Select Board - Regular Meeting

So there's not a lot of background noise. We appreciate that. Uh and here we go. Time is now 6:30. Uh in accordance with chapter 2 of the acts of 2025, the Tuesday, October 21st, uh 6:30 public meeting of the RenaM select board shall be conducted remotely. Public is invited to join via Zoom. There was instructions on our website. As a preliminary matter, this is select board chair Chris Gallo. Please permit me to confirm that all members and persons anticipated on the agenda are present and can hear me. Members, when I call your name, please respond in the affirmative. Selectman Jim Anderson. Anderson here. Selectman um sorry, Bill Harrington.

Harrington here. Select woman Michelle Rouse here. Select Royal Lamoth. Lamoth here. Gallow. I'm here. I'm here. Everybody, uh, staff, when I call your name, please respond in the affirmative. Town manager Mike King, present. Assistant town manager Greg Enus. Affirmative. Thank you. Executive Assistant Amanda Vazipolo. Present.

Okay, I'm just going to open up my notes. Welcome everyone. Welcome guests. We have an action-packed agenda. We're going to try to move as effectively and efficiently as possible. We have a bunch of public hearings. So, I'm going to ask my board members and town manager King to uh remind me, hold me accountable, and remind me to do the necessary steps because, as anyone knows, I struggle with public hearings, and Jim Anderson often has a chuckle at that. So, with that being said, it's great to see everybody. Let's get right into the announcements. In tab one, I'm going to ask our clerk, Selectman Bill Harrington, to go through those.

Yes, Mr. Chair. The announcements for tonight's meeting. Select board office is accepting nominations for the 18th annual volunteer of the year and Henry Carr Youth Volunteer of the Year awards. Submit a nomination form on the town website by October 22nd. Rena Police and Fire are hosting a poultry plunge on Saturday, November 22nd to benefit the Special Olympics. Find more information on the website. Rantham Fire Department open house on Saturday, October 25th from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. A voter registration for November 3rd fall town meeting will be held on Friday, October 24th from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the Fist Library. A virtual public forum for the Rentham Elementary School Building Committee will be held on Wednesday, October 22nd from 700 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. The 25-26 snowplow driver contract is now available. Apply by November 15th to be eligible for $2,000 signon bonus. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

All right. Thanks, Selectman Harrington. I also want to add one. We don't have an announcement for our uh November 3rd fall town meeting. I think that's a pretty important one. We should add to the future announcements. Um so, uh residents, mark your calendars. Uh we have our fall town meeting Monday, November 3rd. Uh is it I believe it's 7:00 start Mike? Right. Yes. At King Phillip Regional High School. Um we encourage everyone we're going to be uh posting the warrant if it's not already done. on it will be done very soon as well as the report to voters. Um, you know, this is very important for all of our residents to know what's going on in the community. Uh, and a lot of very important decisions are made at our town meetings. So, I encourage everyone to please come and spread the word with your neighbors. Thank you so much, Mr. Harrington. Let's get into tab number two. This is approval of the minutes. We have in our packets documentation from the October 7th, 2025 open session meeting minutes. And the chair would entertain a motion to approve the October 7, 2025 open meeting minutes.

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. Anderson. Anderson. Yes. Selectman Harrington. Harrington. Yes. Selectman Lamoth.

Lamoth. Yes. Chris Gallow. Yes. Motion carries. Uh 5-0. Okay. Um we have uh at 6:35 we have our first um signage request uh public hearing, but board before we get to the public hearing, we thought it would be prudent to have a discussion on our street sign policy. Um I thought it would be a good idea to have Mr. King, our town manager, kind of bring us up to speed as how we've kind of handled these street sign policy requests in the past. As this board knows and will share with the public, you know, our board really is committed to transparency. We really try to take a look at the policies uh every time we vote on one. If we see an area of opportunity for us to update the policy, make it more user friendly, we try to go ahead and do that, have an open dialogue and conversation amongst us as a board. Um, so Mike, do you mind just giving us a quick kind of what we used to do uh some suggestions that you know you myself and Michelle kind of came up with for the board and then I want to open up for a dialogue with the rest of the board.

Yes, thank you Mr. Chair. So as as far as a discussion around a a street sign policy, um, previously street sign requests were simply placed on the agenda and voted upon by the board uh without a public hearing or notices. Um the select board does not currently have a formalized process. Um the process that is being utilized this evening for street sign requests is to hold a public hearing uh which includes a notice being published in the newspaper um in this case the Sun Chronicle and mailings to residents um on the subject street informing them of the street sign being considered in an effort to increase uh transparency around this process. Thank you Mr. Chair.

Thank you. So, uh, as you can see, you know, we've done a slight change board to the way that we kind of used to do it. Um, obviously we're open to feedback, um, from all board members. Uh, you know, and as we progress tonight, um, we're not going to vote on the policy tonight, even though we do have two street sign requests. We're going to kind of take the feedback from the board, use this as a learning session, and then gather the feedback, and then uh, Mike will compile that, and we'll vote on it at a future uh, meeting if that's okay. So, I'd like to just start with Select Woman Rouse. Um, see if you have anything to add, Michelle. Uh, what we're currently doing, what you think we should be doing, and just kind of get the get the kind of creative juices flowing for us.

Sure. Thank you. Um, since I was involved in some of the thoughts in terms of of where this would go, I guess, you know, just another added uh recommendation would be to tie in anyone within services, DPW, police, fire, etc., and get their feedback um on on the request as well. But I think that putting um this policy in place especially in terms of communicating to those that would be effective is is going to be a big plus u making sure that's done. So no further information at this time.

I think that's a great suggestion and as you'll notice as well as the people tonight will notice we do have with us our DPW director Brian Antonyoli as well as our police chief to do just that. Weigh in on these two sign requests. Um, so it's a great it's that's that's a very good addition. Um, thank you for sharing that with us, Michelle. Uh, I'm going to go to select mananderson. Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. No, I actually concur with uh select rose. My suggestion was going to be getting those uh stakeholders involved as well. Great, great minds think alike. Uh, thank you, Selectman Anderson. Um, selectman Harrington.

Yeah, thank you Mr. Chair. I I other than the same same getting the stakeholders public safety uh and feedback from the neighbors. Um I have nothing else. All right, another great that's great. Thank you so much. Uh and uh selecting Lamoth I'd just like to see the a written policy so just to have it formalized and be able to read through it.

Yep. I think and Roy, I think you know that that's the intent here is we're we're trying to say what we're doing and then we're gonna take the feedback and then come up with a written policy that we can then vote on at a later meeting. But 100% agree with you. You know, we need to have transparency. Uh we want, you know, we we we never want to, you know, we never want to come across as, you know, one situation gets certain treatment, another situation gets uh a different treatment. We want there to be consistency for the voters across the board and the stakeholders. So, uh, with that being said, I think we can go ahead and open the, uh, the first town meeting. Uh, I'm sorry, I apologize. I'm a little under the weather. Uh, we can open the first public hearing, uh, which is the sign request, blind, deaf child, Gilmore Road. And, um, I'm going to have my cheat sheet here. So, at this time, the chair would entertain a motion to open the public hearing.

So, moved. Second. Motion made by Select Manderson, second by select Lamoth. Any further discussion? Being none, do a roll call vote. Select woman Rouse. Yes. Selectman Anderson. Anderson. Yes. Select Harrington. Harrington. Yes. Mamoth. Mamoth. Yes. Chris Gallow. Yes. Motion carries 5-0. And everyone bear with me. There's a lot of this, so I'm going to move quickly, but there's a lot of this just so you know. Um, now we have to vote to open uh to sorry to wave the reading of the public hearing notice. So moved. Second. Okay. Motion made by selectman uh Anderson. Second by selectman Harrington. Any further discussion being none. Roll call vote. Rouse. Yes. Anderson. Anderson. Yes.

Uh Harrington. Harrington. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Motion carries 5-0. Okay. Few. Now we can have some discussion. So in this signage request for Gilmore Road in our packets, we have a letter from Joel uh Dero. And I apologize if uh that's incorrect pronunciation regarding blind de child sign request email from Tamara uh Tur Turno. Um and then we have email from Barn Antinoli, email from police chief McGrath all in the packet. Um who do we have with us? Uh actually let's discuss amongst the board first. Um does anyone have any questions, comments or concerns? I'll start with Select Woman Rose.

Um, it seems pretty it seems pretty laid out well here in terms of the pictures from um public works and and Brian Antelli in terms of what it would look like. Um, I don't have any questions about about that. I'm just wondering in terms of of when we get there, who's in attendance uh requesting this specifically?

Yeah, that's a great point. Who uh and I know we're discussing this as the board, but who do we have with us for either uh uh is the is is the actual property owner, the the guardian or parent um for this child on Gilmore Road, is that person with us? Hi, my name is Tamara Tuno Duro and I was the person who originally uh sent that email. Um the mother of the child, they live right across the street from us. She's um working she always works a night shift, so she uh can't attend tonight, but I was the one who originally sent that email.

So, okay. So, you're you live across the street. We're going to and we'll uh we'll get to we'll get to public comment. But I I just I'm trying to understand as part of this process typically what happens if it's if it's okay. Can I call you tomorrow? Is that okay? Yes, that's fine. Okay. Tomorrow. So we're just trying to understand typically in this situation you would have the parent of the or guardian of the child making the request. Then we would you know ask for neighbor input or you know stake stakeholder input. Um, I have to I have to ask Mike King at this time. Have we gotten any correspondence, Mike, from the the parent or guardian?

We we have not received direct correspondence uh from the property owner. Okay, that's interesting. Um, so tomorrow, she said, sorry to interrupt. She said she doesn't know how to uh go about this and ask me to do it. It originally had started with just me observing. Um, I have a 2-year-old son and it started with me just observing that people are going down the road way too fast. And then after that, they had moved in with a blind and deaf child. And uh during conversations with her, she was like, "Oh, I don't know how to go about, you know, getting a sign up." And I was like, "Well, I meant to reach out to the town anyways about lowering the speed limit, so I'll ask that in addition."

So, I I actually appreciate you bringing that up. So, just so you're aware, those are two separate uh those are two separate processes. Getting a sign like for a blind or deaf child, there's one process that the board has to follow. Then, when you talk about reducing speed limits, and I I'll I'll have Brian Antonyoli when we get to him speak to this, but there's a whole another process that has to be in place with um they have to do actual data. They have to do traffic counts. Like, it's a whole another process. So, these two are not mutually exclusive, just so you know. Um, I understand.

Let me pause you for a second um and just get the rest of the board members just to see if there's any uh original comments for preliminary comments from the board. Then I'll open it back to you, Tamara, and then I'll open it up to the public to see, you know, anyone else that wants to make a comment. Um, so, Selectwoman Rouse, I it was my mistake. I probably should have had Tamara speak first. Now that you heard her speak, would you like to, you know, say anything additional before I move on to select man Anderson?

Um, nope. I guess my other question is, so she was, was she notified by the town to attend requested to attend tonight's meeting and did we hear back? Um, I appreciate Tamara's feedback regarding the request and taking ownership of this, but I'm just curious if the guardian was asked to attend tonight and did she respond that she could not or did she or did she write a letter, you know, saying that she couldn't respond, but she supports this? Mike, have we got any of that? We we have not received communication, but she did receive notice. Okay, thank you. I have no further questions at this point. Thank you. Thank you, Select Woman. Selectman Anderson, do you have any comments at this time? Uh, none, Mr. Chair.

Okay. Thank you. Selectman Harrington, do you have any comments at this time? Um, no, not not not really, Mr. Chair. It's just that the process seems a little bit confusing to me um based off the stakeholder and then the request and um the followup. But nothing to add really.

I I'm actually I I I'm with you. Uh, you know, my hesitant I want to hear what Selec has to say, but my hesitancy is about I totally understand what what Tamara and the other neighbors are trying to do and I I actually think it's a it's it's a great idea, one that I would probably support. The only problem I have though is without having the resident property owner and stakeholder stakeholder, some kind of communication from them, a letter, them being on this meeting, I just want to make sure that they support this. And you might say, well, why wouldn't they support this? That's crazy. Of course, they'd support this. I just don't want to speak for them. I, you know, I've seen situations where people don't want to draw attention to specific situations. And I'm not saying this is the case, but without having any kind of communication from the property owner stakeholder, it puts this board in a very precarious situation where we have to make a lot of assumptions. Um, you know, and and that's how we get into trouble and and you know, not trouble, but that's how you know it's just a delicate process. So, Sleekman Lamoth, do you have anything to add at this time? Well, I went online to prove that it was a 25 mile per hour street and um you know getting it to 15 it's not going to change much. We had the same situation on our deadend street with a challenged individual, a child. Um 25 miles per hour should be sufficient. Um but a sign would help um if in fact the the guardians were in favor of it. So Roy, just so you're clear though, we're talking about two separate

Yeah, I know. I understand. I don't know that it'll slow anybody down. My is my point. 25 miles per hour is pretty slow. Um but to your point that you made, you you need parental approval. Yeah. Or buy Yeah, I need something from them. Um I I do have Brian Antonyoli with us. Brian, do you want to address this at all? what you know what do you see in the past you know is this and what do you think of our process what could we be doing better I'd like to hear your input

um regarding the blind de child sign I'm in favor of it uh I've I've already been out there I have the two locations that make the most most sense um we have done this in the past on another road in town with the exact same sign that's where I got that picture from that I I supplied to all you guys

y Um, I think the process is pretty clear. I mean, they put in a request through the select board. Um, I received an email regarding this and I I s I recommended they reach out to the select board's office to start the process so they could get on this meeting and um, you know, made sure I had all my ducks in a row ahead of time. Went out, looked at it. Um, I think it's, you know, if I agree with you, I think that it's a slippery slope without having sign on by the actual parents. Um, because I know in the past, you know, years ago, signs, the verbiage on certain signs some people might find offensive, you know, like like slow children sign,

nobody likes them anymore. They find them offensive now, right? So, it's definitely important to get some something from the actual parents. make sure they're good with the verbiage and the sign in general. Mr. Chairman. Yes, sir. Can I ask Brian if that's uh blind de child is the Madison Street sign? Yes, it is. Yeah. And and right at that corner, if I may. Um the police typically park there. This is a 35 mph road. People are typically doing, you know, 39 40 at a minimum. So, um, again, the the the sign may not change people's habits. Just just an FYI.

Okay. I appreciate your feedback, Brian. I appreciate your feedback. Mike, is this something we need our chief of police to weigh in on or should we wait for the uh So, so he is on the call and I I just want to mention that if the select board would feel more comfortable getting input um from the parent before this sign, you could continue the public hearing um to a date and time certain in the future.

Okay. I I I think we I'm yo I'm I'm gonna offer that to the board, but I I while I have everyone, I would like to hear from the public uh because it is a public hearing, right? So, if the board and or the staff has nothing else to share, I'll open it up for any public comment at this time. What we're going to have you do, I believe Mike, right, and Amanda, raise your hand, state your name and address, and then we'll call on you. Um you'll have Yeah, just we just ask be respectful of everyone's time. Is there is there anyone from the public and a butter or a neighbor? Uh anyone that would like to chime in on this? Please raise your hand. Unmute yourself. Raise your hand and address the board. I don't see anyone. Do you guys Oh, I see Tamara. Hi, Tamara.

Hi. If there's no one else, I think I would just like to say a couple things. Um, first of all, thank you so much for uh con considering all this and I understand your concern completely how you know you have to make sure it's the right um terminology and everything. She is completely on board with this. I understand you have to get her approval and would like to hear from her. Um I think that's good. Um I just want to um I I think I I don't know who had said um maybe Mr. Lamoth mentioned that the speed limit is 25 miles an hour. Um, I believe it is not posted uh on the street when you go from Creek Street down onto Gilmore Road. So, I think people just assume that it continues to 35 miles an hour. That's on Creek Street. And we observe people just, you know, going way too fast. Um, and if we can get it even to 20, I think, you know, hopefully it can help a little bit. Um, I know it's it's a different matter, so I will circle back. I had emailed a few times regarding that. I haven't heard back anything. Um, but I'll keep pursuing it. Um, yeah,

I think and tomorrow I think we're trying to establish our policy for the the street sign and then while we're talking about that, we we're also talking about what the policy would look like uh for the the speed limit process as well. So, I we'll make sure that someone responds to you on that and we can get that on a a later select board meeting conversation. So, if no one else from the public You're very welcome. If no one from else from the public has anything to say, I'm going to uh make a motion to close the public hearing. I Mr. Chair, I recommend con continuing the public hearing if you're um

Hey, for the record, that wasn't in your little cheat sheet that you sent me. So, uh chair would entertain a motion, and I apologize. This is not my strength. Chain a motion to extend or continue the public hearing. Public hearing and I and I have a recommendation. What date should we use? Um, so it'll be to a date and time, sir. And so that date and time, uh, so the next meeting of the select board is is Tuesday, November 4th. Um, and there currently aren't any public hearings being held. So you could have it at 6:35 if you so chose. Again, so chair would entertain a motion to extend or continue this public hearing to Tuesday, November 4th at 6:35. So moved.

Motion made by selectman Harrington, second by selectman Anderson. Any further discussion? Being no being none, we'll do roll call vote. Select woman, yes. Lechman Anderson, yes. Leman Harrington, Harrington, yes. Select Lamoth. Mo, yes.

Yes. Motion carries 50. Uh, we'll be back in touch. Maybe that gives us an opportunity tomorrow to have the the stakeholder resident reach out to us, get a letter to us so that, you know, we have all the information we need. Okay. Thank you very much. Okay. Um, it's 653. we do have a 640 hearing uh that we could do really quickly before we get to that 653 hearing. So, if we go to tab number four in our packets um uh this is a um application for license amendment tab in the square one premium outlets boulevard unit 252 change of officers directors LLC manager and change of ownership interest. We have some documentation in our packet and I believe we have with us attorney Elizabeth Pasano.

Good evening. Hi, Attorney Pasano. We'll be with you in one minute. So, at this time, chair would entertain a motion to open the public hearing. Motion made by Selectman Anderson, second by Selectman Harrington. Um, any further discussion? Being none, we'll do a roll call vote. Selectoman Rouse. Yes. Anderson, yes. Harington. Harington. Yes. Yes. Gallow. Yes. Motion carries 5-0. Now chair would entertain a motion to wave the reading of the public hearing notice. So moved. Motion made by selectman Harrington. Second by selectman innocent. Keep doing that. This is good guys. Anyction. Being none. Do a roll call vote. Selectoman Rouse.

Yes. Yes. All right. All right. I got a gallow. Yes. Motion carries 5. Uh now we can discuss at attorney Pasano, thanks for joining us. Can you give the board a quick summary as to what we're trying to accomplish this evening?

Yes, absolutely. This application is for a change of ownership, the upper tier company of the licensed entity um is being acquired by Garnet Station Partners. Um this is an acquisition of all of the Tavern in the Square restaurants, all of those locations in their chain. Um so the license entity is remaining the exact same. It's just the upper tier ownership structure that is changing. Um the restaurant will remain the exact same. No changes to operations, no changes to the manager of record, employees, everything will remain exactly the same. It is just a change of upper tier ownership. Um, and as a result of that, the LLC manager is changing from Broadway Hospitality Group um to Tavern Holdings LLC. And I'm happy to answer any questions that you have.

This looks like it's it's pretty much a formality, Mike, if I'm okay. Attorney Pasano, Mike King, is this pretty much a formality here? This has already been approved by the ABCC. Yeah. So, this has already been submitted to the ABCCC and they have granted preliminary approval. Okay, I'm going to open it up to the board members quickly to see if anyone has any uh comment or discussion. Selectoman Rouse, no questions, no comments. Anderson, all said, Mr. Chair, Harrington, paperwork's in order. License in good standing. No overdue fees or anything with public safety. Everything's in order, Michelle. I mean, uh Amanda, no, they wouldn't be at this point if they had any. Yep, I'm good. Thank you.

All right. Thank you, Bill. Uh and that's a great question though because a lot of people don't know the process. So what selectman Harrington just asked is is there any outstanding fees? You know has everyone you know we go through a process where all the stakeholders have to sign off on these uh on these applications. Uh so to his point all that has been done that's why attorney Pasano is on the agenda for this evening. So great question Bill u and uh Roy any comments or questions?

Yeah I've got a couple. Um, so you said same manager of record and then in on page 68 said previous owner did not log violations. So when you started looking at the logs provided they were incomplete I assume I don't know if that's a legal requirement same thing for the disciplinary actions and if it is the same manager record what's changing

um we put there there should be in the application package all of the exhibits of of all disciplinary actions so I'm not sure I caught that second part but the first part um the LLC, I'm sorry, the LLC manager is for the corporate entity and that's separate from the manager of record. So, Tavern in the Square um Tavern in the Square Rent they have it's 100% owned by Tavern Holdings LLC who is the sole member manager of that corporation that is changing. It's not the manager of record who's responsible for the sale of alcohol and on the premise 40 hours a week.

So that person staying the same. So my I guess my question still stands. Is it a legal requirement within the alcohol licensing policy of Massachusetts to log violations in disciplinary action? Yes. So, with that being incomplete, there's only information through 2022 on the exhibits you gave us. What's going to change?

Um, we gave all of the We submitted everything from the Is there something specific you think is missing from the application package? I'm just trying to get an understand. saying it was stated on page 68 that the previous owners did not log violations and then when you looked at the the details on the exhibit you provided who is who is stating that my page 68 I think is page 68 of of the data we have says that your page 68 exhibit D for your reference attorney I believe is what Mr. off is referencing.

Okay, hold on one sec. Let me just pull this specific one up. And although I'm very interested in hearing the response to this, Mike, is this outside of our purview? Is this I just want to make sure we're not kind of stepping outside of our purview here. I would say this is definitely digging into the weeds. Um, but the the

I'm happy to answer the question. I'm just pulling up rent them specifically. All of this was filed back in May with ABC. So, they are satisfied with everything that we have disclosed. Um, just because there's so many locations. We went through the pre-approval process with them. But, let me scroll down to page 68 of my packet and see if it's just the same. Hold on. Two seconds. So, the list I have um yeah, exhibit D, list of violations, suspensions, revocations, and then it follows a big chart and it goes from 2012 until No, actually it goes back until 2003.

It's three pages. One, two. Yeah, it's three pages. It stops around 2022. And it was your comment that caught my my my my attention. Previous owners did not log violations. So, I'm just I'm just asking. Is Oh, so let me see if I can share screens with you and make sure what you're seeing is what I'm seeing. Hold on. Okay. Can you see my screen? We can.

So, this is what mine is showing. Um, so exhibit D, list of violations, suspensions, revocations. Um, and then it goes to page one of it, then page two, and page three. So, we disclosed all of the disciplinary action from all different location.

Let's move. Um, well, we'll find out when we start talking about the alcohol license policy. But, uh, it's obvious that something is not 100%. And I'm not looking at the log. I was looking at the page 68 of the original um, information that packet that you that Amanda sent out. So, it may have changed page numbers on your Okay. I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna move this along, guys. Move on. Yeah, we're gonna move this along. Uh, can you stop sharing your screen so that Sorry. No, that's okay. Attorney Pasano, thank you.

And if there is an issue, Roy, we can we'll dive into this either offline or at another time, but I don't think there'd be at this point with the ABCC if there was an issue. So, um, we had a discussion. All the select board members contributed. This is a public hearing, so I'm going to open it up for public comment at this time. Anyone from the public would like to say anything? Give you a few seconds. 5 4 3 2 1. Okay. None. Uh, now ch entertain a motion to vote to close the public hearing. So vote. Second. Motion made by selectman Anderson. Second by selectman Harrington. Any further discussion? Being none, we'll do a roll call vote. Selectoman Rose. Yes.

Anderson. Anderson. Yes. Harington. Harrington. Yes. Yes. Ballow. Yes. motion, excuse me, carries 50. Um, now that we're closed, uh, we have, let me go back to the original tab here. We have a motion in place to either approve or deny the change of officers, directors, LLC managers, and change of ownership interest uh, to the license amendment application for Tavern on the Square located at one Premium Outlets Boulevard, unit 252. So, the chair would entertain a motion to approve. So second motion made by selectman Anderson. Who is the second? Me.

Second by selectwoman Rouse. Any further discussion? Being none, we'll do a roll call vote. Uh selectwoman Rouse. Yes. Anderson. Anderson. Yes. Harington. Harrington. Yes. Lamoth. Lamoth. Yes. Gallow. Yes. Motion carries 5. All right. Thank you. Thank you so much. Have a good night.

You too. Go to tab. We're going to go to tab five now. I believe correct. This is another public hearing. Application for transfers of license hot shot to puff and pour 60 cell street. Um we have some documentation a license transfer application in our packet. We have some attendees with us. Attorney Michael Corey, attorney and George Farhot, owner applicant. Um, who who do we have with us, guys? Before I open the public hearing, we got George. Hello. Hi. How you doing? Attorney Michael Corey. Good.

How are you? How are you, Mr. Chair? Uh, I rep Mike Corey, Foxboro, made up in Gory, uh, representing George Bar hat and, uh, his entity, the, uh, proposed purchaser. All right, let me um let me open up the public hearing just so I know that now who's here. So at this time, chair would entertain a motion to open open the public hearing. So moved. Second. Motion made by selectman Anderson. Second by selectman Lamoth. Any further discussion? Being none, we'll do a roll call vote. Selectoman Rouse. Yes. Anderson. Yes. Uh Harrington. Harrington. Yes. Yes. Gallow. Yes. Motion carries. 5-0. We're now in the public hearing. Chair entertain a motion to wave the reading of the public hearing notice. Moved.

Motion made by Selectman Harrington. Second by Selectman Anderson. Any further discussion? Being none, we'll do a roll call vote. Selectoman Rouse, yes. Anderson, yes. Yes. Loth, yes. Yes. Motion carries 5-0. We're now in the public hearing. You can discuss. So, uh, attorney Corey, do you mind walking us through we're trying to accomplish this evening?

Absolutely. Um we filed on September 10th um with the select board office uh an application to transfer the liquor license held by uh uh Marmina the Wondrous Inc. operating as Hot Shot uh uh located which license is located at uh 60 South Street. Um it's a wine and malt beverage license. Um and uh the uh the applicant had a a purchase agreement uh with the current um license holder and seller. Um uh we submitted the purchase agreement with the application on September 10th. um because inventory had fallen and the seller really wasn't had essentially was losing interest in it, we um we went back to the seller and negotiated a reduction in the purchase price evidenced by the amendment to asset purchase agreement that I sent to Mr. King and uh Miss Vasipolo. Uh and this this was this agreement was signed on Friday um last Friday. Uh we sent it on Monday. Um the uh the application proposes a sale uh for $75,000 uh including the license, the business assets limited uh and the and the um uh inventory uh from uh the current owner to um Puff and Poor uh with a proposed DBA of uh the Renom stop. Um the um the applicant uh has already has a uh uh beer and wine license located that he that he uses at

a location uh with an address of 10 uh Ton Street uh in Planeville. Um uh and the um he he's never had any issues with it. He's never been denied an application. He wants to uh open up uh reopen the shop and reinvigorate it. It's it's essent it's technically still open but very limited hours uh under the seller's uh uh operation. um he wants to reinvigorate it and uh keep the same hours that the license has been issued uh for under the uh seller's name uh 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. uh daily.

Okay. Um the I'm not that's essentially it, Mr. My my comment is uh I'm I'm happy to hear that the uh the the DBA name has changed from um Puff and Poor Yeah.

to uh the RenaM stop. Now listen, I believe in everyone's constitutional rights to brand however you want to brand. But you know, we do have a certain uh brand image in downtown Rentthm. It's a small, you know, uh New England community. Um, and you know, maybe the shock and awe thing would work, you know, but, uh, I think that the the the DBA name, I think, uh, might have a little more legs in the community. That's my humble opinion. Uh, so yeah, I I this is a pretty standard process, right, Mike King? All the paperwork's in order, ABC approval. The buyer has another a location that seems to be doing pretty well. Um, and he's trying to Does he Is he going to keep the Planeville location open as well as this location?

Yes. Okay. Um, great. I don't have any uh I don't have any further questions. I'm going to open up to the board members and then public comment. Uh, starting with Selectwoman Rouse. I have no further questions. Thank you. And uh, Selectman Anderson. Yeah. No, Mr. Chair. Selectman Harrington. Just the hours. Is that the is that what was originally on their liquor light uh, their liquor sales license? And is that standard with other operations that we have licensed currently? Amanda or or Mike King or Mike King, I'm sorry. My understanding that these are actually more restrictive than some of our other licenses currently

because these are just sales. I mean, it's just beer and wine sales. Correct. Yeah. These these are what are called the section 15 license. Yeah. So, they're off premise. Correct. All right. All good. Okay. Selectman Harrington. Thank you. Select Mimoth. No questions. Okay. Uh I have no further questions. So at this time, uh no, sorry. I'm going to open it up to public comment. Uh members of the public have anything they'd like to share with us? I'll give you 5 seconds. 5 4 3 2 1. Okay. No. At this time, Chitate a motion to uh vote to close the public hearing. So moved.

Motion made by Selectman Harrington. Second by Selectman Lamoth. Any further discussion? Being none, we'll do a roll call vote. Selectoman Rouse. Yes. Anderson. Yes. Hamilton. Yes. Harrington. Why am I calling you Hamilton tonight? Harrington. Harrington. Yes. Select Moth. Yes. Gallow. Yes. Motion carries 5-0. Okay. Um, we voted to close the public hearing. Now, chair and entertain a motion to approve or deny the license transfer application for Hot Shot to Puff and Pour DBA Retham Stop located at 60 South Street. Motion to approve. 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. Anderson. Yes. Harrington. Harrington. Yes. Lamoth. Lamoth. Yes. Gallow. Yes. Motion carries 5-0. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I want to thank Mr. King for giving me a heads up that the town would not uh uh would would really appreciate a DBA. So, he was very kind. If you want to open up another one, we could call it blunts and 40s.

No, I'm kidding. I'm just trying some comedic relief. All right, have a great night everybody. We got to move on. Thank you very much. Have a great night. Looking forward to seeing you, Mr. Farot.

Um, okay. It's 6:55 and uh actually it's 7:12 and we have another hearing at 6:55. So, if we could all go in our in our um our packets to tab 6. This is another public hearing. This is a signage request, a no through trucking on Burnt Swamp Road. In our packets, we have a letter from James and Christine Brennan regarding the no uh no through trucking request. We have an email from DPW Director Brian Antinoli. We have an email from Police Chief Bill McGrath. Um, Mike, do you recommend us reading these into the record or can we just call on Brian and Bill to summarize after I open the public hearing?

Uh, you you can call on the department heads to summarize because they might have additional context as well. Okay. So, at this time uh and we have members with us. I understand that we have some abutters uh people on the street and we have the actual uh um uh people that are looking for this, the Brennan. Um, so at this time before we get to that, uh, Chetain a motion to vote to open the public hearing. So moved. Moved. Motion made by selectman Anderson, second by selectman Harrington. Any further discussion? Being none, we'll do a roll call vote. Sele yes. Anderson. Anderson's yes. Lamoth, yes. Gallow. Yes. Motion carries 5-0. Now the chair would entertain a motion to vote to wave the reading of the public hearing notice.

So moved. Motion made by Selectman Harrington. Second by selectman Anderson. Any further discussion? Being none, we'll do a roll call vote. Selectwoman Rouse, yes. Anderson, yes. Yes. Yes. Gallow, yes. Motion carries 5-0. Now we can con now we can discuss. Okay. So, do we have uh the Brennan's with us? Yes. Yes. Hi, Mr. Mrs. Brennan. Uh, welcome. Welcome to our meeting. Um, I see you're at town hall. I hope you're comfortable. And I would ask you to please give us, you know, your version, uh, quick summary of kind of what we're doing here, what got us here, and what you're looking for us to do for you.

Uh, we're looking for a no through trucking sign. Um, these trucks have been running like round the clock. Uh, Saturdays, Sundays, holidays. Um, I mean, trying to get them to go slow in my standards. My my standards would be 25, 30, and I think they're going faster than that. Um, the police did put up a speedboard which I think it slows down the traffic a little bit, but now they switch it over to the other street. I mean to the other side of the street and now you can see the trucks. They're kind of going slow on that side of the street and they kind of pick up the pace on mine. It's kind of you're just not these trucks are not going to go away because where they're going down the street, they're getting paid for every load that they're taking down there and I don't see it going away anytime soon. Okay, Mrs. uh Mrs. Brennan, anything to add?

Um, yeah, the fact that they are running 247 and they are going out of state. They're running down to Adams Farm in Cumberland. Okay. Getting torn up. We're dealing with the traffic, the noise. Okay. I appreciate that. When they do

I'm sorry, sir. Go right ahead. When they do run, they they go round the clock, too. I mean, every two hours. I mean, talking every two hours. Round the clock. I mean, to a through a residential. They're just cutting through our section of Burn Swap Road to get to this business in Rhode Island. I says, I I just don't see the urgency for them to to cut through our neighborhood anyway. I mean, it's not a truck route. The truck uh is probably like 10 feet wide. This road when they go down the road, if you follow the truck is constantly over the yellow line. I mean, a car just hit the telephone pole in front from in front of my house, sideswiped that kept on going. If you went out and measured one side of the road, it's it's actually more narrow than the other side. So, when you come off of 121 and you take a left on the Burn Swamp Road, you come around that corner, that truck is definitely over the line. I mean, such a hazard. We have so many people that walk their dogs, um, joggers. Uh, there's a retired judge that walks every day down there. I mean, and these trucks don't slow down for anybody because I've been out there mowing my lawn on the edge of the road. They won't slow down. They don't even move over. He just keeps coming. I get out of his way. I mean,

okay, I'm going to I appreciate the I appreciate the context. I'm going to uh ask you just to pause for a second. I want to bring our uh our DPW director and police chief in on this. I think both of them are uh very heavily involved and then I'm also going to open it up to the board and then public comment. Um so uh Brian, I see an email Brian Antonoli, DPW director, I see an email in the packet uh that you sent us and Mike um can you just summarize this and and what is your experience and what is your your take on all this, Brian? All right. I I assume you're talking to the email where I mentioned that it's it's a doable process but lengthy.

Yeah. Mass do just summarize the mass dot email for us. And also what is your opinion like is do we have precedent to do this in our town and and and and if we did do this where would those trucks go? I mean wouldn't they they still have to get to where they're going. So how

Dan the first I mean I there's definitely heavy truck traffic down there. I've gone down. I've seen it. Um they're, you know, they're not exaggerating. I think it is an issue. I definitely feel for them. Uh how having said that though, it's we can't just have the select board can't just vote to put a sign up. Um there is a process and it does involve mass DOT even though it's a town road. um no truck through my research and in talking uh with a couple people at Mass DOT um we would have the first pro step of the process is to contact Mass DOT officially and request a no through trucking sign and then they would it's going to it's for them to even consider it it has to meet certain standards u a there has to be a suitable alternative available that is approved approved, meaning we couldn't put up a no a no through trucking sign if the the only other way in already had one. You know, if they beat us to the punch. Um the restrictions are only meant to in to restrict trucks as a shortcut. Um if all no through excuse me no through trucking signs do have an exemption and that exemp that exemption which I think is going to apply in this case unfortunately is if they are using that road in the process of work delivering making repairs or in the case of you know public service vehicles safety vehicles um that's an exemption. So if the even though the company is is over the state line in Rhode Island, if the companies servicing them are coming from the other side, Massachusetts, they do have a legal right to use that road

is how I understand it. I mean, we can certainly put in put in an official request with Masdot um which I think would be aided by all the residents on Burnt Swamp providing an email and we can we can send all to Masto as one package. Um that would certainly help. But like I say, as I read as I read it and understand it, I think it's going to be an uphill battle unfortunately just to be totally honest. All right, let me anything anything else major to add before I bring on police chief McGrath and get his kind of two cents? I understand he spent or one of his officers spent a lot of time there, I believe. Uh, so, uh, Brian, anything else before I turn it over to Chief?

Uh, no, I think I covered it. All right. Well, thank you for your input. I appreciate that. Uh, thank you for, you know, bringing that side of the story to us. Hold on one second. I apologize. I'm fighting off something. Uh, uh, do we have Police Chief McGrath? Yes, you do. Chief, do you mind giving us some, you know, a little bit of color from your perspective? What do you know about this situation? What kind of investigation have you and officer or Sergeant Kie Flores done? And what is your opinion of the matter, please?

Well, I have there's opinions and then there's facts. there's no significant uh speeding going on on that street over the course of a study that so that the speed trailer that we actually placed I believe it was right on near or on

the property of um of the Brennan's al doesn't only flash to to slow and record speeds as they're going by it actually creates a report so it has software that um that we can generate a report from and that's what we did. So we did a traffic study from October 9th until October 15th and in the course of that study uh there were 34 violators which means 34 people exceeded the posted speed limit of 25. 68% of those vehicles slowed down. 90 99% according to this uh percentage were were in in um in compliance. The maximum speed was 52 mph but that was one vehicle. So it records average speed was 27 mph for the course of the study. The minimum speed was 10 m an hour for the course of the study. Total vehicles were 2,385 vehicles. The maximum speed was 52 mph. Now 52 is fast. I I could guarantee you that that vehicle I could pretty much guarantee you this is opinion now not fact that that wasn't a truck because that would be insane. Uh we did a similar study with the same this is these are new this is new equipment we've just uh we we just received over the last few months. So we did a similar study on Madison Street and and the max speed was 56. Um and we actually were able to track that down. that was a police cruiser responding to a responding to a call at uh route one. So, you know, there was some justification for that excessive speed. The thing is is I've we've done these kinds of studies for years and I can

tell you, you know, I lived on Creek Street and that's a cut through from 1A to uh to 140. And we have heavy trucks as well because of uh uh Alissium Street, the quarry, 140, the whole bit. When you're standing on the street, when you're standing in front of your house, the both the sounds of the truck, the size of the truck give off, and this is verified through numerous studies, they they give you the perception that the vehicles are traveling faster. But when you document it through, you know, this kind of technology, you find out that that's generally not the case. So in this case, I do not think speeding is a problem. Now, the frequency of the trucks, that may be a problem. Our equipment doesn't record what kind of vehicles they are. The the volume of the truck sound, that may be a problem. Again, we don't have that. We're not able to get that information. Um, the only other thing I can say is the uh Deputy Cassidy looked through the records of the MAC, the Metaccomat Emergency Communications Center data, and we have other than the Brennan's and I think maybe there was one more uh resident of the street that complained about speeding or truck noise. So it's it's not a significant complaint as well.

Okay. Um and can you speak to uh what your conversations with the trucking company and the staff at please chief please? Thank you. So, in the very beginning, so you know, full disclosure, I don't know anybody involved here uh from from the Adams farm or the Brennons, or I don't think I do. If I do, forgive me. But, uh, when I first looked into it, I sent Sergeant Colores into the neighborhood. I believe at some point he may have had contact with, uh, Mr. and Mrs. Brennan. Uh, I think he may have even conducted some speed enforcement from their, uh, residence or right in the area of their residence. and he found out and this was before we actually employed the traffic trailer. He found the same thing that there was no there was just no he had no violations for the for frequent visits that he made. So on my own, I just did a little I've never been to Adam's Farms, but I researched it, Googled it, and I came up with some of the people who are uh the players there, and I spoke to one of them and uh and I explained the problem and he was empathetic to the to the situation, but you know, his concern was that he, you know, I believe he said that this has been going on, I'm looking at my email now, for for many years anyway. They they've had this this uh company that they contract with to deliver this um cranberries or whatever they are. And I did get him to agree to communicate with the trucking company to avoid um Burn Swap Road from West Street down to Hancock. So what he said, and I I hope there's no Hancock Street residents listening to this meeting, what he said is he would have them continue down, take a left on Hancock and then a right on Bren Swaf to avoid in particular the Brennan residence. Um I have no way to enforce that. You know, that that was just me doing my community policing and and uh he did he did agree

to it. But then following that, I believe the Brennan reported that the truck traffic continued. So again, I made my community policing call back down to Rhode Island and I said, "Hey, it seems to be continuing." And he said he would call again and he said and he did according to him and he said, "You know, the problem is sometimes there's different drivers." So he communicates it to one group and then different drivers tend to not follow it. One thing I observed um just the other day driving by is Adam's Farm has a large sign at the end of Burnt Swamp Road that uh I think it might be a seasonal sign, you know, maybe because of the fall and all of that and Halloween coming up and uh perhaps they'd be willing to ch to even move that sign further down the road because I think that that even though they're advertising, you know, an activity that has nothing to do with trucks on their on their farm, That might be a mocker that a truck driver comes down, sees it, and he goes, "Yep, that's Adam's farm." And he takes a left on Burn Swamp instead of a left on Hancock. Uh, I don't know beyond that what else I can suggest. If we're going to if if speed is the complaint, speed isn't an issue. It's a perception. If noise is a complaint, I don't have any way to measure the noise. Uh, you know, the width of the truck, uh, we've we've not had any truck accidents. uh we've not had, you know, I I realize there's an occasional accident there as there is everywhere, but uh none that I believe are truck related uh in any way. So, that's kind of where we are right now. My only my only concern with this in general

is if if we have if you know there is a slippery slope potential here. If you if you stop putting up signs or petitioning to put up signs to cut off truck traffic, I can tell you right now that there's going to be we've had this issue arise many times uh over the years and you would have a lot of similar requests come up very quickly unless this is grounded in very factual and uh documented uh process.

Right. Okay. I appreciate the the the the very good explanation. So, just to summarize, Chief, in your professional opinion, based on the facts you've presented, you do not advise the town to set this precedent by imposing its uh the traffic restrictions on these trucks. I do not. Okay. I appreciate that. I appreciate Brian's input. I'm going to open up to the board members at this time before we open up to the public. Starting with select woman rouse. Chief, please stay on in case someone I am staying on. Yeah, select woman.

Uh, thank you. I appreciate all that information. Of course, resident safety is our ultimate concern, but I also echo echo Chief McGrath's concern in terms of setting a precedence. I think that every road in this town could have the same complaint in terms of traffic with trucks as well as speed, etc. Um, so it would be like a can of worms. I'm also going to just lean on the expertise of Chief McGrath and certainly director of the DPW Anteneelli with their uh recommendations and the information presented because they are the experts and have done the extensive study and looking into this. So I'm going to rely on on their opinions in this matter. So no further questions.

Okay. Thank you uh Select Manison. Yeah, thank you Mr. Chair. So after um the report we got from Chief McGrath and if we couple that with what um Brianelli had mentioned um I I don't believe that DOT would even entertain that thought. Um so that's all the only comment I really have. Okay. Thank you Selecman Harrington.

Thank you Mr. Chair. Uh thank you M police chief McGrath. uh very comprehensive study uh that was completed. I just have one question. Of the 2,385 vehicles that were traveling on that road during that time span, is there any idea as to the time frame? Um you know, the heaviest traffic is early morning, midday. Anything anything additionally on that by chance?

I do have a detailed report. Uh it it's it reflects it. There's it's a pretty detailed report and probably too much for me to go into right now. In general, it reflects exactly what you would think. I mean, again, it's not recording the types of vehicles. It's just recording that that number of vehicles pass. So, as you would expect, the the vast majority of those vehicles are traveling the road during what you might call business hours. Business hours. Okay.

The daytime. But, you know, and I I'd be happy to share this with the Brennons or anyone else. And I also want to throw in there the best approach to this or let's just say another approach to this may be to go completely informal. And uh I'd be more than happy to invite uh the the owners or whoever's managing Adams Farm to my office with the Brennons and sit down and talk about it and see if we can come up collectively with some kind of informal solution on that truck traffic. I don't know if we can or not. I'll invite the truck company, too.

Uh I I you know, I don't want to imply that just because there's one person complaining that it's not an issue. Uh I'm I'm I'm just rolling out the facts as they're as as as they are formally. So, uh if someone wants to take me up on that offer, I think I could probably get all the players to the table. Maybe we'll come out of it with nothing or maybe we'll come out of it with something. So, I just don't see formally how we're getting anywhere. All right. Thank you, Chief. Appreciate it. Thank you, Mr. Uh, thank you, Chief. Thank you, sir. And no further questions. Okay. Thank you. Select Moff. Thank you.

You're all set. Okay. Yeah. So, um, let's open it up to the public at this time. Uh, any We heard from the Brennan's. Do we have any other neighbors or anyone that would like to comment to the board? You do. Good evening. How are you? Hi. Can you state your name and address for the record, please, sir?

My name is Brad Greenberg. I am the homeowner at 63 Burnt Swamp Road which is directly across from the Brennan residence. I think another concern that I have and and you know I've I've not really trained in this particular uh venue if you will with regard to uh roadways but uh I think the road on going down this section of Burnt Swamp Road to Hancock Road from 121 is in relatively rough shape. uh you could I'm sure that everybody who's on on you know attending this meeting has seen that they have repaired it several times and my concern is you know particularly when it rains it develops some fairly large puddles there's a big yellow house that's my neighbor and I know that a lot of a lot of larger vehicles will not stay on the road and what they do is when they go off the road because of the width um if the road isn't being what may be damaged by the way again that's not my belly what I happen to be a lawyer by trade but what I could tell you is that uh they create some fairly large divots uh in front of the yellow house uh I'm sure everybody's seen and then going right in front of the cemetery as well at the end of Burnt Swamp Road and that is an issue as far as the road's capacity to handle both the weight and the size of these vehicles. I mean, obviously oil trucks and delivery vehicles have to get through. Uh Hancock Street is in fact a wider road substantially. Now, I know that there's probably some regulatory issues in getting it done, but um what I

I am I can definitely tell you and be very certain of is that there are frequently ruts caused by larger vehicles, particularly in front of the cemetery in the house next to that. Not so much on the other side because there's a lot of trees and when you go up the if you don't stay on the road on that side, you're going to sustain some damage. So, and they've repaired Burn Swamp Road several times, but you can drive right down it near the Brennan and, you know, from from I would say, you know, Hancock Street to 121 and particularly as you get closer to 121, there are some large cracks and and developing potholes. Now again, I'm not sure whether that's due to the trucks or not, but I know that this is something of a sleepy, if you will, you know, it's a twoacre minimum and uh it's very quiet here and and I can't say for sure that the road is designed for heavy truck traffic. I could tell you that, you know, next to the road is certainly not and the damage occurs fairly regularly and that the road is in need of repair. Now whether it's definitely caused by the very large vehicles transiting again I I don't possess that expertise but I get the feel I it appears to be that way if not anything else.

All right. Thank you Mr. Greenberg. Appreciate your input. Uh we got to keep things moving here. Um uh but anything else that you'd like to summarize Mr. Mr. Greenberg before I move on to any other residents? No, I I I will just say that the uh the road's ability to handle the vehicles, including with and and when they don't stay on the road, is a concern for the residents of the street. Thank you. Understood. I appreciate that. And I will say, unfortunately, I think a lot of the roads in Rentham have a lot of the same characteristics, unfortunately. Uh so, point well taken, sir. Appreciate it. Do we have any any other uh uh uh public uh anyone from the public that would like to comment on this uh before we close the public hearing? Last chance.

Oh yeah, go ahead, sir. Mr. Brennan, go right ahead.

Um so I'm I'm understand that they've turned this road into a truck route for their business. What what everyone doesn't know is this isn't just they're bringing cranberries to a farm because they need it for their fields. This is a compost business they started up that nobody even knew about. They're listing it as an address somewhere else in Cumberland, but their facility in their operations of this compost business is the farm. So, this this problem isn't going to go away. This is going to continue on and on for years to come if this is their business. They have a compost business. So, this is going to be a regular truck route. Now, just so everyone is clear on that, I says, "This is not what we signed on for when we moved here 31 years ago. I mean, we didn't agree to any compost business down there. A farm is one thing for corn stalks and and going to get a pumpkin seasonal. There signs on the end of our street are representing a beer garden now." And and those signs stay up all year long. big pumpkins and they're kind of kind of ugly signs, but and and they violate the zone and bylaw for signs. I already to spoke with the building inspector. He's supposed to take them down. I haven't gotten anything back from him. Um but they're still up. Um so, so now we to believe that this is going to be just a truck route now from from now on. That's crazy because these trucks just run whenever they feel like. I mean, we have so many people that walk on that street. It It's crazy. I don't know. I made a suggestion. They go down my street and go out Hancock Street just to break it up. That has not happened. You know, I got to commend the chief for talking to them, but they said they would reroute the trucks. Hasn't happened at all. At all. They I only seen one truck go down Hancock Street

and you know, it's just not happening. They don't care. It's period. I I mean, if this is going to be a truck route, I mean, that just changes the way we live over there all together. M Mr. Brennan, I'm very sympathetic to to what you're saying. I really am. We have to kind of go on the facts that are being presented to us from, you know, our policy experts, which are DPW director as well as uh a chief of police. Believe me, I'm I'm very very sympathetic to the issue. Uh, I know there's a lot of roads in Rethm that, you know, feel like they're traversed similarly. Whether they are or not, I'm not here to speak to that, but I I do have sympathy for you guys in the situation,

but we are paying for it. We We're paying for them roads that they're using to go to Rhode Island. So, we're the ones who got to pay in our taxes to repair these roads, which is that's nonsense, right? I mean, un unfortunately, that's not a topic that I can broach. That's a little outside of our purview and the scope of this meeting. Uh, so I appreciate what you're saying. We understand what you're saying. Um, I'm going to ask if there's any other members of the public that would like to make a comment before we close the public hearing. Uh, give you a couple seconds to chime in. Anybody else?

Yeah, I have a comment. Um, hi Chris. Brenda, 125 Burnt Swamp Road. I have to I have to be honest. I'm I'm set far back off the road, so I I I hear trucks, but I I don't think I experience it quite the same as the Brennan's or um their neighbors across the street do. Um, one thing I can tell you is that, um, an anecdotally years ago, I was traveling upper Union Street and I encountered an 18-wheeler trying to make that 45 degree turn and I I called Franklin DPW about that because the truck got stuck and um, and so what what occurred is, you know, these truck drivers use ways or whatever traffic apps and it routes them through the shortest distance. And Upper Union Street in Franklin is also not designed for trucks, especially not 18-wheelers. I don't know how big these trucks are, but I'm wondering if when uh Chief McGrath sits down with the Brennan's and the trucking company if they can maybe figure out the best route and maybe coming from 295 is a better option. That's my suggestion.

I I appreciate that. We'll relay that to the chief. And um yeah, I appreciate you. I appreciate your comment. So, uh, at this time, um, we're going to close the public hearing. So, chair would entertain a motion to vote to close the public hearing. So, moved. Is there a second, guys? You can go on this if you want, but second. Thank you. Motion made by Selectwoman Rouse, second by Selectman Harrington. Any further discussion? Being none, we'll do a roll call vote. Selectoman Rouse. Yes. Anderson. You're muted. Jimmy, yes. Harington. Harington. Yes. Lamoth.

Lamoth. Yes. Gallow. Yes. Motion carries. 5-0. Uh, we're closed. We're closed. Okay. So, now we need a motion to approve or deny the request for a no trucking um sign on Burnt Swamp Road. Does anyone want to make a motion uh to either approve or deny this? Mr. Mr. Chair. Yes. So, so if I understood this correctly, I don't think that's something we actually do tonight. It's going to be approved by DOT.

No, my understanding is we can make our motion and if we approve the motion then that Mike King and or Brian would follow up with DOT to see if it would stick. Is that correct, Mike? Or Yeah. So, what you'd be voting on is do you want to pursue this further, right? Do we want does the select board support this and the town of Rampam then going to D mass dot for this sign and getting their official approval? That's what's on the vote tonight. So does someone want to make a motion to either approve or deny the no through truck sign? I'll make a motion to approve.

Mr. Is there a second? I'll second it. Okay. Uh, we'll do a roll call. Any further discussion? We'll do a roll call vote. Select woman Rouse. No. Selectman Anderson. Anderson. Yes. Selectman Harrington. Harrington. No. Select Mammoth. Mammoth. Yes. Gallow. No. Motion is denied. One, two, three to two. Do I have to make another motion, Mike, or is that it? Yeah, I I would make a motion to to formally deny just to have it on

at this time. Chetain a motion to formally deny the request for a no through truck sign. Motion approved. Is there a second? I'll second it. Motion made by selectman Harrington, second by selectoman Rouse. Any further discussion being no. Selectoman Rouse. Yes. Selectman Anderson. Anderson. No. Selectman Harrington. Harrington. Yes. Select Lamoth. Moth. No.

Gallow. Yes. Motion carries. 32. All right. I'm sorry. I know. You know that's this is a tough one. Um we apologize. You know this is uh very tough situation and um I support the decision that we made though. Um so all right. At this time we're going to move on. Uh let's go down to tab number eight. So tab number eight is a uh a letter uh is a letter of resignation with regrets from our good friend and longtime Rentham resident and former select woman Gail Pratt from the elderly and disabled tax aid committee. In our packets we have a resignation letter from Gail Pratt. Um and uh it's a very quick letter. Select uh Harrington. Do you have it available if you read it into the record?

Uh, which tab is it? I'm sorry. P5. Yep. Uh, so letter dated October 6. Dear select board, I wish to resign from elderly and disabled tax aid committee. Thank you for your assistance. Gail Pratt, sincerely and attested by the uh town clerk and fisk. and dated October 6th, 1227P.

All right. Thank you so much. Yeah, unfortunately, you know, sometimes we have wonderful people that, you know, determine they can't fulfill their obligations anymore. This is one of those situations. Um, so at this time, chair would entertain a motion to accept uh the resignation with regrets of Gail Pratt from the elderly and disabled tax aid committee. So moved. Motion made by Selectman Harrington. Is there a second? Second by selectman Lamoth. Any further discussion? Being none, we'll do a roll call vote. Selectoman Rouse. Yes. With regrets. Selectman Anderson. Yes, with regrets. Selectman Harrington. Harrington. Yes, with regrets. Select the moth. Lamoth with regrets.

Gallow. Yes, with regrets. Um, thank you for your service to the community. Gail Pratt. Um, that's done. Now, um, with that, you know, there's opportunity, right? So, I believe, if I'm not mistaken, Mr. King, we actually have two openings, two spots for the Elderly and Disabled Tax Aid Committee now that we just accepted the resignation of Gail Pratt. Is that correct? That is correct, Mr. Chair.

Well, luckily for us, uh, we have two wonderful residents, uh, on board with us this evening. Uh, the first one, uh, is, um, Sher uh, Sher Leonard. So, what we're going to do here, guys, is we're going to have an interview slash possible appointment of uh Mrs. Sher Leonard to the Elderly and Disabled Tax Aid Committee. In our packet, we have documentation. Um, and with us, we do have Sheri Leonard herself. Uh, Sher, I'd like to welcome you to the uh to the meeting. If you could unmute yourself and say hello. Hello. How are you? Can you hear me? Yes, I can. Can you hear me?

Yes. Yes. Nice to see you. Thank you for joining this evening. Thank you. And thank you for your willingness to serve the community. Thank you for your 50 plus years as a RenaM resident. Um, that's wonderful. So, uh, I'm going to turn it over to the board and see if they have any questions for you. Starting with Selectwoman Rouse. Hi, Sher. Welcome this evening and thank you for your interest. I'd love for you to just give a summary a little bit about yourself so the people that are listening and watching can hear what we we've been able to see with your application.

Um, so I am a 50 plus year resident of Rethm. My uncle used to be the chief of police in Rethm. Um, I worked 30 plus years as a physician assistant at the VA hospital in Brockton. Um, and I've always been uh active as a volunteer in a lot of different ways. Uh, when my hus when my son was at the high school, I volunteered uh in different ways at the high school for a long time, including after he left. Um, and um I even though I'm retired, I continued to do volunteer work um at a local uh animal rescue. and I like to be busy. And when I saw that there was an opening for the um you know this particular committee and it didn't look like anybody was volunteering although I was happy to see that Anna was um I felt that I really it was something that I should volunteer to do. So that's great.

That's great. Thank you. Thank you so much. Any further questions? Select woman. No further questions. Thank you. Blackman, any questions? I have two questions, Mr. Chair. First of all, who was your uh your uncle who was chief? Oh, Walter Hobbs. Walter Hobs. Good man. He was a good man. Yep. And uh and second question would be, you know, what do you see your role on this on this commission? Well, my role is to support the seniors uh and the veterans in the community. Uh to see that those who need to get tax relief get the tax relief that they need and I mean I just feel that that's really important.

Okay, thank you. No further questions, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Sleman Anderson. Selectman Harrington. Uh no questions, Mr. Chair. Just thank you Sher for volunteering and uh I knew your uncle also. Great guy. Thank you. He lives on. Uh, selectman Lamoth, I just want to cong congratulate you for 30 years as a a nurses assist or physicians assistant at the veterans association hospital in Brockton. That's uh quite a feat and and thank you for your service here.

Okay. Excellent. All right. Uh at this time, if there's no further questions or comments from the board, chair would entertain a motion to appoint Sher Leonard to the Elderly and Disabled Tax Aid Committee for a term effective immediately and expiring June 30th, 2027. So moved. Second. There was a motion made by Selectman Anderson, a second by Selectman Lamoth. Any further discussion? Being none, we'll do a roll call vote. Select Selectoman Rouse. Yes. Selectman Anderson. Anderson D. Yes. Blackman Harrington. Harrington. Yes. Blackman Lamoth. Lamoth. Yes.

Hello. Yes. Motion carries. 5-0. Congratulations, Sher. Please go see our um um our town Mike. I'm having a a blank. Clerk. Clerk. Thank you. Clerk. Our town clerk. So you can get sworn in. All right. Yes. Yes. Thanks again, Sherry. Appreciate you willing. You're welcome. Thank you.

We also have another wonderful candidate with us this evening. Uh if we go to the next tab, uh we have tab number 10. We have Anna Dash Champamps uh with us also interviewing on a possible appointment of the uh to the disabled elderly and disabled tax aid committee. Um we have uh Anna's application in our packet. She's also with us. Anna, I'd like to welcome you to the meeting. you are uh uh you and I met at the uh and if you can unmute um at the bottom left there should be a microphone and you put your cursor on there and click it and it should unmute you. And I'm not telling you that because you don't know how to do it. I need to remind myself how to do that. Um can you see it? You're still muted. at the bottom left, right next to the video, there should be a thing that you click on and it should say unmute. And while you're doing that, I'll just let everybody know I had Oh, there you are. Hi, Anna. How you doing tonight? Oh, I don't think Can you Can you guys hear her? Is it just me?

No.

Anna, can I know I'm asking a lot. Can you turn the volume up? Okay. She said one sec. And as as we're uh as she's getting the volume figured out, I had the pleasure of meeting her at at an event at the senior center, a veterans event at the senior center. Um she's a a kind of a neighbor of mine over on Spring Street. She's been here for 55 plus years. Um and has an impressive resume as well. So very uh very blessed to have you with us this evening. Anna, can can you can we hear you at all now? No. My mouth reading is not that good. Guess what? It's okay. We're going to get through this. You maybe you can give me some head nods like you're doing if I say things that are appropriate. Um you've been a resident for Rentham for 55 years, correct? Okay, that's a yes. Um uh back education background, associates degree. She's worked at the senior center uh in Renth for 17 years and had experience uh has many much experience with the needs of the seniors. She started out being an outreach shine worker and her passion was to help and reach the needs of seniors. Um she's been on the Northfor board uh count Northalk County Sheriff's Fire Department and senior center boards. Um and they meet monthly. Um so that's a pretty impressive resume. Does anyone else have any comments? I know this is difficult, but have any comments or comments or questions for Anna, board members?

No. No questions. No. Michelle, Jim, you good? Yep. Jim, you're good. I'm good. Thanks. You good? Roy, you're good. Okay. So, Anna, thank you so much. Your resume speaks for itself. Wonderful long-term resident. I'm going to go ahead and make a motion at this time. Chair would entertain a motion to appoint Anda Shamps to the Elderly and Disabled Tax Aid Committee for a term effective immediately and expiring June 3rd, 20 June 30th, 2026. So move. Motion made by Selectman Anderson. Is there a second? Second by selectoman Rouse. Any further discussion? Being none, we'll do a roll call vote. Selectoman Rouse. Yes. Anderson. Anderson. Yes. Harrington. Harrington. Yes.

Yes. Gallow. Yes. Motion carries. 5. Congratulations. And like we said to Sherry, please make sure you go see the town clerk so you can get sworn in. Okay. All right. Thanks. Have a great night. Okay, guys. Let's keep it moving here. Let's go to tab 11. Looks like we have an update on a Veterans Day observance. We have an email from uh Jerry McGovern. Uh that's in our packet. Um looks like he might be with us this evening. Mr. McGovern, do you want to address the board or do you want us to read your and or read your email or what would you like to do? Um, I can go ahead and just kind of give the highlights of it. Go right ahead, sir.

Uh, so the first thing maybe is just to explain for everybody uh kind of through happen stance. I've kind of become the ceremonial coordinator for the American Legion for the past few years for Memorial Day and I'm now doing it for Veterans Day. So, uh, this itinerary you've gotten kind of reflects a few changes we're making. Um, one of them is the most important is we're going to start a little bit earlier at 10:55 in the morning very promptly. We want to do this in order to do a march on the colors of all six services and then have a short uh arm day historical reading it so we can do that in time before the congregational church's bells ring at 11:00 a.m. which kind of marks the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month um of how Arm's day and subsequently fetish day came about. Uh we're going to do a little more ceremonial aspects to the event. Uh as I mentioned with the the marching on the flags and from the services um we're going to provide an overview the historical aspect of the common as it relates to military service and and and v res vet veterans. And at the end of the ceremony, we're going to do a march off the colors where we will play the service song for each of the six services and ask those veterans in attendance to follow behind their service flag to a point on the common where we traditionally do uh pictures of all the veterans avail that attend. Um because we're kind of adding these things to it and put a little more a specific focus on the on the six services, we are only going to have one speaker and that being a veteran this year. And uh we also want to make sure we get this done because um at 11:45 following the ceremony, there will be a dedication of the new pavilion at the uh American Legion Post on on South Street uh to two of our veterans. Um, and then the last point that you have in my email, but just to be clear, as we've done as I've done these things over the past couple years, I have not been the the person who has made this contact

with our state officials. Uh, that's actually kind of come about a couple different ways. I usually want to be the one that they talk with to to clarify any uh time frames and those kind of things. But um just to be sure um I have not contacted either our state rep or our state senator at this point uh to invite them. Certainly they're certainly invited to come. Um but usually I think it's more appropriate that that initial invitation comes from the select board's office. Okay, Mr. Anything else? Hold on, Jim. Anything else, Mr. McGovern? No, that's it.

Okay. Thank you. Uh, go ahead, Jim. Yeah, just just want to clarify that's on Tuesday, November 11th at 10:55. Yes. Okay. Thank you. On the comment. Thank you. Email will be sent out uh calendar invite as well. Uh, any other questions for Mr. McGovern, any of the other board members? No. Everyone's shaking their head. No. Okay. Thanks for the update.

Thanks. Have a good night. Uh, all right. Moving on tab number 12. Let's have a discussion about our uh alcohol licensing policy. So, um, again, in speaking to trying to keep updated and relevant with all of our, uh, policies, um, we thought it would be prudent to have, uh, an update an updated conversation uh, relating to our alcohol policy. Um, Mr. King, do you want to kind of give a quick background on how we got to this point and the objectives that we're trying to accomplish this evening? There'll be no formal vote. This is more of just a a conversation. Um, you know, as the board remembers, we kind of ran into a little snafu when uh that gentleman AJ uh was trying to come before us with his liquor license for the the the gentleman that's uh taking over for Parker's Pub. And it kind of became clear to us that we needed to do some research to make sure that, you know, our licenses were still relevant. You know, our common VIX match them. Do we want our common VIX to match them? I think we do. Um, and a few other housekeeping items came up which sparked a convers a deeper a broader conversation uh for us to have this conversation about uh taking a look at the alcohol uh licensing policy. Mike, with that, I'll turn it over to you. So, thank you, Mr. Chair. So, just to kind of set the stage here, um we were having that conversation previously with with AJ's Pub, uh the town of Brenam does not and did not um have an alcohol licensing policy. And subsequent to that meeting, uh town council was contacted and they and they do recommend that the town adopt an an alcohol licensing policy. And what we did was we started to look at what other communities had um in terms of their policies and doing research um and working with town council um to draft a policy. Um, now

some of these policies are are are short and other ones are are quite lengthy, you know, over 20 pages. And and this one that's in your packet before you is a is a five-page policy that that really hits upon the items necessary um with without getting um too much um details that you know are replicated in ABC regulations. Um so what what you have before you is kind of an ability um to look at some generalized uh information for any license holders that we can give them so they'll be provided this policy so they understand um what their expectations are as license holders and what the expectations are of the select board um for those license holders and some in some general hours. So you um that the the select board um in the future would expect um to grant for someone coming forward for an alcoholic beverages license. Um and I I just will note that we in working with town council we worked with uh Alexander Castro who's on the call this evening.

Thank you Mr. King. I also just want to add something too that we're not trying to we're not suggesting that we make changes to any of the existing licenses. Um, I think those can be discussed upon renewal. This is more of new licenses coming to town. Uh, there's some other things that we have the town council uh looking into about grandfathering. Um, and say we have a grandfathered license that goes to the the business goes to sell. We want to find out if um we can then make the new owner abide by the new policy uh instead of just guaranteeing them that their policy will be grandfathered in from before. So what we're doing here is we have a lot of great owner operators in town that have done nothing wrong. And we don't like rewarding people that have done nothing wrong by you know making changes to their their license or their common VIC. We're not trying to do that at all. We're just trying to make sure there's transparency, there's consistency. uh moving forward and then we can take the one-offs. Um if there's a conversation that needs to happen, if there's a common VIC that might not line up with the alcohol license, that's obviously a major problem. Um say someone's common VIC is, you know, early in the morning and they're I'm sorry, the liquor license is earlier in the morning and the common VIC is until noon time. Well, then you have a problem because technically your liquor license states you can open early, but you can't ser you can't have a lot of these licenses, Mike, correct me if I'm wrong, the on-site, you cannot serve booze without serving food, right? So, it it it puts a problem there. So, we're trying to look at some of this stuff. Um, and we're very cognizant that this is a sensitive topic. So, if any of your constituents reach out to you, please just note we're just trying to look and see what we have. consistency, transparency, not looking to make any changes to any of the existing license holders. Um, did I sum it up, Mike? Uh,

you did, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Okay. Do we want to And I will say that I looked at some of these other towns license um, policies and some of these other towns that town council shared with us, these things were like 300 pages, guys. They were absolutely ridiculous. they got into like the definition of a pint, the definition of a a tall beer. Like this is all stuff I don't think we need to do. We just need something that puts some general information out there. Um, and it's recommended by town council that we do adopt the policy. Um, so with that being said, I'll turn it over to Attorney Castro and then I'll open it up to the board members for any discussion that you might have.

Yeah, please. Um, uh, you know, I I appreciate the brevity of the policy you guys chose. really depends on the town and what the, you know, the local licensing authority wants. Um, but but also know that at the end of the day, you know, it's chapter 138 and the ABCC regulations that govern. Um, and and I think the policy you guys gave me that I revised um and gave back to Mike um did a good job reflecting some of the essential elements of, you know, the ABC chapter 138 and the ABCC's um regulations as well. Also importantly as far as a grandfathering issue um you know section 20 uh section 2 subsection 25 specifically I think it's that was a really good section to have in that you know while these you know regulations do um apply to all lenses you still reserve the right notwithstanding the regulations um to put conditions on individual licenses so so you don't you don't really limit yourself by by implementing this policy um so yeah I mean if there are any questions. I thought it was nice, short, sweet, did what you guys wanted. Um, again, I I know in the beginning we gave you the broadest, but I think it was 25. The 300 page is a little much, but but but but you know, um, I I would I like concise policies myself. The purpose is to inform the public, so why complicate it? I was very impressed that there was not a purpose section. I think those are superfluous. Um, so, uh, I'm happy to open this up to any questions or concerns. I know grandfathering was one. Um Mike asked some more specific questions too as far as transferring. Now when a license is transferred you you you hold the hearing as if you're granting a new license. So in that hearing you can put new conditions on the license so long as in arbitrary and capricious right and you consider the statutory requirements under chapter 138 section 23 being the public need um safety public need. how many establishments you have, the type of establishments, you just have to have a really good reason and be able to

articulate it in imposing condition in imposing different conditions on it. But, um, I know that was a concern as well. Um, and Mike or if any if any members of the board want to ask any questions, I'm happy to help. I'm going to open it up to the board members right now. Attorney Castro, I apologize. I maybe was a little bit uh pontificating on the 325 page. No, no, no. Listen, no. We'll blame that one on Lisa. He said, "Throw everything at them in the kitchen sink in a policy and let them do with it as they will." So, it felt like it felt like 350 pages. Yeah. It was a pretty brutal one. It was a pretty brutal one, but some some boards love it. Some boys love it. Yeah. No, no, no. Black woman, go ahead. Do you have any questions or comments?

No further questions. I think for for myself, the grandfathering and then the transferring were my my two most important um issues that I wanted to make sure were covered. But no, I'm happy we were able to get this in a more concise manner, easy to understand and right to the point. Selectman Anderson, do you have any questions or comments? Just the only comment, Mr. Chairs. I I reviewed it. Um I liked it and so I'm I'm good to go with it. All right. Thank you so much. Uh Selectman Harrington.

Yeah, Mr. Chair. So, you know, we had discussed doing this few quite a few months ago. Uh and you know, it's great hard work. It's I'm glad to see it's come to fruition. Uh I did review it uh prior to the meeting tonight and um I like the fact that it's specific, short, sweet. Great job. Great effort. Okay, thank you. Select Moth.

Here I go in the weeds. Sorry. Um relative first. It says official closing hours in the definitions. And is that in conflict with the hours of operation section where you know you're saying that you must not serve 30 minutes prior to close which um which section specifically? Sorry. So the your first section of definitions item five says official closing hours

means that time stated in a license when a license must cease dispensing, serving, delivering and are selling alcoholic beverages. And yet hours of operations says, "Hey, we need to stop doing that like 30 minutes prior to close." So there should be should there be some reference to the hours of operations just so there's no confusion there? Um, I'm happy to I can clarify that a little bit. Um, I mean, I don't see those two as in conflict, but I can I can uh I can revise it. So, it's so I I can make it I'll make it clear that there is no conflict between the two. Um, but I was of operation, you know, the time at which you have to stop serving, right, are different, right? And that you can be open and you you can be open and someone could still be finishing a beverage. You just can't serve anymore. Right.

Yeah. But the word servings delivering and or selling alcoholic beverages, it kind of just you got that 10 to 10 or 10 to one kind of thing potentially there. I I I know, you know, it's more clarified further on in the hours of operation, but I just thought that was I'm happy to look at that and and make sure that those two are consist those two sections are consistent with one another. Uh, in a previous discussion, and maybe you can answer this for me, um, I asked about the logging of um, violations and disciplinary action. Is that a Massachusetts requirement?

I mean, yes. I mean, you have you I mean, would you mean logging to find logging in record? You have to hold a you have to hold a hearing if you're going to implement a discipline or a violation. if there's a violation and and if you plan to do anything about it, but you do have to record it. But the the Lency has to log their their disciplinary actions taken against them and also violations that are happening on premises or or not.

Um I can double check that. That that's not something I've looked into recently, but I'd happy to double check. You see, do they have to create an individual log themselves or do they have to report it to the ABCC or the local licensing authority? that we we saw that in a previous appendix of of a license earlier today and it wasn't consistent by previous owners and that's that just kind of threw me for a loop. Sure. I I I so in which case I'll look into the requirements for logging and or reporting a vi a violation and and if if so it's required I think we should put insert it here as well. Sure.

Okay. And the only other thing I had that I thought might be a item of debate is you know having employees out within 30 minutes versus 60 minutes of close. I mean that that's a tight window if you're cleaning and you know and everybody has to get out that's you know that I don't know if it's up for debate but that seemed kind of tight for me. That's that's totally up to you guys. That's uh that's that's discretionary. Attorney Castro, what what's what do you see normally uh 30 minutes or 60 minutes after the closing? I mean that's pretty standard all employee. Let let me just read. I'm just taking get my eyes on section 3 subsection 2C. Yeah.

No later than 30 minutes after the closing hours. Provided, however, that such employees rather high prices may be unless permits at the sign of the per

Yeah. I mean, you have to get everyone off you don't need, but if somebody's sitting there cleaning, repairing, or doing, you know, doing any other restaurant non-alcohol-related duties, you're good. I think that's fine. Okay. I I don't think that's going to make it diff. But before I was an attorney, I uh believe it or not, I was in the restaurant industry for 10 years. I did everything the floor. I was a dishwasher on the line, bartender. I think that I think that covers it. I I don't think that's going to hinder any restaurant operationally.

And um and if so, you know, invite them, you know, you know, we want to implement go to implement the policy. We can maybe get some feedback. You know, if you are if you all are concerned about your local restaurants, just say, "Hey, does this seem reasonable?" You know, is this gonna is this going to hurt your operation? You know, when they have a cleaner crew come in, but I think they should be fine. All right. Thank you. Appreciate your your anything else before we let attorney Castro go and and move on to the next agenda item. No. All right. Attorney Castro, Mr. Chair, it it might be helpful for Attorney Castro just to lay out what the process would be for adopting the policy. Okay.

Yeah. Just a Yeah. Okay. A um Well, number one, a public hearing um just the policy generally. Now, might give me some follow-up questions. Something we have to keep an eye out on is that in implementing the policy, if we cut the hours for any license, individual license that by implementing the policy, we need an individual hearing for each lency. All right, just to give them due process because they have a property interest in their license and if because of this new policy for some reason their license the hours are going to be cut they need to have an indiv every individual licency affected has to have their own hearing. All right. And u again I if the hours aren't cut or if the license isn't adversely affected in any way whatever it doesn't matter but if it is individual hearings

understood. I think the intent was for us not to touch any of the existing licenses. Uh as obviously as they go to expire we can you know point out any that we might have question or concern with. Yeah. And as long as you have an individual hearing on that to address it on an individual basis, you'll be good. Um, and also that that that subsection 25 also takes care of it where it says, you know, you know, notwithstanding these regulations, different licenses have their own individual conditions and that's what controls. So, um, just keep in mind when when pro implementing these that that's a process we're going to have to go through.

Um, is is that what you were getting at, Mike? Is there anything else I'm missing? Because I know you and I have been talking as well. So, so I just wanted to clarify because you know the board's intention was to adopt this policy before renewals. Um, so at the next meeting um in November the the board would post a public hearing on the policy to potentially approve it and that way this policy could be shared um with for with the renewal packets. So that way all the uh the I think that yeah that works. Like I said section 25 says the conditions are the conditions and if you're not gonna if you're not going to you know curtail anyone's hours that's good and we can and everybody can kind of have their say during renewals and as long as we don't touch anyone's hours we don't need these individual hearings. Correct.

Correct. Yeah. Okay. That's fine. Anyone have any other questions or comments about this process? No. I think you've done a great job laying it out. Okay. I'm going to move on. We're going to go to um T. Thank you, Attorney Castro. We're going to Thank you so much. Have a great night. Tab 13. Uh this is a discussion of a water into municipal agreement with the town of Planeville. With us, we have attorney Steven Meltzer and uh Rena resident uh Jerry Laruso. I want to apologize to you guys. Uh uh I know you guys are kind of at the end of the agenda here. You've got my word. I'll make a deal with you. Next time you come on, I'll put you closer to the beginning. Does that sound fair? Okay, good.

Attorney attorney Meltzer, do you want to take the lead? Welcome. Welcome, Mr. Laruso. Welcome, Attorney Meltzer. Great to have you both with us this evening. Do you want to take the lead, Attorney Meltzer, and kind of explain to us what we're trying to accomplish this evening? And I do want the board to note, um, there is no vote tonight, no matter what Attorney Meltzer says. No, I'm kidding. This is, uh, this is only a conversation, preliminary conversation. Get the information out. We will be taking a vote uh in the future, but um obviously we want to have a conversation. We want to have a conversation. We want Mike to have a conversation with Brian Noble in Plainville as if we approve something and they don't approve it, it's it's kind of a waste of everyone's time. So, uh Attorney Meltzer, please take the lead and walk us through what we're trying to accomplish.

Sure. I'll be very quick. It's it's pretty straightforward. Um and and I'll tell you upfront since uh you brought it up. Uh Brian Noble and the town of Plainville are are fully on board with this. Um and what we're talking about is uh because there is uh water service uh in Rentham on Madison Street, but there isn't water service for uh Plainville. Um, this would uh cover a an agreement between Plainville and Rentham so that Rentham could provide the water to the residents down Madison Street uh onto Belchure Street. Uh I would note um and I think you have it in your materials that this water service is already being provided and as far as we know unless it's buried somewhere in some file there isn't already an intermissionable agreement with respect to that. Um the service was previously provided to the property that's marked on that exhibit that I provided at uh to the Laruso property which is where we're developing a uh 30,000 square foot um uh building which uh sort of was the impetus to this um request. Uh the property where Mazada um is now which is one Madison Street um has service now and is getting service from Rentham. Again there is no intermunicipal agreement which covers that. The Rentham Sports Club which is in Planeville gets water service from Rentham. U the Pella building um also in plain in Planeville gets water service from Rentham. And the spot where uh that's marked as High Rock used to have service there. there are water lines

there and um that was when it was a uh a asphalt plant there um it also had service. Um we're proposing and the reason that this came up is because we would like to at our expense um improve the water lines uh basically put in a new water line because the uh water lines on Madison Street down to Belchure Street are in terrible condition are are uh more than decades old. um and uh are in need of of that improvement in order to continue to service the properties in Planeville. Um and so in order to have some comfort that u Rentham would supply the uh water once we built it uh we uh did start the discussions about having an intermunicipal agreement uh which I uh drafted many months ago just to get the ball rolling but uh um it would be subject to town council's review um from both towntham and the town of Plainville. So I I think that's that's really um the the issue and the question in a nutshell and I think it it's really the board because the town of Rethm wouldn't be spending any money because it's our money that's being spent to improve the lines. It isn't something that I that has to go to town meeting, but it uh the agreement between the town of Rentham and the town of Plane of Plainville would have to be approved by both boards of selectmen. And that really covers the town of Rentham. Um mostly so that uh they could uh maintain these new water lines without um having any restrictions because they are in the town of

Planeville and could if for instance one of the uh property owners stopped paying their water bill, they could come in town of Rentham could come into the town of Planeville and shut that water off. Um,

so, uh, appreciate that summary, Attorney Meltzer. You know, and just to paint a little additional color here. Um, you know, uh, Mr. Laruso is in a position where he's building a 30,000 foot building back there. And it's my understanding that, you know, he could run this water line from Madison down, uh, or he could put in a well, uh, to service his building. But in in updating this water line, he's he's you know, essentially providing water for all the other businesses over there that that aren't current, is that correct? That aren't currently serviced by the municipal water. Is that a fair statement?

Well, they're they're actually all serviced now by it. Um, Mr. Chairman, we just that that line has been a problem as uh highway department can tell you. it breaks frequently and uh just it needs to be updated and um once you get down kind of to the planeville line it's really um just a series of one and two inch lines that really aren't uh competent you know for fire suppression and things like that

understood and you know this being an intermunicipal agreement I know u as a selectman I haven't really had to deal with this much um so you know obviously Mike King, you can provide a little more color as needed, but my understand my understanding is obviously it's exactly what it sounds like. Rentham would provide the water, right? Plainville um you know would would would obviously bill we would bill Explain to me how it would work. We provide the water, we bill Plainville, then Planeville bills the actual um occupant, you know, the actual owners. So Retham would be providing the water and would be billing the property owners directly as part of the IMA. Plainville would agree to enforce Rentham's water rules and regulations

on on the Planeville property owners, which we currently don't have right now. And so what's what's the bene explain to the board what the benefit to Planeville is through this intermunicipal agreement? I would I would say economic development. Um there's there's another property involved that has been targeted um previously by Market Basket. My understanding is that fell through. Um but it's it's a desirable parcel and and bringing a water line there would would make it more attractive. Understood. And um what size water line do we have to bring? I'm assuming, you know, it sounds like there's a very small line there now, albeit in horrible shape. What size line is is uh Mr. Laruso uh going to is proposing bringing down

there. There's Jerry, you want to go ahead? Yeah, we're bringing a 12-in line uh down to as far as the where the sportsman's club connects and then from there it's an 8 inch line. Uh the 12-in line is really being provided. Um it was kind of designed around uh market basket potentially coming in. Um, and a 12 in a 12-in line will really accommodate anything they ever planning on building there.

Okay, that's great. Mr. Antonyoli, I appreciate you sticking around. What is your comment on this? Do you have any Do you see any issues that the board should be aware of? Is a You know, this might sound like a dumb question, but it I'm assuming a 12-inch line is plenty sufficient for what we're trying to accomplish here. Yeah, I I think Mr. Laruso has been very gracious in agreeing to put this put the new water man in and it's definitely needed as they pointed out they're having a lot of breaks down there. Um so it as long as Planeville is willing to abide by our rules and regs and our restrictions when we have them it really isn't there's no negative to rent them

and then Mr. Laruso puts the line in Brian and then it's our responsibility to maintain the line. Correct. Um, I don't I'm not sure if that's been determined yet. I know I've dis I discussed it with Mike King and I don't know where we are with that, Mike.

So, Mike, enlighten us. Have that conversation happened? So, we've been having a conversation with town council about the possibility of of Plainville owning and maintaining the line at their own expense um and abiding by the rules and regulations, which would um circumvent the need for a possible easement being granted to the town of Retham because the town of Planeville would need to grant an an easement for Retham to have access to that line um within their um within their layout. So it would it would facilitate make things a little bit easier for the for the town and the DPW and speaking with the DPW director.

Well, I would imagine so if we don't have to maintain a water line, right? But we get the water benefits. So So Retham Water would go through that line and Retham would charge for that water. Yeah. Then we wouldn't have to maintain it. That would be the idea behind it. Sounds like you guys know how to put a deal together. Uh okay. Uh so that sounds very gracious. Uh select board members, do we have any questions for attorney Meltzer or uh Mr. Laruso while we have them both with us? Mr. Select woman Rouse. Um I don't have any questions at this time. Thank you. Select man. Yeah, Mr. Chair.

So attorney Melture, a quick question. Once this water line is put in place, are you planning on extending that water line for for the economic development in Planable?

Well, the the W there is a plan which uh should be in your packet. the water line um extends down to the property that's listed as you know it's three Belture Street the Laruso property and then there's a a loop through the High Rock property um there is no plan to extend it beyond there no there's the only thing beyond there is the uh the laid law um uh facility Mr. Yeah. Yes, sir. Yeah. Through you. Can I ask a question to uh DPW superintendent? Of course. Please go ahead.

Yeah. So, Brian, um I know that, you know, for several years now, we've had, you know, severe water drop. And how would this affect water for residents like on the the Madison Street area, the Thirsten Street area? Um, if we were to take some of that water and supply it to Plle,

um, I don't think there's going to be any issues. We're already supplying water, you know, yes, via smaller lines. Um, part of their process is they have they do have to run the hydraulic model, which we do have all developers do, which simulates water usage based off what they're putting in and how it's going to affect the the people around them. sell in rent them. So that that would answer that question to a you know to a 100% level. Um but it's like look it's not we Mike and I had discussed also in the agree when the agreement goes through that if there were to be a change in use for the building like if there if they're building a warehouse for example and all of a sudden 10 years down the road they sell the property gets sold and it becomes a housing unit or something like that or in the water use changes. Uh we've discussed having a qualifier in the agreement that if the if their water use changes due to you change in use then we would have to reassess this in terms of what they're paying

or just what they're paying or if we would actually allow them to utilize the additional water. To your point, a warehouse uses a certain level of water. A 300 unit apartment building uses another level of water. So that should be discussed as well if if it hasn't been. Mr. King, do you have any comments on that or?

So so the idea behind the the the IMA would be to give the town a lot of discretion and flexibility um in allowing future connections or change of use. Right? So you the the the process would flow through the select board, right? because you the IMA would recognize the current circumstances, but if those circumstances change, then there should be a process that the select board gets to reassess and that will and that's what we're kind of putting into the IMA to address these kind of situations should they arise. I think that's prudent. Select Anderson, does that answer your question? It does. One more further question if you don't mind, Mr. Chair.

Yes, sir. Go right ahead. This is May the Brian for for Mike. Um, I know we're putting a water tower down the west end, but wasn't there some talk about putting a water tower down this end of the town as well, especially in light of the uh potential um housing that would be going in um through the state?

I don't there there's nothing concrete that's been discussed for that end of town for a tank. um that I can recall. Uh Selectman Anderson. Um I know our our water master plan doesn't really mention a tanking that into town. Um I I I had heard, you know, some some you know what you want to call them rumors about talk about maybe trying to find another location, but I've never heard anything concrete. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. And no further questions, Mr. Chair. All right. Good questions. Uh, Selecman Harrington, you're on mute, Billy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, my only concern is the businesses that are down in that portion of town belong on Madison, uh, Pachella Pipe, uh, Commonwealth of Mass, the sportsman's club, that I mean, those are not big water usage, you know, volumes. uh what I mean they don't what type of a building are you planning on putting in there and then you know you said something about future development with regards to water usage

who's the question directed at Bill

either the attorney or Mr. I'll take it. The um uh the current use that we're building is really a um a warehouse. It's a business that uh rents out um aerial lifts and equipment like that. So, it's not a big water user. Um the big driver in all of this is to have um uh proper uh uh sprinkler systems. Any sprinkler system probably requires uh either a 6 in line or an 8 in line. Um and we we just simply can't provide the proper uh fire control without updating

uh updating the water lines. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Selectman L. I'm good. Thank you.

Okay. Um so I I want to thank you both for coming on this evening. Thank you for giving us um you know summary of what we're trying to accomplish down there. I think the board's asked some relevant questions. Um, I think we'll, you know, uh, follow up with our town manager, Mike King. He'll have a follow-up conversation with Brian Noble, and we'll see if we can, um, get everything hammered out and get you on, uh, an agenda in the near future. Is there a is there a rough, Mike, is have we talked about a timeline to get them back on after you, you know, after we finish our due diligence with town council, Brian Noble, get these guys back on for a vote? Yeah, we we will be looking at uh in November.

Okay, great. Uh that sounds good. Mr. Laruso, Mr. Meltter, do you have anything further for the board? Not at this time. Thank you. No, I'm great. Thank you. All right. Great to see you both. Have a good night.

Um at this time, we're going to go to tab 14. It's the public comment section of the meeting. Doesn't look We might We have a couple people on. Uh residents who wish to participate in public comment will be allotted 2 minutes must uh to speak and must state their name and address for the record. At the start of the comment, a timer will be sent via message from Amanda Vazapolo. It should be visible in the top of the screen. An alarm will chime when the time is up. At this time, I'm going to open it up for public comment. Would anyone like to address the board? Give a couple seconds here. 5 4 3 2 1. Okay, we're going to move on to the town manager report which is tab 15. Mike, go right ahead.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, I'd like to begin with an announcement that the the town of Retham has received the government uh finance officers association uh GFOA budget award for the second year in a row. We just received notice. This is a national recognition and is a significant achievement and reflects REM's commitment to meeting the highest principles of governmental budgeting. Um, thank you to the finance team led by finance director Christine Dupris and department heads for ensuring Reno meets nationally recognized guidelines for effective budget presentation. That's great news. Great.

Uh, update on the uh the town hall uh electric vehicle charging stations. The the EV chargers located in the parking lot behind town hall are now operational. Uh there is one charger with two ports allowing two vehicles to be charged simultaneously. This project has been accomplished at no cost to the town. Similarly to the center electric vehicle chargers that recently came online. U and then my last town manager update um is on the route 140 storm water improvement project. Um so the route 140 storm water management improvements project to improve water quality at Lake Archer is nearly complete and the contractor will be demobilizing soon. Uh the project is funded via a state earmark and included the installation of three infiltration basins to manage drainage and reduce flooding on 140. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Does anyone have any questions or comments for our town manager, Mike King? Mr. Chair. Yes, sir. Yeah, Mike, that that that 140 for for the water, does that include um Red Dam? So that that that was to address storm water runoff um over by Nikki's um flowing into Lake Archer specifically. Okay. Okay. Do we have an update on uh Red Dam? Uh in terms of

Well, I I know this is going back probably three or four years. Um there was talk about, you know, breaching Red Dam um because of potential flooding that could could affect the town of Norolk and um I just don't think we've we've followed up on that at all. Maybe Brian, if Brian's still on, maybe he he could give us an update. Yeah. Select Anderson, you're you're meaning you're referring to Eagle Dam. Eagle. Yes. Eagle Dam. Yeah, Eagle Dam has um that's really hasn't gone anywhere. It's um kind of been in a holding pattern for the last two or three years like you said. Yeah. Okay.

It basically it need at some point it would need the select board to make a decision on which way we want to go with that. Okay.

I have no issue putting that on a you know if there's an update to be had, Mike. We could put that on a future agenda to talk about where things stand. My recollection, and I know we got to be careful because it wasn't on an agenda, but my recollection was it, you know, there was grant money. Maybe there wasn't grant money. It was going to cost us, you know, uh, a certain dollar amount to fix it versus a certain dollar amount to breach it. And the cost to fix it was very, very high. Um, and I don't know that we were going to be able to get a lot of grant money to cover that cost was my recollection. So, I' I'm very open to having the conversation again. I mean, you know, and Brian, obviously, I'll we'll rely on you to let Mike know if the if the situation becomes a severe one where the dam could breach, obviously, we need to know about that and we need to move things along.

Absolutely. So, through you, Mr. Chair, isn't Brian, does the Office of Dam Inspection still do their byanual check? Um they the the inspections are done by us. Oh, okay.

Yeah. Every five years, I think it is now. That's a low hazard dam. Um it's been rated as failing and poor for 10 since before I got here. Uh it's just there's no because it's a low hazard dam. There are zero grant dollars for it. I mean, officially you can apply for grants, but you will not you you don't get them. They'll they'll tell you right before you even apply. Unless you're a significant or high hazard, don't even bother applying. You will not get money. Right. So, the Eagle Dam would be the higher concern, which is the one on Lake Pearl behind it. Up on Gilmore, correct? No, the one red dam is the one on Gilmore behind it. That's the one that holds Lake Pearl. That's the one that holds it. Okay. I'm sorry.

Yeah, that's a high hazard dam that is also in rough condition. But right now, I have a grant to design the repairs for that. And I just put in paperwork today. uh uh expressed interest in applying for a grant for a million dollars for construction on the new on the repairing the dam. Okay. Okay. All right. Damn it. Yeah. Seriously. Anything else for a town manager? No. All right. Select manison, you're up. Yeah, Mr. Chair, with your permission, motion to adjurnn. I'll second that.

Okay. Motion was made by Select Manison. There was a second by selectwoman Rose. Any further discussion? Being none. Selectoman Rose. Yes. Harrington. Harington. Yes. Yes. Gallow. Yes. Motion carries. 5-0. Great job tonight everybody. Chris, go take care of yourself. Yeah. Thanks, Carol.