Speakers labeled via automated voice-based diarization + AI name-matching against the city's official roster. Automated transcription can still mis-hear a name during fast speech (e.g. a rapid roll-call vote) -- clear near-misses are auto-corrected, but this is not manually verified line-by-line. Treat names as a strong best guess, not an official record.
[0:00] Select Board Chair: I call the meeting to order. All rise. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. we'll be deviating from the printed agenda this evening I make a motion to accept the select board minutes as written for September 15th all in favor make a motion to approve the select board executive session minutes dated September 25th as written all right we're gonna open the public hearing for the general assistance ordinance there's a copy right here if anybody has any questions or would like to review it 's up here and we will make the motion at the end of the meeting the body of the MMA model general assistance ordinance did not change this year. They updated only the appendices containing maximums to reflect new dates and amounts for appendices A through C. So if anyone has any questions, take a yeah. [Speaker B (unidentified): All right.] So there's no ADA update this week.
[3:42] Town Clerk: Department heads, that's great. So the town office has been in contact with state regarding preparations for the upcoming election. We have received the new DS-300 tabulator from the state, I think that was about a week and a half ago or something, and we received the state ballots as well last week. Those are actually available as well as the local ballots for the November 13th, I'm sorry, November 3rd election. So if there's any residents that wish to go absentee, there will be applications for them.
[4:22] Select Board Chair: Sweet, thank you.
[4:28] Tax Collector / Treasurer: Taxes are due next month, November 15th. So far we've collected $473,262 towards the taxes, but we still have $1.5 million to collect by November 15th. As far as revenues, the town has taken in $138,000 in revenues. That includes the transfer station, the recreation department, and any fees that were paid through the CEO or the town office. I think that's all I have. I have expense reports for department heads. I still have one for Dickie and a couple for Iana that I haven't passed out yet. And I've been emailing the department headspace weekly so they know where they stand as far as their budget. And that's all I have. All right, next one. The director.
[5:39] Select Board Chair: Batting cage is up and usable. Thank you to Public Works for helping with this project. It will come down just before the snow falls. Soccer is going well. We finish up for the season at the Round Robin hosted by Bridgeton Rec on October 24th. After school adventure club is going great. We have 21 students enrolled. Their favorite activity is imaginative playing in the woods and building forts. We are currently researching options for a ski program that would be open to all Brownfield Denmark kids grades kindergarten through sixth. We have 30 children interested in attending a ski program at this point. We are comparing package pricing from Pleasant Mountain and King Pine. We will be hosting a parents night out offering child care for kids aged 4 to 12 on October 22nd as a fundraiser for our ski program. Friends of Rec pumpkin carving is October 25th. Trunk or treat and spooky playground on October 31. Date set for Brownfield Blood Drive is December 15th from 9 to 1.30 at the community center. It is strongly encouraged to make an appointment.
[6:49] Animal Control Officer: A-C-O. I'm going to get a dog at last. I had a few phone calls about how to get that side of the house. The babies clinic is scheduled for January 9th, 2027. Oh, you're getting shots, huh? Yes. From 8 to 11 is $15.
[7:13] Select Board Chair: We cover that expense for you, right? Yeah. Yeah.
[7:18] Animal Control Officer: Discomfishing. It's different. I might need my baby shot. I don't know about that. Can you get that? Wait a moment.
[7:25] Select Board Chair: Yeah, we're bringing it. That's it. it. All right, thank you. Fire chief, we have two mutual aid to Freiburg rescue for unresponsive person and lift assist to mutual aid to Denmark fire for a structure fire and smoke investigation. One propane leak, one medical assist, still working on the hazard vulnerability preparedness met with private fair review emergency operations plan, test and inspect fire cisterns and developments, truck pump testing on October 15th, three people attended CMP training in Denmark, two people attended med flight training in Center Conway.
[8:13] Speaker F (unidentified): Officer. Just a few hours ago we had a meeting, a health and safety committee meeting, and I didn't want to reference, because I just drove by it about my fifth time today, the playground. Now there's a birthday party going on over there. I was trying to get in on some cake and they told me to get the hell out of there. I am extremely pleased with the way the playground is going. I go there quite often. I go inside and introduce myself to people, the adults that are there with their kids, and it's always positive comments. I go around and look. One day I did find a straw. There was a pink straw on the ground. I got it. So if you need a pink straw, let me know. Other than that, the place is pretty well clean. So I'm greatly pleased with that. The thing that I'm getting concerned about is this. That's my Saco River Corridor Commission. Each town that has a place on the river has two commissioners that can attend meetings and vote or whatever. We're going to be needing an alternate, so to speak. So if there's anyone that knows anyone, because believe me, I've been standing outside the post office and asking people. If you know of anybody that could handle it, a couple of meetings a month perhaps, or at least one meeting a month, I would be greatly appreciative if we could get one of those positions done. Other than that, any questions for me here? Okay, thanks. Thank you.
[10:10] Select Board Chair: Code enforcement, six plumbing building permits, nine plumbing permits, three driveway permits, two occupancy permits, and our new CEO has completed all required courses for [Speaker G (unidentified): certification September] 30th. He's actually said he's gonna retire, I think he's community resilience, so
[10:45] Speaker H (unidentified): Joe and I have a phone meeting tomorrow with the state to kind of look at our last application that we submitted that was not approved for funding. The state had a lot more applications this time and the same amount of money to spread around, so we're, we're going to discuss our application we submitted and then see if there's anything that we can do differently the next time to hopefully be awarded some more money, because that was great. On Monday, we're meeting with a representative from a, he's kind of a broker for community solar farms, to see what farms have space open in their packages that we could maybe take advantage of so that we can lower our electric bill for all of our properties by 10 to 15 percent. So we're meeting with him on Monday, and once we know something, we will report it and probably set up a meeting so that you guys can learn more about that. And then Tamara is going to be presenting to the select board, I believe it might be just you guys, about the vulnerability study that we've been approved for. And that will take about, it's about an 18-month process. but now that we've been approved for that grant to proceed they will begin kind of doing like historical data about our town where we've been and where we're going and where we probably do make some changes sure any questions thank you 're welcome
[12:22] Select Board Chair: Comp plan grant committee public.
[12:32] Town Manager: safety bill we just today got the contract back from the lawyer we got it back from haley ward and then we immediately sent it to for legal review we just got back that got that back today i haven't looked at anything don't think there's anything major so chance are that will go straight to USDA after a confirmation email confirmation from all the committee members that's okay and then they'll probably get shipped to USDA for them to review come back to the select board for their review and hopefully signature. So the
[13:19] Select Board Chair: USDA, they're going to do the review and send it, do an approval, and then send it back? Yes.
[13:27] Town Manager: I mean, I don't know if they like me, I mean, I don't know if they need to sign off on it. I can't remember now, but we're going to send it there anyway because at this point we're sending
[13:37] Select Board Chair: them everything. Well, Haley Ward works with those two guys from USDA. They do, and my guess is they've
[13:42] Town Manager: already been in contact. Haley Ward has done many projects with USDA and the people we were dealing with specifically, I mean, they knew them by first name, so they should be pretty well aligned, but we're going to do our due diligence and just ship it anyway. And they say, if they say great, we don't care, then it'll be on the South Forge desk to look at it as well. And then hopefully people get it signed, sealed, delivered before it runs out, but, and that's about it.
[14:27] Speaker J (unidentified): Ryan Lolar from Drum and Whitson turned that to us just this afternoon. So there were a couple follow-up questions that went back, and I'm sure he'll answer them pretty promptly because he did a very quick job with the second review from Kelly Ward. So I just, I would probably hasn't seen that yet, so long three questions, but there was, there was one question where he said the night town select board should, you know, make a decision on it, but that he's got that contract information and knew he can only do it. It was a minor thing, or a minor. But let's see what he says with the answers to these three questions. Mellon Gardner. Would
[15:43] Speaker K (unidentified): You participate in a bottle and can redemption program to help fund local nonprofits? 68% said yes, 30% said no. So that's a yes. Which town property would be more convenient for drop off? Community Center was 48% and 52% transparency. Would you be interested in sitting on the committee to develop the program? Yes is 12%, no is 98%. Would you like to see the town apply for matching grant to help further development at Dunn Memorial Park? Park yes 65 no 35 would you vote to authorize the town to spend up to eight thousand dollars for a landscape architect to help develop a plan for the park yes forty percent no sixty percent would you be interested in having echo may come to brownfield to offer a class for residents on end-of-home composting? Yes, 50%, 2%, and 40%. Would you take advantage of a composting area at the transfer station? 45% say yes, 65% say no.
[17:33] Select Board Chair: Enthusiastic. The yeses, the money spent. [Animal Control Officer: Also the grant.] Yes, well, architect would be first, and then grant.
[17:50] Speaker B (unidentified): Oh, at the end of the year. So
[17:58] Select Board Chair: if we if we can pull a special referendum in March or April if you have any ordinances that are reviewed that we can get out to get the update we could do that in March I think the earliest we got
[18:26] Speaker B (unidentified): to be like 60 days before the general vote what's that we got to be like 60 days before the general vote night 90 days
[18:34] Select Board Chair: Yeah, but we got to be 90 days after last one. Yeah, we could get something put together for March. By March, while we're going to be in budget season until April, we could probably get a number from Ron for March for the, because I prefer not to do a raise and appropriate in March, because at that point, that's not allowed in tax law. So if we do a newizing ex-account or general fund or something like that, it comes from there.
[19:25] Speaker K (unidentified): The only thing with doing it in March is that it's going to be another year before we pick up our grant. Because we have the June deadline.
[19:35] Select Board Chair: That's for application. We don't even know what we want to do. So, and the way Doug Beckman explained it was, in order to be taken seriously for a grant, we didn't fire a landscape architect, well, snow's on the ground, I mean that's going to make it tough, but we didn't have enough time to get it on this ballot, so March would be the next but architects get paid for what they design so I don't know I honestly have no idea cost wise what but it does give us time to get an idea of what people want survey money you can ask at meetings whatever we need to do But come March, before that, architect, we can reach out. Hey, we've got these ideas. Guesstimate what would cover it, because that was just a survey, so we can utilize, you know, a March ballot for, like I said, not always appropriate, but say it's, you know, the ideas that are presented in the majorities, you know, it's gonna be a hundred twenty thousand dollar grant, but the architect's ten thousand dollars, we can utilize that on the ballot. Yeah, it is reimbursable, but in order to have that, we can't tell an architect, yeah, you're hired, unless we have the authority to spend it. If we don't have the line item arbitrarily, it gives us enough time with an architect that can give us around about, hey, this much. We have until June 30th to submit to that application.
[21:52] Speaker B (unidentified): You're still going to find an architect.
[21:54] Select Board Chair: Well, he gave us three numbers, three references to contact. I guess we're going to come, I mean, I guess it's what, five months to kind of piece it together for March. And then we can do a submission by June 30, I would guess, because it's a February or March, it's a March award. Every November there's a vote, so we can use the November for ballot. So it's $120,000 reimbursable, and for the architect, we only actually need to do the $55,000, that's the $60,000 each, for grant purpose. And just that way, that is going to give us authority, award date, because they don't pay us until January. so but that doesn't it doesn't hold us up from finishing and completing that application process with parks and land we can do it 's just a previous fiscal year that they would be awarded and then we just move forward in July so I don't know yeah i think that would work rail trail construction bids miss egan so well i'm
[23:32] Public commenter: going to come up to the podium because I'm just very excited that the podium is back here. So as you all know that we voted at town at our special town select board meeting or whatever it was, we voted to agree the maintenance agreement for the trail. They did so in Hiram, them they did so in Fryburg. So we've now gotten to the next step where the Main DOT has posted on their website contracts for people to put in to bid on the construction of the trail. So that information is posted on the DOT. website there's a link from our town website if you look under the friends of the mountain vision trail patty posted it there so you can link to see what information is required, and those bids are due by October 21st, so if you know any kind of construction company who might be interested in the building, please direct them there so that they can get a bid in. I did want to mention that there was a lot of chatter online about the historical significance the significance of the trail and so on and so forth, and there is, it is designated as a historical site or whatever in the state of Maine, but part of the process that they go through, DOT goes through, is have to have every project reviewed by the appropriate departments, and the Maine Historical Commission has reviewed the project, and they've determined that there's no adverse effect to take up the rails and put down the trail, because There will still be the opportunity to highlight the history of the trail, and our group, the Friends of the Mountain Division Trail, hope to, we've already reached out to this historical society in each of the towns along the way, because what we would like to do is highlight some of the historic locations along the trail with informational boards so that as people are using the trail, they can really appreciate the history that exists along the trail. so stay tuned for more information thank
[25:47] Select Board Chair: you okay the last meeting we tabled the rec community center access policy and the surveillance recording access and download policy motion on these I'd
[26:15] Speaker K (unidentified): like to take the loitering out of it which one you want the rec center access policy only because it's not enforceable we're going to put employees in a position we don't need to put them in if somebody's being causing a distraction or being destructive we can call the police and have them investigate well you do the same thing with us as well i don't think with a policy yes if somebody's just standing by the fence they're
[27:00] Select Board Chair: going to come and tell them to move well i mean let's let's look at the expectation of the lawyer the lawyer you know if you that's literally just you know they walk up to the playground they're just gonna hang out for you know 15 20 30 minutes okay fine but if they're sitting outside the community center for four or five hours or there because the front door is open and they're just roaming the halls and they're just hanging out doing whatever they're not there for any scheduled activity They're not utilizing the gym, they're just lawyer, you know, if they go in, most people would, in my expectation, would go in, they go in there for a purpose, i.e., I'm going to go to the gym, I'm going to go talk to the rec director, I'm going to go in the gym and walk laps because it's cold outside, I can see on the inside, but it says
[27:58] Speaker K (unidentified): on the premises, so I mean you can't really limit people on the premises in the playground or
[28:08] Speaker B (unidentified): outside, I think there'd be some level of discretion used by the work directly, it could
[28:14] Speaker K (unidentified): lead to selective enforcement and you're just putting people in a position where it could get, you know, out of control, you don't really want to put employees in that position, just call the police, I
[28:35] Select Board Chair: want to take loitering
[28:45] Speaker K (unidentified): Can we take out on board premises? Inside the building is one thing, outside the building is another. Read,
[29:17] Select Board Chair: loitering within the rec community center is strictly prohibited. Is that what you're saying?
[29:27] Speaker H (unidentified): Is that called a rec center or a brownfield community center?
[29:30] Select Board Chair: It says loitering within the rec community center.
[29:34] Speaker H (unidentified): Just make sure you get the title of the building accurate because some people say it's not considered a rec building. Some people say it's the Brownfield Community Center, so make sure they're aligned.
[29:44] Select Board Chair: Yeah, it's REC slash community.
[29:49] Speaker G (unidentified): So, yes.
[29:52] Speaker M (unidentified): Being that we're going to be using it as a warming center, is that any kind of concern with that?
[29:57] Select Board Chair: That's under a program. It states in here, individuals must be actively engaged in a scheduled activity, authorized business, or approved use of the facility. So make sure I'm right, loitering within the rec community center, strike or on its premises, just
[30:30] Speaker M (unidentified): a question, where you take loitering outside, say you got a group of kids and parents playing on the playground and somebody walks up or drives up and they're sitting there just watching for a half hour, then they turn around and they leave, and then all of a sudden they turn back up and they're parked in a different spot hanging out another half hour or whatever, isn't that considered loitering? Because to me they're scoping out something, then call the police and have them investigate
[31:00] Speaker K (unidentified): it but
[31:05] Speaker H (unidentified): if there's no rule against it, I mean, is that then you're calling the police for
[31:10] Speaker K (unidentified): something that is not a rule, if it's a suspicious person they can come and check out whether or not they're doing anything. Yep. Do
[31:23] Speaker M (unidentified): we have signs that state no bordering around the playground?
[31:27] Select Board Chair: Well, if we did not, we don't have a policy yet, so there's no sign of that.
[31:31] Speaker K (unidentified): Oh, okay. Just asking. No, but we have one on there that says
[31:34] Speaker H (unidentified): no running on the playground. Nobody enforces that. It's
[31:39] Speaker M (unidentified): because we can't catch them. I know. We're old and fat.
[31:47] Speaker G (unidentified): Yes, ma'am. Claire, does that mean the revised statement is that, does that cover people walking around the building looking and taking pictures inside of children? I'm concerned because we had citizens having to stay with the rec director because of threats, but because of people coming and going that shouldn't have been there. And I don't think that's right. Plus, when you call the police, there's very few sheriffs around and it might take them five, six hours to get here.
[32:48] Speaker H (unidentified): Against taking pictures in parks. Any playground that you go to, you see people taking pictures. If you're in a public place, expect to be having a picture taken. It sounds to me like there is a policy being written to target a specific individual that is particularly vocal about government rights and those sorts of things, and I don't think we should be targeting people or creating policies to keep certain people out of the building. That's not cool. Have you read this? But I have not, and I don't need to. Then we're talking about the day that Vinnie was in the building, and you know what, being the largest individual on the property that day and with a big fear that something bad was going to happen, I think that he would have been a whole lot more capable of protecting the people in that building than any of the other individuals that were standing there claiming to be protected. Okay, so it sounds to me like this is a policy to keep a certain individual or a couple of individuals off the property. This is public property. They have as much of a right to be here as we do. It
[34:21] Public commenter: sounds to me like it's a policy we're trying to develop to make sure that our staff and our children who are out using the playground and the property are safe from any individuals, no matter who they might be, who might be loitering about doing things that aren't appropriate. Whether they're legal or not is one thing. Are they appropriate? Possibly not. So whether you call the police, I don't know whether the police would come for a reason like that, but we have to have some kind of policies to help people know there are certain behaviors that are not acceptable, that are not appropriate, and that doesn't mean it's just Vinnie Carbone. It's anyone of any gender, any size, any weight, whatever. It's for everyone. But who's going to enforce them is the problem.
[35:16] Select Board Chair: I appreciate your assessment, but I think it's off color. I will make a motion to accept the rec community center access policy with the change on page two, paragraph loitering prohibited or on its premises removed, so
[36:32] Speaker K (unidentified): the surveillance recording access and download policy. I don't really get the intelligent policy. Anybody can FOIA request as long as it's within the state guidelines,
[36:45] Select Board Chair: so I don't understand. This is highly encouraged by the town's attorney with this policy in place. Anything to do with any video reporting, whether it's in this building, the public works building, the community center, I don't think we have anything down in transfer. Yeah, I think just the, just the security system is what's, you know, they want, but it seems to be a very hot topic here of late, with video. You're 100% correct, with either follow what the attorney says and have a policy, that way there is no legal question. Anybody has a question, instead of us trying to dance around it or figure it out at the time, we have a policy, we adopt it, we're good to go. We don't have to worry about it. It's all taken care of.
[37:55] Speaker K (unidentified): So let me give you a hypothetical. Somebody comes to me, tells me that something happened somewhere before a meeting. And I want to go back and look at the recording to see if it did happen or not. What's the policy on that? Policy? Yeah, what will the policy be for me to go and see if there really was an incident on that?
[38:25] Speaker B (unidentified): Accessibility to the footage from there?
[38:28] Select Board Chair: Well, the accessibility is through the two offices, okay? So you would have access because before, the reason, safety, security, incident, investigation, and facility management, where
[38:48] Speaker K (unidentified): you have... So we would just have a logbook there and... We don't have a register to add to it.
[38:56] Select Board Chair: No, we have these. So that's the appendix to this. And
[39:14] Speaker K (unidentified): selectors don't have to fill this out? Yes, we do.
[39:17] Select Board Chair: And give it to? It would stay with the two officers. The binder, that way if there's any question, there's any question, open the binder, this date, this person, this will do.
[39:39] Speaker K (unidentified): Also, how are we going to know if people are downloading or not? because there's other buildings where more people have access to nobody has access to
[39:50] Select Board Chair: The recording systems other than the offices, oh, rec director, and they do now, because we don't have a policy. Once a policy is enacted, the login and password will be supplied and stayed and kept in the vault, the one from this building kept in the vault. So, the reports and the rec director, rec community center, the same thing would apply.
[40:28] Speaker K (unidentified): So the only ones that will have access are the two girls and the slug man?
[40:33] Speaker B (unidentified): I would say no.
[40:36] Select Board Chair: I would say the department head would have availability. Because if none of us are available, there has to be access. You know, the Oxford County, hey, we want to see a car that drove by from the front of the building, whatever, for identification. But one of these, show the access to, obviously, law enforcement, and provide that to a treasurer, officer, to go into the book. That way it's documented that it was done at this point for this reason. And there's no question about it.
[41:24] Speaker K (unidentified): So who is it really limiting then from access?
[41:28] Select Board Chair: What it does is it develops a policy so that, and well, we just had an incident what a couple months ago, guy come in here repeatedly demanding to see video footage, the
[41:48] Speaker K (unidentified): policy, but that doesn't seem to really be limiting residents, it seems to be more of a limiting any employee, so
[41:59] Speaker N (unidentified): May I say something? This, the state does have a employer surveillance law and but we don't, we don't have something like that here. And so if we're going to be watching people like just looking at video regularly of employees or whatever, we need to institute
[42:24] Speaker K (unidentified): that policy too. Yeah, that policy just says that we are videoing them, right? The policy just says we are, we have surveillance, that we have to make the employees aware of that.
[42:37] Select Board Chair: No, we actually, that makes it so that we have to have very solid, very solid reasoning. There's a right to privacy law that coincides with that. She's
[43:06] Town Manager: picking her butt on, filthy time. We're about to pay.
[43:12] Speaker B (unidentified): They can't use it for harassing. Professor, I mean, if there's something that you, an incident happens, you're going to let me know what time it happened. And you're going to get the footage for that time. You're not going to get, like, two days' worth of footage and get a bag of popcorn and hope you find what you're looking for.
[43:33] Speaker K (unidentified): I just want to make sure there's a limit to the ability to, if there's an incident...
[43:38] Speaker B (unidentified): If anything, it still gives you the ability.
[43:39] Select Board Chair: Can still go in there. We just, we're documented that way. There's no question if anybody has any question about any type of wrongdoing or whatever reason they could conjure up, we have a document. Sorry, right here. This is why motion to accept the surveillance recording access and download policy is written along with the surveillance recording access requested. Okay, we are in receipt of the State of Maine's Municipal 2027 Proposed State Valuation. The great town of Browfield is worth $426,850. [Speaker B (unidentified): So, okay,] The Ethel Johnson Most Improved Homestead Award, we did not have any submissions. The tax map maintenance proposal is $2,600, which is what we raised in appropriating.
[45:39] Tax Collector / Treasurer: That's next year, and it's going up? Yep.
[45:41] Select Board Chair: So next year, they're looking at $3,500, so $900. The next thing, when there's a foreclosure in here, the resident is, yes, it is not paid taxes since 2020 and currently owes 14 K. He was interested in making a payment plan for the next 24 to 36 months of 150 a month and then assess what could do at that time. The attorney advised against this. Partial payments can be viewed by a court of law as a waiver of foreclosure or it could be viewed as a landlord-tenant relationship, both of which would have consequences. He recommends that we write a letter with a firm date for payment in full and advised us not to accept any payments before that date. The date that will be allowed for the owner to pay off taxes will be determined in a motion to be made on, here is the March 15th deadline, is that supposed to, that has to be
[48:49] Tax Collector / Treasurer: the deadline that has to be after I talk to them, yes, because the 24, well it opened up a can of worms and there are some people I'm taking payments from that could put us in a liability situation because we are going to go into foreclosure on March 15th, March 16th of 2027, March 15th. Anybody who still owes 2024 taxes in earlier, I will be sending a letter to, this letter, no, this letter will be just, we need to figure something out now. And then they'll get the letter on the 15th. Well they'll have to have a payment due on the 15th of March and at that time if they don't have the payments then they will have 90 days to come up with not just what was over the 24 but all of the taxes, so they'll have 90 days after that to come up with all of the tax money. This is the letter, this is us, that's one letter I wrote to someone which changed for each individual that person and I have a list of people yet.
[50:27] Speaker K (unidentified): No, and so today, what's the timeline? Is it two years before? Yes, so he has two years, right? No, oh no, he's already in full.
[50:48] Tax Collector / Treasurer: But I will be sending these letters out to the people that are on my list here, so they can get their heads up and try to make some arrangements to get their taxes paid.
[51:14] Select Board Chair: Okay, we have a meeting minutes revision for the September 2nd Executive Session and the second paragraph, August 18th 2026 at 12.01, that has been stripping, yes.
[51:33] Speaker N (unidentified): Just repetitively running time.
[51:36] Select Board Chair: Main DOT construction of a 10 wide paved shared use trail in the mountain division. [Speaker B (unidentified): Corridor this.] Year pursuant to 29a and RSA 2382, the inside municipal officers of the town of Brownfield agree that a construction over limit permit will be issued to the contractor for the above reference project along with the contract of the hall non-pervisible over limit roads on municipal ways. Okay, municipal construction bond part of that amount of damage that's going to be requirement, part of this is the bond and the permit which would be done by us. There is a bond form in it, so does anyone have any. Questions on the general assistance ordinance are.
[54:44] Speaker H (unidentified): You seeing that stick.
[54:52] Speaker N (unidentified): The this is the fixed, this is the fixed, okay, this one just shows.
[55:09] Select Board Chair: That's for when there's a plot of a bond and a permit, that's for the contract. We're just agreeing with the state that we can do that, and then we would fill out, have the construction company fill out the bond and the permit requirement. [Speaker N (unidentified): Background.] Check policy, scope is all municipal employees, full-time, part-time or seasonal, all volunteers who work directly with vulnerable populations including children, seniors or individuals with disabilities, all volunteers who receive or distribute money, authorization and consent, town uses a third party background screening provider that will comply with all fair credit reporting act requirements. No background check will be conducted without disclosure of the town's intent to obtain background. Information, written consent from the applicant or volunteer, verification of the applicant's identity, including government-issued identification. Failure to provide consent will result in the applicant being removed from consideration. Evaluating results. The select board will evaluate background checks based on the nature and gravity of any offense, the time elapsed since the offense, the relevance of the information to the position. A criminal conviction does not automatically disqualify the applicant. Each case will be reviewed individually. Disqualification. Applicants may be disqualified if background information indicates a risk to public safety, a conflict with the statutory requirements for the position, i.e., legal disqualifications, required certifications, eligibility standards, a pattern of behavior inconsistent with job or volunteer responsibilities, notice of adverse action. If the town intends to take adverse action based on background information, it will provide the applicant with a copy of the report, provide a written explanation of their rights, allow a reasonable opportunity to dispute or clarify the information. Confidentiality and record keeping. The deputy clerk completes background checks. Background check results are confidential and will be accessible only to authorized town officials. Records will be stored securely and retained in accordance with Maine municipal record retention laws. Background information will not be shared outside the town unless required by law. Frequency of checks. Background checks are required prior before hire or placement. The town will require annual rechecks for those in a position to work directly with vulnerable populations, including children, seniors, or individuals with disabilities, and those who receive or distribute money. So we want to make sure that this is a national correct, yeah, so it does say conducting national background checks on individuals seeking employment or volunteer positions with the town, so I make a motion to accept Second. All in favor. All right. We have a communication form. I'm going to read it. Receipt of this policy report until the next meeting.
[1:00:21] Speaker K (unidentified): My only suggestion, my only suggestion would be to have them in the front of the room because you will not be impressed to have them. Would you be impressed if we made you move to the back of the room?
[1:00:51] Animal Control Officer: I don't even know what you're talking about. You guys are mumbling up there so I can't even hear you, so I have no idea what you're talking about. So see? Keep muttering so we won't hear. You
[1:01:19] Speaker K (unidentified): want to discuss it now? Do you know what you're talking about?
[1:01:40] Speaker B (unidentified): Yeah, I mean, I got no issue with it.
[1:01:44] Speaker K (unidentified): My only thing was to have it in the front of the room instead of the back of the room.
[1:01:52] Select Board Chair: The problem I see with that is the turning around and authority in the back, the reason, the reason being, you know, for this, no.
[1:02:18] Speaker K (unidentified): I understand that. I mean, like Sandy's been doing it for at least a year and a half now, to have her have to go to the back of the room, they
[1:02:31] Animal Control Officer: didn't go to the back of the room. I
[1:02:35] Speaker K (unidentified): mean, I don't think it's, I don't think it's fair. It's
[1:03:08] Speaker B (unidentified): what's taking place now, so [Speaker F (unidentified): the] control, the disruptive end of it is what the problem is, not the angle or the distance of the photographer on
[1:03:37] Select Board Chair: page two, what's otherwise designated by the presiding officer due to room configuration or operational needs. The designated area shall be located at the rear of the meeting room along the walls, of the wall, walls. So just take the rear, safe front.
[1:04:18] Speaker N (unidentified): So do the people that have the signs and the cameras also get to stay in the front? Because this is, this is all about what, you know, you would see any kind of a public meeting, right? So like if somebody has a political sign, or I mean, it, so what I'm, what I try to do with these is to be state unbiased, right? So we include all the groups, but if you have one that's recording and they're told they can stay in the front, but the people with the signs and their cameras, right, it's all about saying the safety and also not obscuring what everybody else is trying to see, so
[1:05:12] Public commenter: I think the difference is Cindy set something up that stays there, she doesn't touch it, she's not narrating while anything's going on. I think if people have it, have a camera set up so it's not obscuring what people are seeing, so they don't have it right up front, they're not moving it around, putting it in front of somebody's face, which I don't appreciate. You know, having it up front, you can hear what's going on. If it's in the back, it's going to be hard to hear. But I don't want somebody narrating what their interpretation is of what's going on in their own blog or video team. I just, that's very distracting.
[1:05:48] Speaker N (unidentified): Then that would be a disruption, we cannot believe. I
[1:05:54] Speaker H (unidentified): can see that. Yeah. So, to kind of carry on with what Carrie was saying, [Town Manager: your nerve. It] is rude and impolite to stick a camera in somebody's face and put it online and be like, criminal, liar, thief. I mean, it is in a public space where we're all supposed to be polite. I mean, it just feels like there, I mean, if it's on a stationary thing, maybe they can be upfront, but if people need to be, I mean, I don't necessarily want my face like put on somebody's Facebook feed you know with their interpretation and their narration of what I'm saying as a citizen of this town and
[1:06:42] Speaker F (unidentified): we of course I'm not talking about anybody in particular that does that
[1:06:49] Public commenter: unfortunately
[1:06:54] Speaker B (unidentified): there is the statement that there's no expectation of privacy in public unfortunately we all have to deal with that doesn't cover common courtesy or politeness structures or social media is
[1:07:23] Public commenter: there anyone any way people could be designated a spot up front where you know they have to be off to the side so they're not in front of the what the audience is trying to see but yet you could still capture it on video and be able to do it i don't think this box is the way to view it is this what i'm going to do you know like the three foot space well we
[1:07:47] Select Board Chair: have to there still has to be maintained ada right there has to be access yeah i'm just thinking of
[1:07:54] Animal Control Officer: like tape on the floor here's your spot are you like you grab that pizza up
[1:08:04] Speaker K (unidentified): further and leave the
[1:08:07] Public commenter: rest from back there so they're kind of away too i mean i think it's very distracting if someone is sitting in front of me videotaping going back and forth and videotaping i'm trying to listen and
[1:08:21] Speaker F (unidentified): focus on what is going on i'm turning around sticking it in your face yeah right that should
[1:08:28] Animal Control Officer: not be i mean i don't even comment on things that are like we're not referring to you i know i know they're not but let's say i've got plenty of comments tonight and i'm not commenting on i haven't tested everybody in town if they want to comment later but we can't make a policy to single
[1:08:48] Public commenter: people out. No. So we can maybe if we do move them
[1:08:56] Speaker K (unidentified): forward it'll be easier for everybody to see and then if
[1:09:00] Public commenter: that doesn't work out. I mean move people who are videotaping forward? Yeah. They're going to block everything. I don't want
[1:09:06] Speaker B (unidentified): to see your parents. I'm not on that side. We can't we can't
[1:09:10] Speaker N (unidentified): move that threshold right there. We can't like this that whole strip right in front of that door that's all part of the ada we can't block the threshold could you make a box right from this red the end of this red
[1:09:26] Speaker H (unidentified): thing over to the door and make that like the media box or whatever you do that in other places don't they move
[1:09:43] Speaker B (unidentified): them and then up against that wall make them sit on that wall then you still have your distance to get by so
[1:09:57] Select Board Chair: every five feet or whatever She's literally going to move butt cheeks, literally four feet to her left.
[1:10:23] Animal Control Officer: I'm trying to figure out what the hell is going on, why is this all brought up to all of a sudden. I've been doing this over five years now. Now it's an issue.
[1:10:32] Select Board Chair: So how do we do the description? Located at the press booth on the right, description-wise to the right of the press booth meeting room, so are we addressing it that way?
[1:10:51] Speaker K (unidentified): Yeah, we have a press box now. The
[1:11:07] Select Board Chair: meeting room? The wall. The wall? No.
[1:11:11] Public commenter: Only entrance.
[1:11:17] Animal Control Officer: Now you've been discriminating me from the other corner. I'm being discriminated.
[1:11:23] Select Board Chair: Like that's never happened before.
[1:11:24] Animal Control Officer: And I'm being discriminated now. Discrimination.
[1:11:29] Speaker H (unidentified): Okay, so... Ricky, if you just put a press box in, if something is a problem...
[1:11:35] Select Board Chair: That's exactly what we're doing. Yeah. I just was doing the descriptive verbiage in every paragraph.
[1:11:43] Speaker H (unidentified): Right, I couldn't hear exactly what you were doing, but I was just thinking if you the press box then you can change it if you if the issue comes up you could change it somewhere else rather than saying like the press box by the entrance you could just say press box okay so
[1:12:00] Select Board Chair: let me ask you to change it yeah opinion if we put it in there as a press box well i'm not part of the press so i can sit with a broad point you know what i mean you know
[1:12:10] Speaker N (unidentified): we could define it though i mean policies generally have that first part
[1:12:17] Town Manager: yeah we could define it can you do that and then we'll review it we'll do it okay that worked you got what no i was gonna i guess kind of piggyback a little bit with bj you're trying to be specific a little bit but also not limit you to this room I don't know if this is like specifically just Selectmen's meetings or in general and who gets the control of what's safe and or distractions, but to make sure that it will work for this room, for the gym, the community room over there, if we have a town meeting outside or in the public works garage or in the eventual new public safety building may or may not happen just to be sure that it can be used in other spaces the what's
[1:13:36] Select Board Chair: Called the Merrill Corner Bridge over on Old County Road. They are behind schedule by approximately one week. If anybody's interested, there's progress meeting minutes if they would like to review that. We have letters of appreciation from Life Flight of Maine. Thank you for your meaningful gift of 816 to the Life Flight Foundation. As access to health care across Maine feels less certain, we're working harder than ever to be there when you need us. Steven G. Littleson, Executive Director. We have another one, letter of appreciation from Day One, who provides substance abuse, mental health, outpatient and residential. Your gift helps young people feel safe, stay in school, and rediscover hope. I say that with complete confidence because I see every day what study compassionate care can do for a youth who arrives hurt, shut down, and unsure if they even want to keep trying. Becky Humphrey, Chief Executive Officer. And we donated $300. Brownfield Historical Society would like to thank the town of Brownfield for the amazing support. The statement that takes a village is so true. We appreciate the generosity of the many people and volunteers that have given their time, skills, and attended our fundraising events to keep us moving forward with the increase in operational costs of repairs, utilities, insurance, fuel, and servicing needs for the furnace. We'd be so grateful if the town would consider donating 1500 to the Brownfields Historical Society this year to help with those rising costs. Your donation helps to keep the heritage of the families that lived, worked, and raised their families here in Brownfield for many future generations to come. Respectfully, the worst for now, president. So, yeah, okay, there's your, okay, from 11 to 1, the town office will be closed for employee training, website training, grant committee, 6 p.m. At the community center, ordinance review committee, 7 p.m. at the community center. This is all tomorrow, Monday, October 12th, closed for Columbus Day. 10 a.m., Community Resilience Committee meeting at the library. And then Tuesday, October 13th, 6 p.m., public hearing on an ordinance to establish a temporary moratorium on data centers. That will be in the community center. I
[1:16:59] Public commenter: Have one question about transparency. All the departments in this town, public works, transfer station, fire department, they have their own accounts, their own budgets that we can go over and look at. Correct. This rail trail thing should have its own specific account so we taxpayers can actually see what this is going to cost us and not be rolled into public works.
[1:17:30] Select Board Chair: That's well it would be in Public Works it would be a line item okay but it's gonna be transparent it's you can come in and see the treasurer with any line
[1:17:42] Public commenter: I don't know any time works takes two guys and is down and spend two days so
[1:17:47] Select Board Chair: They gonna come for that are they gonna count for it we get weekly timesheets that you can see what days they were doing and what they're doing what they're
[1:17:58] Public commenter: That my comment on something was brought up earlier this solar thing this 15% thing has been sent to all our homes hundreds of times the question I have is this or the comment when I worked in a factory we have a hazardous waste company can take a hazardous waste they went bankrupt and the powers to be EPA the whole thing came down and it cost the company hundreds of thousands of dollars to clean up the mess because we had participated in the program. Another example is the main Yankee power plant that was supposed to give us free electricity and died and the rate payers ended up paying for the cleanup of that mess. Solar is no different. When they build these solar farms why are they giving us a 15 discount to begin with ask yourself that question and secondly when they're done with this mess or if it goes bankrupt or whatever happens who cleans it up if you sign your name to this thing you're going to be liable for the cleanup that's why when they send me the paper at home I throw out the trash that's just my comment be careful anything that's free well we
[1:19:22] Select Board Chair: Did we did put it out in a warrant to the taxpayers for solar some years ago whit was actually the spearhead of that worked with the with the developer and all that and it was presented and rather it was defeated but they won't tell you when you talk to them about the
[1:19:42] Public commenter: Solar they won't tell you what it will produce for electricity in 20 years they will not tell you what it's going to cost to get rid of it in 20 years those costs are never factored in and they can't explain them because I've had them come out to my house and talk to me and so when you are stuck with it someday and you have to get rid of it what is it going to cost is something you've got
[1:20:06] Select Board Chair: To consider, yes sir.
[1:20:14] Speaker M (unidentified): Yes, one, I have two problems. One is a question and another is a statement. The question is, on the policy that you guys just put in to sign tonight for volunteers, does that mean any volunteer has to go through a background check? Is it the volunteer on the committees, volunteer to help out at any of the events?
[1:20:41] Select Board Chair: Well, it was specific. They have to be working around the vulnerable population.
[1:20:49] Speaker M (unidentified): Okay. Yes. Who pays for the background check? The town does. The town does. Yes. Okay, my other thing is I've been approached by many people, so I'm going back on my word and I'm going to reinstate Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus. I have put it out for December 18th. We're doing it at the playground and I have come up and talked to Anna and we have devised a thing to give to you guys that we are going to put out and ask for donations or gifts to 10. The donation drop-offs will be here. I've talked to the ladies here. They will take the gifts and hold them. Another spot is the rec center. Anna will take in the gifts and hold them over there. The deadline for the drop-off of the gifts is December 11th. They have them all in by because that gives us the following week to get everything wrapped and ready to go for Santa and Mrs. Claus to give out the gifts on December 18th. If I remember right, Jen will correct me, but last year we grew in 70 kids, so we're shooting for like 100 to 150 gifts for the kids, figuring that more kids are going to come out this year than they did last year. So any donations are in gifts only, no money. All gifts will be dropped off here at the town or with Anna at the rec center and then we will go from there after that, but the gifts are from say newborn to age 10. Just bring them, drop them. If they got to be new and unwrapped, no trying to recycle anything. We want new presents for the kids. No you can't, I'm giving up your shoes.
[1:22:48] Speaker H (unidentified): Chad, do you think that you could generate a list of suggested items so that people aren't like
[1:22:56] Speaker M (unidentified): I mean, I want to say try it. I don't know, I don't know if I can generate that type of list. Try and state is generally neutral so it can go either way, but what we wanted to do is like from four to five would be the littles to like five and then from five to six we would do the fives to the tens, but if someone's sneak or is late or comes in early or whatever it doesn't matter, but we want to be able to have the gifts to give to the age-appropriate kids. Yeah. Yes.
[1:23:39] Public commenter: Ma'am, I just want to say I'm so happy you're going to be Santa Claus again, so thank you. And it was great the way you decorated the little barn over there. Yeah, we're going to do the same thing. So some of you know there was an article in the paper today about the toy box funds and blah. I know the town's working on sorting that all out. That's a great thing. When I donated to the toy box in the past, that's what I thought was going for. I thought it was gone. No, I thought it was going for toys for kids. In Brownfield, I didn't know it was going to go to pay someone's electric bill or, you know, tuition for camp or whatever. So I guess my question is, if we still, if the town still has that toy box fund, can't those funds be directed.
[1:24:26] Select Board Chair: To toys. We can't at this point. We cannot do anything until we get direction from the auditor and the town's attorney. Okay, so that happens, those funds that they.
[1:24:40] Public commenter: Are, can't do anything with. So when that all gets sorted out, if that fund is not going to buy toys for kids, can we at least change the name of the fund? That was the plan. I don't think people thought their money was going to anything other than toys for.
[1:24:58] Speaker M (unidentified): Kids, so that would be my recommendation. Okay, just one last thing, say we get 100 gifts and only 75 people show up, the rest of the gifts would go downstairs in the town and be stored for the.
[1:25:11] Select Board Chair: Following year. You know, I don't know if we want to put them in this building, maybe you want to put them over there because whatever. Well, the ladies in the office downstairs, there'll be an.
[1:25:20] Speaker M (unidentified): An inordinate amount of time spent downstairs. The town would hold on to any access.
[1:25:41] Speaker K (unidentified): Yes, ma'am. At what point is the budget meeting going to be on the list for the agenda? Any updates? No, I'm just wondering. Am I meeting it? I don't know.
[1:25:58] Select Board Chair: We took it off because they went away. Oh, okay. So, yeah, sorry, yeah, it'll be on the next one. No,, that's okay.
[1:26:05] Speaker J (unidentified): Okay. It's going to be on it in November,.
[1:26:09] Public commenter: So I can bring you up to date.
[1:26:13] Select Board Chair: I appreciate that. Budget committees kind of sounded needy.
[1:26:19] Speaker N (unidentified): We're getting to work here.
[1:26:22] Select Board Chair: I know, Deb, I'm there. I know. Yeah, you'll be on it. We'll try to remember that it's on the agenda. Department heads through, I believe, April. First we gave them, we should be wrapped up. Depends on snow days, meaning we had. But as soon as we go out to print, we take it out. Okay.
[1:26:50] Speaker H (unidentified): Yes, ma'am. I'd like to make a comment about the toy box. That toy box, when it was first started, was for toys. But over time, they started helping families with all sorts of different things. Ma'am? And so Rose and I took it over, and we never raised any funds because I was super nervous about that because I didn't know the rules around it. So I didn't have the time at that time to figure that out. So we never took any money from anyone. One no deposits were ever made when I had that money and we expended twice and in that case Rose agreed and I actually we actually ran it by the original founders who also agreed so we had only spent that two disbursements and we had a plan to put it in the bank out behind the town office because we both work. I work at the town office. She works across the street and we would be able to access it. We couldn't access it before because we're both single people departments. So we couldn't leave together at the same time. We had a terrible time accessing it. So that's why we moved it the day that we moved it. We put it in a separate account in its own name, the toy box, but within my own account, just for that period until we could get it over to the bank out behind the town office. I don't have a problem telling anybody that. No money's ever been stolen. No money's ever been collected while I've had it. And there were two disbursements. One was for a family that needed some help with an electric bill with multiple children. The other one, and we were actually going to help two families, but unfortunately in the meantime, we discovered after, well, from 2007 until this year, no questions had ever been made. The auditor didn't wonder or anything about it. The selectmen had no concerns about it. The community had no concerns about it. It was only when I initiated the recall that we started looking for dirt, but we couldn't find any.
[1:29:28] Select Board Chair: And you won't. I disagree. Hold up, hold up, hold up.
[1:29:33] Public commenter: I disagree totally. Toy
[1:29:39] Speaker H (unidentified): Box has been an issue for a lot of people for a lot of years.
[1:29:43] Public commenter: I don't know where this 2007 catalog came from.
[1:29:47] Speaker H (unidentified): That came from her. Okay. The town clerk told me that day. Alright. Or town, I'm sorry, town. [Public commenter: Lynn or Wanda.] Lynn gave me the date of 2007. It was the last time that they asked for anything from the Toy Box. I just happen to be in the middle of it because I inherited it but wasn't part of anything from the beginning and nothing about it and you weren't all
[1:30:18] Select Board Chair: Right ladies, I'm gonna stop you right there. The official statement for the toy box one is the auditor has it in the town's attorney. So until we have anything from them, toy boxes are on the point. So anybody have any questions on the General Assistance Board? Okay. I will make a motion to the General Assistance Ordinance. Second. All in favor? Public hearing of the General Assistance Ordinance is concluded. When is it? It is concluded right now. It's been open the entire city the entire meeting. I'll make a motion to adjourn. Thank you folks. See miss Patti she's
[1:31:57] Speaker N (unidentified): I've put out notices for almost three weeks and there's been a copy right out there on the shelf and it is available online. Actually it's available for today's date on the calendar but you're welcome you're welcome to actually welcome to take this. The only thing that's different from last year are these in the back. This is the only thing and that's just updated because of inflation or whatever.