Meeting transcript
Board of Selectmen- Special Meeting
September 3, 2026 · Watch on YouTube · All meetings
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Okay. Let's restart that. I am gonna call to order the town of Andover board of selectmen special meeting for Thursday, 09/03/2026 at 07:01PM. And our first order of business is the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to The United States Of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Okay, and we're going to move on to item two, which is public speak. And I am going to start with Louise Goodwin. I'm just listening. Thank you. Sharon St. Rock.
I'm also mostly just listening in tonight, but I do hope that the board will decide tonight to disperse funds to the school so they can meet their financial obligations. Thanks.
IPhone, I don't know who that is. So a person that's listed as iPhone, if you can come back to us and let me know who you are, and we'll get you on. Kimberly Person. Just listening right now. Thank you. Liz, low catch.
I think I'm all set for now too. Just listening.
Okay. IPhone. Okay. We're gonna skip that. We have another person that's just entering. Owner, if you'd like to participate in public speak, if you could state your name and your address. Oh, Dennis O'Brien. Nice to see you, sir. So we have just the iPhone that we cannot sit there and identify. K. Give me one second.
Can you hear me now? Yes. Hi, Jeff. This is Patrick. How are doing? Good, Patrick. How are you? Good. Thanks. Would you like to participate in public speak, Patrick?
No. I'm all set right now. Thanks. Patrick Dougherty. Yeah. Sorry. It's it's the Zoom app's changed, since I got a new phone, I was having technical difficulties. Sorry about that. It's okay.
We all have technical difficulties. I'm having them right now. And, Wayne, Kasasik, he's our, zoning enforcement officer and helps us, employee of the town. Wayne, do you wanna participate in public speaker? Just wait till the discussion on the zoning ordinance. Oh god. Oh, you know, you have too many computers and too many stuff. Never works. Sorry about that. Alright. We're gonna get started. Our first order of business is a discussion related to impossible action on the board of education September funding. Just before the meeting started, I sent to, all of the members of the board, a letter that has been received by the board of selectmen from attorney Murphy who represents the board of education. So if you guys have a chance to sit there and look at that, you can look at that. But, again, what we are discussing has is a process change and only a process change. We're we're sitting there looking at how we disperse funds to the board of education. And at our last meeting, we voted to make a change to that procedure. But the Board of Education needs to cooperate with us to sit there and have that happen. So to be able to do that, we would need to understand the cash balance. We would need to understand where they're at, and we're not going to get that accomplished. Because as we discussed at our last meeting, we had discussed the possibility for litigation and a a lawsuit being filed, which it was, and we all received that. So all of the members here on the board received the
filing with the Department of Education. Again, this is a process change. It is not anything that we are doing to determine an amount of spending or, like, trying to violate what the town has approved for funding for the school board. So just to be clear, it's a process change. So since we're not capable of executing our voted on change at our last meeting. The question is, what do we do for the month of September? And to be clear, we have to fund the school, and that is absolute. So we're not going to sit there, and I'm not telling anyone we're not funding the school, But how we fund it and how we make it work for everyone in the community is different. We have different views on that. Obviously, have different views on that because you can read the lawsuit that's been filed the school or from the school against the board of selectmen in the town, in essence, spending our money to sue us as opposed to coming to a table and having a rational conversation. So this is a situation this board is in, and I understand, Dennis. I understand complaint, lawsuit, the rest of it. I'm referencing it for peoples to understand.
Okay. I'd be glad to explain, but that's okay. All right. So
the question is, what do we do with September? So we have options, and we, as a board, have to pick the option that we think is the best. Option one is to remit the funding, and and let me get it for you. And I actually I need to email something to myself. So you give me one second. And You're looking for the total monthly?
It's 483 got it. There's $4,839.40. Yeah. So we can sit there and remit that for the month of September until we as a group and as a community get cooperative and actually work together. We can sit there and make an adjustment to that remission in total. Because the whole goal on this is to sit there and have the town keep as much of the funding available to earn as much interest as possible to make as much money as possible. And we could sit there and make equal weekly payments of, I believe it's $93,000 but I have to get into my spreadsheet. So if you divided the total funding of $4,800,000 by 52, you get somewhere around $93,000 a week. And would would remit that every week on Wednesday because that's when the fiscal year started. So we would also make adjustments for how much they've been over remitted based upon that. And we could we have to sit there and make a change. So I wanna know what the board wants to potentially do. If it's me and from a financial perspective, I remit
weekly payments for the month of September starting with next week. And if I had the information, I would sit there and give it to you. But I as I'm I was talking to my friend there, Patrick. I have computer problems getting into my office computer right now. So I have a spreadsheet that I'd hoped to share with everybody, but, I'm not, having luck on my own computer right now. So I'm on my laptop.
Discussion. Let's go. Anne, you go. I think we should continue with the one tenth on the first of each month. That's what the policy has been. That's what the Board of Finance agreed upon. And that is what works for the school.
Okay. Understood. Anyone else wanna chime in on what you think we should do? So you have Anne paying the full one tenth and me sitting there saying you should pay one fifty second every week. And that would keep them at the most amount of available funding for the town under our current process, because even what the superintendent sent us as an email, she references this new grant that was received by the school and saying that there's extra funding that's required for that. I'd like to see that. I'd like to understand what that is because it's a special education grant. And I would like to understand that from a financial perspective. But even that being said, if that was the case and the school came to the town and sat there and said they needed this money, and this is why, and these are the disbursements that we would need to make, we would fund that. Or I would sit there and recommend funding it, because that's what partners do. And if we went to the situation that we talked about before, which is any transaction that the school wrote would be funded by the town immediately as it was presented to the bank,
But that still comes back to us working together and getting an understanding of what's going on from a standpoint of operations and where they're at, which they're unwilling to share with us.
So So how did you come up, Jeff, with the fifty two weeks? Isn't it ten months or it'd be
Well, no. They spend their money from July 1 through June 30. So that's how they spend their money and for the fiscal year. And and listen, even to go from the standpoint, I don't believe the treasurer's office, and Matt, correct me if I'm wrong, I don't believe you understand if they're over budget, under budget, what their bank balance is at the end of June of of of June thirtieth twenty twenty six. I don't think we have any of that information that we can give to the public and the community and let them know this is how we would fund it. Yeah. At this time, we don't have any information that shows how far into the the budget year per,
as far as cost versus expense, or expenditures versus revenue. So we really I know that it's probably as front ended that the first couple months they didn't have you know, school, but now they're into school. And so but we did give them the July payment, we gave them the August payments, so now up to September. And, I mean, my thought is that as long as they're getting their, you know, getting the funds, whether it be in the onetenth, onetwelve, or the one hundred fifty second, without any other information, I mean, think that if they have expenses that, as the First Lifeman said, that are above and beyond what they have money in their accounts for, if we have information, we can be sure to make sure that they meet their payroll, that they meet their expenditures, just need some cooperation. So I'm hoping that we can
move past this. But I think for this, you know, this month, it's up to the select board to, you know, put something put something together. And whatever whatever the select board does, I'm sure the treasurer and I will will will do. So
I I don't wanna belabor this too long. I'd rather just have the board make a decision. I mean, you know, like I said, we we know that Anne is on one side of this, and and I'm I'm on the opposite side. So it's gonna be on the other three to sit there and decide what they would like to sit there and see happen. Let's have a little bit of discussion and let's move on.
I also wanna say that the school, granted may not have big expenses in the summer, but they do have expenses. By starting one tenth at that point and having it end in, I believe it's April, get nothing in May and June, they were able to juggle grants and other expenses and payroll and so on. Their finance person organizes it all and has it all under control. And the thing that we can't do is we, as a board of selectmen, cannot add any conditions to the Board of Ed getting its money. Telling them to tell us how much they need is adding conditions. Okay. Is that illegal? Is that illegal?
Yes. Is that from you? Okay. Legal? Okay. Great. Alright. Dennis, did you provide that to Anne? No. I did not. I I disagree with that. Okay. Think I believe I don't I think that the the whole town, all the departments of the town and the board of education is a department of the town. That's not. That you I I you know, I've argued with you with this with you and others about this for over a year. It's right in the charter, and it is clearly a department. It is not if it's not, then it's another the hundred and seventieth town of Connecticut. Okay. It's not it's it's special but not that special and they are they have they're required
I think under the laws regarding treasurers to work with the treasurer. Okay. And we only have one treasurer. There's no treasurer that covers the board of education. There's a finance person, but not a treasurer. Anyway, I disagree with what Anne is saying. I I I just can't That that's And this is not a simple matter, but I I that that's simple. That's a simple question.
Christine, just one thing. You never ever have to raise your hand. You just say, I want to speak. All right? Okay. Go ahead. So
I'm hearing Anne say or interpret this as being that the town, the the school is looking to request a specific amount of monies every week. That's what Anne is saying based on their receipts. But what Jeff, I think, I'm understanding and he's saying is he's that it would be $1.52 of whatever the of the whatever's left of the year to pay. So just just in that, you know, beginning argument, two people are saying two different things. So it's not this is our this is our statements or receipts for the week and this is the check we're gonna cut you. It's just 152 of the remaining balance, of of the year. So I think there's a lot of misinterpretation that's that I'm seeing as being new on the board. There's so much misinterpretation that I I don't understand why there is such a lack of coordination between the different branches of the town. Some people are believing that it is its own separate island and others are not. And and this is all gonna just have to come out in the wash. But but I do see a change in procedure could be considered a nuisance to the people doing it to all parties, but it's not changing the bottom line. So I I I'm confused as to where this frustration and anger is coming from from the school. I'm I'm I'm really confused. Like, what where is the hardship that is their exclaiming is being created? I'm looking for details and it's just, nope, it's just, it's just, people are just saying, nope, that's not it. Nope, Nope. But no one's saying what actually it is. You know, having to change
how you do something in an office happens in business, public or private, all the time. It's it's just revised system to make it the best it can be. So I don't I'm having a difficult time figuring out what this hardship is. So if anybody can clarify that, what the the hardship of the school is is in changing this, I would like to know because I still don't see it on attorney Murphy's paperwork. I don't see it in the conversations. I feel like these are just shouting matches. I'm really confused because it's not making sense. It's really the town is looking to collaborate, the school doesn't want to collaborate and says this is what we want done and nobody wants to come up with detailed information on how to collaborate, they just rather spend or waste money on an attorney and I'm so it's not, this is not adding up on either side. So I don't see anything wrong with a procedural change. Businesses encounter that all the time. Unless there's a hardship that, you know, needs to be brought forward or explained, that's how you move forward. The town and the school have always worked well together until the past few years. So where's the disconnect here? Why can't we get that back?
Okay. Dave, I know you came off mute. Yeah.
The thing that I'm confused about is why the school board won't give an accounting of their spending. I know the other boards and commissions do that. The fire commission is a similar type of thing. That's an elected body that has a budget and spends their budget, but they always provide an accounting to the town at all times. So I don't understand what the hardship is. I saw an email from Marcy Minor saying it this would be simple. You know, the bookkeeper or the the finance person can generate, their check register at any time, yet I haven't seen anything come through. So I'm I'm wondering why they won't provide that information.
Okay. So those are all totally legitimate points, that's something that we have to get in a cooperative environment and get an answer. The question is, how do we fund them? So we just need to decide. That's all we're deciding today is how we fund them. So honestly, as Christine said, it's a procedural change. Is the hardship? What is the hardship? It's not a change in dollars. It has nothing to do with that. It's a change in when it arrives, and that's it. And so the question is, when it arrives is different. And I don't understand, like Christine said, what is the hardship and how it arrives? You have to sit there and manage your business, which the school is its own little business. It's a one third. It's an equal partner. It's actually probably as you know, it's one it's more actual spending than the town. The town has all the capital expenditures, so it's more physical spending than the town. So you manage your business, and you manage how you accumulate payroll, and you manage how you sit there and and deal with your payables.
You know, and it would be helpful for the town because, again, it's town money. It's not and nobody sits there and goes this. It's our like I hear the Board of Education say all the time, it's our money. It's our control. It's our this. It's our that. No. It's not. It's not yours. It is ours. And it's the town's. So, again, let's just decide this question. How do we want to fund them? Do we want to make a motion to fund them at at a onetenth level? Do we want to make make a motion that we fund them at a onefifty second level? Do we want to make a motion that we fund them at a onetwelve level? What is the desire of the board? Go ahead, Dennis.
I I you know, I'm reluctant to chime in, but I I I feel I must. I just calculated out what it would be if, weekly, if you just did it on a ten month basis, you know, and take nine weeks out of your or eight or nine weeks out of your 52. And that would be more similar to what's happening now, except the monthly payments would come in four equal payments every week, and that would be about a $118,000 to you know, a week. And that would be for if you if you if you consider July and August to be I mean, those two months you're taking out to be about nine weeks,
eight and a half weeks, something like that. I don't know what the calculation would be, but it would be the payments would be higher, the the weekly payments.
And and then, again, we would be left with additional resources being kept in a bank account, not earning interest.
Yes. That that that is that is my I'm not advocating it. I'm just saying that's another alternative. Okay. Another alternative. The other thing I wanna say is, I I know I don't know if the, board members saw the, the letter that just came from the, attorney. They received it right before the meeting. Okay. And he could he's claiming that I was surprised to see this. He was claiming that he thought that the fact that we're not paying the full monthly, you know, ten months one month out of 10 amount as we've paid in as Matt pointed out in July and August of this year. He's he's saying he thought it was a
in response to you know, them filing this administrative procedure. It's not really a a court case. It's a it's an administrative procedure. It's a lot different.
Then who's making money on this? Oh, he is. The attorney. Right? The town the town is paying the attorney to sue itself. By the hour. As opposed to come to a table and have a discussion. Right?
That's right. I'm just saying I'm just telling you the facts. Okay. That that they're saying that we were they think we're retaliating.
Retaliating. Has been this been This has been going on. Right? Just so everybody understands. This has been going on since June when I tried to get a bank account established under the towns. Right. June, not not retaliating, not retaliation, understanding that that that there was a million dollars in a bank account not earning interest. I
would like to know how much is in there now just like And and so would I. And I don't understand why We're we're off we're off topic. We are off topic. The issues of how we work together have to be resolved collaboratively. They will not be resolved through, a lawsuit. They will not be resolved by the town bullying the school or the school bullying the town. That's not how this is going work. This has to work. Where we work together, we work with the Board of Finance, we work with everybody to get all the necessary information, and and we work together. I I don't want to I don't want to be going till 08:00 tonight, really. I don't want to go to So so all I'm asking is is, you know, I'll make a motion to be really honest, because I'll make a motion that we we pay the month of September, as if we were paying the school in one hundred fifty second distribution that is paid in equal installments on every Wednesday of every week. I'll second that, Jeff. Okay. Further discussion on that?
If they need if they need more money, then all they have to do is let us know. Well, they have to bring us the details and let us know. Yep. Yeah. They'll get the money.
Asking for is to have the ten months. So since they've been paid two, that leaves eight months divide that number of weeks. They are not asking to get paid in July, what is it, May and June, the last two months of the fiscal year. But their needs require that they have that money a little bit earlier. Do you know their needs, Anne?
I was just was gonna About them. Did they did is that what they're saying? And who who is they, in? Who's saying that? Valerie, who who's speaking for that? Valerie, superintendent,
that that for one thing their payroll is a big chunk every month and in the spring in June they have to have enough to do the balloon payment, which is their pay for July and August. Mhmm. Teachers get paid that way. In June, a big huge chunk. So they have to have money saved up. For the And then for the summer payments. Right. Yeah. So Oh. And then there these grants like the one that they just got for special ed, they have to put that money out first and then get reimbursed. So that's why they need to have a fairly substantial balance most of the time so that they can do that kind of thing.
That We understand all that. I'm because just I gotta ask a question because Anne is speaking on behalf of the Board of Education and I need to get an answer. So this $225,000 grant that just came in for special education, which I think is phenomenal. It's a funding from the state, 18,000,000, and Andover is one of the lucky towns got $225,000 on that. Are you telling me that they're gonna front all $225,000 in the month of September? And are you telling me that that because the way I perceive that grant and all the research that I've done related to it, it's a special education grant, which means it's going to offset, teacher salaries that are currently in place. So I would love you to tell me if it's if it's additional staffing that they're hiring, if they're if all of this is going to be paid out in the month of September, because if it's just by 10, and the total on a $225,000 grant over a ten month period is 20,000
I don't know when exactly they need that. I just know that she has to front the money. But that's how this is being spun. You're telling us we need to pay for Other all the grants that she gets works the same way.
I wish we had the information on all of the And did they send the grant info?
Can't they just let us know? Yeah. It to us. Show it to the treasurer. Show it to the treasurer. Show
the treasurer. This is not us. Again, I am not here. I mean, I'm an accountant. Let me and I and I work with the treasurer to make this make sense. But listen, it's not us. But what we are is we are doing the role of the Board of Finance because the Board of Finance is not asking for anything. So in the end, this ends up being a joint meeting to get information to to to be as transparent as we possibly can across everything. So that's down the road. But today, it's just like, what is the funding? Because the Board of Selectmen has a role to safeguard the assets of the town, which include all of the money related to spending on the school. So we have something in front of us. We'll go through around and around and around, but until the school board shares and is transparent with us, and the superintendent is transparent, none of this gets accomplished. Because we don't even know the bank account payments, nothing. I don't know anything. So
let's just sit there That's and the way it is for the school board. The school board No, it is not required to.
The way this worked five years ago, Anne, is every check went through the operating account. And if we have to go all the way back to that, we should. It was not the way you said it was, though. It is, Anne. How to well, you're gonna believe you're gonna believe. And I'll show you. I I actually Anne, you wanna know what, Anne? When I first got involved in the board of selectmen, I actually was in the treasurer's office for the first two years of me sitting on this board, and I have all of those records still. I have all of those spreadsheets. I have all of the checks broken down between what were town checks and what were school checks. So I will sit there and send this off to the board of selecting after. 2017, 2016. It's how it was done. So you can tell me you're you're like, it's that's not how it's done because that's what Valerie is telling you. I am telling you reality of what happened here. And five years ago, five years ago, when Valerie got her job, her first first go around, and we open this up, what's bothersome to me, the most bothersome thing to me is all of this is being twisted because what has happened is there's been changes and different changes and different people are taking advantage of different situations. And the school board and the superintendent are taking advantage of different situations. And we're not going to solve it until we all sit down and everybody is in agreement as to what should happen. But right now, all I care about is what are we funding? Please, I don't want to, we could go on and on on this. And without the school board in front of us, and without people to sit there and cooperate with, nothing's going to get done. So what does the board? Does the board want to vote on the motion that is in front of us for one hundred fifty second?
So if you don't have any more discussion on it, let's vote on it so we can make it. So I'm going to call the question. And again, the point was to pay the school and and if I could get my computer up, I would give you exact numbers because I know it would be $93,000 a week, but you you also we also need to know that it's it's, $50,000 is next week's, we wouldn't pay anything for the first week because they've been overfunded. They've gotten 400, they got $980,000 So they wouldn't get paid for the first week, they would get paid the second week about $60, And then the third week, they would get paid $93,000 In the fourth week, they get paid $93,000 So I'm just letting everybody be aware of that. That would get them to equal distributions on their budget of one hundred fifty second. And there's some weeks that have four Wednesdays in it, and there's some weeks that have five Wednesdays in it, and they would get money accordingly. So I just want everybody to be clear what is being stated to go back to the to the treasurer's office and tell the treasurer what she we're asking her to do and get accomplished. So any discussions on that part? No, I feel
that we're doing the right thing here until we find out exactly where all this money is going and what they need. Until we cooperate. Just forget we do them with us. Until we cooperate. Cooperation would be really good.
And not suing us. So alright. So I'll call the question, to order. Anne Cremini, you're up first. No. Okay. Scott, Dave Gustanian. I'm sorry. Alphabetical. Yes. Yes. Scott Person. Hi. Christine Randazzo.
Yes. I do still feel open that if the school wants to come forward and explain their hardships or if there's different months where the 93 may be tight, they just need to communicate with us. I mean, that's all we're asking for is an open communication. It's not a hard no. We're not trying to play hardball. We're just trying to have some transparency. And I think that would be welcome conversation to talk numbers with them and to be able to share the information that they have. I think that would be fantastic. And I know they can do it. I mean, I think it would. I think the hardball is just wasting time and the town's money. I don't understand the lack of communication, but I am in favor of the 152.
I am voting yes as well. So it's four-one-zero. And to follow on to what Christine and everybody, just for everybody, this is only for September. Hopefully what we can do is have a meeting and resolve our differences for October. This this is not a really hard financial task. This just has to have some will from all of the boards, including the Board of Finance and the Board of Education as to being transparent. Because you can't sit there and just say no. I mean, that's honestly my feeling. Like, I've never, I mean, it's public money. It's not my money, it's our money. But I guard it like it's my money, but it's our money, and we all have to share the information. And that's the problem that we face as a a group. That's why we have to have a meeting. That's why we have to sit there and move forward. But this is a procedural change. All we did is a procedural change. That will get accomplished. All right. So if we can move on to the next item, everybody received Dennis's draft on, so we're on to item three, discussion and possible action on, no, item four, discussion and possible action on establishing a process to collect costs for projects presented to the building department in PNZ. So Dennis, prepared, an ordinance, a minor ordinance,
because, and I'm gonna let Dennis explain this to the public, and so he'll shake his head at me and go, no, that's not true. It's a minor ordinance, But but it is It's in the charter.
But it is something that can be done by the board of selectmen under another rubric. Okay. So That's pointed out to me by Wayne Kostaszak because I I hadn't I had lost sight of that because that doesn't happen very often. But there's there's a there's a line in the charter that says that the board of selectmen can establish charges for for services.
And and and Dennis, just let me let me give a And that means we don't have to go to town meeting on something like this. Okay. But let me let me explain to everybody. This is this is specifically related to charges, and the reason why we're trying to execute this is to make sure we protect the town from costs to be incurred on projects that are brought in front of the town by a developer or by any resident that require the town to do services in the exploration of zoning application or a permit. So really, the whole issue is to not get caught paying costs for attorneys or hydrologists or engineers or anybody else related to a given project. And so, Wayne has had brought this up to us before. We need to Right. Move forward. And what I what I want is Dennis to explain it to us, and then we come back and and have a discussion about how we want to move forward with the the proposal.
So Dennis Yeah. My understanding from you was that we would discuss it tonight and it would be on the agenda for the fourteenth. But, yeah, Wayne did the work on this. I I fine tuned it. He's, he's operating, under general statutes eight dash one c, which allows a town to have an have a a provision that says that you can collect charges from applicants for permits, all kinds of permits, and zoning and zoning board of appeals, you know, as long as they're, you know, they're real. Like, sometimes a a complicated project will come in that requires, technical assistance, mostly, you know, from, sometimes soil scientists. Wayne can tell you better than I can because I I don't work with zoning in this town. Mark Brantz does I got a proposal from Mark Brantz that was from a, template that he wrote in 2004.
Excellent job. Very lengthy. I thought that Wayne's proposal was preferable. Wayne has researched the area towns, and, there's no question, by the way, that under that statute, I mentioned that we we have the authority to do this. The question is how and how far. Scott, you're on the zoning commission. You know, sometimes you get an application that requires technical support, and and and you don't get it from the, the applicant. Well, the applicants if we have to provide it, the applicant is gonna have to pay for it under this this rule. Good. It's a good rule.
And and just as a side note, Amkremay is also on planning his own. Not anymore. Not anymore. When did that happen? About three, four months ago. Wow. I'm sorry about that. I I missed that.
Anyways, every other town has this this fee structure. And I've been pushing for it for a long time, and now we really have a need for it because there's something coming up that could turn into we need some experts.
Frankly, it's time to get Because I don't handle zoning. Never have for the town. This this has this has come to me because it involves the board of selectmen. And, Wayne Kosacek did a wonderful job on it. He I think he's here at the meeting, and you might wanna ask him about what he did. But I you know, he told me that he he researched it very carefully. I thought his research was excellent. And I we we we were able to get it down to two pages. It's it's it's it's technical, but it is it may need some fine tuning between now and the fourteenth when when you finally act on it. And I my understanding was, Jeff, you're just gonna discuss it tonight and not vote on it until the fourteenth. But Well The one thing I know now that I didn't know when I talked to you before, Jeff, was that it doesn't have to go to town meeting, which is great. Sliceman has the authority to do this. Understood.
And, what I wanted to talk with the board about is we have two options. We have one, we can vote on it right now. And the other option is to move it to our meeting on the fourteenth. And the logic of moving it to the meeting on the fourteenth is to allow the public to have some opportunity to sit there and review it without just putting it right through. Even though common sense wise, business wise makes total sense. It was more from a standpoint of, giving the community at least an opportunity to read it, to make comments on it at our next meeting, and to at least bring up their issues to us and before we vote it. That was it.
It seems like it's not not ready for prime time is what Dennis is saying. Well, I don't know I don't know if it's ready for prime time, or not. I I, I haven't, I haven't worked in zoning for quite a while, and I only had a few days to look at it. Let's ask
Wayne. Let's ask Wayne. I know Wayne is by the way, by the way, Wayne is in Maine on vacation, and he was gracious enough to sit there and join. Oh, how nice.
All right. I appreciate I appreciate your words, Dennis. Yeah, I've I've worked on this for a little while now. Basically, my methodology was to look at can you guys hear me? Yes. Mhmm. Okay. My methodology was to look at enabling statute, which is pretty clear. It says the town can establish fees for for zoning applications and also require payment for third party services for complex applications. I researched surrounding towns, every town surrounding Andover, Columbia, Hebron, Coventry, Bolton. I'd look at Lebanon who recently did something. Every single one of those talents has has something. Now they all have a different way. They all have different words and a different way of getting to the end. But as Dennis said, the I believe the the charter is pretty clear that the board of selectmen can establish fees. Now going back to what Jeff said, I do think this ought to be put before put out there to to allow public comment. I I I I don't wanna work in a vacuum. I don't want the the board of of of or the the zoning commission to be working in a vacuum. And and Patrick can chime in if if if if he would like. I believe he's on the call.
And I I I think this is just a common sense thing. Every other town has it. I try to make the fee schedule pretty much in line in line with the the surrounding towns. You know? I'm not looking I I don't think we should be looking to make any money per se, if that's a way of describing it, but we need to cover our expenses. And this is it this is what I came up with. And the words in it are, frankly, I didn't invent any of those words. I I took what I saw from the various towns and put them into a package that I thought would work for Andover.
Alright, Wayne. Thank you. Patrick, I know you're probably under Roberto. Would you like to make a comment?
Yes, thank you, Jeff. And thank you, Wayne. That well said. Yeah, upcoming, the updated fee schedule is very important because currently if a complicated application comes into our town and we need to hire engineering services to double check the application, we're going to be left holding a big ticket bill because our fees are outdated, honestly. And number two, you know, we don't have a full time town engineer. We don't have a full time this, that, the other thing like other bigger towns and cities in the state. So this is a time for us to put this in writing and make it comprehensible like Wayne has done. And I know he's worked with our town planner and our planning zoning attorney. I'm confident that this fee structure is in line with all of our surrounding neighbors and makes sense really. I don't have anything else to add about that other than it made sense to me and I'm not a real estate person or an engineer, but we do need certified engineers to sign off on things for the best interest of the town. And that's the one of the biggest concerns. Alright. Patrick, thank you. No. Thank you. So
as we we had a discussion once Dennis drafted this, which was that, and Wayne stated that he agrees is, I do believe we should not vote on this tonight. What I want is I want it to be out there in the public. So we all have it. All five of us have it. Matt, you have it. Matt, what I would ask you to do is post this on the town's website, make it public, as public as possible. It will be in next month's packet, but make sure that it's available for the public to read so that when they are we have our next meeting on, I believe it's the fourteenth,
or I might be wrong. Might be thirteenth. And I'll print some copies out as well just so there's copies if somebody wants to stop by town hall during regular business hours and pick up a if some people that might not be technologically savvy, but most people are. But just my own two senses that this is not putting the town in any difficult this is the cost of doing business across all the towns, so it's not like us doing this is going to cause a developer to not come to Andover. This is the cost of business, and it's just something that's fair for not only the town, but for the developers as well, because that way they try to keep reel in their costs as well. So, it I I think it's a win win for the town. I think I agree that, you know, we could take it up on the fourteenth, give people the opportunity to look at it. Alright. So, if you make it available for the residents, I think that's all we really need to do tonight, you know, is just understand that this is coming up. It does have implications,
financial implications for developers and for people that are coming to try to do projects in town, but it's a way to make sure that the town incur costs related to applications that may or may not get completed. Alright. Any other discussion on this? Yep. Go ahead,
Did did you have a public hearing at PNC last month on this? I think I saw it on the agenda. Did anybody say anything about it?
No. It was it was just a brought up at a regular meeting to recommend this to the board of selectmen. Understand, this is this is just the board of selectmen establishing a fee schedule. Oh, yeah. That's that that that's in their wheelhouse. It's not in planning and zoning's wheelhouse. Yeah.
Okay. Anyone else? Okay. Let's move on to item five, which is public speak. So we're gonna go through Louise Goodwin.
I'm good. Thank you very much. Kimberly Persson. I'm all set. Thank you. Liz Lowcatch. I'm all set. Thank you.
Grace g. Grace, you're off mute, but if you wanna say anything here, you may have said something. Now you're muted. Now you're off mute. Okay. We're going to assume you said all good things about us. Wayne, before you leave, I know you're part of the public. Do you want to have say anything?
No. I'm I'm the only thing I would say, as a public, as a as a taxpayer, taxpayers have a right to know how every nickel is spent. That's all I have to say. Alright. Patrick Dougherty?
Yes. Thank you, Jeff. I just wanna clarify the record. Our public hearing last last week or two weeks ago almost was it was actually pertinent to the state's new zoning regulations that we have the new public act 25 dash one, which actually allows developers a lot more leeway in getting what they want in small towns without having to follow too many rules. So that is especially why that if we don't have a fee structure, then we can't even charge them for an application that may or may not pass, just for the record. Thank you. So it's something for the public to know that they should consider that also.
Okay. All right. I don't think I missed anyone. Did I miss anyone? You missed me. I do miss you. Yeah. Dennis O'Brien,
do you wanna say anything? No. No. I've I've I've already said enough. All right. Thank you. I'm
I'm happy to be, ending before 08:00 as you predicted. Did Sharon St. Rock exit the call? I didn't see her respond for she
left the call? Yeah. I mean, if I if I missed anyone, please raise your hand. Let me know. I'll let you speak. No? All right. I'm gonna make a motion to adjourn. Second. I second. Dave Gustanian is seconded. All those in favor? Aye. That is five nothing. I appreciate it. Everyone, thank you very much, and we'll be talking to you. Good night. Yep.
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