Select Board - Regular Meeting

six we're good good evening everyone it's wednesday july 1st i'm going to call the select board meeting of the wolfborough select board to order before we get underway could i ask anyone who'd like to join us in a pledge of allegiance

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.

Happy birthday. OK. Before we begin, Mr. Muccio, do we have the need for a non-public this evening?

Yes, we do. RSA 91A3, Section 2B, Hiring, and Section D, Acquisition, Sale, Lease of Property.

And I would request it in C for Reputation.

No objection. Okay, before we get into the consideration of minutes, just an update for the public on our recruitment effort for the Town of Wolfborough Town Manager. We, several weeks ago, asked people to submit their names to join interview panels. As you recall, we want to have kind of a 360-degree view. We want citizens, we want town staff, and we want the select board to kind of look at these prospective candidates. Folks did send in their interest. We met the other night, and we have advised those people who will be panelists that... We just told them they would be on the panel. The actual interview dates will be the third week of July. nailing those things down. MRI, our recruiter, is still shortlisting folks. We will start getting copies of their essays, how they responded to some of the essay questions, and once we get those, we'll get them out to the prospective, actually get them out to the panelists. Okay, so that's all we have on that. First item of business is, did I miss anything on the

No, okay good first item of business is consideration of minutes Linda yes, I have a number of them first one is on page two line 65 it says mrs. Murray and it should be the town's core value is Policy needs to be taken out On page It is on 193. It's Bob Shiloh. It's his last name. On page 5, line 202, it should be Karen Bennett Curry. And this is why we ask people to sign in. Sometimes it's hard for our secretary to Here, I know who exactly is speaking. Then I'm going to go to page 7. And my understanding, well, on line 332, it says the hearing dates is August 5th and 19th, not August 15th. All right, and then the last one is on page 8, line 367, and after about Wittenack Bridge, and this needs to be added, having graffiti painted on it. That's what I was talking about.

Linda, you did say August 5th for the hearing date? That was what was in the minutes. August 5th, you corrected it? Yes.

Correct. I'm correcting it. It's listed the 5th when it's written discussion. It says 15.

Got it.

So I'm just correcting that line. They should be consistent.

Anyone else have corrections offered? Okay. Can I get a motion to approve as amended? So moved. Second.

Second.

I have a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. I'm going to abstain since I was not here. So that's good, thank you. On the point of folks signing in, I don't know if we put a crayon up at the podium, but there is a sign-in sheet. Please sign in if you can. All right, next item is public input. Three minutes per resident, 15 minutes in total. Anybody have something they want to share?

Will you turn on the mic?

Hang on.

Got it?

Got it. Is there a crayon up there for you to sign in, Derek? Oh, you got one. Okay, good.

Good evening. Happy 4th. Derek Brown, Libby Street. I'm bringing to attention of the board members a letter that was read by Mr. Deshaies on June 17th at the beginning of the meeting that was a comment where I was named specifically in a DES request I had made for testing. I want to make sure that all of that is clarified here. Also, I asked for testing on the first week in June from DES because last winter when we were having our challenges with the pipe, I was told specifically from DES, come to us first next time, not second, because it creates a lot of confusion if you come after the fact. So that's what I did. It went a different way. So be it. I asked the select board to do dye testing during the June 3rd meeting that I suggested that might be a good idea because of the high water level. I don't think anything was done.

So let's go back.

January 7th, Steve Randall had a meeting For two hours with DES, yes, I will admit, I was the instigator of that meeting with Rob Scott, the commissioner of the DES, to set that up because we need to do things different. Mr. Randall commented at that meeting, effective today, things would change on how we dealt with stormwater. That has not changed. Then we get to the promises made during the winter that that pipe at the town docks coming from the restaurant would be dug up once the frost came out of the ground. That did not happen. So I question, there was a pump, no sump pump, back and forth. This went on for several months. Mike went dead. You're good. Okay. Okay. Is that better? Great, thank you. Okay. Obviously, if the water was not a problem, why did they have to redirect that sump pump drain to the sewer system? Good question. I don't have an answer, just a question. Going back to the summer of 2022, The town of Wolfboro received a warrant article request for a million dollars for sewer line extensions, all based on E. coli testing, primarily at Jockey Cove, which was going to cause significant financial hardship and changes to the people along Cary Beach, that it was necessary because of E. coli. 30 plus users was to be the base design. Only about six are hooked up, which leads to its inefficiency, according to the people at DES. I'm not here to say that's fact. I'm here to say what I've been told. But we do know there's been multiple failures on that line. We do know engineering oversight by the previous town manager was passed, even though the budget was for it, of $260,000. It was passed over.

Derek, you're at your time.

Wrap it up. I'm almost done. Thank you very much. Lastly, the town docks and the parking lot's been flooding. There's brown residue. leaving behind in that water, I suggest testing be done. None of this stuff has been done. It leads me to say, you know, there's more concealment going on here than transparency. I'd like to see something change.

Thank you. Anybody else? Three minutes.

Good evening, Bob Shiloh with the Abenaki Water Ski Club. Just coming up to bring up a concern that I had about a last meeting that we had about the trailer that we wanted to bring into the area down on Glendon Street Park lot. And the concern that we heard was that the trailer being there for a month would be a distraction and certainly in the way in front of everybody. We went away from that meeting thinking, all right, if we can reduce that amount of time on site, that might be beneficial. And I think, Brian, that you made an amendment to the motion that if it couldn't be done on the right side over by the bleachers, the trailer couldn't be done there, that it should be considered for the place that we desire. So we have not brought the trailer in. The trailer hasn't been there for the month. It won't be delivered until the 6th of July and would like to put it at the place that we originally requested. That would alleviate cutting and digging up the path to get over to the bleachers. It would alleviate any mess with the grass over there. And it would further... enhance our ability to run power which I've reviewed with municipal electric over there from the current switchboard and we wouldn't have this long 100 amp wire cutting across the path cutting underneath the path and conduit and everything like that it would be a much shorter much safer run And also, we did find that the fidelity of the cameras, we're going to have to run cable from the cameras, a fidelity line, is going to be lost over that much distance. And so if we get the trailer set to the right side of the path, over in the field, and then we find out it doesn't work, we're going to be in a pickle. So I would just like to bring that to your attention and hope we're trying to cooperate, and we just wanted to see if that would be feasible. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Anybody else?

Good evening. Susan Bunting, Wolfboro resident. I just want to let you all know that the Ladies of the Lake Quilters Guild is holding a charity golf tournament at the Kingswood Golf Club, and I want to thank everybody at the Kingswood Golf Club for being incredibly helpful to us. And there's a tremendous website that their director of public relations created for us. And the past president has been incredible in helping us do this. So we hope you all will participate. We hope the whole community will participate. And 100% of the, not the proceeds, but 100% of the profit will go to the renovation of the community center. And if you scan this code, you can get onto the website. There are all kinds of sponsorships, from very good platinum to not-so-expensive tea sponsors, $10,000 hole-in-one prize, a lot of good times. It's going to be fun, and I hope you all participate.

Thanks, Sue. Could you sign in while you're up here? Is there a crayon for you here? You can borrow mine. Anybody else? Ms. Budman? You know what? You're right. Leave it for Bobby. Go ahead. Oh, she brought her own. All right. Thank you, sir. All right.

Hi, Bobbie Budman, budget committee member. We still have not received any updates as a budget committee for where we're standing right now with our finances. We were promised numbers. We have not gotten any, and we're on July 1st, and we haven't seen anything from this year. We're halfway through the year.

Have you checked your email?

Yeah, every day. When did you send it?

You might want to check them. They were sent today, and they're downstairs for all members.

Okay. Today. Thanks.

You're welcome. And thank you. Okay. Anything else, Bobby? You're good. Okay. I don't see anybody else. Okay. Let's move on. We're going to have some public hearings. The first is concerning unanticipated funds. The Wolfborough Select Board is going to hold a public hearing on Wednesday, July 1st at 6 p.m. at the Great Hall, 84 South Main Street, Wolfborough, New Hampshire, for the acceptance of unanticipated funds for an amount donated that is under $10,000 in accordance with RSA 31-95-B3, bracket A. Relative to the donation in the amount of $5,000 from the Yankee Peddler Real Estate, exclusive for the repairs of the old Firehouse Community Center located at 32 Lehner Street in Wolfboro. I'm going to open the public hearing for anybody who wants to speak to this. We'll close the public hearing. Board members?

I want to say thank you.

I'll say thank you, too. Thank you. That was signed in blood, right? Any conversation beyond that? We're good. Let's get a motion, please.

So I make a motion to accept the donation in $5,000 from Yankee Peddler Real Estate Exclusive for the Repairs of the Old Firehouse Community Center located at 32 Leonard Street.

Second. Second. I have a motion and a second from Mr. Senecal. Any conversation, board members? All those in favor, aye. Aye. Unanimous. Thank you very much, Yankee Peddler. Okay, the next public hearing is the Wolfboro Select Board will hold a public hearing on Wednesday, July 1st, 2026 at 6 p.m. at the Great Hall, 84 South Main Street, Wolfboro, New Hampshire, for the acceptance of unanticipated funds for an amount donated that is under $10,000 in accordance with RSA 31-95B3, bracket A, relative to an additional donation in the amount of $2,000 from the Abenaki Water Ski Club for the donation of a dock in Back Bay. Anybody would like to get up and speak to that? I bet you do. Have you already signed in once? I have. You don't have to sign in again.

Bob Shiloh again for the Abenaki Water Ski Club. The additional $2,000 was because the original estimate of $3,000 for the decking was apparently insufficient, and a new estimate came through, and so we had to provide an additional $2,000 to the dock company. So that brings that to a total of five thousand dollars and the dock itself under a separate Donation through the sponsorship of this ski event that we're having was nine nine thousand nine hundred fifty dollars So the event is doing pretty well for the town and hopefully it will be appreciated and enjoyed Thank You Bob open up a public hearing if anybody wants to have a comment about this Hearing that I'll close the public hearing board members Linda

Yes, is this a time for us to talk about that trailer? Since it is under the water ski club and it's all part of the same event, it seems to be that by moving it and putting in that spot, we've gotten past the 4th of July, which was my issue. They're talking about having it there, I think it is for eight days. And it seems like that makes more sense than dinging up the bridge, our trail going into Foss Field.

And I agree. We're having a board and the public that is cooperating and working together to make it so that everybody benefits. That's a great thing.

So I was in at the meeting, and I didn't watch it on TV, thankfully. So I don't know what you all discussed. So I heard that you want to move it closer, less time involved. We don't want to be trenching, those kinds of items. So board members, I don't know what you moved to do. So why don't you un-move it and then come up with a new

Well, I don't think we have to un-motion. I think we can just re-motion. I agree with Brian.

We can re-motion. So what's your re-motion then, Brian?

My motion would be to move the trailer to the right side of the park where originally, left side? Left side of the park where originally proposed by the Abenaki Water Ski Club from July 6th to July 14th. Correct.

I'll second that. That's it? That's all you need to do?

Yep.

Any conversation, board members? I'll call the question. All those in favor of relocating the trailer to its original thing, say aye.

Aye.

Aye. We're good. I'll even say aye, even though I wasn't here the first time. Thank you, sir. Okay, next one. We have to get a motion to approve the $2,000 from the water ski club.

So moved. Second.

Any conversation? All those in favor, aye.

Aye.

That makes Sebastian feel better, because sometimes we blow right through these things. We don't get the motion, and then we have to come back and redo stuff. Okay, the next one is a community development block grant project. The Wolfboro Select Board will hold a public hearing on Wednesday, July 1st at 6 p.m. in the Great Town Hall at 84 South Main Street, Wolfboro, New Hampshire. Community development block grant funds are available to municipalities through the New Hampshire Community Development Finance Authority. Up to $750,000 annually is available on a competitive basis for public facility projects, up to $750,000 for housing projects, up to $500,000 for economic development projects, and up to $350,000 annually is available for emergency activities. Up to $25,000 is available per planning study, all projects must preliminarily benefit low- and moderate-income persons. The public hearing will be on the proposed application of the New Hampshire Community Development Finance Authority for up to $750,000 in CDBG housing grant funds. Of the grant funds, up to $35,000 will be retained for administrative and procurement and labor compliance costs, and the remainder will be subgranted to the Lakes Region Community Developers, bracket LRCD, or a related entity towards the cost of replacement of approximately 18 boilers, repair water damage that caused the subfloor rot of three kitchens, and build small mail houses at Harriman Hill 1 and Harriman Hill 2 on Beck Drive. The anti-displacement and relocation assistance plan for Harriman Hill improvement projects, no displacement or relocation as anticipated. Item three, the housing and community development plan is available here. Anybody want to come and speak to that? Come on up. You have to sign in. I will. Thank you.

Hi, Donna Lane, CBG consultant. A little too short for this. There you go. OK. I want to say firstly that there are handouts available over there. And so these are three public hearings. So if we can open and close three consecutive public hearings. And I do want to add to what you said, which was lovely. The project informs with proposed housing and community development plans goal of encourage a varied stock of safe, sanitary, decent, and affordable housing for persons of all age and income groups. So the first public hearing is about the proposed project, about applying for up to $750,000 for Harriman Hill 1 and 2 for those improvements. Does the board have any questions?

Board members, any questions?

I do.

Mr. Thurston.

So on that line, it says all projects must primarily benefit low and moderate income persons. Is there any way we can add from Wolfboro next to that?

Well, these are all tenants anyway.

So actually, I was listening to a radio show, and they were in Laconia, and they were promoting it to Laconia people. So when I heard that, then I was like, well, maybe it would be better. for our community if it was for Wolfboro people.

So you're talking about Wolfboro 3. We're talking about Wolfboro, I mean, we're talking about Harriman Hill 3. We're talking about Harriman Hill 1 and 2. Harriman Hill 3, we had a public hearing on a couple weeks ago. Can you, Caitlin, you cannot.

Yes, please.

Caitlin's from Lakes Region Community Developers. Yes. We have rules here.

Caitlin Meaney from Lakes Region Community Developers. I'm their asset management director. So this application is for Harriman Hill one and two. They were built 14 and 12 years ago. Both are occupied by current Wolfborough residents. So the ad you heard was for Harriman Hill 3. That's 30 units of new construction. So we're trying to fill those units, and we advertise all over the Lakes region. Per fair housing, we're not allowed to only fill those units with certain towns or populations.

Mr. Deshaies? So I think the explanation that I got one time is one and two were also open to citizens from everywhere, but once they live there, they're now Wolfport residents, so the grant is now for Wolfport residents. Correct. Three is the same thing. When you're getting funding from state, federal sources, everything, you have to make it available to anybody who meets the criteria.

Correct.

Okay.

Any rebuttal, John? Question? Further question? No? Just thought I'd ask. No, you just thought I'd ask.

And we are advertising locally at local businesses and different places.

So the question before the board and your explanation is what John's referencing from what he heard on the radio is not pertaining to what we're doing here. Okay. So anybody want to address or Linda, do you have a question about this?

Well, my understanding is we're only having right now a public hearing on number one.

Right.

Am I correct? I just want to make sure the public understands that that's the first part of our three, and this is the one we're talking about at this time. Yep. Okay.

And public hearing number one is the application for up to $750,000 in CBTG. Okay. Yep. Okay. You've done your explanation. I'm going to open this up at public hearing. Anybody want to come up to the microphone and ask a question, make a comment? Hearing none, I'll close the public hearing.

Do you need a motion?

Board members, any comments before we have a motion? All right, Brian, make your motion.

So move to approve the proposed application to the New Hampshire Community Development Finance Authority for up to $750,000 in CDBG housing grant funds. Of the grant funds, up to $35,000 will be retained for administrative and procurement and labor compliance costs and the remainder will be subgranted to Lakes Region Community Developers, LRCD or a related entity toward the cost of replacement of approximately 18 boilers, repair water damage that caused subfloor rot in three kitchens and build small mail houses at Harriman Hill 1 and Harriman Hill 2 on Beck Drive in Wolfboro. I'll second.

I have a motion and a second. Any further conversation?

So would the planning board have to look at those mail houses?

I'm sorry, John, I didn't hear you.

Would the planning board have to consider those mail houses as a site plan?

I don't know the answer to that. Does this have to go to planning board? I don't think these mail houses, I'm not sure they have to go for site plan review, do they?

Well, it would have to be reviewed by the planner in order to do those.

Did you guys have to go to, have you gone up to the planning board at all?

We'd be happy to, but as I interpreted it, they wouldn't be big enough to reach the square footage required under your guys' guidelines. They're very small. They just need to be little roofs over the mailboxes that are out there.

And we'll follow up with that, but when I visited, this was last spring, I think it was last spring or go, a spring back, You and I showed up at the wrong place a week early. That's a different discussion. The mailbox houses, these were just shroud covers over the mailboxes to prevent water.

Yeah, well, I didn't know what they were saying.

Yeah, yeah, okay.

No, that's fair. I've seen mailbox houses that are like Mountain West, that are 10 feet long.

Fair question. We'll do it. But I have a motion on the table, and I have a second. There was a question about that, which I think we can look at. All those in favor of the motion, aye? Aye. All right, we're good. Thank you very much for that. Okay, the next is our bulk vote.

We got two more public hearings.

Yeah, two more. The anti-displacement and relocation assistance plan.

I'm sorry about that.

I have two more public hearings. The second public hearing is the anti-displacement and relocation assistance plan for Harriman Hill Improvement Projects. No displacement or relocation is anticipated. Would you like to step up and tell us what that's all about? I apologize for that.

Thank you. So we always have to adopt the anti-displacement and relocation assistance plan every time you ask for CDBG funds because it's project specific. So again, I have to read to you. This plan outlines measures under the Uniform Relocation Act required for CDBG projects that involve any displacement or relocation of persons or businesses. If the town were to undertake a CDBG project, and that's the important comment there, CDBG project, which involved displacement or relocation, they would follow this plan. The plan outlines the measures they would take to find comparable suitable housing for persons or businesses displaced or relocated. Project does not anticipate displacement or relocation as the improvements are primarily to the boilers and Basically the three balconies and kitchen floors can be done with the tenants living there.

Thank you very much for the further explanation I'm gonna open the public hearing on this anybody want to come up ask a question make a comment Hearing none I'll close it board members Would you like a motion

Move to approve the anti-displacement relocation assistance plan for Harriman Hill improvements project. No displacement or relocation is anticipated.

I have a motion. Second. I have a second from Ms. Murray. Conversation? All those in favor, aye, please. Aye. Unanimous. We have a third public hearing. And this is the Housing and Community Development Plan. Would you like to come on up and talk to us about that? You'd love to.

I like the trolls, though. Can I take one of these? Of course you can. I'm distracted here.

And I think they want your checkbook too, right?

Going to what? Oh, okay. Probably not very good.

Number three.

A housing community development plan is required to be eligible to apply for CDBG funds. The proposed housing community development plan identifies needs which currently exist or are anticipated during the next three years. The plan provides a basis for guiding the town's housing community development objectives and actions. In addition, the proposed plan includes a CDBG citizen participation plan that details the CDBG requirements for the public hearings. So this is the same housing community development plan as you had in 2023. It just can't be more than three years old, so we're doing it again. Polls are all the same. Encourage a varied stock of safe, sanitary, decent affordable housing for persons of all age and income groups encourage economic development activities to increase quality industrial and commercial development encourage the expansion and retention of employment opportunities for residents encourage municipal and private water wastewater systems that are safe sanitary meet des regulations preserve and promote the town's historically and culturally significant structures promote activities that protect the health and safety of residents and visitors and promote adequate health, social service, recreational, social interactive services and opportunities for residents and visitors. Council have any questions on that? So again, we're re-adopting the same plan that you adopted three years ago with no changes.

So when we get to that point, I'm gonna say move to approve what she said.

And I'm going to interrupt. I know you're going to ask for public comment, but on the very first motion, it was supposed to also say authorize the town manager to sign and execute any documents. So can we make a separate motion for that after this one?

Thank you. We'll do that right at the end. How's that? I'm going to open up the public hearing on item number three. Hearing no comments, I'll close the public hearing. Board members? Can I get a motion?

So move to approve the housing and community development plan, as she said.

I'll second that.

Okay, I have a motion and a second. All those in favor, aye, please. Aye. We have an aye. And now we have to get a motion to authorize the town manager to come on up here and read it, and I'll just say what you said. Authorize the town manager.

Okay. I'm just going to give you the wording. To sign and submit the CDBG application, and upon approval of the CDBG application, authorize the town manager to execute any documents which may be necessary to effectuate the CDBG contract and any amendments thereto. It's under voting. It's under this voting so that I know I just said a lot.

I understand. We have a motion read into the record by a member of the public. Is there any objection of the board by taking that as a motion?

Nope.

There's no objection. So I have a motion read into the record by a member of the public. Can I get a second on that?

Second.

Okay, conversation. Linda, you had your finger up.

Nope, I was just going to second.

Okay, so John, you actually have a motion, we have a second. Let's do another second on that so it's like a third. Linda, you're... I'll third it. She's thirded it.

Okay, so there we go.

All those in favor of this say aye. Aye. Okay, Barry, you're empowered to do things here. OK, next is our bulk vote. I'll read this. It's a little bit lengthy, so bear with me. And there is, in the bulk vote, a couple of items that came to us. They just came to us. A blend of writings brought them to us. Let me read the bulk vote first. The first thing we have is weekly manifest. Our weekly manifest has not changed from the original agenda. June 19th's weekly manifest is $187,799.57. The June 26th manifest is $4,162,552.67. Our temporary event permits, we're to consider a temporary event permit for the American Legion Harriman Hale Post 18 and Goodview Boat Company to host a concert In Cape Park on July 3rd, 2026, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. No permit number was assigned. Permit 2026-50. Property tax refunds and abatements. This is where it gets a little lengthy, so please bear with me. 119 Clark Road, number 25. 119 Clark Road, 2025, number 17. Tax map 243, lot 10 for $70.55. 175 Springfield Point Road, 2025, number 28, tax map 259, lot 24, for $487.06. 630 South Main Street, 2025, number 48, tax map 260, lot 69, for $1,136.34. This was an adder to you. The next one was an adder. 628 South Main Street, number 48, Continued. Tax map 260, lot 66 for $3,626.98. 640 South Main Street, number 48. Continued. Tax map 260, lot 10 for $1,126.99. 53 Camp School Road, number 2025, number 49. Tax map 252, lot 52 for $789.42. 115 Piper Lane, 2025, number 54, tax map 158, lot 25 for $0. Amly Way, number 2025, number 78, tax map 251, lot 26 for $1,430.53. 3 Mountain West Drive, 2025, number 78, continued tax map. 252 lot one for nine hundred and eighty eight dollars and nine cents Mountain West Drive 2025 number 78 continued tax map 252 lot two two fifty six dollars and forty seven cents three Mountain West Drive number two two zero two five number 78 continued tax map 252 lot three for eight hundred and eighty two dollars and eighty four cents and The next one is 538 Pleasant Valley Road, 2025, number 88, tax map 236, lot 4, for $194.44. The next map is C, Wolfboro Market, P, 2025, number 95, tax map 217, lot 33, C4, for $1,353.61. The next is 259 Camp School Road, 2025, number 98, Tax map 262, lot 4 for $499.28. The next is 234, North Main Street, number 2025. Number 100, tax map 202, lot 24, $132.71. The next is 76, Rusty Lane, 2025, number 103. Tax map 268, lot 24, $0. The next is 371 Sewell Road, 2025, 110, tax map 241, lot 70 for $65. And 31 cents. The next is 78 Leafy Hill Lane, 2025, number 111. Tax map 186, lot 13, $8,201.80. The next is 5 Storytelling Rock Road, 2025, number 113, tax map 214, lot 10. And the next is 5 Storytelling Rock Road, 2025, 114, tax map 214, lot 10. for $1,423.07. The next is our intent to cut. We have an intent to cut on 19 Blackberry Lane, tax map 58, lot 3, for $1,533.59. The next is 246 Haines Hill Road, tax map 57, lot 10, for $168.32. Board members, that is the bulk vote. Can I get a motion on A through D, please? So moved.

Second.

I have a motion and a second on the bulk vote A through D. Any comments? All those in favor, aye. Aye. One thing we need to do, and I think we agreed that we would take the temporary event permits and we'd kind of pull them out, stick them out on their own.

But we have to pass our rules of procedure. That's why they keep it.

Well, you're on the hook to help us get that.

That's in here today. That's right. If we do it, we're ready to go.

So we've got to get that in rules of procedure. What we're going to do is we're going to pull out special event permits so they get sunshine. But we don't, you know, they just get sunshine. The next is board committee appointments. We have two situations here. Edie Damaris. who has been a trustee of the Josiah Brown trustees, has told us that it's time for her to submit her resignation. And board members, we're, at least I personally spent some time with Edie a while ago and haven't in the recent past, but a while back, I found, always found her to be just one hell of a nice person and a real interested person in the community. Linda.

Yeah, she was one of the original trustees when we took it over from Caled, Jim Caled's office, and she worked with Tom Roberts and Kurt DeValder to get that straightened out, to get the trust moved up here, and for us to start being able to pay scholarship to local students. So we really owe her, I believe, a thank you note from the board. I think so. She put a lot of time in and has been very dedicated to this scholarship fund.

And I personally ran into Edie when she was a member of the general court, if that's the right way you call it in the state of New Hampshire. And we were just starting out COVID. We didn't have much broadband going on in the town and we needed some help. And she was front and center helping us out. So I appreciate it. So board members, Linda. Would you like a motion? I was going to say, Linda, we need to get a motion here.

I'll make a motion to accept the resignation of E. Dumaris from the trustees of the Josiah Brown Fund with a huge thank you.

And a letter to follow. And a letter to follow. I have a motion. Second. I have a motion and a second. All those in favor, aye. Aye. Okay, we're good. Second action is Ms. Emily Hastings has been nominated and recommended for appointment as a trustee for the Josiah Brown trustees. That recommended appointment will go to the Charitable Trust Unit as well as an FYI. Any conversation, board members, before we take a motion? Can I get a motion, please?

I'll make a motion to appoint Emily Hastings to the Josiah Brown Trust. With this recommendation, we'll go to the charitable unit, trust unit.

Second. I have a motion and a second. Any conversation? All those in favor, aye. Aye. Okay. We have new business. Okay, so the next is a discussion. No decision, but a discussion. tonight about the troll keepers, the Wolf Row troll keepers, to install a troll sculpture on town property. Okay? Miss Dragonfly is going to sign in. Begg's going to sign in. There's going to be a short slide presentation. We have budgeted 30 minutes for this, so let's keep it to the 30 minutes. We're not making any decisions, but this is an opportunity for all of you to see what these folks have in mind. Okay, with that.

You need the pen.

Sue Bunting stole the pen. There you go, thank you.

You all set? Ah, it works. I think so. Good evening. Thank you so much for having us here tonight to speak. We're very excited. I personally am a troll lover. I have seen 40 trolls around the world. I've seen five in Australia, and the rest here in the United States. So we are calling ourselves the Wolfboro Troll Keepers. And we have a board of five. Kathy Dragonfly and I are the co-chairs. Kevin Madden, Justin Brown, and Chris Tibbetts are our other three board members. We are excited to be here and to tell you more about us. You can see that we have with us Thomas Dambo and Justin, who are the two key people who are involved in this project with us. Thomas Dambo is a very famous Copenhagen, Denmark artist. and he builds huge art installations, and he came in April and talked with us. And this is a picture of us where we met with about 50 people up at Abernagy. Why we are here? Our goal, we have four key goals that we want to meet tonight. First of all, we want to present our project. We found out there's a lot of people who have never seen a troll. That's hard for me to understand, but I realize that's a reality. We also want to share our journey to date. We've made a lot of progress, reached out to a lot of people, and hopefully learned a lot along the way. So we want to share that journey. We want to discuss what we see as community benefits. We all love this town very much and only want to improve it. And we want to request of you the opportunity to display the sculpture on town-owned land. So who is Thomas Dambo? As I mentioned, he's an artist from Copenhagen, Denmark. He's a creator of 210 giant trolls around the world. They are sculptures that he makes from unclaimed and recycled wood. The projects are located in North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and there's one in Puerto Rico, too. He focuses on creativity, recycling, and connecting people with nature. He has done 79 so far in the United States. He's done them in 20 states, but not one in New Hampshire. His goal is to have one in all 50 states, and as I said, he already has one in Puerto Rico. These are some of the notable media presentations that have been put on throughout the world about Thomas Dambo. My favorite show, Sunday Morning. He's been on Sunday Morning, he's been on 60 Minutes, he's been on ABC, NBC, a number of TV channels and shows talking about his trolls and what they value. He's also been featured in Time Magazine. Why would we want to troll in Wolfboro? One of the things we believe strongly about this town is it has an outdoor heritage. It loves the outdoors and all the things that go with it. It has natural beauty and recreational resources. And it has a strong community appreciation for the arts, for its history, and for environmental stewardship. It's an ideal setting for a nature-based art installation. We also are known as the region of firsts. As you can see, Wolf Boyle was the oldest summer resort in America. New Hampshire should have the oldest New Hampshire troll in America. Thomas' goal is to have one troll in all 50 states, as he said. He's done it in 20, but not yet in New Hampshire. He's got them in Maine and Rhode Island. So we make a perfect middle stop for people doing all three of the New England stops. So first of all, what is an art institution? Installation.

Every time I practice this, I've said institution.

A Thomas Dambo troll is a three-dimensional sculpture designed to uniquely transform a part of an area into a magical space. And believe me, it does. When you walk out of the woods, when you drive up the hill and you see it, you go, oh my god. When viewers approach a troll, they become an active participant in that unified sensory experience. The description of our proposed troll is approximately 30 feet tall and it holds something in its hand. We don't release the complete description because part of that is the unveiling. They just had a huge one in Iowa where four trolls were unveiled and they didn't let the news out until that day. It's constructed primarily from reclaimed and locally sourced materials, and we've reached out to a number of businesses and houses in this area where we could find material. It's designed to encourage exploration, creativity, learning, and outdoor recreation. Our progress today, we have formed the Wolf World Trove Keepers. We've developed a mission statement, which I'll read you in a minute. We've retained legal counsel. We've been approved as an official nonprofit by the state of New Hampshire. And we have sent in all our paperwork for our 501c3 nonprofit application with the IRS. Oh, did I go the wrong way? So here is our document from the state of New Hampshire that we are approved as a nonprofit. And here's our mission statement. In partnership with Thomas Danbow and the Lakes Region community, our mission is to bring to life a large-scale imaginative sculpture created from reclaimed and locally sourced materials. Through this collaborative effort, we aim to inspire environmental stewardship, engagement, exciting process, and promote sustainability while encouraging meaningful connection with the natural world. One of the things that I have to share with you is I was in North Carolina and a little girl about three years old was with her grandmother and she comes up to the troll and she goes, it's so big and her eyes were so big and she goes, I wonder what its name is and she started asking her grandmother all these questions and it just showed me how imaginative, creative and exciting these creatures can be. We've already reached out to a number of community resources. We've talked to clubs and organizations, some of them here with us tonight. We've talked with the youth, Kingswood Youth, and with the Boy Scouts, with the Rotary Club, with the Lions Club. We've talked with Education and Learning. I've been an educator for 46 years, and we reached out immediately to the educational departments here and talked about curriculum we could develop, ways we could involve students, ways we could involve teachers. We've talked with Brewster in terms of ways they can use their volunteer hours. We've talked to the Wolfboro Library about how we can create interesting literary and creative writing opportunities, and the Wolfboro Area Children's Center in terms of how they would like to be involved. We've talked to other businesses that may have materials and supplies for us, from Maker's Mill and Headbook Construction and the High School Technology Center. Outdoor and Recreation, we've talked to the Recreation Department, the Cross Country Ski Club, the Cotton Valley Rail Trail, Active Outdoors Adults, and we've had businesses and other individuals who have strongly supported us, from North Main Cafe, Lucas Coffee, Morrissey's, Vic and Nate Druin, and Peter Ford. And these are just a few. We've had a number of other conversations, including with the Chamber and all the businesses associated with the Chamber. We've also made outreach to a number of like communities in the country that have had trolls. Victor, Colorado has 300 people and they have a troll. Breckenridge, much bigger, they have a troll. Just talked with him again today. Three places in the state of Washington, all three small communities that have nobody in the winter and thousands in the summer. So they can share a lot of what our story would be. Michigan, Rhode Island, and North Carolina. We talked about the impact and the experience that visitors have had. They talk about the tourism impact, it's greatly increased overnight stays, it's increased businesses in terms of restaurants, gasoline, everything you can think of in terms of that.

It's also increased

maintenance practices. They've come up with ways to make sure they support and maintain their trolls. Ways they've included the community. The secretary at Brackburg in Washington has visited her trolls 300 times. With every visitor that comes to town, she has to go. And her grandkids have gone 14 times. So every time they come to visit, let's go see the troll. And we also talked to them about the long-term benefits. Some of them have had their trolls for 10 years. Some have only had them for a year and a half. So we learned a lot about that. Here's what we see as the benefits to Wolfboro. It creates a unique destination for both residents and visitors. I have to tell you, my husband and I went to Minnesota, and there were about 30 of us standing around one of my favorite trolls. And we started talking about where we lived and why we got interested in trolls and what we thought about this particular troll. 40 minutes later, we found two of the same groups at the restaurant where we were eating. We started chatting with them and together with them for dessert. It really created a wonderful way to learn more about people. It encourages outdoor recreation and exploration. It provides educational opportunities for children and families. I could go on and on with ways we can connect. It inspires imagination and also community pride. When I tell friends in Florida or in Colorado that we're looking to get a Troll and Wolf Bowl, they go, you're so lucky. You should be so happy about that. I said, I am. And it offers a gathering place that brings people together. Economically, it will increase year-round tourism that in turn supports local businesses, restaurants, and lodging. By year-long, people will come in summer, winter, fall, and spring. There are a whole bunch of pictures on Facebook pages of people who try to see them in all four seasons. So they may come in June, they may come in October, they may come in January, and they may come back in May. So they like to see them a number of times. generates regional, national, and international attention. And it strengthens Wolfboro's reputation as a destination and a creative community. It also demonstrates the value of recycling, repurpose, and reusing for young and old. It encourages appreciation of nature and conservation, promotes environmental stewardship, and educational programming focused on sustainability. It creates a lasting community asset, builds a project future generations can enjoy, and reinforces workforce identity as a town that values nature, creativity, and community. But here's the things that are not involved. It's no long-term taxpayer maintenance burden. Wolfboro Troll Keepers is committed to establishing a long-term stewardship and maintenance program. The organization will develop volunteer and funding resources dedicated to preserving the installation. It's being built through community partnerships, volunteer participation, private donations, and nonprofit leadership. Our goal is to create a lasting public asset, minimizing demands on municipal resources. This does not require any town funding. Wolf World Trailkeepers will be responsible for fundraising and securing project funding. Although I have to tell you, of those towns I listed, four of those towns, their Chamber of Commerce was so excited about it and realized the impact that they took over the entire fundraising campaign. We're not expecting that, but it was good to hear. We are not requesting taxpayer funding for construction of the installation. No town construction obligation or labor. Be volunteer labor along with the labor that we'll be getting from Thomas' team. The troll will be designed and constructed by Tom's team, volunteers, community partners, and project supporters. That alone will bring people into town, volunteers as far away as Germany came to help out in Rhode Island when they built their trolls. So it's a huge want by some people. Why do we want to do this now? Well, Thomas Dambo visited us in April, and approximately, as we said, 50 community members showed up, and it was an enthusiastic gathering. His vision is often to bring beautiful things to maybe a less attractive place. Thomas said, you have a lake that's gorgeous in itself. It doesn't need anything. But you've got some other places that may not be quite as beautiful. He loved the convergence of the wastewater treatment facility, the fact that biking, skiing, and walking trails all go from there. There's parking for the elderly, the disabled, and the young. So it makes it easily accessible. Over the past several months, the Tollkeepers have established its organizational structure, its partnerships, research best practices, and begun building the framework. We have moved beyond the concept stage and are now at the point where the planning, fundraising, and project implementation requires clarity for location and municipal partnership. Here's our planning department approval that we've already gotten. Here's the aerial view of our proposed site. So our request for the town, we are asking permission to place the troll installation on town-owned land. We talked to a number of places that have private land and public land. Without a doubt, almost everybody says town land is the best, and it's a partnership. You don't have people dying off and giving it away, that you should work with your town in any way you can. Collaboration on site planning and long-term stewardship. Site considerations. We think it will have the minimal impact to downtown traffic patterns. It's going to have no impact on downtown parking except if they come to the restaurants. Easy accessibility for elderly and disabled, and I want to add children. You have three-year-olds that are not going to hike three miles to get somewhere. Environmentally protected area for bikers, skiers, hikers. Can be accessed from both Abenaki Lodge at Pop Whalen. Three of the trolls are on ski mountains. And people can hike up to it, or coming in from Filterbed, they can drive to it. And it is walkable from downtown. So our next steps. It's to launch our fundraising campaign, but we can't do that without knowing where it's going to be. Continue our community outreach, develop curriculum with the schools, explore partnerships with village players. Two towns, their local theater wrote a play about their troll and put it on. And knowing our village players and how creative they are, I can see them doing the same thing. Finalize our project timeline, begin the collection of reclaimed lumber and materials to store them, expand our volunteer recruitment, advance our planning with Thomas Dambo, secure maintenance and stewardship program, and hope that the project is installed in late summer, early fall of 2027. So we need your support. Please support the use of town property for autonomous dam patrol. Anybody have any questions?

Board members.

I think the presentation gave us a lot of information. So I'm willing to think and look at what you have presented to us today.

I'm thinking. So I think that what we need, part of what we need, and I think we can get this quickly, is a blessing from the Woodward and Curran who runs our wastewater treatment plant. So I think we need a blessing from them. I think we need a blessing from our DPW, the head of DPW. Which I know, I think the board needs to get something in writing from him so that we understand. So that would be two things. So Woodward and Curran is important because they run that whole facility there. And we have to make sure that they still, when the parking lot's packed, are they gonna have accessibility to get in and out and get where they need to. So we have to make sure that that's important because that is our wastewater treatment area. I think that I met Thomas Dambo and I went to your meeting. I think that this board should have a Zoom meeting with him as soon as possible in the short term instead of far out. I think it would be advantageous for us to all sit talk to him one-on-one in a Zoom meeting. I think that would go a long way. I was a little concerned about the wastewater treatment area But he seemed to like the area, and I think that I want to hear more from him direct as to why he likes that area. I mean, I was thinking of Taylor Community has a lot. They might let us use a section, and they're a non-profit group. There's the old lot where the Excelsior Mill was and everything that is land that can probably never be developed because it's got ledge and old factory foundations on it but that's privately owned I understand that those are two nice areas where you'd have a troll overlooking Back Bay which would be and right along the walking path would be fantastic but I want to get the information straight from Thomas Dambo

Let me say one thing about the walking path. That was initially an idea I thought, oh, it'd be so much fun. You don't want 200 people come walking down the path when you've got the ladies that go out every morning at 7.15. It's too close to town, so they'd have to park somewhere. We don't have a lot of parking in town. as we well know um we also would have a crowded path that would upset the purpose and the current use of that path so in looking for a location we were looking to make sure we had parking which was not in the town i mean you can't get through town half the days anyhow we wanted to provide different options as to how to get to the location so it doesn't end up with a traffic jam. We wanted it to have more than one way to get to it, which it does with the Abenaki hiking for those that want to do that or drive up for those who either can't or don't want to. We want it to be an open enough space so that people can really marvel at the troll. I have to tell you, I drove up the other day, and as soon as I took that, as I started up the hill, I went, oh my God, you'd be able to see it right about now. So people are going to start getting excited. Look, there it is, there it is. So it's got a lot of attraction to pull it up there. I would love to have Thomas be able to talk to everybody. This guy is so busy. He is in the process of doing about 15 troll installations in the next year here in the United States. He didn't come here for free. We put in some money to have him come. That would be involved again. So, yeah, to get him here on his schedule. So we are currently on his schedule for late summer, early fall in 2027. So is New York. So is Illinois. There's a number of states that are on his calendar for that. If we drop off or slow up for any minute, we're going to get crowded out again and be pushed back. So that's why we tried to come two weeks ago. We're trying, once we got everything that we needed to do, we felt in place to be confident in what we were coming with. We're trying to move as quickly and as confidently and as thoroughly as we possibly can. We can get an email to him, we can maybe get an email response from him, but even the two of us mainly deal with the secretary. We don't get to talk with him.

After I read this on Monday, I sent an email out to our public works director in our water sewer utility and one of my my question is that that is there a future to develop the site would it interfere with a wastewater treatment plant if we needed a new plant and so I need them to answer that question because we have out with wooden and current right now should we upgrade our old one or whether we do a new one and if we did a new one I need to make sure This doesn't affect that in any way. And it's just us being, doing our due diligence. I, same thing, when we had the bike trails go in, there was issues with DES. I would like to talk to DES before we get out there. The service road for, up from Filterbed Road, is it, able to handle the bus traffic that's going to come, whatever our road system is like, and I need to know that from our public works director. The entranceway to that parking lot is not two-way. I need him to answer. I also ask the question, would we have a lease agreement, a license agreement, or would you purchase the property? What was the mechanism? Because that's part of what you need to know and we need to know. I'm sorry, what was the last? How we would get agreement with you to use it. Are we going to do it as a lease? Are we going to do it as a license agreement? The other issue is whether one of those issues, I have no information. I'd want some better information on that. And then I asked him about some of the parking requirements. And who would in the town take a look at it for safety requirements? And these are me as a selectman asking, and there were four of those questions with sub-questions. I was hoping I'd have an answer tonight. I do not. But doing my due diligence, I think these are questions we all need to have answered as we see if we can go forward here.

Sure.

As far as the ownership... Just your name, please. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm Kathy Dragonfly. I'm Peg's co-chair. As far as the ownership piece of this, Thomas Dambo owns it. He would be licensing it to the Wolfburg Troll Keepers, and much like Picasso, we would loan it to the town. So it would be on town property, and it's on top of that rock, so I don't know how much the wastewater treatment facility could...

I don't want to... Those are questions as I, as a selectman, take a look at that I would like to have answered, and I've come to the point I want my answers in writing. It's too easy.

From our lawyer?

No, I sent this to the public works director. I want those answers in writing, so if you say that, I can say, I wrote, this is what he said, because if we don't, we get confused and we get hearsay. And so I would like things in writing in those responses. Those are my questions.

We don't want to be in a situation with anybody where it was, I thought you told me.

Yes.

You know? I'd just like to ask a rhetorical question. I don't want a show of hands. Has anybody ever seen a troll? I didn't ask for a show of hands, for goodness sakes. My son was married in Boothbay. And so I got to see one of these little critters. And it blew me away. It just absolutely blew me away. So I look at this and I ask myself two questions. Is this something that this town wants to get its head around? unless I hear somebody violently say it's a bad idea, I gotta sense that it's not a bad idea. Unless somebody wants to say it's a bad idea. I'm putting everybody on the spot. But there's two questions, because what you don't want is pocket vetoes. You don't want people going, I really didn't like the idea, I'll just sharpshoot it. The second question though, and I think Linda's exactly right, and I thank her for doing this, we gotta make sure we know where we're gonna put it. And the artist has some gravitas here. Your comment about wanting to put it someplace that... He beautifies. He beautifies. His art makes it better. But then we have this selfish thing about... We've got a treatment facility up there. We've got stuff going on. So we need to understand what we're going to be dealing with. And it's not that we're just making this stuff up, and this whole question about expanding our sewer treatment facility is not like a new idea. Actually, it's the second or third or number one in our work plan. So we owe ourselves some answers. But my question, I guess, to all of us is, so thank you. We have some questions. Where do we, and maybe for the board, where do you want to take this? What do you want to do next for the board? What do you want to do next?

Brian. So barring any unforeseen answers from Woodward and Curran and our DPW, I'm fine with the location. I've been thinking of lots of different places, but I met the artist. The artist walked Abernacky. He drove out on 28. He was all over town. And for some reason, and I couldn't get it, that's the place that he thought was the best place for a troll that he thought, based on its location to downtown, and he knows about the wastewater treatment plant.

So Mr. Deshaies is saying, by any unforeseen circumstances, he feels that that could be a good location.

Yeah, and I would approve. We would have to structure it correctly, but I would approve if it is a, we would need a copy of a license agreement from them to you. Subject to teas and seas. And we would need a copy of some kind of agreement penned with your attorney that it is on loan to us for a specific period of time, that you're going to be managing the maintenance of it, so on and so on. And, yeah.

We call that subject to T's and C's.

And as long as those things fall in place, I have no problem approving the project.

So Brian has his point of view. Anybody else want an abbreviated thought?

Can I add one thing to clarify for Brian? Sure. We spent a lot of time before we had Thomas come to see what town land was available. We looked for solid to private land because... basically it's easier for us we had somebody was going to buy it outright we didn't want to do that we want it to be a town community event so we looked at other spots beforehand We initially looked at Abernacky as a big area. We talked to people about the ski trail that goes up from Abernacky, and they were not happy that people in the winter could walk across their ski trails.

So that's one of the reasons we went to the other end. So you're justifying your reason for justifying your reason for justifying why it is. Board members, anything else you have?

We liked it because it's one of the ones he saw.

We're almost out of time here. Board members? Linda.

Yeah. If we don't need to build a treatment plant there, and if we can, and you will pay for the upgrade of the parking lot and making that there, so all of that will be in your total cost. There'll be nothing to the public. And if we have to do something to the, you're going to include anything to the access roads if we hear that public safety feels we need it. That's all going to be on you. My big issue, and I want everything in writing. I want to see all the documents before I say yes to anything because it's in the details where we get messed up. If there isn't an issue with that piece of land being for our treatment plan, I don't have a problem with the location with all those things taken care of. But I wouldn't vote on it tonight. I don't have the documentation in front of me.

So you've got... Let's just, no, we'll follow up with Woodard and Kern. This is the board.

Wait, can I say something?

The board will do it, yeah.

We have a study being done by Woodard and Kern that is owed to us that will answer that question. So I just want to make that clear. I want that study.

Yeah, and I'm sorry I interrupted you, but what I'm trying to get to here is clarity. I don't want to have multiple people running down the road trying to get things done because that gets goofy. Any other board member issue questions?

I'm thinking about the logistics of people getting there. How many people are you going to get there? What's going to happen down in that area of town? How's traffic going to flow? The people that live on that street. I actually am thinking about different locations. I'd like to conceptualize multiple parcels of land if they're available. I do have serious concerns about the location near the sewer treatment plant. There's no doubt about it. So again, I know what the road is like there, too, in the springtime. It's a mud pie. It's shoveling mud. It is. But this is all new to me. I know you've done a lot of work. I'm not putting it down. I think it's great. I just don't know if that's the right spot.

So we have one other member here, actually two, myself included. But another member, you have any thoughts, Dave?

I think the location, to me, unless, like Linda says, we have a problem with wood and corn.

See, you've got at least an emerging majority that says it might not be a bad location. And I'm kind of there a little bit too, but I kind of share John's concerns about the road and what happens and parking and all that. So my sense is, first things first, let's hear from the public works director. He owes us an answer. We should then take that information and chew on it. And he owes us something. While he's out painting streets and stuff, we asked him to do this. So he owes us an answer. Linda's exactly right that anything we do should be written down on a piece of paper. If it's important, you write it down. If it's not important, just wing it. And we're not going to wing it here because this will mean people and visitors and all that kind of stuff. So first things first is let's hear from the public works director. I don't know what the date's certain is to hear from this gentleman, but we'll hear. And then we'll go from there. We'll keep you posted. Once that happens, I think then what Linda and we all would say is we need to see something akin to a term sheet. You agreed to do this, we agreed to do that. A term sheet. You know, my business world kind of stuff. We agreed to do this, you agreed to do that. And I don't know how we will process that through this board. We could pitch it, and I don't mean pitch it. We could ask one of our committees of economic development or somebody to get their teeth into this thing. Or maybe some of the people that you've put together. So I'll park it here, unless there's any objection from the board, that our next step is to get back to you with some input from Steve Randall. You guys okay with that? He's a good guy.

Barry, do we have an update or any timeline for the Woodwood and Curran report?

Not a specific date, Brian. It's closing.

It's soon. Weeks or months?

I would say weeks. Weeks.

Okay.

Just for clarity, Woodwood and Curran manage the plant. Underwood Engineering is another team of engineering people that have interest in how things get into the plant and out of the plant. And we need to think through the capacity of that plant because it has impacts from what comes into it and what goes out of it. And that could mean expand it, whatever it could be. We have a draft. It's not as if we're just writing an RFP. So I want to thank you for doing this. You kept it within time, which is thank you. We appreciate it. Thank you very much. Okay, action on our part to get something from Steve. Next item on the agenda is the Josiah Brown Scholarship Awards. Barry, I'm gonna send this in your direction.

Yes, I do, thank you. Josiah Brown Scholarship Fund, we had six applicants, much like we did last year. Three returning students, continuing education students, three new students, And much like last year, staff has recommended that all six students receive the scholarship in the amount of $6,000. The fund is healthy. There's over $136,000 in it right now, so that would be our recommendation.

Board members. Thanks, everybody, for coming. Board members.

Linda. To me, the only question is how much do we want to give them per semester? This is the first semester. We have 101,912. If we gave them each 6,000, which we didn't. Previous. Yep. And thinking if they came back, we would give them the same, another 6,000. That would mean that we would give for this coming school year 72,000. which would leave us with about 29,000. We get about 30,000 from them, would leave us about 60,000 for the following year. I was trying to... Do the math. Well, I was trying to go down to five and be able to kind of carry that.

Yeah, because five would carry us to the same amount for four semesters.

If I could add, if you note, the 109 does not include the additional 33 that just went into May, and plus whatever interest went in.

Oh, I thought that included it.

No.

So the balance on May, and then we got the extra 33.

So I think that's why we felt the balance, the trust was healthy.

And just for the benefit of the public, these are scholarships for students that... have a legitimate financial requirement. Okay?

This is a... Yeah, we started years ago, we started using the student FAFSA, which is information that every student has to fill out so that we could make sure that the students that needed these scholarships receive these scholarships.

So in your packet, there is a document from Barry through Amy that there are six applications for the scholarships. Three applications are continuing scholarships. Question for the board is what do you want to do? Linda?

Yeah, I just want to say I'm really excited. We got six. Yeah, we had a scratch last time. We kept on getting three and three, and that's why we had such a buildup. I'm just really pleased that we've got people now knowing this, and we have six. Is that a motion? Yeah. Yes. 6,000.

I have a motion from Ms. Murray to fund the six applicants at $6,000 for their scholarships. Do I have a second?

Second.

I have a motion and a second. Conversation? Anybody? Okay, all those in favor of this, aye. Aye. We good? Unanimous. Okay, thank you. Well deserved. And you're right, Linda. Last time, I think, whenever it was last time, we were. We were thinking hard about it. The next item on our agenda is graffiti on town properties. Linda, this, I think, was your ask.

I asked to have this put on. I have had many people who were concerned with the graffiti on that Witten Neck Bridge, and the question they asked me is, can we get it cleaned up? We also had it on a transformer down by the EV chargers.

Correct.

And so I guess what I was looking for the Board of Selectmen, should we put some kind of a time limit in which we want these things cleaned up? I'm concerned once you start graffiti, you're going to get more graffiti. And this is a bridge that people are here for the summer and they see the graffiti on the bridge. So that's why I put it on. I think it's something that we need to get it cleaned up as soon as possible.

Board members. Anybody? John?

So I'm not liking the graffiti, but I'm going to the process of how we're addressing this. I don't want to think that we're micromanaging. Somebody talked to me the other day about the board micromanaging, and this should just be the town manager taking care of a task, and we should be focusing on the big stuff. So I don't like it. I think it should be taken care of, but I'd like it to be taken care of by the town manager and the interim town manager and the new town manager, little things like this. I think they should be taking care of this stuff.

Yeah, I see this is the same thing as the puddle out in the parking lot and stuff. We get enough people who are concerned about it. One of the ways we get to address it is as a board. And I think this has come to me as a board member. And I think it's important for the public to know that we find this is not the way we want our town to look and we want something done about it. So I don't have any problem doing that. If you don't want it to, hey, okay, we want it done in X amount of time, that's fine. But I think this is exactly when we have our property being defaced and there's concern about getting it cleaned up, it needs to come to the board if it doesn't get done.

And it's beyond just the graffiti. It's becoming a systemic problem. We had two signs on the EV chargers smashed. We had about $5,000 worth of damage to the EV chargers. Luckily, we had some... some warranty money, but there's other things that are happening in town. We had damage at the Foss Field Pavilion. So we definitely need to try and get a handle on this stuff and clean it up and don't let it linger.

Okay. Anybody else? So my perspective on this is two two things. I kind of agree that it has been brought to this board which means people are expressing a concern and they have every right to do that. I don't think we're and I don't think I heard Linda say we want to set a policy that says 48 hours after we get a photograph of this thing that stuff's coming down. But I do think that there's a time is of the essence. We have to clean it up. Mindful that some of these activities, particularly, and I won't talk about other mischief that's going on, but mindful of these activities sometimes get in the way of a police investigation. If the police have to investigate that somebody is tagging a building or doing something, they have to do their diligence, and then we move forward from there. So Linda, how do you wanna go forward with this?

You know, I would like us to say to Barry, we'd like it cleaned.

Obviously, we're not going to leave this graffiti there. We know we need to get to it. I think just, you know, with everything else, preparing for the fourth, doing our crosswalks and everything else, it would have to wait until after that, which I hope we've rounded the corner on. But the other thing with this is it's not as though we can clean those specifically that are on the bridge underneath, you know, with the water underneath. So in essence, they get painted over. That's unfortunate. I'd really love to catch these kids doing this. And I think it's sort of systemic to maybe just a handful of kids. But yeah, we will take care of it. I will promise you, this is not, you don't have to necessarily direct me. We're gonna have a plan to get rid of it.

Well, there's an additional message here. Now, I'll just key off what Mr. Duchesne said. It's a sad thing to say, but sometimes people do dumb stuff, and they tag stuff, they break stuff, they do stuff. And we get to visit with PD every quarter or so. We probably want to hear from them as to how they deal with this. Some of this is investigatory stuff, of juvenile delinquents, which are protected, that you can't out their name. You just can't do it, all right? But that doesn't mean that we should let the paint stick on the building or somebody mess up one of our chargers. So we probably want to just, we're alerting people that this is a concern of ours. Is it a big concern? You know, you can decide. I mean, if somebody tagged my house, that'd be a big concern. So I think I'm hearing, Barry, that you're going to pick this up. You hear about it. It's going to be time, as of the essence, to get it resolved. You're probably going to have to talk to PD to make sure that they've done whatever they need to do so you can take care of it. But letting it sit on a building or sit on a bridge unresolved is unacceptable. Are you okay with that, Linda?

Yeah, and only one other thing I do is I'd like to schedule a meeting with the police commission.

We have a quarterly coming up. I think Amy's working with, don't we have our quarterly meeting coming up with those folks? I think we're overdue. Well, we're always overdue. We'll schedule it.

I just would like that schedule. That would help. We'll do it. We can deal with it.

We probably have one or two other things to talk with them about.

Yeah, I think so. But I would like to have some conversations about this. Yep, okay. I think we've had. Okay, fair enough.

Any other questions, comments? All right, good. Next item in the agenda is the approval of the 2026 barge permit for Northeast Aachen Barge. It's in your packet, folks.

So they have completed everything required of that?

That includes the escrow check that has been received, cashed, and deposited.

Correct. I'll be a little late, but, yeah, it is in hand.

Okay. Can I have a motion to approve the... license of the application so moved I have a motion in a second all those in favor aye I should have asked anybody have any comments or questions staying he's abstaining so we have four yes one abstention okay the next item on our agenda is sorry for doing that John the next item on the agenda is the animal control ordinance revision since our captain is here we're gonna put you on the spot just come up and explain to us what we got here or Barry do you want to handle it what do you want to do

Yeah, if Mark's here, I think this came from him. I think basically we're just sort of a housekeeping deal. We're trying to match some of the state ordinance with the town ordinance as regards to animal control.

Captain Living, introduce yourself, please.

Yeah, Captain Mark Living, Wolf Park PD. So basically our town ordinance is outdated. No. The law has changed January 1st, 2026, but we just need to update that to the state law. Fines all that good stuff So the recommendation is to follow the RSA 466 just keep it simple keep with the state The laws that they do have we really don't have to get into detail with it in the town ordinance We follow the state law and if they change in the future, we don't have to change anything.

So, thank you captain any questions for the captain I

I'm just wondering, will this be posted somewhere so the general public will know that things have changed with this?

Well, we have to have a public hearing. It's an ordinance, so we're going to have to, from here tonight, we're going to have to move to call a public hearing on this for a date certain, and we'll post it, and then we'll do it. I think what Mark is saying is, and in some proposed language, I think you provided to Amy, that it'll just automatically follow whatever the state does. So if the state changes, we will just follow right through.

So we're just going to replace our ordinance with the state ordinance?

We're just going to, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But we have to have a public hearing to do that.

The language is going to follow the state, which we followed anyways.

It's just been, we are outdated. Okay. And we need to change it. So, anybody? John, Linda? Yeah.

Yeah, just explain to me, if we're taking this and we're doing an ordinance change and the state changes the ordinance, why would we not need to come back and do a public hearing in the future? I thought you said in the future would just allow our ordinance to change with the state.

Because we're just following the state law, so we're not changing anything, we're following what the state is actually proposing.

Here is, but if the state changed this law, then you would have to come back to us with those changes.

That's up to you guys. It's probably more right than not.

I just, that's what it seemed like to me.

It sounded convenient that we could just ride on what the state does, but I think Linda's right, is if they change it, we have to publicly hear it.

We have to follow the state laws.

Yeah, right. Okay, so board members, we need to have a public hearing on this ordinance. Can I get a motion to call for a public hearing at a date certain, maybe the next meeting?

So moved.

I have a motion. I have a second. Thank you, Captain. I appreciate it. Any conversation?

So we're saying the next meeting.

Which would be the 50, 750.

I'm just hoping we can do something as simple as say that our town ordinance for is the state ordinance, list it, and we're done.

That could be right. Let's call a public hearing, and then when we're done, we'll vote it through, okay? So I have a motion and a second.

Any conversation?

All those in favor, aye, please. Aye. Dave, you good? We're cool? We're unanimous? All right, very good. Next item on the agenda is the rules of procedure. Approval. We've gone through our rules of procedure, code of conduct, all of those things. It's a thick, lovely document. It's as boring as bejeepers, but it should guide our behaviors clearly. And there was a piece of that that... We had yet to vote on, but this is the only thing yet to vote on. And I believe, Linda, I'm going to pitch this one over to you because it had to do with a motion.

It had already been moved. It just hadn't gotten into the Rules of Procedure. And what I gave you was the minutes where we made the motions, and I took the motions directly from the minutes. Correct. So what's in, and when we got it last time, the correct motion wording had not gotten into the Rules of Procedure. They're there now. So I would not make a motion for the board to accept its rules of procedure and handbook.

And handbook. And that's not a requirement. It is a requirement. We'll sign it. It's going to be dated and signed by us. So I have a motion to accept the rules of procedure and handbook. I have a second, please.

Second.

I have a second by Mr. Senecal. Conversation.

So does... Does it say in here that we have to cooperate and get things done?

Only if you put it in there and ask for that change.

Only if you promise not to be snarky. How's that? OK. So I have a motion and a second. Conversation, please. Call the question. All those in favor of adopting the handbook and the rules of procedure, aye, please.

Aye. Abstain.

Four ayes, one abstention. OK. item on our agenda the work plan I promised you all that I'd buff up the work plan and I and I took a whack at it it's in your packet there is two parts to the work plan that's that there is that part that we have already agreed to do And I would appreciate that we not go back and revision that. But then there are projects and goals not yet adopted or assigned. And so these are work plan items that we, we didn't use SurveyMonkey, we used like a Google voting system. And we basically said do now, delegate it to somebody else, don't bother doing it, or schedule it sometime in the future. What was that matrix, Barry?

Yes, we know that as the Eisenhower matrix, perhaps.

So I'm going to start with what's yet to be assigned. Fix road and parking signage. Align signage to ordinances everywhere. And we had two folks on this board say, delegate that to somebody else. Two folks said we should schedule that to be done, and one person said, ditch it. Board members, what do you want to do?

So we can delegate and schedule at the same time.

The way we did it in the other side is we said, who's the leader? And as an example, I was assigned as the leader. Just as an example, I was assigned as the leader because I'm the trustee of the Libby trustees. I'm the chair. So we assign it to a person and then back up support. Who would we assign, if anybody, to... Fixed road and parking signage, allowance signage to ordinances everywhere. I would say people who are in charge of roads.

Anybody else? I can't agree with them. It's going to be that one too. I think it's public work, director.

So glad that the troll keepers left because that's another one we're throwing at Randall. Do we want to actually ask Steve to do this? I would say yes. I'm hearing overwhelming support. Maybe this is the low blood sugar moment.

So what's the problem that we're trying to fix is the question.

The problem we're trying to fix is there was an identification when we started this that we thought our road signs around the town needed to get buffed up. And that they, you know, some of the road signs are, you know, unclear, they're hidden behind a tree.

Not only are they physically probably, I think some of them are conflicting to what the actual origin is.

That's what my understanding is.

So we have signs on the town hall that say where people are supposed to park but they're not supposed to park. We have a sign at the Libby that says that you can park trailers overnight when that's not an overnight trailer parking location. There's some signs that need to be fixed. So we have to first catalog those

science. We're just asking, who does it? Who does it?

I'm just trying to understand it first and understand the process that's going to occur.

How big this nut is, we've got to catalog it, come back and then say, I'm going to go fix it.

You know? So, I mean, I would say the DBW could look at the parking ordinance and they would see if they look through it all that there are parking ordinances that don't align with parking signs at different locations and they can bring to us what the ordinance says, what the sign says, and we can either determine or we just tell them to align the ordinance with the signs.

What Brian is saying here, too, is we may have some mishmash with our ordinance. Our ordinance may say do something and our signs may say do something else. That's a theoretical, but that's the story.

I've seen twice, two locations that it's like that already. So, John, you're... Go ahead, Lynn.

Yeah, I think we also should get our planning department because it's... Wayfinding. There's more signs, and I think it's the working of those two departments. John?

So we've got roads that have fallen apart out there. We've got potholes everywhere. We've got tar that's peeling up. We have infrastructure problems. We have all these other things, and we're going to send the public works director to go out and do signs.

No. We're going to tell Steve Randall that his department has to take care of signs, and they can do it while they're filling potholes.

So, well, two parts of this. One, do you think, John, do you think this is one of these, is it a delete? You know, like, let's not bother. I don't know if it's a priority. Because we've got other priorities. Or, is that what you're saying?

I don't want to continue to add things to the list when we're going backwards out there. I mean, again, go down Mill Street and look at the, I mean, you've got the guys show up with one, dump truck with coal patch. They fill one hole and then they have to go back and check out and then they get into something else.

So your argument here is this may be too early to work on. There's other priorities. Linda?

Yeah, I think that's what he's saying. He's saying that if he looks at what public works can do, this is at the bottom of the list. That's what I'm saying.

Okay, let's add a little more ballast here. into this conversation. The next one was town hall parking lot template. That little thing right out there. What do you want to do? Linda.

Why don't just two of us sit down and do that? That's a simple thing. I'm willing to work on it. So you don't want to work?

I've been talking about it for a year.

Brian and I will work on it, and we'll get out the lack of consistency and bring it in, and then we can work on it.

We'll look at the ordinance, look at the lot. I have two volunteers for the town hall parking lot. It's Brian and Linda. Does anybody object to that?

Schedule it. Pardon me? Schedule it.

Schedule it. Just book it, Dano. All right. We'll come back. We're going to come back to the sign thing. The parking spaces issue was closed.

Do it the 4th of July.

Punch list for Abenaki bike trails and trail walk. Well, we already had the trail walk.

Yep. And we're meeting with the, there's a group meeting on the work that the. Tomorrow morning at the crack of dawn.

Tomorrow morning at the crack of dawn.

So I would say that is that we just, we're working on it. That's Brian and Linda.

Yep. Are you on that one?

Yeah, I am. Okay. Brian and Linda. And the town manager.

Yeah, right. But you guys are at the front of the parade. Town manager, by the way, on the parking lot template, too.

Of course, once we start doing this and we kind of work with them, at some point this goes over to staff and the board backs out. That's why it's the town manager.

But you guys are prime, and town manager is back up.

Yep.

The next one I think we've obviated. It's select board review of CIP to determine what we think are the most important items. I think that's our job. Linda?

We do that once the CIP comes to us. That's our job.

That's when we do it. Unless anybody objects, I'm going to just say we just scratched that one.

We'll do that.

I think I was the delete. You were the delete? There was one person who said do, and then three said go schedule it, but I think there was lackluster enthusiasm for that one because I think that's our job. Here's the fun one. A subcommittee on the dock ordinances. We spent 14 hours thrashing that one around in public and we probably didn't look, you know, real spiffy. So I have a volunteer there. Anybody else?

I think we should sub it out. I don't want anybody on this board to do it. I know what the conflicting issues are. It's

Who would you sub it out to?

There are professional organizations that you could sub it out to that would look at our parameters. You want me to go online to do it?

No.

I was already online looking at places that would do that type of fee structure.

So your bid is pick up that whole question about how do we price our fee structure for our docs and other places and have a third party do that for us?

Yep.

Okay. When will you have information for us?

I'm not providing you any information. That wouldn't be me. I'm saying you could get that done. We already went past that. Linda?

Yeah, I just would when it comes back, but I don't know with where the budget is right now whether I want to spend more money on hiring somebody for that. I'm concerned about the gas and the change of staff and having to buy their time out, so we have no finance director. The finance director is coming August 1. You know, budget committee just got their reports. I just am not interested in spending money.

Nathan has given us some rulings on that we should have, instead of landing fees, we should move to, I think he said... lease agreements. And so we know that that's a place that we can start with. I know that we have a folder full of what other towns on the lake do, charge and not charge. So that gives us another metric we can look at. And then we can use something my grandma told me, which is called common sense. and figure out something that's reasonable, but not excessive for people.

So, John, can I ask you a question? So, you've done some initial work. I mean, are there actual named people you found that could do this?

There were organizations, yes. Linda.

Linda.

Well, it really comes back to which way members of this board feel that docs should be used. I think we don't agree. I don't see bringing in somebody else as we're going to agree on the basic philosophies that we differ at.

That actually is a good point. That's a point. I don't think there's clarity around the table about how those docs should be used.

You're going to have to set the guidelines that whoever this third party is or what they use for criteria. So they're going to need to know that going in. If you don't know that... We're dead in the water.

We're off to a fumbling start. If you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there.

So we're already in a lull. We've already kicked the can down the road. We're using last year's set of standards. I mean... We're using the previous set. Let's just continue to use the previous set.

I wouldn't go there.

Well, if we want to make a change and we want to really adjust to the times, then we'll do something about it. But that wasn't what I heard. I heard that let's just stay where we are.

No, you didn't hear that at all. I don't know where you heard that. I think what you heard here is should we have some people set up a doc committee or a subcommittee to work on docs? What you heard, just so that I'm clear, because I don't want to be misquoted, what you heard was we looked really ineffective as a collaborative board trying to figure out how to set prices. And you know what? We did a really good job at that. We looked very ineffective. And so rather than try to do that as a collective, the idea here was, and by the way, somebody voted, you know, two said delegate, one said, The idea here is grab a couple of people or an outsider, grab some people, put them in a room, give them a mission, and have them come back to us and say, here's a recommendation. Yours is go to a third party. Some people at this table are saying, we think we can do this ourselves. That's kind of where I'm processing it. What do you want to do, board members?

If we do it ourselves, we're going to end up with the same situation.

So you're predicting it'll just be the same? I am. Okay. Linda?

I think we need to say, if we do a subcommittee, we have to bring in people from the public and maybe get us another point of view and get us out of our differing points of view that we can't go anywhere.

I would have no problem working having a, um, subcommittee that includes the public for, um, a doc ordinance. We did it with the sidewalk.

Well, that's where I was thinking of. We did, we did do it with the sidewalk and we got a, we had people who, we got people who, uh, who put in an application to be on it and we picked them and, um, we worked what a year at trying to get that done. And we did come back and, uh, Then it went out to the public and we made some more changes and we got something through.

I think we should rely on our subcommittee more if we do this than just people who are asked to come and argue against whatever policy the subcommittee puts together. We need to, if we're going to include these people, they need to be respected for their opinions and for what they bring to the table.

may not be those people, it may be just some regular citizens.

Well, that's what I'm saying. To respond, here's a personal preference. I'm unfamiliar, and I don't mean to be smart-ass about it, I'm unfamiliar about trying to solve a complex problem with five people with very little preparation. And that's, it's a It's a show, and it gets all whimmy-whammy. Personally, I'm comfortable with some people who say, I want to get in on this. I want to sign up for it. I'm willing to toss it out to the public and make sure we get stakeholders, as well as non-stakeholders, in the room and sort out the problem.

I mean, I'll do it as two board members.

If I could just finish. And the reason I say stakeholders and non-stakeholders, for those of us who read our packet, we got some comment from one of the barge operators. We got a comment last week from a current barge operator that, whether you like the opinion or not, gave us an opinion that said, you've got to be careful what you're doing here. And we should listen to that. We could thumb our nose, but we should listen to that. That doesn't mean we roll over and say, oh, good, you know, whatever you need. But I'm comfortable with volunteers at this board who want to take it off to the side and get stakeholders and non-stakeholders around. That doesn't make you comfortable though, John, right?

What would make me comfortable if it was nobody on this board and then it was all the public that made the decision?

Yeah, okay. So that's your side, is this board should not get its hands on that.

Well, we could review their thoughts and then go over it and then make a final determination. But don't we, I mean, if we had more people of the public and they all gave us their opinion, then we would be able to look at more people's opinion.

Yeah. Okay.

I don't want to sway them, and that's what I'm trying.

That's what you think is going to go on. You think there's going to be a little...

Well, that's what the track record is out there, unfortunately.

You're being honest, and I appreciate that. Hang on, Linda.

I look at our sidewalks. We got all the documents. We had pictures of all the sidewalks. One of them went to all the different towns in the community looking at how they had done their sidewalks. And I'd have them kind of start from the ground level and work their way back up. Whatever we come up, or whatever they come up with, It's got to go out to a public hearing. And then when we had the public hearing, we made changes based on what the public said about it. So that's a process. So we didn't vote until we had heard all that.

Okay, now Brian. And I'll be honest with you. Always. I always am. I have to. My mother would kill me. I sat in the EDC meetings when the trolls were first presented to me. And I wasn't a huge fan of it first because I didn't really 100% understand it. But... After listening, after talking to citizens involved, after meeting the artist, going to the meeting with the other people, I have developed a much deeper appreciation for the art and for that project. So I don't think that if I go into a meeting about docks and wharfs that I'm going to be locked into one idea and I'm going to try and manipulate the public. I don't do that. I would go in there and look for... Ten people's ideas or five people's ideas are way better than one person's idea.

Okay. So we have one part of the table that's saying this thing should be arm's length of the board. The board shouldn't involve itself. Give us the answer and we can take it to public hearing and let the voters weigh in. There's another bid on the table that says put a couple of people on it and assemble a working committee. Okay, that's the question. Which one of the two do you want to do?

I would make a motion that two select board members are chosen to head up a... Volunteer. Or volunteer to head up a Docks and Wharfs committee with a total of... Five additional, up to five additional citizens. Up to five. We can choose three, we can choose five.

So we have, there's a motion there. Do we have a second on that? It just fell flat.

I'll second.

Oh, Dave seconded. You seconded for conversation or you want to talk to it? Just for conversation?

Okay.

Okay. So we got a motion that says two select board members get volunteered themselves and go get five people. And Linda, what do you have to say?

No, he didn't say five. He said up to five. To me, you could have two selectmen and three people from the public. I would feel more comfortable two and five. So that we have more people... to get input from.

I can't deal with just three to five.

So up to five for the public.

Now, John, I can anticipate what your vote is on this one.

Five from the public.

Hang on. I can anticipate what John's vote's going to be. It's going to be... So how... You know, we haven't voted on the motion, but how do we get your interest into this? I mean, is there a way to get your interest into this?

Again, I thought about the outside. I looked at the other communities around different areas. I really thought that Bill Scott and Newburyport had a great outline of how they did all their fees and their structure. Yeah, we're favorable to the business community, but are we favorable to the taxpayers who have to pay for all this stuff? That's the other part of it. And it's, yeah, it is, it does benefit our community, but again, it all comes back to the taxpayers. They're the ones who end up footing the bill for everything. And, and when businesses are making a lot of money and they go to do their work, they have to understand that if they're using something that helps them make money, they should contribute together so that the taxpayers don't foot the bill. Understandably. Yes, the town does benefit, but again, uh, This is, it seems, again, $0.92 per landing, $9.20 per landing.

It seems disbalanced to you. It seems like it's a little out of balance. I was kind of hoping that you might say, you know what, why don't I give you the name of the folks that I've been looking at who could actually be a credible third party and make that as a part of the motion that the team would look at those.

I would have to do a little bit more research.

Would you be keen to doing that? Or would you just say, you know what, bullshit, let's make busy work. What do you want to do?

I could do a little bit more research and then come up with something. Would you be okay with that? We could come back to that. Do we have to make a decision tonight?

I'm not trying to placate you, but what I'm trying to make sure is that we get this thing off on the right foot, because we really did look out of balance doing 14 hours and not really producing an outcome. A lot of angry people. I got a motion that says two selected human beings and up to five in total. Would you mind if we added that John will make some recommendations of third parties that might be able to assist us? Brian, would you be willing to amend your motion?

Again, like what Linda said, if you've got a third party, you're basically hiring them. I'm not going to reach out to somebody that's going to say, yeah, I'll I mean, I do it as a business. I'm not going to do it for free.

Okay. So we have a motion that says two selected people and an additional three for up to five total. Let's call the question.

So I have a question. Is this docks and wharves only going to be those docks or is it the Libby dock also?

The whole thing. It's the ordinance. It's the ordinance.

In its entirety. In its entirety. So can Dave and I could be on it and do it because Linda would have to recuse herself from everything to do with the Libby.

I am not going to do anything with the dock ordinance. You got it.

All right.

Out of that.

So if Dave is willing to assist me.

Pretty clear about that one.

John, you want to bid on this? Because, you know, they just self-appointed. You want to bid on it? John's out. Okay, so we have these two folks have said they want in. I have a motion for these two gentlemen to join. Town manager playing role as support. Call to question. All those in favor?

Aye. No. No.

Yes. Okay. Three to two. And this is for the entire ordinance. Okay. Next one. Work with the town manager to develop large capital projects and establish annual costs to be deposited in the capital reserve fund. I'm not sure that that merits... A vote here. What was the problem we were trying to solve with that one?

Linda? I think this is really what is done by all department heads that go to the CIP and run through the town manager before they get to the CIP.

Yep.

That's what this really is.

You all comfortable with taking this off the list? Anybody not comfortable with taking it off the list? Don't all speak at the same time. I'm comfortable. Uncomfortable. Anybody else?

Take it off.

It's off the list. Okay. Next one, develop a process to move items through the select board more quickly by reducing the number of times that additional items are addressed.

We haven't done well with this one.

Pardon me? We haven't done well with this one. We're pond water.

We've had it on our agenda how many times?

And I'm being critical of ourselves, but I just want to make sure that I can speak for myself. This is a very powerful and very capable board, but when we get together, we bring different interests. We should not come to these meetings unless we're deeply prepared. And you can't do this kind of stuff when you're looking at the clock and saying, I've got to get out of here. We've got to get better at having time away from ourselves in meetings. And I think we learned a lesson with doing the pickleball thing. It just makes sense. So, I don't know. Do you guys want to do anything about this? Because I don't think there's any action here.

What would be the plan? I don't know. Let's readdress this next year if someone can think of how we could approach this. I don't see how we approach this.

Linda? A little duct tape. Duct tape. Unless anybody takes objection, I'm going to take that. John, do you have any objection if I take this off?

Go ahead, Paul.

All right, good. The last one was mine, and I know you're all going to just yawn at it. It's just bad. I had this idea that what we should ask our departments to do is to come forward and not tell them how to do their business. John made a very prescient comment about micromanaging. We should expect the departments to come forward with the stuff that they believe is how their dashboard, their dials, and they say, this is how I run my function. And I think PD is doing that, I think, to some degree. I think our fire department's doing it. I think people, when they ask us what's going on, they always want to know, are you doing the best thing you can to spend my money? That's really what they're doing. So I had this idea that says, set a five-year best practice benchmark for every department in the town. review and agree on a set of benchmarks for each department. And I don't know, what do you want to do about it? Linda?

I think at least what I think we're talking about here, I want to know the philosophy of the department and what their goals are and objectives. And we used to get that from our department heads. And we could bring them each in and hear that, and then we have a clear understanding of the direction they plan to go.

Paul? Mr. Deshaies. So I was the one who said delegate because I think that what you are saying is what the town manager should be doing. When we hire a new town manager, the town manager should be benchmarking every department in the town and he should be looking at each department and getting us information on how they operate, what are their efficiencies, what are their non-efficiencies. That's town manager's job. It's not our job.

And the reason I, can I do it? Sure, and then I'll do it. Then you do me. And the reason I wrote this one down, I got to be frank with you, I was a little, you know, conflict with, you know, kind of the interrogatories we'd give to somebody that says, well, how many hours of ice time if we did this or that? And, you know, I would sit there and say to myself, I have no clue as to whether I should even ask those kinds of questions. I really want the departments to tell us, to your point, Linda, What do you value? What's your philosophy? What are your goals? What are your outputs, outcomes? And if we don't like those, then they get to comment on it, and we get to comment on it. Because absent that, it's, you know, it's... And you're right, Brian. I would delegate that to the town manager as the prime. Not us. We shouldn't be doing that. We shouldn't be sitting there and asking... you know, the park department, public work, tell us what you, no, tunnel managers should be doing that.

And we explain to the town manager what we think his roles are. One of his roles is to do something in this realm, however it is, and then he comes back to us with information, which we should have all the information on all the departments and how they're operating and what they're doing from the town manager and from department heads who come to us quarterly and tell the public what's going on.

In a little book. Linda.

That's what I'm after here. They come in, they work with the town manager, they come in, they tell us their philosophies and goals for the year, and the public hears it. That's what I'm looking at doing it. I don't see us demanding it or us being part of it. I see it part of the information that we provide to the public. If you want to look at Facebook, the fire department, I know how many times they've done all sorts of stuff.

How many runs, how many fire prevention?

I just really was wanting to say, then that would also help us know the kind of framework they're working in, and the public will know that.

That's what I would... Dave and John, you guys want to weigh in on this?

Yeah, the town manager, for sure. Because the problem that you have is stuff comes up. and then again.

Interrupts, interruptions, right?

Well, stuff that needs to be taken care of, that's part of their department, that needs to just go into their column.

This doesn't address the interrupts that something fell off the building. This notion here was to I'll say it to myself, Paul, get your fingers out of the departments. Stop it. Ask them to tell you what's important through the town manager. If you like their values, their goals, their objectives, just expect that you will see some frequency of reporting, but get your bloody fingers out of the departments. Dave was next on the question list.

Dave, you have any comments on it?

You don't have any. I like your shirt, by the way.

Brian, go ahead. Should I make a motion that this piece of draft in this document should be delegated to the town manager?

You mean this particular item? Yes. Okay, we'll just say this goes to the town manager. Anybody object to that? Okay, town manager. Got it. I'll go back to the last one, which is where we started. What do you want to do about the road in Pakistan? John says, on a scale of one to 10, this is a zero.

And I got to agree with him. Of all the things that need to be done, In terms of our public works, I've got to put it down on the bottom also.

All I would say is to the public works director, the town manager should direct to the public works director that as you're running around town fixing everything, make sure that the signs are fixed also.

Now, since we've already said that we want the departments to tell us how to keep our fingers out of their business, they'll come back and tell us whether they think parking lot signs are important. So unless anybody objects, we're taking it off the list. You guys cool with that? It's off the list. Okay, we're done with that. I'll buff it up. And this is going to get... Do I need a motion to approve the entire bloody thing? Or do... We probably do. You probably want to see the final list, and then we'll just move to approve it.

Absolutely.

All right, we'll move to approve it. And then it's going up on the website. And so the next time you say, what the heck do you guys do, you can at least start there and figure it out. Okay, I think this stuff is important. To me, it is. I could be wrong, but it is. Okay. There is no Libby trustees meeting tonight. There was to be one, but I failed at producing an update for this board. I took the action item to do that. And I didn't get it done. But I intend to, I have it drafted. I intend to provide to the board an update of where we are. And then once the board says that's good, we're shipping it off to the charitable trust unit. So more to come on that. But to confirm, there will be public hearings August 5th and August 19th on the structure. And it's a notice. It's out on the website. And It has to do with what do we do with the building. And we'll take input on that. With that, let's move to old business. Do we have any old business?

I have some old business.

Yes, sir. What you got here, John?

Thank you. Thank you.

What are we looking at, John?

I see a snake.

The pond. The beach pond. Yes.

Yes.

Thank you.

Well, that's a turtle in that thing.

What are you doing here?

Presentation.

Oh, I just thought he was getting in the back.

Doing a presentation.

Ah.

To us.

Yeah, yeah. I just wanted to know he's dragging on the back.

But that should be pointed at us.

Yeah, can you point it at us, John?

This is for us.

It's our meeting.

It's our meeting.

John, point it this way. It's our meeting. You're pointing it at us. You're giving us a presentation. Thank you. Go ahead. Okay.

So tonight, I'm going to give you a presentation based on actual observations to a couple situations that I believe are important to share with the citizens of Wolfboro. My career in problem solving and land management has given me a trained eye. Education, field operations, and firsthand experience give me the basis for being able to discuss intelligently a couple topics tonight with more to follow that will be relative to this discussion presentation. As you know, as you are all aware, we are in a drought and have been under a water restriction ban. This directive set forth by Steve Randall, Wolfboro Water Department. First question is, do we have a water capacity problem or do we have a water containment problem? If we do have a water capacity problem, we should probably understand the current capacity and what affects the current capacity by containment. If our containment is how we measure our water capacity, do we need to study how we determine water reservoir levels on the reservoir? Let me explain. Our full level reservoir is 983 feet above sea level. As of our last meeting, we were told by the department head the reservoir was 13 inches from full top. At a previous select board meeting, I asked if the outlet where the water goes out of the reservoir had any structures or land masses to hold water back into the reservoir. In my education, the field experience, if you can't contain, you can't build capacity. Faced with the question why the reservoir was 13 inches below a full level and not hearing any response from the water department head, Steve Randall, or the town manager, Muccio, I took the initiative as a select member to investigate on-site conditions and to observe how the reservoir was contained at the outlet to the adjacent marsh. What I'm about to report is factual and documented with photographs for the select board. If anyone should like to inquire with me personally, I would be happy to have a conversation. I will not provide access details or information of locations. My observations have a couple different parts of interest for you tonight. First, the water elevation and surrounding containment. My investigation occurred June 9th. I observed one area where water was flowing from the downstream marsh, that's the first picture on the left, The depressed area was bedded by grasses, a few sticks and an old rotten log. That's the second picture. Looking at this depressed area and imagining an additional 13 inches of water on the top of the current reservoir surface, no reasonable person could say the pond reservoir level would rise up 13 inches and not travel out this depressed area. At this location, I can confirm there was not containment to the reservoir and therefore capacity could not increase or rise in the reservoir. There was another area nearby that I reviewed about 200 feet away that had an area where the reservoir abutted up to the adjacent marsh. Looking at this area, I could see an old style stone wall set to contain the reservoir. Coincidentally, this stone wall height was topping at 13 inches above the reservoir. and was in fact going to contain and allow for capacity to rise above the current reservoir surface. So on my final determination, I could not find justification for the water department head, Steve Randall, to maintain the current water restriction ban on the water customers. My additional observations that I witnessed in this investigation, I'm going to speak about this evening because of two aspects that affected me that day. This comes down to how we study for solution and what is being done that might affect the goal of reservoir containment water capacity and water purity. In my investigation, I came across something that was mentioned by Brian at the June 17th Select Board meeting. We were also visited by the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department after they received a complaint about beaver trapping efforts on our water supply. For some background on our trapping efforts, we do in-house. We have two licensed trappers in the public works department. We switched to this method a couple years ago as cost-saving efforts as compared to hiring an outside contractor. The complaint, which was not a complaint, revolved around turtles being in traps. There wasn't much explanation. In my investigation, I came across something that was mentioned by Brian at the June 17th Select Board meeting. We got a visit from the Fish and Game Conservation Officers about dead turtles. There wasn't much explanation to other board members from any documentation, and I was surprised that a clear explanation wasn't given about the visit. So thank you for being here tonight to get the rest of the story. and why it's important and what could benefit the reservoir. Naturally, we know life is supported by animals and humans. Sometimes we interfere with their life, and sometimes they interfere with ours. And respecting the humane treatment is our social construct together. It was reported that the town had engaged a trapper to trap beavers in the reservoir to prevent a parasitic infection from a beaver called Giardia. Let's try to understand the facts. The water treatment and disinfection process inactivates viruses and safely lowers bacteria levels through the treatment process. What other species benefit water purity naturally? Turtles are highly beneficial. They act as natural custodians scavenging on dead fish, decaying organic matter to help control aquatic vegetation. Turtles graze on algae and nuisance aquatic weeds. That's in one of the pictures of the close-up of the algae. Beavers are highly beneficial to ponds and overall environment by constructing dams and slowing down water flow. They naturally boost biodiversity by improving water quality, filtering out pollutants, and recharging water aquifers. The rest of the story is that investigating the reservoir, I came across two of the largest turtles and the third in a trap. The two large turtles were shot dead in the head and cast aside like a week old tuna sandwich. The third turtle was trapped, folded up sideways, one eye looking at me while it was wiggling. I couldn't understand the inhumane treatment and the suffering during this 85 degree day. Now that's the story Brian was talking about when he mentioned the visit by the conservation officers. What I learned was both the beavers and the turtles were being treated as inhumanely as I could even imagine because this was a kill trap and not a targeted species trap that would allow the catch and live release. I learned Steve Randall, water department head, was performing the oversight of all the water department functions I learned that once the conservation officers were alerted and visited the locations of the turtles, the traps were removed. In conclusion, I hope the public thinks about my investigation and tells us what they think about the factual information I provided tonight. The people of Wolfboro deserve reason for justifying a water restriction ban. The people of Wolfboro deserve to know The number one water resource for the town of Wolfboro is managed properly. This is that turtle looking at you.

Okay. You all set, John? You went up there on June 9th. Did you and Steve go on this investigation?

No.

You went there by yourself?

I did.

Did you tell Steve you were doing that?

No.

Okay. Has Steve seen any of this that you just presented tonight?

No.

Very good. Okay. Any questions, board members? No. Okay, good. Any other old business? Any other business? Town manager's report.

Yes, I have a few things. First of all, You know, public work seems to always be taking a hit here. I'd like to congratulate them this week on a fine job with our crosswalks out there, the patriotic efforts. So I appreciate that for their late nights. Steve Randall also completed the certified public manager course, graduated through that. So I always appreciate folks that are willing to move on and get further training and and process what they do, improve what they do. The third item, I have a sort of a house cleaning effort I inherited. Sebastian Tortenato is here. He was here back in December, initially requesting return of escrow, money held in escrow by the town of Wolfboro on behalf of Ridgeview Lot Owners Association. There were certain conditions placed on that association in order to release the funds. Those conditions have been met, one of them being the formation of a Lot Owners Association, a transfer of ownership from the prior owner to now the Ridgeview Lot Owners Association, as well as providing estimates for how the money would be spent. At this juncture, there's $103,296.11 held in that escrow account. And so it is my recommendation that we formally release that. I think you folks agreed in principle back in the December meeting. I wasn't here.

We actually agreed to it. We just never did a motion.

You agreed to it. There was not a motion that formally I can legally use to... to return that check. So that's what I'm here tonight to ask you as board members.

I'll make a motion if somebody wants me to. Go ahead. So I'll make a motion that based on the creation of the association that is now in good standing with the Secretary of State's office for Ridgeview Estates and for their estimates that they have provided to the town for the upgrades, that we release a bond held to them in the amount of $103,296.11.

I have a motion for Mr. Deshaies. Second. I have a second by Mr. Senecal. Conversation board. Call to question all those in favor. Aye. Aye. Unanimous. I apologize to you because I was the guy that said we'd cut you a check. And I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Okay. Done. Okay.

If I could add one more thing, Paul. Yeah, please. Keep this thing moving. I'd like to congratulate our town clerk, Pat Waterman. She was selected as one of 50 people in the state of New Hampshire to participate in a special reading of the Declaration of Independence. So that's quite an honor. You can actually go on and listen to her segment at New Hampshire.

Cessertennial, huh? Cessertennial?

Cessertennial, special reading of the Declaration of Independence. And that was put on by Secretary of State Dave Scanlon.

Congratulations. It's a semi-quincentennial.

Very thoughtful of you to say that.

It's a very hard word to say, semi-quincentennial.

Okay. Barry, anything else you got? What he said. You all set? That's all I have, thank you. You owe me a six-pack of moxie.

I do.

All right. Committee reports. Mr. Thurston.

No.

No committee reports. Ms. Murray.

Yeah, I had two meetings with Community TV. They're still working on their financial plan. I attended the Lakes Region Planning Commission annual meeting, and I enjoyed that. I attended an EPA seminar on cyanobacteria, looking at benthic cyanobacteria. I had a last night Wolfboro meeting, and the Friends of Pop Whaling meeting were there working on a golf course event where they're going to try to raise more money for the Zamboni. Mr. Senecal.

I had no regular meetings, but we have been meeting in reference to the town manager.

Mr. Deshaies. Yep. We've had lots of recruitment work sessions, and we're slowly moving our way towards interviews and finding a new town manager. I had a conversation with the New Hampshire Antique Co-op for the appraisal that's coming in July of the Libby artifacts, and there's a request that the board's going to have to deal with the town manager the appraiser is saying he's going to need staff to assist him or volunteers in the appraisal process because there are a lot of bags over artifacts like some of the polar bear and some of the taxidermy, and there's pictures on top of cabinets with sheets and towels over them, so things are going to have to be made accessible for him to move the project along a little bit more quickly. A citizen asked me if it was possible that we would be boxing up any of the artifacts when we were doing the appraisal. I don't think we've thought or addressed that. And he did say that they do have many people that do clean and repair artifacts, and that when he's doing the appraisal, he will give us condition of all of the artifacts. So if we see something that's valuable and in need of cleaning or repair, it will come to our attention that way. Tomorrow at starting, I think the meeting starts at about three o'clock and at a few minutes before four, There'll be a proclamation read out on the town steps for the semi-quincentennial anniversary of the United States. And then the bell in town will toll 25 times, which is one for every decade since the founding of our country. And that's all I have.

Thank you. I attended budget committee meetings. planning board, police commission. I've been spending a fair amount of time, as the board knows, on town manager recruitment with these colleagues. I think we're making good progress. We have extended an offer, and I don't know whether, Barry, you covered it last week. We extended an offer and has received affirmation for a finance director. I don't know if you shared that last week.

Yeah, I did. August 1st. I apologize for that.

I'm sorry I missed the meeting last week. A friend who took care of my mother when she wasn't feeling well passed, and it caused me to reflect on what's going on in this town right now. My mother used to tell me when I got in trouble, she'd say, always count your blessings. because you never know when you won't be around to count them anymore. And I want to congratulate the town staff. I want to congratulate the shop owners, pressure washing their buildings, hanging up bunting, cleaning things up, getting ready for the party. And sure, we've got things we need to work on, I'm just reminded of what my mom said. Sometimes you've got to just stop and count your blessings. With that, questions from the press? Any questions, Barry?

I have nobody out there.

Public input, three minutes. You don't have to sign in again. I just leave it all here and we'll pass it out to people. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay, I revised my input here entirely based on tonight's conversation, so I'll start with quoting Mr. O'Brien. Time is of the essence. Look at page three of the document I've handed you. I had a private funded test, in other words, paid for it ourselves, for Eurofins, for the water at the town docks and the parking lot. Currently, as I read this and to your discretion, the rest is up to you. You've been notified.

Did you share this with Mr. Randall? What's that? Have you shared this with Mr. Randall? I have not. Thank you very much.

Keep going. I'm here to state you are in violation of the Clean Waters Act. And as I remind you, the rest is up to you. It is July 4th weekend. The E. coli value was $2.60. The single hit for beaches to recommend closures is 158. And once again, fecal coliform is off the charts. And I have video of when we did the test, how we did it, who was involved. And I'm going to read this to you. The Clean Waters Act made it unlawful to discharge any pollutants from a point source into navigable waters. Point sources are discrete conveyances such as pipes or man-made ditches, dated February 23, 2026. So at this point, I would consider sending the very same test facility and same individuals at the labs that you have used for your own testing. It's time to take action because if somebody gets sick, and oh, most importantly, for those that are curious about just how serious this is, see this little boy? He's walking through that water.

Could you go to the microphone, please?

Sure.

Thank you.

This little boy is walking through that water at the boat show. This is June 13th. Two days later, we did the test. This is the parking lot pond we've all been hearing about coming and draining. from the underground. It's not coming up from the lake. I have photographs to show. The lake was a blanket of pollen. That was clear brown water. No pollen made it back up the path. It is time for action. I did this test because I knew from January 1, or January 3, excuse me, you were going to blow off the concerns of treating this seriously. So it is. Time is of the essence. We've got to get on this, guys. If somebody gets sick, you now know it's worth looking at.

Thank you very much. Thank you, Derek. Anything else? One more thing.

I want that in the record, please, that document.

Attach to the minutes, am I correct? You want to attach it to the minutes? Please. Board members, any objection to that? Nope.

I'll make a motion. We attach the analytical report to the minutes as submitted. Second.

Second. Second? I have a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. It'll be attached to the minutes. Thank you, Derek. Appreciate it. By the way, have a great Fourth of July. Oh, no. It'll cost you $130. It'll cost you $130. Mine's a pencil. $103,000.

Sebastian, three minutes, please.

Thank you.

All right, Sebastian Tordonato, Wolfboro resident. I've got three things I'd like to say. Number one, the Stars and Stripes sidewalks or crosswalk look great. Thank you. The second thing I'd like to do is thank Barry for walking that check through. Appreciate the effort. And third is the most difficult. And I'm not going to berate you, I'm not going to say I told you so, but the problem that Mr. Brown just brought up, it was foreseen. I kind of mentioned this to you twice. I came up here, I said, you know, until you get to the root of the problem, you aren't going to fix it. If it's a leak, which I feared it was, It's going to contaminate the groundwater, the groundwater is going to leak into the sumps, the sumps are going to pump the water out, and here we are. So, I would make a suggestion if you're open to it, anything downtown on that block, You need to get the sumps out of going into the drains. You've got to get them into the sewer system. That's number one. Number two, you've got to find the leak, and you've got to address the source. Until you do, this is going to continue to manifest itself in different forms. That's all I have to say. If you want to talk privately at some point, I'm happy to help.

Thank you, Sebastian. You have a great Fourth of July yourself. Really, have a good Fourth. See you at the parade. Three minutes?

Troy Glidden, taxpayer. I second what Sebastian said. Texas.

Thank you. Could you sign in, please? Here, you can borrow my crayon. Thank you, sir. Three minutes. You have a great Fourth of July, too. Everybody, you might leave it up there for the next person. Thank you.

I'm Marge Hart in Wolfbow. I agree with the painting of the stripes and the blue, and it looks great, so great job. I came here to find out more about the trolls, and I think it's a very cool project. I do have a concern about Filterbed. It's a dead end, and if that's like the main road, I looked up and they've got 100,000 to 300,000 people a year coming to see these. So I would recommend doing some research. The one in Breckenridge actually had to be moved. My mother used to live on Filterbed, and I know the traffic that's already there with the boats moving and everything. So I think it's a great project. I think it would be fabulous for the town, for the state, but I have a huge concern about the location, even just accessing it. It could be accessed a different way. And, yeah, I'm kind of really disappointed to hear about the turtles. I looked it up. It's illegal to kill them. And I'm very sad to hear about the water not being fixed. So thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else? Hearing Mr. Owens, sign in, please.

Yes, about two months ago... Name, please.

My name?

Jeff Owings, Wolfboro. About two months ago, I asked the board for more clarification on capacity of the sewer and information we got today from John on the water supply. I was told within two weeks that Steve would be talking. I'm still waiting. I haven't heard anything. That's one concern. Another concern is what Eric was talking about. I just walked through that area. There's kids playing in that water. I will not let my grandkids go near the dock. That's all I have to say.

Thank you. Okay. Can I have a motion to adjourn, please?

No, we've got to go into non-public.

Can I have a motion to go into non-public? We've got one more person. Citizen... One more. You've already signed in, so you're going to get to keep my pen. One more.

Did someone mention the statue up at the corner on the 7th?

I'm sorry, I didn't hear you.

Did anyone mention the DAR statue next Tuesday on the 7th, 2 o'clock? Nobody mentioned it. Just wanted to add that. Thank you.

Thank you. Three minutes.

Suzanne Ryan. Ditto on the puddle. But I think it's disgusting what happened to the wildlife around the reservoir. Was that individual or the individuals that trapped and shot and killed the animals hired by the town to remove those animals? If you don't care to answer it or don't know, I would like that answer made public. Were they trespassing? Did they have permission? I kind of think you know who it was, so I'm wondering if they had the permission of the town. If not, then somebody needs to look into it. Is there a gate? Is it locked? Is it posted? Does anybody quarterly patrol around that reservoir? Maybe more so than quarterly, maybe once every two weeks. How long are those animals sitting in that trap? Do we have a town official? that's delegated from the water department or the DPW to patrol around there periodically. But it's my understanding there is not a gate there that will keep people out. I'm sure you can't fence in the whole property, but most certainly a public official of some sort could patrol around there every once in a while to see what's going on. I don't think that's happening. I could go in there and just throw dye in there. In the funny world we're living in, anything like that could happen. It's pretty sad and pathetic. Thank you.