Select Board Recap August 3 2026

Hello, Dartmouth. Cody had town administrator here to give you an update on the August 3rd select board meeting.

We had another busy night here. Uh the select board met for several hours to go over various different topics. We started the night with a meeting of the affordable housing trust. So here in Dartmouth, the select board also serves as the affordable housing trust. We've worked on several affordable housing initiatives in town. One of them is the affordable housing buy down program for

firsttime home buyers. Those that are income qualified and meet asset limits and other various criteria are eligible to apply for uh down payment assistance for a home first-time home buyer in the town of Dartmouth. We had one applicant who met all the criteria and has found a home.

And so the board approved last night $192,000 towards the purchase of that home. uh that home then becomes permanently affordable in the town of Dartmouth and counts towards our subsidized housing inventory. So we do still have one other um grant available and we will be having an information session on that in early September. You can tune in to our website for more information. Then we had several other items uh

one of them being a joint meeting with the board of public works. The board of public works had come in at our last meeting to go over the proposed rates for water, sewer and solid waste. There was some additional analysis completed and uh those rates were finalized. There was a 16% increase in the sewer rates, a 7.5% increase in the water rates in the smart billing uh annual fee

goes up to $140 and then uh a dollar for the small bags and $2 for the large bags uh will be the increases for that. Uh we also had an introduction of a new business manager. It's a position that we recently created to oversee all the business operations at our DPW. And so, um, Brandy Silva came in for an introduction with the board, highlighted some of the things she's been working on

in the month that she's been here. And then, uh, as you may recall, the town meeting and the voters approved a charter change that expanded the board of public works from three members to five. And so, that was effective, uh, this this July, July 1st. And so, the select board had been uh, advertising for those openings. They interviewed a number of candidates and um they recommended Addison Greenlaw and

Lee Azinera to be appointed to the board of public works. So they appointed those two individuals. We appreciate everyone who was interested in serving on the board. It's great to see so many um residents in the town of Dartmouth being interested in being involved in the town. We also had our town clerk Sarah Haskell Aruda in to go over a number of items. Uh the first item was the appointment of election workers for

So, all those election workers were appointed by the select board. She also gave an update of the election warrant.

This is a process the select board has to approve the election warrant. This is for the state primary in September. And then we reviewed and approved the town meeting calendar. goes over important dates for the upcoming town meeting in the fall, when citizens petitions are due, and uh when the select board will approve the warrant. So this year, the select board will approve the

final warrant for the fall town meeting on September 28th, uh with town meeting being on October 20th. There was an appointment to the Veterans Advisory Board. Stanley Mickelson was unanimously appointed to the board. Uh there were two appointments to the Council on Aging Board. Uh John Folen and Dr. Kylie Medeiros were both appointed. There were a total of three applicants. Although u

per the chair of the council on aging, one of the applicants did not uh seem interested in going to the meeting that they had invited them to. Uh there was also an appointment of a select board representative to the Bristol County Advisory Board. Every community in Bristol County has a select board delegate serve on the advisory uh board.

And so the select board chose Chris O'Neal to serve as their representative for Bristol County going forward. It was also really great to have in Rachel Desilo, our substance use program coordinator, to give an update on everything she's been working on.

Rachel's full presentation can be seen in the select board meeting. However, Rachel went over some of the initiatives she's worked on uh including getting the lock zone uh throughout many town facilities. The afterchool programs that her and um several of the education department team helped run and were funded through the opioid settlement funds. and some things to look forward

to. Uh Rachel's been incredibly busy and we're excited for all that um will be coming up with her in the future. Then we had um the Northern Scenic Greenway.

This is the proposed shared use path um that is preliminary proposed on Old Fall River Road. And so Sandra Medeiros, who represents the South Coast Bikeway Alliance, as well as uh is on the a member of the Dartmouth Pathways Committee, gave a great presentation on where things stand with that. there's been a lot of misinformation about uh the current process uh regarding this proposed path also where it stands and

so Sandra did an excellent job again the full presentation can be seen in the select board meeting but an excellent job of showing look th this is uh feasibility study looked at different options for where the proposed path could go and it was identified that the northern part of town on old Paul River was the most feasible option doesn't mean it it is the option um and going to be built, but it was the most

feasible of the ones looked at. And so, essentially what they're doing is moving forward with a preliminary design to iron out all of the concerns that we've heard from people. You know, potential land takings, um the safety of this, you name it. The select board is cognizant of those concerns. The town is cognizant of those concerns.

However, we don't have answers to any of those questions yet. Um the question of will there be land takings, we're not sure, right? and and that's something ultimately that the select board will take into consideration and whether or not it's something that they want to um endorse to move forward with. So, they are moving forward with the preliminary design. There'll be several uh different

opportunities for residents to share their concerns and feedback and we'll certainly make sure we keep the community informed of of that process as we go along. We also reviewed a proposed travel policy for the town of Dartmouth uh employees. We have not had a travel policy in place and so the board review and approved the policy.

It's an internal policy. We had a resignation of Elizabeth Depalo from the water quality advisory committee. Uh Elizabeth represented the conservation commission and so uh the conservation commission can certainly bring someone else forward to represent them on this committee. Philip Baker also resigned from the historical commission.

So the select board thanked him for his service and accepted his resignation.

And then the board also appointed two representatives to serve on the assistant town administrator interview team. Uh we're going through interviews for this key position.

And so Miss Silva Brooks, the chair of the select board, will serve on the team and also Mr. Silva will serve um as the delegates for the interview team.

There were a couple of reappoints for um assistant harbor master and veterans advisory board. And under town administrators update, a lot going on.

Uh we want to recognize our parks and recreation team who um has been working diligently on several projects over the last um several months. Also recognize our facilities team who took on all the custodial services for the town facilities unexpectedly and has been doing an excellent job. Um a shout out to our state legislature. Um Senator Montikney and Representative Marky were able to include $170,000 for

Dartmouth public schools in the state supplemental budget. So thank you to them. We also wanted to um touch on the topic of flock cameras. We understand that residents um throughout the country are concerned about the usage of flock cameras. The select board had previously approved the usage of a couple of a few of flock cameras in the town of Dartmouth. That is under an internal

review uh by our police station and we anticipate having a recommendation to the select board by the end of the month. uh whether that's something that is recommended that we continue utilizing as a resource or it's something that um we recommend that we end the contract with flock. So that that is under review and you can look forward um at the next meeting on August 31st for August 31st for an

update on that. Uh as I mentioned we did add a meeting on September 28th that is a new select board meeting um due to the timing of the warrant. Uh the 40B update, we do have two um the Sherbrook and the Hathaway project are both uh on for August 13th. Under Bliss Corner, um we're really excited to share that the town has reached um a likely settlement with the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

Um they expended close to $30 million uh at the cleanup of the properties in the town. Um settlement would be around $50,000. that is undergoing a public public comment period through the federal government right now. Um and that ends at the end of August and as long as that is um moves forward then we would trigger payment and and authorize and sign the settlement agreement um and

that would be closed. So very exciting um very good news for the town is that was a a big liability that we were potentially looking at. And that was pretty much it. We did discuss on the annual operating budget that the um revenues for fiscal 26 which ended June 30th of this year were down about a million dollars compared to the previous year. Um so myself and our financial team are reviewing that to make sure

that we have stability going forward into the future. But it's definitely a sign of the overall economy. Um as we review revenues, we want to make sure that we're able to provide highquality services. And so a million dollars um decrease is certainly something that we're um need to be cognizant of going forward. And like I said, our next meeting will be August 31st uh here in the select board meeting room at Town

Hall. And we look forward to seeing you then. I hope everyone has a safe, happy, and healthy summer. Thank you.