Town Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you.

All righty. Good evening, everybody, and welcome to the August 24th, 2026 Portsmouth Town Council meeting. In the event of an emergency, we'll ask you to please evacuate the building orderly, either through the door you came through, the door that is behind your left shoulder, or the door that's behind Mr. Reese. We'll all head over to the Portsmouth School Department building, and we'll wait for further instructions from our first responders. Now, if I ask you all, if you're able to, please stand for a pledge of allegiance and a moment of silence for our men and women in harm's way. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, everyone. Madam Clerk, roll call, please.

Mr. Gleason?

Here.

Ms. Blank? Here. Ms. McDowell?

Here.

Ms. Patton? Here. Mr. Paiera?

Here.

Mr. Reese?

Here.

Mr. Hamilton?

I am here. Before the meeting this evening, we had an executive session. One item was tabled with a 7-0 vote, and discussion was had. No votes were taken on the other, and we will be carrying on executive session afterwards because we had a slight delay to begin that meeting.

first up we have public comment this evening we have a couple of minutes for each of the two gentlemen who have signed up mr hunter shin for community culture good evening sir good evening thank you hunter shin 33 38 east main road good evening town of portsmouth it was only a year ago that i began paying close attention to portsmouth town affairs and started to attend council meetings As someone who grew up in this town and wore the red, white, and blue as a youth, I had every opportunity to participate, but never felt the desire to do so until very recently. I have attended in person or viewed on the live stream a multitude of town council meetings over the last 12 months. I've also had the opportunity to observe or participate in nearly every single board or commission in the town of Portsmouth. On a professional level, I am extremely impressed by the knowledge our council, staff, and citizens possess. However, my biggest takeaway from a humanity standpoint is that our culture is not nearly as strong as I assumed when I was not as involved as I am currently. My attendance at the previous town council meeting only strengthened that argument and significantly magnified the cultural issues we face as a community on both sides of the political spectrum. As someone who has spent the majority of their life here, I continue to be very disappointed in the way Portsmouth residents speak to one another, whether it's council members, staff, or citizens in general. Understandably, there are moments that reveal our imperfections as a society. I myself engaged in a heated argument with the council president last fall. Our emotions got the better of us that evening. Things are said in the heat of the moment, this is true. But when it becomes a recurring theme, where seemingly every single council meeting there's tension or animosity, it goes beyond just heat of the moment. I initially thought that this has only been an issue among the current town council. Unfortunately, I have learned that this has been a problem in this town for several years. And just to be abundantly clear, I am not choosing sides. I am not directing this Sorry, I am not directing this at any singular council member, elected official, staff member, citizen or beyond. This is directed at all of us, including myself as residents of Portsmouth. With all that said, I have a tremendous amount of respect for all seven of our council members and our staff as they continue to work tirelessly for the people of Portsmouth. The same sentiment applies to residents who have served or would like to serve on the council. We will have our disagreements, but we can do so in a kinder, gentler, and more courteous manner. I say this now not to lecture anyone, but merely to poignantly remind everyone that we are better than this. You never know what someone is going through on a personal level. So before you make a comment or before you hit send from behind your keyboard, please bear this in mind. It should not take someone who is still in their 20s to say this. Now is an ideal time for introspection and careful deliberation as to how our community culture would like to be portrayed in the eyes of the general public. I remain cautiously optimistic that we will improve in this area, but I do have my reservations. I look now to our entire council, staff, and to our citizens for strong leadership and to uphold the fundamental principles of kindness and integrity townwide. And as the election season heats up, I kindly ask everyone to please communicate respectfully. We're all neighbors of Portsmouth at the end of the day. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Shin. Appreciate that.

Mr. Green, I'd like to talk LMI. and that's income housing for those who aren't into acronyms.

Tom Greve, 110 Thayer Drive. I've been avoiding the Mount Hope Bridge area because traffic is such a mess there. However, I was recently asked to deliver some food boxes for Prudence Island shut-ins to the ferry in Bristol. That forced me to go through the area. As I passed the Addie Bethune House, I was surprised to see a large freestanding sign advertising units for rent. The sign is 4 by 8 feet, which I believe may make it larger than allowed under our sign ordinance, but that's not the point I want to make. Addie Bethune House opened in January. Back in 2024, we were told that a sign-up list had been started and anyone interested in a unit should get on the list early. The clear implication was that there was substantial demand for these units and that they were expected to go quickly. We are now well over six months into the occupancy period for the building. That's why I asked, what's up with that sign? I was shocked to learn that the building is still less than half occupied. A sign-up list was started two years ago. Why is the 54-unit building still more than half empty? If the financial model for this project used the common lease up ramp to 95% occupancy in the first six months, the current occupancy rates raised legitimate questions about the project's financial viability. Can the building generate rental income? Is it meeting the projected operating and service requirement, I'm sorry, operating and debt service requirements? If not, what's the plan to address that? More fundamentally, was the demand for these units accurately determined when the project was first proposed? The issue is not whether LMI housing is a good idea. The issue is whether the facts were given about the market need for these housing units in Portsmouth whether those assumptions led to sound decisions. I am not suggesting that vacancies cannot exist for legitimate reasons. However, a building constructed to address what we were told was an urgent local housing need should not be sitting more than half empty without the town understanding why. I hope the council will ask for an update on the status of this project from Church Community Housing very soon. Once the reason for the low occupancy has been explained, the update should also provide corrective actions. I hope it's more than a four by eight sign. I believe our town has a responsibility to understand why a project intended to address a housing need is not attracting the level of occupancy that was anticipated by the developer and to determine whether the assumptions that led to the project remain valid. Please ask Church Community Housing to give us an update. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Grebe. Next up, we have our annual proclamation declaring September, and this year, 2026, obviously, as National Service Dog Month. We do this every year. Service dogs are such an important part of our community, whether it's for folks with disabilities or PTSD or just in general anxiety who just need someone to, or something, to calm them down when needed. Like the puppy who is enjoying some peanut butter inside of a Kong, I bet. So once again, this year, the town of Portsmouth proclamation declaring September 2026 as national service dog month. Whereas we believe in the joyful transformative power of the human canine bond and inclusively of all citizens. And whereas in the United States, 70 million adults and children have a disability and only 16,000 service dogs from accredited training program exists nationwide. And this need is growing. Whereas Canine Companions is a nonprofit organization that enhances the lives of people with disabilities, providing expertly trained service dogs and ongoing support to ensure the quality of quality partnerships. And whereas canine companions and their service dogs empower the people with disabilities to lead life with greater independence by providing best-in-class training, ongoing follow-up services, and deeply committed community of support. And whereas National Service Dog Month aims to educate our community about the benefits of service dogs and the laws protecting them. And whereas in the 250th year of our nation, the town of Portsmouth continues to work towards becoming an inclusive community in which all citizens and their trained dogs, service dogs, are embraced. Now, therefore, be it. Now, therefore, in recognition of service dogs and the adults and children with disabilities in our community, I, Keith Hamilton, President of the Portsmouth Town Council, do hereby proclaim September 2026 to be National Service Dog Month in the Town of Portsmouth, and I encourage all citizens to celebrate service dogs and be respectful of the rights to safe access of our community afforded to the adults, children, and veterans to lead a more independent lives because of their assistance. So thank you again for coming back this year.

Thank you. Thank you.

So thank you for our visit. Yeah, thank you very much. All of the businesses in Portsmouth have supported us through the years. And so, yeah, she's gonna be a challenge. Usually our puppies would trickle. I got a little black puppy last year, Farman. He just turned in for a dance training. So he is gone now, and she hasn't been circulated until November. So she is the most vocal. I think she's very intelligent, but I'm gonna hang around to see what's probably starting to happen. I mean, she can't stay in church or anything yet. But so we'll leave right away to just find out. She'll still be here next September, so we can see the difference. And if you come back, hopefully we will have a better-behaved puppy. And we appreciate all the businesses, and remember that. We appreciate it when they ask, well, it's kind of obvious, but there are, you know, disabilities that are invisible. If they ask, you know, the two questions. Is this a service dog to mitigate a disability? Yes. What task does he perform to mitigate the disability? And she could name probably 50. He picks things up for her, turns lights off and on, gets things out of the fridge. So many things. Seat pressure. But that's important. And if you're going to be a dog-friendly place, which sometimes we don't go a lot to, like Home Depot or something, because people don't... They're not really careful with their own dogs. They can come up and ruin a career of a service dog when they get attacked in the hardware store or Home Depot or something. So we just appreciate all those businesses that support service dogs in Portsmouth. And we go to Foodworks, Clements. I can't think of a business in Portsmouth that hasn't supported us. And so we just appreciate that. Thank you, everyone.

Thank you very much.

Good night, Nestle. Thank you all. Thank you. Always. We do have a town hall mascot. It's called Holly. It's right down the street at the police station. Next up, we have our consent agenda. Do we have a motion to approve as presented? So moved. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes 7-0. Next up, we have our minutes from 8-11 and the executive that followed. Any corrections or updates? Motion to approve as presented. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes 7-0. Next up, we have our town administrator's report. Mr. Rainer, good evening, sir.

Good evening, Mr. President, town council, ladies and gentlemen. At the close of business last Friday, there are 338 households on prudence island signed up for the prudence island transfer station. 1937 households are signed up for the headley street transfer station and 3158 are signed up for curbside. Regarding curbside yard waste collection, I'd just like to remind people to ensure that they keep at least one bin next to your yard waste until it is collected. Oftentimes, the yard waste pickup is later in the day, and if people have taken their bins in, if it's not a regular driver, the driver won't know that that household is part of the curbside program.

They look for the bin with the blue sticker.

THIS WEDNESDAY MARKS THE END OF ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL SUMMER CAMP SEASON FOR OUR RECREATION DEPARTMENT. IN ADDITION TO THE 10 WEEK BEST OF BOTH CAMP, WENDY AND HER TEAM OFFERED A VARIETY OF SPECIALTY CAMPS THROUGHOUT THE SUMMER INCLUDING TENNIS, THEATER, ARTS AND CRAFTS, FITNESS AND STEM PROGRAMS. I WANT TO THANK THE ENTIRE RECREATION STAFF AND ALL OUR CAMP COUNSELORS AND SEASONAL EMPLOYEES FOR THE WORK THEY PUT IN THIS SUMMER. And thanks to all the families who participated. I hope the kids had a great summer, but I suspect that there may be a few parents who are ready for school to start. With that said... Portsmouth students will be heading back to school later this week. Students in kindergarten through grade nine will begin Thursday and all students will be returning on Friday. So with school back in session, I just want to remind everyone that our school buses will once again be out on the roads and there'll be more children walking and biking in and around our schools. So please everyone give yourself a little extra time, pay attention to buses and crossing students and remember that school zone speed limits will be strictly enforced. Just a reminder that the Rhode Island statewide primary election will be held on Wednesday, September 9th. We realize that elections are normally held on Tuesdays, but because this year's normal primary date falls immediately after Labor Day, state law kicks in and the election has been moved to Wednesday. Early voting is already underway here at Town Hall, but if you're planning to vote on Election Day, again, please remember Wednesday, September 9th is the Election Day. Just another quick reminder that the Police Department's Annual Awards and Promotion Ceremony will be held on Wednesday, September 23rd at 6 p.m. at the Glenn Manor House. And if you haven't already, you'll be receiving e-vites with additional information shortly. Also, Town Hall will be closed Monday, September 7th in observance of Labor Day. The transfer station will be closed on Labor Day and curbside pickups will be delayed one day that week. Information is posted on the banner at the opening page of our town website. Uh, and additionally, uh, just a late addition, uh, one, uh, there is a, a community event to note for this weekend. Uh, the Butts Hill Fort restoration committee will hold his third annual sunset salute this Saturday at 6 30 PM at Butts Hill Fort. Uh, the ceremony will commemorate the 248th anniversary of the battle of Rhode Island and will include a reef laying and musket salute, uh, the entire public. And of course the members of the town council are invited to attend. Parking will be available nearby at a lot at the top of Dyer Street off of Sprague Street and at the Portsmouth High School tennis courts. There'll be no parking at Butt Street. That concludes my report, Mr. President.

Thank you, Mr. Raynor. Just for clarification, early voting ends on the Saturday before?

It would be the Tuesday before.

So that would be the first.

No, because...

It'll be the 8th. The 8th, okay. Tuesday directly before?

It goes up to election day.

Mr. President, if I may.

Thank you. I did want to add to summer camps. Yes, I am one of the parents that's very much looking forward to Thursday morning. But this weekend, Parks and Rec did the 250 celebration. And although I am partial to the little kids play that did occur this in the morning to kick off the event, I just wanted to just give thanks and praise to the Parks and Rec committee and its staff for putting on an awesome event. So kudos to them. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it.

Any questions for Mr. Gleason?

I'd like to also add to that. I went by for the afternoon of the 250th event there, and it seemed to be very well run. Most of the kids had left by then, I suppose. But I wanted to give a shout out to the DPW and all their involvement and the equipment they brought in and all their time that they used on Saturday. Thank you. Great. Thank you.

All right. Next up, we have resignations and appointments. We have a new appointment for the Juvenile Hearing Board for Mr. David Shuler.

Motion to appoint Mr. David Shuler to the Juvenile Hearing Board. Second. All those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed?

Motion passes 7-0. Next up, we have old business number one. We have our school bond scenarios. Mr. Massaroni is online. Mr. DiIorio is online. Our superintendent is here along with our assistant superintendent and Mr. Rainer. Would you like to kick us off or you want...

Yeah, I'll just turn it over to Mr. Massaroni, the bond advisor for the town. He put together three scenarios. And again, none of these scenarios are written in stone. These are just what we were trying to base our budgeting off of, if you remember the discussions from back in January. So there's a scenario for 30 million, 35 million, 41 million. BUT NONE OF THIS WILL BE DECIDED UNTIL AFTER THE ELECTION AND THE COUNCIL RECEIVES MORE INFORMATION REGARDING THE PROJECTS, THE BUILDING COMMITTEE'S PRIORITY OF THOSE PROJECTS AND WHAT THE COUNCIL'S APPETITE FOR BONDING OR LAYERING THE BONDING WILL BE. SO I JUST TURN IT OVER TO STEVE. GOOD EVENING, STEVE.

GOOD EVENING, FOLKS. CAN EVERYONE HEAR ME OKAY?

YES, SIR.

OKAY. GREAT. LET ME SHARE MY SCREEN. All right. Can folks see that?

Not yet. There we go. Can you just blow it up a little bit for us? I can. One more. I think that's good.

All right. Great. As Rich said, my name is Steve Massaroni. I'm a director at PFM Financial Advisors. I work out of their Boston office. I've been working with the town for probably 20 plus years when they issued debt. So as Rich mentioned, we did put together three scenarios, $41 million, $35 million, and $30 million. You can see the assumptions on this first page for the $41 million scenario. We assume 35% state aid issue in the spring of 27. Estimated rate $425, which is a current rate for a 25-year tax-exempt bond project is expected to be complete in 30 and eligible for and 31 for school construction aid. And I think folks know a few of the things I'll say today, but the way RIDE works, the projects aren't eligible for reimbursement until the project's substantially complete. So we assume a three-year construction cycle. That's why you'll see that the principal is in fiscal 31. It offsets the state aid. The state aid, you do not lose state aid for issuing the bonds prior to substantial completion, it accrues and is paid out in the first year that the project's complete. Based on this scenario, you'll see that the estimated debt service is approximately 1.7 million, again, over 25 years. As Rich just alluded to, you know, there's different ways to sort of phase in these bonds. You may recall when we did the 22 school bonds, it was a smaller project. It was 20 million. Interest rates were very favorable. At the time, the town decided just to issue one bond, save on issuance costs. The rate, I think, was about $345 million back then. Given the size of this, between $30 million and $41 million, you could issue it in two phases. You could also do it, some communities do issue short-term notes in advance of bonding out the project to try to keep that interest expense low in the first few years. I think what we're trying to just illustrate here is that once the project's complete and once you issue the debt, essentially it's going to be, you know, approximately 1.7 million on the tax base. And then we'll get into a slide that has a tax rate impact as well. This is the second scenario. Again, same assumptions, 35 million, 35% state aid. Essentially it's about a million five in net debt service after school construction aid through the life of the bond. And then the final scenario is for the 30 million, again, 35% state aid, same assumptions. And it's about just under 1.3 million in annual debt service. Tax rate impact. Let me just make this a little snitch smaller. So we ran tax rate impact for 41, 35 and 30 million. With the 35% aid, we assumed a tax base, which was as of December. 31 of 2024 of commercial and residential of approximately 4.7, 4.8 billion. And you can see on the 41 million, uh, uh, bond scenario, the estimated, um, impact is 37 cents. And you can see the, uh, home value based on home value of 400, five, 15, 700. Uh, the 35 scenario was basically 31 cents and the 30 million scenario was 27 cents. Um, So that's essentially all I have to talk about. I'm happy to answer questions. I'm going to try to stop sharing my screen here.

You're good. Thank you. Okay. You're welcome. Questions for Mr. Massaroni. Again, the question on the ballot is not to exceed 41 million. Um, We've heard from the school department that these are $41 million worth of needed projects, but they might not do every project that is there. They might not all get done at once, but they all have to be included in the ride proposal to get that reimbursement, depending on what projects are done. I think we all can agree a roof is very important at the middle school. That's an easy one. Mr. Fitzmore, do you have a question, since I don't hear any from the council? Yes, Steve, go ahead.

I was just going to add one more point. I think Rich did allude to this as well. You know, if the voters approve it, then I think, you know, it does have to come back to the council for an authorizing resolution where the council has to approve a resolution now authorizing you to issue the debt. So right now what you've done is you've got a resolution that was passed that memorialized going to the General Assembly. You're going to put it on the ballot. And then, you know, the last step, if approved, it will have to come back to the town council. Thank you, Steve. You're welcome.

Mr. Fitzmaurice.

Thank you, Mr. President. Larry Fitzmaurice, 50 Christian Court. Can I ask who is bond counsel for this proposal?

Bond counsel is Savage Law, Ellen Corno, who's been a longtime bond counsel to the town.

Okay. Thank you. I presume they've reviewed all of this business.

Ellen drafted, I believe, drafted the bond act that was sent up to General Assembly as well as the memorializing resolution.

All right. In terms of the... Options I guess that are available to the council and We've had a number of different amounts used As we wound our way through this process 25 30 35 now 41 And I understand of course what has been said about the council Following a successful vote by the on the bond by the people of the town of Portsmouth would make decisions about what we were going to do. And I presume that means at what level this thing is going to be executed. In other words, what amount of money is going to be issued as a bond. I must say that I am uncomfortable with the council making decisions on a post decision on a decision already made by the voters. The voters are going to be asked to vote on 41 million. And, you know, that's it as far as I can see. I don't think the council should be going in there and changing it afterwards. I think the most people in town would object if they added another 10 million to it. Of course, it's less objectionable to remove money from it. But we've never done that before that I'm aware of. Now, I've heard that we have, but I can't remember one. So, and I would also point out that I don't remember any bond has ever been passed in this town going back to 1998. It wasn't that we didn't spend every nickel that was authorized by the boat. In other words, if it's going to be $41 million, I suspect that's what we're going to spend. We get into these things, and although the school department has an excellent history in executing bonds, the last series of bonds were well done in terms of financial controls over them. They were on budget and on time. But I do believe that... You know, we're going to probably spend the 41 million. This council can't bind a future council. And so if there's another significant changes in this council, they have a free free shot at this. And in fact, most of the time we go over the amount we authorize in these bonds. So, you know. From my point of view and that of the Portsmouth Concerned Citizens, we like to see rigid controls over these things. And so they don't get to be, you know, once it's passed, we all get together and decide what we're actually going to do. That's not conducive to getting it passed either, I would think. At any rate, we'll see. Is there an opportunity tonight to ask questions about what the elements of this bond are going to be? In other words, the roof on the middle school?

Define the elements. We've discussed that at the last meeting where it's roof.

Yeah, but we didn't get any answers.

Yes, we did.

Well, I didn't get any answers. Maybe you did.

What answers were you looking for? There's a roof at the middle school. There's an eighth grade addition at the middle school. There is upgrades to the science wing. There are about half a million dollars or so at each elementary school. There are, Liz, you want to finish them all for me?

I'm generally familiar with what's in it. Okay. Well, at the last meeting I asked for a technical discussion on why we have such an expensive roof that's going in on the middle school. Nobody knew what the square footage was exactly, and that's understandable, either on the middle school or on our more recent experience at the high school. So, you know, there's a wide variance in cost of the high school and the middle school's roofs, and substantial variance.

The middle school roof is roughly four to five times of what was done at the high school. The entire high school roof was not done. In fact, on part of the high school, part of this bond is the rest of the high school roof that wasn't done as well as one of the projects that could be done.

Yeah, but that's separate from what, 11 and a half million or whatever this thing is at the high school. I mean, the middle school.

Yeah, correct.

So yeah, I saw that in the list. OK, so I wanted to have a technical discussion about why there's a difference, but I guess we're not going to do that. I'd like to hear how we're going to select the interest rate, if I may. Who's going to do this decision? I don't recall the council giving a spread on interest rates that are acceptable to the council. And obviously, interest rates are up and down in recent months. And hopefully they'll go down by the time we get around to doing this. But I think that's a little hard to predict. So I would expect that the council will have final say on the interest rate. Is that correct?

Yeah, I can explain. Oh, I'm sorry.

Did you want me to say of what the bond proposal is or bond proposals are? If there's more than one, if the projects are staggered over the course of the five years. But Steve, you want to go through the actual setting of the interest rates?

Sure. So in order to get the bonds to be eligible for principal and interest reimbursement from RIDE, the bonds have to be issued through a state agency called Rhode Island Health and Educational Building Corporation, which is the same entity that issued the bonds back in twenty twenty two. RIBEC has a process where they solicit proposals from investment banks to sell the bonds. The town has a seat at that table for the selection process of the underwriter that's going to sell the bonds on behalf of the town. And the bonds are sold based at the market rate. So wherever the market is, that's where the interest rate will be set. As we lead up to the sale of the bonds, however, we do give the town market updates periodically so they know what to expect. And that's really what's going to drive the plan of finance. So for example, if we get up to spring of 2027, long-term rates are very high, short-term rates are low. The recommendation would probably be to issue some construction notes during the first year until the project gets underway. So what's going to drive the plan of finance is really going to be the interest rate environment, as well as how quickly the town's going to spend the money. For tax purposes, you reasonably... reasonably expect to spend the money within three years. We usually recommend that you want to do it in two years because there's some negative carry sometimes on the money, but that's generally what we would recommend. And also, again, I think Rich alluded to this, it could be done in two phases, again, based on interest rates. If interest rates are a bit high, perhaps the recommendation would be to issue just a portion of the bonds and lock in the rates. But the town will have a seat at the table at RIBEC in selection of the underwriter who will sell the bonds on their behalf.

What do you mean by a CD?

Well, they will be involved in the selection process of that underwriter. With the advice of their municipal advisor, who is me. So again, I've been doing municipal bonds for over 25 years, primarily in Rhode Island. And I've worked on several school construction projects across the state of Rhode Island. And I am a registered municipal advisor with series 55, 50, I'm sorry.

Okay, if we get into a bind, now I understand, of course, when you sell bonds, you sell them for the price on the market. And a related question is the town of Portsmouth, as you must know, has a AAA rating from Standard & Poor's, which is as good as it gets. Are we going to get any benefit of having that rating?

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you're only one of two AAAs in the state of Rhode Island from S&P. You're going to trade well. You're going to be very desirable. And that drives your interest costs down.

So we're not going to be grouped together in some broader sense with other municipal bonds?

No, that's a good question.

School bonds.

Yeah, that's a good question. In the past, RIBEC for some smaller transaction has pulled them up. For example, there was a small situate and little Compton transaction, very small under 10 million. They pulled the two together last year. However, given the size here and given the stellar rating of AAA, we wouldn't expect to pull with anyone, quite honestly, because the methodology for the rating agencies is the weak link. So they're not going to put you with a AA that's going to bring your rating down. So no, that would not happen. It would be a standalone AAA rated bond.

Okay, that's good news. Thank you.

You're welcome.

Okay, at some point, again, I'm requesting a technical discussion of the business of the roof. At some point, I think that's a reasonable question. The comparison is clear. One five times or four and a half times more expensive than the other. Although I don't have a square footage, so I can't make a clear comparison. But I think that I'd like to hear why the differential in cost exists. And, you know, maybe I'll be convinced and maybe I won't, but I'd like to hear it.

I can say there's, I mean, it was mentioned last meeting when Phil was here, that it's a thicker roof, going to be four inches instead of two inches. There's a lot of wrapping that edging that has to go around the building. And there's also a plan to put some skylights in, which are expensive in order to add some natural light into the hallways.

I remember that.

Those are just some of the reasons it's going to be more expensive and just the overall square footage itself as well.

All right. I do want to hear the discussion, though.

I would recommend a school committee meeting with an update on that. I know you go to those as well, so not as many.

Okay. Thank you, Mr. President.

Thank you, Mr. Morris. Appreciate it. Any other questions on school bond scenarios? I mean, as been mentioned before, I don't think the school department has any appetite. I don't think the citizens have any appetite to go to $41 million. The $41 million is a number set by projects that need to be done urgently in the next five years. If projects are done with cash over those four years, five years, underneath this $41 million umbrella, they are reimbursable, even if they're done with cash, not with a bond. So worst case scenario out there is $41 million, but there is no intention to go to $41 million. Any other questions for the council? Mr. Grebe?

Tom Grebe, 110 Thayer Drive. I just want to make sure everybody understands that this is a very expensive bond compared to the last one. The interest rate last time was 3.45%. The interest rate this time is 4.25%. Last time, the state was giving us PAYGO money. That was about 8% of the bond. This time we get nothing. The reimbursement last time was 45%. This time it's 35%. And the principal is twice as large as the last one. The last one ended up providing us to very close to 4% tax increases. For three years, we will get no money from the state. It's all on us.

Not necessarily. As Steve mentioned, that projects start being paid once they're done. So it's not the entire project. So if the roof is done in year one, we will get paid faster than those three years.

Only if that's the way the school puts it out. Last time the school lumped, for whatever reason, all the projects together.

Yeah. Could I comment on that for a second?

Steve, go ahead.

Yeah. There was a reason why the school lumped all the projects together because the They were trying to get the bonus points of 10%. And what Ride was urging school districts to do is if you bundled your projects and submitted together, even if there were certain components that weren't eligible for the 10% bonus points, if it's bundled, then you could do that. This go around, there's no bonus points. It's just the base rate, as you pointed out, of 35%. So there's no incentive to bundle the projects. The slides that I presented just assumed you submit it at the end, which is worst case, but to the council president's comment, he's absolutely right. As projects are completed, they can be submitted for reimbursement so that in those earlier three years during construction, perhaps there could be some offset. But again, I'll note that even if that's not the case, it accrues you don't lose it.

Okay. Presently our tax levy is $67 million. A 4% increase on $67 million is $2.7 million. As Mr. Massaroni pointed out, 1.7 of that 2.7 will be taken up by this bond unless you bond the interest of the bond, which again charges you even more interest.

Assuming we go to $41 million, which we won't.

Assuming that, yes.

Okay.

Let me react to that. There is no reason that you have to put $41 million on the bond now. You do have to put $41 million in the stage two ride submission. That doesn't mean you have to go out for a bond for it. you could have put 25 million, 35 million, whatever, or the 12 million for the roof. That honestly would have probably increased the chances of the voters voting for it. So I'm not sure why it was so important to put all $41 million on this bond, but that's where you are.

we're not putting $41 million on a bond. We're putting a question to the voters not to exceed $41 million. It does not mean, nor will we, go to $41 million. I'm going to say that a thousand times before we get to the point.

You can say that, and what I'm going to say is once the voters vote, they have authorized this town to bond $41 million, period, and you can't change that.

An amount not to exceed $41 million. That's correct. It doesn't say we're going to $41 million.

It says not to exceed. But you cannot change that, and you cannot guarantee the next council won't do all $41 million. We have no idea what's going to happen. And that's the concern that I have on the way this bond has been handled. Thank you.

Dr. Coleman, how are you this evening?

Hi. Hi. Emily Copeland, 25 Windstone Drive, Chair of the Portsmouth School Committee. I would just like to reassure the voters that Mr. Grieb is not the only frugal one. Members of the Building Committee, members of the School Committee have mortgages, have kids going to college, have retirement to save for. There has never been a discussion in the District Building Committee, which are open to the public, which has said this is going to $41 million. So I feel that that's a scare tactic. I don't think it's a fair one. I would like to point out that we were commended on how well the bond was handled under budget, on time for the last one, right? What we have identified in the capital plan is $41 million of necessary school construction projects. That goes to ride. The language in the legislation is the same as the last one, which identified whatever it was, 21 something million dollar of necessary school construction. Ride looks to see, are we serious about maybe getting that done? But we are only required to do 50% of the capital plan, right? Now, as a school committee member, I can tell you the roof is critical at the middle school. If we don't do the roof, and hopefully at least passed a bond to do that, we're gonna be doing it somehow. And what we don't want to do is find ourselves in the position that we were in at the high school roof. So I would say, think of it more, at least in my simplistic mind here, as a line of credit, if you were a homeowner, you don't necessarily take out all the loan, even if you've been authorized to do it. You do what you can afford, you get it done, you get reimbursement, and you check your finances. And we're on opposite political parties, but I think we're both pretty frugal here. We're not going to go to $41 million, right? That's all I can say. I don't think there's any appetite for that at all. I'll be repeating that with you as well. So I think I would hope that voters realize that we have to get the middle school done. There's other less sexy projects like Hathaway's paving and other things that are safety issues that need to be get done. But if they're on our capital plan and we use our capital funds, we get the reimbursement that goes to the town. Right. That we can use for more capital projects. So, again, Let's not scare the voters that we're going to 41 because we're not going to take out a bond for 41. I don't think the council would have an appetite for that. I don't think we would propose that at the school committee.

Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Colvin.

I'm sorry, but $41 million is on the ballot. That is what you're proposing. No, it is not. It is. When the voters vote, you've got the legislature that has voted already. You've got the voters. The town is authorized for a $41 million bond. Whether you do it or not is up to the next council. I don't care what you say. You cannot guarantee that won't happen.

You're right, and I can't guarantee that we'll all be here tomorrow, but I can guarantee this council and the next council will not bond for $41 million. I can have a beer on that. The voters will be asked to vote for a bond not to exceed $41 million. Not a bond for $41 million, a price of a bond not to exceed $41 million. Any further questions? So that was informational only. Steve, if I can ask you to hang on to the next item, if you don't mind. Sure. Let's see if there may be questions on that as well for bond purposes. If I can get my computer to work, we'll go on to old business number two. Mr. Raynor, you get to do this because our new finance director does not start until before the next meeting. You want to go through all the numbers for the end of 2026, FY2026, and then also the first month of FY27.

So first, the June report represents our final monthly report for fiscal year 26. These are unaudited numbers, and there may be some additional year-end adjustments as finance completes the closing process. Overall, we finished the year in a very good position. General fund revenues came in at just over 102% of the budget, largely because of stronger than anticipated quarterly tax receipts, state aid, interest income, and real estate transfer fees. On the expenditure side, we finished essentially 100% of the budget. ABOUT 100.2%. THERE WERE NO SIGNIFICANT OUTSTANDING ENCOMPRESSES AT THE TIME THE REPORT WAS PREPARED, ALTHOUGH SOME YEAR-END ITEMS WILL BE RECORDED AS THE BOOKS ARE CLOSED. WE ALSO TRANSFERRED APPROXIMATELY $2.8 MILLION TO OTHER FUNDS DURING THE YEAR. THAT INCLUDED FUNDING FOR THE 2022 BOND PROJECTS, CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS, PROPERTY REVALUATION AND SEVERAL OF OUR RESERVE FUNDS. Based on where things stand today, we expect fiscal year 26 to close with a healthy surplus, although we won't know the final number until the audit is completed. As the council will recall, we have already committed a portion of the anticipated surplus. Under the action taken last October, 50% of the audited surplus will go towards the pension plan until it reaches full funding. 40% of that goes to the pension fund and 10% goes to OPEB. One other significant year-end item. In July, following receipt of additional state housing aid, we made an additional principal payment of approximately $565,000 on the 2015 bond. That reduced outstanding debt and will lower future debt service costs. So overall, fiscal year 26 ended on a positive note. Revenues performed better than anticipated. We saw some savings primarily in salaries and benefits. and the town remains in a strong financial position as we complete the year-end close. Throughout the day, I did have correspondence with a few councilors regarding that transfer of money, the state, the unanticipated state housing aid to the 2015 bond. That was obviously a decision that was made to take advantage of the window to be able to pay down that debt. It's what's been done in the past. However, I will concede that in the future that should obviously go to the council. It did save about $175,000 a year or so in interest, which will help us in our future debt service. With regard to July, this is our first monthly report for fiscal year 27. So we're only one month or about 8.3% into the fiscal year. General fund revenues are currently about 3.7% of budget. That's not unusual this early in the year, particularly because the first quarterly tax payment isn't due until September. July revenues are therefore consistent with the same period last year. General fund expenditures are approximately 8.1% of the budget, and that's also consistent with this same period last year. So revenues and expenditures are tracking as expected, and we'll have a much better picture once the first quarter tax receipts begin coming in. That's the report, Mr. President.

Thank you, Mr. Rainer. Any questions on the, we'll start with the year-end June report. Any questions on that?

Ms. McDowell? Thank you for that explanation. I was one of the people in conversation with Mr. Rayner today about the June report. And one of the reasons is I always, I look forward to the June report and look at what kind of surplus, what kind of surplus or deficit we're going to have. And last year we were in a good position and I wanted to know about this year. And when I did look at that this year, I was finding that we had what, what I thought we were showing was almost a $1.5 million surplus, which seemed extraordinarily high to me. So I looked further into it and realized that somewhere, somehow, that we received an influx of money that was neither on the budget last year's budget or this year's budget in terms of income or revenue, I should say. So the questions came forth regarding that. And Mr. Rayner did respond and filled me in. The one thing that I would ask though, that I think should have happened, and he did say that it will in the future, is that when first of all, when we have a surplus like that coming in and it's neither recorded in the budget, the previous or this one, I think, I believe strongly that it should come back to the council and the council should do that movement of money and any reasonable council is going to do that, but they should be notified of that and they should be the ones that are moving that money. And then the other thing that, The other thing is, I just still need a little bit of clarification on, it says here, the final fiscal year 25 surplus payment to pension, 228, 544, and OPEC 57136. Is that supposed to be FY26 or is that 25? I know we made the agreement after the surplus, after we knew the surplus. So is that the correct or?

Yes. That's 25.

It's 25.

So when the audit was finalized in February, that transfer was then done by Kayla. for the 228 and I forget the other number for the OPEB. So this year, if you take the rough numbers of maybe a million dollars of a surplus left, 500, I'm abusing round numbers, but 500 would go towards the OPEB and pension. So roughly 450 to the pension and 550 to the OPEB.

That's probably exactly what it's going to be.

It's a ballpark number, somewhere in that ballpark.

Well, it looks like it could be right on.

There's probably going to be some pennies and dollars on either side, but...

Okay. And then I guess, so thanks for that clarification. So when do you feel the audit will be completed and we'll have that surplus number?

That's always no pun intended, the million-dollar question. We do have an aggressive schedule right now. We've been talking to the auditor almost every day. The portal is open. There's a number of things that need to be uploaded to the portal that could not be done until we close the book. So there'll be a big batch of information uploaded. We have an internal... deadline that we've agreed to marry sahadi of the auditing firm with september 15th that will allow her to finish the audit in a timely fashion i'm hoping you know late november early december but uh if you recall uh on uh you know the first week of june last year we were one of only six communities that had finished the audit on time. So we're, we're holding everybody's feet to the fire. Obviously losing Kayla didn't help, but we do have an excellent staff that is filling the gap. And our new finance director has been kept apprised of everything that's due on September 15th. So not an exact answer to your question, but I think we should know by the end of November.

And is that usually on schedule for what we have in the past in November? I,

Yeah, we've tried to hold to that. Sometimes we're a little bit earlier, most of the time. A lot of it, quite frankly, comes down to there just aren't that many auditors that are doing this anymore for municipalities. So they do fall behind. So the early bird catches the worm, and we're trying to stay ahead of this so that we get first dibs at her staff time. But you know, there's a lot of work that needs to be done. You know, when I first got here, I mean, audits, you know, 25, 50 pages, you know, hundreds of pages now. So the requirements every year, the GASB requirements keep piling on, which creates more work for the auditor. But yeah, we're generally on the same timetable that we've been in years past.

Okay, thanks.

You're very welcome. Any other questions on June 26th before we move to July 26th. Any questions on July 26th? Hearing none, do I have a motion to receive both in place on file? So moved. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes 7-0. Next up, we have new business number one, a request permission to create a temporary public display at Town Hall from August 28th to September 3rd in recognition of International Overdose Awareness Day on August 31st. A day that I would hope we would never have to have. Do you want me to steal your thunder and just say we're going to approve it? Or do you want to give us a speech about it? I love a speech. So moved. Actually, before you say so moved, can I ask a request to make this just permanent and then whenever you have this week, they don't have to come back every year to plant the flags? I love the suggestion. Is everybody okay with that?

I'd like to make a motion that we give them yearly approval and permission by the town administration. Yeah, just review the spot with administration.

That's all.

Great, thank you. Thank you.

OK. So I'll second that. So we're going to plant a bunch of purple flags, unfortunately, for all the folks who have died from overdoses that are thousands too many.

Yes. The numbers went down quite a bit this year. Yes. That rate went down 34% from last year.

That's great. On the decline. So hopefully that will continue.

Good work. We have a motion and a second to make this Permanent every, essentially it's going to be the end of every August, every year through September. The dates might be different, but it will be about the same time frame. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes 7-0. And then you're also here for request number two for use of some of the opioid settlement money to implement two community education programs relating to Kratom. Kratom? Kratom. Kratom. Awful stuff that you could buy at a convenience store. So you want to explain a little bit of the bad things that that stuff can do?

Yeah, sure.

My name is Georgie Allitt. I am the coordinator for the Portsmouth Prevention Coalition. So first of all, I'll just start by saying that we do appreciate the civic support funds that you guys provide us. Kratom is a newly emerging substance, specifically following its ban reversal, which just happened April of this year. So it's now allowed to be sold in any business that applies for a license in Rhode Island, including gas stations, etc. So to support a Kratom-specific educational campaign, we will need further funding. The coalition mainly operates under the DFC grant right now, the Drug-Free Communities Grant. but that grant is restricted in a lot of ways. We can only use it to fund very specific prevention activities and programs for school age youth. So the substances that the DFC in Portsmouth covers is cannabis and alcohol. So a lot of the civic support money that we receive from you all, we have to use for vaping prevention efforts, because we know that's a big problem with our youth in Portsmouth. But as far as Kratom, a big part of our plan with this educational campaign is to host a community educational panel about Kratom. We're neither really for or against it as a whole, but more so we just want to educate people in our community about it. So right now, like I said, we're in the very early planning process, but we're looking to bring together experts from a variety of backgrounds to provide Portsmouth residents, community leaders, healthcare professionals, and other stakeholders with credible information about Kratom. We ourselves are pretty limited in our knowledge about it just because we don't have the funding to do that further research. But we have met with quite a few experts in the field already who are interested in being part of this panel. So we've met with Dr. Stantiu, who is a Director of Addiction Services at New Hampshire Hospital, Dr. Rachel Whiteman, who's Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine in Epidemiology at Brown University, as well as some other experts in the field offering a variety of perspectives. As for Kratom itself, Sophia, do you want to speak to some of the opioid, how it relates to opioids?

Yeah, yeah, I'm happy to take that. So my name is Sophia Domingos. I am the opioid project coordinator for Newport County Prevention Coalition. I work with Georgie. So kratom, like Georgie mentioned, is this emerging substance. It's been around for a very long time. It's used traditionally in Southeast Asia, but has been kind of commercially available here in the United States for a little while now. And those commercial products are very potent and yeah, is going to become kind of increasingly available around our state. Kratom works on the same receptors in our brain as opioids and is often used to help manage symptoms of opioid withdrawal. So Kratom use is associated with a higher prevalence of opioid use disorder. as well as vice versa, people who have opioid use disorder are more likely to use kratom. And there is that same risk, similar to opioids, of experiencing a kratom overdose. And that can be reversed with the life-saving medication of naloxone. And the Rhode Island Department of Health, we just have this local statistic, has already reported 10 overdose fatalities involving kratom between the years of 2020 and 2024. So if you have any further questions, happy to address those.

I do have a question. Wasn't that material banned in the state? Are you doing anything to try to get the state to change their mind on this, seeing as it's harmful and you have to have all these intervention programs and things? I would think the source of the problem is It was illegal. And for some reason they made it legal unless there's a tax on it or something. That's all I can figure.

Right.

Are you working along those lines too? Upstate?

We did meet with some state legislators before the ban was officially reversed. And yeah, happy to continue those conversations. It definitely is at a state level that the decision was made.

Okay, thanks.

Mr. Payo. Thank you, Mr. President. And Mr. Reese, I think you're kind of on the line of what I would hope we get to one day. And one, thank you for bringing this to my attention and asking for this to be an agenda item. To add to that, although So that there's a clear differentiation. It does not impact you as quickly as, let's say, an opioid medication. That's why now you're limited to five to 10 days, depending on the procedure. And it does hit you at about 200 to 300 days of continuous usage. But I do also want to state that by executive order, Massachusetts, which was known as the state to allow Kratom to be most readily available, has now discontinued its actual sale. At least momentarily, I'm sure there's going to be some court battle, but it was used as a major example for us to be able to liberated quote unquote here in the state uh but i think that right now our big thing is making sure that while we have this like sweet period of it not being readily available in grocery stores uh the condition was everything had to be removed from the market then the licensing was supposed to happen and before the first application actually does come in that we do educate our young people on it and at the same time it's coming the money's coming out of a special revenue fund so it doesn't really impact our budget and this is a good opportunity for us to use some of those funds

I agree with you. I think education... But this is being recorded. We're agreeing on something. No, but that's okay. We'll do that. No, but they should be doing their education until we fix the real problem. Yeah, right. It's like a temporary patch, but you've got to do it because people have to know that... What did you say? 200 days?

About roughly 200 to 300 days of continuous usage.

Wow. Okay.

Carry on. And, Mr. Rayner, we have roughly 97,000 in the opioid fund at this point in time.

That is... Yep. About $97,000 is in the account. Obviously, civic support accounts would remove $31,500, but there's money that comes in at various points of the year. Right now, subtracting out the civic support, there's over $65,000 in that account that could be used for this.

Well, not all of it for this, but... We're looking for a number not to exceed $15,000, so you'll work with the finance department to get it as you need it.

When I read your information that you presented, at first I thought the target audience was the older people and less the younger, but you are going to include the younger population in terms of education, correct?

Yes, correct. Definitely. The proposal that we had written kind of address two different campaigns, one being the Kratom and then one geared towards older adults and just general opioid use.

Okay, thanks.

Do I have a motion to utilize not to exceed $15,000 of the opioid settlement money for a Kratom campaign? So moved. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes 7-0. Ladies, thank you very much.

Thank you. Appreciate all your hard work. Thank you.

Next up, we have new business number three, which is request to establish a road paving reserve fund, which would be similar to our snow removal reserve fund so that any monies that are not used in the previous year get swept up into that fund to be used as needed for road repair. And also this council made the decision to set the snow removal reserve fund maximum at 250 and then to use any of that money that is left over over 250 to go into Road paving. So that money would get swept up and moved over to the road paving reserve fund.

I just have a question. Sure.

Where was the money going before this that was left over from roads? Where did it go? Got swept into the fund balance. That's what I had written down. That was what I said. Fund balance.

Yeah. So it's into the fund balance. Now we're going to reserve. The fund balance is healthy now. We're right around that sweet spot of 16%. Oh, that's a very good idea. So this will give Paul and the DPW a little bit more money to do some more projects. or a motion to approve, or you have a question?

I just have one thing. Sure. First of all, I think it's a great idea. And I saw that we have over the past several, well, last few years been budgeting 1.1, almost 1.2 million for that. I'm assuming that somewhere, and I just haven't seen it, we have a schedule of what each year we're going to be doing, correct?

Yes, I read it. I don't know if it's online right now, but I did read it out to the council. Paul can tell you what neighborhood.

So it's online, right?

I'm going to defer to Paul on this. I don't remember seeing it.

We're on the last year of our three-year paving plan. Right now, Bader is doing a road assessment of all the roads in town. Then we will come up with our new three-year paving plan.

A new one?

Yes.

Okay, great. Thanks.

And the projects for this year, are you all complete with the ones that were just started? Yeah. They're all done?

That's great.

They're all done. We just got to look and see the sides of the road. Awesome. And then was there any roadworks money left this year? Did we take advantage of that? Or there wasn't any from the General Assembly this year? They gave us $297,000.

Awesome. Thank you.

but costs went up so we actually had to drop two roads out of the three pavement schedule unfortunately oil is more expensive that makes asphalt more expensive makes it and wages are higher so miles per miles or pavement per mile is a lot more expensive now but i will say sprague street is looking very nice so thank you the state for doing that um and also i thank you to paul for getting the hedges done on the corner of sprague and Bristol Ferry, choose me, turnpike, technically.

Right.

Is there a motion to establish a road paving reserve fund? So moved. Second. All those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? Motion passes seven to zero. And then Mr. Gleason, we have new business number four, a vote to direct planning department together with our legal staff to study and recommend an ordinance that would Ban large battery storage systems, commonly referred to as BESS, as well as data centers from the town of Portsmouth.

Thank you. This is an item that's starting to become more newsworthy these days. Hopkinton and Charlestown have both changed their ordinances to ban these two typical These two items, which are separate. The best, the large battery storage systems use a battery very similar to what you use in your electric vehicles. The biggest problem with any of those, whether it be an electric vehicle or something of this nature, is fire. This is a type of fire that cannot be put out readily. And if the chief wants to argue with me that, he's very welcome to. But I think he would agree with me that this is probably the worst fire you could fight. I would suspect that in the past, that type of fire was fought, and maybe it still is fought, with a PFAS-type foam, which I don't even know if that's banned in this day and age. But the noxious fumes that they spread, whether it's a fire that breaks out in Portsmouth, but certainly with the wind blowing towards Middletown and Newport, affect that population, as well as any kind of potential groundwater contamination. The data centers are... separate item. Typically, with AI, more companies are trying to formulate or come up with ways to build these data centers. And if you were to research this at all, you'd find out if you saw the size of these things, and what they're made of, they actually look like a concrete prison. I've seen one, there's one located in Lowell that has brought down people's properties, values, and people are moving out of the neighborhoods just because of the actual noises and smoke that's generated by these facilities. The extra thing that's required of the data center is typically large amounts of water to cool the equipment down. So I'm hoping that this council will agree that this is the type of things that we really don't want to see in a town of Portsmouth. And we would follow the lead of Hopkinton and Charlestown. I do have Charlestown's ordinance here. And basically, I don't think our ordinance is written similar to theirs. We would probably have to establish an area in our ordinance for banned items. They have that in theirs already, so they just added the battery storage to it and the data centers, but obviously it would be something that would require a public hearing, and that is my goal, that we have the planning department look at this together with legal. I think legal has enough to work with from a previous ordinance. We can hand that to Gio or Lurk, and we can move forward with a being on this public hearing, hopefully resulting in a ban on both items. Great. Sitchin. Good evening.

Good evening, everybody. I just want to clarify, I also have Charleston's new ordinance on batteries and data sensors. Are you looking to prohibit consumer products in its entirety, or do you have a size threshold on anything?

I do not. Similar to what Charleston has done, obviously they have chosen not to ban Teslas and things of that nature that use the same type of battery, so for personal uses, you would not be banning them. This would be large-scale, subject to your interpretation, I suppose, of the size of the project or our interpretation in size. But it's not meant for it's meant for commercial applications, I would say, Miss Hitchens.

Hitchens.

So we wouldn't be banning people's battery backups at their house for their computers or things like that?

No, that's not the intent.

I have a question and a comment on one. To your request, Mr. Gleason, I think it would probably best if these were two very different ordinances, just because although they do have some similarities to them in terms of just high-level understanding, they're still very two different issues. So just two different ordinances would be my recommendation, if allowable. My other suggestion would be Considering the fact of, yes, you do have some recommendations from other municipalities, but also requesting that not necessarily legal staff, but planning staff also consult with, although not my favorite state agency, the PUC. Since they are the ones that are currently in charge of Title 39, Chapter 26, which is the renewable energy provisions that the state has established back in 2021, I want to say. So I would probably recommend that you also or it is added that you're in consultation with them. versus all the legal stuff can be involved however they see fit but more consultation with the state to ensure compliance and that we are doing something that is

Well, Mr. Gleason has made the task pretty easy if you want it prohibited. But I think the right approach is to send the issue to the planning board for an advisory opinion for not only planning staff to work with the planning board, but to devise specific definitions and recommend things. and the planning board is supposed to provide an advisory opinion for it to come back here before there's a public hearing. And I do think that I would contact state agencies, including the PUC. I believe there has been some state legislation in the last year, but nothing passed in terms of data centers

I think on the battery front, though, there was legislation that permits them by right in any city and town if it's in a brownfield. So that would be a limit on our ability to...

If it's a what?

If it's in a dwelling. A previously contaminated property. So I don't know if it's defined as a brownfield in the technical sense or just on a... property that may have had environmental issues. So I know that did pass. I would also think it'd be worth contacting the Energy Facility Citing Board to see if they have any say in this. The state, I think, put a goal of something like 80 kilowatts of these things being around Rhode Island a few years ago. Maybe that's the legislation Councilman Piero was referencing. But there's going to be a pushback from the General Assembly's guidance to those agencies versus towns that don't want them in their towns.

I think when you say data centers, you're thinking of these huge monstrosity buildings, as you've explained. There's also edge data centers, which are smaller in size. And I'm curious what your thoughts are on maybe prohibiting what you imagine, stereotypical data centers versus a smaller sized data center that could be the size of a container and allowing those by special use permit or do you want full prohibition?

I'm not familiar with that size that you alluded to. If you stand outside the Cumberland Farms on Sprague Street and you look across the street, you'll see the brick building that houses the telephone company that has air conditioning equipment up on the roof because of all the equipment that's in there. probably at one time, it's probably changed now with cell phone technology, the amount of heat that that building generated. Now, that I would consider a large building, but I have no feel for what the capacity is for a building that size as it relates to a data center. But there's been research done before. I'm sure the other towns, their planning boards potentially have explored that. I have no problems with the planning board looking at it. their opinion on it. They may in fact say, we want this in town for all I know, but I don't think so. What they've done is simply just eliminate it from their ordinance as something that is banned from them. But as we know, the EFSB can go around whatever we put in our ordinance anyways. That's the reality of us being a town in Rhode Island. And I'm sure the PUC could do the same. But I think there will be towns potentially that want this. I think they're looking at it over in North Kingstown where they have an industrial park over there. And there are financial benefits to a town that accepts these types of buildings in their town. But I don't think Portsmouth is the right town for this if we want to keep our rural atmosphere.

Can I ask another clarifying question, just so if I get asked, we can work on this. Back to the batteries for a second. This is not intended to prohibit things like the Tesla power walls that are attached to solar systems, so internal residential or commercial battery banks that provide backup power, I assume, are not targeted.

I think if you look at the definition of what I just handed you, it talks about those being... not concerned not part of the definition i mean so it's just large scale so would you like to attempt a motion sir or you just want to send this to the planning advisory opinion i'm going to make a motion based on how it reads here motion to direct the planning department and planning including a planning board together with legal staff to study and recommend an ordinance that would ban large battery storage systems, commonly referred to as BESS, as well as data centers from the town of Portsmouth.

Second.

Thank you. Any further discussion?

Again, Mr. Gleason, are you trying to do them as one, or are you trying to do them as two separate ordinances?

I'm trying to do them as one. It's just, basically, it would be in a prohibited section of our ordinance, and it says, Carlos Piero is prohibited from town of Portsmouth. Battery storage is prohibited. Data centers are prohibited. It would be in a separate section that we do not have at this point as far as I can see.

We do not.

And you can stay, Carlos. I'm like, just use that.

Oh, no, please. I asked the question. I didn't think anything of it.

But it may come from the planning board that they might come back and say we need two separate ordinances for this as they look at it.

That's fine. I can live with it.

All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes seven to zero. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next up, we have correspondence one through four. Is there anything on here that anybody would like to pull?

Mr. President, just in light of one being a parent, similar age, if we can move correspondence number one to a later meeting, I would love to hear more about that.

Okay. Motion to receive correspondences two, three, and four in place on file.

And do the number one for the next meeting. Next meeting is possible, please. Okay. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes seven to zero. So we'll hear number one. We'll discuss number one coming up on September 14th. Future meetings, we have September 14th, 28th, and the 13th, unless there's any other meetings that we need. If not, we will take a recess. Council will be going back into executive session to finish up. We did not finish prior to this meeting, so we'll take about a five-minute recess. Do we have a motion for a five-minute recess? So moved. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes.