0:02

good evening everyone sorry we’re late uh the select board’s been in executive session since 4 30. I’d like to call

0:09

this meeting to order and would you please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance

0:15

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States

0:27

for all

0:35

in our first order of business we will start out with public comment which is to give fair warning I will be

0:42

rearranging the agenda this evening is there anyone that would like to speak

0:48

oh go ahead up to the podium

0:58

green light is on well good evening everybody

1:04

um I’m actually the biggest reason why I’m here is so I could wear my dress one more time

1:13

the main reason I’m here is to wear my dress one more time

1:19

before the Herring uh migration is done if you don’t know

1:25

about the Herring migration right now two blocks away there are thousands

1:32

thousands of fish this big that have come from about from

1:38

Nova Scotia about from that far away 1200 miles and

1:44

they’re out here because they’re coming back to to where they were born actually

1:52

and it’s an extremely exciting and amazing

1:57

happening that is only right here there are other other

2:02

other migration places around but we have our own right here this Saturday

2:10

Maddie and a lot of Maddie from manomet right

2:16

who’s new to the group this year are putting on a festival

2:22

from 10 in the morning till four in the afternoon we’ve done several of them

2:27

so far maybe five or six but bring you if you’ve got grandkids bring them over

2:35

we have all kinds of things to learn and play with and I wonder if anybody in

2:42

this room just let me get tell you about the the trip in a quick a quick run by

2:49

so Ralph and Helen talk to each other in the morning and they say come on Ralph

2:56

come on Helen we’re going south and they they start to swim you know

3:03

kind of like that they don’t have a boat they don’t have a bicycle they don’t have a motorcycle and

3:11

they get to plimp this this is the amazing thing this is so amazing they

3:16

have to find in order to come into where they go where they need to go and I’ll tell you

3:21

in a minute because some of you look like you don’t know yet they swim down

3:27

the coast and they have to find how to get into Plymouth Bay they have to turn

3:33

right what did I say their names were Ralph and Rosie Ralph turn right

3:41

turn left and there are lots of fish with them thousands more of them and how

3:46

do they know where they’re going how do they know they’re trying to get to Billington C which is where they were

3:53

born so they have to go around the jetty

4:00

go past the Mayflower they had little directions on tiny pieces of paper so

4:05

that they could figure out where they were going and and and then

4:11

after they got past the Mayflower they had to go under a little Bridge

4:17

how how big is that bridge you know over there where the boats are all up on the

4:23

the things that they had to find that these thousands of Herring herring it’s it’s

4:30

just amazing and so right there where the ocean water meets the fresh water of

4:39

town Brook is a just a phenomenally amazing spot on

4:46

the planet that that exists and it’s down the street the the Herring start coming

4:53

around the beginning of April and they go till the end of May

4:59

and and if you haven’t seen them please go look and please bring your

5:05

grandkids in even if the festival is over you can go other days because they’re still there and they’re swimming

5:12

and swimming and swimming and swimming so there I’m going to ask you if you

5:18

know a vocabulary word and it’ll remind oh that we have a fish cam

5:24

you can look at it anytime you want look it up on on this town’s website fish

5:30

camp and the fish are swimming they’re swimming all day and all night and it’s

5:38

the coolest thing to be able to see [Music] oh you’ve been so good to listen

5:46

do you have something that you would like to add it oh good thank you oh

5:52

sorry just one quick thing or thank you to Herring lady she’s very famous everyone in Plymouth uh and well

5:59

definitely further than Plymouth but um I’m Maddie from manomet and we just wanted to invite you to the annual

6:06

Plymouth Herring Run Festival on Saturday from 10 to 3 at the Plymouth

6:11

Plymouth Grist Mill and town Brook Park and for the first year we’re having a happy hour with Happy Fish at the

6:18

Plymouth Center for the Arts on Friday from five to eight so thank you so much thank you so much we appreciate it thank

6:25

you [Applause]

6:32

oh no problem thank you so the first order of business as we continue on I’m

6:37

going to be my apologies Madam chair um Jenny Davis I’m sorry I’m sorry Jenny

6:43

that’s okay no problem

6:49

um I was just curious who this lady is in her costume I don’t think she said

6:54

her name I’m very curious um I will be involved with this heroin too through the League of Women Voters

7:00

they’re going to have a table there but um also I just want to share some

7:07

memories um Maggie Mills who used to write a little column for the Old Colony

7:13

um made an uh an article wrote an article on my dad in the 1980s because I

7:19

remember as a child and as as recently as the 1980s when the Heron came into

7:25

town Brook there were thousands of Seagulls thousands I don’t know where

7:31

all the seagulls have gone but you didn’t need anyone to tell you that the Heron had arrived in Plymouth they were

7:39

just I mean if you went down to you got pooped on I mean you but it was so

7:44

exciting there were so many seagulls so I thank all these people who have

7:50

brought back um attention to how important the Heron

7:56

are to our history in diploma and thank this lady in her fantastic costume but I

8:03

don’t know who she is I just found that kind of curious Nancy so thanks for letting me talk and I hope everyone will

8:10

come and enjoy and also as far as the Friday night at the uh Center for the

8:16

Arts you actually have to go online and register for that or they request people too so maybe the person that spoke about

8:24

the Friday night just share what people have to do if they want to go to that thank you thanks a lot thank you Jenny

8:32

her name is Nancy Carroll just so you know AKA fish lady airing lady

8:40

you’re very welcome anybody else for public comment all right so

8:46

um we’re going to have the Education Foundation and then the proposed

8:51

amendments of the shellfish regulations and then the fire department like I said we’re kind of rearranging there’s a lot

8:58

of Staff here so good evening thank you appreciate that

9:04

um chairman members of the board staff the audience my name is Dan gorsica I’m vice president of the Plymouth Education

9:11

Foundation and I’m here this evening to proudly invite all attending and all watching

9:16

um on TV to our 12th annual Gala for the Plymouth Education Foundation held on Saturday

9:22

April 26th at 6 pm at the Waverly Oaks Golf Course the Plymouth Ed Foundation is a

9:28

non-profit organization who provides resources for the Plymouth Public Schools and local partners and

9:34

organizations advancing education and supporting lifelong learning for all Plymouth residents

9:40

the foundation has 100 volunteer board of directors and the board shares that exact vision

9:46

the foundation solicits manage and distributes funds for educational purposes and activities that the

9:52

Plymouth Public Schools do not otherwise offer and to other local partners and organizations if it’s educational based

9:59

in addition the foundation provides four three thousand five hundred dollar scholarships a year to graduating

10:04

seniors to help Advance their education donations are gratefully received from individuals corporations grants Estates

10:12

memorials and other foundations the endowment fund allows the foundations to serve this community for years to come

10:18

to date the foundation has awarded over two hundred thousand dollars in scholarships and educational programs

10:26

the foundation was founded in 2008 by a group of dedicated community volunteers created to support and enhance the

10:32

education of all students in the town of Plymouth one of the original Founders was Adele Manfredi Adele believed in academic

10:39

excellence and involvement in the community as one of the founding members of the Plymouth Education Foundation she

10:45

endeavored to support lifelong learning through the creation of an endowment fund that would enhance and augment

10:51

educational opportunities for those reasons the Adele Manfredi

10:56

excellence in education award was created in her memory to honor those in Plymouth who exemplify extraordinary

11:02

commitment to education every year during the gala the foundation honors one individual with

11:08

the indelible Manfredi award this year’s award recipient is Bob betters a lot of

11:13

you know Bob betters is a longtime local real estate attorney but I know Bob as the founder as a

11:19

founder of the Plymouth Education Foundation and for his kindness and dedication to helping people

11:25

we all are very excited to share this award with Bob it is well deserved again the gala is the foundation’s

11:32

primary fundraiser and I’m here this evening to invite all members of the board staff and those who are in

11:38

attendance this evening to join us again Saturday April 26th at six o’clock at

11:44

Waverly Oaks Golf Course the gal has music dancing dinner drinks and a silent

11:51

auction there’s auction items for everyone including a bearcat ride from the Plymouth Police Department sporting

11:56

event tickets and packages of local restaurant gift cards again I appreciate you allowing me a few minutes to speak I

12:03

hope to see everyone there if you’re interested for those that are listening tickets can be purchased on our website

12:08

at plymoutheducationfoundation.org and if you don’t mind I have invitations to hand to the board into staff thank you

12:16

hey hey Dan what’s the date against it you said the 26 but I think it’s the 29th right

12:24

thank you okay correct it is Saturday April 29th it’s a great event I’ve said the 26th 12 times but yes the Saturday

12:31

the 29th I’ve been there at that event that’s a great event so awesome great job thanks

12:52

all right uh next order of business it’s the proposed amendments of shellfish

12:58

regulations and I know our Harbor Master is here and also the chair

13:04

of um our Harbor committee

13:38

good evening and uh just waiting for a presentation to come up

13:44

um but just as a little back story the revised shellfish regulations this is

13:51

sort of a housekeeping in nature and the fact that um in January 22

13:59

oh thank you in January 22 the the board had a

14:04

discussion about commercial muscle licenses and there was a some approvals

14:10

that went forward regarding commercial muscles and at the

14:16

end of that presentation we knew that we would have to go back and look at our

14:21

shellfish regulations and amend those so the majority of the changes that you

14:27

have there’s a red line version that you got in your packets and I’m just going to

14:32

cover some of the the big pieces here so as mentioned January 2022 we the

14:40

select board had approved the commercial muscle rules let’s call them

14:45

and they were adopted as part of the commercial muscle license conditions and

14:52

at the end of that presentation we did mention we’d go back to the shellfish regulations and include commercial

14:58

shellfish so the first major change in section

15:04

three permits uh little e it used to read in the black the commercial shell

15:10

fishing and see worm Harvest are prohibited in Plymouth so we obviously had to change that section to include

15:17

commercial shellfish so we’ve replaced it with the red type

15:22

including commercial shellfish licenses may be issued by the select board

15:28

based on sustainable commercial amounts of specific shellfish species as reported by the shellfish Constable

15:33

shellfish Harvest harvested with a commercial license may be sold we did

15:39

kind of keep this open in case there’s other species that come along that we want to allow for commercial

15:45

shellfishing so including mussels and there’s one other piece coming up here

15:52

with razor clams that we’ll talk about quickly so this whole section section seven

15:58

commercial Harvest is new and this didn’t exist before and really

16:04

all of the pieces that we discussed about commercial muscles back in January

16:10

of 2022 we have included in this section so it still gives the select board the

16:17

authority to issue commercial licenses and we put for indoor species to

16:22

obviously keep it open um and then we had some minimum size and daily limit which again was approved

16:29

back in January blue mussels two inches in length 300 bushels per day by drag in

16:36

shellfish classification areas mb1 CCB 41.2 CCB 41 CCB 39 in water greater than

16:45

20 feet at mean low water what’s new here and didn’t exist were

16:50

razor clams we’ve had a number of people reach out over the last couple of years

16:56

and inquire about razor clams razor clams are not specifically targeted by

17:02

recreational diggers they’re more looking for quahogs or soft shell clams

17:07

surf clams so we I think we would like to try this

17:12

in the future here as sort of a trial program very similar to the the muscles and see if this is another commercial

17:20

opportunity for us monthly commercial Landing reports shall

17:25

be submitted to the shellfish Constable again that was approved back in January 22.

17:32

um and we did uh put the option that you know if if the shellfish Constable with

17:38

select board approval that we could suspend or close the commercial shell fishery if there’s any concerns of

17:44

diminished shellfish stocks um and then for the I think what you saw

17:50

in your admin notes for the commercial muscle licenses we were going to try and keep the commercial shellfish licenses

17:57

to the calendar year so they would expire December 31st each year and then

18:03

be renewed and that was pretty much it for the shellfish regulations

18:10

if anybody has any questions that’d be more than happy to answer them

18:22

Madam chair can you um there we go if you could go back to D

18:30

I think I only had these two okay

18:36

the shellfish Constable with select board approval May suspend or close the commercials shell fishery due to the

18:42

concerns of diminished shellfish stocks I think we should add with with

18:49

um approval from the Harvard committee or with their input from the harbor

18:54

committee I think we should add that to that language as well because although there I mean the harbor

19:00

committee is advisory to the select board so I think they should have a place at this table

19:06

so you’re suggesting with a recommendation from the harbor committee yes

19:12

okay we could um we could add that in there you know typically on anything

19:18

like this we would involve Harbor committee with those discussions as well

19:24

so if we if we could add that in there that would be fine we can do that so with recommendation from the hardware

19:30

committee by the highway committee Mr Mahoney Chad who

19:37

when you encounter or get to the point where you have a diminished shellfish stock

19:43

how does that happen I mean I know there’s overfishing but

19:48

who who’s the one that throws up the flag and then says we’re we’re entering this period now where we have a problem

19:54

here is that you or is there biologist from the state who who does that and

20:00

where where does that data come from so typically probably what would happen is it’s not no longer commercially

20:05

viable so they just get to a point where there’s not enough there to commercially

20:11

shellfish and then at that point with reports that are coming in if they’re not using their licenses then we should

20:18

probably take a look at you know why and and you know maybe we close the the

20:24

shellfish area you could do it either by area or you could close that down

20:29

completely and allow it to sort of replenish and restock and then you would get to a point where you could possibly

20:35

reopen it but there are reports and there’s data correct that I mean if you get to that

20:41

point that would back that up and help the select Board of the harbor committee make those decisions sure yep

20:49

okay discussion do we have a motion

20:58

do we have a second yeah motion motion to approve with amended

21:05

yeah with the mental language I’m sorry second discussion

21:11

all those in favor unanimous thank you thank you

21:20

I can wait yes

21:29

and now the fire department

21:37

Chief Foley

21:45

Madam chair and members of the board thank you very much for having us here tonight um this uh presentation is the

21:52

comprehensive fire department study that was commissioned about a year ago with

21:58

the idea of taking a look at all functions and and aspects of the fire department and was included as one of

22:05

the goals and agendas for the select board for this this past year

22:12

um we started this process early in 22

22:18

and have had several Zoom calls phone conversations uh data analysis extensive

22:26

data’s actually passed over to the Center for Public Safety Management and

22:34

um they actually came out and did a site visit back in July I believe uh and they

22:41

went around to all seven five stations and hit every corner of Plymouth to just take a look at the town in itself and

22:47

see what kind of response area that we had what kind of coverage uh deployment of resources and they also looked at EMS

22:54

and whether or not that was going to be a viable option in the future or even even currently

22:59

as a business that we could possibly look at getting into I’ll let him cover

23:06

all of that but um I wanted to introduce Chief Joseph Pozo he was the principal

23:13

for the study Chief Pozo is over 40 years of career in public service most

23:20

recently served as the Director of public protection for Volusia County Florida where he provided executive

23:26

leadership to the Fire EMS Emergency Management Corrections animal control and Beach safety divisions prior to that

23:34

he also worked as the Assistant Director of Human Resources for that County and uh

23:40

was the fire chief in there as well and then prior to that he was a fire chief

23:46

in two other communities in Virginia Chief Puzo holds a masters degree in

23:51

public administration from Troy University and a bachelor’s administration of public administration

23:57

from Saint Leo University and holds numerous Public Safety technical certifications

24:04

Chief OZO

24:09

thank you Chief Foley and Madam chair members of the select board

24:14

Town manager Town staff and members of the public Joe Pozo was Center for Public Safety Management

24:21

uh a little bit about our company we are the exclusive provider of

24:27

Public Safety technical expertise to the international City County Management Association

24:33

we do these studies all around the country and in Canada

24:38

and they really are predominantly firing EMS analysis law

24:45

enforcement analysis we do also do 911 Center analysis we assist

24:53

municipalities and counties around the country with Public Safety Chief selections we’ve done over 400 studies

25:00

in 46 States the fire and EMS team that worked on this had hundreds of years of

25:07

experience when you add it all up as practitioners middle managers and Senior

25:14

managers the team myself Joe Pozo that’s Rhonda

25:19

early in the back uh he was a principal on the project as well Matt savaske did

25:25

the EMS portion of the study we have a very robust

25:32

data analysis team headed by Dr Dove choust and Dr Sean Fong Lee who is our

25:40

principal data analysis Monique Lee did all the gis that you see in the report

25:46

and of course an editor that makes everything look as it did and gives us

25:51

good presentation so this report itself significant components

25:57

first an organizational analysis that was the biggest piece of this and that

26:03

we looked at all of the programs in the Plymouth fire department Staffing training education Community risk

26:10

reduction which is fire prevention your emergency communications principally in

26:16

the fire department but then outwardly from that and we’ll talk a little bit about uh that as we get into this Emergency

26:23

Operations Emergency Management uh Community risk analysis uh as the chief

26:29

pointed out we went all around the town looked at all of the risk we’ll talk a little bit about that tonight uh but the

26:36

important thing about the community risk analysis and why we do that is when you look at deployment and Staffing for fire

26:44

departments it ties back to risk and it specifically ties back to what the

26:49

building risk is in your community we looked at the fleet did a full Fleet

26:54

analysis and a facility analysis that was part of the scope of work and we made some recommendations on station

27:01

placements and Renovations and also did

27:06

a pretty large EMS analysis as well as the chief pointed out so our methodology we always start with

27:14

a data analysis and we included that in this study which was a response time

27:20

workload we look at resiliency which is when you have multiple calls in a fire

27:26

district those overlapping calls how are they handled and do you have the resources to handle those ambulance

27:33

transport we did the full gamut on the ambulance transport we looked at uh what

27:38

the private service does here their response times how they’re dispatched what their ground transport times are

27:45

time on scene time to the hospital and all of that it’s all in the report

27:51

as the chief said we held many virtual meetings we were on site spent a couple of days here you have a beautiful town

27:58

and we were here in July so we got the full uh sort of touristy thing the lady

28:05

who was talking about the herons when you’re in Florida in the winter time it’s manatees okay it’s all about the

28:11

manatees that come in from the cold ocean and they come into tributaries and

28:17

they get into the Warm Springs by the hundreds so it attracts you know of course many people just like your

28:24

hearings do so we have a connection there we do a a pretty extensive

28:29

document review the department provides us fire department documents City documents that

28:35

all goes into the risk analysis and certainly the report there’s a couple things you’ll hear

28:42

tonight that really tie back to Staffing and they tie back to where your stations are located we use National benchmarking

28:48

for that first is National Fire Protection Association that is an organization that is based

28:56

here in Massachusetts and they published many many uh

29:03

standards for the fire service that run the gamut of the Life Safety Code or the

29:09

fire prevention code to uniforms to Fleet to facilities to just about

29:15

anything that’s tied Back to Life Safety and firefighting and also the insurance

29:21

services organization which is an organization that utilizes information

29:27

from their analysis on how Community is prepared to combat building fires and so

29:36

you get a rating on that you have a community rating we’ll go over that does and could have some impact on

29:43

property insurance so overall Impressions right so we’ll start with that Plymouth fire department

29:50

is an excellent fire and EMS agency I can’t say that enough the people

29:56

you have a good leader uh with your fire chief who’s been in office

30:02

about a year now so uh that’s a session plan uh is very

30:08

strong at that level but an excellent agency dedicated people

30:14

we gained a lot of input while we were here from all members of the organization from the rank and file

30:22

through the senior staff I also enjoy strong support certainly

30:28

from the community from the town Administration from the select board

30:33

we did find some gaps however when we measure those when we measure response

30:39

times and we measure station placement when we look at the Staffing and how you do combat structural fires however it’s

30:47

nothing that we don’t find when we do these studies throughout the country when we look at you how your ISO report

30:53

some deficiencies that are there what your deficiencies are very common

30:58

across the country we look at response times and some of your gaps there it’s very common across the country you have

31:05

a reason why you have gaps we’ll go over that here and it’s just how the town was

31:11

planned it’s how development was planned and where you placed your fire stations

31:16

uh we do we did provide recommendations we provided 40 recommendations we’ll go

31:22

over some of those uh you know in depth tonight some of them I think will skim over

31:27

uh but it does provide a plan for you to sustain your fire and EMS Service uh and

31:34

maintain what you have going really positive for you now and then as the town continues to grow because you are

31:41

growing and developers development is going to continue and we think that certainly the fire

31:48

department and the community will benefit from these recommendations so the iso or Insurance Services

31:55

organization again it’s just a it’s a company varisk is the is the uh is the

32:02

head Agency for insurance services organization that go all around the

32:07

country and they establish ratings for communities the iso is not a rating for

32:12

the fire department that is a community rating because it involves water distribution it involves Communication

32:19

Center and it also involves the fire department so it’s a community rating because fire department doesn’t control

32:26

the water system that’s your that’s your utilities department or your public works department they do have control

32:33

currently over the 9-1-1 Center but we’ll talk a little bit more about that

32:38

as we go you have and enjoy a class three rating uh the ratings are one through ten with

32:47

one being the highest rating and you enjoy class three that that 3y is just

32:52

places where you have structures and buildings that are more

32:58

than a thousand feet from a credible water source or fire hydrant but still

33:03

within five miles of a fire station

33:09

so there you are and that’s how you compare nationally uh and you’re in the again in the top tier and typically when

33:17

insurance companies or agents look at risk in Peril and they look at the fire risk in

33:23

Peril uh typically communities that are rated one two or three are look to be

33:31

again in that exceptional or higher rating and there’s not a lot of

33:37

difference in that one two or three uh but again

33:42

fire Peril is only one piece of insurance so I will point that out uh

33:49

it’s you know you’re a Coastal Community so certainly Coastal communities when you’re looking at risk there is there is

33:57

an equal or sometimes higher risk in coastal communities uh because of the perils that you have from that

34:05

your fire department rating I broke that out for you because that’s the bigger piece and where some of those

34:13

deficiencies are and as you look at those and we’ll go over some of these not unlike anywhere

34:20

else in the country your deployment analysis you have some deficiencies there and that’s how your engines and

34:26

ladders are deployed around the town and I’ll show you that got a we have a couple of Graphics here that I can point

34:32

that out to you if you’re training you have some deficiencies in training not that the

34:39

the men and women of the fire department aren’t training it’s just a type of training that the iso looks at and that

34:46

they require and so we have pointed those out and we’ve given you some recommendations on those and then

34:54

certainly the company Personnel you’re about halfway there which is very good

35:00

that’s 7.62 out of 15. however you still have some gaps there that we’ve given

35:06

you some recommendations on and how cute you can improve you can see how highly rated the Communication Center is

35:13

although you’ve got some there are some issues with Communications we’ll cover and that’s with the psap and that’s just

35:19

how the 9-1-1 calls are relayed and how they’re received and and the time that

35:24

it takes uh to actually get a call in place uh depending on where that call is

35:30

coming from and you have a very good water system so other than the places and the in the structures that you have

35:37

that could be more than a thousand foot from a fire hydrant the National Fire Protection Association

35:44

standard that we’re going to talk about is 1710 that’s the standard that applies to Plymouth fire because they are a

35:51

career fire department there’s another standard that would apply to a

35:56

predominantly volunteer fire department that is still has a staffing piece and a

36:02

timepiece but it’s much different than the 1710 standard because in a 1710 fire

36:08

department you’re staffed around the clock so that’s how they look at that and that’s how they benchmark

36:14

so couple of other things that you’ll hear tonight also is effective response

36:20

force and critical tasking effective response force is the amount of people

36:25

that you can get to the scene of a building fire or a type of building fire

36:31

and then there are critical tasks that have to be performed as they arrived

36:36

I’ve got a graphic we’ll we’ll go over that sort of and and I’ll explain some of that to you but those are two big

36:43

pieces when you look at Staffing and then of course response times that’s just all the call processing dispatch

36:49

time turnout time of the fire department that’s all measured which there are some gaps there and your travel time which

36:57

there are some gaps but that’s just really how this town was developed and

37:02

you’ve got a national forest uh you know that sort of dissects north from South

37:08

as well so let’s go to some of these Graphics here on the left is the National Fire

37:15

Protection Association 1710 standard that’s the 242nd standard so what that

37:22

standard says is first arriving engine company on the

37:27

scene in four minutes okay so these are the travel time bleeds from each of your

37:32

fire stations and you can see the red circles point out the gaps the one that’s shaded a little bit more in red

37:39

you have some increased demand there because you’re starting you’re already developing in that area

37:45

uh and then there is some development in some of those other areas particularly uh down in station fours area uh Born

37:54

Road and as you go north of that station you’re developing that so that’s where

38:01

we picked up some of the gaps the the other two slides uh are the

38:08

ISO benchmarks so the one on the left with these sort

38:13

of purplish or magenta circles that’s the iso standard for engine

38:19

companies which says you should have an engine company every 1.5 miles of built upon land built upon meaning you have

38:26

structures on that land the slide to the right of that is for

38:32

ladder companies which says the standard says you should have a ladder company every 2.5 miles of built upon land so

38:41

the circles are a little barrel and I just I just sort of uh you know marked there where you have some deficiencies

38:47

because you have some built upon land where you don’t have that service

38:52

but we have we are going to give you some recommendations on how you can improve that some of it more immediate

38:59

with some current Staffing that you already have these are your response times this is

39:04

the just a piece of the data that we ran for you the NFPA standard measures this at the

39:11

90th percentile the average is on the left but we’re just going to concentrate on what’s on the right

39:17

and so there’s a lot of different travel times in there but I’ll just bring you and let’s zero in on the structure fire

39:24

travel time uh the Plymouth fire department and the one year period that

39:29

we study is 6.3 minutes so you’re not too far off uh from that

39:35

four minute travel time and then if you look up into some of the more critical EMS calls breathing

39:43

difficulty cardiac and stroke uh seizure and unconscious you’re running about the

39:48

same type of uh for the engine companies responding you’re running about the same type of

39:54

travel time and so I’m going to show you a demand map in a minute so just sort of remember

40:00

these response times and you do cover right now where your greatest demand is

40:07

in those 242nd uh bleeds so some key findings that we found here

40:15

one as I mentioned already PFD is a well-functioning and a very professional

40:22

fire and EMS agency I can’t say enough about the professionalism uh of the

40:27

department and that’s the rank and file right through to the fire chief’s office

40:33

we did not we did not hear ever a bad word about the town about the agency about

40:42

anything what we did here was we want more training we need more training training

40:48

was the number one thing that we heard while we were on the ground here training we want to improve our training

40:55

we want to we want to be as trained uh as we can get

41:00

so we don’t hear that all the time when we go around and we do these studies so

41:06

so we concentrated a lot on that that training and we looked into where their

41:12

deficiency were deficiencies are and and provided some recommendations

41:17

you have a lot of service demands here and you have a lot of risk in your uh in your community

41:23

uh so you know of course you have uh EMS First Response

41:29

fire technical rescue Hazmat Transportation uh risk here you’ve got a

41:35

main road that runs through here uh route three State Route 3 and uh you’ve

41:42

got a lot of you know just in we’ve given you some graphics there just your motor vehicle accidents around town so

41:48

you have a lot of Transportation uh risk you have a lot of density challenges you

41:53

have a lot of building risk challenges with those density challenges you have what we call vertical density so when

41:59

you go up with residential anything more than two or three levels that’s vertical

42:05

density that creates a larger challenge for the fire service getting a hose line

42:11

in place at the third or fourth or fifth floor you’ve got a lot of wood frame structures uh just your prevailing winds

42:19

here anything on the coast presents a greater risk and you have some Coastal you have some Coastal risk when you get

42:28

into station fives area along the coast you actually have houses that are

42:35

stacked three four five and six deep that go out onto the sand that don’t have any roadway to them uh that the the

42:42

engine companies or a lot of companies can’t get to them so presents a different type of tactic for the fire

42:49

service and it actually takes a lot of people to get just the initial hose line in place on those uh you’ve got a mass

42:56

transit system using bus Wildland fires they’re out on one now tonight or I think the chief said we probably

43:03

would have had some more firefighters here but they’re out on a Wildland fire so you have certainly a lot of that and

43:09

you know what happens in the dry season so you have a lot of challenges here but

43:14

again it’s not unlike any other community uh you just have the additional Coastal challenges that an

43:22

interior town or city or county would not have

43:27

again professional and dedicated folks and very positive fire department and

43:35

they have a very positive outlook on their future Brewster ambulance well-established

43:41

well-respected ambulance private Ambulance Service provides EMS uh to you

43:46

to you folks here in the town and I can tell you we did not find anything unusual with how they provide that

43:52

service the only unusual things we really found connected to that is in the psap and how

43:59

calls are received and transferred and then how the fire department gets their call so uh I’ve said that a couple of

44:05

times because I think that’s a big deal there are delays and calls uh at some

44:12

times and how they’re being routed there are some gaps in the iso we talked

44:18

about but training and Staffing but nothing that we don’t see when we travel across the country

44:25

and your facility analysis you just have gaps in service but that’s because of

44:31

you have the village concept here in the town and how you developed a town so as

44:36

you developed a village a fire station went in well now you’re starting to develop outside of those those Villages

44:42

and that’s going to create some response time challenges and deployment challenges as well

44:51

so the 911 system has multiple Public Safety answering points if you’re

44:58

calling from a cell phone it goes through the state and the state gets the call and then they transfer it to

45:04

transfer to the proper Community or the proper psap sometimes Brewster EMS gets a call just

45:12

direct to them and then what they do is is By Radio they radio to Plymouth fire

45:18

department dispatches and tell them they have an EMS call what the call is and then they dispatch the appropriate

45:24

response uh piece as either an engine or a ladder or both or the rescue

45:31

sometimes a 9-1-1 call if it’s in the town goes to Plymouth Police Department and then if it’s an EMS call they

45:37

transfer it to Brewster and then Brewster then transfers it again to the Plymouth fire department so they can

45:43

dispatch an engine or if it’s a fire goes from Plymouth Police and then it just goes right to the fire department

45:49

the fire department although they’re a Dispatch Center they really aren’t a psap other than automatic alarms that

45:56

come in from a street box or a fire alarm system in a building

46:02

that does create some delays but we’ve made a recommendation on that and it’s already in progress I think you’ve

46:09

already acted on the 9-1-1 Center or you’re thinking about just moving that along and that’s that’s one of the best

46:14

decisions I think you could have made because the psap has to be Central other

46:20

than what the state does with the 9-1-1 calls you’re not going to be able to overcome that but you can overcome the

46:27

rest and that’s an important piece okay because you don’t want delays in that somebody calls 9-1-1 that’s an emergency

46:35

you need to get the proper resources going uh as quickly as you can

46:42

chief Master Mechanic can’t say enough about that gentleman I don’t see him here tonight and I wish he was uh I

46:49

can’t say enough about him and what he does and what uh and what the the

46:54

mechanic uh two mechanics one there’s three three mechanics do with him

47:00

we took a whole tour of his shop and he took a time with us and and what he does

47:06

there to keep the fire apparatus moving and running because you run a lot of EMS

47:12

calls and you run a lot of fire calls you’re a busy fire department and just what he does and what he’s able to do

47:19

just in his shop saves you a lot of money and it keeps those those engines

47:24

and ladders running longer than typically what other communities would

47:29

run he’s very proud of what he does and he should be so I can’t say enough about

47:34

what he does your workload nothing here is atypical to what we see

47:41

across the country false alarms or fire alarms really is what they are automatic fire alarms that

47:47

just don’t turn into anything it’s just a malfunctioning alarm or somebody pulls a street box or your highest right about

47:54

39 percent of all of your fire related calls uh and then as you sort of trickle down

48:00

public service calls those are calls for lockouts or a wire down uh or I think I

48:08

I think something’s going on I I I smelled smoke I think but I don’t see

48:13

anything right those are those sort of sending somebody out just to check and then when you get into structure

48:20

fires and outside fires you can see the count there those are typically the lower percentage calls

48:27

and you do run more of the of the the false alarms or fire alarms and in

48:33

public service type calls and Fire EMS again nothing atypical there illness and

48:40

other uh are typically the highest everywhere we go and that’s about 33

48:45

percent of all of your EMS related calls and then Falls in injuries and things

48:51

such as that so your workload is not atypical but you have a very busy workload and you can

48:59

see calls per day in fire or 10 calls per day in in EMS or 18 so you’re up around

49:06

19 or 20 calls per day so we talked about the demand and I put

49:13

that 240 second map there that’s the NFPA standard the green so where you see

49:18

green by your street Network and and these speeds we use arcgis so we’re able

49:24

to capture the speed limit of the roads you can see that we’re your heaviest

49:30

demand is you have your stations right they’re properly placed and they can get

49:37

to areas of your heavier demands in that 240 seconds but you can see your

49:44

development is is is moving out and away from from that from the sort of Village

49:49

concept down south in which you have already in place you know along the

49:55

coast so you have to start thinking in the future

50:02

as you continue to develop I know there’s some consideration on moving

50:07

station one and we looked at that or potentially moving station four and

50:13

we’ve looked at that and we gave you all of that data and what that would look like but you’ve got some other gaps that

50:20

really you have to close in between uh what what is really in the North

50:27

East I guess that is up there we’re at headquarter station is and and station two and station Seven uh and we’re right

50:36

there in the middle of station three there’s a gap in there that you’re developing uh and so there has to be

50:43

some consideration in the future as the demand continues uh for placing a fire

50:48

station there for timely response so recommendations we’re just going to move through these 40 recommendations and we

50:56

can tie some of it back first one has to do with Emergency Management

51:02

and really that is just to make sure that the comprehensive emergency

51:07

management plan is updated in revised on a buy-in yes ma’am

51:18

recommendations oh well

51:24

let me talk about those just quickly there’s 40 but some of them are just the basic

51:31

recommendations I’m going to just talk about the ones that that have some some

51:36

real meaning here but it doesn’t if I’d have done 10 it doesn’t mean that that you’re that you’re any less than if

51:43

it was 40 really uh and any other any of the staffing recommendations or or any

51:50

of that we’ve given you those incrementally uh or any anything that has to do with funding we’ve we’ve tried

51:56

to give you alternatives on those as well uh but 40 doesn’t mean that

52:02

that’s a bad grade I I understand that okay

52:08

if it means there’s a lot then I’m going to go as quickly as I can that would be great yes ma’am uh so the first one is

52:16

just keep that plan updated uh on a biannual basis uh second

52:22

just begin the process of preparing a continuity of operations plan those are

52:27

very important uh in communities to ensure that there’s no interruption in

52:33

any services or Staffing

52:38

you have some uh there are some technology pieces in uh

52:45

in the fire department that we’ve talked to the chief about one is just staff scheduling

52:50

there’s digital staff scheduling programs to get him out of the notebooks

52:56

that they use and just things like email addresses for all employees so they can keep the communication gap as low as

53:04

they can training records Management systems and

53:09

update their policies there’s ways you can update policies now digital

53:16

uh the iso we talked about training and we

53:22

also talked about the risk and the deployment analysis

53:29

Community risk reduction again very dedicated Fire Marshals office they’re

53:35

very busy though they have many inspections that they have to

53:40

they’re required to do on an annual basis every year and to get businesses

53:46

open and they also do a lot of plans review so we’ve just recommended in the near

53:53

term to midterm an additional fire inspection or just at the minimum a

53:59

part-time inspector to help them with the annualized inspections to make sure that they can get through all of those

54:05

because they’re required and then you have all the other inspections that aren’t annual that they do want to buy

54:12

annual or triannual basis that they’re trying to get to so that’s to assist with the workload in that division

54:20

training that was the number one piece uh from the men and women that we talked to on

54:27

the ground and that’s getting the training done that needs to get done uh for for not

54:33

just uh incumbents but for the new hires so we’ve we’ve got a recommendation

54:40

there for that and a digital platform for training as well that helps the

54:46

incumbents particularly with the uh with their fire training hours that’s required and their EMS hours that are

54:54

required

55:00

we recommend that as much as possible get the get the staff to the National

55:07

Fire Academy they’ve got excellent programs there particularly the executive Fire officer program

55:13

for chief officers and Senior Management

55:19

there’s no cost to you other than the meal ticket National Fire Academy reimburses the town for the travel

55:27

and they stay on campus for free so all you have to do is buy them a meal tick

55:32

and give them the time off recommend task books for firefighters drivers company officers potentially and

55:39

above when they get promoted it helps them it lays out the expectations for

55:46

new employees and for new officers just a piece of the training that we talked

55:51

about and annualized skill proficiency evaluations not to be punitive but it’s

55:59

just more of the multiple drills multi-company drills and proficiency

56:04

drills it’s things that the chief can lay out to get them even more training

56:10

with each other again high intensity training on all the

56:16

subjects that are required one of the things that you’re deficient in and the

56:22

chief and I talked about this the other day is you don’t have a burn building ISO requires 18 hours a year every

56:28

firefighter goes to live burn training okay so you don’t have that available and

56:35

it’s not closed Massachusetts fire academy you can get a mobile unit in here but it has to be scheduled and it

56:41

really isn’t any guarantee that you can do that so there’s other types of training you can do we talked about that

56:48

for just any buildings that become available not to burn but buildings that

56:54

you can train in and drill in so we’ve recommended that to the chief as well but there is those are just hours that

57:01

they have to have and it’s required and that’s just that redundant training that

57:06

the fire service does also uh just in the mid to long term

57:11

some funding to develop and construct some training facility if there’s land

57:17

available you can also consider that when you build a new fire station if you build a new fire station if there’s any

57:23

land available where you can put props on there for personnel

57:28

performance measures uh for call processing times in the 911 Center you

57:35

saw what your data was there it’s it’s it’s more than double what the NFPA

57:41

standard is but if you have compliance in there and you have some performance measures at least the people who are

57:47

processing the calls are aware and they have a goal that they are trying to meet

57:53

and Achieve through compliance we talked about the psap

58:03

we talked a little bit about this this is already in place moving the 9-1-1 Center

58:09

into the County Center and having them be the the primary psap for 9-1-1 calls

58:17

and then dispatching fire and EMS from there

58:24

this is your fire alarm division uh who has many miles of cable above ground

58:31

below ground boxes pull boxes fire alarm Boxes Etc

58:37

that he maintains and so this is a recommendation because of his workload

58:44

to fund at least uh on a at minimum a part-time position at a technician level

58:50

that can come in and assist him with that

58:58

fire apparatus replacement plan just a plan to meet the NFPA 1901 standard

59:06

these here you’re already doing uh so it’s just to to look at refurbishing

59:12

apparatus perhaps before you buy it and not keeping any

59:18

apparatus in service over 25 years which is the NFPA 1901 standard

59:24

it just goes through that standard changes about every seven years and they put multiple safety standards and

59:32

benchmarks in there for apparatus and this just keeps you up to date and

59:40

keeps that apparatus safe as it’s traveling the roads and it protects the firefighters

59:46

again these are things that the the chief Master Mechanic already does and

59:51

it just has to do with pumps aerial ladders and just the testing and the maintenance that goes into those

59:58

uh a fleet records management system one of

1:00:03

the things that the fire department really doesn’t have is a records management system for Fleet they have it in books and on paper but they don’t

1:00:11

have it in a place where multiple people can go in and look so it’s not digital so this is just a recommendation to make

1:00:18

that digital and the same with your light vehicles uh

1:00:24

just to come up with a grading schedule for those the same as the chief Master Mechanic has for fire apparatus and

1:00:30

command cars you have a marine firefighting vessel

1:00:35

now and the recommendation here is just maintain it

1:00:41

establish your and maintain your operating guidelines and make sure that the you have proper

1:00:48

cross Staffing on that are people who are trained to to run that boat

1:00:55

secession planning you’ve got a new Chief so that was some very good succession planning there the

1:01:02

recommendation is just keep that up that’s very important and that’s just for everybody collectively to work

1:01:09

together the uh the iff with the chief’s office human resources and develop a

1:01:17

secession plan and we laid out some different benchmarks in the report to

1:01:23

help the chief with that effective response Force we talked about

1:01:28

this you’re 240 seconds you you received a safer Grant in 2018

1:01:34

for Staffing for the for the heavy rescue truck that is to keep that in service 24 7

1:01:41

365. that’s not the case currently that

1:01:47

Staffing is utilized to cover overtime and leave so our recommendation is

1:01:55

because you got a safer Grant which is a Federal grant that you use that grant for How It Was Written and you put that

1:02:02

unit in service and you keep it in service 24 7. that’s a valuable piece of equipment particularly where it’s

1:02:08

located at station three which is sort of in the middle of the Town it can go north south east or west with a full

1:02:16

crew so our recommendation is to to put that unit in service and for the chief

1:02:23

to look at the look at the Staffing and what the funding impacts will be on that

1:02:29

but you already have the funding uh to to to make to man that and so you can

1:02:34

look there the bigger Circle in the middle is where station three would be at your heavy rescue and that’s your

1:02:42

eight minute travel time north south east and west so it can cover a lot of ground

1:02:47

and it adds to the effective response Force here’s your effective response Force for

1:02:53

a single family dwelling that’s just a visual there of 17 people that’s the requirement uh you you send now 10 uh

1:03:01

one battalion chief two engines and an aerial if you add the heavy rescue into

1:03:06

that then you’d be getting 13 that’s why our recommendation is that you uh you

1:03:12

respond that heavy rescue on all structure fires or all really all multi-unit calls

1:03:22

you have a ladder at station five that is cross staff with an engine our

1:03:27

recommendation is that you that ladder goes out first due on all structure

1:03:33

fires not the engine it does have it carries hose and water it’s a quint so

1:03:40

it can be used either as a ladder or an engine and that’s near term we we feel as if

1:03:46

you should do that as quickly as you can your facility plan to relocate station

1:03:54

one continue to look at that however when you relocate station one

1:04:00

you need to be cognizant of moving it from its current area because you have heavy demand there and you’re building

1:04:06

risk so you just got to be careful how far you pull that from where it is because you’re going to create gaps that

1:04:13

you don’t have now again in a heavy demand area and certainly continue with station four

1:04:19

and what your plans are for that you saw where the demand was there and you’re

1:04:25

already developing that area north and west of that that’s just a visual there

1:04:31

of what the new stations would look like uh the first if you look at those two on

1:04:39

the right the one on the left there o’berry Street uh

1:04:44

and that intersection there where you would move it you can see the Gap that’s

1:04:49

created that’s the red circle and then if you move it to Long Pond which covers

1:04:55

that newly developed area where you have some additional demand but now you’re

1:05:01

taking that station away where you have heavy demand along the coast in the downtown area where we are here tonight

1:05:08

so there’s you know there’s some give and take on that

1:05:13

but that’s just a decision right that you just have to make our recommendation is uh

1:05:20

try to try to rebuild that or or if you’re going to move that very close to

1:05:26

where it is and you’re going to have to think about uh that Long Pond area for

1:05:32

station in the future anyhow because you already have development there and you have high demand

1:05:39

talked about station four this next recommendation is just a

1:05:46

ladder at station Seven it’s either leave it as station Seven

1:05:51

you can potentially move it to station two but it needs to be staffed and so

1:05:56

there’s just additional Staffing there over the long term to consider Staffing that with an

1:06:03

officer and two firefighters on each of the shifts and either at station 7 or station two

1:06:10

uh really where the chief feels it should be either location

1:06:16

will serve the purpose for both districts

1:06:22

station four you’re going vertical there we saw a lot of the new construction in

1:06:27

that area and over the longer term a ladder certainly at that station because

1:06:32

you don’t have a ladder company in the southwest portion of the town and you need one

1:06:42

EMS just very quickly first recommendation there is just

1:06:48

upgrade the EMS training for all the uh Plymouth fire department uh Personnel

1:06:54

from medical first responder to EMT basic you run a lot of EMS calls so

1:07:00

there should be some gradual implementation of that and then these other ones are really

1:07:09

devoted to how the psap is set up now Brewster gets

1:07:15

a call they send it over to Plymouth fire Plymouth fire runs all of the uh

1:07:22

call EMS calls now we took a pretty deep dive into that and

1:07:29

there are calls that are of a lower Acuity that typically fire departments

1:07:35

are running less and less across the country and so

1:07:40

our recommendation is that the psap at Brewster at least

1:07:47

use their priority medical dispatch which is a system that prioritizes call

1:07:53

and reduce the level the amount of response or the number of calls that

1:07:58

Plymouth fire is responding on

1:08:05

excuse me 34 is is is tied into that last recommendation about priority

1:08:11

medical dispatch uh

1:08:17

and let’s see here 36 mobile Integrated Health System or Community paramedicine

1:08:23

program uh could benefit this community so we’ve made a recommendation on that

1:08:28

that is where when you have repeat callers or people who uh

1:08:34

are frequently being transported by EMS instead of sending an ambulance all the

1:08:40

time a mobile Integrated Health System or Community paramedicine system uh just

1:08:46

goes by their house they check on them they make sure that they’re okay to make sure they’re taking their medications uh

1:08:53

because that’s typically what the issues are so it saves an ambulance transport

1:08:59

and it saves uh fire department response so you’re just reducing EMS calls overall

1:09:07

it’s just a figure that just just goes over the different types of calls

1:09:12

the alpha bravo and Omega Fire Department shouldn’t be responding to only the higher Acuity calls charlie

1:09:18

delta and Echo

1:09:24

this is just for the EMS system just to publish uh you know their their clinical measures uh be more transparent with

1:09:31

that and patient experiences a lot of EMS systems will after transport

1:09:39

they will send a survey out and you know larger systems the more contemporary

1:09:45

systems will publish those so that the public can see and you can see how that

1:09:50

ambulance service is doing just an example there of a

1:09:57

and that’s another example of uh just a different critical calls what the goal

1:10:04

is what the goal on seeing time is did they meet the goal Etc

1:10:12

one of the things that we did find is in the contract that you have with Brewster

1:10:18

they are a level of effort meaning they’ll just tell you how many units that they have in the town

1:10:25

a more contemporary contract would be a Performance Based that’s based on

1:10:31

response times it’s based on clinical measurement uh that you as a board sets

1:10:38

through an agreement and then you measure that on a monthly basis so

1:10:43

there’s compliance in there as well and last but not least uh

1:10:49

we don’t think you should initiate a town-based EMS system through fire

1:10:57

we costed it for you there’s substantial cost in that uh just substantial cost

1:11:04

and perpetuity with personnel and there’s substantial cost in that as a startup cost you’re doing fine as a fire

1:11:11

department that’s all I have

1:11:16

thank you go ahead Charlie just just quickly thank you for that last comment

1:11:22

because that’s been uh it’s kind of been controversial a little bit in fact we had somebody that

1:11:30

ran on a uh it was part of his campaign was he wanted to change the EMS system

1:11:37

that we should have our own ambulances and I’m glad you just pointed that out that it wouldn’t be cost effective and

1:11:44

uh you’re happy with that ambulance service so thank you for that and the other thing Chief a lot of the training

1:11:51

I know you’re working on because I know we worked on the last contract about getting everybody up to speed with

1:11:58

training and uh so I know that’s something that you’re working on now uh

1:12:03

the dispatch situation that the new system that’s that’s going to be in

1:12:08

place in a few months so I think we’re making some strides already with your

1:12:14

recommendations the one Improvement on your EMS is just look at the contract we

1:12:20

gave you I think a good recommendation more performance level rather than level of effort and I think that cures

1:12:28

you know what the EMS issue would be your credentials are certainly uh

1:12:35

you have a lot more credentials than I do so I had no clue about that thank you for answering that question yes thank

1:12:41

you Mr Mahoney

1:12:47

Joe thanks for keeping that under an hour thank you madam chair

1:12:53

30 minutes at all just a couple of things early in the presentation and you were talking about

1:13:00

the uh the response time of 240 there was a slide a lot before this one

1:13:07

that indicated that in some areas The Village concept

1:13:12

was an impediment to getting to the 240. is there a explanation behind that it’s

1:13:19

just how you built it out really that’s it you know you as you developed around the forest and as you

1:13:26

you know probably moved from north to south down Route 3 and you started

1:13:31

developing on the coast it was it was just pieces right we’re going to develop this

1:13:37

area we’re going to Zone it this way and we’re going to but we’re going to need a fire station okay

1:13:42

all right so second question and you talked about a potential new station one

1:13:48

and I think you had three different Maps up there so one of them was if it’s built where it currently is or

1:13:55

in a close proximity you don’t lose any coverage correct no sir but if you go to obery along Pond Road you create this

1:14:02

Gap yes sir I believe just north of here correct yes sir okay

1:14:09

where you have a lot of risk correct yes I know it’s very dense up there so no um

1:14:15

but I also know that it’s tough right I mean you have to make a decision you know what do we do with what we have or

1:14:22

if we move it there’s not a lot of probably not a lot of choices of places to move it so I

1:14:29

mean I realize that too our job is just to tell you you’ve got a

1:14:34

lot of risk here so just be cautious how far you move it from the risk

1:14:40

and of course if you move it from the risk how do you mitigate that response time so yes sir okay thank you

1:14:47

yes sir I think we could learn lessons from

1:14:53

actually the build of town hall that we could have taken over Lincoln Street and

1:14:59

taken over the hotel there and had just as nice of a town hall for about 30

1:15:05

million dollars less and we do have three residents that are right beside

1:15:11

the station one fire station that we should really start considering reaching

1:15:16

out and maybe asking if they’d be interested in departing with their property

1:15:24

anyone else Mr Chandler I know you have to come up to the podium

1:15:35

this is prime time Phil no I was just curious I had a question on the rankings can you please state

1:15:41

your name on the record up Phil Chandler uh where’d you go um yes sir so the

1:15:48

question I had is that on the rankings how it was like the community was a three out of ten there was an eight can

1:15:54

you please speak into the microphone thank you there was an 8 A and A B

1:15:59

so it was like one through ten but there was an eight A and B and I was wondering why that was

1:16:05

it is um as you move As you move farther down it it really

1:16:10

has to do with two things how far

1:16:16

how far are you from a fire station and then how far are you from a credible

1:16:23

water source and so as you get into the A’s and the B’s that’s where they start to segregate that out just like they’ve

1:16:29

segregated here there are three in in the in the area where everybody’s

1:16:37

within five miles of a fire station within a thousand feet of a credible water source as you get away from that

1:16:43

you’re still a three because you’re within five miles of a fire station but you’re not within one thousand feet of a

1:16:49

credible water source so that’s how the iso breaks that down

1:16:54

the eight doesn’t apply here

1:17:03

no it’s it’s still 10 but but some of them have letters that that correspond

1:17:09

with where you are you could be within a thousand feet of a credible water source but but more than five miles from a fire

1:17:15

station you’re talking to a numbers guy

1:17:21

so are there any more questions okay well thank you very much thank you

1:17:29

Chief do you have something else you’d like no I just I just wanted to say thank you I know that that was a you know a lengthy presentation but I think

1:17:35

it was important for us to to share our study results with uh with the board and with the town

1:17:41

um because it’s going to start a lot of interesting conversations obviously um there was a lot of uh information and

1:17:47

recommendations that were made um that quite frankly we were already aware of a lot of these challenges we

1:17:53

were already aware of some of these deficiencies that were out there and we were already in in the works of addressing them but it’s nice having

1:17:59

this package now you know one one document that we can refer to in reference when we’re having these

1:18:05

conversations in the future and I look forward to meeting a lot of these challenges as we move forward so thank

1:18:11

you very much and I’m sure you will yes Madam chair can I just ask the chief a

1:18:18

question thank you all right Neil so we’ve been waiting for this report for a

1:18:24

while it’s here a very comprehensive so obviously you do have other you know you

1:18:31

just secured some incremental property for uh State Road for one of your stations so we’ve got things going on

1:18:36

out in West Plymouth uh what’s what’s our timeline with respect to uh but you

1:18:41

you making decision apparently maybe with the town manager on uh the future of station one yeah I’ll have to I’ll

1:18:49

have to get with the town manager on the finance director we’ll have to have some you know uh substantive conversations

1:18:54

about that subject but we also have a lot of other large projects on the plate right now so I think we have enough to

1:19:01

focus on at the moment but we do need to start that planning process as well on

1:19:07

what our next moves are going to be as far as station one or potentially an additional station within the town okay

1:19:13

thank you chief uh Joe I’d just like a thank you team

1:19:20

that report was fantastic and chief you know when I was uh running for selectman

1:19:27

I wanted a you know get some information familiarize myself

1:19:32

with some of the buildings in Plymouth and I toured the fire stations and I’ll tell you what I learned so much about

1:19:39

the fire department and and what you do what your department is I see Brian from

1:19:44

the union out there Brian toured it with us and uh with the former Chief we have

1:19:50

a unique town and and I’m glad I hope a lot of residents watch tonight to to listen to this report we have a

1:19:58

unique town uh with seven we have seven fire stations not a lot of towns have

1:20:03

that many stations we have 134 miles of of uh

1:20:09

of uh land to cover we have 36 miles of coast you know we have in one station on a

1:20:18

shift I think uh the former Chief told us they had a in the course of one shift

1:20:24

they had a they had a house fire a boat fire an electric fire at the power

1:20:30

plants uh they had a they had to go out in Route 3 for the for the jaws of life to

1:20:37

take somebody out and they had a uh they had a boat fire down the canal that was

1:20:43

one shift all those different scenarios and uh it’s it’s that’s so you know when

1:20:48

when people see like when we go when you go before town meeting and all the equipment that you need for the fire

1:20:54

departments there’s a reason for that because because we need all these different trucks we need brush trucks we

1:21:01

need pump trucks I think it only 60 percent of uh the town has fire

1:21:07

hydrants so we don’t have water I believe 40 percent of our town so we need those pump tricks so it’s just

1:21:15

amazing uh that the job you guys do and I hope uh that we can keep if you need

1:21:21

the training that we can get grant money so we can afford to do that or if we can’t we can’t afford not to train you

1:21:28

so I hope uh Brian I hope you keep requesting training for you guys I know

1:21:34

the chief is 100 in with you so uh anyway I commend you it was I learned so

1:21:41

much tonight in that one hour thank you all right thank you very much thank you

1:21:47

and Derek could you put that on the town website so folks can take a look at it

1:21:54

oh yeah we have to do that yeah right all right I’m just going to do a quick

1:21:59

uh license permits and administrative notes unless there is something specific

1:22:05

that the board has questions on I asked for a motion to move as a group

1:22:11

emotion we move as a group was there first by Mr helm seconded by Mr bletzer

1:22:19

discussion all those in favor so Carrie

1:22:25

unanimous the next order of business is The

1:22:30

Mooring wait list

1:22:57

can you please unmute yourself

1:23:03

again Chad Hunter Plymouth Harbor Master so what you have before you tonight are

1:23:08

some recommendations um to change the Waterway regulations which deal with The Mooring waiting list

1:23:15

renewal period so we have some quick things to go over

1:23:20

what is a mooring waiting list so The Mooring waiting list is required

1:23:26

um by state law and it’s a list that basically creates fair and equitable

1:23:31

assignment of Mooring space in Plymouth Harbor we have about anywhere from 400 to 600

1:23:37

people waiting on the list for anywhere from six to ten years depending on the size of boat that they’re requesting

1:23:43

in approximately 20 to 40 of those are assigned by turnovers so somebody gives

1:23:50

up their Mooring and then that goes to the next person on the list with the appropriate size boat and each year we

1:23:57

have about 70 to 90 people that do not renew their applications and that

1:24:02

renewal process is sort of open January 1st of every calendar year and runs to

1:24:08

February 28th so they get approximately two months to come in or pay online make sure all

1:24:16

of their information is current and up to date and then they get renewed for that next calendar year

1:24:26

so the the process the renewal process to dive in a little more detail on that Mooring renewals are due by February

1:24:32

28th so at midnight on February 28th the renewal period closes if an applicant

1:24:38

does not renew by February 28th they are removed from the list

1:24:43

there’s I mentioned 70 to 90 people that don’t renew every year not all of those

1:24:49

are intentional some people move out of town some people you know give up on the

1:24:55

weight in some cases um but there’s always at the end of every renewal period there’s always a

1:25:02

handful of people that just missed the deadline and you know in some cases they could

1:25:07

have been on the list for three four five years and now they’re going back in the list at the bottom so you know

1:25:16

pretty upsetting for not only them but for us as well to see somebody sort of lose that time and on the waiting list

1:25:23

the harbor bylaw so chapter 81 and the Waterway regulations kind of provide the

1:25:29

the background to the waiting list renewal and assignment methods so we

1:25:35

have a couple of amendments that we’re looking to do and this was all in consultation with the the town manager

1:25:42

and harbor committee I think we discussed this at the February 9th meeting

1:25:48

and I think there was some subcommittee discussions on this as well but this

1:25:54

Waterway regulation section B2 so again you have the existing language on the

1:25:59

top and black which specifies that renewal period of January 1st to February 28th

1:26:07

um and the recommended replacement language below which does a couple of things so we’re not only we’re extending

1:26:14

the renewal period January 1st to March 1st because we have a lot of people that come in on March 1st thinking that

1:26:21

they’ve made it and unfortunately they have not so there’s been quite a bit of confusion about February 28th and then

1:26:28

if you throw in leap year that really gums things up even more so we decided

1:26:34

to go January 1st to March first first as the renewal period and that would be

1:26:40

each calendar year and then actually extending or giving like a second chance

1:26:45

option with a demand fee added from March 2nd to March 15th where a demand

1:26:54

notice would be mailed or emailed to anybody that hasn’t renewed by the March

1:27:00

1st deadline and it gives them that option to say oh wow I missed that

1:27:06

um I still want to be on the list and they get that second chance so we discussed that at the the harbor

1:27:12

committee level and with the town manager and I think everybody thought that that was a Fair Way of giving

1:27:17

people that second chance so this language incorporates that I’m not going to read through it exactly

1:27:24

but ultimately it also puts it on the Harbor Master office to release the list

1:27:30

by April 1st so once we’re done with renewals March 15th

1:27:36

at midnight we would then go through the list anybody that’s assigned or did not renew would be removed from the list and

1:27:43

then we will post a new list where people can see where they stand on that new list and we would do that by April

1:27:50

1st there are a couple of other sections

1:27:55

here that we wanted to address so section B3

1:28:01

again the information that we have you know this is how we get a hold of you

1:28:07

know these people with either mailing addresses so mailing invoices phone numbers or email addresses so we wanted

1:28:14

to make sure that they were responsible for keeping that information up to date this is probably the

1:28:20

I would say probably the second reason we see people that don’t renew they’ll move

1:28:25

um and you know they won’t let us know that they’ve moved so when we mail out

1:28:30

an invoice to them to renew they’re not getting that we get a lot of return mail

1:28:36

every year and we do our due diligence to try and find those people by either notifying them by email or phone getting

1:28:43

their address updated and then getting that out to them but you know basically put the

1:28:49

responsibility on them that if they move or anything changes that they keep us up to date

1:28:57

and the the last one this is a little off topic but it was in the the section

1:29:03

that we were looking at and this is really looking to clarify the turnover process

1:29:09

for Mooring holders so we’re looking to add some clarity to this

1:29:14

um the top section is the existing language and I think where the confusion lies

1:29:20

because the town regulation it basically talks to uh you know

1:29:26

selling their ground tackle which is the the block and the chain and the ball

1:29:33

um you know at fair market value so we get a lot of people that look to the town to sort of broker their turnover or

1:29:41

their Mooring gear to the next person and we wanted to clarify that the town’s not in the position to broker deals but

1:29:49

from one previous owner to a new owner and we kind of Point them in the direction of The Mooring service

1:29:55

providers in this case so they are the ones that should be handling these sort of transactions they’re the ones that

1:30:02

are doing the inspections to make sure the gear is safe when it’s turned over so this one I think just adds some

1:30:09

clarity to the transfer process and sort of points them into the direction of The

1:30:15

Mooring service provider to either assess the used gear or place a new Mooring in that location

1:30:23

so I think that’s all of the the changes that we recommended um

1:30:28

the last topic um and Phil Chandler the chair of the harbor committee is here we we had these

1:30:35

discussions at the February meeting currently the The Mooring renewals are

1:30:41

ten dollars annually um so to get on the list it’s free whenever you renew you pay ten dollars

1:30:47

there was some discussion about increasing that fee to twenty dollars uh

1:30:54

with the stipulation that there was a harbor revolving fund that the

1:30:59

additional 10 fee would go into we don’t have any existing Harbor revolving fund

1:31:05

at this time so that might be something that we want to postpone but The Mooring

1:31:11

application demand fee so these are the people that have missed the renewal period so from March 2nd to March 15th

1:31:20

the question was where we wanted to set that demand fee and I think Harbor

1:31:25

committee came up with a 200 demand fee so that’s what’s in front of you today

1:31:32

for a recommendation and um I think that was it yep so

1:31:40

uh more than happy to answer any questions like I said the the chair of the harbor committee is here if you have

1:31:45

any questions for them

1:31:51

um first of all I remember because I am the liaison to the Harvard committee that back in the fall we had discussed a

1:31:59

hundred dollar demand fee and everybody was good with that I won’t approve I

1:32:05

won’t support a 200 demand fee it’s very punitive you only have a short period of

1:32:12

time less than two weeks and you have to think about you know

1:32:18

some people only get paid monthly so how are they going to pay that kind of money

1:32:24

whether it’s one or two Moorings in a family that’s like four hundred dollars it would be nearly impossible so

1:32:31

um I’d like to recommend that we reduce that fee to 100 to the hundred dollars

1:32:37

that we originally agreed to back in in the fall now I do I do realize that this

1:32:44

is something to put out there but I also think that if we are going to

1:32:50

do anything like this that we should be sending out notification that your

1:32:57

Harbor or Mooring waiting list is coming up for renewal not just hit people with

1:33:05

well it’s it’s this time and if you don’t pay it it’s two hundred dollars because you

1:33:12

missed the time so we have plenty of people that that twenty dollars I don’t

1:33:17

have a problem with it going up to twenty dollars but that twenty dollars could cover

1:33:22

mailing to everybody on the list The Mooring waiting list excuse me to let

1:33:29

them know that you know you’re mooring fees are coming up because there is no

1:33:36

communication out there about these mooring fees it’s not on social media it’s it’s nowhere that I’ve seen and I

1:33:43

know originally I was on the list for 11 years before I got we got our Mooring

1:33:49

and my kids are on The Mooring list and we missed by a day

1:33:56

five years ago and were taken off the list and down the bottom when they were in actually the teens of getting

1:34:03

their Moorings but for me I believe that two hundred

1:34:09

dollars is way too much money at home

1:34:15

um just for clarification I think that that Betty just did that but I’m just going to ask you Chad to clarify

1:34:22

um there is no reminder of the old February

1:34:27

28th or now the March 1st deadline for payment of their

1:34:34

um Mooring List fee oh there is so uh every year we send out invoices to everybody

1:34:40

that’s on the waiting list and they receive them on or about January 1st so

1:34:45

we do set note if we do we do we send an invoice and then they’re able to either

1:34:51

pay that here at Town Hall they can pay at the office or they can pay online

1:34:57

okay um where because I do remember the 100

1:35:04

demand notice penalty um and you know and perhaps Mr Chandler

1:35:10

can address this how did we go from 100 to 200 and

1:35:16

because I will agree with the chair that it seems unnecessarily punitive

1:35:24

so as the discussion uh ensued it went to 200 because

1:35:29

we couldn’t we talked about a couple of things one was the expense and one was the date and the reason why we couldn’t

1:35:35

go beyond the March 15th is at some point you start pushing that out too far and understand it understood you have

1:35:42

well no it affects the temp mornings for the summer no I agree I understand that the uh but what we also want to do was

1:35:49

not to make it that make it punitive to the point where it didn’t weigh on the administration of the Harbor Master

1:35:55

where we didn’t want people to actually do it again so as the numbers came out

1:36:00

fifty dollars was too low because we figured that people would just start paying fifty dollars and say I’ll just

1:36:05

wait and then we’d have a problem at March 15th now as opposed to March 1st so

1:36:11

um I talked about it earlier we don’t have a problem with the 100 it was just uh you know it was 200 just to make a

1:36:17

punitive so it wouldn’t happen to discourage people from um from using that as a service

1:36:25

thank you and also if I could point out too that on the ten dollars towards the

1:36:30

revolving fund it had been discussed to put that towards training and safety as

1:36:35

well so Mr hump Mr

1:36:42

uh uh thank you Phil you answered my question about 200 100

1:36:47

Chad I get a couple questions for you I constantly hear about the Moorings how

1:36:53

do you get a mooring and and then I hear about how long the waiting

1:36:58

list is so we have a serious supply and demand for warrants so I my question is

1:37:04

and I had to step out for a second when you started your presentation so I may have missed it but

1:37:10

what happens if a mooring sits empty and how long if it sits empty for a

1:37:16

season so currently they have a year and that could be due to medical condition

1:37:22

boat breakdowns a whole number of issues where they would notify us and say you

1:37:28

know I’m not able to use the Mooring and we we give them that year obviously through covid a little different story

1:37:34

we gave people a year and two years that weren’t comfortable getting back into

1:37:40

you know boating and and being on launches and around people so we did

1:37:46

extend that a little bit due to the circumstances but typically it’s one

1:37:51

year if they’re not going to use their Mooring for the year we then go to the waiting list and assign somebody on a

1:37:57

temporary basis so while they’re waiting they get the the use of a mooring for a

1:38:03

season to kind of help with that weight essentially so we do try and utilize

1:38:09

those empty Moorings by other people that are on the waiting list or so you do utilize them correct okay so

1:38:15

currently how many thinks that empty Last Summer um good question

1:38:21

um we got kind of a revolving time period and you know a snapshot at any point

1:38:26

um along the way you know there’s there’s always empty Moorings you have people that will sometimes go in late in

1:38:33

the season stay in late people that go in early come out early uh then you have people that cruise and do different

1:38:38

things so we usually have an inventory of empty Moorings I would say anywhere

1:38:46

from probably 15 to 20 percent at any given time well I would encourage you to

1:38:51

really if you could kind of take a look and if you see these Moorings being empty and people aren’t using them to

1:38:57

really uh you know take them back and give them to the people on this this

1:39:03

long that’s what a 10-year waiting list is that what it is yeah yeah it’s six years ten years yeah yeah so I would

1:39:09

like to see more people be able to I mean I’m not about owner myself but I would like to see more people be able to

1:39:14

utilize that beautiful Abra yeah the temporary assignments have been very well received

1:39:20

um you know and for you know just kind of shorten that period if somebody has to wait six to ten years if they’re able

1:39:26

to get two or three years of a temporary to kind of cushion that a little bit it helps and it’s um you know essentially

1:39:33

it supports the marine fuel they they’re not able to get a tender so they have to use the launch system so it helps

1:39:39

everybody in the whole economy down there correct yeah so yep all right thank you thank you

1:39:47

Chad I remember a few years ago you made a presentation when

1:39:53

we were going through the dredging process which was a couple of phases and you know the plan you had in place with

1:39:59

respect to you know Shifting The Moorings and putting them back so is everything settled out there

1:40:05

yeah there’s um we’ve still been dealing with some people that want to move they don’t necessarily like where they ended

1:40:11

up everybody is accounted for everybody is in we’ve had some turnovers since

1:40:17

um and you know we really didn’t end up with any more Moorings that was my next question any possibility of expansion no

1:40:26

um we can look in some of the flats areas which are not necessarily popular if you have

1:40:33

a larger boat but if you have like a smaller boat that’s shallow draft that we could potentially add some

1:40:39

um but yeah we’d have to take a look at that I think you know we definitely have a more orderly Harbor if you kind of

1:40:46

look out there you can see the rose and the way it was designed and that was to help with wayfinding so if somebody’s

1:40:53

visiting in Plymouth Harbor you now we have sort of a grid where you can give them you know E5 and it actually tells

1:41:01

you where that would be versus before they were all sort of just scattered throughout the Harbor

1:41:07

so I know this has been a sensitive issue comes and goes

1:41:12

occasionally you get some very you know irate people with respect to the process so I certainly like the fact that the

1:41:19

air is basically a new two-week grace period put in sure I agree with the

1:41:25

chair 200 is a big number whether it’s 50 100 or 200

1:41:31

where does that money end up so I believe all that money goes to the general fund oh God

1:41:38

okay so um I’m

1:41:43

I don’t know if there’s a motion forthcoming but certainly I 200 right now seems like a very large starting

1:41:50

point sure anyone else

1:41:57

so um I’d like to make a motion to reduce that 200 fee

1:42:04

to a hundred dollar demand fee and until the renewal

1:42:12

until we have the revolving fund or whatever it is that we have I don’t think we should

1:42:18

be raising fees to twenty dollars unless we have

1:42:23

some place to put it so if you’re telling me we have some place to put it then that’s a whole

1:42:29

different story yes in the general fund

1:42:35

I like the general fund do we see it’s a problem if I could just talk about that just for a minute because the finance

1:42:41

structure we’ve had this conversation multiple occasions and the concern is every time you start air

1:42:46

mocking fees in this situation you start pulling the pulling away

1:42:52

Revenue sources from and taking away the town’s ability to finance Town

1:42:57

operations so in this situation I think what the finance director would recommend is

1:43:04

let’s look at that sum of money that that additional Revenue and then just create a line item within

1:43:11

the operating budget that so this way you’re not creating a special account file but you’re just

1:43:16

creating a line item in the operating budget for a specific purpose using those revenues so it ends up becoming a

1:43:22

net zero proposition to the budget along those lines

1:43:29

um Chad how many people are on the list um I would say probably about 500 people

1:43:36

500 so that’s five thousand dollars correct that

1:43:42

well under 20 10 at 10 it’s five thousand dollars at twenty it’s ten

1:43:48

thousand dollars um that would be earmarked and not go to

1:43:53

the general fund correct well there would be a lot these were created yes well I would say that

1:44:00

the Delta manager what is the difference between a line item and a revolving fund

1:44:06

so the so the what ends up happening is if the if those fees are deposited into the

1:44:12

general fund then through the annual budget process we

1:44:18

could create a specific line item in the harbor message budget using X number of dollars how to

1:44:26

generate from from that Revenue Source a special revenue account or a revolving

1:44:31

fund takes those dollars directly away from the general fund and places them an

1:44:37

account that can only be used for that very specific purpose but aren’t you proposing a similar thing

1:44:42

with a line item right but a revolving or a special account or revolving

1:44:48

account um basically becomes permanent if it’s in the operating budget during

1:44:54

lean years it can be removed so it’s a way to help reduce the

1:45:01

operating budget during lean years like say this past year so it’s it’s a way to

1:45:07

earmark a line item as a way to earmark money unless we decide to change our minds

1:45:14

suddenly that’s right okay yeah Charlie I think a hundred dollars

1:45:19

is fair for that but if they recommend a twenty dollar fee from 10 to 20 uh The

1:45:25

Hub committee recommends that too I’m all for that I think that’s uh twenty dollars for Warren that’s I think that’s

1:45:32

pretty cheap and uh it’s twenty dollars to be on the list not for a mooring

1:45:39

to be on the list yeah just to be on the waiting list oh just for the waiting but don’t you get along

1:45:45

with that too no no no unless you get assigned a temporary then yes but

1:45:51

ultimately it’s just to secure your place in the list and you pay that every year well I still think it’s fair so

1:45:58

so I would I would go with the 20. okay so the the motion is to reduce the

1:46:07

demand fee to a hundred dollars and to allow the renewal to be twenty dollars

1:46:18

does this does this motion also include the other changes that uh Chad suggested

1:46:24

to the working including March 1st and all those on the three other slides yes

1:46:30

so it would be everything as presented except the demand fee would only be a hundred

1:46:37

dollars and the renewal fee would be in the twenty dollars I’ll second that

1:46:44

discussion uh to the town manager Derek I

1:46:49

understand the concerns that you have in the finance structure has with respect to

1:46:54

you know earmarking and you’ve got to pick your spots I completely agree but having gone through

1:47:00

attended some meetings in the last year with uh Mr Hunter and others in the

1:47:05

harbor Master committee members and the lobstermans association with respect to the potential uh Cruise liner coming in

1:47:12

here I do know that some of the concerns that were voiced at some of these meetings was you

1:47:18

know not having a proper funding line item with respect to certain needs that you

1:47:24

know they’d like to see in the budget so I’m certainly supportive of that and hopefully we can get that done next year

1:47:32

anyone else called all those in favor

1:47:39

unanimous thank you thanks next is the

1:47:45

Town managers report all right good evening everybody so I want to start with some really good news one of our

1:47:53

town employees by the name of Parker Cody I want to congratulate congratulate and publicly for finishing the Boston

1:47:59

Marathon yesterday I know it was something that he had strived to do last couple years and for whatever reason he

1:48:05

wasn’t able to to participate so he was able to participate yesterday and finish the Boston Marathon I think around four

1:48:12

hours so great job by Mr Cody um just as we head into the pavement

1:48:20

management season I wanted to bring to the boys attention one we’re going to be signing a number of roads this coming

1:48:26

week uh one in particular though I know has brought a lot of attention is Rocky Hill Road so that’s actually starting I

1:48:32

think it’s already started but so for the public that’s listening I want to let folks know that if you’re interested

1:48:38

where your street is these uh engineering department will be posting a list on the website of all the roads

1:48:44

that will be paved this coming summer season so look out for that a couple announcements this coming

1:48:51

Saturday and Sunday from 8 A.M to 2 p.m at Camelot Drive the DPW will be holding

1:48:56

its tree debris removal program so for residents just bring an ID and they’ll

1:49:02

take any brush or any Leaf debris from your home this coming Saturday and Sunday also this weekend the drug take

1:49:11

back day and shops disposal program will be will be taking place at 20 Long Pond

1:49:17

Road which is the police station and at Cedarville fire station again at 10 A.M to 2 p.m that’s a drug take back day in

1:49:25

the chef’s disposal program um you you may be aware that we had we

1:49:31

had done an analysis of town Wharf there was some structural um repairs that needed to be made and so

1:49:40

last week you may have seen a float with a crane in the harbor so those repairs are underway we expect those repairs to

1:49:47

be completed in the next week or so the Stevens Field project is moving

1:49:52

along very well we do still plan to put this out to bid in May I talked to Mr

1:49:59

Gould today he’s hopeful I think by the end of this month to come before the board and give a full presentation on

1:50:06

everything that’s transpired over the last three or four months as it releases Stevens Field and give everyone a

1:50:12

snapshot of the construction timetable so looking forward I think the last

1:50:18

meeting here in April for Mr ghoul to come in as you know at town meeting in

1:50:25

October there was a vote taken to acquire land and right next door to the management fire station that laying

1:50:32

acquisition is complete the bids I reported on last week were opened we

1:50:38

have two contractors that have come within the budget we’re now betting

1:50:43

those two contractors and then we make a bit of what I think within about another week or so

1:50:50

um the the police department and fire department doing very interesting training it’s called active shooter

1:50:56

hostile event response Azure training um so this is a combination

1:51:03

um type of training with the fire department police department they get together and they train on how to

1:51:09

respond to active shooter events our fire department unfortunately is now equipped with body armor so if they had

1:51:16

to enter a facility where there was an active shooter they are protected and they can render immediate care for those

1:51:22

individuals who’ve been injured so unfortunately this day and age this is the type of training both Fire and

1:51:28

Police Department have to go through but we think we’ll be better prepared if that day were ever to come and the last thing I just want to

1:51:34

announce that next Monday we’ll be launching a new website so look forward

1:51:40

to that folks that are listening at home go to the new website I think everybody would be very impressed Mr senesi and Mr

1:51:46

Joe Young took the lead on that and did a lot of a lot of hard work I’d say geez for the last four or five months on this

1:51:53

on this website so I don’t remember the last time the website was updated but I think it’s been at least eight years so

1:51:59

we are looking forward to getting that thing up and going so we will do a

1:52:05

presentation Anthony when is that May May 9th we’re going to come into our I.T presentation of all the things that have

1:52:11

happened in the last couple of months depending any questions that’s all I have for this evening

1:52:18

I just like to say that I looked at that a little bit today with Anthony and uh great June

1:52:24

I can’t imagine how much time you spent on that but uh that that’s a phenomenal uh website it really is people are going

1:52:32

to be so impressed by that thank you

1:52:37

um Mr Blitzer um we’re hoping to have more Outreach regarding once the website goes live we

1:52:44

hope to have more Outreach to members of the public um you know and um you know get more

1:52:50

feedback regarding the site how we can improve um and additionally maybe provide

1:52:57

um tutorials as to how to access certain information I think it’s pretty user

1:53:02

friendly but you never know so we’re going to be taking feedback as it comes so and I saw that 311

1:53:09

[Music] an incident was reported on the 10th and on the 11th it was it was fixed right so

1:53:16

we have a uh it’s a pothole situation and it went to the DPW and the next day

1:53:21

was fixed and the person emailed uh back so that that’s impressive correct so we

1:53:27

have a report a concern um module where folks can uh it’s called

1:53:32

C click fix people can uh we can talk more about this on May 9th but folks can

1:53:39

already start to utilize that service report potholes flooding drainage issues

1:53:45

there’s about 20 to 30 different categories of things that people can

1:53:52

report to the town and the response is two ways the the um the department

1:53:59

that’s assigned to it will receive the request and the request store will

1:54:04

receive a response when that issue has been resolved or if it’s an ongoing concern that the town will address

1:54:12

yeah now instead of calling Betty you can just go on the website well that’s that was my 3-1-1 it gets implemented

1:54:20

before I leave office so which is great and even the website and

1:54:26

um not to not to sound foolish but um some candidates are promising a new

1:54:34

website if they’re elected into office so you might want to send them an email specifically let them know that it’s

1:54:41

going to be launched next week anyone else Mr home

1:54:48

this might be more appropriate to the assistant Town manager but I know that

1:54:55

the RFP for the symes house went active last week do we have or have we had any

1:55:03

interest I know people have to register in order to access the RFP and to

1:55:09

respond so we add anybody access we have it’s been light but we have a

1:55:16

few interested parties by light and a few what would you want four people total who have requested bit specs okay

1:55:24

thank you do you have anything no this is the town manager

1:55:32

okay um now next John is Select board open

1:55:39

discussion old new business letters Derek you had mentioned October town

1:55:44

meeting um you talked about Apostle a land that have been closed on and

1:55:49

CPC met last Thursday night and I’m concerned about articles that were

1:55:55

passed at Tom meeting last October in their current status

1:56:00

so I just want to make sure that one I was hoping maybe at the next meeting you

1:56:06

can have an update with respect to especially two of them Boy Scout camp in West Plymouth you know close to the

1:56:11

Dobby Pond well and you mentioned Stevens Field earlier there was a little parcel I think roughly half an acre

1:56:18

expanding that park by a little but the current status it’s imperative that we

1:56:23

these things are not delayed I’m concerned that there might be some sort of a communication breakdown and

1:56:29

especially when it comes to land purchases we need to put those to bed as soon as possible so

1:56:35

that was it I was hoping that we can get some sort of update through the chair at the next meeting yeah we happen to

1:56:41

provide an update and send the CPC committee as an update as well to those

1:56:46

those uh those land Acquisitions do we know when the next CPC meeting is

1:56:52

I don’t um typically they’re in that every two to three week range and we just met last

1:56:59

Thursday so okay

1:57:07

Mr home um I guess this um be a question to the town manager we

1:57:15

all received the sample ballot for the May election which included

1:57:22

um the candidates and as well as the proposed

1:57:28

um language for the for the for the charter

1:57:35

um the charter ballot question and um

1:57:41

while I understand the process and I understand that this is the charter commission

1:57:47

um I just wanted to express my concern that unlike previous ballots

1:57:57

initiatives the wording is in what we saw in the sample

1:58:03

um less than objective um it’s could be described as biased in One

1:58:11

Direction I know that it begins by almost recommending that people vote Yes

1:58:17

and I was wondering if you could update us on that because I know we go to print

1:58:24

I know that I have no say in what that ballot language is and I’m okay with

1:58:29

that but I would just like an update on where we stand

1:58:35

um yeah happy to provide an update so as you pointed out the town clock had submitted a a sample ballot

1:58:43

to myself and others this morning and after reviewing the summary of the

1:58:48

proposed Charter that was drafted by the charter commission there was some

1:58:54

um and I think in a couple of folks opinion some edits that had to be made I had a conference call with the attorney

1:59:02

that represented the chatter commission during their deliberations I explained

1:59:08

the the concerns and that as you pointed out you know may it may be less than neutral

1:59:17

of a summary those those edits would then communicated to

1:59:23

the chair of the charter commission and the attorney told me this evening that he plans to work with the chair and then

1:59:30

ultimately through the charter commission to get them to approve any edits at their meeting tomorrow night I

1:59:37

believe we have until Thursday to go to print for the ballot so

1:59:42

that’s the drop dead day to make any types of editorial changes to the summary

1:59:48

statement okay thank you um I I would like to I know that Mr Helm

1:59:57

and Mr bulletin are doing a live show tomorrow evening and Steve if you would

2:00:03

like to um come up and discuss some of the questions and concerns that I know Mr

2:00:10

Helm has had regarding that language and I think I think we all have concerns

2:00:20

thank you very much Steve bulletin Precinct 15.

2:00:26

like you uh and probably even less so I’ve only had a couple hours of

2:00:31

physically holding the proposed language and so I have not had the chance to do

2:00:37

the type of due diligence that I normally do before standing before you

2:00:43

um but what I did do was look at the law so there is a very specific provision in

2:00:49

the law that talks about this we’ve heard about it many many times in the whole Charter process general laws

2:00:56

chapter 43b in this case section 11. it says a copy of the ballot question

2:01:04

and summary prepared in accordance with the following instructions shall be

2:01:09

filed with the city or town clerk no later than 35 days before the election

2:01:15

here are the instructions that the statute has where a new Charter or single Charter

2:01:22

revision is being submitted at an election set forth here a brief summary of its

2:01:28

basic Provisions composition and mode of selection of the legislative and executive branches and school committee

2:01:35

or if a change of none of these is involved the most significant proposed

2:01:41

change that’s it that’s all that’s all that’s allowed per

2:01:47

Massachusetts state law under state law

2:01:53

statutes are construed narrowly that means if it’s not in the statute you don’t get to add it

2:02:00

so again I haven’t had a chance to go in as much detail over this 500 plus word brief summary

2:02:07

uh but I have spotted a few things that clearly don’t fall within that provision

2:02:15

under the state law essentially based on what I’ve read in the charter the things that should be identified are

2:02:22

the select board is changing the town moderator provision position is

2:02:28

eliminated from election which I don’t think I saw anywhere in their summary

2:02:33

I don’t have a problem with of course the fact that they’re referencing that certain other executive and legislative

2:02:39

bodies are staying the same it’s not technically in there but it’s it’s neither here nor there that’s fine

2:02:46

what shouldn’t be in there is anything that would qualify as the only thing the

2:02:52

courts have ever talked about is it has to be Fair

2:02:57

and unbiased essentially fair and neutral those are the words the courts have used

2:03:03

Fair meaning it can’t mislead or misrepresent the only thing that I saw in here that

2:03:10

was clearly wrong was a reference to the assertion that uh

2:03:17

these Provisions require that any change to a town bylaw or regulation or

2:03:22

approval by the town of any proposed project shall be reviewed by the

2:03:28

planning board to ensure that such proposed change in a bylaw or regulation or proposed development permit align

2:03:35

with the master plan well as the vice chair of the planning board you can imagine I pay very very

2:03:41

careful attention to the provisions of the charter that relate to the planning board

2:03:47

that statement is inaccurate the planning board under the proposed

2:03:52

Charter revisions does not review everything it only reviews those things

2:03:59

that are before the planning department it does not include many areas it does

2:04:04

not include agricultural unless a special permit is necessary it does not include anything having to do with

2:04:10

economic changes other than that falls under the Economic Development Group and it certainly does not have anything

2:04:16

to do with any Municipal improvements we don’t decide those so it’s not every

2:04:22

permit so that is simply an inaccurate statement that is proposed here so that is something that I would strongly

2:04:28

recommend be removed I’ve noted that there are other

2:04:35

non-neutral statements aspirational statements the word improved or

2:04:41

improvements is used several times ensuring that things will happen is used

2:04:48

statements which promise something are not appropriate whether or not something is a positive

2:04:54

or A negative is for the voters to decide it is not to be put forth the point of the summary is it is to be

2:05:02

factual not aspirational not promissory in nature

2:05:09

the summary is there not to lead or mislead but to inform the

2:05:15

voters if we don’t have a proper summary if someone challenges our summary as being

2:05:22

inappropriate it is possible I don’t know all of the procedures but it is possible that the

2:05:30

entire election relating to the Charter the entire vote could be withdrawn by

2:05:37

the state court could turn around and say the summary was improper and

2:05:43

therefore the vote must be held again with a proper summary so I think that we should always err on

2:05:49

the side of caution and provide what the statute calls for no more and no less

2:05:57

and if there are any questions that I can answer I’ll certainly try I appreciate that thank you

2:06:04

um Mr Blitzer thank you Steve for that for that when I saw this ballot question

2:06:11

in the summary I looked at it I read it and you know I’m going to be a little

2:06:18

harsher than Harry I think this is the most biased piece of paper I’ve ever seen and it was

2:06:25

written by a biased chairman of a biased Commission okay and I’m not speaking for the board

2:06:31

this is how I feel about this you have words this is all vote Yes and it goes

2:06:37

on all this then it says no vote says there’s no change in the shadow one

2:06:43

line and then a yes vote and it goes again down here there’s more information down here again

2:06:50

you get words in here safeguards government transparency

2:06:57

you know words like that in here in the under vote and yes it’s biased and I

2:07:02

don’t think this is right so uh thank you I just hope the public

2:07:07

understands and reads this and I hope the lawyers can make changes before they get this on Election Day because I I

2:07:14

don’t think this is it this should be an unbiased uh question and people should

2:07:20

be able to vote and have the right information thank you I agree in the

2:07:25

sense that it certainly should be neutral that’s the word the courts use it should be neutral

2:07:32

it should be factual and it should be accurate it’s a simple

2:07:38

I am not going to get into what anyone’s intention was in drafting something uh

2:07:46

whether something was meant to mean something or not that’s neither here nor

2:07:51

there from a legal standpoint that’s the only thing that I look at when it comes to this is I want to make sure that we

2:07:59

comply with the law so that the residents get the opportunity to vote

2:08:06

based on their own perceptions not on what someone else’s perception is of the

2:08:13

document that’s the whole point of the vote that’s why the statute requires us to send out a copy of the charter so the

2:08:21

people make the decision not that they then get to the to the the ballot to the

2:08:26

polling place and look at their ballot and are told something and go wait a minute I’m not sure if that’s what I read

2:08:32

but I’m going to trust this over my own reading that’s the point of the state

2:08:38

law it’s to make sure that the will of the people is followed based upon their

2:08:43

perceptions not some perceived perception as to how the government may or may not want them to vote and that’s

2:08:50

what we have to worry about if the perception is that the people are being led in a certain fashion that can be

2:08:57

challenged and it’s certainly I don’t think anyone’s intention to mislead anyone

2:09:02

they want to have accurate information and they want to follow the statute that’s all I was just concerned when I

2:09:08

looked at this that I saw things that did not seem to fall within what the statute seems to read That’s all thank

2:09:15

you and I’d like to add one other thing when it says the no a no vote there’s no

2:09:21

information on why you should vote no so I hope people there’ll be some uh some

2:09:28

information out there and I’m sure you’re going to talk about it in your forums and I hope people listen to why

2:09:34

people have recommended that you don’t vote for this channel but for the same reason that I would not

2:09:41

want some of any portion of a description to say that a yes vote gets

2:09:46

you this I would also want not want anything on the ballot to say a no vote will do anything other than what the no

2:09:52

vote is which is the no vote will say we’ll keep the charter the same as it is now meaning and I would identify again

2:10:00

the comparable changes so if the yes under the yes side it says we go from

2:10:06

five to seven the no should say we remain at five if it says that the town

2:10:12

moderator provision is eliminated as an elected position the no should say Town

2:10:19

moderator will remain an elected position it should be equal and balanced again neutral that’s all that nothing

2:10:27

more I I’m not looking to to Advocate or demean any side merely want the voters

2:10:34

to make the decision rather than have the perception that the town is favoring one side or the other

2:10:41

thank you I appreciate that and I can certainly talk a long and hard

2:10:47

about the charter but I guess I’ll stay quiet for a little bit um but it’s unfortunate that you know

2:10:55

there are facts that are actually published that have been prepared by our

2:11:01

finance director that are legitimate numbers of the cost almost 1.4 million

2:11:09

dollars of what this would this Charter change would cost the taxpayers and

2:11:15

there are Commissioners basically saying that it’s a lie and it’s very offensive

2:11:23

and I can understand that their Charter Commissioners want their Charter to go through but

2:11:29

it really should have been what’s best for the people in this town and not what

2:11:35

was best for the Commissioners themselves thank you anyone else like to speak

2:11:43

nope okay uh motion to adjourn second all those in favor

2:11:51

thank you okay