Select Board - Regular Meeting

Good evening, Mr. Chair. Good evening, sir. How are you? Good, thanks. Good. How's your day? All of them great. Thank you. Yeah, it is. When you're retired. You betcha. You and Jimmy Anderson can give us a lesson. Every day is a Saturday. Yes, sir. Except Sunday. Except Sunday, Billy. Soon enough. Soon enough. Soon enough. Soon enough, my friend. One lottery ticket away. There you go. There you go. I like that. I like that. A dollar in a dream. Yeah.

As they say. So, we'll get going right at 6:30. Uh I know you ladies and gentlemen have seen from the packet. We've got a very active meeting uh after we reorganize and do all that. So, um I'm gonna, you know, see how it goes. But active meeting. Excuse me. Hello, Selectwoman Ross.

Hello, Mr. Chair. Good to see you. Good to see you, too. Congratulations, Michelle. Thank you. I appreciate everyone's support and everyone who went out and voted yesterday. Honored to be on this board again. Honored to have you.

Thank you. Okay, speaking of that, let's rock and roll. We got a busy meeting. So, uh, the time is now 6:30. Um, I'd like to call to order the Tuesday, April 7, 2026, uh, Rentham Select Board meeting in accordance with chapter 2 of the Acts of 2025. The Tuesday, April 7th, 2026, 6:30 public meeting of the Renthm Select Board shall be conducted remotely. The public is invited to join via Zoom. The login information is on the town's website. As a preliminary matter, this is select board chair Chris Gallow. Please permit me to confirm that all uh members and persons anticipated on the agenda are present and can hear me. Members, when I call in your name, please respond to the affirmative. Selectman Jim Anderson.

Anderson here. Selectman Bill Harrington. Harrington here. Selectwoman Michelle Rouse here. Selectman uh Roy Lamoth. Lamoth here. Excellent. Staff, when I call on your name, please respond in the affirmative. Town manager Mike King, present. Assistant town manager Greg Enus. No. Okay. Executive Assistant Amanda Vazipolo present.

Excellent. Okay. Uh let's get going now that the meeting is called to order. The first thing that we need to do if we go to tab number one, as you all know, we just had an election and every year when we have an election, this board needs to reorganize. So, um, let's do that. Uh, uh, yes, Select M Anderson.

Yeah, it may. Um, for the past year, I really like the direction that this board has has gone. uh we've accomplished a lot and I I really place that on the administrative team we have. So with your permission, I'd like to make a motion to keep the same admin team in place. And so I'll make the the motion. I'll second that. So there was a motion made by selectman Jim Anderson, second by selectman Roy Lamoth. Any further discussion, Mr. Mr. Chairman?

Yes. I would recommend to officially appoint each individual position with separate. Okay. So, let's go line. Let's go. So, let's go Mr. Chairman by roll. I'll make that select man. Back to you. So, so I'll make the motion to reappoint Chris Gallow who is chairman of the rental select board. Second. Motion was made by Select Manison. Thank you very much. Second was made by Select Moth. Thank you very much. Keep going, Jim. Discussion. Well, do we have to vote on that? Yeah. Being none, any further discussion though, first or no? No. Okay. Being none, we'll do a roll call vote. Select woman rouse.

Yes. Select man Anderson. Yes. Selectman Harrington. Harrington. Yes. Select them off. Yes. Chris Gallo. Yes. Uh, motion humbly passes 5-0. I mean I humbly accept but humbly passes 5-0. Thank you. Uh Select Manison, your job is not done. I don't think it is not, Mr. Chairman. So make a motion to reappoint select woman Michelle Rouse as the vice chair of the run select board. Second. Motion made by Selectman Anderson. Second by select Lamoff. Any further discussion? Being none, let's do a roll call vote. Selectoman Rouse. Yes. Selectman Anderson.

Anderson G. Yes. Selectman Harrington. Harrington. Yes. Selectman Lamoth. Lamoth. Yes. Chris Gallows and emphatic. Yes. Motion carries. 5-0. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, sir. Like to make a motion to reappoint Bill Harrington as clerk of theum select board. Second by Lamoff. Motion made by selectman. Second made by Selectman Lamoth. Any further discussion? Being none, we'll do a roll call vote. Selectoman Rose. Yes. Selectman Anderson. Anderson's a yes. Selectman Harrington. Harrington. Yes. Thank you. Good. Selectman Lamoth.

Lamoth. Yes. Gallow. Another emphatic. Yes. Motion carries. 5. Uh thank you all for uh putting your trust uh in myself and Michelle. I'm not going to speak for her, but thank you so much for that. Uh, I think this board has done a great job. I think we've uh accomplished a lot to Select Manison's uh comments and I'm ready for another great year together with my fellow board members and our town management team. So, uh let's let's go kick some butt. All right. With that being said, I'd like to uh ask our newly appointed clerk, reappointed clerk, Selectman Bill Harrington, to read the announcements.

Yes, Mr. Chair. Spring brush dump hours. Spring hours April 15th through April 28th, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, 7:00 am to 3 pm. Gates close at 3:00 p.m. and Saturdays 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. NBridge is hosting openhouse meetings regarding the AGT enhancement project. This will be an opportunity to speak with Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in El Gangquin representatives. Wednesday, April 22nd, 2026 at Lake Pearl, 299 Creek Street, 4:30 to 6:30. Read more on the town website. Renthon Police and Fire will be teaming up on the ice against Northalk Police and Fire on Saturday, April 25th at 12 p.m. at the Northfor Ice Arena. Admittance is free. Open burning season ends May 1st and is permissible by permit only online. Apply online by making a profile on renam community connect. More information on the town website. Questions email burning permits at renthmfire.gov. The annual Keep Rentham Beautiful event will be held on Saturday, April 11th, 2026, starting at 10:00 a.m. on the Town Common, where volunteers can pick up their high viz vests and trash bags. Rentthamuse baseball and softball annual parade will be held Saturday, April 11th, starting at the center lot at 10:00 a.m. Opening day festivities will continue at Sweat Fields. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Selectman Harrington. Okay, let's go to tab number uh I'm going to get my tabs. Let's go to tab number three, which is approval of the minutes. Uh at this time, chair would entertain a motion uh in our sorry in our packets, we have the March 17, 2026 open session meeting minutes. Uh so at this time, Chair would entertain a motion to approve the March 17, 2026 open session meeting minutes. Vote. Motion made by Selectman Anderson, second by Selectman Harrington. Any further discussion? Being none, we'll do a roll call vote. Uh, selectman, selectman Anderson, yes, sir. Selectman Rouse. Select woman Rouse. Yes. Sorry. Selectman Harrington.

Harrington. Yes. Select with Laboth. Lamoth. Yes.

Chris Gallow. Yes. Motion carries. 5-0. Um, I do before I get any more ahead of myself realize because Mike King Mike King's giving me the dirty looks that we have a public hearing at 6:35. Um, and I should probably go to that. So, we're going to go to tab number four and this is 6:35 public hearing. This is the wine and malt off- premises consumption license application. I think the board remembers there's been a little bit of history here. So, we're going to finally hopefully get this taken care of uh with Marmina the Wondrous Inc. DBA hotshot 60 cell street. In our documentation, we have a wine and malt off uh premises consumption license application. We have got some notation in history with Marmolina the Wondrous Incorporated DBA hutshot. So at this time, excuse me, the chair would entertain a motion to open the public hearing for wine and malt off premises consumption license application Marmolina the Wondrous Inc. DBA Hotshot 60 South Street.

Moved. Motion made by Selectman Anderson, second by Selectman Harrington. Any further discussion? Being none, we'll do a roll call vote. Selectwoman Rouse, yes. Anderson, yes. Harrington, Harrington, yes. Lamoth, Lamoth, yes. Yellow. Yes. Motion carries 50-0. At this time, the chair would entertain a motion to wave the reading of the public hearing notice. So moved. Second. Motion. Motion made by Selectman Anderson. Second by Selectman Harrington. Any further discussion? Being none, we'll do a roll call vote. Selectoman Rouse. Yes. Anderson. Anderson. Yes. Harrington. Harrington. Yes. Lamoth. Lamoth. Yes.

G uh uh Gallow. Yes. Motion carries 5-0. Board members, please don't let me forget being a public hearing to actually ask the public for any uh comments that they might have. I tend to do that. Uh but at this time, uh Mike King, do you want to address the board before we turn it over, whoever's representing the applicant? Uh thank you, Mr. Chair. I believe uh George Zachary is on the call. He is the signatory on the documents before you this evening. Um, and I just want to highlight, um, it's noted on your tab that the proposed hours of operation, um, for Hot Shot fall within the select board's rules and regul rules and regulations for alcohol license holders. That's fantastic. So, George is here himself. He's got no representation.

Yes, sir. George, how you doing? Good. How are you today? Good. Nice to see you. So, we finally got we looks like we finally got this uh uh heading in the right direction. Yes, sir.

Okay. Um I'm going to the board. So, you got the the you got the whole board here this evening, obviously. Uh there's five of us. Um we all have had a chance to look through your application. Um you know, see the there's a little bit of history there. I know that uh the town, you know, reached out to you a bunch of times cuz we don't want any of our small businesses to be in a position where they're operating or cannot operate due to not having the, you know, necessary licensing and whatnot. Um, so it's I'm I'm it's glad to see that, you know, things are finally in order. Um, I'm going to start asking the board members if they have any questions or comments for you. Uh but uh Mike King, if we're at this stage, uh that means that all the necessary signoffs have been done. He's in compliance now with everything. You know, if there are any issues, they've been hammered out and resolved.

That that is correct, Mr. Chairman. And um you know, just to reiterate, uh we had this as a public hearing on several previous agendas. Unfortunately, the the correct notices were not sent out in a timely manner. They have been this time, so the board can proceed. Okay. So, at this time, I'm going to start with our vice chair, Select Rouse. Any questions or comments for uh Can I call you George or should I call you Mr. George? Yes, sir. Okay. Uh for George. No. After reviewing all the documentation, I have no no further questions at this time. Great. Select Man Anderson. Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, so George. Yes, sir. Are you looking to expand?

Absolutely not. The main reason I want to get back my license is to sell the store. I've had health issues, multiple strokes, and uh being staying in retail is just it was not for me. So, I'm actually planning on selling the store as as soon as I get the license, at least put it in the market. Okay. Um Mr. Chairman, can I ask a question to uh Mike King? Of course you can. Yeah. Mike, how many licenses do we have?

Uh so, we we we are at a point where we do have a surplus. Amanda can comment um to the exact number, but this this is not a situation where um this license that they're applying for is the only one available because they are looking for a wine and malt only. So, beer and wine um which we have a a number of. What we do not have is all alcohol off- premise licenses. Um those are currently all um spoken for. Okay. Thank you. No further questions, Mr. Chair. All right. Thank you, Selectman Harrington. Thank you, Mr. So, so this is the little the liquor store attached to the pizza place. It's just

for the It's not for on premise consumption at all. It's just for beer and wine to go. Yes, sir. And I see that in 2022 and was it 2022 and 2024 there was a violation for underage sales. Am I reading that right? I believe there is a one violation. I I don't remember a second violation. All right, you're you're right. That was in 24 and one violation. Select guarantee. It was uh I think the ABCC issued a warning with no other disciplinary action, I think.

Yep. No, no further questions. Okay. No, good question though. I saw that as well. Uh uh selectman Lamoth. No questions at this time. Uh, George, so I I just want to say I'm sorry. Are you still there? Where'd he go? Is he still there? I just lost him. George, you there? Oh, he might. Are you George? Hi. You still there? Yeah. Sorry. Excuse me. I got disconnected. I'm so sorry. Oh, no, no, no. You're good. I was just going to say I'm so sorry to hear about your health issues. Uh,

yeah. Very, very sorry to hear that. Um, you know, it looks like everything's in order. So, I'll go I'll take a vote from the board. Uh, actually, before I do that, I'm going to open it up to the public because I always forget. Uh, but again, you know, appreciate you getting things back on track, even if it is just to sell. Um, please do us a favor though when you're marketing the product the pro, you know, the the when you're marketing the business, just please let the people know coming in that, you know, this select board, this town holds our small business owners to high standards. We expect excellence, right? But at the same time, we're probably the most accommodating and supportive board and town administration team, I want to say, in the Commonwealth. Uh so if you could just pass that along to the new potential buyers, we'd really appreciate that.

Absolutely. Absolutely. Thank you, George. And at this time, uh I would like to open it up to the public uh to see if any of the public has any comments. and I'll give you, you know, you raise your hand, we'll put a little timer on and you can ask any questions or make any comments you might have. Thank you. You're welcome. I'm just going to give 5 seconds, George. And then 5 4 3 2 1. Okay. At this time, CH would entertain a motion to close the public hearing for wine and malt off- premise consumption license application Marmina the wondrous incba hot shot 60 cell street. So move motion made by selectman Anderson. Is there a second? Second.

Second by select rouse. Any further discussion? Being none, we'll do a roll call vote. Sele yes. Anderson. Anderson G. Yes. Harington. Harrington. Yes. Lamoth. Lamoth. Yes. Gallow. Yes. Motion carries 5. Um, wish you the best, George. Thank you so much, sir. Oh, sorry. Hold on. I didn't vote. Oh, yeah. That was for the public hearing, right? I don't like public hearings, George, but it's part of the job. So, at this time, the chair would entertain a motion uh to approve or deny the wine and mold off premises consumption license application Marmolina the Wondrous Inc. DBA Hotshot 60 South Street. Motion to approve.

Motion to approve made by Selectman Harrington. Is there a second? Second. Second by Selectman Anderson. Motion made by Selectman Harrington. Second by Selectman Anderson. Any further discussion? Being none, we'll do a roll call vote. Sele yes. Anderson. Anderson. Yes. Harrington. Harrington. Yes. Lamoth. Lamoth. Yes. Gallow. Yes. Motion carries. 5-0. We wish you the best, George. Thank you so much, sir. Thank you so much.

Okay. So, we do have another public hearing board, but that's not till 7:00. So, what I'm going to do is see if we can take care of us some some other business. And what I'd like to do is is go to tab number six. Uh and and and in tab number six, this is an interview and appointment of Cindy Thompson. Cynthia Thompson uh formerly known to us as our town clerk who's uh retired. Um and I hear very happy. Uh and this is uh for the Council on Aging. In our packet, we have a letter of recommendation from Kendra Kendra Farling. Uh, and we have Cindy's uh, COA application. Uh, if it's okay with you, Mr. Clerk Harrington, do you mind reading on page 52 the letter into the record?

Yes, Mr. Chair. Uh, March 17, 2026 to Boris Lechman renew Council on Aging member. At the Council on Aging March meeting, we unanimously voted to recommend Cindy Thompson to be appointed. Please let us know when you have appointed this new member. Thank you, Kendra Filing, chair of the Council on Aging.

Great. And on page Thank you, Selectman Harrington. And on page 53, we see Miss Thompson's uh resume. Uh Miss Thompson, are you with us this evening? I see her. I see her unmuted, but I don't hear or see her physically. now. Hi Cindy, can you hear us?

Okay. Um, Mike, I I have I I I'd like to speak to Cindy, but if we're having technological issues Oh, hey. How you doing, Cindy? It's been a while. Sorry.

No, no worries. Welcome to the meeting. It's great to have you. It's great to see you. Um I hope you're enjoying retirement. It's great to have you on uh uh on the agenda this evening. Um Cindy, we know you very well. Your resume and application look great. We read into the record the letter of recommendation. I'm just going to quickly open it up to any board members that have any questions for our former town clerk, Cynthia Thompson. Uh, and I'll you just go ahead and raise your hand if anyone wants to uh say anything or ask any questions. Select Select Monrose, anything to add?

Cindy, it's great to see you. Um, love to see Kendra's endorsement and obviously we know your contributions to town. I think it'll be great just for um the our residents to know what prompted you to be interested in joining um the Council of Aging. Well, um thank you um for having me, board members. Um, and congratulations, Michelle, on your re-election.

Um, what prompted me? Um, I've always had like a kind uh spirit in my heart for seniors. Um, I think it's probably because of the elections and the election workers and, um, that kind of thing. And I I was hoping that maybe there's like a whole new generation of seniors that are coming um in in my age group um that will be maybe taking advantage of the senior center. um in the future um as well as a new development up the street um senior housing um that will be built on Beach Street. So, and a kind of a walking path to the senior center. So, I'm kind of excited about getting more people involved in hopefully going up to the senior center. Um they've always been a passion of mine. I I guess again and maybe we can have some new activities or different activities and u maybe some new programs, maybe some new trips. Um but I've always looked forward to doing something after retirement. Um and elections was um definitely out of the question.

Thank you. I appreciate it. No further questions. Select Bananderson. Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Hi, Cindy. How you doing? Hi, Jim. Uh so, so Mr. Chairman, no no questions. Just want to make a comment, please. Um, you know, Cindy's been a lifelong resident of Rethm and a longtime employee for the town and her her record is impeccable and I have no no doubts at all that she'll be uh serve the COA um as she served the town for many years. Thank you. Well said. Well said, Selectman Innocent. I and I would concur wholeheartedly. Uh, Selectman Harrington.

Yeah, the the Yes, Mr. SH, you know, Jimmy said it very well. Cindy, thank you so much for volunteering. Um, if you put in a quarter of the effort into this that you did into your previous employment, things will go really, really smoothly. Thank you so much. Thank you, Bill. Uh, Select Mamoth, just want to thank you, Cindy. Um, great job and I I know you'll do a great job in this role as well. Thank you. Thank you, Roy. All right. Uh, with that being said, I think she's got a really tough vote against her here. Uh, with that being said, the chair would entertain a motion to approve Cindy Thompson to the cult council on Aging for a term effective immediately and expiring June 30th, 2028.

So, moved. Motion made by Select Anderson, second by Selectman Harrington. Any further discussion? Being none, we'll do a roll call vote. Selectoman Rouse. Yes. Selectman Anderson. Anderson. Yes. Blackman Harrington Harrington. Yes. Blackman Lamoth Lamoth. Yes. Gallow. Yes. Motion carries. 5-0. Now, Miss Thompson, don't forget you got to get sworn. Stop by the town's office. I know. Oh my god. I know. Huh. I've always wanted to say that to you. So, what a role reversal that is. That's Yeah. Take a picture of that. Yeah. Thank you. Well, congratulations, Cindy, and thank you for serving and we'll see you soon. Thank you, board. Appreciate it. Okay, take care.

We have um Bye. Few minutes before the next 7 o'clock public hearing. Mike, do we have time to um We might be able to do tab eight, Mr. Chair. Yeah.

Yeah. T Okay. Yeah, brother. Let's do tab. Yeah, let's definitely do tab eight. So, uh for those who aren't seeing the packet, tab eight is appointments to the housing production plan steering committee. So we have an an important job ahead of us uh later on to interview some of the residents at large for the housing plan steering committee. Um this however is very important but we think it's pretty manageable because we already did a lot of the work and this is uh appointments from the zoning board of appeals planning board and select board. So in our packets we have emails from Rachel Benson um uh about the ZBA appointment. We have emails about the planning board appointment. Um, and we have those all in our packet. Um, Selectman, uh, Harrington, do you mind reading them into the record starting on page 61?

Absolutely. Uh, so this is from Rachel Benson. Says, "Hello at last night's regularly scheduled ZBA meeting. The board nominated Jonathan Mallister to represent the ZBA on the housing production plan steering committee. Please let me know what else is needed in order to process this recommendation. Thank you and have a great day. Rachel Benson, director of planning economic development. Uh secondly, hello. At last night's regularly scheduled planning board meeting, the board nominated Norman Orbin III to represent the planning board on the housing production plan steering committee. Please let me know what else is needed in order to process this recommendation. Thank you and have a great day. Rachel Benson, director of planning and economic development. Okay, fantastic. Um, and we already as a board had discussed and nominated uh Roy Selectman Roy Lamoth to represent this board knowing that he would do such an incredible job. Um, and we had that conversation previously. So, at this time, we're going to do these separate, right, Mike? We'll do these separate. Yeah. at this time. Ch uh by the way, any further discussion on any of these before I go into uh votes? No. Royy's shaking his head, but Roy, you have no say.

I have no discussion. At this time, she already a motion to appoint John Mallister to the housing production plan steering committee as representative from the ZBA zoning board of appeals for a term effective immediately and expiring June 30th, 2027. So moved. Motion made by Selectman Anderson, second by Selectman Harrington. Any further discussion? Being none, we'll do a roll call vote. Selectoman Rouse. Yes. Selectman Anderson. Anderson D. Yes. Select Harrington. Harrington. Yes. Select Lamoth. Lamoth. Yes.

Gallow. Yes. Motion carries. 5-0. Next, I would like to make a motion to appoint Roy Lamoth to the housing production plan steering committee as a representative of the select board for a term effective immediately and expiring June 30th, 2027. So moved. And I'll second that. So motion made by Select Manis, second by me. Any further discussion? Being none, we'll do a roll call vote. Select woman Rouse. Yes. Yes. Select. Select Harington. That's a a hard yes. Yes. I like that. Select Mama. Yes.

Thought I heard him say yes. And Chris Gallow. Yes. Motion carries 5-0. Good job. Uh, last I'd like but not least, I'd like to make a motion to appoint Norman Orbin III to the housing production plan steering committee as a representative from the planning board for a term effective immediately and expiring June 30th, 2027. So move. Is there a second? Second. Motion made by Selectman Anderson, second by Selectman Harrington. Any further discussion? Being none, we'll do a roll call vote. Selectoman Rouse, yes. Anderson, yes. Harrington. Harrington. Yes. Lamoth. Lamoth. Yes.

Gallow. Yes. Motion carries. 5-0. Mike, please advise the the c the uh appointees to be sworn in by the town uh by the town clerk. And that goes for you too, Select the Moth. Yes, sir. Okay. So, it looks like we have three minutes. Um it doesn't look like there's anything we can do in three minutes. Mike, you know, we could you can always start later than 7 p.m. if there's something shorter. So, you could, you know, in terms of some of the items, it could be tab 11 or I could provide do my town manager's report early.

Oh, yeah. You know what we can do, Mike? That's a great idea. Tab 11. We So, this is the discussion and vote on the conservation agent intermunicipal agreement. We have beaten this thing up pretty well. Uh, in a good way. I think we've been um it's been presented to us at least a couple of times at this point. Um, and in our packet, um, uh, we have, um, the actual agreement, uh, with us. We have Rachel Benson. Mike, does Rachel want to comment on this, do you think? Director of Planning and Economic Development. We can open it up to her to see if she has anything to add. Mrs. Rachel Benson, are you with us this evening? And would you like to add anything on this before we

I am. I was looking for, you know, how they have the video effects. I was looking for a voice effect to do a are you with me? Yes, I'm with you. With you. With you.

Um so yes, we have been working. This just came um happen stance uh because we already have a a regional um public health um agent and with Matt Tannis, he had mentioned that hey Norfolk is looking for a concom uh work together. Um, and so this is how it's sort of come up um, in that respect. So, you know, projects kind of eb and flow. You're not going to be, you know, busy all the time. Um, so I think this works out pretty well between and the town shares a lake, you know, Mirror Lake. Um, and we're, you know, we're very friendly with them with other things. So,

I would concur. Uh, and I think as part of this board's, um, strategic plan and goals, we've encouraged Mr. to do these intermunicipal agreements and shared services wherever possible unless it affects service levels for our residents and our taxpayers. So, uh I think this is a fantastic idea. Um we've had an opportunity to have it presented to us. We've now had an opportunity to further read it. Uh I'm going to go through the board and ask anyone if they have any questions or comments for either Rachel Benson or Mike King. Starting with selectwoman Rose. No questions. Thank you. Select Mananderson. I think it's a great idea, Mr. Okay. Selectman Harrington.

Yes, M chair. Is this job going to be posted online or I know we currently have one, but I thought I thought when we discussed that it was going to be posted for other people that might be interested. I'll let Mike King answer that. Uh, yes, it will be posted. Um, but first we have to have both towns agree to the IMA language. Perfect. Thank you. Okay. Excellent question. And, uh, select Malaw. No questions. Great. Chris Gallow, no questions. So, uh, at this time, chair would entertain a motion, uh, to approve the conservation agent into municipal agreement with the town of Norolk as presented and to allow the town manager to ex execute set agreement.

So move. Second. Motion made by select Anderson, second by Select Lamoth. Any further discussion? Being none, we'll do a roll call vote. Selectoman Rouse, yes. Selectman Anderson. Anderson. Yes. Selectman Harrington. Harrington. Yes. Select Lamoth. Lamoth. Yes.

Chris Gallow. Yes. Motion carries. 5-0. Great job. Rachel Benson. Great job, Mike King. Um, excellent work. So, let's get that done. Okay. Uh, it is actually 7:01. So, let's go back up to tab number five. Um, it's time for the next public hearing board. This is a poll petition um from Celco Partnership, DBA, Verizon Wireless, Verizon. In our documentation in the packet, we have a poll petition documentation. Uh attendees, we should have Sean Conway from Verizon Wireless with us. Um hi Sean. Before I uh bring it over to you, I am going to uh entertain a motion to open the public hearing for the poll petition from Celco Partnership DBA Verizon Wireless. So moved. Is there a second?

Second. Motion made by Selectman Anderson, second by Selectman Harrington. Any further discussion? Being none, we'll do a roll call vote. Select Monrose. Yes. Anderson. Anderson. Yes. Harrington. Harrington. Yes. Lamoth. Yes. Gallow. Yes. Motion carries. 5-0. Now chain a motion to wave the reading of the public hearing notice. So moved. Second. Second. Second by motion made by selectman. Second by selectman Harrington. Any further discussion? Being none, we'll do a roll call vote. Sele yes. Anderson, yes. Harrington, Harrington, yes. Lamoth, Lamoth, yes.

Gallow, yes. Motion carries 5-0. Public hearing is now open. Please remind me to ask the public for input. And I turn it over to Sean Conway.

Thank you, chair. Thank you, members of the board, for taking your time to uh to listen to this petition this evening. Uh what we have here is a proposal to install a small cell wireless facility on an existing utility pole at approximately 55 Foxboro Road. The uh equipment will be attached to the existing pole like I said that we use a meter, a load center and we have a bracket that will be on the pole that will hold our radios and then at the top of the pole there'll be a canenna um a cylinder cantenna. It's about 24 in tall and 15 inches in diameter. What the small cells is doing, we're bringing it in to to assist our network. As you guys know, that the the area gets very busy during events at Gillette Stadium. It's also an area that we have some capacity issues. So, what we do is we put a small cell in that area. It handles the traffic that's in within that small area. allows our tower to kind of go back and spread its signal rather than being focused on that one one area that gets a lot of traffic. So, it helps our our network overall, not just in this area, but also allows our bigger sites to kind of do more work when they don't have to focus on such a an area of capacity.

Okay. Um, so this is a it's a it's a w it's a like a w a cell phone booster kind of service. It's Yep. Verizon wireless. It's a small cell booster. I mean, it's a small it's a it's part of a it's basically a small tower. It does doesn't do quite what a tower would do. Um, it just has the small antenna. We can have a small number of uh people attached to it. But, uh, like I said, it does help with the uh the congestion that we get on the on the network in the area. And is this does this have anything to do with the World Cup coming to uh

It's part of part of the reason we're putting in there because the World Cup was coming to town. We've been told by FIFA and uh Gillette Stadium that there's a lot of uh that we should expect a lot of people in the area. It's an area that where we get we get overloaded during any events over at Gillette Stadium. So it, you know, it's it's an area of pro a problem area for us in general. And Sean, uh million-dollar question here. Is this you going to keep this up permanently? Yes, that's the plan. Yeah. Once this becomes part of our network, it's it's it's baked into our network and it's it's it's a part of our network that we'll we'll always want to be using. Excellent. I'm going to open it up to the board members, ask any questions or concerns or comments. Starting with Selectwoman Rose.

Well, I'll say you asked my question. I'm good to go. Thank you. Okay. Selectman Anderson. Yeah. No further questions, Mr. Chair. Selectman Harrington. Uh, no. The uh the question about being permanent was and and I assume it's just to help with being a that area is a dead zone quite often. Yep. Definitely. It's going to help with with with coverage and and capacity in that area. Correct. Okay. Thank you. Select man Lamoth. Sean, do you think you'll have any uh locals um upset with the the visual of that? It appears to be in the trees by the side of the road, but uh would there be any residents that would take exception of this, do you think?

I can't speak for for what the residents may or may not think. I mean, what we try to do is hide them in plain sight. The the equipment that's up there looks like a lot of stuff that you would see on an existing utility pole. Kind of like a transformer and other equipment that you might see somewhere else on on a on a utility pole. Yeah. I mean, it's not in front of anybody's home, right? Yeah, that's why. Okay, got it. Thank you.

Good question. Uh, uh, let's open it up to the public before I forget to do that. Uh, if there's any members of the public that would like to, uh, address, uh, Mr. Conway from Verizon Wireless, um, please raise your hand, state your name and address, and we'll gladly have you address Mr. Conway. Let's give it a few seconds, Sean. 5 4 3 2 1. Okay. Uh CH to detain a motion to close the public hearing for the poll petition from Celico Partnership, DBA Verizon Wireless. So move. Second. Anybody?

Second. Second uh sorry motion made by Select Anderson. Second by selectoman Rouse. Any further discussion? Being none, we'll do a roll call vote. Select woman. Yes. Anderson. Anderson. Yes. Harrington. Harrington. Yes. Lamoth. Lamoth. Yes. Yes. Motion carries. 5 Z. Uh, there you go. You're all set. Thank you. Have a great night. Okay. Was that the motion to close the public hearing?

Oh, hold on a second. That's why Mike King is here to keep track of me as my babysitter. Uh, that was the motion to close the public hearing and you're right, we do need another motion. I would like to make a motion to either approve or deny the poll petition submitted by Celco Partnership DBA Verizon Wireless as presented. Motion to approve. Motion to approve by Selectman Harrington. Is there a second? Second. Second by Selectman Anderson. Motion made by Selectman Harrington to approve. There was a second by Selectman Anderson. Any further discussion? Being none, we'll do a roll call vote. Select woman Rouse. Yes. Anderson. Anderson. Yes. Harington. Harrington. Yes. Lamoth.

Lamoth. Yes. Gallow. Yes. Motion carries 5-0. Sorry about that, Sean. The problem is I was going to make kind of a smart Alec comment that we need one of these babies over in West Rem. And then I think God punished me. So there you go. Humility. We'll look at West Rentham. Yeah, I know. I'm kidding. We'll have people complaining that I was asking for privileges. So, please don't do that. But have a great evening and thank you for being on our meeting tonight. Sure. Thank you, chair, members of the board.

Okay. Uh, and Mike, thank you for making sure I didn't screw that up. Um, let's move on. I think now is a good time to move on to the interview and interviews and appointments uh uh for the uh housing production steering committee, the residents at large. That's tab number seven. Now, let me let me just um preface this by saying even though the there's a it says motions in the to a point in the packet. Um it's come to our attention that at least one of the applicants was not able to be with us this evening and we think this is a very important uh group that we're forming the steering committee and we want to allow the board to interview uh all four applicants uh because there's only three slots board. So tonight we're going to interview three of the four applicants. We're going to have the fourth applicant and we're going to take good notes and we're going to remember. So, I encourage everyone to take good notes because next meeting we're going to interview the last applicant that couldn't be with it here this evening and then we're going to either vote to to approve three of them uh for the three positions or if we don't if we think that you know we need to get cast a wider net the board has the option to do that as well. Okay, does that make sense to everybody? Okay. So, at this time, uh I believe we have with us this evening, uh Craig Garcia, Crystal Burrows, and Michael John's. Uh if we do, I would like to start with um just because it's in the order here, and I believe Amy Jones wasn't able to make it this evening. Is that correct, Mr. King?

That is correct, Mr. Chair. Okay. So, just this this is no special order here, but uh in our packets, Craig Garcia was the next applicant. So, um, can we ask Craig Garcia to unmute, um, and, uh, introduce yourself to the board? How you doing tonight, Mr. Garcia? Good. Hello. Hello to the board.

Hello. Welcome to our meeting. Um, you're here to discuss, uh, the steering committee for the housing production. Um, we, as you heard me say, three members were able to come tonight. One wasn't. So, we're interviewing you and the other and the two members that were able to come. We're going to take good notes. We're going to interview the the the remaining member at our next meeting and then we're going to do some voting. So, uh before I open it up to the uh board members, Mr. Garcia, do you mind just giving us a quick intro about you? Um you know, maybe touch on your your relevant experience, if any, and if not, that's okay, too. Um and why you think you'd be a good fit for this steering committee, sir.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean I think um so quickly my background essentially I worked uh in corporate as a UX person. So I worked in a job that really defined user needs and worked on systems and solving problems. I built and led teams in a corporate world but in a parallel uh path I um I have had 25 years providing housing. So I own and manage uh rental properties and uh so I think my experience with working in that area has really given me a lot of empathy towards essentially what are resident needs? Uh what are people looking for? I meet I meet you know people of all types that require housing and it's really made me um uh pretty passionate about housing and what people are looking for and and how I could probably participate. You know I've in in 25 years I've probably dealt with hundreds of tenants. So, I've come across lots of problems. I've dealt with lots of regulatory things in different communities. So, these are all things that um I'm familiar with, but more about than that is just I've I've lived in town for 10 years, but my family has the long history of being active in the RenaM community. My family, extended family, has been in the town for probably about 80 years. Um, so I'm just at a point in my life where I I do have a little more free time. I do have a small business in town, but I it does offer me some more free time to participate and help. I'm I'm volunteering right now also with the conservation commission as well, trying to do some things to help them out. So, I'm really looking to uh be more involved with town activities and with a background in housing and a background in solving user problems um from a UX background. Uh I think it's a good fit when you marry those two together.

I concur. I think that's uh great information. just a selfish uh question. Um you don't probably don't know much about me uh if anything outside of this meeting, but I'm also actually in the real estate environment and I actually uh just well a couple years ago just got finished selling off a portfolio of real estate. Um where do you where do you own and operate your multif family homes? Uh I have uh buildings in Quinsey and South Boston and Andover. Great. Good for you. Good for you. Excellent. Okay. So, uh, with that being said, I'm going to open it up to the other board members for any questions or comments, starting with Select Woman Rouse.

Thank you. Thank you, Craig. Thank you for your interest in in the steering committee. I have a question for you. In reading your application, I'd love to hear a little bit more about your thoughts when you mention um uh complex planning. What do you see as being complex within the uh housing planning process? How would you describe that? Well, I think right now, I mean, I know the town is in safe harbor, but I think, you know, the HPP is going to be an interesting role going forward because we're on the edge of falling out of Safe Harbor. And with the MBTA housing um the that being now law and I know we need to be compliant with that there's going to be certainly um you know we have the zoning already the sites already selected but how the planning committee can define some guard rails for future development in town whether it's part of the MBTA planning or whether it's just new developments in town how do we look at um defining the character of the town people talk a lot about character within the town. How do we define that as guardrails uh that can support the planning committee in terms of future development in town? But I think the most complex one might be the MPTA housing, which I know is a strong um people feel very strongly about. But how we comply with that I think can be hopefully something that um complies more with what the the residents would be looking for as opposed to, you know, big monolith buildings. I think we can be more creative in how we approach uh dense housing should the time come. And maybe that requires getting ahead of the problem and putting some guard rails around types of development that looks more like middle housing as opposed to large, you know, a large kind of 100 unit, you know, block of a building.

Okay. Thank you. Great. Uh Select Manison. Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um I think Mr. Garcia's background is impressive and I thought he expressed himself very uh eloquently so I've got no further questions. Okay, great. Uh selectman Harry. Yeah, thank you Mr. Chair. So yeah, thank Mr. Garcia for you know volunteering and wanting to get involved. Uh we are currently in compliance with MBTA and you know I clearly like your uh your approach of putting some guardrails in place and something other than cookie cutter um when and if the time comes uh for a project like that.

Yep. Great. Yeah, I'm pretty I definitely would hope that um there'd be more opportunity to look at, you know, things that they they consider more like pocket neighborhoods or middle housing that are things that you can still get some should the day come. I know the town rather not see something develop, but should it come, I think it' be you can really get creative with how you get more dense housing that feels within character of the town. First, I think we have to define really what character means for the town, but I think we all have a similar idea of what that means. Yes. Very good. Thank you. Okay. Um, thanks Bill. Uh, select on the moth.

Craig, I hope I can call you Craig because if uh you do get uh voted in, then we'll be working together very closely. But I love the comments about character and I think we need to be very concerned about what that looks like and defining it as you've said. So, uh, no, no further questions, but great comments. Yeah. Great.

Great. Um, Craig, just one follow-up question for me. Being so, uh, you know, experienced, I think you're pretty experienced in housing and multif family ownership. You know, when you talk about character to town like Rentham, you know, you mentioned things, you know, when people mention things like MBTA communities, you said is a hot button topic, and I would obviously agree. Um, I think if you've ever watched one of our board's meetings, I think you can find out what this board's position was and is on the MBTA zoning. What about, you know, what's your opinion on things like, you know, affordable housing?

I mean, I think affordable housing can be dealt with in different ways. I mean, I think affordable housing is important. Um, and because I think this town specifically, we have a lot of seniors that probably want to downsize but stay in the town. Um, so one way you can one way to is increase supply, right? So, if we increase supply, that can be opening up larger homes with seniors moving into smaller. There's just nowhere for people to move. Also, we have workforce employment people that would like to stay in town and young families that want to start but maybe can't afford some of the new developments that are going up around town. Uh we're seeing a lot of large developments going up that I don't think anybody would call them necessarily affordable. Um, so I think that's where there's opportunities perhaps uh to put in um plans where where perhaps new housing can be uh fit the character of the town might be something that fits some of the resident needs of the town so we can have more people stay in town instead of have to leave.

No, very very fair. And I should have been more clear because as you know when you say affordable housing it's confusing. You could talk affordable housing and I know Rachel has these like big A, little A, but like affordable housing meaning lowerriced housing or deed restricted housing based on income or things like that. That's what I was just kind of wondering what your opinion was.

Yeah. No, I mean I think I'm not sure about deed restricted, but uh I definitely think we do have a lack of middle housing in the town. So, um maybe it's just opening up more zoning toward that. But, you know, whether the MBTA thing comes forward and becomes an actual uh development, I would hope that that would reflect the character of the town, then some of the things we've seen go up in Plainville and Foxboro. Um but I think to do that means we have to define what that character is and that MVDA project would be working toward affordable housing.

Great. I appreciate the clarification. Um, appreciate the answers. Anything else you want to say before we move on? But I think you did a great job uh expressing yourself to us, your experience, and you know why you think you'd be a good uh member on this committee? Uh, no, I just think I'd be a really good listener and collaborator and I think I'd help develop a plan that was practical and um would reflect the needs of the community. you know, with my UX background, I think a lot of that is understanding user needs and in this case it would be resident needs and perhaps um I could help, you know, be an outreach to the community and find out what those needs might be.

Oops. Sorry. I want to thank you, Mr. Garcia, for your time. I appreciate the input and uh we're going to move on to the next applicant. Um but um yeah, once again, appreciate your time. Thank you so much for being with us this even. Great. Thank you very much. Okay. Uh at this time, do we have Crystal Burrows with us? Hi, good evening. Hi. Good evening, Crystal. How you doing this evening? Camera here. I'm good. How are you? Thank you for having me. Fantastic. The second I unmute my dogs are

That's okay. We're We're all dog lovers here. Um so, thanks for being here with us, Crystal. Similar format. There's no like, you know, magic bullet or anything like that. We just want to get to know you a little bit. Um, so do you mind before I open it up to the board members for questions, just give us a little bit about your background, professional, you know, as it maybe relates or doesn't relate to housing, uh, if uh, and why you think you'd be a good uh, addition and member on the steering committee.

Thank you for having me. Uh, professionally, I am an executive vice president of a general contracting firm and we specialize in public construction. So, schools, libraries, fire stations, and multif family housing. We do a fair amount of work for nonprofits that are developing um housing housing in and around Quinzy and the Dorchester area. I've been there for 20 years. I've been a project manager, an estimator. I've led our operations teams, and recently, within the last year and a half, I was promoted to executive vice president. In terms of why I want to do this, I think it's a good time in uh my life family-wise. Our children are in middle school and high school and um I finally have a little bit more time and I'd like to give back to the community. We've lived in Rentham for almost four years now. Previously, we lived in Planeville for eight years and um just hoping to contribute back to the community. Uh well, welcome to Rentum. Glad you've been here for four years. Um great to have you from Planeville, other great community, but obviously we think Rentham's just a touch better. Uh thank you for all your uh you know uh the willingness to be involved. And at this time, I'm going to open it up to the board members to ask any questions that they might have. Starting with uh Select Woman Rose.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Crystal, nice to meet you. Thank you for being here this evening. I'd love to hear from you what you see as um your vision and priority for housing in Rentham.

Um I would say that I know from my own street we have a lot of um larger houses and um not a lot of families living in them. And in talking with the neighbors, a lot of the conversation is around where are they going to go? They've raised their kids. They've gone through college. they're out on their own and there isn't really a lot of options for them and they want to be able to stay in Renthm. So, uh, coming from, you know, a mother that has young kids, we love the, utham schools. We love the KP district. I'd like to be able to see more uh you know, dare I say that word, affordable housing for younger families to be able to come in and then options for people who um no longer need those larger family homes and being able to have a nice community for them to purchase a home in.

Okay. Okay. Thank you. Uh any other questions? Select one rose, are you good? No, I'm all set. Thank you. Okay. Select bananas. Yeah. Thank you, Mr. chair. So, uh, Select Woman Rouse actually just stole my thunder, so I've got no further questions. Okay. Uh, Selectman Harrington.

Yes. So, thank you for, uh, you know, wanting to volunteer to get involved. Um, being one of the people that you're probably talking about that, uh, whose children have flown the coupe and now we live in a a house that's too big for us. um but have nowhere to go because what are you going to do? Where you going to where are you going to go? Where you going how you going to sell it and what do you end up with? Uh so the the idea of having afford uh well I don't use the word affordable but uh downsized homes for people that want to stay in the community to free up the bigger houses is to me that's a big you know that's that's a big project and uh something that should have a lot of attention put to it. Selectman uh selectman Harrington uh well said and if you're looking for a different word because affordable housing is tricky when you say that people don't know what you mean. Uh I always say uh diverse housing stock or um less expensive housing. Not saying you need to say that but that's how I can don't myself um because when someone says affordable housing I immediately think they mean income deed restriction which has a whole lot of other connotations associated with it. Um, so, uh, anyway, moving on. Selectman Lamoth.

Crystal, as a project manager in past years, what was the most complex and largest uh, project that you were managing? Uh, schools within the 25 to $30 million range, occupied fire stations,

and and what was the most challenging of them all, and why was it the most challenging? Okay. So, we did I was a project manager on an elementary school in New Bedford and we were putting a large addition onto the school while it was occupied. And not only was it occupied during the school year, but it also had to be occupied during the summer because they ran summer programs out of there for children to come and pick up breakfast and lunch and then take things home for dinner and kind of provide a summer camp. And as part of that project, we had to upgrade the electrical service coming in and um the transformer needed to the electrical room was in the middle of the building. You know, where the um it had to go I'm sorry, let me back up. The existing transformer was in the middle of where the new building was going to go. And because schools have to open in September, we had to construct the new addition around the active live transformer while we were waiting for the new service to be put in and then pull that transformer out of that building and finish enclosing essentially the middle of that um school. And we were able to do that and um open the school in time with the new addition.

Congratulations. That's great. Well, thank you. That's uh some good insight.

All right. Excellent. Um my my qu my only other question is um anything in particular that drew you from Planeville to Retham and how do you kind of compare the two towns having lived in both with a obviously concentration and perspective on this topic this evening housing and housing production and what have you. So, we were looking in uh kind of all three King Phillip towns, Plainville, Renttham, and Norfolk. We needed a larger house for our growing family. Uh we also lived in an area in Plainville that seemed to be headed more towards industrial. The land across the street from our house was um trying to permit for an industrial park. So, we were really looking for a more uh smaller community area for our kids. We were lucky enough we came across a house. We live on Cherry Street and rent them. So, um it's a beautiful, wonderful street with great neighbors and it was just the perfect option for us. In terms of community, I love the downtown little area of Rentham. I walk my two dogs down there almost every night. I was never able to do that in Plainville. It's kind of one way down and then one walk back on the other side up the street. uh where we really love the little garden area and common and rent them and being able to make the loop around the school and then up by the ice cream shop and back to the little common and

I concur. It's beautiful town. Um well, thank you so much Crystal. Uh appreciate you being with us this evening. Um do you have any last minute comments for the board before we move on to the final applicant? Um please go ahead if you do. Um, I think the only thing I would say is part of the reason um that I mentioned in terms of people needing to downsize is recently my mother-in-law sold her home in Attalboroough and we're in the process of permitting and building an ADU here at our home for her to be able to move in. And a lot of that was because there wasn't a lot of options for her to move to and to be able to free up her house. Um, so it it worked for us. I'm happy for the ADU by right and hopefully there will be more of that and that will open up some of those options.

Great. Okay, thank you so much Crystal. We appreciate it. Um, moving on, we're we have last but certainly not least, we have Michael John's with us this evening. Uh, many many of these board members know Mr. John's um as he's served on other commi community committees with us in Rentham. I think I think most recently was the EDC if I'm not mistaken, Mr. John's. Correct. That's correct. Well, good. It's good to see you. I'm having a little bit trouble hearing you. Can is your connection. Okay. I've got a little bit of a weak bandwidth. It's it's I guess that West Rethm issue.

Yeah, Mike. I've got weak bandwidth for other reasons. Uh but uh we'll go with that one too. So anyway, it's it's good to see you, Mike. Just like we did with all the other applicants, uh if you don't mind, do you mind just uh introducing yourself to the board uh a little bit about your professional experience uh relating to housing, why you think you'd be a good member of the steering committee?

Yes, thank you, Chair Gallo. Um yes. Uh so I've lived in Rentham, uh my wife and I, for about 10 and a half years. uh when uh immediately after moving here, I applied for and got on to the economic development commission uh which I very much enjoyed serving on um until I took a new job uh where I needed to step down. Um also along the way I served for a while on the uh on the finance committee in town and enjoyed that as well. Um so the uh the profession that I'm in is uh very similar in fact exactly the same as as your town manager Mike King. And um because of that I have um experience as well as um you know knowledge in public policy, public administration uh you know engaging with uh communicating with and listening to the community. Um, it's something that I'm very passionate about and I think uh in in uh putting together this document, the housing production plan is going to be very important for the leadership of the community to listen to the community at large. And I know that's a big part of what was put into the RFP. And I assume that the uh consultant that either has been or will be selected will be based on their ability to hold those public forums and um and workshops to uh to find out what is it that the community needs and wants uh to be in the future as far as housing goes.

Uh excellent. Uh Mike, thank you so much for that. I'm going to open it up to my fellow board members to ask any questions or comments. Again, starting with Select Woman Rose. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mike, nice to meet you and good to see you this evening. Um, I think we've heard a common theme in the answers tonight from um two of our our individuals around the affordability for folks that are ready to kind of move to that, you know, move out of their bigger homes. I'd love to hear, you know, your perspective on that and um how you see that as a a rent them issue or andor your perspective on it being an overall state issue.

Sure. And it absolutely is both a town issue here in Rethm as well as statewide. Um I would say that the you know the the issue of people downsizing which actually is the reason that we moved to Ranthm. We came here um for three main reasons. One we were downsizing to a home now that our children are are grown and and moved out u on their own. Um two we were looking for a historic home and um and three we were looking for a sense of community and we found um all three here. Uh because I have a construction background before I went to into public administration. Um I was able to do a lot of the work um that our home needed. Uh nothing nothing uh you know huge but enough to you know um to keep it up. But I I would say in addition to uh the need for housing that's appropriate for people who have uh are downsizing uh to be able to stay into in the community. We also need something at the other end, the other generational end, and that is, you know, folks who have grown up here in rent them um and now are ready for their first home. Often there is not housing stock that is affordable uh to them. So, we have young people in the workforce, starting families, and it is very difficult. uh they may, you know, they may have outgrown an apartment and they're looking for that for that first home. And u finding those that are within their uh income uh ability uh is very challenging and you know look look for example at many of the employees that work for the town uh they find it very difficult to live within the town that they that they serve. So I think both ends of that are are important both the the starter homes as well as the downsized people can stay in the community that they love and adore.

So, I love your um Thank you for that. I love your perspective on, you know, again, we hear we we love our character, our community, right? We all those amazing things that make Rantham what it is, right? To all of us that have come here, been here. Um, how do you balance that when we're talking about, you know, creating first, you know, how do you balance that with creating this, you know, affordable first home for families? How do you keep that in balance when you're talking about creating this surplus that is not unique to just rent them, right? So, I'm just trying to understand, you know, we say this, but how do how do you see that balancing out and how that how that would work?

Sure. Um what we what we need um just like other communities need it is more housing without negatively affecting the uh the character of the community without using up all the land in the community. And one of the ways to do that is to look into innovative ways and one of those is cluster housing. So move move the homes closer together uh use housing density uh thereby uh preserving you know open space and you know what what do people need especially since covid people need community we saw when the world shut down and people weren't able to socially gather and get together uh people were isolated we saw mental health problems what you do when you build cluster housing is you actually build micro communities that people can live with socialize within in uh recreate. Um you know, so at the same time you're bringing people together, providing them appropriate housing options, you're also preserving uh you know, the the the environment and some of the open space and recreation areas that people enjoy here in in Rentham.

Perfect. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. No further questions, Mr. Chair. All right. Thanks, Select Rouse. Um Selectman Anderson. Yeah, Mr. chairman. So, so Michael's been involved in uh in town government for several years. He's got an impressive background. Um I'm familiar with him, so I've got no further questions. Okay. Selectman Harrington.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, Mike, uh or Michael, uh have you instituted anything similar to what we're referring to in the community that you manage? No, actually we're in the process of doing that right now. So, the the housing production plan is is actually um you know, it's past its 5-year mark and we're actually looking for funding to to do the same. We know how important it is and the u our director of land use and I are working on on this right now. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Uh, selectman Lamoth,

you're on mute, Roy.

Um, Michael, I I do not have any questions, but I do thank you for your application and your your good service. Thank you, Roy.

Okay, board members, I hope everyone took good notes. Mike, Michael, thank you so much for your time this evening. As we said to you and the other two applicants who we able to interview this evening, we waiting on one more applicant. We are going to uh interview Amy Jones uh at the next meeting uh and then this board will have the task of uh making some motions for appointment. So, I want to thank yourself. I want to thank Crystal Burrows and I want to thank Craig Garcia for being here with us this evening. And um this board will be reconvening next week. as I said or not next week, I'm sorry, next meeting um to interview Amy Jones and then we'll be uh moving forward with some action items from there. So, thank you again to all three applicants. Um okay,

thank you select board members for your time. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay, great. Let's go to tab number seven's done. We bounced around a little bit. What about tab number nine? Let's go to tab number nine board. Uh tab number nine is a special event permit application uh that's already been vetted for by our town administration and staff department heads for foodies fest at the Renthm Outlets. You know, we've had a lot of success partnering with our our largest taxpayer, the Renthm Outlets, on creative ways to kind of draw different venues and revenue there. Um and it's we've had a lot of great events that I've attended a lot of them. Uh so I'm interested to hear about this one. I think this is a first for us. um FoodiesFest meeting. Um so with us we have uh Beth Smith of Foodies Fest. Uh Beth is it I see Brandy Morgan of Foodies Fest.

Yes, Brandy Morgan. Um I'm Brandy with Foodies Fest. We do have Beth here as well. She's on the lead of our compliance team. Great.

Um I'm super happy to be here. So thank you so much for having us. And uh Foodies Fest, yes, it will be the first time in Rethm. We do produce large-scale family-friendly food and culture festivals across the country. Um, we partnered with Simon Property Group. We actually have a national contract with them. So, we're in about 20 different locations, different cities and states. And this event is um at the Rentham Village Premium Outlets. It's part of that roll out. It's scheduled for July 10th through the 12th. And our goal is really simple. We like to drive strong foot traffic to the property while creating a wellorganized community connected event. We do about 60 to 70% local crafters um small business owners, food vendors, things like that.

Excellent. Uh so tell so how many h did you say how many food trucks you were expecting? Um so we typically do 40 plus food vendors. So, it would be food trucks, food trailers, prepackaged goods, um, and some food tents as well. Fantastic. Sounds fun. Um, Mike, is there also I, you know, I should I should know this, but I don't. Is there also alcohol with this? We do not serve alcohol at any of our events. No. Okay. Thank you. I I know it's in the packet, but I I just missed it. Um, no worries.

What else do you want to tell the board members before I open it up for uh comments and questions from them, if any? Um so no problem. So we we do have um a dedicated compliance and marketing team. Um we coordinate directly with property and local authorities. Uh our loaden is staggered on Friday mornings. We try to make sure attendance flows throughout the day, not all at once. Um and that's for those three days. Um it's a three-day event, so it's Friday, Saturday, Sunday. And uh you know, it's just it's just a great time. So, we're really excited and happy to be coming to your area.

And the times are, if I'm reading it correctly, Friday 1 p to 9p, Saturday 11 to 9p, Sunday 118 to 7P. That is correct. Yes. And Mike, those are all reasonable with the outlets. Correct. Like that. There's no issue there. Uh, no concerns at this time, Mr. Chairman. And I and I will point out um that this event takes place after the FIFA World Cup. Yes. So, the last game is on July 9th and this starts July 10th. That's a great great point. Okay. Very intentional. Yeah, I'm gonna open it up to the board members, but thank you for all the information starting with select woman rose.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. After seeing that it's been signed off on all groups, I just have one question, Brandy. I'm assuming food trucks from all different types of food are brought in. Is like just We do. Yeah, that's actually really important to us. Um what started out four years ago was food and culture just to bring different cultures where we have uh African food vendors, we have Greek food vendors, um Brazilian, just anything. I'm probably tons that I'm not thinking of, but that's kind of the idea. Absolutely. And crafters and artisans as well. Great. Thank you. No further questions. Thank you. Is there any Italian food vendors? Of course.

She did say Greek. She did say Greek. Well, she knew who she was talking to. Homework. Oh, just joking. Thank you for that. Uh, select one. Uh, select mananderson. Yeah, just just one question. Uh, where at the mall? Just got to be stationed. Um, so it's going to be it's direct. There's there's one storefront where the sign is. I only have a map. I was actually reviewing it when we were doing all the other portions of the meeting just to see the stores on Google Earth. I was having a hard time, but it's in a specific um portion that's kind of away um from the retailers themselves. So, it's set out more towards the road. It's about 100 square feet of parking lot that we're going to be taking.

Go to page 68 in the packet and it shows you uh where it is uh in the parking lot. Okay. Thank you. Yep. If you're facing it, I will say it's farther towards that right side of the Rentham Village Premium Outlets um in the outer parking field. So, it's not inside the main shopping lanes. Okay. Thank you. No further questions, of course. Uh, Selectman Harrington. Yeah. No questions, Mr. Chair. It's been vetted through all the departments and board of health and fire public safety. I think it's a great idea.

Excellent. Uh, and to your point, Selectman Harrington, um, on the motion, it will it there's verbiage in there that say says just that. Uh, select minimum moth. No questions. Excellent. Okay, you did a great job, Brandy. Thank you so much. So, at this time, chain a motion to approve uh or deny the special permit application submitted by FoodiesFest LLC for events starting on July 10, 2026 through July 12th, 2026 with the following hours. Friday 1 p to 9p. Saturday 11 to 9p. Sunday 11 to 7p at the rental outlets pending good standing with fire health inspections and police. Motion to approve. Second.

Motion made by selectman. Second by selectman Harrington. Any further discussion? Being none, we'll do a roll call vote. Sele yes. Anderson. Anderson. Yes. Harrington. Harrington. Yes. Lamoth. Lamoth. Yes. Gallow. Yes. Motion carries 5-0. Congratulations. See you soon. Looking forward to it. Thank you. I hope that you all come out. Okay,

thank you so much. Okay, now we're going to go to tab 10. Uh tab 10. This is a discussion about a upcoming Eversource project on Denim Street Route 1A. Um with us we have Molly Cullen andor Josh Nell from Eversource. Hey. Yes, I'm Molly Colin. I'm here and Josh um is here as well.

Great. Molly uh and or Josh, do you mind giving the board a quick summary of this project keeping in mind? Um we're very sensitive about the issues that were uh that happened over on Creek Street. Um we got a lot of complaints about that. Uh so please, you know, give us the the summary and and how we're not going to replicate that would be very helpful. Yeah, absolutely. Um I know you guys have um our presentation in the packet. It would be helpful to share my screen as well. Mike, can you allow to share a screen, please? Uh yes, we can facilitate that. Thank you.

Well, you should be all set to be able to share now. Sorry. Thank you, Amanda. Thank you. Um perfect. There we go. You should see my screen. Yes.

Okay. Um so just want to say thank you for um inviting us to present today, Mike. Um and then thank you to the board for um having us. Um I'm the Eversource community relations specialist supporting Rentham. And like I said, I'm joined by uh Josh Nell, the manager of gas construction um that also supports Rentham. Um we uh wanted to bring this um bring this project to your attention, make you all aware of the work that's upcoming um starting on April 13th um on Denim Street Route 1A. Um so with this being a state road um there are no local permits. Um, so not looking for any approval, um, but wanted to bring this to you guys for your awareness, understanding the sensitivity of last, um, last year's project on Creek Street and wanting to make sure that we're very upfront, um, in communicating um, on the project so that you all know exactly what's going on because we we do understand that residents will often go to the town um, even if it is utility work. Um, so making sure you're all aware of what's what's going on and the the scope of the project and um the timeline. Um, and then of course the need for the project as well. Um, so just to give a quick background of the need. Um, so this project does fall within our gas system enhancement program often referred to as GAP. Um, the GAP program um is a federally regulated um and mass regulated program. Um it came about in 2011 um when federal regulators of the gas distribution system identified um the deterioration of leak-prone pipes um as a national safety issue and then in 2014 Massachusetts um required um accelerated replacement of the leakprone infrastructure. Massachusetts has a um a high amount or a disproportionate um percentage of this leakprone infrastructure just due to the time of

settlement. um in the state um and the materials that were used at the time of um um the gas system um being put into the ground. Um so at the time using um cast iron, rot iron and unprotected steel pipes which are very susceptible to um corrosion, damage from um construction in the area, freezing and thawing of um the ground throughout the winter. So that all contributes to that leakprone pipe. So it is very um it's very timely um and very important to make the make and ensure a safe gas distribution system within the state. So um again this project on um Denim Street does um fall under our gas system enhancement program. Um so just to review um the project itself. So this project again is part of our GEP program. Um it's the replacement of gas main and all the services from Winter Street to Lorraine Metaf Drive. Um the existing main is uh for um 4in unc cathodonically protected coated steel um which was installed in 1958. Um and it will be replaced with a new um highdensity polyethylene um gas mane that is the um material that replaces all of our um gas mane through um through the GAP program. This is phase one of our pro uh of this project. Phase two will be completed in 2027 and that will go from Winter Street to the Rena Town line. Um and abutters will be updated regularly on project timelines um through mailing notices updates shared with the town for use on social media. We have canvasers that are scheduled to go out tomorrow um and um speak to residents uh directly um in the the the project area. Um we'll be

sending out um we've already sent out a notice of um the project and construction starting. Um, we'll also be sending out before the end of the week um the uh the detour map um and information on what that detour is going to look like for folks um so that they can prepare. Um and then I do believe we have our message boards being put out um before the end of the week as well alerting folks that construction is coming um and starting on Monday um as well as what those detours will look like. Um and then the project need um so safety is the main concern um uh that really drives all of our decisions in these GE projects. So aging infrastructure and leak history is something that we look at. Um the replacement of the the um protected coated steel is required to be replaced under GEP. Um and then replacing aging infrastructure with highdensity polyethylene gas main improves safety and has shown um a reduction in gas leaks. So um there has been a number of leaks on this main um in the past few years. Um so again wanting to make sure that we are are maintaining the system, keeping the system safe um and replacing that aging infrastructure as needed um so that we aren't in a situation where we have to have um get in there for an emergency and make make repairs um for one-off uh situations. Um, additionally, we are coordinating with um, Mass Department of Transportation. Um, Mass is performing um, an intersection improvement project um, at Denim Street in Winter Street, North Street. Um, this two-phase project has been coordinated with MASDOT to be performed in 2026 and 2027 to be completed in advance of their work um, to eliminate any potential utility conflicts. Um and then finally just projects to go and timeline. So like I mentioned we'll

be starting on April 13th. Um we'll start with the main main installation. Um and then in August we'll start doing the individual services. Um the field complete will be in September of 2026. And then similarly to the Creek Street project um we will come back and do restoration in the spring of 2027. Um we will be uh shutting down um Denim Street from um Winter Street um all the way to East Street. Um and then we will be um routing traffic down around Emerald Street. Um and we uh have worked with the police department to um confirm those detour details and um police details that will be needed for the detour. I believe there will be four police details on um through through the project. Um open up to any questions. Um and then Josh is here and he can speak to any more um specifics as well.

Okay. Uh before I open up to the board members, town manager Mike King, do you have anything to add this project? Not this time, Mr. Chair. Okay. Open up board members starting with select woman Rouse. You're on mute. Technical difficulties. Thank you, Molly, um, for that comprehensive presentation. No further questions at this time. Excellent. Selectman Anderson.

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. So, Molly, I do have a couple of questions. One, are you shutting the road down completely or just down to one lane? it will be um shut down completely um to ensure safety for our crews as um they're they're working on the on the street. So starting Monday from the center down to Winter Street 1A will be closed. Yes, that is correct. Okay. What about the people that live there or people that have business? Sorry, I should mention it will be open to local traffic. So local traffic will will always be let let through.

Okay. And then the other question is um just I just want to make sure that you you keep in touch with your buddies if there's any type of changes. Uh yeah because I know I know we all reference the the Creek Street project but but that was a disaster. Um we got a ton of complaints. Okay. So I just want to make sure you guys keep on on on top of that so that we don't have the same problems we had before.

Absolutely understood. And I I think we did have um we did take a lot of of learnings um from the Creek Street project and we we've um already sent out those very comprehensive um project start um product start notices. We have the canvasers going out tomorrow. We have the um the detour information going out that will will get to folks right before construction start. Um everything will also go to um to town manager Mike King. um for anything that wants to be posted on social media. We've been able to create some some flyers um with condensed information to be shared out on on town channels. Um and then we do plan to send out um more information as the project progresses um when there if there's updates of um if there's there's any reason for um a pause in construction. We'll be able to send out information for our butters to um have that notice. If if we have to pause and then we restart, we'll have that information sent out. Um we plan to send out information on when we've completed the main install and we're starting on our services. Um so we do have a a pretty comprehensive plan in place to ensure that a butters are always kept up to date on the um on the status of the project.

Okay. Well, thank you. I appreciate that. Absolutely. No further questions, Mr. Chair. Thank you for those comments. Selectman Anderson. Uh Selecman Harrington. So Molly, that you're changing the main and the lines going to the homes. That's correct. So is it does it go down Lorraine Metcaf also or is it just the houses on 1A? Josh, are you able to speak to that? Just don't worry. Yeah, it's just for the houses that will be on 1A. There's roughly 20 to 22 services that we're going to have to replace on 1A. Okay. Okay.

Some have already been uh replaced with new plastic, so they'll just be tied over to the new main because of those leaks that Molly spoke about earlier. Okay. And Winter Street will be open from 1A to turn off of and North Street. Winter and North will be open. So when you're coming from Northwork, you'll be able to take a left on Winter or right onto North.

Yep. And then we we spoke to uh the police chief um about the detour. And I'm actually going to get with them again because I'm going to suggest potentially going down Route 140 instead of uh towards the school to help alleviate the school traffic, buses, and that. Um especially with a lot of the big tractor trailers that go down that road. I think 140 might be the better option and that allows people another avenue to just take Route One instead. Um I did also want to just mention too with the World Cup in mind there is some um language in our permit with Mass DOT around them shutting us down if they see fit you know due to traffic issues or anything like that. So we are sensitive to that as well. Um and certainly we will not be working if uh Rentham will not be able to apply provide details uh because of the events

and I'm sorry that the start date was the 13th and the estimated end date. Yeah, it's uh I believe sometime in close to September. Um and that's all subject to change depend depending on the productivity they can get over there. I'm kind of being conservative with that. Um, you know, and if we can speed that timeline up, we certainly will. Wow. That's five five months for that section to be closed. That's expect some calls.

Yeah. And we spoke to the police chief. If if it doesn't work and it becomes too much of a nuisance, we'll try to open it up to one lane. The only problem is, you know, I was down there and you guys have been there before. when you stand there and those tractor trailers are coming at you at 50 m an hour, you know, there's certainly a concern there for safety. So, just concerned for, you know, the public, our employees, and the police officers as well. Yeah, I I appreciate that.

Okay. Thanks, Selectman Harrington. And that's a very good point about the whole uh FIFA collabor coordination as well. So, I appreciate you guys bringing that up. Uh obviously, you know, it's taxing on our police staff, uh police officers, uh providing security for Rentham, as well as just the amount of tra additional traffic, uh that we're going to be, uh unfortunately receiving due to the proximity of our town, Route One. Um you know, you got to drive through Rethm to get to the stadium. Um so anyway, appreciate that. Let's uh hoping for the best. I understand it's a big project, needs to be done. um just appreciate anything you can do just to keep up with the communication. Um and obviously your willingness to shift as needed if something's not working. So appreciate you saying that. Um did select no select moth. I'm so sorry I didn't give you an opportunity.

That's all right. Just I'm next up Molly. Um quick question. The phase two is from Winter Street to the town line which I assume is Northfor. And what's the projected time frame for that to happen and how long will that take? Josh, do you have a projected timeline there?

No, we haven't really really dove into what the schedule would will be for that. Um, as soon as I kind of put that together in our scheduling program, I can, you know, let you guys know and send you guys, you know, some information on that. I will say it's probably more than likely going to be the construction season as well. more around the April to September, October timeline to try to get as much as we can in because it is quite a long length from Winter Street down to basically uh North Fork Power and equipment. Um, and I'm still trying to figure out how we're going to coordinate with either detouring traffic or leaving that open because that gets really tough from that section trying to detour maybe up 115 into 140, but that gets, you know, it's going to be a lot more challenging because certainly you have all the trucks and equipment going into that industrial park there and then the other one across the street. Um, so there's going to be some, you know, I'm going to have to think about that on how we're going to coordinate that, but it will be more than likely for the season. So I the next question is is what does it look like? What do the pipelines look like from Lorraine Metaf into the town of Rentham? I mean is that something that is okay or something that we're going to need to you know be concerned about in years to come.

Um so no those are not identified as lines that need to be replaced. Uh that's why we are catching it from that point and going towards Walpole. There's lines along 1A that whole way to Walpole that we need to replace. So, we're going to continue on once we get into the Norfork and then the Walpole area, but up towards the center of Rentham. As of right now, we have no future plans to be doing that area. Thank you. I'm done, Mr. Chair.

Okay, thank you for that. Thank you for those comments. Um, appreciate I'm sure we'll be back in touch with you at some point. Please keep Mike King ab breast of any developments. uh and he'll do as he always does is keep our board updated as well. So, thank you both for being on. Appreciate the presentation. Molly, appreciate the additional information. Josh, have a good evening. Thank you for your time. Good evening.

All right, let's go. We still have some some work to do here. Let's go to tab 12, I believe. Yeah, tab 12. We're going to talk about uh an update on the annual town meeting warrant articles, um documentation in our packet, our draft warrant articles, and a memo from Rachel Benson, director of planning and community development. Um you know, I I do want to mention before we hop into this, and I'll hand it over to Mike King if he wants to add anything, we're going to have three different opportunities as a board to review these articles. So my my suggestion would be if the board's okay with it is that we uh look at and listen to the articles this evening and then if you have spec if we have specific questions on article uh numbers send Mike King and I an email um with you know wanting more information on a specific article. What we'll then do is work with the necessary department heads uh and ask them to come to a subsequent meeting maybe next meeting um that we can dive in uh and then uh you know we'll have the opportunity to kind of work it like that. Mike do you agree with that or you want to add anything?

Uh thank you Mr. Chair. I I agree with you wholeheartedly and I'll just u add that you know there there will be three opportunities this being one of them for the board to review the the draft warrant. Um so the board will continue its review on April 21st at its subsequent meeting and then there will be a final review and vote um scheduled for May 5th. Mr. Chair. Yeah. Great. So Mike, who's going to take us through the warrant articles? Um or is it are we going to talk about any specific ones or is this just more of uh these are the warrant articles? Do you have ones you want us to pay attention to? Do you want any feedback on any of them right now? Yeah, I there's a couple that I I will just highlight, okay,

to provide a little bit of additional context. Um, so, you know, you you will see um in the draft that there are placeholders for the animal control bylaw article and the planning board articles. Uh, the animal control article is still being finalized by town council uh to incorporate additional updates resulting from the state's passage of all these law u which increased oversight of kennel licenses. Um and then additionally the planning board articles are accompanied by several supplementary materials um which have been included for reference. Um I would also point out that on the tab uh there was some information that was requested of me to provide to the select board um in regards to the uh secret ballot threshold for capital projects. Um so I was asked what what would the $2 million threshold that was set in 2006, what would that be? um if CPI was used for adjustment um that would be 3,300,000 and the other uh suggestion was well what would it be if we tied it to the town budget increases and that would be $4 million. Um so that you have two reference points there as um for the select board in terms of consideration for that warrant article. Um we don't we I do not need exact direction this evening on which way the board would like to go for that article. Um but we will just need to come uh to a consensus u by the May 5th of date when the board will be voting to approve the warrant. Okay, great. Um so I would say the action item is like I said originally at our leisure we can look through these warrant articles. We can make a list of questions, comments, concerns that we have. I would uh recommend an email to Mike King and myself and then we can get them addressed uh for our next select board meeting. Mike, is that a do you agree with that uh action item?

Uh yeah. Yes, Mr. Chair, I agree with that course of action. And what about the board members? Is everyone comfortable with that? Yes. Yes. Okay, then let's do that. Um with that being said, I think we can move on. Anyone have anything else on the warrant before we move on? Just one question. do it to these. Will they need to be wet signatures or when the time comes? My understanding is that this would be allowable to be a uh a digital signature, but I will double check with the town clerk for her preference. Okay, thank you.

Great. Good question. Um what's next here then? Um it looks like we're tab 13. Mike King, is that your fiscal 27 budget presentation? It is Mr. Chairman. Well, please take it away. All right. I'm going to share the presentation now.

Amanda, can you allow me to share There we go.

All right. So, hopefully you'll be able to uh see the slides right now. We'll walk through the the FY27 uh town manager budget as proposed. U so just looking at the uh the budget presentation um you know this slide is the is the budget mission so it just shows you overall you know what are the core values that go into the overall budget process as we start the draft development um so it's maintain structural balance deliver adequate level of services improving the quality of life for rent citizens um maintaining reasonable consistency the tax burden transparency which we for our GFO budget document, sustainability and truth and budgeting. Um so before the board right now is the budget process. Um so it began with department heads request being submitted by February 2nd. Um per per the budget uh directive. Um the town manager, myself, um completed the the proposed budget on March 26 with a submission um this evening, April 7th. Um the select board has multiple meetings to review the budget um but is required to adopt the budget within 30 days of presentation, which would mean that the budget adoption date would be the first meeting in May, which would be the May 5th meeting of the select board. Uh after the select board adopts a budget per the town charter, it is then transmitted to the finance committee for additional review, the finance committee per the town charter is required to have a public hearing which has been scheduled for May 18th and that public hearing is on the budget. Um and then June 1st is will be the town meeting date um per our charter and bylaws which is the leg legislative approval of the

budget by the town meeting body for FY27. So when we talk about financial sustainability we always look to our reserves. Um you know the town has had some success in continuing to fund reserves from non-recurring revenue specifically being free cash. Um, so we have our general stabilization fund, um, which is over $3 million at this point, um, for the town's financial policies. Our goal is to tie that to a minimum of 5% of the operating budget, which the town has been able to do. Uh, capital stabilization fund, that's to smooth debt. It's currently at $54,000. uh previously was several million dollars, but the town dedicated some of that funds towards the DPW uh building um to limit the amount of debt that would have to be uh taken out on that project, which also allowed the DPW project to move forward without a tax increase. Um and then we have our OPED trust of postemployment benefits. So that's for retiree health insurance, which currently stands at $1.4 million. Um and then the the town continues to fund capital outlay in its operating budget from retiring debt principle and interest. Um this is a best practice that has been identified by our auditors as as a very much a positive. And as debt is paid off, it goes towards capital outlay. So it's continued to use for capital resources and is not absorbed into um the operating budget for personnel costs. So there will be a dedicated fund towards capital on any given year. So, here's the overall budget overview. Um, so we have before us this evening a budget that is structurally balanced using conservative revenue estimates. Um, every effort has been made to implement measures to maximize productivity and consistently deliver high quality of services. Um, the budgeters proposed 57,785,280, which is an increase of 2.44% overall. Um, I would like to note that this is the lowest budget increase

year-over-year in eight years for the town of Rempton. Um, additionally, I would like to highlight the operating budget is balanced by the use of $1.1 million out of the town's free cash balance. Uh, this is $150,000 less than FY26 um, and is $600,000 less than the town's high point a few years ago of 1.7 million. Um, so the town year over year has made efforts to reduce that amount of free cash and that's part of part of the select board's financial policies. Um, and is a best practice that is looked upon um very fondly by bond rating agencies. Uh, so the town's free cash uh was certified by the department of revenue at 5.3 million, an increase of over $300,000 over the prior year. Um, that's that's good news. Uh the town typically appropriates the free cash towards a general fund budget on a more limited basis year-over-year um towards stabilization funds. So those are the reserves and towards one-time capital items. Um free cash is historically replenished if revenues exceed forecast or if there's an appropriation turnback. So if budgets are underspent. Um and specific items that replenish free cash typically one-time items or items that are not allowed in the budget by do such as tax leans or auction proceeds. So, here's a here's a five-year look back on free cash certification. So, FY26 was higher than FY25. Um, I'll point out that FY24 um you know, that kind of stands as an outlier. Uh the reason being that was from the tax auction for 775 South Street, the Mara property. So, that was $3.2 million. Um so, that that's a significant item. If you if you really strip that out, um this year's free cash would have been the highest out of the past five years um without that outlying item. Next, I'm going to review uh the revenue for the FY27 budget.

So, there are several items that make up the overall revenue for the town. The largest being real estate and personal property taxes. Um that's a 40 46.8 million. Um the debt exclusion. Um that's $600,000. That's for the the Tri County um school project. Uh King Phillip um is paid off this current fiscal year. Um their debt for this the high school and middle school was paid off in FY26. So now it's going to be singularly uh Tri County right now for the FY27 budget. Um local aid that comes from the state. Uh local receipts. Um, that's your motor vehicle excise tax, fees and uh fees and permits and licenses that the town charges at 3.9 million. Indirect charges at about 750,000 from our water enterprise fund. Um, transfers from other funds, so our ambulance receipts account, our our cemetery account, which is what we charge for for lot fees and our septic loan program. Um, so we give out septic loans and then we bring that money back in which pays off the debt. Um and then there's free cash which we identified earlier as a decreasing amount at 1.1 million. Uh here's a pie chart of all the different revenue sources as a percentage of the overall revenue. Um so you can see very strongly that the main revenue source is um property taxes at 80% state aid is 8% local receipts seven uh then followed by our ambulance reserve account at 2% other revenue sources um at 2% and then indirect charges from the water enterprise of at 1%. Um what I'll point out is that the town has limited reliance on state aid. Um which which is a good thing because if there is um some you know financial headwinds that face the state oftent times state aid is an area that they cut which would have less effect on rent as a whole. Uh so the these are the components of of

the uh the real estate and personal property taxes. So for the tax levy. So what you do is you take the prior year levy limit which is 45.3 million. You take your proposition 2 a.5% increase which is 1.1 million. And then we do our new growth estimate. So that's money we believe is going to be generated from additional taxes from new development at $500,000. Our debt exclusions six uh $600,000 which is Tri County. And then we subtract out an allowance for abatement. So that's what we send uh to the overlay that the assessors use to write off taxes. So if somebody has an overvaluation, gets an abatement filed. Um there's an exemption, it gets charged against that account, which creates a maximum allowable levy for utilization by the town for the FY27 budget at uh $47.4 million. So new growth, uh we, as I stated, we estimated it at $500,000. It's based on permit activity and active projects. Uh amounts are conservative and projected at approximately a 5-year average. So we do do a look back. Um and you know with the new growth final amounts are not available until after the budget has presented to town meeting so we get a more of a better understanding of where we are at. Um with new growth come the fall we go to certify our tax recap uh with the department of revenue. So here's a graph showing the last five years of new growth. Um you can see you know historically we've been around this 500,000 mark. So we you know we tried to go conservative here. Again uh we have an outlier in FY24. Uh FY24 was when Eversource reported a considerable amount of new growth um to the assessor's office which created a uh in a significant amount of personal property tax revenue um that came in for FY24. So that I would consider that an outlier.

Um so debt exclusions um you've heard me talk about these in the past. Um, you know, often with the budget, it can be difficult to fund some of these large capital projects within the town's existing financial resources. Um, so oftent times communities look towards debt exclusions which have to be approved by voters both at town meeting and at the ballot box. Um, which allows the town to assess taxes above the Proposition 2 and a half limits set by law. Um, so the debt exclusion amount for fiscal 27 is uh $611,239 for Tri County. You can see here our historic debt exclusion. Um, so from FY22 to FY25, you have uh KP which was slowly getting paid off. FY26 is the year where you have both the last year of KP and the first year of Tri County together. So that's why FY26 on the the bar graph looks a little bit uh much higher as it and then an FY27 projected. Now we go back to just one debt exclusion um for Tri County with KP falling off. So FY26 was the one year where the two debt exclusions over overlapped. Uh historic state aid um so you can see that you know state aid has been increasing. um s you know at a at a reasonable pace um overall um and that's net state aid. So what happens is we get revenue from the state but they also charge us for um subch charge us back for certain items like county tax um which we'll which we'll get into on another part of the slideshow. Um, but the good news is state aid has has been increasing. Um, and we're not dealing with a situation like we have from FY23 to FY24 where year-over-year state aid actually decreased for the town. Um, so it had

less financial resources than it did before from the state. Um, so local aid. Um, so there's there's several different items that make up your overall state aid. Um, the largest of which is chapter 70. That's school aid. Um the states required to provide minimum per pupil funding of $30 per student. Um so you can see that you know the the increases year-over-year um aren't terribly significant considering about how much school budgets go often go up year-over-year um in terms of what that state assistance looks like. um charter school reimbursements. Um so the town does get reimbursed uh to a certain extent um for when charter students um when when the town sends students to charter schools um because we are charged uh assessment for those students going to a charter school. We we have approximately 45 right now. Um and the state has as part of its state aid um a hold harmless provision. Um so the first year that uh there's an increase in your charter school attendance which increases your assessment. There's 100% coverage um of that tuition then 60 then 40 and then eventually the town picks up the entire amount. Um but they kind of do a uh an on-ramp to to lessen the burden. And then you have your unrestricted general government aid that comes in um with a slight increase from you know still at the 1.1 million mark. uh veterans benefits. Um so the town um pays out chapter 115 benefits to u you know some very um needy veterans in town and the state reimbures those at 75%. So we get that back in terms of local aid after those are paid out and then the the t then exemptions pilot and offset. Um so you've probably heard some of the town meetings that we do offer some exemptions um to the community for

taxes. Um the state reimbures some of those to an extent um which we get back in the form of local aid. Um pilot so payment in le of taxes um that's for stateowned land. Um so the town has significant stateowned land that the that the state does provide some revenue for. Um and then they also provide some additional offsets to help with the town's library. Um so you can see here overall going from 5.6 million uh to 5.7 million in local aid. And then the assessments below are our state and county uh which actually went down. So that's a that's a net positive um although ever slightly. And when we go into our budget, we utilize um with this asterk the governor's budget which is the first version of the budget. It still goes to the house. It goes to the senate and then there is a conference committee that brings it all together. Um usually in the most part it goes up towards the end. So, the governor is often a starting point and as we see it work its way through the legislature, uh, a lot of these numbers also get more refined. Uh, so here's a breakdown on the the $3.9 million in local receipts. Uh, the largest of which is motor vehicle excise. Um, those bills go out every early in the spring. U we had so we have 2.1 million budgeted for motor vehicle excise of excise. So that's your your room and meals tax um as well as your boat excise tax at $300,000. Um penalties and interest, that's the the interest on and penalties on late tax bills um that are assessed. So that's $133,000 um payments in le of taxes. Um so those are pilots that uh the town has agreements with. Um so those are uh non-t taxable entities that do still make a payment um to the town of Refam. Um, licenses and permits 566,000. So, those are the licenses and permits that the various town departments charge. Um,

fines and forfeits 51,000. Um, police department um investment income 252,500. Um, that's the the the money that the town budgets to be derived from the investing the town's cash by the town treasurer. Um, other charges, which is your your solo waste uh pay as you throw bags. So that's $51,515. Um and then other revenue and reimbursements. Um so that's some of your rentals fees. So um you know we the town provides an a school resource officer to the schools. They reimburse us for those that shows up in that $367,000 um as well as Gatra provides some funding um for the seat for the council and agents um bus service. So overall that's $3.9 million in local receipts. uh indirect charges. Um so these are to offset charges on the general fund on behalf of the water enterprise fund. Um so we have a a method and formula that we use on how we're going to charge the water enterprise fund for services that the general fund provides. Um that's been reviewed by both the department of revenue and the town auditor. Um and for that amount we have for FY27 about just nearly uh $750,000 just a slight increase over the prior year. Um but that includes you know our administrative fees. Um so for example the the tax collector's office collects the water bills, the water u enterprise fund um offsets that cost to the town for those employees as well as health insurance um and other employee benefits such as retirement. In terms of transfers from other funds, we this this uh identifies ambulance receipts. So annually uh the town appropriates an amount to be transferred from the ambulance receipts fund to the general fund. Um this is to subsidize the cost of the ambulance um for the

town's firefighter paramedics um as well as capital repairs or replacements um for the the ambulance fleet that are charged directly to the general fund. Um, so you know the this amount is a slight increase over the prior year slightly. It's it was at 1.1 million last year. This is $1,170,000. Um the ambulance fund has been operating quite well. And because it's been operating well, the town's been able to purchase ambulances out of um the ambulance receipts account without having to endure additional tax costs to the taxpayer. So in a way it's self-sufficient. So, we've just went over the revenue. Um, next I'm going to identify some of the budget uses on expenses. So, here's a pie chart showing the summary of budget uses. Um, so the largest use is education u 54% of the town budget. It's followed by public safety at 16%. Uh, our employee benefits and insurance uh which is 15%. 8% is general government. Um so think of your town hall related offices. Uh 5% is your public works and then you have several that are one respect 1% respectively. Um which is human services, culture and recreation and death service. And here you can see as a summary of budget uses um the budgets for all these respective areas of concentration for the town budget. you have the FY25 tax rate, the FY26 tax rate that was set and then an FY27. You can see how the budget is um recommended um at this version of the town manager budget. So from 54 million in FY25 to 56.4 million in FY26 and 57.7 million in FY27.

So I'm going to start by going through the individual budget functions as an overall. Um so the first would be general government. Uh so this represents the town's administrative, executive and legislative activities. Um also includes our legal services. Um so objective is to establish and enforce policy collect all the town monies. So treasur collector's office account for all town transactions and process all town information. Um, so I, the town manager, me myself, I proposed a decrease to the general fund budget in the amount of 211,000. So it's about a 4.87 decrease less than the prior year. Um, this is primarily due to the fact that capital outlay funds um, which are part of general government are being dedicated to debt service to offset the cost of the new DPW building. Um I I would like to highlight that the general government budget um does include um updated costs to cover the uh regional conservation agent agreement that we've already discussed. Uh we also have an additional initiative that I'm excited about um in terms of using shared services with the the school IT department. Um so we talk about regionalization um intermunicipal agreements. Um, you know, there's also opportunities to share resources between the town and the school, um, Renam public schools. We've done that successfully with our, uh, facilities department, facilities manager, and, uh, this is another opportunity with, uh, the town IT department. Um, and then the other item that you'll see when you dig into the budget book, um, this also covers, um, increased costs to the town's wastewater treatment plant. we had to go out to bid um for a new contract for that um which has yet to be awarded, but we're we have an estimated amount that we're covering in there. Next up is public safety. Uh so that includes your police department, fire, ambulance, emergency management, communications being the MAC, um

inspectional services, our building commissioner, and animal control. Um, in this case, I am proposing an increase of $527,000 um or 6.16% uh to the public safety budgets over the prior year. Um, so the reason that it's going up 6.16% is because being proposed is an additional full-time police officer. uh a school resource officer. The the King Phillip Regional School District has uh requested an additional school resource officer to be dedicated solely to the King to KP. Um we have budgeted that cost. However, King Phillip does reimburse us for that. Um so that shows up in terms of our increased local receipts for that SRO. Um and then additionally being proposed is is a firefighter paramedic um one to be added to the fire department. Um so one of the select board's goals is to open up uh station two and west ream. Um having additional fire staffing helps gets us closer to that goal. Um and as well this public safety budget includes uh other additional contractual increases related to personal costs. Uh next budget function is public works. Um so that includes the the the multiple divisions of the public works highway um our parks and cemeteries our our fleet maintenance and our water is is contained separately in the water enterprise fund. So this will be just the general fund not including water um proposed for public works is an increase of $78,300 or 2.65% uh to the public works budget over the prior year. Um primarily most of these incre this this increase is related to uh the street lighting count uh costs going up and the solid waste and recycling contractual services as well as disposal tonnage fees per the the uh the three-year contract with two

one-year options that are for um trash and recycling services. So, this is the third year of that contract um that was previously negotiated. Um and the town has two one-year options on it still um which will hopefully help contain cost because when we see when towns go back out um to bid on these uh trash and recycling contracts, they usually go up quite significantly. U next budget function is human services budget. Um so that includes uh public health council on aging and our um our regional uh veterans affairs office um that's shared with North Attboro and Planeville. Um so the town the town manager proposes a human resources human services increase of $13,430 for 2.43% which primarily accounts for contractual personnel increases. Um I'll note that you know the town have previously forming the Metaccom Public Health Alliance in collaboration with Franklin and Norfolk um as uh as joining Runam as a regionalized service um has really allowed the town to limit the increases to the public health budget. Um so you know as we kind of look at this budget at 2.43% 43%. A lot of that is due to the fact that we have this uh this regionalized resource um that provides additional services but also limits the tax impact to the taxpayer. Next budget is culture and recreation. U this primarily is the town library and our recreation department. um which includes the recreation department's management of its wide range of facilities from the rice complex, swept fields, swept beach um as well as park facilities. Um so the town manager is proposing u for cultural recreation an increase of $21,121 or 3.26% over the prior year. Um similarly human services, a lot of this increase is primary contractual wage. Um

but we've also um fully funded some of the recurring library expenses um such as their their copier and uh people counter system that tracks uh attend patron attendance at the library within the library operating budget. Um so by putting reoccurring library expenses within the operating budget, it frees up the state aid for more uh one-time um expenditure opportunities. So our the largest budget uh function is education. Um so education in this case uh includes the the ramp public school districts. So the elementary school uh King Phip Regional Middle and High School uh as well as the regional vocational um assessment which is Tri County um and uh Norfol agricultural school. So the town manager is proposing an education budget of 30.4 million. Um the proposed amount reflects an increase of uh $29,154 or10% over the prior year. I'm going to get into why that amount seems low. Um so the the education cost center is 15.8 million for rem operations or 4.7% um $712,217 more than the prior year to be exact. Um I will confirm that that increase is the highest in the over a decade. So last year the increase was higher the highest in over a decade at 4.4%. This year we've actually increased it even more. Um so 4.7% um for the elementary school district. Uh King Phillip is 12.3 million or 6% decrease $787,964 less than the prior year. A majority of that number over 500,000 is due to the debt exclusion falling off. Um so you know of that 700,000 500,000 is related

to debt. Um Rentham had a decrease um actually a significant decrease in student enrollment. Um it's it's actually a 60 student drop um year-over-year which is leading to a decreased assessment um correspondingly. Um Planeville stu student population also uh decreased year-over-year from FY26 to 27. Uh while Norfolks um continues to increase overall um so due to the fact that Rem um decreased 60 uh students there was actually a negative year-over-year assessment compared to Planeville and Norfolks um which increased closer to the 78% range. um Tri County vocational assessment um two 2.1 million or 4.744% nearly $100,000 more than the prior year. That includes the the Tri County debt exclusion payment of over $600,000. Uh the town picked up two students year-over-year for Tri County. Uh and then Norfolk agricultural assessment of 74,000 or a 9% more than the prior year. Um, Ever Norflagi um, budgets a little bit differently where that you actually only pay for the exact amount of students that they have come the come the spring. Um, so they'll bill you for that. Um, so it's often kind of a moving target in terms of budgeting because you're waiting to see who accepts for the prior for the next following year. Um, so we try to budget a little conservatively because we had a a higher than usual number of applicants um, for FY27. So here's a pie chart showing the education ratios as relation to the overall budget. Um so you know 47% of the town's budget is not related to education. You can see there but if you dig into the education numbers um Refle schools is 27.5% of the overall budget. King Phillip is

21.5% of the overall budget and Tri County and Norfolk Agricultural is 4% um together. Now what's important to note that is that King Phillip um that includes all their costs related to health insurance and retirement um while the rent from public schools at 27.5% um does not include employee benefits or insurance. Um, so there's a lot of accommodated costs for rent public schools that are in that 47 uh percent of the town share. So that's the health insurance, that's the retirement um that's the property and liability insurance um that that's in the town budget, not necessarily um in the school budget like it is for King Phillip. Uh, next budget function is debt service. So that's that's the principal an interest payback on the town's issued bonds. Um, so there's an increase of $341,473. Um, that aligns with the town's debt service schedules. Um, and you can see the jump there um, from FY26 to FY27 is due to the fact that there is a uh, the new upcoming debt service for the DPW building. Uh it the reason it's possibly not higher is that we also had a roll off of debt. Um there was an addition to the Delaney um that's been paid off um that is offsetting some of that FY27 uh in increase for the debt town's debt service in FY27. Uh insurance and employee benefits. So those are those fixed and accommodated costs. Um, so health insurance, um, as well as our workers comp, unemployment, property, and liability.

Um, so there's an increase being proposed of $577,552 or 6.65% to the insurance and benefits budget. Um, this consists of the the Norfol County Retirement Assessment, which came in at a very low 1.66% um, year-over-year, and an 11.63% to the health insurance due to increased costs and subscribers. Um so I announced to the board previously that our health insurance um premiums were at 7.4%. Um but we've seen an uptick um in subscribers which increases the budget greater than the than the actual premium increase at uh 7.4%. So, we're seeing some, you know, uh some employees um jumping on the plan during open enrollment as well as additional f additional people who are um going from individual to family plans which increase the cost. Um and then our our last budget function slide is other budget uses. Um so the town annually appropriates for a reserve fund. Um this amount is is $200,000 um for unforeseen expenditures um which the the town can petition the the finance committee um for a transfer um if there was um a significant budgetary need that couldn't be fulfilled within one of the town's operating budgets. Um there's a reserve for abatements which is the overlay account that I mentioned earlier which is $200,000. Um that gets incorporated in when the town does its recap in the fall. while it's not necessarily voted on at town meeting. Um the state and county assessments um you know these are really beyond the control of of the town manager and are assessed directly by the state. They take it out of the town state aid so they offset that the revenue assessments. Um and then we have our capital outlay for capital projects which is currently budgeted at $166,782. Um, and that's the amount that when we have our our debt service that comes off

the books, it gets moved over to the capital outlay um, for so the town always has something within its operating budget um, to dedicate towards capital projects, particularly amongst lean years. Um, and you can see the state and county assessments um, have actually been decreasing year-over-year in the town's FY27 charter school assessment is $971,000. So in conclusion, um the the town u has before it this evening the select board as presented by the town manager responsible level service spending plan that maintains staffing and quality services. There's an emphasis on increasing the bond rating and fin and adhering to the financial policies that the select board has set. Um there's a continued pursuit of regional opportunities. Um, and that these years of careful planning have allowed us uh to avoid budgetary cuts, particularly at a time when many communities and school districts um have been struggling um within the constraints of Proposition 2 and a half and have been having to utilize additional free cash to budget their um to balance their budgets or looking at staff layoffs as I know other communities in the area have been considering. Um so the fact that we're able to put together a budget at um 2.44% 44% um and not have to use additional free cash. We're actually lowering it. We're actually able to add additional staffing. Um I would consider a measurable success. So with that, I would ask if there's any questions from the select board. Uh Mike, I I I'll just uh quickly say um although we're going to have multiple opportunities to talk about the budget, uh I I want to say that from what I can tell uh from presented tonight, I think there are some really uh really good highlights. I think it's a great budget. It was a great presentation. Um and I think we're going to have a few weeks a few meetings to talk about this. So, I would ask the select board if there's anything major that you want to discuss

quickly tonight, uh, please go ahead. Otherwise, I'm going to take my comments, uh, you know, make take some notes on that budget, uh, that nice presentation that Mike just did and I'll follow back up, uh, with the board members and offer an opportunity for us to dig in a little bit uh, at one of the uh, next meetings. Um, is that okay with the board? Yes. Yes. Anyone have anything that they need to address tonight about the budget or uh take the our opportunities to Roy, you raising your hand? You're uh you're muted. So all the questions that we submit, we'll review every one of them together later. Yes. Oh, great. Perfect.

Yeah. So feel free to make a list of questions, send it to me and Mike. Mike, s similarly what we're going to do with uh with the other um followup for the warrant articles. I would suggest Mike, if you're okay with it, board members make a list of any questions they might have for the budget, send it to you and I, and then you and I can put them all together and and address them with the full board. Yeah, I think that would work well, Mr. Chairman. And we have um you know the April 21st meeting um for further discussion and then the the select board has until the May 5th meeting um to vote to approve per the charter.

Great. Okay, Mike. Excellent job. Again, let's move to the next thing on our agenda which is public comment which is tab 14. Residents who wish to participate in public comment be allotted two minutes to speak and must state their name and address for the record. Uh put your camera on as well please if you can. The time of the comment timer will set via via message from Amanda Vazipolo. Should be visible at the top of the screen and alarm will chime when time is up. Let's go ahead and give anyone an opportunity. Raise your hand. Few seconds. 5 4 3 2 1. Okay, nobody. Mike, uh, back to you for your time manager report.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a number of updates for the select board this evening. Uh the first being that myself and finance director Christine Dupris and treasur collector Kathy Nelson met with Standard Empors last week uh the bond rating agency to review the town's financial position in advance of the upcoming bond offering for the new DPW facility. Initial feedback from the rating agency was positive uh where they noted the town's recently adopted financial policies and overall strong financial condition. Uh we anticipate receiving the official rating from standard impores um on the upcoming bond issuance within the next week. Uh the SK the select board is scheduled to vote on the approval of the bonds at its May 5th meeting. Update on the Sweep Park lighting project. Um the Sweat Park lighting project is currently out to bid with submissions due on April 24th. Um interest has been strong to date and a pre-bid conference and site walkthrough is scheduled for tomorrow morning at Swep Park. Um, I would also like to u alert the the select board to some um DPW work that is currently taking place over at Hails Pond Dam. Um, the DPW is performing maintenance at Hails Pond Dam on Jank Street um which is including clearing some overgrowth. Uh, the town previously received a $25,000 state budget earmark to help offset expenses with the dam and to fund a study of its future maintenance needs. I also have an update on the Route 140 storm water project. Um there there were additional funds remaining from the state earmark for the route 140 stormwater project and the town has issued a second smaller uh phase 2 bid to construct an additional infiltration basin aimed at improving drainage and reducing flooding around 140. Um the phase 2 project has been awarded to RJ Gabriel the low bidder on the initial phase as well. Uh construction is scheduled to for completion no later to June um because the the funds uh do

expire on June 30th. Um, update on the town election. Uh, yesterday's town election saw 947 voters cast ballots, uh, representing approximately 9.3% of the town's registered voters. Um, for comparison purposes, uh, this is less than half of last year's turnout, uh, when 1,927 voters participated, uh, approximately 19% um, in an election that included additional contested races on the ballot. Uh, I'd like to thank the town clerk Anne Fisk, assistant town clerk Michelle Dah, and all the election workers and detail officers for ensuring ensuring a smooth and efficient election process. Yes.

Uh, and the last update I have for the board this evening is we have received the resignation of Rachel Benson, the town's director of planning and economic development. Um, I want to personally thank Rachel for her seven years of dedicated service and for her many contributions to the Renom community and wish her all the best in her future endeavors. Um, we do anticipate posting the position as soon as possible to minimize the vacancy period. And with that, that completes my town manager report.

Uh, yeah, Mr. uh, town manager King, uh, I meant to say this before when we were talking about some of the other uh, items. Uh I I too on behalf of the board would like to uh and let the board I'll let the board obviously uh chime in as well. But thank Rachel for her seven years of service to the community. Um she will be missed. I know she's going to you know another community nearby and um you know she's done a lot while she's been here. Uh you know she's overseen a lot of projects. um some very difficult uh but you know uh I will say that she has a level of professionalism very very very profound knowledge uh of her trade and um yeah she'll Rachel you'll be missed now that you're I see your face uh so I appreciate the time working with you uh I wish you the best uh in your future endeavor uh and um appreciate you uh all the hard work you did for us and the uh taxpayers here in Rena them.

Any other board members? Feel free to, you know, say anything you'd like as well. Starting with Michelle Rouse. I think you eloquently said that for us as a board. Rachel, you'll be greatly missed. Your insights, your experience, um, is greatly valued, was greatly valued here at Retham and we thank you for all your service and wishing you all the best in your new endeavor. Amen. Uh, Selectman Anderson. Yeah. Just want to wish uh Rachel all the best and I wish you good luck. Selectman Harington. Yeah, Rachel, thank you for all you've done for the town. Hard work, dedicated employee, uh quite the contributor to where we are today and I wish you the best in your new end and select moth.

Rachel, I was looking forward to learning a lot from you in my new appointment as of tonight. Uh but I'll I'll have to wing it. So, thank you and good and good luck. All right. Thanks, Rachel. We appreciate it. Uh, with that being said, I'm going to turn the meeting over to Select Manison. Yeah, Mr. Chairman, Miss Hall, good job tonight. And, uh, I'd like to make a motion to adjourn. I'll second. Second by new newly reelected select board member Michelle Rouse. Uh, any further discussion? No. Being none, we'll do a roll call vote. Select woman Rouse. Yes. Yes. Anderson. Select Harrington. Harrington. Yes. Blackman Lamoth. Lamoth. Yes.

Chris Gallo. Yes. Motion carries 5-0. Great job everybody. Have a good night. Thank you. Good night.