Somerset Annual Town Meeting - May 30, 2026

I know you say "Counting the price" today.

I don't know.

Who knows what that is?

I I'm just kidding.

*Main event* I'm not sure what I'm doing.

Oh, yeah.

is What the?

What the heck?

yeah *Mumbling* Thank you.

I Good morning!

Yeah, good morning! Alright, well for those of you who do not know me, my name is Kyle Neves. I am gracious for the opportunity to be here. I was just selected as your next town moderator and we are gathered here today to kick off our annual town meeting. I ask that folks please find their way to their seats and we will begin in exactly one minute.

I'm going to go to the bathroom.

Alright, I'm back.

I hope that was exactly one minute. I hope nobody timed me, but... Alright, good morning again. The annual town meeting held in the town of Somerset on this Saturday, May 30th, in accordance with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts general laws and the bylaws of the town of Somerset, here at the Somerset Berkeley Regional High School, is called to order at 10:08 a.m. with the rules

of the meeting being further governed by town meeting time and Robert's Rules of Order.

I move that the reading of the warrant be moved Thank you. I now ask that all those who may do so please rise as Selectman Smith leads us in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic of America, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. All right, and I would now ask that Selectman Benarik rise and lead us in a moment of silence for deceased town employees and any Somerset residents who are no longer with us. Thank you. I will also now call upon Selectman Costa, who will lead us in sharing a few words of recognition on behalf of the town of Somerset's 250th Celebration Committee. I'm going to keep this very

brief. As you know, this July 4th will be the 250th anniversary of the Revolution and the Declaration of our country's independence. The town has been taking measures to suitably honor this and we encourage all of you to go to the Somerset 250 Facebook page to keep abreast of all of the events that are going on throughout town.

It's a year-long celebration. The peak, which will occur on June 27th at Slate's Farm Park, we're planning on having a family gathering day, there'll be entertainment, there'll be food trucks, Our headliner for the evening is going to be the Singing Trooper. If you go to the singingtrooper.com, he's well known throughout New England and he puts on a fantastic patriotic themed show

for our seniors. We're also going to have a Swansea community band and a couple other people entertaining throughout the day. There'll be plenty of food. And it's going to culminate with the first ever, I believe in this area, drone show. So instead of fireworks, we plan on having a spectacular drone show. Like I said, very unique, and we're looking forward to seeing that. It's going to be put to music and whatever.

And I will close to say that if anyone would, we're doing the best that we can to not use town funds to pay for this.

We've collected over $30,000 in sponsorships and donations already. Thank you to my committee, fundraising committee, Mr. Cogley and Mr. Marks for doing that.

Other members of the committee, Melissa Reeses, our chairperson, Josh Rancourt, Diane White, Mr. Cogley, Mr. Marks. I always say I'm not going to do this because I'm afraid I'm going to forget somebody. Tim Turner, I'm sorry, how could I forget Tim? He's at the head of just about everything. And so I'm very excited. I'm sure you all saw the swag that's for sale. 100% of the profits are going to offset costs too, so

we're hoping that we can generate some funds with that. Thank you. Thank you, Selectman Costin. If you folks can't tell, they clearly roped me in as I was walking in. I got one of the hats. I encourage you, if anyone steps out to go to the restroom, please feel free to check out that table. I do want to revisit that motion I made to waive the reading of the warrant.

I did have a second, but I'm going to ask for a vote. All those in favor, please do so by saying aye. Opposed? Okay, with a near unanimous vote, that motion carries, waiving the reading of the warrant.

Well, in addition to the work being recognized by the folks helping out with the 250th committee, I also want to recognize a couple of important folks who are with us today. I'll start off with our three members of the Select Board. In the front row here, I have members from our Advisory and Finance Committee. We have the

Town Administrator's Office, the Town Clerk's Office, we have folks from the school committees in town, folks from Water and Sewer, And I also do want to call special attention to our former moderator, my predecessor, Ms. Lucia Casey, who has been incredible in helping impart her wisdom on me. If we could just give her another round of applause

after all her years. As we prepare to take up some formal orders of business on the Warren, I'd like to begin by sharing some announcements and reviewing some rules.

First, I would like to share that as of... 10/11, there were 215 registered voters in attendance who will be participating in today's town meeting. 220 as of right now, thank you very much, the clerk. 220. And that is as of 10/15. I also do want to recognize a couple of non-registered voters or out-of-town guests who are joining us in a designated section right

over here. We have Tammy Pacheco, Town Treasurer; Barry Fontaine, Rec Director; Chris Wickman, Chief Operator and Plant Manager; Jason Phillips, Deputy Fire Chief; Diane White, Library Director; James Aguiar, Building Commissioner; Josh Rancourt, Veteran Service Officer; Raquel Pajarin, CFO of Schools; Michael Dortenzio from KP Law; Attorney Peter Solino; I

have folks from the Herald News; and Brian Moniz from Cable Access TV.

We are also joined today by one resident who will be joining remotely with the help of our town's ADA compliance officer. Next, I'm going to do my best flight attendant impression here and ask that everybody in the audience please take note of all of the emergency exits in the building. We've got the doors to the main entrance of the auditorium. We've also got doors to my right, which is your left, and

we have doors in the rear end over here. I will also note that smoking is not permitted on the school grounds and that food and drink are not allowed in the auditorium. The annual town meeting today is currently being recorded by Somerset Access Television. Thank you to Brian Moniz and George Austin for all of your time and hard work this morning so that we can communicate this meeting with the public. Now

on to these basic rules and procedures I'm talking about. For starters, I, as the Chair, ask that all those in attendance please show common courtesy to those speaking and voicing their opinions on motions. For anyone who wishes to speak, you know, we've got seasoned veterans at town meeting in the audience today, and we've got some folks who

maybe this is their first meeting. But, anyone who wishes to speak, I ask that you make your way to one of the two microphones before us, and request to speak by addressing me as Mr. Moderator. It's gonna take some time for me to get used to getting called Mr., but please, just for formalities, Mr. Moderator. If anyone needs help with getting to the microphone or cannot physically get up, please just wave

your hand and we'll have one of the pages bring a microphone over to you.

Once the moderator recognizes the speaker at the microphone, it is expected that the speaker will clearly state their name and their home address for the record. From there, speakers may begin by asking questions or sharing comments on the article before the meeting. All discussion on the floor by members of the audience will be subject to this three

minute time limit that I will describe very shortly. I also want to emphasize that there will be no cross-examination at this meeting and that the moderator will rule any cross-examination out of order. On any article, I, as the chair, will begin the process by reading the article and then subsequently following up with the recommendation offered by the

Advisory and Finance Committee, who again are seated here in the front row. Once that motion is seconded, discussion will be called forth. Please remember that all discussion must be addressed to the moderator and must be related to the motion before us. And finally, I hope to reiterate that all votes will first be taken as a voice vote, just as we did a couple minutes ago. Where those in favor of the motion

will simply just say out loud "I" and those opposed will say "no". We did a great job earlier, I think we'll be great at this. If there is a vote that I have done as a voice vote that is not easily discernible to myself, we'll then resort to the electronic voting, which the town clerk will now explain. Thank you, Mr. Moderator. We're all familiar with these, most of you.

We've used them a couple of times. You should have all gotten, upon check-in, anybody that is a registered voter, a clicker. I have up here the directions on how we're going to use them. The moderator will, during after discussion and during opening the motion, he will let me know to open the vote. Once the vote is open, we're going to allow 30 seconds for you to be able to

click either 1A, which is yes, or 2B, no. So if you are in favor of the motion, you would be clicking the green button. And if you are not in favor of the motion, you would be clicking the no button. Once you click that button, you can click it as many times as you want. You also, within 30 seconds, have an option to change your mind within that time frame. So if

you accidentally hit yes and you really wanted to hit no, you have that option to do it within 30 seconds that we have up there. The moderator will then let me know that he wants to close the vote. So we will close the vote. And then it will be presented on the screen. I do want to say that it is very important that everybody is returning these clickers at the end of

the day. We are already missing one clicker, clicker number 54. That one is disabled and I hope that the person that ended up taking it home by mistake returns it to us, but these are expensive and we really need you to return them at the end of the meeting. And if anybody is having any issues and are not understanding when the vote is going on, you can just raise your hand

and one of the attendees will come over and assist you with voting. So does anybody have any questions regarding the clickers? No? All right, I'll hand it back to the moderator. Thank you. All right, thank you to the town clerk.

We have a question over in the back. Yes? Oh, I'm sorry. It's 52.

I'm sorry. Sorry. Well, I can tell you're paying attention back there. Well done. That was a test. Yes. Alright, and we are just about ready to kick off discussion, but before then, I do want to walk through this strange phenomenon that I've introduced for the first time, and that is this timer to my right. Before I explain the procedures and the expectation for this, I will just start by saying the pictures

on Amazon looked a lot bigger than what they do in real life. But I'm hopeful that anyone who is present at the microphone speaking will be able to see the timer. And although it's small, the beep it makes once the three minutes conclude is quite loud, so I think everyone will be able to hear it.

So, by instituting a time limit, I've gotten many folks who've asked me, "What's the point?" Well, it's my intention, as is present with many other communities who have town meeting in the Commonwealth, to put this minute in place to ensure that the town meeting is moving smoothly, to encourage clarity, and to guarantee that conversation and debate is

equal, fair, and not dominated by one person or one group of people.

The three minute time limit is not meant to and will not silence residents, prevent debate, or make participants feel restricted at the meeting. With this timer here to my side, I will be able to use a remote right here to start, stop, and reset the timer. And like I said, it lets off a pretty loud beep once the three minutes are up. I will show you now how this works. So, you'll

also see I have this green button at my foot. Once I reset the timer, see how it's got the three minutes? I get to control it with my foot. If somebody speaks for five seconds, I can pause it with my foot.

I can then reset it with the remote. I started it again. So that's how this is gonna work. I have practiced multitasking this week, so I should be able to do this pretty easily. But if I make a mistake, forgive me, it's not intentional. I will respect everyone's right to have the three minutes to speak.

Under this time limit, I ask that folks please ask all of their questions or convey all of their concerns at once. There will be no "I want to use 30 seconds to ask one question and then 30 seconds to respond and then 30 to follow up." Get all of your questions out of the way at once, please.

And I, as the moderator, will communicate with the correct people on stage or in the audience to get you the answers that you are looking for. If, for some reason, after your three minutes are up, you have a follow-up conversation or would like to respond or share additional thoughts, I ask that you please go to the back of the line if there is one present, so that we can ensure that anyone

interested will have the opportunity to speak once before any person in town can speak twice. For any subsequent rebuttal, people will have an opportunity to respond once with a one-minute response or rebuttal period that will also be timed. Upon completion of the timer, the chair will ask the speaker to finish their sentence and conclude their remarks. The

chair also reserves the right, as stated in town meeting time, to remove anyone from the meeting, which is not my intention at all, who continues to violate the rules of the meeting or act in disorderly conduct. I think we can get through today without having to even come close to doing that. At the end of the day, I want to end on a little bit of a high note so we can

think of it this way. If Abraham Lincoln was able to deliver the Gettysburg Address in under two minutes, I think you can reasonably convey your thoughts in under three. Thank you for your patience and understanding. Do I have any immediate questions, concerns, or comments from the audience? Better? Alright, so before we start taking up any official business, I

ask that folks please take out their clickers, because we will be doing two test questions just to make sure that everyone's clicker is working and that we're able to discern the results. Okay? Can folks see the question or no? Okay. Well, the vote is open and the question is, do you think that Somerset Creamery should remain open all year round? No? I got it backwards. This one

is "Are you a morning person?" Sorry, we saved the fun one for the second question. So with nine seconds left, I ask that folks please vote with their clicker. 1A being yes, 2B being no. Okay, the vote is now closed. Alright, we had 210 folks cast a vote, 142 voting that they are morning people, 68 folks who are probably pretty pissed off that they have to be here right now. I

will follow up with a second question, which I may have already spoiled, but when the clerk's office is ready, and that is now, we will open it. Do you think Somerset Cremory should stay open all year round? A yes vote means yes, absolutely, and a no vote means no. All right, and if we can now close the vote now that the 30 seconds are up. Result being 126 people who agree and 66 who

either have worked at Somerset, Kareem Murray or work there now and do not want to work through the winter time. Any questions about the electronic voting? Yes, sir. I'm going to scooch over to the side. Is that better? I know you're not peaceful until you hear it. Alright, and I've, yes. If I told you, I'd have to kill you. If something goes over three minutes, is it like a

full shut off, or how do you stop people from continuing to talk over three minutes? The question is relative to if somebody goes over the three minute time limit, what the procedure will be. I'm going to adopt a three strikes and you're out approach. First off, it'll just be a warning. And right, if somebody's finishing their sentence as the timer goes off, I'm not going to cut them

off right away. There's an expectation that folks will adhere to this rule. If not, the first warning will be that they need to stop. Second warning will be, please stop or else we may have you removed from the auditorium. Third strike, you strike out, we have you temporarily removed, and then if everyone behaves, we have you come

back into the auditorium and continue with the business. Alright, and my last comment, and I'm going to go a little bit off script here, is, as I stated earlier, this is my first town meeting as moderator. I do not expect that it will be 100% perfect no matter how hard I try. I ask that folks go into this with a little bit of patience. You know, I've done my homework, I've prepared

a bunch, but if there is a mistake, if the timer goes off accidentally, you know, it was not on purpose, I am here because I believe that good government happens when the people are empowered, I'm here to help empower folks, make folks feel that they have every right to speak at this microphone. And I hope that we can get out of here at a good time, have a very productive meeting, and

hopefully people will like it so much that we'll pack this auditorium. So, with that being said, we will start now with our first article, and that is article number one. Article number one. to see if the town will vote the following consent calendar of routine annual town meeting articles: A. To hear the report of the town officers and act thereon. B. To authorize the collector to use the same means which a

treasurer may use when acting as collector. C. To hear and act on the report of any committee and choose any committee the town may think proper. And D. To authorize the Board of Selectmen to accept and enter into contracts for the expenditure of any funds allocated or to be allocated by the Commonwealth and/or the county for the construction, reconstruction, and improvement of town roads pursuant to

the terms of said funding. The Advisory Finance Committee has no recommendation on this article. Yes, Selectman Smith. Mr. Moderator, I move to adopt the article as written in the morning. Do I have a second? Mr. Smith.

I have no further discussion on this. Okay, seeing that a motion has been made and is seconded, I will reiterate that this is a simple majority vote, where a "yes" vote means that you accept the consent calendar, and a "no" vote will indicate that you do not accept it, that you reject it. I will now start with the voice vote. All those in favor of accepting Article 1 as written and recommended,

indicate so by saying "Aye." Opposed? I think that's unanimous. Okay, Article #1 passes unanimously at 10:32. Article number two, to see if the town will vote to establish expenditure limits for revolving funds for the fiscal year July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027. Under the provisions of Massachusetts General Law Chapter 44, Section 53E, one half, as shown herein, or take any action relative thereto, I will not

be reading each individual line, but if folks want, I will leave about 60 seconds or so, so that we can read through this and see if any questions arise before the motion is made.

Okay, seeing that enough time has passed and that folks have hopefully had the opportunity to review the information included under Article 2, I will reiterate: the Advisory and Finance Committee unanimously recommends approval of this Article 6-0. Mr. Moderator. Selectman Smith. I move that the town vote to adopt the article as written in the warrant. I have a second. Do I have room for any discussion? Mr.

Moderator. Yes, sir. Selectman Smith. This is an annual article authorizing spending limits for the revolving funds that are used to support services and programs within several town departments. Do I see any further discussion from the floor? Seeing none, we will now vote on. This with another voice vote again. This is a majority vote to reiterate yes is to accept the expenditure limits as outlined in the chart

a no vote would indicate rejection Voice vote will begin now all those in favor say aye Opposed okay with the near unanimous the motion carries successfully and an article number two is adopted article number three to see if the town will vote to establish the annual salaries of its elected officers commencing on July 1st, 2026 as follows or take any action relative thereto. I will allow

a few seconds for folks to review this as well.

Okay, and I will add that the Advisory and Finance Committee unanimously recommends approval of this article with a 6-0 vote. Mr. Moderator? Selectman Smith. I move that the town vote to adopt the article as written in the warrant.

Second. All right, I have a motion and a second. Selectman Smith, any discussion? This is just the annual salaries that the body has to vote on for its elected officers. All of these are part-time positions except for the town clerk position. And there's no change in any of these salaries except for the one full-time position of the town clerk. Okay, do I see any further discussion on Article Number 3 as written?

Seeing none, we'll now vote on Article 3. I will remind folks that this is a majority vote. A yes vote indicates that you approve of the proposed salaries for elected officers as written. A no vote would indicate a rejection. Voice vote will now take place. All those in favor of accepting Article 3 as written and recommended say aye. Aye. Opposed? Article number 3 carries at 10:37 with

a unanimous vote. Yes sir. Question on a point of order please.

yes ma'am your name and address please cheryl crossley simmons 570 main street what are these for if we're taking votes by voice sure those will be taking so we have one article on the warrant for today that requires a two-thirds vote that one is not as easily to discern when i have a voice vote taking place so on that specific article we will be using the clickers also um there will be

some votes that i would imagine whether it's on the motion as written in the warrant or as motions come up that perhaps I may not discern immediately. I will resort to the electronic clickers if I as the moderator cannot tell what the result of the vote is. Okay, may I ask whether the town clerk recommended that? I'm sorry? May I ask whether the town clerk recommended that?

He did talk to me about this. I did say that voice vote is faster than the clicker vote, and I ultimately gave it up to his decision. So I would personally prefer the voice vote just because it moves a lot faster, but ultimately it's up to the moderator to decide.

Thank you. Elizabeth Paszkowski, 347 North Street. I feel like one of the main reasons for getting these is so people won't feel uncomfortable voting. Okay, I... We have traditionally in this town used voice votes to... Yeah, that was one of the reasons we got these. So people would feel... not feel pressured to go along with whoever's sitting next to you. Okay, thank you. Can

I ask one more question? Yes, sir. Jeff Cardell, 52 Folsom Avenue. Is there a cost associated with these clickers? Does the town pay money to use these? I would not know the answer. I'll defer to the clerk.

I defer to the town administrator. Excuse me. So the town administrator said no, we purchased those through opera money. Okay. There's no ongoing cost. Thank you. Thank you for the questions and concerns. Do I see any other discussion? Hello. Sandra Kronar Mitra, 7 Oak Lane. If people are uncomfortable voicing a voice vote because of their neighbors, there's lots of empty

seating in this facility. There's no reason that someone has to sit so close to people that they're uncomfortable. They can find a place to sit where they're pretty much isolated. Thank you. Thank you. I will now be moving in the absence of further discussion to article number four. Article number four: To see if the Town will vote to raise inappropriate and/or transfer from available funds

such sums of money as may be considered necessary to defray the Town's expenses for the ensuing 12-month period beginning on July 1, 2026, as follows, or take any action relative thereto. I will now turn it over to our Town Administrator, who has prepared a presentation that he will be offering.

Thank you Mr. Moderator for turning it over. All in favor?

No, thank you for taking care of that on our technical side, switching that over to the PowerPoint that I presented. My name is Mark Iulucci, your town administrator, and I am presenting this year's FY27 for the next fiscal year's budget. This thing doesn't extend far enough. I apologize, thank you. I usually don't have to be asked to speak louder, so I'll relish that moment for a little bit.

The budget you have that I'm going to be presenting, it's the town budget. This incorporates all of the various departments. I only get into the municipal side. I don't get into the school. They have a separate article for their total number, but it is incorporated within this budget. i want to thank everyone in attendance today board of selectmen our state and local leaders various department heads our school

committee members our commissioners and of course all of our citizens that are here this evening i'm sorry this morning the next slide please fy 2027 budget presentation i'm going to discuss free cash expenses revenues tax impact and closing remarks next slide Free cash comes up often. I know people don't like the moniker, but until the state changes it, that's what we'll be

referring to it as. And this question is important to cover because it comes up often. How is free cash created? Variances in budgets and revenue and expenditures higher than expected returns. So yes, it is true that when we put out department budgets and a budget does not expend the entire line for any number of reasons. Someone takes compensatory time instead of overtime, or someone retires and

there's a gap before someone's hired again. That money that was allocated prior to the budget is now able to be reallocated once it's certified at the end of the year, right to the next fiscal year, in the form of what's called free cash.

In addition to that, what we have, you'll find throughout this budget, within this budget that we have conservative numbers on what we believe we'll take in as a community when it comes to revenues. When those revenues exceed what we anticipate, that exceedance falls back into the free cash budget. When we go after properties, and I know

this example has been used before, it's worth repeating again, we had a tax property at Slate's Ferry, the old gas station there. They owed over $300,000 in taxes. When we went after that property and the new owner came in, those taxes were paid, the town received approximately $275,000 of those tax dollars back. That money goes into free cash. And we try to carry free cash over up to a certain amount, in

this case $3 million, to the next year in case we need that money to shore up any gaps or deficits or something that might come up, whether it's global, nationally, or local. Additionally, you'll see vehicle excise taxes, like I mentioned before. People are out there buying additional cars that we didn't have on the books before. That wasn't accounted for, so now that money is coming in as free cash. Meals, room tax,

all of those taxes that if there's a new hotel, if there's a new business, That's revenue that's coming in in the form of free cash. Licenses and permits, if people are doing more construction than we've normally seen. Again, real and personal property tax, so there are new housing coming up, new purchases being made. Those items were not accounted for in the previous fiscal year, so we end up with free cash money.

The free cash is important. Next slide please. Why is it important? The Division of Local Services, or DLS, recommends a town strive to generate free cash an amount equal to 5 to 7 percent of its annual budget. That's a lot of money. As a non-recurring revenue source, free cash should be restricted to paying one-time expenditures, funding capital projects, or replenishing other reserves. We have not had

to touch our reserves in a while, especially because of the way we've been using free cash. And I think a good example is the North Elementary Window School project at roughly $2.2 to $2.5 million and a return from MSBA. in the amount of around, I want to say it's 55-56% return on that, but we had to front the total amount of money. Rather than the town taking out a short interest loan

or a term loan or a bond where we're going to have to pay an additional rate of interest, we're able to cover that expense with free cash. We're not paying additional dollars like other communities have to. I also put the link up there because that is right on the Mass.gov website where it talks about free cash. And if any of our Our sleuths want to click that link or type that in

just to see what that is. The state does have a lot of great information that they provide right on the Mass.gov website. This is an important piece because this comes up every annual meeting and every special town meeting. When we're approving articles for purchases funded with free cash, such as a vehicle, That revenue source was already collected,

as I mentioned, in a previous fiscal year. Therefore, taxes will not increase based on the purchase of something paid for out of free cash. So a lot of times when we purchase, and that's why we kind of put vehicles in there, we don't want to keep adding that to the operating budget. We don't need to. So we're not taxing the residents the additional dollars. So when we go to purchase a police

car or a fire truck or something along those lines, if the funding source is free cash, your taxes are not going up. We've already collected that money from the various examples that I gave you and it is not hitting the tax levy. Next slide. Town revenues. When we talk about revenues, we talk about the total operating budget, we talk about the tax levy. The revenues are what we bring in as

a community and we strive to build a budget off of a 2.5% increase plus new growth. And you can see from the previous fiscal years what that looks like and what that has climbed to. So for fiscal year 2027, if we anticipate 2.5% plus new growth and we're conservative with those new growth numbers always, That leaves us with 1.8 million roughly that we have to spend towards the next fiscal year. Anything

that goes over that amount of money is money that we would have to capture somewhere else or increase taxes further. Next slide please. This slide demonstrates, or I'm sorry, shows what we receive for state aid and local receipts, some of the things that I have been talking about. And you'll notice that the FY24, 25, 26 on the local receipts, you can see where that's been actual ends up higher

than estimated. And we do that again because it's conservative. We want to be conservative.

If we end up having a nosedive in the economy, we'll have less ground to make up. And I apologize for getting ahead of myself, but under state aid, so I know people have heard this term often, "cherry sheet," and though the documents that used to come from the state, they were the color, they were red, that's why they were called "cherry sheets," they're not red anymore. The name has stuck and that's

what the state still refers to it as. Those, the aid we receive from the state You have the initial budget by the governor. It then goes to the House, it then goes to the Senate, and then it goes back to the governor. What we noticed in the last five years is that numbers that the House presents are are always different than what the Senate presents. And in the last five years, when

they collaborate on the final budget, they end up with figures right between those two presentations. What the House is presenting and what the Senate is presenting, the numbers have consistently ended up on the final state budget in the middle. So we used the House numbers because they're more conservative overall. The proposal, one of the things I just want to comment on when it comes to state aid, and

there, if you have heard this, great, if you haven't, it's something that we have to keep pushing. You'll notice there have been articles in the news lately about the increase to state aid, whether that's in the form of Chapter 70, whether that's in the form of unrestricted government aid. Those numbers that have been proposed by both the House and Senate are roughly an additional just over $100,000 and we don't have

the final numbers yet, so I can't anticipate all those. But they're discussing at the state level an additional $100,000 to our Chapter 70 and around $100,000 or $120,000-ish and then around $114,000 for unrestricted aid. So additional aid could come to a quarter of a million dollars. Now, when I read these news articles and they talk

about "Is it enough?" My immediate response is "No." We're talking about an operating budget around $75 million, $250,000 additional dollars to take into account our schools, our children, our services. It's not enough. And I want to make an example. I'll use one example. I'm sure everyone is familiar with Chick-fil-A. If not, please drive over there and spend as much as you can on the new growth.

But that business, if you look up Chick-fil-A, a conservative number on what they will do annually in sales is, from what I've seen, about $8 million. Now our meal tax in Somerset is.75. That's the maximum allowed under law. The meal tax for the state is 6.25. That's their max. So if they sell $8 million worth of chicken sandwiches, we're taking in about $60,000. The state's taking

in a half a million dollars. And I point that out, that's one business, because we're a municipal corporation, meaning that we're basically a business for the state. And I'm not knocking the state in any way. We're dealing with a lot of economic issues that we all have to just make sure we have as much information on it as we possibly can. But the importance of stressing to our members on Beacon

Hill that we need more money to keep essential services, keep our taxes down, is vital. Our economic development, when we're popping those businesses up on the street, now you'll walk out of this meeting knowing, "Well, I know who's eating most of that pizza and how small the slice is for Somerset." So no matter how hard we work,

that's the breakdown. That's why that additional funding is so important. And when someone references and they say something like the state is taking your money, holding on to it, but not giving it all back, I would be happy if we could get three of the 6.25% back for our services. We did the work, we brought in the business, we're providing the sales, we're bringing in the revenues. So it's, thank you.

I just wanted to give clarity on that because I hear often about new growth.

And I just want to say one other thing about new growth. Our new growth, a lot of our numbers come from what takes place from National Grid and every time they upfit or upgrade a substation, which is often, we're assessing that that year.

Those are millions of dollars worth of assessment. The new growth on a new Chick-fil-A facility might only be two million dollars. When the grid has one upgrade that they're doing and it's $20 million, the next year they're not doing that upgrade again. It's gone. So we're not capturing that new growth. That is why you see new growth kind of go up and down and it's kind of like a roller coaster ride.

And it's great for us when they have those upgrades, they just don't happen every year. So I just want the town to understand why it is so difficult when we bring in businesses, if we lose something on the other side, where that number might still go down. Moving on, and again, you can see when we get to the end of all the revenues and how much we're taking in addition, what we

anticipate shows a $2.3 million increase. Next slide, please. Now, this slide, I apologize if it's a little blurry, but I will go through some of these numbers. The ones I wanted to pay attention to, or I'm sorry, draw your attention to, are the things that have some of the largest percentage increase in the municipal side of the operating budget. So I'll start right at the top. The first arrow there you'll

see is on the town administrative office staff. That line was actually growing by 2.4%, but we added $10,000, a training line for all of our various departments. Rather than putting training within the departments, we put it in one location so that if there's someone that we have to send a class to or a certification to, a department head, we can use that money. We see it a lot in other departments. We

see it a lot of times on the police and fire. We know how important their training is, how often it has to take place. We lose that on the municipal side. So this budget offers additional training for our municipal side of our employees.

The next line underneath that that I draw attention to is the town accountant office staff. And I looked at that line. I just want to make sure I'm on the right line here. I'm sorry, the next one is auditing services. So we have a new auditing company. They are $10,000 more expensive. That is why that line is up 22%. You'll find that a lot of these percentages

are large percent numbers, but the number itself is a lot smaller. But again, we have a new auditing company that is already doing great work for us and I look forward to their services. To me, it's money well invested for an additional $10,000.

If you go to the next arrow down there, you have the assessor's office at 6.11% increase. There were some longevity obligations that have to be met, so contractually there's some obligations. In addition, we're purchasing additional software like we did last time to capture more of our assessments. That's why that one is up. If you go to the

next line underneath that, the treasurer collector line, again that's 6%. I observed that there was postage is up. They did not have enough postage in that line. That's up several thousand dollars. That's why that line's at a 6% increase. You go down to the town clerk office and the elections line. Those two lines, we talk about these

lines often. They're kind of both geared towards zero-based budgeting. On years that we have less elections, We don't keep that line the same as we did the year before.

We fund to the need. So that line this year, we're going to have an additional election, we're going to have, we're going to require additional security, we're going to require additional part-time employees to come out here and assist, and that's why that line is up. And last year, if you recall, that number, that line came back down.

Moving further down to the Economic Development Committee, we increased that line by just $1,600, and again it shows a 17% increase, so I just wanted you to have the information there. The Economic Development Committee does a lot with a little, so we're going to give them a little more and see if they can do a little more.

The old town hall, up 42%, but less than $3,000. And if you recall, with the bathroom construction, some of the interior work that we had to do to make sure that it was safe and functioning and able to be utilized, now we've reopened that building, and those costs associated to electricity, oil, gas, heat, all of those things are now back on the table, and they have to be realized once more. The

line below that, insurance. insurance up 7.7%, a total of almost $700,000. So remember when we talked about the state aid going up about a quarter of a million dollars, when our insurance line is going to go up $700,000? I don't know when that's going to be fixed. I can remember the first president I was able to vote for talked about getting in there and fixing healthcare. And here we still are. But these are costs

that we need to realize and understand where all the money's going. The next line underneath that, you'll see the police department. I highlighted that line because the line came in just under 2.5%. It was about 2.49%, I believe. Chief's giving me a kind of disconcerting look, so I might be off on that percentage, but what we had to do there, we met with the Department of Revenue agents a couple weeks ago,

two members from the Department of Revenue came down, and they were talking about the way that we have accounted for the SRO at the high school, which is its own entity. So prior to that, It wasn't in the line of the police budget and the DOR made it a point to say the police officer isn't employed by the entity. So the salary should be captured in the police line. So where it

shows an increase from under two and a half to that 4.47 percentage The taxation would have to go up in order to realize that higher percentage. It doesn't because on the revenue side, we just added a line that showed the money coming in from the school department. So it is not being raised twice. There is a salary line that's recognized in the police budget that is partially paid by the

regional school. So I just wanted to make, I did receive some calls on that and I just wanted to make sure that that was clear to residents on that side. Next slide please. The next line I just wanted to discuss, there were a few left here on the expense side. The Diamond Regional Vocational. Again, we talked about revenues from the state, almost enough to cover what we now have to pay in

addition to our Diamond assessment. That's not an attack on Diamond. They have a new high school, they do a great job, they have wonderful staff. But that assessment is now $220,000 additional dollars to pay for that. We have to come up with that money. The next line underneath that is the snow and ice line. We increased that

slightly. It's always been slightly underfunded. Maybe there's a little bit of a hangover from the most amount of snow we've ever received in the history of Somerset, recorded history, but it's up, we put another $19,000 in there. Street lighting. This is up 75% because if you recall last year we talked about how we had received additional solar

credits and we applied it to our street lights, which brought down the cost of what that would be last year. Now we need to realize the total cost going back to it because we don't have those credits. The next line underneath that is the military and buildings is up 33%. That's just a small increase to all of our military groups. We added $1,000 to what we would give our four military groups annually. The next line

after that is state and county assessment is up 88%. I don't know how we break away from the county, but that's an additional $70,000. So just in our county fees that we have to make up, it's almost a million dollars that we're paying out to the state and county in our assessment fees. The total at the very end here, you'll see that the increase on the operating budget comes to

an additional $2.355 million for a total operating budget of 76, just over 76 million, just under 77 million. The total budget increase of 3.1%. Last year it was just under 2. The numbers float around that 2 to 3% number. That is a good place to be. Next slide, please. What's the total potential tax impact? Too early to tell, but I'm not going to leave you

with that simple answer. I'm going to dive into that. Next slide, please. This slide is just an estimate based off of an example of us, our best guess, really, our best guess. Looking at the housing market, the commercial market, and assessments in general, if we were to say that the housing market, which is still hot, if that grows by 5% in value on the residential side, and commercial growth 3%

in value. So please understand, when this information comes in in the fall, when we go to set the shift on the tax levy, that's when we have a much more better number when it comes to a better scenario. There's just a lot more information. So this is our best guess. In 2027 we anticipate that a residential home, the average residential home here in Somerset will be

valued at $505,000. At those numbers, the increase for the entire year with this budget would be approximately $250 for the entire year. If the revenues and some of these other monies, if we capture additional money from the state in the final budget, that percentage gets pushed down. Next slide please. In

conclusion, the state of Massachusetts stresses the importance of balancing conservative revenue projections with proactive reserve building strategies to ensure fiscal resilience and adaptability in the face of economic uncertainties. This budget represents the above statement. This fiscal year 2027 budget retains local and essential services with a potential tax increase of less than

2.5%. This budget does not use free cash to supplement shortfalls and keeps all of our reserve funding sources intact. Next slide. There's a lot I could say about the work that we're doing and I know that you see it out there. the different businesses coming into the projects that we have that we've been completing. This particular cover here we took from Business View Magazine for the

work, recognizing the work that we've done. If you've not seen that article yet, I do encourage you to click that link or type that link in and see if you know Please take an opportunity to read the work that we're doing here. Again, this was a difficult budget. There were a lot of spirited conversations and debates when it came to cuts that had to be made. Please understand when I get final

numbers, whether it's from the state, from any of our schools that we participate in.

If we're not making that two and a half, then it hurts us on the municipal side. But I think we put together a very strong budget that recognizes some of the difficulties we're dealing with now, nationally and globally, and I think it's something that is sustainable for all of our residents. Thank you. - Thank you, Mr. Alucci. I will first ask, and I have my binder over here, I do recognize

all of the folks on the floor, but before then, I just do want to have the motion made and seconded before I open it up for discussion. So on 4A, the Advisory and Finance Committee by a majority recommends the town vote to appropriate the sum of $32,966,990 for the fiscal year July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027 for the purpose of the general budget as written

in this article and that said sum be raised from taxation. Mr.

Moderator? Yes, sir. I move that the town vote to appropriate the sum of $32,966,990 for the fiscal year July 1st, 2026 to June 30th, 2027 for the purpose of funding the general budget as written in the article and that said sum be raised from taxation.

Hearing the motion, in a second I will now turn it over for discussion. I'll start with you over here, sir. Oh, sorry, my apologies. I'll start with Selectman Smith and then I'll come to you, sir. Thank you. So this article provides for the annual appropriation for the general government with an increase of approximately 2.43% over the prior year. As Mr. DiLucci said in his presentation, the

selectmen set a goal of a 2.5% increase. We came in just below that at 2.43% overall after all the items Mr. DiLucci went through. Okay, thank you, Selectman Smith. I will now turn it over to you, sir, and let me make sure I start my timer. Time begins now. Thanks. Okay. My name is Richard Shoesmith, 36th Garden Ave. As the town administrator

was reading the budget, I could not follow it because it didn't have all the pieces that he was relaying. Sure. Percentage increase in the 26th budget. Sure. So I want to make an educated vote on this, and I can't follow it.

uh was there a specific question sir well it wasn't a specific but i was just making a concern that i cannot follow what you're saying i couldn't see the screen with the percentages and all the things you were highlighting because i don't have it here to follow okay so Mr. Diogio, I will just say on the town budget, we do provide a breakdown of every department within the town showing

the personnel cost and the expense cost compared to other budgets that just give you a bottom line number. Again, there are things that are going up.

there are things that you know are staying flat within the budget overall 2.43 percent growth um in the uh overall budget of the town correct yeah i would think we have to speak kind of in general terms there uh that this particular budget you would be voting on would increase the overall operating budget by 2.3 million dollars and it would be about a 2.4 increase on taxes for the next fiscal year okay

Thank you for raising those concerns.

I'll turn it over to you, ma'am. We've got the folks coming up front with the new microphone.

Hi, Patty Steele, 180 Yankee Peddler Drive. I basically want to share some information that I gathered before we make a vote on anything. In 1950, we only had 8,500 some odd people living in this community. By 1960s, we had 12,000.

By the 70s, we had 18,000 people. In the 80s, our highest was 18,813 people. Our police Our police department in the 80s only had 14 officers. Now we have 34 plus, according to the records, 10 to 13 part-time. Our fire department only had 14 in the 80s, and now we have 30-something plus. I think what people need to realize that our current town census says that we have

18,298 people. We don't have our cash cows anymore. They're gone. They left us in 2010 and 2017. And what we have to look at too is now the percentage of the town. Back in the 80s, the percentage of school-aged children under 18 was phenomenal in the 30%. And people over 50, like myself, barely 5 or 6%. But if you look at the pie chart now, we don't have that anymore.

We barely have 16% of the kids that are growing in this town under the age of 18. And those people, like myself, over the age of 50, is up in the 20-some-odd percent range, 30% range. All I'm asking is, before you vote any of these budgets, you have to keep in mind that we don't have growth anymore in Somerset. We don't have any more room for Americana terrorists, copper flag, rustic acres.

We are who we are. And just in my development in the 90s, Every single household had between two and four kids. You walk down my street now and you're lucky if you have two or four kids in the entire street. We have to reevaluate the way we distribute our money. And I'm not attacking any department, school department, police department, I'm not. I appreciate how public works. But I need us to realize

that we do have to change the way we, we have to consolidate, our schools have to consolidate, no matter how Ticked off people will get rid of redistricting.

We don't have. In 1974, we had 5,000 kids in Somerset. First grade, not preschool, kindergarten through 12. No Berkeley. We now have 2,483 kids with preschool and Berkeley. We can't continue to afford that. It's going down. It's going down. You're only going to see a little bit of an increase like you did last year because of the COVID babies. And you may see a little increase after

the blizzard babies. But that's just 30 some odd kids. That's not thousands and thousands of kids. We need to look at our budgets clearly and closely. Thank you for your thoughts. Thank you. I will turn it over on this. There we go. See, that's the beep I was telling you guys about. I'll turn it over to the Chief. Thank you Mr. Moderator, William Tedford, 521 Chase Street and Chief of Police. Just

as a, to clarify the budget for the voting members. The four point plus increase was largely due to an accounting shift where the money was moved into the police budget due to the reasons Mr. Iullucci explained. I think it's important to know that Mr.

Iullucci and I had several of those spirited discussions that he spoke about. The police department's overtime budget was cut by $40,000.

which brings us in at approximately, and maybe one of the board members with the computer, $265,000 of overtime. I'm sorry, I thought I had the floor, Mr. Smith. So the total after the $40,000 reduction, it started at $305,000. The $40,000 reduction brought it down to $265,000 in overtime. Do you happen to know if my figures are correct that that represents a 1.88% increase

where the 108 is removed from the equation? The 108? I'm sorry, that's the SRO's salary amount. I didn't have that calculation done, Chief, so I apologize. My figures come in at 1.88. Perhaps Mr. Uluci would know more, but I just wanted the voting members to know that the PD's budget is factually coming in at 1.88 as an increase. Thank you. No further discussion on this case? OK. I will turn it over to

you. Thank you. Cheryl Crossley, Simmons 570 Main Street. I have three things, questions of information. Sure. One is that years ago, and I have five deaf people in my family, and one of them grew up in schools here. And years ago, the Board of Selectmen established some kind of revolving fund. And I want, for an interpreter, I want to make sure that that's still here. The second one is that I don't

see anything in the town report about Diamond. Diamond's doing all kinds of work here, and I don't know what happened to the Diamond rep. I used to be a Diamond rep, and we always had a report. So I'm wondering, you know, it's not just that we give them money, it's that they do an enormous amount of work.

And the third thing is as far as the selectmen supporting the budget for the police officer in school. Oh yeah, if people don't know it, the trouble in schools is that most of the killings in school come from students or former students in schools. So we need police officers right there in school. Thank you. I'll turn it over to Selectman Smith as a response. Sure.

So the Diamond budget is Article 6. on the warrant, so that will be coming up going -- once we get to that particular article. As far as a revolving fund for an interpreter for meetings, we take requests as necessary for, you know, Americans with Disabilities Assistance, if that's necessary, that someone needs an interpreter for one of these meetings, that would certainly be

provided. And I don't know that there was a question about the SROs and the schools. No, not about-- no, because I'm strongly in favor of the support of the police department. But I did ask about the town report. Why is there not a report-- like there used to be when I was on the board for Diamond. With all it does here, it's not in the book. Oh, in the book. So I

would follow up with the town administrator on Monday. I mean, it's not really part of the town meeting. I did that with the office of the town administrator. But the Diamond rep wanted to step up. I mean, these people do so much for us. They're always working. So that's what I'm asking for. I would imagine that that would be something-- when Diamond comes into the town, they usually are working for a

particular department head. And that would be something that you would see in the individual department heads report either as a thank you or an acknowledgement or whatever. Yeah, but I was a diamond school rep elected for six years. We always had something in the book and it's up to the rep to bring it or somebody to I know the report is put together by the by Mr. Lucci and others in

the office. And when I called up the current director to find out where it was, Diamond, Mr. Bentley, he said no one had contacted him about it. So I think we need to go back to doing it. They have the other regional school.

And we need to give credit where credit's due. These people are doing wonderful things for us. And that needs to be a report. I mean, what's the Diamond Rift doing? Correct. So I'll follow up with the town administrator on Monday on that. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you. I'll let the gentleman speak first, since he was in line.

Yep. Mr. Moderator? Yes, sir. Matthew Lima, 373 Elm Street. I'm also the president of the Supervisors Union for the Police Department. I have a letter that I was looking to read in to this town meeting that's unanimously supported by the Supervisors Union. Go right ahead, sir. It's one page long. It takes me three minutes to read this.

Okay. So I'd appreciate if I could just for continuity purposes read the entire thing.

Sure. Voters of the town of Somerset. As a public safety union, we are concerned with both the needs of our membership and our community. As such, when we became aware of the $40,000 in proposed cuts to personnel services at our most recent staff meeting, all of our membership began to express concern. In order to make the police

department "work" each fiscal year, the existing funding levels require members of the agency to do two things: 1. Move patrol and supervisory officers to cover shift vacancies, and 2. To utilize compensatory time in lieu of overtime pay. This fiscal year alone, approximately 82 officers shifts have been moved to cover a vacancy on

another shift, with the vast majority of these reassignments being patrol officers that we supervise. Additionally, budgetary concerns were raised around February 1st, a little over halfway through the fiscal year, regarding overtime compensation specifically for those officers assigned to community outreach and specialty services positions. In response, we agreed to work for compensatory time only

in order to keep such programs and services available to the public. We have always been willing to accept reasonable shift reassignment policies and have made arrangements to take compensatory time at intervals in order to save the town money. However, in a budget that is already underfunded, removing an additional $40,000 will exacerbate both of these issues and negatively

impact our officers' wellness. But more importantly, and more of our immediate concern, is the effect that such cuts will have on public safety and our ability to deliver programs and services to the community. Community outreach programs like the Police Athletic League and Public Safety Day may be at risk. Both programs are very popular amongst the community and

extremely rewarding for the involved officers. Firearms licensing and domestic violence follow-ups, which are offered during traditional business hours and after hours on an overtime basis, may be cut to business hours only, potentially delaying a firearms license application or renewal substantially, and precluding some of the most vulnerable amongst us from receiving critical services. And specialty law

enforcement functions may be at risk. This includes CEMREC, which is essentially a task force of member agencies that come together in order to provide services that smaller agencies like ours do not have the capacity to provide on our own. We have access to SWAT, crisis negotiation, search and rescue, drone and mobile operations, and more at a mere

phone call. You can finish your sentence there. I have two more paragraphs, Mr. Moderator.

Is that alright? We have utilized such units in the past and they are essential in protecting lives and property during the most unpredictable of circumstances. The bottom line for us as a Supervisors Union is this: We care about those under our command and we want to make sure that we have all the tools on hand to take care of members of the community in any eventuality. The Somerset Police Superior Officers Union

respectfully asks for your affirmative vote in funding an additional $40,000 into Article IV, Part A, General Budget Line 210, Police Department Personnel Services. Such a change would in effect level fund overtime expenditures year to year. Oh, thank you. So I'm hearing a motion. Is there a second? Okay. I will just reiterate and make sure that I have everything completely correct. My

understanding is that the motion on the floor presented by the gentleman is to increase the 210 line item under Article 4A for personnel services by $40,000. Am I correct? Correct. And such funding would come from pre-cash. Yes, sir.

I believe in previous meetings, and I'm not sure how you're going to take this on, it was not allowed to do any increases to a budget. Yep.

they are finding the means on where they're going to get the money from so for this purpose for this purpose if the police chief would like to come up here and say how he's going to fund that i think it would be appropriate uh yes sir my understanding is that the motion includes a transfer from free cash i will call up to the microphone our town council just to explain the legality

i am not an attorney um he'll be able to paint a clearer picture and uh after he speaks i will come back no absolutely Thank you, Mr. Moderator, and good evening, everyone. Michael D'Ortensio, town council from KP Law. Thank you for having me. As the moderator said, the discretion of whether to allow an increase in a warrant article is up to local discretion. State law does not require in any particular

manner that the body be prohibited or allowed to increase or decrease warrant articles as they are printed. That is up to the moderator and to this body. What state law does require is that you have a balanced budget. And what that means is that every appropriation has a funding source. And so in order for you to vote on an amendment, that is an increase to the amount printed in

the warrant, any individual making a motion must include in that motion what the funding source is, whether that's raised and appropriate from taxation, transfer from certified free cash, or from any other available source. Thank you. Do I hear any further questions on the motion? Any further discussion? Yes, I will. Discussion for the town administrator or? Yeah, okay.

Thank you, Sergeant Lima. And you're absolutely right. This would be a reduction or a cut in some of those things. Some of the things that you pointed out I just want to highlight. There were two different funding sources when it comes to the overtime there. It's no one wants to cut anything. If I could buy you guys a helicopter, I would. This is what we talk about, and this

is probably one of the benefits of an open government where you can make the decision as a people if you want to increase a funding source or taxes to support something that someone's putting out. I will say that When we increased the line a year and a half ago to special town meeting to the police side for 8%, we brought all of these salaries up and part of that conversation was that

we would reduce overtime as we move forward. We're not out to cut PAL programs, fishing programs, trips to the Bruins, but if the number of officers we use for those or the number of days we have to do those has to be reduced, that's what we're talking about. These are some of the difficult decisions that come with that. Initially we had reduced it, the chief and I, by $20,000. We had a

conversation then when the budget came back to me and I had to cut another $241,000, I took another $20,000 out of the overtime on the police side. That's how that number became $40,000. We got granular with where the overtime was going. A lot of things that probably were not needed or extra, but in talking to the chief and like he indicated, it was certainly one of those spirited debates. He doesn't want

to give up any money on that side and I understand that. But I felt confident that when we were said and done with the $40,000 cut that he would be able to take that on with his leadership and his collaboration with his supervisors and his officers. Coverage does not go down. This has to do with, there were overtime lines for training when it came to the UAV or the

drone. There were a lot of just ancillary overtime costs that weren't for the benefit of the taxpayers in my opinion. And so this is something that we agreed on. And again, I understand what you're asking for. If that's what the town chooses to do, it's the town's decision. But this does not compromise officers or their shifts. Mr. Moderator. Thank you. And I will get to the gentleman. I'm

just unsure if any of the folks here who have not spoken yet have the opportunity. So I'll let this gentleman go first, and then I'll come back to you.

Mr. Monterey. Yes, sir. Good morning. Brian Murphy, 75 Carroll Street. Just get a little closer to the mic. I'm sorry. Brian Murphy, 75 Carroll Street, Precinct 1. I'm just a little bit concerned. First of all, I've been coming to these things for 40 plus years. I spent time on the Finance Committee. I spent time on the School Committee, including three years as chair. I will go back to what I think Mr.

Ulicci indicated earlier. It sounds like there was a lot of spirited discussion this year.

But to the best of my knowledge, from 40 years, all the departments came to town meeting pretty much unified because you didn't want to open up every department going after a floor fight on town meeting floor to go for their piece of the pie type of thing. So I'm concerned that the Board of Selectmen and the town administrator, who I think came from a police background, and the police aren't together on

this, and that I would have urged them before they came to this town meeting to have worked this out for the benefit of the town. But I think we have to tread very carefully whether this comes out of free cash or gets rolled into the tax rate that we set a precedent here for opening up floor battles for every single department going forward. Thank you. Understood. Thank you, sir. Mr. Motterie.

Mr. Moderator? Yes, sorry, I didn't see where you were coming from. Selectman Smith. So again, somewhat number one, you know, The Board of Selectmen charged the town administrator with developing these budgets with the department heads.

And every department head wants more than what we set as a Board of Selectmen as a goal to reach, which is 2.5% growth.

And that's because Massachusetts has a 2.5% Growth set Somerset can go over that growth because we have excess levy capacity, but that doesn't mean that we should so when the town administrator works with the department has to bring in that budget at a reasonable growth rate that you know, we think people should be able to at least live with You know, I think we

have to rely on his experience to the point that was made former deputy chief of police 22 years on a police department. If there's one budget that I feel he has the specific expertise to be able to know what is a need and what is a want.

When the new collective bargaining agreement was bargained between the police unions and the town, the Board of Selectmen and then ultimately town meeting supported a 17% pay raise over three years. Somewhere that needs to be offset and to the point that Mr. Ucci made part of the negotiation process was that overtime needed to come down. As an example, $305,000 on the police department side, $160,000 on the fire

department side. We were given an analysis of a portion of the overtime, $175,000 of which, and I understand, you know, two police officers take kids to Providence Bruins game, each officer getting paid seven hours of overtime to take the kids to the Bruins game. They get patted on the back, the department gets patted on the back, but at the end of the day, the Board of

Selectmen, you know, get criticized for the growth in town spending. So difficult decisions need to be made. I also did an analysis of the $175,000 worth of overtime. 74% of that overtime was split among six police officers. So we're not talking about cutting essential services when You know, Officer Lima reads that it's cut to personnel services. This is a cut

to overtime, the majority of which, that $175,000, are things that are over and above CEMLAC, you know, required trainings, things that were not in the $175,000 analysis. This is a 13% reduction of a $305,000 line. And just to speak to the free cash thing, if this gets funded out of free cash this year, next year, you're starting $40,000 in the hole on the police overtime line. So,

you know, because unless you're going to fund that out of free cash every single year, then, you know, you're going to deferred this year, you won't get taxed on it. Next year you're going to get taxed on that $40,000 plus the growth, 5% growth in the pay rate. I'll allow Mr. Lima. One minute response please.

Mr. Moderator, there's many things that I wish to respond to. Number one, this is not coming from the police department, just to be clear to the gentleman who is speaking over here. This is a letter that was voted on by the Supervisors Union and unanimously we came to this decision to present this. To speak to Mr. Illucci, we appreciate the diligence that's done on the budget. This is not in any way,

shape, or form a criticism of anyone who sits up here on the stage. It's just the reality of the matter. And Mr. Smith talked about CEMLAC. I'm going to give an example. There was a gentleman last year, it was a 95 degree day, who was lost in the muck, in the reeds, in the woods, off of Lees River Avenue. I was in command that day. We sent our own drone unit initially

to go look for that party. I called the Semlec Search and Rescue Team, which is a specialized unit that does exactly that. They have people at your command post within sometimes a half hour time frame. We ended up finding that party with the use of our own drone. I called the commander of the Semlec Search and Rescue Unit and he said to me, "Oh man, I'm Route 6 at Gardner's Neck Road

right now. Those people were three minutes away from my location to save someone's life. This is what we're talking about. Thank you, sir. Yes, sir. Mr. Alucci. Thank you, Sergeant Lima. And to the Chief's credit, he brought that, not that specific example up, but specifically Semlick. And we talked about the tactical response and how our officers are sent to other communities.

And we asked how many times it's been utilized where we're on the receiving end.

I don't think there have been in a couple of years. My point being that the Chief Wanted to make it a priority to keep the funding for that particular side of some like there But a reduction on the tactical side where our officers go to other communities when we don't get the reciprocal of because we just don't need it, there isn't a need for that, that's where some of those cuts might

be. They're not delivered on any one particular thing. It's taking some of these items and just reducing it by $40,000. So to highlight one example or one item that it's used for, that may never be touched. And I just want to make that clarifying point. Thank you Mr. Lucci. I'll pass it to the gentleman in front of me. Thank you Mr. Martin. Jeff Carnegie,

501 Mohawk Road. I support what Officer Lima has brought up here. I looked over the numbers in the budget and I'm looking at the school, these schools. You're increasing them by 3.6% as far as in this budget.

Haven't we spent enough on these schools, especially with the number of kids that are not attending these schools. I think Mr. Lima has a very important thing because I as a citizen, okay, back law enforcement, and especially to see it starting to go away in certain things with the world that we live in now. So my question is, why are we cutting back on public safety, fire department, police

department? and officers like Mr. Lima that do their job when we have a school that's failing all the kids and all we're doing is building bigger and better.

For what? It doesn't make sense to me to spend my tax dollars, okay, out of my pocket to somebody who spends our money and he loves doing it. Okay.

I'm just reminding the gentleman to focus on the information. Okay, I get it. I did not mention any names. I know. Thank you very much. Okay. but in a roundabout way it's getting ridiculous. Support law enforcement. Give them the tools they need to keep us safe because it's absolutely getting out of control and it's time that the selectmen all realize it's not what it looks like until you see

what they're seeing on the inside. So I support what Mr.

Lima has done and I approve that and I think that we should cut back on the school we'll get there when it is what was that I'm sorry thank you yes sir focus on 4a and 6 oh yeah no problem I hear it thank you I get it when it's stacked yeah I get it all right um but I do support Mr. Lehman I do support this okay thank you and

as far as the numbers go we gotta start looking at these schools Thank you, sir. Thank you very much. Miss Margaret to the gentlelady. Yes Kathleen's arrival 45 Yankee Pedal a drive and I have a general comment about what I've been looking at here and gentlemen that spoke earlier I just I did not understand was just the change and I could not see that slide so when I'm being asked to vote

on a budget I I can't see anything that's up there. Sure. Why would that not have been included in our packet? Understood. I don't know if anybody from the board would like to respond. So, so the, again, the article is what's included in the, uh, warrant which is what's always been included in the warrant is the article. There are selectmen meetings that are held where there are handouts showing multiple

years of the budget. We can look to have a handout available at upcoming meetings, but it would it would never get put into the warrant to show you know the prior year and the variance percentage. Okay. So I agree that it might not be part of the warrant but wouldn't it be who all of these people who took their time out to be able to have it to refer to

when we can't see it up there on the board it was important enough to put up there I was looking at all the people around me we're like looking and we can't find it so we I don't I don't know I just don't think it's fair to ask people to vote on something that we're not looking at I would think as taxpayers we would want to have that handout available like that

little book that we got. Kind of like I mentioned, I mean the town breaks out every department on theirs. As we get to the warrants that are moving forward, you'll see they just give you one dollar amount of personnel line and an expense line. So the town, again, this is the way it's always been done, breaks out every single department so you can see what the expense is for each department. But

you you know, we can look to have a handout next year that would show what's on the PowerPoint slide. Thank you. Yes, that would be a good recommendation. Thank you. I do want to, I see that there are multiple folks who have risen to speak. I do want to see if we have any general discussion on the motion that was proposed about raising the police department over time on line 210 by

$40,000. Do any of the folks in front of me over here have any I know that they were here first, that's why. Do you have any general comments on the motion before us? Not on the motion? Okay, I'll come back to you then.

Yes sir. Yeah, just about the police department budget. The real concern, I think, here for everybody who's going to take a vote, and this isn't that I don't think that you should get this money. I just don't think the process, if we do this, we could see unions or people coming in and asking for free cash and they can pack this meeting. the school department could come in here and pack this

meeting and stop giving themselves to their own raises and different things. So I just want to tread lightly when we talk about doing increases like this. Again, I want to throw it back to the selectmen here and the town administrator that we expect these things to be worked out prior to getting to town meeting. That's all I have to say. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Denise

Jordan, 159 Main Street. I don't really have an opinion on the $40,000, but I am absolutely against taking it out of free cash.

We have worked diligently not to do that. And if anybody looks at the surrounding towns around us, they're being decimated because of their reliance on free cash. Thank you for your comment. Yes, sir.

Chris Gaudette, 70 Dawns Terrace. To the lady's point, I would like to make an amendment to the motion to take it out of taxation versus free cash.

I'm not saying I support it or don't support it. I just feel like the proper channels would be a request of taxation to Mr. Smith's point of creating a deficit for next year. Or withdraw the original motion and... Thank you.

So I do just want to clarify for the public in case folks are not following. What just happened is the gentleman made a motion to amend the motion that Sergeant Lima made. The motion would be that instead of appropriating this $40,000 for the police line item from Free Cash, the motion would be for this set of money to come from taxation instead. I have heard a second. Is there any further discussion

on the motion to amend the motion? In this scenario, this would be a majority vote and a yes vote would indicate that you support that the $40,000 that we will subsequently be voting on come from taxation. This vote is not indicating that we are voting on yes or no, we want to do it. We are just voting on whether or not we want that $40,000 that we will vote on next to

come from taxation. Does that make sense? I have a motion in a second. Any further discussion? Okay.

I will for the sake of this one resort to the electronic voting. If folks can get their clickers ready, I will announce when the vote opens. A reminder here is that this is a vote on a motion to amend on the first motion that Sergeant Lima brought up. So this would be again a yes vote, indicates that you support the funds for this future amendment we will vote on next to come from taxation rather than free

cash. I will repeat again because I know things can get confusing and I'm glad I did my homework. We are voting right now on a motion to amend the first motion to amend. A yes vote here would not mean that the $40,000 will be appropriated to this item. A yes vote means that you support that when we do take the vote, that fund comes from taxation rather than free

cash. A no vote in this situation would indicate that you are comfortable voting on the future motion with that funds for the $40,000 coming from free cash. With that being said, if the clerk is ready, we'll open the vote. If folks can vote electronically, let me get mine, we will now begin voting. There will be 30 seconds. All right, and with the 30 seconds having been expired, we will now see the results of

the vote. So the result of the motion to amend, the motion to amend taken at 11:46, passes with a majority with 126 voting in the affirmative and 93 voting in the negative. for a total of 219 votes cast. Now that we have adopted this motion to amend, the motion that Sergeant Lima presented before the body is a little bit different now and I will just reiterate this. We

are now voting on the motion that was prepared that would appropriate $40,000 for the item 210, that is the police budget, in Article 4A. It is now going to be a vote that is taken where the body will now choose whether or not they want the funds appropriated or not and those funds will be coming from taxation. Is there any further discussion on this? Is that clear? So

in this case, a yes vote is I'm gonna say I am not putting my opinion here. A yes vote indicates yes, you, I, whoever approves to bump the item by $40,000 coming from taxation. A no vote indicates you do not support this and you are fine with the article as printed in the warrant. Again, this is a simple majority vote and we will cast it with the electronic voters voting systems. If

there's no further discussion, I will turn it to the town clerk.

Voting is now open.

There are 30 seconds.

The 30 seconds have expired. Voting is now concluded. I will now see the results. So the vote taken at 11:48 does not carry.

This now means that the amendment fails and once we are ready to vote on 4A altogether, it will remain the original amount as printed in the warrant. Does that make sense to folks? Mr. Moderator? Yes, sir. I make a motion for no reconsideration of the motion. Okay, I have a motion to not reconsider the previous motion. Do I have a second? Any discussion? Alright, I'll do this one by voice vote.

It'll be quicker. All those in favor of not reconsidering the motion, say aye. Aye.

Those who oppose? With the near-unanimous vote, we have moved to not reconsider the motion that has subsequently failed. I will now finally get to you in the front. We are now returning to discussion on 4A, just as a general, any thoughts on the presentation that Mr. Alucci presented and the appropriations under 4A? Joy Mitchell, 159 Maple Street.

I've heard a lot of people talk about decreasing education and that we're spending too much. And back in the 50s, we had more kids and spent less. Well, back in the 50s, first of all, you could buy a loaf of bread for 29 cents. My first grade teacher at the village school was Miss Lynch, who did not have a college degree. She only had a high school diploma. Now you have to

have a college degree and obviously you can pay someone more than if they had a high school diploma. Her visual aids was a slate board and a piece of chalk and occasionally a mimeograph paper which got purple ink all over your hands and made the kids hide from the stink. My point is, and back then a lab was a big old dog, and today a lab is the computer lab, a language

lab, It is not the same. We cannot compare 1950s education and what was spent per child to what we are spending today. It is ridiculous. We need to prepare kids to live in a world where computers, to understand, first of all, to think critically, which we were done then. To think critically. I have a point of order. Yes, if the gentleman that made the point of order could state the reason for the point of order.

Yes, if the gentleman, the policekeeper comments to 4A, anything included. Okay, on the educate.

We need to provide computers. We need to provide all kinds of other things. 4A, please, ma'am. relative to the town budget and that's what I'm talking about the budget for the school you're speaking for B is the schools now we'll come back to that shortly thank you thank you everyone I've got the gentle lady over here hi Kim me show 222 Highview Avenue my point and for a

the budgeting is that our residents need to be able to think critically to make well-informed decisions. Where also our residents in the town of Somerset, the average age of expectancy is higher than when it was in 1950, 1960. We might have the same number of residents, but that mix of residents is different. When a police officer needs to go to a call at a school,

that our residents who are at the younger age of the spectrum are being educated in, and they themselves may have been educated in that school, they have to be prepared and educated to attend to that crisis that they are now encountering in that school. So we are a team. Somerset is a team, and we have to balance our budget so that all of the residents are getting

the services that they need. And how we come to that is by meeting with our elected officials and our appointed members of the community and come together and have those discussions. And I thank our elected officials who did do that and our residents that did attend those meetings. My point is that we are all in this together, whether or not a police officer has a skill set that needs

to be able to meet with a seniors call, because that senior is now eligible to have a longer life because of what we're learning about in society and healthcare and able to treat those residents. the younger residents are then become the older residents. And I'm happy to be a member of the community from 1970 and currently. So I qualify as both a parent of a student that

is being educated in our community, and I guess I qualify as a senior as well. So that's just a unique perspective, if everybody could keep that in mind when we're looking at these budget numbers. Thank you. Yes sir. Hi, I'm Andrew Robinson, 255 Alberta Ave. I am with the Marine Corps League and we are part of the four veterans organizations. And this past week,

Memorial Day, we lost our commandant who had done a lot. for the community. His name is Bruce Aldrich. On behalf of Bruce and the other military organizations, we just want to say thank you for the support and the additional $1,000 that you've given to the organization.

Thank you, sir. And ma'am, it is your turn. Very quickly. Sandra Kronauer, Mitra 7 Oak Lane. I'd like to point out to everybody that the current annual inflation rate is 3.8%. I just looked it up. That's what we're all paying out of our pocketbooks. The fact that you have managed to hold the budget to a 2.43% increase is very impressive. It's indicative of

the hard work that you've done on holding costs down. And I'd like to thank you for it. And I'd like to point out to everybody what a good job that's been done. Thank you. Hello. Hello, Christine Farias, 48 Apostle Road. I have a question on line 136 with the annual audit. My question is either to the town administrator or the board of selectmen. Who

was our former auditor and who is our current auditor now? And is there a reason why we took an increase on the annual audit this year? Thank you. I'm going to defer to the town administrator who has more of the details on that.

Yes, the former accountant was CBS and they were which was formerly Markham formerly another one. It's kind of become a big conglomerate and a lot of our needs Along with other communities other towns were not being met I'm assuming post this Merck these mergers so we chose to go with an accountant that was located in fall risk fall River Satan Hattie and

their Yes, they're a little higher along with all the other ones because what we had with that prior one we had used for 15 years But that's the reason for the change. Thank you very much. Thank you seeing nobody else lined up for discussion question now comes on adoption of article 4a Reminder that both of the motions to amend had failed. So what we are voting on is exactly what is printed

in the book We already have a motion We have received a second. I will now take a voice vote. A reminder, yes here indicates that you are supportive of adopting Article 4A as written and recommended. A no vote would be that you reject it. I will now take the vote. All those in favor, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. No? Those wishing, yeah, thank you. All right, so the motion carries. We

have now adopted Article 4A as written and recommended. We now move on to Article 4B. Mr. Moderate? Just one second please. Article 4B. I, yes. We have a presentation. Do you want us up there or here? That is fine, yes. I'll do that, yeah.

I'll do that. So yes, we've got folks from the school committee here that will be giving a brief presentation. Before then, what I will do is I will read out the article and the recommendation of the advisory and finance committee. I'll then receive the motion and I'll hand it over for presentation and then further discussion. 4B, School Department Budget. The

proposed number is $26,889,305. The Advisory and Finance Committee unanimously recommends that the Town vote to appropriate the sum of $26,889,305 for the fiscal year July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027. purpose of funding the Somerset public school department budget and that said some be raised from taxation the committee voted to approve this with a six to nothing

vote mr. moderator yes ma'am Mr. Moderator, I move that the Town vote to appropriate the sum of $26,889,305 for the fiscal year July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027 for the purposes of funding the Somerset Public Schools budget as written in the article and that said sum be raised from taxation. Seeing a motion and hearing a second, I will now turn it over for discussion. Mr. Moderator,

this article provides for the annual appropriation for the Somerset School Department, which represents an increase of 3.59% over the prior year. Thank you.

John Ventura, 39 Walnut Street, member of the school committee. We just put together a few numbers. I understand the concerns that people have.

I have those same concerns. I pay the same taxes that you do. Next slide, please. So this is what... We pay per pupil, both in the K-8 and in the region, and that is the state average. You can see that we are $2,988 below the state average. Okay, we're not just giving out money, we're not throwing it around. We're below the state average. If you look,

the year before, we were 2712 below the state average. We actually fell further below the state average last year. Next, please. Our graduation rates, we're not failing our students. Our graduation rates are above the state average.

We're also above what some of our local neighbors have. Next.

These are our scores. Everyone knows through the COVID test scores came way down. These are just some of the scores that have gone up the last couple of years.

We are at or above the state average of increasing scores since COVID. Next please.

This just shows, I know a lot of people have been talking about the differences between years past and what's happening now. If you just look at the bottom, what we are doing with non-English learners, special education and low income, it's much higher than it used to be. Special education itself is obviously much needed in the school department, but it doesn't come at a low cost. And as you can see, we've increased

quite a bit in the special needs department. A lot of those things are mandated by the state. We don't pick and choose. Those are mandated things. We have to have this many teachers, this many staff members. Next please. So just in summary, I know people are concerned, and like I said, I pay the same taxes that you pay. So I am also concerned. My taxes have gone up since the power

plant's closed. I've been on the school committee now for a year and now I'm appointed to the region as well. And I'll be looking at those. But these are just, these are real numbers. This is what the state uses. They're not made up, they're not, I didn't just throw them up. These are from the state website, you can look at them. So I just wanted you to know that we are trying

to be good stewards. of your tax dollars. Thank you. All right, thank you, because especially during that time, I finally got to go use the restroom. So I will now turn it over to any discussion. I'll start it with you, ma'am. Patty, CL180 Yankee Pebble Drive. The figures I was saying before, it's not that I don't think we're doing a great job. I go to the school committee meetings. It's a passion of mine. Hold

my five seconds. I reclaim my time. You got it. It's the numbers, people. We cannot continue to sustain the number of schools we have. We only have 2,300 kids compared to in the 70s where we had 5,000. 5,000 and that was only first grade to 12th. We have to look at this. We can't keep scurrying around every year saying, oh, can we cut

this? Can we cut that? Last year, we were told that we were going to re-look at the scheduling at the middle school and maybe go back to a five-day so that it was the same as the elementary and the high school so we could share resources. That never happened. We formed a group this year. A lot of townspeople were upset when we talked about redistricting. Nothing ever happened. It was put on

the shelf. Once again, we're not ready to do that. We need to do that.

We cannot continue to afford a 3 point whatever percent increase. And believe you me, I'm at those meetings. I have watched the school. I hate that they get criticized all the time. But the numbers are there, people. When the middle school opened, the new middle school, we had 604 kids. This September we only had 550 kids. Next September, if you look at the rate of what we've already got, we're going to

be down 36 more children. Bringing the enrollment at the middle school down to almost 500. That's going to trickle over to the high school too, people. We have to look at the way we distribute our services. I'm not saying don't give them great services. I came to Somerset, I raised my kids in Somerset because I wanted them to be in the Somerset public schools. Somerset's awesome. In the 70s when I was

in school, we used to get accolades like crazy for what we did with our kids. I watched some of the presentations this year. I was in tears. The compassion that the teachers have and what they do for the children. It's awesome. But we do have to look at the numbers. And we cannot have, and I was a special educator for 43 years, so I know special ed. But we can't have classrooms

that have one teacher, one para, and four children. We can't afford that. We have to find a different way. We have to consolidate a little bit. I'm not saying don't give them the services they need. We need to do that. I'm saying is we need to take a closer look at the way we deliver our education in Somerset. Thank you. Do you want a response? I'll be right back.

So just on that, the redistricting committee, it's not that we didn't do anything. We voted not to do anything right now because there are other considerations. The committee is still formed and we're looking at whatever our options are going to be coming out of this. Also, there was a slide and I don't think I focused on it enough. We've cut 11 teacher positions due to the lowering student enrollment. It's not that

the school committee looks at it and says we have 200 less kids. We're not doing anything with that. They have been. I've only been here for a year, but over the last five years there have been 11 positions cut due to the lowering enrollment. So we are taking action on that. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Again, Joy Mitchell, 159 Maple Street. I go back to what education was like in

the '50s, and you could have a classroom. My cousin was put in special ed.

He did not have cognitive disabilities. He had physical disabilities. He had cerebral palsy. He was denied a decent education because he wasn't mainstreamed. That was not something we did.

We had a teacher with only a high school education. You want to have people who are capable of teaching and trained to be good teachers, you're going to have to have people with a minimum of a bachelor's and probably a master's. That costs money. Computers, visual aids, all the technology that we use now. As I said, our technology was a slate board and a piece of chalk, okay?

And maybe a graph paper. We need to be capable of preparing kids for the world they're going to face. That many times requires more room than just that little first grade classroom I was in. It requires, like I said, computer labs, language labs, all kinds of things that were unheard of. So physically, you do need more room. And you do need more money to pay for all of the technology that our kids need. We cannot

dumb down education. The country's done it for a while. We're paying prices for it. And we cannot let Somerset become a place where education becomes secondary. We just cannot. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, sir, the floor is yours. Yeah, Jeff Carnegie, National 501 Mohawk Road. You talk about state average.

Has anybody looked around and seen what kind of, you know, see what kind of situation the state's in? First of all, the numbers for state average, they're off the charts. They're ridiculous. And you want to compare it to state averages. Well, she was just talking about computers, technology. Who's going to fix your car? Okay, who's gonna come and get your heat going?

Is it gonna be these computers? Is it gonna be AI? What happened to the trades we used to have when we went to school? You took them all away.

Why? What happened to our plumbers? What happened to the electricians? You people are all gonna find the spot that you're happy with, with your technology and your ideology, where you're thinking. And what's it gonna lead us? It's gonna lead us to nothing.

You people have to start waking up and start looking at what the situation is. You don't support law enforcement. You don't support anything else, but you do support getting more computers. Let's do this with the schools. The schools are failing us. Let's be reality here. The schools are failing. Bigger doesn't bring brighter kids, doesn't send them out the door. And you're

going by the state average. This state is a mess. Totally across the board.

Education, everything you look at. It's time for change, people. Relax. Get up. Look around. See what the hell is going on around us. We're paying for it.

It's coming out of our pocket. There's corruption everywhere. And all we're doing is sitting back and letting it go. It's crazy. Thank you. i still got a minute left relating to the article in the morning but i still got a minute left am i correct yes sir i'm sorry mr moderator but anyway my point is let's start taking some money away from these schools if you want to put

in trades let's take a couple of classrooms and put some auto mechanics in there or electricians or plumbers well how about law enforcement you know these are all something that's going to help us down the road the computers ai and all that ai is going to take care of most of it anyway but i think it's time that we have to start waking up because my tax money is not going where

i'd like to see it go and i'm sure there's a lot of people here in this town that feel the same way thank you very much thank you for sharing your time thank you absolutely thank you i'm sorry i don't remember who was here first I'll let you go ahead. Hello, my name is Jack Parker. I'm a 1095 Riverside Ave. This is my first town meeting. Welcome.

I just wanted, so I was deeply blessed this week to watch my brother walk the stage at MIT and get a degree in aerospace engineering, his PhD.

He went to public school, you know. We're in Massachusetts. The kind of crown jewel in the state of Massachusetts is our education. Kentucky has bourbon. We have schools. Rhode Island has Dells.

You know, there's a phrase, a parable that a wise man is one who plants the seed for a tree that he will never sit in the shade in. And education is an investment and I think that it is a foolish man who chooses to take money away from that investment in our children and in our future. This is my first town meeting. I just moved here. I'm hoping to have kids here. You know, the numbers

will go up. And yeah, I mean like And to the point of AI, AI, like, so I'm a new homeowner. If we can just stick to the-- Yes, I apologize. Thank you. Long story short, education is our thing. Education is an investment. Come on, guys. Thanks. Thank you for contributing. All right, I've got the gentle lady in the front over here. I'm Christine Raposa, 1046 Riverside Avenue. I moved here seven years

ago. Let's move a little closer, please. Thank you, ma'am. Yep, you're good. Christine Raposa, 1046 Riverside Avenue.

I have moved here seven years ago. I have two children, two grandchildren in the Somerset School Department.

My grandson has special needs, graduated with honors from Somerset Berkeley. Congratulations.

Granddaughter is graduating on Friday. Got her a full ride to Bridgewater.

Congratulations. The school department is fabulous. I can't say enough about the school department, nor the fire department or police department.

They are fabulous. They have been at my house. My daughter has epilepsy. She has a master's in education with special needs.

She works in Forever. But I can't say enough about the education. My thing is if there's not enough kids to support three grammar schools, we have a beautiful middle school and a fabulous high school. Consolidate the three middle schools, the three grammar schools to two if there's not enough. Keep the school still open so if it if the If the enrollment increases, go back to the three

grammar schools. But if the funding is not available, don't take away, don't take away from the kids education, but just minimize the schools, consolidate the schools, not the education. Why pay for three schools with electric and gas and lawn care and all this other stuff if there's not enough children and you're going to have nine kids in a class or 11 kids in a class? Combine two classes for 20 kids in a class.

Give them the same education, the same learning tools, but don't spread it out so thin that you get the education, but now the taxes are way high. I live on Riverside Ave, and I literally take those streets back and forth. And in the last... Seven, probably seven weeks. I've seen close to 22.

You can just finish your sentence, please. Thank you. 22 for sale signs.

22 for sale signs. That means people are leaving. Why? Because the tax is so high. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you very much. And congratulations again. Thank you. Yes, sir. Mr. Moderator, Robert Gaw, 119 Butternut Road.

I'm a member of the Somerset Berkeley Regional School Committee. I would just like to respond to some of Mr. Kornegay's comments regarding the trades. And I'm not sure if everybody understands what they're voting on. You're currently voting on the pre-K through 8 school committee-- school budget, I'm sorry. to go and learn trades that's why we have diamond

and students would go there there are limited seats available at diamond i believe 37.

um at somerset berkeley at our last regional meeting actually i see mr mr madeira's here in the crowd we had a conversation we are working hard to get grants to try to add additional trades offered here at the high school but we have We have to look at the budget as well. I would love if Diamond offered more seats to those who would like to learn a trade, but there is limited

seats available. There were quite a few students who didn't get in this year that tried, so we are doing our best to accommodate it. Thank you, sir. Thank you.

Thank you. And I'm sorry, again, I'll give you the floor, ma'am, OK? Hi, Kim Misho, 222 Highview Avenue. Just a couple of points to mention. The enrollment for the pre-K through eight Somerset Public Schools is approximately 2,300 students. Just to remember they are also residents of the town that do not have the ability to vote towards the

budget because they haven't attained the age to be able to do that because they haven't developed the critical thinking and the processes to be able to make those decisions.

So they are empowering us as the adults in the community to make those decisions on their behalf, which they do not have a voice. I also want to say that our public safety department, departments here in town are some of the best and the brightest who I know were educated in the Somerset Public Schools because they were classmates of mine. And I also want to stress that point about education and how

that comes into play with public safety, with counseling aging programs. It all comes with not only an educational background in terms of whether or not you're operating a computer or fixing an automobile, but also can you be part of a team, can you think critically, and can you demonstrate the visions of what a Somerset Public Schools graduate

is. One other comment. Public safety is imperative at any age. And the education of those people who are taking care of us in the ambulance, on the street when our car breaks down, or at the hospital next door in Fall River when we get brought into an emergency room and we need a health care professional that is going to be taking care of us. I don't know about you, but I want

them to be well educated. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, sir. Thank you, Ms. Moderator.

Kevin Callahan, 165 Yankee Peddler Drive. Google search would tell you that the state of Massachusetts is highly regarded in public education. It consistently ranks as one of the best states in the union for public schools. Also, I don't think anyone in this room wants to see higher taxes. I don't see anyone jumping up and down to volunteer to get their taxes raised. But things cost money, and education

is an investment in the future of this community and our children. And just like we have phenomenal public services, police, fire, the town, the schools are fantastic in this town. It's why my family relocated to Somerset, Massachusetts. And we need to continue to do that because the children are the future of this community. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Yes, sir. Hi. Brian Murphy, 75

Carroll Street. I don't know where to start. But number one, the town of Somerset was incorporated in 1790. The first school in this town was in 1727. For 63 years before this town was incorporated as a community, it had a commitment to education. From child to parent to grandparent, through seven generations if I count it right, this town has supported education. My parents moved

here in March of 1962. I was one of four kids that went through this school system, and it equipped me with the tools, especially when my father died when I was 19, and the rest of my brothers and sisters to make it in this world. My late wife and I moved back to this community and our three kids went through the school system. I believe in this town and the last time

I looked The town of Somerset operates under one federal tax ID number. It's not the town of Somerset general government. It's not the town of Somerset school department. It's not the town of Somerset water and sewer. It's one community. This budget, I think I saw the advisory and finance committee supported it unanimously, six to nothing. You guys

all got together and beat this up, water, sewer, with the exception of a spat in the Police Department, which I talked about earlier. So I think that you guys did a great job to put this together. I vote in support of AP as presented for the school department. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Judith Conlon, 39 Cedar Street in Somerset. And I think we're losing focus. The whole point of

this article is to up or down vote a certain amount of money. And it just seems to me, obviously some people think it's too much, some people think it's not enough, but we don't have an itemization of what the costs are. So we can't even say, let's strike this, let's amend this. So we either vote you up or to the amount or we vote it down. Instead of talking about anecdotes or

why we think education deserves more, we're faced with two choices, up or down.

Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Mr. Moderator, Jennifer Ashley, member of the school committee.

Just so everybody's aware, all of our meetings are public and we welcome anybody from the community to attend and ask questions as we build our budget. Our budget process lasts for several months. We communicate with the Board of Selectmen throughout the budget process as well, answer any questions that the A&F committee have about our budget before we

get to this meeting. Additionally, we hold a public hearing of our budget for the sole purpose of giving our full attention to the details that the previous speaker was referencing and those are publicly available documents that can be made available to anyone in advance of town meeting annually thank you thank you yes ma'am charl crossley simmons 570 main street I attended 10 elementary schools, 3 high schools,

and 1 junior high, and my children have attended schools here and in Fall River, and they were all pretty good. And what encourages me most about Somerset is that we have a superintendent who never stops learning, I think is running an excellent school system. I think as far as the scores go, that doesn't reflect on the school committee, but it sure does reflect upon the teachers, and

I think they're doing a super job. And also with Victor, he's helped with the superintendent to bring our school system forward, and I know we're in for some big changes, but I'm very encouraged. Thank you. I called the question? Yes.

Second. I have a second. Is there anyone else who, prior to that, wishes to speak? I don't want anyone to not have the opportunity. I'm supposed to call on the question floor then. Okay. I just don't want anybody to not have the opportunity to speak. I just want you to call for it. Isn't that on the floor? Okay, then we'll call the question. I have a second. Seeing

no objection. All those in favor, we are now voting on 4B, and that is the school department budget as written and recommended by the Advisory and Finance Committee. by a vote of six to zero. We have a motion, we have a second. I will now do a voice vote. All those in favor of Article 4B say aye.

- Aye. - All those opposed. - No. - Article 4B carries with a near unanimous vote. That vote was taken at 12:23.

Mr. Moderator, I would like it to make a motion to not reconsider articles 1 through 4B. Okay, do I have a second? Second. All right, we'll do another voice vote. All those in favor of not reconsidering articles 1 through 4B, you will indicate by saying aye. Opposed? Near unanimous. Thank you. Okay, article 4C. Article 4C is the water and water pollution control

enterprise operations. There's information included in the warrant if you want to take a look.

With that in mind, the Advisory and Finance Committee will have a recommendation at town meeting. I'll call up the chair of the Advisory and Finance Board to share the recommendation of the board. Mr. Moderator? Yes, sir. The Advisory and Finance Committee unanimously... Just closer to the mic, please. I know. Same thing. It's being tall. The advisory and finance committee unanimously recommends approval for this

article. Understood. Thank you. Seeing that the ANF has recommended, I will turn it over to Mr. Katteret. Mr. Moderator, I move the town vote to approve the Water and Pollution Control Enterprise Operations budget of $9,164,779 for July 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2027 and said sums to be paid by the Water and Sewer Enterprise Fund receipts. Second. Alright, seeing a motion and a second, I will now turn it over to

Mr. Kaderat for any discussion. Mr. Moderator, this article provides for the annual appropriation for the expenses to operate the water and water pollution control departments for the period from July 1st, 2026 to June 30th, 2020-27.

The amount requested to operate the water department has been increased by $213,504, or 4.9% from last year. The amount requested to operate the water pollution control department has been increased by $347,292, or 8.25% from last year. The increases are attributed to the following: For sewer, there was an increase of $218,838 related to the five pump station upgrade SRF loan that we took.

A $35,400 increase in full-time wages, a $25,245 increase in office wages, an $11,180 increase in merit pay, a $53,113 increase in sludge disposal, a $17,000 increase in chemicals, and a $39,500 increase in retirement funding. The Water Department budget increases are attributed to an increase in debt service of $107,607 related to the THM non-compliance FRF loan, $60,820 increase in

full-time wages, a $30,000 increase in electricity, a $20,000 increase in the repair and maintenance of service of buildings and grounds and a $145,900 increase in replacement of water utilities.

If you remove the increases in the debt service, our operational budgets have gone up 2.2% in both departments. And without the debt service, the increase in the sewer budget is 3.8% and the increase in the water budget is 2.1%. Thank you. I will now open it up for discussion. Ms. Paskowski. Mr. moderator, I just want to say that I'm against the water part of the budget

because they have allotted for sodium fluoride. Six thousand dollars in the budget allotted for that chemical that we voted against last year. And I'm a little confused. They had an article for a financial analyst and they used some money. I know it's a tiny bit. I'm not sure if the new position that they are, they switched over to, if it's the same amount. Can I please ask through you?

Mr. Moderator? Yes. I'm not familiar with any creation. Well, they had a An article for a financial analyst position, which they dropped and instead they're going to use a position that's already in the bylaw. Can I ask if it's comparable, the price? I mean the wage, salary? I don't see if, I'll call Mr. Catarat up, but that's not included in the motion before, so

I just asked. Well, it's part of the budget. Okay. So that's correct, that is part of the budget. So we did have an article that we withdrew for a financial analyst position. There's been a position created administrative assistance finance water and sewer. The wages for that position are less than the wages that were associated with the article that we withdrew. Thank you. Do you know how much it was?

i'm sorry can you ask him how much less mr catarat i don't have the exact figure but it's approximately ten or eleven thousand dollars well that budget should go down eleven thousand dollars they should decrease the budget eleven thousand dollars okay thank you mr souza yes edward souza 130 picasso street somerset obviously um just a quick uh reference here can we um Can we pause this a second

because I need to know if the two citizens petitions are going to affect your operating budget or if they were to pass tonight. So should we vote on those prior to voting on your budget? I'll allow for a response. Thank you. No, there will be no change in our operational, in our budget for the sewer budget for if either one of those two citizens petitions were to pass. Thank

you for the response. Mr. Souza? No, that's all I have, but I will try to move those citizens petitions up after this article. Thank you for the heads up. Seeing no further discussion, We have a motion and a second to vote on Article 4C as written and recommended. As a reminder, it was approved by the Finance Committee with a 6-0 vote. I will do so by taking a voice

vote. In this situation, a yes will indicate that you are supportive of the budget as written and recommended. A no is opposition. All those in favor, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed? No. Okay. Article 4C carries with a near majority, and that was cast at, not a near, excuse me, nearly unanimous. It did pass with a majority, and that vote was taken at 12:31. Would this

be a good time to make a motion? I think so. I don't want to start reading Article 5 if you're just going to move the decision. Could we move the two, I'd like to make a motion to move both citizens' petitions to be heard next, please. Okay. Second. We got a motion and a second. Mr. Sousa, I have a question for you first. The

discussion, real quick on this, is I believe that the way these articles are presented, I don't know if I am totally in favor or partially in favor, but I think the citizens should be able to hear it before we vote on anything else that may concern water and sewer. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Sousa. I do have a question. If you so choose, would you like it to be with an electronic

vote or are you fine with a voice vote? Okay. So what we are facing now as a town is a motion to change the order of the warrant so that instead of taking up article 5 next, we will now be taking up the two citizens petitions which are found at the end of the warrant that we all have. Those are articles number 22 and 23. That must be voted on

by the body. That can carry with a simple majority vote. without seeing any further discussion we'll put it out for a vote. A yes means that you are in favor of moving those two articles and discussing them now. A no vote means you want to keep them at the end of the warrant. All those in favor of moving the articles please say aye. Those opposed? No.

Oh okay see this is why we have our clickers now.

We'll have the clerk type it up and we will open it up for electronic voting. All right, so as you will see, the vote opened now. There are 30 seconds. Can you just-- what are we voting on again? Yep, a yes means that you are interested in moving up articles 22 and 23 to act upon now. A no vote means leave them at the end of the warrant as written. All

right, and the vote has closed. The 30 seconds have passed. If the clerk can reveal the results, please. Okay, 103 in the affirmative, 89 in the negative. That is a total of 192 votes. The motion to reorder the two citizens petitions carries at 12:34 p.m. We are now on article number 22, which I will read. Article number 22: A citizen's petition to see if

the town will vote to compel the water and sewer commissioners and any other town board or person required to work with the City of Fall River's water and sewer departments to jointly file with the United States Environmental Protection Agency a letter requesting a one-year deadline extension to Somerset's NPDES permit, Mass. No. 1010076. Section 1: Purpose. Somerset's NPDES permit requires yearly milestones to

be achieved and money spent. An extension would allow the money expenditures to pause while a complete and thorough evaluation is done to determine whether the best course of action is to enter into a regional district with Fall River or resume compliance with the present permit. The Advisory and Finance Committee has no recommendation on this article. And I will note that since this is a citizen's petition, I

am permitting a five minute limit to the presenter of the article. Now I'm going to come close to five minutes. Ms.

Paskowski, let's go. Elizabeth Paskowski. All right. 347 North Street. Okay, the purpose of the extension is twofold. To stop the town from having to spend money on design and construction fees to comply with the terms of the permit. Extension pauses this requirement so far three I would say 2.5 million and 3.5 million have been authorized at previous town meetings of the citizens of Somerset have not even

been shown what the final costs will be nor have they authorized the project I believe the engineers were granted to start designing the upgrades on December 17th, 2025. Citizens for Common Sense reached out to the EPA on behalf of the Somerset ratepayers about the permit in their name and was told that an extension will be looked on favorably if it is serious. In a pro

and con evaluation of the article, there are no cons, only pros. And that's all I have to say. Thank you. I'm sorry, if you could just repeat that last sentence, Ms. Paskowski.

Sorry about that. In a pro and con evaluation of the article, there are no cons, only pros. Okay, I will note that there is no motion made before us at the moment So miss Peskowski if you'd like you can make the motion that we accept article number 22 as written Sorry about that. Please make the motion. I'd like to make a motion to accept article

22 as citizens petition as written and recommended as what written and recommend as written and recommended Do I hear a second? Okay, hearing that there is a motion and a second to move Article 22 for a vote, I will now turn it over for discussion. Thank you, Ms. Pascoe. Sir. Chris Quadet, 70 Dawns Terrace. We elect a body to work on this. They hold

open meetings. I would like to make a motion to indefinitely postpone this article. Second. Okay, I have a motion to indefinitely postpone. And I have a second. I will leave it for discussion, but the motion is still out there, so I will not forget about that. I'll write it down. Mr. Souza. Yeah, I would like to also make a motion if we do vote to have this go

through. It has some kind of a time constraint because this article doesn't really address how fast they would have to do that so i would say we should amend this to say within 45 days of passage if it does pass can you make the motion formally yes i'd like to make a motion to yes understood i'll get back to you mr souza so we have a motion to

indefinitely postpone in a second we'll take this with an electronic vote the clerk will prepare it we're going to vote on this person then i'll get to miss paszkowski so again a yes vote here would indicate that the body is comfortable with indefinitely postponing this article a no vote would indicate that the body wants to take up the article today the vote will now be open for 30 seconds time has expired the

clerk will now reveal the result of the vote With 134 in the affirmative, 55 in the negative, and 189 votes totally cast, the motion to indefinitely postpone carries. I withdraw my motion. Thank you, sir.

Mr. Moderator, may I make a statement? One second, please. Hold on. I want to just write down the result. Ms. Paskowski. I'd like to make a statement about the water and sewer commissioners. They have not been honest. Ma'am. What? What? We are now on to article number 23. We will not be having any discussions on that unless it's pertinent to the article before. He made a statement about them.

I'm sorry? He made a statement about them. We're now on to article 23 because 22 was indefinitely postponed. So what I will do is I'll read it out and I believe that you will also be presenting on that, correct? Understood. Okay. Article number 23. To see is the town, I'm assuming that's if, but to see if the town will vote to compel the

water and sewer commissioners and or the board of selectmen to call for an informational meeting at the Somerset Berkeley Regional High School within 90 days of this vote to present the citizens competing plans for water sewage treatment. Motion to waive the reading. Second.

All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Carries nearly unanimously. The reading has been waived. Thank you. I will now indicate that the Advisory and Finance Committee has no recommendation on this article and that there is no pending motion before the body. One second. Yes, ma'am. Christine Farias, 48 Apostle Road. I will be voting yes today on Article 23 to advocate for additional time to inform the

citizens of Somerset on future plans for restoration of the town's wastewater treatment plant. by voting yes today on article 23 in conjunction with voting no on both articles ma'am i will just cut you off just for a second you cannot speak without there being a motion present so i assume mr susan will help you out and then once the motion is made the

floor is yours again okay so you're gonna okay all right ed just make them okay motion to put article 23 as written Okay. I think that should be good enough. I have a motion on the floor to take up Article #23 as written and recommended. Do I have a second? Second. Okay. The floor is now yours again. Thank you. Can I restart the time? Yes. Okay. A vote yes today on

Article 23 in conjunction with voting no on Articles 15 and 16 would allow the citizens the following: A pause on using funds related to design, engineering, and legal fees for a larger capital project to fully restore the treatment plant until a special citizens meeting is held to provide transparency on the estimated total cost to restore that treatment plant along with a side-by-side comparison of

alternate options and potential funding sources available. The Somerset Sentinel posted an article two days ago summarizing all the articles in today's meeting and they included the following paragraph in regards to Article 23: The Water and Sewer Commission has had an engineer analyze upgrading the current water pollution control facility in Somerset versus tying

into the Fall River plant to meet the EPA's permit and has decided to move forward with upgrading the town sewer plant at an estimated cost of $75 million. To my knowledge, that estimate and engineering analysis reference in that article is not finalized and still in draft phase. Without the sewer commission providing the citizens a final engineering analysis of the total project cost and the funding sources used to

fund that project, I'm skeptical of what that estimated 75 million total cost truly entails for the town. Depending on the funding sources used, if incorporating interest costs, that could put total project costs in today's total dollars well above that 75 million dollar estimate.

I do not feel I personally have all the details on this project to make a professional decision to continue to approve the town in articles 15 and 16 to use dollars without knowing the long-term impacts of what that future project might entail.

And if you feel you don't have enough information, please vote yes on articles 23 for more info to be presented side by side and no on both articles 15 and 16. - Thank you very much. - Thank you. Mr. Catarat, you have a response? Thank you. Do you mind if I turn around and face people? That's fine. I just have a hard time talking with my back to everybody

because I think this is just something that we want to get out. So, this article compels us to have a public meeting. In fact, we've had two public meetings already. We had a draft report that was posted on May 8th, and we had our first public meeting on May 12th, 2025. Our goal in this whole process is is to be as transparent as possible. And that's what we've tried to do. It's

not our decision. This will be a town decision. We have to come back to the town for the funding for this project. So we had a meeting in May.

We asked for comments. We received two comments. One was from Paul Furlan in Fall River. The second was from a citizen. We made some revisions to the report. We posted the second revised report. We had a second public meeting on September 2nd. We asked for public comment. We took public comments up until December, we said. We received one comment from citizens. We asked Fall River to provide a rate to us.

They did that among other things that we asked for and we presented a cost comparison at our December 2025 meeting and the cost comparison showed that the choice to renovate the plant was much less than the option to go to Fall River. The cost comparisons are posted in the minutes of the December 19, 2025 meeting on the town website. You can look at that. Those

cost comparisons are there. The $75 million number. So we have committed since the beginning of this to only have this project cost $75 million. We have driven home the point with our engineer, Wright Pierce, that we are not going to have a project that costs more than $75 million. To that point, we asked them, after we made the decision to move ahead, which we have not even authorized any design money for

them yet, they're going to get a proposal to us and that proposal will be reviewed and approved. But what we asked them to look at was to do the project in either two phases or one phase, with the total project cost not exceeding $75 million. The one-phase approach, which was not the approach that we approved, that we went forward with first, results in a savings to the townspeople of about

$12 million. So we've decided to go with a one-phase project rather than a two-phase project. If we will be as transparent as possible with this, if you have questions, you can call myself, you can call Bob Lima, you can call Joe Bednarik. We have meetings every other Wednesday, come to the meetings, we have a time for public input, we always have an item on there for the Net Dease Permit compliance, where

we provide updates to that. So, we will continue to be transparent. As far as what this is going to cost in the end, we're going to have to come to this body with a final cost estimate and get approval from this body to spend any money to do the upgrade of the plant. So we will be back and in preparation of that we will have meetings before that with the final design

number and what that looks like. So we have worked with Fall River. The number they gave us didn't work. The fee that they gave us to treat the sewage for if you took our budget this year, fiscal year 27, and just so I don't get this wrong,

With the rates that they gave us, the cost to treat the sewage that's generated by Somerset would be $7,388,322.

Our sewer budget this year is $4,554,465. That's less, much less, than what it would cost to go to Fall River. And those analysis that are available online show what it costs with the debt service for each option. The savings over a 25 year period are almost $40 million for the residents of the town. So I thank you for the opportunity to speak on this. And if you have any questions, please call us or attend our

meetings and we'll gladly give you the information you're looking for. Thank you, Mr. Catarat.

I believe Mr. Sousa was here first, so I'll turn it over to him first, and then I'll recognize Mr. Mendez. I'm all set. Mr. Mendez, you can go. Thank you, sir. Lloyd Mendes, 46 Anilong Street. Mr. Moderator, the planning process was transparent. We can all go on the website. These meetings were held over the years. I personally, along with the Sousas, attended the first meeting back

in '21. Yes, the cost are estimates. Of course they're estimates. Everything is an estimate until construction starts. But the overall difference between regionalization and keeping it in Somerset was two times. There's an order of magnitude difference. You're going to change dollars and cents, but you ain't going to change the overall fact that it'll

cost twice as much you want to if you want the the regionalization with with Fall River it's cheaper for us ratepayers to keep it here and by the way when I'm talking about cheaper I'm not talking just about the cost of the project at 75 mil the the biggest cost for us over the next 20 30 years if we live that long is the debt burden and it's going to be a

it's going to be costly but it'll be twice as costly if we if we vote yes on this Article before the board right now therefore for that reason I am going to vote no on this article understood. Thank you. Thank you sir before I Think I think she should feel sorry miss Paskowski the floor is yours. Thank you. I'll wait one second So us thank you,

so I was very ignorant about the sewer and In February 23, I started watching the meetings and I listened to them talk for over a year about how expensive the project is. They never mentioned Fall River in any of those meetings. And then in March of 24, Paul Furlan said, "Why don't you look into it? Why don't you re-examine it?" Because I watched that meeting

that Lloyd and the Sousas and Pat McDonald participated in a Zoom meeting.

And the last question that was asked was Ed Souza. And he asked about Fall River. Yeah, yeah. Scott O'Brien and Mr. Bosikowski said no, it's too expensive and it's three times expensive and at the same time Kevin Olsen was there. He was our town council and he was nodding his head in agreement when Bosikowski was saying we gotta go from treatment point plant, the treatment plant, it's six miles and all this

just lies. That's a complete lie. That's not the truth. That was not the case if you looked into it. But back then, if you're ignorant like I was, I'm thinking they're telling me the truth. They weren't and the reason it was more is because we have an infiltration and inflow problem. So that's why when you send all our wastewater to Fall River, that includes the infiltration and flow, which they never even

tried to bargain with Fall River. They never even tried to negotiate that portion of wastewater. And when Paul Furland sent them that letter, everyone in this room should have to read it. He said this was a starting point. This was not a firm, the money he gave them was not a firm amount. He said this is a starting point to start conversation. And he didn't even try to negotiate. They

didn't even try to look into forming a district which would save us more money on the capital expenses that we had to like, if we had to build a pipe and the pump station, that would save us more if we formed a district.

They didn't even look into that. Their analysis was based on being a customer. And they held firm that price that Paul Fruehling said. They made Paul Fruehling give them, they forced him to come up with a number. When they haven't even come up with a rate study, they have not come up with a rate study. They have not come up with Fall River Regeneration Evaluation Part. It's not even finalized yet. They

have nothing. They're going off of their numbers. They figured out something on their own.

Not even the same amounts. They're basing their decision. They don't have the same amounts.

- Understood. - They don't have any idea what we're gonna do with our sludge.

They have never even mentioned to this town how much of a problem we have with our collection system and how much that's going to cost. They haven't even come close to mentioning that. You can finish your sentence, but thank you for your thoughts.

So we don't have the information. We do not have it. All we're asking for is to have a side-by-side comparison. And for this town not to want that, it's not right. Thank you very much. Turn it over to you, sir. I think Mr.

Kasikis should have a chance to talk. Okay. The floor is yours. Yes, sir. My name is Stoney Kasikis. I'm a resident here of Somerset, 194 Colonial Drive. I spent almost 40 years in this field. I hold a grade 7 license. I was a deputy director of operations for the wastewater treatment plant in Deer Island, second largest treatment plant in the country. I also held the position of operations chief up there in

charge of all the operation of that facility. And I just want to say that Somerset has a jewel. We have our own treatment plant. And I really want to encourage you folks to keep what we have here, rebuild what we have here. Our biggest mistake was years back we didn't put money into this plant. Well, we're going to have to put money into this plant. But I am not one to believe

that we should depend on somebody else taking care of our wastewater treatment. We need to take care of our own. It's going to be an expense here, but it's something we're going to have to abide by. And you know something? We elected three people here on the Water and Sewer Commission. And these three people are very educated people. They've been around in the field a long time, like I have. And when

they come to us, you know, you have to have an architectural firm to do all this kind of work. We can't depend on somebody to just come off the cuff and say, we've got to do this and we've got to do that. It doesn't work like that. I went through a $3.5 billion construction project. And I've seen what it takes to build these treatment plants. And like I said before, this plant

was built in 1970. Chick Marshawn built this plant. We got 85% of it was federal money. You know, somebody said a while back that we had, the National Grid had something to do with building that treatment plant. No, they got us fire department stuff, but they had nothing to do with this treatment plant. And like I said, I hate to say, once you lose a treatment plant, my friends, you'll never get

it back. Trust me. Thank you, sir. Christopher Dast, 70 Dawn Terrace. I'd like to make a motion to indefinitely postpone. Second. Indefinitely postpone, you said? Yes. Do I have a second? I have a second. So there is a motion on the floor to indefinitely postpone article number 23. There is a second. I will now call for a voice vote. Just a reminder, this is a

majority. Mr. Moderator? Yes, sir. They just had some discussion? Yes, of course. Thanks. To the point that Mr. Gordette made previously, I mean, we have three elected members of this board that we are incredibly fortunate to be so qualified to work on this project. You know, Mr. Katterat, who's the chairman, is a licensed civil engineer, worked in the town of Falmouth. Bob Lima

is the former head superintendent of our water and sewer department over 30 years working down there. I think 22, I could be wrong on the years, 22 years, you know, running the water and sewer treatment plant. Joe Bendarek, who's the union electrician who can certainly look at this project, been on the board a long time. They have the qualifications working with engineering

firm that they're hiring to be able to make the decisions that are in the best financial interest of the town of Somerset. Thank you, Mr. Smith. So seeing that we have no further discussion, we have the motion on the floor to indefinitely postpone.

In a second, I will now start with a voice vote. All those in favor of indefinitely postponing Article 23, indicate by voting aye. Aye. All those opposed? No. Okay, and with a nearly unanimous vote, The article is indefinitely postponed. Thank you.

Madam moderator... Mr. moderator, sorry. It was bound to happen. Madam moderator is back there. Mr. moderator, it's going to happen eventually. I make a motion not to reconsider articles 22 and 23. Second. Alright, I have a motion on the floor to not reconsider articles 22 and 23. I have a second. Is there any discussion? Mr. Goff? No, I'm waiting. Oh,

okay. You're being, you're quick. Okay. Motion on the floor, again, as I just said, is to not reconsider articles 22 and 23. A yes vote here indicates that you support not reconsidering the two articles. A no vote means that you do not support reconsidering. Seeing that there's a motion in a second, we'll start with the voice vote.

All those in favor, indicate by saying aye. Opposed? Unanimous.

Thank you. Alright, and for everyone's information, we are now going back to the order that we had picked up.

So we are on article number five, which I will read aloud to the crowd. Article number five, to see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate and/or transfer from available funds a sum of money for the purpose of paying the town's share of the operating and capital expenses of Somerset Berkeley Regional School District. And said amount having been assessed, the treasurer of the

town of somerset and with said assessment subject to the provisions of the certain amended agreement approved by the vote taken under article 6 of the warrant of the annual town meeting of may 17 2021 or take any action relative thereto The Advisory and Finance Committee unanimously recommends that the town vote to appropriate the sum of $11,303,135 for the purpose of the article and that said sum be

raised from taxation and this vote was taken with a 6-0 unanimous consent.

Mr. moderator. Mr. Gough. I move that the town vote to appropriate the sum of $11,303,135 for the fiscal year beginning July 1st, 2026 to June 30, 2027 for the purposes of paying the town's share of operating expenses $9,680,990 in capital expenses $1,622,145 for the Somerset Berkeley Regional District, set amounts having been assessed to the treasurer of the

town, and that said sum be raised from taxation. Second. I have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? All right, welcome back. Mr. Murata, moderator Patty Steele. I do have a question about this budget. I have not been able to go to as many meetings on the budget as I did last year. And I hope going forward, the people who get up and speak

will go to more of the budget meetings and see how hard the school committee works. My question is, how does this increase affect, I believe Berkeley did not approve their part of it. So, are these figures still the same? So, how can we approve this I'll call upon Mr. Gaw. I'm confused. I just need some clarity. Or if there's anyone else that would prefer to

respond to this question. Mr. Paskinak is coming down. I can see where he's descending.

Oh, I can see him. Yep, yep. Gotcha. We've got a few folks coming down.

I'll defer to Mr. Paskinak. Yes sir. Victor Machado, 119 Desmond Ave. Berkeley has not voted their town meetings June 1st. So they have not taken any action. We always seem to, our town meetings always first before theirs. Gotcha. Thank you.

Mr. Pasternak? Mike Pasternak, Somerset Berkeley Regional School Committee. They are voting June 1st to approve their portion of the budget. They did vote against it two and a half override how that's going to affect how that's going to affect the vote on the school They do have a stabilization fund. I assume it's going to be okay but I think what we're just really dealing with here

is Somerset's portion of the total budget. Thank you sir. Thank you for clarifying that and please to the public We do have great educational programs here in Somerset.

I would never vote against anything that I didn't think was awesome. But please, come to more of the school committee members' meetings next year, starting in January, and voice your opinions there. Don't voice them here when it's too late. Thank you. Seeing no further discussion anywhere, I will remind the meeting that we have a motion on the floor to accept Article 5 as written and recommended, as well as a second.

All those in favor will indicate by voting aye. I'll remind folks that a yes vote here is accepting the article as written. A no vote would be to oppose that. It is a simple majority. And I will start with the voice vote now.

All those in favor of accepting Article 5 as written and recommended? Aye. Those opposed?

Thank you. And article number five will carry with a near unanimous vote. And that was taken at 1:06. Article six. Article six. To see if the town will vote to raise and appropriate and/or transfer from available funds such sum of money for the purpose of paying the town's share of the operating expenses of the Greater Fall River Vocational Technical Regional High School. Oh,

I said that backwards. As provided for by section six, of Chapter 697 of the Acts of 1962, with said amount having been assessed to the Treasurer of the Town of Somerset, or take any action relative thereto. I will note, the Advisory and Finance Committee unanimously recommends that the Town vote to appropriate the sum of $2,758,175 for the purpose of this article, and that said sum be raised from taxation.

Mr. Moderator? Mr. Smith. i move that the town vote to appropriate the sum of two million seven hundred and fifty eight thousand one hundred and seventy five dollars for the purpose of funding the town's assessment for the greater fall river vocational technical high school district as written in the article and that says some be raised from taxation with a motion in a second i would ask if there's any discussion ed

susa 130 picasso street i just want to um Can we get a quick number on students in the high school and are our numbers getting decreased? Because somebody mentioned today that we had only 36 students accepted to this school. Does anybody have that information? 36 in the new class, I believe Mr. Guar said, right? 37, I'm sorry, 37. Could you give us a clarification on whether that number is going down or up year after

year? If anyone...

entering as a freshman Thank you for the clarification. Yes, ma'am. Cheryl Crossley Simmons, 570 Main Street. Does anybody know what the rep gets paid? When I was there, I wouldn't allow anyone to get paid, but I know that they get stipends now. Does anybody happen to know? I believe Mr. Gar will have a response for you.

It's right behind you. Oh, okay. Mr. Goff. Mr. Moderator, through you, only because Mr.

DiBiasio did mention this to me, he told me there is no stipend. None. Yes.

Thank you. Seeing no further discussion, we have a motion in a second out there to accept and vote on Article 6 as written and recommended. I will do so with the voice vote. Reminder that a yes here means to accept it as written and recommended, and no vote is to oppose. The simple majority will suffice. All those in favor indicate by saying aye. Aye.

Opposed? The motion carries unanimously. Okay, on to Article #7. To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate and/or transfer from available funds such sum of money for the purpose of paying the Town's share of the operating expenses of the Bristol County Agricultural School as provided for by Section 82 of Chapter 6 of the Acts of 1991, in said amount having been assessed to the Treasurer of the

Town of Somerset or taken the action relative thereto. The Advisory and Finance Committee has a recommendation that they will share at town meeting and I will call them up to the microphone now. Mr. Moderator? Yes, sir. The Advisory and Finance Committee unanimously recommend approval of this article. Thank you very much. So, there is a... Mr. Moderator. Mr.

Costa, yes. mr moderator i move the town vote to appropriate the sum of 297 510 for the purpose of funding the town's assessment for the bristol county agricultural school as written in the article and that said sum be raised from taxation second thank you i have a motion and a second is there any discussion mr moderator mr costa The total assessment is $297,510 of which

$138,510 is assessed to tuition and the remaining $159,000 is assessments. Do I see any further discussion? Seeing none, the town will now prepare to vote on article number seven as written and recommended. As a reminder, a yes vote here would be to accept the article. A no vote would be to reject it. With the motion in second, all those in favor please indicate by

Mr. Moderator. Mr. Gough. I would like to make a motion that articles five through seven not be reconsidered. Second. Okay, I have a motion and a second that we do not reconsider articles 5, 6, and 7. Seeing no further discussion from the meeting, all those in favor indicate by saying aye. Aye. Those who oppose say no. Motion carries unanimously. Articles 5, 6, and 7 will no longer

be reconsidered. Thank you. Okay, now we move on to article number 8. Article number 8: To see if the Town will vote to amend the Town's Revolving Fund By-law, adopted by a vote taken under Article 3 of the Warren of the Annual Town Meeting of May 15, 2017, as amended by inserting a new revolving fund labeled "Solid Waste Collection Program Revolving Fund" and

to set expenditure limits for said revolving fund for fiscal year beginning on July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027 of $2,500,000 to be expended as authorized by the Highway Superintendent under the provisions of Mass General Law Chapter 44, Section 53E or take any action relative thereto.

Mr. Moderator. Select Mecosta. Mr. Moderator, I move the town vote to approve the town's revolving fund bylaw amendment as written in the article. Okay, I have a motion and a second. I will also note that the Advisory and Finance Committee unanimously recommends the approval of this article with a 6-0 vote. I see, is there

any discussion from Mr. Moderator? Selecting Costa. This article, if approved, earmarks revenues generated from rubbish bags and the use of transfer, the use of the transfer station. The Highway Department would like to create a new revolving fund account. which would use the funds collected from the fees charge associated with the solid waste collection program for the cost

associated with administering the solid waste collection program, maintenance work, and for any purposes incidental thereto. Thank you, Selectman. Patty Seale, I have a quick question about this figure. Can someone tell us how much we paid in penalties because people put the wrong things in the wrong places? Or is this just, you know, what we put in

our trash bags? This has nothing to do with like the recyclables and stuff? So when Miss DiLucci and I last met with the hauling company, they did bring up about people throwing things into the recycling bins, an air conditioner in the recycle bin, but we had not We had not been assessed any fines at this point. They just talked about, you know, our needing to try to educate

the residents as to what's appropriate to attempt to recycle and what's not.

Typically, recycling goes to what's called the MRF facility. where everything gets segregated out. We get rebates back for paper, cardboard, cans, glass, plastic. The things we're supposed to recycle. Right. But, you know, there's a cost for the company if they have to dispose of things that aren't supposed to be in their recycling stream. They have not

passed anything along to us at this time. Okay, and then I'm probably going to get booed for suggesting this, but have we looked into would it cost us less?

My daughter lives in Attleboro, my best friend lives in Taunton, and their recyclables are only picked up every other week. And as we look at the population in the town, we see that we have less families and more people who don't use as many recyclables. And, you know, what did you do when all you had was the little blue thing? Now you'll have something on wheels that could kill you on a

windy day. Yeah. So we look at that pretty consistently, the overall trash program, and again, part of the meeting that we had with the hauler was looking at opportunities to be able to reduce the cost of that program.

The challenging part of the program is the cost of disposing of trash just continues to get higher and higher. I mean, the trash being generated in Somerset, Massachusetts is not being disposed up in Somerset. It's being hauled in most cases out of state. Again, I happen to deal with a lot in my full-time job and you know, we're seeing 30% increases. So the fact that we've got a hauler who

now actually picks up trash and recycling on the day that they're supposed to pick up trash and recycling, by and large, I still get a complaint once in a while, but not where we were and that that's being done at a reasonable cost.

You know, I have people telling me how do I get a second recycling bin because they have so much recycling. I see a hand up. But there's, you know, some people that, you know, wouldn't be able to go two weeks. So we're always looking at it. We're always weighing what our options are. But, you know, we think that we're pretty good with the program right now. And I think the modifications that

we made to the transfer station which was operating at a deficit costing the taxpayers money for the people who were utilizing that in some cases people from out of town will bring construction debris to the town of Somerset to dispose of so we made modifications there to reduce the impact on taxation from operating a transfer station so we'll continue to look at that thanks for that Mr. Smith Chris Gaudette 70 Dawns

Terrace i'm a little confused because we've had this program in place for 20 something years before i came to town why the need for a revolving fund now when the next article has us offset the costs with the fees charged from rubbish bags and then a second question just to get them all out of there why would it only be the highway superintendent

to have full authority over this 2.5 million dollar revolving fund. I guess I worry that I don't think we're looking to buy trucks to collect trash. I don't think that's the direction that we're looking ahead to, but does this give that person the authority to move forward with that? Yeah, so as far as the first question, basically when we brought in, I believe it's the new auditing firm, they explained

to us that the way we had been doing that was incorrect, that basically we had operated it as a revolving fund without having truly set up a revolving account.

So now we're looking to set up the revolving account so that from you know an accounting standpoint We're making sure that we're doing it in the most appropriate manner as far as the highway superintendent oversees You know the program but obviously the town administrator oversees the highway superintendent and the board of selectmen oversee, you know the entire operation so the time The highway

superintendent would not be down Expending this is the total dollar amount that can be expended in the account and basically the bulk The bulk of that is just paying the invoices that come in from the company that does the hauling. OK. Thank you. Thank you. Jeff 52 Folsom Avenue. Just a quick question. Has the town had discussions with the vendor on whether or not the town would save money if we had a trash barrel in

lieu of trash bags? I know other communities have barrels, less employees on the truck. Just curious, you know, and our trash bag vendor, I know twice in the last month I went to go pick up trash bags and the delivery was delayed or not happening and couldn't get a trash bag so i'm just curious if the town has had those discussions and whether or not it would

save the town money if we went to a trash barrel pickup similar to recycling so when we went out to bid this last time for trash services we looked at that in both ways we looked at the ability to get trash bins similar to our recycling bins that and eliminate the bags. Like most communities that have gone to that type of the service, there's still somewhere

you need to collect the revenue to be able to dispose of the trash if we're not offsetting that with bags similar to swansea who you know you have to buy an annual sticker same thing up in braintree the mall that i managed had two empty houses i still had to buy stickers for the two empty houses but the reason So the savings that were going to be generated by getting a trash bin didn't justify going to

the program. There are some labor savings from not needing a second person on the truck, but it did not justify it. The second thing that I like about the bag program is, you know, I'll be driving to work, drive by a lot of houses in town on the way, and I'll see houses that have three, four large white trash bags out. And I do say thank you as I drive by because

they're helping to fund our trash program. But for our seniors, some of whom, you know, if there's one person living in the house by themselves, you know, the cost is equally spread out when you have the trash bins. Every resident is going to equally pay based on the assessed value of their home versus paying based on, you know, the impact that you're having on the trash collection system. So

it seems to be a more equitable way that the the people who are generating the trash. If you're doing a great job, the gentleman who needs two recycling bins, if you're doing a great job on recycling and you can get away with one bag a week, great. The people that, you know, everything just goes in a trash bag and they want to put out three or four bags every week, they should

they should be funding you know the trash program not the rest of us thank you mr smith you answered my follow-up question which was um whether or not we looked into a fee per resident and eliminate trash bags i i hate having to buy hefty trash bags just to throw one trash bag into another trash bag um To me, it fills up the landfill even more with plastic

trash bags. But you just answered my question about spreading that out evenly. So I agree with you. I'm not a huge fan of putting out a trash bag and the convenience of a bin would be nice. I accidentally put my trash out the wrong night this week, forgetting that we have Memorial Day on Monday. I got home from work last night and some animal got into the trash and it was all

over the place. So I understand. All right. Do I see any further discussion on the floor relative to article number eight? Seeing none and knowing that there is a motion and a second on the floor, I will prepare to take a vote. As a reminder, a yes vote here means that you approve of Article 8 as written and recommended, excuse me, as written and recommended. A no vote

means that you disapprove of that. I will start by saying all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. The opposed? The motion carries unanimously. Thank you.

All right, we are now on Article Number 9. To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate, and/or transfer from available funds, a sum of money for the expense of collecting and disposing of mixed solid waste, recyclables, yard waste, and white goods. And to determine whether pursuant to MGL Chapter 44, Section 53, the appropriation for said expense will be offset in part or in the aggregate, by the estimated

receipts from the fees charged for the rubbish bags pursuant to the vote taken under Article 10 of the warrant of the Special Town Meeting of February 8, 1993, as well as funds raised by taxation or transferred from available funds, or take any action relative thereto. I will note the Advisory and Finance Committee unanimously recommends that the

vote that the town vote to appropriate the sum of $1,396,400 for the purposes of this article and that said sum be raised from taxation. Mr. Moderator. Mr.

Costa. Mr. Moderator, I move the town vote to appropriate the sum of $1,396,400 for the purpose as written in the article and that said sum be raised from taxation. Second. seeing that there is a motion in a second i'll turn it over for any discussion mr moderator this not this article needs to be approved annually to fund the town solid waste collection program established in 1993 and apply the

revenue collected through the sale of town trash bags towards the cost of the entire program for fiscal year 2027 revenues are projected to be at one million dollars and expenses are estimated uh to be two million three hundred and ninety six thousand four hundred dollars Thank you, Selectmen. Are there any further comments, questions, any discussion? Seeing none and knowing that there is a motion

and a second, we will now prepare to vote on Article 9 as written and recommended. All those in favor of Article 9 written and recommended, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed? The motion carries unanimously. All right, next up we're on Article 10, and this is to see if the town will vote to appropriate and transfer Is there a second?

Okay. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Great. I get to save my throat for the next few. Mr. Moderator. Selectman Costa. Mr. Moderator, I move the town vote to appropriate and transfer from the PEG access and cable related fund the sum of $375,000 for the purposes as written in this article. Okay. Seeing a motion and a second, is there any discussion? Mr. Moderator. Selectman Costa.

The town receives revenue generated by Comcast to be used to be only used for cable related purposes in accordance with the town's license agreement. The peg access and cable related fund is used to fund cable related services and capital improvements needed to enhance peg access television peg access services and public education government local cable television channels. Thank you. Seeing no further discussion,

I think we'll prepare to take a voice vote. As a reminder, yes means that you support the article as written and recommended. No means that you oppose. Simple majority.

All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Those opposed? The motion carries unanimously at 128.

Article number 11 to see if the town will vote to raise an appropriate and/or transfer from available funds a sum of money to the other post employment benefits or OPEB liability trust fund or take any action relative thereto. The Advisory and Finance Committee will have a recommendation at town meeting. Yes sir. See if I can use the

mic this time. Mr. Moderator, the Advisory and Finance Committee unanimously recommends approval of this article. Thank you. The Advisory and Finance unanimously recommends. Selectman Bednarik. Mr. Mr. Moderator, I move that the town vote to appropriate the sum of $250,000 for the purpose as written in the article and that said sum be transferred from free

cash. I have a motion. Second. Second. Any discussion, Selectman? This article, if approved, will transfer $250,000 to the supplement, supplement the reserve account to pay for future health care costs for retirees. The current balance in the account is $3,647,902. The new balance will be $3,897,902. The funds that are being set aside in the trust will be only used to pay for retiree health insurance contributions.

Thank you. Any further discussion? Patty Steele, 180 Yankee Pebble Drive. Just an awareness.

Look at that figure, everyone that's out there. And people who are on committees such as the school committee, everything else that creates a budget. I think we need to look at things like, for example, I'm not looking to fire anybody or let anybody go, but something, for example, whoever cleans all our town offices or whatever, they're a full-time employee of the town. They receive benefits. When they retire,

we have to pay their benefits. I know that Diane Rehoboth in Swansea now use a private vendor to do all their cleanings. And so they don't have to pay for the person's vacation. They don't have to pay for the person's benefits. They don't have to worry about all that because it's a private sector. And not that I'm looking to have anyone's jobs eliminated, but I think when we're building our budgets, you

know, and somebody retires, Do we really need to fill that position with a full-time person who we have to pay all their benefits? Because that's a big chunk of change. And I know we get some funding back through the state and stuff, but I did speak to Mr. Lucci about this and I was like, people forget those benefits sometimes cost more than the actual person's salary. Thank you. So, Mr. Moderator. Selectman

Smith. If we were to hire an outside vendor, they would still need to be a union contractor. You know, again, it's required in Massachusetts general law. So I utilize a private contractor to clean the mall. I still pay pension expense, training fund, legal fund, all of the union expenses that a town would pay. I'm paying because, you know, it's union work. Ma'am, you can come up

to the microphone and ask a subsequent question.

because i know that the um towns of somerset's uh dighton and rehoboth it's not a union so the difference is you don't see you just it's all rolled into an invoice that you get on a monthly basis you don't see this line that you would see in the town budget you just see a line so again anything that the town does is a requirement to pay prevailing wage rates and And so

you're paying no matter what. Okay, thank you. Thank you. Mr. Kasikis? Tony Kasikis, 194 Cologne Drive. I got quite a lot of experience with hiring people when I was a maintenance director. And when you first hire them, we used to get them for about three years. The first year, they're excellent. Then the second year, it tapers down.

Third year, it's just the wash. And I tell you, being very familiar with Town Hall and some of the folks that we have here cleaning, we have some of the nicest people, courteous people, and they do a great job of cleaning this town for us. Thank you. Did you want to speak? No? Okay. in the absence of further discussion the chair will now bring up a vote on article 11

reminder that by majority you will vote on to approve the article as written and recommended for op-ed benefits those opposed will vote no all those in favor please indicate by saying aye those opposed okay the motion carries nearly unanimously mr moderator yes sir would a motion be in order to waive The reading of the remainder of the

articles. Of the remaining articles? Yes. Okay, do I have a second? Second. Alright, and we'll take it up for a vote. This is a motion to waive the reading of the remaining articles. All those in favor, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed? The motion carries nearly unanimously. Mr. Moderator. Yes, sir.

I move that the town vote to appropriate the sum of $50,000 for the purpose as written in the article and that said sum be transferred from free cash. Second.

This is for Article 12, right, Selectman? Article 12, sir. Okay. And just as a reminder, the A&F will have a recommendation at town meeting. Mr. Moderator. Yes, sir. The Advisory and Finance Committee unanimously recommend approval of this article. Okay. Seeing that there's a motion and a second, all those in favor indicate by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed?

Aye. Motion carries unanimously. Mr. Motter, I guess it's Article 13? Article 13, yes sir. I'd like to make a motion to move, I move that the town vote to appropriate the sum of $1,559,375 for the purpose as written in the article and that said sum be transferred from free cash. Second. Seeing that there's a motion and a second, any discussion? Selectmen? This article, if approved, provides funding in the

aggregate amount of one million five hundred fifty nine thousand three hundred and seventy five dollars for capital purchases and projects for public safety and other municipal purposes at the respective amount designated above thank you and i will just add before i open up for discussion that um just to clarify on the procedure of article 13 because it

is written as a consent calendar um there are 10 unique appropriations on there from the fire police and highway department um And the way that it works is that it's almost treated as like a bundle. One vote would take care of all of the ten appropriations within this item, whereas prior it would have had to have been ten separate appropriations that get voted on. What I will say in the procedure here,

just to be clear and open and transparent to everyone, is that the moderator will read out loud each of the ten items. If any resident from the meeting seeks to pull one or hold one for further discussion or questioning, I will leave time after reading each item out. Just raise your hand, call out, whatever it may be.

We'll hold it off to the side. Say, for example, of the ten items in the consent calendar, four get pulled and six remain. We will vote on the six remaining items in the consent agenda all at once as a bundle. From there, we will go to each of the respective four items that was pulled out. It will be open for any discussion, and each of those four items will be voted on

separately. Does that make sense? Is there any questions procedurally before I turn the floor over? And if there's anything else that comes up, I can repeat myself, but I will turn it over for discussion and then I will read each of the ten.

Or rather, I'll start off by reading each of the ten, and if either of the gentlemen in front of me have questions or concerns, they will call it out, pull it, and we'll discuss them further. Is that understood by everyone? Great. Thank you.

For the Fire Department, item number one: to purchase PFAS-free NFPA firefighting gear totaling $310,000. Article number two: to purchase and equip one pickup truck totaling $65,000. Item number three: to purchase and equip one ladder truck for $500,000. We would like to pull that one off, please. Yes, sir. Article three, or item three, has been held for further discussion. Shifting

to the police department to purchase and equip one pickup truck, $85,000. Seeing none. Item 5, to purchase and equip one police cruiser totaling $55,000. Seeing nothing.

Item 6 is to purchase storage containers and associated equipment for $10,000. Okay. and for the final four items in the consent calendar it is the highway department item seven is to purchase and equip a plow truck for two hundred eighty eight thousand three hundred and seventy five dollars please please pull that one okay you guys are in sync up here both of you huh

we will hold item number seven item number eight to purchase and equip a used bucket truck that is forty six thousand dollars it has been held item number nine is to purchase and equip two snowplow trucks two brine trucks and other snow related equipment at a hundred thousand dollars that has also been pulled and held bless you and number ten is funding storm water management compliance

and that is totaling one hundred thousand dollars seeing nothing gotcha so to repeat myself of the ten items and i will get to you sir of the ten items three seven eight and nine have been pulled That means that Articles 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, and 10 will remain in this consent calendar that will be voted upon in a moment. I will turn it over

to the Chair of the A&F. No, that one's not on you, I don't think.

I think we have a dead mic. Want to switch to that microphone? Mr. Moderator, is it too late to pull number 4? It is certainly not. Okay. I'd like to make a motion to do that. Number 4 has been pulled and held.

So I will just repeat myself again. There have been five articles that have been pulled. That is articles 3, 4, 7, 8, 9.

Those will be held for separate discussion. But first, we will be discussing and voting on 1, 2, 5, 6, and 10.

Seeing that I already have a motion from the selectmen and a second, the question now comes on adopting the consent calendar with those five respective items within it. Does everyone understand what they're voting on? Okay. This can be done by a simple majority vote, and if I may, I see somebody coming up to the microphone. Bridget Marcotte, one-- I'm sorry, I just moved 65 Williamson Drive. I'm

just looking for the A&F recommendation on these articles. Yep. The ANF recommendation is what you said? Mr. Wilcox. Mr. Moderator, the Advisory and Finance Committee unanimously recommend approval of this article. Thank you. Seeing no further discussion, we will now be voting on the consent calendar that contains Articles 1, 5, 6, and 10. All those in favor of the consent calendar-- sorry, 1,

2, 5, 6, and 10. Thank you for that correction. All those in favor of voting the consent calendar as written and recommended, please indicate by saying aye. Those opposed? The consent calendar with those specific items has passed with unanimous consent. With this in mind, we are now going to be taking up items 3, 4, 7, 8, and 9 on their own for further discussion. And I don't remember who was up here

first, so... I think we'll probably get the same question.

Ladder truck number three. Just want to get a clarification probably from the fire chief who spent all night here. I think he's here still. If he could just give us a clarification and an overall summary of why we need this vehicle. It's a lot of money. Thank you. If the chief wishes to respond.

Jameson Barrows Pied Tree, 42 Wandsawetta Road. So our current ladder truck is 17 years old. When we replace these pieces of equipment, it's pretty involved, right? The build on a new ladder truck is three years. The price point is something that we certainly consider. These pieces of apparatus are growing at an exponential rate with what they cost.

So the current plan that I presented to the town administrators that we start to consider this purchase now, given some of the fail points that we've had with our ladder truck over the years, just to summarize, I wasn't prepared to present today, but just some round figures for you. A few years ago, the generator on the truck

failed. That was a $24,000 purchase and replacement because it's custom engineered to the vehicle.

This past year we had our ladder truck in postural service for about six months due to a failure in the waterways, valves, gates, etc. So the truck certainly has its problems. It looks very nice on the outside. Our membership does a very good job of upkeep and maintenance on the outside of the vehicle. But as it's aging, we have to consider a plan. This is discussed at length with the board, with

Mr. Iulucci, through our budget meetings, etc. When I present to the board, my obligation is to provide them with some rough numbers, right? I provide these individuals with a very thick packet for them to consider these lodge purchases. I will say just a neighborhood number for our residents to consider. Alatta truck, the total cost is going to

be in the neighborhood of $1.8 million. So we're trying to work toward a plan to get there. So you will see us over the next couple of years at annual town meeting working toward that goal. What you're looking at now is a $500,000 request and that's going to give us some options moving forward with the financing and the purchase of. The 1.8 figure again, that's a neighborhood number. So part of my

process is I start with the neighborhood, we start the discussion, then we have to start the design feature and how we're going to build out this apparatus, okay? So I have a design committee internally. We meet once and then we start meeting with vendors to see what their various products look like. That will whittle down that neighborhood

to a final number. This $500,000, depending on what we settle on, what contract we pull from, will give us options. Some of those options might include a down payment, which would significantly drive down the cost, or maybe we enter into a lease purchase agreement. Okay, but your board of selectmen, the town administrator, they'll have their hands on

the steering wheel for that process. It's my job to get down to a final number, get them the specifications for approval. But this $500,000 request today will stop the funding for this piece of apparatus, which I will tell our residents is much needed.

Our current ladder is 75 foot stick. We have some new buildings in town. We have a new hotel. We have some new apartment buildings. And we do have some shortfalls with this piece of apparatus given, you know, not only its mechanical issues, but the size of the piece of apparatus that we currently have. Thank you, Chief. Mr.

Moderator? Yes, Select Manager. Just one more point on this. So, The goal is with this money to be able to put a deposit down today versus three years out to the point the chief made the cost of this, you know, design build piece of equipment has been increasing dramatically. And this will give us the ability to lock in a price at, you know, this year number versus,

you know, having to do something three years out. the difference between what this amount is and what the deposit would need to be would be invested. So again, to try to further reduce the impact on taxpayers, this money would be invested, we'd make interest on that money, so the ultimate cost of it would be further defrayed.

- Thank you. Do any of the two gentlemen in front of me have questions pertaining to item three? Yes, Mr. Mendez. - Lloyd Mendez. 46 Anowan Street. The fire department is working closely with the applicant Flatiron and Flatiron is required to set up a host community agreement. Is there any hope that Flatiron might pick up some of the cost of this very expensive item? I realize this may

be under negotiation so therefore you may not be able to comment.

So again, the discussions with Flatiron regarding a host community agreement, a pilot agreement, which is a payment in lieu of taxes, which is what they're looking for, haven't started yet. So we haven't had discussions with them. Typically, they would look to fund things that aren't typical to the operation but there would be additional needs over and above based on a battery storage component being added to

the town thank you thank you yes sir chris gradette 70 dawns terrace uh question one is if it was mentioned i apologize the funding for this and then there'll be a follow-up question based on The funding is free cash. Originally, you know, the ask was for a million dollars for this. And when we looked at, you know, the total amount of free cash that we were going to utilize, we brought this

down to half a million to be able to minimize the amount of free cash being used. And follow up, I remember the creation of the emergency medical services revolving fund and I believe the last ladder truck came out of that fund that we were able to purchase. I'm wondering, you know, why are we not using that fund for these major purchases? I know at one point we started pulling salaries

from this account to keep the budget down, but I thought this was a source of revenue for us to help pay for these larger expenses that wouldn't hit undesignated surplus. There's nothing free about free cash. So I'd certainly defer to Chief Barrows, but to the point that you make, The revenue generated in the ALS account is based on rescue runs that the town does. And

the increased staffing that was added a number of years back, the point was we got a grant in year one.

that paid 100% of the salary of the additional firefighters that would man rescue two. Then that went to a 50% grant with the idea that ALS would 100% fund them in year three. Again, we are funding a number of officers. I don't have the total. I'm sure the Chief would. Out of that fund, the Chief did shake his head no. The last ladder

truck was not funded out of the ALS account. Again, the total expenditure in ALS With the firefighters, it's $2.1 million that was listed in the revolving fund.

This truck is $1.8 million. So, you know, taking it out of that fund, you know, there's not the capacity to be able to do that.

Thank you. Just one second. I do want to make an announcement that for anybody in attendance today that has utilized the babysitting services offered by the town, that will be finishing at 2 o'clock. That is in the cafeteria. Just a reminder, if anyone is using the babysitting services or the child care services, that will be finishing at 2 o'clock. Thank you. The floor is yours. Another question to

the fire chief, actually, regarding this ladder truck. Perhaps maybe it would last a little bit longer if we didn't send it out every single time we send out an ambulance and can't we get extra help and extra firefighters? Those EMS calls using maybe a pickup truck or a van, it seems to me and I'm sure a lot of people are probably gonna boo me about this but a lot of people are

asking the same question. Why? Why? No other town does it. Why? Why do we have to send a hook and ladder out every single time we send out an ambulance? Just for clarification, we do not send out our ladder every time the ambulance goes out, we send an engine. And that's because of the makeup of our fire department. We cross-man all of our pieces of apparatus. Everyone is a paramedic, everyone is

a firefighter. So we do not have the ability to just staff like the City of Fall River, who can use that as a comparison, where firefighters are just firefighters on their apparatus and our ambulance folks are just on manning an ambulance. So if someone goes into cardiac arrest in our town and we only have seven folks working or a minimum of five folks working, two people can't manage that. that patient, okay?

You have two folks on the ambulance, you have another two folks going and carrying all the equipment, and they have to physically pick up the person and carry them out. When we cross-man our apparatus, the folks that man the engine, that are there ready to respond to the next emergency call, they're ready to respond from that scene,

okay? And when we're short-staffed, our engines for clarification, they're staffed as a class 5 ambulance, which means they have all of the medical equipment on them. So nine times out of ten when we have a 50% overlap on our calls and both of our ambulances are out at the hospital and you see that engine responding, the emergency care is starting within five minutes with all of that ALS equipment. I would urge

you to, and I don't mean this in a sarcastic, I would urge you to stop by the fire station and kind of see how we actually operate. I've been invited several times and I appreciate your service, but I also think that it's a bit It's a bit much compared to towns like Swansea, Dayton, I hope it's not.

Thank you both. Thank you. You're welcome. Is the question relative to this particular? Yes, on this particular item, yes. Jeff Carnegie, 501. I hope that everybody's looking up the top where it says public safety. And we talk about our school systems here.

And we talk about everything else that we want to do. But this is public safety. If you're staying up in the hotels that are around here now, the hotels that are buildings, I'm sure there's gonna be a lot of other buildings that are built. And if it's your ass up there, that when it's on fire, I think that you would want the response that we get. We have the best fire department,

and we do have the best police department in this town. For this size town, if we wanna cut back on fire trucks going out with the ambulance, give 'em more people to work with. Whoever shows up first are all first responders. How could you put a price on that? For $500,000 when we see money go out the door every other way and people want to put our public safety in jeopardy. I

don't get it. I really don't get it. This is a hard pill to swallow.

We vote for all these other things that don't mean a damn thing. But I think the Chief should get what he needs and he needs the tools to do it. I appreciate the time on this. Thank you, Sir. I don't believe anybody is saying that they don't want the fire truck. We just want an explanation of why it was $500,000 even Chief, you did an excellent job by explaining that. I think

that's what the town really needs to know, right? That $500,000 is just a down payment. It doesn't say that on here, guys. We're just looking for clarification. We're making sure everything is legit. I know what he was going to say. I've been to his meetings. I appreciate you telling everybody what that's all about. Thank you. Thank you.

Any further discussion on item three relative to the $500,000 appropriated for the ladder truck?

Seeing none with a motion and second already in place, all those in favor of Article 3 indicate by saying aye. Those opposed, Article or Item 3 carries unanimously. On to Item number 4. And this is to purchase and equip one pickup truck for the police department totaling $85,000. Mr. Moderator, Greg O'Donnell, 395 Fairway Drive. I just want to know, I know it's not a lot of money, but if you add

all these little amounts of money, they add up, as you know. But I just want to know what the pickup truck's going to be used for. I heard it was to carry or transfer a signage. So I'm thinking we're talking about shared resources.

Why couldn't the highway department do that? Or who's doing that now? And I'd just like to know those two questions. Okay. I'll call up the police chief.

Chiefs the moderator First of all you're doing a great job.

Thank you, and thank you to Lucia for many years of doing a great job This will be a frontline police cruiser Obviously, it's a truck not the traditional sense. It will be replacing cruiser current cruiser 108 which is a 2017 SUV.

That cruise will be moved into the detail fleet. The oldest of the detail cars will be traded. We're also requesting an unmarked, which will also be offset by a trade. I didn't have the values of those trades as of this meeting to offset these costs, but any savings will of course be returned. Not only does the pickup truck allow us to move our radar trailers, our sign boards,

it facilitates training at the range. We can put equipment into the truck that we can't fit into one SUV. It also facilitates moving found property that is larger. As a guy who's been here for 30 years and had to stuff a bicycle into a Crown Victoria, I can tell you that a pickup truck would have been very desirable. So for all those reasons, it made more sense to

have a truck. As we have a need for a replacement on the frontline car, it'll be fully marked. subdued light package i believe is what we're going with on that but it is going to be fully marked and used on patrol thank you chief any further discussion seeing none we'll vote on item four which is as previously stated purchase and equip one pickup truck for eighty five thousand dollars

all those in favor can indicate by saying aye aye those opposed motion carries unanimously We are now on article number seven under the highway department to purchase and equip a plow truck for $288,375. Hi, just looking for a clarification on the size and model of the truck. If I may have somebody respond to the clarification. Mark. So the town administrator is going

to have to look it up. I mean, this isn't, you know, a pickup truck.

This is a six-wheel, you know, dump truck with a full-pull package. Going into the plow season this year, getting ready for it, it was determined that one of the trucks that we had, the frame had rotted to a point that it would not have been appropriate to be duped. doing plowing with and we were able to pick up a used truck from an auction to get us through this last winter, but

you know, we definitely want to make sure that we have an arsenal of snow removal equipment available to the town to make sure that we can clear the roads in the event of a snowstorm. And we're going to use one of the other sanders that will go in the typical size truck, right? Yes. Okay. I got it. Thank you. Mr. Mendes? Mr. Moderator, do you mind if I just speak to

you rather than having a separate conversation? My concern, and I think Selecting Smith, the chairman, explained this, that this is just replacing equipment we already have, and I'm very much in favor of that. I'm concerned that we may be overreacting to the storm of the century this year. I don't want to vote for anything where we overreact right now to try to increase our fleet, our snow fleet. I'd like us to

wait a year or two to cool down before we make decisions like that, because I think we're all still too angry and emotional about having been snowed in. So if the next three items, 7, 8, and 9, are simply to replace our current fleet, then I have no more questions. I'll answer on item seven. It is a replacement of a vehicle that, as I mentioned, the frame

had rotted out. We are intentionally not overreacting to one historic year in snow.

At work, I happen to be over budget $450,000 in snow removal. But, you know, again, we've had a lot of moderate years. So we need to keep the equipment that we have. couple of these the brine truck you know we can speak to when we get to that one but you know this is just a replacement of a vehicle we're not out buying six front end loaders because we needed

to rely on the state to help us out for a 41 inch snowstorm no more questions on that thank you Mr. Casicas? Tony Casicas, 194 Colonial Drive. I just want to say, when I came to Somerset in 1970, I believe the highway department must have about 18 or 20 folks out there. I know we contracted a lot of things out. But I say, Chris Simon's up here, Mr. Simon's with the Highway

Department, I think he's got either seven or eight guys, plus he's got guys that leave on him all the time. And I'm a big supporter of anything this man asks us for, to help him out to operate the Highway Department. They do a tremendously great job. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Seeing no further discussion on item seven, under the purchase and equip plow truck, I will now ask residents, all those in

favor? I have all of the ayes, all those opposed? Okay, thank you. Item seven carries unanimously. Onto item eight, and this is to purchase and equip a used bucket truck for $46,000. Any discussion? Mr.

Moderator, I will just explain. So we're looking to purchase a used bucket truck for $46,000. Right now when any issues come up in town, a town-owned tree, the branch is overhanging on a person's property and they want it removed, we have to contract that out and it costs the town quite a bit of money to do that. Mr. Yaguchi and working with the highway superintendent found that

they would be able to do that work themselves if we had this piece of equipment. So this will actually save us money year over year. Thank you, Selectman. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor of Article 8 as written and recommended, please say aye. Those opposed? Motion carries unanimously. And our final item of the consent agenda that was pulled out for discussion is to purchase

and equip two snowplow trucks, two brine trucks, and other snow-related equipment for $100,000. Mr.

Mendez. Mr. Moderator, I'll just go back to my first question back at line item number seven. Are these to maintain our current fleet, or are we trying to react to the 100-year storm? In which case, I vote no on this. Understood.

So the brine and the other snow-related equipment, the plows.

He wants to know if it's replacement or additional equipment.

And besides the brine, what else are they doing? They're adding the plow blades there. So I'll speak to the brine. Brine is something that we're looking to go to which it requires a little bit different equipment on the truck instead of putting a stainless steel sander on the back of a truck. You put a tank with a pump and it puts down three four lines

of brine in the road to pre-treat the road prior to a storm so that When the plows come by, they're able to scrape down to the asphalt. It saves plow time and the cost of brine is cheaper than the cost of treated rock salt. And you ensure that it's going right where you want it to go instead of, if you've ever followed behind one of those trucks, you know, the salt's bouncing

all over the place. So that's the brine part. I'll let Mr. Iullucci speak to the other components in this. Who had the question, please? I had the question.

Oh, thank you. Mr. Mendez. Yes, as Mr. Smith indicated, it's a mixed bag. The brine would be new equipment. We don't have any of that right now. And the other equipment would be replacing some of the old plows, but some of that would be new too, specifically the new attachments that the state had on their front loaders. We have a front loader. We didn't have those attachments.

They showed us how one of those attachments would be used to clean off sidewalks.

So there are additional that we could add to those vehicles. Mr. Monterey, I have no objection to the Highway Department constantly upgrading and coming up with new strategies. That's good. I just didn't want us to overreact to the storm. So I see no problem with any of these line items. Thank you. Seeing no further discussion, all those

in favor of Article 9 as written and recommended can indicate by saying aye. Aye.

Those opposed? The motion carries unanimously. That concludes Article Number 13. Article number 14, the reading will be waived, but the Advisory and Finance Committee will have a recommendation which they will now share. The Advisory and Finance Committee unanimously recommend approval of this article. Thank you. Mr. Monterrey. Yes, sir. Mr. Monterrey, I move that the

town vote to appropriate the sum of $100,000 for the purpose as written in the article, and as said, some be transferred from free cash. I have a motion. Do I have a second? Second. Further discussion? Mr. Moderate, this article, if approved, will provide funding in the amount of $100,000 for legal and professional services to assist the town on issues related to valuation and taxation

of existing and former electric and gas utilities and pertaining facilities. Thank you.

Do I see any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor of Article Number 14 as written and recommended indicate by saying aye.

Those opposed? Article 14 carries with unanimous consent at 2:06 p.m. Article 15: The Advisory and Finance Committee by majority recommends that the Town vote to appropriate the sum of $3,500,000 for the purposes of this article and that said sum be transferred from the Wastewater Capital Stabilization Fund. Mr.

Moderator, I move the town vote to transfer the sum of 3.5 million for the purpose as written in the article, the transfer will be from the Wastewater Capital Stabilization Fund. Second. I have a motion and a second. Any further discussion?

Mr. Moderator, this article is approved with the amount of $3.5 million available in the Wastewater Capital Stabilization Fund, which was established and funded with retained earnings in the Water and Sewer Enterprise Fund at the annual town meeting held on May 19, 2025. This amount would fund testing, analysis, engineering, legal,

and design services for improvement required at the Water Pollution Control Facility, including the collection system and any additional requirements under the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System permit issued by the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection on December 23, 2023, all of which are eligible purposes for which the Wastewater

Capital Stabilization Fund was established. Thank you. Any further discussion? Ms. Paskowski.

Yes. I would like to not use my time right now. I'm going to make a complaint about Mr. Smith. Ma'am, that is not to do with the article in the motion before us. Nope, that does not need to happen. I want you to stay focused. He has no right to be praising the water and sewer commissioners. Ms.

Piskowski, I'm telling you right now, you will not be speaking through to Mr. Smith.

There's no cross-examination. You will be focusing on the article and the water. When will I be able to make a complaint about him? You can have that discussion with Mr. Smith after town meeting concludes. But that will not be happening here. If you want to speak under the article as written and recommended, you have every right to do so. Stop my time. Okay, as I stated at the

Selectmen meeting, I am challenging the Advisory and Finance Committee recommendation because there are members that did not understand this article. First of all, this article was never, ever discussed at any meeting. Ever. And Mr. Cogley did not represent it correctly. Sorry, who did just make that noise?

Carry on, please. I ask that the crowd please refrain from making any... And two of the members do not understand what "appropriate" means. They think it just means, "We're gonna let them have the money, but they don't have to spend it." That's why they supposedly recommended this article. And I would like to ask you, through you, to ask Mr. Cogley to please explain himself why he recommended it. You don't have

to. Mr. Coghley, if you're interested, you do not have to respond. So first of all, I don't appreciate personal naming at a meeting like this. I just would like to put that on the record, but that's fine. I have studied the work that the Water and Sewer Department has done. It is true that I mentioned at the advisory and Finance Committee meeting that I believe they will be doing further study, which I

think is still the case. I think you heard from Chairman Catarat today that this is a continuing exercise that is going on.

They don't have a firm, what I think he referred to as a firm in final presentation that they would make. I think that is in line with what I stated at the Advisory and Finance Committee, that it would be part of a study and part of a continuing study. And I think that statement still stands. And I think that's all I have to say about it. Thank you, Mr. Coghley.

mr castigas uh again tony casigas 194 colonial drive i would just like to say that this town voted for three commissioners The three that we have here are excellent people. They all have tremendous backgrounds. They're residents of Somerset. They're not going to give us a bill of goods out here because these three folks pay taxes just like we do. So we have to be careful with taking advice from people here

that-- Once again, you may not interrupt another speaker. Please wait. But anyway, so I just want to do that. I highly recommend that we pass this Article 15. Thank you, folks. I grant for water and sewer because I know I can do the job they do and I do not appreciate having a selectmen campaign for them at selectmen meetings and town meetings. And I have complained and I will complain again about

it. Ms. Peskowski, we're going to remain focused on the motion before us please. I would like Mr. Katarac to please explain Mr. Copley what this article is about. Mr.

Catarat already gave an explanation. Any further comments? He can't still not understand. How can he not understand it still? He just said it. Mr. Copley understands the argument. He did not understand it. He's saying that it's still using, they're still studying Fall River.

They're not studying Fall River. They've already made up their mind to do the upgrades.

It has nothing to do with Fall River, which he said, he said that's why he voted. Okay, we're not talking about other people. I think Any other questions or concerns? Yes, because they should not... How can we recommend something he doesn't understand? Okay.

Is that a concern of yours? That should be a concern. I have a point of order. Please remain focused on the... That should be a concern. Ms. Paskowski, if that's all, I'll ask you to sit. No, it isn't all. It is not all.

This is my notes. It used to be. It's short. I sent an email yesterday morning to the commissioners, to Superintendent Wickman. It's Superintendent Wickman, Mr. Moderator, you didn't say superintendent at the beginning of the meeting. I didn't say what? You didn't call him superintendent at the beginning of the meeting. You need to correct your notes. I

sent one to the selectmen, all the selectmen except for Mr. Costas kept coming back to me. I sent the same email to you and a few members of the Advisory and Finance Committee meeting about this article. Questions at the end? Do you know, can you tell us how much money is left in that capitalization stabilization fund through the misdemeanor? Can they at least tell us how much money is left and

how much they spent of the 2.5 million? They'll get you a response right now. Good evening. Good afternoon, I should say. Maybe it will be evening by the time we leave. I'm Bob Lima. Prior superintendent of water and sewer I've been retired approximately eight years My second term now on the board and the available funds that are if approved today We have proved 3.5 million at the May 19th 2025 town meeting we

also approved an amount at a private town meeting of 2.5 As of the date today, we have expended approximately $380,000 on the project, engineering-wise. So the balance today, if approved, if you approve the transfer into the fund, will be $5,630,381. That will be the balance. Thank you. Mr. Souza.

Thank you for that information. I think it was very helpful. It took us a while to get to that point. I think the real question here is that we're putting a lot of trust into the Water and Sewer Department to make an informed decision. Are we at that point where we are definitely going in on this whole plant and do we know the total cost at this point or is these funds,

I believe Mr. Catarat said, that it's going to help us get to that cost.

If that cost becomes over a hundred million dollars, then we are going to shift, or over 75 million dollars, I think you said, we're going to shift or we're going to rethink what we're doing. Is that an assessment so everybody kind of knows where we're going, that this money is to help provide for an assessment, correct? Okay, good, clarifying. Just a question, what assessment, what do you mean

by that? Well, you want to go and build a new plant, right? No, no. So here's the important thing. We're not looking to build a new plant.

That's not in consideration at all. What we're looking to do is, we looked at the, first of all, the four-river option. We looked at that, we spent a lot of time looking at that. We had a consultant do two reports to do that. Members of the board did their own independent research. And I want to say hundreds of hours individually researching this. At

the December 2025 meeting, the board voted to pursue the upgrade of the plant to meet the new NEPTI's permit requirements. So, what we're doing now is we looked at how we're going to do this in one phase or two phase, we decided one phase. The next step is the design of the upgrades at the plant. We have committed to keeping this to $75 million. And

I cannot tell you how many times I'm pretty... Can I play a water bell? Oh, you blew the mic with that comment. I pay a water bill and I'm not going to let this be more than 75 million dollars. We constantly drive home the point to our consulting engineer that this is not going to exceed 75 million dollars. So the cost of this project

will be 75 million dollars and it won't be above 75 million dollars. So what we're going to do now is this money would be used for the design of the upgrades at the plant. But it's not only the upgrades at the plant.

So we do have an infiltration and inflow problem in the collection system. This will also look at trying to do what we can to resolve that issue and other issues that we have such as pump stations that need upgrades, portions of the collection system that need to be upgraded. So this money, this $3.5 million on top of the $2.5 million that was already

approved will be design services to meet the NEPTI's permit requirement including the plant upgrades, the collection system upgrades. Thank you. Mr. Souza?

But you haven't gotten permission to do $75 million. You know you're headed there and we're going there, right? But we haven't voted on that yet. So why are we spending all this money on something we haven't voted to go through yet? I think that's the general question of the public. Yeah, so this is for the design services for these upgrades. So the direction with HANZI is

the upgrades that we described. This money is for the design services. All that's going to happen is to fund this project, the $75 million construction project, we'll have to come back to Taoming to get the $75 million approved. That's correct.

Thank you. Jeff, are you going to speak? I'm sorry?

You gonna let me go? Alright, Jeff Cardell, 52 Folsom Ave. I think what the confusion is, the board, my understanding is the Board of Water and Sewer Commissioners took a vote to pursue upgrading our sewer plant, correct? Correct. Okay, so this three and a half million dollars is gonna go towards funding engineering services, architectural services, civil services,

permits, putting it out to bid, and all of that that encompasses a design of a system like this. And I know how that process works because I work in that field. I design HVAC systems for buildings like this. and it's a very similar process. There's a design service fee that has to be paid in order to get stamped and signed plans to move

forward to put a project out to bid. So I understand that process. My question is this three and a half million dollars is going to, is it going to cover that entire process? So you're not going to have to come back and say, well, This three and a half million dollars only got that process started and we needed an additional two million dollars to finish engineering these plans. So that's

my question. Does this three and a half million dollars encompass that entire engineering surface process to put this out to bid? And then there'll be a town meeting vote for the construction phase of that. Thank you. Yeah, so the total, so this, the $2.5 million we had approved before, plus this $3.5, we'll cover that entire process. That's exactly what we're doing. Thank you. Ms.

Peskowski, you have a minute. In January 2025, before the February 8th meeting, I asked you at a commission's meeting what that 2.5 million article was about, and it's on tape. You can hear him. He said, "Oh, it's about the Far River study. Oh, it's so expensive, blah, blah, blah." Well, on February 8th, 2025, when everyone voted for it, he didn't

mention Far River once. I left the meeting early, unfortunately I wasn't here to mention Fall River, but you didn't mention Fall River once. And here you are. Remember you're not examining the cataract. Sorry, through you, he's been very dishonest with me about the 2.5 because at a meeting he said it was for the Fall River study. And can you please tell us how much that Fall River study has cost and why

it's taken them so long to finalize it? And also at one of the recent meetings, they've already admitted that the 75 million isn't covering what they had at the beginning. They're cutting jobs that they're going to ask for down the road. And one last question: Who is designing, what firm is designing the upgrades? You've let people talk.

I'm not sure how to, I don't know what to respond to. So all I can tell you is this. When we got the new permit, the first thing that we decided to do was look at the fall of a regionalization issue. That was task number one. If you look at the task order, that is task number one.

There was, I believe, $60,000 allocated for that in task order number one. That number's been exceeded. I believe the number is more somewhere between $75,000 and $80,000. From memory, I'm not sure if you can get an exact number. Our accounting person isn't here to get an exact number, but it's somewhere between $75,000 and $80,000.

It's been an exhaustive review of that, and that was the first step in the whole process. That process, that $2.5 million that was approved, That was part that was only part of what we did with that to it What's been done with the three hundred eight thousand dollars spent so far? The rest has been looking at different feasibility analysis and different studies that we had to do in

advance of the design work So that that's that's what the process was. I don't remember what the rest of the questions were and I apologize for that But I think that's the most important thing indeed to be answered. Thank you Mr. Mendez. Mr.

Moderator, the board that put together this analysis and the article for us at town meeting is legally elected. It operates under Massachusetts general law. They're facing a legal mandate from the federal government. Our NEPTI's permit is expiring. The process that they're presenting is legal. The people who disagree have had a chance to express their disagreement. God bless

them. That's part of the American system. However, I believe it's time for a vote.

And I hope somebody will-- I'm not moving. I hope somebody else will move to call the vote. I won't because that wouldn't be appropriate. Thank you. Hi. Hi, Mark Messier, 281 Mass Avenue. I just moved to Somerset. I just had a clarifying question for this. So I guess for the $3.5 million, is there a world where we pay this and they do the design and analysis and they come back and they

say, "Actually, it might actually be more than $75 million." And if so, what's our recourse? No, it's not going to be more than 75 million. So the total nitrogen upgrades in the report that they did, the two parts that were done previously, estimated to be about 40 million dollars. The rest of the work is work at the plant. So what we're doing, what we're doing, having them do is prioritize the work

that needs to be done at the plant. There's some work that needs to be done on the, on where the, everything comes into the plant. and there's some other work and what we've done is as this other work to prevent this from going over 75 million we're going to push off this other work and i'll give you an example because they talked about diamond before so diamond diamond and they're right maybe

somewhere this should have been said diamond did a tremendous job for us at the water plant they built out office space for us at the water plant one of the parts of this project was some renovation of the office area at the wastewater, the existing wastewater plant. What we're going to do is pursue having Diamond do that work rather than have that done as part of this project. So we're committed to

keeping this at $75 million and that's, it's not going to be, you know, well we said $75, we're going to come back and look for $85 or $90. That's not going to happen. I'll make that personal commitment. The board's made that commitment and I'll make that personal commitment too. Because I don't think it's fair to say say that we're going to be 75 million. A good learning experience for myself, and I

can't speak to the other members of the board, was the school project, right? So the school project had this number, had this estimate, and then came back looking for additional funds for it that didn't get approved at the time of meeting. We do not want to be in that position, and we're not going to put ourselves in that position, or put the people that are our customers and our ratepayers in that

decision, in that predicament, so. Thank you. Mr. Moderator? Yes. I move to call the vote. Thank you. I have a question. He didn't answer. You've already had plenty of opportunities. He didn't answer my question. He didn't answer it. He didn't answer who's designing the answer. And he answered the question to his best ability. I'm going to ask you to please sit. We have a motion to move the question. I have a

second. The same engineer. Ms. Paskowski? Thank you. Fuck your town. Fuck your town.

With a motion in a second before the body, article number 15 is before us for a vote.

All those in favor of article 15 as written and recommended please indicate by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed say no. With the near unanimous consent article 15 carries at 2:28 p.m. Article 16. Article 16. Mr. Moderator, I move the town vote to approve the amount of $1,500,000 for the purpose of this article and that said sum be raised by the retained

earnings in the Water and Sewer Enterprise Fund. I have a motion and a second, and also I have the Advisory and Finance Committee who will be making a recommendation at the meeting. Mr. Moderator, the Advisory and Finance Committee unanimously recommends approval of this article. Thank you, sir. Mr. Lima. Mr. Moderator, ladies and gentlemen, this

article, if approved, will provide funding in the amount of $1,500,000 for the repairs and replacement of the external and some of the internal parts associated with no less than two of the four clarifiers located at the Water Pollution Control Facility, including design, engineering, construction, legal fees, and any other incidental costs. I would like to state currently that the retained earnings

amount in the Water Sewer Enterprise Fund is $4,474,164. If you approve this request, that will drop the amount to $2,974,164. Thank you, Mr. Lima. Is there any further discussion on the article as written and recommended?

Hearing none, now put it to a vote with the motion in a second being in place. All those in favor of Article 16 as written and recommended may indicate by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed nay. With a near majority, or excuse me, a near unanimous vote, the motion carries at 2:30 p.m. We are now on Article 17. Mr. Moderator. Mr. Moderator, I move that the

town vote to appropriate the sum of $79,659 for the purpose of purchasing and equipping one pickup truck for maintenance purposes for the Somerset School Department, including any incidental costs or expenses, and that said sum be transferred from free cash. Second. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion, Ms. Ashton? Mr. Moderator, this funding would allow the

school department to replace a 2011 Ford F-350. We have received a quote for a 2026 Ford F-350 crew cab with plow and sanding packages for $79,659. Thank you. Any further discussion? Mr. Moderator, I was actually at the school committee meeting when they recommended that. It's a great idea. Very reasonable. Smart choice. Thank you. save us money. But I was up here to say, can I say we move to not go back

to 15 or 16 ever the rest of the day? Or is that, gotta do this first? - We finish this first and then we'll make that motion afterwards. Seeing no further discussion on Article 17, I will put it to a vote. All those in favor of Article 17 as written and recommended may indicate by saying aye. - Aye. - All those opposed, nay. - All right. Article 17 carries with

near unanimous consent. Would you like to make your motion? This is your chance. Yeah. I was just waiting for him to acknowledge me.

I'd like to make a motion that we never ever for the rest of the day revisit Article 1516. Second. I have a motion with a second to not ever, ever, ever, ever reconsider articles 15 and 16, is that correct? For the rest of the day. For the rest of the day. Understood. All those in favor-- Mr. Moderator? Yes. I'd just like to amend that to not reconsider any articles that have not been voted off. OK, good.

That's good. Can you repeat that please? Sure. I'd like to amend that motion to not reconsider any of the articles that have not been voted to for no reconsideration up to this point. Second. Does the meeting understand the motion? The motion is to not reconsider. Understood. Okay with a motion and a second do all those in favor indicate by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. All those opposed nay. Okay, so we

will not be reconsidering any of the articles that have been taken up to this point. We are now on Article 18. Ms. Ashley. Mr. Moderator, I move that the town vote to appropriate the sum of $240,000 for the purpose of upgrading video surveillance cameras at Chase Street, South, and North Elementary Schools, and upgrading the video surveillance system

at Chase and North, and that said sum be transferred from free cash. I have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Mr. Moderator, these funds, $240,000 in total, will allow the school department to replace cameras in each elementary school identified by the school resource officer, approximately $96,000. Additionally, the funding will allow the security system at Chase

and North to be upgraded to be the same as the system at SMS, Somerset Middle School, and South Elementary School, $144,000. Mr. Souza. Hi. Just a quick question. I don't know if you have the technical expertise to, you may, you may know. Are these cameras hitting a server that isn't just a town server, but it is a server that is web-based so the footage will never be lost? And

the reason I ask that is because Town Hall does not have that system.

Thank you. Ms. Ashley. My understanding is that the server will be on premises and hosted within the school department. However, the new system will be accessible by the Somerset Police Department. Thank you. That's my understanding. Jeff Caudell, 52 Folsom Avenue. Just a quick question regarding security cameras at South School. I've watched several meetings, school committee meetings, where it's been mentioned

of possibly closing South School at some point. My question would be, are those security cambers transferable to another location if that school were to close?

May I? Ms. Ashley. Thank you for asking that question. So the security cameras and the servers are transferable to other locations within the school district in the event that we do close out school in the future. Thank you. Thank you.

I am not a town resident. I'm the school resource officer here at Simpsons at Berkeley. I am familiar with the systems which we have here that are at SMS and South that we're going to be upgrading to. They are a web-based server. They are on-site. The video storage is for a specific amount of time. that the video doesn't go away. And to speak to the other question, when the old

SMS was closed down, all of those cameras that were recyclable were taken and put back into service at other elementary schools in town. Thank you. Thank you for that clarification. So it is a separate than what the town is using in town hall? Correct. That's all you had to tell me. Thank you.

Thank you so much. The moderator of the security company that we use to service the security systems at all schools in town is called ESCS out of town, but they have the security company. Thank you, sir.

Hi, Bridget Marcotte, 65 Williamson Drive. I'm looking for the A&F recommendation, and I was also wondering why the recommendation was not made previous to this meeting. Thank you. Mr. Moderator. Mr. Johnson. For both Article 17 and 18, the Advising Finance Committee unanimously recommended two articles. Why was it a date?

I don't know why we have a date. I'm sorry, was the question why we didn't vote and have a recommendation at this meeting? Because the source of the funding was not known at that meeting, current meeting, and then we subsequently voted once we knew that source of funding. Okay. Thank you. I believe that is it for the discussion. If anybody else, please feel free to come up

to the microphone. But seeing no further discussion and having a motion and a second on Article 18 as written and recommended, all those in favor, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed, nay. The motion carries unanimously. Mr. Moderator, I would like to make a motion to not reconsider Article 18. Second. All those in favor of not reconsidering Article 18 indicate by saying aye. Opposed? Motion

carries unanimously. Article 18 will not be reconsidered.

Article 19 is a... It is our only article on the warrant today that does not require a majority vote. I'd like to put that out there first and foremost.

This is a vote that will require a two-thirds quantum. With that being said, when a vote is taken, it will be done using the electronic voting system behind me and my brain and/or a calculator to do the math. I will call upon Attorney Salino, who is representing the developer, to speak. Thank you, Mr. Moderator. My name is Peter Salino. My residential address is 198 Twisset Road, Warren, Rhode Island. Good afternoon,

everyone. For the first time in many articles, we're not asking you for money. So what this article about is zoning. We are looking to change the zoning on a piece of property. So really concisely, if anyone doesn't understand what zoning is, zoning is the code that governs what you can and cannot do with your property. The subject property is located at 266 Slates Ferry Boulevard here in Somerset. Many of you would

know it as a former gas station located at the southwesterly corner of Route 6 and Brayton Avenue. This property has the really odd and unique distinction of having three different zoning classifications on one piece of property. Something I've never seen in 20 years of lawyering. So my client purchased the property, paid the back taxes, moved the water

line, and is seeking to market the property either for sale, redevelopment, or rental. And given the confluence of zoning, he has encountered nothing but problems. Because no development crews or companies know what they can do with that property and how much zoning relief they would need. Therefore, the article before you today is to seek to remove a

portion of the property from the limited zoning business, the limited business district, and a portion of the property from the Slades Ferry overlay district. The ultimate outcome would be to zone the entirety of the two parcels as just business. We submit to you that that is a more favorable use of this property. It will get it back on the tax rolls and it will be developed in much shorter order. Thank you

for your consideration to this vote. Thank you. Mr. Moderator. Yes, sir. I move that the town vote to approve the official zoning map of the town of Somerset amendment as written in this article. Second. I have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? Yes.

I won't bring anything about the school. I'd just like to know, this is just where the gas station is, correct? Correct. Okay, any further on this going forward, I think it should be brought to the town that there is a member on the Selectmen's that do have a piece of property next door and i think that should be eliminated on his portion of it or his vote due to conflict of interest with that being said

vote the way you want on it but if it does come down to this i would like it to be down a thing where we don't have a public official coming in to cash in on something that he has say on. So the Board of Selectmen don't have to vote on this? I get that.

But you understand where I'm coming from? If the Board of Selectmen had to vote on it, I would understand, sure. Well, you understand as a citizen. I do. All right. Okay? Thank you, sir. Thank you very much. I will also note, which I did not say earlier, but the planning board unanimously recommends approval of the article 5 to 0. The advisory and finance committee unanimously recommends approval 6 to 0.

Mr. Mendes. And Mr. Moderator, just for clarification, nobody on the planning board, and they all voted for this article to recommend it, nobody owns any property down in Slates Ferry. Everyone voted their conscience. Understood. Thank you, sir. Any further discussion? Seeing none, we will now prepare for an electronic vote with the clickers. I will remind folks that this requires a two-thirds vote.

A vote in the affirmative means that you support the changes to the official zoning map of the town. Voting no on this would mean that you do not support them and you want the zoning map to remain as currently is. If the clerk is ready, we'll open it up. It's already going. 30 seconds. And that concludes the time, so the vote will now be closed. With 105 votes cast, 98 in the affirmative, 7 in

the negative, the motion carries. We are now on Article 20, which is to see if the town will add a new provision to the bylaws, entitled "Bylaw Banning Cryptocurrency Automated Teller Machines" as follows: The Advisory and Finance Committee unanimously recommends approval of this article, article 6 to 0.

Mr. Moderator. Mr. Bednarik. I move that the town vote to approve the Town of Somerset General By-law amendment as written in this article. Second. Seeing that there's a motion and a second, is there any discussion? Mr. Moderator, a growing number of communities have enacted or are moving forward to ban cryptocurrency, automated tele-machine kiosks primarily due to rampant fraud, high risk money laundering

potential and lack of consumer protections. These machines are frequently used to scam targeting vulnerable individuals as transactions and fast, irreversible and difficult to trace, leading to millions of dollars of personal losses. Any further discussion? Mr. Costa.

Just for the body's information, police department records, and I thank the police department for their cooperation and their presentation before the Board of Selectmen, but police department records indicate that over $142,000 has been scammed from Somerset residents through the two cryptocurrency machines that are currently in our town.

The vast majority of those people were over the age of 50. I think this is a no-brainer. People don't use these kiosks for investment purposes.

They use them for money laundering and scams. Thank you. Any further discussion on the article? Seeing none, we will now be voting on Article 20 relative to banning cryptocurrency ATM machines as written and recommended. With the motion and second in place, all those in favor please say aye. Aye. Those opposed? The motion carries unanimously. Guys, we made it to our last article. Article 21

is relative to the Community Preservation Program. I'll allow a few seconds for folks to look through that. But I will also note the Advisory and Finance Committee unanimously recommends approval of this article 6-0. The Community Preservation Committee unanimously recommends approval of this article also 6-0. The Chair will now recognize Mr. Turner. Mr. Moderator, I vote that the

column Vote on Article 21. This article is necessary to transfer no less than 10% of the annual revenue of the Community Preservation Fund for each of the following categories: open space, historic, resources, community housing, and also the administrative fund. Seeing that there is a motion and a second, the Chair will now allow for discussion. So, Mr. Moderator, I don't think,

I think that was a description, not the motion. okay um i will make the motion to uh vote on article number 21. see that there's a motion in a second any further discussion mr moderator yes sir under the uh open space and recreation i would like to pull out the pottersville playground to be voted on separately sounds good So seeing that has been removed, we are now considering the remaining projects. I see

there's somebody at the microphone. No? Any further discussion? Not on the remaining. Okay, we'll discuss that one after we take this vote. Okay, so just a reminder, we are voting on everything included in the warrant under Article 21, apart from the Pottersville playground, which is totaling $75,000. With a motion and a second already in place, all those in

favor of Article 21 excluding the Pottersville Playground denote by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Carries unanimously and we will now be opening discussion on Article 21, the Pottersville Playground. Mr. Moderator. Mr.

Smith. So I'm opposed to the Pottersville Playground This was presented to the Community Preservation Board by our Chief of Police as a private citizen because he said that it bothered him to see the children that attend the Little Red Schoolhouse crossing Route 138 to go to the original facility and utilize the playground there. I don't think our

tax dollars and You know, community preservation is your tax dollar. There's a 1% fee added to your tax bill to be able to fund this. And then there's some matching funds. I think it's currently the 14 or 16% that come from the state. You know, I initially thought this violated the anti-aid amendment for the Massachusetts Constitution. I did follow up with legal counsel and they indicated that wasn't the case.

I know Mr. Cardell, you know, had indicated that they used to be at a selectmen's meeting. There used to be a playground there. There used to be a playground there because, you know, there used to be a school there. upgraded all of our playground facilities in town and we have quite a few. There's one at Buffington, which is fairly close to the Pottersville location. We have Pierce's Beach, we have

Waterfront Park, which are all in fairly close proximity. And I know there are people who may say, gee, I'd love to just be able to walk over to Pottersville, but there's a lot of need for funding and I'm not sure that you know adding another you know playground to the town is the best use of it especially where this was initially brought forth for the benefit of a

private business in town thank you sir I would now recognize Mr Mendez Mr. Moderator Lloyd Mendez, 46 Anawan, which you'll note is not even near Pottersville.

And I have no children who use that playground or would use it. Nevertheless, It does warm my heart to see children using playgrounds, including Pottersville. It's a thriving community center. You see kids using the basketball courts and the bocce courts. A lot of kids play, little kids play baseball out there. I think it's an excellent place for

a playground. And I agree with the Selectman Smith that maybe the Chief of Police used the wrong words to justify it. But that's not my reason for voting for it. My reason for voting for it is, yeah, it's good to have playgrounds scattered throughout town where kids can walk there with their parents. So I'm going to vote yes on this right now. Thank you. Yes, sir. Jeff 52 Folsom Avenue. I am

an elected member of the Playground and Recreation Commission here in town. And I'm also an appointed member of the Community Preservation Committee. When this first got brought to the attention of the Community Preservation Committee, I was against it for the reason that it was presented. And I spoke my frustration with Chief Tedford that if this proposal was not going to stop the kids from crossing the street,

then I was against it. And the reason why I brought that up is my own child went there. So I know that they will continue to use the property across the street. They have swimming pools across the street that they use. And I believe the owner already stated in an article that that will not stop the kids from crossing the street. So I was against it for

that reason. And then I got phone calls from residents in the neighborhood who used to use the playground that was there, whether it was there for a school or the town. I don't think that really matters at this point, but I did receive several phone calls from people in that neighborhood. And for those of you who don't know, there is a

master plan for Pottersville. The Playground and Recreation Commission has been working on that master plan for Pottersville. This year there's a bicycle playground that is going to be installed that was already approved. That will be hopefully, we'll begin construction on that hopefully soon. There's also going to be proposals for pickleball courts to be installed at Pottersville. Also the fitness

court that Mr. Lucci worked on, that has been installed already if you drive by Pottersville you can see that. apparatus already installed and then there's also hopefully a proposal for a walking track to be installed and constructed around that entire property mr. Mindy's is 100% correct that facility gets used a ton I'm also a basketball official. I referee basketball games there on Friday

nights for Somerset Basketball Association. And there's a ton of kids. And that neighborhood deserves a playground, in my opinion. You know, parents who work all day, who have small children. should be able to come home, take their kids to a neighborhood playground. We call them pocket parks. And they should be able to come home and allow their children to walk up the street, let

out some energy, and then go home and put them to bed instead of packing them in a car and driving them across town to go to another park. Thank you. I'll leave it at that. Hi, Denise Jordan, 159 Main Street. This is a very emotional issue with when Mr. Tedford, because he did present as a citizen, brought this issue to community preservation.

And he said, all it will take is one crazy person driving down 138 and aiming at kids holding on to that rope. I got it. I really do. I do not believe it is appropriate for the taxpayers of Somerset to pay for a playground for the benefit of a private business. If that private business owner would like to do something to build a playground, that would be different. She has

not committed to not having the children cross the street anymore, and that was part of what was in the original proposal from Mr. Tedford to the board. I have a concern if this passes, are we starting, are we setting a precedence with having the town fund for someone's concern and safety reason out of community preservation? I make a motion that this be indefinitely

postponed. Motion to indefinitely postpone with a second? Second. All those in favor? Aye. Those opposed? No. All right. We will set it up for an electronic vote. Hold on one second. Coin voter. Yes sir. You were allowing, before you would hold that vote that you just did. Yep.

Until you heard everybody speak and that was in line. So you kind of took that a little out of order. So can we hold that vote until we get to speak? Well, you can only speak on-- Yep, you're right. You're right. That was not intentional. Thank you. See? I almost made it, OK? I almost made it. You're doing a great job. I'll open up the floor for debate. Thank you. Once again,

Patty Steele, 180 Yankee Pedal Drive. I think this is a wonderful thing. Pottersville, there's so much going on. The kids are playing baseball, so you got your 9 or 10 year old playing baseball, but then maybe my 3 or 4 year old can go on the equipment. I was really disappointed when all the playground equipment, and I don't see this as something that's supporting Little Red, I see this as something that's

supporting our kids in the community. Not for nothing, there's not a whole heck of a lot of people that go to Buffington Park. and we spent all that money, really, it's not much access to it, there's not a lot of other things going on except for the fact it's a playground, but you see on Meade Street and you see in Pottersville, there's a lot of activity going on in those fields. So

let's add a nice little playground back there again where it used to be for the benefit of all children. Thank you. Not just little red children. Mr. Susan. I don't know if I can say it any better than that but I did drive by there today and the physical fitness thing is all set up and I got to agree that if you're going to make it a destination for not only just

that particular neighborhood for people to go over and work out and their kids can be doing something on a play gym or something like that it just makes a lot of sense that if that's going to be the center of town that we approve that. Whether it was brought forth by the police chief about Little Red. I don't think it really, the matter stands on whether it's Little Red or not. Yeah,

maybe Little Red will use it. God bless them. They've got a lease there that's fine. But I think it's more about the entire town of some extent being able to use that playground, and I'm in favor of it. Thank you.

I will let the gentleman speak just because you had already spoken. That's all right.

Well, I already spoke too, but on the motion of indefinite postponement, I just want to make the statement, whether this is approved here tonight or today, It's going to be brought back next year. I can promise you that Somerset Recreation will be bringing this back next year. Whether it's approved tonight or not, that neighborhood deserves a playground, in my opinion. The second thing I

wanted to bring up real quick is the amount that's listed on the warrant, the $75,000. And Tim can correct me if I'm wrong. And actually Denise does the books, so she can correct me if I'm wrong. That $75,000 number is wrong. No, that's right. It's incorrect because I thought Tedford said, excuse me, Chief Tedford said that He was working with the owner who was going to provide some funding

and I thought he reduced that number. The number 59,000 is sticking in my head.

I might be wrong. So, it was 100 and it was reduced to 75. Right, because it started at 100. Okay. And then he said, "I will reduce it." I don't know why I had 59,000 in my mind. Maybe because Alan told me he could build a playground for 59,000. Thank you. Ms. Hamm. Carolyn Lazarus, 28 Sandy Point Road. So I watch a lot of the town meetings and watch a lot

of this. And my concern, I was kind of opposed, very much opposed to it for the private funding. Listening to Mr. Cardell talk about the meaning to the neighborhood was very persuasive. But my question still remains, if Little Red is using it, what happens to the ability for the neighborhood kids who are not in school to come and use it? And the number of kids in Little Red is a

lot. So they're going to take over the playground at that point in time. So I guess for me that remains a question because I don't think we should be funding or supporting a private entity like that. Thank you. Thank you for bringing that up. I just consulted with Mr. Turner behind me. He said at the end of the day, it is still a public park. Go ahead. Yes. Okay, but as a

grandparent who went to many, many parks with my grandkids over the years, you go to a park and it's already full of kids, they're going to have the feeling that there's no space for me. Sure. And so I think that that's, to me, and I'm not saying we should restrict Little Red, but if they're walking across the street now and have been for years, Maybe that should be continued. I don't

know but it's a troubling piece for me in deciding what to vote here.

Thank you. Yes. Okay, I agree it would be a public park and I'm absolutely in support of it coming back next year or whatever but the way the the article is written for that in the project that Community Preservation got is troubling because this is for Little Red. And I, you know, as I said before, the concern of setting a precedent, a slippery slope,

does that mean that someone else who's going to open up a business on 138 is going to have the kids cross to go to Dunkin Donuts? can do this that's it's a concern understood thank you yes sir i hate to be dragged this on but uh playground recreation commission voted to approve this uh unanimously um and i i don't want to bring up things but private businesses can't or even um non-profit

organizations can't lock out the public from public spaces and I'll use Ashton Field as an example. The league was locking the fields and not allowing the public to use them. They were ordered to remove those locks Because they they can't lock the fields. It's a public funded field bocce court same thing You know and we understand why you want to protect that

but you can't lock out the public from public funded spaces so to say that the you know Little Reds gonna dominate a Playground I think is inaccurate They they certainly cannot do that at all and again a reiterate. We're talking about a children's playground for $75,000. Right? We sat here and approved every single article here for millions and millions of dollars and we're gonna haggle

about $75,000 for a children's playground. I think it's insanity at this point to not fund this and again I'll reiterate if it doesn't get approved today it will be back next year I promise you that. Thank you. Before we move the vote, I will let the general ladies hear some words. Thank you. What occurs to me is this.

It's the center of town. The police go by there all day long.

Lots of people are there. There are lots of different ages. With Buffington Park, Nobody could. I mean, I consider Bufferin Park kind of a dangerous place, but I would think that this proposal would be a nice place, you know, and much safer for kids. Thank you. This man. Hi, Trisha Buecher, 11 Momsetta. I'd like to move the question. Okay. Thank you. So we are now going to vote on

the motion to indefinitely postpone the article This would be Article #21 in the specific section of the Potterville Playground. Again, we already have a motion and a second on this, so the question now comes on whether the meeting hopes to indefinitely postpone. All those in favor of indefinitely postponing, say aye. Aye. Those who oppose postponing, say no. No. With the majority in the no, the article

is not postponed. That brings us back to our original motion and that is just to vote on Pottersville Playground as written and recommended in the warrant. Seeing that we already have a motion and a second on that, I will now call for a voice vote. All those in favor of the item as written and recommended in the warrant say aye. Aye.

Those opposed? No. The motion carries. One more motion. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Moderator. Yes. I'd like to make a motion to not reconsider the remaining articles that weren't reconsidered. I have a motion and a second to not reconsider any of the other articles. Mr. Moderator. Yes, sir. First, I would like to say thank you for your performance here

tonight. We appreciate it. And I will follow with the motion to adjourn.

Thank you. So motion to not reconsider any of the articles. I had a second. All those in favor? Aye.

Those opposed? Okay. And now we have a motion to dissolve the meeting. Second. Second. The motion to dissolve the meeting has a second.

All those in favor, please say aye. Aye.

All those opposed? We did it. Thank you.

May I speak to myself? we've wasted an awful lot of time in this board running questions again and again and again let's take the stormwater report that's already been done see what it needs