Select Board Recap August 31, 2026

Hello, Dartmouth. Cody Hadad, town administrator here to give you an update from the August 31st select board meeting. Uh very busy meeting here with the select board. We started off with three public hearings. The first one was for a change of location uh for Deval's for their uh beer and wine license. And so pretty standard straightforward. The the attorney Peter Bullard has come before

the board many times for this process.

So hopefully this is the last time the board unanimously approved this without really any comment. Next was for Eversource Energy. They are looking to install um some new conduit along Gibidlytown Road and Fiser Road. And so uh public hearing had a lot of comments and feedback from members of our community. The board was cognizant of that, took that all of that into account uh and and issued the approval,

but with several different conditions, uh making sure that compaction is met, that we have someone reviewing that, making sure that there's adequate notification to the neighbors, and a few other conditions to ensure the town is holding the um contractors accountable. The third public hearing was for an underground storage tank at 411 Fence Corner Road.

This is going to be a new gas station and convenience store. uh the fire chief in uh district 3, Chief Aruda, has signed off on it. The board heard a general overview of the project and unanimously approved that as well. Under new business, we also had Eversource in to give us an update on the occasional power outages, particularly in the Peyton Village area throughout the summer. Uh

there's been a lot of surges and uh occasional outages. Uh Anthony Vallejo, who is the government affairs manager for Eversource, gave the town an update, some of the projects they're working on to hopefully see this through. And the goal is within the next four to 6 weeks approximately, um there will be some fixes in place so this does not happen anymore. I also want to mention is if there were

any damage to any of your um property as a result of the power surges, Eversource's website, you can actually submit a claim. So we recommend that you do that. Um, we have heard from a few people that some electronics may have gotten fried and um, definitely reach out to Eversource and submit that claim. Uh, item B on the agenda under new business was the fee waiver request for the Dartmouth

Cultural Center. Dartmouth Cultural Center signed a 30-year lease for that building uh, last year. To move forward, they want to do some uh, ADA compliance uh, and upgrades to the building. because it's a municipal building and it's operated by a 501c3, they um submitted the fee waver request and that was unanimously approved by the board. The board also um with regret accepted the resignation of Ron Leel from the

board of public works. Ron uh did an excellent job advocating for the town and supporting the board of public works and he um has decided to resign from that seat and so the board thanked him for his service and did accept that resignation. Following that, they did vote to appoint James Richie to the board of public works. If you recall at the last meeting, the board interviewed a

number of applicants for open seats. Uh Mr. Richie did not make that initial appointment, but they did really enjoy um their conversation with him and and what he would bring to the table and so they voted to appoint Mr. Richie to fill Mr. Leel's seat. There was also an appointment for Peter Perry to the Darmouth Veterans Advisory Board.

So great there. Uh very exciting. The board voted to uh offer conditional offers of employment to five new police officers here in Dartmouth. We are down by about eight uh police officers. So uh three of these police officers are new hires.

They'll need to go to the police academy hopefully in October, if not October, in January. That's about a six-month process and then there's a field training process, but it's great to to have them on board. And then there were two lateral transfers from another department. folks coming from the New Bedford Police Department that once they finish the background checks and go through all of their um

psychological exams, physical evaluations, they will be able to start here in Dartmouth. So, great progress.

Excited to have these new officers in town and congratulations to them and their families and uh we wish them well and and to be safe. Uh there was a discussion on the non-renewal of contract with flock. Flock cameras have been of national attention here in Dartmouth. We do have five flock cameras. Uh, police chief LeC came in to give an overview of those cameras, some statistics. They have

helped us um solve a number of crimes here in town. They do cost a little over $20,000 annually. Based on that, all of the public feedback that we've gotten, some privacy concerns, um, it was the chief's recommendation that we not renew our contract with Flock. And so at the end of September, our contract will expire and the town will not be using Flock cameras anymore or any of that

technology um for the stationary cameras until further notice. Flock owns the cameras so they have been notified that we are not renewing and they will be looking they will be coming out to remove the cameras from our property uh in the near future. The there was also a presentation on the fiscal 25 audit. Once again, the town of Dartmouth had a clean audit. no uh significant findings within that audit.

It once again showed that our financial team does an excellent job of making sure that our finances are in good order. Um and generally speaking, the town is one of the um in best position financially really in the county. One of the we are the only town in Bristol County that has a AAA bond rating. So great job to our financial team for continuing with that. Also kudos to our residents.

We had uh almost a 98% collection rate, which is just excellent. We want a good collection rate that helps us to bring the money in, pay the bills, and so we thank you for making sure that we're collecting uh what we need to in town. And so, thank you. Uh there was a point in time count update. Matt Dancer, who is our outreach coordinator at the Council on Aging, uh annually they go out and do an

assessment of the number of homeless individuals living in Dartmouth. It's typically done in the winter. This winter when it was completed, there was around 20 inches of snow on the ground.

There was also warming centers open and so we didn't get what we think to be an accurate count of the amount of homeless living in Dartmouth. And so, uh, they did an unofficial account in July. Went out and and and it's anticipated that we have over 20 um homeless individuals living in Dartmouth. And so, really working to provide them uh with resources and whatever is needed to um

try to limit the homelessness going on in town. But you can see the full presentation in the select board meeting. Matt and the team do a great job in supporting our community.

There was an application for a secondhand goods license. This is one of those eco ATMs inside Cumberland Farms on Rockdale Avenue. Um it's one of the machines where you can go in and turn in an old cell phone and they'll give you some money for that. And so pretty standard. The board uh unanimously approved that. Two constable reappoints. Police chief had signed off on both of them. Uh Richard Mones and

Ian Daly were both uh approved by the board. Uh exciting that we were finally able to fill the position of assistant town administrator. So the board unanimously approved that contract. Um Megan, our new assistant town administrator, will be starting later on in September. So we welcome her and we're excited to have her on board. We also uh approved a contract renewal with Sandra Waterman, our assistant TPW

director. Sandrew does an excellent job down at DPW helping to manage the day-to-day operations as well as some large scale projects. And so Sandra's contract currently expires at the beginning of October.

This is a new three-year contract that'll begin at that point. Robert Ma Mald will be reappointed to the historic commission and that was approved by the select board. We review and approved an updated vehicle policy uh which was unanimously approved by the board. We did our first review of the fall town meeting warrant and so uh fall town meeting is coming up quick. The town meeting this year is October 20th

over at the high school. The board reviewed some potential articles. We will do a full review of the warrant on September 14th and then they'll do their final review and approval with recommendations on September 28th.

And last but not least, under new business, um the board approved permanent changes to town hall operating hours. So, we had done a pilot during the summer uh with town hall staying open on Monday evenings until 6:30 p.m. and also opening earlier, a half hour earlier, 8:00 a.m. Monday through Friday with an 11:00 a.m. closure on Fridays as well. Uh that has been successful from the staff and

the community as a whole. And so that will now be permanent going forward.

Under town administrators updates, um I'm not going to go through all of them.

There's a lot going on in town. You can tune into the select board meeting to see exactly what's going on. But I do just want to make note of a few things.

election on September 1st. Kudos to our town clerk's team, all the election workers. It's a lot of work. Uh, as far as the 40B update, the projects are coming to an end. The three that have been uh before the zoning board of appeals the project at the Hawthorne Country Club was approved with no appeal. The project um Sherbrook on Old Westport Road was approved with several conditions by the zoning board. We are

still in that appeal period. That expires uh later this week. and the Hathaway Road project, the public hearing was closed and the zoning board of appeals will be issuing their decision on that later in September. And so, uh, the this has been a long process. I give kudos to our zoning board of appeals and our staff for for following through with this. This is a lot of work and we appreciate them. Our next board

meeting will be September 14th. Uh, we'll do a more thorough review of the warrant and we look forward to catching back up with you then. Thank you.