing even with an adjusted mill rate when we went down to 16.23 you're really not going to have something that's going to end up with a tax bill under $5. Um you could on some of these small little pieces of land the on the real estate side that past developers would give set aside a little piece of open space. We have those around Rogers Lake. Some of these lots um actually now are like $2, you know, or $139 or something. So it's kind of cleaning that up. There may be some personal property taxes with the mill rate going down on some businesses that but you know when someone if they're calling me going I got to send you a bill for $2. You know how much did it cost you to send me the bill? So in looking at this he promil we said you know let's let's cap it nothing below $5. So $4.99 or lower. Um the one caveat is that if somebody has a partial year of a classic car that's valued at $500, they're going to get a smaller bill for that motor vehicle supplemental bill. And the reason for doing that is just so they understand or if it's another new car. Yes, you now have the car. It's in old line. You're going to start getting annual taxes for it. you don't get a free year anywhere on that partial unless it's above 99 and then we're not going to send in the tax bill. So that's why we're proposing that amount and Melinda did a number comparison a year ago and this was before that cap of $500

valuation kicked in and it was like we were going to lose $53 for the whole town and we weren't even taking out postage stamps. You take out the postage we're losing $44. you know, if they have time, we'll leave the envelope. So, I think it makes sense for that. Um, so that's that one of saying, "Okay, we're not going to send out small bills." Um, and the crazy thing is towns can can send out tax bills that are, you know, up to 100. They can say, "We're not going to send out tax bills that are up to $100." And $100 is important for us. It's a low bill break. So, it used to be $25 was the amount, but that that's the way the state statute is written. on that one. Then the next one and you can ask me questions now. They kind of relate to each other. Different pieces of statute you have to follow to do different things. Similarly, if we people like to overpay us and some people at the window go, well, keep the change. It's a buck 50. You know, it's $3. Go ahead. I don't know. I'll be out of here with pennies and my flipflops. Or they write and round up. We don't have to return that small amount of money to them. Most towns around us, Lime, Essex, East Lime, Deep River have all passed these ordinances saying you want to slightly overpay. We will thank you. Thank you for the $4.99. We'll just that goes in the general fund. So, most of the towns around us have already adopted that ordinance and I I think that makes sense. And also these funds may also come up if someone sells a car, gives away a car, donates a car, insurance claim midyear and it's a lowv value car, they may end up having an adjustment to their tax bill from the assessor. If it's $4.99 or less, we're not going to worry

about that 49. If it's $5 or more, then they have to instruct me what to do with that money. I either get it back to them or I apply it to a future bill. Um, it does require for refunds that people request in writing, which means they can send me an email. They can write on the bill at my window, but the auditors expect to see that. And so, that's a practice that we have to maintain that we keep the files on those kinds of things. So, we're tightening up our refund policy by by doing that. down. So that gives us a little more money back to the coffer, I guess. But again, not not huge amounts of money. So that's overpayment. And then you have this thing called small balance write off. Historically, the software that all 169 towns use with QDS is set at 99 cents plus or minus. Well, it it's we're not going to lose much more money if we put it at a buck.99. And there are people that seem to be paying a$150 more or they're a $150 less because they they walk in one day late on a small bill. And for us to be chasing down small amounts, it doesn't make sense. So, if we could do the write off plus or minus $1.99, the that works. that cleans up a lot of things. The magic of it is the minimum interest charge is $2. And if you use a credit or a debit card, it's also $2. So if somebody's going to be $2 over in their tax, it becomes a $4 tax bill. I mean, excuse me, $2 under. If they're $2 under in their tax and they don't pay it, then they're going to be paying us $4. If they're a buck 99 under because they were a few days late,

they're not going to be paying that. It used to be 99 cents. So, I'd like to take that up to a buck.99. It just makes things it seems right with inflation where it is or the cost of of postage handling. So, um a lot of other towns do that too with the small balance, right? Blendard writes off $4.99. I'm like, I am not going to give a $4.99 tax on anybody. That's a classic car, you know. So, um, and we have plenty of those to tell good good tax breaks on them. So, that's that one. Then the other one is we found that we had old language um that authorized the town to add an extra $5 fee if somebody was delining on their motor vehicle taxes. Apparently, a number of towns adopted that in the early 2000s, 2003 when there was a lag at the state level with the DMV continuing the holes that we place on cars. Um, there was several months of legislative trying to figure that all out. So, they added that provision of capability for towns. Um, DMV then agreed to continue or got new software, whatever. But the strongest incentive we have for people to pay their automobile taxes is the ability to put that hold on them. And we do. And so I don't want to have to add another $5 to the bill and also explain to somebody at the window when they show up late and they're paying the interest that I need another five because it's just like it it's an extra cost. We we're not going to make that much money. We're just going to make people grumpier and opportunity for us to make mistakes. So the first ones would be total new language. We want to adopt these new ordinances because we never had an orance in place

for the dollar for the 99 cent write off. The other one would be just an outright appeal. Draw the line through the whole language and say we don't need that language anymore. Susman Shapiro says it's not even valid, but I know in some other towns it still collect $5 somebody's late, but we're not going to do that. And that's what I recommend we do. You will see that I do not have an ordinance language about a $25 bounce check fee. We as a town have the ability to impose that as a policy on all uh NSF checks, non-sufficient funds or bounce checks. It is capped at $25 for tax collection if someone has a bounce check. But in checking in it, that could be a town policy. We already have adopted a town policy u two years ago now. Uh but there was a question about the language in that town policy about how much was a balance check fee and for taxation it cannot be more than $25. Right now that I did not write that up here because it's not ordinance language.

That's by state state statute. State statute. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Um Okay. because the actual fee is $32 or right you know from the banks these days and again so we're lag doesn't have to live by state stat so statutes you know regulation always lags the marketplace and towns lag the state directive telling them what to increase so that so right that could change over time but that that one's not addressed here so I hope that will make sense to tax payers to to vote on these

I mean perhaps and I don't know the league ity of it. But if we could since we're not going to change the ordinance every year to have some sort of language that says uh we could pass on u our actual cost for the for the bounce check. Uh I will defer to Susman Shapiro looking at the state statute on that one. But but but to say you know you know limited by state statute. So if the state statute is $25, that's $25. But if the state raises it next year, Exactly. we can charge $35 and not have to go back to the town and say, "Can we change the ordinance?"

I seem to be. Yes. Yeah. So to make it a little bit Yes. Sorry, but you don't have to do that because this is a policy. Policies don't need to go before town government. We just change the policy. And I we do have it.

Yeah. And Um, we'll we'll be bringing you the policy book that Elena's been working on all year with the various policies in them, but that is one of them and we will we just need to publicize it a little bit more than we have there. Building department is pretty good about putting it on Suzanne. I think there's something on your tax page about it, but we we'll make sure it's more publicized on all the websites where cash on or uh checks are taken in. Yeah. Okay. So, any questions? Okay.

So, Suzanne, if I'll have you work, we'll we'll work this up. Write it up. I know that Rey has already done a lot of research on this. And I think basically it's the just the renumbering from that we're going to need from our um legal team on how they want to put it into our ordinance. But you and I c will need to get this together quickly and then hopefully have the total ordinance with edits and revisions before Jim and John and I for the meeting in May.

Good. Yes. So, so Shapiro said yes. They've reviewed the language like a year ago and then I may have made a few changes in the past year. Um and so I'd be very happy for them to bless it one more time to make sure. Okay. Yeah. All right, great. Thank you so much for pres presiding and doing all that work for us. My pleasure.

Okay, next up on the agenda are our Rivercog Regional Committees. Um these are the committees that meet over at Rivercog and each town has a representative for the various ones. Um so for regional planning we have Howard Margulus and an alternate Michael Regio have both volunteered from planning to go to those meetings and then they report back to the planning commission. So if I could have a motion to appoint Howard and alternate Michael Riggio, I would appreciate it. I'll make a motion to appoint Howard Margulus and Michael Vigio to the regional planning river planning committee.

Can I have a second? Second. Okay. Any discussion? Okay. Hearing none, I'll call for a vote. All those in favor of appointing Howard Margulus as our rep to regional planning and alternate Michael Rigio, please signify by saying I. I

I any opposed? Any abstensions? Motion passes. The next one is we are looking for a regional agricultural representative. Um we that's currently open. So if you know anyone who might be interested in that, please see if somebody would be interested in taking that on for the town. Um the next one is regional housing. Um Michael Foliano um is said that he would sit and alternate Schiller riffle. This is not affordable housing. They sort of changed it now to the because of the strategic moves with the housing bills. So um this would those two people have volunteered. Um, so could I have a motion to name Michael and Sheila as the alternate?

I'll make a motion to um appoint Michael Foliano and Sheila Riffle to the regional Rivercock Regional Housing Committee. Can I have a second? Thank you. Any further discussion? Hearing none, I'll call for a vote. All those in favor of appointing Michael Foliano and Sheila Riffle to the original housing um committee at Rivercock, please signify by saying I I

I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Hearing none. Motion passes. The next one is regional EDC. Gene Wilinski was on EDC, but she's volunteered to stay on as the rep to this committee. Um, it's interesting because EDC and housing at Rivercog meet together every month just to combine meetings, I guess. But, um, Jean does go and Cheryl sits on as the alternate when Jean cannot go. So, if we could have a motion to appoint Jean and Cheryl. Um, could we have a motion for that, please? I'll make a motion to appoint Gene Winski and Cheryl Hoyer to the River Cobb Regional Economic Development Commission.

Second. Thank you. Any further discussion? Hearing none, I'll call for a vote. All those in favor of appointing Jane Wilzinski and alternate Cheryl Cory, please signify by saying I. I. I.

I. Any opposed? Any abstension? Motion passes. Thank you both. Um, then we have ordinance chapter 101. And I just want to tell you how this came about. Um, Vicki and I were having a discussion one day and she said, "I'm going to go do some research." And then she came in and handed me um, ordinance 10, chapter 101, and said, "There's a lot of mistakes in here." Um, this was amended many years ago. Um um I don't have the date exactly, but you can see in 63 and 73 it was updated. So Vicki and Katie sat down and did the deep dive, went down the rabbit hole to see where things came into play. And you have Vickiy's write up. Um as far as the Commission on Aging, I did speak to Cindy Taylor. We did have a commission of aging um and it was running up until the time of COVID and then it never came back on. She said it was definitely needed new members. There were only a few members left um but she was in charge of it and it just never got going. It is a state statute um that we should have one and there are other towns in the surrounding areas that do. So I think that um you'll see that Vicki has recommendations um here. Um then civil preparedness director that's kind of been replaced by emergency management and I did talk to Dave Rober about that so that we would um make changes on that. Um, it says that we have to have a CI civil preparedness director, but um, we're going to say that this would be

our emergency management unless you feel otherwise. Um, demolition officer, I have not had a chance to talk to Mark, but I do know you have to have a permit to demolish, so and he's the one that signs off. Um, we recommend renaming our dog warden to our animal control officer, which is what we call them here. Um, and then we do not feel that we need to have the advisory committee for municipal agent for the elderly. Cindy Taylor is our municipal agent and she does get phone calls occasionally for people who need help and me to be directed in places, but we really feel that that could all be handled by the commission on aging. And uh we do have our fire marshal and deputy fire marshals. We do have two, but we don't appoint them. And we do appoint our fire marshals. So we probably should be appointing our deputies as well since that is what the ordinance says. Um and then you'll see her recommendations for sanitarian director of health. Um, we do need to do a little bit more research on the director of health because our contract with legislate there are specific things they will not do um for us like uh enforcement. So, we do need to look at that one a little uh in more depth. And then we get to the youth services bureau and I did talk to Mary uh Sidner. Um they do their own appointments to their board. So, I don't know how that started or when it changed, but definitely um there weren't changes made. Uh so, we've got to clean that up and um and then we would have to um officially name Eric as our zoning enforcement officer. So, if you have

anything to say about these recommendations, again, what I'd like to do is go through, make the necessary changes and edits, and bring it back before you in May to see what it would look like. And certainly, if you have anything else that you'd like to add to this one ordinance, I'm more than willing to look into it for you. One question I would have is uh you know we used to have a town sanitarian uh when we ran our own health department essentially. Now that we've subcontracted to legislate uh I'm wondering if we could just have um a list of what we need to do as a town and whether that requires a paid position. Uh, and if so, how many hours per week and at what cost? Or is that something be handled by someone that's currently on our staff?

Okay, we can have that conversation. Leglight did come to the WPCA meeting last week and they did review and they also did a nice write up which I can share with both of you uh for the WPCA of what exactly they do and they do not do for the town as the as our health department. One of the things that they do not they're not our health director as such. Um, as you know, we have a h a director of health for the school department. Um, but if we needed someone, well, they were talking about enforcement for uh people who don't pump out and in the ordinance for the WPCA, it says they're delegate or it adds the town sanitarian or the town health officer. And uh Jen Majio goes, "Well, Martha, you can enforce if they don't because there's a $100 fine if you don't pump out. $100 fine per day when you're in violation of not pumping out. So, and we have not been doing that. So, it's something to consider. But that's another ordinance which we'll get into. But as far as this one, we can do some homework. We'll write it up. If you have any thoughts, I'll put it together for May. Any other thoughts, John?

No, it's good to tighten it up. Move it into the 2000s. All right. So, I will get that ready for one of our meetings in May and then we go into old business. Is Mary Ellen Basham in the audience? No.

Okay. Mary Ellen has a new proposal for the blue and gold markers, but I have not seen it yet. So, I guess we'll move her to the next meeting. Um, Halls Road sidewalk committee. Um, they had their first meeting. Um, we went through their charge. We shared some of the BDC original concept plans. Um, and Tim Griwolf has been named chair of that committee. Um so he it is in good hands. Um and he is putting together the agenda for the next meeting and our town engineer will be attending that meeting. Um tour buses and filming requests in old line. I did a little bit of homework and I know that Stonington and I believe it's Essex both have ordinances about buses in various parts of their towns because of the width of their streets, but I couldn't find anything specific to a tour bus and I haven't been able to do a lot of homework on filming. I didn't know if either you have

there's no there's no buses on uh Main Street in Essex because of the foot of at the foot of Maine. It's not wide enough to turn around. Okay. And I'm sure that's the same situation in Stonington because it's just at the breakwater. You have would you have to turn around in that parking lot and if there's people parked there you there's no room for a bus to turn. Similar situation in Noank town of Croton. Yep. So, I don't know if any of you want to propose anything or if you want to look into it some more, that's fine.

Yeah, I think we're almost talking about two different things between buses and um filming. So, it's I think we got to compare apples to apples.

Okay. So, those would be two new two new ordinances. Or policy for filming. We could have a policy where you have to report into town hall, which most people do, but um that could just be a policy, which doesn't necessarily need to be an ordinance. So, give that some more thought and get back to me. Um and I'm more than happy to put it together. Um, we did sign the contract for 102-1 Mile Creek Road for the phase one study. And Jim, I believe you're going to go on the first walk through with the uh person that's been assigned to that.

I'm doing the sitewalk Thursday. Thursday morning. I think it's Wednesday. Check again. Thought he said Wednesday. Huh? I thought he said Wednesday. You got to be there. I was I was I was in Athens when I was scheduling that. So, okay. Well, Athens sounds more fun than F102, but Well, unfortunately, it did scramble my planner and my phones to put everything into European time. Yeah. Yeah. Which means we'll show a four hours late. It's on Greek time. But, um, yeah. All right. I'll I'll confirm with Ryan on that one.

Pick that up today. He said Wednesday some and a date and you said Thursday but the same date. So we just have to get the calendars matched tomorrow.

All right. Thanks. And then on the bow bridge um so I've been giving the bow bridge a lot of thought because I just want to say that um you know we sort of have a mixed bag of people who would would like the the walking bridge and then there are people who are opposed to the walking bridge. I think most of the people opposed to it are opposed to the cost. Um I think when the Halls Road improvement committee was started, you know, their charge was sidewalks and beautifification and then they went to the overlay and then they went to the walking bridge. Um so we know the overlay is dead and that's fine. Um as far as the bow bridge is concerned though I've been thinking and um there is discussion that someone has a pending offer on the um hideway plaza. Um and so I feel that and I had a long conversation with Tim Gwald about this too. I think the idea is a great idea and I think it has benefits but I know we cannot afford it. So, I don't want to say that we're throwing this book out. I just think that we have to close the book and put a bookmark in it for now. Um, I'll certainly consider to look at funding opportunities and should anyone in the community want to donate $2.5 million, I'm sure that we'd be more than happy to consider it. But um right now I I don't think that we can move forward with this um at this time until we get a funding source that's going to take us over the c cross and whatever. So until we see what type of development might be at the in the hideway plaza to see how our sidewalks are going to look. Um Tim and I talked about it would it it would have to connect somewhat to the sidewalk. It would, but we have other things to do there. So, I think there's

a lot of other things that we have to do, but I don't think this is something that we need to put our time and effort into right at the moment. But in our side view, if we see anything come up, then we could see what happens. I don't know if either of you have any viewpoints on that. Yeah, I I I don't think there's I think it's pretty split on what we've heard from the public and uh with with it being pretty split and even evenly split to me that is not a a signal for us to avidly pursue this. Uh we've said it before, the the fish and pure um is the the nail in the coffin. And until we can find funding that doesn't include uh someone else's pet project, um I think it I think we uh let the money go to social services. Yeah, I don't think the money that I mean I you know I I take very seriously the fact that this has been voted on by the town's people and it's been funded by the town's people until now. So to to bail on it um is is not something we can do just you know without care for consideration. Uh but the fact of the matter is that we're staring at a $2 million project that as a lot of people said is not an absolute necessity. It's something that would you know depending on your point of view could be a real benefit to the town. Um but it's it's with all the pressures we've had in our budget and as you know uh as we know having gone through this and we're going out hearing tonight and uh I I just

don't see where the money is uh where it's going to come from uh how we're going to fund this. Uh you know luckily we we got our grant for the sidewalks and a very sizable one. So, that's something we can positively move forward on in the Halls Road area. Um, and I think that has to be our focus because that's that's money in hand. Uh, and that's going to get underway soon. And we we just can't uh take on another huge project at the moment. I just don't think it's in the budget. I mean, we were even discussing hiring another police officer and we cut that down to half a year. So, and that's very serious commitment that this board has had for quite a while. So, uh you know, I I just don't see that it's in the cards right now. I mean, I think it's not money that was wasted because we have a nice plan and if at some point with the redevelopment of the highway hideway plaza, something comes up, you know, the plan's ready to go. But at at this point, I just really don't see how we move forward on this just from the financial point of view. And then when you throw in the fact that half the town is or a good number of people are vehemently opposed to this, uh I think it's just not doable at the time.

I agree. All right. So that can go in and I think I need a motion to adjourn. I'm sorry that I couldn't be with you today, but I decided you didn't want to catch what I have. So, I think it was the wise decision to for me to be here. Thank you. Feel better. Martha, I'll make a motion to adjurnn. Second. Okay. And then what time is it? It is 6:41. All those in say I. I.

Okay. Please remember too, there is a um budget hearing tonight at 7:30 if you choose to attend. Okay, I'll talk to you all soon. Thanks so much. Bye. Thank you.