Board of Selectmen Regular Meeting 5/21/2025

001We all ready? Ready. Right. Good evening. It's 7 o'clock. Time for a meeting to start. Let's please stand. Rise. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, welcome everyone. Um I believe Jim is not feeling that well tonight under the weather. Yeah. Yeah. So hope he feels better if he's watching. Hope he feels better. So um first let's uh accept the agenda. I have no changes on here. Any move we accept the agenda as presented. Okay. Second. Second by Rick. Rick. And all those in favor? I. All those opposed? Motion passes. Um, approval of the minutes from May 7, 2025. I reviewed I didn't see anything in there that needed

002to be changed. Did anyone find anything from May 7th? May 7th. Yes. They all look good to me. As they usually do. As they usually do. Thank you, Sharon. Yeah, I'm okay. All right. We'll make a motion. I move we accept the minutes. Second. I'll second them. Second by Rick. All those in favor? I opposed. Extensions. Motion passes. All right. Uh, communications. I only have I I have just one quick thing and then I'm going to turn it over to a couple for some presentations tonight. I thought it'd be good tonight for um us to hear some of the updates across town. Also to get a presentation uh regarding charging stations. We had had we had had a presentation about about two years ago regarding this uh toward the tail end of the pandemic. We've

003had a lot of changes over the last two years in terms of brand new place coming online and other big projects. So I thought it it deserved a revisit uh especially with money that might be available from the state. So I'd like to bring up Malcolm Deer to discuss that. Oh yeah, right over here please. Okay. Uh good evening. My name is Malcolm Ber. I work for Weston and Samson Engineers and um we uh provide this service and Mike asked that I come and present on this uh talking about uh using GIS to uh pick sites for potential charging stations. Next slide. Uh I just want to touch upon real quick um what EVSC is um different criteria that can be used to evaluate uh locations and then overview of the GIS mapping and and

004how you can in incorporate uh town plans with that. Next slide. Um this is a definition that comes from uh there's a references pro provided on the last slide if you all want to um uh educate yourself further on the ins and outs of EVSSE. Uh but basically it's you know the system includes electrical conductors related equipment software and communications protocols and I'll get into each of those in a little bit more detail. Next slide. Um there are in general three different types um that are discussed. Level one is just a regular wall outlet um is useful to those who might drive their car once a week and I won't discuss that any further because it's pretty useless. Um level two is a 240 volt AC. You can um get the get a full charge

005in 48 hours, but you can pick up enough to in a couple hours to allow you to get home or extend the range of your vehicle quite a bit. These are fairly commonly used in communities. Uh the level three or the DCSC direct direct current fast charge, those are the electric vehicle equivalent to a gas station. So if you wanted to uh plug in um again the level one it's just a a plug in a wall that's not much for the level two level three the installation is uh a bit more complicated. You have to have a uh network uh be able to communicate via Wi-Fi and all the security concerns that goes with that. you need to be able to communicate with the utility so that they can bill you and there's payment at

006the point of uh charging. Um and they even have uh what they call V2G which is vehicle to grid in case you go the other way and you're dumping electricity onto the grid. Um but it you know the the level two and level three uh require quite a bit of electrical tie in and upgrade of the service locally which I'll talk about more. Next slide. Um this one there's a bunch of interesting information on the side but I want to stress on the fact that you know by 2030 there's an intent to re you know to convert over quite a bit to electric vehicles and um the state talks about three- tiered approach. The first tier being the charging stations along the highways and the rest stations, rest areas, you know, all those that um

007Tesla installed a bunch in those. Secondary is uh major routes. Um the state has secured $14 million grant and that by 2030 they're going to install eight dualport and 96 DCFC stations in communities uh Stamford, Bridgeport, New Haven, Graten, Harford, East Hartford, and Bark Hempstead uh got one. They must have a powerful representative that swung that one for them. Um but uh but the you know so the states taking care of the secondary so now we're talking about the tertiary level which is the municipalities and you know we see it as being beneficial to the municipalities because um all these stations they have apps people drive electric vehicles have dozens of apps on their phones that allow them to interface with the charging stations but also identifies where they are and they will plan out

008their whole trip based on where charging stations are. So, if you want to be on their route, it's a good idea to have your own stations. Next slide. So, general uh criterion for judging and there's a lot that you could put into this. You can expand it, contract it, but these are some of the basic ones that really need to be thought of. Connectivity, utility, the finances of the whole thing. There's, you know, there's not a a money tree out back that you can just go pick money off of. Accessibility and resiliency. Next slide. For connectivity, location, location, location, any real estate deal. uh you want one of the important things as part of it of the GIS evaluation is modeling the usage because if you look at federal guidance on this they talk about

009low use, medium use and high use and the and the payback and your ability to to secure vendors to sell you their equipment or to lease you their equipment or to put their equipment there and they make the money off it will depend upon, you know, do you have a study that tells us what the usage is going to be. So, that's very important. Uh the network, are you going to have the connectivity to do the Wi-Fi that you need to do to get the bills paid and all that taken care of? So, those are all very important considerations. Next slide. the utility um the yes no the utility you know you go to Eversource say we want to put a station here and they may just say no because we don't have the infrastructure

010there to serve you and it's going to cost you a lot of money to do that um you know that's the interconnection distance is there a pole nearby that they can drop and run over to your station what you need or do they need to Um many very often they need to run new electrical service. Your friends over at the the new apartment complex learn that. Um and the utility, you do the sighting study. You tell the utility you're doing the sighting study and then you ask them what do you think of our locations? And you know, so when they say we need to be involved from the very beginning, they're not kidding because they're it's a very it could really delay the process if you don't get the utility involved. Um and then you

011know then there's all the service coordination and the signatures and all the forms that need to be filled out. There's a lot of fun. Next slide. the financials. Um, return on investment depends upon which model you go with, which provider you go with, whether the town owns it or whether it's owned by the provider, you know, but they want to know when they're going to see, you know, their money coming back to them and then that depends upon uh the demand modeling that would be done as part of the GIS. Are we out of you know we have traffic counts and you know and we can that all can be a part of the analysis capital and operating costs how much you have to lay out what are your expected onm costs on the whole

012thing um grants that's you're going to get money from Eversource is going to be your primary offset of the costs. Um that's again why you need to be involved with the utility from the very beginning. So you could talk to them about you know how much you can expect to get back. They'll never cover 100% that you know and it's 50% up to 100,000 but that changes often so don't quote me on that. But you know that you know that the uh the utilities will have money to help you out. And just in general, you know, what should a municipality expect? You know, if you do this, it's going to cost you this much. If you do this, this much. So, that all needs to be laid out in the sighting study as well. Next

013slide. Accessibility the, you know, for the tertiary charging stations, um, you want publicly accessible. Um, but you need to design them to be safe. Uh, just putting a, you know, when I talk about curbside, you know, the parking and then the travel lane is right there, that's probably not the best, especially if your plug is on the travel side. Um, you know, so you need to think about in your design and also accessibility, how many people can get there. Um, grant requirements. Again, I don't think, you know, it's something to be looked at, but I don't think there's the big grants out there right now for municipalities to be installing these. Uh, and then next slide. Finally, the resilience. Um, you want to install something that's not easily vandalized. I think that gets a little

014oversold. I mean, people there will be some damage done to gas stations, but people aren't generally just walking up and yanking cords out, but that's going to happen on occasion. You want to do to have it outside of a flood plane. Um, but also the network compatibility and reliability. Do you have the infrastructure? Do you need to install the because the last thing you want is your station to be down because the network is down. Uh, that does no one any good. Um, you know, and that's your whole equipment status report, too. The the equipment should be able to tell you, "I'm broken. Come fix me." Um, future proofing, lots of things playing there. You know, if you're going to change, if there are plans to do a lot of work along the curbs, um,

015that's not a good place to put your EV station. Now, um you know, if you're going to be changing the road quite a bit, you don't want to, you know, install something that you're just going to have to move around or readjust. And then just, you know, planning for proactive on&m. And then again, that's depends upon the model that you go with, who you your providers are and whether or not the town is responsible or the the company who sells you the equipment. Next slide. All right. So, you know, the overview of the GIS mapping. Basically, you take all these criteria. Um, you know, what are the town goals? What do you guys want out of this? What is what does the community need and what does the community want to get out of something

016like this? Um, do you want it curbside? Do you want it in parking lots? Do you want it near different things? and incorporate it as part of your town goals and get creative when you're thinking about this because is there all this is the before you do the sighting there will be a conversation is what do you want want to be included in the model that are inputs for the whole thing. Next slide. And you know some of those uh criterion you want to create positive affirmations um you know curbside only uh or do you want parking lot only um you know the tool the dualport level two chargers those are the ones where people park. They have some time to get out walk around. So what's within walk easy walking distance of that charging

017station? Can they get to this get to a store or some other businesses? Can they visit a park? Um what, you know, what's the sidewalk like there? Are they going to be able to access all those different things? Uh you know, and is it proximal to desired locations or people that you want to make desirable for people and or do you want it to support your parks, your libraries, and other public facilities? So those are all things to think about. Next slide. And then also, you know, you can feed in the negatives, what you don't want. Um, do you, you know, if you install it on a side road to the main street or whatever, is it going to be in front of a single or two family residence, that's generally not good because the

018primary EV charging will be at the home. And if somebody goes, "Oh, I don't have to install a charger in my home. The town has installed one right in front of my house." You have a little problem with uh usage uh and monopolize it. You don't want to install it that you block a crosswalk, ADA, ADA ramps, or anything you have like that. You don't want to put it, you know, right next to a tree because the tree might grow into your uh into your system. You don't want to obstruct a hot fire hydrant. and uh not applicable here but you don't want to install it proximal to existing um EV infrastructure. Next slide. And so I just you know I've kept this brief so I just want to thank you for your time and

019then if you here's a list of um different references that you can uh go tap on. Many of these are uh quick reading. Uh the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation documents are actually pretty good. I've learned a lot by reading those. Um you can use those to educate yourself on on this. And with that, I finished my presentation and um are there any questions? So I I have a I have a quick question. So again, what what I said with initially is is we have a lot of things coming in here. Uh I was talking to the folks at the Nordic Spa last week and again getting their expectations in terms of number of people and type of clientele and there'll be a lot of electric cars driving to that spa and having day

020spa activity from from their projection. Um so that brand replace some of the other projects I anticipate we will over the next couple years have an increase in need and I know based on discussions with Eversource that they need things you know put out way ahead of time for their infrastructure. We've run across that already a couple times with our solar project on the landfill. We we can't do anything. We're waiting for Eversource to do it. So that pushed us back like a year, maybe even more. Um what would you suggest to a town like us in terms of steps to do? What what what's the progression that other towns have done that you either worked with or know about? Um because I think we're right. I'm ready for a next step in develop your

021criterion. That's done through conversation. Um, you know, we want we want to support the spa, the uh riverfront park, um, the splash, you know, the the the quarry park. We want to support our main street businesses. We want to, you know, where are the top areas? Um and then the analysis goes in what's the traffic load to those locations? What you know what do we think uh what do our models suggest would be the uh the usage at those locations? No one's going to want to sell you a unit for a low a projected low area. Medium or high, yes, but not for a low area. Um so first would be the sighting. You provide the sites to Eversource. They say yay or nay or it's going to take us 6 months, a year, two

022years to get the u support into there. Uh we've worked with Eversource on these types of projects before. We installed the u EV charging stations at their Berlin campus. So, you know, we're we're very familiar with Eversource. We work with them a lot in Massachusetts doing these these exact things, the sighting and the u actual construction. So, the first step would be what do you want to get out of it? What does the model say, you know, is the best places? And then you talk to the utility and you know and then you can start putting some numbers into it and working it in working it into your budgets their budgets. There's a schedule and and then you might get to the actual construction after you know and you have to figure out you know

023do we want to own them? Do we want others to own them? You know do we just want to lease? There's all kinds of things that need to be discussed but the what does the town want to get out of this? what do the models say you're going to get as you know to meet your goals talk to the utilities so you know there's quite a bit of time but the sighting is the first step I just have a comment I would think that like for Brainard which is a you know for-profit operation and the spa which is a for-profit operation that they as businesses may want to put their are inclined to want to put their own car chargers in as you're starting to see go up at different shopping centers and malls. But

024for a municipality, you know, if we want to do it, maybe we would want to do it more if we had a municipal parking area or for a town owned property. Um, it would be Yeah. You know, my thought then as opposed to like the businesses, I mean, if we have to as a town get after Eversource to make sure we have the power for these new businesses to be able to hook up, but but and then fine. Yeah, you want you want to you want the C, you know, the driver who is coming to your community to be able to easily access them. If you put it within the Brainer Place Park uh apartment complex, that's not publicly accessible. they should be responsible for their own. But if they're going to put or if

025they you know they have some there that gets put into the into the model as you know okay those people there they have their their charging stations and at the spa if they want to have them maybe you know you put some of it on that I don't know the those are negotiations that municipalities have with businesses you know how much are you going to support them and how much do you want them to put in on their own again those are input to the model for the sighting model. Um so those are all things to be considered. This is you know it's it can be fairly complex. I mean this is um you know one of the one of the we did the similar study for uh city of Boston and that was a

026complex beast. Uh you know you know all that went into that. Um, and uh, you know, I've got a quick little handout that I can share on, you know, what we did for the city of Boston. But those are, you know, those are the the this the strategy. It's a smaller community, you know, so it's a little bit simpler, easier to model, but we you still, you know, the best information that goes in, the best information you get out. So if you know if you spend the time talking about what you want out of this and you talk to some of your other stakeholders and what they're going to do, you can come out with something on the on the back end that people are nobody's ever 100% pleased with everything. But you know maybe

027you can get uh you know the best outcome that you can but you know there's some effort needed on the upfront. That's why the sighting first. You don't want to just say we want a, you know, dual port chargers and we're going to put them here, here, and here. Is that where people are going to stop? Is that the safest place to install them? Um, is that, you know, the best locations for to get moderate to heavy charging use? So, those are all the considerations. I know we have a committee that's kind of tasked with trying to find the best handy, right? Yeah, Andy Bower. Well, Andy, but also the the B the bar grant that we have. So, we have the Brown Fields U group that's looking at what to do downtown right now,

028too. And just that that that'll be, I think, a factor in their in their review as well. So, any other questions? Malcolm, that was that was great. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you. Right. Um, see Ryan's here as well. Next up, Ryan. Why I wanted him to come here tonight, talk about the various projects we have and also answer any questions that you may have as well. We've got a lot of things going on in town right now. So, welcome. All right. How you guys doing? Hi, Ryan. How are you, Ray? Good. Good. Busy. Okay. Yeah, we still got a a lot of projects moving over here. Um, I guess I'll run down. I had a a list when I when I resigned of where every project was, which um

029yeah, a lot of it is is moving, which is good. And and we're about to move. Um so, the first one uh I got is uh Main Street steep grant phase two of the sidewalks. We just need to close that project out. That's the one that got completed up to Gildersleeve School last year. Um the next sidewalk project is phase three which is going to go to the end to Indian Hill. Then uh do some work down downtown here and then we have Highland and Homestead sidewalks going with that. And I'm told that is very close to going out to bid. We have the design all complete. All they need to get are wage rates and um the final bid documents just all set with bid numbers, dates, everything like that. Um so that should

030be going out in June. I would I would say the next project would be Oh, you guys could stop me at any time if you want to talk about these specific projects, too. Sure. Um Homestead and Highland. Does that include removing a couple trees that have impacted the sidewalk in the past? Um the one tree at I believe it's number five island corner um closer to Fair View. No, in the elbow where the two roads meet in the elbow. I I don't think that tree was going to impede the sidewalk because it's it's behind the sidewalk. That's the one that you got the curb and sidewalk right right on each other with the on the corner there. Yeah, I think that one was just going to stay there. Okay. It looked pretty healthy. Um, and

031then the other one at number five was staying there. Also, the one at number 11, Highland, we removed last year, and I believe we just need to grind the stump down and then clean that up, make it look good. There is going to be some curb work done where the curbs have either pushed out from like tree roots or just deteriorated. Um, but that'll be like patching in some curb, but it'll be done by, you know, a real concrete contractor, so it should look pretty good. Um, and then Homestead. So, these these are two separate projects that they're going to be add alternates on because we don't know really how tight the bids are going to come in. We want to be able to say yes to Highland and possibly say no to Homestead depending

032on, you know, how the numbers line up and what we have for, you know, capital funding and, you know, what we want to use. Um, so we'll kind of see how that how that plays out. And I know there were some other um there was mention of some patching of sidewalks over on Fair View or Waverly. Waverly, which I know there's a lot of walking over there. Waverly extensions. Yeah, Waverly Extension at the end there. And I know it's very active, especially Halloween and everything. Um, so it'd be nice to be able to do things like that. So, we got to kind of weigh our options and overall budget. And then we just sent out a uh a connectivity grant for High Street sidewalks to go from Crimson Heights, where we ended last year, all

033the way through to William Street, which is estimated to be $600,000 and that got sent in earlier today. Um timeline on that, I don't know when we're going to hear back. There's another grant that's out there for high street water main and road reconstruction to go from the high school down past William Street. So, it's kind of it's kind of nice to have all of this possibly taking place next year. Um, and then there's another project that Ryan, just a question. Yeah. So, you're talking sidewalks up on High Street to William. And then what's the other project? A water project or Yeah. So, there's two two water main projects. one we applied for back in February and we were supposed to hear back in April. Um Mike has corresponded with um with OPM about a

034timeline on when we're going to hear back about awards for the steep grants. That was a million dollar steep grant that we went for and we had put up a $200,000 match, the suggested 20%. And then um that we were supposed to hear back in early April and they still haven't awarded anything yet. They're waiting for the governor's office to you know announce the the winners on on the grants there. Um so there's that water main project. Then there's one that you guys are going to uh do the resolution tonight to award the contract agreement to Birmingham Construction to do the water man from the high school to Clear View, which we got a really good bid in. Uh we should be able to go a little further than Clear View, maybe a couple hundred

035feet, but it all depends if Rock is hit or not on on the way down there. Um, so it came in at $437,000, which leaves us about a hundred grand of contingency with the rest of it going to engineering. Um, we had 600 total, spent, you know, 40 around now for our engineering. There's probably going to be another 20 for inspection and close out, bid documents, everything like that. Um, which leaves us about a h 100red,000. That one was signed by Ryan back in end of October. That one um the Birmingham one. Birmingham construction. Yeah, that one we went out to bid. Yeah, that uh that agreement you mean? Oh, yeah. The the agreement with the state. Yes. Yeah. For the funding. You're right. Yeah. Clear View Water main last October, right? What's that? Um

036Ryan that for Yeah. So it goes from from where the 2009 2010 project for the water man up high street from Route 66 all the way to the tanks. Okay. That got done and it tied into an old asbestous line right there. Okay. So this is an extension of that project and it's all in the hopes that we could continue road reconstruction. And the reason we only did the road, well, not only because of funds, you know, availability, but we didn't want to redo the road over an old water line. So, that's that's the reason we were pushing to get these water lines replaced going down towards William Street so we could replace that whole area, you know, as we know that's, you know, one of the highest traveled roads, not only for residents, but

037for people that come into town and go to the schools and go to, you know, sporting events and things like that. Um, so yeah, it's just a continuation of that. So, one of the high street projects will be starting in the next few weeks. It sounds like they are eager to get going. Um, so as soon as we award that, we expect it to happen pretty quick. May see, you know, them starting. Hopefully, it lines up nicely with the end of school. So, it there's no conflict there at all. But there's ways to coordinate. You know, you could do the driveway in halves and then you could open up Butler and redirect the traffic that wants to leave the high school or middle school out Butler and only let people in at the intersection. Um,

038so we'll see how it times out, but hopefully it's right when school ends. That would be ideal. Then they go, they get it done. They're done well before school starts again. Um the other obviously the uh the biggest project we have going on is the well. So I got an update from GZA today. They're going to install the pump in the well next week on the 29th and 30th of this month. And then they're going to install transducers the same two days on um one at Cox Road, one at the Portland Golf Course. Then they have monitoring wells that they drilled um last December and January all around the um the recreation complex. And then they're going to perform a 48 hour pump test uh the following week on June 2nd which that they're going

039to do the water quality test off of which is going to say you know tell us everything from PAS to how hard the water is everything um that we need to design the project for for treatment um which is going to go a long way in getting the diversion permit approved as well. Now, they're going to then design the level A mapping based on those results and that's going to get coordinated with DP to make sure they're on the same page on what they're seeing for drawd downs, things like that. Um, if they need any more monitoring points, if there's any concerns, they'll kind of see that from this. And then they're going to set up the fiveday pump test. And I honestly it all depends on how good or bad things look on the

04048 hour test on how much time is gonna they're going to need in between the two. So that's uh it's good. We've been we've been pushing. We've I know we dealt with the the drought situation over the winter and it took a while for them to drill the well itself. that was like six or eight weeks when it it should have been like two, but that got done. Um, and they said everything looked good when they were drilling the well. Everything went in good. Um, so yeah, I I think everyone's hopeful that this is going to be successful over the next uh couple months, I would say. Um, where are we on looking at either design or bidding for like uh a pump station and stuff like that? Yep. So, I sent out the RFQ.

041I got um four responses from consultants. Uh those four are all approved and lined up to get proposals. Um I myself am working on the proposal for that the the wording and the details as to what we want the consultant to put in the design. Um, and and the last piece of it is the water quality results because then I'm going to be able to pinpoint and get accurate proposals from the engineer as to what they need to design, you know, for chlorination or softener system or something for POS. I mean, we you name it, you know, I just wanted to make sure we got all our ducks in a row and we're not leaving ourselves open to any risk on a change order for a consultant that's going to chop into the dollars that

042we could use for construction. How soon after they do the the water quality test we get the results? I would say four weeks. So, so July. Oh, said July. Yeah, that's probably when the RFP would go out. But it also the RFP once I have it all set that needs to go to uh the Department of Public Health and they need to approve that. There's like a checklist of thing language we need to have in the in the proposal to get covered by the DWSRF funding. Um the DWSRF funding that's another process that that we've been in communication with the Department of Public Health. back January 30th, we got correspondence from them that we were approved for financial assistance on the project. Um, which would be a 20% um, subsidy at the end of the

043project. So, they fully fund the up to six million, then we get a 20% subsidy on whatever it is we spend. Say it's 4 million, we get then, you know, close to a million back. But um they they kind of you know I filled them in as to where we were at. We were drilling the well. We we pushed forward. So the original application was for phase two and phase three. Phase two being what we're currently doing with drilling the well, installing it, doing the pump test, getting the diversion permit. Phase three being the the pump house and the treatment system. um the fact that we we push forward now now they kind of want to know what we want to know. They want to know the water quality results and they want to know

044what it is that they're funding. Is it you know is the water quality there? Is the water there? So, but we have nothing else to do until we get all those results back. They they may still, you know, grant us the the application, but they they had us reapply for fiscal year. So, they accepted our application for fiscal year 2025 funding, which we would be up to June 30th, but then they realized they that we may not get the funding until fiscal year 26. They had us reapply and now they're asking for updates, you know, and keeping them updated. It sounds like we're still going to to get this as they already kind of told us that they would, but um it's it's it's a little, you know, they're a little hesitant it seems because

045they want to know more as to where we're at. Um so yeah, it's kind of we just got to keep in touch with them, but yeah, everyone's waiting on the water quality results and the you know, the initial drawdowns and and how everything is looking there. So, in the next two months, I think we should have it all figured out. Yeah. Not moving as quick as we would all like, but it's moving. Um, that's it for really big projects. There are some other small projects. Uh, there's a masonry project that's going to go on here at Buck Foreman building to repair some of the brownstone. Um, they're going to use a similar material to I don't know if you guys have checked out St. John's Church across the bridge there. Um, it's it's uh it's

046not an exact match to Brownstone, but it looks pretty good. And it's uh better than some of the repairs that have been done down there in the past. And they are going to do um like Dutchman repairs to the columns and carve out brownstone and replace like the bottoms of the columns that have completely deteriorated away. So, that'll be good. Um, and we got a really good price on that. So, that should be happening this uh late spring, summer. We already awarded that purchase order. Um, off topic, but since we're talking about that, I had something to bring up later. Yeah. Um, has anyone brought it up to you about the monument repair at the end of Bartlett Street? I drove by it the other day and like the the statue in the center is

047fine. The front along Main Street is fine. the left and the back side of it, the wall that goes around it. Yeah. Is falling apart. What's catching the weather? The east and south side. Yeah. The wall. The retaining wall or the monument itself? The retaining wall. I mean, there's there's no mortar between the stones anymore. And the stones are leaning, collapsing on each other. Yeah. Honestly, I haven't even looked at it. Um I I think I got an email from you last time. That's all I really spoke about. I know there was funding in the budget, I believe, for historic repairs to the monument. Okay. Um I think that was for parks and wreck. I could what I could do since we we already have a contractor here. We hired off a state contract. Um

048it might be good for them to go check that out while they're out here and it's probably similar material to repair up there, but I'm not sure. I was wondering if when they look at it, maybe I mean for them to repair that, but for us if there was curbing put around it to divert water and salt from going towards it and deteriorating it more in the future. Yeah, either asphalt curb or concrete. Yeah, something. Asphalt will be cheaper. And probably most most specifically on the uphill side of it because I know the snow runs down towards the monument. So in the winter everything runs right at it. Yeah. But for aesthetics, you know, you probably want to just go around the whole thing. That way it's not because weird. There's curb on Main Street

049and then when it goes on the Bartlett, it stops. It like blends into So maybe you could tie into the main curb and it'll look I've seen that in the winter time maybe the plows or whatever and there's always a pile of snow right up against that back half on the up side of it. And that's probably because with the the Y in the road Yeah. That's where they clear it out and they they push it right there so it just sits. It sits. Yeah. Um Yeah, we we've got to see. So, we could do work off a state contract. Having the the stone repaired by the contractor that's here, that's probably doable. Um, for the curbing, it's either the town guys need to do it or I would say if we get a sidewalk

050contractor into town, maybe they could do it. Um, we get a price from them. That's really good. But I know, um, we don't like mixing, you know, state state grant funds with regular fun, you know, regular sidewalk or road funds. So, that gets a little tricky. Um, but that's something to look into. Okay. Um, but I would I would say having the town guys look at it first to see if they could do the curb there, right? Um, other question I had is what's the status in the pump station on Co Avenue? Uh, I know they were moving forward with the bypass system. They had all they had the pumps, all the piping out there as of two weeks ago. Um, Mike, did you hear anything about that reason? No. No. All right. I don't

051know if the bypass had started, if they started work over there. So, it it plans on being done this year then because I know they keep kicking the can down. We gave them an extension from I think December of 2024 to June of 2025. And then we told them that we're not giving him another one back in March. Um so they finally started moving things on site. Okay. Um should be done by the end of June. All right. I haven't seen any correspondence them for them asking for another extension. So that should be moving forward. Who's the contractor? Is Kovac construction. Okay. That was awarded in December of 2023 and they had been saying there were supply chain issues which could have been a real thing. I mean, there's a lot of electrical components that

052they needed for this project. Um, as far as like controls on the pumps and SCADA and, you know, really just complicated parts and who knows where that stuff's coming from. It's coming from overseas. Um, could have been affected. But either way, it started becoming, you know, a problem. We were paying for material stored and then they were just not giving us updates for a little while. we finally started pushing on them. You know, you need to give us a schedule. We need a concrete schedule, especially after we gave them the extension. Y So, um seems like it's finally moving. But I I didn't get an update on that this week. Okay. Um yeah, town hall, that project got done uh for the the roof and the uh and the framing repairs in the attic. So,

053that went well. We awarded uh a purchase order for the banner pole replacement over by Dunkin Donuts and Buds Cafe. I don't know if anyone noticed that thing got hit like a year and a half ago. So, that that'll be replaced. [Music] Um outside of that, we need to figure out um you know, just capital improvements. Uh the dump body getting that moving finally. Ryan, do you know roughly when that banner pole will be replaced? Uh, I need I need to get an update, but we gave them the purchase order over the late winter. I would say sometime in March. Only reason I asked is I saw minutes from the the 250 committee and they're looking to put a banner on Main Street and I thought that if he could hit it right when there's

054nothing else going up, that'd be the ideal spot to put it. But I just didn't know if the banner pole would be ready for him. Yeah, ideally um we wanted to have it done like this month, you know, before Memorial Day, before the parade and everything, but um you know, that didn't happen yet. So, something else we we've got to push on. Um that's about it. You know, everything else is kind of kind of small projects and doing the best we can just to keep up with the uh the day-to-day operations and keeping the guys moving. I know there's there's one thing that came up that ties in. We just issued a PO for the fence on the uh Oh, yeah. The boat launch. Yeah. Yeah. The boat launch project. Uh we got um three

055bids on the fence alone. We had a issue with the survey stakes being vandalized out there. So, the first thing we need to do is move the fence so that anyone, whether it's police or public works employees, can get access back to the tree line to see if people are in there messing with, you know, survey because the second set get messed with. Uh, I don't I don't think so, but that's the worry and that's we wanted to get the fence out to bid before the rest of the project. Um, so we got a good price on it. It was right around 20 grand. And we're removing a section of fence, putting in a a 24 foot gate, two 12oot gates that's going to be able to lock, and then extending the till fence to

056the end of the property to the wood wood wood slide. And then um the rest of it just gravel road, two parking lots, one down by the river, one up by the road, and a guardrail going down the hill. Um, hey Ryan, what about are some of the piles of um road tillings that are behind Tilcon, are they going to be in the way of our fence line? And yes, yeah, I might have the town guys move them. Okay. Yeah, we got to lay it out and see see where the fence lands. Um, which the fence contractor might tell us they're going to have to string this out before they set it. And then we were talking last night, there was a river access committee meeting and there's a bunch of we call them mafia

057blocks. Yeah. But those um is the town going to be able to move some of those or their um equipment or some of the some of them are going to have to be moved to Yeah. And I'm not sure if Tilon wanted to keep them or if we were getting a rid of them. I'm not sure what was happening with those mafia blocks. That's okay. That's something we got to discuss with Tilcon, but I would say ideally we move it into their property. I'll reach out to them. Yeah. Yeah. Unless they want shame with Chris line the you know where the land slopes down. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know how when you when a road when you first go in like where the fence is, if you cut in behind Hillilcon, off to the left,

058there's woods, but it there's like a burm and it slopes. Yeah. You got the mafia blocks with the with at the burm. Yeah. Um I don't think there's a concern about people driving over the burm because it's it's full of trees. So people drive over there, they're going to be in the trees. Um. Yes. So, I don't think there's a real need to keep the mafia blocks there or anything. Okay. Yeah. But, um, yeah. Well, yeah, we just got to figure out where they're going. Yeah. Okay. I don't I don't think the town really wants them. I I think Yeah. Unless we're going to put together a bunch more bays for material, which I don't know. I don't I don't think we need at this point. Yeah. Okay. We can we can find out from

059Tilcon. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's about it. I have to say with the number of hats you're wearing, yeah, you're you're you're right on track with this stuff and I just want to say thank you again for all you're doing. Yeah. Yeah. You're welcome. No, this is I I kind of, you know, I already had it all in my head. Um, you know, we got a few new things going on, but um, you know, in the evening I I come back and I come home and I just start reading emails and I'm able to sort pretty quickly as to what's important, what's not. Um, forward on, you know, any complaints or issues to to Mike. Mike has been doing a great job keeping up with everything here in town. Um, you know, I wouldn't be able

060to keep up with any of this if Mike weren't doing the the brunt of all of the work here in town. So, it's really testament to the work that he's been doing and and every supervisor really. I say which mic. So, both mics, [Music] but um just think yeah, really every supervisor has stepped up and really is taking on the uh the workload for each department. Um, yeah, it's it's good. I, you know, hopefully someone someone good comes along still. It's it's definitely needed um for someone to be full-time over there. I know it's a lot of stress not only on um you know the public works guys but um Mike and and Tom uh also are taking on a a lot more work for this whole end of things and having to be more

061involved in in public works in general. Um, but yeah, for now I'm doing what I can to just yeah, keep things moving and and keep everyone knowing, you know, everyone's mind at ease that that things are, you know, progressing, going in the right direction, well, and not falling apart. And I think what helps a lot, I mean, you've got an intimate knowledge of all these projects. Uh, you started uh most of these if I'm not mistaken. And I think that gives me comfort. That's been incredibly helpful knowing what what is the emergency, what isn't. It's also given me a crash course on public works directors and what they do. Yeah. You know, which is a lot. So, so I appreciate that. And Cheryl has been doing a great job in the office getting making sure

062everything is processed and and uh and the other and everything is relayed to the guys in the field. Yes, that's not not easy to do um on on her own there. So, yeah, it's definitely Yeah, it's a wellrun team effort. It's a team effort all around. Everyone really stepped up. Well, thanks to everybody. Great. Thank you. Thank you for coming out tonight. We appreciate it. All right. Yeah. Thanks, guys. All right. Always good to see you. Always good to see you. Thank you very much. Then next, Mr. Pere. Yeah. And then we get to start the meeting for real. Tough act to follow. Yeah. Um, so, uh, I'm here to talk about the, uh, uh, resiliency study that was done, uh, for the police station, uh, senior center and, uh, library. I don't know how

063much you guys have been able to look into it. I know you guys just received the, uh, study last night. I don't know if you want me to go into a little bit of history of how it came about and and the process or if you want me to get right to right to the nuts and bolts and and and just So, right to the point. All right. I like that. It's 8 o'clock, so right to the Sounds good to me. Uh so uh to get right to the point, they gave three different options as to uh uh alternative uh options to to address the problem. And the main problem was flooding. They did look at heat. Um but uh from our perspective in the town, what we were going to get out of this

064was to solve the issue of flooding in the back parking lot there and what was going on. We uh had a suspicion of what was going on. Ryan O'Halpin was uh just to give him some more kudos was was was a part of this. he he took on more work than I I initially thought was going to was going to require him, but uh he was a big part of us as well. Uh and so basically uh the solution the first solution is is the infrastructure solution. That's the most simple solution that's the least amount of money. I think it'll have the the biggest impact. The other two solutions uh involve reconfigurations of the green, reconfigurations of parking lots, uh you know uh adding in uh rain gardens and pvious pavement or pvious pavement rather.

065uh to try to uh provide some sort of green solutions uh as they call them to to the issue, but they they themselves were not going to solve the problem. Some natural drains. Yeah. Yeah. Um the big problem is uh the drainage system back there all hooks up into one central catch basin and then goes out uh to the south um uh through the adjoining properties and then uh into the famous uh uh drainage uh system that goes under the house on Freestone, which is a challenge. Um, but basically you have a uh two 15-in pipes and then uh another two different drainage pipes going into one basin. And for whatever reason, they put a 15-in pipe out of that basin into the next basin that hooks into a 36-in pipe. So, so two 15s

066lead to 115. Two 15s and two additional drainage that makes sense. Go to 115. So, that's the that's the issue. Um, and until that's fixed, uh, we're going to continue to have issues, uh, with flooding in the area. Um, I don't know if any of you have been caught or have seen how bad that parking lot floods out, but it has floods out cars. Uh, it also damages the police station. Um, they have drains in the floors in the police station and they run like fountains. Yeah. Uh, when these events occur, uh, now I guess thumbs up. Yeah. So, in talking to uh uh Tom, um I don't believe that the coverage for insurance is the same as it used to be in terms of of of reimbursement to the town. They're categorizing that uh

067differently and the town is not getting the same amount of money. So, as long as this problem exists, um we're going to when we have these intense rainstorm events, which um unfortunately, uh in the years to come seem to uh be more prolific, um you know, we're going to keep having this bill. Uh so, the first alternate solution was simply just to replace the pipe. Uh and they gave us a cost estimate about that of about $230,000 for that. Um uh a good piece a good piece of news is um we had a meeting me and Mike with uh CIRCA who is the originator of the grant uh they're the Connecticut Institute for Resilience and Climate Adaption. Um so that grant was funneled through the Council of Governments to us. Uh but uh they have

068given us uh a potential grant to help pay for this or pay for it entirely. Um so this would be through Demis. Uh it would come from money that was allocated after Hurricane Sandy to resolve flooding issues and and um you know damage from from large hurricanes. Um you know because we have our PC that outlines this and we have this study, we can use these two to leverage uh a grant application out of it to hopefully uh pay for that. Uh there may be a match involved with that. Um I don't know what that would be right now. Uh basically uh at this point we're going to put in a uh an application of intent that we want to file for this permit. I think me and Mike came to the conclusion during the

069meeting that um this is a pretty easy um fix. Well, but going for the grant is is is a no-brainer. Um, if we can get it, yeah, we can get that that that money fixed. And then down the line, if you guys want to improve the green, if if the town wants to have more event focused uh activities down there, um, then it might make sense to look at the other op uh, options. They really do enhance the green um, and would make it uh, you know, more visually appealing and more useful just for events and things like that. Um, but certainly I just wanted to give you an update on this plan. It did get released in February. We've kind of been backed up and I haven't been here. I was out in January,

070so it was just a little hectic as I'm sure you guys know. Um, but yeah, just wanted to get feedback from you, report in on that. Um, and the idea would be to to to try to to get this grant from Dennis to to solve this uh legitimate issue uh here in town. um our flooding issue that we had at Brownstone School in the past. Was that a persistent thing or was that a one-time thing when it went down the stairs into the calf and the basement? Yeah, I'm not too familiar with that, but I I don't believe that's uh that that that section wasn't looked at. The only area that was looked at was the kind of center core here of the police station, the library, um and and the senior center. Okay. So,

071I I'm not totally familiar with that. Uh, did it come in through the calf? Yes, it went down the stairs. The whole base. I wasn't sure if that was a persistent thing or it was just a a one time. Well, so this these and I I'm assuming this kind of happened around the same thing. The last time this happened, we got four inches of rain in like an hour or two. Yep. Um, and then it happened, I think, twice in in pretty good succession right when me and uh Ryan started in the summer of 22. Okay. Um, and so it it was kind of fresh in our minds when this study opportunity came up, so we pursued it because there's also no cost to the town to to kind of do the investigation. It it's

072funny just to I never thought I was old enough to give a historical perspective, but when I was reading the report, I remembered I grew up in Wy Avenue and in the early 70s I work for Park and Wreck. Where the library now sits used to be a little park. I used to go there and that park I remember that that well any any ability to catch rainwater and move it is now the library roof there. But the field right behind the church on Waverly Avenue which it butts up behind the library. We used to play football there when we were like 12 years old. And that field after a heavy rain would fill up with three or four inches of water. It's almost like that where all that water used to end up is

073now going right down into that. So there is a basin. There's a basin up there and the all the water from the library the same place. All goes to the same place. So that's one of the pipes that comes into it. Yeah. So really it's always been a problem there. I think you're in a we're in a little basin. We made it worse. Right. They see the problem. You have multiple pipes leading to one pipe that's the same size as the four that are coming in. Absolutely. Yes. Um I don't know why they designed it this way. Um I know in talking to TR we may not own all the structures. Okay. Going going through the rest of the the system. So that may be a complication. I don't think that got looked at. Um

074they were just looking at how to solve the problem really. Yeah. Not ownership so much. Uh but TR was saying I don't think we own some of the catch basins and stuff that way. Uh but it's certainly an issue and um I certainly would strongly recommend somehow uh if we can get this grant money uh to find a match to to fix this problem. I I talked to Rick Kelsey today as well and he's well aware of the problem because he dealt with it before as well. So he kind of walked Tom and I through where the piping goes under the house, the whole issue with that home. Did you talk about ownership at all? because that was the one thing that Tom brought up to me the other day that he was concerned about

075and how that would work out. Now, we're not going to touch any of that stuff because it's a 48 inch under under the house and a 36 connects into it. It's just a 15 goes into into where the 36 is. So, yeah, I don't know if it's as simple as as putting a 36 in between those two catch basins. Um, we would obviously need some some design engineering work work done on this, but um, it seems like a fairly straightforward solution. It's a no-brainer to move forward with, especially if there's grant money involved and the town's on the hook for all of it. Yeah. So, we're going to try to go through this demos grant process and Yeah. And and they said we could ask for part or all of it. We're going to ask

076for all of it. Um, yeah. So, uh, I'll put that letter in, uh, that application in this week and then we'll we'll go through the process. One of the options Rick had set to set it going under the house because it's privately owned. It was So, I don't think we have to change anything about under the house, right? It's it's simply from the one the one structure there to the next structure. It's just that one run of 15inch pipe that I think would need to be be How long is that run about? 15. I I get bad with horizontal distances measurement. I It's kind of part of my profession, which is embarrassing, but may maybe 100 feet. I I always get wrong when I think I know like how far something is. It's always it's

077always further than I think it is. Yeah. But it's not a football field. No, it's 300. No, it's from it's it's it's the back parking lot at the back of the back parking lot uh at the building next to us that Desian owns that structure right there. So I would say it's 100 feet or less of it give or take. My bad. Yeah. I would just that's close enough, but not that big a job. It be nice if it's just increasing the diameter and it's a done deal. Sure. Right. You probably would have to replace the two structures that all connects into. Right. You need a catch basic. Yeah. If you're digging it up, you might as well do it at the same time at one. Yeah. Um and certainly, you know, I'd get feedback

078from Ryan if if if he's still available um whenever we go through this. So, you guys have any other questions or ask a question while that's it? Last question. For we've been discussing the blight ordinance. Yes. Does the town have a definition of what a fence is? Yes, in our zoning regulations. So, um so would that carry over to be enforced on the blight ordinance or no? It needs to be defined in the blight ordinance as well. Yes, I I would say so. Um I'm I'm I'm aware of this the the situation you're talking about. It's been certainly difficult uh situation to manage. Um it's certainly gotten very contentious obviously you guys know between those two neighbors. I'm I'm hoping uh that the fence that has been applied for and a permit has been granted

079for um outside of the fence that's been installed there now uh will go up and help that solution. Um I certainly never understood fences make good neighbors before I got into this occupation, but it's absolutely true. Um, do you see anything else that should be added into the blight ordinance like such as a definition of something else or just making something more specific so a certain section isn't too vague? So, the blight ordinance is is not my my baby thankfully. Um, I I would simply caution you as to how much you include in the blight ordinance and because if you include too much, it's not going to it's it's going to be difficult to enforce. Mhm. Um oftent times there is blight but that this is one of the things that neighbors use as a

080tickytac thing. So if we get a zoning enforcement complaint and sometimes depending it's it's always because the neighbors don't have a good relationship but then you get into a tickytac back and forth. Um, so I would just caution you as to how much you include in the blight ordinance because the more you add, the less flexibility you have, right? And it's just gonna the number of properties that would need to be potentially have enforcement actions could go up quite a bit. I mean, everyone's thought as to what is blight or what someone's house should look like or how it should be maintained can is very different. Um, and certainly I think we want to keep a certain aesthetic uh for for people and I think it helps with neighborhood relationships. It's just you don't want

081to don't want to make too many things blight. Um because then it's really hard to enforce. Um and it's it's with the building official. Um but if it's too vague, it's hard to enforce too because like what's going on with this is they're saying it's a fence. Well, it's not a fence. So yeah, that that doesn't meet our definition in zoning a fence. Yeah. uh if it's a fence under four feet, you don't need a permit. Um you know, certainly the last time I've been involved in, you know, I've asked for, you know, assistance on that was, you know, they thought they felt there was a sighteline issue there. There is some stuff there. You know, we had Mike Lrina go out. It was he didn't feel it was a safety issue. Um I went

082out there with Henry, the CEO. It's it's not it it's not great looking. Um but it's it again it's not a safety issue. Um, but if you guys get real specific as to different things that are blight, the building official only has so much time in order to do blight enforcement. Um, so it's just something to keep in mind. But yeah, but yeah, you'd have to tighten up the definition somehow. Um, or add definition. So like everything that we have in our in zoning is is defined or we have a specific set of different books that we have to look at for that definition in a certain order. Um if our definition is different than the dictionary's definition in presing you go by what our definition is. Yeah. Um so we we kind of control

083that a little bit more. Um but blight is very tough not just in Portland. It's it's certainly a topic that we talk about um in every town. And I guess the only other question, do you make your blight ordinance crazy? And it doing the blight part of the building enforcement building official job is probably the the worst part. So the more blight enforcement you put on there, the less desirable that job also becomes. Um, so, um, for Elmrest when he was talking about the Chargers earlier, not the ones for the residents, but do you know if they're putting any for the public in the parking lot areas? I I don't believe so. Now, one thing uh, to make you guys aware about is there is a state law for all new developments. That's what I

084was going to ask about. Was he before or after it? So, I don't require modifications of existing permits to come in because I don't want to penalize an existing business from expanding because it's it's it's a lot of money to lay that conduit. Yeah. The spa though, the spa was a new application. I think they're putting in like it's 10% of the parking spaces. So, you know, you're looking at I think 15 at least 15 down there. Um that's just on their property. That's on their property. Okay. Um but but Brainer Place doesn't have any. They have some going in there for the residents. What about in a commercial? No, nothing in the commercial. So their original approvals were back in 2018. I have not had people go who are going in for modifications of

085existing facilities fall under that because I don't want to penalize them. Dollar General they had to put into um so any new projects uh it's just it's very difficult to add I have a problem with the law. I know they have to they have to draw the line somewhere but you're really hamstringing like a a small to mediumsiz business by doing this and it's a very vaguely written law. What if the developer comes and says I I want to put some in. Oh absolutely. Okay. They just need to pull a building permit. Okay. Yeah. It's only it's only the requirement that I'm forcing them to do. So, I see. Uh that I that I've taken that tact because if he's a good business developer, he's probably going to want to put some Yeah. Yeah. It

086makes it makes the property more attractive. There's been a ton of discussion about him putting in them in for the residence and and the difficulty with that is he wants them inside. Ray the fire marshal doesn't love that. So, um I think he's moving them closer to the entrance. Um but yeah, Ray had some concerns. I don't know if he had code language that he could force him, but um yeah, they want to install them inside for the residents. Um with planning and zoning, and we changed or looked into changing the requirements for parking spaces for commercial developments. I know the state's been doing a lot lately with that like we require too many spaces for most of the stores in the state. So yeah, this is a debate in the planning and zoning world.

087Uh some cities are going with no parking requirements at all. Um and that the thought is there a developer is not going to develop where uh potential customers can't get to you know their clients and their businesses and they're going to they're going to plan ahead for that. A big developer I most likely yeah I I think so. Sometimes though they people do run into problems. Uh 185 Marbor Street that is now all rented out. Our parking regulations made made some of that a challenge, but the owner of that facility wanted a reduction in parking spaces. I know he lost businesses because he didn't have enough parking there. And in that particular facility, uh it it abut the street it abuts to it's on 66 and then it's on a teeny little na teeny little

088can't remember what street that is. I can't remember either, but it's a very very narrow road. It is not suitable for public parking. So there's nowhere else for that facility really for people to park. Yeah. If we had gotten rid of parking requirements, I have a feeling he would have gotten rid even more spaces and then he would have kind of shot himself. I'm not saying get rid of, but I know people are reducing them. If you're, you know, for x amount of square feet of commercial, you need x amount of parking spaces. Yeah. Yeah. So, but you I mean you drive by not in our towns, we don't have any big commercial here, but you know, you go by a stop and shop or something in another town and half the parking lot's empty.

089Yeah. We don't have super ownorous parking regulations. We don't have a lot of categories and when there's somebody doesn't fall into that category, they basically propose their own Yep. number of parking spaces and the justification behind that. Um Brainer uh has has received waiverss for parking. they're under their required parking. Um, so no, they haven't talked about it. It really hasn't been a huge issue here. Um, we do we this is more I'd like to make the community as walkable as possible, but most people in town are driving to where they they want to get goods and services. Yeah. So, I still think it's important that we we still have parking spots. I I you know, sometimes developers make mistakes. They think I'm going to allow people to walk here. I'm not ready for the

090town of Portland to give up on parking uh the number of parking spaces um just just yet. If it certainly I'd be open to refining them as as I always would be with the zoning regulations, but I'd be wary of of doing something like Hartford's doing. I mean in Hartford that was a big impediment to development, too. Yeah. I don't think our parking requirements are stopping anybody from coming to Portland and opening a business. So, I just have one last question for you before we get to the rest of the meeting. Um, are there any developed developments with either approved um new businesses in town or anything that you guys have gone through that these guys should know about? Well, I guess that's just the biggest one recently was Oakwood. Oakwood's going to double in

091size. So, they're adding two more fields. Lighting. Um, you know, there were some neighbor concerns from Carousel. I think they've addressed a lot of those as best they can. the new lights won't be as bright as the old ones. They're much more directed. Um, but I guess one thing I I'd like to figure out with with that is how to um capitalize on how many people are going to come use that facility and see seeing how we could keep some of those people in town to maybe get lunch get lunch here during the tournament or something like that because they they don't have a lot of soccer tournaments but they got four fields when they do have tournaments. I mean they have teams from out of state all over New England come right to play

092games there. Yeah. So it's I mean it's it's a growing really a big growing thing. I I I they scaled down this what they wanted to do there I think because of cost. But you look over in Middletown Veil just built it built uh bought the old uh Eversource facility there. They built they're building two fields. They have training rooms and stuff in there and now they have like a marketplace. Eli Cannons has opened up a bar. Um, I mean, my niece is coming down to Windsor from Boston this weekend to play three games. They're staying in Connecticut uh over the weekend. Um, so, so yeah, I guess my biggest thing with them is I'd like to capitalize on on how to keep some of those people in town spending some money. Um, real quick

093is just made me think of something. With the new gas station on 66, will they have a charger there? No, they were they were under 30 spaces. They're under the required number of spaces. All right. So, we the only charging station we have in town, I believe, is at uh Portland Automotive. They have an electric vehicle charging station there that we we we approved. Um, and it just I'd be surprised if the site selection on those electric vehicle charging stations wasn't the municipal lot behind the the old Portal Country, the municipal lot right over there. No, it's going to be probably one of those two. Maybe maybe they miss a lot at the end of uh Middle Sex, right? But it's probably going to be one of these two. I'd be shocked. I think those

094two would make the most sense. Yeah. So, when do you think the gas station will open up on 66? No clue. They got a lot of sight work to do there. They really wedged. They really wedged that thing in there. Yeah, they really dig it off. Yeah, they uh they really wanted to put it on the left side between Dunkin Donuts and Superior kind of thing. Oh, by the gas station there. Gas station, convenience store, best way drive-thru for coffee. So, you got you got coffee options. It's lots of coffee options. That doesn't even uh include Cumberland, right? I was figuring that between and Mali and Mali electric vehicles are filled with some other gas station. All right. Anyone else have any questions for Dan? So you go home. No, I'm good. Thanks, Dan. Thanks,

095guys. Dan, really appreciate that. All right. I thought it important to have these guys come here tonight. We have a lot of stuff going on. So, I thought that was really helpful. And let's move on. Uh, public comment. They went to bed. Anyone? Anyone online? What's that? Write in a write in. Sure. Just just type in on the What's it called? Nancy. Oh, there it is. All right. Okay. Oh, that's Philippines. That's right. That's next. Exactly. Oh, this is the report. Yeah, this is So, this is it. Do you for for Well, I suppose it's hard a little hard for me to read. John, do you want to read it? Sure. This is an eye test, isn't it? Yeah. Yes, it is. Okay. This is um coming across on Zoom A. It's a report from

096Elizabeth Abino. for the solidarity committee. It says, "Hi, I'm sorry I have to step away to put my kids to bed, so I'm chatting our solidarity committee update. We are very grateful the budget passed and grateful for continued support from the BOS. We are excited for a lot of upcoming events. will be tableabling at Quarry Day on May 31st, sharing information about Portland's participation Middletown Pride March and about our upcoming Junth celebration. The Pride March is on June 7th and all are welcome to march with the committee on solidarity. You can RSVP at portland pridevp.com. We also had a pride t-shirt fundraiser. will be having a fun tie-dye event on June 4th on the town green from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. that all are welcome to join. You can find more info on the libraries

097calendar on their website. Junth will be Saturday, June 14th from 12:00 to 5:00 p.m. at Portland Middle School. This is also Flag Day and we'll be observing that by having the Veteran Affairs Commission with us at the event collecting used flags. That's good. I have a few I've got to get rid of. Uh we also be will be having local black residents speaking at the event, live music, food and merchandise vendors, free ice cream, sponsor of Liberty Bank, and children's activities. We look forward to having Mike Pelton give a welcome, and we hope that many of you can attend. Some other updates are that the film screening we co-sponsored for Fair Housing Month called Americans with No Address had a great turnout and discussion with about 60 attendees. and the book discussion that we co-sponsored

098regarding the book They Called Us Enemy for Asian and American Heritage Month also had a great turnout in discussion. We want to acknowledge May is also Jewish American Heritage Month, Mental Health Awareness Month, and First Responders Month. Finally, we are excited to share that two Portland High School students will be joining us as representatives on the solidarity committee, and we have an initial introduction with them tomorrow. Thanks to your support in making that happen. Hi. Thanks, Elizabeth. Thank you, Elizabeth. I just had my eye exam for the week. There you go. Well, well done. Farthest away. You are the farthest one away, too. Oh, thanks a lot, guys. It was a test pass. All right. Uh, next, appointments or reappointments of boards and commissions. I only have one. The one person we were missing from

099the uh America 250 committee was the board of ed nominee. That was Amy Morin. A I me a brownstone teacher. She attended the last meeting that I was at as well. Uh she's fully ready to get going with this and I'd like to um I'd like to nominate her for the last position on the American Comm. I'll second that if that's a motion. Right. It is. And any discussion at all? Did I just have her name again? It's Amy. A I M E Min. M O R I N. Okay. Met with her. She's very enthusiastic about it. and they've got a dynamic group. So, she will So, how many we have on that committee now? Now have seven regular and two alternates. She's tagged as an alternate, but I have seven. I have seven names

100already. This is old. Um, is somebody off? No. Seven and two. Oh, my Oh, I put you that was that you had a name. That's the name. That's the name. Okay. But she's Is she on the committee or is she an alternate? She is alternate. She's an alternate. Okay. That's That's why I was confused. Okay. Yeah. Got it. All right. We put we have a name in a second. Do we we vote? We got a vote on that. Let's Let's call the vote. All those in favor? Opposed? Extensions? Motion passes. And I can scratch that from my board of ed update from last night because that was discussed. He is a social studies teacher, I believe. She's very excited to be involved. Yes. Yeah, she is. So, all right. Um, let's get through this other

101business. Any other appointments to boards or commissions? Nothing here. Okay. Said either. Okay. Great. Next. New business. So, every year when we have finished and had the budget voted on and passed, we set the new mill rate. Uh, would someone like to read the adoption of the mil rate for 2025 2026? I'll take it. I'm primed up now. Yeah, you're on a roll. Well, these are I'll move the resolution board of select Mana Portland, Connecticut dated May 21st, 2025, adoption of the mill rate for 2526 fiscal year. Whereas the 2025 2026 budget for the town of Portland estimates that 5,265,451 will be received from the state of Connecticut. Without this, the mill rate would be 41.43 mills. Now therefore, be it resolved that the mill rate for the fiscal year 2526 be and is hereby

102set at 35.30 mills for all taxes other than motor vehicle due and payable on July 1st, 2025 and January 1st, 2026 and be it further resolved that the mill rate for the fiscal year 2526 be and is hereby set at the state cap of 32.46 46 mills for motor vehicles due and payable on July 1st, 2025 and motor vehicle supplemental due and payable on January 1st, 2026. Uh second it um discussion. No, no discussion. All right. All those in favor? I opposed. Abstensions. Motion carries. Thank you very much and thank you residents of Portland for adopting the budget. Appreciate that. Next, we have to adopt every year we have to adopt a non-unit administration pay plan. Um, you should have the new pay plan in front of you. I know uh Bobby had asked for

103a copy of last year's. Does anyone need a copy of that? I think I have them. I do have one in New It was last year. So, this is last year's. No, I I printed out last. I just want to make sure. Okay, got it. Um the only thing I want to discuss on here, yes, I I'm fine with most of the numbers, right? Um is the public works director. Okay. I think we've had so much problem in the past trying to find one and obviously we all know that we're having trouble now finding one. Yes. That I think we need to move the starting pay and maximum pay up on that. What what position? Public works. Oh, public work. Okay. I I think and what is the where is his the number on the

104is it uh it's under executive employees the proposal we have a maximum 151 but I thought we did increase it thought that last year we went from 146 but no I thought when we did the budget we I thought we did as Well, we had no we increased their pay because Rhino helping is being paid. So if we hire someone it would still go on. So what are you saying to increase maximum and minimum or to just increase the minimum or I I think we should do both. So if it's a starting pay, it's more attractive. And if they get hired, it's more attractive that they see what their potential is to make. Have we done any research on that to find out what the market is? I mean, I know increase That's what I

105was just going to ask. What what are my neighboring towns? So here here's been my experience so far because I've been looking actively over the last four months, three and a half months for this position. Um, the four people that I spoke to uh were all in the 130 to 160 range at their current positions and only one of them was someone that was that I thought would be considered for the job and and uh that did not happen. Um, I think the minimum I would be fine with the minimum. We can bump up a little bit on that. Um, because we're not going to find anyone at that position anyways because I was just thinking to start it at 100. Yeah. I mean, even I don't have no problem with that either. Yeah. Yeah.

106And then the maximum um you know there's two ways to look at it. I think for the person that's out there that has gotten 25 30 years experience maybe they're top of their game someplace else they're in another town of Meridan or whatever they're probably far beyond that they they may not come to small Portland for for something for a person out there that's maybe mid-career early 10 years into it. Um I think that range is probably or somebody that's an an assistant right to this position at another place. That's exactly right. That's ready to come down. So, I would have no problem adjusting that up. Well, the thing is we have to remember, too, is we think of public works, we just think of the public works garage, right? It's No, it's water, sewer,

107it's everything. It is. Well, you heard what what Ryan was talking about tonight. Everything that has to go on in town. If we renovate a school, they're involved in that. Like, it's it's not just a public works director. It is how public works covers everything the town does. It keeps it keeps the town running. Yes. Uh across and I can tell you that from experience now. It is it is an all-consuming job. It is every day at any time something could happen that requires action immediately. And we've learned in the past with other things with building inspectors that certain things were behind on pay and we're losing good people to other towns because of it. Rights. But we also have to recognize that we are a small town, right? And we've got to be cautious.

108If we try to be something we're not, we're going to be financially strapped, too. I'm just I don't know if we what we need to do here, but I'm just looking at public works director and right below it is is the director of finance. You got to be I'm wondering if we just made copied that same down to director of finance and use those numbers. I was thinking similar only because you got to be careful of latitude because you you you're not going to necessarily like like unless we find somebody that's phenomenal and they're coming with like like 20 years experience somewhere else, you'd throw them in at the top of the scale. Most likely you're not going to do that anyway. But I think what you're talking about, Bobby, is is be able to

109present this range which will be attractive to get somebody to consider us. I like the job. They know where they could climb to. Yes. If they perform and do a good job. I don't disagree. It's I mean I the brother's a engineer and I a civil engineer and I know what's on his plate and it's uh it's a lot of work. It's you have to be a jack of all trades and have knowledge in a lot of areas which Ryan obviously showed tonight that he does. Yes. But to find somebody like that is going to be very difficult. The attention to detail uh the dealing with the state and and all the all that's involved in that the grant writing that you know the example of the well earlier today too and having issues happen

110as a project goes on. being able to do that and be able to bob and weave and get them what they need. And and that's the thing that it's hindsight, but if this was changed earlier, we might not have lost Ryan because of it. I guess possibly there's a chance. It's a it's a possibility. Yeah. I mean, there were other reasons. Everything's complicated, but you're right. You have more flexibility and more options. So question, what if if we were to as a board agree that we wanted to bump something like this up, what is the next step? Do you have to go back and to work the numbers before we make a move on this before we can vote? We could pick a number now. There's no reason why. No, we should be able to

111set the number and vote on it. Right. It's what's this for decides? So if what I'm hearing is um the the public works director from 151 to 162 to match it to director of finance. Well I mean I I I know with our finance director we're very lucky and we have somebody who's got a wealth of experience and been here a long time. Absolutely. But, you know, when I look at what's what's in that individual's portfolio and what's in the public works director's portfolio, they are in different completely different areas, but I think very similar in terms of volume of work and volume of expertise. I think you could argue that both positions have so many things that they're juggling that are involved in keeping the thing properly. Tom is the same way because Tom

112has his hands in everything because he's the finest. Right. Right. Right. Public works has his hands in everything because he oversees everything the town does. And I think in a lot of ways those two positions intersect quite often. They do. They overlap in a number of ways. Yeah. Because I was thinking to have starting at 100 and max at 160. If we put it at 162, I'm not opposed to that either. No, I would I think we need some kind of adjustment because even before we hired Ryan O'Halpelin, we didn't have a public works director for a little bit. And how long has it been since he resigned? Right. And we've only had a handful of candidates come in. And when was the last one? Eight weeks ago. We've had We've had the ads. We've

113had the ads running out there constantly. Bobby, if you if you put forward what you just said in a motion, I'll second it. All right. Uh, I make a motion that we accept the fiscal year 2025 2026 pay plan with the change of public works director having a minimum pay of a h 100,000 and a maximum pay of 160,000. And I'll second that motion. Okay. Any further discussion? I'll just say I think that's great. I think that's what we I did think before we had made that change. apparently wasn't permanent, but I know we had added money to that because we knew we had to we knew we had to add a sweetener there to bring in the talent that we need. Yeah. And again, I will I know I'm repeating myself, but um with

114the last four months, you know, having him do that remotely, he's done a fantastic job, but there's a tremendous amount that gets done in that position and it certainly would help having someone in there. I think with Tom and and it's nothing against uh Ryan all he's he does a great job and we've been able to stay on top of stuff but uh just all the things that he's involved in. So I I think and it's I think you've got a maybe you have a new perspective now like he said you've been doing had your fingers in a lot of what Ryan was trying to do and you it probably you you have the best perspective of all of us as what he does. I'm not saying that half my half my work week is

115filled with public work stuff, but half my work week. So, so the other 45 hours of doing the other stuff. So, all right. So, it looks like Okay, we have a motion seconded. We've had discussion. Are we ready for the vote? Yeah. All those in favor? I. Those opposed? Good idea, Bobby. Thank you for that conversation. All right. I think that was really good. Thank you. Good suggestion. So now do we have to do we still have to vote on an entire package or or was that it? No, that was the vote. That was it. Okay, we're resolution that one change. It covered it. So I believe we covered it. All right. Okay. We'll crank it along now. All right. We have other budgets that we have to now we have to vote for as

116well. So all those have in the packet that is animal control, town aid, road fund, etc. So, I want you to have read this resolution um and understand it. Would someone beside John like to read this? I'll read it. Unless you want to validate. No, I got to read uh refund of excess payments. No, I don't want to steal that. Thunder guys do the reading. Resolution board of select town of Portland May 21, 2025. Adoption of other operating budgets for the fiscal year 25 26 resolved that the other operating budgets for the fiscal year 2025 20-26 is listed below and further outlined on the attached are hereby adopted. Animal control fund [Music] $19,824. Town aid road fund $239,815. [Music] Youth Services Fund 154,31 Resource Recovery Fund $45,891 Building Maintenance Fund $82,000 Parks and Recreation Fund

117$580,898. Be it further resolved to the capital improvement budget for the fiscal year 2025 2026 as outlined on the attached in the amount of [Music] 1,648,16 with 917,500 being town source funded projects, 4,000 being resource recovery source funded projects, 250,000 water source fund projects, 380,000 sewer source fund projects and $96,516 state of Connecticut funded projects B and is hereby adopted. Thank you for reading that. Do I hear a second? I'll second it. I have a question. Are we having any discussion? Absolutely. Please. Um, so I'm looking in my budget book for resource recovery department. I mean, this is a small difference, but I'm seeing 44 46,891 as the proposed it's in page 129. Yeah. Our budget. I don't know if something changed. 129 405 891. Oh, you have 405. I have 406. Well, I must

118have a They may have changed it. Something might have changed that I didn't pick up. The all the other numbers match up. Yeah, that's right. It says Yeah, I was checking all We did make a little bit of a change to get those covers for the bins or something like that. Oh, maybe that was it. That was right. All right. You know what it was? We We took $1,000 from that and moved it to something else to pay for something else. That's what it's off about,000 money around. Yeah. It's off a thousand. Right. Yeah, that's a good catch. Okay. Well, I don't say much, but I like looking at numbers. I'm not going to read the rest of groceries. And if that's a requirement, I'm going to take the night off. Resign back to John.

119Um, all right. So, discussion. Nice pickup. Um, I'm fine with that. Would someone call the vote? All those in favor? I opposed. Extensions. Motion passes. Thank you very much. Children book. All right. The next one is for the contract agreement with Birmingham Construction Company. This is the project that uh Ryan was talking about to uh do a 10 inch water man from Clear View Drive up to the water tanks uh 500 relatively short one. I'll take it. Are you sure you want to do that? I'll do it. Okay. I move the resolution board of select Ventana Portland, Connecticut dated May 2125 contract agreement with Birmingham Construction Company LLC. Resolved that the board of selectmen hereby authorizes first selectman Michael Pelton to execute and deliver in the name of and on behalf of the town of

120Portland a contract with Birmingham Construction Company LLC 454 Lus Road Beacon Falls, Connecticut 06403 for bid number 2025-06-H High Street Water Main Replacement Portland High School to Clear View Drive. Total base bid contract prior to any other required change orders is approximately $437,950. Thank you very much. Any seconds? I'll second that. All right, discussion. Um, this project is ready to go if we agree to it tonight. I will sign it tomorrow and uh they may be able to get this done in the summertime based on uh projections on this project. Uh, we ready for the vote? All those in favor? Opposed? Abstensions? Motion passes. Again, thank you very much. Uh, next one. So, every now and then we have to do a request for waiver of bids for specific reasons. Uh, this one is because

121the only one that makes this product uh is uh is just one vendor. So, would like to read this one. Want me to read it? Yes. I haven't done yet. I haven't done one yet. So uh resolution board of selectman town of Portland, Connecticut May 21, 2025 request for waiver of bid requirements fleet pump and service group inc. Whereas the town of Portland water pollution control facility, WPCF, purchased a light submergible grinder pump and surrounding infrastructure in 2006 from Fleet Pump and Service Group, Inc. to pump raw sewage at the Indian Hill Pump Station. And whereas recently mechanical issues have been identified with the WPCF personnel. Where and whereas a quote for a replacement pump has come in at approximately $19,700 from Fleet Pump and Service Group, Inc. And whereas Fleet Pump and Service Group,

122Inc. is the United States East Coast dealer of the flight pump needed to match the pump infrastructure at the Indian Hill Pump Station. Now therefore be it resolved that in the best interests of the town pursuant to section 12087 of the Portland charter, the Portland the board of selectment hereby waves the bidding requirements of section 1208 of the Portland charter as it pertains to utilizing Fleet Pump and Service Group Inc. as the vendor to provide for the flight submergible grinder pump replacement needed at the Indian Hill Pump Station. And be it further resolved that the board of selectman authorizes the first selectman, Michael Pelton, to act on behalf of the town of Portland to enter into any and agreements related to these repairs slashimprovements. I'll second that. Right. Any further discussion? All those in favor?

123I opposed. Extensions. Motion passes. 444. All right. We are ready for uh the Bobby's favorite part. Make a motion for a refund of excess payment. Ally Financial $95.17. I'd like to second those. All those in favor? I opposed. Abstensions passes. Motion for a refund of excess payment. Uh Laura Lee and Michael Griffith. $42.40. You know what? I've never seconded these before. I'll second that. Son of a gun. You're just seconding. Yes. Yes. Mike Pelton. Mix it up a little bit. Yes. And then Yeah, I did the second. All those in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. All right, we are up to status and committee reports. Um, I've took some some scribble notes last night. It was very busy board of education meeting coming to the end of the school year. So, I'll give you my notes.

124Um we had a very interesting I I tell you it's a great group of young folks um from BIS the sixth grade um leadership team and they were eight it's an eight member team and the kids very eloquently discussed their activities and that they attended a leadership conference at Cheshure High School. They've done some very um successful fundraisers and a spirit week and the kids did a great job of that. Now I'm I'm spanning over to my other notes here so I can make sure I get these names right. They um in the in the public school uh Portland public school spotlight last night. They talked about the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendent Student Recognition Award and there were two students last night for PHS. Amelia Dietrixen and Annabelle Marishuk received the award. Uh,

125and they did a CAB, which is the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendent. They did a uh Cab student leadership award and from Portland middle school the recipient was Dylan Wells uh and Morin Nahar and for the high school it was Rita Lynn and Jerry Hall. Um and the the kids just did a great job last night. Um the superintendent gave some um basic updates. The one that I really just flagged to let you guys know is that the boilers for BIS have been ordered. It's going to be tight. The delivery is 26 weeks which puts it into November and Charles said that the obviously that one boiler is still operational but it is equal to the age purchase installed at the same time as the other one. So, they got their fingers crossed and

126they just want to try to get this thing done as quickly as possible and they're going to do anything they can to bump up that delivery date. Um, and then months ago, the um director of teaching and learning for Portland School District uh left our town and that position has been vacant for a while. And now this is where my notes get crazy. I make sure I got it all right. The current Portland middle school principal, Chuck Hershawn, will effective June 1st will be the new director of teaching and learning. So that created a vacancy at um Portland Middle School principal. and Michael Seerson, who is currently the BIS principal for three years, will now be moving up to become the Portland Middle School principal. And it was actually um they talked a little bit

127because he was very active with the kids that gave the presentation about um the council at BIS and they just coincidentally all those kids are moving to sixth grade. So, he kind of gets to transition with him, which we all thought was really great. Um, so now that leaves a BIS principal vacancy and the new interim BIS principal is Joe Santaneri who has been with in Portland school system. It doesn't seem that long. He's been with Portland school system 17 years. Uh, and he's the golf coach that that's gotten the golf team many state championships. He used to be, I believe, the girls high school soccer coach. Yeah, he's he's held a lot worn a lot of hats. But, um, he's very excited. His wife and his kids were there with him last night. So,

128what was his beside golf coach, what was his position prior? He's a science teacher. Science teacher, but he's done he he's the list of things that he's done for the the the district is huge. Okay. Um, so I think in all counts we have a really great group and the other principles throughout the town, throughout the district are there as well to support everybody. Um, and see was there anything else? I think I that's the highlights. Oh, and the other one was Amy Morren, which we talked about already. So that's that's the highlights of the meeting from last night. anything. Um, I'll just uh let's see. RI river access uh committee had a meeting last night and um let's see what are we there um well Brian O'Halpin basically informed us um they're going to

129start working on the access to the river behind Tilcon um fences Uh they they've awarded a bid to the a company to uh put a fence fence up. Um and I believe uh bids are going to be going out to a contractor for the road work. [Music] Um and that's that's the Yeah, that's the main news news on that. Good. Excellent. anything you're into? Uh I just I attended my first um library board of directors meeting as liaison. Jen was very welcoming. The group was great. Um the really the biggest thing that they had asked to liazison about was a policy change that they're working on or uh and they had sent Mike on that as well and we'll probably address it at our next meeting. It had to do with their library of things

130uh policy and their loan policy. So, but they were really minor kind of housekeeping changes. And the it was interesting because the policy for some reason the the uh loan policy the board of selectment had approved in the past. So, they want us to look at it to approve it in the again for any changes made. Sounds good. Um, capital is off until the fall and planning and zoning is been pretty simple. Just average stuff coming through. Nothing big yet. So, kind of quiet. It's nice to have the whole budget thing. Yeah, that whole piece of activity for a while. Um, I only had a couple things, but I'll do that in informal discussion. Just a few a few quick ones. Only thing of note is uh we started talking about the ordinance for blight

131and all that kind of stuff. Um I I sort of put some things together. I wasn't ready to to talk about it tonight. Um just because I've looked around a bunch of towns since the last meeting and I felt the same way too like some ordinances are very detailed Glastonbury and there's specific things they do after a week, two weeks etc. Other towns are lucy goosey so I don't have a clear idea of what's best but I am still collecting that up and I think it's worth the discussion. Uh maybe another meeting or two for them. So FYI, but I I haven't forgot about that because again that issue that we dealt with and probably another half dozen ones that I'm aware of. Um could be solved with a bigger fence as he said, but

132but but it is something that we should look at. So but not yet tonight. So um all right, followup ethics ordinance or review town charter? Uh don't we have to do public comment? Oh, I'm sorry. I skipped again, didn't I? I trying to get to the end as fast as I can. Um public comment. Anyone online? Nope. Good. Anybody here? Yeah. Anybody here out there want to come in? All right. Uh follow. I have nothing for either ethics or review of town charter. At least not at this meeting. All right. Um I have a question for John. Yes. When when um when are we going to hear from the school board committee? Have any idea? The next meeting is June 2nd. Um we the committee has I I gave a little update last meeting. The

133committee has spent what two two meeting sessions touring the three schools. Um, at one of our meetings quite some time ago, I think it's I think it's consensus that we all feel that we should remove one school from the mix in terms of what we're going to use, what we're not going to use. We spent probably five or six meetings with Bob Sheay and Carl Johnson going through the line item report, cost report of all the all the things need to be done at every school line by line by line by line by line. And I I think again, I'm not speaking for the whole committee, but I think the the consensus from the group is we recognize that the last budget vote did not pass. I think the group wants to go back to

134the public with a number that is easily digestible, but I think we're finding that coming to that number is exceedingly difficult. Um the once we finished a couple weeks ago going through I think we did Valley View School last and went through line by line by line. The purpose of that is that with Bob Sheay's um work with us where we're trying to figure out if there were ways with some of the things that need to be done to the schools, did we need to build them into a [Music] full-blown restore of the building or could they be done on a capital repair basis? and Carl Johnson, the chair at one point just threw out a concept of could we approach this potentially and I don't think the decision was actually I don't know what

135the consensus is but is there a way that if we bring this down to two schools can one of the schools be a renovate to new and then could the other school be I don't know what the terminology would be a more strategic targeted repair effort of a The problem that we've encountered and and we've heard it from any from folks that have been on the previous committee is when you begin to make major changes to any any of the buildings in order to get your state reimbursement, you have to obviously follow their guidelines, but there is a threshold after which you basically need to do all or nothing. Um the example was given if you replace the roof and your object is to do HVAC then that may mean you also have to replace

136the windows and it's it's just a Pandora's box that begins to to snowball. So that was I think part of the effort trying to go through this cost sheet line by line to see if there was any way we could identify of the schools which one would have the best state reimbursement which school really lent itself more to do a renovate to new versus potentially a strategic capital rehab of certain pieces of the building all with the idea of trying to keep the cost down. the after we finished that a few weeks ago, what we needed was to have Frier architects come in. There were some still some remaining questions from a few members on that committee that we wanted to ask Frier and the earliest Brier could come back was June 2nd. So, our

137next meeting is June 2nd. Um, I would hope I mean we we we all agree that we've we've looked at every angle of this uh and based upon Frier's report and what we hear from Frier I'm hoping that it may be a couple meetings maybe less um before we can come to a decision. And I know that there are varying opinions on the board. So it wouldn't surprise me if it's not unanimous. However, I would love to see it being that this because I think we've talked about um you know, I I was kind of outspoken in one of the meetings. I said, you know, I I I was the guy on this board that had been saying two and a half years ago when this whole process first started that we need to educate

138the public and they and they need to understand what's going on. Um and I said, as much as we tried, I don't think we did a great job of education. And I think no matter what the decision is here, there needs to be it's going to have to be a fast turnaround, but there needs to be some education. People need to understand. I mean, when when Frier gave us the explanation of how the state reimbursement process works and how they view each child at a certain age and a certain grade level is associated with a certain number of square feet. And obviously the you know different ages require different square footages. And I asked the question in terms of I mean obviously it's like if you you got to do a major renovation to your

139house and you you don't have the cash in your pocket. You got to you got to get a loan to do it. But when you're getting a loan you want to get the best rate and you want to get the most reimbursement from the state based upon the actual usable square footage that the state will approve. The two elementary schools are pretty close. Valley View and Guild Sleeve in terms of usable square footage. I think Valley View is a little bit higher. One or the other. Valley View is one school is very close to the usable square footage, which means you'll get the maximum reimbursement. The other elementary school is similarly close. This is like 22,000 square feet over. Uh, and that's because it, you know, it was built in a different time. It was

140been the the front of it, which was the high school built in the 30s, was not only built at a different time, but it was built for a different age level. The corridors now are much wider than the the expectation. The classrooms in that front half are much larger than the expectation. Um, so you know, I you when you look at it from that perspective, presumably the better reimbursement rates could come from the two schools that were that are newer that were built as elementary schools. Um but we we've also we're trying to balance out everything that we're hearing from everybody right down to you know this is um as a historic building I think is important to a lot of people in town. Um but I but if it's not if it's not doesn't

141mean we're tearing it down. That's you you didn't let me finish my statement because that's what I said. I said, you know, the fact remains that even if it's not a school, it doesn't mean it you can't repurpose it for something else. Uh it doesn't have to be a school to save it. My, you know, honestly, I was kind of leaning that way and I think I still am that I I think if the two schools that were most recently built as elementary schools have the best chance at a reimbursement, if there's a way we can find to make the money work. Um, but the, you know, the problem is then if you're trying to get rid of a school and get it off the taxpayers's back and you take this for example, then are

142you're not necessarily getting it off the taxpayers's back because it's something that the town's probably going to want to do something with at least in the short term. what I asked in one of the meetings. I'm not I'm not speaking out of class here because if anybody watches the meetings, I've asked all these questions there. Um, one of the questions I one of the suggestions I brought up is I think we currently lease two classrooms in BIS to Oakill. If if you were for just these are just my ideas. It's not for argument sake. If you when you walk in the front door by the main office in this and on the first floor and the second floor straight ahead of you is the hallway that goes down the additions the Lshape potentially if you

143were to put double fire doors in the first and second floor which could except for emergencies separate what was the 1937 high school the front building from the Lshape in the back. If you could find someone, maybe Oak Hill or somebody else that may be willing to lease that entire first and second floor, come and go from the back entrance to that. You have solar on the roof. You have windows that have been replaced. You will now have two new boilers. If there's a way that you could make that building as close to net zero as possible in terms of costs by bringing in a rent, it may also give the town a little bit of flexibility. I know in one of our meetings we heard that the police department is kind of on a

144naughty list, I think, with with the police in the state because they're a little tight in their spaces. That might give you a little bit of breathing room. The other thing is that when when you think about renovating, if for example you renovate, and this is just me talking, but if you were to just ultimately decide to renovate Valley View and Gildish Leaf or the the year or whatever it takes, the number of months it takes to do that work, you have to pull those children out and find another place to go with them. I think having this building as an option with extra classrooms would give you some flexibility. Well, that was the the original plan when they were going to build the one big school was empty out Valley View, use brownstone and

145gilders so Valley View is empty and the construction be can be done twice as fast. Well, when we but in one of the discussions when we were talking about the possibility of maybe renovating this this then the question got a little murky as to where you put the children for it almost talked like maybe portable trailers or something might be necessary because space was going to be problematic. The other thing that came up in that discussion, in the number of meetings, and I think Charles said it last night at the board of education meeting, I think the plan is to move the sixth grade kids up the hill to put them in in the middle school. I thought that's been decided already. It it it has, but I don't know if it's, you know, how

146it has to be formally part of the process. So, I just don't want to come out and say it, but I think everybody's in agreement on that, too. Can I ask you this? What if the first proposition, the one big school is the less least expensive proposition? In the end, that is not the resolution that this board put before them. No, they it the resolution was that they find they look at all the schools and either keep the schools or remove a school because we we've gone through that. That's been questioned many times. And and I'll be honest, I don't I I think there were there and I this is part of the reason I said at the meeting, I don't think we did a great job of of communications and education. Um there were

147a number of questions I think that came out before that vote. And we because we never had a public forum, we really don't understand what the people's concerns are. Some of them might be that they just didn't want the the single school. Some of them might be that they were concerned about losing BIS. Some of it might be that, you know, it was said that in the the survey that was done that before this went to a vote, there was going to be a report on what was going to be done with the schools that were closed. That never came to fruition. And they also talked about before it went to vote, I believe they were going to have a traffic study done at High Street, and that didn't happen either. So you know, but

148also wasn't it presented that it was like 68 million or something, right? It was only half that. It was really only half that study, but but I think this board said that you know what, it wasn't it didn't fail by 300 votes. It it but the the hard part is is we don't know of the the four main reasons of why it failed. Was it was it price? Was it they didn't want one giant school? Was it they weren't sure, you know, what was going to happen with biz? Because like you said, people are emotionally attached to it, right? We don't know what the reason was. But that's what we talked about. People said no. We plan. Yeah, I think so. But but marketing plan was the reason. I'll be I'll be honest with you.

149I mean, I I've said this publicly in the board of ed meeting at the building committee meeting. I think one of the things that people were frustrated with or nervous or or felt like they they were being sold a bill of goods was and we talked about this at a board of selectment meeting about what number we were going to put on that question. We it was decided to pass on the money for the secondary school repairs and go forward with just that amount on the ballot. And a lot of people said, "Well, when are we going to where's the money? How much do we need for the secondary schools? And when is that going to come forward?" And I asked that question at this at this building committee a couple weeks ago, and I

150said, "Just to be clear, because I'm new to this group. I haven't been here since day one. Please confirm for me the plan is in the amount you're putting forward on that ballot to include the money that's needed for the secondary school repairs and the answer is absolutely yes. So getting through cutting through all the the smoke here when we talk I got to understand that what you that we have to do what on the question that we include the money for the secondary school but just to be clear the plan there was an absolutely clear plan there that the secondary schools were going to be funded by the savings that were going to be incurred by closing two if that was approved. But that that was what was on that was all darn budget

151referendum. That was the plan. So that was the plan. I'll get back because we've gone around and around with this guys and I'll get back to it. You're not going to like the answer, but what this board put on the charge for that committee did not allow the option for a one school. I'm not suggesting that we that's not what I said, but I was just saying you're saying there was no understanding of what the how the secondary schools were going to be fixed. That was the plan. The plan was there. It was all in tremendous amount of documents. Then I'll take it right. I'll agree that it probably wasn't well communicated, but I'll take it I'll take it back to what I said two and a half years ago. I said to day from

152day one that we need to educate the public. Yes. You can't just put four or five large reports on a website and expect that people are going to read them and understand them. And I think you're right. public forums probably would have when we did the park on 17 they had numerous public forums and they sold they explained that and they answered the questions and I think one of the things that and I just and I hope I'm not saying this wrong is that once this was set to go on to the ballot that you couldn't hold public because you couldn't speak about it correct superintendent nobody could speak about it in a way that would violate the right but that's why and and that's why go back and created a vacuum. Go back and

153check me out on the record two and a half years ago. I said while we still have the opportunity because we said once it goes to bond commission, the doors come down and I said we need to and and a lot of that got hung up on the establishment of the committee to review what's going to happen with the buildings, right? And that took that took a long time to get in place. But that's the thing too that we ran into is people wanted to know what would happen with the buildings. We have no idea. Everything is what if because those are all three year out. Yeah. That you you spoke to the people, right? The worst thing that happens to the building is you give them to a developer and you put them on

154the tax roll. Yeah. That that one I think was a red hair. Hey, and when when God go God bless him when Sean sat down there, he and I said this many times. We lived I lived next door. He lived three houses down from Central School. Yeah. And this town does not have a great track record of what it does when it closes a municipal building that sat there for 20 years until the roof collapsed in in a snowstorm. And and I think that's why the I thought education was so important. People in and around Gildersleeve probably had the same concern that if that building was closed up, what was going to happen to that one? You know, people around Valley View may have had the same concern. If that was closed, what was going

155to happen to that one? The questions we had, we had the responsibility to step before the public in a public forum or two or three or four and answer those questions. And we didn't do it. And and well, for one reason, one reason or other, we paid the price. But you know, I'm gonna still be paying the price. Sure are. Yeah. And that's why and we wait we've sort of spent all this time. We've had two school committees and we're back. Oh, there's been multiple committees over the years that have looked at what to do with Brownstone and just Yeah. So I mean I'm on the committee because I I felt I brought some some historical background some understanding to it. good guy for the people but but you know and I also see the

156frustration of everybody there and you know and I know um many of us feel like you know we want to get this thing done but we also don't want to have another wasted effort where we come to the public with a number or a bond duration or any combination thereof that they're going to say hell no. But if they want to say hell no and we can explain to them that we've done our due diligence, we've gone through everything and we can explain everything, they the public needs to hear a presentation about how the bond process works and how we get reimbursement and how that all happens. That never happened in a public forum before. I think I think it's education during the last full cycle and we've been following this for how long now?

157Two committees, thousands of hours that have been spent doing this thing. some of the smartest people in town trying to look at this thing from different ways. Um, and I think my frustration with the whole process, especially after the last vote, was that the the lower the lower information voters, the ones that just saw the signs or the ones that didn't understand it well. And for a lot of reasons, they didn't go to the website tended to be no because they didn't know the details. They didn't know, oh, they saw 66. They saw 68 or 68. And I'm not saying that one side was taking advantage of that because they were advocating for their side. God bless. That's what you do, right? You advocate for the position you feel. There's nothing wrong with that. 100%

158agree with that. But I think a lot of people afterwards when they said, "Oh, it's only 39." And now when they look at this whole thing for renovating maybe one school to new, having to do capital improvements on a second school, and the cost will be more and we still have a school maybe brownstone that we have to repurpose, find something else. and now it's 1015 million dollars more than when that would have been I think when people understand that there'll be a frustration as well but you're right and there's another whole element to this is the tariffs I mean when you talk about the cost of plywood by the time you do something I mean hope everything settled the dust settles and everything goes back down the cost of steel the cost of plywood

159everything sure so but back to your question June 2nd is our next meeting And you know we're we're coming to the end um you know a present a question is going to be presented I know before that before with the pres the decision is going to be made by the committee and then I don't know if you if Charles have talked with you but they want to have a joint meeting with the committee the board of ed and the board of selectmen together um to to talk about this and make sure that because really the only way this is going to fly is if every every group works together. So, so June 2nd, your next meeting. Yeah. Um, are you making the decision then as to what the Well, they're making a recommendation, right? Is

160that the day that you got make the recommendation? I'm not going to commit to saying that that because I don't know if they're if everybody's willing to move. If not, then are you guys meeting uh meeting weekly after that point or you guys meet every two weeks? Well, no. It's on the agenda when the next meeting is. I know it was discussed that they want to have this done before school gets out for the summer. Got it. So they're in if there needs to be some additional time. Yeah. If there needs to be some additional meetings split in there, if that's what they want to do, right? That's got to happen. So let's say June second, you guys discuss and you're going to make the final decision the week after, say, um a couple days

161before before school closes. You make your decision what your recommendation is going to be to the board of selectment. Then you want to do the joint meeting. I believe that's when they want to do a joint meeting. They want to do it before we want to have our recommendation, but I think they want to share it with the board of ed, the board of selectmen so that any tweaks can be made potentially. The the object is for it to leave that committee with with the best chance of moving forward, right? Because they understand it comes to this board and this board has really the final say, right? But they're so they're not going to make a recommend. They're not going to provide us with a report with recommendations. They're going to require that we all

162come and discuss what their recommendation should be. I think they're going to make they're going to decide on a recommendation, but do not disclose it until we all come to a meeting to I think so. Yeah. I think that's great. And I think what it for me it just brings into deep relief the comment that the uh prior architect consultant made I think it was two meetings ago where he's been in the business for 20 years. You've never seen a worse process play out on how to come. And I and I like Frier. I think they're they do good work. But one thing that was said about them in a meeting and I don't disagree is that Frier Architects there I live next door to the to the town hall which was renovated years ago

163and it was renovated as a historic building. In other words, you they took that building and they rehabbed it strategically target rehab of that building to maintain its historic integrity and everything else. Brier, as I understand it, their basic job is to do renovate to new, where they go in and they gut a structure and they they rebuild the inside and they do what they have to do. I don't think they they're all that happy about this process because we're also looking at potentially to try to save money looking at doing a a targeted strategic well they were kept on because they were the architects or the possibility of the mega school. Right. So instead of starting over with a right new architectural firm, they were kept because they have the knowledge of all the

164buildings. No, they're very helpful. Questioning the professional ethics here with somehow something 25 years ago. All I'm saying is that I think if you were to talk we the we were talking initially about doing a a renovate to new and if we're doing that on both buildings, that's the way it is. But if there is, and that's been the question all along, is there a savings to be had by I told you it was going to be a short meeting tonight, didn't I? Yeah. If if there was a savings to be had by doing a repair of at least one of the buildings, then that you you approached that in an entirely different manner. Um, and that's that was the purpose of going through and to see if there was a way that doing capital

165rehabilitation of one of those buildings that that could save us some money. I don't know in the long run whether it's going to or not. That's what we're going to find out on the second. Yeah, I I think I was I was hoping that the committee would come back with a specific here's what our committees voted on. Uh even at one point I know uh I thought I thought that's what the big joint meeting was was they call the board of ed and the board of selecting together and say here's what we got. This is our recommendation. This is our recommendation. And I and I'm not saying that that's not the case, but yeah, I mean why would we if there wasn't some looking for feedback from the two other boards? No, I I get

166it. Why would we even have a meeting, a joint meeting with the other two if we were just say here it is, go run with it? I think the committee seriously wants to make sure that this that people are are happy with this and it can work. They want to after all this work, all these number of committees, they want to see this thing happen. But I think that's the purpose of wanting to sit down and have the other boards there. If if you guys really had a concern about one piece or if the board of ed had a concern about one piece, I I'm not going to speak for for the chairman, but why would we want to have you both there in a joint meeting if we weren't willing to tweak something here

167or there to make it work for everybody? And I think that's that's the ultimate purpose. I think we should have have have a ballot with a couple of options. Well, we got option and we got we got into trouble with that before when we went out and did the survey. I mean that and I I said this to Ryan Curley after we did the survey. I said when you put out a survey questionnaire, you we all went right to that page to see what the result was and what people wanted, which option they chose. But when you do a survey, there's a lot of other questions that are included in that survey. And unfortunately amongst those other questions came that other one and we found that what 82 or 83% of people wanted to know

168what was going to happen with the closed buildings before they voted. And I think that was that was one of those outstanding questions, you know, and it's all it's all it's all hindsight. I mean it's easy to look at it now. Well, and and that I think that's almost an easier thing to answer because a lot of developers did walk through and said, "Listen, you've got so many things going on, you know, spa three years from now, two years from now that that property becomes more valuable. Could you do a hotel or not?" Probably not. Could you use it for a town building for parks and wreck and rent out the space to, you know, to Oakill and whatever. So, there's a lot of ways to cover the footprint of that building. Uh because at

169the end of the at the end of the day I believe I forget what Bob said for the cost but the carrying cost of that building was 400,000 500,000 you know if there was no nothing going on there just to like run it over. So and five rooms rented out and some other things going on. So that I'm I'm not worried about that build. That's the building that's chosen by that building has potential. Absolutely. So I don't worry about that. Yeah, I just worry about just it's been such a long process that I hope we have one maybe two maybe you come back with two options. I said you and I appreciate you. I I I I don't think I I don't want to speak for the committee but I think they're coming back with

170their plan is to come back with one option. Um you know and I I think they've been trying to do their due diligence because they they if if anybody asks a question they want the answer to be there. I mean, if anybody said, "Do you know do you know what the cost is of all those line items?" All people have to do is look at those meetings on YouTube and see that they went through every line item and and Bob Sheay went through every line item and said, "Okay, Bob, can we do with this? Can we do without this? Can we do with this?" And and he really nickeled and dime that thing. And I don't know in the final analysis if it's going to make a huge difference, but John, I I got to

171tell you, I'm glad that you're on there that you have to go to every one of those meetings. I watch the I watch the videos. Patience alone, John. Yeah, I I appreciate that. Patience alone. I appreciate that. You know, every I think it's a it's a good group of people, you know, and I think they they understand they're trying to find a way to get the majority of questions resolved, whether it people are concerned about money, if they were concerned about the school down here, you know, any number of things. And you know, I think they're focused in. I just over the next that meeting on the 2nd is going to be where the outstanding questions are asked by some of the members. And I'm hoping that night or maybe the next night there'll be

172a plan. I'm going to interrupt for one second. It's 9:25 right now. We still have an executive session. I was about to make that motion. I'll second that motion. Are Are you okay? Yeah. You asked the question. No, no, no, no. That No, that's great. But I wanted you guys to know what's going on. No, no, I think that's great and like I said, there's gonna be a lot more discussion about this in the weeks ahead. So, yeah, thanks for No, and no, we really appreciate that and good insight. All right, so public comment, board of generals. All right, we are up to follow follow-up items. We have none. I need a motion to go. You got them. You got a second. All those in favor? I I He made the motion. I seconded it.

173We just voted. We're going to executive executive session and everyone can clear out here and call it a night.