Pursue it to MGL 7C 38 and 20 M after notifying the chair of a public body.

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The listing of agenda items for those reasonably anticipated by the chair, which may be discussed at the meeting.

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So we'll start call the select board to order, and we have one number virtually, so we'll do a roll call vote, and then we'll include them when he gets here.

So roll call bill.

And myself.

Yeah, I don't think here.

Okay.

Well, let's give them another minute and then we'll turn it over to the Garden Man and Durham.

They may have presentation.

So thank you everyone for coming tonight.

Um I really do appreciate it.

I um we as you know, we received a letter from um the Massachusetts Historical Commission regarding um Pete Perry Dean and Roders, um the architects proposal and alternative study.

Um and the letters dated September 8th, and it had a lot of um feedback on the report that was triggering that I believe there were seven items on the last second to last page page eight, which you had handouts.

But there were uh eight or people seven recommendations for the town to actually hire a consultant to work with the town to achieve.

And um, and I felt that this was absolutely necessary for town staff to have the two elected boards talk about the letter, talk about the project, talk about the progress of the project, and what decisions and how to move forward is because um because there's financial impacts, there's all sorts of things that we need to talk about.

Um board, so I don't feel that it is within the town manager's purview to make those um those decisions in a vacuum.

That's not my that's not in my jurisdiction.

That's in the jurisdiction of one, the select board as the owners of the building, and then the trustees as the um as the board that is for the care and custody of the building.

Um we just take our direction from the elected officials.

So that being said, um, I believe there's some items that we just need to have conversation about tonight.

One is the letter, whether or not the consultant is something that has to be done, or um is a suggestion.

Um, or is it absolutely necessary?

Um, another topic that needs to be discussed is whether or not that um can be met within the timelines of the NBLC grant um achieved.

And then also if it is possible to do that, then what is the end result of actually going forward with PCLC grant?

Yeah,

um and moving forward with the actual MBLC grant and what does that mean financially for the town?

Because one of the things that transpired um since right before the letter was received, as you know, are some other um we have a special town meeting that's coming up that is um that is going to address one of the articles on it is also going to address another town owned facility, a cook's garage.

And so we have to talk about all of the responsibilities and requirements that we have already, and how how are we going to move forward with this?

So I need I need you two to be talking to each other so we can figure out how to move forward on ramstone specifically.

Okay.

So that's it and kind of in a nutshell.

So do you want to address where we are financially and what this would call us to go forward about the final dog is?

So I think that I think the best thing first is um well, we we can definitely do that.

Um if if the boards decide that we should move forward with the grant and proceeding with the efforts to actually um continue the efforts with the MBLC grant, um, then that means that we are committed to actually bringing it to town meeting for a vote, and that we have a game plan financially for

it.

Um, but that has yet to be discussed.

Cost estimates have yet to be discussed.

I have do not know what the project is, um, because that still hasn't been decided now that this letter has kind of grown, like what is what is it gonna be built, what is going to be worked on within the scope of the grant, and then what is eligible for the grant versus not eligible for the grant, and how are we going to pay for

that?

Um as of right now, um, as a reminder, we do not have any free cash to utilize that closes out on uh June 30th at every year.

So even for a consultant, I do not have access to free cash to pay for a consultant.

Okay.

Um, and then as far as borrowing capacity and our levy limit, we only have roughly 500,000 in our levy limit.

Um, to give you uh a kind of a snapshot as to

a

couple of years ago, the town went and actually authorized and borrowed 11 million dollars for capital expenditures.

And that was at a uh when the bond um when the actual percentage was at a uh a little bit more favorable, and then our standard and poor's rating was at a higher level.

And within that 11 million dollars that was borrowed, that added one million dollars to our debt expenditure line within our operating.

So that kind of gives you a ballpark that was three years ago, two and a half three years ago that that happened.

So that kind of gives you a rough estimate as to when we were in a fit more favorable um financial capacity uh as far as our bond rating, as far as what the interest rates were at the time as well.

11 million dollars added 1 million dollars to our operating costs.

We do not have one million dollars to add to our operating costs, we don't even have 500,000, even half of that.

So um so even a project that would cost five million dollars would add a significant amount of burden onto our operating costs.

Okay, so again, this is something that the community needs to talk about and make a decision on which direction we want to go.

If if it is something that you want the VMLC moving forward, then we have to understand what the strategy I have to understand and know we have to come up with a strategy on how to fund it and how to actually commit to it because that's gonna take a lot of time and resources, time as town staff and um and coordination as well as town meetings as well.