Select Board Meeting January 26, 2026

All right. I'd like to bring um our meeting to order. Uh and we are going to go into executive session.

I'm bringing the meeting to order of January 26th, 2026. I'm going to bring the executive session pursuant to Mass General Law Chapter 30A section 21. We're going to be meeting via Microsoft Teams to discuss the following peacefast litigation mass general law chapter 3A section 21A3 to discuss strategy with respect to the potential litigation of an open meeting which may have a detrimental effect on the litigation

position of the public body and the chair so declares. Also, we will be discussing discussing D. Kenny verse the town of Dartmouth Mass General Law Chapter 30A section 21A3 to discuss strategy with respect to litigation when an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on litigation position of the public body and the chair so declares also contract amendment for deputy police chief B Moreni

mass general law chapter 30A section 21 A2 to conduct strategy sessions in preparation for negotiations with non-UN personnel or contract ne or contract negotiations with non-personnel.

Next, all unions collective bargaining Mass General Law Chapter 3A section 21 A3 to discuss strategy with respect to the collective bargaining if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining or litigating position of the public body and the chair so declares.

And then we will be discussing 970 Tucker Road Mass General Law Chapter 30A section 21A6 to consider the purchase, exchange, lease or value of real property if the chair declares that an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the negotiating position of the public body. In addition to those items, we will also be reviewing and approving the executive session minutes of September 29th, 2025, October 6th,

2025, October 20th, 2025, December 15, 2025, and January 6th, 2026.

And then this meeting is being recorded and because we're uh virtual, every uh vote will be taken via roll call.

And also at this time, Mr. uh tattle bomb is absent from our meeting tonight and excuse me and I'll remind you all that uh when you discuss that last uh issue 970 Tucker Road I will recuse myself and I'll leave the the meeting and I'll just sign on to the regular meeting and I'll see you then after Okay. Thank you Stanley.

Great.

All right. Do I have a motion?

A motion.

I make a motion to go into executive session.

Second. Motion made by Chris O'Neal, seconded by Mr. McDonald. In favor, Mr.

uh Mickelson, yes.

Mr. O'Neal, yes.

Mr. McDonald, yes.

And the chair votes yes as well. Thank you. We return to regular section as close to 6:30. That will be on um a Zoom meeting.

Okay. All right. I'm going to bring the select board um regular session meeting to order. We just finished our executive session and we are back on January 26, 2026.

Our select board meeting is taking place via Zoom due to um the storm and we had posted it last week that this is how it would happen. Tonight all our members are here except for David Tattlebomb who qu cannot make it and therefore we will be taking a uh auditory uh role when we make a motion and when we vote.

um because we know it's all being recorded and I would I'm just going to bring up as we always do our pledge to the flag.

So I'm just going to hold it for us and if we could stand to salute the flag.

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.

Indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

For all. Thank you. Please remain standing. Those of you who are for a moment of silence in bringing in thoughts of our veterans and those servicemen here and abroad.

Thank you.

All right, we have no appointments tonight. I'm going to start with new business. Uh, letter A is our Buzzards Bay Coalition Conservation Restriction Approval request. That was a tongue tongue twister. And I believe we have Natasha here for Buzzards Bay.

Scanning my That's correct.

Okay.

John, are you also here for Buzzards Bay?

Yes, I'm I am also present. I'm also on staff at uh Buzzards Bay Coalition and uh Alan Decker is with us as well.

Oh, I see him on I see his name.

All right, we have four apostles.

Uh folks uh uh on the board, this would be the pages in your packet from page 4 to page 107.

Um I'm going to take these parcels in order. We have a night front field.

That's night as K ni ght front field cr which is 4.94 acres on Bonnie's Joy Road.

Latasha John. Yep. Alan, who would like to speak?

Yes. So, I have um there's actually two conservation restrictions on Barney Choice Road. They're separate individual, but they're owned by the same land owner. Um so, the first one that you mentioned is an almost 5 acre uh agricultural operation. Um it's scenic agricultural property with significant frontage on Barnes Doy Road.

Um it contributes to a growing greenway corridor promoting agricultural values with other protected land. Um, and if you guys do have your packets, um, there's an open space map that shows, um, one thing to highlight is that it's immediately adjacent to the WER Farm CR that was big coalition did a couple years back with, um, federal funding.

Um, and the purpose of the CR is to have the property remain as is for agriculture production, um, preserving healthy soils, open a operation, um, long-term farm viability. Um, so that's that's the first one there. And as you said, that's the front field um right along the one the additional one is the night north lot conservation restriction which is 5.37 acres.

Yep.

So that one's a mostly wooded parcel. Um has significant wildlife habitat and it's mapped as important coastal adaptation and persistence for salt marsh. Um the features are significant because it protects against sea level rise and it extends um the efforts of land protection because it connects immediately adjacent to Dartmouth Natural Resource Trust land. Um and that's also Salt Salt Marsh um fed by

the Slokum River Estuary.

Um and that's what I have for those two.

And these two properties are across from the Wayne property, right?

Uh they're on the same side of the road as it. So the front field is um like adjacent right next to it and then the north lot is like kind of behind it.

There's forest land.

Right. Right. Right. Yep. Right.

Thank you.

So we have um in our packet we have um let me just tell you what page it is in case you wanted to look at it. Members of the board, what page? I'm on page 48.

And that will show you um the two the parcels.

Mhm.

All right. Do you want to um should we take parcel by parcel or Cody, you're muted. Sorry.

Sorry about that. Uh, yeah, you should vote each one individually.

Okay, then. Um, the first one is Nightfront Field Conservation Restriction 4.94 acres off of Bonnie's Joy Road.

Motion to approve the conservation restriction.

All right. Motion made by Mr. Mickelson, seconded by Mr. McDonald. Mr. McDonald, any questions on that particular parcel?

No.

Seeing no hands up on our end, um we'll take a vote. Mr. Mickelson, yes.

Mr. McDonald, yes.

Mr. O'Neal, yes.

And the chair votes yes. Thank you. That was uh unanimous. The second piece, the night north conservation restriction, 5.37 acres Barney's Joy Road.

Motion to approve.

Motion made by Mr. Mickelson, seconded by Mr. McDonald. Any questions?

Seeing none, we'll vote. Mr. Mickelson in favor.

Yes. Yes.

Mr. McDonald, yes.

Mr. O'Neal, yes.

And Mrs. Brooks is yes. So, that again is a unanimous decision. The next item is the Cornell um the Cornell farm area which is um 15.1 acres um on Tucker Road.

Yes. So that one is another um farm preservation. Um it's a working farm and it's adjacent to the town DPW's um Pas Pasit Valley River project that they did between 2023 and 2024 with community preservation funds. Um this conservation project includes funding from the US Department of Agricultures by protect sale program. So the coalition actually acquired the property this um fall in

with fee title and we're set to sell the land to a local farmer sometime in February. Um, and simultaneously while we're doing that transfer ship, um, we're going to be we will be conveyed back a CR in exchange, um, the purchase price from that farmer supports an unrestricted house lot. Um, I'm pretty sure that can be seen on the map figure that was included. Um, and that's been map 83, everyone, page 83 for the map.

And that shows, I believe it's about a 1.4 for unrestricted area for the new farmer to do as they please either with housing um or a agricultural outbuildings. Um it's already under agreement. Um and we're set to do that by protect cell um exchange sometime in February.

Motion to approve.

Second.

Motion made by Mr. Mickelson, seconded by Mr. McDonald. Any further questions from anyone on the board?

Madam Chair O'Neal, do you have any idea? Can you give us an estimate of the number of acres u that are contiguous with the uh restrictions in that valley thus far?

Yeah, I I know it's I know it's over 200. I'm not sure on the exact number.

Okay.

And that's that's going from this particular parcel all the way up Russell's Mills Road back to the the u uh the um treatment plant. Correct.

Yes. Yep.

Thank you.

Exactly. Yeah.

Any other questions?

Ready to vote. Mr. Mickelson?

Yes.

Mr. McDonald?

Yes.

Mr. O'Neal?

Yes.

And the chair votes yes. All right. And the last parcel to be discussed will be the Little River Farm conservation restriction number one, which is 12.18 acres on Little River Road.

Yep. So, this one is a compon one out of two component of the coalition's effort um to conserve a highly scenic and and natural resourcerich property. It's in total 22 acres. Um so, as I mentioned, this is one out of two. Um the coalition is set to acquire the entire property.

Um and we're going to be reselling the 12.18 acres of protected land as part of a resell deal which includes um another unrestricted portion of housing and outbuildings of of about 1 and a half acres. Um so this one is going through as as one CR and the other half of this project will come to a future select board meeting. Um but the current 12.1 acres that we have in front of us today

uh supports a greater conservation effort by linking um that future CR by protecting important coastal resources um of salt marsh pistons like the north lot on Barney's Joy um and it continues a growing greenway corridor and it's immediately adjacent to other DNR protected forest land.

Beautiful. Beautiful.

That's on page 107 in our packet. Mhm.

If you want to review that board's pleasure.

Motion to approve.

Second.

Made by Mr. Mickelson, seconded by Mr.

McDonald. Any questions?

Uh, Madam Chair, just to quick comment again that we've got 5.37, 2.75 acres, 12.18 acres, 15 plus or minus uh over 200 contiguous uh acres of conserved land. So when we go through the housing questions and people ask where the select board is on conserving land and keeping Dartmouth a town, I'd like them to be reminded uh the support that we've had with the Buzzers Bay Coalition to preserve as

much uh open space, agriculture, forestry land as we possibly can.

However, uh people that own individual lots have the ability to do with their land what they wish. and these in in these particular individuals have chosen to conserve their lots. So, we we appreciate that and the fact that the select board is voting unanimously to uh to make sure that these parcels are protected. Thank you.

Thank you, Chris.

Thank you. And you make an an excellent point and they need to come to us. We can't really go to them.

All right. Um we're going to vote in if you're in favor, Mr. Mickelson.

Yes, Mr. McDonald.

Yes, Mr. O'Neal.

Yes.

And the chair uh votes yes as well. Sorry, I was getting a message on my screen. I was trying to read. Uh so again, that one moves all in favor. So, thank you very much. Buzzards Bay Coalition. Thank you as always for partnering us and being a steward of our land in Dartmouth.

Thanks everyone. Appreciate it.

Thanks for all your hard work. Heidi, do you want to take it out of order and do the um Deval Field CPA application letter of support while Buzzards Bay Coalition is here?

Great idea. Uh folks, we will move to item J. Item J, you'll find on page 133 in your packet. And this is the um Deval Field CPA um which is the conservation project uh located in historic missile uh Russell Mills village. So again, I'll ask um Buzzards Bay to tell us a little bit about this project or That should be He's gone.

Is Alan Decker part of this?

Um, well, Alan's here.

He's still there. There he is.

I'm happy to give an overview. I just I didn't see if someone was gonna He was on my screen.

Yeah. So, the the field Oh, no. There's Alan. Allan is here.

Alan, did you want to speak?

Well, I'm Hi. Good evening, Madam Chair.

I'm on, but uh I was going to defer and allow and allow um Mr. Joya to uh to speak on the on the Deval Field project.

Yes. Nice to see everybody. Thank you.

Okay.

And I'm happy to to have Allan add some some background as well as as I joined the coalition about five or six months ago and Allan was instrumental in in getting the project going um over the past couple years. But this is an effort uh for the coalition to acquire the 2 and 1/2 acre uh property, the Dval field um just you know basically right next door to Deval's general store um right along the river.

Um and the idea is to eventually um for the coalition to acquire the property and um permanently protect it and turn it into an open space, you know, public park um area for visitation. Um it also has very important habitat uh ecological components to it um and will be a critical property as um you know sea level rise continues and salt marsh migration um moves in uh landward.

Um so the coalition has partnered with the um the Massachusetts Design Art and Technology Institute Mass Datma. Um, this is like a public art uh institution. Um, and they're they're involved in helping us acquire the property. Um, and they will help in the long-term management um, uh, with public art installations on the property.

Um, and what the request uh, what what we're working on right now is securing funding to actually complete the acquisition. Um, and so the letter of support is uh associated with a forthcoming request to the Dartmouth Community Preservation uh committee for um CPA funding to support with the acquisition of the project.

The Dartmouth Conservation Commission would um essently hold the uh CR and so this funding would essentially be utilized to purchase the um the conservation restriction.

Yep. Thank you, Cody. Yes, I have no questions.

The letter itself is in our packet and um should we vote in favor of this? We need to stop by the town hall this week and sign it in person.

Yes. Need you to sign the um CRS as well that you just approved.

CRS as well. Keep that in mind when you can shovel yourself out. You need to get to the town hall.

Motion to uh send the uh letter of support for the Deval field CPA application.

Thank you.

Second.

Seconded by second Mr. uh McDonald. All right. So in do we have any other discussion points on this?

Um I the location is listed. Go ahead, Chris.

I'll I'll just say that uh here here's an example for uh the people that are watching. Uh here's an example of uh coordination um between the Buzzers Bay Coalition and the Community Preservation uh committee in the town. Uh the town now stepping in itself uh to assist with the uh the protection of a very important piece of uh of property. Uh, so this goes uh this goes along with just about all the other

conservation um protections that we do throughout the year and um I'm very happy to support this.

Excellent.

Thank you.

Then I will take that as a yes.

Mr. Mickelson, are you in favor?

Equally yes.

Mr. McDonald?

Yes.

And I am as well. So, uh, that's unanimous on the screen. So, congratulations. Let's move this project forward.

Great.

All right. Thanks everyone. Really appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Yep. Thank you all. Have a good evening.

Before we go, before we move on, um, I'm requesting, um, kind of a little bit of a followup on what Chris's point was. Um, if I recall, the planning board has a map of lands that are, uh, seared and um, preserved, saved, whatnot. if we could have that map updated and get it to us so that we know the percentage because if I'm not mistaken um and I could be wrong I think it's at

least 25% of the town has been um preserved other conservation restriction a restrictions um whatever you know it's owned by Buzz's Bay or owned by DN owned by something so if we can have that list about it. I'm almost positive it's at least 25% if not more now.

Yep, you are accurate, Mr. McDonald. We just updated it last week and uh I reviewed it with the the the planning team, so I can certainly get that over to you this week.

Great. Thank you. I'd actually like to see a comparison, Sean, between Dartmouth and in other communities in the number of uh seats that they have, how many we've approved, uh the acreage um I'm going to be I'm going to be a homebody, Mr. O'Neal, and say nothing compares to Dartmouth.

We we can look for that, Mr. O'Neal.

However, it might not be um as readily available as as we make it because it's something that the town undertakes through our GIS team, but if we have the data available, we can certainly um present it to the board, but we'll look at it.

All right. Um Mr. Hadad, was there another item we needed to move?

Um the board of health appointment. We have the chair of the board of health Okay. So, that is item C.

And the board of health chair, I did see her on our screen.

If she could come on and unmute, that would be um Emily Michelle Olmstead.

Yes, I can unmute. I cannot. There we go. Now I can start my video. Excellent.

Can you hear me? Okay.

Excellent. Uh would you like me to give you a a very brief position on where we are?

Tell us what's going on on your board.

Certainly. So um in December we had one of our board members had to resign because of a residency issue. He moved to a different town and since then it was posted such that we would try and fill the role because there are three of us. So we need at least two of us for quorum as I understand it. Um because I don't I certainly don't get the applicants directly to me. We went for

quite some time uh without any applicants and then we had an applicant who attended our last board of health meeting in December, no January, January. And uh and he attended the meeting. Um we as a board voted to uh recommend him because I believe when we lose a member, a board of health member midy year like this, we need to cooperate together with the select board and um and vote on someone. And um

although I do understand that someone else has uh applied, we still as a board were not aware of that at the time when we voted to recommend um Dr. James Griffith. And so um um Cody had is there is there other um sort of official information you want to give that I perhaps left out?

No, you hit the nail on the head. Um the only other thing as Miss Holmstead mentioned was the um another applicant did come through. it was almost simultaneous if not right after this individual, Mr. Griffith or Dr. Griffith had met with the board of health. Um, and so they didn't have an opportunity to meet with that second individual.

Given that this is only an appointment till our April 6th election um we, you know, we thought it was kind of prudent to get this um on both the board's agendas because if we push this off, I don't see even a point really if you're waiting till March essentially to to appoint someone. So um that's the only thing I'll say. But we did go quite some time and Dr. Griffith was the um the

first applicant and we moved through the process and he is here tonight I believe.

I see him on my screen. So I just wanted to clarify for everyone that this appointment would be from now until the election and it is then to fill the remaining slot of the initial holder of the seat which the people that are running for that seat would then run for an additional it would be the remainder of his term which would be one year.

I get that correct? Yes.

Okay. Um Mr. Dr. Griffith, I see you on our uh on my floating heads. Did you want to um say something tonight?

Well, I just like yourself.

I would like I this I'm Dr. James Griffith. I'm a retired professor of uh microbiology and infectious disease from UMass. Um, I have been interested in public health my whole adult life and um I'm I'm very pleased to take on this work and be a part of the Dartmouth um board of health which has a wonderful reputation in the region and um I I'm I'm happy to give back to my to my community.

Well, thank you. Um, thank you for your willingness to serve now and um, I know that you've taken out papers and this would certainly give you an idea of the work. Um, so we'll we'll know how that stands if you decide to um, not return your papers after starting to serve.

But I look forward to that. So board's um, pleasure of the board.

MO motion to appoint Dr. Griffith.

Second motion made by Mr. Mickelson. Seconded by Mr. McDonald. Any questions for anyone else?

Seeing none, we'll vote. Mr. MC uh Mickelson, yes.

Mr. McDonald, yes.

Mr. O'Neal, yes.

And as the chair, I vote yes. So, congratulations. Um Dr. Griffith, you are now um on the board of health.

You'll just need to stop in uh to see Sarah Haskelleruda in the town clerk's office to be uh sworn in and then you can vote at the next board of health meeting.

Thank you very much.

Good luck.

Thank you. Thank you for coming, Emily.

All right. Now, I'll go back up to our um item B, which is special police officer Craig Pimemental. That's in your packet on page 108.

I don't I don't see the chief listed, but I have a lot of phone number, emails and I don't know if the chief is here tonight.

No, he is not.

See that? Okay.

He had um these are straightforward. The board's done these in the past. There's the request from the chief. Officer Pmental um retired at the end of 2025.

He served 32 years um with the Darm Police Department. Is looking to be appointed as a special officer.

Motion to approve.

Second.

Second.

Thank you. I uh motion made by Mr.

McDonald, seconded by Mr. Mickelson.

We'll go. Any questions? No. All in favor? Mr. Mickelson?

Yes. Mr. McDonald, yes.

Mr. O'Neal, yes.

And Mrs. Brooks votes yes as well. So, congratulations to Craig Pimemental. I still can't believe he's old enough to retire.

All right. Next, we have uh item D, which is the reg res accepting the resignation on the youth commission by Alexander Hirschman.

I think that's pretty straightforward.

He has turned in a letter.

Motion to accept the resignation.

Second.

Motion made by Mr. Mickelson, seconded by Mr. McDonald. Um, get a letter out, please, thanking him for his service.

Yes.

And then um I know that Dolores will be hoping that something gets published looking for um someone to join that board. Uh so all in favor will go around. Stanley, yes.

Mr. McDonald, yes.

Mr. O'Neal, yes. and the chair votes yes. All right, moving to the next one. Uh item E. This begins on page 113 in your packet from 113 to 120. This is looking for a temporary trailer permit. Um the I don't know if someone is here on our screen.

Uh we had invited the names aren't driving.

Yeah, we had invited the applicant. Um I don't I don't see them necessarily on the screen. Uh it was Texera I believe was the last name. Essentially this is um you know per our bylaws um anyone looking to reside in a trailer um over a certain period of time needs approve approval from the select board for the permit. Um, the applicant previously lived in the town of Dartmouth um and um

sold their home. They had they own a a business in town and owned this um vacant parcel of land. They're looking to eventually build a property on this uh parcel of land and um essentially is applying for a trailer permit for them and their family to live in it. um I believe until the the home is built, but that um they do not have a building permit yet. It looks like they've

submitted for a building permit, but it has not been approved. So, they do not have an active building permit. They have not paid the fee and it has not gone through any of the approval processes yet. Um it's just been submitted.

At least they applied.

What I'm um looking at is it looks like there's some concerns from the board of health. Yes. And so you can see there's a number of conditions that the board of health is requesting if you were to approve. Um I will mention that within the uh permitting portal um DPW has requested site plan um for the utility hookups as far as water and sewer. Um so I you know there's a lot to uh there's a

lot they need to go through with the department. So I I would say if you were to approve something like this, please make a conditional upon all departments approval.

Um without having the petitioner here so she can we can make sure she understands um the concerns. I'm hesitant to move forward with this. Mhm. Yeah, we did we did invite them um and ask them to come in and I understand we're on Zoom, but I know we have enough people on here to say that it was that information was sent out. Um I I will do what the board um

I I agree with you. Uh ma'am, um there's one, two, three, four, five restrictions that uh that have to be met and it and Mrs. Texer should be well aware of what they are.

Yeah. I just feel uncomfortable as as you're saying Stanley that um if we go forth and allow it um I don't want her to feel that even with conditions if it's not stated.

Okay.

Motion to table.

Okay. We have a motion on the floor to table this by Mr. McDonald, seconded by Mr. Mickelson.

So, I'm going to go around. All in favor? I'm going to start with you, Mr.

O'Neal. I haven't heard from you on this.

Ju just a question. Cody, did you say that she applied for the building permit or did not apply yet?

Has applied for the building permit but just submitted the application. Building department has not reviewed anything.

Has no approved permit. Just submitted the application.

Okay. So, it it says in the note, apparently in a rush for the permit due to residency for public schools, um the approval of the building permit um even I'd be hesitant to uh to allow it uh just even for that reason. But I don't know if the schools would have some type of waiver that they would give for a certain period of time. No, I think that you know the school I did

speak with um Dr. Sab Magcguire regarding this um and you know she was aware that they were submitting for this application and so it's something I think that you know they're working to see if the board is going to approve this or not but the applicant did sell their home in Dartmouth um previously move to another community and so typically as been done with um at least a handful of students this year they're

required to register for school in the district that they now reside in. Well, the kids would be um I would assume registered already because we've sold the house in in town already, right? So, yeah, but they have Yeah, they didn't register in the new community and they're looking to remain in Dartmouth public schools in in the trailer.

Correct.

As their residents.

Correct.

Yes.

I can I can see this going going through quite quickly. Um, so I don't know if any um rush to judgment on this. I think it's really important that she understands her responsibilities.

Yeah, I think I I agree. I think there's still some work to do. So, I'll go along.

Yeah, I think what ought to what ought to be happening is all the restrictions should be spelled out um in some kind of a form. I know it's already online, but it also needs to be done and needs to be read for the record. Yeah, we don't we don't even have all the restrictions yet because not every department has even had an opportunity to review. Um the DPW, like I said, is still requesting

more information before they put any restrictions in effect. We just we put on the agenda due to their request um with the school um issue. But yeah, you know, yeah, I wouldn't be inclined to do anything until um all the restrictions are noted.

Madam Chair, I vote for the table also.

All right. and I do as well. So, having us having said that, um, we will hold off on this potentially for our next meeting. Cody.

Oh, I think you started with Chris, so you got to go around to Sean.

I'm sorry, Chris.

Okay. The motion on the floor is to um table this item tonight for a future meeting. If you are in favor, Chris, yes.

Miss uh Stanley, yes.

Sean, yes. and I am as well. So, we'll put that on for a future meeting.

Um, next we have the DHS lease agreement and this is the Dartmouth Historical Arts Society, page 121. This is the building um on uh Russell Mills Road. This is the old Russell Mills school, Russell Mills Library.

Yeah. So, there's an existing lease uh in place that expired uh December 31st, 2025 as part of the procurement that was done um in 2022.

The um there was an additional option of 3 years. Uh so, we have spoken with the Dartmouth Historical Arts Society.

They're requested to extend the option.

They've been great partners. they've submitted all their annual reports uh that align with the required lease payments. So I emailed actually as a supplemental document to the board um this evening or this afternoon I should say uh the lease extension agreement the all terms within the existing lease remain um it just extends it for another 3 years January 1st 2026 through December 31st 2028.

Motion to approve.

Second.

All right. So on the table, do we have any questions?

No. All right. So, let's uh vote on this. Um so, we're voting to approve the extension of this lease for what was the Russell Mills Library, now DHS.

Um Stanley, yes.

Sean, yes.

Chris, yes.

And myself, yes. So, we will please execute that and we'll move forward on that. Sorry, folks. You you keep moving on my screen and so I keep trying to find you. Um, next, uh, we have the board of assesses for their operational presentation. This is a followup from our J, uh, December meeting. Um, I do see we have Jessica Pachico, Gary, and Kevin Santos. Oh, and I see Curtis is also on screen with us.

Oh, boy.

Yep. So, Jessica, I don't know if anyone want Yeah, Jessica want to unmute and show your faces, please.

I think Jessica.

It's a very dark screen, but I think that could be Jessica. Oh, there's Kurt.

I'm here.

Hello.

All right, Jessica, can you hear us? Okay, I can't see you, but you're you're now unmuted.

See window.

Oh, let's see.

And she's gone. There she is.

Who's the chair of the board of recessive?

Santos.

Kevin, I believe. Yeah.

Kevin, are you there?

Hello, Kevin.

Roers's in control of the meeting. and ask him to unmute.

Oh yeah, just Yes.

Cody, can you hear me?

Yes, we can hear you.

I'm on my iPad, so this was a little bit difficult on this right here. But as long as you can hear me, I'm here.

Jessica, are you able to hear us?

Cody, I was just on the phone with her and she could actually u you know, she told me she could actually view you. She could see everyone. Uh looks like we Yeah, we can't hear or see her.

We see a Oh, we see the window.

Yeah.

Yeah. Um and we don't have anything in our packet.

No, we just got the presentation late Friday, so it was after the packet was sent out.

So, what are we doing here?

Would you like would you like to table this? Um, I'm I'm texting her now to see if uh she's having a problem.

So, maybe Heidi maybe um table this until later part of the meeting and see if Jessica can Okay, we have some other things that we can discuss.

Yeah, we'll keep watching her window.

All right. So, we will um H the communications manager. I did see Jessica.

Hello.

There she is.

I'm here.

And Jessica, could you pronounce your last name for us?

Yes, it's D2.

Okay.

The S is silent on the end.

Okay. Jessica D2. Jessica is our new communications manager. So, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself, Jessica?

All right. Um hello board. I'm very excited to be here. Um I just started last week and um I have over 10 years of marketing and communications experience and most recently I serve for the um town of Frisco in Colorado as their communications coordinator. So, I'm super excited to um put some communications plans in place and just get Dartmouth's word out there and have our residents excited about activities

and what we offer. So, I will tell you I was uh pleasantly surprised attending the MMA meeting um this weekend up in Boston. Jessica was there as well and she and I consulted on a few um breakout sessions that or workshops that we were going to go to and she picked one and I picked the other and so I look forward to meeting up with her this week uh once I shovel

out and um we can get together and and talk more about things that we learned.

The MMA convention as always was insightful. Um, but Jessica does hail with not only um municipal experience, but she was also marketing for um a ski mountain in Colorado, which has comes as no surprise and a casino. And I know our town's in in search of some money. So maybe she has some tips for us.

Happy to help. But we are going to she's going to hit the ground running because uh as she found out this weekend uh that this is the year of Massachusetts 250th.

Every uh general session made reference to that and we she got to see the beauty of our Commonwealth and uh lucky for her uh via the screen. Ben Affleck, um Matt Damon, and uh Jimmy Fallon.

Jimmy Fallon was there to help her learn how to pronounce every one of the 351 um municipalities in the Commonwealth, which was um quite fun.

Yeah, but they screwed up a couple of them.

They did, but so do I.

So, welcome Jessica. she will when we are um back to meeting uh in person. She does hope to attend our Monday evening meetings to see us in person. Um so when you stop by this week to sign a number of our papers, make sure you stop in and see Jessica as well.

Yes, please come say hi. I can show you where my old work used to be. I have a lovely photo hanging up with all of the signatures from my old co-workers. So, and snow doesn't scare her. No, probably not.

Not from Colorado.

Thank you all.

Actually, this is this is not pretty good. Not only do we steal somebody from Colorado, we also stole a win from Colorado.

Ah, there you go.

It's still raw. It's still raw.

Actually, Jessica Hails from Connecticut. So, she actually is a true New England Patriots fan.

I am.

We didn't have to steal too much of her.

I will just say Jessica has jumped right in. In addition to attending the conference, if you notice any of our information that we got out during the storm and over the weekend, Jessica was um was working with the team, attending meetings and getting that information out. So, we're excited to have her on board and um you know, look at ways we can we can produce better um and more effective communication with our

community.

Welcome to Dartmouth. Great.

Thank you.

Thanks, Jessica.

All right. I sadly don't see I still see Jessica. I don't actually see her. I see a very dark office. Um and I don't believe she's in witness protection. So I will continue on. Let's go to K the DCTV letter for exterior repair. And this is part of our um a letter to go to the our CPA for support when we go to Sorry, my my screen just went to sleep. Um so am I

when we go to um town meeting?

Yeah. So this is a Pete's here. He can certainly give you an overview of the project. This was as part of the supplemental documents I sent out this afternoon. Um it has a rundown of the project estimate and um a draft support letter that I put together. Uh essentially the applications for CPC are due later this week. U Pete has been putting together the application for this project and this would just be a

letter of support to CPC which hopefully they approve and recommend for funding and Pete can give you kind of a rundown of what the project is and what he's looking for.

Hello. Welcome. Uh hold on.

So, um yeah, we're looking to uh just do the out exterior of the old town hall.

Um it's in kind of rough shape. Um so get get some new shingles on it, do some uh patchwork on the concrete and then some grading around the building. Um so that came out to I think we just had a we just had a um a study done uh from Bruce Thornton and they came back with estimates. I think it came in around $511,000.

So, we're going to ask CPC to fund 460 of it plus or minus and then DCTV reserve fund will put in the other 50,000 to make up the difference. Um, so yeah, any questions?

I remember seeing the pictures um when we initially went for the uh funding to evaluate the project and I'm glad to see that it's it's going to be taken care of.

Yeah. Yeah. We're keeping it all original. There was some discussion on originally on uh taking some windows out that um we blocked from the interior, but we decided not to even approach that. We just want to just keep the outside looking just the way it is. You know, we're also going to be able to redo the um the front like stoop area a little bit that's in rough shape. Um so

some of that wood was rotting out. So we're looking to bring that up to code also. And then um I think the only small minor changes is most of the trim is going to be um some kind of uh vinyl or PVC type material versus wood, but it'll look like the wood. But we are going to redo the wood shingling shingles same way. So, you are going with the um the replacing of the trim?

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yeah. There was talk about just replacing some of the trim with that was rotted and I said, "Well, why don't we just I I don't want I want to do all or nothing." So, so we're going to That's put it in. And then also, we put in to replace the uh sheathing behind the shingles uh at 100%. That was gone back and forth. Um, you know, originally

they said, "Oh, we think you only need to replace about 20% of it." I said, "Well, when we redid the roof about 12 years ago, we have to replace all of it." So, I didn't want to get into that situation and and pull off those shingles and all of a sudden need more funding for for the sheathing.

Well, Pete, you're a good steward of that uh res restoration because you're absolutely right. Uh we would be covering up something that would only haunt us later. So this way we can make sure that the the building is done right. So thank you for pursuing that.

Um and we'll get it done once and for all.

Motion to approve the letter of recommendation.

Second.

Motion made by Mr. McDonald, seconded by Mr. Mickelson. Any other questions?

Seeing no one's hand, we'll vote. Mr.

Mickelson.

Yes.

Mr. O'Neal.

Yes.

Mr. McDonald.

Yes.

And the chair votes yes. As we said, uh the letter of support is in your um as an email attachment. Again, stop by the office this week, so we can sign that as well.

Could I just make one quick announcement too?

Sure thing.

Um so, last Thursday, we got a uh very surprising uh update um from Comcast.

All most of our channel numbers have changed. Um, our public access channel is still channel 95, but now our educational access, which was formerly channel 9, is now 96. And our government access, which was formerly channel 18, is now channel 97. So, um, this seemed to take the whole area by surprise. Um, they are supposed to give us 30 days notice. We have not seen this notice per

se yet. They said that they've sent it to all these communities, but I can tell you in talking to about five other communities around here, they didn't receive any kind of communication either that they know of. So, we're still trying to look that up, but we're trying to get the word out as best as we can.

Um, we're going to do a bigger push probably later this week or beginning of next week to to uh really push it. But just so everyone knows, we are not off the air. We are on now 95 96 97.

It's unfortunate that uh not only were we not told but all these other communities when um so easy just to send an email and let everybody know.

Yeah. Thank you for your time.

Fantastic.

Thank you.

Thank you. And thank you for uh all you've done to support us.

All right. Next on our docket, we have some license renewals.

Oh, and also it says seems like Jessica says that he she can talk now here.

Oh, okay then. Let's hold off on that.

We'll go to Jessica.

Yeah. All right.

Can you hear me?

We can hear you.

Okay. I'm sorry.

That's okay.

Um, can you see me?

No, you'll be able to unmute yourself now. We see that other guy. Now we can I just saw you.

Okay.

There you are. There you are. Sorry about that.

That's okay.

So I have the power How do you want me to do the PowerPoint?

Are you on a laptop where you can share your screen?

Um yes.

Hold on.

Once you do that, you won't be able to see us, which is fine. um we will all be able to see your screen which will be the the presentation and you can walk us through that.

Okay. Um give me one second.

Share.

I've never done this before. So just bear with me.

That's okay. That's okay.

Okay, we can see it, Jessica.

Okay.

Yep.

Oh, no. Hold on.

Okay, just click on number one.

Okay.

Is that better if I do that?

Perfect.

Perfect. Okay. All right.

Okay. All right. So, my name is Jessica Patiko. I'm the acting administrator of assessing. I would like to thank the select board for giving me this opportunity um to give a little insight on what we do in the assessor's office.

Okay. We have an elected three member board, Kevin Santos, Robert Misho, and Curtis Nunes.

Here are some of the responsibilities of the assessor's office. We are responsible for evaluating property values. We assess the value of all taxable, real, and personal property. We maintain and update our property record cards. We set the annual property tax rate. We accept and process applications for exemptions and abatements. We maintain the tax assessing maps. We create parcels for

land splits. and we create bill files for motor vehicle and bow excise taxes.

These are just some of the reasons why we changed the assessed value. Um under the guidelines of the department of revenue um chapter 59 we are required to assess the properties at 100% full and fair cash value. What does this mean? Our assessed values must reflect the market. Example, what the properties are selling for. The department of revenue reviews and approves our values annually, completing

a full audit or certification every 5 years. If our values do not meet the do requirements, they will not be approved.

So FY27 is our year five. So FY27 will be when we are doing um our certification.

These are just some notes um from FY26.

Our residential values increased by 6.11% from last year. Our commercial industrial values increased um 8.42% from last year. The maximum levy limit for this year increased by 4.5% which was Proposition 2 and a half of last year's levy plus 1% in new growth and 1% debt exclusion. Our current residential tax rate is $8.3.

Current commercial and industrial tax rate $15.78.

Personal property $15.73.

Fire district 1 tax 48. Fire district 2 $13. Fire district 3 residential is 79.

Fire district personal property $187.

Um new growth is an increase in the assessed value. So that's any anything new. So new construction, that's new um new businesses, new decks, that's all considered um new growth. Uh levy limit is the maximum dollar amount the town can raise in a fiscal year and which is the prior year's le levy plus 2 and a half% plus new growth and any debt exclusions that the town has.

This page is our LA4 comparison report for FY26. And what this is is all the property classes um what the value was for FY25, what the value is for FY26, and then the percent um of the difference of the assessed value.

If you need me to slow down, just let me know and I'll slow down.

This next page is the assessment classification report and it's pretty much the same thing as the LA4. It goes by property class types, the parcel count, and the value of each um property class that we have.

This is the tax rate history for all classes. The voter of selectment voted for a split tax rate in 2007 for FY208.

A split tax rate is a property tax system that applies different t tax rates to different classifications of property. Typically taxing commercial industrial property at a higher rate and residential property at a lower rate.

This method is used to reduce the tax burden on homeowners while shifting it to businesses. The board of selectment voted on a maximum tax shift of 1.75 for FY23.

So, as you can see in on in um 2022, the shift was 1.63 and then FY23 is when it went up to 1.75 and then 2026 1.74 um and that was just do it. It had something to do with um the values I believe and that's why we couldn't shift to the full 1.75. that it wouldn't let us put it even put it into the system.

The next page is the top 10 FY26 taxpayers. As you can see, Eversource is number one. Um, and that's the majority of our personal property

trends in average single family tax bill. Um, you can see the median tax bill from FY22 to FY26. Um, it has increased yearbyear.

And this is the average average single family tax bill. Um I gathered some communities. I did a cushion at Secon, Westport, Rahobitth, Fair Haven, Somerset, and Dartmouth. And as you can see, we're pretty um even with a cushion. Westport and Fair Haven are below us and Secon, Rahobath, and Somerset um have a higher um tax bill.

These are the shift changes based on FY26. Um I believe Mr. McDonald had the question about um shifting to maybe 1.50. I just wanted to show if we did do that. Um, what would happen if we shifted to the 1.50, you would see an increase in residential taxes of $1735 and a decrease in commercial taxes of $1,248.81.

If we did a um a a single rate and we didn't shift at all, the residential would increase $524.40 40 and the commercial would decrease $3,873.3.

Um chapter land we have 34 parcels in forestry 152 in agriculture 82 in recreational 268 total properties in chapter the remaining parcels not in chapter 14,74 um Mr. O'Neal, I know you had a question regarding how long these chapter lands were um when they were established and I'm actually working with Vision to try to create a report so that I can get that information out to you.

Thank you.

This is an FY27 estimated tax levy levy.

um last year's levy limit plus Proposition 2 and a half estimated new growth estimated debt exclusion. So the total estimated FY27 levy um $84,543,475.

We have 376 sales um that happened in 2025. So those all need to be reviewed um part of the doing our sales analysis.

New construction. As of today, the town has 25 new construction permits. Um we are a June 30th community. So, what that means is we can assess the property as of June 30th, whatever percent is complete. We don't have to wait until the following um fiscal year to tax whatever is there.

Now, this is the reval process. So this is what's going to be taking place for FY27.

Um do guidelines state that all property must be assessed at 100% full and fair cash value.

So these are all the sales that we have like I talked about before like we all we have to go through them make sure they're um armsike sales um any family sales those we don't include in um that summary that we do.

Oh, I think I went too far.

I have to go back. Give me one second.

Yeah, I don't know how to do that.

Bottom left side.

Yep.

Click on that all the way down the bottom left hand side. I saw a back arrow I think.

Just click the back arrow on your keyboard.

Okay, there we go.

Thanks. Um, so data collection, this is the first step. Every parcel must be inspected every 10 years. During the reval and interim years, we pay particular attention to those undergoing renovations. Um, any particular properties that have recently sold or have recently been demolished. And we do this um sales we do through deeds. And then any renovations or anything that's been demolished is through building

permits.

sales analysis and data quality. The sales that we currently will be looking at are the sales that took place in 2025. The valuation for this coming year is based off of 2025 sales and is a value as of 1126.

Valuation determination. Determination of market value for every parcel of property within the town is made as of January 1.

We are however a June 30th community which means new construction. We can assess whatever is there as of June 30th.

There are three types of approaches to value. There is market approach which are your sales. Cost approach which estimates property value by calculating the cost to new building and then subtracting the depreciation and then adding the value of land. Income approach is the approach we use to value a property based on its income. We use this approach for commercial properties which is why really important that we

get um the IE forms. Um, I know the board is now going to implement um that if we don't receive the INE forms that there will be um a penalty. So, um commercial will be $250, residential will be 50 and it will um be assessed on your FY27 real estate taxes.

A final review of all values will be done. All required certification is requested by do for their review at that point.

The next step would be a public disclosure. This is when the residents have the opportunity to review their ma their values. They can come into the office, take a look at their values. If there's any um disputes they have, they can do it at that time. Um and then anything any values that change more than 10% we'll need to provide that information to the do for them to review.

The final step is the final approve um approval. At this time do um give us the okay that our values are good and then this is when we would um hold the classification hearing.

So there this is no different than if we did our interim years. At the end when you receive your bill, you can get come into the office and file for an abatement. Um you have until February 1st to come in and file for an abatement. Um the board has 90 days to act on that abatement. Um, at that point, whether the board approves it or denies it, um, you have 90 days to file

up the ATB. If you're not happy, um, with the outcome, um, I think that's it. I have one more page and I believe Curtis is on the, um, the screen, so I can let him talk about this. I just want to say um, I'd like to thank you for giving me this opportunity once again. Um, as you can see, the office has a lot going on. Um, I know Mr. O'Neal had asked during the

classification hearing like what we could use in the office. And I mean, a data collector is definitely would be a huge help in our office. Um, and continuing to have Richard Gonzalez um, come in and help me and train me. Um, he's been doing this for a very long time and he knows, you know, Dartmouth.

Um uh we've done a lot in the office to try to streamline things. Um we've now um we email all exemptions to residents so they don't necessarily have to come in.

We can mail them we mail them to them and they can fill it out and then they can come in the office. We've also acquired near mapap which has been super helpful. Um it helps us pick up you know pools, decks. um we don't have to necessarily go out and measure every single thing from a a building permit.

We can go in to NAM map and I can measure a new shed or a new garage. So, that's been um super helpful. Uh the DM assessor's office has always done everything in house. Um we have a few um contractors that we have. Um that's kind of a big deal. There not too many communities that actually um do everything in house. A lot of them outsource everything. Um, so I believe

that with these tools, we'll be able to continue that process with a fair and accurate value controlled by the town.

Um, so if Curtis is on and he wants to talk about that.

One moment, Jessica, before you turn it over to Curtis, could you go back a few slides?

Uh, because I think this is the one the slide that's going to show people over time what our, um, assessment has been. Few more. It's a beautiful graph.

Keep going back. Keep going back.

Keep going back.

Keep going back.

Keep going back. One. Another one.

This one.

Nope. Another one.

Another one.

Another one. Sorry, I didn't realize it was so far back. Here we go.

Okay.

There's been, of course, tax bills go out and then people are screaming that, you know, their bill has gone up. But I just want to point out to everyone in the viewing audience, if we look at the fiscal year, here we are now in 2026, our real estate for our homes has been taxed at 8.03, $8.3 per thousand.

And if we look that is a reduction from 2025, a reduction from 2024, a reduction from 2023, and a reduction from 2022.

What's going up is the value of our homes.

Yes.

But we at the town are not increasing the assessment of real estate. In fact, just your home is appreciating in value.

And that is why when you look at the bill and you're having a heart attack, it's there because your house has enriched value.

Um and in order to cap as you know the 2 and 12% we establish the real estate tax the commercial industrial tax the personal property tax to reflect us to be able to ma maintain within that 2 and a half%. I just wanted to just go through it slowly so that we'll all stop getting grilled in social media.

That won't necessarily stop it, but maybe it's a a bit. Um, now I apologize, Jessica. You're gonna have to fast forward and then let Cart talk about his slide.

Can everybody hear me?

Yes.

Yeah. The last slide she's talking about is something that I just did uh uh you know I I see a lot of this stuff in the last 20 some odd years in my career you know with real estate seeing values that's how I got interested in this uh position to begin with. So it's a chart I started in 2024 is going to be a little more accurate because I I started

last year in a $4 to $500,000 category of residential sales. So this basically represents all the multiple listing service sales uh from 2024 and then I recently added 25. The problem with 25 sorry I'm just going to stop you one second. I'm just going to ask Jessica is it is it possible for you to enlarge that slide maybe maybe control plus sign there you go and then I don't know if

you can slide it down but go sorry Curt I wanted people to be No that's fine I have a copy in front of me if you have questions too but yeah so this is just something I started the show and like like you said, Madam Chairman, about you know, social media. So, uh you know, I just think Dartmouth's done a great job and I've only been there five years, not

even 5 years yet. So, but it's something I started and the reason 2024 is more accurate is because now $4 to $500,000 is a category disappearing. Uh for example, Rochester, I took off this list because the numbers were so low. I mean, they only had two houses sell in that category because I mean, there's land selling for that now. So, the, you know, the categories, the average, the median,

as you know, everything's going up. So, this is what I show when people say, "Oh, our taxes are high." This is kind of what I started to show them last year with 2024 that, you know, we we're with the lowest assessed residential values of all these towns year after year. Uh, is that a good thing or is it a bad thing? uh the with the second lowest tax bill after Westport. Keep in mind this

is on an average not a median. I just did all MLS sales something I did and you know worked with Jessica just you know gave it to her included here in case anybody had questions but you know you look at what these some of these towns are paying. So when people say oh gee we have this coming and we need all these projects coming in Dartmouth and I look at something like this say well the

good news is we can afford it. Now, how does the board of select men in the town get the additional monies, you know, with an override, a debt exclusion, uh, to, you know, to sell this to the the residents? But, you know, to me, this is something that I would use that I think you, you know, I thought you guys could use and say, listen, you know, the average bill here is, you know, 2024, $3,86.

You got, you know, you got 4,100, 4,600 in Somerset, 4,300 in CC comp. and that's what they're paying to live in that town. So, you know, that that that's just something I thought might be helpful for you guys.

Uh so, you know, that was it. That that was the only slide I had. And I, you know, I apologize I couldn't be at the December uh meeting. Uh but are there any other qu I mean, there were a couple of questions that I noted. Mr. McDonald asked, can can we use sales for commercial property?

Yes, we can. By by the rules, technically you can. If a property sells, we can use that data. But in many cases, uh, you want to use the rents, uh, you know, because the rents, I mean, if you tried to use, uh, you know, some of these bigger properties like the mall, I mean, you're not going to find a sale anyway, but, uh, you know, the a lot of these properties, the the rents

are allowing you to charge more to these properties than the sale would. So, but yes, you can use it in certain properties. I recommend it. I've been working closely with Richard and uh Richard Gonzalves and Jessica uh on the commercial properties. Uh so that was one question I want to answer that Mr.

McDonald had in the December meeting. Uh and uh I don't know if there was any other questions that Jessica did answer.

She's worked hard on this presentation over the last several weeks. And uh we just you know can open up to questions.

Does the board have any questions that they feel weren't answered at this time?

members of the board, I cannot see you on my screen. Whoops. Maybe I will now.

Hang on. Hang on.

There you are. So, um, if you'd let me know if you have any specific questions, I'm hoping the slide that I had Jessica uh, return to and then dragged through um, helps people at home.

I'll ask you individually. Uh, Mr.

O'Neal.

Uh, thank you. Uh, thanks Curtis. The average tax bill, the list that you have, Kurt, showing the other towns.

Yes.

Um, how how did you come up with that?

Did you did you use just the tax rate?

Did you include all the fees? Did you What kind of comparison did you use with the other?

No, my my chart was strictly uh multiple listing data as a real estate broker. It was strictly MLS data and the only pro it was all MLS sales of those years. Uh, but I had to take out some properties because, you know, if we list a house in December of 25, you know, the real estate agent's going to list this, this is your taxes for this property on 25,

but we might not close on it till 26.

So, you know, so a lot of the, you know, the sales were had 24 instead of 25. So, but no, no, no comparisons on that at all on on that particular chart. But, you know, I know Jessica worked on that with, you know, like you guys had asked about the uh the garbage and the fire districts. I think you know, one of these pages, she's got all the, you know, the difference of the fire

districts and, you know, every fire district's different to add to that 803.

Okay. So, that so that list of actual taxes charged for those particular towns, you were basically just using the average uh in that category from MLS for sales and then plugging in the tax rate only. Correct. For those u not even plugging in the tax rate. I I have my screen set up so when I when I call up a list like I did all this past year, I did all 25 sales and then I

averaged every sale the sale price, came up with a number. Uh and again, these were only $4 to $500,000 sales. Um, and then I took their assessed values of that year and averaged those. And then I took the tax bill of that, you know, all strictly MLS data, you know, whatever.

And that information is only good as, you know, realtors entering it in. We we enter that information in, you know, I enter a property's taxes and assessment.

So, but you know, you can the mistakes are easily seen like somebody no different in acreage. somebody will put.14 acres by mistake when we know it's 1.4 or something like that.

All right. So, so one of the things that that sticks out for me is in trying to get a comparison to other towns that everybody's really worked up about lately. Um that that particular one doesn't do it right. So, just using the tax rate.

Um is there a way maybe maybe uh Gary can work on this. Um, but I I think it's important for our new communications director to have a piece out there for the people to show them exactly where we are. I can't get a straight number for where we are compared to um other towns that are as close in comparison to to we are um when you look at the fire

district adding that in when you look at the beach stickers everything we charge for municipal services you know where other towns may may have included that all together. So, we look a lot lower, but we're actually not because we're charging that on uh as a separate line item, you know.

Well, well, on my chart, uh the one thing that is included uh would be your fire because I'm using a tax bill. I'm not using tax rates. So, that tax bill, all the tax bills on that chart, that is what they paid in taxes and it includes the fire. So, it's already in there.

Okay. So, so the fire would be included with the taxes.

Yeah. the the garbage. The garbage wouldn't be beach passes. Uh but the the fire is already figured in because that is the average tax bill for the the sales in Dartmouth in that category.

Okay. All right. I I'll work on getting a comparison um on the side. Uh second question I had uh if I per No, that wasn't it. It was um current staff. So Jessica, getting back to your uh your request for data collector to try and get us through uh the next full reval with Richard. Can you give us a breakdown of what your current staff is full-time equivalents now, what you have

for part-time, what you have for contractors etc.

Sure. Um so right now I have a full-time principal clerk and I have two full-time assessing technicians. Um, as far as vendors, um, I do have Randy who comes in and he does, um, the bill files for me, my preliminary bills and my, um, actual bills. We have RC that does personal property. Um, and I have Sansusi who does um, the solar for me.

Okay. And those people are part- timerrs or contractors.

They're just vendors.

Okay. All right. Yeah, I don't have any um part-time. I just have the three full-time staff and then we outsource a few of our things through vendors.

All right.

I'm sorry, Jess. Yeah, I missed one of your vendors. I got Randy and I got Sans Susi and I missed the middle one.

RC that's for our personal property.

Okay.

Plus and Richard Gonzov also.

Richard. Yes.

And Paul Bergman.

Yep.

But you know when when you guys talked at the December meeting which I watched that meeting a couple times you know about the difference of outsourcing and keep in mind this data collector position uh you know it's not going to really help you much the next 6 months with training by the time you hire someone. It's more of a long-term uh long-term thing uh for that. But, you know, as far as outsourcing it, you

look, you know, you see what happened when we tried to outsource that last project and uh it was a debacle and, you know, when they uh hit the wrong button and charged the house for 112 ATMs in the house and I'm just throwing out numbers and 42 hot tubs in a house and, you know, it cost us over $200,000 and our overlay account and Jessica can go over the, you know, the math a little

better than I can. Uh so you know we have two of the you know best assessors in this industry over the past few decades with Richard and Paul. Uh and you know not that we plan on keeping you know Richard forever but he's been un you know he's been he's been a great value to us and bringing Jessica into this position and uh he he he only cost us $31,000 last year. You you want to start

outsourcing some of this work? you're going to you're talking six-digit numbers and multiple six-digit numbers.

Uh a total of what Richard did for us and Paul last year was like $48,000 roughly. Uh and that's, you know, we got a lot for that money. You know, Richard is practically on call to us. He doesn't have to, you know, do that. But, you know, obviously he's getting paid. Uh and he's, you know, he he's been great.

So we we are you know technically outsourcing and we got you know two of the best in the business right there that are still still working for this town on a limited basis that you know really help us out.

All right. So, so when when you get into the u the full re-evaluation, Curtis, what uh I mean at 48,000 um are you saying that an additional data clerk uh in addition to the people that you have on board now would be able to get that project done?

Well, uh, with the data collector, you know, part of their job is going to be going in the field and that's what, you know, Paul does, you know, a little bit for us now, but he doesn't go in the properties. Uh, so that, you know, those duties could shift into that. Uh, you know, also the data collector, you know, you and I, you know, talked briefly about, you know, getting on the phone

and calling, you know, following up on some of these INE saying, well, gee, you know, this this doesn't look right to us. You know, could you could we get some documentation? uh we just you know don't have the staff to make those calls. You know I I find a lot of errors you know in you know values and different things you know in my in my job you know and I send them to Jessica

if I see a mistake or I see something that doesn't look right I say wow this property sold for 2 million we have it assess for 600,000 what happened here we knock them out one by one and we you know we look into it and we fix them.

Uh, lost my train of thought there. But Kirk, for the lay person, could you just tell us what I and E is?

The income and expense report. When you guys were discussing it at the December meeting, it you guys, somebody was using the term, I think it was Kevin, using the term profit and loss. It's not a profit and loss. It's an income and expense report. So, if I own a plaza and I have six tenants, I report how much rent we collect. Uh, and this is how, you know, and your expenses and this is

how we put a value on that property. in many cases. Uh so that that's how that's done. And we sent out I think I don't have the exact numbers in front of me.

Last year we sent out I think it was around 450 460 IE reports. Only about a third of them came back. Uh and then you know that's a problem. You know we were looking at a big commercial property the other day. We have no income. We have you know nothing on it. I mean we we saw another comparing process. We're working on on on fixing that. But, you know,

this is why the board voted this year to attach these fines. So, a commercial property does not turn that in this year. They will get $250 fine uh from the town. They also technically lose their right to not submit an abatement, but we we don't have to look at it if they didn't give us one of those until you get to, you know, if it's a tax board thing and they, you know, come

after it. Uh then, you know, you deal with it at that time. But if nothing else, it's, you know, it's not such the money. I mean, if we did it last year, the fines would raise about $75,000.

Uh, which is not a lot of money, but we're not doing it to raise money. We're doing it to, you know, to wake these, you know, people up and these businesses up to get this information to us so we can properly value their properties. Uh, so the key the key on the IE Kurt, right? Um, you had mentioned that uh you were going to look at the fines. Uh, you

were going to check with uh legal to see if we had uh traction enough to uh pursue it, make sure that it sticks, if it if it gets to that point. My goal would be not to assess one fine.

However, uh, communicate it properly so people know that we have the ability to find and we're not going to play games with it anymore because it's un it's wholly unfair to have a commercial property owner across the street from you who doesn't return this form and there's no repercussion for him. Uh, his tax bill is $2,000 or $3,000 lower. I don't know if that's an actual case, but

I'm just saying as an example that could potentially happen. So, the fact that you're looking into the fines in um and getting uh a referral from um from legal on it is good. I think the use of our new communication director would be essential for us to get that word out that the game is over. We need to get people on board with doing this because it's wholly unfair across the board if

we're not getting that information.

Well, the fines the the the current fines uh are listed on the form every year. They're listed right on the form.

We took it a step further because I I just wanted to make sure because Dartmouth is now, you know, some some towns charge these fines all the time.

We never have. Dartmouth never has. So, because of that, I made Jessica, you know, I had Jessica put another page on top of the form this year that says this year we are going to charge these fines.

The board voted to do it. Uh, and again, it's just more to, you know, the problem on that though, you talk like a big apartment building, you know, with uh, you know, 150 units. If they don't turn it in, all we can find them is $50.

That's one thing I checked on. I said I said, "Jessica, you you should call.

Maybe that's $50 a unit." No, $50 for the whole complex is all we can charge them. So, you know, but we know we're not getting accurate rents from some of these places. I'm I'm in the business. I know what two and threebedroom apartments rent for in the town of Dartmouth. And when I get Well, the fact remains as far as I'm and I'm only one board member, but the fact

remains for me, if we get a list of people that are not uh, you know, returning that information to us, then I have no problem coming to a meeting and reading a list off and asking them to to show up at a meeting and explain why they can't do a simple one or two page form for us, right?

You know, yeah, it's it's probably, like I said, about 450 did not return it last year.

So maybe with this letter and the fines it might it might change. But you know with the ultimate with the ultimate goal of making sure that we get as accurate a number on our valuations as possible. I would assume that after the reval our tax rate could drop precipitously because I mean we're talking about the levy, right? The levy is the levy. Um so you'll be in the sevens next year.

Yeah. Yeah. I I I think so too but and that's all well and good. Um, but we just I I we need fairness. We need to make sure that uh we're getting these values where we can and you in the assessing department has the uh has the ability to get the job done quickly, accurately, and um and get these reports done uh you know um so so we can get some fairness back in this thing.

Yeah. Well, you know, and keep in mind with Proposition two and a half, you know, a lot was talked about at that December meeting about you know, things falling through the cracks. So if if your house is undervalued, uh is are we is the town losing money?

No. Because if your house is undervalued, it just mean the other, you know, 11,000 of them are undervalued, you know, per se, by a couple of bucks.

Uh so, you know, nothing's falling through the cracks. It's just, you know, my thing is everybody needs to pay their fair share what these properties are worth, what they're bringing in, and you know, there's, you know, the commercial side. I remember before I even was on this board over six, you know, five, six years ago talking to Mr. McDonald on, you know, social media and he says, "Oh,

you know, the state really, you know, ties our hand sometimes with the, you know, the way the commercial real estate it is." You know, like these big apartment complexes, you know, they're charged, and I think that was confusion at the December meeting. They are charged on the 803 residential rate, not the commercial.

And we looked at one the other day cuz I wanted I sat down with Jessica and Richard to get more accurate information. So I I forget which Jessica could say which complex we use, but uh if you look at the assessed value of this complex, the apartments came to a val assessed value of just over $100,000 a unit. I've seen them as low as 60, but you know, I'll say $103,000 a unit

roughly. Uh now multiply that by three.

let's turn it into a three family house that that would at $300,000. Well, you know, in Dartmouth, they're selling a three family house. There's one on the market now for $8.99. That's probably assessed for 700 uh at this time. So, the these big apartment complexes, you want to talk about falling through the cracks. I mean, you know, there there's some of that going on and you know, a lot of it state, a lot of its

department of revenue, you know, for the Go ahead. current. That was going to be my question, especially as we're going through currently through the ZBA and looking at some significant um new build uh construction of complexes is especially if they were already on commercial land, why can't they why aren't they maintained at a commercial rate?

Oh, that's a little bit above my pay grade. I don't know exactly why that why that is. I I think that's a state question. I I honestly do because it's not something that we would prefer. But I know the answer to that question, Sean.

I know the answer to that question.

All right. Do tell.

The real estate market in Massachusetts has a great lobbying group in Boston.

That's who makes the rules.

And so our complexes are assessed at residential.

Yeah. I do have one one followup on uh Kurt's um businesses not reporting. I wonder how if we can get a list of those businesses over to our office. I'd be curious to find out how many of them have uh licenses approved by the select board. Um, and that's something that can be held held until they can um, you know, I mean, especially if it's somebody with a liquor license or somebody with a uh,

uh, you know, used car license or a car license.

Sure. Yeah, we have a list. We put that together this year and they actually gave me a copy of of last year's. Uh, but now just just so you know, the INE for this year, you know, we were on the ball. that was, you know, until we got some extra help, which, you know, when Gary was acting, you know, at the town administrator, I guess his position was, he, you know, he helped us by getting uh

some extra help in the office, which, you know, helped us catch up. So, these things went out on time this year.

They're out. They should start coming in uh in the next week or so. And uh we we plan to to work. I'm going to be spending a lot of time in the office working with Jessica and and Richard when when we need them uh to uh to get this done and uh bang them out one at a time and you know I think it's going to be a little different this year with

that letter going out and then when they start seeing the fines and but yeah we can definitely get you that list Jessica has that for sure because uh I've seen a copy of it.

All right. Because I don't mind holding a common vict you know or any kind of licensing for somebody who's not supposed to do you know who aren't doing what they're supposed to be doing.

Yeah. And then like I said, then we talked about I know Mr. O'Neal had mentioned uh and I I have to look at that form if it talks about the perjury part of it, you know, cuz I look at this and I see two-bedroom apartment in this four family getting 900,200. Well, that doesn't get you a onebedroom in Fall River anymore. Uh and it's just, you know, and I know there's some, you know,

family situations or you've had the little old lady living there for 30 years and, you know, the the rents are, you know, an older uh you know, situation. I get that. But it is just again I'm in the business. I see it every day and there's I I really believe there's a lot of abuse there. Uh and uh you know the 61A which you know we're talked about a lot and I'm actually uh

talking to a drone company tomorrow. Uh it's you know very inexpensive to send a drone company out there and are they are they growing corn? Are they growing hay?

Are they growing this? So that's a project that we've been working on.

Th those are the things that I think could be falling through the cracks.

Like I said, if one property is underassessed, one's over assessed, somebody else is making up the difference so that the town's not losing any money. Uh, and you know, there's only two two ways to raise a tax rate.

And I know keeps being brought up that we lose certain kinds of funding. Uh, oh, your tax rate, get it up. Well, there's only two ways to do that. Lower values, which if you look at my page, we already have the lowest assessed values compared to those towns almost every year. And the other way is more spending. you have to spend more money and your tax rate can go up means override that exclusion. So that's

last last thing last thing for me anyway. Um about uh the new growth, right? We've got a lot of projects in town that are coming on board. People want to know um you know, how does that contribute to the overall tax base the first year and then um and then going forward?

Well, the first year, like Jessica had mentioned before, I mean, we if they're, you know, partially built as of June, you know, we can we we can start taxing them. You know, it's not so no different than a new home being built, we can tax them for the land. And then if, you know, 60% completion, we can, you know, we do do that uh going forward. I mean, they'll be treated like all the other

units. And I I think the way they're uh handled and valued and taxed is uh m makes no sense to me. Like I said, you get that property I mentioned that's assessed forund 3,000 a unit. It's generating 2500 in rent. Uh if that's a three family house, they're getting, you know, that that's three of those and there, you know, they should be assessing a lot more than $300,000 and they are. there two families, three

families, four families in town and you know in the cities of course New Bever and Fall River have a lot more than we would on the multis but but but the growth for those types of add-ons and and the new development goes right to the bottom line. Correct. It's it's Yes. A new house. Yeah. Like a new house proposition two and a half.

Yes. Correct.

So people understand that that that new growth goes to the bottom line and then we're we're restricted by two and a half on the on the prior um levy.

Right.

Yeah, it's the levy plus the two and a half%. I don't know where that page is.

One last question. Sorry. I thought I was done. Uh software you're talking about on the people in in the department and what you're going to need going forward as far as people. Um are we keeping up on the software? Um you know, can we get any uh type of efficiency by using AI and any of the new programs that they have out now for assessment?

Uh, I I haven't worked on any of that.

Jessica, do you have any information on that?

Um, no, I haven't. I mean, we work with Vision. Um, that's our camera system.

Um, I don't I haven't really um looked into any um AI um to see if that would be, you know, beneficial.

Maybe with the uh we could work with the uh our in-house IT in the town hall. We have an IT department, right? That would that would be the place to start.

Yeah. according Gary might have seen.

Yeah, Chris, we we've um I've scheduled a few meetings with a couple different municipal AI companies. So, we're investigating that. Um probably more of a holistic approach rather than just for one department, but we're we're seeing more um companies come out that are tailored to municipalities and the work that we do. So, it's certainly something we're looking at and um I could see it

helping us, you know, within the next year or two cuz it's not just about adding the people that we need and the payrolls that we need to get the job done. We got to try and find some kind of efficiencies that that we can hopefully offset those additional costs or or maybe even go backwards at some point, which is my view probably impossible these days. So, well, I really I really think that data

collector position would uh would more than pay for itself. uh we have the money in the budget. You know, we that's come up several times between the last couple town administrators when well, how come we don't have enough help, but there's money left over in the budget.

So, and you know, Mr. Dad and Jessica can provide more numbers on that. I think it was, you know, there was money there's money there, and I think they will earn their weight. I mean, one number we saw by the time that I put in with with Richard and Jessica this year on the uh we talk about the commercials.

So, you know, these aren't the medians, but you got total commercial values increased by almost 8 and a half% this past year and residential only six by uh 6%.

That that's kind of the first. Why?

Because we took the time, we sat down, I learned what, you know, they're up against in the office. We sat down, we went through the INE that were from last year and uh and we worked them and found, you know, things that weren't right and found apartments that weren't, you know, charge weren't, you know, we we don't have to use what somebody says they're charging for rent. We we have

we're allowed to use market rents if we want also. So, we spend all extra time on that and it and it paid dividends already and that was just, you know, us in spending the more time. You just you need people to do that. So, I just think that position would would really uh would really help the office and the town more importantly.

Thank you.

Anything else?

I don't think so. I I thank um both uh you Kurt and Kevin who's also on screen and and certainly Jessica for preparing that presentation and working through your technical glitches. So, I I thank you for um enduring.

Madam Chad, it would it probably wouldn't be a bad idea if we could grab that snippet. Maybe DCTV can grab that snippet of Jessica's presentation and throw it out there.

You know, people may be interested.

There's a lot of questions online about assessments and taxes.

Sure.

And you know, we are well, we can have our new communications manager um she's going to be working with several department heads to do um snippets like this and so she can certainly work with Jessica um to work on that and get it out.

Thank you.

Are we good?

Thanks, Jessica. Nice job.

Thank I hope that I hope that answered all the board's questions and uh never hesitate to reach out and my schedule's very flexible and I plan to put a lot more time uh uh this year in the office especially on these INE that's the next project.

Oh, I do know that I was thinking back to when we used to get a good oldfashioned newspaper and folks that hadn't paid their taxes had a there was a big long list of who they were uh and what they owed. Might be interesting to see uh who the INES are for those commercial for those properties.

Right. Right.

Yeah, I can send that over.

Thank you.

We'll do some good oldfashioned embarrassments.

All right. Thank you.

Thank you.

Um to our board, I'm going to move now into our voter uh motor vehicle license renewals. Remember that all are subject to police chief, fire chief, chief, and the director of inspection inspectional services approval. And although we're going to give any approvals tonight, they will be held until we are assured that the police, fire, and director of inspectional services has in fact approved everything for them. So,

running down the list, um, motor vehicle license renewals, motor vehicle class 2, Bliss Connor Auto Sales, Inc.

Richie Auto Sales Motor Vehicle Class 3 Richie Auto Sales.

Motion to approve.

Motion to approve made by Mr. Mickelson.

Seconded by second Mr. O'Neal. Um if you are in favor, please um respond at this point. Mr.

Mickelson, yes.

Mr. McDonald, yes.

Mr. O'Neal, yes.

And Mrs. Brooks approves as well. Again, Mr. Mr. Hadad, you'll follow up with those. And now we move into the town administrators update. All right. Just need uh we missed the contract amendment for Deputy Chief Moreny.

Oh, so sorry. Let me go back up. Um item I in our packet. Let me refer to where that is. Contract amendment for Victor Morreny, page 123.

if everyone would just pull that up. Um, I know that there's a thought on this.

Now, a little background. Victor Moreni is our deputy chief. Typically, our deputy chiefs are exempt from um details participating in um private and public um police details.

Uh we're looking at creating a uh contract with um Lieutenant uh Deputy Chief Morenzi uh in order to enable him to do pro um private duty details. Um not those for the town but just private duty details.

As we discussed, we are having difficulty getting folks um for private duty and for um details and having one more body available to us may be helpful. I will draw your attention to that contract because it's not in this packet. It is um page 23 in your executive board session is the packet.

And we did want to add um a notation here that should um the deputy chief be called into um serve as the acting chief that it would suspend his ability to um to work any of these private details because as chief of police that's a 247 position. So, if we could just add that piece um to this amendment to the deputy chief of police employment agreement.

Any questions?

Motion to agree uh with the uh proposal uh with the amendments uh included.

All right. Seconded.

Second.

Second by Mr. McDonald. Um are we ready to vote on that?

Yep. Okay. So, Mr. Mickelson, yes.

Mr. McDonald, yes.

Mr. O'Neal, yes.

And the chair votes yes on that. Thank you for reminding me. I actually inadvertently had checked it off.

All right. And now we'll go to the town administrators um reports.

Very good. Thank you, uh, Madam Chair.

So, just a few quick things. Kudos to uh DPW facilities and school facilities team. Um you know we had a long storm.

Um they were out early pre-treated the roads and you know worked all throughout the night to get them pretty clear. And I think if you compare kind of Dartmouth as generally we have um a lot a lot of road miles comparatively to our other communities and they did a great job. So kudos to them. Appreciate it. It looks like school will be cancelled again tomorrow to give um them some more time

to get facilities cleaned up, sidewalks cleared. So, as a reminder to our residents, you want to make sure you get those sidewalks cleaned up in front of your homes and property that you own. Uh Miss Brooks mentioned that we attended the MMA conference. That was great. Um a lot of insightful information so that we can uh work towards progressing Dartmouth. Wanted to give an update on

the precinct 3 uh change of location. So after working with UMass Dartmouth leadership and the chancellor's office and spec specifically John Quinn, we were able to find a suitable alternative location to keep the pre the um voting location at UMass Dartmouth. It is different than it was last year. So the town clerk will be sending out notification cards, but it will still be at UMass Dartmouth. So appreciative of

the board support there. Um earlier this month we held a training by the operational services division of with o over 30 of our staff members to work on uh purchasing and procurement. With that uh we are now using proper avenues to make purchasing and saving quite a bit of money. Give uh paper is one example.

It reduced our paper cost by 50%. Um just by going through kind of the avenue that the state uh OSD office showed us to utilize. So very helpful training in that sense. Um, we held our first budget advisory group meeting a couple weeks ago. Next meeting is tomorrow. I will say if you haven't had an opportunity to tune in and watch that. I've heard a lot of great feedback uh from community

members that it was really insightful and it helped them to understand things a little bit more. So hopefully that uh continues. And then I will just end with um earlier this month I marked my sixth month um time period here as Dartmouth Town Administrator. It's been a great 6 months and um very appreciative of the support of the community, the board and the staff and I look forward to um hopefully a long tenure.

Happy six months.

Happy six month and I second that. Um yes, I also wanted to give out a shout out following up on the DPW. There's been, of course, a lot of folks um not uh happy, but we always hear the naysayers more than we h hear the shout outs. If in fact your uh mailbox was damaged, please let the DPW know. Um and we will look into that um as a repair or

replacement. So, have no fear. Um other than that, I hope everyone understood the no parking ban. I know that there were cars that may have been plowed in because you were on the street. Um, and yes, that means sometimes you have to park either in on your grass or in a communal parking lot. Um, this was while I don't want to say unprecedented storm, we haven't had one pile this much on.

And as Cody said, the school is canceled tomorrow. Yes, the roads are looking good, but the the school buses travel roads that not all are looking good.

There is some difficulty where to put the snow at this point when they're moving it around. So, please uh keep that in mind. All right. Um, next is we have proposed town projects. We're going to be talking about that at our next meeting. Anything from our old business, Cody?

Yeah, just a 40B update. um wanted to share that the project proposed at the former Hawthorne Country Club has agreed to an extension uh into March. So, we're continuing to put together um potential conditions, draft permit, and working through that. Uh the next meeting for that project is February 12th. The next meeting for the Haway Road project uh is March 2nd. We're working on finalizing

those peerreview proposals um and we will have that um peer review on board.

The last thing I want to mention about 40B is we've got a ton of outreach about this safe harbor in the town um you know um the town maybe not taking advantage of exercising its safe harbor right. I just want to assure residents I I I've got probably 75 emails. I tried to respond to as many of them as I could.

We have looked into every single possibility. We have spent countless hours. We have calculated our total land area that have exemptions to see if we've met the 1.5%. We we have literally looked at every single safe harbor possible. If it were possible, we would be exercising the safe harbor. Um so I get it's frustrating, but I I just want our residents to um at least feel assured that that we have we've looked

into this. We started looking into this before we even got a single one of these applications. Um and unfortunately, we're we're not there. You know, we don't have any of the criteria that meet the safe harbor. Um and you know, that that's kind of where we stand. If these go through um if any of them go through we feel like we will have potentially that safe harbor that would buy us some

time but at this time it's just not there. And that is it. Uh no new updates on Bliss Corner Lake Noachchok or municipal broadband.

Okay. Thank you. We do have two minutes um two dates of minutes to review. The first is on December 15th. Uh this one Mr. McDonald attended um remotely.

um that's found on page 135 in your packet. And this is where um the initial assessor's uh presentation was included.

Motion to approve.

Second.

Motion made by Mr. McDonald.

Seconded by Mr. Mickelson. Any questions?

Okay, let's uh vote. Uh, in favor of accepting these minutes, Mr. Mickelson, yes.

Mr. McDonald, yes.

Mr. O'Neal, yes.

And the chair votes yes. Our next set of minutes, um, sorry, I'm zooming down as quickly as I can, is for our meeting that we had on Monday, January 5th, and Mr. McDonald was absent from that meeting.

That meeting starts on page 146.

I looked through this one and uh motion made to approve and file. I don't see any issues. Motion made by Mr.

O'Neal. Seconded by second Mr. Mickelson. All right. Again, we will go around in favor of accepting these minutes. Mr. O'Neal.

Yes.

Mr. Mickelson.

Yes.

Mr. McDonald.

Thank.

Abstain. and myself I will accept. So that's three in favor with one abstension.

All right. Next we have um select board updates.

Mr. O'Neal.

Um I'll pass.

Okay. Mr. Mickelson.

Yes.

Mr. McDonald.

Yeah. I just want to just um if we can send out a reminder to the businesses and um the people along Route 6 uh especially with the walkways um that you know they need to be cleared because I know we have a lot of walkers coming from uh the ins and the motel to Walmart um and um those areas need to be cleared off. I you know I don't want to get into

the defining aspect of it, right?

But you know they need to do something and there's a lot of a lot of the businesses don't.

So yep, we will we'll send that out. Uh Jessica and I already spoke. She's going to be posting something on our pages too about the responsibility.

All right, which leaves me all I have for tonight is and I was remissed not to bring this up at our first meeting, but if anyone has received the Dartmouth Council on Aging January 2026 um newsletter on the front page, our Dartmouth our town's awkward work family photos, your New Year's smile. And yes, it did cause a smile. I don't know who came up with the idea. Cody, could you

tell us a little bit more of how this was? I'm gonna try to unblur my south so maybe I can get it to see.

Yeah, so we um we've been trying to do more collaborative and kind of cross uh department um efforts and so we did a um door decorating contest, you may recall during Halloween and Amy um and Angela over at the COA came up with this idea to do for um the holiday season for the New Year's. And so, um, yeah, it was a great idea that the COA put together and

we had a few departments take, um, take part in this great activity. So cool to see everyone get involved.

It was very cute. Council on Aging has that, you know, and everybody will know the Olan Mills floating head pictures.

Um, that was hysterical. Our, um, office, Cody and his gang of not so merry men look like a bunch of thugs.

Anyway, it was very cute and um I just wanted to give them a shout out.

Uh that is all Heidi, quickly. Um yes, did we have uh did we talk about the schools last time and the visits that we made?

I can't remember.

No, you're right, Chris. No, we missed that. Yeah.

No. So, let's do it.

So, that was uh January 15th, right? It was after that meeting.

That was the one that we went to the high school, correct? Oh, no. We did both. We've been to the high school and middle school.

So, we did the high school and the middle school. Listen to the school uh certain uh school committee members uh the administration. We w had a chance to spend um basically the morning uh in both the high school and the middle school. uh looking at the um different issues that they're up against in each building um and trying to get a beat on exactly what uh what it would look like

and what the concepts would be for uh for making changes to actual physical buildings in the town. So the work Yeah, thank you Chris for um bringing that up because it was very inform in informative. We did have members in addition to the select board but also the um finance committee school committee um as well as um the maintenance head of maintenance for the schools and they were able to point out

some of the difficulties they're having in both the high school and middle school uh due to wear and tear and other stuff. That was great background for those members on the bag, the budget um advisory group. And we're talking about potentially doing another um visit out to our um wastewater treatment plant so that folks who have never seen that, we'd like the school department uh fin

bag select board members who haven't gone on that tour to um go out and visit that the treatment plant so we can see um the concerns as we're looking at long-term planning and long-term project funding. So that will be something we're discussing in the near future as well.

Motion to adjourn.

Motion made by Mr. McDonald, seconded by second Mr.

uh Mickelson. Our next meeting is scheduled for Monday, February 9th.

Tin Len. Stay warm and safe. Motion has been made. In favor, Mr. Mickelson.

Yes.

Mr. McDonald.

Yes. Be careful of the storm next weekend too.

Oh gosh. Mr. O'Neal.

Yes. And it's stay safe.

And it's snowing. Yes, it is snowing now.

Thank you all for joining us.

We are open tomorrow. So, the schools are closed, but town facilities are open. COA programming is closed. Uh, and their transportation services are closed, but all other facilities will be open as usual.

Thank you. And if you're a member of the bag, we'll see you at 8:00 a.m.

at the town hall.

Thanks everyone.

Congratulations, Pets.

Thank you. Yes. Go Pats.

Roll call vote. Roll call vote.

Oh, yeah. To roll.

Motion to adjourn.

Yes. The motion vote.

No.

Oh, okay. Mr. Mickelson.

Yeah. Yes.

Mr. McDonald.

Yes.

Mr. O'Neal has adjourned himself and Mrs. Brooks votes yes. Bye. Good night.

Byebye.