Speaker numbers apply only to this recording.
The Select Board met on June 9, 2026, with Finance Committee members participating, to prepare for the June 29, 2026 special town meeting. All Select Board members were present by roll call. The board voted to place three warrant articles on the special town meeting warrant: two citizen petitions and one Select Board-sponsored article. No recommendation votes were taken on the articles; those were deferred to the joint Select Board/Finance Committee meeting on June 16, 2026. The audit discussion was also postponed because the audit had only been released that morning.
Okay, six o'clock. I will call the meeting to order. Pursuant to MGL 7C 3820F after notifying the chair of a public body, any person may make a video audio reporting of an open session of a meeting of a public body or may transmit the meeting through any meeting. Beginning of the meeting, the chair shall inform other attendees of any such recordings. This meeting is being reported by the Bercher Edge, the Town of Great Branch, and CTSP. Any member of the public wishing to speak at the meeting must receive permission of the chair. The listing of agenda items and those reasonably anticipated by the chair, which may be discussed at the meeting. Not all items listed may in fact be discussed and other items not listed, may be brought up for discussion of the extent permitted by law. So first we'll take a roll call vote since we have one person online. Start with the select board. Phil and here, Eric, herefield. And I am present. Jeff here, Madonna here. We're all here. So let me just go over the format for tonight. We're going to have an overview from the staff about the three warrant articles. We will not talk about the audit this evening. It's not fair to many board members and audience members since the audit didn't come out till early this morning. There's going to be a joint meeting of the select board and finance committee on June 16th, where we'll be able to give us a week to talk about to look at the audit before we dive into it. Tonight the first goal will be the select board place a three warrant articles on the warrant for the special town meeting, which we have already set for June 29. Any recommendation from Select Board and Finance Committee on the warrant articles will happen on the 16th, because all of the three are intertwined. So we can't like recommend two and not talk about one. They all go together financially. So we'll do all those on the 16th. Hi everyone. Not really knowing yet. I'm the town manager, and I have been here since 11 uh November 3rd. So and this will be my second town meeting for right here. So there are two citizen petitions as you're aware. As you saw in your packet, there are two citizen petitions that were that um that were submitted. The signatures are still being certified by the town clerk, but they are um they are on or they would have are being proposed to be placed on the form for this evening. Um, and then the third, as you know, is a article that the select board have endorsed the place. Um so we'll go through each one. The first citizen petition that triggered the actual town meeting um is a citizen petition to uh reconsider article seven from the annual town meeting. It's a total of 341,964, and it covers seven different items. So lifeguards, the skate park monitors, the who's atonic waterworks legal fee co-responder program, parking enforcement officer, the BFW property lease, and the American Legion property. Um those, as you know, were contingent upon the override, and that did not pass. So uh the petitioner um placed it all for a special town meeting. Um the second, so that is contingent also the way that the article is written, is all coming from free cash. Um and then the second article um citizen petition that was submitted um and received last Thursday evening or at late afternoon is for Southern Berkshire Ambulance to um reconsider 86,900, excuse me, eight hundred and ninety-nine dollars. Uh, that too was um at this annual town meeting. It did not um get approved, so therefore the petitioner placed it again for reconsideration.