Kennebunkport Select Board Advances Assessing Update, Ballot Questions

[5:22] Speaker A (unidentified): We'll see if they work good. [5:26] Select Board Chair (presiding officer): Evening everybody, and welcome to Kenny Bunkport Select Board meeting, October 8th. We're starting the meeting at 6 p.m. If you would join me for a pledge of allegiance. Yes. [5:40] Speaker C (unidentified): 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. [5:54] Select Board Chair (presiding officer): Thank you. All right, next item on the agenda is the approval of the September 24, 2026 Board of Selectmen meeting minutes. I'll take a motion. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Thank you. All right, the next item is a public forum. So this is an opportunity for anyone who wants to address the Board of Selectmen with any topic that's not on our agenda this evening. Dave, anybody online? [6:31] Speaker D (unidentified): We have four attendees on Zoom, but no hands raised. [6:34] Speaker E (unidentified): All right. Did you want to talk? [6:39] Select Board Chair (presiding officer): Did somebody raise their hand? [6:41] Speaker C (unidentified): I didn't see it. [6:42] Select Board Chair (presiding officer): All right. So we're going to enter into the public hearing. We're going to have a couple public hearings this evening. So the first, Item 5, is the public hearing to adopt MMA Model Ordinance GAA Appendices A through G for the period October 1st, 2026 through September 20th, through September 30th, 2027, and Jen is here to walk us through it. [7:13] Jen Brooks, Director of Public Health: Good evening, board and members of the community. My name is Jen Brooks. I'm the Director of Public Health, and tonight, as Mary Beth stated, we're here to look over the maximums for 26-27. Tonight the in your packets you have copies of the detailed appendices, the appendices A, B, C, and G, and the recovery residents all increased. The appendices D, E, F, and H had no changes. Unfortunately, the appendices D, E, F, and H are electric heat, personal care and household supplies, funeral burial and cremation maximums. So in review of last year, we had five GA applications. Only one was eligible for emergent CMP disconnect. Of the other, we supported rent assistance, water main repair, and electric pre-disconnects. We were able to do the supports through the generous donation of private donors, utilizing a general need account. We supported 20 extra need supports, totaling $8,634. Four dollars so those 20 residents did not do a GA application due to in income or emergency non-emergency needs so with the little increases that the appendices went up these 20 residents still wouldn't have qualified for general assistance these appendices all increased a very small amount I can go into further detail if you'd like, but overall my recommendation would be to take on these maximums in hopes to support one or two other cases in town. [9:12] Select Board Chair (presiding officer): So Jen, these increases come, the guidelines come from the state? [9:17] Jen Brooks, Director of Public Health: Correct. This is a state statute program. They come down every year. The, for example, Appendice A, which is the overall maximums, only increased $131. So if someone is a single person, they would have to make $1,368, under $1,368 a month to get any type of general assistance. So it's a very low income bracket. When [9:55] Speaker C (unidentified): you speak of increases, those were the amounts on increased what the threshold was at which they need to fall below in order to qualify. [10:06] Jen Brooks, Director of Public Health: So, for example, in 2025, the overall was $1,137. In this coming year, it will be $1,368. So very, little increase for overall economic. [10:25] Speaker C (unidentified): That's not even really the COLA, is it? That's kind of interesting, but there it is. Yeah. [10:36] Jen Brooks, Director of Public Health: Does anyone have any questions? [10:38] Select Board Chair (presiding officer): Well, we need to get any feedback from the public before we go back to the church. So this is a reminder, we are in public hearing mode. So Jen took us through just the guidelines for the increase, which we normally go and update dependencies as handed down through the state and update ours to align with. Correct. So is there anyone here that has any comments or questions during the public hearing for the GA assistant guidelines? [11:05] Speaker D (unidentified): We have no choice in here, right? It's getting it's becoming in compliance with the state right law okay so at this [11:18] Select Board Chair (presiding officer): point I'm gonna close the public hearing and now I'll take some feedback from the [11:23] Speaker C (unidentified): board that case I'd like to make a motion that we adopt the MMA model ordinance GA appendices a through G for the October 1st 2026 through September [11:43] Select Board Chair (presiding officer): 30th 2027 any more discussion seeing none vote all in favor thank you thank [11:53] Speaker E (unidentified): you thanks Jen before you go you know one of the items that we talked about this past week was the concern with fuel prices this winter and the decreasing federal support and so do you want to just talk a little bit about that because certainly our donation accounts are probably going to be harder [12:14] Jen Brooks, Director of Public Health: Hit this year absolutely. So August 1st of this year, as previous years, we sent out applications for the town's fuel assistance program where these applicants would not meet GA maximums or exceed maximums. So 20 applications went out. We supported 20 people last year out of the fuel account, eight thousand six hundred dollars. That was when gas fuel was three, four dollars. If it gets to eight, nine dollars a gallon, my concern is the number of needs in this town will increase as well as the financial burden of the generosity that the town has received. So I just would like to make that note that I do have worry for the many and not few people that use our donated funds. I've already had three people that did not receive applications reach out to me already. [13:20] Select Board Chair (presiding officer): Well, I think it's good that we're talking about it so that people know. And Jen, does the state come back to you guys for guidance or is input in terms of the guidelines [13:36] Jen Brooks, Director of Public Health: for these maximums? Yeah, not that I'm aware of her. I was at least brought into this year. I don't believe usually they [13:42] Select Board Chair (presiding officer): come down from the federal. Okay, yeah, thank you. So I think this is just something that during the course of this winter it'd be nice to keep the board abreast of where we are on the fuel fund and make sure our residents are the ones that are needed get the support they can. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thanks Jen. All right, the next we're going to have a public hearing for the November ballot referendum questions and I think Ben is going to join us and taking us through the land use. I'm going to open the public hearing for the Board of Selectmen and I'll ask the chair for GPC and the Planning Board to open theirs too. So [14:39] Planning Board / GPC member: I believe we have, we only have two members of the GPC here although we were expecting three. Do I count? I think Mary Beth can come and do you need the chair with the chair of the Planning Board but we do not have the chair of the GPC. You just need [14:56] Select Board Chair (presiding officer): someone to act as chair. Yep, if we could just have somebody from the GPC committees just stand up and open up. Yeah, okay, just, Oh Tom, all you have to do is stand up and say that you're gonna open up the public hearing for the GPC. [15:13] Speaker C (unidentified): My name is Tom Smith, GPC. Have I opened the hearing? Is that it? That's it. Sounds good. Great job. [15:23] Ed Francis, Chair of the Planning Board: Hi, Ed. Ed Francis, Touchstone Drive, Chair of the Planning Board, and we open this public hearing. [15:33] Select Board Chair (presiding officer): All right, come on up, Ben. And so I think what we like to propose, Ben, is for the land use we walk through each one of them one at a time, you know, take us through your high level, then we'll have the any public comments or questions, and then we can move on to the next [15:51] Planning Board / GPC member: one. Sounds great, thanks. So the question, the home occupation, which I believe is question one, that is a change, question one is the CDA conditional uses. Would you like to start on question? Yes, we would. Yeah, so the ZBA conditional use provisions are a change to the to clarify conditional uses and that those are handled by the Planning Board, and so it effectively removes that provision from the zoning Board of Appeals and clarifies that is approval that the Planning Board is granting. There are also a couple of amendments related to the other question in which we are amending home occupations to clarify how that process works as well. Lastly, I believe it's on that question, but I might have and my questions might be slightly out of order, is that the zoning Board of Appeals language is being clarified to highlight the provisions in which they have their meetings and their ability to have a quorum. [17:29] Select Board Chair (presiding officer): Okay, yep. [17:30] Speaker E (unidentified): And just to note, this was a request from the ZBA as they felt the planning board was better prepared to handle those conditional uses and had a good process. Correct. [17:40] Speaker C (unidentified): And the planning board has agreed and feels this is a way to proceed. So there's no contention about this. [17:49] Select Board Chair (presiding officer): okay so this first to sum up for the voters this one was more of a process housekeeping for the town between as we just mentioned between the zoning board of appeals and the Planning Board and then also it went through in terms of putting more definition around some of the home use areas that you went through so that 's a sum up of question one right [18:20] Planning Board / GPC member: Yes, question one is related exactly to the Board of Appeals processes. Okay, so [18:27] Select Board Chair (presiding officer): on that note, that's question one on the ballot. Is there any questions from anyone in the room or comments from anyone in the room about this ballot question? Seeing none, Dave? Okay, question two on the ballot. Shannon, [18:54] Planning Board / GPC member: you can speak [18:57] Wendy Murphy, public commenter: when you unmute yourself. Hi, it's actually Wendy Murphy. I live in [19:01] Speaker E (unidentified): Kennebunkport using my daughter's computer. I'm out of town. I just want to say that it's very hard to hear anyone at the podium. If they could just like [19:14] Wendy Murphy, public commenter: bring the microphone to their, you know, to their level or get closer. Okay, thank [19:20] Select Board Chair (presiding officer): You thank you. Okay, let us know if you can here. After he does, great, thank you. Okay, great, thank you. Okay, any other hands? No? Okay, we're moving on to the [19:35] Speaker A (unidentified): next question, two, on our ballot. I think we covered both of those, didn't [19:44] Planning Board / GPC member: I can give you a brief overview of the home occupation question if you would prefer. So that provision just clarifies the home occupation use. So it brings it into what we would kind of call industry standards. So it breaks home occupation into two separate provisions, one that is slightly more onerous than others, depending on whether there is customer traffic or not. And the home occupation provision is being removed from the current review of the ZBA. And home occupation type A, which is the minor review, would be reviewed by the code enforcement officer, and home occupation type B, which has more traffic or noise or other things, would be reviewed by the planning board, so [20:48] Select Board Chair (presiding officer): on the home occupation of their, this is still the public hearing, so is there any comments or questions from anyone? Dave? Okay, and just to note, as we're going through the ordinance questions from many previous Board of Selectmen meetings, we've had this information brought forward, and then when we actually vote as a board to bring it to ballot, so both these questions, one and two, were voted unanimously by the board to bring the ballot. So now we'll go to question three. So question three is amendment to the special events and mass gathering ordinance. So we're still on the public hearing. Shall [21:33] Speaker E (unidentified): I read? Yes, you can read. [21:36] Select Board Chair (presiding officer): All right, so question three reads as following: Shall an ordinance entire entitled amendment to the special events and mass gathering ordinance be enacted? A copy of this of the full ordinances into the is in as at the town clerk's office in Kennebunkport. So the note of explanation on the ballot is that this amendment allows the town to support municipal services for the 4th of July, Memorial Day, and a portion of winter prelude. It also clarifies municipal service costs recovery for mass gathering events. So this we've been through this gather mass gathering word and previous board meetings. I'm not sure if there's anything questions from the public. Should we go through anything in detail? Any questions from anyone here? Anyone online? Dave? Okay, again, this particular ordinance also to go on the referendum was voted unanimously by the Board of Selectmen. Question four is the funding for the winter prelude in 2026. So the question reads on the ballot, shall the town appropriate approximately $17,500 from undesignated funds to be used to fund municipal services is related to one Dock Square tree lighting, one Cape Porpoise tree lighting, and one parade during Winter Prelude. The explanation for this ballot reads as the following. Question four asks voters to appropriate approximately 17,500 from undesignated funds to cover approximately 50 percent of the municipal service costs associated with one Dock tree lighting, one Cape Porpoise tree lighting, and one parade during Winter Prelude 2026 specifically. This event organizer will be responsible. The event organizer will be responsible for the remaining municipal service costs. A yes vote authorizes the $17,500 appropriation. A no vote does not authorize the appropriation. Again, so this particular ballot was voted on both the Select Board and the Budget Board since it impacts or it talks to addresses a 2026 budget item. Okay. And they were both voted in favor from both boards. So is there anyone here that has any comments or questions about question four? Anyone online? line. Is there anything else we should cover within the public hearing? [24:26] Speaker C (unidentified): I just mentioned one note. As those who have been following this issue will remember, the question three is updating an ordinance largely so that the town is able to provide support to Prelude. Question four is simply the mechanism that allows that support to happen. So I want to be sure that people are clear that if they're voting on Question 3, that you could still do that and vote no on Question 4, but if you vote no on Question 4, then those funds would not be available this year to Prelude. So that's just something I want to be sure people are clear on. Yep. So in [25:22] Select Board Chair (presiding officer): summary, question three is the ordinance change which will be enacted from this day forward, which whatever way the vote goes, and then question four specific to John's point for 2026 Prelude funding. Correct. If you want to support Prelude [25:38] Speaker C (unidentified): this year, you need to vote yes on question three and question four. Okay. [25:44] Select Board Chair (presiding officer): Okay. All right. So I will say with that, we will close the public hearing, and I would ask both GPC and Planning Board if they could close theirs. [26:03] Ed Francis, Chair of the Planning Board: Mary Beth, we can do that, but I thought there was another question that had to do with changes to the LUO. Am I wrong on that? We got the four? No, just the four. Very good. Planning Board closes its portion of the public hearing. Thank you. Thanks, Ed. [26:23] Speaker C (unidentified): Tom Smith again motion to close the hearing for the GPC. [26:29] Select Board Chair (presiding officer): Thank you. All right, board members, thank you for coming. We appreciate it to support the public hearing, and we have some interesting stuff if you want to stay. Yeah, we've locked the doors again so you can't go. All right, thank you very much. All right, item seven is review the proposal of the sales market analysis, and Becky is going to join us to take us through this. Hello. [27:01] Statistical update presenter (consultant/staff): Good night, or good evening. Thank you. I want to make sure I'm heard. I'm usually can be heard without a microphone, but I want to make sure. So good evening. I am here to kind of bring the board up to date to where we are with this statistical update. We've been talking about this now for I think about a year, maybe six months. So currently we are at 76 percent of market value, which basically means that our assessments are coming in at 76 percent of what the houses are selling for. The preliminary ratio that we've gotten from the state already is predicting that next year will be at 73 percent, so we're dipping a little bit. The state requirements, and I will refresh everybody's memory, is that we have to stay within 70 to 110 percent before the state requires us to do the statistical update. So we're still within our boundaries, were okay, but would like to get started now because the sooner we can get this statistical update done, if we do it now we won't have much of a sticker shock moving forward. If we wait too much longer, I think the, I don't know where the market will go, but it could cause more of a increase to people's value and that we wouldn't want that if we can help that. If we can make smaller adjustments along the way, that will benefit our taxpayers. So that's where we are right now. I have spoken to other assessors and, excuse me, I have been in conversations with vision, our current assessing software program. It within your packet you were given an estimate. I had talked to them and they kind of gave us a breakdown of what they would do and the prices that they would do them for. So in my conversations with them, I've talked to them about certain areas that I think need more attention, for areas for them to look at a little more closely. So that is what I've spoken to them about, and that's where they drew up their estimate for us, and as you can see the estimate has come in at a hundred and twenty two thousand, and then I've asked for some additional optional services to add in. And with those, it brings our total to one hundred and thirty eight thousand. Currently we had budgeted and I think approved for two hundred thousand, so this is still coming in well below what we had budgeted for. So I am tonight here to recommend to the board that we try to secure vision sooner rather than later, because their availability to do a statistical update will get booked up quickly. So if so, I'm looking for a recommendation or approval to secure vision to do the statistical update and that would be for April 1st of 2028. Okay, sorry, yeah, so yeah, so due to the timing of it, they would start the process in the fall of 27. So this time next year they would start with reaching out to the property owners, starting to gather sales data, and getting the project moving to have everything done for April 1st of 28. So I know that still pushes it out a year, and we're at 73% for April 1st of 27, or at least that's what they're predicting. So we're going to have another year where our values are going to be lower, and then we'll get the statistical update and get our values where they need to be for April 1st of 28. [30:43] Speaker C (unidentified): Given it's an extra year away, I think this is all the more important to do. [30:47] Statistical update presenter (consultant/staff): I don't disagree. And though I was hoping that we could do something for the for 27, given with everything going on, at least now I'll have more opportunities to reach out to the public and have more informational and, you know, be more transparent so people can be more part of the process. I'll have a little more time to gather more information than trying to get something done in nine months. Rather than now I have a little bit longer to do it [31:17] Select Board Chair (presiding officer): And then when we looked at like how much we had dropped, I think in a year or with an assessment, it was like a three percent. So if we drop another three percent in this waiting cycle, yes, right closer, so that assumes the market stays, you know, does right, it's like you said in your note to us in the packet, it's getting a little softer from what you can see, so we might have a little bit more, so it seems like it's the appropriate time, so I don't disagree. Do we need a motion to move, Lori, or do we just give guidance? [31:52] Speaker E (unidentified): Yeah, so if the board wants to move forward with vision, I think we would want direction that you want Becky to secure them at that price, we would sign a contract with them, or you could ask them to have a contract prepared and we could bring it back at a future meeting. [32:11] Select Board Chair (presiding officer): Why don't you prepare the contract and bring it back? Okay. Because that would be very short. [32:17] Speaker C (unidentified): That's not going to hold us up tremendously. Let's do that. [32:20] Select Board Chair (presiding officer): No. It's good to see it. Yeah, it's good to see the contract. Okay, absolutely. And then if we could do that in one of the near future boards whenever it's ready, that would be awesome. Okay. And thanks for all this work and bringing it forward and all the due diligence done to get us to this point. [32:36] Statistical update presenter (consultant/staff): We are grateful for it. Well, and I appreciate the support of the board and Lori and Janina and everybody pretty much at town hall. So I do appreciate that too. So thank you. [32:45] Ed Francis, Chair of the Planning Board: It seems like the housing market slowed down [32:48] Applicant/developer representative: since the houses are taking longer to sell. Yeah. [32:50] Select Board Chair (presiding officer): Yeah, so that's what, and Becky's guidance to us and Lori's of what they had written is, you know, they do see that somewhat softening. And so that's why they were asking us, you know, what our thoughts were, but we're so close to that threshold that we, you know, we're gonna either tap into it, and all it does is take the market a little bit acceleration at some year. We're just too close to the 70 threshold. Everybody okay with that? Awesome, thumbs up from the board. Okay, we are moving right along. We are on item eight. So Eric is joining us, and he's going to take us through project update for Ocean Ave 1B Beach. Yeah, thank you. The so I just want to, we've been [33:39] Applicant/developer representative: going, we've had a lot of back and forth with the engineers on the settlement timing of the project. The project was actually initially intended to go, or conservatively they were thinking it was going to go to 2030. In the construction, we needed about a year of settlement period for the project. So have, so we approached some contractors, just asked them their perspective on it as to whether they could, they get the work done a little faster. So we're going to revise at least our estimates for what we're looking at right now, and I just want to at least speak with the board before we did anything further, make sure it was agreeable. The so what we're looking at doing right now, if we're able to get out to bid very soon, we could get a contractor on board sometime during the winter where they could begin to do the overburden work. So basically bringing in material and fill to try to start that settlement process. Of course, the settlement process is estimated by the geotechnical just to take about A year for the areas to settle, that's about between a foot to two feet of settlement is what they're anticipating, differential. So of course it's going to be ledge outcrops and things, so not all areas are going to settle exactly the same. So if we're able to get them here, possibly get work completed by the end of May, possibly early June, then they would demobilize and then leave that there for one year, come back the following spring, they're going to monitor. So the contractor would monitor that settlement period and would, depending on quickly it happens, then they can come back in and begin and finalize the work. So it's really just a waiting game on the settlement component, but usually they're anticipating a year is what we're seeing. So my objective, my ideal would be if they were able to come back in the spring of 28 and complete the work then, or at least substantially complete the work at that time. [35:28] Select Board Chair (presiding officer): So this is like we have two sides of the bush compound, right? We have the conduit work that would be going on, the road raising there, and then we have the Wambi Beach area where the road gets raised, and then we have the wall build up. [35:45] Applicant/developer representative: Build up, yeah, it's going, it's revampment because walls were not allowed in that in the dune area [35:51] Select Board Chair (presiding officer): Yeah, so it's the, it's the build-up of the of that ocean side, yes, and then it's the road. So it's all that, it's all that added sediment to get this up, right, they're talking about. So to get us to the following time for it to settle, all that work would be done, yeah, my expectation obviously [36:12] Applicant/developer representative: they can't just leave that gravel just exposed. They're gonna probably, they'll need to bring that revetment in at the first phase of the project, okay, and the [36:19] Select Board Chair (presiding officer): conduit, the same thing. Well, that's a good question. [36:24] Applicant/developer representative: I'm less concerned about the color, but of course the cover will need to be removed before the new color goes in. Likelihood they'll look, they would, they may leave that culvert there, of course, why, I don't have the contractor in front of me, we're not gonna tell them how to accomplish the work per se, but I would expect that they'll leave that there, let that get kind of crushed maybe or move because of the settlement, because the soils underneath that culvert are going to settle. So there's that and there's also the water main work that will have to happen there's also a water main that goes through the area so it remains to be so i'm talking to the water district right now as to how they want to manage that particular part of the project so as to whether we've got to do temporary water there's basically only six residences that were affected in the project possibly less when it relates to the water so it'd be the bush compound and a couple of properties [37:21] Select Board Chair (presiding officer): Across from the Bush compound, and so when you say water impacted, what does that mean [37:27] Applicant/developer representative: Means if the water main is going to settle, and also they're probably not going to want it to be as deep as it's going to be after the bird, after we place the soil on top, they're probably going [37:36] Speaker E (unidentified): Going to want to relay a new water main on top, so our, so she, he means water service to those [37:42] Applicant/developer representative: While this construction, oh, they're remaining service, I, they wouldn't, they wouldn't be out of water, it's just whether we set them up temporarily in a different fashion. Okay, so they get, they don't [37:51] Wendy Murphy, public commenter: Temporary water in winter is more challenging. Yes, and I guess it'd be the spring time frame right [37:58] Applicant/developer representative: For that, well, during the settlement period, so you know, we can, there's ways to isolate also the water main in that area, so should we have a water main break, we could stop and then make corrections to the problem if we had to. So this, it's really a discussion we want to have with the water district as well as the contractor. It's the best approach. Is this gonna add to the price? It should not. This should all have been accounted for as part of the project, the utility work [38:30] Speaker C (unidentified): That need is to be completed, but what might add to the price, if I read it correctly, is while it's gravel for a year and it's settling, yes, which would mean that it needs to be graded, I would think, yeah, more gravel brought in, and yes, that's going to be some effort that would be asked to be budgeted, and if it looks like it's too much, we'd buy a road grader or what, well [38:52] Applicant/developer representative: We have, you know, we have that skid steer that we purchase and we can do small grading work with it, so we can do that. The question is whether we do it or whether we have the contractor do it. Of course the savings if we do it ourselves, because we can get it, you know, we'll get back to it, and also we can probably be more responsive. So that's, that's something that we'll have to, you know, we'll have to manage internally if we do it ourselves, or we could ask the contractor to come back. The problem is You know, my contractors, Shaw Brothers or somebody like that, they're having to come out of Gorham to come to do the repairs. [39:25] Speaker C (unidentified): And they're tied up on other things. [39:27] Applicant/developer representative: Right. Yeah, I'm just curious. [39:31] Speaker D (unidentified): The paper here say the town lacks the staff to assume the responsibility of the grading for the gravel road, right? [39:41] Speaker E (unidentified): Those are my words. Okay. So my concern is that we do have limited staff, and that this settling process is something that is not normal for our operations. And so understanding exactly what will be required to maintain it is a bit of an unknown. And with the small staff we have, and we do have the skid steer. Thank you, Lori. But we don't have a grader, and so it will take us longer. And so the question is, what will that impact be, and how will it impact other projects, because we're busy with other projects as well. So it's not that it's a bad idea, it has consequences, and I think that currently we're looking to put it in as an alternate and then discuss it, because we may not have the project funds and not have a choice, but I just want to be upfront about those choices. [40:45] Select Board Chair (presiding officer): So again, the timeline for when do we, so just high level timeline, so we [40:56] Applicant/developer representative: rip up the road, right? So we rip up the road in this spring, this spring of 27. Okay, we hopefully are, we would have the contractor leave by early June, let's say, plus or minus. They may be faster than that. I don't, can they, can they rip [41:15] Speaker D (unidentified): the road up when the roads are posted? So don't we post the roads? But I mean, how, I'm sort of curious. I couldn't build my house because the roads were posted, and they couldn't bring any heavy equipment down the road, but they can bring heavy equipment on the posted road to tear up this part of the road if it's posted. I [41:32] Applicant/developer representative: don't know. Yeah, it's, you know, it's like a quandary. It can be a quandary. The, if they can, you know, we can have actually, you know, we can hold them accountable for that if they choose to work during that window. The other pieces, we can basically charge for repairs if we find anything that's, that's damaged. So we'd be looking at basically we would tell them, You can go down Ocean Avenue, and then once they get on North Street, it becomes a state-aid road at that point, which I could not restrict them on that particular road. [42:09] Speaker E (unidentified): We have had large projects in the past, like when the Colony Hotel was building their addition, and they did post either a bond or post-credit with us. So in case there are repairs needed, we can take that. And you can control it. [42:26] Speaker C (unidentified): You can see which days have more danger than other days to be able to do that. [42:31] Select Board Chair (presiding officer): Well, didn't we do the exact same thing with Causeway? Yeah. So we did the same thing. We were out there during. Right. [42:44] Applicant/developer representative: So they're on Route 9 for a lot of the travel that they were doing. The Pier Road, I'm looking to actually. [42:51] Select Board Chair (presiding officer): So on this one, we would potentially ask them to post a bond so that we would hopefully be able to fix anything that was caused, if anything was caused. So now we're at spring, and we were thinking the project in June. The road is all built up, and we're graveled, and stuff is done to the water, and now we let it sit until... The 12 months. 12 months. So we let it sit 12 months from this ring or 12 months from June [43:26] Applicant/developer representative: This is where the monitoring comes in where we're gonna monitor that settlement or the contractor will be monitoring the settlement. The settlement is happening pretty quickly and our geotechnical engineers tell us, You're good to go and or the contractor could take risk because they may be in their best interest to go ahead. Finish the project mobilize out and if there is any in a settlement in certain areas I can require them to come back and fix those fixes [43:51] Speaker E (unidentified): I've got a year after that where I think the concern is a year from June would be in the middle of summer [43:57] Applicant/developer representative: Yeah, no, so the what the summer window. We are not allowing construction during that time [44:05] Select Board Chair (presiding officer): So we potentially would so worst-case scenario. It doesn't settle. It settles at 12 month mark. So then we say come back in the fall. We say come back in the fall [44:15] Speaker E (unidentified): Yeah, and we enjoy two summers that would grow up at home. [44:19] Speaker D (unidentified): Yes. Is this a special gravel that doesn't, you know, make dust and kick rocks all over? No, it sure is. Is it? I don't think so. Well, I'm just curious. I'm not an engineer, but, I mean, that's sort of nasty business, you know? [Applicant/developer representative: No, it's...] Like spray some on it or... [44:37] Applicant/developer representative: Yeah, we would use calcium chloride usually. [44:40] Speaker D (unidentified): Yeah. That keeps the rocks from flying up and... [44:43] Applicant/developer representative: No. It keeps the moisture. It basically will draw moisture into the ground, so it keeps the dust down. [44:48] Select Board Chair (presiding officer): And it usually helps pack things a little bit so but they'll go through within here with a compactor right i mean this thing will get like the round the area there will get shake rattled and rolled oh absolutely it will be done in lifts if anyone's living really close to that road they're going to shake rattle and roll when that thing goes by to compact well [45:08] Speaker D (unidentified): I'm just worried there's a cloud of dust hanging over, you know, a mile of Ocean Avenue for a year that, you know, yeah, that's a, that could be a bit of a drag, you know. Yes, so do you want to [45:21] Applicant/developer representative: talk about the other option? So we are going to do an ad alternate in the project as well, basically a ad alternate meaning an alternate, so we can choose to either purchase the alternate or not, which would place pavement on it. My concern is predominantly once I've paved it, what do I do in the middle of winter? What have you, or even, you know, how do I fix it? I don't, you know, I don't have a paver, I don't have, so if there is really significant settlement, it's just, it's what I wish I had assurances as to what would happen. I don't, so there's the drawbacks are obviously that I'm dealing with pavement at this point, right? So if I'm dealing with gravel, I can bring gravel and grade it, be done with it. Pavement's a little bit of a more of a of a challenge for us. I can patch it if there's a sinkhole or something, a pothole, yes, I can certainly fix those things pretty quickly, but if I'm getting some significant settlement, it's a little harder to grade back out. So what's the ask? I just want to share what we're talking about schedule. I mean, we're just starting to tighten the schedule right now, and I wanted to basically make sure that you folks understood what the what was likely to happen when we construct this project, and I want to make sure that you're comfortable with the timelines that I'm working with, the times that we're not constructing, if you had limitations as to your saying, because we've got to write [46:39] Select Board Chair (presiding officer): those into the contract or into the bid, and I think our concern is if we go somehow into two seasons of a gravel road, I think that becomes, I think we could say yeah, you know, we settle for a season, but I think we'd have to understand from the people that, you know, do this for a living and then our area, you know, is it, do they believe this is doable within a season, and you know what would it take to make it doable, or what would it take to make it doable, right? I think that's sort of what we would Want to write in because we don't want to have adult we want to get out of ourselves of having a longer delay. Yeah, and if you're saying that pavement gets really wonky and you know we could have too much settling in one area and then all of a sudden the pavement becomes a huge problem because you have big potholes that we can't do anything with because we're paved. That's okay, but I so you're doing a couple things. You're doing it one, you're doing an option for them to take care of the gravel Road, right, and what that costs, and then you're doing and we're you'll still do the option for a pave or whatever their best. Yeah, their best solution would be [47:57] Speaker C (unidentified): Warranty basically on the road for a year. Is that what you're asking for, is a warranty that if it does go wonky they'll come back and repair it? Well, it's whether they do what [48:06] Applicant/developer representative: We do, I mean, one way or the other, the road, we fully expect that the road is going to it's going to move around before it's paid before. Well, the ad alternate would be the pavement that we would put down would be removed and disposed of if we pave it. The ad alternate would be to place two inches of temporary pavement on it and all that to be removed afterwards. I see, after everything [48:29] Speaker C (unidentified): Settles. So you'll have a little bit of a wonky road maybe, but at least it's no gravel to create the dust. [48:36] Select Board Chair (presiding officer): Right. And I think that's what we just have to understand is like if it does settle, like what are we talking about? We're talking about two feet of settling in one area and then if you go in and put the gravel on top, you know, and compact it down or do we have to wait longer? So I think I think that's I think when you're going out if you have those add-on alternatives and then we can get some feedback from that. Yeah, and then as we talked before with some of our earlier contracts there was a discussion on previous meetings about when we get into the next contract to make sure that we had dates, you know, and then you know this is a completion date. Yes, so however we do a completion date and then we need to have make sure the town has leverage that if that date [49:21] Applicant/developer representative: it is missed I mean I think with relative confidence I can say that fall of 28 I think we should be able to reach substantial completion the winter well we would begin work the winter of 27 so early like January in that air at that time frame whenever they are they're able to mobilize then the winter of 27 2728 would be going through that one and my ideal is if there we've got the settlement we can begin to complete that work in the spring of 2028 if not certainly fall of 28 we would be Complete, substantially complete, I would probably ask that we not do our final pavement until 29, just because if there is some reason, some oddities, got to fix some curbs somewhere, a little bit of sidewalk or something like that, I want to make sure that we can do that and then get our final pavement. And so keep a bad storm, well, by then we'll be, you know, we'll obviously. [50:26] Speaker C (unidentified): You know, we'll be a lot higher. We get that bad storm and we're just gravel, that's, that's bad. [50:31] Applicant/developer representative: Yeah, that's, well, I mean, the revampment is what we're counting on, not necessarily the road. [50:36] Speaker D (unidentified): Surface material, will there be a sidewalk? Yes, and where is it going to be? Where it is now, the current sidewalk will be. But how about right where there is no sidewalk down by, you know, where Wambi Beach goes, is there going to be a sidewalk there after the, this is all over? Lane page shoulder, okay, I. [50:59] Select Board Chair (presiding officer): Think that's one thing we have to understand to you when you're talking to the potential vendors for this is, you know, we have a bad storm, it doesn't have to be splashed over, it could just be a lot of rain, and if we're gravel, you know, and water's running, that in itself brings a whole, I mean, we see that in our private roads around town, right? So wherever we have water running and if we're all crusted now and this water's now moving, you know, we're going to have little streams. So I think that if we. Can get guidance from the vendors on how they perceive that versus a pave, interim pavement, you know, yeah, I mean, there's. [51:53] Applicant/developer representative: There are methods of controlling that, this, we can just stone dams and things like that, but yeah, but the thing is, I guess I'm a little cautious about that because people still want to walk on it, so I don't want to create any, I mean, that is one of the challenges, yes, that's one of the, how do we approach that? I can talk with the engineers about that, I mean, to see where we think we might have risk. We are adding in drainage, but that drainage isn't going to go in until it'll tell towards the end, so we. [52:28] Select Board Chair (presiding officer): are adding some catch bases in the area and i forget the driveways that we're impacting are we similar to what we were at the causeway are we doing do we have to have do some remediation near each driveway or are they yeah yes I've had [52:46] Applicant/developer representative: discussions with five of the six and well I to wonder I would it's not being affected that we were we were gonna encroach a little bit on their property but some revatment against their property but the driveways that are affected I've been in communication with all of them okay yeah just for the good [53:03] Speaker D (unidentified): good of the clarity of the record. I spoke to one of the homeowners right across from Bush, Steve. Bolshevich? Yeah, and he's overjoyed that they're going to be doing this. He had water splashing on his porch during the big two-year-ago storm, and he's going to have to build up his driveway a couple of feet, but he's over the moon. he feels says he's sleeping a lot better at night knowing that they're gonna put some whatever some land to be has some land between he and the you know the [53:42] Speaker A (unidentified): next storm so oh good okay so i think anything else from the board all right i'm [53:49] Speaker C (unidentified): looking forward to seeing those bits keep them low i'll do the best thank you thanks eric thanks and [53:56] Select Board Chair (presiding officer): so the next item you're hanging here with us all right good all right so item nine is update regarding the wastewater permitting process and this is a follow-on i believe to when you took us [54:07] Applicant/developer representative: through the ms4 change to our community yeah so we've got a couple of permits coming up so one is happening sooner than the other one there's a few slides behind you if you want to so just to give you a quick background basically the wastewater department basically we about 20 miles of sewer at 17 major pump stations about 88 smaller grinder pump stations we also operate a wastewater treatment plant where we treat the water, remove the organics from the water, disinfect the water, and then discharge it to the Kennebunk River. So what's happening right now is our wastewater discharge permit is now coming up for review. And we have not seen that permit yet. We do not know what they'll require. These are typically five-year permits. And every five years, they give us a permit. They give us new limitations on our discharge. charge and then we have five years to make those corrections so but at the same time we're also I think we shared with you a little bit about the ms4 stormwater permit that's coming a little bit later and I'll work through those dates with you folks so next slide thank you so these are the these this is the timing right now so we're gonna have to do an NOI or a notice to the public and we're gonna have to have a public hearing that's our next [55:30] Wendy Murphy, public commenter: selectmen's meeting. Right now we're talking about a renewal permit. It's our [55:35] Applicant/developer representative: renewal permit for the wastewater so looking at the blue with the one on the left so we need to hold a public hearing on our wastewater so that's a treatment plant discharge permit so if there's people that have questions about that we will place it in the paper it's I would you know we have some standing questions that people might add but ask but you know is it gonna affect our sewer rates so on so forth is it going to you know what happens and usually it's probably pretty seamless for most people most people aren't going to really see the difference but what it could do is depending on what the ask will be on the permit is whether we need to do anything different at the treatment plant but we [56:18] Select Board Chair (presiding officer): don't know what the ask is until we put the permanent right so that's still a big question so yeah so the public hearing is sort of like we're just putting the permit in [56:28] Wendy Murphy, public commenter: and the state will tell us what yeah what if anything just try to negotiate somewhat but [56:34] Applicant/developer representative: yeah it's usually most of the treatment plants are kind of locked into their permits depending on their discharge waters and such yeah so do they always ask for something to go along with that permit for us to do usually yeah usually it's usually a little more stringent hopefully it doesn't require any major upgrades or anything like that so yeah so do you want [56:58] Speaker E (unidentified): to just talk about the big issue on the plate right now is nitrogen has been discussed [57:03] Applicant/developer representative: for a while i think it's still being debated between epa region one and rdep which is a delegated authority the two of them are going back and forth a little bit on whether to add nitrogen and at what levels into our permit and not just us but everybody yeah everybody writes so nitrification of the oceans everybody talks about that you know so everybody's very sensitive about acidification of the oceans nitrification of the oceans and those types of things and so because we're regulated by Them and we're they regulate our pipe that we discharge, then they get to get us and never mind the rest of the watershed but [57:42] Select Board Chair (presiding officer): Right, yeah, but I but if they did do something like that, we have five years to implement to correct it, to correct it, yeah, so then we have whatever their regulation [57:53] Speaker D (unidentified): What do you guideline is right, where's the nitrogen come from, the wastewater, sure, I mean [58:01] Applicant/developer representative: And 70% of the air is nitrogen. [58:04] Speaker D (unidentified): Oh, hey, well, I was this old until I learned that. How do you get it out? [58:12] Applicant/developer representative: We actually do a little bit of that now. If you see our trays, basically we take the oxygen out of the water, and then we then strip it with the air. [58:22] Speaker D (unidentified): So it's some machinery. [58:24] Applicant/developer representative: If they're requiring us to get really low, there's sometimes with some treatment plants it could be a whole train where you basically remove all oxygen, you make the water completely anoxic, and then you put air back in, oxygen back into it, and so there's other types of filters also that could be also be [58:42] Speaker D (unidentified): implemented, so it's some cost to put this additional gizmos in that or you know anything [58:49] Select Board Chair (presiding officer): they really ask for, we'll have we have five years to implement and figure it out, and if it's a change there will be some cost, right? [58:59] Applicant/developer representative: Right,. I mean, you know, well, obviously, the first approach is always to try, can we do it with our current trains and current systems? Process. Yeah. Process changes. So we're going to start that. As I said, we haven't seen the permit yet, so I don't really know what the ask is, what the extent of the ask is. And we'll take you through the NOIs, basically. That's really not happening until the permit issue is not happening until July of next year. Then the permit goes live a year after that in 28. So that's kind of going to lag behind this one because this is when our permit issue date is this coming January for the wastewater. [59:34] Select Board Chair (presiding officer): And so that was different from your last review with us is that at that time of the last review, we did not know when the MS4 was going to go active. They were actually going to look like retroactive thing. So that's all been cleared up. [59:48] Applicant/developer representative: They had standard boilerplate that the federal government required them to put out. [59:52] Speaker E (unidentified): And so we received a letter late last week from DEP and they verified they were gonna give us additional time, they told us in a meeting they would but they [1:00:04] Applicant/developer representative: put it in writing, right, okay, so it's just I think the original letter was just a form, almost a form letter, okay, yeah, so good, so thank you, yeah, for [1:00:14] Select Board Chair (presiding officer): clearing that up for us, so next slide, so [1:00:19] Applicant/developer representative: Just this is just a quick overview. What does it do? It regulates our, you know, the water that we, you know, the wastewater permit regulates the water that we actually are treating and collecting, and, you know, we have to monitor tests, so and so forth, and report, and also maintain the equipment, obviously, to make sure that we don't have unnecessary overflows or anything like that. So that is what our wastewater permit basically spells out. The stormwater permit is really oriented towards storm water, so that's our catch basins and our, and there's a six, you can see the six measures that we have here. Basically we're looking at municipal runoff is what we're looking at, and then there's good housekeeping, there's some planning efforts in there for pre and post construction methods and monitoring there, the our developments going forward in perpetuity. That's the stormwater component, so [1:01:10] Speaker C (unidentified): that's the difference. It's mostly education and monitoring, isn't it, when I [1:01:14] Applicant/developer representative: look at, when i was reading it, well we have to keep, we have to clean catch basins, we're going to have a schedule cleaning catch bases, we're going to have to map out our system. Should something tip over on the road somewhere and it, yeah, it drains into a catch basin, where does it go? i, you know, where, you know, we have to be able to know exactly where it's discharging, because then you go and try to medicate, yeah right, so but does the best management practices basically also they're or just, you know, if you have a storm drain, a detention pond or something like that, we have to monitor those going forward. Actually, the development has to monitor it, but I believe every five years we'll have to verify that. It's still operating as it should. [1:01:55] Speaker E (unidentified): So right now in the planning process, they have to prove what the stormwater impact is before development and then after development and what measures. Now we will be responsible to go check on those on a regular basis and verify their work. [1:02:12] Speaker D (unidentified): Municipal means like the collective municipal of the stormwater system maintained by the municipality. It doesn't mean the subdivisions, drainage pond that may go into a creek, does it? [1:02:30] Applicant/developer representative: It does. Okay, it does. So that's a whole different part of the pre and post construction, yeah, component. So there's a pre and post construction. So then it's going to review the storm drain system when we go, when they go, when it's being developed, designed and developed. They're going to need to meet our stormwater, those stormwater standards. But then they're going to have to report to us that the system is working, and every five years I believe we're going to have to go check it and say, is it [1:02:55] Speaker D (unidentified): really working? And is this any, is anything grandfathered before that was put in before 2027, whenever the effective date is of the permit? Or is it you're going to have to go back and look at, you know, the colonies stormwater system or, you know, big, yeah, you have to imagine the bigger place [1:03:16] Applicant/developer representative: landowners typically, we have not reached back, at least in my experience, right, work for municipalities, but I don't know what the permit says yet, so I don't know if they've become more stringent. But as you can see, we weren't an MS4 community, but we are now, so they're kind of reaching out. And also I don't know the area of town yet that is going to be required. When do we [1:03:37] Select Board Chair (presiding officer): actually find these things out? Like we, when do we find out what the permit will be for the wastewater discharge, and then when do we find out what the substances are for the MS4 permit, like [1:03:51] Applicant/developer representative: what they're going to be asking? So the, so the, is the permit for the MS4 is going to be [1:03:55] Select Board Chair (presiding officer): issued in July of next year, and when it's issued, that's when it's clarified about everything that they're going to be asking for and the directions that fall in, yeah. So yes, because we'll need to put [1:04:06] Applicant/developer representative: a plan together, we call it a stormwater plan together, we'll need to tell them year one you're going to do this, year two you'll do this. After July we'll start that work in July, right? [1:04:16] Select Board Chair (presiding officer): Right, so July we find out what they're asking for. Yep. And one, do we find out what they're asking for the wastewater permit discharge? So that one will that [1:04:25] Applicant/developer representative: is actually January this year, so Jan, I've just, of those 27, so January of 27, [1:04:29] Select Board Chair (presiding officer): prior to us going into our budgeting process, will know what the five-year outlook, well what the question or what they're asking for the permit, any new regulations that we have to complete within five years. That's correct, right? [1:04:43] Applicant/developer representative: Right. Right. But the permit goes live for the stormwater goes live on the 28th. So we get the permit a year earlier for that. This one, we're going to get our permit and they're going to tell us what the new limitations are for discharges. But we have five years. We have five years. Yes. Well, I'll have to put a plan together. [1:05:02] Wendy Murphy, public commenter: They'll need to approve that. Right. So before we get confused. [1:05:07] Speaker E (unidentified): They will give us indications before they issue the permit because there will be a bit of negotiation back and forth. Okay, it's like negotiating with the bank though, one-sided. So we will have a sense that we can give you indications next budget season. We do need to start budgeting for what consultant services we're going to need for MS4, besides what we might need to do for the renewal. So we have been entered into a regional effort where the other communities along the coast here are working with SMPDC to find a joint vendor to give us consultant services. And it's kind of an a la carte, so you decide what you want. So Peter has been involved in that interview process and we'll be coming back to you at some point to say what we think we're gonna need and we're gonna have to make choices about what we want to maybe hire in-house or whether we want to do consultants. So we'll, we'll have more discussions. Okay, great, thank [1:06:17] Applicant/developer representative: you. This has been very helpful. I mean, I've got other slides but I think it's really just, you know, just letting you know what's, let's just go to the net two slides beyond. So I think I've talked enough about the treatment, everything else. One more, there we go. So next steps, October 22nd we're gonna have public comment for the, for the, for our just started our wastewater permit. Then we're gonna file notice of intent and November the bite seven twenty six is a target date for the permit issuance is January 1st 27. I think those are probably the [1:06:47] Wendy Murphy, public commenter: most important relevant. Thank you. Great job. Yeah, thanks for both the updates. [1:06:59] Select Board Chair (presiding officer): Are very helpful. Let's watch that nitrogen. All right gentlemen, we are moving on. So we have other business. Joseph? Nothing, ma'am. Dave? Sorry, just a [1:07:14] Speaker C (unidentified): Just a quick report that John Crowder and I walked the dunes this morning measuring the health of the dune grass. And I'm pleased to say that so far we've had no physical destruction, wave destruction of the dunes. So that's been a blessing. And the grasses are, in the large part, doing quite well. There are some problem dead areas but all in all in terms of a barrier to [1:07:42] Speaker A (unidentified): Erosion, they're really an excellent shape. That's good news. Okay, I only have [1:07:51] Select Board Chair (presiding officer): one item, and this is Mr. Case came to our last board meeting and brought up a suggestion about doing a gazebo. We will call it the grassy knoll of Cape Porpoise, Lori, and the team looked into the deed for us before we went any further, and there is deed restrictions to doing any type of permanent structure like that. So we had reached back out to Mr. Case and thanked him for his suggestion, but with the limitations that we had. So I just wanted to close that up. Okay. [1:08:22] Speaker E (unidentified): Lori. Yes, I have three items. One, as you know, Susan Graham came before the board to talk about the need to maintain the monument down in Dock Square and reached out to Jonathan Taggart, who had done maintenance on it before. Jonathan gave an estimate, which she shared with the board, and he is coming down to do some maintenance in a town south of us and said that he could stop by and do it this fall as well. The question is whether or not the board would like to find funding to do the maintenance this fall when he's in town or in the neighborhood or whether you want to schedule it for the [1:09:17] Select Board Chair (presiding officer): the future and put it through the budget process. So I'll make a recommendation to the fellow board members. We had talked about, you know, the strategy doc that's going to come up for us to have a detailed discussion about, and one of them is going out and doing all the looks and see for the buildings that should include things like the pier and also monuments, right? And so we should get into something of a document where we understand what has to be maintained, and we put that into a working schedule, and then that would fill into that maintenance ongoing process for everything. So I would like to put this into that process, which would be starting, so it would probably be done in our next fiscal season. [1:10:02] Speaker C (unidentified): Yeah, I would not want this to be a one-of. This is something I'd like to see factored as a continuing operation. It makes sense then to put it through the budget plan. I would hope that it would happen quickly. So the first round, we could know that would hopefully happen within the 12 months or whatever. [1:10:24] Select Board Chair (presiding officer): Right, and I think also, too, to understand when it has to be maintained. Redone, exactly. Redone. So I think that's the ceiling point here. And establish that into the cadence. [1:10:36] Speaker C (unidentified): But let's be sure it's on the short list of things once we describe it. Right. [1:10:40] Select Board Chair (presiding officer): Joseph? Yes, ma'am. Any comment on that one? [1:10:43] Speaker D (unidentified): No ma'am. Okay, next one, Laurie. I could get out there with some Brasso, and from my cadet days, I polished so much brass I could do that. You could see yourself in my little head shield, no problem. [1:11:00] Speaker E (unidentified): You have anything else? I just was going to share with you, since we were talking about market analysis and what the numbers were that the state is giving us for 2027 valuation, so I took some of the data from the state website and updated it with the new proposed 2027 valuations, and just looked since 2020, what the increase in valuations since 2020 was, a magical year, what the percentage was across the county. So remember that our county bill is based on everyone's valuation. And so you could increase a little and someone else increases a lot, and that shifts that tax to different communities. So I just thought it was interesting to see how things have grown since 2020. Keep in mind, these numbers are in the millions. And so the first number you're gonna see is a billion number, even though it looks like a million number. So total we're at 72 billion for the county valuation, and in 2020 we were at 35 billion, but you can just see how things have changed, and I just wanted to [1:12:17] Speaker D (unidentified): share that with you for whatever that's worth. So our town is worth three point 2.58, no, 4.929 with a B. [1:12:30] Speaker C (unidentified): Yep. With a B. But in 20, we were 2.2. So as Alan just pointed out, it has more than doubled in seven years. [1:12:39] Speaker E (unidentified): And I was just curious to see how that played out across the county, whether it was more coastal communities or... Pretty much everybody. [1:12:49] Speaker C (unidentified): But I think... But Biddeford has exactly doubled. Yep. Alfred has doubled. [1:12:55] Select Board Chair (presiding officer): I think my shocker here is how much inland communities have increased. [1:13:02] Speaker C (unidentified): Yep, Sanford has more than doubled. Saco. Yeah, so it really... Almost. Yeah,, fast. New York has more than doubled. [1:13:09] Speaker D (unidentified): I'll pass this around. Or just doubled. I... What is it? I prognosticated today when I was walking and saw this brochure. So I'm not entering it in the record. It's just basically no I can't afford it, but it's it's just demonstrative of the price of real estate here that's a all [1:13:40] Select Board Chair (presiding officer): right Thank You Laurie this is very helpful I think it's very interesting I mean look at how us everybody took a [1:13:48] Speaker A (unidentified): everybody went yeah Cornish everybody the lowest was North Berwick no I'd get [1:13:54] Speaker C (unidentified): 73 at Elliott percent increase but since 2020 it was interesting the ones right [1:13:59] Speaker E (unidentified): On the New Hampshire border. So the last item is, I asked you need a Nicholas to give you an update and share a welcome packet she's been working on for over a year with the different departments, and it's something that she's gonna put on our website, but I'll let her give you an overview. It's one of the big projects she's been working on. Welcome home. [1:14:31] Lina Nicholas, Assistant Town Manager: Yay. Welcome to business. So, good evening, Lina Nicholas, Assistant Town Manager. So for those who can afford a house in Kennebunkport, we put together a welcome home to Kennebunkport packet. So this was more of a side project that my team took on. I worked with multiple departments and as Laurie mentioned it's been multiple months because when I just finished the first draft we changed our whole parking system which my whole letter P changed. So basically this is a comprehensive welcome packet to help new residents become more familiar with the community municipal services and our local regulations. So this packet serves as a one-stop reference guide so it has information on multiple topics and ranges of topics so vehicle registration property taxes trash collections beach regulations you name it. Includes new residents checklist at the beginning. There is also a welcome word from the select board, thank you participating in the welcome word, and it has alphabetical guide to town services which is the chunk the biggest part of this welcome packet. It has meeting schedules index so at the end when some of the words are cross-referenced I put together index for changes and then it has useful website links so this best will be on the on the web so it'll be digital just click. Yeah so yes that's exactly what I was going to say every single link you will see in the packet is an active link so whenever you go on our website you will be able to go right from here to the corresponding link. So you know the goal was to make transition to Kennebunkport easier to improve access to municipal information but also this can also serve to our current residents because it brings information that we currently you know, is currently dispersed between multiple departments. And it puts together into one convenient guide. So just an extra step of communication that we created so everyone feels like they are getting correct information from local sources and everybody's on the same page. I welcome any feedback if you have. As I said, as Laurie mentioned, it's going to be on the website. We didn't put it there yet. You're the first ones besides department directors to see it. So if there are any questions or [1:17:12] Speaker C (unidentified): As you say this is darn useful just for every [1:17:19] Speaker E (unidentified): It's a good resource for new employees I have one [1:17:28] Speaker D (unidentified): question and one suggestion why is Colony Beach a park but Goose Rocks Beach isn't under parks not parking you list a couple four parks or Cape Porpoise Colony Beach Parsons field Rotary Park at Beachwood and Silas Perkins but isn't Goose Rocks Beach the same as it's a beach like colony beach why wouldn't it be considered a park also on page 14. [1:18:05] Lina Nicholas, Assistant Town Manager: i see i took all of this info i actually took this information from the our parks and recreation website so yeah i'm just curious i mean no that's that's a great question i am not sure why colony [1:18:17] Speaker E (unidentified): beach is apart we could we could call parks and open spaces and then and then i can update that [1:18:22] Speaker D (unidentified): yeah second thing is if you had a big color picture of the select board in here waving giving a thumbs up welcome aboard you know be great david's not here we could get one without [1:18:35] Lina Nicholas, Assistant Town Manager: him and i just and i just quickly want to give credit to tracy because tracy wanted to do a welcome packet for a long time she just didn't have a chance to do it and it was something that I got excited about so I was like you know what let's just do it so in my [1:18:53] Select Board Chair (presiding officer): department's implementation I think this is excellent I think thank you know I think what you're hearing from the full board is kudos and thank you very much this will be great for everybody as you said yeah current yeah so if we see anything we'll we'll reach out to you perfect which is already done with the tax I will I made was that it okay so Lori's done we have to approve the warrant so moved second all in favor okay and David's not here so I need somebody motion to adjourn second all in favor let's [1:19:33] Speaker D (unidentified): open to get done before seven thank you everyone thank you thanks great meeting Thank you, Joseph.