Board of Selectmen - June 16, 2025 Regular Meeting

001Good evening. Today is Monday, June 16th, 2025. It is 7 p.m. I'd like to call the regular board of selectmen meeting to order. Linda Brao, Troy Lamir, Paul Marino, Paul Harrington, Todd Arshawashi, Colinius, William Hester, Candy Perez, William Po. Thank you. In attendance tonight, we have Winston's two new Eagle Scouts. They're going to lead us in the pledge of allegiance. I'd like to introduce Eagle Scout Nicholas Waters and Eagle Scout Charles Lang. You want to come up here and hit the red button to turn that microphone on? Thanks, guys. One of the microphones is blinking. Just hit anyone you want. Just press it. The red one. The four things. Yep. One more time. There you go. Please follow us in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of

002America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Gentlemen, thank you. Congratulations on your achievement. Congratulations. Moving on to item three, agenda review. Mr. Mayor, particularly under uh unfinished business, uh we should put some further commentary on last week's or last meeting's discussion on the referendum. Yeah, I would agree with that. There's some things left. Okay. Anything else? Okay. So, we have a motion in a second on adding that to the agenda. All in favor? Unanimous. Moving on to item four, the approval of the minutes of our regular meeting on May 19th. I'll make a motion to approve the minutes for the meeting of May 19th. Second. Thank you, Troy. Thank you, Bill. Any discussion now? Uh, is this the one that was contested?

003Yes. Uh, no. No. No. Yes. Yeah. Yes, it is. Yes. The names were omitted. So, yeah. So, um, not to, you know, be mean or anything, but you're you're wrong on that because, um, in the minutes, um, were reflected by, um, you know, what Glenn had heard on on the board, but everybody had the names of the people on their paperwork, plus it was on the website. So because there was no action to be taken, I didn't mention the names, which I won't do again, but right that there was nothing the the minutes were not illegal on that. I think just to clarify what you're trying to say, Troy, a little bit further is as the minutes are cor uh compiled, anything that's publicly noticed in terms of the documents on the website that shows

004the names, we all had copies of that document. Glenn's able to take any of the documents and include those in the minutes because they're public documents. Okay. I guess my concern was um there's a procedure for boards and commissions. I mean, most of the members on boards and commissions are on boards and commissions longer than we're on the board of selectmen. They're appointed. Um this is now gone on. This is now like a month, two months into this. these people that have been nominated. They um I had uh someone call me and said, "What's the status of my application? Where is it? Am I going to be on the board? What's what's going on?" She had no idea. Um in the past, we've always always talked about the people being vetted, their name, the board,

005their party. We've always done that. Um I wasn't here. So whether you approve these minutes or not, I can't vote on them because I wasn't attending. I listen to this remotely. Yes. Um I don't know. Most people look at the packets online. I I do. I don't know if constituents or residents look at the packets. I don't know. That was just something I brought up. Um just that the names were not mentioned. They've always we've always had a procedure about how people are vetted and placed in nomination and appointed to boards and commissions. The names were omitted. I was surprised to see them in the minutes. That's all. We've gone over this enough. I don't want to continue any more argument, but um I can't vote anyway on this, but I wouldn't accept it if

006I was here. That's it. Yeah. Yeah, I mean I think we need to move forward. I think you're going to try to make sure you read them in the future because I don't think that was intentional. I think it was an oversight technically in terms of the minutes because it was a in a public document. They can be included in the minutes. But to your point, Linda, we should be more careful on the procedure. Absolutely. It's um it's a reflection on the town clerk and us as a board and not to push things further, but by saying the minutes were wrong, it stalled them from being put forward. Yeah. So they had to wait to this meeting to get nominated appointed. Appoint appointed. So they would have been nominated or been on last meeting but

007there is a procedure. Okay. Understand? That's all. Any other comments? Seeing none. All in favor? Abstain. 511. Thank you. Item B, minutes of our regular meeting on June the 2nd. Make a motion to approve those minutes. Thank you, Bill. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Bill. Any discussion? Seeing no discussion, all in favor? Opposed? Abstaining. 601. Minutes are approved. Moving on to item number five, citizens comments. The board of selectmen welcomes public comments. Speakers will be limited to three minutes or less and may speak only once. Please give your name and address. Who would like to speak? Uh, please turn the mic on there. Just hit one of the red buttons. It'll turn green. Yep. Perfect. Um, hello. My name is Betty Martin. I'm the secretary of the Highland Lake Wershed Association and um

008we're just here to present this uh water level gauge uh to the town and that's going to help give a visual for our public works um to be able to look at the water level of the lake which is important to the um health of the lake. Um the Highland Lake Wershed Association um has always supported the lake initiatives. Um we've been doing things recently such as the um implementing bioailes um in the public boat launch and the recent um plantings which are part of our rain garden to help slow down runoff into the lake and hope improve the quality of the the water. um also the Holland um beach uh new parking area with the with the drainage. So all of these are small steps that we're trying to take to um you know

009help improve the quality of the lake. Um there was a study a lot of these initiatives were taken from a study that was done in 2020 that had many many recommendations. So these are small steps that we've started to implement and of course we're you know we're hoping to momentum of that and um there's there's a lot more we can do and like I said I know we we um the board members often meet with the um the town staff and committees and trying to get the word out and and trying to collaborate and we hope to make more progress. Is that going on the gate house? Yes. I mean what's going it's going on the cement the rock wall that's right near the gate near the gate house it's where it used to go

010yeah and zero is what's zero is that the high level mark or or the lowest level mark or what's zero going to be should be low level it's it's the optimal level optimal level cool thank you so much ladies thank you very much here. Anyone else who'd wish to speak? Seeing no further comments, item number six, town manager report. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and good evening, board. Uh, this report is going to be from June 2nd to June 16th. As we head in the summer, we think, uh, things might slow down at town hall now that the budget is set. that's not happening this year uh in in Winchester. Uh relieved and grateful that we do have an established budget and it gives us a clear path forward and lets us finally turn our attention

011to the economic development we've all been talking about. Growing our grand list is one of our top priorities and with the budget behind us, we can really focus on on on that happening. I do want to take a second to go back to the last board of selectment meeting. I do want to correct the record on something that I said and I apologize. There was a member of the community that did bring up uh signs that are throughout town hall that were looking a little old. There's some misspellings. At the time, I had thought we had ordered the new signs. When I uh showed back up the next morning, worked with Terry and said, "Hey, where are we at on these signs?" Looked back in the emails and realized that the sent button was never

012sent. But I am happy to report that those signs have been ordered. They're directional signs. Uh when you come off the elevators, it tells you what's on floor one, floor two, floor three. So if anyone's wondering, hey, Harrington said that these signs were there was an email that was missed. Um and I can happily report that the signs have been ordered. So we'll have the nice signs here. Um going the uh the other issue that that was brought up was that hazardous fence on Bersol. Um happy to report that that's been dealt with. Um, I think that shows um that when you put something on the town's radar or especially my radar and I did go back and and and try to look for that email from that individual. I did not receive one and

013it's very uncharacteristic of me of not to respond or at least engage. So, um I do want to report I know the board um during the meeting even a little bit after the meeting was like can you get on that Paul? We got on it. That fence has now been removed from uh from that and it it was hazardous. So, uh, happy to report that that's, uh, been taken care of. Um, the Eversource Gas Project, um, we were throwing a curveball. Um, as you remember, uh, and as I've stated many times, that they were going to be working in the median. If you've been on Main Street in the notsodistant, uh, past, uh, pretty much the last two weeks, you've noticed that they are going right down the middle of the street. Um, and they're

014going to continue with that. Uh, Eversource in the state of Connecticut made a last minute change that when they finally got all their core sampling of what actually was in the median, it was going to be too hard of a project to actually put it in the median. And the state and Eversource made the call to now put the uh the the new main going right down our main street. I did bring Eversource in uh that construction began going right down our main street. They never notified that they were going to make that change. And I showed a lot of displeasure and thought we were partners with both the state and with Eversource that something so major where we were promising our residents, our business owners, that they were going to stay in the median

015and they ultimately made a last minute change and now putting it right down uh Main Street. Um if you happen to walk into town hall tonight, you might have noticed a decorative light pole is now on the ground. The one that's literally right in front of our door. I happened to be staring out my window today and was slow motion and sawing the back hoe. Uh, literally run right into it and knocked the pole down immediately. Obviously ran downstairs, immediately contacted the police. We do have a police report. The contractor is taking full responsibility of it, but we did lose a light pole. um uh a Winstead banner, our American flag, but uh uh fortunately uh one, there was an eyewitness, me, two, the contractor is emitting fault and uh we'll get that replaced as

016soon as possible. The power has been cut to that pole as well. We obviously we didn't have to cuz the contractor notified it after source and they came out. So, um it it it's there. There's a cone on it, but the power has been cut to those wires that are out there. Going back to subject that I talked about uh at the beginning of the report, our tax bills should be rolling out uh next week with hopefully being in everybody's mailbox somewhere around the 28th or 29th of June. We are feverishly working on an insert to go into it. It's just a great way to communicate with our residents. One of the items obviously that we want to uh again uh continue to pitch is our Eversource or excuse me, our Everbridge. Eversource on my

017mind lately. our Everbridge uh reminding folks to sign up. Uh we had great success with the QR code that people can take a picture of and remind them when uh it'll automatically place the reminder on their phone on their calendar that their second half tax bills uh being done. And it's really great having a budget in that if you remember last year and we're going to deal with a transfer tonight that we had to send out many different bills. We sent out the uh real estate and we waited on the motor vehicle. So this year everything all goes out and you know we'll we'll pick up some savings on that but happy to report the files been sent to the printer. We're finalizing our flyer. Tax bills will be printed and mailed and should be

018uh received in the home 26th to the 28th of June. So uh even before the July 1st technical due due date which you then have a 30-day grace period. Uh moving on to economic development. I sat down uh this past week with the new owner of 108 East Lake Street. He's energized about the property's future and has already hired a design and architect firm. And again, the plan is to do 20 to 30 uh condominiums up there. He made a commitment to me and to our land use office is that they will keep current on their taxes and that the property will never appear on the blight list. If you haven't had an opportunity to drive by that property, he's done massive cleanup already. The big brush pile will be going away. They're securing the

019building. They're making sure the building doesn't deteriorate anymore. all of that brush has now been uh cleaned up and they're going to make sure it stays that way. So, that's been a blighted property uh that we we are no longer uh going to have to deal with anymore. So, it's it's good news on that front. Um and I have to tell you the other developing uh developer interest that continues to pour into the office is just been uh outstanding. Um our land use team uh Taichi who obviously is our consultant town planner, we're having regular meetings. We're working out the framework to to present to these different developers. More on that as we have more concrete stuff because I'm going to need all of you to weigh in uh thoughts, opinions as as we, you

020know, look to engage some of these developers to for, you know, projects down the road. Um, moving on to labor, we started a negotiation with two of our bargaining groups. Just going to take this moment that I publicly want to uh thank our labor groups of uh how much hard work they put in every single day uh in town hall in town hall. our team is our backbone of the community and I'm confident that we're going to reach an agreement with both organizations that recognizes their dedication but also being fair to the taxpayers. Um you know I walked into both of these negotiations and say you know we get it but we have to be fair to our taxpayers as well. On some exciting news uh if you happen to catch it either in press

021on social media on behalf of the NH COG I'm excited to announce that the COG received the bar grant. If you remember a few months ago came to this board looking to see if we could fund some of the bar grant. Um these announcements seem to come out fairly quick before I can react. If you remember the Sue Gman trail and now the bar grant trail and you know it would be nice for the town to announce it first. And I do get a little aggravated because it's kind of exciting stuff but I can't be too mad because it's coming from the state and they're ultimately writing the check. But more importantly is what the BAR grant does. And if you don't know what BAR stands for, it's brownfields area revitalization. It's a grant is

022designed to help towns like ours take old, unused, potential contaminated properties and turn them into assets for the future. The funding will go directly identifying, assessing, and where possible cleanup of these sites can so they can be put back into productive use. For us, this means more opportunity for development, new businesses, improved public spaces without having to tap into local tax dollars. It's a major step forward for both economic growth and environmental health in our town. These project areas and and it was important that I want to define the project area. Um it's the intersection of Willow and Case to 10 Bridge Street, building one, which is roughly 10 parcels. So, if you're wondering, you know, where this money is going to be applied, what buildings we're going to be studying, it's the intersection of

023Willow and Case to 10 Bridge Street, building one. Um, and roughly, again, 10 parcels. Community survey, as you remember, we went out and we engaged our community. We're currently working on our well, the first draft has been completed. We're reviewing uh that first draft. Um, and I know this board and probably a lot of our community members are wondering what exactly came of this community survey. I think some of you will be surprised by the answers that we received and I think some of the answers just reinforce that we're heading in the right direction. Um, and I hope to have that report finalized with my team sometime at the end of the month and get it up on the website and obviously send it all to all of you. Um, and then just in closing

024on on just a small little lighter note, I attended my first Laura Ball on Friday. I'm happy to report I didn't turn into a pumpkin at midnight because I left at 9:00. Um, and it was great to just see so many residents out enjoying themselves, showing what makes this town special. Events like this remind the pride and energy of our community, and I'm grateful to everyone who helped organize and attend that event. With that, I'll open it for questions. Questions, I just got two. One, number one, is there any follow-up money following the bar grants? When you ask for follow-up money, you mean from the time? So, what this does bar Great question. Once they find an issue, are they willing to help us in the other direction? I I won't say that they're willing,

025but I'm saying what that's going to do is help us unlock. One of the things that the state has shown time and time again is once they get the initial buy in, they tend to be your partner as these uh uh parcels get developed. So, first you go in and you do the study, then you go in and there may be demolition or remediation. And I seen it in my last town where, you know, the the the partner that my last town teamed up with, they originally got a $200,000 grant. If you look at the announcement, they just got $4 million from the state to demolish this plaza that they were in. So, to your point, can I say there's money? Yes. We'll have to apply for it. But the good news is is we

026got the state buy in originally or the COD got the state buy in, which is exciting. So, more money hopefully will come uh to help fix those buildings up. Making sure it was following. Yes. I can't say for sure. We're gonna have to apply for it. It's competitive, but uh time and time again I've seen the state once they initially buy in, they'll be your partner as these as these properties get developed. You had another second question. Um I know personally that there's been some lot of problems with the construction on Main Street with people getting their mirrors hit. Yes. Parking on the thing. Is there any way you can call in Eversource and um do something about the way they because I come through here several times a day too sometimes um picking up

027parts and their their u alleyways are very narrow. We got tractor trailer trucks down to you know small cars. So small car has no problem. Tractor trailer truck big problem. Um, and I do believe that it's affecting our businesses because there's been less and less foot traffic. Um, you know, because of that. So, people are probably maybe afraid to get their car hit or theirelves crossing the road. Um, as it goes further down into the business zone, um, you're going to see more problems. So, I don't know if there there should be some kind of a meeting where they can like use the medium instead of putting cones next to the medium for an alleyway. Put the cones on top of the medium as as a, you know, to like give room. Yeah, I I

028I do hear what you're saying. I I I can say one of our employees mirrors were were unfortunately hit. Um, so I've seen it firsthand with a team member of ours. So, uh, let me talk to them. I think right now in the stretch that they're in, obviously we're limited in our space because of the actual islands and we can't stretch any further. But yeah, it's tight out there. Um I guess I'll I'll there's ways to do it though and they're they're I mean I construction every day. So let me let me bring them in. Um it is tight. I I can I can tell you I I am very proud of the uh our officers and also the flaggers that they've hired that I've actually seen them stop cars and and literally walk people

029across the street. Um I get the best view in town because I can stare out the window and and and see it. And they've been great. I I see a lot of big packages to and from the post office. They will stop all the cars on Main Street to allow, you know, safe passage of of of people. So it's good to see. So hopefully we'll continue to see it as, you know, we start moving more and more down the road. People are always in a hurry today for some reason. They're distracted. They're distracted. Yep. Well, have they have they updated you on a timeline? Are they on track? Uh, no timeline yet. Um, they're supposed to give me a a a look ahead. Um, that is subject to change. Um, I'll leave it as I

030am not satisfied with the communication that we're receiving at this point. Um, this goes back to they're changing the the the scope of the project to be right down the middle of the street um to uh time frames to a bunch of stuff. And there'll be another meeting very shortly where a lot of the uh uh angst that I see every day will be we better get corrective action. Yes. To get back to the bar grant. Yes. the owners of the properties, do they have any responsibility or what what is their commitment to this grant? Um, responsibility uh moneywise, none. But they would probably be more than willing to work with the with the cog and and and with it because that's going to make their building more marketable in that either a they know

031exactly what needs to be done in order to remediate it or b sell it off to a potential another developer to say this is what needs to be done if you wanted to do you know retail in if you want to do residential in there. Um, and I can tell you, you know, working with the cog, these owners of these properties are excited that we got it and and they've I think all of them wrote recommendation letters or letters of support when when the cog put in for this grant. Okay. It's exciting. I'm excited because there is a town match. There is a town match which we funded from property taxes on the match. So, the town is also investing in these properties that other people own. Correct. So, which the board took action a

032few months ago. Um I for was it 20 I it was a smaller amount. It was 10% so it was going to be $20,000. Other questions? Yeah. I just want to um pass this out and I want to ask Paul. Um, this is this is an entirely different subject that you've all probably not heard of, at least at at this table, is there's uh something that's been used when they kill when you try to um called bait boxes. And the bait boxes are for mice and rats around usually around larger buildings. And it's usually being used by pest control companies. uh people that own houses aren't necessarily using these so much. Um but they could be. So what happens is there's a it's a box and has you know food in it bait to attract

033the little mice or the rats which are a little bit bigger and then the mouse or the other rat or whatever pest it is eats it but they don't get trapped you know. So right now I gave you some information about alternatives to boxes where the mouse or rat is trapped and not allowed to go back out into the woods. Because what's happening is when these um animals are eating this poison, it's an anti-coagulant, a second a second generation rodent side. And what's happening is that the fox eats it, the eagle eats it. And I'm really sensitive to this because up at the lake, we have some nice bald eagles, you know, and you remember our age group in the 60s bald eagles were dying because of the DDT and the shells. We have absolutely

034gorgeous hawks, you know, throughout our community. Our community is thought of as, you know, being a very good environmental place to be in. But what happens is when these owls, the hawks, eat the mouse, which they're supposed to do, um then they too get the poison in their system and they bleed out. So there's a couple rehab facilities throughout the state that have went to the state legislature also are you know trying to get public to help out in this. So I guess I would ask you Paul is are we as a town putting out any bait boxes anywhere? I'd like to know that. And then two after that, after we figure all this out, is awareness for people about that because I was at another meeting last week at another facility here in town

035and they had a pest control company coming in and I asked them if they were going to use bait boxes because there are other ways to do this that would be better for all the other animals because the other concern becomes pets. You have a cat, right? Your cat goes outside, your cat goes eats mouse, your cat could bleed out, right? So, um, I want to get to kids so much, but the cat, you know, because, you know, if I let my cat out, he he would love to eat anything out there. That's why he never gets to go. But, um, if the cat went out and ate, you know, the mouse, which the cat's supposed to do too, right? Chase the mice. Um, they too can get the secondary poisoning and bleed out. And

036it's an ugly bleed out from everything I've watched, everything they presented at the state legisle, etc. So Paul, if you wouldn't mind seeing if we're using any of it, and if we are, if we couldn't look at other solutions, I know up in Sandersfield, Mass, there's a pest control company up there that has um I tried to find a letter that they did that after they learned all this stuff, they decided not to not to use these bait boxes with the with that particular poison in it. So I'd like to just use my time here for that. We we use them all a lot of them in Northfor and they charge me a fortune. I'm gonna Now, did you say that these companies would be able to give you a bait box to keep it?

037Well, on that page that page because I have the bait things. Yeah. Not to keep the mouse, right? But that page I gave you has some alternatives to it. All right. And um the second page also has some more and I can get more information to you. But but the question, you know, the thing is I'm I'm glad that you would take a look into that. Right? Because the more that you and your fellow um you know people that work in the towns and stuff talk to the pest control companies and say what are there other alternatives you know because the bait box is the easy thing to do. Right. Correct. It's easy thing to just throw on the ground. That's what they do. They come I think once a month and they rebait them

038or something. So I mean cost a lot of money. So if you'd asked me that you know a year and a half ago I would have known anything about it. But neither did I. So this is new to me. So, I happened to learn about it and so now I'm, you know, I'm just I'm on a mission to save the hawk that lives in my yard and the eagles that live on the lake and save somebody, you know, somebody's cat. Y can we get um because I think to your point, Candy, we should get it publicized, right? And I I can't envision what these bait boxes look like, but if we had examples of some of what the boxes look like, we can put those on on our town social media. We can get it

039on the website and make, you know, with the red hash mark through it, whatever. These are the things you don't want to use. Put out the alternatives. I'm with you a thousand%. Watching the eagles every day fish has really become such a joy up there and we have to protect that. Yeah. If you want to go further, there's also the the lead that can also be used in the fish. You have the old fishing lures. I remember when I was little, I had those little things that you flip on a line, those thing. smashed them and they stayed on there forever. Um, those two are somewhat of a issue if the if the fish got up to the m Mr. Eagle. So, there's a where this some of this information came from is it's called

040a place called Hope. It's down in Killingworth, Connecticut. They're on they are on the Facebook. They also have a website. Uh, you can take a tour down there. They must have examples of all the bad traps, photos, and things that perhaps we could get to put up. They and others Connecticut animals went to the state legislature. So, they're trying to do stuff at the state legislature, but you can imagine that there's pest control companies on the other side that are pushing back as well. So, I think homeowners are probably going to do the best job, but it's really the pest control companies, like you said, they come, they put the boxes out, leave me a big bill. walk away. Yeah, it looks like Fairfield is trying to do something with, you know, the reproductive abilities

041of the of the mice and rats so that they can't make more. And then there's other ways to control um to control them as well. So, I can get more information for you. You can everybody that's watching or anybody can look it up for themselves. But the more public awareness there is, the better off we are. And then like I know our neighborhoods over here and stuff. If they go to the facility I was in and that little mouse came out and ran around somebody's houses and the cat eat it, that would be a bad thing. I got a cat. I don't have a box. Thank you, Dandy. Any other just a just a a few things. Um I will get answers. I I don't know if we're currently using bait boxes, but um maybe

042just I want to put this idea into the board's head. So, you know, we can control what we do, meaning what the town does. So, is this something and and and I think, you know, Stuckwoman Press did an excellent job of, you know, protecting, you know, our eagles and our fish. Is this something that the board may eventually want to see as an ordinance as well where we would ban these particular bait boxes? I'd be for that because and here's what I'm saying. So, we have all these buildings all here, right? So, these bait boxes. So, we're doing we're being great stewards of the community. Excellent. We're setting the example. But if we're looking to ultimately, you know, protect our wildlife, which, you know, I'll tell you that's a great cause and you're going to

043see me work hard on that as well, should I start going in my head and and saying is, you know, is this an ordinance thing? Because we can do it in the buildings that we own, but we we can also then potentially stop it from all the other buildings. How would you ever enforce it though, Paul? That's the problem. I thought of it when you're talking about it, but how are we ever going to enforce that when you when they go in for their inspection? Yeah. I mean, you can put it under fire inspection, the fire marshal if we see them. Um those are typically surprise inspections. Um you know, we we again, yes, enforcement is always going to be hard, but you know, again, I I just throw that out. It's it's obviously up

044to the board, but I'm sitting here and I'm listening and I'm hearing about these animals and saying, "Okay, I I think before we do an ordinance, you need to look into it a little more." So, in in Torington, where I'm at, our commercial building, we have a problem. Usually in the spring and in the fall with rats, and we do have the big bait boxes, and we've tried traps and all that. The problem is when the water level gets high, they're river, we have river rats. When the water level gets high, they come out and we'll see them literally around the parking lot and whatnot. Um, we were aware of this, so we talked to the company. They're working on alternatives right now. We tried the traps. They work for a month or so. Rats

045are extremely smart. So, after they see one get it, they don't go in the trap anymore. They literally They literally don't. You're supposed to go um But the company we're using is actually looking at at alternative methods right now. Okay. Um, yeah. And again, I'm not opposed to it either, but if you had a restaurant or a bakery around and you tell them, well, you got to put traps out and check them every day and whatnot, is it going to happen? If you think about it, I mean, we got a lot of restaurants down on Main Street. Well, part of it part of it is keeping things clean, too. You know, that's that's the other part of it because, you know, we had that thing over on another street where the garbage can gets knocked

046over and you don't pick it up. So, some some of the solutions and maybe not at your place because I don't have you just have the river and stuff. Well, we have a whole swamp there. So, my when my father was little, we were told to stay in the house because he went out and shot the river. I'm just saying. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I tried to use fire. I tried that at work, but the frown upon it. We're not advocating that. We can't do that anymore. But I I think you know, but cleaning up garbage and all that also helps. It does. Another part of what they advocate for. They're not just advocating. I mean, I guess we know an issue. Everybody knows there's an issue and you have to control that too. But is

047there are there alternative methods that can be used so that you know we can do both at the same time? Education is the key. I like it. I mean I think an ordinance is not out of the question. We but and maybe the the buildings that we do regularly inspect for whatever reason, but you know there's not going to be anyway we should look at start. Yeah. Yeah. We have to inspect the buildings uh once a year. I'm on tomorrow. So, uh, let me get answers. Uh, I won't let you wait two weeks. Let me find out currently what the town's using. I'll push that off to you all tomorrow. Please don't respond. I'll just It's information purposes. I mean, it's it's not like a huge rush. I just wanted to start to bring the

048level of attention. Will you follow up with the company and get examples of the bad ones so that we can get Yeah, I to potentially I'll be glad to get whatever we need. Anything else? Uh, next month Paul is Jimmy coming for roads and stuff like that for his report. Yes, we'll get Jimmy here next month. Yes, we have a few things coming up. A little preview. We'll have Jimmy coming in and then also uh inland wetlands with some of their changes that was talked about. Um Jeremy and Jeff were were in my office earlier today. They're thinking it's going to be the second meeting in July for uh for that. But can we get I'm sorry. Can we get detailed very detailed reports from Jim on projects timeline? What do we expect to finish

049prior to the end of paving season? Completed projects. Are they in on budget is the key here? Because I know he said some are over, some are under, which ones are over, which ones are under. Can we re real reallocate the money? And then the other question I have is I know that we have the bond and there's an order that it was done in. Are we able to change that around the order of the roads that were done? Because there's some roads that are so far out I think that are on the list that nobody's going to see them and not a lot of people. And do they need less engineering? Could they get could we make more progress? I would like to see a report of road uh work that does not include

050the bond because after this election a lot of people thought that a lot more roads are going to be paved outside the bond money this year. So I want to report on that. Yeah, I think a few months back too, Paul, we had talked about thought we talked about once a month, one of the month they be bringing in a different, you know, public works EDC, planning and zoning. Um, we started that, we had EDC, we had planning and zoning, and then, um, we got into budget season, and we can kick it back up. we can kick it back up. Um, hey, less talking for me. It's always good. We can bring in the the the director. So, um, I' I'd love to hear from Jeff again. I mean, I try to touch base with

051my chem, but but I think Jeff's doing good things over there, too. So, Jeff should be here that second meeting in July. So, I just want to follow up on the couple of things with Jimmy. one I think and I don't know I wasn't here for the bond but the bond was clear on roads that we have to do from the bond but was it a set order of the way that or did Jimmy pick roads based on the need again we need to have more to show for this and I'd like to see if we're working on roads that need five years of engineering and there's other roads that could be stripped and paved as part of the bond and make progress here. I think that would be important. So, I'd like to drill

052down on that order. And then again, in his mind, what projects will be completed between now and the end of paving season? Correct me if I'm wrong, Candy, but I believe there was streets listed per year on the bond package that we're going to get done. specific streets, but but I don't think the bond I think that list a lot of that was based off the engineers recommendations if I remember way back that you know these are your we had a study done where these are your worst roads, your next worst roads right down the list. Remember the bond when it was created, the thinking was that you bond the really long roads that were going to cost a million and a half to $2 million to do, right? So, it wasn't like just doing

053the, you know, a short Case Avenue road because that you should be able to do in a regular budget, you know. Well, it's hard now because the roads are 500 to 750,000 a section these days. But the thought was that you're never going to do South Row, for instance, in a regular budget. There was never going to be enough money in a regular budget to pave South Road, just like there's not enough money in a regular budget to pave East Wakefield or West Wakefield Boulevard if you're going to do it right. Right. Because you have Well, the engineers, I mean, that those I've learned this cost a lot. If you can get them exactly if I had to do it all over again, but um but then there's the after you engineer it then there's

054the um drainage and with the drainage comes all these easements and where you going to you know do all that and then I then after that comes the you know the ripping and and the paving right. So I think a lot of the big longer ones were in the engineering stage and it was a there was a whole calendar the engineering and then there was the drainage work and then it was the paving work. It's kind of like Marshall Street. Marshall Street took a a long time to do uh because of all the drainage work and all the sides of the roads that needed to be done and then it was finally paved. They got I believe it was a skim coat in between, you know, a short skim coat just to smooth it out

055a little bit while they were doing the drainage and the culvert areas and whatnot. So within the list somewhere and it's probably it's probably you know Jimmy probably has one or Bark probably has one on his computer of right after the bond came out was what roads were going to be done and when. Um I'm sure I have a copy but I'll never it's buried, but there is that list. And um I believe most of them uh were the engineering and the drainage part. I'm not sure that there's any small roads that are left on there, but I could be mistaken because I I remember when the bond came out and we voted on it, there was years and like seven streets for each year. I think that they were there was some movement on

056that list, but I they originally came out these roads are going to be done this year, this year, this year, this year. But I think Jimmy had to move them because of either utility work or drainage work or engineer work. Yeah, that's another thing that gets thrown in. You go to pave a street and Eversource is going to dig it up in six months. So, you don't you can't pave that street. And that's one thing we do do. We we contact all of the utilities because there's no sense of ripping it up to then just people out of their minds if you rip it up again. I remember Main Street. I remember Bob Ger stopping them from doing Main Street while something was done with the water and sewer and stuff over there and then

057it got paved and then now here's Eversource picking it back up again. Candy, do you remember back when the bond was being discussed and you you brought up something really interesting? You know, the drainage around the lake is is really in bad shape. Yep. That's why there was a million dollars in the bond. That's the biggest issue. And the lake is an incredible asset for the town and we should be doing everything we can do to protect it. Um, you know, what was the thinking about not making that a priority in terms of I mean, I know everybody wants their roads done, but the drainage issue there and the amount of silt and stuff that's getting into the lake every year is a is a severe thing. So I don't know if it's something we

058need to take up another look at. Uh well one of the things we've been working on that Betty had alluded to before was in terms of doing drainage the question at the lake for which because we put a million in the bond for that right. Uh so the question is do you do the drainage in connection with a section of road you were just doing like they did Taylor Bridge and then they did Suckerbrook Little Bridge there. Do you do do you use that money to do the drainage at around Taylor Brook Ridge to complete that or do you go and find the worst offending silt sender at the lake and fix that? Because when Pat Hey was here a long long time ago when I first started, but and that I mean actually the

059drainage at the lake and the catch basin was why I'm here. I mean that is exactly why I'm here all those years ago. Um, so they were addressing some issues or were the biggest offending uh, you know, silt was running off. I mean, the other biggest offender is is Suckerbrook, right? And that's why when that pipe failed and just in general, it sends so much through. Taylor Brook all the time send stuff through, but you can't stop it because it's just where it is. So, do you do the worst offending um the worst offending areas, which in the 2020 report some of them are are identified? A million dollars isn't going to get you too far up there. So, um so continuing to pick at all of them is a really good thing to do.

060the eventual full drainage um you know and stopping the ice on the lake is another question because they just did that down by Taylor Brookke put in you know new uh catch the catch basins with a drop in them and across the road new piping but there's still water on the road because the way that the culver came on the side didn't take the water in or didn't do a like a what's the surface drain a French drain kind of thing the French drain was there's a dra underneath it to catch the ground water, but the surface water because there's so many springs that pop up. So, Paul, yeah, I I completely agree with you. I mean, obviously I I you know, the more drainage you do, the more stuff you keep out of the

061lake, the less chances of another sino bacteria bloom or just the fact that everybody has to swim in whatever goes in. But, so it's like, you know, there's not there's not enough money. I I tried to win lottery again and it didn't work. They're $5 a ticket now, too. Is there any environmental state funding that could be looked at, unlocked to preserve the lake? Yes, there has been in the past or are sometimes because I mean, it's a it's a serious issue we have to deal with. And it's getting worse every year. And again, if the lake was destroyed, be a serious problem for this entire town. East Wakefield Boulevard with all the dirt roads that come out and then go directly into catchmasons that go directly in the lake is your biggest problem. Well,

062there's there's a there's a private citizen offender who's we've all talked about it. Jimmy's been out there six times. We can't seem to enforce any kind of mandatory fix. And every time there's a major thunderstorm, he has another dump truck of dirt dumped in his driveway. And and two days later, when there's a thunderstorm, it's in the lake. Yes, it's dead. Know exactly where you're talking about. There's other roads that do the same thing and it's just a matter of whether, you know, the town's going to take control of it, but that one offender, it's been talked about a lot. So, you take control of it and you fix it and lean it because they don't have enough money to do it themselves. Yep. Um, you know, so does the town go down that road?

063I think I think Jimmy will have Jimmy will know about the list, but we may look into to state and and federal assistance for the drainage on the highway. Yeah, we got to do something about the drainage. We we had talked about Newfield. Newfield's a problem because that's the east branch, believe it or not. That's the east branch of the Nagatuck River and there's so much silt going in there right now. I've had I've reached out with with Trout Unlimited. They have resources. There's actually a Nagatuck Valley U river association that that does the entire so what fixing all seven and a half whatever seven and a half miles eight miles of road between the proper drainage doing it really the right way um repaving and god forbid we bring the water main the rest

064of the way around the lake since it's starts you know a third of the way around I mean that's a probably a $20 million all day long at least. Yeah. The water they the water and sewer commission back in 1992ish when they when they were doing it, they purposely left the water up. Why? Uh because of the cost and it couldn't go in the same trench, right? They can't go in the same different trenches and it just became complicated. That's actually how um most of the lake got paved in uh 1994 is they had $800,000 left from the USDA grant that was there and so they used it to pave it. I mean it was really great. It was a nice speedway for people when the people on the rollerblades were gone. Everybody was going

065it was it was great but there was nothing else done. They just put the pavement down. There was no drainage, no curves, no nothing. And um so it lasted for a little while and you know now we got our speed bumps back but can we put our grant person in search of uh finding ways to protect the lake? We can think there's also we will there's also no no ledge here in Winston. Yeah. Okay. Because you don't know what's around that lake. That's why the lake road is the way it is. It pitches the wrong way in a lot of spots because of ledge. There's some spots they haven't been able to put a sump in the catch. There's you never they can't Well, you can if you want to get down, but you're going

066to be there. It'll cost you a fortune. Yeah. Yeah. I had the same problem. Seen it many times. Anything else? Were kind of like that. Yeah. Let's get the final. I sat down here because I wanted to chime in on what you were asking for. So, back at the April meeting, um you all did receive an update that Mr. Rollins and I both worked on on all of the bond projects and the anticipated completion date and where they stand as of that point in time. So, um, if you don't have that, we can certainly give you that. That was part of determining how much money to go out and bond. So, everyone received that. I'm not sure if you were here last meeting. I was not it was it was projects through 331 of 2025.

067We added anticipated completion date. We also had notes off to the side as to um additional notes as to where some of the projects are, whether they're complete, when the anticipated will be um on those. So, and then kind of the the next trunch. So, budgets that will be uh things that are either in progress right now uh with budgets in the system, things that are not started or that there's budget going in for the next year, and then things new project requests that there is no budget. Most of those are beyond except for uh road that will be I believe we did um that was to be started in 2025. So you do have some of that information already in terms of what you're asking. I'm more curious. We get our list of we

068get lists of streets and we're doing such and such and this and maybe Paul when he brings in his report, you know, a snapshot map of we're doing this section of the road because you think of the road sometimes it's a road that's four miles long and we're doing 100 feet of it or something. It'd be great to have a presentation made to us. So we know what's being paved, where it's being paved, when it's going to be paved, because if there's one thing we hear about all the time, it's pave something. There was a there used to be maps that they did color code with those lines like like you said, oh, that was that was before we bonded. And and I remember the April meeting, you're correct. My my curiosity here comes by

069the time Jimmy comes back in, it's the end of June, that's three months. I want to see if there's been any forward progress. Just let everybody know that you did receive that. We have Jimmy at the first meeting. That was the meeting that before we added more money for the bond for you guys. That was the meeting to discuss. So, if you guys remember correctly, some of that bond money that we approved after that meeting, some of them projects were already completed. Correct. Or or ongoing. Yes. So, that's why you needed the money. That's because we fronted the cash. Yes. Yep. So, just just to let you know on that. Um, okay. Are we ready? Finance report. Finance report. Take it away. Without further ado, and it talks out after the mouse, the mice and

070the rats. Um, so these are the results. Um, and yes, I have those boxes at my house. Um, I do have those boxes. Um, these are the results through May 31st of 2025. We are 11 months through the year. Sorry, Glenn. The summary I sent you says FY24 general fund results. Just switch that to 25. We are 92% of the way through the fiscal year. Uh, current year-to-ate revenues for property taxes are 27,486207, which is 100.51% of budget. That's in comparison to the same period last year which was 26,581651. Motor vehicle supplemental tax uh receipts 300,0002. We're at 133.33% of budget. That's in comparison to for last year which was 127.86%. Past due tax was 375,277. We're at 62.55% of budgeted. That's compared to last year of 209,227 which is 69.74%. Total year-to- date revenue

07138,623 627. We're at 94.65% of budget. That's compared to 38,304389, which was 97.88% for the same period last year. Total year-to- date expenditures with incumbrances, uh, 36,10334. We're at 88.47% of budget. Uh, same period last year was 35,710474 and that was 91.25% of what was budgeted. our municipal aid received in the month of May. We received our current year aotment of our LOSIP grant of 122,884. Uh we also received three reimbursements on the Case Avenue Bridge grant uh totaling 138,422 cash flow at the end of May 14,192 of that just a little over a little over 10 million of that is invested 4 5510 in the Northwest Community Bank suite. Uh 2,ion550 in stiff and 7 million 078827 in our Northwest Community Bank money market. Uh capital expenditures in the month of May, we have

072a fairly decent list. Uh 17,416 went to the police cruiser replacement line item. Don't panic. That was for the remaining expenses for Norcom for the upfit of the new Tahoe. 22 a little over $2,200 for the retaining wall for East Wakefield Boulevard. Another 1784 towards the digital radio upgrade project. $21,000 for the community's challenge wayside sign project. 9,0223 for annual road maintenance. $3,000 for Hampton Road Culbert Engineering. 25,585 uh which was reclassification from a different line item for fee in lie of payment expenditures that was actually for paving of Lovely Street that took place prior to this month. Uh 10,668 for supplies and materials for the clerk of the works. The majority of that expenditure was for Onion Electric and I believe that was for winering the the work trailer. uh $5,000 for the bond

073project for West Wakefield Taylor Bridge. 4,977 was paid for West Wakefield Boulevard and 10,720 was paid towards the drainage projects that was paid to JH Land Services, I believe, for engineering on that. Um, one other item I just want to mention, you have you will have in front of you coming up several budgetary transfer requests. We would like to going forward uh work a little work a little smarter not harder. Um every month when we have transfers, Terry takes our transfer form and retypes that whole form. Um retypes all of the line items for the transfer onto the action request sheet. We would like to combine those and get rid of that additional sheet because Terry is doing a lot of extra work that I don't know that we really need because we have all

074the necessary information on the transfer form. We can add to the transfer form. You know, I make a motion we can add the action step number if needed. If there's any other information needed, I'm not sure we need that charter section on each transfer form. Um, but we're just doing a lot of work that I don't know that's really necessary that we're asking Terry to do. And the more we type it, the more room there is for typos and incorrect account numbers because she's taking from one to another. So, she types out this entire form every time. Yep. She takes all the information from our transfer form, retypes all the account numbers and the dollar amounts when we already have all those already set up on the transfer form. Is there a a way, Paul,

075to make that much less cumbersome and still keep it legal in the way it's supposed to be presented to us? I mean, you can bring us an example of what you want to do and see if it applies. I mean, I don't know that you need to. I don't know that you need to put the the reference to the charter in there that which takes up, you know, a third of that. We could simply put a box that says you could put a box that references the charter section and whether it's an inter intra department. Um, so if you made an example, yeah, we could look at it. Yeah, let's work on something. We'll bring it to the next meeting, see what especially in the months we get towards the end of the year and

076you're looking at I mean She's spending a lot of time. So, let us work on an example. We'll keep going obviously the way it is now. Let's bring you an example. See what you think. We can fine tune it and go from there. Um I just want to uh Oh, I was going to say because that's in their packet. What is that? That's the Yes, it looks like that. Yeah, that was in their their finance right now in these packets of bond. No, that is that is your monthly capital improvements. So what was done that you have on where we are as of the end of May year to date or year to date or all year expenditures where we are right now. You have bond projects. Yes, I split out the bond projects not

077started. Yes. Yep. So I added that in so that that's part of the um part of your schedule that you receive on a monthly basis. Um, just wanted to give you an update. Uh, Paul and I had our ratings call last week um, with our bond advisor and with S&P. We hope to be getting our rating on Wednesday. 18 Wednesday. Wednesday we should be getting our rating. I'm not sure. We're not really anticipating a move in our change in our rating. Hoping, but don't really anticipate. Uh we are giving final comments on the official statement document for the bond issuance and the sale will take place on the 25th I believe6th I 25th or 26th 25th or 26th I think it might be to the 26th um that the bond sale will take place at

07810 a.m. That's it. Questions? Questions? No questions. Thank you very much. Moving to item number eight, correspondence. Does anyone have anything? Seeing no correspondence, moving on to item number nine, boards and commissions. Troy, Bill. Oh, yay. Here we go. Okay. So, tonight we're going to start out with a reappointment. Um, we have Deb Kesler um, being reappointed to the Soldiers Monument Commission. Party is it. She's a full-time member and her term will end 6209. Um, going down the list, we got a motion. Do we have to make a motion for a re? Oh, we do. I'm sorry. I move we reappoint Deb Kesler to the Soldiers Monument Commission. Term to expire on 629. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Unanimous. Congratulations. And then we're going down to resignations. And unfortunately, uh, we got another resignation

079from Mr. Clawson, George Clawson, um, on the planning and zoning commission. There's a a letter in your packet. Um, his party is D and he's a full-time member and I don't know what his end was it what was the end date of his seat. Glenn, do you know? It's not on here. Um, I'll have to look that up. Okay. I don't think we ever actually posted on resignations because there's it's never usually done. Well, it's a a full-time seat and then you know when you appoint somebody that resation stated when he was stepping down. So, the next person will have it on theirs. Okay. Um then we're going down the list to nominations. Um first one um or appointment here. First one is Sally Chzn Conservation Commission party D full-time member term to end 52027.

080I make a motion to appoint Thank you, Troy. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Bill. Any discussion? Seeing no discussion, all in favor? Unanimous. Congratulations. Second one is uh Addie, I'm not sure how to pronounce that name. Mel, I believe. Uh conservation commission party is you full-time member. Term to end 52029. I make a motion to appoint her. Thank you, Troy. Is there a second? I'll second that one, too. Thank you, Bill. Any discussion? Seeing no discussion, all in favor? Unanimous. Congratulations. Going down the list. Third one is Stuart Pollins, uh, historic commission. Um, party does not have to be listed. He's just a resident. Um, full-time member, term to end 12 of 2025. I make a motion to appoint store. Make it draw. Thank you. Second. Thank you, Bill. Any discussion? He's a

081resident. He needs to be a an elector. He's an elector. Not for that one. I don't think you do. I think for the historic commission there is I checked the chart the charter chapter 50 section three. Did we change? I think it was historic commission. I thought we changed. I thought that was the one that we changed commission that we changed. Thomas Lutris is not a voter. He's a res. Yeah, he's he's not a voter. He's not he is not an elector, right? He's just a resident and he can be on the commission. Then the then the chapter 50 needs to be updated. Chapter 50 of of our charter charter historic commission. charter commission would have been an ordinance. Yeah. The or ordinance 50-3. All members shall be electors of the town of Winchester. Yeah.

082That that was updated. We changed that. It must We created the historic commission. We We created the historic commission with the set of rules when Josh was here and then we adjusted them for people that wanted to participate. Okay. It needs to be updated. That's all. Did we vote or were we not? Any other discussion? All in favor? Unanimous. Congratulations. And least but last but not least, um we have Anita Garnett who would like to be on the Winchester Housing Authority. Party is Democrat, a full-time member for of 2028. I'd like to make a motion to uh appoint Anita. Thank you, Troy. Is there a second? We're on a roll. I'll second. Thank you, Bill. Any discussion? Seeing no discussion, all in favor? Unanimous. Congratulations. And last but not least, tonight is my last night

083of doing this, I am resigning as chairman of this committee, committee. Noted. Thank you. something. Yes, absolutely. We'd like to thank George Quson for his years of service, his knowledge, and his leadership on the planning and zoning commission. Uh his knowledge will be sorely missed. Uh once again, as usual, we have several openings for boards and commissions. Applications can be found on the town clerk's website. Is that it, Troy? That's it. Moving on to item 10, unfinished business. A discussion of the referendum. Ken, did you want to continue on whatever you wanted to add to last meeting or whatever. Okay. So, um, I was not at the last meeting, but I did enjoy watching it on YouTube when I got back and, um, couple of things came out that I thought we should we should

084address. Um, you know, a few month a month or so ago, we were applauded in social media as the board that was working in a bipartisan manner. And uh some of the things Candy that you mentioned at the last meeting struck me as troubling but also on social media there were several comments of people who were who took your comments the same way. So I just wanted to address a couple of the things that you that you mentioned. Is this going to be another lecture for me? Because you I always dread coming to these meetings when you put something like this on the agenda because I feel like I'm getting a lecture for being bad. Actually, Ky, it won't be a lecture to you. I'm simply going to state some of the facts that the

085way I see them since you stated them the way you saw them. Okay. But that's not what you just said. Okay. Well, let's put specifically to me and when I spoke, I didn't say specifically any name here at the table, right? But you you were the one who spoke. So, I'm just addressing some of the things that you said. So, first of all, let's talk about the paper ballot. The charter does talk about machines. Now I was thinking about that. I don't know how when that was written. That could be the old voting machines actually and not necessarily the electronic scanners. But that said, the registar of voters made a decision on whether or not to use paper had nothing whatever to do with it's not in our purview to make that decision. It's not

086in town manager Harrington's perview to make that decision. That was a decision made by the register of voters which is made up of both Republicans and Democrats. So both parties are represented and you know whatever their intention was whether it was to save the town money and that was their concern I applaud them for that. Um, but clearly if we're going to look at machine voting as as the way the charter directly says it, then perhaps what we as a board should do since they're not under our purview is is send them a letter from the board of selectmen reminding them that machines are supposed to be used for referendums and that in the future they should avoid paper balance. I mean, I think that would be the way uh for us to approach it,

087but it it came off the two items, and again, Candy, I'm not trying to lecture you specifically, but you were the one who said these, and these items came off uh in a way that made it sound in some ways nefarious, that there was shenanigans going on that that this board was a part of. Uh and that couldn't be further from the truth. The second thing you talked about was the opening of town hall on the Saturday before the referendum. You know, we're in a country that has gone out of its way and a state that's gone out of its way to make voting easier for people. What used to be done in one day is now done over weeks of time to make voting easy. and to suggest that again something nefarious was being

088done because town hall was open for a few hours on Saturday to give people a chance who might not be in town to vote. Um I think was again a comment that raised suspicion that didn't need to be raised. I believe that Glenn has represented or has served this town honorably and continues to serve this town honorably and was doing what he thought was helpful to allow more people to possibly vote on the referendum. Could it have been publicized differently? Sure. I'm sure that lots could have been different done done differently in this entire referendum process. But I take exception to the tone in which some of that was presented that makes it sound like members of this board uh acted in some way inappropriately. And it has gained a tremendous amount of traction on

089social media. And I think it and I hope that the person who who uh posted the social media from two weeks ago will in fairness post uh the comments we're going to talk about tonight. I like to work in a bipartisan fashion and I don't think that us fighting each other internally helps anybody and is not what's best for the town. So, I'm sorry if this sounds like a lecture to you. I don't intended to be that way, but some comments were made and I think for uh the rest of us to sit silent would have been inappropriate as well. So, I I hope that moving forward we can um present these types of things in a way that is positive and hey, we should have done a better job. Would be a better way

090to present uh the Saturday opening as opposed to making it sound like it was u inappropriate or in some way devious. So, um I think we just needed to get that on the record. Okay. So, it's now on the record. the I'll start with the machine vote. That one is something that we're responsible for because we are the board of selectman and it is the town charter. So I do believe that the registars had a responsibility to let somebody here know that and there was it was a big surprise to walk in for that with a tough budget that it was when we talk about voting and we talk about it in normal public things, everybody wants confidence in voting. Um, and that's why I brought that up. I never said anything about that being

091nefarious. I am curious, however, and I remain curious and because Glenn has not said one word about this since I brought it up or before it, I don't know how it got so that town hall was open that Saturday morning. I I don't know. And I said when I was talking, I said, "Yes, we want people to vote. Yes, we want that." That in of itself is is not a problem. The matter of fact is that there could have been a Saturday vote on the budget to allow everyone in which would have been May 31st. It was within the 14 to 21 days. So, if people felt that strongly at the town meeting, there could have been a Saturday vote. Just not the Saturday of Memorial Day. could have been the Saturday after that. The

092reason that it seems to me that something happened and that something was public notice was not given. We all can agree to that, but I haven't heard an apology about not putting out public notice. I have yet to hear anybody tell me except for right now that maybe we could do a better job on public notice. So, thank you for that. But there was nothing in the last two weeks. I asked for a meeting. There was no meeting set up. it was agreed to that we would have one and then we didn't have a meeting so I don't know what's transpired in between I had nothing to do with the Facebook post um and so so the the question still in my mind and this is where I don't understand what happened is who made

093the decision to open town hall on Saturday morning I mean whose decision was that I don't know I'd like to know because Paul did Paul Harrington did not know town hall was open on was going to be open on Saturday morning. So Glenn's an elected official, doesn't report to the town manager, doesn't report to us. He can open the hours that he sees fit. Correct or or incorrect? Well, except that there's this legal notice issue. You know, the legal notice talks about town hall for absentee ballots on Monday through Friday and listed the office hours. There was no legal notice for the 24th, right? There's no legal notice for that. So, there was some notice by um well, I'll leave out the name of the party on Friday afternoon, but there's also a text message

094from Thursday afternoon that some people received about voting on Saturday. So, somewhere around that time frame, and I don't know because I'm not hearing anything, who made the decision to open town hall that Saturday morning without public notice? That's all I we need to know. And if somebody did it and they didn't put public notice out there, then maybe they could just say, "Hey, I'm sorry I made that decision or whoever was I don't know. I don't I'm not saying you were involved. I'm not saying he was involved. I don't know who. But somebody decided to open town hall, somebody decided to post it on Facebook. That's how we all learned of it was post on Facebook, right? And we also know that people knew it on that Thursday. So, how did the message get

095to those people on Thursday and then get posted on Friday? I wasn't notified. There's no email here. So, you have to understand. So, then, you know, not doing public notice in a legal document for a vote on a referendum that was close and C. certain people getting messages just isn't it just seems like I think there's something wrong. I don't know who the where the wrong came from or if it was a big huge mistake to not do public notice, but I need to hear that. I mean, I I I think from a public notice standpoint, I think the idea of opening on a Saturday, particularly in this community where we have a lot of weekend residents that pay a lot of taxes here, I think the idea of opening on Saturday is tremendous. And

096I would agree that I'd like to see us do a a more complete job of communicating it to the public because I think we could we definitely could do better there as we can do with most communications that we do. I mean, the overall referendum notice other than us talking about it and it being on social media, I mean, we didn't have the the lighted sign even out on the road saying referendum this Saturday, right? So, we didn't was it? Oh, I had heard that it wasn't. I hadn't driven up that side of town, but um I mean, we could do a better job communicating clearly. Um and let's let's look at what happened and go, let's fix communication. Let's talk about suggesting to the town clerk that he opens potentially uh before a referendum

097vote. I mean, those are things we can suggest. We can't demand it, but we can suggest it. And then let's work together to make sure we communicate better. Um but let's keep it from pointing fingers is all I'm trying to get to. I I honestly thought I did a really good job based on what I was thinking way before that. I thought I did a good job in trying to just present facts. And there's the facts. Those are the facts. People knew on Thursday. It came out from a political committee on Friday. The doors were open on Saturday. There was no public notice. I mean, those are facts. I mean, I I didn't have an angry voice or anything. No, it wasn't an angry voice. You did mention twice that you were uh kind enough

098not to take it to the state yourself that you were talking about it here. Correct. And I I did not because I did call the state and ask what the rules were because I Right. So there are rules and there are people that still could do that and I have not. I brought it here. I asked where we wanted it on the agenda. I asked for a meeting so that we could have this conversation of what happened. not here but somewhere else. And I actually asked for all of whoever wanted to be there to be at it just like when I form other committees I ask for a bipartisan representative. So it's so you know I don't apologize for one thing I said that night. Okay. Well, you know, so until I hear who made

099the decision, I'm still going to keep wondering. Are we in agreement that the register of voters made that decision? It wasn't a decision made by any of us. I mean, are we in agreement on that? Yes. And I think I mean, unfortunately or fortunately, however you however you look at it, the the decision was made and I know it was made in to save. All I heard quickly was something about saving money and and new machines. And yes, I know we all want to save money. And isn't that why the referendums and why we agonize so much is that we can't even we have to worry if we have enough money to hold a referendum, right? Because of a cost of the machine to ensure public confidence in the vote. So I mean that that's

100and I know but it would have been nice to somebody to have you know explained that even the next day you know because people knew that night I was questioning it. There's no doubt that that happened, but there was no explanation. So, and then the other ones I still curious, curiouser and curiouser now. I I know that what really hurts us as far as communication goes is there's no more local newspaper. I mean, even the results from this weren't printed in any newspaper. I didn't see them anywhere. Did anybody see them anywhere? that that's the one of the biggest things because then all the public notices can be in there the referendums and whatnot and if my understanding is correct I think some of the past referendums have been done paper ballots not been done

101with the machines that have been done in the past or did we do last year was it was it the machine or was it machine machine the reason that the charter was changed to that you could use a paper ballot and machine ballot was for the town meeting that's when the change occurred was because the town meeting Gilbert school, we had those old machines, you know, with a little clip down and then they would fix them in between the questions that would happen at town meeting. So with the new machines, you can't do that with a with the optical machines. They can't be done and then reset in time for a second question for a second reduction at town meeting. So we actually changed the charter to reflect that. So it could be paper ballot

102for machine but the the charter was not changed for the actual referendum you know because it was that way. So so was that done? Yeah. that is not that is just became part of I mean I think on that issue as a board we should send a letter to the register of voters reminding them of the requirement for machine ballots for referendums. While we appreciate their efforts to save the town money, the charter's clear and we need to make sure that all future referendums fall under uh machine vote. And I think that would be a response from us that would be appropriate. Not to make excuses for anybody. I talked to a couple of the registers and they said they weren't actually trained on these new machines because they just recently were changed and they

103weren't ch trained enough. So that was part of the reason I believe they made that decision. We we we don't know what the reasons are exactly. We've heard that maybe it's the machines. We've heard that it's money. Whatever it is, I think we should note them, notify them that that was an error. And we need to make sure the next referendum is done the proper way. Right. But it's also lack of communication coming back. Even after two weeks ago when I said something, there's been no no response. back on either one of them. I haven't heard anything from anyone on the two issues, right? So there's been nothing and and that one would not have been. That's not So when you talk about newspapers, right, there are online newspapers that a public notice could have

104been submitted to. You know, there's press releases they're called, that that could have been out there in terms of an additional day. And that's the thing is is so that's my my my lasting question is is that is who made that decision to open on Saturday and Todd you weren't there right on Saturday morning. So well I just think that we needed to clear the air to some degree. Well I wasn't saying it was this board that did it or decided it. I don't know who decided. I still don't know right now. whatever time it is right now, we still don't know. I just think it was we need to clarify that that it was not any members of this board and that um whatever happened, we don't know. I don't know. I do know

105and I would agree with you that if we're going to do that again, we should just notice it better. And perhaps again, since Glenn doesn't fall into the purview of this board, we can certainly do the same thing we're doing with the register of voters, which is, you know, uh, send a letter on what we'd like to see happen and so that we don't run into an issue like this again. Great. I mean, in my perfect world, a couple years ago, I asked for the town clerk's position to be put underneath the town manager, and we did that as a charter committee. and the charter committee wanted to put the town clerk's position underneath the town manager to avoid all appearances of political pressure. Right? Town of Washington just voted for that to happen. Town

106New Harford has that right now. There's a lot of other ones that do. We as as the other the Democratic side was willing for for Glenn to hold that position as a work life appointment for the rest of the time because we felt that it was important that that position be seen as apolitical and that would be under reporting under the town manager's job and there couldn't been any pressure in that. What happened with that charter change? Charter changes are nearly impossible. this answer for how about in 15 seconds or less never even made it never made it because we weren't sad. No, we weren't going to bring it forward because the Republicans didn't want it. That's why it never went forward is because the Republicans and you were on the charter committee that was

107fighting against it. We had people stand up that fought against it and it wasn't going to it wasn't going to go anywhere and we didn't want to subject the town to another fight over over that. I agree. How many years ago was this? two or three. I I was on that charter commission and my thought was let the town decide if they want it to be that way. There are people, but it's only a two-year term right now. So, it's like make it a four or a sixyear term or you make it so it's a permanent position. But that was something it never even made it that far. But it was right on the term sad. It was right on the term, which is sad that we didn't get that far because it would have

108been it wasn't going to go anywhere because some of your brethren were out there fighting us against it. Well, I I can't comment on things that happened prior prior to me being here, but uh do we in order to get these two communications sent to the register of voters and to the town clerk's office, do we need to motion this? Uh I I I think that with the with the registar, I mean, I don't need a letter to go to the registars. I still want the registars to have a meeting with us, whoever wants to be there, and tell me what happened. And then I also want to know who made the decision for the 24th. Can we have the registers come here? They don't. I don't want them to feel like I didn't ask

109for them to come here because I don't want and they're not subject to our purview. They're they're elected officials. Again, I think when you have an elected board that wants to communicate something to other elected officials, we should send it officially in writing that, you know, we need to make sure it's machine ballots moving forward. I think that is our proper move in this case. And the same thing, we'll send a I know he's sitting here, but we'll send a letter to Glenn's office. We can convene a meeting with the registars. Candy will be there. Uh, we can have up to three. You can have up to Do we need a meeting to simply communicate this to them? I mean, I'll just go in there and ask them then and let them know my feelings

110then. decision according to the charter. Do we need to do more than just send them a letter reminding them of what their responsibilities are? Do we need to question them beyond that? [Music] Again, it's a bipartisan committee. They're made up of both parties here. It's not like it's one side or the other. At the end of the day, it's behind us. So, it really doesn't matter what we We're just trying to prevent it from happening in the future. I think that well I I don't think it's going to happen again for a while. I mean they think between the last meeting and this meeting I don't think it's going to happen. Well, we've brought it into our meeting and it's part of our record. I'm just suggesting that we should officially notify them our position

111on it. We can arrange something. We'll we'll set up a meeting with a letter to them if that's what the board desires. I don't need a letter. The letter is fine. Then as for the other I mean I don't maybe you do. I mean there's no just because I said it doesn't mean that you can't do a letter. I again all I'm trying to get to is closure, right? We have a situation that happened with the paper ballots. We agree that that was the incorrect method. Um I'm sure they've heard about it, but if we're going to make it official, we should at least notify them in writing. Would you all not agree that that's appropriate? I think if you put it in writing, you you finalize it. It's documented. There's a paper trail. We

112don't want to see it happen again. If there's no closure, you don't get an answer. You don't know who made the decision or why the decision was made. I mean, so you need to know you need to hear someone tell you, "I made the decision to try to save money." That's what that that's the only way to get closure. Yeah. How how how did the how did you come to this decision? Yeah. Yeah. I don't think we need to interrogate them. I think we need to notify them. Does it take does it take both of them to make that decision or could one of them make that decision? Well, I don't know. Find out. You would think it would be all because there is four of them. Yeah. That's a question. Right. Right. You could

113interrogate them or you could simply notify them that that was inappropriate and it can't happen again and and that should end it. One would think. Well, I I I I don't think we have the authority to interrogate them. Correct. They they again are elected officials, are they not? We are elected officials. You could have a meeting with them. We're not Well, we could Well, you're having a meeting with the purpose of asking them why they made a decision, right? That's the purpose of the meeting is you want to know why they made the decision. Simply, we can communicate to them that that was the wrong decision and they have to use charter calls for machines and and that's the end of it. I don't understand why. Okay. So, I'll agree with you on the registar

114thing. Good. So that way I mean I didn't bring it back up tonight. So register things done. I'll agree to end it right now if that helps. And and what way are we going to end it? Are we going to notify them? We going to meet with them or we going to do nothing. What would you like? I've stated what I think we should do multiple times. Okay. Make a motion. I move that we send a letter to the registar voters um informing them of the charter requirement to uh use machine voting u in future referendums all referendums as stated in the charter. I'll second the motion. Thank you Paul. Thank you Bill. Any other discussion? No, it'll just be helpful so you could say that you know it's appropriate procedure and if it wasn't

115you guys. So, there you go. And should the letter I I'll amend the motion. The letter should come from from the mayor, come from the board or all of us. All of us. Well, yeah, it's coming from the board. Okay. From all of us. So, who's going to draft the letter? [Laughter] We'll take care of drafting the letter. You do it, Paul. That's fine. All in favor? So, when I asked for a meeting and we didn't have one, how was that decided? I'm sorry. Two weeks ago, I asked for a meeting. It was said that the meeting would happen, that Todd would set it up. How come there wasn't a meeting? Because it hasn't been set up yet. It's the best answer I can give you. Okay. Well, you offered to set one up and

116you just said you didn't. No, two weeks ago I asked. Right. And normally these things happen. So was there any reason it didn't happen? There was not. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Anything else? There's still that one thing hanging out there. Anything else with the registar thing? No, I think the registar thing we've concluded. Okay. So, I would offer up the same suggestion on notifying the town clerk's office the same way. Okay. Other discussion on that or is there a second for that? I'll second that. Okay. Other discussion on that? Yes. I will not agree to that one. Okay. Unless we add in there, I'd like to know the reason why. In response, I would like to know who decided to open up May 24th this Saturday without legal notice. Yeah, it's it's a simple ask.

117Okay. Somebody had to do it. There's only one person that could do it, right? They can open that office, the town clerk's office. Yes. So, we know who made the decision then. So Glenn, you made the decision on your own to open up the town's clerk office on Saturday morning, May 24th. [Music] On your own, I'm not going to answer it here. Okay. Again, we're we're we're going to interrogate Glenn on what his choices were. He's an elected official who can operate independently of this board. Well, that's not exactly true. I don't believe that's true. I believe that this board is responsible for what's in the charter and and part of the charter and part of election integrity is public notice. So I don't necessarily agree with that. We agree that that uh public notice

118we could do a better job of all public notices including this one. Okay. So let's leave it there. Okay. I think that's a good place to leave it and that other forces could do what they want with it. I will leave it here. Moving on to item 11, new business. A 25-20 proposed line item transfer by the director of finance. Paul. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So, before you tonight is the first of many, which we'll run through. Uh, I had helping hands stop into my office recently. If you remember back in the 26 budget, Helping Hands did receive a budget cut. Um, they did reach out uh and asked if the town could do anything to help restore the $3,000 cut starting on July 1st. I did let them know that there was no possibility

119of restoring that as the budget had passed. So, uh, we came up with a creative solution before you tonight is that creative solution. Um when Katie Bale uh our social services director did uh leave that did leave a uh salary savings and that we weren't expending uh the salary uh of that position. Um there is a surplus in that line. Uh before you tonight is writing them a $3,000 check. So in fact giving them $11,000 this year, $5,000 next year which has been approved in the budget. So in fact restoring the cut but funding and early with surplus line in the general fund. Um I did have a opportunity to look at what helping hands home care does. Um after meeting uh with the particular uh woman who runs the organization her name escapes right

120now and I do apologize for that. Um but they uh they go in and they they help uh our disabled and our seniors. Um it's not a visiting nurse uh situation. It is chores around the home. It's really what it sounds like. It's a helping hand and they go in and uh and they and they help these individuals. A very noble organization. Uh I think it's important and I'm not looking to get out from underneath it. When we sat down and prepared the budget, uh I was taking the recommendation of the director uh uh which at that time did recommend we did a $3,000 cut. Um I took whatever savings we could obviously in the budget. So before you tonight is kind of doing a two-part uh budget. uh in general the 25 and 26

121budget would even out in that they didn't receive a cut. So it's $3,000 from general labor uh into $3,000 into the uh helping uh hand home care line. Any questions? Do we have a motion? I'll make that motion. I move that the board of selectman approve the following line item. Appropriation transfers of $3,000 from social services general labor number 1-510-194-000000 [Music] to Helping Hands Home Care number 110-883-0000 [Music] in the amount of $3,000. Thank you, Linda. Is there a second? I'll second. Thank you, Bill. Any discussion? Seeing no discussion. All in favor? Yep. That should be 1410. The box above does not match. Correct. Thank you. Good catch. Do you care to amend your motion, Linda? So amended. Thank you. Any other discussion? All in favor? Unanimous. Thank you. 25-21 proposed line item transfer funds

122are available uh and this is obviously from our our recck department. Funds are available in the overtime heating fuel and recreation celebration budget lines as the accounts are uh not are not expected to be fully expended by June 30th. for example, that the majority of the celebration work this year was completed by WOW uh volunteers reducing the need to hire labor. The transfer will support additional hours of TA to assist with the summer camp programs. As you know, we're going through a transition uh in that office as well as to allow departments to complete needed maintenance work at the recreation facilities, including treework and mulch insulation. Additionally, mid-year increases in contractual service rates such as port uh portable toilets and USA hauling have created a deficit uh in those particular line items. And this transfer

123will help cover those particular overages. Do we have a motion? I move that the board of selectment approve the line item transfer of $1,000 from 1-812-197-0000 overtime from 1-812-323-000000 heating fuel and $1600 from 1-812-841-0000 recreation celebrations to $1,000 for18121900000000 administrative salaries 2375 for 1-812-827-0000 maintenance of grounds and $1600 to 1-812-831-0000 contracted services for a transfer total of 4,975 second. Thank you Paul. Thank you Bill. Any discussion? Seeing no discussion, all in favor? Unanimous. Thank you. 25-22 proposed line item transfer. Just want to make sure I got the right one. Yes, I do. Uh, this is coming from our police department. The police department's requesting a transfer of funds to cover a shortfall and the gas and diesel line. Fuel usage has exceeded the initial projections due the sustained patrol operations. Uh, we do not expect

124to exceed the full balance of contracted services by June 30th. So, we're going to clean up that line item. And we do scrub every line item. A dollar will be transferred to contracted services LCD to resolve a 20 cent overage. It's been driving Tom absolutely crazy that every report he prints. It shows that we've overexpended the line item by 20 cents. And he urged that this get put forward tonight because he wants to see that line item at zero. But won't it be over now? 80 cents. Well, now it would be over 80 cents. Yes. We'll see what we'll see if that tries some best. But I didn't think of that when you told me that. Shouldn't we have amended this by 20 cents? I don't think we can transfer in our finance. Can we

125transfer? It'll show It'll show a surplus. It'll show surplus. Exactly. He just doesn't want a negative. He just doesn't want a negative. All right. We like this. He doesn't. Exactly. Everybody knows Tom and that'll drive him nuts that there's a negative balance. And surpluses are obviously good things. Uh, I move that the board of selectment approve the line item transfer of $1,898 from 1-210831000000 contracted services to 1-210-8200000 gas and diesel in the amount of $1,897 and 1-210-831- 00001. That's for Tom. Contracted services LCD in the amount of $1 for the transfer of a total of $1,898. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Unanimous. 25-23 proposed line item transfer. Thank you, Miss Mayor. This is coming, excuse me, from our EDC commission. Uh, existing EDC budget allocations in the training and education,

126membership dues and subscriptions and outside services line items will be used. The EDC received an estimate for a video production company that once accepted will be paid out of the EDC marketing line. This will also reside a $19 overage. An additional expense will be covered by EDC dedicated fund 15 donation account. What EDC I'll talk a little bit more about this. Uh what EDC is looking to do is create a promotional video that we can share on social media and on our website. Uh they are working with a local vendor here in town that has a business here in town to create a video that uh talks about all of the great things that are going on. In fact, uh if this goes through, they've preliminary set up uh some conversations, but the uh marshals

127is uh actually going to mic up uh and disc and and talk on the video why they chose Winstead. Um so they're looking to create a promotional video not only for them, but for the town to use to push out all the wonderful things that we offer and hope for uh investments uh spent here. Do you have a motion? I move that the board of selectment approve the line item transfer of $500 from 1-125-811-0000 training and education $750 from 125-814-0000 membership dues and subscriptions and $2,636 from 1-125831-0000 outside services to 1-125831 marketing in the amount of $3,886 for a transfer total of the $3,886 and I was actually at this meeting and this is very exciting and this gentleman actually gave us a excellent deal. It could be two to three times this much. So,

128thank you very much to podcasts for doing this video for us. Is there Is there a second? Second. Sorry. Any other discussion? All in favor? Unanimous. Thank you. 25-24 proposed line item transfer coming from our fire department. Uh with the vacancy of the chief's position for most of the year, we have sufficient funds to make transfers to these accounts for unforeseen cost increases beyond our control. Several essential operating line items have experienced uh significantly higher than anticipated expenditures due to the increased usage and mid midyear inflationary cost pressures. Uh a lot of it going to come from is the telephone, gas and diesel, electricity, and tires for a total of $6,000. Is there a motion? I move that the board of selectment approve the line item transfer of $6,000 from 1-211-811-0000 administrative salaries to 1-211-87-0000

129telephone and internet in the amount of $1,000 1-211-820-0000 Gas and diesel in the amount of $2,000 1-211-822-0000 00 electricity in the amount of $2,000 and 1-211-846-0000 tires in the amount of $1,000 for a transfer total of $6,000. Thank you, Paul. Thank you, Bill. Any discussion? Uh, how did internet and phone go over? Isn't that a set charge? It is a set charge, but I believe when we budgeted it uh last year, we we underbudgeted it in the line item. That works. All in favor? Unanimous 25- 25 proposed line item transfer. Moving into our land use office, the office supply lines likely not be used in its entirely by June 30th. The relocation cost line items is unused and we do not expect to be used in its entirety by June 30th. As well, funds are

130available obviously in the town planner lines as there was a vacancy in that position. oil changes can be completed on each of the Ford Eco Sports by June 30th. We're just trying to pre- buy those oil changes so they don't have to hit next year. Additional expenses were recorded in training and education and membership dues and subscriptions due to employee turnover. Gas and diesel is due to a monthly spending uh being higher than budgeted due to uh continued field visits. One thing we know, if you don't see Jeff in the office, Jeff is out doing field visits consistently, especially in May. And then obviously the Taichi expenses has been booked to outside services since January. And lastly, the admin assistant uh received a wage increase that was not included in fiscal year 2025. Do we

131have a motion? I move that the board of selectment approved line item transfer of $213 from 1-148-806-000000 office supplies 1000 from 1-148-86-0000. Is that correct, Any? Only three zeros on that one. No, four zeros. Y three zeros and a two. Relocation costs. Yeah. So three 00002. Correct. Yep. Relocation costs from 148-19-00003 town planner and 7100 from 1-918- Let me go back for a second. The $1,000 is not coming from 806. coming from 806 $1,000 from 1-1483002. Okay. So, this is correct. So when you're referencing, reference the account numbers up here because you're going to be that they don't transcribe correctly down there. Okay. So we need to do this over again. Clean up the record. I move that we uh that the board selectment approve line of transfer from so $213 from 1-148-806-000000 office supplies

132from 1-148-830-002 relocation costs of 002 three zeros 002 relocation costs $1,000 from 1-148-19-00003 town planner of 18,150 and 1-918-388-000000 unnegotiated settlements in the amount of $7,100. two 1-148-831-00005 maintenance of vehicles $213-148-811-0000 training and education the amount of $561 to 1-148-814-0000 membership dues and subs subscriptions in the amount of $170. Two 1-148-820-0000 Gas and Diesel in the amount of $269. 21-148-830-000000 outside services in the amount of 18,150 and two account 1-148-191-0000 administrative assistant in the amount of $7100 total transfers total 26,463 second. Oh, thank you. Will any discussion? Seeing no discussion, all in favor? Unanimous. Thank you. 25-26, proposed line item transfer. Moving on to the assessor's office. Uh, all regular contracted items have been paid for out of the contracted printed line. Therefore, they do not expect to use the remaining balance by June 30th.

133A $400 a $430 expense was paid for membership and dues and subscription lines for a CAO motor vehicle digest. This expense is essential for evaluating our motor vehicles for the 2025 grand list. I move that the board of selectment approve the line item transfer of $430 from 1-115-817-0000 contracting printing to line 1-115-814-0000 membership and dues and subscriptions for $430. Thank you, Bill. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? No discussion. All in favor? Thank you. Unanimous. 25-27 proposed line item transfer. And last but not 806. So it's wrong on the top. 117620. Okay. Uh thank you Anmarie. Um well uh I guess briefly put um this is what happens when we didn't have a budget last year and we had to send out multiple bills. So, we're looking to take and I can explain the

134whole uh explanation, but at the end of the day, contracting printing came in higher than expected because we had to send out uh uh multiple bills last year or more bills than we thought. So, we're taking from overtime and office supplies. Uh there was a training in education I I will uh briefly talk about. Uh yeah, there we go. Uh therefore all training and education expenses were required for certification and contractual compliance. So there was a contractual compliance uh and certification that we did not budget enough in last year's budget of $130 and the contracted printing was because we had we sent out an an additional bill uh because we needed to load up the coffers again because we didn't have a budget yet. Do we have a motion? I move the board of selectment

135approve the line item transfer of 1,961 from 1-117-197-0000 overtime and $220 from account 117-806-0000 office supplies to training and education 1-117-811-0000 for $130 and contracted printing account 1-117-806-0000. Oh, 817-0000 for 251 for a total transfer of $2,181. Thank you, Bill. Is there a second? I'll second. Thank you, Bill. Any discussion? Seeing no discussion, all in favor? Unanimous. Thank you. 25-28, new business, municipal suspense tax list, Paul Harrington. So, uh, as done yearly, uh, per, uh, pursuance of Connecticut general statute 12-165 and 12-167, our tax collector is sus is, uh, recommending the suspense list for 2025 in the amount of 68,3676. Just to put it publicly, uh, this is personal property taxes are deemed uncollectible if they gone out of business. Motor vehicle and supplement and supplemental motor vehicles are uncollectible if they have surpassed the

136Connecticut DMV registration hold and property owners has not been made has not been made any attempt to register any new motor vehicles in the state of Connecticut within the past 3 years. Additionally, reasons may include that the individual cannot be located. tax bills have been returned by the US Postal Service and undeliverable or in the event the taxpayer has moved out of state or has uh been deceased. Do we have a motion? I move that the board of select man approve the town of Winchester suspense list. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Troy. Thank you, Bill. Any discussion? Uh we do need a signature from the side of the table once it comes back on this. All in favor? Item 12, citizens comments. The board of Sluckman welcomes public comments. Does anyone wish to

137speak? You got two of them. 111. Thanks Candy for bringing the information about the pesticide and at home we do have these boxes but I know I've spoken with the company that does various things around the house and they always assure that there's no no harm with these dead mice and so on. So I mean I would think that maybe different companies are using different chemicals and it's not so much the box as what's in it and what the actual is. So I hope that is publicized so we can be seeing what it is and start asking other companies are using that or is it something else and the other one was thank you for the work on bird that's my street and those long cement things on the sidewalk now are they're very heartwarming

138to see. This is a street that's on the list of things going to happen to it under the pond um at that end at that corner and for the life of me can't figure out what that solution could be because it's a terrible just bridge is and just an awful intersection with the land just dropping off to the side there like that. So, but thanks for you know doing some steps forward on that team effort. Team effort. I don't want to. It's I'm just a coach, but it's a team effort. So, happy to do it. But I can't take all the credit. My hands didn't get dirty. But our crew was out there immediately after it was broken. Was that a building lot at one time? Was there a house there? If I can remember,

139like years ago, and there was a house on that corner. No, it's it's it's wetlands. It's wet there. Thought for sure. There was a house on. Anyone else? Moving on to item 13, selectman's comments and reports. Candy. Yeah. Um, we get these nice reports from uh different departments. So, um, just a couple things in them that I wanted to talk about. One is the marine patrol. We're very thankful to this board and Paul and the chief and the officers that took time to train to be marine certified. Uh, so I know that they've I hear from people that they've been out on the lake. I haven't been out on the lake because our boats barely got in, but um so that's in here. So, thank you for that. Then the other interesting thing I found

140in here was the um these traffic the ATSD the Andrew Noble Sight Stream. Is that the speed cameras? That's the speed cameras. Yes. Yeah. So they they did some tests here and they found up on 508 the area of 508 Main Street was recording between 400 and 800 violators per day. I'm thinking about the money that the town of Washington just took in that 2,000. And then the location on Route 44 by the dry dam was also very high. A little less than 4,800 a day, but still pretty good. um they're going to recheck the North Main Street, but I thought, "Wow, that's a that's a lot." Uh but to go with that, the next one underneath it that remember that ordinance that took us forever to do. Um there was a parking ticket issued

141for that for a tractor trailer. So So that that was a work that uh went somewhere. Um there were 78 traffic stops in May that they did because sometimes people say they don't had people. There's 78 there. So, that that was pretty good. And then because uh Bill and I here are engrossed in the Sue Grossman Trailway, um the uh senior director Jen Kelly is reporting they're going to be putting a relaxation station funded by Northwest Community Bank, who helps out a lot and funded by Fit Together um on our end of the Sue Gman. And speaking of Sue Grossman, uh just a quick update is we have another meeting this Wednesday. We're hopefully going to hear from our engineer about the the root um the root uh selection or direction of what we want

142to do. Um the other piece of that is that we're trying to advance a couple things on that because we know we're going to get to it now that we have that match. So the RFP for the full-time engineer on that because that usually takes a while to put together and also takes time for that person to do the work. But if we have to meet September 2026 to get it to the cond. And then the other thing is too is uh I've asked Paul to start looking at um language legal language for easements that we might need for that trail. So we're doing so we're doing that. So that's what I have. Any other? Well, since Katie brought it up and we're reading the police department report, um there's three employee recognition statements, too,

143for arrests in the town, not just traffic violations. Uh one arrest u involved crack cocaine, some pills, knives, crack pipes. Um these these are good arrests. Uh there was also a shooting at a residence at Cobrook River Road that was investigated and handled. Suspects detained. That that's a big one. And May 24th uh doing a walking shift and just walking around through the parks, they spotted a uh individual had two outstanding warrants who proceeded to run and the officers were able to detain him. So appreciate the marine patrols, appreciate the traffic violations, but But these are good arrests as well. Excellent work to help stop the crime in town. So, shout out to the uh Chester Police Department. I just again like to thank the um Laurel Commission on the great job they did, all

144the ladies and the hard work they put together. It was it was entertaining and the food was delicious. The kids were good. So, again, thank you for your time and patience and efforts. Anyone else? Uh really quick, uh uh on Saturday, the United States Army just uh celebrated 250 years. Uh I believe there's two more militaries that are in the same boat coming up. But next year, the state of Connecticut and the entire country, especially the state of Connecticut, is going to do CT250 and we're and the historic commission is actually starting to talk about that now. And hopefully they'll have uh more as time goes on. And we'd like to decorate. They were talking about decorating a building. couple buildings in town like they did back in the day and that would be really

145exciting and if I have my way we'll just do the town hall just one building. So that that's it. Anyone else before I go? I just have a few things as mentioned earlier. Congratulations to Winston's two new Eagle Scouts, Charles Chaz Le and Nicholas Waters. Um one of their Eagle Scout projects was a Tatros pond. They built the pavilion out there. I believe they did Congratulations to Laurel King Jack Sulvin. First runner up Drew Smith and congratulations to Laurel Queen McKenzie Steves. And the first runner up in the Laurel Queen competition was Sarah Berinsky. Uh we mentioned it was a great event last Saturday. The other thing that has been going through my mind since probably before the election is how can the town get our message out um better? You know, and some of

146this is we talked about earlier with we need to do a better job communicating and things. So, I'm going to start putting together some ideas and sharing them in Paul's office. I encourage the rest of the selectmen to think outside the box on ways that we can get our message out to residents more and things that we can do. Um, you know, when Josh was here, we had the Winchester Wire newsletter that was quarterly. Um, was that perfect? No. But with the lack of newspapers, we need to start thinking outside the box and how we can get the message out to the most amount of people possible. Um, with that motion to adjourn. Second. All in favor? Unanimous. Good night. Thank you. Well, at the end of that science infection, she was tired that