00:00:02,830	Hi. It’s Tuesday, October 27th, 2026. It’s 7 p.m. and this is the Town of Monson Selectboard regular meeting. I will call the meeting to order and say that we have assisted listening devices available for anyone who needs them.

00:00:24,770	If you’d like to use one, please let a staff member know at any time during the meeting. Impact is recording this meeting. Any person may also record this meeting after notice to the Selectboard chair. In order to run the meeting more efficiently, the chair requests that persons who would like to speak on an agenda item do so during public comment.

00:00:43,900	No questions from the public will be taken during the business portion of the meeting. Public questions should be directed to the Executive assistant at our Morse at Munson. Excuse me. Dash McGovern, and we’ll be handled accordingly. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands.

00:01:08,500	One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. And I’ll ask if there’s any public comment. And seeing none, we will move on. To the town administrator report, please. Thank you. Um, a couple things. We have trick or treat for the little kiddos and homeschoolers and, um, kids who aren’t in school yet.

00:01:40,700	It’s going to be Friday at the town offices, starting at the library, going to Council on Aging. This building down to, um, highway and Fire. And also several businesses in between on Main Street. And that’s from 1 to 4:00. And we welcome everybody to come in.

00:01:59,770	We love to see the little kiddos with their costumes, and the parents love it, especially if, um, you know, there’s an age when it’s easy to go out with a child on Halloween and there’s an age when it’s not. And this is the sixth year that we’ve done it.

00:02:13,570	We started it when I first got here, and we have our Halloween pumpkin contest that everyone gets to vote on. So that’s a lot of fun. And then on Saturday, the which is actually Halloween, which is exciting for it to be a Saturday. The parents don’t have to worry about the sugar hangover the next day.

00:02:28,230	The Lions Club is hosting the Halloween parade and costume contest, and the lineup starts at 545 in front of these offices here. And they’re going to march down the sidewalk to the fire station. And the costume contest will take place there. The fire department is really excited to host this, and they’ll have newborn to 18 years of age for the costume contest.

00:02:47,330	They’ll be trophies and goodie bags, which is really exciting. Uh, early voting is still going on. Um, Mary and Joe have been at it, um, for the last week and a half. It goes through this Friday. There’s been a lot of traffic in and out of Town Hall.

00:03:06,430	It’s nice to see that with the ballots being long, it’s three pages, so it’s two physical pages, one front and back and one on one side. And with nine ballot questions, it’s been nice for people to be able to sit down and take their time with them, because when you go to the regular voting day, you know you’re standing for the most part.

00:03:22,230	So people have enjoyed that. And then I would also like to make a statement. Um, I’m honored to share that my contract as town administrator for the town of Monson has been renewed for another three years through June 30th, 2030.

00:03:42,370	This renewal comes at a meaningful time in my career, as October marks my 21st anniversary of public service since beginning this journey in 25 2005, I have remained committed to the values of public service, collaboration, accountability, and making a positive difference in the communities I serve. I’m grateful for the opportunity to continue that commitment here in Monson.

00:04:04,170	I want to express my sincere gratitude to the Select Board for their confidence in me and the opportunity to continue serving this community. Public service is both a responsibility and a privilege, and I remain committed to working collaboratively, addressing the needs of our community, and helping move Monson forward to the dedicated employees of the town of

00:04:23,500	Monson. Thank you for the opportunity to work alongside such knowledgeable, talented and committed individuals. Your professionalism, experience and dedication to serving our residents are what makes our organizations stronger. I am grateful for the work we do together every day.

00:04:47,400	To the residents of Monson, thank you for your continued support, trust and respect your engagement and commitment to our community are important and I’m grateful to serve you. As I reflect on 21 years in public service and look ahead to this next chapter in Monson, I do so with gratitude. A strong sense of responsibility and enthusiasm for the work that lies ahead.

00:05:06,100	I look forward to building on our progress, embracing new opportunities, and continuing to work together to ensure Monson remains a community we can all be proud of. Thank you to the Select Board, town employees, and residents for your confidence, collaboration and support. I am proud to serve Monson and look forward to continuing our work together. Thank you. Thank you. Next is department updates. Miss Juliana.

00:05:30,800	Tony, welcome. And Glenn is here as the chair of the Conservation Commission as well. Just an observer. Oh, I’m just gonna invite you up. If you wanted. Okay.

00:05:54,300	And Tony’s provided you a packet of materials, and I also have provided you a link last week for the video presentation that she did at the Economic Development Council, which was very informative. So hopefully you had a chance to watch that. And I shall go through her packet with you. Sure. Um. So yes, this was my presentation that I put together for the Economic Development Council meeting.

00:06:19,700	Um, it was, uh, a decent presentation, um, after which I was invited by Ann Gobi to present to all of the Western mass town managers. Um, on behalf of the Rural Affairs office. So that was quite an honor. Um, so at the end of this fiscal year, um, I wrapped up way too many grants.

00:06:37,670	I think. Um, but it was it was worth it. Um, so the being the conservation agent, uh, everything is very focused on, um, conservation, open space, um, and ecological restoration. So one of the, one of our newest acquisitions for land was the road parcel, um, which was 116 acres.

00:07:05,370	Um, it was next to the Welch parcel, which was donated to the town. And now Open Land Trust holds the conservation restriction on that. And there’s a nice parking lot with the help of highway, and there’s trails, and there’ll be more planned.

00:07:25,630	Um, I got to brag about the renovation at Dave Greve Park that the town received through the Office of Mobility. I got to talk about the zone change, uh, that we passed at our annual town meeting for the former Munson State Hospital. And I also got to talk about the federal 319 water quality grant.

00:07:50,170	Um, it’s administered through mass DEP and through most of the MVP work that we’ve been doing since 2019. We were able to bypass the 604 B planning process, which was really exciting. So that saved us a couple of years. Um, in fact, we just signed a letter of support for PVC to apply for the 604 B planning process.

00:08:13,700	Um, to make a watershed based plan for the Where and bog rivers. So we’ll find out if they get that grant. Um, I also assisted with the London Pond Dam removal Reconnaissance study on behalf of the Trustees of Reservations.

00:08:40,630	Um, which is, you know, privately owned by the trustees, but the town, through the care and custody of the Conservation Commission, holds the conservation restriction on that parcel. We saw the removal of the church Manufacturing Company dam, which was a partnership with the Division of Ecological Restoration and a private dam owner. So that is wrapping up.

00:09:06,770	We only have one more year of monitoring, um, on the site from that one of the most exciting grants has to do with our work in our cedar swamp in town. So it started, um, a few years ago when the commission and I applied for the DCR Community Woodland grant, where we were able to complete a forest management plan that makes us eligible to do forestry work in the swamp,

00:09:28,600	um, which led to us applying for an MVP grant to put together the design and permitting for our actual forestry work that we’ll be doing.

00:09:47,300	And I’m excited to say that this year we were awarded another MVP grant for two years to actually implement the forestry work to restore our Inland Atlantic white cedar swamp. Um, we have a lot of project partners, including, um, UMass, where they did. They were able to do a 12 meter soil core in the swamp, and we were able to reach down, um, about 10,000 years worth of soil was brought up.

00:10:12,030	So now that’s being studied to find out, you know, what the climate conditions were at that time? Um, they’ll be able to do pollen counts and some charcoal and carbon dating, which is just really neat.

00:10:32,070	Um, on our foresters for mass Audubon did some tree coring, um, and there’s a larch, um, in the swamp that was standing during the Civil War. So it’s really neat to have some, uh, specimens like that in our swamp. Um, we also wrapped up our Chicopee Brook MVP projects, um, which, as we know, kind of ended with, um, some plans for, for Bunyan Road.

00:10:59,230	Um, but we were able to also purchase some equipment, science equipment, um, for the schools, including, uh, fish tanks for the students in the fourth grade to continue raising brook trout, which they release in Chicopee Brook. Um, when they do their stream study at the end of the year.

00:11:20,830	And then the last few slides are just kind of boasting about our flourishing, uh, small businesses here in town, um, including the expansion of the better being and CSPs and the Munson Farmers Market, which was kind of rejuvenated this year. And the new fire station renovation project. Um. Silver bell lights. And silver Bell nights, which you can go and have a Halloween, uh, experience there right now.

00:11:48,100	Um, but make sure you get your tickets for Silver Bell Nights as soon as they announce them, because they sell out quick. I want to take a moment just to talk about how Tony has done so much in three years. I think now you’ve been with. Us over. Four over four goes by so fast.

00:12:05,230	It’s crazy. But the amount of work that happens through a conservation department is typically not seen by everyone in town, because it is one of those kind of unique things that unless you’re a conservation, environmentally sound person, you’re not going to really look for it and see

00:12:23,500	it. So the effect that Tony and the Commission have on the community is very large. When you look at a presentation or you hear about the grants or you go on a hike with them, I had the chance to participate in the Cedar Swamp, um, study

00:12:40,430	that they did last year and had a chance to meet people at Norcross, and it was really an exciting time to hear about what other people are excited about. That’s different from what your lifestyle is.

00:12:56,970	So I think if anyone’s interested in passive recreation and conservation, it’s definitely a place that Monson is becoming much more known for that. Um, and I really have to attribute a lot of that to Tony. I know Glenn will say that it’s all Tony, but the Conservation Commission also has a role in that. But she just does an absolutely fantastic job.

00:13:13,700	And she did this wonderful, uh, organizational chart for you that’s very colorful. And she, um, chose to put things in groups of what she does for different things in town. So it just gives you a chance to see the different responsibilities that she has through her office and under her umbrella.

00:13:33,970	And and again, she’s one person in the office and assists so many people within the town departments. Um, from grants to tech assistance to, um, helping with, um, things out on, on the fields, you know, just all kinds of things. And we’re really fortunate to have Tony on board with us.

00:13:53,930	And I think the best thing about the grants that I would just like to note is that most of them also go through the community development, um, department, which has not had any money appropriated to it, because all the grants that I’ve been pursuing and bugging the state about, um, end up giving us 0% match for being a rural community.

00:14:12,830	So that’s really important. And I think that’s why I’m able to take all these opportunities to benefit our little town. Um, and I totaled up all the grants specifically, um, that I have administered and managed, and we are at 2.6 million. That’s amazing. That is amazing. Thank you. Very good.

00:14:32,000	And not to be lost what she said about Ian Goby. That’s a huge honor to be asked to speak at the rural affairs conferences, because that’s another thing that Tony doesn’t really talk about. She’s been asked to speak and present at several conferences.

00:14:47,670	Um, and I’m really proud that she’s grown into that since she’s come on board with us. Is a commission short of any members? Nope. Okay. That’s good. Good. Yep. Our youngest one is, uh, 20. Wow. And he was my intern during his senior year at Tan Tosca. Yeah. And now he’s double majoring at Westfield State for biology and environmental. Excellent.

00:15:10,170	That’s awesome. Yeah. That’s good. So what’s next? Not sure. What’s up? That’s really good stuff. Oh. John or Keith. Any questions? I don’t have any. We really appreciate what you do.

00:15:36,070	I see all the grant applications coming through, and and I know how hard you’re working, and I can’t. I say enough and with people I think recognizing how important the open space is to most people in town and, um, having the conservation land that we can use for recreation, whether it be active or passive, it means a lot to people. So thank you. Thank you. And as a reminder, it is hunting season.

00:16:00,830	So if you’re out, please wear orange. Um, yeah. And you wanted to talk about hunting at oh. So I guess I’m gonna pivot back to a little bit more of the, uh, Conservation Commission, uh, wetland side.

00:16:24,200	So the former children’s colony side of the former Monson state campus, which was transferred to the the Division of Fish and Game, is open for hunting this year. Finally, again, so also we’re orange and that demolition is complete. And the main campus, um, demolition is still underway, so that’s exciting to see stuff happening. And last week Tony had a meeting at MDC with Diane Canopic, who’s the project lead, and Sean O’Donnell, and they did a walk drive through.

00:16:45,570	And then I had a meeting right following that, and they couldn’t say enough about Tony. And she has such a historical knowledge and just really helped them with that property about pointing certain things out. And it’s been important for for someone who’s so young and has so much knowledge, but she really is very curious.

00:17:04,630	And when things come up, I’ll mention something. She’ll go, hold on, let me find it. And she starts looking through all this stuff, or she’ll look through files in the vault with Mary. And so it’s nice to have someone that has that curiosity and wanting to learn more. Thank you, thank. You, thank you Tony. Good evening. Thanks, Glenn.

00:17:21,670	Thank you. Lynn. You’re free to. Leave. You didn’t have to tell them twice. I know right? Next is appointments and Donald Emerson, as a special police officer, effective November 1st, 2026. We have an email from Chief Gasperini.

00:17:51,700	Basically explaining that Officer Emerson is retiring after 30 years of working in the police department. As of October 31st, 2026. And he would ask the Selectboard to appoint Officer Emerson to the to the position of special police officer, again effective 111 um, as part of the IBP local 423 contract.

00:18:19,370	Article 23 allows officers retiring in good standing to be appointed as a special police officer who can work outside paid details, and the chief confirms that Officer Emerson is retiring in good standing and that this position would not bring any additional costs to the town of mountain. So any discussion? Hearing none, I will take a motion, please, to appoint Donald Emerson to the position of Special Police Officer effective November 1st, 2026. Oh second.

00:18:48,130	All in favor? Aye, aye. Thank you. Thank you. And next, um, the municipal financial Sustainability Task force. I understand that we’ve been contacted by the finance committee.

00:19:10,630	We have, um, so you had originally appointed one of the members of the Finance Committee to represent their committee on the task force, and that member is unable to fulfill that. And so Jim Pennington reached out to let me know that Peter Flannery is their new appoint appointee for that. So they’re asking for your appointment of him. And the first meeting of the task force is this Thursday.

00:19:31,070	Any discussion? The only the only thing I would say is that, um, did was this like really last minute because usually we put the name on there. It was. Yeah. Jim just told me last night. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Um, I’d like to get, um, Mr. Appointed tonight so that he can participate on Thursday. But if you have an issue with it, we’ll put it on the next agenda.

00:19:51,130	No. That’s okay. Okay. I was just I was just wanted to know if it was a there was a different reason. I figured it was, uh, last minute because, uh, things came up, so I understand. Okay. If there’s no discussion, then I’ll take a motion. Do we have to revoke the appointment? We probably should.

00:20:14,600	Probably, but that’s not on here, so. Well, I think it flows naturally from the new appointment. I don’t think that that should be an issue. Okay. And you vote to make a motion to appoint. Uh, Peter. Peter for an excuse.

00:20:38,130	The other person with it that your excuse? Any other person from the committee? Well, I think since we made an appointment, we need to revoke the appointment. So revoke the first one and then do the second one. So, um, it would be Ken Parks was appointed. So I’ll take a motion to revoke the appointment of Ken Parks as the finance committees member on the Municipal Financial Sustainability Task Force. No more.

00:21:00,370	Second. All in favor? Aye aye aye. And then a motion to appoint Peter as the Finance committee member on the Municipal Financial Sustainability Task Force with a. Is it for one year appointment? We’re going to June 30th of 27 right now. So with the termination dated June 30th, 20 27. Oh second. All in.

00:21:25,430	Favor? All right. Thank you. Thank you. And now on to old business. And with your packet on Friday, there was an initial draft from me on a proposed policy. I have added more on to it. And so that was the document that Miss Morse left for you this evening.

00:21:48,800	I don’t know if anybody else has written anything. If anybody else just has some comments or, um, specific things they’d like to talk about. Um, we can look at the old rules and regulations, but I think as we’ve, we’ve already discussed and we’ve been discussing since July, part of the reason to do this

00:22:10,870	is that there is currently a 12 page document that is very outdated. And I think in large part is very duplicative and not reflective of what is either happening or what needs to be happening. And hopefully we can get that 12 page document, um, more concise and down to a policy as as I’m proposing.

00:22:40,170	I’ve had a chance to read through this one and it’s fine. It looks fine to me. It looks good. I’d like more time since you did make some more changes and everything, and I do have some things saved that I would.

00:22:54,130	Um, who should I submit them to when I have? After I reviewed this, or I submit them. To Rebecca. On me. Rebecca. Yeah. And so I can do that. Yeah. Yeah, you can. So both of. Us, do you have any comments for tonight, Mr.

00:23:06,930	Valley? Um, well, no, I mean, I the only I did read your the original one that we got in our packet and, um, so, but I mean, I think some things are different now, so like one of my questions was on, on number two. So you’ve added to that. So my comments really don’t mean anything right now until I read reread that.

00:23:25,230	Um, so I would I would rather just say, you know, yeah, I, I, I’m, you know, I’m in favor of reducing it down to 12 pages. I’ll read the, the proposed new draft and then I’ll submit any, any suggested changes or any additions to to that. Okay. So you have nothing to submit to us tonight that we can start looking at. Okay.

00:23:44,230	So I can just have it for our future agenda depending. On put it. On the next agenda, please. Okay. You know, we’ve been talking about this since July. I’d really like to keep pushing. It. Next new business discussion of composition of master Plan committee with Mr.

00:24:06,130	Kamiya, Director of Land Use and environment for the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission. Thank you for being here this evening. Yes, of course. I always love having Ken come. In. And he loves to come see us. Yeah. Oh, who told you that? Uh. Good evening, board.

00:24:26,470	I, uh, Ken Kamiya, director of land use and environment at the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, um, and also consultant to the town’s planning board. Um, and, yeah, I think, as you are aware, the town received, um, a grant from the Executive Office of Housing Livable Communities through the community planning grant for $150,000 to update the town’s master plan. The last time the master plan.

00:24:56,870	So the town’s master plan was originally, or the one that we are seeking to update, or the town is seeking to update it from 2004. Um, and then there was also a addendum in 2012 for the downtown center.

00:25:18,270	So the idea is that this is an opportunity to update the components of the master plan, a master plan, um, according to mass general law, is to address certain things, things like housing, land use, um, economic development, natural and historical resources. Um services and facilities, transportation. In addition to providing an update to the demographics of the town and, um, creating goals and strategies to to accomplish those things.

00:25:47,170	Um, so those are the legal components of a master plan. Um, having, you know, having been at the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission now for all seven years, we’ve worked on probably six master plans in that time. And every community is different. Um, and the funding sources are different.

00:26:12,270	Um, and I think with this particular one, the idea is to help the town facilitate a master planning process that’s usually done through a master plan committee. Um, some towns rely on their planning board, but I think in talking to the planning board and having initial conversations with them, with their support to apply for the grant, um, a master plan committee is probably the, um, the venue for those conversations, I think

00:26:34,570	for the town. I was looking at your 2004 plan, and you had 14 members from the community, um, of which that particular committee was comprised of two planning board members, the select board member, a member of the Conservation Commission, the Water and Sewer Commission, Parks and rec.

00:26:57,130	And then you had four business owners and four town residents. Um, just seeing the makeup of that. Um, you know, I think that there could be an opportunity to also invite, um, some other members of your current town government, uh, you know, anywhere from someone from the historic commission or the school committee? Um, Board of Health Finance, ag Commission.

00:27:22,300	Um, just trying to think about who best to represent the people of the town in this particular planning process. I think what I’ll also say is, um, I think I understand that, um, the town might be going through, um, and, Jennifer, I don’t know if this is maybe for a confirmation from Tony.

00:27:43,100	Uh, regarding MVP 2.0, we are. Yeah. So understanding that that planning process is also happening at that time, trying to not bombard, you know, the planning process or or coming up with a strategy that doesn’t confuse the fact that there are multiple planning processes happening. And, you know, with different end games for that.

00:28:05,530	Um, so the idea is to talk about the composition of the master plan committee. Um, and, you know, through the select board and your appointing powers of that committee, figuring out what composition makes sense.

00:28:24,200	Um, so, you know, I’m here to answer any questions related to the master plan. We’re still in its infancy. Um, we had a cancelled planning board meeting last week, so I haven’t even been able to talk to the planning board yet.

00:28:42,430	Um, but the idea is to maybe identify a member or two from the planning board to, you know, uh, uh, be a part of that, this particular committee. But in addition to that, seek, you know, guidance from the select board. Ken, what’s the intersection between the master plan and the MVP plan? The MVP 2.

00:29:07,500	0 plan that is particular to the this new planning process that the state, through the municipal Vulnerabilities Preparedness Program, um, and identifying a seed project, um from your planning process when you came up with your MVP statement of findings, five plus years ago. So the idea is for MVP 2.0 to work through a core team. Um, this is you know, this is my kind of high level knowledge of the MVP 2.0 process.

00:29:36,200	Um, and then identify a seed project of which the town will receive funding to help support that implementation. That strategy. Uh, there is a planning process that typically involves a lot more community engagement. It also involves, um, a yeah, I would say that it’s more community engagement or that’s the end.

00:30:00,300	The end, um, game of the MVP program is that’s what they want. Um, but likely you have a consultant that might be already working on that or, um, those conversations might initially be happening. Um, but the master plan obviously is taking into account everything that’s going on. Right? So you’re talking about your facilities and you’re talking about the schools.

00:30:23,900	You’re talking about the the long game for development in town. You know, zoning changes, um, talking about your conservations, Tony talked about, um, acquisition of land. You know, that’s part of things that you would probably be bringing into the process. Uh, a master plan is to, um, work with all of the plans that you do.

00:30:46,670	Have you recently passed the housing production plan a couple of years ago. You have an open space plan that you recently worked on. So those plans will be incorporated into this in some form or fashion.

00:31:06,470	Um, but the idea is with the MVP program that is specific to the MVP program, you know, to get your seed project and your planning process to get to that seed project. But I think a lot of the conversations that happen with regards to climate resilience and what the town might be seeing with, with, um, with maybe some projects that you might have been identifying, um, for instance, there are some communities, I

00:31:26,830	think the town of Belchertown recently, um, got an MVP grant after their MVP 2.0 planning process for $1 million resilience hub. And so that was something that the town is has now gotten additional funding because the their MVP 2.0 process landed on a resilience hub as the seed project.

00:31:51,400	So the idea is you’re coming up to get this seed project, whatever that might be. And then the presumption is that the town will apply for a future MVP grant to implement that. Um, yeah. What’s the MVP? What’s that stand for? Um, municipal vulnerabilities preparedness? Well, I can get that one. I would never guess that one.

00:32:15,270	Uh, and is that some state requirement we have to do, or is it just happening if you want to take advantage of it. The town did its MVP planning many years ago. So you’re part of the program.

00:32:32,530	And the idea is that since you’re part of the program, you have access to the MVP action grants that Tony was talking. Well, we don’t have to. It’s not mandated or. It’s not mandated. But I think with regards to the 2.0 process, in order to, um, have access to the future grants, you’d probably be seeking to go through that planning process..

00:32:52,130	In your experience, what’s a good number of people on the master plan committee? Because I, I see that it makes sense to try to get people from all different departments. And but at some point you get so many people on the committee. Have you? I was telling Jennifer I was working with a community that had 23 members, and that’s a lot. Um, the town had 14.

00:33:10,430	Um, I don’t know how that experience was 20 plus years ago. Um, but I think from experience, anywhere, I think between 9 and 13, um, because that would be, you know, probably comprised of members of various boards in addition to at large members that you might identify.

00:33:32,930	Um, but I think looking at the composition and maybe the way that it was presented in the plan, you did address, like people that might be more aware of the cultural, you know, resources that the town has and maybe the members on the the committee. 20 years ago, maybe there was someone that came from that, you know, that particular, um, perspective.

00:33:54,630	Um, but I would say, yeah, between 9 and 13. Thank you. Mr. Morrell, Mr. Bailey, any questions? I had one that was all that I had. Okay. Um, you stated that we we did. We did this MVP, uh, many years ago.

00:34:16,500	So was there a report that came out of that? Yeah. So every community that goes through the MVP program and I think there’s only like three that have not in the whole Commonwealth. Um, uh, has a statement of findings or basically. And so there should be a report from the first set of planning that you guys did years ago.

00:34:35,700	I want to say it was probably 2000. 13 or 14 when it first started under the state. And a lot of it was the bulk of it is tied to climate change. Yeah. And it was all tied to being prepared in your community.

00:34:55,470	That’s why it’s called municipal vulnerability Preparedness. And it ties to flooding. It ties to making sure that you have the ability to build your community in a way that can respond to the 100 year storms that we’re getting more often now. So it really all came from climate change..

00:35:16,300	Is that is that available somewhere? I’d have to look for it. It was done before my time. So I can look in our records. Okay. And see, I don’t I don’t think PBC did it, but I think we probably would have it. Thank you. Find that. Thank you. Oh no other questions.

00:35:35,630	Then we can move on to your second topic. Sure. And that is about data center regulations. And I note that the, um, the RMA has a seminar coming up sometime in November. I think it was around the middle of November. And certainly if we have time, maybe we can listen to it.

00:36:01,670	I think it’s a zoom meeting, but maybe that’ll be a good source of information. Yeah. Um, there’s so much out there. Um. We gave them this. Ken. Yes. Great. And so I was recently at a, uh, Massachusetts regional planning agency and division of Local Services conference that was in Worcester earlier this month.

00:36:29,730	And, um, there’s actually a staff person in the administration, um, that provided this particular presentation on the administration’s actions on data center development. I think, as you are aware, you probably heard about the executive order from the governor with regards to data centers.

00:36:51,200	Um, and so knowing that, obviously that’s just kind of a context of how maybe the town might be wanting to look at data centers, um, at the moment. And so the likelihood of towns, um, you know, wanting to either, uh, adopt some zoning to do a moratorium, um, is probably what a lot of communities are doing at the moment, in addition to, um, even creating some standards and maybe going straight to that, because there are some examples of data center standards from

00:37:20,500	communities in the Commonwealth. Um. And could you do a little. Um. Introduction to the world that’s watching at home about what a data center is and what the effect it has on a community and what resources it uses. Thank you. Yeah.

00:37:46,630	So data centers, um, you know, are these big structures that utilize a lot of energy, water, electricity, um, and basically it is to it’s a big, big structure that kind of, um, houses and stores how data is moved. And we hear about the cloud, we hear about AI.

00:38:11,200	And you kind of think about it, I think in that context, I think the media probably, um, you know, the the stories that you hear in the media about how this is affecting others elsewhere in the country. Um, it is just that, right. There are these big structures that can create very big impacts to neighborhoods, depending on where they’re sited. Um, in the Commonwealth, according to this. And that kind of took my guidance initially from this presentation.

00:38:33,730	Um, the EA has identified approximately 50 in the state, mostly under the ten megawatt category. Um, you know, with that said, um, this this document that I shared with the select board also mentions that EA is to also be providing a municipal guidance document.

00:39:01,470	So, um, at that conference, there was a mention of of coming up with regulatory language, particularly in zoning, on how to maybe look at, um, data centers in town, if that is something that a town wants to do.

00:39:23,830	So, um, in addition to providing the information, as Jennifer was asking, um, about what a data center is and how towns might be looking at them in the context of other development in their community. Um, you know, I think from experience, it is still so new. Um, and literally it’s happened like in the past six months of how fast we were talking about data centers. And that’s why towns are moving towards moratorium. Um, to do that. And, um, we’re still kind of learning at PBC.

00:39:47,400	Um, you know, we are doing a lot. Right. So there’s, there’s data centers in the context of the new siting regulations for solar and battery in the state, um, that we’re also kind of navigating. Um, so I think they’re all kind of related.

00:40:07,530	Um, but with regards to data centers, I think the big takeaway is you probably want to define it. The state is working on that municipal document on maybe how to define it, in addition to how to regulate it, um, where it might make sense in town, where it might be banned, where, you know, it might be prohibited across town, uh, the city of

00:40:26,100	Holyoke did that. Um, but many towns at the moment, I think, are just exploring the moratoria language to create standards for their development, because maybe they have found that it might not make sense to prohibit them outright, but maybe there is, like controlling the size in addition to what it means and what kind of impacts might need

00:40:47,870	to be mitigated. Um, if a data center comes to town. In generally, would the way that we do that be through the zoning bylaws? Yes. So, yeah, you would as the zoning bylaw dictates, where things can be located, what those standards of development are.

00:41:10,000	That’s where you would, uh, you know, probably address the regulatory standards that you might be asking from these data centers. So from what I understand, you’re saying that Monson doesn’t want one here. We don’t. The decision has been made. No. No, no, not at all.

00:41:31,700	The I’m not suggesting it either, but I’m saying that, uh, Western Mass might be looking into that because there’s a power plant at the state hospital grounds, and our town water supply is pretty good. I don’t know if it’s enough to take care of that.

00:41:50,800	And the people in this town, but it’s somebody could be looking at that site, but at data center, and that would be a a big bonanza for the town money wise. I actually just brought it up because I saw so many. I shouldn’t say so many, but a number of towns around us already dealing with the issue, whether it’s through the moratoria or just setting up some guidelines within their zoning bylaws. So I just thought it was time to start the discussion on the topic.

00:42:11,200	Most of them don’t have the power plant or the electrical ability to do it right now. And and they certainly a lot of them don’t have the water because they’re looking in the rural districts now because there just isn’t any room in the in the urban areas.

00:42:28,700	Right? So, I mean, they could be looking at that. And we have to think about that too, one way or the other. It could be a positive thing, could be a negative thing. We have to figure that out. We have to make sure we’re protecting ourselves, that’s for sure.

00:42:48,870	Because, uh, um, there’s like you said, it’s moving very, very fast. And anything that we learned from when the internet first came out, the laws didn’t catch up to it for a very long time. And so we don’t want to be left in, in the dust with this because this is a this is a very, uh, very critical. Uh, absolutely. Decisions. So, yeah.

00:43:09,770	So once we get a better handle on it, it sounds like we should be talking to the planning board about. How. I would say that. And in addition to, you know, if there is as far as maybe after this municipal document is provided, that provides, I think, a level of understanding for all of the

00:43:29,070	Commonwealth that might be exploring this topic that maybe a, um, exploration of moratorium language might make sense. Um, many communities are taking a year to do that. Um, many communities surrounding yours are also doing that and have adopted a town meeting.

00:43:53,000	Um, so, uh, that might might be like a pathway forward as, um, yeah. Utilizing the municipal guidance in addition to, um, you know, exploring, uh, an amendment to the zoning bylaw for moratoria. Are the. Moratoria generally a year? Has anybody gone farther than that? Um, not to my knowledge.

00:44:16,730	I think it has been a year, maybe a little shorter for some communities, but I think over a year, then the attorney general will probably say that doesn’t make sense. Zoning bylaws. Uh, if we did have one, it was in place. Uh, even though that’s, uh, currently all it’s own by not the state anymore, but Western Mass, right? Yeah, but it’s not owned by the town.

00:44:35,900	But our zoning bylaws would still apply, just like they apply to a household. Yeah. Yep. Same thing. Yeah. Yeah. Can any time frame on when that municipal guide is gonna come out? Um, according to the staff person at the state, she said that it was by the end of the year.

00:44:51,330	I don’t think that’s going to happen just because of the the way that she was describing the convening of the people that are to, you know, make up this report. I mean, maybe a recommendation is the town and, you know, working with the planning board to adopt moratoria language. Just to give us. A year to give.

00:45:07,900	A that’s kind of what I was thinking. If this isn’t the process, the select board would ask. The. Planning board to do that. Correct? Yeah. We can. Yeah. Okay. And then for the presumption is spring town meeting, you know. Right. In addition to.

00:45:23,870	Any obviously it takes a little while for the planning board to go through their legal process to have a moratorium on the. the Art Warren article. Yes. And then I don’t know if I missed it in here and this, but it says that there’s 50 operating currently in Massachusetts. But is there is there any open like permits that that you’re aware of that are pending.

00:45:46,470	Not that I’m aware of. Yeah. I mean I think it would probably take some additional research at the municipal level to see, um, or maybe even asking EA as they identified it.

00:46:11,670	Um, you know, what their threshold was to identify the 50 data centers? Was it in permitting? Was it in, um, already completed and operating? Um, you know, I think a recent kind of a big thing that happened recently was the city of Westfield, denying a renewal of their special permit for a data center in Westfield. Um, just because it’s a big question mark.

00:46:32,330	Um, so just kind of I think the moratorium probably makes sense for the town to pursue, just based on the fact that standards will, you know, there there there are examples, standards. Um, but I think as you were talking about, um, John, you also mentioned the development center, right? MDC um, and thinking about the other context of development in Monson of where you like, you

00:46:55,200	look at a site and you’re like, oh, maybe there could be a data center there. Um, but I think the moratorium language and adopting moratorium for the Spring town meeting probably makes sense to protect the town from that.

00:47:15,100	And because there is so much other there are communities that are dealing with this in other parts of the country. I think finding regulations that make sense for the town can definitely be done, you know, more easily. Um, yeah.

00:47:39,070	And I think PBC is taking the stance also of, um, when this municipal document, as we probably will be consulted, um, that we’re going to do our own kind of convening of the communities to really understand what they might be looking as far as impacts and what community benefits agreements might need to look like, because that is probably something that would need to happen if a data center were to come to town.

00:47:58,030	It’s like, what is the town getting? What is the town? How is it being protected and mitigated? Have you got any idea how many data centers may be marketed in this state, or they’re trying to market them in this state? Maybe one or nothing or. I don’t think that. I think because they are.

00:48:15,930	I think because the media has covered it in the way that it has. And I think the governor’s executive order has just kind of like said, we don’t we it’s so much of a question mark that there probably is not really any big exploration of data centers. And the state wouldn’t benefit from communities having them.

00:48:37,100	It would all be the community would be. the yeah, yeah. Do you think it would be appropriate then to have on the November meeting for the board to have an item to ask the planning board to start the work on the moratorium so they have the time to get that prepared for May town meeting? Yes, please. Okay.

00:48:58,030	Thank you. Ken. You’re welcome. Appreciate your time. Always a wealth of knowledge. Yes. Thank you. Good to see you again. Yes, likewise. Good luck with the sinkhole. All right. Don’t go. That way. I don’t I never. Go to that street. Thank you everyone. Thank you. And moving on to approve minutes. Um, minute. Number 301.

00:49:26,900	I’m sorry. Vote to record executive sessions. And for executive assistant to produce the minutes. One of the things that is included in the policy that we talked about a couple of agenda items ago, is specifically about keeping minutes of the executive session.

00:49:56,270	And rather than continue to wait to go through the entire, um, document, I would like to address this one part now so that we can have the executive assistant produce the minutes of the executive sessions, and specifically to address that, those executive sessions can be recorded so that she can use them to produce the minutes. I agree with that. Okay. Mister Valley. A good idea because of that.

00:50:25,170	Yeah. I mean, we talked about it. It isn’t the current rules and regulations that it would take a vote to do that. So I don’t have a problem with voting for that. Um, I think we just need to have a discussion.

00:50:43,130	Um, so the public is aware of so what happens to those recordings after they have been produced? So they’re used to produce notes for the executive sessions. And then, uh, what happens to the recordings at that point.

00:51:05,770	Once the recordings are done? Would they would be erased or recorded over? Because once minutes are produced from them, the recording is no longer a public record that needs to be, um, maintained. Okay. And I also have the recorder here, and I can return that tonight.

00:51:27,530	So the other the other thing I’ll mention to the two of you is, um, town council has mentioned on more than one occasion that she actually doesn’t like recording executive sessions. And her reasoning for that is because she feels that that it stifles the free exchange of ideas during the executive session.

00:51:57,030	To me, I understand that perspective, and I understand not having the recording, but I, I think at least at this point, until we discuss it in more detail or have an alternative that I would like to get back to the recording, the way that it was done before. Um, to me, it’s just easier if we can have the executive assistant get them done because she’ll get them done quickly.

00:52:15,900	And that way when we’re going back over the minutes after we’ve had the the meeting, it’s the meetings fresher in your mind. It’s just easier to to go and review the minutes and, you know, make sure that you feel that it reflects what happened at the minute at the meeting. Well, yeah.

00:52:31,900	And I just want just to comment on that to that, um, that. Like I said, I have no problem voting because it’s in our current rules and regulations to do that.

00:52:52,300	Um, but there was also there could be a time, um, in the future that because one of the main reasons why I objected to doing it the way we were doing it was because I didn’t feel that it was, um, a true, um, you know, keeping things confidential.

00:53:17,870	When we were going to which the old way or the way it was being done, I should say, was to give the recording to the executive assistant that reports directly to the person that we were having executive sessions about, so that, to me is a conflict. And and to keep things confidential during an executive session. That is why I took over doing the executive.. Understood. But the executive assistant is a confidential employee. And if in fact, she.

00:53:52,300	Gives out any information that she has learned as, um, during her her work as a confidential employee. Um, that’s an ethics violation for her and also a personnel issue for us to deal with. Understood. Yeah. It just. I felt that that was the right thing to do. Okay. So that’s why I. Did it. Okay.

00:54:16,430	So then if there’s no further discussion, I will take a motion, please, to record executive session and to have the executive assistant produce minutes from those recordings. So moved. Second. All in favor? I I’m sorry. I wanted to just say one more thing. Sure. Um, so, um. Actually, no, I can wait till the next. I. Okay. I’m good. Sorry. So was unanimous. It was unanimous. Thank you.

00:54:44,400	Sorry about that. No. No problem. Okay, then. Moving on to the minutes first August 29th, 2026 Executive Session. I’ll take a motion, please, to approve those. Oh, moved. Second. Is there any discussion on the August 20th nine. Minutes hearing? None. I will ask for a vote. I. I. I thank you and September 3rd, 2026 Executive session.

00:55:17,830	I’ll ask for a motion please, to approve those.. So move. Second. Is there any discussion on those hearing none. All in favor? Aye. Aye. September 17th, 2026 Open session. I’ll take a motion, please. So move. Second. All in. Uh, let me ask first. Any discussion? Hearing. None. All in favor? Aye aye aye. September 22nd, open session.

00:55:50,830	I’ll take a motion, please, to approve those. So move. Second. Any discussion? Hearing. I’m sorry. No, no. Okay. Hearing none. I’ll ask for a vote. All in favor? Aye. Aye. September 24th, 2026. Executive Session. I’ll take a motion, please, to approve those. I’ll move. Second.

00:56:16,500	Is there any discussion? Hearing none. I will ask for a vote. All in favor? Aye aye aye. September 30th, 2026. Open and Executive Session. So I have a question on that. So September 30th I am for executive session. I’m still working on. But when you gave me your notes, um, last meeting, you also gave me the. Open session.

00:56:38,970	Open sessions. And I had stated from the 30th that since that turned into what it turned into, that I wasn’t responsible for taking the meeting notes. Right. For the open part of it, which turned into more than just opening and closing. Right. So do you. So, so what I did, Mr.

00:56:59,970	Valley, was give those to Miss Morse today. And so she’ll. on the print them out and distribute them to that. They can be reviewed. And then the executive, uh, portion of that I am in process of. Okay. So I’ll push. It out so. You can put that on to the next agenda, please. Okay. And then October 13th, 2026, um, motion to approve open session.

00:57:23,470	Okay. Uh. Second. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. I’ll ask for a vote. All in favor? Aye, aye. Thank you. I am so excited that those are all done. I think that was a lot for all of you, too. It was. Keep straight and review and go back and forth on.

00:57:44,300	And Rebecca and I were talking about it. It’s one thing when it’s the open session and then you’re done and then you go to a whole new subject matter.

00:57:58,830	But when you’re doing executive sessions and you’ve had several meetings two nights in a row or two in a week, so to then look back and read it and think, wait a minute, what night did we talk about that? So that’s why it really is best for all of you to try to. Get through it. Yeah. It’s good. So we’re happy. Success. Moving on then to discussion of select board fiscal year 28 budget priorities. And I’ll let you start.

00:58:17,400	So this is where the real work begins because it’s getting into that season. So I wanted to give you all a chance to just start an open conversation with the three of you to talk amongst yourselves and ask questions. If so, be about what you’re looking for.

00:58:38,770	As we start to move towards the FY 28 budget process, uh, obviously we’ll be starting try board at some point. We’ll be having finance Committee and School Committee with your board, you know, to talk about things.

00:58:57,430	But I just wanted the three of you to start thinking about it, talking about it, and at your next meeting, you’re gonna also have on there a agenda item where it’s your responsibility then to vote the non-union employees Cola for FY 28, which includes anyone who is not in the Asme union, not in the police union, so includes the firefighters. It includes any staff who is not in an employment contract, and any staff that is not in a union.

00:59:25,770	So if you do have any questions on what positions those cover, you can let me know. Um, I can get that to you, but that is another responsibility of the board to set before we go into the budget planning process.

00:59:41,430	Um, so again, I this is an open conversation for the three of you to start talking about and kind of fleshing out what your priorities are going to be. Do you know what the the Finance committee schedule is like? Are they going to be starting now? And they’re meeting on November 9th? Is their next meeting? Yep. Do you know.

00:59:56,670	, can we get a list of which departments they’re doing or do they not have that schedule? That’s not until January. They don’t start departments until after the budgets. Are done. So what will they be starting with? Uh, well, they’ll have a follow up meeting from last week.

01:00:10,570	So they don’t meet every single Monday, but they’re having a follow up meeting from last week or from special town meeting. And they have their own business that they talk about. So at this point, is there something that we should be talking to the Finance Committee about? Should we meet with the Finance Committee? No.

01:00:25,700	I think it’s your board to start to have these conversations on your own. First. Okay. Because your board has to be the the lead of what we’re walking into when we start tribe board discussions and what your goals are and what your priorities are for that upcoming season.

01:00:45,700	Then I think part of what we should start with are whatever numbers that we currently have, if we could talk to the finance director to give us whatever information she has at this point, we can look at, no. This is not a time for numbers. This is a time for the three of you to start a conversation.

01:01:07,200	General conversation about what your priorities are for the town of Monson. As you move into FY 28. Go ahead, John. I think we’ve got to go back to having public safety. Our number one priority. It’s been dropped for a while and that’s that’s not good.

01:01:26,370	The highway and the police have both cut personnel. They’re down to minimal minimal minimal. And it’s not good for our for public safety in this town also. And I would be willing to relinquish mine. I think the stipends have to be returned to these elected officials.

01:01:47,170	And with fiscal 28, if they are returned, I would not accept mine. But I, I would say that you two have to accept it to keep this. If it’s voted that way, to keep this, uh, these stipends going for everybody. It doesn’t mean in the future I wouldn’t take one if I was still here.

01:02:03,430	But I’m talking about at least next year because I don’t want a conflict of interest because I suggested it. But these people are are concerned about the time they spend. Just like we spend all this time doing everything. There’s other elected officials who are in the same boat, and they don’t get money for gas or anything.

01:02:19,930	They’re going back and forth in their time and I think they should get it. It’s not a big item. The highway, the police are a big item. So that’s that’s my priority. It’s public safety. We got to go back to making them number one again. That’s what I think..

01:02:37,600	I’d like to see a list of all the staffing vacancies right now on in all the departments, because I think all the departments are struggling. And I’d like to see, uh, a list of vacancies. Um, so that we have a true picture of where where we are suffering the worst. Um, I think that would be a good start for my opinion.

01:03:00,470	I’m going to disagree with John. I don’t think public safety has ever not been our priority. All right. And when you lay off three guys and you’ve got you got eight and you’re down to five, that’s a priority. It becomes a priority. But but every. Other at least two..

01:03:16,970	But every other department has suffered the same kind of. Like they’re not protecting people’s lives like these public safety people are. And yet, John, we’re down to basically what I would consider a skeleton staff in most departments. And There’s. Just no way. You’re not. There’s nowhere else. To go. I’m not disputing that.

01:03:35,100	I agree with Keith that these these these time and these positions should be returned. As much as we can afford to do it. But we’re talking a priority. I just think the priority should be public safety first. That’s what I’m saying. Priority. Not whether we should help everybody out. I think that should be done.

01:03:51,630	I think he’s right. One of the ways maybe to start this off would be to do something similar to how we began last year, and that was to get the list of the different departments and not only the staffing of the departments, but what the additional, um, expenses and that type of thing in

01:04:16,370	departments, just so that we can see where we are with how close we are to the bottom line. And most of these departments. And what I’m getting at is the same discussion that I brought up last year, and that is at some point there’s just nowhere else to go.

01:04:34,270	And I think when we get to the point where we have cut back as far as we can cut back, we need to actually start talking about getting rid of particular departments. And I think if you you ask for priority about departments, then I’m going to agree with you that public safety is number one to me.

01:04:57,830	So we’re talking police, fire, highway, the schools obviously. And then go from there. We we have to keep the minimal amount of staff in this building to process what happens. Because otherwise we don’t have a town. If we don’t have the assessor’s figuring out with. The nobody talking about cutting them.

01:05:23,900	But John, I’m talking about prioritizing what we have. We can’t cut. We’ve got two people in the assessor’s office. They’re the people who come up with a bills. We have two people in the collector’s office. Once the bills come in, they collect the money.

01:05:42,730	We’ve got two people in the Treasurer’s office. Those are the people who pay the bills. We’ve got two people in the accountant’s office. Those are the people who do all the paperwork. There’s just nowhere to go in those offices.

01:06:02,400	So if we get to the point where our revenue is so short that we’ve got to start talking about making cuts to every department that we have open right now, I think the only answer to that is to get rid of one or more department. I don’t agree with you on that. I don’t I don’t like to see departments gone. And I. Understand they have the importance in the town.

01:06:21,530	Everything is important, right? Right. But at some point you’ve got to prioritize. When you when you have this much money, but you need this much, you’ve got to figure out how to fit it. In well, which both be talking about priorities. And you don’t know what you have for money yet.

01:06:40,800	So the priorities can change and what you’re doing can change. You can say, well, we can return one personnel person here that was lost in one there and still keep this department and have that one running and have these people.

01:06:56,830	So you gotta you don’t know what it is until you get the an analysis on what the what the amount of money, the amount of revenue that you’re going to get. And you won’t know that until the spring. But if you look at it that way, then you’re saying we should just sit here and twiddle our thumbs until we get the numbers.

01:07:09,930	We’ve got to to make some kinds of decisions, which is why. We just mentioning priorities right now. Right. But that’s why I’m asking for whatever information we can get that will help us get a better handle on where we are. Yeah.

01:07:30,730	I think having having all the vacancies is, is, is is as important as having no there knowing where everybody is with their with their total budget. Like are they what percentage of their budget, um, have they exhausted already at this point of the year? Because from there you can kind of do a projection. And you get that monthly report from the accountant. So you’re getting that. Every month.

01:07:51,770	Having the staffing shortages. Um, and then I guess if there’s any, um, if there’s any activities that the department heads are working on as far as a saving money and B grants, if they’re in process. And just on the vacancies, I would say we don’t really have vacancies.

01:08:22,570	We have departments that have not filled positions, which is really at this point, it’s highway. We did reduce positions at the Council on Aging, just like we did at highway. They’re not vacancies. They’re not in the budget anymore. Vacancy. When I look at that definition, is it’s vacant and it hasn’t been filled yet. So I just want to understand. What you’re looking.

01:08:40,830	At okay. How many how many people are needed to. Run okay. So that’s what you’re really looking. for a manpower type thing. Right? Okay. So that’s a different way okay okay. All right. Because there’s you know you’re right. There’s a difference there. But um, and then uh.

01:09:03,400	So you’re asking the department heads what they think they need is that really what what you’re asking? Well, I mean, we’ve heard many, many stories from from the department heads that have come in so far, right, that they said that, you know, they’re, um, they’re not running with a deputy or they’re not running.

01:09:26,070	They’re only running with, you know, the I know there’s requirements, state requirements, like, especially with police and fire. Okay. Are we at the minimum? Um. If we’re below the minimum, then that’s that’s a problem because there are there are state mandates of of how many, uh, staffing you need to have to, uh, based on the size of our town and department.

01:09:46,030	So, I mean, however you want to slice those numbers, I’m not I’m not asking for a wish list. I’m asking for what is the. Because we’re below the bare minimum in most every department right now. I’m going to say probably without seeing the data.

01:10:06,070	So what is what is the minimum that you need above of the bare bones right now to run the department effectively and safely. Which is outside of state requirements though, because there could be departments that would say, I need two people versus one person because of X, Y, and Z, but it’s not a state requirement. So again, I’m just trying to flesh out exactly. Why.

01:10:22,530	We took the words right out of my mouth. It’s two words a wish list, though we don’t want these people to make a wish list. I’ll be responsible and honest about what you need, right? But that you. But there’s a difference between a state requirement of a public safety agency.

01:10:40,200	You know, a clerical administrative office could still need. Right, in those cases. Okay, here’s the state requirement of X. When I’m at Y really is right. However you want to slice it. No. But what I’m saying is other departments don’t have a state requirement. Right. You’re right.

01:11:02,100	But if we’re saying that they used to have, say, five and they only have three now, okay. Is there justification for that? Because was the department running effectively? Have we have they had to reduce services or hours or anything because they have cut from 5 to 3? Um, you know that to me that wouldn’t be a wish list. That would be okay.

01:11:21,330	This is what the the part how this is how the department can run effectively and safely. Is at five, but I’m at three. So that would mean okay, the vacancies would be two. Doesn’t mean that that would be a priority. And we’re going to go out and fill those right away.

01:11:34,730	It’s just nice to have that that that number. So here’s the thing. The police in the fire are both covering their shifts minimally. And if that’s the number you want to look at, then we’re there. But it’s not efficient. And it’s probably ultimately costing us more money not to have.

01:11:58,130	Because when you’ve got to cover the IT 24 over seven and you need at least two people out there at a time, if one of them takes a vacation day, one of them gets sick, then you’ve got to call in overtime.

01:12:12,900	And I think when you actually sit down and figure out how much the overtime is costing you versus having that additional officer who could fill in, we’ve we’ve talked about that with Steve Kozlowski so many times. Um, it was actually cheaper to have the additional officer.

01:12:32,430	And yet we can’t come up with that money at the beginning of the year to fund that officer. So as far as state mandates, we’re doing what we have to do, but we’re not doing it well, and we’re probably not doing it as efficiently as we might if we could find some other way to do it. Not a good answer, but that’s that’s what we’re doing.

01:12:54,900	So you people don’t realize that, uh, the ambulance, the fire truck and a police cruiser can’t get somewhere in this town if the road is not plowed. We had it happen. A house burned to the ground because it was that they couldn’t get a they got the fire truck stuck.

01:13:13,830	They went in the wrong way, and they got the fire truck stuck. I’ll tell him, Jennifer, about it. I never forgot that. And her house burned to the ground because the fire trucks tried to go through there and the road wasn’t plowed, and two of them got stuck and blocked the road, so we couldn’t even plow

01:13:28,500	it. We had to go all the way around the other end to plow it in. And by that time the house was down to the ground. I think we all understand. Those things. Public safety is three organizations. It’s the police, it’s the fire, it’s highway. I think we all understand that very clearly.

01:13:44,530	A lot of people don’t think they are. Well. I think by by now we. And exhale and they say I guess they are a public safety department. I want to circle back around because I want to be really clear on what the conversation is.

01:14:01,570	And so I’ll use, for example, like the library, like hope. Absolutely would tell me that she needs more people. And Mary Watson would tell me that she probably needs another person.

01:14:25,170	And so again, is that a wish list or is that your department head is saying, I need XYZ to perform the tasks of my office? I want to really be clear, because if we get into a situation of you’ve asked department heads to give this information and then they’re giving it and it’s a misconstrued understanding of is it a wish list? Is it not? I want to be clear because I don’t want this to become..

01:14:42,230	So what about justification? So if I if I’m going to say that I need one more person in my department, um, as a department head, I’m going to go, you know, obviously, I’m going to use a manufacturing analogy here.

01:15:08,430	I’m going to say, okay, this is what I have to produce every month of XYZ, and I need this many hours to do it and meet that number. And if I have four, only four people, I can only hit 75% of that number.

01:15:34,500	So I’m sure every month of what I’m supposed to put out that month, then you justification would be if I either pay overtime or need an extra person, it’s there’s a cost each way. That’s justification of it. So okay, if I need a person why do I need a person? Basically what what duties aren’t getting done? Or if there’s X amount of hours that need to be done for elections using Mary’s analogy and those results aren’t are going to

01:15:55,300	take X amount of hours. I mean, you know, some of this is, you know, I don’t know if that’s justification in her department or not. I’m not trying to speak for her. What I’m saying is that there has to be some kind of checks and balances that you’re saying, I need a person, okay. Why justify that? Yeah.

01:16:11,630	The problem is that service provision based organization can’t can’t really be analogized to a manufacturing organization. How do you quantify the service production of someone at the library who helps people? You can say that you need a certain number of people to cover the front desk for the hours that the library is open, but other than that,

01:16:38,170	how do you I’m not really sure how you quantify needing other people. I mean, there are other tasks that need to be done. Books need to be re shelved. Um, new books coming in need to be processed. Whatever.

01:16:57,600	And I suppose that that to some extent you can quantify that in an hourly way. But on the other hand, when you’ve got people who are providing services and they’re not providing services every minute of the day, they could probably be doing some of that work otherwise. And I, I just, I, I don’t know how someone like the librarian proves to us that they need another person.

01:17:19,700	How do they justify that the library is still going to run in that capacity without that person? Because I’m sure it’s just not. Well, I’m just going to. They’ve reduced hours. They’ve reduced reduced hours. So they so they can do it with hours. So they reduced hours.

01:17:46,070	So there was, there was the justification for being able to, uh, eliminate a person in a library would be what you’re saying. Is that okay, if I’m reducing the hours overall by X, then I don’t need an extra person.

01:18:08,000	So okay, then reverse engineer that to say, okay, if I’m going to run the library, the the hours that we need to provide to the community, and that is ten hours more than I guess that would be justification of hiring somebody back. If you can justify it one way, you should be able to. Justify.. And I 100% understand that. And you’re correct. I just again want to be very careful with what message we’re sending to the department heads.

01:18:26,670	And because if we’re saying we’re looking to you to tell us, you need to add to staff, which is a terminology that we use in budgets, you know, we tell people, no, there’s no Add to staffs this year, so department heads won’t come back with a request to add a staff person to their department.

01:18:42,930	I’m looking for real clarification from the board. You’re looking for those numbers for the so we can see the overall health of our town and our town departments. It’s not because we think that we’re going to be able to add anything. We need to know exactly how healthy or unhealthy we are. I think you already know that.

01:19:07,070	I think you’ve heard that from all your department heads who have come in. But I think that having the data is even, even just makes it easier for us instead of just, you know, pulling. I don’t want to put more work on the department heads that they don’t need to do. They’re already stretched thin.

01:19:25,400	They’re already doing more work than they can handle. And that’s one of my concerns. If I go back to the department heads and bring them this project, I’m going to get feedback of, I don’t even have time to do my regular staff duties now, and now I have to do this when they’ll say, I need more people because

01:19:45,870	I have this. I’m just I’m really trying to flesh this out. And maybe it’s a longer conversation. How many, uh, at what time, what date you’re going to have the accountants going to ask for the budgets to be in on a deadline to them so they can look at it? The accountant. Uh, December, January.

01:20:05,900	When? December. January is the time frame for that. I know, but it’s got to be like it used to be. January 1st. December. I don’t. Have it in. I’m not. I don’t have the date, John. But it’s. I’m giving you. The time. For somebody after they submit their budgets.

01:20:18,930	That’s when I think maybe we can haul them in, not haul many, but have them come in here and have if if it’s an increase of personnel or something and ask them to explain why they need that person or persons. I think they can explain it to us then. Yeah.

01:20:40,600	I think in part what Jennifer is saying is in response to what happened in part last year, and that was when we started out with this same kind of question to the department heads and said, what do you really need? And I think that they took that as less of trying to to quantify in a justification versus thinking.

01:21:10,000	This is and it’s not a wish list, but thinking, if I could if I have one more person in in my department, I can do this much more work, I can be more efficient in the way that I do things.

01:21:28,800	Maybe I can do something else that I haven’t been doing before, but I think unless you asked that question to the department heads in the right way, it comes across maybe as saying it’s almost like a wish list. It’s almost like, tell us what? When you say tell them, tell somebody what you need. It’s almost like, not just what you need.

01:21:50,170	It’s it’s just hard to to draw that line between the two of them. You can use two words. What’s the least you need? The least you need. That way you’re letting them know that you know this is not a wish list.

01:22:11,430	What’s the least you need? I mean, I can tell you right now, the Council on Aging would want to be back to full hours. Library would want to be back to full hours. Highway would want to be back. Then they got to come in and explain. I guess my my concern is that we’re creating a false reality.

01:22:31,700	When you ask that question and you know what the answer is, that you’re going to get back, that we’d like to go back to the hours that we had before, and this is what we need to do it. That’s not what we’re asking people. I think people need to understand that this is the base where we’re starting.

01:22:50,530	This is reality right now. And yeah, it’d be nice to add those hours back in, but it’s not happening unless all of a sudden this state comes up with a huge pile of money and dumps it on us.

01:23:07,370	So I think maybe the premise needs to be given where you are right now. What do you need to maintain what you’re doing? With understanding that there will be some indirect, um, cost increases that are out of our control, um, mostly related to staff.

01:23:45,600	And so if we are not going to give you more money, then how are you going to be able to keep doing what you’re doing? Well, yeah. Because in some areas when we’re talking overtime and forcing schedules and, and all of those things, um, all that’s going to do is lead to burnout and staff turnover and, um, and then in the other departments, it just continues to be, uh, reducing of services to the community,

01:24:10,200	which is not good either. So the safety of our employees, um, you know, we it needs to be figured out. Um, and I don’t have all the answers, but I, I, I like the fact that we need to say, okay, I think, I think most of the department heads

01:24:33,670	right now probably already know those numbers because they are switching schedules around and adding overtime here and there to to people. They probably have most of those, those numbers. Um, because. I think. You’re focusing on police and fire because they definitely have that. But loss of services I mean.

01:24:51,770	Right. But administratively the like the staff that is in this building, they’re not running on numbers of a shift that has to be covered or things like that. When someone’s out sick or on vacation, the work doesn’t get done. It’s still there the next day that they come in.

01:25:08,570	There’s only so much that the other one person, typically that’s in the office can pick up. So there is there is a huge difference between the public safety arm of the services we provide and the other services that we provide.

01:25:24,400	And that’s where I just want to make sure I’m really clear on this. I mean, you guys have heard it from Chief Harris again and again that he does not have enough staff. He feels that the compensation is not proper for the jobs that they’re doing and competitive for the continued retirement and recruitment of new, new people to the fire department.

01:25:41,070	So again, that’s really where I am trying to get the three of you to have this more in-depth conversation of what are your priorities for the town of Monson? Because I think that’s where a lot of this is going to be informed, because if at some point you come forward and say, we want the fire department to

01:26:03,000	have ten more people and we want our base recruitment salary hourly to be X, Y and Z, that’s going to inform us because that’s going to tell us something that we need to plug into the budget. But this blanket of what does everybody need that doesn’t something has to rise to the top.

01:26:26,430	We went from it. It migrated from need because I originally I asked for what the current vacancies were as far as the holes that they’re filling with overtime and forced schedules and lost hours to community services and and I’m and I’m sorry, I’ll say it again. And maybe it’s it’s just. Uh.

01:26:46,600	I would know that as a department head if I just had to reduce a person, I would know exactly what that meant before I decided to let that person go. So that means if we need to add, if the library really needs to add four hours to to their services to serve the community, then.

01:27:14,030	And that equaled letting one person go, then that work has already been done. The community needs four more hours. That’s that’s the service that they provide. Whatever happens during those four hours, they know what tasks they are. But providing services to the community is an ours.

01:27:35,900	I believe in that bucket, and if that’s how it was justified, I’m not sure. I don’t know. I’m, I’m I’m just speculating. And then I believe our highway department, police department and fire department, they they know those those numbers right now inside and out of what they’re dealing with. So I’m not it wasn’t an ask for the need.

01:27:57,370	It’s like how far in the whole are we. How many positions are we in the whole to having, you know, to reducing the overtime to within reason and providing the community with safe services. But you’re asking that question without having additional revenue.

01:28:20,370	And I think what that does is give the the department heads, the you’re asking the false impression that we somehow have the means to give you what you’re asking for. Because honestly, I don’t see where we do.

01:28:41,170	Well, I don’t think we can set priorities by just going by memory and and saying, I’m sure handed because that’s, that’s, that’s to my new of a of a reason to me. I mean we all know they’re shorthanded, but which like having some data on how shorthanded each department is will help us set priorities with the revenue that we know, end up knowing what we’re getting.

01:29:04,330	How can we make this ask simpler to the department head so that it doesn’t take much, much of their time to do this? Because I understand that they don’t have time. I think this is a conversation cut in buckets. I think public safety is one bucket. Okay. And like he said, they know their numbers. Absolutely. They do.

01:29:26,500	The administrative service side of what we provide to the community is just a totally different animal. Because. For example, I mean, Mary Watson, she could say to me, I need a full time staff person to do early voting registration and to do dog licenses. And, you know, so she could give you a list of those things.

01:29:47,370	But again, is that a wish list of if we had the revenue to have another person in that department. So if that makes sense, then talk about it in two different buckets. Let’s talk about the the public safety people who we know that we can get numbers from.

01:30:06,700	Let’s talk about everybody else, the service providers, the people who are in this building providing services to us. Let’s talk about those people and how we can make it easy for those department heads to not go have to go into a lot of time and effort to just give us an idea about what would get them up to speed, however you want to define that.

01:30:32,200	I just don’t want to make extra work for them. And I and I don’t. Know. I struggle when you say up to speed because. Yeah, I. Feel I again feel like we’re going into like, right, you’re going into the store and you know, you don’t have the money to buy it, but you get to look at all the candy, right?

01:30:47,070	And that’s what I’m saying. I don’t want to give people. Superintendent has already been very clear that 1.9% is not going to fulfill the needs for the school department next year.

01:31:03,700	So that’s another thing that we’re very cognizant of, of conversations that we have and the cost of the benefits, obviously always increasing the cost of these lights, always increasing the petroleum. The situation we’re in right now from the, you know, national stage and international stage, there are so many competing items going on.

01:31:28,230	And it’s difficult to have this priority discussion without having numbers that would make it so much easier, because then we’d know what we need to do. But we won’t have any revenue numbers. Under. Understood. All going to be projections. And again, you’re going to be faced with making decisions with not real numbers. That’s that’s. How this municipal financial cycle goes. As we always are.

01:31:48,430	So if you want to take a very broad overview of this thing, I’ll say the same thing. As I said last year, there is no way unless we get a lot of additional revenue, that we can sustain the services that we currently provide to the people in town. And I’m sorry to say that, but that’s the truth.

01:32:06,700	It’s reality. If you’re Keith is absolutely right. When he said before that we are overburdening the employees that we currently have. We’re we’re making them fill shifts. We’re asking them to do one and a half full time jobs. Um, we need to figure out how to retain those people because we have great people working here.

01:32:33,530	I will say everyone we have here is worth trying to keep. And unless we can be fair to those people as far as remuneration is concerned, we’re not going to keep them. And that just puts us in a bigger hole, because then we get new people that we have to train and go through all of that.

01:32:54,670	It’s cost involved in. That too, right? So to me, the most important thing is to try to save the people that we have now. And the only way to do that is to come up with the extra money that it’s going to cost us to keep those people.

01:33:14,000	And there’s one way, well, I should say there’s two ways to either increase revenue or you decrease your cost. And our revenue isn’t going to go up that much in the next couple of months to make a big difference to us. So we need to figure out how to decrease our costs. So I would propose. That I. Will.

01:33:29,830	Draft a overdraft overview of each department of what they have for staffing. How many bodies, how many hours that equates to. Then of course for the public safety, they have more than 40 hours a week to deal with and we can start to work on it through that way.

01:33:49,070	Because I think, you know, you’re right with the data, that is definitely helpful. But I’m also just I don’t want to create false hope for the departments. Because it’s understood. It’s a really difficult conversation. To have. It is it’s a difficult conversation and it’s a difficult analysis.

01:34:12,200	But in a crisis, you know, sometimes you gotta make a mess to fix a mess. And I think this is the starting point of it. And I just want your board to be open to having all kinds of conversations, you know, just keep an open mind when staff or department heads come up with an idea, listen to it, you

01:34:30,330	know, let it vet it out because they are the ones that are doing this every day. You’re not. And that’s not disrespectful to you, but they’re the ones that are on, you know, the boots on the ground, the people in the offices.

01:34:45,270	And again, if we could have full hours at Council on Aging, full hours, that library, I know that would be exactly what Joanne and Hope want. You know, they both have said at our last department meeting and private conversations, they’re struggling now. They are struggling.

01:35:05,100	And the services that are being provided are not what they want to provide from their professional stance of being the department head there as well. So that’s I think that’s what we’ll do, is I’ll start to create some information.

01:35:22,900	That way at least you will have a snapshot of looking at departments and seeing how many bodies which that physically, you know, equates to FTEs, full time equivalents. And we could do, um, you know, with the police and the fire and highway, I’m sure they can do a little more deep dive as far as the overtime and things like that. Satisfactory. Yes. Okay. Thank you for the conversation. Perhaps the department head will get some more clarification from you. Yes. And that would, uh.

01:35:47,030	So they’ll all watch this meeting, per my. Um, homework assignment. I’ll give them. I’ll say, watch the meeting to hear the conversation, and then we’ll all get together and have a conversation about it. And some of it is working. Oh, you got a department head meeting? I always have. Department here. And you can discuss that then.

01:36:02,170	With them. But I like them to hear the meeting from your stands first, because I don’t want to be delivering the message back. I want them to hear the discussion that the Selectboard had, because I think that’s really important for them.

01:36:16,470	And, you know, some department heads it’ll be more collaborative working one on one where other ones they have, like you said, the data already. There. Right. Thank you. Okay. Discussion and vote December meeting schedule. So typically in December it ends up being where our second meeting is always the week of Christmas. And that’s happening again this year. To 22nd.

01:36:38,830	And so your first meeting is December 8th. So I would propose that December 8th would be your only meeting, barring any emergencies that your board would have to meet on. That’s generally how we’ve we’ve done it. So I’m I’m okay with that. I mean if something comes up, obviously we can schedule a meeting. Okay. Thank you.

01:37:05,570	Thank you. We have to vote on that or. Yes. Okay. Um, I’ll take a vote, please, to change the December meeting schedule to one meeting on December the 8th. December 1st, eight. Oh, okay. I said the 18th. Okay. So moved. Second. All in favor? Aye. And open meeting while complaint status.

01:37:31,170	So, um. Sorry, chair. Tony, I’m going to recuse myself from item number one. I’ll just go out in the hallway while you guys discuss that. Okay? It’s not really a discussion tonight, except to, um, vote on having counsel move forward with the response.

01:37:59,470	But in any case, the open meeting law complaint was filed on October 3rd, 2026, by Mr. Valley and the alleged violation is that on October 3rd, 2026, the town administrator at the direction of the Select Board chair, emailed the fire chief and the other two select board members regarding the Fire Chiefs performance evaluation.

01:38:26,000	I alleged that this process raises concerns under the Massachusetts Open Meeting law because it established a process for collecting and compiling individual board members. Evaluative opinions outside a publicly posted meeting, and there was insufficient public notice. And so John, the question before us is to vote to authorize town Council to respond on behalf of the board. So I will take a motion, please. So moved on. Wait.

01:38:56,370	No, No, he’s okay because he filed it. So he stepped out. So I’ll second the motion and all in favor. Aye. I and please note that Mr. Vallee has recused himself from the vote. Keith. Thank you. And the second complaint was filed by Kieran. Rich. And there’s two parts to this complaint.

01:39:31,670	The first is I allege the board chair violated the open meeting law by use of a third party to communicate board direction or coordinate matters outside a properly posted meeting. And the second alleged violation is on September 29th, 2026. The chair filed a revised agenda received by the Town Clerk at 1:30 p.m.

01:39:53,530	for the September 30th meeting, scheduled for 6:30 p.m.. I allege that the revised notice failed to comply with the open meeting laws. 48 hour notice requirement and requirement to identify anticipated topics with sufficient specificity. And so I will ask the board for a motion to authorize town Council to respond to this complaint. So moved. Second.

01:40:21,770	All in favor? Aye. I excuse me. And, Mr. Clerk, if you would please read the correspondence. Yes. Correspondence. And responses for Selectboard meeting, October 27th, 2026. Um, item number one. Uh, Desi Grant announcement partnership. Reading success. Uh. Mass. Prism three FC 5944 $181,260 to months in public Schools.

01:41:03,670	Desi Grant announcement oh, item two Desi Grant announcement fresh competitive grant FC 710 for $11,300 to Monson Public Schools. Uh item number $3. Email about Pathfinders access and Deficiency. Item number four uh National Grid’s notification of Sideline Vegetation Management. Item number five formal objection and request for review. Robert E caddy, item number six.

01:41:35,700	Chief Harris’s letter to the Selectboard, thanking them for their attendance at the grand reopening. Slash open house for the new fire station. Item number seven Eastern Hampden shared public school. Our public Health Services monthly report and item number eight keep Homestead Museum’s minutes for eight, 17, 20, 26. Thank you. okay. Mr. Morrell, do you have anything. To add? No. Mister Valley. No. Not tonight. Miss.

01:42:05,570	Wolowitz, I do. I have a thank you from the Monson Booster club, and it was from Jess Bailey. And she asked me to share this at our next meeting, and she said I wanted to drop a note to say how incredibly grateful we boosters are to town leadership and the Board of Health for the incredible support received

01:42:25,330	this month to help get us up and going. We wouldn’t be off the ground without you all. Truly, from the bottom of our hearts. Thank you for supporting this organization and our student athletes. Thank you very much. Anything else? Nope. Then I will take a motion to adjourn. Please. Second. All in favor? All right. All right.