Meeting transcript
Board of Selectmen - Public Hearing & Regular Meeting
November 9, 2020 · Watch on YouTube · All meetings
Let's call this meeting to order. Eric, we're gonna start the public hearing agenda. Amanda, is that accurate? How do you want to call this public hearing to order?
So you simply call it to order and then begin discussion. All right.
Call to order a roll call. We'll just go. This is a public hearing to receive input from the public regarding hunting on town property. Any residents who would like to speak regarding this issue are more than welcome. Anyone who wants to talk, raise your hand or please chat Amanda and she will make sure that you get your opportunity. Yes,
Eric. I just wanna lead off real quick bring everybody up to speed where we are So so the first question that was raised at the last meeting is what is the town's liability for doing this? I checked in with the town's insurance carrier, which is Kerma, and they're basically neutral on the idea. They don't care whether we allow it or we don't. It would only become an issue if we had actual claims against the town or they had to pay out for some incident that happened. But presuming that doesn't happen, it will be neutral with the town's insurance. There are apparently at least four towns in the state that allow it. There's another series of towns that call
excess deer on a town wide basis. In other words, they pay people to harvest the deer to keep the population down. At this point my understanding from talking to the selectmen is that mostly what's for discussion right now would be bow hunting only and probably on two parcels of land one being the parcel the transfer station is on but excluding the landfill and the transfer station working area itself. And the second would be property off of Bunker Hill Road, which is about an 18 acre parcel and potentially the park where that connects to town property off of Parker Bridge Road. So far I've received a total of six residents that have sent me something indicating that they would be interested in hunting on town property if it was made available and that's pretty much all I've got so whatever else discussion you have is what it is.
Okay would anyone from the public like to speak? Jeff, should we go one by one? Sure. Go ahead, Amanda. Okay. Start with Diane because she generously raised her hand.
Go ahead, Diane. Okay, thank you. One of the things you didn't say, Eric, and I just want to make sure I understand. This would be for Andover residents only?
That's not up to me. That's up to the board of selectmen. It sounds like that's what the board was interested in is opening it up only to Andover residents. Andover residents only.
Okay. Fine. Basically, am not a hunter. Know, shooting Bambi's is not something I do. But I do, you know, taking me out of the equation, what's good for the town? I think it is a legal activity. I like the two places that you have designated as the only spots to do it. I wouldn't want to see bow hunting at the gazebo. So those two areas are good. I'm sure that the season is is a fairly short season. It's usually before guns are allowed and maybe shortly thereafter. But it's a fairly short season. There's still no hunting on Sunday, which I think is a really good idea. I don't like hunting on Sunday. I think the wood should be available for people who don't hunt to enjoy, whether it's bird watching or mushroom picking or whatever they're doing out there. But again, I assume all the laws of the DEP would be enforced. So being a legal entity on those two properties to Andover residents only, I think is a good thing. Okay thank you Diane. Thanks Diane. Okay next up we have Bella and Lorraine.
Hi everybody. I don't have any issue with the the bow hunting, I wasn't sure if it was going to be drybow hand bow but I think bow hunting as mentioned is fine to me. What is the reason range? Please repeat that.
Brain, could you repeat that? We couldn't really hear you. Thank you. I said, what is the range of the season? What is it after?
Actually, in the last couple years, bow hunting has been from around September 15, the middle of September, all the way through all the other seasons to the end of the year. They opened it up through the unseasoned and the muzzleloader season so that the bow hunters could hunt throughout all those seasons. Bow hunters that are bow hunters really, you know, a lot of them just want to hunt with a bow. They don't want to hunt with a gun. And so the state said that it was alright for you just to continue to hunt with a bow throughout this other season.
And Scott, can you confirm, I know Diane said something about Sunday hunting. I was under the impression that there is hunt didn't they pass something so you can hunt on Sundays now?
Right. There is there is hunting now, bow hunting only on private land on Sundays. That that's a new law that came into effect about, I don't three or four years ago, I think. But if there was a lot of blowback about that hunting on town owned property, that could be something that, you know, we would not be not open to suggesting.
Scott just so I understand you're saying the season is September 15 through what's the end date? The end of the year. What's through December 31? Okay.
Scott but you I I think as you said, that's a private land only. Private land on Private land only. Correct. So wouldn't apply here because it's not private land technically. It's public land, so it would still be restricted on Sundays. Yeah. Okay.
I I think there's also it's it's worth noting that, you know, for all of us that have to deal with, unfortunately, ticks and Lyme, every deer that we cull is about a thousand ticks over the course of its lifetime. So, you know, given that we have other people wanting to enjoy these properties, it doesn't, it does certainly makes it a little safer for them in the long run as well. It's amazing how prolific it becomes. Next up we have Jerry Crum.
I was very interested when I heard Diane speak. I'm not a hunter either. It seems like it's limited to just two town properties and I'm not sure the size of them. I empathize with Jeff Murray who lives across the street from me and has a narrow strip of town property behind him. And I was wondering what would happen if some hunter shoots a deer, the deer runs onto private property, then what happens? Does that become a trespassing issue? How big is the town properties that there's two of them that I heard listed? How big are they and are they big enough? And will they be required to get a hunting permit to do that? The town is you said not showing any liability through the insurance. They're not holding us liable, but things And then what? So I think you need to think it out pretty thoroughly. And you need to not only think it out but you need to really define what you're allowing and what you're not allowing. And I think that that that's something that I mean, I don't like all the deer in my backyard either. And I'll tell you every night they come and the buffet is open and they eat and they eat and they eat everything. And it's it's a battle because you spend a lot of time and money in planting plants and they come and clean you out. So I'm not against getting rid of some of them. However, you may do that, but I mean, you just gotta make sure that you define the rules and that you monitor it that people are playing by the rules. Thank
you, Jerry, for that all those comments. And the the parcel at the transport station is around 80 acres and there's very few adjacent landowners. They're pretty isolated spots. The on Parker Bridge is even more isolated and I think it's about 30 acres and it's surrounded by private property all around it that's, you know, vacant.
To answer your question, Jared, far as if someone shoots a deer, you know, with an arrow and has to track it, they do a couple different things by state. They have let DEP know that they're tracking if it goes off the one that they're on. And they are responsible to contact the landowner where they believe it went to and get permission to go and get it. And if they're unable to, they're supposed to contact the EEP and let the EEP know they shot a deer, it's going on a private property, and they were not there were denied access. So, there is a procedure in place that the state has, and we would ask hunters to follow that. Beyond that though, we also are looking to have them register with the town so that we know who they are, we know what vehicle they're driving.
And so if somebody says, hey, there's somebody messing around down there, we can look at the list and say, no. It's not someone that's legal. They don't have a permit from the town. They haven't registered and address that.
Because I hope Another thing, Jerry. This is in a preliminary stages right now. We're this isn't gonna happen this year. We have a lot of work, namely a lot of the things you've been speaking about right now.
I thank you for answering all the questions I had. It seems as though it's being a lot of thought being put into it before it's being enacted. And I think that's really important. Thank you for doing that. Right. We're gonna wait on
this to weed out all the questions and we're gonna go through the other towns, what they have for regulations and the other towns and just look at, oh, look the whole thing over clearly. Thank you.
Thank you, Jerry. Next, Mike Zata. Yeah. Chris Zata, is that you? No, it's Mike. I'm here too. Okay, you're echoing just a bit. So
you gotta silence one phone or the other. Yeah, perfect.
So Can you hear us okay? Mike, you're on mute. You're muted on both your computer and phone.
Okay. Am I unmuted now? There you are. Okay. There we go. Sorry. Sorry. Turn it down. Do
you want me to speak on this now? Sure. Well, I've been a hunter for about thirty five years. I know all like everything you're talking about, I know just about down to the wire. Know all of the procedures of hunting. The one thing I wanted to say is we have a lot of town property near me. And my biggest concern is I've had Lyme disease from it. My daughters have had Lyme disease from it. I've lost a dog to Lyme disease. It's all from these deer ticks, and I know other areas where I've talked to doctors and nurses who hunt. And they say you get rid of the deer you trim the population down, you get rid of some of that Lyme disease. Like like you said, I have deer in my backyard all the time. They eat everything. I love them. I hunt them all the time. I think that if we use hunters to do this, they will take the deer. We will get we will get meat from the deer, people that who who enjoy hunting. You I don't track deer very far. When you shoot them with a bow, they don't go very far at all. When they do, you can go and knock on a door and say, can I come to your property and pick up my deer? Most people, especially in Andover, say, yes, please come get it. They don't wanna see the dead animal. They don't wanna see
anybody not get their animal. So as far as all of the if anybody has a question on anything legal, illegal about hunting and stuff like that, I can answer questions. I can help out. But like you said, there's a lot of deer on those properties. Thanks, Mike. Yep. Thank you. Okay. Elaine Bacard?
No. I'm I'm okay with it. I agree. The deer are kind of a menace around here. So as long as it's bow hunting, that's great. Nope, just figure out the rules and regulations and stuff and make sure that the people who are out there doing it know what the rules are, and that should be good. Thank you, Elaine. Thank you.
Donna, I know you're on for the next agenda item during the regular meeting, but if you'd like to speak on it, please feel free.
Comments on it but it is definitely interesting subject matter to listen to thank you thanks Donna okay Joanne
you hear me? Yes. So I took the time, you know, mainly because of yesterday I listened to the last Board of Selectmen meeting about this subject matter. And then I took and sent an email to all of them today to the Board of Selectmen and the town manager, basically because of the way the meeting went. I'm a little happier hearing the way things are being presented today. You know, I was behind the times with catching up with the meeting. And then I felt like it was kind of getting rushed through. A couple members were really trying to rush it through and I get it. I have family members that are hunters. They're very skilled. They do things like this, But I was really worried that we, so I understand hunting. I'm not opposed to it. It's nothing that I do or whatever do, but, but I just felt like we were the way it was being presented was it was gonna be all town properties. It was going to be now and I felt like it was getting rushed through for this year which I know does the hunt ends December 31. I felt like why are we rushing this so much? There are a couple things that were brought up tonight that were interesting though that we all should keep in mind. Eric himself said there's only four towns in Connecticut presently that allow this. Well that I know of.
Okay, no, I did a little research myself too and couldn't find a lot. So there's a reason for that. Also, I feel like there's already a lot of property in town, know, with the state forest and everything where hunters can go. And again, having, so I was, that's why I really felt like I wanted to speak. And then people that are hunters, they have friends and they gain permission from private land, you know, and get their spaces to go that way. Again, I'm more I'm a little more pleased with the way the conversation's going tonight as far as there's only going to be two big parcels that are allowed, you know. And then my other thought is just it's a lot for the town to manage. You know you guys have so much going on you have new people coming in I don't want to sidetrack because this is about the hunting but I'm just afraid and again it doesn't seem like it's going to be this year so maybe it's going to be thought out. Jeff Murray had brought up the point of just like can we talk about it? Can we have people come in? So I'm hoping besides me that took the time to do this and like the other people that have spoken that the six people that you know were interested are here tonight because I want to see them. I want to hear from them. I want to see that they took the time to attend the board of selectmen meeting and present their case and why they want to. Like I said in my family my brothers and and different people in my family have their connections and they they have places to go. So
I just want to make sure. Yeah, I hope that the liability thing isn't an issue for the town because like Mr. Cremay said, they can say this and that and then some catastrophic thing happens on town land and I don't if know there's suits or things like that. Again I'm bringing up the negative parts and I just wanted the process to be slowed down well thought out and rules and regulations and things like that so that it's safe because I do live kind of near some of this land and as the hunter presented and different people have said that whole tracking thing I don't think that every animal unfortunately I wish they would dies right away and then could find their way on someone's property.
And that's for someone to see. I would want to see that, but thank you. Thank you, Joanne. So
Peter Casper, I know you're also on to help out with our agenda for the regular meeting, but if you have thoughts, please feel free. No, thank you, though I appreciate the offer. Okay who is Talaga? Would you like to participate? Talaga?
Was that Mike Talaga or Jess? No, it's me. I think I got unmuted. Can you hear me? Yes. Go ahead, Mike. Okay, well, I just had a quick question. I mean, was it just gonna be open to Andover residents? Correct.
Yes. Okay. And then just for the people concerned with the liability, once the town signs the permit, all liability is released. Just in case anybody didn't know that. Great. Thank you, That was it. Thank you. Louise? Hi. I have no comment. Thanks.
Thank you. Mike Zetta, I believe that is your phone number, the 208-2345? No, that's not my number. Okay. Would the person with 208-2345 like to speak?
You're still muted. You have to unmute yourself if you're calling in from a phone.
Mike Zada, is the other phone number yours? It's 604-1374? No, that's not us.
Okay. So would the person with the 604-1374 like to speak? You are muted. If you would like to speak, you have to unmute yourself. Amanda, can you maybe unmute them? They're trying, but it won't let me.
Sometimes on the phone part it's hard to find it.
And you missed the one whose screen name is owner.
Well, maybe if they're muted, they could chat Amanda and let her know that they're having problems with that and we can come back to either one of them.
Yeah. Think if if they're calling in, they they might not have the chat feature, but it looks like they're calling in from a a line.
So while we're here, do any of the select people want to speak to this issue again?
Anyone else? I don't think tonight anybody brought up that we're going to be following the DEEP's hunting regulations. Okay. I don't know of anything else.
To move this along, I don't know if there's anything else that we're required to do, Eric, to end the public hearing?
No. If you choose to do that, you may simply if there are no more comments, you may simply just close
and adjourn the public hearing and then reopen the regular meeting. All right. Do any of you other selectmen want to add anything before we close this? Yeah, excuse me Jeff. Somebody just
chatted. The person that has owner, they put something in the chat here. It looks like they're unmuted.
So it looks like to unmute Paula, it's star six on a phone.
Okay. So whoever put in the chat, you you're you're labeled as owner if you can type in the chat your comment or oh somebody just unmuted here we go okay.
Hi this is Leanne Hutchinson excuse me I just did the star six can you hear me? Great. That works. When you go to mute back, it's the same thing. It's star six to go back, Leanne. Okay. Thanks. Can I ask a couple questions? Absolutely. Pardon?
Yes. Go ahead. Okay. You sound a little far away. I want to just clarify what's been mentioned a couple of times about how many towns in Connecticut do this right now. The number we're we're we're going with is four.
Okay. And was there any was there any qualification to that, or is it exactly what we're talking about tonight, is bow hunting?
So there are also 15 towns in Western Connecticut that cull deer specifically. And because they cull deer on town property, they cannot also have it hunted. So they kinda have to pick one or the other. And when they're calling, they actually pay a service to come in and do it. So there are a lot of towns that actually do deer removal that have property big enough to do it. Most of them will use some type of service where they're paying someone to actually have it taken out there. Unfortunately, for for us, that that cost funds that we don't have. And, you know, this is a a little bit safer way to do it for us than we're not asking somebody to go with a high powered rifle. It's it's a bow. You know? So
Okay. Well, I I know I mean, I eat meat and everything. I think the bow hunting is is disgusting. But, my other question is it's not funny, but who's going to monitor this? I know I appreciate what's been said about permits and liability and everything, but who's gonna keep people from bringing guests, for example, or, you know, something like that?
I mean, I'm assuming that that's not supposed to be allowed. That's no. That wouldn't be allowed, Leanne. It's it's just the people that are registered.
Well, Leanne, I mean, to be quite candid with you, you know, we're certainly not going to have someone standing there checking people in and out. But if someone is reported to be there and they're not supposed to be and the DEP takes this stuff really seriously, They're going to lose their right to hunt in the state of Connecticut over this type of thing. Who actually is hunting legally is not going to do something stupid. It's you know, you're more likely to have issues when you don't allow hunting because then people go hunt illegally. We already know that some of this is already happening down there. We know people are sneaking on the property and it's hard to catch them. And one of the advantages actually of having legal hunting is the legal hunters will tell us, hey, there's somebody down there that's not I don't think they're from Andover. I took down the slices blade or what have you. So they'll actually, in a way, help us police the property that we currently don't have any policing happening on. So there is a plus side to this as well from that point of view.
Okay. And speaking of the policing, is it if there's a violation violation or somebody to, you know, come out as soon as possible and and try to catch somebody who they think might be an issue, is it the the EEP who comes out or the state police? It is the DEP general. Okay. Thank you. Thanks, Leanne.
Hey, can I ask a question? I'm not a hunter either, but what's the kill range of a bow and arrow?
Depends how good you are and whether you're running or not.
No, but I'm saying how far does an arrow go? It doesn't go a half a mile or something like that, right? No. Okay, that's what I'm saying. So you gotta be pretty close-up to the animal before you shoot. Right, exactly. Okay, so on this you're probably not gonna kill somebody. According
to DEP, Mike, the average kill shot that's reported is under 25 yards. Okay, all right. Thank you. Hey, can I say something? I
have another question. Mike, you might be the person to answer this. When we're talking bow hunting, I'm thinking of the kind of bow that Tonto used. We also talking things like crossbows, which are much more powerful? Crossbows are legal in Connecticut. That that's I was actually gonna say something. Right. If
you don't mind, crossbows are legal in Connecticut. They do have a longer range. And if you do this hunt on the town property, the town would give us a permit to the hunter. You'd have to carry that permit and show that permit to any DEP officer, any state police officer that asks, even another hunter, you have to show it to them. And like they said, when we hunt our private land, we definitely police it ourselves very, very, like, stringently. We do not want poachers on. And like you said, I know that there's people up there hunting now. If it was me, I would limit it to no crossbows because they do travel a 100 plus yards, and a regular bow would probably only go maybe 40. Thank you, Mike. Anyone else?
Amanda, you're muted. We would like to call on the phone number 20823451 more time just to double check. You will have to press 6 to unmute yourself.
Hello? There you go. There you are. Hi. This is this is Dennis O'Brien, the town attorney. Dennis. Yes.
Do you have any comments on this issue? We're in our, public No. No. I I I have no comment. I'm not I'm not a hunter and grew up in the city, and I don't Okay. I'm learning a lot from listening to you.
You got it. Alright. Anyone else? Any of the other selectmen?
You know, the comment was made about not using a crossbow, and I'll say I'd like to leave it open to crossbow hunters only because that's one of the categories actually that is useful for you know able-bodied hunters you know, that have may have a disability. I my neighbor actually hunts on my property and has a disability, and they use crossbow because of it. So, you know, a crossbow kill rate is actually, you know, inside of generally 60 yards. Either a bow or crossbow could go longer than that, but, you know, most people again are gonna try for something, you know, inside of inside of 30, you know, or 40 at the most. So and I'd like to you know if we're going to do bow I'd like to at least you know give a chance for you know residents that may have disability to be able to use a crossbow.
It's Julian here one more time. And Hutchinson brought up some things that were kind of troubling to me as well. I just didn't know some of it of what bothered me was if people got wind that we were doing this, I was afraid, you know, hunters were going to hear about it since there aren't too many parcels like this around or too many towns that are doing it. And then people sneaking in. I just I can't see us keeping track of all of that. Again, I know like you said the hunters will report on other hunters or the DP. I really don't think they're in Andover that much truthfully but that's my opinion and I think that's what I was really worried about regulating this and this somehow getting out of hand. Know maybe I'm off on that but that was a worry.
Well I think fairly the DP actually is in Andover a little bit because we do have some people that are already hunting this land illegally that we've been trying to catch. So there's been a couple of tree stands down there that have had to, you know, be taken down. So we know we have an issue with trying to catch people. And unfortunately, it's it's a little harder than it it sounds, especially if you're not out there with a some regularity. So, you know.
How many DEP officers are there in the Eastern Part Of Connecticut? Anybody know?
No. But I know they have a I know they have a rotation for this area of of four people on call for the weekend. I can tell you that. That would cover, you know, Tallinn Tallinn County.
Okay. Is there anything anyone else who'd like to add anything to the topic? Jeff Murray, we haven't heard from you. I think as I
walked the Parker Bridge, Parker Hill property with Scott yesterday, and I think it's a suitable location. It's far enough away from adjoining properties and residences where it should have a minimal impact, just like the transfer station property is. And the whole thing is we have property with trails, we have property for other uses. And if this property is being unused and we can benefit some hunters in town and maybe put a dent in the Lyme disease. I'm open to it. And judging by the comments. I think we do have a year to work on. So if it's favorable, I think we should probably move ahead with investigating and coming up with a policy and rules to regulate it. Well said.
Okay. Eric, I'm assuming that you are good with public hearing and we can close this now? Hope No, Gary, go ahead. You got to come off mute.
I would like to thank the Board of Selectmen for holding this public hearing to listen to the residents of the town. I think that is so important and you've done a stellar job. Thank you for the public hearing. Thank you for letting people in the town speak about it, share their feelings. And I think this worked really, really well. Thank you very much to the Board of Selectmen. You're welcome, Jerry.
Thank you. Thanks for coming on, Jerry. Showing up tonight. Thank you to everyone for coming out and participating. All right, so I'm going to call this section of our meeting well, don't know if I need to make a motion during this or someone needs to make a motion, but we're to adjourn the public hearing. We're now going to move to our regular meeting. Call to order, pledge of allegiance. We'll all do the pledge of allegiance. Pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of To
the republic, which stands, nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Public speak. Anyone like to participate in public speak? You can all raise your hands. Ready? No? Okay.
Can I speak on one thing Joanne Heber really quick really quick? My other issue that I missed unfortunately in all the meetings that I had been attending was just your forestry issue that you guys are all discussing and I read the back minutes of that. I just hope, I also sent another quick email to you guys today that the whole reason we moved to this town was the lovely forest, woodsy feel, the nature, everything. We love our house that's surrounded by all of that. So I know you wanna make some money for the town and I get that and be, what's the word? I know you'll do a good job with that. I just really love where we live and we love the force and all that. So I wanted to be responsible
way to go about it. Although I know the plans won't come about till way later in the meeting. So I'll listen to whatever's coming forward with that. Thank you.
All right. Thank you very much. Anyone else? Okay. Everybody has thirty seconds if they'd like to speak to chat Amanda and let her know. Hearing no further comment, we're going to move on to additions and deletions to the agenda. Anyone from the Board of Selectmen have any items they want to add to the agenda? Are we deleting the cool thing?
So you're gonna make a motion to delete that one, Scott? I motion to delete item 9B, cool program.
Any seconds? I'll second. Right. What we'll vote on that? All those in favor? We lose Adrian? No, there he is. Anybody want to delete anything? Anything other than that? Let's move on. We're going go to Board and Commission presentations, The Combined Financial Department Committee. Who's doing that presentation?
I can, if you would like. We have selected and made an offer to the assistance finance assistant finance officer who has accepted and that portion is moving forward there haven't been any real big updates software between the last meeting and this one.
Okay. Anyone else from the board that wants to add to that? Okay. Economic Development Commission. Hi. Hi, Elaine. How are you? Good.
As chairman of the EDC, we have decided to go ahead and pick the brains of Hebron. And their Hebron is open for business task force and what they've been doing. So our next EDC meeting is actually this Thursday and we're going to start discussing who's going be doing what. I was able to put out on the Andover Economic Development Commission Facebook something for Hearst Farm and a few weeks ago I did Andover Pizza, but we have a lot of different businesses that we want to cover and that we want to go ahead and just, and in what I put on and Amanda and Catherine McAuley Lewis, we're the only three I think that can actually put things on a post. Oh, who else can post Amanda?
Oh, I was just going to say I can't yet, but it's you. Oh, you can. Okay, so it's just Catherine McAuley Lewis and me. Okay. So we have to look into that to try to figure out if we can go ahead and get some other people to be able to post their own businesses, but we'll, you know, we'll, we'll work that out. Because you know, there's just so much that people can do. But anyway, we have with us on two people from I believe two people Peter and who else is here for the Hebron Open for Business Task Force. And so we were hoping that they could go ahead and speak to what what they're doing and how they got to the point that they're at.
Hi, this is Peter Casper. Sorry, I'm guessing wrong on which camera is working. There we go. Peter Casper from Hebron's Board of Selectmen. I'm also the chair of Hebron's Open for Business Task Force. And Donna Lanza from the town of Hebron is also on the task force and with us as well. And so just as a quick summary, we worked back in the spring with the EDC and the town and as a Board of Selectmen asked ourselves the question, we doing everything we can possibly do to help our businesses as they transition through COVID? And so in conjunction with the town of EDC, we came up with this idea for Hebron's Open For Business Task Force, which is dedicated to helping our businesses transition through COVID. So
we went out and formed a small task force and then went about to create a series of events to determine, figure out how we can better assist our businesses. And so we had a working spreadsheet done. Don't know if or Elaine, you may have shared that. I'm not sure. Don't know if Donna, you can pull that up and share your screen. Is that possible? I don't know Amanda, are you controlling this? Can you give Donna the ability to present? I'm putting pressure on Donna now. Go ahead, Donna. All right. Okay.
So what this spreadsheet out is we meet once a week and we sort of track our progress in a series of events from the formation of the task force. And as she pulls that up, we launched, excuse me, a so you see on the left side in column A formation of the task force back in the middle of June and then setting up a structure. We worked with the Parks and Rec Planning and Zoning, a series of departments to make sure we're working in concert. Because the whole thing here is how can we complement the efforts that are already ongoing? Our biggest thing is trying to how do we improve our connection with our town communities, driving more people into the businesses, making them feel safe, providing information, and again, supporting our businesses with the messaging that's required to make people want to come back to their businesses, potentially change buying behaviors. Because even small businesses, everyone's flocking to the internet, so what can we do? And so we went about and created a website
that was embedded into the Hebron Town website that's specifically supporting the businesses. Then I guess the other thing too that it was important, we created a Facebook page dedicated just to businesses and we have about 500 members now, just a little under 500. I keep saying 500 because I'm in sales and Donna keeps telling me just under 500, but we have about 500 there. The whole mission continues to be promoting the businesses, businesses of the week. We have a series of initiatives. Donna, if you're able to scroll down a little bit, just highlight a couple and I don't want to take up too much of your time. Just wanted to introduce and appreciate Elaine asking us here to introduce what we're doing and talk a little bit about it and the most important things we view we're in one community. I think of Andover, Hebron, Marlborough, we're one community with a few small towns together. Think of my children going to Ram and so what can we do to help if anything we're happy to do that. And so we launched a shops local program. So we put a little money into buying some gift cards from businesses. We promote them on our website. We have a series of materials that do that. Excuse me, we highlight businesses of the week,
give them opportunities to post on Facebook and do a myriad of things. We have to ramp kids in the DECA program that are about to launch an Instagram and snap chat initiative to support this because we really weren't finding we were getting a good push from that the younger demographic and primarily because the chair of the Hebron Open for Business Task Force has never been on Instagram or Snapchat so I clearly couldn't lead that discussion. And so we've brought the DECA program in with the support of the school. So we're very excited about that. That's about to go live. And we have a new program. I only talked about one of the restaurants in Andover. And we're about to launch a Taste of Hebron initiative which we're going to actually hold at RAM and promote our businesses as they transition to restaurants. Many that have the outdoor facilities are going to lose those obviously because of the weather. And so how do we help them? We're going to have some, a few events to basically have takeout locally at Ram and create something
called the Taste of Hebron as an example. And so we have a myriad of sort of initiatives. We've got a broad task force in terms of we have a couple of business owners. We have someone from the board of selectmen, me and Donna from the town and we have someone from So, and also from representing our school boards as well. So trying to get a diverse perspective. So that's sort of it in a nutshell. I hope I didn't go through that too quickly, but we just wanted to introduce that and offer our support or just be a sounding board or anything that you see that you like that we can help with, we're happy to do that again viewing ourselves as one community battling to help some of these businesses that it's hard to open a business now, almost impossible and our fear and I'm sure it is for you too, is if some of these businesses shut their doors, they're not going to reopen. And maybe someone doesn't take their place. And our community is the business community that we've reached out to so many times over the years, it's our turn to reach back out and see what we can do to help. I'll close with this because this isn't necessarily going to cause a business to stay open. But a comment that I got from one of our business owners is it was really exciting to know that the community cared
and understood what they were going through and reached back out. So she told me it wasn't the money, it was the fact that you actually were doing something to try to help that really was most encouraging because as you can imagine, if any of you are a small business owner, a lot of uncertainty, especially as we roll back and now we go into the colder months. And so we're just trying to do everything we can to as a community to help our businesses. And this is just one small effort and it clearly isn't gonna change necessarily the outcome, but it's at least our effort to do something something about it. That's what I have. Again, if there's questions or
again, if I've gone through something too quickly, please let me know. But I know you have a full agenda, so I just wanted to highlight that. And thank you to Elaine for allowing us the opportunity to present this. Thank you very much.
So as you can see, they've done an amazing effort and they've involved everyone in it, including RAM and the DECA program, which my kids were in back when they were in RAM. So it's really a community involvement thing. So it's not going to be just stuck with the EDC will be going ahead and tapping into other people to go ahead and help out. But these guys are great and sharing their information and how they've gone ahead and done this. And so we will definitely continue to pick their brains. Thanks. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, Donna. Thank you, Peter. We really appreciate Thank
you. Good night. Thank you both. It's like a great program. You. Good night. Okay Elaine anything else that you want to add?
No no that's it. Mean I you know sometimes I just kind of think oh God, there's just no way we can do this. But then, you know, and then it's like, no, we can't, you know, so it's just a matter of tapping into talent that we have in town, and making sure that our businesses know that we do care. We want to try to help them out in any way that we can. And that's something that we don't normally do. So, and it is because of COVID-nineteen, it's because we have extenuating circumstances that all of this started, but I'd like to continue on with it to let our businesses know that we care.
And I know that something the EDC is going to work on this Thursday was a survey that they're working to put out to all the local businesses. So I'm going to create a list on Civic, our Civic platform through our website, so we can send out an email to all the local businesses and create our little network to see how we can support them and get feedback, and they can send photos and information on what's going on with their business, which I think will be really helpful. All right, thank you very much. Thanks, Ana. Thank you very much, Elaine. Yep.
So the next one was the Traffic Safety Committee. And Eric I saw that we got data back from the speed sign.
Yes so I Joe was supposed to be on the call tonight but I don't know exactly where he is. There are like two things I would like to discuss relative to this. The first is we got the first data off of the speed sign. And we're still struggling with a little bit getting, you know, clean data and aiming the thing exactly in the right direction. Basically, the cars coming at the sign where it was at the base of the hill on Lake Road weren't in frame long enough to meet the cutoff, so we didn't get that data. The only data we got for the cars were the cars going up the hill and away from the sign. So basically the speed limit there is 25. 91% of the vehicles were traveling over the speed limit. The average speed was 36. 15% of the vehicles were traveling more than 40 miles an hour. This is up the hill. 1% of the vehicle were traveling in excess of 55 miles an hour and the fastest vehicle clocked by the speed sign was doing 81 miles an hour. Up the hill.
So, you know, obviously residents have been complaining for some time about speed in the lake area as there are in many areas of town over time, we'll get better data for you. But that's a snapshot of what's happening. So basically, over a five, you know, five day period, at least four vehicles a day are going through there, going at highway speeds going up that hill. So you know. So that's data. We moved the sign around to the other side of the lake. We're trying to collect data from that side too. So hopefully we'll have something for you reasonably quickly about speeds on that portion and it's our intention to look at a series of different places in town.
The other thing the safety committee asked me to bring forward was the consideration for a three way stop at the intersection of Lake Street and Island Street. Happy to see Bill and Lorraine on the call since they live pretty much at that intersection. If we're going to do that this year, now is the time because we're about to do the road painting and we would include that stop bar in the painting now and then put up the stop signs. Board of Selectmen is technically the traffic safety authority in the town of Andover, so that is a Board of Selectmen decision if you want to do that. You can't change speed limits, but you can change signage. So I know Joe said he spoke to all the neighbors around there, everybody is agreeable. One of the families had some concerns, but it sounds like that that's been delayed. So that's where we're at with that. Just kind of depends on what you wanted to do, and I left you a motion to that effect if you wanted to,
go forward with that, or I can answer any other questions you have related to it.
So Eric, putting up the three stop signs in that location, does it have any negative ramifications to do it?
So in my mind the negative ramification is, I mean people are blowing through the existing, know, speed or your stop sign at the intersection of Lake just down the road from there. So are people actually going to stop at it? A certain fraction are going to blow through it. I mean, you know, for a while there the trooper was whacking people for running the red light, and his threshold was basically he wasn't trying to get people that were doing like a rolling stop and going through there slowly, he was getting people that were making no attempt to slow down and so we're blowing through the stop sign at you know 30 or 40 miles an hour. So there's going to be some, there's no question. The real question that they wanted to pursue with that particular intersection is that coming I guess it would be heading west, there's very poor visibility at the intersection there. And the goal of the stop is not necessarily slow down traffic, but because there are some real sight line issues coming there from one direction. So that's really the goal of it. Will people stop? You know, they will if they get enough tickets. So that's my take on it. I've discussed this with the resident state trooper, you know, we've gone over the pluses and minuses. You know, he's fairly neutral on it, know, drove it both ways and his crews are looking at sight lines
you know and he agrees from one direction there is definitely a sight line issue there. He's kind of neutral as to whether it's a good idea or not. We both kind of concluded that we might try it and run it that way for six months or a year and see whether it helps and if it doesn't take it back out and if it does leave it in. That's my take on it.
What did this what did the safety committee come up with it is that one of their recommendations? That was one of the things they recommended yes. How many other recommendations did they have?
A lot. I don't know, probably 15 or 20 total.
So a fair number. But that was the was the most egregious, problem
over there? No, that's not the most egregious, but that's the easiest to address because that is painting two stop bars and putting up two stop signs. So that's the the least invasive thing you can do of all the proposals and suggestions other than what you agreed to at the last meeting was putting in the crosswalk between Lakeside Drive basically from Island Street across Lakeside Drive but that's going to happen when we paint also. So the reason why I'm suggesting this now is it because obviously the more ideal time to do it would be right before you get an increase in pedestrian traffic which is in the summer but because we're painting the roads now if we're going to do it this is the time to do it.
I motion that a new freeway stop sign. I got one more question. Yeah.
Eric, I think you said that one resident had a concern but then they their answer or their concern was dismissed or what was that? So what the resident had a concern that
nobody was gonna be, people were gonna be blowing through it because they'd never had a stop sign before. So her point was a good one and that we're gonna have to do some approach notification and put up a sign that says stop ahead, and put it out there for residents to know, which is a perfectly valid point and we would do that as part of this if we're gonna do it.
Okay. Scott, you were going to make motion. Right. Ready? Yeah.
I motion that a new three way stop sign be installed at the intersection of Lake Road and Island Street. I'll second.
I'll second it. Further discussion. You know, the traffic committee had discussed various items related to that location. I really don't think it's a bad idea to try it, especially if the neighbors closest to that area are in favor of it. I do believe it's a good idea, and if we do have problems, we can always make a removal of those stop signs if there are problems.
Well, I'd like to make a comment, Jeff. It sounds like Eric had moved the sign to the other side of Lake Road in neighborhood. And I think we should maybe take a look at that data too before we really make a decision on stop signs because maybe something's needed on that side as well. I wouldn't be in favor of stopping stop sign until we get data.
Well, since you're going to the other side of the lake, there's no area on the other side of the lake where you're going to have the opportunity to put a stop sign. There's already a four way stop at the one intersection on Lake And West, and there's a three way stop on Lake Ardoni. So I think, Jeff, what that location is, is really more of summer traffic, and I think what the traffic committee was after was there's so much foot traffic there during the summer because that's the most used right away around the lake that they were just looking for alternatives to sit there and try to slow traffic down.
As somebody that's running around the lake a lot of time, traffic seems to be on that one section of where your house happens to be is where I notice all the speed seems to happen. So I would like to look into a little bit more before we kind of jump the gun and throw stop signs up. That's my opinion.
Okay, understood. Anyone else? Adrian, would you like to talk to us?
No actually I don't have a specific opinion on this. You know I don't know the traffic on Lake Road well enough. Go through there periodically but I'm just not over there enough so. Okay. Anybody else? Paul? Scott?
I think that that they you guys made the traffic safety committee and this is the least we could do to I guess start something to get get it safer over there for the pedestrians.
Yeah I mean if this is something that they want it's something we can do why not you know. Right yeah. Mean they know
their neighborhood best. I'm like Adrian I'm going on their lead.
The only easier item on the traffic committee's list of items was the mural painting along the road at Lincoln Island. So that was one of the discussion points that we did have because people slow down when they see things painted on the road. This one to me is even easier. So
I mean, Jeff, is there is there do you see any downside going to this?
No. Just know, like to I mean, I mean, every time the trooper goes down down to tickets, it seems like Eric seems to get a flurry of calls. I don't if this is going to create more of an issue. I don't know, maybe just put a sign up in advance saying that there's going to be a new stop sign in effect, the effect of a certain date. It's just it's hard to try to police something. Sign up and saying stop ahead because people have been driving that for years. And it's just people are creatures of habit and it's going be hard for them to get used to a new sign there, especially long if it could do or like a railway gate where they got to stop for certain amount of time that open. I thought that it's just you used to certain things you know and it's it's hard to retrain your brain sometimes.
I agree with that because there was a new stop sign put in, know, the way I used to drive to work right here in Andover, you know, at the corner of basically where Long Hill comes in and it took me like a year before I consistently I can't tell you how many times I blew through that stop sign not because I intended to but simply because it was not in my head that that was a stop sign because I've driven there for thirty years and there was no stop sign. So I get it and you're right I think there's going to have to be a grace period we're going to have to give people some warning but in a year or two you know the people that are running that are the people that have decided they're going to run it anyway.
So this is good for all of our brains as we get older we need change you know keeps us from getting Alzheimer's and stuff. Right. This is to help Jeff out. Absolutely and since I'm old I'm old so
oh yeah. Jeff do you mind Bill and Lorraine chiming in even though it's not public speak? Bill and Lorraine are more than welcome to join us. I see favoritism.
For the record, they are, basically right on that corner, so they are one of the properties that would be directly affected. We would like to hear from them.
Okay. Alright. Thank you. I wasn't realizing that I couldn't speak as public, so I really appreciate it. I fully support a stop sign, one because even though we're not on the corner of Lake And Island, we're on Lakeside, the traffic there is ridiculously fast and children and dogs and older people are always walking in that area and sure people will have a period of adjustment getting used to the stop sign but they will adjust you know just because they haven't seen it in the past doesn't mean they can't learn and it will slow down people and that's all I have to say. I And support
what I'd like to add is, it kind of ties into what Eric was saying is that it's probably to our advantage to put it in now because there's less people walking around. People will get used to it by the summertime. If you're going to do it, there's some lead time before there's more people out and about. Right. Thank you. Thank
you. Thank you very much. Very nice to meet you. Any further discussion on this issue? All right, let's vote. All those in favor? Putting three stop signs up, aye. All those opposed? Jeff, are you abstain? Jeff you're muted. I guess he voted yes. He's muted. I don't think he realizes that.
I'm going to abstain because I don't I don't have enough information. All right no problem.
All right. Let's move on. I believe we're on Item five, appointments. 5A is the appointment of William Monroe, alternative member of the Inland Wetlands and Watercourse Commission. Let's do them both together. The appointment of now, we'll do this one first. Anybody want to make a motion to accept that appointment?
I motion to appoint William Monroe as an alternate member of the Inlands and Wetlands. I'll second that.
Scott seconded. All those in favor? Aye. All right, we're going to move on to the appointment of Marina, or how do I say that Eric, Marina? Marina
Pendolfi, as best as I can say it now. Marina
Pandolfi, an Assistant Finance Officer for Andover Elementary School and the town offices. Paula?
Oh, you want me to read it? Okay. You're just going to make the motion. You can just make the motion. I will make a motion.
There you go. Perfect. Scott, are you going to second that? I will. I second that. All those in favor? Aye. We're going move to resignations 6A. We're going to do these together, accept the resignation of Laura Edwards. Oh, we don't even have to do this. This is more for informational purposes because she's an employee of the Board of Education. Laura Edwards, the Financial Operations Manager at Andover Elementary School has resigned. Eric, when is her resignation effective? I believe it's January 7.
January 7, okay. As a second resignation, the resignation of Barbara Griffin as town treasurer. Her resignation, Eric, is effective? It is effective November 28.
November 28. Okay. Do we need, I mean, is there anything for us to do to accept those? I mean, I don't really think we need to make a motion to accept them. They've already resigned. Yep,
that's correct. Any of the Board of Selectmen members have any issues with that? Talent administrators report. Erica, it's all yours. Amanda, can I share the screen?
I think you have to be a host. Hang on. Let me Eric's never about a cohost. Oh, perfect. Here you go.
Let me get the right one. Okay hopefully you're all looking at the administrator's report screen. Am I correct? Correct.
Okay so I'm just gonna hit the highlights the things that have changed since I produced this and sent it to you say last Thursday.
First of can you for the sake of public which maybe doesn't have the packet, can you enlarge that so it covers the screen with WISE? Sure. Thank you. Much better. Better?
Okay. First thing Sunday, we had an earthquake. Many of you realize that. I actually thought the boiler in the basement of the town hall blew up because it was you know surprising to me. I looked downstairs the boiler indeed had not blown up. I looked outside I didn't see any smoke or crashed planes. So it took me a while to figure out that that was an earthquake. I think a lot of people had that same reaction. For those of you, I sent to the board some updated information on COVID-nineteen since the original plan. The state has taken back the authority and the towns had the authority when they were either in orange or red status in terms of COVID cases to revert back to basically status number two. And the state has taken that responsibility back from the individual towns and said all of Connecticut is reverted to phase 2.1. That doesn't have any huge impacts on the town. The things that are the biggest impacts on individuals is that private gatherings, like gatherings in your home are supposed to be capped at 10 people now. Not a lot of impact on restaurants other than they have to go back down to half capacity from three quarter capacity. Not really a big effect on churches here in town or other businesses or particularly the town hall.
So you're also looking at the screen at a graph showing Andover's COVID positivity rate. I took this straight from the raw data and you could see for a period of time, we actually edged into red status, which is more than fifteen cases per day per 100,000 population. The weird thing is the state does it on this rolling fourteen day average to kind of smooth the data out. And they only update it once a week. So by the time we updated it, we were already orange. And then they updated it again. And we're basically not even orange again. We're back to relatively baseline. We had one case several days ago and we had one case about fourteen days ago. So given that we're at a pretty low level and not showing any significant community transmission, which is really good. So I'm suggesting that we don't really have any major changes in the posture for the town hall at this point. I think we need to be prepared to react quickly if we start getting spikes Because everybody around us is spiking. The state as a whole is averaging 14 to 16 cases per day per 100,000 right now. So on average, about 70% of the state is in the red what they're calling like the red category. So the other thing that affects us is the governor put out executive order nine h which has an impact on how we conduct meetings. Basically it says any in person meeting that you have, if anybody on that meeting wants to attend remotely, you have to have the capability in place so anybody can attend remotely, that meeting, which is going to affect, if we do hold a public meeting or a town meeting
for the land acquisition that would cause us some issues. So I've asked Dennis O'Brien to weigh in on that. He and myself and Carol Lee have kind of pushed this around for a while trying to figure out how to do this in a reasonable fashion. So basically what we have to be able to do is conduct a town meeting and still be compliant with the executive orders as well as our charter. So, and we also consulted with Rob Miller and the health department for that. What we've kind of come up with and Dennis can elaborate is doing a kind of a split meeting where the first part of the meeting occurs via Zoom. But we don't check IDs because that was the big stumbling block. We ensure that there's plenty of people that go to the meeting, we let them all in, you know, from the waiting room,
we conduct the meeting, and after that, so we would still have to elect the moderator, do all that, and then we would conduct a drive by vote at the town hall, where you basically drive by, everybody's in mask, you pull up to the first spot, you show your ID, you get checked off the list as a valid voter, you go to the next station, you're handed a poll, you fill it out, you stick it in the box, you drive away, and then it gets tabulated and announced. So it's not ideal but it's doable under all the guidelines we have and gets us away from the security problems that we potentially have doing it the way we did it before. So turning to elections, I really want to thank the registrars and all the poll workers. They did a fabulous job this time on the election. So we had 87% turnout of eligible voters in the town of Andover voted. So for us, that is outstanding. And I'd like to thank, you know, all the election workers that made it happen as well as the residents who came out and voted. So that was great. You all know we did the trick or treat event during Halloween that went really well and that that was a success. So in terms of roadwork and public work stuff, we have now completed all the shimming of Bunker Hill Road, Lake Road, Erdoni, and West Street.
We are continuing to fill potholes, you know, as long as the weather stays okay. We're hoping to borrow the hot box again in the next day or so. We've demoed a weather forecasting service that forecasts strictly for public works departments in the Northeast to see whether getting tailored weather information allows us to make better calls on when to call out public works, when to do road work, stuff like that. Don't know. We're still in just trial phase. We haven't committed to anything. So you I told the board a while back that the RFP we put out for grinding up the brush at the transfer station originally, we didn't get any real good options back from it. We explored some other options and Scott Persson was the one who found us a contractor that would do it much more reasonably.
I asked the Board of Finance at the last meeting for to allow me to overexpand that line item to get it done. They did and we're grinding the stuff up now So we should be able to to knock that off the list in the next couple days. They're surveying Bunker Hill Road right now for that bridge replacement. We're working on closing out Times Farm Bridge. That's the closeout that's taking forever. In really good news, the Steep Grant, we just were notified today that we, won the Steep Grant award, so we got $128,000 coming in the spring for repaving and that will be for reclaiming and paving parts of Long Hill Road as well as that initial section of Shawty Mill Road. So that's great it's going to stretch our our paving dollars quite a bit.
So that's a wonderful thing. The connectivity grant they poured the concrete for the crosswalk aprons today. With a little luck, that's the last physical stuff they have to do other than put in the actual signal. So I'm hoping I can go back to Division one maintenance of DOT and get my encroachment letter and follow on with that. Basically, have until December 31 to sign a purchase order with the contractor that we have lined up right now. If not, we're going to have to go through the process again. So I'm really hoping I can push them and resolve that in the next two months, but it is the state DOT, so it's anybody's guess. Town hall. One of the things we are doing is we're implementing a training program called Security Mentor for all the employees in the town hall. And what it is, it's an online training program for computer and cyber safety. It's something we looked at doing this spring, but we've decided gets bumped up the list in terms of emphasis. So we're starting that hopefully in the next week or two. You had some I put in the policy, there were some questions about the head librarian Amy, and what should be done with that position. So basically, so you all know what happened is after we instituted
the town's new employee handbook, one of the problems we have is that the position of head librarian has never really fit into our benefits package that we have. So it has to be corrected one of two ways. Either we have to write a standalone policy, basically employment contract with her or actually three ways. Or we just take away her benefits and knock her down to the equivalent part time position. Or we increase her hours to thirty hours as a full time employee because basically she's getting the benefits of a thirty hour a week employee even though she's working 26. And I don't have a dog in the hunt. I would suggest we do it as part of the next budget process and make a decision, not immediately but over time what we want to do. If you have any questions about that. There are no updates in forestry, unfortunately. Rick Zulich, who's the guy we were going through with that, has had some pretty traumatic family stuff that he's dealing with, So that's going to get delayed a few months.
We talked about hunting, revaluation. The reval process is going on now. You've all probably got the mailer sent to all of you. We did press releases and all the papers that would publish it. And we put both a website and social media push on to inform residents. We've already hired the town clerk. The other thing that I would like to do, and I talked to this, the Board of Finance about it and they've agreed, is the prices for oil and diesel are really low right now and we have the opportunity to lock in for next year. And I think it's probably in our best interest to do that at this time. What's concerning me is we're doing a really bad job of forecasting our usage. And before we do that I really need to spend a bunch of time trying to figure out what we're actually likely to do based on where we are in terms of COVID. Know there's just been a lot of variability in how much fuel oil and how much diesel we used. We talked about the finance department. We applied to the state and federal government for relief from COVID related expenses. With a little luck. I know that's been they pushed that through at the state level, so it looks like we will probably be getting a reimbursement for that. We ran about $9,000
in total expenses for that. The registrar was very upfront months ago that based on all the requirements from the state relative to the elections that we will likely run over this year in total by the time we get through with the May, you know, May town elections, especially if we have a budget meeting in May town elections and whatnot. Just simply because the requirements today operating in a COVID environment per the Secretary of State are more stringent than they were in the past. We're not over budget now but we may very well be. So that's basically all I have for my report unless you all have questions for me.
Any questions for Eric? Okay, Eric. Thank you very much. Let's move on to our old business. I'm assuming we can skip the COVID update. The town wide forestry was discussed in Eric's report in old business alarm monitoring for town buildings.
So I had asked Wally for an update, but I did not get it before the meeting. Just to remind you all, I had asked the, Board of Fire Commissioners to look into that because I thought they had a lot more knowledge about that area. Basically, we're gonna have to be providing alarm services for our own buildings because the Tollen Dispatch Center is no longer doing it. So but I don't have any updates on that.
Okay. All right. Thank you very much. New business, 9A, hunting on town property. Do we have any further discussion or does anyone want to make any motions or do anything related to that issue at this meeting?
What about the we could just change it to I don't know. Something about the attorney, the town attorney, that he could help us draft a motion after we get everything. I think we would wait till next month maybe?
If we had all our ducks in a row here? So we would want the town attorney to draft an ordinance Mhmm. Related to this?
Okay. The conditions are not concrete yet, so I'm gonna have to this is just going to be a work in progress.
Okay. So if you've made a decision that you're not going to try to do it for this year's, you know, hunting season, then I would say you could draft the ordinance with the town's attorney kind of at your leisure. And then at some point in the spring, when we have a town meeting just for something else, have that as an additional item on the town meeting. I thought if you were trying to push it and get it through relatively quickly, you could consider it adding it to the town meeting related a potential town meeting related to land acquisition. But if you're not trying to do it for this season, then you could you would have no problem with waiting, but it's your choice.
I guess we still could draft a motion that to draft an ordinance with the town attorney and get that out of the way.
Definitely. Yes. I, if I might jump in here, I just unmuted myself, Dennis O'Brien. And, I did take careful notes of the public hearing, and I'm learning. And I think, I would like to take that on with help from, you know, some of the members of the board of selectmen and have it ready for, as Eric has suggested, you know, sometime, after the first of the year, get it ready for next season. But, I've learned a lot about it just by listening to you. And I know there's a lot of information in the statutes and the regulations and, you know, in the DEP policy guidelines. So I don't think it's rocket science from my standpoint, but, I would be glad to to work on that.
Right. So we could draft a motion and just to have him do it when we get all of our information
ready. I guess the question Scott and Adrian mostly is when's your timing do you want to try to get this done now? No, for next year.
No, to be honest with you, I'd like to have, I'd like to, well once we get this, before we even go for the thing, I'd like to get together with Scott and maybe, you know, we can even get Carol involved and get a form together for the town permit so that that's done as well. I mean, let's get the whole thing done completely before
I think that makes sense. Okay. I like that idea. Yeah. All right. So, Dennis, if you would work with Scott and Adrian on on that, and Eric, that would be great.
Yeah. That would be my great pleasure, and, you know, I'm ready to jump in whenever you're ready. All right.
Thank you as always. All right, 9b, the 2021 meeting schedule. Are there contemplated changes to our meeting schedule? Anyone have a problem with this day? Do we want to move it? Is there any desire to move it?
Don't think I want to move it, but my only challenge is sometimes when we get the packet I look at it on the weekend and then if we need to change something you know Friday Amanda's not in so I don't know. But I know Mondays we want we like having the meeting because if an employee is, you know, wants to jump on the call, they're already there still or whatever. Anybody else have any thoughts about that?
No, I think the other advantage of having a Mondays is it, you know, by doing it on Monday, it puts us ahead of the board event in case we have issues that, you know, we need to address for them or vice versa. I I think that helps too. Same thing with board of finance, you know. If there's something we have to pass along, we know it's coming up, whether it's for Board of Finance or whatever, we can do that accordingly. I think you're right about the packet. I wish we got it a little sooner in case there is an issue. I think it was a little better this past time. I think in general the packets are getting quicker and better put together as And our
I think maybe and I don't want to talk for Amanda. Maybe she's still gathering things and that's what's holding it up, you know, on her end. So I wasn't even ask I wasn't even putting this on Amanda. I think just in general,
as our meeting as our meeting agenda is getting a little smaller and we're catching up on some things. Yeah. Getting more manageable for everybody. So Right.
Yeah. That was only my my only concern was by the time I get it and I'm looking at it, it's the weekend and then, you know, add anything or change something. It's already it's already Monday and it's too late. So but but I feel like the, the advantages for having it on Monday outweigh that. So
would this help to send you the draft agenda sooner? So that way, if there's something you wanna add or think about or get more materials for, you can all take a look.
I don't know if it's the if the agenda if getting the agenda earlier would help. Think it's just having getting the packet and just having the time to look through it if it's a long one. I definitely
think getting the agenda sooner helps because I think for me at least it allows me to know how much time I have to put aside for the packet when it hits.
Least I think problem with putting the packet out sooner is maybe some of the reports won't be available from the treasurer or tax collector or other departments just because the month ends and then a new one begins and then your meeting is on the second Monday. I think that's why we switched it to the second Monday this past year. It used to be on the first, I believe. Yeah. Be right.
Amanda, I have to tell you, being on the board the previous go round, your packets are wonderful. I'm glad.
You know what you added this month that I love, Amanda? Is you put the break, I don't want to call them breaks, but whatever the next section was, I knew what I was you know, like, you put in the add and delete items.
That was a great idea. So thank you for doing that. Yeah. I think that'll be helpful. And, know, let me know if there's anything else you want to change or add or take away.
Alright. Come on. We can do the love fest another time. So so we're we're obviously gonna stick with the second Monday, meetings at 07:00. Are there any holiday issues that we're falling into this year? There's only one. The yep. 10/11/2001. Okay.
Alright. This past year, we switched it to the Wednesday. So that's what I suggested.
Could be something Well, not problem, but this happened this year too was it was the same night as board of ed. So, is it is it what's on Tuesdays? I guess for one one month, it's not a big deal. So just leave it. Well, what is on Tuesdays? Is there anything on Tuesdays, Amanda? Second Tuesdays? I don't believe so. I'm looking now.
Yeah. I would just suggest if we if there's nothing on that Tuesday, October 12, I'd say I'd suggest move it to there because usually board of ed is the second Wednesday, and I usually like to try and jump on that.
Okay. So let's do that if we can. Tuesday would be a better day. Does anyone wanna make a motion to accept the 2021 meeting schedule or
I motion to accept the 2021 meeting schedule for the Boris Lechman with the change of the October 13 meeting to the October, October 12.
I'll second that. Just a point of order the conservation commission is on the second Tuesday of the month. That's However I thought they were the last Tuesday.
All of the video feeds, I would ask Mike Pelosi if that's a big problem, which I don't think it really would be. Are you leading the witness, Jeff? No.
Mike, do you have a problem with us having our meeting on Tuesday that
conflicts with yours? Well, I'm on the last Tuesday of the month. Great. This month is just a special meeting. Got it. Sorry about that. This
is a special meeting because we got hacked last meeting on the regular meeting.
All right. Okay, further discussion and nothing else? Jeff Murray, we're good. All those in favor, aye. Aye. Okay, let's move on. 9C Planning and Zoning Commission eight twenty four Referral for Land Acquisition.
Okay, so you all have a letter in the packet. As you remember, you sent to the Planning and Zoning Commission an 08/20 four referral for the acquisition of properties that some individuals and One Land Trust want to donate to the town of Andover. The Planning and Zoning Commission has examined it and decided that it is perfectly compliant with the plan of conservation and development and they put that conclusion in writing thus discharging their requirements under statute eight-twenty four and putting it back in your hands. The only difference that it really makes is that if they had said no then when it got to public meeting it would have had to pass with a greater majority, than if they said yes. So the good news is it's through planning and zoning and then the next step up would be to hold a town meeting because only a town meeting can accept property on behalf of the town legally.
Is that why you were doing the trying to figure out how we could do a town meeting? Yes.
If you'd like me to chime in now I will Eric. Certainly.
Okay so we've talked about this and Eric mentioned that I had talked to him and also to the town clerk and they had come up with the idea of having a what is called a you know, you haven't had a special town meeting since before I believe since before the COVID hit. And, you know, then we went through this thing with the budget where we couldn't we couldn't have a meeting. We had to we had to go through, let the board of finance decide the budget. I wrote a long opinion on that, but this is all different. This is a special town meeting, and there is a new, Eric mentioned the new executive order nine h, permits what what what it calls a hybrid meeting. Having a special town meeting in Andover is is is it's kind of unusual because you have a you have a minimum requirement. 25 electors have to be have to attend the meeting in order for it to go forward. So that that creates a bit of a problem, in terms of holding the meeting electronically. So the thought was to hold a part of it electronically and then, convene to a vote similar to what Vernon did on its budget last, spring. They they did it and they got permission from the state to do it, but after that, the governor stopped it from going on elsewhere,
including Andover. I think there was no I didn't I didn't I'm not this is not to say that Andover was contemplating that because I had already written an opinion that you agreed with, that we had it. We had a lot of the Board of Finance to do their thing without without a vote from the the the the public. But anyway, in in in this instance, Eric and I and the town clerk have come up with a notion of a hybrid meeting where you would have the first part of the meeting be on electronically. Second part would be a drive up or walk up vote at the town hall. And that that way, the town clerk or her delegate would be able to check IDs and to make sure that the people attending the town meeting are actually, you know, electors of the town, people that are registered to vote in the town of Andover. Sounds a little elaborate, but, I think it passes muster legally under the governor's the governor's executive orders, especially order nine h, the most recent one, and seven b going way back to the springtime. So anyway, my view is on this that we you know, I've I've created a quickly created a resolution to call a special town meeting. In order to have a special town meeting,
there has to be a resolution from the board of selectmen. I'm sure that the McGuire, first selectman McGuire knows that because he served on, the board previously when special town meetings were scheduled. So I have to have a resolution. I've drafted a resolution. I initially included a reference to a, a bow hunting ordinance, which I've put in there only in case you wanted to move really fast on that. But what I've done is I've I've I've deleted that part of it and sent I don't know if Eric if you've received it or looked at it but I've sent you a copy of the resolution by email.
Okay. I haven't seen if you had a draft since about 07:15 I haven't seen it.
Alright, well I sent it, I sent it after I heard the discussion on the, the bow hunting and the town, you know, your your public hearing and also the discussion after that, you know, basically with Scott and, leading the way. And, the indication to me was that this wasn't something that was an emergency that had to be done real soon. As far as the planning and zoning commission's decision on the 08/24 review, Eric advised me that one of the grand tours of the properties that you're going to be getting for no compensation and return was anxious to have this done with. And I think, you know, that indicated to me that maybe you ought to consider passing a resolution tonight setting up a town a town special town meeting to get this done with over and done with. But that, of course, is not up to me. It's up to you. I have just given you the the means along with Eric and Carol Lee to to do this and to do it relatively soon, would say within a three or four week period because things have to happen before that as you know, it has to be a notice put in the newspaper, there has to be notice given I think
I'm not sure if it applies to a special town meeting. Think it does. I think there has to be notice sent out to everybody in town. These are sections of the charter that if I had my, if if if you were doing another charter revision, I would recommend that you change that. But it is it is the law of the land right now to have a a minimum a minimum participation of 25 electors of the town plus, lots of notice to the public in advance of the special town meeting. So, you know, it it would be probably, Eric, you have will have to tell me, and and the rest of us. It would probably be good to if you're gonna schedule it now and do it tonight rather than waiting up for a month before you schedule it or having a special selectman's meeting to schedule it, it would probably be a good idea to schedule it about three or four weeks into the future to give everybody time to adjust to, what needs to be done beforehand. But, that's, anyway, that's that's that's it the way I see it with regard to the, the property acquisition. I mean, everybody seems to think it's a great idea. It'll probably pass easily. You'll have to make sure 25 people are there to vote on it, but, you have all the tools you would need to, to bring it to a special town meeting
within a reasonable amount of time from tonight if you so choose to do so. All right. So that's all I have. Thank you, Dennis.
Do any of the other members of the Board of Selectmen have any items on this they want to discuss, or can we actually pass a motion to move this resolution in this town meeting forward? Anybody?
If you wanted to push it forward, you could simply select the date about a month from now to make everybody's lives easier logistically and the town would execute.
Does anyone have a timeline? Do you care if we do it before our next meeting, after our next meeting?
I don't know what the I I don't know what the advantages or disadvantages are. So I'm kinda still thinking here.
Eric, I mean you have more knowledge on the property situation. What do we need to do here? Apparently there was a one of the gifters wanted this done. What do we need to do to satisfy this?
I mean the that individual's Tom Talbot, he and maybe Mike can answer this question better, but he just wanted to he wanted it over and done with. I mean, I think his philosophy is he's giving the town something and not getting anything in compensation and he would like us to expedite it. Mike, maybe you can weigh in on that better. Yeah, Tom was upset because it wasn't moving very quickly
and he was threatening to pull it back. That issue has been settled. I'm keeping him and the land trust up to date with where we are. I don't see a problem with Tom on this at all.
Did you hear me? Yes, we did. So does anyone have any negative issues related to this? Because None at all. We don't have any negative issues. Let's move this forward. Let's move it forward. Yeah. Quickly as we can. So do you wanna do it like we did this open meeting before our next regular scheduled meeting? I mean, I know it took a while, but can it really take that long? I know you have to do additional That won't work well.
Excuse me. I'm sorry to break in, but that won't work too well given the fact that you're gonna have a vote of people who are gonna be driving by outside of the building to vote. I mean, you could do it that way, but, you know, you have to give people some time to vote. And
So so this is not like Might be a little awkward. Then drive by the next day. It's it's come to the meeting on Zoom and then get in your car and drive to vote.
The same the same same time. That's what Vernon did, and and it worked pretty well for them for their budget. And it was a it was a budget that was almost certain to pass because there was no increase. This is an this is an item that's almost certain to pass. It's kind of unfortunate that we have to have a special town meeting on an issue like this where the town is not spending any money. Yes. But it is the word is acquisition in the charter and this is an acquisition, so it requires a special town meeting. I'm trying to do this as simply as possible and working with Eric and and the town clerk and because of the nuances in the charter, which requires 25 members, 25 electors to be there. And, you know, it's it's a little awkward, but, I thought that we we came up with a good solution. And, you know, and the other thing reason I'd rather see you do it quicker is since people are gonna have to be outside to vote, it's gonna get colder. It's gonna run into the holidays. K. And
December December 8 or December 10. Anyone? Problem with those days?
Nope. Nope. So are the people accepting the boat's gonna be outside?
Well, aren't we supposed to have the piece of paper and then drive by? I mean, while we're driving up to a desk with our license, they're gonna hand us a ballot. We're gonna check yes. We're gonna drive to the next station and hand it to the registrar. Yeah.
And we gotta get 25 people to say yes or 25 people to show up. They don't even all they don't even all have to say yes. They just have to have 25 people show up and get the count.
About doing, like, a Saturday morning or a Saturday afternoon? You can do that. Go ahead.
That that that's legal. You can do it. Pick a day. Let's go.
December 5. No. December 5. Something's going on with the PTA and the rec commission, So that's not gonna work. December 12.
I mean, I'm not saying it has to be done. This is Saturday. I'm just thinking that if you wanna get a bunch of people and be able to do it during the daylight, Yeah, that would be simpler
We do it at the transfer. Can we do it at the transfer station?
Well, you know, I'd actually contemplated that so it's not a terrible idea but I don't think Carol would be too excited about standing down there and and doing it there. Well she's got a nice she's got a brand new warming shed she can buy it she can go
And she only and she only has to do 25 people. Yeah. 25 people. Call it a day. I think that Well, 75
might show up. This might really this might really catch on.
I mean, it is a brand new transfer station. It's got new pavement. It's very attractive.
Very nice. Yeah. I mean, what Never been there. Just people coming and vote.
But here's the problem is what happens if people don't have transfer station stickers. You just have to let them drive through and just vote and not go then right you could have a one day pass free to get people to buy in and then they'll have to go get the passes
all right can we do 12 at the town hall? I thought we were doing the transfer station.
I I love the transfer station idea but Eric is right. What if somebody Doesn't have a sticker. Doesn't have a sticker? I'm through. So we exempt them for one day.
Just to come in and vote, they can come vote at the transfer station. And they get to see what their $40 would buy. Maybe more people buy stickers.
Some marketing So so we're going to get a free day at the transfer station for all day. If they vote though, they have to vote. Well,
that's the way I don't know if that's legal. That's that may be illegal. That may be kind of influence.
That might be I didn't say how they vote. We just said they have to vote. We don't care how they vote. What we do I'll tell you what, I've
created enough of a circus already with Eric and Carol. And I think it's I think it's getting a little out of control. But that's, you know, I'm just I mean,
is only sarcasm. It's fine. At least we can get to you. It's amusing.
Come on. I You know? I almost we're almost there. So what do we wanna do? I say town hall December 5 December 12 that's Santa Clara
day Paula can we get your band to play again for a small fee yeah
Okay. And what time would you like the meeting to start? Paul, what time is the band?
Ten. All right, 10:00 then. Well, Diane was saying something. What were you trying to say, Diane? That's, Santa at the library is on the twelfth. Good. They can they can vote and then head over to library. At what time? 12:00. Twelve to two ish. So 10:00 it is.
We would presumably, we would schedule the meeting at ten and then we would schedule voting to go from eleven to twelve. None. That would be my guess.
I think that is awesome. Someone wanna make a motion to that?
Well, do we wanna go the go past the 12:00 so people on their way to see Santa can vote? They can get in line first.
Do you want Carol Lee to hang around there all day? Checking people in?
I mean, for a vote like this. I think it, you know, okay. It's a free piece of land. 11 to twelve, twenty five people vote yes. Are we ready? Who's making a motion for this one? Come on.
Do you have to attend the Zoom meeting in order to vote or can you just vote No, by you could just vote. No. Uninformed voters well there are ways to be informed
okay that is a valid point Diane so there are other ways to get informed Diane, the reason that that's in place is that if you think about how we would do a town meeting now, if you held the town meeting and somebody walked in five seconds before the vote was counted and they were a legal resident, you would have to allow them to vote. You can't say no, you can't come in now. And the drive up is essentially the same way. So you're still allowed to legally show proof residency and vote right there on the spot. Okay. Well said Eric.
I motion to prepare a resolution to be signed by the Board of Selectmen to set December 12 as a date for a town meeting to authorize the acceptance of three parcels of land to be donated to the town of Andover. One parcel is being donated by Tom Talbot, former resident of Andover compromising of 7.84 acres and two part partials from the Northern Connecticut Land Trust comprising of 5.3 acres and 1.16 acres.
And you should add that. So 10:00 at the Town Office Building. 10:00 at the Town Hall. 10AM. Second time.
Just as a there is a Zoom meeting before this and then a vote at eleven. Correct?
Okay. I would say that's probably how you wanna do it. Yes.
Okay. All right. Does anybody have any further discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Okay. Eric, can you remove that from the screen so I'll get to see everybody? Eric, do you have anything additional on the brush removal at the transfer station other than what you've already told us? Nope. Item 9E was removed from the agenda. The approval of the minutes from Wednesday, October 14.
I motion to approve the minutes from Wednesday, 10/14/2020, Boris Lechman regular meeting. Seconded. All right. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. We
have the Treasurer's Report that were provided to us. Any questions, any discussion on the Treasurer's Report? Okay. Eric, do you have anything that you want to bring up related to any of the reports?
Not unless you have questions for me. I think you all know the status at this point. Okay.
Eric I mean we're doing a lot of things online now. I was talking to one of our residents that's familiar with the Bolton system and mentioned that Bolton is currently using a I think it's called Vue system and to tie in, know, so they're able to do their dog licenses, all that stuff online. Sure.
I know we have some things online. Don't know if it'd be worth trying to tie that together. They also do their dump stickers online, which is something that's been brought up repeatedly by many of the residents. Is that something that we want to maybe look into?
So the one thing I would say is that there's, I mean like for instance a lot of towns use permit view, an online permitting system for the building department and I think that can be successful that's not zero cost there's definitely a cost implement that know, but it's none of what you're asking isn't doable. It's just a question of do we want to pay for it, You know and specifically regarding the transfer stickers, you know if you do it online, what is your method of verification? How do you ensure that the right sticker gets on the right car?
That's really the only Well, I mean what they do is they require you to upload a copy of your driver's license to show that you are an Andover resident. Or sorry, in their case, a Bolton resident. If they don't if they can show a piece of mail showing that they you know, if if let's say it's within thirty days or whatever, if they've just moved to town, you know, if they can show a piece of mail showing that they have property here, and we could verify that there's been a transfer, you could also do it that way. They do they send the stickers in the mail and trust that their residents will put them on the appropriate cars and not sell them on eBay I guess, but you know I'm just thinking it seems, it does seem to be very involved process for the town clerk's office. I was just trying to give us another way to look at doing it for as a possibility, you know, and given a surrounding town is doing it and seems to be doing well with it. Just an idea.
Even if it was, you know, 50% online, you know, would help Carol out immensely.
Yeah. I mean, know, it's it was so hit and miss this year. I know COVID had a lot to do with it, but even the years, you know, before that we did it, mean, the office really gets overrun. It requires sort of work Saturdays, and we still had residents that had a part time getting it and getting it. I guess, we cater to the majority of residents that will do it correctly? And and, you know, or do we worry about the the the five or six people that are gonna manipulate the sticker system for some other, you know, poor usage? But I guess I was hoping that we would cater to the bulk of the people that do it the way they're supposed to. But, you know,
I agree with Adrian, we should look into it to sit there and see if there's a way that we can do it effectively. Online. Online. Yeah. Eric, I'm Sure.
No, I was looking at the treasurer's information, but I think I'm really looking at the tax collector's report, so I'll sit there and I'll wait till that. Do anyone have any other questions related to the treasurer's report and the treasurer's office? Any of the items, any of the other select members? No? Okay. We'll move on then. Eric, do you have any issues related to the appropriation transfers or over expenditure requests anything there?
No I did send one directly to the Board of Finance which under ideal circumstances I would have done sent to you first and then Board of Finance but I did that because ultimately they're the ones that approve it but because I had time availability for bringing the grinder in starting basically Friday so it's just a timing issue.
What's the, I mean given the recent resignations what is the status with the software implementation for finance?
So I think at this point that the implementation is on hold until we have a finance director because part of what has to happen is we've got to update the chart of accounts you know and we're going to need a finance director in place to the finance director is gonna want to have input into that.
Did it but am I am I wrong? You know we've been hearing certainly from from Barbara that she's been working on chart of accounts for a month plus. Isn't that done already?
No. I don't think she's lately been doing much on she did something about a year ago, eight months No, that was actually part of the discussion on a couple of the
finance board meetings. Even when we were talking about doing the software, brought it up. That there was something she had been working on and she thought she pretty much had it worked out. Well,
so she had a vague outline, not a vague outline, but a fairly high level sketch of how the chart of accounts would look like for the town of Andover, but it really wasn't broken down all the way to the object. So it would still need quite a bit of work.
Okay. Misunderstood what she was putting forward though. I thought based on the conversations during some of that software meeting that this was something that was sort of worked through already. My mistake I apologize. If it was I haven't seen it honestly. Okay.
Well can you ask her? Just ask you guys chart of accounts and ask Laura where her chart of accounts is because assuming Laura has one also, I mean, I'm with Adrian, there should be something somewhere. I mean, we have had the same discussion about the standard charter accounts for the state for
Yeah, mean, the state already has a basic outline of what they're looking for. You have to match up to that. There is an object fluctuation obviously at the town level. Sure. But again, as Jeff said, Laura had also made the same, at least I I thought she had made the same, you know, alluded to the fact that she had already been working on this and pretty much had it worked out as to what we needed, you know.
I mean, at least if we can get those, we should run those by the auditor to get his take on it and say, that makes sense or that doesn't make sense, and then try to get them implemented into this new software as quickly as possible. Because I would imagine the implementation is more by the software company. We just need to provide the basic building blocks and then they put it in and then
Sure. So they're going to do the migration and they're going to do the mapping from the current to the proposed. But, and yes, the state does have a standardized set of chart of accounts, adopt something very similar. So I went through the state's guidelines for chart of accounts and eliminated all the account detail I thought we didn't need as a town. So obviously we don't have sewers, we don't have an awful lot of things that are built into the state's chart of accounts. So I mean I don't think it would be the end of the world to implement straight the state's chart of accounts, but I would assume if we're bringing in somebody that's a finance director they're going to want some say in that. That would be my And
again I don't have a problem with necessarily waiting for that given that that hiring process is moving forward. My concern was some way that given there's gonna be a lot of stuff on that person's plate walking in the door, if we can hand them something and say, know, could you take a look at this as a first priority so that we can get this off the ground while you're settling in, that would be a plus. That's all. Understood.
Okay. Anything else related to that topic in the treasurer's department? Okay. Well, we were actually on budgets. I'm sorry. Let's go to the tax collector's report. Tax collector's office appeared to have collected $1,552,995.80 in the month of October. Eric, if you could do one favor for me on that report, could you find out the I'm assuming the receipt column is deposits. Just make sure there's a couple holes there that I would like you to ask about, specifically on the twenty second through the October 23. All right, nice new report from the tax collector about regarding percentage of collections. How much is real estate, personal property, and vehicles? Any questions related to the that issue? Any information? No. Okay, then there are refunds of excess payments.
So there actually aren't refunds. Those went in there because they've been sitting in your bin and they haven't actually got signed since the last meeting. You all approved them at the last meeting. However
is an outright lie. I've been in my in that office about five times and I can show you the stuff and in fact, Eric, the letter that you put in the package was in my bin that I opened. So I will be in there tomorrow to sign whatever you need. Okay. Okay. Fair enough. All right.
The assessor's report. I'm assuming we all received our documentation from the assessor's office as to what the plan is for our revaluation. Wonderful article in the River East relating the revaluation process. Anyone have any questions for Eric or any concerns? No? Okay. Departmental reports for the fire department, the resident state trooper, the town clerk. Are there any specific questions to any of the reports that were provided?
So the the only thing I would put in there is that you all know there's been a rash of burglaries or vandalism at the Andover Town Plaza. I know our resident state trooper they have been those incidents have been part of a larger pattern that the state police is tracking and basically they can see the progression from the time of the crimes that the same, you know, two individuals had been conducting the crimes or just basically moving along in a linear fashion. One of the nights the vandalism occurred here, they traced those same two individuals to something like 20 separate break ins in one evening. So these are fairly prolific hoodlums. Hopefully there will be some good news to report fairly quickly about that. But that's all I want to say at this point. The armed robbery at the Shell station, there are arrest warrants out for the individual. They're pretty sure they know. Again, that was part of a series of armed robberies and that individual, as far as I know, has been identified.
So hopefully that will be prosecuted fairly quickly. That's all I have on that report.
Okay. Any of the Board of Selection members have any other questions? Any other issues? Okay. Eric, I'm assuming there's no correspondence.
The only real correspondence was what was in your packet. There was an updated draft agreement between youth services and the towns that was in your packet for you to refer. If any Board of Selectmen member is available tomorrow I forget what time. I think it's at 12:30 or it's at one, sorry. There is a meeting where they're going to go over that. Unfortunately, I have kind of three conflicting things all at that time. So I would prefer not to attend that meeting, because I want to go to a training seminar myself. So if anybody, member of the Board of Selectmen is free at that time tomorrow, I sent you all emails asking you whether you would be available to go to that. If none of us can do it, Linda Fish, who's on the Board of Finance, said she would attend. So at least we'll have one member. But it would be nice for either myself or the Board of Selectmen to attend
and get the feedback from AHM. And then I also in the packet was the one letter from the resident that opposed hunting on town property that was earlier in the packet. That's pretty much what I have in terms of correspondence. Okay.
We're at our public speak, item 17. So let's go around the room. Mike and Kathy Palazzi, you are first on my screen.
No, we're all set. Thank you. All right. Thank you for attending.
Diane Greiner. Oh, I'm all set also. Thank you. All right. Perfect.
Jerry Cremay. Right. Jerry, you're a little slow on mute button, so we're going to skip you. Joanne or Herbert? Thanks. You're all set? All set.
All right. Thank you very much. Dennis O'Brien is not a member of the public, so he'll have to sit there and do without speaking. I think we're done. Would someone like to make a motion to adjourn?
I make a motion to adjourn. I'll second it. Okay. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. I
do believe this is about the shortest meeting we've conducted this year, which considering there was a public hearing too,
pretty good. You don't have to jinx us there, Eric. I thought age