Meeting transcript
Board of Selectmen- Regular Meeting
August 14, 2023 · Watch on YouTube · All meetings
I am
going to call to order tonight's Board of Selectmen regular meeting for Monday, August 14. We're starting this meeting at 07:02, and we're going to start with item one of the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the Republic, which it stands one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, we're going to move on to item two, public speak. Linda Fish, I'll start with you because your cat is doing such a good job calling out for some attention.
He's a cat with nine lives. He almost died a month ago. But yeah, I have nothing to say. He's just looking for attention. Alright. Mike and Kathy Palazzi.
Just a minute. Do you have anything? No, we're all set. I have I have something to say. I wanted to say as the senior coordinator for our Andover seniors. I want to thank the Board of Selectmen and Eric Anderson, our town administrator for all the hard work and the diligent hard work that they did to get the community senior center building approved. The seniors are very excited and happy that we will see our groundbreaking ceremony Friday, the eighteenth. And we want to thank you very very much for this. I think I probably nagged all the town officials for twenty four years so it finally is coming to fruition, and I'm from the bottom of my heart. Thank you.
Alright, thank you. Diane Granger.
I hope you can hear me. We can. Good. Technology is tough some days. I like to support everything Kathy just said. I think all the seniors in town and probably everybody in town, Dante seniors do that. Also looking at the agenda, I had sent an email and asked that the discussion for the piano donation to the senior slash community room be discussed tonight. So I was hoping that we could get a decision so that I can move forward and give the man a deposit or can it whatever you guys are going to decide. But I'd like to see that on the agenda. So if somebody could put that on the agenda, hopefully, so it can be discussed. If you have any questions, I'm here. I sent a rather detailed email earlier. I hope you all got it. I had spoken to most of you, if not all of you. Hopefully answered all your questions in advance. But again, I'm here to answer any questions if you have. And that's basically it. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Chris Bernard. Nothing here. Thanks. Okay. Jerry Kerme.
No, it's Anne Kermay. I just couldn't figure out how to change the name, but I have nothing today. Thank you anyway. Okay, Joanne Ebert.
I just want to say that I'm very excited for the groundbreaking coming up on Friday as well. I only got my sound working to hear Kathy and the last lady and so I'm excited. You. Sorry, long day. It's exciting for the town. Can't wait. Okay. Catherine Magaldi Lewis. Sorry. I don't have anything. Thank you. Okay.
And, Steven. I don't have a last name. Okay. We'll take that as a no. And then Dennis O'Brien I guess you're on the cell phone at the bottom. Okay, it is Dennis I'm pretty sure. Yes, Diane.
I just wanted to say that I see that Catherine Nunigoldi Lewis is on the line here. I'd like to thank her and her committee for all the hard work for the one seventy fifth anniversary, all the events and things that happened. I think it went over really well, and it was a great celebration for the town. Made Andover proud. So thank you, Katherine, and your committee. All right. Thank you, Diane.
I second that there we go. So did I miss anyone on public speak anybody like to say anything else. All right, if not we're going to move on to item three additions and deletions to the agenda. I have a few if you guys don't mind I'll go first. I'll do the easy one. I would motion that we delete item four the Burnett Brook lot line agreement discussion, And then I would like to add to the agenda an item, let's say, Let's put these in four. So since we're getting rid of that one, we'll go for a discussions regarding the AES upper parking lot paving for B community center piano discussion and four C towns and cemetery stump removal discussion. Anybody else?
I would like to add four d soccer goals down at Long Hill Field Long Hill Memorial Field. Yep. Is the Barnett Brook not ready for discussion yet?
No. We're not. I do not believe the group is truly prepared. There's a significant amount of disagreement among the parties.
So adding, can I just throw something out there as a thought? Yeah, go ahead. You have a lot to talk about tonight. Is there anything we can push to next month that's not time sensitive? Because we also have, we have a long executive session. So Is there? Can we? Can we move anything that we added? To next month. That we added?
Yeah. I'm I'm and then I'm gonna retract that statement that I would not like to move the goal discussion because there's
Go ahead. Something that's tied to it this month. So. Well, I promise we'll go through these as quickly as I possibly can get through. I listen,
I have I'm in no hurry. I'm just saying at a certain time, the brains start kind of getting a little foggy. So we got a lot lot to talk about tonight. So I'm just throwing that out there as a suggestion. And if fifties come at you quick, Just remember, you're always older than me.
I'm already there. Think if you wanted to shorten, you could certainly put off 11B, which is the personnel policy discussion. I honestly think that should almost be its own separate meeting so you can have a real in-depth discussion of that. You know, if you so chose.
Well, why don't we get to those and then just sit there and push them to the following month? Is that okay, Paul? Anything, Paula, anything you recommend push the next month, I am going to be in agreement with you. So that's two votes. So we only need to convince Scott or Adrian to go with us.
I I'm I have faith in you to to push a short meeting, Jeff, so I'm gonna vote no. I think we should just go with it. Let's go. Alright. Okay.
Alright. So we do have five items, so let's let's vote on deleting item four, the Burnett Brook Lot Line Agreement discussions. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Aye.
So let's move to adding 4A, the AES upper parking lot paving, 4B, the community center piano discussion, 4C, the Townsend Cemetery stump removal, and 4D, the soccer goal discussion. I make a motion that we add all four of those items. Aye. All those in favor? Aye. I support them. For nothing. Okay. All right. So let's move on to item 4A, the AES upper parking lot paving discussion. As the board members are aware, the, well, I don't even want to, I don't even want to go rehash this. Eric, I sent you some information this afternoon regarding the proposed document is the paving as as currently constituted in agreement with what the town engineer and the director of public works requested from the contractor?
So, to be honest, it's kind of hard to tell. One, it was a screenshot that I had trouble even reading what was in the screenshot. But I can go over
that. How about we do this and we try to make this quick because this is not just our board. I had a meeting with Jerry Kerme and Mark Brinker last week to discuss how this potentially can get done and what would work the best. And there are other boards that would have to sit there and weigh in on this, specifically the Board of Finance. So what was discussed was that we would utilize the new fund for this project. The the town administrator and the board of finance set up a new fund that any excess from the board of education could be used in to fund capital projects. This is a very quick use of that, but it is something and here's my one caveat in what I had said to Jerry is, and I said this to Valerie in an email, is that the job needs to be performed in accordance with the specifications laid out by Jay Tuttle, the director of public works and the town engineer who went and looked at the project, the potential project.
So if it's done in that accordance, I've, you know, it is a project that was on it is on Eric's list anyway to get done. It might not be in line to be the most useful project to get done at the school might be the better. I know I've spoken to other members and might be better to do the lower parking lot, but it is a project that can get accomplished and and we can get it done, and it is in the best interest of the town in my mind. So the discussion ended where if it's done in accordance with the engineer and the Department of Public Works, I have no problem with the project moving forward. And as I've said to everybody out there, I am only one vote on a board of selectmen, and all we need to do is sit there and say that we're allowed the permit, but then the I believe Eric, the Board of Finance really needs to vote to move the money to the fund. That accurate? I believe that's accurate. Okay. You believe that's accurate. Well, that's the way that we're going to proceed then if you believe that it's accurate because Mark Brinker was under the understanding that the Board of Finance had to approve that money moving there. Are there any
issues, Eric, just so we're all aware from your end? If this gets executed and gets done, what are you what are your you're gonna have issues? So talk to us about what you feel is the right thing to do.
Okay, so reading through the document you sent as best I could, because honestly, I had difficulties actually reading it. But I think the difference is between what we had suggested in that document is the town is suggesting that we supply three basin tops and all three of the basin tops that are there get replaced, which you have to remove the basin top whenever you do a reclamation anyway. And since the parking lot after reclamation should last about thirty years, there's no reason not to replace the base. So that's one. And the public works would supply the base of tops. The second thing is there didn't seem to be any mention of repairing and remortering the basin where the pipe enters the basin, that kind of central one in the parking lot, where there was a sinkhole previously this year that public works patched and that we know we need to fix. And there's no depth of reclamation specified. The last thing is they didn't appear to include any tack coating of the cold joint specifically where the new paving meets the town road or in the back where it meets the sidewalk. But that's a relatively, it would be a very small amount of tax. That
should be a completely inconsequential cost. In terms of what we would normally do contracting, we would probably want to hold harmless against the town for the work that they're done, then some kind of indemnification clause. And there doesn't seem to be anything in there about performance bonding. So, those would be my concerns. Now, with that, we're also making the assumption that the public works supervisor will be there to inspect and make sure that the pipe has been properly mortared prior to repaving. The town will have a monitor from Nathan Jacobson, monitor the pavement thickness during paving operations, and we will hire materials testing lab to measure soil compaction prior to paving and then asphalt compaction during the actual job. And then lastly, public works will come in after it's finished and will backfill behind the curbing at the completion of the job, because that was clearly not put in the, that was specifically excluded
from what the contractor said they were going to do. So, we would backfill with our low mix and reseed with the standard seed mix for fast grass establishment. So, with those things, I think that would be a project. It's a decent contractor. It's a project that could definitely go forward if if y'all want to push it forward. All right. So, further discussion from the other members?
All those things you noted, Eric, are gonna be put in permit, conditions of the permit Or in the contract?
I mean, suggestion would be to just only sign a contract if the document references the spec specifications that we gave to the school board as what we would normally do. These are just basically our standard conditions for a reclamation job.
So do we have a reclamation specification? Do we have a compaction specification? And are we gonna do cores?
So in other words, do cores before we reclaim, or you're talking about cores after it's been paved? After. I would not assume we're going to do cores after. Normally what we do is we send, we use a, we do two things. We have a little depth measuring gauge. So as you're putting the asphalt down, we're measuring the thickness that gets put down. And then at the same time, we know you know, we know what standard compaction would be, and then we're following that up by having MTI do density testing on the material.
So I didn't realize you had site inspection as part of the contract, so.
No, that's not part of the contract. That's something that we're going to provide.
As long as we have site inspection, I don't need course. But if we didn't, I would want course, that's all.
Right. Everybody needs to be aware of that. That was something that Eric and Jay spoke of is having testing being done. What was the engineering firm? M and T, Eric? Nathan Jacobson.
They're the engineering firm we're using for everything right now. And they would be the one providing the the site inspection and the testing?
They won't provide the testing because that's very specific equipment. We'll use Material Testing Inc. That's nice. Material Testing Institute. They're out of Willamantic, so they're close. And they're good. That's proof we've used in the past.
What's, what's the timeline of events for all this stuff? Do we have any idea?
I mean, I, I think in terms of completing the project, this should be a maximum of a five day project from start to finish. Now that, you know, bakes in essentially one day for bad weather. Reclamation should be done, you know, in a day or less. They're going to have about a half a day of prep work and then about, you know, then the reclamation can take place. And there's no reason they can't do the drainage work essentially at the same time. It's basically one day to grade and compact, and then we get the proctor out here who does the compaction testing. We'll have the results back for that the next morning, And presuming that's okay, they can pave the next day. So, can easily squeeze this in in a week, you know, we're ready to go. The only things that would be done that same week would be backfilling behind the curve. That would ordinarily be done, you know, like the following week. But that's not really time critical. You could do that a month, a year later if you had to. It would just look like heck until you do it. What about
timeframe for the non project pieces? So, do we have everything we need or do we have everything we need for the permit to be approved?
So, that is a good question. I would say, I think we could approve the permit, but if the caveat still, conditions are you holding them to? Are you holding them to all of the conditions outlined by the town engineer and road crew foreman? Or some subset of them? Is it that, because it does not look like the contract included everything, just, but I mean, maybe this is just an abridged version. I haven't seen a full contract. I honestly really haven't seen much in the way of documentation for this yet. So, don't necessarily understand exactly what I know the basics of what they're proposing, you know, the depth of asphalt, that it's going to be a reclamation job, but there's definitely some things that are missing from the documentation we have. Did even state the depth of reclamation?
The contract or the document Jeff shared with me a little bit ago did not. They originally had specified, I think, a six inch reclamation depth. And the public works foreman said he wanted to see at least 10 to 12. There's a reason for that. And part of the reason is that they're going to have to lose some material. In other words, they're going to end up, because when you reclaim, you end up higher than the original grades, unless you remove some of the excess material, right? Because you're taking the initial asphalt, you're grinding it up into the base, and then you're adding, you know, three and a half inches on top of that. Yeah. So, and since we have specific grades, we need to meet at stairwells and other things, there's going to have to be some material removed. By reclaiming it deeper, you can still remove some material and take advantage of the fact that you've ground that material into the sub base.
So if that makes sense. No, it does. That's why I'm asking.
Okay, so so technically, Eric, there should be an addendum to whatever contract. The school has.
Put forth right now. Yeah, I there needs to be there needs to be an at least an addendum to the contract that outlines the inspection, etcetera, etcetera, as well as the clarification of depth, the repair specifications for the basin, you know. Right. So
The set of specifications I shared with you and got sent to AES included that information.
No. I'm saying, but the contract needs to include that. The contractor need documentation. The contractor's aware of all this and acknowledges it. You know?
So I would ask that, and I will contact the superintendent tomorrow, but I would ask, will, you know, if everyone is in agreement, I'll sit there and ask that an addendum to the contract is made to bring into a document that the contractor agrees with meets all of the specs outlined by the town engineer and the director of public works. And and and if that occurs, then that's approved.
And is it approved? I'm I'm just asking this board
that we're all okay with that. Yeah. Yeah. As as I mean, that would be my take. I I think what what Scott's saying, you you're okay with it, Scott, as long as it Yeah. I'm through the contract. Right? That addendum. Yeah. We're approving it now with
that, with the With the addendum to the contract. Right.
Okay. And so then Move forward. I will sit there and I will talk to Valerie in the morning. And then I need to get with Mark Brinker because he needs to sit there and and and have because technically the way that I believe it should go and listen, I'm just going to this not the right way as far as I'm concerned. But we're gonna put the money. It is the right way, but it is not done correctly. Let's put it that way. So we're gonna put the money. We're gonna move the money. The school is gonna request request that the money be moved into their capital improvement funds, and then we're authorizing a permit to be issued to spend money out of that fund. That's basically technically what we all need to agree to do. Anybody have any problem with that?
Again,
as long as the contract has the specs, no. Okay. As long as the contract has the specs.
And I just want clarity on this. I am authorized to sign off on the permit of this now in anticipation of the Board of Finance or once the Board of Finance agrees to it? And that's
Once you have the con once you have a contract that has that addendum Approved Approved. By the company.
That they've acknowledged. Yeah. And and the board of finance says, Then sure.
Okay. So then it would be me signing this contract and not the school or or I'm just I'm just trying to figure out how this works, so I know what my job is because we're not obviously not going to have another board of select and meeting for this has to get executed.
So the board of finance has to weigh in, which I know. I mean, I'm hopeful that Mark has spoken to his members and that they understand what we're trying to do.
Well, Linda's on the board. Linda, have you heard anything from Mark? Can you unmute?
I've been having trouble with the computer and with my email, so I haven't looked in the last couple of days. So Joann's on the Board of Finance. Maybe she's gotten something. Passing the buck. All right, Joann.
Thank you Linda. I do have information I wanted to wait to be asked. Mark has reached out to us and did send a couple emails our way in anticipation of this. Unfortunately I was away for ten days and the first time I didn't check emails so last week he had made us all you know included us all in some emails that you all were talking about this and you know we had heard of it in prior meetings that they wanted to pave the parking lot and what they wanted to do so. So yes, Mark has communicated with us. I got back on email this morning and started sending some out. We anticipate to possibly be asked for a special meeting this week. And and Mark's not the only one that does have the knowledge so thank you again for asking. I think as long as we follow along your guidelines that you set forth in this meeting this evening, we want to do what's best for the town and school too, but then have them follow the proper procedures as suggested in the future.
So let's sit there and make a motion that we authorize I'll make a motion that we authorize Eric Anderson to issue a permit for the paving of the AES upper parking lot with the following conditions that the contract that an addendum to the current contract be made to include all specifications as outlined by the director of public works and the town engineer, and that the Board of Finance approve via special meeting a transfer of fund of monies into the AES Capital Improvement Fund. I'll second that.
Anybody else? Anything else? Okay, all those in favor? Aye. Aye. Okay, order nothing. Let's move on to a 4B Community Center piano discussion. As everybody is aware, Diane Greiner has graciously offered to donate a an upright piano to the new Community Center. The question is, and I honestly pass the buck to Paula being our resident artist and musician on the board of selectmen to identify spatially where it might go. Think personally, Diane, I think it's a great idea if it can fit, and it's really about fitting in the space. So Paula, what do you have to offer us on this one?
So I can speak to what I think it is as an instrument. I mean, don't know the, I'm a visual person as far as understanding how it'll fit in a room. So it's it's hard for me to visualize something that hasn't been built yet. I think it'll get used. I think it'll be it'll be great. I can see that, you know, there's the seniors will be using it probably some in the future. Maybe the library hosts host some events with the music and movement class with little kids. It's a very generous offer, Diane. I love it. I looked over what Diane said. She's done a lot of research on this, talked to a bunch of people as far as what what kind of a piano to get. It's I
haven't played this piano, but it's I know of the brand and it's a it's a great instrument. But I just wanted to hear from eight. I mean, Adrian's been working on the spacing and how how things will, will kind of look when everything's built. But my challenge is I just don't know how it'll look, look in the room or where we'll put it because I I'm spatially I don't understand how the the layout will be of the room, so I don't know if if the conversations have started of what's going to be in the room. Adrian, what are your thoughts on that?
So the conversations really haven't started on that. I mean, the upside is that for once we're actually going to have some storage, to work with things that can be put away. In this case, I I envision the piano kind of being out, Which you know, in my conversations Diane was basically that I thought it would be important that I have a lock on it, that when we're having a town meeting or something like that that. You didn't have random kids on it, otherwise you would you know you could open it and leave it open for seniors or whatever events that would be appropriate, but you know, events where you certainly don't want it to be a distraction
for somebody that you might just lock it. But I mean, I think it's certainly easy enough to find space for it. It's not tremendously big. It's an upright. It is movable. You know, and the and the the surfaces that we have would would lead to being able to be moved be moved around, I think without too much of an issue. You know what I do? I still am trying to reach out to get a specification on the density of the floor in some of the traveling areas as to whether or not that the casters would be an issue. That was something that Jeff Murray had brought up, And unfortunately, have not been successful in that yet. Meaning the density, meaning it's going to leave marks. Right, right. It could. So, you know, we have carpet in some areas and we have like a linoleum type product in other areas, right? And so depending upon the weight of this thing the floor, you know, whether or not that would be an issue. So I'm just trying to get a clarification of something just asked for this, unfortunately, something I don't have tonight for us. So.
And Diane, I, I read your email. I forgot how you worded it. So after December 31 of this year, that quote goes away or what? I'm
sorry, my offer goes away. Okay. Way this is being funded is, as everybody knows, I'm Mrs. Claus. I visit lots of places. Zen's Tree Farm pays me very well for that. And on Christmas Day, he is going to write a check, and the check will go to the piano man, or I will send it someplace else. So there'll be no funding available after Christmas Day. Right.
So here's my next question. Let's say we move ahead, we say yes. What if the building is not ready in time? Where
do we put the piano? The piano company is willing to store it until we're ready to accept it. Okay. To answer Adrian's question about the lock, on the piano guy is looking for a key for the for the keyboard. If not, there's a third party mechanism that they commonly install to lock the keyboard. So the keyboard will be locked. Yep. Okay. Do we know how much this weighs? More than me. That
is not a polite question to ask, so we can't. I have no idea how much it weighs. Why? Why are you asking that, Eric?
Well, I mean, I guess the question is, is it move you know, how easily is this thing movable? Can we get it from the upstairs to the downstairs and back if we decided we didn't want to store it upstairs?
I wouldn't think it's that kind of movable. It's on. It's the kind that you would have in a school, you know, or a community room. It's got big casters on it. So, it's moved around the room. But I don't think you're talking up and down floors that would require a piano mover which becomes expensive. Yeah.
Google tells us that uprights weigh between 500 and a thousand pounds. So more than me.
And I think I think you said in your quote, they would so they would come out and tune it that for how many tunings do we get? They will tune it before they before it leaves the shop.
And then it'll sit in, they'll deliver it. It'll sit in the environment for thirty days, and then they'll retune it at that point again. Okay. After it's adjusted to the environment.
Okay. So I think there was a question at some point about tuning. So we we have some residents in town. I can't I can't speak for them, but maybe maybe some of our residents down the road will help us with some tunings.
So just throwing that idea out there. Okay. The tuning cost is like a $180. Yeah. So it's it's not outrageous.
Yep. Yep. Those were my questions. I was just, again, I love the idea. I know it'll get used. My thought is I just, I don't know where we would put it and I can't spatially visualize the room. Those are my thoughts.
So basically, Paul, there's two walls that it could work on in the large room. You know, there's there's two walls that certainly could accommodate it. Are they ins are they inside walls? I mean, we can put it on the outside. One on the inside wall
and and then one outside wall shouldn't be an issue. Because in an inside wall will it won't have to be tuned as as often on an inside wall.
Yeah, so I mean again the only you know Jeff had asked about whether or not you know, like let's say that we had something and we needed every bit of space. We move that into the storage room and would it going down those aisles be an issue and I don't unfortunately just don't have an issue. Don't have an answer for If we're moving it around in the big room, I think we're gonna no problem in there that the carpet will take that all day so right now casters are set up for that so. Okay, Diane,
if we if we looked into that question, finding out about if the floor will, you know, be impacted. When does he when when does this quote kind of expire? Is it is it in a month or or I know you were. I know you were hoping for tonight to have like a solid answer, but I was hoping that we answered that question that Jeff had about the floor, but Adrian just didn't get a chance to look into that. Okay.
The way it's working is he's a piano, restorer, and it's when he gets a piano in, whatever. I've been working with him for a couple of months now, and he has the piano that I think is perfect for us. He's willing I don't know how long he's willing to hold it. I mean, he's already been holding it. You know? If he sells it, you know, we we're not I'm not putting any money on it until you guys say, yeah, you want it. Not giving him a deposit. At that point, he'll hold it for us. But so I I don't know how long he's willing to. I mean, Diane, I can't speak for anyone else. I'm
in general in favor of this. You know, to your point, you know, when you you discussed it with me that other community centers have a piano. It's kind of a common thing. I think it's like I think it's kind of a cool thing that may be my own personal take. Again, I I do agree with Jeff, though we do want to make sure that if we did to, we need to move it for whatever reason can out of that space. So that would be my only ask is if you can give us a little bit of time just to get ahold of the subcontract that's actually going to be doing the floor and get an answer for you or get an answer back as far as whether or not that would be an issue with that type of floor. That's all. Well, why can't we condition an approval tonight on I'm the
perfectly fine with that. Yeah. Why don't we vote why don't we vote based on getting that answer? Okay. And then this way, if, when Diane gets that info or whoever shares it with us, then it won't get it won't hold up.
Well, I could just send it. I can send out an email to everyone. LCC Diane email once we have the information, if that's okay with Diane. Yes. Jeff, you have a motion there?
I do not, but I'll make a motion that we graciously accept local resident Diane Greiner's gift of an upright piano for the new community center. Can we amend that to say Mrs. Claus or no? No.
I'll second that Jeff. Well, can we I we're gonna put in are we putting in the no pun intended clause that we're gonna find out?
Yeah. On that condition. Yeah. He said contingent on. Okay. Alright. Sorry. I my my Internet might've You just wanted to say clause. I did. I wanted to be cheeky. So Okay.
And and hopefully, I assume that that that can be done relatively quickly to get that answer.
They're a little busy this week, but I will have an answer, I would say, by the beginning of next week. That would be fine. Just we got a bunch going on. We're trying to get ready for groundbreaking fence going in some other things.
Okay. Who seconded that? Scott did. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Okay,
Diane, thank you very much. Thank you, Diane. Thanks for all your research on that. All right.
4C, the Townsend Cemetery Stump Removal. Eric I know that there's some issues with the tree cutting at the cemetery. I'm not sure this is a voting issue or that. But is it on the agenda of something to get done and cleaned up?
So generally the town, it cuts trees in its right away, does not grind the stumps. We remove them and we leave the stumps there. We had a request from a resident, Diane Brenier, to grind up the stumps for the trees that were cut there several years ago in front of Townsend Cemetery. We can do that. It's just a question of, it's a precedent we don't necessarily want to set, but if you guys decide that it's important enough to do it because of the visual on the cemetery, we can do it. But this isn't.
I just want to clarify. This isn't a town owned cemetery, right? This is a private cemetery?
Correct. Okay. But these are trees that we cut in our right away. It just visually impact the cemetery.
So when you I went over there and met with Jay and Diane, and, you know, my final resting place probably gonna be at Townsend. I sure certainly would like it to look a lot better than it does. Those stumps over there look horrible. So you're saying you're gonna donate to pay for that? I'm saying that there it's is is it reasonable to have the town pay for stump removal?
If you do that, you're gonna be removing stumps all over town on every private piece of property. It's it's the final resting place.
Not the point, Jeff. It to Eric's point to Eric's point. We would be setting a precedent that private private land owners can then come to us and we are going to remove their stumps.
Stump ground in front of his house to be taken care of by the town after I could come and it's a, it's not a precedent, it's a cemetery, it's a different piece of land. It's not a whole By the way, lot by the way, Adrian, by the way, and no one from the the cemetery committee came to us. Diane, please tell me you're not on the cemetery committee. I'm not on the cemetery. I do own real estate in this And You do own real estate? You own real estate in a cemetery? In a cemetery.
Right. So now we're so now she's involved. Yeah. But no. But seriously, I my concern is you are setting a precedent because it's not whether it's a cemetery or a church or whatever. It's the fact that it is a private landover. The the town does not run the cemetery. We don't own the cemetery, and we have rights of way all over town on every town road. We do not grind stumps on any town road. You're starting a precedent. And we don't even own a grinder, do we? We actually have would have to sub that out or or or or get it out there. It would be more appropriate if the if the cemetery the the the group that runs the cemetery or the individual or whatever, I believe it's a board, actually, they should be taking their resources that they make from selling the plots to then pay for the maintenance. And that would be a maintenance item that they would be responsible for. That is not something that the town is responsible for doing on private property. And I'm I'm telling you, you are going to set a precedent, and you're gonna regret it. There are too many ash trees in this town. You know. No. So we're all those trees.
Let me go ahead. Sorry. Let me ask a question. This is probably obviously covered, but I have a tree on my property. The town comes and cuts it down. What so the stump gets left, even though it's the right away.
Of course, absolutely. Yep. We've done it 1,500 times in the last three years. Exactly.
And that's what we're talking about. We're not talking about one. We're talking about or two in front of a cemetery. We're talking about how many 1,500 in the last three years, and we're gonna do at least another 1,500 in the years going forward as we keep addressing these ash trees, you know, and the and the birch trees and and all the trees that are in danger of causing a problem there. In the right away, we cut the tree for safety sake. The town covers the cost of the cutting, right? But as soon as you start grinding somebody, you're gonna be grinding everybody's. You know?
And Scott, you're saying, I mean, for the record, Scott, I hope your resting place is very far down the road in many, many years. All of you.
No, I think she just said that because she's the youngest.
That too. Yes. So, but Scott, so you're, can you explain to me a little more why, why you think that even though it's a right away that the town should take care of it as far as the stump grinding?
It looks awful. You gotta go drive by there, Paula. And you, Adrian. So I drive by there. I drove I drive by there all the time. I made a point to look at it. I drove over to drove over to Mike on Saturday and looks
awful that I don't think that's the that's not the criteria though. Yeah, I think I mean I think we all agree that it could look better, but I'm, I'm kind of, I see what Adrian's saying. It's just, I see both sides of it, but I think, I think Adrian's right. It's just gonna cause, it's gonna open up a can of worms. The only the only issue is that I don't. I personally don't look at that piece of land as.
Private property, I understand Adrian's correct and technically he's correct. They don't give those lots away, Jeff. They sell them
right? Scott, that is that is the truth that you paid for yours
right and it it and whatever their price to set is set is supposed to be put away for maintenance and those types of things and to pay for this type of maintenance item, you know, and pay for cleaning up the cemetery and and, you know, and that is the concern. So
Well, Scott, this is one of those things. It's been how many years since those stumps have been there? Three. At least? Three two to three. Okay,
let's put this one off till next month and talk about it again. I would like to sit there and and speak directly to attorney O'Brien about something related to it just to understand what's the possibility. So Diane and Scott, this is not going to hurt you if we put it off for thirty days. So I think that's what we should do.
What what and what in in the interim, what's gonna happen?
You can't die for thirty days. Yeah. Yeah. Basically. You're not allowed to to pass for at least thirty days until Jeff gets his gets his plan in place to finagle this. But in the meantime, stay healthy. Did you just say finagle this? Wow. Oh
my God. You know, I don't know if you know this, but I'm being cremated. And if I had my way, I'd go to New Orleans and go into one of those crypts and and have them cremate me that way. Are you suggesting you want a crypt in Andover now? No, I see it doesn't get hot enough in Andover, but with global warming Adrian, maybe it will.
Mean you need sprinkle them the lake? I told my wife to get fish and feed me to them. Know how you sprinkle things in the fish thing, everything? If the lake association
would let me do the Darth Vader pyre, I would, right? Me on the beach. It'd be good. So we're
gonna put this off. We're gonna put this off for a month.
Yes. Okay. Moving on. Okay. Four d soccer. Paul has a timeframe. Soccer goal discussion. I know we're killing it on four soccer goal discussion. Paula.
Okay. So there are two soccer goals down at Long Hill Memorial Field that were used once upon a time. They have met their lifespan and they are off to the side, being used anymore. The nets are a little beat up and the organization that's renting the field uses their own soccer nets down there, their goals. So unfortunately Jeff Murray is not on the call, but he had an idea that he spoke to me about. The we originally talked about this in a meeting with Eric, Scott and I, and the individual that's down at the field using the field. And we were gonna take down the nets and, and get rid of them. But Scott's thinking there's some life in them. And Jeff Murray suggested that we auction them off to anybody in the public that would like to buy them and then donate the money to
the seniors are having a tag sale coming up in August. So that was, you know, that was an idea that Jeff had that we can give the money to seniors and offer the goals up to anybody in the public that would like them. So Paul, please make a motion to that.
I make a motion that we auction off the soccer goals down at Long Hill Memorial Field and the proceeds go to the senior tag sale in August.
I'll second option. I'm at the tag cell. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
Alright. All those in favor favor. Aye. Alright. Good God. Four d was good. Five treasurer's report. The new report was put into our packet. Does anyone have any questions regarding anything? It was July's information. Eric, as a just a side note, was were all the bank accounts reconciled?
They were reconciled through last year. They're not, I don't think July has been reconciled yet.
Okay, it would be quick to have July reconciled, but June is reconciled. As far as I understand June is reconciled. Okay. Anybody have any questions?
Is that like a record, Jeff? Getting those things done that quickly?
Well, having June done is definitely Phenomenal, right? Yeah, if it's all done, I mean, it would be great July. You know, the July statements probably came a week ago. It would be nice if they were done, but I can understand why they're not. I think it's QuickBooks slowing them down. Yes, I agree. 100%. Anybody have any questions for Eric on the treasurer's report?
So related to to that, I have just a couple quick things. The last galley the treasurer gave me was in total between our what money we brought in in revenue and what expenses, we had it looks like we were in the black on the town side, not including the school for around $270,000 Now there will be some smaller expenses that are still rolling in that, you know, we haven't accounted for, but we're well in the black overall for last year.
And Eric, I just want to say excellent job on managing the budget. Kudos to you on that. Thank you.
Appreciate it. And the second thing I wanted to talk about real quickly is that I think both the finance person and the treasurer are getting incredibly frustrated with PrimePay, and both of them are advocating for switching to another payroll service, potentially QuickBooks payroll service, than doing payroll that way, because they're struggling mightily to get PrimePay to line up to what the town is actually doing. And I know it's just chewing up a lot more time than it should. You know, we are managing to make it work, but it's certainly not working well. And given that we're paying them 7 or $8,000 a year, it should work flawlessly
and it does not. The only thing I would ask Eric is, will is there a QuickBooks program that will work with the electronic?
That is what we're looking at now. The caveat I had with that is that if we do it, we're going to do it with, you know, a similar verification method, fingerprint verification method to what we have today for the majority of employees. Okay.
And the treasurer said if we're going to do it, she wants to do the cutover at the end of the first quarter. So
basically I would I would I'd be in favor of that. Was I was never a prime. I was never a fan of prime pay to start with. Why
why if you're going to make a move? Why aren't you just making the move to January 1? I mean, it's it's August 14. Now you have a full quarter.
Well, now the quarter would be the end of September.
No, I understand, but she's she's Derek said first quarter. I don't understand that when I what I'm saying is, are you talking the first quarter for us? The September 30? Correct. Okay, correct. Okay.
Then they don't have to deal with it for No, after six
because payrolls are calendar year, Adrian. I was thinking he meant first quarter next year. Yeah, no. No, I was
assuming we were talking about doing this as of yeah October 1. The other thing I wanted to do is bring your attention to in the packet we also gave a list of all the town grants are. The state and federal funding that the town has received both on the board of on the town side in the board of bedside We get that fiscal list once a year, so we included that in your packet. If you have you look through that, and if you have any questions you can ask me offline, but that should encompass all the money that the town got in the last year.
Okay, thank you. Any other questions for Eric on this? All right, item six, boards and Commission presentations. Stations Eric do we have any I didn't see anything in the packet.
Only thing that was there, not for that we had for appointments. Which technically is six a if you want to see what they asked.
Okay, so. We'll sit there and talk about the appointments that are in the package it's a Brad Keeley would like to be appointed to the library Commission and Ellen Ripay would like to be appointed to the Norton Commission as an alternate. Have these gone to the various boards?
I honestly don't have the answer to that question. I assumed in most cases, these were appointments that came from the boards, but I could be completely wrong in that. Diane says I'm completely wrong in that. So
Diane, since I believe you're on both of them, if you could sit there and we'll put these off till next month. And Diane, I would like you to sit there and we'll talk to you about these two. And I know the library commission is probably full, but maybe you could need an alternate as well. Can
I speak? Sure, go ahead. Thank you. Linda is also on the library board with me. This is what's his name, Brian? It has not been brought to the library board. Just the first I hear of it. And we have an alternate position that's open on the library board. That's the only position. I am no longer on the Norton Commission. So I don't know anything about the Norton Commission anymore, what they have open. But my other question about appointments while you're there is who notifies people that they've been appointed? I believe that I've been appointed to the reappointed to the library board. I've never received any notification that says that you appointed me.
Okay. Well, you're not in public speak right now. Okay, I'm sorry. So I gotta get Paula out of here. So we're gonna sit there and come back to that. Thank you for bringing that up and we will sit there and we'll talk about that. Eric, if you could could you transfer the letters for Brad and for Ellen to the appropriate chairperson, and let's sit there and just make them aware, because I have no problem appointing any volunteer to any position for anything that they want to do, because it's the hardest thing to sit there and get people involved and to be able to do things. So if you could, I do think it's better for these types of requests to go to the board chairperson, so that they can vet the individuals and then sit there and say, this is what we're gonna do. If do that, that would be great, Eric. Okay. Item seven, appointments, I didn't think I saw anything, we're going to move on to, I didn't see item eight resignations, so we're gonna move on to item nine, which is the town administrator report, and since he was on vacation, it will be short. Hang on a sec, there was, we did receive. Oh, we did receive a resignation.
Catherine Magaldi Lewis resigned from the Andover Economic Development Commission
as of Friday, August 11. Sent it to that effect. And I will. I know Catherine is on this phone call. Catherine, thank you very much for everything that you've ever done. I realize we we as a small town of Andover never get as much done as we should, but we do appreciate everything that you've done in the past. And the one hundred and seventy fifth anniversary was extremely successful. That committee was well run, and we appreciate all your efforts. Now, Eric, we'll move on to item nine, which is your report. Okay.
Give me two seconds. So, I did send my report out to all of you, but I did send it late. So, I apologize for that. That whole vacation thing got in the way. As far as town hall operations, the only thing I wanted to say is Willie Bell has been working kind of long term on the library, repointing all the windows, because that desperately needed it. So, that's coming along well and looking really good. From the administrator's office on August 3, I was asked to and walked a property located off of Skinner Hill Road that is being acquired by Joshua's Trust. This was land that the town had taken for open space, and it was originally administered by the Mohegan Land Trust, who didn't really want it. So, they transferred it to the Manchester Land Trust, didn't really want it, who transferred it to Joshua's Trust. So, Joshua's Trust is one of the largest land
conservation groups in the area. They do not really have a presence in Andover, and they'd approached the town more than a year ago stating that we were one of the towns that they didn't have a presence in that they wanted. So this fits into their goals very well. The new president of the land trust asked me to go on the sidewalk and asked how the land trust in the town could start working together. So, of the problems with their property is they have a very narrow access way into their property. It's essentially like a rear lot, but it abuts right up to the open space that the town of Andover has for the Route 6 corridor expansion. So, what they would like to do is have the president come into our next, the next board of selectman meeting, and just basically talk to the board about whether. You know whether joshua's trust in the town can collaborate on establishing parking area there and a loop trail that would encompass both the town's property and joshua's trust. And you know so so I think that's definitely a discussion worth having. The other thing I would note is that the town's property is full of of junk. It was a dumping ground. Probably for. I
forgot the guy's name that was a big contractor. There's probably three or 400 old car tires on the property. There's a couple of old vehicles, a bunch of car parts, some empty barrels and a bunch of other stuff. So, Joshua's trust has the manpower. Part of what they would agree to do if they were doing this would be to manage cleanup. And maybe, you know, they supply the labor and we supply a couple of dumpsters for them to throw it in or get rid of the tires through our, you know, contract for getting rid of tires. Anyway, that's the conversation that they would like to have with them. And if you guys are willing, I will schedule them to to be at our next meeting to discuss.
Well, I mean, do they really need to be at a meeting? Can you just get a formal proposal from them as to what they would like from us and we can just move forward?
Well, I mean, so I think it will get some opposition from the Board of Selectmen. So, I think you ought to discuss that openly. Why are you concerned about opposition?
Because the last time a loop trail was proposed there, there was some strong opposition from the Board of Selectmen to it. So, they're proposing something that you all had already rejected. So, that's why I think you're better off dealing with them directly rather than them coming up with a proposal. That's my take on it. If you want to proceed some other way, I can certainly, I certainly have a good, you know, rapport with their president, so I could Eric, bring
please, please ask him to come to the next meeting and we give them five to ten minutes.
Perfect. Did sign the RFP for the fire truck so that was good we got that done and out of the way, As most of you know, we got the state local bridge grant. So it's a 50% match from the state for replacing the bridge on Long Hill Road or the culvert on Long Hill Road by DeSola. So that was good. Were That's not
on Long Hill Road, right? I mean, sorry, Lake Road, sorry. There you go. So
for the record, there were 58 grant applications submitted, and we were one of 18 that got accepted. So I appreciate all the work from Nathan Jacobson and putting that together. And looking at it, about a third of the ones that got accepted were theirs. So their success rate in getting through the program is considerably higher, which is part of the reason we hired them at the beginning. Potential cost for the town?
Potential cost for the town, realistically $750,000 something like that. So that will have to go to town meeting Before it can be. You know, it can be formally approved, but we have basically eighteen months before we sign essentially the next contract with the state, which would be the full blown design proposal. So, do have to go to a town meeting to approve because it takes a town match. We have oh, dollars 350,000 of that already in the culvert fund designated for that. So, and it probably would be two years before we start construction. So, we've got at least one more budget season to collect money before that. So, we should be able to do it without it being a really big hit to the public. Still expensive though.
Project cost was $9.82. Did I read that right? 982,000?
No, that is under their formula. So what they always do is just to be on the safe side, they ask for the maximum per the state's formula so they get the full grant amount. And then whatever the actual costs are for the bridge, the replacement cost, the state will pay for half of the replacement cost, including the cost of all the design and engineering work that goes into it. Like, for instance, per the state's formula, they were allowed to ask for essentially up to 200,000 for design costs, but Nathan Jacobson submitted a proposal to us for about $128,000 for that. So, right there, there, you know, it would be around $70,000 less than was in the original proposal. So we're going to have to figure out how we want to go about doing that and selecting your contractor. We're not ready to do that yet, but we need to start thinking about that fairly quickly.
As we go to, you know, obviously this great that we got this Eric, but I really do believe and I've had conversations with before we got to outline the entire cost potential to the town for the various projects that you have out there, because this is going to be something that this board and future boards are going to have to deal with for a long time to sit there and try to get all of the projects that are required to get accomplished within our community done. So I do think everyone should be aware of it so that a bill like this of $750,000 while expensive, is necessary, and people need to be aware that this is the tip of the iceberg. Right. Yep.
Well, I mean, so we should we should be thinking about that as we move forward in our funding priorities for next year that. Right. We need to be focusing on putting those dollars away. You know, we we picked up some we picked off some other big things. So, you know, this needs to be our priority now, you know. To that end, Eric, when you start putting together the budget, I know it's a little early, but I know you start thinking about these things early. If you can give us a summary as to where we are on the roads, you know, accomplished versus what we have left big dollar things. That may be a make it a little easier for us to look at, you know, priority dollars in the at least from the selectman's budget.
Okay. Thank you. All right. That's a good ask. It'll take me a while. So, as I said previously, we did not get the rec trails grant for the study along Route 316 for the pedestrian connection. However, we did get $100,000 professional authorization for that. That was largely thanks to MD Raman really pulled for us for that, the town. We still got to wait for it to get through the bond process, but at some point in the next six months, we should see, we should have that funding available to do the study and design work for connection. So that's good.
Transfer stations running moderately smoothly, got a few complaints here and there, but no more than normal. No major changes in assessor's office or social services. Most of the situations that we've had related to evictions have been resolved, So, we don't have anything majorly running through that finance office. As you all know, the audit is complete and submitted. We are talking about switching to the QuickBooks payroll and service. I sent some information very late today to the board from the building official for how he normally evaluates, you know, jobs to figure out how to cost them appropriately for the town. So that I think we can handle offline. I know Adrian will want to weigh in on that, maybe some other people. So what I would hope to do is have a proposal back for that, you know, fairly quickly. Basically, what he has done in Avon is he hasn't actually published what his minimum figures per unit. So, he makes the contractors give them, you know, their evaluation of what the costs are, but then he applies the formulas himself. And if he comes up with a number higher than what they gave, he just sends him a supplemental bill. And I think we can institute the same thing here in the end of Eric, the
I actually emailed you back on that. Some of his numbers, I think, are really low, even on the Mins, even just compared to other towns. So is it possible to maybe set up a meeting so maybe you and I can meet with him to discuss some of those numbers? Sure. I just wanna make sure that I'm not looking at it the wrong way if he has a specific reason why those numbers are low, you know? So.
Yeah. Understood. Not a problem. I figured you'd wanna be part of that conversation.
Yeah. I mean, just like off the top of my head, the, like, the roof number is ridiculously low. Just material would be triple that number for a min. Just material, not not including labor. Okay,
you know, I don't have a dog in the hunt, so I'm happy to set that wherever that you all think is appropriate. I like Adrian's numbers. I'm sure you do, right up until the time it's, you know, you have to pull a permit, then nobody likes the numbers. But that's life. So I don't have an update for the zoning enforcement actions for you this month, that's because the zoning agents just came back today from two weeks away on vacation. We're still going to be dealing with 664 Route 6 for quite some time, but we are, you know, grinding away on that. How's the training going for the tax collector?
That is going well. I think that is going to be good. And she was able to register for the fall class or the next class series. Even though. Which fills up very fast. So she was basically ready to go 08:00 this morning, ready to sign up as soon as they open registrations and she got it. Because that usually fills up, you know, the first day it's open. Are we looking for those opportunities for
like the assistant clerk as well? You know this is Carol on top of that, and is there anything in the building department that you know that might be helpful for her as far as training opportunities or? I know Chiponus normally takes care of it with the assessor's office, but given that we don't have a supervisor really downstairs, don't know if there's anything for the building secretary that might be helpful. So.
Yeah, I don't necessarily know that that would be, I will think about that. Mean, I, we certainly go back and forth with the stuff for the T2 Training Center for Public Works from time to time when stuff comes up, which their guides. In fact, I just emailed Jay and said, I thought we should send at least one guide through their basic surveying, how to do job surveying stuff today. I am always looking for employee training opportunities as they come up. I hadn't really got involved in anything with Carol's office. But that's something I should probably look into.
Given the number trees and stuff we're doing, are we? And we do have a bunch of newer guys. Maybe we should be talking to like Beaverbrook or one of the other arborist groups that do training and see if we can get our guys and just kind of a reminder safety class or something, or a dropping program. Especially as we start getting into these ash trees even more.
What I would say is that if you look at the guys on the crew, probably only one of them doesn't have very significant tree removal experience. So, I'd be less concerned about that. Okay.
Personally, but think I think Adrian's point more is any any training that can be made available to town employees to improve their skills would be possible. Right.
And there's a difference between having experience taking down trees and having experience taking down trees safely.
Well, that's a good point. Any opportunity, Eric, that you believe can be made available at a reasonable cost and not take them away from their jobs for a significant portion of time would be positive. Yep, understood. Understood. What else we got?
So chip sealing should start really shortly. There is a bunch of ongoing drainage work. Things have gone a lot slower. We have had some storm stuff to deal with ongoing for the past month, and we've had to deal with several catch basin replacements on roads we weren't really anticipating, but the catch basins were failing. We did one on Webster, there's one going on at Lake Road right now. There's been a couple under. So there's been a lot of little things that we've kind of chewed up time on that we didn't really anticipate. I spoke to Jay this morning. We are going to get back to working on more of a debris management plan for the town for catastrophic events. That really became obvious to me that we're going to need a catastrophic plan for the town. Having, you know, just vacationing Vermont and looked at some of the devastation and the roads there and how badly they got pummeled, It's really sobering to think how badly you can get wiped out in such a short period of time. So, I think we're probably going to go back to pursuing a, you know, essentially a catastrophic management plan with both Ashbred and another company called Tetra Tech,
who does essentially emergency management services during natural disasters. So, the next thing is I went to the Bunker Hill Bridge Design, the seventy percent Bridge Design meeting. A couple of things that became issues. One, they are going to have to relocate utilities to the upstream side, and they're working on negotiating with the property owners over easements for that. Those will be temporary. You know, there are some additional complications based on threatened species in the area, but they've worked through with Hank Gruener how to address those and keep the project on track. There's also been some coordination between us and the state, because Coventry also has a federal or state local bridge program approval for a bridge on the other end of that road. And obviously we can't do them both in the same season because then everybody would have to swim to work and they'd be pissed. So we don't want to do that. The other thing we discussed with the state is how much the town had to hold as a reserve to pay the contractors between the time the bills came due and the time we can get reimbursed by the state and federal government, because we're going to get reimbursed by both entities separately. We were kind of doing the math. Biggest single bill we'll get will be when they bring in the precast bridge decks, which are estimated to be somewhere just north of $400,000 for that project, so we have to be able to accommodate. Alan For a short time say six weeks or so one large bill somewhere in the $800,000 range, which is more than we have in that fund. But the assumption is we would take that from
the town general fund and just reimburse ourselves. We have plenty of cash to be able to do that. But I'm just giving you a heads up that that will be an issue when we get to that point.
Have you considered talking now that we know we've got a surplus that came through rather than dumping that in the general fund? We have you considered talking to board of finance about transferring those monies into maybe the covert or you know bridge fund.
I was planning on talking about to border finance about reallocating some funds that being one of them, that being one of the priorities, yes. Okay, what was the other one. So
we never did close out the old library fund so that's sitting out there in the and that can be reallocated because we're not you know we're not using it So that that and we had agreed both the Board of Select and Board of Finance had agreed to roll that in other projects. The money just never got moved. So I'm going to ask the Board of Finance and the new treasurer is not going to move it without some sort of new resolution by the board of finance to do that so that's the other one that. Was that was for a library building correct.
Correct correct. Let's see. So so just so we're clear Eric so you're going to go and ask about moving. X amount of dollars, do you have $1 amount into into those funds. I
was thinking about moving you know, trying for somewhere around 150,000, something like that.
Well, you have said you have close to $2.70. Why wouldn't you go more than that? We could we could.
I mean we know we have enough money in the general fund, and this is something I know I personally dealt with when I was on the Board of Finance is that the town got in the habit of taxing taxpayers. Then, when the money was extra at the end of the year, they would just roll it into the general fund. And then the general fund gets built up too high, and then you have to start spending it off. It makes better sense to to ask the Board of Finance to put it where we know we need it. Well, Board of Finance has been
annually reducing the taxation by taking the excess from the general fund and applying that to the annual budget.
I didn't think they did that this past year. Thought they anticipated 100,000 or something.
We didn't this past year because we didn't have any to transfer. We did in years past transfer, you know, one to one to three hundred thousand depending on what we end up.
Eric, Eric, I'm with Adrian. Move as much of the money as you possibly can into
the bridge and culvert or road work. Yeah I mean we know that's where we need it also I mean especially roadwork you know, even if you split between the two or something, and that means that we can go instead of us taxing again, you know, we can go back and and and if it lowers it if it pre lowers the number we need so. Or or trees removal.
Right in this case, I think I would have asked to put it in bridge and culvert foam. I assume everybody knows by now the special permit application for the community center is done and dusted. The mylars have been signed and filed. We know groundbreaking starts at noon on Friday, so we're finally at that point. First was eleven. Eleven. Eleven on Friday.
Pretty sure. No. No. Eleven. I I didn't think it was eleven. I thought it was noon.
No. That's when the that's when the lunch is. Where's
Pretty sure it was at noon with lunch to follow. I mean, literally, that's
literally, that is what got sent out. So Right. It wasn't. It is now.
The intention was to do that at noon. That's where we have everybody It's in on the website at noon. Yes.
It's not gonna be an hour. I mean, this should be a quick thing. Right. It's a photo opportunity and it's a it's a it's a quiet celebration, but it's not, you know, fifteen minutes and move on.
Paula. On that point, I am not gonna be able to attend. And as always, anyway, you're the most photogenic, so please be a front and center.
I'm so tall. I don't I don't know if I can accommodate that request. Well, your vice selectman will be standing right behind you holding you up so you can be on the phone. I will try my best.
I was gonna say something snarky, but I'm choosing not to. Oh
my God, Eric, did you just say that? I did. I did. And it was good too, but he did that. He saved the town money and he took a vacation. He is batting a thousand this month. Wow. So
we all know that the senior vehicle, we have it in place. The RAV4 is working out well. We still need to put lettering on that, but it's good. We are officially getting rid of the big bus in sixteen more days. And we will say goodbye to it for a life well served. The handicap accessible spot at the walking track at the Veterans Field is in, and the spot for that is paid. We're just waiting, line striping for that. We still don't know about the trip grant. DOT, as far as I know, has not said it, has not made any decision about that whatsoever,
which is kind of crazy. And I threw in the back of my packet a couple pictures of how bad erosion can get on roads. It was pretty freaking amazing, actually, to see how much damage that the state of Vermont took in that. There was a stellar shot of Bill Penn cycling across the country. Good job to Bill, even though he did wear a really stupid looking hat. We still have a chicken loose at the Long Hill Field, but he doesn't seem to be messing up the field, more power to him. The community garden's going great. We got the bench in and donated on the rail trail with the money from Ken Platt of Platt Timing Systems.
And there's a little plaque next to it that says bench donated by Ken Platt of Platt Timing Systems. And I threw in the packet a couple pictures of some of the junk that is sitting on the town property that was given to the town as part of the right away for the Route 6. So you can look at some of the stuff that we need to get rid of off our property.
That stuff is down by Brown's Brown's house there? I don't know who Brown is. Brown's was down by Cromie Walton's place.
Did you just say Cromie Walton's? Yeah. Cromie. Oh, I'm like, is that a nickname? Yeah.
I think it's the other direct. I think it's I don't think it's there. It's it's down by Jeff Murray's end? No. It's it's on this end. It's on the the, Skinner Hill Road end of it. It's not in very far. It's basically just past real thick portions. I saw it and it's right behind Brown's house.
Okay. I I don't know who Brown is, so that that's not a reference. I mean, it's Mr. Brown has a plot at Townsend Center. Guaranteed. Guaranteed. Yep. Alright.
Eric, are you done? That's it. That's me. Anybody? Eric, I have a question for you about the Steiner mower repair. Yep. What is the mower at the motor for that readily available?
Last I looked, it was back order. We could get one in about three months if we ordered it, but it's a 23 year old mower. So to me, it's probably hit its useful life. We probably ought to just replace the damn thing and and get a new one. A new a new one is like 30,000 for that Steiner.
Yep. Do we need a Steiner? Because we I know we talked a while back about possibly doing a a an upgraded tractor with a joystick control and have have it on the front instead of mid mower.
So what we're talking about is so let's talk about what we use the Steiner for. The Steiner is the only thing we have right now that can do a good job of mowing like a lawn or something that we want to look decent. We would probably, if we replaced it, we would probably additionally buy a, you know, the mower head for that, for doing fine mowing. And then we would also buy the style for, you know, clearing and doing kind of rough mowing. Because before they blew it, they were experimenting with using that to mow the rail trail because they can mow the rail trail a lot faster than the regular boom flail mower. So, get a smaller front mounted flail mower for it. And then the other thing we need that for is that's what we use for, we've got the big blower attachment for it. So, we use that for blowing off the roads prior to chip seal and after storms
and blowing off the rail trails. So, that's kind of why we were looking at probably going back with the signer. And when we really look at what the cost of a full size mower is, they're kind of stupidly expensive. And I don't think there's enough room in their budget to afford one of those things in the next four or five years. So this gets at least us a smaller multi purpose piece of equipment that we can do a bunch of things with, which is I think why we're looking at replacing it. So you're replacing the motor or the whole mower? I think we're probably looking at replacing the whole mower, replacing the whole unit. So is that headed over to CIP or?
Yep. Yep. I've been trying to get Jay to bring that to CIP for the last couple months, but. You said a motor for that is $3,000 It's gotta be more now. No,
I I don't know what the motor is. Last I looked, we couldn't get one for three months. I was looking at an alternative supplier because that seemed kind of crazy because it's just like a, you know, 30 horsepower Kohler motor, so it's not anything particularly unusual. But there was a significant backlog with getting them through Steiner.
So you don't think you would replace it? How much how much was the cost of the motor?
How about how about we sit there and ask Eric to do some like send us an email on this topic so that we can get a good answer because it sounds Scott sounds like Eric wants to go to CIP for the whole mower. And I'm sure Jay is trying to repair that thing anyway, so. Can you do that for us Eric and send us an email.
So what exactly do you want you want you don't want it to go to CIP. You want us to send you the information. Exactly? I
want it to go to CIP. I want it to go to CIP because everything should go through CIP. Everything should go to CIP. Yeah, but it doesn't mean that we can't have the information. Provide us what you're going to submit to CIP so we understand it. Okay.
And just the the motor for that's going to run about $3.
Just the motor. You looked it up, Adrian? Yeah. Yep. Yeah. But the if the the value of the mower is $30,000 and you can fix it for $3,000
No. It's it's 30,000 for a new one and upgrades, Hydraulic upgrades and stuff like that's where you put money into. The new ones are definitely better than that thing. Yeah. But that dinosaur. Yeah. But all those Steiners are really good, Adrian.
I know. But, I mean, it's it's it's got some years on it. You know? But I don't think they use it very much. Well, I I think it to Eric's point, if we got a new one, we'd get the attachments with it so they could use it more.
I wonder if you can use the attachments that we have on the new model.
Some of the all of the attachments will work on the new model. You know, we probably would replace our, finish mower head, because that thing's kind of getting beat anyway. Jay was talking about that even before we started talking about before they blew the engine on the Steiner. So, yes, some of it we would need anyway, some of it we're keeping and we'll use our existing, you know, we'll certainly use our existing blower head. That's only, you know, three years old and that's in perfect shape. Okay. Any other questions for information?
Any other questions for Eric? Anyway, no. We're going to go on to item 10 old business. 10 a the status of the Community Center rfp signed we're having a groundbreaking the eighteenth at 12PM. Adrian you want anything to add to that.
No, no, we we agreed to a so the bid that the final bids actually came in over what we were expecting the contractor sat down and we went over a list of things that we could. Adjust so we did and we've got a right now what we've agreed to is we agreed to do to release the package so that we can do foundation plumbing work that needs to get done, you know, in ground, electrical that needs to get done in ground, and so in general site work. So that gets us going, and then we're gonna keep working on the other contract pieces to try to get the number down. Of right now, we only have a buffer of a I I kid you not, of about 40,000. So, you know, all said and done, we're really close. I mean, granted, we're lucky it's design build and, you know, we've some really good
the contactor has been really good to work with. You know, they're they're really going above and beyond. I think that also helps with their town residents. So, you know, they're very much aware.
Okay. 10B, a discussion of blight and level of involvement. I know, Eric, you had some of the discussion during your your report, or is there anything else you want to add to it? Not at this time. Okay. 10C, stiff account update.
Stiff account is a work in progress. Okay. But the account is all set up. Right.
So explain that to us. So I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Paul. So you have the stiff account set up.
So, the STIF account eventually got set up. I mean, it took us probably six submissions before they accepted our application for a STIF account. You know, but anyway, and then we thought we had the correct protocol for transferring money into it. It's kind of Byzantine. You tell the bank you're transferring the money, then you tell the state how much you're transferring, and then you transfer the money. But the state has already showed you that the money is going into your account, the amount you said is putting into your account. So, it looks like the money's already there when the money's actually not there because it hasn't been transferred because M and T kind of sucks. So, we struggled with that. We thought we had transferred a bunch of money when we really didn't. And what was really annoying is we did the $1 test transfer, and lo and behold, it showed up in our account. But it showed up in our account because we told them to expect a $1 deposit, and therefore they showed it as it had $1 in it. Right. We've got we've got it to work now.
Have we have we considered revisiting M and T as our primary
bank? Yep. I think that's a discussion, you know, we might need to have because I am incredibly unsatisfied with our commercial or
business manager that we have at M and T. All right. So that's on the agenda, which you have that on the Board of Finance agenda, right? That's not on the Board of Finance agenda,
but I've asked the treasurer to review that. I will speak to the Board of Finance about that. Okay.
You know, we would have to do some kind of formal process if we're going to switch banks. And I don't know what that would look like at this point, but M and T certainly has not been a great institution.
Well, we did it. We did it once before, Won't be the end of the world. Yep.
Okay. 10 D Long Hill Memorial Field signage. Paul I'm wondering if we might be able to push this one off. I think it'll be well I don't know Eric. Go
ahead. I think it's tough to do because it it there's problem brings up problems with the town sign regs. It's not public interest signage. I think we can put up 132
square foot sign there and that's it without changing our sign regs. Wait, before we get into this, Paul, are you do you have enough energy to to have this conversation or Okay. For the record I just You're
in a hurry, so don't make this seem like, you know I'm trying to be supportive here. Just wanna make sure you're gonna make it through the executive session. That's I wanna make sure that you'll stay awake because you're a lot older than I am. So that's, you know, but anyway, so we can probably push this off till next month. But Eric, in the meantime, have you started to have that conversation? Well, and I had that quick conversation talking about the regulation,
right? Right. I had the conversation with Jed, and that was Jed's conclusion that our current regulations allow us one, we could put one sign up there no bigger than 32 square feet, period. Anything more than that, you'd have to go back to the zoning commission and request a change in the signage regulations,
which Let's I think they might go request a change to the signing regulations and then we'll move forward with this.
Okay. So Eric, you and I'll talk about that another time. Well, how big of a sign do you need? Well, this It's was not just one sign. This went back to, I don't know if you were on that meeting, Adrianne. This was a couple of meetings ago. We talked about people advertising their businesses on the fence. So we wanted to measure the fence to see how many signs we could fit and then start putting the word out. But Eric found out that the regulation is only allowing one sign at a certain size. Four by eight.
Alright, so it's something that is probably is a good idea as long as the signs don't go to the ground like Eric said and cause bigger problems in the next flood. Right? So or we type try different types of material, but let's sit there and get through the first part, Paula, and then we'll sit there and see if we can put a program together to support the rec commission a little bit.
However, so this still doesn't answer. So I will answer back to how this whole discussion started, or maybe I should tell them to wait. When we sat in our meeting with Vale, they wanted to put signs up. You tell
Vale they can do non permanent signage, why they're there, and that we're working on signage regulations for the fence. Okay.
So just to be clear while they're there, so they they take it down after their practices and after their games. Okay. Correct. Alright. Got it. Okay.
10E revised mapping for community center. Eric, do we need to go over that? No, that's in your packet. I'm just giving that to you because that is the official form that got approved by the Commission.
Okay, 10F, the contract for planner services, do we need to review that?
You should probably authorize me to sign that if you so chose. So this conforms to the purchasing policy of the town. It did go to RFP for planner services. The zoning committee or the committee that you authorized to evaluate the proposals came back with this. We settled on a contract with Tai Chi, specifically with John G, which is one of their principal planners. And
I need to be authorized to sign it. I think we met all the criteria. I think we'll be a really good fit. It's basically a two year contract because that's what it's going to take us to get through the full plan of conservation and development. And then we make a decision at that point whether we're going to go forward in future years with them as a planning service.
Okay. Does anybody have a problem with that contract? Okay. Does someone want to make a motion to give ERIC authorization to approve and sign that contract?
So I make a motion that we give Eric Anderson the right to sign the town contract for Planner Services. Second.
Further discussion on that? All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Okay.
10 gs grant for state local bridge program, you, so we need to give you authorization to apply for that grant or?
Nope, the grant's already applied for, we already got the grant. I was going to try to be far enough along to ask for a decision about how to proceed with that, but I'm not there yet. So punt that one for next month.
Okay. Item 11 on the agenda, new business, 11A, life insurance MOA with a town administrator.
So, basically the treasurer approached me and said we have an issue in that both myself and Jay Tuttle technically only have $50,000 in life insurance coverage, but our contracts state we have 100, which means from her perspective, that's a $50,000 liability if either one of us should croak. So, in my case, I had chosen the $50,000 limit as opposed to $100,000 because it simplifies the paperwork and what I have to file with the IRS. But I need a memorandum of understanding signed between myself and you to execute that. And Jeff, I sent you a copy of that and asked you whether you had a problem with that. I would just authorize, have the board authorize you to sign an MOU to reduce the amount of my life insurance from what's in my contract from 100,000 to 50,000. We both sign it and that liability is done. And then we got to figure out with Jay whether he wants to do the paperwork and keep 100,000. And we're working on that now.
And just from my standpoint, why would you not just go out and get a $100,000 policy? Why do I care? I don't have any independence.
I don't have a 100 people. I know you you look at it in a way that you're gonna die, and who cares? You don't need the $50,000 when you're dead. But, you know, the
plot of Townsend Cemetery is gonna cost you something. Yeah, besides, they're going to raise the prices if they have to grind those trees. Right. So,
Then you need to get with Dennis O'Brien on this if that's the direction you want to go. Alright? I think he's already looked at that. He's got the memorandum of understanding?
I think so. I'm not absolutely positive, but I think I read the I try to run every I, Eric Anderson want less insurance Signed.
Right. I mean, it's a pretty cut and dry thing. Yeah.
Jeff, I actually thought weren't you the beneficiary in that?
Yes. I don't think I was, but that is interesting. I would donate it right to the piano for the community room, maybe two or three of them.
When you sprinkle my ashes over the keys? Yes. Yes. So everybody gets dusty fingers when they play? Listen, then we need to sit there and
Just let them get the MOU signed. I don't Yeah. Let them do it. That's fine. Okay. Anybody
have a problem with that? I make a motion that we allow Eric Anderson to get a memorandum of understanding to reduce his life insurance from to $50,000 I'll second. Second. All those in favor, aye. Aye. Aye. I'll
send you if you don't have it, I'll send you another copy of the MOU. We can both sign it and move on. Okay.
Let's sit there and continue. 11B, the end of our personnel policy discussion, I say we table that to the next meeting. 11C, a long term disability policy for employees.
Okay, so we currently maintain long term disability policies for employees. One of the things that was brought to my attention by the treasurer is that we have absolutely zero documentation saying when we started doing that, it's not baked into our personnel policy, it's not baked into any of our contracts, but I mean certainly I knew when I got hired that the long term, you know, long term disability policy was part of that package. I don't think it's something we need to discuss today, but we either have to make our documents account for that, or we have to stop providing that one or the other, because other than that, you know, we're supplying something that we have no. We have no contractual basis for, so I think that the next time we discuss personnel stuff we should consider that.
One way or the other. Okay.
So your recommendation is to remove long term disability as a benefit?
No, my recommendation is to keep it, because as we continue to transition people to not having a large bank of sick time, but to instead just have one pool of PTO time, you know, becomes more critical for employees to have some sort of long term thing to deal with, you know, major issues. So, think it's actually probably getting more important, you know, given the way we're going with the personnel policies. So I wouldn't change it, but it's ultimately your decision as a board where you want to go with that.
All right, we'll come back to that 11 D, the steep grant approval resolution.
Okay, so I'm going to read this to you really quickly. If you guys all agree with it, then you can adopt it and we'll clone your signatures on it. It's due in about three days, so a decision has to be made today one way or the other. Resolved that the Board of Selectmen as a legislative body of the town of Andover hereby authorizes Eric Anderson, town administrator, to enter into and execute any and all agreements, contracts, and documents necessary to obtain said 2023 steep grant with the state of Connecticut and accept such grant if awarded. Improvements include additional addition of three pickleball courts with fencing and lighting, playground optimized for two to 10 year old children, soccer field lighting, water and electrical service to the softball fields, paving the upper parking lots to increase access. Award amount requested $500,000 from the state and the town will contribute $100,000 to the project adopted and signed this day of blah blah blah 2023 by the board selectmen of the town of Andal. That's the grant application. So basically a maximum grant to
light the soccer field, add three pickleball courts with lighting and fencing and a good playground. Pave the parking lot to make it convenient to the pickleball courts and also overflow parking for the soccer. That would also get you an accessible access to the pickleball court because we would pave the walkway down to the pickleball court, so it would be handicapped accessible. And that's basically it.
I make a motion to authorize Eric Anderson to move forward with this steep grant application. Second that.
Alright, further discussion. All those in favor. Aye. Aye. Okay. Eric, when that's due in three days, you said? Yeah, it's due on the eighteenth.
Okay. Is it? Right. I saw there was a letter from the rec commission supporting this. Do you need more letters to go with it? I know you asked me and I didn't get that to you. I,
the more letters the better. You know, I've asked a large number of people for letters from the Board of Selectmen. It will simply be the resolution Planning and zoning, we'll submit one. We got one frog, I asked one from both our legislators. So we'll have a pile. But what I really want is just to buy in from community groups that used to feel saying, this is something that we do want, and we would use.
I think the Commissioner of the Pickleball League, the co Commissioners should sit there and write letters.
I have asked the pickleball mafia to supply us letters. Perfect. I think that's awesome. Scott, I guess that'd be you right?
Oh, co commissioners. Really? Oh, you didn't know that Paula goes down there?
Oh, yeah. Scott plays a lot more than I do. He's a lot better than I am. Is that still going on? Yeah. What days?
Scott's traveling. Scott's traveling to other towns. I know he's like he's like a celebrity in in the unit. What days is this going on in Inverter? Tuesdays, Tuesdays and Fridays. At what time? Five to seven. Okay. Okay.
So I'm gonna bring my 80s gear for you, Paula. I
mean, don't you get all the the Amazon freebie stuff to test? I mean, would assume pickleball is a big deal and they'd be sending you. It is available,
but I've got I've got headbands and wristbands for Paul and I. I think I'm kidding. I'm I'm serious.
I'm getting a Richard Simmons like I think you should. Was thinking average Joe's as far as that's what I was thinking. It's exactly like average Joe's. Next thing we do is dodgeball tournament. Oh, that would be a blast. All right. For charity.
Yeah. So let's move on to the 11E tax collectors MOU.
That's signed based on what I presented to the board at the last meeting that signed in place with the unit. Kate is on board. She will take over officially in sixteen days as tax collector as Eileen is retiring as of August 31 of this month.
Okay. 11F Homeland Security grants to the Department of Emergency Services.
So, I threw this in the packet to review. This comes to us every two years. Basically, we're delegating DEMS as our emergency management agency to deal with a whole bunch of things that we don't have the resources to deal with ourselves. So, that requires a resolution and a signature by Jeff as the CEO. So I think you should all kind of, that's why I put the whole thing in here so you could all understand if you authorize Jeff to sign it, what he's signing, and what the resolution is. Anybody have any problems with it? Nope. No.
Do we want, do you want a motion, Eric, or can we just move on?
I think it could Somebody make a could just make a motion to sign the Department of Emergency Management certificate.
Somebody make a motion because I have to sign it.
Help me out here. Okay, I make a motion to sign the Department of Emergency Services. Is that what it is? Management Services. Management Services. Is it called a contract or? The grant application. Or iGrant application. Perfect.
I'll second that, Paul. All those in favor, aye. Aye. Alright. 11 g speed sign.
Okay, so as you know, we had bought a sign originally for Lake Road, which we used for exactly three months before somebody smashed it into pieces with baseball bat. Then we didn't have one for a while, and we got two more for a grant program that we finally put up about three months ago. One of them is still up and functioning. The other one, initially, just the GPS unit got stolen. They cut the wires to the solar panel in battery and just stole the unit. It got disposed of somewhere in Lebanon. We had GPS tracking on it. The state police went out and looked for it and couldn't find it. We know a rough area, but somebody threw it in this giant briar patch. And then Jay Tuttle went out and looked for it and spent an hour or two poking around trying to find it. So we have not been able to find it. In the intervening time last week, somebody came back and stole the rest of the unit. So they stole the post and the solar panel and the 25 mile an hour speed sign, And then they ran over and pushed down the stop sign at the intersection of Gilead Road and JurabadiCode Road. This is a problem. We've replaced that sign numerous times. We replace it, you know, once or twice a year because people are unhappy that it used to be a two way stop and now it's a four way stop, even though it's been that way for fifteen years. They keep stealing the sign because they don't want to stop their going to the So, why don't we just put a trail camera over there? Well, that's what we're talking about doing.
You know, I don't think it's going to do us any good with the speed sign. That's well and truly gone now. And, you know, I don't know, it's kind of annoying that we have to deal with that, I think we do. Does the town insurance cover any of that? We're going to put in an insurance claim. I'm still waiting on the information from the grant for the exact cost of the unit, so in the specification, so we can submit the insurance claim for it. But I think they're around 6,000 given considering what we got. It's just kind of annoying that, you know, now we've had, you of the three units that we've had, you know, one got smashed by vandals and one got stolen.
So it's kind of, it's a little bit depressing in that sense. Maybe we just make it a policy when we put one in. We spend $100 on a gel camera call a day.
Yeah, I mean. Not a bad plan. Yep. Okay. So that's all I wanted to say about that. Yep. 11H acknowledged town resident Bill Penn.
So I just want to acknowledge the fact that Bill Penn just rode weekly across the country from the Pacific Coast to the Atlantic Coast in about seventy days. One of his lifelong goals, he and an English friend of his basically bike packed their way across the country. So that was pretty cool and I put a picture of that in my administrator's report. I'd just like to acknowledge that as a town resident that did something pretty cool that we can all aspire to, or some of us may aspire to.
That's it. To Bill. That's awesome that he reached that goal. That's a pretty cool accomplishment. Item 12, approval of meeting minutes for the 07/10/2023 regular meeting.
I make a motion to accept the meeting minutes of 07/10/2023 meeting, regular meeting. I'll second it. All those in favor, aye. Abstain, I wasn't there. Okay. 13, tax collectors report.
Page 80 of your packet, there is one refund of excess payments to Peter and Victoria Hagerty for $758.82 Why are the total refunds $4,043.31? Oops. Did I miss a previous page? I don't know, but it doesn't add up.
Yep. Nope. Sure doesn't. I don't have an answer for you. Unless Kate missed a page, which I suppose is possible.
Do you want us to make a motion to approve the Aggregates or do you want to just wait on all of it till next month? I would wait on all of it till I get a little clarification on what that is. Okay. I have no problem doing that. It'll help Paula and her rest better. Everything else good on the tax collector's report? Collected, That's a terrible June collection. Is that right? That can't be right. Wow. What are you looking at? Page eighty two and eighty three.
Yeah, June we don't get much in. It's really July 1 to August 1 that we get the majority of our bucks in.
That's just awful, though. I'd like to know that in comparison to all the other months, but we'll do that later. Okay.
But if you look at the dashboard as of eightone, you can see what was basically what came in essentially on time, you know, in other words, by eightone.
Oh, I know, I know, I know the July collections are significant. I get that. It's 25, well, more than 25% of our total number, but $18,000 for a department's collection in that one month, that is real low. Like, what are the efforts to collect any of the outstanding numbers that are out here? I mean, there's a lot of other questions that I have in my head. Well, we farm out,
we farm out the collection, though, so. Well, we farm out the delinquency stuff.
Right. But that doesn't mean that you can't call somebody that's not so far delinquent, you haven't, you haven't sent. I mean, what do you do? All you're doing is just an order taker then. You're just waiting for people show up. Pretty much. Pretty much. Okay, so we'll move on because we can get stuck here for too long. Paul, you doing okay? Item 14, department reports. I saw the assessors report in there. Adjustments. Public works so public works is definitely doing some of the drainage there out in front of Lake View or they like view. And Eric are they planning on, are you planning on working on the drainage on that Road. Just? Lakeview?
No, think just that one basin at the end right now.
Okay. Anybody have any questions related to any of the department reports? Okay. If that's the case, let's move on to item 15 correspondence. Eric, I'm assuming there's none.
We did get one piece of correspondence. We got a thank you note from a couple people relative to the pickleball court. Dear Board of Selectmen, Dave and I would like to thank you for supporting our pickleball program from February to August. A great time was had by all. Many players shared how much they enjoyed playing at AES and are looking forward to returning this fall. Thanks again, Dave and Grace. Okay. So, that's my correspondence.
Okay. I am going to move item 17, public speak up. Before we move to executive session. So we're going get started. Diane Greener, you're number one on my checkerboard.
Unmute me there. Okay. Just two things. One, I keep hearing about the Long Hill Ballfield. That's really the name of that field is the Veterans Memorial Park. And it should be referred to as such. Do we second question is, do we ever answer the question about, is it a senior center slash community center, just a community center, is it going be a senior center? What's the actual title of that building going to be?
We're going to leave it blank. This planning and zoning won't let us put up a sign.
It's going to be the Andover Community Center with a major focus on senior activities.
Does that have any effect on future grants that go to senior centers when we're not a senior center?
Well, Diane, we will sit there and rename this thing as soon as we know what we want to do. We don't have any I just wanna make sure that we're not sure We're gonna get a sign that flips. So on Tuesdays, it'll be one thing. On Wednesdays, it'll be another.
Like I said, this is probably a question for Dennis or somebody. I just don't want to, you know, when you're naming it something as simple as that, don't want to So we agree with you. There has been much discussion, Diane. We're just trying to figure out how to get it to sound right.
Okay. Well, with both So listen, if you have a suggestion that includes community center and senior, throw it out there. We're open to suggestions. The Diane Grenier Community Center. That's a senior.
The other question moving on and there it is our problem. It just doesn't flow out of the mouth. Flows out of my mouth. Okay, we'll out. Figure
Figure it out, but I mean, just want to make sure that I raise that We will make sure that Dennis weighs in on that so that legally we're set for all future grant applications.
Thank you, Jeff. The other question, do we have an estimate of how long it's going to take to build that building so I can tell the piano man, are we talking five months, six Our months, a
goal is to be down by is to be done going into the spring. Going into the spring. What's that, Eric? Really?
Our goal will be in by next a year from today.
You're crazy. Okay. It should be done by April realistically.
Okay. We wanna make sure it's done before before Paula is officially considered a senior.
Well, we she's gonna take a nap and we'll wake her up in the spring like, what do call it? Sleeping Beauty. Okay. Oh, wow. And who would your I prince
thought you would like the Disney. I thought you liked the Disney reference. I was thinking Yogi Bear. Was. Well,
we can talk about Beauty and the Beast, but I won't be brutal to name the beast. Let's
go, Diane. Okay, that was it. That was my questions. And thank you guys very much for all you do for us. Thank you. Linda Fish. All set. All right. Anne Kerme.
Hi, I was wondering with that grant that you're applying for for pickleball courts and lighting the soccer fields and so on. Where are the pickle courts going to be? Riverside Drive.
Plan is for the lower the parking lot in the back of the ball field or Veterans Memorial ball Field back parking lot in that area. Okay, great. Then
playground you mentioned is that down in that area too? Correct. Okay, great. Thank you. Joanne Ebert
thanks Jeff yep I just have a couple things I hope that somehow we can name the community center with some kind of slash of senior slash community center as well secondly if your executive session involves the union negotiations that I sat on the committee for I hope I can sit and listen to your discussion to go over that if it's something that I wasn't part of then of course I wouldn't expect that and then I just wanted to weigh in quickly on the topic that Eric brought to you this tonight regarding the long term disability policy for employees I hadn't previously heard that the town had one so I'm gonna contact Eric just to get a little information
My personal opinion you know and if it's been in existence I understand that and then you'll all weigh in but for the most part towns offer that as a you know employees generally take that out themselves you know if they want to purchase something if they have some kind of a non safe job or they're worried about getting hurt on the job and also kind of why I was against putting that whole paid time off thing together because people that work in towns generally will, you know accumulate their sick time for things of this nature. Myself, I think I have like ten months of sick time saved up in case I ever have to have surgery or something. I had sick time and then I had vacation time. I've always kind of been against combining it. So just my thoughts on that. I don't know that it exists already. Eric says it does, so I'll take him at his word, but I've never seen an expense,
you JoAnn, know, being it's long term disability. Sorry, what did I say?
Well, you said ten months. It's long term disability. So I'll give an example. Let's say if somebody at public works gets injured, you know, at home, right? Not on the job, but because of their injury, they can no longer come back to public works. I have an uncle that this happened to, and it basically makes you whole until you turn 65. It It's can make you very long not ten months. Could be ten years. Doesn't Okay.
I understand what it is. I work with things of that nature too. No, thank you, Adrian, for the clarification. So we want to purchase that for town employees in case they get hurt at home and then we can pay them.
Okay. Thank you. We don't we don't pay them. The insurance pays them. Right. So you want the town of Andover to We're not. We're not. Not. Right. We're not having We
need clarification on this whole thing. Yeah. No, no. Adrian interrupted my, and I appreciate any information that's given to me to clarify it. No, I was just saying I was going to look into it as well. Thank you. Thank you. Catherine Magaldi Lewis.
Hi, this is nothing that you have to answer right now, perhaps put it on the next meeting. But I would like to discuss the you have we have a blight ordinance for homes, and I would like to see the same thing apply to businesses. Because I see as far as I see, I see and over plaza is a blight. But I would just like to see if we do have that. Can we do that same thing for businesses as we do for homes? That's it.
All right, thank you. It's a good question. Anyone else that I missed on there that wanted to add to public speak? Okay, if not everyone, thank you for attending our meeting. Oh, let's before I go one last thing. The union negotiations. Does anyone of the Board have an issue with inviting Joanne Ebert in for the union negotiation discussion?
Is there anything we actually really need to discuss? Nope. The board has agreed to the, you know, kind of the last set of conditions and we don't have a contract document to look at at this point. Unless you have something specific to ask me, I don't have any real discussion topic for that, unless there's something you want to ask me.
No, nothing that I would need Joanne for if I wanted to ask you about union negotiations. Okay. Alright, so we are going to move into executive session and invite Eric Anderson and Attorney O'Brien, even though he cannot say a word to us for some technical reason, but he can at least listen to our conversation. What we forget to pay his bill or something.
Don't know I think it's I think it's a senior moment is what I believe.
Does anybody know what the code is to unmute from a cell phone? I don't remember it all up Star my
eight or star sorry to interrupt you guys. I had asked if I could just sit in, but now I'm now I think you guys have decided you don't want me to sit in correct? Because there's nothing to discuss. I just wanted to see your process since I've taken interest in, but thank you. I understand.
You're welcome. All right. Thank you. Alright, so do we know how to get Dennis to talk? But Eric, can you stop the recording? And well, before you stop the recording, I make a motion that we go to executive session at 09:23PM. I'll second.
All right, all those in favor. Aye. Aye. All right, we have Dennis and we