Good evening everyone and welcome to the May 4th meeting of the Salem Town Council.

If you would all please rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God with liberty and justice for all of all.

Okay.

Takes care of that.

We don't have any meeting minutes.

We do.

Oh, you do.

Go ahead.

Mr.

Chair, I move the meeting minutes of January 31st, 2026.

Second.

Motion been made and seconded by Mr.

Sweeney.

All those in favor.

Seven to zero.

Again.

Mr.

Chair, I move the minutes of April 20th, 2026 public session.

Second.

Motion made and seconded by Mr.

Hatch.

All those in favor.

Seven to zero.

Thank you very much.

Under the chairman comments, I'm going to defer my comments tonight and ask Mr.

Pelletare to speak for a moment.

If you would, Paul.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

A moment.

Remember that.

Then my time is up already.

Yes.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Members of the board and the people in the audience here and at home.

Today you're gonna what you're seeing on the board right now is on the screen right now.

If you can see it at home too, I'm not sure.

Is a memorial plaque that's mounted on this big rock.

And this big rock is located right now at the at the Salem Milville Beach area.

At one time it was uh it was a rock that's uh dedicated to Jimmy Ray and also Jimmy Ray's family that was perished in a big fire back in the early 1900s, uh early 19, I mean 1990s.

60s.

1960s, I'm sorry, and uh, which was uh uh a bad fire, and uh they lost two of their daughters upstairs in the fire, perished in this this fire.

The names that are on this plaque are friends of Jimmy Ray.

Jimmy Ray was a person who helped everybody on the lake side uh no matter what they needed and what he could do.

He always helped families on that part of the lake.

So his friends dedicated this memorial and this rock to this man, and for the past, and it was moved into this beautiful pine grove, well-maintained pine grove on the lakes on the uh on the beach side, and they were picked the cables and everything where the public of Salem could use as uh as a uh uh rec for recreation.

It was once 567 years ago, maintained by the town of Salem.

Uh then later on, it was uh uh given to the uh Milburg Lake Protection Association in 2002, and under contract, they were supposed to be able to, they were supposed to keep this beach area clean and maintained.

It has been declined since then.

I have talked to them several times so far, and they are eager to help eager to help out again to start maintaining this this area.

This rock now, what you're seeing now in this picture right here, uh decided by the rec members of the recreation department, members of the community developed department and myself, uh would be an adequate place to place the new location of this rock, take it out of the woods that it's in right now, and place it between among these trees where it will be it's a flat piece of flat land right there.

It's not on a hill like the rest of the places, where it will be protected by the trees, uh protected through uh for vandalism, so it won't be rolled down the hill.

And uh, and it's a nice air position area, so as people enter the beach, they will see this right away.

You can't you won't be able to miss it.

And it's still far away from the road, so it's not gonna not gonna inherit anything like that on on there.

Uh we went down with the recruit.

I went down last week with members of the recreation department, and and we decided on this location over here, which is nice.

I repeat again it's adequate for it.

Uh this morning, uh we have a uh Namero extra expavation excavation.

Uh Gary Merrill and his son, and I had a meeting with them uh this morning at this location, and as a community project, they they uh accepted a job to move this rock for us and place it in this low new location where it will be sit probably forever and ever and ever.

And uh I can't thank them enough for offering their their their offer to do this because it's not an easy job.

Um this pine grove that I mentioned before is nothing but after 57 years of uh the uh uh Mother Nature taking it over again.

It's very hard to get in there.

Uh there's gonna be some trees and saplings to be moved around to get at the rock.

Uh Gary tells me he says I can sling it with either with slings or chains and pick it up uh either with a small excavator that he could get in there without this uh disturbing the fence at all and move it into that area.

He will now uh go through go through his schedule, and he will give me a phone call as long uh and Mr.

Devine town manager give him a phone call too as when he's gonna do this project.

And uh additionally, our friend Sonny Tillis got involved in this, and I want to thank him too, because he's the one that initially I guess he's friends with Gary a lot, and initially talked to Gary about this and says all right, I'll go down there and look at it.

Yeah, so uh Sonny is very uh uh well known in the town.

And when this rock uh movement is the day it's gonna get take place.

Uh Sonny is gonna call Susan McLaughlin from the Salem TV to see if she'll uh come down and video it.

Uh Doug Seed is going to uh Doug Cr.

is gonna put an article in the Salem, whatever that paper is the life.

And uh and Sonny is gonna put an article in the Evergreen uh newspaper.

So it'll be widely publicized, and the people that don't even know that this monument rock.

It's it's called the project is called the Rock, and it was it was named by one and only Jimmy Kozak from the recreation department.

The rock the rock.

So that's what the project name is.

Keep it simple.

Keep it simple.

So with that, this is the very start of revamping this beach area.

Um the recreation department is gonna take over after this when they are completed when they complete Haghog Pond to its last project.

This will be the next project that they're taking on is this beach area, which I can't thank them enough for for voting inanimously for that.

Uh it's long overdue, and I'll repeat it for the hundredth time.

It's the only beach dedicated to only Salem residents only.

And so it's the only swimming hole Salem residents can swim, whether they want to swim in there or not.

I believe it'll get cleaned up enough as soon as people get in there and start swimming around in it.

So then again, I thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Thank you to the board for listening to me, and thank you for all the audience.

And I hope this uh gets gets our blessing from the board tonight from the council tonight.

Okay.

Do we want to do that now?

Sure, if you'd like to.

All right, I'll I'll accept a motion from someone on the board just to uh allow uh Merrill construction to move the um to move the stone to its proper place.

I will make that motion, Mr.

Chairman, for uh Merrill excavation to move the the stone, the rock, and move it to its new location.

Second second by Mr.

Sweeney.

All those in favor.

And we thank him.

Make sure that the Merrills get a thank you note from the town for their many years of doing special projects for us.

It pretty much anybody's suggestion.

All right.

Next up is the approval of the consent agenda, Mr.

Sweeney.

Mr.

Chairman, at this time I move to approve the May 4th, 2026 consent agenda.

Second.

Motion has been made and seconded by Mr.

Hatch.

Seeing no further discussion, all those in favor.

All right.

Now I'm gonna take a moment and just um go through uh who's here and get everybody's uh name situated.

To my far left, uh, Mr.

Betoncourt has been excused tonight.

So I have Mr.

Stramalia at that end.

Good evening.

I have Mr.

Paul Pellet here.

Good evening, Seal.

Right.

I have Mr.

Jeff Hatch.

Hello, Salem.

I've got my vice chair, Mr.

Joe Sweeney.

Good evening.

I have got past chairman Kathy Stacy to my immediate right.

Good evening, Mr.

Chair.

And to her right is Barney Wright.

Happy Spring Salem.

Yeah, it's allergy season, we know.

Yeah, just emphasized it.

And to her right is the town manager, Mr.

Joseph Devine.

Good evening.

So uh there is no mention of anything on that.

So we're gonna move into number six new business assessing.

Mr.

Devine, the meeting is yours.

Thank you.

So we have no resolutions tonight, which is always nice to do that.

Yeah, it's awesome.

So first on the agenda is the discussion on the adjustment to exemption limits.

So I'd like to invite our chief assessor John too Hamill to come up here and walk the council through this item.

Basically, this is a discussion on potentially taking action on updating the exemption thresholds for elderly, blind, and disabled veterans.

As you can see in the recommendation, this reflects changes to the income levels and marketing conditions to help ensure these programs remain accessible to those who qualify.

And John's gonna go through the details for you.

Okay.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman and members of the council, board.

So let me get rid of this here.

As you know, we're doing an update in 2026.

We were looking at a roughly a 30% increase in assessed values.

That's not going to be consistent to everybody, but with an EQ ratio of 70%, we can assume a 30% increase.

So typically we look at our exemption amounts, and my recommendation would be to increase those by 30%.

And I'm referring to this spreadsheet if you have it here.

Now also the income threshold.

Currently, we have some residents that are falling off because their income is too high for our current thresholds of 41 and 55.

Now, since the last time we updated these, the median income in Salem has risen 8%, 65 and over has increased 7%.

So currently I'm recommending the 16%, and the reason why is in five years, we won't have those people falling off again.

They'll stay on the roll, so to speak.

So that's my recommendations.

If you have any questions, I can answer those.

And I would say 7272 colon 27 does allow modifications by the council.

Okay.

So we are well within our legal rights to do this.

Questions.

Mr.

Hatch.

So from my understanding that we're going to do this, and then this is really going to prevent people from falling off.

Correct.

But it's or present preventing huge tax bills that they're not used to in the fall when the update is done.

If we want to uh change the parameters of this so more seniors could take advantage of these, we're gonna have to take a look at the possible small could qualify, yes.

Okay, because I wouldn't have that information because they haven't applied yet.

So I you know, to me.

And so I think we're gonna have to take this up again later on this year and really take a look once we get the eval done and look at those numbers versus what the median income is, and we're gonna have to readjust these numbers so more of our seniors can qualify uh for this tax exemption because right now uh I think the number was 200 or close to 200.

And I I you know, with the the amount of seniors we have, I think that's a very low number.

I think we should have more seniors qualifying for these programs.

Miss Wright.

Can we please qualify that we're going to reassess the properties?

The value of the properties are gonna go up 30 percent, but that's roughly, but that does not mean the property taxes are gonna go up that does not mean that.

I don't I think a lot of people don't understand that.

So I want to make sure that's the same.

I get phone calls all day.

Watch this and panicking.

Yeah, just because your value goes up doesn't necessarily mean the tax rate will change for the second bill in 26.

Anyone else further?

Uh Mr.

Devine, I'm sorry.

Just for the council's awareness, um, this isn't such a stock gap.

We haven't changed these in five years.

Um, and so if you look at the past five years, social security has raised, they've got their you know, they get a cost of living every single year.

And we've had um we have 26% of the people not qualify this year because they're just missing the mark.

And for an average, a single applicant who doesn't qualify is missing it only by four thousand five hundred dollars.

And for a married couple, it's three thousand seven hundred.

So they are just they are they are very close, and so we're looking to get these people re-qualified again, is what we're trying to really do.

And um, as counselor hatch said, I think you know, looking at the income limits and looking at it moving forward once the reval is done, would be smart.

Um, I can tell you a lot of communities that work under a council form of government, they do this every year.

They readjust as as they see you know social security changing, as they see CPI changing, they're automatically updating these income limits specifically to go with that so that people aren't falling off.

Towns don't have the ability to do that because they have to go through town meeting vote to be able to do that, but as a council we do, and that would be a recommendation I would have for the council moving forward is every year is to look at those income limits and adjust them accordingly prior to April 1st.

Okay.

Further, I'll make a motion.

I'll make a motion.

I'd love a motion.

At this time, I would move that the town council approves the following increase in income and asset limits for elderly, blind, and disabled exemptions.

Increase the single income limit from 41,000 to 47,560.

Increase the married income limit from $55,000 to $63,800.

Increase the asset limit from $140,000 to $162,400.

Increase the elderly elderly exemption amounts as follows.

$5,000 to $79 years old from $180,000 to $234,000.

$80 plus years old from $245,000 to $318,000.

Increase the blind exemption from $130,000 to $169,000.

And increase the disabled exemption from $120,000 to $156,000.

Second.

Motion been made and seconded by Miss Stacy.

Any further discussion?

Not seeing any.

All those in favor.

Next up, Mr.

DeBine is the Field of Dreams.

Thank you.

So this is to consider an addendum to the Field of Dreams Management Agreement.

I'm going to turn this over to assistant town manager Colleen Meyer to walk us through this item.

Good evening, Mr.

Chair, members of the council.

As the council is aware, the town has an existing management agreement with Field of Dreams where Field of Dreams manages the playground and park property.

Under the current management agreement, Field of Dreams as an organization is not permitted to sublet or assign the use of the property to any third party.

This is a practice though that has been ongoing at Field of Dreams.

They have had third party users using the property.

So what we've prepared here is an addendum that will run through the term of the existing management agreement, which is set to expire in February of 2027.

So it's basically going to get through this season to put some parameters and some guidelines or guardrails on how field of dreams allows third-party users of the property.

Insurance be provided covering the town certificates of insurance and um indemnification of the town if there were to be any issues or incidents that happen.

So and there are requirements that any um third-party use um receive written approval by the town prior to proceeding.

So some of these events may be um small, smaller events, community type events.

I think some of the examples that were given in the past um would be um Salem Family Resources has a um 5k run walk um that's at the park.

Um there's been a make a wish foundation charity motorcycle ride.

Um the Salem Women's Club has had events there.

So these type of events are not field of dreams, and so because of that, they really are not permitted under the management agreement.

What this addendum would do would allow those um events with town approval with proper insurance coverage.

So as I said, this is uh uh would get through the um rest of this um term of the management agreement and is something that as we look at long-term um extension of the management agreement.

If there are potential modifications, that'll be a future discussion that will um start those conversations this summer in advance of um something for November or for February.

I'm happy answering questions of council house.

Miss Stacy.

Thank you, Mr.

Chia.

So a couple of questions.

So um I'm curious when we talk about subletting the property.

Are we talking about the birthday parties we have?

Are we talking about how we get around charging people money by having people come in with concerts?

It and with that, subletting the the entire park.

Does that mean they get to utilize the liquor license?

I mean, I I I want to know extensively what we're talking about.

So there would be three different types of events, small events, anything under 200 people, which could include that that birthday party of you know 25 people that does a fee um uh does a um facility use request through the field of dreams organization, they would um coordinate that with us.

Um larger events of 200 people or more.

We're putting limits on how many they could have per year.

Um we're saying we're saying six um of those events, um, and there's no provision here that would allow for a liquor license to be transferred.

That would all require state approval um through the liquor commission.

facility use request through the field of dreams organization they would um coordinate that with us um larger events of 200 people or more we're putting limits on how many they could have per year um we're saying we're saying six um of those events um and there's no provision here that would allow for a liquor license to be trans transferred that would all require state approval um through the liquor commission so this would field of dreams is still doing field of dreams concerts field of dreams with their liquor license can do what they're permitted to do but not transfer that to a third party um there I lost my train of thought um there is also the provision here for food truck vendors you know um there is uh the the food truck there on the site um would require going through inspectional services receiving proper permits um health approvals and um it it does prohibit the storage of a food truck there for winter months so food trucks allowed with prior written authorization by the town for the purpose that there is a benefit to the residents and members of the community but um we would not be permitting the long-term winter storage which um which was a concern thank you mr chair so um I'm having a birthday party for 15 little kids I'm gonna have to come up with what type of insurance coverage so you're going to fill out a fields you're gonna fill out your um request form your facility request form through field of dreams field of dreams is adding into their facility request form language that's been approved by Primex it's some indemnification hold harmless we're not expecting someone that is a uh a birthday party of you know 10 10 year olds to to provide a shift give insurance okay so I mean so that's my we're trying to provide some reasonable yeah but these are the type of questions because I mean obviously I think there's a lot of things out there.

I mean the other problem we want to make sure we don't get into is them subletting and the next thing we know we got bouncy houses on the property which we know can't be insured.

Prohibited correct right and I think that what this does it gives us because they need to present to us what what those third parties are going to be so who's who's holding the event what type of the event what date what are the hours the town needs to approve that before we're authorizing.

So we're gonna have some control over that and I think that being that this is coming in the last you know eight months or so of this current agreement gives us a chance to test out and see how is this working what are some of these questions do we encounter some things in how this is actually being carried out and implemented that may need to be reworked so I think this gives us a good trial run on how this will work.

One last question so um I've been asked this agreement that we have with field of dreams is this management agreement open to anybody who wants to bid or come to the come to the town and say we'd like to take over the field of dreams I'm curious it's that's something we could look at I mean we would have to I would assume we would do an RF R Q request for qualifications of people who might be interested in managing field of dreams.

I do think that if the town is going to look at doing that we should be looking at it with all of our facilities then if we're gonna open it up if we're if we're gonna go field of dreams we should look at Michelle Memorial.

I don't know if any other baseball organization want to come in and try to run it but right um to to keep it as a a fair playing field essentially it's definitely something we could look at yeah well I think it's a fair question.

Yeah what a brief I think it's a fair question because of course it's come up because of now we have town meeting giving money to an organization that said it was never going to take tax money.

I mean so it's really opened up can of worms sure so thank you.

Yeah.

Brother Mr Hatch got two questions.

Uh first one I'm gonna tag on with about the liquor license so if a third party goes ahead 200 we'll say a largest event 200 or over the third party can't operate the liquor license but can the field of dreams open up that liquor standard yes I believe they could.

They would they would still need the town's approval because they still have to come to us to get the approval to have the event.

So if we did not want them to we would have the ability to stop that further yes I have to ponder that one so yeah we'll go to the food truck just for the uh the record in explanation is the food truck that's currently there can stay there the entire season.

So that doesn't mean if I have an event and I want to bring in four other food trucks I can still do that correct we would need to review that on a case by case basis.

So if there was going to be one event where a food truck um they were gonna bring in you know an ice cream truck and another truck we would review that and if it's going to be there for a period of four hours or if that would need to be reviewed by the town.

Okay at one point that would require a special event permit there'd be other permitting that would be required as it's happened.

Yeah I just want to make sure that we're not restricting that's the only food truck that's allowed.

I want it if I'm holding the event if somebody's holding a yes I want other food trucks or be able to the agreement's plural so they would be able to bring another they just can't stay he's the only one that's allowed the full season.

He's the only one that's allowed there's full season.

I'm good.

Okay.

Anyone else?

Anyone from the public?

Have direct comment.

You have to come to the microphone.

I'm sorry.

First of all, Mr.

Hargraves, we're talking on the amendment.

We don't want to change the entire agreement.

We're working on the agreement.

No problem.

Just want to answer some questions.

You're up.

Yeah.

Answer them.

Okay.

One is the field of dreams on the food truck.

It's on a truck.

It's really a trailer.

Clarify that.

If another party wants to bring their own, no problem.

We shut them down and he agreed.

He walks away.

He does not open it.

So that's not that's not here or there.

It's it's done.

Second thing is on the liquor thing.

If the field, if somebody has 300 people, we don't plan on opening it up, but if they request us to open it up, we will go through the proper channels to open it.

Okay.

All our uh people that are coming in, the three ones, the ones that she mentioned, they already have COIs for them.

They are we're covered, all the insurance is coming in.

If they don't have a COI, they don't do it.

Period.

Okay.

We want to be protected just as much as the town wants to be protected.

Okay.

Uh right now it costs us more money to do the upkeep at the field of dreams.

So when we do sublen it, the money don't go to us.

None of us get paid.

It goes right into the field of dreams.

We're looking at a three million dollar playground, we're doing.

Somebody wants to give me three million.

I don't we'll build it real quick.

But that's what we're doing.

Okay.

Any other questions?

Yeah.

Yeah, Mr.

Hargraves.

How much money did you guys get from charitable gaming?

Uh well, roughly we get around 50 to 57,000, give or take.

For the year.

And then the reason it took us so long to build the uh the theater over there is because we had to tear down the old one, which was free of charge.

We had uh Boy Scouts take that down for us, and we uh hauled it away.

I'm a firm believer.

You ask for I'm the one uh out on the left side going if the town wants to take it over, you want to pay for all them all the material and pay the bill, put it in your budget.

That's how I am.

Okay, because I'm my personal opinion, I don't speak for the board, I speak for me.

I'm tired of this.

I've been doing this for 25 years, and this is the first time RB is a ten thousand dollar ask.

We're going through all this rigging morrow.

If you want the 10 grand back, let us know.

We'll send it back to you.

I don't care.

My personal opinion.

Okay.

Any other questions?

Any other questions?

Not seeing any.

Thank you very much.

Appreciate that.

Mr.

Hargraves.

Need a name and an address.

Um oh three Lawrence Road here in town, obviously.

I was just a little confused about the field of dreams being not rented, but let out to groups.

What happens to the town people that are on the field of dreams at the time?

Do you set aside a part of it like a separate room in a hotel or something?

I mean, how does it private event, right?

Yeah, pretty much as a I would imagine as a sawhause that goes out there in the middle of the parking lot and said it's a private event today, and people would just go away.

I don't think a party of ten people is gonna let call uh let Colleen answer your question.

Oh hi Pauline.

She's better equipped.

Um so to speak to that, um when um it is very clear in what field of dreams tells anyone who uses the property that the the property is still open to the public, so the public is still able to access use, so even if they're reserving and they're holding an event, the the property is still open to the public and they're very clear in what they provide to any tenants or to any third parties that they do not have exclusive access to the property, the public is still allowed to have.

But if you have an event that has say 200 people, which I know isn't going to be the average, but if you have 200 people there with the parking lot full, you really are eliminating people just coming with their children in the afternoon.

Absolutely.

Parking is gonna be a challenge.

Um, and with with an event of any size.

We don't acknowledge hands, Pat.

If you want to come down and talk, come down and talk.

Sorry.

You're in the dock up there, nobody can see you.

Oh no, and you might as well stick your neck out.

You already did.

That's right.

So we leave the uh parking lot with a uh with uh students' park.

Yes, we'll leave that open for you.

So all the public at no time is ever a public resident ever been uh not allowed on the park.

That's playing a parking because we'll we'll uh go across the street to the courtyard, ask them could we use their courtyard for extra parking?

Salem High School.

We have a parking over here, but we'll leave that parking lot open for you guys.

Excellent.

Excellent.

That was my concern.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you for stepping up.

Anyone else?

On the addendum.

Name and address.

David LeCroix, 442 North Main Street, Salem, New Hampshire.

Um thanks for having me.

Thanks for taking up this uh this bit of discussion.

Uh from what I understand, this uh this uh initiative uh today is up for a vote for a final decision.

Uh there's not gonna be any further discussion on this issue except for tonight.

We're just voting on the amendment, the addendum to the contract to make sure that they understand what the rules are.

If I might just ask uh Mr.

Hoggraves from uh Field of Dreams uh when was when did you guys bring this up to the town?

When did this come up to go on the agenda?

When did you make that request?

Do you know?

She knows it more than I okay.

I've already heard her answer.

I wanted to see an answer from the board.

No, no, you don't know.

I no.

Just stay down here.

Sure.

Wants to stay down here.

Just for that one question.

I don't know, because I do Boy Scouts, I do a bunch of other I I I come to a meeting once a month.

I just wanted to know about when I know when the board came to the town looking to these.

Okay.

All right.

From from what I understand, then there was no request on the part of the field of dreams for this addendum.

Um so that's what I was told this afternoon on a telephone conversation.

Uh they said uh I was told that it was brought up by the town uh because um there was existing activity uh in the past historically, uh, where the field of dreams was in violation of uh their agreement by subletting uh the property.

And in my opinion, rather than enforcing the contract uh for the field of dreams that the town has required certain requirements um for the operation and management of the park, rather than enforce that contract, they said, well, let's make the contract match the behavior.

And that's why I'm here.

I don't think it's right.

I think it's gone in a reverse direction, and I don't think it's necessary.

So I wanted to know if there's any opinion on the board in agreement or disagreement of that.

I don't know if I see it the same way, but anybody no I don't think anybody feels the same way.

So how do you feel Mr.

Chair?

Uh Mr.

Hatch.

Thank you.

I was gonna say something.

I'll take a stab at it.

Okay.

I mean, truthfully speaking, I don't feel the same way that you feel about this.

Okay.

This is a way to go ahead and rectify that problem.

It still makes and fulfills what the field of dream needs and wants, and it still fulfills what the town needs and wants.

Okay.

So it's a win-win situation is the as far as I look at it.

You don't have any problem with the fact that they violated their their management agreement in the past.

I do not.

And this in this agreement's only got a a year left.

And then we're gonna sit down and rehash it all out again.

Okay, and it may be totally different next year.

It may be.

So then I have another question uh for the council.

Um does the town have a mechanism uh for uh lease of any of the parks uh that are managed by nonprofits.

Is there a mechanism for a private entity to um to lease the park for an event in the same way that the field of dreams is looking to do?

Well, we're we don't own a lot of parks.

We we have the Michelle and we have no management agreement, but I can I can go over a few with you here.

Um there were several town parks uh that have management agreements.

I just to make sure you understand we can't get off on a on a trip here.

We're talking about dreams and the addendum that we did.

You voiced your opinion on that.

Hedgehog is a totally different topic for another night.

Okay.

Um, there are several other parks that have management agreements, and all of them uh if I from the public wanted to use it for a private event, I could contact the recreation department.

I could fill out many of the same forms that you were just talking about with the field of dreams.

Go through all the insurance requirements, the safety requirements, all of all of that, without making any changes to their contracts.

That's there's every ability in town to be able to do that.

That's the tangent that I'm going on.

I may disagree with what you're doing here, but there is already a mechanism in place for the town to do exactly what the field of dreams want.

There's one difference.

If if I rent a park, any of these other parks, I have the contracts in my hand.

Any of these other parks, if I have an event there that gets approved by the town, and I pay the money, the revenue comes to the town.

That saves the taxpayer money.

But the field of dreams maintains the field of dreams.

So they all of these people maintain their parks.

Mm-hmm.

As far as this their contracts go.

I've read them all this afternoon.

I picked them up this morning and I read them all.

But they do save us money because if you recall, the baseball association has done a lot of improvements, whether it's batting cages, whether it's the snack house, whether it's the lights, and they've paid for it.

Did not cost the town.

Exactly.

Same thing with Field of Dreams.

They raise it they raise the money and they use it to upgrade the facility.

So I get the public to use, not costing us money.

How many of these people got uh a disbursement on a warrant article for $10,000?

These other people.

But did they ask?

Yeah, yeah, Mr.

Sweeney.

All of those organizations, Salem East Baseball, the Soccer League, Salem Rams, they are all free to get 25 Salem residents, 25 voters, to sign a petition, to ask for $10,000 or whatever amount they want to.

They get that on the ballot, and then the voters have the final say as to whether or not that $10,000 disbursement is given.

Those organizations haven't asked in the past, but they have the freedom to ask in the future.

So just because they haven't doesn't mean that they can't or they shouldn't or whatnot.

Well, I'm kind of thinking about in general to the taxpayer.

I think it's important to know that there are some organizations that are mindful of what the taxes are going to ultimately end up being in the town, and this is not.

But that the tax issue is a different thing.

There are all of these other organizations are uh restricted from privately renting out their facilities on their own.

They all have the same restriction that exists today if we don't change anything, nothing changes.

Okay.

Now, what I would suggest, because I don't see there being any urgency or any rush in February, the Field of Dreams contract is up.

It's up for renewal.

We have eight months to thoughtfully with good intentions all the way through to formulate a solid contract that doesn't have to be re-looked at over and over and over again.

There's the possibility that we can create a shining contract with the field of dreams without having to go through this kind of process over and over again.

Go ahead, Mrs.

Sweney, let's go.

We don't live in a black and white world.

Yes, there's eight months left until the contract expires in February, and then we get to rewrite a whole new thing.

But these are eight months in which most of these months the field is going to be used for people, right?

We're out of the mud season, people are going to use the field and have events there.

So it's better to sort of work out the kinks and figure out this agreement between the nonprofit and the town now while it's being used than just wait for February to rewrite a whole new thing based on.

It's gonna have to be done anyways.

I understand, but why not try to see how these this addendum can work in the contract to see if that's the right mode going forward, or if we need to make further tweaks for it?

We can experiment with these agreements and the contracts, and that's why there's our there are addendums to the contracts that we have, and that's the role that we have as a town council and in the town to have these ongoing conversations.

You mentioned the other groups not having leases out of their private facilities.

We had a big discussion last year with baseball about them getting a third-party vendor for the concession stand.

They came to us, we worked it out, and now they have a third-party concession uh company that manages the concessions because we can have this relationship and experience where you get to come to the town council and talk about what the issues are or what might need fixing, or from the town side, we can go to the groups that are organizing and managing these fields and saying, hey, this agreement might work better if we add this.

And I think that's perfectly healthy.

I think it's fine, and we're gonna continue to iterate and figure out what we need to do so that the next time we have a contract, we can get it as good as possible.

We're never gonna have a perfect contract we're never gonna have the best contract but we're just striving to have the best contract possible for the families in this town for the taxpayers in this town and so that the people can continue to enjoy these fields that are largely maintained not by tax dollars but by charitable gaming fundraisers renting out the facilities and it's a big community partnership that we're all engaged in.

Well you know I I think um all of you have heard me speak on on some of these issues uh with the field of dreams um I was not in favor of them getting the ten thousand dollar uh taxpayer funding um we were told in year one that it was gonna be a one time occurrence came back again in year two for a second occurrence um so that took place that started to break down my trust because we were told one thing and another thing happened um so the the trust out of being broken down then I look back and I see that now there's been uh some subleasing already going on and now they're backing into changing their contract to allow it when it really was a violation and I don't know I I don't I don't get that kind of forgiveness you know if I if I if I break a contract there are penalties and you nobody seems to care too much about that.

And if if you're not if you can't hold if you can't as an organization hold yourself to your contracts that you sat down negotiated signed off on what good is the next one and so I I have I have some trust issues and what I'm saying is let's slow it down what they have done in terms of sub leasing in the past is disallowed I'll forgive it.

But let's thoughtfully go through this process and really think it through before we just pull the trigger you know I don't want to shoot first and aim later.

I'd rather okay work it out first.

All right so that's where I am on that's right I've been involved in a number of different nonprofits as well as I have and she needs to get to the mic.

Not everybody on a board gets to see the contract and you had the person who was involved in the contract leave the board and they don't think that could be different um so it may just have been that they didn't realize they were breaking the contract.

Well then if that's if that's the case because it's a major part of the contract if that's the case that the board either didn't know or didn't understand the contract then there's a problem with competence and I would be wary about executing another contract.

I'm not gonna be very wary about no this is that way I we started this conversation 12 minutes ago on this and I specifically said I'm sorry to take up your time that we were gonna no we allow most people to come up to the microphone three or four minutes to make and I let you talk and now it's my turn I specifically said this was going to be about the addendum we've talked about baseball soccer everybody else except the addendum the addendum is here for the specific reasons that Mr.

Sweeney spoke about we found that there's problems with the contract and we're redoing the contract to make sure that this season goes well enough so that we don't have to do this again.

Was I mad when they broke the contract sure I think everybody on the board was mad when they broke the contract but that doesn't solve the problem for this summer.

We have to fix it so that everybody can enjoy it.

I've been there friends of mine playing bands there.

I I don't know how you could do that and just leave the contract alone and let's talk about it next February we have fixed it and this is the best avenue for it for this season and in February if you want to be part of it come on down and join the fray.

Because we'll be having open sessions about you like you said you've already fixed it.

It doesn't even need a vote.

No we have a we're gonna vote in about a minute and a half.

So I I shouldn't even bother talking no we're gonna that's what it could be it could be seven or nothing it could be one to six I don't know.

Okay.

I haven't talked everybody we don't we don't believe me this is probably the best board in town for open discussion.

Nobody talks about the agenda on the phone about how they feel or what should happen.

None of that happens.

I asked you guys directly how you felt about them breaking the contract early I didn't it was no answer.

And now you're telling me that you're mad because you went little league you went Michelle Memorial Park you were out there and I'm trying to reel it back you to where we were re-look at the recording.

Relook at the recording.

Check order of that.

Thanks.

Okay.

I appreciate your time.

Okay.

We appreciate it.

I really do.

Coming down.

And uh I hope that you vote no because there's no urgency to do this.

Okay.

Field of Dreams has been in operation for many, many years uh under this one contract and has been very successful.

And uh I think it's a it's a large jump uh to do this.

So thank you for your time.

Okay, thank you.

Anyone else?

Motions.

Mr.

Sweeney.

Mr.

Chairman, at this time I move that the town council approve the addendum to the field of dreams management agreement as presented and further authorizes the town manager to sign the addendum on behalf of the town of Salem.

Second.

Motion made and seconded by Mr.

Strmalia.

Further discussion.

All those in favor.

Seven is zero.

Don't step out of that contract.

Municipal Services Department.

Oh, this is you, Wayne.

Wayne show.

This is your night, buddy.

Mr.

Devine.

Uh next is going to be from the municipal services department to consider voluntary water restrictions.

Yep.

I'm going to invite Municipal Services Director Wayne Amaral to come and walk us through this.

Um, this is again to consider voluntary water restrictions based on current drought conditions and reservoir levers levels.

Wayne's here to provide more information on this.

Thanks, Red.

Thank you for having me tonight.

I'm Wayne Amaraldo, Director of Municipal Services.

Yep.

Um I'm here tonight to request your support for voluntary lawn irrigation water restriction, which permits watering your lawn only on odd number of days of the week between midnight and 10 a.m.

Everybody could still water their lawn just every other day.

Um during not during those times when it's when it's not when it's you could water your lawn every other day during those permitted times.

So that's more than enough to keep your healthy lawn going.

How did we get here?

Well we use three ways of determining if we need to uh to address any water supply issues.

We have a model that Western Sampson developed many years ago that we put data in on a daily basis that gives us predicted level of our water supply.

Second is we measure Kinky Canby Lake on a routine basis and we use that.

Joe, do you have my chart on the memo?

The second page.

You didn't provide me with a chart.

On the um on the uh so the old chart we have that shows the uh water levels at each month of the year.

Um we use that.

We measure the we measure um can be lake, which at this time of year it should be at at predicted levels of 219.6.

And right now we're at 218.71.

So we're below that, but we're above the 218 point one voluntary restriction.

So we use that as a model to look to see where we're where we're at.

We also look at the um federal national integrated drought information system.

We get a weekly report from then that talks about what condition we are, if we're in a drought, uh abnormally dry, and we use all this information to get to a point where we want to address um we want to look at our water supply and what we need to do with it.

So right now, where our current levels are at Canby Lake, we're six inches above the voluntary restriction.

However, we're here now because we don't see any rain coming in the future.

We don't see anything's gonna happen, so we're looking for a voluntary water restriction.

It's between the predicted level and the voluntary level, but we're trying to be proactive to get a head start on this.

It doesn't stop people from watering the lawn, like I stated before, just that they're only permitted to do it during certain times.

So that's the vote I'm looking for from the board.

Questions?

Mr.

Sweeney.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Thank you, Wayne, for uh being on here and talking to us about this.

So saying if we were to vote for this tonight to implement the voluntary water restrictions, what steps do we take as a town to actually inform folks that we're asking them to stop using the water on those days in those times?

So right now we're just gonna use the social media outlet website, try to get the word out as much as we can right now.

Um if we go into a mandatory one, we're required to do a mailing to everybody to everybody's house.

Right now it's voluntary, which is big.

If we get a lot of people to follow that, we'll should see um we take the burden off at Kit Cambiy Lake every other day, which would be huge for us.

Um, but we would we would do a big blast to try to get the word out as much as we can.

Thank you.

I did see Jeff.

Mr.

Hatch.

Uh for me, um, you know, to me, a voluntary uh water ban or the lawn irrigation program is kind of a feel good thing.

You know, it's gonna say, yeah, we tried, we try to get them to do it voluntarily.

Myself, we're in a drought.

I don't like as you stated, I don't see a lot of rain coming anytime soon.

To me, we could run a mandatory program and just change the word from voluntary to mandatory and still keep the same hours.

I to me, I I you know I'm willing to stick my neck out there on the chopping block, but I I just don't see it happening.

We're better off just making it mandatory right here, right now, instead of talking again next month about the same subject.

Ms.

Stacey.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

So obviously my concern is is the uh industrial properties, the business properties, who we all know water their lawns all day, even when it's raining.

So if you if you're talking about voluntary, you know that they're gonna be every day watering their lawns.

It's just it's just like Jeff said, it's all for naught, because that's what they do, that's how they do it.

And if we're not going, you know, in social media is fine, but you know, not everybody's watching social media, they're not going to the town website, they're not they're not doing that without an actual official notice from the town.

So I mean obviously I'm concerned as well because of what's happening in Canaby, but what else is happening in Arlington Pond?

What's happening with the water level in Arlington Pond?

Because I believe it's very, very low.

It's low, but not very, very low.

Okay, do you want to Mr.

Wallace?

I see you in attendance, and we're always happy to see you.

I'm not bringing any money this time.

Okay.

Fred Wallace Utilities.

So Allington Pond.

Um it was uh a catch 22 for us this year, or a perfect storm.

Yeah.

We had ice on very early this year.

We had ice off very late this year.

So by the time it was safe enough for us to close that dam and start raising the lake.

Yeah, we had a week of water from Big Island before they closed theirs for their seasonal filling, right?

So we're behind the eight ball there.

Our contract with uh Allington Pond states that if we're not at a level of 1617 by May 1st, we can no longer take water for for use as drinking water.

Yeah.

So we're not in it.

Are we taking water now?

No, we may May 1st we switched over.

So we're now on our uh uh Canaby Lake.

Our our prediction, uh uh our model prediction that we have shows that if we if we use um um you know our management plan and take more water from regional, that we'll be in a good spot.

It's low, but it's gonna help.

It's it's gonna help us.

Doing nothing isn't um voluntary, I agree with you.

It's it is it's a it's a feel good.

Um personally, I would suggest going right to mandatory.

Um we'll get the the best bang.

We'll we'll if we do get some useful rain.

Uh last May we got 15 inches of rain.

Don't know if that's gonna happen again this year, it'd be great, but I you know I I think our recovery rate would be better if we went right to mandatory.

And your question with the the um commercial properties, one of the things this well, the select board did, and you were on it years ago, was we made anyone putting an irrigation system in by a meter.

Right.

So we can see people who are watering on the days that we don't water.

So it's gonna be a lot easier for us to manage this time.

Thank you, Mr.

Wallace.

Well I think he was next.

Paul, are you up?

Did you have a question?

Yes, you could yes, no, I I kind of agree with Mr.

Wallace.

According to your chat over here, uh uh down in September by September 15th, you know drought emergency is gonna be uh two points below average, two point, I mean uh two fourteen point seventy five versus two seventeen point seventy-five, which is which is a drastic right uh uh king, which will bring, which will probably I'm not you know more of an expert than I am, it'll probably bring Canada Lake below those uh flashboards.

So we can predict we can our model can predict out that far using uh you know extra water from regional and what we're doing tonight.

The model right now, if we we're in a uh 25th percentile for rainfall right now, ground but so we measure groundwater, temperature, um, stream flow, and the model takes all that information.

It'll calculate out uh till the end of the year.

So right now my model is telling me that on November 17th, if we follow our uh you know our program of of restrictions and using more water from regional, that the lake should be at uh 216-4, I think was the last number, last number I saw without doing anything, without uh buying more water without going restrictions will be somewhere around 214.

That's where we don't want to want that.

Thank you.

Uh I'm gonna take a page out of council with Hill's book.

Uh if it's not enforceable, I'm not in favor of it, so I think we should go to mandatory because the council has said Mr.

Devine, would you like to speak a little bit about what it might cost us to purchase more water from the big lake up in uh Manchester, Maps of Basic, and and how that might help our situation?

So the the town does a good job balancing when we pull water and when we purchase water.

Uh we tend to purchase more water in the summertime months and less water in the winter time, um, just because there's not as much need for it as we do in the in the summertime.

So um Fred and his team does a great job really trying to do that balancing act.

Obviously, it costs us money to buy water.

Um there is fees as it flows from Manchester through Derry and then down into Salem.

And as those fees add up, it costs us more um per cubic foot as as we're purchasing it.

Um it costs us roughly three dollars and nine cents um to purchase that water.

So we're taking water that we're treating, and uh how much do you know what your cost is for treatment?

Not the top of my head.

Yeah, it it's it it's it's it's nowhere close to what we're paying.

So we we're we're paying uh double as we're pulling the water.

So that's that's the cost standpoint.

Um how does that affect the budget?

It affects the budget because our water usage goes up, so we have to pay more.

Um where do you find it out of the budget?

Well, we're we talk about fees then because this is a this is fee-based.

Right.

It's not it's not a budgetary item.

Um so it would we go back and we would come to the council and we would talk about do we need to increase the fees that are happening in order to compensate that.

And one of the things you have to remember too is so January, February, March, we're not taking a lot of water.

Um on June 31st, on that day, we hit an average of 500,000 gallons a day at that Northland station, which means 250 is for us, two fifty goes out of town.

We hit that number every year.

So it taking a lot now, we're paying a lot more now, but taking that little bit in the in the winter offsets that.

That's the balancing act.

And and I will I will give Wayne and Fred the the kudos.

Um this morning I got a phone call from Wayne talking about wanting to go mandatory on the water restriction.

Um Monday morning, uh Monday's the first Monday of the month is when we get the drought monitoring report.

Um and so we got that today, which took us from the abnormally dry to actually into drought conditions.

Yeah.

And so that was new information as of today.

And we went forward with still the voluntary at this point, just because we didn't notice the public, I wanted the public to have the opportunity to come and speak if we were going to go towards a mandatory water restriction.

That's that's the only reason they didn't change the scope.

Obviously, the council has the ability to change forward how you want them.

Mr.

Chairman.

Mr.

Sweeney.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

This is a thought that just popped in my head.

So it might not be a fully flushed out idea that might upset Apple carts.

Have we ever explored adding source water from Methuan into Salem?

Well, there's there's uh a couple of things there.

One is that it's a uh pressure difference, so we would have to pump it, which would cost more money.

Yep.

And they we actually we uh chloraminate, so we use monochloramines as a secondary disinfectant.

Um doesn't, so we would have to burn all that off before we could use it as an emergency.

We could use it as an emergency with we're set up for that, but not for seasonal use.

We're set up a okay.

Right.

Further Barney?

Simple question.

If this is pertaining to lawns, what about washing your car?

How does that affect?

Doesn't it simple question, good good one for me.

Um simple questions are good.

It it does all it affects is irrigation systems.

So you can hand water your garden as much as you want whenever you want.

Okay.

You can wash it right now, you can wash your cab.

It's it's the next step we would have to take where it comes into you know washing your cars.

It wouldn't affect the car wash, it would just affect uh commercial uh uh nurseries.

This is basically targeted at uh irrigation systems.

Thank you.

Oh no, that one's terrible.

All right, gentlemen.

Uh thank you.

Counselor.

If I can make a suggestion, if we're nervous about of we're not uh comfortable about just making a mandatory effective right now as we speak, if we wanted to set a date, say Friday or Monday, it gives us time to get the word out to people that's a mandatory coming.

So if we're afraid that well, if we had a communications commission that was still if we want to do a mandatory one, we could probably get a mailer out and get everybody in their mailbox by next week that we're doing a mandatory one.

So that's an option if that makes you feel more comfortable with that.

Um I don't say today right now.

No, we'll consider that option when we vote and how we make the motion.

I would assume Miss Donley has something to say.

And since it's on the agenda, come on up.

Thank you, board.

Tiny Donnelly at 40 West Dustin Road.

I am calling I'm actually here in um relation to the Canaby Lake Protective Association.

I'm the president of the association.

And as a Canaby Lake person, and I have heard from many, many people on the lake.

And I've asked they've been asking me what are we going to do about the water?

What are we going to do about the water?

And now that we've switched over, I just found out today, um, May 1st, we would like to support the mandatory at a minimum and also encourage more purchase of the water coming down from Mass Basic.

Um that is why we went down this path.

This is why we you know built the infrastructure.

This is why we campaigned to help support this.

This is why we have Senator Abbas uh and myself at the State House as well supporting additional, you know, funding with different bills and different things that we're doing.

So Senator now we was voting on that today.

So if me for for not including you.

I didn't wasn't my intention.

Um so here we are.

Mandatory is what we would like, and we would like to recommend that to the board to really take that into serious consideration, and to encourage maximum amount of water to be pulled from the line that we have infrastructured.

Okay, Ms.

Stacey.

Can I ask you a question?

Yes.

So you guys all on town water?

Is everybody on the lake on town water?

Not everyone on the lake is on town water.

So it's easy to say that everybody who is on town water should be paying more because you because the protective association wants us to?

I mean, I'm just I'm just curious as to you know, remember it's the people who are on that, you know, I'm on town water.

Yes.

And I'm not waterfront property.

And obviously, my concern would be the people who are going to be looking at substantial increases in their water bills.

So uh fair point.

Absolutely fair point, and and I and I and I and I hear that.

Um however, it does affect the lake and regenerating it, because as you draw down more and more, it takes the lake longer and longer to regenerate.

So if you continue to to give it that drought like feeling, it becomes normal.

So by us not looking at that from an environmental, and I've talked to DES um about this.

I've had long conversations with them regarding these different types of drought situations for Canaby and how important it is.

And if it was not a big deal, then why would we have done this whole infrastructure project of bringing down more water down 28?

I mean, why are we as state legislators trying to fight for more water if we're gonna continue to say, oh, we're we're just not gonna use it.

We have done this for the that intention.

The town voters passed for a 1.5 million gallons a day to be coming into the town.

So from what I've seen, the town supports this.

Well, it's coming.

Remember, we're a pass through.

Right?

Because the whole thing about the regional water line is to get it moved out, right?

Because we have other communities out towards you know, Atkinson Plastow, Hampstead, that all need water, right?

So that that was part of the whole thing about the regional water line.

Wasn't just for Salem, it's because we really are a pass-through.

I mean, yeah, we draw one, absolutely.

We sell, right?

We sell to to Wind Tim, et cetera.

But we, you know, yeah, I mean, did did we support it?

Absolutely.

Because at some point, as we all know, especially with what we're talking about, PFAS and the federal levels that are coming and how we're gonna have to comply and the kind of kind of money we're looking at.

We we are in for some real money long days.

Money long days, exactly.

I I understand and completely see your point of view.

Um, but I do want to point out that additional regional water line is here to help the town during these specific events of nature.

We just have not had enough rain.

And if we get more rain, wonderful.

We can turn the faucet back off.

Okay.

Yeah.

Further?

Mr.

Hatch, did you have something?

I'm ready to make a motion if you're ready.

Thank you very much for your attention.

I appreciate it.

Yeah.

Thank you, Ms.

Donley.

Um much are we taking in now from Fred?

Sorry.

Just to be calculated.

But it's right now it's uh it's set at 485 gallons a minute.

That's somewhere around six or seven hundred thousand gallons a day.

Cubic feet.

Pardon?

Don't we do it by cubic feet?

Uh my world is gallons.

Does your world is the finance department is cubic feet?

So finance department, yeah.

Great.

Yeah.

They'll find out.

But without my calculator, I'm lost.

So I can give you cubic feet if you like it.

So what is the thing?

Is the pipe set up to take the million and a half gallons of the bigger?

The pipe is is built.

That whole system is built to at some point in time carry three and a half million gallons of water.

Okay.

So there's still a ways to go uh with trying to finish phase two.

Um as Tanya said, we were at the State House while we were in Concord this morning, trying to get more money so we can keep this project moving forward.

Okay.

And it looks good right now.

We've got a lot of good a lot of support.

So the th in the three and a half million gallons is once phase two is completed.

Right.

That's not what we have the ability to get right now.

And the million and a half that that I I keep on hearing, um, we lost two wells.

I'm sure everybody knows, right?

In the eighty late 80s.

That was uh a million and a half gallons of um capacity that we lost.

We didn't take a million and a half gallons out of that, but that's capacity that we lost.

Uh DES has been on us for for many years to find other sources of water, and we've we've done a lot of things.

We've looked in town for for areas, um, you know, wells that we could build uh other bodies of water in in Salem.

Arlington was the best fit.

Um still wasn't perfect.

It wasn't perfect because of the contract that we had.

We couldn't use it all all year long, right?

Um regional came along, there was a problem in Plastow.

We needed to get water to Plastow.

We had some some people, Senator Moss, one of them put on a great fight for that water to come through here.

Yep, so we can make up that million and a half deficit.

Uh and we do that.

Uh we can take it, and we do.

We take over a million gallons a day come June, you know, July, early August.

Okay.

Motion, Mr.

Hatch.

Thank you, Fred.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I move that the town council hereby adopts a mandatory lawn irrigation water restrictions to take effect May 22nd.

Such restrictions are for the outside watering of lawns by manual or automatic sprinklers, which will be permanent uh permanent yeah the root permitted between permitted, excuse me, between the hours of 12 a.m., which is midnight to 10 a.m.

on the oh and on the odd number of days only.

These restrictions will remain in place until such time that the abnormal dry conditions improve or water level increases to the satisfaction of the town council.

Seconded by Mr.

Stramalia.

Further discussion.

Ms.

Wright.

Would you consider amending that to make a voluntary um lawn irrigation restriction to take effect immediately and to be followed by the mandatory on May 22nd?

No.

No, I think that works.

I think we should just go.

I'm I'm not gonna bother.

Yeah.

Just the May 22nd.

Um I don't want to confuse things.

Because people are gonna say it's voluntary, and they're not gonna think about May 22nd that it becomes mand or the following week.

They're just gonna say, oh, it's they're gonna find out it's mandatory on the 22nd, and that'll be the end of the discussion.

Yeah, I don't too confusing.

Do we have the uh do we have the means to uh get the notices out in time?

Yeah to every household that's on the water?

Correct.

Okay.

And those those actually just to be fair, I think they should go to every household only because what you think is your well may be very well in the middle of a stream that feeds one of the lakes.

And so your well use is actually drawing water out of the aquifer.

So I don't want to break anybody's bubble, but we're all kind of linked here somehow.

Well, giving us two.

Mr.

Emerald, did you have something else?

Yeah, it's given us for the sweaty cycle happen.

Because we just did the CCI report.

So we did a trial run on this, I guess, a couple weeks back.

Okay.

Everybody who has water, who's on water, got to notice us.

Hope everybody got theirs who has it.

If we want to do a town wide one, we could do some little bit more research on that one.

That shouldn't be impossible.

Okay.

So we're good.

Yep.

Ms.

Donnelly, if you have one more thing, sure.

Thank you again.

Uh, is there a reason why we can't make this mandatory by next week?

Why does it have to be the 22nd?

Because I if I start to look at the trees and how the tr the trees will start this start really sucking the water out of everything very quickly because of the leaves.

Now I'm taking take into consideration.

You just said, okay, everybody, you had three weeks to use a ton of water to get your grass growing to get everything going.

So that's what I worry about is that if this mandatory, we wait three you your weight these couple weeks, lots of people are going to leverage lots of water.

Why can't we do it next week?

Pretty please.

I just picked the 22nd, knowing that I know for sure everybody would get a notice by then.

That's the only reason why I picked the 22nd.

Could we guess the I'm not opposed to it if the town manager says I can turn it around faster than that?

13th.

That gives you 10 days.

15th, 13th.

I mean, if you want to 15th, 13th.

However, we have 10 days to get things printed.

Give us give us this week.

I by next week we'd have stuff.

Something like that.

So the 15th?

15th.

15th.

Okay.

So I'll amend my motion to the 15th.

Thank you.

And you seconded his amendment?

Yep.

So now we're on the amendment.

So now we're talking May 15th mandatory.

Anything further.

All those in favor.

I got seven to zero.

Mandatory on the fifteenth.

All right.

Authorized disbursement of three million dollars for the roadway improvement.

Mr.

Devine.

I'm again going to bring municipal services director Wayne Amaral up here, and this is to discuss the disbursement of the three million dollars for the roadway improvement capital reserve fund to support the 2026 road program consistent with what was approved at town meeting this year.

Mr.

Amrol, you're up.

Thank you.

Trying to find my notes on that one.

So I'm requesting to tonight that town council approved the and authorized the funding amount of $3 million for the roadway improvement for the warrant article nine of the FY26 budget that was recommended by the stabilization committee on April 24th.

The roads listed in the in the document has not been changed.

They stayed the same since we bought it uh went to the town council with the uh town meeting with the list of roads.

Um and all the contracts have been out to bid and we got them awarded so we could actually fund all the projects we promised to fund.

Okay.

Um these include mill and overlay, crack sale, rubber chip program, and also to conduct an updated P PCI inventory of our roadways.

We're not doing full depth construction this year.

We're gonna skip this year because our budget was cut uh this past year.

So but we got more than enough work to be dosed around town for all the work we're trying to do.

Okay.

And at some point after this season, would like to know a little bit, or I would like to know a little bit about how the uh Wubba is meeting the wood.

Okay, you know, you did a few neighborhoods with the rubber chip.

Yep, and people were complaining that they were tracking it in the house.

It's loose, it's running around, it's in their yard, it's in their garden, it's on their lawn on the shoe.

Just you know, after a year or so being put down, and maybe this year to just take a look at that as a whole and see how that's uh we'll definitely report.

We'll definitely report back to you on that.

Okay, great.

Motion, Mr.

Sweeney, Mr.

Chairman.

At this time I move that the town council as agents to expend the Salem Roadway Improvements Capital Reserve Fund.

Hereby authorizes three million dollars as approved via Article 9 of the 2026 town meeting warrant to be dispersed for the 2026 road construction and engineering program as submitted by the roadway stabilization committee and as presented tonight.

Second second motion been made and seconded by Miss Wright.

All those in favor.

You have a road program.

So stay here.

Don't go too far.

No, take a seat.

Mr.

Devine, winter operations.

Uh so this is gonna be just an informational item so the council can walk through on how the 2025-2026 winter season went uh for both an operational and a budget standpoint.

Jeff the intro.

And I'll do the money.

Oh, here he comes.

Oh boy.

Good evening, Mr.

Chair Chairman.

Thank you.

Mr.

Devine, Council members, I'm Jeff Benson.

I'm the deputy director of public works.

Um, so I do run winter operations in the town of Salem.

It's my fourth year doing it, being in charge of everything.

This year was a little more challenging.

Fred said we didn't get any snow, but I I have uh 83 inches of snow.

So there's a little map saying last year we did 55 inches.

This year was 83.

Um a lot of long long events this year, and it was so I understand what Fred's saying about the snowfall.

It was always a lot of cold snow, fluffy snow.

So, you know, it just melted so fast it didn't help Fred out at all, but it definitely kept us busy.

So with 39 primary events, so that's when we go out and do all our primary roads.

Uh last year we did 23.

Wow.

Secondary side roads, we did 25.

Last year we did 14, so our numbers were way up there.

Um plowing events 15 as opposed to 10.

Um, and then gravel roads about the same.

That's kind of weird.

I don't know why.

Seems we just that's actually salting, sanding them and going back out.

So um on to the next.

So a couple talking points.

So I have 69 available personnel during the snowstorm, so a lot.

One this with one vacant position this year, which is better, and previous year we had two.

Uh 57 pieces of equipment this year, so we did pretty good.

A little bit down from previous years.

Um 35 miles of sidewalks, uh 20 winter operations.

So you saw 15 plow events there, but we had five I call them ice events that basically it just would sleet or freezing rain all day long.

Um one of them we had two inches of sleet, so that was fun.

And those really do tax um everybody, all the workers, the budget, everything.

That's a you know, long events of a lot of applications out there trying to keep the roads safe.

Um and the one I like, I don't like it, but it's interesting.

Five rookie plow drivers this year in uh streets and shops, and uh they did excellent.

Uh two of them were in big wing trucks.

Um couple of young kids were around the lake, did an awesome job there.

Uh we're really proud of our new employees.

We thought they did very well.

Um several long duration storms and uh that big snowfall with 24 inches, that was 36 inches of actual snow.

So that was a lot.

That's another one that taxed the budget.

And then we did have a blizzard, February 23rd and four in Salem was officially a blizzard.

We got 24 inches of snow.

So um most important thing to mention always is uh teamwork and uh you gotta understand it's not just public works, it's also uh the utilities department.

I always have to thank Fred and his guys.

He all the guys come down, they salt with us, they plow with us.

Fred and Ronnie, they run the plant while we're plowing all day long.

So really is all around everyone's helping out.

Yeah.

So that's the most important part.

You gotta remember about uh it's not just public works, it's everyone.

I always thank Fred because he has to run the plant some days by himself or out plowing the snow.

So all right, and I'll let Wayne take care of the next ones.

Thanks.

The money part.

So if you look at the chart that Joe's showing right now, um what we budgeted uh last year.

Um what we spent last year um in 25 on contracted service was 346.

What we spent in 26 was actually less at 329.

Please keep in mind that we still have November, December of this year still to go.

But we're in line to overspend somewhat, but not that bad.

We actually in somewhat control there.

The second part was what we um what we spent uh in operations and 25 was 574,000.

So last year we spent more than we did this year, which is interesting.

But keep in mind that 25 winter came early at the end of 25 this year.

Winter came in November, December this year.

We had an early winter.

Um a portion of that budget is mostly salt, which is extremely expensive per ton, and it just gets worse every year.

And then the overtime, which goes back with what Jeff was saying, when you have a 36 hour storm, those people are on overtime uh for 30, you know, for 36 minus 8 if they're if they can at the end of the shift, if they get called in, they continuously stay out overtime.

So it's a huge budget um um amount that you'd pay for long durations of storms.

And it feels like we're getting more of these over the last 10 or 15 years.

There's no longer an eight-hour snowstorm that comes in, we clear up after four hours and we go home.

These storms are becoming 24-hour storms more common than ever in the past.

Next slide, Joe.

So our 26 budget, just to recap what we spent.

The red is interesting is if we got our original budget, if we didn't get cut, if we didn't cut up budget this year, we would have been below budget or on budget this year without snow and ice operations.

But when the budget cut, we'll end up being um a lot uh uh you can see this from the chart.

So for contracted services, we actually spent 329,000, but the budget was 235.

It was 360.

So in 25.

So we followed that budget from 25 into this year, we would have been below budget on our snow and ice.

Again, I have to say that we still got November, December of 26 coming up, but we're in line.

So as much as it was a terrible season, we did we did our best to uh protect uh uh to watch our costs.

Same thing with operations.

Um we're actually below what the twenty-five budget would have been, but above the the revised twenty-four budget at four eighty-one.

And then most of that again is salt, and then the overtime again.

If you look at the overtime, that was gonna be over no matter what the budget was.

We didn't touch that but budget in twenty-six, that's the same.

We followed the same twenty-five-26.

So it'd be on switch, we would have still came back with an over overage of the overtime budget because of the duration of the storm.

So that's pretty much a recap.

I know I recaptured probably last month about the funds, and we're gonna be over this year, so we'll talk about it over the next couple months how we uh make up the difference here.

Recoup, recoup the difference.

Miss Stacy.

Mr.

Chair, thank you.

I can't say enough and praise enough the guys and the gals who work in winter operations because I have to tell you, I think they do a dynamite job.

I you know, I know that people, you know, people like to complain, but I think they are wonderful, they do a wonderful job, and uh I thank them very much.

Thank you, counselor.

Second that teacher everybody's in agreement.

Yeah, yeah.

The town does a wonderful job keeping the roads clean and keeping people safe.

They sure do.

And you can tell people all you want.

Don't go out, stay off the roads.

You don't have any school, what are you taking the kids' places for?

And they still get in your way.

But overall, um, fantastic job.

Thank you.

So we're moving on.

Sure.

It's just information.

Yeah.

Let's move on to litter cleanup and how much germ we picked up this year.

So I believe Jeff is gonna be coming forward to talk about this one.

Oh, we have a wow.

Uh-oh.

Security alert.

I don't know.

What is that?

No idea.

We're just gonna cancel it out.

Oh well.

Okay, so when winter's over it becomes obvious that we're obvious there's no grass on the side of the road, and everything's very obvious to what's on the side of the road.

So uh usually the first week of April, we do our annual litter clear cleanup in the town.

Uh we get sponsored from the New Hampshire litter free New Hampshire.

We get the blue bags.

Um, I didn't know it's a little lighter in color than they have been in the past, but um so and we've been doing this now for about 10 years, 29.8 tons of litter over the last nine years.

Wow.

You think about that.

That's a lot of litter.

That's a lot of litter.

Um that's not all of it.

So what we basically do is we put uh again, Fred's guys come down and help out, and we force them down, we put all our crews out there, we break up in groups of two, and we take care of everyone should we take care of the main roads pretty much.

That's uh it's tough to get in all subdivisions, but we do 53 miles of total roads in town, which is a lot.

And this year we did 3.65 tons of trash.

That's a lot, and that's all blue bags if you look.

Wow, that's a lot of bluebirds.

Yeah, sure is.

Uh one more thing.

So what we do too is we actually um we try to get volunteers every year.

So and uh just want to mention every time I I don't read them all off.

So Ray Hurto, he's over on Pelham Road.

Marlene, I'm in, and that's actually one of my foreman's wife who wanted to help out, so we gave her in her neighborhood, she went out with her granddaughter, which is really nice.

Jan Alexa, Jovin, Sierra, Nicole, Sam Panetto, Amy Coza, Sarah Wolof, Heather, Bonaridio, and the Tuscan Village.

We solicit them to go around their property and they do that.

They show us a picture and we kind of estimate what it is, and we they take care of the trash.

So uh Salem Winman's Club went out and did uh veterans and Jeremonty.

The Lions Club helped out, and uh the greatest part, we always get girl scouts and boy scout troops to help out.

We put them in parks and stuff in the Novia Corp over on the uh on Northwestern.

So without you know, it really does help out with all the volunteers and makes it more of like a community effort.

Yeah, and then uh that's it.

We just then the grass grows and you don't see anything.

So any questions on today's good.

I think we're all good, Jeff.

Thank you very much.

Before we get into the town manager's report, really quick.

I did make a comment to Mr.

Devine earlier today.

Um anybody's been down by the uh Barnes and Noble, you know that they put an island there and they made no U-turns.

So that whole plaza, everybody has to go to the traffic light, take a left-hand turn, and then everybody's going into Mary Ann's or Chasers and going around the back of the building, and now we have bumper to bumper traffic behind Noria or behind Mary Ann's.

It's nuts.

So I've asked him to take a look at um whether we can put a sign there that says, you know, U-turn, whatever.

I don't think they should have gone as far as they went with no U-turn and build this big monster.

There were 25 cars behind Noria the other day, and I just needed to get over there to pick up somebody at the Greek restaurant, and it was 15 minutes, and then you come out and you've got to hook it.

Right because effects coming.

So I think they made safety worse.

I don't think they made it better.

So we're gonna take a look at that just so you know.

Uh so Mr.

Town Manager, it's time for your report.

All right, great.

Uh so I don't have a PowerPoint tonight.

I'm just gonna talk quickly just to get stuff through.

Okay.

Um, first up, uh deliberative session.

We're already gonna start talking about deliberative session for 2027.

Um as we're building the calendars out um for the budget committee and for the town council as far as setting up the hearings and everything.

Um we have two possible dates.

It's January 30th or February 6th.

Oh my god.

Um this past year we went with the earlier one.

Um that's the recommendation again, only because if we ever were to get snow, we have the ability to cancel it and push it to the next date.

Um where if it's February 6th and we ever got snow, we'd have to have deliberative no matter what.

No matter what.

So that's our recommendation, but obviously the council is the one who picks the date.

So I will leave it to you.

Earlier one.

Earlier one.

Okay.

January 30th sounds good to us.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

Um, if you remember back when we received some money from the housing champions, we looked at we're looking at financial software.

So I wanted to let you know this is starting to move forward.

We did an RFP for a company to actually come in and draft the draft the RFP for us because of the nature of it and the complexity.

Uh so Barry Dunn's been on staff with us and they're getting ready to build out that RFP.

Um, so we're going out to bid hopefully uh by the fallish.

Um it's gonna be at approximately a three-year build out, they're telling us to do the entire software package because they do it in phases, they'll bring in AP one time and then they're gonna bring in the payrolls piece.

And so they don't drop it all at once, they kind of go piece by piece by piece.

Um, but that is moving forward, so I just wanted to give the council that update.

Okay.

Um our audit for 2025 is ongoing.

Um they've already been on in-house to do their initial set scheduling.

They'll actually be um doing field visits next week.

So we're hoping for a fast turnaround.

Um, ideally we'll have it back by September 30th, so that's what we're shooting for right now.

There's an ADU seminar being hosted by the town and Merrimack Valley Savings Bank on May 27th, uh, from 5 30 to 7 at the town hall in the nightly meeting room.

Um, this is gonna go cover permitting.

This is gonna cover financial if you need to get um loans for it, uh long-term ownership strategies, designs.

Uh so people who want to make possibly add an ADU, they can come down and learn about the process.

The assessing department will be there.

So we're kind of bringing all departments together um so people can kind of ask questions and learn if they want to put an ADU with the changes with state laws coming through right now.

Um, there is a great opportunity if people want to have an ADU to be able to rent out.

Um, so we're just trying to make that available to people if they want to learn more about that process.

So that's gonna be going on again May 27th.

What time is that, Joe?

That's 5 30 to 7 in the nightly.

Thank you.

Yep.

Um there will be refreshments too, which people always like to do.

So we'll put that out there as well.

Um just again, I know um the assessor was here earlier.

We are in the process of the reval.

Um, it's moving forward on schedule.

Um, we're hoping to have notices going out by middle of July to be first week of August, letting people know where they're kind of falling.

Uh the fall time will be when people, if they have they want to challenge it and be able to say they don't feel that the values are proper.

Um, they can come in and meet with the um the reevaluation company and have that discussion.

So just that is coming forward.

So expect to be start seeing more information on that.

So I just want to make people aware of that.

Um Memorial Day event coming up.

If want to put that out there on everyone's uh radar as well.

Uh, we'll be on Monday, May 25th at Pine Grove starting at 10 30.

Uh the event will then walk up Main Street to the town common for 11 o'clock for a ceremony.

And then finally, May seems to be the month of recognition.

Um a lot of people have weeks, have days, have different pieces.

So I just want to shut give a quick shout out to um May 3rd to the 9th as public service recognition week.

And so that's anybody who works for state, local, county governments to be recognized.

National Police Week is gonna be May 11th through the 17th.

Uh, we do have a local ceremony at Pine Grove Cemetery on May 14th, which is Thursday at 11 a.m.

If the public wants to come down, that happens every year.

Um we have International Firefighters Day, that's observed actually today.

And that's recognitions in the dedicated service of our fire department.

And then municipal clerks week is May 3rd to the 9th, highlighting the important role that the clerk's office play with transparency records and elections.

I'm happy to answer any questions the council may have.

Uh the police one again is the 14th.

It's the Thursday the 14th at 11.

At 11.

And then the fire one will be June what.

That I don't have a date for that one.

That's usually the second weekend in June, if I remember correctly.

Probably right around the same time, 14th or something like that.

Yeah, usually is right around there.

Okay.

Anything further?

Anyone else have any questions?

Yeah, go ahead, Kathy.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Update on the uh Bridge Street Bridge.

Bridgetry Bridge is moving as far as I know on schedule.

Yeah, they're on schedule again, so we are moving forward.

Um I I don't have the exact timeline in front of me.

Do you do you know it, Wayne?

I don't think we'll be hind schedule.

We'll finish on schedule.

We had a padding there, so and do we have any more thoughts about the uh sweepstakes?

I love the sweepstakes idea.

Don't you think that's a great idea?

Yeah, I think that'd be great.

Thank you.

So we'll we will look into that and try to put something together for that.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Exactly.

Anything further, Mr.

Mine, that's it.

I think.

Uh Mr.

Pelletia.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

I won't be, I won't take too much more of your time.

Okay.

Sorry.

Sounds good.

But it's come to my attention and I have assessed the problem already.

Uh the front sign of the uh the Palmer old Palmer Schoolhouse is hanging and swinging by one bolt.

And it looks it looks terrible.

Um the sign is in that corner is coming apart a little bit.

Uh it would take after my assessment, it'll take a couple uh 90 degree yellow brackets to repair that and another uh concrete anchor to re-anchor that corner that end of the sign.

Uh any suggestions uh from the council would be uh helpful.

I can even go over there myself and fix it.

I'll hold the ladder.

You can hold the ladder.

Yeah, you can do it.

You can I can bring the ladder.

I have I I have the hardware and the know-how.

What's our Primex policy?

Is he coming under workers' comp unless you want me to bring this to the historical uh I I can have municipal services take care of that?

It's not a problem.

You can put a work order up for it.

Yeah, very, very good.

Thank you.

That would thank you.

Anything else?

I have there's no restaurants over there, right?

Good.

Okay, so upcoming meetings are May 18th, June 1st, June 15th, and I will accept a motion.

Mr.

Sweeney.

Move to adjourn.

Second, second motion made to adjourn.

Motion's been made and second.

All those in favor.

That's seven to zero.

Thank you, Salem, for tuning in.

And we will be back on May 18th.