Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the May 18th 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, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Hi, thank you.

Can we do minute meetings minutes, please?

Mr.

Chair, I would move that we uh approve May 4th, 2026 public session.

Motion been made by Lisa Whitrow, seconded by Kathy Stacey.

All those in favor.

That's all abstaining.

So that's eight zero one.

I moved him.

I wasn't here.

Oh, you moved him, you were here.

Yeah.

I can move them, I think, right?

But I just can't vote for them.

So it's 702.

Sorry.

Everybody good with that?

Yep.

Great.

If you're not, well, whatever.

It's too late now.

Uh chairman comments.

I only have one.

Uh I want to give a personal shout out to uh George Merrill and Company from School Street and that whole area.

They went down to the uh Millville Beach.

I guess it used to be a beach, now it's a bunch of trees, but used to be a beach.

And they moved the commemorative rock that was there for many years, and it just got overgrown and unsightly, and they moved it outside the fence and made it look really well.

If you're looking for somebody to do something around town, dig a hole, move some rocks or whatever, give George Merrill a shot, okay?

Because they did a real nice job for us.

Uh approve the consent agenda.

Motion.

Mr.

Sweeney.

Mr.

Chairman, at this time I move to approve the May 18th, 2026 consent agenda.

Second.

Motion been made and seconded by Mr.

Hatch.

All those in favor.

7 to 0.

Additions and requests by the public.

There was nothing up there.

So we're moving into Mr.

Devine, employee recognition of the month.

So our May employee of the month is uh Ben Syk.

Ben is a heavy equipment operator with the Department of Municipal Services.

I'm gonna ask the municipal services director Wayne Emerald to come up real quickly and just say anything nice you'd like to say about Ben.

So I could at least say for Ben uh he's been uh uh asset to the uh department.

Um I'm only been here for a year and he's already been uh such a supportive role positive, comes to work, ready to get to work every single day.

Um just puts his head down and just does his job.

So he's an asset to have for us.

Okay, great.

We extend our pen is here if you'd like to take a picture.

Come on up, yeah.

Come on, Dan, take a picture, Ben.

Okay, Wayne.

What's that?

I take a picture of the case.

Joe up in the middle.

Yeah.

Somehow.

Come on, move in.

Everybody.

Slide in.

Slide in, slide in, slide in.

Oh, we're going.

Come in.

I don't want to block Lisa.

He's coming in there.

I feel bad.

Just hide right behind him.

Well good.

Thank you.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

Yeah, really, huh?

Okay.

Next thing on the agenda is number seven interview session finance committee.

We have one, two, three, four, five applicants.

So at this time, uh seeing as how they're almost listed in alphabetical order.

We'll go with uh Camelia.

Come on down and we're gonna ask you folks to give us your name, address in Salem, and just give us a 30-second elevator speech about your background.

Good evening, everyone.

My name is Camelia Buzerden.

I live in Salem, New Hampshire, on 190 Lancaster Farm Street.

Nice.

I've been living in Salem for the past 19 years.

Currently I work for the University of Massachusetts Lowell.

I teach um, I've taught numerous courses there, economics, political science, and some various courses for um the Department of Honors.

And I also teach at Middlesex Community College, uh, principles of macroeconomics and principles of microeconomics.

When I saw the announcement about the finance committee, I was excited um to offer my input, uh, my skills and expertise, because I want to give something back to my community.

For my entire life, I've been working for the state of Massachusetts, which is great.

But Salem has been great for me and my husband and my son, who went through all the school system in Salem.

So I would like to give something back to Salem.

Thank you.

Okay, great.

Questions for her.

And sometimes we don't get any for anybody because everybody's had the opportunity over the weekend, hopefully, to read their resumes and all that.

And so if they don't have any specific questions, don't be overly alarmed.

We all set?

I'm good.

We're good.

Everybody.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

I appreciate it.

Uh Timothy.

Good evening.

Uh Tim Norton.

I love that 41 Cole Street.

Uh been working for National Grid, coming up on uh four years now doing finance business partnering and a senior analysis uh type role.

So I'm in front of a lot of CFOs, CEOs within the business working on uh budgeting cost analysis and really trying to find efficiencies within uh our current workflow.

Obviously, utilities are under a lot of scrutiny uh in the current workforce, so uh we're just trying to find the best possible route forward without charging the most for our customers.

Uh I've been in Salem coming up on four years.

Uh absolutely love the town.

I've come from towns of Massachusetts.

Uh, I've seen them run poorly.

Salem's doing a great job.

I want to see the transparency and really be a part of the uh the community from the ground floor.

And I think joining the finance committee is the right opportunity for me.

Great.

Questions for Tim.

No, everybody's good with their resumes.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Clayton.

Oh, there it is.

Uh hi, my name is uh Clayton Seabridge, and I live at Nine Olive Ave in Salem.

Um so I just want to give you a little bit about my background.

So I have a bachelor's and a master's in accounting, both from the University of New Hampshire.

Um shortly after college, I became uh CPA certified with my uh my certification in New Hampshire.

Um I currently serve as the senior financial accountant at Mass General Brigham, where I do a lot of the data analysis, financial reporting, um, invoice creation, um, invoice processing as well.

Um on a monthly basis, I report my findings and I make recommendations to uh higher level management, and then I use take their input um to improve my processes and make changes as necessary.

Um I also have been doing a little bit of volunteering in Salem, uh volunteer with the rec department and their adaptive programs.

Um I was introduced to the adaptive programs um for my wife who's present here today.

Um she's been a lifelong Salem resident and also went through the Salem School District.

Uh and I really honestly the the volunteering, I find it like really fulfilling, and it's a great way to interact with the community, but it's also a great way to give back to the community.

Um so I I really like doing that.

I'm gonna continue doing it in the future.

Um I've also just been interested in public service as well, because it's a great way to make a direct impact, especially at the local level.

Um we we bought a house in Salem back in 2024, and we really find it to be like a great place to settle down, like uh live here for a little while, raise a family, so making that direct impact and kind of shaping Salem to be the best possible town it can be.

Um that would be an amazing opportunity.

Um so after I saw the post, I I felt like I had the right expertise and the professional background to really kind of join the finance committee.

Um so with all that said, I would really appreciate the opportunity um to serve.

Okay, great.

Questions holding true.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Kevin.

Kevin Wallace.

Yes.

Hello.

You would think after all these years of being last in the line, but sitting in the back of the classrooms being a W last name, but uh I'd be used to this.

So thank you.

My name is Kevin Wallace.

I live at 31 Blake Road here in uh Salem.

Um I want to thank you for this opportunity.

I have uh over 30 uh close to 35 years uh before I retired of experience at uh State Street Bank, who I think uh uh provides some paying agent services to the town.

Uh so I worked in the corporate trust uh department.

Uh it's my career started it in audit.

Uh I did student loan compliance audits at a very uh banks and credit unions, moved into interal audit at State Street Bank, um, then moved into a risk position in the finance positions and control of positions uh within State Street.

The business was acquired by U.S.

Bank, and uh I ended up at uh U.S.

bank as the chief administrative officer of uh the corporate trust business.

In each of those roles, I I uh what people asked what did you like about your your career in each of those positions.

Each of them had one thing in common.

They allowed me to use the skills that I think I I have, uh be it analytical, communication, interpersonal, collaborative, um, and so to be able to draw on a number of skills.

It really they say if uh if you enjoy what you are doing, it's not work.

And and that's that's how I would describe my career.

Very much enjoyed it.

Um since the uh announcement was posted looking for committee volunteers, I spent a fair amount of time uh looking at uh town financials budgets.

I know more about the MS1 process than I probably ever would want to know.

Um the reason I spent that time is uh I'd like to come prepared to any discussion that I have, time a lot, you know, time allotting.

Uh so I spent a fair amount of time uh getting up to speed, really uh first to see if this was something I could add value to.

Is this something I could get behind and support?

Uh do I see the need for the finance committee?

And and and I do, otherwise I I wouldn't be here.

Um so I think I can give you the I know I can give you the the needs that you have, a focused analysis, transparency, recommendations to help you do um your important job.

Um, just as a little overview of kind of my mindset when it comes to these things, I tend to want to bucket things.

And by that I mean if you look at the town budget, um well, first of all, when you hear people say it that the this we're spending too much money, it's too high without specifics.

I I don't I really like to ground people in in specifics.

So when you look at the town budget, right off the about 66 percent of the budget is on personnel.

When you start adding in um debt service and solid waste and snow uh you know, weather operations and IT contracted services, you're up to 76 percent of the budget now.

Um when then you add in capital and warrant articles, you're now at 90 percent.

None of this is to suggest that there's no opportunity to improve financial management.

The point is is if you enter a discussion on budget without having some framework, my opinion, uh to to discuss it in and discuss it by bucket.

No bucket is is you know uh uh safe.

Uh but to look at it from that perspective.

I personally have just found that that's an effective way to uh really analyze uh any budget.

It it gets people down to the facts and and uh and the details.

Uh and then finally, I think an equally important uh role for the committee is to promote um uh educate, I don't know what the right term is with the taxpayers.

And I think the bucketing would come in handy there because I don't know that many citizens realize that the the police department is responding to 25,000 calls over the course of the year, doing 7,000 moving violations.

I don't think they realize the fire department is doing 62 or 63 or 6500 uh you know calls, 70 percent of those being uh simultaneous and 70 percent being emergency medical services.

So I think part of the role that I would see of the committee is to not only provide you with the information that you need to do your job, but also uh to help you help us educate uh all of the stakeholders, be the taxpayers or or you know, whoever.

Um so with that I'll I'll stop here and stop talking.

I'm out of notes too, so thank you.

Thank you.

And last but not least, Alexa.

Hi, good evening.

Uh Alexi Paulpov.

I live at uh six-month-old She know Way uh here in Salem.

I've uh been in Salem for uh about five years now.

Um and uh I saw the posting for for this position.

I've been looking for a way to get involved in the community for for a little while, and I thought this this would be a good um uh good way for me to use my expertise on my uh my skill sets.

Um I'm a I'm an investor by uh profession.

I've been investing about 15 years.

I just started my own firm out of uh uh out of my house for now.

Um and um yeah, before that I've worked in corporate finance, worked in corporate strategy, investment banking briefly.

Um I've served on and still serve on two for-profit boards.

Um uh yeah, I um I I studied finance in in undergrad and in in grad school, and uh uh would enjoy, I guess, using my skills to uh uh help you guys uh serve the town and to serve the town myself as well.

Great.

Questions consistency.

Okay, we're all set.

Thank you.

Anyone got anything further?

I have a question.

Go ahead.

We have five great candidates.

Can are we limited to three on the committee?

I think at this point we are, right?

Yeah, at this point we just when the council decided to set it up, the council wanted to go smaller, uh, which is why we went with the three on it.

So if you could I have thoughts I'd like to share.

Absolutely, by all means.

This is getting harder and harder every time we have an application pool because we keep getting really qualified people that are more uh numerous than the number of spots that we have.

Um I spent a lot of yesterday afternoon reading through and into the evening, reading through their letters and reading through their resumes, which I think is probably a lot of us did, which is why we didn't have questions because we kind of felt familiar with them and I guess what what my intention for the finance committee, and it doesn't necessarily mean the council's intention was operators who have such a deep background in how large organizations work and how either the investment side of it or the compliance side of it, and that's sort of the skill set that I was looking for in each of them.

Um the five extremely qualified people, uh the three that I could winnow it down to to the three that I think fit the mode of the finance committee that I was thinking of would be Mr.

Norton, Mr.

Wallace, and Mr.

Popoff.

So those are my opinions, having you know, being forced to limit it to three, those are or the three of mine.

Um, but it's not opposition to the other two.

Um and I thank them for coming up, but that's just I wanted to get that out there first with with that framing, and I look forward to what everyone else has to say.

Miss Withrow.

So I'm I'm assuming you're gonna make the motion, but we can talk first.

That's what I was I was hoping to get some consensus before a motion.

So I I agree with a lot of what you said, and the candidates were phenomenal.

I mean, it was definitely a hard decision that everybody stands on their own fantastically.

I mean, this is a great pool of candidates.

This is the first time we're putting anybody in these positions, so my thought was more not only how great was their resume and how good they still did on their own, but how well they could all work together and give different aspects with a range of experience and expertise that could bring it together.

So uh I like the idea of uh education, uh a teacher being in there, we're gonna whole different perspective, somebody who's not necessarily in the business field but knows the specifics.

So I mean I I do like I like that aspect.

Not that you have candid your choices weren't top dog too, because they were I mean they were all fantastic, but that was just a thought process that went through my head because I want them to work and feed off of each other.

I want them to make the committee better because that's what we put in place for.

So that was that was my thought.

But um just one.

Miss Stacey.

So I'll just give you my two cents worth.

So I had looked these over and and uh listening to everybody said to this evening, and I am very impressed with everybody, but my three picks were um Mr.

Wallace, Mr.

Norton, and uh Mr.

Taburge.

Okay.

I thought that they would work well together.

I I liked what I heard this evening.

Um I just especially especially what I heard from um Mr.

Norton.

Um because of no, I'm sorry, not Mr.

Norton.

I'm sorry, Mr.

Wallace.

Um, because he's done a lot of research, and that was very impressive to me.

There's a lot of knowledge of what's happening in this community, and uh you know I I think that's important.

Mr.

Strmalia.

I was just wondering, um are we gonna have alternate on this committee?

I don't think we set it up that way.

We did not set it up.

I don't think we've set it up that way, no.

No.

Very hard to pick.

All good.

All right.

Just curious.

Are we good?

Mr.

Pelletier.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Again, this was very hard going through all these applicants.

They're all highly educated and highly qualified.

Um when I had to make a determination myself, uh, my three would be Mr.

Wallace, Mr.

Norton, and Mr.

Timore.

Said it right.

Fair bright.

Okay.

That was my three.

I knew that would be Mr.

Bettencourt.

Thank you for watching.

Mr.

Chairman, I'm going to sidestep this difficult decision entirely and just say this.

You know, as I recall, we had uncontested races for budget committee last uh fall, uh last March, excuse me.

And boy, I think some of these candidates would make a great addition to the budget committee.

So whoever does not come away with uh a chair or rose, whatever metaphor you want to use, uh I could not more strongly encourage them to take a look at running for budget committee next time around.

Yeah, absolutely.

Please absolutely all right.

I'm looking for motions.

Who's gonna step up?

I'll make one motion.

Go ahead, make it.

Uh Mr.

Chairman, at this time, I would move to appoint Mr.

Kevin Wallace to a three-year term on the finance committee ending June 2029.

Second motion been made second, third, and fourth to uh bring Mr.

Wallace on for the three-year position.

All those in favor.

That's unanimous.

I'll make the next one.

Uh by all means.

Uh chair, I would move that Alexi Pop off to the two-year term.

Second.

Motion been made and seconded by Mr.

Hatch.

Further discussion, not saying anything.

All in favor.

Did you no?

Eight to one.

And finally, Mr.

Hatch, would you like to throw your hat in the ring?

Well, because I'm actually with Lisa here, and I think um that I'll go ahead and make the motion that we appoint, and I'm gonna destroy this name.

Camilla Boozadan is that was it done?

Was it done?

For the one year term.

I I think it's uh it would be a different perspective.

Um it's just a little bit different background than the rest of them.

Second motion but made and seconded.

Discussion, not seeing any.

All those in favor.

I got one, two, three, four, five, six.

Opposed, one, two, three, six to three.

Okay.

Okay, so we have Camilla for the one-year term, Alexei for the two-year term, and Mr.

Wallace for the three-year term.

We welcome your help.

And we hope that it turns out even better than we anticipate.

So moving on.

Do it.

Uh report on the ethics committee findings.

Mr.

Devine.

Sure.

Uh, so the town council received a report from the ethics committee on a complaint dated uh 2026-01 on the committee's findings uh per article six of the town charter.

These finds were transmitted to you from the ethics committee.

Uh, the town charter is here where it makes no provisions for the town council to performance review a results of the investigation.

Um, that's the results are are done essentially.

Um your job is to uh impose the proper punishment if the punishment is necessary, and you don't have to impose a punishment.

Um I did reach out to our attorney just to get a good understanding on how we should proceed with this just to make sure that we're being uh consistent in case we have any future ones as well.

And so his suggestion is the council would read the ethics uh findings into the public session, which is required by the charter.

Uh the town council would then allow the subject to make a statement in their defense if they want to.

I did speak to the person.

Um he is not interested in coming tonight.

He understands the mistake that he made and will not happen again, he said.

Um the town council would not just should not open this up to public comment for others in the matter.

It would just be that one person um they the town council would then consider and determine the consequences, if any, that the town council desires to impose.

Uh, they would take a formal vote on the level of punishment to be imposed, and then the council would follow up with a decision which would come from the town manager's office, just letting them know of the disposition of the bill.

Mr.

Hatch, Mr.

Chairman.

I need to recuse myself uh from the this discussion on this matter, and for the reason being is because the complaint before she filed the complaint had approached me and asked me what avenues and advice that she could do.

Okay, I gave her that advice.

So it's all yours, I think.

The findings have to be read.

All right, hold on.

Go ahead, Joe.

No, it's gonna be me.

Certainly, Mr.

Sweeney.

All right, the findings of the ethics committee.

The committee found both the complaint and complainant and respondent to be respectful, cooperative, and truthful.

The committee makes the following findings by clear and convincing evidence regarding section 6.3.2 of the charter, conflict of interest.

Because the financial interest was not found to have directly or indirectly influenced the performance of duties by the respondent.

The committee finds no violation regarding section 6.3.4 of the charter, duty to disclose, because the respondent failed to publicly announce that he was paid to perform at the field of dreams.

The committee finds an unintentional violation.

Regarding section 6.3.7 of the charter use of influence.

The committee found no evidence to support this allegation and therefore finds no violation in accordance with section 6.5.a of the charter.

The code of ethics is not intended to prohibit an EAO, which is an elected or appointed official from fully participating in any public proceeding conducted by the town.

Those are the findings.

Okay.

So I'll read the recommendation so we all know what it is.

So we know what we're going to vote recommendation.

The committee recommends that the town council should require the respondent to publicly announce any business relationships with parties before the budget committee in the future, and that he participate in annual ethics training, which is now required under the new charter amendment.

Vote three to zero.

That's it.

So Miss Withrow.

So I'll just say that I mean I agree with the findings.

Bottom line is nobody can tell you to recuse yourself from anything, but to be up front is always most prudent.

So I think the committee did a good job, and I think the person that uh was the focus of this, which we're not we're not required to say the name, like we're supposed to not say the name, right?

You're you're not required to say the name.

Okay.

I'm not going to.

I just wanted to make sure we weren't supposed to.

Um they uh I I you know I don't think they'll do it again.

So I think they did this all did its job, and and here we are.

So do you want a motion to accept the findings?

Sure.

I make a motion to accept the findings.

Second.

Motion made by Miss Whitrow and seconded by Miss Stacey.

All those in favor.

801.

Next, municipal services department discussion on vote of funding for the cost relating to the Route 11 Irma Road, otherwise known as the cluster out there on so I think the first part is the public.

Hold on.

Okay.

Just go back a couple of seconds.

Second.

The last the last um discussion.

Um the town manager needs to go ahead.

I recommend that the town manager staple a copy of the charter of these of those sections because of the way we section we changed our charter around here.

So years down the road, when someone takes it up and reads it, they know it's charter the way the charter is written back in 2025 or 2026 versus the way the charter is written now.

That makes sense.

Sure.

Yeah, we can do that.

Thank you, Mr.

Hatch.

Appreciate it.

Uh Council Chair, I think we have to put uh public hearing on notice.

Yeah, you ready?

I'm ready.

Do you think I get to do this?

Thank you.

So Irma Road is broken up into two parts.

The first part is a public hearing of the acceptance of the state grant for 4 million uh 23,214 and 96 cents for the Armour Road Reconstruction Project.

Um, this project, as you're aware of, has been accelerated dramatically.

We're probably a year and a half ahead of schedule on doing this project, which is amazing, and we have to thank uh New Hampshire D DOT for uh what they've done in the contract, what they've done, and even in our engineering department internally for bending over backwards to get this out to bid as fast as we can.

We actually have a pre-construction meeting on Wednesday, assuming that this vote would go through that we'll meet with the contract to get them going as soon as we can.

So this is the first part of one of two.

This is the acceptance of the four million dollar um uh NHDOT funds.

Okay, and actually the NHDOT funds are actually 3.6 portion, yes.

Yeah, okay.

Questions, Mr.

Sweeney.

Oh, not a question.

Oh, you had your finger wrapped by that.

Does anybody have a question?

All right, just so everybody knows that's listening.

This is the money, the four million dollars to reconstruct Irma Road in 11 to put the roundabout in that will prevent us from having hopefully any more fatalities on that little section of road.

Um, and the state is paying 90 percent, and the other ten percent is coming from roadway cap and from zone three traffic, which doesn't affect your necessarily at this moment your tax rate.

So we're getting it done, and we're gonna make it work, and it doesn't involve a lot of uh other comments.

Mr.

Sweeney, Mr.

Chairman, at this time, I move in accordance with RSA 3195 B that the town council hereby accepts with gratitude a grant in the amount of three million six hundred and twenty thousand eight hundred and ninety-three dollars and forty-six cents from the New Hampshire Department of Transportation Highway Safety Improvement Program for construction of a new New Hampshire Route 11 Irmer Road Intersection Improvement Project, with such some representing a 90% reimbursement of the total project cost of $4,023,214 and 96 cents, and further authorizes the town manager to sign all contracts and agreements, which will be managed as a local public agency project in partnership with the New Hampshire Department of Transportation.

Second, seconded by Miss Stacey.

Questions?

Not seeing any.

All those in favor.

I knew that would be nine to zero.

Do we close the meeting now and do the regular stuff with our close public hearing?

Yeah.

We're gonna close that public hearing.

And now we're gonna talk about our portion of the money.

So part two of this is our portion of uh it's broken up into three parts.

One of the parts you've already approved last year was the taxation of the 281,635.

That was approved last year.

Uh this year we're asking you for the capital reserve funds of 71,923 and 60 cents.

And the traffic impact fees of zone three, 4848, 792.90 cents.

$62.

$62.62 and $90 and 90 cents.

Mr.

Sweeney motion.

Mr.

Chairman, at this time I move that the town council hereby authorizes the expenditure of up to 402,321.50, 10% of the town's portion of the project, to be paid using $71,923.60 from the roadway improvements capital reserve fund, $48,762 and 90 cents in zone three traffic impact fees, and $281,635 via taxation as authorized in the 2026 approved operating budget for the construction of the New Hampshire Route 111 Irmer Road Intersection Improvement Project, which will be managed as a local public agency project in partnership with the New Hampshire Department of Transportation.

Second motion been made and seconded by Mrs.

Cremalia this time.

Any further discussion?

Not seeing any.

All those in favor.

You're welcome, Mr.

Emerald.

Next up on the agenda is the community development department discussion on open space master plan.

Mr.

Devine.

I included in your packet was a staff report prepared by community development programming at Crane Rubaker regarding the 2026 Open Space Master Plan.

Um if you know the Conservation Commission formally adopted this master plan on May 6th, 2026.

This evening's presentation is being provided as informational purposes to help prepare a continued coordination with the Conservation Commission, Planning Board, and Town Council on Open Space.

And I'll turn it over to Craig.

Hello, everyone.

Uh Creighton Brubaker, Community Development.

So the Conservation Commission in late 2024 created an open space task force with a member from the planning board, the council, and three conservation uh committee members.

Uh and so this uh open space task force work with the Rockingham Planning Commission to update the 2010 open space plan that the commission had previously done.

Uh so this open space master plan kind of includes several things.

One of them is a natural resources inventory.

It also includes uh mapping data uh for planning for open space, whether that's like conservation easements or purchasing conservation land or open space uh subdivision uh preservation ordinance, uh, and then they also identified different ways to uh implement open space protections uh and recommendations for the commission uh going forward.

So the presentation tonight will be from Jen Radden from the Rockingham Planning Commission, and we'll both be here after for any questions.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

Hi, thank you for having me.

I'm Jen Rowden, I'm the assistant director with Rockingham Planning Commission.

Um, we had the pleasure of getting to work with largely conservation commission, but a few other committees as part of the development of this open space plan update.

Um the intent of the open space plan was really to provide some justification and good background information for the conservation commission and other committees for why protect open space.

Would you mind flipping to the next?

Thank you.

Um really the intent is that open space provides a lot of benefits for any communities, including Salem, which has been experiencing a lot of development in the last few decades.

It can provide enhanced vitalization and community development, it can provide um additional re natural resources protection in open space.

It is good for economics, it can help revo with revitalization of downtowns, which is also really important.

It connects um one part of town to another.

Oh maintaining trails and can having trail networks and sidewalks is a really big consideration of this plan.

It also can really serve as a direct incentive for people to want to stay in the community.

People really like Salem.

I we heard from some of the people wanting to serve on your finance committee why they like this community.

Well, the open spaces, the natural resources, the recreational opportunities all fall into that category as to why open space can be important for our community.

So if nothing else, I hope you at least take away that message from this planning effort in this presentation.

I'm gonna skip over the background mainly because Crane captured it really well.

One of the components that we did do with the open space plan is we developed what is called a natural resources inventory.

It's one of the main charges of any conservation commission in the state of New Hampshire.

It is exactly what it sounds for, an inventory of the natural resources that you have in the community.

It documents them and provides mapping.

We did produce a variety of maps that are part of the inventory, including things like forest blocks, wildlife habitat, water resources, groundwater, impervious surface, land use, so a whole variety of pieces of information that ultimately went into our open space prioritization effort.

Thank you.

So you can see, and I hope you had a chance to flip through the document.

If you don't, please, when you get home, there's a lot of really great information, and they're all posted online at this point, so you can really zoom into different parts of town to see what natural resources might be in your own neighborhood or backyard.

When we took all of the natural resources information, we developed what's called a co-occurrence map.

It's basically putting together all of the information onto one map to see what areas of town have the highest natural resources priorities or resources in that area.

It doesn't mean that one area is higher ecological value than the other.

It just means it has multiple components that may make it a priority for protection in the future.

We took that prioritization, and then we combined it with some of the community planning priorities that Salem had identified in documents like your hazard mitigation plan, your recently updated master plan, and other documents that have been identified through the conservation commission and past open space planning that are priorities for the community.

Some of the things that rose to the top were people were really interested in maintaining the recreational opportunities in the community and some of the forest and water resources that you have.

That connectivity further went through in wanting to connect some of the parks and other recreational amenities you have in town.

And the third thing that really floated to the top for community priorities for open space was really that natural services, whether it be flood retention, drinking water protection, or protecting wildlife habitat.

So we took the planning priorities, the natural resource priorities, along with some informed conversations we had with a few people that are very knowledgeable, some about some of the landowners in the community of who may be interested in protecting their land or who may decidedly not be interested.

And we took all of that information to develop a overall open space prioritization map.

That is the red map that's on the cover of the document, the red one you can also see on the screen.

Taking all of that information to highlight what parcels in town maybe ones that the conservation commission might want to target for potential open space in the future.

It doesn't mean that anyone parcel rises to the top necessarily, but it helped tries to whittle down if you're gonna put your limited open conservation planning priority dollars and efforts towards a few projects.

Where would you get the most bang for your buck?

We did develop a list of the top 100 parcels through our matrix and scoring inventory as to what sort of score the highest.

You can sort of see the list, which is much longer than what's shown, but it does go into the top 100 parcels.

Any of the ones that are highlighted in purple are already owned by the town of Salem.

Most of Salem's parcels are already protected if they scored onto this list, but there are a number that may not have as much protection as you might want, or maybe a good reason why the municipality should continue to maintain them and own them in some cases.

So protecting open space, that can be for a couple of things.

Right now you enjoy just shy of 2,000 acres of open space in the community.

Well, how do you have more open space if that's the priority?

You can do things like have regulations that help to protect it, wetlands regulations, floodplain regulations that your planning board uses a lot to help maintain that open space because there are good reasons not to build in certain areas.

You can also do things like you can outright buy the land, you can put conservation easements on it, you can talk with landowners about if they're willing at some point to maybe conserve the land.

You can also encourage current use, which is a tax scheme that keeps people to have a lower tax bill if they maintain undeveloped land for longer.

Since 1992, Salem has used almost all of its land use change tax.

That's tax that the state charges and the town when you go from undeveloped land to developed.

And that has resulted in millions and millions of dollars that have been utilized by the town to protect open space.

Um in 2004, the town voted that 100% of all of the land use change tax that is collected is able to go towards your conservation fund, which has been the main mechanism you have utilized to protect open space based on Salem tax dollars.

The Conservation Commission has been very successful and also seeking outside funding sources, largely grants and other funds to be able to protect additional open space.

Um as of the end of 2025, you are just below two million dollars in your conservation fund balance.

And that balance has fluctuated over time.

Um and based on the market, you know, that doesn't really go that far.

Two million dollars only buy so much land these days.

So really seeking that outside funding was another reason for doing that prioritization to see where you could take those dollars and mash them with other funding opportunities and or landowner willingness to protect land.

We do have a set of recommendations at the end of the document that kind of are summarized best by giving the conservation commission the charge of use the plan, use the plan to help prioritize where you might get the most bang for your buck, talk with landowners that are willingness, and be creative in how you might finance um some of those purchases.

Some of it might have to still come from municipal dollars, but if you can match it with other funding sources, you make that dollar go farther.

So with that, I'll take any questions if anyone has any.

But if not, thank you.

No, I think that was pretty thorough.

Yeah.

Yep.

Right.

Well, thank you for having me.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate it.

And up next on our agenda is uh 8D.

Yep.

Community development CIP bylaw update, and Mr.

Brubaker is back again.

Uh so the council uh most recently adopted the CIP bylaws in September 2025 when we came uh at that point.

The council had asked us to make some changes to some of the language regarding um the chairman's duties, uh particularly related to undebatable motions.

We kind of removed that language and cleaned up some of that.

Uh the red lines are included in your packet, and happy to answer any questions.

Questions from anybody?

Not seeing any.

Don't see any creating need a motion.

It was in the open space.

It's the CIP bylaws thing, yeah.

Yep.

Go ahead.

Mr.

Chairman, I move that the town council approves the amended CIP bylaws as recommended by the CIP committee at their April 21st, 2026 meeting.

Second.

Motion been made and seconded by Ms.

Whithrow.

All those in favor.

Nine to zero.

Mr.

Devine, Tom Managers' report.

Uh Tom Manager's report this week.

So um just a reminder to everybody, we as of May 15th, we do have mandatory water restrictions.

So uh the pamphlets went out to any water users um middle of last week.

So people should all have them at this point.

Um if you have questions, you go on the town's website.

We have information out there on when you can water, odds and evens.

Um, but please, you know, think of us when we're trying to restrict this water.

There's a there's a reason behind it, and we're trying to make sure we're conserving the best we can.

Um the town master plan received a statewide planning award uh last week.

Um Jacob and Crane actually went up and received it.

Um it was highlighting just a strong implementation framework and how we dealt with the master plan, um, which was great to be recognized for that.

Um reached out to us to let us know how the first month of the MIVA bus has been going.

Um they they hit it out of the park, it gives how we describe it.

They've had 3200 users in the first month uh using the uh bus service, which is great.

Um just to give you context, um, there's a new Methuan line that they added, and that only had 900 users.

So that's how popular this line has been so far.

The biggest feedback they're getting is that they're not running it more frequently, is what people are looking for.

So coming back fast enough to pick them up, which is great.

Right, right.

That's fabulous.

Mr.

Sweeney.

Question on that.

Do we know are they being picked up in Salem?

Are they being picked up in Methuan and coming in?

Where are the they didn't give us the breakdown of those numbers?

Just that's the total ridership for the month.

Nice um it wasn't you figure we started April 6th, so you still miss the first five days of the month as well on it.

So that was just 24 days.

So it was great.

Awesome.

Uh, just reminder on Monday we do have Memorial Day ceremonies and parade.

Um so it starts at 1030 at Pine Grove, and then the procession will move up to the Salem Common for 11 a.m.

So people are more than welcome to come out for that.

Uh the Salem Police Department um last week held the great promotion ceremony.

Uh they recognize seven officers that were promoted all the way up through deputy chief.

Uh there's a captain and some lieutenants and sergeants as well.

Um this week is National Public Works Week.

So, you know, if you see a DPW work, thank them for all that they do for us.

Um, you know, they kind of really are the quiet employees that are behind the scenes, but they are very important because during the winter they're getting you where you need to go when you need water, they're out there fixing the water mains for you.

So just be happy to see them, say thank you.

Um our engineering department also received an excellence award for the mitigation of the wastewater treatment plan.

So they were recognized for the uniqueness that we did on how we remediated all the PFAS and whatever else was in that soil that we don't even want to think about, but it's clean now, which is great.

Um it was 8300 tons of impacted soil and sludge is what we ended up dealing with.

Um so that's great.

Um I'm recommending people head over to the website to check out.

We have a whole bunch of new senior services programming and things that are coming up.

So if people are interested in getting into that.

Uh the one that people like to know about is Saturday, June 13th will be the town wide yard sale again.

Uh so the map will be up on the website.

You can register.

You do have to register prior to May 28th to be included on the map so people can see where your house is if you want to be able to sell through that.

So we would recommend it.

And then at a uh I don't know if it was probably last month or the month before, we talked about um planning board plans being visible on the website a little bit easier so people could come to see them.

And so we worked with um John Vogel from GIS to create a map for people.

So if you go to the planning board website, which is under boards and committees, it's called Planning Board Activity Map.

And if you click on that, you're gonna get whatever's going on for the next meeting.

So as of right now, you have one meeting coming up, it shows you where the property is, and you can actually click on the meeting materials right here, and you'll be able to see the packets, see the plans, whatever you'd like to be able to see.

So that's now available on the website.

Nice.

If you also come over to this little stack, I call it a hamburger.

Um you can actually see previous applications as well.

So you can go back and look at them, and all you would do is click on one of the black dots.

And it tells you the decision what occurred, so you can kind of see what happened at each at that place.

And again, you can see the meeting materials from that meeting as well.

So if people are interested in what's going on in their neighborhoods, they can kind of go right to that map and take a look at it.

Fantastic.

Happy to answer any questions that the council might have.

Questions?

Miss Stacy.

Um, so my question has to do with um I know that there's a couple of clubs here in town that have been approaching Miss Melieu with regards to donating, whether it's beautifying areas or so on and so forth.

And there was supposed to be some type of listing made, which I think would be very easy because with GIS and Mr.

Vogel, that should I I don't understand why it hasn't been done.

And I know there's a lot of communication going back and forth because some of these clubs want to obviously get going.

They wanted to do it in spring, which is going to be done in just a couple of weeks.

It's gonna be summer.

I can I can definitely follow up on that.

I know one of the one of the concerns we had, and we're trying to work with municipal services on it, is a lot of these gardens and things that people want to plant.

We have to figure out how we're gonna maintain them.

So we're we're trying to make sure that they have whatever if whatever flower or plant is going in there, it's gonna be easy to maintain.

Some of the spots are not in the easiest location for them to be able to get to.

We don't have a truck that has a big watering can, like you'll see some they have a large, you know, 25 gallon, 50 gallon tank on the back of a truck, and they can go around and water things.

We don't have that capability right now, so it's really work with municipal services to figure out what's the best spot for it and what are the best plantings for it.

So we are working on that.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Mr.

Hatch.

Mr.

Chairman, I have three items.

Okay.

Busy night tonight.

Uh the first item on my list is the um number two.

No.

The uh RFP, I think they call them.

Okay.

For the matching up the zoning ordinances.

Yep.

With our master plan.

Yes.

When are we going to do that?

Uh last time I spoke to Jacob about that.

We were he was in the finishing touches of it right now, so it should be going out within the next week or two for the RFP for zoning.

All right.

The next question is the town council's agenda.

Is there a reason why the public doesn't get just get the agenda earlier than what right now it's published like Thursday or something like that before the meeting or Wednesday before the So we we typically we actually post them, we post the agendas mostly usually on Thursday or Friday, and then the packet, so that the public can actually go in and view the entire packet like you have as well, but we don't post that till Monday.

And the reason behind that is so the council has the opportunity to review it prior to the public seeing it.

And that's the same reason the agenda doesn't go out until Thursday, because that's when we're posting it to you guys.

So we want to make sure you have the opportunity to review it and see it before the public is getting it.

All right.

Is anybody strong about that?

Yeah, I am.

I don't, you know, Mr.

I mean, I just stacy.

So I had an issue because I got an email from a member of the public on an item that was going to be on a future uh meeting that I knew nothing about.

And it can't and I just to me, this council should know about what's on the agenda and stuff that's being discussed before the members of the public as well as them having private meetings or asking for private meetings with employees to go over stuff that's on the agenda.

Okay.

Yeah.

Uh and last but not least, no budget committee meeting this week, this month.

Next one's in June.

That's it.

Have you enjoyed it thus far?

Oh, yeah, it's been a joy.

Especially this month.

Anyone else further?

All right, let me go over this really quick.

Upcoming meetings, June 1st, June 15th, July 6th, and July 3rd.

If you notice there's only one meeting for each of those months, July and August, to accommodate everybody's vacation schedules.

So if uh you have checked it and you're supposed to be here, we would appreciate your presence.

Um, and I don't have anything else at the moment, so I'll keep the hand.

Motion to adjourn.

Motion to made by Lisa Whitrow and seconded by Mr.

Sweeney to adjourn all those in favor.

Nine to zero.

We thank you for joining us and good night.