Agenda – Select Board Agenda August 22 2023

Official Minutes – Not yet released.

Please note this automatically generated transcript is unofficial. If you find an error, use the contact page to notify Plymouth On The Record.

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550 and this being the Plymouth select board I will call to order this the first part of tonight’s select meeting

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of the select board at 5:50 p.m. the select board will hold an executive

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session pursuant to Massachusetts general laws Chapter 30 section 21A Clause 7 to comply with or act under the

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authority of any general or special law or Federal Grant in Aid requirements and

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will reconvene an open session at the conclusion of the ex cutive session do I

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have a motion to enter into executive session I’ll make that motion Mr bletzer has moved do I have a second second I

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have a second we have a motion we have a second to any discussion seeing none from members of

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the board call for the vote alphabetically through the role Mr bletzer how do you vote as to whether or

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not we should enter into executive session yes Mr Helm yes and I vote Yes

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we are in executive session we will reconvene an open session at the conclusion of this executive

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I will call to order this the Tuesday August 22nd 2023 meeting of Plymouth

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select board please join the board in a pledge of

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allegiance aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the

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Republic for which it stands one nation God indivisible with liberty and justice

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for

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all thank you everyone this meeting is taking place in a hybrid format pursuant

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to modifications made to the open meeting law by the legislature of the Commonwealth in response to the co 19

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pandemic members of the board that are in attendance are joining us physically at the at the Great Hall here at Town

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Hall members of the public who wish to participate or watch this meeting May join us at the Great Hall at town hall

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or may participate remotely via Zoom the zoom login information is included on our posted agenda on the town

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website all right so that brings us into our agenda proper uh we are beginning

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tonight’s meeting with a public hearing we’ll read the

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notice

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in accordance with chapter 138 of the Massachusetts general laws as amended notice is hereby given that a public

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hearing will be held at the Plymouth Town Hall 26 cord Street on Tuesday August 22nd 2023 at 6: p.m. to consider

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the application for an annual all alcohol restaurant license from kkes Incorporated doing business as P Papa’s

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Pizza Bar 38 Main Street Plymouth Amy Hurst as manager description of the

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premises is as followed single floor with kitchen dining room and bar additional seating outside on the

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sidewalk against the building handicap accessible men and ladies rooms restrooms as well as a staff restroom

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one entrance and three exits anyone wishing to be heard on this matter should plan to attend this meeting we’ll

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call to order the public hearing on this uh license application at this time do

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we have anyone in attendance wishing to speak on behalf of the

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applicant hearing and seeing none do we have anyone here who wishes to speak in

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favor of this application hearing and seeing none do

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we have anyone here who wishes to speak in opposition to this

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application hearing and seeing none uh do we have what is the pleasure

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of the board do we have any questions that we’d like answered or did anyone wish to make a

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motion Mr chairman yes Mr Blitzer so I I thought that uh

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the the the petitioner would be here tonight and but but I did did have

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questions and I what I did today is uh I called Lisa Johnson down at the town

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here at Town Hall our license uh agent and and because I was kind of

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confused and but I understand now completely I get the answers that I was looking

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for uh Kad is taking over the papaginos we

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transferred the license uh over to samet street it’s not open yet they they in

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fact I can tell you they’ve done a great job renov renovating it looks real good but they’re not ready to open there so

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they’re still they they’re ready with that license transfer the it’s uh the

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the uh so what they’re doing now is they’re going to take the old Cades and they’re going to shut that down when the

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other place opens and they’re going to open up this papers pizza and that’s what they’re looking

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for for a license uh so the looking and I asked Lisa if this was legal and

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everything and she said it was it’s going to take a little time it’s if we okay it tonight then it goes to the ABC

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by that time the other place will be open as Katie’s and this will be

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renovated to to be Pap puppa pizza so that that’s what this is about

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tonight it was confusing because I I I knew we already transferred Katie but uh

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and I thought I actually thought Papa’s Pizza was going going over there but it’s going to the uh uh current Main

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Street extension so okay so that’s what’s going on I I thought Keith would be here tonight the owner to to answer

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question that’s right Mr bendes anything yeah um through the chair I I to Mr bl’s

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Point typically um we ask the petitioner to to come here and answer questions um

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when they fail to attend uh it’s been common practice that the board tables us for for a future meeting

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right we don’t have the applicant on Zoom by chance do we we do not uh

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well I can say I’m prepared because I understand it but if the other the rest of the board doesn’t I I understand that

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too but I’m prepared to vote tonight if if you guys are ready Mr hel I think our proper procedures that

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have been that when the petitioner does not show up for a public hearing that we

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post postpone it until they are able to show up and I I understand Charlie did

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did some good research on it um but it doesn’t change the fact that uh the owner or owners of kkes or peas um have

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determined not to show up tonight so I I will not be voting for this if it goes

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to a vote I will say that I am inclined to

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agree with Mr Helm I think it would set a bad precedent if we were to have public hearings without people here to

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answer questions even if we don’t have that many questions the uh precedent

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that it sets the expectation that you could not show up is in my view not favorable so um I would suggest that we

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not take any action this evening and instead give them a future opportunity to ideally show up and answer any

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questions that we may have um so and we should I think

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continue uh move on without approving either the all annual license or the

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associated licenses and do it all at the time that we take it up

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um yeah it’s unfortunate because uh you know if he’s under a timetable to uh you

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know uh this is going to this is going to delay him so if he’s out there and he sees this uh come running yeah come down

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here yeah uh we are here we are as I said at the beginning we are at 26 uh Main Court

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Street and we’re we’re here to have this hearing at the Great Hall and you can even join us via Zoom if you’d like but

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you’re not here now so I think we’re in a position where we have to move forward all right so we will take no action on

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the public hearing uh for this for at the time being I will call a public

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hearing closed if the applicant is to walk in we could reopen it but uh I

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don’t want to take any action at this time personally uh all right so that brings

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us into licenses and administrative notes first things first is we have some

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licenses we have uh from the wildlands trusts Plymouth pit museums and Red

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Robin internation Incorporated um does anyone have any

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questions on any of those or do I have a motion to approve them as a group motion

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to approve as a group second all right Mr hel has moved Mr bletzer has seconded

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any discussion about these licenses before I call for the vote hearing and seeing none Mr bletzer

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how do you vote yes no or obain yes Mr Helm yes and I vote Yes it is unanimous

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we have approved the licenses thank you that brings us into administrative notes

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administrative notes has a number of uh items within it this evening including

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at the outset a number of meeting minutes that we are aspiring to approve

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some of which we will be able to approve this evening some of which we will not I’d like to first uh take a look at

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administrative notes 1 through 20 these are the administrative notes that

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precede my election to the board so I know that I intend to abstain from those

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particular votes um are there any other votes in regards to numbers 1 through 20

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that any other members of the board would abstain from Mr Helm I will be

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abstaining number 11 through 20 okay I will be voting on 1-10 the reason is um

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due to the heavy quantity of meeting notes I did was unable to review all of

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them understood Mr Helm and Mr bletzer are there any uh any of the meeting

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minutes listed 1 through 20 that you would be abstaining from Yes uh I’ve had

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time to read all of the notes and I I realized that I have conflicts on

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February 21st uh February 28th uh because I wasn’t at those

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meetings that’s number 12 and number 13 and as a matter of

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fact on the 28th which is number 13 it shows me making a motion which

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obviously I couldn’t make that I wasn’t there so so those those in when’s May

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9th which uh May 9th also number uh 19 I

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can’t vote I have to abstain on that too I wasn’t that dead meeting okay fair

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enough uh so with that in mind we have uh two sets that we could two groupings

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that we could vote upon uh let’s First Take uh administrative notes 1 through 10 Mr

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Helm would you care to make a motion that we uh approve administrative notes 1 through 10 as a group uh yes um I make

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that motion I do have a comment on number 7 January 3D okay so uh I will come back to Mr

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Helm Mr bletzer would you care to Second Mr Helm’s motion I will second that all right in terms of anything you would

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like to add edit alter otherwise change in regards to the proposed meeting minutes which meeting minutes and what

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would you like to change uh meeting minut 7 number 7 January 3rd

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2023 on page four of 8 um under the agreement with Claremont

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Plymouth LLC Mr bendi noted The Claremont development represents an

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estimated $330,000 gallons compared to $1 million

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gallons per day firm capacity definite I think that the dollar signs are not

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meant to be there and should be removed okay is there anything else you

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would like to add edit alter or otherwise change in regards to these 10 sets of meeting

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minutes no Mr bletzer do you have anything you would like to add edit alter or otherwise change in regards to

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these 10 set I don’t I’m satisfied all right Mr Helm would you care to update your motion to incorporate that edit

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that you just elucidated uh yes I will update my motion to include the changes to on page four of 8 of the January 3rd

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2023 meeting minutes and Mr bletzer would you care to second that updated motion I’ll second that it has been

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moved it has been seconded any discussion as to whether or not we should approve uh administrative notes 1

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through 10 this these sets of minut meeting minutes at this time hearing and seeing none I will call

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for the vote once again through the rooll yes no or abstain when I reach your name Mr bletzer how do you vote as

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to whether or not we should approve these meeting minutes yes no yes and Mr Helm yes and I will

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abstain all right so that brings us to the next grouping before my arrival uh

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that would be uh a grouping that could be made

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of 11 14 15 16 17 18 and

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20 uh Mr bletzer would you care to make a motion I will I’ll make that motion that

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we approve those meetings all right and I will second that

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motion uh it has been moved it has been seconded uh Mr bletzer do you have

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anything you would like to add edit alter or otherwise change for those sets of meeting minutes before I solicit a uh

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no I’m satisfied all right and Mr Helm anything further to add no all right uh

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seeing no further discussion I will call for the vote um once again alphabetically through the role Mr

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bletzer how do you vote yes no yes okay Mr Helm abstain all right and I will

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abstain we’ll note for the record that under Robert’s Rules of Order abstentions do not count as votes and a

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majority of votes cast need to be approved need to be in the in favor in order for something to pass so despite

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the fact that only one member of the board is voting nevertheless they can be approved with that one vote given the

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other two abstentions all right so that brings us to administrative notes 21 through 25

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this is after I joined the board very exciting um so does anyone have anything

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they would like to add edit alter or otherwise change in regards to administrative notes 21 through 25’s

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meeting minutes before I solicit a motion for their approval Hearing in seeing none uh Mr

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bletzer would you care to make a motion that we approve meeting minutes yes I I’ll make that motion to approve those

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meetings all right so 21 through 25 is moved I will second any

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discussion seeing no discussion I will call for the vote yes no or abstain when I reach your name Mr bletzer how do you

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vote I vote Yes all right Mr Helm abstain all right and I vote Yes so we

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have approved uh those meeting minutes as well uh the ones that are left unapproved uh will join uh presumably

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next week’s agenda to be approved at that time that brings us to the remaining administrative notes those

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being administrative notes 26 through 36 does anyone have any questions on

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these meeting minutes rather on these administrative notes before I solicit a motion to approve them as a

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group hearing and seeing none uh Mr bletzer would you care to make a motion

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that we approve administrative notes 26 through 36 as a group uh yes I would I’ll make that

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motion all right Mr Helm would you care to Second yes I’ll second has been moved it has been seconded any discussion

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hearing and seeing none I will call for a vote Mr bletzer how do you vote I vote Yes all right Mr Helm yes and I vote Yes

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it is unanimous we have approved administrative notes 26 through 30 six

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Mr chairman can I make just make a comment uh you may on uh we had some

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appointments in there of there were three seats three appointments uh so that we didn’t

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interiew but we appointed uh Mr laer Mr Golden and Mr lien to the

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memorial committee and this was a committee that uh that we had going and then it just whatever it dissolved and

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it’s it’s it’s a very important committee as a matter of fact right now we have probably three or four

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requests uh for for for the for this committee so I encourage uh I can see two of the

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candidates here tonight I thought all three would be here but uh oh all three are here so I encourage you gentlemen uh

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to get a meeting soon as you can and I know Anthony’s got the guidelines and

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everything and uh I’m sure you you’ve already seen them but we need to get a meeting as soon as possible to uh so

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these folks can come before you and uh and tell you what they’d like to do so and thank you for replying I appreciate

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it so we appreciate it the T does so thank you all right thank you Mr bletzer all

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right no other uh comments on the administrative notes before we move forward hearing and seeing none we will

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move forward next item on the agenda is a statement of the select board regarding the attorney General’s open

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meeting law determination so for anyone watching and those in the know uh the

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the select Board of Plymouth did receive a determination from the Attorney General’s office that the select board

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had violated the open meeting law back on November 15th of 2022 uh it is important to highlight two

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things out of the determination that was received first that the Attorney General’s office found that this

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violation of the open meeting law was unintentional and second that we heard that the what the Attorney General’s

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office said and we will be mindful of their determination and the reasons for it going forward circling back to what I

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the first of those two that this violation was unintentional the Attorney General’s office could have fined this

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the board could have reversed the decision that was reached at the meeting that was held on November 15 2022 or

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taken any other remedial action uh but they chose not to do so because the violation that the board conducted was

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deemed to be unintentional instead the Attorney General’s office ordered the select

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board to update our meeting minutes which we’ve just done and uh to take a webinar training which some of us have

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already completed so that we can comply better with the open meeting law going forward uh but second of course we did

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hear what the Attorney General’s office said uh we will incorporate that into our practices and policies going forward

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this was an unintentional violation and we look forward to continuing our important work for the benefit of

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plymouth’s residents uh that is all at this time but thank you everyone for your interest we have heard what you’ve

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had to say and we look forward to moving forward together to serve the community

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all right that brings us [Music]

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into at public comment you will have three minutes to speak if you wish all

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right so that brings us into the Plymouth Public Library fiscal year 2023

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annual report from the library Board of

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Trustees thank you hello my name is Bill patrello I’m the president of the board

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of directors for the Plymouth Public Library uh on behalf of our library director Kelsey Casey who took ill today

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and couldn’t be here and the board of directors thank you select board for allowing us to be on the agenda tonight

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I’m also having cataract surgery tomorrow so I can’t see the slides uh so we’re still going to get through this we

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want to cover three things tonight we want to tell you what we’ve been up to for the past 150 years a little bit

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about the board of directors and the foundation the promise this is only going to take about five minutes and we

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want to tell you some of the things the library and the board and the foundation have achieved achieved over the past year and third uh some of the things

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that are important to us going forward that we need everybody’s support on so

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without further Ado back in 1811 a bunch of irate

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Plymouth citizens rose up and demanded a lending library and they were very

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successful in putting together a lending library and from that day forward Library services in Plymouth were

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founded Flash Forward to today you folks probably haven’t heard much about the board of directors and the library

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Foundation the library is not in the news a lot and that’s a good thing I mean if you look across the United

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States libraries are always in the news people are burning books there’s bills of Rights there’s all kind of issues so

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kudos to the board and to the foundation and to the library leadership in uh

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giving us some well functioning Library Services over the past 150 years over

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that course of history the foundation and the board of directors and working with the library in town and formed a

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great partnership we’ve done a lot of cool things if you look at that next to last column that’s a list of all the

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buildings the library has been in over the 150 years and a lot of those buildings were actually purchased by the

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foundation and given over to the town to use as a library and it’s recently back

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in 1985 another great example the library board of directors and the foundation working with the library

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director formed a commission to plan out what the library needs for the town of Plymouth would be over the next 50 years

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they formed that commission they produced the master plan they went out and raised uh money through a funding

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campaign to purchase the land that the library sits on these days then they hired an architect they got they helped

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push funding approval uh through the town with two override votes uh and they

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got some additional State approval and voila we have today’s building at South

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Street location we even hired the Builder and and it’s a a great example of a a really great partnership at the

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end of the project it’s one of the few projects I’ve heard of that came in a million dollars under budget and on time

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which is very rare these days so a lot of great

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things so the board of directors this is a list of our main responsibilities the

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board of directors for your library consists of 13 accomplished professionals they work on the board on

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a volunteer basis they have no political agenda their sole mission is to advocate

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for Library services for all pans uh they also defend the library Bill of

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Rights to make sure that everybody has equal access to the library and to books they provide advisory input on highlevel

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Library policy and important issues that arise they are responsible for managing

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the foundation on a day-to-day basis and they act as a trustee for people who donate endowment

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and uh and business sponsors who provide funding for some of the library programs

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that the library is able to offer and finally they act as a trustee for all

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pythians to make sure that the library continues to meet the needs of the citizens of

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Plymouth some of the things that we accomplished over the past year include literacy programming support one of the

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administrative notes you folks just approved was accepting a $321,000 grant from the state to help

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fund the literacy program the literacy program is regionally renowned right it offers English as a second language it

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offers GED programs and the we’ve even reached out recently to Senator Moran uh

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and Senator Moran has put through a state uh resolution recognizing the

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effectiveness of plymouth’s libraries literacy program so that’s a uh a great

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accomplishment that speaks well the town and the library the board and the foundation uh in addition uh we were

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able to supplement the the town and state aid to the tune of 70 $70,000 this

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year uh that the foundation contributed to the library to provide for extra uh cultural and children’s programming

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educational support we uh have started a project to renovate the garden in the

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back of the library that all citizens can use we’ve had several historical preservation exhibits throughout the

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year uh at the library and we continue to promote Library Services throughout

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the town in addition to this the library has

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had a pretty good year right they’ve accomplished uh putting together a 5-year strategic plan that they’ve run

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by the mass retirement law commission uh retirement Library commission we’ve been

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able to purchase two new uh meeting pods where people can meet in private and work on computers or take telephone com

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uh calls in private at the library we put a tiny library at the uh facility in South Plymouth uh we kicked

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off a summer reading program and the library also put together a community garden some of the highlights of what

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we’ve achieved this year all right one of the things we’re most proud of and spend a heck of a lot

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of time on we like to term it as making friends and engaging supporters right

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the more people that we can draw into the library make aware of the services and that uh can educate them on the

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importance of the library the more ambassadors we can build throughout the town and this is kind of how we do it we

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hold a lot of events the foundation holds a lot of events throughout the year our Premier one of our Premier

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Events is the Art Festival so if anybody’s got free time September 9th and September 10th this year we will

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have this year we’ve doubled the size of it we’re going to have 85 artists at the festival food music and about 5,000

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people are going to come to Plymouth it’s partly funded by the town of Plymouth promotion we’ve got the whole town and region in back of this it

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should be a great event we have an annual appeal where we reach out to citizens of Plymouth to help fund the uh

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additional programming that we Supply we have a guild program for people who are

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uh able and willing to contribute even more to some of these programs we run a tea it up for literacy pro golf

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tournament each year and this allows us to provide more funding for the literacy program we have art galleries our

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signature Taste of the Town Event where all citizens can gather and enjoy food from the top 20 or so restaurants uh

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throughout Plymouth uh we engage donors and business sponsors to help out we have a newsletter and we team up with

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other nonprofits uh in the area such as the Phil for a concert on the front lawn and finally we have our shreddit

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event okay and last this last year we were able to bring in 174,000 people to

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the library maybe some of those people came more than once but 17 74,000 people

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did walk through the doors so that was uh a pretty successful year so what’s ahead of us right ahead of us some of

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the things that are important to us uh is number one uh the library is no

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different than a lot of companies and other organizations uh these days a lot of people are struggling maintaining

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appropriate levels of Staffing that’s always a challenge for the library right now we have several open requisitions so

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whenever we have to uh approve funding for an additional position or get a

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position filled that’s very important for the library and to continue to deliver the services that we do uh in

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addition we can always use help encouraging businesses to support uh the effort right we have a few great

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sponsors sponsors like Tech ET and Bridgewater Credit Union who uh uh

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sponsors some of the programs at the library so whenever we come across businesses as a team here that may want

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to uh provide additional support for the library certainly stir them uh uh away that’s very important to us uh we want

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to get more involved with uh making the library a showcase for energy conservation we started discussions with

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uh Everett moodi and the uh energy committee on ways to do that whether it’s by solar panels or a energy screen

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as you enter enter the library so we’ll be continuing uh to meet with Everett and his committee on that and last but

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silly not least uh we definitely want to be very much engaged in the current Initiative for health and Human Services

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there’s a lot of things especially things that are of an educational nature that the library can do to help the

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cause here right I mean we love educating people whether it’s English as a second language or getting their GED

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helping them put together resumés to get jobs uh helping them understand how to garden in a sustainable way so there’s

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just a lot of things that the uh Library can help out with uh uh for with this

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cause and we I know uh Jay Gardner is is we’re going to meet with him tomorrow at our board meeting and start talking uh

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about some of those okay well I wanted to keep the presentation short just in case you guys

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had any questions uh because it’s been 150 years since we’ve talked to you so we figured you know it was about time

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well you you covered a lot of ground shortly so feel free to come slightly more often okay um any questions Mr

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bletzer uh yes so you’re going to be working with the Human Service uh uh

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Department it’s uh yes we’ve had discussions with Derek and we’re meeting uh Jay’s going

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to join our board and I I think it’s early on in the process but you guys are going to tell us where you’re going and

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we we want to see how we can fit in it’s exciting because that’s a new department that town manager has created and uh I

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think it’s a long time coming we’ve we’ve needed that uh I’m a big proponent

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of the library uh I think it’s so important not just uh you know to the

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it’s good to the the seniors but the youth I know the youth my I know my

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daughter daughters through the years have used it for research and uh and I

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read two books a week so I’m going to Aid uh I’m part of that 174,000 that

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well we have a a big program coming up you should join this Mr Blitzer right it’s the north versus the South and it’s

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going to be a big reading contest so you either join the north team or the South team and the teams are going to go at it

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and we’ll see who can read the most books by the end of the year so everybody keep an eye open for that your two books could put us over the top join

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join the north the north is the good team it’s even more now but but but

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anyway so uh great work thank you for the present so okay all right thank you

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any other questions or comments hearing or seeing none I will just say thank you for coming we

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appreciate the update and uh feel free to come back uh every said 10 years or so okay

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okay thank you you’re welcome all right uh during that presentation I did hear uh indirectly

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from uh K Kates uh from the applicant for that public hearing that we were

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going to have earlier the applicant uh believed that the hearing was on September 5th um so uh apologizes for

33:17

not joining us this evening uh but if we were to postpone the hearing until September 5th would be able to join us

33:23

at that time so if there’s no objection uh from the rest of the board I would

33:29

suggest that we plan to postpone until September 5th of course uh pending the approval of uh chairman Quintel when he

33:36

takes back the gavl but any objections to that so we just take no action take no action and plan to postpone to

33:43

September 5th okay all right thank you and we do appreciate uh the uh kkes for

33:50

reaching out to us to clarify that for us all right so that brings us to the next item on our agenda that being an

33:57

American American Rescue plan act or arpa request from Mr David Gould the

34:03

director of environmental Affairs Mr Gould good

34:09

evening I’m here unfortunately to ask for some arpa funding for the Stevens Field project I think most uh most folks

34:16

in the community were pretty excited when the project went out to bid obviously due to Long delays in the project we had some concerns about what

34:22

those bids might actually be um I provided you with a memo as well as the Opera requests um and I’ll just go over

34:29

that very briefly and then if you have any questions I will attempt to answer those essentially we had um $4.5 million

34:38

in the available budget the low bid was from rad Sports at

34:43

3.8 um we had em O’Brien which is an existing vendor that has State contracts

34:48

that we were going to use for our playground equipment um the building as well as other site amenities like

34:54

benches um the rubber m adding underneath the playground and all of that totaled um just under 900,000 we

35:02

had some cost for demo disposal for the LSP construction oversight and dup compliance um Beals and Thomas was

35:09

already which is the engineering firm was already under contract for construction oversight so when you took

35:15

all those numbers and added them up they came to a little over uh 4.8 uh leaving us at

35:21

$334,000 over um the available budget I then included uh several bid

35:29

alternates we utilize bid alternates in this bid in the hope that um we would be

35:35

able to utilize them if the budget was to come up come under and we could put some additional work into the project so

35:42

if you include bit alternate one which was a concrete turnaround for the for the boat ramp um as well as the new back

35:48

stop and sideline fence at the softball field which is Bid alternate two bid alternate three was to take the asphalt

35:54

basketball court Mill overlay and paint that that equated to about 181,000 so when

35:59

you add in the uh budget deficit plus those three bid alternates um that total

36:05

is $515,000 So the request before you is to use $1 million in arpa funds to cover

36:11

that deficit and then provide us with some ability to have contingency in that

36:18

project as you all know um there are some significant soil issues out there I think we’ve done a pretty uh in-depth

36:25

analysis out there and have a pretty good um knowledge of what’s out there

36:30

but whenever you’re doing subsurface work um you need to have some level of contingency available so that is the

36:37

request that we have before you all right thank you Mr G Mr bletzer

36:43

Question yeah yes uh David thank you uh I see at 515 you’re asking for a

36:50

million is that just in case you have you need more that is for a contingency

36:56

um do you anticipate uh I I think our biggest concern with

37:02

contingency funds is is the subsurface area so we know there there are areas there um that have Urban fill that have

37:09

um petroleum impacted soils hopefully um those are pretty accurate to what we’ve

37:14

sampled out there um but we want to make sure that we address any issues that come up so that would be mainly for that

37:22

um the reason why I bring this up is is we have we don’t have a lot left in Opera we

37:29

have so many needs and uh yeah I mean obviously Stevens Field everybody in

37:34

this room we all want this completed we’ve been waiting for 10 years or whatever to get this completed and and

37:41

and everybody wants to see this get done and and done right too so but I’m just

37:46

hoping that uh we don’t have to use all that million because because there’s so many

37:52

needs uh arer needs mhm I couldn’t agree more no I hope you don’t have to either

37:58

right okay great right thanks any other questions Mr

38:04

hel um a few a few of them okay um

38:09

so rather than assume I’m just going to ask you to confirm there were

38:14

contingencies in the in both of the two previous allocations of funding and

38:22

they’ve been completely were there contingencies in those allocations of funding because we’ve had two so far to

38:28

bring us to the 4.5 honestly I cannot speak to that I I wasn’t part of the project back then um

38:34

I’ve I’ve been working on this project now since March yeah so I don’t know what those requests yeah that was just

38:40

informational um because it really doesn’t matter because this is where we’re at right now um you mentioned soil

38:46

issues where are they I know that you had the testing done where are those soil issues so the majority of the soil

38:52

issues are actually the most significant soil issues um are actually under underneath the existing tennis courts

38:58

and what are the soil issues uh so those are some uh elevated levels of lead in

39:04

urban fill so there’s an ash layer there that has some elevated levels of lead um those exceedances were require that that

39:10

material be hauled offsite and disposed of um I think we have done uh an awful

39:17

lot of Investigation both on horizontal and lateral ex extent of that material

39:23

um but that’s going to be the most significant soil issue that we’re going to um so there are others besides under

39:30

the tennis there smaller petroleum impacted issues mainly around the old AK fny building where the old bus station

39:35

was there was quite a few underground storage tanks removed but there still might be some um impacted soils there

39:41

that we’ll have to deal with yeah so in terms of the total budget the soil um under the tennis courts um do you have

39:48

an approximation of how much that’s going to impact the budget um that is in the bid documents I don’t have that

39:54

before me but that is in the that is in there’s a separate line item for all of those things and they are specified in

40:00

in the uh bids that we receive but I don’t have that in front of me right now okay um I would be interested sure if

40:07

you would update the board on that I’d like to know that um and I think the the

40:13

basic question that is on everybody’s mind besides why is this costing so much

40:19

um when are we going to have a Stevens Field Park not to Echo the mysterious

40:25

person who put up the when sign um but but

40:31

when so the goal would be if if the ypa funds are approved that we could issue a contract um within the next few weeks we

40:39

will then uh because Emy O’Brien the playground the building those kind of materials uh are under a state contract

40:46

we would contract with them and start eating up that lead time for those materials so the goal and what was

40:52

written into the project was that the project would end mid June of next year with the hope that it would be open for

40:58

July 4th in the summertime of next year and I have one last question for

41:03

the town manager and assistant Town manager okay uh what does our arpa budget look like at this

41:09

point um assuming the board will approve this $1 million request we will have

41:15

approximately $2.8 million remaining now just keep in mind we still

41:20

have unresolved issues over on Water Street with the sua Interceptor project so um we are air Maring that money for a

41:27

future settlement with the with the contractor if

41:34

necessary do you are we shaving too

41:39

close with a million dollars off of the arpa budget we don’t think so think so

41:45

right now not at this time no we actually have a meeting on September 1st with the contractor Northern

41:50

construction um to to discuss um any uh cost overruns because

41:57

of the settlement that had taken place on March 6th okay so so

42:05

we what what happens if it’s determined

42:11

that everything that went on with Water Street and what goes on going forward with Water Street is greater than the

42:17

remaining arpa funds what what would be the process so I can tell you based upon

42:24

a um submitt that the that nor that has given us um we have ample uh Opera funds

42:33

remaining to cover those costs um certainly we’re going to try to negotiate a compromise so it should be

42:39

hopefully 50% of what they’ve submitted um so that’ll take care of the first phase of the project up to June

42:45

30th um and then we’ll move forward with the the remaining phase of the

42:52

project assuming that there’s no future settle vment in during that construction

42:58

phase um we believe there’s ample amount of funds available in the original op

43:04

appropriation from the county to cover those costs if we have uh another

43:10

significant settlement like we had on March 6 um and then we had to settle

43:16

again with Northern we would have to go to town meeting for an appropriation at that

43:21

point Thank you any other questions from members of the

43:27

board uh seeing none Derek uh do we expect that we would need the entire

43:34

remaining uh almost 2.9 Million for that purpose or do we expect that we would

43:40

still have some left for other purposes I can tell you that Northern has submitted um an estimate of $2.5 million

43:49

MH um they they want to settle that agreement um that’s why I’m thinking we

43:54

could uh split it down the middle and compromise at 50% but again that yes

44:00

that’s yet to be determined when meeting with them on September 1st okay and David uh when would you know would you

44:08

not know until the end of the project whether you needed the entire million that you’re asking for here or would you

44:15

know before then that you don’t need some of these the contingent artra funds

44:21

so getting the contract going with Emy O’Brien will as I mentioned start eating up some of the lead time for the

44:27

construction of the the playground equipment so we’ll be prepping that site doing all the subsurface soil removal U

44:34

putting in clean fill and putting in the base material for that to be built upon so we’d probably be doing that later

44:40

fall um early winter so we’ll probably know somewhere in the January February time frame that we could take some of

44:47

we’ll have removed all the soil in that area and know quite a bit about whether or not we’re going to have other soil

44:52

issues to deal with so okay and at that point you’d feel feel comfortable telling us you didn’t need as much

44:58

correct okay all right any other questions all right uh do I have a

45:04

motion to approve the request as presented I’ll make that motion as

45:10

presented Mr Blitzer has made a motion that we approve the arpa funds request as presented do I have a second I’ll

45:16

second it has been moved it has been seconded any discussion from any members

45:22

of the board as to whether or not we should approve this request for AR

45:27

funds hearing and seeing none I will call for a vote once again alphabetically through the role Mr

45:33

bletzer how do you vote I vote yes thank you Mr Helm yes and I vote Yes it is

45:39

unanimous thank you Mr ghoul thank you all right that brings us into fall

45:47

town meeting warrant article review we have a few articles on the agenda for

45:54

this evening first of which which would be article 8 an article that would deal

45:59

with the allocation of funds for a town master plan and I see a couple of folks

46:07

approaching um Mr boleton You’ care to Enlighten us as to this process good

46:13

evening thank you Mr KY members of the select board uh for the record I’m Steve boleton I am the vice chair of the

46:20

planning board and I am the chair of the master plan task group its subcommittee uh with me tonight tonight I have fellow

46:27

planning board members fellow task group members and our planning and development

46:34

director Mr Hartman There’s A Renewed issue in Plymouth

46:40

planning planning is now at the Forefront of a lot of people’s thoughts which as a resident and a planning board

46:46

member is something that’s very near and dear to me the most important document when it

46:52

comes to planning in Plymouth is our master plan sort of self-evident the

46:57

master plan is the document that contains the goals as defined by the

47:04

residents for the town and sets forth proposals and ideas for implementation

47:11

by our elected officials that’s its purpose that’s why the creation of the

47:18

master plan was identified as a priority not only by the planning board but by this board as

47:23

well so why a new master plan well at the direction of the

47:28

planning board the master plan task group reviewed our existing master plan

47:33

and conducted a gap analysis what we found was that our

47:38

existing master plan is based on data that’s over 20 years old when it was prepared the population demographics and

47:45

scope of development of the Town were significantly different ultimately the document that

47:51

was created uh this document called growing smarter in plymouth’s fifth

47:56

Century uh was found to be lacking in certain ways it was missing sections

48:03

required by state law it was internally inconsistent in violation of state law

48:09

and it failed to have an implementation program also required by state

48:14

law as a result of some of these shortcomings it became an aspirational

48:20

document rather than the road map that it was intended to be so the master plan task group created

48:28

a scope of work for a new master plan voted for by the planning board which is

48:34

intended to remedy these

48:40

problems the proposed scope of work was created by the task group with the help of our planning director an outside

48:46

consultant from the old colony planning Council Miss Joan Zigman and help from

48:53

outside Consultants who gave us some advice and guidance it was a collaborative effort the task group went

49:01

through the the proposed scope of work line by line together each putting in

49:07

thoughts ideas suggestions alternate language everything that we could to try

49:13

and truly create a scope of work that defined what Plymouth is and what we

49:19

want our master plan to be in the end we came up with a scope that emphasized two particular issues

49:26

the first the public participation second the implementation we’ve proposed calling

49:32

our next master plan charting our future together a suggestion by one of our planning board members Mr peek because

49:40

at its heart it is our community’s vision for the future of Plymouth and

49:46

the new Master Plan near needs to be truly representative of the community’s goals the only way for that to happen is

49:53

through a robust public participation project process that’s why the public

49:59

Outreach section of the proposed scope of work includes townwide surveys public forums area and issue specific focus

50:06

groups online public engagement social media and website and creative

50:12

methodologies such as scenario planning in order to truly understand what the

50:17

public wants to see in Plymouth in our next decade then to be useful to the town the

50:24

plan also has to provide guidance as to how to achieve those goals the implementation plan proposed by the

50:30

scope of work specifies that the final product has to provide a cohesive means

50:35

of achieving those goals set forth by the residents as well as a way to measure progress as the plan is being

50:42

implemented neither of which again are in our existing master plan

50:49

so we’re proposing in essence a giant study of the entire town covering almost

50:55

every aspect of life in Plymouth a daunting task to put it mildly for this we are seeking the sum

51:03

of 40 $430,000 in funding through town meeting the town has separately been awarding a

51:09

matching Grant from the state of $70,000 so total of 500,000 for the plan

51:16

why that amount budget was prepared again with guidance from professionals from Old Colony planning and independent

51:22

Consultants people who will not be bidding but who do this kind of work as well as through the assistance of Mr

51:27

Hartman who before joining Plymouth used to work for consulting firms doing exactly that preparing Town Master

51:35

plans the amount that we are looking for is based on the cost of Master plans in other communities factoring the size and

51:42

complexity of Plymouth and Our intention to create more than just an aspirational document it is a minimum number that

51:50

will elicit proposals from those who have the experience and skills capable of doing the work and the re resources

51:56

necessary to effectively and efficiently achieve the final product that we

52:01

require ultimately that we propo if this proposed scope of work goes forward we

52:08

anticipate that the town will receive proposals not from just individual Consultants but from teams of

52:14

Consultants probably lead Consultants hiring additional experts people who are

52:19

capable of handling not just the nine areas mandated by the state but the additional areas that we feel are

52:26

necessary for Plymouth to truly function in its future areas such as our

52:32

sustainability our water use and our critical aspect of INF infrastructure

52:37

all based upon our growing and not growing economy areas again a very complicated area one

52:45

that we have been dealing with peac meal for many years this is an effort to try

52:50

and make that a cohesive approach given the size and complexity

52:57

of Plymouth the range of topics and the experts that are

53:02

necessary we see this as being an absolute necessity to achieve the goals

53:08

of Plymouth creating a truly workable master

53:13

plan I wholly encourage the select board to support

53:21

this effort and myself and my fellow members are here to answer any and all questions you may have all right thank

53:28

you Mr ball Mr hel uh thank you for the presentation a

53:33

couple questions um you gave a Litany of State mandates that were not complied

53:39

with in the last master plan how does that happen why did that happen um what

53:45

what is going to prevent that from happening again I am going to defer to Mr Hartman who was here for that or part

53:52

of that the end of that so when before I came on as planning director the town

53:59

through a master plan task force had decided to hire a single planner to

54:05

update and do our new master plan so when I came on board that process was

54:10

well under way and we quickly realized that that planner we were paying that person a weekly stien every week did it

54:18

for a number of years we had paid that person well over $160,000 and as I was trying to look at

54:26

the goals the requirements the the tasks that were achieved they they really weren’t being done properly so we

54:33

realized that having that one single person was not the way to go we severed ties with that one planner and then went

54:39

on to hire goody Clancy with the remaining money which was about 80,000 and so the problem was we did the best

54:46

we could with the remaining money we had uh and I think I’m pretty proud of what we were able to do but again it was it

54:52

was the process that was put in place before before I came on and once I was here it was pretty obvious it was not

54:58

working so a question for you Mr Hartman um these are State

55:06

mandates how did we so Al mandates to them the so the state law tells you what

55:12

your master plan should say but there’s no enforcement mechanism so for example

55:18

if we never ever had a master plan there’s no penalty so if we miss certain pieces there’s no penalty for it but the

55:24

state says here are the sections that you you should have in your master plan but there’s no penalty if you

55:30

don’t so um sorry to keep asking questions that’s okay

55:37

um now you may not quite like the way I’m going to phrase this question and please don’t take it

55:44

personally do you feel that the lack of quality of that Master Plan the best

55:49

effort I mean that but $80,000 for a master plan um you know seem pretty low

55:56

and one person doing it uh do you feel that’s the reason that uh for lack of a

56:01

better phrase and this may not be accurate it was basically put on a shelf and nobody ever really looked at it I’m

56:06

not saying planning department didn’t but at L large in other departments and committees right and I think when I was

56:13

involved as at the end when we hired goody Clancy it would have been nice to have a lot more Public public engagement

56:20

because again as Steve pointed out I think the most important thing is you have some specific ideas have specific

56:25

ideas the board does too but this really should come from the community you know are the assumptions we made in 1980

56:33

because a lot of what we do from planning was set in 1980 and then reinforced in 2004 are those still valid

56:39

are there things we should be doing differently but that shouldn’t come from us that should come from the community

56:45

and I think the biggest shortcoming of that original plan is I don’t think there was that kind of public

56:52

participation one more and this could be for either you or Mr bulletin what are you going to do once

56:59

we have this master plan to make sure that it actually is a document that is used and paid attention to and guides

57:06

all of the Committees and the boards of the town of Plymouth and the administration how are you going to

57:11

ensure that so the implementation section is the important piece now we’ll have recommendation by recommendation

57:19

that these things should happen here are the responsible parties and here are the timelines so again trying to

57:25

um make sure those things happen is something that we’ll have to do but having those things that say very

57:31

specifically here are the actions the town must take here’s the person or the group that must take it and here’s how

57:37

we we should proceed and maybe even here’s some of the costs associated with those I think that’s a very important

57:43

part and and and that would be the piece that I think would accomplish what your concern is one more Sorry Charlie just

57:50

one more given what you just said uh is there going to be followup is going to be somebody who’s going to be taking

57:56

that document and going through it Time After Time year after year and and not

58:03

forcing compliance but creating compliance I could see a recommendation coming out of it for staff that might do

58:09

that I could also see a master plan implementation committee many towns have that where once this is done you have a

58:16

committee of people who are responsible to be hammering on you and me and Derek and

58:22

the planning board to say hey where this committee here’s our master plan here’s what you said you’re going to do you

58:28

must do it and I so I think that committee involvement would be a good one too thank

58:33

you Mr Paul yes I just want to finish a final add to Mr Helm’s

58:39

question in addition to the implementation section we have specifically asked that the consultant

58:45

as part of the scope of the work create a measurement section so that not only

58:51

can you say this is what’s supposed to be done this is who’s supposed to be doing it but also how do we track how

58:59

we’re doing whether that’s what do we plan on doing for open space for recreational our our economy and our tax

59:06

base our transportation how many miles of additional public transportation have we how many additional affordable

59:11

housing units have we created whatever that is we have trackable measures that are in place that can be published

59:18

regularly so that the residents can see from a report just the way the select board presents where it stands on a lot

59:26

of its goals the town will be able to see where the town stands on the town’s goals and they will be able to hold our

59:33

Representatives accountable by saying here’s our master plan we are under on

59:38

this area we’re under on this area what do you plan on doing about it so it’s a public accountability as well as a

59:45

internal accountability all right thank you Mr bletzer have a question for Mr

59:53

Harman so I agree 100% we need Community uh

1:00:01

inputs I mean it’s and and I’m assuming that that’s why it’s expensive the

1:00:07

expense of you know trying to cover 106 square miles with 18 precincts with

1:00:14

active developments very active developments a lot of new folks are moving into

1:00:20

Plymouth and uh and they’re very active in our policy politics and what’s going on in town and they’re going to want to

1:00:27

have a say I see some people in the room right now that are here just for that reason and and I appreciate it it’s a

1:00:34

lot of knowledge that have come to the town so they’re going to have to spend a lot of time talking to a lot of

1:00:40

different people from North Plymouth all the way down to uh Red Brook and farther

1:00:46

uh about what you know what they see as the vision for Plymouth and that is the most expensive part of the plan so

1:00:52

that’s how I can have you know 500,000 for a study or a plan it seems like a

1:00:58

lot of money but in the scheme of things it’s it’s probably not because what it will do you know you know for the for

1:01:05

the vision of this town and uh hopefully some of the mistakes we made we can

1:01:10

correct and not uh you know not uh have some of them in the future uh and it’ll

1:01:17

be helpful for the planning board for the select board for you know all the different boards to uh you know go

1:01:24

through their processes but uh but so that’s you know that’s why and how long

1:01:30

will this this take a couple of years at least yeah I would say the public process the first part is going to be

1:01:36

close to a year on its own and then at least a twoy year probably a two-year process how long before we can start

1:01:41

implementing some of uh can it be done while a study still going on or not some things typically will happen there’s a

1:01:48

lot going on that’s but for the most part what you want to do is have the plan prepared present it to the planning

1:01:53

board have them adopt adopt it select board adopt it and then ask for town meeting to actually not adopt it but

1:01:58

endorse it and so then hopefully you want to wait till the end so that you have a lot of community buyin so that

1:02:05

when you come back to say all right here are the things we need to do and you can remind everybody that you did see this

1:02:11

as we went through the process so there are maybe some things that can jump out first but most of it will probably come

1:02:16

at the end because I’ve been on the board two years and all I for about is we need a master plan we need a master

1:02:21

plan and then we have a master plan but we don’t have a master plan so so let’s

1:02:28

uh let’s get this thing going and I just point out we’ve talked to several um

1:02:33

several companies that do this for a living it seems like the going rate in Plymouth Plymouth in Massachusetts is

1:02:39

about 400,000 for a master plan and uh we’re four times the size of any other

1:02:45

town so we’re a little more unique we want a little more we want a slightly different and better process but again

1:02:52

um this is not that unusual compared to what other communities are and unique we

1:02:57

are probably one of the most unique towns in Plymouth there’s no question about Massachusetts you said it too in

1:03:03

Massachusetts yeah that’s because of you because started I listened to you but last thing how are we going to pay for

1:03:10

this so this would come out of free cash I talked to Lynn Barrett um she doesn’t

1:03:15

really want to say it but free cash this year looks like it’s going to be somewhere in the vicinity

1:03:22

of okay it comes out of free cash, she comes out

1:03:28

of free cash and she’s very comfortable saying that this appropriation is is

1:03:34

within the policies of how we spend free cash okay thank you thank you that is that is

1:03:40

both comforting and ambiguous all right uh any other

1:03:46

questions Mr pek you something you’d like to add uh yeah just as uh I wanted to complement some of the uh comment

1:03:53

you’ve already had with just a couple observations the first is town meeting passed the

1:03:59

167,000 planning study just for traffic in a certain Zone we’re asking for

1:04:06

essentially three times that you know less the grant to do the whole town and

1:04:11

do far more than just Transportation uh the other point I want to make uh actually a second Point uh

1:04:19

you know I went online you know this is you know as uh the others have said

1:04:24

a team effort you need three or four Consulting teams with specialized

1:04:31

expertise to focus on things so I looked at Braintree Barnstable Portsmouth

1:04:36

Brockton uh for their recent Master plans and every single one had uh three

1:04:43

or four consultant teams and up to nine different individuals from the

1:04:48

consultant teams working on it this is not a project for one person or two persons it’s for a team

1:04:55

um and the third thing is uh htech land

1:05:00

uh as I understand it uh they plan to decommission it by

1:05:05

2031 uh is what we’ve heard at which point the land and possibly at earlier

1:05:13

dates you know at peace meal the land is released for other uses so 2031 isn’t

1:05:19

that far away if this master plan takes two years or a little bit more that and

1:05:25

it’s we get going in early 24 it’s done in 26 and among the

1:05:32

implementation plans for that or the the timelines is probably rezoning and

1:05:38

planning planning ahead 23 2031 isn’t that far away this you know that’s the

1:05:45

elephant in the room we’ve got all that land there whether it’s open space a mix of you know industrial or expansion

1:05:52

there’s a lot to think about just there so putting together a good team with

1:05:57

multiple expertise is really important and the time is right so very much support

1:06:05

this Dave you reminded me too with that traffic study that uh we now have

1:06:10

precincts that are sponsoring studies and we have 18 precincts so that’s going to tell you that a lot of

1:06:17

people are going to want to have have them saying they’re going to want to be heard so but but it tells me there’s a real appetite for planning I mean we

1:06:24

we’re certainly pushing it but the town wants it at individual Precinct levels but and town meeting is supporting it so

1:06:32

so we hope you support and we hope town meeting supports this thank you Mr pek any other

1:06:38

questions from any other members of the board all right uh seeing none uh would

1:06:44

anyone care to make a motion to approve the inclusion of article 8 on the warrant for this upcoming annual town

1:06:51

meeting I’ll motion for the inclusion of article 8 all right Mr Helm has moved Mr

1:06:57

BL I’ll second that Mr bletzer has seconded any discussion in regards to whether or not we should approve the

1:07:03

inclusion of article 8 on the town meeting warrant hearing and seeing none I will

1:07:09

call for a vote once again through the role Mr bletzer yes and Mr Helm yes and

1:07:15

myself yes it is unanimous thank you to the presenters all right that brings us into

1:07:22

the next item on our agenda that being a proposed fall town meeting article 10 in

1:07:29

relation to a land donation and we are joined by the fire chief Neil

1:07:38

Foley good evening thank you Neil Foley uh chief of the fire department uh this

1:07:43

is a great segue because this is about planning for the future of the fire department as well so um we were here um

1:07:52

with uh Dan Goa from ad make back in February uh where he made a a a pledge

1:07:58

of a donation of a plot of land uh on Bourne Road um this came about um in

1:08:05

2020 uh Springtown meeting I believe it was Article five and six

1:08:11

um was to plan and to uh

1:08:19

um constructions Renovations and other planning purposes is for stations 2 5

1:08:26

and four uh station four is the Bourn Road fire station

1:08:32

um the what we’ve got at this point is that the architect has uh worked out

1:08:39

some plans as far as what they could do for a renovation for station 4 and it was really found that it’s not feasible

1:08:45

to do a renovation there due to the due to the the lot size and the configuration of the lot itself the

1:08:51

building um we took took that information back and we actually presented to the building committee um

1:08:57

and in 2021 the building committee voted that uh we should be um looking for a

1:09:04

different site to construct a new born Road fire station in the future

1:09:11

um we decided to reach out and and engage in some of the land owners in the

1:09:18

area of Bourne Road um and we did successfully um negotiate a um a

1:09:26

donation from ad make piece approximately what you see in front of you is a approximate size of about 2.33

1:09:32

acres of land uh in the area of 220 Bourn Road South of um the um sou South

1:09:42

Elementary School North of the ad make piece development

1:09:47

um recent studies of response times and response uh volume um indicates that

1:09:54

that would be an excellent location for uh a new fire station on Bourne Road

1:10:00

Additionally the layout and the location uh allows for um increased line of sight

1:10:07

on the roadway currently where station 4S if anybody has come down um on Bourn

1:10:13

road heading from the North heading south or actually even heading from South in either

1:10:19

direction um the fire station pretty much pops right up upon you so you can imagine when a fire fire engine is

1:10:26

leaving that apparatus is leaving to go to an emergency there’s a lot of times that we’re coming out to the roadway

1:10:31

surprising motorists and and thankfully we haven’t had any catastrophes at this point um but the location that we’re

1:10:39

looking to um to acquire is going to be a much better uh location in line of

1:10:47

sight and will be safer for the motorists in the area um additionally there is the um possibility

1:10:54

that we may be able to tap into uh public water supply in that area uh this

1:11:00

station will exceed the minimum requirements needed for even a a a fire sprinkler

1:11:09

supress suppression system um so having access to public water is going to um

1:11:16

make that so much more easier and cost effective when it comes to not having to purchase and maintain pumps uh for that

1:11:23

for that purpose so there’s a lot of a lot of uh pluses that go along with this

1:11:29

including increasing the working conditions of the five Fighters that work there uh we’ll be able to uh store

1:11:36

additional apparatus there uh we would negotiate um with our private Ambulance

1:11:42

Company to likely staff additional resources in that area to respond to

1:11:48

emergencies um so this this land donation the acceptance of it is is

1:11:53

going to position the fire department to continue to have a robust response to that area as it continues to grow

1:12:01

um as one of the largest areas of the town of Plymouth as far as growth thank

1:12:08

you all right thank you Chief fley any questions from any members of the board

1:12:14

no I just I have a statement that uh I toour that building when I was running and uh it’s awful and uh it’s it’s a

1:12:22

long time coming and I’m glad that we got the land donated uh I mean that that

1:12:28

area is just grown I mean it’s it just keeps growing and growing and uh you

1:12:33

know the needs down there you know you need you need brush trucks pump trucks

1:12:39

you know you’re going to need probably ladders down there I mean there’s there’s a lot more equipment you need

1:12:44

now than uh than you needed before so uh and let me ask you a question are we

1:12:50

going to have any problems like we had on sandwich Road with people complaining about uh you know the neighborhood and

1:12:57

all that there is I don’t believe so I think that uh Bor road is a pretty

1:13:03

well-traveled Road in contrast to uh the other property

1:13:08

um I think that it’s going to be a welcome addition to the area especially

1:13:14

the neighbors uh surrounding that area um it’s it’s a very large response area

1:13:20

for the fire department it’s over 14 square miles um which is larger than a lot of towns in the in the area um so

1:13:28

it’s always a challenge but being able to house additional apparatus so that we could run multiple calls at once in that

1:13:34

area will be important well the sight lines are big that’s a real safety issue so and it’s uh it’s nice having uh a

1:13:42

fire station in your backyard because I have one right near me and I feel very safe so anyway thank you thank you any

1:13:52

other questions from the Board hearing and seeing none do I have a motion uh to approve the inclusion of

1:13:59

article 10 on the fall town meeting warrant I’ll make that motion Mr bletzer has moved I will second Mr Helm has

1:14:07

seconded any discussion about whether or not we should include article 10 on the fall town meeting

1:14:14

warrant hearing and seeing none I will call for a vote Mr bletzer how do you vote I vote yes thank you Mr Helm yes

1:14:23

and myself yes it is unanimous thank you Chief Foley appreciate thank you very

1:14:29

much all right uh we are going to move temporarily past what is next listed on

1:14:36

our agenda is article 11 the uh presenter uh is not with us yet but will

1:14:41

be joining us in the near future we will take that up upon his arrival uh at this

1:14:47

time that brings us to Article

1:14:52

13

1:15:11

hi I’m Stephanie from the open space committee I just want to say I’m not asking for money so that’s a good thing

1:15:17

um the open space committee has reviewed over a dozen tax title properties we’ve gone out on just visits and um the ones

1:15:25

I’m about to present to you um have the most benefit for the town is open

1:15:32

space excuse me can you speak into the microphone bring mhone thank you sorry I’m a little shorter than everyone

1:15:39

else so um this first one is in bancy the Morton Park area and we’re asking

1:15:47

this be transferred to the parks and Forestry Department you really can’t see

1:15:52

oh so there are smaller lots and the the benefit to the town would be

1:15:59

it’s contributed to um recreational use and if you notice there’s one that’s

1:16:06

just an island and I know there’s like kayas that go out to the island quite a

1:16:11

bit um and hoping yeah passive res res uh

1:16:20

Recreation strategic wildlife habitat and the aqua fire protection which I know is really big for the town right

1:16:28

now it’s um so that it again is transferred to

1:16:34

the parks and Forestry Department for inclusion to keep Morton Park

1:16:39

um in the um forestry and going

1:16:52

to oh sorry I’m are we going to vote on this we’re GNA yeah we’ll handle each

1:16:57

one separately sorry about that uh any questions from any members of the board in relation to Article

1:17:06

13 seeing none uh I have Steph are these

1:17:11

are these Lots buildable lots are any of them not buildable Lots so if you look at the 2.9 Acres it’s um if on your map

1:17:21

it’s near deep water so that is a no the 0. 2

1:17:29

Acres you couldn’t get a house on that the which one it’s 0.

1:17:37

2.1 13 I’m sorry that’s a typo on I so that 0.13 is near the road but you

1:17:44

there’s no you couldn’t get a a house on3 Acres the

1:17:50

2.26 again that’s all water a front so I would not think that someone would want

1:17:57

to develop you because you would then limit access to Billington sea you know

1:18:03

we that’s a really big recreational spot for the town and

1:18:09

um putting developing that area we just cut access to Town the town’s

1:18:17

people and then the 2.9 is literally that you know that little island in the middle of Billington and then they have

1:18:24

that kayaking business down there so it’s generating Revenue in taxes for the

1:18:30

town so I can’t see letting that be buildable in my opinion Mr Farah did you

1:18:38

have something to add uh good evening everybody uh Patrick

1:18:43

Farah planning staff um so essentially this is a uh housekeeping measure these

1:18:51

four Parcels are within Morton Park and

1:18:56

um speaking with the acting DPW director as well as the parks and Forestry

1:19:03

superintendent uh Nick fella uh they were under the assumption that these

1:19:09

four Parcels were essentially part of uh Morton Park and used as such part of the

1:19:16

uh part of the park so when these four were discovered by the open space

1:19:22

committee um the natural progression was Let’s uh go to town meeting and uh see if town

1:19:30

meeting would vote to actually place that under the parks and Forestry Department so it’ll be part of the

1:19:36

contiguous area so okay Mr bletzer so so basically we’re we’re using the land now

1:19:44

correct so that’s just make this legal as that right it is being used as the park yes okay I got you now how is it

1:19:52

does any cost to the town to do this process or is this I mean the only cost would be um uh recording fees uh once

1:20:02

town meeting votes uh hopefully in favor of it uh Town Council will draft an affidavit uh

1:20:09

four affidavits for the four properties and it would just um get recorded through the

1:20:15

registry and what is the approximate cost of a recording fee at this time that’s a great question I don’t

1:20:22

know they answer maybe we get Mr ciri to do it for pro bono he’s got

1:20:29

time I’ve been away from this for a while so I don’t want to answer that question all right it’s between1 and $3

1:20:36

not much I mean um $1300 $1300 okay I like the one to three

1:20:42

better Mr ciri but that’s all right okay uh any other questions Mr

1:20:47

Helm um what do you know of the plans of the parks department

1:20:55

for any possible increased usage I know I’m very familiar with the area I in the

1:21:02

past kayaked from across from the island out to the island and would spend an

1:21:08

afternoon on the island are there plans to make it more

1:21:13

accessible more noticeable or leave it the way that it is uh these are ALS also

1:21:19

great questions since I’m not in the Parks Department I really can’t answer that sorry but I can uh find out well I

1:21:28

I would just suggest possibly at town meeting um because I am going to vote to move this forward to town meeting um if

1:21:35

if you could prep for those questions particularly given its vicinity to Morton Park and the issues that we have

1:21:42

in Morton Park are we potentially creating a larger scale Morton park and

1:21:48

if we are potentially doing it it doesn’t mean we don’t have to but what preparation are going to be made for

1:21:55

that because there is Beach area there and there is parking area there and it’s

1:22:01

just that no one’s really discovered it yet and that’s why I asked the question

1:22:06

about improving access and all of that K but Mr blz but just to be clear these

1:22:13

passels we’re already using them they’re already being used as m in M par so the

1:22:18

information I received from the parks department was essentially oh we thought this was already part of

1:22:25

the park so we’re just as you said it’s this a house cleaning this is a housekeeping measure correct I get

1:22:31

thanks essentially thank you thank you any further questions seeing

1:22:41

none do I have a motion sorry to interrupt but do I have a motion yeah I’ll make the motion uh to include

1:22:47

Article 13 on the town meeting warrant Mr bletzer has moved Mr helm did you care to second

1:22:53

second Mr Helm has seconded any discussion about whether or not we should include Article 13 on the fall

1:23:00

town meeting warrant hearing and seeing none I will call for a vote once again through the

1:23:06

role Mr bletzer how do you vote I vote yes thank you Mr Helm yes and I vote Yes

1:23:12

it is unanimous thank you both thank you all right that brings us to the next article that being article 14 that’s me

1:23:19

too sorry so this open space commit again and this

1:23:26

is a track of land off of Valley Road um

1:23:31

it’s a classic Pine Barons uh let me see that’s kind of hard to see

1:23:39

um the large track of existing Conservation Commission land and it

1:23:44

borders um the th000 Acres of the um

1:23:50

already um sorry there’s 196 acres in addition that this

1:23:57

would add on to that it’s a um key P Pine Baron habitat known as the Thousand

1:24:02

Acres it’s more like 500 Acres though uh in reality it provides a crucial

1:24:08

neighborhood access is in hry with the town’s master plan it is high potential

1:24:14

for Passive uh Recreation and it does have threatened Wild Life habitat on

1:24:21

there let’s see

1:24:27

that’s is that it okay that’s it on that property is on yours is that a little

1:24:33

more clearer CU I have we have printouts of the yeah that is a little our packet

1:24:40

far away do you have anything else you want to add on this

1:24:45

one so is there another uh yeah it’s kind of far away we have a picture of

1:24:52

that so so um yeah so this this piece of um property was actually foreclosed back

1:24:59

in 1941 so it’s been sitting around for quite a while um it’s all within natural

1:25:07

heritage as well as the area three which is the contributing areas to recreational water bodies of the aquafer

1:25:14

uh Protection District so and it AB buts over 150 acres of protected open space including

1:25:21

the elbow Pond Conservation Area um which you see I can show you this oh it

1:25:29

doesn’t seem working but it’s the large it’s the large parcel that kind of surrounds it um to the

1:25:36

West so that’s the fir that’s the first property um and that’s off Valley

1:25:42

Road and a shall Pond one yeah so so the next

1:25:49

one is the shallow pond so we two on to this um article so the shallow Pond is a

1:25:56

very small um lot but if you see the the top point on the shallow Pond it it

1:26:03

would be a great connector to the um Indian Pond to the Indian Pond to the

1:26:09

access the Briggs property which is the mement recreation area Briggs estate in

1:26:15

um the hillside um Estates open space so that’s pretty crucial to get some um

1:26:24

access area for that that development there so that they have um ability to

1:26:29

utilize the recreation the trails and it doesn’t have a ton of

1:26:35

Frontage so I’m not yeah it doesn’t have a ton of

1:26:41

Frontage on the shallow pond so I’m feeling that it’s not that um build a

1:26:47

lot but Patrick if you want to yeah fill them in so if I can continue

1:26:53

um basically this uh it’s 1.3 43 Acres

1:26:59

uh right off of um shallo Pond um it abuts the uh uh Briggs property which

1:27:05

was part of the challenge grant for over 700 uh I think 70 Acres uh several years

1:27:11

ago uh with our precessing uh planner uh Valerie Mard she worked on that

1:27:18

extensively what is very uh interesting about this is that this would become

1:27:24

part of the greater uh beaverdam Conservation Area so there would be links Trail links to beaverdam

1:27:30

Conservation Area the Briggs property Indian Brook Conservation Area Little Island Pond Conservation area as well as

1:27:36

the talcot estate and that would consist over 1,055 Acres of open

1:27:43

space where this comes into to play is this would give some Public Access uh

1:27:50

potentially for parking uh one or two spots as well as pedestrian access for

1:27:55

the local uh neighborhood to uh create a trail we would create a trail head at

1:28:01

some point and actually go through that property into the Briggs uh State

1:28:10

Property okay and that’s why we’re looking for your support thank you thank you Mr bletzer did you have a question

1:28:16

so where is this in the process with this foreclosed on is this a oh yeah these this is also this was foreclosed

1:28:22

back in November 6th 2003 okay right so almost 20 years ago so it’s not going to

1:28:28

cost us to to acquire this not going to be a fight over this again this would be

1:28:33

only uh uh incur recording costs okay thank you than any other questions from

1:28:41

any other members of the board uh if no one else does uh are

1:28:47

these buildable Lots so

1:28:52

the ongoing uh practice that the the town of Plymouth has uh is that uh tax

1:29:00

title properties if they were to go to auction they would have a deed restriction that they cannot be built on

1:29:07

a primary structure cannot be built on it and that’s and that’s why uh when the

1:29:13

open space committee looks at different Parcels uh since there is no budget for the open space committee they look at

1:29:19

tax title properties uh as everyone knows or most everyone knows we have many many tax title properties uh

1:29:27

throughout the town so there is a uh s a sort of a ranking criteria that the open

1:29:34

space committee looks at looks at whether it’s within natural heritage if there’s Wetlands nearby if it’s

1:29:41

contiguous with uh existing open space and it makes these determinations and

1:29:47

what’s really interesting about Article 13 and article 14 is that

1:29:53

the uh open space committee looks at obviously their charge and mission is to

1:29:58

protect open space wherever possible but it not it doesn’t always necessarily go to

1:30:04

conservation um in years past we went uh or the the open space committee uh

1:30:11

transferred or conveyed a bunch of land to the water Commissioners for future

1:30:16

Wells Article 13 for this upcoming town meeting would go to the Parks Department

1:30:22

so it’s it’s not just for under article 97 conservation it would be they look at

1:30:29

all different aspects okay so I I accept your explanation about the policy regarding

1:30:35

tax titles being unbuildable um with a deed restriction that policy could be

1:30:41

altered absent that policy are there any other reasons that these particular Lots

1:30:46

would be unbuildable well again uh You’ have to look at front you’d have to um uh see

1:30:54

whether uh again with aaer protection natural heritage it all it all poses

1:31:00

some sort of conditions I’m not going to say you can’t I’m not going to say you

1:31:07

can okay it depends it depends that’s that’s a very that’s an attorney’s term

1:31:12

and I yes okay I know I play one on TV sometimes all right um thank you uh is

1:31:19

there I guess in re in regards to the location off Valley Road that has been

1:31:25

in tax title status since before the United States was involved in the Second World

1:31:31

War uh is there any pressing need for that to change into another form I mean

1:31:38

it’s functionally in conservation status right now and has been for almost 82

1:31:45

years um it’s a sizable parcel at over 10 acres so I guess you know the 1.43

1:31:53

I’m not so concerned about but a larger parcel that’s sitting there that we is

1:31:58

functionally conserved but we might want to do something with in the future that seems to me a bit of a different story

1:32:04

do you have anything you could add as to that yeah uh absolutely uh it provides

1:32:09

excellent uh public access to uh over 150 acres of protected open space um and

1:32:17

again uh natural heritage runs through it as well as uh for protection Area

1:32:23

3 um so and again the town is having more and more awareness and conversation

1:32:30

about um protecting our aquafer um and that’s not just our drinking water but

1:32:36

also our recreational bodies of water all our ponds streams Rivers which eventually lead into the

1:32:43

harbor in the bay okay thank you any other questions

1:32:49

from any other members of the board all all right seeing none do I have a motion

1:32:54

in regards to article 14 I motion that we move this forward to

1:33:00

town meeting all right Mr Helm has made a motion that we approve the inclusion

1:33:05

of article 14 on the fall town meeting warrant I will second that Mr bletzer

1:33:11

has seconded any discussion from any members of the board hearing and seeing none I will

1:33:18

call for the vote Mr bletzer how do you vote I vote yes thank you Mr Helm yes

1:33:24

and I vote Yes it is unanimous thank you both thank you all right that brings us

1:33:32

[Music] into he is uh that I see that Mark reel

1:33:39

has joined us our presenter for article 11 uh which we passed but I will now

1:33:45

take up if Mr reel is ready uh to present in regards to article 11

1:33:52

absolutely sorry for that delay no problem I was working with the can’s committee on climate action plan stuff

1:33:58

so um good evening gentlemen uh my name is Mark reel I’m the climate resiliency and sustainability planner for the town

1:34:05

of Plymouth here um so article 11 uh is looking to create an EV charging

1:34:12

revolving fund um since 2014 the energy officer in the town of Plymouth Patrick

1:34:18

Farah have been working hard to incre increase the amount of electric vehicle charging stations across the community

1:34:26

and uh most recently we’ve added four additional charging ports here at the Cornish lot so there are six ports here

1:34:33

now and uh in addition to that we’ve begun to charge um for the use of those charging

1:34:40

stations so in years past it’s been free of charge and now we are charging for

1:34:46

the electricity uh plus a 20% premium on that and so that will cover the cost of

1:34:53

the electricity in addition to uh software subscription services for

1:34:58

monitoring those units as well as future maintenance and hopefully uh future

1:35:04

expansion of the of the system um we’ve seen a exponential growth of use in the

1:35:10

last year or two really it’s been um really quite remarkable how much we’ve seen the use grow and so we recognize

1:35:17

the need to uh begin to to make sure that the funding is available to support that so um we are looking for your

1:35:25

support in in creating this fund um the the cap would be uh at 200,000 proposed

1:35:32

so that we could potentially replace all of the units if they needed to

1:35:38

be okay thank you Mr reel any questions from any members of the

1:35:46

board uh if no one else does I I noticed the the recommended threshold for this

1:35:51

revolving account is 200,000 this amount would be the estimated cost of replacing

1:35:57

double the existing Network Hardware so does that am I reading that correctly that that would be to replace the entire

1:36:04

existing Network twice over what did we yeah that’s what we

1:36:09

did correct but our goal is to expand so if we did it all at once it would just

1:36:15

be done once but the way you interpreted it was correct you could do it twice over right now but if we’re going to add

1:36:20

on as we go we’re thinking capacity will be if we do a replacement for everything it’ll be the 200,000 so we want to

1:36:28

essentially double the size of the existing Network and then have the money to replace it okay because I as it was

1:36:35

written that seemed like a particularly generous contingency but with that in mind I uh I understand okay any other

1:36:42

questions a question mark so we want to add these stations are we looking for

1:36:48

some grant money uh to to to because there’s going to be Patrick I know you you youve done that uh to get some uh I

1:36:57

know the pgdc was working on getting some at one point uh to get more of those stations in yes yes we we’ve

1:37:04

leveraged grant funding for the additional units that we’ve put in place and we anticipate uh utilizing Grant

1:37:12

funds moving forward as well because we don’t want to just use the revolving account funds we want to supplement U

1:37:20

that those funds with Grant no the reason why I’m asking that cuz I would like to not use the revolving funds if

1:37:26

we can get grant money to get all the new equipment right at least that would save us from having to keep funding that

1:37:32

exactly so right now we’re able to access uh evip funds to cover the cost

1:37:38

of the hardware um some of the challenges with the evip funds though are locations we’ve looked at um adding

1:37:46

units in when we use evip funding we are required to uh essentially take one

1:37:52

space away for accessibility and so that’s location

1:37:59

wise it can be a challenge when we have those requirements but generally we’re looking to be able to to use those funds

1:38:05

to purchase the hardware and now that you’re charging it’s it’s very helpful in moving the cars too because they’re

1:38:12

not staying in those spots right exactly because they it’s cost a lot I think if once you’re charged yes because I I

1:38:19

heard I heard a tour a tourist that said I got to go move my car and I said no

1:38:25

then there’s no enforcement he goes no I’m the EV station it’s $10 an hour or something I said you better move it so

1:38:32

so good good job thanks all right thank you any other uh any other questions

1:38:38

from any members of the board all right seeing none do I have a motion to

1:38:44

approve the inclusion of article 11 on the fall town meeting warrant I’ll make

1:38:49

the motion to approve Mr bletz has moved I’ll second Mr Helm has seconded any

1:38:54

discussion about whether or not we should include article 11 on the fall town meeting warrant hearing and seeing

1:39:01

none I will call for a vote once again through the role Mr bletzer how do you vote I vote yes thank you Mr Helm yes

1:39:08

and I vote Yes it is unanimous thank you Mr reel all right so that brings us into

1:39:16

Article 15 proposed bylaw Amendment

1:39:21

relating to miniature single use alcohol containers colloquially known as nips

1:39:28

believe we are joined by Mr Ken

1:39:35

Stone not Ken Stone I’ve noticed evening everyone my

1:39:43

is thank you so all this’ very

1:39:50

busy turn the microphone sorry okay is that better yes

1:39:57

yes okay great so again thank you um so in addition to the tax title properties

1:40:02

that Steph and Patrick just discussed the open space committee is also sponsoring Article 15 which is a

1:40:08

proposal to um ban the miniature single use alcohol containers AKA nips in the

1:40:15

town of Plymouth so tonight we’d like to give you an overview of The Proposal answer any questions that you might have

1:40:21

and hopefully gain your support for to to move this article forward Ken Stone is our resident expert and um as you’ll

1:40:28

hear in a minute there are many many um reasons that a nip band makes sense for our community but given the mission of

1:40:35

the open space committee one the one that excites us the most is the um environmental benefits the environmental

1:40:41

gains that our community would would realize by eliminating nips from the the

1:40:46

waist stream um so I am going to turn it over over to Ken I’m going to let him

1:40:52

elaborate and we’ll take it from there thank you very much again for your time and attention thank

1:40:59

you okay thank you uh see if I can get this

1:41:05

going okay um so as people perhaps know uh what the ban would uh uh eliminate

1:41:13

would be any uh nip uh any bottle uh 100 millimeters uh milliliters or uh smaller

1:41:21

I’m going to skip a couple of slides just to try to speed things up a bit uh

1:41:27

the primary motivation for this is that uh nips are a major source of litter uh

1:41:32

in Plymouth if not the major source especially since we’ve got rid of the plastic bags Plymouth volunteers picked

1:41:39

up over 14,000 nips in just four days of cleanups and that’s despite the fact

1:41:46

that for over a decade we’ve been doing cleanups in town uh twice a year in the spring and in the fall so you can begin

1:41:53

to imagine how many could have been collected if this was our first cleanup if we weren’t already uh attending to

1:42:00

these areas or if volunteers spent more time uh doing so but 14,000 in4 days is

1:42:05

is pretty astounding I’m gonna oops wrong direction here we go I’m going to skip

1:42:11

that one for now um so what are some of the reasons and the problems with nips uh one thing is that nips cannot and

1:42:18

never will be uh recycled no matter how big a deposit anyone may put on them

1:42:23

nips are too small and too light no matter what material they’re made out of glass or plastic to be a value to

1:42:30

recyclers there’s no market for them there’s no monetary value so when the mrfs get hold of uh litter uh their

1:42:38

machines are designed to drop out not capture anything that small uh and they will always end up uh just simply adding

1:42:45

to our Solid Waste stream if they don’t end up in the environment oops no stay there for

1:42:51

moment uh another thing that um people talk about is that we should wait until

1:42:56

the state uh passes a deposit on nips uh the reality is that some version of an

1:43:02

expanded or updated bottle Bill including uh nip deposits or bans have

1:43:08

been filed every single legislative session for over 23 years every single

1:43:14

session since before the year 2000 what happens is that they always get buried in committee they are never allowed to

1:43:20

come to vote for the floor that’s what’s happening with the current uh bills before our legislature that’s what’s

1:43:26

happened every year uh in the past um there is not uh enthusiasm on the hill

1:43:33

because of the influence of special interests uh it’s kind of ironic uh the

1:43:39

uh alcohol industry has long argued that deposits lead to higher costs which would be passed on as higher retail

1:43:45

prices to Consumers which would result in lower sales they’ve only been changing uh that tune uh recently as

1:43:53

more and more uh bands on nips have been occurring uh nips are also a drain on uh

1:43:59

dpw’s resources collection disposal and and they block drains in towns uh nips are primarily made out of

1:44:07

plastic there are some glass but everything we’re collecting the vast majority is plastic um nips do not uh uh

1:44:15

degrade they break into smaller and smaller uh Plastics microplastics they get into the environment they’re working

1:44:21

their way up the food chain they’re toxic in terms of what they leech including bezine which is a known

1:44:28

carcinogen um and we’re now finding microparticles in human blood lungs stool the placentas of women who have

1:44:35

given birth and just last month there was an article uh in Lancet that they’re

1:44:40

finding uh microplastics in the hearts of cardiac patients um so uh not a good

1:44:49

thing nip bands have proven very effective uh before Falmouth passed its

1:44:55

nip band they did some research they actually went through all their trash I had a little trouble finding volunteers

1:45:02

who were willing to do that here but they did that in Falmouth they found that 32% of all litter items collected

1:45:09

were nips after the Buy and they said it was the primary uh uh the the biggest

1:45:16

single item uh uh within the litter stream after the is introduced only 6%

1:45:22

of litter were Miniatures and that kind of results have been found in all the

1:45:28

towns that have uh passed them uh so far and if you look at that uh partial list

1:45:33

you’ll notice that most of them are are pretty much our neighbors that are passing these things um our own uh Town

1:45:40

administrators have recognized the significance of nips as a problem in the town uh if you remember uh I think it

1:45:48

may have been about three years ago Melissa R our past Town manager brought a nip band before this uh this panel and

1:45:56

um in um May uh during a a a discussion about the upcoming cleanups our current

1:46:04

um Town manager Mr bendy mentioned that um during the seaside Trail cleanup uh

1:46:11

the DPW filled up multiple trash bags with just nips alone and he went on to

1:46:16

state that clearly there is a problem in the community and with the data I’ve shown I I I hope you recognize that as

1:46:24

well going to skip this one for now um just to preface this I’m a retired

1:46:30

psychologist I have a post-doctoral certificate in alcoholism diagnosis and

1:46:35

treatment and I’ve uh published in the field but you know I don’t think you need to have those kind of credentials

1:46:42

to recognize that nips encourage uh alcohol abusive behaviors uh we all know

1:46:47

about the drinking driving issues there have been problems in restaurants with uh people over drinking uh bringing nips

1:46:54

in um but what is uh interesting is that

1:46:59

nips are a proven harm reduction strategy uh in health policy a harm

1:47:04

reduction strategy is taken when you recognize this there’s a problem that we can’t eliminate like uh addictions but

1:47:13

we can introduce um strategies that uh very much mitigate the impact and the

1:47:20

results of uh what happened in Chelsea uh who was the first town to pass a ban in uh mid uh n uh 20185 years ago are

1:47:31

remarkable 742 alcohol rated ambulance and fire responses in

1:47:37

2017 down to 127 a year after the ban was introduced that’s from an average of

1:47:43

62 alcohol calls a month in 17 to about 16 a month by the summer of 200 19 uh

1:47:52

also in 1986 individuals taken into custody down from 222 the year before a 66% drop in

1:48:00

alcohol rated detentions and other towns are finding the same thing uh in weham

1:48:07

uh select person Bruce uh noted similar results stating that and I’m quoting in

1:48:13

addition to helping cut down on trash weam ban has also cut public drinking and related police calls uh the May bedf

1:48:20

just asked his licensing board to pass a niit band they did uh and he said that

1:48:26

uh the police department there had also Express concern about the association between consumption and and public

1:48:33

drunkenness um so I’m going to probably

1:48:38

skip this one too uh some people talk about um bigger bottles if people forced

1:48:44

into the half uh pints uh they will be more alcoholism actually the studies

1:48:50

show just the opposite uh and I can get into those if people have more questions about that um I did want to spend some

1:48:58

time talking about the fact that uh nips will not be uh a disaster to uh the

1:49:03

liquor stores since 2018 the Boston licensing board requires

1:49:09

that applicants for a new package store uh license must agree to a condition of

1:49:15

not selling singles or miniature bottles and since that was implemented 57 people

1:49:21

have in groups have applied for licenses fully understanding that if they uh open

1:49:27

a store they will not be able to sell nips uh clearly a lot of people still think uh it’s worth having an a liquor

1:49:35

store if you can’t sell nips for you wouldn’t have that many people chasing licenses and Boston City’s Council

1:49:41

experience with all this has led them to this year consider uh expanding the ban Citywide it’s already banned uh in the

1:49:48

seafront area um also uh I spoke with um a gentleman

1:49:55

who was the on the licensing board in Chelsea and also uh their City one of

1:50:01

their City councilors uh Roy alvala uh he noted that a lior store in

1:50:06

21 sold for more than the uh average price of uh uh a liquor license in

1:50:13

Boston and that was for the sale of just the liquor license it didn’t include the inventory the shelving scholing the

1:50:19

building just the liquor license and as he stated business couldn’t be that bad

1:50:24

if a license in Chelsea is worth uh that much Robert melan the executive director

1:50:30

of the Massachusetts packaging store Association has acknowledged that no liquor stores he did this just this year

1:50:37

have closed in Chelsea after five years of their ban and there’s no evidence anywhere else to the contrary no

1:50:43

nobody’s closing up shop because they’re uh working in a town that has a ban also

1:50:49

when Chelsea was contemplating it span melan estimated that doing so could

1:50:54

affect and I quote up to 10% of sales in Chelsea that’s important language up to

1:51:01

means the maximum he expected might be 10% and um it’s of sales not of profits

1:51:08

sell three nips that’s three sales sell a six-pack that’s one um but

1:51:14

understandably I understand nobody likes to risk or see a revenue stream being

1:51:20

removed from their business but as more and more bands get pasted it’s It’s

1:51:25

Curious that liquor store uh owners seem to keep raising the estimate it’s gone

1:51:30

from 10% to 15 to% to 20% uh somebody said in Chelsea store when 30% Mr uh uh

1:51:39

alianda said he well he made some comments in that that if people want to ask more uh and now some people are

1:51:45

saying 40% uh but those are consensuses uh the data is and and the evidence is I

1:51:51

would suggest that no liquor stores are closing the value of liquor businesses are holding per the evidence in Boston

1:51:57

and Chelsea and clearly a liquor license is still a very desirable and valuable thing to pursue whether a store can sell

1:52:04

nips or or not so in summary uh a nit ban will

1:52:10

clean up and help maintain the beauty of our town it’ll reduce expenses for our DPW and town Safety Services it’ll

1:52:17

reduce alcohol related health and safety risks to our residents and it’ll do so without impacting the Public’s right to

1:52:23

consume uh alcohol we’re Banning a container not not alcohol so I’m open to

1:52:29

questions I I skipped a lot just to try to make it short thank you Mr Stone Mr

1:52:35

bletzer did you have a question yeah I have actually quite a few uh I applaud

1:52:41

your efforts I really do um you know I think the environment um obviously the

1:52:47

last couple of articles I voted uh for the open space and uh you know I I

1:52:53

applaud what you folks are doing trying to keep our town clean uh I live on a Main Street

1:53:00

myself and uh I would just say that I I see a nips but I also see also see

1:53:07

lottery tickets Dunkin’ Donuts cups Pepsi cans Bud Light

1:53:13

cans fast food containers I mean I’m picking stuff up not every day but it’s

1:53:19

quite of and uh

1:53:24

so I just there’s a couple things I don’t think a nipan is going to do number one I don’t think it’s going to

1:53:30

stop litter in Plymouth I really don’t it might help a little bit but it’s not

1:53:35

going to stop it and the argument about drunk and driving it it’s I I I mean I work for

1:53:41

the courts and let me tell you somebody that wants to drink and drive is going to drink and drive it’s it if they don’t

1:53:47

get nips they’re going to have half pints and what I’m going to find I’ll find plastic half pints of my lawn

1:53:53

that’s what I’m going to find because they’re they’re going to drink if they want to drink I I I don’t think it’s

1:53:59

going to curve curb alcoholism and and and I saw a piece about

1:54:05

tourism the tourists love nips they bring it back to their hotels because they don’t want to get a big bottle

1:54:11

because they’re only staying for a couple of nights and they have nips uh and in the hotels tell you this

1:54:18

that they they they find them in rooms all the time because the tourists like that so

1:54:24

uh you know I understand what you’re trying to do and we this came before us

1:54:30

before and and and I actually voted for and then I thought about it and I talked to people and I talk to the industry in

1:54:37

fact in in a minute I’m going to ask the chairman if I could bring somebody up here that could speak and tell the other

1:54:42

side of the uh equation the the bottom line is you you mention a few things Boston has not

1:54:50

got a nip in they haven’t done that they’re talking about they’re talking about it just like the legislator has been talking about it but the reason why

1:54:58

they haven’t done it because they don’t all everything you’re saying tonight they they don’t believe to be

1:55:04

true completely true I mean I listen I’m I’m not going to say that it wouldn’t do

1:55:10

a little bit of good but I can the only thing I can tell you I’m telling you what I don’t think it’s going to do but

1:55:15

what I believe and I’m going to listen to a couple of people in a minute I believe one thing it will do we have

1:55:23

14 liquor stores in this town that a lot of them are Plymouth residents that have

1:55:30

families in Plymouth they pay taxes in Plymouth they have employees in Plymouth that depend on their liquor stores uh

1:55:38

that that’s their jobs and they depend on that and I believe because we’re not a big city

1:55:45

we’re a small town that people are going to get their nips they’re going to go to North Plymouth you can past North

1:55:53

Plymouth there’s a couple liquor stores like within walking distance they’re

1:55:58

going to go there and they’re going to get their nips and come back into town but they’re not going to just go there and get nips they’re going to buy their

1:56:05

beer they’re going to buy their wine they’re going to buy you know they’re going to buy their lottery tickets

1:56:11

they’re going they’re going to do their business in that store and they’re not going to go to certain stores uh I won’t

1:56:16

mention there’s some folks here tonight but it’s going to hurt our local businesses also they can go to Bourne we

1:56:23

have we have down in Cedarville and South Plymouth we get liquor stores and and I’m not in favor of this because I

1:56:30

think it’s going to hurt us small businesses you know the smoking bam when that came in

1:56:36

effect I don’t smoke I hate smoke I’ve been working in the industry for years

1:56:42

all my life and I had to inhale that smoke but I hated the bin

1:56:48

because it was going to help it was going to hurt uh restaurants in bars and

1:56:53

Plymouth and and I said until they go to a Statewide B to make a Level Playing

1:56:59

Field uh you know it it’s it’s not going to work and it hurts every we we our

1:57:04

business at a I met a local restaurant and and our business was off we it hurt

1:57:10

our business big time they were going to Kingston they were going to other towns they were going to private clubs

1:57:16

so I I I don’t want to you think I’m against the environment I’m proven as a town meeting member I’ve always voted

1:57:22

for environmental things uh and but this particular ban I don’t think is going to

1:57:30

do the things that you you’re saying here may may I respond to something no I’m going to finish in one second I’m

1:57:36

sorry so so the reason why I’m going to vote is because it’s not it’s going to

1:57:42

hurt uh a local businesses when the state I think you

1:57:47

folks are to concentrate TR on the state delegation and get them to pass a

1:57:53

Statewide bin that will make it make it a Level Playing Field for everybody

1:57:59

similar to what they did with the smoking band and once that smoking band went and that was the greatest thing that ever happened for the restaurants

1:58:05

greatest thing that ever happened so but no go ahead I’m sorry okay thank you um

1:58:11

first off with regards to it not doing that much for litter environment it’s

1:58:17

going to help but it’s not it’s not eliminate BL he interrupt you if you could okay um that kind of thing was

1:58:25

said when we introduced the plastic bag band as well in the six years that we’ve

1:58:31

had the plastic bag band we’ve diverted based on industry estimates 150 million

1:58:38

plastic bags from the waist stream yeah there’ll still be other

1:58:43

forms of litter but quite frankly as I mentioned some of the stats

1:58:51

um nips are now making up the majority of our litter so we’ll eliminate nips

1:58:58

and we’ll keep working at different things to try to reduce the amount of litter in town but it will make a

1:59:03

significant difference in the amount of litter and I think the data from uh Falmouth shows that um with regards

1:59:12

to uh what you said about uh smoking as an example I think that’s a good example

1:59:19

we Bann smoking in in restaurants it may have hurt them for a short time

1:59:24

restaurants as you said are doing great now whether the people smoke or not um in terms of people going to other towns

1:59:30

for the nip bands uh to buy liquor I imagine some will uh but the reality is

1:59:37

if I want a six-pack or my bottle of Jin I’m not driving to Kingston for it I’m

1:59:43

I’m going to buy it here um and again the evidence in uh other towns

1:59:49

in Chelsea Etc regarding alcohol as I said uh and again I’m a professional in

1:59:55

the field I fully understand it’s not going to eliminate alcoholism it is a harm reduction strategy that is an

2:00:02

effective one and Chelsea demonstrates that significant reduction in drinking

2:00:08

significant reduction in emergency calls the same thing is happening uh in other

2:00:14

towns it’ll happen here too so we’re not trying to eliminate Al can I respond to

2:00:20

you now one last in terms of the environment um nips are much more

2:00:26

harmful than paper um paper isn’t good but paper doesn’t have toxins uh paper

2:00:34

isn’t getting into people’s bodies uh paper doesn’t get washed into the ocean where it binds with other toxins to make

2:00:41

a toxic soup so it’s a particularly nasty kind of uh product in terms ter of

2:00:49

the environment um as I said many Plastics are made with a base of benzine

2:00:54

it is a known cinogen um so yes it’s is it going to eliminate all l no did it

2:01:02

eliminate all the bags and greatly clean up that town you bet and will the same thing happen with nips I believe it will

2:01:08

I’m sorry okay so just a scenario uh so you’re a guy that doesn’t want to go to

2:01:14

Kingston or Bor but you’re a guy that likes to drink in his car that likes to

2:01:19

what but you’re a guy that likes to drink and drive so instead of getting nips because he can’t get him in

2:01:25

Plymouth y he’s going to get a half pint I can talk about that and he’s going to drink that half pint and he’s going to

2:01:30

throw it throw it out the window no he’s not cuz he’s a litterer I just don’t

2:01:36

think uh I just don’t think he’s going to change can I respond to that

2:01:42

sure let’s go back a few

2:01:48

slides oops too

2:01:55

far ah okay in terms of somebody drinking and driving with a uh half pint if

2:02:01

you’re if you’re a uh somebody who’s caught in the froze of alcohol yeah you

2:02:07

Pro you might do that but one of the whole points of drinking a nip is to be able to drink and not be caught with an

2:02:13

open container we know that um and I know that through studies I know that through my work with uh substance abuses

2:02:21

if people go to half uh pints it’ll actually decrease uh uh uh alcohol

2:02:29

consumption and there’s plenty of studies to show that I listed some I’ll quote some from the National Institute

2:02:36

of alcohol abuse and alcoholism studies determined that increases in the total price of alcohol

2:02:43

can reduce drinking and driving and its consequences among all age groups lower

2:02:48

the frequency of disease injuries and deaths related to alcohol use and abuse and reduce alcohol rated violence and

2:02:54

other crimes the CDC evidence shows an association between higher prices and

2:03:00

reduction in alcohol rated harms including motor vehicle crashes fatalities alcohol and peer driving and

2:03:07

all causes of mortality so you keep talking about that portion of uh

2:03:13

drinkers who are hardcore alcoholics I get it I worked with them

2:03:19

but that’s not the only people who are throwing those things out the window and if you have a half pint most people

2:03:26

aren’t going to take the risk of driving with an open container and they’re not going to be throwing it out the window

2:03:33

and frankly unfortunately not that that’ll help later if they did that can be recycled these things can’t so

2:03:40

responding again and I’m not going I want to end this cuz this is not really about alcoholism but I work for the I

2:03:47

work for the courts and I go to training sessions with seminar so I know a little bit about alcoholism too and I can tell

2:03:54

you A lot of people regulate their drinking with nips instead they regulate

2:03:59

it with nips but I can tell you this one thing about an alcoholic they’re going to drink absolutely okay whether they if

2:04:07

they can’t get a nip they’re going to get a half pint or a pint and they’re going to drink in that car then they don’t care so that’s that’s my only

2:04:15

argument on that but I would like to because I don’t want to I don’t want this to look like uh more than it is I

2:04:22

just I I represent everybody in the town of Plymouth not just certain groups and

2:04:29

I just think this will hurt our local businesses I would like to see a Statewide B if if if if if it’s you know

2:04:37

detrimental and let’s get that done and I think you I would like to see a petition the state try and get it done

2:04:43

in the meantime 23 years we’ve been doing that well I then they they must

2:04:49

not think it’s as uh dangerous as you say it is I’m not saying it is or it

2:04:54

isn’t I’m just saying I don’t think this is the way to go about it Mr chairman I’d like to bring up a a couple I want

2:05:01

to hear the other side of this so we get all the information Mr butzer you may I’d like to bring uh Mr Pi up and also

2:05:10

any uh you can come up to yeah you can ask him I just want uh the board to hear the other side of the equation

2:05:17

here Charli good evening put selectman town

2:05:22

of Plymouth uh Peter Bal bony for the record owner of Pi’s Package Store I’ve been serving Plymouth and its residents

2:05:30

for the past 90 years of family business um I see uh with all due

2:05:36

respects um the gentleman a lot of these facts would be disputed I see he

2:05:43

references uh Robert Milan he’s the head Council for Mass pack uh I’ve talked to

2:05:49

him several times myself in the past week he’d be here himself tonight uh he’s in Colorado however um but there’s

2:05:57

a lot of facts there that can be disputed and he would but my first point

2:06:02

is that many consumers um as mentioned do buy the 50ml containers to regulate

2:06:09

how much they consume at any designated Time by eliminating this option you will

2:06:14

force one to purchase a larger size container resulting in higher consumption and possible alcohol abuse

2:06:22

amongst other detrimental actions um they will buy it they’ll put

2:06:27

it in the car and they will in start of drinking we have many customers that come in and they might just buy one or

2:06:32

two and that’s it because they know that’s all they can handle they buy a whole bottle they will drink the whole

2:06:39

bottle um the second point is these nips are a legal size approved by the abcc by

2:06:46

eliminating them in Plymouth you’ll be driving tax away from Plymouth and to surrounding towns

2:06:52

assuming um the actual St statistics actually

2:06:58

prove that the NP business is a large percentage of independent stores

2:07:03

business anywhere from 10 to 15% and up to 50% in some of these

2:07:08

businesses or last year alone there was over 7 million units sold in

2:07:14

Massachusetts so it is a big chunk of the store’s income at an industry that

2:07:20

averages $42,000 a year for their employees a 10 to 15% loss in these

2:07:26

times where our expenses are going up and up will affect liquor stores we

2:07:33

might not go out of business but we might have to lay people off and it will affect the bottom line um consumers of

2:07:40

any business who easily dispose of things and throw things out through the

2:07:45

window are going to you you know they throw up bottles straws lottery tickets

2:07:51

all of the cigarettes Ben in one of these very items you know one of the

2:07:56

item out of all of them is not going to clean up the litter it’s just going to replace the nips with larger plastic or

2:08:04

glass bottles um again Plymouth is uh filled with tourist and visitors who frequent

2:08:11

here do enjoy as mentioned earlier enjoy their nips uh when they go back to the room they mix a drink they don’t want

2:08:18

buy a whole bottle it’s also a way for them to try new products that come out

2:08:24

um instead of spending a lot of money on one thing you can see if you like it or not we all want a clean Plymouth and we

2:08:31

all want to be environmentally conscious so I feel there’s a better way and there’s alternatives to resolve this

2:08:38

problem this matter needs to be dealt with on a state level we need to

2:08:43

pressure the Senate and the legislators to move I have been in contct contact

2:08:49

with both suppliers Distributors and the Senate and the cross off fingers looks

2:08:57

like it’s coming to a head in 2024 the suppliers don’t want to lose the business so it’s something is going to

2:09:04

happen we hope I ask the board to please uh not support this ban on nips thank

2:09:12

you thank you any other questions from the board for the presenter or for

2:09:18

anyone else Mr Helm I have a question for Mr

2:09:27

Stone oh there somebody else Mr Stone

2:09:34

first yes um Mr Stone you mentioned um

2:09:40

possibly not on a slide but you you you spoke that

2:09:46

um that this would decrease um drunk and driving do you

2:09:52

have any statistics from any of the communities that have ban nips that evidence a reduction in arrests or

2:10:00

apprehensions or any actions around drunken drivers in terms of nips no in terms of

2:10:07

nips yeah no because I spoke with um our own um uh uh Chief who uh three years

2:10:17

ago he referred me to to Captain uh Manuel uh and what he point said is it’s

2:10:23

pretty obvious to them that that is an association just as people in uh uh New

2:10:28

Bedford said but you have to catch somebody with the nip open nip in the

2:10:34

car and these are being thrown out the window so statistic it’s just hard to do

2:10:39

any research that’ll show that so you rely on things like Chelsea St um in

2:10:45

terms of uh and weham in terms of the decrease in and uh alcohol related behaviors in

2:10:51

general not to disagree with with um officer Manuel who told you that but uh

2:10:59

you do not need to have an open container of alcohol in a car to be

2:11:06

stopped for drunk driving and cited for it right I’m not under I don’t

2:11:12

understand why somebody drinking nips in a car would need to have one on them

2:11:18

they wouldn’t um so so there’s no there was no no you didn’t take a look at

2:11:23

Chelsea to see if there had been a reduction in DUIs over the same period of time Chelsea doesn’t didn’t have

2:11:30

those stats they were looking at the ambulance results and the hospital results and and the emergency calls I

2:11:37

don’t know of any data that has that specifically uh from any town that has

2:11:43

introduced a ban but again um if you look at Chelsea St in terms of alcohol

2:11:50

use in general and again if you look at it antidot there is an association

2:11:55

between the two can we prove it no thank you and Mr Helm I would since I

2:12:04

have direct information in regards to that I can help answer the question posed to Mr Stone so in my day job I

2:12:11

take uh court appointed criminal cases in Plymouth District Court which covers Plymouth as well as several other

2:12:17

surrounding cas communities um Mr bletzer used to yell at me to talk to custodies uh more frequently than I did

2:12:24

over uh non- custodies before they left which was my priority but in any event

2:12:29

um a l a large number of folks that are uh arrested for an oui uh were drinking

2:12:38

from nips uh at least at of Plymouth District Court that covers not just Plymouth but Plymouth is the largest

2:12:43

single town that contributes to the workload of Plymouth District Court I I have also spent the last uh eight years

2:12:51

eight plus years working in the recovery Court formerly known as the drug court uh which deals with substance use

2:12:57

related issues both drugs and alcohol and a number of the participants in that

2:13:02

setting uh have acquired or sustained a problematic drinking behaviors through

2:13:09

the use of nips uh as a primary source because it was easier for them to hide

2:13:15

that from significant others from employers uh from family members that want them to

2:13:21

stop um and some of them uh had been formerly people that drank higher

2:13:26

quantities and thought drinking a nip wouldn’t be a big deal then they fail a court ordered scram uh breath test or a

2:13:34

counter uh breath test by a probation officer um so nips are a significant

2:13:40

contributor to the acquisition and sustaining of a problematic relationship

2:13:46

with alcohol in this community um from my experience of eight plus years taking

2:13:52

being one of approximately 25 court appointed lawyers uh that frequently takes cases in Plymouth District

2:13:59

Court uh any other questions from any other members of the board Mr bletzer did you have a further

2:14:06

question this gentleman step up Mr bletzer would like to know what you would like to say hi hi I’m Jay

2:14:13

selli I’m co-owner of Cedarville wine spirits in uh South Plymouth and uh

2:14:18

uh we are uh opposed to the knit band um and we understand that it’s a problem uh

2:14:24

with litter but we’d like to remind everyone that plastic water bottles um

2:14:29

and you know fast food containers are also a significant portion of the litter stream and we feel that it should all be

2:14:38

addressed uh instead of just going after one litter stream so um we feel a ban on

2:14:45

nips unless and acted Statewide is highly pre Ral to the businesses within the town and will in most cases not

2:14:51

solve the problem but will merely Drive the customers over the town lines to Born sandwich Kingston and thean will

2:14:57

hurt every liquor store within the town and will be a boom to the stores in the adjacent communities um and we hope that you feel

2:15:04

your liquor stores and town are loyal and generous supporters of the number of charitable Civic organizations within the town and will consider the impact on

2:15:11

our stores before you vote on this issue thank you any other questions from

2:15:18

the board for question uh about a dozen yeah okay

2:15:25

yeah y any other questions from any other members of the board seeing no questions

2:15:33

uh you haven’t been asked a question uh does anyone have a question for this

2:15:38

gentleman seeing no questions do I have a motion um from any members of the board in relation to Article 15 I will

2:15:47

remind members of the board that motions are always made in the

2:15:52

affirmative I motion that we um approve uh moving Article 15 to town meeting

2:15:59

consideration Mr Helm has moved uh I will second it has been moved it has

2:16:06

been seconded any discussion from any members of the board about whether or

2:16:11

not we should approve an inclusion of Article 15 on the fall town meeting warrant I’ll say it one more time

2:16:18

it’s I would love to think that this would stop littering I hate littering

2:16:24

okay I live in a main street I see it all the time but it’s a very small percentage of it is nips and I think you

2:16:33

I I don’t like that we’re taking it out on one industry by the way I was for the

2:16:38

plastic bags I was for that b but we’re taking out on one industry and I quite

2:16:44

frankly don’t think it’s going to work it’s not going to stop the the reason reasons why they’re given you know drunk

2:16:50

driving uh litter it’s not going to stop that uh and the gentleman just brought

2:16:56

up about the plastic bottles you know you know those aren’t biodegradable

2:17:01

either and U they’re they’re out there too so I I just I can’t I can’t

2:17:07

uh I think this is anti- business and I I can’t vote the support it and I know

2:17:13

it’s not popular in this room but I I have a record of voting for The environment I did it as a Tom meeting

2:17:19

member and I’ve done it as a selectman but this one particular article I just can’t support it thank you thank you Mr

2:17:27

bletzer any other discussion from members of the board seeing none I will contribute uh

2:17:36

although I understand the concerns of local businesses and I do wish that it was a Statewide ban um I I think that

2:17:43

would be preferable because that would make it a Level Playing Field as Mr bletzer said said so I agree with him on

2:17:48

that nevertheless I am in favor of a ban of nips in the town of Plymouth I

2:17:54

believe uh that nips primarily to me are a source of public health concerns I

2:18:01

have seen a number of folks in both my personal and professional life ruin

2:18:07

their lives uh through nips perpetuate alcohol problems acquire alcohol

2:18:13

problems create divisions amongst their significant others their family members

2:18:19

I’ve had multiple uh family members plead with me to try and get help for

2:18:24

their loved one in relation to their addiction to alcohol that is perpetuated

2:18:30

by nips uh and I understand that the Banning of nips in the town of Plymouth

2:18:35

will not solve the problem of alcoholism in this community but it makes it easier

2:18:41

for Plymouth residents to acquire a drinking problem it makes it easier for them to sustain them be drinking problem

2:18:48

because they are easily hideable from uh members of their family their employers their significant others and it does

2:18:55

increase uh public safety concerns because one of the things that I have

2:19:00

noticed representing people charged with oui related offenses in the town of Plymouth and in other communities is

2:19:08

that for whatever reason people that commit oui offenses tend to be very concerned about having an open container

2:19:14

of alcohol in the vehicle they’re not as concerned with driving while intoxicated

2:19:19

with when they get pulled over at submitting to field sobriety tests or breathalyzers but having an open

2:19:25

container in that vehicle is a chief concern for them uh for whatever reason

2:19:30

they either they think it’s primacia evidence uh for the crime or they just uh have a phobia for that whatever the

2:19:37

reason is the anecdotes for those people that is a big priority for them and it is very easy for them to justify

2:19:44

purchasing nips to drink in a car because they can discard that easily they can also discard it at work they

2:19:50

can hide it more easily amongst their person um I think it’s a significant problem Mr Bizzy and I had the

2:19:57

opportunity to go to Japan uh a couple of weeks ago in Japan there are not

2:20:03

public trash barrels very often in public you are expected if you generate

2:20:09

trash in public to carry that trash with you to throw it away at your home in

2:20:16

America if we don’t see a trash can in 500 yards we think well the government must want me to throw this out here I

2:20:23

think that’s a cultural failing that we have and I agree that eliminating nips will not fully solve uh litter as a

2:20:30

problem but I think it could reduce it but I’m primarily interested in the public health concerns I wish again that

2:20:37

this were a Statewide ban but I don’t have control over what the Commonwealth does in the general court I only have

2:20:44

the ability to influence policy on the town wide level and I think public health concerns are more important to me

2:20:51

personally than business concerns when the two do conflict generally I’m very

2:20:56

in favor of Economic Development and what’s good for our businesses but when it I think our primary concern and

2:21:02

consideration should be what’s good for our people and for those Reasons I’m strongly in favor of a ban of nips in

2:21:09

the town of Plymouth any other discussion from any other one one final thing if I could Mr bletzer I’d like to

2:21:15

get a report from uh the uh when they clean up next year about nips uh how many nips you find because I

2:21:24

I I hope I’m wrong but you’re going to see nips everywhere they’re going to come from different towns people that

2:21:30

like nips will get the nips and they and they and they’ll bring him into Plymouth and I’ll tell you what else you’re going

2:21:36

to see you’re going to see more half pint plastic half pints I guarantee it and uh the think Kevin that it’s going

2:21:43

to stop littering it’s going to stop drunk driving wow with that wouldn’t that be great if it was that easy but

2:21:50

anyway uh I’ve said what I had to say uh uh I think it will heard our local

2:21:55

businesses thank you thank you Mr bletzer any further discussion seeing

2:22:00

none I will call for the vote once again through the role Mr bletzer how do you vote as to whether or not we should

2:22:06

include Article 15 on the fall time meeting warrant I vote no thank you Mr

2:22:11

Helm yes and I vote Yes so the motion does carry Article 15 will be included

2:22:17

in the fall 10 meeting warrant thank you to everyone who came and presented on either

2:22:26

side that brings us into public comment uh prior to the beginning of

2:22:32

public comment since this is my first meeting that I have chaired I will lay out the ground rules for public comment

2:22:39

when I am chairing select board policy has given members of the public 3 minutes to speak

2:22:46

in public comment at all of our meetings um you will be given those 3 minutes of

2:22:52

course when you reach When You Reach three minutes I will give you the opportunity if you still have more to

2:22:58

say to speak for an additional minute if you choose to do so or if you think you

2:23:03

need longer than a minute it will require a motion a second and an affirmative vote of the board in order

2:23:09

to speak for longer than an additional minute and if you fa if you do not get a motion in a second or if that vote fails

2:23:16

sadly you’re speaking to time will have concluded so with that in mind anyone wishing to make public comment please

2:23:22

stand up to the microphone Mr malag goodi you are both the closest and the

2:23:28

uh most upright so you get first go ever malag goodi precent to so I actually

2:23:35

have a couple and one just came in my mind just recently um it’s always been

2:23:40

common practice over the years myself as a town meeting member that when articles come before the select board and also

2:23:46

advisory Finance um for a discussion that there usually a loud comment from

2:23:52

the public if their hand is raised or if they have anything my hand was raised I was never acknowledged for the last

2:23:58

article of that and I just want to make sure that the common practice is not going to be uh hindered in the future so

2:24:06

with that I had an important question that actually was never asked and actually would have been great to know

2:24:13

for if this go if the prior article goes before town meeting and passes is there

2:24:20

a phased implementation like there was for the plastic bag band where there was a 6mon gear cycle for that because

2:24:27

liquor stores are going to have to get rid of their inventory and you need to actually have a phased in approach or

2:24:32

that you can’t just ban it overnight because then liquor stores have to figure out what they’re going to do they’re going to just dump and down the

2:24:38

drain which would also be detrimental to the environment as well too so those are the things that actually needed to be

2:24:44

done if it’s not included within the article then then I think the article would need to be amended or would

2:24:49

somewhat be null and void in a way thank you thank you Mr malag

2:24:54

goodi uh Mr Mr Liden is pointing to someone else

2:25:01

I thought maybe Mr Stone would like to uh Mr Stone would you care to make

2:25:08

public comment yeah just briefly I believe the way it’s written uh they would have till

2:25:15

July of next year to uh work down their inventory thank you Mr

2:25:22

Stone all right uh Mr Liden would you care to make public comment yes thank you Mr chairman um tonight I’m here

2:25:28

wearing two hats one is the vice chair of distinguished visitors s uh board um

2:25:34

this year we were asked very short we had a very short time to get the trip ready for uh shishi gammer our sister

2:25:41

city and while we’re making the arrangements and everything else we realize how everything is has gotten so

2:25:47

expensive and it’s really tough to um be able to afford everything that we have

2:25:53

to do sending our our delegation to Japan but in the spring they’re coming here or in probably next summer expenses

2:26:01

have really gone High they’re crazy and so the visitor Service Board which I am chair made a motion to raise the fee

2:26:10

from uh the contribution of the visitor Service Board from 5,000 to 10,000 and

2:26:15

I’m requesting that the select would do the same uh Mr KY the town manager went

2:26:20

to Japan they see how we are treat how our our delegation is treated and it’s

2:26:26

uh they’re coming here like I said next year and I think we should reciprocate in the same manner that they treated us

2:26:32

and to do this the Board needs more money thank you thank you Mr

2:26:38

Li Mr ran good evening first I have a question

2:26:43

before anything um I’ve got two items I like to speak on do I get three minutes on each or three total three

2:26:51

total all right well my name is Bill arienti I’m the

2:26:57

chairperson of Precinct 6 to meeting I stand here not to um criticize um the

2:27:05

the select board or anyone but um I don’t have the POS in in my uh position

2:27:11

of uh Tom meeting member I really don’t have that Authority or that capacity so

2:27:16

but I what I’d like to speak about is the how the um issue before us with the

2:27:23

attorney general uh affects the town and

2:27:29

what it does it I hate to say it but it exacerbates an issue and that’s the

2:27:34

issue of a diminishing level of trust in government now I know that each I well I

2:27:40

don’t know each of you personally I know some of you personally and I know that you the jobs you do are great you really

2:27:47

do you you dedicate yourself to make this town much better and if the mistake

2:27:52

was made inadvertently I have no problem with that but the problem being is that

2:27:59

when a mistake like that is made the people see it the people don’t see the work the people don’t see the

2:28:05

debate that you do the people don’t see all the hard effort you put into it the people see the appearance and when the

2:28:13

people see the appearance they immediately run with with it and it goes and it diminishes their continued faith

2:28:21

in government and I think that we need to somehow restore that Faith uh that faith

2:28:29

and that confidence in them as quickly as possible

2:28:35

um I think the best way to do it would be to come out with a a full report of

2:28:41

what happened at that meeting that um the uh executive session and answer some

2:28:48

questions the questions of number one will the $1.3 million that the town

2:28:54

waved for the uh to provide water will that come out of the town’s the

2:29:01

taxpayers pockets where will that come from it may come from free cash but free cash is paid for by the taxpayers so we

2:29:08

I think we have to address that I think we also have to address was the

2:29:13

um any mitigation put on the developer for the sidewalks down at um I

2:29:23

can’t even think of the road uh Plimpton road that we voted for at 2002 uh

2:29:31

22 to put in their buildings will directly affect

2:29:37

the foot traffic in that area and it’s we’re paying for those sidewalks each

2:29:43

the each taxpayer is paying for those uh sidewalks they’re going to add more for

2:29:48

traffic I believe that they should have been given some type of mitigation to

2:29:54

pay to lessen the burden on us taxpayers Mr arent you have you have exceeded

2:30:00

three minutes would you like an additional minute to conclude your remarks or would you request a vote for

2:30:06

further time than that I would like to ask for a vote for further time please

2:30:11

how much further time would you like three minutes please and it it won’t take that long Mr arienti would like to

2:30:18

speak for an additional three minutes would any member of the board wish to make a motion to extend his speaking

2:30:24

Time by an additional three minutes I motion so Mr Helm has moved do we have a

2:30:31

second I’ll second it as long as uh Mr bendes can respond to a couple things that he

2:30:37

said uh If he if he feels comfortable well we that’s we can’t make a

2:30:45

conditional second you could second it but I’ll second it but I encourage uh to

2:30:50

talk about the the Boost of thank you uh Mr bletzer so it has been moved it has

2:30:56

been seconded any discussion about whether or not Mr aren’s speaking time should be extended for an additional

2:31:03

three minutes hearing and seeing none I will call for a vote once again through the

2:31:09

role Mr bletzer how do you vote as to whether or not we should extend Mr aren’s speaking Time by an additional 3

2:31:16

minutes absolutely thank you Mr Helm yes and the chair votes no uh Mr arienti you have

2:31:24

the floor for an additional three minutes thank you uh the uh Clerk of the Town um has uh sent each and every I

2:31:33

believe um chairperson or I don’t know every member of the Committees um the

2:31:38

rules and regulations on open meeting laws uh which is a great assistance to

2:31:44

all of us uh but if you read that open that um that guide it said also says

2:31:52

that the Attorney General’s office will offer inperson or virtual meetings or

2:31:58

virtual presentations to go over it personally I think that the town should

2:32:03

take advantage of th that offer and should offer every person who runs a

2:32:09

meeting in this town to sit watch and and take um take notes or do whatever be

2:32:15

part of that in person or a virtual meeting to be able to make sure that they that at no time we’re going to have

2:32:23

a situation like this again I think it’d be a great advantage to all of us and

2:32:29

now I’m just going to skip over uh to something the um I the NP bottle bin is

2:32:36

something I we’ve been talking about it um on a different couple different committees I’m on and I have drafted a

2:32:41

piece of legislation a matter of fact I spoke with uh Mr Brothers about it and

2:32:46

um what the the legislation is it’s not a ban I personally don’t like bands I know the people will go next town over

2:32:52

or whatever but I think this band that I have that this piece of legislation I

2:32:58

put uh recommended a dollar deposit on every knit bottle now people will throw

2:33:05

a nickel out the window people will throw a dime out the window but you’re not going to see too many people throw a

2:33:10

dollar out the window and when they do throw a dollar out the window you’re going to see a couple kids run fighting over that piece of trash to bring it to

2:33:17

the liquor store to get a dollar back it also um puts a

2:33:24

um a return to cities and towns after a three-year period the money that’s

2:33:29

collected that’s not taken back from deposits will go back to the cities and

2:33:34

towns who put it in um I’ve already spoken to uh the members of the house and members of the

2:33:41

senate about it they like the idea that there’s some hesitation but there is

2:33:47

some movement on it and I think that hopefully we will be able to put something like this in so people’s

2:33:53

freedoms are not infringed upon and we have a a better hold on the trash I pick

2:33:58

up knit bottles every day on um uh White

2:34:04

Horse Beach Road and um I think that uh something like this would help everybody

2:34:10

involved and I’d be glad to answer any questions thank you Mr arienti

2:34:19

251 uh all right Mr ciri would you wish to make public comment at this

2:34:25

time thank you Mr chairman Rich ciri town meeting member Precinct 2 as you know the attorney general has

2:34:33

determined that the town violated the open meeting law in several ways one by

2:34:40

holding meetings for improper person purposes two by not posting meetings as

2:34:47

required by the open meeting LW not posting them properly and three by not creating minutes of their meetings in a

2:34:55

timly manner and tonight’s administrative notes included 25

2:35:01

separate sets of minutes going back to September of 2022 that were filed tonight and uh

2:35:09

that’s hardly timely I want to just comment specifically on on a narrow point but I

2:35:16

think it’s important Mr KY you stated that the Attorney General found that the

2:35:23

violations were unintentional what the Attorney General found

2:35:32

was I’m reading from the letter we must determine whether the board’s and the

2:35:38

zba’s violations were as the complainant claims intentional and it goes on to say

2:35:47

we declined to find that the violation was intentional that’s not a finding

2:35:52

that it was unintentional it just says that they could not um agree that the

2:35:58

finding was intentional it’s a subtle difference but I think it’s important they never found that the violations

2:36:08

were uh on were they never found that the violations were un were uh in

2:36:14

violation of the open media along thank you Mr ciri Mr chairman we also have uh Pat

2:36:23

Edelman with us on Zoom as well thank you I’ll take the physically present folks first and then I’ll Circle back

2:36:29

but thank you uh M Davis would you care to make public comment Jenny Davis please think for um and I’m just going

2:36:36

to make um a couple of comments regarding Article 15 um regardless of

2:36:43

the financial I think the bottom line line is really the public health issues one of it’s contributing to alcoholism

2:36:52

but the other is the public health and pollution of the environment of toxic

2:36:58

things they these little bottles fall into the sewer and up in the ocean the

2:37:04

fish everything we now as um the presenter of the article pointed

2:37:12

out um little articles of plastic have been found in our hearts and other

2:37:17

places and in newborns not just of course from these bottles but from all

2:37:24

plastic but these are just they’re everywhere and they’re they they don’t

2:37:29

you know they’re harder to pick up they fall into the sewer and so um I I do

2:37:34

hope that tmy will pass this thank you thank you Miss

2:37:40

Davis any other members of the public that are physically present wishing to give comment I see Mr Mr Joe

2:37:47

Hutchinson thank you Mr KY thank you um to the board for your time um I just

2:37:53

wanted to say a quick word about the master plan um I’d like to congratulate Mr Bolton and all of the folks who who

2:38:00

worked on that task force uh for the hard work that they’ve um they’ve given us in the town um over the past 18

2:38:08

months um I I can emphasize how important I think that a master plan is

2:38:14

for the future of this I think we’re um at an inflection point as a nation and

2:38:20

uh and in particular I think that uh the Plymouth is is um changing um and

2:38:30

um I um also wanted to say a word about uh Your Role the the select board’s role

2:38:38

um you talked about enforcement I think I I can’t remember whether it was Mr Helm or Mr Blitzer but someone asked

2:38:45

about well how do we enforce well um Mr KY has an agenda and if if the if the

2:38:53

work of the select board is in sync with the work of the uh planning board and the planning department and of the task

2:39:00

force that I’m hoping will be in charge of uh working with a consultant um to to

2:39:07

take us through uh the the uh the production of the plan um then then you

2:39:12

folks have every opportunity to uh uh use a bully pulpit and to um drag us

2:39:20

through whatever challenges we have to we have to go through to actually implement the the the uh the elements of

2:39:26

the plan so um you know I’m I’m looking forward to it and I’m looking forward to

2:39:32

to to your help and and um um and a very

2:39:37

very successful effort at a master plan thanks thanks for giving me the time thank you Mr

2:39:43

Hutchinson any other members of of the public physically present yes Mr

2:39:49

dinardo good evening Al dinardo Precinct 17 um Mr chairman uh I’m here to talk

2:39:57

about the open meeting law violation uh I have to give credit to the town clerk

2:40:02

there’s been a lot of mopping up of the open meeting laws and post meetings a lot of this stuff was not happening

2:40:09

before and I give credit to the town manager bringing this up some months ago

2:40:14

there was even an instance where this body would not second the motion you do that now in order to be discussion and

2:40:20

if all five want to vote get some so that’s changed but I really say to this board how does someone like myself that

2:40:28

believes in openness uh supposed to respond to this if you recall last year

2:40:34

I pushed on the floor of town meeting for in-house councel uh the board had proposed that for an amount I still

2:40:41

stuck to town meeting approving that for $1 the purpose of that is that boards would get good legal

2:40:48

counsel so I say to myself what sort of legal advice did the select board get

2:40:54

last year on this meeting I it was a very important meeting because we’re dealing with water issues in redbrook

2:41:00

and in townwide so uh the fact is the AG said that that was not one of the 10 there

2:41:07

were 10 purpos of of how we can meet an executive session and the public needs

2:41:14

to know that’s to Shield that’s to protect the town on our behalf not to

2:41:19

Shield the public from knowledge so that did not fall under the 10 guidelines

2:41:25

those are to negotiate land or Union negotiation on our behalf not to Shield

2:41:31

the public uh water is too much of an important issue for this community I

2:41:37

would like to see this select board hopefully appoint a Water Commission

2:41:42

that will be beyond the politics of the town and they give us the true uh cost of water and the needs of water the

2:41:50

town’s own report said that water was a major issue uh for this development so

2:41:57

I’m not going to go any further than that but I hope that uh this will not

2:42:02

happen in the future and uh that we all understand executive session is on our

2:42:09

behalf to protect the community and the taxpayer thank you thank you Mr dinardo

2:42:14

any other members of the public physically present wishing to give comment at this time seeing none I understand that Miss

2:42:23

Pat Adelman is virtually present I can see her on the far screen Pat would you

2:42:29

care to give uh public a comment at this time yes thank you very much P adman

2:42:37

precin 12 um I applaud the master plan task

2:42:45

force course and I agree with all their goals especially the one about

2:42:53

implementation however my question is who is going to implement it there’s

2:43:01

no mechanism to hire any additional planners every time we’ve asked a

2:43:09

question about why something like the gravel removal

2:43:16

why it hasn’t been um investigated or followed through it’s always we don’t

2:43:24

have enough staff so if we pass this master plan

2:43:33

$500,000 will we have the staff to implement the master plan thank you for

2:43:42

listening thank you Miss adman uh Anthony are there any other members of the public that are joining us virtually

2:43:48

that wish to speak not at this time all right and one last call for anyone physically present that wishes to speak

2:43:54

in public comment hearing and seeing none we will move forward with the agenda that brings us into the town

2:44:00

manager report Mr bendzi uh great uh thanks

2:44:07

everybody so I just I want to focus my energy this evening just highlighting a

2:44:13

lot of the great work of um some key members um throughout our

2:44:19

organization uh in particular I want to bring up the hard work of David G and Tiffany Park uh we haven’t made a public

2:44:26

announcement yet so this will be their first time uh they were able to to secure a federal transportation grant

2:44:33

for $2 million um this grant will uh be used to

2:44:38

reconstruct the Stone Arch Bridge so that’s the bridge that is on the the rear Access Road of um of Morton park

2:44:46

right off of Billington Street um so right now that that bridge it actually has a weight um capacity issue um so

2:44:54

again $2 million for their hard work that’s $2 million we don’t have to go to time meeting and um and uh seek funds uh

2:45:01

to reconstruct so we’ll enter the design and permitting stage on that and uh over the next 18 months hopefully breakr

2:45:08

sometime in uh late 24 um I also want to uh mention Mr Lee

2:45:15

hotman who um pulled together uh the first of two informational sessions

2:45:20

regarding the MBTA communities um this meeting was held last night here in this building there’ll be a second meeting

2:45:27

held on September 11th at Plymouth South High uh that’s an opportunity for one the community understand what does this

2:45:33

new NBTA community’s law what does that mean how is it going to impact uh us as a community and um take that information

2:45:41

back I think we’re going to have a a joint planning board select board meeting probably sometime in late

2:45:47

September so we can go over the information uh that was found and start to put together a plan on how we’re

2:45:54

going to comply with that law so again uh a lot of thanks to Mr hotman for his work relative to the MBTA

2:46:01

communities um I wanted to mention uh Michelle Brady who’s done a lot of work

2:46:07

as you know over at the cal um continuing to offer new and Innovative

2:46:12

programs at the cal um most recently um the cow was awarded along with the

2:46:18

ducksbury senior center a $66,000 grant around a new program for

2:46:24

mental health uh and is to provide individual mental health Counseling Services uh to seniors at the cal um

2:46:33

this uh this grant has partnered with Bridgewater State University to bring Massa level connections to the senior

2:46:39

center um there’ll be a clinician there uh starting in September through May two days per week to to provide Mental

2:46:45

Health Services to all of our Plymouth seniors and so the hope is that um this is kind of a um pilot project that we

2:46:52

will move forward as a national model or even maybe you know potentially a Statewide model as well and in addition

2:46:57

to that uh Michelle has been able to secure another program it’s a community

2:47:02

Alzheimer’s respit and engagement program otherwise known as care um

2:47:08

Michelle and her team at the Cal Pon with the Alzheimer’s Family Support Center to bring an accredited Day

2:47:14

program to the cow facility this is a weekly program that provides safe enrichment program for those with

2:47:19

dementia related diseases and uh what I like about this is much needed Reit time

2:47:25

for the caregivers so it gives the the caregivers some time off uh while those uh folks with dealing with Dementia uh

2:47:32

are working through this this new Alzheimer’s program so this program is held Tuesdays uh from 10: a.m. to 1:

2:47:39

p.m. it’s completely free and it also includes lunch at the Cow as well U so we would encourage carage folks were

2:47:45

interested in that to uh sign up ahead of time because there was certainly limited

2:47:51

space um as many you may have heard uh the American Cruise Lines uh came into

2:47:57

the harth this past Saturday around 5:00 p.m. uh overall it was um it was

2:48:03

uneventful U it was the ship was ushered in by the

2:48:08

Harbor Master the our Fireball and our police boat um and and in order to

2:48:15

ensure a safe passage uh into the hbor and a safe tie up um the both then Departed the next day um they’re going

2:48:22

to come in again this Saturday and the following Saturday we’re going to use those three days to um determine whether

2:48:29

or not we should enter into a long-term agreement with the American Cruise Lines uh and then more importantly uh make

2:48:35

sure that any anything we may have learned um lessons learned during the first arrival and second and third

2:48:41

arrival um we can fix those so that in the future um things continue to go smoothly so

2:48:47

again a lot of hard work by Chief Flynn And and harbor Master Chad Hunter to ensure that that went without a hitch um

2:48:55

and then last I just want to I want to bring up two more two more quick items um so as you all know the governor uh

2:49:03

announced this emergency order regarding migrants um and you’ve seen there’s been news stories in New York City with

2:49:10

migrants um lining the streets um a lot of cities and towns are struggling as to

2:49:16

how to respond to this I would say not just a Statewide crisis but certainly a national crisis um so uh as you know we

2:49:23

we um welcomed um last December time period uh migrants to our community uh

2:49:30

we continue to have uh 28 families here in town and 102 individuals um the the

2:49:37

wraparound Services is is contined to be provided by neighbor Works which is a community based organization um right

2:49:43

now um we don’t expect any additional new migrants uh but again that’s what

2:49:49

we’re being told uh Christian horbath as our emergency managing director and he’s taken the lead on engaging the state to

2:49:55

keep us up to date so that in the future if more migrants were to come here uh would better prepared than we were a

2:50:02

year ago uh and so last I’ll just end that um I’ll be working with uh um Chief

2:50:08

Foley on conducting a tour at the West Plymouth fire station as you know it’s

2:50:14

almost near completion of its renovation so I’ll be reaching out to the board uh to try to find a time that works for

2:50:19

everybody if you’re all interested pending any questions that’s all I have for this evening thank you Mr

2:50:25

Bizzy uh questions Mr Helm uh yeah Derek uh you mentioned that

2:50:31

we’re going to use last weekend and the next two weekends to kind of make our

2:50:36

determination about American Cruise Lines and expanding are we also going to

2:50:42

get any feedback from American Cruise lines on on our cooperation and also on

2:50:49

their passengers about whether they felt this was a worthwhile stop yeah I mean I

2:50:55

hope so I’m trying to set up a meeting with them this week just to do like a hot wash or an after action review of

2:51:01

this of the Saturday visit um but I I would expect over the course of the next coming months we’ll hear back from

2:51:07

American Cruise Lines as to whether or not they think this is a worthy Endeavor for themselves as well I can tell you

2:51:13

just from talking to some f anecdotally about the passengers um what I was told last Saturday night was that the

2:51:19

passengers said that Plymouth of the stops they have already visited Plymouth was their favorite H favorite hbor uh to

2:51:27

date thank you Mr bletzer uh yeah I’d like to piggy back on what you said

2:51:34

about the American Cruise Lines I was down there as I know Kevin was down there too and uh it was very exciting it

2:51:41

uh you know we made history in Plymouth bringing a cruise ship in like this uh

2:51:46

and it was smooth I mean I’m not a I don’t pretend to be a captain but that thing came in in 240 ft and you know

2:51:55

people kept saying where’s where’s the guys on the pair that are going to take the lines and and that thing he come in

2:52:01

and used the bio supressors and just I’ve never seen anything like it pulled right into that dark just like a cushion

2:52:09

and it was it and in the end the the concerns that the fishermen had was their wenches and all three wi they were

2:52:15

all wide open you know they kept their distance so it was it was a great landing and uh you know I’m sure there

2:52:23

might have been some things that I don’t know about but I’m sure you’re going to hear about it but it looked pretty good to me it looked very smooth and it’s

2:52:30

exciting you know Senator Murray and a delegation uh Congressman

2:52:36

keading uh uh they worked hard to get the millions and millions of dollars to

2:52:42

get that harage red and and it it it was it was for this reason getting small

2:52:49

cruise ships that come into Plymouth and you know the harbor is you know it’s for all the residents of Plymouth you know

2:52:57

the fishermen are a part of it they’re a big part of it but there’s you know the tourism you know is a big part of it too

2:53:03

it’s our biggest industry so I thought it was a win Saturday I was very proud

2:53:09

to be uh uh a resident of Plymouth and especially an official so it was great

2:53:15

the other thing is the migrants is the new Human Health and Human Service were they working with these folks or is it

2:53:22

just a state so um we have not engaged using

2:53:28

Town forces um with the migrants um primarily the reason is because the

2:53:34

state went ahead and executed a contract with this community based organization

2:53:40

known as neighborworks and it’s neighborworks that’s providing all those social Services those wraparound

2:53:45

Services ensuring they have you know food and shelter and things of that nature um so the only the only

2:53:51

engagement really at the Town level is with the school department but we’re getting reciprocated for that

2:53:57

right uh um we’re not getting any reimbursement at this time the schools

2:54:02

are the schools get the schools get some reimb we that’s Plymouth yeah the schools are the town side as far as we

2:54:09

haven’t had any we haven’t had any events or incidences that we would have to take to the state level for like a

2:54:15

public safety you know it’s always you know you know how much is it cost on the taxpayers you you you hear that negative

2:54:22

stuff and I hate that and it’s not it’s not other than public education it’s not costing the residents it’s not coming

2:54:28

out of residential taxes right so I want to make that clear so all right great thanks all right any other questions for

2:54:35

the town manager hearing and seeing none we will move forward select board open

2:54:41

discussion any new business that any members of of the board would like to bring up at this

2:54:48

time okay do we have any

2:54:53

letters the letters um are all in email form that you’ve received um most of

2:54:59

them were regarding all of them are regarding the nips uh they were yes were

2:55:05

all 25 or 30 of them yes that’s okay we’re still getting them to where I am

2:55:10

so all right uh fair enough and any old business Mr

2:55:17

Helm I brought this up before but I would just like to remind U the board uh

2:55:22

the town manager and the assistant Town manager that um I feel we need to put on

2:55:29

an upcoming agenda um uh an appear a reappearance from the

2:55:36

water um conservation committee to to discuss once again their suggestions

2:55:43

which we postponed acting upon and I think we need to act upon them it’s time

2:55:50

it’s been several months we’ve had plenty of time to bring them back and consider it we need to do

2:55:58

it thank you Mr H any other old business hearing and seeing none do I

2:56:04

have a motion to adjourn for the evening I’ll make that motion Mr Blitzer has

2:56:10

moved second Mr Helm has seconded I will call for the vote Mr bletzer how do you

2:56:16

vote Yes yes yes Mr Helm do I he voted for me

2:56:23

well he voted twice he’s just very enthusiastic okay you make vote Yes all

2:56:29

right and I will vote Yes it is unanimous we are adjourned thank

2:56:38

you